Director, ARC Centre of Excellence, Automated Decision-Making and Society
Distinguished Professor Julian Thomas uses terms like "ripple effects" and "continuous conversations" to describe the workings of the Social Change Platform and the success of his ARC Centre of Excellence, Automated Decision-Making and Society.
The Social Change Platform synergies and collaborations tapped into cross-disciplinary and problem-driven approaches, which depend on strong connections between researchers in different fields. The Centre's success also came from having links across colleges, as well as schools at RMIT. Thomas relates how the Centre of Excellence was really an outcome of the Enabling Impact Platform program as a whole, and the way "platforms work really well is by connecting people across the universities, research centres, where there's established expertise."
The Platforms connected Thomas to people who had skills in developing a research program around AI and ethical automation-key areas; also, in the area of blockchains. Thomas notes that it wasn't one large grant or anything that made the Centre happen, but it developed from a series of discussions and networking with the right people.
