Non-equilibrium reacting shock layers. This project aims is to study the non-equilibrium aerodynamic processes involved in hypervelocity flight. The design of vehicles for high speed flight is critically dependent on modelling the interactions between the flow field and the airframe, and the current lack of understanding is restricting the scope and benefit of viable activities in space. The expected outcomes include the ability to design optimised heat shields and air-frames with minimum mass a ....Non-equilibrium reacting shock layers. This project aims is to study the non-equilibrium aerodynamic processes involved in hypervelocity flight. The design of vehicles for high speed flight is critically dependent on modelling the interactions between the flow field and the airframe, and the current lack of understanding is restricting the scope and benefit of viable activities in space. The expected outcomes include the ability to design optimised heat shields and air-frames with minimum mass and maximum payload, precisely targeting specific flight conditions and vehicle shapes. The prospective benefits include increased productivity and reliability and reduced cost of missions to and from space, and a proliferation of new applications which this understanding will facilitate.Read moreRead less
Advancing the Science of Giant Planet Atmospheric Entry. This project aims to improve models used to design the heat shields which protect probes entering the atmospheres of the giant planets - four gaseous planets out beyond Mars. Further giant planet exploration is a key planetary science goal of the coming decade. However, the environment which an entry probe would experience features many unknowns and large uncertainties, making a mission a risky undertaking. Using unique experimental capabi ....Advancing the Science of Giant Planet Atmospheric Entry. This project aims to improve models used to design the heat shields which protect probes entering the atmospheres of the giant planets - four gaseous planets out beyond Mars. Further giant planet exploration is a key planetary science goal of the coming decade. However, the environment which an entry probe would experience features many unknowns and large uncertainties, making a mission a risky undertaking. Using unique experimental capabilities and state-of-the-art modelling, the expected project outcome is experimentally validated giant planet entry flow and surface chemistry models. This will allow more efficient heat shields to be designed while also increasing the chance of mission success, furthering our understanding of the universe.Read moreRead less
Next generation garbage collection: discovery, design, and development. This project aims to improve the performance of programming languages used by millions of Australians every day, such as Java, JavaScript and PHP by developing improved memory-management algorithms. These languages use what is referred to as “garbage collection” to ensure memory is managed without data loss, but do so conservatively and consequently cause performance challenges and energy overheads. This project expects to p ....Next generation garbage collection: discovery, design, and development. This project aims to improve the performance of programming languages used by millions of Australians every day, such as Java, JavaScript and PHP by developing improved memory-management algorithms. These languages use what is referred to as “garbage collection” to ensure memory is managed without data loss, but do so conservatively and consequently cause performance challenges and energy overheads. This project expects to provide these languages with improved memory-management algorithms, and provides researchers and industry with a framework for innovation. This project will enable safe software that is more efficient on today's hardware and able to exploit emerging hardware. This project should lead to better performance and energy savings for server applications, phones, watches, and smart appliances, while ensuring memory safety.Read moreRead less
Magnetohydrodynamic Aerobraking for Spacecraft Entry to Earth's Atmosphere. A spaceship returning from Mars will undergo unprecedented aerodynamic heating as it enters Earth's atmosphere. Magnetohydroynamic aerobraking involves applying a strong magnetic field to the plasma which forms around the spacecraft at these speeds, theoretically protecting it by reducing structural heat loads and enabling less severe flight trajectories. This project aims to experimentally study this technology for Eart ....Magnetohydrodynamic Aerobraking for Spacecraft Entry to Earth's Atmosphere. A spaceship returning from Mars will undergo unprecedented aerodynamic heating as it enters Earth's atmosphere. Magnetohydroynamic aerobraking involves applying a strong magnetic field to the plasma which forms around the spacecraft at these speeds, theoretically protecting it by reducing structural heat loads and enabling less severe flight trajectories. This project aims to experimentally study this technology for Earth return from deep space. It is significant because it will evaluate a new mechanism for managing the tremendous heat loads of planetary entry. The expected outcome and benefit will be development of a new technology to reduce spacecraft heating, leading to safer, more efficient, and potentially reusable spacecraft.Read moreRead less
Linear Formation Interferometry for Astrophysics and New Space Technologies. This project will prototype a new type of visible and infrared light interferometry: telescopes freely moving in a line 10s of metres in length and directing their light towards a central beam combiner. This is particularly well suited to sparse aperture optical interferometry from space, which can be used to resolve angular scales much finer than the world's largest monolithic telescopes. The ground based prototype wil ....Linear Formation Interferometry for Astrophysics and New Space Technologies. This project will prototype a new type of visible and infrared light interferometry: telescopes freely moving in a line 10s of metres in length and directing their light towards a central beam combiner. This is particularly well suited to sparse aperture optical interferometry from space, which can be used to resolve angular scales much finer than the world's largest monolithic telescopes. The ground based prototype will also be able to make a several key astrophysical observations of benchmark stars and stellar systems, including making precise polarimetric measurements of dust shells around bright stars.Read moreRead less
