School of Engineering Newsletter
Volume 4 | Issue 4 | December 2010
Head of School
Foreword
Welcome to the final issue of the School of Engineering
Newsletter for 2010.
This issue highlights some significant achievements within
the School of Engineering and the Civionics Research Centre
and I will touch on some of these briefly.
The School was successful in the Australian Research
Council (ARC) Discovery Project and ARC LIEF schemes
within the Structural Engineering discipline. The ARC
Discovery project will focus on rehabilitation and
demountable steel infrastructure. In the ARC Linkage
Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) scheme, the
School was part of a major national bid for large equipment
administered by Swinburne University which was announced
by Senator Kim Carr on 1 December 2010. The award from
the ARC is worth $870k and the facility will be funded by
over $2 million involving contributions from ARC and partner
universities.
The Civionics Research Centre hosted its Inaugural Annual
Conference on the 25th & 26th November 2010 at Pullman
Hotel, Sydney Olympic Park. The event attracted more than
30 Civionics Centre members, Engineering PhD students, as
well as industry partners from Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd
and Hyder Consulting.
The School of Engineering has also been the host to
delegates from the Ministry of Manpower, Oman, and the
President of Dalian University of Technology (DUT) in China,
Professor Jingping Ou, visited UWS. Professor Ou was
welcomed by the UWS Vice-Chancellor and President,
Professor Janice Reid and other UWS staff. At the meeting,
an Agreement on Cooperation between DUT and UWS was
signed by Professor Ou and Professor Reid. The School of
Civil Engineering at Tsinghua University in China has agreed
with an Academic Cooperation Agreement (ACA) with the
School of Engineering at UWS. The ACA was signed by the
DVC of UWS and the Dean of Civil Engineering at Tsinghua
University on 24 November, 2010. School
of Engineering News
1
At the Inaugural Annual General Meeting of the Australian
Network of Structural Health Monitoring (ANSHM) held on
6 December at UTS, Sydney, Dr Xinqun Zhu was elected to
the Executive Committee and I will sit on the Advisory Board
of the ANSHM network. This network established in 2009
already has ten member universities and is a focal point for
research discussions in the Structural Health Monitoring
field. UWS Day at Penrith was held on 3 November and
was attended by many local high school students. School
of Engineering staff and PhD students presented a variety of
workshops.
The University has embarked on a program of recruiting 100
academic staff in 2011 and the School and Civionics Centre
will be welcoming over ten new staff in 2011 and we look
forward to their commencement. The School of Engineering
is also undergoing some refurbishment of its existing facilities,
so staff and students will be pleased with the changes once
the Autumn session commences. This will include Learning
and Teaching and Research hubs/zones to better facilitate
staff and student interactions within the School and Centre.
On this note I shall conclude. Enjoy the articles contained in
this edition.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish you “Season’s
Greetings” and all the best to you and your families for a safe
and Happy New Year.
Yours sincerely
Professor Brian Uy
Head, School of Engineering &
Director, Civionics Research
Centre
Engineering || Industrial Design | |Construction
Engineering
Construction
VolumeSchool
4 Issue
| DecemberNews
2010
of4Engineering
Research and International
Academic Cooperation Agreement with
Tsinghua Civil Engineering School
International Astronomical Union’s
Astronomy & World Heritage
Committee
The UWS School of Engineering has developed a close collaborative research
relationship with colleagues in the School of Civil Engineering at Tsinghua
University in China. To further expand academic cooperation between the two
Schools, an Academic Cooperation Agreement (ACA) for the two Schools
was signed by the DVC (International and Development) at UWS and the
Dean of School of Civil Engineering at Tsinghua University in Beijing on 24th
November 2010.
Dr Ragbir Bhathal has been elected
to membership of the International
Astronomical Union’s Astronomy &
World Heritage Committee.
Australian Research Council – Discovery
Project Success
The Australian Research Council has awarded $255,000 funding over three
years to an ARC Discovery Project by Professor Brian Uy, Dr Xinqun Zhu
and Dr Olivia Mirza from the Civionics Research Centre. The project title is
“The use of innovative anchors for the achievement of composite action for
rehabilitating existing and deployment of demountable steel structures”. The
research team will develop an innovative technology to connect steel and
concrete elements in steel framed structures. This will allow new structures
to be made demountable and will increase the remaining life of existing
infrastructure. This will provide methodologies to increase the sustainability
benefits of steel structures in construction. The method includes the use of
blind bolting technology which has recently been used in the demountable
end stands for the Sydney Olympic Stadium, Sydney and in the rehabilitation
of the Westgate Bridge over the Yarra River in Melbourne.
