Towards realistic verbal interactions between people and computers-a probabilistic approach. This project aims to facilitate natural spoken interactions between people and computer systems, addressing obstacles to the acceptance of these systems. We will investigate computational models for relevant aspects of spoken dialogue, which will be implemented in computer systems for diverse tasks (for example, home devices and phone-enabled services).
Searching for near-exact protein models. This project aims to develop novel and efficient heuristic-based algorithms leading to near accurate protein tertiary structure models. Knowledge about protein structures is fundamental to our understanding of living systems. The progress on experimental determination of these structures has been extremely limited and remains an open challenge in molecular biology. Computational prediction of protein structures from sequences is emerging as a promising ap ....Searching for near-exact protein models. This project aims to develop novel and efficient heuristic-based algorithms leading to near accurate protein tertiary structure models. Knowledge about protein structures is fundamental to our understanding of living systems. The progress on experimental determination of these structures has been extremely limited and remains an open challenge in molecular biology. Computational prediction of protein structures from sequences is emerging as a promising approach, but its accuracy is far from satisfactory. The software systems developed in this project will be used in structural identification of target proteins in drug design. This will make drug design process more efficient, saving time and cost, potentially saving lives.Read moreRead less
Searching for Maximal Satisfaction. A wide range of practical problems such as scheduling, timetabling, planning and economic forecasting are not only computationally intractable in general, but often involve conflicting constraints that make them unsolvable. These problems can be represented as MaxSAT, the optimisation version of the satisfiability problem (SAT). This project aims to develop novel and efficient algorithms to address the problem of maximal satisfaction. It is proposed that these ....Searching for Maximal Satisfaction. A wide range of practical problems such as scheduling, timetabling, planning and economic forecasting are not only computationally intractable in general, but often involve conflicting constraints that make them unsolvable. These problems can be represented as MaxSAT, the optimisation version of the satisfiability problem (SAT). This project aims to develop novel and efficient algorithms to address the problem of maximal satisfaction. It is proposed that these algorithms will be implemented within prototype MaxSAT solver systems, which will be experimentally evaluated on large-sized real world optimisation problems of high economic and societal significance. These solvers are expected to also compete in the industrial track of the international SAT solving competitions.Read moreRead less
Constraint-based Reasoning for Multi-agent Pathfinding. Automation is a transformative technology for logistics -- using robots to manipulate inventory allows warehouses to be more efficient, and larger-scale, than ever before. But doing this in practice requires efficient, reliable methods for coordinating ever-larger fleets of robots. These problems are extremely difficult, and current approaches either scale poorly or give weak or no guarantees on solution quality. The project will develop t ....Constraint-based Reasoning for Multi-agent Pathfinding. Automation is a transformative technology for logistics -- using robots to manipulate inventory allows warehouses to be more efficient, and larger-scale, than ever before. But doing this in practice requires efficient, reliable methods for coordinating ever-larger fleets of robots. These problems are extremely difficult, and current approaches either scale poorly or give weak or no guarantees on solution quality. The project will develop transformative approaches to multi-agent pathfinding which can handle industrial size problems, and handle all of the complications that arise in practical applications. This will deliver improved cost-effectiveness and productivity to automated warehouse logistics and other agent coordination problems.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130100292
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$285,000.00
Summary
Towards a stronger proof system for combinatorial optimisation. Combinatorial optimisation problems such as staff rostering, vehicle routing or resource allocation are central to the efficiency of many businesses and industries. This project will improve optimisation technology by using the low-level structure of the problems to find better solutions. This will save time, money and reduce environmental impact.
