Project Database

Multimedia Design Honours Project
Commencing Semester 1 2009
Coordinator: Peter Robinson (pjr@itee.uq.edu.au)

Project List

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Industry projects may also be available - see the CEED website for details.

Daniel Angus

Office: 47-307
Phone: 54275
Email: dangus@itee.uq.edu.au

Knowledge Based Systems, Swarm Intelligence, Information Theory, Corpus Linguistics

Additional information: http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~uqdangus/

1 - Visualisation Techniques for High Dimensional Data

Supervisor:	Daniel Angus	Project ID:	1
Research Group:	Complex and Intelligent Systems Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	AI/Cognitive Science Computer Systems Human Computer Interaction Information Environments Multimedia Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Description:	This project will require the student to develop an information visualisation system that can preserve interesting conceptual linkages, while still allowing easy inspection by an end user. These are conflicting goals as conceptual data tends to be highly dimensional thus any solution will likely have to be a trade-off thus testing the student's judgement and creativity. There are many existing mapping techniques in the literature which may be useful as starting points for this investigation.
Further Information:	http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~uqdangus/honours.html

2 - Investigating the use of Bayes Theorem for Text Classification Tasks

Supervisor:	Daniel Angus	Project ID:	2
Research Group:	Complex and Intelligent Systems Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	AI/Cognitive Science Computer Systems Human Computer Interaction Information Environments Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Description:	Central to the design of concept mapping tools are lexical statistics which obtain information about the content of input data. These lexical statistic techniques are generally used to obtain rich information about input data such as what words are good descriptors to describe a large document, and how thematic content is arranged within the document. One particularly simple, yet powerful, statistic is word co-occurrence data. This data counts the relative frequency of particular words occurring with other words. Although co-occurrence data is easy to obtain, its use in determining sentence conceptual content is less than clear. How to combine term co-occurrence data to obtain good estimates of conceptual content is an open research problem. Some ideas exist in the literature, and these use techniques such as Bayes theorem to achieve this concept estimation. However such estimations must strike a balance between the computational complexity and accuracy of the the end result. This project will involve a student designing and implementing a Bayesian text classification engine.
Further Information:	http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~uqdangus/honours.html

Paul Bailes

Office: 78-425A
Phone: 53869
Email: paul@itee.uq.edu.au

1 - Elaboration of data-less Totally Functional Programming style

Supervisor:	Paul Bailes	Project ID:	1
Research Group:	Systems and Software Engineering Group	Max. students:	2
Discipline(s):	Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	background in Higher-order Functional Programming
Description:	Use of functional rather than symbolic representations for data types simplifies programming in much the same way that a direct definition of a function is simpler than encoding and interpretation. In particular, the need for iteration/recursion evaporates so that total correctness is easier to demonstrate. Moreover, functional representations are inherently meaningful, so that erroneous coding conventions (e.g. as responsible for Y2K problem) do not arise. This project essentially involves the discovery of the “platonic combinators” to represent as many useful data types as possible, followed by demonstrations of their use in this data-less style. An important and possibly necessary extension of the project may be to consider the advanced type regimes that are needed to permit some of these combinators. The TFP project is part of a larger effort involving other staff and postgrads. Specific/additional/alternative problems that a keen student may want to address include: · functional representations for non-natural numbers · what is the common functional ancestor of “parse” and “print” methods for context-free grammars · exploit philosophical parallels with analog design for extension to systems engineering · what built-in ops. ensure “maximum” expressive power · what sort of type system is needed to accommodate “weird” higher-order functions (see “Type-checking for TFP (Totally Functional Programming)” project below) · connection to subrecursive formalisms such as Constructive Types For further information see Invited talk at Thai Natnl. Comp Sci & Eng Conf 2001 http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~paul/papers/F-3-txt-ieee.pdf
Further Information:	http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~paul/year 4 projects.html

