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This July 2024 episode of CIO Leadership Live: Australia features Sinan Erbay, identified at the time as RMIT University’s chief information officer. In conversation with host Cathy O’Sullivan, he discusses cloud services, research computing, AI, cybersecurity and how university technology teams can work more closely with the people they serve. The interview is best read as Erbay’s account of RMIT’s priorities at that time—not as a current status report on the university’s projects or leadership.
Episode details and where to find it
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Series | CIO Leadership Live: Australia |
| Episode | Episode 29 on the CIO page |
| Guest | Sinan Erbay, identified in the episode as RMIT University’s chief information officer |
| Host | Cathy O’Sullivan |
| CIO page date | 16 July 2024 |
| Podcast listing date | 15 July 2024 on Spotify and Apple Podcasts |
| Runtime | About 27 minutes; Spotify lists 27:01 |
| Formats | CIO episode page with transcript, CIO video, and podcast listings |
The CIO episode page and transcript are the primary reference. A video version is also available. Podcast-platform metadata dates the episode one day earlier: Spotify and Apple Podcasts. The difference is a metadata discrepancy; the CIO page identifies 16 July as its publication date.
How Erbay framed RMIT’s technology remit
In the interview, Erbay describes RMIT as a university of technology and design with in-person and virtual learning, a Melbourne base, a substantial presence in Vietnam and international partnerships. He says his group is responsible for technology across the university and supports a student journey that extends from initial interest through post-study engagement. These are statements made in 2024, not an independently updated description of RMIT’s present structure.
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That broad remit helps explain the episode’s central tension: university IT must support teaching, research and administration while maintaining dependable core services. Erbay presents technology strategy as something meant to underpin the university’s wider strategy, rather than as a separate transformation project with a single finish line.
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Cloud-first capability and the RACE Hub
Erbay points to cloud adoption and what he calls a cloud-first capability as important parts of RMIT’s technology journey. One example is the RACE Hub, which he describes as a cloud-services-based supercomputing facility intended to give researchers computing power on demand. The episode uses this as an illustration of how technology can support research needs, not simply campus administration.
The interview does not specify RACE Hub’s cloud provider, hardware, workloads, performance, cost, funding or operational status after the recording. It therefore supports a description of the intended capability, but not claims about benchmarks, savings, research outcomes or its current configuration.
AI, automation and the campus as a “Living Lab”
Erbay discusses AI as a set of capabilities being developed internally and through partnerships, rather than only as a student-facing product. He describes the campus as a “Living Lab” where technology such as AI, automation, Internet of Things tools, bots and chat capabilities could be explored in practical settings.
- Campus operations: technology could help improve how services and facilities work.
- Administration: automation could reduce repetitive work and leave people more time for higher-value tasks.
- Teaching and learning: Erbay raises AI in connection with pedagogy and students.
- Research and partnerships: new capabilities may be developed with external partners as well as within the university.
He also stresses the need to balance experimentation with the maintenance of existing systems. The episode offers a strategic view, not a catalogue of deployed AI products, adoption figures or measured results.
Why cybersecurity is a difficult university-wide balance
Erbay’s account highlights a governance challenge particular to universities: research and learning depend on openness, collaboration and connections with external and international communities, while sensitive data and critical systems require protection. A single, completely locked-down environment would be impractical for that mix of users and work.
He characterizes cybersecurity as ongoing monitoring and improvement, and says education is a significant target in the Australian geopolitical environment. The conversation does not disclose incident statistics, named attacks, specific controls, security budgets, breach outcomes or a detailed framework. It is a discussion of the balancing problem, not a technical audit or evidence of particular security results.
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Keeping core systems reliable while introducing change
Erbay’s approach to innovation is phased. In the interview, he emphasizes retaining important legacy systems while adding new capabilities, checking quality before production release, regularly assessing and prioritizing delivery work, and keeping core systems robust. Security and cyber practices are part of that process rather than a separate concern to address after experimentation.
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Working closer to university stakeholders
Erbay describes technology staff as having a professional home within IT for development and personal growth, while spending more time with university stakeholders. The aim is to work directly with people on their problems and opportunities instead of treating technology requests as transactions handled at a distance.
He also mentions capstone-style initiatives in which small student cohorts rotate through IT groups and work on real-world problems. This describes an engagement and operating-model idea; it should not be read as a university-wide remote-work policy or a guarantee of a particular student placement arrangement.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Choosing partners as an extension of the team
Erbay describes technology partners as an extension of the internal team and puts weight on trust, reliability, openness, collaboration and cultural fit. He also looks for alignment between organizational goals and a willingness to engage with students and staff—for example, through mentoring or student work with partners.
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Erbay’s leadership principles
Erbay characterizes his own style as open, personal, pragmatic, engaging, conversational and collaborative. He links effective leadership with psychological safety, honest discussion, diverse perspectives and resilience, and argues for teams that make room for differences in age, gender, background and ways of thinking.
These are his self-descriptions and stated principles. The episode does not independently assess his leadership or measure the effects of the approach.
Priorities he named in July 2024
Looking ahead from the interview, Erbay identified three broad areas of work:
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- Continue RMIT’s AI ambitions, including the potential to use AI and automation to reduce administrative burdens.
- Strengthen cyber capability and maturity.
- Simplify and consolidate collaboration tools to improve how people work together.
Those were forward-looking priorities at the time of recording. The episode does not establish what RMIT completed, changed or still plans to do by 2026; it also provides no outcome metrics for these initiatives.
What the episode is—and is not—evidence of
The interview is useful for understanding how Erbay described the relationship between RMIT’s technology work and the needs of a university: enable research and learning, preserve reliable services, make security compatible with collaboration, and involve stakeholders in shaping delivery. It is not an independent evaluation of RMIT’s results. It supplies no verified measures of cost reduction, service quality, research productivity, AI adoption or security improvement, and it should not be used to infer Erbay’s current role or the present status of the initiatives discussed.
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