EBE NEWSFaculty of Engineeringand Built Environment

Issue 4

EBE NEWSFaculty of Engineeringand Built Environment

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In this issue of EBE News we are delighted to present some brief highlights of the Faculty’s achievements thus far during 2010.The Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment (FEBE) remains one of the most active, high-achieving faculties of its type in Australia. Our highly successful undergradu-ate and graduate teaching programs cover a broad range of professional disciplines in engineering, surveying, computer science and the built environment, particularly architecture and construction management.But we don’t rest on our laurels; rather we strive continu-ally to improve our degree offerings and the manner in which we deliver them. For example, our degree in Con-struction Management, which underwent a major over-haul about 5 years ago, has proved to be arguably the best and most popular program of its type in the country, as evidenced by large increases in enrolments over recent years. We currently have many students in this program who are studying on-line while they also work in industry.We are also busy developing new, complementary programs and hope soon to be in a position to offer new masters programs in Project Management, with the pos-sibility of a specialisation in Disaster Management.It has also been a busy 6 months this year for the Faculty in the research arena. For example, we had outstanding success quite recently in the latest round of Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grants. The Faculty scooped up 5 of the total of 8 awards made to the Uni-versity of Newcastle.Two of our research groups submitted successful Expres-sions of Interest in response to the call late last year by the ARC for the establishment of highly competitive Centres of Excellence: our “Control” group, based in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and our “Geotechnical” group from the School of Engineering, both of whom are leading their respective bids with part-ners from other universities and industry. At the time of writing, an interview with the geotechnical consortium, led by Laureate Professor Scott Sloan, has just been com-pleted by the ARC, and we anxiously await the outcomes. (Late breaking news - the Australian Research Council has announced that our bid for this COE has been successful and will receive $14.4M).

The Faculty also had significant success in attracting funding from the NSW State Government, via the NSW Clean Coal Council. This includes more than $3 million for a project led by Professors Dlugogor-ski and Kennedy to explore mineral carbonation - a new technology that captures carbon from coal fired power stations and converts it into useful materials. Professor Behdad Moghtaderi and Terry Wall also secured substan-tial backing for clean coal research projects.In another highly significant development, Australian Government backing of $30 million has recently paved the way for the University of Newcastle to open a world-class energy research facility on a scale unmatched by any university in the country. Located on the former BHP Billiton Newcastle Technology Centre site, research through the Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources (NIER) will address national priorities in sustainability and energy.Bringing together 300 energy and resource research staff, many from our Faculty, NIER’s research programs will include:• reduction of energy (and water) consumption in indus-tries of national significance• reduced carbon emissions through next-generation Carbon Capture and Storage technologies• alternative energy sources, including geothermal and polymer solar cells• improved efficiency in power generation• smarter and more efficient grids for distributed electricity generation.NIER will be housed in a world-class research facility com-prising extensive mineral, chemical and related technical laboratories, workshops, offices and five industrial-scale pilot plant workshops.The Faculty is proud of its strengths in teaching and re-search and consulting and community outreach, so I trust you will enjoy reading this publication and the insight we

hope it will provide into the extraordinary dedication of

our staff and their achievements and those of our tal-

ented students.

Professor John Carter

Message from Pro Vice Chancellor Professor John CarterMessage from Pro Vice Chancellor Professor John Carter

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UPCOMING

A warm invitation is extended to staff and students (past and present), graduates and friends of the Dis-cipline to join us for an evening of good company and fine food.This will be an excellent opportunity to catch up on the activities of old acquaintances and to meet stu-dents who will be joining the engineering profession in the near future.Date: Friday 13th August 2010Friday 13th August 2010Venue: Newcastle ClubNewcastle ClubFor more information, please register yourcontact details with Katherine Boychuk, ph: (02) 4921 5798 email: katherine.boychuk@newcastle.edu.au

August:

October:This year’s National Grand Challenge will be held at the Central Coast Youth Club - Niagara Park. The event will run for 3 days 19th Oct - 21st Oct. Competion starts on Tuesday 19th Oct with the bronze division schools and finishing on Thursday 21st with the gold division schools. Approximately 24 schools have signed up for the event with projected student numbers coming in at 750, tthis event is shaping up to be a memorable experience for all involved.

EVENTS

November:Fifth Year architecture students will put their work on show at an exhibition held on Thursday 4th Nov at the Town Hall in Newcastle. The exhibition shows the work completed by our final year Masters of Architecture students. This is an electivearchitectural project that is explored and resolved in a variety of different ways. Central to the projects is ‘future thinking’.

Architecture ExhibitionArchitecture Exhibition

Mechanical & MechatronicsMechanical & MechatronicsEngineering DinnerEngineering Dinner

2010 National Grand Challenge2010 National Grand ChallengeSponsored by - AbigroupSponsored by - Abigroup

EBE NEWSFaculty of Engineeringand Built Environment

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University of Newcastle structural engineer Professor Rob Melchers has received the Australasian Corrosion Association’s most prestigious award - the Corrosion Medal.The award recognises outstanding scientific or technological work in the field of corrosion in Australasia. Professor Melchers, an Australian Research Council Professorial Fellow, is internation-ally renowned for his groundbreaking work into bacteria as the cause of steel infrastructure corrosion.

