Trustworthy Digital Society Advisory Board

Prof. Lyria Bennett Moses - Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Law and Justice UNSW Sydney

Lyria is a Professor in the Faculty of Law and Justice at UNSW Sydney and, from August 2024, Head of the School of Law, Society and Criminology. She is also co-lead of the Law and Policy theme in the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre, Faculty Lead, Law and Justice in the UNSW Institute for Cyber Security and co-chair of the Australian Law Associate Dean Research Network. Lyria's research explores issues around the relationship between technology and law, including the types of legal issues that arise as technology changes, how these issues are addressed in Australia and other jurisdictions, and the problems of treating “technology” as an object of regulation. Recently, she has been working on legal and policy issues associated with the use of artificial intelligence (including second editions of a book co-authored with Dr Michael Guihot and published by LexisNexis on Artificial Intelligence, Robots and the Law,  a co-authored report on AI Decision-Making and Courts for the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration, and ongoing work on standards through Standards Australia), and the appropriate legal framework for enhancing cyber security (through the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre). Lyria is a member of the editorial boards for Technology and Regulation; Law, Technology and Humans; Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Research in Computational Law; and Law in Context. She is on the Executive Committee of the Australian Chapter of the IEEE’s Society for the Social Implications of Technology and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and the Royal Society of NSW.

TDS Insight Statement

The TDS provides an opportunity for cross-disciplinary and multi-sector collaboration on one of the most pressing issues of our time – how do we leverage digital and related technologies, including artificial intelligence technologies, to move towards a better society. There are choices that governments, organisations and individuals can make that to reduce discrimination and unfairness, ensure decision-making remains accountable, and protect data subjects and consumers. These choices will not always revolve around the technology, but they should be based on an understanding of what it makes possible. The TDS aims to provide an evidence-base for moving in a positive direction.

Professor Fang Chen - Executive Director, UTS Data Science Institute (DSI), UTS

Distinguished Professor Fang Chen is the Executive Director at the UTS Data Science Institute. She is an award-winning, internationally recognised leader in AI and data science. With her vast experience in industry, government, and academia, Fang excels in developing strategies for innovation, shaping digital transformation initiatives, and creating world-class R&D for industries and governments. She is also a staunch proponent of ethical and human-centered AI practices. Professor Chen actively contributes her expertise to various advisory committees and expert panels, including the Federal Industry Science and Innovation Australia Board and the NSW Government AI Review Committee, which established the AI assurance framework for the NSW Government. She also serves on the ITS Australia Board and several startup company boards. Professor Chen won the "Oscar" of Australian Science – the Australian Museum Eureka Prize 2018 for Excellence in Data Science. She is the "Water Professional of the Year", awarded by the Australian Water Association in 2016. She was awarded the "Brian Shackle Award" in 2017 for “the most outstanding contribution with international impact in the field of human interaction with computers and information technology” from IFIP. In 2021, she won the NSW Premier's Prize of Science and Engineering, and the Australia and New Zealand "Women in AI" Award in Infrastructure. Professor Chen has produced groundbreaking research, as demonstrated by her 400+ peer-reviewed publications in the fields of science and engineering, along with authoring several highly influential books. Moreover, she has filed 30+ patents across 8 countries.

Professor Ian Gibson, Deputy Dean, Industry, Engagement, Innovation & Research, UNSW Sydney

Professor Ian Gibson has over 30 years of experience as a computer scientist and engineer and at executive level R&D management. He has led the research, development and global commercialisation of new technology across a broad range of electrical engineering, computer science and digital imaging. Professor Gibson was the founding CEO of Intersect Australia Ltd (2008 - 2015). Prior to this Professor Gibson was General Manager at CiSRA, the Australian R&D lab for Canon Inc,  where he built research capability over several years to deliver world leading technology into a wide range of Canon's major product groups generating hundreds of patents along the way. Professor Gibson's technology has been shipped in over a billion units world wide, and he has secured over $200m in research funds from a variety of sources.

