University of Technology Sydney

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

National Live Cell Analytics Facility for Organelles’ Interactome Discovery. The LIEF project aims to establish a state-of-the-art National Live Cell Analytics Facility for Organelles’ Interactome Discovery. It will incorporate various cutting-edge equipment, including spinning disk super-resolution confocal microscope, polarization structure illumination microscope, an extended excitation unit operating in the near-infrared spectrum, and a high-throughput screening workstation. The facility will provide unparalleled capabilities for visualizing interactions among subcellular organelles and mapping out networks between cells. Australian data science, biology, materials, and engineering researchers will collaborate to spearhead international advancements in cell biology methodologies through this advanced platform. Field of research: 4003 - Biomedical Engineering Organelles are independent subcellular structures within cells that play important functional roles. Traditional methods for studying their functions involve using specific probes to label organelles of interest and observing them under a microscope. However, due to spectral overlap between markers, the ability to simultaneously image the dynamic changes of all organelles is unattainable. This LIEF application aims to establish a national live cell imaging facility for high-throughput chemistry and biology discoveries. One of the benefits of this facility is to provide the entire biology community with a novel approach to studying organelle interactions. Through this method, significant advancements will be made in our understanding of various cell disorders at the subcellular level of organelle interactions. The system holds promise for catalyzing innovation and fostering job growth within the technology sectors. As ongoing research and development in this domain progress, the system is poised to unveil fresh applications and utilities, consequently spurring the development of novel products and services. This cycle of innovation is anticipated to fuel economic expansion, generate employment opportunities, and invigorate the broader economy. In addition, the utilization of social media and collaboration with industries will promote research outcomes on organelle interactions beyond academia, enhancing public understanding and application awareness in the field.

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Uncovering the colonisation of newly-recognised 'trojan horses' of... Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

A 3D Integrated Radar Terminal with Beamforming Metasurface Lens Antenna. The project aims to develop a novel metasurface lens antenna-inspired radar sensing system, taking advantage of CIs' preliminary inventions in lens antennas, 3D printed antenna arrays, and microwave circuits. An aperture-shared dual-polarised antenna architecture will enhance the sensing resolution of our partner organisation's cleaning robot. The applied sensing system can recognise human presence and movement in all-weather conditions for safe disinfection in public sectors, such as hospitals, shopping malls and public transport systems. The project outcomes will advance the knowledge in microwave antennas and wireless sensing and increase international recognition for Australian researchers and businesses. Field of research: 4006 - Communications Engineering Autonomous disinfection robots can efficiently sanitise public places with high volumes of foot traffic, keeping the public safe from the spread of viruses such as COVID-19. This project will develop radar sensors that are integrated into the disinfection robot of our industry partner. These sensors will enable the robots to operate more efficiently and in more complex environments than existing technology. These smart sensing and smart city technologies will enable the cleaning crews to be deployed to perform other sanitation tasks as well as making public spaces safer. The intended research outcomes contribute to two National Science and Research Priority areas: in Health by addressing the prevention of emerging local and regional health threats, and in Transport and Advanced Manufacturing in the niche area of autonomous vehicles in sensor technology with real-time data analysis for disease prevention. Working with our industry partner and our established industry networks, we'll ensure that the outcomes of the project are made available and can be adopted beyond academia in the future.