Searching for near-exact protein models. This project aims to develop novel and efficient heuristic-based algorithms leading to near accurate protein tertiary structure models. Knowledge about protein structures is fundamental to our understanding of living systems. The progress on experimental determination of these structures has been extremely limited and remains an open challenge in molecular biology. Computational prediction of protein structures from sequences is emerging as a promising ap ....Searching for near-exact protein models. This project aims to develop novel and efficient heuristic-based algorithms leading to near accurate protein tertiary structure models. Knowledge about protein structures is fundamental to our understanding of living systems. The progress on experimental determination of these structures has been extremely limited and remains an open challenge in molecular biology. Computational prediction of protein structures from sequences is emerging as a promising approach, but its accuracy is far from satisfactory. The software systems developed in this project will be used in structural identification of target proteins in drug design. This will make drug design process more efficient, saving time and cost, potentially saving lives.Read moreRead less
Rigorous Privacy Compliance in Modern Application Ecosystems. Modern network applications such as mobile applications and browser extensions have become the primary gateways for consumers to access the Internet in today’s digital landscape. This project aims to address privacy issues in these ecosystems by developing a new privacy-compliance assessment framework. The framework will evaluate the current privacy practices of application ecosystems, enabling users and developers in Australia and wo ....Rigorous Privacy Compliance in Modern Application Ecosystems. Modern network applications such as mobile applications and browser extensions have become the primary gateways for consumers to access the Internet in today’s digital landscape. This project aims to address privacy issues in these ecosystems by developing a new privacy-compliance assessment framework. The framework will evaluate the current privacy practices of application ecosystems, enabling users and developers in Australia and worldwide to reliably identify potential privacy risks and issues on their applications. The intended outcomes should endow data controllers with the capability of evidencing their compliance of data protection legislations such as Australia Privacy Act 1988 and EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).Read moreRead less
Tractable topological computing: Escaping the hardness trap. Computational topology is a young and energetic field that uses computers to solve complex geometric problems driven by pure mathematics, and with diverse applications in biology, signal processing and data mining. A major barrier is that many of these problems are thought to be fundamentally and intractably hard. This project aims to defy such barriers for typical real-world inputs by fusing geometric techniques with technologies from ....Tractable topological computing: Escaping the hardness trap. Computational topology is a young and energetic field that uses computers to solve complex geometric problems driven by pure mathematics, and with diverse applications in biology, signal processing and data mining. A major barrier is that many of these problems are thought to be fundamentally and intractably hard. This project aims to defy such barriers for typical real-world inputs by fusing geometric techniques with technologies from the field of parameterised complexity, creating powerful, practical solutions for these problems. It is expected to shed much-needed light on the vast and puzzling gap between theory and practice, and give researchers fast new software tools for large-scale experimentation and cutting-edge computer proofs.Read moreRead less
Embedding Enterprise Systems in IoT Fog Networks through Microservices. The project will enable automated re-engineering of enterprise systems, to allow them to reused in Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications. It will support efficient ways in which the core business logic of these large scale and monolithic systems can be extended into resource control and data sensing functions managed through the IoT. The project will develop a novel, fine-grained software architecture style suitable for loca ....Embedding Enterprise Systems in IoT Fog Networks through Microservices. The project will enable automated re-engineering of enterprise systems, to allow them to reused in Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications. It will support efficient ways in which the core business logic of these large scale and monolithic systems can be extended into resource control and data sensing functions managed through the IoT. The project will develop a novel, fine-grained software architecture style suitable for localised IoT execution, through microservices executing autonomously on nodes of IoT fog networks. It will develop new techniques for automated discovery of microservices from enterprise systems and the verification of future-state system execution based on current-state behavioural and other properties such as security.Read moreRead less
Privacy-preserving data processing on the cloud. This project aims to address the current lack of privacy of user data processed by common cloud computing web servers, including email, business data, and confidential files. This project aims to develop new techniques in cryptography. The anticipated outcome is a suite of practical tools enabling common cloud computing processing operations such as search, statistical analysis, and multi-user access control, to be performed efficiently while pres ....Privacy-preserving data processing on the cloud. This project aims to address the current lack of privacy of user data processed by common cloud computing web servers, including email, business data, and confidential files. This project aims to develop new techniques in cryptography. The anticipated outcome is a suite of practical tools enabling common cloud computing processing operations such as search, statistical analysis, and multi-user access control, to be performed efficiently while preserving the data privacy. These tools should provide significant benefits to the privacy of cloud users, as well as financial and reputation benefits to the IT industry, by significantly reducing the likelihood of massive user data privacy breaches in the event of a cyber-hacking attack on the cloud server.Read moreRead less
