Self-supervised feature learning for rapid processing of marine imagery. Fast and reliable quantitative estimates of marine environmental health are needed for scientific studies, design and management of protected areas, and regulatory compliance of industrial activity in the ocean. Australia is collecting seafloor images at increasing rates but expert annotations are not keeping up, meaning that typical machine learning approaches struggle. This project will develop self-supervised techniques ....Self-supervised feature learning for rapid processing of marine imagery. Fast and reliable quantitative estimates of marine environmental health are needed for scientific studies, design and management of protected areas, and regulatory compliance of industrial activity in the ocean. Australia is collecting seafloor images at increasing rates but expert annotations are not keeping up, meaning that typical machine learning approaches struggle. This project will develop self-supervised techniques that use large amounts of unlabeled data to enhance performance. Our design takes advantage of additional information available for marine imagery such as geolocation and remote sensing context. We will explore how these representations can guide additional sampling and improve performance in classification tasks.Read moreRead less
On demand three-dimensional printing of stainless steel parts. On demand three-dimensional printing of stainless steel parts. This project aims to revolutionize the security of supply of critical stainless steel parts by producing them on-site and on demand, using three dimensional metal printing. Australia’s oil and gas industry uses tonnes of stainless steel for critical processing components in production plants. Australia is also one of the few developed nations without appreciable productio ....On demand three-dimensional printing of stainless steel parts. On demand three-dimensional printing of stainless steel parts. This project aims to revolutionize the security of supply of critical stainless steel parts by producing them on-site and on demand, using three dimensional metal printing. Australia’s oil and gas industry uses tonnes of stainless steel for critical processing components in production plants. Australia is also one of the few developed nations without appreciable production and processing facilities for stainless steels, so relies on specialist overseas suppliers. This is a major risk to the industry, which stores billions of dollars’ worth of replacement parts, including stainless steels, in inventory. This project should reduce reliance on overseas steel suppliers and free up hundreds of millions of dollars of capital invested in the inventory stores of replacement stainless steel parts.Read moreRead less
Sustainable and robust Australian Ni-based superalloy manufacturing. This project aims to solve challenges related to microstructural defect formation in the manufacturing of a critical Ni-based superalloy. It will generate new knowledge on its microstructure evolution and defect origin via a combined experimental and computational approach. Expected outcomes are advanced manufacturing routes with higher yield of defect free materials, using more scrap as input. This will enable robust and susta ....Sustainable and robust Australian Ni-based superalloy manufacturing. This project aims to solve challenges related to microstructural defect formation in the manufacturing of a critical Ni-based superalloy. It will generate new knowledge on its microstructure evolution and defect origin via a combined experimental and computational approach. Expected outcomes are advanced manufacturing routes with higher yield of defect free materials, using more scrap as input. This will enable robust and sustainable alloy manufacturing for power generation, defence, and aerospace industries. Commercial benefits are opportunities to domestically source alloys with reduced dependency on international trade. Environmental and societal benefits include lower emissions due to better mechanical design and workforce training.Read moreRead less
The development of lead-free silicon brass for the plumbing industry. The worldwide brass industry is currently undergoing a transition away from lead-containing brass water fittings to lead-free fittings. The transition is driven by concerns surrounding lead-leaching into drinking water. This project is focussed on the development of new lead-free brasses that can be used to manufacture plumbing fittings with superior combinations of processability, performance and cost.
