The mathematics and language of engineering uncertainty, preference and utility. Australian engineering firms are principals in many high-profile projects. To defend their position, they must demonstrate both sound engineering and quality processes, which by international standards includes the traceability of decisions. Yet, there are few tools to vet the multitude of decisions that go into large-scale engineering works. This project aims to form mathematical models of decision-making based on ....The mathematics and language of engineering uncertainty, preference and utility. Australian engineering firms are principals in many high-profile projects. To defend their position, they must demonstrate both sound engineering and quality processes, which by international standards includes the traceability of decisions. Yet, there are few tools to vet the multitude of decisions that go into large-scale engineering works. This project aims to form mathematical models of decision-making based on the language modelling of what is written in engineering documentation about the bases of decisions. The new methods will help decision makers to pinpoint irrationalities in decisions and notify them of possible errors. The research can therefore be applied to important problems in the engineering sector such as risk management.Read moreRead less
The Impact of Strategy on Business Analytics Success. The successful implementation of business analytics systems will enhance the ability of Australian organisations to operate and compete efficiently and effectively within Australia and globally. By understanding the capabilities that lead to improved firm performance and their relationship to strategy, organisations can use the theoretical model to plan for business analytics systems implementation. The model is an original contribution in an ....The Impact of Strategy on Business Analytics Success. The successful implementation of business analytics systems will enhance the ability of Australian organisations to operate and compete efficiently and effectively within Australia and globally. By understanding the capabilities that lead to improved firm performance and their relationship to strategy, organisations can use the theoretical model to plan for business analytics systems implementation. The model is an original contribution in an important area of information systems research and will enhance Australia's reputation as a leader in the area of organizational use of information systems.Read moreRead less
Defence and Security Risk Assessment using Agent Based Distillations. Today's society continues to be occupied with the idea of risk. The recent events of September 11th, the Bali bombing, SARS, the bush fires in Canberra, and the Tsunami are examples of human-made and natural disasters. These events had dramatic consequences on the social, economic, and political environment and numerous industries. This project offers an innovative methodological paradigm for assessing risk through the transfe ....Defence and Security Risk Assessment using Agent Based Distillations. Today's society continues to be occupied with the idea of risk. The recent events of September 11th, the Bali bombing, SARS, the bush fires in Canberra, and the Tsunami are examples of human-made and natural disasters. These events had dramatic consequences on the social, economic, and political environment and numerous industries. This project offers an innovative methodological paradigm for assessing risk through the transfer of technologies drawn from defence simulations to the safety and security areas. The success of this project will mark a paradigm shift in the area of risk assessment and management.Read moreRead less
The Open Innovation Process: Factors and Technologies that Matter. This project aims to identify approaches to enable firms to find and introduce ideas through open innovation. Open innovation, with its focus on external sources of ideas, is a promising approach for increasing organisational innovation. While uptake of open innovation is on the increase, the lack of understanding of practices and technologies used to successfully introduce it into firms, limits its usefulness and results in wast ....The Open Innovation Process: Factors and Technologies that Matter. This project aims to identify approaches to enable firms to find and introduce ideas through open innovation. Open innovation, with its focus on external sources of ideas, is a promising approach for increasing organisational innovation. While uptake of open innovation is on the increase, the lack of understanding of practices and technologies used to successfully introduce it into firms, limits its usefulness and results in wasted resources. This project aims to investigate open innovation and relevant technologies to identify success factors for the idea generation and assessment phases of open innovation, develop guidelines for their application, identify effective technologies and related recommendations for use, and quantify their impact on innovation.Read moreRead less
Managing conflicts in requirements engineering with argumentation frameworks. This project proposes to employ argumentation theory and frameworks to tackle the problem of conflict management and resolution in requirements engineering. Australia has a strong competitive advantage in the areas of belief change and conflict management. The outcomes of this project will provide an improved infrastructure for several areas of software engineering, including requirements engineering and software evol ....Managing conflicts in requirements engineering with argumentation frameworks. This project proposes to employ argumentation theory and frameworks to tackle the problem of conflict management and resolution in requirements engineering. Australia has a strong competitive advantage in the areas of belief change and conflict management. The outcomes of this project will provide an improved infrastructure for several areas of software engineering, including requirements engineering and software evolution management. More broadly, the work proposed here will enable the IT industry to adopt and utilise the techniques developed in a number of research fields of Artificial Intelligence in developing the robust and reliable software systems for the rapidly changing knowledge economy of the 21st century.Read moreRead less
