Positive Computing: The design of technologies that support psychological wellbeing. Designing future technology to foster psychological wellbeing has the potential to affect population-wide positive change. The design of software like apps or social media, can impact things like cyber-bullying, depression, or even foster resilience. This project aims to connect experts across multiple disciplines (psychology, technology and policy) to develop pioneering methods, knowledge, and strategies that w ....Positive Computing: The design of technologies that support psychological wellbeing. Designing future technology to foster psychological wellbeing has the potential to affect population-wide positive change. The design of software like apps or social media, can impact things like cyber-bullying, depression, or even foster resilience. This project aims to connect experts across multiple disciplines (psychology, technology and policy) to develop pioneering methods, knowledge, and strategies that will allow future technologies to play an active role in improving health, performance, and quality of life for all Australians, through research-based design for wellbeing. In doing so, Australia will lead the way on the technological front in a growing global initiative to improve the wellbeing of nations.Read moreRead less
Enhancing patient management and clinical systems in hospital ward settings using mobile, wireless technologies. Wireless networks, hand held devices and associated applications are key emerging technologies. This project will investigate the implementation of wireless devices and applications for patient administration at Southern Health in two ward settings (neurology and neurosurgery) at Monash Medical Centre. A wireless infrastructure is being installed and clinical staff will be able to c ....Enhancing patient management and clinical systems in hospital ward settings using mobile, wireless technologies. Wireless networks, hand held devices and associated applications are key emerging technologies. This project will investigate the implementation of wireless devices and applications for patient administration at Southern Health in two ward settings (neurology and neurosurgery) at Monash Medical Centre. A wireless infrastructure is being installed and clinical staff will be able to conduct their rounds with notebook computers or PDAs at the patients' bedside. The research team will assess the acceptance of the new devices and applications by nursing and medical staff. Outcomes from the project will include a set of guidelines and techniques for introducing and managing technology-enhanced patient administration and clinical systems.Read moreRead less
Quantifying intake of food prepared outside home during emerging adulthood. This project aims to explore the role that food prepared outside the home versus within the home plays in the diets of young adults. The project plans to use data mining to understand where, when and with whom young adults buy food, and the nutritional composition and overall contribution to diet of these foods. The project will use a newly designed and tested Smartphone application to transform data collection and proce ....Quantifying intake of food prepared outside home during emerging adulthood. This project aims to explore the role that food prepared outside the home versus within the home plays in the diets of young adults. The project plans to use data mining to understand where, when and with whom young adults buy food, and the nutritional composition and overall contribution to diet of these foods. The project will use a newly designed and tested Smartphone application to transform data collection and processing, and enable continuous digital photography. The knowledge gained is intended to form the evidence base for formulation of policy and electronic and mobile-health promotion to reverse the problem of young adults gaining more weight than any other group in Australia.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210101107
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$412,744.00
Summary
Ahead of the Game: Balancing the Gaming Industry and Public Interest. This project battles the risks and embraces the benefits of digital gaming. There is a risk that one loses control of their gaming and prioritises it over other duties. This is offset by the benefits of using digital games for health. It is the first to decode and use the health data embedded in the connection between the gamer and their game persona (avatar). It does this by concurrently assessing important gamer, family, cul ....Ahead of the Game: Balancing the Gaming Industry and Public Interest. This project battles the risks and embraces the benefits of digital gaming. There is a risk that one loses control of their gaming and prioritises it over other duties. This is offset by the benefits of using digital games for health. It is the first to decode and use the health data embedded in the connection between the gamer and their game persona (avatar). It does this by concurrently assessing important gamer, family, cultural and game structure features. Findings will prompt the ethical growth of the Australian Health games industry and inform strategies to combat gaming disorder by tailoring games to users' needs. This will uniquely benefit Australians by re-directing this growing industry to better serve the public interest.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100847
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$394,868.00
Summary
RECONNECT ME: REgaining CONtrol of childreN’s EleCTronic MEdia . This project aims to understand the impact that screen behaviours have on children’s quality of life, social skills and family functioning, and co-design feasible, acceptable and effective behavioural and digital strategies to mitigate this impact. Parents are concerned and are seeking urgent help in the persistent and evolving technology climate, where previous strategies are no longer relevant. Expected outcomes include new knowl ....RECONNECT ME: REgaining CONtrol of childreN’s EleCTronic MEdia . This project aims to understand the impact that screen behaviours have on children’s quality of life, social skills and family functioning, and co-design feasible, acceptable and effective behavioural and digital strategies to mitigate this impact. Parents are concerned and are seeking urgent help in the persistent and evolving technology climate, where previous strategies are no longer relevant. Expected outcomes include new knowledge of the impact of screen time, and the co-design of innovative and user-friendly strategies developed with families, for families, to manage this. The benefits will include informing future effective and scalable screen time strategies for improved quality of life, social skills, family functioning outcomes.Read moreRead less