New Wrought Magnesium Alloys: Manipulating the Annealed Microstructure. One of the main impediments to increased use of wrought magnesium is its characteristic but mediocre mechanical properties. The proposed work paves the way for new improved wrought magnesium alloys by determining how the constituent nano-structures, micro-structures and deformation conditions can be manipulated to control the evolution of properties during annealing. The project will deliver mathematical models describing th ....New Wrought Magnesium Alloys: Manipulating the Annealed Microstructure. One of the main impediments to increased use of wrought magnesium is its characteristic but mediocre mechanical properties. The proposed work paves the way for new improved wrought magnesium alloys by determining how the constituent nano-structures, micro-structures and deformation conditions can be manipulated to control the evolution of properties during annealing. The project will deliver mathematical models describing the annealed microstructure and mechanical properties. The work will also explore the potential of a recent discovery made by the CI of a simple technique to randomise the alignment of the annealed atomic lattice structure, which promises to markedly improve formability.Read moreRead less
New Lead-Free Brass Solutions for Drinking Water Applications. The aim of this Linkage Project is to provide viable material solutions to address the health problem of Lead-contamination in drinking water arising from Leaded-brass plumbing products and the impact Lead-removal from brass will have on the brass industry. In order to achieve this, this project engages leading multidisciplinary researchers along with Australian and international industry partners from across the brass industry suppl ....New Lead-Free Brass Solutions for Drinking Water Applications. The aim of this Linkage Project is to provide viable material solutions to address the health problem of Lead-contamination in drinking water arising from Leaded-brass plumbing products and the impact Lead-removal from brass will have on the brass industry. In order to achieve this, this project engages leading multidisciplinary researchers along with Australian and international industry partners from across the brass industry supply and sales network. This project seeks to identify and harness the key material-product attributes required to develop and implement new, lead-free alloy alternatives that meet health-compliance, production and commercial viability, that offer benefits across the industry network and health benefits to society.Read moreRead less
An innovative system for accurate bending of fracture fixation plates in orthopaedic surgery. Bone fractures cost the Australian healthcare system about 1 billion annually, with the costs associated with non optimal surgical outcomes due to post-operative complications being much higher. The novel system developed in this project will not only shorten surgical procedures but also result in anatomically better fitting plates which will improve the functional outcome and reduce the need for surgic ....An innovative system for accurate bending of fracture fixation plates in orthopaedic surgery. Bone fractures cost the Australian healthcare system about 1 billion annually, with the costs associated with non optimal surgical outcomes due to post-operative complications being much higher. The novel system developed in this project will not only shorten surgical procedures but also result in anatomically better fitting plates which will improve the functional outcome and reduce the need for surgical implant removal. It will further lessen degenerative changes in adjacent joints as a result of incorrect fracture alignment. It can be expected that these improvements in surgical techniques will translate into reduced healthcare expenditure and ensure patient's quality of life.Read moreRead less
Next-Generation Advanced Ammunition Alloy Production Technologies. This project aims to address a major shortfall in Australia’s ammunition supply chain and security by providing alloy solutions that enable the bypassing of the energy-intensive ammunition production steps currently imported from foreign nations as semi-finished products. By using a range of innovative new alloy design approaches that fundamentally address alloy strength, workability and castability, this project expects to provi ....Next-Generation Advanced Ammunition Alloy Production Technologies. This project aims to address a major shortfall in Australia’s ammunition supply chain and security by providing alloy solutions that enable the bypassing of the energy-intensive ammunition production steps currently imported from foreign nations as semi-finished products. By using a range of innovative new alloy design approaches that fundamentally address alloy strength, workability and castability, this project expects to provide higher performance cartridge alloys amenable to modern economic production technologies available within Australia simply not possible with existing cartridge brass. This shall provide a flexible, cost-competitive and secure sovereign ammunition supply chain while simultaneously improving ammunition performance.Read moreRead less
The Development of Creative Thinking Ability in TAFE Design Students. The aim is to develop an instructional framework as a conceptual basis for instruction aimed at TAFE design student use of imagery in creative thinking. The research addresses the challenges of recent post-compulsory education initiatives, which include a more specific focus on the development of creative problem-solving skills, but provide little guidance on instructional strategies. The research will synthesise the framewo ....The Development of Creative Thinking Ability in TAFE Design Students. The aim is to develop an instructional framework as a conceptual basis for instruction aimed at TAFE design student use of imagery in creative thinking. The research addresses the challenges of recent post-compulsory education initiatives, which include a more specific focus on the development of creative problem-solving skills, but provide little guidance on instructional strategies. The research will synthesise the framework from theories about cognitive processes, creative problem-solving and the use of mental imagery; and the results of an imagery training program and creative problem-solving interventions. The outcome will be an instructional framework for guiding the development of student creative thinking in design-based courses in TAFE.Read moreRead less
Psychological User Profiling in the Telecommunications Industry. Recording user behaviour allows businesses to learn about their customers. This is particularly important in telecommunications, since the core business involves a large number of users who vary considerably from one another. This project combines psychological insights with modern statistical methods to develop a psychologically plausible user profiling framework, accounting for the idiosyncratic usage patterns of customers, and t ....Psychological User Profiling in the Telecommunications Industry. Recording user behaviour allows businesses to learn about their customers. This is particularly important in telecommunications, since the core business involves a large number of users who vary considerably from one another. This project combines psychological insights with modern statistical methods to develop a psychologically plausible user profiling framework, accounting for the idiosyncratic usage patterns of customers, and the way in which they change over time. The profiles will be tied to marketing prospects through interviews and surveys. Applied benefits include the ability to predict, understand and act upon user behaviour. The project also adds substantially to theories of memory, individual differences and decision-making.Read moreRead less