Best
Student Paper Award (Australian Computer Science Conference) for paper
co-authored with Ph.D. student Donqiang Yang
2007
Best
Paper Nomination (GECCO) with Postdoc Dr Martin Luerssen although this is
the premier conference in Genetic/Evolutionary Computation attendance was not
funded and the paper was withdrawn.
2002
Best
Paper Nomination and Best Student Paper Award (Australian Computer Science
Conference) for paper co-authored with Ph.D. student Trent Lewis
1999
Special
Award for the Advancement of the Turing Test/Artificial Intelligence -
Loebner Prize for Artificial Intelligence (Bronze Medal)
1995
Flinders
University Equal Opportunity Commendation - Citation reads:
The student
nominating David Powers writes: "From my first meeting with David
Powers, it was clear that he was willing to accommodate my needs in upcoming
studies. When approached about alternative assessment, he willingly agreed to
the arrangements I requested and was always polite and friendly. He
recognized the fact that I had a disability and required special
arrangements, and never wavered in his willingness to assist me to complete
my studies successfully. Although he wasn't actually one of my lecturers, he
was nonetheless instrumental in making me feel that I COULD achieve in my
studies."
The Sub-Committee
on Students with Disabilities endorses this nomination and states:
"David Powers has been very effective in accommodating a range of
students with disabilities in his first year computer science subject. He
acted creatively and sensitively to accommodate special requirements in
examinations for a number of students with disabilities in his first year
computer science topic. Students with psychiatric/psychological disabilities
often experience additional barriers of fear, misunderstanding and prejudice
not experienced by other students with a disability. Therefore his demonstrated
ability to think through and make constructive suggestions on how to approach
the difficulties being experienced by a student with a psychological
disability, make his nomination especially worthwhile."
1988
Best
Paper in AI Conference (Systems and Cybernetics Meeting, Vienna).
1979-83
Australian
Commonwealth Postgraduate Research Scholarship (U. NSW).
Prizes in
the IBM-UNSW School Mathematics Competition (Junior/Senior Divisions resp.)
1969-71
Inner
London Education Authority Music Scholarship (Archbishop Tennison's Grammar
School, London, UK).
Academic
Positions
1994-
Associate
Professor, Flinders University of South Australia, AU
1993
Visiting
Professor, ENST - Telecom Paris, FR
1992
Research
Fellow, ITK - Institute of Language and Knowledge Technology, University of
Tilburg, NL
1989-91
Senior
Research Fellow in ESPRIT GRANT "COMPULOG" - Computational Logic -
at the University of Kaiserslautern, FRG (in association with the DFKI -
German AI Institute).
1989
Part-time
lecturer in PROLOG, Business Computing, City International, Sydney, AU.
1984-89
Lecturer,
School of Mathematics, Physics, Computing and Electronics, Macquarie
Unviersity, Sydney, AU
1983-84
Half-time
tutor in the Dept of Computer Science, University of NSW, Sydney, AU
Administrative
Roles in Current Position
1995-1996
2007-
Representative,
Faculty of Science and Engineering Research Committee
2006-
Member,
University Consultative Council
2005-2006
Human
Factors Program Leader/SA bid leader, CRC-Safe bid
2004-
Senior
First Aid Officer
2001-2003
Computing
representative on School of Informatics and Engineering Higher Degrees
Committee
1999-2001
Representative,
South Australian Consortium for Information Technology and Telecommunications
1999-
Computer
Science cognate representative, Bachelor of Behavioural Sciences and Bachelor
of Psychology
Computer
Science representative, Bachelor of Arts Exam Board
1996-2000
Representative,
Faculty of Science and Engineering Higher Degrees Committee
1996-1999
Chair,
Dept of Computer Science Higher Degrees Committee
1996-
Observer
or Member of various promotion and tenure (sub)committees as NTEU
representative
1995-1996
Dept of
Computer Science Research Coordinator
1994-2006
Deputy
Chairman, Cognitive Science Committee
