About us

Uberlink Corporation commenced operations in 2010, and provides analytical tools and consulting services for empirical analysis of online social and organizational networks. Our approach involves empirical Web research methods and technologies developed at the Australian National University in a research project that began in 2002. More information on the research underlying our services can be found at the VOSON website.

Who are we?

Rob Ackland, PhD - Chief Executive Officer and Director

Rob Ackland is the CEO of Uberlink (which he founded in 2005) and is also a Director. He earned his Ph.D. in economics from the Australian National University in 2001, where currently holds a senior lecturer position. Rob has been conducting empirical social science research into online social and organizational networks since 2002. He leads the Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online Networks project and created the VOSON software. Rob has been chief investigator on four Australian Research Council grants and in 2007, he was a UK National Centre for e-Social Science (NCeSS) Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute.

Location: Canberra, Australia

Jamsheed Shorish, PhD - Chief Technology Officer and Director

Jamsheed Shorish is the CTO of Uberlink and is also a Director. Jamsheed is a computational economist, earning his B.A. from Carleton College (MN, USA) and M.Sci. and Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University (PA, USA). Prior to joining Uberlink he was Science Officer for the Information and Communication Technologies Domain at COST (the European Cooperation in Science and Technology) in Brussels, and is currently an adjunct faculty member at the Australian National University and an associated faculty member at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna, Austria. In 2007 he was a UK National Centre for e-Social Science (NCeSS) Visiting Fellow at the University of Manchester.

Location: Brussels, Belgium

Hamish Hawthorn - Director

Hamish Hawthorn is a Director of Uberlink. Hamish has served as the CEO of ATP Innovations since 2007. His extensive business networks span all areas of technology, and he has a proven track record in building early-stage businesses. He has led capital raisings and strategic investments for a number of companies and serves on the boards of several portfolio businesses. Hamish holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Sydney, a Master of Business and Technology from the University of New South Wales, and completed the Executive Program for Growing Companies at Stanford University. Hamish is a Visiting Fellow at the University of New South Wales and was the recipient of the Faculty Entrepreneur Award in 2009.

Location: Sydney, Australia

Lin (Derek) Chen - Software Developer

Lin (Derek) Chen is a software developer for Uberlink. He graduated with a Master of Computer Science from the Australian National University in 2010. Derek has been a key contributor to the development of the VOSON software since early 2009 and in 2010 he and Rob Ackland developed the VOSON Data Provider for NodeXL (VOSON+NodeXL). Derek also holds a research programmer position at the ANU where he is contributing to an Australian Research Council-funded project on hyperlink analysis in the area of e-Government. Derek's role in Uberlink covers all aspects of the VOSON software development.

Location: Canberra, Australia

Jarrad Mitchell - Business Systems Consultant

Jarrad Mitchell is Uberlink's business systems consultant. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, Philosophy and Sociology from Swinburne University of Technology in 2009 and he has professional experience in network administration, database administrator, web development and social research (including a summer internship working in the VOSON project at the Australian National University in 2010). In 2010 Jarrad founded Enact IT and the VOSON software has been hosted on Enact IT infrastructure since June 2010.

Location: Melbourne, Australia

Bob Perkins - Training Consultant

Bob Perkins is Uberlink's training consultant, and is also a lecturer at Nara University of Education in Japan. His current research interest is in the design and implementation of content management systems in Japanese higher education. Prior to working in Nara, he spent 4 years teaching at Osaka University as a visiting lecturer from the University of Canberra, Australia. Bob started contributing to the development of multimedia training materials for the VOSON software in late 2010.

Location: Nara, Japan

XianJun (Roy) Shen - Software Developer

XianJun (Roy) Shen is a software developer for Uberlink. He graduated with a Bachelor of Computer Science from Monash University in 2010. Roy has experience with both Windows and Linux operating systems and programming languages such as C++, Perl, SML, Prolog, and assembly languages such as MIPS. His web development skills include HTML, ASP and PHP as well as database processing. Roy started contributing to the development of VOSON+NodeXL in late 2010.

Location: Melbourne, Australia

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