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Dr Stephen Wan

Team Leader, Research Scientist

https://people.csiro.au/w/s/stephen-wan

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Biography

Dr Stephen Wan is a computer scientist specialising in computational linguistics, an inter-disciplinary field that draws on both linguistics and computer science. His research employs natural language processing and text mining methods, in conjunction with machine learning, information retrieval and human computer interaction techniques.

With over 20 years of research experience, Dr Wan leads a team of software engineers and researchers to build information management systems for a variety of text data types. A common element in these systems is the need to extract actionable nuggets of information that will help with a user's task. His team has developed systems used by both the government and private sector for areas such as business intelligence, social media monitoring, and information systems for scientific literature.

Currently, Dr Wan's team is investigating research directions in natural language processing and information retrieval that supports research in other scholarly fields. The work, part of Data61's "AI for Science" direction, currently spans multiple disciplines, including computational social science, mental health, precision health, ecology and conservation, and agronomics.

Press and Online Public Speaking:
* Jun. 2022: Panelist on 2022 Academy of the Social Sciences workshop's Industry perspectives panel
* Jul. 2020: Studiosity’s “Students First” Industry Symposium Invited Speaker
* Jul. 2020: Australian Public Sector Innovation Month "Unlocking 20 years of trapped knowledge"
* Feb. 2020: Studiosity partners with CSIRO’S Data61 to enhance the student experience with AI
* Sep. 2019: Invited Speaker at ECML PKDD 2019 Workshop on Knowledge Discovery and User Modelling for Smart Cities "Building Social Media Analytics Applications: A Ten-Year Retrospective"
* Jun. 2019: CSIRO SMEConnect Kickstart Case Study: “Accurait®: Lease management with AI efficiencies Accurait®: Lease management with AI efficiencies”
* Jun. 2019: Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) 2019 NSW Merit Recipients for my Accurait team from CSIRO’s Data61 (research lead: Stephen Wan)
* [Aug. 2018: “LeaseInfo launches Australia's first AI lease management platform” (AFR)] (https://www.afr.com/real-estate/leaseinfo-launches-australias-first-ai-lease-management-platform-20180808-h13q30)
*Aug. 2018: “Artificial intelligence set to change lease management processes” (IT Wire)
* Aug. 2018: “Release of innovative AI software set to revolutionise lease management”
* Aug. 2018: “LeaseInfo launches digital lease management platform Accurait”
* Aug. 2018: Speech by Stephen Wan at the Accurait launch as lead researcher
* [Nov. 2017: “SOCIAL MEDIA ARCHIVE: Collecting digital material to provide a documentary record of life in New South Wales”] (http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/research-and-collections-significant-collections/social-media-archive)
*[Oct. 2017: “The Power of Emotional Analysis: Introducing Signal Spotlight”] (http://www.getsignal.info/blog-old/2017/10/17/the-power-of-emotional-analysis-introducing-signal-spotlight)
* Jan. 2015: “Sydney siege aftermath: History written in tweets captured by State Library for posterity”
* Mar. 2015: “The election collection: tracking trends on Twitter”
* Apr. 2015: “Case study: Connecting with users on social media”
* Jul. 2015: “CSIROSeven: Meet Stephen”

Publications:
* Partial list from the CSIRO repository

Current Roles

  • Team Leader (for science capability)
    Language And Social Computing (Natural Language Technologies) research capability

Academic Qualifications

  • 2011

    Doctor of Philosophy (in Computational Linguistics)
    Macquarie University

  • 2001

    Bachelor of Science (Honours: First Class) in Computer Science (Computational Linguistics)
    Macquarie University

  • 1999

    Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Linguistics and Psychology
    The University of Adelaide

  • 1999

    Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) in Mathematics and Computer Science
    The University of Adelaide

Professional Experiences

  • 2016-Current

    Team Leader
    CSIRO Data61

  • 2015-Current

    Senior Research Scientist
    CSIRO Data61

  • 2015-2017

    Social Computing and the Enterprise
    Initiative Lead (for engagement with industry)

  • 2015-2016

    Team Leader
    CSIRO Digital Productivity Flagship

  • 2010-2014

    Research Scientist
    CSIRO Digital Productivity Flagship

  • 2005-2009

    Research Engineer
    CSIRO Digital Productivity Flagship

  • 2011-2011

    Visiting Scientist (funding Endeavour Awards)
    University of Manchester

  • 2011-2011

    Visiting Scientist (funding Endeavour Awards)
    University of Oxford: Image Bioinformatics

  • 2005-2005

    Visiting Scientist
    University of Edinburgh

  • 2003-2003

    Visiting Scientist/Research internship
    Columbia University

Achievements and Awards

  • 2021-2024

    CSIRO Julius Career Award
    CSIRO

  • 2019-2019

    NSW iAwards Merit Recipient: (1) Infrastructure and Platforms Innovation of the Year, and (2) Business Service Markets
    Australian Information Industry Association

  • 2013-2013

    CSIRO ICT Impact from Science Award
    CSIRO

  • 2015-2015

    CSIRO Seven (featured researcher on social computing)
    CSIRO

  • 2011-2011

    Endeavour Post-Doctoral Fellowship
    Australian Government: Department of Education and Training

Other highlights

  • 2022-2025

    Invitation to lead the AI for Missions NLP project (with application across CSIRO)

  • 2021-2024

    Julius Career Award

  • 2015-2022

    Team Leader and Senior Research Scientist

  • 2019-2022

    Impact from Knowledge and Information Extraction (Natural Language Processing) with the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment

  • 2020-2021

    Applied research with Studiosity on Grammatical Error Detection

  • 2019-2019

    Successful product launch and industry impact in applying Deep Learning Information Extraction methods to Corporate Lease Documents

  • 2017-2017

    Successful launch of the State Library of New South Wales' Social Media Archive (based on my team's research software)

Grants

  • 2021-2024

    CSIRO Julius Career Award ($60k)

  • 2020-2020

    AusIndustry Innovation Connection Business Placement Fellowship Grant ($100k)

  • 2019-2020

    Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet: Platforms for Open Data ($300k)

  • 2018-2020

    STEM Science Industry Endowment Fund for a Post-doctoral position ($500k)

  • 2018-2018

    NSW Dept of Industry: TechVouchers project (total $15k)

  • 2017-2018

    CSIRO KickStart Grant (total $100k)

We have publications by Dr Stephen Wan