UNSW's Education Festival 2025 Programs

View schedules for Wednesday and Thursday on this page

Wednesday 26 November

Watch the Wednesday session recording

Running 9am to 5pm in UNSW Teaching Commons and online.

(If viewing on a mobile, please turn your device to landscape view)

TIME
SESSION
PROGRAM ITEM

9.15am

Open & welcome
Prof. Tini Mathies, PVC Education

9.30am

Short talks & highlights

hosted by UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture

Welcome
A/Prof. William Clapton, Prof. Emma Kirby
 
AI and Blended Learning for Connection: Using Educational Technology to bring students together
Dr Sara Mashayekh, Dr Ali Darejeh
 
Skills as a bridge: Connecting curriculum to societal impact 
Prof. Stephen Doherty, Jennifer Perkins, Josephine Holecek
 

Trailblazing Collaboration: Embedding Circularity and ESG into Environmental Management Education
Dr Tania Leimbach, Tracy Tran

10.30am

Morning Tea ☕🥐

11.00am

UN's Sustainable Development Goals in Education 

hosted by UNSW Business

Diverse Horizons: VR for Transformative Inclusive Education
A/Prof. Veronica Jiang
 
2024 SDG Education showcase, best project
Dr Poon Leung
 
2025 SDG Education showcase, best project
Dr Natalie Oh
 
Q&A: open to audience

12.00pm

Short presentation

Developing Critical Thinking on Social License Through Assessment (educator and student perspective)

A/Prof. Simit Raval, Celine Gironda

12.15pm

Lunchtime poster gallery 🖼️🥪🥗

View poster details

1.00pm

New cross-school societal impact challenge projects in Science

hosted by UNSW Science

 

Welcome and introduction to Faculty of Science Societal Challenges
A/Prof. Rebecca LeBard
 
Launch of Science cross school Societal Impact challenges
A/Prof. Scott Mooney
 
Cross-school Science challenges with the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences (BABS) SINC Challenge
Dr Dominic Glover, Dr Gee Chong Ling
 
Student participation in authentic research projects: SCIF2001
Dr Ben Montet, A/Prof. Scott Mooney
 
Plans for Faculty of Science Societal Challenges: lessons learnt and ways forward
A/Prof. Rebecca LeBard, A/Prof. Scott Mooney, Dr Ben Montet, Prof Angela Moles (panel discusion)

2.00pm

Resilience, Security and Cohesion Through Innovation and Education

hosted by UNSW Canberra

 

Join in person from 1.30pm in SR06, Building 32, UNSW Canberra. Lunch will be provided.

Introduction
Prof. Jian Zhang (presenting from UNSW Canberra)
 
Head in the clouds – geographic digital twinning to promote digital innovation and equity in physical geography  
Dr Alissa Flatley (presenting from UNSW Canberra)
 
Secure Escape: AI-Resilient Cybersecurity Education Through Interactive Assessment Rooms 
Dr Fida Hasan (presenting from UNSW Canberra)
 
Drop-in centre for collaborative learning
Dr Tristan Reekie (presenting from the Teaching Commons)

3.00pm

Short afternoon break

3.15pm

Participatory activity / workshop

Embedding First Nations Knowledge Systems: Redesigning Assessment from Program and Programmatic Perspectives

Hosted by the UNSW Medicine & Health Nexus team in collaboration with the Blakcademy

4.00pm

Social & celebrations + Exemplary Teaching Awards winners

hosted by UNSW Scientia Education Academy & PVCE 🏆🧀🍷

Wednesday abstracts & presenter bios

Thursday 27 November

Running 9am to 5.30pm in UNSW Roundhouse and online.

(If viewing on a mobile, please turn your device to landscape view)

 
Time
Main stage
Upstairs stage

9.00am

Registration, open & welcome
Prof. Sarah Maddison, DVCESE and Prof. Tini Mathies, PVCE

9.30am

Parallel lightning talks

hosted by UNSW Medicine and Health

 

Curricula in action (for societal impact goals)

View all talks & speakers

Parallel lightning talks

hosted by UNSW Medicine and Health

 

Interdisciplinary & interprofessional learning

View all talks & speakers

10.30am

Morning Tea ☕🥐

10.45am

World Café: Small-group presentations

hosted by UNSW Engineering

Presented by Sami Kara, Academic Director, Vertically Integrated Projects

 

Inspiring examples of ENG societal projects

Prof. Gavin Conibeer - Space Power Systems
Prof. Robert Tayler - Sunswift
Dr Ivan Perez-Wurfl - Mini Solar
Dr Xiaoyu Ai - MINEX

 

 

11.15am

Workshop

The role of the Intellectual Property Tool in embedding Indigenous 

Knowledges in curricula 

hosted by PVCIE Christine Evans

11.45am

Measuring SIF: short talks
Impact indicators - A/Prof. Marina Nehme
Mapping impact of alumni - Dr Sharon Aris

