University of Technology Sydney

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Response of Vertical Drains in Soft Subgrade under Cyclic Rail Loading. Soft formations (subgrade) can become unstable when subjected to heavy and repeated (cyclic) train loading. This project aims to investigate the cause and mechanisms of undrained instability of soft subgrade soil beneath rail embankments, and to assess the effectiveness of prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) in stabilising such soils. The role of PVDs to enhance track performance will be quantified via rigorous mathematical techniques complementing a computer-based numerical model, which can be validated by laboratory and field data. It will deliver tangible outcomes for accurately predicting the long-term settlements in soft foundations over prolonged train loading while extending the life span of modern railroad infrastructure. Field of research: 4005 - Civil Engineering Soft formations (subgrade) below rail tracks can become unstable when subjected to heavy and repeated (cyclic) train loading. This project aims to investigate the cause and mechanisms of undrained instability of soft subgrade soil beneath rail embankments, and to assess the effectiveness of prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) in stabilising such soils. The benefits of subsurface drainage to stabilise soft soil will be examined to offer tangible advances in this ground improvement method. The innovations will evolve through rigorous numerical modelling combined with unique large-scale testing to capture the variation of soil and drain properties under cyclic loading as imperative for heavy-haul tracks. The research outcomes include rigorous numerical tools to enable reliable predictions for railroad performance, and new PVD design and installation guidelines to enable transport organisations to construct safer and more resilient rail embankments with significantly reduced life-cycle costs. Practitioners will further benefit from salient outcomes disseminated through publications and industry workshops.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Evolution and mechanisms of interactions in biofilm communities. This project aims to study the long-term experimental evolution of a mixed species bacterial biofilm community. This project expects to gain understanding of the genetic and physiological basis of community evolution. Expected outcomes of this project will be an understanding of how synthetic communities evolve. This will significantly benefit the use of synthetic communities relevant to fields such as antibiotic design, biotechnology, bioremediation, and synthetic biology where evolution can be inhibited or exploited, respectively. Field of research: 3105 - Genetics Microbes (including bacteria, fungi, protozoa, microalgae, and viruses) occur in natural and artificial settings, usually as mixed species communities. They have a broad range of potential applications, from food safety and security, biotechnology, value-added products, human nutrition and functional foods, plant and animal protection. This project aims to better predict how microbial communities assemble and maintain functional communities that cooperate rather than compete. Being able to better predict positive microbial community interactions will facilitate use of such communities in diverse applications from bioremediation to wastewater treatment. Industry adoption of the outcomes, facilitated by the research team’s wide collaborative network, will catalyse commercial activities and competition in this space, leading to substantial commercial and economic benefits for Australia.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Homogenous Antibody-Metal Conjugates For Immuno-Mass Spectrometry Imaging. This project aims to use bespoke metal labels and high-resolution mass spectrometry imaging to address current shortcomings in approaches that visualise and measure proteins in cells and tissue. It expects to substantially increase the utility of immuno-mass spectrometry imaging technology to analyses that are refractory to current techniques and workflows. Expected outcomes include metal probes that facilitate the spatial quantification of multiple biomolecules on a single histological section, providing significant benefits to bioscience laboratories that require complex workflows to visualise and obtain quantitative data on the expression of biomolecules. Field of research: 3401 - Analytical Chemistry Understanding the function of proteins in biological systems requires knowledge of their location and amount. Typical approaches in biology and pathology laboratories use dyes or fluorescent tags to determine the presence of specific proteins, but current methods cannot provide reliable measurements of how much protein is present in the analysis. This project develops new quantification approaches using metals that can be detected using highly accurate modern instrumentation to simultaneously determine where and how much of a specific protein is within biological specimens. The project outcomes will reduce the economic costs to biology and pathology laboratories who adopt this technology through simplified workflows, and by increasing the number of proteins that can be measured at once. This will allow the development of new commercial pathology tests, resulting in globally competitive products that reduce the cost for patients and improve health outcomes for Australians.