Directors
Dr Julia Powles
Co-Director
Julia Powles is the Director of the UWA Tech & Policy Lab and Associate Professor of Law and Technology at The University of Western Australia. Scientifically trained and experienced in national and international policymaking, Julia’s research focuses on civic and rights-based responses to emerging technologies. She is an expert in privacy, intellectual property, internet governance, and the law and politics of data, automation, and artificial intelligence. Julia is known for her work on data protection law and, in particular, citizens’ rights to correction and explanation, as well as her detailed investigations of Google affiliates DeepMind and Sidewalk Labs and their incursions into health, cities and governance. Prior to joining UWA, Julia held appointments at New York University, Cornell Tech, the University of Cambridge, The Guardian , and the World Intellectual Property Organization. She also balanced her academic role with 12 months as inaugural CEO, Frontier Technology at Minderoo Foundation. Julia studied genetics, biophysics and law in Australia and received her BCL from Oxford and PhD from Cambridge. In addition to her academic publications, Julia's writing can be found in the Financial Times, New Yorker, The Guardian, One Zero, Wired, and Slate.
Associate Professor Jacqueline Alderson
Co-Director
Associate Professor Jacqueline Alderson leads national and international sport and health-focused research teams in wearable tech, machine learning, and pro-public technology applications at The University of Western Australia, where she is Tech Director of the UWA Tech & Policy Lab. Jacqueline is a current Executive Council member of the International Society of Biomechanics, a Fellow and former director of the International Society of Biomechanics in Sport, TEDx alumni, and Adjunct Professor at Auckland University of Technology in Human Performance Innovation Technology. She has 130+ publications and her PhD graduates can be found throughout academia and the sports and health sectors, from the New York Yankees and Houston Astros to the Singapore Sports Institute and Telethon Kids Institute. A key architect of Australia’s blue-sky Digital Athlete Project, she has extensive community and industry engagement that includes the International Cricket Council, Australian Institute of Sport, Australian Research Council, Indian Premier League, Cricket Australia, Swimming Australia and VICON – the world’s leading motion capture company.
Professor Natalie Skead
Alternative Director and Dean and Head of School
Natalie is Dean of The University of Western Australia Law School. She is a Professor of Private Law and Australia's leading legal scholar on the confiscation of proceeds of crime. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, Chair of the Australian Law Academics Association, and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In 2017 she was the recipient of the national award for teaching excellence in law from the Federal Minister of Education and Training. Prior to joining the academy, Natalie practiced as a solicitor in South Africa for over 10 years specialising in corporate finance, commercial litigation, property, and securities.
Research Fellows
Tomas Fitzgerald
Research Fellow
Tomas is a Research Fellow in the UWA Tech & Policy Lab at The University of Western Australia, where he researches privacy, data sharing, digital rights, and the regulation of emerging technologies from data analytics and machine learning to wearables and drones. As a former in-house counsel at an ASX200 company and current local government Councillor, Tomas brings extensive practical experience with governance and regulatory regimes. Combined with over 10 years of research and teaching in legal theory and international trade law, his work considers how best to develop coherent, robust, and effective regulatory controls for the tech sector.
Jason Weber
Research Fellow
Jason is a Research Fellow in the UWA Tech & Policy Lab at The University of Western Australia, working on our flagship projects on data governance and sport. Jason has been at the forefront of high-performance management, strength and conditioning, rehabilitation, and medical services in professional football codes for 25 years. With extensive tenures leading programs in international rugby union and AFL, Jason has been at the cutting edge in the rise of data in professional sport across multiple disciplines. Currently completing his own PhD in applied biomechanics utilising inertial sensors, he has also co-supervised four industry-based PhD programs in physiology, applied biomechanics, and computer science, and has co-authored AI-based research presented at the MIT Sloan Analytics Conference.
Dr Marion Mundt
Research Fellow
Marion is a Research Fellow in the UWA Tech & Policy Lab and the School of Human Sciences at The University of Western Australia, where she is working with the Australian Institute of Sport to use machine-learning techniques to predict kinematic and kinetic motion parameters from standard two-dimensional video. She received her PhD in Sport Science from the German Sport University Cologne for the application of artificial intelligence to motion analysis. Using inertial sensors, health-related information like joint loads can be collected for different movements during daily life situations, enabling the collection of big data in biomechanics on-the-fly.
Dr Jason Konrath
Research Fellow
Jason is a Research Fellow in the UWA Tech & Policy Lab and the School of Human Sciences at The University of Western Australia, and is also the founder of Principia Technology, a company specialising in motion capture. Within the Tech & Policy Lab, Jason is working with the WA Department of Health and Last Pixel (a VFX, animation and VR studio) on a virtual and augmented reality workbench for clinical and emergency health training. Jason has a wealth of experience across several sectors including professional sport, musculoskeletal research and commercial technology. He is an expert in wearable technology and human motion measurement, with a further interest in using data science to mitigate the risks of developing musculoskeletal disorders.
Professional Staff
Elisha Thompson
Lab Administrator
Elisha is the Administrator of the UWA Tech & Policy Lab at The University of Western Australia. An experienced administrator and executive assistant who joined UWA in 2019 after 15 years in the private sector, Elisha brings street smarts, list-making and project wrangling to the Lab and the broader global network of which it is part.
