Tractable topological computing: Escaping the hardness trap. Computational topology is a young and energetic field that uses computers to solve complex geometric problems driven by pure mathematics, and with diverse applications in biology, signal processing and data mining. A major barrier is that many of these problems are thought to be fundamentally and intractably hard. This project aims to defy such barriers for typical real-world inputs by fusing geometric techniques with technologies from ....Tractable topological computing: Escaping the hardness trap. Computational topology is a young and energetic field that uses computers to solve complex geometric problems driven by pure mathematics, and with diverse applications in biology, signal processing and data mining. A major barrier is that many of these problems are thought to be fundamentally and intractably hard. This project aims to defy such barriers for typical real-world inputs by fusing geometric techniques with technologies from the field of parameterised complexity, creating powerful, practical solutions for these problems. It is expected to shed much-needed light on the vast and puzzling gap between theory and practice, and give researchers fast new software tools for large-scale experimentation and cutting-edge computer proofs.Read moreRead less
Privacy-preserving data processing on the cloud. This project aims to address the current lack of privacy of user data processed by common cloud computing web servers, including email, business data, and confidential files. This project aims to develop new techniques in cryptography. The anticipated outcome is a suite of practical tools enabling common cloud computing processing operations such as search, statistical analysis, and multi-user access control, to be performed efficiently while pres ....Privacy-preserving data processing on the cloud. This project aims to address the current lack of privacy of user data processed by common cloud computing web servers, including email, business data, and confidential files. This project aims to develop new techniques in cryptography. The anticipated outcome is a suite of practical tools enabling common cloud computing processing operations such as search, statistical analysis, and multi-user access control, to be performed efficiently while preserving the data privacy. These tools should provide significant benefits to the privacy of cloud users, as well as financial and reputation benefits to the IT industry, by significantly reducing the likelihood of massive user data privacy breaches in the event of a cyber-hacking attack on the cloud server.Read moreRead less
Computational modelling of nanofluids for industrial applications. The use of nanoparticles in heat transfer fluids, then known as nanofluids, increases their specific heat and thermal conductivity. Recent experimental works highlight that anomalous transport phenomena are evident in nanofluids that cannot be adequately described by classical conservation laws. We will extend these conservation laws to incorporate fractional operators to capture the fluid memory effects and the impact of particl ....Computational modelling of nanofluids for industrial applications. The use of nanoparticles in heat transfer fluids, then known as nanofluids, increases their specific heat and thermal conductivity. Recent experimental works highlight that anomalous transport phenomena are evident in nanofluids that cannot be adequately described by classical conservation laws. We will extend these conservation laws to incorporate fractional operators to capture the fluid memory effects and the impact of particle clustering. Computational modelling and experimental investigations will be undertaken to identify the heat transfer mechanisms of various nanofluids. The outcomes of the work will increase knowledge on nanofluids and offer a significant opportunity to improve the efficiency of many thermal engineering systems.Read moreRead less
Embedding Enterprise Systems in IoT Fog Networks through Microservices. The project will enable automated re-engineering of enterprise systems, to allow them to reused in Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications. It will support efficient ways in which the core business logic of these large scale and monolithic systems can be extended into resource control and data sensing functions managed through the IoT. The project will develop a novel, fine-grained software architecture style suitable for loca ....Embedding Enterprise Systems in IoT Fog Networks through Microservices. The project will enable automated re-engineering of enterprise systems, to allow them to reused in Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications. It will support efficient ways in which the core business logic of these large scale and monolithic systems can be extended into resource control and data sensing functions managed through the IoT. The project will develop a novel, fine-grained software architecture style suitable for localised IoT execution, through microservices executing autonomously on nodes of IoT fog networks. It will develop new techniques for automated discovery of microservices from enterprise systems and the verification of future-state system execution based on current-state behavioural and other properties such as security.Read moreRead less
Ambient nature network: new technologies to connect people to nature. This project aims to reconnect people with nature through new technology. Events in nature occur at times, places and scales that are hard to witness, leading to human disconnection from nature. This project proposes to address this issue by researching and designing new low-cost devices that combine environmental sensors with new interfaces to reveal local nature in parks and gardens in calm, engaging ways within and between ....Ambient nature network: new technologies to connect people to nature. This project aims to reconnect people with nature through new technology. Events in nature occur at times, places and scales that are hard to witness, leading to human disconnection from nature. This project proposes to address this issue by researching and designing new low-cost devices that combine environmental sensors with new interfaces to reveal local nature in parks and gardens in calm, engaging ways within and between homes in medium and high density environments. Outcomes will include new connected devices, playful interfaces and social sharing mechanisms, an evaluation with local groups, and a new theory of technology supported human-nature interaction. Benefits will include better community connection to nature, engagement in local citizen science, environmental initiatives and novel monitoring services and products.Read moreRead less
