Grants

John Grundy's Research Grants

I have been fortunate to have good funding for my research over my career.

A summary of many of the key grants and industry funded projects below and some key research outputs.

I am in the process of updating this page with older grants, the students/post-docs who worked on each, and some non-publication outcomes from grants...


Jan 2023-Dec 2023: Towards a More Inclusive Computer Science Teaching and Learning Environment, Google Award for Inclusion, John Grundy and Tanjila Kanij, $60K USD for 1 year

The majority of software engineers are young, male and white. Among other factors, this could be the result of bias towards them within education, recruitment and the workplace itself. This proposed research aims to develop an Inclusiveness Magnifier (InclusiveMag) framework to identify and address bias arising from teachers’ preferences for particular gender, age, personality, culture and so on within teaching and assessment materials. This proposal is inspired by the InclusiveMag framework and driven by our recent GenderMag research to de-bias software engineering job advertisements. The outcome of the project will be a new set identified teaching and learning ‘facets’ of Computer Science (CS) students and personas to represent those facets. The personas will be used to apply a cognitive walkthrough to existing teaching and assessment materials to detect any bias. The personas and the facets will be helpful for teachers to design inclusive teaching and assessment materials. This will ensure an inclusive teaching and learning environment for all computer science students and be an important first step towards achieving a more diverse CS workforce.

https://research.google/outreach/air-program/recipients/ 


Jan 2023-Jun 2026: RAISE: Creating Responsible AI Software Engineering Capability, CSIRO Next Generation AI Graduates Programme, 2nd CI of 7, $750K over 3.5 years

The Responsible AI Software Engineering (RAISE) program aims to create the first national cohort-based world-leading training centre addressing the urgent need for deep expertise and excellent skills in Responsible AI Software Engineering for digital health, transportation, and defence sectors. Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques are increasingly employed by industry and government alike to make or inform high-stakes decisions for people. Although AI techniques are solving real-world challenges and transforming industries, there are serious concerns about their ability to behave and make decisions in ways that are considered responsible. RAISE will urgently address these national challenges by training the next generation of graduates to better design, develop, manage, maintain, test, and deploy AI software in a cost-effective way such that their AI algorithmic decisions are responsible to society.

Further details can be found at: https://www.monash.edu/it/nextgen/raise  and  https://www.csiro.au/en/work-with-us/funding-programs/funding/Next-Generation-Graduates-Programs/Awarded-programs/AI-programs#raise 


July 2022-Dec 2025: Building National Cybersecurity Capabilities for Digital Transformation in Manufacturing, CSIRO Next Generation Technology Graduates Programme,  3rd CI of 7, $1.1m over 3.5 years

Digital transformation holds tremendous potential for innovation and growth for Australian industries but it brings risks and challenges. This has been demonstrated by cyber incidents targeting the manufacturing sector like the US Colonial Pipeline hacking and the $100M ransomware loss of food manufacturing company Mondelez. Driven by the real-life needs from our industry partners such as DXC, Amazon, ASTA, and Sysbox, we aim to address the grand cybersecurity challenges faced by Australian manufacturers, such as the vulnerabilities in manufacturing software, data flow analysis for security in smart manufacturing, data driven control system assessment, and secure and responsible AI for manufacturing. This program will build Australian sovereign cyber capabilities to secure business-critical manufacturing systems and bring together a multi-disciplinary team to train next generation graduate students as a cohort within industry from the outset.

Further details can be found at: https://www.csiro.au/en/work-with-us/funding-programs/funding/Next-Generation-Graduates-Programs/Awarded-programs/Emerging-Tech-programs#cybersecurity 


July 2021-June 2026: ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Optimal Ageing, 3rd CI of 20, $4.5M ARC + $1.1M Industry over 5 years

The ARC Training Centre for Optimal Ageing aims to address issues identified by older adults as essential for quality of life. With our industry partners, we aim to train the next generation of researchers to understand, detect and improve psychosocial factors that support mental activity, physical health and social connectedness, and embrace advances in artificial intelligence, digital-enriched environments and adaptive workplaces to deliver effective digital solutions. By developing new capacity and capability to drive the digital transformation of industries supporting our ageing population, our Centre seeks to deliver economic and social benefits that enable Australians to live enriched, healthy and independent lives as they age.

