Chief Minister Andrew Barr on the USA Trade Mission

Innovation is key to strong, sustainable economic growth and today I was pleased to meet with two innovative Canberra businesses whose success has extended all the way to Silicon Valley, USA.
QuintessenceLabs is a global leader and one of Australia’s most innovative science based technology companies.

Today I was pleased to join QuintessenceLabs as they announced their landmark partnership with global end-to-end manufacturing services provider SMTC.

SMTC will deliver contract manufacturing and systems integration services for QuintessenceLabs products, which includes technology that address the most difficult security challenges facing companies.

This new partnership exemplifies the great success that QuintessenceLabs has achieved on the world stage and is a key example of Canberra’s significant strengths in building industry sectors for the future.

In addition, QuintessenceLabs was last week named as a winner in this year's SINET-16 innovator competition.

SINET, which is sponsored by the US Department of Homeland Security, along with several other federal agencies, and large banks, is an organisation focused on advancing cyber security innovation through public-private collaboration. SINET-16 is the pre-eminent recognition, worldwide, for emerging cyber security companies.

QuintessenceLabs will now have the opportunity to showcase its capabilities to 300-400 senior cyber security leaders from the government and banking sectors at the SINET Showcase in Washington DC on November 4.

While in Silicon Valley I also had the pleasure of catching up with the team from Seeing Machines, which is another great company that started in Canberra and now enjoys multinational success.

Seeing Machines develops smart camera-based technologies for detecting driver fatigue and distraction behind the wheel, and recently signed a landmark deal with construction machinery and equipment company Caterpillar.

I was able to take part in a demonstration of autonomous vehicle simulator with eye tracking capability and experience the Seeing Machines technology that is already being used by mining, road transport and bus customers globally to reduce risks and save lives. This same technology is expected to appear in private passenger cars as early as 2016.

The ACT Government is exploring the possibility of developing the ACT as a location for testing, research and development activities for autonomous vehicles.

Exploring innovative technologies like this will make our roads safer, improve our urban environment and liveable city status, increase productivity and improve social inclusion by increasing mobility for people with a disability.

Canberra has been the home and creator of many world changing ideas and transformational technologies, and we love seeing local companies achieve global success, and I wish QuintessenceLabs and Seeing Machines all the very best with their new international partnerships.

This article was originally published by ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr at www.facebook.com/ABarrMLA