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ADM+S Researchers Receive Discovery Early Career Research Award 2022
Author Loren Dela Cruz
Date 17 August 2021
Three researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S Centre) are recipients of the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) scheme for 2022.
Associate Investigator Sarah Erfani, based at the Centre’s University of Melbourne node, received a grant of $403,482 for her project on anomaly detection in cyber security. The project, Making Anomaly Detection Interpretable & Actionable in Hostile Environments, aims to identify and interpret anomalies that can disrupt system performance by introducing the concept of actionable anomalies. It will significantly advance the effectiveness of anomaly detection by developing algorithms that distil local and global structures of data to characterise actionable anomalies and explain their outlying aspects. Project outcomes will enhance the security, trustworthiness and fault-tolerance of critical systems, contributing to international efforts in cyber security.
Associate Investigator Timothy Graham from Queensland University of Technology was awarded $452,000 for his project Combating Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour on Social Media. The project will develop cutting-edge methods and workflows to accurately distinguish genuine activity from coordinated inauthentic behaviour, and to trace and evaluate the adoption of material spread by malicious actors across multiple platforms.
Research Fellow Jathan Sadowski of Monash University received $421,200 in funding for his project Everyday Insurtech: Impacts of Emerging Technology for Insurance. The project will investigate the emerging insurance technology (insurtech) sector and conduct the first major empirical study of insurtech’s implementation and impacts in Australia, with a focus on automotive, health, and property coverage. The project will result in effective and efficient insurance services for Australians by ensuring risks of insurtech are avoided.
ADM+S Centre Director Julian Thomas congratulated the three recipients.
“The Centre is delighted by the success of our early-career colleagues in the exceptionally competitive ARC DECRA scheme. The new DECRA Fellows are working on issues that are central to the future of automated services, from the management of risk to the identification of authentic communication and the security and trustworthiness of critical systems. We are proud of their achievements and privileged to be working alongside them on these path-breaking projects,” said Prof Thomas.
The DECRA scheme provides focused research support for early career researchers and aims to:
- support excellent basic and applied research by early career researchers
- support national and international research collaboration
- enhance the scale and focus of research in Australian Government priority areas
- advance promising early career researchers and promote enhanced opportunities for diverse career pathways
- enable research and research training in high quality and supportive environments
ARC Chief Executive Officer, Professor Sue Thomas, said “The DECRA scheme provides our promising early career researchers the opportunities and resources to advance their research and build diverse career pathways.”
For a full list of funded DECRA projects please visit the ARC website.
