Michael holds a PhD degree in Computer Science from the University of New South Wales and did his post-doc as a research scientist at CSIRO ICT Centre.

Earlier this year, Michael was recognised by AMiner as a Most Influential Scholar for his outstanding and vibrant contributions to the field of Internet of Things (IOT). He was ranked a very impressive 24 out of the top 100 researchers in IOT during 2007-2017.

1) In a nutshell, my job is to…
Motivate and support my colleagues to be better. My department has an ambitious agenda and I believe we can do it.

2) The question I hear most often in my work is…
“Why can’t I do…” Not surprising to hear such questions given my position. But also lots of “How can I achieve/improve….”, which is really encouraging and pleasing to hear.

3) The thing I find most rewarding in my role is…
Celebrating the amazing achievements of my colleagues and the department.

4) This year I want to…
Secure sufficient resources to deliver high quality education to our quickly-growing computing students. The University has made more than 550 international admission offers to Master of Data Science and Master of IT programs so far in 2019 – almost triple the offers made in 2018.

5) The bravest thing I’ve done is…
Resigned from my senior software engineer position and flew to Sydney with $400 in 1999.

6) A place that’s special to me is…
Hong Kong. Five years ago, I managed to find some time and took my mum for a holiday there and she absolutely loved it. On our first day in Hong Kong, my mum left her handbag in a taxi but only realised this quite late. We reported it to a nearby police station and went back to the hotel with little hope. Amazingly, only two hours later, my mum got her bag back!

7) My mother always told me…
My mum would always ask me to have a bit of rest. I miss her voice so much!

8) I’m scared of…
If I have to mention one, it would be snakes and the like.

9) My hidden talent is…
Running. When I did my undergraduate in Beijing, I represented my university to compete with professionals.

10) A moment I’ll always remember is…
The time with my mum in Hong Kong. Lots of precious memories!

As one of the leading research hubs for Natural Language Understanding (NLU) worldwide, Macquarie University and US-based VoiceBox Technologies recently announced an international research and development partnership.

VoiceBox Technologies is an award-winning pioneer of Contextual Natural Language Understanding (CNLU) and the leading innovator of next gen Voice Artificial Intelligence (Voice AI). VoiceBox is taking voice interaction from today’s NLU based systems to the next generation by employing AI techniques in advanced Semantic Language Understanding, large-scale data mining, Deep Neural Networks and advanced machine learning.

Dr Mark Johnson from the Department of Computing has been named the Chief Scientific Officer of VoiceBox Australia and will lead the VoiceBox office as a Centre of Excellence for Voice AI. Dr Johnson is overseeing the advanced labs located on the University’s campus in the heart of the Macquarie Park Innovation District (MPID). VoiceBox Australia will focus on research and development of Voice AI – a next gen intelligent interface that will provide voice recognition and natural language understanding at a much higher level of sophisticated intelligence, enabling higher accuracy and usability than previously achieved.

“Macquarie University is one of the few places in the world with research strengths across a broad range of language sciences, including NLU,” said Dr Johnson, Chief Scientific Officer of VoiceBox Australia. “Together with VoiceBox, we will focus research and development efforts on next generation Voice AI, as well as continually honing expertise in speech recognition and natural language understanding.”

“Our new Centre of Excellence in Australia represents our commitment to developing Voice AI as well as exploring opportunities in the Asia Pacific Region,” said Mike Kennewick, VoiceBox CEO. “Macquarie is an elite research facility that consistently attracts and keeps top talent because of its willingness to innovate. Mark is a world class scientist – the perfect leader to execute on the VoiceBox vision to provide an intelligent interface for the Internet of Things.”

This research partnership highlights the innovation taking place in the region, as well as the potential for industry collaboration with academia. By way of employment, student placement opportunities and the identification of further joint research projects, this partnership will actively contribute to the local innovation ecosystem and deliver measurable research impact and engagement.

“In the past, Dr Johnson would have been required to relocate to the US to undertake such an opportunity,” said Barbara Messerle, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering. “However, with Macquarie’s commitment to the MPID, we will see many more ground-breaking opportunities emerge.”