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Quest for Sustainable Electrochemical Energy Storage System. This project aims to develop high performance aqueous zinc-ion batteries for grid-scale renewable energy storage. Rechargeable zinc-ion battery is a promising electrochemical energy storage technology owing to its high safety, low-cost and environmental friendliness. By developing high capacity cathode materials, dendrite-free zinc metal anodes and advanced electrolytes, this project expects to achieve practical aqueous zinc-ion batteries with high energy density, long cycle life and cost-effectiveness. The deployment of zinc-ion batteries will enable integration of renewable energies and stabilisation of electricity networks. The project will directly support Australia’s commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Field of research: 4016 - Materials Engineering To achieve the UN climate target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, we must accelerate the deployment of renewable energy. Energy storage is essential for widespread adoption of renewable energies. This project will address the critical issues in the energy storage sector such as how to cost-effectively and safely store renewable energy. Therefore, the proposed research will significantly benefit Australia by securing energy independence through integrating more renewable energy into electricity networks, thereby reducing reliance on fossil fuels. In particular, this proposed research will solve an intrinsic safety problem for rechargeable batteries by replacing flammable organic electrolytes with aqueous electrolytes. Meanwhile, the project will build long-lasting zinc-ion batteries based on an earth abundant element to realise low-cost and sustainability. The outcomes of the project will create innovations in advanced battery technologies with strong prospects for commercialisation, attaining a net-zero emission energy future, and generating job opportunities in the energy and manufacturing industries.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Advanced Machine Learning with Bilevel Optimization. There is an urgent need to develop a new machine learning (ML) paradigm that can overcome data-privacy and model-size constraints in real-world applications. This project aims to develop an advanced paradigm of ML with bilevel optimisation, called bilevel ML. A theoretically-guaranteed fast approximate solver and a new fuzzy bilevel learning framework will be developed to achieve the aim in complex situations; a methodology to transfer knowledge and an approach to fast-adapt bilevel optimization solutions when required computing resources change. The anticipated outcomes should significantly improve the reliability of ML with benefits for safety learning and computing resource optimisation in ML-based data analytics. Field of research: 4602 - Artificial Intelligence Machine learning (ML) methodologies play an increasingly central role in data analytics, business decision support systems and other digitalized applications in Australian industry and government, but they are currently extremely vulnerable to two main constraints: privacy leaks and computational resource constraints. The intended outcome of this project is to develop fundamental, translation-ready know-how to significantly ameliorate these constraints and to improve the safety and reliability of ML and related intelligence information systems. This will benefit numerous sectors in the Australian e-commence, e-business, e-learning, and e-government landscapes. Businesses and government agencies will be able to increase customer trust and improve the sustainability of data analytics in dynamic and complex environments by preventing the leakage of data and reducing the computing recourse required to operate everyday ML systems. These potential applications will directly increase public trust in Australia’s transformation into a leading and efficient digital economy and society.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Optimising Industry-led Regulation for the Digital Platforms Era. This project aims to investigate how harms caused by digital platforms can be effectively prevented through co-regulation where industry develops rules enforced by a regulator. Widely used in the broader communications sector, ‘co-regulation’ remains chronically under-theorised and its effectiveness has never been adequately reviewed. Meanwhile, harms such as disinformation and violent content expand in both scale and impact. This research will provide an evidential base for optimising co-regulation in the contemporary Australian communications environment, benefiting regulators seeking to meet public policy goals; consumers experiencing online harms; and platforms themselves, who might otherwise be subject to blunt regulatory tools. Field of research: 4804 - Law In Context Digital platforms like Facebook and Google offer services consumers value, but practices such as the spread of violent content and false information cause significant individual and community harms. Maintaining consumer value while minimising harms is a regulatory challenge. Co-regulation, where industry helps design rules that are then enforced by a government regulator, offers a potential solution. This project explores how to optimise co-regulation in the contemporary Australian communications environment. Through engagement with industry, regulators and consumers in Australia and overseas, the evidence, principles and recommendations produced will feed into timely interventions into anticipated legislative and policy reviews. There will be social benefits as project outcomes contribute to the development of a robust and ‘harmonised’ regulatory framework for digital platforms and traditional communication providers, helping to minimise consumer harms. Economic benefits will result from the avoidance of unnecessary regulatory costs that might otherwise arise from the use of less effective regulatory tools.