Sydney University's Faculty of Architecture and Design is showcasing students' work with a bartending cocktail robot.

As it whirrs and spins in a noisy bar setting in the faculty's labs, the robot's arm flies from one liquor dispenser to the next along a rack of 20 bottles. Whether it's following a cocktail recipe or not seems irrelevant to the throng of student patrons waiting 10-deep for a drink. They're a thirsty mob and the drinks are free.

The bow tie around the "hand" of the robotic arm adds that little bit of class as it steadily pours eight drinks in a row without spilling a drop. Recent graduate Samantha Horlyck twitches as she recalls the hours of tedious programming and tweaking.

"The most difficult thing was getting the pour right which involved a lot of tweaking with the degrees of the pour and also the timing."

That's a skill that should hold a young architect in good stead for the future. Just replace Long Island Iced Tea with pouring a concrete slab at Australia's next Pritzker prize-winning construction.