Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Comprehensive Analysis Of Smart Ship Systems And Underlying Cybersecurity Issues, Dennis Bothur

Theses : Honours

The maritime domain benefits greatly from advanced technology and ubiquitous connectivity. From “smart” sensors to “augmented reality”, the opportunities to save costs and improve safety are endless. The aim of this dissertation is to study the capabilities of smart ship systems in the context of Internet-of-Things and analyse the potential cybersecurity risks and challenges that smart technologies may introduce into this accelerating digital economy.

The first part of this work investigates the architecture of a “Smart Ship System” and the primary subsystems, including the integrated bridge, navigation and communication systems, networking, operational systems, and sensor networks. The mapping of the …

Facial Re-Enactment, Speech Synthesis And The Rise Of The Deepfake, Nicholas Gardiner

Theses : Honours

Emergent technologies in the fields of audio speech synthesis and video facial manipulation have the potential to drastically impact our societal patterns of multimedia consumption. At a time when social media and internet culture is plagued by misinformation, propaganda and “fake news”, their latent misuse represents a possible looming threat to fragile systems of information sharing and social democratic discourse. It has thus become increasingly recognised in both academic and mainstream journalism that the ramifications of these tools must be examined to determine what they are and how their widespread availability can be managed.

This research project seeks to examine …

Penetration Testing Frameworks And Methodologies: A Comparison And Evaluation, Aleatha Shanley

Theses : Honours

Cyber security is fast becoming a strategic priority across both governments and private organisations. With technology abundantly available, and the unbridled growth in the size and complexity of information systems, cyber criminals have a multitude of targets. Therefore, cyber security assessments are becoming common practice as concerns about information security grow. Penetration testing is one strategy used to mitigate the risk of cyber-attack. Penetration testers attempt to compromise systems using the same tools and techniques as malicious attackers thus, aim to identify vulnerabilities before an attack occurs. Penetration testing can be complex depending on the scope and domain area under …

The Corporate Security Stratum Of Work: Identifying Levels Of Work In The Domain, Codee Roy Ludbey

Theses : Honours

Corporate security is a practicing domain and developing academic discipline that provides for the protection of people, information and assets, as well as the self-protection of organisations. Fayol (1949) articulated such an activity within organisations to be a core business function of significant importance; embedding security operations within all aspects of organisational work. This embedded nature of security within organisations has led to difficulty in the literature delineating roles and responsibilities of security practitioners; consequently leading to a nebulous understanding of security as a whole. Therefore, an investigation of the corporate security stratum of work has been undertaken to address …

Improving Pre-Hospital Care At Mass Gathering Events: Applying Military Intelligence Methodology To The St John Ambulance Wa Event Health Operations, Alan James Davies

Theses : Honours

With the growth of the mass gathering event domain and its ever constant place within the contemporary Australian lifestyle, the number of patrons who attend these events that require medical assistance rises (Zeitz et al., 2007, p. 23; Zeitz, Zeitz, & Arbon, 2005, p. 164; Zeitz, Zeitz, & Kadow-Griffin, 2012). This increased demand and inherited risk to the event organiser, the patrons attending and the pre-hospital care or first aid provider creates a need for the investigation into enhancements to the medical care operations at these events. The provision of pre-hospital care at mass gathering events in Western Australia is …

Using Genetic Algorithms To Find Cellular Automata Rule Sets Capable Of Generating Maze-Like Game Level Layouts, Andrew Pech

Theses : Honours

The video game industry has grown substantially over the last decade and the quality of video games has also been advancing rapidly. In recent years, video games have been advancing to a point that the increased time required to manually create their content is making this process too costly. This has made procedural content generation a desirable option for game developers due to its speed of generating content, and the variety of content that a single PCG method can produced.

The main purpose of this dissertation is to detail a new approach to procedurally generate video game level layouts, and …

Dynamically Adjusting Game-Play In 2d Platformers Using Procedural Level Generation, Daniel Wheat

Theses : Honours

The rapid growth of the entertainment industry has presented the requirement for more efficient development of computerized games. Importantly, the diversity of audiences that participate in playing games has called for the development of new technologies that allow games to address users with differing levels of skills and preferences. This research presents a systematic study that explored the concept of dynamic difficulty using procedural level generation with interactive evolutionary computation. Additionally, the design, development and trial of computerized agents the play game levels in the place of a human player is detailed. The work presented in this thesis provides a …

The Detection Of Abnormal Events In Activities Of Daily Living Using A Kinect Sensor, Laurence Da Luz