Prof. Rita Henderson – Deputy Dean (Societal Impact and Translation) at UNSW Engineering, UNSW Sydney

Professor Rita Henderson is Deputy Dean (Societal Impact and Translation) at UNSW Engineering where she leads a team focused on enhancing equity, diversity and inclusion and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Professor Henderson has been Chair of the UNSW SDG Steering Committee since 2022 and also Chairs both the UNSW Engineering SDG Committee and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Rita is also an academic in the School of Chemical Engineering, UNSW, with research interests in water quality and treatment, where she works closely with the Australian water industry.

TDS Insight Statement

Rita is passionate about creating an equitable and sustainable society and the role and responsibility that universities have in achieving this. She believes that creating authentic partnerships with industry, government and civil society is key to enhancing the impact that universities can have both locally and regionally, of which the UNSW-UTS Trustworthy Digital Society initiative is an excellent example.

Professor Kate McGrath, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research), UTS

Professor McGrath is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research). Kate provides the vision and leadership to build UTS’s national and international profile in research performance, research training, global impact, engagement and partnerships and research translation, commercialisation and knowledge exchange. She is responsible for the strategic direction, operations and support of research across the university.

Kate has been involved in research-led innovation and entrepreneurship and has been on the board of several university spinout companies, deep technology companies and innovation agencies. She has taught extensively at all levels, developed curricula and new degrees, supervised students and led the established a nation-wide program to help primary school and early childhood teachers in New Zealand introduce STEM into their classrooms.

Kate completed a BSc (Honours) in Chemistry at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand prior to a PhD at ANU. She then held postdoctoral positions at the Université de Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France and Princeton University, Princeton, USA. She also has a finance degree from  the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Her first academic position was at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, followed by Victoria University of Wellington (VUW), Wellington, New Zealand. She led the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, a New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence, before being appointed to the role of Vice-Provost (Research) at Victoria University of Wellington (VUW).

TDS Insight Statement

People across the globe are increasingly living in a twined digital and physical world. To maintain the integrity of society, people need to increasing trust what they cannot see or understand. We’ve experienced this many times in our history. But most of these changes have been to our physical world, now it is the digital world, and the pace of the change is so rapid that it challenges the concept of trust. But without trust we will cease to function. Slowly things will erode, progress will be stalled, isolation will increase, and the enormous benefits of digital advances will never be realised. Hence Trust in the digital world is essential. The Trustworthy Digital Society will bring together the users, the conduits, the advocates, the regulators, the adopters, the creators… the people who will work together to provide the ways and assurances that will engender trust and enable us to make real the benefits to all.

Associate Professor Amelia Johns - Associate Professor in Digital and Social Media, in the School of Communication UTS

Amelia Johns is an Associate Professor in Digital and Social Media, in the School of Communication. Her work spans the fields of social media and youth civic participation, with a focus on minority youth’s: negotiation of racism and hate speech, digital citizenship and activism (including on closed and encrypted messaging platforms), digital literacy and safety. Her recent work has focused on misinformation, platform governance and trust on Facebook and WhatsApp. She is the recipient of an ARC Discovery project: 'Fostering Global Digital Citizenship: Diasporic Youth in a Connected World' (DP190100635). She was awarded a Facebook Content Policy Award in 2019 for the project 'Mapping and Countering the Diffusion of Hate Speech Across Social Media'. She also led a UNESCO funded project in 2021: 'Mapping and Review of Online Resources for vulnerable and marginalised young people in the Asia Pacific’. She is co-author of the recent book 'WhatsApp: from a one-to-one communication app to a global communication platform' (Polity, 2023). She is also the author of Battle for the Flag (2015), and co-editor of Negotiating Digital Citizenship: Control, Contest, Culture (2016). 

