Swinburne University of Technology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Perpetual photothermal modulation with scalable hybrid graphene films. This project aims to develop a perpetual photothermal modulation theory and device to deliver a highly selective and tunable broadband spectral filter across the entire visible and infrared wavelength range. The tuned nanostructure of the hybrid film can provide an environmentally-friendly solution for efficient thermal energy manipulation. This project significantly contributes to the fundamental understanding of photo-phonon interactions. The high performance photothermal modulation devices are low-cost and scalable, rendering them of tremendous value for other highly relevant sectors involving thermal energy. Field of research: 1007 - Nanotechnology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Measuring critical background in the Australian search for dark matter. This project aims to develop ultra-sensitive detector technology essential for SABRE, a world-wide experiment with detectors in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres which are operated together to directly detect the dark matter halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Dark matter makes up nearly five times more mass in the universe than everything we can see, yet it has never been detected in the laboratory. SABRE South will be installed in the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory in a goldmine in Victoria, Australia. Dark matter is not the only thing SABRE can detect. The project will measure all possible types of naturally occurring radiation, from space, the surrounding rock, and the detectors themselves, that can blind SABRE to dark matter. Field of research: 0202 - Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle and Plasma Physics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Coordinating Innovation in Knowledge-Based Multinational Organisations. Integration into global supply chains is one of the fundamental challenges for manufacturing companies in Australia. This project seeks to identify the optimal design for coordinating innovation in globally-dispersed organisations. It will analyse three mechanisms for transferring knowledge within organisations: hierarchies, communities of practice, and social networks. Outcomes will include a new multilevel statistical network modelling framework and organisational designs to overcome barriers to knowledge-transfer, such as language, culture and distance. The project will collect and apply data from Boeing Global Technology, the international research arm of The Boeing Company, a world leading business with major subsidiaries in Australia. Field of research: 1608 - Sociology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Effective and efficient protection of personal privacy in big personal data. Personal privacy protection is becoming increasingly important as personal data is increasingly being hosted in cloud servers, accumulating as big personal data. This project aims to develop innovative solutions for effective and efficient to address the issue of protection of personal privacy. Current approaches are neither effective nor efficient, and lack robustness. The project is expected to enhance theoretical foundation of personal privacy protection in big data and cloud, and deliver an effective and efficient personal privacy protection framework with associated algorithms and prototype. These outcomes will help to protect fast-growing privacy sensitive personal data hosting and applications on cloud servers. Field of research: 0803 - Computer Software

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Quantification, optimisation, and application of deep uncertainty. This project aims to develop a framework for deep uncertainty quantification. There is currently a fundamental gap between deep learning research and the methods required to quantify and manage uncertainties. The research will propose a novel distribution-free methodology to generate deep predictive uncertainty estimates to avoid the assumptions of existing methods. The quality of estimates will be enhanced by applying an interval-based adversarial training step. The project is expected to help data-driven Australian organisations and industries to better quantify and manage forecasting uncertainties. This project will provide them with significant cost savings through better decision making and more robust planning. Field of research: 0801 - Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Photonic crystals: The key to breaking the silicon-solar cell efficiency barrier. This project aims to investigate solar light harvesting using light trapping by photonic crystal on an amorphous-Silicon thin-film combining passivation technologies with light trapping. Using this new light trapping method, based on a specially designed periodic surface structure, the project expects to set a new standard in solar energy conversion efficiency. The expected outcomes of this project represent a step change in Silicon solar cell efficiency, applicable to different materials and especially useful for thin flexible cells. The project has the potential to benefit the renewable energy sector, increasing the efficiency of sustainable energy production, with positive economic and environmental impacts. Field of research: 1007 - Nanotechnology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Deep ocean thermodynamics and climate change. This project aims to obtain new insights into the thermodynamic and transport properties of mixtures containing water, particularly at high pressures, that impact directly on our understanding of climate change processes. The project will involve the use of a polarisable potential for water which has recently been demonstrated to yield predictions of high accuracy. It will be used to model saline water mixtures containing carbon dioxide, resulting in valuable data for thermodynamic properties of the world's oceans. These data are of crucial importance for accurate climate change predictions and as such the project will have an important impact on understanding our changing environment. Field of research: 0306 - Physical Chemistry (Incl. Structural)

