Our People

Jonathan is Professor in Robotics at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). His main research interests are in the areas of Field Robotics, Design Robotics and Medical Robotics. Jonathan was a co-inventor of the UAV Challenge, an international flying robot competition. Before joining QUT, Jonathan was the Research Director of CSIRO’s Autonomous Systems Laboratory where he developed projects in the area of museum robotics and telepresence. Jonathan is a Past President of the Australian Robotics & Automation Association, was a member of the Founding Editorial Board of the IEEE Journal of Robotics and Automation Letters and currently serves as a Senior Editor.

Will is Professor and Chair in Manufacturing Robotics at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) with ARM Hub and CSIRO. Possessing expertise in artificial cognitive systems, with interest in how systems, such as robots, can interact with the real-world to solve problems of interest. Will’s topics of interest include computer vision and perception, explainable Artificial Intelligence (AI), transfer learning and collaborative robotics. Will is also co-lead on the Science for Technological Innovation team on ‘Adaptive learning robots to complement the human workforce’, Robotics Spearhead in New Zealand. Academic service includes editorial board membership of the ACM Transactions on Evolutionary Learning and Optimization and the Applied Soft Computing journals. Will’s interdisciplinary background in Mechanical Engineering, Energy Studies, Control, Cybernetics, Computer Science, Computational Neuroscience as well as AI and Robotics, is further expanding the disciplines of the ARM Hub expert team.

Glenda is an Associate Professor in Architecture, School of Design, Creative Industries Faculty at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). She is a chief investigator in the IMCRC Design Robotics for Mass Customisation Manufacturing project in collaboration with UAP and RMIT. Embracing trans-disciplinary approaches from architecture and human computer interaction, Glenda’s research places design at the forefront of robotic research for design-led and mass customization manufacturing. She is an active researcher in the QUT Design Lab and is the author of numerous publications in the areas of media architecture, urban informatics, and design robotics.

Jared is a Senior Lecturer in Interaction Design at the Queensland University of Technology. He currently leads the ‘Design Robotics for Mass Customised Manufacturing’ research project with industry partner UAP (funded by IMCRC), which is developing new ways to use robots and vision systems for design led manufacturing. His main research interest is in how technologies can be made more useful and easier to use for people and how end-users can be involved in the design process to make technologies better.

Muge is a creative maker and transdisciplinary designer, specialised in advanced manufacturing, digital fabrication, and parametric design. She is one of the chief investigators of QUT's Design Robotics project. In her career, she has worked with prominent architectural firms such as Zaha Hadid Architects, taught in several institutions including AA Visiting Schools, published articles, gave interviews, and presented in many international conferences and exhibitions. She has also been awarded in multiple competitions and events on the future of architecture and the use of novel digital technologies.

Peter is a robotics researcher and educator with over 30 years’ experience in robotics theory and practice. He is the distinguished professor of robotic vision at Queensland University of Technology, director of the QUT Centre for Robotics, and director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Robotic Vision. His research is concerned with enabling robots to see, and the application of robots to mining, agriculture and environmental monitoring. He wrote the bestselling textbook “Robotics, Vision, and Control” and the Robot Academy online teaching resource.

Markus is an Associate Professor in Interaction Design at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). He is the Associate Director of the QUT Design Lab which hosts innovative research at the interplay of Design and Technology, such as the Design Robotics project. Markus is an experienced researcher with over 20 years of experience in the design of human-centred technology. His work focusses on the design and study of emerging technologies, including collaborative systems, human-robot collaboration, social robotics, and extended reality.

Matthew joined QUT as a Principal Research Fellow (Autonomous Systems) in 2013 from CSIRO, where he held various roles including Principal Research Scientist and the Robotics Systems and Marine Robotics team leader. He is known internationally for his research into field robotics, particularly environmental robots, and their application to large-scale marine and aquatic ecosystem process monitoring. His research interests include vision-based navigation, image-based habitat classification, adaptive sampling, and path planning, as well as robot and sensor network interactions. His current research within the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision involves the development and use of advanced computer vision techniques to detect and quantify change within the environment, and to improve the perception and monitoring performance of robots operating in challenging and dynamic environments.