2 - Academic Adviser’s Apprentice

Supervisor:	Paul Bailes	Project ID:	2
Research Group:	Systems and Software Engineering Group	Max. students:	2
Discipline(s):	Human Computer Interaction	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	Selection of expertise in Prolog programming; Internet programming; GUI programming (e.g. Tcl/Tk)
Description:	One of the great difficulties posed by the globalisation of the education industry is the offering of accurate academic program planning advice to students contemplating transferring academic credit from one institution to another. Questions such as “what courses do I get exemptions for?”, “how much credit do I get”, and “what study plan can I undertake to complete in minimum time” are difficult to answer correctly. Consequently, we have for some years been developing a software system that will provide automated assistance in answering these questions, using Prolog to represent various UQ degree rules as a “deductive database”. The system has been developed to prototype form, but there are several further developments that could be undertaken prior to deployment, such as: · extended coverage of UQ courses and programs · extended functionality to accommodate logical constructs discovered in the course of the above · extended functionality to accommodate top-down and bottom-up study plan development · easy-to-use rule update facility for non-programmers · gateway to/from other admin. systems · accessibility via Internet Suitable for multiple students, each working on different facet(s) of complete project For further information see Strategic R&D Proposal http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~paul/papers/CSEE Strategic Development Proposal.doc
Further Information:	http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~paul/year 4 projects.html

Denis Bauer

Office: 80-6.107
Phone: 33462635
Email: d.bauer@uq.edu.au

Our research focuses on developing mathematical models for gene regulation.

Additional information: http://www.bioinformatics.org.au/stream/

1 - Reducing dimensionality in a thermodynamic modeling framework

Supervisor:	Denis Bauer	Project ID:	1
Research Group:	Complex and Intelligent Systems Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):		Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	Java, understanding gene regulation and optimization
Description:	This project requires the student to analyze the effect of substituting free parameters with approximated biological constants in a complex system. Background : Thermodynamic models have been used to study mechanisms of transcriptional regulation. Traditionally two potentially antagonistic parameters were used to model the system. This is suspected to have caused situations where the system is under-determined. Hence replacing the parameters with their approximated biological constants might aid greatly in improving the fitting process. The aim of the project is therefore to explore ways to obtain these biological constants and test how robust the system is against noise in the provided constants.

2 - Understanding evolution in the regulatory sequence of developmental genes in fly species

Supervisor:	Denis Bauer	Project ID:	2
Research Group:	Complex and Intelligent Systems Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):		Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	Java, understanding gene regulation. Ideally, experience with sequence retrieval tools (e.g. flybase or UCSC browser)
Description:	This project requires the student to apply a recently developed thermodynamic modeling approach to the regulatory sequence of a gene common among evolutionary very distant fly species. Background : Despite the divergence in the composition of the "words" within the regulatory sequences, the sequence of one species is able to drive the correct expression of the gene in another species. Hence there must exist a common "meaning" formed by the differently arranged words, which activate the transriptional mechanism. The aim of the project is therefore to shed light on the regulatory grammar by comparing evolutionary distant regulatory sequences and their evaluation in a thermodynamic model.

Mikael Boden

Office: IMB
Phone: 52035
Email: mikael@itee.uq.edu.au

I'm currently a senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (UQ), and senior Lecturer at ITEE. My research primarily concerns the application of intelligent systems/machine learning to challenging problems in bioscience/genomics.

Additional information: http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~mikael

1 - Algorithms for discovering molecular signatures

Supervisor:	Mikael Boden	Project ID:	1
Research Group:	Complex and Intelligent Systems Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):		Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	Programming skills, data structures and algorithms, and an interest in artificial intelligence/machine learning
Description:	My research group uses machine learning algorithms to make biological discoveries from large data sets resulting from genomic sequencing and wet-lab experiments. This project will look at the use of "molecular signatures" from proteins, to identify interactions between them. Molecular signatures can incorporate essential structural properties and make them accessible to state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms (e.g. support-vector machines). You will focus on the implementation of a "signature" function and use our implementation of a support-vector machine (java), to evaluate the approach on some scientifically interesting protein interaction data.

