Alexandra Zafiroglu is a Professor of Cybernetics at the Australian National University’s 3A Institute (3Ai) and a Fellow of the ANU Futures scheme. Prof Zafiroglu, a cultural anthropologist by training, joined the 3A institute in 2019, after a 15-year career in the technology industry at Intel Corporation in the United States.

After completing her Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology at Brown University in 2004, Prof Zafiroglu joined Intel as a Research Scientist. She went on to have a highly successful career and held various roles across the company within the People and Practices, Digital Home and Internet of Things divisions. She made significant contributions to the R&D and commercial development of the technology giant in a range of labs and divisions relating to smart systems. In 2016 Prof Zafiroglu was appointed Principal Engineer in Social Science within the Internet of Things Division in 2016 and was Intel’s foremost domain expert and research practitioner in homes and home life.

Prof Zafiroglu’s key research interests lie in cyber-physical systems and the deployment of artificial intelligence across industries. She aims to explore the relationship between humans and machine sensing and in particularly, the role that social scientists play in exercising ethics, accountability, and data rights in the deployment of commercial cyber-physical systems. 

Prof Zafiroglu has written multiple publications, presented at academic, regional and industry conferences and is a member of the American Anthropological Association and EPIC People (Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Community). In addition to her Ph.D., Prof Zafiroglu holds a M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Brown University and a B.A. in Anthropology & History from the University of Delaware. She is also co-inventor on 11 patents.