August 28, 2024

UOW awarded four prestigious DECRA fellowships

Outstanding researchers awarded near $2 million for three-year initiatives

Improving the working conditions of truck drivers. Helping parents support their child’s development through high-quality digital resources. Advancing the security capabilities of watermarking. Increasing the speed of electron transfer to boost the development of green energy.   

Four significant and unique projects from the University of Wollongong (UOW) have received a share of $93 million in funding as part of the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) prestigious fellowship scheme.

Early career researchers Dr Lei Deng, Dr Xiaoning Li, Dr Myrto Mavilidi, and Dr Rupeng Yang received close to $500,000 each for their respective fellowship projects, which will commence in 2025.

The dedicated funding provided to early career researchers under the DECRA scheme allows them the opportunity to focus on advancing their research and careers, benefitting from training in high-quality research environments and further developing their knowledge and research networks at UOW.

Professor David Currow, UOW Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research and Sustainable Futures), praised the researchers on their success in securing the prestigious funding.

“Congratulations to the four outstanding researchers – Dr Deng, Dr Li, Dr Mavilidi, and Dr Yang - on winning a DECRA. As anyone in the world of academia knows, these are highly competitive and coveted grants. This is a testament to the potential of your work,” Professor Currow said.

“We look forward to seeing how your innovative research will shape the future and make a meaningful impact in your respective fields. Well done.”

Dr Myrto Mavilidi, from the School of Education, will receive $487,974 for her research into the role of high-quality digital activity in supporting children’s learning and development. Her project will focus on the development of a robust screen time quality assessment tool for parents and educators, which will improve digital learning, self-control and physical skills of young children. Dr Mavilidi’s research will also guide the design of better technology for children

Dr Lei Deng, from the School of Electrical, Computer and Telecommunications Engineering, will receive $413,351 for his project, which aims to improve the comfort of vehicles by developing a quasi-active seat suspension. This will reduce vehicle vibration and improve energy consumption, stability, and safety. The aim is to improve the working conditions and health of those who spend long periods of time in vehicles, including truck and heavy-duty vehicle drivers.

Dr Xiaoning Li, from the Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, will receive $488,429 for her work into boosting spin-sensitive redox by tuning chirality. This project is focused on improving how efficiently electrons move in certain chemical reactions by using magnetic techniques. The idea is to design and test new materials with special magnetic properties that can speed up these electron transfers. A key part of this project is to use these materials in reactions that are important for producing green hydrogen and improving metal-air batteries, which are crucial for clean energy.

Dr Rupeng Yang, from the School of Computing and Information Technology, will receive $479,431 for his research into expanding the security of watermarking, which is a code or image embedded inside digital content that is meant to discourage and prevent piracy and copyright infringement. Since watermarking techniques are widely used in practice, it is hoped that they can be used to detect the output of artificial intelligence algorithms. However, existing solutions from academia do not match the practical requirements. This project will narrow the gap between theory and practice in the field, reduce AI-assisted cyberattacks, and help to safeguard cybersecurity for all Australians.