Seminar Series 2009
You are invited to attend the Department of Geomatics
Seminar Series. Seminars provide a forum for academics, research staff,
students and visitors
to present their research. The seminar is public. Seminars with
presentations by
visiting researchers are held jointly with SSI Victoria and credited by
1 CPD for SSI members.
Seminars are generally held on Wednesdays at 4:30pm (unless
stated
otherwise), in Engineering Block C, 4th floor, Theatre C1 (C2 during
Semester 1). Every last Wednesday of the month we offer an afternoon
tea before the seminar, at 4pm in the Geomatics staff meeting room.
Contact Dr Stephan Winter (winter@unimelb.edu.au) for more information on the seminar.
Date |
Venue |
Speaker |
Title |
| Tuesday, 17 November, 12 noon | Theatre 2, ICT Building, 111 Barry St, Carlton | Christian Freksa University of Bremen, Germany |
Joint Seminar with
CSSE and SSSI Victoria Spatial Reasoning for Intelligent Action In this talk, I will compare computer science / informatics approaches to understanding and problem solving with cognitive approaches. In particular, I will explore the role of abstraction in informatics and relate it to the role of physical or semantic grounding in cognition. I will address the significance of spatial and temporal structures for human perception and reasoning and I will discuss how artificial systems may exploit these structures in a similarly effective fashion. I will introduce different types of neighbourhood relations that can be used to deal with various abilities and requirements of cognitive systems. I will use the term 'computing space' to illustrate how spatial structures can effortlessly generate results that otherwise require more or less expensive computational processing. I will suggest that we may construct 'spatial computers' that are particularly suitable and efficient for solving spatio-temporal problems but may be used for abstract problem solving as well. Bio: Christian Freksa is a Professor of Cognitive Systems in the Department of Informatics at the University of Bremen (Germany) and Director of the Transregional Collaborative Spatial Cognition Research Center SFB/TR 8 at the Universities of Bremen and Freiburg. His research concerns representation and reasoning with incomplete, imprecise, lean, coarse, approximate, fuzzy, and conflicting knowledge about physical environments. Particular emphasis is on the development of 'cognitively adequate' qualitative approaches in spatial and temporal domains. His interdisciplinary research group employs formal and computational approaches to knowledge representation, designs computer models for simulation studies, and carries out autonomous robotics experiments using diverse intelligent technologies. Christian Freksa received a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence from UC Berkeley. He carried out postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute in Munich and started the AI/cognition group at TU Munich. In 1991 he became Professor for artificial intelligence / cognitive science at the University of Hamburg where he directed a national priority program on spatial cognition before he moved to the University of Bremen to establish the SFB/TR 8. Christian Freksa is an ECCAI Fellow, a member of the Advisory Board of the journal Spatial Cognition and Computation, and a member of the Cosit steering committee. |
| Wednesday, 21 October | Theatre C1 | Marcos Nino-Ruiz CRC for Spatial Information |
Service
oriented support for visual steering of climate change scenarios: a
collaborative framework to support environmental decision-making
processes PhD confirmation |
| Wednesday, 14 October | Theatre C1 | Denise Peters SFB/TR8, Bremen, Germany |
3D Wayfinding Choremes Navigation and orientation can be enhanced by a cognitively motivated graphical representation. Such representations of spatial information aim to align the external representations with a user’s mental representation to enhance the legibility and reduce the cognitive effort of processing the information. I suggest to transfer an existing and tested 2D schematization approach called wayfinding choremes to a virtual 3D environment. I first discuss the theoretical background of this transfer and how the wayfinging chormes are implemented in a virtual environment and then present an evaluation study. Then I analyse if wayfinding choremes enhance navigation performance with regard to error rate and navigation time. Additionally I consider how subjects remember the route and if facade information influences recognition. I will also test if subjects remember each intersection along the route and their action decision. |
| Thursday, 8 October 2009 | Theatre C1 | Manfred Ehlers Geoinformatics and Remote Sensing, University of Osnabrueck |
Joint seminar with
