The War in Ukraine

This webinar in is response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, our thoughts are with the Ukrainian people.

This webinar will focus on the war in Ukraine, in particular what role data (or lack of it), in its broadest sense, is playing in various aspects of the war.

More about the topics

How is the war in Ukraine playing out across the Five Vs of big data? – Matthew Sussex

The war in Ukraine has created a crowded information space. Large volumes of information are generated about the conflict, some of which is the product of state-sponsored information and disinformation. Analysis of data around the conflict suggests that efforts to promote Russian narratives are increasingly focused outside the West; whereas Ukrainian information is more readily anchored within Europe and the transatlantic space.

Social media, propaganda, and the Ukraine war – Dr Timothy Graham

The Ukraine war has presented difficult challenges for content moderation on social media platforms. Drawing on large-scale Twitter data analysis, I explore how social media has become the site of two competing realities about the Ukraine war – both of which cannot be true.

Use of open-source data in future conflicts – Dr Brendan Walker-Munro

My topic will be on the use of open-source data in future conflicts, with particular focus on how it has developed in the war in Ukraine. I will briefly discuss the use of ClearView AI by Ukrainian forces, both to identify their own dead (war graves repatriation) but also as psychological warfare against the Russian forces (by sending notifications of deceased soldiers to their families). The use of open-source data for targeting will also be mentioned.

Platforms supporting Ukrainian refugees must prioritise their safety — or risk exposing them to trafficking and exploitation – Adriana Eufrosina Bora

During the talk, I will try to also bring in my reflections as a Romanian citizen born and raised only a few kilometers from the border with Ukraine.

More about the Moderator and Panel

Dr Timothy Graham

Dr Timothy Graham is Senior Lecturer in Digital Media at the Queensland University of Queensland (QUT). His research combines computational methods with social theory to study online networks and platforms, with a particular interest in online bots and trolls, disinformation, and online ratings and rankings devices. He develops open source software tools for social media data analysis, and has published in journals such as Information, Communication & Society, Information Polity, Big Data & Society, and Social Media + Society. In 2021, Tim was announced as an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award recipient and was awarded funding for his project, Combating Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour on Social Media.

Ms Adriana Eufrosina Bora

Adriana Eufrosina Bora is a PhD Candidate at the Centre for Data Science, School of Mathematical Sciences at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Adriana has a keen interest in data science and AI applications to progress the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 8, Target 8.7, focusing on eradicating modern slavery. Adriana is applying machine learning in analysing and benchmarking the businesses’ reports published following the Modern Slavery Acts.

Throughout her membership to Code 8.7, DataJam, Traffick Analysis Hub and the MIT Computational Law Report Task Force on Modern Slavery, she has been working with an interdisciplinary, global community, discussing, and collaborating in the fight against modern slavery with technological-driven solutions. What is more, Adriana is a contributor to Good AI and a community leader of Women in AI in Queensland, Australia.

Adriana has been awarded the International Research Center on Artificial Intelligence under the auspices of UNESCO (IRCAI) AI Award 2021 and was selected as one of the 20 Rising Stars in AI Ethics 2022.

Dr Matthew Sussex

Dr Matthew Sussex is Senior Fellow at the Centre for Defence Research, Australian Defence College; Associate Professor (Adjunct) at the Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University; Visiting Fellow at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, ANU; and Visiting Fellow at the Centre for European Studies, ANU. His research specialisations revolve around national security and strategic studies with a particular focus on Russia and Eurasia, great power politics, and information warfare. His books include The Palgrave Handbook of National Security (Palgrave, 2021); The Belt and Road Initiative and the Future of Regional Order (Lexington, 2020); Violence and the State (Manchester University Press, 2017); Power, Politics and Confrontation in Eurasia (Palgrave, 2015); Russia, Eurasia and the New Geopolitics of Energy (Palgrave, 2015); and Conflict in the Former USSR (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

Matthew has previously been Associate Professor and Academic Director at the National Security College, Australian National University; and Head of Politics and International Relations at the University of Tasmania. He has been awarded research grants from the Australian Research Council, the Fulbright Commission, the ISA, Australian government agencies, and others. Matthew been a non-resident Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy; he has served on the National Executive of the Australian Institute of International Affairs; and has been the Associate Editor of the Australian Journal of International Affairs. He is regularly invited to speak brief government, academic specialists and think tanks on his areas of expertise. He also provides frequent analyses for local, national and international media, including BBC, CNN, Bloomberg and others.

Dr Brendan Walker-Munro

Dr Brendan Walker-Munro is a Senior Research Fellow with the University of Queensland’s Law and the Future of War research group. Brendan’s research focus is examining the frameworks for establishing civil and criminal liability for the use of autonomous weapon systems, both in Australia and internationally.

Brendan has completed a number of appointments in investigation and law enforcement roles across diverse government agencies over ten years, including the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, Fair Work Building & Construction, the NSW and Queensland Offices of Liquor and Gaming, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Prior to joining the University of Queensland, Brendan worked with the Australian Taxation Office to develop lawful uses of data and analytics for investigative and compliance programs. Brendan is admitted to practise law in the Supreme Court of Queensland and also holds an appointment as a Member to both the Queensland Councillor Conduct Tribunal and the Disciplinary Panel of CPA Australia.

Brendan has been awarded a Bachelor of Biomedical Science and Molecular Biology from Murdoch University, a Bachelor of Neuroscience (Honours) from the University of Western Australia, a Juris Doctor with Distinction from the University of Southern Queensland and a PhD from Swinburne University.

Moderator: Distinguished Professor Kerrie Mengersen – Centre Director QUT Centre for Data Science

Kerrie Mengersen is a Distinguished Research Professor in Statistical Science and the Director of the QUT Centre for Data Science at QUT, and holds a concurrent role as Associate Member in the Department of Statistics at the University of Oxford, UK. She was a Deputy Director in the ARC Centre of Excellence in Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (2015-2021) and an ARC Laureate Fellow (2015-2021). Her research focuses on using and developing new statistical and computational methods that can help to solve complex problems in the real world. These problems are in the fields of environment, genetics, health and medicine, and industry.