At Wise Realities, the Board of Directors leads the strategic decision-making towards conducting constructive research and providing the best possible services to the community, academia and industry.
Dr Ali Fardinpour
Founder & Executive Director
Dr Ali Fardinpour is an Immersive Technologies research scientist and the founder and Executive Director of Wise Realities Institute for Healthcare Emerging Technologies Research, a health promotion charity focused on immersive technologies as therapeutic and educational tools. Ali has been conducting research on computer simulations and immersive technologies for more than a decade in education and healthcare. In March 2019, Ali brought Healthcare Immersive Technologies into the spotlight, on executive and decision makers’ level, for the first time in Western Australia by holding the Inaugural Healthcare Immersive Technologies Symposium. Ali is deeply passionate about helping those challenged by health issues through innovation; enabling young researchers and innovators to grow; and contributing to the future of healthcare, as a human right, to be equally accessible and affordable for all.
Ali aims to lead the field towards the future through state-wide, national and international constructive community-led research collaborations. He is seeking to mentor the next generation of health researchers and innovators with a deep understanding of both technology and health. Ali has established Wise Realities as a platform for the health services, academic institutions, medical research institutions, start-ups and communities to have access to centralised synergic research & development and technological resources to advance the quality of care through collaboration and innovation.
Alongside his role as the director, Dr Fardinpour is currently Dr Fardinpour is currently ex officio on the Research Steering Committee and the lead researcher in two main research projects at Wise Realities.
Professor David Gibson
Non-Executive Director (The Board Deputy-Chair)
Professor David Gibson, Curtin University’s Director Learning Futures, the Education Theme Leader for the Curtin Institute of Computation and the UNESCO Chair of Data Science in Higher Education Learning and Teaching, is an educational researcher, professor, learning scientist and technology innovator. His research focuses on learning analytics, complex systems, web applications and the future of learning, and the use of technology to personalize education via cognitive modeling, design and implementation. He is creator of simSchool, a classroom flight simulator for preparing educators, and eFolio an online performance-based assessment system. He provides vision and sponsorship for Curtin University’s Challenge, a mobile, game-based learning platform.
Dr Gabrielle Brand
Non-Executive Director (The Board Chair)
Gabrielle Brand is an Associate Professor (Education Focused) at Monash Nursing & Midwifery. She is a passionate teacher and qualitative researcher with a special interest in narrative medicine, primary health care, community and social health care delivery, interprofessional and reflective learning. She has also led the research, co-design and development of a series of consumer driven, reflective learning resources titled ‘Depth of Field’ © which are currently being used to promote person-centred models of care in health professions education across Australia and New Zealand. This work culminated in being awarded the 2017 ANZAHPE Prize for Excellence in innovative and research-informed Health Professional Education. Gabrielle has published and presented her research in Australia and internationally in the area of health professions education and community health policy and practice.