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Digital View Professor | Head of Centre for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing | Edith Cowan University Every major advancement in modern engineering begins long before a product reaches the factory floor. Whether it is an aircraft designed to withstand extreme environments, a medical implant engineered to improve quality of life, or an energy system built for greater efficiency and sustainability, its success depends on one fundamental element: the material from which it is made. Manufacturing transforms ideas into reality, but materials science determines what those ideas can ultimate achieve. As industries move toward lighter structures, stronger components, smarter manufacturing systems, and more sustainable manufacturing methods, the future of industrial innovation is increasingly being shaped at the intersection of advanced materials, intelligent manufacturing, and scientific discovery. Few individuals have dedicated their careers to advancing this intersection as comprehensively as Professor Laichang Zhang. Over the course of his career, he has established himself as a leading researcher in advanced materials and manufacturing, helping bridge the gap between scientific exploration and practical industrial application. His work spans high performance metallic materials, additive manufacturing, process optimisation, and advanced manufacturing technologies that enable industries to produce components with greater precision, reliability, and sustainability. Rather than treating research as an endpoint, Professor Zhang has consistently focused on translating scientific breakthroughs into practical solutions for real world manufacturing challenges. Today, as Head of the Centre for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing at Edith Cowan University, Professor Zhang leads research that brings together materials science, engineering capability, and industry collaboration. His work address challenges across sectors, such as aerospace, transportation, healthcare, energy and advanced manufacturing, with different needs but a shared demand for materials and manufacturing processes that are high-performing, reliable, scalable, and commercially viable. At the heart of his research philosophy is a clear belief: innovation creates meaningful impact only when it can move confidently from laboratory discovery to industrial implementation. Where Industrial Innovation Truly Begins Professor Zhang’s interest in materials science was shaped by a simple yet profound observation. Behind every engineering achievement lies a material whose properties determine how safely, efficiently, and reliably a product performs throughout its lifetime. Improvements in strength, durability, corrosion resistance, thermal stability, or biological compatibility often become the foundation upon which entirely new technologies are built. This understanding inspired him to pursue research into advanced metallic materials and manufacturing processes capable of unlocking new possibilities across multiple industries. Yet his work has always extended beyond discovering new materials. Early in his research career, he recognised that even the most promising material has limited value unless it can be manufactured consistently, qualified under real operating conditions, and produced at the scale required by industry. This realisation shaped a philosophy that continues to guide his research today. Scientific excellence and industrial practicality should not exist as separate objectives; they must evolve together. That mindset has also strengthened his commitment to collaboration. By working closely with students, researchers, engineers, and industry partners, Professor Zhang has helped to build an environment where scientific knowledge can be translated into practical manufacturing capability. For him, the future of manufacturing will not be defined by isolated breakthroughs, but by the ability to integrate research, engineering, and industrial application into solutions that deliver measurable value. It is this combination of scientific curiosity, engineering discipline, and real world relevance that continues to shape his contribution to the global manufacturing landscape. Transforming Scientific Discovery into Industrial Reality For Professor Laichang Zhang, scientific discovery achieves its greatest significance when it creates measurable value beyond the laboratory. While research remains the foundation of technological progress, he believes innovation is truly successful only when it can be translated into reliable, scalable, and economically viable manufacturing solutions. Throughout his career, this conviction has shaped not only the direction of his research but also the way he approaches collaboration with industry. Every promising material, no matter how advanced its properties in the laboratory, it must ultimately prove its performance under real operating conditions, integrate into existing manufacturing systems, satisfy regulatory and certification requirements, and demonstrate long-term reliability before it can create meaningful industrial impact. Bridging the gap between scientific discovery and industrial implementation is often the most demanding stage of the innovation journey. It is where promising ideas are tested against the realities of large scale production, commercial viability, and long term performance.  