In The Loop – Issue 11/2010, 2 December 2010

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Season's Greetings

This will be the last edition of In The Loop for 2010.

Thank you to everyone for their support and valued contributions throughout the year.

We look forward to bringing you more news in the New Year, the next edition will be sent out in February.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy and Prosperous New Year,

The College Communications and Web Team

In this month's issue…

Regulars

Margaret Lech, senior lecturer in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been honoured at the Telstra Innovation Competition.

RMIT’s Dr Margaret Lech, senior lecturer in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been honoured at the Telstra Innovation Competition, held in Melbourne recently.

Winners were recognised in four categories and judged on their research project’s potential to benefit industry, business and consumers by drawing on Telstra’s networks and technology products.

Dr Lech received the award for her research on real time stress and emotion recognition in speech.
Telstra Chief Technology Officer, Dr Hugh Bradlow, said the Telstra Innovation Challenge was set up last year as a way for Telstra to contribute to and assist Australian researchers and innovators.

“This year’s winners are a clear example of what Australian researchers and innovators are capable of and are a reflection of the first-class applications we received.”

“While there are a lot of great visions out there, a helping hand is often needed to get an idea to market. Telstra is happy to be able to help by providing technical assistance, access to our world-class networks, technology, marketing, facilities and internal experts who are often the world leaders in their field,” Dr Bradlow said.

Dr Lech believes the recognition will go a long way towards delivering research outcomes and greatly improving the technology in this field.

“A team of RMIT and Melbourne University researchers will develop an automatic speech analysis system for the monitoring of emotional states and stress levels of customers in a contact centre. The system has the potential to improve the quality of service of a contact centre and increase the level of customer satisfaction.”

“The project will strengthen our industry links and provide opportunities for the development and implementation of new technologies,” Dr Lech said.

“The Telstra award demonstrated that our research is relevant to Telstra's business and provides benefit to Australian industry and society in general.”

RMIT is supporting the award with a research assistant position funded by the Portfolio of Research and Innovation, the College of Science, Engineering and Health, and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

RMIT’s Dr Vipul Bansal from the School of Applied Science, is developing a nanochip to detect infectious diseases including malaria.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced 65 Grand Challenges Exploration (GCE) grants of US$100,000 each to pursue bold ideas for transforming health in developing countries. Dr Vipul Bansal of the School of Applied Sciences received one of the grants.

Dr Bansal is developing a nanochip patch that utilizes a surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) platform to detect infectious diseases including malaria.

The patch will be equipped with micro-needles that when applied to the skin, come into close proximity to blood vessels which carry biomarkers for infectious diseases. Using a battery-operated laser scanner, Dr Bansal will detect low concentration of these molecules due to their unique Raman signature. “This will facilitate rapid, non-invasive, highly selective and sensitive detection of infectious diseases during early stages of disease progression, which is crucial for timely application of appropriate therapy” says Dr. Bansal.

The award of this prestigious international grant to Dr Bansal reflects the confidence of international research community in the high quality research undertaken at RMIT University. The project on biosensing of infectious diseases shows RMIT’s strong commitment to deliver research outcomes in those priority areas which positively influence a large section of our society.

Dr Bansal will collaborate with Professor Peter Coloe,and Professor Suresh Bhargava. Professor Ning Gu from China’s Southeast University will also be involved in the project.

“Grand Challenges Explorations is producing innovative ways to tackle ongoing global health challenges like vaccine delivery and caring for mothers and newborns,” said Dr. Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grants supported projects in 16 countries in GCE Round 5 with ideas as diverse as a TB vaccine delivered in a traditional Asian bean dish, a mobile phone tool to identify complications for community health workers caring for pregnant women and newborns, and solar powered, therapeutic blankets of light for newborns suffering from jaundice. These grantees were selected from more than 2,400 proposals.

Boeing Cycbergrant Scholarship Winners and RMIT Staff at the Boeing Aerostructures Facility in Fisherman’s Bend.

The eight RMIT students, who were this year’s recipients of Boeing Cybergrant Scholarships, were recently given the opportunity to visit the Boeing Aerostructures Facility in Fisherman’s Bend.

The students from three schools: Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering; Electrical and Computer Engineering; and Computer Science and Information Technology, were invited by Boeing Australia to visit the aerostructures site to meet the leadership team and view the facilities.

As part of the visit, students were asked to present to the Boeing leadership team on where they would like to see in engineering in the future. The tour and presentations were followed by a lunch with Boeing leadership team.

Mr Kenneth Yi, the College’s Principal Advisor, Business Development, said he was very thankful for the opportunity to visit the Boeing facility.

“I was very impressed with all aspects of the visit, starting with the coordination and organisation, to the level of commitment shown by the BAA senior personnel who ensured we received a top-class tour of the facility and a full briefing on the company.” 

