The Trustworthy Digital Society

Annie has an extensive career in education, spanning K–12 and higher education, and now specialises in initial teacher education and postgraduate learning. Her research focuses on the intersection of technology, pedagogy, and learning design, with particular emphasis on digital agency, transdisciplinary learning, and the evolving digital ecology in education. She investigates how technological advancements shape teaching and learning, enabling new modes of connection and deeper engagement. Her work also considers the implications of digital agency for educators and students, addressing how technology fosters autonomy, critical engagement, and innovative pedagogical practices.

Dr. Husam Al-Najjar is a Lecturer and Researcher (Asst. Prof.) and serves as Course Director of the Bachelor of Information Systems at the School of Computer Science, University of Technology Sydney (UTS). He specialises in Information Systems, spatial decision support systems, Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI) and automated workflows for climate-induced natural-hazard modelling, translating cutting-edge research into practical solutions for business intelligence, smart-city development, and disaster resilience.

His research advances spatial information systems and AI-powered algorithms—including machine learning, optimization techniques, and large language models (LLMs)—to accelerate decision-making and enhance public safety through scalable, explainable, and innovative methods. He contributes to this, for instance, by developing novel computational approaches that enable first responders and agencies (such as insurance companies) to rapidly assess the impacts of natural disasters—streamlining operations, reducing costs, and delivering faster, more targeted support to the most at-risk communities.

He earned his PhD from UTS, and his research is widely published in high-impact Q1 journals. Recognitions include the Best Paper Award at ISPRS Geospatial Week (Enschede, Netherlands, 2019), Highly Cited Papers acknowledgments in 2021 and 2023 (Clarivate, 2025), and CSIRO program funding (2025) for advancing code-free development platforms in higher education. These initiatives strengthen digital capabilities, support scalable learning, and create enduring competitive advantages for both learners and institutions.

He collaborates with leading institutions across Europe, the USA, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea, advancing international knowledge exchange in smart-city technologies and hazard-modelling algorithms. At UTS, he coordinates and teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate programs and supervises Honours, Master’s and PhD students, preparing the next generation of professionals for AI-driven digital transformation.

He is active in academic leadership, chairing multiple sessions at IEEE IGARSS—the flagship annual global event for scientists and professionals in geospatial technology. He also serves on the committees of the Australian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS) and the International Conference on Information Systems Education and Research (ICISER), Nashville, USA, and is a member of the Australian Artificial Intelligence Society and UNSW-UTS Trustworthy Digital Society. These roles underscore his expertise and leadership in advancing algorithmic innovation to address global challenges.

≡ Prospective PhD candidates are invited to email Husam.Al-Najjar@uts.edu.au with a CV and a research proposal outlining the study’s novelty, main contribution, and significance.

• For more information regarding the eligibility criteria, visit here
• For general scholarship information and application deadlines, visit here
• Learn more about funding types on our funding page. Click here

Professor Monica Attard OAM spent 30 years at the ABC, working across radio and television. Monica holds a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Law, Order of Australia for services to journalism and is the winner of 5 Walkley Awards for excellence in journalism (including gold).

She is best-known for hosting some of the ABC's flagship programs, including PM, The World Today and Media Watch, and being a reporter and foreign correspondent for AM. A journalist for 40 years, she has also been a TV and radio reporter, including for Four Corners and Lateline, a foreign correspondent and was the foundation editor of the website, The Global Mail. 

She was the ABC’s Russia correspondent and reported on the coup against Mikhail Gorbachev, the collapse of Soviet communism, the rise of Boris Yeltsin and his brand of capitalism and democracy, the first Chechen war and she covered civil wars across the old Soviet Union. Four years of covering the revolution left her with just enough energy to pump out a book about the events – Russia, Which Way Paradise? 

Monica was recently the head of journalism at Macleay College in Sydney and Melbourne. She has been head of journalism at UTS, and is currently co director of the UTS Centre for Media Transition, a cross disciplinary research centre investigating journalism best practice, regulatory adaptation, information disorder and news media business models. Her recent publications include reports on regional news media in Australia, generative AI and its impact on public interest journalism and the Australian News Media Bargaining Code. 

Dr. Madhushi Bandara is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Computer Science at University of Technology Sydney, Australia, driving teaching and innovation across artificial intelligence (AI) and software systems sectors. She joined UTS in 2020 as a postdoctoral researcher after completing her PhD at UNSW in AI systems engineering and resumed the continuing academic role in 2022. Madhushi is the Course Coordinator for Master of Technology Management (UTS Online) & Master of Technology Innovation (CinLearn) programs.

