Coding Error Isolation in Computerised Simulation Models with Application to Wastewater Treatment Systems. Simulation code verification through program testing and debugging is crucially important, but is tedious and often difficult. A novel approach will be studied in this project. The approach involves detecting coding errors through back-to-back testing using two independently implemented versions of a given mathematical model, and isolating the coding errors through systematically analysing ....Coding Error Isolation in Computerised Simulation Models with Application to Wastewater Treatment Systems. Simulation code verification through program testing and debugging is crucially important, but is tedious and often difficult. A novel approach will be studied in this project. The approach involves detecting coding errors through back-to-back testing using two independently implemented versions of a given mathematical model, and isolating the coding errors through systematically analysing the test error signal generated (the difference between the outputs of the two models). This is possible because one of the two versions is implemented in such a way that the test error carries an easily identifiable feature. This project could revolutionize the area of model verification.Read moreRead less
Customer Responsive Risk-Managed Network Planning. The aim of this project is to reduce the cost of network delivery of electricity though a reduced network build. The cost of the network is balanced against the cost of reliability of supply. The key developments are optimisation of investment considering batteries etcetera, combined with customer load response and explicit inclusion of the uncertainties of load growth and in the response level of the customer loads. The project combines skills ....Customer Responsive Risk-Managed Network Planning. The aim of this project is to reduce the cost of network delivery of electricity though a reduced network build. The cost of the network is balanced against the cost of reliability of supply. The key developments are optimisation of investment considering batteries etcetera, combined with customer load response and explicit inclusion of the uncertainties of load growth and in the response level of the customer loads. The project combines skills of power engineering optimisation, software systems and social science. Most of the demand response programs globally have focused on a pure economic incentive for variation of customer load. This project aims to make use of recent findings on the benefits of combining community engagement with the incentives.Read moreRead less
Cost-effective use of assertions in the verification and validation of distributed and real-time systems. The project will reinforce Australia as a world leader in empirical software engineering and software verification and validation research, thus building on Australia's strengths in ICT research and innovation. Through the involvement of a local software verification and validation company and through industrial case studies, this project will also improve the software verification and valid ....Cost-effective use of assertions in the verification and validation of distributed and real-time systems. The project will reinforce Australia as a world leader in empirical software engineering and software verification and validation research, thus building on Australia's strengths in ICT research and innovation. Through the involvement of a local software verification and validation company and through industrial case studies, this project will also improve the software verification and validation capabilities of local industry, allow them to save software development costs, and improve the quality of the software produced.Read moreRead less
Practical Tools and Techniques for the Testing of Concurrent Software Components. This project will develop tools and techniques for the practical, systematic testing of concurrent software components. Testing is a major means for ensuring that software performs as expected, but testing concurrent software is poorly understood even though the majority of complex, computer-based systems are concurrent in nature. The complexities arising from the non-deterministic nature of such software means tha ....Practical Tools and Techniques for the Testing of Concurrent Software Components. This project will develop tools and techniques for the practical, systematic testing of concurrent software components. Testing is a major means for ensuring that software performs as expected, but testing concurrent software is poorly understood even though the majority of complex, computer-based systems are concurrent in nature. The complexities arising from the non-deterministic nature of such software means that testing tools and techniques used for simpler, sequential software are inadequate. The outcomes of this project will consist of practical techniques for the effective testing of concurrent software components in general and tools for the testing of Java components in particular.Read moreRead less
Effective software process improvement in a large-scale defence contracting environment. Most organisations struggle to consistently develop high-quality software on schedule and within budget. Continuing changes in technologies and customer expectations complicate this challenge. Software process improvement frameworks aim to guide organisations towards best practice. This project will assess practical experience with individual software process improvement frameworks in a large-scale defence c ....Effective software process improvement in a large-scale defence contracting environment. Most organisations struggle to consistently develop high-quality software on schedule and within budget. Continuing changes in technologies and customer expectations complicate this challenge. Software process improvement frameworks aim to guide organisations towards best practice. This project will assess practical experience with individual software process improvement frameworks in a large-scale defence contracting environment, with the goal of developing an effective strategy for integrating them. The outcomes will include documented experience with specific process improvement frameworks and a strategy for an overall framework that combines them.Read moreRead less
