School of Computing & Mathematics

Mission: Improving quality of life and mental well-being through community informatics.

Oliver Burmeister’s research is focused on improving quality of life and mental well-being through community informatics (CI). CI is the study and the practice of enabling communities with information and communications technologies (ICTs). CI seeks to work with communities towards the effective use of ICTs to improve their processes, achieve their objectives, overcome the "digital divides" that exist both within and between communities, and empower communities and citizens in the range of areas of ICT application, including for health services and social interaction. Oliver’s dominant focus is on seniors.

Dr Burmeister is currently on sabbatical in Germany. There he has joined an inter-institutional team working on a 6 year European Union funded project that seeks to use ambient ICT to improve the quality of life for people with Alzheimer’s Disease. He has published in top journals, including most recently (2013) in the Journal of Business Ethics on elder abuse, and in Ethical Space, which published an invited keynote address that he presented at a computing conference in Malaysia in 2012.

Teaching

Teaching Awards

• 2010 Second place in the inaugural Teaching Excellence Awards of the School of Computing and Mathematics, Charles Sturt University.
• 2003 Certificate of Commendation, Swinburne Excellent Teacher (Higher Education) Award, 'in recognition of all-round professional excellence in the teaching of software development'.
• 1996 Third prize in the Teaching Excellence Awards of the Division for Business, Humanities and Social Science, Swinburne University of Technology.
• 1993 The Vice Chancellor's Award for 'contribution to Teaching and Learning Enhancement at Swinburne University of Technology'.

Research

Research Award
School of Computing and Mathematics Research Excellence Award, for outstanding achievement in research, 15 November 2012.

Current Projects

2013 Building communities of practice around the prevention of functional decline in the community: A regional approach
The aim of the Aged Care Workforce Reform Project is to implement and evaluate a number of evidence-based workforce redesign and reform projects, to increase sustainable and adaptable supply, and determine supports for national adoption. CareWest is managing one of 26 projects across Australia, funded by Health Workforce Australia. Our project seeks to trial a number of interventions (training, resource provision, structural change) and study the outcome of these interventions. Information gathered through this process will inform national evaluations.

[This project is supported by a grant from CareWest. My research collaborators are Professor Mark Morrison (Lead CI), Dr Maree Bernoth, Dr Md Zahidul Islam, Dr Debra Da Silva, and Dr Bhanugopan Ramudu.]

2012 Healthy Ageing through ICT
This project aims to enhance independence and opportunities for social connection and information retrieval of older people through ICT. It involves employing a retired computer trainer (peer trainer) to train interested members of a regional senior citizens club, in the use of iPad3 tablet computers. Following the training, one iPad will permanently remain at the club, and the others will be lent to club members, who will have the use of the iPads for four months, with further training provided after two weeks and again after two months. The peer trainer will be available to other club members using the iPad at the facility for ad-hoc training once each fortnight, during the period of the research. The participants who borrow the iPads will be interviewed twice during the loan period, at two and four months. There will also be an initial survey including all club members, not only those who borrow the iPads. Participants will keep diaries concerning their iPad use during the four month loan period. Participants who use the iPad at the club will also be interviewed.

[This project is supported by a grant from the CSU Faculty of Business. My research collaborators are Professor Kenneth Russell, Associate Professor Elaine Dietsch, and Dr Maree Bernoth.]

2012 Indigenous mental health: An investigation of the service and infrastructure needs in Wagga Wagga
This research aims to highlight the need for a culturally appropriate indigenous mental health programme for the city of Wagga Wagga. The research will document the perceptions, beliefs, insights and concerns of the indigenous community in Wagga Wagga, with reference to mental health and well being. There are a number of mental health specific indigenous programmes across rural communities in NSW, however there is a lack of culturally appropriate resources and community-based supports available for indigenous people in Wagga Wagga. Yet 4.2% of Wagga Wagga’s 63,500 people are indigenous, compared to the national average of 2.3% of the population.

[This project is supported by a grant from the Community Mental Health Drug and Alcohol Research Network. My research partner organisation is Richmondpra.]

Past Projects (Last Three years only)

• 2011/12 The future of eHealth infrastructure provision for the Riverina region: An investigation of mental health services
  This project was supported by a grant from the Department of Regional Australia, Regional Development & Local Government. My research collaborators were Dr Merrilyn Crichton and Dr Ingrid Muenstermann.
• 2011/12 Social inclusion: The factors that create a sense of connectedness for older Australians
  This project was supported by a grant from the CSU Faculty of Business. My research collaborator was Dr Kirsty Williamson.
• 2011/12 ICT-based social engagement in institutional aged care.
  This project was supported by a grant from the CSU Faculty of Business. My research collaborator was Ken Eustace.
• 2010/11 Monitoring eAccessibility in Europe
  I was the Australian policy expert advisor (see list of national experts: http://www.eaccessibility-monitoring.eu/nationalexperts.aspx

Professional Activities

• Member, Riverina headspace Consortium. The Riverina headspace Centre is focused on building the capacity of the local community to identify early, and provide effective responses to young people aged 12-25 with mental health and related substance use disorders.
• Chair, Australian Computer Society (ACS), Committee on Computer Ethics.
• Australian (ACS) representative to and Secretary of, International Federation of Information Processing, Technical Committee 9 'ICT and Society' (TC9). TC9 is concerned with informing the professional ICT community globally about the design, uses and consequences of ICT in various social contexts.
• Associate Director, Centre for Research in Complex Systems (CRICS)

Selected Publications

Journal Papers (Last 3 years only)

• Al-Saggaf, Y and Burmeister, O K (2012) Improving skill development: an exploratory study comparing a philosophical and an applied ethical analysis technique, Computer Science Education, 22:3.
  
• Burmeister, O. K. (2012) What seniors value about online community, Journal of Community Informatics, Vol 8, No 1. http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/545
• Burmeister, O. K., Foskey, R., Hazzlewood, J., Lewis, R. (2012) Sustaining online communities involving seniors, Journal of Community Informatics, Vol 8, No 1. http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/554
• Burmeister, O.K., Weckert, J., Williamson, K., (2011) Seniors extend understanding of what constitutes universal values, Journal of Information, Communication & Ethics in Society, Vol. 9, Issue 4. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=1477-996x&volume=9&issue=4
• Plummer, K., Burmeister, O., Muntean, D., McGrath, D., Murphy, D., & Macklin, R. (2011) A whole of curriculum approach to teaching business ethics, Australian Journal of Professional and Applied Ethics, Vol 12, Nos. 1 and 2.
• Burmeister, O.K. (2010) Websites for Seniors: Cognitive Accessibility, International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2010, pp: 99-113 ISSN 1835-8780. http://www.swinburne.edu.au/hosting/ijets/journal/V8N2/vol8num2-article3.html