Madhushi is the Co-Director of UTS DigiSAS lab, and leads the data management research stream contributing to Research & Innovation in Data-intensive Digital Ecosystems. She is a core member of Biomedical Data Science Laboratory in the UTS Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute and the convenor for Future Generation Enterprise Architecture Community of Practice (FGEA CoP) that provids a platform to EA practitioners, researchers and thought leaders from government, higher education and industry to exchange innovative ideas and best practices for architecting and building human-centric AI, data and digital ecosystems.

Madhushi has established a national reputation as an expert in knowledge representation and complex system modelling using technologies such as machine learning and knowledge graphs. She has made significant theoretical and practical contributions to the field, by bringing the advancements in state-of-art AI/ML technologies to information systems in critical sectors such as healthcare and finance through harmonising contextual domain knowledge, data science and management practices, software engineering best practices and organisation business architecture. The synergy of her research and industry needs today enable her to attract industry partners and build long-term partnerships. She has worked with industry partners including Telstra, Cancer Australia, Capsifi, LIRNEasia, Landcom NSW and Cognitivo Consulting to design and deliver knowledge representation and data analytics solutions.

Dr Bahareh Berenjforoush Azar is a Lecturer in the School of Professional Practice & Leadership at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). She specialises in energy economics and sustainable policy design, with a focus on energy transition, resource-system optimisation, and consumer-focused approaches to emerging energy technologies. Her work brings together interdisciplinary research and industry experience, connecting rigorous economic analysis with practical policy application.

Bahareh earned her PhD in Energy Economics and Policy from UTS, where her research examined the energy–water–food nexus in the MENA region using systems modelling and economic evaluation. Her academic background reflects a strong interest in integrating economic and institutional perspectives to support evidence-based decision-making in the energy sector.

Before joining UTS, she served as a Senior Consultant at Marsden Jacob Associates, contributing to national energy-market modelling, cost–benefit assessments, regulatory analysis, demand-side management studies, and stakeholder consultation. This experience continues to shape her research and teaching, particularly in translating complex modelling into actionable insights for government and industry partners.

Her current research focuses on energy literacy, AI-enabled consumer tools, equitable energy subsidy reform, and gender diversity in the clean energy workforce. These projects involve collaboration with interdisciplinary teams and industry partners and aim to enhance consumer engagement and social equity within evolving energy systems.

At UTS, Bahareh teaches across economic evaluation, engineering decision-making, and sustainability-focused topics. She designs practice-based learning for large cohorts and mentors students working on applied sustainability and energy policy challenges. Her work reflects a commitment to promoting an equitable, trusted transition to cleaner, more resilient energy systems.

Gnana Bharathy serves in the ARDC national expertise team, providing AI/ML, architecture and program management expertise for Australian research and educational institutions. Gnana also researches at UTS. In the first role, he works as ARDC Research Data Specialist (AI/ML) (an advisory role in the national expertise team situated at UTS), and provides AI/ML based advice to research institutions. In the second role, he carries out research and supervises/ mentor/ teach students. 

Outside academia, Gnana has extenstive experience as Design, Decisions and Data Science consulting. Gnana has over 15+ years of experience applying data science (and other advanced analytics approaches), in a powerful combination with design sciences such as design thinking, architecture (business, information, data, product) and diagnostics to add radical transformational value to clients.

Gnana has been working in both pure industry consulting as well as university-based, external consulting in the capacities of modeller/ analyst and project manager in several countries (mostly in United States, Australia, New Zealand, and to a lesser extent in Canada, Jamaica, India and Malaysia).

Despite being in non-academic roles most of his career, Gnana has maintained research on a part-time basis, and has published regularly. Some of his research work have been recognized with awards.

Gnana has also developed several modelling (human behaviour modelling) and risk management products, including for the governments, health sectors in Australia and USA and has served a range of private sector clients.

Gnana was trained at the University of Pennsylvania (PhD, MS), University of Canterbury (ME) and National Institute of Technology (Bachelors with distinction).

Catriona Bonfiglioli is a senior lecturer in Media Studies in the School of Communication in the Faculty of Design and Society at UTS.
Catriona is the JERAA/ANZCA Anne Dunn Scholar 2021 https://jeraa.org.au/dr-catriona-bonfiglioli-is-the-2021-anne-dunn-scholar-2/

Catriona has led funded research demonstrating that: individual responsibility dominates obesity news, sweet drinks news sends mixed health messages, industry accountability is neglected, large people are stigmatised by media, and news contributes to genetic determinism. She has collaborated with scholars from Monash and the University of Sydney investigating inactivity in the news, negative framing of cyclists, and audience responses to The Biggest Loser.

