After attracting outstanding talent from some of the world’s leading institutions and increasing the number of women academics by more than 45 per cent over three years, the Faculty of Engineering is building on its recruitment success with a new global campaign, with AI a defining focus.
Over the past two years, the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Engineering has welcomed 50 new academics, with new colleagues joining from leading universities and organisations including Cambridge, Harvard, University College London, the University of Illinois, Carnegie Mellon University and Meta.
Our ambition is to build extraordinary depth of talent across the disciplines that will shape the future of engineering. Attracting academics of this calibre from around the world is a powerful endorsement of that vision and of the Faculty’s growing reputation as a place where exceptional people can do exceptional work.
Professor Hesham El Gamel, Dean of Engineering
Alongside this influx of global talent, targeted recruitment initiatives have helped increase the number of women academics in the Faculty by more than 45 per cent over three years.
The Faculty is now building on this success with a new global recruitment campaign, seeking outstanding academics across engineering, with AI and its intersection with engineering emerging as a defining opportunity.
Four recent appointments illustrate the breadth of talent already choosing the University of Sydney.
Using AI to navigate the unknowns of deep space
Dr Sydney Dolan, School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering
Joining from MIT, Dr Sydney Dolan was attracted by the Faculty’s strengths in space engineering and robotics and the opportunity to work with real flight hardware.
“I came to the University of Sydney because I wanted to play a part in building Australia’s space industry, surrounded by the depth of space and robotics expertise that already exists within the Faculty.”
Her research combines computer vision, graph theory and reinforcement learning to enable satellites to understand their environment and make autonomous decisions.
“As spacecraft venture further from Earth, communication delays and environmental uncertainty mean they will increasingly need to make decisions for themselves,” they said.
The University’s satellite ground station, CUAVA satellites and CubeSat facilities will support this work.
Public health research, stress-tested by AI
Dr Sooyeol Suzy Kim, School of Civil Engineering
Dr Sooyeol Suzy Kim, a member of the Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute who recently relocated from UC Berkeley, chose the University of Sydney for its opportunities to work across disciplinary boundaries.
“The emphasis on collaboration across schools strongly aligned with my research. Sydney gives me the opportunity to build connections across disciplines and develop research that would be difficult to pursue within a single field.”
Her research examines biological material in wastewater to understand community health, including infectious disease and antibiotic resistance. While AI is not central to her methodology, she uses it to challenge assumptions and stress-test research ideas for feasibility and novelty, illustrating how AI is influencing research well beyond traditional engineering disciplines.
AI-augmented aerospace design
Dr Bingran Wang, School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering
Dr Bingran Wang joined from UC San Diego, attracted by the Faculty’s strengths in structural and multidisciplinary optimisation and the opportunity to build a research program at the intersection of AI and engineering design.
“I use AI to augment, rather than replace, engineering expertise. My research explores how engineering foundation models and AI agents can learn from large-scale engineering data, simulations and domain knowledge to support complex design, analysis and optimisation.”
He is developing a Breakthrough Challenge concept in AI-augmented engineering design, exploring how emerging AI capabilities could transform the way engineers conceive and optimise complex systems.
“The University offered the combination of research excellence, interdisciplinary collaboration and global opportunity I was looking for to build a research program focused on transforming how we design the next generation of aerospace systems.”
Building AI that survives the extremes
Dr Ian Abraham, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Dr Ian Abraham’s move from Yale built on existing collaborations with Australian researchers and the University’s international strength in robotics, particularly through the Australian Centre for Robotics.
“I already had many colleagues and collaborators in Australia, particularly at the University of Sydney. Combined with the depth of robotics expertise here, it made Sydney a natural place to build the next stage of my research.”
His research develops the AI foundations that enable robotic systems to understand, learn from and interact with the physical world. He is now developing a Breakthrough Challenge project focused on robots operating in extreme environments without continuous human oversight.
“Whether it is environmental monitoring, search and rescue or future space missions, there are environments where a robot cannot simply wait for human guidance. We want robots that can learn and adapt on the spot, make informed decisions and interact intelligently with unfamiliar environments.”
A recruitment strategy delivering results
The Faculty’s approach goes beyond filling individual vacancies, instead searching globally for exceptional people who can strengthen existing areas and create new ones.
Deputy Dean Professor Kalina Yacef, who leads the recruitment drive, said this flexibility has been central to its success.
“Our approach starts with exceptional people. Rather than recruiting only to individual vacancies, our campaigns allow us to attract outstanding academics from around the world wherever their expertise can strengthen the Faculty. The process is rigorous but highly collegial, giving candidates and our community the opportunity to explore what we could achieve together.”
Associate Dean, Culture and Community, Professor Renae Ryan, said diversity has been equally important:
“Diversity of background, experience, thought and approach makes us better engineers, researchers and educators. It expands the questions we ask, the ideas we generate and ultimately the impact we can have.”
The next global campaign
The Faculty is now taking this momentum into its next global recruitment campaign.
Applications are now open, with the Faculty continuing to seek exceptional academics across engineering and placing particular emphasis on those who can shape the rapidly evolving relationship between AI and engineering, through fundamental research, new engineering applications, and the transformation of engineering research and education itself.
Professor Hesham El Gamal said the ambition for the next phase is even greater.
“The success of the past two years gives us an extraordinary foundation to build upon. We are now looking for the next generation of academic leaders, people with bold ideas, exceptional ambition and the desire to shape the future of engineering. AI is creating opportunities we could barely have imagined a few years ago, and we want Sydney to be one of the places where that future is invented.”
Header image: provided.