Sarah presenting to Kaushal's sister at YAA 2026

Nominations are open for the 2027 Luminary Tech Visionary Award

Next year will be our sixth year of sponsoring the Tech Visionary category of the Victorian Young Achiever Awards. Last year’s entries blew us away with their talent and ingenuity and we’re excited to find out what our emerging tech leaders have been up to over the past year! 

Tami Iseli

06 October 2026

3 minute read

Nominations are open for the 2027 Luminary Tech Visionary Award, our category in the 7NEWS Victorian Young Achiever Awards. The award recognises young people who think creatively and use digital technology to make a difference in their community. Nominees need to be 30 or under on 31 December 2026 and based in Victoria. Entry is free and you can nominate yourself or someone you know.

While we wait for the nominations to roll in, we thought you might be interested to read about our past winners. 

Meet our past Tech Visionaries

Our five winners have built very different things, from accessibility apps to companion robots. What they share is a knack for spotting a problem close to home and building a way to fix it.

Alexandra Irwin Liu, Accessibly

Alexandra Irwin-Liu

2020 Luminary Tech Visionary Award winner Alexandra Irwin Liu.

Growing up with two family members with special needs, Alexandra knew how hard it could be to find a venue that worked for everyone. She built Accessibly.com.au, a platform that helps people with a disability find, rate and review accessible bars, restaurants and cafes. With no formal coding training, she wrote the site herself (with help from mentors and a lot of YouTube), then reworked it into a location discovery app so people could find new places to socialise.

Bree Pagonis, WIRL

Bree Pagonis - Luminary Tech Visionary 2021 - on stage with Luminary CEO Marty Drill

Bree is a dietitian who co-founded WIRL with fellow dietitian Alicia Holmquest. WIRL started as a social enterprise teaching women intuitive eating, so they could spend less time worrying about food and their bodies and more time doing things they love, with part of every sale going to The Hunger Project Australia. Bree and Alicia have since grown WIRL into a VC-backed mental wellbeing app built around the link between food and mood, with Bree leading the technical build as co-CEO.

Elise Sutherland, Stelect

Elise Sutherland

Elise is a biomedical engineer who founded Stelect out of the University of Melbourne's BioDesign Innovation course. Stelect's patented sensor packs 64 tiny ultrasound elements around a catheter just 1mm wide, giving cardiologists a 3D view inside a blocked artery so they can choose and place the right stent. Along the way, Stelect won MedTech's Got Talent, Australia's national medtech start-up competition, and Elise was named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list.

Grace Brown, Andromeda

Grace and Abi high fiving

Grace has been building robots since she was 15. During the Covid lockdowns she built a companion robot to keep herself company, and that side project became Abi, a social humanoid robot that recognises faces, chats and responds to emotion. Abi is designed to reduce loneliness in aged care (and yes, Abi blows bubbles, which residents love). Abi launched in the US this year, and the team plans to grow from dozens of Abis to thousands over the next two years.

Kaushal Ottem, Neuroverse

Picture of Kaushal, founder of Neuroverse

Kaushal founded Neuroverse after his own experience of severe injury and epilepsy. Its AI-powered wearables read brain and muscle signals (EEG and EMG) to give clinicians and patients live insights into neurological recovery, so rehab can be tracked continuously instead of checked now and then. He has tested the idea with more than 500 stakeholders, secured pilot trials with rehabilitation providers and picked up accelerator places and awards from the University of Melbourne. As our newest winner, Kaushal is one to watch.

Why we back this award

We spend our days helping organisations use digital to make the human experience brighter, so we love seeing young Victorians do the same thing with far fewer resources and a lot more nerve. Every year the field of finalists gets stronger, and every year the judges have a harder job. We'd love you to make it harder again.

Key dates 

Nominations close on 15 Dec 2026, so there's plenty of time, but don't leave it to the last minute!

What

When

Nominations close

Tuesday 15 December 2026

Judging

Wednesday 3 March 2027

Awards gala

Friday 7 May 2027

How to nominate

You've got two options:

  • Nominate now by filling in the full online form about your (or your nominee's) achievements.
  • Refer someone if you're short on time. Pass on their details and the Awards team will get in touch to help them complete their nomination.

Check the categories and entry criteria for the full details. 

Know a young Victorian who belongs on this list?

Nominate them today!

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