ARC Research Network in Enterprise Information Infrastructure AGM July 2005

1. ARC Research Network inEnterprise Information InfrastructureAGM July 2005 Maria E Orlowska Convenor, ARC Research Network EII University of Queensland www.eii.edu.au

2. Outline • EII Overview • EII Mission • EII Programs Followed by Prof X Zhou report on • EII Activities in 2004/05 • EII Funding Strategies • Structure for the rest of AGM • Discussion

3. ARC Research Networks • A $42M new initiative from ARC “to bring leading researchers together to share their knowledge” • Different from CRCs, NICTA… • 24 networks funded for 5 years • EII is the only IT+IS research network funded • $1.6M from ARC, plus $1.6M non-ARC cash contributions from participating institutions

4. EII Participants • Hosted at UQ • Prof Maria E Orlowska, Network Convenor • Prof Xiaofang Zhou, Research Director • 49 (46) other participants from 20 (22) institutions • Monash, Sydney; UNSW; ANU, ECU; Macquarie, Wollongong, Melbourne, VUT, Griffith, QUT, UTS, UniSA; Tasmania, Newcastle, Swinburne • NICTA, CSIRO, DSTC • Microsoft, SAP

5. Some Figures on our capabilities • 46 core participants • Plus 80+ registered associate members • $36M research funding for 2000-2006 • Including $7M industry funding • Over the last 5 years • 37 books, 143 book chapters, 708 journal papers, 1628 conference papers • 154 current PhD students

6. EII Management • Advisory Board • Keith Jeffery, Director, IT, CCLRC, UK. • Arun Sharma, DVC-R, QUT. • James Shaw, GM, ICT Strategy and Policy Development, DCITA • Harry Shum, Managing Director, MSRA. • Douglas Vogel, Chair of IS, City U of HK. • Steering Committee for 2004/05 • Maria Orlowska, Xiaofang Zhou, David Abramson, Janice Burn, Peter Eades, Shirley Gregor, Rao Kotagiri, Igor Hawryszkiewycz, Vijay Varadharajan, and Albert Zomaya

7. EII Mission “To provide a forum for intellectual exchange by diverse yet complementary research groups, to address the fundamental research problems faced by scientific & business communities when dealing with deployment of information technology to globally distributed and data intensive environments”

8. EII Mission • Look for new opportunities, • Improve impact of our research work, • Maintain/improve quality of research output,

9. Key EII Research Themes • Ability to interoperate across existing heterogenous platforms & applications • Efficient processing of very large data sets, often with unstructured data types • Technology adoption & impact

10. EII Application Drivers – e-science, e-gov, e-business,… Technology Evolution EII Scope Enterprise Centric Service Centric Application Centric EII technical scope Data, Knowledge and Process Security Computing Platforms Computing Infrastructure Computer Networks Telecommunication Networks

11. EII Programs Theme 1 - Interoperability Security Trust Privacy Data Management Impact And Adoption Knowledge and Process Computing Platforms Theme 3 – Application Drivers Theme 2 – Performance for large and complex data sets

12. How to Make EII Work • A great challenge! • In addition to meetings, workshops, conferences • Problem-driven research, with focused vertical application domains • Synergy task forces (scopes, benchmarks, test beds) • Measurable objectives • High quality research output • Greater impact of research results • Joint projects, attracting new funding • Eventually, creation of an Australia Centre of Excellence

13. Report from Research Director • EII Activities in 2004/05 • EII Funding Strategies • Structure for the rest of AGM • Discussion

14. Outline • EII Activities: • Goals • Categories • EII Funding Strategies • 2004/05 Report • 2006 Planning

15. EII Activities • Goal • Opportunities, quality and impact, through networking • Activities categories • Networking • An EII web portal (internal and external), news letters, mailing lists • AGM, steering/advisory committee meetings • Research exchanges • Conferences and workshops • Opportunities • For our community, and for ECRs • Task forces, industry links, multidisciplinary links • Facilitating real collaboration, and working towards a 3-5 years vision • Impact • International collaborations, industry links, user group links • More needs to be done… • Quality • Spring schools, internships, research exchanges, EII seminars • Visibility for outstanding achievements • Development of quality indicators • Activity levels • EII (core and expanded), city, program, and application domain

