AI & Edge Computing Meetup

Hear 3 expert talks, take the mic for an AI/hardware demo or announcement, and connect over pizza & drinks.

** Important: Please grab your free Eventbrite ticket here to attend. Registration is required, and tickets will be checked at the door. **

A special thanks to RMIT University for hosting us, in collaboration with the RMIT Engineers Australia Student Society (REASS) & RMIT Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering (REECE) – student-run clubs enriching the student experience through social events, professional development, and industry networking that connects engineering students with peers and professionals.

Pizza and drinks for this session are kindly provided by Entech Electronics – a leading Australian owned contract manufacturer specialising in electronic products, complex sub-assemblies, printed circuit boards & HMI solutions, supporting innovation across IoT, medical, aerospace, and more.

Take the mic at our Community Open Mic! Bring your demo, prototype, or announcement – whether it's AI, hardware, or embedded systems. All welcome.

Agenda:

6:00 - 6:30 pm | Check-in, Pizza & Networking
Please have your Eventbrite ticket ready at check-in – then enjoy pizza, drinks, and time to connect with other attendees.

6:30 - 6:35 pm | Welcome & Intro
Hear a short welcome from the event hosts.

6:35 - 7:00 pm | Talk 1 – When Generative AI Meets the Edge: Learning from Real-World Interactions

• Overview: As Generative AI moves from the cloud to edge devices, new challenges emerge in achieving efficiency, adaptability, and autonomy. This talk explores how learning from real-world interactions may be realised on edge devices, highlighting early work on interactive edge agents, memory-augmented architectures, and adaptive reasoning systems running on NVIDIA Jetson platforms.
• Speaker: A/Prof. Wei Peng, Principal Research Fellow in Artificial Intelligence, RMIT University
  A/Prof. Wei Peng 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, and NeurIPS, and holds multiple patents.

7:00 - 7:25 pm | Talk 2 – Design-led Product Development

• Overview: New products are ever more complex and integrated. From AI to IoT and ever-changing core technologies, new product development is more challenging than ever. This talk explores how taking a design-led approach to product development can address technical risk and product uncertainty faster and lead to more success in commercialising new products.
• Speaker: Blake Fuller, Head of Electronics + Firmware, Capgemini Engineering
  Blake Fuller leads electronics hardware and firmware development at Capgemini Australia. Blake is responsible for a team of 20+ engineers implementing complex technical solutions across medical, consumer, and industrial products. His experience spans many facets of product development, including ASICs packaging for cochlear implants, life-sustaining heart pumps, and design authority for a 1U CubeSat.

7:25 - 7:50 pm | Talk 3 – Autonomous Visual Systems with Rust

• Overview: This talk explores how Arkeus leverages Rust to coordinate multiple AI models and classical algorithms for autonomous vision systems at the edge. We'll discuss why Rust's memory safety, zero-cost abstractions, and predictable performance make it ideal for orchestrating computer vision, control systems, and sensor fusion pipelines under strict resource constraints.
• Speaker: Geoffrey Pascoe, Head of Software, Arkeus
  Dr Geoffrey Pascoe leads teams building full-stack autonomous vision systems at Arkeus. Geoffrey previously led engineering teams at See-Mode Technologies and Meta's Reality Labs Research, and completed his PhD at the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. His research publications include significant contributions to LiDAR localisation, visual SLAM, and computer vision for autonomous vehicles.

7:50 - 8:00 pm | Community Open Mic
Take the mic and share with the group - from hardware demos and embedded prototypes to quick AI at the edge announcements, like project showcases, calls for collaboration, and more.

Wrap-up & Social
Any further Q&As and chats will happen here.

Last reminder: Please make sure to register on Eventbrite for your free ticket – it's required for entry.