Professor Greg Hearn is Director of Commercial R&D in the Creative Industries Faculty at QUT and a research leader in the ARM Hub and QUT Design Lab. His research focuses on strategic industry futures, knowledge policy, and the future of work. He is author of over 20 major books and reports, most recently as editor of The Future of Creative Work: Creativity and Digital Disruption (Edward Elgar, 2020). This book examines the impact of digital disruption, robotics, and AI, on jobs in design, art and media, and the creation of high value products and services across all sectors of the economy. He has worked in large R&D projects with private industry and public sector organizations over 3 decades, across many sectors including, aviation, defence, agriculture and manufacturing.

Chris is a Senior Lecturer within the Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) group at QUT. His research interests lie in the development of novel methods for robotic manipulation in real world and challenging environments. A particular focus of his research has been on enabling robots to perform autonomous harvesting operations in horticulture. He was part of the Australian Centre for Robotics Vision team competing in the 2017 Amazon Robotics Challenge, where he led the development of the grasping and planning algorithms which could successfully grasp a large variety of objects in a cluttered environment. He is part of the Future Food Systems Co-operative Research Centre, and will receive $35 million in funding over 10 years from the Federal Government, along with almost $150 million in support from the research centre’s educational and commercial participants. He will be working on developing robotics and smart technology for vertical and indoor protected cropping.

Elliot has been involved in the area of field robotics for more than 20 years, in particular the development of sensing systems that allow machines to operate autonomously outdoors in hostile and unstructured environments. This work has included the automation of large mining excavators, underground ore haulage vehicles and explosive loading machines. For a number of years, he led the robotic perception team with interests in localisation and mobile mapping in GPS denied areas. More recently, he managed the Autonomous Systems Program with interests in field robotics, sensor networks and cognitive systems. Today he is overseeing a number of emerging markets: including Spatial Intelligence and the Industrial Internet.

David is a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO, Australia's national science body. He works and leads multiple projects at the intersection of robotics, evolutionary machine learning, and the computational design of novel physical objects. His interests include nature-inspired algorithms, learned autonomy, soft robotics, the reality gap, and evolution of form. His work has been featured in local and national media, TechXplore, and Wired. He received his BSc in Computing from the University of Leeds in 2005 and completed a MSc in Cognitive Systems at the same institution in 2006. In 2011 he received his PhD from the University of the West of England. He is a member of the IEEE and ACM, and an avid proponent of education, STEM, and outreach activities.

As the Head of Project Services, David’s role is centred around field robotics and safety in industrial automation. Before joining the ARM Hub, David worked as a Robotics Engineer at Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center in Pittsburgh. There, he worked on full-scale robotics prototypes for various aerospace, logistics, and government organisations, with a focus on river erosion management for the US Army Corps of Engineers. David also assisted in the delivery of prototypes of self-driving vehicles, safety and interface systems for autonomous civil engineering projects, and industrial automation systems.
Prior to his relocation to the USA, David obtained his Bachelor of Engineering (Mechatronics) at Queensland University of Technology and held multiple research assistant and STEM ambassador roles, as well as being a significant contributor in QUT’s Robotronica events.

Professor Felipe Gonzalez is within the School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics (EER) and a CI in QUT Centre for Robotics (QCR) Engineering Faculty. Felipe has a passion for innovation in the fields of aerial robotics and automation, and a particular interest in creating aerial robots, drones or UAVs that possess a high level of cognition using efficient on-board computer algorithms using advanced optimization and game theory approaches to assist us in understanding and improving our physical and natural world. A/Prof Gonzalez lead the Airborne Sensing Lab at QUT. He is the co-author of several books in UAV based remote sensing and design based on evolutionary optimization and game strategies. To date he has been awarded $40.1M in chief investigator / partner investigator grants ($6.5M total cash + in-kind contributions). This grant income represents a mixture of sole investigator funding, ARC DP, ARC LIEF, ARC Linkages, international, multidisciplinary collaborative grants, and funding from industry.

He is also a Chartered Professional Engineer, Engineers Australia – National Professional Engineers Register (NPER), a Member Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS), The IEEE, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and Holder of a current Australian Private Pilot Licence (CASA PPL) and a Remote Pilot Licence (RePL from CASA).

