UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

Movement patterns of marine megafauna at unprecedented global scales. This project aims to apply analyses from big data approaches to reveal movement patterns at unprecedented scales. Environmental legislation dictates that industries (e.g. oil and gas) reduce their effect on marine megafauna such as sharks, whales, or turtles. However, the extent of their effect is unknown, due to limited understanding of these animals’ movements. With large satellite tracking datasets now available, the challenge is to develop a synthetic analytical approach to identify scaling laws and to understand global drivers of marine megafauna movement. Findings are expected to improve the ability to sustainably exploit marine resources while conserving biodiversity. Field of research: 0602 - Ecology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

Fundamental electronic transport in emerging one-dimensional nanoelectronic devices. This project aims to understand the mechanisms limiting electronic transport in one-dimensional nanoelectronic devices and structures at temperatures relevant for practical device operation. One-dimensional nanoelectronic devices will be the building blocks of future technological innovation. This project will use a characterisation approach, numerical modelling and simulation, which promise to deliver knowledge and analysis tools for ongoing innovation and optimisation in semiconductor nanoelectronics. Field of research: 0906 - Electrical and Electronic Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

The cognitive basis of resilience. This project aims to test whether resilience to bad events can be influenced by modifying information processing factors. High resilience reflects the ability to sustain adaptive psychological functioning in the wake of bad events, and affects physical, emotional, social, and economic wellbeing. The project will test the hypothesis that biases in attention and implicational inferencing at differing stages of event processing affect wellbeing. It will use cognitive methodologies that sensitively assess and manipulate biases, thereby revealing their causal role in the determination of resilience. The findings are expected to directly contribute to national efforts to build healthy and resilient communities. Field of research: 1701 - Psychology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

Evaluating potential static liquefaction of tailings to prevent failures. This project aims to reduce risk in the mining industry from failing mine tailings by producing a methodology for predicting the susceptibility of these tailings to static liquefaction. The impact of a mine tailing failure is catastrophic to the downstream community. The project brings together a number of industry partners committed to assisting with verification and adoption of characterisation and designed tools development in this project. This proposal will integrate results from laboratory element, centrifuge and calibration chamber tests with numerical modelling and in-situ tests to produce a methodology for predicting the susceptibility to static liquefaction. Field of research: 0905 - Civil Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

Microgrid architectures for efficient use of renewable energy sources. This project aims to research modifications to the electrical grid in the form of microgrid architecture for better use of renewable energy.Electrical supply grid and energy management systems designed for traditional centralised power generation, transmission and distribution increasingly use renewable energy sources. A redesigned grid, based on microgrid architectures using the proposed optimisation techniques, is expected to save money and renew the grid’s infrastructure. This should also allow better use of renewable energy sources to meet Australia’s electrical power requirements. Field of research: 0906 - Electrical and Electronic Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

Enhancing gravitational wave detector sensitivity and bandwidth for astronomy. This project aims to create small optomechanical devices that amplify the signals in gravitational wave detectors, increasing their sensitivity, especially for higher frequency signals. Calibrated against the 2015 first detection of gravitational waves from black hole mergers, this technology could allow humanity to listen to black holes merging up to 30 times every day, while giving much greater sensitivity to signals from smaller black holes and neutron stars. The new technology, which uses nano-scale suspended tiny mirrors controlled by laser light, is likely to have applications in making sensors and quantum devices for advanced instrumentation, improve mineral exploration and measure tiny electromagnetic signals. Field of research: 0201 - Astronomical and Space Sciences

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

Aboriginal English in the global city: Minorities and language change. This project aims to document patterns of variation and change in metropolitan Aboriginal English. Since colonisation, English has encroached on Australian languages, and Aboriginal English has emerged as a powerful carrier of ethnic identity. The project will quantitatively study how Aboriginal English storytelling functions cross-generationally, and whether global linguistic innovations are apparent. Exploring these dynamics is key to understanding language change in minority urban communities, and to refining educational programs to suit the needs of Indigenous children and youth. The project expects to inform the implementation of cross-cultural teaching programmes in Australia, helping teachers and curriculum developers to design materials, and to empower Indigenous Australians by documenting how Aboriginal English is changing. Field of research: 2004 - Linguistics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

The globalisation of the resources sector(s) in Australian cities. This project aims to understand how and why resources-related service firms cluster in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney. Maintaining Australia’s competitive position in global affairs depends on delivering innovative services in established national areas such as mining, energy and agriculture. This project will approach Australian cities’ economies from a ‘global’ perspective using social network analysis, to understand how local firm clusters are internationally networked through branch office and affiliate corporate linkages. This project seeks to better direct urban and economic policy by positioning these sectors to deal with the challenges of the 21st century. Field of research: 1604 - Human Geography

