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Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University

David Tuffley is an internationally recognized thought leader on the social impacts of technology. His diverse expertise spans software engineering, cybersecurity, ethics, futurism, and communication.

David’s research and writings on how emerging technologies like AI will transform employment and society have reached over 2.5 million readers globally. He is a regular contributor to mainstream media, a sought-after speaker, and an inspirational educator guiding the next generation of technologists and leaders.

David’s professional accomplishments range from publishing 80+ non-fiction books to being a sought-after "techsplainer" on national and international radio/TV. David regularly visits Berlin and Silicon Valley to study the mechanisms of global innovation. With decades of experience across academia, research, industry, and government, David is well positioned to engage with organizations worldwide on projects at the intersection of technology, ethics, policy, and society.

David is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics and CyberSecurity at Griffith University's School of ICT in Brisbane/Gold Coast. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

David's formal qualifications include a PhD (Software Engineering), M Phil (Information Systems), Graduate Certificate in Higher Education (Griffith University), Bachelor of Arts (Psychology, English Literature, Anthropology) (Queensland).

David has published 70+ articles in The Conversation, with republication in the Fairfax and News Ltd press in Australia and newspapers like the Washington Post and Chicago Tribune in the U.S. His articles have reached over 2.5 million readers and been translated into German, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian and Japanese. David also has over 60 peer reviewed academic articles.

Among several other high-profile events, David was a guest panelist in the 2017 World Science Festival, and guest speaker at the 2019 Festival.

David spends a month each January since 2016 at Humboldt University in Berlin, the high technology capital of eastern Europe, and San Jose/San Francisco where he studies innovation culture with a view to fostering same in South East Queensland.

Outside of academia, David writes commercial non-fiction on a broad range of topics; from Comparative Religion, Anthropology, Psychology, Ancient and Modern History, Linguistics, Rhetoric, Philosophy, Architectural History, Environments and Ecosystems.

With over 80 non-fiction titles in print and eBook and millions of verified downloads, David is a non-fiction author of international significance. Beyond the English-speaking world, his non-fiction books have been translated into Mandarin, German and Japanese.

David is Director and Founder of Altiora Publications. Established in 1993, Altiora is one of the oldest book-sellers on the Web, pre-dating Amazon by several years. Altiora's Software Engineering project management titles have been selling continuously since 1994. Altiora offers its titles at reasonable rates for both print and eBook versions to make them accessible to low-income readers for whom the high price of books is a barrier. See http://www.altiorapublications.com/

See author Bio at Amazon: https://amzn.to/44g4gAw

David's PhD thesis is titled "A Design Research approach to developing a Process Reference Model for Software Engineering" and it was submitted to Griffith University in 2009. The key findings of his thesis are:

- Proposed a new method for developing a process reference model for software engineering, based on the design research paradigm. A process reference model is a set of best practices that can be used to guide and improve software development processes.
- Applied this method to create a process reference model for agile software engineering, which is a popular and effective approach to software development that emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, and customer satisfaction. He used the ISO/IEC 12207 standard as a framework and incorporated the principles and practices of agile methods such as Scrum, Extreme Programming, and Lean Software Development.
- Evaluated his process reference model using a case study of a software development project in a large Australian organization. He collected data from interviews, surveys, observations, and documents, and analyzed them using qualitative and quantitative methods. He found that his process reference model was useful, usable, and effective in improving the software development process and outcomes.

The findings of his thesis can be applied in the real world by:

- Software engineers and managers who want to adopt or improve their agile software development processes. They can use his process reference model as a reference point and customize it according to their specific needs and contexts.
- Software engineering researchers and educators who want to advance the knowledge and practice of agile software engineering. They can use his method as an example of how to conduct design research in software engineering and how to create and evaluate process reference models.
- Software engineering standards developers and assessors who want to update or align their standards with the current state of the art in agile software engineering. They can use his process reference model as an input or a benchmark for their standards development and assessment activities.

Experience

  • 1999–present
    Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & Sociotechnical Studies, School of ICT - Griffith University
  • 2004–present
    Research fellow, Institute of Integrated & Intelligent Systems (Research Institute, Griffith University)

Education

  • 2009 
    Griffith University, PhD Software Engineering
  • 2005 
    Griffith University, M Phil, Information Systems
  • 2005 
    Griffith University, Grad Cert in Higher Education
  • 1982 
    University of Queensland, Bachelor of Arts
  • 1977 
    Queensland University of Technology, Assoc Dip in Health Surveying

Research Areas

  • Software Engineering (080309)
  • Information Systems (0806)
  • Applied Ethics (2201)
  • Anthropology (1601)
  • Technology (10)

Honours

Vice-Chancellor's Media Excellence Award, Griffith University 2015.