NEWSLETTER ISSUE 2 :2014

Another semester is almost over! It has been a very busy one for all of us at many fronts, and especially with the ongoing challenges of EQUIP. The big job of marking, collation of assessments, board of examiners, etc. will be commenced soon. I thank all of you for your ongoing contributions to the delivery of our programs and also in maintaining the high quality of all aspects of our core business. I applaud your individual and collective efforts in doing your duties despite the continuing challenges facing our sector. As many of you already know, Dr Garry Leadbeater, our Engineering Foundation Year Director, will be resuming his full time substantive role in Mechanical Engineering (in January 2015) after almost 9 years of meritoriously leading our iconic EFY program. Under his leadership we continue to receive accolades for the program. Words are not enough to acknowledge his efforts and his dedication to ensure continuing excellence of the program. I am sure that we will be able to pick his excellent brains as necessary in enhancing the quality of our offerings. I must thank Deborah Fukuyama for her contributions to all aspects of the program over the past many years. Deborah is joining WASM as a result of the EQUIP process. The same thing applies to Danish Javed who will be moving to the School of Science. Unfortunately, Mary Thompson has resigned from Curtin University to greener pastures. We appreciate her contributions to the program and wishes her all the very best for the future. I seize this opportunity to welcome Dr Cesar Ortega-Sanchez as the Director of EFY and Dr Natalie Lloyd as the Deputy Director of EFY. I am sure that they will both do a superb job of enhancing the quality of the delivery of the EFY program into the future. As Xmas is just around the corner, I wish you and your families a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year in advance. Have a safe and happy holiday! Best wishes. Moses O. Tadé

CURTIN ENGINEERING

MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN

Make tomorrow better.

An Intelligent Robot Joins Curtin The Department of Computing at Curtin University has just welcomed its newest col-

league, Baxter, a cutting edge intelligent research robot from Boston-based Rethink

Robotics. Traditional industrial robots must operate in areas where humans are excluded.

Baxter represents a new generation of intelligent manufacturing and research robots that

are designed to work safely alongside humans, detecting their presence and reacting to

their touch.

Senior Lecturer Raymond Sheh, head of the Intelligent Robots Group at Curtin's Depart-

ment of Computing, is leading the development and implementation of new solutions to

open problems in advanced intelligent robotics research. Through the efforts of research-

ers and students, Baxter will be able to sense and learn about its environment and tasks

and adapt to changes in its surroundings. It will even discover new and better ways of

performing its tasks, explain what it has discovered to its human colleagues and justify its

actions. It will also be able to measure its performance and quantitatively describe ways

in which it is improving its ability to sense and act within its environment. Baxter's unique

safety features and advanced software interfaces give undergraduate, master and PhD

students unprecedented freedom to perform cutting edge research in these areas of

robot intelligence.

Robotics for industry have traditionally been seen as the domain of mechanical and elec-

tronic engineering. However, over the last decade there has been an explosion in the

demand for intelligent industrial robots. Such robots can not only do precisely what they

are told to, but can also sense, learn, reason and make discoveries about their environ-

ment and task.

Western Australia is uniquely well placed to take advantage of such developments in

intelligent robots. The resources sector in particular has embraced intelligent automation

with the aim of improving efficiency, lowering risk and reducing the impact to the environ-

ment. Robots that are able to measure, explain and justify their decisions are the next

frontier in an industry where risk is an all-important factor.

Dr Sheh's efforts complement work by his collaborators who also

own Baxter robots. These include the National Institute of Stand-

ards and Technology in Maryland, USA, and the Technical Univer-

sity of Graz in Austria. In this new age of international, collaborative

research, a common platform, such as Baxter, allows researchers

and students at Curtin's Department of Computing to leverage the

work of these international collaborators, amplify their unique contri-

butions and showcase their developments on the world stage.

For further information about the robotics activities at the Depart-

ment of Computing and links to other groups at Curtin who are

doing research in robotics, please visit http://

www.intelligentrobots.org . If you have a research idea relating to

intelligent robots and would like to work with Baxter to make it a

reality, please contact Raymond Sheh, Ray-

mond.Sheh@Curtin.edu.au.

Dr Sheh with Baxter and another little friend

NEWS, EVENTS, AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS

Work Integrated Learning Introducing Kym Sher, Partnership Coordinator for Science and Engi-

neering with the Work Integrated Learning (WIL) team. Kym previous-

ly spent six years at Curtin, mainly involved with curriculum develop-

ment in the course review area of Curtin Teaching and Learning. Kym

relayed, “I have had the pleasure of meeting and working with a num-

ber of Engineering staff and students. The intention is to extend this

relationship across all Engineering Schools and Departments. I have

built partnerships with organisations keen to provide Curtin students

with WIL opportunities and I would like to tap into existing contacts to

forge alliances to provide our students with optimal WIL experiences.

