Tracking language development of Indigenous children in Central Australia. This project aims to identify language development paths of Indigenous children in Central Australia by examining the spoken language, gesture and sign of children’s early interactions. It expects to generate new knowledge for the health and education sector, and Indigenous families, about children’s language development, enabling reliable identification of typical development. Expected outcomes include theoretical contri ....Tracking language development of Indigenous children in Central Australia. This project aims to identify language development paths of Indigenous children in Central Australia by examining the spoken language, gesture and sign of children’s early interactions. It expects to generate new knowledge for the health and education sector, and Indigenous families, about children’s language development, enabling reliable identification of typical development. Expected outcomes include theoretical contributions to language and cognition internationally and uptake of the findings by Australian health and education sector staff and Indigenous communities. This should provide significant benefits to Indigenous families through increased capacity of families and professionals to identify service needs in language development.Read moreRead less
Learning Software Security Analysers with Imperfect Data. This project aims to systematically investigate next-generation learning-based software security analysis to detect vulnerabilities in real-world large-scale software. The expected learning-based foundation will support the handling of imperfect data in order to provide a precise, scalable and adaptive security analysis of the critical software components, thus capturing important security vulnerabilities missed by existing approaches. Th ....Learning Software Security Analysers with Imperfect Data. This project aims to systematically investigate next-generation learning-based software security analysis to detect vulnerabilities in real-world large-scale software. The expected learning-based foundation will support the handling of imperfect data in order to provide a precise, scalable and adaptive security analysis of the critical software components, thus capturing important security vulnerabilities missed by existing approaches. The success of this project will further enhance the international competitiveness of Australian research in this important field and will benefit any Australian industry and business where software systems are deeply-rooted, such as transportation, smart homes, medical devices, defence and finance.Read moreRead less
Spatial Cognition—Expressive Representation Formalisms and Effective Reasoning Mechanisms. The project will contribute significantly to the advancement of knowledge in breakthrough science in qualitative spatial reasoning and smart information use in geographic information systems. Expressive spatial languages are important in organising spatial knowledge, defining spatial query languages and guiding spatial data mining. Effective spatial reasoning mechanisms bring theory closer to applications ....Spatial Cognition—Expressive Representation Formalisms and Effective Reasoning Mechanisms. The project will contribute significantly to the advancement of knowledge in breakthrough science in qualitative spatial reasoning and smart information use in geographic information systems. Expressive spatial languages are important in organising spatial knowledge, defining spatial query languages and guiding spatial data mining. Effective spatial reasoning mechanisms bring theory closer to applications including consistency checking and spatial query pre-processing. The project will help in extracting knowledge from massive spatial databases, meeting the growing needs of naive users for spatial information and establishing Australia as a major player in spatial cognition research and in the development of geo-location services.Read moreRead less
The causes and consequences of attentional rescaling. This project aims to investigate the mechanisms that underlie people’s capacity to rescale the focus of their visual attention. Such rescalings are important because they are linked with people’s capacity to perform specific tasks. Using an innovative approach within cognitive psychology that integrates individual differences, experimental, and training frameworks, this project expects to generate new theoretical knowledge about attentional ....The causes and consequences of attentional rescaling. This project aims to investigate the mechanisms that underlie people’s capacity to rescale the focus of their visual attention. Such rescalings are important because they are linked with people’s capacity to perform specific tasks. Using an innovative approach within cognitive psychology that integrates individual differences, experimental, and training frameworks, this project expects to generate new theoretical knowledge about attentional re-scaling and its possible improvement. The expected outcomes include selection and training programs for specific contexts such as training athletes and flight attendants. Economic benefits can be expected through the identification of those who will benefit most from training (reducing waste) and developing cost-effective forms of training which improve task performance.Read moreRead less
El Niño in a changing climate: novel long-term perspectives from Pacific corals and model simulations. El Niño and La Niña events have a profound influence on Australian drought conditions and rainfall. Forecasting is hampered by short climate records, which do not capture the full range of El Niño dynamics. This project aims to generate records of unprecedented length and spatial coverage from key sites across the western and central equatorial Pacific. Five hundred years of continuous, monthly ....El Niño in a changing climate: novel long-term perspectives from Pacific corals and model simulations. El Niño and La Niña events have a profound influence on Australian drought conditions and rainfall. Forecasting is hampered by short climate records, which do not capture the full range of El Niño dynamics. This project aims to generate records of unprecedented length and spatial coverage from key sites across the western and central equatorial Pacific. Five hundred years of continuous, monthly-resolution climate data will be integrated with output from state-of-the-art climate model simulations to distil the key processes that cause El Niño to vary. This project aims to provide major advances in determining the full range of El Niño and La Niña behaviour, leading to improved forecasts of future changes, with consequences for Australia's water security.Read moreRead less
