Day 1
3 September 2024
Day 2
4 September 2024
Location
UNSW Canberra at ADFA

Overview

The SET & SYSCOM HDR/ECR conference is an annual event held to showcase the latest ​research from post-doctoral fellows and HDR students. This year, the conference will take ​place on September 3–4, 2024, at UNSW Canberra at ADFA. It will feature parallel sessions ​organised thematically by research areas. Students and academics are welcome to attend, and ​registration and attendance are free.

Supervisors, please encourage your HDR students and postdoctoral fellows/associates to take ​advantage of this opportunity and participate in the conference. Presentation skills are crucial ​in both the research and industrial engineering worlds, making this the perfect chance for ​your HDR students and early-career researchers to gain invaluable experience.

The program will feature presentations and posters from the following themes:

School of Engineering and Technology:

  • Aeronautical Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Civil Engineering
  • Electrical Engineering

School of Systems and Computing:

  • Computer Science
  •  Cyber Security

Program

Day 1 | 3 September 2024 (Tuesday) | UNSW Canberra at ADFA

9:00 – 10:00

Registration (LT07, Building 32)

10:00 – 10:30

(LT07, Building 32)

Opening Ceremony (HoS/Associate Dean Research)

10:30 – 11:30

(LT07, Building 32)

Keynote lecture 1: Dr Jo Plested

Deep learning and transfer learning for complex datasets

11:30 – 12:00

(SR07 / Open foyer)

Morning Tea / Poster Session (SysCom & SET)

 

HDR/ECR Presentation Sessions

 

Aeronautical

(LT06)

Computer Science / Cyber Security

(LT07)

12:00 – 12:15

A1 |Spatially Parallel Collision Scheme for Implementing DSMC in FPGAs - Saleen Bhattarai

S1 | Knowledge Representation for Human-Swarm Teaming - Noha Abuaesh

12:15 – 12:30

A2 | Scaling of separation length in conical shock wave boundary Layer interactions - Bikalpa Bomjan Gurung

S2 | Graph based Anomaly Detection Approaches for Intrusion Detection - Nimesha Dilini Egodawaththa Arachchige

12:30 – 12:45

A3 | Unsteady wake behind a cylinder in a supersonic flow - Akshay Kumar Nandhan

S3 | A Two-Stage Model of Carbon Gaming and Multi-Objective Optimization in Global Supply Chains under Diverse Carbon Policies - YIFAN XIN

12:45 – 13:00

A4 | A Numerical Method for Compressible Flows using Immersed-Boundary Lattice Boltzmann Method - VIGNESHWARAN RAJENDRAN

S4 | Optimizing and Predicting Swarming Collective Motion Performance for Coverage Problems Solving - Reda Ghanem

13:00 – 14:00

(SR07 / Open foyer)

Lunch / Poster Session (SysCom & SET)

14:00 - 15:00

(LT07, Building 32)

Keynote lecture 2: Bernard Edwards

From Theory to Practice: Applying Business Acumen for Real Results

HDR/ECR Presentation Sessions

 

Aeronautical

(LT06)

Computer Science / Cyber Security

(LT07)

15:00  – 15:15

A5 | Enhancing Civilian Pilot "Mission" Projection Using Modern Flight Simulators - Alexander Somerville

S5 | Towards Efficient Human-Swarm Teaming in Dynamic Environments Using Situation Awareness - Wasura Wattearachchi

15:15  – 15:30

A6 | Bio-Inspired Flight for Martian Exploration - Nathan Widdup

S6 | A Nature-inspired Robotic Perception and Control Pipeline (NRPCP) - Abhi Veda 

15:30 – 16:00

(SR07 / Open Foyer)

  Afternoon Tea / Networking

 

Day 2 | 4 September 2024 (Wednesday) | UNSW Canberra at ADFA

9:00 - 10:00

(LT07, Building 32)

Keynote Lecture 3:  Dr Rahul Shome

Planning through research:  Perspectives of a researcher in robotic planning

10:00 – 10:30

(SR07 / Open Foyer)

