Demonstrating the feasibility of designing sustainable buildings using evolutionary systems. The design approach proposed in this research will result in two key areas of national benefit. First, the research will enable Australian built environment design professions to become more competitive in both domestic and international markets. There is a growing demand for environmentally-friendly buildings and the proposed design approach will enable Australian firms to be at the cutting edge of sust ....Demonstrating the feasibility of designing sustainable buildings using evolutionary systems. The design approach proposed in this research will result in two key areas of national benefit. First, the research will enable Australian built environment design professions to become more competitive in both domestic and international markets. There is a growing demand for environmentally-friendly buildings and the proposed design approach will enable Australian firms to be at the cutting edge of sustainable design. Second, the research will enable the Australian built environment to become more sustainable. The proposed approach will enable buildings to be designed that perform well, that are cost effective and that minimise their environmental impact. Read moreRead less
Verified Emulation of Legacy Mission Computer Systems. Processor obsolescence is a serious maintenance problem for long-lived computer control systems in military aircraft and other critical applications. A promising solution is to interpose an emulator program between the original "legacy" software and a replacement processor. Unfortunately, no techniques exist for accurately verifying that this procedure preserves the original system's functional and timing behaviour. A particular challenge ....Verified Emulation of Legacy Mission Computer Systems. Processor obsolescence is a serious maintenance problem for long-lived computer control systems in military aircraft and other critical applications. A promising solution is to interpose an emulator program between the original "legacy" software and a replacement processor. Unfortunately, no techniques exist for accurately verifying that this procedure preserves the original system's functional and timing behaviour. A particular challenge is that processor emulations involve both legacy code and new subroutines, written in different programming languages. This project will enable verification of safety and mission-critical emulated systems by devising a multilingual modelling and reasoning formalism, based on program refinement theory.Read moreRead less
Understanding the Influence of Cloud on the Spectral Solar Ultraviolet Radiation. Terrestrial spectral solar UV may be enhanced above that of clear sky due to certain cloud conditions. There is a major gap in the scientific knowledge of the influence of cloud on the spectral solar UV and resultant biologically damaging UV. This project will collect the only dataset of sky conditions and spectral UV for each ten minute period spanning 12 months to determine: the specific wavelengths with increase ....Understanding the Influence of Cloud on the Spectral Solar Ultraviolet Radiation. Terrestrial spectral solar UV may be enhanced above that of clear sky due to certain cloud conditions. There is a major gap in the scientific knowledge of the influence of cloud on the spectral solar UV and resultant biologically damaging UV. This project will collect the only dataset of sky conditions and spectral UV for each ten minute period spanning 12 months to determine: the specific wavelengths with increased irradiances; the amount of enhanced damaging UV; the cloud conditions that cause these enhancements and develop a predictive capability to determine when cloud cover will enhance solar UV.Read moreRead less
Combining Time Bands and Teleo-Reactive Programs for Advanced Dependable Real-Time Systems. Society is becoming increasingly reliant on sophisticated real-time computer systems in applications ranging from car stability control to critical infrastructure, such as railway signalling systems. Further, there is a demand for ever greater automation and sophistication in the software controlling these systems. The research challenge in this project is to provide robust implementations of these system ....Combining Time Bands and Teleo-Reactive Programs for Advanced Dependable Real-Time Systems. Society is becoming increasingly reliant on sophisticated real-time computer systems in applications ranging from car stability control to critical infrastructure, such as railway signalling systems. Further, there is a demand for ever greater automation and sophistication in the software controlling these systems. The research challenge in this project is to provide robust implementations of these systems in a way that allows one assess their dependability.
