1:15pm: After a quick lunch, I head to the VCA (Victorian College of the Arts) to meet with our gallery robotics team about the current interactive swarm robotics installation we are running. We discuss the current state of the robots, maintenance and repair schedule, as well as the human survey results.

3pm: Still at the VCA, I provide a demonstration to the visiting National Gallery of Victoria curators showcasing the newest robotic installation and discussing their thoughts. The installation is interdisciplinary – a combination of theatre, arts, robotics and archaeology – so people are interested in how the concept emerged and evolved, and in getting under the hood.

Most people don’t interact directly with cutting-edge robotics, so exhibits like this encourage people to learn more about technology. It makes it approachable, and hopefully gets people a bit more excited about STEM innovation. Maybe it even excites the next generation of engineers and scientists.

4pm: After jointly meeting with the gallery’s artist and robotics teams to discuss scaling up the number of humans and robots in the gallery space, I head back to my University of Melbourne office. I need to catch up on student emails and provide directions and approvals to students in my role as the Mechatronics Program Coordinator.

9pm: We’re a global network of people, so I often have international calls, although the UK time zone is usually the hardest for Australia. Tonight is a quick call with collaborators at the University of Birmingham to discuss work on wide-area mapping with aerial swarms. In this particular collaboration we have two PhDs involved, so these calls will happen at least once a week.