Toward inclusive peace. Toward inclusive peace. This project will investigate how peace agreements can advance women’s rights and participation after post-conflict and political transitions. It will examine the relationship between women’s presence in peacemaking processes, women’s rights and gender provisions in peace agreements, and women’s participation in post-conflict governance of countries with successful peace agreements. Women’s participation in peace processes makes a successful peace ....Toward inclusive peace. Toward inclusive peace. This project will investigate how peace agreements can advance women’s rights and participation after post-conflict and political transitions. It will examine the relationship between women’s presence in peacemaking processes, women’s rights and gender provisions in peace agreements, and women’s participation in post-conflict governance of countries with successful peace agreements. Women’s participation in peace processes makes a successful peace agreement likelier, but may not consolidate peace or lead to greater participation by women in the governance of the country. Anticipated outcomes are analysis of the relationship between peace processes and gender equality in conflict-affected societies; improved consular delivery of aid programmes in fragile states; and targeted air delivery that empowers women.Read moreRead less
Electro-Optical Primers for Safe Use and Clean Manufacturing. Conventional primers contain a mechanically-sensitive primary explosive that is used to detonate the more stable propellant in a bullet. This project aims to address the health and environmental impacts of heavy metals in current primers by replacing them with benign, electrically or optically activated silicon-based materials. Modern semiconductor fabrication techniques will be used to develop safe and clean primers through cost-effe ....Electro-Optical Primers for Safe Use and Clean Manufacturing. Conventional primers contain a mechanically-sensitive primary explosive that is used to detonate the more stable propellant in a bullet. This project aims to address the health and environmental impacts of heavy metals in current primers by replacing them with benign, electrically or optically activated silicon-based materials. Modern semiconductor fabrication techniques will be used to develop safe and clean primers through cost-effective doping and deposition protocols. The expected outcomes of the project include a sovereign primer manufacturing capability for Australia. This will provide a significant strategic advantage and health benefits for law enforcement and defence personnel during live fire training and firing range exercises.Read moreRead less
Intruder alert! detecting and classifying events in noisy time series. This project aims to address the mathematical challenges in automated early detection and classification of intrusion events in noisy time series generated from perimeter security systems. The project expects to develop robust methods to detect intrusion events under different operating environments while ignoring nuisance events. The project will boost the global competitiveness of the Australian security industry, and enabl ....Intruder alert! detecting and classifying events in noisy time series. This project aims to address the mathematical challenges in automated early detection and classification of intrusion events in noisy time series generated from perimeter security systems. The project expects to develop robust methods to detect intrusion events under different operating environments while ignoring nuisance events. The project will boost the global competitiveness of the Australian security industry, and enable improved event detection and classification in noisy time series to the benefit of many critical application areas beyond national security.Read moreRead less
On-site and comprehensive technology for chemical weapons, toxins and drugs. This project aims to evaluate and validate broad capabilities of advanced chemical profiling using benchtop and portable gas chromatography–mass spectrometry for forensic applications. Establishing guidelines for sampling various matrices, key performance measures, and improving chemical and residue identification for drug profiling in clandestine laboratories and public venues, chemical warfare agents, and chemical tox ....On-site and comprehensive technology for chemical weapons, toxins and drugs. This project aims to evaluate and validate broad capabilities of advanced chemical profiling using benchtop and portable gas chromatography–mass spectrometry for forensic applications. Establishing guidelines for sampling various matrices, key performance measures, and improving chemical and residue identification for drug profiling in clandestine laboratories and public venues, chemical warfare agents, and chemical toxins is expected. Anticipated outcomes for project partners in defence and policing include detailed knowledge of sample and residue composition and on-site assessment of chemical risks with immediate feedback. Benefits should include improved community and security services safety by enhanced detection of harmful substances.Read moreRead less
Assessment and Redevelopment of the Community Safety Officer Role in Victoria and Associated Retraining. A 30-month action-research project spearheaded by the Department of Criminology, to reassess and redirect the Justice Department's "Safer Communities" strategy. This sophisticated strategy has experienced extensive program drift, and key objectives and outcomes must be redefined. Research aims include: assessing the roles of the State's thirty-two Community Safety Officers; reviewing and revi ....Assessment and Redevelopment of the Community Safety Officer Role in Victoria and Associated Retraining. A 30-month action-research project spearheaded by the Department of Criminology, to reassess and redirect the Justice Department's "Safer Communities" strategy. This sophisticated strategy has experienced extensive program drift, and key objectives and outcomes must be redefined. Research aims include: assessing the roles of the State's thirty-two Community Safety Officers; reviewing and revising job descriptions, activity profiles, skill requirements and supervisory structures; and retraining relevant personnel. Outcomes will be independently assessed. Crime prevention and safety strategies are being implemented in most Western countries, and similar problems are being experienced. Hence the project is of national and international significance.Read moreRead less
