My passion project entails creating children’s books, with the help of AI, for a remote Indonesian education charity, the funding provided being used for material, supplier and transportation costs. For some context, I found a Seek advertisement to write children’s books for Caresumatra, an NGO located in remote Northern Indonesia, earlier this year. Since then, I have discussed with them the need for these books (barriers to literacy, importance of literacy as eco-tourism rises) and existing barriers to access (little schooling development, low interest in existing mainstream Western children’s fiction). With the rising functionality of AI in both literary and image-creation, I would also be using this project to enhance my comfort and proficiency in using AI tools.

My current passion project, Cryptophonics, is an ambient sound work constructed from recordings made of short-wave radio stations that have been used to communicate encrypted messages to international spies since World War 1.What interests me so much about these recordings, and what has drawn me to make music out of them, is the unique quality they have - their combination of low-fidelity field recordings, audio artifacts and cryptic sequences of numbers and letters lends them an air of mystery that inevitably colours the music that is made with them.I think that investigating and making art out of these recordings is important given our modern context of the private sector's misuse of people's personal data, which has led to invasion of privacy becoming a normalised part of our lives.

Take a moment to close your eyes and feel your surroundings. Now imagine if you could never see again - not the faces of your loved ones, and not the beauty of nature. It's a scary thought, isn't it?Unfortunately, for 43 million people around the world, this is a reality. Shockingly, 9 out of 10 people who are blind don't have to be. Eye diseases such as trachoma can often be treated or prevented, yet many individuals are unable to access the quality eye care they need. My passion project aims to combat avoidable blindness by selling trendy rings. These rings will be sold online and in-person, with a pay-what-you-want pricing model (with a minimum price). All profits will then be donated to the Fred Hollows Foundation, an organisation dedicated to ending avoidable blindness.

I’m writing a novel about a natural disaster that triggers a deadly fungal disease outbreak, and the response that follows from the perspective of a medical researcher tasked with containing the disease.

I want to celebrate the craft of type design through an analogue typeface exhibition. A full typeface designed and made by hand using linocut & print, exhibited with large posters, custom Letraset and type specimen books!

Dissecting personal discourses surrounding recent experiences with healthcare & growing increasingly chronically ill, 'Interdependence' explores the relationships between medical imaging & the delicate nature of endemic Australian orchids.

Essentially, I would like to create content online that brings a fun lens to legal issues and how Australians interact with the law. In my head I envision a community like 'She's on the Money' but instead of teaching financial literacy and issues related to this, it would be focused on recent legal issues and topics of interest. The content created would take a similar approach to that of 'the Daily Aus' and 'Shameless' in that it provides digestible downloads on pertinent issues. Some examples might be 'How referendums Work' (relevant to the period of campaigning leading up to the Voice) 'Can my Landlord really raise my rent 40%' (in light of the current rental crisis and a comparison between different state laws) 'The State and Your Uterus (a comparison of abortion laws) Personally, I'd like to steer away from having any kind of political bias within any of the content. It's really about giving the public (particularly younger demographics) the tools and literacy to make their own informed decisions on issues and ultimately help people realise that there is a justice system lurking within the legal system (even though you may need to look hard to find it!)

I’m bringing the biodiversity of the bush to our backyards with bee hotels. So simple, so easy, yet so effective. In cities there are flowers, but not as much nesting materials which is where bee hotels come to the rescue.

My passion project is 'Where Do I Belong? Here.' - an original album in which I explore what it means to grow up first-generation Turkish-Australian. Through my piano composition and vocal performance, I dive into the nuances of growing up as a woman and only child and aim to give voice to my experiences - in the hope that it gives a voice to those who haven’t been able to express their experiences in that way yet. With the intention of accessibility in mind, I aim to provide a place of musical connection between people of all cultures and experiences. I love this project because it has already brought together many people from the multi-cultural Australian community with the other artists involved. The community around this musical album is growing, and I want to be able to release it in its intended form with a mix and master that does it justice.

Exam Insights addresses the inefficiencies and challenges associated with traditional education methods, notably, the lack of centralised resources such as assessment items and syllabus content tailored for all learning styles. Technology isn’t being utilised in education effectively, causing schools to be lacking potential enhancements in the preparation for assessment items.As recent grade 12 graduates, our experiences and discussions with students and educators highlighted the shortcomings of traditional education, and affirmed how technology could alleviate these issues. Furthermore, technology would have a tangible impact on how students and educators learn and teach respectively, improving academic outcomes, content understanding and performance.In 2023, Exam Insights was created to address educational challenges, using a Flask (Python) backend, HTML and CSS, with data stored in a MySQL database. Since, Exam Insights has been discovered organically by 3000 users, across over 200 Queensland schools, validating the need for technological integration in education.

My Passion Project! Is a mural which will be painted by students on school grounds! This Project will be undertaken by my 8-10B Art Class. This Class is composed of 'B' students from the year levels of 8-10. 'B' Students are students with incredibly low attendance, and often disruptive students and with very low literacy and numeracy levels. These students feel shame and frustration in their regular classes due to their low literacy levels, however in art, many have found success and belonging. The aim with this Mural Project is to engage these low attenders and give them a reason to want to come to school. I want these students to be proud, and feel success at school. This Mural gives the students a project to work on which they feel they can achieve, while also helping the school.

My passion is in world building via creating modular and adaptive tensile fabric shade sails for hire and retail that enable authorship of experience and human connection at scale through the ritual of setting up a physical foundation for collective emergence / an outdoor 'third space'. My project rests in my passion/life thesis of designing for wellbeing; in this case, giving a functional and aesthetic reason to spend time in nature with friends while reducing risk of sunburn and related risks. Witnessing a colourful canopy dancing in the wind, to the soundscape of a vibrant and lively dance floor encourages us to ground by looking up and beyond our individual lens of experience; deepening our awareness of and relationship to nature.

