NICTA, Australia’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Research Centre of Excellence, today announced that NICTA researcher Professor Toby Walsh has been elected a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).
The prestigious award recognises significant, sustained contributions to the field of artificial intelligence, and has been won by just four Australian residents since it was established in 1990. Around ten AAAI members from across the world are selected for the Fellowship award in any single year.
“This is one of the highest honours in the artificial intelligence field,” NICTA’s Managing Laboratory Director Dr Terry Percival said. “Toby’s success is based on his ability to identify the important research issues and put together research networks around the world to help make significant breakthroughs.”
Professor Walsh is the Managing Complexity Research Group Manager at NICTA’s Neville Roach Laboratory in Sydney. This research group addresses issues arising from the design, operation and analysis of large-scale complex systems. “Professor Walsh has made a major contribution to the Smart Transport and Roads (STaR) traffic management project, which NICTA is undertaking in collaboration with the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority”, Dr Percival said.
"I am thrilled to be elected a Fellow,” Professor Walsh said. “It's a great personal honour. It demonstrates that research in Australia can compete on the world stage.”
“I am very excited by the prospect of taking our technologies and applying them to challenging, real-world problems at NICTA like scheduling Sydney's traffic lights better,” Professor Walsh added.
The AAAI will celebrate the newly elected Fellows at a dinner during its annual conference in Chicago on July 15. NICTA's scientific advisory group member, MIT professor and Australian expatriate, Rodney Brooks, was also elected an AAAI Fellow in 1990.
Document(s): 
NICTA Researcher awarded AAAI Fellowship (pdf, 26KB)
Contact: Kelly Mills
Phone: +61 2 8374 5489
Email: kelly.mills@nicta.com.au