Semantic Vectorisation: From Bitmaps to Intelligent Representations. The objective of this innovative project is to provide a solution to the open question of representing natural images by semantically rich vector graphics. The challenges are to identify key visual and temporal elements for images and videos, and efficiently decompose the visual data into semantic vector representations that are faithful to original data, compact and editable. The project aims to investigate new bitmap-to-vecto ....Semantic Vectorisation: From Bitmaps to Intelligent Representations. The objective of this innovative project is to provide a solution to the open question of representing natural images by semantically rich vector graphics. The challenges are to identify key visual and temporal elements for images and videos, and efficiently decompose the visual data into semantic vector representations that are faithful to original data, compact and editable. The project aims to investigate new bitmap-to-vector conversion methods. It is expected to develop a framework where semantic labels and hyperlinks can be embedded in visual data automatically. It hopes to pioneer the creation of a web of images where the links are on image/video regions. New image simplification, stylisation, and non-photorealistic rendering methods are expected to be provided.Read moreRead less
A new theory of Aboriginal art. The paradigms developed by scholars have a huge impact on the value of art. After the Australian artworld repositioned Aboriginal art from the frame of 'primitive art' to that of contemporary art, the price of and market for Aboriginal art increased enormously. However, Aboriginal art failed to penetrate the international contemporary artworld because the paradigms of contemporary art within which it was framed were outmoded. Through examining the production of Ab ....A new theory of Aboriginal art. The paradigms developed by scholars have a huge impact on the value of art. After the Australian artworld repositioned Aboriginal art from the frame of 'primitive art' to that of contemporary art, the price of and market for Aboriginal art increased enormously. However, Aboriginal art failed to penetrate the international contemporary artworld because the paradigms of contemporary art within which it was framed were outmoded. Through examining the production of Aboriginal art from the perspectives of its producers and recent globalised contemporary art practices, this project aims to develop a new theory of Aboriginal art that is more aligned with the thinking of current curators who set the agenda at the upper end of the market.Read moreRead less
Curating Photography in the Age of Photo Sharing. This project aims to develop new curatorial models to enable Australian art galleries to respond effectively to changes in the medium of photography wrought by digital technologies. By conducting the first comprehensive analysis of nearly five decades of Australian photography curating and comparing it to curatorial approaches in related institutions locally and internationally, the project seeks to: identify the crucial role of photography exhib ....Curating Photography in the Age of Photo Sharing. This project aims to develop new curatorial models to enable Australian art galleries to respond effectively to changes in the medium of photography wrought by digital technologies. By conducting the first comprehensive analysis of nearly five decades of Australian photography curating and comparing it to curatorial approaches in related institutions locally and internationally, the project seeks to: identify the crucial role of photography exhibitions in the shaping of Australian visual culture; and develop opportunities for curators to better engage with the current proliferation of images, including new forms and practices of photography enabled by the Internet.Read moreRead less
MemberGuard: Protecting Machine Learning Privacy from Membership Inference. Machine Learning has become a core part of many real-world applications. However, machine learning models are vulnerable to membership inference attacks. In these attacks, an adversary can infer if a given data record has been part of the model's training data. In this project, the team aims to develop new techniques that can be used to counter these attacks, such as 1) new analytical models for membership leakage, 2) ne ....MemberGuard: Protecting Machine Learning Privacy from Membership Inference. Machine Learning has become a core part of many real-world applications. However, machine learning models are vulnerable to membership inference attacks. In these attacks, an adversary can infer if a given data record has been part of the model's training data. In this project, the team aims to develop new techniques that can be used to counter these attacks, such as 1) new analytical models for membership leakage, 2) new methods for susceptibility diagnosis, 3) new defences that leverage privacy and utility. Data-oriented services are estimated to be valuable assets in the future. These techniques can help Australia gain cutting edge advantage in machine learning security and privacy and protect its intellectual property on these services.Read moreRead less
Privacy-preserving data processing on the cloud. This project aims to address the current lack of privacy of user data processed by common cloud computing web servers, including email, business data, and confidential files. This project aims to develop new techniques in cryptography. The anticipated outcome is a suite of practical tools enabling common cloud computing processing operations such as search, statistical analysis, and multi-user access control, to be performed efficiently while pres ....Privacy-preserving data processing on the cloud. This project aims to address the current lack of privacy of user data processed by common cloud computing web servers, including email, business data, and confidential files. This project aims to develop new techniques in cryptography. The anticipated outcome is a suite of practical tools enabling common cloud computing processing operations such as search, statistical analysis, and multi-user access control, to be performed efficiently while preserving the data privacy. These tools should provide significant benefits to the privacy of cloud users, as well as financial and reputation benefits to the IT industry, by significantly reducing the likelihood of massive user data privacy breaches in the event of a cyber-hacking attack on the cloud server.Read moreRead less
