Events
Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Ethics (CAIDE) at the University of Melbourne
Featured events
BLAK: Defining an Australian design future
May
16
2:00pm - 3:00pm
Public Lecture
Please join us for this free Melbourne Design Week public lecture.
Design is never neutral. It carries the imprint of culture, memory, and values, shaping how societies see themselves and their futures. In Australia, the foundations of design extend far beyond the colonial narrative into deep time, where land, sea, and sky were understood as interconnected living systems. For First Nations peoples, all making of objects, shelters, pathways, and stories emerged from the Dreaming: an evolving body of cultural, ecological, and spiritual knowledge that sustained Country for millennia.
In this lecture, Alison Page explores BLAK as a powerful reassertion of Indigenous identity and creative sovereignty within contemporary practice. She introduces Designing with Country, a transformative placemaking movement that re-centres design within the wisdom of Country, inviting architects, designers, and communities to engage with place as a living system rather than an empty site. Through built and conceptual projects, Page demonstrates how embracing Indigenous knowledge systems offers a generous and necessary framework for defining a truly Australian design language.
Looking forward – looking Blak – this lecture calls for a future in which design in Australia is grounded in ancient knowledge, responsive to Country, and courageous in reimagining a national identity.
Alison is the 2026 Robert Garland Treseder Fellow at the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne. This Fellowship enables artists, business innovators, designers, policy leaders, start-ups, architects, and scholars dedicated to the development and promotion of design-based innovation to visit Melbourne.
We are grateful for the generous ongoing support of the Robert Garland Treseder Fellowship.
You are what you eat: that gut feeling
May
20
6:00pm - 7:30pm
Public Lecture
This event is sold out in-person however online registrations are still available via the link above.
Explore the latest in gut science and how big data is unlocking insights into the microbiome’s role in health and disease.
Nicknamed our ‘second brain’, the gut and its microbiome are well known to impact various body systems and overall health outcomes. Hear about the latest in gut science and how using big datasets is helping better understand the interplay between the gut microbiome and various diseases. Also, what happens when things go wrong in the gut, such as with food intolerances or gut-targeting parasites? Our experts share how they are finding new diagnostic and treatment solutions to improve gut health in people and animals.
The session is available online and in person
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The Science at Melbourne Conversations series is the premier public event series from the Faculty of Science. The event program seeks to share our knowledge and love of science with the wider community, engaging them in current research and empowering them to ask questions and act for a better world. The series runs throughout the year covering scientific research, discoveries, and theories that play exciting or unexpected roles in shaping and advancing our society