TDS Insight Statement

Digital and social media environments are growing more complex, with the addition of generative AI increasing digital inclusion and accessibility but also potentially contributing toward social harms such as an increase of information disorder, harmful and biased content, and privacy risks. By providing evidence-based education, training and tools to individuals, businesses and governments, the TDS is well placed to help these stakeholders make informed and ethical decisions about current and future technology use.

Dr Simon Knight - Associate Professor in the University of Technology, Transdisciplinary School and a member (founding Director) of the Centre for Research on Education in a Digital Society (UTS:CREDS), UTS

Dr Simon Knight is an Associate Professor in the University of Technology, Transdisciplinary School and a member (founding Director) of the Centre for Research on Education in a Digital Society (UTS:CREDS). My background draws on degrees combining philosophy, psychology, education, and human-computer interaction. Associate Professor Simon Knight is an Australian Research Council (ARC) DECRA Fellow (DE230100065) and Discovery Project (DP240100602) Co-Investigator. The former focuses on teaching practices for navigating disagreement and uncertainty, and the latter on participatory approaches to AI governance in education. In both these participatory methods are central, that seek to advance scholarly research alongside practice, while respecting the expertise held across both. In both, too, a key concern is in understanding how people navigate complex issues in their everyday lives, including those that might be described as dilemmas, predicaments, disagreements, or controversies. As the summary for Associate Professor Simon Knight’s ADECRA notes: “We are facing an epistemological crisis, grounded in changing technologies, fake news, and a distrust of experts. Developing capability to navigate uncertainty, disagreement, and evidence is one of the most pressing social issues of our time in order to develop a sustainable society, ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”

Professor Maurice Pagnucco – Deputy Dean (Education) UNSW Engineering, UNSW Sydney

Maurice Pagnucco is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Deputy Dean (Education) of the Faculty of Engineering. He was also the Head of the School of Computer Science and Engineering at UNSW from July 2010 to September 2019. He joined UNSW in 2001 as a Senior Lecturer and has held the position of Deputy Dean (Education) since 2019.

Maurice is also a Professorial Fellow at the UNSW iCinema Research Centre in 2014, Deputy Director of UNSW’s Creative Robotics Lab (CRL) and Co-Director of UNSW’s Intelligent Environments Lab in 2016. He is the Immediate Past President of the Australian Council of Deans of ICT (ACDICT) having served as president from mid-2016 to mid-2018 and was previously Chair of the NICTA (now Data61; Australia’s national ICT centre of excellence) University Partner Committee and Chair of the NSW Steering Committee for Digital Careers.

His research is focussed on Artificial Intelligence with particular emphasis on Cognitive Robotics, Belief Change and Reasoning About Actions. He has published articles in the major Artificial Intelligence Conferences like IJCAI, AAAI, ECAI, KR, TARK as well as the major journals AIJ, JAIR, Journal of Philosophical Logic. He has also been part of the UNSW RoboCup Standard Platform League team that has won this international autonomous robot soccer 5 times since its inception.

Maurice is currently an associate editor of the journal Artificial Intelligence (SJR Q1, H index 129), the most highly regarded journal in this field of research. He also been on the editorial board of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (SJR Q2, H index 99), and is a current member of leading international professional bodies, including the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and the Association for Symbolic Logic (ASL).

Lauren Perry - Responsible Technology Policy Specialist, UTS

Lauren Perry manages major HTI projects, including the Facial Recognition Technology Model Law Project and digital government services projects. She also delivers training in responsible AI and is a co-author of the 2022 report, Facial recognition technology: Towards a model law. Lauren’s areas of expertise include human rights, facial recognition, digital identity, age assurance, and the social and organisational implications of new technologies. Lauren completed her Masters in Public Policy in 2022 with a research dissertation on ‘Improving interorganisational collaboration for the development of AI policy in Australia.’

