JCU > Research Portfolio > Prof Ian Atkinson

About

Professor Ian Atkinson is a Tropical Leader and Director of the eResearch Centre at James Cook University. His PhD studies were in chemical physics but nearly 20 years ago moved from experimental science into computational chemistry and high-performance computing.

Over the past decade the rapid expansion of the Internet, mass data storage and computing has impacted every area of research and academic activity. As Director of the JCU eResearch Centre he has the privilege of working with researchers to apply new and ever changing ICT tools and methods to their research and amplifying their impacts.

He has a long-standing interest in eResearch methods, tools, scientific data management and user interfaces for HPC tools. He is also actively involved in researching how new systems and software that connect the physical and virtual worlds, particularly focusing on environmental monitoring with sensor networks.

Teaching

SC1101: Science, Technology and Truth (Level 1; CNS & TSV)

Interests

Research

Sensor Networks and IoT
Big Data Analytics
eResearch
Precision Agriculture

Research Disciplines

Honours

Awards

2016 - JCU Senior Staff 'Dugong Award'
2008 - University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellors Award for Knowledge Transfer with Professor Marimuthu Palaniswami, for Monitoring of the Great Barrier Reef using Distributed Sensor Networks.
2001 - RACI Ollé Prize for best treatise, writing or paper: Self-Assembly in Supramolecular Systems, Book, with Prof. L.F. Lindoy

Publications

These are the most recent publications associated with this author. To see a detailed profile of all publications stored at JCU, visit ResearchOnline@JCU. Hover over Altmetrics badges to see social impact.

Journal Articles

Baker S, Xiang W and Atkinson I (2020) Continuous and automatic mortality risk prediction using vital signs in the intensive care unit: a hybrid neural network approach. Scientific Reports, 10, Article: 21282, DOI:10.1038/s41598-020-78184-7.
Kilcullen M, Kandasamy Y, Evans M, Kanagasignam Y, Atkinson I, van der Valk S, Vignarajan J and Baxter M (2020) Neonatal nurses’ perceptions of using live streaming video cameras to view infants in a regional NICU. Journal of Neonatal Nursing, 26 (4), pp. 207-211, DOI:10.1016/j.jnn.2020.01.012.
Graham E, Reside A, Atkinson I, Baird D, Hodgson L, James C and VanderWal J (2019) Climate change and biodiversity in Australia: a systematic modelling approach to nationwide species distributions. Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, 26 (2), pp. 112-123, DOI:10.1080/14486563.2019.1599742.
Jalil S, Myers T, Atkinson I and Soden M (2019) Complementing a clinical trial with human-computer interaction: patients' user experience with telehealth. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 6 (2), Article: e9481, DOI:10.2196/humanfactors.9481.
Kumar A, Mills S, Bazaka K, Bajema N, Atkinson I and Jacob M (2018) Biodegradable optically transparent terpinen-4-ol thin films for marine antifouling applications. Surface and Coatings Technology, 349, pp. 426-433, DOI:10.1016/j.surfcoat.2018.05.074.
Mohring K, Myers T and Atkinson I (2018) Playing in traffic: an investigation of low-cost, non-invasive traffic sensors for street light luminaire deployments. International Journal of Grid and Utility Computing, 9 (4), pp. 333-344, DOI:10.1504/IJGUC.2018.10016123.
Baker S, Xiang W and Atkinson I (2017) Internet of Things for smart healthcare: technologies, challenges, and opportunities. IEEE Access, 5, pp. 26521-26544, DOI:10.1109/ACCESS.2017.2775180.
Zhang L, Xiang W, Atkinson I and Tang X (2017) A time-efficient pair-wise collision-resolving protocol for missing tag identification. IEEE Transactions on Communications, 65 (12), pp. 5348-5361, DOI:10.1109/TCOMM.2017.2747548.
Thomas B, Jurdak R, Zhao K and Atkinson I (2016) Diffusion in colocation contact networks: the impact of nodal spatiotemporal dynamics. PLoS ONE, 11 (8), Article: e0152624, pp. 1-21, DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0152624.
Thomas B, Jurdak R and Atkinson I (2016) Opportunistic content diffusion in mobile ad hoc networks. Ad Hoc Networks, 45, pp. 34-46, DOI:10.1016/j.adhoc.2016.02.022.

