Stochastic majorization--minimization algorithms for data science. The changing nature of acquisition and storage data has made the process of drawing inference infeasible with traditional statistical and machine learning methods. Modern data are often acquired in real time, in an incremental nature, and are often available in too large a volume to process on conventional machinery. The project proposes to study the family of stochastic majorisation-minimisation algorithms for computation of inf ....Stochastic majorization--minimization algorithms for data science. The changing nature of acquisition and storage data has made the process of drawing inference infeasible with traditional statistical and machine learning methods. Modern data are often acquired in real time, in an incremental nature, and are often available in too large a volume to process on conventional machinery. The project proposes to study the family of stochastic majorisation-minimisation algorithms for computation of inferential quantities in an incremental manner. The proposed stochastic algorithms encompass and extend upon a wide variety of current algorithmic frameworks for fitting statistical and machine learning models, and can be used to produce feasible and practical algorithms for complex models, both current and future.
Read moreRead less
Embracing Changes for Responsive Video-sharing Services. Video-sharing platforms are a critical information channel for the public. Increasing scale and shifts in user base, with Generation Z now as the dominant user, have resulted in an unprecedented amount of ubiquitous changes in the content and users of these platforms which greatly challenges the responsiveness and quality of the services provided. This project aims to design innovative algorithms to effectively predict and leverage changes ....Embracing Changes for Responsive Video-sharing Services. Video-sharing platforms are a critical information channel for the public. Increasing scale and shifts in user base, with Generation Z now as the dominant user, have resulted in an unprecedented amount of ubiquitous changes in the content and users of these platforms which greatly challenges the responsiveness and quality of the services provided. This project aims to design innovative algorithms to effectively predict and leverage changes, optimise the value of changes, and extract insights from changes for diverse downstream applications of video-sharing platforms. The expected outcomes will create new-generation representation learning techniques, and provide practical tools to amplify the socioeconomic values of video-sharing platforms.Read moreRead less
Understanding Dynamic Aspects of Economic Inequality. This project aims to study dynamic aspects of inequality in Australia by exploring the changes in labour and housing market conditions and their relation to the changes in the distribution of income and wealth over the last decade. The project also aims to develop new econometric techniques to examine the factors that are responsible for the changes in the distribution of income and wealth and a range of labour and housing market outcomes. Pa ....Understanding Dynamic Aspects of Economic Inequality. This project aims to study dynamic aspects of inequality in Australia by exploring the changes in labour and housing market conditions and their relation to the changes in the distribution of income and wealth over the last decade. The project also aims to develop new econometric techniques to examine the factors that are responsible for the changes in the distribution of income and wealth and a range of labour and housing market outcomes. Particular attention will be paid to the role of the changes in individual-specific characteristics (such as education, age, employment status, and occupation) and neighbourhood-specific characteristics (such as house prices and population ageing) in producing inequality.Read moreRead less
Temporal Graph Mining for Anomaly Detection. This project aims to develop new technologies to detect anomalous patterns from dynamic networked data. Anomalies in networked data are commonly seen but are often hidden within the complex interconnections of large-scale, heterogeneous, and dynamic data, rendering existing detection methods ineffective. This project expects to design novel temporal graph mining techniques to compress large-scale networks, unify heterogeneous information, and enable l ....Temporal Graph Mining for Anomaly Detection. This project aims to develop new technologies to detect anomalous patterns from dynamic networked data. Anomalies in networked data are commonly seen but are often hidden within the complex interconnections of large-scale, heterogeneous, and dynamic data, rendering existing detection methods ineffective. This project expects to design novel temporal graph mining techniques to compress large-scale networks, unify heterogeneous information, and enable label-efficient anomaly detection. The performance will be assessed in social and business networks, with significant benefits to governments and businesses in many critical applications, including cyberbullying detection, malicious account detection, and cyber-attack detection.Read moreRead less
Responsible modelling respecting privacy, data quality, and green computing. With the unprecedented growing impact of data on science, the economy and society, there comes the need for responsible data science practices which are accountable for the social good. This project aims to investigate the challenging problem of how to provide responsible data management, spanning across privacy-aware data exploration, resilient modelling to cope with imperfect data, and efficient model architectures fo ....Responsible modelling respecting privacy, data quality, and green computing. With the unprecedented growing impact of data on science, the economy and society, there comes the need for responsible data science practices which are accountable for the social good. This project aims to investigate the challenging problem of how to provide responsible data management, spanning across privacy-aware data exploration, resilient modelling to cope with imperfect data, and efficient model architectures for resource-constrained environments. This will be achieved by developing theories and techniques for complex real-world multi-modal data retrieval throughout the data life-cycle. The expected outcomes will significantly contribute to building capability in emerging technologies in the context of responsible data science. Read moreRead less
