Program

Abdullah Shaikh Intersect

Abdullah Shaikh is an eResearch Analyst at Intersect Australia (based at the University of New South Wales). He has a wealth of experience in delivering training courses on multiple programming languages and software like R, Python, MATLAB, Excel, and SPSS. His areas of interest are machine learning, data analysis, visualisations, and statistics. Abdullah has experience working with researchers with diverse backgrounds for over four years.

Hume Winzar Macquarie University

Director of the Bachelor of Business Analytics at Macquarie University, a recovering Marketing academic, and co-author of four best-selling textbooks on Statistics, Consumer Psychology and Marketing Research.

A/Prof Abhay Singh Macquarie University

Assoc. Prof. Abhay Kumar Singh is a leading researcher in Data Science with a strong focus on multidisciplinary research in financial risk modelling, econometrics, education, and data analytics. His expertise in the field of empirical research has been demonstrated through industry-funded research projects, high impact publications and research-informed teaching. His research has been published in numerous high impact research outlets, including high-quality ABDC ranked A/A* journals. Abhay is a big believer in open-source software and has been using R for statistical computing, data analytics, machine learning and quantitative research for over ten years. He is also the author of the book “R in Finance & Economics: A Beginner’s Guide” and has extensive experience in training early career and experienced researchers in empirical research and data analytics.

Tomasz Bednarz UNSW & CSIRO

Dr Alana Piper University of Technology Sydney

Dr Alana Piper is a Chancellors Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Australian Centre for Public history at UTS. Her research interests draw together the social and cultural history of crime with criminological, legal and digital humanities approaches. She has authored over 40 academic publications, and is currently a CI on the ARC Discovery project 'Sex and the Australian Military, 1914-2020' (2021-2023) and the ARC LIEF project 'Time-Layered Cultural Map of Australia' (2019-2021).

A/Prof Claudia Hillenbrand UNSW

Claudia is the Director of Research Imaging New South Wales. She is an experienced MR scientist developing novel MRI sequences and translating these into clinical application. She has worked on over 30 prospective clinical research studies or trials that investigated MRI for diagnosis, and assessment of therapy, as well as late effects of treatment for cancer and other catastrophic illnesses. She is a renowned expert on MR-based liver iron quantification. Her work has been published in >70 peer-reviewed journal papers, 2 books and 4 book chapters.

Dr Daniel Flanagan UNSW, Sydney Childrens' and Prince of Wales Hospital

Jessica Wilson University of Newcastle

Jess has a Bachelors degree in Psychology and is a project officer for Frances Kay-Lambkins research team where mental health and substance use dual diagnosis and the development of eHealth interventions are the primary focus. Jess's current research trials and project areas include suicide prevention, brain cancer caregiving, and depression and alcohol/other drug use. Jess will commence her PhD in trauma-informed care in late 2020.

Dr Anusuriya Devaraju TERN

Anusuriya Devaraju is a Senior Data Innovation Manager at Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN). She has conceptualized and led the management and development of several standard practices and technical solutions in Earth and Environmental Sciences, which have resulted in enhanced data management and discovery.

Jianzhou Zhao Intersect

Dr Jianzhou Zhao is an eResearch Training Specialist, planning and delivering Intersect's training program for its members and partners. Jianzhou works collaboratively with universities help guide the development and deployment of relevant eResearch services; and, increase the visibility and acceptance of good eResearch practice across all areas. Jianzhou holds a PhD in Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy Engineering.

Andrew Goh Intersect

Abdullah Shaikh Intersect

Abdullah Shaikh is an eResearch Analyst at Intersect Australia (based at the University of New South Wales). He has a wealth of experience in delivering training courses on multiple programming languages and software like R, Python, MATLAB, Excel, and SPSS. His areas of interest are machine learning, data analysis, visualisations, and statistics. Abdullah has experience working with researchers with diverse backgrounds for over four years.

Fiona Jones Macquarie University

Fiona is a Research Librarian providing research and teaching support to academics, researchers, and students. Fiona is helping other librarians develop data skills to build capacity for supporting researchers.

Belinda Fabian Macquarie University

Belinda is a Project Officer for the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology and a PhD candidate at Macquarie University. Her research uses high-throughput genomics techniques to study beneficial bacteria that colonise plant roots. Belinda is certified Carpentries Instructor, an Advance HE Fellow, and is passionate about equipping students with useful skills for the workforce.

Marium Afzal Khan Intersect

Marium Afzal Khan is the eResearch Analyst from Intersect at the University of Adelaide. She has over 7 years of experience incorporating technology and data analytics across multiple industries including education, health, governance and research. Marium has a background in computer science with a Masters in Educational Technology.

Jerry Lai Intersect

Tim Keighley Macquarie University

I have a background in data science and statistical programming. Currently working at Macquarie University as part of a team that creates online courses.

