WAVELET-BASED MODELLING AND MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL OF COMPLEX MULTIDIMENSIONAL CRYSTALLISATION PROCESSES. The results of this project will directly contribute to a better understanding of crystallisation which is an important unit operation to achieve high purity separations. Many Australian industries for example, mineral processing, sugar processing, pharmaceuticals, etc will benefit from the results in order to enhance optimal operation and control to ensure globally competitive production ....WAVELET-BASED MODELLING AND MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL OF COMPLEX MULTIDIMENSIONAL CRYSTALLISATION PROCESSES. The results of this project will directly contribute to a better understanding of crystallisation which is an important unit operation to achieve high purity separations. Many Australian industries for example, mineral processing, sugar processing, pharmaceuticals, etc will benefit from the results in order to enhance optimal operation and control to ensure globally competitive production which is on time, minimize wastes and raw materials and inventories. The leading edge results will increase the contributions of these industries to the Australian economy and our global competitiveness necessary to maintain our culture and the beauty of our environment. Read moreRead less
Dynamic Controllability Analysis for Plantwide Process Design and Control. World-wide chemical plants represent many billions of dollars of investment. Improvements to the process designs in terms of controllability would have the potential to provide large economic benefits, as it implies improved productivity, reduced operating costs and product variability. This proposed research will be a step towards integration of process design and control, which has been widely recognized as the key to t ....Dynamic Controllability Analysis for Plantwide Process Design and Control. World-wide chemical plants represent many billions of dollars of investment. Improvements to the process designs in terms of controllability would have the potential to provide large economic benefits, as it implies improved productivity, reduced operating costs and product variability. This proposed research will be a step towards integration of process design and control, which has been widely recognized as the key to this improvement. The outcomes from this project may be readily implemented in process design practice, and therefore have a direct impact to the Australian and world-wide process industries, helping to build a more efficient and environmental conscious Australian process industries.Read moreRead less
Low temperature carbothermal reduction of alumina. Australia is the world's largest producer of alumina and bauxite; and the aluminium industry is our second largest commodity exporter. This project targets the development of fundamentals of an advanced technology for aluminium production with advantages of low energy consumption, low production costs and being more environment-friendly. This frontier technology will enhance the competitiveness of the Australian aluminium industry and contribute ....Low temperature carbothermal reduction of alumina. Australia is the world's largest producer of alumina and bauxite; and the aluminium industry is our second largest commodity exporter. This project targets the development of fundamentals of an advanced technology for aluminium production with advantages of low energy consumption, low production costs and being more environment-friendly. This frontier technology will enhance the competitiveness of the Australian aluminium industry and contribute to making an environmentally sustainable Australia. The project will also provide high quality education to final year undergraduate students. The project will contribute to the theory of metallurgical processes, particularly to the gas-solid reactions in the reduction and carburisation processes. Read moreRead less
Survival & Wellbeing among Migrant Precariat in Australia’s Gig Economy . The food and parcel delivery industry is now a structural feature of the Australian labour market. Little is known about the social consequences of this development for the workforce. especially temporary and long-term migrant workers involved in this industry. This project aims to investigate the risks to safety and wellbeing to migrant cohorts who undertake this work, interrogating the intersecting impact of age, gende ....Survival & Wellbeing among Migrant Precariat in Australia’s Gig Economy . The food and parcel delivery industry is now a structural feature of the Australian labour market. Little is known about the social consequences of this development for the workforce. especially temporary and long-term migrant workers involved in this industry. This project aims to investigate the risks to safety and wellbeing to migrant cohorts who undertake this work, interrogating the intersecting impact of age, gender, class, and ethnicity and particularly migration status. The project produces major national benefits, such as an enhanced capacity to inform future labour market policies and regulation as well as conceptual innovation in describing the 'everyday survival' strategies of migrant workers in Australia.Read moreRead less
Voice and Belonging: Pathways to inclusion for new migrant communities. This project investigates the role of Australia's ethnic media in the humanitarian and refugee settlement experience, conceptualising media engagement as a key lens through which to foster a sense of belonging. The project expects to provide the first-ever national study of ethnic media, mapping the 'migrant mediasphere' with a focus on new humanitarian and refugee communities. Expected outcomes include conceptual advances a ....Voice and Belonging: Pathways to inclusion for new migrant communities. This project investigates the role of Australia's ethnic media in the humanitarian and refugee settlement experience, conceptualising media engagement as a key lens through which to foster a sense of belonging. The project expects to provide the first-ever national study of ethnic media, mapping the 'migrant mediasphere' with a focus on new humanitarian and refugee communities. Expected outcomes include conceptual advances about media engagement and public connection for new and emerging migrant communities, and media's place in the assemblage of humanitarian settlement services. Significant benefits emerge for humanitarian and refugee arrivals, for media trying to service these communities and for policymakers in urban and regional areas.Read moreRead less