Conference Papers

Mohring K, Myers T and Atkinson I (2018) A controlled trial of a commodity sensors for a streetlight-mounted traffic detection system. Proceedings of the Australasian Computer Science Week Multiconference. In: ACSW'18: Australasian Computer Science Week Multiconference, 29 January - 2 February 2018, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Mathiesen D, Myers T, Atkinson I and Vanderwal J (2016) TerrainVis: collaborative, interactive, visualisation tool for engaging residents in disaster preparedness. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Cooperative Design, Visualization and Engineering. In: CDVE 2016: 13th International Conference on Cooperative Design, Visualization and Engineering, 24-27 October 2016, Sydney, NSW, Australia

More: ResearchOnline@JCU stores 85+ research outputs authored by Prof Ian Atkinson from 1988 onwards.

Current Funding

Current and recent Research Funding to JCU is shown by funding source and project.

Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment - National Landcare Program: Smart Farming Partnerships Grant

Improved feral cattle and buffalo herd management for environmental and economic benefits in remote Northern Australia

Indicative Funding: $1,040,450 over 3 years (administered by CSIRO)
Summary: The project aims to develop improved feral cattle and buffalo herd management for environmental, biosecurity and economic development in remote Northern Australia. It includes the following core components: 1) Development of a smart ear tag using GPS and Kineis satellite telemetry (France) - JCU lead agency 2) Testing and development of the ear tag at Fletcherview Research Station (approx. 100 animals) - JCU lead agency 3) Development of management tools for geolocation data - CSIRO lead agency 4) Deployment of tags on 1000 feral Buffalo and Cattle in the NT - CSIRO/NAILSMA 5) Development of on-ground capacity for herd management within indigenous community organisations - JCU/NAILSMA
Investigators: Ian Atkinson and Justin Perry in collaboration with Nigel Bajema, Scott Mills, Ricky Archer, Sandy Whyte, Dominic Nicholls and Denis Kelly (Research Infrastructure, Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation, North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance, Aak Puul Ngantam, Mimal Land Management Aboriginal Corporation and Melsonby Balnggarrawarra Rangers)
Keywords: Bovidae Bubalus bubalas; Bovidae Bos taurus; Animal Tracking; Environmental Management; Indigenous Industry; IoT

Department of Industry - Innovations Connections

Develop a deployable hardware and firmware control system

Indicative Funding: $46,300 over 1 year (administered by FET Pty Ltd)
Summary: Develop an integrated Agriculture control systems solution that will increase functional flexibility with more inputs, outputs using low energy, long range communications networks and low energy, longrange sensing devices for large area multi-farm applications.
Investigators: Ian Atkinson, Russell Warburton, Brett Havenaar and Walter Thomas (Research Infrastructure and FTEC Electrical)
Keywords: Irrigation control; AgTech; Iot; SCADA

CRC for Developing Northern Australia Scheme - Projects

Applying new technologies to enhance biosecurity and cattle quality.

Indicative Funding: $1,084,500 over 3 years (administered by Branir Pty Ltd & Trustee for Booloomani Unit Trust)
Summary: The vast natural environment of Northern Australia feeds the cattle industry; however, biosecurity threats have negatively impacted this. Conventional management of such threats such as weeds are not suited to such broad, harsh landscapes. The project will use an Internet of Things network with low-cost environmental sensors, drone mapping and big data analytics to develop and test data-driven, strategic pest management programs - ultimately improving both cattle industry and natural assets.
Investigators: Ian Atkinson, Wei Xiang, Ron White, Stephanie Duce, Mohan Jacob and Karen Joyce (Research Infrastructure and College of Science & Engineering)
Keywords: Biosecurity; Cattle; Drones; Weeds; Technology; Internet Of Things

QLD Department of Environment and Science - Advance Queensland Innovation Partnerships

Smart Ear Tag for Livestock

Indicative Funding: $1,500,000 over 4 years
Summary: CeresTag is investing in the development of a smart ear tag for livestock to enable near real-time geo-location and health monitoring. The developed ear tag will be compliant with the current NLIS identification system and cost only marginally more than existing tags. This technology will revolutionise the industry through enhanced animal welfare, improved land management practices and increased profitability. It will form the starting point of block chain traceability that will underpin the continued success of this important component of the Australian economy and help maintain the premium status of Australian livestock products.
Investigators: Ian Atkinson, Wei Xiang, Bronson Philippa, Ed Charmley, Greg Bishop-Hurley, Nigel Bajema, Scott Mills, Gordon Foyster and Richard Keaney (Research Infrastructure, College of Science & Engineering, Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation and Taggle Systems)
Keywords: Animal tracking; Internet Of Things; Microelectronics; Geo-location; Precision Agriculture; Beef Cattle