My project aims to tackle the growing need for precision agriculture techniques that can provide detailed, real-time insights into crop conditions. The use of hyperspectral cameras, capable of capturing a broad spectrum of light including wavelengths beyond human vision, allows for the detection of subtle changes in plant health that are often invisible to the naked eye. Additionally there is potential to employ these cameras on UAV Drones for autonomous data collection in agricultural fields.The idea for this project came as I was tacking the ferry to work one morning and I was intrigued at how we could use drones and machine learning to map regions of heavy erosion after particularly nasty storms. However realising we are in the middle of summer, I then became obsessed with how this could be brought over to help better the production of my favourite fruit, kiwifruits!

My project is called Stride Boot. It is a user-centric and empathetically designed recovery boot aimed as users recovering from ankle and foot injuries or surgeries. It is a modular, lego-like design made with sustainable materials to create a lightweight, comfortable and customisable recovery boot. I was inspired to start this project because of my Mum, she has had multiple ankle surgeries and has worn multiple Moon Boots (the current recovery boots), she found them heavy, uncomfortable and completely lacking in adjustability. They are extremely important medical devices but they need to be updated to be made from the users perspective. To ensure a challenging recovery process is not made worse by the one device which is supposed to help. What I love about this project is that it allows me to help people, knowing that I can make a positive impact on someone’s life is unbelievably rewarding and exciting.

I was drawn into this project after a similar experience with my sister after my grandmother's death, where we journeyed on our own long road post New Years Eve. Alicia's script and the movie we've created since, captures the need for connection between these sisters, the inability to communicate and the fear of losing everything you have left. I have loved every moment of creating this movie.

I started my business journey in April 2021, where at the age of 15, I created a small range of origami framed artworks that I had created and wanted to share and sell to others. I had my first ever market stall at the District Docklands and made $143 in sales. In December of 2022, I reached a milestone. During the busy Christmas sales period, I made $14,000 in income in two weeks, purely from in person sales. My business story is unlike any others, but this is only the beginning for me. The idea for my first ever social enterprise, 'Youth Markets Melbourne' has been born out of my own experiences selling at markets during highschool and proving to other young people what an incredible side hustle and income source it can be to start your kickstart a idea in this environment.

A mind bending act that seamlessly blends tap dance and contortion to astonish and confuse audiences. This project uses heart thumping rhythms and acrobatic feats to weave a narrative and create an atmosphere of absurdity.

Augmented Reality (AR) is the future because it blends the virtual world with the real world instead of encouraging people to spend time in a completely virtual metaverse. My passion project involves creating an AR experience in Wellington. Through this experience I want to encourage people to get outside and interact with New Zealand’s beautiful environment and specifically explore the beauty of my hometown Wellington. I will design 3D models and animations which can easily hop into the real world using any smartphone camera.

Baking class meets competition meets theatre. Join us for messy, interactive and delicious breadmaking. As tensions are kneaded and the heat rises, only a few will survive the kitchen. Do you have what it takes to be the breadwinner?

I want to build a UV Photobooth that I can set up on the beach or at music festivals.The UV Photobooth will have:1) UV camera2) TV screen3) Sunscreen dispenserI want to put all of this in a rugged box that can be accessible to the public with minimal supervision (life guard station, science tent at a music festival)This would allow people to make sure they're getting good coverage when applying sunscreen. And also come back an hour or two later and see if they're still covered or if they need to re-apply.I would put scientific info about sunscreen on the sides of the UV Photobooth, and of course, the sponsors of the project.If my prototype is a success, I would evaluate the possibility of mass producing them for surf clubs around Australia.

20 Māori and Pasifika young people, 4 poetry/songwriting/rap facilitators, a weekend of skills and experienced-based learning, young people nurturing their creative voices, culminating in a showcase for their loved ones!

My passion project is an online marketplace for buying, swapping, and selling locally grown produce, inspired by families in my church, including my own, who often give away surplus fruit. I love that the project has the potential to motivate people to live healthier lives by encouraging them to grow their own produce, which can lead to increased consumption of healthy foods and improved well-being.

Learn breakdance in 8 weeks

Culture Crafter is a colony simulation game inspired by mythological heroes from around the world. Players will create their own heroes and send them on journeys to gain new knowledge that can transform the culture of their nation.

My passion project is Red Dirt Robotics. Red Dirt Robotics is a travelling roadshow with the goal of making STEM education as accessible as possible to the next generation of young engineers in Australia's regional and remote communities. I launched the project in 2022 and have since travelled over 50,000 Km across the country to work with more than 800 young people, teaching them everything they need to know to make a start to their journey in STEM. I love my project because a lot of the time, I get to be these kids first ever exposure to robotics, and I get to see them form a passion of their own for STEM in real time, that could very well lead them to a career in tech in the future.

Earlier last year I founded the Build Club: https://www.thebuilderclub.org/. I want to launch build campus, similar to SF Commons but for young people in Australia. The vision is to give people who are side hustling on night and weekends a space to connect for free. I started it because a lot of my friends moved to SF to build. Why can't they do it here. We got pretty lucky and have been able to build build club quite a lot, the next phase is all about magnifying the impact and to do this we need to curate an amazing fourth space for build campus.

Threads is a competitive card game about the politics, backstabbing, and scheming of celebrity drama. Players compete to create the best outfit, while sabotaging each other's looks. Threads aims to be a more approachable card game for all.

Ocean Eye is an autonomous beach safety and rescue drone that is able to detect drowning swimmers and deploy life saving devices. We need Ocean Eye because 95% of beaches are unpatrolled and safety campaign are just not effective enough!

Renting in NSW sucks. Finding a suburb and place in your price range is tedious, not to mention finding one that meets your personal needs, like being close to transport, schools etc. And once you find one, before you know it, your property manager raises the rent by another 14% this year 🤯. It's difficult for the average renter to navigate this uncertainty, and often they're left feeling powerless when negotiating for fairer rent increases.My passion project is a website that tackles this head on and gives renters a fighting chance at finding suburbs, checking if their rent is low/high for a suburb, and forecasting what they may be paying in future so they can be prepared and informed to negotiate for fairer prices. Query by postcode, see historic price charts, and view them on a map

Since building my first 1W blue 445 nm laser at the age of 14, I have been fervently passionate about lasers and optics. Witnessing its power to set objects on fire across the room left me awestruck. My fascination with the idea of remotely powering drones using this technology sparked visions of globalising the world's energy market and making flying objects more efficient. This profound potential led me to study electrical engineering at university, where I delved deeper into this captivating field. Every lecture and research opportunity fueled my determination to contribute to a greener, more advanced world through lasers and optics. I am unwavering in my dedication to making a tangible impact on humanity's future by harnessing the boundless potential of light.

