Engineering and computing showcase

Eighty students specialising in frontier technologies like sustainable energy systems, computer vision and robotics showcased their ideas and research in a recent exhibition at University House.

PhD researchers from across the eleven research groups in the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science presented posters format of their designs in an initiative of the College dean, Professor Chris Baker.

The budding developers – including researchers in human-centred computing, software engineering and artificial intelligence – were on hand to explain their work to industry representatives.

Professor Rod Kennedy, Director of Research in the College said that the exhibition was a great way for students to meet and talk about new ideas and research.

“A lot of the students from the different research areas wouldn’t normally have a chance to meet with each other, given that they are housed in five different buildings on campus,” he said.

“So we have used a very random set up for this exhibition – separating researchers from their own groups and mixing them up with researchers from other areas.”

A key goal of the exhibition was to get the students accustomed to explaining their projects to a range of different audiences with varying levels of technical expertise.

“Their poster designs needed to make their concepts clear to a general audience, as well as industry, so they had to keep them simple,” Professor Kennedy said. “The researchers were also asked to give a brief presentation about their project as people wandered past - so they had to put a lot of thought into how to they were going to communicate their ideas.”

The students behind the winning posters collected awards from Brand Hoff, Chair of the Canberra Business Council (CBC), at a networking function hosted by the CBC and sponsored by ANU Exchange.

Professor Baker said that he was thrilled with the outcome. “This exhibition has been a wonderful way to create awareness and showcase the variety and depth of work that occurs in the College – from quantum to systems level,” he said.

“It’s about encouraging interaction both within the College and outside the College and generating as much interest in the work of our researchers as possible.”

For more information about the exhibition or to view the posters online: http://cecs.anu.edu.au/cecslink/graduates/posters

1st Prize: Torben Sko, Information and Human-Centred Computing Group
http://cecs.anu.edu.au/files/posters09/41113140000000036.pdf

Using markerless face tracking technology to enhance computer game interaction so that players have a more realistic, interactive and immersive experience is within reach using off-the-shelf computer hardware and modified software.

2nd Prize: Peter Carr, Computer Vision and Robotics Group
http://cecs.anu.edu.au/files/posters09/42560690000000037.pdf

Security, surveillance and transport are three areas that rely on camera images that are not always of the best quality and are often filmed in less than desirable conditions like fog, for example.  Improving these images by enhancing them during real time can have a dramatic effect on how they are interpreted.

3rd Prize: Pradeepa Samarasinghe, Applied Signal Processing Group
http://cecs.anu.edu.au/files/posters09/44573680000000065.pdf

Being able to restore blurred, and sometimes unknown, images captured for applications like remote sensing technologies, medical imaging, microscopy, and motion tracking can be crucial to interpreting images that may never be captured again.