AUT Ventures #3: Dreams on Display: The AUT Innovation Showcase

AUT VENTURES | COLUMN | ANAMATA / THE FUTURE Written by Rose Scott (she/her) | Contributing Writer

When you think about your future beyond being a student, it can feel like a lingering – and often intimidating – question mark. For some of us, stepping straight into a job or career doesn’t sound as exciting as the chance to build something ourselves. 

Whether that’s a business, an innovation, or a product, the idea of being your own boss has its own kind of spark. That’s where AUT Ventures often steps in, helping students and researchers flip uncertainty into something more hopeful: a space to ask “what if?”

We saw that vision in action at the AUT Ventures Innovation Showcase during Te Wiki Rangahau (Research Week 2025). More than 25 research projects across six innovation zones filled WZ, creating an electric atmosphere for over 200 guests. Each project became a display of Anamata – the future – transforming uncertainty into imagination, and imagination into possibility.

Some of the standouts from the night in each zone included:

• PreventS-MD® (Software): A software tool preventing lifestyle diseases such as stroke, heart disease, and diabetes.

• Brain-Controlled Gaming (Science & Engineering): A gaming challenge played using only your focus.

• Wool Cocoon (Design): A sensory management tool designed to comfort neurodivergent children.

• The Bread Collective (Food & Hospitality): An employment initiative advancing opportunities for former refugees through education and baking.

• Eccentric Fitness (Sport & Recreation): A recumbent training bike designed to combat the health impacts of sedentary lifestyles.

• Goodair® Nosebuds (Health & Medtech): A drug-free device to clear nasal congestion, officially launched only weeks ago.

As the final Debate issue of the year, reflecting on this highlight feels like the perfect way to close out 2025, and welcome in 2026. Returning for the first time in years, bigger and bolder than ever, the Showcase reminded us that giving dreams space to grow is often what allows them to shape the future.

As one might say, it’s a full-circle moment.

Looking ahead to next year, we can’t wait to do it all over again – and who knows, maybe it could be your dream on display at the next AUT Innovation Showcase. We look forward to reconnecting with you next semester, but until then, enjoy a well-deserved break.