Associate Professor in Computational Intelligence, Charles Darwin University Associate Professor Niusha Shafiabady is an internationally recognized expert in the field of Computational Intelligence with many years of professional experience in both academia and industry. She has held various academic leadership positions for the past 15 years. In addition, she has been involved in the Computational Intelligence industry for 23 years as project consultant/manager, associate head of school, Dean, CEO, chief scientific advisor and ethics committee and academic board member. She has held leadership positions, both in academia and industry. She is the inventor of a European patented optimization algorithm named after herself and is the copyright holder of “Artificial Intelligence Development Solutions”. She has published many research articles, particularly in Tier 1 journals, supervised more than 11 Higher Degree Research students and has played significant roles in USD3.3M of grants and is the recipient of several awards and credentials. She has been a finalist for Women in AI Award (WAI 2021) in Australia and New Zealand in the category of ‘AI in Defence’, and Women in Innovation (Winnovation 2020) Award in South Australia for developing Ai-Labz. She has received post-graduate certificate in pedagogy from the University of Nottingham and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy of the United Kingdom. Her key areas of expertise are design and development of smart algorithms for data analysis and interpretation, prediction of different phenomena, clustering and classification of unorganized data and creating smart decisionmaking systems for different applications. The highlight of her work is blending academic knowledge and research findings into industrial applications. She has created expert decision-making systems for a variety of applications using Artificial Intelligence for solving real-life problems in the following areas: - Oil & Gas: Pipeline failure detection - Banking and Finance: Loan repayment prediction - Transportation: Optimal positioning of police vehicles cameras - Meteorology: Prediction of wind direction & speed and prediction of flood - Renewable Energy: Hybrid green energy storage systems - Economy: Prediction of national investment return - Environmental Hazards: Power plants explosion and leakage prediction - Commodity: North Brent crude oil price prediction - Construction: Crane optimal positioning and maximum load capacity - Department of Justice: Prediction of rehabilitation of detainees - Stocks: Prediction of equity prices 3 Niusha Shafiabady, PhD. Curriculum Vitae - Healthcare: Prediction of diseases using recorded data Her expertise includes but is not limited to: - Artificial Intelligence - Machine Learning - Data Analysis - Modelling - Deep Learning - Expert System Design - Optimization Her ultimate vision is to utilize her expertise in computational and artificial intelligence for improvement of human life.
Principal Research Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Resources, UCL I am an experienced researcher on economic, finance and policy aspects of climate change and related energy issues. Currently, I am a Principal Research Fellow with a proleptic Academic Appointment at UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources (UCL ISR). My work explores the cross-cutting role of finance in the global transition to a low-carbon economy, with a particular emphasis on avenues for integrating finance elements into climate policy design. In particular, I am applying complexity thinking and systemic approaches to the study of market structures for low-carbon finance, to identify points of policy intervention that lead to non-linear investment growth trajectories. In 2018, I was awarded an ERC starting grant (LINKS) focusing on the role of climate finance to meet the Paris goals (2019-2024). I am also bringing research insights into policymaking and practical experience to bear upon academic studies. My research supported the work at several international public policy organizations, including the OECD, the Green Climate Fund and the World Bank. The impact of my contributions has been recognised through a few influential opinion pieces and coverage in top-tier media (e.g. Sustainable Views in the Financial Times, Bloomberg and Forbes). I completed my PhD in Business Administration at Polytechnic University of Marche and University of California, Berkeley (co-tutorship of doctoral thesis) with a focus on energy financing policy. My research interests include climate finance, networks and complexity approaches, policy evaluation methods, financing schemes, low-carbon investments and energy policy.
Health Promotion Specialist - Knowledge Translation and Exchange, University of British Columbia Dr. Negin Riazi is health promotion specialist at the University of British Columbia focusing on knowledge translation and exchange within Student Health & Wellbeing. Dr. Riazi completed her PhD in the School of Kinesiology at The University of British Columbia with Dr. Guy Faulkner. Her research on children's physical activity had two main foci: children’s independent mobility and population-level physical activity initiatives and policy-level interventions. She completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the Department of Health Sciences at Brock University. Her postdoctoral research focused on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent schools closures/re-openings on adolescent mental health. She is passionate about knowledge mobilization/translation and has been involved in several knowledge translation projects including: a) the translation of the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth (5–17), b) the Early Years (0–4 years), c) independent mobility (see free documentary 'Running Free: Children's Independent Mobility' on YouTube), and more.
Research Assistant in Psychiatry, Wayne State University Natalia Szura is a Research Assistant at the Wayne State University Department of Psychiatry. She is based in Detroit, Michigan. She graduated from the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor in 2022 with a BA in the English and Film, Television, and Media majors, as well as two minors, Writing and German. During her time as an undergraduate student, she wrote for, and was promoted to Editor for, both the acclaimed satirical newspaper, The Every Three Weekly, and feminist publication What the F magazine. Natalia has over 30 written articles published by the former. Natalia currently collaborates with scientists and doctors for academic and research writing for Wayne State University. Despite this, she holds experience writing for a range of audiences and contexts, including comedic writing, essay writing, persuasive writing, copywriting, blogging, and more.
Associate Professor, Director of Digital Education Programme, Department of Educational Studies, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University Are you ready for the digital future? Despite technological advances, higher education has yet to benefit from technological innovations. Covid-19 forced universities to embrace online and hybrid learning and teaching supported by virtual learning environments (VLEs) and other tools. Many teachers are questioning whether this “new normal” should stay or if we should return to pre-pandemic approaches. These questions have prompted me to reflect on how we can use technology to improve education. I’m Na (Lina) Li, Senior Fellow of Advance HE, Associate Professor and Director of Digital Education Programme in the Department of Educational Studies within the Academy of Future Education at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU). As a researcher with over ten years of experience in higher education, I explore how technology can develop better education. In one of my case studies, I interviewed teachers and managers from XJTLU to understand why they do not use technology in education. I have discovered that teachers only use technology in education when it has a clear purpose and benefit. For example, during Covid-19, teachers used technologies, such as Zoom, for distance teaching because the purpose and benefit were clear. However, before Covid-19, XJTLU implemented technology with similar functions, but teachers refused to use it. My vision of research is to help universities consistently develop to adopt technology to provide quality education.
Graduate Student, University of Victoria I completed my Master of Science in Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria. During that time I used the UVic ESCM to model the global impact of carbon leaching from marine plastic pollution on different oceanic and atmospheric variables. I am generally interested in studying plastic pollution and the effects of pollutants on ecosystems and its' processes.