Further details can be found at: https://www.monash.edu/engineering/robotics/news-and-events/latest-news/funding-for-a-new-training-centre-for-optimal-ageing 


Jun 2021-Dec 2021: PenCS, ‘COVID-19 Tracker’: is it acceptable and feasible for tracking and monitoring COVID-19 vaccination in general practice? McIntosh, Hussain, Wenkart, Merzenich, Buckle, Grundy $15,000.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the health system to rapidly adapt, most recently in the development and rollout of an evidence-based vaccination. ‘COVID-19 Tracker' is a Primary Care clinical data and analytics platform already developed by Pen CS that can identify patients who are due for vaccination, and/or booster, and very importantly record adverse reactions. This project will explore the acceptability and feasibility of using COVID-19 Tracker in General Practice by conducting research with general practice staff. This study aims to support a large-scale application in partnership with Pen CS through one of ARC Linkage, CRC-P or NHMRC (Partnership grant).

Further details: https://www.pencs.com.au/covid19-vaccination-tracker-study/ 


Apr 2020-Apr 2027: Building 4.0 Co-operative Research Centre: Better buildings, new efficiencies through technology and collaboration, one of ~40 CIs, $28M + Industry ~$15M over 7 years.

The building industry is central to our economy, contributing 13% of GDP and employing over 1.4 million Australians.* Unlike other sectors, it has failed to modernise and is plagued by rising costs and stagnating productivity. Through deep collaboration and new technologies of the 4th industrial age, Building 4.0 CRC will catapult the industry into an efficient, connected and customer-centric future. This will deliver better buildings at lower cost and the human capacity to lead this future industry.


Jan 2020-Dec 2022: ARC Discovery Grant, Values-oriented Defect Fixing for Mobile Software Applications, DP200100020, Grundy, Whittle, Turhan, Xia, Li, $390,000 over 3 years (1st CI).

This project aims to address critical problems with mobile applications that exhibit human values-based defects, by advancing our understanding, detection and fixing of such defects. Many mobile apps do not operate according to the essential values of their human users - e.g. inclusivity, accessibility, privacy, ethical behaviour, due care, emotions, etc - making them ineffective, underused, unfit for purpose or even dangerous. Expected outcomes include new theories, techniques and prototype tools for developers and end users to detect and help fix values-based defects in mobile apps. Benefits include better, safer mobile apps for people and organisations and improved app developer productivity and competitiveness.

Representative papers:


Jan 2020-Dec2024: ARC Laureate Fellowship, Human-centric, Model-driven Software Engineering, FL190100035, $3,009,457 over 5 years.

2019 Laureate Profile: Professor John Grundy

Monash Academics Awarded Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowships

This project aims to find fundamentally new ways to capture and use human-centric software requirements during model-driven software engineering and verifying that systems meet these requirements. There are major issues with misaligned software applications in terms of accessibility, usability, emotions, personality, age, gender, and culture. This project aims to address these through new conceptual foundations and modelling techniques for their support during software engineering. The intended outcomes are enhanced theory, models, tools and capability for next-generation software engineering with these critical elements. Significant benefits are expected to include greatly improved software quality, developer productivity and cost savings.

Representative papers:


Jul 2019-Jul 2023: PROTIC2 - Participatory Research and Ownership with Technology, Information and Change, Empowerment Charitable Trust, Oliver, Stillman, Grundy, Olivier, Bartindale, Wright, McNaney, $2.2m over 4 years.

https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/$2.15-million-gift-supports-marginalised-communities-through-ict-research 

The generous gift from the Empowerment Charitable Trust will allow the PROTIC project, which was developed in collaboration with Oxfam Bangladesh, to continue and broaden its action-based ICT research into the second phase of the project.  Monash University  Researchers, Research Associates and PhD students will empower marginalised communities through ICT research, enabled by a philanthropic gift of $2.15 million towards the PROTIC project.The PhD students will work to further advance their knowledge of critical issues experienced by marginalised communities, such as poverty and climate change, and activate their ICT research to empower the members of those communities to become digital citizens. 


