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AutoFish: Automatic Fish Phenotyping Tool for Sustainable Aquaculture and Smart Fisheries (Old ID 28947)
This project aims to advance an initial implementation of a new automatic fish phenotyping tool, named AutoFish, that will enhance aquaculture farming and post-harvest processing practices by accelerating the collection of data and automatically analysing and leveraging it using the latest advances in computer vision and machine learning technologies. We have already developed a ground-breaking solution for the aquaculture industry, and produced a Proof Of Concept (POC) device, which has been successfully tested. This POC is ready to get tailored, integrated and/or retrofitted into an available fish and aquaculture farm for grading, phenotypic collection and/or processing lines, due to its modular stand-alone nature. The AutoFish concept has been proven with Barramundi as a test species. However, it can be used to collect images of, and trained to predict features of other fish and/or aquaculture species. AutoFish can also be trained to detect and predict any customertailored features and traits of the fish/product, and/or be used to assess the health of fish/product, if th health issues are visually recognisable by an RGB camera and the background phenotypic data present for training. Hence this technology would be scalable and can be implemented for other aquaculture products worldwide. The main aim of this project is to unlock the potential of our initial AutoFish POC by applying it to, or altering it for, a partner Barramundi (or Prawn) farm, to solve a real end-users’ problem. This problem can be about any monitoring aspect, as long as cameras can capture it. We have narrowed down the scope of this project to Barramundi (and/or Prawn) due to our wider industry network in these two species.
Queensland Additional Node of the Commonwealth Data Storage Infrastructure (RDSI) Project Providing Critical Infrastructure for Very Large Scale Research Data to Queensland Research (Old ID 21122)
QCIF will establish and operate an additional node at JCU for the national RDSI research infrastructure data storage program. This node will store massive volumes of medical, environmental and other research data produced by modern instruments, sensors and tools. Immediate priorities are tropical research into eradicating mosquito-borne diseases including malaria environmental monitoring and species distribution data and climate change impact modelling.
Seagrass Growth and Diversity: Attributes of a Resilient GBR (Old ID 21848)
The 'Growth' attribute will be carried into Phase II for pilot-scale testing and incorporation into the Reef Resilience Index, while the 'Diversity' attribute will continue as a feasibility study. "Growth' will be predicted using the photosynthesis to respiration ratio (P:R), which indicates energetic status and seagrass populations at risk. The predictive capacity of the model will be tested through pilot-studies into P:R and other growth indicators. Diversity, including genetic and species diversity, show preliminary evidence they respond in the ways relating to climate change. This proposal includes the design of a monitoring framework and leverages off existing data sources to maximise cost-effectiveness.
2015 Woodcutters REMP (Old ID 22095)
Development, implementation and reporting of the first stage of a receiving environment monitoring program (REMP) for the closed Woodcutters Mine, Batchelor, Northern Territory.
The Queensland STEM Education Network (Old ID 22162)
Establish the Queensland STEM Education Network comprising a partnership of key stakeholders in STEM education in Queensland to co-develop a range of programs and initiatives designed to build STEM capacity across the state of Queensland.
Plasma assisted fabrication of nanofirous membranes for energy applications (Old ID 22343)
Development of highly stable proton conductive polymer electrolyte membranes will enable advances in energy conversion systems. This project focuses on developing innovative membranes for fuel cells and vanadium redox battery based on cheap electrospun nanofibrous modified with plasma. Nanofiberousmats containing proton conducting functionalities will be prepared by electrospinning of desired polymers followed by immobilising of ionic groups. Composite membranes with webbed morphologies will be obtained using plasma assisted crosslinking of nanofiberousmats followed by introducing additional polyelectrolyte layers. The adopted fabrication technique will be a versatile strategy for producing low cost and mechanically stable PEMs for numerous electrochemical applications.
Activity 2.6 (Banana soil physico-chemical properties) of 'Fusarium wilt Tropical Race 4 Research program (BA14014)' (Old ID 22760)
The project will determine the influence of soil physiocochemical conditions on growth and infectivity of the banana disease-causing fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Cubense (Foc. Foc is one of the world's most destructive banana diseases and Tropical Race 4, which attacks the Cavendish variety, was recently detected in the Tully valley in the heart of the North Queensland banana production region. This project is part of a larger program aimed at providing new information and practices to address key areas of need with a medium to long-term view of developing management practices for banana growers affected by Tropical Race 4.
Investigating the effects of insecticide exposure, pathogens, and heat stress on bee diversity, abundance, and health (Old ID 28974)
Bees are threatened by multiple stressors including insecticide exposure, disease, loss of habitat, and climate change. Studies investigating stressors facing Australian bees are becoming more common, but many knowledge gaps still exist and while some studies document the effects of stressors in isolation, they stop short of investigating the effects of stressors in combination. My project will investigate how the stressors of insecticide exposure, pathogens and heat stress affect native bee diversity, abundance, and health, as well as investigate whether bee hotels cause increased pathogen and parasitism prevalence, and predation rates in native bees.
Advancing the chemistry of topical rare earth metals (Old ID 20618)
With abundant, but until recently neglected, rare earth resources, Australia is positioned to become a major supplier of these strategic elements as the world faces a shortage created by a Chinese monopoly and much reduced exports. Advancing the chemistry of highly reactive rare earth metal-organic compounds including syntheses from the free metals and alloys will provide a knowledge base and breakthrough science to underpin future applications in chemical manufacture, catalysis, new materials and recycling. Steric and electronic manipulation of rare earth coordination behaviour will transform their syntheses and reactions.
Tools to diagnose carcinogenic liver fluke infection (Old ID 26496)
This program aims to develop molecular tests to diagnose carcinogenic infections with parasitic liver flukes. Throughout Eurasia, ingestion of raw or undercooked fish infected with Opisthorchis species flukes leads to infection, which over decades culminates in fatal liver cancer. Sensitive point-of-care tests to diagnose fluke infection are urgently needed and will be the focus of this proposal.