Physical AI Meetup - Melbourne Year-ender

Hear expert talks, take the mic for an AI / hardware demo or announcement, and connect over pizza & drinks.

A special thanks to the La Trobe Business School for hosting us, brought to you by element14 Electronics — our trusted electronic components distributor.

Take the mic at our Community Open Mic! Bring your demo, prototype, or announcement — whether it is AI, hardware, robotics, embedded systems, sensing, or edge computing. All welcome.

This is our last 2026 Physical AI Meetup in Melbourne, with more exciting topics and event formats in 2027!

Info: 2026 has been a wildly accelerated year in Physical AI. This talk dives into case studies on how this technology is evolved and being used - from diagnostic medical imaging to battery powered image recognition in the outback. The talk is delivered by Blake Fuller. Blake is the Head of Product Design and Engineering at Capgemini Australia. He has released >50 products to the market and leads high calibre product development teams.

Info: Attendees will learn how social robotics and AI transform residential and home-based care. Key takeaways include:
- AI & Human-Centered Interaction: How emotional intelligence, facial/voice recognition, and multimodal communication enable human-like engagement.
- Personalized Care Services: How Matilda delivers cognitive stimulation, social connectivity, daily routine support, and health monitoring.
- Supporting Caregivers: Strategies to reduce carer burnout, streamline workflows, and enable real-time analytics for tailored interventions.
- Ecosystem Integration: Practical insights into combining companion robots with smart home devices and wearables for proactive, independent living. The talk is delivered by Dr. Debbie Mei Tai Chu, currently Associate Professor at La Trobe Business School, La Trobe University.  She is the director of Computer, Communication and Social Innovation Research Hub.

Info: As AI systems move beyond text generation toward autonomous decision-making in the physical world, memory becomes a critical missing capability. This talk explores how physically grounded agentic memory can enable AI agents to learn from real-world experiences, retain contextual knowledge, and continuously improve their decision-making. Drawing on recent developments in Generative AI, embodied intelligence, edge computing, and adaptive reasoning systems, A/Prof. Wei Peng will share insights into building the next generation of AI agents that can perceive, remember, reason, and act in dynamic environment. Delivered by Dr. Wei Peng, he brings over 15 years of international experience bridging AI research and product innovation across academia and industry. With expertise in developing enterprise-scale Generative AI applications in global technology companies, he is now leading industrial AI development at RMIT University. He has published in top AI conferences including ACL, CVPR,& EMNLP

Info: Presenting recent research on neuromorphic computing for Visual Place Recognition (VPR), a fundamental capability that allows robots to recognize previously visited locations using visual information. Our approach combines Vector Symbolic Architectures (VSA), Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs), and Intel's Loihi 2 neuromorphic processor to develop an energy-efficient visual recognition framework. By rethinking conventional nearest-neighbor search using brain-inspired, event-driven computation, our experimental results demonstrate lower power consumption compared to a conventional CPU implementation, while maintaining competitive recognition accuracy.
Delivered by Dr. Vidura Sumanasena, a Lecturer in AI and Analytics at La Trobe University, Australia. He holds a PhD from La Trobe University. Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs), and Vector Symbolic Architectures (VSA), with applications in robotic intelligence.His research focuses on applications in robotic intelligence & energy-efficient compute

Info: There will be no question portion after each talk. Please hold your questions until this portion, and have the benefit of asking any question that may be answered by any and all of the speakers.

Info: Making something? Have an announcement? Let the community know by taking the microphone before we conclude.

Event venue & nearby stays

Level 1 Room 115, Donald Whitehead Building, La Trobe University, 1C Centreway, Bundoora, Australia

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