For some time now we have had Acting Directors of the Centre for Informatics and Applied Optimization (CIAO), Internet Commerce Security Laboratory (ICSL) and Multimedia Computing, Communications and Artificial Intelligence Research (MCCAIR). Following calls for expressions of Interest in Research Director positions, I am able to announce that the following appointments have been made:

Research Director, CIAO - Associate Professor Alex Kruger

Research Director, ICSL - Associate Professor Iqbal Gondal

Research Director, MCCAIR - Professor Manzur Murshed

Alex holds a PhD in mathematics. He joined CIAO and the University in 2003. Prior to that Alex had worked at several universities, research institutions as well as for industry. Alex has published more than 80 research articles in the area of variational analysis and optimisation, participated in several research projects funded by the Australian Research Council, INTAS, Fulbright Foundation and other funding bodies. He is well known nationally and internationally. Among his co-authors are leading experts from Belarus, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan and Vietnam. 

Dr Julien Ugon has been appointed as Deputy Director, CIAO and brings to the position skills in working with industry and large projects.

CIAO would like to congratulate Associate Professor Iqbal Gondal who has been appointed the new Research Director, ICSL after acting in the position for several months. ICSL is a research group within CIAO working on cybersecurity issues. Iqbal has experience in remote condition monitoring, cyber-security analytics and networks. Iqbal also held positions at Monash as Director, ICT Strategy and Director, Post Graduate Studies.

As one of the founding directors of MCCAIR, Manzur has a particular interest in video technology, information theory, wireless communications, distributed computing and security and privacy. MCCAIR has three main areas of research; multimedia signal processing and management, multimedia communication and sensor networks and artificial intelligence.