Stochastic Assessment of Terrorist Blast and Fragmentation Casualty Risks. The project will develop probabilistic models to predict the likelihood and extent of casualties and other losses from terrorist car bombing threats. Car bombs comprise a large quantity of explosives, and produce primary fragments such as wheels, engine block, parts of door panels and other shrapnel that pose a serious safety hazard to people exposed in a street or other mass gatherings. An improved understanding of safet ....Stochastic Assessment of Terrorist Blast and Fragmentation Casualty Risks. The project will develop probabilistic models to predict the likelihood and extent of casualties and other losses from terrorist car bombing threats. Car bombs comprise a large quantity of explosives, and produce primary fragments such as wheels, engine block, parts of door panels and other shrapnel that pose a serious safety hazard to people exposed in a street or other mass gatherings. An improved understanding of safety risks will assist in setting safe evacuation distances. A quantitative assessment of terrorism risks will also allow the effectiveness of security measures to be assessed to provide cost-effective levels of protection that are acceptable to society.Read moreRead less
Establishing an accurate chemical volatile profile of decomposition for use in victim recovery in mass disaster and forensic investigations. This project will advance forensic science by identifying a complete chemical profile of human decomposition scent. It will result in the development of a more accurate training scent aid to enhance the response of cadaver detection dogs deployed to scenes of mass disasters involving human remains.
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
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.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170101081
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$360,000.00
Summary
Adaptive value-flow analysis to improve code reliability and security. This project aims to develop client-driven adaptive value-flow analysis to detect software bugs in system software written in the C/C++ programme language. Static analysis tools for automated code inspections can benefit software developers, but are imprecise, inefficient and not user-friendly for analysing real-world industrial-sized software. The project will investigate static, dynamic and user-guided value-flow analysis t ....Adaptive value-flow analysis to improve code reliability and security. This project aims to develop client-driven adaptive value-flow analysis to detect software bugs in system software written in the C/C++ programme language. Static analysis tools for automated code inspections can benefit software developers, but are imprecise, inefficient and not user-friendly for analysing real-world industrial-sized software. The project will investigate static, dynamic and user-guided value-flow analysis to efficiently and precisely analyse large-scale programs according to clients’ needs, thereby allowing compilers to generate safe, reliable and secure code. This project is expected to advance value-flow analysis for industrial-sized software, improve software reliability and security, and benefit Australian software systems and industries.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160101167
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$315,000.00
Summary
3D-printed hierarchical polymer metacomposites for microwave cloaking. The project aims to develop a metacomposite for microwave cloaking, constituted by soft ferromagnetic microwires using a 3D printing technique. The resultant light weight composite is expected to have a gradient index with the control of composite mesostructure, which is expected to be possible with an automatic engineering process without involvement of any high-cost nanofabrication process. Using a graded metacomposite as a ....3D-printed hierarchical polymer metacomposites for microwave cloaking. The project aims to develop a metacomposite for microwave cloaking, constituted by soft ferromagnetic microwires using a 3D printing technique. The resultant light weight composite is expected to have a gradient index with the control of composite mesostructure, which is expected to be possible with an automatic engineering process without involvement of any high-cost nanofabrication process. Using a graded metacomposite as a building block, a microwave cloak can be made that would make any objects beneath it invisible to microwave vigilant devices such as radar detection. The proposed metacomposite therefore has potential applications in military defence technology, aerospace and space exploration.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170101203
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$360,000.00
Summary
Multi-functional antenna arrays for secure and reliable wireless systems. This project aims to develop and validate the fundamental theory and engineering techniques for fully reconfigurable antenna arrays. Multi-functional antennae deliver highly-secure and reliable wireless communications for Australia’s digital economy. Such an antenna array, a critical component of wireless multi-functional systems, can provide full flexibilities of the frequency, polarisation and radiation pattern to satisf ....Multi-functional antenna arrays for secure and reliable wireless systems. This project aims to develop and validate the fundamental theory and engineering techniques for fully reconfigurable antenna arrays. Multi-functional antennae deliver highly-secure and reliable wireless communications for Australia’s digital economy. Such an antenna array, a critical component of wireless multi-functional systems, can provide full flexibilities of the frequency, polarisation and radiation pattern to satisfy the systems’ different requirements. This project is expected to advance the scientific knowledge of several frontiers of antenna research and enhance spectrum usage efficiency, highly-secure wireless communications and compact and reliable military wireless platforms, thus benefiting Australian industry, society and national defence.Read moreRead less
Nanophotonic metamaterials as anti-counterfeit devices in Australian banknotes. This project will demonstrate the application of novel materials as the basis for next generation security features on banknotes. Such elements play a key role in maintaining the integrity of Australia's currency since they present a significant barrier to counterfeiting.
Expectations and commitments in the Australia-USA alliance. This project aims to investigate the gap between the high expectations of mutual support and the lack of detailed security commitments in the Australia-US Alliance. The project intends to use a focused approach that captures thematic aspects of the alliance through project frames and historical slices across time. Expected outcomes can advance understanding of how alliances operate as security institutions. The outcomes can help to prom ....Expectations and commitments in the Australia-USA alliance. This project aims to investigate the gap between the high expectations of mutual support and the lack of detailed security commitments in the Australia-US Alliance. The project intends to use a focused approach that captures thematic aspects of the alliance through project frames and historical slices across time. Expected outcomes can advance understanding of how alliances operate as security institutions. The outcomes can help to promote a more informed national conversation about the costs and benefits of Australia's security relationship with the United States of America (USA) and contribute to debates over the future of the Australia-USA Alliance during a period of strategic uncertainty.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230100116
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$419,218.00
Summary
Vulnerability Defence: From Interpretable to Trustworthy Threat Assessment. This project aims to design a novel vulnerability defence framework to automatically identify, prioritise and interpret vulnerabilities and their attack vectors from the Internet of Things (IoT). Currently, most Australian organisations can be targeted by complex cyberattacks, stealing sensitive information leading to financial loss and reputation threats. This project expects to generate new knowledge in IoT vulnerabili ....Vulnerability Defence: From Interpretable to Trustworthy Threat Assessment. This project aims to design a novel vulnerability defence framework to automatically identify, prioritise and interpret vulnerabilities and their attack vectors from the Internet of Things (IoT). Currently, most Australian organisations can be targeted by complex cyberattacks, stealing sensitive information leading to financial loss and reputation threats. This project expects to generate new knowledge in IoT vulnerability assessment using economic risk estimation and cognitive vulnerability identification methods. Expected outcomes include trusted IoT vulnerability assessment methods and vulnerability testbed. Significant benefits are expected to protect IoT networks in all defence, industry and government sectors.Read moreRead less