Former Chief Scientist joins “era-defining” Australian hydrogen company

Electrolyser startup Hysata has announced former Australian Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel as chair of the company’s Global Advisory Council. Finkel was Chief Scientist for five years until the end of 2020, with current Chief Scientist Dr Cathy Foley his replacement, and has a background including a PhD in electrical engineering, in entrepreneurship, and as…

Australian team examines loss of potentially dangerous plastic particles from cookware

A team of researchers from Flinders University and Newcastle University has developed a way to measure plastic particles lost from non-stick cookware. The work by the team used a “molecular spectrum approach” for directly visualising and identifying Teflon microplastics and nanoplastics, which are “generally a family member of PFAS” as well as more difficult to…

Best of the week — the five most popular stories among @AuManufacturing’s readers

What were the five biggest stories last week? Here’s what visitors to this site were reading. FIRST DRIVE IN H2X HYDROGEN POWER WARREGO UTILITY About 100 kilometres from Amsterdam in a workshop dedicated to vehicle electrification sits one of two unique hydrogen fuel cell-electric utility vehicles – Australian company H2X Global’s Warrego utility, writes Peter…

Government announces HF comms contract with Babcock

Defence and Babcock have signed a contract to provide the Australian Defence Force with “an enhanced high-frequency communications system” to support regional and global operations. In a short statement from defence industry minister Pat Conroy on Friday, the news was called “a major boost to Defence’s strategic high-frequency communications capability”. Conroy said the federal government…

A new type of material called a mechanical neural network can learn and change its physical properties to create adaptable, strong structures

By Ryan H. Lee, University of California, Los Angeles The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea A new type of material can learn and improve its ability to deal with unexpected forces thanks to a unique lattice structure with connections of variable stiffness, as described in a new…

IMCRC-APR PhD manufacturing intern partnership finishes up

The Innovative Manufacturing CRC and Australian Postgraduate Research Intern (APR.intern) program have announced the successful fulfillment of a partnership that began in 2019 and delivered 23 PhD student internships, with nine students securing ongoing employment at their host companies. The three- to six-month internships were sponsored by the IMCRC – which is finishing its work…