Photo of investigators at the Hub Annual Conference 2025
ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Future Digital Manufacturing Annual Conference 2025
On 14 August 2025, the Australian Research Council (ARC) Digital Manufacturing Hub hosted our Annual Conference, bringing together researchers, industry leaders, and new partners to strengthen collaboration and build capability in Australian digital manufacturing.
This year’s focus was on working with new and existing partners to address challenges and realise shared aspirations. Our industry partners shared insights into their work, their digital manufacturing goals, and their vision for contributing to the Hub. Professor Dimitrios Georgakopoulos delivered the “State of the Union” update. Program Leaders (Zahir Tari, Helen Huang, Albert Zomaya FAA FRSN, Prem Prakash Jayaraman) along with newly established project teams, each comprising both an industry and a research partner, presented initiatives already underway, showcasing the breadth and ambition of the Hub’s activities.
The day concluded with an engaging open discussion exploring how collective vision and collaboration set the Hub apart from standalone projects, while also considering how we measure progress toward our vision, evaluate project impact and success, and identify the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Big thankyou to the workgroup that put this event together: Dimitrios Georgakopoulos, Faten Zaibak, Chi Tsun (Ben) Cheng, Prem Prakash Jayaraman, Amirali K. Gostar, Kaneez Fizza)
The generosity of our industry partners and researchers in sharing their time, expertise, and commitment was inspiring. It is clear that the future of Australian sovereign digital manufacturing is in capable hands.
Well done to all involved! We look forward to building on this momentum in the year ahead.
Prof Prem Prakash Jayaraman, Dr Hailing Zhou, Prof Yvonne Durandet & Dr Lily Li,
Prof. Dimitrios Georgakopoulos, Swinburne University
Raj Burli (Memko), A/Prof Ben Cheng (RMIT) & Dr Azizur Rahman (RMIT)
Mingyuan Lu, Xiangyu Sun, Helen Huang, Dr Yadan Luo & Dr Zijian Wang
Dr Zijian Wang
Dr Yadan Luo
Dr Mingyuan Lu, University of Queenland
Program Leader - Helen Huang
Program Leader - Prem Prakash Jayaraman
A/Prof Ben Cheng, RMIT
Prof Suresh Palanisamy (Swinburne) & Steve van Winckel (Sutton)
Dr Sheng (Vincent) Wen, Swinburne University
Praveen Fernandes (EzyChef) & Dr Abhik Banerjee (Swinburne University)
Jim Wallace, Balluff
Tapashi Mukherjee, DotInfinity
Steven Teofilo, Kreuger
A robust discussion took place, and many new connections were made at the networking Lunch
Hub Conference Participants
Industry Partner - Sharbani Dhar, Dotinfinity
Chair – Prof Zahir Tari (RMIT) & Industry Principal Investigator – Lin He (Sysbox)
Andrew Dong, Innolabs
Dr Abhik Banerjee & A/Prof Ben Cheng
Dr Hailing Zhou
Prof Dimitrios Georgakopoulos & Dr Kanchana Thilakarathna
“It was a really great event, and it was also nice to meet colleagues from other programs, including both researchers and industry participants.”
Prof. Zahir Tari (RMIT)