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Data-driven Traffic Analytics for Incident Analysis and Management. Traffic incidents are among the primary concerns of all transport authorities around the world due to their significant impact in terms of traffic congestion and delay, air and noise pollution, and management cost. This project aims to address incident analysis and management in complex and multi-modal traffic networks by combining multidisciplinary research efforts from transportation engineering and data science. The intended outcomes will be an innovative incident analysis and management framework synergising traffic data analytics and traffic simulation modelling as well as its key enabling techniques and prototype systems. This will significantly help mitigate incident impacts on daily commuters. Field of research: 0806 - Information Systems

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Detecting Firmware Vulnerabilities in Smart Home Devices. 83% of Australians have smart home devices. 47% claim they have three or more. These devices are easily targeted by cyber-attacks, and searching for their vulnerabilities has become more crucial than ever. Our industry partner GPG is actively looking for ways to detect vulnerabilities in their smart home products, but have not found any existing methods that satisfy three critical requirements: 1) massive search, 2) cross platform detection, and 3) finding unseen vulnerabilities. We therefore propose to use a series of new techniques such as efficient in-memory fuzzing, conditional formulas, and transfer learning to solve the above challenges. The project outcomes will help Australia gain cutting edge techniques in vulnerability detection. Field of research: 0806 - Information Systems

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Play it again: preserving Australian videogame history. This project aims to demonstrate and evaluate the emulation of obsolete operating systems and programs in a cloud-based environment to document, preserve, and exhibit digital cultural heritage. The challenge of preserving and accessing complex digital cultural heritage such as software is one that collecting institutions worldwide are facing. This project will address this challenge by recovering the history of Australian made videogames of the 1990s, preserving significant local digital game artefacts currently at risk, and investigating how these can be exhibited as playable software using the newest emulation techniques. The project expects to generate new knowledge needed by government, museums and industry to inform future strategy and infrastructure investment aimed at making a range of digital cultural heritage available to the public. Field of research: 1902 - Film, Television and Digital Media

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Active rheology control of fresh concrete using responsive additives. This project aims to investigate innovative techniques for Active Rheology Control (ARC) of concretes using responsive additives interacting with externally applied electromagnetic or temperature signals. ARC is a new concept which will revolutionise concrete pumping by overcoming limitations such as frequent pipe blockages. ARC will also be useful to solve the major barrier faced by 3D concrete printing (3DCP) from becoming a practical way of construction. 3DCP is an emerging idea for construction but a major barrier is that concrete needs to flow during pumping and extrusion but become stiff soon after placement. This project will explore ARC for achieving the “flow-on-demand” desired by both concrete pumping and 3DCP applications. Field of research: 0905 - Civil Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Controlling coastlines while generating power. The Project aims to produce strategies for protecting coasts from storms using farms of wave-energy machines, which also generate electricity. Increasing lengths of coast need protection as the climate changes, but conventional barriers create permanent environmental impacts and are a sunk cost usually borne by the taxpayer. The Project expects to derive a strategy for the setting of each machine in the farm, so that they collectively absorb or reflect damaging waves under severe conditions. Under normal conditions, enough wave energy to sustain environmental processes would pass through. Sales of electricity would help to pay back the capital cost. Outcomes would include reduced coastal-erosion costs and a low-intermittency energy supply. Field of research: 0915 - Interdisciplinary Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Understanding and responding to online child sexual exploitation offenders. The development of online communication technologies has facilitated a growth in online child sexual exploitation over the past two decades. Using a data-linkage framework, this project aims to enhance understanding of online child sexual exploitation, the legal frameworks surrounding this issue, and the unique characteristics, risks and needs of online sexual offenders. Expected outcomes include increased knowledge to inform current law enforcement and sentencing practices and the development of risk assessment and intervention protocols for clinical use with online offenders. This should increase evidence-based practice with online sexual offenders and assist in preventing the sexual exploitation of children online and in the community. Field of research: 1701 - Psychology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Archiving Australian Media Arts: Towards a method and national collection. The early years of Australian digital media arts heritage are at risk. Australians were significant contributors to the development of media arts internationally, as well as making and exhibiting work nationally, yet only a tiny portion of the digital artwork by Australian artists has made it into institutional collections. Deteriorating disks and reliance on obsolete hardware and software mean that innovative digital preservation and access solutions are needed if these artworks are to be saved. Working with key cultural institutions, this project will conserve key media art case studies from the archives of media arts organisations, and develop a best practice method for the preservation of our digital media arts heritage. Field of research: 1902 - Film, Television and Digital Media