Can eco-evolutionary theories explain outcomes of microbiome coalescence . Environmental microbial communities are among the most abundant and diverse natural communities, responsible for many ecologically and economically important ecosystem functions, including primary productivity and climate regulation. This project aims to identify the biotic and abiotic factors that regulate community and functional outcomes of microbiome coalescence (the mixing of two different communities) caused by natu ....Can eco-evolutionary theories explain outcomes of microbiome coalescence . Environmental microbial communities are among the most abundant and diverse natural communities, responsible for many ecologically and economically important ecosystem functions, including primary productivity and climate regulation. This project aims to identify the biotic and abiotic factors that regulate community and functional outcomes of microbiome coalescence (the mixing of two different communities) caused by natural and anthropogenic activities. The outcomes will provide a unifying ecological framework to predict variation in microbiomes across different scales, ecosystem types and disturbances, and will generate critical knowledge for the development of effective microbiome products, a rapidly growing industryRead moreRead less
Placental nutrient transport shows how complex traits evolve. This project aims to use amino acid transport in the vertebrate placenta as a model to demonstrate how genes are recruited and modified to produce a major organ. Using an innovative combination of a new technology, selected reaction monitoring, and transcriptomic and molecular approaches, plus carefully selected Australian species pairs, this project will study the evolution of a complex trait (placental amino acid transport). The pr ....Placental nutrient transport shows how complex traits evolve. This project aims to use amino acid transport in the vertebrate placenta as a model to demonstrate how genes are recruited and modified to produce a major organ. Using an innovative combination of a new technology, selected reaction monitoring, and transcriptomic and molecular approaches, plus carefully selected Australian species pairs, this project will study the evolution of a complex trait (placental amino acid transport). The project will provide fundamental advances in our knowledge of the nutrient transport during pregnancy that is required to produce a healthy baby.Read moreRead less
Precision ecology: the modern era of designed experiments in plant ecology. This project aims to develop the field of precision ecology, forging a new era of designed experiments where sampling is informed by research questions and what is known about the ecological process being studied. Through the development of novel statistical methods, new experiments globally will be designed to answer important ecological questions including what influence abiotic and biotic factors have on plant commun ....Precision ecology: the modern era of designed experiments in plant ecology. This project aims to develop the field of precision ecology, forging a new era of designed experiments where sampling is informed by research questions and what is known about the ecological process being studied. Through the development of novel statistical methods, new experiments globally will be designed to answer important ecological questions including what influence abiotic and biotic factors have on plant communities over time and different spatial scales. Expected outcomes include new methods and tools that will modernise how future experiments will be conducted in plant ecology. This will provide significant transdisciplinary benefits including new statistical methods that target scientific discovery in ecological studies.Read moreRead less
Multitrophic interactions drive diversity-ecosystem function relationships. Soil communities, among the most abundant and diverse in nature are responsible for many critical ecosystem functions, including nutrient cycling and climate regulation. This project will determine whether consideration and quantification of interactions between different biotic communities – specifically among plants, soil microbes and animals, within and across trophic levels - can address underlying shortcomings in pr ....Multitrophic interactions drive diversity-ecosystem function relationships. Soil communities, among the most abundant and diverse in nature are responsible for many critical ecosystem functions, including nutrient cycling and climate regulation. This project will determine whether consideration and quantification of interactions between different biotic communities – specifically among plants, soil microbes and animals, within and across trophic levels - can address underlying shortcomings in predictions from classical biodiversity-ecosystem function theory. By advancing understanding of biological complexity and its impacts on ecosystem functions, the project will provide a unifying framework for understanding variation in ecosystem functions across scales, ecosystem types and multiple environmental disturbances.Read moreRead less
Combining biomechanics and movement ecology of kangaroos and relatives. Kangaroos and their relatives are unique in their body form, hopping gait and by the fact that increased speed does not come at an increased energetic cost. This project aims to build 3D musculoskeletal models to understand how muscles and tendons interact, enabling greater distances to be travelled using less energy. Further, it will use animal tracking devices and machine-learning tools to quantify movements in the wild. T ....Combining biomechanics and movement ecology of kangaroos and relatives. Kangaroos and their relatives are unique in their body form, hopping gait and by the fact that increased speed does not come at an increased energetic cost. This project aims to build 3D musculoskeletal models to understand how muscles and tendons interact, enabling greater distances to be travelled using less energy. Further, it will use animal tracking devices and machine-learning tools to quantify movements in the wild. This framework will provide novel insights into how energetics, morphology, and habitat have shaped the evolution of this unique group. This may open doors to a range of future ecological, physiological, and conservation studies and provide biological inspiration for energetically efficient robotic and assistive devices.Read moreRead less