Opportunities
Internships
Defence Innovation Network Internship Program
Industry: Defence and Aerospace
Study area: Computer Science & Information Technology, Engineering, Maths, Physics
Partner: Defence Innovation Network (DIN)
Suburb: Australia
Why: This program helps you:
- gain practical experience outside academia
- build professional skills (communication, teamwork, time management)
- expand your professional network
- strengthen your future career opportunities
During the internship, you will:
- work on a defined project within a host organisation
- apply your research skills to a practical, industry-led problem
- collaborate with industry professionals and contribute to project outcomes
Paid: Yes
RK Collective
Industry: Technology
Study area: Engineering
Partner: RK Collective
Suburb: Remote/in person: Ultimo, Sydney
Why: Driven by a shared passion for design and social impact, Nila Rezaei and Christopher Krainer founded RK Collective in 2023, in Sydney, Australia. Together, we’ve worked across a variety of industries, including consumer goods, medical devices, public art, mobility, solar technology and material innovation.
Their first initiative, Crafted Liberation, exemplifies our vision. This participatory, non-profit project uses material innovation and storytelling to celebrate Iranian women's collective action and resilience. It garnered international attention at Dutch Design Week and won an Australian Good Design Award, highlighting the potential of design to inspire change.
In solidarity with the Women, Life, Movement, they invited Iranian women around the world to donate their unwanted headscarves and transformed them into stadium seats. RK Collective created a unique material by combining the donated headscarves with recycled polymers, while honouring the composite materials traditionally used in stadium seat construction.
Paid: Yes
McNeall Plastics
Industry: Technology
Study area: Engineering
Partner: McNeall Plastics
Suburb: Unanderra
Why: McNeall Plastics is an Australian-owned engineering plastics manufacturer based in NSW, with over 50 years of experience.
We manufacture AustLon - monomer cast nylon and machine components from a range of engineering plastics.
Our work includes bearings, bushes, rollers, gears, rope sheaves, wear plates and custom components for mining, materials handling, manufacturing and general engineering.
AustLon is cast locally using gravity and centrifugal casting processes. We can produce large and complex cast nylon components up to 3m x 3m x 2m, as well as machining services to customer drawings.
We also assist with material selection, component design, machining requirements while considering factors such as load, temperature, and chemical exposure.
Paid: Yes
Refram^d Research Internship
Industry: Technology
Study area: Computer Science & Information Technology, Engineering
Partner: Refram^d
Suburb: Remote / in person at Bowral / iAccelerate
Why: Refram^d exists to solve a growing challenge - how to create housing that’s adaptable, affordable, and environmentally responsible. Across regional Australia, communities need accommodation that can be built quickly, used flexibly, and leave a lighter footprint on the land. Our mission is to reimagine temporary living through sustainable, off-grid tiny homes made from cardboard and other circular materials. These lightweight, modular structures are low-carbon, cost-effective, and quick to assemble - offering flexible accommodation where and when it’s needed most.
Paid: Yes
Eudaemon Technologies Internship
Industry: Technology
Study area: Engineering
Partner: Eudaemon Technologies
Suburb: Remote / in person: Neutral Bay, Sydney
Why: Eudaemon has acquired a buttercup and foil-lidding packaging system for its pilot manufacturing line. The equipment has completed factory acceptance testing (FAT) and requires installation and site acceptance testing at Eudaemon.
Following site acceptance testing (SAT), the process must be adjusted for the selected cup, lidding material, lubricant and hydrated product configuration. The technical challenge is to determine machine settings and operating controls that consistently present the cup, place the product and lubricant correctly and produce a continuous, peelable foil seal without damaging the product or compromising moisture-barrier performance. Relevant variables may include sealing temperature, pressure and dwell time, cup feed, foil alignment, lubricant dispensing, product placement, sealing-surface contamination and environmental or material condition.
These factors may interact, so structured experimentation is needed to establish a defensible process window. The intern will assist with supervised SAT evidence generation, develop practical packaging quality measures and conduct a risk-based design of experiments. A strong intern may also map upstream and downstream interfaces and identify practical robotics and automation opportunities. The work is investigational and pre-qualification. It will inform later operational qualification (OQ) and performance qualification (PQ) but will not replace supplier SAT obligations, formal acceptance, validation or product-release responsibilities.
Paid: Yes
COX Architecture Internship
Industry: Clean Economy
Study area: Psychology & Human Behaviour, Social Sciences & Advocacy
Partner: COX Architecture
Suburb: Remote / in person: COX Studio, The Rocks, Sydney
Why: COX Architecture is an Australian design practice with studios across Australia and New Zealand. For more than 65 years, COX has delivered architecture, urban design and interior design across multi sectors and scales. The practice brings together design, research and innovation to create places and spaces that respond to people, communities and their changing needs.
COX’s research and development program explores emerging challenges and opportunities across the built environment, bringing evidence and fresh ideas together to create practical design approaches and industry outcomes.
Paid: Yes