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Two themes stood out during the Australian Composites Manufacturing CRC (ACM CRC) annual Partner Meeting last week. One was the intensified focus on industry-led R&D and commercial readiness. The other was AI, which as one guest put it: “isn’t the elephant in the room. AI is the room.”

ACM CRC is interested in publishing good-quality, informative, plain English articles explaining composites. Here are some things to consider if you want to contribute to our series, titled A practical guide to composites.

A practical guide to composites: What are composites? A new series from ACM CRC explaining composites concepts in easy-to-understand language.

August 27 – Five doctoral students got a chance to rethink their research in commercial terms through a nation-first pitchfest at the Australian Composites Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (ACM CRC) annual Partner Meeting last week. 

Australia has long struggled with industry-research collaboration. ACM CRC's R&D Director, Sr Stephen van Duin, looks at how the country can ensure its R&D activities create impact and value.

Dr Tong Xie from UNSW Sydney shares some insights about AI for “knowledge extraction, hypothesis generation, multimodal modelling and autonomous experimentation”.

“Feel” is one of the many mysteries of surfing that University of Wollongong Professor Marc in het Panhuis has sought to unpick. In the below interview, the head of UoW’s Surf Flex Lab shares what a recent paper found out about measuring feel, how it’s different between PU and expanded polystyrene (EPS) cores, how the findings will inform two ACM CRC-funded projects led by Gowing Bros, and more.

A Western Sydney-based auto racing supplier is preparing to celebrate a decade anniversary in December, as well as a move beyond its boutique beginnings. Below is an interview with Sydney Composites founder Greg Kerba.

Takudzwa Tendere is a PhD candidate in Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Sydney, researching advanced metal matrix composites, laser-directed energy deposition, and AI-driven manufacturing optimisation.

A project supported by the Australian Composites Manufacturing CRC (ACM CRC) links Oilfield Piping Systems (OPS) and The University of Queensland (UQ) to develop more durable sucker rod guides, essential components for the oil and gas industry.

July 13 – A team from Hypersonix Launch Systems and The University of Queensland has beaten the extreme heat produced when travelling more than five times the speed of sound while also disproving the old proverb “if you want to go fast, go alone.”

Geelong-based Jeff Sykes & Associates, best known as Sykes Rowing, is a supplier to the Australian national team and has its eyes on their racing needs for the 2028 and 2032 Olympic cycles, extending a heritage in elite-level rowing. It is also marking its 60th anniversary this year.

Well over 2,000 years ago, Aristotle is supposed to have described what these days we call “first principles thinking” as “the first basis from which a thing is known”.

July 8 – A new artificial intelligence-based manufacturing augmentation platform, supported by the Australian Composites Manufacturing CRC (ACM CRC) and developed at Deakin University’s Applied AI Initiative, has the potential to create billions of dollars in efficiencies if adopted throughout the country.