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Technology-Driven and Scalable Regression Methodology, Computing and Theory. Regression is a mainstay of data analysis, statistics, machine learning and data science but is in continual need of enhancement in the face of technological change. Scalability and flexibility for the handling of non-linear signals are fundamental to the practical utility of new regression methodology. Several streams of research aimed at confronting data from specific technologies as well as generic types of data are proposed. The project is to be networked with researchers in the United States of America and aims to have Australia-based researchers providing leadership in terms of methodological, theoretical, computational and software development. Field of research: 4905 - Statistics Recent technological breakthroughs, including in areas such as gene expression and brain function, require new statistical techniques that can overcome current limitations with the processing of large datasets across a range of application areas. The contributions this project will make to statistical theory, methods and computing will deliver these urgently needed supercharged techniques. Techniques will be publicly distributed, including via software targeted to data analysts and short courses to engage data-focussed stakeholders in research institutions, government and industry. Adoption of the techniques will deliver health and social benefits, including in personalised medicine and crime policy. The project will underpin more accurate, evidence-informed decision-making concerning medical diagnoses and brain function and, subsequently, lead to improved quality of life for people with chronic illnesses and disabilities. Drawing on the tools developed, Australian criminologists will be able to make smarter use of data to inform policy-makers on devising more effective anti-crime programmes.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Policy for self-determination: the case study of ATSIC. This project aims to provide a focused study of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (1990-2005) to inform Indigenous policy-making and governance in Australia. Utilising interdisciplinary approaches and a national perspective it will analyse how, and in what context, the Commission functioned and document the stories of those involved. Expected outcomes of the project include detailed data on the successes and challenges of the organisation and a set of Indigenous oral histories/biographies that will inform public and political debate. This history will benefit and change the way Indigenous governance is understood, discussed, remembered and formulated in contemporary Australian society. Field of research: 4505 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Society and Community The question of Indigenous political representation and recognition, and policy concerning Indigenous governance, are pressing national priorities in Australia that resonate in global challenges of Indigenous restitution. Australian Indigenous leaders are calling for a new contract with the state, including a voice, representation and truth-telling, and the Federal government has signalled the need for sustainable change, deeper partnerships and an evidence-based approach. A detailed study of ATSIC, the most enduring Indigenous governing body in the last fifty years of a volatile policy landscape, will provide critical data, evidence and background needed for these goals. In a context of ongoing crises in Indigenous affairs, including the failure to meet targets to ‘close the gap’, this project will provide a valuable snapshot of Indigenous and governmental aspirations and practices under self-determination, of what worked and what didn’t and why. An innovative Indigenous research methodology will inform Indigenous policy studies into the future.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Modernise geotechnical investigation and analysis with machine learning. The project aims to address the ineffectiveness associated with risk analysis of geotechnical systems by reducing variabilities and by rigorously quantifying such variabilities. It is expected to generate new knowledge in machine-learning-aided risk analysis and in virtual modelling of multiphase-multiphysics-multiscale problems involving random variables. Expected outcomes are datasets and computer tools that are equipped with new functionalities including parameter optimisation, uncertainty quantification, machine-learning based surrogate models and risk analysis. These tools will help to bridge the increasing gap between academic research and engineering practice, transform geo-risk analysis and optimise complex construction processes. Field of research: 4005 - Civil Engineering Transport maintenance is a major cost factor in the resource-driven Australian economy; rail maintenance expenses alone amount to over A$1 billion annually. A significant amount of these costs currently occur due to the need for expensive and time-consuming manual site investigations. This project aims to use artificial intelligence (AI) to develop AI-driven models and tools that will underpin intelligent risk management and the prediction of built infrastructure maintenance requirements. Civil engineers will be able to use these new tools to estimate geotechnical parameters, conduct design analysis and detect maintenance requirements. Adoption by construction and infrastructure maintenance companies will create new, digital capabilities to transform future engineering practice, resulting in fewer site visits and more efficiently planned maintenance schedules. The result for the Australian economy, and especially for the critical agricultural and mining sectors, will be vastly improved sustainability and cost savings through enhanced quality, economy and longevity of geotechnical infrastructure.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Eviction: How private renters lose their homes and the consequences. Australia is experiencing a housing crisis that has been worsened by the pandemic. An estimated 75,000 private renters are evicted annually leading to ongoing housing precarity, poor health and trauma. This first large-scale study of the evicting process in Australia aims to examine how the process of evicting low-income private renters occurs, the actors, instruments and technologies involved and the long-term impacts of being under the constant threat of eviction or losing one’s home. The intended outcomes of the study are to deliver a comprehensive analysis of the evicting process and its impacts, identify how evictions might be avoided and provide evidence for policy changes that could benefit all parties in the private rental sector. Field of research: 4407 - Policy and Administration The project’s focus is the evicting process in the private rental sector and its impacts. We are also interested in the roles of the