Associate ProfessorSunil Aryal

Associate Professor Sunil Aryal is an accomplished and passionate academic leader with years of experience in leading both research and teaching initiatives. He is an internationally recognised researcher in Data Mining (DM), Machine Learning (ML), and Artificial Intelligence (AI). He is particularly interested in the application of AI/ML/DM models to solve real-world problems in applications such as Defence, National Intelligence, Engineering, Manufacturing, Healthcare and Education. He is working on making ML/DM algorithms robust and flexible to handle heterogeneous, noisy and uncertain data in real-world problems. He is working on anomaly detection, clustering, kernel/similarity-based learning, ensemble methods, learning from limited/small data, reinforcement learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and remote sensing. He leads the Machine Learning for Decision Support (MLDS) Research Group at the Deakin University School of Information Technology. He has published over 80 papers in top-tier international venues in AI, ML and DM. He has secured over AUD 4.8 million in external research funding. His research is supported by the US and Australian Defence Agencies, the Australian Office of National Intelligence, Worksafe Victoria, the Victorian State Department of Education and Training, the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) UAE, and Table Tennis Australia (TTA).

• 6+ years of leadership experience in transnational education, industry research, and course management
• Leading the Machine Learning for Decision Support Research Group at Deakin University
• Attracted over $4.8M of competitive external research funding in 16 grants from national and international agencies
• 13+ years of teaching experience at the university level in Australia
• Five years of industry experience as a Data Engineer and Software Developer in Australia and Nepal
• Eight Awards for excellence in Leadership, Research and Teaching from Deakin University, Australia
  1. Vice-Chancellor’s Award on Education and Employability, Deakin University, 2025
  2. Faculty Mid-Career Researcher Award, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment, Deakin University, 2024
  3. School Award for Outstanding Leadership, School of Information Technology, Deakin University, 2023
  4. School Industry Collaboration and Partnerships Award, School of Information Technology, Deakin University, 2023
  5. School Research Award for Industry Engagement, School of Information Technology, Deakin University, 2022
  6. Faculty Teaching and Learning Award, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment, Deakin University, 2022
  7. School Early Career Researcher Award, School of Information Technology, Deakin University, 2021
  8. School Teaching Award for Unit Leadership, School of Information Technology, Deakin University, 2021