Renowned data scientist joins UTS Human Technology Institute

Professor Cripps will lead HTI’s technical work to develop and promote responsible artificial intelligence. As a leading mathematician, statistician and data scientist, Professor Cripps is at the frontier of creating new techniques to solve complex social challenges, while addressing many of the risks to humans posed by AI.

Professor Cripps joins UTS from CSIRO, where she has been Research Director, Analytics and Decision Sciences for CSIRO’s Data61 digital research network. Concurrent with her role at HTI, Professor Cripps will be Professor of Mathematics and Statistics in the UTS Faculty of Science.

Professor Cripps will join co-directors and founders, Professors Nicholas Davis and Edward Santow, in forming HTI’s senior leadership team. HTI exists to apply human values to the development, use and regulation of new technology such as AI. 

“We are thrilled to welcome Professor Cripps to UTS,” said Professor Verity Firth, UTS Pro Vice-Chancellor (Social Justice and Inclusion). “Sally will make a wonderful contribution to the Human Technology Institute as well as the UTS Faculty of Science. Her work represents the very best of academic thinking and she has a unique insight to the challenges of complex social issues facing industry and government.”

UTS Dean of Science Professor James Wallman said Professor Cripps' appointment had the dual bonus of her joining the UTS mathematical sciences ecosystem and providing a link between the Faculty of Science and HTI.  "Sally’s valuable, and national, contributions to data analytics, and ways of using Bayesian statistics and AI to understanding areas of importance, place UTS in a strong position to achieve its goals in responsible and human-centred technologies," he said.

In addition to supporting HTI’s existing work, Professor Cripps will extend the frontiers of responsible, fit-for-purpose data science. Many of the current approaches to AI and machine learning create risks to humans, in areas such as cybersecurity, privacy, bias and transparency. Professor Cripps’ work addresses many of those risks, through pioneering techniques that aim to deliver accurate and explainable insights.

The superficial use of conventional, big data-driven AI methods is totally inadequate to address the complex social, economic and environmental issues we all face.

Professor Sally Cripps

“As organisations around Australia and the world deploy AI in an ever-increasing array of contexts, we must focus on the impact on humans. Such systems should be accurate, accountable, fair and fit-for-purpose,” said HTI co-director Professor Nicholas Davis. “Sally’s deep technical expertise, her track record of using data science to solve wicked social problems, and her inspiring leadership will help HTI to create and disseminate the skills, tools and policies to achieve this.”

“I am passionate about the use of mathematics and data science for social good, and I’m delighted to be joining Ed Santow, Nick Davis and the team at HTI,” Professor Cripps said. “The superficial use of conventional, big data-driven AI methods is totally inadequate to address the complex social, economic and environmental issues we all face. With HTI, I’ll be developing explainable, uncertainty-based tools to help us answer difficult questions with greater confidence.”

An internationally recognised leader in machine learning techniques, Professor Cripps has been at the forefront on how organisations use AI and advanced statistics to create value for over a decade. Before joining Data61 she was Director of the Australian Research Council’s Industrial Transformational Training Centre Data Analytics in Resources and Environments (DARE) and Director of the Centre for Translational Data Science at the University of Sydney.

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> Building a future that applies human values to new technology