Morning Tea  

10:30 – 11:30

(LT07, Building 32)

Keynote Lecture 4: Dr Pascal Bercher

Reducing the Complexity of Success in Academia: A Guide for Young Researchers

HDR/ECR Presentation Sessions

 

Civil

(LT06)

Electrical

(LT07)

Mechanical / Electrical

(LT08)

11:30 – 11:45

C1 | Dynamic response and energy absorption of Fractal inspired porous structures - Madhusha Rukshan Bogahawaththa Piladuwa Bogahawaththage

E1 | Distributed Charging Scheduling and Pricing Strategy for Plug-in Electric Vehicles Based on Stackelberg-Nash and Multi-Cluster Aggregative Games - Yuhao Jing

M2 | Improving the ballistic performance of light-weight polymer composite body armour - Donna Capararo

11:45 – 12:00

C2 | On the boundary conditions for Lagrangian plastic transport models - Charuni Wickramarachchige

E2 | Enhancing Prosumer Engagement in Electricity Markets: A Novel Participatory Framework - Ashish Kumar Karmaker

M3 | Effects of aspect ratio on the incipient motion of plastics in open-channel flows - Felipe Condo

12:00 – 12:15

C3 | Predictive Modeling and Visualisation of Blast Loading on Structures Using Explainable Machine Learning Frameworks - Chamodi Widanage

E3 | Bistable Origami for Reconfigurable Acoustic Metalens  - Hai Le

E5 | ResNet-Lite: On Improving Image Classification with a Lightweight Network - Md Shahriar Shakir Sumit

12:15 – 12:30 M1 | Analysis of micro injection and drilling systems of insects for application in targeted drug delivery - Yuvan Kamalakanthan  E4 | Optimal Control of Battery Energy Storage Systems using Learning-Based Approaches  -Alaa Selim E6 | Cascaded duct unit cell capable of independent phase and group delay control for broadband acoustic metalenses - Dingcheng Yang

12:30 – 13:30

(SR07 / Open Foyer) 

Lunch / Social Networking / Poster Session

13:30 – 14:30 

(LT07, Building 32)

Keynote Lecture 5: Dr Olga Zinovieva

Navigating Early-Career Success: Insights on the ARC DECRA application, building collaborations, and crafting a research profile

14:30 – 15:00

(LT07, Building 32)

Celebrating Excellence: Closing Ceremony and Awards

15:00 – 15:30 

(SR07 / Open Foyer) 

Afternoon Tea / Social Networking

Posters

  • P_M1 | Advancing Bone Repair with 3D Printing: A Load-bearing Capability Study of Implants - Kaushik Raj Pyla
  • P_M2 | Shock Wave Propagation in Unidirectional CFRP at Different Orientations - Suman Shah
  • P_S1 | Knowledge Representation for Human-Swarm Teaming - Noha Abuaesh
  • P_S2 | Multimodal Interaction in Human Swarm Teaming using Digital Twins - Ettilla Mohiuddin Eumi
  • P_C1 | Modelling of Transient Wind Pressure on a Tall Building Using Machine Learning - Pasindu Piumal

Awards

The following awards will also be presented at the conference for each school:

  • Best Oral Presentation Award.
  • Best Oral Presentation Award in each Discipline.

Conference Best Poster Award

Keynote speakers

Dr Jo Plested

Deep learning and transfer learning for complex datasets

Abstract:

This talk will cover the following:

  • where the field of deep learning is heading and what the current direction of the field means for the application of deep learning to a broad range of research areas
  • an introduction to the area of deep transfer learning for small complex datasets (Jo's specialist research field)
  • best practice and pitfalls for applying deep learning to complex datasets.

It is designed for HDR students (and academics) with and without a background in deep learning. Topics will be covered conceptually without relying on any background knowledge of the mathematics of neural networks. The aim of the talk will be to support HDR students from the following categories in understanding how and when to apply deep learning, and in particular deep transfer learning, to achieve state-of-the-art results. The categories include those who:

  • are currently using deep learning in their research area and are interested in applying state-of-the-art deep transfer learning to further maximise their results 
  • think deep learning might be useful to their research domain and want to know the way to initiate best practices in applying deep learning
  • understand that deep learning is rapidly changing the way many tasks are performed and are interested in finding the relevance to their own research area.

