My Research

Interested Research Areas:

My research interests are wide and varied, which in the past has not been traditional for academics. Traditionally, academics have spent large amounts of their time researching in a small specific area. Hence, I tend to have several research interests and am involved in many different aspects in the area of applying technology. I will attempt to describe and or link to them below.

Digital Humanities

This is a fairly new area of research for me but one that totally fascinates me. Seeing the possibility of using technology in the Humanities area is something I have wanted to babe in solved with for a long time.

A) This project aims to integrate different compounds of Geographic Information Science (GIS) such as spatio-temporality, and web-GIS along with semantic web concepts to explore cultural heritage landscapes and sites in Australia. The research will examine semantic annotation, ontologies, and vocabularies to represent cultural heritage data in a machine-readable format. The research will provide a methodology and proof-of- concept for a part-based annotation of 3D cultural heritage models, it will especially investigate annotating vague parts of digital 3D landscapes and sites. Furthermore, it will provide an exemplar, which integrates GIS and semantic web technologies to improve the exploration of Australian cultural heritage landscapes and sites.

I am supervising a PhD student in this project:

• Ikrom Nishanbaev: “Integrating GIS with Linked Open Data for Australian Cultural Heritage Sites Exploration“

B) Institute in Ancient Itineraries: The Digital Lives of Art History. I was part of what was about a 2 year “Institute in Digital Art History led by King’s College London’s Department of Digital Humanities (DDH) and Department of Classics, in collaboration with HumLab at the University of Umeå, with grant support provided by the Getty Foundation as part of its Digital Art History initiative”.

As Kings College London states: “The Ancient Itineraries programme, funded by the Getty Foundation as part of its Digital Art History initiative, sought to explore both senses of “Digital” as it applies to art history. The programme took the form of two meetings of researchers, academics and practitioners which brought together a very broad array of expertise. The first meeting was held at King’s College London, and the other at the Swedish Institute in Athens.“

Write ups about the two gatherings are linked below:

• Ancient Itineraries (2018) at King’s College London; and
• Ancient Itineraries (2019) at the Swedish Institute in Athens.

Australian Cultural Data Engine for Research, Industry and Government

The project aims to develop an Australian Cultural Data Engine (ACD-Engine), which will be an open software engineering facility that interacts with leading existing cultural databases in architecture, visual and performing arts, humanities, and heritage to build a bridge to information and social sciences. The ACD-Engine will unify and expand these disparate and previously unconnected systems to allow advanced analysis techniques to be performed. It will deliver innovative and searchable formats that ensure interoperability, improved search, interactive design and interpretation aids that will benefit the policy and planning for national and international alignments between researchers, industry and government.

This is an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded project which is a collaboration among researchers spread throughout Australia and parts of the world.

PATREC – Planning and Transport Research Centre

Is a collaboration of leading experts and researchers from the University of Western Australia, Curtin University, Edith Cowan University, Department of Transport, Main Roads Western Australia, Western Australian Planning Commission and the Western Australian Local Government Association.

My role in the project, I am the Chief Investigator for one of the projects based at Curtin University. What that really means is that I supervise Tristan Reed, who is an amazing researcher and software engineer, doing some fantastic stuff within the project.

The Use and Application of Spatial Data to Assist People on the Autism Spectrum:

In using spatial data and the techniques developed we are now using this in the area to assist people on the Autism Spectrum. I lead the project Enhancing the Capacity of Autistic People to use Public Transport. This is a project within the Autism Cooperative Research Centre.

A) Autistic individuals face social and cognitive difficulties that affect their ability to establish relationships, maintain employment and participate in community activities. The independent use of public transport systems can be difficult and anxiety evoking for autistic travellers.

The overall aim of this project is to address community mobility challenges experienced by young autistic adults by developing and pilot testing a trouble shooting technology solution and other resources to improve access to and use of public transportation. The public transportation project will involve three studies, each involving consultation with the research advisory group of autistic adults established through Curtin University.

I was lead supervisor for a PhD candidate working in this area:

• Mortaza Rezae: “A Software Engineering Approach to Promoting Public Transport Use for Individuals on the Autism Spectrum: The Development of an Intelligent Public Transport Mobile Application” (Completed)

B) People with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and related Social Communication Disorder (SCD) represent a large and growing group that present difficulties when communicating with others, both orally and in written form. The spectrum of the disorders are wide and the communication difficulties can change significantly between individuals. Some of those problems can become aggravated during anxiety events whereby disruptions or unexpected situations can cause a larger problem for the individual.