John Zaitseff UNSW

John Zaitseff has been using and programming computers since his primary school purchased its first in the early 1980s. Having studied Computer Engineering at UNSW, he has been involved with the Free / Open Source Software movement and with Linux in particular since 1993. He has been teaching others the joys of these technologies since 2014.

David McFarlane UNSW

Oksana Tkachenko UNSW

Svetlana Tkachenko UNSW

David Jung UNSW

David Jung is Research Data Support Officer at the UNSW Sydney. He supports researchers navigate the policies, guidelines, and technologies in managing their research data. One of his roles is being a REDCap administrator: training, consulting and supporting the use of REDCap. He has recently taken interest in Public Health and enrolled into an MPH program.

Aidan Wilson Intersect

Aidan Wilson is Intersect's eResearch Analyst for Australian Catholic University, where his role includes administration and user support for REDCap, Qualtrics, and a host of other research software applications. When he was a researcher himself, he studied the Aboriginal languages of Australia's top-end, and wrote his Master's thesis on Traditional Tiwi.

Jeff Wang Intersect

I am the Intersect eResearch Analyst for Western Sydney University. I deliver training workshops and provide support on digital research tools. Previously I worked as Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Wollongong, and my research background is Computational Chemistry.

A/Prof Tim Sheratt University of Canberra

Tim Sherratt is a historian and hacker who researches the possibilities and politics of digital cultural collections. Tim has worked across the cultural heritage sector and has been developing online resources relating to libraries, archives, museums and history since 1993. He's currently Associate Professor of Digital Heritage in the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research at the University of Canberra. You can find him at timsherratt.org or as @wragge on Twitter.

Jonathan Garber Melbourne Data Analytics Platform

I am a Physical Geographer/Environmental Scientist and Research Data Specialist. My professional goals are to critically examine and utilise cutting edge digital technologies to find novel solutions across domains, making these technologies and data analytic techniques more accessible to diverse users

Sonia Ramza ARDC

Sonia is a Cloud Skills Specialist with the ARDC, working on training, user documentation and support initiatives. Previously she has worked in Researcher Training and Community Management roles in the Technology sector.

Foivos Diakogiannis University of Western Australia

Xtronomer (aka former Astronomer - Ph.D. Gravitational Astrophysics, the University of Sydney), turned to data scientist. I currently work as a Senior Research Fellow on Data Science, in the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (UWA) where I work on all things data science. In particular, I specialize on Deep Learning applications of data science problems, from time series wave forecasting, to computer vision (remote sensing), to gravitational waves detection.

Kirsten Wright University of Melbourne

Kirsten Wright is the Program Manager of the Find and Connect web resource, University of Melbourne. Prior to this, she held a number of roles at Victoria University and worked at the Public Record Office Victoria. Kirsten holds a BA in history and politics and a Master of Information Management and Systems, both from Monash University.

Constance Thurley-Hart University of Melbourne

Dr Penny Crook Macquarie University

Dr Penny Crook is a historical archaeologist who specialises in material-culture studies and digital data management. She is Co-Director of the FAIMS 3.0 project and was a founding member of the original FAIMS Leadership team between 2012 and 2014.

Jens Klump

Jens Klump is a geochemist by training and leads the Exploration Through Cover Group in CSIRO Mineral Resources based in Perth, Western Australia. In his work on data infrastructures, Jens covers the entire chain of digital value creation from data acquisition to data analysis with a focus on data in minerals exploration. This includes automated data and metadata capture, sensor data integration, both in the field and in the laboratory, data processing workflows, and data provenance, but also data analysis by statistical methods, machine learning and numerical modelling.

Titus Tang Monash University

Titus is a Deep Learning engineer and educator on the Monash Data Science and AI platform. He provides advice and hands-on assistance to researchers looking to apply deep learning and AI techniques to their research. Titus also leads various AI training events at Monash.

Tarun Bonu Monash University

Tarun is a Machine learning engineer at the Data Science and AI platform, Monash University. He is the coordinator for the Machine Learning Community of Practice - ML4AU which explores issues, challenges and interests of user, training and practitioner communities. He involves himself in training events that enable researchers with data skills for effective research.

Ann Backhaus Pawsey Supercomputing Centre

Ann Backhaus is the Education & Training Manager at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre. Ann has significant experience in adult teaching and learning, and project and program management. She has led distributed, global teaching & learning teams strategically and operationally, using a variety of modalities and training / enablement materials. Her experience spans numerous industries and domains.

Chris Wilkinson NCI Australia

Chris Wilkinson has a background in journalism and media production and has been with NCI Australia for over five years. First and foremost a storyteller, Chris translates the incredible scientific achievements made possible by high-performance computing and data services in Australia and shares these amazing stories with the world through moving images, research highlights and other media.

