Home » Projects
Category Archives: Projects
Digital Research and Innovation Capability Platform
Swinburne University of technology will soon be launching the Digital Research and Innovation Capability Platform. This has been developed to provide a unique, high-level enabling capability and a clear pathway to innovation and commercialisation at the university. The platform is being led by Prof Yang Xiang, and aims to position Swinburne as an internationally renowned institute in digital research, a digital disruptor, and an accelerator of innovation. The platform consists of five components:
- Advanced Visualisation Lab – data visualisation uses a combination of hardware and software to explore patterns and relationships in research data, giving researchers greater understanding of their projects and potential outcomes. In this era of big Data, traditional approaches to visualisation are being challenged. The Advanced Visualisation Lab explores new techniques and technologies to produce the most effective visualisation tools available for a wide range of research and industries.
- Cybersecurity Lab – the security of the world’s information systems is not limited to websites and data storage. Recent concerns about cyber security have even extended to ensuring biomedical devices, such as pacemakers, cannot be hacked to reduce battery life. Swinburne’s Cybersecurity Lab is researching and developing technologies to protect our current and future information systems and networks on all levels: nationally and internationally for individuals, businesses and government.
- Intelligent Data Analytics Lab – in the era of big data, data analytics underpins the data-intensive research that responds to industrial challenges. Artificial intelligence (AI) has developed into the most powerful data analytics technology in recent years, leading to remarkable breakthroughs in many fields, including sectors as varied as information and communications technology, finance, health, transportation and manufacturing. The Intelligent Data Analytics Lab focuses on the research and applications of AI techniques for tackling versatile real-world data analysis tasks across various fields with the aim of facilitating the data-to-discovery or data-to-decision process.
- Internet of Things Lab – addressing important challenges in our industries, cities, farms, hospitals, homes, retail chains, personal lives and our society. We collect, integrate and analyse data from potentially billions of internet-connected devices that range from sensors, cameras, smart phones and wearables, to smart meters, vehicles, medication pills, and industrial machines. We do all these securely, in real-time, on the move, and provide data-driven automation and high-value information, developing innovative IoT-based solutions.
- Software Systems Lab – aims to develop new methods, techniques, mechanisms and tools for building intelligent software systems. These intelligent software systems will enable new generations of applications, products and services in the ever-expanding digital eco-systems in which software, hardware and people interact.
The platform actively undertakes research and development of digital technologies, and translates findings into real-world applications. This synthesis of high-level digital research capability across the university underpins activity at Swinburne’s Research Institutes and the Centres.
Data Driven
In 2017, Swinburne University of Technology launched five new Research Institutes to drive industry engaged, interdisciplinary research in specific sectors. Data Science is one of these Research Institutes, led by Prof Timos Sellis – it is focused on using data science to transform the way that businesses and governments operate.
Data is a common factor underlying the digital disruption sweeping the world, including in manufacturing, commerce and science. The outcomes of the Data Science Research Institute’s work have been similarly wide-ranging. A project on traffic analysis is combining complex data to improve traffic flow in the aftermath of car accidents. “We bring together data about the weather, where people go typically throughout the day, and from where they start, to their destination, to understand typical traffic patterns,” said Prof Sellis. Analysing this data, Swinburne researchers used algorithms to predict the effect of weather or a car accident on city traffic. Such predictions cannot currently be made by data-rich programs such as Google Maps, and are useful for the future consideration of governments and town planners.
Through the Institute, Swinburne researchers have also used machine learning, a burgeoning tool in which computers make predictions based on patterns detected in large amounts of data, to understand and quantify seemingly intangible concepts, such as the transfer of knowledge. The Institute has partnered with Swinburne’s Centre for Transformative Innovation to understand how knowledge flows from research to commercialisation. The work has piqued the interest of organisations such as IP Australia, the federal agency responsible for administering intellectual property rights.
Read more about the Data Science Institute and its work on page 12 of our Research Impact magazine: http://www.swinburne.edu.au/research/research-impact/
OzSTAR: a new star is born
In early 2018, Swinburne launched one of the most powerful computers in the country in a bid to help unlock the secrets of the Universe. The new $4 million supercomputer, OzSTAR, is based at Swinburne’s Hawthorn campus and features a performance peak of 1.2 petaflops.
The computer launches Swinburne into the petascale era of supercomputing and will enable the Swinburne-based Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery’s (OzGrav) to search for gravitational waves and study the extreme physics of black holes and warped space-time. Manager of the supercomputer, Professor Jarrod Hurley, says OzSTAR maintains Swinburne as an academic leader in supercomputing with a focus on hybrid CPU-GPU technology across the system. He says the supercomputer will also be key in enabling Swinburne’s Data Science Research Institute to tackle future data science challenges such as machine learning, deep learning, database interrogation and visualisation.
