MERIT Melbourne Engineering Research Institute

Upcoming Seminars and Events

Date

Presenter

Topic

Time & Venue

Seminars

Date

Presenter

Topic

On the Application of Laser-based Diagnostic Technique for Flame, Spray and Engine Research

1.15 Membrane Separation Processes for Biotic Materials - Prof Peter Scales
1.45 Porous Inorganic Materials - Dr Meifang Zhou
2.15 Permeable Reactive Barriers for Contaminated Site Remediation - Kathryn Mumford
2.45 Membranes for Salt Separation: Dairy and Water Applications - A/Prof Sandra Kentish
3.15 Afternoon Tea
3.30 Filtration Optimisation in the Minerals Industry - Dr Ross de Kretser
4.00 Nanomaterials for Solar Energy Conversion Applications - Dr Anandan Sambandam
4.30 TBA - Dr Colin Scholes

Special PFPC Porous Structures and Materials Mini-Symposium Agenda

1.15 Membrane Separation Processes for Biotic Materials - Prof Peter Scales
1.45 Porous Inorganic Materials - Dr Meifang Zhou
2.15 Permeable Reactive Barriers for Contaminated Site Remediation - Kathryn Mumford
2.45 Membranes for Salt Separation: Dairy and Water Applications - A/Prof Sandra Kentish
3.15 Afternoon Tea
3.30 Filtration Optimisation in the Minerals Industry - Dr Ross de Kretser
4.00 Nanomaterials for Solar Energy Conversion Applications - Dr Anandan Sambandam
4.30 TBA - Dr Colin Scholes

The resources in parallel and distributed computing systems should be allocated to the computational tasks in a way that maximizes some system performance measure. However, allocation decisions and associated performance prediction are often based on estimated values of task and system parameters. The actual values of these parameters may differ from the estimates. To address this problem, we present two models for deriving the robustness of a resource allocation. One model is based on having deterministic estimates of these parameters, and robustness is quantified as the maximum amount of collective uncertainty in these parameters within which a user-specified level of system performance can be guaranteed. The second model assumes that stochastic information is available about the values of these parameters whose actual values are uncertain, and with this model robustness is quantified as the probability that a user-specified level of system performance can be met. An example of using robustness in resource management heuristics will be given.

H. J. Siegel is the George T. Abell Endowed Chair Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Colorado State University (CSU), where he is also a Professor of Computer Science. He is Director of the CSU Information Science and Technology Center (ISTeC), a university-wide organization for enhancing CSU’s activities pertaining to the design and innovative application of computer, communication, and information systems. From 1976 to 2001, he was a Professor at Purdue University. He received two B.S. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the M.A., M.S.E., and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the ACM. Prof. Siegel has co-authored over 350 published technical papers in the areas of parallel and distributed computing and communications. He was an Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, and was on the Editorial Boards of the IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems and the IEEE Transactions on Computers.

The high frequency capabilities of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology and availability of 7 GHz of unlicensed spectrum around 60-GHz enable development of high data rate wireless systems delivering gigabit data speeds to a range of about 10 meters. New emerging wireless systems that operate at these frequencies such as high data rate 60-GHz transceiver for wireless personal area networks (WPAN) require packaging solutions with antennas integrated into the package. The major challenge for antenna design is to achieve wide bandwidth while maintaining high efficiency and to be produced in low-cost production processes. In this work we have explored appropriate low-cost antenna designs for 60 GHz wireless transceiver and proposed a new antenna concept for integration with mm-wave transceiver circuits. This talk will present the design for microstrip antenna integration with transceiver on CMOS, integrated antenna prototype and experimental verification of the concept.

Clustering with advice (often known as constrained clustering) has been a recent focus of the data mining community. Success has been achieved incorporating advice into the k-means and spectral clustering frameworks. Although the theory community has explored inconsistent advice, it has not yet been incorporated into spectral clustering. Extending work of De Bie and Cristianini, we set out a framework for finding minimum normalised cuts, subject to inconsistent advice.

