Professor John Gough is one of the most important figures in the early development of Computer Science in Queensland and was a leading figure in the Australian Computer Science community over many years.  He is particularly recognised for his eminence as a researcher in compiler and software technology.   He conducted research on programming language implementation, including theoretical work on language translation and code generation. His compilers for programming languages, particularly those for the Pascal-family, were well known throughout the world, and have been used by many tens of thousands of programmers.  John was foundation Head of School within the Faculty of Information Technology at QUT and later served as Dean of the Faculty from 1996-2004. The Programming Languages (later Programming Languages and Systems) Research Group led by Professor Gough had a profound influence on the careers of students and colleagues over more than 15 years.

Professor Anton van den Hengel is a leading AI researcher.  He has made significant contributions in the areas of vision and language navigation, visual question answering, machine learning theory and image-based modelling. He was the founding Director of The Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML) growing the group to 130 researchers.  The Institute has graduated over 50 PhDs and currently has 80 PhD students.  Anton is currently the Chief Scientist of the AIML and a Professor at the University of Adelaide.  His extensive industry contributions include commercialisation of 9 patents and being Director of Applied Science within Amazon for four years where he formed the Australian arm of Amazon’s International Machine Learning group.  He has won multiple competitions and prizes for his contributions including the Outstanding Service Award for leadership in AI at the Australian AI Awards in 2021. Anton was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering in 2020.

Professor Shazia Sadiq FTSE is a professor of computer science at the University of Queensland. As a researcher and educator in data and process management, her work has focused on dismantling socio-technical barriers to technology-driven transformation. As director of the ARC Industry Transformation Training Centre for Information Resilience, she has helped link research and industry through industry-informed PhD training programs.  Shazia actively engages in policy advice and science advocacy activities, including the development of national strategic plans and expert submissions to government initiatives on emerging digital technologies, and was a core author on the government’s  Rapid Response Information Report (2023) on Generative AI. She is also a champion for equity and diversity through her work with the first Australian ACM-W student chapter and DEI@DB, an international group that leads diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts for the database community.  Shazia is the past Chair of the National Committee on Information and Communication Sciences at the Australian Academy of Science 2019-2022, is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and member of The Australian Research Council College of Experts 2018-2021. 

Professor Geoff Webb is a professor at Monash University. He has contributed many impactful algorithms and methods to the fields of artificial intelligence, data science, bioinformatics and computational biology, including minimum support and confidence techniques, multi-strategy ensemble learning and the use of black-box machine learning to make predictions about users.  Many of his AI technologies have been released as open-source software and are widely used in industry and research.  Geoff has a sustained track record of exceptional leadership and as a technical advisor to start ups, mentor and advisor to staff and students at all levels.  His contributions have  won many awards including the Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Excellence in Data Science 2017 and  ARC Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award 2014.