Research using computer gaming technology to help protect Australia from terrorism is among several UNSW projects funded in the latest round of Linkage Grants from the Australian Research Council.
Research using computer gaming technology to help protect Australia from terrorism is among several UNSW projects funded in the latest round of Linkage Grants from the Australian Research Council (ARC).
Professor Richard Goodwin from the College of Fine Arts and Russell Lowe from the Faculty of the Built Environment have been awarded $400,000 over four years for the project. Their work will extend Goodwin's ARC funded Discovery project, "Porosity", which created a snapshot of Sydney's CBD, by taking it into real time. The new project, "Real-time Porosity", will use gaming technology to map and analyse pedestrian movements in public and private spaces to enable a more complete understanding of the use of urban space in a major Australian city. The study will balance the need to anticipate and mitigate the impact of catastrophic events on a city with the concern to maintain freedom of circulation. It will be undertaken in collaboration with the NSW Department of Lands.
The largest single grant to UNSW is more than one million dollars over five years to fund a project aimed at enhancing mental health in Aboriginal children. The project is led by Professor Richard Bryant from the School of Psychology in the Faculty of Science. The partner organisations are Maari Ma Health Aboriginal Corporation and the Greater Area Western Health Service.
ARC Linkage Grants are collaborative research grants that fund research on a matching basis with contributions of cash and in-kind from industry. A total of 238 projects, worth $71.3 million, were awarded to universities around Australia in this latest round, announced by the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, earlier this week.
UNSW was awarded a total of $19 million for 20 projects. Just over $7 million of the funding comes from ARC, and almost $13 million from partner organisations. This is the highest number of projects, with the highest total funding, awarded to a university in NSW, and the equal second highest of any university in the country.
Other UNSW projects to win funding include development of a computer tool to better manage diabetes, an innovative approach to maximising water catchment yield in a changing climate and a project aimed at mitigating the impact of pandemic influenza on the hospital system.
Real-time Porosity: As the avatar moves around the computer game environment it leaves a trail of squares that records its movement through space and time; much like the breadcrumbs left by Hansel and Gretel in the well known fable.
Media contact: Judy Brookman | 9385 3249 | j.brookman@unsw.edu.au