Locationest is a multimedia platform sharing candid photographs of authentic stories told by strangers in the city of Melbourne. Why I’m passionate about it is simple. It’s shedding light on the unique personalities and perspectives whilst simultaneously breaking down social barriers that are held within our society. Giving real stories, one at a time.2 key results from this are relationships and reach. It’s a collaboration platform where a new person sharing their story allows others to relate with it leading to countless positive comments with a community of over 46k followers and growingCovid had us disconnected. For humans to not only survive but to thrive is crucial and to do that is to have a community. Hearing one story similar to theirs or even new provides others an open mind.

The communal mural is a joint exploration between myself and my partner Joshua, brought together through our shared love of making and sharing art with others. With a colour palette reflective of the surrounding environment and a table of mark making tools and artefacts - we openly invite the community to express themselves - playing with colour and texture on a large mural canvas. We love seeing how people explore their surroundings in each collaboration, creating a space for connectivity, creative release and relaxation. We are constantly surprised by the ever changing nature that the space creates - We love that there are no rules, and frequently reiterate it! The mural is a space for all different perspectives on an environment, an event and artmaking as a casual practice or opportunity for play. The outcomes at the end have been beautiful tapestries of colour and visual stories.

My passion projects have all come together in symbiosis to sprout into a hub of activity for my photography, design and environmental education. This hub will enable me to expand my reach whilst combining all of my skills to provide environmental education projects, which wrap around to provide better support for teachers in their environmental education journey. This will be a long-term project with my first steps being creating my brand website, which will collate my portfolios in documentary-style event and nature photography, design, and environmental education (inclusive of The Seed Pod. (podcast), education resource creation, and stories from my mahi/work). At a later date The Seed Pod. will be offering in-school and external place-based environmental education programmes.

My passion project is Rogue - a community platform and DIY fashion show run by and for Aotearoa’s emerging creators, independent of NZ Fashion Week in September 2023. Rogue was born two weeks ago, after discovering that the cost to be involved in the “Next-gen” emerging designer show at New Zealand Fashion Week is over $4000, an outrageous amount. After voicing my shock on Instagram, I was met by hundreds of messages from people who felt the same. I am a big advocate for a DIY, community driven moment. Currently we have over 30 designers locked in.. Our organising board is made up of 11 young creative people from different backgrounds with unique perspectives and skill sets. We are ready to shake up the fashion industry in Aotearoa and beyond!

My passion project began when I was advised to establish a Propriety Limited Company for film distribution and funding, and it has since become a dream come true. Praxis Pictures, a film production house for over 20 filmmakers, focuses on story development, production, and distribution of genre-bent Australian narratives. In 2023, we completed several projects, including TINT, SPACE RATS, OF A WOMAN, BLUEBIRD, and CAT'S EYE. Initially created out of necessity, the company has become one of my full-time jobs and greatest joys, allowing me to support and facilitate unique creative visions and watch these films come to life, especially for my talented network of young independent filmmakers.

The starting point. An exhibition of my works to date. Somewhere to show the beautiful faces I’ve had the pleasure of painting. It will give me that push to get out of my comfort zone to see out the rest of my passion going forward.

Where the Cattles Go To Drink explores the relationship between a young boy, who lives on a rural cattle farm, and their farmhand, who has recently immigrated from overseas. However, their relationship is tested when the farmhand confides in the boy that he is being exploited by the boy's father. In a desperate bid to regain his freedom, the farmhand turns to the boy for help, urging him to steal back his confiscated passport. Our story aims to shed light on a common but lesser-known negative aspect of the farming industry, aiming to raise awareness and inspire change. Through active collaboration with our talented cast, we have woven their unique lived experiences into the fabric of our characters, aiming for an authentic portrayal of rural life.

"Bugas," meaning "milled rice" in Bisaya, is an introspective composition exploring duality, hierarchy, and the complexities of human experience. The play on "bukas" introduces a dystopian world where movement challenges all involved. Rooted in the artist's immigrant experiences, it portrays rice as both a dietary staple and a vessel for nostalgia, inviting audiences to reflect on their personal engagement with the performance.

Air2energy's aims to create a solution to emissions, within the marine industry and beyond. Via retrofitted multi celled system that uses advanced filtration and electrochemical reactions to capture and covert emissions into energy.

I hope to channel my video making skills to create an educational video on genital focused body image for males. Genital body image is an important, but often forgotten aspect of body image. A man's penis plays an important role in how he feels about himself. In my research I found that men who are unhappy with their penis size feel much less confident. So I want to help boys/men feel better about their bodies, particularly their genitalia, by challenging pervasive and unhelpful societal messages like "size matters". I know that in girls/women, video education about female genital anatomy and diversity in genital appearance can help to promote genital body image. Boys/men should also be included in this work, so I want to make a world-first educational video specifically for them.

I am passionate about my home-based baking project, Cak'd, which combines tasty baked goods with delightful painted words of affirmation to encourage a healthy relation with food and self-image. I hope that Protostars expands this project to an artful online bakery, offering a positive sense of community and experience of baked goods for those who have negative feelings and guilt about food. As someone who quietly struggled, what I love about this project is that it turns guilt about 'indulgent treats’ into a positive, joyful experience. The connection between baking and self care is so clear that this project feels inevitable! It was when I discovered joy in baking that my relationship with food improved. I hope to offer this revelation to others in a (beautiful & baked) nutshell.

