At the Rotary Melbourne meeting on Wednesday 6 March 24 the Guest Speakers were Robert Klupacs, CEO and Dr Yingjie Hu, Research Engineer who spoke on ‘Giving the gift of hearing: 35 years and counting’.
Last week our 5,022nd meeting and 31st meeting for this our 103rd Rotary Year was opened by MC, Past President Peter Dakin and the weekly reflection was delivered by Ruth Carlos-Martinez. Ruth’s reflection highlighted the importance of Rotary Melbourne showcasing change as Rotary adapts to rapidly changing community expectations.
After the Loyal toast, and welcoming members and guests, President Chris Sotiropoulos, invited guest speaker and Chair for the day, Corporate member Robert Klupacs CEO of the Bionics Institute to the podium. What followed was a truly fascinating conversation about the Bionics Institute mission to implement bio engineered solutions connected to various human functions. Reflecting the celebration in the same week as this meeting of Hearing Week, Robert turned the meeting over to Bionics research engineer, Dr Yingjie Hu who is leading the development of an affordable hearing restoration treatment deploying ground-breaking bionics technology to transport treatment drugs to restore functioning the inner ear receptors responsible for hearing loss.
The presentation also featured a video conversation between our newest member Bionics development team member, Sam McLarty and Matilda’s Goalkeeper McKenzie Arnold, talking about her hearing loss journey. The shortened version of this video is included in the Speaker series video.
The presentation and a shortened version of the McKenzie Arnold video have been captured on a Speaker series video recording in the Club’s YouTube channel and you can view it by clicking here. If you prefer, you can view the recording of the whole meeting. Just click here.
President Chris concluded the meeting highlighting next week’s (13 March) evening meeting, held at Monash University’s Bio Eyes partnership, designed to inspire students to enrol in Science education; he went on to remind members of the forthcoming Thomas Baker Oration at the Sofitel on Collins on 24 April which will feature Doug Hilton AO, CEO of the CSIRO and will speak on the topic 'If science is to save us'. Make sure you diarise both events.
