What's On at UWA

R is a free and extremely powerful language and software environment for statistical computing, data analysis, and graphics. This course is designed for those who have little to no experience with R, but have a basic understanding of statistics. Those without this knowledge are encouraged to attend the Introductory Statistics course first. More details at http://www.cas.maths.uwa.edu.au/courses/r-basics-evening-course

Spatial point pattern datasets are becoming common across many fields of research. However, statistical methodology for analysing these data has not been easily accessible. This course is a practical introduction to the analysis of spatial point patterns with a strong focus on hands-on exercises throughout the course.

The course gives an in-depth introduction to spatstat, an R package for analysing spatial point patterns. The package supports a complete statistical analysis of spatial point pattern data: data input and inspection, calculations, plotting, exploratory data analysis, hypothesis tests, model-fitting, simulation, Monte Carlo methods and model diagnostics.

The aim of this course is to introduce you to basic statistics. It will cover descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations); data exploration; basic categorical data analysis; simple linear regression and basic analysis of variance (ANOVA). The statistical package SPSS will be used to illustrate the ideas demonstrated. The course will be held in a computer laboratory allowing participants to immediately apply the material covered through a series of practical examples.

R is a free and extremely powerful language and software environment for statistical computing, data analysis, and graphics. The course is designed for those who have no experience with R, but have a basic understanding of statistics. Those without this experience are encouraged to attend the Introductory Statistics course first.

In the last twenty years, many improvements have been made in earth imaging at different scales using different technologies such as active/passive seismics, electromagnetism, potentials (gravity, magnetism, electric potentials),….

The wide variety of data to be inverted to retrieve the earth's properties needs to develop or use different data inversion methods at different scales in time and space. Those methods can be also combined to take advantage of their respective potentialities.

The inversion methods can be based on local/global optimisation approaches (generally gradient like approaches) or stochastic approaches (simulated annealing, genetic algorithms, neighbourhood methods). The advantages and disadvantages will be discussed and some simple/theoretical or realistic examples in electrical capacitance tomography or seismics will be shown.

It is also extremely important to have a good forward problem solver able to approximate the data as accurately as possible. Those techniques can be based on finite differences on different grids at different orders in space (staggered, compact, collocated), finite volumes or finite elements. Some stability and dispersion criteria will be also provided.

Dr Martin will first show, in the case of the wave propagation equation, the different schemes that are commonly used, their advantages and drawbacks.

The boundary conditions used in the direct problem are also important and will be treated such as the paraxial conditions and the perfectly matched layers approaches. This is crucial for many applications in seismic imaging, for instance, where solutions should not introduce spurious modes from the outer boundaries into the computational domain that could deteriorate the solutions during the inverse problem.

Dr. Roland Martin senior research scientist at the National Centre for Scientific Research, Universit̩ Paul Sabatier РToulouse 3, France and has been working for many years in France where he obtained his PhD in Geophysics (1998). He has been a researcher in Mexico City (1999-2004) before integrating the French CNRS (equivalent to the Australian CSIRO) in 2005 at Pau University and GET laboratory in Toulouse. His main interests are the numerical modelling in geophysics at different scales using different numerical techniques for the forward and inverse problems. He is developing and applying those techniques to the modelling and imaging the Earth at different scales: from the near subsurface or laboratory scale to the Earth crust scale with some specific sites of study like the well monitored Pyrenees chain located between Spain and France. Seismic and gravity dense measurements are mainly used to obtain more information on both seismic wave velocities and densities in the Earth crust and to couple the structures to the surface using not only high resolution numerical tools but also more complex physics in solid-fluid mechanical systems. In 2017, Roland was awarded an Institute of Advanced Studies Robert and Maude Gledden Visiting Senior Fellowship.