Associate Professor Scott Barnett is Deputy Head, Translational Research and Commercialisation at Deakin University’s Applied AI Institute ( A2I2 .) He’s also the lead on the ForgeX.ai factory management project, supported by the Australian Composites Manufacturing CRC (ACM CRC.) In this interview, Barnett shares some insights about his work ahead of his appearance at ACM CRC’s annual partner meeting, to be held on August 19–20. ACM CRC: What does your career path look like? SB: I did my undergrad and then I did a PhD in software engineering and robotics. I joined Deakin’s AI initiative, A2I2, to help companies use AI on contract research and development projects for the last nine years. And over the last couple of years I've shifted to helping manufacturing companies quite a bit. And that's how I got involved with the ACM CRC. ACM CRC: Why is applied research something that you apparently like doing? SB: I think it's because it helps companies adapt and solve their problems with new technology. So you're constantly helping someone and have different problems each day. I've done projects across telecommunications, finance, education, and manufacturing. A wide spectrum and range. It keeps things interesting. ACM CRC: Part of your recent manufacturing work includes on alloys, but you're doing lots of other work as well. What are some R&D efforts within manufacturing? SB: I'm part of the circAlloy Training Centre, which is more on the research side and is looking at how to recycle alloy materials. There I'm playing a role where I'm using AI and software to help augment researchers to make them more productive and more effective, helping push the circular economy forward. I do stuff with generative AI, with quite a lot for a small startup at the moment, Red Velvet AI. That's building new technology for reviewing applications with a human in the loop. And then there's the work with the Overseer platform, which was supported by an Australia's Economic Accelerator (AEA) Ignite grant. That was with Carbon Revolution, as well as starting to look at ways in which we could help make software more affordable and more effective for SMEs. ACM CRC: How did the ForgeX.ai - AI factory management project with us come about, and what does it aim to achieve? SB: As I mentioned, we started with an AEA grant from the Australian Government to build a platform and to help do defect detection. That grant scheme was shut down recently, but we saw value in continuing that type of work for manufacturers. So we linked up with the ACM CRC and another partner to build a small project to help run and track experiments. It’s basically designed for micro-sized manufacturers. It can help companies optimise what they do. We have been testing it at an artificial leather company. And then from that project we looked at a couple of other use cases, such as searching for and retrieving information using AI, basically helping manufacturers converse with their factory in natural language. From that, we realised that there are many other use cases where AI could come in. For example, manufacturers generally don't have in-house software engineering capabilities, yet they all rely on software. So we're looking at ways to build tools that can empower people who are not qualified software engineers, using AI to bridge the gap as far as we can. ACM CRC: Tell us about the different components to ForgeX.ai SB: There's a couple of parts. There's an underlying platform that can be hosted completely on-premise or in the cloud, depending on what the providers need. It's then got a set of apps that are available for people to use. Currently the key apps that we have are the experiment platform that I was talking about where you can track those, Optilab, find related experiments and basically help optimise and find the best possible process. The other app is about searching and analysing the data that you've got. So it’s an agent that does basic data science, handles your queries, does analysis for you, and creates a report from natural language. The third one is designed to help people migrate or integrate between ERP systems. ACM CRC: What sort of efficiency improvements can be delivered through these AI-powered apps? SB: Perhaps a 30 - 50 per cent efficiency gain if a company doesn’t have an existing data system currently in use. They help save on time and the need for software help outside of the organisation. A lot more can be done with your existing teams and people. Using AI agents and new technology reduces the need for custom-built software. And an organisation can structure and better use the content that's available. So in the experimentation example, there's already an existing database in this company, but it's not readily structured and able to be interrogated. It might be in Excel spreadsheets, documents, images and is harder to maintain and support. We put something over the top of that to make it more reliable and robust, which cuts administration work, basically. ACM CRC: What does the development timeline look like? SB: ForgeX.ai’s future is dependent on partners. Our approach is to really work closely with the partner to make sure that what they need is done. From a technology perspective, we've done some iterations with the client. They're working with it and we're just waiting for more feedback from them. Our centre has a collaborative-type nature where we work with partners and it's dependent on their timelines and their priorities as well. ACM CRC: What would you say about developing quality assurance software for smaller-sized manufacturers and how you approach that? SB: There's a lot of active solutions off the shelf that are available for defect prediction, especially vision-type solutions. Typically, they have a lot of vendor lock-in, where they want to provide the whole thing and they have different scale up operations, which may not be viable for micro or small companies. What we're trying to do is look at a low-cost way to set something up quickly that does a good enough job. And then we're looking for integration with the other systems. With the Overseer platform, it's worth saying that we're designing it to sit across existing platforms within a company. We're not trying to replicate everything that's out there, but to add an intelligence layer over the top of what a company already uses. Rather than just have a bunch of bespoke things that don't connect or don't integrate well. ACM CRC: What’s your point of view on how generative AI and agentic AI could reshape manufacturing? Are there any trends we should watch? SB: It can do a lot more than what people are thinking. There's a lot more reasoning, surfacing up data and automation that can be done. I think a lot of it's going to be in the mundane and places where people aren't necessarily looking to put AI. There’s a lot in the way of migration problems, backend or back of house workflows that AI can come in and sort out. I think that once people have figured out how to glue things together and deal with interoperability and data, I think agents will be able to do a lot more on top and surface up a lot more insights. They'll be able to monitor, and ultimately what our collaboration with ACM CRC would like to show is that it can optimise processes and better keep track of data that manufacturers are already creating. A lot of software systems I've seen are kind of “push”. A company will set them up, configure them, and then the system does what they want. With the agentic AI, I think things will be more “pull”. The system will be able to recommend options based on knowledge pulled in from a manufacturer, helping the company predict scenarios and operate better. ACM CRC: Is there anything else worth mentioning? SB: A2I2 has a desire to work more closely with companies. We have plenty of capability, and would like to see more direction from companies. What we’ve talked about above is available to all manufacturers. The ACM CRC funding comes with a requirement that the results of the project are open source, so everybody benefits from the advancements, not just the companies that are getting involved. Picture: Scott Barnett (credit Deakin University) ACM CRC’s annual Partner Meeting will be held on August 19 and 20 at Level 3, Salesforce Tower, Sydney. Barnett will present on an agentic AI solution for manufacturers, followed by a breakout session where partners can explore what it could mean for their organisation. More on A2I2 at this link, Barnett’s projects here , and the Partner Meeting here .