I support student involvement in WIL through sourcing and promoting

WIL opportunities and providing preparation and debriefing sessions

to maximise learning outcomes. In addition, I maintain contact with

students during their WIL placement. Staff collaboration and support

includes developing T&L resources, designing professional develop-

ment for staff, embedding WIL in curriculum and developing authentic

assessment profiles. Industry and community engagement underpins

successful WIL. I engage with partners to develop mutually beneficial,

sustainable partnerships. I also ensure legal and health and safety

requirements are streamlined and addressed. I look forward to meet-

ing with the individual areas to identify WIL requirements and provide

support to staff and students”.

Curtin Academy Fellows The VC announced recently that Associate Professor Nicoleta Maynard has been selected as a Curtin Academy Fellow. The newly established Curtin Academy will be an active honorary, network of exceptional leaders committed to the collaboration and dissemination of teaching excel-lence at Curtin. An independent selection panel reviewed nominations in what was an outstanding field of 23 nominees. Just 11 aca-demic staff members were selected for the first intake of Fellows. Congratulations to Associate Professor Nicoleta Maynard on this appointment.

ARC Linkage Project Success Professor Arindam Ghosh, Dr Sumedha Rajakaruna and Dr Farhad Shahnia from the Department of Electrical En-gineering and Computing were awarded funding for their Project: Parallel operating stand-alone renewable energy microgrids for remote area power systems.

Computer Networking for Blind and Vision Impaired Students

Iain Murray from the School of Electrical Engineering and

Computing recently visited the Open University (UK) by invita-

tion to assist them in setting up a new program to teach com-

puter networking to blind and vision impaired students at the

Royal National College for the Blind. Whilst there Iain wrote a

short article for the Conversation, which received nearly 3,500

readers in the first week. The article can be read on the follow-

ing link https://theconversation.com/connected-computing-

offers-a-new-life-for-blind-people-and-job-opportunities-too-

31717

Curtin Students Win BOC Design Prize Earlier this month, a group of five former Curtin students were the winners of the prestigious BOC Design Project Award. This award recognises the best final year chemical engineering de-sign project across all Chemical Engineering Departments in Australia and New Zealand. This is the third occasion in the past eleven years that Curtin students have won this fiercely contested award. This year’s prize winners were Drennan Goodall, Michael Mas-sen-Hane, Eeshwar Rajagopalan, Scott Taylor and Dean Un-derwood. They were supervised by Associate Professor Ahmed Barifcani, and the unit was coordinated by Dr Gordon Ingram. The aim of this project was to design of a domestic gas plant with natural gas liquids extraction, and it was supported by the consulting engineering firm Clough. Congratulations to the prize winners and teaching staff in-volved.

Scott Taylor; Mr Peter Re (Head of Process Operations, South Pacific, BOC); Michael Massen-Hane; Associate Professor

Ahmed Barifcani; Drennan Goodall; and Eeshwar Rajagopalan.

Curtin Innovation Awards The Vice Chancellor announced that Adjunct Professor Bill Staunton and his team from Curtin’s WA School of Mines, Teresa McGrath and Professor Jacques Eksteen won first prize at Curtin Commercial Innovation Awards. The team developed a simple and robust carbon meter that enables metallurgists to optimise the gold extraction process. The simplicity of the new technique and the ability for continuous testing means that a previously labour inten-sive and often inaccurate process could soon be obso-lete. Other winners included Associate Professor Anton Kepic from Curtin’s WA School of Mines, in collaboration with Gordon Stewart, Brett Wilkinson and Professor Christian Dupuis who developed the Autonomous Sonde, a small shuttle-like device that collects down-hole geological data when drilling in minerals exploration.

Australian Research Council (ARC) College of

Experts

Professor Tilak Chandratilleke, Head of Department

Mechanical Engineering has been appointed to the

Australian Research Council (ARC) College of Experts.

Members of the College of Experts are specialists of

international standing drawn from the Australian re-

search community, higher education, industry and pub-

lic sector research organisations.

Professor Chandratilleke is internationally recognised

for his research in thermo-fluid processes. His appoint-

ment to the College of Experts acknowledges his ex-

tensive knowledge and experience in mechanical,

chemical and electrical/electronic engineering. Congrat-

ulations to Professor Chandratilleke on this important

appointment.

