As a high school student, Emma Moy was interested in, well, everything.
But when it came time to apply for university, trying to shoehorn all her passions into a single degree was more challenging than she’d imagined – until she found UTS.
“At school, I enjoyed studying a variety of subjects such as history, business, English, science, and design and technology. I wanted to study a degree that would encompass a variety of fields, that wouldn’t restrict me to one area of study but would allow me to grow,” she says.
At UTS, Emma came across the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation (BCII), a one-of-a-kind qualification with a focus on creative problem solving, design and systems thinking, and entrepreneurship. Students combine the BCII with their choice of one of 26 core UTS degrees and come together from across the university to work collaboratively on real-world industry challenges.
For Emma, who paired her BCII with the Bachelor of Business (Business Law and Marketing), it was the degree – and the practical experience – she’d been looking for.
“A lot of universities offered a business degree, but only UTS had this transdisciplinary degree where you work with industry partners and students from a variety of disciplines to address real-world complex problems,” she says.
“I wanted to study a degree that would encompass a variety of fields, that wouldn’t restrict me to one area of study but would allow me to grow.”
Emma Moy
Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation
Not problems, but opportunities
When she started the BCII, Emma was ready for the fast-paced learning, industry-informed course content and extensive team-based projects that characterise the degree. What she didn’t expect was how much these learning opportunities would transform her approach to problem solving.
“It was transformative in helping me identify whether a problem was simple, complicated, complex, chaotic or dysfunctional. Being able to identify the type of problem you’re dealing with can reduce the risks associated with implementing an intervention,” she says.
“A lot of the time we say we’re problem solving, but the BCII taught us to think no, we’re not solving a problem, we’re addressing part of a very complex system with the aim of shifting it from its current state to a more desirable future state.”
Students worked in teams to solve challenges set by industry organisations, such as the Sydney Opera House and Thales. The broad nature of these challenges meant that the students had to combine their expertise to come up with effective solutions. For example, the Sydney Opera House wanted to create multigenerational collaborative spaces, while Thales wanted to re-imagine how stakeholder relationships could be assessed using a co-design evaluation model.
“As a business student, I could draw on my technical knowledge to provide structure to my team’s ideas, particularly by [determining] whether our initiative was feasible, viable and desirable. My marketing major enhanced my skills to effectively communicate my team’s ideas to industry stakeholders, while my law knowledge helped my team ensure our idea was legal,” Emma says.
“What I enjoyed most about working in a team of students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds was that we all had different perspectives and ideas to address the problem brief. By listening to one another, we were able to develop a well-rounded outcome.”
The BCII also changed Emma’s learning experience in the Bachelor of Business, helping enhance her group work projects and her approach to course content. In a marketing subject called Consumer Behaviour, she developed a creative strategy to help Qantas increase their market share following COVID-19 restrictions.
“The BCII gave me the innovative methods to unpack the problem space and ultimately identify the core problem,” she says.
Taking the fast track to an innovation career
The BCII might have introduced Emma to industry challenges in the classroom, but it also connected her to a wealth of professional opportunities beyond it. As part of her studies, she completed two internships – one with Netball NSW where she helped the organisation build a resilience strategy after COVID-19, and the other with HKA Global, an international risk mitigation, advisory and dispute resolution consultancy.
At HKA, Emma worked in the Advisory stream where she developed a report on the future of infrastructure delivery within Australia. She also spent some time working with SPARK, HKA’s innovation team, and successfully developed initiatives to “enhance a culture of innovation within the organisation,” she says
To say that these internships were an ideal fit for Emma’s innovation skillset would be an understatement. HKA was so impressed by what she contributed that they offered her a part-time role for the remainder of her degrees. That part-time role turned into a full-time position, first as an advisory associate consultant and later as a forensic technical services expert support consultant, which is the role she holds today.
A lot of universities offered a business degree, but only UTS had this transdisciplinary degree where you work with industry partners and students from a variety of disciplines to address real-world complex problems.
During her time in the company’s Advisory Infrastructure Delivery stream, she was part of the team who won the 2025 Consult Australia Award for Excellence – Collaboration with Government award for their work on the $11 billion Sydney Metro Western Sydney Airport project.
Since then, Emma has continued to grow her skill set and experience across a wide range of HKA functions, eventually landing in the Forensic Technical Services team. She now works with expert witnesses on dispute resolution proceedings, both for arbitration and high court matters. She’s come a long way from the high school student who wasn’t sure where she was headed. Now, she’s sharing her love for innovation with anyone – and everyone – who’ll listen.
“I think my proudest moment has been pioneering innovation within HKA. I’ve delivered a workshop series on decoding complexity to an international colleague base of over 500 advisors and consultants. I’ve also worked directly with the CEO of HKA’s international region to develop a global innovation strategy for the organisation,” says Emma, who now facilitates HKA’s ongoing engagement with UTS via the BCII Industry Innovation Project.
“It has been quite an opportunity.”
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Creative graduates who can thrive within complex and uncertain environments and tackle challenges across disciplines, fields and industries are transforming contemporary workplaces.
Kirah Godsell was always going to change the world, but it wasn’t until she enrolled at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) that she figured out how.
One of the most valuable aspects of the Master of Data Science and Innovation is that graduates emerge with the skills to work in multiple industries.