Professor Katrina Falkner is Executive Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology at the University of Adelaide, having served formerly as Executive Dean for the Faculty of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences and Head of School of the School of Computer Science. Professor Falkner leads the Computer Science Education Research Group (CSER), and formerly the Modelling & Analysis Program within the Centre for Distributed and Intelligent Technologies (CDIT) (2011-2021). Professor Falkner has extensive experience in industry consultation, working with DST Group, NICTA, Google US, Google Australia & New Zealand, the Department of Education and Training, and Telstra Foundation, crossing both the areas of Computer Science Education and Distributed Defence Systems. Professor Falkner has attracted over $26 million in government and industry funding to support her research and community work.
Addressing inequities in education and access to technology underpins Professor Falkner’s work. Professor Falkner leads the development of the CSER MOOCs – open online courses for Australian teachers to help prepare them for the Digital Technologies Curriculum, and leads the national CSER Digital Technologies Education Program, designed to support Australian teachers in teaching Computer Science, with an emphasis on supporting young women, low-SES and Indigenous populations. This program, funded by a $7.2 million contract through the Commonwealth Department of Education and Training, provides critical support to Australian teachers as they embrace the teaching of Computer Science as a new area, assisting all young Australians to see themselves as Computer Scientists. This approach has now been expanded as part of the Mathematics Massive Open Online Courses and Mathematics Hub project, in collaboration with Education Services Australia.
Professor Falkner contributes to a number of key ICT groups, including the Australian Council of ICT Deans (ACDICT), the ACDICT Learning and Teaching Academy Executive (2011-2012), the Inaugural Australian Computer Society Education Board (2015-2017), the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) Digital Technologies Stakeholder Board (2014-present), President of the Australian Council of Deans of ICT (2018-2020), and Chair of the ACM Special Interest Group in Computer Science Education (Australasia) (2016-2018).
Professor Falkner has received numerous awards for her efforts in Computer Science leadership and education, including 2015 EdTechSA Leader of the Year, 2015 EdTechSA/ International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) ‘Making IT Happen’ Award, an Australian Computing Society (ACS) Gold Award as an ICT Higher Education Educator of the Year (2015), the Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE) and ACS National Leader of the Year Award (2016), the CORE John Hughes Distinguished Service Award (2017) and was named in The Australian’s 2021 list of Australia’s top 100 Innovators.