various actors in the process and how they facilitate or assist tenants facing eviction. The last major study of eviction in Australia was in 2006 so this project will fill a major gap in our knowledge. The information gleaned will give policymakers the basis for the development of constructive policy. More than a quarter of Australian households are private renters and of these approximately 40% are low-income renters – about one million households. Many of these low-income households are using a sizeable fraction of their income for rent and it is likely that for a substantial proportion the possibility of eviction is a constant anxiety. The study will be of benefit socially in that it will give us insight into the circumstances of private tenants and how they respond to the possibility of eviction. For the households evicted the economic costs are substantial. The findings of the study can be used to develop a policy framework that gives tenants more protection.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Deep Learning Attacks and Active Defences: A Cybersecurity Perspective. The belief that deep learning technology is imperative for economic development, military control, and strategic competitiveness has accelerated its development across the globe. However, experience has revealed the disappointing fact that deep learning models are vulnerable to a range of security attacks. Hence, a series of methodologies and defence strategies will be devised that make deep learning systems robust to these attacks. The methodologies require analysing attack lifecycles to identify them in their early stages. With this knowledge, active defence methods and forensic strategies can be developed to ensure efficient defences and prevent further attacks. Moreover, the outputs will be generalisable to most deep learning services. Field of research: 4604 - Cybersecurity and Privacy Australian businesses, government agencies and the general public are increasingly concerned about the security and privacy of data processed by artificial intelligence (AI) systems, which may be vulnerable to external attacks and manipulation. This project aims to develop sophisticated cybersecurity techniques to provide active protection measures against attacks on AI systems, including making the detection of threats quicker, more reliable and more affordable. The end-user ready security and privacy tools developed in this project can be adopted by a wide variety of organisations using AI software, especially in critical sectors such as banking/securities, trade/customs, telecommunications, government decision-making and power grid control, plus transport and autonomous vehicles. As recent attacks and data breaches in Australia have demonstrated, the adoption of effective AI protection technologies is becoming a critical element for all organisations to counteract cybercrime and to protect their reputation, revenue and clients in a world of persistent cybersecurity threats by criminals and state actors.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

A novel ion-selective membrane for efficient lithium recovery . This project aims to fabricate a novel membrane that display selective lithium recovery from brine in a renewable energy driven electrochemical membrane technology. The fabrication of lithium selective membranes embedded with nanomaterials and metal organic framework will create new knowledge on the dynamics of ion-size sieving and accelerating lithium transportation. This project will provide significant environmental and economic benefit by establishing a rapid and chemical free method to recover lithium affordably and orders of magnitude more efficiently than hard rock extraction. This project will bring significant commercial benefits to Australian mining industry, desalination and water treatment sectors. Field of research: 4004 - Chemical Engineering Lithium is a highly valuable naturally-occurring material that is increasingly in demand in both chemical and technical applications. This project will develop a renewable energy based membrane technology that targets lithium extraction and separation from currently untapped natural water sources. The new membrane technology is expected to deliver significantly higher lithium production yields without relying on the use of harsh chemicals and other high intensity and costly processing. The outcomes of the project will help Australia diversify its lithium resources from rock deposits alone to brine and seawater, allowing it to increase its share of the estimated $213 bn lithium market. New commercial opportunities to explore lithium extraction beyond the mining stage and further down the supply chain will deliver substantial commercial benefits to Australia’s mining industry, desalination, and water treatment sectors, and help establish Australia as a global leader in new technologies for sustainable mining of other precious metals in Australia as well as globally.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Resolving the threat of ocean deoxygenation to coral resilience. This project aims to uncover the role low oxygen plays in shaping healthy corals over space and time. Climate change and land use development are rapidly deoxygenating shallow water coral reefs, yet we have no knowledge of how less oxygen availability affects critical life history factors that govern coral resilience: growth, reproduction, and stress tolerance. This project unites a multidisciplinary team of experts to, for the first time, couple advanced oxygen sensing, metabolic physiology, coral reproductive and stress biology to transform our understanding of oxygen thresholds that are diagnostic of reduced coral competitive fitness across life stages (adults, juveniles, larvae), needed to improve coral reef ecosystem management. Field of research: 3103 - Ecology Coral reef ecosystems are rapidly losing oxygen from the combined impacts of climate change and local pollution, depriving corals of sufficient oxygen to sustain healthy reefs. Australian reefs underpin an economy worth over $6B per year, largely from tourism, which is at risk if coral reef health declines further. Reef management frameworks must therefore urgently address oxygen loss on coral reefs. This project will identify how corals – at both early and mature life phases – function under lower oxygen availability, and how this alters capacity for corals to grow, reproduce and resist other stressful conditions. This critical new knowledge of oxygen thresholds will allow Government agencies to adopt more robust climate change and pollution mitigation strategies needed to ensure future reef survival and so protect this critical asset for Australia’s economy and unique biodiversity. Identifying thresholds of oxygen stress will significantly enhance industry growth of oxygen-based sensor technologies for improved reef ecosystem health management, including application into more effective reef restoration.