“I was really blown away by the number of senior BAA staff who took time off to meet with us and made the students feel welcome,” he said.

“It was also great to see the high quality of our students, and the remarkably mature presentations they put on during meetings they attended.  They totally deserved the scholarship they received and were fantastic ambassadors for the University.  I am really proud of each one,” Mr Yi said.

See the full list of Boeing Cybergrant Scholarship Winners.

Primary students at Lake Bolac College take part in hands-on science activities with the RMIT science road show team.

Secondary students from Lake Bolac College learn the physics behind electronic circuits.

The RMIT Science Road Show recently embarked on its second journey for 2010, visiting primary and secondary schools in Western Victoria, to engage rural and regional students in science.

The road show team consisted of six young scientists from RMIT and spent two weeks travelling to areas in and around Hamilton, Lake Bolac, Ararat and Stawell, to break down the stereotype of scientists being nerds in white lab coats.

Each session included a science show where students experienced what it was like to sit on a bed of nails, see film canisters fly and find out about the science behind magic tricks.

This was followed by fun, hands-on science activities including looking at food analysis, electronic circuits and exploring the properties of freaky fluids in lava lamps and slime.

RMIT University science road crew manager, Amanda McKenzie said the regional schools really appreciated taking part in practical activities and being able to engage with real scientists.

“The road show was a great opportunity for regional students to work with young science role models. The RMIT scientists were able to share their knowledge, experience and enthusiasm with students and show them the fun side of science.”

“The students enjoyed the entertainment as well as the hands-on nature of the science activities. Many were surprised to find out about the wide variety of science fields that you can study. One teacher even commented that a particular student was ‘the most engaged he’d been all year,” Ms McKenzie said.

Winners are grinners at the annual mathematical and geospatial sciences awards night.

The School of Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences recently held their annual student award ceremony, for achievements in mathematics, statistics, and information, security and assurance.

Held at the Village Roadshow Theatrette in the Victorian State Library, the event recognised the academic success of over 30 students from undergraduate and postgraduate coursework programs.

Opening speaker, Professor John Hearne, Head of the School of Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences, said in presenting these awards the school aimed to encourage the students to strive for their best.

“Some of these students have already graduated and have moved on to exciting and rewarding careers in their chosen fields, and other students are continuing with their studies.”

“I fully encourage them to maintain their efforts, apply themselves, set goals and achieve to their potential throughout their programs,” Professor Hearne said.

RMIT Alumni, Nick Sanders, and now senior sport scientist for the Victorian Institute of Sport, was a guest speaker at the event. He praised the students for their hard work and helped celebrate their academic success.

The event was supported by SAS Institute Australia, Biarri, CSIRO (Mathematics, Informatics and Statistics), ISACA Melbourne Chapter, Commonwealth Bank Australia, Minitab, National Australia Bank and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Congratulations to the 2010 winners of the RMIT teaching and learning awards and the students choice awards.

2010 Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award

Winner: Mr Peter Burton - School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Physical sciences and related studies (including Architecture, Building and Planning, Engineering, Computing and Information science)

Winner: Ms Gita Pupedis – School of Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences

Citation: ‘For outstanding commitment to student centred and industry relevant curriculum design, that demonstrates best practice teaching and learning in the field of Geospatial Science.

Certificate of Achievement

Dr Peter Radcliffe – School of electrical and computer engineering

Citation: ‘Long term commitment to uncovering key industry needs and working these into RMIT courses to ensure the thriving of our undergraduates and graduates

Early Career Academic (Higher Education)

Certificate of Achievement

Dr Xiaodong Huang – School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering

Citation: ‘For implementing the innovation curriculum design on VIVE 113 Analysis of Complex Structures to improve students learning.

Outstanding Training Initiative of the Year Award

Team Award

Mrs Julie Watson and Mr James Krause - School of Life and Physical Sciences

Innovation in Curricula, Learning and Teaching

Team Award

Ms Jody Fenn – Educational Technology Advancement Group (Academic Services)

Ms Meg Colasante – Academic Development Group (College of SEH)

Mr Leigh Brown (posthumous) – School of Medical Sciences (College of SHE)

Mr Darren Smith – Educational Technology Advancement Group (Academic Services)

Mr Bill Lane -– Educational Technology Advancement Group (Academic Services)

Citation: “For the creation of the Media Annotation Tool (MAT), a pedagogically based learning tool which facilitates student learning with media, through reflection, feedback and sharing.”

Student choice awards 2010

Teaching staff from the College of Science, Engineering and Technology were also recognised in the 2010 Student Choice Awards recently. Congratulations goes to: Giovanni Mandarano, Richard Guy, Keong Yap, Linda Jones, Andrew Nicholl.

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