inaugural women in AI scholarships
Members of the DAIRNet Management Team with four of the DAIRNet Women in AI 2022 Scholarship recipients. From left to right: Prof Jason Whittle (Director DAIRNet), Dr Ariel Kam Ha Lui (RMIT), Dr Yifan Liu (The University of Adelaide), Dr Rebecca Morgan (UniSA), Dr Aya Hussein (UNSW Canberra) and Dr Mel McDowall (Senior Manager DAIRNet).
congratulations
Congratulations to recipients of the inaugural Women in AI Scholarships. DAIRNet supported five early- to mid-career researchers to attend the ADSTAR Summit 2022. This was a great opportunity to build their networks and help promote their careers in AI and Defence research.
- Dr Aya Hussein, UNSW Canberra
- Dr Yifan Liu, The University of Adelaide
- Dr Ariel Kam Ha Lui, RMIT
- Dr Rebecca Morgan, University of South Australia
- Dr Sara Webb, Swinburne University of Technology
dr aya hussein
research associate, school of engineering and it, unsw canberra
My research focuses on combining human and machine intelligence by studying interaction schemes that allow humans to teach machines and to effectively team up with them in the field. Designing effective human-machine teams is critical to operational success as it ensures humans can best utilise machine strengths without overreliance, such that humans can intervene when machines err.
The key theme of ADSTAR Summit 2022 was resilience. Central to resilience are the concepts of trust and open communication between team members, which I think my research can contribute to by enabling effective machine transparency.
The structure of the event made it easy to meet and talk to new people. I’m glad about the amazing people I added to my professional network and the potential collaboration opportunity I have identified.
dr yifan liu
lecturer, school of computer science, the university of adelaide
I focus on efficient AI in Computer Vision. It includes two parts: learning with less computations (a.k.a Edge AI) and learning with fewer labels. These two problems are the fundamental problems for all deep learning systems. How to reduce the labelling and training costs is an indispensable part of the process of AI landing in the industry.
I met other women in AI during the ADSTAR Summit, for example, Kam and Aya. We discussed our own experience of working in AI and spent meaningful time together. I also met new industrial partners during the e-poster and workshop sessions and learned about the needs and funding opportunities for some Defence projects.
dr ariel kam ha lui
lecturer, college of business and law, rmit
My research interests are interdisciplinary in nature; examining whether, why, and how IT innovations, including AI, impact society (e.g., government policy), environment (e.g., carbon footprint), and firm value (e.g., operational performance and stock price), so that organisations can create competitive advantages and strategic leverage from IT.
It was an honour to be selected as a Women in AI Scholarship recipient. At the ADSTAR Summit, I was exposed to the latest AI Defence-related research and innovation which helped sharpen my AI knowledge and inspire me with new AI research ideas.
dr rebecca morgan
research fellow, unisa stem, university of south australia
My current research is focused on self-adaptation in rapidly changing environments through the automated reconfiguration of information systems. In the long term, we aim to support decision-making and reduce the burden on human operators when it comes to understanding and managing complex systems.
Attending ADSTAR provided an excellent opportunity to meet other early-stage researchers outside of my own research facility; and I met some fantastic people. I greatly appreciated the opportunity to learn more about Defence research and technology from many different perspectives, such as industry partners.
dr sara webb
postdoctoral researcher, centre for astrophysics and supercomputing, swinburne university of technology
My current position is supported within the project Artificial Intelligence as the Most Valuable Player funded through the Next Generation Technology Fund. My role combines my expertise in data handling and machine learning from astronomy and applies them to new datasets collected from human users. This project aims to investigate the use and role of artificial intelligence (AI) as both a monitor of human interaction and performance in a team, and as a team member itself.
One of the highlights of ADSTAR was seeing how and where my work could be directly related to the Defence science network within Australia. Another invaluable experience was meeting so many like-minded people and other women in STEM. It allowed me to hear about others’ career paths and goals. This was helpful for me as a young researcher in evaluating where I might want to take my career.
