Supervision

Recruitment Information for Prospective Students

I am available to supervise honours, masters, and PhD students at RMIT University.

I have no funded positions available. However, opportunities exist for exceptional candidates who are eligible for a scholarship through RMIT University. These scholarships are highly competitive yet attainable for applicants with solid research credentials. If you believe you meet the criteria for these scholarships and are interested in collaborating with me, please contact me.

Key Selection Criteria

You must have two of the following clearly stated in your application:

  • Academic excellence: A first-class honours degree or Master’s with a research component from a recognised university.
  • High academic standing: Ranking within the top 10% of your graduating class at a nationally accredited university.
  • Graduation from a top-tier institution: Ranking within the top third of your class at a globally recognised university ranked within the top 100 worldwide.
  • Research publications: Authorship or co-authorship of a paper published in a reputable conference or journal such as ACM SIGIR, WSDM, CHI, CIKM, WebConf, ACL, CUI, CHIIR, TOIS, IPM, or ECIR.

Candidates with one or more of the following will have an advantage:

  • Professional recommendations: A strong recommendation letter from a respected academic or industry professional in a related field. Preferably someone who I have worked with in an organising capacity (research or organisation), through research, or is part of my research network.
  • Academic transcripts: Provide complete copies of your undergraduate and/or postgraduate transcripts.
  • Research statement: Write a brief statement outlining how your research interests align with my work. Please review my recent publications to ensure there is a strong overlap in research areas. If this is not the case, ensure you create a good narrative as to why I should supervise you.

Keep your application concise and focused on how you meet the key selection criteria. I receive high volumes of inquiries, so applications that clearly demonstrate qualifications and a strong interest in my research will receive priority. I may be unable to respond to applications that do not closely align with my research interests.

If you do not meet the selection criteria, I encourage you to consider enrolling in the Master with Minor Thesis program at RMIT University to explore research opportunities under my supervision.

Current PhD Students

Sara Fahad Dawood Al Lawati. “Where do queries come from? An eye-tracking study of how users are influenced to search“. RMIT University. (with Mark Sanderson and Dana Mckay)

Jiaman He. “Optimizing Information Retrieval in LLM-based conversational search engines by assessing physiological signals“. RMIT University. (with Damiano Spina and Dana Mckay)

Current Master and Honours Students

Nam Duong (Masters). “Digital accessibility and user experiences for people with vision impairment accessing e-commerce sites”. RMIT University, 2025. (with Kate Anderson)

Kevin Himasha Satharasinghege Don (Masters). RMIT University, 2025. (with Danula Hettiachchi and Oleg Zendel)

Former Students

Dr Leila Tavakoli (PhD). “Evaluating engaging clarification questions in information retrieval“. RMIT University, 2023. (with Mark Sanderson, Falk Scholer, and Hamed Zamani)

Synne Odegaard (Masters). “Investigating user queries through interaction logs with Google Assistant”. RMIT University, 2024.

Tony Smith (Masters). “How Well Can A Pre-Trained Large Language Model Detect Sexism in Tweets?“. RMIT University, 2024. (with Damiano Spina)

James Wolfe (Honours). “Exploring Digital Hoarding: Psychological Factors, Mental Health, and Social Functioning Outcomes”. RMIT University, 2023. (with Dana Mckay and James Collett)

Kanika Mehra (Honours). “The most influential side of bias in spreading misinformation online: Supply vs Demand”. RMIT University, 2022. (with Danula Hettiachchi and Mark Sanderson)

Shubhdeep Singh (Masters). “A tool to perform Wizard of Oz experiments in speech-only question answering scenarios”. RMIT University, 2020. (with Damiano Spina)

Teaching

2025: Course coordinator and lecturer at RMIT University. Course: Case Studies in Data Science (COSC2669/COSC2816)

2024: Course coordinator and lecturer at RMIT University. Course: Case Studies in Data Science (COSC2669/COSC2816)

2024: Lecturer at RMIT University. Course: Usability Engineering (COSC1182/1183)

2023: Course coordinator and lecturer at RMIT University. Course: Case Studies in Data Science (COSC2669/COSC2816)

2023: Lecturer at RMIT University. Course: Usability Engineering (COSC1182/1183)

2022: Lecturer at RMIT University. Course: Usability Engineering (COSC1182/1183)

2022: Lecturer at RMIT University. Course: Innovation Ecosystem and the Future of Work (OENG2250)

2022: Lecturer at The University of Melbourne. Course: Evaluating the User Experience (INFO90004)

2021: Lecturer at The University of Melbourne. Course: Evaluating the User Experience (INFO90004)

2017–2018: Casual lecturer at RMIT University. Course: Usability Engineering (COSC1182/1183)