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Svetha Venkatesh is the Alfred Deakin Professor in the Faculty of Science, Engineering & Built Environments, in the Department of Pattern Recognition and Data Analytics at Deakin University, as well as a professor of computer science and director of the Centre for Pattern Recognition and Data Analytics (PRaDA) at Deakin. She was elected a Fellow of the International Association of Pattern Recognition in 2004 for her contributions to the "formulation and extraction of semantics in multimedia data", as well as being a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.
Venkatesh has developed new technologies in large-scale pattern recognition in big data. Her work has led to start-ups such as iCetana which finds anomalies through video analytics to detect potential security threats in large data sets; the development of a health analytics program which enables doctors to predict suicide risk; and PRaDA's development of the Toby Playpad app which provides therapy for children with autism. Her work on using surveillance data led to the development of a "virtual observer" which was used after the 2005 London bombings.
Venkatesh delivered the 2015 Harrison Lecture for Innovation.