Professor Bernd Meyer is the Associate Dean (Graduate Research) in the Faculty of Information Technology. He works in computational ecology, where he develops mathematical and computational models for the interactions of organisms with their environment, including the impact our changing environment has on their lives. Most of his work is centred on the collective behaviour of social insects, such as bees and ants, in the hope that a deeper understanding of their behaviour will allow us to better protect them and the important ecosystem services they provide. Insect societies are entirely self-organised, without any central leader or master plan. How such decentralised “super-organisms” plan and coordinate their actions is still a largely open question. Prof. Meyer’s work uses and extends a wide range of mathematical and computational techniques, including reaction-advection diffusion, stochastic event analysis, and evolutionary game theory to explain this. Some of this work has interesting implications for a branch of bio-mimetic engineering and algorithm design, popularly known as “swarm intelligence”. Prof. Meyer also works on ai-based methods and systems for monitoring animal activity as the basis for ecosystem monitoring and for automating lab experiments.

Professor Meyer has over 20 years experience in tertiary teaching and curriculum development. He also works closely with schools to create a new kind of ‘early start’ curriculum that investigates computation beyond programming.

Luke Kerr,  Stem Outreach Lead, Faculty of IT, Monash University. Secondary School Teacher for 19 years in schools in Melbourne and London, UK. Luke, a teacher of Physical Education and Mathematics is also director and founder of Real Time Learning, a program that helps students engage in STEM through Industry partnerships. He advocates that Experiential Learning is a preferred model for teaching STEM. In 2016, Luke participated in the PwC 21st Century Minds Accelerator Program. This accelerator program worked with 20 STEM initiatives being implemented nationally at the time.

Ross Pearson is a digital supply chain transformation leader that has been the technical lead for telecommunications and mining transformations. A delivery specialist, Ross ensures that large projects and transformation implementations are realised and is currently working for Monash as Program Manager for the GRIP HILA Program. Ross is also working towards a PhD in Artificial Intelligence.

Bev Laing,  Curriculum advisor on food, gardens, STEM and the outdoors. Bev co-authored the education resources for the Logie-winning TV series, Little J and Big Cuz, provided food curriculum for Phenomenom! with host Alice Zaslavsky, and wrote nine books for the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program. Bev has a passion for permaculture and cooking and a Masters degree from the University of Oxford.

Emily Kuo, Undergraduate studying Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Science at Monash University. Emily is passionate about School Outreach and has volunteered with many organisations in the past with a focus on STEM such as Robogals, Engineers Without Borders and Real Time Learning. She also enjoys programming and is part of the software team in the Monash University’s Nova Rover Team, which builds mars rovers to compete in the international University Rover Challenge.

Akash Ramaswamy, Teaching Assistant, Faculty of IT, Monash University. Undergraduate Mechatronics Engineer, Faculty of Engineering, Monash University. Akash, a student at Monash University, has been involved in various STEM outreach activities ranging from volunteering at STEM workshops through Real Time Learning, to working in schools such as Cornish College and Boneo Primary School in their STEM and 3D printing programs, whilst being a full time Mechatronics student. Akash has a passion for STEM and has participated and won many robotics competitions throughout his school and university life.

Alex Socha, Undergraduate studying Advanced Computer Science at Monash University. Alex has been involved in a range of STEM projects, including AlgorithmX, a software tool for visualising networks and algorithms aimed at high school students. He is also an IT tutor at the Australian Maths Trust’s DigIT program. Alex has a strong passion for programming, which began by creating an addition to the Minecraft video game, named the Lucky Block, which has since gained over 5 million users.