College of Engineering, Computing and Cybernetics
The ANU College of Engineering, Computing and Cybernetics programs, courses, and research opportunities are offered under our world-class Schools and innovation Institutes. We also have several on-campus centres, strategic collaborations, and partnerships.
We have an exceptional community of students, educators, scholars and researchers who embrace the breadth of the computing and engineering professions. We are a diverse and vibrant community dedicated to discovery and to making knowledge matter.
Navigating Cybernetic Futures
Helping individuals
and organisations to navigate major societal transformations as emerging
technologies scale.
Organisations around the world increasingly recognise an urgent need for the right expertise to face the challenges and complexities of the 21st century. That expertise is more than just a technical understanding of emerging technologies—it is also a critical awareness of how these technologies interact with wider cultural, social, economic, political, and ecological systems. The School of Cybernetics is bringing the transdisciplinary practice of cybernetics to the world through innovative research-informed learning experiences for industry, government, and communities.
The School of
Cybernetics’ Microlearnings suite offers short non-award courses preparing
today’s leaders, creatives, and change-makers for an increasingly fast-paced
technological world. From leading through the uncertainty generated by novel
technologies to engaging with AI from fresh perspectives, our one-day programs enable
participants to understand their role in building the better, fairer, and safer
systems of the future. The courses provide powerful practices founded on
expansive cybernetic inquiry, as well as creative fuel for reimagining
technology’s role in the world.
Benefit from a
unique outlook on technological systems, and come and learn with the world’s
foremost futurist and technologist, Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell.
Current modules
Join us as we create encounters with cybernetics to help you see the world differently.
Artificial Intelligence is suddenly everywhere. New AI solutions are being openly released to the public and integrated into everyday computing systems across all sectors and settings, both with and without our consent. Concern about the impact of these novel technologies continue to play out in the public discourse and through legal and social challenges to the legitimacy of these systems.
This one-day course will empower participants with a stronger and clearer understanding of AI technologies and their implications and controversies. The program will develop new ways to discuss AI outside the constraints of existing - and often misleading - technological terms and narratives. Participants will explore expected and unexpected outcomes and interactions between the components of an AI system and wider societal systems. Using cybernetic tools, participants will further consider how to manage the technology across current and future deployment scenarios.
Audiences
This course is suitable for all persons interested in or involved with AI in a professional capacity, with no prior technical training or background required.
Through this course you will
Understand AI technologies and explore new terms for explaining and framing AI.
Learn how AI is integrated in broader social systems and apply cybernetic tools for AI management.
Assess and imagine current and future deployments of AI.
Program (short version)
- 9:00am: Introductions: Don’t PANIC! Playing with AI Tools
- 9:30am: Demystifying AI (Genevieve Bell)
- 10:15am: AI Hype: Neither Hallucinations Nor Sentience
- 11:00am: Morning tea
- 11:30am: Building Better AI Futures
- 1:00pm: Lunch
- 2:00pm: Useful Tools for Managing AI
- 3:30pm: Preparing for the AI of Tomorrow (Genevieve Bell)
- 4.00pm: Finish and networking
The ‘system’ is one of the most important concepts and realities underpinning our contemporary 21st century world. Increasing complexities and interdependencies across engineered systems create both greater fragility and resilience for networked lives, while we continue to grapple with the sociological and ecological implications of these technological deployments.
This one-day course
offers participants a chance to learn new perspectives and approaches for solving
difficult and persistent systemic challenges. Participants will learn and apply
three cybernetic tools to illuminate a system, its dynamics and trajectories,
and begin to unfold possibilities for effective intervention. This course aims
to demonstrate the practical application of cybernetic principles for participants
to integrate the presented toolkit into their practice to begin transforming
complex systems.
Audiences
This course is suitable for all persons undertaking to solve complex systemic challenges at work, and particularly for those implementing and designing change.
Through this course you will
- Develop new perspectives on systems thinking to meet complex and persistent challenges.
