Design and verification of correct, efficient and secure concurrent systems. This project aims to provide methods for the design and verification of correct, secure and efficient concurrent software that are scalable and mechanised. Computers with multiple processors are now the norm and are used in a wide range of safety, security and mission critical software applications such as transport, health and infrastructure. These multi-core architectures have the potential to lead to important effici ....Design and verification of correct, efficient and secure concurrent systems. This project aims to provide methods for the design and verification of correct, secure and efficient concurrent software that are scalable and mechanised. Computers with multiple processors are now the norm and are used in a wide range of safety, security and mission critical software applications such as transport, health and infrastructure. These multi-core architectures have the potential to lead to important efficiency gains, but can introduce complex and error-prone behaviours that cannot be managed using traditional software development approaches. This project will produce better, scalable and mechanised methods for the design and verification of such software which is expected to reduce the prevalence of failures in efficient, modern software.Read moreRead less
Provable elimination of information leakage through timing channels. This project aims to develop techniques to solve the issue in information security of unauthorised information flow resulting from competition for shared hardware resources. The project will combine operating systems design, formal hardware models, information-flow reasoning and theorem proving to achieve a goal that is widely considered infeasible. The project is expected to result in a system that prevents leakage of critical ....Provable elimination of information leakage through timing channels. This project aims to develop techniques to solve the issue in information security of unauthorised information flow resulting from competition for shared hardware resources. The project will combine operating systems design, formal hardware models, information-flow reasoning and theorem proving to achieve a goal that is widely considered infeasible. The project is expected to result in a system that prevents leakage of critical information, such as encryption keys, through timing channels. This should prevent sophisticated attacks on public clouds, mobile devices and military-grade cross-domain devices.Read moreRead less
Fast effective clustering technologies for highly dynamic massive networks. Clustering is a fundamental data mining and analysis task. In an interconnected evolving world, friendships and information flows are modelled as large dynamic networks. Structural clustering and correlation clustering are important and well-studied approaches for static networks; for evolving networks, where links appear and disappear over time, we lack efficient techniques. Anticipated outcomes are new practical cluste ....Fast effective clustering technologies for highly dynamic massive networks. Clustering is a fundamental data mining and analysis task. In an interconnected evolving world, friendships and information flows are modelled as large dynamic networks. Structural clustering and correlation clustering are important and well-studied approaches for static networks; for evolving networks, where links appear and disappear over time, we lack efficient techniques. Anticipated outcomes are new practical clustering algorithms for dynamic networks – with performance guarantees of efficiency and clustering quality – and prototype software, guiding us to pick a good clustering. Expected benefits include better understanding of spread in evolving social networks, accelerating the software testing cycle, and improved topic detection.Read moreRead less
Computational modelling of nanofluids for industrial applications. The use of nanoparticles in heat transfer fluids, then known as nanofluids, increases their specific heat and thermal conductivity. Recent experimental works highlight that anomalous transport phenomena are evident in nanofluids that cannot be adequately described by classical conservation laws. We will extend these conservation laws to incorporate fractional operators to capture the fluid memory effects and the impact of particl ....Computational modelling of nanofluids for industrial applications. The use of nanoparticles in heat transfer fluids, then known as nanofluids, increases their specific heat and thermal conductivity. Recent experimental works highlight that anomalous transport phenomena are evident in nanofluids that cannot be adequately described by classical conservation laws. We will extend these conservation laws to incorporate fractional operators to capture the fluid memory effects and the impact of particle clustering. Computational modelling and experimental investigations will be undertaken to identify the heat transfer mechanisms of various nanofluids. The outcomes of the work will increase knowledge on nanofluids and offer a significant opportunity to improve the efficiency of many thermal engineering systems.Read moreRead less
The recirculation of myeloid dendritic cells. This project aims to understand dendritic cell recirculation. It will use virological tools to track dendritic cell migration, and identify key decision points. Expected outcomes include enhanced capacity in basic research and greater interdisciplinary collaboration between virology and immunology research groups. Significant benefits will include a new understanding of how G protein coupled receptor signalling and other tissue cues guide dendritic c ....The recirculation of myeloid dendritic cells. This project aims to understand dendritic cell recirculation. It will use virological tools to track dendritic cell migration, and identify key decision points. Expected outcomes include enhanced capacity in basic research and greater interdisciplinary collaboration between virology and immunology research groups. Significant benefits will include a new understanding of how G protein coupled receptor signalling and other tissue cues guide dendritic cell recirculation, and what consequences the recirculation has for immune cell function. This understanding will significantly advance our basic understanding of the immune system.Read moreRead less