CUBIN Seminar: Probing Convex Networks

Packet delay and loss are two fundamental measures of performance in the Internet. Using active probing to measure delay and loss typically involves sending Poisson probes, on the basis of the PASTA property (Poisson Arrivals See Time Averages), which ensures that Poisson probing yields unbiased estimates.

Recent work, however, has questioned the utility of PASTA for probing and shown that, for delay measurements, i) a wide variety of processes other than Poisson can be used to probe with zero bias and ii) Poisson probing does not necessarily minimize the variance of delay estimates.

I will discuss optimal probing processes that, in the non-intrusive case, minimize the mean-square error of measurement estimates for both delay and loss. The optimality result is general, and only assumes that the target process we seek to optimally measure via probing, such as a loss or delay process, has a convex auto-covariance function.

Second, we use empirical datasets to demonstrate the applicability of our results in practice. Together, these results lead to explicit guidelines on designing the best probe streams for both delay and loss estimation.

Interface-turbulence interactions and inter-phase transfer processes in free surface flows

Scalar transport processes in the vicinity of gas-liquid interfaces are often key components in the long-term response of large-scale systems to sharp changes in atmospheric gas composition. Examples of this include atmospheric CO2 removal by the world’s oceans, and steam removal by water pools determining the containment pressure in loss-of-coolant incidents in nuclear power plants.  Long-overdue step changes in the predictive power of models for large-scale systems featuring scalar transport require high-fidelity simulation of turbulent multi-material fluid flows featuring relevant geometries and interface kinematics.  In this seminar, Large Scale Simulation (LSS) - broadly based on the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) concept for turbulent flow simulation, and coupled with methodologies from interface tracking-based direct simulation of multi-material flow - is shown to be the best option for the purpose. Air venting into water baths and wave breaking in surf zones are presented as applications-relevant flows that have been simulated using LSS to highlight the flow physics in turbulent free surface and multi-material flows that influences scalar transport and exchange.  Mathematics, computational science, flow physics and scenario-specific phenomenology are alternately identified and inter-linked, to highlight the improvements in large-scale systems modelling such LSS efforts represent, and to identify areas requiring special attention and/or further improvement.

CUBIN Seminar: Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (DBA), Activation, Sleep Mode and other MAC layer craziness of Extended Reach GPONs for Rural/Remote area deployment

Upstream traffic in Passive Optical Networking is many-to-one as all ONUs share a common fibre back to the OLT. Because of this, bandwidth management and ONU scheduling is a key issue to providing Quality of Service on the network. As we extend the differential reach of the PON to provide access to rural and/or remote areas, we investigate some of the modifications and enhancements required to the MAC layer: With power management becoming a key issue for next generation broadband networks, a mechanism for placing ONUs into sleep mode is devised that provides rapid sleep and wake-up times as compared with conventional activation and ranging protocols. The DBA schemes used in current PON deployment and literature are examined and compared to situations when the ONUs behave in a similar fashion to DSL modems providing a single service level agreement (SLA) as well as the impact that an increased round trip delay has due to an extended reach.

Gender and Socio-economic Empowerment: The Role of ICTs in Developing Countries
In all OECD countries, ICTs are now an ubiquitous and pervasive part of our lives. In developing countries, however, this is not the case. For women of such countries, the high cost of access to ICT infrastructure, illiteracy, lack of skilled labour force, lack of useful and reliable local content as well as cultural stereotypes often prohibit them from using telephony or the internet as a tool to access information. In a globalised world where connectivity and access to knowledge is becoming critical to the success and efficiency of business ventures, should we worry about the gender aspects of information societies in terms of production, consumption and usage trends? Cases on how access to ICTs has helped increase women's economic opportunities in developing countries will be discussed, as well as some ideas on how the public sector in developing countries could benefit from the private sector's experience in incorporating gender neutral policies. The presentation will conclude with a discussion on the role of the multilateral organisations, in particular that of the World Bank Group, as well as the role of universities, think tanks, innovators, educators, and centres of excellence.

