Engagement in early childhood education in the context of disadvantage. This research responds to enduring inequalities in children’s participation in high quality early childhood education and care (ECEC). Contemporary families face precarious labour markets and a childcare system with stringent workforce participation requirements. This project will illuminate the affordances of everyday life for families most challenged by these emergent conditions and develop understandings of how to calibr ....Engagement in early childhood education in the context of disadvantage. This research responds to enduring inequalities in children’s participation in high quality early childhood education and care (ECEC). Contemporary families face precarious labour markets and a childcare system with stringent workforce participation requirements. This project will illuminate the affordances of everyday life for families most challenged by these emergent conditions and develop understandings of how to calibrate services accordingly. Findings will support universal ECEC access through knowledge translation about contemporary disadvantage to policy and practice forums. A strong Indigenous component contributes to researcher training and knowledge about effective practice for Indigenous children and their families.Read moreRead less
Developing A Smart Farming Oriented Secure Data Infrastructure. Smart farming is the future of agriculture. However, recently the Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued a
warning that the lack of data privacy and cyber security mechanisms in the field runs a high risk of disaster. This
project aims to establish an innovative secure data infrastructure for smart farming including secure and automated smart farming supply-chain management. The deliverables of this project will include the cutt ....Developing A Smart Farming Oriented Secure Data Infrastructure. Smart farming is the future of agriculture. However, recently the Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued a
warning that the lack of data privacy and cyber security mechanisms in the field runs a high risk of disaster. This
project aims to establish an innovative secure data infrastructure for smart farming including secure and automated smart farming supply-chain management. The deliverables of this project will include the cutting-edge Blockchain based secure IoT data management and privacy-preserving smart contracts for smart farming supply-chain management. This data infrastructure will be the first of its kind which will lay a solid foundation for smart farming technology.Read moreRead less
Exemplary early childhood educators at work: A multi-level investigation. Exemplary early childhood educators at work: A multi-level investigation. This project aims to inform strategies to better attract, prepare, recognise, support and retain a high quality workforce, by investigating the complexity of early childhood educators’ work. Seemingly entrenched workforce shortages threaten the objectives that governments and families seek through investment in early childhood education. Popular imag ....Exemplary early childhood educators at work: A multi-level investigation. Exemplary early childhood educators at work: A multi-level investigation. This project aims to inform strategies to better attract, prepare, recognise, support and retain a high quality workforce, by investigating the complexity of early childhood educators’ work. Seemingly entrenched workforce shortages threaten the objectives that governments and families seek through investment in early childhood education. Popular images of work with young children as easy and instinctual, or of teaching as only school based, mislead potential workforce entrants and erode the status of educators, leading to attrition. This project’s audit and description of exemplary educators’ work, across each level of mandated qualification, will inform strategies to sustain a high quality early childhood workforce into the future.Read moreRead less
Young children in digital society: An Online Tool for service provision . This project aims to identify the practices enacted and shared amongst young children, their families and educators in digital society.The project is significant because in digital society families and educators face new demands ensuring technologies are used in the best interests of young children. Knowledge about practices in digital society informs adult decision-making using technologies with, by and for young children ....Young children in digital society: An Online Tool for service provision . This project aims to identify the practices enacted and shared amongst young children, their families and educators in digital society.The project is significant because in digital society families and educators face new demands ensuring technologies are used in the best interests of young children. Knowledge about practices in digital society informs adult decision-making using technologies with, by and for young children in the early years. The outcome is a new Online Tool for the Partner Organisations to share exemplar practices benefiting Australian children, their families and educators with new resources, materials and programs in areas including: digital media production, cyber-safety education, digital play and digital parenting.