Theses : Honours

The growing elderly population presents a challenge on the resources of carers and assisted living communities. This has led to various projects in remote automated home monitoring in order to keep the elderly in their own home environment longer. These have the promise of alleviating the strain on support services, and the benefits of keeping people in their existing familiar community environment. Such monitoring typically involves a myriad of sensors attached to the environment and person, so as to acquire rich enough data to determine the actions of the person being monitored. In this research, an algorithm based around the …

Enhancing Automated Red Teaming With Monte Carlo Tree Search, Daniel Beard

Theses : Honours

This study has investigated novel Automated Red Teaming methods that support replanning. Traditional Automated Red Teaming (ART) approaches usually use evolutionary computing methods for evolving plans using simulations. A drawback of this method is the inability to change a team’s strategy part way through a simulation. This study focussed on a Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) method in an ART environment that supports re-planning to lead to better strategy decisions and a higher average score

The Application Of Data Mining Techniques To Interrogate Western Australian Water Catchment Data Sets, Ajdin Sehovic

Theses : Honours

Current environmental challenges such as increasing dry land salinity, waterlogging, eutrophication and high nutrient runoff in south western regions of Western Australia may have both cultural and environmental implications in the near future. Advances in computer science disciplines, more specifically, data mining techniques and geographic information services provide the means to be able to conduct longitudinal climate studies to predict changes in the Water catchment areas of Western Australia.

The research proposes to utilise existing spatial data mining techniques in conjunction of modern open-source geospatial tools to interpret trends in Western Australian water catchment land use. This will be achieved …

Risk-Based Intervention Profiling In Complex Environments (Impacted By Time-Restricted Conditions), Joseph D. Ducie

Theses : Honours

Security in the aviation environment is an evolving concept. Security risk profiling is an issue of significant importance in the aviation spectrum. This study examined the profiling undertaken on Australia’s bio-security border, with specific attention given to the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) and the officers that use risk-based profiling within the complex environment found on the border—and how effectiveness is impacted by time. Aviation security is a real and current issue for Australia and the international community as a whole. Given recent outbreaks, and the relative ease of international air travel, of such pests and diseases (SARS, Swine Flu, …

An Analysis And Comparison Of Predominant Word Sense Disambiguation Algorithms, David J. Craggs

Theses : Honours

This thesis investigates research performed in the area of natural language processing. It is the aim of this research to compare a selection of predominant word sense disambiguation algorithms, and also determine if they can be optimised by small changes to the parameters used by the algorithms. To perform this research, several word sense disambiguation algorithms will be implemented in Java, and run on a range of test corpora. The algorithms will be judged on metrics such as speed and accuracy, and any other results obtained; while an algorithm may be fast and accurate, there may be other factors making …

Estimating Pulse Wave Velocity Using Mobile Phone Sensors, Rohan Anchan

Theses : Honours

Pulse wave velocity has been recognised as an important physiological phenomenon in the human body, and its measurement can aid in the diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases. It is the gold standard for arterial stiffness measurements, and it also shares a positive relationship with blood pressure and heart rate. There exist several methods and devices via which it can be measured. However, commercially available devices are more geared towards working health professionals and hospital settings, requiring a significant monetary investment and specialised training to operate correctly. Furthermore, most of these devices are not portable and thus generally not feasible …

Remote Access Forensics For Vnc And Rdp On Windows Platform, Paresh Kerai

Theses : Honours

There has been a greater implementation of remote access technologies in recent years. Many organisations are adapting remote technologies such as Virtual Network Computing (VNC) and remote desktop (RDP) applications as customer support application. They use these applications to remotely configure computers and solve computer and network issues of the client on spot. Therefore, the system administrator or the desktop technician does not have to sit on the client computer physically to solve a computer issue. This increase in adaptation of remote applications is of interest to forensic investigators; this is because illegal activities can be performed over the connection. …

Website Accessibility Issues In Western Australian Public Libraries, Vivienne L. Conway

Theses : Honours

Website accessibility is a very real and pressing issue for public libraries internationally. Tim Berners-Lee credited with founding the Web, states "The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect." (Henry & McGee, 2010). There is wide-spread support for adherence to the Web Content Advisory Guidelines Version 1.0 and 2.0 (WCAG) throughout Federal, State and Local levels of government in Australia. The Guidelines have also been affirmed by the Australian Human Rights Commission, disability advocacy groups such as Vision Australia, and the Australian Library and Information Association. The Australian Government …

Investigating Data Mining Techniques For Extracting Information From Alzheimer's Disease Data, Vinh Quoc Dang