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Defining how inter-bacterial symbioses regulate aquatic ecosystem health. This project will determine how ecological relationships among aquatic bacteria govern the health of Australia’s marine and freshwater environments. Cyanobacteria support aquatic ecosystem productivity, but can have detrimental effects when they form harmful blooms, although the factors governing the balance of these contrasting impacts are largely undefined. By coupling sophisticated approaches including genomics, phenomics, and microfluidics to examine how symbioses with other bacteria influence the growth and function of important species of cyanobacteria, this research will elucidate the importance of an over-looked factor in controlling the productivity, health and value of Australia’s aquatic estate. Field of research: 3107 - Microbiology Australia’s marine industries and ecosystem services will yield $100 billion a year by 2025, while freshwater environments underpin our nation’s food and water security, sustaining a $67 billion agriculture industry, and are a central element in the cultural identity of Australia’s First Nations people. However, recent environmental changes have led to detrimental shifts in the productivity of aquatic ecosystems and acute environmental catastrophes, including toxic cyanobacterial blooms, mass fish kills, and threats to human health. The mechanisms behind these events are regularly unclear. The proposed research will elucidate the significance and nature of an emerging, but largely over-looked, ecological determinant of aquatic ecosystem health; inter-bacterial symbioses. By contributing a much more precise understanding of the intricate ecological relationships regulating aquatic ecosystem function, this research promises to deliver enhanced capacity to predict harmful cyanobacterial blooms, better manage fishery production and food security, ensure safe drinking water supplies, and safeguard human health.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Next-Generation Intelligent Robotic Mobility Aid for Vision Impaired People. More than 253 million people worldwide are blind or have low vision, with over 575,000 in Australia. This research aims to develop the world's first functional robotic guide with advanced robotic sensing, navigation, control, machine learning-based decision making and user interfaces. The project will generate novel theoretical breakthroughs, produce feasible prototypes, train young researchers, innovate industry capabilities and provide new research that will transform the lives of visually impaired people. The project is expected to further benefit the service and mobility aid industry, researchers and wider community in substantial social, economic and diverse terms. The mobility aid has potential for commercialisation Field of research: 4007 - Control Engineering, Mechatronics and Robotics According to recent reports, there are over 575,000 people living in Australia who are blind or vision impaired. Guide dogs provide mobility support for these people following a time-consuming and costly training process. The dog's performance is affected by their health, physical strength, mental capabilities, ageing and external expectations. This project develops next-generation mobility aid technology overcoming the limitations of real life guide dogs while adding value by comprehending instructions, reacting effectively in numerous environments or contexts and appropriately communicating with the user. Application of this technology is expected to significantly improve the health and wellbeing of vision impaired people leading to build a more equitable and inclusive society. The expected globally competitive technology, along with the industry partner and its contacts has excellent translation potential.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

A Machine Learning Framework for Concrete Workability Estimation . Concrete is the most used construction material in Australia. The project aims to develop a system to measure the workability of concrete in transit in agitator trucks using advanced machine vision and machine learning, and provide a reliable alternative to the current practice of visually testing concrete workability by certified testers. Concrete that fails to meet workability requirements is one of the most frequent reasons for rejection at construction sites, resulting in significant costs, waste, and delays. Multimodal data sources will be used to provide a reliable workability estimate in real time, enabling construction teams to identify and rectify workability issues in transit while continuously monitoring the adjustments effects. Field of research: 4603 - Computer Vision and Multimedia Computation Australia invests more than $200 billion every year in construction, of which more than $80 billion are spent on infrastructure projects. Concrete is used in the construction of more than 28m cubic meters of critical infrastructure and buildings in Australia every year. Concrete quality control and assessment are therefore essential; however, approximately 5% of produced concrete is returned and disposed of due to quality issues. Construction sites typically experience workability issues as one of the most common quality issues. Through this project, the construction industry will be able to detect and fix these workability issues. The project will benefit the Australian economy by reducing costs, waste, and delays in construction projects caused by spoilt and unsuitable concrete which needs to be rejected. Indirectly, it will also contribute to the delivery of more durable and long-lasting infrastructure. As opposed to existing solutions, the proposed technology requires little to no modifications to existing equipment enabling rapid local and global adoption facilitated by our partners.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