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Federated Foundation Models for Recommendations. Foundation model (FM) is a machine learning term to describe the technology of developing large language models. This project aims to develop an FM-empowered recommendation framework with powerful modeling capacity, privacy preservation, and fine-grained personalisation. The project's outcomes can enhance existing recommendation models by leveraging the changing preferences of users and evolving tendencies with privacy preservation. The project can benefit Australian users by improving recommendation services with greater privacy protection and better user experience. Anticipated outcomes include new knowledge, algorithms, and toolkits for use in developing new service architecture in real applications, such as video and commercial goods. Field of research: 4611 - Machine Learning Recommender systems are essential in our daily lives to recommend content like news, movies, and products while filtering out those we are not interested in. Modern -recommender systems have recently been renovated using new AI technology, namely foundation models that are the same technology as ChatGPT from OpenAI. These systems have much powerful capability to make recommendations by understanding user behaviour, however, they need to collect our private data like browsing histories and locations, which increases the risks of privacy leakage. This project aims to protect user privacy by decomposing data storage and recommendation model training. The proposed research aligns with Australia’s National Science and Research Priorities in Cybersecurity and CSRIO’s Australian AI Strategy. It will improve Australia’s well-being by enabling organisations to use Australian users’ data with privacy preservation. For example, the government can utilize the recommender system to generate suggestions for people who are in need. The project’s proposed framework can help service providers conduct recommendations with better compliance with privacy law, e.g. GDPR, and also create new recommendation applications that were hampered by privacy concerns. By working with existing industry partners and UTS’ collaboration network, we will adopt the proposed framework to industrial applications, e.g. billboard recommendations, and suggestion recommendations for self-management healthcare.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Hydrogen storage and delivery by novel hydrogen-rich molecules. As an energy carrier to store and deliver the energy produced from intermittent wind and solar sources, hydrogen can play a pivotal role in our transition to a cleaner, more sustainable energy future. Through novel chemical syntheses, materials fabrication, and catalysis, this project aims to develop hydrogen-rich lightweight molecules that are able to be efficiently manufactured at scale. These outcomes will drive new commercial and export opportunities for domestic chemical processing and manufacturing industries, contribute to decarbonising industries currently reliant on fossil fuels and energy-intensive processes, and accelerate development of a green and sustainable hydrogen economy. Field of research: 4016 - Materials Engineering Australia is poised to be a world leader in green hydrogen, through our own transition to green energy and as a key global hydrogen supplier. Currently, hydrogen gas is either compressed or liquefied for storage and delivery, which are costly and unsafe options, and roadblocks in Australia’s development of a large-scale hydrogen economy. Therefore, this project will develop a new materials-based hydrogen storage solution to store and transport hydrogen at large scale (up to hundreds of tonnes) that is safe, reliable and cost-effective. In so doing, the project will generate new knowledge for the design and syntheses of these novel hydrogen storage materials. Adoption of our research outcomes will be facilitated through collaborations with our existing and emerging industry partners in Australia’s growing hydrogen sector. The research outcomes are also expected to have broader economic and commercial opportunities for other Australian industries, including chemical manufacturing, green fertiliser production and transport. Our research is expected to contribute to decarbonising the Australian economy, to the development of an export pipeline for Australian green hydrogen and to the Australia’s National Hydrogen Strategy.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Mind-reading AI to translate silent speech into words. The project aims to develop a system that can translate words that are not spoken aloud into speech for people to communicate and interact through their thoughts. It proposes an unprecedented model to process words in sentences to produce natural language. The system will adapt to individuals. Expected outcomes include new understanding of how the brain processes language, artificial intelligence (AI) models for interpreting data from brains and recognising speech elements, and a novel online feedback system to improve how humans and AI interact. The system could transform care sectors, assistive technologies, defence and entertainment as well as advancing AI, human computer interface, robotics, linguistics and computational neuroscience. Field of research: 4602 - Artificial Intelligence This project aims to develop an AI system that can translate certain thoughts, such as silent speech, into text. By using non-invasive brainwave measurements, it will overcome the current impediment of easily translating silent speech into words, which would benefit an extensive range of Australian end-users. In the care sector, patients suffering from temporary paralysis or people living with a disability will be able to communicate and interact much easier with other people and with assistive technologies. This would not only lessen the increasing care demands on an already challenged workforce, but also improve human quality of life. Other plausible application areas are in the automotive, defence and news/entertainment industries. Promotion of the research outcomes beyond academia will be achieved through various means. Firstly, open-source publication of the AI model and source code will allow the general public and industry to test and adopt the results, paving the path for technological and social adoption. Secondly, public-facing workshops, mainstream media publications and industry seminars will further assist potential translation, especially by collaboration with the fast-growing Australian assistive technologies industry sector. This is expected to result in job creation by enhancing Australia’s technological and commercial capacity, as well as socially contribute to safer, more effective and economically viable AI technologies ‘made in Australia’.