A team of Australia's Monash University biomedical engineering students has launched a global artificial heart competition to help combat one of the world’s biggest killers – heart failure.

The students are harnessing the greatest emerging minds in biotech innovation to design and commercialise a robotic heart that will help the 64 million people affected by heart failure worldwide.

Heart Hackathon is the world’s first student-led biomedical engineering competition and was developed by Monash Young MedTech Innovators. It is supported by leading international biotech sponsors, including Australian medical device company Hydrix and US-based SynCardia, developers of the world’s only clinically available artificial heart.

Undergraduate teams in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Africa, the UK and the USA have taken up the challenge. They are designing and building artificial heart prototypes, which will be judged by world industry experts at the annual conference of the International Society for Mechanical Circulatory Support (ISMCS).

The competition will continue as an annual event and comes as the Victorian Heart Hospital - the first dedicated heart hospital in Australia - prepares to open at Monash’s Clayton campus in coming months.