1994-1997
Member,
Apple University Consortium Committee
1994-1997
Member,
Information Technology Advisory Committee
1994-1996
Member,
Faculty of Science and Engineering Courses and Curriculum committee
Subjects
Taught
Taught/Current/Coordinated
(Level Area/code)
Dates (typical
enrolment)
Masters by coursework
projects (Masters IT/CS)
2002- (1 or 2 most years)
Information Retrieval and
Visualization (Hons - CS)
2001- (~5)
Computer Organization (2
COMP2004)
2000-2001 (80-100)
Operating Systems (3
COMP3011)
1997/9,2000/7- (60-80)
Engineering Honours Project
(Hons Eng)
1999- (typically 1-2 a
year)
Unsupervised Machine
Learning (Hons)
1998-2000 (3-10)
Programming Paradigms (2
COMP2003)
1996-9 (60-80)
Cognitive Science 2
(2+3+Hons PSYC3006)
1996-2001,03,05
(8-20)
Computer Science 3rd
Year Project (3 COMP3013)
1996-2001,3,5-
(3-13)
Software Development
Environments (4 - ENGR)
1995-6 (20)
Cognitive Science 1 (2+3
PSYC2006)
1995,1996-2002,4,6
(15)
Computer Science Honours
Project (Hons - CS)
1995- (1-2 most years)
Artificial Intelligence
(3+Hons/Mast COMP3007)
1994-96,1998-2000,
2002,4,6 (30-50)
Natural Language Learning
(Hons)
1994-7 (3-5)
Programming Languages (Mast
COMP9031)
Prog. Language Concepts (3+Hons COMP3001)
1994-6,1998- (20-50)
Computational Logic (3
COMP3009)
1994-6 (10-20)
Computer Science 1 (1
COMP1000)
1994-5 (200+)
Neural Networks (3+Hons
Math+CS:ISTC3001)
1994 (20-24)
PhD
students (see also supervised work below): I am
currently supervising as a principal supervisor five PhD students, one with a
co-principal supervisor from another discipline (Engineering). While at
Flinders seven PhD students have completed under my supervision (Entwisle,
Steele, Li, Lewis, Luerssen, Yang, Fitzgibbon) and I was also brought in to
supervise the successful resubmission of another PhD student. I am also
cosupervising other PhD students in the area of Knowledge Discovery, Data
Mining and Data Visualization. I periodically examine higher degree/research
theses at other universities both nationally and internationally (around 1 a
year: 1 in 2006, 2 in 2007).
Program
Committee, Workshop on Visual Evidence in Human-Computer Interaction,
Keynote Speaker in 2006
2005-
Program
Committee for the International Conference on Intelligent Data Engineering
and Automated Learning (IDEAL)
2005-
Program
Committee for the Australian User Interface Conference (AUIC)
2005-
International
Association for the Development of the Information Society (IADIS) Conference
WWW/Internet
2005
Invited
talk, Workshop on higher brain function and cognitive science, International
Conference on Complex Medical Engineering (CME2005)
2001-
Program
Committee for the International Conference on Data Warehousing and Knowledge
Discovery
2001
Program
Committee for the International Conference on Information Integration and
Web-based Applications & Services
1999-2001
Program
Committee, Joint Australian Conference on Artificial Intelligence, AI'2001
1999-
External
Collaborator, Working Group for Data Mining of Natural Language, University
of Sydney & Sydney Language Technology Research Group
1999-
Program
Committee, International Symposium on Biologically Inspired Systems
1999
Invited
talk on Unsupervised Learning, IEAust
1999
Invited
position paper and co-chair of Ecolang Round Table 3 and Cybersession 2
(including presenting a position paper) on `Basic assumptions in acquisition
research' at the International Workshop on the Ecology of Language in
Amsterdam (participating via a teleconference hookup). Invited chapters in
two books arising from this.
1999
Program
Committee, ACL Workshop on Unsupervised Learning in Natural Language
Processing
1999
External
Reviewer, Review of the Queensland University of Technology Machine Learning
Centre
1998-
Program
Committee, International Workshop on Natural Language and Information Systems
1998
Program
Committee, AAAI Symposium on Machine Learning and Discourse
1997-99
Organizer,
the Loebner Prize for Artificial Intelligence (Flinders declined to take it
on on a permanent basis)
1997-98
Organizer,
Australian Natural Language Processing Fortnight incorporating CoNLL and
NeMLaP and Loebner Prize.