Theses : Honours

Data mining techniques have been used widely in many areas such as business, science, engineering and more recently in clinical medicine. These techniques allow an enormous amount of high dimensional data to be analysed for extraction of interesting information as well as the construction of models for prediction. One of the foci in health related research is Alzheimer's disease which is currently a non-curable disease where diagnosis can only be confirmed after death via an autopsy. Using multi-dimensional data and the applications of data mining techniques, researchers hope to find biomarkers that will diagnose Alzheimer's disease as early as possible. …

An Investigation Into Student Reactions Towards Rad Versus Traditional Programming Environments For Novice Developers, Pansy Colkers

Theses : Honours

The traditional approach to programming using text editors is widely used in many institutions to teach introductory programming. These types of traditional programming environments provide fundamental programming concepts for learning, especially in the context of novice developers. In recent years, teaching institutions have seen a trend towards the introduction of visual "drag-and-drop" rapid application development (RAD) environments for teaching novice programmers. These 'environments capture student interest in programming by allowing the construction of workable programs within a short time frame based on minimal pre-existing coding knowledge. However, some have argued that these visual RAD environments might not be suitable for …

Case Analysis Of Information Security Risk Perceptions, Alexis Guillot

Theses : Honours

The scientific rationality used by experts towards risk evaluation is expressed as the product of its likelihood of occurrence with its consequences or impacts (ENISA, 2006a). This directly opposes the subjective nature of risk perception, often appearing as inconsistent if not completely irrational (Byrne, 2003). Risk perception theories are a pathway to explain the subjective nature of risk and a deeper insight into the human's cognitive system. Those theories may help to explain why people see, act and plan for risks in the way that they do, the weaknesses that exist in the human decision mechanisms and their impact on …

Users' Perspectives And Attitudes Towards Web Application Security, Leonard Ticualu

Theses : Honours

The Internet has become an integral part of the society in many parts of the world. However, as the Internet becoming more important and useful, the problems with Web security have also increased. More people today have experienced Web security threats such as viruses, spyware, keyloggers, and phishing; and a not insignificant number have encountered financial fraud because of the online activities they conducted. This research investigated the security concerns and level of awareness of users in regards to the use of web applications, by identifying users' concerns of web applications, examining the relationship of users' technical knowledge and users' …

A Study Of The Parallelisation Of Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithms In A Cluster Environment, Sadeesha Gamhewa

Theses : Honours

The two main issues relating to the use of Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithms (MOEAs) are the efficiency and effectiveness of the algorithms. As a result of the multiobjective and multi dimensional nature of MOEAs, the overall execution time that is taken to solve real world problems with MOEAs can be significant. Therefore, a few studies have recently been completed to address these performance issues by the use of parallelisation methods. The most widely known parallel Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm (pMOEA) models are the Master-slave, the Island, and the Diffusion models. The Master-slave and the Island models are generally implemented using message passing …

An Evaluation Of Omg Sysml 1.0a Standard Conformance Between Modelling Tools, Andrew James Campbell

Theses : Honours

The SysML is a recent introduction to modelling languages for the systems engineering domain. Modelling tools are offering support for its notation. Studies related to the UML have indicated that modelling tools lack compliance to the UML language. This issue may apply equally to the SysML and the aim of this research is to investigate that language compliance issue. The first phase of this research is concerned with the compliance of current modelling tools to the SysML l.0a Final Adopted Specification (PAS). It consists of a comparative evaluation of candidate tools based on an ideal framework derived from the language …

A Comparison Of Edge Detection Methods For Segmentation Of Skin Lesions In Mobile-Phone-Quality Images, Khanh Linh Hua

Theses : Honours

The world is faced with a rapidly increasing number of skin cancers every year. Melanoma is the most deadly type of skin cancer though it can be treated if it has been detected at an early stage. However, there is a shortage of dermatologists in rural areas. The increasing number of camera phones, together with improved coverage in rural areas gives some potential for tele-dermatology, whereby people with no local access to a dermatologist can send images of suspicious skin lesions to an expert for assessment. Merely relaying images to a human expert solves only part of the problem, there …

Sub Space: Enhancing The Spatial Awareness Of Trainee Submariners Using 3d Simulation Environments, Michael Garrett