2 - Pairing interacting proteins using sequence alignment

Supervisor:	Mikael Boden	Project ID:	2
Research Group:	Complex and Intelligent Systems Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):		Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	Interest in data structures and algorithms, artificial intelligence and machine learning
Description:	This project will develop and explore a basic sequence alignment method for identifying the protein sub-sequences (of amino acids) that physically interact. First, we collect stats for amino acids that pair up in experimentally confirmed structures. The statistic is then used to create amino acid scoring matrices. The scoring matrices are used to find alignments between pairs of sequences, indirectly illustrating where on the sequences interactions are likely to be found. Finally, the method is evaluated by using it to predict interfaces on proteins for which experimental validation is available. The outcome thus includes a novel method that assists biological research to uncover underlying sequence features of large-scale molecular interaction networks.

3 - Classifying post-translational modifications of proteins using short probabilistic "sequence motifs"

Supervisor:	Mikael Boden	Project ID:	3
Research Group:	Complex and Intelligent Systems Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):		Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	Interest in data structures and algorithms, artificial intelligence and machine learning
Description:	Protein sequence motifs are short descriptors (often expressed as position-specific probabilities of amino acids) that can be used to "scan" novel proteins for sites that enable some biological function. We are interested in finding sites of one particular modification--the attachment of a specific substrate (SUMO). Recent ideas in machine learning leads us to hypothesize that by supplying both positive examples (sites known to be modified) as well as negative examples (sites believed not to be modified) will enable the construction of improved motifs.

Nicole Bordes

Office: 69-726 / 78-617
Phone: 57506
Email: nb@itee.uq.edu.au

1 - Route planning for storm damage response

Supervisor:	Nicole Bordes	Project ID:	1
Research Group:	Ubiquitous Computing	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	eResearch Information Environments Multimedia Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	javascript, html, java
Description:	The aim of this project is to create an application that allows response teams to plot the location of affected households and gather any other information regarding traffic and flooding, and plot a route based on how urgent some requests for assistance are. technologies to investigate: Adobe Air, Iphone SDK, web applications

2 - Traffic reporting and visualisation tool

Supervisor:	Nicole Bordes	Project ID:	2
Research Group:	Data and Knowledge Engineering Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	Communications eResearch Information Environments Multimedia	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	database, PHP or similar, web technologies
Description:	Creation of a phone or a web mobile application tool that allows the acquisition and visualisation of traffic data in real time
Further Information:	http://www.vislab.uq.edu.au/research/traffic/index.html

3 - Visusalisation software for large displays

Supervisor:	Nicole Bordes	Project ID:	3
Research Group:	Data and Knowledge Engineering Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	Communications Computer Systems eResearch Human Computer Interaction Information Environments Information Systems Multimedia Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	programming langauges such as C or C++
Description:	Please check the web site and if you are interested, please contact us directly. This project requires an interest ion computer graphics and willingness to work on new technologies such as SAGE
Further Information:	http://www.vislab.uq.edu.au/research/optiportal/index.html

Stephen Crawley

Office: 78-710
Phone: 54536
Email: scrawley@itee.uq.edu.au

The work of eResearch group includes building systems and tools for managing various kinds of metadata; e.g. document descriptions, annotations, metadata schemas and ontologies. The current focus of my work within the group is on producing "production quality" components for use in document repositories, web sites and so on. More broadly, I'm interested in meta-modeling, orthogonal persistence, aspects of programming language design and implementation, and practical software engineering.

