Mechanism design for next generation random access wireless protocols. Australia is well placed to take the lead in replacing carbon-intensive travel by teleconferencing, because of its isolation and geographic dispersion. Because these large distances introduce inevitable delays, it is important that the network itself add as little delay as possible for such real-time services. Our novel and practical resource allocation scheme will enable Australians (including Australian industries and rural ....Mechanism design for next generation random access wireless protocols. Australia is well placed to take the lead in replacing carbon-intensive travel by teleconferencing, because of its isolation and geographic dispersion. Because these large distances introduce inevitable delays, it is important that the network itself add as little delay as possible for such real-time services. Our novel and practical resource allocation scheme will enable Australians (including Australian industries and rural communities) to receive better service at lower cost. This project will put Australia on the international stage as a leading contributor to wireless Internet technology. We will provide training for PhD students and postdoctoral fellows in this important area.Read moreRead less
WaterLog - A mathematical model to implement recommendations of The Wentworth Group. In 2003, The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists released their 'Blueprint for a national water plan' with the primary objective to 'protect river health and the rights of all Australians to clean usable water'. Currently, there are significant water restrictions in all the Australian mainland capital cities. In January 2007, the Prime Minister of Australia, announced a bold plan to rescue the Murray-Darling ....WaterLog - A mathematical model to implement recommendations of The Wentworth Group. In 2003, The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists released their 'Blueprint for a national water plan' with the primary objective to 'protect river health and the rights of all Australians to clean usable water'. Currently, there are significant water restrictions in all the Australian mainland capital cities. In January 2007, the Prime Minister of Australia, announced a bold plan to rescue the Murray-Darling Basin. The plan incorporates political management changes, and an investment of $10Bn. Now is the time to develop improved techniques for management of water storage systems. This project will develop the fundamental mathematical principles required for this improved management.Read moreRead less
Doubly Stochastic Matrices & The Hamiltonian Cycle Problem. The classical hard problem of determining whether a given graph possesses a Hamiltonian cycle contains the essential difficulty of the famous 'Travelling Salesman Problem'. A characterisation of this difficulty in terms of variability of returns (to the initial state) in a controlled stochastic process will be a significant conceptual advance with repercussions in a number of fields including optimisation and theoretical computer scien ....Doubly Stochastic Matrices & The Hamiltonian Cycle Problem. The classical hard problem of determining whether a given graph possesses a Hamiltonian cycle contains the essential difficulty of the famous 'Travelling Salesman Problem'. A characterisation of this difficulty in terms of variability of returns (to the initial state) in a controlled stochastic process will be a significant conceptual advance with repercussions in a number of fields including optimisation and theoretical computer science. Algorithmic advances exploiting such a characterisation will significantly contribute to existing technologies for solving problems in applications ranging from logistics to cryptography. Since TSP describes certain efficient ways of routing its applicability to information networks is clear.Read moreRead less
Modelling the Choices of Individuals. Individuals make decisions daily and some of these decisions have wide-reaching and long-term consequences, such as choices among housing, public transport, electoral candidates and health care options. The principal aim of this project is to develop reliable and valid ways to model individual level choice processes. Once completed, this will provide insights into ways to aggregate sampled observations when population-level applications are required, and all ....Modelling the Choices of Individuals. Individuals make decisions daily and some of these decisions have wide-reaching and long-term consequences, such as choices among housing, public transport, electoral candidates and health care options. The principal aim of this project is to develop reliable and valid ways to model individual level choice processes. Once completed, this will provide insights into ways to aggregate sampled observations when population-level applications are required, and allow us to compare and test several competing theories of choice behaviour. This will enable us to make contributions to understanding and modelling human decision making in many fields ranging from marketing to medicine.Read moreRead less
Choice experiments to improve predictive power for policy makers. In the current economic climate, Australian governments will benefit from superior choice experiments which will lead to improved prediction of the potential public benefit of proposed policy changes. The choice experiments developed here will have a substantial effect on the development of strategies for the promotion and maintenance of a strong health care system as well as being relevant to the maintenance of a sustainable envi ....Choice experiments to improve predictive power for policy makers. In the current economic climate, Australian governments will benefit from superior choice experiments which will lead to improved prediction of the potential public benefit of proposed policy changes. The choice experiments developed here will have a substantial effect on the development of strategies for the promotion and maintenance of a strong health care system as well as being relevant to the maintenance of a sustainable environment, both designated National Research Priority areas. The innovative research proposed will tap into and build strong links with international research networks, advancing Australia's research reputation and providing a rich environment for the training of research graduates.Read moreRead less
