Computational Methods for the Social Accounting of Teamwork. The cornerstone of the knowledge industries underlying the Australian economy is not just mechanical efficiency but also teamwork productivity. The increasing trend toward placing Australian employees nearer to their customers means that Australian companies face an even greater challenge in managing effective teamwork. This research examines the pragmatics and theoretical issues of developing computer-based systems that enable real-ti ....Computational Methods for the Social Accounting of Teamwork. The cornerstone of the knowledge industries underlying the Australian economy is not just mechanical efficiency but also teamwork productivity. The increasing trend toward placing Australian employees nearer to their customers means that Australian companies face an even greater challenge in managing effective teamwork. This research examines the pragmatics and theoretical issues of developing computer-based systems that enable real-time assessments of teamwork productivity. Automated assessments of how well relationships are progressing in teams will enable them to realise the same levels of productivity gains that automated workflow management has facilitated.Read moreRead less
Scenario driven management in a network environment. Scenario planning is the process of identifying plausible futures and their inherent risks. The organisation, the network within which it is embedded, and the environment in which the network operates, form a complex system of non-linear, dynamic, interrelationships. This project will develop a continuous process of scenario planning, capturing learning about the future as it emerges. The project fuses the use of agents for intelligent data co ....Scenario driven management in a network environment. Scenario planning is the process of identifying plausible futures and their inherent risks. The organisation, the network within which it is embedded, and the environment in which the network operates, form a complex system of non-linear, dynamic, interrelationships. This project will develop a continuous process of scenario planning, capturing learning about the future as it emerges. The project fuses the use of agents for intelligent data collection and negotiation with agent-based modelling to build powerful network-based scenario modelling systems for commercial applications. This outcome will place Australia on the frontier of smart information use.Read moreRead less
Defence and Security Risk Assessment using Agent Based Distillations. Today's society continues to be occupied with the idea of risk. The recent events of September 11th, the Bali bombing, SARS, the bush fires in Canberra, and the Tsunami are examples of human-made and natural disasters. These events had dramatic consequences on the social, economic, and political environment and numerous industries. This project offers an innovative methodological paradigm for assessing risk through the transfe ....Defence and Security Risk Assessment using Agent Based Distillations. Today's society continues to be occupied with the idea of risk. The recent events of September 11th, the Bali bombing, SARS, the bush fires in Canberra, and the Tsunami are examples of human-made and natural disasters. These events had dramatic consequences on the social, economic, and political environment and numerous industries. This project offers an innovative methodological paradigm for assessing risk through the transfer of technologies drawn from defence simulations to the safety and security areas. The success of this project will mark a paradigm shift in the area of risk assessment and management.Read moreRead less
Intelligent Design Advisor for Manufacturing Process Knowledge within Concurrent Engineering in the Aerospace Industry. At present the design of engineering components in the aerospace industry is accomplished by experts from design and manufacturing either sequentially or in collaboration. If performed in sequence then time and quality is jeopardised. If performed in collaboration then more manpower than is necessary is expended. The aim of this project is to develop an intelligent design advis ....Intelligent Design Advisor for Manufacturing Process Knowledge within Concurrent Engineering in the Aerospace Industry. At present the design of engineering components in the aerospace industry is accomplished by experts from design and manufacturing either sequentially or in collaboration. If performed in sequence then time and quality is jeopardised. If performed in collaboration then more manpower than is necessary is expended. The aim of this project is to develop an intelligent design advisor for Manufacturing Process Knowledge that will provide this expert knowledge to the design engineer in order to speed up the design process while reducing costs and still maintaining the high standard of quality necessary in the Aerospace industry.Read moreRead less
Managing conflicts in requirements engineering with argumentation frameworks. This project proposes to employ argumentation theory and frameworks to tackle the problem of conflict management and resolution in requirements engineering. Australia has a strong competitive advantage in the areas of belief change and conflict management. The outcomes of this project will provide an improved infrastructure for several areas of software engineering, including requirements engineering and software evol ....Managing conflicts in requirements engineering with argumentation frameworks. This project proposes to employ argumentation theory and frameworks to tackle the problem of conflict management and resolution in requirements engineering. Australia has a strong competitive advantage in the areas of belief change and conflict management. The outcomes of this project will provide an improved infrastructure for several areas of software engineering, including requirements engineering and software evolution management. More broadly, the work proposed here will enable the IT industry to adopt and utilise the techniques developed in a number of research fields of Artificial Intelligence in developing the robust and reliable software systems for the rapidly changing knowledge economy of the 21st century.Read moreRead less