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Defending AI based FinTech Systems against Model Extraction Attacks. This project aims to develop new methods for defending artificial intelligence (AI) based FinTech systems from highly potent and insidious model extraction attacks whereby an adversary can steal the AI model from the system to cause intellectual property (IP) violation, business advantage disruption, and financial loss. This can be achieved by examining various attack models, creating active and utility-preserving defences, and ....Defending AI based FinTech Systems against Model Extraction Attacks. This project aims to develop new methods for defending artificial intelligence (AI) based FinTech systems from highly potent and insidious model extraction attacks whereby an adversary can steal the AI model from the system to cause intellectual property (IP) violation, business advantage disruption, and financial loss. This can be achieved by examining various attack models, creating active and utility-preserving defences, and inventing non-removable watermarks on AI models. The outcomes are new tools for securing AI-based FinTech systems before deployment and tools for IP violation forensics post-deployment. Such capabilities are beneficial by improving the security and safety of FinTech systems and other nationally critical AI systems.Read moreRead less
Privacy-Preserving Fog Info System in Infrastructure-Deficient Environments. Due to Australia’s unique geographical distribution and population density, many regional or remote areas lack infrastructural support and development, including telecommunications and electricity supply. It is important to provide information and communication services in such infrastructure-deficient environments. In this project, we will develop a first-ever commercially ready Fog information system, or FogIS in shor ....Privacy-Preserving Fog Info System in Infrastructure-Deficient Environments. Due to Australia’s unique geographical distribution and population density, many regional or remote areas lack infrastructural support and development, including telecommunications and electricity supply. It is important to provide information and communication services in such infrastructure-deficient environments. In this project, we will develop a first-ever commercially ready Fog information system, or FogIS in short, to enable localised information and communication services, while preserving users' privacy, in infrastructure-deficient environments. The deployment of this system will bring great benefits to Australia’s economic growth, the quality of life, cybersecurity, and environment control in rural and regional Australia. Read moreRead less
Observe, Reflect, Improve: a tool to enrich Children’s Learning (ORICL). This project aims to address long-standing concerns about the quality of education and care for children during their critical first two years. It will introduce a promising, future-focused digital tool, co-designed with practitioners and providers of early childhood services, to support infant-toddler educators’ planning and practice. Building on ground-breaking pilot work, we will undertake a national implementation and e ....Observe, Reflect, Improve: a tool to enrich Children’s Learning (ORICL). This project aims to address long-standing concerns about the quality of education and care for children during their critical first two years. It will introduce a promising, future-focused digital tool, co-designed with practitioners and providers of early childhood services, to support infant-toddler educators’ planning and practice. Building on ground-breaking pilot work, we will undertake a national implementation and evaluation of the Observe, Reflect and Improve Children’s Learning (ORICL) tool. Expected outcomes include: enhanced pedagogical practices; enriched learning experiences for children birth-two; effective communication with families; and improved resourcing for providers of early childhood education and care services. Read moreRead less
Tuning parallel applications on software-defined supercomputers. Supercomputers are used by many Australian industries and laboratories to make better products and perform critical predictions, and it is essential that codes operate efficiently. This project aims to assist programmers in identifying performance bottlenecks in their code quickly and easily. The project expects to supersede the current methods, which are often complex and time-consuming, by developing innovative software tools and ....Tuning parallel applications on software-defined supercomputers. Supercomputers are used by many Australian industries and laboratories to make better products and perform critical predictions, and it is essential that codes operate efficiently. This project aims to assist programmers in identifying performance bottlenecks in their code quickly and easily. The project expects to supersede the current methods, which are often complex and time-consuming, by developing innovative software tools and techniques. The expected outcomes include novel software, verified by industry partners in real world case studies, ranging from life sciences to hypersonic transport. This should provide significant benefits, including the capacity for Australian industries to access world-class supercomputing technology.Read moreRead less
A best practice framework for playgroups-in-schools. This project aims to identify the processes, practices and/or policies informing productive relationships between families and school-staff. Playgroups-in-schools are a burgeoning field of integrated early childhood service provision. Research shows that playgroup participation benefits parental capabilities about children’s play. High levels of parental knowledge, skills and confidence in providing children with play-experience are known to h ....A best practice framework for playgroups-in-schools. This project aims to identify the processes, practices and/or policies informing productive relationships between families and school-staff. Playgroups-in-schools are a burgeoning field of integrated early childhood service provision. Research shows that playgroup participation benefits parental capabilities about children’s play. High levels of parental knowledge, skills and confidence in providing children with play-experience are known to have a positive development and learning impact for children. An expected outcome from this project will be a best practice framework for playgroups-in-schools, which should directly inform policy and practice in schools via Playgroup Victoria's increased capacity to advise school-leaders on playgroups-in-schools.Read moreRead less
Understanding glycopolymer interactions with the extracellular matrix. This project aims to advance knowledge of the biochemical and biophysical structure of the endothelial glycocalyx, a dynamic cell surface extracellular matrix rich in proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans. It will be the first to explore how charged glycopolymers interact with this dynamic interface with the goal to develop a model of the glycocalyx lifecycle. This project is expected to enable the transfer of skills, knowledg ....Understanding glycopolymer interactions with the extracellular matrix. This project aims to advance knowledge of the biochemical and biophysical structure of the endothelial glycocalyx, a dynamic cell surface extracellular matrix rich in proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans. It will be the first to explore how charged glycopolymers interact with this dynamic interface with the goal to develop a model of the glycocalyx lifecycle. This project is expected to enable the transfer of skills, knowledge and ideas as well as advanced research and industrial training for young scientists. Knowledge derived from this project is expected to enable future innovation in molecules with tailored interactions with the glycocalyx with significant benefits for researchers, manufacturers and end users. Read moreRead less