As the lead chief investigator, Catriona led a successfully completed ARC Discovery investigating the media life cycle of obesity, PA, and inactivity (CIA, DP1096251). Catriona was CIA on UTS ECR Grant (#2009001198 ‘Do Australian news and reality television programs construct overweight and obese people as the 'other'?’) and a co-investigator on NHMRC grant ‘Calling the tune? Investigating corporate influences on media reporting of health.’ (ID632840). Catriona has collaborated on research projects funded by the UTS Teaching and Learning Development Fund, the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism and UTS's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Catriona is an experienced HDR supervisor contributing to supervision for 12 completed PhDs and one MA(Res). Catriona is on supervisory panels of four PhDs underway. She has supervised 13 honours students. CI Bonfiglioli has served on the Public Health Association’s NSW Committee since 2001, the UTS Human Research Ethics Committee since 2011, and is a former President and Treasurer of the Australian Medical Writers Association. CI Bonfiglioli has given invited papers at Oxford, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Chicago, Santiago de Chile, Aarhus, and Bournemouth. 

Catriona has authored two research book chapters and led or co-authored more than 29 scholarly book chapters and research articles published in academic journals including the Journal of Health Communication, BMC Public Health, Journal of Medical Ethics, the Medical Journal of Australia, Australian Journalism Review, Academic Pediatrics, JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting, Applied Linguistics, and the ANZ Journal of Public Health. Catriona was awarded her PhD by the University of Sydney in 2005 for her analysis of genetic technologies in the Australian news media. In 2018, Catriona was a Visiting Professor at the Journalism School of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. In 2017, Catriona was a Visiting Scholar with the Erasmus Mundus Journalism, Media & Globalisation program at the University of Amsterdam. In 2013, Catriona was a Visiting Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. In 1997, Catriona was the Reuter Foundation Fellow in Medical Journalism at Green College, Oxford.

Catriona is a qualified, trained and experienced journalist with a special interest in medical journalism. Catriona has worked for Australian Associated Press, Australian Doctor, The Oxford Times, and The Western Morning News.

Dr Ali Braytee is a Senior Lecturer and Program Coordinator of IT Short Courses & Microcredentials at the School of Computer Science in the Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Ali is currently instructing micro-credentials in data analytics and has experience teaching/coordinating various data analytics and programming courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Ali completed a PhD in Machine Learning from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), and prior he holds an MSc in Computer Science from the University of Wollongong, Australia.

Ali conducts research on machine learning, computer vision, and Generative AI, focusing on developing and implementing techniques to solve real-world problems in various sectors such as health, environmental engineering, and education. Ali's research findings are published in top-ranked reputable academic journals (IEEE/ACM) and conference proceedings (ERA-A). Ali (co)-developed AI solutions across diverse domains, including cancer research, vertigo detection, medical VQA, AI chatbots, telecom, agriculture, and environmental engineering, using technologies like deep learning, LLMs, RAG, and multimodality.

He is enthusiastic about leveraging advanced AI technologies to provide innovative solutions for real-world challenges in the industry, including the use of LLM, LVM, conversational AI chatbots and RAG across multiple domains. Prior to his academic pursuits, Ali led various software development projects from 2007 to 2014.

Associate Professor Lucy Bryant is a certified practising speech pathologist, lecturer and researcher, and is the Head of Speech Pathology at UTS. She has over a decade of experience working with children and adults across community, private practice and university clinics, supporting them to develop their communication. Her passion grew from a belief that everyone should have access to the basic human right of communication, and all that comes with it in terms of social, educational, and workplace opportunities. She has a particular interest in langugae development and rehabilitation across the lifespan, and how people process, understand, and express meaning. Her work has a significant focus on technology and the opportunities for communication access and inclusion that come from new and evolving communication and information technologies. 

Lucy completed her PhD at the University of Newcastle, Australia (July 2018), examining the implementation of discourse (language sample) analysis in clinical practice for people with aphasia following stroke. In her clinical practice and research, she has focused on how we understand and formulate messages and meaning in the brain, especially after brain injury, stroke or other disability. Her work in this space helped to launch the international collaboration Focusing on the Quality of Spoken Discourse in Aphasia (FOQUS Aphasia) with colleagues in the USA and UK.

Lucy has a strong clinical and research interest in the role of technology in society and communication, and is exploring developments in technology, particularly Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. Her work with technology teams at UTS and through industry has led to innovative new applications to support language learning, recovery, and access for people with communication disability across the lifespan. Lucy is the Theme Lead for Professional Practice and Education in the UTS INSIGHT Digital Health Collaborative. Her role relates to collaborative approaches to upskilling health students and professionals in the effective use of technology in their roles, to benefit all Australians who access the health system.

