Dr Ariba Abasi is a Lecturer in Engineering Management and Professional Practice in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Her interdisciplinary research bridges engineering, accounting, and social justice, with a particular focus on modern slavery in supply chains, sustainability accounting and reporting, and social sustainability in engineering sectors.

Ariba’s work critically examines how accounting and engineering systems can impact human rights, ethical labour practices and sustainability frameworks into professional and educational contexts. Her research has explored vernacular accounting practices and their intersections with bonded labour and colonial legacies, as well as rights-based approaches to infrastructure and engineering education across the Indo-Pacific.

She has published and presented internationally on themes of modern slavery in business and supply chains, social sustainability metrics and the role of education in fostering ethical engineering practice. In her teaching and curriculum design, Ariba integrates systems thinking, sustainability assessment, and human rights-based approaches to prepare graduates who can address complex global challenges with social conscience and accountability.

Mona is a Senior Lecturer at the School of the Built Environment, Faculty of Design and Society, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia. After completing her Master of Engineering Studies in Construction Management degree at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, she joined UTS in 2014 and has been involved in developing several subjects for the Bachelor of Construction Project Management course. Mona completed her PhD in Design Management at the University of Technology Sydney. In her PhD study, she developed a novel method for capturing interactions during design meetings in construction projects. Her research adopted a practice-based inter-organisational perspective to examine interdisciplinary collaboration in the detailed design phase of construction projects.

Mona researches circular economy approaches to fit-out construction waste, focusing on reducing waste, reusing materials, and improving collaboration across the commercial building sector. Her bushfire resilience work examines retrofitting measures for homes in rural Australia, assessing vulnerabilities to ember and smoke incursion and recommending upgrades to meet Australian Standard AS3959.

Mona is the Academic Lead for Women in Construction and Property, leading initiatives that support female students in Construction Management and Property Economics. In this role, she promotes inclusive learning environments and develops mentorship and professional development programs that empower women to pursue leadership pathways within the construction and property sectors.

Dr. Arnick Abdollahi is a multi‑award‑winning researcher and subject coordinator at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), specialising in Earth and Space Science Informatics, Artificial Intelligence, Environmental Intelligence and Data Science. He completed his Ph.D. at UTS and was a research fellow at the Bushfire Research Centre of Excellence, Australian National University (ANU), where he led national AI‑driven sensing initiatives to enhance bushfire resilience. His work has advanced bushfire behaviour analysis, promoted responsible AI in environmental monitoring, and influenced national strategies for remote sensing and risk management.

Arnick conducts transdisciplinary research and currently leads a national agricultural initiative developing AI‑powered grazing planners that combine climate forecasting, remote sensing and pasture–livestock modelling to support informed, climate‑resilient decision‑making by producers. He is also leading research to develop a national, data‑driven bushfire risk and resilience framework for Australian grazing ecosystems, integrating machine learning, Earth‑ and space‑based technologies, and land management practices to quantify risk, inform mitigation strategies, and support climate‑resilient decision‑making before and after fire events.

In addition, he leads an international research initiative bringing together partners from Australia, Canada, the UK and Germany, alongside industry and First Nations organisations. This project develops AI‑ and satellite‑based early‑warning technologies to understand flash‑drought occurrence in complex grazing systems, supporting climate‑resilient grazing systems and land‑use decision‑making across diverse environmental and climatic contexts.

In his teaching role, Arnick coordinates and lectures postgraduate subjects within the Master of Data Science and Innovation (MDSI) at the UTS Transdisciplinary School, including core and advanced subjects in machine learning, artificial intelligence, natural language processing and data science practice. He leads collaborative teaching teams and designs, evaluates and delivers problem‑based, transdisciplinary learning experiences with strong connections to real‑world challenges, industry engagement and applied research. His teaching emphasises responsible AI, hands‑on analytics, and the integration of data science theory with practical decision‑making in complex, real‑world contexts.