Associate Professor Rafael Gomez is Study Area Coordinator for Industrial Design. He is a design researcher for QUT Design Lab and a prominent researcher in the field of emotional experience, wearable tech for medical/health applications and emerging technologies. He works closely with global industry partners and leads the BMW Group + QUT Design Academy which focuses on fostering design excellence, exploring new knowledge horizons and advancing cutting-edge technologies through internships, research and special R+D projects with BMW Group in Germany. Rafael has been a Council Member of the Design Institute of Australia Queensland Chapter, Founder and Chair of the Design and Emotion Society Australia Chapter and Committee Member for the 2015 IASDR International Design Conference.

Rui is an academic at QUT Business School where he is an expert on innovation, strategy and International Business on the Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship - a world-leading hub in the field. Before joining QUT, Rui worked at the University of Queensland and prior to that, he was a senior executive and worked in the US, China, and Europe. Rui holds a Doctorate of Business Administration from Manchester Business School, an MBA and a Masters in Civil Engineering. Rui is passionate about helping start-ups and SMEs to drive innovation and bring their products or services to the market in the best possible conditions.

Tim’s career has been divided between design practice and academia giving him ideal perspective on the benefits of industry-university collaboration. Consequently, he has a strong track record of leading collaborative projects with industry partners both locally and internationally. His background is Industrial Design with expertise in Computer Aided Design, Design for Manufacture, and Design for Electronics. Tim is an authority on Product Ecosystem theory and has diverse research interests including Design-Led innovation, 3D printing, transportation design and boat building.

Professor Ryan Ko is Chair & Director of Cyber Security at the University of Queensland, Australia. He has held scientific leadership roles at Hewlett-Packard Labs and the University of Waikato, and technical advisory roles for ministers, listed companies and the INTERPOL. His provenance and cybersecurity research contributed to HP ArcSight, Kali Linux and OpenStack features. Most recently, in 2020, his security monitoring patent resulted in the spinoff First Watch Ltd – a leading industrial cyber security company in NZ working with major city councils and Fonterra. An expert in the ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27 (peak standards body for cybersecurity), he edited ISO/IEC 21878 and national standards, and drafted the NZ Level-6 cybersecurity curriculum. He currently serves on the Technical Reference Group of Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA)’s Integrity Systems Company. A fellow of the Cloud Security Alliance, he holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Engineering) (Hons) and PhD from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Dr Alice Payne is an Associate Professor in Fashion in the School of Design, Queensland University of Technology. Her research centres on environmental and social sustainability concerns throughout textile and apparel industry supply chains. Alice has examined perspectives on sustainability along the cotton value chain, the cultural and material flows of post-consumer textile waste, and design processes of mass-market product developers, independent fashion designers, and social entrepreneurs. She is author of the book Designing Fashion’s Future and is an award-winning designer and teacher.

Alan is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Australian Cobotics Centre. His interests include design and digital crafting, user experience (UX) in extended reality (XR), photogrammetry, and collaborative robotics. He has over 20 years of experience working in science laboratories, architecture firms, and mixed reality studios as a designer in immersive environment applications. Alan is currently working on research to embed holistic design in creating a seamless integration of humans and machines working together. The aim of this is to improve human work conditions and environments, increase effectiveness and efficiencies in production, as well as workforce acceptance.

Professor Peter Schubel is the Executive Director of the Institute for Advanced Engineering and Space Sciences (IAESS) and Director of the Centre for Future Materials (CFM) at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). He oversees a portfolio of research activity including Advanced Composite Materials/Manufacturing, Hypersonics, Rockets, Astrophysics and Machine Vision technologies. The research activity cuts across multiple sectors such as Aerospace, Space, Defence and Civil. Prof Schubel’s particular area of expertise is in the design and processing of high-value composite components and structures, focusing in particular on automated manufacturing, process development, advanced infusion processing, repair and surface metrology. Over the last ten years, Prof Schubel has been awarded over $45million in competitive research grants.