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Resolving mechanisms of cell division across the tree of life. This project aims to identify principles of cell division that span the tree of life. It will determine the fundamental mechanism of cell division in an archaeal model organism that is common in Australian salt-lake environments (Haloferax volcanii), and thereby identify key commonalities and differences amongst archaeal, bacterial, and eukaryotic cell division mechanisms. This is expected to lead to future improvements in the selectivity of a wide range of treatments targeting cell division, such as antimicrobials and the control of archaeal methane emissions in agriculture. The project also takes a pioneering step towards the ground-up engineering of stable synthetic archaeal division and nano-fiber systems in advanced bio-manufacturing. Field of research: 3107 - Microbiology This project aims to decipher how archaeal cells divide. Archaea are one of the three major groupings of life on earth, but very little is known of their replication compared to other cells. By understanding how archaea divide, this project expects to contribute to identifying the important features of this process in all cells, including bacteria and complex cells like human cells. Such comparisons will benefit the design of specific therapeutic interventions seeking to inhibit cell division, such as antimicrobial and anticancer treatments. Archaea are recognised as central players in global carbon and nitrogen cycles and in the origin of complex cellular life. For example, archaea are the cause of essentially all biological generation of methane. The project’s outcomes could inform the development of interventions to reduce the replication of methane-generating archaea in agriculture, reducing global warming. The project also aims to build a new synthetic biology platform for deciphering how protein molecules work together in archaeal division. This can be utilized in diverse applications of synthetic biology for use in biotechnology, medicine or agriculture. This will sit at the leading edge of a large emerging market for synthetic biology that has been forecast as a ‘critical technology’ in Australian government priority research reports and by CSIRO.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

The wonderful, fluorescent, massive world of tiny invisible things. This project aims to address the lack of representative science content for children by creating animated hybrid documentary science stories for ages 11-12 featuring a diversity of scientists (especially women) as protagonists which can in turn influence STEM career choices. The project expects to generate new knowledge pioneering a new model of science communication translating scientific research visual data into engaging animated narratives, enhancing diversity and scientific visual literacy for children. Outcomes are an education-focused series showcasing diversity for broadcast and the classroom. Benefits include user-tested, science content for students and a lucrative, exportable economic model of practice for Australian filmmakers. Field of research: 3605 - Screen and Digital Media This project is about pioneering an innovative new model of communication that challenges the way children are traditionally taught about science. The under-representation of women and people from culturally diverse backgrounds in STEM is well-known – currently only 15% of the STEM workforce is women - but to date efforts to correct the problem have failed to improve participation. By delivering this project, award-winning filmmakers, scientists and animators will design and test a new model of communicating science to primary school aged children. The project will produce a suite of learning resources that will include an animated science series and graphic science textbooks linked to curriculum, a scholarly book, and a science communication documentary. The research-driven, user-tested series will be made available for broadcast and for use within Australian classrooms by teachers and students. All outputs will be used to help boost interest in STEM careers amongst children, whilst fostering a culture of scientific curiosity and discovery within broader society. Benefits to the community will include the nurturing of a more inclusive, gender-balanced and resilient workforce, helping to deliver on urgent Australian government priorities relating to gender equity initiatives in STEM. Further benefits will include other fields adopting the developed model for the translation of their own important discoveries and the communication of other types of complex information.

