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Doctor of Philosophy, Policy and Governance (University of Queensland)
Dr. Bernadette Hyland-Wood is a Lecturer on data science in QUT's School of Communication. She is an Affiliated Investigator in the Computational Communication and Culture Program in QUT's Digital Media Research Centre.
Bernadette’s research examines public data policy and digital communications during crisis. Her research examines formal and informal dynamics, and novel approaches to data collection and use especially during prolonged and compounding crises. These contributions draw on theory and applied research in the fields of data ethics, AI, and organizational behaviour, and provide insights on the collection, use and politics of data in the public interest.
Bernadette has been involved in foundational technologies supporting knowledge representation on the Web, international data standards (Linked Data, DCAT, CUBE, ORG), and best practices (W3C) since 2007. Her contributions include highly cited applied research on crisis communications (COVID-19), restoring public trust, and national data legislation, including the U.S. DATA Act. She has published on these topics in academic journals including Humanities and Social Sciences Communications and Springer Nature. Her research has featured in various media outlets, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), and Radio New Zealand. As an invited expert, Bernadette chaired the W3C Government Linked Data Working Group and has authored highly cited publications on crisis communications during COVID-19, public data supply, Web data standards and best practices.
Dr. Hyland-Wood was awarded a Ph.D. from the School of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Queensland (UQ) in 2021 and holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours equiv) in Computational Linguistics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Additional information
Bernadette founded four tech startups in Australia and the U.S. and was the professional CEO of a semantic technology spin-out from MIT. She oversaw the development of a pioneering standards-based highly scalable graph database and visualization platform. She has been involved in Open Source Software (OSS) projects and data standards (W3C) for two decades. In 1997, she is one of ten co-founders of Women in Technology (WiT), Australia’s largest professional networking organization supporting women in digital technologies and scientific research.