Aidan Wilson Intersect

Aidan Wilson is Intersect's eResearch Analyst for Australian Catholic University, where his role includes administration and user support for REDCap, Qualtrics, and a host of other research software applications. When he was a researcher himself, he studied the Aboriginal languages of Australia's top-end, and wrote his Master's thesis on Traditional Tiwi.

Jeff Wang Intersect

I am the Intersect eResearch Analyst for Western Sydney University. I deliver training workshops and provide support on digital research tools. Previously I worked as Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Wollongong, and my research background is Computational Chemistry.

Sam Ryan Intersect

Dr Taren Sanders Australian Catholic University

Dr Sanders is the Deputy Program Leader of the Motivation and Behaviour at the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education at the Australian Catholic University. His research focuses on the health of children and young people, including perspectives from public health and education.

Prof Philip Parker Australian Catholic University

Professor Phil Parker is the Deputy Director of the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education at the Australian Catholic University. He received his doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Sydney. His major research interest includes educational inequality, developmental transitions, and educational attainment.

Jianzhou Zhao Intersect

Dr Jianzhou Zhao is an eResearch Training Specialist, planning and delivering Intersect's training program for its members and partners. Jianzhou works collaboratively with universities help guide the development and deployment of relevant eResearch services; and, increase the visibility and acceptance of good eResearch practice across all areas. Jianzhou holds a PhD in Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy Engineering.

Andrew Goh Intersect

Abdullah Shaikh Intersect

Abdullah Shaikh is an eResearch Analyst at Intersect Australia (based at the University of New South Wales). He has a wealth of experience in delivering training courses on multiple programming languages and software like R, Python, MATLAB, Excel, and SPSS. His areas of interest are machine learning, data analysis, visualisations, and statistics. Abdullah has experience working with researchers with diverse backgrounds for over four years.

George Milunovich Macquarie University

I work in the areas of Predictive Analytics, Forecasting, Econometrics and Empirical Finance. In my research I investigate a wide range of issues such as interdependences between various financial markets, modelling of volatility, and the identification of structural/causal models. In recent work I incorporate machine learning methods into econometric and time series forecasts.

Belinda Fabian Macquarie University

Belinda is a Project Officer for the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology and a PhD candidate at Macquarie University. Her research uses high-throughput genomics techniques to study beneficial bacteria that colonise plant roots. Belinda is certified Carpentries Instructor, an Advance HE Fellow, and is passionate about equipping students with useful skills for the workforce.

Marium Afzal Khan Intersect

Marium Afzal Khan is the eResearch Analyst from Intersect at the University of Adelaide. She has over 7 years of experience incorporating technology and data analytics across multiple industries including education, health, governance and research. Marium has a background in computer science with a Masters in Educational Technology.

Jerry Lai Intersect

Tim Keighley Macquarie University

I have a background in data science and statistical programming. Currently working at Macquarie University as part of a team that creates online courses.

Siddeswara Guru TERN

Dr Ivan Hanigan University of Sydney

Genevieve Buckley

Genevieve Buckley is a scientist and programmer based in Melbourne Australia. She builds software tools for scientific discovery. Currently, she works full time on Dask, a python library for distributed computation.

David McFarlane UNSW

Oksana Tkachenko UNSW

Svetlana Tkachenko UNSW

Peta Scott Intersect

Natalie Wall University of Newcastle

Clinton Chee Altair

Clinton is fortunate to work in the field he is passionate in, which is Data Analytics / Data Science. His current work has enabled him to interact with many data practitioners and learning about various interesting and diverse projects. Clinton is keen on taking each of these projects and applying Machine Learning techniques to predict relevant outcomes. His background is in Engineering and Physics, leading up to a PhD in Smart Structures, in which he first came across Artificial Neural Networks and Machine Learning. Since graduation he has been working as a Computational Scientist, making use of his Fortran skills and landing in the area of High Performance Computing which led his roles at UNSW, CBA and Altair. Although still a strong Fortran proponent, Clinton now mostly uses Python for his programming needs. His other interests include Quantum Computing and keeping up to date with Machine Learning developments.

David Jung UNSW

David Jung is Research Data Support Officer at the UNSW Sydney. He supports researchers navigate the policies, guidelines, and technologies in managing their research data. One of his roles is being a REDCap administrator: training, consulting and supporting the use of REDCap. He has recently taken interest in Public Health and enrolled into an MPH program.

Aidan Wilson Intersect

Aidan Wilson is Intersect's eResearch Analyst for Australian Catholic University, where his role includes administration and user support for REDCap, Qualtrics, and a host of other research software applications. When he was a researcher himself, he studied the Aboriginal languages of Australia's top-end, and wrote his Master's thesis on Traditional Tiwi.

