Mathematical Decision Support to Optimise Hospital Capacity and Utilisation. Hospital planners and executives regularly contend with challenging capacity related decisions. Decisions relating to prioritisation, allocation and sharing of resources have a profound impact on productivity, efficiency and patient outcomes. There is a lack of data-driven or quantitative decision support to make well-informed capacity related decisions of a strategic or tactical nature in a single hospital, or across a ....Mathematical Decision Support to Optimise Hospital Capacity and Utilisation. Hospital planners and executives regularly contend with challenging capacity related decisions. Decisions relating to prioritisation, allocation and sharing of resources have a profound impact on productivity, efficiency and patient outcomes. There is a lack of data-driven or quantitative decision support to make well-informed capacity related decisions of a strategic or tactical nature in a single hospital, or across a regional healthcare system. This project aims to deliver decision support for holistic hospital capacity assessment and planning optimisation. This will yield significant benefits for the health sector, providing a tool to optimise the allocation of resources and provision of infrastructure for regional hospital services.Read moreRead less
An innovative system for accurate bending of fracture fixation plates in orthopaedic surgery. Bone fractures cost the Australian healthcare system about 1 billion annually, with the costs associated with non optimal surgical outcomes due to post-operative complications being much higher. The novel system developed in this project will not only shorten surgical procedures but also result in anatomically better fitting plates which will improve the functional outcome and reduce the need for surgic ....An innovative system for accurate bending of fracture fixation plates in orthopaedic surgery. Bone fractures cost the Australian healthcare system about 1 billion annually, with the costs associated with non optimal surgical outcomes due to post-operative complications being much higher. The novel system developed in this project will not only shorten surgical procedures but also result in anatomically better fitting plates which will improve the functional outcome and reduce the need for surgical implant removal. It will further lessen degenerative changes in adjacent joints as a result of incorrect fracture alignment. It can be expected that these improvements in surgical techniques will translate into reduced healthcare expenditure and ensure patient's quality of life.Read moreRead less
Predictive modelling of the incremental sheet forming process. This project will benefit Australia with the gain of fundamental understanding of an advanced manufacturing process leading to a step change from an 'art of expertise' to a scientific understanding and improvement. The innovative design software kernel developed will facilitate a step change in manufacture of complex sheet formed product, such as aircraft and vehicle panelling. This seed collaborative research with QMI Solutions and ....Predictive modelling of the incremental sheet forming process. This project will benefit Australia with the gain of fundamental understanding of an advanced manufacturing process leading to a step change from an 'art of expertise' to a scientific understanding and improvement. The innovative design software kernel developed will facilitate a step change in manufacture of complex sheet formed product, such as aircraft and vehicle panelling. This seed collaborative research with QMI Solutions and global partner, Boeing, will enhance national modelling capability in advanced metal forming, a niche market for Australian manufacturing. The new technology and research support capabilities for its adoption, will lead to new national business and export opportunities.Read moreRead less
Modelling the cutting process and cutting performance in contour and multipass abrasive waterjet machining. This project will develop important new cutting techniques to increase the cutting capability and application domain of the abrasive waterjet (AWJ) cutting technology. It will gain a fundamental understanding of the cutting phenomenon and develop new mathematical models for predicting the cutting performance in AWJ contouring and multipass cutting. This project will further develop into a ....Modelling the cutting process and cutting performance in contour and multipass abrasive waterjet machining. This project will develop important new cutting techniques to increase the cutting capability and application domain of the abrasive waterjet (AWJ) cutting technology. It will gain a fundamental understanding of the cutting phenomenon and develop new mathematical models for predicting the cutting performance in AWJ contouring and multipass cutting. This project will further develop into a new branch of manufacturing science by uncovering the cutting mechanisms in AWJ machining with and without nozzle oscillation, and have significant impact to the manufacturing industry by providing machining information and cutting performance models to increase the technological and economic performance of AWJ machining.Read moreRead less
Development of micro abrasive water jetting technology for micro machining and polishing on small complex curved surfaces. The fabrication of micro-parts such as those used in integrated sensors and micro-actuators is a new challenge for the rapid development of this industry. Many existing technologies either find limitations or result in defects on the machined surfaces. This project will develop an innovative abrasive water-jetting technology for micro machining and polishing. It will deve ....Development of micro abrasive water jetting technology for micro machining and polishing on small complex curved surfaces. The fabrication of micro-parts such as those used in integrated sensors and micro-actuators is a new challenge for the rapid development of this industry. Many existing technologies either find limitations or result in defects on the machined surfaces. This project will develop an innovative abrasive water-jetting technology for micro machining and polishing. It will develop the fundamentals and prototype for further development by industry. New nozzle designs will be analyzed and optimized by computational fluid dynamics studies and experimental investigations using a Particle Image Velocimeter. Mathematical models for the processing performance will also be developed for use in process control.Read moreRead less
