Associate Professor Paul Kwan has significant experience in Computer Science, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Data Science education and research for over 20 years. He is currently Associate Professor - ICT in the School of Engineering and Technology (SET) at CQUniversity Australia (Brisbane Campus). Before joining CQUniversity, he was Professor in Data Analytics at Melbourne Institute of Technology (2000-2023), where he led the Data Analytics program and coordinated Master of Data Analytics, Graduate Certificate in Data Analytics, and Master of Business Analytics. From 2004 to 2019, he was with the School of Science and Technology at University of New England (UNE) in Armidale, NSW, where he was Professor and Discipline Head of Computer Science between 2014 and 2019.
Associate Professor Kwan's primary research fields are Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. Within these fields, his expertise include Computer Vision, Data Mining, Machine Learning, and Computational Modelling. His expertise has informed applied research in image retrieval, biometrics authentication, dimensionality reduction, agent-based modelling, digital agriculture, and learning analytics. To date, he has published over 120 peer-reviewed papers and refereed articles in international conferences and journals in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Pattern Recognition, Digital Agriculture, and Education Sciences.
In addition, Associate Professor Kwan has successfully received competitive research grants from external organizations including Australian Research Council Discovery Project (ARC DP), Australia-China Science and Research Fund, Department of Agriculture, Animal Health Australia, Australian Sheep CRC, Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, and Australian Office for Learning and Teaching.
Associate Professor Kwan has significant experience developing and managing Computer Science, Information and Communication Technology, Data Analytics, and Business Analytics courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His high quality of teaching has been recognised through multiple teaching commendations and awards received over his academic career.
In addition, Associate Professor Kwan has an outstanding record of successful Higher Degree Research and Honours students’ supervision. Until now, he has supervised 15 PhDs (10 principally), 3 Research Masters, and 4 Honours students (three were University Medalists) to completion. In 2014 and 2015, he was designated a Vice Chancellor's Scholar Nominated Academic for excellent contributions in mentoring high achieving Computer Science students at UNE.
Curtin University (Australia)
University of Tsukuba (Japan)
University of Arizona (USA)
Cornell University (USA)
Associate Professor Kwan started his academic career in Australia at The University of New England (UNE) in Armidale, NSW. Appointed a Lecturer in Computer Science in 2004, he was promoted to Professor in January 2017. Between 2014 and 2019, he was the Discipline Leader of Computer Science in the School of Science and Technology. In that role, Associate Professor Kwan led the teaching and learning initiatives, research, and administration activities for the discipline which comprised 10 academic staff.
Between January 2020 to November 2023, he was Professor and Program Leader in Data Analytics at Melbourne Institute of Technology (MIT), where he provided leadership and course coordination for the Master of Data Analytics, Graduate Certificate in Data Analytics, and Master of Business Analytics. Until now, Associate Professor Kwan has significant experience in leading an academic discipline at both a public university and a non-university higher education provider in his academic career.
Associate Professor Kwan's PhD study was fully funded by the Monbukagakusho Scholarship, which is a prestigious academic scholarship awarded by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
He was the recipient of multiple teaching commendations for various Computer Science and Information Technology subjects he coordinated and taught at UNE. These commendations were awarded for high overall student satisfaction, exemplary teaching practices, and low attrition in teaching. Furthermore, he was recognised externally by THEunijobs as Lecturer of the Year (Top 10 Nominations) at UNE in 2009.
In 2014 and 2015, Associate Professor Kwan was designated by the Vice Chancellor at UNE as a VC Scholar Nominated Academic for his significant contributions in mentoring high achieving Bachelor of Computer Science students.
Computer Science/Information Technology
Data Analytics
In terms of services to his discipline, Associate Professor Kwan is currently a Senior Member of Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), a Senior Member of IEEE, and a Professional Member of Australian Computer Society (ACS). He has actively contributed to the broader research community through serving as Associate Editor for International Journal of Wavelets, Multiresolution and Information Processing (ISSN 0219-6913), Section Editor of 'Precision and Digital Agriculture' for Agronomy (ISSN: 2073-4395), Guest Editor for Sensors (ISSN: 1424-8220), and Expert Assessor for ARC National Competitive Grant Schemes.
Associate Professor Kwan has also actively involved in promoting advances in AI applications in Precision and Digital Agriculture through organising focused special issues in relevant refereed journals. In 2021, he organised the Special Issue on “Data-Driven Agricultural Innovations” for the Agronomy Journal which attracted a series of high-quality contributions. Similarly, he was the principal guest editor for another two Special Issues, one on “Data-Driven Agricultural Innovations with Artificial Intelligence and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)” for the Agriculture Journal and another on “Advances in Agriculture Sensor Technologies and Their Applications in Precision Agriculture and Smart Farming” for the Sensors Journal. Currently, he is the principal guest editor for the open Special Issue on "Intelligent Sensors and AI for Sustainable Agriculture and Ecological Solutions" for the Sensors Journal.
Member, Australian Computer Society (2006 - Present)
Senior Member, Association for Computing Machinery (2008 - Present)
Senior Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (2010 - Present)
I am interested in establishing interdisciplinary research collaborations with stakeholders from government and industries.
Associate Editor: International Journal of Wavelets, Multiresolution and Information Processing (World Scientific, ISSN: 0219-6913)
Section Editor - “Precision and Digital Agriculture”: Agronomy Journal (MDPI, ISSN: 2073-4395)
I am currently accredited for supervision in the following:
Specialist Studies in Education - Learning analytics
Applied computing - Applications in social sciences and education
Artificial intelligence - Autonomous agents and multiagent systems
Computer vision and multimedia computation - Image and video coding
Computer vision and multimedia computation - Pattern recognition
Data management and data science - Data engineering and data science
Machine learning - Deep learning
Statistics - Statistical data science