Jun
11
2025
Christelle Young has been the managing director of boutique tea brand T2 Tea for about a year and she has already overhauled the management structure, closed several under-performing retail stores and cut redundant items from the product line. With 62 retail outlets across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, T2 Tea sells a variety of specialist …read more
Jun
6
2025
Western Sydney is Australia’s epicentre of growth and opportunity with a burgeoning population of 2.7 million people and a booming demand for higher education, says Western Sydney University (WSU) vice-chancellor Professor George Williams. Two-thirds of the Western Sydney University’s students are the first in their families to have taken the plunge into higher education. “We …read more
Jun
6
2025
Until recently, ten or twelve babies born in the ACT and NSW died of a disease known as spinal muscular atrophy before they reached their second birthdays. Children’s Medical Research Institute director Professor Roger Reddel says children born with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) were often healthy for a while and then began to regress. “Even if …read more
Jun
6
2025
Westmead Health Precinct is Australia’s largest health and biomedical research precinct and a thriving hub of scientific collaboration and professional cross-fertilisation in Western Sydney – with relationships criss-crossing between four hospitals, two universities, two medical research institutes, a number of allied health centres, and NSW’s largest pathology service. Home to breakthrough research projects in genetics, …read more
Jun
3
2025
Billed as Australia’s first-of-its-kind generative AI-powered pet care assistant, the PetAI chatbot will answer client questions about a range of pets including cats, dogs, reptiles, birds, chickens, small animals, and fish. Developed by giant pet-care retailer Petbarn in collaboration with Microsoft and Insight Enterprises, PetAI has built-in guardrails and refers more esoteric or difficult questions …read more
Jun
3
2025
If a high-school student in NSW asked the education department’s new generative AI tool to write an essay on Shakespeare’s use of comedy, it would respond like a teacher and encourage the student to do the thinking. “Let’s work through that problem,” the tool might say, “who are the characters, what are the themes, how …read more
Apr
15
2025
Pharmacists know it happens. Patients give prescribed medications to other people, usually people they know well: a sister about to go overseas – “have a few of my sleeping pills”; a friend who has run out of hypertension medication – “here, have a few of mine”; even a colleague who has a nasty infection – …read more
Apr
10
2025
Co-founder of telehealth platform Updoc Dylan Coyne says he and his business partner Clifton Hodgkinson have made a point of hiring “really smart, bright, intelligent people” and giving them a large measure of autonomy. “We empower them,” Coyne says. “They can make decisions. They can work collaboratively with others. They can really do what they …read more
Apr
9
2025
Australia needs “clever” defence systems and equipment to protect the nation’s interests over a huge landmass and expanse of ocean, says Chief Defence Scientist Tanya Monro. “We can’t just assume that we can build scale that will deter an adversary,” she tells The Australian. “So we have to do clever things.” Hundreds of defence research …read more
Mar
25
2025
Artificial intelligence can control increasingly sophisticated uncrewed aircraft and submersibles, changing the nature of warfare and raising questions about the many millions of dollars Australia is now spending on buying and developing crewed aircraft and submarines. Dominant on the frontlines in Ukraine, large-scale swarms of AI drones can overwhelm almost any opponent, says University of NSW …read more