An internet-based intervention program for distress associated with tinnitus in an industrial setting. This project involves a randomised controlled trial of an internet-based intervention for distress associated with tinnitus in an industrial setting. This study is significant because it is the first to investigate the effectiveness of an internet-based program for workers with tinnitus living in metropolitan, regional and rural areas of Australia and New Zealand. Changes will be assessed on wo ....An internet-based intervention program for distress associated with tinnitus in an industrial setting. This project involves a randomised controlled trial of an internet-based intervention for distress associated with tinnitus in an industrial setting. This study is significant because it is the first to investigate the effectiveness of an internet-based program for workers with tinnitus living in metropolitan, regional and rural areas of Australia and New Zealand. Changes will be assessed on work performance (e.g. job satisfaction), tinnitus-related distress, negative affect, and quality of life. It is expected that workers accessing the internet-based intervention will show significant improvements on all measures at post-intervention with improvements maintained at six-month follow up.Read moreRead less
Addressing Indigenous complex health, housing and social inclusion issues through critical systems approaches to build workforce capacity. The multidisciplinary research comprises the researchers, Department of Human Services and Neporendi Aboriginal Forum Inc who address complex Indigenous social problems in partnership. The participatory design provides effective solutions, both in treatment and community settings through the development of a computer-modeling technique that articulates and in ....Addressing Indigenous complex health, housing and social inclusion issues through critical systems approaches to build workforce capacity. The multidisciplinary research comprises the researchers, Department of Human Services and Neporendi Aboriginal Forum Inc who address complex Indigenous social problems in partnership. The participatory design provides effective solutions, both in treatment and community settings through the development of a computer-modeling technique that articulates and informs partnership arrangements. The research offers a practical approach to address the communication and policy issues relating to Indigenous family violence, social inclusion, homelessness and drug misuse. It develops and pilots an integrated systems management tool that builds the capacity of the human services workforce to manage referrals across services to maximize user outcomes.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100479
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$427,116.00
Summary
A Unified Framework to Rapidly Fabricate Individualised Activity Sensors. This proposal aims to develop a unified computational framework which enables non-expert users to co-design and fabricate specialised physical activity sensors to address individualised sensing problems in applications such as rehabilitation, age-care and sports. Specifically, we will develop an analytical framework to classify complex sensing problems into fabricable primitive classes, namely i) conditional – limits of ac ....A Unified Framework to Rapidly Fabricate Individualised Activity Sensors. This proposal aims to develop a unified computational framework which enables non-expert users to co-design and fabricate specialised physical activity sensors to address individualised sensing problems in applications such as rehabilitation, age-care and sports. Specifically, we will develop an analytical framework to classify complex sensing problems into fabricable primitive classes, namely i) conditional – limits of activity, ii) differential – frequency of activity and iii) integrational – cumulative activity. And a co-design interface to synthesize them into complex activity sensors to fit individualised needs. Finally, we will evaluate the framework by deploying the created sensors in real-world settings and gathering data.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180100687
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$364,446.00
Summary
Fostering making practices in people from low socio-economic backgrounds. This project aims to foster Do-It-Yourself (DIY) practices among people from low socio-economic (LSE) backgrounds in Australia by understanding existing practices at four diverse makerspaces and enabling LSE members to co-design technological prototypes that fit their own needs. Through a set of in-depth ethnographic studies and workshops, this research seeks to develop theories of creative collaborations (informed by empi ....Fostering making practices in people from low socio-economic backgrounds. This project aims to foster Do-It-Yourself (DIY) practices among people from low socio-economic (LSE) backgrounds in Australia by understanding existing practices at four diverse makerspaces and enabling LSE members to co-design technological prototypes that fit their own needs. Through a set of in-depth ethnographic studies and workshops, this research seeks to develop theories of creative collaborations (informed by empirical data), methods, and prototypes for engaging LSE members in DIY practices. This project will make our culture more inclusive, harness the strengths of LSE members, increase their community engagement, and raise their economic prospects.Read moreRead less
Growing old and staying connected: touch screen technology for ameliorating older people’s experience of social isolation. Social isolation affects many older people. This project investigates novel technologies to prevent and to ameliorate social isolation experienced by older adults. This project will implement and trial a software application over an 18 month period, using a 3G connected touch-screen tablet, and evaluate its impact on alleviating social isolation.