Materials that perform exceptionally well in controlled experiments may behave differently when production scales increase or manufacturing environments become more complex. Manufacturers must evaluate process stability, raw material availability, quality assurance, certification requirements, supply chain resilience, and long-term service performance alongside technical capability. Rather than treating these considerations as obstacles, Professor Zhang views them as essential elements of responsible engineering. From the earliest stages of research, his team considers manufacturability, defect control, scalability, and qualification alongside material performance, ensuring that scientific advances remain closely aligned with practical industrial needs. A significant part of this work has focused on additive manufacturing, which Professor Zhang regards as one of the most transformative developments in modern manufacturing. Although additive manufacturing is widely recognised for its capability of producing complex geometries, he believes its true potential extends much further. It endows engineers with unprecedented control over material composition, microstructure, and component performance, creating opportunities to develop functionally graded materials, multimaterial components, and highly specialised products that would be extremely difficult to manufacture using conventional techniques. More importantly, it enables materials design and manufacturing to evolve together rather than as separate stages of development, fundamentally changing how engineers approach product innovation. At the same time, Professor Zhang emphasises that advanced manufacturing cannot evolve through materials science alone. The future lies in the convergence of digital technologies, automation, artificial intelligence, and engineering expertise. Intelligent data analytics, digital twins, and real-time process monitoring are facilitating manufacturers to move beyond traditional quality inspection toward continuous process optimisation. These tools allow defects to be detected earlier while improving productivity, consistency, and resource efficiency. Yet, Professor Zhang remains cautious about relying solely on digital capability. Artificial intelligence can accelerate discovery and optimise

Digital Version There are moments in the evolution of every profession when incremental improvement is no longer enough. Moments when the pace of change becomes so profound that the profession must pause, reflect, and ask a more fundamental question: What should we become next? For procurement, that moment is now. Across the world, organizations are operating in an environment defined by disruption, complexity, and unprecedented interconnectedness. Geopolitical uncertainty, economic volatility, technological acceleration, sustainability expectations, and evolving stakeholder demands have reshaped the landscape in which businesses operate. Supply chains have become more intricate, risks more dynamic, and opportunities more expansive. In this environment, procurement has emerged from the background and stepped firmly into the strategic spotlight. Few leaders have had a clearer view of this transformation than Ben Farrell, Chief Executive Officer of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS). With a leadership journey spanning military procurement, commercial leadership, organizational transformation, and global professional development, Farrell has spent decades observing how organizations create value, navigate uncertainty, and build lasting success. Those experiences have shaped a perspective that extends far beyond procurement itself. Today, as CEO of the world’s largest professional body serving procurement and supply professionals, Farrell is helping lead one of the most important conversations taking place in global business. Through CIPS and its worldwide community, he is challenging traditional assumptions about procurement, exploring what leadership will look like in the future, and helping define the role procurement professionals will play in shaping organizations, economies, and societies. For Farrell, the future of procurement is not simply about improving processes or adopting new technologies. It is about expanding influence, creating value, and embracing a broader purpose. A Leadership Journey Built on Curiosity and Perspective Great leadership is rarely formed by a single experience. More often, it is shaped by a lifetime of learning, observation, and an openness to new perspectives. Throughout his career, Farrell has had the opportunity to serve in military procurement, lead within commercial environments, and engage with professionals, academics, policymakers, and business leaders across the globe. Those experiences have provided him with a unique vantage point from which to observe both the evolution of procurement and the broader forces reshaping organizations worldwide. One lesson has remained constant throughout that journey: leadership is a discipline that never stops evolving. Farrell often reflects on one of the earliest lessons he learned in the Army—study leaders and study leadership. That curiosity has remained with him throughout his professional life and continues to influence how he views the future. Rather than focusing solely on procurement expertise, he has developed a broader understanding of how leadership, strategy, technology, resilience, and human behavior intersect. This perspective has led him to a powerful conclusion. Procurement is entering a defining period of transformation. What was once regarded as a function focused primarily on sourcing, contracts, and