Ahead of her keynote address at ACM CRC’s Partner Meeting on August 19, adventurer Lisa Blair shares a little about her sailing adventures and the Sustainable Composites for Next Gen Boat Hulls project with Steber International, University of NSW Sydney and SOENECS.

June 12 – The Australian Composites Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (ACM CRC) has supported a newly-developed digital platform, delivering cash-strapped smaller manufacturers, startups and others access to vital but often-unaffordable machinery, while also helping unlock new value from idle assets.

Tanjima Akter is a second-year PhD candidate in Carbon Fibre and Composites at Carbon Nexus, Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM) at Deakin University.

Sebastien is a PhD student at The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) specialising in fluid-structure interaction to optimise the performance of surfboards. He first became interested in modelling and design of surfboards during engineering preparatory classes in France.

The country should dedicate at least two years to better establish itself in manufacturing while harnessing the power of its engineers, says manufacturing expert Luke Preston.

Qingshan is a PhD student in materials engineering at University of Southern Queensland. Before commencing his PhD, he completed his master’s degree at Wuhan University of Technology, China, which focused on flame-retardant polymers.

Kiritharan Mahalingasivam discusses his PhD work, examining the structural and impact behaviour of pultruded glass fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite hollow sections for marine and civil infrastructure applications.

Manufacturing suffers from an image problem in Australia, often viewed as repetitive, low-tech factory work rather than one of the country’s most innovation-heavy industries. By Luke Preston.

9 questions with University of Southern Queensland PhD candidate Chundu Tamang

Orange, Parramatta and Sydney in NSW. Geelong, Cremorne and the Southeast Melbourne region in Victoria. Logan and the Gold Coast in Queensland. These aren’t the only ones, but are just some of the places in Australia which have been called our answer to the mythical American high-tech hub.

Stephen Joseph is a PhD candidate at the The University of Queensland, and whose work concerns the hot topic of thermal management in ceramic-matrix-composite structures for scramjet engines.

Pooya Jafari is a PhD candidate in materials engineering at the University of Southern Queensland. He has a strong focus on data-driven molecular design, cheminformatics, and artificial intelligence-powered discovery of flame-retardant polymer materials.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – The global marine industry is facing an unprecedented materials crisis. Right now, an estimated 35 to 40 million fibreglass boats worldwide are reaching their end of life 1 . With no scalable pathway for recycling, these vessels are becoming a significant environmental burden, dumped in mangroves, scuttled in deep water, or destined for landfills where they will persist for centuries.