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Taking the next step to understand natural perception Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Dynamics of non-spherical particles: towards advanced bio-magnetometry. The project aims to understand how tiny, non-spherical magnetic particles move in fluids and develop new methods for controlling their transportation and detecting them with magnetic sensors sensitively. Filling the knowledge gaps is the key to the development of revolutionary bio-magnetometry techniques. The expected outcomes of the project include cutting-edge technologies and know-how to isolate and detect magnetically-functionalized biological species in bodily fluids, food, and contaminated water samples. The project outcomes are anticipated to benefit Australian agricultural production and aquatic ecosystems and enhance the management of drugs, as well as the remediation of polluted water and lands. Field of research: 4012 - Fluid Mechanics and Thermal Engineering Agricultural, aquatic, biomedical and environmental testing demand rapid and on-site screening of diverse biological particles. These particles often have inherently distinct non-spherical shapes, including disease-causing bacteria, algae, blood cells, and yeast cells. The shape of these bioparticles provide crucial information about environmental changes and the status of diseases, informing decision-making in areas such as climate change, healthcare, food safety and production. Magnetic materials are widely used for labelling biological particles, enabling the development of advanced particle separation and detection techniques for these applications. However, existing techniques overlook the shape of non-spherical particles, leading to inefficient separation and detection of these biological particles. Our project will generate essential knowledge about the interactions between magnetic fields, particle shapes, and fluid flows in microscale channels. This will drive the development of next-generation technologies for efficiently separating and detecting non-spherical biological particles. Australians will benefit through lower production costs and an improvement in the safety and quality of products in the agriculture, aquatic, healthcare and environmental sectors. Research outcomes will be promoted via engagement with industry partners and participating in conferences on sensor technologies, analytical chemistry, life sciences, and biomedicine.

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Delivering sustainable and quality aged care in home environments. Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Inequality and intergenerational mobility: measuring what matters and why. This project aims to enhance the methodological and theoretical foundations for measuring economic inequality and social mobility, and to understand their drivers. It will propose new measures of inequality and intergenerational mobility, provide theoretical foundations for mobility measures, explore parents’ aspirations for their children, and explore mechanisms of intergenerational persistence of disadvantage. Expected outcomes of this project include enhanced research capacity on economic inequality, strengthening collaboration between Australian and global leaders, and through postdoctoral appointments. This will provide significant benefits including methodological and theoretical advances of global significance Field of research: 3801 - Applied Economics Equality of opportunity is a key principle of Australian society. It motivates many areas of government policy, including taxes and transfers, education, health, housing, social services and labour market policy. This project consists of ten interdependent studies, which will together provide a clear contemporary picture of Australian economic inequality and intergenerational mobility, and their drivers. It will therefore inform policies which enhance economic opportunity in Australia. Particular foci include the roles of housing, tax avoidance, inheritances and gifts, income tax progressivity, and the causal intergenerational effects of welfare receipt, labour market shocks, parental careers, and peer influences. It will leverage rich, newly available, administrative and survey data. It will also collect new data on Australians' aspirations for their children, and their perceptions of inequality and mobility. It will study how those views are shaped by earlier experiences, and how they affect parenting behaviour. The project design includes extensive engagement with external stakeholders, especially government bodies and advocacy groups, as well as dissemination in academic and non-academic forums. Whilst the focus is Australia, each study will also make theoretical and methodological contributions to the international understanding of economic inequality and mobility.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

The Paradox of Generative Data: Ensuring Security and Privacy. The project aims to address the security and privacy challenges associated with generative data. The project will examine the current approaches and techniques for ensuring the safety and privacy of generative data, and use this knowledge to develop controllable and traceable data generation methods, new privacy protection methods, and forensic techniques. The result will be a comprehensive suite of tools and techniques for generating secure and private synthetic data, preserving individual privacy, and detecting fake data and manipulation across multiple modalities. This solution will help to ensure the security and privacy of artificial data in critical applications such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. Field of research: 4604 - Cybersecurity and Privacy Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, is producing an increasing amount of data for Australian organisations and individuals. This surge poses security and privacy challenges, including