Dr. Brydon Timothy Wang
PhD (Law), LLM (Juris Doctor), MPPM, BArch (Hons)
Admitted onto the NSW Supreme Court Roll of Solicitors, 2014
Dr Brydon Wang is an author, lawyer and scholar researching at the confluence of law, technology and design governance of the city. He is passionate about how we can increase trustworthiness in decision-making around the design and deployment of technology in the city. Brydon focuses on benevolent data structures and how our cities can be made smarter and human-centred, and more resilient to climate change.
Brydon is dually qualified in law and architecture and practised as a technology and construction lawyer with a global top-tier law firm. He also has a previous career in architecture and contract administration on award-winning construction projects, with twenty years in the construction industry. He currently teaches in the law school at the Queensland University of Technology.
Brydon's research focuses on how we can regulate to increase the perceived trustworthiness of decision-makers. In doing so, his research addresses vulnerability -- particularly vulnerability arising from informational asymmetry. He was recently lead editor of the book, Automating Cities: Design, Construction, Operation and Future Impact (Springer, 2021), and has written for the Centre for Digital Built Britain (operating out of the University of Cambridge) and in The Conversation.
Brydon also co-edited Large Floating Structures, a book exploring environmentally-sustainable technologies that allow cities to expand onto adjacent water bodies. He's featured on ABC Radio National's 'Future Tense' where he discussed offshore architecture and marine urban sprawl, and on Seeker's popular documentary, 'How close are we to Living in the Ocean?' Brydon is passionate about regulating to enhance trustworthiness in the design and deployment of automated decision-making systems in cities (BIM, Digital Twins). While at the University of Queensland, Brydon taught Responsible Data Science in the Master of Data Science course. His PhD thesis, 'The Role of Trustworthiness in Automated Decision-making Systems and the Law' was awarded the 2022 Faculty of Business and Law Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award.
As an advocate for diversity and inclusion, Brydon was instrumental in developing the strategy and submission for Allens for the Australian Workplace Equality Index for 2015 and 2016 where the organisation emerged as the top law firm in Workplace Equality. He advocates for better access to parental leave and affordable early childhood education. Brydon has close to a decade of experience on not-for-profit boards and was previously on the National Executive Committee of the Asian Australian Lawyers Association (AALA). He led the launch of the Queensland Chapter of AALA, which featured national patron and former High Court Justice, Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG, and was a national finalist in the 2014 Australian Law Awards. In his spare time, Brydon is also an award-winning portraiture artist.