University of WA Phd wins inaugural ACS prize

• Dr Qiuhong Ke wins the inaugural ACS Medal for the Most Outstanding Doctoral Research in the field of Information Technology and Computer Science in Western Australia.
• Jarryd Wimbridge received the Undergraduate and Honours 1962 Prize
• The annual 1962 Awards recognise the contribution of Professor Dennis Moore whose vision brought the first stored-program digital computer to WA 57 years ago.

Thursday 17 October 2019: ACS, the professional association for Australia’s technology sector, congratulates Dr Qiuhong Ke as the winner of the inaugural ACS 1962 Medal for the Most Outstanding Doctoral Research in the field of Information Technology and Computer Science in Western Australia.

Dr Qiuhong Ke received her PhD from the University of Western Australia for her thesis titled “Deep Learning for Action Recognition and Prediction”.

The thesis presents new methods for skeleton-based action recognition which divides the entire human skeleton into five body parts to learn deep part-based features. The research can infer future actions at early stages and can identify a person across different cameras and times.

Dr Qiuhong has been involved with four patents, is a postdoctoral researcher with the Max Planck Institute for Informatics and will be joining the academic staff at the University of Melbourne.

The 1962 awards – the Medal for post-graduates and the Prize for undergraduates – are given to West Australia’s best Information and Communication Technology (ICT) students.

Winning this year’s prize for Undergraduate and Honours Studies is Jarryd Wimbridge for his Honours thesis on developing an algorithm for a machine learning approach to automating air combat maneuvers.

Dennis Moore Oration Chairman Dr David Cook acknowledged the 1962 Prize for ICT and the 1962 Medal’s recognition of Academic distinction, real-world endeavours, and outstanding engagement within the field of computer science.

“Jarryd Wimbridge and Dr Quihong Ke are outstanding students who have shown innovative and far-reaching approaches to the application and thought leadership of computing and technology in Western Australia.” said Dr Cook.

Students from all universities compete to win the 1962 Prize and 1962 Medal which is awarded each year to the most accomplished students in undergraduate and doctoral levels in Computer Science and Information Technology studies.

The 1962 Award recognises the contributions of Professor Dennis Moore who brought the first stored-program digital computer to WA 57 years ago.

On 23 August 1962 UWA’s first computer, an IBM1620 and first of its kind in Western Australia, was installed in the university’s Physics building. Comfortably located in the University’s only air conditioned room, the system could store up to 60,000 numbers, read 250 cards and punch 10,000 digits each minute.

The Prize and Award winners were announced at the Annual Dennis Moore Oration, first held in 2012 to commemorate fifty years of digital computing in Western Australia.

-ENDS-

Further information

Troy Steer
Director of Corporate Affairs and Public Policy
M – 0417 173 740
E – troy.steer@acs.org.au

About ACS

ACS is the professional association for Australia's technology sector. More than 45,000 ACS members work in business, education, government and the community. ACS exists to create the environment and provide the opportunities for members and partners to succeed. ACS strives technology professionals to be recognised as drivers of innovation in our society, relevant across all sectors, and to promote the formulation of effective policies on technology and related matters. Visit www.acs.org.au for more information.