Graphic Reader for the Blind

The Australian recently published an article de-

scribing the development of an affordable digital reading system that allows the blind to read graphics

information without relying on sighted assistance. The system can handle the complex issues faced by the vision-impaired when needing to read graphics, graphs, bills, bank statements and more. The system was de-veloped by senior lecturer Iain Murray and PhD student

Azadeh Nazemi from the School of Electrical Engineer-ing and Computing. You can read the full article on http://www.theaustralian.com.au/technology/graphic-reader-for-the-blind/story-e6frgakx-1227004850047?

nk=b7362b85c2f3f0c13e7c1808d131ab2c .

Leadership in Mining Essay Competition

Congratulations to WASM student Matthew

Grooby winner of the Leadership in Mining es-

say competition, awarded with a $5,000

cheque from Mannkal Foundation. Congratu-

lations also goes to runners-up Michael

Kabondo, Sumo Momulu, Eliza Jagusaik who

each received $250 vouchers from Westpac

Bank, and special prize-winner Jerome Leray

who received an appreciation letter from

Mannkal Founda-

tion. All of the win-

ners also received a

complimentary invi-

tation to join the

WASMGA Ball

“Circus - Under the

Big Top” in Perth.

ANLEC Project

Dr Ali Saeedi of Petroleum Engineering De-partment has been awarded an ANLEC grant as Principle Investigator valued at $560,000 cash over 1.5 years. The project is titled “Understanding fluid rock interactions and their impact on rock properties as a result of CO2 injection in SW Hub”. The objective of this pro-ject will be to investigate, measure and model the potential fluid-rock interactions which may occur in WA’s SW Hub CO2 geo-sequestration site during the main CO2 injection pro-cess. Congratulations to Ali on this result.

Ray Finlayson Medal for Leadership & Academic Excellence

Congratulations to WASM fourth-year mining engineering student Samson Pastor who was awarded the inaugural Ray Finlayson Medal for Leadership and Academic Excellence at the Dig-gers and Dealers Mining Forum. “I was very proud to receive the award in recognition of WASM’s strong aca-demic focus with a fundamental basis in practical engineering tasks,” he said. Mr Pastor said he looked forward to working as a miner, underground and open pit, and learning more about the industry.

Winner, Matthew Grooby

WA Mining Club Scholarship Program Six students from universities across WA have each received $10,000 scholarships as part of the prestigious WA Mining Club Scholarship Program. Of the six students five were from WASM, Kate Philibert, Paulus Siang Kwie Han, Michael Assmann, Dylan Liebeck and Claire Barber. Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Marmion presented the students with their awards at a special ceremony in August. In addition to the financial grant, scholarship recipients are mentored by senior industry par-ticipants in their chosen discipline, and have access to other opportunities with their co-sponsor organisation, such as vacation em-ployment, site visits and networking.

Institute of Engineers Australia Fellowship

The Vice Chancellor offered congratulations to John

Curtin Distinguished Professor Moses Tade, on being

made an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Engineers

Australia.

Professor Tade received the recognition for his signifi-

cant career accomplishments, along with his contribu-

tions to the engineering profession and the Australian

community.

Professor Tade has also been appointed as President

of the Australian Council of Engineering Deans (ACED).

ACED exists to promote and advance engineering edu-

cation, research and scholarships on behalf of the Aus-

tralian higher education system.

Australian Research Council Grants

The VC recently announced Curtin’s success in the Australian Research Council (ARC) grants,

with the University receiving more than $5.7 million in funding (commencing in 2015). This success

includes twelve ARC Discovery Projects, two ARC Discovery Early Career Research Awards

(DECRA), and one ARC Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) grant.

These projects will help to build Curtin’s knowledge and capacity towards becoming a more re-

search intensive university, I congratulations was given to all the successful candidates.

The Engineering researchers and projects are listed below. The full results are listed on the ARC

website http://www.arc.gov.au/

ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Proposals

Dr Kaiming Bi

Project Title: Using Sandwich Pipe for Pipeline Vibration Control.

ARC Discovery Proposals

Professor Hong Hao

Project Title: Development of Precast Concrete Segmental Columns to Resist Dynamic

Loads.

Professor San Ping Jiang

Project Title: Oxide-based high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells.

Professor San Ping Jiang and Dr Raffaella Demichelis

Project Title: New carbon nanotube electrocatalysts for water splitting and fuel cells.