EEG Based Global Network Models and Platform for Brain States Assessment. This project aims to generate new knowledge and tools in global brain network modelling and deep learning technology. It addresses the significant issues in higher brain function state assessment using brain signal EEG. The project applies global brain networks to model brain dynamical activities as a whole, and assesses higher brain functions such as consciousness, fatigue, sleep, stress and depression, and their step by ....EEG Based Global Network Models and Platform for Brain States Assessment. This project aims to generate new knowledge and tools in global brain network modelling and deep learning technology. It addresses the significant issues in higher brain function state assessment using brain signal EEG. The project applies global brain networks to model brain dynamical activities as a whole, and assesses higher brain functions such as consciousness, fatigue, sleep, stress and depression, and their step by step evolution in real-time using innovative deep learning approaches. The expected outcomes are optimised brain network models and a platform technology. The intended results can be applied to greatly improve the sleep quality and productivity of general community, and the safety of workplace and transportation.Read moreRead less
Robust Productivity Measurement: An Econometric Distance Function Approach. Accurate measures of productivity are required in a range of economic analyses. For example, in the assessment of the success of microeconomic reforms, or in price-cap regulation of utility and transport infrastructure firms. In this project we investigate the use of econometric distance functions as a means of obtaining improved productivity measures. This new approach addresses the main criticisms of alternative ap ....Robust Productivity Measurement: An Econometric Distance Function Approach. Accurate measures of productivity are required in a range of economic analyses. For example, in the assessment of the success of microeconomic reforms, or in price-cap regulation of utility and transport infrastructure firms. In this project we investigate the use of econometric distance functions as a means of obtaining improved productivity measures. This new approach addresses the main criticisms of alternative approaches, such as the single output restriction in the production function approach, the optimisation assumptions embedded in both the value dual approach and the Törnqvist index approach, and the statistical noise criticism of the data envelopment analysis approach.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
Towards knowledge discovery from imperfect and evolving data. Information extraction from data is critical, both to analyse and protect consumer data. However, many learning techniques are developed using perfect, static datasets, quite different to messy, ever-changing real-world data. This project aims to develop data analytics techniques that can extract accurate information in complex structures from imperfect/incomplete data that changes over time. Expected outcomes are a prototype tool, te ....Towards knowledge discovery from imperfect and evolving data. Information extraction from data is critical, both to analyse and protect consumer data. However, many learning techniques are developed using perfect, static datasets, quite different to messy, ever-changing real-world data. This project aims to develop data analytics techniques that can extract accurate information in complex structures from imperfect/incomplete data that changes over time. Expected outcomes are a prototype tool, tested on real datasets, that combines new techniques in data modelling, algorithm development, and system design. Likely benefits are enhanced Australia's competence in data science through student training and new, robust data tools relevant to critical sectors such as cybersecurity, healthcare, and defence.Read moreRead less
Should rational individuals be optimistic? Theory, survey evidence, experimental evidence, and policy implications. This project will help Australian policy makers design better information-revelation policies and will elevate the skill level of Australian research in behavioural economics. Insights we generate about how best to manage the public's expectations will enable policy design that strengthens Australia's social and economic fabric. We will disseminate the recommendations we generate ....Should rational individuals be optimistic? Theory, survey evidence, experimental evidence, and policy implications. This project will help Australian policy makers design better information-revelation policies and will elevate the skill level of Australian research in behavioural economics. Insights we generate about how best to manage the public's expectations will enable policy design that strengthens Australia's social and economic fabric. We will disseminate the recommendations we generate in a policy workshop at the end of our project. In terms of benefits to the level of science in Australia, the project will work with local data and local researchers, and will import into Australia new experimental medical equipment and the knowledge of how to use it. These benefits will help Australia progress to the forefront of behavioural economic research.Read moreRead less