Australia faces a critical skills gap as AI rapidly transforms industries and everyday life, necessitating innovative interdisciplinary solutions to address widening inequalities, bias, and the urgent need for updated education and workforce development.

ASK4AI Melbourne Summit will offer pathways to bridge this gap.

Program Highlights

Meet Our Speakers

Program Agenda

8:45-9:15 - Registration and coffee

9:15-9:45 - Opening

Speakers:

• Professor Allie Clemens, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education, Monash University

• Professor Ann Nicholson, Dean - Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University

• Professor Dragan Gasevic, Director - Centre for Learning Analytics, Monash University

• Professor Simon Wilkie, Dean - Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University

• Associate Professor Sarah Howard - Associate Professor, University Wollongong

• Doctor Lixiang Yan, Research Fellow - Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University

9:45-10:15 - Keynote

Speaker: Professor Rose Luckin, Founder, Educate Ventures Research and Professor Emerita, University College London

10:15-11:00 - Panel: Skills

Moderator:  Associate Professor Jason Lodge (Deputy Associate Dean Academic - Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Queensland)

Panellists:

• Professor Monica Whitty (Head of Department of Software Systems and Cybersecurity, Monash University)

• Professor Annemaree Carroll (Associate Dean Research - Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Queensland)

• Daniel Ingvarson (Director - IAMAI)

• Doctor Catherine McTavish (Director Research Services, Queensland Department of Education)

11:00-11:15 - Morning coffee tea

11:15-12:00 - Panel: Practice

Moderator: Associate Professor Sarah Howard (Associate Professor, University Wollongong)

Panellists:

• Danielle Purdy (General Manager - Student and Learning Technologies, Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools)

• Professor Umesh Sharma (Associate Dean Equity and Inclusion - Faculty of Education, Monash University)

• David Bowser (CEO, Curio)

12:00-12:45 - Panel: Assessment

Moderator: Associate Professor Hassan Khosravi (Associate Professor, University of Queensland)

Panellists:

• Doctor YJ Kim (Assistant Professor, U Wisconsin)

• Associate Professor Rachel Fitzgerald (Deputy Associate Dean (Academics) in Faculty of Business, Economics and Law, The University of Queensland)

• Doctor Nathan Zoanetti (Research Director of Methodology and Measurement, ACER)

• Doctor Andrew Kyngdon (Chief Psychometrician, NSW Education Standards Authority)

12:45-1:30 - Lunch

1:30-2:00 - Keynote

Speaker: Professor Ryan Baker, Director, Penn Center for Learning Analytics, University of Pennsylvania

2:00-2:45 - Panel: Technology

Moderator: Professor Geoff Webb (Director of Research, Dept of Data Science and AI, Monash University)

Panellists:

• Bilal Arshad (CEO, Bubble Beans)

• Doctor Kevin Bell (Head of Higher Education and Research - ANZ, Amazon Web Services)

• David Linke (Managing Director, EduGrowth)

• Ben Leighton (Senior Experimental Scientist, CSIRO)

2:45-3:00 - Coffee break

3:00-3:45 - Panel: Future of work

Moderator: Professor Greg Bamber (Professor, Monash University)

Panellists:

• Professor Joanna Batstone (Director of Monash Data Future Institute, Monash University)

• Doctor Liam Byrne (Australian Council of Trade Unions)

• Doctor Claire Mason (Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO)

• Doctor Koteswara Ivaturi (Manager, Accenture Research at Accenture)

3:45-4:30 - Panel: Roadmap

Moderator:  Associate Professor Roberto Martinez-Maldonado (Associate Professor, Monash University) 

Panellists:

• Professor Pauline Taylor-Guy (Research Director for the Centre for School and System Improvement, ACER)

• Andrew Smith (CEO, Education Services Australia)

• Professor Shane Dawson (Executive Dean of UniSA Education Futures, University of South Australia)

• Jim Crisp (Director - Strategy & AI Enabled Transformation, Deloitte)

4:30-4:45 - Conclusions and next steps
Speaker: Professor Dragan Gasevic

4:45-5:30 - Drinks

Organizers

The rapid rise of AI is transforming our world, but are we ready? Australians face a skills gap that demands innovative interdisciplinary and cross-sector solutions. AI advancements play an increasingly important role in all of our everyday experiences, education, and work with profound implications.

AI can widen inequality and disrupt entire industries. We need proactive solutions.

• Over 80% of jobs, especially writing and IT, are predicted to have at least 19% of tasks that will require use or be automated by generative AI.

• 46% productivity increase in software engineers while maintaining code quality by using AI.

• AI is trained on big data that have been shown to contain bias and can perpetuate discrimination.

Current education and human development approaches haven’t caught up with AI’s pace. 

ASK4AI Melbourne Summit will offer pathways to bridge this gap.