Arnick’s academic service spans postgraduate education, scholarly publishing, national research capabilities, and community engagement. He serves on postgraduate assessment panels at the UTS Transdisciplinary School and supervises honours and postgraduate students, as well as research assistants, contributing to capacity‑building and researcher development. He has chaired international webinar and conference series on advances in machine learning, Earth and space technologies, environmental intelligence, and data science. He is an active contributor to the international academic community through editorial leadership and professional service, having served as Main Guest Editor for multiple special issues in field‑related journals and reviewed manuscripts for more than 35 international journals. His service also includes delivering invited talks at workshops, webinars, and conferences, as well as research presentations at national and international forums and conferences.

Arnick has received numerous grants and accolades in recognition of his impact and groundbreaking work, including being named the Rising Star of the Year at the 2025 Australian Space Awards—Australia’s most prestigious recognition for emerging leaders in the Earth and space sector—and being recognised as a standout nominee for Australia’s foremost national AI honour, the 2024 and 2025 Australian AI Awards, in the AI Academic/Researcher of the Year and AI Rising Star of the Year categories. He has also been internationally distinguished as a World's Top 2% Scientist in the Stanford–Elsevier global ranking (2025). 

Current Projects:

• Strategic Research Project: AI-Driven Remote Sensing of Bushfire Risk in Australian Grazing Systems.
• Foragecaster: Build an operational and accurate AI-driven remote sensing prediction tool for livestock producers to enable optimised farm management and business decision making in the face of climate variability.
• Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) Research Development Project: Advancing EarthSense AI-driven Livestock Farm Management for Climate-Resilient Food Security.
• Strategic Research Project: AI-Driven Advanced Radar Imaging for Optimised Pasture Feed Quality and Production.

Past Projects:

• The Australian Research Data Common (ARDC) Bushfire Data Challenges program: Aggregated and harmonised fuel attributes known to influence the fire behaviour modelling on a national scale (Australia) to improve bushfire management and understanding of risk.
• Bushfire Risk Sensing Framework: Developing an effective, responsible AI-driven sensing framework to predict fire hazards and limit the increasing occurrence of bushfires in Australia.
• UTS Strategic Research Funding: Forecasting Grass Pollen with Satellite Sensor Time-series, Meteorology Data, and Machine Learning Tools.
• Maxar Spatial Challenge: Monitoring land type features with high-resolution remote sensing and deep learning.
• CSIRO’s national bushfire intelligence capability (NBIC) project: Develop automated workflows for generating nationally consistent, spatially continuous, and temporally dynamic layers of vegetation and fuel parameters that are multi-functional in application.

Dr. Mahrokh Abdollahi is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Telecom Resilience Centre (NTRC), University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical and Data Engineering from UTS in 2016 and 2022, respectively. During her doctoral studies, she was awarded a UTS Doctoral Scholarship, the 2019 FEIT Female HDR Top-Up Scholarship, and the Vice-Chancellor’s Postgraduate Research Student Conference Fund. From 2006 to 2014, she worked as a Computer Engineer on a range of networking projects. Prior to joining NTRC, she worked at CSIRO’s Data61, where she contributed to research in O-RAN and privacy-enhancing technologies. At NTRC, she leads and contributes to research in telecommunications resilience, emergency communications, O-RAN, machine learning and AI for communication systems, software-defined networking, privacy, and cybersecurity.

Expertise: Sustainability | High-Performance Building Design | Energy Retrofit | Energy Analysis | Building Auditing | Adaptive Reuse | IEQ Assessment | Health and Well-being | Thermal Comfort | Urban Heat Islands | Outdoor Thermal Comfort | Air Quality Assessment | CFD | Visual Quality Assessment | Room Acoustics | Future Cities | Urban Zoning | Climate Resilience | Renewable Energies | Generative Design | Parametric Design | Multi-Objective Optimisation | BASIX | NABERS | Tool Development

Ph.D. outcome: Development of a solar-driven urban zoning framework (potential tool) for Western Sydney suburbs.

1st highest scoring publisher (among non-staff) and 7th (among staff) in 2023 ROC.

