Monash Infrastructure seeds 15 new infrastructure research projects
Monash Infrastructure seeds 15 new infrastructure research projects
Monash Infrastructure (MI) is investing $680,000 in 15 new interdisciplinary research projects that will be carried out by teams of researchers across Monash University in 2017. These projects are in diverse areas including public parks, supply chains, driverless cars, tram passenger safety, road network performance, resilient cities and hospital infrastructure.
The aim of the Monash Infrastructure Seed Fund is to seed new projects that will grow into bigger initiatives. Already the MI Seed Fund has leveraged $100,000 of funding from partners outside of Monash, demonstrating a good level of external engagement and relevance of our research.
The MI Seed Fund aims to build Monash’s research and innovation capacity to help the infrastructure sector, generate new partnerships with industry and government, build links between researchers in different disciplines and generate new knowledge. It is envisaged that this new knowledge will make a difference for governments, companies and individuals by helping to design, build and use infrastructure more efficiently, sustainably and in-line with the needs of the community.
The members of the Monash Infrastructure Seed Fund in 2017 were the Faculties of Arts, Engineering, Information Technology, Art Design and Architecture, Monash Business School and Monash University Accident Research Centre. Monash Infrastructure thanks these members for participation in the 2017 round.
Companies and government agencies are welcome to be involved in these projects. We will be hosting a showcase event for the projects towards the end of 2017. For more information contact infrastructure@monash.edu
Details of the 15 funded infrastructure research projects for 2017 are:
| Project title | Main theme | Project aims | Investigators |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visualising future resilient cities | Water | Take an interdisciplinary approach to develop a next-generation decision-support platform and accompanying stakeholder engagement processes that enable interactive explorations of virtual city environments under many different future scenarios. | Dr Christian Urich (Engineering), Dr Briony Rogers (Arts), Dr Tom Chandler (IT), Dr Tom Morgan (MADA), Prof. Kim Marriott (IT), Prof. Hai Vu (Engineering) |
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) based mapping of crop water stress | Water | Demonstrate the basis to automatically map crop water stress at high resolution using an autonomous UAV-based remote sensing system, important for water efficiency in agriculture. | Prof. Jeffrey Walker (Engineering), Dr Jan Barca (IT), A/Prof Nemai Karmakar (Engineering), Dr Francois Petitjean (IT) |
Design of next generation green desalination infrastructure | Water | Support the design of low-cost water desalination systems and provide a framework for desalination systems to play the role of an ancillary service to energy networks through energy storage. | Dr Rajab Khalilpour (IT), A/Prof. Xiwang Zhang (Engineering), Prof. Huanting Wang (Engineering), Dr Nigel Tapper (Science), Dr John Betts (IT), Dr Ariel Liebman (IT) |
| A feasibility study of the future of private transport in Australia | Transport | Research the likely widespread impacts of future technological disruptions in private travel and mobility. The project will cover injury prevention, new vehicle technology, vehicle design and engineering, driver behaviour, environmental impact, Information technology, increased efficiency and cost savings, and vehicle law and regulation. | Prof.Brian Fildes (MUARC), Prof. Geoff Rose (Engineering), Dr Selby Coxon (MADA), Prof. Jon McCormack (IT), Mr Scott Ferraro (Climate Works) |
| Visualisation for handling transport network disruptions | Transport | To develop an interactive visualisation for a decision support system that guides the selection and evaluation of potential strategies for managing traffic incidents. | Prof. Hai Vu (Engineering), Dr Pierre Le Bodic (IT), Dr Michael Wybrow (IT), Prof. Kim Marriott (IT) |
| The advanced electric bus system | Transport | Investigate how an Advanced Electric Bus System can facilitate a positive shift towards sustainable future infrastructure. | Dr Robbie Napper (MADA), Prof. Graham Currie (Engineering), Prof. Amrik Sohal (Monash Business School), Prof. Mark Wallace (IT), Dr David Burton (Engineering), Dr Selby Coxon (MADA) |
| High capacity train passenger crowding and behaviour visualisation | Transport | Advance simulation modelling to include highly nuanced human interactions and behaviour to generate new design approaches for railway stations and trains. | Dr Tom Chandler (IT), Dr Selby Coxon (IT), Dr Daniel Black (Arts) |
| A design intervention to mitigate unsafe behaviours when passengers board and alight from trams into traffic | Transport | Address the vulnerability of tram passengers boarding and alighting into the street. The objective is to use a design intervention to improve road user behaviours around trams, and thus reduce or stop completely the incidents of pedestrian accidents. | Dr Selby Coxon (MADA), A/Prof. Jennie Oxley (MUARC), Dr Gene Bawden (MADA), Dr Robbie Napper (MADA), Prof. Tim Horberry (MUARC), Prof. Graeme Hodge (Law) |
| Expanding the potential of SmartRoads to improve road network performance | Transport | Scope the potential to expand the implementation of network operating plans, such as SmartRoads, in Australasia and overseas. | Dr Alexa Delbosc (Engineering), Prof. Amrik Sohal (Monash Business School) |
| New generation of traffic speed deflectometer | Structures | Develop the fundamental principle of the next generation Traffic Speed Deflectometer, used in road inspections, and substantially lower the cost of this instrument. | Dr Chao Chen (Engineering), Prof. Wenhui Duan (Engineering), A/Prof. Cheng-Siong Lee (IT) |
| Towards nanoengineered hospital grade furniture with antibacterial surfaces | Structures | Study the feasibility of novel nanotechnologies and industrial design for antibacterial surfaces used in hospital inner spaces and furniture to enhance sanitation. | Dr Victor J Cadarso (Engineering), Prof. Mark Armstrong (MADA), Prof. Trevor Lithgow (Medicine) |
| Supply chain optimization: hierarchal sales time series clustering-assisted forecasting in a real-world big data environment | Planning & Management | Use state-of-the art sales forecasting techniques and data clustering analysis for supply chain optimisation. | A/Prof David Dowe (IT), Prof. Rob Hyndman (Monash Business School), Dr Christoph Bergmeir (IT) |
| Evidence-based infrastructure planning in South East Melbourne | Planning & Management | This project addresses the case for a major Victorian infrastructure investment, in the area of transportation and logistics in the first stage, widening to include modelling and optimisation analysis of other sectors | Prof. Amrik Sohal (Monash Business School), Prof. Mark Wallace (IT), Dr Daniel Harabor (IT) |
| Making public parks work effectively for communities and the environment | Planning & Management | Develop a comprehensive assessment index for governments and planners to use when establishing, refurbishing and maintaining public parks. The Smart Parks Index incorporates social, design, access and ecosystem elements. | A/Prof Jo Lindsay (Arts), A/Prof Rebecca Wickes (Arts), Dr Jonathon Smith (Arts), Prof Nigel Bertram (Arts), Ms Lee-Anne Khor (MADA), Dr Alexa Delbosc (Engineering), Dr Christian Urich (Engineering), Dr Kefeng Zhang (Engineering) |
| Self powered Monash IoT sensor network for air quality measurement in buildings and outdoor | Information & Communications | Develop a Monash IoT (Internet-of-Things) sensor platform for environmental monitoring. The platform will be able to monitor environmental and air quality parameters which are key variables that need to be collected to support the sustainable design and critical infrastructure in urban areas. | A/Prof. Mehmet Yuce (Engineering), Dr Christoph Rudiger (Engineering), A/Prof. David Taniar (IT), Dr Maria Indrawan-Santiago (IT), Dr Stephen Wang (MADA) |