Human interaction with context-aware computing systems. Context-aware systems can provide seamless support of IT applications in a variety of technologies and therefore can improve: (i) work performance and adoption of IT in many industries; and (ii) the quality of life through better support for health services, education, and everyday tasks. Currently proposed solutions for context-aware systems fail to deliver systems which are usable for non-IT professionals. The proposed project will show h ....Human interaction with context-aware computing systems. Context-aware systems can provide seamless support of IT applications in a variety of technologies and therefore can improve: (i) work performance and adoption of IT in many industries; and (ii) the quality of life through better support for health services, education, and everyday tasks. Currently proposed solutions for context-aware systems fail to deliver systems which are usable for non-IT professionals. The proposed project will show how to design context-aware systems that are usable and whose autonomic decisions can be trusted. Additional benefits include increased scientific competitiveness of Australia, strengthened collaboration with international research institutions, and high quality graduates (PhDs, Masters, Honours).Read moreRead less
MemberGuard: Protecting Machine Learning Privacy from Membership Inference. Machine Learning has become a core part of many real-world applications. However, machine learning models are vulnerable to membership inference attacks. In these attacks, an adversary can infer if a given data record has been part of the model's training data. In this project, the team aims to develop new techniques that can be used to counter these attacks, such as 1) new analytical models for membership leakage, 2) ne ....MemberGuard: Protecting Machine Learning Privacy from Membership Inference. Machine Learning has become a core part of many real-world applications. However, machine learning models are vulnerable to membership inference attacks. In these attacks, an adversary can infer if a given data record has been part of the model's training data. In this project, the team aims to develop new techniques that can be used to counter these attacks, such as 1) new analytical models for membership leakage, 2) new methods for susceptibility diagnosis, 3) new defences that leverage privacy and utility. Data-oriented services are estimated to be valuable assets in the future. These techniques can help Australia gain cutting edge advantage in machine learning security and privacy and protect its intellectual property on these services.Read moreRead less
Scalable & Accountable Privacy-Preserving Blockchain with Enhanced Security. This project aims to address the scalability and accountability of privacy-preserving blockchain by advancing cryptographic techniques. This project expects to develop scalable protocols for privacy-preserving blockchain while also adding accountability for authority to trace cyber crime activities, which is a missing piece in any state-of-the-art public blockchain system. Expected outcomes of this project include not o ....Scalable & Accountable Privacy-Preserving Blockchain with Enhanced Security. This project aims to address the scalability and accountability of privacy-preserving blockchain by advancing cryptographic techniques. This project expects to develop scalable protocols for privacy-preserving blockchain while also adding accountability for authority to trace cyber crime activities, which is a missing piece in any state-of-the-art public blockchain system. Expected outcomes of this project include not only practical solutions for protecting sensitive data recorded in blockchain but also crucial techniques to make the blockchain accountable for practical applications with enhanced security. This project provides significant benefits, such as building a trusted environment for sensitive transactions in the digital economy.Read moreRead less
Domain-specific visual languages for big data analytics applications. This project aims to invent domain-specific visual languages and support model-driven engineering based infrastructure so domain experts can specify, generate and apply complex data analytics and visualisation techniques. Many domains, including intelligent transport, business intelligence, and population health, need more effective “big data” analytics and visualisation. A challenge is to combine detailed domain knowledge – w ....Domain-specific visual languages for big data analytics applications. This project aims to invent domain-specific visual languages and support model-driven engineering based infrastructure so domain experts can specify, generate and apply complex data analytics and visualisation techniques. Many domains, including intelligent transport, business intelligence, and population health, need more effective “big data” analytics and visualisation. A challenge is to combine detailed domain knowledge – what the data means and what it can be used for – with sophisticated, scalable computational techniques to mine and present information from the huge volumes of raw data. This project is expected to improve productivity and quality of big data analytics and visualisation in critical domains.Read moreRead less