Formalizing Software Design Pattern Concepts and Pattern Specifications using Metamodeling. Software design is currently an ad-hoc process that relies too heavily on each designer's personal experience. Software design patterns capture design know-how and make it reusable by identifying the problem and context in which a family of solutions can be applied. This project will use a formal metamodeling approach to define the concepts underlying software design patterns and hence will create precise ....Formalizing Software Design Pattern Concepts and Pattern Specifications using Metamodeling. Software design is currently an ad-hoc process that relies too heavily on each designer's personal experience. Software design patterns capture design know-how and make it reusable by identifying the problem and context in which a family of solutions can be applied. This project will use a formal metamodeling approach to define the concepts underlying software design patterns and hence will create precise and rigorous pattern specifications. Through this approach, we will incorporate patterns into the Unified Modeling Language (UML), the dominant object-oriented modeling language. Our pattern specifications will assist UML tool developers integrate software design patterns into their tools.Read moreRead less
Enhancing model-driven architecture with support for verification and validation. The proposed project will augment emerging methodologies for applying model-driven architecture to include verification and validation tools and techniques. This will decrease the time and effort required to develop software systems, and lead to better quality systems. It will evaluate and integrate existing verification and validation tools and techniques into the standards currently being developed to facilitate ....Enhancing model-driven architecture with support for verification and validation. The proposed project will augment emerging methodologies for applying model-driven architecture to include verification and validation tools and techniques. This will decrease the time and effort required to develop software systems, and lead to better quality systems. It will evaluate and integrate existing verification and validation tools and techniques into the standards currently being developed to facilitate model-driven architecture. This will strengthen Australia's software-based industries and its prominent role in defining international standards in this area.Read moreRead less
Analysing and Generating Fault-Tolerant Real-Time Systems. Safety-critical real-time systems are being deployed increasingly in diverse areas such as controlling critical infrastructure like transportation (e.g., railway signalling) as well as in defence applications (e.g., fly-by-wire). Such systems must be dependable and hence must be built using fault-tolerant strategies.
This project is researching frontier ICT technologies for analysing, designing and generating fault-tolerant systems, con ....Analysing and Generating Fault-Tolerant Real-Time Systems. Safety-critical real-time systems are being deployed increasingly in diverse areas such as controlling critical infrastructure like transportation (e.g., railway signalling) as well as in defence applications (e.g., fly-by-wire). Such systems must be dependable and hence must be built using fault-tolerant strategies.
This project is researching frontier ICT technologies for analysing, designing and generating fault-tolerant systems, concentrating on their software control components.Read moreRead less
A Grid based platform for multi-scaled biological simulation. Heart disease currently affects over 3.5 million Australians. In 2006 it claimed the lives of almost 46,000 Australians (34% of all deaths). We will develop enabling technology that underpins cardiac disease research, offering potential for new treatments and pharmaceutical therapies. Even a small improvement in this area can translate into significant national benefit. Further, the mathematical techniques and software tools we will d ....A Grid based platform for multi-scaled biological simulation. Heart disease currently affects over 3.5 million Australians. In 2006 it claimed the lives of almost 46,000 Australians (34% of all deaths). We will develop enabling technology that underpins cardiac disease research, offering potential for new treatments and pharmaceutical therapies. Even a small improvement in this area can translate into significant national benefit. Further, the mathematical techniques and software tools we will develop, whilst focused on heart tissue, will have broader applicability, and may underpin advancements in other disciplines. Finally, we expect that the software solutions and infrastructure will have both commercial and strategic value in their own right.Read moreRead less
Understanding concurrent programs using rely-guarantee thinking. Multi-core processors are standard in computers and devices (e.g. smart phones) but much of the software available for these machines is either unreliable or does not exploit the available hardware parallelism. This project will devise techniques for designing concurrent software that exploits these platforms while delivering dependable operation.