Security for Web Services. Web services, an emerging distributed computing paradigm, poses challenging problems in security, due to their dynamic decentralised scalable nature, operating over an untrusted Internet, for which no adequate solutions exist today. This research addresses the model, architecture and design of secure authorisation for web services. It achieves conceptual advances in terms of a flexible authorisation model, proposes a new XML based policy language, develops a comprehens ....Security for Web Services. Web services, an emerging distributed computing paradigm, poses challenging problems in security, due to their dynamic decentralised scalable nature, operating over an untrusted Internet, for which no adequate solutions exist today. This research addresses the model, architecture and design of secure authorisation for web services. It achieves conceptual advances in terms of a flexible authorisation model, proposes a new XML based policy language, develops a comprehensive security policy management framework, designs a distributed authorisation service and demonstrates a practical secure web service system in .NET.It presents a new approach to formally reasoning about conflict resolution policies with dynamic delegation.Read moreRead less
Information Security Evaluation of Embedded Computer Software. Safeguarding classified electronic communications is of major national importance. This research, into security evaluation of computer software, is supported by the Defence Signals Directorate, which verifies the security of communications devices used by Australia's government and armed forces. As such devices become increasingly sophisticated, traditional security evaluation techniques have become unacceptably difficult and costl ....Information Security Evaluation of Embedded Computer Software. Safeguarding classified electronic communications is of major national importance. This research, into security evaluation of computer software, is supported by the Defence Signals Directorate, which verifies the security of communications devices used by Australia's government and armed forces. As such devices become increasingly sophisticated, traditional security evaluation techniques have become unacceptably difficult and costly. Hardware evaluation techniques, based on tracing paths through circuitry diagrams, have proven unsuitable for software evaluations. Consequently, devising new tools and techniques for information security evaluation of embedded computer software is essential for preserving Australia's national security.Read moreRead less
GriddLeS: Building Grid Applications from Legacy Software. Grid computing is emerging as a major new capability for modern, high performance technical computing. Such Grids couple geographically distributed resources such as high performance computers, workstations, clusters, and scientific instruments. Traditional methods of producing software for Grids are inefficient and error prone, and will not allow the rapid deployment of new applications. This project concerns the development of a tool t ....GriddLeS: Building Grid Applications from Legacy Software. Grid computing is emerging as a major new capability for modern, high performance technical computing. Such Grids couple geographically distributed resources such as high performance computers, workstations, clusters, and scientific instruments. Traditional methods of producing software for Grids are inefficient and error prone, and will not allow the rapid deployment of new applications. This project concerns the development of a tool that will facilitate the construction of complex Grid application using legacy software components. It will test the new ideas with a range of scientific demonstrators, including atmospheric science, geo-science and mechanical engineering.Read moreRead less
A hardware accellerated platform for high-fidelity, high speed simulation of infrared scenes. Missiles present a major military and terrorist threat to aircraft and ships. A possible method to detect them is an infrared imaging system which is sensitive to a missile's spectrally unique rocket propulsion exhaust. It is both dangerous and expensive to conduct field trials; so simulation is used extensively. This project aims to use high performance computing to accelerate the slowest parts of the ....A hardware accellerated platform for high-fidelity, high speed simulation of infrared scenes. Missiles present a major military and terrorist threat to aircraft and ships. A possible method to detect them is an infrared imaging system which is sensitive to a missile's spectrally unique rocket propulsion exhaust. It is both dangerous and expensive to conduct field trials; so simulation is used extensively. This project aims to use high performance computing to accelerate the slowest parts of the industrial partner's existing simulations: the generation of simulated infrared images.
This project will improve the competitiveness of the manufacturer of infrared threat and warning systems and provide research training in an area of high performance computing.
