Rethinking Conservation for a Changing World: Social-Ecological Insights from Southern Africa

Speaker: Associate Professor Alta De Vos, Centre for Sustainability Transitions, Stellenbosch University.

Conservation is in transition. Spurred by accelerating biodiversity loss and global frameworks like the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), many countries are moving beyond traditional protected areas toward more integrated, inclusive, and landscape-scale approaches. This talk will explore how social-ecological systems (SES) research can contribute, using the example of Mega Living Landscapes in South Africa. Drawing on long-term transdisciplinary work in the wildlife economy and protected areas, Dr De Vos will show how an SES lens can reveal important social, ecological and economic dimensions and critical feedbacks and trade-offs, at scales relevant to planning and policy.  Dr De Vos will close by reflecting on emerging work that seeks to support more comparative, synthesis-oriented approaches within the SES community, aimed at making systems thinking more usable in diverse policy and practice contexts.

Associate Professor Alta De Vos is a UWA IAS Visiting Fellow, working with Professor Graeme Cumming in the UWA School of Earth and Oceans and A/Professor Abbie Rogers in the UWA Centre for Environmental Economics & Policy. Dr De Vos is an interdisciplinary conservation scientist, focusing on two main research areas: the resilience and transformation of conservation systems, and the development of the social-ecological research theory and methods. She directs the Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society, a Future Earth core-project that aims to integrate research on the stewardship of social–ecological systems. She is also the science director of the new Society for Social-Ecological Systems.

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In Search of Ground Truth: From Social Media Networks to Deep Neural Networks

SPEAKER: Professor Conrad Tucker, Director, Carnegie Mellon University-Africa (CMU-Africa)

10 June, 5pm-6pm | Webb Lecture Theatre, UWA
Ascertaining the veracity of data in the information age is a challenge both for humans (e.g., communicating within social media networks) and machines (e.g., training data for artificial neural networks). A lack of data veracity has the potential to “fool” both machines as well as humans into achieving different outcomes/output. From a machine learning perspective, “fooling” a machine has had a positive impact in the development of algorithms such as Generative Neural Networks (GNNs) and has resulted in the ability of machines to generate hyper-realistic data such as images and text. However, adverse effects can be observed in large-scale social media networks, where the veracity of data cannot be quickly ascertained. Misinformation that is spread via social media networks can result in echo-chambers, lone communities that facilitate selective content diffusion as a result of user polarization. Ironically, this misinformation can now be reliably generated using machine learning algorithms such as GNNs. This research explores the future of human-machine learning and the challenges and opportunities that exist in information acquisition, characterization and utilization.

Professor Conrad Tucker is a Trustee Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and holds courtesy appointments in Machine Learning, Robotics, Biomedical Engineering, and CyLab Security and Privacy. His research focuses on employing Machine Learning (ML)/Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to enhance the novelty (i.e., generative designs) and efficiency (i.e., functional evaluations) of engineered systems. His research also explores the challenges of bias and exploitability of AI systems and the potential impacts on people and society.

Professor Tucker is a UWA Institute of Advanced Studies Visiting Fellow working with Associate Professor Julia Powles in the UWA Tech and Policy Lab.

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The Spirit of Asilomar 

SPEAKER: Professor Luis Campos, Baker College Chair for the History of Science, Technology, and Innovation at Rice University.

19 June 2025 | UWA Webb Lecture Theatre | 6pm-7pm

Nearly 50 years ago, scientists gathered in a California seaside town to confront the ethical implications of manipulating the building blocks of life. That event — the 1975 Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA — has since become a touchstone in debates over the governance of biotechnology.
In “The Spirit of Asilomar,” Professor Luis Campos revisits the legacy of that formative moment in science history and explores how its lessons — and myths — continue to shape discussions on emerging biotechnologies today. This talk is informed by his role as lead organizer of “The Spirit of Asilomar and the Future of Biotechnology”, a major international summit convened this past February at the original Asilomar site.
From synthetic cells and bioweapons to AI-biotech intersections and the ethics of containment, Professor Campos will delve into the challenges and tensions confronting biotechnology — and the symbolic power of Asilomar as a site of both memory and foresight.
Luis A. Campos is a historian of science whose scholarship brings together archival discoveries with contemporary fieldwork at the intersection of biology and society. He is the author of Radium and the Secret of Life (University of Chicago Press, 2015), and co-editor of Making Mutations: Objects, Practices, Contexts (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, 2010) and Nature Remade: Engineering Life, Envisioning Worlds (University of Chicago Press, 2021). He recently concluded a six-year term as Secretary of the History of Science Society, “the world’s largest society dedicated to understanding science, technology, medicine, and their interactions with society in their historical context. 

He is a 2025 UWA Institute of Advanced Studies Visiting Fellow.

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AI and its Impact on Engineering Design and Manufacturing

Masterclass with Professor Conrad Tucker, Director of Carnegie Mellon University-Africa (CMU-Africa) and the Associate Dean for International Programs-Africa.

10 June, 10am-12noon, UWA Institute of Advanced Studies

AI has the potential to automate the main time/cost drivers of the engineering design and manufacturing process. The features of a product inform the form, function and behavior of the resulting design concept that can be subsequently created using traditional manufacturing/additive manufacturing methods. While there exists a wide range of computer aided design tools that seek to generate 3D design concepts, they are primarily parametric in nature and rely extensively on designers’ expertise, which may not always be readily available. The emergence of Generative AI has the potential to rapidly generate 3D engineering design concepts at scale. However, there is more to a design than simply its 3D form, as the design must perform a function and operate in an environment where its behavior may/may not perform as intended. Towards this end, physics-informed AI models are being developed that approximate real-world physics, hereby enabling engineering concepts to be evaluated in simulation environments in an efficient manner. As AI continues to advance in multiple dimensions across engineering, the fundamental question is what will be the role of human engineering designers in the future and how should engineering education curricula adapt?

Professor Conrad Tucker is a Trustee Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and holds courtesy appointments in Machine Learning, Robotics, Biomedical Engineering, and CyLab Security and Privacy. His research focuses on employing Machine Learning (ML)/Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to enhance the novelty (i.e., generative designs) and efficiency (i.e., functional evaluations) of engineered systems. His research also explores the challenges of bias and exploitability of AI systems and the potential impacts on people and society.

Professor Tucker is a UWA Institute of Advanced Studies Visiting Fellow.

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