Department of Industry - Innovations Connections

Early detection of asset failure using Machine Learning

Indicative Funding: $9,091 over 1 year (administered by Rockfield Technologies Australia Pty Ltd)
Summary: Develop an artificial intelligence (AI) model to anticipate the likelihood of catastrophic failure of civil assets (eg bridges). This includes validation of code to support the AI processing of real-time data measured from large civil infrastructure such as bridges and assessing the viability of using low-cost IoT sensors to monitor asset health in real-time.
Investigators: Ian Atkinson in collaboration with Jeffrey Loughran, Govinda Pandey and Thomas Bainbridge (Research Infrastructure and Rockfield Technologies Australia Pty Ltd)
Keywords: AI; Artificial Intelligence; structural health analysis; Machine Learning; finite element

Department of Industry - Innovations Connections

Machine Learning for Structural Health Monitoring

Indicative Funding: $99,464 over 1 year, in partnership with Rockfield Technologies Australia Pty Ltd ($49,732)
Summary: Structural health monitoring (SHM) is a developing technology but is still considered expensive by asset owners. However, SHM is on the verge of a massive technology disruption. Through the emergence of low-cost, high-performance sensors, the development of Internet of Things (IoT) communications and now deep-learning, Artificial Intelligence (AI) the SHM monitoring of buildings, bridges and other civil assets can now be realised. This project will attempt to build a prototype loT/ML based SHM system.
Investigators: Ian Atkinson (Research Infrastructure)
Keywords: Iot; Structural Health Monitoring; Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning

Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment - Control Tools and Technologies for Established Pest Animals and Weeds Programme

Enhanced landscape scale management of feral pigs and buffalo in large remote landscapes with new technologies enabling real-time data, modelling and analytics

Indicative Funding: $372,750 over 2 years (administered by CSIRO)
Summary: In remote Northern Australia properties are vast with limited seasonal access. In these large connected landscapes feral pigs and buffalo are controlled on an annual basis with limited success despite significant investment in time and money. Here we propose to develop an Internet of Things low power network connected with advanced low cost tracking devices and big data analytical techniques to develop a real time pest species tracking system including environmental sensors. Using these data, scientists and land managers will work together to develop end user products that will be used to inform strategic integrated pest management programs.
Investigators: Justin Perry, Adam McKowen, Eric Vanderduys, Philip Valencia, Peter Durr and Ian Atkinson in collaboration with Nigel Bajema, Ricky Archer, Sandy Whyte and Tim Jaffer (Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation, Research Infrastructure, Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation, APN Cape York and Kalan Enterprises)
Keywords: Feral Pigs; Buffaloes; Northern Australia; Cape York; animal tracking; GPS

CSIRO - Contract Research

Climate Extremes Data Scientist

Indicative Funding: $187,500 over 4 years
Summary: As climate variability increases, researchers are being asked about the role of extreme weather events in shaping the appearance of natural ecosystems, potential for species extinction and loss of biodiversity, the viability of agricultural production systems, and whether particular system thresholds have been or will soon be breached. Such information is essential for adaptation policy, planning and management as it provides insights into the direction and rate of likely change as well as the management challenges that might be faced. This project will address these "big data" issues.
Investigators: Ian Atkinson and Helen Murphy (Research Infrastructure and Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation)
Keywords: Data Science; Big Data; Climate Change; Extreme Events

Australian Government Department of Education and Training - National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS)

Connected urban tropics project

Indicative Funding: $160,000 over 1 year
Summary: City wide data can be utilised to better understand what is happening in the region and to better manage scarce resources. For example, city-wide data, such as energy and water, are generated by numerous parties and could provide patterns of utilisation to the Cairns and Townsville City Councils to manage local uses in city planning. Connecting and integrating distributed data from research, public and private sector agencies would empower better investment decisions for sustainable development in urban centres.
Investigators: Ian Atkinson in collaboration with Jeremy VanDerWal and Eduardo de la Fuente (Research Infrastructure, College of Arts and Society & Education)
Keywords: Tropical Data Hub; city-wide data; smart city; Sustainable Development; urban centres

Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation - Contract Research

Marine Science Data Services

Indicative Funding: $279,112 over 2 years
Summary: The objectives of the RDS project are to mature sustainable data services that deliver research outcomes and impact by: Refocusing of RDSI Infrastructure into Data as a Service in support of research communities with petascale data challenges. Secondly consolidating the linkages and alignments, where appropriate, with other Commonwealth-funded (NCRIS and Super Science) e-infrastructure investments.
Investigators: Ian Atkinson (Research Infrastructure)
Keywords: Marine Sciences; Data management

Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation - Contract Research

Terrestrial Systems Research Data Services

Indicative Funding: $242,407 over 2 years
Summary: The objectives of the RDS project are to mature sustainable data services that deliver research outcomes and impact by: Refocusing of RDSI infrastructure into Data as a Service in support of research communities with petascale data challenges. Secondly, consolidating the linkages and alignments, where appropriate, with other Commonwealth-funded (NCRIS and Super Science) e-infrastructure investments.
Investigators: Ian Atkinson (Research Infrastructure)
Keywords: Terrestrial Systems; Data Services

Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation - Contract Research

Queensland Additional Node of the Commonwealth Data Storage Infrastructure (RDSI) Project Providing Critical Infrastructure for Very Large Scale Research Data to Queensland Research

Indicative Funding: $257,293 over 4 years
Summary: QCIF will establish and operate an additional node at JCU for the national RDSI research infrastructure data storage program. This node will store massive volumes of medical, environmental and other research data produced by modern instruments, sensors and tools. Immediate priorities are tropical research into eradicating mosquito-borne diseases including malaria environmental monitoring and species distribution data and climate change impact modelling.
Investigators: Ian Atkinson (Research Infrastructure)
Keywords: Research Data Management; Tropical Data Management

Supervision

Advisory Accreditation: I can be on your Advisory Panel as a Primary or Secondary Advisor.

These Higher Degree Research projects are either current or by students who have completed their studies within the past 5 years at JCU. Linked titles show theses available within ResearchOnline@JCU.

Current

Measuring and quantifying the benefits of improved Internet connectivity in regional and remote Australia and its effect on adoption of technology (PhD , Secondary Advisor/AM)
Use of Technology to Enhance Rehabilitation Services for Stroke Survivors in Rural and Remote Areas (PhD , Secondary Advisor/AM)
Development of Machine Learning Schemes for use in Non-Invasive and Continuous Patient Health Monitoring (PhD , Secondary Advisor)
A Flexible Wired Sensor Network System for Vineyard Microclimate Monitoring (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)
Data driven life cycle decision making for engineering asset management in Industry 4.0 – Modeling of uncertainty in complex systems (PhD , Advisor Mentor)
Investigating the gap Between University and Industry for Information Technology Graduates in Regional and Metropolitan Australia, and Evaluating what could be done by both Universities and Industry to Bridge this Gap (PhD , Advisor Mentor)
Understanding the motivations and barriers to adoption and effective use of connectivity technologies by SMEs in RRR Australia (Masters , Secondary Advisor/AM)
Smart Sensors, Low Cost Radio Network System and the Internet of Things to Improve Effluent Quality from Algal Waste Treatment Systems and Aquaculture (Masters , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)

Completed

Co-Designing with adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A participatory action research approach (2020, PhD , Advisor Mentor)
Smart streetlights: a feasibility study (2019, PhD , Secondary Advisor)
High efficient tag identification protocols for large-scale RFID systems (2018, PhD , Secondary Advisor)
An interactive decision support tool for participatory pest management planning: combining local, regional and scientific knowledge through immersive, collaborative and interactive technologies (2017, PhD , Primary Advisor)
Clinical user-experience evaluation of type 2 diabetes patients using an in-home monitoring device: complementing a telemedicine clinical trial with HCI evaluation (2016, PhD , Secondary Advisor)

Data

These are the most recent metadata records associated with this researcher. To see a detailed description of all dataset records, visit Research Data Australia.

Mohring, K. (2018) Smart Streetlight Financial Analysis Tool. James Cook University
Mohring, K. (2018) Streetfighter controlled trial - Follow-up test I. James Cook University
Mohring, K. (2018) Streetfighter controlled trials - Cyclists . James Cook University
Mohring, K. (2018) Streetfighter controlled trials - Follow-up Test II. James Cook University
Mohring, K. (2018) StreetFighter controlled trials - Vehicles. James Cook University
Mohring, K. (2018) StreetFighter controlled trials - Pedestrian. James Cook University
Mohring, K. (2018) Streetfighter - Streetlight-integrated Sensor Platform - Live deployment trial. James Cook University
Mohring, K. (2018) Streetlight traffic detection - preliminary test 3. James Cook University

Collaboration

The map shows research collaborations by institution from the past 7 years.
Note: Map points are indicative of the countries or states that institutions are associated with.