1 - Metadata Repository and Search Engine

Supervisor:	Stephen Crawley	Project ID:	1
Research Group:	eResearch	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	eResearch Information Systems Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	Java (J2EE preferred) + XML + SQL or RDF
Description:	Last year, the eResearch unit developed a web-based editor for creating metadata records. The aim of this project is to implement a shrink-wrapped repository component for storing metadata records, together with a search engine for the repository. (The URL links to a page for the metadata editor and the associated schema tools.)
Further Information:	http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~eresearch/projects/archer/software.php

2 - JNode

Supervisor:	Stephen Crawley	Project ID:	2
Research Group:	eResearch	Max. students:	2
Discipline(s):	Computer Systems Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	Java + operating systems principles
Description:	JNode is a long-term open-source project to develop a full function operating system in Java. JNode runs on a "bare-metal" PC or on a virtualization platform such as VMware. We currently have a range of device drivers, file systems, shells and command line applications together with an AWT / Swing based GUI environment. This honours project would entail picking a moderate sized implementation task from the JNode issue tracker or TODO list under the guidance of your project supervisor and carrying that task through to completion.
Further Information:	http://jnode.org

Kathy Egea

Office: 78-204C
Phone: 52864
Email: kegea@itee.uq.edu.au

self-adaptive testing computer-based diagnostic testing mathematics education (pre-tertiary level) distance education virtual teamwork

1 - Innovations in educational software

Supervisor:	Kathy Egea	Project ID:	1
Research Group:	Interaction Design Group	Max. students:	2
Discipline(s):	Human Computer Interaction	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	comp2506
Description:	How can educational software be best designed to achieve improved student learning? A project in this area could involve interactive simulation and visualisation, human computer interaction, adaptive systems, multimedia and/or virtual worlds. Project details will depend on the student's interests and will be developed through discussion with the supervisors. ( Jim Hanan and Kathy Egea)

2 - Innovations in educational software

Supervisor:	Kathy Egea	Project ID:	2
Research Group:	Interaction Design Group	Max. students:	2
Discipline(s):	Human Computer Interaction	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	comp2506
Description:	How can educational software be best designed to achieve improved student learning? A project in this area could involve interactive simulation and visualisation, human computer interaction, adaptive systems, multimedia and/or virtual worlds. Project details will depend on the student's interests and will be developed through discussion with the supervisors. ( Jim Hanan and Kathy Egea)

Marcus Gallagher

Office: 47-303
Phone: 56197
Email: marcusg@itee.uq.edu.au

My research interests are in intelligent and complex systems. More specifically, I'm interested in machine learning and optimization algorithms (metaheuristics such as evolutionary algorithms and other nature-inspired approaches). Most of this boils down to some kind of intelligent data analysis, implementing numerical algorithms in software, and running simulations. The scope of application to solving real-world problems with these kinds of techniques is very large. You will need to be interested in and capable of doing software development. The implementation could be done in just about any programming environment. It would probably help if you've done (or will be doing) the Machine Learning and AI courses, but it's not essential. A little bit of maths and stats is also valuable. I am also interested in hearing your ideas about projects!

Additional information: http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~marcusg

1 - Intelligent Agents that Learn to Play Pacman

Supervisor:	Marcus Gallagher	Project ID:	1
Research Group:	Complex and Intelligent Systems Group	Max. students:	2
Discipline(s):	AI/Cognitive Science Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	(Not essential but useful): Artificial intelligence (COMP3701); planning to take Machine Learning (COMP4702) in S1/05; previous Machine Learning courses (COMP3700/ELEC4700); Good programming skills; competent maths and stats knowledge. or stats.
Description:	Pac-man is one of the classic computer games of all time (well, I like it anyway!). Although the rules of the game are very simple, gameplay has some very complex features due to the way the ghosts agents interact with the Pac-man agent. It is not, however, a game that much AI research has concentrated on. The ultimate aim of this project is to use evolutionary or machine learning algorithms to train an artificial "agent" to play Pac-Man. Previous work has been done on this project, but there is still lots to do!
Further Information:	http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~marcusg

