Detecting and tracking alertness using speech biometrics. Traditional tests for detecting and tracking alertness are limited by their accuracy and inability to be administered without stopping work. This project aims to investigate how speech can be used to monitor changes in performance resulting from sleep deprivation and successive night shifts. The expected outcomes are 1) new knowledge on how sensitive speech and language features are for detecting change in alertness, and 2) development an ....Detecting and tracking alertness using speech biometrics. Traditional tests for detecting and tracking alertness are limited by their accuracy and inability to be administered without stopping work. This project aims to investigate how speech can be used to monitor changes in performance resulting from sleep deprivation and successive night shifts. The expected outcomes are 1) new knowledge on how sensitive speech and language features are for detecting change in alertness, and 2) development and verification of a highly accurate, cost-effective, speech focussed assay capable of detecting impaired alertness from otherwise healthy individuals. The project should benefit the way fitness for duty is tested and provide new methods for safeguarding Australians working in at-risk environments.Read moreRead less
Towards equity in crash protection. Women are at increased relative risk for death and serious injury in motor vehicle crashes compared to men and the reasons for this are not clear. This Fellowship aims to build a new model that describes the mechanistic pathways for this inequity to identify where and how intervention could reduce this relative risk. This will establish what population groups have good and poor access to the best vehicle safety technologies, the differences, and what might cau ....Towards equity in crash protection. Women are at increased relative risk for death and serious injury in motor vehicle crashes compared to men and the reasons for this are not clear. This Fellowship aims to build a new model that describes the mechanistic pathways for this inequity to identify where and how intervention could reduce this relative risk. This will establish what population groups have good and poor access to the best vehicle safety technologies, the differences, and what might cause these differences in the benefits of vehicle safety technology between women and men. The outcomes will be of use to academics, policy makers and industry designing to new ways to protect women in crashes and close this gender gap.Read moreRead less
The Consequences of the Mental Load for Australian Families. This project aims to investigate the mental load; a structure of household work that combines cognitive and emotional labour. While there are theoretical understandings of the mental load, there is a dearth of quantitative research. This project expects to develop a consistent and reliable measure of the mental load and an understanding of its impacts on Australian families. The expected outcomes of the project include a comprehensive ....The Consequences of the Mental Load for Australian Families. This project aims to investigate the mental load; a structure of household work that combines cognitive and emotional labour. While there are theoretical understandings of the mental load, there is a dearth of quantitative research. This project expects to develop a consistent and reliable measure of the mental load and an understanding of its impacts on Australian families. The expected outcomes of the project include a comprehensive measurement of the mental load both in Australia and abroad. This will allow for the development of policy alleviating its impacts on caregivers, particularly mothers, and assist workplaces and Government in incorporating women into employment to reduce gender inequality.Read moreRead less
Differentiation not disintegration: Integrating strategies to improve Occupational Health and Safety in the construction industry. Almost ten percent of all injury and death claims in Australia are attributed to construction, creating a significant social and economic burden. Organisational, technological and cultural fragmentation of the supply chain impedes the integration of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) into construction planning and design. The research will effect critical and susta ....Differentiation not disintegration: Integrating strategies to improve Occupational Health and Safety in the construction industry. Almost ten percent of all injury and death claims in Australia are attributed to construction, creating a significant social and economic burden. Organisational, technological and cultural fragmentation of the supply chain impedes the integration of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) into construction planning and design. The research will effect critical and sustainable improvements in construction OHS, through: (i) the engagement of all industry participants in the OHS improvement effort; (ii) the identification of new technologies which can improve OHS; and (iii) the establishment of a unity of purpose regarding OHS among construction industry stakeholders, contributing significantly to a reduction in the social and economic costs of occupational death, injury and illness.Read moreRead less
A new complex systems approach to road trauma: Applying systems thinking to the fatal five. By 2030 road trauma is expected to be the fifth leading cause of global deaths. The current road user centric road safety approach has failed to control the global health epidemic of road trauma. Although systems thinking is widely accepted to be the most effective approach for understanding and enhancing safety in complex systems, it has not yet been adopted in road safety efforts. This project aims to a ....A new complex systems approach to road trauma: Applying systems thinking to the fatal five. By 2030 road trauma is expected to be the fifth leading cause of global deaths. The current road user centric road safety approach has failed to control the global health epidemic of road trauma. Although systems thinking is widely accepted to be the most effective approach for understanding and enhancing safety in complex systems, it has not yet been adopted in road safety efforts. This project aims to apply a novel, integrated framework of systems analysis and design methods to the so called 'fatal five' causes of road trauma to create new knowledge on their causes and to develop and test new interventions that will enable the achievement of currently unreachable road safety targets.Read moreRead less
Enhancing practice-based learning experiences: towards a curriculum, pedagogy and epistemology of practice. Workplaces are increasingly seen as essential sites for learning about occupations and continuing to be competent across working lives. Focussing on healthcare work, this project seeks to maximise and improve learning experiences in workplaces and integrate them effectively into educational programs to improve occupational competence.