Enhancing privacy preserving in dynamic cyberspace. This project aims to develop a novel infrastructure operational monitoring and management strategy to reduce the redundant maintenance actions and achieve a cost-effective approach for civil infrastructure asset management. The project will use multiple social networks as a platform for the project, with the potential for the results to be extended to any dynamic cyberspace. Project outcomes will include a set of new analysis theories and tools ....Enhancing privacy preserving in dynamic cyberspace. This project aims to develop a novel infrastructure operational monitoring and management strategy to reduce the redundant maintenance actions and achieve a cost-effective approach for civil infrastructure asset management. The project will use multiple social networks as a platform for the project, with the potential for the results to be extended to any dynamic cyberspace. Project outcomes will include a set of new analysis theories and tools to facilitate government, companies, individuals, and organisations to enhance their information gathering and privacy-preserving capabilities. This is expected to enhance the credibility of the government and organisations and save the possible financial loss of companies and individuals.Read moreRead less
Stability Analysis of Power System with Massive Power Electronic Devices. The decarbonization of Australia's power systems is to integrate massive renewable energy sources which are interfaced with many power electronic devices (PEDs). The fast and complex dynamics of PEDs have significantly changed the nature of the power system, which limits the applicability of existing tools and methods to assess its stability. The goal of this project is to gain a comprehensive insight into the stability of ....Stability Analysis of Power System with Massive Power Electronic Devices. The decarbonization of Australia's power systems is to integrate massive renewable energy sources which are interfaced with many power electronic devices (PEDs). The fast and complex dynamics of PEDs have significantly changed the nature of the power system, which limits the applicability of existing tools and methods to assess its stability. The goal of this project is to gain a comprehensive insight into the stability of a futuristic power system with high penetration of PEDs. The intended outcomes will be a model and data jointly driven methodology for high-efficient and real-time stability assessment. The methodology developed in this project will support Australia's transition to a stable, secure, and low-carbon power grid.Read moreRead less
Central Representation of Electroacoustic Stimuli. Cochlear implantation, initially only provided to profoundly deaf individuals, is now routine in people with substantial residual hearing. Although stimulation via a cochlear implant and hearing aid in the same ear has been shown to improve speech understanding, particularly in noise, and to increase the aesthetic quality of sound, almost nothing is known about the physiological mechanisms underlying these benefits. The broad aim of our project ....Central Representation of Electroacoustic Stimuli. Cochlear implantation, initially only provided to profoundly deaf individuals, is now routine in people with substantial residual hearing. Although stimulation via a cochlear implant and hearing aid in the same ear has been shown to improve speech understanding, particularly in noise, and to increase the aesthetic quality of sound, almost nothing is known about the physiological mechanisms underlying these benefits. The broad aim of our project is to address this deficiency by measuring the patterns of neural activity evoked by speech sounds across the tonotopic axis in the inferior colliculus and auditory cortex and assess the extent to which the pattern of neural activity allows discrimination between the different speech sounds.Read moreRead less
Power system security assessment given massive intermittent energy sources. This project aims to develop new models and analysis methods to investigate the impact of massive intermittent energy sources (IESs) on the performance and security of power grids. Furthermore, advanced control strategies will be developed to enhance the security. The outcomes can provide useful guidelines to assist the Australian power industry and the government in realising the renewable energy target. Furthermore con ....Power system security assessment given massive intermittent energy sources. This project aims to develop new models and analysis methods to investigate the impact of massive intermittent energy sources (IESs) on the performance and security of power grids. Furthermore, advanced control strategies will be developed to enhance the security. The outcomes can provide useful guidelines to assist the Australian power industry and the government in realising the renewable energy target. Furthermore considering serious blackout can not only cause economic losses, but also larger disturbance in other critical infrastructure, this project also contributes to national security.Read moreRead less
Developing Adversary-Aware Classifiers for Android Malware Detection. Smartphones have become increasingly ubiquitous in people’s everyday life. However, it was reported that one in every five Android applications were actually malware, considering that Android has taken 88% market share of mobile phones. As an effective technique, machine learning has been widely adopted to detect Android malware. However, recent work suggests that deliberately-crafted malware makes machine learning ineffective ....Developing Adversary-Aware Classifiers for Android Malware Detection. Smartphones have become increasingly ubiquitous in people’s everyday life. However, it was reported that one in every five Android applications were actually malware, considering that Android has taken 88% market share of mobile phones. As an effective technique, machine learning has been widely adopted to detect Android malware. However, recent work suggests that deliberately-crafted malware makes machine learning ineffective. In this project, we propose to develop a series of new techniques, such as 1) Android contextual analysis, 2) wrapper-based hill climbing algorithm, and 3) ensemble learning, to solve this problem. The outcomes will help Australia gain cutting edge technologies in adversarial machine learning and mobile security.Read moreRead less