Director Griffith Centre for Coastal Management, Griffith University (Professor)

Project role: Chief Investigator

Employment history

Feb 2000 - Present
Gold Coast City Council Professor of Coastal Management.
Director - Griffith Centre for Coastal Management

Oct 19 94 - Jan2000
Head - School of Environmental Engineering, Griffith University

Oct 1994 - June 1997
Deputy Dean - Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Griffith University
Associate Director - Waste Management Research Unit
Promoted to Associate Professor in 1997

1992 - Oct 1994
Senior Lecturer and Deputy Head - School of Environmental Engineering, GU

1991
Research Fellow - Coastal Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, UNSW

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

Project: Partner Investigator

Dr Blumenstein is an active researcher who is at an early stage of his career with eight years of experience in the fields of image processing, pattern recognition and artificial neural networks and their applications. Dr Blumenstein was awarded his PhD in October 2001 in the fields of computational intelligence and handwriting recognition. 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. He has recently developed a new feature extraction technique for segmented handwritten characters, also obtaining recognition rates comparable or higher than those presented by international researchers.

His publications (over 40 papers in international refereed conferences and journals) have focused on the application of computational intelligence techniques to such areas as handwriting recognition, object detection, data compression, robotics and engineering applications. In the area of pattern recognition, Dr Blumenstein has developed a new feature extraction technique for segmented handwritten characters, obtaining recognition rates comparable/higher than those presented by international researchers, which has been successfully extended to the areas of illicit object and person detection. 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.

In terms of funding, Dr Blumenstein has been and is currently the second chief investigator for Griffith University Research Grants awarded in 2003 and 2005 respectively on the application of neural networks to engineering applications. He is also the second chief investigator of an ARC Linkage grant (commenced in 2003) applying neural techniques to coastal management applications. Finally, Dr Blumenstein was the second chief investigator for a Griffith University Research Grant, from 2002-2004 focusing on the application of neural techniques for automated diagnosis of breast cancer.

Project: Research Fellow

Qualifications

Ph.D. in Cognitive Science Awarded 2003.
Bachelor Behavioral Science (Hons.)
Awards and Scholarships

1st class honors awarded 1996
Australian postgraduate scholarship award 1998-2002
Australian Research Council grant $200,000AUD (2002 Griffith University, final stage
consideration ref: Dr Cutmore)
Japan Ministry of Industry and Technology grant 300,000,000 JPY (2003, GMD-JRL
industry consortium ref: Prof. Christaller).
Research Interests
Machine learning, statistical pattern recognition, feature extraction, dimensionality reduc- Research
interests tion, neural networks, time/space - frequency analysis, image processing. Applications to
bio-informatics, image processing, robotics, cognitive science.

Projects

Current research in machine vision. Projects
Modeling the relationship between offshore swell models and observed near-shore states.
Machine processing and feature extraction for remote monitoring of near-shore coastal
conditions
Numerical modeling of the dynamics of beach state and prediction of future beach
Conditions

Previous research in robot vision and image processing.
Convolutional artificial neural networks: adaptive design of discriminate non-linear
FIR filters as applied to pattern recognition.
Principle components analysis and entropy measures for wavelet density estimation
and feature extraction for image processing.

PhD dissertation work
Wavelet time-frequency analysis for analysis of biosignals: applications to the electroencephalogram
and event-related potentials.
In 2002, this work used as significant basis for Australian Research council grant application
(under consideration, ref: Dr Cutmore).
Matthew Browne

Project: Partner Investigator

Chris Lane is the Chief Technical Officer of Coastalwatch.com, a role that has helped him to gain extensive project management experience through the establishment and technical support of this internet based content provider which provides streaming vision of Australian beaches. Chris also designs and supports software and infrastructure solutions for a range of business applications.

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 of a internet content and services provider.

Chris has designed and implemented a Virtual Private Network (VPN) for the Coastalwatch infrastructure – a VPN unicast streaming video system - which permits a performance enhancement of streaming capability for the more than 80 cameras that Coastalwatch has located around the country. Chris is also responsible for developing strategies for technology commercialisation platforms that integrate with key technologies and community information including data information feeds a range of services.

Two key projects that Chris has developed include:
the design and development of a community content publishing system (CPS) and associated CRM platform – this has been implemented to intergrate and synchronise content from a under of provides including BOM, EPA, NOAA and other state / national governments.

The research and development of a Artificial Neural Network Australia (ANNA) inshore swell models in association with the Centre for Coastal Management at Griffith University. This work has been co- funded by Coastalwatch, the Gold Coast City Council and the Australian Research Council. This research has lead to the development of the CoastalCOMS system.

Employment History

1998 - 2006
Founder and Chief Technical Officier Coastalwatch.com Gold Coast, Queensland

1995 – 1998
Electronic/Computer Technical Specialist Office of Technical Services Griffith University Gold Coast, Queensland

1995
Trainer / Coach Dolphins Cricket Club, Gold Coast, Queensland

1994
Biomechanist Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra, ACT

1993
Exercise Physiologist Queensland Academy of Sport, Brisbane, Queensland

1990-1992
Electronic Technical Specialist AWA Defence Industries, Sydney, NSW

1986 - 1990
Apprentice Instrumentation and Process Control Gold Coast City Council, Gold Coast, Queensland

Qualifications

1998 Masters of Computing
Griffith University Gold Coast
1995 Bachelor of Health Science (Exercise Science)
Griffith University Gold Coast
1990 Trade Certificate
South Brisbane of TAFE
1989 Associate Diploma in Electrical Engineering
Queensland University of Technology

Project: PhD Student

Darrell Strauss was born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1969. He received the Bachelor of Science (Meteorology and Oceanography) from The Flinders University of South Australia in 1992.

From 1995 to 2004 he was employed within the National Tidal Facility Australia, positions included Research Assistant, Data Analyst and Information Technology Officer. During this time he performed duties such as 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.

In late 2003, he was awarded an APAI scholarship and commenced his PhD candidature with the Griffith Centre for Coastal Management at the Gold Coast Campus of Griffith University. His PhD is focussed on the morphological modelling of intermediate beach state transitions and will contribute to the Beach Condition Index (ARC) project, supported by industry partners Gold Coast City Council and Coastalwatch. 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.