Professor Giselle Rampersad

Dean, Education

College of Science and Engineering

place Tonsley Building (3.12)
GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, South Australia

Professor Giselle Rampersad is the Dean of Education in the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University providing executive leadership within the university.

She is also a Professor in Innovation and Co-Director of the Centre for Defence Engineering Research and Training at Flinders University. She was named STEMM Educator of the Year in 2021 in the SA Science Excellence and Innovation Awards. Under her leadership, Flinders University has been named Best Future Skills Provider for 2024 on a national level at the Defence Workforce Awards.

She is the Director for the award winning Diploma of Digital Technologies, successfully securing about $10M in funding. Under her leadership, the program received national recognition, winning the Australian Defence Industry Award for the Training and Mentorship Program of the Year in 2020, by Defence Connect. It also won the Industry Collaboration award at the SA Training Awards in 2021. Since its start in 2020, this industry 4.0/manufacturing related program has undertaken by over 450 employees from BAE Systems Australia, SMEs, STEM teachers and Wine/AgTech.

In 2024, she collaborated with ASC Ptd Ltd and BAE Systems Australia to co-design the innovative Degree Apprenticeship in Mechanical Engineering to build the workforce in high-demand areas.

She leads various major defence research projects including with Defence Science and Technology Group.

Her key goals focus on innovation in three domains – sustainabililty, manufacturing and defence (including across workforce/education and research/technological innovation). These align to areas of strategic importance on a State, national and global level around decarbonisation, manufacturing and defence for resilience into the future.

Qualifications

She has an interdisciplinary educational background including a PhD in Innovation and Technology Management (Adelaide University, Australia) and an MSc in Internet Systems and e-Business (Durham University, UK, Computer Science Department). Her primary research area is innovation and technology management, including devising strategies for companies in managing innovation and developing policies with governments in building innovation capacity. A key part of her research includes digital transformation and human factors in the adoption of disruptive technologies. Hear a podcast on her research.

PhD Innovation and Technology Management, University of Adelaide (Australia)
Her PhD topic was: What are the key factors in managing collaborative innovation networks and how do they lead to successful technology transfer? Networks comprising government, university and business involved in innovation have grown in international prominence. Despite increases in these phenomena, few studies identify their critical success factors. Consequently, her research used both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to contribute to theory development in various literatures including innovation and technology management, marketing and information systems. The study also provided guidelines for practitioners involved in multi-sectoral collaboration and innovation. The study spanned various industries including defence, ICT, biotechnology, nanotechnology and wine.

Master of Science in Internet Systems and E-Business, Department of Computer Science, Durham University (UK)
Subjects included Software Engineering, Java Programming and Distributed Systems among others.

BSc Management Studies, University of the West Indies
Finance (major), marketing and information systems (minors)

Graduate Certificate in Education (Higher Education), Flinders University (Australia)

Honours, awards and grants

Current funded research projects include:

Australian Government Department of Defence, Defence Science Technology Group. Digital Twin of a Shock Absorber, with Supashock July 2021 April 2023. Furhter info.

BAE Systems and Flinders University industry 4.0 research: Further info

$2.9M research program with BAE Systems, ASC Shipbuilding and the Innovative Manufacturing CRC on industry 4.0 and human factors.

Naval Group industry 4.0 research:Further info

ARC Linkage project LP17 0100718: Economic complexity as a driver of innovation and smart specialisation (2018-2020), with Department of Innovation and Skills.

BAE Systems Australia, Industry 4.0 for supply chain competitiveness. (2019-2020) with AMGC Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre. See: further info

ACEN Australian Collaborative Education Network (2017-2018) Research Grant. An employer-student model for developing innovation and employability skills in STEM WIL students. Further info and podcast here

Department of Industry, Innovation and Science: Entrepreneurs Program Evaluation (2018-2019).

Australian Army. Exploring Australian industry capability to support Force scaling up (2019-2010). See report.

ARENA Australian Renewable Energy Agency, Development of National Roadmap for the Effective Deployment of Concentrating Solar Energy in Australia (2018).

Awards:

Key responsibilities
  1. Dean (Education) College of Science and Engineering;
  2. Co-Director, Centre for Defence Engineering Research and Training;
  3. Program Director, Diploma of Digital Technologies
Teaching interests

Her teaching interests include innovation and technology management, information systems and project management

Topic coordinator
ENGR7781 Innovation in Medical Devices
ENGR3704 Project Management for Engineering and Science
ENGR9704 Project Management and Innovation
ENGR1210 Innovation and Industry 4.0
Interests
  • Innovation
Further information

Her Story, South Australian Museum: Inspiring Women in STEM
STEMM Educator of the Year 2021 #SAScienceAwards: See video

The Conversation