In this lecture Dr Martin will present different high order numerical tools using finite-difference or finite element approaches to propagate seismic waves in a wide variety of Earth structures at different scales in order, in the near future, to couple them through different physics related to different frequency content of the sources involved. He will discuss two applications that could be linked in the future: the Pyrenees chain imaging at moderate source frequencies and wet/dry (non-)linear viscoelastic wave modelling in wet/dry/non-consolidated granular materials in the near surface. Dr Martin will present a hybrid inversion method that allows us to image density distributions at the regional scale using both seismic and gravity data. One main goal is to obtain densities and seismic wave velocities (P and S) in the lithosphere with a fine resolution to get important constraints on the mineralogic composition and thermal state of the lithosphere. In the context of the Pyrenees (located between Spain and France), accurate Vp and Vs seismic velocity models are computed first on a 3D spectral element grid at the scale of the Pyrenees by inverting teleseismic full waveforms. In a second step, Vp velocities are mapped to densities using empirical relations to build an a priori density model. BGI and BRGM Bouguer gravity anomaly data sets are then inverted on the same 3D spectral element grid as the Vp model at a resolution of 1-2 km by using high-order numerical integration formulae. This procedure opens the possibility to invert both teleseismic and gravity data on the same finite-element grid. It can handle topography of the free surface in the same spectral-element distorted mesh that is used to solve the wave equation, without performing extra interpolations between different grids and models. WGS84 elliptical Earth curvature, SRTM or ETOPO1 topographies are used. Dr Martin will reproduce numerically the response of seismic waves in granular/porous media at the laboratory scale (01.-10kHZ sources) and this will enable us to better understand the signals recorded close to the surface when high frequency content will be used to better image the near surface, in particular by taking into account seasonal water content variations and complex rheologies and steep seismic velocity gradients present in the first hundred meters depths. Dr. Roland Martin is a senior research scientist at the National Centre for Scientific Research, Universit̩ Paul Sabatier РToulouse 3, France and has been working for many years in France where he obtained his PhD in Geophysics (1998). He has been a researcher in Mexico City (1999-2004) before integrating the French CNRS (equivalent to the Australian CSIRO) in 2005 at Pau University and GET laboratory in Toulouse. His main interests are the numerical modelling in geophysics at different scales using different numerical techniques for the forward and inverse problems. He is developing and applying those techniques to the modelling and imaging the Earth at different scales: from the near subsurface or laboratory scale to the Earth crust scale with some specific sites of study like the well monitored Pyrenees chain located between Spain and France. Seismic and gravity dense measurements are mainly used to obtain more information on both seismic wave velocities and densities in the Earth crust and to couple the structures to the surface using not only high resolution numerical tools but also more complex physics in solid-fluid mechanical systems. In 2017, Roland was awarded an Institute of Advanced Studies Robert and Maude Gledden Visiting Senior Fellowship.

This course will cover topics such as:

-Presenting data for a single variable: Including an introduction to histograms, box plots, and bar graphs

-Visualisation of two or more variables: Including an introduction to scatterplots, pairs plots, parallel coordinate plot and variable-width stack bar charts

-Other plots and maps: Including a brief introduction to plots for time series, bubble plots and more

-Data Ink: Essential parts of a graphic, Tufte’s Data-Ink ratio and how to increase it

-Colour and perception: Colour palettes, preattentive features

-An introduction to ggplot2

This masterclass gives an overview of the fuzzy-modelbased control systems with emphasis on stability analysis, in particular for the issues of relaxation of stability analysis results. The development of FMB control from the concept of fuzzy logic first proposed in 1965 and early stage of fuzzymodel-free control ideas to the state-of-the-art FMB control system analysis will be presented as a start. It then walks through the beauty of fuzzy-model-free control to the advance of fuzzy-model-based control. Professor Lam will then present his notion on the partially/imperfectly premise matching and membership-function-dependent analysis, which bring the stability analysis of fuzzy-model-based control system to another level from the point of view on applicability, practicality, design issues and relaxation of stability analysis. In short, the design constraints and conservativeness of stability analysis are alleviated compared with the traditional approach. Various practical applications will be demonstrated in support of the claims.

