Projects for Research Students at Monash

1. Intelligent Multicriteria Decision Support Systems

To develop intelligent multicriteria analysis models that can be implemented as a decision support system for solving the general multicriteria decision problem. 

Specific intelligent procedures to be developed for improving the decision quality include:

·  Context-dependent validation techniques for decision outcomes.

The validation of the models used will be examined in terms of the degree to which they are consistent with the preference structures and decision information embedded in the decision problem.

·  Consensus under multi-panel decision environments.

A consensus formation procedure with a what-to-do analysis will be developed to explore the multiple directions, among which satisfactory compromises can be reached. Some form of consensus will be reached as to which of these are strongly desirable, or strongly undesirable, in each context.

·    Determination of the best selection policy.

This procedure generates the optimal policy for selecting alternatives on an on-going basis in a given context. Dynamic programming and fuzzy clustering techniques will be considered and compared with multicriteria analysis techniques.

Fuzzy knowledge bases for handling the uncertainty of the decision process in different contexts will be developed, including:

·  Fuzzy knowledge bases for criteria weighting with subjective and uncertain preferences

- Link the process of determining criteria weights with the objectives of the decision problems, resulting in a consistent approach to criteria weighting.

·  Fuzzy knowledge bases for the selection and ranking of decision alternatives

- Provide intelligent decision analysis and advice to the decision-makers according to their preference structures and cognitive style, resulting in informed decision outcomes with effective sensitivity analysis capabilities.

·  Fuzzy knowledge bases for the validation of decision outcomes

- Support the model selection procedure that best reflects the decision information content, and provide experience in the implementation.

The project is intended for PhD research, although part of it may be taken initially as a Masters/Honours research.

2. Web Content Mining and Multilingual Text mining

The following projects are designed to facilitate global knowledge exploration (particularly over the Internet), which can be carried out individually or collectively:

• Developing a configurable system for automatically gathering and processing parallel documents from the Web.

• Constructing a concept space for representing the meaning and context of words in one or multiple languages, using various clustering techniques.

• Document clustering for explorative browsing with self-organising maps.

• Document categorisation for concept-oriented browsing using fuzzy techniques.

• User profiling for representing a user’s domains of interest and task-specific preference for Web personalisation.

• Adaptive multicriteria document ranking for user-oriented browsing.

Projects can also be conducted along the following lines of research:

• A concept-based approach for monolingual text mining and Web content mining.

• Applications – e.g. document routing and filtering for businesses, e-business process management, and customer relationship management.

• Implementing technology - intelligent agents and Web search engines.

• A smart semantic search engine – will understand human languages by grasping both the meaning and context (i.e. the concept) of words. A complementary technology for the next-generation Web (the Semantic Web) for understanding human languages.

3. Software Localisation and Internationalisation for Web-Based Applications

The following projects can be carried out individually or collectively:

·  Software internationalisation - global software development for international markets.

To investigate the implementation environment and techniques, and to explore design strategies for developing international software systems on the Internet.

·  Software localisation - software Chineseisation.

To investigate and develop techniques for retrieving and displaying Chinese characters from various Chinese character sets which are not internally supported by the Web-based system in use.

·  Development of bilingual (English-Chinese) Web applications.

To investigate Chinese information processing and software development techniques for developing Web-based application systems with English and Chinese support. A prototype of a Web-based database information system will be implemented to handle English and Chinese information. Specific tasks to be implemented include:

-   Dynamic switch mechanism system to govern the selection of a language environment.

-   Data-driven user interface design to allow for language independence which facilities the incorporation of other languages into the system.

-   Chinese information retrieval design to allow flexible access methods for Chinese character input.

·  Chinese information retrieval - alternative Chinese character input methods and sorting techniques.

    To develop intelligent Character input techniques for entering Chinese characters. Efficient algorithms will be developed to facilitate the component selection and character matching process. Intelligent self-learning mechanisms will be incorporated to improve the input efficiency and accuracy for various users in specific environments.

4. Risk Analysis and Evaluation under Uncertainty

To develop risk management techniques and models for airline/airport safety or other business operations.

Major research tasks (methodology) include:

·  Identifying and classifying risk factors (Fuzzy AHP survey questionnaire and fuzzy clustering).

· Generating a risk index based on the degree of importance, probability, and gravity of hazard (Risk grid).

· Determining the threshold values of risk and degree of tolerable risk severity (As low as reasonably practicable principle).

· Evaluating treatment alternatives (Fuzzy MADM).

5. Fuzzy Multicriteria Classification

To develop algorithms for classifying items based on multiple criteria with fuzzy or imprecise information.

The ABC inventory analysis or student performance analysis can be used as a case study.

6. Fuzzy Querying for Web Information Retrieval or Database Applications

To design a flexible querying mechanism to allow existing Web-based database applications to handle fuzzy or vague queries represented by linguistic terms. Querying results will be ranked based on the degree of relevance.

This project can be implemented in any programming environment, preferably in Web-based programming languages. 

7. Intelligent Scheduling

PhD research. To be discussed with prospective students.