Boeing is the world’s largest aerospace company and leading manufacturer of commercial airplanes, and defence, space and security systems. The company supplies aircraft and information platform systems to Australia’s airlines and the Australian Department of Defence.

CSIRO has been a partner with Boeing for over 30 years and this year I joined the CSIRO – Boeing Steering Committee which included a deep dive into our joint projects, visits to partners, project teams and collaborators across California.

This year, Boeing named CSIRO a supplier of the year for the fifth time, as the organisations mark 34 years of a thriving strategic relationship. Boeing, has named CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, a Supplier of the Year for the fifth time since 2010.

Professor Thomas is currently Emeritus Professor at the University of South Australia and he kindly agreed to our invitation to work with us a day a week to help us develop our Immersive AI and University engagements. It’s been a great pleasure working with Bruce and the entire Immersive AI cluster here in Data61.

His current research interests include the following: user interfaces, augmented reality, virtual reality, visualisation, wearable computers, CSCW, tabletop display interfaces, and the use of cognitive psychology in virtual environments research. He has served in many roles for the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, IEEE Virtual Reality, and IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers, including program chair, general chair and on the steering committee. He also founded the ACM Interactive Surfaces and Spaces Conference (formerly IEEE Tabletop). He was awarded the ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC) 20-Year Impact Award. He delivered a keynote address at ISMAR 2023.

I was honoured to join Professor Toby Walsh who received the Celestino Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Science. I was Toby’s head of school while I worked in UNSW so I was able to see his efforts, day in day out, in the promotion of science so this award is very well deserved.

I was able to interview Eleanor Huntington, our executive director for Wear it Putple day and what is means for CSIRO!

Wear it Purple Day is an annual LGBTIQA+ awareness day especially for young people, based in Australia. Supporters wear purple to celebrate diversity and young people from the LGBTIQA+ community. The Day is organised by Wear it Purple, a student run, not-for-profit organisation, providing presentations and workshops. 

This week we spent a few days meeting our colleagues and University collaborators in Adelaide!

On August 1st I joined CSIRO at a Parliamentary Tech Showcase in Mural Halls A & B, Australian Parliament House (APH). The evening before we presented a series of CSIRO’s Data61demos at a TCA & CSIRO Industry Networking event at the CSIRO Discovery Centre, Black Mountain – North-science Road.

The Next Generation Quantum Graduates Program (NGQGP) is an Australian Government supported program set to fund nationally competitive scholarships to attract and train Australia’s next generation of quantum technology specialists. The scholarships will be funded for study at Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) Level 10 (Doctoral). Students will participate in collaborative projects between industry and university, including placements with partners to build career-ready skills, and to forge ongoing relationships and networks.

As part of my role as Science Director and Deputy Director of CSIRO’s Data61 I chair the steering committee for this program with oversight for the proposal, development and delivery of this program (from conception to launch and delivery over the year ahead)

My 50th year rolled around quite quickly and we celebrated! Here you can see my grandparents (top right) and my mother and aunt (bottom left) with younger versions of me.

Congratulations to all the finalists and winners from last evening’s Women in AI Awards 2023 (Asia Pacific). 

I was delighted to join my new colleagues from across CSIRO and CSIRO’s Data61 to celebrate their success and share with my former colleagues from UNSW Computer Science and Engineering theirs. 

Thank you to all the organisers, sponsors and panellists for all their hard work. They brought together an amazing experience to celebrate the accomplishments and impact of so many Women in AI.

We had a wonderful evening celebrating the success of Women in AI from across the Asia Pacific region. It was inspiring to hear the impact and motivations of all the finalists for the work they do.

Great to meet up with Naomi Yamashita in Kyoto to discuss the plans for CHI 2025 in Yokohama. I’m the CHI Steering Committee liaison to the upcoming CHI conference general chairs.