Associate Professor Chun Ouyang

I am inspired and strongly motivated by research-driven innovation. I enjoy teamwork and welcome collaboration with those who share common research value and interests with me. I understand the importance of industry-informed research and enjoy working with industry partners who respect and value research and researchers. Based on my substantial research experience in the past 14 years, I believe that a true researcher is genuine, passionate and dedicated, conducts deep thinking and deep work, and has an ongoing interest in pursuing new ideas and knowledge creation. I admire true research leaders not in how big a team they lead but in how they lead their team. I believe a true research leader is a true researcher who is self-leading (with strong personal commitment) and leading others (by being able to motivate, inspire, engage, and instil a positive attitude into the team). True research leaders do not only drive an initiative but also they deep 'dive' with their team in tackling research challenges. Below is a list of my current major research initiatives. More details of the research topics (including background, overview, and some earlier thoughts) can be found on my project pages on QUT research topics for Science and Engineering students. If you are interested in studying or collaborating in the context of any of these topics from either scientific or practical perspective, please feel free to contact me.

Guided Process Analytics (QUT project page)

• New methods and techniques for querying process event logs to retrieve, aggregate, and/or infer relevant and reliable data for process analysis
• A 'tool box' of data-driven process analysis capabilities (in the forms of e.g., methods, algorithms, techniques) motivated by and to inform actionable recommendations for process improvement
• Systematic approach for generating log requirements to guide data curation for continuous (and automated) process analytics

My past and recent publications related to or leading into this initiative:

• S. Suriadi, C. Ouyang, W.M.P. van der Aalst, A.H.M. ter Hofstede. Root Cause Analysis with Enriched Process Logs. In the 8th International Workshop on Business Process Intelligence (BPI 2012) as part of the Proceedings of Business Process Management Workshops 2012 (revised papers): 174-186
• S. Suriadi, C. Ouyang, W.M.P. van der Aalst, A.H.M. ter Hofstede. Event interval analysis: Why do processes take time? Decision Support Systems 79: 77-98 (2015)
• A. Polyvyanyy, C. Ouyang, A. Barros, W.M.P. van der Aalst. Process querying: Enabling business intelligence through query-based process analytics. Decision Support Systems 100: 41-56 (2017)
• R. Andrews, S. Suriadi, C. Ouyang, E. Poppe. Towards Event Log Querying for Data Quality - Let's Start with Detecting Log Imperfections. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Cooperative Information Systems (CoopIS and as part of OTM Conferences 2018): 116-134
• W. Chathurika, C. Fidge, C. Ouyang, T. Sahama. Generating Log Requirements for Checking Conformance against Healthcare Standards using Workflow Modelling. In the 12th Australasian Conference on Health Informatics and Knowledge (HIKM 2019), 29 - 31 January 2019, Sydney, Australia. (In Press)

(Process-oriented) Organisational Mining (QUT project page)

• New/improved methods and algorithms for organisational model mining built upon suitable data mining techniques
• Novel approach and models for discovering, reasoning, and analysing (intra-)organisational and inter-organisational networks by leveraging existing social network analysis capabilities
• New tools and visualisation of the discovered organisational networks
• Knowledge discovery from process event logs for organisational improvement informed by management science

My recent publication under this initiative:

• J. Yang, C. Ouyang, M. Pan, Y. Yu, A.H.M. ter Hofstede. Finding the "Liberos": Discover Organizational Models with Overlaps. In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Business Process Management (BPM 2018): 339-355

BPM in the Cloud (QUT project page)

• Design of generic and scalable system architecture
• Architectural solution built on and empowered by microservices
• Performance evaluation framework for Cloud-based BPMS
• Workload balancing strategies to support (stateful) process execution
• SLA, pricing model, and computing cost for BPM-as-a-Service (BPMaaS)
• System reliability issues such as data management, access control and security

My recent publications under this initiative:

• C. Ouyang, M. Adams, A.H.M. ter Hofstede, Y. Yu. Towards the Design of a Scalable Business Process Management System Architecture in the Cloud. In Proceedings of the 37th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling (ER 2018): 334-348
• M. Adams, C. Ouyang, A.H.M. ter Hofstede, Y. Yu. Design and Performance Analysis of Load Balancing Strategies for Cloud-Based Business Process Management Systems. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Cooperative Information Systems (CoopIS and as part of OTM Conferences 2018): 390-406

(Information is up to date as on 01/12/2018)

