Early Career Industry Fellowships - Grant ID: IE230100672
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$470,337.00
Summary
Measuring real-time mental workload to improve our Defence capability. This project aims to develop a novel platform for measuring real-time variation in the cognitive workload of humans working with advanced Defence technologies. The project expects to combine innovative statistical techniques with cutting-edge psychological and neuroscience developments to measure and process workload-related brain activity in real-time. Expected outcomes of the project include an enhanced capacity to measure ....Measuring real-time mental workload to improve our Defence capability. This project aims to develop a novel platform for measuring real-time variation in the cognitive workload of humans working with advanced Defence technologies. The project expects to combine innovative statistical techniques with cutting-edge psychological and neuroscience developments to measure and process workload-related brain activity in real-time. Expected outcomes of the project include an enhanced capacity to measure and respond to cognitive workload in the field. This should provide significant benefits such as enhanced performance and safety outcomes, which will provide a strategic advantage to the Australian Defence Force by facilitating the development of advanced technologies that respond to the capabilities of the human user.Read moreRead less
Electrical properties of human dendrites. This project aims to determine the electrical properties of dendrites in human neurons. Dendrites are the primary site of synaptic input to neurons and their electrical properties play a key role in information processing in the brain. While we know much about the electrical properties of dendrites in other species, primarily rodents, little is known about the electrical properties of human dendrites. This project aims to address this gap in knowledge fo ....Electrical properties of human dendrites. This project aims to determine the electrical properties of dendrites in human neurons. Dendrites are the primary site of synaptic input to neurons and their electrical properties play a key role in information processing in the brain. While we know much about the electrical properties of dendrites in other species, primarily rodents, little is known about the electrical properties of human dendrites. This project aims to address this gap in knowledge for the first time. The results obtained will shed light on the mechanisms the brain uses to process information, and therefore will bring us a step closer to truly understanding ourselves.Read moreRead less
Role of the superior colliculus in sensory processing. The ability of an organism to attend to, and orient towards, stimuli in the environment is critical for survival. In the mammalian brain, the principal brain region performing this function is the superior colliculus. Despite its importance, little is known about the role the superior colliculus plays in sensory perception. This project addresses this issue by leveraging revolutionary new recording techniques to determine how the superior co ....Role of the superior colliculus in sensory processing. The ability of an organism to attend to, and orient towards, stimuli in the environment is critical for survival. In the mammalian brain, the principal brain region performing this function is the superior colliculus. Despite its importance, little is known about the role the superior colliculus plays in sensory perception. This project addresses this issue by leveraging revolutionary new recording techniques to determine how the superior colliculus codes sensory information and ultimately drives behaviour. The outcomes will be of immediate benefit to scientists studying sensory processing and perceptual decision making, and will help keep Australia at the forefront of brain-inspired engineering and the neuroscience-based knowledge economy.Read moreRead less
Coding of olfactory information in the piriform cortex. This project aims to understand how electrical activity in the primary olfactory (piriform) cortex enables mice to recognise and remember odours. By using optical recording techniques together with genetic tools, the project expects to generate new knowledge about how the mammalian brain builds internal representations of the external world. Specific outcomes of the project include new insights into the functional architecture of the pirifo ....Coding of olfactory information in the piriform cortex. This project aims to understand how electrical activity in the primary olfactory (piriform) cortex enables mice to recognise and remember odours. By using optical recording techniques together with genetic tools, the project expects to generate new knowledge about how the mammalian brain builds internal representations of the external world. Specific outcomes of the project include new insights into the functional architecture of the piriform cortex and fresh understanding of how olfactory information is encoded and stored in neural circuits. More broadly, the project aims to advance our understanding of how the brain works, with benefits for future improvements in artificial intelligence and brain-machine interfaces.Read moreRead less
Reading facial expressions from real and virtual humans. This project aims to advance understanding of human emotional communication and improve human rapport with the virtual humans and avatars that are rapidly infiltrating our social world. Using two unique stimulus sets - naturalistic human expressions and highly realistic virtual faces - together with powerful genetic, experimental, and individual differences designs, the project expects to answer previously intractable questions in emotion ....Reading facial expressions from real and virtual humans. This project aims to advance understanding of human emotional communication and improve human rapport with the virtual humans and avatars that are rapidly infiltrating our social world. Using two unique stimulus sets - naturalistic human expressions and highly realistic virtual faces - together with powerful genetic, experimental, and individual differences designs, the project expects to answer previously intractable questions in emotion science, as well as deliver tangible outcomes, such as new psychological tests to better understand human social connection. This should provide significant benefits, by improving emotion communication and offering a new perspective on how artificial intelligence can best serve human social needs.
Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200101100
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$425,613.00
Summary
Towards Robotic Empathy: A human centred approach to future AI machines. The project aims to equip future robots with empathy by developing computational models which can leverage from verbal and non-verbal cues. With recent advances in artificial intelligence research, robots now have better cognitive and function skills, but they lack socio-emotional skills. Since these robots are expected to provide assistance to humans across different domains including rehabilitation, education and health c ....Towards Robotic Empathy: A human centred approach to future AI machines. The project aims to equip future robots with empathy by developing computational models which can leverage from verbal and non-verbal cues. With recent advances in artificial intelligence research, robots now have better cognitive and function skills, but they lack socio-emotional skills. Since these robots are expected to provide assistance to humans across different domains including rehabilitation, education and health care, empowering them with empathetic abilities is important for their success. The project will advance fundamental research in machine learning, affective computing and artificial intelligence to model human behavior, personality traits and emotions for an empathetic human-robot interaction.Read moreRead less
Improving the specificity of affective computing via multimodal analysis. This project aims to develop multimodal affective sensing techniques that can sense very subtle expressions in human moods and emotions. Much research in affective computing has investigated ways to improve the sensitivity of affect sensing approaches, resulting in more accurate estimates of affective states such as emotions or mood. What remains unsolved so far is the issue of specificity. This project will address this i ....Improving the specificity of affective computing via multimodal analysis. This project aims to develop multimodal affective sensing techniques that can sense very subtle expressions in human moods and emotions. Much research in affective computing has investigated ways to improve the sensitivity of affect sensing approaches, resulting in more accurate estimates of affective states such as emotions or mood. What remains unsolved so far is the issue of specificity. This project will address this issue through novel analyses of very subtle cues in facial and vocal expressions of affect embedded in a multimodal deep learning framework. Current approaches can successfully assist in binary classification tasks. This project will tackle the much more difficult problem of developing advanced affective sensing technology to simultaneously handle homogeneous and heterogeneous affect classes as well as continuous range estimates of affect intensity.Read moreRead less
Industrial Transformation Training Centres - Grant ID: IC230100001
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$5,000,000.00
Summary
ARC Training Centre for Automated Vehicles in Rural and Remote Regions. The Centre will build skills and capability to test and deploy safe, socially acceptable, automated vehicles (AV) for rural, regional and remote Australian public roads, where manufacturing, agriculture, mining and defence industries face significant challenges of driver shortages, rising costs, long distances, rough roads, and environmental impacts. The centre will unite technology providers, regulators, government and end ....ARC Training Centre for Automated Vehicles in Rural and Remote Regions. The Centre will build skills and capability to test and deploy safe, socially acceptable, automated vehicles (AV) for rural, regional and remote Australian public roads, where manufacturing, agriculture, mining and defence industries face significant challenges of driver shortages, rising costs, long distances, rough roads, and environmental impacts. The centre will unite technology providers, regulators, government and end users with world-leading interdisciplinary researchers to create new human-AV systems, datasets, frameworks, case studies, platforms, and a vastly upskilled workforce. This will reduce transport costs, increase capacity, boost supply chain efficiency and resilience, improve road safety, and elevate Australian capability.Read moreRead less
RNA-binding proteins rewire transcriptomes in immune cell differentiation. This project aims to combine advanced computational and experimental techniques to investigate a new layer of gene regulation by novel RNA binding proteins (RBP) which control messenger RNA length in immune cells. This project expects to demonstrate that these RBPs have a profound effect on immune cell differentiation and response to infection. Expected outcomes include the discovery of new RBPs regulating immunity, with ....RNA-binding proteins rewire transcriptomes in immune cell differentiation. This project aims to combine advanced computational and experimental techniques to investigate a new layer of gene regulation by novel RNA binding proteins (RBP) which control messenger RNA length in immune cells. This project expects to demonstrate that these RBPs have a profound effect on immune cell differentiation and response to infection. Expected outcomes include the discovery of new RBPs regulating immunity, with mechanism and function determined by novel CRISPR editing of a transgenic mouse model. The significant benefit will be a more complete understanding of RNA mechanisms of immune response, which will be critical in informing future advances in the rapidly developing areas of RNA-based biotechnologies and synthetic immunology.Read moreRead less