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Dr Cara Wrigley is currently Professor of Design within the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology at The University of Queensland. Prior to this appointment she was the Jericho Chair of Design Innovation at The University of Sydney, leading an interdisciplinary research group sponsored by the Royal Australian Air Force. This multi-million-dollar engagement brought together the Australian Defence Force and world-leading researchers to investigate the role that design plays in the creation of disruptive technologies for military capability.

During her time at the University of Sydney Professor Wrigley established the Defence by Design Group, where she ran applied research projects in the military domain. This collaboration contributed to the theoretical development of ‘military design thinking’ that has been taught and applied widely throughout the Australian Defence Force. In 2018, she also established and directed the Design Innovation Research Group, leading a research team that focused on design-led exploratory research, conducting applied and theoretical research into people, emotions, strategy and business.

Professor Wrigley holds extensive experience in curriculum development and delivery, during her time at the University of Sydney she developed and delivered a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Design Innovation (2018), rolled out a university wide Design Major (2018) and launched the Master of Design Innovation and Strategic Design (2019) program. This new degree has been reported on in the Book ‘Design Thinking Pedagogy: Facilitating Innovation and Impact in Tertiary Education’ by Routledge published in 2022.

Professor Wrigley has secured over $60M in competitive industry and government grants and is currently Chief Investigator on ARC Discovery and Linkage projects as well as a Medical Research Future Fund. Her research projects have received funding from industry partners such as the Brisbane Airport Corporation, Suncorp Insurance Australia, TAFE NSW, WaterCo Ltd, Bank of Queensland, BiVACOR and the Royal Australian Airforce. She is a reviewer for the Australian Research Council (ARC) and provides advice to organisations and their executives from diverse industries. For this work she has received Australian Good Design Awards.

Professor Wrigley has published extensively on the application and adoption of design disseminated through seven (7) books. Including the Research Handbook on Design Thinking (2023), Design Innovation and Integration (2021), Design Innovation for Health and Medicine (2020) and Affected: Emotionally Engaging Customers in the Digital Age (2018). She has more than 100 refereed research papers in outlets such Design Issues, Journal of Cleaner Production, Energy Policy, California Management Review, ASAIO Journal, and Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing. She is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the leading design research journal Design Studies published by Elsevier.

Professor Wrigley has delivered invited keynotes at prestigious global academic conferences in the medical field including the European Mechanical Circulatory Support Summit (EUMS) Conference (2019, Vienna), the American Society of Artificial Internal Organs (ASAIO) 65th Annual Conference (San Francisco (2019) and the Asia-Pacific Extracorporeal Life Support Organisation (APELSO) Conference (2018). Furthermore, she is a regular invited speaker at the Australian Defence College and the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra for her work in Defence.

She is passionate about providing positive student and supervisor experiences and has presented at a number of universities on the topic of academic development and PhD supervision. She has advised a number of colleagues and high degree students on how to develop efficient and successful ways of collaboration, building professional networks and working with industry partners.

Dr Yuao Wu is a Research Fellow specializing in nanotechnology, nanosensors, and theranostic medicine. He obtained his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), The University of Queensland (UQ) in 2021 , after completing a Master of Biotechnology at UQ in 2016. His research expertise lies in nanotechnology-enabled molecular bioanalysis, single-particle detection, and the deep molecular profiling of extracellular vesicles (EVs). He has established a strong academic track record in advancing diagnostic nanotechnologies, having published over 30 peer-reviewed papers that have attracted more than 1,200 citations(h-index 20). Actively engaged in national scientific leadership, he serves as the Secretary of the Australian Society of Molecular Imaging (ASMI). Alongside his research, he provides continuous academic mentoring to his research group and co-supervises multiple PhD students developing nanotechnological strategies to detect and treat cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases.

Expertise:

• Nanomaterial Engineering: Surface engineering and functionalization of nanoparticles and liposomes.

• Advanced Analysis & Imaging: High-resolution single-particle analysis and advanced fluorescence imaging.

• Translational Disease Models: Complex in vitro cell culture (including 3D models) and in vivo preclinical models for cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases.

Dr Wenxuan Wu is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the UQ Fire group at The University of Queensland. His current research focuses on cladding and façade fire safety, flame spread, material fire behaviour, and experimental methods for assessing fire hazards in the built environment, including battery fire safety.

Wenxuan has a strong background in timber fire safety, smouldering combustion, fire dynamics, and materials characterisation. His PhD investigated the self-sustained smouldering behaviour of preservative-treated timber, with a focus on how thermal conditions and material properties influence fire persistence and severity.

His research combines experimental fire testing, thermal analysis, gas measurement, and data analysis to better understand how construction materials ignite, burn, spread flame, and contribute to fire risk. He has experience with a wide range of fire and material testing methods, including cone calorimetry, fire propagation apparatus, thermogravimetric analysis, bomb calorimetry, FTIR, LIFT, H-TRIS, SEM-EDS, and other interdisciplinary laboratory and analytical techniques.

Research interests in Artificial Heart and Lung therapies.

Charted Engineering (Biomedical) with Engineers Australia and BPEQ. Industry experience in nonclinical device testing and regulatory submissions of total artificial heart.

Engineering Lead at Innovative Cardiovascular Engineering and Technology Laboratory (ICETLab), Critical Care Research Group, The Prince Charles Hospital

I am a research fellow working with Professor Geoffrey J. McLachlan on semi-supervised learning, specifically investigating missingness mechanisms and mixture modelling.

