Advisory Committee Bios

Yahya Abdal-Aziz

Some of the creative roles that I have fulfilled over the last few decades include: software designer, mathematician, musician, composer, songwriter, poet, visual artist, gardener, technical writer, systems analyst, business analyst, process and form designer, statistician, teacher, mentor, parent, conlang designer. My current interests include all these and more.

Computing and the arts: I organized and led Special Interest Groups (SIGs) in Graphics and Music for the 'Melbourne PC User Group' (MelbPC, 10,000+ members) from the mid-80s until late 2014. My aim was always to learn new things and share what I learned. Also involved with Unix, New Users East, Turbo Pascal, and Programming SIGs, and coordinated training for MelbPC in the late 80s. Served from time to time on the MelbPC management committee. For Royal Insurance for two years in the 80s, I set up, edited, and published an in-house "Effective Personal Computing" magazine. I also wrote many tutorial articles for it. For my most recent employer, I created writing templates and styles and taught effective writing skills. And I've never stopped writing poetry.

My major formal studies were in pure maths, minor in physics, and philosophy. While studying for a post-grad teaching diploma, I tried to synthesize multi-valued formal logic with the philosophy of education and the psychology of learning. I've always tried to take a whole-of-life approach to learning and the arts, because life is so short that specialists forget what they're missing. I believe that each of us, being unique, has a unique contribution to make. So I'd like to help others find a voice and encourage them to the particular excellence that only they can achieve.