New Research Centre for the School

Professor Svetha Venkatesh, one of Australia's most distinguished researchers, has joined the School of Information Technology to head a new Strategic Research Centre - PRaDA (Pattern Recognition and Data Analytics).

PRaDA's research interests will focus on:

• graphical models and their application to multi-media surveillance
• building large-scale observations systems
• new media capture paradigms

Professor Venkatesh is also involved in two new exciting start-up companies:

iCetana - an award-winning company that develops intelligent video surveillance software that enables operators to focus only on the one percent of events requiring attention.

TOBY Playpad - a new interactive iPad app offering a revolutionary new way to accelerate learning for children with autism. It allows a parent to do the early intervention learning with their child at home. By empowering parents to deliver therapy outcomes at home, the app addresses a critical gap - the time parents have to wait to access therapy - after their child has been diagnosed with autism.

From Curtin University in Western Australia, Professor Venkatesh is joined by her research team:

• Associate Professor Dinh Phung
• Dr Santu Rana (Research Associate)
• Dr Sunil Gupta (Research Fellow)
• Dr Budhaditya Saha (Research Fellow)
• Dr Thi Duong
• Dr Thin Nguyen
• Dr Truyen Tran

They are all based on the Geelong Waurn Ponds Campus.

For more information visit the PRaDA website: http://www.deakin.edu.au/research/src/prada/