News from the School of Computer Science

Two new Discovery grants and two new Linkage grants awarded for 2010

Two 2009 ARC Discovery Grants have been awarded to Computer Science staff:

DP1096053 Computational Intelligence Method for Financial Applications

Prof. Z Michalewicz; Prof R Zurbruegg; Mr A Ghandar
2010 $ 55,000 , 2011 $ 55,000 , 2012 $ 55,000

Complex financial problems can be better addressed with software that can learn from available data and adapt to environmental changes. It is therefore essential to develop technologies that enable prediction and optimisation in constrained and dynamic environments. There are currently some limitations in existing business decision support systems despite their ubiquity providing an opportunity for Australia to be at the forefront as new standards in the field are developed. Furthermore, the fund management industry (particularly superannuation) is significant to the Australian economy and development of this technology has the potential to enhance its performance and reputation.

DP1094764 Tracking targets in large scale surveillance camera networks

Dr AR Dick; Dr H Detmold; Prof P Torr
2010 $ 65,000 , 2011 $ 65,000 , 2012 $ 65,000

The research is expected to provide a significant boost in the effectiveness of safety and security measures for public facilities and open spaces that are monitored by surveillance cameras. The general public benefits from this through a decreased need for intrusive security measures, and increased deterrence of crime and anti-social behaviour. This capability is in demand worldwide for both public camera networks, whose usefulness is currently limited by the difficulty of monitoring them. We therefore anticipate considerable commercial interest in Australia and internationally.

LP100100791 Image searh for simulator content creation

Prof Anton J van den Hengel; Dr Anthony R Dick, Sydac Pty Ltd.
2010 $ 100,000.00 , 2011 $ 100,000.00 , 2012 $ 100,000.00

The World Wide Web contains tens of billions of images, with personal and industrial collections stretching to many times the number. The potential economic value of these image-based resources is enormous, but largely untapped as we have no practical way of recovering the images we need. This project will develop image search technologies which will allow Australian industry to exploit these important resources. Some of the wide variety of possible applications might include the searching of surveillance video for objects of inters, vision-based guidance of unmanned vehicles, smart-phone and smart-phone systems which understand their environments, and stock tracking systems which can detect spoilage.

LP100100792 Image searh for simulator content creation

Prof Anton J van den Hengel; Dr Anthony R Dick, Holopoint Interactive Pty Ltd, MONKEYSTACK
2010 $ 61,858.00 , 2011 $ 64, 000.00 , 2012 $ 65, 000.00

Allowing a user to model objects in the real world in real time greatly improves the efficiency of the large-scale modelling process. A user might thus generate a model of a city block by navigating it, construct a 3D model of a factory by traversing it, generate a simulation of an industrial process by carrying it out, or design a new building directly upon the space it will occupy. The augmentation of reality will be a critical component of the future of video cameras, computers and phones. The business opportunities associated with developing technologies in these areas offer significant prospects for Australian ICT industries.

Adelaide Student Wins Apple University Consortium Honours Scholarship

The Apple University Consortium has awarded Joshua Swee a $4,000 scholarship to support his Honours Project entitled "Developing Dynamic, Adaptive Service Based Systems Using Aspects and Rules". Joshua's project will explore aspect-oriented and model-driven technologies that allow business processes and rules to be modeled and intermixed in a high-level modeling language, which can then be automatically translated into an executable architecture.

Joshua is supervised by Dr Michael Sheng and Dr Jian Yu.

Only two students in Australia received this scholarship. A full list of the scholarship recipients and details of their projects are available on the AUC Website.

VideoTrace Wins People's Choice Award

VideoTrace, an interative scene-modelling system developed in collaboration with the School of Computer Science has won the Innovic Next Big Thing People's Choice Award.

The award, given to finalist voted by the public to be the most exciting innovation. VideoTrace allows users to quickly build realistic 3-D scene models from video data. It was authored by a team, headed by Professor Anton van den Hengel, at the Australian Centre for Visual Technologies, the School of Computer Science at the University of Adelaide and the Oxford Brookes Computer Vision Group in the UK.

For more information about VideoTrace see the project homepage at the Australian Centre for Visual Technologies.

Computer Science Researcher Wins at TopCoder Open

Yanbo Wu a Ph.D Student from the School of Computer Science has won the title of best component developer at the TopCoder open in Las Vegas this year.

Yanbo (TopCoder handle: assistant) won against a world-class field of developers over several rounds to crowned this year's champion. In the contest, competitors work to write the highest quality code to meet precise requirements in a timely manner.