Development of Knowledge Based Process Planning System for Non-Symmetrical Sheet Metal Forming Processes. Sheet metal and automotive industries need to continually improve their strategic competitive advantages with flexibility and cost-effectiveness to remain competitive in a changing world economy. In order to achieve this, the primary objective in the proposed research is to design and develop a knowledge-based process planning system for non-symmetrical products produced by deep drawing pro ....Development of Knowledge Based Process Planning System for Non-Symmetrical Sheet Metal Forming Processes. Sheet metal and automotive industries need to continually improve their strategic competitive advantages with flexibility and cost-effectiveness to remain competitive in a changing world economy. In order to achieve this, the primary objective in the proposed research is to design and develop a knowledge-based process planning system for non-symmetrical products produced by deep drawing processes. This objective will be achieved by investigating the effect of process variable on drawability of sheet material, by obtaining relevant process information through necessary experimentation and finite element analysis and by development of a rule base by acquiring process information from domain experts selected from number of sheet metal manufacturing industries.Read moreRead less
Preventing railway suicide: An open-systems perspective. Preventing railway suicide: An open-systems perspective. This project aims to develop an automated suicide risk detection system to reduce the incidence and impact of railway suicide, which has a devastating effect on victims’ families, station staff, train drivers, emergency workers, and bystanders. This project will use open-systems theory to develop two complementary information systems for more effective detection and reporting of suic ....Preventing railway suicide: An open-systems perspective. Preventing railway suicide: An open-systems perspective. This project aims to develop an automated suicide risk detection system to reduce the incidence and impact of railway suicide, which has a devastating effect on victims’ families, station staff, train drivers, emergency workers, and bystanders. This project will use open-systems theory to develop two complementary information systems for more effective detection and reporting of suicide risk; use these systems to investigate how different situational factors interact with different combinations of service interventions to influence suicide risk; and share the findings to reduce railway suicide in Australia and overseas.Read moreRead less
Service Ecosystems Management for Collaborative Process Improvement. Australian government agencies currently explore opportunities for streamlining their business processes. A promising approach relates to the improvement of cross-agency processes based on service-enabled technologies. This project will use requirements within Queensland Government for the design of a service ecosystem and methodological and management concepts to derive a general framework for intra-organisational ecosystems. ....Service Ecosystems Management for Collaborative Process Improvement. Australian government agencies currently explore opportunities for streamlining their business processes. A promising approach relates to the improvement of cross-agency processes based on service-enabled technologies. This project will use requirements within Queensland Government for the design of a service ecosystem and methodological and management concepts to derive a general framework for intra-organisational ecosystems. Though the focus will be on government processes, the project will generalise beyond this scope for a wider uptake of service ecosystems in Australian organisations. This will lead to reduced process costs and risks and will leverage the exploration of new revenue streams, e.g. shared services and reward schemes.Read moreRead less
Expressiveness Comparison and Interchange Facilitation between Business Process Execution Languages. Developments in the area of business process management are currently hindered by the plethora of diverse business process execution languages. This project will develop techniques for dealing with interoperability issues induced by this language heterogeneity. The project combines theoretical research, grounded in concurrency theory and workflow patterns, with pragmatic research focusing on lang ....Expressiveness Comparison and Interchange Facilitation between Business Process Execution Languages. Developments in the area of business process management are currently hindered by the plethora of diverse business process execution languages. This project will develop techniques for dealing with interoperability issues induced by this language heterogeneity. The project combines theoretical research, grounded in concurrency theory and workflow patterns, with pragmatic research focusing on languages supported by commercial tools. The outcome will be a framework for comparing the expressiveness of process execution languages and defining mappings between them. This will place Australia at the forefront of developments in business process management systems: a crucial technology in today's global, dynamic, and heterogeneous environments.
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UNLOCKING BENEFITS FROM ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS IN THE AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC SECTOR: Benefits Realisation in the Context of the Virtual Organisation. This study proposes to provide an innovative Virtual Organisation perspective to identify factors that can assist Australian government agencies to maximise the potential benefits from Enterprise System (ES) implementation. Study aims include: Identify and explicate major characteristics of the Virtual Organisation created through collaboration between gove ....UNLOCKING BENEFITS FROM ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS IN THE AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC SECTOR: Benefits Realisation in the Context of the Virtual Organisation. This study proposes to provide an innovative Virtual Organisation perspective to identify factors that can assist Australian government agencies to maximise the potential benefits from Enterprise System (ES) implementation. Study aims include: Identify and explicate major characteristics of the Virtual Organisation created through collaboration between government agency and (external) ES Implementation Partner; Identify and document features and constraints peculiar to ES implementation in the Australian public sector; Identify and explicate factors impacting on benefits realisation, relating these to theory from related fields; Highlight consensus and difference among stakeholders; Develop a validated, repeatable methodology for major impact studies; Inform ES research directions.Read moreRead less