UOW Knowledge Series Sydney Panel Event
The disrupted digital frontier: How emerging technology of today will shape who we become tomorrow.
You are invited to join us in Sydney to hear our expert panel discuss disruptive technology and what it will mean for you.
Technology has created a state of perpetual revolution and is already disrupting traditional markets and social structures, changing the way we interact with the world around us.
Digital disruption will eventually affect every corner of Australian business and society. It will rewrite economics, scramble supply chains, blur category boundaries and make us question our ethics. How will your business be impacted and how will you respond to become a digital survivor?
Join our expert panel of University of Wollongong alumni and academics to explore the technological, social and economic impacts that these emerging technologies are having.
Meet our expert panel:
Professor Katina Michael, UOW alumna and Professor, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, UOW
Prof Katina Michael’s contribution to the future of emerging technologies is vast and includes her editorship for the award winning Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Technology & Society Magazine from 2012-2017.
She is a Professor in the School of Computing and Information Technology at UOW and until recently she was the Associate Dean – International in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences.
Since 2008 she has been a board member of the Australian Privacy Foundation, and formerly the Vice-Chair. Prof Michael researches on the socio-ethical implications of emerging technologies. She has written and edited six books, guest edited numerous special issue journals on themes related to radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, supply chain management, location-based services, innovation and surveillance/uberveillance. In 2017, she was awarded the prestigious Brian M. O'Connell Award for Distinguished Service to the IEEE Society on the Social Implications of Technology (IEEESSIT).
Dr Michael holds a PhD in Information & Communication Technology from the University of Wollongong (2003) and a Masters in Transnational Crime Prevention (2009).
Dr Shahriar Akter, Associate Professor of Digital Marketing, Analytics & Innovation at the Sydney Business School, UOW.
Dr Shahriar Akter was awarded his PhD from the UNSW Business School Australia, with a doctoral fellowship in research methods from University of Oxford.
He has published in leading business and management journals with a Google Scholar h-Index of 20 and more than 1800 citations since 2013. He received the UOW Vice Chancellor's award for teaching, a nomination for excellent research supervision and several prestigious awards for research. He has won various internal and external grants, including more than $100,000 in 2017, mostly for his research on business analytics of big data.
He was awarded the Paper of the Year Award in 2018 by Electronic Markets Journal for his research on big data analytics. Dr Akter is an advisory board member of WebHawks IT and is also the Chief Advisor of Digital Marketing Next that investigates digital, social and analytics applications. He is also a member of the Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) and Institute of Analytics Professionals of Australia (IAPA).
Dr Alex Badran, UOW alumnus and co-founder, Spriggy
Dr Alex Badran left his job at Citigroup to co-found Spriggy - a mobile app allowing kids to manage their pocket money with the help of their parents. Spriggy launched in 2016 and now has over 100,000 members. The co-founders met while working as derivatives traders at Citigroup, and connected over the belief that financial institutions should do more to help their users live happier financial lives.
Spriggy was one of 10 start-ups selected in August 2017 from a highly competitive pool for the Austrade Landing Pad in Tel Aviv (a 10-day boot camp). Dr Badran was awarded Most Innovative Team in the 2017 Finder Awards and Best Banking Innovation, beating Macquarie Bank and AMP Capital in the category. He was recognised by his peers as an elected Non-Executive Director of Stone and Chalk (from November 2015-November 2017). In 2017, Spriggy raised a further $2.5 million of funding to grow its business, and currently employs 15 people, making Spriggy one of the most successful early-stage start-ups in Australia.
Dr Badran holds Bachelor of Mathematics Advanced and Bachelor of Mathematics Advanced (Honours) from the University of Wollongong.
Dr Thomas Birtchnell, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wollongong
Social scientist Dr Thomas Birtchnell says mavericks are small groups of technology users who are early adopters and tend to take risks. Somewhat like beta software testers, they will poke and prod to find the limits of use and in many ways, lay the groundwork for how people end up using the product or service.
Dr Birtchnell says the problem with technology is that despite the grand pronouncements made by entrepreneurs and those who have a vested interest in the mass uptake of a technology, no one really has a clue how it will turn out. “Technology does not determine human actions; humans determine the application of technology. Social and cultural forces are just as important in the development of technology as economic or technical ones.” Technology doesn’t follow a linear pathway. Innovations are most often a combination of different things used in a new way, but those combinations are unknown and unpredictable.
He is an associate member of UOW’s Institute for Social Transformation Research: expanding our capacity to understand and engage with our social, cultural and geo‐political environment.
Kylie Cameron, UOW alumna and Senior Managing Consultant, IBM
Kylie Cameron is a digital strategist, facilitator and leader and an Associate Partner within IBM's Global Business Services Digital Team. She has over eight years of consulting experience working across industry sectors including retail, financial services, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, utilities, government, manufacturing, mining, and oil & gas.
Kylie's role requires her to work with stakeholders including media outlets to source relevant information; legal representatives to work through IP concerns; and with client analysts to define and implement a solution that supports their operations.
Intelligence agencies use cognitive technology in conjunction with other IT systems to increase the speed and efficiency of investigations. Cognitive technologies such as machine learning, pattern recognition and natural language processing tap into the explosion of unstructured data that can hold the key to breaking a case. Cognitive technology differs from traditional IT in how it’s set up and maintained as well as how users interact with it. As intelligence agencies implement cognitive solutions, they quickly realise the implications of these differences for their personnel, workflow and culture. But perhaps most significantly, cognitive technology affects the way users think. Analysts not only have more time to think because the technology helps them collect intelligence, but the technology also makes them think differently about how they do research and intelligence discovery.
Kylie holds a Bachelor of Information Technology from the University of Wollongong.
Dane Sharp, UOW alumnus and Digital Experience Manager, McDonald's Corporation
Dane Sharp is a successful, award-winning and highly skilled marketing, media, brand, product and digital manager. He has had the opportunity to experience many facets of business both locally in Australia and internationally and is currently the Digital Experience Manager for the McDonald’s Corporation.
Prior to this role, Dane held senior positions with Rip Curl, Under Armour and eBay. He has also had the opportunity to work closely with a partnership portfolio that includes Coca-Cola, Google, Apple, Telstra, Facebook, MySpace, Samsung, Woolworths, Target, Officeworks, Rebel Sport, Firefox, AFL, ASP/WSL, Tough Mudder, VML and DDB.
At McDonald’s, he leads a team that drives digital transformation for the business by developing and introducing innovation throughout the customer journey, identifying the most meaningful initiatives for customers and operators, and developing capabilities to bring them to life.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wollongong majoring in Communications, Cultural Studies and Journalism.
The UOW Knowledge Series showcases University of Wollongong thought leaders in various locations, discussing a range of engaging topics. Previous knowledge series lectures can be viewed here.
Citation: https://www.uow.edu.au/alumni/connect/events/UOW248269.html