SSSI Victoria (1 CPD) and CRCSI - starts 4:30pm On Multi-Sensor Image Fusion in Remote Sensing Most of the earth observation satellites such as Landsat, Spot, Ikonos, Quickbird, or Formosat and also some digital airborne sensors like DMC or UltraCam provide panchromatic images at a higher spatial resolution than in their multispectral mode. The difference in spatial resolution between the panchromatic and the multispectral mode can be measured by the ratio of their respective ground sampling distances (GSD) and may vary between 1:2 and 1:5. This ratio can get worse if data from different satellites are used. For example, the resolution ratio (RR) between Ikonos and SPOT-5 (multispectral mode) is 1:10, for SPOT-4 even 1:20. The objective of image fusion is to combine the information from a high resolution panchromatic image with the multispectral information to form a fused multispectral image that retains the spatial information from the high resolution panchromatic image and the spectral characteristics of the lower resolution multispectral image. A large number of image fusion techniques have been developed to fuse high spatial resolution panchromatic and lower spatial resolution multispectral images that are simultaneously recorded by one sensor. This is done to create high resolution multispectral image datasets (pansharpening). In most cases, these techniques provide very good results, i.e. they retain the high spatial resolution of the panchromatic image and the spectral information from the multispectral image. When applied to multitemporal and/or multisensoral image data, these techniques still create spatially enhanced datasets but usually at the expense of the spectral characteristics. In this presentation, an overview on image fusion algorithms and different quantitative-statistical evaluation methods will be given. Tests were performed with eight multitemporal remote sensing images that were fused with one panchromatic image to test eight different fusion techniques. The fused images are visually and quantitatively analyzed for spectral characteristics preservation and spatial enhancement. Of the employed methods, only the newly developed Ehlers fusion guarantees excellent color preservation and spatial improvement for all dates and sensors. |
| Wednesday, 9 September 2009 | Theatre C1 | Nina Dethlefs Computer Linguistics, University of Bremen |
Generation
of linguistically variable route
descriptions through semantic underspecification The linguistic surface realisations of route descriptions can be made more natural and adapative by underspecifying their semantic representations and employing so-called generation-space models to capture all possible variability and resolve underspecification through probabilistic models. |
| Wednesday, 2 September 2009 | Theatre C1 | Petra Helmholz CRC-SI (University of Melbourne), Institute of Photogrammetry and GeoInformation (University of Hannover) |
A brief introduction into Snakes
– A summary of a three month research visit Snakes are well known in computer vision as an automated (semiautomatic) tool for extracting edges and lines in digital images. Starting from a rough approximation of the desired curve regarding both its shape and its location in the image, the snake improves its state by optimizing a complex energy function. Snakes find their way into digital photogrammetry in different applications such as the detection of lines and edges. The presentation will summarize the work of a three month research visit at the University of Melbourne where two different kinds of Snakes have been implemented into the existing software Barista at the CRC-SI (Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information). |
| Wednesday, 26 August 2009 | Theatre C1 | Pejman Peidaee Geomatics |
Precise low-cost integrated
navigation system based on intelligent filtering PhD confirmation (starts at 4:00pm with the departmental afternoon tea in the staff room) |
| Wednesday, 5 August 2009 | Theatre C1 | Joe Leach Geomatics |
The Australian Space Research
Program (starts at 4:00pm with the departmental afternoon tea in the staff room) |
| Wednesday, 29 July 2009 | Theatre A1, Old Engineering | Rod Flynn and George Milfsud (SII, DSE Victoria) | 5:30-7:30 Vicmap Topographic Mapping SSSI Seminar of the Spatial Information and Cartography Commission, Victoria In this seminar you get access to the experts providing a thorough insight in topographic mapping for Vicmap. Using the latest technology and Victoria’s digital spatial framework datasets, DSE has created an innovative mapping system that provides current topographic mapping. Topographic mapping is a vital resource for the State of Victoria, as it is used by the general public, local, State and Australian governments, the private sector and academia. This mapping is used for recreation, route planning, emergency response and recovery, navigation, risk management, site analysis, education, flora and fauna surveys, infrastructure planning, and asset management. |
| Wednesday, 22 July 2009, 11am-12 noon | IDTC Theatre, Old Engineering | Christos
Stamatopoulos Geomatics |
Developments in
Close Range Photogrammetry There is an imminent need in calibrating long focal lenses so they can be used in close range photogrammetry. Efficient algorithms and functional models must be developed and evaluated regarding their suitability for this ill conditioned problem in close range photogrammetry. The aim of this investigation is the practical implementation of a variety of algorithms as an alternative way to solve the least squares in digital close range photogrammetry along with the creation of different functional models. Emphasis is placed on the accurate and precise recovery of the additional parameters of camera distortion parameters as well as the quality of the XYZ coordinates of the observed points. The deployment of a software that will use the above algorithms is of great importance for further research and analysis. |