- Apply cybernetic tools to illuminate systems and their interdependencies.
- Apply cybernetic tools to enable interventions across systems to resolve existing and emerging problems.
Program (short version)
- 9:00am: Introductions: Exploring Systems through Play
- 9:30am: Cybernetics: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Systems Thinking (Genevieve Bell)
- 10:00am: Cybernetic Lenses: Observing Systems
- 11:00am: Morning tea
- 11:20am: Cybernetic Star: Five Point Analysis
- 12:30am: Lunch
- 1:30pm: Cybernetic Maps: Causal Relationships and System Interventions
- 3:00pm: Effective Systemic Change (Genevieve Bell)
- 4:00pm: Finish and networking
Being a leader in today's tech-driven environment can be tough. Emerging technologies such as AI and automation challenge decision-makers across all sectors to respond rapidly to complex and ambiguous situations, while managing the often-unknown risks and opportunities of adoption and deployment. Concurrently, conventional organisational structures and relationships are also giving way as these technologies usher in new social norms and ways of working.
This one-day course offers leaders a chance to learn ways to navigate these unfamiliar waters. Join School director Genevieve Bell as we develop leaders’ capabilities in self-reflection and systemic thinking, preparing them to meet the challenges of the future. Drawing on interdisciplinary research, the course guides learners through cybernetic leadership principles for the 21st century that are immediately and pragmatically applicable to their own contexts.
Audiences
This course is suitable for people taking on leadership or management duties in organisational or community contexts, regardless of industry. It is particularly relevant for those leading change.
Through this course you will
- Learn and practise cybernetic leadership principles to better navigate emerging technologies and the organisational complexities they introduce
- Understand the history and practice of leadership from interdisciplinary perspectives
- Learn to create the conditions for team resilience in ambiguous and uncertain situations
Program (short version)
- 9:00am: Introductions: Situating Leadership in Emerging Technology
- 9:30am: Leadership: A Cybernetic Perspective (Genevieve Bell)
- 10:15am: Systems Thinking and Cybernetic Leadership Principles
- 11:00am: Morning tea
- 11:30am: Applying Cybernetic Leadership Principles
- 1:00pm: Lunch
- 2:00pm: Preparing for Complexity through Cybernetic Leadership
- 3:30pm: Synthesis and wrap up (Genevieve Bell)
- 4:00pm: Finish and networking
In a time of accelerating change, we are increasingly responsible for creating a shared future in which emerging technologies and technological systems are safe, inclusive, and sustainable. Understanding the different histories of and pathways through a system allows us to imagine different possibilities and risks.
This one-day course will guide participants through the challenge of imagining and influencing the development of new systems. Drawing upon the ground-breaking work of the School’s Cybernetic Imaginations Residents and the Australian Cybernetic exhibition, the program immerses participants in storytelling and creative practice, guiding them through the uncomfortable and the unexpected as they reimagine the future and their role in crafting it. Participants will analyse the theories, models, and strategies that inform influential narratives about the future, and delve into how our personal visions for the future, both conscious and unconscious, shape our current actions and decision-making. Participants will further be introduced to novel cybernetic practices for future-planning, so that they might take an active role in crafting better systems and futures.
Audiences
This course is suitable for all persons in creative positions within industry or business, with special interest in designing for responsible technological futures. Through this course you will
- Develop your own critical position on the history and art of futuring
- Use cybernetic futuring tools with confidence
- Imagine hopeful futures and create a concrete plan for making those futures possible
Program (short version)
- 9am: Introduction and a history of the future
- 9:50am: Disrupting the present with Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell
- 10:30am: MORNING TEA
- 10:45am: Introducing the New Cybernetics Futuring Praxis
- 11:20am: Futures: a case study
- 12:30pm: LUNCH
- 1:30pm: Applying and evaluating the New Cybernetics Futuring Praxis
- 3:00pm: Developing feedback-enriched plans for creating our futures
- 3:30pm: The future, now – a call to action with Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell
- 4.00pm: Finish and networking