cost management is rapidly becoming something far more influential. The profession is evolving into a discipline that sits at the crossroads of strategy, sustainability, technology, risk management, innovation, and enterprise performance. For Farrell, this transformation represents one of the most exciting opportunities in modern business. The Rise of Procurement as a Strategic Force For decades, procurement’s success was largely measured through savings, efficiency, and supplier management. While those responsibilities remain important, they no longer define the profession. Farrell believes procurement has reached a point where its influence extends well beyond commercial transactions. Today’s procurement leaders are increasingly involved in shaping organizational strategy, strengthening resilience, driving innovation, supporting sustainability goals, and managing complex networks of stakeholders. The role has evolved because the world itself has evolved. Organizations now operate within highly interconnected ecosystems where suppliers, partners, customers, regulators, governments, and communities are all connected in ways that were unimaginable just a generation ago. Procurement professionals often sit at the center of these networks, uniquely positioned to connect different parts of the enterprise and unlock opportunities that others may not see. As Farrell explains, the decisions made by procurement leaders today can influence outcomes not only for businesses but also for governments and entire nations. That reality demands a new type of leadership—one that combines commercial excellence with strategic thinking, technological fluency, sustainability awareness, and the ability to influence decisions at the highest levels of an organization. The future Chief Procurement Officer, in Farrell’s view, will not simply manage supply chains. They will help shape the future direction of the organizations they serve. Leading Through Uncertainty If there is one characteristic Farrell believes will define successful leaders in the years ahead, it is the ability to navigate uncertainty. For much of modern business history, leadership was often associated with certainty. Leaders were expected to have answers, provide direction, and create stability. Yet the realities of today’s world demand something different. Economic volatility, geopolitical disruption, technological transformation, climate challenges, and shifting societal expectations have created an environment where uncertainty is no longer occasional—it is constant. In such a world, leadership is less about knowing every answer and more about helping others move forward despite ambiguity. Farrell believes procurement leaders are uniquely equipped for this challenge. Every day, procurement professionals balance competing priorities, manage complex stakeholder relationships, and make decisions in environments where information is often incomplete. They work across organizational boundaries, anticipate risks, and identify opportunities amid uncertainty. The most effective leaders are not those who eliminate uncertainty; they are those who create clarity for others while operating within it themselves. They connect seemingly unrelated developments, recognize emerging patterns, and help organizations respond proactively rather than reactively. In an increasingly complex world, this ability has become one of the most valuable leadership capabilities of all. Trust: The Ultimate Strategic Enabler While technology continues to transform business at an extraordinary pace, Farrell believes the most important leadership principle remains unchanged. Trust. “Trust is the ultimate strategic enabler.” This belief sits at the heart of Farrell’s leadership philosophy and has been reinforced throughout his experiences in both military and business environments. Again and again, he has seen that high-performing teams, successful organizations, and

Digital Version In financial services, some of the most important successes are the ones people never notice. A salary arrives on time. A mortgage payment clears without delay. A business settles an international transaction without interruption. A customer travelling overseas pays for a service without giving a second thought to whether the payment will go through. These moments may seem routine, but they rely on a vast and complex infrastructure operating behind the scenes. When everything works as expected, it is almost invisible. When it fails, the consequences can be immediate and far-reaching. For Mike Walters, CEO of Form3, this reality has shaped both his leadership philosophy and the company’s mission. While much of the fintech industry is focused on disruption, innovation, and speed, Mike believes that long-term success begins with something more fundamental: trust. Trust between businesses and customers. Trust between partners and providers. Trust between regulators and institutions. Trust between leaders and their teams. It is a concept that appears throughout every aspect of financial services, and one that Mike believes has become increasingly important as the industry undergoes rapid technological transformation. New technologies may create opportunities, but unless people trust the systems behind them, those opportunities rarely achieve their full potential. This perspective has guided Form3’s growth from its earliest days. As financial institutions around the world seek to modernise ageing payments infrastructure, the company has built its reputation on helping banks and fintechs