AIO Team

PROGRAM LEAD, RMIT University

Julian is a Distinguished Professor in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University. Julian is a Board member of the Australian Communications Consumers Action Network (ACCAN), and an Advisory Board member of Humanitech, an initiative of the Australian Red Cross. He is the chair of the AIO Steering Committee.

DIRECTOR, HASS AND INDIGENOUS RESEARCH DATA COMMONS, Australian Research Data Commons

With over 20 years’ experience in collecting, managing and disseminating research and cultural heritage data and resources, Jenny is passionate about delivering quality research infrastructure and data to meet the diverse needs of HASS and Indigenous researchers.

PARTNER LEAD, The Queensland University of Technology

Dan is a Professor of Digital Communication in the School of Communication at QUT. His novel computational methods have improved our understanding of the nature of communication in medical consultations, conversations in aged care settings, television broadcast, social media, and newspaper reporting.

PARTNER LEAD, The University of Queensland

Prof Nic Carah is the Director of the Centre for Digital Cultures and Societies in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and a Professor in the School of Communication and Arts at The University of Queensland. Nic’s research examines the algorithmic, promotional and participatory cultures of digital media platforms.

PARTNER LEAD, The University of Melbourne

Chris is a Professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems at The University of Melbourne. Prof Leckie has a strong interest in developing AI techniques for a variety of applications in telecommunications, such as cyber security, network management, fault diagnosis and the Internet-of-Things.

PARTNER LEAD, Swinburne University of Technology

Prof Anthony McCosker is Professor of Media and Communication and Director of the Social Innovation Research Institute at Swinburne University of Technology. His research addresses digital inclusion and inequalities associated with technology adoption. His current work includes researching community impacts of automation, machine vision and AI technologies.

PARTNER LEAD, Deakin University

Matteo is an Associate Professor at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University. His work spans social sciences, psychology, and data science, and he collaborates with colleagues across faculties to develop innovative methodologies and tools for addressing complex societal challenges, particularly related to online and offline hate.

EXTERNAL REPRESENTATIVE, The University of Technology Sydney

Dr Heather Ford is an ARC Future Fellow and Professor in the School of Communications at UTS. She is the Coordinator of the UTS Data and AI Ethics Cluster, Affiliate of the UTS Data Science Institute, and Associate of the UTS Centre for Media Transition. She was appointed to the International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) in 2023.

RESEARCH LEAD, RMIT University

Dr Damiano Spina is Senior Lecturer and former DECRA Fellow at the School of Computing Technologies at RMIT University. His research areas are Information Retrieval (IR), Text Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). In particular, his research focuses on interactive IR, evaluation of information access systems, and responsible AI.

RESEARCH LEAD, The Queensland University of Technology

Patrik Wikstrom is a Professor of Communication and Director of QUT Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC). Most of his work over the past few years has been about how recommender systems shape the consumption and production of digital culture. He is a computational social scientist with a passion for developing computational tools and methods for fellow social science and humanities researchers. 

RESEARCH LEAD, The University of Melbourne

Shanika is a Professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems and the Deputy Dean (Academic) in the Faculty of Engineering and IT at the University of Melbourne. Her current research focuses on real-time analytics and data stream mining, with applications in Social Media Analytics and Autonomous Traffic Management.

RESEARCH LEAD, The University of Melbourne

Richard is the Professor of Applied Computing Systems in the School of Computing and Information Systems, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Melbourne. He established and leads the Melbourne eResearch Group and has been lead software engineer/architect on an extensive portfolio of national and international projects worth over $400m thus far at the university.

RESEARCH LEAD, Deakin University

Andrea is a Distinguished Professor in the fields of cultural heritage and museology at the Deakin University. She is also the Associate Dean Research for the Faculty of Arts and Education. Her experience informs the digitalisation of the cultural heritage and museum studies, that will translate to research support for GLAM and HASS researchers.

PROGRAM DIRECTOR, RMIT University

Dr Amanda Lawrence has extensive experience in social research infrastructure, digital libraries, arts management and research communication. She has a PhD in media and communication and was the Director of Analysis & Policy Observatory (APO) for 12 years.

