Uncovering the organisational dynamics of pirates and maritime terrorists. This project will develop a novel framework to assess the organisational dynamics of two major maritime threats: piracy syndicates and maritime-capable terrorist groups. The results will allow analysts and policymakers to understand the behaviour of violent maritime organisations, and to maximise the effectiveness of policies designed to stop them.
Surface Modification of Spray-Dried Powders By Surface-Active Proteins. Internal wall deposits in spray dryers lead to product degradation and pose fire hazards. This situation has limited the manufacturing of high value bio-food powders by the Australian bio-food and dairy industry, which exports 13% of the milk powder in the world. The specific economic benefits to Australia from this project arise from innovative surface modification of powder particles by proteins, development of scientific ....Surface Modification of Spray-Dried Powders By Surface-Active Proteins. Internal wall deposits in spray dryers lead to product degradation and pose fire hazards. This situation has limited the manufacturing of high value bio-food powders by the Australian bio-food and dairy industry, which exports 13% of the milk powder in the world. The specific economic benefits to Australia from this project arise from innovative surface modification of powder particles by proteins, development of scientific instruments and predictive tools based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). These outcomes will lead to production of free flowing powders from bio-food materials.Read moreRead less
Privacy in Genetic Databases. With the recent advances in genetic and computer technology enormous databases containing genetic information have become available for research and other purposes. An example of such databases is the Icelandic Health Database containing health and genetic records about the total population of Iceland. This has raised many privacy and ethical questions both among health professionals and the general public. Many agree that genetic information bears more ethical and ....Privacy in Genetic Databases. With the recent advances in genetic and computer technology enormous databases containing genetic information have become available for research and other purposes. An example of such databases is the Icelandic Health Database containing health and genetic records about the total population of Iceland. This has raised many privacy and ethical questions both among health professionals and the general public. Many agree that genetic information bears more ethical and privacy concerns than other health databases. In this project we shall investigate privacy and ethical issues connected to genetic information and we develop techniques to prevent a disclosure of individual values through statistical analysis.Read moreRead less
The World's Most Enterprising Country: North Korea's Survival in the Global Economy. This project explores the seeming paradox at the heart of North Korea: The most politically isolated state in the world sustains itself economically in large part by international trade and integration into the global economy. Adopting a framework from the economic geography literature, the project will use archival and field research to address how the North Korean state and its citizens use trade networks in E ....The World's Most Enterprising Country: North Korea's Survival in the Global Economy. This project explores the seeming paradox at the heart of North Korea: The most politically isolated state in the world sustains itself economically in large part by international trade and integration into the global economy. Adopting a framework from the economic geography literature, the project will use archival and field research to address how the North Korean state and its citizens use trade networks in East Asia and beyond to ensure their economic survival in the face of a hostile political environment. This will allow analysts to assess the implications of North Korea's economic integration for the country's development, as well as the effect that North Korea’s unique integration into the global economy has on regional and global stability.Read moreRead less
LittleBrother: Vision Systems Supporting Detection of Offenders in Public Places. Current visual surveillance systems can track people in an area only if complete camera coverage is provided. This project will develop a visual surveillance system able to track and record people's movements in a public building requiring only limited visual coverage. We will propose novel ways of matching images of a single individual from distant cameras by using features such as color histograms decomposed for ....LittleBrother: Vision Systems Supporting Detection of Offenders in Public Places. Current visual surveillance systems can track people in an area only if complete camera coverage is provided. This project will develop a visual surveillance system able to track and record people's movements in a public building requiring only limited visual coverage. We will propose novel ways of matching images of a single individual from distant cameras by using features such as color histograms decomposed for the different body parts, estimated height, and build type. Creating a record with this tracking information will effectively support security officers in the identification of responsible parties in the event of an offence.Read moreRead less
