05 July 2012
In The Loop – Issue 6/2012, 5 July 2012
In The Loop is the monthly newsletter from the College of Science, Engineering and Health.
In this month's issue…
- College awards nights
- RMIT encourages students to Try a Trade
- In2science celebrates success
- Associate Professor Falin Wu visits SPACE
- College Plan 2015
- The Australian Space Science Conference comes to RMIT
- 2012 National Measurement Institute Prize
- Three-Minute Thesis Competition
- International Travel Award
- New RMIT Short and Single Course Guide
- Free prostate cancer test
Regulars
College awards nights
The College of Science, Engineering and Health recently hosted three awards nights to celebrate student achievement in the areas of Health Science, Science and Engineering.
In conjunction with industry partners, the College presented prizes to students who have achieved academic excellence and contributed to the university life of their fellow students through leadership, initiative and engineering outlook.
Held over three evenings in May, the events were well attended by students, friends, family and RMIT staff.
Guest speakers included Mr. Pat Boland for Engineering, Sir Gustav Nossal AC for Science and Dr Graham Mitchell for Health Science.
Dr Graham Mitchell presents the keynote address at the Health Science Awards Night.
Winners and industry sponsors at the Health Science Awards Night.
Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Coloe presenting the 2012 Pro Vice-Chancellor Health Award to Jessica Brooder, Bachelor of Applied Science (Physical Education).
Keynote speaker Sir Gustav Nossal.
Winners and industry sponsors at the Science Awards Night.
Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Coloe presenting the 2012 Pro Vice-Chancellor Health Award to James Lucas.
Keynote speaker Mr Pat Boland.
Kernot Medal winner, Jethro Kairys and Pro Vice-Chancellor Peter Coloe.
Winners and industry sponsors at the Engineering Awards Night.
RMIT encourages students to Try a Trade
Electrical light things up with bicycle generated electricity.
Building and Construction give students a taste of trade.
The Northern Try a Trade was held at Broadmeadows Town Hall on Wednesday 16 May 2012. Held annually since 2007, Try a Trade is attended by Year 7 to 10 students from surrounding schools.
RMIT Manager of VET in Schools, Elise Toomey-Brown, said that the day was developed to promote trades.
"It's an enjoyable and engaging way to better inform them of their future choices in education, training and employment pathways," she said.
The town hall was buzzing with activity from 9.30 am onwards, with more than 900 students visiting throughout the day.
RMIT University was a major exhibitor at the event, with seven disciplines areas represented including Allied Health, Building and Construction, Electrical, Engineering Studies, Fashion and Textiles, Plumbing and Refrigeration and Air-conditioning.
Each area developed engaging activities for the students to take part in, including Building and Construction's hanging door frame activity and Electrical's bicycle generated electricity.
Ms Toomey-Brown said the success of the day was due in part to RMIT's student volunteers.
"RMIT engaged many of their VET-in-School students and apprentices to assist on the day. These student volunteers were true stars; effortlessly engaged the students that flocked to each stand by demonstrating and explaining principles in simple terms that resonated with them.
"Peers get the message through much better than a teacher. I also think this is beneficial for our student volunteers, as mentoring increases self-confidence," she said.
In2science celebrates success
Dr Alan Finkel AM and Megan Mundy present first prize for a mentored student to Vicknan Arjuna who was mentored by an RMIT volunteer at Glen Eira Secondary College.
Dr Alan Finkel, AM.
In2science celebrated a new level of collaborative achievement with a prize ceremony for outstanding peer mentors, as well as students and teachers. Over 100 people including Victorian Government representative Mr David Southwick, MP, attended the ceremony last week hosted by In2science patron Dr Alan Finkel, AM, Chancellor, Monash University.
In2science is a peer mentoring program that places university science and engineering students in primary and secondary school classrooms to help kids learn. As young ambassadors who are keen to share their enthusiasm, the mentors become role models to encourage interest and further study in chemistry, biology, physics and maths.
In2science has run as a joint activity between Victorian partner universities: The University of Melbourne, La Trobe University, RMIT University, Monash University, Deakin University, Swinburne University of Technology and the University of Ballarat.
Over the last seven years, over 1600 mentors have worked with nearly 50,000 state-school students in 137 schools.
In2science program director Megan Mundy is excited by the standards set by this year's nominees.
"In the last two years alone the seven partner universities have coordinated over 800 mentor placements in 131 schools throughout Victoria," Ms Mundy said. "This year's awards highlight the exceptional examples of university student peer mentoring with schools and students. This program is making a real difference to science education in Victoria."
RMIT mentors An Quach, Phalgu Batt, Zeynep Temel and Thomas Wragg were all acknowledged for their achievements as part of In2science.
The In2science program was set up to address one of Australia's critical problems: declining interest among school students in science careers. Last month Australia's Chief Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb, called for urgent action to arrest this decline.
Associate Professor Falin Wu visits SPACE
Associate Professor Falin Wu is currently visiting RMIT's SPACE Research Centre.
Associate Professor Falin Wu is currently visiting the RMIT SPACE Research Centre from the School of Instrumentation Science and Opto-electronics Engineering at Beihang University, Beijing, China.
During his time at RMIT he will work closely with SPACE Research Centre staff and Adjunct Professors at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology on research in satellite technology for positioning, navigation, earth observation systems and space research, particularly global navigation satellite system (GNSS) atmospheric sounding for weather forecasting and climate monitoring.
SPACE Research Centre Coordinator, Dr. Kefei Zhang said that Associate Professor Wu will be using next generation GNSS data in his research from the new RMIT GNSS Receiver Station, located at the Bundoora Campus
"This station is capable of receiving signals from the Chinese Beidou/ COMPASS, Japanese QZSS and American GPS satellite constellations," he said.
