Future Technologies

Deakin REACH and Samsara Eco unite to transform textile recycling with world-leading enzyme technology

Australia’s war on waste has a powerful new ally, Deakin University’s Recycling and Clean Energy Commercialisation Hub (REACH). REACH has joined forces with Samsara Eco to fast-track world-first technology that could recycle plastics and textiles, previously considered unrecyclable, that would take centuries to eliminate from the environment. Textile waste is one of the world’s most persistent environmental issues, driven by fast fashion, high consumption and poor disposal practices. In Australia, synthetic fibres like nylon and polyester make up almost 60 per cent of the materials used in clothing, yet with less than one per cent of discarded garments recycled into new clothes, most end up in landfill or are incinerated, adding to pollution and harmful emissions. Samsara Eco’s AI-designed enzymes break down fossil-fuel derived materials like synthetic fibres, including nylon 6,6 and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into their original building blocks or monomers – allowing them to be rebuilt into new products with virgin-quality performance. The collaboration will see Samsara Eco lean into Deakin’s advanced chemical analysis and polymer processing expertise to better understand and find recycling solutions for specific additives like dyes, finishes and coatings present in textile waste. ‘We are laser-focused on creating true circularity and that means finding a solve for all plastics,’ said Founder and CEO at Samsara Eco Paul Riley. ‘This research supports our efforts to make this a reality. We’ve already come a long way with our enzymatic recycling technology, which can infinitely recycle PET and nylon 6,6 plastics used for clothing and other textiles, including mixed fibres and plastics. Our research collaboration with Deakin will support our efforts to recycle more waste at speed, scale and with precision.’ Unlike mechanical recycling, which degrades the quality of materials and limits recyclability, Samsara Eco’s enzymatic depolymerisation technology is making it possible to rebuild worn or contaminated textiles into […]

Australia’s competitiveness hits 13-year high

Australia rose to 13th from 19th place out of 67 nations for competitiveness, according to the Swiss-based IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2024. It was Australia’s highest ranking in 13 years. The improved ranking is the result of Australia’s stronger business and government investment, population growth and budget positions. Australia’s stable economy, transparent regulations and global business ties provide a secure and thriving environment for investors. Singapore, Switzerland and Denmark were ranked the world’s top three most competitive economies respectively. While the United States was ranked 12th (down three places), the United Kingdom, France and Japan were outside the top 20. The World Competitiveness Ranking measures economies, regions and sub-regions based on how they optimise their individual competencies to achieve long-term value for their people. The ranking examines economic performance, business efficiency, government efficiency and infrastructure. Top 10 for economic performance Australia’s overall economic performance improved from 10th to 7th. Australia’s competitiveness in international investment was ranked in the global top five. The high ranking reflected the country’s strong performance in both inbound and outbound investment. Strong international trade, high commodity prices and a comparatively healthy local economy have also helped drive this rebound in Australia’s competitiveness. Australia was ranked highly for: government efficiency (13th in the world) infrastructure (18th in the world) business efficiency (22nd in the world). Read more about Australia’s competitiveness profile [PDF, 440KB] in the IMD’s World Competitiveness Yearbook 2024. A top investment destination Australia has long been a top destination for investment, thanks to a resilient economy, a skilled workforce, and stable and transparent regulatory frameworks. Strong business ties with Asian markets make Australia a natural springboard into the fast-growing region. In green energy and critical minerals, Australia is a global leader – and intends to capitalise on its natural advantages to become a renewable energy superpower. […]

After the Idea: What It Really Takes to Create and Scale a Startup

by Julia Austin Entrepreneurship expert Julia Austin shares battle-tested strategies to help founders and startup joiners build their venture from the ground up in this masterclass in intentional entrepreneurship. So you want to start a company. Or you were crazy enough to join a startup. You had a great idea, you built a prototype, and maybe you even raised some money. Now what? Julia Austin is here to answer that big question. She has both experienced and observed that the differentiator between the startups that succeed and those that fail is operational excellence. A lot of entrepreneurs are great at the idea part but do not anticipate the details required to actually run and scale a new venture. Drawing on Austin’s extensive experience at renowned startups like Akamai, VMware, and DigitalOcean and the hundreds of founders and startups she has educated, coached, and advised, After the Idea is full of time-tested strategies to help founders, investors, and employees navigate the operational challenges of startup ventures, including customer development, scalability, process optimisation, team management, and more. This accessible set of techniques is for anyone determined to turn a great idea into a solid success.

