Roba Abbas is an Honorary Senior Fellow in the Faculty of Business and Law at the University of Wollongong (UOW), Australia. She is also the Chair of the Technical Activities Executive Committee, and the Socio-Technical Systems Committee, of the IEEE Society on the Social Implications of Technology (SSIT). For almost two decades, Roba has explored the way in which individuals, organisations, and communities design and interact with socio-technical ecosystems and spaces, by advancing collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches to systems design, digital innovation and transformation across diverse application contexts. She has led web design, development and transformation projects in industry, and held research, teaching, governance and leadership roles in academia in multiple Schools and Faculties, including Business, Engineering and Information Sciences, and Informatics. Roba previously served as the Co-Editor-in-Chief / Co-Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society and was an Associate Editor of the IEEE Technology and Society Magazine.

Mr Haralabos Abelas, LLB BCom(Finance), Solicitor NSW,  lecturer and sessional academic staff member of the School of Law, UOW.

Mr Abelas has taught principally in Revenue/Taxation Law and extensively across the LLB program in Foundations of Law, Contract Law, Law of Torts, Corporations & Business Law,  Remedies & Civil Procedure,  Advanced Legal Skills,  Ethics & Professional Responsibility,  Equity and Trusts , Commercial Law and various postgraduate law subjects for Masters Business students. With extensive experience as principal of a legal practice across several jurisdictions in Courts and Tribunals of NSW Australia, his students report an engaged learning process under his instruction characterised by a unique blend of academic rigour, and practical utility. 

Outside of the law,  he has extensive experience in Global Financial Markets in funds management and derivatives trading at both an institutional level and privately and in this arena a special interest in systemic risk, financial crises, market panics and crashes. He also has a lifetime involvement in all aspects of building and construction at all levels.  He has a long history of Legal Practice as Principal and in private Enterprise, preceded by work with numerous private law firms, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (Markets & Enforcement)  , Ernst & Young (Tax Law) , and Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Global Financial Markets).

A stalwart supporter of the Illawarra and UOW he also has a long historic association with the Illawarra and UOW, being a native of Keiraville, having studied law under the tutelage of the founding members of UOW Law School, as an original member of the late Liz Hilton’s UOW student recruiting team of the 1990s and as current active volunteer in the Illawarra with NSW Surf Life Saving.

 _{αἰὲν ἀριστεύειν καὶ ὑπείροχον ἔμμεναι ἄλλων} 

Email: abelas@uow.edu.au

David J. Adams is an Honorary Professor, Molecular Horizons/Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, University of Wollongong, Australia (2025- 2028). He is also Chair of the Research Committee and Board Director of MND Australia and Senior Editor, British Journal of Pharmacology. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA), the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (FAHMS), the Royal Society NSW (FRSN), the American Physiological Society (FAPS), The Physiological Society UK (FTPS), and the International Union of Physiological Sciences Academy (FIUPS). He was previously a Distinguished Professor, University of Wollongong (2019-2024), CEO and Executive Director of the Illawarra Health & Medical Research Institute (IHMRI), University of Wollongong (12/2015-11/2022), Professor and Director of the Health Innovations Research Institute, RMIT University, Melbourne (9/2009-12/2015) and an ARC Australian Professorial Fellow (2010-2014) and during the period 04/2013-02/2014 he was Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation) and Vice-President, RMIT University. He was Professor and Chair of Physiology at the University of Queensland (UQ; 1995-2009), Head of Department of Physiology & Pharmacology (1997-2000), Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences (2000-2007) and Professorial Research Fellow & Director of UQ Neuroscience Program, Queensland Brain Institute (2008-2009). He was appointed Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, FL USA in 1984, promoted to Associate Professor (tenured) in 1989 and to full Professor in 1993.

Ashish P. Agalgaonkar completed his PhD studies at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) - Bombay, Mumbai, India. He completed BE and ME from the Walchand College of Engineering, Sangli, India with First Class with Distinction. Also, while in India, he worked for various organisations including KSB Pumps Limited, Pune, India, Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) (State owned power utility), Kolhapur, India, and NTPC Limited (formerly the National Thermal Power Corporation), Noida, India in various capacities.

