By Honorary Professorial Fellow Gordon Noble
A flexible petrol levy that rises and falls with global petrol prices, is a better way to address congestion than the cost reflective road pricing model proposed by the Harper Competition Review. Continue reading
By Associate Research Fellow Johan Barthelemy
Transportation plays a key role in societies. The transportation system of a country is closely related to development of its economy by meeting the travel demands of people, and allowing the transport and the exchange of resources. Nevertheless, transportation is also endowed with negatives effects: growth of transportation demand can lead to an increase of accidents, environmental issues such as air and noise pollution, and energy consumption. Understanding and predicting the dynamics of transportation systems has then naturally become a major research field since the beginning of computer assisted transport simulations in 1955. Continue reading
By Associate Professor Rodney Clarke
The usual approaches to analysing the content of Tweets involve, for example, statistics, as well as techniques from the artificial intelligence community, specifically text mining and machine learning. Statistical approaches generally involve the analysis of word frequencies and the use of visualisation aides like tag clouds to indicate which key words are significant. Often these techniques are used in combination to examine the occurrence and collocation of key words associated with flooding. Continue reading
By Tim Davies
Ever since the ceremonial turning of the sod, the SMART Infrastructure Facility has had its sights firmly fixed on establishing a National Infrastructure Data Centre. Policies were created, a framework was established and procedures with colourful flowcharts were produced. These tools were all well and good; however the vision of the National Infrastructure Data Centre was never going to be realised while all the data SMART had collected and produced remained hidden within the depths of its shared drives and databases; hidden in such a way that not even the SMART academics themselves knew the full extent of the SMART data collection. Continue reading
By Ashkan Masouman, Associate Research Fellow
This was my second presentation at the Western Region Science Association (WRSA) Annual Meeting (first being in 2013). So far, WRSA has been the only conference I have attended which has two sessions dedicated to input-output techniques and innovations. The chair, Prof. Geoffrey Hewings, and many of the attendees were experts in this field, and they all provided useful feedback into my research. Continue reading
By Associate Professor Rodney Clarke
One of the problems of using social media during emergencies is being able to assess the various kinds of information that can be in them. Continue reading
The old saw says “many a true word is spoken in jest.” and this has been proven by Terry Pratchett who wrote the following in one of his witty Disc World novels:
“First thoughts are everyday thoughts. Everyone has those. Second thoughts are the thoughts you think about the way you think. People who enjoy thinking have those. Third thoughts are thoughts that watch the world and think all by them selves. They’re rare and often troublesome. Listening to them is part of witchcraft.” (A Hat full of sky, 2004, Disc World novel #32, footnote 2, p. 74). Continue reading
By Associate Professor Rodney Clarke
Social media platforms are proliferating globally both in terms of the number of platforms and also the intensity of their use. Some countries use Twitter as a valid source of emergency information and incorporate it as one of the primary sources of emergency intelligence. Continue reading
By Joe Branigan
Australia’s ongoing productivity performance and standards of living depend fundamentally on efficient and high quality infrastructure. Perhaps no other area more directly showcases the quality of current and past government administrations than decisions on public infrastructure — including how it is planned, prioritised, funded and delivered. Continue reading
By Graham Harris
It is always instructive to take a step back from the coalface occasionally and to take a look at the history of particular disciplines. More often than not it is possible to see that certain sets of ideas became the bedrock of our thinking – and that others did not. Continue reading