Peninsula School of Computing and Information Technology


Profile of the school

The Peninsula School of Computing and Information Technology has two interrelated, roles: the provision of quality courses and the conduct of research in network computing. It has become increasingly apparent that a new computing paradigm is emerging with the rapid evolution of computing and computer networks. Much computing is now done in a networked context and relies on access to hardware and software resources that reside on many geographically dispersed computers. Network computing is now a specialised area of study within computing that draws on knowledge of data communications, computer equipment and operating systems, computer networks, internet and Web technologies, distributed computing, software engineering, computer security and information systems.
The school's undergraduate degree is the Bachelor of Network Computing. As well as this degree, the school offers the Graduate Diploma in Computing, the Graduate Certificate in Health Informatics, Master of Computing (by research or coursework) and Doctor of Philosophy.
The aim of the school is to provide students with a quality learning environment, which includes not only good teaching from a committed and competent staff, but also the necessary physical resources together with a pastoral and administrative infrastructure which guides and serves its students. The school seeks to develop its students so they are ready to enter the computing profession. The school aims to provide an environment for its staff that will both support and challenge them: support them with the facilities and environment conducive to productive achievement and challenge them with the opportunities to develop themselves professionally.
The school is actively involved in research in areas of computing associated with the school's focus on network computing. The teaching and research aspects of the school's mission complement each other. To teach courses that are both pedagogically sound and relevant to current theory and practice invites avenues of research. The research, in turn, energises the teaching with a freshness and breadth of ideas.
The school teaches three semesters a year with the inclusion of a summer semester. The summer semester offers a full range of computing subjects. Students can use these summer semesters in several ways: to accelerate the degree, to spread subject load more evenly throughout the year, or to catch up on previously failed subjects.
The school advisory board, composed of staff and senior computing industry representatives, ensures the relevance of subject offerings to current industry practice.
The school is housed in modern accommodation and offers excellent teaching and computing facilities. The school is geared to the needs of international students, with a significant proportion of its students coming from overseas countries.

Research

The Peninsula School of Computing and Information Technology is actively involved in research in emerging computing technologies, with a particular focus on network computing. Current research concerns fundamental methods and techniques in network computing, together with novel applications of such methods and techniques in solving real world problems in various application domains, ranging from industrial, governmental, and financial to health care sectors.
Within the networking computing initiative, research is carried out in the following principal areas/groups with significant interactions among them:

Computer and network security

This research group conducts research in information security, cryptography, and security engineering. Current projects are provably secure private key encryption systems, one-way hashing algorithms, secure public key encryption systems, hierarchical information access control, security in databases, digital cash, electronic commerce, multimedia watermarking and intellectual property protection, security issues in smart cards, information sharing and dispersal, and security in mobile computing and communications.
Research in this group is conducted at the newly established Laboratory for Information and NetworK Security (LINKS), which is partially funded by Canon Corporation.

Computer mediated education

This group is undertaking research in two main areas: methods of developing subjects for flexible delivery and models of web-based distance education. A methodology has been developed for approaching the development of new subjects for delivery in flexible modes. The model aims to provide a series of steps or phases that course developers can follow in preparing the delivery of courses using various electronic and print based media. A prototype is under development and testing for the delivery of a subject over the World Wide Web. The prototype includes innovative features such as real time video and audio contact between lecturer and students.

Distributed information systems engineering

The distributed information systems engineering group conducts research in information systems engineering methods, system modelling techniques, CASE tools and their interoperability, and information systems method engineering. Current projects include integration of system modelling techniques, computer-assisted method engineering, integration of information systems through architectures, the impact of integrated CASE tools on system development and integration of hypermedia and CASE, all in the context of emerging network computing.

Health informatics

In cooperation with staff from the Faculty of Medicine's Centre of Medical Informatics and School of Nursing, school staff are working on a number of projects, including security and privacy enhanced medical information systems, web based access to patient information, health information repositories and development tools for health information systems in community health nursing.

Multimedia and information management

This group conducts research in multimedia support for concurrent engineering, management of multimedia objects, synchronisation in multimedia systems, and multimedia information systems. Current projects include a framework for multimedia synchronisation with agents, human perception of multimedia synchronisation, and synchronisation of multimedia streams in a distributed environment with CORBA DSOM.

Software systems

The software systems group conducts research in software engineering environments, software traceability and consistency, software object management systems, software process modelling and enactment, computer-supported cooperative work, object-oriented technology, and software components and architectures. Current projects include a document-based approach to software engineering environments, traceability support for object oriented software development, an object management system for software engineering environments, computer-supported group work in software development, document-based software process modelling, and software composition and integration.
Research is also being carried out into models for web based course delivery, with emphasis on technologies for the implementation of human interaction as part of the learning environment.

Further information

Further information on the Peninsula School of Computing and Information Technology can be obtained at the following web site: http://www.pscit.monash.edu.au/