A Grid based platform for multi-scaled biological simulation. Heart disease currently affects over 3.5 million Australians. In 2006 it claimed the lives of almost 46,000 Australians (34% of all deaths). We will develop enabling technology that underpins cardiac disease research, offering potential for new treatments and pharmaceutical therapies. Even a small improvement in this area can translate into significant national benefit. Further, the mathematical techniques and software tools we will d ....A Grid based platform for multi-scaled biological simulation. Heart disease currently affects over 3.5 million Australians. In 2006 it claimed the lives of almost 46,000 Australians (34% of all deaths). We will develop enabling technology that underpins cardiac disease research, offering potential for new treatments and pharmaceutical therapies. Even a small improvement in this area can translate into significant national benefit. Further, the mathematical techniques and software tools we will develop, whilst focused on heart tissue, will have broader applicability, and may underpin advancements in other disciplines. Finally, we expect that the software solutions and infrastructure will have both commercial and strategic value in their own right.Read moreRead less
Computationally Modelling a Volcano: Flow and Stability. Mainland Australia is fortunate not to suffer directly from active volcanism. However, this does not mean volcanoes are of little importance. The products of ancient eruptions can define the wealth of a nation. But they are also highly destructive and there are currently 30 active volcanoes capable of generating a tsunami that could affect Australia. Understanding the physical processes using computational models is essential to save lives ....Computationally Modelling a Volcano: Flow and Stability. Mainland Australia is fortunate not to suffer directly from active volcanism. However, this does not mean volcanoes are of little importance. The products of ancient eruptions can define the wealth of a nation. But they are also highly destructive and there are currently 30 active volcanoes capable of generating a tsunami that could affect Australia. Understanding the physical processes using computational models is essential to save lives and help us benefit from their products. This is a relatively new research field and owing to the resources in Australia, our research team has the potential to be at the forefront. There is also the capability to build and impressive research team within the University of Queensland.Read moreRead less
A process model of visual working memory. This project aims to develop a process model of encoding of items into memory. Working memory is central to almost all cognitive functions, but little is known about short-term memory for visual information. Progress in this area is slow because of a focus on models that do not specify the processes underlying memory, and no model explains the processes that would limit the number of items the memory can hold to four. A process model is expected to addre ....A process model of visual working memory. This project aims to develop a process model of encoding of items into memory. Working memory is central to almost all cognitive functions, but little is known about short-term memory for visual information. Progress in this area is slow because of a focus on models that do not specify the processes underlying memory, and no model explains the processes that would limit the number of items the memory can hold to four. A process model is expected to address fundamental issues in visual working memory.Read moreRead less
CoopEcoSafe: a new cooperative, green and safe driving system. Road transport plays a vital role in our economy but generates huge costs in road trauma and greenhouse gases. Eco-driving has been trialed as a cost-effective approach to reducing fuel consumption, but little research has examined its effects on safety. This research brings together disciplines of road safety, psychology and engineering to address the fundamental question: how can mobility be greener while being safer? It develops: ....CoopEcoSafe: a new cooperative, green and safe driving system. Road transport plays a vital role in our economy but generates huge costs in road trauma and greenhouse gases. Eco-driving has been trialed as a cost-effective approach to reducing fuel consumption, but little research has examined its effects on safety. This research brings together disciplines of road safety, psychology and engineering to address the fundamental question: how can mobility be greener while being safer? It develops: a new theoretical model that optimises environmental and safety outcomes; new persuasive in-vehicle Human Machine Interface supported by cooperative Intelligent Transport System; and, comprehensive benefits evaluation. This research will bring major improvements to both road safety and energy use. Read moreRead less
Coarse Grained Parallel Algorithms. Various fields of research face barriers created by problems that are computationally hard and/or require processing of large amounts of data. For example, some computational biochemistry methods on protein or gene sequences can not be scaled up to data sets required for human health research because of performance problems. Parallel computing enables new research by increasing the size of solvable problems. In addition to fundamental parallel computing resear ....Coarse Grained Parallel Algorithms. Various fields of research face barriers created by problems that are computationally hard and/or require processing of large amounts of data. For example, some computational biochemistry methods on protein or gene sequences can not be scaled up to data sets required for human health research because of performance problems. Parallel computing enables new research by increasing the size of solvable problems. In addition to fundamental parallel computing research, this project studies parallel algorithms for structure-based drug design and protein-protein interaction prediction that will enable new biochemistry research, as well as parallel algorithms for data cubes that will help enable the next generation of very large data warehouses.Read moreRead less