identity fraud, privacy leakage and misinformation. Our research aims to develop a comprehensive suite of tools and techniques for generating secure and private generative data, preserving individual privacy, and detecting fake data and manipulation across various data types, including text, audio, image, and video. The outcomes of this project hold significant potential benefits for Australians across multiple domains. Economically, improved security and privacy measures for generative data can protect copyrights, boosting the creative economy. Socially, they can reduce identity fraud and enhance trust in digital interactions. Commercially, it fosters innovation in data-reliant industries like autonomous vehicles, smart agriculture, and environmental monitoring, thereby creating job opportunities. Culturally, it preserves and promotes Australia's cultural heritage in the digital age. To maximize the impact of our research beyond academia, we will share our findings through various channels, including conferences, workshops, and public presentations, to increase understanding and adoption of our research outcomes. In addition, the output of the project will enable the development of user-friendly tools that industries can use to enhance the security and privacy of generative data.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Frameworks for Human-AI Interactions: Models, Experiments, and Policies. This project explores human-algorithm interactions for the designing and implementation of economic and social policies in complex environments, employing experimental economics and computational economic theory. The specific focus is on differences between policies designed for humans versus robots and variations in human behaviour under each. The project's significance lies in providing insights for adapting and leveraging policies toward more positive economic outcomes in the age of advanced technologies. Through innovative experiments at both the micro and macro policy levels, this research aims to formulate specific advice on optimal policy design for effective outcomes in the evolving realm of human-AI interaction. Field of research: 3801 - Applied Economics Our society is undergoing a significant transformation driven by a new generation of Artificial Intelligence. AI is expanding into healthcare, transportation, manufacturing, and finance. Designed to help achieve human goals and surpass our limits of rationality, AI systems are also met with resentment due to their opaqueness and potential to displace human jobs. Fair and safe AI should align with human preferences, and its effectiveness relies on human trust and seamless interactions with humans. This project will explore the complexities of human-AI interactions using a multidisciplinary approach that integrates game theory, experimental economics, and computational methods. We aim to analyse human behaviour to understand what promotes or hinders AI adoption and develop policies for improved AI integration. To this end, we will develop economic experiments to study how the presence of AI influences human decisions and how humans design rules for AI systems interacting with humans. The practical implications will be discussed with policymakers and industry professionals through workshops and roundtables. The project will inform the Australian Federal Government's AI Ethics Framework, including its principles related to human, societal, and environmental well-being, and fairness. A deeper understanding of AI-human interactions will help position Australia at the forefront of AI adoption trends, boosting productivity and enhancing well-being.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Comparing public and private provision of healthcare. This project aims to investigate whether birth setting (private or public hospital) matters for maternal/child health and wellbeing outcomes. The project expects to generate new knowledge by using state-of-the-art methods in econometric evaluation, combined with rich administrative data. The expected outcomes include an improved understanding of how our health care system is functioning in relation to births, accounting for systematic differences in people’s choice of birth setting, as well as fostering new interdisciplinary collaborations. This should provide significant benefits including better oversight in hospital care and facilitate more informed choices for women giving birth. Field of research: 3801 - Applied Economics ‘Is it better to give birth in a public or private hospital in Australia?’ This is a recurring question across generations of parents. It can be framed as a choice under uncertainty regarding both risks and benefits. Our project aims to provide new knowledge on these risks and benefits by using state-of-the-art methods in econometric evaluation to estimate the effect of birth setting on birth outcomes, including both maternal and child health indicators, mental wellbeing, intervention rates, hospital service utilisation, and the probability of future pregnancy. We aim to equip regulators and administrators with the requisite knowledge to govern the actions of hospitals and treating physicians by identifying whether and how private provision of health care is leading to better (or worse) outcomes. The interplay between public and private provision of health care is controversial and divisive; access to private care for those who can afford it raises questions about equity and fairness, while the different incentives for physicians in each sector might actually work against private patients, a risk that may not be clear to them. Our results will benefit Australians by providing empirical evidence for better oversight and regulation in the provision of care across both sectors, and empower women to make better informed choices on birth setting. Findings will be communicated to clinicians and policy makers through professional networks and non-academic research outputs.