BIOGRAPHY: Samia Melhem is a member of the e-Government practice group in the Global ICT department at the World Bank (GICT). Her current responsibilities include technical assistance and advisory services related to eGoverment projects in developing countries. In her 20 years of service at the World Bank Group, Samia has worked on ICT4D in a wide variety of sectors and in a wide number of global regions. Her interest is in planning, developing and implementing large scale information systems for governments, as well as using ICT as a tool to support public administration reform. Samia also leads GICTs research on Gender and ICTs, a Knowledge and Learning practice, and chairs the e- Development Thematic Group. She holds degrees in Electrical Engineering (BS), Computer Sciences (MS) and Finance (MBA).

International Seminar on Advanced Materials

Agenda available here

Please note, you must register to attend this seminar by emailing Michelle de Silva by Monday 7th July 2008 or calling 8344 6620.

The Role of Optics for Future Computing and Communications Systems

To meet the explosively growing bandwidth demand by future Internet users, today’s Metro-Ethernet and wide-area network service providers are envisioning 100-Gb/s per channel in the DWDM core networks, 10Gb/s per channel in the broadband access networks, and >1-Gb/s wireless links for mobile connections in the last meters. At the same time, chip-to-chip interconnects technologies for multi-core processors are also affected by growing demands for intensive video and graphic signal processing and storage. Current interconnect technology is limited by the aspect ratio of the electrical wires using metals, the frequency-dependent dielectric loss of the substrates, and the electromagnetic interference or crosstalk. It is generally agreed that interconnects technology based on parallel optics can substantially provide higher bandwidth-distance product performance over electrical links for systems requiring high aggregate bandwidth and large throughput over distances. Hence integrated optical links are of interest to high-performance server and router manufactures. We will discuss the emerging research trends of pushing optics to the chips for next generation computing systems as well as the current optical networking trends to provide high bandwidth to future mobile users for quad-plays that include video, data, voice, and mobile services.

Biography

Prof. Gee-Kung Chang is the Byers Endowed Chair Professor in Optical Networks in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of Georgia Institute of Technology. He is an Eminent Scholar of Georgia Research Alliance. He serves as an Associate Director and the leader of Optical Wireless Access Network and 100Gb/s next Generation Ethernet Research in Georgia Tech Broadband Research Institute. He is the group leader of Optoelectronics Integration and Packaging Alliance of NSF funded Microsystem Packaging Research Center at Georgia Tech. Prof. Chang received his bachelor degree in Physics from National Tsinghua University in Taiwan and his master and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Riverside in 1973 and 1976, respectively. Dr. Chang devoted a total of 23 years of service to the Bell Systems—Bell Labs, Bellcore, and Telcordia Technologies where he served in various research and management positions including Director and Chief Scientist of Optical Internet Research, Director of the Optical Networking Systems and Testbed, Director of the Optical System Integration and Network Interoperability.  Prior to joining Georgia Tech, he served as Vice President and Chief Technology Strategist of OpNext, Inc., a company listed in NASDAQ since February 2007, where he was in charge of technology planning and product strategy for advanced high-speed optoelectronic components for computing and communication systems.

Massively Parallel Direct Numerical Simulations of Turbulent Combustion

The advancement of our basic understanding of turbulent combustion processes and the development of physics-based predictive tools for design and optimization of the next generation of combustion devices are strategic areas of research for the development of a secure, environmentally sound energy infrastructure. Direct numerical simulation (DNS) is a high-fidelity approach that completely resolves all continuum scales of a reacting flow problem, and is used increasingly as a valuable tool for scientific discovery and model development in combustion. Recent large allocations of supercomputing time through the US Department of Energy have provided a unique opportunity to perform the largest ever DNS of a turbulent flame. Massively parallel DNS of turbulent nonpremixed plane jet flames have been performed with detailed CO/H2 chemistry (representing syngas, a product of biomass gasification). Up to 500 million grid points were employed, allowing jet Reynolds numbers of up to 9000 to be achieved with good resolution. The simulations feature strong finite-rate chemistry effects including extinction and reignition, and are being used to understand fundamental aspects of turbulence-chemistry interactions and to provide a numerical benchmark for the advancement of engineering combustion models. In the seminar, results from these data will be used to 1) shed new light on the physical mechanisms of extinction and reignition and 2) examine consequences for the experimental estimation of the threedimensional scalar dissipation rate based on one and two dimensional gradient measurements. New challenges relating to performing and analyzing large DNS data-sets will be discussed.