Developing a Scalable Infrastructure for Embedded E-Security Incorporating Cryptography and Biometric Authentication. A fundamental flaw in existing embedded e-security technologies is their cryptography-plus-PIN-number infrastructure. This has generated security concerns that have proved a major obstacle to the growth of e-commerce, presently a relatively poor 2% of market share. We aim to design a new infrastructure that can solve this security problem by incorporating cryptography and biomet ....Developing a Scalable Infrastructure for Embedded E-Security Incorporating Cryptography and Biometric Authentication. A fundamental flaw in existing embedded e-security technologies is their cryptography-plus-PIN-number infrastructure. This has generated security concerns that have proved a major obstacle to the growth of e-commerce, presently a relatively poor 2% of market share. We aim to design a new infrastructure that can solve this security problem by incorporating cryptography and biometric authentication into a computing resource limited embedded e-security system. The outcomes of this project will be a set of new cryptosystems, new biometrics processing schemes and new onboard resource allocation schemes that will form the basis for the next generation of embedded systems.Read moreRead less
Secure Management of Internet of Things Data for Critical Surveillance. This project aims to develop innovative models/algorithms to manage Internet of Things (IoT) data safely and reliably. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of classified information governance using innovative data collection, transmission and analysis techniques that overcome the security concerns in large-scale collaborative sensing. Expected outcomes include novel abstract interfaces for IoT, adaptiv ....Secure Management of Internet of Things Data for Critical Surveillance. This project aims to develop innovative models/algorithms to manage Internet of Things (IoT) data safely and reliably. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of classified information governance using innovative data collection, transmission and analysis techniques that overcome the security concerns in large-scale collaborative sensing. Expected outcomes include novel abstract interfaces for IoT, adaptive trust and integrity preserving methods, and reliable distributed data processing mechanisms to mitigate vulnerabilities in real-time IoT-enabled critical surveillance. This should provide significant benefits to Australia's economy, one of which is the enhanced consumer-centric adoption of IoT for sensitive operations.Read moreRead less
Analysis and classification of malicious code. Malicious software such as viruses and worms directly attacks the security, privacy and integrity of Australian e-commerce, large databases and communication channels. The recent uptake of malicious software by organised crime has made finding effective countermeasures more urgent. Around 80% of the malicious code in circulation is disguised in some way. This significantly increases the difficulty of automated detection and delays analysis. Automate ....Analysis and classification of malicious code. Malicious software such as viruses and worms directly attacks the security, privacy and integrity of Australian e-commerce, large databases and communication channels. The recent uptake of malicious software by organised crime has made finding effective countermeasures more urgent. Around 80% of the malicious code in circulation is disguised in some way. This significantly increases the difficulty of automated detection and delays analysis. Automated classification and de-obfuscation technologies are a precondition to applying more sophisticated detection heuristics. The project will be instrumental in safeguarding Australia by protecting critical infrastructure and defending us from online organised crime and information warfare.Read moreRead less
Secure user authentication with continuous adaptive risk evaluation. Users typically authenticate to any given system only once - when they first access it (for example, through providing a password or fingerprint). The prevalence of single sign-on further allows this single authentication to be sufficient for access to multiple systems. Thus an adversary can obtain a large degree of access from stealing a single password, hijacking a user's session, or even simply borrowing their phone. This pr ....Secure user authentication with continuous adaptive risk evaluation. Users typically authenticate to any given system only once - when they first access it (for example, through providing a password or fingerprint). The prevalence of single sign-on further allows this single authentication to be sufficient for access to multiple systems. Thus an adversary can obtain a large degree of access from stealing a single password, hijacking a user's session, or even simply borrowing their phone. This project aims to develop a continuous authentication approach based on user behaviour - typical interactions plus biometrics (for example, keystroke dynamics) - combined with a risk adaptive assessment of the resources being accessed, resulting in re-authentication requests in the event of a suspected compromise.Read moreRead less
Ending long-term homelessness permanently: How to make effective links between housing and long-term support. Australian services for homeless people typically provide short to medium-term assistance and accommodation. This approach struggles to meet the complex needs of the long-term homeless. Recently there has been considerable government investment in new approaches to end long-term homelessness, but evidence supporting the efficacy of these approaches is limited. This project builds on a fo ....Ending long-term homelessness permanently: How to make effective links between housing and long-term support. Australian services for homeless people typically provide short to medium-term assistance and accommodation. This approach struggles to meet the complex needs of the long-term homeless. Recently there has been considerable government investment in new approaches to end long-term homelessness, but evidence supporting the efficacy of these approaches is limited. This project builds on a four year Randomised Controlled Trial of the Journey to Social Inclusion pilot-program which was designed to end long-term homelessness. The project aims to track participants for an additional two years. The research aims to provide new knowledge on what practices and factors generate positive outcomes and what factors and practices sustain positive outcomes.Read moreRead less