Demystifying artificial intelligence

While many eight-year-olds may have preferred reading or cycling as a pastime, a young Niusha pondered an optimisation algorithm that would define her career.

“It was an idea I first had as an eight-year-old in science class,” recalled Associate Professor Niusha Shafiabady, now a computational intelligence expert and associate professor at ACU's Peter Faber School of Business.

“We were learning about how sound travels through air. Years later, I began coding the optimisation algorithm I had envisioned as part of my PhD.

“I clearly remember the night I finally ran the code – it was late, well past midnight. When the algorithm worked, I was thrilled.”

That child-like curiosity is as powerful today as it was then.

An insatiable appetite to untangle the complex and apply that knowledge for social good has driven the researcher to harness artificial intelligence (AI) technology for everything from bridge and coal mine safety to the detection of lung diseases and even beer production.

A head for numbers

Born in Tehran, Niusha realised at an early age that she had a passion for mathematics and computers.

To her the buzz of successful innovation was like the high of unearthing a buried gemstone.

“I loved coming up with new ideas no one had thought about before,” Associate Professor Shafiabady said.  

She completed all her study in Tehran, starting with an undergraduate honour’s degree in software engineering at Tehran University.

Next came a master’s degree in mechatronics engineering, where she began delving deeper into AI algorithms.

Her PhD in electrical engineering control and systems was where she invented a computational optimisation algorithm capable of analysing the most complicated sets of data. 

She then decided to join academia and has worked at different universities including the University of Nottingham.

Her artificial intelligence data analysis platform, Ai-Labz, has powered a variety of applications. Most recently it developed an AI system that could use scans to reliably diagnose lung diseases.

“Because I studied at one of the top universities it gave me an understanding how to develop software for different applications,” she said. “Back then there was no toolbox. Now you can go to ChatGPT and ask it to write you code. Then, I had to write code from scratch.”

Limitless applications

Niusha said she and her husband James arrived in Australia in 2018. Now on the cutting edge of innovation at ACU, it’s not enough for the associate professor to see how far artificial intelligence can go.

She wants to demystify it. She wants the technology to be understood not just by academics and IT industry professionals, but by those who interact with those systems every day.

“It’s often when I’m writing my own code that I stop and think about how something might work. That’s when new ideas jump in,” she said.

“My motivation is to demystify AI. I want to harvest it and use its power for impact in a way that benefits further academic research and the social good. That is why we have set up the Women in AI for Social Good lab at ACU.”

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