Dr Hawkes’ research centres on alternative fuel and low-emissions combustion technologies. He develops and applies high-fidelity computational models to understand and predict the behaviour of the multi-scale, multi-physics flows that govern the performance of these technologies. Dr Hawkes earned BSc and BEng degrees from the University of Western Australia, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He worked as a postdoc at the Combustion Research Facility at Sandia National Laboratories and is now a Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales.

Cross-Layer Design of ASE-Noise-Limited Island-Based Translucent Optical Networks

We consider the design and dimensioning of translucent optical networks based on the concept of optical transparent islands. In systems with dispersion compensation, ASE noise becomes a dominant physical-layer impairment in constraining the maximal transparent reach limit of a lightpath. Taking this dominant impairment into account, an efficient transparent island division algorithm is proposed to divide a large transport network into a few optical transparent islands and to minimize the total number of opaque island-border nodes. Optimization models for translucent network dimensioning are presented to maximize served traffic demand given certain network capacity and to minimize the required wavelength capacity given a certain traffic demand matrix.
Simulation studies show that the proposed transparent island division approach and network-dimensioning optimization models require only 25% opaque nodes to overcome the constraint of transparent reach limit and achieve performance as good as that of a more expensive 100% opaque network.

Modelling Spatial Proximity

The concept of proximity is an important aspect of human reasoning. Despite the diversity of applications that require proximity measures, the most intuitive notion is that of spatial nearness. In this talk, we will investigate the underpinnings of the notion of nearness, explore suitable formalisations and their implications to the processing of geographic data. I propose that nearness should be defined from impact areas which take both the nature of an object and the surrounding environment into account. Context is introduced to incorporate the wealth of knowledge that is brought into the processing of geographic data by end users.

Tewkesbury Lecture: Small Drops on Surfaces

The structure and dynamics of sessile drops on solid surfaces has attracted renewed interest in the last decade. In particular drops with diameters much smaller than 1 mm are in the focus of fundamental and applied research, due to the development of micro-fluidics and inkjet technology. Phenomena, which are negligible at the macroscopic scale, start to be relevant or even dominating at the small scale. In the presentation I focus on two aspects: The validity of Young’s equation, which is the fundamental equation describing wetting phenomena, and on structure formation during the evaporation of drops.

Providing Broadband to Rural Communities: An Economic Perspective

The number of services available through the internet is constantly growing as is the bandwidth they require. As video conferencing, video-on-demand and peer-to-peer continue to evolve, the need for multi-megabit broadband into the home becomes more critical. However, often when we implement service upgrades those living in rural communities are the last to benefit. In this presentation we will discuss the challenges of providing broadband to the bush. We consider the cost of three different broadband technologies, DSL, wireless and PON, for rural environments using case studies of some Victorian towns. This allows us to identify the most cost-efficient access network for rural deployment. It also provides us with an insight as to which components of the network are the most cost-sensitive.

MIEGUNYAH LECTURE: Turbulent Flow: From Forest Fires to Submarines

Turbulence is intrinsic to fluid flow on every scale, from blood flow in the body to winds in the atmosphere.  Stirring a coffee cup, filling a sink, driving a car, the flames in a fireplace or snowflakes in a storm, even breathing itself, are all circumstances where turbulent flows are important.  Turbulent flows are characterized by eddying motions that cover a wide range of scales, from large eddies the size of the flow itself, to very small eddies that can be sub-microscopic.  Each eddy scale plays a particular role in the mixing and energy dissipation due to turbulence, and although the basic equations needed to calculate a turbulent flow—the Navier-Stokes equations—have been known for more than 150 years, today's supercomputers are not powerful enough to simulate precisely all the eddies and their interactions (at least in all practical flows).  When it comes to theory, turbulence has been called “the last great outstanding problem of classical physics.” At present, all we have are some general concepts that may prove to be incorrect or incomplete.  In this lecture, I will describe the features of turbulent flows that lead to its complexity, give some important examples, demonstrate the practical impact of our uncertain knowledge of turbulence, and describe why current research efforts may lead to success.

