Launch on Northbourne welcomes Cognitive Advantage as a tenant
It’s about partnerships and collaboration, that’s the message from Launch on Northbourne tenant, Cognitive Advantage.
Published on the 26 June 2020 by Trea
Charles Winsor, Director of the Canberra company, said the time is right for building up a business in the Australian defence industry, especially for a digital technology business.
“Software development and integration of wireless networking, cloud and edge computing, advanced analytics and augmented reality technologies are in low supply and high demand in the defence and national security sectors in Australia,” he said.
“A lot of businesses with the expertise to work with these technologies may not be as interested in working with Defence as we are, so we think we have a very important role to play in this space now and into the future.”
Mr. Winsor said the Federal Government is doing a lot to encourage the growth of the Australian defence industry, and he sees that Defence is also starting to invest more in Australian innovation, instead of just importing existing systems from big multinational vendors.
“Defence is interested in doing business with companies that already have strong university partnerships. We had no idea how to start partnering with a university, so the opportunity to build a relationship with UNSW through Launch is perfect for us,” he said.
It was the idea of sharing a secure space with other businesses in the same industry and the potential for collaboration that attracted Cognitive Advantage to Launch on Northbourne.
“We do a lot of business with other small companies interstate and being able to host them at Launch when they visit Canberra will be a fantastic opportunity to increase our brand exposure,” Mr Winsor said.
Cognitive Advantage is a small company founded in Canberra with a vision to become a digital technology provider of choice to the defence and national security sectors. It aims to harness the rapid growth of the Internet of Things and adapt its technologies to solve contemporary military problems for Defence.
“We are partnering with a few other small Australian companies who are building innovative new sensors and analytics software. We are trying to add value by weaving together all these technologies into an integrated surveillance and reconnaissance system that will hopefully attract the interest of some major Defence projects in the near future.
“This is why working with UNSW Canberra and being based at Launch on Northbourne was perfect for us,” Mr. Winsor said.