Read more about OzSTAR at: http://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/latest-news/2018/03/swinburne-supercomputer-to-be-one-of-the-most-powerful-in-australia.php
The Robot therapist is in
Associate Professor Sonja Pedell is the Director of Swinburne’s Future Self and Design Living Lab, and her team are exploring the use of humanoid robots in care settings to determine whether intelligent machines can increase the quality of life for older adults and augment the role of human practitioners.
Her current research focuses on technology development and design, especially new technologies that can benefit elderly users. The team have been examining how an NAO humanoid robot can stimulate mobility and interactions among people with dementia. The 58cm tall robots have been trialled with 30 seniors in a group setting – set up on a table, introduced as Kira and controlled via laptop in such a way that the remote control was not obvious. The exercises and dances performed by Kira elicited a positive response from the seniors, who showed interest in it, clapping along with it and trying to communicate with it.
“For me it meant that they had found something they were interested in and it wasn’t imposed on them,” says A/Prof Pedell.
Read more about NAO robot-human interaction research on page 30 of our Research Impact magazine: http://www.swinburne.edu.au/research/research-impact/
La Trobe’s new Centre for Data Analytics and Cognition
The La Trobe Business School has a new Centre for Data Analytics and Cognition. This centre and facility was built in 2017 as part of the refurbished Donald Whitehead Building on the Melbourne (Bundoora) campus. It aims to revolutionize human engagement and interaction in data-intensive environments by creating new models, techniques and methods to explore the frontiers of cognitive science, artificial intelligence, computational neuroscience and cognitive psychology.
There are a number of graduate students and staff in the Centre, led by Professor Damminda Alahakoon, who use various data query and visualisation techniques to analyse and provide new insights into research in many different areas from the humanities and social sciences, to health sciences, psychology and computer science. The Centre is also partnering with external organisations, including industry to provide expertise and skills in big data analytics to improve processes, corporate information and other insights.
Using the expertise of graduate students and members of staff, along with a large bank of visualisation screens and artificial intelligence, the Centre is producing new insights into research not seen previously.
https://www.latrobe.edu.au/centre-for-data-analytics-and-cognition
Mobilising Melbourne: Autonomous Shuttle Trial Begins
Bridging the ‘last mile’ transport gap, as well as pushing forward technological excellence within Victoria, was the key driver in the launch of an autonomous shuttle trial in Melbourne at the end of 2017. ‘Autonobus’ is the first automated shuttle in Victoria, and brings together the private sector, academia and Victoria’s largest mobility member organisation to explore the use of driverless buses as part of ‘first mile’, and ‘last mile’ connectivity. The project is initiated by VicRoads and Keolis Downer, and the project partners include La Trobe University, HMI Technologies, ARRB and The RACV.
Autonobus marks a turning point in the juncture between technology, urban planning and mobility solutions and is important for a fast growing city like Melbourne.
The Autonobus trial will run on an existing transport route from April to July at La Trobe’s Bundoora Campus which provides an ideal testing ground – a controlled but very near realistic ‘public road situation’, in an area 1.5 times the size of Melbourne CBD with mixed built-up environment and a large number of commuters to and from campus each day.
The purpose of the trial is to bring Autonomous vehicles one step closer to operate in a public road environment by understanding safety and operational aspects, value proposition, customer experience, legislation and regulatory hurdles and commercial and liability aspects.
Minister for Roads and Road Safety Luke Donnellan said the innovative project shows that Victoria is at the forefront of automated vehicle technology. “Automated vehicles will revolutionise how we move around our communities, that’s why we’re investing in trials that explore ways technology can be used to reduce congestion and keep people safe on our roads,” Mr Donnellan said.
In Melbourne, 74 per cent of commuters rely on a private motor vehicle to travel to work each day. As Melbourne expands, the congestion caused by so many private vehicles on the city’s roads is unsustainable, as well as environmentally unsound. Therefore, the introduction of ‘last mile’ solutions are so important, as they often provide a service where one doesn’t exist.
The back-end technology powering the shuttle also has the potential to revolutionise how we travel. The ability to have the shuttle operate ‘on demand’ like a service such as Uber, ensures that autonomous shuttles meet the expectations of today’s smartphone-driven society.
The trial also aims to create best practice guidelines on how this technology can be inclusive for all users, including those with limited mobility.
Director of La Trobe’s Centre for Technology Infusion Professor Ani Desai said the time had come for Autonobus to open its doors to passengers. “We are excited to be offering Victorians a unique opportunity to step into the future and experience first-hand world-leading driverless technology,” Professor Desai said. “The public’s participation is essential. The success of all new technologies stands or falls with the end user adoption. That is why we are inviting anyone, not only the technology enthusiasts, to come and give us feedback. This feedback will help shape the future of transport in Victoria.”
La Trobe’s Figshare rollout reaches milestone target
The project to implement and promote Figshare at La Trobe University has just accomplished its milestone goal of 200 researchers who have started using the tool. The university launched the platform in October 2017 as ResearchData.Latrobe under the Enterprise Research Data Management System project after a three-month trial.