Anne Burns
Strategic Adviser
Anne is a Strategic Adviser to the UWA Tech & Policy Lab, assisting on communications and research and funding strategy. As a journalist for 25 years and a consultant to the private and not-for-profit sectors on messaging and policy, she stepped into this role to have her eyes opened to a whole new world. The Lab's researchers aren’t just seeing the future. They are making it. Anne's role is to ensure the Lab's message makes an impact with decision-makers, legislators and a much broader audience.
PhD Candidates
Helen Stamp
PhD Candidate
Helen is a PhD candidate in the UWA Tech & Policy Lab at The University of Western Australia, where she researches concepts of control, responsibility and accountability when it comes to the development and use of autonomous vehicles and autonomous weapons. Helen has practiced law for over 11 years in a number of areas, including civil litigation, community legal work, and as an Operations Lawyer for the Corruption and Crime Commission. Helen has also assisted in the prosecution of war crimes in the Special War Crimes Chamber located in Sarajevo and, most recently, worked for eight years as an Adviser in International Humanitarian Law for the Australian Red Cross.
Kate Dromey
PhD Candidate
Kate is a PhD candidate in the UWA Tech & Policy Lab at The University of Western Australia. Her work explores the increasingly blurred lines between public and private accountability within the tech ecosystem. Before joining the Lab, Kate was a solicitor at the State Solicitor’s Office and a researcher for the Solicitor General for Western Australia. Drawing on that practical experience, Kate’s research focuses on the innovative use of public law principles to provide robust accountability mechanisms for Big Tech.
Stephen Tidman
PhD Candidate
Stephen is currently completing a PhD in skill acquisition and sports biomechanics in the School of Human Sciences and the UWA Tech & Policy Lab at The University of Western Australia. His research explores the role of decision-making in sports performance and its link to injury prevention. Steve’s research incorporates the use of virtual and augmented reality in combination with advanced motion-analysis systems and eye-tracking technology to provide realistic environmental constraints in injury prevention and performance paradigms.
Zac Born
PhD Candidate
Zac is a PhD candidate in the UWA Tech & Policy Lab and the School of Human Sciences at The University of Western Australia. His research, which is jointly supported by Fremantle Football Club, employs machine learning techniques to investigate collective team movement patterns in Australian Rules Football. Zac completed his undergraduate Bachelor of Science at UWA, specialising in Sport Science and Mechanical Engineering before completing Honours research in Sports Biomechanics.
Corey Morris
PhD Candidate
Corey is currently undertaking his PhD in Biomechanics in the UWA Tech & Policy Lab and the School of Human Sciences at The University of Western Australia. His research, which is jointly supported by Fremantle Football Club, is focused on the non-obstructive estimation of ground and joint kinetics in walking, running and sidestepping using machine learning. This work has the potential to provide sports practitioners with an ecologically-valid approach to the estimation of key biomechanical parameters of athletes in the field, using solely two-dimensional video. Corey completed his Bachelor of Science with Honours at Curtin University before joining UWA to complete his PhD.
Molly Goldacre
PhD Candidate
Molly is a PhD candidate in the UWA Tech & Policy Lab, jointly enrolled in the School of Human Sciences and the Law School at The University of Western Australia. Her research, undertaken in partnership with the Australian Institute of Sport, explores three-dimensional motion capture data quality assurance across the national high-performance sports system, with a focus on creating a national standardised training protocol. This research seeks to promote data quality but also best-practice, well-governed data aggregation for implementing machine learning tools. Molly completed her Bachelor of Science at UWA, majoring in Sport Science and Business Law before completing Honours research in Sports Biomechanics.
Dylan Wood
PhD Candidate
Dylan is a PhD candidate in Sports Biomechanics in the UWA Tech & Policy Lab and the School of Human Sciences at The University of Western Australia. Working with Tennis Australia, Dylan's project aims to use machine-learning techniques to aid the development of virtual coaching models for elite tennis players. Dylan's Honours thesis at UWA focused on the reliability and accuracy of machine learning-based pose estimation models and their potential application in sport. His experience as a state-level tennis player and current national-level volleyball player and state-level coach further fuels his research into reliable on-field methods for identifying and addressing athletic technique using advanced digital technologies.
Master’s / ALR Students
Noelle Martin
Master’s Student
Noelle is completing her Master of Laws dissertation in the UWA Tech & Policy Lab at The University of Western Australia. Her research examines the legal, ethical and social implications of Facebook Reality Labs' research and development of hyper-realistic human avatars, and the potential of this technology to be misused and abused. Her experience as an activist and survivor of technology-facilitated abuse drives her exploration of issues at the intersection of tech, law and policy, with particular focus on the human implications of advancements in technology. Noelle was admitted as a lawyer in Western Australia in 2020.
Rhys Weaver
ALR Student
Rhys is a Juris Doctor student undertaking Advanced Legal Research in the UWA Tech & Policy Lab at The University of Western Australia. His research examines how player information and wearable devices are regulated through collective bargaining agreements across different major sporting leagues in Australia and North America, recognising that these agreements are important sites of legal contestation and innovation. Before starting the JD, Rhys completed a Bachelor of Psychology with Honours at Curtin University, where he continues to work as a Research Assistant in health sciences.