As an Industrial Designer, Anthony has led advanced manufacturing projects in Australia and abroad, collaborating with Milford Automotive, Icarus Industrial Design, Local Motors, EGR Group & UAP. In addition, he provides consulting services to the broader industry through Anthony Franze` Studio and volunteers as a mentor to SEQ energy start-ups at EnergyLab and as a designer for Positive Change for Marine Life (Bryon Bay). He has been awarded multiple international and national design awards, including the BMW Urban Mobility Challenge for 2025. Anthony is currently undertaking a PhD with QUT in conjunction with the ARM Hub. His thesis entitled Augmented Fabrication: An Industry 4.0 XR Framework for Mass Customisation explores how augmented, virtual, and mixed reality technologies can enhance Australian manufacturers’ design-to-fabrication capabilities.

Diego is a PhD student at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), situated in the Robotics design team at ARM Hub. His main research interests are in the areas of green manufacturing, digital transformation and open innovation. Diego has more than 10 years of experience in identifying and improving sustainable and competitive opportunities for leading companies. Diego has led sustainable projects to decrease the cost and production time of conventional production systems in Land Rover Jaguar (UK), Johnson Controls (UK), and Vecol (Colombia). As a process analyst, Diego oversaw the improvement of key business factors, such as revenue, production time, and market penetration, in companies around the globe, including RIA (UK), El Bosque University (Colombia), and BabyGlow (Mexico and Panama). Diego was also part of the Creative Industries higher degree students’ society leading board at QUT and is part of the Colombian industrial engineering association.

Ajay is Associate Professor at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) with expertise in bespoke sensor design and development of intelligent systems. Ajay’s topics of interest include design and development of intelligent sensing and energy harvesting platform technologies with capabilities of on-sensor and near-sensor computing. His research is centred on how autonomous systems such as robots can gain situational awareness akin to intelligent biological systems. He leads several interdisciplinarity projects on development of advanced vision, tactile and acoustic sensing technologies for medical robotics, infrastructure monitoring, and sustainable engineering. Ajay’s interdisciplinary background in Physics, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science and Energy Systems further expands ARM Hub’s advanced manufacturing capability in new domains of medical devices, micro/nano robotics and wearable electronics.

After his Bachelor of Engineering, Thiru was at the Singapore University of Technology and Design – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (SUTD-MIT) International Design Centre, Singapore as a Research Assistant before joining QUT for Ph.D. studies in 2016. Enthusiastic about data science and its real-world applications, his work at SUTD involved analyzing and personalizing the city for elderly citizens of Singapore based on mobility data acquisition. Multifaceted data generated from Web 3.0 applications can best be analysed using tensor models and at QUT as a Ph.D. candidate, Thiru has developed computationally efficient matrix/tensor factorization methods that can increase the efficient management of this multifaceted multiple context data. His research focused on applying tensor factorization for real-time IoT and Web 3.0 applications like pattern mining, text mining, and recommender systems. These applications are crucial in broader domains such as transportation, social media, and manufacturing. For instance, using multi-context data in the manufacturing industry to learn patterns of the production process can help to optimize the process and increase profit. During his candidature, he taught various subjects related to data analytics to QUT undergraduate and postgraduate students. Thiru has published his research works in top-tier journals and conferences like IEEE TKDE, ACM TKDD, SNAM, WISE, WWW, AusDM, and PRICAI. He is also a recipient of QUT-CDS first byte research funding worth 60,000 AUD.

Cori Stewart spearheaded the ARM Hub initiative, leveraging Queensland’s global leadership in advanced robotics and design-led manufacturing to create this not-for-profit company with a mission to accelerate the uptake of advanced manufacturing in Australia. Cori is a recognised leader in developing large-scale partnerships between industry, research institutions, governments, and the community, where she has successfully developed new approaches to pressing challenges in industry and society. Cori has previously held senior university and government appointments delivering industry development, digital economy and innovation policies and programs.

Samuel Jesuadian serves as the Chief Operating Officer, overseeing the functions of the Business Operations, Facilities Management and Finances of the ARM Hub. Samuel has worked for Mater Research (Mater Health Services) since 2013 and has consolidated experience in Operations Process Design and Management within Clinical and Bio-Medical Research industries. Prior to this, Samuel held different research support positions within the University of Queensland; the Translational Research Institute; and Griffith University. He is an experienced operational professional who has a focus in business acumen on managing risk, driving strategic direction through systems innovation and a passion for business improvements.

