Lab4Impact: Turning Experience into Innovation
- Hoang Cam Vi Vo
- Aug 11, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 12, 2025
Vi and her team at Lab4Impact 2025
After leading the Academic Integrity Campaign at Deakin, one question stayed with me: How do we help students use AI ethically and effectively in this new age?
AI is now everywhere—in our research, writing, and learning. Some people believe that being a 21st-century student means knowing how to use AI well, others see it as a threat to real education. To me, both perspectives are valid, but where do we find that balance? When I heard about Lab4Impact, a competition by Study Melbourne for student-led impact projects, I knew I had to act.
Vi and the team, presenting at Lab4Impact 2025
There, I met four incredible students who believed in my idea. Though it began with me, it became a shared mission. Over 10 weeks, we turned a campaign into a full impact model. We launched an Instagram page, shared infographics, held workshops, and most importantly, started the Redo Series. Directed by me and hosted by DUSA Advocacy Manager Gavin Hodgkinson, the Redo Series tells real stories of students navigating AI—what went right, what went wrong, and how to use it ethically. It’s honest, practical, and grounded in lived experience.
We also ran an AI usage workshop that focused not on punishment, but on empowering students to use AI responsibly and with confidence. Then came the surprise: out of 59 teams across Melbourne, our project was named runner-up winner of Lab4Impact 2025.
This project means the world to me. It reflects everything I’ve learned; about vulnerability, collaboration, leadership, and growing from failure. It proves that impact doesn’t always start with confidence. Sometimes, it starts with a mistake, a question, or a conversation; and grows into something powerful.
Certification Labs for Impacts Grand Final:Runner Up Labs for Impacts
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