Ashish joined at the School of Engineering, University of Tasmania, Australia as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in October 2007 to work on an ARC linkage project titled On-line Monitoring and Modelling of Electrical Loads for Improving Operational Conditions of Power Systems. He worked on the same ARC project as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Australian (formerly Integral Energy) Power Quality and Reliability Centre (APQRC), School of Electrical, Computer and Telecommunications Engineering (SECTE), University of Wollongong, Australia from February 2008 to November 2010, before taking up a Lecturer position in the School. As a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, he was also involved in the ARC discovery project titled "Optimising Control of Hydroelectric Turbines Subject to Basslink Instability" and URC research partnership project titled "Agent-Based Simulation for Catastrophic Disturbances in a Distributed Power Grid System".

Currently, he is an Associate Professor in the School of Engineering (SOE). His main areas of research include Impact of Renewable and Distributed Generation on Electricity Networks, Power System Reliability, System Stability, Electricity Markets, and Smart Grids. He has published more than 180 research papers in renowned international journals and conferences. He has been successful in securing internal and external research grants jointly with other colleagues. Also, he has been actively involved in establishing close links with the reputable universities abroad. He has been involved in the supervision of Higher Degree Research (HDR) students. He is an Academic Program Director (APD) of the Graduate Certificate in and Master of Electrical Power Engineering courses. Also, he is a member of the Australian Power and Energy Research Institute (APERI) at SOE, University of Wollongong and a Senior Member of the IEEE.

Shirley is a Professor in the School of Education, Faculty of Arts, Society and Business. 

Shirley's academic career spans more than 25 years in the fields of educational technology and higher education. She is considered a world leader for her research about how people learn with the use of digital technologies and the professional practice of teachers. The ultimate goal of her research work is to empower learners, be they students or school or university teachers, to better understand their own practices to make informed decisions on how they can support their own learning.

Shirley has attained grant funding exceeding $1.5M, has published 85+ publications (over a third as lead author), has 15 HDR student completions and her research metrics (Google Scholar h-index=35; Google citations = 4200+, citations in 50+ countries (SCOPUS)) are evidence of her research reputation of international standing. 

Shirley was the Interim Head of School of the School of Education in 2025 and in 2021. She was Deputy Head of School in 2020, and served as the School of Education’s Head of Research for 4.5 years (from 2018 to June 2022).

Dr Aziz Ahmed is a Senior Lecturer in Structural Engineering at the School of Civil, Mining, Environmental and Architectural Engineering. Prior to this assignment, he was a research fellow within Steel Research Hub and Sustainable Buildings Research Centre at UOW, since 2016. In 2007, Aziz graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. In 2013, he completed his Doctor of Philosophy in Structural Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He was a Post-doctoral research fellow at NUS before joining the University of Wollongong. Dr Aziz Ahmed is currently a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and Engineers Australia. He is also a certified project management professional.

To date, he has received sixteen competitive grants. The first two were in the year 2018. Future Challenges award proof-of-concept fund by Steel Research Hub and UOW Global Challenges Seed Fund Award. He is involved in the recently successful Steel Innovation Hub supported by the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hubs scheme. He is an investigator in a successful 2021 RevITAlise Research Grant Scheme (RITA) grant developing 3D printed hailstones for Hail Damage Assessment on Steel Roof and solar panels. He successfully led a Major Equipment Grant (MEG) application for Super-fast large-scale 3D printing equipment to enable multidisciplinary research on sustainable plastics recycling into the circular economy. He is the UOW lead for a successful UOW-ANSTO Seed Fund looking at a practical and scalable recycling solution for Medical Waste Plastics sterilized by Gamma Irradiation. He is a co-investigator in a 2021 University Global Partnership Network (UPGN) funded research collaboration project with the University of Surrey and the University of North Carolina on developing Synergistic Hybrid Marine Renewable Energy Harvest Systems. In 2022, he successfully obtained another UGPN grant on Bamboo for Sustainable Construction and Quality of Life Improvement. He is a CI for a Global Research Small Grants Scheme-funded project on Developing a chatbot for sharing construction safety knowledge. In 2022, he obtained a UOW AEGiS Connect fund to develop 3D-printed concrete with Accelerated Buildability. He was also successful in obtaining an EMCR Enabling Grant in 2022. He is a co-investigator in the UOW Global Research Small Grants Scheme-funded project on the Developing a chatbot for sharing construction safety knowledge He is the UOW lead for the NSF-CSIRO Convergence Accelerator Track I Sustainable Materials Phase 1 grant 2023. He also received UOW-Industry 4.0 Hub co-funding for his project on the Development of a collaborative robot-mounted pellet extrusion-based 3D printing system, he received two UOW Global Challenges Seed Funds for his projects on the Development of wearable sensors for the occupational health and safety improvement of construction workers (Chief Investigator) and Offshore Renewable Energy Knowledge Mobilisation (Investigator). He also received the 2023 UOW-Tesltra AIOT Hub's Seed fund for his project on Deep learning-enabled wearable sensors to facilitate a predictive warning framework aimed at improving the occupational health and safety of steel construction workers.