For more information on the final and TopCoder in general see: the TopCoder Open website.

AUC Scholarships awarded to Computer Science Staff and Students

Congratulations to students Luke Toop who has been awarded Apple University Consortium scholarships to attend the 2009 Apple World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco in June.

The scholarships are awarded annually on a competitive basis. This year, 18 staff and 25 student scholarships were available nationwide. They cover conference registration and subsidise flights and accommodation, to a total value of approximately $5,000.

Computer Science Lecturer Wins Top Teaching Prize

Dr Katrina Falkner, a Lecturer in Computer Science has received Adelaide University's most prestegious teaching award, a 2008 Stephen Cole the Elder award for excellence in teaching. The prize is awarded by the University annually to academic staff whose teaching is regarded by students and colleagues as being of excellent quality.

This award is the latest in a series of recent awards recognising Katrina's excellence in Computer Science teaching including: a national Carrick citation, a Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence, and the Executive Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence.

Eight Computer Science students awarded Summer Scholarships for 2009

Congratulations to Ian Grunert and Kevin Liao who have been awarded University of Adelaide Summer Research Scholarship (2008-2009), and to George Sainsbury, John Tonkin, Alexis Sabarre, Tang Xin, Scott Novak and Lachlan Horne who have been awarded School of Computer Science Summer Research Scholarships (2008-2009).

These students will be working closely within research groups within the School of Computer Science, on topics ranging from Semantic Web Services, Implementing MANET Protocols, Exploiting Graphics Cards and Evaluating Software Designs.

Three new Discovery grants awarded for 2009

Three 2009 ARC Discovery Grants have been awarded to Computer Science staff:

DP0985723 The Next Step in Intelligent Decision-Support Systems (IDSS): Systems that Learn and Adapt

Prof Z Michalewicz
2009 : $91,000 , 2010 : $94,000 , 2011 : $96,000

This project will benefit Australia's scientific knowledge and technology base in the areas of evolutionary computation, business intelligence, and decision management. The outcomes will advance Australian companies and organisations, as many common yet complex business problems can be better addressed with systems that automatically learn and adapt to environmental changes. Such complex business problems include dynamic scheduling (in the manufacturing sector), resource allocation optimisation (in the defence, mining, and agriculture sectors), and network design optimisation (in the telecommunications and energy sectors).

DP0985063 Network Management in a World of Secrets

A/Prof M Roughan; Prof H Shen
2009 : $ 110,000 , 2010 : $ 95,000 , 2011 : $ 110,000

The aim of this proposal is to provide world leading measurement and management techniques for the Internet and other telecommunications networks. In particular, the methods will improve privacy of network participants (customers and providers) while simultaneously improving network performance. Additionally, the project will create expertise in an area of great future interest -- privacy preserving computation -- expertise that can be transferred to students and the next generation of innovators. Apart from these benefits, the research will provide exposure of Australian research strength in an area of world-wide public interest. Results concerning Internet reliability are of particularly high impact.

DP0988439 Combined shape and appearance descriptors for visual object recognition

A/Prof AJ van den Hengel; Dr AR Dick
2009 : $ 80,000 , 2010 : $ 60,000 , 2011 : $ 60,000

The quantity of video generated each year is expanding rapidly. This increasing volume of visual information means that it is more likely that any particular event will be recorded, but that the footage will be harder to find. This applies to a collection of home videos as much as to television and movie footage. The object-recognition method to be developed has the potential to alleviate this situation, in which vast amounts of video data are available but have little value. Such an outcome would be a boon for Australian industry and offer a valuable export opportunity.

New Professor appointed

We are delighted to welcome David Suter as Professor of Computer Science in the School of Computer Science at the University of Adelaide. Professor Suter was previously Professor of Computer Systems in the Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering at Monash University. Professor Suter's main research interests are Image Processing, Computer Vision, Video Compression and Wireless Transmission, Computer Graphics and Visualization, Data Mining and Artificial Intelligence. He has over 200 publications in these areas of which a significant proportion are in the highest ranked journals. He has attracted over $11M in national competitive grants including eight ARC grants as sole or lead investigator. He currently serves on the editorial board of three international journals: Journal of Mathematical Imaging and Vision; Machine Vision and Applications and the International Journal of Computer Vision. He was previously a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Image and Graphics.

In 2008 Professor Suter became a member of the ARC College of Experts in the Mathematics, Information and Communication Sciences discipline group. He has served as Vice-President of Monash University Academic Board and Associate Dean (Research and Development) for the Faculty of Engineering at Monash.

