2020 Projects and Initiatives
In 2020, we awarded four staff research projects and five student scholarships through the Net Zero Fund. The projects contributed to advancing knowledge in energy efficiency, sustainability or lighting.
Read our funding announcement.
Explore the research projects
Project title
An embedded solution to energy efficient lighting for La Trobe Offices.
Project description
This project aims to improve energy efficiency by turning off lights in vacant rooms or when there's enough natural light for office work.
An embedded system based on a low-cost micro-controller and a camera will be developed with the size of the system to be smaller than a credit card. It will act as a control to the light switch based on the images captured by the camera. If successful, a working prototype will be developed that can be easily installed in an office.
Lead investigators
Dr Dennis Deng and Dr Robert Ross, Department of Engineering.
Project title
Reducing the cost and emission from split HVAC systems.
Project description
This project will develop and deploy HVAC control units – which will be called Energy4climate (E4C) – to manage split HVAC systems in order to avoid:
- Unnecessary running – by switching off operation when there is no one in a room or the building (e.g. common areas and corridors)
- Inefficient use – by standardising optimal temperature and fan settings. For example, avoid running the unit at unnecessarily low temperatures for long periods.
The E4C units will automate the management of split HVACs, avoiding ongoing energy waste.
Lead investigator
Professor Ani Desai, Centre for Technology Infusion.
Project title
The 1st Australian Green Lab. Developing a framework for sustainable labs at La Trobe University.
Project description
The laboratories at La Trobe are some of the university's largest energy and resource consuming facilities. Estimates indicate that laboratory spaces consume up to ten times more energy than office spaces, and scientists at the University of Exeter (UK) calculated that the average scientist in their facility was generating almost 1,000 Kg of plastic waste per year. Therefore, it is essential to critically look at the contribution and changes that La Trobe can make in its laboratories.
To be part of this effort for change, the Hill lab went through a certification process, which included a rigorous review of protocols and practices and identified actions to improve the lab’s sustainability. It became the first sustainable Green Lab-certified laboratory in Australia, as recognised through the global initiative My Green Lab.
More importantly, these efforts will serve for the development of a framework for sustainable labs across La Trobe University and its campuses.
Read more about Australia's first certified Green Lab.
Lead investigators
Dr Eduard Willms and Professor Andrew Hill, College of Science, Health and Engineering.
Project title
The dark side of energy efficient lighting: LED lights give wildlife the blues. Shifting spectral wavelengths to develop “Wildlife Friendly” lighting.
Project description
The project aims to quantify the impact of artificial night lighting on wildlife and develop “wildlife friendly” options to reduce impact. The objectives are to:
- understand how artificial light affects wildlife health and ecology
- experimentally assess our ability to mitigate the negative impacts of artificial light at night through the development and testing of wildlife-friendly lighting
- create guidelines on lighting design and spectral wavelengths required to meet industry standards and achieve conservation goals in ecologically sensitive areas.
Lead investigator
Dr Kylie Robert, Department of Ecology, Environment & Evolution.
Explore the scholarships
Scholarship recipient
Alicia Dimovski
Project description
Alicia’s research, titled ‘Environmental sustainability and wildlife conservation: does energy-efficient lighting cause unexpected ecological damage?’ explores how direct and indirect light pollution affects the ecology of Australian animals.
Light pollution represents the most drastic change to the nocturnal environment by turning night into day. However, we are only beginning to learn the damaging effects this has on nocturnal ecology. This is of particular concern in Australia, where over 80% of our mammals are nocturnal.
A combination of lab and field studies will be used to identify the impacts. In collaboration with lighting engineers, “wildlife-friendly LED lighting” will be developed and tested as an alternative to the current lighting.
The animals chosen for the study are urban sugar gliders, and it involves understanding the impacts on breeding. This work is also part of Dr Kylie Roberts' work, which was successful in receiving research funding from the Net Zero Fund.
Given that the majority of old technology streetlighting (e.g. high-pressure sodium) is now past its 25-30-year lifespan, there is an urgent and substantial need for energy and cost-efficient lighting. This provides an ideal opportunity to develop and test sustainable, wildlife-friendly lighting options.
This research will help inform industry to carry out sustainable lighting replacements which significantly reduce the negative impacts on Australian wildlife and contribute to the Department of the Environment and Energy’s next release of the National Light Pollution Guidelines for Wildlife.