His main areas of interest in UN SGDs are goals 3, 7, 9, 11 and 13, focusing on occupational health and safety, sustainability, renewable energy, advanced manufacturing, and the impact of severe weather events on structures. Dr Ahmed also contributed as a reviewer for more than thirteen tier-one journals in the field of Structural Engineering.

He serves on the main Committee of two UOW Early Career Academic bodies, the Early Career Academic Network (ECAN) and the Early Career Disruption Committee (EC-DC).

He is also very keen on applying novel technologies in teaching, blended learning and flipped classrooms. He has organized a speed networking event for final-year students at the School of CME (https://www.uow.edu.au/events/2021/cme-speed-networking-event.php).

https://www.uow.edu.au/steel-research-hub/hub-1/

Sarah Ailwood is Associate Professor in the School of Law at the University of Wollongong. A leading researcher in feminist legal theory, her work focuses on women's voices, listening and law, particularly in the context of law reform addressing violence against women, sexual harassment and defamation. She is co-Managing Editor of the Australian Feminist Law Journal.

Shahriar Akter is a Professor and the Deputy Dean of Research at the Faculty of Arts, Society & Business at UOW, Australia. He was awarded his PhD from UNSW Business School Australia, with a fellowship in research methods from the University of Oxford. His research interests include advanced analytics & AI, algorithmic biases and digital Innovation. He was recognised as one of the Top Australian Business Researchers by the Australian Newspaper's Research Magazine in 2022 & 2023. He was also featured as one of the leading academic data leaders in the world by the CDO magazine in 2022 (led by MIT Sloan Management School). He has published in leading business & management journals (80+ A or A* ranked articles in ABDC list) with 100+ publications. He is one of the top 1% of scholars in the world, according to the Clarivate 2022 & 2023 lists. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Strategic Marketing, Electronic Markets and on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Information Management. He served as a Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan and Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute in China, and Toulouse Business School in France. His research has been featured in TIME Magazine, Reuters, WIRED (USA), Grist Magazine (USA), CDO Magazine (USA), The Australian, ABC, SBS, The Canberra Times, The Illawarra Mercury, and news.com.au.

BIO

Joby Alex is a clinical academic at the School of Nursing, University of Wollongong, and the Centre for Chronic & Complex Care Research, Blacktown Hospital (WSLHD). He has over 15 years of experience in urology and continence nursing across the UK and Western Sydney.

His research focuses on the impact of educational interventions for patients with indwelling urinary catheters, providing valuable insights into self-management and strategies to reduce catheter-related complications. Building on his PhD work, Joby aims to expand this research across other Local Health Districts to further support patients in managing their catheters effectively.

He has published seven peer-reviewed papers, developed two psychometric scales, and secured four research grants. Joby has also created audio-visual interventions for patients and nurses, using digital platforms to enhance engagement and learning. Alongside his research, he teaches in the Bachelor and Master of Nursing programs, fostering evidence-based practice and innovation in nursing education.

Tara is a full-time member of AHOC, joining in 2002 after working at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. As the Australasian Rehabilitation Outcomes Centre (AROC) Data Manager and Statistician she is responsible for data management, benchmarking, reporting and research analysis components of AROC. Tara brings extensive statistical and database management skills to AHSRI. She is mostly involved in AROC research and occasional AHOC projects, ranging from rehabilitation specific patient experience surveys to community health and community care surveys, to building databases to assist various evaluation projects. Tara has experience in data linkage of de-identified data sets and has provided the statistical work for building a number of priority rating tools for the community care.

In 2022 Tara was recognised in the 2022 Brilliant Women in Digital Health Awards presented by Telstra Health to celebrate women finding ground-breaking digital solutions in the sector. Tara was instrumental in establishing AROC and created a purpose-built IT system (AROC Online services), which is used across Australia and New Zealand to track and improve patient outcomes. (https://www.telstrahealth.com/content/telstrahealth/en/home/media-and-events/2022_Brilliant_Women_in_Digital_Health_Award_recipients.html).