Jan 2019-Jun 2020: i-Sense Oakleigh: The Smart Connected Precinct, Smart Cities and Suburbs Round 2,  City of Monash, Vu and Grundy, $700,000.

https://www.monash.vic.gov.au/About-Us/News/Media-Response-Smart-Cities 

https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/cities/smart-cities/collaboration-platform/i-sense-oakleigh-the-smart-connected-precinct.aspx

This project is a collaboration between Monash City Council and Monash University to build a smart precinct underpinned by advance sensing technologies and a data communication network. The network provides a connected platform to sense, collect and analyse relevant data to improve liveability for the community within the precinct. The sensors and its platform will collect and fuse different data on mobility including vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians, as well as improve utilisation of public spaces such as on-street and off-street parking.


Jul 2018-Jun 2023: ARC Research Hub for Driving Farming Productivity and Disease Prevention, IH180100002, 10 CIs, Grundy 7th CI, $5,000,000 ARC $ over 5 years, $4,000,000 industry $ over 5 years.

The ARC Research Hub for Driving Farming Productivity and Disease Prevention aims to increase farm production and disease prevention through advancing and transferring new artificial intelligence technologies into industrial deployment. The Hub will combine machine vision, machine learning, software quality control, engineering, biology, and farming industries to develop technologies to build more intelligent systems. These dynamic systems will help determine what goal to achieve and the most efficient plan to achieve it. This Hub is expected to contribute to higher farming efficiency, lower production costs and fewer disease risks, giving the Australian industry new business opportunities and an international competitive advantage.

Representative papers:

Jan 2018-Dec 2020: ARC Discovery, A data driven paradigm for service-oriented system engineering, DP180100212, Yang, Qiang, Grundy and Zhou, $363,000 over 3 years (3rd CI)

This project aims to design and develop a data driven paradigm for service-oriented system engineering that allows system engineers and domain experts in different domains to build software systems easily in order to enable fast technology transfer within and across domain boundaries. This paradigm integrates and automates a suite of efficient approaches for system structure determination, validation and recommendation based on keyword search, subgraph isomorphism and substructure query techniques. This project is expected to significantly accelerate the application of new technologies, e.g., big data analytics and Internet of Things, in many of Australia's critical domains, e.g., e-Health, smart cities, cybersecurity. 


Nov 2017-Jul 2018: Oceania Cybersecurity Centre Proof of Concept fund, Developing a Proof-of-Concept Toolset For Software Vulnerability Analysis Using Hybrid Static and Dynamic Analysis, Abdelrazek, Grundy, Ibrahim, Aleti, $60,000

This project is investigating integrating work we have done on vulnerability analysis for software, using a combination of static analysis and dynamic analysis-based techniques. The aim is to produce a proof of concept prototype demonstrating the advantages of an integrated approach. Extends work done by Mohamed and Amani in their PhDs with me and work that Aldeda has done.

July 2017-June 2022: ARC Industry Transformation Research Hub for Digital Enhanced Living, IH170100013, Grundy Lead CI and Hub Director + other 39 other CIs and PIs, $2,962,655 ARC $ and $2,400,000 Industry $ over 5 years (1st CI)

ARC Research Hub for Digital Enhanced Living. The ARC Research Hub for Digital Enhanced Living aims to address the growing challenges of aging people living in their own home or residential care. This will be through inventing new personalised medical technologies through an innovative approach, with a multi-disciplinary team leveraging diverse expertise. An enhanced capacity to create and deploy fit-for-purpose personalised health solutions will result in revenues from new and repurposed devices, analytics and integration platforms. New jobs and improved care will see cost reductions, better use of resources and enhanced mental, physical and social well-being.

Representative papers:


Jan 2017-Dec 2019: ARC Discovery, Domain-specific visual languages for big data analytics applications, Grundy, Abdelrazek, He, Hosking, $340,000 for 3 years (1st CI)

Domain-specific visual languages for big data analytics applications. This project aims to invent domain-specific visual languages and support model-driven engineering based infrastructure so domain experts can specify, generate and apply complex data analytics and visualisation techniques. Many domains, including intelligent transport, business intelligence, and population health, need more effective “big data” analytics and visualisation. A challenge is to combine detailed domain knowledge – what the data means and what it can be used for – with sophisticated, scalable computational techniques to mine and present information from the huge volumes of raw data. This project is expected to improve productivity and quality of big data analytics and visualisation in critical domains.

