In the ANU School of Cybernetics, we develop researchers who navigate and influence the complex systems shaping our world.
Our PhD candidates don’t fit a single mould, and we like it that way. They come from law, theatre, robotics, management consulting, software engineering, the social sciences, physics, economics, architecture and more, and many arrive with a substantial career already behind them in government, industry, the arts or the community sector. What they share is a curiosity about how complex sociotechnical systems work, and a drive to change them for the better.
Their research spans the history, present and future of those systems: how new technologies are designed, built, adopted and regulated, and what they mean aesthetically, philosophically, socially and environmentally. Our candidates analyse complex open systems, imagine possible futures and work out the conditions to bring them about, building on core ideas about systems and complexity from cybernetics and allied fields. Along the way they produce theses that renew cybernetics for the present century.
Research that reaches beyond the university#
A cybernetics PhD is rarely done at arm’s length. Many of our candidates work directly with partners in government and industry, through fieldwork, trials, internships and commissioned work, and their research has informed public policy, reshaped real-world infrastructure, and reached the stage as well as the page. A thesis can take whatever form suits the work: a written thesis, a thesis by publication, by creative works, or by artefact.
We are better when we work together#
Every candidate has a supervisory panel of at least three people: a primary supervisor and at least one associate supervisor from the School, with others drawn from across the ANU College of Systems and Society, the wider University, and organisations beyond academia. All panellists actively take part in supervision.
We’re also a cohort, not a collection of people working alone. Each year’s intake confirms their candidature together at our confirmation mini-conference, and everyone presents their work in progress at the annual PhD offsite. In between there are seminars, skills sessions, guest speakers and a monthly morning tea, plus writing sessions and reading groups that candidates run themselves.
Applying for the PhD program#
A PhD with us begins with you finding a supervisor whose research connects with yours, and developing a research proposal together.
Applying for the PhD explains how to find a supervisor, how the annual application round works, and how applications are assessed. You can also browse our potential HDR supervisors and their current availability.
For any other questions about PhD study, contact us at phdconvenor.cybernetics@anu.edu.au.