His appointment in our School will significantly strengthen the research of the Computer Vision research group and firmly establish it as the national leader in the field.

Computer Scientist Wins 2008 Excellence in Teaching Awards

Congratulations to Dr Cheryl Pope, who has been awarded both the 2008 ECMS Faculty Prize for Excellence in Teaching and the 2008 ECMS Executive Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

In addition to overall teaching excellence, these awards recognise Dr Pope's recent contributions to the courses Computer Networks and Applications and Mobile and Wireless Networks. These include heading a $36,000 grant funded partnership with Cisco Systems to provide students with hands on networking experience, and the establishment of ambitious, real world practical projects for MWN.

Computer Science Win Learning and Teaching Grant

Web Submission System Dr Fred Brown and Dr Brad Alexander, have been awarded one of the University of Adelaide's 2008 University Implementation Grants for Learning and Teaching Enhancement. The $40,000 grant will be used to implement an integrated web based assignment submission system.

The School of Computer Science has a number of ad-hoc web based applications that directly support learning and teaching. The most useful of these is a web based assignment submission system that requires students to use a version control system to look after their assignment work. The project will redesign and enhance the system in order to achieve the following:

Support for all University campuses in Adelaide and Singapore. The system will be available 24x7 to any student with an internet connection using freely available software that runs on all common operating systems.
Ease of understanding and use. Setting and testing of assignments by academic staff will be simple. Students will be able to easily make submissions receive marks and receive feedback. Where appropriate the marking and feedback will be immediate.
Support for Computer Science programming assignments. The system will be able to run immediate tests over student programming assignments in a secure manner that can quarantine any erroneous or malicious code that is submitted.
Support for industry best practice. Professional programmers and software engineers rely on version control systems to manage their projects, record all changes they make and record reasons for the changes. This system requires students to use the version control system, subversion.
Support for improved feedback to students. The web interface of the assignment submission system provides a convenient secure location where personal student feedback can be posted. Student feedback presented via the web interface becomes a permanent record that students and staff can revisit at a later date.
Support for more effective use of discussion forums. Access to the student version control system permits staff to be better informed when answering students' discussion questions.
Support for practical examinations. The system's ability to automatically test submissions and give immediate feedback in combination with the requirement to use subversion, provides the ability to run effective practical examinations.

Young ICT Professionals Conference Scholarships Available

The School of Computer Science is offering 10 registration scholarships for students to attend the 2008 International Young ICT Professionals Conference to be held in Adelaide, 28-30 May.

The Young ICT Professionals Conference provides young professionals, recent graduates and university students from all over the world with techniques, skills and confidence to advance their career in Information Communications Technology (ICT). Gain valuable insights into the ICT industry, network with fellow participants, speakers, sponsors, CIOs and potential future employers. Sponsors include Microsoft, Google, CSIRO and NICTA, and will feature talks by Didier Elzinga (CEO, Rising Sun Pictures), Alan Noble (Engineering Director, Google) and Steve Goddbee (CIO, IBM). More information about the conference can be found here: http://www.acs.org.au/youngit/2008conference/

The School of Computer Science is offering 10 scholarships for registration to the conference (individually valued at $199 for non ACS members, and $149 for ACS members), available to current undergraduate or postgraduate Computer Science students. Students must be currently enrolled in an undergraduate Computer Science degree (i.e. Bachelor of Computer Science, Bachelor of Computer Science (Software Engineering), Bachelor of Maths and Computer Science, Bachelor of Computer Graphics, Bachelor of Engineering (Software Engineering)) or a postgraduate Computer Science degree.

To apply, you must complete this form and lodge it with Reception, School of Computer Science by 4pm Friday 14th March.

Welcome 2008 International Students

The School of Computer Science held a welcome meeting for 2008 International students on 18 February 2008. Some graduates and senior fellow students were invited to give short presentations sharing their experiences and giving advice to the newcomers. Dr Brad Alexander also gave some advice on studying computer science courses.

The event was organized by Dr Li Jiang and Dr Michael Sheng.

Google Research Award

A Google Research Award value at us$40,000 has been won by a team of Computer Scientists from the Universities of Adelaide and New South Wales.

The team members are: Dr Brad Alexander, Dr Fred Brown, Dr Katrina Falkner and Professor Zbigniew Michalewicz of the University of Adelaide and Associate Professor Hossam el-Gindy of the University of New South Wales.

The aim is to create a curriculum to develop student's problem solving skills at all levels of University study and distribute this curriculum widely. The specific aim of this proposal is to develop, test, and distribute the first two courses in this curriculum to lay the foundation for the remainder. The curriculum has an emphasis on computing because computing problems pervade almost all modern endevours.