Her current work is split between teaching, research and working in the speech pathology clinic at UTS that gives free treatment to the public and provides students with clinical experience. Lucy’s intersecting roles across these domains give her the unique opportunity to conduct clinically meaningful research and educate the next generation of speech pathologists to support language learning, and use technology in ways that will improve access to communication.

We navigate through countless decisions ranging from what to eat to whom to marry, which shapes our roles as citizens, consumers, managers, and policymakers. Dr Adrian Camilleri, an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Technology Sydney Business School and Director of the UTS Behavioural Lab, delves into the heart of these decisions, striving to unravel their complexities and unlock pathways to improve outcomes and reduce regrets.

Adrian employs a blend of experimental and survey research methods to understand the thought processes underpinning judgment and decision-making, with a keen focus on what it means for organisations, consumers, and profits. From meal providers “nudging” sustainable diets, to financial service providers encouraging prudent retirement investing, to hospitals encouraging medical professionals to use best practice treatments, to retailers gamifying their loyalty reward programs, to consumers effectively learning from word-of-mouth, Adrian’s research is about understanding and influencing how, when, and why decisions happen.

Research contributions can be found in top-tier academic journals in psychology, management, marketing, and public policy, including distinguished publications in Nature Climate Change, Management Science, and the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Notably, he has repeatedly published in and now serves on the editorial board of the top-rated journal, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

Recognised for his commitment to "marketing for good" research, Adrian was honoured with the esteemed 2022 AMA-EBSCO-RRBM Award for Responsible Research in Marketing by the American Marketing Association. Beyond his extensive industry recognition, his impact extends to the classroom where he has taught over ten thousand students the intricacies of consumer behaviour and marketing research, nurturing future leaders in the field.

Adrian’s dedication to mentorship is further evidenced by his supervision of PhD candidates and postdoctoral investigators exploring the realms of word-of-mouth dynamics and nudging sustainable behaviour. He is equally interested in spreading knowledge to people outside of academia, with his popular articles garnering more than a million reads across platforms including HBR.org, TheConversation.com, and PsychologyToday.com.

Driven by a commitment to real-world impact, Adrian actively collaborates with industry and government entities, leveraging his expertise to tackle pressing societal challenges. Supported by funding from organisations such as The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Netflix, and the NSW State Government, Adrian's research aims to bring together academic rigour and practical relevance, embodying his core passion of bringing about positive change that makes a real difference.

Emily is the Deputy Director of Women in Engineering, a Lecturer in the School of Professional Practice, and completed their PhD from the School of Civil an Environmental Engineering whose work focuses on sustainable concrete solutions to reduce the environmental impact of construction. Emily’s contributions to research and teaching are driven by a passion for creating a more inclusive and sustainable world.

Emily’s research integrates multi-disciplinary approaches to explore innovative materials such as Limestone Calcined Clay Concrete (LC3), with a specific focus on how kaolinite content, particle sizing, and amorphous content influence the strength and durability of concrete. This work supports the construction industry’s urgent need for low-carbon and high-performance materials.

In addition to research, Emily has a strong industry background, having held project management roles at Boral and CPB Contractors, where they gained extensive experience in delivering large-scale infrastructure projects. Emily also founded and led impactful diversity initiatives, such as the WISE community, to support women in STEM, earning recognition with awards like the Boral Innovation Award and a Community Award from Cement Concrete and Aggregates Australia.

Emily has published widely, presented at conferences, and continues to bridge the gap between research and practice. With a commitment to fostering diverse engineering talent and sustainable innovation, Emily is shaping the next generation of engineers to lead with purpose and equity.

Cristina M. Caperchione (BHK Hons., MHK, PhD) is a Professor in the School or Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation within the Faculty of Health. Her research program is focused on using mix-methodologies aimed at understanding socio-cultural mechanisms to design, implement and evaluate community level health promotion interventions. This research is particularly focused on physical activity and lifestyle behaviours in populations at highest risk of developing chronic disease and most vulnerable to overall poor health. 

She has led a number of multi-year, multi-institutional research projects and currently leads 1) TIDDA Talk, a co-designed/co-delivered physical activity and social and emotional health program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls, (funded by Department of Health-Australia), 2) The HATTRICK program, a physical activity, healthy eating and mental fitness community intervention for men in Australia (funded by Commonwealth Government of Australia), and 3) Cancer Care Workforce Project, examining the cancer workforce’s capacity to implement exercise counselling and an exercise referral pathway in Sydney, NSW (funded by the Translational Cancer Research Network-NSW Cancer Council). In addition to her community based projects, she also works with athletes, coaches, and high performance support staff in devising practical strategies for empowering coaches to identify and support athlete mental health (funded by Australian Institute of Sport).

