Currently Funded ARC Discovery Projects

Completed ARC Discovery Projects

Summaries of current ARC Discovery Projects

Pollination in a new climate: evolutionary simulation of bee and flower interactions for predicting impacts of climate change on pollination
ARC Discovery 2013-2015
A/Prof Alan Dorin; A/Prof Adrian Dyer; Prof Lars Chittka
This project uses computer simulation to understand the potential impact of temperature variation associated with climate change on insect pollinator behaviour. The result will be a model of bee and flower interactions under future Australian conditions to be used for agricultural and environmental resource management and planning.

Effective image search and retrieval through automatic image annotation
ARC Discovery 2013-2015
Prof Guojun Lu; Dr Dengsheng Zheng; Dr Shyh Wei Teng
This project aims to develop an effective and efficient image retrieval system, so that images are retrieved as easily as textual data. The project researches and develops several key know-hows in image retrieval. It enables Australia to maintain significant advantage in the frontier technology of information processing.

Topological containment and the Hajós Conjecture: new structure theorems from computer search
ARC Discovery 2013-2015
A/Prof Graham Farr
This projects aims to characterise when a network contains within it the topology, or shape, of a specific smaller network. It will develop new tools that use computer search to find such characterisations. The outcomes of this project will be used to attack one of the remaining unsolved cases of a famous conjecture dating back over sixty years.

Multiview video coding using cuboid data compression
ARC Discovery 2013-2015
A/Prof Manzur Murshed; Dr Manoranjan Paul
This project investigates novel approaches to multiview video coding that use new data compression techniques and explicit occlusion handling. These new approaches complement the state-of-the-art, improving interactivity with instantaneous view change and VCR functionality, reducing encoding complexity, and increasing compression efficiency.

Responding to requests and situations in assistive computer systems - a decision-theoretic approach
ARC Discovery 2012-2014
Prof Ingrid Zukerman, Dr Fabian Bohnert 
This project aims to enable computer agents to respond appropriately to people's spoken requests and circumstances  (e.g., ask questions or perform actions). This project will investigate computational models for response generation, which will be implemented in assistive computer systems, thus enabling people to interact more easily with these systems.

Experimental philosophy on probabilistic actual causation
ARC Discovery 2012-2014
Dr Kevin Korb, Prof C Hitchcock
This project will provide better philosophical theories of probabilistic causation, including ways to measure degrees of influence, make comparisons to appropriate norms, and identify underlying physical processes. This is vital to properly interpreting scientific models of many causal systems, yielding practical benefits for science and industry.

Knowledge discovery from data in the context of prior beliefs
ARC Discovery 2012-2014
Prof Geoff Webb, A/Prof Ann Nicholson
This project will invent user-centric technologies for discovering knowledge from data that are distinguished by taking  account of the user's beliefs, enabling more useful discoveries to be made. This project will also invent methods that  identify the relative potential value of those discoveries, helping the user derive greater value from their data assets.

Innovative urban traffic congestion solutions: optimising road space using networks of multiclass priority lanes
ARC Discovery 2012-2014
Dr Majid Sarvi, Prof Graham V Currie, Prof Mark Wallace
This project strengthens national approaches to a pervasive Australian problem; growing traffic congestion deteriorating  liveability, environmental health and economic performance of the cities. This project improves approaches for traffic priority design to improve the efficiency of several class of vehicles and therefore, reducing traffic congestion

Convicts and Diggers: a demography of life courses, families and generations
ARC Discovery 2011-2013
Dr R Kippen, A/Prof H J Maxwell-Stewart, Dr D Alahakoon, Dr J Bradley, A/Prof S C Dharmage, Prof K E Inwood, Prof J D Mathews, Prof M Shields
Based on convict records, birth, death and marriage registrations, World War One service records, and other historical data, this project explores long-term demographic outcomes of individuals, families and lineages. The project draws on the expertise of family historians to trace individuals and their descendants for 'Australia's biggest family history'.

Towards realistic verbal interactions between people and computers-a probabilistic approach
ARC Discovery 2011-2013
Prof Ingrid Zukerman
This project aims to facilitate natural spoken interactions between people and computer systems, addressing obstacles to the acceptance of these systems. We will investigate computational models for relevant aspects of spoken dialogue, which will be implemented in computer systems for diverse tasks (for example, home devices and phone-enabled services.

Flexible user-guided network layout for biomedical applications
ARC Discovery 2011-2013
Dr Michael Wybrow [APD]
This project will develop techniques for automatic layout of biological network diagrams, allowing users to guide the layout while satisfying any required placement constraints and drawing conventions. As part of the project, these methods will be integrated into several real-world systems biology applications for network browsing and authoring.  

Clarifying domain semantics through improved conceptual modelling
ARC Discovery 2011-2013
Prof Ron A Weber; Dr A N Burton-Jones
This project aims to improve the ways in which those user requirements that motivate the design and implementation of an information system are modelled. As a result, it should be possible to build and deploy higher-quality information systems.

Learning complex classifiers without search
ARC Discovery 2011-2013
Prof Geof Webb
This project investigates novel approaches to computational data analysis that use new forms of probabilistic models of data. These new approaches complement the state-of-the-art, suiting large quantities of categorical data, being robust in the presence of errors, and efficiently handling updates when new data become available.

