CIRES Third Information Resilience Symposium

On Wednesday 7 August, CIRES hosted our third Information Resilience Symposium. This year’s event explored the important topic of learning in the age of AI, featuring state-of-the-art insights through a dynamic panel discussion and two thought-provoking keynotes from Dr Kristen Dicerbo, Chief Learning Officer at Khan Academy, and Associate Professor Paul Denny from The University of Auckland. The event also included an engaging Information Resilience Escape Room, which added a layer of fun, positive engagement, and mild competition, making the experience both educational and entertaining. Congratulations to the symposium chair Hasan Khosravi, and CIRES Director Shazia Sadiq and the team, who also celebrated the year three milestone of the Centre at the event – with a fabulous looking cake!

CIRES turns 3!

From left: Dr Hasan Khosravi [Symposium Chair] with special guest panelists Professor Kelly Matthews [The University of Queensland], Professor Jason Tangen [The University of Queensland], Professor Xiaofang Zhou [CIRES International Expert Panel], Dr Aneesha Bakharia [The University of Queensland] and Professor Shazia Sadiq [CIRES Centre Director]

CIRES CI A/Prof Gianluca Demartini – ARC Future Fellowship 2024

Congratulations to CIRES Chief Investigator & Theme Leader, Associate Professor Gianluca Demartini who has been awarded an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship! The ARC announced $106.7 million in funding this week for 100 new projects under the ARC’s 2024 Future Fellowships scheme.

Gianluca’s project “A Principled Approach to Data Bias Management in Data Pipelines” aims to tackle the fundamental problems of bias in data and AI, and proposes the new concept of bias management. Being trained with massive amounts of human generated content, AI may reflect and reinforce human bias and stereotypes and may be used for malicious purposes. Urgent action is needed to support the average person in better understanding if the output of AI systems can be trusted or not. The aim is to empower end-users to make informed data-driven decisions and benefit Australia by accelerating investment in responsible AI and fostering greater social acceptance in AI.

“It is exciting to have the opportunity to work on this important research topic for the next four years. I would like to thank all the people involved in the work that resulted in this fellowship.”

Congratulations Gianluca!

Building business success from AI and digital innovation

On 1 August, CIRES Centre Director, Shazia Sadiq was a panellist for the Business Matters event “Building business success from AI and digital innovation” hosted by Business Chamber Queensland, in partnership with the Australian Retirement Trust. Joining Shazia on the panel were Brett Lightfoot (Queensland State Director, Microsoft) and Jamie Wilson (Founder & Executive Chairman, Cryptoloc Data Security) with the discussion moderated by Business Chamber Queensland CEO, Heidi Cooper. The discussion focused on the opportunities for Queensland businesses to gain significant competitive advantages from AI and advanced digital transformation, and the innovation and productivity gains that can be realised through workforces and systems.