2 - Intelligent Agents for a Car-Racing Game

Supervisor:	Marcus Gallagher	Project ID:	2
Research Group:	Complex and Intelligent Systems Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	AI/Cognitive Science Software	Num. students signed up:	1
Prerequisite(s):	AI and/or Machine Learning would be useful but not essential
Description:	Recently, researchers in AI and computer games have created a car-racing game competition, with the aim of producing an AI-based controller than can learn to play the game well. The aim of this thesis project is to create and implement a controller for this car-racing software platform and hopefully enter the next competition. For more information see: http://cig.dei.polimi.it/?page_id=5
Further Information:	http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~marcusg

3 - What kind of Problem is Easy/Hard for this Optimizer?

Supervisor:	Marcus Gallagher	Project ID:	3
Research Group:	Complex and Intelligent Systems Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	AI/Cognitive Science Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	COMP3702 or COMP4702 useful but not essential
Description:	Metaheuristic research proposes all kinds of fancy algorithms for solving hard optimization problems. The aim of the project is to take the reverse approach to understanding the algorithm: given an algorithm, what kinds of problems are easy/hard to solve for that algorithm? I have a randomized problem generator that can be used in this project, and the project was also inspired by a recent journal paper that can be used as a key reference.

4 - Evaluation of a compression-based clustering algorithm

Supervisor:	Marcus Gallagher	Project ID:	4
Research Group:	Complex and Intelligent Systems Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	AI/Cognitive Science Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	COMP3702 or COMP4702 useful but not essential
Description:	The aim of this project is to evaluate a recently proposed machine learning algorithm that has impressive performance at clustering data. For more information see: http://www.complearn.org/ http://www.cwi.nl/~paulv/papers/tkde06.pdf

Ian Hayes

Office: 78-326
Phone: 52386
Email: ianh@itee.uq.edu.au

Software engineering; specification of computing systems; software development based on mathematical principles; real-time systems; fault-tolerant systems; concurrent systems. Research projects: * Description of real-time systems using time bands * Teleo-reactive programming real-time systems * Generation and analysis of fault-tolerant real-time systems * Real-time specification and refinement * Timing path analysis of real-time programs

Additional information: http://itee.uq.edu.au/~ianh

1 - Compiler code generator generator

Supervisor:	Ian Hayes	Project ID:	1
Research Group:	Systems and Software Engineering Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	COMP4403 (possibly as co-requisite)
Description:	Compilers are required to generate machine code for a range of machines, each with its own idiosyncratic instruction set. One approach to code generation is to use pattern matching to select instructions that are appropriate to implement a language construct. We'll start small with a simple programming language and a simple machine instruction set. This project will require advanced programming skills and preferably a knowledge of compilers, or at least you should be doing COMP4403 as a co-requisite.

2 - Static program analysis

Supervisor:	Ian Hayes	Project ID:	2
Research Group:	Systems and Software Engineering Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	COMP4403 (possibly as co-requisite)
Description:	Static program analysis is concerned with finding bugs or security loop holes in programs by analysing the code, e.g., to find potential references through a null pointer. It is closely related to program verification. This project will form part of a larger project with Sun Labs. For more details see the associated web page.
Further Information:	http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~ianh/Static_Analysis_Project.html

3 - Advanced programming for reactive/robotic systems

Supervisor:	Ian Hayes	Project ID:	3
Research Group:	Systems and Software Engineering Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Description:	Teleo-reactive programming takes a higher-level approach to real-time programming than standard languages. This allows quite complex systems that reactive to evolving environments to be programmed in a more straightforward manner. The project will develop some case studies in teleo-reactive programming along with animation of their behaviour, and techniques for implementing teleo-reactive programs efficiently.