In 2020, my former business partners and I developed Kiwi Quest, a New Zealand-themed board game aimed at educating Kiwis about Aotearoa’s history and promoting te reo Māori. Players journey around a map, answering trivia questions and facing activity cards that impact their progress. QR codes linked to audio recordings ensure correct pronunciation of te reo words. This passion project tackles a real issue in Aotearoa in an engaging, educational, and fun way, catering to all learning types.

Ikigai is a 30 metre squared food forest and composting hub. Our vision for this space is for all food 'waste' from the hall to be composted on-site, which feeds the food forest. Our purpose is sustainability education.

Creating a speaker glove for speech and hearing-impaired individuals, integrating finger resistors sensor for intuitive alphabetical input. The glove offers a novel approach to communication without requiring knowledge of sign language.

My passion project is to create a 4-track EP exploring the ideas of physical distance from family/heritage. In these songs I want to create a cross-genre EP that does not fit into a singular style from ambient electronica to dubstep, jungle and ethereal vocal soundscapes. Field recordings bind the EP together - including the last time I visited family in Russia in 2019 and meeting my dad’s side of the family in Armenia in 2022. I want this EP to be highly emotional - for any child of immigrants to be able to listen to these songs and feel a strong sense of yearning and longing for a home they never got to know to the fullest extent. In my circumstance, for a home that I’ve never felt more at distance from politically, and the difficulties that has created in visiting family.

‘Dragon Hearts’ is a show I made in October of 2022. It is a one woman show wherein I use an overhead projector and over 100 puppets to explore the ancient mythologies of dragons across cultures and time. I also use the dragon stories to explore eco-feminism, religion, and what it means to slay a creature of power. I created the show in a 30 day fury and presented it before a test audience at the Whispers and Roars Festival in 2022, to an audience of about 30 people. I’m proud of this work and what I discovered making it, so in 2023 I want to refurbish it (take it back to the drawing board) and premiere it at Sydney Fringe 2023. For this I will be creating a new soundtrack, adding 10 more minutes of material, and making some needed changes to the puppet designs.

My project is a supper club and community artwork that provides young people with a language and actions to articulate and fulfil their aspirations for a better world. We bring together young people for free dinners with scholars or public figures to discuss their field’s core literature and ideas about building justice and equality. This discussion will be transformed into an open education resource to share across social media. Finally, the group will ideate a vision for a more equitable future world, which will be transformed into a cityscape-style artwork representing the necessary systems to build this brighter future. This aims to democratise scholarship, transform research-backed ideas into social change, and confront young people’s paralysis in struggling against unjust systems.

The Seed Pod. podcast is my passion project. Together with guests we explore nature connection on a deeper level, sharing stories from childhood, adventures, experiences and nature facts, all in the hopes that we can collectively have a place to share in the awe of nature. In a world full of challenges, this is a space to celebrate connection, to the environment, people, and wellbeing through storytelling. We take listeners with us, sparking curiosity, admiration and care for nature, in turn creating a positive reminiscent base for positive action.

CosMe is your pocket makeup artist: an app that scans your face identifies your undertones and facial attributes, quizzes you on your desired look, and gives a personalised makeup tutorial with steps and diagrams to achieve that look.

I just published my first photobook titled 'Let the Boys Play.''Let the Boys Play' documents a visual journey that seeks to encapsulate the spirit, essence, and unabashed freedom of childhood. This photography book is a celebration of those precious moments, where the only rules are the ones created within the imaginative realms of play. The project is inspired by some moments in my childhood and highlights the importance of creating a safe space where men of all ages can freely be themselves. This book is dedicated to every boy out there in the world, and I hope they get to live their inner child.I am very passionate about this project because 'Let the Boys Play' is more than just a photobook to me; it's a movement, it's a community. In the long term, I would like to use my art as a medium to raise awareness about men's mental health, donating a portion of the proceeds from book sales and exhibitions to youth clubs like PCYC, etc.

The perfect intersection of my passions!! My passion project is called ‘PureSort’ and through smart bins that AUTOMATE WASTE SORTING and COMPACT WASTE at the same time, I hope to entirely disrupt the waste management industry by making recycling less cost prohibitive and ZERO WASTE A REALITY for universities and businesses alike!I first started it when I realised how bad Australia was at recycling, for a place that is responsible for so much tech innovation, why is ~87% of plastic waste going straight to landfill? The goal is to change this and be the catalyst to propel Australia towards a circular economy!I love that this project demands the perfect combination of my passions and abilities, giving me a way to really make an impact, and something I can realistically build in <2 months, if I have the funding to buy the hardware…

Playground (working title) is a set of web-hosted music education tools designed with the intent to open up electronic music production to those who are otherwise unable to break through the financial barrier into music education and production software.In 2023, I found myself in the education space, teaching music to students in the western suburbs of Melbourne. One of my goals was to try and provide and encourage a better standard of music education through the kind of workshops and programs that rarely reach out this far, but I quickly ran into the issue of accessibility, as I could never guarantee that students would have access to the needed software to teach the skills I was trying to teach. Launching initially with a focus on acting as a teaching aid, Playground will start with a selection of virtual instruments, introducing users to the world of hands-on electronic music making with instruments that emulate their real-world counterparts.

My passion project is an abstract queer theatre show. The show is called ‘My Love’ and it follows a lesbian couple navigating a series of murders. It’s a comedic who-dunnit play devised by myself and my creative partner Siena Bordignon (a Protostar alum). As an abstract play we’re incorporating a variety of conventions including drag, reality TV interviews, ‘ad’ breaks and physical theatre. We started this project because a) we want to meet and work with emerging artists in Sydney to put this show together and b) we want to see queer representation in theatre that is centred around play - not around trauma. So far, the thing we love most about this play is how it’s bringing our networks together! We have so much fun writing and blocking it out, but it's the fact that we’ve had so much interest from experienced and amateur creatives who’d like to be involved that is so inspiring.