Associate Professor Wu completed his PhD in Satellite Positioning and Navigation at the Department of Marine Information Engineering at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Japan.
After completing his PhD in 2004 he spent four years working at RMIT University in the School of Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences as a Research Fellow.
In 2008 Associate Professsor Wu returned to China to take up a lecturing role at Beihang University in the School of Instrumentation and Opto-electronics Engineering, where he was promoted to the position of Associate Professor in 2010.
College Plan 2015
The College of Science, Engineering and Health Plan 2015 is complete. The College Plan aligns to the RMIT Strategic Plan 2015: Transforming the Future and sets out activities for the College to progress the RMIT strategic objectives. The College Plan 2015 is now available on the intranet at www.rmit.edu.au/seh/planning (login required) and print copies will be distributed via School Managers throughout the next week.
The Australian Space Science Conference comes to RMIT
The RMIT SPACE Research Centre will host the 12th Australian Space Science Conference (ASSC) from 24 to 27 September 2012.
The Australian Space Science Conference (ASSC) is the benchmark national conference for Australian space science research. This conference will bring 200–300 delegates primarily from the Australian region to RMIT University to discuss fundamental and applied research in the areas of:
- Space science, including atmospheric physics, Earth observation and space-based remote sensing
- Space engineering
- Space Industry
- Space archaeology
- Government, international relations and law
- Education and outreach
The conference will also promote research being conducted under the Federal Government's Australian Space Research Program (ASRP) through a dedicated conference session.
This session will provide a platform to showcase the current research being carried out at the RMIT SPACE Research Centre, which is one of the largest recipients of ASRP funding.
For more information, visit the 12th Australian Space Science Conference website.
2012 National Measurement Institute Prize
Dr. Sharath Sriram from the School Electrical and Computer Engineering has been awarded the 2012 NMI Prize by the National Measurement Institute.
Announced on May 20th, World Metrology Day, the NMI Prize is an annual award that acknowledges and celebrates outstanding achievement by young Australians working in measurement research and/or excellence in practical measurements by a young individual working in academia, research or industry in Australia.
The award to Dr. Sharath Sriram is for quantitative approaches for determining response of and energy generation from piezoelectric thin films, and will be formally presented during a ceremony later in 2012.
Three-Minute Thesis Competition
The College of Science, Engineering and Health Research and Innovation office is hosting the Three-Minute Thesis competition semi-finals on Friday 14 September.
The Three-Minute Thesis competition is a skills development exercise which challenges research students from all disciplines to effectively explain their research in language appropriate to an intelligent but non-specialist audience.
The winner will be awarded $500 and will represent the College at the RMIT University final held on Monday 24 September. A People's Choice will be awarded $250.
All staff and students are welcome to attend.
Date: Friday 14 September
Time: 3.00 pm – 4.30 pm
Location: Research Lounge
RSVP: Monday 8 August to sandra.pereira@rmit.edu.au
For further information visit SEH Three-Minute Thesis webpage
International Travel Award
Dr. Madhu Bhaskaran from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering has been awarded an International Travel Award worth $5,000 by the RMIT University's Early Career Researcher Network.
The competitive award will support her travel for collaborative research at Imperial College London and research conferences.
New RMIT Short and Single Course Guide
The new edition of the RMIT Short and Single Course Guide (PDF 3.8MB 44p) is now available, with more than 700 short and single courses to choose from.
Free prostate cancer test
Prostate cancer now claims more lives than breast cancer. While it is a leading killer of men in Australia and around the world, it is also one of the most treatable forms of cancer. The latest research recommends that men should have their prostate tested beyond age 40.
Men who attend the Prostate Cancer Risk Information Clinic, Richmond, are provided with information about prostate cancer, what is required for testing for prostate cancer and prostate cancer risk factors. This information is discussed in consultation with the urology nurse. After this discussion the client can choose to undergo testing.
For appointments please call Catherine on 9936 8032.
Interesting things
- "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."Alvin Toffler, writer and futurist, creator of Future Shock.
Three things you may not know
- Georges Méliès released Le Voyage dans la Lune in 1902. It's generally considered the first science fiction film, and was based on the book
- The word robot was introduced to the public by the Czech interwar writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), published in 1920.
- When the space shuttle Discovery launched the STS-120 astronaut crew in October 2007, on board was the original prop lightsaber from Star Wars.
Science, Engineering and Health in the news (14 June – 5 July)
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Research focus delivers ARC success
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Rob wins four rowing golds
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Rolls-Royce welcomes interns to Bristol
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Melbourne health study starts
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Research bid to improve methane measurement
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Tiger Airways staff trained by RMIT
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GPS technology improves weather forecasting
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Upcoming events (5 July – 1 August)
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05/07/2012 Experience Day: Medical laboratory visits (Day 4)
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05/07/2012 Experience Day: Electrical and Computer Engineering
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06/07/2012 Experience Day: Medical laboratory visits (Day 5)
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12/07/2012 Experience Day: Health and Medical
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23/07/2012 Rheology workshop
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For a full listing of upcoming events, please see the College Events page.
How to contribute
Contributions can be sent as an unformatted e-mail message (no attachments) to sehnews@rmit.edu.au by 5pm on Thursday 19 July 2012. The word limit for contributions is 200 words.
To ensure In The Loop is distributed on time, we cannot accept late contributions.
Please do not send personal items or repeat articles. Only items that relate to the University's core activities will be published, and the In The Loop team reserves the right to edit submissions as appropriate.
In The Loop is distributed on the first Thursday of each month. Next edition: Thursday 2 August 2012.
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