Professor Hak Keung Lam received the B.Eng. (Hons.) and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, in 1995 and 2000, respectively. During the period of 2000 and 2005, he worked with the Department of Electronic and Information Engineering at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University as PostDoctoral Fellow and Research Fellow respectively. He joined as a Lecturer at King’s College London in 2005 and is currently a Reader. His current research interests include intelligent control and computational intelligence. He has served as a program committee member, international advisory board member, invited session chair and publication chair for various international conferences and a reviewer for various books, international journals and international conferences. He is an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs, IET Control Theory and Applications, International Journal of Fuzzy Systems and Neorocomputing; and guest editor for a number of international journals. He is a coeditor of two edited volumes: Control of Chaotic Nonlinear Circuits (World Scientific, 2009) and Computational Intelligence and Its Applications (World Scientific, 2012), and author/coauthor of three monographs: Stability Analysis of Fuzzy-Model-Based Control Systems (Springer, 2011), Polynomial Fuzzy Model Based Control Systems (Springer, 2016) and Analysis and Synthesis for Interval Type-2 Fuzzy-Model-Based Systems (Springer, 2016).

This masterclass is jointly organised by the UWA Institute of Advanced Studies and the Complex Data Modeling Engineering for Remote Operations (ERO) group, UWA Faculty of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences.

Virtual Reality (VR) offers all of the benefits of e-learning, including scalability, 24/7 scheduling flexibility and being highly affordable in comparison to paying for the time of live trainers. A unique advantage of VR training is its ability to replicate real-life scenarios in numerous interactive ways. Students build knowledge and confidence in safe and judgment-free environments and apply their knowledge in challenging simulations that are otherwise difficult to re-create.

Perspective-shifting training also gives students an understanding of other's points of view, leading to higher levels of empathy and a better understanding of expected behaviours in the workforce.

VR simulations also capture data that can be analysed to provide personalised feedback to students. This leads to a greater understanding of individual strengths and weaknesses.

Finally, VR is enjoyable and an effective way to engage students to develop their workplace skills in a highly flexible and scalable training environment.

Register for this event via the Eventbrite link listed below.

Ruby is a NAO robot, NAO is the world’s leading and most widely used humanoid robot for education, healthcare, and research. NAO is 58cm tall, autonomous, and fully programmable robot that can walk, talk and listen. Meet Ruby, see what she can do and explore the problem solving required when coding and opportunities to use Robots in learning and teaching.

Many have seen her guiding and touring through the Futures Observatory and now after more work from our Computer Science students we have enabled more of her functionality and designed new code for her better interact with humans. Some of her new abilities include:

THE RED BALL: Explore with Ruby the problem solving required to manoeuvre obstacles using her feet sensors and cameras located on her body. Then work with her to interact and play with a red ball aiming to shoot a goal, and hearing her interactivity as she recognises either a hit or miss.

WHO AM I: Have a conversation with Ruby as she learns to recognise your face and has a personalised conversation with you. Demonstrating her facial recognition technology and ability to transform a conversation with her artificial intelligence you can engage with the future of soft skills that all artificial intelligent robots will possess.

SIMON SAYS: Watch Ruby follow instructions you give her as she replicates the movements spoken. By interacting in this way, you can see her 25 degrees of freedom and dexterity from her fingers, showing humanoid movements a robot can perform that you have never seen before!

We will have some of our students present during these events to talk about the challenges and successes they had in the project and their foray into a career in coding and robotics.

Register for this event via the Eventbrite link listed below.

Aurasma is an augmented reality platform which could potentially change the way you interact with the real world. Recent UWA TechNode surveys at UWA indicate that most students have a mobile device. Given this, Aurasma opens up opportunities in an instructional and educational manner, as the need for more detailed information exists in a physical space or document where a mobile device with wifi is available. For example, once pointed at printed documents, static physical places, or objects with augmented markers, mobile devices can discover information such as videos, animations, weblinks or 3D objects that are woven into the fabric of the real world by using Aurasma.