Molecular and immunological approaches to managing Australia's seafood allergy epidemic. Seafood is an increasingly important cause of food allergy. Novel insight into the functions of why and how proteins from seafood develop to potent allergens will lead to the development of better diagnostics and therapeutics. This will assist patients to better manage their serious food allergy.
AUSLearn: AUtomated Sample Learning for Object Recognition. This project aims to enable computers to learn how to effectively use training samples for object recognition. Training sample is the only source used by computers to learn recognising objects. This project creates a new research direction that will enable the first full exploration of the power of samples. The aims will be enabled by leveraging the recent advances in reinforcement learning, fast training algorithms, and by developing n ....AUSLearn: AUtomated Sample Learning for Object Recognition. This project aims to enable computers to learn how to effectively use training samples for object recognition. Training sample is the only source used by computers to learn recognising objects. This project creates a new research direction that will enable the first full exploration of the power of samples. The aims will be enabled by leveraging the recent advances in reinforcement learning, fast training algorithms, and by developing novel deep learning algorithms. The new algorithms will benefit a wide range of applications, e.g. to effectively use car crash training samples for accurately identifying potential road crashes in transport and to effectively use rare medical imaging training data for robustly diagnosing diseases in health.Read moreRead less
Adapting Automation Transparency to Allow Accurate Use by Humans . The project will conduct the human factors research urgently required to discover how best to make automation in high-risk work settings more transparent and usable by humans. In safety-critical work contexts such as defence and aviation, automated decision aids improve human decision-making. Unfortunately however, catastrophic accidents have occurred because human operators have either not followed correct automated advice, or f ....Adapting Automation Transparency to Allow Accurate Use by Humans . The project will conduct the human factors research urgently required to discover how best to make automation in high-risk work settings more transparent and usable by humans. In safety-critical work contexts such as defence and aviation, automated decision aids improve human decision-making. Unfortunately however, catastrophic accidents have occurred because human operators have either not followed correct automated advice, or followed incorrect automated advice. A series of human factors studies using unmanned vehicle control, air traffic control, and submarine track management tasks (including testing experts in field settings) will discover how best to design transparent automation that can be safely and efficiently used by humans.Read moreRead less
Modular microfluidic platform for mimicking multi-organ system interactions. This project aims to develop a novel, modular microfluidic platform that overcomes current limitations of integrated systems in synchronising multi-tissue culture, imaging and operational complexity. Understanding multi-organ systemic crosstalk in human health and diseases demands dynamic culture systems that can mimic such interactions. This project will deliver a first-in-class platform technology and establish intern ....Modular microfluidic platform for mimicking multi-organ system interactions. This project aims to develop a novel, modular microfluidic platform that overcomes current limitations of integrated systems in synchronising multi-tissue culture, imaging and operational complexity. Understanding multi-organ systemic crosstalk in human health and diseases demands dynamic culture systems that can mimic such interactions. This project will deliver a first-in-class platform technology and establish international and disciplinary collaborations to develop different tissue and engineering modules relevant to applications in systemic nanotoxicology, drug bioactivation and chronic diseases. This will provide the cornerstone technology to develop a new generation of disease models and therapeutics targeting interaction dysfunctions.Read moreRead less