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
Ambient nature network: new technologies to connect people to nature. This project aims to reconnect people with nature through new technology. Events in nature occur at times, places and scales that are hard to witness, leading to human disconnection from nature. This project proposes to address this issue by researching and designing new low-cost devices that combine environmental sensors with new interfaces to reveal local nature in parks and gardens in calm, engaging ways within and between ....Ambient nature network: new technologies to connect people to nature. This project aims to reconnect people with nature through new technology. Events in nature occur at times, places and scales that are hard to witness, leading to human disconnection from nature. This project proposes to address this issue by researching and designing new low-cost devices that combine environmental sensors with new interfaces to reveal local nature in parks and gardens in calm, engaging ways within and between homes in medium and high density environments. Outcomes will include new connected devices, playful interfaces and social sharing mechanisms, an evaluation with local groups, and a new theory of technology supported human-nature interaction. Benefits will include better community connection to nature, engagement in local citizen science, environmental initiatives and novel monitoring services and products.Read moreRead less
SenShaMart: A Trusted Internet of Things Marketplace for Sensor Sharing. This project aims to devise a novel Internet of Things (IoT) sensor sharing marketplace that permits IoT applications to discover, integrate, and pay for any IoT sensor data that is made available by other parties. The project will devise highly-scalable sensor classification, query processing, and transactions solutions and incorporate them in a pair of novel blockchains that work in tandem to securely manage all the infor ....SenShaMart: A Trusted Internet of Things Marketplace for Sensor Sharing. This project aims to devise a novel Internet of Things (IoT) sensor sharing marketplace that permits IoT applications to discover, integrate, and pay for any IoT sensor data that is made available by other parties. The project will devise highly-scalable sensor classification, query processing, and transactions solutions and incorporate them in a pair of novel blockchains that work in tandem to securely manage all the information and contracts needed by IoT applications to discover, integrate, pay, and use sensors provided by another parties. These IoT advancements will provide significant economic, environmental, and social benefits via making low-cost and immediate sensing available across the world.Read moreRead less
RNA structure prediction by deep learning and evolution-derived restraints. This project addresses the long-standing structure-folding problem of Ribonucleic acids (RNA) whose solution is essential for elucidating the roles of noncoding RNAs in living organisms. The proposed approach will detect hidden homologous sequences and enhance evolutionary covariation signals by developing new algorithms for search and smarter neural networks for deep learning. The project expects to generate new tools ....RNA structure prediction by deep learning and evolution-derived restraints. This project addresses the long-standing structure-folding problem of Ribonucleic acids (RNA) whose solution is essential for elucidating the roles of noncoding RNAs in living organisms. The proposed approach will detect hidden homologous sequences and enhance evolutionary covariation signals by developing new algorithms for search and smarter neural networks for deep learning. The project expects to generate new tools for structure-based probing of RNA evolutional and functional mechanisms. The outcomes should provide significant benefits by high-accuracy computational modelling of RNA structures that are difficult and costly to solve by current structural biology techniques but important for enabling biotech and clinical applications.Read moreRead less
Data analytics-based tools and methods to enhance self-regulated learning. This project aims to develop student self-regulated learning skills by harnessing the potential of Big Data analytics. The project expects to generate new knowledge at the intersection of learning analytics, educational technology, learning sciences and teaching practice resulting from novel data collection and analysis tools and methods. The outputs are expected to include insights into metacognitive, motivational, and t ....Data analytics-based tools and methods to enhance self-regulated learning. This project aims to develop student self-regulated learning skills by harnessing the potential of Big Data analytics. The project expects to generate new knowledge at the intersection of learning analytics, educational technology, learning sciences and teaching practice resulting from novel data collection and analysis tools and methods. The outputs are expected to include insights into metacognitive, motivational, and technical issues facing analytics-based personalised feedback. The outcomes are intended to offer benefits for developing pedagogical and the design of educational technology. The outcomes can result in improved student learning outcomes in higher education to ensure graduates are prepared for the digital economy.Read moreRead less