Defence Trailblazer’s impact will be on full display at the Australian Defence Science, Technology and Research (ADSTAR) 2026 summit, highlighting the significant impact of the Australian Government’s investment in sovereign defence capability, innovation, commercialisation and workforce development.
Supported by the Department of Education, Defence Trailblazer was established as a partnership between Adelaide University and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) to accelerate the translation of research into Defence capability, strengthen industry-academia collaboration and build Australia’s future defence workforce.
More than 20 researchers, entrepreneurs and industry partners connected through Defence Trailblazer will contribute to sessions spanning artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, cyber security, advanced sensing, decision support, space technologies, workforce development and commercialisation pathways.
A strong presence across the ADSTAR summit
Defence Trailblazer-linked speakers will feature throughout the conference, including:
- Dr Sanjay Mazumdar, Defence Trailblazer: Innovating the Future of Defence Science and Technology
- Dr Margaret Law, Defence Trailblazer: From Laboratory to Factory: Taking Research to Scale
- Richard Williamson, Defence Trailblazer: Asymmetric Advantage Hidden in Plain Sight: The Building Blocks to Establish Trusted IS&T Projects Between Industry and Universities (e-poster)
- Liz Kobold, Defence Trailblazer: Network Entrepreneurs in the Defence Innovation Ecosystem (e-poster)
- Dr Sonja Frölich, Adelaide University and DefenSight
- Dr Oleksandra Molloy, UNSW Canberra
- Professor Claudia Szabo, Adelaide University
Dr Nigel McGinty, DSTG, Dr Sanjay Mazumdar, Defence Trailblazer, Mike Dodd, U.S. Department of War and Rae Johnston, ADSTAR Summit MC.
Transforming research into operational advantage: DEWC Services, Cyndr and AICRAFT collaborations
Industry partners and university collaborators will demonstrate how they are working together to solve Defence challenges and enhance sovereign capabilities, highlighting the value of collaboration to advance strategically important technologies.
DEWC Services and Adelaide University’s AI-enabled decision-support systems, a collaboration supported by Defence Trailblazer, will feature in ADSTAR’s Future Foresight stream. DEWC Services’ Troy Boswell will present Rapid Operations Research: Compressing the Analytical Cycle, which aims to dramatically reduce the time between problem identification and actionable insight for Defence users.
Rather than replacing analysts, the Rapid Operations Research platform uses human-machine teaming to augment existing analytical approaches. It seeks to improve reuse of analytical workflows and provide decision-makers with timely, evidence-based insights in increasingly complex operational environments.
Cyndr co-founder Tom Marchant and UNSW researcher Aarya Bodhankar will showcase Didact: A Cross-Domain Capability Discovery System for Defence in the Integrated Ecosystem e-Poster session.
Developed for Defence users, Didact synthesises capability-relevant information that is often dispersed across disparate documents and datasets. Its sophisticated retrieval and reasoning pipeline converts complex natural-language questions into transparent, evidence-backed answers and defensible briefings, with the potential to improve the speed and transparency of decision pathways.
Defence Trailblazer’s impact in Defence space technologies will also be highlighted in a session by Dr Tony Scoleri from AICRAFT: Pioneering Complete Synthetic Aperture Radar Processing on Satellites, a platform that has the potential to enable near real-time intelligence generation directly in orbit.
Equipping innovators to communicate value
ADSTAR attendees will also gain insight into the skills and capabilities required to successfully translate innovation into Defence capabilities. Defence Trailblazer’s innovation managers Liz Kobold and Paul Daly will lead the workshop Articulating the People-Focused Defence Value Proposition.
The workshop addresses a common challenge faced by researchers, innovators and technology developers: how to communicate their technology’s value for users. Participants will learn practical approaches for creating compelling value propositions that improves their potential for Defence adoption.
ADSTAR will also showcase the outcomes of Defence Trailblazer’s entrepreneurship and workforce development activities. Visitors to the Adelaide University exhibition booth will have the opportunity to meet university-industry startups and SMEs such as DefenSight.
Founded by Adelaide University academic Dr Sonja Frölich, DefenSight is an AI-guided microscopy technology with applications in biosecurity preparedness and national security.
With support from Defence Trailblazer’s innovation programs, DefenSight has secured its first commercial contract and continues to grow as an example of how Australian research can be translated into commercially viable sovereign capability.
Dr Sonja Frölich, DefenSight and Adelaide University and Sebastien Herbert, Adelaide University
Demonstrating the value of Department of Education investment
The projects featured at ADSTAR 2026 provide a powerful illustration of the impact that Defence Trailblazer has achieved.
“Defence Trailblazer is demonstrating how a nationally coordinated innovation ecosystem can deliver impact across every stage of the capability lifecycle,” said Dr Sanjay Mazumdar, Executive Director of Defence Trailblazer.
For a snapshot of Defence Trailblazer’s achievements in uplifting national security, developing disruptive new technologies and upskilling the current and future defence industry workforce, watch:
Defence Trailblazer industry partners and associates at ADSTAR
- Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML)
- The Institute for Photonics, Advanced Sensing and Quantum Technologies (IPAS-QT)
- Acacia Systems
- AICRAFT
- Cleard Life Vetting
- Cyndr
- CSIRO
- DEWC Services
- DefenSight
- DTEX Systems
- Fivecast
- GuardWare Australia
- Lockheed Martin Australia
- Northrop Grumman Australia
- PANOP (ASCA Pitch Day presenter)
- Priori Analytica
- QuantX Labs
- Saab Australia
- SmartSat CRC
- Stratoship (ASCA Pitch Day presenter)
About the Defence Trailblazer: Defence Trailblazer is a collaborative partnership between Adelaide University and UNSW supported by the Department of Education and over 200 industry partners and associates. Defence Trailblazer is dedicated to advancing Australia’s defence capabilities through innovative research and strategic partnerships. By collaborating with industry, academia, and Defence (particularly DSTG, VCDF Group, CASG and the Service Innovation Units), we aim to develop and commercialise breakthrough technologies that address critical national security challenges.
Contact Information: For media inquiries, please contact Dr Sanjay Mazumdar, Executive Director smazumdar@dtb.solutions
About the Trailblazer Universities Program: The Australian Government is building new research capabilities, driving commercialisation outcomes and investing in new industry engagement opportunities through the $370.3 million Trailblazer Universities Program (2022–2023 to 2025–2026). Through this initiative, the government is building additional capacity to focus on the problems that matter to the nation by driving research excellence and real-world impact.
