Security and Privacy of Individual Data Used to Extract Public Information. The project aims to contribute to the development of techniques to allow the harvesting of useful information without compromising personal privacy. Intelligent analysis of personal data can reveal valuable knowledge about a population but at a risk of invading an individual's privacy. This project aims to provide at least partial solutions to some of the problems associated with the protection of private data. In partic ....Security and Privacy of Individual Data Used to Extract Public Information. The project aims to contribute to the development of techniques to allow the harvesting of useful information without compromising personal privacy. Intelligent analysis of personal data can reveal valuable knowledge about a population but at a risk of invading an individual's privacy. This project aims to provide at least partial solutions to some of the problems associated with the protection of private data. In particular, it plans to work on the problem of security of statistical databases and privacy of streaming data. This would be underpinned by a study of anonymisation and homomorphic encryption. The expected outcomes are new theoretical results, new algorithms and protocols applicable to at least some of the current significant problems in information security.Read moreRead less
Decomposition and Duality: New Approaches to Integer and Stochastic Integer Programming. Because of their rich modelling capabilities, integer programs are widely used in industry for decision making and planning. However their solution algorithms do not have the maturity of their cousins in convex optimisation, where the theory of strong duality is ubiquitous. Efficient methods for convex optimisation under uncertainty do not apply to the integer case, which is highly non-convex. Furthermore, i ....Decomposition and Duality: New Approaches to Integer and Stochastic Integer Programming. Because of their rich modelling capabilities, integer programs are widely used in industry for decision making and planning. However their solution algorithms do not have the maturity of their cousins in convex optimisation, where the theory of strong duality is ubiquitous. Efficient methods for convex optimisation under uncertainty do not apply to the integer case, which is highly non-convex. Furthermore, integer models usually assume the data is known with certainty, which is often not the case in the real world. This project will develop new theory and algorithms to enhance the analysis of integer models, including those that incorporating uncertainty, while also enabling the use of parallel computing paradigms. Read moreRead less
More information for better utility; less information for better privacy. More information for better utility; less information for better privacy. The contradiction is everywhere in contemporary IT: doctors need accurate information for diagnosis, but insurance companies' access should be limited; on-line retailers use your postcode to present interesting products, but they also deduce from it how much you will pay. One way to manage this contradiction is to tolerate "small" information flows p ....More information for better utility; less information for better privacy. More information for better utility; less information for better privacy. The contradiction is everywhere in contemporary IT: doctors need accurate information for diagnosis, but insurance companies' access should be limited; on-line retailers use your postcode to present interesting products, but they also deduce from it how much you will pay. One way to manage this contradiction is to tolerate "small" information flows providing the risks involved can be accurately gauged. This project will build on recent advances in information measuring to develop new techniques for measuring the extent to which computer systems can defend against threats to privacy. Success in this project will lead to completely novel methods for security analysis of on-line applications where privacy is a critical issue.Read moreRead less
Hybrid methods with decomposition for large scale optimization. This project aims to develop advanced approaches for solving large scale real-world optimisation problems that are expensive to evaluate, and difficult to formulate, involving thousands of variables and constraints. The project will make novel contributions to improving state-of-the-art large scale optimisation algorithms in terms of scalability, effectiveness, and efficiency for real-world problem solving. The outcomes of this proj ....Hybrid methods with decomposition for large scale optimization. This project aims to develop advanced approaches for solving large scale real-world optimisation problems that are expensive to evaluate, and difficult to formulate, involving thousands of variables and constraints. The project will make novel contributions to improving state-of-the-art large scale optimisation algorithms in terms of scalability, effectiveness, and efficiency for real-world problem solving. The outcomes of this project will bring about greater understanding of real-world large scale optimisation, and deliver practical solutions to these problems.Read moreRead less
Efficient structure search over large graphs. The project aims to develop advanced search technology to support large-scale graph applications. The success of the project not only brings a breakthrough in technology development but also provides training for high quality personnel in this important and growing area, and brings considerable economic and social benefits to Australia.
