On 26 January, in collaboration with scientists from CommBank and NUS, CIRES Chief Investigator, Dr Rocky Chen, and Dr Joel Mackenzie organized a workshop “Agentic AI in Financial Services” at the AAAI’26 conference in Singapore. This workshop aimed to promote recent advances in the intersection of Agentic Systems, FinTech, Information Retrieval, and Personalized Recommendation. The workshop featured oral and poster presentations of accepted papers, as well as three keynotes given by Machine Learning/FinTech experts Feng Liu (UniMelb), Hari Suresh (Nvidia), and Guansong Pang (SMU), and was well-attended by 55+ delegates on the day. Notably, among the 224 authors of 22 accepted papers, 35.3% are industry-affiliated, including those from BlackRock, JP Morgan, VISA, and Alibaba – the financial industry sector is putting real investments in agentic FinTech systems!
Month: January 2026
Back to School
Earlier this month, CIRES Centre Director, Professor Shazia Sadiq, had the honour of being invited to her old high school – ICG:Islamabad College for Girls.
“It was so much more than a trip down memory lane. This is a state school, with free education for over 6000 girls. It was much smaller when I was there! The calibre of the students (check out the podcast) and the dedication of the staff was nothing short of inspirational. Such examples, especially in a developing country like Pakistan, give me lots of confidence in our future leaders. Go ICG! And a shout out to the many collaborators I have the privilege of knowing, who are champions of girls’ education and women in technology.
Some years ago, I had come across the work of Paul Hawken and the Drawdown project where the ‘Analysis of 125 countries shows that education (particularly female education) is the single most important socioeconomic factor associated with a reduction in vulnerability to natural disasters.'”
Postdoctoral Research Fellow position at UQ
Applications close 1st February 2026
We are recruiting for a Level A postdoc fellow to join us in the ARC Training Centre for Information Resilience (CIRES) at The University of Queensland in sunny Brisbane, Australia.
This position will contribute to cutting-edge research on AI preparedness and the evaluation of AI deployments across public and private sectors. You’ll develop frameworks to assess organisational and data barriers to AI adoption, evaluate implementation outcomes, and analyse the impact of emerging AI policies, standards, and governance guidelines.
This role is mainly based at the ARC Training Centre for Information Resilience (CIRES) at The University of Queensland working closely with leading experts and industry partners. You’ll be supported by senior academics with opportunities for increasing autonomy over time.
We are seeking a candidate with:
- Completion or near completion of a PhD in Computer Science, Data Science, Information Systems or a related field.
- Demonstrated expertise in empirical methods, proficiency in data analysis, and deep knowledge of contemporary AI tools and techniques
- Experience in conducting research projects, demonstrating high-level written and oral communication skills.
- Peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals or premiere conferences.
- Ability to work both independently and as a member of a cross-disciplinary research team.
See the full position description and how to apply:
Applications close Sunday 1 February 2026 at 11:00pm AEST.
This position will be based in the Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Information Resilience (CIRES) at UQ, and working across multiple projects with industry and government partners, providing a wealth of experience in multi-disciplinary teams, research planning, and industry and public sector dynamics. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work directly with the Centre’s partners, with an expected third of their time dedicated to working with partner organisations.
Questions? For more information about this opportunity, please contact Professor Shazia Sadiq and Professor Marta Indulska.