Author: Kath Williamson

STA’s Science Meets Parliament 2025

Posted on by Kath Williamson

CIRES Centre Director, Professor Shazia Sadiq, attended Science & Technology Australia’s Science Meets Parliament initiative. This annual event fosters meaningful connections between the STEM sector and policymakers. 2025 celebrated 25 years of SMP on 12 and 13 February.

Science Meets Parliament features a comprehensive training program designed to strengthen relationships between federal Parliamentarians and professionals in science and technology. It plays a vital role in integrating STEM expertise into national service. Participants gain valuable insights into effective engagement strategies with policymakers, while federal Parliamentarians have the opportunity to connect with leading experts in science and technology. This national gathering brings together STEM leaders for expert-led professional development, a welcome reception, a Parliamentary forum, a national gala dinner, a televised address at the National Press Club, and intimate meetings with Parliamentarians in small group settings. A highlight of the Parliamentary calendar, Science Meets Parliament provides exceptional opportunities to enhance the visibility and understanding of STEM within Parliament and Australian Government Departments.

Professor Shazia Sadiq convenes panel at ACSW 2025

Posted on by Kath Williamson

The 2025 Australasian Computer Science Week, ACSW, will be held at The University of Queensland, 10th – 14th Feb 2025.

On 11 February, CIRES Centre Director, Professor Shazia Sadiq will convene a panel entitled “The vital role of Computing Researchers in Science Advocacy”. She is joined by panellists:

  • Professor Ben Rubenstein, The University of Melbourne
  • Professor Anton van den Hengel, The University of Adelaide
  • Kylie Walker, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering
  • Ann Nicholson, Monash University

About the Panel: Computing research is often celebrated for its transformative contributions to diverse fields such as health, energy, agriculture, and more. However, this narrative frequently casts computer science as merely an enabling discipline, sidelining the critical role of fundamental computing research in shaping scientific and technological progress.

This panel aims to challenge this perception and advocate for computing researchers as first-class citizens in science advocacy. Bringing together leading experts, this discussion will spotlight the unique contributions of computing research—from theoretical breakthroughs to paradigm-shifting advancements in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and quantum computing.

Panelists will explore why these foundational innovations deserve recognition not just for their application potential but as pivotal drivers of scientific inquiry and discovery. The session will delve into strategies for elevating the visibility of computing researchers within broader scientific advocacy frameworks. How can the computing community assert its role in shaping research agendas, influencing policy, and inspiring the next generation of scientists? What messaging and collaborations are needed to emphasize computing as a cornerstone of scientific advancement? Join us to redefine the narrative and ensure that the voices of computing researchers are central to the future of science advocacy.

CIRES Attends SWIRL 2025

Posted on by Kath Williamson

CIRES Chief Investigator, Professor Gianluca Demartini participated in the Fourth Strategic Workshop on Information Retrieval (SWIRL) in Lorne Victoria from 9-12 February 2025.

SWIRL is an invitation-only gathering of the leading international researchers who come together every 5-6 years to collaboratively develop a research roadmap for Information Retrieval research for the next 5+ years. The reports produced in previous SWIRL workshops are highly cited and have been influential on the research done by both academia and industry in Information Retrieval. The final report will be made available in the SIGIR Forum Journal.

Promotion Congratulations to Prof Gianluca Demartini

Posted on by Kath Williamson

Congratulations to our CIRES Chief Investigator Gianluca Demartini on his promotion to Professor at The University of Queensland!

Gianluca says: “I’m happy to share that I have been promoted to Professor at The University of Queensland. I have worked at UQ for 7 years (it’s the place I’ve worked the longest in my career!) and have been promoted twice since I joined. Thanks to all my PhD students and postdocs that over the years made this possible. Thanks also to all my mentors within UQ and beyond for all their amazing advice and support! Looking forward to the next challenge!”

Promotion Congratulations to A/Prof Ida Asadi Someh

Posted on by Kath Williamson

Congratulations to our CIRES Chief Investigator Ida Asadi Someh on her promotion to Associate Professor at The University of Queensland!

Ida says: “I’m happy to share that I have been promoted to Associate Professor at The University of Queensland! While I’ve been fortunate to have a fantastic network supporting and cheering me on, I want to give a special shout-out to three extraordinary women who have been instrumental in this stage of my career: Barb Wixom, Marta Indulska, and Shazia Sadiq. Your guidance, mentorship, and friendship have been invaluable. You’ve helped me become a better researcher, a stronger leader, and a more well-rounded person and mother. Thank you for championing my growth and helping me navigate the complexities of this demanding career path. I am truly indebted to you!”