Foundations for Physically Unclonable nano-Security on Silicon. This project aims to develop an on-chip physical unclonable function (PUF) based on recent progress in nanotechnology to generate unprecedented number of unique signatures. This is significant because these signatures can be used for preventing fraud and counterfeiting, protecting sensitive data and securing communications. PUFs will play an extremely vital role in future security systems. The PUF in the proposed project will be sim ....Foundations for Physically Unclonable nano-Security on Silicon. This project aims to develop an on-chip physical unclonable function (PUF) based on recent progress in nanotechnology to generate unprecedented number of unique signatures. This is significant because these signatures can be used for preventing fraud and counterfeiting, protecting sensitive data and securing communications. PUFs will play an extremely vital role in future security systems. The PUF in the proposed project will be simple, fast, tiny, energy efficient and highly secure as a result of the abundant nano-fabrication variations. The outcome of this project will be a prototype of a super high secure nanoelectronic-based PUF that will be tested to evaluate the technology and its security against malicious attacks.Read moreRead less
Cross-Correlated Security and Service Quality in Heterogeneous Mobile Communication Networks. Mobile telecommunication infrastructures constitute the vital elements of all developed countries and therefore their reliability and integrity has a profound role in a sustained national economy progress. This project will provide a uniquely practical and long-term solution to the Internet security threat even after introduction of new mobile applications and services. The project will put Australia on ....Cross-Correlated Security and Service Quality in Heterogeneous Mobile Communication Networks. Mobile telecommunication infrastructures constitute the vital elements of all developed countries and therefore their reliability and integrity has a profound role in a sustained national economy progress. This project will provide a uniquely practical and long-term solution to the Internet security threat even after introduction of new mobile applications and services. The project will put Australia on the frontbench of the extensive research activities worldwide in the field of mobile network security and quality of service. This project will protect the nation's most valuable data infrastructure from service interruption as a result of a sudden data traffic load increase.Read moreRead less
Security for Wireless Mobile Ad hoc Networks. Mobile ad hoc networks, a new emerging wireless networking paradigm, poses challenging problems in security, due to its dynamic nature and lack of centralised infrastructure, for which no adequate solutions exist today. This research addresses theory and design of secure mobile ad hoc networks. It achieves conceptual advances in terms of new security models for distributed location management, mobile authentication and multicasting; it proposes nove ....Security for Wireless Mobile Ad hoc Networks. Mobile ad hoc networks, a new emerging wireless networking paradigm, poses challenging problems in security, due to its dynamic nature and lack of centralised infrastructure, for which no adequate solutions exist today. This research addresses theory and design of secure mobile ad hoc networks. It achieves conceptual advances in terms of new security models for distributed location management, mobile authentication and multicasting; it proposes novel dynamic group key management and denial of service protection schemes, develops new security mechanisms for ad hoc routing, provides new insights into formal reasoning of security and demonstrates and evaluates practical secure wireless mobile applications.Read moreRead less
Improving the International Response to Regime-Induced Displacement. This project examines why governments increasingly use force to deliberately displace their own populations on a massive scale, which is termed regime-induced displacement. Through a mix of quantitative and case study research, this project aims to explain why such actions have become rational strategies for regimes to respond to ethnic groups which may be a threat to them and how these regimes try to justify their behaviour in ....Improving the International Response to Regime-Induced Displacement. This project examines why governments increasingly use force to deliberately displace their own populations on a massive scale, which is termed regime-induced displacement. Through a mix of quantitative and case study research, this project aims to explain why such actions have become rational strategies for regimes to respond to ethnic groups which may be a threat to them and how these regimes try to justify their behaviour in order to thwart or delay international action. This is a critical issue as beyond its human cost, regime-induced displacement can lead to state fragility and regional instability as cases from Darfur to Syria demonstrate. Consequently, it directly affects Australia's security interests and international responsibilities.Read moreRead less
Secure and dynamic access control over encrypted data in the cloud. This project aims to enable dynamic access control due to organisational change, which is critical to enable the adoption of cloud computing in practice. Access control over encrypted outsourced data is an essential requirement for enabling practical, secure storage. This project will be underpinned by a study of constructing new cryptographic primitives for enabling cipher-text changes without the need for refreshing the users’ ....Secure and dynamic access control over encrypted data in the cloud. This project aims to enable dynamic access control due to organisational change, which is critical to enable the adoption of cloud computing in practice. Access control over encrypted outsourced data is an essential requirement for enabling practical, secure storage. This project will be underpinned by a study of constructing new cryptographic primitives for enabling cipher-text changes without the need for refreshing the users’ secret keys. The expected outcomes will bridge theory and practice, providing economic benefits to industry by enabling practical mechanisms to store confidential user’s information in the cloud, hence lowering the infrastructure cost for industry.Read moreRead less