Successful ARC Linkage Projects 2011
Project: A phenomenological approach to improve radioembolisation treatment of cancer
Prof Dale L Bailey, Dr Stephen K Jones, Prof Clive Baldock, A/Prof Zdenka Kuncic
In recent years, radioembolisation for liver cancer has become an effective therapeutic option. However, it is likely that patients are being 'under treated' as doses remain based on results from external radiation therapy. This project will develop a phenomenological approach to radionuclide therapy to improve outcomes for cancer patients.
Partner(s): Sirtex Technology Pty Ltd.
Project: Multifunctional surfaces for implantable biomedical devices
Prof Marcela M Bilek, Prof Anthony S Weiss, Prof David R McKenzie
This project aims to improve the quality of life of patients receiving biomedical implants. The project will develop new plasma processing methods to create surfaces for implants that will give control over the response of human tissues. Tissue integration with the device will be achieved where required and infection suppressed.
Partner(s): Cochlear Limited, LfC Sp. z o.o., Spinecell Pty Ltd
Project: Empowering teachers of middle years mathematics: becoming self directed learners
A/Prof Janette M Bobis, Dr Jennifer A Way, A/Prof Judith A Anderson
This project will provide innovative strategies to enhance mathematics teaching and learning of middle years students. It will develop a robust teacher learning development model that can be used by our industry partner and practitioners in the wider educational community to contribute to the development of teachers becoming self directed learners.
Partner(s): Catholic Schools Office
Project: National registration of health practitioners: a comparative study of the complaints and notification system under the national system and in NSW
Prof Elizabeth M Chiarella, Prof Merrilyn M Walton, Prof Belinda J Bennett, Prof Terry R Carney, Dr Patrick J Kelly, Ms Jann P Foster
This project will compare the NSW healthcare complaints system with that of the new Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency to provide insight into complaints handling and notification at a state and national level. It will determine best practice in government assessment and resolution methods and reveal complainant experiences.
Partner(s): Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, Health Professional Councils Authority
Project: Building occupants survey system Australia
Prof Richard De Dear, Dr Christhina Candido, Mr Andrew C Roussac, Ms Leena E Thomas
The Building Occupants Survey System Australia BOSSA is a post occupancy evaluation instrument. The database will become an Australian benchmark against which particular buildings can be compared, providing both a valuable quality assurance service to building owners and managers, and a resource for researchers in Australian built environments.
Partner(s): Arup Pty Ltd , Brookfield Multiplex Ltd, Investa Properties Group, Stockland Property Management Pty Ltd, The General Property Trust Limited
Project: Med Graphic Avatar a comprehensive, holistic and customisable model for personal health records
Prof Dagan Feng, Dr Xiu Ying Wang, Dr Weidong Cai, Dr Shipeng Li, Dr Wenwu Zhu, Prof Michael J Fulham, A/Prof Stefan Eberl
Our customisable Med Graphic Avatar will open up unprecedented access, intuitive interpretation, smart utilisation, and new understanding of massive, diverse health data, and will herald a revolution in patient centric, holistic medical care, synergising with next generation of participatory, personalised, preventative and predictive eHealth.
Partner(s): Microsoft Research Asia
Project: Closing the loop: understanding the relationships between recreational fishing surveys, fishing regulations and fisheries management objectives
Dr Will F Figueira, Dr Aldo S Steffe
The project aims to improve the management of recreational fisheries in Australia by using model based evaluations to understand the effects of recreational fishing regulations and survey design on the realisation and assessment of fisheries management objectives.
Partner(s): NSW Department of Industry and Investment
Project: Attentional and conditioning mechanisms that mediate overcoming anxiety
Dr Adam J Guastella, Prof Colin MacLeod, Dr Elizabeth M Scott
Anxiety is a common emotion for most Australians that can cause substantial costs for individuals and society. This project uses dominant psychological models to identify critical mechanisms that are believed to predict capacity for, and change in, anxiety. Outcomes substantially advance knowledge about how humans overcome anxiety.
Partner(s): Pearl 100
Project: A cloud computing environment for managing foreign exchange risk
A/Prof Philip Leong
This project involves using parallel computing and machine learning to improve the real time handling of a bank's foreign exchange risk. It will lead to improved techniques to manage exchange rate variations, enabling banks to better assess their risk and will ultimately lead to improved services for Australian companies.
