Rate My Professor Alex Zelinsky

Professor Alex Zelinsky AO is the Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Newcastle, having commenced in the role on 19 November 2018. He earned a Bachelor of Mathematical Sciences (Honours) and a Doctor of Philosophy in robotics from the University of Wollongong, complemented by an Honorary Doctor of Science from the same university. Zelinsky is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University and the Senior Executive Program at London Business School. His professional expertise centers on computer science, systems engineering, and robotics, spanning innovation, research, commercial start-ups, and higher education.

Zelinsky's career trajectory includes serving as Australia's Chief Defence Scientist and leader of the Defence Science and Technology Group from 2012 to 2018, Group Executive for Information Sciences at CSIRO, and Director of CSIRO's ICT Centre. Earlier, he was Professor of Systems Engineering at the Australian National University and co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Seeing Machines, a computer vision technology company listed on the London Stock Exchange, originating as a start-up from the Australian National University. He began his career as a cadet systems engineer at BHP and conducted research on computer vision and robotics at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology from 1991 to 1994. His research specializations include mobile robotics, computer vision, path planning, and human-robot interaction, with prominent publications such as "Fast radial symmetry for detecting points of interest" (2003, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence), "Planning paths of complete coverage of an unstructured environment by a mobile robot" (1993, Proceedings of International Conference on Advanced Robotics), and "An algorithm for real-time stereo vision implementation of head pose and gaze direction measurement" (2000, Proceedings Fourth IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition). Zelinsky has garnered major awards including appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2017 for distinguished service to defence science and technology, systems engineering, and education; Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA) in 2019; the Pearcey Medal in 2013; the M.A. Sargent Medal in 2015; and Technology Pioneer recognition by the World Economic Forum in 2003, 2004, and 2005. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Institute of Engineers Australia, and others, and currently chairs the Australian Technology Network of Universities.