DEVOPS SOFTWARE ENGINEER, RMIT University

With a strong background in AWS infrastructure automation, CI/CD, and cloud-native solutions, Anish Mathew brings invaluable expertise in optimising cloud resources, driving system stability, and streamlining application lifecycles.

DATA SCIENTIST, RMIT University

Dr Futoon Abu Shaqra holds a PhD in Computer Science from RMIT University where she developed cutting-edge deep learning methodologies to enhance sequence data modelling. Her work has been recognised through prestigious fellowships, including the DAAD AInet Fellowship for AI in Cyber-Physical Systems.

PROJECT AND COMMUNICATION, RMIT University

Jigya completed her PhD in Information and Knowledge Management from Monash University. She specialises in the governance and ethics of technological solutions, along with streamlining data and records management within business information systems. She has worked in strategic communications and project management.

SENIOR DATA ENGINEER, The Queensland University of Technology

Dr Abdul Obeid specialises in data science, machine learning, and probabilistic models. With a PhD in Quantum Information Science, he researches computational methods and has industry and academic experience in development, IoT, data transformation, and teaching analysts at QUT.

MANAGER - DIGITAL OBSERVATORY, The Queensland University of Technology

Marissa is the Manager of the QUT Digital Observatory under the QUT Research Infrastructure. She holds a PhD in Business Information Systems, MBA from The University of Queensland Business School and MSc in Information Engineering from Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan.

SENIOR DEVELOPER, The Queensland University of Technology

James is a Senior Developer/Data Scientist at the Queensland University of Technology, with a track record of building high-impact software for research applications across multiple institutions. He brings technical expertise and a collaborative approach to unlock the full potential of data for research.

SENIOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPER, The Queensland University of Technology

Robert is a Senior Data Scientist/Developer at QUT’s Research Infrastructure, specialising in AI implementation and social network analysis. With extensive experience across Australian universities and research institutions, he brings expertise in machine learning, data visualization, and research software development.

RESEARCH FELLOW, The University of Queensland

Luke is a Research Fellow in Digital Cultures & Societies at the University of Queensland. His wide-ranging work investigates the sociocultural impacts of digital cultures, from data infrastructures in Asia to platform labor and far-right radicalisation. Luke will be contributing research expertise on data visualisation and AI tools.

RESEARCH FELLOW, The University of Queensland

Lauren is completing a PhD at the University of Queensland. Her research considers how platform consumer cultures are structured by digital advertising, through an examination of alcohol promotion and online expression of drinking culture. Lauren draws on media, gender, and critical algorithm studies in her work, as well has her previous industry experience in marketing and advertising.

FULL STACK DEVELOPER, The University of Queensland

Michael Esteban is a senior software developer at the University of Queensland. Michael has extensive experience supporting interdisciplinary research projects. His interests include open source, electronics and education.

SOFTWARE DEVELOPER, The University of Queensland

Dan Tran is a software developer at the University of Queensland working across AIO and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making & Society (ADM+S). With a strong proficiency in web technologies, Dan is passionate about creating digital solutions that bridge the gap between data and decision-making.

DATA GOVERNANCE MANAGER, Swinburne University of Technology

Yong-Bin Kang is a senior data science research fellow at ADM+S at Swinburne University of Technology. With a PhD in AI from Monash University, his research is dedicated to advancing the responsible and impactful use of data and AI technologies to address complex societal challenges.

MACHINE LEARNING ENGINEER, The University of Melbourne

Mike has joined The University of Melbourne as an ML Engineer who will be assisting the technical team in creating the test environments for the national research infrastructure. He has strong research interests in anomaly detection and generative model trustworthiness and safety.

CLOUD ARCHITECT, The University of Melbourne

Luca is interested in innovative IT technologies and takes a holistic approach to software development, from the data up to the UX. He is currently working on his doctoral research about the application of Large Language Models to the geospatial domain at the University of Melbourne. His expertise is helpful for the API platform development for the national research infrastructure.

RESEARCH TRAINING MANAGER, Deakin University

Dr Bogdan Mamaev is leading the development of research training and information resources at AIO. He has a PhD in Political Science from Griffith University and has published research on using computational analysis tools, machine learning, and large language models to analyse protests and political regimes.