Dr David Conrad Kellermann
Senior Lecturer
School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
University of New South Wales

David Kellermann is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Engineering at UNSW Sydney. He is principally interested in human-centered A.I. to enhance the student experience in higher education. With a PhD in Computational Mechanics, David’s decade-plus experience in advanced computational modelling provided him with a more mechanistic view towards artificial intelligence: i.e. building structured frameworks around the classical universal-function approximation underpinning most AI. David has focused on educational technology for six years now, leading pioneering projects including human-centered conversational agents (bots) that function to connect people rather than replace them. He has implemented large scale machine-learning models for the prediction of student performance to enable the algorithmic generation of tailored learning content. David’s engineering classes have also broken new ground in collaborative decentralized examination, eliminating many forms of normative cheating in favor of cooperation-by-design. He has used ML and feature extraction to pre-grade hand drawn diagrammatic solutions. David’s most recent work includes more connected digital class experiences, with self and auto produced teaching studios, augmented by enhance student participation and immersive technologies including augmented reality. 

Speaker is speaking for:

Plenary 1: Inventing the Cyber-physical Campus

In the post pandemic era of higher education, universities, their staff and students have all glimpsed the potential of pure digital education: More connectivity, more data, but all too often less human and community centred. As we return to campus and remember how good it feels to serendipitously meet a colleague at a café and brainstorm ideas, work in a laboratory, or see students face to face, the question arises: how can we have the best of both worlds? Yet a quick reversion to lecture theatres with lower-than-ever attendance feels like the worst of both instead. In this talk, I will give a few ideas as to what I think the cyber-physical classroom should look like (and I’ve built most of it), and hint at some ideas about where we’re going towards the cyber-physical campus.