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Regulating Interfacial Chemistry for High-Energy Zinc-Air Batteries Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Auditing the auditors: Assessing capacity for gender-responsive law-making. This Project will discover if and how legislative scrutiny advances gender equality. By investigating parliamentary gender audit committees in Tasmania, the ACT, Canada and Spain, we will generate new comparative knowledge on the influence, relevance and contribution of gender audit committees to law-making, breaking ground in exploring the capacity of auditing to enhance legislation for a diversity of women. The project will create a qualitative and quantitative dataset on gender audits based on the team’s expertise in parliamentary scrutiny, gendered citizenship and gender equality. Its timely comparative findings will enable the Australian government to learn from state and global experiences to achieve its gender equality ambitions. Field of research: 4804 - Law In Context A gender unequal society has profound consequences. Australia slipped down the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index from 15th in 2006 to 50th out of 156 countries in 2021. The Government has committed to restoring Australia’s gender equality global leadership through its Working for Women Strategy 2024-2034. This project will provide evidence to bring the missing gender perspective to legislation, enabling the Government’s gender equality work. Using Tasmania’s Joint Sessional Gender and Equality Audit Committee, the ACT’s Standing Committee on the Economy and Gender and Economic Equality and comparative knowledge generated from long-standing committees in Canada and Spain, this project will determine whether auditing of bills by parliamentary committees is effective and if so, how. By evaluating whether auditing of parliamentary bills can re-centre women’s experiences in law-making, we will arrive at an understanding of whether law’s potential to advance gender equality has been optimised. The Project will offer a framework to be adapted and translated to the parliamentary work of Australian states and territories and even federally. Leveraging existing contacts with parliamentarians e.g. Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians and non-profit organisations, the findings will help improve the work of existing committee members, while providing a platform to advocate for the experiences of a diversity of women to directly or indirectly shape law reform.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Neural Empowered Subgraph Query Processing. This project aims to develop a neural-empowered model for subgraph query processing, which has many critical applications such as cybersecurity, biomedicine, and e-commerce. In particular, this project will focus on three core and quintessential subgraph queries: subgraph matching, subgraph counting, and community search. The innovative techniques developed for these queries will be integrated into a unified model, with large graph models as the backbone, heralding a new era of graph databases. Success in this project will establish a foundational advancement in artificial intelligence for databases, offering substantial benefits for applications like cybersecurity, health, and e-commerce. Field of research: 4605 - Data Management and Data Science Subgraph query processing is a fundamental problem for a wide range of applications. The success of this project will result in ground-breaking advancements in subgraph query processing and the integration of large graph models into graph databases. This will position Australia at the forefront and as a leader in this research domain. The project also has a great value to the development of local industries, ranging from graph databases designing query processing systems, e-commerce systems combating fraudulent attacks, cybersecurity systems detecting malware, and pharmaceutical companies pioneering new drug discoveries. Moreover, the project will also facilitate the training of national most wanted IT professional talents.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Bio-Inspired Novel Vibration Isolators Incorporating Triple-Functionality. This project aims to develop bio-inspired novel vibration isolators by innovative integration of quasi-zero stiffness structures with magnetorheological elastomer driven by vibration energy. The project creates a new concept of transforming harmful vibration energy to mitigate vibration itself and expects to generate new design methodologies in vibration isolation. Expected outcomes include new vibration isolation knowledge, and a three-function based framework leveraging bio-inspired mechanisms for self-adaptive and self-powering abilities. Success of the project provides significant benefits to many systems in aerospace, defence and manufacturing engineering, where vibration protections are essential for safety, operation and economy. Field of research: 4005 - Civil Engineering Low-frequency vibrations, such as those occurring in flexible structures and tall buildings, military vehicles, naval ships and mobile mining machinery, can cause a range of problems if not properly mitigated. Prolonged exposure to vibrations can lead to fatigue and degradation in these structures, cause lower back pain or even disability in vehicle drivers and machinery operators, and cause inaccuracies and malfunctions of sensitive equipment. Inspired by skeletal and neuromuscular systems from nature, we propose a new approach to minimise vibration-caused adverse impacts on structures, equipment and people, by converting harmful vibration energy to counteract the vibration itself, leading to bio-inspired novel isolators with triple functionality. These isolators will have broad applications for naval, defence, aerospace, civil and mining industries, where vibration protections are essential for safety, operation and the economy. For example, the implementation of the isolators into mobile mining machinery could greatly reduce vibration-induced musculoskeletal injuries, benefiting one-third of the machinery operators in the Australian mining industry. This project is expected to expand the knowledge base of bio-inspired vibration isolation technology and enhance research capability in this area through researcher training. Our established industry networks will facilitate the promotion and translation of our research outcomes within the mining and manufacturing sectors.