Jadwiga Indulska

Office: 78-627
Phone: 52542
Email: jaga@itee.uq.edu.au

1 - Quality of Service in Wireless Mesh Networks

Supervisor:	Jadwiga Indulska	Project ID:	1
Research Group:	Ubiquitous Computing	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	Communications	Num. students signed up:	1
Prerequisite(s):	computer networks, C/C++ programming in Linux
Description:	This project will develop routing protocol extensions for Wireless Mesh Networks (WMN) using Network Simulator. The aim of the extensions is to provide better Quality of Service (QoS) communication over the wireless network than the current protocols. There are simulations of existing protocols (such as AODV: Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector) already available. The simulation will need to be extended to accommodate the proposed protocol extensions. The project also involves some simulation based protocol performance measurements. Background knowledge of computer networks is required in this project as well as C/C++ programming in Linux. For students with high GPA there will be an opportunity for a NICTA Honours scholarship for this project.

2 - Development of protocols for Wireless Mesh Networks

Supervisor:	Jadwiga Indulska	Project ID:	2
Research Group:	Ubiquitous Computing	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	Communications	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	computer networks, C/C++ programming on Linux
Description:	The goal of this project is to develop routing protocol extensions for Wireless Mesh Networks (WMN) and implement them on the WMN test-bed developed in NICTA. The aim of the extensions is to provide better Quality of Service (QoS) than the current WMN protocols. There are implementations of existing protocols (such as AODV: Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector) on the NICTA WMN test-bed already available. These implementations should be extended to accommodate the proposed extensions and some performance measurement should be carried out. Background knowledge of computer networks is required in this project as well as C/C++ programming in Linux. This project is only suitable for a high GPA student as it requires affiliation with NICTA. NICTA Honours scholarships are available for students with high GPAs.

Yuan-Fang Li

Office: 78-709:I
Phone: 54553
Email: liyf@itee.uq.edu.au

The Semantic Web, ontology languages, large-scale information systems, bioinformatics, software engineering

Additional information: http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~liyf/

1 - Developing a visual, intelligent browser for Linked Data

Supervisor:	Yuan-Fang Li	Project ID:	1
Research Group:	eResearch	Max. students:	2
Discipline(s):	Human Computer Interaction Multimedia Software	Num. students signed up:	1
Prerequisite(s):	Java, Javascript
Description:	The Linked Data initiative (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_Data) aims at connecting online data so that a person or software can explore the web by following links. This facilitates the discovery/query of data and knowledge in the open environment. Making use of Semantic Web (Web 3.0) technologies such as RDF and SPARQL, Linked Data represents a paradigm shift from the current document-centric web to a data-centric web. The current breed of Linked Data browsers are all text-based and clumsy in rendering large and media-rich data. The aim of this project is to develop an intelligent, visual browser for Linked Data, serving as an interface for exploring the Linked Data space.

2 - Improving the Efficiency of SPARQL Querying

Supervisor:	Yuan-Fang Li	Project ID:	2
Research Group:	eResearch	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	Java, RDF
Description:	The SPARQL query language is an essential component of the Semantic Web (Web 3.0) technologies. The SPARQL query language operates on RDF and provides a way to explore RDF documents. This project aims at investigating various ways of improving SPARQL query response time by employing optimization algorithms and heuristics.

3 - Extending RDF Molecules

Supervisor:	Yuan-Fang Li	Project ID:	3
Research Group:	eResearch	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	Java, RDF
Description:	RDF Molecules is an intermediate level of representation between RDF graphs and triples, providing a good granularity for transporting and exchanging RDF data online. This project aims at examining ways an RDF graph can be decomposed into molecules and proposing a general, flexible algorithm for decomposing and merging RDF molecules efficiently.