Weisi Chen Intersect

Weisi Chen is Intersect’s eResearch Analyst for University of Technology Sydney, his routine responsibilities include research support, as well as the UTS REDCap administrator. With more than nine years of eResearch experience, Weisi has expertise in a broad range of eResearch technologies.

Olya Ryjenko University of Sydney

Olya leads the data team in the University of Sydney's clinical trials support office. Her work includes supporting clinical trials researchers in meeting regulatory and governance requirements for managing their data. Prior to working in research support, Olya was a researcher herself, wearing multiple hats as clinical trials coordinator, data manager and clinician in the discipline of speech pathology.

Anastasios Papaioannou Intersect

Nick May CSIRO

Nick is an accredited software engineer with over thirty years of Information Technology experience, across a variety of roles, languages, systems and domains. The last thirteen years have been spent in the research domain, partly in a software architecture research group, but mostly helping researchers with software and data projects and technology. More recently I have been actively engaged in the Research Software Engineering (RSE) community, as a member of the organising committee for the 2019 UK RSE conference, and as secretary of the RSE Association of Australian and New Zealand (rse-aunz.org).

Bradley Horton Mathworks

Bradley Horton is a member of the Academic Customer Success team at MathWorks, helping faculty members better utilize MATLAB and Simulink for education and research. Bradley has supported and consulted for clients on projects in process control engineering, power systems simulation, military operations research, and earthquake impact modelling. Before joining MathWorks, Brad spent 5 years as a systems engineer with the Defence Science & Technology Organisation (DSTO) working as an operations research analyst. Bradley holds a B.Eng. in Mechanical engineering and a B.Sc. in Applied mathematics.

Ann Backhaus Pawsey Supercomputing Centre

Ann Backhaus is the Education & Training Manager at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre. Ann has significant experience in adult teaching and learning, and project and program management. She has led distributed, global teaching & learning teams strategically and operationally, using a variety of modalities and training / enablement materials. Her experience spans numerous industries and domains.

Junming Ho UNSW

Junming Ho is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Chemistry in UNSW. He leads the Modelling and Mechanism Group which specialises in using computational chemistry simulations to design new catalysts and drug molecules.

Samaneh Sadat Setayandeh UNSW

Samaneh Sadat Setayandeh is currently a postdoctoral researcher at UNSW. She is focusing on atomic scale simulations of tungsten borides and other advanced ceramics. The majority of the work in Samaneh’s PhD - in Condensed Matter Physics from Griffith University - was ab initio calculations on the Pd-H2 system, using Quantum Espresso to calculate electron, phonon and superconductivity properties.

Duncan Smith UNSW

Duncan Smith is a member of Research Technology Services at UNSW and has been heavily involved with the on-campus computational cluster Katana since its inception.

Jake Surman UNSW

Jake Surman has been supporting research at UNSW for over 20 years, from fixing dial-up modems to helping people manage terabytes of research data. Currently he works for Research Technology Services at UNSW in the Research Data Management (RDM@UNSW) team.

José Ferrer-Paris UNSW

I am a Research Fellow at the Centre for Ecosystem Science in the School for Biological, Environmental and Earth Sciences at UNSW. I work with risk assessment for threatened species and ecosystems, maps of species and ecosystems and general applications of biodiversity informatics. I have 20 years of experience with programming (R, Python, PHP, JS, Perl, etc), data management (SQL, XML and GraphQL) and geographical information systems. I have studied in Germany and Venezuela, and worked with the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research and the South African National Biodiversity Institute. Currently I am a member of the Red List of Ecosystem Thematic Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Melroy Almeida AAF

Melroy works at the Australian Access Federation looking after the Australian ORCID Consortium. When not working with ORCID related stuff, Melroy dabbles in other persistent identifiers.

Jason Potas UNSW

Jason Potas is an inventor and neuroscientist working on sensory processing and pain. He is currently an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at UNSW and Director of Bionic Innovations.

Melissa Burke Australian BioCommons

Melissa is the Training and Communications Officer for Australian BioCommons. She has many years of experience in developing and delivering face-to-face and online training in bioinformatics with Australian BioCommons and EMBL-EBI. Melissa has a PhD in Molecular Parasitology from the University of Queensland.

Adrian Chew UNSW

Adrian W. Chew is an Adjunct Lecturer with the School of Education at UNSW Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture. He is also the Academic Development Consultant leading the Institutional Underpinnings PAIC educational/training experience project across Bond University, University of New South Wales and University of Sydney.

Michael Falk University of Sydney

Michael Falk is Community Technical Adviser at Heurist. He works with Humanities researchers around the world to design their research databases and build beautiful websites to reach a wider audience with their work. By training he is a literary scholar, with particular interests in distant reading and the early modern literatures of the Indo-Pacific.