Graduation week
Last week 899 students graduated from UNSW Canberra and ADFA including midshipmen and officer cadets who received undergraduate degrees, and postgraduate research and coursework students. Two undergraduate students, Rouyin Ye and Ben FAULKNER, graduated with the University Medals and the Honorary Doctorate was awarded to Lieutenant General (ret) Henry John COATES AC.
Next day the Governor-General, Ms Quentin Bryce AC, inspected graduands during the 2011 ADFA Graduate Parade, and presented the Commander-in-Chief's Medal to Officer Cadet Nathan Segal. There are 270 graduating Officer Cadets and Midshipmen in 2011 with 11 additional graduands from overseas military forces.
The graduation Week is a very special time for our students and we, at NSW Canberra, congratulate our new alumni with these achievements and wish them well in their future careers.
See some photos to illustrate the graduation week at ADFA and UNSW Canberra.
The Canberra Times also covered the Graduation.
Bad Characters win PM's History Prize
By Eleri Harris (with Louise Maher)
7 December 2011
Your great grand-dad might have been a war hero, but that doesn't mean he wasn't up to a spot of trouble on R and R in Egypt.
Canberra historian Dr Peter Stanley has been named a joint winner in the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History, for his book Bad Characters: Sex, Crime, Mutiny and Murder in the Great War.
Based at the National Museum of Australia, Dr Stanley used military records to show a new side to our beloved diggers, illustrating the reality of behaviour exhibited by Australian servicemen in World War One.
Read the full article at The ABC Website.
ADFA Graduate received the 2012 General Sir John Monash Scholarship
ADFA Graduate, a Royal Australian Air Force Officer Chris Lowe is amongst ten of Australians who will benefit from the 2012 General Sir John Monash Scholarships for academic excellence and leadership.
"Chris is a very talented individual: a super-smart young engineer, who has also been extensively involved in humanitarian relief work during his time with the RAAF," said Dr Peter Binks, CEO General Sir John Monash Foundation.
Chris's interests lie in the potential non-military applications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, and he looking to study for a Masters degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
For more information please see a media release by the Minister of Innovation.
Spitfire War Veterans give $18,000 to a Canberra-based Researcher
Dr Yixia (Sarah) ZHANG from UNSW Canberra at ADFA has been awarded a prestigious Spitfire Memorial Defence Fellowship value of $18,000. The fellowship was granted to Dr Yixia Zhang, Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering and IT, for her research in developing a unique construction material for defence and protective buildings which has exceptionally strong impact resistance capability.
This new material is also known as a hybrid-fiber Engineered Cementitious Composite (ECC).
The Spitfire Memorial Defence Fellowship was established by ex-wartime Spitfire pilots and ground crew led by Ted Sly, the Australian Spitfire Association and leading private and corporate supporters. The recipient must undertake a defined program of research which will contribute to the defence of Australia.
Dr Zhang's research aims to determine the behaviour of the new hybrid-ECC material under impacts with varying high and low impact velocities, and to provide a real-world analysis of the impact behaviour by utilising real ammunition.
"We are very proud that one of our researchers here, at UNSW Canberra, was awarded a Spitfire Fellowship which is opened to applicants from all over the world. This project is first in its kind in the world and we are expecting some significant research outcomes," said Professor Michael Frater, Rector of UNSW Canberra
The potential application of the new construction material in defence and protective structures will improve the safety for the structures, facilities and personnel, and reduce the consumption of the material significantly. It will also provide useful guidelines for the design and construction of safer protective structures to meet the high demands of clean energy and life protection.
The Spitfire Fellowship "will be a great support to carry out this research. It will be used to purchase the raw materials, conduct the experiments on material properties and impact behaviour and support the personnel in the research group to complete this research, stated Dr Zhang.
The Spitfire Memorial Defence Fellowship will be presented today at a ceremony held at the Government House at the Reception for ADFA Graduates.
899 students to receive awards at UNSW Canberra at ADFA
WHAT: UNSW Canberra at ADFA Degree Conferral Ceremonies
WHERE: Adams Hall, ADFA, Northcott Drive, Campbell, ACT
WHEN: 10am ? 4pm, Wednesday 7 December 2011
The Chancellor of the University of New South Wales, Mr David Gonski will award degrees to 899 students at two ceremonies at the ADFA Campus. The degrees being presented will be to undergraduate students - Midshipmen and Officer Cadets of the Australian Defence Force and to postgraduate students, both coursework and research ? domestic and international students.
Two students: Rouyin YE ? Bachelor of Arts (Geography) and Ben FAULKNER ? Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical Engineering) will also be awarded with the University Medals during the Degree Conferring Ceremonies.
