Cori Stewart has never stayed in one lane. Today she’s the Founder and CEO of the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Hub — a not-for-profit she spun out of QUT to help businesses translate research into real-world capability.
Since 2020, ARM Hub has become a place where Australian companies can experiment, adopt, and thrive with robotics, AI, and advanced manufacturing.
Stewart has spent her career spanning government, academia, and industry as a self-described “boundary-spanner,” translating different languages and incentives to make innovation real. Along the way she has shaped national cultural and creative industries policy, built industry-led STEM collaborations, and founded ecosystems that lift entire sectors.
Now, she’s marking a career milestone: being named a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE).
For Stewart, it’s a surreal and humbling recognition — joining astronauts, inventors, and global pioneers — but also a responsibility. She’s determined to use the platform to drive ambition in building a more diverse and resilient industrial economy, one that turns Australian ideas into Australian industries.
In this Close-Up, Stewart reflects on the spark that led to ARM Hub, the collaborations that inspire her most, and why she believes innovation is not abstract, but “the machinery of a better economy” — provided we design the systems to make it real.
Congratulations on being named an ATSE Fellow. What does this recognition mean to you personally and professionally, and how do you see it shaping your influence going forward?
It’s surreal and humbling. I’m joining astronauts, rock legends, and inventors that have changed the world. It’s an opportunity to use our collective influence to make a difference.
ATSE Fellowship is both an honour and a responsibility. How do you plan to use this platform to drive positive change in science, technology, and industry in Australia?
For me, it’s a responsibility to harness the Fellowship to bring greater ambition to the urgent need to build a bigger and more diverse industrial economy in Australia. The nation’s economic complexity and productivity continue their decades of decline and it’s having severe negative consequences for Australia right now. I want to work with other Fellows to take action: to turn Australia’s great ideas and R&D into Australia’s great industries.
Let’s rewind a little: where did your journey begin? What shaped your early ambitions and your passion for innovation and industry transformation?
At the very beginning was a creative childhood growing up on a property west of Kingaroy. My father was one of the first computer operators of Tarong Power Station and a true animal whisperer. My mother a force of nature, a school teacher and the best potter in the region.
Unsurprisingly then, my first career was in the arts, working as an artist and arts writer. It gave me a great humanities education and an inbuilt resourcefulness. I leveraged this experience into public policy and politics. My first job in Government was writing Australia’s first cultural city policy and then I was part of a team writing Australia’s first creative industries policy, and I was 100% thrilled about doing both! This work — engaging local industry, analysing markets, drafting policy ambitions, and creating investible industry proposals that bring these ambitions to life — taught me how innovation and evidence-based policy could unlock entire industries.
Mid-career I took an opportunity to move back into the university sector to build major industry-led STEM collaborations. Here, I spun-out of the Queensland University of Technology its first ever independent not-for-profit company, the ARM Hub. I have been CEO since.
You’ve moved between academia, government, and industry before founding ARM Hub. What did those different environments teach you about how innovation really takes hold?
That game-changing innovation doesn’t live in silos. Universities can generate brilliance, government can back it, and industry can make it real. But unless you join the dots, fill the gaps, foster collaboration and keep a clear global competitive outlook, it won’t come together. I’ve worked across each of these sectors and I’ve learned to be a professional “boundary-spanner” — translating the different languages, incentives, and cultures.
What was the spark behind creating ARM Hub in 2020, and how has it evolved since those early days?
The spark that ignited the ARM Hub was a project with UAP Company – the world’s largest manufacturer of public art headquartered in Brisbane – where we literally ‘taught robots to see,’ to drive productivity and capability in their bespoke manufacturing operation. Our five-year research collaboration exemplified what can happen when you introduce design-led processes to translate cutting-edge research into the day-to-day demands of a real factory floor. Since starting this project in 2017, UAP has expanded its operations from Australia and China, into the USA, Europe and the Middle East.
During our project, hundreds of industrial businesses visited UAP to see how AI, robotics and assistive technologies were being integrated into a manufacturing workflow. The demand to experience first-hand how this can be done, not only inspired many other businesses to adopt, but built the mandate for a permanent place where that magic happens every day. The ARM Hub was born.
ARM Hub has worked across defence, agriculture, medical, energy, and resources. Which project or industry partnership has left the biggest impression on you, and why?
That is very hard to say. I get a lot of satisfaction watching businesses, and their staff, transform through innovation. It can be life changing and it can happen in big businesses or in start-ups.
Most recently, the collaboration with Microbio and our tech partner Data Knowledge Enterprise (DKE) is particularly inspiring. Microbio has taken world-class science in rapid sepsis detection and, with the support of DKE and ARM Hub, built the digital backbone to scale the business globally while manufacturing here in Australia.
Their new data and AI platform means even non-technical staff can analyse results, overlay reference data, and manage clinical trials in real time across borders. It’s not just faster diagnostics; it’s smarter manufacturing and streamlined regulatory pathways.
For me, Microbio shows exactly what happens when innovation meets the right ecosystem: Australian ideas go global without leaving Australia behind.
Australia has “the ingredients of a modern industrial nation,” as you’ve said. Where are we excelling right now, and where are the gaps we still need to close?
Yes, Australia has the national resources, the R&D capability, and is a stable environment to do business, but we underinvest in the commercialisation of our ideas and IP.
Our universities and research institutes consistently rank among the best, and we have some brilliant, but too few, examples of firms that have successfully commercialised in Australia.
But the evident gap is in translation and technology adoption. Too many of our SMEs – who make up the majority of Australian industry – lack the R&D staff, integration processes, and resources to take research or good ideas into production. The national conversation often gets stuck diagnosing this “absorptive capacity problem” at the firm level — when the real lever for change is redesigning our innovation system itself.
Other countries have shown what works: place-based innovation ecosystems like Germany’s Fraunhofers, the UK Catapult Centres, Manufacturing USA, and Singapore’s A*STAR. These ecosystems don’t wait for each company to build capacity in isolation; they provide shared testbeds, translational researchers, neutral ground for collaboration, and pathways into supply chains and global markets.
We need the same systemic approach here. Centres like ARM Hub show what’s possible: embedding AI, robotics, data infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing in shared infrastructure so that firms can trial, test, and adopt technologies without shouldering all the risk. The lesson is clear: firm-level capability is necessary, but not sufficient. National productivity depends on building ecosystems that make absorption possible at scale.
Innovation requires not just technology but people. How do you bring businesses, researchers, and workers on the journey to embrace robotics and AI?
I have learned systems change requires patience; you have to create the building blocks and it starts with people. People need space to experiment, test, and sometimes fail before they succeed.
What has been created at the ARM Hub is the space to do this important work: we have the infrastructure, expertise, and support that lets firms make informed, confident decisions. When people see that adoption is a process, not a leap of faith, they engage. Trust grows, capability builds, and suddenly the impossible feels achievable. That’s how transformation for businesses takes hold.
You’re a keynote speaker on everything from AI to industrial policy. What’s one message you consistently want audiences to walk away with?
Innovation is not abstract. It’s the machinery of a better economy, but only if we design systems that turn ideas into industries.
On a personal note, what drives you outside of work? Is there a daily habit, influence, or even a surprising passion that keeps you energised?
Sleep and laughter wherever possible!
Finally, if you think about the next generation of leaders in robotics and manufacturing, what advice would you offer them as they navigate the intersection of technology, policy, and people?
You don’t have to get stuck in one lane — policy, industry, research all need each other. And don’t wait for permission. Back yourself, find allies, and remember: technology is only as powerful as the people who adopt it.