Human Communication Interfaces (HCI) have demonstrated to be helpful to aid in the communication process for people with ASD and SCD. These tools can be helpful in communicating and expressing feelings and thoughts. This research project aims to define and create a framework to provide a HCI to aid people with ASD and related SCD when they are going through transport disruptions and interpreting exam questions; events that may elevate the state of anxiety.

The PhD candidate I am supervising here is:

• Claudia De Los Rios Perez: “Integrated Web Accessibility Guidelines for Users on the Autism Spectrum – from Specification to Implementation”  (Completed)

C) There is limited research on how to successfully employ adults on the autism spectrum. As a consequence, individuals on the autism spectrum face significant disadvantages in the labour market. Drawing on data from numerous research studies, employers lack the knowledge, skills and confidence to successfully employ and support adults on the autism spectrum and as such, many adults on the autism spectrum are more likely to be unemployed or underemployed. Those who are employed are likely to risk being placed in roles that are not suitable for their needs and skills and/or in organisations where there is a lack of understanding and support.

Our project here aims to develop a support and training program to encourage employers to employ and support adults on the autism spectrum. Ultimately, this program aims to give employers the knowledge, skills and confidence required to successfully place and maintain these employees.

CONie: Open Standards design for improved road network information exchange

The project aims to design CONie: a draft digital open source performance-based construction contract specification for delivering road construction information to operational network asset management. The innovative project is at the leading edge of information management (BIM) for roads and will impact on several international standards. The objectives align with the Federal Government’s Digital Transformation Initiative and Austroads’ Asset Management up-grade priority. The outcome will be a common information exchange specification for all road agencies to standardise exchange of their assets data.

My research area in this project is scoping and leading the spatial positioning domain knowledge on the project. I’m responsible for guiding (1) methods for location break-down and location specific standards and use; (3) , CityGML (OGC); and (4) international standards setting through OGC Membership.

I am supervising one PhD candidate here:

• Michael Niestroj: “Utilising Semantic Web Technologies for Improved Road Network Information Exchange” (In progress)

Spatial Data and Semantic Web Technologies:

One area research started in the area of Spatial Data Infrastructures. As it developed it very rapidly moved into looking at how real time spatially enabled data may be delivered to users through the use of semantic web technologies. I commenced as the Senior Research Fellow working with Prof. Geoff West within Program 3 of the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information and as he stepped into retirement I took the lead.

In relationship to Program 3 of the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information I supervised the following PhD candidates:

• Jeremy Siao Him Fa: “A Brokering Approach to Federating Spatial Data in a Semantic Web Environment”  (Completed)
• Tristan Reed: “Improving Search and Discovery of Spatial Data using Spatial and Semantic Techniques” (In progress)
• Feiyan Yu: “Automatic Geospatial Data Conflation Using Semantic Web Technologies” (In progress)
• Premalatha Varadharajulu: “Automating Spatial Process with Semantic Web and Artificial Intelligence” (In progress)
• Muhammad Azeem Sadiq: “Spatial Data Supply Chain Provenance Modelling for Next Generation Spatial Infrastructures Using Semantic Web Technologies” (In progress)

Previous Research Areas

Intelligent Real Time Multi-Site Controller for Conserving Energy in Remote Areas and in the Resource Industry

This project aimed to develop solutions for reducing electricity demand and achieving demand response in remote regions of Australia through the use of cyber-physical systems, renewable energy, intelligent energy controllers and community based energy generation and trading. We proposed a cyber-physical system framework for ubiquitous monitoring of energy consumption and control of appliances through a web of things architecture, a new intelligent controller that dynamically managed the household electricity usage, and grouping electricity users into communities, where they could control the buying, selling and trading of energy locally.

This was the very first project I worked on post PhD.

My PhD Research

I examined the levels of comprehension software developers operated at while performing different software software development tasks. By being able to measure and quantify the comprehension levels they operated at I applied different software inspection technologies in novel ways to understand if this facilitates developers to operate at higher levels of comprehension that may lead to production of higher quality software.