A systematic outreach campaign was conducted, which included the continuing deployment of a full-time Figshare Analyst to raise awareness among researchers for the remaining duration of the project. This promotional push has involved a wide range of outreach strategies including meeting face-to-face or online over Zoom to reach regional researchers.
This engagement has sparked a broader conversation about developing an improved culture of research data management at the university to stay current with institutional policy, funding requirements, journal data policies, and best practice globally. The Figshare rollout has provided an enabling avenue to progressively iterate towards this culture change in a way that was not previously possible. Researchers using the tool for publishing have accumulated 3302 views and 515 downloads through the data records they have uploaded.
Academics have been inventive with their usage of Figshare, which has ranged from publishing research study protocols, conference presentations, workshop materials, collaborative student project spaces, and even departmental histories to mark La Trobe’s 50th anniversary celebrations. Publishing data has led to increased research visibility, exemplified by media mentions appearing in Figshare Altmetric badges – see an example from biochemistry here.
Impending challenges include maintaining momentum towards a stronger culture of data sharing consistent with F.A.I.R. principles, handing over Figshare advisory services to the Library Research Team, and exploring the potential for Figshare integration with existing systems such as Symplectic Elements.
La Trobe’s new Online Research Notebook
La Trobe’s Online Research Notebook allows researchers across all disciplines to digitise their work as it’s created – whether capturing ideas for a literary tome, designing an experiment or acquiring data. Powered by LabArchives, it’s an application originally developed for laboratory-based researchers to replace paper research notebooks and to manage, store and link digital research data.
The Online Research Notebook is an initiative of La Trobe’s Enterprise Research Data Management Systems Project and aligned with La Trobe’s Digital Research Strategy. The project is delivering a number of systems and services to assist researchers in managing and curating their research data.
Over 70 La Trobe researchers participated in a successful trial of LabArchives in 2017 and La Trobe is now implementing it across the enterprise with 150 users within the first few months.
Many researchers still rely on physical notebooks to record their ideas, experiments and results. They also produce digital data, whether from scientific instruments or imaging equipment, which is then printed and glued into notebooks. By implementing the Online Research Notebook, La Trobe aims to secure and provide a central point of access to all the data produced during a research project in a digital format.
The Online Research Notebook is a web-based tool that researchers can access from any internet-enabled device, anywhere in the world. It’s securely hosted in the Cloud using Amazon Web Services, with the data centres located in Australia. All data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Key to La Trobe’s decision to implement the Online Research Notebook using LabArchives were the product’s comprehensive data revision history, electronic timestamping and powerful search capability, rendering La Trobe’s research data secure, transparent and retrievable. Sharing with collaborators is simple and easily controlled.
Dr Christopher Adda, La Trobe’s Manager of Research Infrastructure remarked, “La Trobe’s Online Research Notebook enables researchers to digitise their data and ideas from its inception. It’s a great tool for managing students and collaborators across multiple projects and, in relation to IP, is particularly suited to working with industry partners.”
Data Fluency for Research
Work smarter, not harder. For researchers, this means knowing how to use, explore, interpret and visualise data in a meaningful way and effectively communicate your research and ideas. That’s what data fluency enables you to do.
There is an increasing need for all researchers and professionals to be able to understand and write code and interact in the digital enquiry space. Data and text mining, data visualisation and analysis, and programming for research are increasingly relevant across all disciplinary areas.
Data Fluency for Research is a cross-disciplinary initiative to develop researcher capability at Monash University. We’re building a community of practice made up of like-minded researchers who are passionate about learning, sharing and helping other researchers use digital research tools. Whether you’re a novice, expert, or somewhere in between, you’re welcome to join the community. It is an initiative of Monash Bioinformatics and the Library.
We aim to be self-sustaining, with everyone being able to learn from and teach others through:
Software and Data Carpentry workshops on a range of applications such as R and Python for coding, Tableau for data visualisation, among others
Software Carpentry instructor training
Community of Practice networking events and seminars
Weekly drop-in sessions, hackathon events, tech talks and more.
https://www.monash.edu/library/data-fluency @resdatflu
Monash University Research Data Archive (MURDA) Sentencing
Monash University has its own Retention and Disposal Authority (RDA), based on Public Record Office of Victoria (PROV) “sentences”. Sentencing is the process of matching information held by the organisation to a specific class of a records authority. This helps determine the value of the information and how it should be
managed throughout its lifecycle.
MURDA is a cross-organisational initiative to appropriately re-house 235 (at present) discreet research collections, representing approximately 150TB of
data, into really cold storage or, when appropriate, destruction. We have identified that 57% of this data can safely be destroyed in 2018, representing a real cost saving for the University.
A goal is to be confident that research data with an assumed life-sentence are those really intended for long-term preservation, and they are described and stored appropriately.
Having established a base-line for 2018 destructions, we are now developing a roadmap for 2019 to 2023 destructions by establishing review dates on present
collections.
https://conference.eresearch.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/SENTEN1.pdf