The infectome of NSW dairy calves, a genomic microbial surveillance . Infectious diseases are the main cause of disease and mortality in calves. The knowledge of the diversity of infectious disease-causing agents in NSW dairy cattle is not comprehensive. Thus, the immediate goal of this proposal is to redress this knowledge gap using untargeted microbial genomic sequencing to characterise and identify known and emerging enteric and respiratory pathogens in dairy calves. We will determine the occurrence and distribution of their microbial species across all NSW dairy regions. This will enable the Australian dairy industry to improve animal health and productivity, and diagnostic capacity, which will allow farmers to make informed management decisions about disease control strategies. Field of research: 3003 - Animal Production The objective of this project is to detect and characterise the distribution of microorganisms that infect dairy cattle. We expect to define the main pathogens that cause diarrhea and pneumonia across the different dairy regions in NSW. In the current global scenario of food supply shortage, improving our understanding of infectious diseases to mitigate the current and potential losses caused by outbreaks is critical to mitigating the risk of losses to the industry. This project will help optimization of dairy farm productivity by reducing the losses caused by infectious diseases. This will have a further impact on making the dairy industry more profitable, will benefit rural communities and promote job creation. The objectives contribute and align with the department of primary industry’s strategic focus on Biosecure industries and environment, economic growth, food safety and animal welfare, and response capacity. The outcomes of this project will also be relevant for public health by providing the occurrence of pathogens that are or pose a potential zoonotic threat.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Nanobubbles for effective and energy efficient water treatment. This project aims to produce new knowledge for developing ozone nanobubbles as a technological option for the water industry where commercially suitable technologies are unavailable. Australian water utilities have identified two key challenges: destruction of micropollutants and natural organic matter in recycled and reservoir water, respectively. New knowledge from the project will allow these water utilities to utilise the extraordinary properties of nanobubbles and the strong oxidation capability of ozone for effective and energy efficient water treatment. Tech-transfer to the industry is guaranteed through a scientifically designed pilot plant for benchmarking against the current state of the art ozonation process and reverse osmosis. Field of research: 4004 - Chemical Engineering By increasing the amount of purified recycled water recovered from waste water, water utilities will be able to better meet supply shortfalls due to droughts and population growth. This project aims to use nano bubbles (extremely small gas bubbles that remain dispersed in water) that are used to create a unique energy-efficient treatment technology to eliminate ozone loss from waste water to the atmosphere and remove chemical and microbial contaminants that have been a major limitation to water recycling. Initiated by Australian water utilities, the project will future-proof the country’s water resources, by enhancing climate resilient drinking water supplies. Knowledge from the project can also address other water industry needs, including energy efficient biological aeration and removing natural organic matter in reservoir water to avoid disinfection by-products. The project will provide essential insights to support pilot trials and full-scale adaption of nanobubble technology. The project outcomes will improve efficiency, reduce costs, and lower energy consumption, allowing Australian water utilities to achieve net zero emissions. Equipment manufacturing partners of the project will support scale-up and full-scale implementation, creating additional jobs in Australia and export opportunities for these SMEs.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Multiband multibeam antennas for cryogenic cooled satellite ground stations. The project aims to develop a compact multiband antenna array for multi-satellite communication, particularly an antenna system that operates in both S (2GHz-4GHz) and X (8GHz-12GHz) bands in a shared aperture. This project will overcome the limitations of single satellite connectivity in legacy Ground Stations by providing simultaneous downlinks to multiple satellites using multiple beams. The research will directly apply to the next-generation satellite Ground Station product of Quasar Satellite Technologies, an Australian startup providing satellite Ground Station as a Service (GSaaS). This will have enormous benefits to society as it enables fast, affordable satellite data access for services to communities and emergency services. Field of research: 4006 - Communications Engineering There are over five thousand satellites around the globe collecting terabytes of data every day from various missions such as disaster monitoring, space observations, emergency services, weather observations, etc. All this data can’t be stored on satellites due to limited onboard storage capacity and needs to be downloaded to earth. Satellites send this data to Ground Stations, typically large satellite dishes located on earth. The traditional satellite dishes cannot connect to multiple satellites at once thereby becoming the bottleneck to downloading data from satellites in space. This project develops a novel antenna technology that will allow a Ground Station to connect to multiple satellites at once, performing the duties of multiple traditional large satellite dishes from just one antenna. This will revolutionise the way in which satellite data is accessed to provide faster, reliable satellite data to emergency services, businesses and communities around the world. This groundbreaking antenna technology will be used in Australian Startup: Quasar Satellite Technologies next-generation product.