ARC Discovery Project Success – rehabilitation of
the Westgate Bridge, Melbourne, Australia.
Australian Research Council – LIEF Project
Grant Success
An Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment
and Facilities (LIEF) bid titled “Hybrid Testing Facility (HTF) for Structures
under Extreme Loads” and lead by Swinburne University of Technology has
been successful and included Professors Uy and Xiang from the School of
Engineering and Civionics Research Centre. The award from the ARC is worth
$870k and will involve a total outlay of over $2 million dollars from contributing
partners. This facility will provide a platform where multi-campus testing can
be implemented and where collaboration will open new doors for more joint
research grant applications and research projects. Construction of a new
Smart Structures Laboratory, the hub of the HTF facility, is nearly complete at
Swinburne University in Melbourne and ready for receiving funded equipment
for installation starting from January 2011.
LIEF Grant – construction of a new Smart
Structures Laboratory at Swinburne University,
Melbourne, Australia.
Civionics Annual Research Conference
The Civionics Research Centre hosted its Inaugural Annual Conference on 2526 November 2010 at Pullman Hotel, Sydney Olympic Park. The conference
allowed centre members and their PhD students to each present a paper
about their latest research work. Key topics included intelligent infrastructure
design, health monitoring of infrastructure, and intelligent maintenance and
repair of infrastructure within the areas of civil, electrical and mechanical
engineering. The event attracted more than 30 Civionics centre members,
Engineering PhD students and industry partners from Leighton Contractors
Pty Ltd and Hyder Consulting.
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Civionics Annual Research Conference
– November 2010
Engineering | Industrial Design | Construction
School of Engineering News
Research and International (cont.)
UWS Research Grant
Scheme Success
Visit to China
As a member of a UWS team,
Dr Jeffrey Zou participated in
a series of student recruitment
activities in China in October,
2010. These included the
China Scholarship Council
(CSC) Graduate Scholarship
Fairs in Beijing, Xi’an
and Shanghai, Shinyway
Education Exhibition in
Hangzhou and Aoji Education
Exhibition in Chengdu. Jeffrey
also attended the China
Education Exhibition and
IDP Education Exhibition
in Chengdu and the EIC
Education Exhibition and
IDP Education Exhibition in
Guangzhou.
The CSC Fairs target highcalibre Chinese students
who intend to pursue PhD
degrees overseas. Qualified
students will be sponsored
by the Chinese government.
The attendance of the CSC
Fairs is by invitation only for
well-known universities from
around the world. Amongst
the participating institutions
were the University of
Cambridge and the Imperial
College in the UK, Johns
Hopkins University in the
USA, the Royal Institute of
Technology in Sweden, the
University of British Columbia
in Canada and the Australian
National University and
the University of Sydney in
Australia.
The following staff from the School of
Engineering and Civionics Research Centre
recently were successful in the UWS
Research Grant Scheme. Funding is extremely
competitive with only 30% of projects funded.
A/Professor Tao and Drs Zhu and Zeng had
the following successful projects approved.
Associate Professor Zhong Tao (Centre for
Civionics – Infrastructure Engineering)
Methods to enhance the bond between steel
tube and concrete in concrete-filled steel
tubular columns $24 876
Dr Qinghua Zeng (School of Engineering)
Evaluation of metal-organic frameworks for
carbon dioxide capture $22 299
Dr Haiping Zhu (School of Engineering)
Model studies of flow of wet non-spherical
particles in annular shear cells
$17 194
UWS Seed Grant Success
Dr Peter Wong and Dr Yingyan Zhang recently
were successful in receiving UWS Seed Grant
funds.
Dr Jeffrey Zou’s visit to the School of Civil
Engineering at Tsinghua University in China.
The background shows a 2000 tonne test
machine.
Dr Yingyan Zhang (School of Engineering)
Defective Carbon Nanotubes in Thermal
Environments
$5 500
UWS IRIS Grant Success
Visit from the Oman Ministry of
Manpower
Visiting Fellow at the Civionics
Research Centre
Delegates from the Ministry of
Manpower, Oman visited the
School of Engineering on 9
November. Dr Jeffrey Zou gave
a presentation about the UWS
engineering programs and a tour
of our facilities.