A large component of her work involves building strong community relationships with industry partners and local community members for greater program dissemination and sustainability. Professor Caperchione collaborates extensively with International and National colleagues specific to research concerning physical activity and exercise for the prevention, management and reduction of chronic disease.

Prof Daniel Catchpoole is an expert with over 20 years of lab-based research experience in the area of childhood cancer research, tissue pathology, genomics and cell biology. He has been working in the School of Computer Science and the Biomedical Data Science Lab in the Australian Artificial lntelligence lnst¡tute for the past 2 years, but prior to this for the last 17 years (our first paper was in 2OO4). These projects bring together within FEIT, skills and knowledge in data analytics, artificial intelligence and software development with Dan's expertise in the molecular basis of childhood cancers and genomics to develop improved mapping of cancer treatment pathways. This is transformational research, and has in recent years received significant funding to support ongoing research and development from sources including the Cancer Institute of NSW and the Sony Foundation.

Since 2001, his scientific achievements and publications have primarily focused on the assessment of childhood tumours, with specific attention given to acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and neuroblastoma. Prof Catchpoole’s research focus has centred on translational research through gene expression profiling of paediatric tumours. Recent publications have dealt with the assessment of gene expression signatures proposed to identify cancer patients at risk of treatment failure. This work has lead to his current research developing a systems biology approach to the assessment of cancer patients which includes the implementation of the data-mining and visualization of complex multidimensional biomedical data derived from various high-throughput applications.

Prof Catchpoole is expert in building the necessary frameworks essential for active translational research activity in cancer. This includes experience of basic research into cell and molecular biology, knowledge of clinical pathways through medical institutions including the pathology departments practices, everyday management of biobanks and linkage to required clinical data, the generation of complex genomic and biomedical dataset by high-throughput technologies (eg microarray and next generation sequencing) and the high-end computational analysis of complex multi-dimensional data to draw out actionable knowledge which has clinical relevance.

Consequently, Prof Catchpoole brings with him extensive real-world experience in the application of governance and regulatory requirements around which translational research must be practiced. He has experience in the micro-management of a team of research professionals as well as the strategic management of valuable research infrastructure within a Public Hospital. He has built a strong record for professional networking bringing groups into collaborative arrangements around singular themes and opportunities from across the nation. This includes being a founding member and first President of The Australasian Biospecimens Network Association. His leadership in these and other areas has been recognized across the translational research disciplines and has contributed to a number of committees at local, state and national levels. Finally, Prof Catchpoole is an innovative and strategic thinker, creating novel but productive projects which enhance our understanding of the translational research in paediatric cancer.

Dr. Kaye Chan is a Senior Lecturer (equivalent to Assistant Professor) in Marketing at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, and the Marketing Department's Associate Head (Education). Kaye was formerly the Director of the Master of Digital Marketing program.

Kaye commenced her academic career after working in industry for over a decade, where she has a proven track record in managing brand portfolios, launching new products, and associated communication and engagement with a range of stakeholders.

Kaye is a passionate educator focused on work-ready skills so her students can succeed in their careers. She was the director of the new Master of Digital Marketing program and has developed and taught subjects in this program for several years. Her other areas of teaching are marketing communications, media planning, and digital marketing. She currently chairs the UTS Business School Teaching & Learning Committee and is the marketing representative on Faculty Courses Committee.

Her research interests focus on data analysis to address sustainable consumption, as well as the issues faced in media and advertising in the online environment, and how marketing communications can be used to influence and change behaviour for a socially good world.  She has a published articles in Journal of Strategic Marketing, Journal of Advertising Research, International Journal of Market Research and Journal of Consumer Behaviour..

Kaye plays an active role in academic life at UTS. In addition to her TL activities, Kaye is a member of UTS Academic Board (2026-2028), Faculty Board Business as well as the Business School Workload Committee who developed the UTS Business School workload guidelines.

Distinguished Professor Fang Chen is a globally recognised and award-winning leader in artificial intelligence and data science. She is the Executive Director of the Data Science Institute at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), where she drives transformative research and innovation at the intersection of academia, government, and industry. Her career has encompassed senior leadership roles at Intel, Motorola, and CSIRO, as well as serving as Dean of Faculty at Beijing Jiaotong University.