Bernard Pailthorpe

Office: 69-721 / 78-617
Phone: 56131
Email: bap@uq.edu.au

Scientific Visualisation - data analsyis - 3D graphics - scalable computer displays: OptIPortal - collaboration systems: Access Grid

Additional information: http://www.vislab.uq.edu.au and www.qcif.edu.au/

1 - Traffic Data System

Supervisor:	Bernard Pailthorpe	Project ID:	1
Research Group:	Data and Knowledge Engineering Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	Information Systems	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	database, web services, java
Description:	Construct a data system to pull available traffic data, from road agencies, into a relational database (eg MySQL), process queries on that data, and present via a web services stack to GUIs, such as Google Maps. (GUI side is subject of a separate traffic visualisation project).
Further Information:	http://www.vislab.uq.edu.au

Graeme Smith

Office: 78-315
Phone: 51625
Email: smith@itee.uq.edu.au

1 - 3D Animation of Programmable Matter

Supervisor:	Graeme Smith	Project ID:	1
Research Group:	Systems and Software Engineering Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	strong programming skills
Description:	Research on programmable matter, such as CMU’s claytronics project (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~claytronics/), aims to build 3-dimensional objects from collections of nano-scale devices with the ability to interact with each other and move using electrostatic forces. Aside from the physics associated with building such devices, one difficulty is how to program them since there is no means for centralised control. This project will build a 3D Animator (using Java 3D) for experimenting with algorithms which allow 3-dimensional shapes to be built from a collection of devices using only local interactions.

2 - A specification refactoring tool

Supervisor:	Graeme Smith	Project ID:	2
Research Group:	Systems and Software Engineering Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	Software	Num. students signed up:	1
Prerequisite(s):	CSSE2002/CSSE7023 required, COMP4603 desirable
Description:	This project will look at building a refactoring tool for an object-oriented specification notation such as Object-Z or JML (Java Modelling Language). The tool will enable software designers to interactively develop OO designs from high level requirements.

Paul Strooper

Office: 78-324
Phone: 51628
Email: pstroop@itee.uq.edu.au

1 - “Toolbox” to screen pharmaceutical data sets prior to modeling

Supervisor:	Paul Strooper	Project ID:	1
Research Group:	Systems and Software Engineering Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Description:	A motivated student is required for a joint project between ITEE and the School of Pharmacy. The project will focus on the further development of a “toolbox” to provide visualization and production of suitable summary statistics out of pharmaceutical data sets prior to starting modeling. This “toolbox” will be able to identify errors and potential outliers in the data sets. This is a critical step in reducing time in model development at an academic and industry level. An initial prototype of the toolbox was developed in a previous project, and this project will enhance the toolbox with additional features. This project has application within the University of Queensland and also within the Pharmaceutical industry internationally. The end aim would be for this product to be available either via a UQ website (or via Sourceforge) for download and use as freeware. It would be advantageous for the student if they had a good grasp of numerical methods and statistics. If possible we would like the product to be developed for use on any OS and preferably using freeware like R, JAVA. etc. The project will be co-supervised by Carl Kirkpatrick from the School of Pharmacy.

2 - Extending the Java Collections Framework

Supervisor:	Paul Strooper	Project ID:	2
Research Group:	Systems and Software Engineering Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	CSSE2002
Description:	The Java Collections Framework (JCF) was introduced as standard in JDK 1.2. Since then several sighnificant enhancements have been made including the introduction of generics and typed collections. As expected the collections framework includes interfaces (and associated classes) such as Set, Map, List, and others. The interfaces and classes provide access to set-based collections and operations. Notably, the Java Map class is not a descendant of the Java Set. From set theory we know that a map (or function) is a relation, which is descended from a set. The first part of this project examines the JCF and correlates classes and their methods to well-known matahematical structures and operations, respectively. The second part of this project involves a review of alternative and complementary frameworks, such as Apache Commons and Google's collections framework, to identify the features that have been introduced and/or improved upon (above the JCF). The third part of the project involves implementing a new framework by extending the JCF that is based on concepts grounded in set theory. This project will be co-supervised by Brad Long.