Our project is a Podcast/Tiktok & Reels series that I've created with two friends (Zazi Hewlett and Felix Walton) who work in journalism. The series would explore politics in Aotearoa from a youth perspective. It hopes to combat the immense depression, despair, and disengagement we know firsthand that young people in New Zealand have about politics, and the future of our country more broadly. We often feel that politics is 'boring', 'just for old people', or even worse, that nothing we do matters. This apathy is so relatable but also dangerous. We want to create a series which is incredibly fun, frequently silly, but shows us how important our engagement in politics is. We'd have guests on from across the political spectrum, being non-partisan, and instead focussing on educating GenZ about the issues in their daily lives (by stealth), and hopefully inspiring us to become more engaged in our systems!

My passion project is ‘Meddling With Time’, it’s a 1 1/2 hour musical being brought to life in the theatre club I run with my best friend, we will be performing it in Autumn 2024! I study at Swinburne University (Hawthorn, Melbourne) and this musical will be Swinburne’s first theatre production ever! Our musical rewinds the clocks on musical history; it is a chronological collection of 8 medleys from 8 pre-existing musicals (including Hamilton, Rocky Horror and Matilda), the plot strung together through the protagonist, a clock winder who has rewound time (original concept). We have 20 committed members who come to rehearsals across the semester and breaks - some of them also help in areas such as teaching, costume and props department - we are doing everything ourselves!

The Real Girls of Tech is a blog sharing the stories of real women studying and working in tech. We break misconceptions and empower young girls to give tech a go. One day, we are planning to provide a job shadowing opportunities for high school girls to meet women in tech, and see what tech is really like. What I love about The Real Girls of Tech, is that we don't think tech = coding. We want to share that tech is for everyone whether you're a designer, people manager or engineer. It's confusing deciding what career to pursue and tech is so easily dismissed because of misconceptions. To change that, we share stories of inspiring women in tech from different industries, areas, and stages of their career.(Currently very early stages so just have a couple of interviews up at the moment)

My passion project is publish and illustrate a bilingual poetry book with all of my own original poetry in English and Te Reo Māori. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do since I was fourteen, I’ve always been journaling and writing poetry. I’m heavily influenced by poets like Neil Hilborn and Hone Atuawhare, and inspired by the way they tell such vivid stories that drip from the page. To be able to see my words printed into a book would be incredible alone, but having it be in both English and Te Reo Māori would be so incredible in promoting the indigenous language of Aotearoa and sharing it. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for nearly ten years and would love to have this opportunity.

My passion project is a language learning web app that allows you to churn through vocabulary quickly, understand grammar, and interact with an AI chat partner in both text format (reading and writing) and vocal (speaking and listening). There are also guides available at any time to get input on sounding more natural, expressing ideas more clearly, and fixing mistakes. I tried for so long to find a useful app but found most apps (especially Duolingo) focus more on motivation than efficient learning. For myself, I'm extremely motivated to learn languages and have my own systems for doing so. Mainly, pen and paper memorising vocabulary then language tutors, and then immersion. I love my passion project because it streamlines the entire process making my study far more effective.

A sound-based exhibition which portrays the perceptions that young Sri Lankans have of the civil war, and the tensions that emerge from violent ethnic relations.

My project is a queer young adult fantasy novel entitled ‘You Can’t Trust Us’. Though the publishing industry has made significant progress in elevating queer voices over the last decade, recent book bans are putting pressure on publishers to avoid diverse stories. ‘You Can’t Trust Us’ is the book I wish I’d read as a teenager exploring her sexuality and gender identity. Following a group of young people grappling with their own identities, this novel addresses the challenges of queer existence whilst ultimately maintaining an uplifting message. Historically, publishing has favoured stories of queer trauma, but young queer folk deserve to see themselves represented in positive narratives. This is especially important in YA books, which often act as a gateway to a lifelong love of reading.

A love letter to my passion for print and design. This photobook is a curated collection of signs that inspire me. Featuring 13 photographs, 4 poems, 3 mixed media pieces, 2 short stories, 2 illustrations

My passion project revolves around the innovation of Low Cost True Haptic Feedback Gloves for Virtual Reality. VR is a space that has been rapidly evolving to new heights each year, where it has begun to transform into a more accessible platform for many. As such, multiple innovations, such as VR Gloves, have flooded the consumer market. Despite this however, the market for VR Gloves is largely comprised of inaccessible, highly overpriced pieces of tech, which don't provide a true haptic experience in VR. My creation will address this very problem. My passion project will revolutionize the way we interact with the world of VR. To get a bit more specific, my glove creation will allow for the full sensation and feedback force of picking up actual objects in VR.

My project is called the Trans Affirming Clothing Drive (aka TACD). TACD is a project seeking to collect secondhand and donated gender-affirming wear, and redistribute it for free to local trans youth who are otherwise unable to access it.TACD is in its early stages, but eventually I’m hoping to create an ongoing community project with room to expand outside of Meanjin. TACD is initially focused on chest binders but will eventually expand into any and all gender-affirming apparel - including for transfems - as we nail down procedures and establish ourselves in the community.This project builds on pre-existing programs, local initiatives, and a community need for free access to a life saving resource that I - as a young trans person - did not have.

My passion project stems from the problem that no matter how many internships, student programs, coffee chats, society events that students do, you’ll never be able to make a fulfilling career decision until you start to listen to yourself. My project combines the power of thought-provoking reflective questions with AI to act as an ‘interactive career journal’. I love this project because I’m currently living the problem and desperately craving its solution. I’ve also had handfuls of ‘career advice coffees’ with first year students who I can see suffering from the same affliction of not knowing how to listen to themselves when making career decisions. Finding dharma (purpose) is less about learning more information, and more about unlearning information. My project aims to do exactly that

I plan to create a vertical farm powered by kinetic energy, where I will apply aspects of aeroponic and hydroponic farming. The garden will include technologies to develop the system that sustains it, but such technologies, will be powered by a bike that will release kinetic energy—designed initially using CAD software to ensure the optimal materials and functionality of the design. As the urbanisation of land and increased housing price has hit Australia, a truck able to have fresh produce in an apartment or smaller living area would be able to help struggling students or families. A vertical farm can quickly produce mass amounts of vegetation, which could sustain consistent and collaborative communitive activities.