• Wickramanayake, B., Ouyang, C., Xu, Y. & Pinto Moreira, C. (2023). Generating multi-level explanations for process outcome predictions. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 125. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/241377
• Velmurugan, M., Ouyang, C., Sindhgatta, R. & Pinto Moreira, C. (2023). Through the looking glass: Evaluating post hoc explanations using transparent models. International Journal of Data Science and Analytics. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/243164
• Yang, J., Ouyang, C., van der Aalst, W., ter Hofstede, A. & Yu, Y. (2022). OrdinoR: A framework for discovering, evaluating, and analyzing organizational models using event logs. Decision Support Systems, 158. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/228693
• Wickramanayake, B., He, Z., Ouyang, C., Pinto Moreira, C., Xu, Y. & Sindhgatta, R. (2022). Building interpretable models for business process prediction using shared and specialised attention mechanisms. Knowledge-Based Systems, 248. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/229607
• Pika, A., Ouyang, C. & ter Hofstede, A. (2022). Configurable Batch-Processing Discovery from Event Logs. ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems, 13(3). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/213735
• Chou, Y., Pinto Moreira, C., Bruza, P., Ouyang, C. & Jorge, J. (2022). Counterfactuals and causability in explainable artificial intelligence: Theory, algorithms, and applications. Information Fusion, 81, 59–83. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/225948
• ter Hofstede, A., Yang, J., Ouyang, C., Dik, G. & Corry, P. (2022). Crop Harvest Forecast via Agronomy-informed Process Modelling and Predictive Monitoring. Advanced Information Systems Engineering: 34th International Conference, CAiSE 2022, Leuven, Belgium, June 6–10, 2022, Proceedings, 201–217. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/229877
• Ouyang, C., Adams, M., ter Hofstede, A. & Yu, Y. (2021). Design and Realisation of Scalable Business Process Management Systems for Deployment in the Cloud. ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems, 12(4). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/212227
• Moreira, C., Chou, Y., Velmurugan, M., Ouyang, C., Sindhgatta, R. & Bruza, P. (2021). LINDA-BN: An Interpretable Probabilistic Approach for Demystifying Black-box Predictive Models. Decision Support Systems, 150. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/211178
• Velmurugan, M., Ouyang, C., Pinto Moreira, C. & Sindhgatta, R. (2021). Evaluating Stability of Post-hoc Explanations for Business Process Predictions. Service-Oriented Computing: 19th International Conference, ICSOC 2021, Virtual Event, November 22–25, 2021, Proceedings, 49–64. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/214090

Title

Re-Engineering Enterprise Systems for Microservices in the Cloud

Primary fund type

CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant

Project ID

DP190100314

Start year

2019

Keywords

Title

Improved Business Decision-Making via Liquid Process Model Collections

Primary fund type

CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant

Project ID

DP150103356

Start year

2015

Keywords

process mining; process model collection; business process management

Title

Collaboration with Beijing Jiaotong University to build Australia-China research-industry collaboration in service and process innovation

Primary fund type

CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant

Project ID

ACSRF01226

Start year

2012

Keywords

Business Process Management; Service Engineering

Title

Cost-aware business process management

Primary fund type

CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant

Project ID

DP120101624

Start year

2012

Keywords

Information System; Business Process Model; Workflow Management; Management Accounting

Title

Risk-Aware Business Process Management

Primary fund type

CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant

Project ID

DP110100091

Start year

2011

Keywords

Risk Management; Information System; Business Process Model; Workflow Management

• Evaluating Post Hoc Explanations using Tabular Data and for Predictive Process Analytics: A Functionally-Grounded Perspective
  PhD, Principal Supervisor
  Other supervisors: Dr Renuka Sindhgatta Rajan, Adjunct Associate Professor Catarina Pinto Moreira, Associate Professor Yue Xu
• Explaining Deep Learning-based Process Predictions
  PhD, Principal Supervisor
  Other supervisors: Associate Professor Yue Xu, Adjunct Associate Professor Catarina Pinto Moreira
• Interpretable Human-Centred Multimodal Learning Framework
  PhD, Associate Supervisor
  Other supervisors: Adjunct Associate Professor Catarina Pinto Moreira, Professor Margot Brereton
• Building Robust Predictive Systems for Structured Data
  PhD, Principal Supervisor
  Other supervisors: Professor Alistair Barros, Adjunct Associate Professor Catarina Pinto Moreira
• Context-aware Process Analytics using IoT Data
  PhD, Principal Supervisor
  Other supervisors: Professor Arthur ter Hofstede

• Discovering organizational models from event logs for workforce analytics (2023)
• Information Accountability in Health Information Systems Using Process Analytics (2020)
• On the Analysis and Refactoring of Service Interfaces for Improving Service Integration Efficiency (2016)
• Strengthening and Formally Verifying Privacy in Identity Management Systems (2010)
• Interface Adaptation for Conversational Services (2008)

• Network Ties and Their Effect on Employee Collaboration in Enterprise Social Networks (2021)
• Modelling and Execution of Asset Management Process via Workflow Automation (2010)