This hands-on workshop will take 45 minutes. You will get the opportunity to experience augmented reality examples as a learner using the Aurasma App and also create a basic AR experience using the Aurasma App. We will also demonstrate the Basic Free Aurasma Studio platform that enables you to create more complex auras with more functionality.

Register for this event via the Eventbrite link listed below.

Ruby is a NAO robot, NAO is the world’s leading and most widely used humanoid robot for education, healthcare, and research. NAO is 58cm tall, autonomous, and fully programmable robot that can walk, talk and listen. Meet Ruby, see what she can do and explore the problem solving required when coding and opportunities to use Robots in learning and teaching.

Many have seen her guiding and touring through the Futures Observatory and now after more work from our Computer Science students we have enabled more of her functionality and designed new code for her better interact with humans. Some of her new abilities include:

THE RED BALL: Explore with Ruby the problem solving required to manoeuvre obstacles using her feet sensors and cameras located on her body. Then work with her to interact and play with a red ball aiming to shoot a goal, and hearing her interactivity as she recognises either a hit or miss.

WHO AM I: Have a conversation with Ruby as she learns to recognise your face and has a personalised conversation with you. Demonstrating her facial recognition technology and ability to transform a conversation with her artificial intelligence you can engage with the future of soft skills that all artificial intelligent robots will possess.

SIMON SAYS: Watch Ruby follow instructions you give her as she replicates the movements spoken. By interacting in this way, you can see her 25 degrees of freedom and dexterity from her fingers, showing humanoid movements a robot can perform that you have never seen before!

We will have some of our students present during these events to talk about the challenges and successes they had in the project and their foray into a career in coding and robotics.

Register for this event via the Eventbrite link listed below.

Ruby is a NAO robot, NAO is the world’s leading and most widely used humanoid robot for education, healthcare, and research. NAO is 58cm tall, autonomous, and fully programmable robot that can walk, talk and listen. Meet Ruby, see what she can do and explore the problem solving required when coding and opportunities to use Robots in learning and teaching.

Many have seen her guiding and touring through the Futures Observatory and now after more work from our Computer Science students we have enabled more of her functionality and designed new code for her better interact with humans. Some of her new abilities include:

THE RED BALL: Explore with Ruby the problem solving required to manoeuvre obstacles using her feet sensors and cameras located on her body. Then work with her to interact and play with a red ball aiming to shoot a goal, and hearing her interactivity as she recognises either a hit or miss.

WHO AM I: Have a conversation with Ruby as she learns to recognise your face and has a personalised conversation with you. Demonstrating her facial recognition technology and ability to transform a conversation with her artificial intelligence you can engage with the future of soft skills that all artificial intelligent robots will possess.

SIMON SAYS: Watch Ruby follow instructions you give her as she replicates the movements spoken. By interacting in this way, you can see her 25 degrees of freedom and dexterity from her fingers, showing humanoid movements a robot can perform that you have never seen before!

We will have some of our students present during these events to talk about the challenges and successes they had in the project and their foray into a career in coding and robotics.

Register for this event via the Eventbrite link listed below.

Abstract We combine discrete empirical interpolation techniques, global mode decomposition methods, and local multiscale methods, to reduce the computational complexity associated with nonlinear flows in highly heterogeneous porous media. The resulting reduced-order approach enables a significant reduction in the flow problem size while accurately capturing the behaviour of fully-resolved solutions. Below we use of random boundary conditions in constructing snapshot vectors to build local basis functions. We show that by using only a few of these randomly generated snapshots, we can adequately approximate dominant modes of the solution space. Collaborators: Y. Efendiev, J.C. Galvis, M. Ghommem, E. Guildin, G. Li

This symposium brings together a panel of experts from across Australia to discuss ways to support regional and remote students to succeed in higher education. The purpose is to explore the value of investing in higher education from the perspective of the individual, community and the university sector and to question what we need to do to become a truly ‘clever country'.

