Service to the ANU

Clarification of abbreviations:

  • CECC = College of Engineering, Computing and Cybernetics
  • CECS = College of Engineering and Computer Science (got renamed into CECC late 2022)
  • SoCo = School of Computing (part of CECC)
  • RSCS = Research School of Computer Science (got renamed into SoCo mid 2021)
  • HDR = Higher Degree Research, usually used for PhD students
  • PhD = Doctor of Philosophy, a degree obtained after years of research
  • AI = Artificial Intelligence
  • ML = Machine Learning, a huge subfield of AI

My current service roles at the ANU:

  • Since August 2023 I am an HDR cluster convenor (one of two) for the Intelligent Systems cluster in which I'm in (the cluster consists of almost 100 academics, Lecturers to full Professors, working in the field of AI including ML, Planning, and related). The HDR convenors have the job to actively monitor all PhD students in that cluster. This involves checking progress reports, organizing meetings, retreats, and so on.
  • Since May 2022 I'm the SoCo representative on the CECC Work, Health, and Safety (WHS) Committee.
  • Since December 2021, I am an Incident Investigator for SoCo (one of two). Whenever there's an incident (accidents or malfunctioning or dangerous hardware or environment etc.) reported on some platform, I'm one of several in a team (two per school) who contacts the reporting person to collect and provide more information on what exactly happened and why.
  • Since November 2021, I am a First Aider (FA) (one of three) as well as as a Mental First Aider (MFA) (also one of three) of 'the computer science part' of my building Hanna Neumann. (The building also hosts the Mathematical Sciences Institute (MSI), which has their own first aiders.)
  • Since November 2021 I'm doing PhB mentoring. So far I have been a mentor for two PhB students. (PhB, Bachelor of Philosophy, is a research-intense program at the ANU where high-performing students are granted more flexibility in what courses they take. It's designed to prepare for a PhD even more than a normal program (or another slightly less elite Bachelor program we have) would do already anyway.) Every PhB student as assigned an academic mentor that they meet every few months (plus whenever required) to make sure they succeed throughout.

Past service roles at the ANU:

  • From April 2021 to June 2023 (2 years), I was a member of the SoCo PhD scholarship committee. The committee holds four meetings each year, two national and two international ones. Prior to joining the board permanently, I was already a member for the first 2020 round for international students (April round), back then still called the RSCS PhD committee.
  • From October 2021 to early May 2022, I was a proxy for Hanna Souminen, acting as Academic Representative for both SoCo and CECS. As such, I was a member of the CECS Work, Health, and Safety (WHS) committee which meets quarterly to decide on topics related to WHS. During that time there was a restructuring of how the various WHS committees work, after which I transitioned into a different role.