Melbourne Connect

Join us for a keynote with Laura Chambers, Board Director of Mozilla Corporation and former CEO, as she explores some of the most consequential questions in tech right now: will AI strengthen the open web, or quietly dismantle it? What happens when your browser stops being a window and starts acting as an agent holding your data, shaping your decisions and influencing your spend?

Laura will also speak candidly about Mozilla's own AI journey, including a collaboration with Anthropic using their latest frontier model to find and fix hundreds of long-hidden security vulnerabilities inside Firefox.

Reserve your spot: https://bit.ly/4eryfLT

🗓️ Tuesday 21 July, 11.30am - 1.30pm
📍 Melbourne Connect, The Studio (Ground Level)

This event is presented as part of Melbourne Connect’s AI at Melbourne Colloquium Series.

What's a thought that has stuck with you from the conversations held at Melbourne Connect?

For us, last year's Future of Disinformation brought a range of perspectives challenging our community to rethink how we understand one of the defining issues of our time. Lydia Khalil, Program Director of the Transnational Challenges Program at The Lowy Institute, approached disinformation not as a media issue or a technology failure but as an instrument of power.

What would it actually take to rebuild the social foundations that make shared truth possible?

Explore the full Future of series: https://bit.ly/4xxk2FW

Australia is now among a handful of countries with access to Claude Mythos, an AI model so powerful Anthropic hasn't released it to the public. For Dr Andrew Cullen from The University of Melbourne's School of Computing and Information Systems, that's worth examining carefully.

In a new piece for The Conversation Australia + NZ, he unpacks what Australia's inclusion in Project Glasswing actually means: better defences against the kind of large-scale cyberattacks that have hit Optus, Medibank and others in recent years but also new risks that the government has yet to address openly.

The cybersecurity landscape is shifting. This is a sharp, grounded take on where it's heading.

Read more: https://theconversation.com/australia-now-has-access-to-anthropics-claude-mythos-it-may-improve-cyber-safety-but-not-for-everyone-284544

The Cybernetic Futures Showcase 2026 filled Melbourne Connect with 30 prototypes and some of the most inventive student work we’ve seen from The University of Melbourne's School of Computing and Information Systems. From wearable electronics to board games that make you stop and think, the showcase explored how attention, interruption and technological overwhelm are reshaping our lives and futures.

Congratulations to the award-winning teams in Designing Novel Interactions and Game Design, and to every student who put their ideas on display. This is exactly the kind of next-generation thinking Melbourne Connect exists to support — a space for prototyping, exhibiting and connecting, with a university community and industry right on the doorstep.

We're proud to have supported the event alongside Airwallex, Science Gallery Melbourne, The Creator Space, Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology and CISSA - Computing & Information Systems Students Association.

Discover the student projects here: https://cybernetic-futures-2026.netlify.app/

Congratulations to our co-located partner 4DMedical on a significant milestone, acquiring Vienna-based contextflow, a leader in AI lung imaging software for chest CT analysis and lung cancer detection.

The acquisition establishes 4DMedical's European commercial platform and adds regulatory-approved software already embedded in clinical workflows across the continent. Combined with 4DMedical's functional lung imaging technologies, the two companies are building a more complete platform for lung disease detection, diagnosis, and progression tracking.

We're proud to see a team that calls Melbourne Connect home taking their impact global.

Learn more:https://4dmedical.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2026-06-01_4DMedical-contextflow-Press-announcement.pdf

Last week, we launched Wilin Connect 2026, an art installation showcasing the creative voices of Indigenous student artists from The University of Melbourne's Fine Arts and Music at Melbourne - VCA & Conservatorium at Melbourne Connect.

Running for its second year, the project is a collaboration with the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development, Melbourne Connect, and Lendlease, honouring connection, culture, and community through visual storytelling.

We invite you to discover the works of four incredible artists, Alice Attwood, Anathema, Emma Salmon, and Violet Gala, on display across the mezzanine level at Melbourne Connect.

Artist Anathema captures what projects like these mean beyond the exhibition: "It means the world to me to be recognised for art that I made to honour my Ancestors and future children. I had no idea it would be this well received."

Each piece offers a window into their unique story of connection to Country and community, one that deserves to be seen and celebrated.

Learn more: https://bit.ly/4dPMZp7