Quantum AI / Cybersecurity / Education
DrFarina Riaz
She was the first quantum AI PhD at both UniSQ and CSIRO. Now she teaches the next generation of IT leaders at AIIHE, keeps building machine learning that runs on qubits, and in 2026 won AI in Space and Quantum at the Women in AI APAC Awards.
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In numbers
A short career, already measured in firsts.
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Peer-reviewed papers
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National honours and selections
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Quantum AI PhD at UniSQ and CSIRO
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As a scientist at CSIRO Data61
Who she is
A software engineer who followed the hardest problem she could find.
Farina Riaz builds machine learning models that run on quantum circuits, and she has spent her career making that frontier useful outside the lab. Her research spans quantum generative models, quantum filters for image classification, and the security questions that both quantum computing and AI raise.
Her doctorate at the University of Southern Queensland started in vehicle-to-vehicle communication. In January 2021 a CSIRO Data61 top-up scholarship let her change course into quantum artificial intelligence, a field with no established research group at either institution. She became the first PhD student at UniSQ and at CSIRO to work in it, and finished in June 2023 under Dr Shahab Abdulla, supported by her CSIRO supervisors and an international quantum expert.
Read her story in her own words in the UniSQ alumni spotlight and the CSIRO Women in Tech interview.
Read the full story
Quantum AI combines the complexity of quantum physics with the power of machine learning.
Research
Four threads, one question: where does quantum actually help?
Every model is tested against a classical baseline on real data. The quantum version has to earn its place.
Quantum generative models
Variational autoencoders with a quantum encoder, built to reconstruct and generate images with higher fidelity.
Read moreQuantum pre-processing filters
A compact four qubit circuit that extracts features before a neural network ever sees the image.
Read moreQuantum era cybersecurity
What quantum computing means for the cryptography that connected devices rely on, and for attacks on AI.
Read moreQuantum AI in the real world
Taking quantum machine learning out of the quantum sector and into food systems, schools and speech.
Read moreFeatured project
Quantum AI for food security and student wellbeing
A four year CSIRO Industry PhD that Farina leads with colleagues at CSIRO and UniSQ. The project designs quantum reinforced algorithms for resource efficient hydroponics in Food Ladder's school greenhouses and studies how time in green spaces affects student wellbeing.
Food Ladder, CSIRO Data61, University of Southern Queensland
Recognition
Wins, on the record.
- 2026Best Volunteer MentorAustralian Women in Security Awards 2026
- 2026AI in Space and QuantumWomen in AI Australia and APAC Awards 2026
- 2025Australia's Most Outstanding in IT SecurityAustralian Women in Security Awards 2025
- 2024Best in Quantum in Cyber ChampionAustralian Women in Security Awards 2024
- 2023People's Choice AwardQuantum Australia
Finalist honours
And the shortlists along the way.
- 2025Best Use of AI in CybersecurityAustralian Women in Security Awards 2025
- 2025Technology Trailblazer AwardAustralian Women of Colour
- 2025Alumni Award for Leadership and Professional ExcellenceUniversity of Southern Queensland
- 2025Elevating Quantum Women's VoiceQuantum Australia and Quantum Women
- 2021CSIRO Data61 top-up scholarshipCSIRO's Data61
In the news
Coverage from CSIRO, UniSQ and the tech press.
Every feature, interview and announcement, newest first. Each one opens the original article.
Everything, linked
Profiles, papers, projects and press in one place.
01Profiles
LinkedInlinkedin.comGoogle Scholarscholar.google.comResearchGateresearchgate.netCSIRO staff profilepeople.csiro.auAIIHEaiihe.edu.audblp bibliographydblp.orgGitHubgithub.com/RRFar02Papers and code
Quantum Down Sampling Filter for Variational Auto-encoderarXiv:2501.06259, 2025Representation Learning with Parameterised Quantum Circuits for Advancing Speech Emotion RecognitionarXiv:2501.12050, 2025Accurate Image Multi-Class Classification Neural Network Model with Quantum Entanglement ApproachSensors 23(5): 2753, 2023Development of a Novel Quantum Pre-processing Filter to Improve Image Classification Accuracy of Neural Network ModelsarXiv:2308.11112, 2023Application of Quantum Pre-Processing Filter for Binary Image Classification with Small SamplesarXiv:2308.14930, 2023An Enhanced Architecture to Resolve Public-Key Cryptographic Issues in the Internet of Things (IoT), Employing Quantum Computing SupremacySensors 22(21): 8151, 2022Q-VAE source codegithub.comCollaborate
Research, speaking, supervision or media.
If it involves quantum AI, cybersecurity or getting more women into both, she would like to hear about it.