Victorians were once again recognised in the annual Women in AI (WAI) awards for their achievements in emerging technology. The WAI Awards 2023 plays a crucial role in enhancing the reputation and visibility of women in AI within the Asia-Pacific region. It also offers a platform to talented women who have started their own businesses with AI-based products. Among the winners were these inspiring Victorians from across the public and private sectors. Taking out the awards in Education, Sports, Mining and Infrastructure. Congratulations to them all! 🏆 AI in Education Dr Wafa Johal A Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne and ARC DECRA Fellow, Dr Johal's research is in Human-Robot Interaction, designing and developing computational solutions to make robots useful and acceptable by end users. Dr Wafa Johal (L) and Roy Johal (R) at the Women in AI Awards, Source LinkedIn Post June 2023 "Humbled and honoured to have received the Women in AI Award in the Education category.Thanks to my collaborators and teammates. I am also grateful that my husband Roy Johal was with me for this moment - his support helps me tremendously; he pushes me and challenges me to take risks and try new things, and he helps me to learn from my failures.#grateful Education is a pillar of our society and we need to push for a positive use of AI for and by learners. In the ChatGPT era, in which AI can be used to cheat a lot of exams, I am happy that my team and I are doing research on how we could leverage AI and robotics to build interactive adaptive experience for our students." Dr Wafa Johal, University of Melbourne 🏆 AI in Sport - Alice Sweeting A Lecturer in Sports Science and Analytics, Alice also completed her PhD in 2016 which focused on tradio-frequency tracking and data mining techniques to profile the movement patterns of elite and junior-elite netball athletes. "Congratulations to all winners and finalists, including my co-finalist Elisa! Thank you to Women in AI and the sponsors for making these Awards possible. Thanks to all my colleagues, collaborators, family and students! Special thanks to Professor Di Cook, for nominating and encouraging me to step outside my comfort zone." Alice Sweeting, Victoria University 🏆 AI in Mining - Malgorzata Sikora As Data Science Lead, Malgorzata is a creative and innovative data scientist passionate about the mining industry, and aims to utilise data to help build strong, inclusive, and sustainable businesses. "I’m deeply honoured to win this prestigious award. It is a testament to the hard work, dedication, and passion I have poured into my AI journey. This recognition motivates me to push boundaries, drive innovation, and empower others to make a lasting impact in AI." Malgorzata Sikora, Newcrest Mining 🏆 AI in Infrastructure - Orla Glynn As Executive - AI, Reporting, Insights and Automation Configuration at Telstra, Orla has a wealth of experience in implementing intricate strategic roadmaps and transformation programs. Orla strives to make innovation a deliberate process. "Thrilled to be a WAI Awards winner! Culturally diverse and adaptive teams are pivotal to our success, fostering inclusivity and leveraging diverse perspectives that drive innovation and problem-solving. This recognition highlights the significance of diverse teams in advancing AI and achieving exceptional results." Orla Glynn, Telstra About the Women in AI Awards The Women in AI (WAI) is a non-profit organisation striving for inclusive AI that positively impacts society worldwide. As a community-based effort, they aim to empower, educate, and foster active collaboration through various channels such as education, research, events, and blogging. Nominations are sought from inspiring women who are working, leading, creating or demonstrating innovation in AI in the following sectors: Industry, Government, Universities, Research institutes, Startups or NGOs The WAI Award categories recognise and honour achievements based on the following AI technologies: Speech, image and video recognition Autonomous objects Natural language processing Conversational agents Prescriptive modelling Virtual and augmented creativity Smart automation Advanced simulation Data monitoring Complex analytics and predictions Robotics Machine-learning Additive manufacturing. IoT Women in AI Advisory Group Australia, Source Women in AI
Pictured from left to right: Sunny Andalebi, Kosta Doukas and Luca Palermo from Outcomex. [Source: Iot Hub] Standout Australian industry and government projects and solutions using the Internet of Things were recognised as winners of the 2023 IoT Awards in May. The official awards of Australia’s peak industry body for the Internet of Things, the IoT Alliance Australia (IoTAA), provides a snapshot of how IoT is being used to advance the management of Australian energy and water networks, operational efficiency in multiple industries and modernise government services, among many other uses. Congratulations to Victorian Awardees A number of Victorian projects and companies were recognized at this year's IoT Awards. Presenting the awards was Frank Zeichner, the founding CEO of IoTAA and a thought leader in the adoption of IoT in Australia who continues to work with members across academia, industry and government. Pictured above is the team from Telstra and Jemena accepting the Energy Award for their Meter Data Logger Program. This enabled Jemena to extend the life of legacy, analogue metering assets for tens of thousands of customers in high rise buildings, while enabling remote meter reads. Telstra and Jemena also received the Security Award for their Meter Data Logger Program, which was developed to meet comprehensive critical infrastructure requirements and customer privacy considerations. This ranges from ISO27001 certification for selected IP network products and international operations and services, to regular independent audits. Both companies have teams, processes and systems to monitor for and manage security incidents. Bodd Technologies earned the Manufacturing Award for their 3D Body Scanners, which are manufactured in Australia in partnership with Bosch. The AWS-connected scanners use high fidelity scans taking less than a minute to fit a person for an entire product catalogue of clothing, saving time for uniform fitting and potentially reducing waste for retailers. Keltech IoE was presented with the Construction Award for the KelTech IoT Label On A Cable. The product uses encrypted NFC tags to provide online, real-time visibility of deployed IoT assets, such as switches and cables. It is in use in projects around the world. The Outcomex team were called on stage again to receive the Food & Agriculture Award, for the Farmdeck: Monitoring Fridge Sensors pilot project. It overcame physical connectivity challenges to help McDonalds in Australia react quickly to fridge temperature changes, to avoid food waste and expenses. South East Water was also a multiple award winner, receiving the Interoperability Award and the Smart Places and Infrastructure Award, for their Digital Utility at Scale project. The project includes systems and devices that can communicate across multiple telecommunication networks, use open standard protocols such as NB-IoT and LightweightM2M for carriage and data transactions and report to a multitude of head-end systems. The organisation deployed thousands of meters and sensors in Victoria and alerted thousands of customers to potential leaks, saving them an estimated $1.28 million dollars. The awards were presented at the culmination of IoT Impact 2023, a one-day event about IoT for smart places, manufacturing, energy, sustainability, remote connectivity, circular economy, digital trust, construction, agriculture, workforce skills, fair and safe IoT, asset management, digital twins, disaster resilience and other topics. Who hosts the IoT Awards? The annual l IoT Awards are hosted jointly by IoT Alliance Australia and IoT Hub. IoT Alliance Australia (IoTAA) is the peak industry body representing the Internet of Things (IoT) in Australia, with over 500 participating organisations and 1000 individual participants working across twelve workstreams. IoT Hub is a site focused on the growing connectivity between software, the cloud, and the devices we use in everyday business operations. From connected plant hardware, to communications and data manipulation, to views and opinions from Australia’s leading influencers, IoT Hub is YOUR site for staying up to date with this fast-developing field. Originally published by IoT Hub on 26 May 'Announcing the winners of the 2023 IoT Awards' Photo credit: The 2023 IoT Awards winners