| Tuesday, 21 July 2009, 5pm | IDTC Theatre, Old Engineering | Hedwig van Delden and Beat Huser Research Institute for Knowledge Systems (RIKS), Maastricht, The Netherlands http://www.riks.nl |
Creating Futures with Integrated
Land Use Modelling and Decision Support Systems (joint
seminar with SSSI) Creating Futures is a new and innovative 4-year research project aimed at creating tools for improving decision making in the Waikato Region of New Zealand. RIKS has been one of the consultants to Environment Waikato on the project. The research is designed to inform communities about the long-term effects of current development patterns and trends. It also aims to enhance community involvement in choosing and planning for desired futures using the following tools:
Hedwig van Delden - Managing Director of RIKS. Ms van Delden holds a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering with a specialisation in Water Resource Management and Environmental Sciences from the University of Enschede, The Netherlands. She has since been actively involved in land use modelling, dynamic spatial model integration and the development of Decision and Policy Support Systems and scenario studies, with a main focus on the integration and interaction of socio-economic and biophysical processes. Ms van Delden is responsible for strengthening and broadening RIK’s international networks (www.riks.nl). She has been managing projects with multiple partners in Europe and other parts of the world, with budgets reaching up to several million euros. Dr. Beat Huser - Project Leader of the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FRST) project Creating Futures and Sustainability Projects Manager, Environment Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Dr Huser holds a PhD in Environmental Sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Z?rich, Switxerland. He has research experience in Europe, USA, India and New Zealand, and has been involved in local government in New Zealand for over 20 years. In his present position at Environment Waikato (the Waikato Regional Council), Beat is manager of sustainability projects, responsible for indicator development, state of environment reporting and sharing the information in collaborative initiatives with other agencies and the community. He is member of various national working groups, advisory and steering committees, representing Environment Waikato and local government on current resource management and sustainability issues. |
| Wednesday, 10 June 2009 | C1 | Lin-Jie Guan Geomatics |
Decentralized processing of
spatial and spatio-temporal queries (PhD confirmation) Spatial and spatiotemporal queries are important functions of a geosensor network (GSN) for retrieving and analyzing spatial information about dynamic geographic phenomena and objects. Spatial operations are the foundations of responding to such broad range of spatial queries in a GSN. This research investigates the development of a set of primitive spatial operations to process spatial queries relevant to a GSN. The research introduces a formal framework by modeling and computing spatial information monitored by a GSN, with the aim of designing and evaluating decentralized algorithms for efficient spatial queries processing within a GSN. |
| Wednesday, 3 June 2009 | C1 | Heri Sutanta Geomatics |
Spatial Planning Support Systems
and SDI Platform for an Integrated Approach to Disaster Risk Reduction
(PhD confirmation) Disaster risk reduction is an important element in ensuring safety of life, urban environment infrastructures and economic development. It is a complex situation, involving a multi-disciplinary approach, multiple stakeholders’ participation, and requiring access and sharing of multiple types of spatial and non-spatial data. A long term effort in disaster risk reduction needs to be implemented by integration of different elements in spatial planning. This research aims to develop a spatial planning support system with extended capabilities to support efforts for disaster risk reduction. |
| Wednesday, 27 May 2009 | Staff meeting room C2 |
alll staff
& postgrads Muhammad Jafar Sadeq Geomatics |
4pm: Departmental
afternoon tea Monitoring Contour Topology with a Wireless Sensor Network (PhD completion) Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) enable high temporal and spatial granularity for environmental monitoring, but come with some limitations, especially energy resources. Much of the research in WSNs is focused on overcoming these limitations by processing information in the network and reporting the results of the processing to the base station. In this regard, this thesis demonstrates how a WSN may conserve its energy by monitoring contour topology in the network, and reporting only changes in topology, and this is done by observing the topology of the regions that are demarcated by the contour lines. |
