Improving the Performance, Scalability and Reliability of the Linux Operating System. This project aims to improve the scalability of the Linux operating system to large systems without loss of performance on small, embedded, systems. It will improve Linux robustness and security by de-privileging particularly error-prone code, such as device drivers, without undue impact on performance. It will improve configurability and ease tuning by making critical components, such as processor, disk and me ....Improving the Performance, Scalability and Reliability of the Linux Operating System. This project aims to improve the scalability of the Linux operating system to large systems without loss of performance on small, embedded, systems. It will improve Linux robustness and security by de-privileging particularly error-prone code, such as device drivers, without undue impact on performance. It will improve configurability and ease tuning by making critical components, such as processor, disk and memory schedulers, pluggable and their policies controllable at user level. It will investigate the feasibility and benefits of user-level file systems and processor and memory scheduling and will demonstrate that these can improve system reliability without undermining performance.Read moreRead less
Operating systems meeting the challenges of modern computer architectures. This project will develop operating system techniques that allow extracting the best performance out of modern computer architectures. It will concentrate on the latest architecture, Itanium, whose innovative features make it a particular challenge for operating systems. The techniques will be implemented in the open source Linux operating system and will result in significantly reduced operating system overheads and enh ....Operating systems meeting the challenges of modern computer architectures. This project will develop operating system techniques that allow extracting the best performance out of modern computer architectures. It will concentrate on the latest architecture, Itanium, whose innovative features make it a particular challenge for operating systems. The techniques will be implemented in the open source Linux operating system and will result in significantly reduced operating system overheads and enhanced application performance.Read moreRead less
A safe and efficient multi-language component framework based on dynamic compilation. Components are a versatile mechanism for the construction of extendible systems and for improved code reusability. Emerging environments like Microsoft's .NET support the interaction of components written in different programming languages. To date, such systems do not adequately isolate components which therefore must trust each other. This is unacceptable for components loaded across the Internet. We will dev ....A safe and efficient multi-language component framework based on dynamic compilation. Components are a versatile mechanism for the construction of extendible systems and for improved code reusability. Emerging environments like Microsoft's .NET support the interaction of components written in different programming languages. To date, such systems do not adequately isolate components which therefore must trust each other. This is unacceptable for components loaded across the Internet. We will develop a framework for secure execution of component software, based on hardware-enforced protection domains. To minimize the resulting runtime overheads we will provide a component model with lightweight context switching. A novel typed intermediate language and dynamic compilation techniques will offer complementary optimisations.
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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
High-performance real-time OS framework for low-power applications. Wireless network adapters, as they are being developed by Cisco, will find widespread use in the near future, as they are the basis of all mobile or otherwise disconnected intelligent devices. These devices must process data very rapidly, yet operate with minimal power consumption. We will develop operating system kernels that will support the secure, efficient and protected execution of the core processing firmware, and provide ....High-performance real-time OS framework for low-power applications. Wireless network adapters, as they are being developed by Cisco, will find widespread use in the near future, as they are the basis of all mobile or otherwise disconnected intelligent devices. These devices must process data very rapidly, yet operate with minimal power consumption. We will develop operating system kernels that will support the secure, efficient and protected execution of the core processing firmware, and provide application frameworks for the controlling higher software layers. We will also investigate and design hardware mechanisms that support the software while keeping power consumption minimal.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
Gaze Tracking Haptic User Interface for the Blind. It is estimated over 40 million people suffer from sever visual impairment in the modern world. Although blind people are able to use the computer with the aid of a screen reader and output devices like Braille displays, it remains difficult for the blind to use many applications with Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) due to the need for hand-eye coordination when manipulating screen objects with the mouse. This project intends to overcome this d ....Gaze Tracking Haptic User Interface for the Blind. It is estimated over 40 million people suffer from sever visual impairment in the modern world. Although blind people are able to use the computer with the aid of a screen reader and output devices like Braille displays, it remains difficult for the blind to use many applications with Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) due to the need for hand-eye coordination when manipulating screen objects with the mouse. This project intends to overcome this difficulty by providing a means for the blind to perceive and control the GUI of typical computer applications. This potentially could provide increased computer access, job opportunities and education for the blind.Read moreRead less
Security for Virtual Machine based Systems. Secure information systems have become paramount importance to our society and economies, which are increasingly based on online services and Internet infrastructures. Trusted interactions are a strategic necessity for businesses, governments and individuals in this ever-increasing digital world. It is critically important for Australia to develop new technologies to anticipate and respond to security threats to its industry and society. The outcomes ....Security for Virtual Machine based Systems. Secure information systems have become paramount importance to our society and economies, which are increasingly based on online services and Internet infrastructures. Trusted interactions are a strategic necessity for businesses, governments and individuals in this ever-increasing digital world. It is critically important for Australia to develop new technologies to anticipate and respond to security threats to its industry and society. The outcomes of this research will result in novel policy based secure and trusted system models and new techniques for malicious attacks detection, which will help to achieve secure Internet applications and large scale systems in Grid computing and e-Science.Read moreRead less
Preventing railway suicide: An open-systems perspective. Preventing railway suicide: An open-systems perspective. This project aims to develop an automated suicide risk detection system to reduce the incidence and impact of railway suicide, which has a devastating effect on victims’ families, station staff, train drivers, emergency workers, and bystanders. This project will use open-systems theory to develop two complementary information systems for more effective detection and reporting of suic ....Preventing railway suicide: An open-systems perspective. Preventing railway suicide: An open-systems perspective. This project aims to develop an automated suicide risk detection system to reduce the incidence and impact of railway suicide, which has a devastating effect on victims’ families, station staff, train drivers, emergency workers, and bystanders. This project will use open-systems theory to develop two complementary information systems for more effective detection and reporting of suicide risk; use these systems to investigate how different situational factors interact with different combinations of service interventions to influence suicide risk; and share the findings to reduce railway suicide in Australia and overseas.Read moreRead less
Service Ecosystems Management for Collaborative Process Improvement. Australian government agencies currently explore opportunities for streamlining their business processes. A promising approach relates to the improvement of cross-agency processes based on service-enabled technologies. This project will use requirements within Queensland Government for the design of a service ecosystem and methodological and management concepts to derive a general framework for intra-organisational ecosystems. ....Service Ecosystems Management for Collaborative Process Improvement. Australian government agencies currently explore opportunities for streamlining their business processes. A promising approach relates to the improvement of cross-agency processes based on service-enabled technologies. This project will use requirements within Queensland Government for the design of a service ecosystem and methodological and management concepts to derive a general framework for intra-organisational ecosystems. Though the focus will be on government processes, the project will generalise beyond this scope for a wider uptake of service ecosystems in Australian organisations. This will lead to reduced process costs and risks and will leverage the exploration of new revenue streams, e.g. shared services and reward schemes.Read moreRead less