The 2021 Women in Defence Awards will (finally!) take place on 01 February following several postponements. The event will be held virtually due to the current public health situation in eastern Australia.
Ahead of the event, we are proud to introduce our readers to the amazing finalists across nine categories. Today we are focusing on the finalists in Research and Development.
Dr Felicia Pradera of DMTC Limited
Felicia is Program Leader for the national Medical Countermeasures (MCM) Program at DMTC Limited, on secondment from Defence (DSTG).
She has more than 15 years’ experience in cutting edge research/technology and product development environments, with leadership responsibilities for several projects of national and international significance in the defence and health security contexts.
Her expertise, knowledge and outstanding dedication was evident in many collaborative projects and initiatives throughout 2020, most notably a tangible contribution to the success of Australia’s COVID-19 pandemic response while also managing ongoing MCM program activities.
Dr Samantha Crompvoets of Rapid Context
Sam is founder, Executive Director and Chair at Rapid Context. She is responsible for growing the business and nurturing its organisational culture. She is a sociologist who is passionate about evidence-based reform and specialises in translating research into profound organisational insights, tangible impact and sustainable change.
She is a leading Military Sociologist that has been engaged by Defence to understand culture, reputation and trust. She has provided Defence with extensive advice and insights to allow it to better understand how leaders can best support their people and improve Defence capability through improved culture.
Dr Crompvoets has completed a large number of social research projects for Defence, including one to explore the health and wellbeing and organisational effectiveness of Special Operations Command. “The work she's done for Army has been first class and has made us a much better Army,” according to Chef of Army Lt Gen. Burr at Senate Estimates earlier this year.
Professor Siobhan Banks of University of South Australia
Professor Siobhan Banks is Director of the Behaviour-Brain-Body (BBB) Research Centre at the University of South Australia (UniSA). Her research sits at the nexus of biology (fatigue and circadian rhythms), psychological behaviour (individual/team performance) and technology. Her multi-disciplinary team are leaders in the creation of novel evidence-based solutions for optimised cognitive performance and decision-making in complex environments.
Siobhans’ work has developed a new combat edge that comes not only from technology, but also from the operators of that technology. Her work has real world impact, informing platform design decisions and helping navy structure work schedules to optimise cognitive performance and decision making. This work has received praise from Lockheed Martin Australia, internationally from Naval Group and from the Ministry of Defence in the UK, who are keen to engage her to undertake work with the Royal Navy.
Dr Yan Yang of Boeing Phantom Works International
Dr. Yan Yang is Technical Lead Engineer an Associate Technical Fellow of The Boeing Company, and one of the world’s leading experts of Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and complex software systems. She works at Boeing’s Phantom Works International (PW-I), and is responsible for shaping the next generation of autonomous systems powered by advanced AI systems.
Yan’s achievements in 2020 include patents granted for unsupervised machine learning for anomaly detection, and another for ensemble of low/high level image classification and clustering for texture analysis. These applications are all crucial pathfinders and building blocks for the Australian Defence Force customer to include a full range of AI capabilities in a wide group of platforms and systems.
Dr Cate Carter of the Australian Army
Major Carter is a Course Designer for the Centre for Defence Leadership and Ethics at the Australian War College. In this role, Cate combines multi-disciplinary theoretical knowledge with her professional practitioner understanding of the military to create content for whole-of-Defence learning systems. Cate uses her academic expertise to lean in to the complex problems of twenty-first century warfare and support the knowledge frameworks of Defence clients. In 2020, Major Carter completed her doctoral thesis analysing civil-military relations in Australia. She is also the co-founder and driving force behind a new multi-disciplinary academic group in the field of ‘Military Organisation and Culture Studies’, which aims to nurture and network researchers, raise the profile and capacity of Australian and international research in the field.
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