Expressiveness Comparison and Interchange Facilitation between Business Process Execution Languages. Developments in the area of business process management are currently hindered by the plethora of diverse business process execution languages. This project will develop techniques for dealing with interoperability issues induced by this language heterogeneity. The project combines theoretical research, grounded in concurrency theory and workflow patterns, with pragmatic research focusing on lang ....Expressiveness Comparison and Interchange Facilitation between Business Process Execution Languages. Developments in the area of business process management are currently hindered by the plethora of diverse business process execution languages. This project will develop techniques for dealing with interoperability issues induced by this language heterogeneity. The project combines theoretical research, grounded in concurrency theory and workflow patterns, with pragmatic research focusing on languages supported by commercial tools. The outcome will be a framework for comparing the expressiveness of process execution languages and defining mappings between them. This will place Australia at the forefront of developments in business process management systems: a crucial technology in today's global, dynamic, and heterogeneous environments.
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A Methodology for Designing Information Systems based on Situational Theories of Agency. Information systems (IS) are part of work systems that are goal-directed. Existing methodologies for designing IS implicitly assume that goal-directed behaviour is enabled by deliberation upon abstract models (the 'thinker' metaphor). Recent work in robotics and artificial intelligence has tested an alternative theory of goal-directed behaviour that emphasises reactive responses to situations (the 'routine' ....A Methodology for Designing Information Systems based on Situational Theories of Agency. Information systems (IS) are part of work systems that are goal-directed. Existing methodologies for designing IS implicitly assume that goal-directed behaviour is enabled by deliberation upon abstract models (the 'thinker' metaphor). Recent work in robotics and artificial intelligence has tested an alternative theory of goal-directed behaviour that emphasises reactive responses to situations (the 'routine' metaphor). We will refine and test a new IS design methodology based on this situational theory and show that it can produce effective IS designs, applicable to time-constrained routine operational domains, which are radically different from those produced using existing methodologies.Read moreRead less
Development of a Multi Threat Risk Assessment Model for Critical Infrastructure Using Scripted Agent Computer Technology. Current risk assessment paradigms are not suited to the control of catastrophic events such as terrorism. An advanced approach to risk assessment will be developed in this project for rare high impact events such as bomb blasts, where critical infrastructure is threatened. A new software platform based on scripted agent modelling will be constructed that will allow for state ....Development of a Multi Threat Risk Assessment Model for Critical Infrastructure Using Scripted Agent Computer Technology. Current risk assessment paradigms are not suited to the control of catastrophic events such as terrorism. An advanced approach to risk assessment will be developed in this project for rare high impact events such as bomb blasts, where critical infrastructure is threatened. A new software platform based on scripted agent modelling will be constructed that will allow for state of the art models to be used as agents providing a dynamic risk evaluation and necessary information for actions to infrastructure owners and emergency responders as a threat develops. Both the developed scripted agent and the risk assessment technologies can be applied to other technologies and complex risks, such as waste disposal and biotechnology.Read moreRead less
Development of a Multi Threat Risk Assessment Model for Critical Infrastructure Using Scripted Agent Computer Technology. The project will develop a distributed risk network capable of real time assessment of multiple threats to critical infrastructure, which will guide decision making on the appropriate response as the nature of the threat changes. This will assist all stakeholders and allow an integrated response across industry and government agencies. The developed technology will find read ....Development of a Multi Threat Risk Assessment Model for Critical Infrastructure Using Scripted Agent Computer Technology. The project will develop a distributed risk network capable of real time assessment of multiple threats to critical infrastructure, which will guide decision making on the appropriate response as the nature of the threat changes. This will assist all stakeholders and allow an integrated response across industry and government agencies. The developed technology will find ready application in other areas where integration of science and technology is required to solve complex problems. For example, risk network technology has application to natural hazards, waste disposal and financial markets while the scripted agent has application to communication technologies and sensor networks.Read moreRead less
Advanced Sweep-Line State Space Reduction Methods for Verification of Concurrent and Distributed Systems. The rigorous design and analysis of distributed systems, such as the Internet and its applications, is known to be a difficult problem. This project will develop new techniques for reducing the memory and time required for computer-aided verification of concurrent and distributed systems. The technique will be combined with other reduction techniques to increase their range of applicability. ....Advanced Sweep-Line State Space Reduction Methods for Verification of Concurrent and Distributed Systems. The rigorous design and analysis of distributed systems, such as the Internet and its applications, is known to be a difficult problem. This project will develop new techniques for reducing the memory and time required for computer-aided verification of concurrent and distributed systems. The technique will be combined with other reduction techniques to increase their range of applicability. The reduction techniques will be implemented and evaluated using important transaction protocols for electronic commerce and internet enabled wireless communications. The technique will also be applied to so called 'object-oriented' modelling languages.Read moreRead less
