• Posted on 16 Nov 2023
  • 2-minute read

Recognising Prof Lu's research excellence benefiting NSW's industry, economy and society with the 2023 Premier's Prize.

The 2023 Premier's Prize for Science & Engineering Award Ceremony (L to R): the Hon Anoulack Chanthivong MP, Minister for Innovation Science and Technology, Mr Dennis Wilson, Her Excellency the Hon Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of NSW, Distinguished Professor Jie Lu AO, the Hon Penny Sharpe MLC, Minister for Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Heritage, Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte, NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer.
The 2023 Premier's Prize for Science & Engineering Award Ceremony (L to R): the Hon Anoulack Chanthivong MP, Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology, Mr Dennis Wilson, Her Excellency the Hon Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of NSW, Distinguished Professor Jie Lu AO, the Hon Penny Sharpe MLC, Minister for Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Heritage, Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte, NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer.

Jie Lu awarded the NSW Premier's Prize for Excellence in Engineering or Information and Communications Technology 

See more: 2023 Premier's Prizes Category Winners

"Distinguished Professor Jie Lu, Australian Laureate Fellow, is a world-renowned scientist in the field of AI. She is the Director of the Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute (AAII) at the University of Technology Sydney.

Jie has pioneered solutions to two critical problems – machine learning from uncertain data and machine learning for complex decision-making. She is particularly respected for initiating and progressing foundational research on fuzzy transfer learning, concept drift, recommender systems and decision support systems.

She has delivered 45 invited keynotes in Australian and international conferences, and 20 public speeches in Australian and NSW industry events. Her development of diverse AI-based software tools has had significant impact through more than 20 industry projects across the transportation, healthcare and telecommunication sectors.

Distinguished Professor Jie Lu receives NSW Premier's Prize for Excellence in Engineering or Information and Communications Technology from the Hon Anoulack Chanthivong MP, Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology.
Distinguished Professor Jie Lu AO receives NSW Premier's Prize for Excellence in Engineering or Information and Communications Technology from the Hon Anoulack Chanthivong MP, Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology.

Specifically related to NSW, Jie has solved challenging problems for Sydney Trains, including a machine learning-based system using Opal card streaming data to predict real-time carriage load of trains to avoid congestion, which was particularly impactful during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her continued training and mentoring of PhD student graduates is positioning NSW as a major player in a critical field for the state’s economy and workforce.

Jie has attracted prestigious awards, including the IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems Outstanding Paper Awards (twice), NeurIPS2022 Outstanding Paper Award and Australasian Artificial Intelligence Distinguished Research Contribution Award. In the 2023 Australia Day Honours, she was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia for outstanding service to research and development in the field of AI.

Her research results have been published in 500 articles with high impact in her field, attracting 22,000 citations, with an h-index of 79."

(Quoted from NSW Government Chief Scientist and Engineer Press Release)

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Descriptive transcript

I'm a Distinguished Professor and Australian Laureate Fellow, and also the Director of the Australian AI Institute at the University of Technology Sydney.

I have been working on artificial intelligence for over 20 years.

Mainly, I focus on how machine learning can learn from data to support decision-making and prediction in complex situations.

There are two challenges in these areas. One is insufficient labelled data. Machine learning really needs lots of labelled data to train a model. Another challenge is data uncertainty. That includes data missing or data not accurate.

I'm developing advanced machine learning technologies to deal with both data insufficiency and data uncertainty issues.

We have developed advanced machine learning algorithms, models, and also software tools which have been used in several industry sectors. For example, transport. I have been working with Sydney Trains to support train management.

Thinking about the future, one is to develop more advanced machine learning algorithms. The second is responsible AI, and to make sure our AI technology applications are responsible, secure, safe, fair, and have a positive impact on society.

I really want to express my thanks to my colleagues, my friends, my family, and the University of Technology Sydney. Without their encouragement and support, this achievement wouldn't have been possible.

I'm very honoured by this recognition and very excited about the prize. This award is also very important to the AI community because it highlights the significance of AI research and AI research applications to the whole of industry and society.

See More:UTS Tech & Design News cover how Jie Lu's pioneering research has earnt her the 2023 Premier's Prize for Excellence 

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