ACS WA Dennis Moore Oration and 1962 Awards 2025
The WA Branch of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) annually presents leading edge orations by world class speakers, accompanied by a sumptuous three-course dinner.
Member $160.00
Member-Concessional $115.00
Non-Member $180.00
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About this event
PROUDLY SPONSORED BY:
Innovation sponsor
TTC Global
Cocktail sponsor
Curtin University
** If you are not a current ACS member, you will be asked to 'create an account'. Your details will be used for registration processes only. If you experience technical issues, please contact the WA Branch by e-mail acs.wa@acs.org.au **
The Dennis Moore Oration is the most prestigious forum held by ACS (WA) annually.
The annual Dennis Moore Oration was inaugurated in honour of Professor Dennis Moore AM, the father-figure of computing in Western Australia. Professor Moore was inaugural chair of the WA Computer Society (which 50+ years later became the ACS of today), the Director of the very first computing centre in WA, an executive director of Government Computing, and then appointed foundation Head of School of Computing at Curtin University of Technology in 1987.
The Dennis Moore Oration has been hosted by ACS (WA) since 2012 (on the 50th anniversary of the installation of the first computer at UWA in 1962 by Dennis Moore AM) with a range of distinguished speakers on an ICT topic supported by leading edge research, including Professor Andrew Rohl, Professor Ian Reid, Professor Craig Valli, Professor Svetha Venkatesh, Dr Adrian Boeing, Professor Matt Bellgard, Professor Jingbo Wang, Associate Professor Rachel Cardell-Oliver, Associate Professor Doina Olaru, Associate Professor Vidy Potdar and Professor Andreas Wicenec.
This year will be no exception, as we are honoured to have Professor Paul Harrigan, Deputy Dean and Professor of Marketing in UWA Business School at The University of Western Australia (UWA), present on this year's Oration topic "Truth, social. Where are we in the fight against misinformation?"
Abstract: The rapid spread of misinformation on social media, amplified by generative artificial intelligence, poses a significant global threat. In response, this study develops an explainable AI-based decision support framework for misinformation detection using transformer-based language models. Leveraging a large real-world dataset from Meta, we benchmark encoder-only, encoder-decoder, and decoder-only models in both general-purpose and domain-adapted forms. Results show that domain-specific fine-tuning significantly boosts performance, with a fine-tuned GPT model achieving the highest prediction accuracy, outperforming all other architectures. Importantly, we introduce two explanation strategies—one combining our best fine-tuned encoder-decoder model, BART with LIME, and GPT for feature-based reasoning, and another using GPT-4o-mini for end-to-end prediction and explanation—both designed to improve the interpretability and trustworthiness of artificial intelligence decisions for content moderators.
The winners of the 1962 Prize and 1962 Medal will also be announced. These prestigious awards, sponsored by Professor Dennis Moore AM, showcase the best and brightest minds in WA and are a celebration of local talent, student excellence and the next generation of ICT Professionals.
This year, the distinguished Oration event will be held at The UWA Club on Wednesday 15th October, 2025.
Registrations Open from 1800 for Pre-Dinner Drinks at 1815 - 1900 Start
**Dress Code: Formal dress attire**
Background - Dennis Moore Oration
The Oration is named after Dennis Moore, the father-figure of computing in Western Australia. Professor Moore was first chairman of the WA Computer Society, the Director of the very first computing centre in WA, an executive director of Government Computing, and then appointed foundation Head of School of Computing at Curtin University of Technology in 1987.
ACS 1962 Prize
The prize celebrates the year in which the first digital computer was installed in Western Australia and is sponsored by Dennis Moore FACS. This prestigious prize is annually awarded to an individual Computing/Information Systems student in Western Australia.
ACS 1962 Medal
The medal is named in honour of the year that Western Australia's first internally programmed digital computer was installed by Professor Dennis Moore FACS. This medal is awarded to the most outstanding completed Doctoral research (eg PhD) in Western Australia in the field of Information Technology and Computer Science.
The 2024 Award Winners
1962 Prize - Tom Sargent
1962 Medal - Dr Sayma Shammi
Speakers
Paul has a PhD from Ulster University in the UK (2008), was previously a Lecturer in Marketing at The University of Southampton (2008-12), and has been at UWA since 2012. Paul was also Vice-President of the Australasian and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC) 2019-2024.
Paul's research expertise runs across marketing and information systems, specifically digital transformation and misinformation. He has published his research in over 60 international journal articles and books, and presented it at over 60 international conferences.
Current projects investigate the use of debunking and prebunking methods in combatting misinformation on social media, the impact of slow motion video on social media follower engagement, and how to reduce the harm of social media ads on users’ body image.
Event Location
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