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Secure and efficient data leak prevention on cloud. The leak of sensitive data on cloud not only poses serious threats to both public and private organisations but also puts their employees and clients at risk, e.g., economic loss and social impact. The aim of this project is to develop a secure and efficient solution that can detect and prevent leak of data in real-time. Uniquely, the proposed research will develop novel techniques that can monitor data leak security incidents happening over time and captured by different sensors and identify correlations between historic security incidents and current data attacks. This project will significantly help to secure data on cloud for organisations in Australia and benefit fast-growing security sensitive data hosting and applications on cloud. Field of research: 0803 - Computer Software

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Building time crystals with ultracold atoms. This project aims to create a new exotic form of quantum matter in which a many-body system of ultracold atoms bouncing on a vibrating mirror spontaneously self-organises its motion with a period tens of times longer than the driving period of the mirror. Such ‘time crystals’ are predicted to be robust against external perturbations and to persist for very long times. The project expects to generate new knowledge on exotic non-equilibrium crystalline phenomena in the time domain, such as many-body localisation with temporal disorder, which has counter-intuitive characteristics such as absence of thermalisation and vanishing direct current transport. Time crystals could provide significant benefits for the storage and transfer of quantum information, and this, and other outcomes may ultimately lead to commercial products. Field of research: 0206 - Quantum Physics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2019 · 2019-01

Repetitive control systems in networked environments. Repetitive control is used in many industry applications to track periodic references and reject periodic disturbances. The development of digital technology brings in more networked control systems, greatly improving distributed manufacturing, which creates new design challenges due to network-induced constraints such as delay, data packet dropouts and cyber-attacks. This project aims to provide new understanding of dynamic behaviours of repetitive control systems in networked environments, and develop a new theory for the analysis and design of networked repetitive control, subject to network induced constraints. The new control systems should reduce the cost of automation systems and will significantly enhance their performance, allowing Australian industry to remain economically competitive. Field of research: 0913 - Mechanical Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Nonlinear optical effects with low-power non-laser light. This project aims to allow the use of low-cost, low-intensity light sources, such as light-emitting diodes and discharge lamps, to generate nonlinear optical signals in photonic devices. Nonlinear optical effects are vital for telecommunication and signal processing technologies and are presently possible only when the light is produced by a high-power laser. The expected outcome of this project is a theoretical and experimental framework that would underpin the development of a new nonlinear photonic technology that does not require lasers, representing a paradigm shift in how photonic devices are designed. This should benefit sensing, telecommunications and defence by cheaper and more efficient transmission of information via media such as the National Broadband Network. Field of research: 0906 - Electrical and Electronic Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Testing fundamental physics with solar twin stars. This project aims to test the variation of fundamental physical constants across our galaxy by using twins of our Sun, a new probe that unlocks a 1000-fold sensitivity gain. The standard model of nature's laws cannot explain fundamental constants, like electromagnetism's strength, alpha. By discovering distant solar twins, the project intends to probe alpha in regions of very different Dark Matter density, opening an unexplored discovery space. Expected outcomes include the most precise astronomical measurement of a fundamental constant, and the first test of variations in alpha across our Galaxy's Dark Matter field. Field of research: 0201 - Astronomical and Space Sciences