Associate Professor Wuethrich is an NHMRC Emerging Leader fellow and ARC DECRA awardee at the Centre for Personalised Nanomedicine, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland (UQ). He obtained his PhD from the University of Tasmania in 2016 after completing a Master’s degree in Switzerland. His research expertise lies in liquid biopsy, nanotechnology, and diagnostics. He held positions in international pharmaceutical companies and became lead inventor on a European patent. He has actively engaged with national and international companies to translate diagnostic nanotechnologies. Since 2017 he has provided continuous research mentoring to the group and has supervised >30 postgraduate and graduate students in nanotechnological strategies to detect cancer and other diseases.

Associate Professor Stephanie Wyeth is a academic within the Urban Planning Program, and Director of Engagement for the School of Architecture, Design and Planning.

Stephanie is an experienced urban and social planning practitioner with significant research, project and leadership experience in the public and private sectors. She joined The University of Queensland in 2019 following several years as a Director with a multidisciplinary planning and design firm, where she led projects focussed on complex social, urban planning and development issues. Her motivation for joining academia is a belief that a values-led and practice intensive university experience is critical if the next generation of urban planning professionals are to be equipped with the skills, knowledge and mindsets to lead, sustained positive change in our cities, towns and communities.

As a pracademic, Stephanie seeks to bridge the theory – practice divide, by promoting the exchange of knowledge, ideas and capabilities across university, industry and community. She regularly facilitates and brokers opportunities for the university’s world-leading researchers to share their expertise with government and community for projects with a strong public interest focus. Stephanie is regularly invited to join advisory forums and judging panels, and to speak at industry and community events.

Between 2016 – 2022 Stephanie served as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of the South Bank Corporation. In 2020 she was appointed a Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia for services to the profession. Her most recent panel appointments include Logan Urban Design Awards, Lord Mayor’s Business Awards (Brisbane), and an advisory committee for a national design project.

Memberships

• Planning Institute of Australia
• Committee for Brisbane

Teaching Responsibilities

PLAN1000 The Planning Challenge (Course Coordinator and Lecturer – 2019 to date)

PLAN1100 Foundational Ideas in Planning (Course Coordinator and Lecturer – 2019 to 2024)

PLAN4001/PLAN7120 Citymaking: Theory and Practice (Course Coordinator and Lecturer – 2020-2022)

PLAN4100 Advanced Planning Practice (Course Coordinator and Lecturer – 2021 to date)

PLAN4130 | PLAN7130 Planning Industry Placements (Course Coordinator and Lecturer – 2019 to February 2025 (Semesters 1, 2 and Summer)

ADPS3300 | ADPS7300 Industry Placement (Course Coordinator and Lecturer - 2025 to date)

ENVM3103 Regulatory Frameworks for Environmental Management and Planning (Guest lecturer 2021-2023)

Various guest lectures providing insights into urban planning, employability and professional practice.

Student supervision for PHD, Honours and research projects

Awards

2025 Industry Engagement Award - Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology

2025 Research Award - Citizen Science - Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology

2022 Teaching Award - Planning Program, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences

2022 Staff Award, Organisation of Planning Students

Service and Engagement

Director of Engagement – School of Architecture, Design and Planning (2023 to date)

Academic Advisor for Bachelor of Urban Planning / Regional and Town Planning (2021 to date)

Deputy Director of Engagement - School of Earth and Environmental Sciences (2022 – 2023)

Co-founder and Director of UQ City Impact Lab (2021 to date)

Research Affiliate – UQ Sustainable Infrastructure Research Hub (since 2022)

Member - UQ Community Engagement Community of Practice – Leadership Group (since 2023)

Planning Institute of Australia (Qld) - Fellow

Hons K. Wyn joined the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland in mid-2016 as an Occupational Trainee in the Fire Safety Research Group. He commenced his PhD mid-2017 on smouldering combustion and its potential as a renewable energy production process by generating value-added productions alongside the treatment of organic wastes. Upon the completion of the PhD, Hons continued as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Fire Safety Research Group in mid-2023. Hons currently supports consultancy projects, lab-related activities, teaching, and supervision.

I received my B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from Central South University (China) in July 2012 and July 2015, respectively. In December 2019, I completed my Ph.D. in Materials Engineering, specialising in Energy Materials, at the University of Wollongong (Australia). Since July 2020, I have been conducting postdoctoral research at The University of Queensland.

I have extensive research experience in the development of battery electrode materials, electrolyte materials, and reaction characterisation for lithium-ion, sodium-ion, and solid-state lithium/sodium metal batteries. My expertise encompasses materials design, synthesis, characterisation, and electrochemical analysis.

My current research focuses on: (1) developing low-cost and functional electrode materials for high-energy-density rechargeable batteries; (2) employing in situ and operando techniques to investigate electrode and electrode/electrolyte interface reactions in batteries; (3) designing and optimising solid polymer electrolytes; and (4) advancing solid-state metal battery technologies.

Yuwei Xiang holds a bachelor's degree in Food Science and Technology (2019) from the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (USST, China). She earned her PhD in Food Microbiology (2024) from the University of Queensland (Australia). After completing her PhD, she pursued an academic career as a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Prof. Mark Turner. Her research specializes in lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and their applications in food fermentation and biotechnology, with a focus on exploring the genetic mechanisms of LAB to enhance osmoresistance, particularly under high c-di-AMP conditions.

Research Areas

• Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB): I study the roles of LAB in food fermentation, with a focus on their genetic and metabolic responses to environmental stresses.
• Osmoresistance and c-di-AMP Pathways: My research investigates the genetic regulation of osmoresistance in LAB, aiming to improve their robustness in industrial fermentation processes.
• Current Projects
• Investigating LAB from plant-based sources for potential applications in food fermentation and innovative food ingredients production.

• Keywords: Lactic acid bacteria, food fermentation, osmoresistance, c-di-AMP, gene regulation, biotechnology.