Michael Mintrom is a Professor of Public Policy at Monash University, where he serves as the inaugural Director of Better Governance and Policy – a university-wide initiative to promote impact of policy-related research. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the State University of New York – Stony Brook. His books include Policy Entrepreneurs and Dynamic Change (Cambridge University Press, 2019), Public Policy: Investing for a Better World (Oxford University Press, 2019) and a co-edited collection, Successful Public Policy: Lessons from Australia and New Zealand (ANU Press, 2019). He has recently been exploring how local practices can support broader transitions. His developing collaborative research on robots in the public space considers how policymaking can become more anticipatory through stakeholder engagement and design thinking.
Marc Hanheide is a Professor of Intelligent Robotics & Interactive Systems in the School of Computer Science at the University of Lincoln, UK, and the director of the University’s cross-disciplinary research centre in Robotics, the Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems (L-CAS). He received the Diploma in computer science from Bielefeld University, Germany, in 2001 and the Ph.D. degree (Dr.-Ing.) also in computer science also from Bielefeld University in 2006. In 2001, he joined the Applied Informatics Group at the Technical Faculty of Bielefeld University. From 2006 to 2009 he held a position as a senior researcher in the Applied Computer Science Group. From 2009 until 2011, he was a research fellow at the School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham, UK.
He features regularly in public media, has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, and is actively engaged in promoting the public understanding of science through appearances in dedicated events, media appearances, and public lectures.