Preventing sensitive data exfiltration from insiders . Confidential data such as military secrets or intellectual property must never be disclosed outside the organisation; formally protecting data exfiltration from insider attacks is a major challenge. This project aims to develop a pattern matching based systematic methodology for data exfiltration in database systems. We will devise highly accurate detection tools and secure provenance techniques that can effectively protect against insider a ....Preventing sensitive data exfiltration from insiders . Confidential data such as military secrets or intellectual property must never be disclosed outside the organisation; formally protecting data exfiltration from insider attacks is a major challenge. This project aims to develop a pattern matching based systematic methodology for data exfiltration in database systems. We will devise highly accurate detection tools and secure provenance techniques that can effectively protect against insider attacks. The outcomes of the project will incorporate new security constraints and policies raised by emerging technologies to enable better protection of sensitive information. Read moreRead less
An Integrative and Interactive Approach for Co-estimation of Multiple Sequence Alignment and Phylogeny Reconstruction. In this project innovative IT methods will be developed to assist biologists to solve complex and important biological problems. Many important applications in computational biology need very accurate and reliable tools for multiple sequence alignment and phylogeny reconstruction. Unfortunately, current existing tools are unreliable and are prone to serious errors when applied t ....An Integrative and Interactive Approach for Co-estimation of Multiple Sequence Alignment and Phylogeny Reconstruction. In this project innovative IT methods will be developed to assist biologists to solve complex and important biological problems. Many important applications in computational biology need very accurate and reliable tools for multiple sequence alignment and phylogeny reconstruction. Unfortunately, current existing tools are unreliable and are prone to serious errors when applied to large and divergent biological sequences. The success of this project will not only make significant contribution to the relevant research fields, but also help achieve goals in certain real-life biological research projects which are unique and important to Australia.Read moreRead less
Metamorphic slices and their applications in fault localization. The main purpose of this project is to enhance the quality of software. The expected outcomes include the delivery of new cost-effective methods to debug software, and the extension of current debugging methods to be applicable in wider contexts.
Cost-effective use of assertions in the verification and validation of distributed and real-time systems. The project will reinforce Australia as a world leader in empirical software engineering and software verification and validation research, thus building on Australia's strengths in ICT research and innovation. Through the involvement of a local software verification and validation company and through industrial case studies, this project will also improve the software verification and valid ....Cost-effective use of assertions in the verification and validation of distributed and real-time systems. The project will reinforce Australia as a world leader in empirical software engineering and software verification and validation research, thus building on Australia's strengths in ICT research and innovation. Through the involvement of a local software verification and validation company and through industrial case studies, this project will also improve the software verification and validation capabilities of local industry, allow them to save software development costs, and improve the quality of the software produced.Read moreRead less
Self Discovery, Self Configuration and Self Healing of Enterprise Grids. Firstly, the project will assist the elevation of grid computing into mainstream computing, and by this provide a direct response to some problems identified by the working party on the Australia's ICT research and research training. Secondly, our country is an excellent consumer of IT technology. But, it needs software artifacts that could be sold. A set of proposed services will be a saleable commodity of great commercial ....Self Discovery, Self Configuration and Self Healing of Enterprise Grids. Firstly, the project will assist the elevation of grid computing into mainstream computing, and by this provide a direct response to some problems identified by the working party on the Australia's ICT research and research training. Secondly, our country is an excellent consumer of IT technology. But, it needs software artifacts that could be sold. A set of proposed services will be a saleable commodity of great commercial value. A software company that will develop its commercial version could be set up. Thirdly, the project will help Early Career Researchers in gaining an experience necessary to carry out independent research and assist in training new researchers: Postdocs, PhDs and Masters.Read moreRead less
Mapping the Effectiveness of Automated Software Testing. This project aims to help software engineers build complex software systems in far more reliable and cost-effective ways. It takes an interdisciplinary approach by applying machine learning techniques to automatically test complex software systems. Expected outcomes include a novel methodology for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of test suites generated by automated software testing techniques and the approaches required for generat ....Mapping the Effectiveness of Automated Software Testing. This project aims to help software engineers build complex software systems in far more reliable and cost-effective ways. It takes an interdisciplinary approach by applying machine learning techniques to automatically test complex software systems. Expected outcomes include a novel methodology for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of test suites generated by automated software testing techniques and the approaches required for generating high-quality test cases. Such advances are urgently needed to avoid disasters when deploying software systems in the real world.Read moreRead less