Escaping the concurrency trade-off: a new approach to enterprise software. Enterprise software manages the operations of all business and government organisations. Designers of this often rely on their intuition or luck, by using high-performance database facilities whose correctness is not guaranteed. This project will show designers how to use these facilities while still having the assurance that the data will not be corrupted. This will improve the quality of the data used by Australian ent ....Escaping the concurrency trade-off: a new approach to enterprise software. Enterprise software manages the operations of all business and government organisations. Designers of this often rely on their intuition or luck, by using high-performance database facilities whose correctness is not guaranteed. This project will show designers how to use these facilities while still having the assurance that the data will not be corrupted. This will improve the quality of the data used by Australian enterprises, and thus improve their operations. Australian software designers will also benefit, as they will be able to produce software that combines high performance with assurance that concurrency errors will not occur.Read moreRead less
Varying similarity metrics in indexing and retrieving high dimensional data. Many applications require varying distance metrics by putting a weight on different dimensions. Taking an example in visual information retrieval, due to the subjective nature of similarity measurements, the distance metrics can vary between different users. The main problem with k nearest neighbour (k-nn) searches using weighted metrics in a high dimensional space is whether the searches can be done efficiently, since ....Varying similarity metrics in indexing and retrieving high dimensional data. Many applications require varying distance metrics by putting a weight on different dimensions. Taking an example in visual information retrieval, due to the subjective nature of similarity measurements, the distance metrics can vary between different users. The main problem with k nearest neighbour (k-nn) searches using weighted metrics in a high dimensional space is whether the searches can be done efficiently, since in an arbitrary distance metric the intersection between the k-nn sphere and the bounding envelopes of nodes in an index tree cannot be easily calculated. This project aims to seek a novel solution. It will create a great impact on and have many applications in high dimensional visual information retrieval, instance-based learning, complex analysis, non-parametric density estimation, etc.Read moreRead less
Managing Knowledge in Web-Driven Organisational Evolution. Organisations are increasingly concerned with the effective utilisation of Web technologies, and especially the ways in which these technologies can be used to improve their business. Effective management of knowledge about the interplay between the organisation and technical drivers of this technology adoption will enable a much-enhanced process for leveraging emerging information and communication technologies. This project aims to li ....Managing Knowledge in Web-Driven Organisational Evolution. Organisations are increasingly concerned with the effective utilisation of Web technologies, and especially the ways in which these technologies can be used to improve their business. Effective management of knowledge about the interplay between the organisation and technical drivers of this technology adoption will enable a much-enhanced process for leveraging emerging information and communication technologies. This project aims to link related research at UTS and Southampton University to understand how tools might support this knowledge management. Outcomes will include the creation of specific tools (and techniques for using them) within the context of managing organisational uptake of new technologies.Read moreRead less
Design of Service Interfaces for e-Business Applications. Economic pressures are rapidly driving businesses towards automation of e-business (electronic business) transactions. Successful e-business relies on accurate interchange of information among large numbers of autonomous partner organizations with different business semantics. Web services are widely regarded as having the potential to provide a suitable platform for the implementation of e-business applications, however so far only limit ....Design of Service Interfaces for e-Business Applications. Economic pressures are rapidly driving businesses towards automation of e-business (electronic business) transactions. Successful e-business relies on accurate interchange of information among large numbers of autonomous partner organizations with different business semantics. Web services are widely regarded as having the potential to provide a suitable platform for the implementation of e-business applications, however so far only limited attention was paid to Web services design. The aim of this project is to develop a design method suitable for developing a comprehensive and consistent set of Web services for a given application domain and to verify this method using a prototype implementation.Read moreRead less
Applying Method Engineering Techniques to the Construction of Agile Methodologies. Agile approaches to software development provide flexibility within the method but provide no assistance for improving the selected method. This second kind of flexibility is important to permit organizations to improve with time. To accomplish such improvement, a method engineering approach is proposed for agile method construction using the OPEN Process Framework, which consists of a metamodel and a collection ....Applying Method Engineering Techniques to the Construction of Agile Methodologies. Agile approaches to software development provide flexibility within the method but provide no assistance for improving the selected method. This second kind of flexibility is important to permit organizations to improve with time. To accomplish such improvement, a method engineering approach is proposed for agile method construction using the OPEN Process Framework, which consists of a metamodel and a collection of method components, stored in a repository. In collaboration with Eagle Datamation International, we will devise methods of constructing an agile method tailored to their business needs and then evaluate it in practice, monitoring as the method evolves and improves.Read moreRead less