| Wednesday, 13 May | C2 | Matt Duckham Geomatics |
Foundations of decentralized
algorithms for spatial computing Today, almost all algorithms for spatial computing assume all spatial data is centrally stored (for example in a GIS or spatial databases) or easily accessible (for example via an internet connection). However, this assumption increasingly does not hold. Instead, in emerging spatial computing environments, like geosensor networks, data about a spatial location becomes less accessible the further distance away it is. These computing environments rely on new, decentralized algorithms for spatial computing. This talk explores the basis for decentralized spatial computing, and poses the question "What fundamental operations are needed to support decentralized spatial computing?" |
| Wednesday, 6 May | C2 | Eldar Rubinov Geomatics |
Implementation of Real-Time
Quality Control Procedures for Network RTK GNSS Positioning
(PhD conversion) The use of high accuracy GNSS positioning applications has increased markedly in the last decade and range of applications is becoming more and more diverse. With this increased demand, the number of critical decisions being made on the basis of positions derived from GNSS has also increased and hence it is of paramount importance to know that the derived positions are of high quality, dependable and fit for purpose. This research is concerned with developing and implementing quality control procedures for real-time positioning applications. |
| Wednesday, 29 April 12pm | Arts Centre (cnr. Swanston & Grattan St) - Harold White Theatre: Enter via the external stairs next to the School of Graduate Studies or up the internal stairs at the back of the foyer. Theatre is on the right. | Pamela Fox Google Maps, Sydney |
Google Geo APIs & Geo
Standards (joint seminar with SSI) In this talk, Pamela Fox will introduce the many Google Geo developer products that let you create custom mapping applications: the Flash, JS, and Static Maps APIs, and the Google Earth API, and dive into more detail about creating custom maps to overlay your imagery in those apps. Pamela will then describe the two leading XML standards for presenting Geo data, and talk about how you can use those standards to make your data more useful and searchable. Pamela has been the Google Maps API support engineer for the last 2 years, helping developers around the world use the Google APIs. |
| Wednesday, 22 April 2009 | C2 | Simon Jude http://www.simonjude.co.uk/ |
Visualising Coastal
Futures (joint seminar with SSI) I will run through some examples of the Tyndall Centre visualisation work I was involved with, including an EU-funded project. I'll also highlight some of the issues facing coastal managers in the UK and EU that we have studied and which can benefit from visualisation technologies. |
| Wednesday, 8 April 2009 | C2 | Pan Wang Geomatics |
Real-time data visualization in
Collaborative Virtual Environments for emergency training (PhD
conversion) Current Collaborative Virtual Environment for virtual training can not provide trainees with adequate information in a large-scale and complex outdoor environment. Development of a component for integrating real-time data in CVEs and overall framework on fast and automatic virtual scenario building technique will improve the immersion experience and reality of the virtual training environment, as well as strengthen the ability of decision making and collaboration for the trainees. |
| Wednesday, 25 March 2009 | C2 | Haohui Chen Geomatics |
Collaborative Virtual Environment
(CVE) - An Effective Technique for Knowledge Transfer between
Scientists and Local Farmers (PhD confirmation) The research is to provide an Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE) to transfer knowledge between scientists and local farmers, in order to assist farmers to manage their farmlands effectively based on scientists' knowledge. The prototype of CVE is based on SIEVE which has been proved to be an effective tool for environment visualization in many cases. |
| Wednesday, 11 March 2009 | C2 | Mehdi Ravanbakhsh, CRCSI | Road
junction extraction from high resolution aerial imagery assisted by
topographic database information Road junctions are important components of a road network. However, they are usually not explicitly modeled in existing road extraction approaches. In this research, road junctions are modeled in detail as area objects and a new snake-based approach is proposed for their automatic extraction through the use of an existing geospatial database. Road arm extraction results provide fixed boundary conditions for the proposed snake. A detailed model of a road junction needs to consider possible existence of traffic islands. Traffic islands are extracted using level sets. The approach was tested using aerial black-and-white ortho-images of 10 cm ground resolution taken from suburban and rural areas. |
| Wednesday, 4 March 2009 | C2 | Prof Harlan Onsrud University of Maine | Creative Commons Licensing and
Non-creative Geographic Data (joint seminar with SSI) Why does the scientific community need a simple method for letting each of us know that we are allowed legally to build on the work and data products of each other without asking permission? Does merely following the traditional practices of science and giving credit now make me a lawbreaker? What's the problem, how did we get here and what's the solution? Why does the solution for creative works not apply to geographic and other utilitarian data and databases? Professor Onsrud's research focuses on the analysis of legal, ethical, and institutional issues affecting the creation and use of digital databases and the assessment of the social impacts of spatial technologies. He is past president and current acting Executive Director of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association (GSDI), past-president of the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS), and past Chair of the U.S. National Committee (USNC) on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) of the National Research Council. He recently chaired a U.S. National Research Council Study on the Licensing of Spatial Data and Services and is a lifetime National Associate of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences. A unifying theme in much of his teaching and research involves the concept of "ethics driven design.". He is a licensed engineer, land surveyor and attorney. Current and past research projects have been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the Federal Geographic Data Committee, and the U.S. Department of Education. He teaches courses in Information Systems Law, Information Ethics, Cadastral and Land Information Systems, and Research Ethics. After the research seminar (5:30pm to 7:30pm): Google Sketchup Hands-On Workshop (Geomatics Spatial Information and Cartography Seminar 1/2009, in conjunction with SSI Victoria, Spatial Information and Cartography Commission) Come along to the SSI Google SketchUp Workshop for a relaxed and informative insight into spatial technologies using Google SketchUp in a comfortable environment – whatever your digital mapping experience. Google SketchUp might suit your growing and developing mapping and spatial visualisation needs and this workshop will give you an introduction into the potential of this technology! SketchUp is a 3D modeling program designed for engineers, architects, surveyors, filmmakers, game developers, and related professions. Sketchup may also be used to design buildings to be displayed on Google Earth. It was designed to be more intuitive, flexible, and easier to use than other 3D modeling programs, which often require steep learning curves. Several features allow designers to play with their designs, unlike what is possible in other 3D CAD programs. It is marketed as an easy-to-use conceptual tool with a simple interface. The presenter of this workshop is Stephen Scott Young. Stephen has had 10 years experience in the GIS industry and mobile mapping environments. Stephen is the GE Transmission & Distribution (T&D) Customer Service Leader for Asia Pacific. In this role he manages a team of highly experienced customer service representatives providing technical consulting and support services, mostly servicing the spatial community. Stephen sits on the Spatial Sciences Institute (SSI) Committee with past roles such as Victorian Region Treasurer, as well as on the SSI Young Professionals Committee as Treasurer, Chair and now currently as Past Chair. Stephen is a graduate from the Department of Geomatics at The University of Melbourne where he completed a Bachelor of Geomatic Engineering (Honours), Bachelor of Science and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). His PhD thesis was titled Integrated Position and Attitude Determination for Augmented Reality Applications. Stephen’s research received awards such as those from BMW, the Institute of Navigation, the International Association of Geodesy and the BRW Young Inventors. A hands-on workshop: Bring your own laptop. Limited seats; registration essential. Location: The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Alice Hoy Building, Room 316 RSVP: saeidks@unimelb.edu.au |
| Wednesday, 25 February 2009 | no seminar | ||
| Wednesday, 11 February 2009 | C1 | Jonathan
Arundel Department of Geomatics |
Honeybee (Apis
mellifera) threat agents – a new approach (PhD
Confirmation) A multitude of threats exist to the honeybee industry with the potential to impact both honey production and more significantly, agricultural and horticultural crop pollination. The most significant of these threats in Australia is Varroa destructor, an external parasitic mite of honeybees. A strong need exists to understand how current biosecurity control strategies might impact the spread of varroa once it is detected, and whether alternative strategies can be developed through GIScience to deliver superior outcomes. |
| Wednesday, 4 February 2009 | C1 | Yunhui Wu Department of Geomatics |
Interpreting
place descriptions for navigation systems (PhD
Confirmation) In route communications, people use qualitative references and relations, so called place descriptions. While current navigation systems have no capability to deal with place descriptions. This research aims to formalize an interpretation model of place descriptions for navigation systems. |