Mastery of problem solving requires exposure to good problem solving tactics and strategies; practice with many problems; fast and useful feedback; and, importantly, re lection. To meet these requirements within the practical constraints of a University environment, namely, large classes and few teachers, all courses in the curriculum will be carefully designed to maximise the following:

Student motivation: Keeping the problems and content engaging to encourage student to practice themselves.
Automation: Using easy-to-use processes and tools to improve feedback and responsiveness.
Student community: Encouraging students to teach each other and reflect with others.

Another key design principle is portability - the aim is make the setting up, running, and refinement of these courses as straightforward as possible. This curriculum is of most value if it isn't tied to one place and time.

The first course in the series, Puzzle Based Learning, will taught at the University of Adelaide in 2009 by world renowned AI researcher and puzzle lover Professor Zbigniew Michalewicz.

Computer Scientist Wins Excellence in Teaching Awards

Dr Katrina Falkner, a Lecturer in Computer Science, has won two teaching awards. Each year the Faculty of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences, presents some of its best teachers with Awards for Teaching Excellence and the best of the best also receive the Executive Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence. In 2007 Dr Katrina Falkner has recieved both Awards.

In addition to her Computer Science research as an active member of the Jacaranda Research Group, Katrina is also interested in Education research. In 2006 she completed the Grad Cert in Education (Higher Education), which examines different approaches to teaching in a University environment. She is a founding member of ERGA (Education Research Group of Adelaide), which coordinates Learning and Teaching activities across the University of Adelaide. In 2007, ERGA held the 2nd ERGA Conference: Assessment that Works, building on the previous year's successful ERGA conference, Building Higher Education that Works: Methods and Results.

New Links With Top Chinese Department of Computer Science

Computer Science has recently established a collaborative arrangement with one of the top three Computer Science Departments in China. The Computer Science and Technology Department of Tsinghua University is one of the top 3 Computer Science departments in China (ranked the top in 2006). It is also one of the largest Computer Science departments in China, comprising 4 research institutes and 1 state key lab.

The collaboration agreement enhances existing links between The University of Adelaide and Tsinghua University. Among the goals of the agreement:

It will provide support for Tsinghua students to undertake PhDs in Adelaide,
Staff and senior PhD students will undertake extended exchange visits,
Annual workshops will be co-hosted and alternate between Tsinghua and Adelaide, and
Staff will be encouraged to work on joint research projects.

The longer term goal is to establish a collaborative research centre in a key research area of mutual interest.

Pictured at the signing of the agreement are (from the left): A/Prof. Chen Wenguan (Tsinghua), Prof. Lin Chuang (Tsinghua), Prof. Hong Shen (Adelaide), Prof. Sun Maosong (Chair of CST, Tsinghua), Prof. Fu Jianhua (Vice Chair of CST, Tsinghua).

Premier's Science and Research Fund Grant

The Australian Centre for Visual Technologies, Tenix Defence, DSTO, and Rising Sun Pictures have been awarded a Premier's Science and Research Fund grant to develop a Visual Technologies Laboratory. The PSRF will provide $750,000 over 3 years towards the project, with partner contributions bringing the total grant amount to over $1.6 million.

This project will establish a state-of-the-art Visual Technologies Laboratory for research into the production and analysis of visual digital media based in South Australia. The Laboratory will provide a mechanism for generating both the world-class technologies and the skilled workforce required by the next generation of digital content-based industries. The Visual Technologies Laboratory will provide the infrastructure, focus and leadership in research required to establish South Australia as the focal point of Australian visual technologies industries. The capabilities to be provided will be invaluable to the Defence, Film and Television Production, Computer Games, Video Surveillance, Mobile Content and ICT industries amongst a host of others. These industries are unified by their dependence on visual digital media, and the fact that constant innovation is vital to their ongoing growth. These industries also represent an important opportunity for South Australia to leverage existing capabilities in order to take part in the rapidly expanding new economies surrounding digital content. This dynamic sector of the economy is largely immune to issues of geographic separation and thus offers a significant opportunity for growth in exports for South Australia.

Major Research Grants for Computer Science

Researchers in Computer Science have won four highly prestigious research grants funded by the Australian Research Council. The four grants worth over $926,000 are:

Enhanced parameter estimation for multi-component fitting in computer vision

Chief Investigator: Prof MJ Brooks
Funding 2008 : $85,000 , 2009 : $85,000 , 2010 : $80,000

This project will benefit Australia's scientific knowledge and technology base in the area of computer vision. By contributing improved methods for parameter estimation applicable to a wide variety of technical problems, the project will aid the generation of improved software products in a wide variety of domains. Examples include: augmented reality systems, with which virtual reality artifacts may be immersed within real video; behaviour analysis in surveillance, in which complex, articulated 3D object motions may be characterised.

