We are pleased to announce that Dr Alex Fischer will be joining HTI as a part-time Fellow. Alex will be supporting HTI Labs to integrate continuous and adaptive learning techniques into decision-making for both community-led and national policy initiatives.
Alex brings cross-sector knowledge to HTI, with deep expertise at the interface of collective intelligence, public policy and social impact. He has a background in co-designing and establishing blended finance rural drinking water enterprises, leading global research initiatives on environmental and human security, as well as directing strategic foresight, research and insights portfolios across large organisations.
At HTI, Alex will focus on both advancing research and designing practical initiatives to enhance collective decision-making approaches, leveraging innovations from the global data revolution and Bayesian adaptive learning approaches.
“As public policy paradigms shift from optimization to being more human-centered, Australian communities are increasingly seeking direct involvement in decisions that affect them,” Alex said.
“However, social policy networks and community leaders often lack timely and clear insights into the effectiveness of public services and community programs. The information needed for making joint decisions—understanding tradeoffs and prioritising opportunities—is frequently unavailable.
“For example, our current analytic methods to inform prioritisation of causal drivers and experiment with how we provide support are insufficient to fully meet the needs of families and children, particularly for early childhood development programs and to support school-aged children overcome barriers to finish school. As we collectively think about broader issues of societal health in the context of major technological change, how do we adapt and sustain civic participation platforms and trustworthy institutions, strengthening social connections and community contributions?”
According to Professor Sally Cripps, HTI Director of Technology, this is a major opportunity to leverage forms of AI and machine learning alongside new data collection, analytic methods and community leadership.
Alex's project will advance both the theory and practice for how technologies and institutions are designed to enable adaptive policy making, accelerate democratic decision-making, and ensure human-centered governance. We are excited to see the positive impact of his work on our community and beyond. - Professor Sally Cripps, HTI Director of Technology