“Governments and industry are “Governments and industry are facing spiralling costs with the facing spiralling costs with the

relentless deterioration of relentless deterioration of infrastructure due to corrosion,infrastructure due to corrosion,””Professor Melchers said “Understanding the influence of bacteria will lead to greater accuracy in predicting the reliability and durability of infrastructure.”

Top medalTop medalfor corrosion researcherfor corrosion researcher

FACULTY RESEARCH FACULTY RESEARCH SHOWCASED on SHOWCASED on

‘The New Inventors’‘The New Inventors’Researchers from the Priority Research Centre for Energy, Professor Behdad Moghtaderi and Dr Elham Doroodchi appeared on the ABC television show ‘The New Inventors’ in April, with the revolutionary new technology platform GRANEX. This revolution-ary technology platform that can be used for geo-thermal power generation and wasted heat recov-ery has won a place in the grand final of the show.The technology delivers higher thermal efficiencies than conventional power plants and increases the amount of electricity that can be generated from low-grade heat sources such as geothermal and industrial waste heat. “We developed a one kilowatt model, which demonstrated a 40 per cent improve-ment in terms of thermal energy efficiency and power generation,” Professor Moghtaderi said.“Our work from here will allow us to establish the parameters to design and build a power plant of any size based on the GRANEX concept and put to use valuable heat sources that would otherwise be wasted.”Geothermal energy has clear environmen-tal advantages over other renewable energy sources as it has no CO2 emissions and can provide base-load electricity,” Professor Moghtaderi said.

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Mark Rayson, who graduated in April 2010 with 1st class hon-ours and a university medal, was awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Research Candidates and is one of three students to receive this award in 2010. Mark is a Master of Phi-losophy (Chemical Engineering) student working in the Priority

Research Centre for Energy. In addition to the VC Award, Mark is a recipient of an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) Scholarship; these scholarships are awarded to students of exceptional research potential undertaking a Higher Degree by Research.

VC Award for Outstanding Research CandidatesVC Award for Outstanding Research Candidates

2010 AIA Design Medal2010 AIA Design MedalA final year student from the School of Architecture and Built Environment, Lachlan Seegers, was awarded the most prestigious award for an architectural student in NSW, the 2010 Australian Institute of Architects Design Medal. Lachlan won this award for his final year design project for the Newcastle Abbatoir + Beef Market; this same scheme was commended in the equally competitive 2010 Student Biennale. There were only two other commendations in the AIA Design Medal category one of which went to another of the school’s students – Romi McPherson.

Lachlan’s Newcastle Abattoir and Beef Market proj-ect, which was designed to rejuvenate the slaugh-terhouse “as a conscious, ritualistic social interven-tion based on early Parisian abattoirs”.

“People are very naive and ig-“People are very naive and ig-norant about consumption and norant about consumption and the idea is to rejuvenate it as a the idea is to rejuvenate it as a

sacrificial process, not as a mass sacrificial process, not as a mass consumption process,” consumption process,”

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2 New Additions

Students from the School of Architecture and Built Environment will be using the new design building as of semester 2 this year. The new building will not only centralise the school’s teaching spaces it will provide a much needed addition to the school’s teaching area.

New Design Building

Civil Eng. Lab ExpandedStaff from the discipline of Civil Engineering will have access to the new extension of the ED building by the start of semester 2 this year. This new extension will provide new office space for staff and lab facilities for research projects.

RoboCup Singapore 2010 On their first day in Singapore the NUbots visited The University of Newcastle’s PSB campus where they gave a presentation about RoboCup and student projects associated with the competition. They received a warm welcome by PSB students and staff and had inspiring discussions. The follow-ing two days were devoted to software set-up and robot repairs. All six of the Nao robots were injured in the lead up to the competition and they could finally receive treatment in the Nao robot clinic at the RoboCup site. The NUbot developers spent 16 hour days at the venue working on robot tests and software development. On the first competition day they won both of their games. The first game ended (3:0) and was played against team ZADEAT a joint team from South Africa, Germany and Austria. In the second match they met team TJArk from China (2:0). The NUbots won their pool and proceeded to

the next round. In the second round of the com-petition they played against the Nao Devils from Germany and against team UPenn from the USA. Both were very good teams and the games ended in a (1:1) draw. On the third day the NUbots were defeated (1:3) by their friendly rivals rUNSWift from Australia and knocked out of the competition.

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The University of Newcastle has welcomed the Australian Government announcement of a $100 million Smart Grid, Smart City demonstration project for Newcastle.The University is part of the winning consortium, which is led by EnergyAustralia and includes the State Government, CSIRO, Newcastle City Council, IBM Australia, AGL, TransGrid and GE Energy.The ground-breaking project has the potential to improve the efficiency of Australia’s energy sector and transform the way households and businesses use energy. Vice-Chancellor Professor Nick Saunders said the project would provide extensive research opportunities for the University and enhance the existing $5 million, five-year partnership with EnergyAustralia that

includes the EnergyAustralia Centre for Intelligent Electricity Networks. The Interim Director of the EnergyAustralia Centre for Intelligent Electricity Networks, Associate Professor Steve Weller, said Smart Grid, Smart City would enable researchers to work at the cutting edge of modern electricity grid technology.