Media opportunities exist for visuals during the ceremony and limited interviews. Media should assemble at the Memorial Tree outside of Adams Hall 15 minutes before the start of each ceremony.
- Business, Humanities and Social Sciences Ceremony: (commences 10.00am)
Guest Speaker: Lieutenant General (ret) Henry John COATES AC MBE, former Chief of the General Staff at the Department of Defence and currently a Visiting Fellow at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences of UNSW Canberra. LtGen Coates will also be awarded UNSW Honorary Doctorate on the day.
- Engineering, Science and Technology Ceremony: (commences 2.00pm)
Guest Speakers: Ms Karen MCFADZEN, Vice President, Cisco Technical Services, Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China. Karen holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from the University of NSW, a Masters in Science in Systems Engineering from Cranfield University, UK and is a graduate of the Australian Defence Force Academy and Royal Military College.
The tricks, and trials, of measuring performance
By Jenny Stewart
The Canberra Times
6 December 2011
I don't know anyone who enjoys performance assessment, either having it done or doing it. At one stage in the public sector, many agencies offered performance pay: a salary top-up for those who were considered to have performed well. Although this practice seems to` have died away, having one's performance assessed is still important. Payment of increments, for examples, rather than being automatic as it once was, now depends on at least satisfactory performance. (Only senior people in the financial sector, it seems, are paid bonuses even when their company does badly.)
The real conundrum, though, is a familiar one: what can be measured is often not what is intrinsically valuable. This applies to every job, however mundane or esoteric it may be. Compare the bus driver who seems to waft you home, with one who jams on the accelerator, stomps on the brakes and careers around curves and corners as if practising for Mt Panorama. Both may be equally efficient, but the first makes bus travel a pleasant interlude, while the second turns it into a most uncomfortable, not to say anxiety-growing, experience.
Read the full article in The Canberra Times.
Stephen Coleman lecture
on Tedx Talk of the Day
Stephen Coleman, UNSW Canberra
25 October 2011
TEDxCanberra
Stephen Coleman, Senior Lecturer, Ethics and Leadership, HASS, has the TEDx Talk of the Day on ted.com/tedx. This is quite an honor. The TEDx team at TED in NYC select just one talk each day to be featured in this way.
Watch the full talk at TEDxTalks (18:17).
Japan?s new agricultural policy plan neglects trade liberalisation
Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW Canberra
2 November 2011
East Asia Forum
The Japanese government?s new?policy reform plan,?Basic Policy and Action Plan for the Revitalisation of Our Country?s Food and Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, (published 25 October) does little to promote agricultural trade liberalisation.
While containing a number of reform proposals designed to expand the scale of farming and facilitate agricultural land transfers, the plan fails to address the most important issue of all: reducing direct income subsidies to small-scale farms.
Read full article in the East Asia Forum.
UNSW at ADFA Students Win ACT Round of the EWB Challenge
10 November 2011
A group of 6 UNSW@ADFA first-year Civil and Aeronautical Engineering students have won the ACT round of the EWB challenge, a design competition run by Engineers Without Borders and open to first-year engineering students throughout Australia and New Zealand.? More than 6000 first-year engineers participate in the competition each year.? The competition requires students to design and develop a solution to a problem in a developing country, presenting their work as an implementable engineering report.
The group, consisting of LT Jacob Fisher, CAPT Nathan Gilfillan, PLTOFF Simeons Svilans and OCDTs Ian Brooks, Callum Smyth and Torin Kelderman, developed a simple and inexpensive composting toilet based around a 44-gallon drum for the village of Devikulam in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, as part of their first-year CDF research project.? The students designed the toilets using sustainable technologies, and developed a roll-out plan, education program and a business plan that would allow the villagers to sell the compost and eventually develop a biogas harvesting business.? The students also built scale models of the toilet and containment system.? Dr Sean O?Byrne, the student?s lecturer, received feedback that the judges were impressed by the level of detail in the plan and the prototypes the students built and presented.? Although the result was reportedly very close, the ADFA team scored higher than the four top teams from the Australian National University in the competition.
The group will now compete for the national round of the Challenge in Fremantle on December 6, against the winning teams for all the other States and Territories.? The winning team for the national competition will visit the village those students? projects are designed for and see the projects that Engineers Without Borders undertake there.? This is the second time that ADFA students have reached the finals of the Challenge.
Math for the Frightened, by Emeritus Prof Colin Pask, PEMS
10 November 2011
?Some people love math, some hate it, and some are
scared of it. Math for the Frightened provides a trauma-free
entry into the world of numeracy, written by someone
who is on your side. It even gives away the big secret: math
really is useful. What a great way to get your brain back
into gear, face your fears, and watch them vanish as your
comfort level with math dramatically improves.?