Prior to joining HTI, Lauren worked at the Australian Human Rights Commission in research, project and policy roles across the Human Rights Scrutiny and Disability Rights Team. From 2018 to 2020 she worked on the Human Rights and Technology Project, undertaking research and co-ordinating the national consultation and public engagement for the Project. In addition, Lauren worked on projects related to freedom of religion, disability employment rights, and safeguarding the rights of people in all forms of detention.

In 2021, Lauren established the AHRC’s IncludeAbility Employee Network, connecting some of Australia’s largest public and private sector employers who are committed to increasing employment opportunities for people with disability. Lauren was a founding member of the UTS Young Alumni Committee, and also serves on the ACCAN and Vision 2020 Right to Digital Accessibility Working Group.

TDS Insight Statement

As artificial intelligence and new digital technologies continue to redefine all aspects of our lives, so too grow the risks of data collection, surveillance, discrimination and a lack of accountability. To overcome these risks, trustworthiness and human-centred values must be at the heart of the digital systems we all create, deploy and use. These expectations should apply for all goods and services across the public and private sectors, as well as the tools and technologies we use in our personal lives.

Achieving this vision requires a multidisciplinary approach and genuine engagement with the people for whom trust can be hardest —those who are at-risk or at the margins of society. Through the TDS’s collaborative approach to research and problem-solving, I believe we can leverage the skills and knowledge needed to work towards a more trustworthy and equitable future.

Professor Adrienne Torda - Vice Dean and Head of the School of Clinical Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine and Health, UNSW Sydney

Professor Adrienne Torda  is Vice Dean and Head of the School of Clinical Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at UNSW Sydney. She is also a specialist in Infectious Diseases, holds an honorary position at Prince of Wales Hospital, sits on the Vaccine Committee of Australia for the TGA and was a member of the Medical Workforce Digital Capabilities Advisory Group, Australian Medical Council. She is a Nationally and Internationally recognised leader in the fields of Medical education, academic leadership and educational innovation. Adrienne is also an advocate for equity, inclusivity and diversity at both a local and international level, mentoring female leaders in academia and medicine across the Pacific. Adrienne has multiple educational awards including a citation for outstanding achievement at the Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT).

TDS Insight Statement

As a healthcare provider as well as a leader and academic in this space, I have seen transformation in the way we learn, research, use and practice healthcare as a result of digital innovation over the course of the last few decades. What we need to do now is ensure that we can harness current and future digital capability to help us tackle the problems that we have not yet been able to resolve around equity, access and inclusion, whilst still ensuring the privacy and security, that will enable trust in a digitally enhanced approach. We need to progress our ability to use digital resources ethically and with a person-centred approach that also takes into account, the sustainability of our approaches and practices. I believe these values underpin the mission of the Trustworthy Digital Society.

Prof. Toby Walsh FAA FACM FRSN | Chief Scientist   | Laureate Fellow & Scientia Professor of AI, UNSW Sydney

Professor Toby Walsh is an ARC Laureate Fellow and Scientia Professor of AI at UNSW and CSIRO Data61. He is Chief Scientist of UNSW.AI, UNSW's new AI Institute. He is a strong advocate for limits to ensure AI is used to improve our lives, having spoken at the UN, and to heads of state, parliamentary bodies, company boards and many others on this topic. This advocacy has led to him being "banned indefinitely" from Russia. He is a Fellow of the Australia Academy of Science, and was named on the international "Who's Who in AI" list of influencers. He has written four books on AI for a general audience, the most recent is "Faking It! Artificial Intelligence in A Human World".

TDS Insight Statement

AI is eating the world. It is therefore essential that we ensure we create a digitally enabled society that is equitable, inclusive, and sustainable. We need it to be a world where everyone can participate fully, safely and confidently in the digital world. Indeed, if applied carefully, I believe AI can ensure it is a better world, one that it is more equitable, inclusive and sustainable. But to do so, we need initiatives like the TDS to provide education, training, and tools to help people understand the risks and benefits of digital technologies, and to make informed, responsible and intelligent decisions about their use.