3 - Investigating the need for XML and annotations in Java frameworks

Supervisor:	Paul Strooper	Project ID:	3
Research Group:	Systems and Software Engineering Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Description:	Recent implementations of Java frameworks (e.g. Hibernate, Spring, JBoss Seam) rely heavily on XML and/or annotations for a variety of purposes. This project investigates the use of XML and annotations, and categorises their usage (e.g. configuration, dependency injection, declarative programming, etc.). The usage categories are compared to alternative existing programming techniques. For example, can a non-XML non-annotated Java persistence framework deliver equivalent (or better) power, flexibility and ease of use for the developer? If so, why has the Java community strayed down the path of annotations and heavily-laden XML scaffolds. This project will be co-supervised by Brad Long.

John Williams

Office: 78-613
Phone: 52185
Email: jwilliams@itee.uq.edu.au

1 - Software Emulator for MicroBlaze System-on-Chip

Supervisor:	John Williams	Project ID:	1
Research Group:	Ubiquitous Computing	Max. students:	3
Discipline(s):	Computer Systems Electronics Embedded Systems Systems Engineering	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	C Programming
Description:	MicroBlaze is a 32-bit embedded MicroProcessor implemented in programmable FPGA logic. System-onChip design tools permit the creation of complete embedded systems containing the CPU, peripheral and memory buses, IO controllers as well as custom processing hardware. QEMU is an open source CPU / system virtualisation and emulation system. It can be used to create virtual machines on an i386 host. Among the emulated architectures in QEMU is the MIPS CPU, which is architecturally similar to the MicroBlaze. The goal of this project is to add MicroBlaze as a supported CPU architecture in QEMU. At a minimum, the CPU itself should be emulated, as well as a basic collection of system-on-chip components such as a memory controller and simple serial port (UART). If the core project is succesfully completed, there are many possible extensions, such as creating interfaces to allow connection between the QEMU emulation and hardware simulation tools such as ModelSim. This would permit hybrid hardware/software simulation.

2 - Digital Signal Processing on GPGPU

Supervisor:	John Williams	Project ID:	2
Research Group:	Ubiquitous Computing	Max. students:	3
Discipline(s):	Computer Systems Embedded Systems Signal and Image Processing	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	C programming
Description:	Architecturally, modern Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) from vendors such as NVIDIA are highly parallelised multiprocessing machines. NVIDA has released the CUDA programming environment that provides a C-like programming model to write custom processing applications to run on the graphics accelerator. This kind of computing is known as GPGPU (General Purpose Processing on GPU). This is an open-ended project, with final goals dependent upon the skills and interestes of the students involved. After completing an initial exploration and familiarisation with the CUDA programming suite, an interesting application will be deciedd. One possibility is speech recognition, or some other signal or image processing algorithm.

Kirsten Winter

Office: 78-305
Phone: 51629
Email: kirsten@itee.uq.edu.au

1 - BeeTreeMee, An Automated Behaviour Tree Drawing Tool using Graphviz

Supervisor:	Kirsten Winter	Project ID:	1
Research Group:	Systems and Software Engineering Group	Max. students:	1
Discipline(s):	Software	Num. students signed up:	0
Prerequisite(s):	Java programming, practical software engineering,good communication skills, good time management skills
Description:	Behavior Tree (BTs) are a modeling notation for the modeling of requirements and behaviour of complex systems. They are useful to design airspace supervision systems, software and hardware on airplanes like the F. 111, automotive electronics, medical systems, and numerous other application areas. A prominent user of BTs is Raytheon. The amount of data describing a complete system can be quite substantial. BTs manage this complexity by projecting relevant aspects in tree-shaped diagrams (hence the name). In this project, the candidate will design a tool based on the Eclipse platform that automatically draws BTs from provided data.
Further Information:	http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~jgsuess/teaching/projects/it-projects08.html

COMP6803,COMP7801,MMDS6801 - Computer Science/IT/Multimedia Design Honours Project Commencing Semester 1 2009 Coordinator: Peter Robinson (pjr@itee.uq.edu.au)