School research
The School of Information and Physical Sciences is active in many areas of research.
Our research groups in mathematics, physics, statistics, computing and information technology, and cyber security attract funding from industry, government organisations and the highly competitive Australian Research Council grant schemes.
Our School researchers are involved with collaborations with other University of Newcastle researchers as part of several research groups. For more information, please click on the “Centres and groups” tile below.
The main themes of our mathematical research are modelling of physical systems at both the macro- and nano-scale, computational mathematics, signal processing, partial differential equations, number theory and topological algebra. We work with researchers in other disciplines within the university, and our strong national and international profiles in many of these areas involve external collaborations.
In physics, we conduct research on materials, including nano-materials and organic electronics, solar and space physics, laser physics and photonics, and medical physics. We collaborate with internal and external partners across the fields of science and engineering - and beyond - to tackle global challenges in areas such as advanced manufacturing, public health, and renewable energy.
Research in computing and IT, data science and statistics ranges from fundamental research in human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, software engineering and image processing, to more applied research in educational technology, decision making, virtual reality, simulation and robotics. There is a strong industry participation in our research activities, which address key challenges in industries such as health, education, food, logistics, mining, defence, transport and business.
Our research strengths
Marc Adam Computing and IT | Human-centred computing, human-computer interaction, mobile health systems, user experience design, cybersecurity behavior, decision support systems | ||
Rukshan Athauda Computing and IT | Database systems, educational technology, cloud computing, information security, applications of IT | ||
Regina Berretta Computing and IT | Operations research, evolutionary algorithms, combinatorial optimisation, heuristics/metaheuristics, lot-sizing and scheduling problems | ||
Florian Breuer Mathematics | Number theory, elliptic curves, Drinfeld modules, function field arithmetic | ||
Stephan Chalup Data Science and Statistics | Multi-agent systems, artificial intelligence, deep learning, evolutionary algorithms, manifold learning, machine learning, reinforcement learning, topological data analysis | ||
Raymond Chiong Data Science and Statistics | Agent-based modelling, artificial intelligence, game theory, evolutionary algorithms, supply chain optimisation, technology-enhanced learning | ||
Xuhui Fan Data Science and Statistics | Bayesian methods, optimisation and inference, statistical machine learning | ||
Kirill Glavatskiy Data Science and Statistics | Agent-based modelling, information measures, ensemble and fluctuation analysis | ||
Jeff Hogan Mathematics | Harmonic analysis, Clifford analysis, Fourier analysis | ||
Vicki Keast Physics | Solid state physics, electron microscopy, nanomaterials, equity and diversity | ||
Bishnu Lamichhane Mathematics | Numerical analysis, computational methods for partial differential equations, finite element methods, mathematical modelling, modelling with data | ||
Yuqing Lin Computing and IT | Discrete mathematics, combinatorial optimization, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, software engineering | ||
Glen Livingston Jr Data Science and Statistics | Bayesian statistics, multivariate time series, statistical theory | ||
Suhuai Luo Data Science and Statistics | Computational biology, computer vision, deep learning, machine learning, signal processing | ||
James McCoy Mathematics | Curvature flow, partial differential equations, geometric analysis, differential geometry | ||
Alexandre Mendes Computing and IT | Evolutionary algorithms, artificial intelligence, neural networks, computer vision, robotics, logistics | ||
Mike Meylan Mathematics | Mathematical geophysics, hydrodynamics, spectral methods, numerical solution of partial differential equations, Fourier methods | ||
Sky Miao Computing and IT | Machine learning, cybersecurity, adversarial machine learning, privacy-preserving machine learning | ||
Pablo Moscato Data Science and Statistics | Machine learning, approximability, information-based medicine, computational biology, deep learning, evolutionary algorithms, multi-agent systems, optimisation, time series analysis, vehicle routing | ||
Hakim Newton Data Science and Statistics | Artificial intelligence, search and optimisation, data science, machine learning, constraints, planning, scheduling, satisfiability, bioinformatics | ||
Nasimul Noman Computing and IT | Evolutionary algorithms, machine learning, robust optimisation, adversarial machine learning | ||
David Pontin Physics | Solar physics, plasma physics, fluid dynamics, magnetohydrodynamics, computational modelling | ||
Ian Renner Data Science and Statistics | Ecological statistics, spatial statistics, statistical computing, species distribution modelling, penalised regression | ||
Philipp Rouast Computing and IT | Machine learning, computer vision, affective computing, human-computer interaction, remote photoplethysmography | ||
Geoffrey Skinner Data Science and Statistics | Astrophysics, machine learning | ||
Elizabeth Stojanovski Data Science and Statistics | Applied statistics, Bayesian statistics, statistics for population health | ||
Stephan Tornier Mathematics | Topological group theory, computational group theory | ||
George Willis Mathematics | Topological algebra, locally compact groups, symmetry of discrete structures, combinatorial geometry, functional analysis, harmonic analysis | ||
Yang Yang Data Science and Statistics | Time series modeling, functional data analysis, demography forecasting, panel data models | ||
Lin Yue Data Science and Statistics | Sequential data learning and analysis in healthcare, data mining, machine learning |
The University of Newcastle acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands within our footprint areas: Awabakal, Darkinjung, Biripai, Worimi, Wonnarua, and Eora Nations. We also pay respect to the wisdom of our Elders past and present.