At
CQU, I have developed and coordinated undergraduate courses in software
engineering and strategic management and postgraduate courses in strategic
management, distributed systems, software engineering and computer games
development. I also played a key role in the establishment of the Centre for
Intelligent and Networked Systems (CINS) as a University-funded research centre in 2009 and was a Deputy Director of the Centre from 2009-2014.
My research activity has focused on the development of the team programming paradigm. In this paradigm, complex software systems are viewed in terms of teams of agents that operate in concert but also pursue their own explicitly defined goals. Software development then involves two major tasks – the specification of goal hierarchies and the specification of team structure. The work is being conducted in collaboration with Jacquie Jarvis at CQU and Intendico Pty. Ltd., a Melbourne-based software company. The initial implementation is realised as a Java framework called GORITE. The work has its origins in the BDI (Belief, Desire, Intention) model of agency, but the point of divergence is the explicit representation of both goals and organizational structure together with the use of Java as the programming language. We have used GORITE to investigate the feasibility of team programming for the development of manufacturing execution systems and for business process modelling. We are now exploring its potential in medical prescribing, sensor networks, Smart Grid applications and in serious games.
Before joining CQU in 2007, I worked for CSIRO Manufacturing and Materials Technology for 15 years and then for a software company, Agent Oriented Software (AOS) for 6 years. At AOS, I developed agent-based applications for the defence, manufacturing and business sectors and conducted commissioned research for the UK Ministry of Defence, Australia's Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) and the United States Air Force. The research activities were concerned primarily with the modelling of realistic individual (soldier, pilot, unmanned air vehicles) and team (platoon, company, air combat) behaviour using intelligent agents. These agents were then used to evaluate tactics in either closed simulations or in war-gaming environments.
I am currently accredited for supervision in the following:
At the level of Principal Supervisor