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Topological reaction dynamics in planar superfluids. This project aims to investigate novel correlated behaviours in two-dimensional superfluids. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the inter-linked areas of quantum turbulence and topological quantum computing with vortices in two-dimensional superfluids by combining innovative computational techniques and collaborative approaches. Expected outcomes include the uncovering of exotic reaction dynamics and vortex states of topological quantum matter. This project will enhance Australia's research capacity in two-dimensional superfluids and will provide further benefits that include training of students in advanced computational and technical disciplines. Field of research: 0206 - Quantum Physics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Deep learning: the first billion years with next generation Telescopes. This project aims to transform our understanding of the early Universe using the giant James Webb Space Telescope. This telescope, which will be the most transformative telescope of the next decade will be launched in early 2019. The telescope will observe the dawn of galaxy formation 13 billion years ago, a time that is currently shrouded in obscurity. The project will develop new techniques in scientific computing, including cloud-based workflows to make science more efficient and the application of 'deep learning' to the discovery of new astronomical objects and the acceleration of scientific computation. The project will train a new generation of young scientists in the use of these techniques, and actively engage with school students. Field of research: 0201 - Astronomical and Space Sciences

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Developing an effective defence to cyber-reputation manipulation attacks. This project will develop new technologies for businesses to accurately identify fake internet reviews. Fake reviews, paid for and/or written with malicious intent, can cause irreparable damage to businesses resulting in revenue loss, consumer dissatisfaction or even closure of businesses. However they are difficult to identify, as they continuously evolve to avoid detection and the volume of Internet reviews makes analysis a monumental task. This project will provide advanced tools to detect fake website reviews and a cybersecurity system prototype ready to be used by industry, making Australia a leader in this field and resulting in a safer internet environment for all. Field of research: 0806 - Information Systems

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Harnessing renewable energy from low-carbon geothermal pavements. This project aims to investigate the extraction of renewable energy from new pavements constructed with low-carbon recycled demolition wastes. The proposed research will generate new knowledge on the thermo-geomechanical responses of pavements when harvesting heat energy under dynamic loads, using experimental and numerical approaches, including field trials. The outcomes and benefits will include strategic long-term collaboration with industry to develop ‘Geothermal Pavements’, with potential for commercial applications. The translation of this research will contribute to meeting future energy needs, while significantly reducing carbon emissions and diverting demolition wastes from landfills. Field of research: 0905 - Civil Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Many-body localization characterized from a few-body perspective. This project aims to understand the quantum phenomenon of many-body localization, by studying novel theoretical models from an innovative, few-body perspective. The project expects to advance our knowledge in this new frontier of quantum statistical mechanics and to design realistic experimental protocols for observation and manipulation, especially on ultracold quantum-gasplatforms. Expected outcomes of this project include applications in quantum information storage, which expects to enhance Australia's research strength in quantum computation. Field of research: 0206 - Quantum Physics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2018 · 2018-01

Origami structures and materials: energy absorption and impact mechanics. This project will devise novel structures and advanced metamaterials to mitigate injury and death from impact or blast loading, using traditional origami folding concepts of design. This technology will have applications to many industries and occupations including vehicle manufacture and the military, as well as personal and public safety. Experiments and advanced numerical simulations will be performed and then analytical models of structural plasticity and impact dynamics will be established to capture the physics involved. The findings will provide an insight into the fundamental mechanics of structures and metamaterials, as well as guidelines for their optimum design. Field of research: 0905 - Civil Engineering