Research Expertise and Impact Areas

Distinguished Professor Chen’s research is internationally recognised across a broad spectrum of areas, including:

• Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Science
• Human–Machine Interaction and Behaviour Analytics

• Responsible and Human-Centred AI

• Visual and Interactive Analytics

• AI for Sustainability and Societal Impact

Her work delivers innovative, data-driven solutions spanning research, translation, and product deployment and adoption, addressing complex challenges in transportation, water, energy, agriculture, telecommunications, health, financial services, real estate, education and retail. 

Awards and Recognition

Distinguished Professor Chen has received numerous prestigious honours, including:

• Transport Woman of the Year,  by ITS Australia, the peak industry body for intelligent transport systems (2026)
• Australian Financial Review AI Awards (2025)
• The Leading Science Award, the Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Excellence in Data Science (2018)
• NSW Premier’s Prize for Science and Engineering (2021)
• ANZ Women in AI Award (2021)
• Brian Shackle Award (2017, IFIP) for outstanding contributions to human–computer interaction
• NSW Water Professional of the Year by the Australian Water Association (AWA), the peak national body for the water sector, for leadership in digital transformation. 

She has also led teams to multiple national and international awards, including the Intelligent Transport Systems Australia National Awards (2014, 2015, 2018, 2025), several iAwards (NSW 2017, 2023, 2024; VIC 2019, 2020), and the Australian Water Association’s Research and Innovation Awards (2018, 2022).

Publications and Patents

Distinguished Professor Chen has authored over 400 peer-reviewed publications and several influential books on data science and AI research, AI for business, and human–computer interaction. Her two Springer volumes on trustworthy and human-centred AI, Human and Machine Learning: Visible, Explainable, Trustworthy and Transparent (116,000 downloads since 2018) and Humanity Driven AI (32,000 downloads since 2022), have been widely read worldwide.

She has also filed more than 30 patents across eight countries (Australia, US, Canada, Europe, Japan, Korea, Mexico, and China), demonstrating her strong impact on both scientific advancement and technology transfer.

Thought Leadership and Keynotes

A sought-after global thought leader, Distinguished Professor Chen has delivered many keynote speeches at leading international conferences and has been invited numerous times to speak on the future of responsible AI and innovation at government, industry, and policy forums worldwide. A prominent public speaker, including TED Talks and international keynotes, she champions cutting-edge research and promotes responsible and inclusive innovation that builds public trust.

She has collaborated with more than 100 organisations across North America, Europe, and Asia, spanning blue-sky research through to product development and deployment. Her leadership consistently delivers pioneering technologies that generate measurable business value, societal benefit, and new models for innovation and community support.

Governance and Advisory Roles

 Distinguished Professor Chen serves on several influential boards and expert panels, including:

• Australian Federal Industry Science and Innovation Australia (IISA) Board
• NSW Government AI Review Committee (which established the AI assurance framework)
• Singapore National Research Foundation expert panel
• ITS Australia Board (2021–2024)

She is also the Chair of the ACM Intelligent User Interfaces Steering Committee and serves as an advisor to several startup companies.

Dr Ling Chen is a Professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia. She received her PhD in Computer Engineering from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, and subsequently completed postdoctoral training at the Leibniz University Hannover's L3S Research Centre in Germany.

Dr Chen’s research focuses on trustworthy machine learning, with particular emphasis on anomaly detection in graph-structured data and its applications, including fraud detection in financial transactions and malicious user detection in recommender systems. More recently, her work has expanded to the development of advanced decision-making agents, leveraging reinforcement learning and large language models (LLMs) to enable safe and reliable decision-making in interactive systems. Her current research includes hallucination detection and mitigation, as well as the design and implementation of guardrails for LLM-powered agents.

Dr Chen has successfully secured multiple competitive research grants, including an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship (Level 3), underscoring the significance and impact of her contributions to the field. Her research has attracted funding and recognition from leading industry partners, including Facebook, TPG Telecom, and Zurich Insurance, as well as government agencies such as the NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water, and the NSW Police Force.

As Research Director of the Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute (AAII), Australia’s largest AI research institute, Dr Chen leads the strategic development of a research community comprising more than 30 researchers and over 200 higher degree research students. Throughout her career, she has supervised 38 higher degree research (HDR) students and six postdoctoral researchers.

Dr Chen has delivered keynote addresses at six major national and international conferences in machine learning and data science. She currently serves as the IEEE Task Chair for Data Science and Advanced Analytics, contributing to the advancement of research and professional practice in the field.

Eva engages in cross-cultural and inclusive teaching and research, focusing on the sociotechnical impact and responsibility of engineers and technical professionals. More broadly, Eva actively collaborates on social justice and community engagement in STEM (gender) diversity and humanitarian engineering, including with the IEEE and Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Australia. Previous to her current role, she was Director of Transnational Education, and Director of Women in Engineering and IT in the Faculty.