Theses : Honours

Rapid advancements in computer technology have facilitated the development of practical and economically feasible three dimensional (3D) computer-generated simulation environments that have been utilized for training in a number of different fields. In particular, this development has been heavily influenced by innovations within the gaming industry, where First Person Shooter (FPS) games are often considered to be on the cutting edge of gaming technology in terms of visual fidelity and performance. 3D simulation environments built upon FPS gaming technologies can be used to realistically represent real world places, while also providing a dynamic and responsive experiential based learning environment for …

The Systemic Nature Of Critical Infrastructure Protection Using A Medium Sized Company As The Case Study, Jeffery Sewell

Theses : Honours

Critical infrastructure can be defined as privately and publicly run organisations such as energy systems, water systems, transportation, telecommunications, emergency services, banking and finance. The critical infrastructure (CI) on which society relies is now dependent on the interconnected communication networks the information age has spawned. With the evolution of the information age, not only has the communications landscape changed dramatically, the security landscape has changed too. With information technology being so ubiquitous, it has created new underlying concerns about the systems now reliant on them. The reliance and complexity of these interconnected systems has increased vulnerabilities confronting critical infrastructure. This …

Using Machine Learning Techniques To Create Ai Controlled Players For Video Games, Bhuman Soni

Theses : Honours

This study aims to achieve higher replay and entertainment value in a game through human-like AI behaviour in computer controlled characters called bats. In order to achieve that, an artificial intelligence system capable of learning from observation of human player play was developed. The artificial intelligence system makes use of machine learning capabilities to control the state change mechanism of the bot. The implemented system was tested by an audience of gamers and compared against bats controlled by static scripts. The data collected was focused on qualitative aspects of replay and entertainment value of the game and subjected to quantitative …

An Investigation Into The Application Of Data Mining Techniques To Characterize Agricultural Soil Profiles, Rowan J. Maddern

Theses : Honours

The advances in computing and information storage have provided vast amounts of data. The challenge has been to extract knowledge from this raw data; this has led to new methods and techniques such as data mining that can bridge the knowledge gap. The research aims to use these new data mining techniques and apply them to a soil science database to establish if meaningful relationships can be found. A data set extracted from the WA Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFW A) soils database has been used to conduct this research. The database contains measurements of soil profile data from …

Evaluating The Impact Of Peer Review And Participation Awareness In An Online Collaborative Document Authoring Environment, Greg Baatard

Theses : Honours

Online Learning Environments (OLEs) have been widely adopted by higher education facilities, offering distance education with the potential to support the social and collaborative aspects deemed crucial to modern constructivist pedagogy. Groupware, a form of software which aims to facilitate group work, has been the subject of much research, from both educational and enterprise perspectives. This research introduced Reportal, an online groupware system designed to facilitate the collaborative authoring of a document. Reportal's peer review and participation awareness features were the focus of this research, and their impact was measured against the elements of online collaboration, a typology established by …

The Challenges Of Itil Implementations, Jason Gray

Theses : Honours

Originating from the UK, the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is an IT Service Management framework whose adoption is rapidly spreading throughout Canada, Netherlands, South Africa, India, USA, and Australia. Promoted as a collection of "Best Practices" in IT service management, ITIL is gaining a reputation as a "silver bullet" to IT Service Management woes and is now .gaining popularity amongst IT vendors and leaders of best practices worldwide. Increased IT productivity, IT accountability, increased compliance and reduced IT costs, are just some of the promised list of benefits. More and more organisations are plam1ing to embark on ITIL implementations as …

Automated Photo-Identification Of Cetaceans : An Integrated Software Solution, Daniel Griggs

Theses : Honours

This study investigates current techniques used for automated photo-identification of cetaceans (i.e. dolphins and whales). The primary focus constitutes various techniques that can be applied to identify and extract dorsal fins from digital photographs. A comprehensive analysis of these techniques demonstrates the most effective software solution. To further support this analysis, four prototypes are developed to demonstrate the effectiveness of each technique in a practical environment. The analysis bases its final conclusions on test results generated from these prototype software examples. Final conclusions provide recommendations for an effective, accurate, and practical software solution. This software solution allows dorsal fins to …

An Attitude And Perception Study Of Wireless Network Usage In Home Environments, Patryk Szewczyk

Theses : Honours

Research on the use of 802.11 wireless networking and wireless security has in the past focused predominantly on corporations who generally have access to resources specifically allocated to computer and network security. Research has also focused on identifying the flaws in wireless network security, and developing stronger and safer methods which may be incorporated. To date there has been a lack of research into determining what the individual at home perceives towards wireless security. As broadband Internet connections are now predominantly chosen, the amount of available bandwidth open to exploitation is significantly higher than the now becoming obsolete dialup connection. …