Solutions

Specific areas of Solutions possessed by DeciSci include:

• Infrastructures;
• Industry;
• Finance;
• Environment;
• Biosciences; and
• eScience.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Infrastructure is a fundamental building block of modern societies, consisting of things such as communications, IT, transport, energy, finance, water, and other items that are essential for the functioning of modern societies. Unfortunately, large infrastructures tend to be complicated to both understand and to manage under both normal and abnormal situations such as during accidents and emergencies. The situation is further compounded since infrastructures interact among each other, for example, a failure in a communication network can affect financial transactions which can further affect other sectors of the economy.

DeciSci has expertise to develop systems to better understand and to assist in the management of infrastructures under both normal and abnormal situations, and especially where infrastructures affect other infrastructures. Examples where DeciSci's expertise has been used are:

• Logistics related to Shanghai's new deep water port at Yangshan
• Pedestrian movement in complex precincts
• Effect of transport links on the spread of diseases
• National electricity markets

SUPPLY CHAINS & MANUFACTURING

Industrial performance is intimately tied to dynamic interactions between markets, supply chains, and manufacturing operations. Changes in one aspect of this ecosystem of interactions can unexpectedly affect other parts, and hence lead to either improved or decreased performance. Having a holistic, integrated view of these interactions can enable enterprises to better predict and improve their operations at both a strategic and operational level.

DeciSci has developed a platform that integrates various aspects of an enterprise's operations, including:

• Details of manufacturing operations
• Warehousing and distribution
• Raw material supply and customer demands
• Staffing, business processes and other cost drivers

Once customized for a particular enterprise, DeciSci's platform can be used to improve the enterprise's operations and reduce total operational costs.

DeciSci has also assisted in modeling other logistics problems, such as to do with Shanghai's new deep water port at Yangshan.

FINANCE

Finance is a critical part of the modern economy, and is becoming more sophisticated as time goes by. New types of financial instruments are devised and financial products marketed, new markets are formed, and the world's economy becomes more interwoven through international financial flows. There is a need for:

• better, more systematic ways to engineer new financial products,
• understanding how these products will operate in existing and new markets,
• being able to design new markets, and in the
• provisioning of new types of financial information systems and portals

DeciSci has expertise in all these areas. Examples where DeciSci's expertise in these areas has been used are:

• Advising about new ways to design complex structured products
• Understanding the operation of a derivatives market
• Use of experimental economics in designing water and other resource markets
• Implementing an integrated financial transaction hub for SME accounting systems

ENVIRONMENT & RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Natural capital and ecosystem services are under severe pressure in the modern world due to economic and population growth. Land, water, fish and forestry stocks are diminishing or are being degraded. Climate change and variability are adding additional pressure on food and shelter security. More sustainable ways are urgently needed for how humans can co-exist with the environment.

DeciSci has extensive experience in helping to understand and manage environmental and natural resource systems. DeciSci's expertise has been used in both national and international projects as in the following:

• Constructing an integrated biophysical-socioeconomic model for the World Bank CRTR (Coral Reef Targetted Research) project
• Sustainable forest management
• Sustainable fisheries management

HEALTH & BIOSCIENCES

Ailments and diseases affect all living organisms and impose a huge impost on government budgets. Great challenges abound in improving the delivery and cost effectiveness of the health system, and in being able to cope with newly emergent diseases. The same situation holds for animals and plants. For example, a highly infectious animal disease can cause economic and environmental havoc to a region, and the possibility of bioterrorism has become a prime concern for health planners.

DeciSci has been developing a capability to help understand and manage the outbreak of highly infectious diseases through the integration of disease models, geographical information, human decision making and other factors.

DeciSci is also collaborating with our university partners in trying to gain a deeper understanding of the functioning of the different systems in the human body such as the kidneys, using techniques from complexity and computer sciences. This effort relates to the grander World Physiome Project.

SENSOR WEBS, ESCIENCE & ADVANCED ICT

Highly distributed ICT technologies are transforming the way we live and perform science, medicine, engineering and commerce. The Web is now relatively ubiquitous, but the trend is still continuing. Webs of appliances, devices and sensors are being networked to provide smarter, distributed intelligence. Powerful computing machines and instruments are being made available and interconnected to allow global large-scale collaborations in science, medicine and engineering. Leading edge finance and commerce are using such facilities. Even the desktops in an enterprise can be transformed into computing grids.

DeciSci has strong expertise in these highly distributed ICT technologies. DeciSci is able to develop, install and help operate such distributed applications. Examples of where DeciSci's expertise has used these technologies include:

• Prototyped the IT infrastrucuture for a sensor web based on international standards, for South Korea.
• Developed a scientific workflow system for a World Bank modeling project
• A biotech portal for drug design

DeciSci works closely with the Grid Computing Laboratory at the University of Melbourne, and is involved in several projects with the laboratory.