Bio: 

Jo Plested is an Associate Lecturer who has been researching deep learning for over 10 years. Her expertise is focused on transfer learning for small specialised datasets. Jo has received over $1.25 million in grant funding related to deep learning, and over $300,000 as chief investigator.

Jo created the new honours level course Deep Learning at UNSW Canberra and received high praise for the course. For three years, Jo lectured in and produced all course material and assessments for the deep learning section of honours and masters level courses “Neural Networks, Deep Learning and Bio-inspired Computing” for up to 250 students at the Australian National University.

Jo is currently is currently supervising four HDR students on deep learning related projects and she has supervised over 30 students doing Honours, Masters and Chief of Defence Force (CDF) one and two semester projects related to deep learning. She has mentored many more coursework students in research undertaken as part of her courses. Over 20 of these projects are published as high ranking international conference and journal papers.

Bernard Edwards

From Theory to Practice: Applying Business Acumen for Real Results

Abstract:

Bernard will outline the fundamental elements of Business Acumen and their applicability to industrial development. He has a range of practical examples of collaboration delivering results. 

Biography:

Bernard is currently a Director of Oscillo Labs and the Head of Strategy and Business Development. He is an innovative problem solver who focuses on stakeholder needs using a model-based systems engineering approach to break down complexity, build value, and manage risk. 

He has applied the lessons learnt from delivering four digital twin models for Army through the Capability Systems Centre at UNSW. 

Previously he spent a delightful period delivering a range of capabilities for Army through Thales and of note, the introduction of Generic Vehicle Architecture into Hawkei was a standout. 

During his military service, he was educated as a Technical Staff Officer, the foundation of his successful stints at Thales & UNSW.  He believes that collaboration and a diversity of thought are the most critical ingredients in delivering innovation. 

 

Dr Rahul Shome

Planning through research:  Perspectives of a researcher in robotic planning

Rahul Shome is a tenure track lecturer in the School of Computing at the Australian National University. He is a researcher in Robotics & AI. He has worked with Prof. Lydia E. Kavraki as a postdoctoral research associate and Fellow of the Rice Academy at Rice University, Houston, USA. He earned his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, USA advised by Prof. Kostas E. Bekris. He is a subject leader in robotic planning algorithms and has numerous robotics and AI publications. His work has garnered several best paper awards and nominations at top international conferences, among other recognitions. He has served on the organizing, chairing, and editorial boards at major international robotics conferences and journals, including ICRA, IROS, RSS, RA-L, and others.

Dr Pascal Bercher

Reducing the Complexity of Success in Academia: A Guide for Young Researchers

Abstract:

Navigating a PhD and building a career in academia usually involves both highs and lows; it can be an exciting yet also frustrating journey.  While doing good research and getting it published remains a hard, tedious, and uncertain task, there are still various strategies one can deploy to make this journey a bit easier. This talk conveys some of these insights, such as the importance of building a strong network, or the benefits of paper reviewing. While this "guide" is based on my personal experiences — essentially extrapolating from one data point (so it should be interpreted with caution) — it aims to provide young researchers with a framework to craft their unique path to success, and find their own answers to important questions on how to design your own trajectory.  