Maria has been teaching at UTS since 2012. She teaches the core subjects of Real Property and Civil Practice. Maria also taught as part of the PLT team at UTS from 2012 to 2023 training future lawyers in litigation, will drafting and in criminal practice. Maria holds a BA (history, philosophy and politics)/LLB, a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice, and an LLM in Criminal law and Criminology from the University of New South Wales. She is admitted as a solicitor to the Supreme Court of New South Wales and the High Court of Australia. Maria is also the principal of a boutique law firm. She has been a solicitor in private practice for more than 20 years. Her practice areas include litigation, wills and estates, property and criminal law. 

A cybersecurity consultant, educator, and researcher with over 15 years of industry experience, Montii specialises in strengthening organisational security through incident response, SOC optimisation, and AI-driven security practices. He has extensive hands-on experience deploying and integrating leading security technologies — including SIEM, EDR, SOAR, and AI-assisted analytics platforms — to improve detection and response outcomes.

Montii has worked with global enterprise clients as well as SMEs, advising on security operations design, vendor selection, and technology benchmarking. His expertise spans compliance landscapes such as ISO, PCI DSS, GDPR, and SOC 2, where he aligns governance requirements with technical controls and vendor capabilities to deliver measurable security improvements.

Alongside his consultancy, Montii teaches and mentors professionals in applied threat intelligence, incident management, and the integration of AI into enterprise security stacks. His focus is on ensuring organisations — from fast-growing SMEs to global corporations — can adapt to the evolving vendor ecosystem and leverage next-generation tools effectively.

Research and Practice Areas

• Incident Response Readiness & Simulation – developing frameworks organisations can use to test, benchmark, and strengthen their response capabilities.
  
  
• AI-Augmented Security Operations – applying AI and LLMs within SIEM, SOAR, and EDR platforms to accelerate detection, triage, and response.
  
  
• SOC Effectiveness & Vendor Benchmarking – evaluating SOC services and technology providers to compare value, scalability, and operational impact.
  
  
• Threat Intelligence at Scale – leveraging AI to automate enrichment, correlate threat feeds, and integrate intelligence across multiple vendor platforms.
  
  
• Governance, Risk & Compliance Tooling – examining how AI-driven platforms and vendor solutions can streamline assurance and reporting processes.
  
  
• Resilient Architectures – designing adaptive, cloud-native environments with vendor technologies that integrate predictive analytics and autonomous defence.

Mr. Abir is a second-year PhD researcher at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), affiliated with the School of Electrical and Data Engineering. He is supervised by Dr. Mehran Abolhasan, Dr. Justin Lipman, and Dr. Negin Shariati Moghadam. His research focuses on  AI-Native Topology Learning and Optimization of Integrated 6G Terrestrial and Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs). In particular, his work investigates the application of spatiotemporal graph-representative learning techniques for modeling and orchestrating the dynamic topologies of heterogeneous, multi-layer NTNs in next-generation wireless systems.

Mr. Abir’s PhD research is supported by the NTT Group (Japan) and the Food Agility Cooperative Research Center (CRC) Ltd. (Australia) under the Australian Government CRC Program. This work contributes to the project “Sustainable Sensing, Enhanced Connectivity, and Data Analytics for Precision Urban and Rural Agriculture,” conducted within the RF and Communication Technologies (RFCT) Research Laboratory at UTS.

Prof. Mehran Abolhasan is in the field of Communication Engineering, where he is currently conducting research in areas such as Wireless Networking, Internet of Things, Cybersecurity, Software Defined Networking, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), Urban Greening and Digital Agriculture.

He has an internationally renowned research track record through publishing high quality papers in leading journals and conferences with over 10000 citations with a H-index of 41 (GoogleScholar). He has been listed in Stanford University’s top 2% of all scientists list. His significant contributions towards the advancement of knowledge in the field of Communications Engineering has been through the development of theoretical and simulation models, algorithms and protocols, testbeds, and prototypes. His research has resulted in more than 200 publications including top Q1 journals such as IEEE Transaction Journals. Furthermore, he has made significant contribution to the scientific community by serving as a reviewer, TPC, general chair for major international conferences and journals in his field.