Her technical research background is in multimedia signal processing - speech and audio signal processing and computer vision. Collaborative research projects focus on cross-disciplinary collaborations with musicians, visual artists, architects, and non-profit organisations. She is a member of the UTS Perceptual Imaging Lab (PiLab) and Centre for Audio, Acoustics and Vibration.

Dr Victor W. Chu is a data science researcher specialising in agricultural AI, explainable AI (XAI), remote sensing, energy, climate and extreme weather modelling, carbon and emissions modelling, and AI ethics. He currently leads the A-Theme at the Data Science Institute, covering livestock, horticulture and environmental modelling. His work sits at the intersection of machine learning, spatio-temporal analytics, environmental modelling and responsible AI, contributing to national priorities in digital agrifood innovation and climate resilience.

Previously, he was a Senior Research Engineer (programme management) at the Smart National Research Centre of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. His duty was to design and deliver data science solutions for government agencies, fulfilling their stringent requirements, e.g., explainability, data security, project governance and standards etc. Prior to venturing abroad, Victor was employed by the CSIRO where he completed an infrastructure failure prediction improvement project by transfer learning techniques.

He has published extensively in leading journals and conferences in data science, AI, information systems, and service computing, and serves as a reviewer for leading IEEE and ACM venues.

Professor Simon Darcy believes passionately in the rights of all people to fully participate in community life. A Professor in Management in the Enterprise, Innovation and Impact discipline at UTS Business School, he specialises in developing inclusive organisational approaches for marginalized groups, including people with disability. Simon’s work has spanned transport, tourism, employment, entrepreneurship, the built environment, sport, events, volunteers, and disability services. It is characterised by an evidence-based approach to changing practice in the business, government and not-for-profit sectors.

He has been awarded Australian Research Council grants involving volunteer management, disability entrepreneurship and improving sport legacy for marginalized groups. Together with his involvement in the CRC for Sustainable Tourism, other major grants involving national and international organisations he seeks to bring an evidence-base to change practice and policy for improved social participation and citizenship. Some of the major areas of impact includes contributing significantly to the understanding of the business case for accessible tourism nationally and internationally through the UN World Tourism Organization and, with Professor Jock Collins, undertaking research that has illuminated entrepreneurship among people with disability – informing development of the IgniteAbility startup program and ongoing work as a mentor with Remarkable.

Simon is currently working on a number of projects related to the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the Australian Disability Strategy 2021-31, disability citizenship and person-centred approaches. Internationally, he is involved in research on the management of volunteers at the Olympics and Paralympics, understanding legacy outcomes of major events, and the importance of accessibility for the sustainability and liveability of cities. Connected to all this work is how disability relates to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

To all this work, Simon brings an insider's perspective to working with marginalized groups as someone with lived experience of disability where he has experienced a pre-disability world and then as somebody who traumatically acquired his disability he has had to navigate the very different discriminatory ableist world from a disability perspective. He became the first complete quadriplegic to be a professor in Australia.

Simon also has a long history of involvement in advocacy and on volunteer boards, and of involvement with the disability community as a person with traumatically acquired disability. He has been a power wheelchair user since 1983. Simon was a member of the Disability Council of NSW (2011-2015) and actively involved in development of the NSW Disability Inclusion Act 2014. He has held a variety of board positions, was the Vice-President of the Association of Consultants in Access Australia, and is/has been an advisor to the Commonwealth and New South Wales Government on disability services, employment/entrepreneurship, transport and tourism.

Simon’s outstanding contribution to research, engagement and collaboration in accessible tourism was recognised with the World Leisure Organisation’s 2010 Innovation Prize for the Sydney For All project with Destination NSW and Easy Access Australia. He received the 2009 Vision Australia Making a Difference Award for this work. In 2017 he was invited to present the Richard Jones Oration for the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commission examining issues of transport, travel, sport and tourism as it relates to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In 2015 and 2021 Simon collaborated with UN World Tourism Organization on the development of publications outlining the field of accessible tourism and industry best practice.

From 2021-2026 Simon was named in the top 2% of scientists worldwide by the Stanford University/Elsevier BV citation metrics. This included in Business & Management & the subfields of Sports, Leisure & Tourism; Rehabilitation; and Economics & Business (See Baas, Jeroen; Boyack, Kevin; Ioannidis, John P.A. (2021-2026).

Simon was a recipient of the UTS Vice Chancellor’s Human Rights Award and the inaugural UTS human rights social media award. He also received the 2018 and 2023 Distinguished Research Scholars Award from the UTS Business School. In 2024 Simon received the UTS Chancellor's Medal for Sustained Research Excellence for work on the social participation of marginalised groups, disability citizenship and developing transformative solutions to discriminatory practices.