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Digitally Assisted Power Amplifier Design with Enhanced Energy Efficiency. The project aims to advance design techniques for power amplifiers operating in the recently allocated spectrum for 5G New Radio, from approximately 24 GHz to 52 GHz. The intended outcome is a compact and high efficiency transmitter using digitally assisted power amplifier design techniques in low-cost Complementary Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor (CMOS) technology. Such innovation will have significant impacts on our daily life, as it will build the hardware foundation for the next generation of wireless systems. Consequently, various emerging applications such as virtual/augmented reality will be supported, maintaining national leadership in the development of wireless technology, and providing economic benefits for Australian industries. Field of research: 4009 - Electronics, Sensors and Digital Hardware This project will produce low-cost and energy-efficient integrated circuits for mobile communication systems. These technologies are essential for the evolution of mobile communication to enable ultra-high-speed mobile wireless networks that can match the performance of optical fibres at a fraction of the cost. The faster data transmission and enhanced reliability of these next-generation technologies will help connect consumers in rural, regional and metropolitan Australia, and enhance essential services and industries such as remote education and agriculture. This project will build capability in Australian technology companies, particularly the partner organisation, to develop low-cost, high-performance, innovative commercial products for global markets. Once commercialised, the technologies have the potential to create new Australian jobs and generate new export income.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Improved security and privacy for online platforms. Online platforms provide goods and services to people all over the world in a flexible way. Due to COVID-19, the number of online platforms increased significantly. As more and more business activities are conducted in a virtual environment, there is a corresponding increase in major privacy and security challenges. This project aims to work in the online education industry to provide a revolutionary secure environment for both business owners and users. This secure online environment will enable privacy and security guarantees that will be first implemented on our Partner Organisation’s education platform. The developed technologies can be easily adapted to most online-service industries and can be commercialised immediately. Field of research: 4604 - Cybersecurity and Privacy By strengthening the privacy and security of online platforms, Australian organisations will be able to better prevent identity theft, fraud and scams that currently plague many institutions. This project aims to deliver reliable and secure technologies to protect the identity and personal data of users on mobile device applications, in cloud-based infrastructure and during transmission. Currently, online services often require manual intervention to identify and respond to potential security breaches – a resource-intensive approach prone to delays and human error. By using machine learning to create intelligent and secure systems, the new platforms will not only be able to guarantee privacy in data sharing, but will also be able to intelligently detect and prevent security threats, including in cloud environments. Existing partnerships with technology providers will meet the growing demand from the finance, healthcare, online education and e-government sectors and re-establish community trust in data privacy and cybersecurity, making Australian businesses more reliable and competitive.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Structural Protection of flywheel energy storage system . A flywheel energy storage system stores a large amount of energy in a rotating mass. Compared with other energy storage systems such as large-capacity batteries, the flywheel energy storage system features high power density, long lifespan, high efficiency and is carbon-free. Flywheel energy storage systems are typically constructed underground due to safety concerns from a potential rotor burst. In the present project, a high-performance confinement system is developed aiming at above-ground construction. The confinement systems which comprise low-carbon, rubberized concrete, energy-absorbing aluminum foam, and ductile steel cladding will allow for high-impact resistance, off-site prefabrication, and easy on-site installation. Field of research: 4005 - Civil Engineering Flywheel systems store energy in a rotating mass from which electricity can be generated on demand. They have distinct advantages over chemical batteries – being carbon free, having longer lifespans and higher charging efficiencies. But their uptake in Australia is currently limited, because safety protocols mandate they be constructed underground, which is difficult and expensive to install. This project will develop a containment system that allows flywheels to be safely and economically constructed above ground, using protective structures made of rubberised concrete, metallic foam and steel cladding. Flywheel systems will benefit Australia by giving the energy sector a competitive edge, while boosting performance in industries where "green" energy is increasingly prioritised. For example, they could power irrigation in farming and heavy machinery in mining, and supplement the performance of wind and solar panels by storing and releasing energy as needed. To enable adoption, we will test and scale-up manufacturing with our industry partner and promote the product in relevant industry roadshows.