Speakers & Panelists
J. Rosenbaum (they/them)
J. Rosenbaum (they/them) is a Melbourne AI artist and researcher working with 3D modeling, artificial intelligence and extended reality technologies. Their work explores posthuman and postgender concepts using classical art combined with new media techniques and programming.
J has a PhD from RMIT University in Melbourne at the School of Art exploring AI Perceptions of Gender and the nature of AI generated art and the human hands behind the processes that engender bias, especially towards gender minorities. Their artwork highlights this bias through programmatic interactive artworks and traditional gallery displays. They speak at conferences worldwide about the use of artificial intelligence in art and have exhibited all over the world. J’s artwork has been supported by the City of Melbourne Covid-19 Arts Grants and has won the Midsumma Australia Post Art Prize.
J works with classically inspired aesthetics with the latest technologies to create a speculative future grounded in the aesthetics of the past to show that gender minorities have always been here and will continue into the future.
Aaron Quigley (he/him)
Aaron Quigley is the Science Director and Deputy Director of CSIRO’s Data61. Having served as general co-chair for the ACM CHI conference in 2021 he is now the chair elect of the ACM CHI conference steering committee and was named an ACM Distinguished Scientist in 2020. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Newcastle and a 1st class honours degree in Computer Science from Trinity College in Dublin Ireland. Aaron has published over 200 papers and is interested in discreet computing, ubiquitous computing and information visualisation.
From 2020 – 2023 he was Professor and head of school for the School of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) in the University of New South Wales in Sydney Australia. From 2010 – 2020, he was the Professor and Chair of Human Computer Interaction in the School of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews, director of the Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA), board member for ScotlandIS and the DataLab. During this time he was a visiting Professor in the National University of Singapore, Tokyo Tech and the University of Tohoku. Prior to this he worked in the University of Tasmania, the University College Dublin, the University of Sydney, Mitsubishi Electric Laboratories and the University of Newcastle.
Mark Dras (he/him)
Mark Dras received his PhD from the (now) School of Computing at Macquarie University, Australia, where he is currently a professor. He works on machine learning and artificial intelligence, with a particular focus on computational linguistics and Natural Language Processing, and has more than 100 refereed publications in these areas, in the major venues such as ACL, EMNLP, Computational Linguistics, NeurIPS, IJCAI and ICDM. Mark has a focus on mentoring young scholars, having won the Faculty of Science and Engineering’s prize for excellence in HDR supervision, and subsequently becoming the Director of Research Training for Computing. He is also currently Treasurer of the Asia-Pacific Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics, the premier international scientific and professional society for people working on computational treatment of human language.
Jessica Korte (she/her)
Dr Jessica Korte is passionate about the ways good technology can improve lives. To ensure technology is “good”, she advocates involving end users in the design process; especially when those people belong to “difficult” user groups - which usually translates to “minority” user groups. Her philosophy for technology design (and life in general) is that the needs of people who are disempowered or disabled by society should be considered first; everyone else will then benefit from technology that maximises usability. Her research areas include Human-Computer Interaction, Machine Learning, and Participatory & Collaborative Design.
Jessica was drawn to research by a desire to explore some of the ways technology and design can empower and support people from marginalised groups. She has worked with Deaf children and members of the Deaf community to create a technology design approach, and a smart home personal assistant that recognises key Auslan signs; and successfully organised and run international workshops on Pushing the Boundaries of Participatory Design, leading to the World’s Most Inclusive Distributed Participatory Design Project.
Lauren Oakden-Rayner (she/her)
Dr Lauren Oakden-Rayner (FRANZCR, PhD) is the Director of Research in Medical Imaging at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and is a senior research fellow at the Australian Institute for Machine Learning. Her research explores the safe and ethical translation of artificial intelligence technologies into clinical practice, both from a technical and clinical perspective.
Rebecca Blundell (she/her)
Rebecca Blundell (she/her) is the 2023 Queer Officer for the UNSW SRC and is assisting with this project on behalf of the UNSW Queer Collective. Rebecca is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Media and a Bachelor of Social Sciences at UNSW and has been involved with the Queer Collective since her first year at the university. In mid-2023, she was elected as the 2022 interim Queer Officer and was later re-elected into the position by the UNSW Queer Collective. As Rebecca’s cohort enters the workforce, the prevalence of AI technology will be significant, particularly for minority groups such as the LGBTQIA+ community. Therefore, continued education and awareness on this topic are essential for queer-identifying students.
The UNSW Queer Collective is a student-run organisation that aims to provide a comprehensive queer community and connect LGBTQIA+ identifying, curious, and questioning students across year levels, degrees, and campuses. The collective meets weekly and hosts a wide range of events and activities throughout the year, providing social, educational, and activist opportunities so that all members can engage in the community in a way that is meaningful to them.
Mike McKenna (he/him)
Mike McKenna (he/him, queer, Melbourne/Narrm) is a lawyer turned data scientist turned AI ethicist. He's most happy when he can help at least one person get to where they need to go each day.
Mike runs an AI ethics consultancy, Adjust AI, conducting algorithmic audits for public sector clients. Mike is the only dedicated AI ethicist placed anywhere in the Commonwealth government. He is supported by Yuki the Cairn Terrier aka Chief Lick Officer at Adjust AI.
Soon after graduating Mike worked freelance as a data scientist in the USA from 2019-2022. In that time he led CVS's Covid-19 vaccine demand forecasting under Operation Warp Speed, ran algorithmic auditing teams in NYC and Boston, and mostly lived in housing co-operatives of 12-30 people.
To relax, Mike plays at least two board nights games a week, struggles through marathon training, makes zines, and plays too much bullet (relaxedplan on Lichess). His favourite zine is a group project in the style of The Faggots & their Friends: Between Revolutions - a book that you should read, and Mike always has a few copies to loan out or give to friends.
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