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2025 · 2025-01

AI-empowered smart acoustic sensing system for metal additive... Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Learning to see latent variables: Robotic state estimation made scalable. This project aims to develop a novel optimisation-based framework to ensure computationally efficient and resilient real-time estimation of latent variables. Robots have numerous unmeasurable latent states crucial for decision-making, monitoring, prediction, and for designing controllers that interact with the real world. However, challenges in computational scalability and long-term performance in current estimation methods are not well understood. This research will lead to new knowledge, approaches, and algorithms that achieve high-performance robotic estimation. Such advancements will benefit robotics, industrial automation, control engineering, and other fields that demand state estimation within the broader Australian communities. Field of research: 4007 - Control Engineering, Mechatronics and Robotics The realm of robotics and intelligent systems is currently undergoing rapid transformation, exerting profound impacts on various industries, labor markets, and daily life. Their indispensable roles span across applications such as smart power grids, self-driving cars, mining robots, and critical infrastructure. This project will provide advanced knowledge in the area of nonlinear estimation theory, leading to the development of high-performance and computationally scalable estimation algorithms for industrial applications. These applications will have a significant impact in robots and intelligent systems that heavily rely on real-time access to latent variables derived from data and models, instrumental for effective decision-making, monitoring, and control. The outcomes of the project will enhance Australia's international standing in autonomous systems, intelligent robotics, and industrial automation, to "build new industries and accelerate productivity by having sovereign knowledge" in all areas related to real-time estimation techniques. Aligned with several of Australia's National Science and Research Priorities (draft 2023), including "Advanced Manufacturing" outlined in the 2015 version and "Priority 3 - Enabling a productive and innovative economy" (specifically in the field of robotics), the project will ultimately have a broad impact on Australian society through economic and social benefits, and attract overseas investment to Australia.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Next-generation genomic disease surveillance in urban wastewater systems. This project aims to develop an innovative surveillance system capable of quantifying various pathogens and predicting case numbers and healthcare burdens of diverse infectious diseases via wastewater based epidemiology. Current epidemiology approach is retrospective, hindering timely intervention and threatening public health and the economy. This project expects to create a novel surveillance system through wastewater based epidemiology to enable timely intervention and resource allocation. Expected outcomes include a broad-spectrum quantitative metagenomic tool for quantifying pathogens, and models for predicting case numbers and healthcare burdens using pathogen concentrations. This should provide benefits for water and health sectors. Field of research: 4011 - Environmental Engineering Human pathogens threaten public health, causing various infectious disease outbreaks and costing the Australian economy billions of dollars annually. Currently, there is an urgent need for proactive identification of diverse human pathogens circulating in the community and predicting their associated infection case numbers and healthcare system burdens. This project aims to develop an innovative wastewater-based surveillance system capable of simultaneously detecting various human pathogens and accurately predicting their associated case numbers, hospital admissions, and intensive care unit admissions, weeks in advance. This will provide insights to assist public health authorities in policymaking and resource planning for outbreaks. Ultimately, the proposed system will reduce pathogen infections and alleviate taxpayers' financial burden by reducing the cost of hospital/medical treatments and loss of productivity due to human pathogen infections, bringing tangible health, social and economic benefits for the entire Australian population. The outcomes are adaptable to different regions and countries. This initiative positions Australia as a global leader in wastewater-based early warning systems for outbreak management and opens a global market for commercialization. The project team’s networks with water industry and health department will ensure that the research results reach water and health authorities for implementation, and outcomes achieved beyond academia.