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Situated Anomaly Detection in an Open Environment. This project aims to investigate situated anomaly detection in an open environment. Existing anomaly detection techniques follow the setting of conventional machine learning and discover anomalies from a set of collected data. In contrast, this project proposes to develop the next-generation of anomaly detection algorithms by learning from interactions with an open environment, which enables the discovery of new anomalies and the early detection of anomalies. The established theories and developed algorithms will advance frontier technologies in machine intelligence. The success of the project will contribute to a wide range of real applications in cybersecurity, defence and finance, bringing massive social and economic benefits. Field of research: 4605 - Data Management and Data Science Real-time cyberattack detection and proactive defences will allow Australian businesses and government to be better protected against the increasing threat of intrusions and data breaches. Typically, the data collected from a cyber incident is analysed for irregularities only after losses or damages have already occurred. This project aims to develop intelligent anomaly detection algorithms for real-world systems - in networks where normal data traffic patterns are stable or evolve gradually. The detection of sudden changes in these patterns by software agents allows the automatic and immediate deployment of countermeasures against the attacker to prevent severe losses. Intelligent agents capable of distinguishing between normal network activities and potential attacks, including new/unknown threats, are of great interest to the fast-growing cybersecurity sector. Once adopted into commercial products, these agents will deliver significant national security benefits by keeping Australian businesses, government agencies, public institutions, utilities and defence facilities better protected from cyberattacks.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Unlocking bacterial shapeshifting and its role in antimicrobial resistance. This project aims to combine advanced imaging with innovative microfluidics to identify how microbial shapeshifting can be exploited as a target for new antimicrobials. Infections that are hard to treat due to increasing antimicrobial resistance not only have an enormous, global impact on mammalian health, including livestock and humans, but also carry a growing economic burden. Advanced understanding of microbial life can propel urgently needed progress this area. Specifically, the project outcomes are expected to aid the development of next generation antibiotics. The new fundamental knowledge should also benefit translational prevention, identification and management efforts of a rising national and global health threat. Field of research: 3107 - Microbiology According to a recent study in The Lancet, an estimated 5 million people die globally each year with an antimicrobial resistant infection; this figure is expected to reach 10 million deaths annually by 2050. Current reports led by CSIRO have estimated that in Australia alone, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) costs are in excess of $500 million per year and rising. Resistant bacteria increasingly appear in the environment of humans and livestock, but established infection control is becoming ineffective. Innovative ways of attacking AMR are urgently needed. This project will develop pioneering, technological approaches to how changes in bacteria relate to antibiotic resistance at a molecular scale, enabling the design of novel therapeutics specifically targeting this mode of bacterial lifestyle. Once adopted by pharmaceutical industry and used in human and livestock health applications, the outcomes from this project would have lasting impacts on three critical areas: health, the environment and agriculture, resulting in better health for Australians, a stronger agricultural sector and reduced economic cost.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2023 · 2023-01

Secure and Resistant Blockchain for Financial and Business Applications. The aim of this project is to develop a practical secure blockchain technology for the booming applications in finance and business. This project expects to address the leading security threats to the current blockchain applications. The expected outcome is an executable secure and resistant blockchain prototype through the integration of the latest developed and customized techniques. The success of the project will dramatically benefit Australian people and government, especially for the Australian ICT industry for commercializing the research outputs. Field of research: 4604 - Cybersecurity and Privacy Decentralised records of transactions, also known as blockchain technology, are cheap and fairly secure. It is very popular in trading digital currency (e.g. Bitcoin) and is used in financial and business applications. However, this technology is facing new cyber security threats such as token stealing and system failure attacks. This project aims to tackle these two leading security vulnerabilities and establishes the foundation of future commercially available security software packages that data scientists, software developers and software / Cyber security professionals can use. By increasing Australian cybersecurity capabilities in blockchain technology, this project will increase cyber resilience benefiting Australia’s ICT industry directly and industries that rely on secure data exchange indirectly. Through collaboration with our linkage partner and their industry networks, the outputs and outcomes of this linkage project will become widely available and benefit the Australian economy and society by keeping financial transactions and personal data safe.