Service to the ANU

Clarification of abbreviations:

  • CSS = College of Systems and Society
  • CECC = College of Engineering, Computing and Cybernetics (got renamed into CSS January 2025)
  • 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 March 2025, I'm a member of the SOCO recognition and elevation committee (REC). Their job is to make sure SOCO members apply for appropriate awards to receive the recognition they deserve.
  • Since May 2022 I'm the SoCo representative on the CSS 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 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 August 2023 to mid April 2025 I was an HDR cluster convenor (one of two) for the Intelligent Systems cluster in which I'm in (the cluster consists of about 20 academics, Lecturers to full Professors, but more importantly between 100 and 120 PhD students working in the field of AI including ML, Computer Vision, 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.
  • From February 2023 to early 2024 (technically this task is still ongoing, though my work on this is pretty much done) I was put in charge creating a credit precedent register to SOCO student services.
  • 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.

One-time Services:

  • From February 2023 to early 2024 I was put in charge of creating a credit precedent register for and with SOCO student services to assist in the evaluation of new student application for credit transfers. (Technically the task is ongoing, but my work is mostly done.)
  • I created a LaTeX template for research projects. Note that calling this a LaTeX template is actually misleading, because it's so much more than that. In fact, 95% of the time invested into this template (way more than 100 hours and counting) is my advice on how to write such a thesis. I.e., what is a default structure of the thesis, what content goes into which section, which errors are usually made, etc. etc., all in a well organized matter. I regularly receive positive feedback for this, quite literally by students whom I never had contact with before, just to thank me. To those I say: My pleasure! I am happy that I could make your (academic) life a bit easier! :) You find my template in my section on advice for thesis writing.
  • I created a LaTeX template for DECRA project proposals that's in line with (at the time) current requirements by the ARC; and of course the code is well organized and readable. I made it available to ANU's grant team, who, according to my knowledge, now makes it available to every new applicant. (If interested in it, drop me an email.)