Information Resilience at ADC2024

Posted on by Kath Williamson

CIRES  had a strong representation at the 35th Australasian Database Conference (ADC’24) with CIRES CIs Professor Hongzhi Yin and Dr Rocky Chen as the General Chair and Program Chair, respectively. ADC’24 has taken an innovative twin-city approach to host the conference in two cities, namely Gold Coast and Tokyo, where major events like keynotes were broadcasted and synced between two sites. By doing so, this conference was taken out of the Australasian region for the first time.

Additionally, the ADC’24 award committee recognised CIRES Centre Director Professsor Shazia Sadiq as a strong contributor to Australasia’s data management research with its Lifetime Contribution Award. Congratulations!

And as part of the ADC program, on December 18th 2024, CIRES hosted a highly engaging Information Resilience Bootcamp. The bootcamp featured four outstanding presentations, each shedding light on cutting-edge advancements in data and information resilience:

Tingting Wang (RMIT): Discovering and Assembling Data in Tabular Data Lakes – Explored advanced methods for uncovering and integrating structured data from vast tabular data repositories to enhance usability and insights.

Zixin Wang (CIRES, The University of Queensland): Online Test-Time Adaptation: A Journey Through Lost and Found – Delved into adaptive learning techniques for real-time model adjustment in dynamic environments, ensuring robust performance despite unseen distributions.

Junliang Yu (CIRES, The University of Queensland): Leveraging Large Language Models for Data Bias Management – Highlighted the potential of large language models to detect, manage, and mitigate biases in data systems to improve fairness and integrity.

Xin Xia (The University of Queensland): On-Device Recommendation Powered by Language Models  – Unveiled the promise of language model-powered recommendation systems operating directly on devices to deliver personalized and efficient user experiences.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the incredible speakers for their invaluable contributions and to everyone who joined us for this inspiring event! Your engagement and enthusiasm made the bootcamp a tremendous success.

Let’s continue to drive innovation and resilience in the face of evolving information challenges!

Winners of our inaugural CIRES Best Demo Award!

Posted on by Kath Williamson

We are pleased to announce the winners of our inaugural CIRES Best Demo Award!

Congratulations to PhD Researchers Elyas Meguellati and Stefano Civelli from The University of Queensland who received a $1,000 AUD prize for their demo, the Ad Persuasion Dashboard – Insights into Facebook Political Campaign Strategies.

The demo presents an interactive dashboard to analyse persuasive content in political advertising on social media. Focusing on Facebook ads from the 2022 Australian Federal Election campaign, it uses a state-of-the-art lightweight model for persuasive text detection. The web application allows users to gain insights through visualisations of comparative spend and impressions on high vs. low persuasion ads, time series analysis of ad impressions, and demographic targeting patterns. The tool enhances transparency in digital pollical campaigning by enabling researchers and the public to explore persuasion strategies employed in social media advertising.

This work has been submitted to the ACM Web Conference (WWW) 2025. Future applications and work identified include more analyses to be shown and the ability for other researchers to upload their dataset.

Elyas’s PhD project, titled ‘The Duality of Persuasion,’ delves into both the generation and detection aspects of persuasive communication. On the generation side, his research focuses on creating tailored messages that align with specific personality traits, while the detection side emphasizes identifying persuasive techniques in textual content. He is supervised by Profs. Gianluca Demartini and Shazia Sadiq.

Stefano’s PhD research is focused on developing novel methodologies for measuring and understanding prompt complexity in Large Language Models (LLMs). His work aims to identify and quantify the key factors that contribute to prompt complexity, with practical applications ranging from optimal model selection to response quality prediction. Working under the supervision of Prof. Gianluca Demartini, his research aims to advance our understanding of how to more effectively interact with and deploy LLMs in real-world applications

Find out more:

Dashboard url

Video demonstration

Pictured L to R: Elyas Meguellati, Prof. Shazia Sadiq, Dr Junliang Yu, & Stefano Civelli at CIRES HQ.

2024 Information Resilience PhD School at UQ!

Posted on by Kath Williamson

Thank you to all our delegates and speakers who participated in the CIRES Information Resilience PhD School 2024 hosted at The University of Queensland.  We are delighted to share the final resources from the 2024 School, including the highlights video and playlist of all talks, technical tutorials, and panel discussions available from the links below. You can also view all presenter slides, plus PhD poster and photo gallery. Thank you again to all our expert presenters!

