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Hello everyone! I am Deepti Aggarwal, a Lecturer in Emerging Digital Health Technologies within the School of Information Technology at Deakin University, Australia. I am passionate about exploring the amalgamation of design, health, and technology to address contemporary issues related to health and wellbeing. Currently, I am investigating the role of emerging technologies to encourage positive eating practices among children and adults. I am keen on exploring the potential of wearable and tangible interactions, IoTs, Virtual Reality, board games, playful interactions and other hybrid systems to create awareness about positive eating practices and to guide easy adoption of nutritious eating in everyday life.  

I finished my PhD from the University of Melbourne, Australia. In my PhD, I explored the role of wearable technology to support bodily communication in video consultations of Physiotherapy. I developed a pair of smart socks that patients could wear during video consultations to communicate their bodily data related to lower limb to their remote physiotherapists in real-time. This work has won numerous accolades including the prestigious Victorian Fresh Science award for 2017, extensive media coverage with over 200 articles published in Australia and overseas with a combined coverage of over 86 million people. I have significant experience in leading collaborative inter-disciplinary research and has co-designed novel solutions with clinicians at Royal Children's Hospital and nutrition experts at Deakin University.

I am affiliated with the following research groups: Immersive Technologies Lab, Deakin University, Hearty Adventures in Food and Play Research Lab, RMIT University, and National Nutrition Network - Early Childhood Education and Care.

Hello! Thanks for being here. I am from southern eastern part of Bangladesh where culturaliy diverse ethnicities live in harmony. Teaching is my passion. Creating knowledge is a part of my teaching. Yes! I am a research enthusiast. I am doing PhD at Deakin. 

Muhammad Wahid Akram is pursuing his PhD in Cyber Security from Deakin University, Australia. He completed his Bachelor of Science (BS Honors) and Master of Science (MS) in Computer Science in 2018 and 2021 from Pakistan, respectively.

He has published his research works in reputed journals including IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, IEEE Internet of Things Journal, and IEEE Networking Letters. 

In addition, regularly he participated as a reviewer for various esteemed journals, including IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC), IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics (TCS), IEEE Networking Letters.

Academia Experience (including ongoing):

While continuing his PhD with Deakin, he is a Graduate Research Teaching Fellow (GRTF) since Feb 2025 and also working on a research project as a Casual Research Assistant since May 2025 with School of IT, Deakin University.

Moreover, before pursuing his PhD, he worked as Lecturer in The University of Lahore, Pakistan from Aug 2022 to Feb 2024.

Software Industry Experience:

He also worked as a Full Stack Web Developer from 2017 to 2022 in multiple software industries including remotely with BOT Solutions, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and in-office with Technoin Solutions and Desired Technologies, Pakistan.

WINNER of Graduate Researchers Symposium:

He won the 1st place (with an award of $2000) at the Deakin Cyber Graduate Researchers Symposium, held as part of the Deakin Cyber Conference 2025 (attended by 170 delegates). This year, there were over 30 research poster submission, from which only 6 were shortlisted for a research talk at the conference. From which, he has been awarded the top prize among them.

Esteemed Supervisors:

• Dr Keshav Sood
• Dr Muneeb Ul Hassan

Research Group(s):

• Deakin Cyber Research and Innovation Centre

Muna Al-Hawawreh is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in cybersecurity at the School of Information Technology at Deakin University Australia. Prior to joining Deakin University in 2022, Muna worked as an Associate Lecturer at the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) and as an academic Tutor at the University of Canberra (UC), UC College (UCC), and Charles Darwin University. She received her PhD in computer science- cybersecurity from UNSW Canberra in 2022. She also received bachelor's and master's degrees (First Class Honours) in computer science.

Muna is a passionate computer science and cybersecurity researcher with an innovative approach to problem-solving, leading to numerous successful projects and publications. Her research is multidisciplinary and focuses on cybersecurity and privacy-preserving in cyber environments like the industrial Internet of things, industrial control systems, cloud computing, cyber-physical systems, and smart satellites, with a focus on investigating, analysing, and detecting current and future cyber-attacks (offensive and defensive research). She is also looking into using artificial intelligence applications for cybersecurity automation. In addition to her research work, Muna is also an experienced teacher and trainer. She has developed and taught various cybersecurity courses, including cloud security, identity and access management, and an introduction to cybercrime and cybersecurity. Her passion for teaching shines through in the positive feedback she receives from her students and the impact of her teaching practice on their understanding and appreciation of cybersecurity.