1997-
Editorial
Board, The Web Journal of Formal, Computational and Cognitive Linguistics
(sponsored by the Russian Association for Artificial Intelligence)
1997
Organizer,
Theme Session on Computer Models in Cognitive Linguistics, International
Cognitive Linguistics Conference
1997
Tutorial
on Natural Language Learning at the joint ACL (Association for Computational
Linguistics) and EACL (European branch of ACL) conference in Madrid
1997
Program
Committee and Organizing Committee, Computational Natural Language Learning
(CoNLL)
1996-97
Program
Committee, International Conference on Grammar Induction (ICGI'96)
1996-2000
Program
Committee, Australasian Computer Science Conference
1996-
Program
Committee, Conference on Computational Natural Language Learning. Initiated the CoNLL annual
conference on Computational Natural Language Learning in 1996 in my capacity
as President of SIGNLL.
1996-
Program
Committee, Australasian Computer Architecture Conference
1996
South
Australian Branch Executive, Australian Computer Society
1996
National
Technical Board, Australian Computer Society
1996
Invited
lecture, European Summer School on Language Logic and Information (ESSLLI)
workshop on Machine Learning of Natural Language (Prague)
1996
Invited
tutorial on Machine Learning of Natural Language at the Australian
International Conference on Speech Science and Technology (SST-96)
1995-96
Program
and Local Committee, Australian International Conference on Speech Science
and Technology (SST-96)
1995
Invited
presentation/panelist at a joint staff development seminar of the three South
Australian Universities on supporting students with disabilities
1995
Program
Committee, Workshop on Very Large Corpora (WVLC), ACL
1994
Invited
talk, ELSnet/MLnet workshop on Machine Learning of Natural Language and
Speech
1994-
Member,
ACL SIGNLL Board;
Founding President (1994-1997), SIG on Natural Language Learning (SIGNLL),
Association for Computational Lingusitics (ACL)
1993-97
Program
Committee, Intern'l Conference on New Methods in Natural Language Processing
(NeMLaP)
1993-94
Programme
Committee, Workshop on Similarity-based Learning of Natural Language
1993
Organizing
committee and invited talk, European Conference on Machine Learning Workshop
on Machine Learning and Text Analysis.
1992-97
Editor-in-Chief,
SIG on Artificial Intelligence (SIGART), ACM.
1992-93
Guest
Editor, THINK Special Issues on Learning/Cognition.
1992-93
Organizing
Committee, ECML Workshop on ML Text Analysis
1992
Organizer
of the first SHOE workshop on Machine Learning of Natural Language.
Project
Manager, SHOE - Extraction of Hierarchical Structure for Machine Learning of
Natural Language (Partners in Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy).
1991
Chairman,
Organizing Committee, IJCAI-91 Workshop on Natural Language Learning.
1990-91
Chairman,
Organizing Committee, AAAI Spring Symposium on Machine Learning of Natural
Language and Ontology.
1990-
Associate,
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Cambridge University Press.
1989-
Honorary
Associate in Computing at Macquarie University.
1985-89
Principal
Investigator, Macquarie Automated Reasoning Parallel Implementation and
Applications (MARPIA) Project funded by ARC and ATERB grants.
1985-88
Chairman,
Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science,
MPCE, Macquarie University (including responsibility for continuing education
courses).
1979-82
Part-time
tutoring in the Dept of Computer Science, University of NSW (including
occasional lectures in Artificial Intelligence courses).
1979
6 invited
seminars at NSW Institute of Technology for `Computing 79' (AI+NL).
1977-89
Contract
Programming/Analysis, Computer Consultant and Manager, Innovative
MicroProcessor and Computer Technology (computer distributor and software
consultancy).
1977-78
Contract
Programming/Analysis/Tutoring/Marking for Basser Department of Computer
Science, University of Sydney.
1974-77
Contracts
as Programmer for Rank Industries Australia (General, Stats, Educational) and
Moran MacPherson Pty Ltd (Debtors, Creditors and WIP; also installation and
training).
Apart from
my role as a member of editorial boards and program committees (of which some
less significant ones are not shown, and ongoing ones are italicized), I
personally review over 40 papers a year, and typically some grant applications
for other universities or ARC (Large and Small grants) or NSF (US National
Science Foundation). I have also been asked to be an external reviewer or
associate of a number of centres at other universities.