Representative papers:


Jan 2017-Dec 2017: ARC LIEF, A high-performance cloud resource for computational modelling, Zobel et al (12 CIs), $635,000 for 1 year (10th  CI)

A high-performance cloud resource for computational modelling. This project aims to build a relatively low-cost graphical-processing-unit-based cloud-accessible facility. Much current cutting-edge research is based on intensive computational models and simulations, which are used to deepen our understanding and predict real-world phenomena. This facility will provide a specialised computational platform for high-fidelity predictive models and simulations. It will underpin research in critical fields of science and engineering and be used by researchers from across Australia. This facility's computational capabilities are expected to complement other national computing resources, keep Australia globally competitive, and enhance research in fields including engineering, biology and materials science.

Jan 2016-Dec 2017: Unisono Pty Ltd, Digital Enhanced Living solutions, with K. Mouzarkis, R. Vasa, M. Abdelrazek, M. Curumsing, S. Venkatesh, D. Phung, N. Fernando, $1.2m over 2 years.

This project has been working with Unisono to develop the Sofihub platform for ageing, including the Eva concept for passive monitoring, interaction and alerting. The R&D prototypes have been developed in the DSTIL lab and trialled in a range of homes with elderly and their carers.

Representative publications:


Feb 2016-Dec 2016: Data61, Victoria Software Systems Innovations, J. Grundy (Leader), with K. Mouzarkis, R. Vasa, $239,000 for 1 year (1st CI)

This project will involve collaboration between Data61 and Deakin University researchers on three emerging areas of mutual interest Cybersecurity, Scalable compute platforms and Smart cities. We have been working together to develop a number of advances in the cybersecurity area. This includes requirements engineering for SMEs; use of wearables to support improved authentication and access control for small business and home users; and software security engineering. We will continue this research with a view to developing use cases and demonstrators targeting commercialisation opportunities in this area. Many organisations have existing, high-value data sourcing, integration, processing, analysis and visualisation solutions. However, in order to scale these for larger datasets, to integrate new datasets, or to integrate multiple solutions, very large re-engineering effort (often prohibitively time-consuming and expensive) is necessary. This project will extend the “green box” data sourcing and the “red box” data visualisation (internal working project titles) proof of concept platforms prototyped at DU to address this growing domain of data analytics problems.

Representative papers:


Oct 2016-Sept 2017: Samsung GRO, Predicting hazardous software components using deep learning, w H. Dam, A. Ghose, T. T. Tran, USD $82,768 (4th CI)

This project aims to develop novel approaches based on machine learning (particularly deep learning) to predict which components of a software system contain safety hazards. Specifically, the objectives of this research are:  (1) Developing a dataset of consumer-oriented software systems for safety software engineering research. This dataset contains the source code files of (open-source) software applications applied to mobile and consumer electrics. This dataset is used for the training and testing of software safety prediction models.  (2) Building machine learning models to predict which components of a software system contain safety hazards using three distinct approaches: software metrics (e.g. code complexity, coupling and cohesion metrics, and code churn), bag-of-words representation of source code, and the deep learning Long Short Term Memory representation.

Representative papers:


Feb 2015-June 2015: DSTO, Techniques for combat simulation distributed data processing and analysis, w K. Mouzarkis, R. Vasa and M. Almorsy, $180,000 for 5 months (3rd CI)


Oct 2014-Mar 2015: AURIN subcontract – Household Travel Survey data Harmonisation, J. Grundy, $44,000 for 6 months (1st CI)

The Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN) as a national institute aims to gather data from participating Australian states to enable researchers to access, investigate and use various collected data. An example of such available data is Household Travel Survey (HTS). HTS data will enable researchers to explore and discover new knowledge around Australian’s mobility patterns. The gathered Household Travel Survey data, however, is subject to different data collection methods and instruments. This project, through funding from AURIN, seeks to provide data integration mechanisms using model transformation approaches to enable AURIN users to access HTS data from three states in a harmonised and consistent way. Moreover, it will propose and provide integrated and custom made visualisations (charts, Spreadsheets, map overlays, etc.) to better enable user investigation and analysis of the collected data.