Bio:

Pascal Bercher is a Senior Lecturer and DECRA Fellow at the Australian National University. His research is mostly concerned with Hierarchical Task Network (HTN) Planning, a subfield of Artificial Intelligence (AI). He is interested in heuristic search, verification of produced solutions, and extending the framework with language features that are crucial for real-world applications, such as uncertainty and time. He is especially interested in modeling support, i.e., in autonomously helping a domain modeler with creating or correcting a domain model. In all these research directions, complexity investigations are often done as a first step -- to ensure a solid problem formalization and to give an indication about the right tools to attempt a given problem, based on its complexity. In addition to his research, he is passionate about teaching and mentoring students. Among other service roles at the ANU, he is currently an HDR cluster convenor for the Intelligent Systems cluster he is in (a group defined by academics and HDR students at the ANU working in the field of AI), responsible for organizing events to track and ensure the progress of HDR students in this cluster. He is also active in his research community, reviewing for most of the large AI and planning conferences (such as ICAPS, IJCAI, AAAI, and ECAI), as well as for several workshops and some journals each year. He also organized or co-founded several important events, such as an annual workshop on hierarchical planning (co-founder in 2018 and annual co-organizer), the HTN track in the International Planning Competition 2020 (co-founder), a Doctoral Consortium (in 2018), and a 1-week Summer School for HDR students (in 2024).

Dr Olga Zinovieva

Navigating Early-Career Success: Insights on the ARC DECRA application, building collaborations, and crafting a research profile

Bio:

I am a Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering and a Mechanical Engineering Program Coordinator in the School of Engineering and Technology (SET) at UNSW Canberra. Before coming to UNSW in 2022, I worked at the Airbus Endowed Chair for Integrative Simulation and Engineering of Materials and Processes (University of Bremen, Germany). My previous experience also includes work at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Tomsk Polytechnic University, and Tomsk State University (Russia), and visiting positions at UNSW Canberra, University of Bremen, Sao Paulo State University (Brazil), and Centre of Materials Mines ParisTech (France). 

My research interests are in additive manufacturing, with the focus on multiscale modelling, computational materials science, and computational mechanics. My current research focuses on processing-microstructure-property relationships in metal 3D printing. 

Maximise your research potential

Benefits of attending the 2024 SET & SYSCOM HDR/ECR conference:

  • Present your research and learn about the research of other HDRs in the School.
  • Build your academic profile.
  • Network with colleagues and identify potential collaborative opportunities over morning ​tea, lunch, and afternoon tea.
  • Participate in interactive guest speaker sessions.
  • Win prizes and have fun!

Showcase Your Research, Build Your Academic Profile, and Connect with Peers at the 2024 SET & SYSCOM HDR/ECR Conference

 

Organisers

A picture of  a Lecturer | School of Systems and Computing

Dr. Ismail Ali

Lecturer

Capability Systems Centre | School of Systems and Computing (SysCom) | UNSW Canberra

opens in a new window

Organising Committee

Vera McLuckie - Project Support Officer | School of Systems & Computing

Ania Svorad - Academic Support Officer | School of Engineering & Technology

Dr. Ali Ahrari - Lecturer | School of Systems & Computing

Dr. Sara Salim - Research Associate | School of Engineering & Technology

Dr. Bing Wang - Research Associate | School of Engineering & Technology

Dr. Kasun Wijesooriya - Research Associate | School of Engineering & Technology

Dr. Yuekai Xie - Research Officer | School of Engineering & Technology

Dr. Ripon Chakrabortty - Senior Lecturer | School of Systems & Computing

Dr. Edwin Peters - Research Fellow | UNSW Canberra Space

Farheen Akhtar - RSCH | School of Engineering & Technology

Hasin Md Muhtasim Taqi - RSCH | School of Systems & Computing

Rawoof Shaik - RSCH | School of Engineering & Technology

Sara Mohamed - RSCH | School of Systems & Computing

Uzzam Javed - Casual Academic | School of Systems & Computing

FAQs

  • All post-doctoral fellows and HDR students who have passed their confirmation review are ​encouraged to attend this conference. HDR students, including those pursuing a Master's by ​Research or PhD degree.

  • Each presenter will have 12 minutes to present and 3 minutes for Q&A. An abstract of less than ​300 words and the title of the presentation are required for registration.

  • Yes. In this version of the conference, you have the option to present your work as a presentation or a Poster. You have to indicate your presentation option in the registration form.

  • For all enquiries, please get in touch with Dr Yue Chen yue.chen4@unsw.edu.au or Dr Ismail Ali ismail.ali@unsw.edu.au.