Simon has been recognised for his contribution to the disability community through being an Australia Day Ambassador and an Ambassador for the Don’t Dis My Ability campaign, He was nominated and awarded as highly commended for the 2020 National Aspire Awards in both the Government/University and Human Rights categories. From 2021-2024 Simon has been an Ambassador for the IncludeAbility Employment Program of the Australian Human Rights Commission working with 17 of Australia's largest employers.

Simon's research has been published in leading international journals, including the Annals of Tourism Research, Tourism Management, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, Journal of Sport Management, Sport Management Review, Voluntas, European Sports Management Quarterly, Event Management, Disability & Society, and Disability & Rehabilitation. Simon is also author or co-author or editor of 10 books, including Managing the Paralympics (2017), The Dis/ABLED Tourist: Navigating an Ableist Tourism World (2024), Accessibility in Sport Management: An International Venue Perspective (2025), and forthcoming The Paradox of Minority Entrepreneurship: Australian Insights, Global Implications (2027).

In 2026 Simon was recognised for his outstanding contributions to higher education, and accessible and inclusive environments in the Australian Honours list as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

Matt is a Lecturer and ARC-DECRA fellow in the Discipline of Psychology at the School of Clinical and Health Sciences.

He is an internationally recognised cognitive neuroscientist and early-career researcher specialising in the neuroscience of consciousness. His research interests span how changes in brain activity, structure and function impact our behaviour and subjective experience. He is an expert in experimental psychology and electroencephalography (EEG), receiving his PhD from Monash University, and completing two post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Oxford (UK) and University of Sydney.

As a postdoc at the University of Oxford his research investigated human-decision making using brain-computer-interfaces and human-machine teaming. Recently, at the University of Sydney, he developed a wireless virtual reality and mobile-EEG protocol for testing active perception while walking in naturalistic environments.

His research has been published in numerous prestigious journals such as Nature Communications, eLife, NeuroImage and PLOS Biology, and has reached a large national audience through plain-language summaries and appearances on public and commercial radio.

He is currently investigating how the brain, body, and environment co-create our subjective experience, with a focus on dynamic changes in perception that occur within the stride-cycle.

At UTS, he is the subject coordinator for 96633 Research Methods in Psychology in the undergraduate Bachelor of Psychology programs.

Michael Davis is research fellow at the UTS Centre for Media Transition, where he leads the information integrity research program. His current research focuses on the impact of generative AI on news and the digital information ecosystem, regulatory responses to misinformation, and the epistemology of the online public sphere. Prior to UTS he was senior policy advisor at the Australian Communications and Media Authority, where he worked on misinformation, the news media bargaining code, and impartiality in news. Michael has a PhD in philosophy (ANU) and has taught philosophy and the history of ideas at the ANU and at Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia, and media law and ethics at the University of Sydney and UTS. He is a member of the UTS Tech & IP Law research cluster and the AI & Data Ethics cluster, and currently teaches Disruptive Technologies and the Law.

She is the Deputy Head of School (Research) of the School of Professional Practice and Leadership at the University of Technology, Sydney Australia. Her research interests are in the contextual nexus of Learning sciences, Usability Evaluation, Human Computer Interaction, Education Technology and Individual Differences. She has served on a number of prestigious journals including Education Technology Research and Development (ETR&D), Internet and Higher Education and the Journal of Computing in Higher Education, (JCHE) where she was an Associate Editor.

She received her BSc Computer Science from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago; her MSc Software Development and Management from Rochester Institute of Technology, USA and her PhD in Information Science and Learning Technologies from the University of Missouri-Columbia, USA. She has a Blended Learning Designer certificate from the University of Central Florida, and holds certifications as a Creative Commons Educator, Project Management Professional (PMP), Six Sigma.

She is an Organisation of American States (OAS) and Fulbright Scholar who has worked at University of Melbourne, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA, and the University of the West Indies Open Campus. She has over 70 research outputs which includes an open sourced book published by Springer titled Global Perspectives on Educational Innovations for Emergency Solutions. She has received numerous awards including Instructor of the Year in 2013 from University of Missouri; Excellence award in 2012 from the Project Management Institute, Outstanding Publication award in 2018 from the Association for Education Communications and Technology and Leaner Engagement and Social Impact awards in 2022.

She has served as the Leader of the learning design team in the Faculty of Science and as the lead for various Faculty of Science projects (e.g., Blackboard to Canvas conversion, COVID design and delivery). She joined the Faculty of Engineering and IT in 2023 as a member of the Professional Practice and Leadership School.