Representative papers:


Apr 2014-Dec 2015: National ICT Australia, Victoria Software Systems Initiative, J. Grundy (Leader), with K. Mouzarkis, R. Vasa, A. Tang, $900,000 over 1.75 years (1st CI)

A NICTA Victoria Software Systems initiative will focus on applied Research & Development with predominantly Victorian ICT companies and/or innovative Victorian ICT users. It will draw on Software Systems research expertise of Victorian Universities and NICTA personnel to make a significant impact on industry partner innovation and R&D solutions to challenging Software Systems problems. Expected research expertise is likely to include software engineering, mobile and cloud computing, information visualisation, software security, and HCI. It is likely to include significant collaboration with optimization and data analytics research and R&D in Victoria and other states. A key aim is to demonstrate tangible impact and benefit of software systems research by solving challenging industry ICT R&D problems by leveraging University, NICTA and industry expertise in partnership. A key benefit will be that a wider range of researchers will be connected with industry end users and industry end users will be able to influence research (and teaching) of software systems within Victorian Universities. A further benefit will be significant exposure of ICT students to industry R&D project work.

Representative papers:


Jan 2014-Dec 2016: ARC Discovery Grant, Finding and exploiting interesting paths in multidimensional information spaces, DP140102185, J. Hosking, J. Grundy, L. Xie, $440,000 over three years (2nd CI)

This project aims to (1) Design novel algorithms for search and prediction problems on data with rich structure; (2) Formulate real-world applications into search, prediction and decision problems related to structured data; (3) Design visualization interfaces and software infrastructure for users to interact with such structured data.

Representative papers:


July 2013-June 2016: ARC Linkage Grant LP130100201, Formal modelling and analysis of Software Requirements for Air Traffic Management Systems for improved integrity assurance, J. Grundy (leader), P. Lindsay, D. Kuo, D. Powell, $260,000 over three years (1st CI)

Aviation software-requirements are large, complex documents written in natural language. This results in ambiguity and inconsistency, which substantially increases the time and cost of developing software and integrity-assurance evidence required by modern aviation safety standards. This project is developing methods and tools for modeling requirements as formal models, ensuring modelled requirements are correct and complete, and synthesising integrity-assurance artefacts such as test cases directly from models. Subjective manual processes will be replaced by objective automated processes, thereby significantly reducing the time and cost of software development and standards compliance.

Representative papers:


July 2013-June 2016: ARC Linkage Grant LP130100324, Enabling small businesses to more cost-effectively use big data on cloud computing platforms, Y. Yang, B. Vo, J. Grundy, L. Zhuo, $360,000 over three years (3rd CI)

The project aims at inventing a novel generic cost model for managing big data in the cloud and inventing innovative agent-based data management technologies for reducing storage, computation and bandwidth costs in the cloud. Doing so will enable a broad range of small businesses to use big data on cloud computing platforms much more cost effectively.

Representative papers:


January 2013-December 2014: MOHE Malaysia, Investigating the effects of personality on software team productivity and climate, N. Sallah, E. Mendes, J. Grundy and G. St Birch, 50,000 RM for 2 years (3rd CI)

This Malaysian Government funded project investigates how team climate may be influenced by individual and group personality traits. Specifically we are interested in impact on team productivity and team climate, as measured by the Team Climate Inventory, on agile software development teams.

Representative papers:


January 2012-December 2014: ARC Discovery Grant DP120102653, Model-driven engineering of scientific software for graphical processing units, J. Grundy (leader), R. Sadus, W. van Straten, D. Barnes, $320,000 over three years (1st CI)

Data-centric scientific software applications are becoming more difficult to engineer due to ever-increasing demands on computational platforms. Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) offer an alternative platform on which to deploy these applications. We propose a novel approach by which high-level, visual models of GPU applications are used to specify target applications and model-driven engineering techniques used to synthesize GPU code. We will invent new visual models, model-driven engineering techniques, and proof of concept support tools that will support verification via model checking and reuse of solutions across domains. We will validate our approach using example applications from molecular simulation and astrophysics domains.

