Victoria is home to a vibrant and rapidly evolving artificial intelligence research community, with universities driving breakthroughs that are transforming research, industry and society. This panel will examine the breadth of AI research across Victoria's universities and explore how greater collaboration can strengthen the state's position as a global leader in AI innovation.
Melbourne Minds on AI brings together AI researchers from Monash University, RMIT University, La Trobe University, Swinburne University of Technology and The University of Melbourne for a special AI at Melbourne Colloquium panel discussion. Moderated by Professor Eduard Hovy, Executive Director at Melbourne Connect, the panel will highlight research advancing AI across disciplines, explore opportunities to strengthen collaboration and amplify the impact of university-led innovation, and consider the technological, organisational and policy contexts shaping AI, including the role of public interest and responsible innovation in delivering lasting societal benefit.
Designed for researchers, students, professional staff, industry and government, the discussion offers an opportunity to hear from experts at the forefront of AI research in Victoria.
Executive Director, Melbourne Connect
Eduard Hovy is a professor at the University of Melbourne’s School of Computing and Information Systems, and a research professor at the Language Technologies Institute in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr Hovy’s research focuses on computational semantics of language and addresses various areas in Natural Language Processing and Data Analytics, including in-depth machine reading of text, information extraction, automated text summarization, question answering, the semi-automated construction of large lexicons and ontologies, and machine translation.
Director of Monash AI Institute, Monash University
Professor Shonali Krishnaswamy is the Director of the Monash AI Institute and the Associate Dean (Innovation) in the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University. Prior to this, Professor Krishnaswamy was the Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of AiDA Technologies, a multi-award winning Machine Learning start-up from Singapore, delivering AI-based claims processing technologies for health insurers in Singapore and the ASEAN region.
Director, RAIsE Hub (RMIT Artificial Intelligence Advanced Innovation Experience), RMIT University
Professor Rahil Garnavi is an internationally recognised AI leader and strategist with more than 18 years of experience spanning AI research, product development, industry innovation and organisational transformation. She is Professor and Director of the RAIsE Hub, where she leads initiatives that bridge AI education, research and industry to drive real-world impact. Through interdisciplinary collaboration and industry engagement, her work focuses on advancing responsible AI innovation and preparing individuals and organisations to thrive in an AI-enabled future.
Senior Manager, Partnerships and Operations, Australian Centre for AI in Medical Innovation, La Trobe University
Renee previously served as a Senior Scientific and Policy Advisor at mRNA Victoria, part of the Victorian State Government where she drove policy and strategic investment programs aimed at fostering Victoria’s RNA ecosystem. Prior to working for Victorian Government, Renee worked in consulting at KPMG and EY, where she helped companies from biotech and pharma sectors to access the R&D Tax Incentive program and competitive strategic grant funding. Renee has a PhD in medical carbohydrate chemistry and biochemistry from Griffith University.
Associate Dean Research, Swinburne University of Technology
Professor Jiong Jin is the Associate Dean Research in the School of Engineering and the founding Director of Networked Robotics & Automation Lab at Swinburne University of Technology. He is also the Deputy Director of the ARC Research Hub in Cyber-Farming for Sustainable and Resilient Agriculture. He currently serves as an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics and IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering.
