Leading Team:  Erik van Vulpen

As a partner in iMove’s Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), the  Centre for Technology Infusion (CTI) at La Trobe is at the forefront of applied research into new transport technologies and transport-related challenges in Australia, with a focus on accelerating technological adoption whilst improving safety, accessibility and governance, and reducing social disadvantage.

New Technologies to Improve Accessibility and Reduce Social Disadvantage

The Railway Station Platform Gap Solutions, frictionless ticketing technologies, Autonobus and Gippsland Community e-bus projects have leveraged new transport technologies to improve transport design and accessibility and reduce social disadvantage for those with a disability, and those in regional, rural and remote areas. The Australian Human Rights Commission has commended La Trobe’s work ‘in informing the Commission’s continued advocacy for greater compliance with, and future improvements to be made to, the DSAPT [Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport]’.

Stimulating Innovation in the Asia-Pacific

A partnership with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) provided five concrete steps for policy makers in the Asia-Pacific region to stimulate innovation in public transport and make it more accessible. In July 2024, CTI published a best practice guide for policymakers, which has been presented through workshops with APEC members from over 20 different countries.

Improving the Governance of Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs)

For people with disability, driverless vehicles hold significant promise but also pose new challenges. In partnership with the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts (DITRDCA), CTI has led research into how the government can provide guidance on Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) deployed in Australia under the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport. A new guideline will soon be published which will inspire industry to go beyond these standards.

Updating the Guidelines for Low and Zero Emission Vehicle (LZEV) Charging Infrastructure Charging an electric vehicle should be easy for everyone, but the reality is different. CTI has been at the forefront of developing accessibility guidelines for Low and Zero Emission Vehicle (LZEV) charging infrastructure. Austroads - the collective of the Australian and New Zealand transport agencies - are collaborating with CTI and Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) to develop updated LZEVs charging infrastructure guidelines which respond to the opportunities and challenges for people with disability (PWD). In 2024, the draft guidelines were published for consultation.

Improving the safety of Victoria’s railway level crossings

In 2024, CTI began research with the Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) Victoria and Metro Trains Melbourne on improving the safety of Victoria’s railway level crossings. The project is investigating the feasibility of using real-time train information to provide additional information, particularly to the elderly, frail and people with disability, about the time they have to pass a crossing so they can feel confident moving across the railway line.

Learn more about the CTI

Leading Team: Andrew Govus

Wearable devices, GPS and other technologies have led to an explosion in the volume of data available to Sports Scientists. But there is now a mismatch between the amount of data available and the skills required to make sense of it. The aim of the National High Performance Sport Research Agenda (NHPSRA) is to prioritise resources and promote applied research in areas of critical importance to Australia’s high performance sport system, and the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) has identified enhancing data science literacy in sport scientists as a priority area. With funding from the AIS, La Trobe researcher and sports scientist Andrew Govus and the Sports Data Analytics team are leading the SPEEDS (Sport and Exercise Science Excellence Through Data Science) project, developing an online learning platform to improve data exploration and visualisation skills amongst sport and exercise scientists. The site is intended to address the lack of specificity of existing data science resources, which tend to focus on and provide examples from other disciplines which practitioners often find difficult to apply to the high-performance sports arena. Quantitative and qualitative data about the reach and significance of the impact of the site will be gathered towards the end of 2025. But along with an impact on upskilling practitioners, it is hoped that the project will also encourage an increased focus on high performance sports and data science within Sport and Exercise Science degrees in Australia - currently areas of growth within sport and exercise science.

Visit the SPEEDS website

Leading Team: Kane Middleton

Professional sport is increasingly focussed on using technology to generate data which can be used to analyse, inform and improve coaching and performance, and mitigate the risk of injury in athletes. In baseball, there is a focus on pitching technique and pitcher movement, with coaches focussing on data points such as arm angle, shoulder rotation, arm speed, ball speed and ball rotation. But in order to base coaching, injury and performance interventions on data generated by technology, there needs to be absolute confidence that the data being generated is accurate, and that the investment in infrastructure and technologies is warranted. Since 2019, Kane Middleton has worked with the Boston Red Sox to evaluate and validate a range of motion capture technologies and wearable sensors, with testing at Fenway Park, La Trobe and at the Red Sox Player Development Complex in Fort Myers, Florida. Through Middleton’s research, the Red Sox are able to identify differences between technologies, as well as those data points which can be used to inform assessment and interventions with the most confidence. The Red Sox player development staff can then use these variables to develop training programs with the coaches. A current PhD project is looking at pitcher movement variability between pitches to identify where changes occur in the body, and what impact this has on performance and potential injury. Middleton has also served on Red Sox interview panels to recruit new sports scientists, and was employed by the Red Sox as a biomechanics consultant in 2022.

Read more about the research behind the impact

Leading Team: Wei Xiang

Launched in May 2023, CSIRO’s AquaWatch program monitors and forecasts water quality to give early warnings of harmful events such as toxic runoff and algal blooms. Data obtained from an extensive array of satellites and in-situ monitoring devices will be analysed for real-time water quality predictions using novel Artificial Intelligence algorithms developed by Prof. Wei Xiang’s team in the Cisco-LTU Centre for AI and Internet of Things, which is an Australian first specialising in the intersection of AI and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.