A Platform for Rapid and Flexible Development of Context-Aware Web Services

Chief Investigator: Dr M Sheng
Funding 2008 : $75,118 , 2009 : $72,118 , 2010 : $69,118

Context awareness is one of the most exciting trends in computing today, and it holds the potential to make our daily life more productive, convenient and enjoyable. The proposed project will produce a comprehensive platform for developing context-aware Web services, which will facilitate ready implementation of many innovative applications and make important contributions to Australian society and the national economy. One such application is an intelligent seniors assistance service that will improve quality of life for senior citizens while helping them maintain an independent lifestyle. This project will also place Australia at the forefront of Web service development.

Towards Scalable, Internet-Based RFID Traceability Networks

Chief Investigators: Dr M Sheng; Prof PH Cole
Funding 2008 : $80,000 , 2009 : $80,000 , 2010 : $75,000

Food and drug safety is a major public health issue in Australia. Recent events involving poisoning of chocolate bars and paracetamol tablets in Australia have demonstrated the urgent need for improved ways of locating and recalling commercial products that have been released into the community. This project will develop novel techniques for locating items in large-scale distribution networks driven by RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology. The outcomes of the project will make it easier to rapidly and accurately pinpoint product locations in the event of problems such as an illness outbreak due to contaminated food or counterfeited drugs.

Interactive 3D modelling from video

Chief Investigators: Dr AJ van den Hengel; Dr P Torr
Funding 2008 : $80,000 , 2009 : $75,000 , 2010 : $70,000

Many industry sectors are becoming increasingly reliant on the production of 3D models from imagery. These models are used for purposes such as video post-production, virtual reality, reverse engineering, 3D medical imaging, planning and simulation. By developing technologies and expertise in these areas, and particularly in model generation, within Australia, the research team aim to provide a capacity of significant value to Australian industry and a valuable export opportunity.

Computer Scientist Appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Strategy)

Professor Mike Brooks' appointment as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Strategy) follows on from his appointment as Chair of the Research Quality Framework Board at the University of Adelaide. The RQF Board was established in 2007 to oversee the University's preparation for Australia's first research assessment exercise, scheduled for introduction in 2008.

At the time of his appointment to the RQF Board, Professor Brooks was head of the School of Computer Science, where he holds the Chair in Artificial Intelligence.

He is a leading international researcher in computer vision and image analysis and has published over 100 articles in the field. His work has seen wide commercial utilisation and has resulted in international awards in the area of video surveillance.

Professor Brooks served for eight years on various Australia Research Council Discovery Grant committees. From 1992-2006 he was a Program Leader within the Cooperative Research Centre for Sensor Signal and Information Processing. He is a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society and an associate editor of the International Journal of Computer Vision.

Google Presentation for Secondary School Students

When & Where

Friday September the 14th 2007 at 6pm
Union Hall Building
The University of Adelaide North Terrace

Do not miss this presentation delivered by Alan Noble, the Director of Google Australia and New Zealand. Alan graduated from The University of Adelaide and is responsible for managing and growing Google's Engineering, Research & Development centre in Sydney.

Come along to learn more about the future of ICT, how the landscape for commerce and the internet is changing and the exciting opportunities that will be available to students who graduate from ICT degrees over the next few years.

To attend, please register for this event or contact Kirby Gagliardi.

Puzzle Based Learning

Starting in 2009, the School of Computer Science will offer a new course on Puzzle Based Learning, taught by world renowned AI researcher and puzzle lover Prof. Zbigniew Michalewicz. To promote the course, some puzzles were posed to future students at Open Day. And now, as promised, here are the solutions!

New Degree in Computer Graphics

Starting in 2008 a new undergraduate degree in Computer Graphics will be offered by the School of Computer Science and the School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture & Urban Design. This innovative program will combine essential Computer Science skills with a practical foundation in Design Studies and Digital Media providing students with both the technical and artistic skills required within this field.

Shortage of IT Graduates

Australia is continuing to experience a shortage of IT graduates despite increasing demand according to a recent report in ITWire.

Student Successes in Singapore

Congratulations to the 26 new Bachelor of Computer Science graduates from the Ngee Ann Adelaide Education Centre in Singapore. Pictured here after the Singapore graduation ceremony are a few of the graduates along with the Acting Head of Computer Science, Associate Professor David Munro.