As someone who switched to a lacto-vegetarian diet 4 years ago, this change brought a surprising challenge of trying to uncover hidden meat-derived additives in foods. It was tiresome and time-consuming, constantly searching through ingredient lists and querying restaurants. Frustrated, I had an idea for a tech-driven solution. I'm now developing an app that uses a machine-learning model to analyze food products by scanning barcodes, ingredient lists, or even photos of the food/product, the app quickly tells if it meets my lacto-vegetarian (and other) dietary standards. This project isn't just a personal tool, I hope to help make life easier for others facing the same problem.

I am building a smart pet collar with my sister (a vet) to track our dog's biometric data so that we can take better care of it and keep it healthy.

The Black Oceania Collective is an organisation dedicated to the unity and visibility of the Black Diaspora across the Asia-Pacific region. Our goal is to drive further positive representation, recognition and celebration of the growing Black Diaspora, through a compelling digital platform and in-person experiences in both Australia and New Zealand. I love this project because it speaks to solving the isolation that I experienced as a young Black person growing up in Aotearoa New Zealand, yearning for a community that did not exist at the time. But now, over twenty years later, that is no longer the case. As migration continues to grow, there is a growing Black community across Aotearoa, Australia and the rest of the Asia Pacific region - and there is an opportunity for a new type of community to emerge. A community that can hold space for our African and Caribbean roots, traditional ways of working and understanding, languages, foods, and cultural values but also our Western upbringing - our newfound connection to the Pacific, our relationship to indigenous communities, what it means to be Black but not in Africa and (somehow) our universal love of meat pies. This is what we are working towards and hope to achieve.

You wouldn't believe how much finance and tech nerd out in me! Seeing tech transform everything, I just had to think: what about making finances fun and accessible? Enter my friends, totally lost in budgeting battles. Boom! My passion project was born: a financial literacy RPG app!Imagine mastering budgeting through epic battles, unlocking savings rewards as your character levels up! It's not just an app, it's a whole community conquering financial challenges together. This project lets me combine my techie side with my desire to help others, like some kind of financial Robin Hood of the app world. I'm stoked to empower young adults with financial knowledge, and see this game-changing idea become reality!

‘Empty Your Plate’ is a short film that investigates the significance of food and dance as methods of communication and social bonding. Food is embedded in Chinese culture – possessing symbolic significance but the practical purpose of relationship bonding. Sharing, cooking, and serving a meal is an intimate experience - communicating messages we find difficult to verbalise. In dance, the same communicative and social power of food is metaphorically and scientifically physicalised. The film draws parallels between the intimate experience of sharing a meal and the ecstasy of exchanging energy in a street dance cypher, exploring the special bonds we form in these two environments, and questioning what does it mean to really know someone?

Cumulonimbus’ is a transmedia webcomic. A shameless, kitschy and melodramatic adventure through queer dystopia sees a mother and son uncover the mysteries of “Ghoul”: a magical disease plaguing humanity.This love letter to anime, Homestuck, ABC3 and 2000s-flash-games is action-packed, devastating and romantic. It’s a maximalist exploration of queer rage and love using tools of multi-device transmedial delivery to experiment with the ever-evolving form of webcomics.I love the opportunity Cumulonimbus presents: to experiment and evolve my practice as a digital artist and synthesise my skills in digital drawing and in theatremaking. I have been dreaming this world to life since I was 15, now it is ready to rumble onto your mobile device!

I want to create a playing card brand that raises awareness towards mental health issues. This brand will embody mental health awareness across the business model, messaging, and design. The brand will be non-for-profit, and all financial proceeds will be donated to the Blackdog Institute. These playing cards will also be designed and used in a way that encourages open conversations around mental health through symbolic back designs and unique conversation prompts on each card. Being a magician/cardist myself who has had a lot of close friends impacted by mental health issues, this project is the perfect intersection of creativity and social impact. With mental health issues at an all time high, I believe this project is an innovative way to tackle a critical issue.

Essentially, I want to create an indie game built from the ground up as an ecosystem simulation for pre-colonial Aotearoa.I'm fascinated by coding concepts such as the game of life and celluar automata; the idea that complex, organic-feeling behaviour can arise from simple programmatic rules, and am in love with nature-centric videogames such as Rain World, Terra Nil and Spore that really take this to a level that breaks one's human-centric perspective. This is the small stuff that really makes games compelling and immersive, and I also feel there needs to be more games set in historic Aotearoa. My pitch is a game set somewhere between 1000 and 1600; and built around the perspective of a Moa - the giant flightless native NZ birds now long extinct that were a huge part of indigenous Māori survival. I feel that this time period holds a wellspring of awesome storytelling and educational opportunity.

“My Big Fat Wedding” is a play I’m writing inspired by my dad’s kidnapping. It culminates in a Malaysian-Australian wedding where things go wrong. Family secrets spill, the wedding cake topples over, and a kidnapping happens. At the heart of this story lies the idea of ‘saving face’ in Asian culture whereby we keep secrets from family members we love in order to protect them. I love this project because it explores a concept that resonates with many of my Asian-Australian friends. With our family split across the seas, this arrangement is not uncommon in the migrant community. I love that this play gives space to the Asian-Australian community by unpacking and validating our experiences.

After a month or two of working at Trigger bros Frankston I noticed there was plenty of merch for the point Leo location but none for Frankston. Which really weirded me out. Coming from a small town in Canada, Frankston really has it all: The beach, bunch of shops, public art, bars, a train station, and like 3 different places you can go bowling! What's not to like? Well a few things, a decent amount of crime and quite a lot of Crack use in the area. I don't think that should give Frankston a horrible image though. I think Frankston has been very good to me and this project is to show it some love. When talking to a Co-worker I asked why there was no Frankston merch, he response was "People hate Frankston" and I responded with "Well Frankston hates them back" and that is the root idea

Consume' is a 10-minute horror short film about the intersection between queer sexuality and religious trauma, specifically within the Black community. It’s a film about internalised homophobia and how it can distort your perception of self, particularly when you’re in competition with somebody who represents a better version of yourself. For 17-year-old Esther, this person is her twin sister Veronica. It’s a project that I really care about because it reflects my journey as a queer person, and I still believe that discussions around queerness and religion are not as open as they could be. I also believe that queerness is at the core of the horror genre but is hardly ever textually present within its movies.

