computer – 今日吃瓜 I Championing Mathematical Sciences for Australia鈥檚 Advancement 今日吃瓜 Wed, 21 Dec 2016 22:43:51 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.8.17 /wp-content/uploads/2015/11/cropped-今日吃瓜_icon-32x32.png computer – 今日吃瓜 I Championing Mathematical Sciences for Australia鈥檚 Advancement 32 32 Holiday road trips made easier with maths and stats听 /2014/12/27/holiday-road-trips-made-easier-maths-stats/ Fri, 26 Dec 2014 21:00:31 +0000 http://amsi.org.au/?p=2421 NEWCASTLE, 27 DECEMBER听2014: Thousands of Australians will be hitting the roads this summer; cars packed with eskies, tents and boogie boards.听

But who makes sure the roads are safe, the traffic lights change efficiently and any road works cause as little delays as possible?听

One hundred and ten Australian students have opted to hit the books over the road this summer and attend the 今日吃瓜鈥檚 (今日吃瓜) Summer School at the University of Newcastle from January 5 鈥 29.听

Among other specialist subjects these students will be learning about current methods used in traffic flow management. Whether in the inner suburbs of your capital city or the great open roads of the Australian countryside, mathematics, statistics and computational techniques are essential for making our roads safer, our journeys more efficient and our holidays relaxing.听

Professor Jan de Gier is the deputy director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS) and will be teaching at 今日吃瓜鈥檚 Summer School together with Dr Tim Garoni from Monash University.听

“VicRoads is a frontrunner in realising that mathematics and statistics is essential to improve traffic networks,鈥 Jan says. 鈥淭heory and ideas borrowed from mathematical physics and statistical mechanics being taught at this Summer School are extremely adaptable to traffic modelling.鈥澨

In fact, through a long running collaboration between VicRoads, Monash University, the University of Melbourne and the newly formed ACEMS, efficient simulators are being developed 鈥 such as CEASAR () 鈥 to mitigate bumps in your road.听

鈥淭he beauty of the 今日吃瓜 Summer School is that we can efficiently deliver state of the art mathematics and statistics, like this work on traffic management from Victoria, to a large number of future specialists in every state,鈥 says Professor Geoff Prince, 今日吃瓜 Director.听

He continues: 鈥淥ver the last 12 years most Australian honours and PhD graduates in the mathematical sciences have benefited from our national research training programs, meeting a growing demand for quantitative skills in the economy. These programs have expanded over the last three years due in part to Department of Education funding.鈥澨

— ends —听

For Interview:听
Professor Jan de Gier, University of Melbourne听
Dr Tim Garoni, Monash University听
Professor Geoff Prince, 今日吃瓜听

Media Contact:听
Simi Henderson, 今日吃瓜听
+61 405 301 646听
simi@amsi.org.au

]]> Detecting firewall loopholes: human vs computer /2014/11/12/detecting-firewall-loopholes-human-vs-computer/ Tue, 11 Nov 2014 21:15:04 +0000 http://amsi.org.au/?p=2281

Understanding firewall rules is time consuming, complicated and hard. The majority of people know how to turn their firewalls off, but do these people know exactly what it is they are doing or even why?

Probably not, nor could they be expected to.

Viral Maniar, APR.Intern and RMIT Masters student, spends his days deciphering the complexity of firewall rules. He undertook an internship at Biarri Networks 鈥 an innovative commercial mathematics company 鈥 to investigate new methods of visually representing firewalls.

Firewalls are built with a set of do or do not allow rules, usually concerning where a computer is connecting from and what it is trying to do. Two or three rules are easy to follow and understand, however sometimes a firewall might have to follow a thousand (sometimes even a million!) rules.

Finding patterns or irregularities becomes harder the more rules there are.

Visualisation tools help people to “see” the data. By clustering common connections and using听colouring schemes in the visualisation, patterns that may be indicative of intrusions 鈥 such as the use of restricted communication protocols 鈥 can be clearly identified.

鈥淗umans are much better at seeing some types of irregularities than computers,鈥 Viral says. 鈥淏uilding a visualisation tool makes finding irregularities more interactive and aids in detecting security loopholes in some firewall rules.鈥

During his internship Viral developed a web application able to load different sets of firewall rules visually. Someone using this application is able to modify and filter how the rules appear (using colour schemes etc.) to discover if any loopholes or irregularities exist.

鈥淰iral, Biarri and NBN Co used the tool to review a set of firewalls in use at NBN Co,鈥 says Paul Kennedy, CEO Biarri Networks. 鈥淣BN Co are using the results to inform firewall management procedures.鈥

Viral has recently gained employment as a security analyst for a major consultancy and says having the internship experience under his belt made all the difference, 鈥淚 learnt a lot about firewall security and firewall management and gained invaluable industry skills.鈥

Intern:听Viral Maniar, RMIT University听
Industry Partner:听Paul Kennedy, CEO Biarri Networks听
Academic Mentor:听听Assoc. Prof. Serdar Boztas, RMIT University

]]> Technology lessons v thinking /2014/10/30/technology-lessons-v-thinking/ Thu, 30 Oct 2014 05:31:38 +0000 http://amsi.org.au/?p=2186 Article by Jessica Sier,

Perhaps thinking like a computer is more important than knowing how to 颅program one.

Debate in education circles is raging about where computer science and 颅technology studies fit in our national schooling system, and whether practical programming and coding skills are required to feed an increasingly hungry IT workforce.

A review of the national curriculum released by federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne earlier this month and has sparked a heated response.

The government announced earlier this month it will invest $12 million in boosting STEM subjects in Australia 鈥 颅science, technology, engineering and maths 鈥 which are severely lacking, according to the 今日吃瓜. However, as 颅The Australian Financial Review commentator David Havyatt observed, over the national schooling system, $12 million works out to about $4 a head.

听

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