Development of a Global Decision Support System towards Virtual Manufacturing. The aim of this research project is to develop a global decision support system (GDSS) in order to assist SMEs to improve their competitiveness in the dynamic global market while providing an industry oriented research training for a high calibre PhD student, who would be a valuable asset to Australia. The GDSS will help SMEs leverage their operations in a global context and to adopt a realistic virtual manufacturing ....Development of a Global Decision Support System towards Virtual Manufacturing. The aim of this research project is to develop a global decision support system (GDSS) in order to assist SMEs to improve their competitiveness in the dynamic global market while providing an industry oriented research training for a high calibre PhD student, who would be a valuable asset to Australia. The GDSS will help SMEs leverage their operations in a global context and to adopt a realistic virtual manufacturing system in the future. The significance of the project includes developing a new methodology and a GDSS to assess virtual manufacturing issues for SMEs and assisting them making timely decisions.Read moreRead less
Generalizing Multi-level Decision Support Handling Multi-objectives, Multi-followers and Uncertainty for Critical Resource Planning. The proposed multi-level optimisation techniques and fuzzy multi-objective multi-follower multi-level decision support system can be used widely in government and industries of Australia to reduce decision blindness, improve decision effectiveness, and therefore has the potential to increase the competitiveness of organizations. Many organizations in Australia are ....Generalizing Multi-level Decision Support Handling Multi-objectives, Multi-followers and Uncertainty for Critical Resource Planning. The proposed multi-level optimisation techniques and fuzzy multi-objective multi-follower multi-level decision support system can be used widely in government and industries of Australia to reduce decision blindness, improve decision effectiveness, and therefore has the potential to increase the competitiveness of organizations. Many organizations in Australia are decentralized and have a hierarchical structure. The proposed techniques are extremely effective for such kinds of organizations in critical planning, management and policy making, including tourism resource planning, water resource management, financial planning, healthcare planning, land-use planning, production planning, transportation planning, and power market planning.Read moreRead less
Systems to Support Knowledge Creation in Learning Organisations. The proposed project will investigate the capacity of IT to support knowledge making for innovation in modern organisations. Prototypes of three flexible computer-based systems will be iteratively developed and evaluated for their support of knowledge workers in three different industries. The investigators are experienced in socio-technical approaches, which will be used to emphasise the integration between people and IT systems ....Systems to Support Knowledge Creation in Learning Organisations. The proposed project will investigate the capacity of IT to support knowledge making for innovation in modern organisations. Prototypes of three flexible computer-based systems will be iteratively developed and evaluated for their support of knowledge workers in three different industries. The investigators are experienced in socio-technical approaches, which will be used to emphasise the integration between people and IT systems. An interpretive study will determine how the systems can contribute to organisational learning, performance, and responsiveness to change. The outcomes will inform the designers of such systems and show Australian organisations how to gain competitive advantage by expanding their capacity to learn.Read moreRead less
Group Decision Support Systems for Fuzzy Multi-objective Decision Problems. Most real-world decisions in organisations are made by groups addressing multi-objectives. Further, the decision objectives are frequently characterized by fuzzy parameters and decision makers often utilise fuzzy judgments in attempting to reach optimal solutions. The project is the first to address all these issues: fuzzy objectives, fuzzy judgements, multi-objectives and groups in decision-making. The project will deve ....Group Decision Support Systems for Fuzzy Multi-objective Decision Problems. Most real-world decisions in organisations are made by groups addressing multi-objectives. Further, the decision objectives are frequently characterized by fuzzy parameters and decision makers often utilise fuzzy judgments in attempting to reach optimal solutions. The project is the first to address all these issues: fuzzy objectives, fuzzy judgements, multi-objectives and groups in decision-making. The project will develop a set of interactive decision-making methods to be used by groups solving fuzzy multi-objective decision problems with the allowance of fuzzy judgements, then develop a group decision support system to implement the methods. These outcomes can be immediately used by suitable Australian organisations.Read moreRead less
Data Enhancement, Integration and Access Services for Smarter, Collaborative and Adaptive Whole-of Water Cycle Management. The project provides a valuable opportunity to make significant impact on water resource management and create community partnerships that will go well beyond the lifetime of the project. The project is expected to contribute to improved water quality and healthier ecosystems. In turn, the scientifically rich research environment will benefit all involved. It will demonstrat ....Data Enhancement, Integration and Access Services for Smarter, Collaborative and Adaptive Whole-of Water Cycle Management. The project provides a valuable opportunity to make significant impact on water resource management and create community partnerships that will go well beyond the lifetime of the project. The project is expected to contribute to improved water quality and healthier ecosystems. In turn, the scientifically rich research environment will benefit all involved. It will demonstrate the capability of the Australian researchers in addressing complex problems in data integration and quality. In particular there will be far reaching benefits of research training for associated PhD students and staff.Read moreRead less