“Acts of Service” is a supper club that aims to connect people over good food.Think of it like a homely dinner party, where you (the guest!) can make new friends, try new foods, and bond over a meaningful, and delicious, feast.For the host (that’s me!) it’s a chance to experiment with food. Each “Act” (dinner party) serves a different theme, with food cooked up creatively (or locally-sourced from the community) that build up to a story that guests can learn about over the course of the supper.“Acts of Service” gets its name from the type of love language associated with cooking for others. It’s a chance for guests to learn new things about others, for the host to share stories, and all in all, a cosy space for everyone to bond over a wholesome meal.

My passion project is 'Queerly Beloved', an all Queer comedy lineup show. I love it so much because we have created a space where performers don’t have to censor themselves on stage. This is a show where comedians can discuss all aspects of their lives and Queer identities, without worrying that their experiences are going to be the butt of the next straight guy’s joke. I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved so far. On top of this, I'm so proud that we have created a space where Queer audiences can see themselves represented on stage and enjoy stand-up comedy knowing there are safe and surrounded by their own community.

I’d like to design an unmanned aerial vehicle of some sort, ideally a quadcopter. The main reason is because right now, it seems so far above my pay-grade, and I only have an inkling of where to begin.As a kid, I had few opportunities to tinker around—I come from a working-class family, and frankly, jigging together some robot probably won’t help with the rent. I don’t blame anyone, leastways my family (who did, and do, a fantastic job), but now that I have an opportunity, and some baseline knowledge from which to draw, I think that it’s a really cool project, and I think I’d learn a lot and grow through the build process.Finally, as is often the case, I think it’d be super cool to point at a drone and tell my friends, “yeah, I built that.”

My passion project is the creation of a label/ collective/ creative force that champions the work of southeast asian DJs and creatives, with a broader view of promoting the work of culturally diverse people in a field that has traditionally been dominated by people who look, and act, a certain way.Since starting DJing, I've fallen in love with the scene. However, I've also been struck by the limited representation of people who look like me. Southeast Asian people are often stereotyped into the box of academically gifted, with creativity only coming in the form of traditional Bollywood and Indian art. I'm so passionate about spotlighting the work that my peers are doing in breaking this mould. I hope this will inspire people from similar backgrounds, to explore and grow creatively.

My passion project is a tattoo studio/vegetable and herb garden, i want to bring my love of both horticulture and tattooing together to create a space wherein my clients feel safe and comfortable, as all too often the experience of receiving a tattoo can be quite intimidating and scary. As a queer female(?) tattoo artist i see the need for a studio space that is a safe space for all, moving towards ensuring that the tattoo industry in general is more accessible and welcoming to those who are queer, of colour, plus sized, neurodivergent and have disabilities. with the garden aspect, i want to create an outdoor environment that my clients can have a quiet moment to themselves in, or that i can use to grow fruit, vegetables and useful herbs to give back to clients and my local community.

A 2-day event, comprising of street dance battles, art projections, and workshops by local artists - making space to nurture, cultivate, and celebrate art and creativity by gathering the community.

Inspired by Da Vinci, whose contributions to Arts & Science are so profound. I will design and build an ornithopter to show how the intersection of Art & Science is where we as a society should be investing our efforts into.

The miRmaids project is a project combining computational biology, in silico modelling and wet lab (benchwork) experiments to answer questions students have about the possibilities of biotechnology. Currently we are investigating how engineering techniques can be utilised for biological applications. We aim to create synthetic logic circuits which can help us determine cell phenotype (what type of cell it is) and elicit desired responses. Our group is made up of biomedical, medical, engineering and computer science students. We are self taught, passionate and driven to make our ideations into real products that can hopefully add to the current technologies in diagnostics and therapies. Our technology is easily adaptable and the limitations our team faces is funding and support.

I run Endo Articles - an organisation for young people living with endometriosis and other chronic illnesses. Through Endo Articles, I run events which bring young people together in a safe space where they can be understood. Later this year I want to run a workshop about endometriosis/chronic illnesses and intimacy. Sex and chronic illness is seriously brushed under the rug. As a result people who live with physical differences (and/or have experienced medical trauma) can face difficulty when it comes to intimacy. This can seriously impact relationships, self-esteem/confidence and - more broadly - the way people view their disease. This workshop will address the stigma around disability and sex, and aim to help those with chronic illness feel more confident with intimacy.

IT'S LIKE TINDER, BUT WITH MORE JOBS AND LESS KNOBS. When hiring for creative positions, platforms like Seek or Linkedin are not a one size fits all. When the strength of your portfolio determines your hireability, there needs to be a more VISUAL and STREAMLINED way for employers to view prospective applicants.

‘Political Trading Cards’ is the point in which civic education meets games. Think Weet-Bix’s rugby trading cards, but instead of muscly men, it's the people that are vying for our votes in the upcoming NZ 2023 general election. Played like the popular card game Magic the Gathering, my project aims to make politics more accessible, by tapping into what I believe is the universal medium of games. When asking people my age which politicians they know of and what their beliefs are, only a few ever get mentioned. Surely we should know the people who represent us? Even in my own experience, as someone who sees themselves as being relatively engaged in politics. I’ve sent off my voting papers not really knowing the person I gave my vote to.

My passion project is to create a hair claw clip that is comfortable and safe to wear while maintaining the design that people love. When worn, claw clips stick out a lot, making them uncomfortable to wear when your head is resting against something. One woman was in a car accident while wearing her claw clip, and it became lodged in the back of her head. But a lot of people aren’t willing to switch out their claw clip for a different hair accessory, so much so that many choose to remove their cars headrest instead. I love this project because I don’t think that people should feel they have to sacrifice comfort for style or convenience, or worry that they might be impaled by their hair accessory.