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

High speed, high sensitivity thermal imaging. This project aims to increase sensitivity-speed product of thermal imagers by the novel using porous materials. Increased sensitivity-speed products will improve thermal imager effectiveness in motion capture and high resolution remote sensing applications. To develop these porous materials, this project will study the interdependence of optical, mechanical, thermal and electrical properties at the micro- and nano-scale. It will create a narrowband resonant cavity detector which increases sensitivity and provides spectral filtering for remote sensing and gas detection. This technology is built on a low-cost scalable all-silicon platform. This technology could benefit road safety, border security, defence, aerospace, remote sensing and industrial monitoring. Field of research: 0906 - Electrical and Electronic Engineering

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2017 · 2017-01

Minimising negative and maximising positive outcomes for overqualified workers. This project aims to analyse the factors that improve the work experience of overqualified employees. Overqualified workers may be perceived as counterproductive because of person-job misfit, but can be productive because they have more qualifications for a job. Given that 45% of Australians feel overqualified, the results of this project are expected to offer Australian organisations practical steps on how to use the talents of all employees irrespective of demographics. Field of research: 1503 - Business and Management

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Structure theory for permutation groups and local graph theory conjectures. The focus of this project is on graphs, which are mathematical descriptions of networks, and it seeks to answer fundamental questions about how many symmetries such objects possess. This question is important since the symmetries of an object reveal its deepest structure. One of the main aims of this project it to convert local information into global properties of graphs. To make progress on the investigation of graphs, this project aims to classify the symmetry groups which arise from the local viewpoint. This classification is expected to provide new insight into symmetrical structures and have further impact on other areas of group theory. Field of research: 0101 - Pure Mathematics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Advances in HIgher Spin Gauge Theory. This project aims to explore the dynamical and geometrical aspects of higher spin gauge theory that have recently become the focus of enormous interest worldwide. Higher spin gauge theory is a unique generalisation of Einstein’s gravitation theory, which possesses maximal gauge symmetry and is a novel candidate for quantum gravity. Expected project outcomes include a better understanding of higher-spin interaction vertices, correlation functions, and other conceptual results of major importance to mathematical physics. Field of research: 0105 - Mathematical Physics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Regulation of Indigenous Safety Strategies: Night Patrols & Policy. This project aims to identify the qualities that make Indigenous night patrols (NPs) unique, to inform and improve the capacities of agencies and regulatory authorities and indigenous communities to work together, leading to greater security, peace and safety. Crime and safety in Aboriginal communities remains a major concern. NPs, an Australian innovation developed by Aboriginal communities, have become key players in local crime reduction strategies, and carry the endorsement of both government and Aboriginal communities. However, they are operating in an environment of increased ‘top-down’ control and regulation. Does greater accountability to government weaken NP’s ‘cultural’ accountability to communities? This project explores the qualities that make NPs unique. This includes the prominent, and neglected, role of Indigenous women as patrollers and clients, who may lose out should NPs become like mainstream community safety mechanisms. Field of research: 1602 - Criminology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Capturing gravitational wave and electromagnetic flashes from binary merger. This project aims to contribute to one of the most momentous and long-anticipated discoveries in physics: the first detection of gravitational waves. The project plans to develop innovative technologies to detect gravitational waves using laser interferometers and enable prompt follow-up observations of gravitational wave sources by conventional telescopes. The outcome of this research would greatly help probe the nature of matter and gravity at extreme densities. Field of research: 0201 - Astronomical and Space Sciences

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Smoke-derived karrikins reveal a new pathway for plant development. This project aims to investigate a recently discovered signalling system in plants that requires an unknown hormone to regulate seed germination and seedling growth. Burning vegetation produces karrikins that promote seed germination by signalling through a recently identified plant protein. Plants do not make karrikins and impairments to this protein results in increased seed dormancy and abnormal leaf growth, suggesting karrikins mimic an unknown plant hormone that regulates these aspects of plant development. The project aims to identify this phytohormone and elucidate its biosynthetic pathway. The identification of this new plant growth regulator would be a major advance for plant science and may create new opportunities in restoration ecology, weed control and food production. Field of research: 0607 - Plant Biology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

RoboCrab: An integrative approach to the natural ecology of decision making. The project aims to analyse and model the sophisticated and context-dependent escape behaviour of fiddler crabs under both natural conditions and in controlled laboratory settings. A crucial problem for biology is to understand how animals can make adaptive decisions in natural, complex sensory environments; such understanding also has direct application to robotics. The project plans to examine the effects of eye stabilisation and oscillation, record from key neural stages using naturalistic stimuli to derive precise algorithms, and integrate and test the results on a robot model – RoboCrab. This may provide new insight into the integration of low-level sensory input with behavioural decision making circuits and the evolution of escape behaviours. Field of research: 0608 - Zoology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Ageing and new media: A new analysis of older Australians' support networks. The aim of the project is to highlight the current and potential role new media can play in fostering the local, distant and virtual support networks of older Australians to radically update aged-care policy and service delivery. It plans to examine how older people’s support networks are increasingly dispersed due to the greater mobility of their family, friends and care services. The project plans to compare long-term settled, parent, and retirement migrants in both urban and regional locations, at home and in institutional care, across six groups: Australian, British, Italian, Chinese, Indian and Vietnamese. The project expects to deliver evidence-based recommendations to facilitate the use of new media to deliver innovation in aged care. Field of research: 2001 - Communication and Media Studies

