Professor Peter Dowd has more than 40 years experience in academic research, teaching and administration and in consulting to industry. His research interests include geostatistical modelling and prediction in mineral resource, petroleum reservoir and environmental applications; geological modelling and mathematical geology; stochastic modelling and quantified risk assessment in natural resource and environmental applications; definitions and reporting of ore reserves; mineral economics; financial analysis and modelling; operational research; and computer-aided mine design. The context of much of this work has been the modelling and estimation of orebodies and hydrocarbon reservoirs, often in very complex geological settings; the generation of three-dimensional orebody models as the basis for optimal mine design and scheduling; establishing resources and reserves together with associated confidence limits; the design of blasting and loading operations to optimise mineral extraction; and the quantification of geological and technical risk associated with resource extraction. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering; a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and has been cited as one of Australia’s 100 most influential engineers by the Institution of Engineers Australia. He is a former President of the UK Institution of Mining and Metallurgy and is currently President of the International Association for Mathematical Geosciences (IAMG). In 2016 he was awarded the Krumbein Medal, the highest award given in alternate years by the IAMG to senior scientists for career achievement.

Gabrielle has over 20 years’ international experience in strategy and business development, operations, and change management. Currently, Gabrielle leads Prominent Hill copper-gold-silver operations, one of the largest underground trucking operations in Australia. Gabrielle is one of the 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining and a 2020 Telstra Businesswomen’s Award winner. She is a Fellow of AusIMM, an Associate of the Australian Psychological Society and has qualifications in Commerce and Psychology. Gabrielle sits on the South Australian Chamber of Mines & Energy (SACOME) Council, the AusIMM Council for Diversity & Inclusion, and the Board of the National Trust (South Australia).

Professor Peter Knights is Professor and Discipline Leader for Mining Engineering with the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering at the University of Queensland. From 2006-2015 he held the BMA Chair in Mining. From 1996-2015 he was an Assistant and subsequently Associate Professor with the Catholic University of Chile, based in Santiago, Chile. His research interests focus on innovative mining systems with an emphasis on systems safety, value chain integration and asset management.

PhD student at The University of Queensland with research focus on mining technology implementation and financial impact. A Mining Engineer with over 26 years’ experience in production management, technical services and mine planning, technology implementation, equipment maintenance, contracts management, project management, underground backfilling, and mining consultancy services. Experience covers both hard-rock and coal in both underground and open pit mining. Worked in Zimbabwe, Malawi, South Africa, and Australia. Holds degrees in BSc. Mining Engineering (University of Zimbabwe), Master of Mining Engineering (UNSW), Master of Business Administration (Central Queensland University), and a Diploma of Share Trading and Investment (WealthWithin - Australia).

Dr. Borys Vorobyov has 40+ years of senior scientific experience and an international reputation in the software development field. He has a master’s degree in mathematics from Kharkiv National University of Ukraine, a PhD in Information Technologies from the Ukrainian Institute of Water Preservation, and business accreditation from Thames Valley University of London, UK. Later Borys got an academic scholarship to Imperial College (London). Borys has led numerous development efforts for spatial data processing systems and initiated four successful software development companies, where he held CTO and CEO positions. Borys is an author of several books and numerous scientific articles

Juncong Qu is a PhD candidate from the University of Queensland with an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering and management. His research focuses on applications of Virtual Reality (not Extended Reality) and Digital Twins in the mining sector.

Dr Mitra is currently the Head of Research at the Institute for Advanced Mining Technologies (AMT) at RWTH Aachen University, Germany since 2020. He is also a Visiting Associate Professor at the School of Mining Engineering at the University of Witwatersrand. His research expertise is in the field of mining systems, rock mechanics, digitalisation and innovative learning & teaching. Before joining AMT, he has worked at the School of Mining Engineering, Wits, South Africa and the School of Minerals and Energy Resources Engineering, UNSW Sydney.