Design for Sustainability and Wellbeing Beyond Earth

Design for Sustainability and Wellbeing Beyond Earth

Australia’s growing space industry is led by innovators with a vision to create a better and healthier future on and off earth. Industry experts and designers are collaborating to transform our future through projects such as lunar waste minimisation, space farming, and virtual reality, which promise positive long term impacts for the health and wellbeing of our planet and humanity.

Experience how design is vital to today’s growing Australian space ecosystem and leading to solutions for a more sustainable and thriving future.

Host

Sara James, National Strategy Director, American Chamber of Commerce in Australia

Sara is an Emmy award-winning broadcast journalist who travelled the globe for NBC News and frequently anchored at the Today Show news desk. Among her many prestigious awards, Sara earned a New York Festival award for her report on the first woman considered for the US space program.

Speakers

Virginia Kilborn, Chief Scientist, Swinburne University of Technology

Virginia is a radio astronomer with the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University, where her research interests include tracing galaxy evolution by studying the neutral hydrogen gas in galaxies. She is surveying the sky with the next generation radio telescopes, such as the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) and the SKA in the future.

Professor Michelle Watt, Adrienne Clarke Chair of Botany, University of Melbourne 

Michelle and her team are designing and creating plant systems for space. Her team is part of the newly-funded Australian Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space. Michelle uses imaging and sensor technologies in the field and lab with modelling to understand how roots function in the world’s increasingly dynamic climates, both on and off earth. The aim is to reduce impacts of agriculture on the environment while increasing farmer productivity by breeding and/or managing more resource efficient root-soil systems. Michelle has been involved with multi-partner projects with Australia, the USA, India, the Philippines, UK and Germany in the under-studied but critical area of plant roots and space farming. 

Dr Kaja Antlej, Senior Lecturer, Industrial Design, Deakin University 

Dr Kaja Antlej is a researcher working in the intersection of human space exploration, human-centered design, digital heritage and virtual museums, extended reality (XR), 3D printing, futures thinking and well-being. Kaja has obtained her BSc/MSc (2008) in Industrial Design and a PhD (2013) in Museum and Heritage Studies at the University of Ljubljana and is currently working as a Senior Lecturer in Industrial Design and CADET Virtual Reality Lab Researcher - Museums/Heritage at the School of Engineering, Deakin University.  

Presented in partnership with The Australian Space Agency.

These events are part of Melbourne Design Week 2023, an initiative of the Victorian Government in collaboration with the NGV.