Christopher Lane is the General Manager of CoastalCOMS Australia and the Chief Technology Officer and founder of Coastalwatch Holdings. Christopher heads the CoastalCOMS research team and coordinates activities with industry and academic partners. Christopher has a wealth of experience in the design, implementation and management of large scale coastal management information systems. He has designed, developed and managed the largest public network of cameras in Australia over the last 10 years and as well as developing strategic alliances with university and commercial partners that have resulted in internationally original and marketable coastal safety and management software.

Chris has a Masters of Computing, a Bachelor of Health Sciences, an Associated Diploma of Electrical Engineering and Electronics and a Trade Certificate in Instrumentation Process and Control – a unique combination that has provided him with the tools to provide innovative solutions to the technical challenges faced by CoastalCOMS.

Deputy Head of School
School of Information and Communication Technology
Griffith University

CoastalCOMS: Partner Investigator

Associate Professor Blumenstein is the Head of School for the School of Information and Communication Technology at Griffith University. Dr Blumenstein is an active researcher in the fields of image processing, pattern recognition and artificial neural networks and their applications. During the course of his PhD, Dr Blumenstein proposed a new technique for the automatic segmentation of cursive handwriting, obtaining results, which were amongst the highest in the literature.

His research and publications focuses on the application of computational intelligence techniques to such areas as handwriting recognition, object detection, data compression, robotics and engineering applications. In the field of engineering, Dr Blumenstein has applied neural network techniques for the successful prediction of wave-induced liquefaction in marine seabeds. This research may be the first of its kind reported in the literature and has provided encouraging results for the coastal engineering community.

Head of Griffith Centre for Coastal Management
Griffith University

CoastalCOMS Project: Chief Investigator

Professor Tomlinson provides technical oversight and review on a number of major beach erosion protection schemes and for estuary management studies in Australia including innovative projects such as the artificial reef at Narrowneck, and those proposed for Noosa and Palm Beach. His expertise has been called on for advice on physical modelling facilities in Queensland, input to catchment management committees and State of the Environment Report working groups, and setting research priorities for the professional bodies, and the Coastal CRC.

Rodger was the Foundation Director of the Griffith Centre for Coastal Management, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus which was established in collaboration with the Gold Coast City Council. This position has allowed him to return to active involvement and management of coastal processes research programs. He was also actively involved in the establishment of the Co-operative Research Centre for Coastal Zone Estuary and Waterway Management.

Project: PhD Student

Darrell received a Bachelor of Science (Meteorology and Oceanography) from The Flinders University of South Australia in 1992. He commenced a PhD in late 2003 with the Griffith Centre for Coastal Management at the Gold Coast Campus of Griffith University. His research is focussed on the morphological modelling of intermediate beach state transitions that has contributed to the ARC Linkage research project. The site of Narrowneck artificial reef on the Northern Gold Coast provides an ideal study site as it has been well surveyed and monitored since the proposed reef was designed and built.

Darrell has gained experience through previous positions including ten years with the National Tidal Facility Australia. During this time his activities included data acquisition systems development, real time sea level display software development and provided systems support for research activities. He was also actively involved in the South Pacific Sea Level and Climate Monitoring Project, an AusAID initiative, throughout this time and provided technical support, software development and training for delegates from Pacific Islands Forum countries.