Finding and exploiting interesting paths in multidimensional information spaces. This project will invent a new approach for searching within a large complex information space, finding interesting paths between points within the space, visualising the results, and supporting rich, human-centric user interaction with queries and results. This project will embody these techniques in a novel, internet-scale framework to support rapid development of large path search and visualisation applications. ....Finding and exploiting interesting paths in multidimensional information spaces. This project will invent a new approach for searching within a large complex information space, finding interesting paths between points within the space, visualising the results, and supporting rich, human-centric user interaction with queries and results. This project will embody these techniques in a novel, internet-scale framework to support rapid development of large path search and visualisation applications. Evaluation will be via development of several exemplar applications. The techniques and framework will be applicable to a broad range of economically important problems in areas as diverse as health, travel, scientific publication search, product marketing and software engineering.Read moreRead less
The reformulation of landscape as a user-generated interactive aesthetic. This project seeks to provide Australia with an opportunity to advance its understanding of landscape and climate change by building the world's first networked landscape visualisation system.
Working the Field: Creative Graduates in Australia and China. The research seeks to understand how graduates of creative arts programs in Australia and China build creative vocations. It investigates the motivations for and rewards of unpaid cultural work across three areas of graduate work (visual arts, creative writing and performance) in two United Nations-recognised Creative Cities: Melbourne and Shanghai. Such research is of high significance for curriculum developers, as studies show that ....Working the Field: Creative Graduates in Australia and China. The research seeks to understand how graduates of creative arts programs in Australia and China build creative vocations. It investigates the motivations for and rewards of unpaid cultural work across three areas of graduate work (visual arts, creative writing and performance) in two United Nations-recognised Creative Cities: Melbourne and Shanghai. Such research is of high significance for curriculum developers, as studies show that employment outcomes for creative arts graduates remain very poor, despite a growing cultural economy. The project is expected to lead to a theoretically innovative, evidence-based and globally transferable account of the practical economy of arts work, one that can assist creative arts programs to better prepare students.Read moreRead less
Nonlinear Signal Processing: Optimisation and Tracking on Manifolds. Most hi-tech electronic devices must process signals. A mobile phone, for example, must encode, transmit, decode and receive voice signals. This project will use specialised mathematical theories applied in novel ways to advance the theoretical foundations of signal processing and develop better signal processing algorithms for practical applications. Companies with access to better signal processing algorithms have an edge ov ....Nonlinear Signal Processing: Optimisation and Tracking on Manifolds. Most hi-tech electronic devices must process signals. A mobile phone, for example, must encode, transmit, decode and receive voice signals. This project will use specialised mathematical theories applied in novel ways to advance the theoretical foundations of signal processing and develop better signal processing algorithms for practical applications. Companies with access to better signal processing algorithms have an edge over their competitors, and consumers benefit too from better and more advanced products.Read moreRead less
Mathematical, logical and computational foundations of hybrid control systems, and their application to design and synthesis problems in control engineering. Hybrid control systems are mathematical models of heterogeneous systems consisting of digital computer components interacting in real-time with continuous physical processes. Their many engineering applications include air traffic control, medical technology and automated transport. Motivated by such safety-critical and high-confidence appl ....Mathematical, logical and computational foundations of hybrid control systems, and their application to design and synthesis problems in control engineering. Hybrid control systems are mathematical models of heterogeneous systems consisting of digital computer components interacting in real-time with continuous physical processes. Their many engineering applications include air traffic control, medical technology and automated transport. Motivated by such safety-critical and high-confidence applications, the project aims to develop a unified framework of mathematical logics adequate to formally represent and reason about the structure, behaviour, and properties of hybrid control systems, and use this to develop methodologies for automatically synthesising hybrid control programs that are provably correct with respect to their specifications. Other outcomes include prototype software implementations of hybrid controller design tools.Read moreRead less