Chemical signatures in the water indicate the presence of contaminants. This AI-empowered early warning system informs actions that can be taken to protect the water supply, aquaculture industry, and surrounding ecosystems. Six monitoring sites chosen for the unique challenges they represent have so far been established in Australia, including container ports, recreational lakes, and the Great Barrier Reef. Five more sites are located internationally. By 2030, the intention is for AquaWatch to provide accessible, real-time water quality forecasts across Australia and locations worldwide.

Read coverage from 'Space Australia'

Leading Team: Kane Middleton, Jon Wheat, Danielle Vickery-Howe, Alex Roberts, Jemma Coleman, David Carey, Jack Bale, Luke Wilkins

Using live firing to train military personnel is costly and resource intensive, requiring a range, range time and ammunition, factors which can limit the amount of time available to soldiers to engage in this form of training. With a view to reducing costs and increasing opportunities to improve recruit marksmanship, the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) engaged La Trobe researcher Kane Middleton to evaluate and validate the use of the off the shelf MantisX sensor system. The sensor can be fitted onto a rifle and tracks barrel movement, trigger pull and weapon stability, then delivers a score and feedback for each shot to the shooter. A trial of the system started in April 2024 at Enoggera barracks in Brisbane, with baseline dry- and live-fire testing of three groups of soldiers – non-combat corps, combat corps and infantry. Following a training program using only dry firing and feedback from the MantisX system, shooters will be retested to see if their live firing has improved. Middleton’s trial is also looking at ‘perception-action coupling’, how soldiers take in and act on information during close quarter combat scenarios, to see if there is a certain way that expert shooters look and move which can then be identified and used to inform training practices to improve performance.

Read coverage of the trial

Leading Team: Alexander Stumpf, Adam Console

Vertical farms are an increasingly urgent solution needed for both space travel and optimisation of terrestrial resources. Gaia Project Australia have partnered with La Trobe University researchers to prototype a novel vertical farm system, the Intelligent Crop Cultivation Module (ICCM), which progresses plants from one level of the farm to another as they grow. This adaptive system follows plants’ natural growth cycles to increase the efficiency of the farm by up to 40%. In 2023, it was one of 11 international teams to win Phase 2 of NASA’s Space Food Challenge.

Read more about the project

Leading Team: Wei Xiang

The biggest challenge in the development of advanced digital technologies is the lack of real-life testbeds. Cisco have partnered with several universities globally, including La Trobe, to create “living labs” where innovative solutions can be piloted, tested and scaled. The digital technologies essential for living labs include Internet of Things (IoT), cybersecurity, digital twins, machine learning, and high-speed networks able to handle large quantities of data. Outcomes include smart buildings able to regulate energy use and optimise efficiency.

As a proof-of-concept project, La Trobe used air quality and occupancy analytics derived from “Cisco Spaces” to facilitate a safe post-pandemic return to work. In 2023, La Trobe then collaborated with Cisco on a report detailing the requirements and possibilities of a living lab, conducive to establishing more living labs that will utilise a new generation of advanced network infrastructure.

Read the Smart Campus Living Lab report

Leading Team: Shuo Ding, Erik van Vulpen

The development of Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS), which enable communication between vehicles (V2V), infrastructure (V2I) and other road users (V2X) has the potential to significantly improve road safety and reduce issues such as congestion. However, in order to successfully achieve this, vehicle manufacturers in Australia need clear direction on the technologies and protocols that should be followed to ensure a consistent approach. Whilst there have been a number of trials of the two key short-range technologies currently competing in the market - DSRC (Dedicated Short-Range Communication) and C-V2X (Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything) – a national approach for rollout in Australia has not been decided. With funding from iMove Australia, the Centre for Technology Infusion (CTI) at La Trobe is collaborating with the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts (DITRDCA) to develop a comparative assessment of C-ITS Technologies and international market standards and adoption which can be used by the Australian government as a baseline report to inform future decisions on national C-ITS deployment. The report has been delivered to the federal government, with the DITRDCA recognising La Trobe’s work in unpacking technical issues in the ‘presentation and discussion with States and Territories…which stands us in good stead for next steps on C-ITS’.

Read more about the research behind the impact

Leading Team: Damminda Alahakoon

SearchSpace GEO is a global register which introduces thousands of mining exploration sites to potential investors. Its focus is metals (mainly gold and copper, but also lithium, cobalt and zinc). To provide subscribers with additional data, La Trobe’s Centre for Data Analytics and Cognition (CDAC) have developed SearchSpace AI, which utilises natural language processing to analyse the relationships pertaining to each exploration site, for example existing investment trends. SearchSpace AI is now operational and successfully attracting investors to thousands of registered ventures. Its next phase, already commissioned by SearchSpace, will include data on carbon impact and carbon credits, enabling investors to factor sustainability as well as profitability into their decision-making.

Read more about the Centre for Data Analytics and Cognition