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Intelligently Activated Sensor Clusters for E-Commerce Applications. This project will investigate intelligent management of large sensor clusters installed in mechanical structures for use in Electronic Commerce applications. Finding algorithms for optimised placement of remotely controlled power supply and the communication unit in each sensor cluster is the first aim. Development of a sensor management algorithm that process user inputs submitted through the Internet and that exploits past se ....Intelligently Activated Sensor Clusters for E-Commerce Applications. This project will investigate intelligent management of large sensor clusters installed in mechanical structures for use in Electronic Commerce applications. Finding algorithms for optimised placement of remotely controlled power supply and the communication unit in each sensor cluster is the first aim. Development of a sensor management algorithm that process user inputs submitted through the Internet and that exploits past sensor data is the second aim. Since there is no such system available in the market, the project will have strong impacts in E-Commerce applications and bridge instrumentation systems useful to a wider community also advancing the research in clustering and expert systems.Read moreRead less
Planning and Learning in BDI Agents. Intelligent agents are becoming increasingly important in a range of complex and dynamic applications. BDI agent systems are extremely successful robust and flexible, in real time applications. However they are not actually able to do any traditional planning. Nor do they incorporate learning. This project will incorporate learning and planning capabilities into a BDI system framework, in a focussed and integrated manner that allows benefits from these approa ....Planning and Learning in BDI Agents. Intelligent agents are becoming increasingly important in a range of complex and dynamic applications. BDI agent systems are extremely successful robust and flexible, in real time applications. However they are not actually able to do any traditional planning. Nor do they incorporate learning. This project will incorporate learning and planning capabilities into a BDI system framework, in a focussed and integrated manner that allows benefits from these approaches where appropriate, but without compromising the real-time capability of existing BDI systems. Learned information and new plans will then be fully incorporated for later use by the standard BDI mechanisms.Read moreRead less
Service orientated architectures in management of IT infrastructures. Through the utilisation of the proposed framework for building rich business service registries, Australian companies will be able to take full advantage of service oriented architectures in constructing and managing their IT infrastructure in a way that is not currently possible. Such a registry will be able to provide a coherent view of an enterprise's services and resources, and an effective way to co-relate and utilise the ....Service orientated architectures in management of IT infrastructures. Through the utilisation of the proposed framework for building rich business service registries, Australian companies will be able to take full advantage of service oriented architectures in constructing and managing their IT infrastructure in a way that is not currently possible. Such a registry will be able to provide a coherent view of an enterprise's services and resources, and an effective way to co-relate and utilise them, in a changing environment. The development of the framework will also further cement Australia's leading market position in providing service registries to enterprises world-wide, enhance Australia's international research reputation and provide an excellent training environment for young researchers.Read moreRead less
Efficient Web Services Discovery in Peer-to-Peer Networks. The most direct application of this research will be in the area of applying Web services technologies and discovery techniques for building enterprise-strength, B2B and B2G solutions for the Australian SMEs. Economic benefits are applicable to the Australian SMEs, major government organizations, large cooperations and universities who are considering Web services-based dynamic integration of their IT systems in the near future. The outc ....Efficient Web Services Discovery in Peer-to-Peer Networks. The most direct application of this research will be in the area of applying Web services technologies and discovery techniques for building enterprise-strength, B2B and B2G solutions for the Australian SMEs. Economic benefits are applicable to the Australian SMEs, major government organizations, large cooperations and universities who are considering Web services-based dynamic integration of their IT systems in the near future. The outcomes of this project have potential commercial value for Beacon Software Innovations Pty Ltd, which will put the company in competitive advantage in the budget management software industry. Read moreRead less
A Generic Software Architecture for Web-Based Applications on Micro-Mobile Systems. The next generation of computers that will capture the imagination of the society are likely to be micro-mobile devices such as personal digital assistants, mobile phones, smartcards and chips embedded in home and office items. Developing applications for information processing using a wireless network of such devices is an emerging challenge. This project will develop and evaluate a generic architecture for web- ....A Generic Software Architecture for Web-Based Applications on Micro-Mobile Systems. The next generation of computers that will capture the imagination of the society are likely to be micro-mobile devices such as personal digital assistants, mobile phones, smartcards and chips embedded in home and office items. Developing applications for information processing using a wireless network of such devices is an emerging challenge. This project will develop and evaluate a generic architecture for web-based applications on micro-mobile devices. This will make it easy to design applications that can seamlessly interact with different kinds of devices. The project will be carried out in partnership with Total Internet Centre, a Newcastle based regional enterprise.Read moreRead less
Reducing the risks associated with developing large-scale, critical software-integrated systems. Industry, government and defence increasingly rely on large-scale, critical software-integrated systems. The scale and complexity of these systems means current methods of analysing, designing and assuring their dependability are struggling to provide the constructive support and assurance that is demanded. Consequently, there are significant risks of cost and schedule overruns and of system problems ....Reducing the risks associated with developing large-scale, critical software-integrated systems. Industry, government and defence increasingly rely on large-scale, critical software-integrated systems. The scale and complexity of these systems means current methods of analysing, designing and assuring their dependability are struggling to provide the constructive support and assurance that is demanded. Consequently, there are significant risks of cost and schedule overruns and of system problems and failures. This project builds on results from our current collaboration - a new method for modelling, analysis and defect detection for the requirements of large-scale systems. We will develop and scale-up to industry strength, simpler, more powerful, strategies for analysing, designing and providing the high level of assurance required.Read moreRead less