Cho K1, Russo-Batterham D2, Charlton G3
1Unsw, Sydney, Australia, 2The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, 3Intersect Australia, Sydney, Australia
Biography:
Jacky Cho is the manager of Research Data and Software with Research Technology Services at UNSW, focusing on infrastructure and governance for research data storage and management. He is also a lead for the ResTech community program, which upskill and engages research communities to make the best use of research infrastructure both at UNSW and nationally.
Daniel Russo-Batterham is a Senior Research Data Specialist with the Melbourne Data Analytics Platform (MDAP) at the University of Melbourne, a transdisciplinary team that collaborates with researchers to enhance data-intensive research. He leads multiple national and international research software infrastructure projects and works across digital humanities and other academic spheres. He holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne, where he used computational methods to study seventeenth-century lute songs, and previously worked as a researcher at the Centre d'Études Supérieures de la Renaissance in Tours, France.
Glen Charlton is the Lead Data Scientist for the Advanced Analytics and AI Platform and oversees the Data Science services provided by Intersect Australia . He has over 10 years of experience in applying Data Science and Electronics Engineering to commercial and research projects primarily within health and environmental sciences. Glen established a research track record demonstrating the application of data science across multiple sciences with the key interest of improving the efficiency and increasing the capability of research projects to conduct novel and practically relevant research.
Abstract:
The landscape of research software has evolved dramatically from isolated code snippets deployable on desktops and workstations to complex, persistent applications on local and cloud infrastructure, coupled with increasing computational demands. Furthermore, the democratizing effect of AI tools in research has accelerated the complexity and resource demands of these applications, while introducing heightened security and data risks.
eResearch and IT teams in Australian tertiary education and research organisations are increasingly asked to help researchers plan, develop, deploy, and often maintain these applications, as institutions shift toward strict enterprise information technology and cybersecurity governance, creating friction between agile research and corporate compliance.
The session objectives are to share institutional practices, identify barriers or potential pathways to systemic deployment, and examine support models ranging from fully managed services to federated cloud sandboxes.
The 60-minute session aims to be agile and equitably accommodating audiences of any size. Following a brief framing introduction, facilitators will lead a whole-room collective brainstorming activity to map current institutional processes, infrastructure setup and pain points. The session will then transition—either dividing into breakouts or remaining unified to rotate through core topics: research infrastructure and operating model for research applications, cybersecurity compliance, support and training, and managing emerging AI tools.
The intended audience includes eResearch analysts, research software engineers, central IT professionals, cybersecurity specialists, and infrastructure managers. Attendees will gain clearer benchmarks for cloud governance frameworks across Australian universities, a curated list of engagement strategies to bridge the IT-research gap, and an ongoing network of peers collaborating on secure research deployments.