Adelaide Student Wins Apple University Consortium Honours Scholarship

The Apple University Consortium has awarded Sam Pohlenz a $4,000 scholarship to support his Honours Project entitled "Development of Context-Aware Web Services". Previous research in this area has explored how the notion of traditional Web services can be extended by incorporating 'context' information - that is, data that can be used by the Web service to adapt itself in order to give more intelligent and more personalised results. Sam's project will focus on building a toolset that can be used to develop these context-aware services so that they can then be deployed into a working environment.

Sam is supervised by Dr Michael Sheng. A full list of the scholarship recipients and details of their projects are available on the AUC Website.

Google Visits Adelaide

Google will be on campus at the University of Adelaide on Friday 23rd March. Come meet Google Sydney's Site Engineering Director Alan Noble and find out:

How does Google deal with massive amounts of data?
What cool applications can Google build with that data?
What does Google's Sydney Engineering Centre do? (and is it true there's free food)

In this talk, Alan will answer these and other technical questions, offering a glimpse of Google behind the scenes. You will find out how Googlers work, play and change the world...

Where:Napier Lecture Theatre 102, Napier Building, North Terrace.
When:3.10 to 4pm, Friday 23 March 2007.
To Attend:www.google.com.au/adelaide-talk

Two Successful Learning and Teaching Development Grants

The University of Adelaide's Learning and Teaching Committee allocated $150,000 for 2007 to fund Learning and Teaching Development Grants aimed at improving learning and teaching outcomes in the University. Applicants from the School of Computer Science have been successful in attracting almost $60,000 of this funding for innovative teaching projects.

Congratulations to Katrina Falkner and Brad Alexander (with Edward Palmer (CLPD), Joy McEntee (Humanities), Said Alsarawi (Electrical Engineering), Michelle Coulson, James Botten and Lynn Rogers (Science)) for their success in gaining funding for their project entitled: "Evaluating effectiveness, defining standards and sharing effective methods of assessment across disciplines". The grant is valued at $32,071

Congratulations also to Cheryl Pope and Henry Detmold (with Matt Roughan (Maths)) for their success in gaining funding of their project entitled: "Leveraging an industry partnership to enhance the computer networking student experience". The grant is valued at $27,440

Computer Scientist to Head Research Quality Board

Professor Mike Brooks, Head of Computer Science, has been seconded to the position of Chair of the University's Research Quality Framework Board. The Federal Government is introducing the Research Quality Framework, RQF, as a mechanism for distributing funds to Universities on the basis of research excellence. Professor Brooks' extensive experience in research leadership will help guide the development of the University's submission.

For the remainder of 2007, the School of Computer Science will be led by Associate Professor David Munro in the role of Acting Head supported by Dr Fred Brown in the role of Acting Deputy Head. Associate Professor Munro will retain his role of Associate Dean (IT) during this period.

International Workshop on Parameter Estimation for Computer Vision Problems

The Australian Centre for Visual Technologies is hosting the The International Workshop on Parameter Estimation for Computer Vision Problems. A series of talks will be presented including the following (contact acvt@acvt.com.au for times and locations):

Object Recognition Beyond the Visible Spectrum.
Dr. Antonio Robles-Kelly, National ICT Australia, Canberra
Trace ratio problems revisited.
Dr. Chunhua Shen National ICT Australia, Canberra
Statistical Optimization for Geometric Fitting: Theoretical Accuracy Bound and High Order Error Analysis.
Kenichi Kanatani Department of Computer Science, Okayama University, Japan
Fast Projective Reconstruction: Toward Ultimate Efficiency.
Kenichi Kanatani Department of Computer Science, Okayama University, Japan

Closing the credibility gap

Having recently published a book on the subject, Matthew Michalewicz appeared in an Australian Financial Review article discussing ways in which businesses can establish credibility. The complete article is available here.

New Lecturers Join School

The School welcomed two new lecturers in November 2006, Dr Michael Sheng (left) and Dr Li Jiang. Michael is an expert in web services and pervasive computing and was previously at CSIRO's ICT Centre in Canberra. Li Jiang is an expert in decision support for software engineering and has just come from University of New Brunswick in Canada. Both will play an important role in the School's software engineering teaching and research.

Adelaide student takes on world in design contest

School of Computer Science student Patrick Coleman has finished third in the software component design category in one of the world's top programming events. Patrick was one of only eight students, from a field of over 700 competitors, qualifying to compete in the Component Design final of the 2006 TopCoder Collegiate Challenge.