Agent-based methods for communication system design in complex organisations. There is a direct opportunity to directly improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and safety of health work as a result of improved communication tools arising from this project. The current evidence that poor communication systems and practices significantly impair clinical work, and are related to avoidable clinical error and patient death, suggest compelling national benefits. Health represents 10% of GDP, and comm ....Agent-based methods for communication system design in complex organisations. There is a direct opportunity to directly improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and safety of health work as a result of improved communication tools arising from this project. The current evidence that poor communication systems and practices significantly impair clinical work, and are related to avoidable clinical error and patient death, suggest compelling national benefits. Health represents 10% of GDP, and communication technologies have yet to be significantly exploited here. There are substantial commercial opportunities nationally, for successful new communication services that service health care. Internationally the markets may be even larger, as healthcare is a larger proportion of GDP in nations such as the US. Read moreRead less
Diagnosis and prediction of business process deviances. This project aims to develop an innovative approach based on process execution semantics, to analyse event data logged by IT systems in order to diagnose and predict business process deviance. Anticipated outcomes include novel business intelligence algorithms producing deviance diagnostics, predictions and recommendations and exposing results via interactive visual analytics. The outcomes are expected to aid process workers in steering bus ....Diagnosis and prediction of business process deviances. This project aims to develop an innovative approach based on process execution semantics, to analyse event data logged by IT systems in order to diagnose and predict business process deviance. Anticipated outcomes include novel business intelligence algorithms producing deviance diagnostics, predictions and recommendations and exposing results via interactive visual analytics. The outcomes are expected to aid process workers in steering business operations towards consistent and compliant outcomes and higher performance, and assist analysts and auditors to explain deviant operations. This should significantly benefit industries such as healthcare, insurance, retail and the government where compliance and integrity management are imperative.Read moreRead less
Economical and practical design and analysis of probabilistic distributed systems. Complex computing systems composed of communicating processes are
distributed over networks, and interact with embedded hardware
components. They routinely operate in probabilistic environments:
hardware components fail randomly, but at known rates; and tactical
randomisation resolves competition for resources. Effective
specification, development and analysis methods for these systems
is crucial, and probab ....Economical and practical design and analysis of probabilistic distributed systems. Complex computing systems composed of communicating processes are
distributed over networks, and interact with embedded hardware
components. They routinely operate in probabilistic environments:
hardware components fail randomly, but at known rates; and tactical
randomisation resolves competition for resources. Effective
specification, development and analysis methods for these systems
is crucial, and probability makes that particularly difficult.
The focus of this project is to develop new formal methods that are
economical and practical in use. Exploiting our recent advances in
probabilistic program semantics, we will add probability in a new
way to proven techniques in concurrency theory, including
refinement and hierarchical design.Read moreRead less
Algebraic reasoning for serialisability in probabilistic transaction systems. The ability to analyse complex systems is a vital part of the development of large-scale computer applications; a method that improves the quality of the analysis task would increase the competitiveness of the software industry, would attract future development work (in complex and intelligent systems) to Australia, and could contribute to national security.
The results of this project will have a direct influence ....Algebraic reasoning for serialisability in probabilistic transaction systems. The ability to analyse complex systems is a vital part of the development of large-scale computer applications; a method that improves the quality of the analysis task would increase the competitiveness of the software industry, would attract future development work (in complex and intelligent systems) to Australia, and could contribute to national security.
The results of this project will have a direct influence on currently available design tools; the fact that Australian institutions will be responsible for key theoretical results in this growing field will strengthen Australia's position worldwide as an international centre for computer science.Read moreRead less
Hidden-state modelling for modular analysis of information flow, protection and risk evaluation. Automation is increasing explosively, and the cliche is no longer that there is a cpu chip in your washing machine, television or automobile. Nowadays they are potentially in our cash cards, passports and soon on every item in our shopping baskets. Australia is a leader in adopting and developing such technology.
Security and privacy, hard enough for PCs, thus concerns smaller, more numerous devi ....Hidden-state modelling for modular analysis of information flow, protection and risk evaluation. Automation is increasing explosively, and the cliche is no longer that there is a cpu chip in your washing machine, television or automobile. Nowadays they are potentially in our cash cards, passports and soon on every item in our shopping baskets. Australia is a leader in adopting and developing such technology.
Security and privacy, hard enough for PCs, thus concerns smaller, more numerous devices that we might not even realise we are using.
Our research aims to make it easier and more effective to describe and then successfully build-in features that enforce security without adverse impact on usability.Read moreRead less