Representative papers:


January 2011-December 2013: ARC Discovery Grant DP110101340, Cost effective storage of massive intermediate data in cloud computing applications, Y. Yang, J.J. Chen, J. Grundy, $360,000 over three years (3rd CI)

Cloud computing is a new exciting paradigm for computation and data storage. Smart facilitation of cloud computing can significantly reduce the need of infrastructure and energy consumption for government (and private) sectors due to unnecessary continuous construction of data centres. Given the 'pay-for-use' philosophy of commercial cloud, how to decide whether data should be stored or not stored is critical to the overall cost. This project aims at inventing novel algorithms for cost effective data storage strategies in cloud computing. Given Australian government ICT budget of about $5 billion p.a. and promotion of environment preservation, the success of this project will transfer to scientific, economic and environmental value.

Representative papers:


January 2010-December 2012: ARC Linkage Grant LP100100622, Large-Scale Emulation for Enterprise Software Systems, J. Han, J. Grundy, JG Schneider, L. Grunske, J. Radford, $470,000 over three years (2nd CI)

There is currently no scalable and cost-effective technology for testing the realistic interaction behaviour, performance and robustness of highly interconnected enterprise software systems. At best, a testing environment involving 100s of systems can be set up, constraining the testing quality. This project will create a new software technology and the required models and techniques that with limited resources, can emulate simultaneously 10,000s of different enterprise systems, to allow realistic testing of any system before its deployment. It will make significant scientific contributions, and provide advanced enabling technology for quality assurance of critical business IT systems leading to reliable and effective business operation.

Representative papers:


July 2008-June 2010: BuildIT Postdoctoral Fellowship for Na (Karen) Li, $118,000 over two years (1st CI)

The Marama meta-toolset had a range of weaknesses which we proposed to address by several novel meta-tool specification and realisation approaches, with proof of concept as Marama extensions. These included: strengthening behavioural specification of tools via additional visual formalisms; supporting layout as a first class feature in modelling language and environment design; blurring distinction between modelling and visualization by supporting query-based interactive runtime visualisations; automating aspects of model checking and event handler generation; and exploiting the Programming-by-Example (PBE) paradigm for simple model instantiation. In addressing these issues, we aim to produce both conceptual contributions and practical tool support as extensions to Marama.

Representative papers:


July 2008-June 2011: Build-IT PhD scholarship for Christian Hirsch, with John Hosking, $75,000 over three years (2nd CI)

Successful knowledge management results in a competitive advantage in today’s information- and knowledge-rich industries. The elaboration and integration of emerging web-based tools and services has proven suitable for collecting and organizing intellectual property. Due to an increasing information overload, information and knowledge visualizations have become effective methods for representing complex bodies of knowledge in an alternative fashion by using visual languages. The focus of this research is the development of a “Visual Wiki”, which combines the notion of a textual and a visual representation of knowledge. A Visual Wiki model has been proposed which provides a unified framework to design and discuss different approaches.

Representative papers:


May 2008-April 2009: Dividing Text and Drawing Ink, Microsoft Research Asia Mobile Computing in Education Theme Program (Plimmer, Blagojevic and Grundy), USD $15,000 (3rd CI)

The ability to automatically recognize a sketch accurately is important to computer-based diagramming. Many recognition techniques have been proposed but few researchers have reported the use of formal methods to select the most appropriate ink features for recognition algorithms. We have used a statistical approach to identify the the most important distinguishing features of ink for and applied this to the dividing text and shapes part of the recognition process. Our feature set more successfully classified a range of common diagram elements than two existing dividers.

Representative papers:


February 2008-January 2009: Technology in Industry Fellowship for Ruskin Dantra ME, $18,500 (1st CI)

Representative papers:


October 2007-September 2012: FRST SER grant for Software process and product improvement, John Grundy (Principle Investigator), John Hosking, Emilia Mendes, Ewan Tempero, James Noble, Steve MacDonnell, Mark Utting, Jens Dietrich, Neville Churcher and Rick Mugridge, $4,300,000 over 4.75 years (1st CI)