Personalized, Adaptive, and Semantic-driven Selection and Composition of Web Services. Web services are the pillar of the new generation of Internet technologies. They provide standardized access to functionality that would otherwise be hidden inside enterprise information systems. As the existing base of web services expands, there is a need for techniques to select, configure, assemble, and coordinate web services to perform complex user tasks. This project will advance the fundamental underst ....Personalized, Adaptive, and Semantic-driven Selection and Composition of Web Services. Web services are the pillar of the new generation of Internet technologies. They provide standardized access to functionality that would otherwise be hidden inside enterprise information systems. As the existing base of web services expands, there is a need for techniques to select, configure, assemble, and coordinate web services to perform complex user tasks. This project will advance the fundamental understanding and know-how in this area by addressing three complementary research challenges: how to, organize and search semantically rich service descriptions; select services with respect to flexible and personalized criteria; and coordinate services in an adaptive and context-aware manner.Read moreRead less
Metamodel-based Methodology for Developing Agent-Oriented Systems. In the context of building high quality software, agent technology offers substantial promise. However, its widespread deployment by industry is hampered by the lack of commercially acceptable development methodologies. Here, we expand a metamodel-based process framework (the OPEN Process Framework) to support agent-oriented (AO) software development that will eventually both form a de facto standard for AO methodologies and be ....Metamodel-based Methodology for Developing Agent-Oriented Systems. In the context of building high quality software, agent technology offers substantial promise. However, its widespread deployment by industry is hampered by the lack of commercially acceptable development methodologies. Here, we expand a metamodel-based process framework (the OPEN Process Framework) to support agent-oriented (AO) software development that will eventually both form a de facto standard for AO methodologies and be acceptable for commercial software application development. To create this extension, significant research in AO software engineering is required. Our basis will be the OPF plus elements from existing AO methodologies, notably Tropos and Gaia, whose authors will collaborate actively.Read moreRead less
Components for Active Knowledge Portals. Businesses require people to collaborate and share knowledge in their work processes especially when they are in different locations. Such collaboration emerges by dynamically creating parallel and disconnected collaborative tasks that must be coordinated to meet organizational goals. This project will define the semantics of such emerging processes in the context of software digital workspaces that support them. It will then identify ways of constructing ....Components for Active Knowledge Portals. Businesses require people to collaborate and share knowledge in their work processes especially when they are in different locations. Such collaboration emerges by dynamically creating parallel and disconnected collaborative tasks that must be coordinated to meet organizational goals. This project will define the semantics of such emerging processes in the context of software digital workspaces that support them. It will then identify ways of constructing and using workspaces by creating active knowledge portals to support emerging processes. These portals will include software agents that are sensitive to the business context and help coordinate tasks within the emerging process.Read moreRead less
Fault-tolerant CORBA-based distributed systems. The focus of this research is Fault-Tolerant CORBA-based Distributed Systems. An implementation of the CORBA Fault Tolerance specification will be produced and evaluated against performance, interoperability and compliance criteria. A model for the management of degradation behaviour in distributed systems will be developed and an implementation produced. Novel algorithms, models and approaches to fault tolerance and degradation management will be ....Fault-tolerant CORBA-based distributed systems. The focus of this research is Fault-Tolerant CORBA-based Distributed Systems. An implementation of the CORBA Fault Tolerance specification will be produced and evaluated against performance, interoperability and compliance criteria. A model for the management of degradation behaviour in distributed systems will be developed and an implementation produced. Novel algorithms, models and approaches to fault tolerance and degradation management will be developed. Convincing demonstration applications will be produced to illustrate the widespread relevance of fault-tolerant and degradable systems to real-world domains such as telecommunications, commercial systems and defence.Read moreRead less
Practical methodologies for agent-oritented conceptual modelling. Conceptual modelling involves using knowledge representation techniques to support the requirements engineering phase of the software life-cycle. Agent-oriented conceptual modelling is a relatively new technique that offers significant benefits in modelling complex organisational information systems. However, several problems need to be addressed with current agent-oriented conceptual modelling languages and methodologies. In the ....Practical methodologies for agent-oritented conceptual modelling. Conceptual modelling involves using knowledge representation techniques to support the requirements engineering phase of the software life-cycle. Agent-oriented conceptual modelling is a relatively new technique that offers significant benefits in modelling complex organisational information systems. However, several problems need to be addressed with current agent-oriented conceptual modelling languages and methodologies. In the context of a PhD dissertation, this project will develop an improved agent-oriented conceptual modelling framework and related requirements elicitation techniques drawing on advances in Artificial intelligenct, Requireents Engineering and Organisational Semiotics. The practical deliverables of this project will address the needs of a large complex government organisation.Read moreRead less