Modelling and simulation of self-organised behaviour in biological and bio-inspired systems
ARC Discovery 2011-2013
A/Prof Bernd Meyer; A/Prof B D Hughes; A/Prof T Nakagaki
Understanding self-organised systems is fundamental in biology and bio-inspired engineering. The project develops sophisticated mathematical modelling techniques and high performance simulation methods for such systems. This will increase our capacity to explain complex biological behaviour and to produce reliable bio-inspired engineering solutions.

Accurate analysis of combinatorial problems: from the particular to the general
ARC Discovery 2011-2013
A/Prof Maria Garcia de la Banda, Prof Maria G Wallace
Combinatorial problems pervade all aspects of our social, environmental and economic life, but finding good solutions to these problems can take too much computer time. This project will develop new analysis tools that are effective at reducing this time, thus allowing for better solutions to be found.

An algebraic renaissance for the chromatic polynomial
ARC Discovery 2011-2013
A/Prof Graham E Farr, Dr D Delbourgo, Mrs Kerri J Morgan [APD], Prof P J Cameron, Prof B Jackson
Graph colouring started out as a recreational problem in 1852, but now has many applications including the use in timetabling, scheduling, computer science and statistical physics. This project is about counting colourings, and will develop the algebraic theory of how this is done.  (APD - Mrs Kerri J Morgan)

Development of an 'ageing household' model for assessing medium to long-term vaccine impact in populations
ARC Discovery 2011-2013
Dr J McVernon, Dr Kevin B Korb, Dr KGlass, Dr J McCaw, Dr E McBryde
As birth rates in developed and newly industrialising countries fall, so too do the number of households containing children, with implications for the spread of infections in families. We aim to study the influence of this phenomenon on the risk of common childhood infections, and the length of time that vaccines given in infancy will protect.

A Grid based platform for multi scaled biological simulation
ARC Discovery 2010-2012
Prof David A Abramson; Prof K Burrage
Heart disease currently affects over 3.5 million Australians. In 2006 it claimed the lives of almost 46,000 Australians (34% of all deaths). We will develop enabling technology that underpins cardiac disease research, offering potential for new treatments and pharmaceutical therapies. Even a small improvement in this area can translate into significant national benefit. Further, the mathematical techniques and software tools we will develop, whilst focused on heart tissue, will have broader applicability, and may underpin advancements in other disciplines. Finally, we expect that the software solutions and infrastructure will have both commercial and strategic value in their own right.

A Process Based Approach to Generative Form Synthesis
ARC Discovery 2010-2014
A/Prof Jon P McCormack; Dr A Dorin; Dr A Whitelaw; Prof W Latham
This project addresses open problems in digital media art, introducing innovative methods for professional practitioners. Through close collaboration with a highly successful UK pioneer and his team, this research nurtures Australian expertise and scholarship. Creative industries are making an increasingly important global economic contribution. Related projects overseas demonstrate the potential for tangible commercial benefits as a direct result of research investment in this domain. The practical outcomes of this research find application in architecture, computer games, digital animation and new media art. This inter disciplinary project enhances collaborative links between the research communities of Computer Science and Media Arts.

Adaptive data stream processing in heterogeneous distributed computing environments using real-time context
ARC Discovery 2008-2010
A/Prof A Zaslavsky; Dr S Krishnaswamy; Dr M Gaber [APD]
This project falls within the ARC research priority goal, Smart Information Use. The innovative contributions of this project through the development of adaptive data stream mining algorithms for heterogeneous devices will have an impact on a range of emerging application areas such as: 1. Meeting time-critical, intelligent information needs of the mobile workforce (e.g. mobile healthcare professionals, stockbrokers). 2. Improving Intelligent Transportation Systems via in-vehicle analysis and crash prevention. 3. Facilitating 'on-board' analysis in sensors that monitor the environment and patients. The project will enhance Australia's leading international role in the area of data stream processing in distributed computing environments.

Ethics and encyclopaedic culture in 13th century France: adaptation, diffusion and contexts of innovation in the Speculum morale and its sources
ARC Discovery 2010-2012
Dr David M Squire; Prof C J Mews
This project will contribute to awareness of the ethical foundations of the Western intellectual tradition, both philosophical and religious, through studying an influential encyclopaedia of ethical instruction from 1300, known as the Speculum morale and its relationship to the evolution of ethical teaching in France during the 13th century. It will develop text similarity detection software for use with Latin texts, and by implication within humanistic studies more generally. Through connecting with an international research project into medieval encyclopaedic culture, it will enable Australian expertise in both medieval studies and information technology to become internationally recognised.

Low complexity Video Coding for Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks
ARC Discovery 2010-2012
A/Prof Manzur Murshed
This project develops frontier technologies to capture and transmit videos by miniaturised sensing devices. It will improve Australia's telemetric surveillance capabilities and benefit defence, law enforcement, traffic control, and wildlife inhabitant monitoring agencies. It will enable the telecommunication industry to support quality video conferencing with mobile phones and the computer games industry to develop rich virtual reality games. The Australian health industry will be able to provide ubiquitous healthcare services through improved telemedicine and medical imaging with emerging technologies such as edible cameras. The project will also enable Australia to lead the world in setting up video coding standards for sensor networks.