Dist Prof Jie Lu nominee for 2017 Eureka Prize for Data Science

A new category sponsored by UTS will be acknowledged at the 2017 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes.

The Eureka Prize for Excellence in Data Science will be awarded to an individual or team with either breakthrough discoveries in data science or a significant impact with their research into data science.

UTS Executive Director of Data Science, Distinguished Professor Chengqi Zhang said data science is not only a hot area of research, it’s also a very important research area for theory, technologies and applications.

“The impact of data science is very real – both in its application to industries and in its ability to enable cutting-edge technologies like mobile and cloud computing,” he said.

“Data science is a rapidly evolving field that can influence the world in ways that we can currently only dream of.  Data is becoming bigger, faster, and increasingly complex. Over the coming years, data science theories and technologies must continually be progressed in order to adapt to such changes.”

Data science research is also fundamental for any progress on modern artificial intelligence research.

Three researchers have been shortlisted for the inaugural prize, which considered sound theories in data science and ‘big impact’ – evidence that research is making a splash in the real world.

Included is Distinguished Professor Jie Lu, Director of the UTS Centre for Artificial Intelligence, of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.

Professor Lu’s research pioneered the integration of fuzzy techniques into machine learning to establish new models, algorithms and methodologies of fuzzy transfer learning, concept drift detection and fuzzy recommender systems, which has been advancing data driven-decision making.

 “There are two challenges in data driven decision-making,” explained Prof Lu in a video to mark her nomination.

“One is data uncertainty. Another is unpredictable changes of patterns in stream data.

“I applied fuzzy logic into machine learning to establish new and innovative methodologies on fuzzy transfer learning and fuzzy concept drift, which effectively solve the two challenges.”

Fuzzy logic is essential to the development of human-like capabilities for AI, sometimes referred to as artificial general intelligence: the representation of generalized human cognitive abilities in software so that, faced with an unfamiliar task, the AI system could find a solution. 

NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer Mary O’Kane, who supported Professor Lu’s nomination, says the research has a “tremendous capacity” to benefit society and the economy with its application in large and complex corporations.

"Recognising data science through a Eureka Prize category supports the UTS belief of data science as a rapidly evolving field that can influence the world in ways that we can only dream of." said Prof Zhang.

"I hope this prize will encourage great Australian researchers to collaborate with other domain knowledge experts to make data science more powerful."

All Eureka Prize winners will be announced at a formal dinner on August 30 2017.