The final, a gruelling three-day event, required the contestants to create detailed designs for new and challenging software components each day. The contest attracted widespread interest with AOL broadcasting events live on the final day from the contest venue in San Diego.

Patrick, who is also a member of the South Pacific Champion team for the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest in 2006, will now prepare for the 2007 final of the ACM Contest in Tokyo next March.

Patrick Patrick

ICT salaries up 12%

The Ambition Technology Market Trends and Salaries Report: Summer 2007 estimates that ICT salaries have increased by an average of 12% in the last 6 months, as demand for IT professionals outstrips supply. More details here.

Tsinghua University delegation visits Adelaide

The University of Adelaide received a high-level delegation from China's top rating Tsinghua University in late November 2006. The two universities aim to develop collaborative and exchange links at both the staff and student levels. Pictured below is Professor CUI Guowen, Director of COACE, Tsinghua University, along with Mike Brooks. Computer Science's Prof Hong Shen will visit Tsinghua in December 2006 to undertake further discussions.

Student prizes 2006

Congratulations are due to the following students who were awarded prizes for 2006 in the following categories:

Best Poster - Honour/Masters Project
Winner of Apple iPod Prize: Simeon Nasilowski
Honourable Mention ($50 book voucher each) to Smarom Chantratri, An Zhao, John Millard

Best Poster - Mobile & Wireless Networks
The following students each won a $50 book voucher: Vlad Stefan, James Brooks,Ekim Kocadag

ACM Programming Competition - Winners Australia and New Zealand
$50 book vouchers and world finals travel contribution went to: Alex Flint, Patrick Coleman, Khang Thoai Tran

Computer Graphics Project
Winner of project prize (Apple iPod): Tawan Achavanuntakul

Winner of Rising Sun prize (DVD set): Adam Masters

Prof. Michalewicz appointed SA Ambassador

Congratulations to Professor Zbigniew Michalewicz on his recent appointment as a Business Ambassador for the State of South Australia. The main responsibility of the appointee is to promote South Australia as a wonderful place to live, be educated, visit, work, invest and do business. "I am sure Professor Michalewicz will make an outstanding addition to our program," said Hillary Hurrell, Director, South Australian Business Ambassadors Network (SABAN). The SABAN program was an inaugural project of SA Business Vision 2010 and it provides an important rallying point for business, academic and community leaders committed to making a difference to the future of the State.

PhD Scholarship with the DHPC group

The Distributed High Performance Computing group is offering a PhD scholarship for 3 years commencing in 2007. The project is in the area of performance modelling and prediction of parallel networks and algorithms. Further details are available here.

Honours/Masters projects on display

Computer Science Honours and Masters students recently showcased their projects to staff members from across the Faculty, and representatives from local industry. The presentations were the culmination of a year's work and were of a very high standard. Congratulations to all involved!

New ARC Discovery Grant awarded, 2007-2009

DP0770482 Prof MJ Brooks; Dr AR Dick
Title: Automated acquisition of surveillance-camera network topology
2007: $67,000
2008: $67,000
2009: $67,000
Category: RFCD 2802 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND SIGNAL AND IMAGE PROCESSING
Administering Institution: The University of Adelaide

Project Summary
The development of an automated system for acquisition of camera network topology is a crucial prerequisite to obtaining intelligent surveillance systems operating at the network level. Such systems will contribute improved methods for safeguarding Australia from terrorism and crime by facilitating the tracking of suspicious individuals and vehicles, and detecting anomalous behaviours in busy environments. The leading-edge techniques involved will also constitute smart information use of significant commercial value to Australian industry.

Online IT job ads soar

The Age reports that online job ads have reached a record high, with IT job ads growing particularly strongly.

From the article:

Olivier Group director Robert Olivier said that the IT industry leaped ahead during the month after steadily gaining ground over the last few months.

"Technology once again is becoming the sort of sexy industry it was in the late '90s," he said.

...

Online job ads in the IT and telecommunications sector rose by 4.6 per cent in September from the previous month, while the multimedia internet and graphics sector soared 17.1 per cent, and a massive 90.75 per cent since September last year.

Mr Olivier said the sector was tipped to keep growing, with the industry functioning generally untouched by higher interest rates and petrol prices.

Adelaide Team Crowned Australian Champions - Again

A School of Computer Science student team has won the title of Australian Champions for the second year running in the world's most prestigious ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest. The team - comprising Patrick Coleman, Alex Flint and Khang Tran - solved an astounding 8 out of 10 complex problems in the 5 hour session to take first place in a highly competitive field of 80 teams from the best universities across Australia and New Zealand. The team will now represent Australia at the world final to be held in 2007.

