LATEST ARTICLES

Meet the researchers tackling big problems

Meet the researchers tackling big problems

Big inter-disciplinary projects are the new face of successful university research – collaborations by researchers from a range of fields working together to find solutions or to better understand the fundamental problems. These collaborations might include leading university researchers from all the STEM disciplines working with lawyers or historians or social science academics.

Cheeky skincare start-up knows how to catch the eye

Cheeky skincare start-up knows how to catch the eye

Skincare brand Boring Without You has steered clear of the advertising and marketing traditions long dominant in the cosmetic industry, instead embracing the cheeky and eye-catching.  One brand product, a “hydrating milk serum”, is marketed with the line ‘Make Me Wet’. Founder and CEO Davey Rooney has sported pale blue nail-polish in promotional images. “Beauty …read more

Chocolate maker finds a healthy sweet spot

Chocolate maker finds a healthy sweet spot

Still hand-made after 13 years of manufacture, Loco Love chocolates are free of all gluten, dairy or refined sugars. The range includes Maple, Macadamia Caramel, Classic Chewy Caramel and newcomer Pistachio Mylk Praline. The Byron Bay-based company now produces as many as 120,000 individual chocolate bars each week and continues to have trouble meeting ever-increasing …read more

Social media monitoring tool helps schools track malicious content

Social media monitoring tool helps schools track malicious content

Lawrence Kusz was inspired to investigate ways to expose malice on social media when his niece, who has Down Syndrome, was savagely attacked by cyber-bullies. “It was 2021, and I was lecturing at the University of Queensland at the time, and I saw first-hand how limited the existing tools were,” he says. “I wanted to …read more

How an oil and gas decommissioning project rewrote the safety rules

How an oil and gas decommissioning project rewrote the safety rules

The huge job of decommissioning and plugging seven subsea oil wells 50 kilometres off the coast of Victoria entailed months of offshore work and years of careful planning. The big seas and strong winds of the Basker, Manta and Gummy (BMG) fields, with wells located at ocean depths of between 200 and 270 metres, made …read more

Endeavour Energy uses AI and drones to ensure power for the people

Endeavour Energy uses AI and drones to ensure power for the people

From finding the most efficient routes for routine drone patrols to automatically switching off electricity currents when power-lines are down, Endeavour Energy is using artificial intelligence to improve customer service and drive efficiency throughout its operation, say company executives.

Small but perfectly formed: Bond University excels with personal touch

Small but perfectly formed: Bond University excels with personal touch

Bond University’s business school has a substantial numbers advantage. The school employs more lecturers and adjunct lecturers per student than any other university business school in Australia. The ratio works out to about 11 or 12 students for each faculty member, says the school’s executive dean, Professor Robin Gauld. Roughly 50 full-time-equivalent faculty teach about …read more

From medical career to CEO: How this doctor made leap to leadership

From medical career to CEO: How this doctor made leap to leadership

Lisa Murphy began her medical career in London, in general medicine, moving into emergency medicine and then anaesthesia and intensive care. Many years later, on the other side of the world in Melbourne, she decided to switch careers and take the big step into the corporate world, with the idea of working in not-for-profit health …read more

How jumping into AI too quickly can backfire

How jumping into AI too quickly can backfire

A potentially revolutionary productivity booster, generative artificial intelligence is a tool that can backfire, leaving under-prepared employees confused and anxious. Executives need to carefully consider AI policy and training to reassure nervous staff-members and rein in those who will leap ahead and experiment with AI in a potentially damaging way, says Shaun Davies, founder of …read more

AI helps lead the fightback against rampant cybercrime

AI helps lead the fightback against rampant cybercrime

Artificial intelligence has boosted cyber-criminals’ ability to identify network weaknesses and launch sophisticated cyber-attacks, experts have warned. The personal data of millions of Australians has been stolen in multiple large data breaches that have hit some of the nation’s big businesses including Optus, Qantas, Medibank and Medisecure, and the cyber-criminal networks continue to circle, searching …read more