Zena Assad

Dr Zena Assad is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Engineering at the Australian National University (ANU), affiliated with the Aerospace cluster and the Gender Institute. She serves as a Fellow of the Trusted Autonomous Systems Defence Cooperative Research Centre (TAS DCRC) and participates in Standards Australia advisory committees for UAS (ISO/TC 20/SC 16) and Artificial Intelligence (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42/WG 3), bridging aerospace engineering, autonomous systems, and human-machine teaming.

Education:

• Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering
• PhD in decision making under uncertainty for strategic air traffic flow management

Prior industry experience includes liaison work between civil/military airspace, Australia's satellite-based augmentation systems project, and regulatory research with Australia's aviation authority. Her research centers on safety implications of human-machine teaming, with expertise in UAS traffic management, autonomous systems regulation, trusted autonomy, and AI integration in complex environments.

Recent publications reveal a cohesive trajectory in human-AI collaboration, emphasizing trust frameworks for human-machine operations, safety assurance in autonomous aircraft software, and AI's societal impact on library services. This work demonstrates her transdisciplinary approach connecting aerospace engineering, systems safety, and socio-technical implications of emerging technologies.

Research leadership includes:

• Principal Investigator for "A path forward for assuring and certifying complex software in aviation context" (2024)
• Co-Investigator for "Report on AI and Library Services - School of Cybernetics" (2021)
• Registered supervision of research students

She co-hosts the Algorithmic Futures podcast exploring societal impacts of algorithmic systems. Within ANU, she operates through the Aerospace cluster and TAS DCRC, engaging defense and civil aviation stakeholders in transdisciplinary teams focused on real-world implementation of autonomous technologies.