MELBOURNE CONNECT Innovation Week

Canstruction Melbourne is a community-focused competition where students from the Graduate Infrastructure Engineering Society and Construction Students Association take on the InEight team to design and build a structure entirely from food cans.

Join us for the annual OPTIMA Debate, where leading optimisation researchers from fields such as mathematics, computer science, engineering, and economics explore whether hyper-efficiency is always the best solution.

As the climate emergency intensifies, Australia faces a critical opportunity to lead global efforts through its bid to host the 2026 Conference of the Parties (COP31).

Presented by the UEDLAB for the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Carlo Ratti, Song of the Cricket offers an immersive ecological and sensory experience focused on the endangered Zeuneriana marmorata, or Marbled Adriatic Bush Cricket.

Join editors from The Conversation for an engaging lunchtime event as they share their editorial priorities and plans for the year ahead. This is a unique opportunity to hear directly from the editorial team about the stories they’re looking to tell and how they’re shaping coverage across key topics and sectors.

What if your organs could talk—and you could listen in? QRious Bodies is an interactive, walk-through experience that reimagines how we learn about health. Scan a QR code and hear your organs speak — sharing bite-sized stories about what’s really happening inside your body.

The Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at Melbourne Connect showcases displays across seven floors, offering a fascinating journey through the history of the engineering school and its groundbreaking research. These displays combine objects, stories, and multimedia, providing unique insight into 170 years of teaching, learning, and innovation.

The Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at Melbourne Connect showcases displays across seven floors, offering a fascinating journey through the history of the engineering school and its groundbreaking research. These displays combine objects, stories, and multimedia, providing unique insight into 170 years of teaching, learning, and innovation.

Celebrate a year of innovation at the Melbourne Space Program’s Annual Showcase. Explore how student-led teams are advancing Australia’s space capabilities with projects like the ACRUX-2 satellite, set to work with Industry to develop Australia's space heritage, and initiatives such as Humanoid Robotics and Animatronics for Children’s Hospitals, where technology is making a real impact on both space exploration and community wellbeing.

Be part of The University of Melbourne's Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Grand Final and witness cutting-edge research distilled into dynamic presentations. 3MT is an internationally recognised competition that tasks participants with presenting their research to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes.

Australia’s offshore wind future is fast approaching, promising large-scale clean energy driven by digital innovation, policy alignment, and infrastructure planning. But delivering this vision demands cross-sector collaboration, smarter systems, and new ways of working.

In collaboration with The University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, and Faculty of Science, this event showcases the most promising early to mid-career researchers as they pitch their collaborative biomedical engineering and medtech projects.

Discover the future of artificial intelligence at the NextGen AI Conference, hosted by the AI Development Group.

The Climate Pitch is a dynamic showcase of early-career researchers from the Melbourne Climate Futures (MCF) Academy. Each researcher will deliver a four-minute pitch on their climate or sustainability research, followed by a four-minute Q&A with the audience and host.

Discover how research is shaping the future of technology through the groundbreaking work of four research groups from the Centre for Information Systems (CIS), spanning AI, Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, and Information Systems.

As AI and emerging technologies reshape our world, universities must evolve to stay relevant, connected, and future-ready.

In today’s digital world, startups and SMBs are increasingly prime targets for cyberattacks. From data breaches to costly downtime, the impact can be devastating—not only threatening compliance and investor confidence, but also undermining the trust essential for growth.

Presented by AIBuild (AI commercialisation company founded by Yifei Wang) and ASPIRE (Asian Professionals for Innovation, Resilience, and Excellence), this panel explores how AI research and development is being transformed into practical outcomes through entrepreneurship, collaboration across sectors, and aligned policy. 

AI is reshaping the healthcare landscape, but what does this mean for today's students? From AI scribes in psychology sessions to diagnostic tools aiding radiologists, technology is transforming roles across the sector.

Step into the world of entrepreneurship and innovation at this interactive panel event designed to inspire the next generation of changemakers. Hosted by entrepreneur, investor, and ABC journalist Madeleine Hanger, this session features a dynamic lineup of founders and innovators who are transforming industries, solving real-world problems, and navigating the rise of AI with bold thinking and smart execution.

Presented in partnership with Melbourne Connect Co-working, this special satellite edition of Cremorne Connect takes you inside the world of venture capital.

Innovation without Borders is the first international event as part of Melbourne Connect’s Innovation Week.

This thought-provoking panel brings together experts in global health and social entrepreneurship to explore where social ventures can make a meaningful impact, and where their limitations lie.

Universities excel at innovation and strive to deliver research with real-world impact. Industry has impact at its core and a growing need to innovate, yet often lacks the capacity to do so. Governments seek value for money in projects that drive Australia’s growth and prosperity.

As part of The University of Melbourne's Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology Industry Series, AI Connect: Summer Internship Showcase provides a valuable platform for students to connect with leading organisations offering internship opportunities for Summer 2026.

We begin Melbourne Connect Innovation Week with a Welcome to Country and traditional smoking ceremony, led by Wurundjeri Traditional Owners. This opening moment invites all to reflect, connect, and celebrate Country as we step into a week of discovery and collaboration.

Artificial intelligence is reshaping the foundations of business and society, transforming how we manage money, verify identity, navigate truth, and structure work.

Take a guided tour into the future of healthcare with a visit to the Validitron, The University of Melbourne’s pioneering platform transforming the way digital health technologies are developed and tested.

Join Christian Ignatavicius, Master of Mechanical Engineering student at The University of Melbourne, as he shares how hands-on industry experience is shaping the next generation of medical innovation.

Human in the Loop is a new event series from Unlock Capital, designed to bring leading voices together at the frontier of AI. Each session runs as a focused fireside conversation, followed by informal discussion, connecting founders, operators, investors, and technologists.

This high-profile panel event showcases The University of Melbourne’s dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem, highlighting various support pathways available for University-affiliated research, ideas and innovations.

Quantum technology is advancing rapidly, opening new career paths for physics graduates. This event features a Jobs Fair followed by a panel discussion with experts from quantum companies working in Australia and researchers leading cutting-edge quantum science.

The Pearcey Oration is a premier annual event that unites national thought leaders from industry, government, academia, and society to explore the transformative impact of emerging technologies.