GreenDynamics uses AI to close the loop between the virtual and physical worlds

What is a spinout?

Spinouts are companies formed to commercialise research developed within a university, taking discoveries out of the lab and turning them into real-world technologies and businesses. They're one of the most direct ways research translates into impact.

“Spinouts play a vital role in translating groundbreaking UNSW research into real world impact that improves lives... From pioneering clean energy to revolutionising quantum technologies, UNSW and its spinouts are transforming the world and advancing progress for all.” - UNSW Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Attila Brungs

UNSW has topped Australia's national rankings for research spinouts for four consecutive years, producing 19 spinouts in 2024 and 25 in 2025 alone, reinforcing its position as the country's leading university for turning research into successful businesses. GreenDynamics is part of this growing pipeline.

Alumni-founded UNSW spinout GreenDynamics

Tong Xie, UNSW alumni, founded GreenDynamics after attending UNSW School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering (SPREE) to do a PhD in nanomaterial and computer science. He was struck by the pace of work more so than the science behind it. The fact that world-class researchers were discovering materials largely by trial and error and through slow experimentation gave him the impetus to conceive of GreenDynamics.

“Our goal isn't a better lab tool - it's an Al scientist that can form hypotheses, design and run experiments, and learn from the results. The bigger ambition is to scale science itself: to make discovery something you can multiply the way we learned to multiply computing - the same scientific intelligence working on thousands of problems at once, around the clock, instead of one researcher, one experiment at a time.”

What was the turning point in the development of GreenDynamics?

The initial impetus for GreenDynamics was to speed up the process of material discovery for scientists and researchers. However, it was early in the process of development that Tong Xie realised that the potential was even greater.

"The more customers we spoke to, the clearer it became that a prediction isn't worth much on its own; what they actually needed was the material made and proven to work. That shift - from find to make - changed everything about the company: it's why we paired the Al with an automated lab, so the system doesn't just point at a promising material but actually synthesises and tests it, closing the loop from idea to real, working product.”

This innovation is what sets GreenDynamics apart as a deep tech spinout founded by UNSW alumni. Notably, the spinout was backed early on by UNSW Founders through the Climate 10x program, which provided pre-seed funding and incubation as they spun out of UNSW.

How does GreenDynamics work with AI in an innovative way?

There is often a connection made between the use of AI and the negative impact this use has on the climate and natural world. The connection between the digital and physical world through AI manipulation is one that is key to the success of GreenDynamics.

"GreenDynamics is the bet on closing the loop between the virtual and physical worlds. We pair the Al scientist with an automated lab so it doesn't just predict a material, it makes and tests it, then learns from the result. Whoever closes the loop between intelligence and physical reality owns the bottleneck to the entire physical economy, and that's a frontier the digital-first Al labs aren't built to reach.”

This collaboration points AI at the physical world, giving it the capability to scale clean-energy discovery in the same way that computing was scaled.

“I'd rather Al be remembered as the tool that helped us solve climate change than as one more thing that made it worse. Better solar, safer batteries, cleaner catalysts - those don't come from more computing alone, they come from closing the loop between intelligence and real-world experiments, and pointing it at the problems that matter most.”

About Barker Street Ventures

Barker Street Ventures is one of UNSW's initiatives giving eligible UNSW spinouts and startups visibility and access to a network that can help them grow.

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