Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Affiliate of Research Centre in Creative Arts and Human Flourishing
Research Centre in Creative Arts and Human Flourishing
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Professor
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
Janet Wiles is a Professor in Human Centred Computing at the University of Queensland.
Her multidisciplinary team co-designs language technologies to support people living with dementia and their carers and social robots for applications in health, education, and neuroscience. She is currently developing a citizen science project which uses insights from neuroscience, AI and language technologies to explore the electrical characteristics of mycelial networks of symbiotic fungi in local ecosystems. She received her PhD in computer science from the University of Sydney and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in psychology. She has 30 years’ experience in research and teaching in machine learning, artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computation, complex systems, visualisation, language technologies and social robotics, leading teams that span engineering, humanities, social sciences and neuroscience. She currently teaches research methods for thesis and masters students, and a new course in human-centred artificial intelligence. Previous special interest courses include a cross disciplinary course ”Voyages in Language Technologies” that introduced computing students to the diversity of Indigenous and non-Indigenous languages, and state-of-the-art tools for deep learning and other analysis techniques for working with language data.
Featured projects
Human-centred AI
The Underground Brain Project
Florence communication technology
For more on Human Centred Computing see the HCC projects page
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
Dr Weiming Zhao is an ARC DECRA Fellow (2026 - 2029) in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland.
A domestic (Australian citizens or permanent residents) PhD position is availble: "Learning-based control strategies for personalised and socially aware automated vehicles".
His research sits at the intersection of robotics, human behaviour, and infrastructure, focusing on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and the interactions between Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) and human drivers in mixed traffic. Using control theory and machine learning, including Model Predictive Control and Mathematica-based modelling, he develops trajectory planning solutions for CAVs at intersections and highway merging areas, aiming to improve safety, efficiency, and energy use in both urban and highway settings.
Dr Zhao completed his PhD at the University of Leeds, followed by a postdoctoral position at Aalto University. He joined UQ as a postdoc in 2022, before commencing his DECRA fellowship in 2026. His current DECRA project, Make Automated Vehicles Personalised and Socialised, investigates how control methods for automated vehicles can align with human driver behaviour to build trust.