adopt modern, cloud-native technology without compromising resilience, security, or operational confidence. For Mike, innovation and trust are not competing priorities. They are inseparable. Why Trust Remains the Most Valuable Currency Throughout his leadership journey, trust has remained one of Mike’s most important guiding principles. In an industry where organisations manage critical financial transactions every second of every day, trust cannot be treated as an abstract concept. It directly influences how businesses operate, how customers engage with services, and how institutions manage risk. Trust takes time to build and only moments to lose. That reality shapes how Mike approaches leadership. While many discussions around growth focus on speed, scale, and expansion, he believes successful organisations must also create confidence among customers, employees, regulators, investors, and partners. Growth without confidence is difficult to sustain. Innovation without credibility rarely succeeds. At Form3, trust begins internally. Rather than attempting to control every decision, Mike focuses on creating an environment where specialists can excel. Payments is an exceptionally technical field requiring deep expertise and operational understanding. Leadership, in his view, is often less about directing every outcome and more about creating the conditions that allow talented people to apply their knowledge effectively. This philosophy has influenced the way Form3 has been built. Expertise is valued. Ownership is encouraged. Teams are trusted to solve complex problems and take responsibility for outcomes. Alongside trust sits another principle that Mike considers equally important: consistency. Markets evolve. Economic conditions change. Technology advances rapidly. Yet organisations still require a clear understanding of what they stand for. At Form3, that principle is simple but powerful: payments cannot fail. While the statement sounds straightforward, the consequences behind it are significant. Missed salary payments, delayed mortgage transfers, or the inability to access money while travelling can have a meaningful impact on people’s lives. These are not merely technical issues. They are real-world problems affecting real people. That understanding has helped create a culture where resilience is not treated as a compliance exercise. It is embedded into every decision the company makes. Seeing Payments Through a Different Lens Before founding Form3, Mike spent years working within financial services and witnessed firsthand the challenges banks faced when attempting to modernise payments infrastructure. Many institutions found themselves trapped between expensive choices. They could attempt to build systems themselves, often requiring significant investment and complexity, or they could rely on collections of legacy software that had evolved over decades and become increasingly difficult to manage. Neither approach felt sustainable. At the same time, the founding team recognised a different trend emerging outside the financial sector. Industries such as streaming and e-commerce were demonstrating how cloud-native technologies could deliver platforms that operated continuously while supporting enormous scale and resilience. These examples prompted a broader conversation about why payments infrastructure could not evolve in the same direction and whether financial services could benefit from adopting the same architectural principles. Those discussions became one of the foundations upon which Form3 was built. From the beginning, the founding team believed technology should never exist simply for its own sake. Instead, it should help shape business strategy, enabling financial institutions to respond more intelligently to changing customer expectations, evolving regulation and new commercial opportunities. Rather than treating payments as a collection of disconnected systems, the vision was to create a resilient cloud native platform that would allow technology and business strategy to evolve together. That philosophy continues to define Form3’s platform-first approach today. For Mike, building a platform-first business was never simply an engineering decision. It reflected a broader belief that technology should actively shape how organisations compete, innovate, and grow, rather than being introduced later to support decisions that had already been made. By aligning technology with commercial strategy from the outset, Form3 built an infrastructure capable of evolving alongside customer needs, regulatory change, and the wider payments ecosystem. The vision challenged conventional thinking at the time. Public cloud infrastructure was still viewed with scepticism in many financial circles. Convincing major financial institutions to trust cloud-native technology for mission-critical payments required more than technical expertise. It required belief, persistence, and evidence. For Mike, those early experiences reinforced a lesson that continues to influence his leadership today: meaningful change often begins long before consensus exists. Conviction Before Consensus One of the defining experiences of Mike’s career came during the early years of Form3, when cloud-native payments infrastructure remained an unfamiliar concept for many financial institutions. Today, cloud adoption is widely accepted across financial services. At the time, however, asking major banks to trust public cloud infrastructure for critical payment operations was considered ambitious by many observers.