16. More about EII Activities • In addition to meetings, workshops, conferences • Problem-driven research, with focused vertical application domains • Synergy task forces (scopes, benchmarks, test beds) • Measurable objectives • High quality research output • Greater impact of research results • Joint projects, attracting new funding • Eventually, creation of an Australia Centre of Excellence

17. EII Funding Strategies • EII is not a mini-funding scheme • EII is a seed grant to help all of us to get to the future we want to be • Identify major opportunities • Lobby the decision makers • Establish track record, critical mass and collaboration • ARC vs Institutional funding • EII activities, and institutional activities

18. Activities 2004/05 • 25 August: funding announced • Nov: Kath Williamson appointed • Nov: 1st steering committee meeting • Nov: contract negotiation started • Dec, May and August: links with MSRA • Jan: funding received • March: news letters • April: taskforce proposals • 10 proposals • 3 short-listed, funding to start after this AGM • April and July: e-water workshop • Others • EII website, EII seminars (Brisbane and Sydney), brining major international conferences • 10-15 October: EII Spring School (for PhD students and others) • Others: • MSRA internships; finalizing contracts; a new Web portal; EII snapshot update; preparing for annual report.

19. E-Water Workshop • ARC and NSFC • First meeting: 1 April 2005, near Shanghai • First workshop: 4-5 July 2005, Gold Coast • Theme: • ICT and Whole-of-Water-Cycle approach to water resources management • Attendees: • Eva Abal, Ian Atkinson, Rao Kotagiri, Xuemin Lin, Stuart Minchin, Maria Orlowska, Andy Steven, Ah Chung Tsoi, Yanchun Zhang, Xiaofang Zhou • Qingcheng He, Minglu Li, Guangcai Wang, Lei Wang, Dongguang Wen, Jichun Wu, Feng Xu, Qingping Zhu, Xiaofeng Zhou • Outcome • An established network • A project proposal (3 years, 1,5M) • Next Step • NSFC visit to ARC on 16 August • Ministerial level interests • Several funding opportunities • Second workshop: 16-18 Jan 2006, Harbin

20. Activities 2006 • Annual activities • Feb: Steering committee meeting • July: AGM (and Steering committee meeting, Advisory board meeting) - Melbourne • October: Springer school - Sydney • Major initiatives • Call for proposals in April (taskforces?) • Other activities • A new vertical workshop • …

21. Thank you http://www.eii.edu.au

22. Mr James Shaw [EII Advisory Board member] General Manager, StrategyCommonwealth Government Department of Communications, Information Technology & the Arts, DCITA The department provides policy and strategic advice to the Government on drivers of the global information economy, facilitates legislation, develops policy in relation to the online environment and administers a number of programs to help promote take-up of ICT technology.

23. Dr Anthony Maeder Research Director e-Health Research Centre CSIRO ICT Centre Anthony holds a PhD in Software Engineering from Monash University, and his current research specialisations are digital image processing and human vision, including medical imaging applications. He holds a concurrent appointment as an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Queensland. Dr Maeder is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia, and a Member of IEEE, ACM and ACS. He was the founding President of the Australian Pattern Recognition Society in 1991 and serves on the SPIE International Technical Committee for Medical Imaging.

24. Prof Mark Ragan Director ARC Centre for Bioinformatics Institute for Molecular Bioscience, UQ Prof. Mark Ragan is a Professorial Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience in the University of Queensland. His interests are in the areas of automated inference of vertical and lateral gene transmission in microbial genomes, Novel algorithmic methods in comparative genomics and relational database structures for genomic data.

25. National Benefits • Added momentum to Australia’s IT research community, by cross fertilisation among researchers, major industry players and leading-edge user groups • Establishment of a stimulating, competitive and scientifically rich research environment • Improved quality and returns from currently funded research activities in Australia • Increased international recognition