Speaker Biography

Sumen Rai

Director, Defence Innovation Partnership

Defence SA

Sumen is responsible for leading national and international R&D engagement and collaboration between researchers, industry and government, to deliver innovative solutions to Defence as well as supporting research, development and innovation activities for Defence SA and the South Australian Space Industry Centre.

Sumen has extensive government experience in developing and delivering major initiatives across investment attraction, trade, and industry development in the mining engineering, services and technologies, cleantech, space, and defence sectors.

Sumen has been involved in driving novel initiatives, such as the Convergence Series, which foster conversations about major defence and national security challenges through transdisciplinary perspectives and collaboration.

Sumen has previously worked as a teacher and lecturer in Arts and Design & Technology, a science communicator, and coordinator of outreach and engagement initiatives including several open government hackathons, including the NASA Space Apps Challenge.