Digital Version As vehicles become increasingly intelligent, much of the automotive industry’s attention is focused on what technology can do next. Artificial intelligence is advancing at an extraordinary pace. Autonomous systems continue to evolve. Digital ecosystems are becoming more sophisticated with every product generation. Yet for Felice Fortino, Award-Winning Automotive UX/HMI Designer and Interaction Prototyper, the more important question is not what technology can do. It is what people will need from it. That perspective has shaped his approach throughout a career spanning concept vehicles, production HMI systems, interaction prototyping, and connected mobility experiences. While the industry often celebrates technological breakthroughs, Felice has consistently focused on understanding how those advancements fit into real human behavior. His work is grounded in the belief that innovation becomes meaningful only when it improves people’s experiences in ways that feel natural, intuitive, and valuable. It is a philosophy that feels particularly relevant today. The automotive industry is navigating one of the most significant transitions in its history. Vehicles are evolving from machines primarily defined by engineering and mechanical performance into intelligent environments shaped by software, connectivity, and digital interaction. Consumers increasingly evaluate vehicles not only by how they drive but by how they communicate, how they adapt, and how seamlessly they integrate into daily life. As this transformation continues, user experience has become one of the most influential factors shaping the future of mobility. For Felice, however, the objective extends far beyond creating attractive interfaces or introducing new digital capabilities. The real challenge lies in designing experiences that people can trust, understand, and genuinely benefit from. Why Automotive UX Captured His Attention What has always fascinated Felice about automotive UX is the unique relationship between the digital and physical worlds. Unlike many other areas of user experience design, automotive experiences exist within environments where interactions carry immediate real-world consequences. Every decision affects how people move, how they perceive information, and ultimately how safely they navigate the world around them. This creates a level of responsibility that makes automotive UX fundamentally different from designing traditional digital products. At the same time, it is precisely this complexity that makes the discipline so compelling. Throughout his career, Felice has been drawn to the challenge of balancing physical and digital experiences in ways that feel complementary rather than competitive. While many discussions within the industry frame physical controls and digital interfaces as opposing philosophies, he sees them as equally valuable tools that serve different purposes. Physical controls provide reassurance, tactile feedback, and familiarity. They allow users to interact with systems confidently and efficiently. Digital interfaces, meanwhile, offer flexibility, adaptability, and opportunities for personalization that would be impossible through purely physical interactions. The future, in Felice’s view, does not belong to one approach or the other. It belongs to thoughtful integration. This perspective reflects a broader principle that has shaped his work. Technology should never exist simply because it can. It should exist because it improves an experience. Every design decision must ultimately answer a simple question: does this make life better for the person using it? When the Vehicle Becomes an Experience The role of UX within the automotive industry has changed dramatically over the past decade. What was once considered a supporting function has become a defining component of vehicle development. Major launches increasingly highlight digital experiences alongside performance specifications, reflecting a growing recognition that user experience is now central to how people evaluate products. Felice sees this evolution as both necessary and inevitable. As connected technologies continue to mature and autonomous systems become more capable, designers are being asked to rethink what mobility actually means. Historically, automotive experiences were built around a straightforward assumption: one person sits behind the wheel and actively controls the vehicle. That assumption is beginning to change. One of the most significant implications of autonomous driving is not simply the technology itself but the shift in human roles it creates. The driver gradually becomes a passenger. While discussions often focus on technical capability, Felice believes the more interesting questions concern how experiences change once driving is no longer the primary activity. Trust is the first challenge. Before users can comfortably rely on autonomous systems, they must understand them and feel confident in their decisions. Yet trust is only the beginning. As autonomy advances, vehicles become environments where people may work, communicate, relax, consume content, or engage with services during travel. Multiple occupants may have entirely different expectations and priorities while sharing the same space. One person may want productivity. Another may want entertainment. Another may simply want quiet. Designing for this future requires a fundamentally different mindset. The vehicle becomes less of a machine and more of an experience platform. The challenge is no longer helping users operate a vehicle. It is helping multiple individuals coexist comfortably within an intelligent environment that understands and adapts to their needs. For Felice, this transformation represents one of the most exciting opportunities facing automotive UX today. Keeping Technology in Service of People As technological capabilities expand, there is often pressure to introduce innovation simply because it exists. Felice views this tendency as one of the industry’s greatest risks. Technology undoubtedly creates opportunities to improve experiences, but innovation loses its value when it becomes disconnected from human needs. Features introduced solely to appear advanced often create complexity rather than clarity. They increase cognitive load, complicate interactions, and ultimately diminish the quality of the experience. This is why Felice believes great UX leaders must possess both technological curiosity and critical judgment. Understanding emerging technologies is essential. Equally important is the ability to question whether those technologies genuinely improve people’s lives. Not every capability deserves implementation. Not every innovation creates value. Sometimes the most effective solution is also the simplest. No matter how sophisticated vehicles become, one principle remains constant. Designers are creating experiences for human beings. Whether people are actively driving or interacting with increasingly autonomous systems, their expectations, emotions, limitations, and behaviors remain at the center of the design process. Technology should support those realities