Future Careers Forum Online - AI Revolution
Previously known as the STEAM Careers Online Forum, this is a careers forum with purpose. Each semester, Science Gallery Melbourne will introduce your students to inspiring people who work to solve some of our most pressing global and local challenges that we as a community face.
Students will hear not only about career journeys and industry connections, but how these professionals work across science, technology, engineering, arts and maths and use a range of transferable skills in the ways they work to make a difference in the world.
In this edition of the Future Careers Forum Online, during National Careers Week, the focus will be artificial intelligence and its use in industry. What will future industries look like as we explore the AI Revolution?
Science Gallery Melbourne is delighted to collaborate with Auckland University of Technology on this next iteration of the Future Careers Forum.
This forum was filmed live on 12 May 2025. Register for you and your students below to watch the recorded session in class time. (Please note: the recording will be available approximately one month after the live event)
Panellists
Maru Nihoniho is the founder of Metia Interactive, an Auckland-based game development company. She leads a team of developers, including artists and programmers, and produces third-party games across multiple platforms.
As a game designer and producer, her focus is on indigenous storytelling. Maru has published several Māori games, including Guardian Maia, an interactive fiction following a Māori woman's journey through a dystopian New Zealand. Maru's goal is to deliver meaningful games that feature strong cultural themes and unique stories.
Maru holds a Master's degree in Technological Futures, aiming to gain an understanding of converging and emerging technologies, the impact of disruption on current platforms, and preparation for future platforms.
Maru was awarded the Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to gaming and mental health in 2016. In 2018, she was named one of Forbes' Top 50 Women in Technology.
Dr Morley Muse, Co-founder of iSTEM Co. and DEIR.AI, is a Chemical, Environmental, and Renewable Energy Engineer with expertise in waste-to-energy, wastewater treatment and energy transition technologies. She holds multiple leadership roles, including Board Director at Women in STEMM Australia and Co-chair of Science & Technology Australia’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Executive Committee.
Dr Muse has advanced gender equity in STEM as a previous Elevate Advisory Panel member with the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and a past ambassador of CSIRO’s Innovation Catalyst Global, promoting women in STEM leadership. She also contributes to the RISE Expert Panel with Diversity Council Australia, mentors senior women in STEM through the Superstars of STEM Program and supports renewable energy transition strategies as an Energy Reference Group member with Jemena Energy.
iSTEM Co., under her leadership, has championed women in STEM through innovative programs, earning multiple awards. In 2024, she was inducted into the prestigious Victorian Multicultural Honour roll.
Lea Frermann is a senior lecturer and DECRA fellow in the School of Computing and Information Systems, University of Melbourne. Her main research area is natural language processing.
Her work focuses on understanding how humans learn about and represent complex and evolving issues; and she uses these insights to develop fairer and more robust AI systems. To do so, she combines methods from natural language processing, machine learning and computational cognitive modelling. Her current research focuses on improving the automatic understanding of narratives, both in fiction (e.g., inducing structured representations of novels; or movie summarisation) and in reality, by analysing framing and narrative strategies in (biased) news stories.
Before joining Melbourne University, she was an applied scientist at Amazon Core AI in Berlin, and before that a research associate and PhD student at the University of Edinburgh.
Dr Samaneh Madanian is an associate professor at AUT, Department of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. Dr Madanian's contributions and expertise in digital health are internationally recognised, evidenced by her election as a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH), the region's peak professional body for digital health.
Her industry experience, coupled with her academic background, gives her a unique perspective that bridges theory and practice in digital health innovation, balancing technological innovation with practical implementation. Her work bridges the gap between advanced technology and real-world healthcare needs, focusing on solutions that are not only technologically sophisticated but also practical, ethical, and centred on improving health outcomes.
Dr. Madanian's research is dedicated to the digital transformation of healthcare through innovative applications of technology that address critical challenges in mainstream healthcare and disaster situations. Her work aims to improve healthcare services' quality and safety, enhancing health equity and people’s quality of life.
Justin Matthews is a Senior Lecturer in Communication Studies at Auckland University of Technology (AUT), whose research explores the evolving role of artificial intelligence in creative industries. His work examines how AI reshapes production processes, storytelling practices, and visual communication—from advertising and design to virtual environments and interface aesthetics. He is particularly interested in how these shifts signal broader transformations in the nature of creative work and the future of industry roles shaped by proliferating intelligent systems.
Before entering academia, Justin worked extensively across the commercial sector in roles spanning graphic design, art direction, interactive design, creative direction, and production. This experience informs his critical and practice-led research, which interrogates the social, cultural, and aesthetic implications of emerging technologies. He continues to explore how AI-driven change alters the relationship between humans and machines in creative contexts and how this evolution invites new ways of thinking about labour, authorship, and the future of digital communication.
Claudia Gonzalez Viejo is a Research Fellow at The University of Melbourne, where she develops innovative digital technologies using artificial intelligence to improve astronauts' wellbeing and sensory experiences in simulated space environments. Her research plays a crucial role in developing more palatable and nutritious food and beverages to combat menu fatigue and improve astronauts’ nutrition during long-term space missions.
Claudia’s expertise extends into the realm of agricultural, food, and beverage sciences and engineering with a strong focus on integrating robotics, sensors, computer vision, biometrics, and machine learning. Her interdisciplinary approach not only advances space exploration but also delivers impactful solutions for improving food systems on Earth.
MC
Dr Jess Vovers (they/them) researches emerging and disruptive technologies for Defence Science and Technology Group, and is a maker, secret poet and doctor of biochemical engineering.
They seek to explore the plurality of queer, neurodiverse, regenerative futures and how we can enmesh art and science to cultivate them.
They are propelled by curiosity, awe and connection, and can often be found settling in with clay in soft coloured lighting.
