Dawes was a Chief Investigator of the Australian Research Council Centre for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS). In her role at CUDOS she worked with the Optica student chapter to develop outreach activities to share their work in photonics with the general public. This included a photonics simulator, which was developed to help students build and communicate using optical networks, a laser maze and a series of programs for high school students.