Australia industry is actively working in these areas through companies like Ansaldo Australia, in automated railway systems, and Boeing Australia, in the defence sector.Read moreRead less
Derivation and timing analysis of concurrent real-time software. Safety-critical computer systems are commonly controlled by concurrent real-time software. Assurance of such systems requires rigorous methods for deriving the software and verifying its logical and timing correctness. This project will directly address this problem via a new paradigm for real-time programming that is based on a machine-independent concurrent real-time programming language, that explicitly represents timing deadlin ....Derivation and timing analysis of concurrent real-time software. Safety-critical computer systems are commonly controlled by concurrent real-time software. Assurance of such systems requires rigorous methods for deriving the software and verifying its logical and timing correctness. This project will directly address this problem via a new paradigm for real-time programming that is based on a machine-independent concurrent real-time programming language, that explicitly represents timing deadlines within programs. This allows a partitioning of the development process into a machine-independent phase that derives a program to meet a high-level specification, and a machine-dependent phase that checks that the timing deadlines within the generated machine code are guaranteed to be met.Read moreRead less
Compilation of Specifications. Computer software now controls critical systems worldwide. International standards require such programs to be produced from mathematically-precise specifications, but the techniques and tools involved are highly complex and unfamiliar to most programmers. This project will show how a tool already used by software developers, the program compiler, can be extended to undertake much of the task automatically. This will be done by devising a compilation strategy, b ....Compilation of Specifications. Computer software now controls critical systems worldwide. International standards require such programs to be produced from mathematically-precise specifications, but the techniques and tools involved are highly complex and unfamiliar to most programmers. This project will show how a tool already used by software developers, the program compiler, can be extended to undertake much of the task automatically. This will be done by devising a compilation strategy, based on program refinement theory, that automatically translates specification statements in programs into executable code. Such an outcome will ultimately improve the speed, accuracy and cost-effectiveness of critical software development.Read moreRead less
Intravital super-resolution imaging via Stimulated Emission Depletion microscopy (STED)-microendoscopy. We will develop a new technology to enable the imaging of sub-cellular structures within a biological specimen, with super-resolution. This intravital super-resolution imaging technology will build off world leading techniques to image objects with super-resolution and to perform this within a specimen, with minimal invasion. The broad ramifications of this technology apply to biology, medical ....Intravital super-resolution imaging via Stimulated Emission Depletion microscopy (STED)-microendoscopy. We will develop a new technology to enable the imaging of sub-cellular structures within a biological specimen, with super-resolution. This intravital super-resolution imaging technology will build off world leading techniques to image objects with super-resolution and to perform this within a specimen, with minimal invasion. The broad ramifications of this technology apply to biology, medical science, imaging and sensing. Important applications include the early detection of debilitating diseases and the advancement of understanding of cellular biology. This research will raise Australia's profile as a world leader in science and technology, building on our emerging presence in the biophysical sciences.Read moreRead less
The Effect of Fuel Type on Health and Environmental Risks Caused by Motor Vehicle Emissions. Motor vehicles constitute one of the most significant sources of air pollutants but the state of knowledge on the quantity of some of these does not permit for projection of the risk they create. This project aims at quantification of emissions of pollutants contributing to deterioration of health, ozone formation, global warming and acid rain as a function of fuel type, using a novel on-road sampling m ....The Effect of Fuel Type on Health and Environmental Risks Caused by Motor Vehicle Emissions. Motor vehicles constitute one of the most significant sources of air pollutants but the state of knowledge on the quantity of some of these does not permit for projection of the risk they create. This project aims at quantification of emissions of pollutants contributing to deterioration of health, ozone formation, global warming and acid rain as a function of fuel type, using a novel on-road sampling method. Resultantly, a holistic picture of integrated health and environmental risk will be developed that will build a scientific foundation for future fuel,transport and land use to protect the community and the environment.Read moreRead less
Towards Novel Biomimetic Building Materials: Evaluating Aboriginal and Western Scientific Knowledge of Spinifex Grasses. The project contributes to an environmentally sustainable Australia by examining the potential value of a hitherto ignored natural resource and assessing its usage with sustainable harvesting. Aboriginal knowledge and Western science will be combined to identify potential technological applications for a widespread but uniquely Australian resource. The project promotes the wel ....Towards Novel Biomimetic Building Materials: Evaluating Aboriginal and Western Scientific Knowledge of Spinifex Grasses. The project contributes to an environmentally sustainable Australia by examining the potential value of a hitherto ignored natural resource and assessing its usage with sustainable harvesting. Aboriginal knowledge and Western science will be combined to identify potential technological applications for a widespread but uniquely Australian resource. The project promotes the well-being and health of Aboriginal people through seeking out a new economic enterprise for remote area groups. This project examines the material properties of spinifex, specifically for new building industry applications, both in its natural state and replicated as a synthesized biomimetic material. Read moreRead less
Development of a neutral helium beam microscope. This project would demonstrate Australia's capability in developing leading edge technologies applicable to the growing nanotechnology industry. The development of a neutral helium beam microscope brings into Australia expertise in the emerging field of molecular optics, and would place Australia as one of the first countries to make a commitment to this field. The project will develop a prototype instrument which is aimed at becoming a commercial ....Development of a neutral helium beam microscope. This project would demonstrate Australia's capability in developing leading edge technologies applicable to the growing nanotechnology industry. The development of a neutral helium beam microscope brings into Australia expertise in the emerging field of molecular optics, and would place Australia as one of the first countries to make a commitment to this field. The project will develop a prototype instrument which is aimed at becoming a commercially viable product - the neutral helium beam microscope. The possibilities of using the microscope system as a nanofabrication device would also give researchers in Australia the ability to fabricate structures that could not be manufactured anywhere else in the world.Read moreRead less