BLT’s 2024 ESG Highlights: Advancing Low-Carbon Manufacturing with Additive Innovation

As ESG principles continue to reshape the global manufacturing landscape, Bright Laser Technologies (BLT) stands out as a long-time practitioner of sustainable innovation. In its newly released 2024 ESG Highlights, BLT details the progress it has made in integrating environmental responsibility, social impact, and strong governance across its operations. From materials R&D and the design and manufacture of equipment to customer-focused additive solutions, ESG principles are embedded at the core of BLT’s strategy—supporting a low-carbon, sustainable, and inclusive future for advanced manufacturing. Environment: Driving Sustainable Manufacturing at Every Stage BLT integrates sustainability into every step of its metal additive manufacturing process. Using powder bed fusion, the technology primarily consumes inert gases and electricity, with almost no harmful emissions released. Compared to traditional subtractive methods, the systems run quieter and use energy more efficiently. This combination not only cuts down environmental impact but also supports more resource-conscious production — making these 3D printing solutions a natural fit for industries aiming to reduce their carbon footprint. In 2024, BLT advanced its commitment to green manufacturing with the development and launch of a fully automated production line, officially put into operation in March 2025 after nine months of internal testing. The system integrates powder circulating, cleaning, and waste recovery modules into a closed-loop workflow, enabling efficient powder supply, reuse, and sieving throughout the production cycle. This comprehensive approach minimizes raw material waste and reduces emissions at the source. Additionally, the process includes argon gas recovery, further contributing to the company’s efforts to lower its carbon footprint. According to BLT’s internal data, producing 1 kg of ready-to-use metal powder using a recycled material process results in just 8.09 kg of CO₂ emissions — a 56.5% reduction compared to traditional methods. When argon gas recovery is added to the process, total emissions can be cut […]

The Genius Myth: A Curious History of a Dangerous Idea

Unsettling, amusing, and prescient; a much-needed audit of a consuming idea. This is a study of how the measurement and indulgence of “genius” has changed over time. Over the past couple of centuries, the boundaries of genius have been used to justify eugenics, consolidate power, and excuse eccentric and even morally egregious behaviour. This, Helen Lewis argues, grew from a shift to a secular world, wherein brilliance is no longer the guarded realm of religious authority or divine inspiration, but instead anchored in the fullness of the individual. Her book offers a sweeping, entertaining, and at times disconcerting read of the new scaffolding of mythology that genius now demands. She moves in three parts, from its identification, measurement, and, sometimes, weaponisation by “genius hunters”; through the creation of and care for dominant archetypes of genius, such as lone rebels and tortured artists; to the extreme veneration of “hardcore” genius in the modern market- and tech-driven world—personified by Elon Musk. Along the way she interrogates the obsessions of Great Man theory, inherited greatness, and IQ tests, and she pokes with wry humour at the self-justification, oversimplification, hubris, male dominance, and fetishisation surrounding her case studies. While her examples—including Galileo, the Beatles, Hollywood biopics, and the anti-establishment pseudoscience unearthed by the Covid-19 pandemic—are drawn from her own interests, Lewis only hints at her own ideas of genius, its limits, and the purpose it might legitimately serve. Instead, her argument focuses on undermining the persistent idea that geniuses constitute a special class of people, exempt from the social norms and moral expectations of the rest. By illustrating the stakes of this shift, Lewis issues an effective call for a more carefully tempered understanding of genius in our precarious times, one that celebrates creativity, innovation, and achievement rather than idolising a maker’s rarity and […]

SMB manufacturers are cutting costs without cutting corners

Andrew Mamonitis, Vice President – APAC, Manufacturing Division, ECI Solutions In today’s volatile business landscape, small and mid-sized manufacturers (SMBs) are navigating a minefield of cost pressures. Inflation may be easing, however supply chains remain erratic, and the modern workforce demands greater flexibility. Many SMBs, desperate to stay afloat, are tempted by aggressive cost-cutting. Yet experts warn blunt force cuts can do more harm than good. For many SMBs, the question isn’t whether to modernise operations – but how fast. Leading SMBs are adopting modern precision strategies – leveraging real-time data, automation, and smarter planning tools – to trim waste without jeopardising growth. Eight key strategies they are embracing are: Making data-driven decisions: Modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have transformed how SMBs uncover inefficiencies. With integrated analytics, businesses can now detect underperforming products, costly customers, and process bottlenecks that erode profits. Consider the case of a building supply firm. By analysing inventory data, they discovered specialty mouldings (long considered essential), were costly and slow-moving. By shifting these to a special-order model and doubling down on core items, they cut inventory costs while improving customer satisfaction. Inventory as a Strategic Asset: Many manufacturers still treat inventory as a necessary evil, overstocking to avoid shortages or running lean to conserve cash. But modern inventory management systems offer a better path. With AI-powered forecasting and unified inventory views, companies can optimise stock across multiple locations. One distributor, plagued by stockouts in one warehouse and excess in another, solved the issue by synchronising inventory across five sites. The result was lower overall stock levels and higher availability. Production planning that plays in harmony: Inefficient production planning is among the costliest problems for SMBs. A reactive approach (scrambling to meet yesterday’s demand) leads to overtime, delays, and wasted resources. A homebuilder suffering from poor […]

What is multimodal AI?