Workshop

Climate Fresk: Embedding climate literacy into curriculum at UNSW 

Dr Tania Leimbach and Prof. Bronwen Morgan

12.15pm

Poster & Demos Gallery & Lunch Break 🖼️🥪🥗

View poster details

1.15pm

Student panel: outcomes of societal impact learning, chaired by Prof. Sarah Maddison

Tess Gordon (Alumna of UNSW’s ADA program), Mondira Paul (Student: M&H), Alofainamailelagi (Ina) Nickel (Student: Engineering), Vincent Fitzgerald Trajano (Student: Business)

2.15pm

Mini hackathon

Brainstorming models of Societal Impact Challenge Projects

hosted by UNSW Nexus SI Squad

 

Tables:

Project-based learning - Dr Atefeh Zamani

Inquiry-based learning - Dr Will Scates Frances

SI Internships and their relationship to SICPs - A/Prof. Scott Mooney

SI Competency-based World Placements - Dr Cherie Lucas

Field-Based Learning - Working in transdiciplinary ways in 

specific locations - Dr Benjamin Phipps

Conceptual Frameworks for SICP pedagogy within Program-

level Frameworks - A/Prof. Priya Khanna Pathak

Parallel workshop: Universal Design for Learning 3.0 

Learning Without Limits: Design for All, Benefit Everyone

hosted by UNSW Nexus UDL Guild

3.30pm

In conversation: 
Interdisciplinary problem-based learning: insights from Europe and Australia

Dr Christina Nyström (Director of Learning, Interdisciplinary Transformation University Austria), Prof. Alison Beavis (UNSW) and Mondira Paul (Student: M&H)

4.15pm

UNSW 2025 Teaching Awards Ceremony 

with the Vice-Chancellor Professor Attila Brungs

5pm

Celebrations over drinks & nibbles 🎉🧀🍷

Thursday abstracts & presenter bios

Presentation details: Thursday sessions

Lightning talks: main room (9.30 - 10.30)
Scaffolding Authentic Learning in Health Professional Programs Using VR & AI
A/Prof. Michael Lee, Dr Serena Hong, Dr Wei-Ju Chang
 
Escape Room Pedagogy: Vision Science and Societal Impact
Dr Ingrid Jimenez Barbosa, Dr Revathy Mani, Dr Lucy Jo
 
Immersive Learning with VR and Generative AI: Overcoming Equipment Costs
Dr Ali Darejeh, Dr Sara Mashayekh
 
Integrating Indigenous Knowledge for Societal Impact
Dr Linh Nguyen, Dr DongJu Lee, Dr Misol Kim, Dr Tran Nguyen, Carlos Brennan, Peter Cooley
 
The 3Ds of Impact: Dream, Define, Do ~ Co-Creating Learning Journeys
Tahmina Akhter
 
Societal Impact in Undergraduate Curricula: A Transformative Learning Approach
Priya Khanna Pathak, Dr Andrew Dymock, Dr Benjamin Phipps
 
From Classroom to Community: Using Visual Literacy to Improve Access and Equity
Brenda Tronson, Myriam Boisseau, Ruchira Abeyratna
 
From Industry to Curriculum to Classroom and Back Again: Closing the Loop on AI
A/Prof. Diana Perche, Dr Sharon Aris
 
The Sustainable Citizen: Curriculum-to-Credential Pathway
Dr George Joukhadar, Maria George, Emma Mills, Dr Chris Maloney, Dr Benjamin Phipps
 
Lightning talks (upstairs room)
Seeing, Touching, Thinking: UNSW Library Experiential Learning Program
Dr Megan Fizell, Brook Morgan
 
Crossing Disciplines: Medical and Psychology Students Learning Together
Dr Anita McGregor, Dr Kalli Spencer
 
Medical Education Enhancement Training Using AI Virtual Patient
Dr Betty Chan
 
Co-Designing Programmatic Approaches to Curriculum for Health, Wellbeing & Impact
Diana Turnip, Dr Daniela Castro de Jong
 
Enhancing Education Governance Processes in Partnership with Blakcademy
Catherine Yang, A/Prof. Melody Muscat, A/Prof. Anita Heywood 
 
Reflecting, Connecting, and Growing Together – Cultivating Inclusive Leadership
Amanda Miura-Carlon, Bronte Tartak, Maja Paleka
 
Learning Through Engaging with Cultural, Architectural and Linguistic Diversity
Dr Dijana Alic, Dr Ayshe Eli
 
Co-Designing AI-Driven Virtual Patients for Culturally Safe Communication
Silas Taylor, Melody Muscat, John Towney, Karen Hielscher, Tina Holmes, David Meharg, Lauren Carr, Miriam Cavanagh, Michael Maw, Anthony Nicholls
 
Multidisciplinary Student Rural Health Clinics: Enabling Healthy Lives
Shannon Pike, Tricia Robson, Sarah Heath, student (TBC)