Modelling graph-of-graphs for solving document categorisation problems. Documents in the World Wide Web, such as scientific documents, exhibit a referencing structure as well as being structured objects themselves. This project addresses some inherent limitations of existing modelling techniques in order to improve on the quality of results, and to allow the addressing of some unsolved problems involving documents.
Using species distribution models to make robust conservation decisions. Species distribution models inform numerous conservation decisions, from planning reserves and managing biological invasions to assessing climate change impacts. While it is often vital to predict where suitable conditions for a species occur, many applications disregard uncertainty, leading to unexpected and potentially unacceptable outcomes. This project aims to provide a definitive guide to using species distribution mod ....Using species distribution models to make robust conservation decisions. Species distribution models inform numerous conservation decisions, from planning reserves and managing biological invasions to assessing climate change impacts. While it is often vital to predict where suitable conditions for a species occur, many applications disregard uncertainty, leading to unexpected and potentially unacceptable outcomes. This project aims to provide a definitive guide to using species distribution models in conservation decision-making by integrating ecological and statistical thinking with decision theory. It seeks to describe how to explore the sources of uncertainty and their impact, develop approaches to reducing uncertainty, and evaluate the effects of uncertainty from the decision viewpoint in order to assist more robust conservation decision making.Read moreRead less
International coalitions for climate change mitigation: the role of carbon market linkages and trade restrictions. This project uses cooperative game theory, implementation theory and agent-based modelling to investigate how coalitions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could be formed and maintained among countries. Applications include the role of carbon market linkage and trade policy, in countries of the Asia-Pacific region.
Evaluating recurrence as a measure of change in interpersonal dynamics. This project aims to develop an automated conversation analysis system to quantify how communication changes over extended periods of time. It is innovative in proposing to extend the theory and methods of recurrence analysis (a dynamical systems technique) to interacting modalities combining text, audio and video, and to longitudinal analyses. The project is significant in being the first to aim to measure communication dyn ....Evaluating recurrence as a measure of change in interpersonal dynamics. This project aims to develop an automated conversation analysis system to quantify how communication changes over extended periods of time. It is innovative in proposing to extend the theory and methods of recurrence analysis (a dynamical systems technique) to interacting modalities combining text, audio and video, and to longitudinal analyses. The project is significant in being the first to aim to measure communication dynamics over time in the fields of education, health, public discourse and science. It is expected to result in new theories and methods for recurrence analysis validated using real-world data; and to enable new technologies for evaluating professional communication training and communication changes resulting from education or disease progression.Read moreRead less
Enhancing and supporting deliberations within multidisciplinary decision teams. A group’s knowledge and reasoning processes are rarely conducted or recorded systematically; a problem particularly pressing for medical decisions made by multidisciplinary teams. This project will perform the first integration of knowledge management principles with group reasoning process models to create an online environment for enhancing the quality of group decisions and their documentation. The online environm ....Enhancing and supporting deliberations within multidisciplinary decision teams. A group’s knowledge and reasoning processes are rarely conducted or recorded systematically; a problem particularly pressing for medical decisions made by multidisciplinary teams. This project will perform the first integration of knowledge management principles with group reasoning process models to create an online environment for enhancing the quality of group decisions and their documentation. The online environment will help medical teams use documented and non-documented knowledge when more than one medical condition is present and no formal guidelines are applicable. The project advances theories of knowledge in groups and is extendable to any deliberations on complex problems.Read moreRead less
Understanding the deep driving forces of Earth’s large-scale topography through time. We propose to model the convection of Earth’s mantle linked to tectonic plate motions to unravel their combined influence on the evolution of topography over 550 million years. The project will lead to an understanding of the driving forces of large-scale topography in continental interiors and along their margins through geological time.
Evaluating environment policy that has immediate costs but long-term gains. A fundamental challenge for environmental policies is the different timescales over which ecological and financial costs and benefits occur. For example, whilst revegetation to offset land clearing incurs immediate costs, it can take decades for it to become suitable habitat for wildlife. These long time lags can lead to inefficiencies in spending and poor environmental outcomes. This project aims to develop novel approa ....Evaluating environment policy that has immediate costs but long-term gains. A fundamental challenge for environmental policies is the different timescales over which ecological and financial costs and benefits occur. For example, whilst revegetation to offset land clearing incurs immediate costs, it can take decades for it to become suitable habitat for wildlife. These long time lags can lead to inefficiencies in spending and poor environmental outcomes. This project aims to develop novel approaches for evaluating the future impacts of environmental policies and new methods for improving their design. It is intended that the methods be tested and demonstrated in the policy context of biodiversity offsetting, which is set to play a key role in nature conservation globally.Read moreRead less
Modelling collective behaviour to protect social insect ecosystem services. This project aims to use mathematical models and computer simulations and biological experiments to investigate how social insects adapt to environmental stress, for example due to climate change and pollution. Fundamental to the adaptability of social insects are the complex mechanisms that allow colonies to maintain a carefully balanced division of labour (DOL). This project builds on evolutionary game theory to develo ....Modelling collective behaviour to protect social insect ecosystem services. This project aims to use mathematical models and computer simulations and biological experiments to investigate how social insects adapt to environmental stress, for example due to climate change and pollution. Fundamental to the adaptability of social insects are the complex mechanisms that allow colonies to maintain a carefully balanced division of labour (DOL). This project builds on evolutionary game theory to develop a new approach for analysing how environmental factors impact on DOL and thus colony viability. The project will deliver new methods to assess and predict the impact of environmental stress This will ultimately help to protect these keystones of biodiversity and the significant ecosystem services they provide as pest-control agents, through pollination, seed dispersal, and soil conditioning.Read moreRead less
Coupling Learning in Big Data. Big data features complex coupling relationships within and between diverse entities in various forms and layers. This fundamentally challenges existing learning theories, which usually assume that data is independent and identically distributed (IID). This indicates that such IID tools may either be inapplicable for big data or capture an incomplete or even biased picture of the ground truth in big data. Hence, this project aims to invent breakthrough theories and ....Coupling Learning in Big Data. Big data features complex coupling relationships within and between diverse entities in various forms and layers. This fundamentally challenges existing learning theories, which usually assume that data is independent and identically distributed (IID). This indicates that such IID tools may either be inapplicable for big data or capture an incomplete or even biased picture of the ground truth in big data. Hence, this project aims to invent breakthrough theories and effective tools for systematically modelling and learning sophisticated couplings embedded in big data applications. The outcomes are expected to enhance Australia's leading role in data science research and lift data intelligence-driven productivity and economic growth in a changing world.Read moreRead less
Modelling and discovering complex interaction relations hidden in group behaviours in businesses, online and social communities. This project addresses the shortage in current behavior analysis by inventing innovative theories and algorithms for analysing complex relations and interactions in group behaviours. The outcomes of this project will enable effective detection of suspicious large groups, contributing to safer businesses and society and improved compliance in online and social communiti ....Modelling and discovering complex interaction relations hidden in group behaviours in businesses, online and social communities. This project addresses the shortage in current behavior analysis by inventing innovative theories and algorithms for analysing complex relations and interactions in group behaviours. The outcomes of this project will enable effective detection of suspicious large groups, contributing to safer businesses and society and improved compliance in online and social communities.Read moreRead less