Brisbane, Queensland – Biosecurity Commons, a project that will deliver a ground-breaking cloud-based modelling and analytics platform for the Australian biosecurity sector, will showcase the first pre-release version of their new platform at the 2nd Australian Biosecurity Symposium in May of 2022.
The 2nd Australian Biosecurity Symposium held on the Gold Coast on the 3-5 May 2022 will focus on ‘research and innovation, outside-of-the-box thinking and the exchange of knowledge and ideas across the biosecurity collective’. The symposium is set to influence the future direction of Australia’s biosecurity landscape by sharing new ideas, concepts, and methods and establishing new partnerships.
Biosecurity Commons will be holding a one-hour session to explore the future of Australia’s modelling capability on Thursday, 5th May 2022 at 1:25 pm. The session will begin with an overview of the project by Paul Tudman, Project Manager for Biosecurity Commons, followed by a demonstration of the platform, including species distribution modelling and risk-mapping by Dr Saras Windecker, Research Fellow in Ecological Modelling at The University of Melbourne. Finally, it will conclude with a workshop to discuss the growing challenges of resource allocation and identify the future requirements for the platform by Dr Aaron Dodd, Research Fellow for the Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis at The University of Melbourne.
Meet our speakers:
Paul Tudman - Project Manager for Biosecurity Commons
Paul Tudman is a data and analytics specialist with over 20 years’ experience working on large-scale projects for state and federal governments and academia. As the Project Manager for Biosecurity Commons, Paul is responsible for leading a highly skilled team of software developers, scientists, and communicators to build powerful decision-support tools for biosecurity using cloud-based technology.
Dr Saras Windecker - Research Fellow for Ecological Modelling at the UoM
Dr Saras Windecker is a Research Fellow in the Quantitative and Applied Ecology Group at The University of Melbourne. She is currently developing and operationalising statistical models for mapping and forecasting in public health. Saras is passionate about reproducible workflows and enjoys teaching programming in R. Saras is also on the Expert Panel for the Biosecurity Commons project.
Dr Aaron Dodd - Deputy Director of CEBRA at the UoM
Dr Aaron Dodd is Deputy Director of the Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis (CEBRA), at The University of Melbourne (UoM). He is a leading biosecurity risk analyst currently working on methods for estimating the effectiveness of biosecurity controls at the system-scale. Trained as an ecologist and with extensive experience in government and regulatory environments, Aaron brings an interdisciplinary lens to operational service design.
“Biosecurity Commons is going to revolutionise Australia’s biosecurity modelling practices in the future. Using the platform’s intuitive, cloud-based decision-support tools, biosecurity experts like researchers and decision-makers will soon be able to produce consistent and transparent models without the need for high-end IT equipment or coding skills. We are excited to showcase the platform’s functionality at the event”, said Paul Tudman, Project Manager for Biosecurity Commons.
Five workflows will include Surveillance Design, Dispersal Modelling, Impact Analysis, Resource Allocation/Time to Eradication and Proof of Freedom. The first pre-release version of the platform will be available in August 2022, while the second will be available in November 2022. The official launch to the public will be in April 2023.
“We welcome the opportunity to answer any questions participants may have about the platform. To learn more about the project, visit our website www.biosecuritycommons.org.au and sign-up for our newsletter to follow our project journey,” he said.
