Eliiza is teaming up with Jewelrock and Women in AI APAC to run a limited interview series in support of the Women in AI Awards 2023. The series will showcase conversations with a number of thought leaders and subject matter experts across industry and academia in Australia and New Zealand on topics like career, the future of AI technologies and the responsible application of AI.

Our esteemed guests are all representing sponsors of the Women in AI Awards, which will be held on 16th June in Sydney for the APAC region.

Our first guest is Professor Ann Nicholson, the Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University.

Bio:

Professor Nicholson graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Hons) and a Master of Science (Computer Science) from the University of Melbourne. In 1988, she was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, where she completed her doctorate in the Robotics Research Group. She then undertook a postdoc at Brown University before returning to Australia to join Monash.

Professor Nicholson is the first woman appointed into her prestigious role of Dean, Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University. She is a champion for greater Indigenous participation in her faculty and supports many initiatives to bring more girls and women into IT careers.

Professor Nicholson is responsible for more than 200 staff, 5,400+ students and leading IT courses taught in Australia, Malaysia, China, Indonesia and South Africa. Joining the University in 1994, her leadership expertise is broad and diverse – garnered through a range of executive roles across education, research and industry, including Associate Dean (Education) and Deputy Dean (Research).

A globally-esteemed specialist in Bayesian Networks, Professor Nicholson's research focuses on translational impact and social good, with cross-disciplinary collaborations in epidemiology, medicine, education, environmental science and meteorology. She has published more than 120 peer reviewed papers and co- authored the highly regarded 'Bayesian Artificial Intelligence' textbook. Her research has attracted over $12M in research funding, and has resulted in two start-up companies for technology transfer of Bayesian AI.

Currently Professor Nicholson is the Honorary Secretary of the Victorian Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee; a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) and of the Computing Research and Education Association of Australasia (CORE) ; and a member of professional societies, ACM, IEEE and the IEEE Computer Society. She was a co-founder, inaugural president and long-term board member of ABNMS.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholsonann/

https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/ann-nicholson