Ownership-based Alias Analysis for Securing Unsafe Rust Programs. This project aims to develop an ownership-based alias analysis as a complement to Rust's ownership type system for improving Rust's memory safety. This project, therefore, expects to deliver an alias analysis foundation that can provide stronger memory safety guarantees than the state-of-the-art in detecting memory-safety violations and security vulnerabilities in real-world Rust programs that use unsafe language features. The exp ....Ownership-based Alias Analysis for Securing Unsafe Rust Programs. This project aims to develop an ownership-based alias analysis as a complement to Rust's ownership type system for improving Rust's memory safety. This project, therefore, expects to deliver an alias analysis foundation that can provide stronger memory safety guarantees than the state-of-the-art in detecting memory-safety violations and security vulnerabilities in real-world Rust programs that use unsafe language features. The expected outcomes are a deployable ownership-based alias analysis in the Rust compiler and an industrial-strength open-source framework. These outcomes are expected to provide significant benefits in improving software quality and security in Rust, an emerging language that offers both performance and safety.Read moreRead less
Verified concurrent memory management on modern processors. This project aims to formally verify automatic memory managers in the presence of concurrency and the weakly ordered memory of modern processors. A new framework for verifying memory managers, reusable for a wide range of managed programming languages, target hardware, policies, and algorithms will be developed. Expected technical outcomes include improved techniques to ensure trustworthiness of the foundations on which critical softwar ....Verified concurrent memory management on modern processors. This project aims to formally verify automatic memory managers in the presence of concurrency and the weakly ordered memory of modern processors. A new framework for verifying memory managers, reusable for a wide range of managed programming languages, target hardware, policies, and algorithms will be developed. Expected technical outcomes include improved techniques to ensure trustworthiness of the foundations on which critical software infrastructures are built. This will significantly enhance the security of public and private cyber assets, and deliver applications that are more robust and trustworthy, across a range of critical infrastructure such as transportation, communication, energy and defence.Read moreRead less
Detecting Asynchronous Event-Driven Order Violations in Android Apps. This project aims to develop an event-interleaving analysis for detecting asynchronous event-driven order violations in Android apps. This project therefore expects to deliver a program analysis foundation that can provide stronger security guarantees than the state of the art against advanced exploits that abuse such asynchronous vulnerabilities. The intended outcomes of this project are a new program analysis technology and ....Detecting Asynchronous Event-Driven Order Violations in Android Apps. This project aims to develop an event-interleaving analysis for detecting asynchronous event-driven order violations in Android apps. This project therefore expects to deliver a program analysis foundation that can provide stronger security guarantees than the state of the art against advanced exploits that abuse such asynchronous vulnerabilities. The intended outcomes of this project are a new program analysis technology and an industrial-strength open-source framework that can significantly raise the bar on mobile software quality and security for Android, the dominant smartphone platform accounting a current market share at 87.0% with 2.9 million apps at Google Play in December 2019.Read moreRead less
Design and verification of correct, efficient and secure concurrent systems. This project aims to provide methods for the design and verification of correct, secure and efficient concurrent software that are scalable and mechanised. Computers with multiple processors are now the norm and are used in a wide range of safety, security and mission critical software applications such as transport, health and infrastructure. These multi-core architectures have the potential to lead to important effici ....Design and verification of correct, efficient and secure concurrent systems. This project aims to provide methods for the design and verification of correct, secure and efficient concurrent software that are scalable and mechanised. Computers with multiple processors are now the norm and are used in a wide range of safety, security and mission critical software applications such as transport, health and infrastructure. These multi-core architectures have the potential to lead to important efficiency gains, but can introduce complex and error-prone behaviours that cannot be managed using traditional software development approaches. This project will produce better, scalable and mechanised methods for the design and verification of such software which is expected to reduce the prevalence of failures in efficient, modern software.Read moreRead less
Next generation garbage collection: discovery, design, and development. This project aims to improve the performance of programming languages used by millions of Australians every day, such as Java, JavaScript and PHP by developing improved memory-management algorithms. These languages use what is referred to as “garbage collection” to ensure memory is managed without data loss, but do so conservatively and consequently cause performance challenges and energy overheads. This project expects to p ....Next generation garbage collection: discovery, design, and development. This project aims to improve the performance of programming languages used by millions of Australians every day, such as Java, JavaScript and PHP by developing improved memory-management algorithms. These languages use what is referred to as “garbage collection” to ensure memory is managed without data loss, but do so conservatively and consequently cause performance challenges and energy overheads. This project expects to provide these languages with improved memory-management algorithms, and provides researchers and industry with a framework for innovation. This project will enable safe software that is more efficient on today's hardware and able to exploit emerging hardware. This project should lead to better performance and energy savings for server applications, phones, watches, and smart appliances, while ensuring memory safety.Read moreRead less