Turbulence has been described as the “most common, most important, and also most complicated kind of fluid motion.”  Bradshaw, P.B. “An introduction to turbulence and its measurement,” Pergamon Press 1972.

Bio-fluid Aspects in Human Reproduction

Human reproduction depends on a number of transport vehicles. The detached ovum is transported to the fallopian tube. The spermatozoa are transported to the fallopian tube where fertilization may occur. The newly born embryo (zygote) is driven to the uterine cavity, and is then conveyed to its implantation site in the uterine wall. The fetus exchanges materials with the environment via the placenta and maternal blood circulation. At term, uterine contractions push out the baby. The presentation will describe our bioengineering studies on the role of uterine peristalsis in embryo transport to its implantation site; the transport characteristics of embryos during their return to the uterus after laboratory fertilization; analysis of placental feto-maternal circulation for early diagnosis of placenta insufficiency; and the electro-mechano-physiology of myometrial smooth muscles.

The environmental sustainability of the actions carried out by the human beings into the environment is a worry for a society aware of the wealthy heritage that they own. The study of environmental measures and the proposal of technical solutions for achieving the integration of those actions show the interest to maintain and preserve this heritage. Rural roads are linear infrastructures that environmentally influence into an important extension of territory, and which main characteristic is the landscape fragmentation derived. The integration process of the road into the environment has to be mainly achieved in the earliest stage of the project. A fair identification of the most important attributes of the landscape and an objective assessment of them could provide important decision criteria for selecting the most appropriate routes. Landscapes of 38 rural roads in Spain has been evaluated and statistically analyzed in a study concerning the identification of the significant attributes as well as the relations among them to determine the weight that they should receive. This aimed to establish the basis for the development of a specific method for landscape assessment around rural roads.

Weighted gradient-constrained networks and their application to underground mine design are presented. Two problems are discussed: the Fermat-Weber problem, which asks for a point minimising the sum of weighted distances to a set of given points, and the Gilbert arborescence problem, which asks for a minimum-cost flow-dependent network interconnecting given sources and a unique sink. Geometric properties of gradient-constrained networks are presented, and algorithms for their construction are provided. The application of these results to underground mining is demonstrated via an industry case study. This is a PhD completion seminar.

The MSE has organised a Linkage Project Information Session to support colleagues in applying for the Linkage Project scheme. Speakers will share their experiences and insights which will enable applicants to successfully attract Industry partners and how to submit successful Linkage Project applications.

Topics covered will be:

• Importance of Linkage Projects to MSE
• How to: Linking with Industry
• What the ARC expects from a winning Linkage Project Grant
• Reflections on Applicant Experiences
• Support Services Perspective

The full program is available here

Why you should attend:
Linkage Project grants are a good source of competitive grants funding with a success rate that is 2 times higher then Discovery Projects. The scheme funds salaries, stipends, equipment, maintenance, consumables, travel and other expenditure with average grants in the order of 3 years for 100k p/a or 300k from the ARC.

The recently announced 2008 Linkage Project round 2 was highly successful and generated 2.8M dollars in research funding for the MSE with 9 out of 15 applications (or 60%) awarded.

The seminar will take place on Friday 22 August from 2pm till 5.00pm
Brown Theatre - Level 1, Dept of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Melbourne School of Engineering

To attend please RSVP to Gwenda Pittaway

Previous Seminars

Date

Presenter

Topic

Time & Venue

Dr Sharif Jahanahshahi
CSIRO

various

International Seminar on Advanced Materials

Contact Michelle de Silva to register.