Congratulations to our 2024 Award Winners!

Three-Minute-Thesis Competition – Session A

First Place: Daniel Claassen, The University of Western Australia
Quantifying Mechanistic Model Uncertainty

Runner Up: Nardiena Pratama, The University of Queensland
Enhancing Breast Cancer Classification with LLM-Generated Textual Descriptions

People’s Choice: Fidan Karimova, The University of Queensland
Data As a Service Architecture

Three-Minute-Thesis Competition – Session B

First Place: Marcus Dyson, The University of Western Australia
Improving Forecasts of Imperfect Models using Piecewise Stochastic Processes

Runner Up: Niraj Yadav, Western Sydney University
Liquid gold: Human urine derived fertilizer

People’s Choice: Masoud Kamali, The University of Melbourne
Zero-Shot 3D Object Detection

Poster Session

First Place: Hrishi Patel, The University of Queensland
EMIT – Event-Based Masked Auto Encoding for Irregular Time Series

Runner Up: Lufan Zhang, Swinburne University of Technology
Enterprise Information Management from a Digital Forensics Perspective: Explainable AI for Enterprise Information Architecture

People’s Choice: Munia Ahamed, The University of Technology Sydney
Enhancing Seamless Manufacturing through Human-Cobot Collaboration: Optimizing Quality Assurance, Knowledge Transfer and Adoption Strategy

2024 PHD SCHOOL PHOTO GALLERY

2024 RESEARCH POSTER GALLERY

Watch the 2024 Highlights Video

2024 PRESENTATIONS – YOUTUBE PLAYLIST

 

Panel Discussions

Seeking Project Data

CIRES at ACIS 2024 in Canberra

Posted on by Kath Williamson

CIRES is at Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS 2024)! This week our Research Director Prof. Marta Indulska, and PhD researchers Jorge Retamales, Hui Zhou, and Tianwa Chen are in Canberra for the Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS) 2024 at the University of Canberra.

Hui presented the paper “Influence of Metadata on Quality Evaluation of Unstructured Information Artefacts” co-authored with Profs. Gianluca Demartini, Marta Indulska, and Shazia Sadiq. Tina presented “Estimating Gender Completeness in Wikipedia” co-authored with CIRES PhD researcher Hrishikesh Patel, Dr. Ivano Bongiovanni GAICD, and Prof. Gianluca Demartini.

ACIS is the premier conference in the region for the Information Systems discipline and this year marks the 35th year. This year’s program focuses on Digital Futures for a Sustainable Society and included a plenary talk for the Doctoral Consortium from our Chief Investigator Prof. Andrew Burton-Jones on “The Academic Journey: Some Australasian Thoughts.”

Dr Rocky Chen, Early Career Research Leadership Award

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Congratulations to our Chief Investigator and UQ School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science lecturer Dr Rocky Chen who received the 2024 Early Career Research Leadership Award from the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology.

The award recognises Rocky’s significant contributions in “actively shaping the research community by delivering tutorials at prestigious conferences like WWW and DASFAA, promoting AI’s trustworthiness, security, and resource-efficiency in online services. His commitment to training ECRs is evident through organising the Australia wide Information Resilience PhD Schools, has benefited hundreds of scholars across Australia.”

Congratulations Rocky!!

Prof Hongzhi Yin: HDR Supervision Excellence Award

Posted on by Kath Williamson

Congratulations to CIRES Chief Investigator, Professor Hongzhi Yin who was awarded the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology [EAIT] 2024 Higher Degree Research Supervision Excellence Award recognizing his outstanding contribution to individual supervision and to enhancing the research supervision culture.

Testimonial: “Now, as a senior lecturer myself, I apply many of the HDR training strategies I learned from Hongzhi in supervising my own PhD students… Hongzhi also taught me how to nurture the research capabilities of HDR students by guiding them in setting appropriate research plans and topics to maximize their potential.”

CIRES attends Blue Sky Queensland

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Thanks to the Queensland Futures Institute for hosting Blue Sky Queensland. CIRES PhD Researcher Krishna Dermawan and Senior Research Assistant Tianwa Chen from The University of Queensland joined the event and were so impressed by the conversations and lineup of fantastic speakers including Professor John Fraser, Prof. Marek Kowalkiewicz, Mark Mauceri, and Kristen Souvlis.