Personalised Content Delivery for Assisted Navigation of Information Rich, Physical Environments such as a Museum. The research will yield improved international standing through scientific advances disseminated through high impact refereed publications and open source software. The collaborations within the project will make Melbourne a hub for research in user modeling and language technology. This will attract post-graduate students in these areas, and potentially commercialisation interest. ....Personalised Content Delivery for Assisted Navigation of Information Rich, Physical Environments such as a Museum. The research will yield improved international standing through scientific advances disseminated through high impact refereed publications and open source software. The collaborations within the project will make Melbourne a hub for research in user modeling and language technology. This will attract post-graduate students in these areas, and potentially commercialisation interest. The demonstration prototypes will provide proof of concept of eventual applications that improve the capabilities of the environments in which we live. These applications, which can be investigated by follow-up projects, will in turn encourage collaborations with Australian companies seeking to build innovative software applications.Read moreRead less
Methods and software for efficiently solving the transportation crewing problem. This project will target major savings in airlines, trucking, rail and public transport, with resulting benefits for industrial logistics, travel and tourism. The results discovered within the project will enable the industrial partner, CTI, to develop solutions for major companies worldwide. The results can also be transferred to other industrial optimisation applications, such as mining, services and manufacturin ....Methods and software for efficiently solving the transportation crewing problem. This project will target major savings in airlines, trucking, rail and public transport, with resulting benefits for industrial logistics, travel and tourism. The results discovered within the project will enable the industrial partner, CTI, to develop solutions for major companies worldwide. The results can also be transferred to other industrial optimisation applications, such as mining, services and manufacturing.
Finally the project will build on Australia's international prominence in data analysis and combinatorial optimisation, and capitalise on a major opportunity for the Australian software industry.Read moreRead less
Dynamics of Causal Knowledge. We operate in complex dynamic environments including highly sensitive and safety-critical situations such as medical emergencies, disaster management and air-traffic control systems. Our knowledge of what causes what plays a pivotal role in making correct decisions in such situations. To ensure robustness and sound behaviour of the underlying causal knowledge systems, their designs and implementations must be formally well grounded. This is an important but difficul ....Dynamics of Causal Knowledge. We operate in complex dynamic environments including highly sensitive and safety-critical situations such as medical emergencies, disaster management and air-traffic control systems. Our knowledge of what causes what plays a pivotal role in making correct decisions in such situations. To ensure robustness and sound behaviour of the underlying causal knowledge systems, their designs and implementations must be formally well grounded. This is an important but difficult challenge. This project aims to systematically develop a logic-based framework to adequately capture and reason about evolving causal knowledge. This research is expected to form the basis for smart decision making, and be evaluated on practical applications.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100568
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$360,000.00
Summary
Towards reliability in combinatorial optimisation. This project intends to develop techniques to ensure that the solutions reported by optimisation tools are correct and verifiable. Combinatorial optimisation problems, where the best solution must be found from a vast set of possibilities, are central to critical sectors of the economy, including shipping, transit, mining and emergency response. Automated tools for these problems can now solve large industrial examples, however, they are incredi ....Towards reliability in combinatorial optimisation. This project intends to develop techniques to ensure that the solutions reported by optimisation tools are correct and verifiable. Combinatorial optimisation problems, where the best solution must be found from a vast set of possibilities, are central to critical sectors of the economy, including shipping, transit, mining and emergency response. Automated tools for these problems can now solve large industrial examples, however, they are incredibly complex artefacts which are prone to error and difficult to test. New methods for ensuring the correctness of automated tools would allow users to trust that the results returned by these tools are correct when making critical decisions.Read moreRead less
Effective profiling of large scale combinatorial optimisation problems. Finding optimum solutions to problems is one of the most common challenges in planning. It pervades all aspects of our social, environmental and economic life. However, designing programs that can solve optimisation problems effectively requires an iterative process that is often extremely challenging, time consuming and costly. For large-scale problems, this process can become impractical. This project will investigate meth ....Effective profiling of large scale combinatorial optimisation problems. Finding optimum solutions to problems is one of the most common challenges in planning. It pervades all aspects of our social, environmental and economic life. However, designing programs that can solve optimisation problems effectively requires an iterative process that is often extremely challenging, time consuming and costly. For large-scale problems, this process can become impractical. This project will investigate methods to profile and understand program performance. The results will help users to design scalable, efficient optimisation programs. This will in turn allow organisations large and small to reap the benefits of optimisation technology and, thus, make more efficient use of their resources.Read moreRead less