Professor Shaobin Wang, Professor Moses Tade and Dr Hongqi Sun

Project Title: Engineered and functionalised nanocarbons for clean energy and water.

Professor Zongping Shao and Professor Moses Tade

Project Title: Experimental and modelling development of advanced symmetrical fuel cells.

Professor Hongwei Wu

Project Title: Coproduction of Bioslurry and Liquid Transport Fuels from Biomass Pyrolysis

Congratulate was also given to the Curtin researchers involved in successful grants in collaboration

with lead researchers from other institutions.

The Chemical and Petroleum Engineer-ing Technical team are sad to announce that Gizelle Cuevas will be leaving us in mid-December. Gizelle will be leaving her position as Technical Officer for the Curtin Corrosion Engineering Industry Centre to move to Norway – we wish her all the best!

International Rescue Robotics Researchers Gather in Perth The Department of Computing at Curtin University played host to the 2014 IEEE-RAS Response Robotics Summer School and Work-shop, the largest gathering of response robotics researchers in Australia. 45 researchers, educators, students, industry representatives and responders from 9 countries, plus 8 robots, came together for four days of lectures and practical development sessions to dissemi-nate the challenges and best-in-class solutions to the response robotics domain. Response robots are used to address hazardous situations where humans should not be present. They are used by police, including our

own Western Australia Police Bomb Response Unit, as well as fire fighters, industrial hazardous materials technicians, search and res-cue personnel and the military. While the state of the art in this vital field has progressed, it has not kept up with the advances in capabil-ities that have been made within the research community. The goal of this event, the latest in an international series that spans over a decade, is to accelerate the development and deployment of these capabilities while providing students and young researchers with opportunities to network with their international peers and identify opportunities to leverage each others' strengths. The event was lead by Senior Lecturer Raymond Sheh, from Curtin's Department of Computing. Over four days, attendees built and tested robots that ranged from small, 3D printed versions that can be used by undergraduate and even high school students, through to

large robots that have been deployed at the scenes of building collapses and natural disasters. This year's event was run in close collab-oration with the Perth Artifactory, a hackerspace in the Perth suburbs where members of the community can gain access to equipment and the expertise of fellow members to build their own robotic and artistic creations. This hands -on experience was augmented by lec-tures from world-class researchers from around Australia and the world, including Thailand, Japan, Germany and the US. Topics ranged from the latest algorithms for robot intelligence through to responder experiences and the business issues faced by robotics start-ups. For the first time, the event also brought in members of the secondary school teaching community. The aim was to find meaningful, real-istic applications that can be turned into problems that are suited to high school students. The goal is to motivate students to study sci-ence and engineering and to appreciate the difference that such developments can make to wider society. This event was hosted by the Department of Computing at Curtin University, with the financial support of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Robotics and Automation Society and the U.S. Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology. It was run in close collaboration with the Perth Artifactory, the RoboCup Federation and Robolit LLC. For further information please see http://www.responserobotics.org/ .

Some of the human and robot attendees of the 2014 IEEE-RAS Response Robotics Summer School and Workshop at the Perth Artifactory

CONTACT: Thank you to everyone who contributed to this publication. If you would like to contribute to the next newsletter please contact Amanda Sullivan Engineering Operations Tel: +61 8 9266 4446 Email: amanda.sullivan@curtin.edu.au Disclaimer: Every respect is given to ensuring accuracy and inclusion of materials submitted to the Newsletter Any errors and omissions are unintentional.

Australian Government Competitive Grant Australian Maths and Science Partnerships Program awarded $1.9 million for “Advancing Science and Engi-neering through Laboratory Learning: ASELL for School Project” ASELL for Schools is a three year (2015-2017) nation-al project that aims to develop ongoing collaborative partnerships between teachers and academics to pro-duce and disseminate inquiry-based practical work aligned with all three strands of the Australian Curricu-lum. Across Australia, a small number of Teacher Scholars and ASELL Mentors (academics) from sci-ence or engineering will partner to develop inquiry-based science or engineering practical activities that are appropriate for middle school students across a range of school settings. Associate Professor Nicoleta Maynard is the WA Engineering leader that will contrib-ute to the development of the engineering activities and mentor their implementation.

Institute of Engineers Australia Fellowship The Vice Chancellor gave congratula-tions to Dr Carla Boehl, from the Depart-ment of Mining Engineering and Metal-lurgical Engineering, on being made a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers Aus-tralia. Dr Boehl received the recognition for her contribution to the profession and to En-gineers Australia, which includes promot-ing women in non-traditional industries in her role as board member and former WA chair of Women in Engineering.