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Controlling parametric instabilities in advanced GW detectors. This project aims to solve the problem of parametric instability in gravitational wave detectors to support an international large-scale physics experiment. The project is part of Australia’s participation in the new advanced LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) gravitational wave detectors that have been designed to achieve the first detection of gravitational waves. A 2005 prediction made by the project leaders that the detectors would experience acoustic instabilities was confirmed during detector commissioning in 2014. The project team plans to work closely with the detector designers and commissioners to solve this problem and allow the detectors to achieve their target sensitivity. Field of research: 0201 - Astronomical and Space Sciences

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Equipment for International Collaboration in Next Generation GW Detectors. Equipment for international collaboration in next-generation gravitational wave detectors: This project aims to create a silicon optics research facility which combines Australian capabilities in silicon manufacturing at nanometre precision, with revolutionary crystalline mirror technology. The equipment is designed to enable international teams of physicists to research the optical and acoustic properties of silicon in high optical power and high precision silicon measurement systems. Research facilitated by this equipment may pave the way for the next generation of ultra-low-noise systems required for gravitational wave detection, while opening the possibility of multiple new applications in precision measurement devices. Field of research: 0201 - Astronomical and Space Sciences

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

The structure in four-dimensions of a mammalian nuclear body. The project aims to develop a working model of a micron-sized molecular machine implicated in numerous aspects of gene regulation. Bodies in the mammalian cell nucleus are larger than macromolecular complexes and smaller than organelles. Recent developments in structural, molecular and cell biology are allowing us to begin to interpret their structure-function relationships. This project capitalises on a wealth of structural and functional data on nuclear bodies termed paraspeckles with the aim of developing a structural model. It aims to track tens of proteins and long non-coding RNA from paraspeckles as they proceed through the cell cycle, by combining genome engineering, super-resolution microscopy, proteomics and in vitro interaction studies. Field of research: 0601 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Permutation groups: factorisations, structure and applications. Group theory is the mathematical study of symmetry. This project aims to improve our understanding of the structure of groups by studying their factorisations and the structure of certain subgroups and elements. The obtained knowledge will be applied to study embeddings of graphs on surfaces and regular subgroups of important families of groups. The main impact would be in areas of pure mathematics such as group theory and graph theory by strengthening our knowledge of the finite simple groups. Field of research: 0101 - Pure Mathematics

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Transcription factor – enhancer – promoter based regulatory networks. This project aims to develop new understanding on how multicellular organisms (including humans) develop, and how mutations in distant regions of the genome can affect human traits. The way the human genome is interpreted by the cellular machinery is still a mystery. We have a reference sequence and know where the majority of coding genes are, but we are far from understanding how the genome is regulated to generate the diversity of cell types in our bodies. Enhancer regions interact with proximal promoters to regulate gene expression level and tissue-specificity. This project aims to develop transcriptional regulatory network models using high throughput chromatin interaction data and expression perturbation to link promoter and enhancers genome-wide. Field of research: 0601 - Biochemistry and Cell Biology

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

Developing a integrated memory-based model of evaluation and choice. People's judgements and choices are unstable. This project intends to examine one potential source of this instability: the memories that come to mind when people are evaluating choices. Many of the choices we make in our everyday lives are made on the basis of remembered information, and yet theories of evaluation and choice typically do not account for the role of memory, or provide only a cursory account of its role. In the project, people will be presented with value information, and the project plans to examine how that information is retrieved from memory and then used to evaluate options and make decisions. Expected project outcomes would provide a coherent model that provides an integrated understanding of the role of memory in judgement and choice. Field of research: 1702 - Cognitive Sciences

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

View and shape invariant modeling of human actions for smart surveillance. This project aims to enable surveillance cameras to interpret videos and detect unexpected activity in real time. Existing surveillance cameras are unable to interpret videos. Because most are not monitored in real time, they play no role in improving security response time. The project plans to develop algorithms to detect actions from any camera viewpoint in continuous videos, a capability that is imperative for smart surveillance yet missing in current techniques. This would improve security and safety response time to events that need immediate attention, such as crimes and medical emergencies, and offer autonomous aids to elderly care, smart homes, child minding, patient monitoring and post-trauma rehabilitation. Field of research: 0801 - Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2016 · 2016-01

The role of early testosterone and brain laterality in language development. The aim of the project is to provide key insights into how foetal hormone exposure and early brain growth support child language. The specialisation of the left cerebral hemisphere for language function is considered critical to supporting the complexity of human language. There is evidence of sex differences in patterns of brain specialisation, which has led to popular but unsubstantiated hypotheses linking prenatal testosterone and language development. The project aims to explore this by using innovative neuroimaging, endocrine and genetic techniques to track neurodevelopment longitudinally from prenatal life to three years of age. An important aspect of the project is the anticipated refinement of innovative methods for measuring early human development. Field of research: 1701 - Psychology