Multimodal AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can understand and process different types of information, such as text, images, audio, and video, all at the same time. Multimodal gen AI models produce outputs based on these various inputs. When you wake up in the morning, you reorient yourself into the world in a variety of ways. Before you open your eyes, you might hear the ambient sounds in your room (unless a not-so-ambient sound was what woke you up in the first place). You might feel cosey under the covers, or cold because you kicked them off while you were sleeping. And once you open your eyes, you get a visual sense of what is going on in your room. These sense recognitions, along with the moods they evoke, create a nuanced perception of the morning and set you up for the rest of your day. How multimodal gen AI models work Multimodal gen AI models work in a similar way. They mirror the brain’s ability to combine sensory inputs for a nuanced, holistic understanding of the world, much like how humans use their variety of senses to perceive reality. These gen AI models’ ability to seamlessly perceive multiple inputs—and simultaneously generate output—allows them to interact with the world in innovative, transformative ways and represents a significant advancement in AI. By combining the strengths of different types of content (including text, images, audio, and video) from different sources, multimodal gen AI models can understand data in a more comprehensive way, which enables them to process more complex inquiries that result in fewer hallucinations (inaccurate or misleading outputs). Today, enterprises that have deployed gen AI primarily use text-based large language models (LLMs). But a shift toward multimodal AI is underway, with the potential for a larger range of applications […]

Can reading the news make you richer?

Researchers have uncovered a novel way to forecast stock market volatility using daily business news. Business news can do more than report on financial markets; it can predict where they’re headed. That’s the finding from a new study by University of Auckland finance lecturer Dr Justin J. Case and Queensland University of Technology’s Professor Adam Clements, who show that utilising business news articles, specifically those published in The Wall Street Journal, can more accurately forecast stock market volatility than other commonly used methods. “Volatility is a common proxy for financial risk,” says Dr Case. “By accurately forecasting this risk, investors can take strategic steps to protect their investments before market shifts occur.” Using more than 1.1 million Wall Street Journal articles published between January 2000 and December 2022, the researchers analysed the language used in business reporting and linked it to fluctuations in the S&P 500 – the world’s most-watched equities index. Their study shows that news text offers a forward-looking, real-time lens on market conditions, delivering more accurate signals about risk than the retrospective data typically used in economic forecasting. The researchers applied a machine learning algorithm to news articles, sorting the text into topics and analysing these alongside high-frequency data on the S&P 500 index. “We’re looking at the world’s biggest equities market, and the biggest business newspaper in the US, and asking whether the news explains stock market volatility,” says Case. “We find that news coverage is strongly related to stock market volatility movements. And by analysing business news articles, we can identify both the topics and specific events influencing stock market volatility.” Additionally, the researchers found incorporating their news-based measures into benchmark volatility forecasting models reduced forecast errors by over 40 percent at the monthly horizon. They also found significant reductions in forecast errors at weekly […]

Tech Council of Australia and techUK sign landmark partnership

The Tech Council of Australia (TCA) and techUK have formally signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), marking a significant milestone in technology industry collaboration between Australia and the United Kingdom. Signed during London Tech Week at the UK Department for Business and Trade in the Old Admiralty Building and announced at the Aus-UK Chamber of Commerce Tech Week Event at Australia House in London, the agreement builds on the momentum of the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) which came into force in 2023. The FTA includes the world’s first innovation chapter which recognises the important role that innovation plays in stimulating competitiveness, increasing productivity, encouraging investment and promoting international trade. It also includes a strong digital trade chapter emphasising the importance of promoting trusted data flows and enabling digital trade facilitation. The new TCA and techUK partnership is a practical step toward implementing the objectives of the FTA and formalises those ambitions at an industry level. TCA and techUK will work together to deepen cooperation and collaboration between tech sectors, with a focus on technology trade, regulation, investment, and innovation. This includes sharing knowledge and insights, aligning on regulatory and policy issues, and driving practical commercial opportunities for UK and Australian technology companies. At the core of the MoU is a commitment to supporting technology businesses, especially SMEs, expand across borders. This means better access to markets, clearer insights into regulatory environments, and stronger connections to potential partners and investors. The partnership will focus on emerging and critical technology areas including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, digital identity, fintech. These are sectors where both the UK and Australia have established industry strengths and where closer collaboration can unlock new commercial opportunities to bolster long-term digital resilience. Australia’s Trade and Investment Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ireland, Annika Barton noted “we […]

Your Life Is Manufactured: How We Make Things, Why It Matters and How We Can Do It Better

By Tim Minshall We live in a manufactured world. Unless you are floating naked through space, you are right now in direct contact with multiple manufactured products. How often do we stop to think: where do the things we buy actually come from? There exists a nearly invisible, awe-inspiring global system of manufacturing that enables virtually every aspect of our existence. The things we surround ourselves with take surprising and often byzantine journeys to reach us – be it the thousands of litres of water needed to make a single pair of jeans or the components of our smartphones travelling over six times around the world to reach us. From mega-factory floors, engineering laboratories and seaports to distribution hubs, supermarkets and our own homes, Tim Minshall traces these journeys to reveal the hidden world of manufacturing. Charting how this world came to be, Your Life is Manufactured reveals the seismic impact manufacturing has had on our lives and the natural world, exploring how it could offer us a path to a truly sustainable, more equitable future. In doing so, Minshall grants us the ability to make better choices for ourselves, our communities and the planet.

1 2 3 4

News Ticker

Future Technologies