Unlocking Mass Mobile Video Analytics with Advanced Neural Memory Networks. This project will develop neural memory architectures and dense spatial-temporal bundle adjustment to predict movement, behaviour, and perform multi-sensor fusion across large asynchronous video feeds. This capability will allow us to better interrogate and analyse mass video information recorded from the vast number of smartphones, action cameras, and surveillance cameras which exist at public events of interest. Outcom ....Unlocking Mass Mobile Video Analytics with Advanced Neural Memory Networks. This project will develop neural memory architectures and dense spatial-temporal bundle adjustment to predict movement, behaviour, and perform multi-sensor fusion across large asynchronous video feeds. This capability will allow us to better interrogate and analyse mass video information recorded from the vast number of smartphones, action cameras, and surveillance cameras which exist at public events of interest. Outcomes include the ability to ingest multiple video feeds into a dense and dynamic 3D reconstruction for knowledge representation and discovery, and analysis of events and behaviour through new spatio-temporal analytic approaches. This will offer significant benefits for video forensic analysis, policing, and emergency response.Read moreRead less
A human-centric eXplainable Automated Vehicle. The aim is to create a computational model to address the inability of Automated Vehicles (AV), powered by Artificial intelligence, to self explain their behaviours. This project applies novel multidisciplinary methodologies in a real-world self-driving setting to formalise the essence of driving explanations. It explores the when, why and how a driver is seeking an explanation and what type of automated explanation is truly human-interpretable. Exp ....A human-centric eXplainable Automated Vehicle. The aim is to create a computational model to address the inability of Automated Vehicles (AV), powered by Artificial intelligence, to self explain their behaviours. This project applies novel multidisciplinary methodologies in a real-world self-driving setting to formalise the essence of driving explanations. It explores the when, why and how a driver is seeking an explanation and what type of automated explanation is truly human-interpretable. Expected outcomes include the discovery of an acceptable, transparent and ethical explanation system that helps humans to understand the AVs decision making. This field will continue to rise in prominence and produce much-needed work to improve the widespread adoption of AVs.Read moreRead less
Re-engineering enterprise systems for microservices in the cloud. This project will enable automatic re-engineering of large enterprise applications to run in modern cloud environments as microservices. Microservices are the latest wave of service-based software, capable of exploiting the high performance and third-party integration opportunities made available through the cloud. The project will develop new techniques for analysing enterprise systems code and execution data, and making recommen ....Re-engineering enterprise systems for microservices in the cloud. This project will enable automatic re-engineering of large enterprise applications to run in modern cloud environments as microservices. Microservices are the latest wave of service-based software, capable of exploiting the high performance and third-party integration opportunities made available through the cloud. The project will develop new techniques for analysing enterprise systems code and execution data, and making recommendations for restructuring suitable parts as microservices. These microservices manage individual business objects via sets of lightweight distributed computational operations. The outcomes will support progressive evolution of an enterprise system, into distributed microservices running in public clouds, while still being integrated with "backend" systems.Read moreRead less
Regional resilience to economic shocks: Australia’s COVID Economic slowdown. This project is designed to analyse how employment outcomes in Australian regions respond to economic shocks such as that caused by COVID-19. Set within the emerging literature dealing with employment resilience, the project uses unique data (Payroll Jobs index) to measure employment resilience and understand the factors that impact diverse regional outcomes. Understanding these patterns is significant as a region's ec ....Regional resilience to economic shocks: Australia’s COVID Economic slowdown. This project is designed to analyse how employment outcomes in Australian regions respond to economic shocks such as that caused by COVID-19. Set within the emerging literature dealing with employment resilience, the project uses unique data (Payroll Jobs index) to measure employment resilience and understand the factors that impact diverse regional outcomes. Understanding these patterns is significant as a region's economic performance has the potential to impact the well being of individuals and their families, as well as the sustainability of local economies and communities. The project will result in a nuanced understanding of regional employment performance that will inform policy in both government and non-government sectors. Read moreRead less
The politics of expertise during COVID-19. Experts play a crucial role during crises. This project aims to examine how four governments (Australia, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States) have incorporated public health expertise into their decision making during COVID-19. These countries have similar economic resources, liberal democratic institutions, health system capacities and pandemic preparedness. Yet, their governments responded differently to COVID-19. We will conduct a comparative st ....The politics of expertise during COVID-19. Experts play a crucial role during crises. This project aims to examine how four governments (Australia, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States) have incorporated public health expertise into their decision making during COVID-19. These countries have similar economic resources, liberal democratic institutions, health system capacities and pandemic preparedness. Yet, their governments responded differently to COVID-19. We will conduct a comparative study of how governments managed disagreements between experts and how they integrated diverse expert views into pandemic decision making processes. The research will advance our understanding of the role of experts during crises and help inform governments response to future pandemics. Read moreRead less