UNSW Engineering

15/10/2026

💬 "My career has taken me from teaching maths to software engineering and then AI – and UNSW has been an important part of that journey. I came here to study a Master’s in IT and AI and met my co-founder, Tobias, while working on a research-based AI project. Together, we founded Blunge: an AI design agent that helps marketers create on-brand designs with editable text and layouts. What started as an idea between two students has since grown into a startup with a product, customers, and funding – and we’ve recently joined the Google for Startups Accelerator.

"UNSW gave me more than just the technical knowledge to work in AI. It also taught me a way of thinking that I still use as a founder: start with a problem, test your assumptions, look at the evidence, learn from what happens and decide what to do next. That mindset has helped me navigate the uncertainty that comes with building a startup, especially when things don’t go to plan. Looking back, my career hasn’t followed a straight line – but I think that’s the exciting part. Each experience has given me something I can draw on today, and sometimes the paths you explore along the way come together to create an opportunity you never could have planned for.” - Mina Na, Masters of IT and AI graduate

13/10/2026

Congratulations to Prof. Andrew Dzurak who has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society, one of the highest honours in the global physics community. 👏

Prof. Dzurak, Founder and CEO of Diraq, is recognised for the development of spin-based qubits in silicon and the technology required to enable scalable, economical quantum computing.

08/10/2026

Renewable Energy graduate Tess Rickard has been named the 2027 NSW Rhodes Scholar-Elect.

Tess will head to the University of Oxford to continue her studies in energy systems, where she hopes to deepen her understanding of the economic, political and social dimensions of the energy transition.

Congratulations Tess! 👏

07/10/2026

UNSW researchers have set a new world record efficiency for perovskite solar submodules. ☀️

Perovskite is considered one of the most promising materials for the next generation of solar cells but scaling them up without sacrificing performance has been a major challenge.

Partnering with UtmoLight, Prof. Xiaojing Hao and her team have shown high efficiency across a much larger 30cm x 30cm submodule – bringing the technology an important step closer to large-scale manufacturing.

Engineers from UNSW Sydney have collaborated with high-tech energy company UtmoLight to set a benchmark for 676 square centimetre perovskite solar submodules.

07/10/2026

Going all-electric at home could be cheaper and easier than many Australians realise. ⚡

A new report has found that misconceptions about electrification could be leading Australians to overestimate the cost and complexity of making the switch.

Led by Dr Mike Roberts, the research suggests the answer isn’t simply more information, but trusted, timely and personalised advice that helps households make the right decisions for their circumstances.

Energy Consumers Australia

UNSW Sydney researchers say consumers need trusted, timely and personalised guidance as they navigate increasingly complex decisions about electrifying their homes and businesses.

06/10/2026

☀️ Solar on the roof. 🔋 A battery in the garage. 🚗 An EV charging in the driveway.
 
The way we power our homes is changing – and so is Australia’s entire electricity system. ⚡
 
In the latest episode of Engineering the Future podcast, UNSW’s A/Prof. Anna Bruce breaks down what happens as millions of homes start generating and storing their own power.
 
🎧 Listen now via the link in bio.

05/10/2026

With more than 1 in 3 Australian households now using rooftop solar, our homes are becoming an active part of Australia’s energy system. 🏠

In the latest episode of Engineering the Future, UNSW A/Prof. Anna Bruce joins STEM journalist, Neil Martin, to explore how consumer energy technologies are reshaping Australia’s electricity system.

From managing grid stability and electricity costs to virtual power plants and energy equity, they unpack the opportunities and challenges ahead – and imagine what powering our homes could look like in the future.

Listen now 🔗 unsw.to/etf-energy-home

02/10/2026

Data centres are the physical backbone of the internet, supporting everything from cloud computing and digital platforms to AI and critical services such as healthcare systems.

But as demand grows, so do questions about their environmental impact – particularly their energy and water use.

Prof. Greg Leslie says there’s also a significant economic opportunity, with AI data services having the potential to become a major export industry for Australia.

Data centres are now fundamental to the digital economy, housing the servers that store and process information. Yet their rapid expansion raises urgent environmental questions, particularly around energy and water usage.

30/09/2026

💬 "I hope by seeing other Indigenous students working in the space industry that others to purse their goals and ambitions in the sector and that there is a place for them to work in STEM."

Congratulations to Claire Weis, a proud Wiradjuri woman, and Alexander Cramp, a proud Kamilaroi man, who has been selected for the National Indigenous Space Academy.

They join eight First Nations STEM scholars on a 10-week program, working on real life space projects at STFC's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL space).

The program is run by Monash University and aims to build Indigenous participation in Australia’s growing space sector. 🚀

29/09/2026

🗳️ How do you turn votes into seats in a way that's fair?

It might sound simple, but the maths behind allocating seats in an election can produce some surprising results. In some voting systems, getting more votes doesn’t always improve a group’s chances of winning an extra seat.

UNSW researchers have now solved a decades-old maths problem that could help us better understand how voting systems translate support at the ballot box into seats in parliament.

UNSW academics have cracked a problem in proportional representation posed by leading researchers — the latest chapter in a mathematical debate more than 200 years old.