Partner(s): Westpac Banking Corporation
Project: New high performance zinc bromine batteries with novel electrode/electrolyte systems
Prof Dr Thomas Maschmeyer, Prof Tony M Vassallo, A/Prof Anthony F Masters
Renewable sources of energy are of particular interest in the era of diminishing fossil fuels. Efficient energy storage is a missing link for renewable energy. Zinc bromine batteries have great potential as energy storage. This project will aim to fundamentally re design the existing first generation systems to improve power density by 300 400 per cent.
Partner(s): Alpha Chemicals Pty Ltd, ZBB Technologies Ltd
Project: Wealth from water: soil information for new sustainable irrigated agriculture in Tasmania
Prof Alexander B McBratney, Dr Budiman Minasny
Key to sustainable irrigation for agricultural production is an understanding of the soil resource. Conventional methods to obtain soil information are outdated and expensive. This project will develop a new strategy to quantitatively assess soil sustainability and to analyse management options thoroughly.
Partner(s): Department of Primary Industries Parks Water and Environment (TAS)
Project: Cultures of Coast and Sea: maritime environmental, cultural and ethnographic histories of north east Australia, 1770 2010
Prof Iain D McCalman, Dr Stephanie C Anderson, Dr Jude P Philp, Dr Michael B Davis, Dr Nigel P Erskine, Mr Michael Crayford
Using new cross disciplinary approaches and methods, this collaboration between university scholars, museum curators and a philanthropic foundation will study the impact of maritime and marine environmental and cultural change on the peoples and habitats of the Great Barrier Reef and the Torres Strait from the eighteenth century to the present.
Partner(s): Australian National Maritime Museum, Queensland Museum, Silentworld Foundation
Project: Nobody knows anything? Applying pari mutuel prediction markets to the motion picture industry
Dr Jordi McKenzie, Mr David C Court, Prof Charles R Plott
This project will explore the predictability of unreleased motion pictures' theatrical box office revenues using incentive rich pari mutuel prediction markets. The mechanism will promote price discovery and associated probability estimates that will benefit those already investing in the industry as well as encouraging new investment.
Partner(s): Australian Film Television and Radio School
Project: Feedthrough technologies for polymeric encapsulated active implants
Prof David R McKenzie, Dr Natalie L James
The project will address the scientific challenges of signal transfer between tissue and novel active implantable medical devices, with major implications for cochlear implant manufacture. This will lead to improvements in the quality of life of the hearing impaired, and will make an important contribution to the development of other sensory implants.
Partner(s): Cochlear Limited, Raymax Applications Pty Ltd
Project: Ecology, impact and control of cane toads on the southern invasion front
Prof Richard Shine
The invasion of cane toads has killed many native animals in tropical Australia, but the toads' southern (NSW) invasion front remains unstudied. This project will build on recent research to understand how toads affect southern biodiversity, and will develop new ways to reduce that impact.
Partner(s): Australian Wildlife Conservancy, Foundation for Australia's Most Endangered Species Inc, Lismore City Council, NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority, Tweed Shire Council
Project: Smart house energy management system
Dr Gregor Verbic, Prof David J Hill
This multidisciplinary project will empower Australia's power industry with tools and knowledge that will enable the transformation to be more intelligent and flexible. It will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase energy efficiency by smarter use of the resources at household level.
Project: Radio resources and inter cell interference management in smart grid wireless access networks
Prof Branka Vucetic, Dr Wibowo Hardjawana
Wireless communications is the key enabler of smart grids. The project will deliver novel radio resource allocation protocols with low latency, high radio spectrum efficiency and reliability for radio access networks in smart grids. The project will develop new technologies with a potential to be implemented in future Long Term Evolution (LTE) machine to machine (M2M) standards
Project: Supervised autonomy for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) using limited bandwidth communication channels
Dr Stefan B Williams, Dr Oscar Pizarro, Mr Ballard J Blair
The project aims to improve the feedback link between an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and an operator by developing novel acoustic communication schemes that exploit developments in machine learning, network, and communication theory and represents a step towards truly autonomous and intelligent surveying using AUV systems.
Partner(s): Thales Australia
Project: Psychosocial and economic impacts of rare diseases on Australian children, families and health professionals
Dr Yvonne A Zurynski, Prof Elizabeth J Elliott, A/Prof Helen M Leonard, Prof John Christodoulou
Rare childhood diseases have enormous impacts on children and families; health services, and health professionals. This project will enable Australia to lead the international research effort by using a coordinated approach to study the impacts of rare diseases in order to improve psychosocial, health and economic outcomes for children and families.
Partner(s): Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Smile Foundation Limited , Steve Waugh Foundation , The Association of Genetic Support Australasia, The Children's Hospital at Westmead