Svetha is one of the top 15 women in the world for Artificial Intelligence research and the only woman from Australia on that list. Originally from India, Svetha now lives in Geelong where she leads A²I² – Applied Artificial Intelligence Institute. Her research has led to spinoffs, one of which is now an ASX listed company – icetana, which originally started by answering the simple but critical question “did the bomber get off the bus” after the tragic London bombings in 2005. Another spinoff from her team’s research is the Toby Playpad app which provides therapy for children with autism. Her desire to help researchers be more entrepreneurial led to the establishment of SPARK Deakin – Deakin University’s flagship entrepreneurial program. She was awarded an Australian Laureate Fellowship by Australian Research Council for a project on exploring how pattern recognition can be harnessed to accelerate and expand the capability of experimental optimisation disrupting current experimental methods.

Ajay is Managing Director of one of Australia’s innovative unicorns (ASX:CAR). He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, University of Technology Sydney and Executive Sponsor of Stanford Digital Cities Program. He will share his unique insights and most importantly join us in listening to what incredible young people are doing on the ground in India and how we can support grassroots initiatives.