Control and learning for enhancing capabilities of quantum sensors. This project aims to develop new theories and algorithms to enhance capabilities in engineering quantum sensors from the perspective of systems and control. The project is significant because it is anticipated to advance key knowledge and provide systematic methods to enable achievement of high-precision sensing for wide applications, e.g., early disease detection, medical research, discovery of ore deposits and groundwater moni ....Control and learning for enhancing capabilities of quantum sensors. This project aims to develop new theories and algorithms to enhance capabilities in engineering quantum sensors from the perspective of systems and control. The project is significant because it is anticipated to advance key knowledge and provide systematic methods to enable achievement of high-precision sensing for wide applications, e.g., early disease detection, medical research, discovery of ore deposits and groundwater monitoring. The intended outcomes are fundamental theories, effective control and learning algorithms for achieving highly-sensitive sensors. These outcomes should make important contributions to and deliver new knowledge and skills for Australia's sensing industries, which could benefit Australia's economic growth.Read moreRead less
Nothing works? Re-appraising research on Indigenous-focused crime and justice programs. Research on Indigenous-focused crime and justice programs often finds little or no impact on outcomes such as reductions in re-offending. This project aims to determine whether such findings are an accurate reflection of program ineffectiveness or are a consequence of how the research was carried out. With an analysis of three case studies of crime and justice programs, this project aims to show why findings ....Nothing works? Re-appraising research on Indigenous-focused crime and justice programs. Research on Indigenous-focused crime and justice programs often finds little or no impact on outcomes such as reductions in re-offending. This project aims to determine whether such findings are an accurate reflection of program ineffectiveness or are a consequence of how the research was carried out. With an analysis of three case studies of crime and justice programs, this project aims to show why findings that show no difference in re-offending outcomes may occur, and offer a more Indigenous-centric methodology to assess program effectiveness. Comparisons will be made with indigenous methodologies used in New Zealand and Canada.Read moreRead less
Small States' use of law of the sea litigation against greater powers. This project will investigate how small States are using law of the sea dispute settlement mechanisms to gain political advantages in conflicts with greater powers, including Security Council permanent members. It is important to understand how the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea can be leveraged to defend coastal State rights in strategic disputes concerning sovereign rights, unresolved boundaries, and military affairs. ....Small States' use of law of the sea litigation against greater powers. This project will investigate how small States are using law of the sea dispute settlement mechanisms to gain political advantages in conflicts with greater powers, including Security Council permanent members. It is important to understand how the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea can be leveraged to defend coastal State rights in strategic disputes concerning sovereign rights, unresolved boundaries, and military affairs. This research will better equip lawyers and policy makers to understand how such strategic litigation strengthens or undermines the rules based order at sea. The project will assist Australia to maintain its leading role in defending that maritime order and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea as its cornerstone.Read moreRead less
Dynamics of the Southern Ocean. The Southern Ocean is critically important to future global climate: it controls the natural global carbon cycle and the distribution of heat and nutrients around the ocean. This project will investigate key uncertainties in the Southern Ocean's response to climate change, and thereby improve our capacity to predict future climate.
Distribution of ocean heat uptake and its implications for sea level and climate change. Increasing sea levels and ocean temperatures provide critical evidence of long term warming of the climate system. This project will investigate geographical changes in the vertical distribution of heat uptake by the ocean and contribution to sea level changes, including understanding of physical mechanisms and the role of human activity and other natural external and internal factors. The expected outcomes ....Distribution of ocean heat uptake and its implications for sea level and climate change. Increasing sea levels and ocean temperatures provide critical evidence of long term warming of the climate system. This project will investigate geographical changes in the vertical distribution of heat uptake by the ocean and contribution to sea level changes, including understanding of physical mechanisms and the role of human activity and other natural external and internal factors. The expected outcomes will contribute to place more rigorous constraints on the likelihood of future warming and sea level rise projections, and are aligned with scientific deliverables required to address key questions in support of Australia’s climate change policy.Read moreRead less