As Business Development Manager, Melissa develops relationships that enable small to medium manufacturing enterprises to access innovation opportunities within and across Queensland, and the nation’s, industry growth sectors. She brokers industry’s access to the ARM Hub network of experts, facilities, collaborating partners and a multitude of funding opportunities. In Melissa’s role, she also supports commercial project development and investment in research and development to securing the market advantages of innovation for industry.
With an early career in environmental science technology, policy and community engagement, Melissa has since held various senior roles in communication, stakeholder engagement, business development marketing and advancement in Queensland’s Higher Education and Government sectors. Most recently, Melissa led International and Engagement strategy and operations for QUT’s Science and Engineering Faculty, enabling her to bring a wealth of experience in leadership, mobility, industry and community partnerships to her role with the ARM Hub.

Ann-Maree Willett is an expert in strategic partnership development with international experience and has worked in the area of strategic partnerships in the Creative Industries for the past 20 years. Ann-Maree holds the position of Principal Adviser with ARM Hub. She applies her business development, strategic partnerships and people skills in developing and maintaining high-level and important relationships for the business.

Ann-Maree was awarded the Churchill Fellowship for her work as a Designer and has shown in Europe, Asia and the USA. Ann-Maree holds a dual collaborative position with both ARM Hub and with UAP.

Catherine Leather has extensive experience in providing high level executive, project, governance, stakeholder engagement and administrative support to senior executives in research and scientific organisations, academia, and state government. Prior to joining ARM Hub, Catherine worked closely with the Executive and Research Leadership teams at the Institute for Future Environment (IFE), Queensland University of Technology. Catherine managed the IFE Catapult Research Program, which was an innovative and highly successful competitive seed funding research program open to researchers across QUT. Before joining QUT, Catherine worked for at CSIRO for over 14 years providing executive management support to Flagship and Divisional executives and their teams, across a wide range of research areas and disciplines. Catherine held various administration roles, including Departmental Travel Officer, within the Queensland Department of Primary Industries for over 10 years, at both head office and one of the research and pilot plant facilities.

Shani Fernando is the Finance Officer at ARM Hub where she assists with managing the company’s finances. She started her career at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) as a Project and Finance Officer in 2018 and has worked across different faculties, research institutes and centers. Shani has a demonstrated track record of providing high-level support and advice to inform all aspects of effective financial management including budgeting, forecasting, reconciliation, and reporting. She completed a Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons) at the University of Sri Jayawardenepura, Sri Lanka in 2004, she also holds a professional membership of the Australian Society of Certified Practicing Accountants (CPA) Australia.

Roy Green is a leading thinker and commentator on innovation policy, and has been at the forefront of efforts to help Australian industry harness the benefits of research to create long-term growth and jobs in the global economy of the twenty-first century. He was most recently Dean of the UTS Business School at the University of Technology Sydney, and is currently Special Advisor and Chair of the UTS Innovation Council. He has worked for a number of universities and governments in Australia and overseas, including projects for the OECD and European Commission, and is also Chair of the Port of Newcastle and board member of the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre.

Professor Mark Harvey is Vice-President (Business Development) at QUT. In this role he leads QUT’s Division of Business Development, which oversees the development and management of strategic partnerships with organisations in the pursuit of QUT corporate objectives and priorities. Professor Harvey is a Director of Sunsuper Ltd and Vice-President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland.

Matthew Tobin is co-founder and Managing Director of UAP, the world’s largest manufacturer of high-value customised design elements for construction projects. Matthew has over 18 years’ experience in customisable manufacturing, collaborating with artists, architects, designers & developers to bring uncommon creativity to the public realm.

Jackie Taranto is a seasoned business executive and entrepreneur with over thirty years’ experience across a range of industries including technology, advanced manufacturing, international trade, medical, finance & investment, research and infrastructure. She specialises in creating business collaboration opportunities and extracting and building value out of timely deployment of technology and talent. She founded and built a number of companies, including Hannover Fairs Australia - the Australian/New Zealand subsidiary of Deutsche Messe, the world’s largest venue owner operator, and has successfully launched global brands CeBIT and CeMAT in Australia. In addition to her board role at Arm Hub, Jackie has served on the boards of German-Australian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, IOT Alliance Australia and the Bright Alliance Advisory Committee – NSW’s first cancer-dedicated hospital.