Dr Houjun Kang, Lecturer, College
of Mechanics and Aerospace,
Hunan University, China is a
Visiting Fellow. He is working with
Dr Haiping Zhu’s ARC Discovery
project “Experimental and
numerical investigation of granular
flow in hoppers”. He will be
working at the Civionics Research
Centre until July 2011.
Vol 4 Issue 4 | December 2010
Dr Peter Wong (School of Engineering)
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in
construction - an organizational culture
perspective
$6 794
Dr Dharma Hagare has been awarded a UWS
International Research Initiatives Scheme (IRIS)
grant for his research project with colleagues
from Indian Institute of Science.
Dr Dharma Hagare (School of Engineering)
Development of a Model for
Integrated Urban Water Cycle Management for
Bangalore
$5 000
Engineering | Industrial Design | Construction
3
Research and International (cont.)
Visit from the President of Dalian University of Technology (DUT), China
The President of DUT, Professor
Jingping Ou, visited UWS on 29
November 2010. Professor Ou met
with and was warmly welcomed
by the UWS Vice-Chancellor and
President, Professor Janice Reid on
the Werrington North Campus. Other
participants in the meeting included
Ms Rhonda Hawkins (Deputy ViceChancellor, Corporate Strategy and
Services), Professor John Ingleson
(Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Enterprise
and Development), Professor Wayne
McKenna (Deputy Vice-Chancellor,
Academic and Research), Professor
Brian Uy (Head of School of
Engineering and Director of Civionics
Research Centre) and Dr Jeffrey
Zou (Associate Head, School of
Engineering).
At the meeting, an Agreement on
Cooperation between UWS and DUT
was signed by Professor Reid and
Professor Ou. After the meeting,
Professor Ou received a tour of the
facilities in the School of Engineering
and Civionics Research Centre on
the Kingswood Campus. Professor
Ou was a keynote speaker at the
Inaugural Civionics Annual Conference
and is an expert on structural health
monitoring.
L-R: (back) Dr Jeffrey Zou, Ms Rhonda
Hawkins, Professor Brian Uy, Professor John
Ingleson, Professor Wayne McKenna; (front)
Professor Jingping Ou, Professor Janice Reid.
School staff
Below are the staff recruitments and movements within the School of Engineering and Civionics Research Centre.
Gemma David returned to the School Admin team after a period of secondment and maternity leave. She took up the
position of School Administration Officer, Learning and Teaching, previously attended by Patricia Hellier and Mary Rose
Rutkowski. Mary Rose returned to her reception post.
The Civionics Research Centre appointed new staff members, A/Professor Sergiy Kharkivskiy – Associate Professor
in Sensor Technology, Dr Chunwei Zhang – Senior Lecturer in Structural Control and Dr Won Hee Kang – Lecturer in
Structural Reliability. They are all due to commence in 2011. Dr Ken Tokeshi has been appointed Post-doctoral Research
Fellow and joined A/Professor Chin Leo’s ARC research project, ‘Geotechnical characterisation of compacted ground
based on passive ambient noise techniques’ in December 2010.
Dr Phil Ronaldson, Lecturer in Civil Engineering resigned from the School in October.
Dr Peter Wong will leave the UWS School of Engineering in January 2011.
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Engineering | Industrial Design | Construction
School of Engineering News
Learning and Teaching
Learning and
Teaching Academic
Standards (LTAS)
Project
6th National Pass Conference
Associate Professor Sid Newton, the
ALTC Discipline Scholar for Building
visited the School and met with
Professor Brian Uy, construction
management academic staff and
students from the construction
discipline on 16 November. Associate
Professor Newton is working on the
Australian Learning and Teaching
Council’s Learning and Teaching
Academic Standards Project (LTAS).
The purpose of his visit was to seek
input from construction academic staff
and students to establish threshold
learning outcomes for undergraduate
degrees in construction in Australia.
The outcome of this study will assist
the Government’s Tertiary Education
Quality and Standard Agency (TEQSA)
to set the learning and teaching
standards for construction disciplines.
Professor Uy also attended an industry
forum on 30 November at the ALTC
headquarter in Sydney in relation to
this project which was chaired by
Associate Professor Sid Newton.