Human interaction with context-aware computing systems. Context-aware systems can provide seamless support of IT applications in a variety of technologies and therefore can improve: (i) work performance and adoption of IT in many industries; and (ii) the quality of life through better support for health services, education, and everyday tasks. Currently proposed solutions for context-aware systems fail to deliver systems which are usable for non-IT professionals. The proposed project will show h ....Human interaction with context-aware computing systems. Context-aware systems can provide seamless support of IT applications in a variety of technologies and therefore can improve: (i) work performance and adoption of IT in many industries; and (ii) the quality of life through better support for health services, education, and everyday tasks. Currently proposed solutions for context-aware systems fail to deliver systems which are usable for non-IT professionals. The proposed project will show how to design context-aware systems that are usable and whose autonomic decisions can be trusted. Additional benefits include increased scientific competitiveness of Australia, strengthened collaboration with international research institutions, and high quality graduates (PhDs, Masters, Honours).Read moreRead less
Toward a complete view of life on earth via single cell genomics. Genome sequencing has revolutionised biology, but for most microorganisms this revolution has not arrived because the majority cannot be grown in the laboratory. This project will address this grand challenge by targeted sequencing of single cells from the environment that will fill in many major gaps in the microbial tree of life.
Efficient Pre-Processing of Hard Problems: New Approaches, Basic Theory and Applications. Computers store even larger amounts of data about all aspects of human and industrial activity. However, they have not become significantly better at solving common problems in optimization and search. Traditional complexity theory indicates many of these problems require algorithms that are very unlikely to exist. The Parameterized Complexity approach allows us to obtain very efficient algorithms for a lar ....Efficient Pre-Processing of Hard Problems: New Approaches, Basic Theory and Applications. Computers store even larger amounts of data about all aspects of human and industrial activity. However, they have not become significantly better at solving common problems in optimization and search. Traditional complexity theory indicates many of these problems require algorithms that are very unlikely to exist. The Parameterized Complexity approach allows us to obtain very efficient algorithms for a large variety of problems, but the machinery required was diverse and complicated. This research will organize the machinery into a new approach that systematically finds good algorithms by applying simplifications around a parameter of the domain of the problem. As a result, efficient algorithms are obtained for many diverse areas.Read moreRead less
Approximate proximity for applications in data mining and visualization. Data Mining, pattern recognition and visualization of relational information are all important data analysis techniques in which it is essential to determine which data points are in the vicinity of others. The huge size of the data sets involved and the need for real-time interaction preclude the use of conventional methods for the precise computation of the proximity information required. This project will develop efficie ....Approximate proximity for applications in data mining and visualization. Data Mining, pattern recognition and visualization of relational information are all important data analysis techniques in which it is essential to determine which data points are in the vicinity of others. The huge size of the data sets involved and the need for real-time interaction preclude the use of conventional methods for the precise computation of the proximity information required. This project will develop efficient algorithms and data structures for gathering high-quality approximations of the full proximity information, and will use these innovations as the basis for new, practical tools for visualization, and clustering in data mining.Read moreRead less
An Empirically Derived Experimentally Validated Framework for Interactions in Information Environments. This project will investigate and design ways of interacting with the information infrastructure that maintain natural social interactions, take advantage of physical space and utilise our extensive human abilities to recognise and manipulate physical objects.
Expected outcomes include:
? a theoretical framework that describes the range of possible interactions that mediate information b ....An Empirically Derived Experimentally Validated Framework for Interactions in Information Environments. This project will investigate and design ways of interacting with the information infrastructure that maintain natural social interactions, take advantage of physical space and utilise our extensive human abilities to recognise and manipulate physical objects.
Expected outcomes include:
? a theoretical framework that describes the range of possible interactions that mediate information between the physical and virtual worlds.
? a prototype instrumented information environment that demonstrates and validates naturalistic information transactions identified in the framework.
This research is highly innovative in its field. It will use an iterative cycle of video observation, interaction analysis, user-centred device design, deployment and evaluation.
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