An expert from The University of Western Australian received the top honour in the Artificial Intelligence Applied to Mining category at the Women in AI Awards 2022 ANZ.

Director of UWA Data Institute Professor Eun-Jung Holden, from the School of Earth Sciences, was announced as the winner at a ceremony in Melbourne. 

Professor Holden and her research team at the Centre for Data-driven Geoscience at UWA focus on developing data science applications to model geology and resource using machine learning, image analysis, visual analytics and AI.

Image: Director of UWA Data Institute Professor Eun-Jung Holden.

“By working closely with the mining industry and academic geoscientists over the past 14 years we developed a unique level of expertise that entwines geoscientific knowledge and domain specific analytical methods with advanced data science algorithms,” Professor Holden said.

“This enables us to find trust-worthy solutions that can be used in the decisions made by industry geoscientists, which is critical to the dissemination of our research outputs.”

Professor Holden said the Women in AI awards were important for promoting and encouraging the next generation of women in their journey to become academic and industry leaders in artificial intelligence.

“Achieving research impact on industry practice has been an important motivation and focus throughout my academic career,” Professor Holden said.

“My success was only possible because of my many mentors and collaborators from academia and industry who believed in me and helped me along the way.”

Professor Melinda Hodkiewicz, BHP Fellow for Engineering for Remote Operations and Theme Leader at the ARC ITTC for Transforming Maintenance through Data Science, was a finalist in the AI in Manufacturing category. Professor Hodkiewicz, from UWA's School of Engineering, is the first Western Australian to be nominated in this category.

Women in AI is a non-profit organisation which aims to improve women’s involvement in the field of artificial intelligence.