Representatives from employers of
construction management graduates,
namely Lang O’Rourke, Leighton
Contractors, NSW Fire Brigade,
Rider Hunt, Thiess, Railcorp and
Watpac were in attendance together
with UNSW and UWS university
representatives to develop industry
expectations on learning outcomes of
construction management graduates.
Kumar Parikh, a PASS Facilitator with the School of Engineering recently
attended the 6th National Pass Conference. He reported, ‘the conference
was a very good experience and I learned a lot from it. There were Pass
facilitators/ leaders from other universities around Australia such as University
of Wollongong, University of Tasmania, University of Newcastle, Queensland
University of Technology, Macquarie University and quite a few more. It was
a great experience to talk with other pass facilitators from these universities’.
Kumar is also a student of the School of Engineering, studying his third year of
a Bachelor of Engineering degree.
Publication –
University Physics
with Modern Physics
Dr Ragbir Bhathal, Professor Hugh
Young (Carnegie Mellon University)
and Dr Roger Freedman (University
of California) have collaborated
to write, ‘University Physics with
Modern Physics’. This will be the first
Australian SI Edition. It is aimed at first
year students majoring in physics and
engineering in Australian and New
Zealand universities and showcases
examples of Australian research at the
frontiers of physics and engineering.
The First Eagle Award
Ms Suzanne Scott received the inaugural Eagle Award for being the best
student in the Master of Fire Safety Engineering. Ms Scott achieved a GPA of
6.833 in her pursuit of the aforementioned degree. The award, valued at $3000,
is offered by Eagle Consulting Group.
Staff Training
Dr Xinqun Zhu has successfully
completed the Foundations of
University Learning and Teaching
program this semester, receiving a
Certificate of Completion. A participant
survey showed feedback indicating
that staff have become better teachers
as a result of participating in this
program.
Ms Suzanne Scott receives the inaugural Eagle Award.
Vol 4 Issue 4 | December 2010
Engineering | Industrial Design | Construction
5
Community Engagement
The Schools Industry Partnership awarded Dr Mithra
Fernando in recognition of his outstanding contribution
to ‘Education Attainment and Career Transition through
Imagine, Design and Construct.’ Mithra is involved
in numerous local community and industry groups
such as the Greater Western Sydney Engineering and
Manufacturing Taskforce which collaborates on projects
such as the Engineering Challenge.
UWS Day at Penrith was held on 3 November and was
attended by many local high school students. School
of Engineering staff and PhD students presented a
variety of workshops, ‘Building the Future’ (Mary Hardie
– Construction), ‘Inventing the Future’ (Assoc Prof
Jon Allen – Industrial Design), drawing and rendering
demonstration (Assoc Prof Jon Allen – Industrial Design),
‘Great Australian Engineering Projects’ (Dr Ragbir Bhathal
– Engineering), CAD 3D modelling and rapid prototyping
demonstration (Assoc Prof Jon Allen – Industrial Design)
and ‘Optical Fibres in Action’ (Dr Upul Gunawardana –
Engineering).
Schools Industry Partnership Award – awarded to
Dr Mithra Fernando.
UWS School of Engineering hosted the Honeywell
Engineering Summer School on Thursday 9 December.
The Summer School is a week-long summer camp which
aims to show gifted and talented year 11 students what
a career in engineering can offer. The students visited
the major Engineering Universities in the Sydney region,
as well as some industry related site visits. 103 High
School students from around the State attended, and
were educated and entertained by a lecture and handson workshops in smart materials, a 3D truss bridge
experiment, learning to not cry over spilled water, but
rather use it to their advantage, a robotics extravaganza
and experimenting with optical communication.
SOE2430
The College of Health and Science, with supporting
sponsorship from participating Rotary Clubs, organised
a three-day program of activities for high school students
from 7-9 December at Campbelltown campus. Dr Ragbir
Bhathal put together an exciting program of talks and
practical workshops to allow students to gain firsthand insights into the opportunities offered by a career
in engineering, medicine and science. Presentations
from the School of Engineering included, “Mobile
communications” (Dr Upul Gunawardana), “Nano-second
laser communications” (Dr Ragbir Bhathal), “OFDM
in Telecommunications” (Dr Qi Cheng), “Inventing the
future” (Assoc. Prof. Jonathon Allen), and “Robotics”
(Dr Gu Fang), as well as workshops in “Design” (Assoc.
Prof. Jonathon Allen) and “Measuring gravity” (Dr Ragbir
Bhathal).
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Engineering | Industrial Design | Construction
School of Engineering News