Our objective was to develop and apply a range of software productivity techniques and tools to enhance the performance of the NZ software industry. We developed and applied advanced, model-based software visualisation methods and tools to achieve this, spanning three research themes: (1) process and project management improvement; (2) model-driven engineering and executable specifications; and (3) software imaging and visualisation. Our aim has been to effect large (25-50%) efficiency improvements in key software development processes, and to enhance the innovation capability of our partners, leading to enhanced economic growth. We developed a variety of techniques and tools that have demonstrated both strong science results and strong industrial application potential. Specific tool examples include: the Visual Wiki knowledge navigation framework; the Marama domain specific visual language (DSVL) meta-toolset; the ZiBreve test driven design environment; several effort estimation and process improvement toolsets; several software analysis and refactoring toolsets and a novel multi-touch software analysis package. The development of significant human capital, which is now working in NZ organizations, and significant export education income by attracting high calibre international research students to work on SPPI related projects.

Representative papers:


January 2006-December 2008: TEC Growth and Innovation Pilot Initiative (GIPI) grant for Establishing a Research Culture in New Zealand Software Development Companies, Prof. John Hosking, Prof. Kenneth Husted, Prof. John Grundy, Dr Peter Lee, Mr Gary Putt, $854,400 over three years (4th CI)

The key aim of this project is the development of a research culture within New Zealand software development companies. This is a necessary precursor to increased knowledge sharing between those companies and the University sector. Currently typical New Zealand software companies lack staff with sufficient research skills and experience to understand the nature of research and its use in initiating and accelerating product development. Many New Zealand software companies have “R&D” groups but in our experience almost all are Development-centred, with limited research skills and activity within the company. To bridge this gap we propose several targeted activities to develop that understanding to be undertaken within the context of a new “Centre for Software Innovation” currently being established at the University of Auckland. This Centre, a joint Uniservices-Faculty of Science initiative, aims to promote contracted research activities undertaken by academic staff and research students for local software development companies. The targeted activities proposed in this GIPI “beyond business as usual” extension project are a precursor to the successful long-term development of this Centre, providing companies with the understanding and tools they need to exploit research activity in their business.


January 2006-July 2006: Pre-seed accelerator grant for commercialisation of MaramaVMLPlus data mapping tool, Prof John Grundy, Prof. John Hosking, A/Prof Robert Amor, Mr Jun Huh (1st CI)

        Representative papers:


July 2006-September 2007: Extension to FRST NERF Grant for Domain-Specific Software Tools, $476,000 (1st CI)

        Representative papers:


October 2005-December 2006: TBG Grant for Enterprise System Re-engineering with Peace Software Ltd, Prof John Grundy, Prof. John Hosking, A/Prof Rick Mugridge, Mr Santokh Singh. (2nd CI)


July 2005-September 2006: TBG Grant for Enterprise Business Designer with XSol Ltd, John Grundy (Principal investigator), Prof. John Hosking, A/Prof Robert Amor, Dr S. Manoharan and Dr G. Weber (1st CI)

        Representative papers:


Nov 2004-Nov 2005: UARC Staff Research Fund grant for Data mapping tools, with A/Prof. Robert Amor, $12,000.

Representative papers:


July 2004-June 2007: TEC Growth and Innovation Pilot Initiative (GIPI) grant for establishment of an ICT Innovation Academy, Prof. John Grundy and Prof. John Hosking (Co-Leaders), $431,000 over three years (1st CI)


July 2005-June 2006: Extension to FRST NERF Grant for Domain-Specific Software Tools, $381,000 (1st CI)

        Representative papers:

September 2002-August 2003: TBG Grant for Clinical Pathways software, with Orion Systems Ltd, co-investigator with Dr Ian Watson, A/Prof Hans Guesgen, Prof John Hosking, A/Prof Rick Mugridge (amount of grant confidential, but very substantial) (4th CI)


July 2002-June 2005: FRST NERF Grant for Domain-Specific Software Tools, Prof. John Grundy and Professor John Hosking (co-Principal Investigators), also includes A/Prof Ewan Tempero, Dr Robert Amor, Dr Emilia Mendes, Dr James Noble, A/Prof Robbert Biddle, Dr Anna Liu, $381,000 per year for three years (1st CI)

The aim of this programme is to develop to a proof-of-concept stage a set of enabling technologies for constructing domain-specific software tools. This programme addresses the investment signals and priorities relating to ICT and the government’s Growth and Innovation Framework in the ICT area. When achieved, this outcome will make a significant contribution to enhancing New Zealand’s ICT ability and particularly as a leading-edge, niche marketer of domain-specific software tool applications.The novel enabling technologies developed will allow software development organisations to much more effectively and efficiently develop Domain-Specific Software Tools. We are demonstrating the feasibility of this technology through the development of selected proof-of-concept domain-specific tools in conjunction with industry partners.