In addition to his theoretical research track record, he has over 20 years of experience leading research projects, HDR students and research labs. Currently, he is the leader of the Intelligent Networks and Applications Lab (iNAL) at FEIT, where he has established a lab to enable modelling, development and testing of networking technologies and applications. He has also held significant research leadership roles in the Faculty of Engineering and IT. This includes serving as the Director of Research Programs and the chair of the FEIT Research Degrees Committee from 2014 to 2017 and serving as the Deputy head of School for Research for the School of Electrical and Data Engineering (SEDE) from 2016 to 2022. He is currently leading the ASTRID (Advancing STEM, Technology Research and Deployment) program, which is a major R&D initiative between UTS an NBNCo, aiming to solve critical challenges in telecommunications. He is leading a large R&D team, including a number of Postdocs, PhD students and interns. 

He has strong research mentorship experience through which he has led over 20 HDRs successful to completion. Through his sustained track record of industry engagement, creation of new research ideas and directions, he has successfully secured several R&D projects worth over eight million dollars. This includes external grants such as ARC, CRC, Industry and Government funded research projects. He has experience in standardisation and has previously served as the head of Australian Delegates and a contributing member for the ISO/IEC international standardisation Committee for Internet of Things (IoT) (ISO/IEC SC41). He is currently a Senior Member of IEEE.

Dr Mohammad Abuhilaleh received his B.S. degree in Electrical Power Engineering from Yarmouk University, Jordan, and the M.Eng. degree in Energy Planning and Policy and Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. He is currently a Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney. He also served as a Subject Coordinator and Lecturer at Northeastern University, China, as part of the Sydney Smart Technology College (SSTC) program, a joint initiative established in 2020 between Northeastern University and the University of Technology Sydney. Prior to his academic career, he worked for eight years as a power engineer at the National Electric Power Company in Jordan. His research interests include microgrids, hybrid AC/DC microgrids, renewable energy integration, and power system control.

Dr. Ishmael Adams' research focuses on the intersection of climate change, informal urbanisation, and sustainable built environment. He has over 18 years related industry and academic experience and holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in urban and regional planning. He also graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy in Built Environment from UTS and holds a couple of certificates in project management. 

Ishmael's research has been published in high impact journals including Local Environment, Sustainability, Construction Economics and Building, and Climate. He also actively engages as a peer reviewer for esteemed journals including Cities, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Urban Ecosystems, Environmental Science & Policy, Discover Sustainability, Sustainable Communities, Discover Cities, City and Environment Interactions, Journal of Building Engineering, and Journal of Building Design and Environment, contributing to the scholarly discourse in his areas of expertise. At UTS, Ishmael has played varied roles including subject coordination, lecturing, tutoring, marking and research assistance since 2017. He has been involved in teaching or marking and or coordination of subjects such as Development Negotiation and Community Engagement, Urban Economics and Infrastructure Funding, Minor Research Project, Major Research Project and Urban Renewal in the Master of Planning course.

Jon Adams is an Adjunct Professor in Public Health at UTS.

Jon's research program spans over 30 years across a vast range of health and health care topics, including: formal care, community-based care and self-care for those with a range of chronic illnesses (especially cardiovascular disease, stroke, affective disorders and dementia); practices, behaviours and initiatives to promote, facilitate and improve quality of life, wellbeing and prevention; healthy ageing; women's health; rural and remote health issues; cancer and palliative care; healthy cities and urban design; indigenous health; and the health of priority and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) populations, amongst others.

As Honorary Professor, Jon provides ongoing collaboration input and expertise in both methodology and substantive health research topics with UTS colleagues on several research publications, projects and other research activities. Jon also continues to provide supervisory input for PhD students at UTS. 

Rebecca Addo is a Research Fellow at CHERE (Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation).

Her interest in the field of health economics began when she started working as a hospital nurse in Ghana.

“I realised that there were a lot of things we needed to work with on the ward that we didn’t have resources for,” Dr Addo said.

“There were also conditions that could be prevented before they got to hospital.”

This prompted her to complete her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Ghana, before coming to UTS in 2015 to complete a PhD in health economics.

Her PhD thesis focused on assessing the feasibility of a developing country (Ghana), constrained with human and data resources, to conduct and use Health Technology Assessment (HTA) for health decision making. Her thesis found that it was feasible for Ghana to conduct and use HTA in their health system when the identified barriers and challenges such as limited human and data capacity and lack of knowledge of HTA. The thesis also highlighted that limited data for HTA in Ghana, meant relying on international data in the short to medium term, however, these data need to be transformed to be context-specific before they are suitable for use in an economic evaluation.