New methods for analysing marketing Databases in the age of digital media. This is a time of enormous and rapid change in many areas of Australian business due to the introduction and widespread dissemination of digital media. It has resulted in the accumulation of large integrated databases of customer information and their transactions. Firms in all countries, particularly those challenged by distance and size, like Australia, are now seeking to find ways to make better use of their voluminous ....New methods for analysing marketing Databases in the age of digital media. This is a time of enormous and rapid change in many areas of Australian business due to the introduction and widespread dissemination of digital media. It has resulted in the accumulation of large integrated databases of customer information and their transactions. Firms in all countries, particularly those challenged by distance and size, like Australia, are now seeking to find ways to make better use of their voluminous information so as to make efficiency gains in their business processes, strategic decision-making and customer relationship management. Our project aims to contribute to the ARC priority research goal of smart information use by developing new methodologies for the analysis of these large integrated databases.Read moreRead less
Time consistency, risk-mitigation and partially observable systems. This project aims to find optimal decision rules that mitigate risk in a time consistent manner for partially observable systems. Many problems in conservation management and engineering systems are dependent on random environments and entail risk of failure. The challenge of consistently minimising such a risk while achieving satisfactory and sustainable resource consumption is considerable. This project aims to develop analyti ....Time consistency, risk-mitigation and partially observable systems. This project aims to find optimal decision rules that mitigate risk in a time consistent manner for partially observable systems. Many problems in conservation management and engineering systems are dependent on random environments and entail risk of failure. The challenge of consistently minimising such a risk while achieving satisfactory and sustainable resource consumption is considerable. This project aims to develop analytical and numerical methods for optimal control in such scenarios. These methods will have application to fishery management, communication networks, power systems and social resource allocation scenarios.Read moreRead less
Statistical methods for the analysis of critical care data, with application to the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Database. The recent inquiry into Queensland's Bundaberg Base Hospital highlights the need to monitor hospital performance. This project develops new statistical methods to account for uncertainty in the assessment of provider performance and its outcomes will provide government with institutional comparisons for policy and planning.
Assessing and enhancing the quality of longitudinal survey data. Australia has begun investing heavily in the collection of population-wide longitudinal survey data. Most of that effort has focused first on collection and dissemination and second on analysis, with scant attention paid to the quality of data collected. This is unfortunate given that longitudinal surveys exhibit many problems (e.g., attrition, panel conditioning, and seam effects) that are not relevant in more ubiquitous cross-sec ....Assessing and enhancing the quality of longitudinal survey data. Australia has begun investing heavily in the collection of population-wide longitudinal survey data. Most of that effort has focused first on collection and dissemination and second on analysis, with scant attention paid to the quality of data collected. This is unfortunate given that longitudinal surveys exhibit many problems (e.g., attrition, panel conditioning, and seam effects) that are not relevant in more ubiquitous cross-section of surveys. Without adequate resources devoted to these methodological issues, the quality of substantive research will be questioned and interest from potential users decline. Maximizing the investment being made in longitudinal data thus requires a complementary investment in methodological research.Read moreRead less
Queueing systems and their application to telecommunication systems and dams. The aim of this project is to investigate the behaviour of large queueing systems under critical load conditions and solve problems related to large telecommunication systems, information technologies and dams. The project will have significant economic and social benefits. It will lead to the solution of high priority problems of optimal control of water resources, as well as problems in design technology of high spee ....Queueing systems and their application to telecommunication systems and dams. The aim of this project is to investigate the behaviour of large queueing systems under critical load conditions and solve problems related to large telecommunication systems, information technologies and dams. The project will have significant economic and social benefits. It will lead to the solution of high priority problems of optimal control of water resources, as well as problems in design technology of high speed telecommunication networks. It will suggest new more profitable approaches to known problems such as effective bandwidth problem, analysis and design of computer networks, optimal control of dams, and anticipate not ordinary results and solutions. It will contribute to the mathematical culture in Australia and worldwide. Read moreRead less