Edge-Accelerated Deep Learning. Implementing deep learning (DL) applications usually requires a large amount of collected data and powerful computing resources in the cloud. However, this centralised approach has issues of high latency, large bandwidth usage, and possible privacy violation for many practical applications. Without properly addressing these issues, the wider application of DL in practice will seriously be hindered. This project aims to solve several key challenging problems in eff ....Edge-Accelerated Deep Learning. Implementing deep learning (DL) applications usually requires a large amount of collected data and powerful computing resources in the cloud. However, this centralised approach has issues of high latency, large bandwidth usage, and possible privacy violation for many practical applications. Without properly addressing these issues, the wider application of DL in practice will seriously be hindered. This project aims to solve several key challenging problems in effective deployment and efficient execution of DL applications in a distributed edge-computing environment. Several innovative edge-computing methods will be developed for DL training, inference and implementation to achieve high performance with low latency and enhanced privacy.Read moreRead less
Real-time imaging of crystal strengthening mechanisms in metals. The strength limit of a metal is marked by rapid motion of crystalline defects. The associated speeds can locally approach that of sound. To probe the associated mechanisms clearly requires both spatial and temporal resolution. We propose to create a new bulk x-ray technique with an unprecedented combination of temporal and spatial resolution. We plan to exploit the technique to mediate a step change in modelling strength based on ....Real-time imaging of crystal strengthening mechanisms in metals. The strength limit of a metal is marked by rapid motion of crystalline defects. The associated speeds can locally approach that of sound. To probe the associated mechanisms clearly requires both spatial and temporal resolution. We propose to create a new bulk x-ray technique with an unprecedented combination of temporal and spatial resolution. We plan to exploit the technique to mediate a step change in modelling strength based on twinning. The formation of crystalline twins is known to dictate the strength of the light metal magnesium. A fuller understanding of the effect of twinning on strength in this metal will provide much needed confidence to implement it more widely in energy saving applications.Read moreRead less
Improving thermal environment of housing for older Australians. This project aims to develop strategies to improve the thermal environment of housing for older Australians based on systematic investigations of the links between weather, thermal comfort, energy use, and well-being. The project will produce evidence-based guidelines and a framework about planning/design issues and operational/behavioural aspects to support older people living independently. Improved thermal conditions will lead to ....Improving thermal environment of housing for older Australians. This project aims to develop strategies to improve the thermal environment of housing for older Australians based on systematic investigations of the links between weather, thermal comfort, energy use, and well-being. The project will produce evidence-based guidelines and a framework about planning/design issues and operational/behavioural aspects to support older people living independently. Improved thermal conditions will lead to better quality of life, reduce the need for institutional care and reduce public health costs. They will also provide environmental benefits through reduced energy use and carbon emissions.Read moreRead less
Visualising molecular level detail in single cells and intact tissues. The goal of this project is to deliver a new toolkit for imaging cells at an unprecedented resolution and level of chemical detail. We will expand the capabilities of two existing, but complementary, methods: optical fluorescence microscopy with responsive probes and X-ray fluorescence imaging. Expected outcomes include improved techniques and benchmarks for visualising bacterial and mammalian cells; development of new molecu ....Visualising molecular level detail in single cells and intact tissues. The goal of this project is to deliver a new toolkit for imaging cells at an unprecedented resolution and level of chemical detail. We will expand the capabilities of two existing, but complementary, methods: optical fluorescence microscopy with responsive probes and X-ray fluorescence imaging. Expected outcomes include improved techniques and benchmarks for visualising bacterial and mammalian cells; development of new molecules for elucidating cellular chemistry; better utilisation of valuable synchrotron resources; and greater understanding of the strengths and limitations of current microscopy workflows. Results should benefit the biotechnology sector, and may lead to improved medical, diagnostic, and bioremediation capacity.Read moreRead less
X-ray Ghost Imaging and Tomography. This project aims to achieve safer, faster, and cheaper 3D X-ray imaging through a technique known as ghost imaging. X-ray imaging provides valuable information about internal structures, however, X-rays are carcinogenic and exposure (or dose) should be limited. Ghost imaging is an unconventional technique developed with visible light that has many potential benefits over conventional imaging. This research group are world leaders in ghost imaging and expect t ....X-ray Ghost Imaging and Tomography. This project aims to achieve safer, faster, and cheaper 3D X-ray imaging through a technique known as ghost imaging. X-ray imaging provides valuable information about internal structures, however, X-rays are carcinogenic and exposure (or dose) should be limited. Ghost imaging is an unconventional technique developed with visible light that has many potential benefits over conventional imaging. This research group are world leaders in ghost imaging and expect to develop software and hardware techniques to realise its potential and extend it to ghost tomography. The focus of this project is on reducing cancer risk in medical imaging, and allowing real-time quality control for 3D printing in safety-critical industries such as aerospace.Read moreRead less