Professor Elizabeth Chang | UniSC | University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

Professor Elizabeth Chang is a Professor in ICT and Cyber Security in the School of Science Technology and Engineering reporting directly to the Dean. She has been a full Professor for more than 22 years since 2003 and across Computer Science, Information Systems, Defence Logistics, and Cyber Security. She has over 34 years of combined academic and industry experience including having served as CIO/CTO or Head of IT in the industry and commerce in Hong Kong and Australia in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Professor Chang holds a PhD (1997) and MSc (1992) in Computer Science and Software Engineering, and a BSc in Computer Science and Mathematics. She is an IEEE Fellow (USA) and has served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Cyber-Physical Systems over the past three years. She has also served as an ADCOM member of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, and as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics and IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics for over 15 years. In addition, she has chaired more than 20 IEEE international conferences.

She has supervised the completion of 35 Post-docs, 57 PhD Theses, over 30 Master’s and more than 30 Honours theses across Data Science, Applied AI, Trust, Security, Privacy, and Risk. She was awarded the 2020 UNSW Supervisor of the Year. She has secured 13 Australian Research Council (ARC) grants and, in total, has received more than 30 competitive research grants worth over AUD $20 million, including Defence Research Contracts and Centre of Excellence (CoE) funding.

She has co-authored 8 books and over 600 international journal and refereed conference papers. She has an H-index of 63, an i10-index of 396, and 22,000+ citations (Google Scholar). In the 2012 MIS Quarterly (Vol. 36, Issue 4) Special Issue on Business Research, she was ranked fifth in the world for her researcher in Business Intelligence.

Before coming to Queensland, she was a Professor in Defence Logistics and IT at UNSW at ADFA in Canberra, led the Logistics Innovation and Information Dominance Research Group (www.liidr.org) 2013-2022. She was awarded 10 Defence Research Projects for over $4 million, plus several ARC Linkage projects, CRC Cyber Security funded Projects, CSIRO/OZ Industry funded projects, ACT Department of Transport Project. She was ranked #1 Professorial Researcher at UNSW@ADFA for 8 years in a row at UNSW Boris portal. She was also ranked #1 in the teaching quality survey from UNSW@ADFA graduates for her courses on Big Data in 2019 and 2020. 

Professor Chang was a Professor of IT  (2003-2012) and a visiting Professor (2003-2012) for 10 years at the UC Berkeley Soft Computing Lab, and she was the #1 researcher (KPI) for 8 years at Curtin University. She was the Foundation Director for the University Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Extended Enterprises and the Foundation Director for the University Tier One (Top ranked) Institute of Excellence on Digital Ecosystems and Business Intelligence with a focus on Cyber Information Engineering and Human Space Computing. 

Before this, she was in the industry for 8 years, including serving as CEO/CTO at a multi-national logistics company with HQ in Hong Kong, developing e-commerce systems and as Head of IT and Frontend Lead at Philips Public Communications on Cable TV and cable modern networks and Australian Airlines on Exchange Rates and Interest Rates Monitors.

She has an outstanding track record of collaboration with public and private sector professionals, as well as academics across multiple disciplines, and has sustained trusted relationships well beyond project completion. She has successfully collaborated with the Australian Department of Defence for eight years; Fleetwood Corporation (CRC-P partner) for over ten years; 7R Logistics for four years; BLU Logistics (QLD, ARC Linkage partner) and Smarta Industrial for over ten years; and with numerous government agencies, including the WA Department of Planning and Infrastructure, Main Roads WA, the Department of Transport, the WA Department of Education, Specialised Container Transport, JR Bulk Liquid Transport, and ACT Transport. She has a special skill in practical applied research and the ability to translate real-world issues into science and engineering research with workable solutions, and this is the key factor for her building trusting relationships with Industry and Government and bringing in sustained funding to support academic research in the university environment. 

Professor Chang is a quiet achiever with a strong work ethic. She specialises in strategically motivated fundamental and applied research, and brings a unique blend of experience across academia, industry, and the public sector. She has a proven track record of delivering high-impact research, innovative curricula, and sustained industry engagement across the institutions she has served.