Mr. Emran Ali is a current graduate researcher (Ph.D.) at the School of Information Technology (IT), Deakin University, Australia. He achieved a Master of Science (by Research) in IT from Deakin University, Australia, in 2022. He obtained his Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree (4-year) in Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) from Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University (HSTU), Bangladesh. 

His main areas of research include algorithm development, data analytics, time-series data analysis, applied machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) in health informatics, biosignal processing, explanable ML, and optimisation. His current Ph.D. project involves the use of data-driven ML/DL models to find relationships between sleep and sleep stage transitions in healthy ageing with causality. Additionally, it includes sleep disorder detection with ML. The processes consist of various biosignal processing and analysis, applied ML/DL, and explainability. His research in Masters includes epileptic seizure detection, electroencephalography (EEG) channel optimisation, and the application of ML in EEG signal analysis. He worked on a couple of projects on applied ML and data analytics in collaboration with Monash University, Alfred Health, and AETMOS Australia.

As part of his achievements, he has been awarded various awards and recognitions. He has been awarded the Deakin University Post-graduate Research Scholarship (DUPRS) as part of the Cotutelle (join) Ph.D. programme with Coventry University, UK. Earlier, he had been awarded a national fellowship in 2020 from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, to complete his research-based Masters degree at Deakin University, Australia. He had been awarded the "Best Presentation Award" in the annual school conference arranged by the School of IT in 2021 as part of his progress in his Masters study. He was the country's top performer in an entrance examination in 2013 for the Masters programme at South Asian University (SAU), which is a university funded by 8 South Asian countries. He was also the department topper in bachelor studies at HSTU. He is the recipient of the AWS AI/ML scholarship for 2023 & 2024 and the Next Generation Tech Booster Scholarship 2024 Techbooster scholarship to learn and accelerate the cloud-based AI/ML & GenAI technologies that include multiple nanodegrees offered by Udacity. 

As additional professional experience, he has been working in academia for over 10 years. He is a faculty member at HSTU, Bangladesh, where he teaches a variety of major courses in computer science and engineering, as well as take part in research projects and research supervision.
He also has industrial experience in IT. Before his academic journey, he worked in the software development industry in Bangladesh for nearly 3 years, developing many iOS apps independently as well as in a group. During that time, he was promoted to senior software engineer and software development manager. He also received the Best Employee Award for the recognition of his devotion and hard work. He achieved good management, leadership, and communication skills in his respective areas. 

Dr Angela An is a Research and Teaching Fellow in Cybersecurity at Deakin University. She received her PhD in Cybersecurity at Deakin University, where her research focused on secure peer-to-peer resource matchmaking for IoT cyber marketplaces. Her research interests encompass Business analytics, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT) security, privacy-preserving technologies, and secure cyber marketplaces. Angela’s research explores AI-driven threat detection, blockchain-enabled trust frameworks, cyber-physical systems, critical infrastructure protection, and intelligent resource allocation. She has published extensively in leading international journals and conferences, IEEE journals. Her research contributions have received national recognition, including awards from the Australian Information Security Association (AISA). Through her research and teaching, Angela is committed to advancing secure, trustworthy, and resilient digital ecosystems by developing innovative cybersecurity solutions that bridge academic research and real-world industry challenges.

Dr. Anwar is the Course Suite Director for cybersecurity Education at Deakin University. His role involves startegic leadership related to cybersecurity academic programs, curriculum development, delivery and ensuring the industry standards and educational quality benchmarks of cybersecurity programs across all Deakin campuses, including GIFT City. He is a core member of the DEAKIN CYBER Research and Innovation Centre. With over 15 years of experience in industrial, research, and teaching positions at universities and research labs such as NICTA (now Data61 of CSIRO), UNSW, La Trobe University, and Deakin University, he has a wealth of knowledge in the field of critical infrastructure security. He received his PhD and Master by Research degree from UNSW at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA). With an H-index of 40, he has published over 150 articles in prestigious journals, conference articles, and book chapters. He has secured funding for his research from the government, defence, and industries and has received several awards for excellence in research and teaching at Deakin. Dr. Anwar's research has greatly advanced the field of artificial intelligence and data-driven cybersecurity for critical infrastructure (e.g., Energy Systems) in Australia, while his teaching has helped produce the next generation of Australian data analytics experts in security and privacy. He is also the winner of the 2024 Professional of the Year Award in the Government and Defence category presented by Cyberdaily and Palo Alto Networks. He has been included in the 2024 World's Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University.

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