Reimagine STEM ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science

Indigenous approaches to AI? Pattern thinking, Country-centred design, robotics and diverse understandings of networks are explored by Palawa woman and CEO of Old Ways, New, Angie Abdilla. Indigenous knowledges could help make AI better, and better for everyone, by challenging the assumptions, patterns and stereotypes present in underlying datasets. Explaining the interconnection that makes Indigenous lore an ‘action guide to living’, Angie champions the emergence of genuine, two-way learning and collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of knowing. By listening respectfully and sharing divergent ways of thinking, we can ‘come together…to design the future we want’. 

Music credits

Our theme music, Anders by Blue Dot Sessions, is licensed under an attribution non-commercial licence.
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What happens when you allow an AI to decide key ethical dilemmas? Exploring this through an interactive role-playing game, Logic Error Detected, Gretchen Miller and Kiara Bruggeman discuss community, social Darwinism and deep moral questions of life and death. Callie Doyle-Scott’s game, which forms part of the new Master’s course for the ANU Cyber Institute, had players questioning systems of governance, the dire consequences of underlying (and often unintentional) biases in AI input data, and how even the best of intentions can lead to perverse, even deadly, outcomes…

Music credits: Our theme music, Anders by Blue Dot Sessions, is licensed under an attribution non-commercial licence.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stuck for words? Florence can help you, but only if you want her to. Dementia sufferers sometimes need a hand to make their days go better. Enter Florence, the personalised AI that aids dementia sufferers to remember words, set reminders and conduct their affairs, in a manner that is sensitive to their own personalities, wants and needs. Having dementia sufferers and their carers form the core reference group drastically reconceptualised the way that the University of Queensland Co-innovation Lab developed this product. Peter Worthy explains the difficulties, and very worthwhile rewards, of co-creating with end-users from the very beginning.

Peter Worthy, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Queensland Co-innovation Lab, works in social robotics.

Further reading:


The Florence project – working with community to provide better care for those living with dementia

Music credits: Our theme music, Anders by Blue Dot Sessions, is licensed under an attribution non-commercial licence.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why are tram handholds so high? Diverse workplaces mean diverse opinions, thoughts and experiences. Without these, products are designed that suit some people, but not all. Diversity & Inclusion officer Cathy Ayres outlines the challenges to engaging, and maintaining, women and other diverse groups in STEM. Without this diversity, many of us can’t even reach the handholds, let alone the world’s greater goals…

Cathy Ayres is the Senior Project Officer – Diversity & Inclusion at the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science. She describes the barriers such as time, mobility and stereotypes that stop the demographic make-up of engineering and computer science disciplines reflecting the societies they exist in.

Further reading:


Advancing women in STEM strategy – Australian Government

Music credits: Our theme music, Anders by Blue Dot Sessions, is licensed under an attribution non-commercial licence.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Theory without practice? Not at University College London, where engineering exchanges, flipped classrooms and co-learning are changing the way engineering students, teachers and community partners interact. Abel Nyamapfene explains how real-world projects, with community and industry partners from the UK to Ethiopia, are creating graduates who are ready to help the world, cognisant of its startling complexity.

Abel Nyamapfene is a Principal Teaching Fellow at the Department of Engineering Science, University College London.

Further reading:


Faculty wide curriculum reform: the integrated engineering programme
Philosophies and pedagogies that shape an integrated engineering programme

Music credits: Our theme music, Anders by Blue Dot Sessions, is licensed under an attribution non-commercial licence.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Computing in history class? Integrating computer science education to benefit existing curricula is one way that Kathi Fisler and Shriram Krishnamurthi are bringing equitable, scalable and rigorous computer science education to school classrooms. Their program, Bootstrap, is designed to be modular and not necessarily require computing hardware, so all students and schools can participate. Educational research and teaching are not always well-rewarded in academia, but Kathi and Shriram demonstrate the profound importance of designing curricula carefully, and reflecting on them thoroughly.

Kathi Fisler and Shriram Krishnamurthi are Professors of Computer Science at Brown University (USA) and helped co-create the school-based computing education program Bootstrap.

Further reading:


Bootstrap – school-based computing education
What does it mean for a computing curriculum to succeed?

Music credits: Our theme music, Anders by Blue Dot Sessions, is licensed under an attribution non-commercial licence.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.