Rounak Saha Niloy is a PhD student at UNSW Sydney, working in collaboration with the ARC Training Centre for Automated Manufacture of Advanced Composites (AMAC). He completed his Master’s by Research in Mechanical Engineering at UNSW Canberra at ADFA, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engin

Reports last month that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is attempting to raise US$100 billion to buy up manufacturing businesses are a sign that perhaps a bigger game is afoot.

A recently launched research project funded by the Australian Composites Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre addresses the risk of shark attacks on surfers.

The Australian Composites Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (ACM CRC) has announced that its board has appointed highly experienced engineering manager and entrepreneur Luke Preston as the new full-time CEO, as the CRC builds on the successful first three years of its ten-year term.

delegates from industry, research and government gathered to reflect on their composite manufacturing achievements from the past year, and to unveil how the sector’s future may look…

Zaneta is a PhD Student with ACM CRC Partner, University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ). In 2024, she was awarded an ACM CRC RISE Fellowship.

If we truly want a Net Zero Future, then we need to closely consider the effective design of resilient infrastructure for long-term service. One ACM CRC project is doing just that, focusing on the advanced construction materials used in marine environments, and investigating how composites could change the way we build

Neda is a PhD Student with ACM CRC Partner, University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ), before which she was working as a Structural Design Engineer at Mines & Metal Technological Engineering (MMTE).

Saral is a Mechanical Engineering PhD candidate with ACM CRC research partner, The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney).

The work of five PhD students and three postdocs from consortium Partner, The University of Sydney (USYD), is enabling the ACM CRC to edge closer to its goals. To follow are some of the specific areas of research they’re working to advance.

Manesha is a PhD student and a Graduate Research Teaching Fellow Level A (part-time) at Deakin University. Having graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura in Sri Lanka, her research primarily explores the fields of organic and materials chemistry.

ACM CRC has launched an innovative project led by FUZE Solutions and the University of Western Australia, in collaboration with the University of Queensland, to establish an industry standard for repairing and reinforcing steel structures using composite materials.

The 22nd Composites Australia Conference, held recently at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Brisbane, brought together leaders from manufacturing, defence, research and infrastructure to explore emerging developments in composite materials and processes.

Phan (Mia) is a second-year PhD candidate at Deakin University. She completed her master's degree at Kyushu University, Japan, which focused on the structure and physical properties of polymers. She has a passion for polymer physics and composite materials.

Abila is a PhD Student with ACM CRC Partner, The University of Sydney (USYD), prior to which she completed her Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) with First Class Honors.

Zhiwang is a PhD Student with ACM CRC Partner, The University of Sydney (USYD), prior to which he completed his BEng in Mechanical Engineering and his MPhil in Mechanical Engineering, both at USYD.

Wlla Abbad is a PhD student with ACM CRC at The University of Sydney. She holds a master’s degree in industrial engineering/management from the University of Jordan and was awarded the 2024 HERA ‘Women in STEM’ Scholarship.

ACM CRC is proud to celebrate the success of one of its PhD students, Chundu Tamang from the University of Southern Queensland, who was named winner of the 2025 Cooperative Research Australia Early Career Researcher Competition.

ACM CRC Partner, The University of New South Wales (UNSW), currently has 1 Postdoc and 7 PhD Students engaged on ACM CRC projects, helping to drive innovation in the composites manufacturing space. Some of the specific areas of research they’re helping to advance include the following.

Sharine Bendulo is a third-year Materials Engineering PhD candidate at ACM CRC research partner, Deakin University.

Sina Mansourdehghan is a civil engineer specialising in structural engineering and has a background and keen interest in data science. Sina is focused on integrating computer science into structural analysis and monitoring.