Computing with nearly-consistent data. This project will help programmers correctly use data that originates at various times and places, and spreads unevenly through a system. Computation will combine data that comes from different situations, and is not exactly consistent. Capability to develop high quality software on platforms with this feature will enhance the value of the Australian IT industry. As well, the industries which use the software benefit from correctly working with their data. ....Computing with nearly-consistent data. This project will help programmers correctly use data that originates at various times and places, and spreads unevenly through a system. Computation will combine data that comes from different situations, and is not exactly consistent. Capability to develop high quality software on platforms with this feature will enhance the value of the Australian IT industry. As well, the industries which use the software benefit from correctly working with their data. Sensor networks have data like this, and they play a vital role in environmental monitoring. Cloud computing platforms also have this type of data, and these allow smaller enterprises to grow smoothly, without needing large up-front investments in computing infrastructure.Read moreRead less
Enhancing computer user productivity of integrated enterprise wide systems: an intervention study. This project addresses a critical issue in IT investment and productivity. Current theoretical models of user training and acceptance have not contributed to the effectiveness of implementing new integrated enterprise wide systems. This study will identify key indiviudal differences that predict user motivation to learn and utilize such systems under mandatory conditions. A longitudinal study in ....Enhancing computer user productivity of integrated enterprise wide systems: an intervention study. This project addresses a critical issue in IT investment and productivity. Current theoretical models of user training and acceptance have not contributed to the effectiveness of implementing new integrated enterprise wide systems. This study will identify key indiviudal differences that predict user motivation to learn and utilize such systems under mandatory conditions. A longitudinal study in two field settings will test the impact of selected interventions on task performance following training. The outcomes will inform Australian industry on models of effective implementation and provide guidance to increase the productivity of personnel using software systems.Read moreRead less
Adaptive Key-value Store for Future Extreme Heterogeneous Systems. Safe, lasting storage of data, and efficient access to it, is vital for all aspects of computing, ranging from e-commerce applications, and data-management in governments. For the storage of data, persistent key-value stores are central in modern computing platforms. However, contemporary key-value stores have not been designed for emerging extreme heterogeneous computational systems with future hardware accelerators and storage ....Adaptive Key-value Store for Future Extreme Heterogeneous Systems. Safe, lasting storage of data, and efficient access to it, is vital for all aspects of computing, ranging from e-commerce applications, and data-management in governments. For the storage of data, persistent key-value stores are central in modern computing platforms. However, contemporary key-value stores have not been designed for emerging extreme heterogeneous computational systems with future hardware accelerators and storage capabilities, including graphics processor and flash-based memory. This project will devise an adaptive key-value store framework for heterogeneous systems. Our new framework will adaptively harvest the performance potential of future hardware such that applications can cope with fast-growing data sets.Read moreRead less
Computational Methods for the Social Accounting of Teamwork. The cornerstone of the knowledge industries underlying the Australian economy is not just mechanical efficiency but also teamwork productivity. The increasing trend toward placing Australian employees nearer to their customers means that Australian companies face an even greater challenge in managing effective teamwork. This research examines the pragmatics and theoretical issues of developing computer-based systems that enable real-ti ....Computational Methods for the Social Accounting of Teamwork. The cornerstone of the knowledge industries underlying the Australian economy is not just mechanical efficiency but also teamwork productivity. The increasing trend toward placing Australian employees nearer to their customers means that Australian companies face an even greater challenge in managing effective teamwork. This research examines the pragmatics and theoretical issues of developing computer-based systems that enable real-time assessments of teamwork productivity. Automated assessments of how well relationships are progressing in teams will enable them to realise the same levels of productivity gains that automated workflow management has facilitated.Read moreRead less
Granular dynamics: from discrete simulation towards continuum modelling. The project aims to develop a general averaging theory to link discrete to continuum description of granular dynamics and a comprehensive understanding of the underlying physics. This will be achieved through detailed analysis of the particle-particle and particle-wall interactions at both microscopic and macroscopic levels, supported by the newly developed averaging theory and novel discrete particle simulation. The result ....Granular dynamics: from discrete simulation towards continuum modelling. The project aims to develop a general averaging theory to link discrete to continuum description of granular dynamics and a comprehensive understanding of the underlying physics. This will be achieved through detailed analysis of the particle-particle and particle-wall interactions at both microscopic and macroscopic levels, supported by the newly developed averaging theory and novel discrete particle simulation. The results, in terms of constitutive relations and boundary conditions, will be implemented in continuum-based process modelling and tested by comparing numerical and experimental results via typical case studies. It will significantly enhance the present capability of modelling granular flow that is widely encountered in many industries and in nature.Read moreRead less