The symposium will feature the following panel of experts:

Professor Grady Venville Chair (Dean of Coursework Studies, The University of Western Australia)

Tim Shanahan (Chair, WA Regional Development Trust)

Professor Sally Kift PFHEA (President, Australian Learning and Teaching Fellows, Former DVC – Academic, James Cook University)

Professor Steven Larkin (Pro Vice-Chancellor, Indigenous Education and Research, University of Newcastle)

Vicki Ratliff (Director, Equity Policy and Programmes, Australian Government Department of Education and Training)

Professor Sue Trinidad (Director, National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education)

The symposium will be held in The University Club of Western Australia Auditorium, and refreshments will be provided. Attendance is free, but tickets are limited so RSVP is essential. Reserve your ticket here: http://bit.ly/2xunNxe

The first detection of gravitational waves from binary black holes was made in September 2015. This not only confirmed Einstein’s 1915 general theory of relativity, but also marked the beginning of a new era of gravitational wave astronomy. In recognition of the promising revolutionary effect of this discovery in astrophysics, in October 3, 2017, the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to the three pioneers in the field, Rainer Weiss (MIT), Kip Thorne and Barry Barish (Caltech). Since the first discovery, three more confirmed detections of gravitational waves from binary black holes have been announced. In September 2017, for the first time, the Virgo detector in Italy and the two LIGO observatories in US made a joint three-detector detection. On October 16th, a new breakthrough is to be announcement that is considered by many as revolutionary as the first detection.

The three groups in the UWA node of Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) contributed to these discoveries ranging from instrumentation, signal processing, theory, to electromagnetic follow up observations. This lecture will discuss the progress of gravitational wave discoveries with focus on the new event as well as the UWA contributions.

The speakers will be joined by Dr. Clancy James, Prof. David Coward and Prof. Chris Power, for a panel discussion.

Not only did the early Renaissance painters seek to improve their methods of spatial illusionism, they believed that sophisticated knowledge of geometry was integral. Leon Battista Alberti (1435) believed the first requirement of a painter was to know geometry, whereas Piero Della Francesca went to great lengths to reduce painting to principles of perspective and solid geometry.

Join Dr John Bamberg of the UWA School of Mathematics and Statistics to see how perspective art leads to interesting mathematics. We will see that there is more than meets the eye when we explore the geometric properties of perspective.

John Bamberg grew up north of Melbourne, and completed a BSc (Hons) in pure mathematics at La Trobe University in 1999. He came to UWA in 2000 to study for a PhD under the supervision of Prof Cheryl Praeger and Prof Tim Penttila, in the subject of finite group theory (the mathematics of symmetry). His first postdoc began in 2004 (an ARC Postdoctoral Discovery grant) with Tim Penttila, which lead him into another branch of mathematics; finite geometry. In 2006, John was awarded a Marie Curie fellowship at Ghent University (Belgium), where he lived for nearly three years, before returning to Perth to begin another postdoc in collaboration with Gordon Royle and Michael Giudici. In 2012, he was granted an ARC Future Fellowship (at UWA), and as of the beginning of 2017, he has evolved into a regular teaching and research member of the university.

Campus Partner: School of Mathematics and Statistics

This workshop will help those new to applying for Project Grants to plan their application. We'll also cover how applications are assessed, with input from a recent Grant Review Panel member. RSVP: Via Eventbrite

Presentation and question/answer session with DVCR Prof Robyn Owens, and Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences Associate Dean-Research, Prof Hugh Barrett

Speaker: Yian Xu (University of Western Australia) Title: Constructing a 2-arc-transitive cover for a certain hypercube Time and place: 16:00 Friday 03/11/2017 in Weatherburn LT

Abstract: The canonical basis, which is a particular type of basis of a vector space will be introduced in this talk, and a sufficient and necessary condition is given to determine the existence of such a basis for a vector space. The structures of canonical bases are then used to study Cayley graphs of extraspecial $2$-groups of order $2^{2r+1}$ ($r eq 1$), which are further shown to be normal Cayley graphs and $2$-arc-transitive covers of $2r$-dimensional hypercubes. ​