Representative papers:


July 2002-June 2004: FRST NERF Grant for Real-time Dataset Architecture, with XSol Ltd, co-Pincipal Ivestigator with Mr John Blackham, also includes Professor John Hosking, Dr Robert Amor. $421,000 per year for two years (1st CI)

Representative papers:


Dec 2001-Dec 2002: Support for meta-tool prototype exploration project from Auckland UniServices Ltd, co-principal investigator with Professor John Hosking, $35,000. (1st CI)

Representative papers:


July 2001-February 2002: Technology in Industry Fellowship, April Nixon, MSc Thesis, University of Auckland, value of $18,500 for student scholarship.

July 2001-February 2002: Technology in Industry Fellowship, Anette Steel, MSc Thesis, University of Waikato (with M. Apperley), value of $18,500 for student scholarship.


Oct 2000-Oct 2002: University of Auckland Emerging Research Excellence Grant for Software Architecture Modeling and Analysis, value of $30,000 over two years.

This project aims to (1) discover new ways of statically and dynamically representing the architectures of complex, distributed software systems; (2) investigate approaches to reasoning about the adequacy of software architectures using these static and dynamic models; (3) prototype suitable tool support for (1) and (2); and (4) demonstrate via proof-of-concept validation the degree of usefulness of (1-3), using exemplar software architecture development and analysis. The work will build upon recent research of the applicant and  an Australian research team. Success will be demonstrated through high quality publications, increased international collaboration, and possibly new competitive research grant success.

Representative papers:


July 2000-June 2002: NERF Grant for Collaborative Information Gathering, with Professor Mark Apperley, Dr Steve Jones, A/Prof John Hosking and A/Prof Rick Mugridge, value of subcontract to University of Auckland $10,000 per year for two years. (3rd CI)


July 2000-June 2002: PGSF Grant for Advancing Information technologies through CASE, with Associate-Professor D. Mehandjeska, A/Prof C. Phillips, Dr E. Kemp, Prof. M. Apperley, A/Prof J. Hosking and A/Prof R. Mugridge, value of $120,000 per year for two years (3rd CI)

The Advancing Information Technology through CASE project has investigated improving capacity to engineering advanced information systems by the use of Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) technologies. The aims of the project were to investigate best-practice use of CASE in the New Zealand ICT industry; develop an assessment approach for CASE tool selection and usage; investigate enhancements to CASE tools to support collaboration, process-based development and framework reuse; and to investigate CASE tool support for component-based software engineering.

Representative papers:


May 2000-June 2003: NERF grant for Database aggregation in E-commerce, with Xsol Systems Ltd and Associate Professors John Hosking and Rick Mugridge, (NERF total $500,000 per year for three years; amount of subcontract confidential, but very substantial) (2nd CI)

Representative papers:


March 1999-December 2000: TBG grant for ‘Encore’ software for integration of health data exchange protocols, with Orion Systems Ltd and Associate Professors John Hosking and Rick Mugridge (amount of grant confidential, but substantial) (3rd CI)

Representative papers:


July 1998-June 2000: PGSF grant for Advancing Information technologies through CASE, with Associate-Professor D. Mehandjeska, Dr E. Rose, Prof. M. Apperley, Dr J. Hosking and Dr R. Mugridge, value of $120,000 per year for three years (4th CI)

Representative papers:


July 1998-June 2000: PGSF grant for Collaborative Information Gathering research, with Prof. M. Apperley, Dr. S. Reeves, Dr Steve Jones and Mr Bill Rogers, value of $120,000 per year for three years (3rd CI)

Representative papers:


July 1995-June 1998: PGSF grant for Computer-supported collaborative work, with Prof. M. Apperley, Dr. S. Reeves, Dr. J. Venable, value of $120,000 per year for three years (3rd CI)

Representative papers: