AUT Business professor appointed to Data Futures Working Group
AUT Professor of Economics Rhema Vaithianathan has been appointed to a working group that will lead work on how New Zealand uses and shares data.
The Data Futures Working Group brings together a diverse range of data experts who have been appointed by Cabinet to direct the work of the Data Futures Partnership, an independent group established by Government.
Professor Vaithianathan’s appointment recognises her depth of expertise in the use of big data for a variety of health and social services applications, including the development of a predictive risk model that can identify the risk of child abuse.
“We have a tremendous opportunity in this working group. I want to see some mind-blowing, paradigm shifting projects that pave the way. Projects that will engage us, may enrage us – but will ultimately get us talking about the power of Big Data,” says Professor Vaithianathan.
Building on the work of the 2013 Data Futures Forum, the Partnership will lead the creation of a trusted, healthy data-use ecosystem that generates economic and social value for New Zealand.
Its work will include launching catalyst projects that expand the use of data and developing guidelines that clarify the ethics around data use, after consulting with New Zealanders.
“The Data Futures Partnership is an exciting opportunity to potentially deliver economic and social value for New Zealand by solving issues that limit trusted data-use and innovation,” said Finance Minister Bill English.
The Data Futures Working Group
- Dame Diane Robertson (Chair)
- Stephen England-Hall, CEO of Loyalty New Zealand
- Lillian Grace, CEO of Figure.NZ
- Professor Miriam Lips, Professor of Digital Government at Victoria University’s School of Government
- Professor Rhema Vaithianathan, AUT Business School
- Tina Porou, Head of Sustainability at Contact Energy
- John Whitehead, former Secretary to the Treasury