SPECK Comics is my primary vessel for supporting the arts community of Aotearoa, focusing on the local comics, animation, and music scene - especially intersections between them all. In 2024, we're wanting to grow beyond our zine roots and experiment with direct intersections between events, music, and media. This will look like a series of underground concerts, bringing together local bands and animators/artists to create a cross between a gig and an arts exhibition. Taking inspiration from larger musical acts like Porter Robinson , we'll pair up musical artists with illustrators and animators to create stage visuals that respond to the music, e.g. short animated loops that change between each song. This will provide spaces for the arts community to further intersect with each-other, bringing the others arts together, and allowing smaller artists the opportunity to experiment with a strange hybrid of a gig, art exhibition, and film festival. It'll be weird, and really cool.

A free, digital community zine for WoC to explore, research, express and share about menstruation and womanhood, and the cultural practices, ways of thinking and rituals that are associated with them. I love that it gets the local community involved, we need grassroots initiatives to bring light to these taboo and repressed subjects. Everyone has a story that needs to be unravelled, especially on menstruation and womanhood. My own story with this has been foundational into becoming who I am now. The focus on WoC is because our stories on menstruation and womanhood is loaded with more nuance, and are not openly platformed due to the inability to capture this complexity. Womanhood and menstruation is not just a physical process, it's a transformative rite of passage that shapes us deeply.

My passion project revolves around creating an exhibition that showcases artwork made from biomaterials like mycelium, bacteria, and yeast, all powered by industrial and domestic waste streams. What I love about this project is how it brings together multiple creatives from different fields, transforming them into alchemists, scientists, and social entrepreneurs. It explores the profound potential of materials to connect communities, exchange knowledge and ideas, and promote sustainability. This project holds significant importance as it challenges the way we perceive disposable products and materials. By redesigning them to disappear and leave no trace, we are challenging viewers/consumers to start a conversation about aesthetic awareness and environmental sensibility.

My passion project, is to develop a solution to help the *self-aware* guys and gals out there, who like myself, are looking for something a little more than a bottle of wine and a kilo of chocolate to get us through great heartbreak. Based on market research and validation I’ve been conducting, I’m going to develop a curated guide of the best break up content to help you through each step of your break up journey. The meaty part of this passion project is the second component, an AI chatbot that is there to keep you company, answer your questions and most importantly, be there for you to talk to, instead of your ex. I love this project because I am really eager to dive into the world of AI, and I'm still mending from heart smashing break up, so this is a great way to channel my energy!

Painting as a medium to tell stories while making sense of the gift of being alive is a passion I've always enjoyed. Since November, 2022 I have been working on a passion project documenting a recent trip to Iceland. The project centres around the creation of miniature oil paintings, recreating moments of beauty and capturing vast scenes through intimate windows of experience. This has been an exciting project because, as a portrait artist, it has been my first experience painting landscape on a large scale. I am exploring the psychological dimension to landscape, using the genre as another medium to explore the same themes of existence and ephemerality seen in my portraits. The goal is to publicly exhibit the series when the project is complete.

Time Twist asks: how would people from the past feel about our modern world? It's a history podcast with a twist. I love the project because it's a fun and engaging format for the audience. It's also a way of educating audiences on the factors and attitudes that have shaped our modern world. The project provides an opportunity for people to learn, reconsider what they thought about history, and prompt critical discussions on the implications of historical understandings of the past on the present.

My project is a production of Georg Kaiser’s ‘From Morning to Midnight’. It tells a story of working a dead end job when the protagonist discovers they are rich, then explore society as a rich person! I am passionate about this project on a social level. As a young person living through a cost-of-living crisis, this project feels particularly pertinent asking questions of fulfilment and survival.The play is written in a style I had not encountered before, an expressionist play. I am passionate about this piece as I have never experienced anything like it. It is a chance for artists and audiences to explore a unique text telling a totally relevant story. I believe in the power of the theatre to change how people see the world, even for a moment, and this story has the power to do that.

Introducing CutCast! Join me as I travel to my clients and dive into their entrepreneurial journeys and various engaging topics. Get inspired by real stories from real people on the move!

Immobility among PwD puts them at risk of developing pressure sores. I aim to create a lateral rotation system that can be integrated into existing bed mattresses. In addition, iterations will implement sensors for pressure mapping. During the season this evolved into a smart bedsheet that tracks temperature and pressure for aged care residents to track their sleep health.

My project is a theatre company called Springfield Majesty Productions. It seeks to find new works from unexplored voices and take them to the stage. The name Springfield Majesty is an odd one but that holds a fun meaning. ‘Springfield’ is one of the most common place names in the world. It’s for this reason that’s where the Simpsons live, so the show isn’t confined to a certain state. Majesty relates to royalty and when you put the two together… It basically means being the most important in a very popular place. It’s a joke because I’m very clearly not the best theatre company in NSW, doubtfully I even make the top 1000. I’m going to get there. Springfield Majesty Theatre accepts the unseen, the unheard and most importantly, the weird.

“AREA 51: A PHOTOSHOOT” amplifies and celebrates the voices and lived experiences of people of colour in my community. This photographic series dramatises how our features are viewed as foreign and otherworldly, but still beautiful. Ultimately, this project will celebrate the ethereal nature of people of colour.Within this photoshoot, two models of colour take on the role of powerful extraterrestrial beings. Back-lighting will create an otherworldly atmosphere, with the models dressed in traditional or cultural clothing that incorporates elements of science fiction. As a person of colour, I have struggled with the perception of beauty my whole life. I hope this piece encourages young people of colour to see themselves as beautiful and powerful.

I'm writing a high fantasy novel inspired by the works of Leigh Bardugo (Shadow & Bone) set in a mythical south-east asian inspired universe. It's got queer and diverse Asian representation and celebrates the culture that I grew up with and am so proud of. From sticky rice to buffalo carriages to epic creatures like the Naga. I wanted to write a book that I wish I had growing up, with lead characters that I could see myself as. I think that the fantasy genre is shockingly lacking in diverse female and queer writers and especially ethnically diverse works. My biggest personal mantra is be the change that you want to see; I wanted to write a novel without any sexual violence but still has hardship, emotional depth and complexity and gripping character journeys to show authors that you can.