Beyond Speech: Towards better communication for children with hearing loss. Despite the benefits of early newborn hearing screening and early intervention programs for children with hearing loss, most still experience academic and social challenges at school. This is partly due to ongoing listening effort, leading to communicative breakdown. This project aims to identify the locus of the communicative challenges these children face during daily discourse interactions. The outcomes will identify ....Beyond Speech: Towards better communication for children with hearing loss. Despite the benefits of early newborn hearing screening and early intervention programs for children with hearing loss, most still experience academic and social challenges at school. This is partly due to ongoing listening effort, leading to communicative breakdown. This project aims to identify the locus of the communicative challenges these children face during daily discourse interactions. The outcomes will identify which levels of language are most compromised and will inform future interventions to reduce children’s listening effort. This will be undertaken by bringing together researchers in basic science with hearing service providers, parents and industry, providing an innovative model for solving multidisciplinary challenges.Read moreRead less
Creating perceptual experts in Australia's policing and security agencies. This project aims to create the next generation of experts in Australia’s policing and national security agencies, by improving crime scene evidence interpretation. Agencies are under pressure to develop more rigorous training practices that go beyond mere intuition and tradition. This project will use a novel approach that directs learning toward the most diagnostic perceptual cues. Expected outcomes include a solid empi ....Creating perceptual experts in Australia's policing and security agencies. This project aims to create the next generation of experts in Australia’s policing and national security agencies, by improving crime scene evidence interpretation. Agencies are under pressure to develop more rigorous training practices that go beyond mere intuition and tradition. This project will use a novel approach that directs learning toward the most diagnostic perceptual cues. Expected outcomes include a solid empirical basis for national training programs designed to create experts that are accurate, reliable, and continuously improving. Improving the training of experts will ensure the integrity of forensics as evidentiary tools available to police, lead to more reliable courtroom convictions and help safeguard Australia from terrorism and crime.Read moreRead less
An MEG (brain imaging) system to study cognitive processing in children. This project introduces the world's first brain imaging system to study cognitive processing in children, using magnetoencephalography (MEG). MEG offers precise measurement of brain activities using a non-invasive, non-contact method. MEG is an ideal brain imaging device for use with children and with special clinical populations. It promises to be valuable (a) for the identification of cortical functions of the human brain ....An MEG (brain imaging) system to study cognitive processing in children. This project introduces the world's first brain imaging system to study cognitive processing in children, using magnetoencephalography (MEG). MEG offers precise measurement of brain activities using a non-invasive, non-contact method. MEG is an ideal brain imaging device for use with children and with special clinical populations. It promises to be valuable (a) for the identification of cortical functions of the human brain prior to surgery, (b) for the diagnosis of loci for developmental and acquired brain disorders, (c) in determining pharmaceutical effects on children, and (d) in the assessment of recovery of sensory and cognitive functions following brain injury. Read moreRead less
Protecting the Australian passport by developing face recognition training programs that effectively integrate human operators and machine systems. The security of the Australian passport is vital to the fight against crime and terrorism. This project will help detect identity fraud in passport applications by developing training programs drawing on the psychology of face processing to optimally combine human decision making with machine face recognition systems to maximise fraud detection.
Towards optimal face identification systems. This project aims to improve face identification accuracy at a system level. Reliable face identification is critical in security, police and judicial processes. The project will inform policy in the recruitment, training and workflow design underpinning the secure issuance of Australian passports. Expected outcomes of the project will include social and economic gains such as improved efficiency and reliability of key government services. The knowled ....Towards optimal face identification systems. This project aims to improve face identification accuracy at a system level. Reliable face identification is critical in security, police and judicial processes. The project will inform policy in the recruitment, training and workflow design underpinning the secure issuance of Australian passports. Expected outcomes of the project will include social and economic gains such as improved efficiency and reliability of key government services. The knowledge gained as a result of the project in perceptual and cognitive processes will strengthen legal systems and national security by minimising the risk of identification errors in critical roles.Read moreRead less
Performance Practice in New Interfaces for Realtime Electronic Music Performance. Results will be reported at national and international conferences both academic and commercial. Manuscripts will be prepared for submission to international refereed scholarly journals. Articles for rapid communication to a popular and commercial audience in areas of music technology, electronic arts, HCI and IT will also be prepared.
Nurturing Australia's Little Multilingual Minds. Despite its substantial multilingual capacity of more than 300 languages, Australia has been described as a 'graveyard for languages'. In partnering with community organisations we will facilitate polyglot early learning, commencing with Spanish and Vietnamese. Expected outcomes are a deep understanding of multilingual families’ experiences, a model to support lifespan multilingual education, and openly-accessible database of child language in her ....Nurturing Australia's Little Multilingual Minds. Despite its substantial multilingual capacity of more than 300 languages, Australia has been described as a 'graveyard for languages'. In partnering with community organisations we will facilitate polyglot early learning, commencing with Spanish and Vietnamese. Expected outcomes are a deep understanding of multilingual families’ experiences, a model to support lifespan multilingual education, and openly-accessible database of child language in heritage languages. Benefits include a pivotal contribution to early childhood education with the creation of a tailor-made, principle-based program, which will enhance children’s academic achievement, familial social and mental wellbeing, and cultural and economic opportunities for all Australians. Read moreRead less
Detecting identity fraud in passport applications: Improving human operator performance through better understanding of unfamiliar face processing. The passport is a vital link in the defence of Australia against terrorism and crime. In this project researchers will work with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to improve the ability of staff to detect identity fraud in passport applications, thus helping to protect the integrity of the Australian passport as a trusted identity document.
SmartData: developing intelligent database system for communicating information to aviation and professional vehicle operators: towards safer transport industries. Detriments in human functional state is a major problem in the 'round the clock' transportation industries such as heavy-vehicle industry and aviation. The repetitive and monotonous nature of the tasks in these environments lead to fatigue, inattention and stress. This project proposes a unique and innovative SmartData system that w ....SmartData: developing intelligent database system for communicating information to aviation and professional vehicle operators: towards safer transport industries. Detriments in human functional state is a major problem in the 'round the clock' transportation industries such as heavy-vehicle industry and aviation. The repetitive and monotonous nature of the tasks in these environments lead to fatigue, inattention and stress. This project proposes a unique and innovative SmartData system that will interact with operators and their working environment to counteract detriments in human performance. The proposed SmartData system will have the capabilities of alerting and warning of potentially hazardous situations associated with degradations in human performance. This innovative project aims to improve the safety culture of two major transportation sectors.Read moreRead less
Thinking brains and bodies: distributed cognition and dynamic memory in Australian Dance Theatre. Creative thinking, learning and memory - key features of human cognition - will be investigated in the context of dance in this project. Complementary quantitative and qualitative methods will shed light on process and communication in the Australian Dance Theatre and the arts more broadly, and inform new accounts of thinking as embodied and distributed.