The 5th UQ-wide AI HDR Showcase was successfully hosted by the AI Research Network, Alina Bialkowski, CIRES CI Rocky Chen, CIRES Centre Director, Shazia Sadiq & Shane Culpepper on 10-11 June, with 34 student presentations and over 100 attendees. The two-day event brought together students and researchers from diverse fields across the university from business, education, arts, agriculture, medicine, computer science, and engineering, to explore the transformative role of AI. The core theme throughout the showcase was shifting focus from merely using AI, to developing essential human skills; with speakers emphasising that while AI excels at generating answers, humans must possess superior critical thinking, and the ability to define the right questions.
There were many amazing contributions, including from Rocky Chen, Paul Vrbik, and Aneesha Bakharia in our School. Highlights included Pierre Benckendorff’s (Deputy Dean, Grad School) opening address on HDR skills and research culture, Stefan Hajkowicz’s (Chief Research Consultant, CSIRO) keynote on future “purple skills”, Sophia Arkinstall’s (Founder, AI & Society) talk on AI Literacy, the AI Expert Panel discussion chaired by Rocky Chen with EECS’s Paul Vrbik and EECS PhD graduates (Aninda Saha, Ashleigh Richardson, Shengyao Zhuang) contrasting different relationships with AI in work and life from managing AI agents, to preventing people from blindly trusting AI, and Aneesha Bakharia’s hands-on Vibe-Coding workshop, during which students built their own practical research apps.
The showcase celebrated student creativity and dedication through multiple award categories, with EECS’s Feng Luo winning People’s Choice Best Presentation. Thanks to the EECS judges and attendees! Full summary and photos of the event are available here.