Implicit persuasion in pharmaceutical marketing: ethical implications for regulators and consumers. The rapid ageing of Australia's population has seen increasing consumption of pharmaceuticals and high rates of hospitalisation to treat adverse effects. Pharmaceutical advertising promotes medication use, yet increasing evidence suggests commercials can alter attitudes outside of awareness. Determining the extent and ethical acceptability of subconscious persuasion in drug marketing will lead to ....Implicit persuasion in pharmaceutical marketing: ethical implications for regulators and consumers. The rapid ageing of Australia's population has seen increasing consumption of pharmaceuticals and high rates of hospitalisation to treat adverse effects. Pharmaceutical advertising promotes medication use, yet increasing evidence suggests commercials can alter attitudes outside of awareness. Determining the extent and ethical acceptability of subconscious persuasion in drug marketing will lead to more appropriate regulation of advertising content and enhance the autonomy of consumer medication choice. The study outcomes will address Australia's priority research goals Ageing Well, Ageing Productively and Preventative Healthcare, and further this country's international reputation in Applied Ethics.Read moreRead less
Making Ethics Work: A New Model for Business and Professional Ethics. Sound ethical practice is fundamental to long-term business success and organizational well-being. In developing a new framework for applied ethics, this project will enhance understanding of the foundations of ethics in business, organizational and professional contexts, as well as enabling improved ethical practice in those domains. As such, it will assist in strengthening Australia's social and cultural fabric, in promoting ....Making Ethics Work: A New Model for Business and Professional Ethics. Sound ethical practice is fundamental to long-term business success and organizational well-being. In developing a new framework for applied ethics, this project will enhance understanding of the foundations of ethics in business, organizational and professional contexts, as well as enabling improved ethical practice in those domains. As such, it will assist in strengthening Australia's social and cultural fabric, in promoting the conditions that facilitate innovation and creativity, in developing leadership capacities and organisational structures, and in supporting Australian business and industry through promoting greater ethical awareness and expertise.Read moreRead less
Novel dissimilarity techniques for characterising noisy spatial networks. This project will invent new and widely applicable ways of summarising fundamental characteristics of noisy spatial networks that change slightly in space or time. The techniques developed will be applied to solve important problems in two diverse applications - predicting disease spread in wildlife and protecting human biometric information.
Neuroethics: The Practical and the Philosophical. The benefits of the project are twofold: practically, it will enable us to better regulate, personally and socially, the new technologies that the sciences of the mind are already producing; intellectually, it will enable us to better understand human agency in the light of the new knowledge generated by the sciences of the mind, and it will help to maintain Australia's reputation as an international leader in applied ethics and in philosophy of ....Neuroethics: The Practical and the Philosophical. The benefits of the project are twofold: practically, it will enable us to better regulate, personally and socially, the new technologies that the sciences of the mind are already producing; intellectually, it will enable us to better understand human agency in the light of the new knowledge generated by the sciences of the mind, and it will help to maintain Australia's reputation as an international leader in applied ethics and in philosophy of mind and agency.Read moreRead less
Statistical Methods for Discovering Ribonucleic acids (RNAs) contributing to human diseases and phenotypes. Identifying the causative genetic factors involved in quantitative phenotypes and diseases is a major goal of biology in the 21st century and beyond. A crucial step towards this goal is identifying and classifying the functional non-protein-coding Ribonucleic acids (RNAs) encoded in the human genome. This project will make major contributions to international efforts in this area by identi ....Statistical Methods for Discovering Ribonucleic acids (RNAs) contributing to human diseases and phenotypes. Identifying the causative genetic factors involved in quantitative phenotypes and diseases is a major goal of biology in the 21st century and beyond. A crucial step towards this goal is identifying and classifying the functional non-protein-coding Ribonucleic acids (RNAs) encoded in the human genome. This project will make major contributions to international efforts in this area by identifying RNA molecules that contribute to quantitative phenotypes including susceptibility to disease. As such, it will directly benefit fundamental science via the discovery and classification of new molecules. Indirectly, it will lead to breakthroughs in biology, and consequently to major medical and pharmaceutical advances in the diagnosis and treatment of genetic disease.Read moreRead less