Researchers from the University of Newcastle have been granted more than $5 million towards four projects exploring low emis-sion coal technologies that have the potential to trans-form the future of Austra-lia’s coal mining industry. The NSW Clean Coal Council funding was announced in June 2010 at the NSW Low Emissions Coal Technolo-gies Summit in Sydney and includes more than $3 million for a project to explore mineral carbonation - a new technol-ogy that captures carbon from coal fired power stations and converts it into useful materi-als. Professors Bogdan Dlugogorski and Eric Kennedy from the University’s Priority Research Centre for Energy, in partnership with the Green-Mag Group, will build a dem-

onstration plant to show how large amounts of CO2 can be safely and permanently stored. “We know

this technology works in the lab and with this funding we can develop a demonstration plant to prove the technology at a much larger scale,” Pro-fessor Dlugogorski said. “Our aim is that the plant, to be built at the University’s Cal-laghan campus, will provide data to further scale-up testing in the future.” Professor Ken-nedy said the research team wanted to show there were viable options for New South Wales to store its carbon dioxide emissions. Professor Behdad Moghtaderi from the Priority Research Centre for Energy also secured substan-tial backing for his clean coal research project.

$3.9 million to revolutionise low emission coal technologies$3.9 million to revolutionise low emission coal technologies

$100 Million Energy Project to Boost Research Opportunities$100 Million Energy Project to Boost Research Opportunities

EBE NEWSFaculty of Engineeringand Built Environment

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Dr Alan Broadfoot, who has a long association with the faculty and university, has been appointed Director of the Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources (NIER). The Australian Government’s backing of $30 million has paved the way for the University of Newcastle to open a world-class energy research facility on a scale unmatched by any univer-sity in the country. Professor Nicholas Saunders, said NIER would result in a quantum leap in the University’s energy and resources research. “The University is a leader in energy and resources research. NIER will further ad-vance our work in clean energy production, energy efficiency and the minimization of carbon emissions. NIER will be housed in a world-class research facility comprising extensive mineral, chemical and related technical laboratories, workshops, offices and five industrial-scale pilot plant workshops. The pilot plant is recognised as the most advanced materials and minerals processing facility in Australia.”

$40 Million State of the art $40 Million State of the art Energy Research CentreEnergy Research Centre

20 students studying Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics, in the School of Engineering through the PSB Academy, arrived from Singapore on March 22 to spend a week in Newcastle. The goal of these visits is for the students to discuss their Final Year Projects (FYP) with their on campus supervisors. During the week these students attended a formal session for their FYP, a skills session with Julia Dennis and a library session with Michael Carr.

Final Year Project Visit by Final Year Project Visit by PSB Singapore StudentsPSB Singapore Students

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Year 9, 10 and 11 students from 8 local high schools will now be able to study a first year university sub-ject thanks to a new innovative program offered by the University of Newcastle.

Students from local schools, who are in the gifted and talented program, can study a first year con-struction management subject through the School of Architecture and Built Environment via the schools online delivery mode.

Construction Management offered in local schoolsConstruction Management offered in local schools

Career Acceleration Program (CAP) Launch - Callaghan College students taking part in CAP, Elea-nor Calderwood, Yr12 Jesmond Senior Campus, and Jordan Hampton, Yr10 Wallsend Campus with the Faculty’s Associate Professor William Sher (above) Mrs June Hingston, College Principal, Callaghan College and Associate Professor Anthony Williams (left)

Moris first came to the University of Newcastle, on an AusAid scholarship in 2002 to begin a PhD under the supervision of Professor Mirka Miller in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Moris was working in the field of Network Theory and Graph Valuations and had made a promising start to his studies. In August 2007 Moris submitted his doctoral thesis titled “Simulated Annealing–based Hybrid Heuristics for Educational Timetabling Problems”. After graduation Moris returned to Indonesia where he took up a posi-tion at the Catholic University, Kupang, West Timor

as a senior lecturer in Mathematics and Computer Education. Although teaching is the main focus of his university, Moris continues to be a productive researcher. Since 2008 he has been conducting research in university automatic scheduling prob-lems, funded by the government of Indonesia. This year Moris won a competitive Endeavour Postdoctoral Fellowship to study at the University of Newcastle with both Dr Berretta and Professor Miller (who returned to University of Newcastle in 2008). He will be at the university until October this year after which he will return to his country.

Faculty Alumni - Mauritsius “Moris” TugaFaculty Alumni - Mauritsius “Moris” Tuga

CONGRATULATIONSAssociate Professor Stephan Chalup and Professor Pablo Moscato

from the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science on their recent promotion to Associate Professor and Professor.

Professor John Carter for making the 2010 Top 100 list of Australia’s Most Influential Engineers.