Summer scholarships 2006/7

The University of Adelaide runs a summer research scholarship programme for undergraduate students who are interested in the prospect of future postgraduate study and research. The School of Computer Science will match the living allowance offered by the university to successful applicants, bringing the total stipend to $300 per week. Details on the scheme and how to apply are available here. Details of the research projects available in Computer Science are listed here. If you are interested in a project or research area that is not listed, please get in touch with a staff member with relevant research interests.

New professor appointed

We are delighted to announce that Hong Shen will join the School of Computer Science at the University of Adelaide as Professor of Computer Science in October 2006. He received his B.Eng. degree from Beijing University of Science and Technology, M.Eng. degree from University of Science and Technology of China, Ph.Lic. and Ph.D. degrees from Abo Akademi University, Finland, all in Computer Science. He has extensive academic experiences internationally including 9 years service at Griffith University (Australia) from Lecturer to Professor and 5 years service at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology as Professor and Chair of the Computer Networks Laboratory. With main research interests in parallel and distributed computing, algorithms, high performance networks, data mining and multimedia systems, he has published more than 200 papers, including over 100 papers in major journals such as a variety of IEEE and ACM Transactions.

Prof Shen has received over 10 research grants, including national competitive grants from the Australian Research Council (ARC), Japan Society for Promotion of Sciences (JSPS) and Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). He was a core member and stream coordinator in the JSPS 21st Century Centre of Excellence "Verifiable and Evolvable e-Society" led by Prof. T. Katayama. Prof Shen has been an editor/associate editor/editorial-board member for 7 international journals; chaired numerous international conferences; served on Program Committee for more than 100 international conferences. He was the co-recipient of the1991 National Education Commission Science and Technology Progress Award and 1992 Sinica Academia Natural Sciences Award.

PhD project opportunities with Prof Shen are listed here.

2006 Google Anita Borg Scholarship

The Google Anita Borg scholarship is a $5000 scholarship for the 2007 academic year. Female students studying Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering or related technical fields are eligible to apply. The deadline is Friday, September 15, 2006. More details are available at www.google.com.au/anitaborg.

Affordable Adelaide

Statistics from the Economist Intelligence Unit released this week show that it costs 18% less to live in Adelaide than Australia's most expensive city, Sydney. Melbourne is 17% more expensive and it costs students 6% more to live in Brisbane and Perth. (Main story)

"Winning Credibility" book launch

Matthew and Zbigniew Michalewicz launched their new book "Winning Credibility: A Guide for Building a Business from Rags to Riches" (www.credibility.com.au) at a recent American Chamber of Commerce event at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. In attendance were many leading figures from the local academic and business community, including the Vice Chancellor and President of Adelaide University, Dr James McWha, the CEO of Playford Capital, Ms Amanada Heyworth, and the Chairman of the Venture Capital Board, Dr Roger Sexton. The book is currently number 1 in the Dymocks best seller list, published in the Advertiser on August 5 2006.

Matthew is a Visiting Fellow at the School of Computer Science and teaches the Masters course "Commercialising IT Research". Zbigniew is Professor of Computer Science at the school.

Book Launch
Photograph by award-winning photographer Richard Humphrys (www.RichardHumphrys.com.au)

Uni Adelaide highly ranked for research

The University of Adelaide is at the forefront of Australian universities when it comes to research, according to a paper published this week. The paper, 'Ranking and Clustering Australian University Research Performance, 1998-2002' lists the University of Adelaide as #2 in the national research rankings based on research output per academic staff member. The full table is available here.

Student awarded Apple scholarship

Computer Science PhD student Peter Nguyen has been awarded an Apple University Consortium scholarship to attend Apple's WWDC conference in San Francisco in August, 2006. WWDC, the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference, provides an opportunity to review latest Apple technology and discuss technical advances with Apple engineers.

Adelaide Team Crowned South Pacific Champions

A team of students from the School of Computer Science has won the title of South Pacific Champions in the world final of the International Collegiate Programming Contest. The final, held this April in San Antonio Texas, brought together 83 teams who qualified from over 6000 teams from 1733 universities in 84 countries. The University of Adelaide Team - made up of Patrick Coleman, Alex Flint, and Khang Tran - successfully answered two questions, during the gruelling five-hour test of programming skill, ranking them in the middle of the elite field and earning them the title of South Pacific Champions.

Preparations are now underway for next year's contest. If you are a student of the University of Adelaide and you are interested in competing please contact Brad Alexander for more information.