Dr Zena Assaad Travels from Canberra, ACT

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Artificial Intelligence
Digital Technology
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Female Speaker
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Dr. Zena Assaad is an aerospace engineer and senior lecturer who specialises in projects exploring safe and trusted autonomy and autonomous technology, human-machine teaming, and regulation and assurance of emerging technology capabilities, including AI.

Having earned a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering and completed a PhD focusing on decision making under uncertainty to support strategic air traffic flow management, Dr. Assaad has gained extensive experience through various roles. She served as a liaison officer, facilitating communication between civil and military airspace, contributed to Australia's inaugural satellite-based augmentation systems project, and worked as a research specialist with Australia’s aviation regulatory body.

Currently, Dr. Assaad holds a position as a senior lecturer with the School of Engineering at the Australian National University. Additionally, she serves as a fellow with the Australian Army Research Centre (AARC) and was previously affiliated with Trusted Autonomous Systems (TAS). She is also a committee member of the ISO Artificial Intelligence Trustworthiness Committee, contributing to the development of standards towards trustworthy AI.

In 2022 Dr. Assaad founded the National Community of Practice for UAS and AAM Research, an initiative aimed at uniting Commonwealth, industry, and academia to develop a coordinated research agenda for UAS and AAM to address national policy priorities.

Dr. Assaad received the 2023 Asia Pacific Women in AI Award for Defence and Intelligence, the 2023 Women to Watch in Emerging Aviation Technologies Global Award from Women and Drones and was named one of the '"100 Brilliant women in AI Ethics" for 2023 as a result of her work around safety and assurance of AI. She was also a Top 5 Science Resident with the ABC and has been published in the ABC, the Conversation and the ANU Reporter.

Dr. Assaad is also the co-host of the Algorithmic Futures podcast, which explores the work needed to successfully design technology and policy for an uncertain future.