I have been invited to examine half a dozen
(Australian and European) PhD/Masters theses and hosted/supervised several
Masters/Diploma students (thesis projects, work experience, stages, study
visits) for students from various overseas universities (French, Belgian,
German, Swedish, Turkish), as well as visiting academics.
Natural Languages
English
Mother
tongue.
French
Good
facility, 6 years at school, ~1.5 years spent in Francophone territory.
German
Good
verbal facility, learnt informally, ~2.5 years spent in Germany/Austria.
Dutch
Good
reading knowledge, some verbal facility, 2 week course, ~9 months in BeNeLux.
Chinese
Some
reading knowledge and verbal facility, 2 semesters of university study
Maringi
Target
language for SIL Linguistics certificate, 10 weeks intensive
immersion/analysis
Russian
Minimal
technical facility, learnt informally, ~2.5 months in Russian environments
Italian
Tourism
level facility when needed, ~2 months in Italy.
Latin
Basic
reading knowledge, 4 years at school.
Greek
Basic
reading knowledge of Koine, learnt informally then as part of Th.C..
Esperanto,
Swedish, Danish
Reading
knowledge, superficial familiarity.
Computer Languages/Packages/Systems
PROLOG
Taught +
preferred language where feasible (or variants).
PERL
Taught +
a favorite language for quick and dirty solutions.
Perlog
A hybrid
of Prolog and Perl devised and under development by me.
ADA
Familiarity
+ some minor programming + some use in teaching
Implemented
some Microcomputer applications, including a compiler code-generator
(bootstrapping)
BCPL
Strong
capability, ported to several platforms
C/C++
Used for
system level implementation of several research systems.
COBOL
Taught +
some minor programming
FORTRAN
Taught +
some minor programming
Java,
JavaScript
Used for
Web page/form implementation + some use in teaching
LISP,
Scheme
Taught +
some minor programming
Matlab,
Octave
Taught +
frequently used in experimental research
Mercury,
Haskell, Icon, Python
Familiarity
+ some use in teaching.
Microsoft
Office
Familiarity
+ some teaching + use on both Mac and Windows (3.1/95/NT/XP)
Modula2
Familiarity
OCCAM
Have used
for research and implementation purposes + seminars
Pascal
Taught +
implemented some significant systems.
PL/1
Familiarity
+ some minor programming
Relational
Taught
theory and some SQL, ORACLE etc.
Shell
Taught
MS-DOS, VMS, UNIX sh, csh, tcsh etc.
SIMULA,
Taught +
some programming
Tcl/Tk
Familiarity
+ some minor programming
Unix,
Solaris,
Linux
Taught +
extensive experience including system administration
Funding (approximate; some internal funding under $10kp.a. omitted)
2008
Human Factors investigation into the utility and
visualization of Metadata, Flinders Collaborative Research Grant with DSTO,
$10K funding for Darius Pfitzner
2008
Flinders
Brain Computer Interface, Flinders Collaborative Research Grant with
Novitatech Ltd and Flinders Medical Centre Foundation, $20K funding for Dr
Sean Fitzgibbon, with Prof. Richard Clark
2008
Automated
Discovery, Evaluation, Learning and Information Description for the Education
Data Network Australia, Flinders Collaborative Research Grant with
Education.au Ltd, $61K funding for Dr Dongqiang Yang
2006-2011
From
Talking Heads to Thinking Heads, ARC/NHMRC Thinking Systems Grant, $3.5M
with UWS/Macquarie/Canberra, approx $166K p.a.for five years to Powers at
Flinders, with $40K p.a. internal supplementation, supporting 2 Postdocs + 2
PhDs + Research Assistance.
2006-2007
Advanced
Information Analysis, Techniques and Tools, Flinders Science and Engineering
Program Grant,$112K with Prof. John Roddick and A/Prof. Paul Calder.
$56K p.a. for two years, supporting 6 fractional Postdocs.
2005
Real-Time
Audio-Visual Speech Recognition System, Flinders Small Grant $15K funding
for Dr Trent Lewis
2002-2006
Research
Contract from DSTO $100K re Cognitive Neuroscience and Military Training -
with Prof. Richard Clark
2002
EEG
Control of Interfaces from Flinders Medical Research Institute $10K with
Richard Clark