Building skills and exploring new ideas at Melbourne Connect Innovation Week
Earlier this month, Melbourne Connect hosted its annual Innovation Week festival, which featured over 35 events exploring the latest advancements in technology, biomedical breakthroughs, and entrepreneurship.
The faculty hosted a range of events, including an engaging session with Jumar Bioincubator where researchers shared their biotech innovation journeys, how they navigated opportunities and uncertainties, and what they learned along the way. Professor Laura Downie, Dr Tami Yap, Dr Amanda Woon and Dr David Bibby also explained how they made their transitions from bench-top science to industry, and what has driven their success. Participants also had the chance to ask questions in smaller breakout groups with two speakers of their choice.
Dr Tami Yap sharing her entrepreneurship journey at Melbourne Connect Innovation Week.
The topic of artificial intelligence (AI) was naturally featured in several events across the festival. Dr Caitlin Hitchcock, a Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, and Dr Olivia Metcalf, a Senior Research Fellow at the University’s Centre for Digital Transformation of Health and Department of Psychiatry, joined a panel of experts to discuss the emerging opportunities of AI in mental health care. They explored how digital phenotyping, natural language processing and chatbots could be used in clinical settings to enhance patient care and outcomes, and the ethical considerations involved.
Dr Olivia Metcalf speaking at the AI in Mental Healthcare panel event.
In a session on harnessing genomics to overcome challenges in healthcare, researchers Cristina Bitzilis, Professor Niall Corcoran, Associate Professor Richard Tothill, Associate Professor Lauren Ayton and Professor Peter Rogers explained how they are leveraging genomics to tackle complex health issues in cancer, inherited eye disease, and gynecological disorders.
Cristina Bitzilis, Account Manager in Clinical Genomics at Illumina, moderating a panel of researchers leading exciting genomics projects.
Participants of the Connect 4 Innovation Challenge also had the opportunity to go behind the scenes and work on cutting-edge research from Melbourne Connect. Working in small teams, the challenge was to come up with innovative and creative ways to engage the public with the research, and pitch it to the panel of judges.
A participant in the Connect 4 Innovation Challenge presents their research.
Melbourne Connect Innovation Week, now in its fourth year of running, is the University’s flagship innovation festival, celebrating the innovation ecosystem and the ways in which organisations and institutions leverage research and emerging technologies to disrupt and transform our society. It gives participants the opportunity to share their research, showcase their innovations and projects and connect with colleagues who are interested in innovation across the University and our industry partners.
Learn more about Melbourne Connect Innovation Week, and catch up on some of the sessions that were recorded and are now available on YouTube.