In this month’s newsletter, we spotlight smart sensing breakthroughs spanning organic semiconductor sensors, koala conservation and disaster resilience, alongside innovative UNSW research focused on human sensory experience.

A study by UNSW researcher Dr Fatemeh Aminpour shows how crowded, noisy and visually complex city spaces can make everyday journeys exhausting for neurodivergent people. She proposes a crowdsourced sensory map, combining sensors that measure noise, light and crowding with lived-experience data, to help cities identify problem areas and design more inclusive public spaces.

University of Sydney researchers led by Professor Mathew Crowther have used hyperspectral airborne imagery and machine learning to identify eucalyptus tree species and leaf nutrition favoured by koalas, enabling large-scale mapping of high-quality habitats. The approach could transform conservation.

Dr Jessie Posar is a Research Fellow in the School of Physics at the University of Wollongong, whose research advances next-generation organic semiconductor sensors, with applications across nuclear, bioelectronic and advanced materials sensing.

VIDEO: Dr Kai Wu from the University of Technology Sydney is leading a project that turns everyday mobile signals into real-time rainfall intelligence. The project was developed through the Connectivity Innovation Network’s Sensing for Disasters program with the NSSN.

Discover our achievements, partnerships and impact over the past year.

Dr Kai Wu is a Senior Lecturer at UTS and ARC Industry Fellow advancing joint communications and radio sensing (JCAS), developing wireless systems that can sense and interpret the environment to deliver real-time insights that strengthen safety, resilience and emergency response.

This month’s newsletter shares our latest Annual Report, more highlights from the 4th Ageing Forum, and stories on Ginigai’s fire sensor and Dr Kai Wu’s wireless sensing research.

Lucy Brogden AM, Director at Australian Unity, has urged a fundamental rethink of how Australia approaches ageing, care and technology, warning at the NSSN’s 4th Ageing Forum that the current system remains fragmented and out of step with the realities of older Australians and their families.

Australia is making strong progress toward a digitally connected healthcare system, with the Australian Digital Health Agency’s Sandra Cook telling the NSSN’s 4th Ageing Forum the five-year National Digital Health Strategy aims to link data across the entire health-care ecosystem.

The CEO of Ginigai has shared how an innovative UNSW-born fire detection sensor has grown into a rapidly commercialising safety-technology startup whose system is now poised to be used on top shipping vessels.

Australia is on the brink of a care crisis, with governments and communities unprepared for the surge in Australians aged over 80 who need aged care in the coming decade, health services academic and clinician Professor Kathy Eagar AM has told the NSSN’s 4th Ageing Forum.