Currently, Rebecca’s main research interests include, priority setting in health, HTA, and the application of HTA methods to health care decisions in developing countries and development and measurement of health outcomes.

She has skills in mixed research methods including economic modelling, systematic literature reviews, and stakeholder engagements through qualitative research methods.

In her current position, Rebecca is part of the Economic Evaluation team that critically appraises economic evaluations for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) and Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC). Rebecca conducts health technology assessment for the MSAC and other external bodies such as the Singapore Agency for Care Effectiveness. Rebecca also works with the Quality of Life team on the development and psychometric testing of health outcome measures such as EQ-5D-5L and its bolt-on descriptors. Her work in this area involves working with researchers internationally, in the UK and Ghana. In addition to research work, Rebecca teaches health economics subjects offered in the university.

“Companies submit data on a new drug, and we evaluate what has been presented for the Department of Health,” she said.

“We look at the data so see if the drug does what it does, models, the safety and effectiveness of the drug, whether the government should fund it and how much it will cost the government in the first six years.”

Previously, Rebecca has worked as a general nurse and as a lecturer in nursing and public health institutions located in Ghana, and as a tutor in health economics at UTS, Australia. Rebecca also has experience in teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students in public health, health economics, and nursing both in Ghana and Australia.

Lisa Aditya is a Research Fellow working in water and wastewater treatment, with core expertise in microalgae biotechnology. Her broader research also extends to semiconductor wastewater treatment, where she applies catalytic and advanced oxidation processes to remove industrial contaminants such as hydrogen peroxide, triazole compounds, and PFAS.

Her research has resulted in two Australian patent applications for wastewater treatment technologies that are currently undergoing industrial and commercial evaluation. All of her peer-reviewed publications have been published in leading Q1 journals, with two recognised as Highly Cited Papers. Since 2023, she has taught and tutored engineering subjects at the University of Technology Sydney, including Fluid Mechanics, Heat and Mass Transfer, and Process Simulation. She also supervises master’s and PhD students.

Currently she serves as a Chief Investigator on an industry-linked research project with Aerofloat focused on PFAS removal technologies. She also works directly and closely with Infinite Water International on hydrogen peroxide and triazole removal from semiconductor wastewater.

Dr Johanna Adriaanse is an internationally acclaimed expert in sport, women and gender equality. She began her career as a teacher in Physical Education and Sport in schools in the Netherlands, Italy and Australia. In 1990 she became an academic in Sport Science/Management at the University of Technology Sydney, where she currently is a Professional Fellow in the Business School.

She has published her work in edited books and prestigious academic journals in the field including the Journal of Sport Management, the International Review for the Sociology of Sport and the Journal of Business Ethics. She has been a visiting scholar in the USA (Smith College, Massachusetts), the Netherlands (Utrecht University) and Norway (Norwegian University of Sport Sciences).

In addition, Johanna is a strong public advocate for women's rights in sport and has completed projects with, among other, UN Women in New York, UK Sport in London and the Catalan Government in Barcelona. She regularly provides expert commentary for the media and has delivered presentations/workshops at conferences in all continents of the world. 

Throughout her career she has held numerous board positions, both nationally and internationally. She has been, among other, President of Womensport New South Wales (2000-2004), Board member of WomenSport International (2005-2019) and Co-chair of the International Working Group on Women and Sport (2006-2014). This demonstrates her strategic approach to working with others to affect social change.

In 2010 she convened the 5th World Conference on Women and Sport in Sydney and led its legacy: the Sydney Scoreboard, a tool to monitor and accelerate more women in sport leadership positions globally.

Johanna received a Trailblazer Award from the NSW Government for advancing women and sport in 2020 and the Margaret Pewtress Memorial Award from the Australian Government for her outstanding contribution to women’s sport in 2004. Representing the Netherlands in the Europe Cup for Hockey, she was a member of the team that won four gold medals in the 1970s.