South Australian Sundowner: AI – the Engine for Australia’s Economic Prosperity

Simon Lucey Ph.D. is the Director of the Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML) and a professor in the School of Computer Science, at the University of Adelaide. He is a principal scientist at the autonomous vehicle company Argo AI. His previous appointment was associate research professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute (RI) in Pittsburgh USA. He has received various career awards, including an ARC Future Fellowship (2009-2013). Simon’s research interests span computer vision, machine learning, and robotics. He enjoys drawing inspiration from AI researchers of the past to attempt to unlock computational and mathematic models that underlie the processes of visual perception.

Dr Sanjay Mazumdar is the Partner responsible for the Data and AI practice for KPMG in South Australia. He is also KPMG’s defence lead in SA. Sanjay was previously KPMG’s inaugural Chief Data Officer where he led the data and AI growth agenda for the firm.

Prior to joining KPMG, Sanjay was the CEO of the Data to Decisions Cooperative Research Centre, a $100m large scale research initiative that delivered that delivered AI powered advanced analytics solutions to the national security community and other data intensive sectors. Sanjay has over 30 years’ experience leading technology organisations including being the CEO of the Defence Systems Innovation Centre, Head of Engineering at BAE Systems and Operations Manager at Motorola.

Sanjay combines his extensive management experience with a strong understanding of systems engineering, AI/machine learning, data science and cybersecurity. As a result of his leadership in AI and data science, Sanjay was listed in The Australian newspaper’s Knowledge Nation 100 as a “Big Data Pioneer”.

Dr. Tanya Jayne completed her PhD at the University of Adelaide, where she studied the Genetic causes of Alzheimer’s disease. After a pandemic-driven career shift, Tanya changed her focus and decided to pursue her passion of making deep technology more accessible to the average user.

Tanya is currently CEO of Xamin AI, an Adelaide based AI startup with a mission to enable businesses and scientists across Australia to leverage the power of Artificial Intelligence, no matter their technical skill level. Tanya is combining her previous experience in science communication, leadership and working within complex systems to bring an easy to use No-Code AI platform to market. Outside of the business, Tanya is an avid reader and loves nothing more than to spend sunny afternoon’s in her garden or hiking local nature trails