The 2010 Eureka Prize winners have been announced at a ceremony in Sydney, with a team from the University of Western Australia taking out the prize for their form of tracking technology.
The team, from the university’s School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, was led by Professor Ba-Ngu Vo with Professor Ba-Tuong Vo and Professor Antonio Cantoni.
They were presented the $10,000 Eureka Prize for "Outstanding Science in support of Defence or National Security”.
Their entry was focused on developing an innovative approach to tracking algorithms with the potential to significantly increase the capacity to handle multiple objects of interest, using less demanding computing power than usual tracking methods.
Australia's Chief Defence Scientist, Professor Robert Clark, presented the award and congratulated the team which he said has the “potential to contribute significantly to Australia's defence and national security, by making more tractable the challenges of detecting the large numbers of objects that modern sensors may typically detect”.
"The innovative work of Professor Vo and his team could have many benefits in the defence domain. This includes an improved identification capability at longer ranges, including in hazardous urban environments and for the protection of ships, aircraft and vehicles," Clark said in a statement.
According to the Department of Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), who sponsored the award, a number of mainstream applications could also benefit from the technology, including traffic management, the monitoring of crowd behaviour, sports analysis, remote sensing and biomedical research.
Additional winners on the night for technology related projects includes, for Scientific Research, Amanda Barnard for her work, predicting properties of nanoparticles in sunscreens.
Also, Professor Martin Green, in the Leadership in Science category for being a Global Leader in Solar Cell Technology
Read the complete list of the Eureka Prize winners.