Dr Jennifer Algie is passionate about research on social behaviour change (keeping people safe drives this research), creates connected teaching experiences for students and tutoring teams, and has contributed to an extensive array of detail-oriented governance contributions to UoW's learning & research agendas. Dr Algie's research in social marketing behaviour change, national reputation in road safety research, enduring and emerging research collaborations, contributions to the Social Sciences Ethics Committee and numerous HDR supervision completions, all contribute to positive social impact. Her excellence in teaching, team-building efforts, and extensive knowledge of standards balanced with compassion for student hardship all demonstrate her commitment to enhancing student learning outcomes and experiences.

Gursel Alici received the Ph.D. degree in robotics from the Department of Engineering Science, Oxford University, Oxford, U.K., in 1994. He is currently a Senior Professor at the University of Wollongong, Australia, where he holds the position of Executive Dean for the Faculty of Engineering Information Sciences, and director of Applied Mechatronics and Biomedical Engineering Research (AMBER) Group. His research interests include soft robotics, system dynamics and control, robotic drug delivery systems, novel actuation concepts for biomechatronic applications, robotic mechanisms and manipulation systems, soft and smart actuators and sensors, wearable human-machine interface (HMI) systems, and medical robotics. He has generated more than 400 refereed publications, and delivered numerous invited seminars and keynote talks on his areas of research.

Prof. Alici was a Senior Editor and Technical Editor for the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics during 2020–2024 and 2008–2012, respectively. He was a Technical Editor of the IEEE Access, the first IEEE open access journal with interdisciplinary scope since this journal started in 2013 until January 2020. He was a Member of the Mechatronics National Panel formed by the Institution of Engineers, Australia, until 2017, for 10 years. He has served on the international program committees of numerous IEEE/ASME International Conferences on Robotics and Mechatronics. He was the General Chair of the 2013 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics held in Wollongong, Australia. He received the Outstanding Contributions to Teaching and Learning Award in 2010, the Vice-Chancellors Interdisciplinary Research Excellence Award in 2013, and Vice-Chancellors Award for Research Supervision in 2018 from the University of Wollongong. He held a visiting professorship position at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL) (2007, 2010), City University of Hong Kong (2014), University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) (2015), and University of British Columbia, Canada (2019).

Dr Sabine Allida is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Nursing, University of Wollongong, a conjoint Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Chronic & Complex Care Research at Blacktown Hospital, Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD) and an Honorary Fellow at The George Institute for Global Health.

She is an emerging leader and expert in complex evidence synthesis and have led several high impact Cochrane reviews (gold-standard for informing policy and practice) in stroke, heart failure and atrial fibrillation. Dr Allida’s research is cited in healthcare guidelines published by the Stroke Foundation, American Heart/Stroke Association, American College of Cardiology/Heart Failure Society of America and National Institute for Health and Care Research.

She leads a research program focused on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and stroke prevention in culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. She is currently leading a project to co-design a culturally tailored, evidence-based, digital CVD and stroke prevention educational-behavioural program for people from CALD communities for which she received the competitive UOW Advancement and Equity Grant. She was also the Lead Research Fellow of INFORM-AF II, a trial of an m-Health delivered education program to prevent stroke for people living with atrial fibrillation funded by the Stroke Foundation Nancy and Vic Allen Prevention Memorial Grant.

Before entering academia, I worked in the corporate sector in fast-moving consumer goods, banking, apparel, travel and recruitment consulting industries for over ten years. My experiences in the corporate sector motivated me to undertake a PhD at the University of Sydney to address my real-life experiences. Since then, I have been passionate about taking a care based leadership approach to find ways I can advocate for employees to feel valued enabling them to flourish at work. I use research, training and education to identify mechanisms to create an inclusive society. In particular, my work explores skilled migrant employment and careers, gender-inclusion, career progression, inclusive educational practices, the wellbeing of healthcare professionals and holistic organisational and leadership approaches.

Honorary A/Prof at the Centre for Medical Radiation Physics

Dr. Irit Alony is a Senior Lecturer of Management at the University of Wollongong. She is an emerging researcher on a strong upward trajectory towards leading research on transformative organisations. She has substantial expertise in the areas of volunteering, corporate social responsibility (CSR), employee engagement, and blood donations, and experience in qualitative and mixed-methods research. Irit participated in and led several grant-funded impact-oriented research projects aiming for pro-social societal transformations through organisations with partners such as the Australia Museum, Stem Cell Donors Australia, and Lifeblood. She supervises several HDR students and chairs her Faculty’s Early Career Research Network.