Liz Sonenberg
Contact
Postal address:
Professor Liz Sonenberg
Faculty of Science
The University of Melbourne
Parkville 3010,
Australia
- Email:
l.sonenberg "at" unimelb "dot" edu "dot" au
From 1st May 2008, I am Dean of the Faculty of Science;
To contact me on Faculty matters
you can also use the email address dean-science "at" unimelb "dot" edu "dot" au
- Phone:
+ 61 3 8344 6407 (Faculty of Science)
- Fax:
+61 3 8344 5803
(Faculty of Science)
- Physical location:
A detailed map (pdf) of the University of Melbourne shows the entire campus (The Department of Information Systems is in the ICT Building - Building 105. The Faculty of Science is in the Old Geology Building - Building 155)
- Faculty of Science
- Old Geology Building
- Building 155 - follow signs to the Dean's Office.
- Information Systems:
- ICT Building, 111 Barry Street, Carlton - Aerial view here My office is room L3.53 - take the lift to Level 3 and turn right out of the lift lobby. There are regular trams from the city along Swanston Street (any north-bound tram) and Elizabeth St (all trams except for 57). Parking may be available in the surrounding streets or in the car park (enter via Bouverie or Berkeley Streets) for a fee.
Research interests
I am leader of the Agent Research activity in the Department of Information Systems. This is
part of the overall
Agent Lab research activity that
is a collaborative endeavour with the Department of
Computer Science and Software Engineering. I am also a participant in the
Interaction Design Group
in the Department of Information Systems.
I have research interests in aspects of reasoning machinery
as may be useful for the design of systems that exhibit complex
collaborative behaviours. For some years my major research efforts
have been in the foundations and applications of systems
within the BDI (Belief, Desire, Intention) agent paradigm,
with a particular focus on teamwork, but I have also studied
various elements of non-monotonic reasoning.
I have also explored opportunities for
the use of agent technologies to meet the challenges faced
by designers and developers of mobile, context aware applications. Industry collaborations have included the Australian
Artificial Intelligence Institute, Agent Oriented Software P/L,
Clarinox P/L, the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO),
and Neuragenix P/L. I have also been involved with projects receiving support from
Hewlett Packard and Microsoft.
I have worked with collaborators in Psychology and Education
on studies involving human reasoning processes.
This page of stories and links,
maintained by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) discusses the type of
work that I find interesting.
My particular interests are in:
- Multi-agent systems - especially collaboration
and teamwork
- Automated negotiation and decision support
- Context-aware computing and technologies for personalisation
- Computational modelling of human problem solving
The integrating theme of my research is the conceptualisation and construction of more adaptive, distributed, and intelligent information systems. Much of the work focuses on agent technology, which views a distributed system in terms of interacting autonomous software entities. Using the agent metaphor can allow system developers to adopt a level of abstraction in design that is useful for modelling complex tasks and environments, and in building software systems that are robust in the face of change and unexpected events. An important aspect of the research is the requirement of the human-machine interface and consequent implications for the development of computational mechanisms to support decision-making in complex settings.
Current projects include:
- Cross-Community Information Systems: Understanding Technology-Practice Fit in Healthcare - Funded 2008-2010
Australian Research Council
- with Robert Johnston, Steve Howard, Peter Seddon, Rens Scheepers (DIS), Siobhan Nelson (U Toronto)
- Dynamic personalisation for assisted navigation of information rich, physical environments - the Kubadji project - Funded 2007-2009 Australian Research Council
- with Tim Baldwin and Stephen Bird (CSSE, UoM), Sandrine Balbo (DIS, UoM), Ingrid Zukerman (Monash), Lawrence Cavedon (RMIT and NICTA) and Carolyn Meehan (Melbourne Museum)
- Interest based Negotiation: Theory and Practice - see the IBN project website - Funded 2004-2007 Australian Research Council.
- A possible honours student project for 2008 within this overall project is described here
- The dynamics of agent organisations in collaboration with Frank Dignum and Virginia Dignum (Utrecht University)
- I also play a role in the MUVES
project (MUVES = Melbourne University Virtual Environments for Simulation) and am a member of
the Health Informatics Network at the University. As part of this activity I am involved in a Microsoft funded project with
Jim Black of the Nossal Institute for Global Health and Rens Scheepers (DIS) titled: "Cell Phone Applications for Clinical Diagnostic Theraputic and Public Health"
My various community and related activities include:
Research students
I currently supervise or co-supervise the following students:
- Umberto Bonollo (PhD - part time) Knowledge-based protocols for distributed mutual exclusion, cosupervised by Ron van der Meyden at UNSW
- Emma Norling (PhD - part time) Extending the BDI model to incorporate human-like reasoning strategies
- Raymond So (PhD), from October 2002 On situation awareness and proactive behaviours
- Samin Karim (PhD), from February 2004 On distributed control
(cosupervised with Philippe Pasquier and Clint Heinze)
- Kathleen Keogh (PhD - part-time), from August 2004 - cosupervised with Wally Smith
- Kylie Turville (PhD - part-time), from October 2004
- Daghan Acay (PhD - full-time) from March 2005 -
Extrospection: Software Agents Reason about the Tools in Their Environment
- Steve Goschnick (PhD - full-time) from March 2005 -
Drawing on Task and Information Analyses for an Enhanced MAS, Informed by Computer Games (cosupervised with Sandrine Balbo)
- Yen Ting Kuo (PhD - full-time) from April 2006 - Domain Driven Data Mining - cosupervised with Andrew Lonie and Adrian Pearce
- Karl Grieser (MIS - full-time) from March 2007 - Personalised information delivery in a museum environment - cosupervised with Tim Baldwin (CSSE)
- Beth Cardier (PhD - full-time) from March 2007 - Narrative Intelligence - primary supervisor Kevin Brophy (Faculty of Arts)
I am also a part-time advisor to:
- Fernando Koch, PhD student, Utrecht University, co-supervised by John-Jules Meyer and Frank Dignum
- Vincent Gaiser, Masters student Twente University, The Netherlands, visiting April 2007 - October 2007, Improving Spatial Awareness in an
Indoor Environment with Wireless Positioning Technology, co-supervised by Stephan Winter and Allison Kealey, Geomatics
- Fabian Bohnert, PhD student, Monash University, cosupervised by Ingrid Zukerman, Monash University, Adaptive Recommendation of Personalised Pathways
in Physical Environments with Organised Information
- Mauro Maiorca, Masters Student Utrecht University, visiting July 2007-Feb 2008, cosupervised by Richard Hall and Ed Kazmierczak, CSSE, working on the MUVES project
Useful resources for research students include:
- Common Errors In English by Paul Brians, Washington State University
- LLSU- student support at University of Melbourne
- OWL- Online Writing lab at Purdue University
My past students include:
Since 2000 I have supervised the theses of a number of visiting masters students from the University of Utrecht: http://www.masters.uu.nl/index.cfm/site/Masters/pageid/288DF325-E081-2E3C-90BBEE2920E09DD7/index.cfm
Recent publications
Recent teaching
- 615-160 Tools of Analysis (Semester 2, 2001-2007)
- 615-363 Mobile Computing Applications (Semester 2, 2005-2006)
- 615-672 Pervasive Computing (Semester 2, 2004-2007)
