Research Priorities

• Population networks - how do we rank and optimally manage native species?
• Power networks - how do we detect faults distributed systems?

Researchers

• Chief Investigator: Phil Pollett
• Research Fellow: Ross McVinish
• PhD student : Fionnuala Buckley
• PhD student : Dejan Jovanovic
• PhD student : Aminath Shausan
• PhD student : Andrew Smith
• MPhil student: Alex Ridley

Collaborating Researchers

• Joshua Ross, King's College, University of Cambridge, UK.

Selected Research Projects

• Stochastic Models for Ecological Networks

  Project leader: Phil Pollett (UQ)
  Researchers: Fionnuala Buckley (UQ), Ross McVinish (UQ), Joshua Ross (University of Cambridge), Alex Ridley (UQ), Aminath Shausan (UQ) and Andrew Smith (UQ)

  We are studying populations that occupy several geographically separated habitat patches. Although the individual patches may become extinct locally, they may be recolonized through migration from other patches. We are developing models that account for the persistence of these populations and which provide an effective means of studying their long-term behaviour. We have given particular attention to populations for which extinction and colonization happens in distinct phases, often at different stages in the organism's life cycle. Deterministic and distributional approximation methods have been developed. We have also constructed models for spatially structured populations, exploiting recent developments in stochastic network theory; by recording the numbers of individuals in the various patches, we are able to incorporate local patch dynamics, spatial structure and migration patterns.

  Research outputs

  • Buckley, F.M. and P.K. Pollett (2010) Limit theorems for discrete-time metapopulation models. Probability Surveys 7, 53-83.
  • Buckley, F.M. and P.K. Pollett (2010) Analytical methods for a stochastic mainland-island metapopulation model. Ecological Modelling 221, 2526-2530.
  • Ross, J.V. and P.K. Pollett (2010) Simple rules for ranking and optimally managing metapopulations. Ecological Modelling 221, 2515-2520.
• Fault Detection in Complex and Distributed Systems

  Project leader: Phil Pollett (UQ)
  Researchers: Ross McVinish (UQ) and Dejan Jovanovic (UQ)

  We are developing methods for detecting, identifying and isolating faults in complex and distributed systems. We have derived a stochastic model that is capable of interpreting the state of the system via local observations and information exchange with neighbouring subsystems.

  Research outputs

  • This work will be presented at the 3rd International Workshop on Dependable Control of Discrete Systems (Saarbrücken, Germany, June 15-17, 2011) and at the 19th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation (Corfu, Greece, June 20-23, 2011)

Awards and Achievements

• Alex Ridley was awarded the University Medal (April 2010)
• Andrew Smith was a UQ Faculty of Science finalist in the Three Minute Thesis Competition (August 2010)