Scholarship recipient
Prabod Rathnayaka, Research Center for Data Analytics and Cognition (CDAC), Business School, La Trobe University.
Project description
Prabod’s project focuses on energy management, aiming to:
- design and develop new AI algorithms for La Trobe’s Energy Analytics Platform (LEAP) to predict energy consumption
- transform these algorithms into a data analytics platform within LEAP for La Trobe’s I&O division to use to optimise energy usage and thereby net zero carbon emission.
LEAP was developed by La Trobe’s Centre for Data Analytics and Cognition (CDAC) to consolidate internal energy-related data streams and external data sources into a centralised data platform to facilitate the application of data analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms for actionable insights and energy optimisation.
The data from LEAP will help La Trobe maintain optimal energy consumption levels, reducing our carbon and cost footprint. Real-time monitoring highlights anything out of the norm, enabling further investigation by the operations team.
Once fully developed, LEAP will not be limited to use at La Trobe University locations, offering a service to the local community, schools, not-for-profit organisations, and small businesses.
Scholarship recipient
Quynh Ngo
Project description
This project, titled ‘Internet of Things – creating energy efficient and secure IoT devices – cyber security angle’ aims to develop a wireless energy self-sufficient and secure IoT network that could simultaneously guarantee data communications secrecy and energy constraint satisfaction.
The Internet of Things (IoT) aims to globally connect everyone and everything and to support every application. The advent of 5G facilitates and accelerates the process of having an IoT network that can support a massive number of connected devices with ultra-high speed and quasi-real-time connections. A network like this raises a variety of unavoidable challenges that today’s infrastructure is not equipped to handle. One of these major challenges is supplying adequate power to IoT devices to ensure uninterrupted power availability in real-life IoT system deployment.
The research has three main phases:
- develop power and energy saving mechanisms for platforms deployed for IoT
- apply artificial intelligence onto the power/energy saving techniques to have an energy self-sufficient IoT network
- research cybersecurity techniques to secure the network’s data communications.
The project is nearing the end of phase 1, with a paper titled “An Extreme Power Saving Directional MAC Protocol in IEEE 802.11ah Networks” accepted for publication in IET Networks journal (IF: 2.58; H-index: 12; Q2).
Scholarship recipient
Haftu Tasew Reda
Project description
The research titled ‘Detection of Data Integrity Cyber Attacks in Smart Grid Based on Data-Driven Approaches’ focuses on the detection of cyber-attacks called Falsified Data Injection Attacks (FDIA) in state estimation.
State estimation plays a critical role in smart power systems. Its purpose is to improve the dispatch of energy, system reliability and planning capabilities by understanding the operating state of the power system.
There is recent research showing that a newly emerged and coordinated class of cyber-attacks called Falsified Data Injection Attacks (FDIA) can circumvent existing detection techniques, mislead the power system state estimation, and induce abnormality in the power system operation.
The research aims to:
- identify vulnerabilities over existing power system state estimators
- propose detection techniques to ensure the reliability of power system operations.
The proposed detection and defence scheme could bring a sustainable security solution towards the energy sector.
Scholarship recipient
Nicole Pavich
Project description
The research explores how film can play a role in reducing the waste, pollution and exploitation caused by fast fashion. Simultaneously, it will investigate film’s capacity to increase the appeal and accessibility of sustainable apparel for millennials.
YouGov research has revealed millennials (aged 16-34) consume and dispose of fast fashion more than other generations in Australia (2017). Fast fashion economically bolsters clothing chains that rapidly manufacture cheap, large quantities of undurable apparel. This system costs the environment and offshore workers in its supply chain.
This project has examined several articulations of “fashion film” (including branded intermedial films, documentaries, user-generated content and 360-degree videos) to understand how existing screen texts are harnessing audio-visual media to present arguments and ideas about sustainable clothing.
This research has been well received at conferences in and beyond La Trobe University. Interviews with youth consumers, sustainable fashion activists and industry practitioners will form the next phase of this study. Two short films will also be produced that will test environmentally considerate, innovative film production practices and are scheduled for pre-production later this year.
This research also aims to identify and implement innovative filmmaking practices that champion environmental sustainability.