Rashan Senanayake
Rashan is inspiring innovation & emerging technologies around Australia as the founder and CEO of Australia’s leading professional development for 21st century education & industry: Inspired Education Australia.
In addition to this, Rashan is also the Design Director for Inspired Design Australia, servicing and helping other entrepreneurs, start-ups and small to medium businesses with ‘Design for Business’.
Rashan was born in Sri Lanka and migrated to Australia at a young age. Following which his secondary & tertiary education excelled in various leadership roles and highlighted a love for design. Developing this passion for design, Rashan took steps to become a practicing Architect. He graduated in (Design) Architecture with first class honours from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in 2011 and completed his Master in Architecture in the top 10 of his year level in 2012. However, shortly after Rashan’s career changed when he left conventional practice to impact Australian education.
Since then, Rashan has developed a reputation for his entrepreneurial thinking and leading a variety of projects & ventures in a wide variety of fields and industries. He is currently known as a published author, an international speaker who has delivered widely received content to universities internationally as well as many conference seminars, keynotes, lectures and much more. He has been featured on a variety of podcast shows as well as been published in various design journals and academic papers in Australia. Rashan’s podcast ‘Inspiring Design’ is continually a top 200 education podcast globally, as well as being used as the no. 1 design and technology education resource for schools around Australia since 2021.
In addition to this, Rashan is also an academic delivering tutorials and lectures in Design, Design Thinking and Architecture at QUT. He is also an Associate Fellow recognised by the High Education Academy, Global Shaper for the World Economic Forum (WEF), part of the United Nation’s Association of Australia (UNAA)- Queensland Chapter and was the youngest board member of the Australian Green Development Forum (AGDF) previously.
Workshop: Inspiring Design Thinking (with AI) for Business Analysts!
Join this hands-on workshop to understand the keys to design thinking as well as how AI can be used to fast-track innovation, within a modern business.
Why Design Thinking? Design thinking, a vital tool, skill and approach for any Australian Business Analysts in the 21st century. It naturally promotes empathy-driven problem-solving tailored to diverse consumer needs, paving the path for innovation in business. In Australia’s dynamic market, understanding user perspectives is key to innovation and competitiveness. Design thinking fosters collaboration across multidisciplinary teams, harnessing diverse expertise to drive impactful solutions.
Why AI? AI accelerates and enhances AI integration by automating data pre-processing, expediting model development, and providing actionable insights. Automated tasks such as data cleaning and feature engineering free analysts to focus on interpreting insights. AI facilitates rapid prototyping and experimentation, enabling efficient exploration of AI models and faster identification of effective solutions. Additionally, AI-driven insights aid decision-making and anticipate challenges throughout the integration process, enhancing analytical capabilities and expediting time-to-market for AI-powered products and services. This is not a replacement of humans, but an integration.