From Tina: “Today’s seminar was very inspiring, and it was an incredible forum for exploring the future of Queensland. The speakers delivered diverse and thought-provoking insights on healthcare, AI, rocket science, and the Arts. As an early career researcher, their talks inspired my research, and I’m looking forward to attending future events!”

From left to right: Tianwa Chen, Prof. Marek Kowalkiewicz, Krishna Dermawan

Kingston AI Group welcomes Professor Shazia Sadiq

Posted on by Kath Williamson

We are delighted to announce that CIRES Centre Director, Professor Shazia Sadiq, has become the latest member of the Kingston AI Group, Australia’s most highly regarded professors of artificial intelligence (AI).

“We are absolutely thrilled that Shazia has joined the Kingston AI Group,” said Kingston AI Group Convenor, University of Adelaide Professor Anton van den Hengel. “Shazia’s experience and contribution to the field makes her one of the foremost experts of AI in Australia.”

Congratulations Shazia!

Prof Shazia Sadiq, UQ Award for Excellence in Leadership

Posted on by Kath Williamson

Congratulations to our CIRES Centre Director Professor Shazia Sadiq FTSE who received a 2024 UQ Award for Excellence in Leadership! The annual awards presented by The University of Queensland Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Deborah Terry, celebrate the exceptional achievements of staff who exemplify the UQ values and acknowledge their incredible contributions across the university.

“Professor Shazia Sadiq has demonstrated performance and leadership throughout her career. She is an extraordinary and visionary leader, with a natural ability to bring people together across faculties and deliver sustained and positive change within the University and beyond. Her vision and leadership, together with her belief in the power of multidisciplinary approaches, are behind several significant and successful initiatives at UQ. These include the Master of Data Science program, the Australian Research Council’s Training Centre for Information Resilience (CIRES), and the UQ AI Collaboratory. These initiatives have positioned UQ as a leader in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence education and research.”

On behalf of the CIRES Team, thank you Shazia for your leadership, vision, and dedication to everything you do! Our warm congratulations to all of this year’s award winnerss.

 

Managing Difficult Research Projects

Posted on by Kath Williamson

On 5 November, CIRES hosted the Thesis Whisperer herself Professor Inger Mewburn at UQ. This full-day intensive workshop focused on managing difficult research projects. Here are some testimonials from our attendees:

“I’ve learnt project management before, yet the workshop gave me many new and practical tools to manage my PhD research. Inger ensured the event was interactive, and I loved her techniques for managing time, both personally and professionally. Thank you, CIRES, for the opportunity to learn!” Nova Sepadyati, PhD Researcher, UQ

“Learning about how AI tools can support project management was really eye-opening, and it was fun to see that some of the tactics we covered—like using a bullet journal and keeping a research reflection diary—are practices I already use. The ideas around the ‘right-to-left’ mindset, the different AI and collaboration tools, and even the formulas for estimating task times were all super insightful. Honestly, this workshop was totally worth it—a valuable and enjoyable experience from start to finish!” Lufan Zhang, CIRES PhD Researcher, Swinburne

“A truly engaging workshop and a great demonstration of how to leverage technology to make your research projects, and your life, easier to manage” Prof. Marta Indulska, CIRES Research Director

“I’m just about to submit my PhD thesis and am at the early stages of planning my first research project as a Postdoc. This workshop was timely and without a doubt the best workshop on Project Management I have been to! Inger not only talks about useful AI tools that are effective at saving time and deliver better project outcomes but she shows you how to integrate them and make them work with your own projects. The workshop was eye-opening, insightful and a lot of fun! Tracey Read, PhD Researcher, ARC Training Centre for Bioplastics and Biocomposites.

Thank you Inger for such an insightful and practical hands-on workshop and to all our attendees from The University of Queensland, QUT (Queensland University of Technology), Swinburne University of Technology, RMIT University, and Griffith University for your excellent participation!

CIRES End-of-Year Celebration

Posted on by Kath Williamson

We finished the week on a high on 31 October by hosting our Centre’s end-of-year celebration at CIRES HQ. The event recognised the contributions and achievements of our research cohort of Postdocs, PhD researchers, Data Engineers, & Research Assistants, with outstanding testimonials from their supervisors. Key highlights were publications (including firsts!), completion of PhD milestones, project delivery, leadership of Centre initiatives, fellowships, and successful research studies & surveys, including with industry partners. It was wonderful to have our Swinburne University of Technology colleagues with us Luhan Cheng, Pa Pa Khin, Hui Yin, and Lufan Zhang.