GrantConnect (Australian Government grants) · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Auditing the auditors: Assessing capacity for gender-responsive... Category: Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) Research

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Molecular engineering of boron nanomaterials for future technologies. Boron based nanomaterials have novel properties, but it has been challenging to develop controllable fabrication. This project aims to fabricate boron nanomaterials with the desired following features, in single or multiple aspects: thickness, composition, lateral sizes, porosity, surface area and functionality. The project will advance our fundamental knowledge in materials chemistry, chemical engineering, materials engineering and physics. It is expected to take us closer to unlocking the potential of boron nanomaterials for real-world applications in, for example, water treatment, electronics and catalysis. Field of research: 4016 - Materials Engineering Boron nanomaterials are emerging versatile functional materials with potential applications ranging from energy generation to environmental sensing and catalysis. Their unique physical and chemical properties make them a more effective and low-cost alternative to materials currently used in these applications. However, their use is hindered by the lack of reliable synthesis processes. Therefore, this project aims to develop new efficient and cost-effective fabrication methods for boron nanomaterials to support next-generation technologies. The effectiveness of these materials will then be tested in real world scenarios – energy, water and environmental sensing – which are relevant to Australia. Adoption of the new materials will be facilitated through collaboration with our existing and emerging industry partners in Australia. The research outcomes have potential to open up new opportunities for: chemical manufacturing in Australia; the harvesting of sustainable osmotic energy; and the production of gas sensors that could be used for food spoilage detection and tracking of air pollution. Boron nanomaterials will also have potential applications in the manufacture of solar-driven water evaporation systems that could benefit Australians during droughts. Integrated into this project are training opportunities for researchers to build knowledge and capability in materials sciences.

ARC National Competitive Grants · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Foundation of Refinement Techniques for Quantum Programming. This project aims to build a theoretical foundation for refinement techniques in quantum programming, addressing challenges of lacking compelling applications and applicable software for quantum computing. With advancements like IBM's 1000+ qubit Condor, quantum hardware is moving from prototypes to practical use. The project establishes a systematic framework for quantum programming using proven methods of program refinement, ensuring correctness and safety. Anticipated outcomes include formal semantics, a refinement calculus, and practical tools for quantum machine learning applications. The project's success strengthens Australia's leadership in quantum computing, contributing to the nation's global standing. Field of research: 4613 - Theory of Computation Quantum computers have the potential to solve complex problems in fields such as cryptography, optimisation, drug discovery and material science much faster than classical computers. The past decade has witnessed rapid expansion in quantum computing hardware capabilities but to unlock their full potential, we also need to develop quantum software in a comprehensive and systematic way. Because human intuition is better suited for classical computing than quantum computing, quantum programming is more error-prone, making it difficult to ensure the correctness of quantum programs. This project tackles this challenge by establishing the theoretical groundwork for refinement techniques in quantum programming. As Australia houses key players like Silicon Quantum Computing, successful outcomes from this project will fortify the country's leadership in quantum computing. The anticipated software development tools and methodologies can seamlessly integrate with Australia's quantum hardware, enhancing its value and contributing to the National Science and Research Priority of "advanced manufacturing". To promote our research beyond academia, we intend to release key software components as open-source projects, conduct workshops and training sessions for professionals and policymakers at industry events like Quantum Australia, and partner with leading Australian quantum technology companies such as Q-CTRL to integrate our quantum software tools into practical applications.