December 9, 2025
ARC initiatives will shut key information gaps, driving optimistic change for households, industries and the surroundings
The University of Wollongong (UOW) has been awarded greater than $2.6 million in funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) to implement research initiatives that may tackle crucial information gaps throughout a various vary of areas, together with childhood improvement and social media, cybersecurity and coastal environments.
Professor Kerrylee Rogers, Associate Professor Sarah Hamylton, and Professor Barbara Bollard gained ARC Linkage, Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities scheme funding to steer a multidisciplinary collaboration to map Australia’s coastlines in unprecedented element, utilizing superior inexperienced laser LiDAR expertise and drones.
The $650,000 undertaking will fill main gaps in our information about shallow coastal waters by surveying hard-to-reach areas, corresponding to seashores and estuaries. This will assist scientists mannequin how coastlines change over time as a result of storms, local weather change and rising sea ranges.
Four UOW researchers – Dr Tiffani Apps, Dr Zhiguang Zhang, Dr Yudi Zhang and Dr Lei Yuan – had been awarded a collective $2 million by the ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) fellowship scheme.
Dr Apps, from the School of Education, will discover how Australian households use social media and the way that impacts youngsters aged 8 to 17. With new legal guidelines limiting entry to some social media platforms for youngsters beneath 16, the research will give governments, households and communities clear proof and sensible instruments to assist create safer, age-appropriate on-line experiences for younger folks.
Dr Zhiguang Zhang, from the School of Education, will research methods to assist households by growing sensible, evidence-based instruments to enhance youngsters’s sleep and general wellbeing. Healthy sleep is important for development and studying, but one in three Australian preschoolers don’t get sufficient. The outcomes will likely be shared by free on-line sources on the ARC Digital Child website and thru up to date nationwide pointers developed with authorities companies.
Dr Yudi Zhang, from the School of Computing and Information Technology, will lead a undertaking to strengthen Australia’s cyber defences by growing new methods to guard on-line privateness and knowledge. The work helps nationwide cyber safety methods, serving to place Australia as a world chief in cloud safety innovation and resilience in opposition to cybercrime.
Dr Yuan, from the School of Mechanical, Materials, Mechatronic and Biomedical Engineering, will examine how steel 3D printing can rework Australia’s superior manufacturing and assist construct a resilient, technology-driven economic system. His research goals to enhance the standard and sustainability of steel 3D printing, driving innovation and competitiveness in business nationally.