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See dates and speakersCurrent DataX research projects
Our projects harness the exponential growth in data volume, variety and velocity to transform data-driven discovery and solutions to complex problems.
Learn more about the following projects our researchers are currently working on.
Portfolio investment
Superannuation industries carry significant responsibility for the financial well-being of Australia. Managing optimal investment strategy in the superannuation accumulation phase depends on optimally constructing a portfolio of assets.
This project aims to develop new theories, methodologies, and algorithms that account for distributional uncertainties in high-dimensional datasets to improve the optimality of portfolio construction.
Our research will build the industry's capacity to use these new methodologies, leading to a distributionally robust mean-variance portfolio that can achieve optimal investment returns for everyday Australians.
Contact: Professor Hanlin Shang
Research team: Ruike Wu (Xiamen University) and Yanrong Yang (Australian National University)
Finding the people in the data: Intensive surface survey around the sanctuary of Hera at Perachora
The Perachora Peninsula Archaeological Project – co-directed by Susan Lupack, Department of History and Archaeology, and Panagiota Kasimi, Director of the Ephoreia of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of the Corinthia – is conducting intensive surface survey across a town associated with the 8th-2nd century BCE Sanctuary of Hera Akraia located opposite Corinth. The collected artefact samples are indicative of land use and the chronological extent of the habitation, but projecting population densities is problematic.
With the collaboration of our DataX colleagues, the Perachora Peninsula Project aims to apply new interpretive tools to our archaeological data to arrive at a more satisfying projection of the population that inhabited the town – a method which could then be applied to other regions that are also being investigated with intensive surface survey.
Contact: Dr Susan Lupack
Brain networks for health
Poor understanding of speech in noise continues to be a perplexing problem in hearing science. Approximately one in ten people with speech-in-noise hearing difficulties cannot be helped
because the underlying cause of their hearing problem remains a mystery.
DataX will develop a new data-centric approach to brain network analysis: connectome-based predictive modelling, to predict individual speech in noise performance from brain connectivity.
The structure of the human connectome could inform artificial agents that are able to mimic the way a human interacts with the world, both in health and disease.
Contact: Professor Paul Sowman
Bringing cosmic fossils to life: History of galaxy formation with MUSE
The answers to solving the origins of complexity in our Universe lie in combining theory and observation in new ways, requiring an integrated approach to data and modelling.
DataX will bring together computer scientists, statisticians and astronomers to develop new ways of bringing theories, mathematical models and data together to generate new understandings and explanations of the complexity of galaxy formation. This will be a challenging project developing new mathematical data science and computing approaches to enable new discoveries in science.
Contact: Professor Richard McDermid
Superannuation and financial products
https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.13943
Australia’s life insurance, superannuation and pension funds industries carry significant responsibility for the financial wellbeing of Australians. Managing this responsibility and financial risk depends on accurately pricing consumers’ insurance premiums.
This project will develop new theories, methodologies and algorithms that account for complexities in merged big datasets to improve the accuracy of predictions.
Our research will build industry’s capacity to use these new methodologies leading to improvements in mortality forecasts and pricing of life insurance premiums for everyday Australians, as well as stronger financial risk management among some of Australia’s most critical financial industries.
Contact: Professor Hanlin Shang
Research team: Sizhe Chen (Macquarie University) and Dr Yang Yang (University of Newcastle)