Computational Methods for the Social Accounting of Teamwork. The cornerstone of the knowledge industries underlying the Australian economy is not just mechanical efficiency but also teamwork productivity. The increasing trend toward placing Australian employees nearer to their customers means that Australian companies face an even greater challenge in managing effective teamwork. This research examines the pragmatics and theoretical issues of developing computer-based systems that enable real-ti ....Computational Methods for the Social Accounting of Teamwork. The cornerstone of the knowledge industries underlying the Australian economy is not just mechanical efficiency but also teamwork productivity. The increasing trend toward placing Australian employees nearer to their customers means that Australian companies face an even greater challenge in managing effective teamwork. This research examines the pragmatics and theoretical issues of developing computer-based systems that enable real-time assessments of teamwork productivity. Automated assessments of how well relationships are progressing in teams will enable them to realise the same levels of productivity gains that automated workflow management has facilitated.Read moreRead less
Methodology for assessing the vulnerability of multimodal transport networks and developing remedial measures to safeguard network performance. When transport networks fail, the effects on people and the economy can be devastating. The consequences for Hobart of the 1975 Tasman Bridge collapse provide a prime example. Failure may also result from extreme weather and natural disasters, traffic congestion and incidents, commercial failure, human error, or malevolence (such as sabotage). This proje ....Methodology for assessing the vulnerability of multimodal transport networks and developing remedial measures to safeguard network performance. When transport networks fail, the effects on people and the economy can be devastating. The consequences for Hobart of the 1975 Tasman Bridge collapse provide a prime example. Failure may also result from extreme weather and natural disasters, traffic congestion and incidents, commercial failure, human error, or malevolence (such as sabotage). This project will develop a methodology for auditing a transport network to identify where infrastructure failure will have the worst consequences for movement of people and goods. The research will provide tools for planners to determine critical network locations, and devise strategies and remedial measures to safeguard network performance.Read moreRead less
Multi-dimensional Temporal Abstraction to Support Neonatal Clinical Research. Each year, the death of a baby causes grief for thousands of Australian parents, contributes to depression and considerable anxiety in the population. In this work we propose procedures that will significantly reduce this unhappy scenario. The availability of a complex trend and pattern analysis will give Neonatologists access to predictive clinical analysis that has not previously been available locally or internation ....Multi-dimensional Temporal Abstraction to Support Neonatal Clinical Research. Each year, the death of a baby causes grief for thousands of Australian parents, contributes to depression and considerable anxiety in the population. In this work we propose procedures that will significantly reduce this unhappy scenario. The availability of a complex trend and pattern analysis will give Neonatologists access to predictive clinical analysis that has not previously been available locally or internationally. Thus, significant benefits in terms of lower mortality rates and lower long-term disability rates among babies requiring special care is possible. This research will provide the basis for future projects that will support regional hospitals.Read moreRead less
The Impact of Information about Data Quality on Decision Making. Data quality problems are widespread in practice and have significant economic impacts. The development of theoretically sound data quality tags and understanding how they impact decision outcomes and processes will lead to improved data quality management within Australian organisations and more efficient and effective decision making. These issues constitute an important area of information technology research. Outcomes from the ....The Impact of Information about Data Quality on Decision Making. Data quality problems are widespread in practice and have significant economic impacts. The development of theoretically sound data quality tags and understanding how they impact decision outcomes and processes will lead to improved data quality management within Australian organisations and more efficient and effective decision making. These issues constitute an important area of information technology research. Outcomes from the project will enhance Australia's research standing and contribute to university teaching and researcher training.Read moreRead less
Effective and Efficient Situation Awareness in Big Social Media Data . Crisis management services using traditional methods like phone calls can be easily delayed due to limited communication ability in the disaster area. This project aims to help users make smart decision in critical situations by using big social media data to detect complex social events, receive recommendations, and observe event summaries. We will invent advanced social data models, efficient indices and query techniques fo ....Effective and Efficient Situation Awareness in Big Social Media Data . Crisis management services using traditional methods like phone calls can be easily delayed due to limited communication ability in the disaster area. This project aims to help users make smart decision in critical situations by using big social media data to detect complex social events, receive recommendations, and observe event summaries. We will invent advanced social data models, efficient indices and query techniques for situation awareness in big media. We expect to develop a system to evaluate the proposed situation awareness framework. The outcomes of the project will benefit social media analysis and big data fields. It will also improve the government services by enabling the real time situation awareness in crisis.Read moreRead less