Congratulations to our research superstars on a successful 2024!

A key highlight of the day was celebrating our wonderful Centre Coordinator Kathleen Williamson and her 35-year work anniversary at The University of Queensland. Kath is instrumental to the success of the Centre and is an incredibly valued member of CIRES & the UQ School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. We bottled thank-you messages and testimonials from CIRES and UQ colleagues past and present to capture the gratitude we have for getting to work with her, and for her unwavering support throughout the years. And of course it wouldn’t be a celebration without cake!

 

Welcome to visiting PhD researcher, Pouria Akbari

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A warm Brisbane welcome to Pouria Akbari who joined us this week from Norway! Pouria is a visiting PhD researcher from the Department of Information Systems at the University of Agder (UiA). He will be based with the CIRES Team at The University of Queensland and collaborating with Chief Investigator Dr Ida Asadi Someh and Dr Tapani Rinta-Kahila from the UQ Business School. Pouria’s research focuses on the intersection of algorithmic decision-making and citizens’ fairness perception, particularly in the context of socially disruptive systems.

“I am excited about the chance to engage in research and contribute to discussions through the Centre’s Information Resilience PhD School next week, along with workshops and seminars at the upcoming UQ Business Information Systems conference. This collaboration will enhance my understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the responsible use of AI”.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow position at UQ

Posted on by Kath Williamson

Applications close 20th November 2024

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. International candidates are also welcome to apply as visa sponsorship may be available for this appointment.

This position will advance research and development in the area of sepsis prediction, with a focus on improving outcomes through data-driven approaches. This is an exciting opportunity for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to contribute to innovative research developments within the scope of multimodal clinical data mining and will assist with developing a prediction system for paediatric sepsis in the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

This multisite position will be mainly situated at the ARC Training Centre for Information Resilience (CIRES) at The University of Queensland and will involve collaboration across various projects with our government partner, Queensland Health. The successful candidate will also work at the Child Health Research Centre (CCHR), collaborating with healthcare professionals to ensure the clinical relevance of the models developed. As a research focused academic at level A the incumbent will be supported and guided by more senior academic research staff with the expectation of an increasing degree of autonomy over time.

We are seeking a candidate with:

  • Completion or near completion of a PhD in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field, with a strong focus on deep learning and artificial intelligence.
  • Demonstrated expertise in developing and applying advanced deep learning techniques, preferably in handling and integrating multimodal data or time series data.
  • Demonstrated expertise in developing efficient models for data processing in environments with limited computing resources.
  • Strong programming skills in Python and familiarity with deep learning frameworks such as TensorFlow or PyTorch.
  • A track record of peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals or premiere conferences relevant to data management and data mining.

See the full position description and how to apply:

Applications close Wednesday 20th November 2024 at 11.00 pm 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

Welcome to visiting PhD researcher, Timo Spinde

Posted on by Kath Williamson

Welcome to Timo Spinde who joined us this week from Germany! Timo is a visiting PhD researcher from the The University of Göttingen. His research is primarily focused on automatically identifying media bias, and he coordinates the Media Bias Group a research network dedicated to studying media bias. During his PhD, Timo also founded a local German-based fashion company, Bodenseeliebe. He will be based with the CIRES Team at The University of Queensland.

“I am excited to join CIRES for the next few months. Together with Associate Professor Gianluca Demartini, we will work on a project comparing processes that increase media literacy based on both human-generated and computer-generated bias explanations. I am very much looking forward to getting to know Australia, Brisbane, UQ, and ideally finding partners for future projects”.

ATSE Fellows Showcase and Award Gala Dinner

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Centre Director Professor Shazia Sadiq FTSE attended the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering New Fellows Showcase and Award Gala Dinner, meeting with Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Cathy Foley, and The Hon Ed Husic MP, Minister for Industry and Science. We extend our warm congratulations to Professor Lyn Beazley AO FTSE FAA as this year’s President’s Medal recipient, to the award recipients, and to all the 32 new Fellows including our colleagues from The University of Queensland Professor Lianzhou Wang FTSE FAA, Professor Xiwang Zhang FTSE, and Anne-Marie Birkill FTSE.