Ian Stewart,
Author, The Mathematics of Life
Just the mere mention of ?mathematics? can cause faces to contort and reactions to range from despair and bewilderment to outright hostility. What is it about a language of symbols and equations that most people find daunting and intimidating? The result is that math and science books for the general public usually avoid the use of symbolic notation, which means that many readers never really appreciate the true power and elegance of mathematics.
Math for the Frightened takes the opposite approach, which results in a uniquely refreshing presentation. Mathematician Colin Pask gently introduces readers to the main ideas of mathematics and painlessly demonstrates how they are expressed in terms of symbols. The author not only explains why symbols are used and how and why equations are constructed, but also goes a step further to demonstrate exactly what is achieved by their use. He makes the symbols and equations come alive for readers through interesting and practical examples. No high-level mathematics is required for learning about the basic approaches he outlines. Through simple yet intriguing examples in number theory, Pask generates confidence that his readers can think mathematically, which opens them up to the pleasure of seeing how mathematical patterns evolve and their beauty can be explored. Gradually, Pask serves as a knowledgeable guide through the development of mathematics, first in the area of numbers and algebra, but later in geometry, where the symbolic and the visual approaches are combined.
With this solid background established, Pask next shows exactly how mathematics is used in science and elsewhere, with examples taken from everyday life, the theories used in atomic and subatomic physics, studies in population analysis and growth for social planning, and how CAT scans create the images of our bodies that are so vital to modern medicine. In all these instances, mathematics is revealed as an essential and user-friendly tool for understanding the world around us.
In addition to mathematics itself, Pask provides a chapter that discusses the findings of cognitive science, which offers compelling insights into why so many people experience anxiety about subjects like mathematics.
If you?ve ever been curious about math but afraid of its complexity, this book will help you overcome your fears and begin to appreciate the science that Einstein called ?the poetry of logical ideas.?
For further information, please contact Natalia Komarova, Public Relations Manager of the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy on (02) 6268 8760 (w), 0434 662 874 (m), or email n.komarova@adfa.edu.au
7 Billion and Counting
25 October 2011
The UN has nominated 31 October 2011 as the day the world?s population officially reaches 7 billion.
The world?s population is growing astonishingly fast ? adding another billion people in a little over a decade. Is this a triumph of human ingenuity or a recipe for global disaster? Now, with 7 billion mouths to feed ? and many more to come - how will our cities, economies, health systems and natural environments cope? What new pressures will Australia face and how will it be changed? In this special website, the University of New South Wales presents guidance and food for thought from some of its many independent academic experts, with a focus on Australia.
Check out UNSW's new 7 Billion Website.
F1 in Schools ? ACT Final
WHAT: F1 in Schools ? ACT FINAL
WHEN: Thursday October 27, 2011 ? Commences: 8.30am
WHERE: Building 32, Lecture Theatre North, Australian Defence Force Academy, Northcott Drive Canberra
Background:
Students from across the ACT will be vying for a place in the Australian team going to the next F1 in Schools Technology Challenge World Championships when they meet at the ACT Final on October 27 at the UNSW Canberra Campus at ADFA.
Students have been designing and developing a model Formula 1 car of the future which will be raced against school teams in the ACT region as part of the competition.
The F1 in Schools Program is a school based holistic design and technology challenge. F1 in Schools inspires students to learn about physics, aerodynamics, design, manufacturing, prototyping, leadership, teamwork, marketing and media skills, public speaking... and apply them in an imaginative and exciting way. They have used professional-level 3D engineering design and analysis software, wind tunnels and multi-axis manufacturing machines in order to design, develop, make and race model F1 cars of the future that reach speeds of 80 km/h.
The ACT Activity is sponsored by both the Royal Australian Navy and the UNSW Canberra School of Engineering and IT at the Australian Defence Force Academy.
F1 in Schools? is rapidly realising its potential of becoming the only truly global educational program that raises awareness of Engineering, Technology, Science and Maths in every region, in every country and on every continent.
The F1 in Schools Technology Challenge in Australia is a program of the Schools Innovation Design Challenge which is an initiative of the Re-Engineering Australia Foundation Ltd. (REA), a not for profit public company established to raise the awareness of modern engineering design and manufacturing careers through exciting initiatives targeting young Australians.
ACT Schools in four years of participation have previously excelled in this competition winning multiple national and international medals and awards.
Forestry didn't get it all wrong
By Jenny Stewart
The Canberra Times
14 October 2011
There is a strong push to stop all logging of native forests, but is this really justified from the point of view of conservation?
I wonder if the Australian environmental movement remains pleased with its success in relation to our native forests. According to Forests Australia, the area of native forest in public conservation reserves has reached 16 per cent of the total, up from 11 per cent in 1997. This represents an increase of almost 6million hectares. Most of this forest - almost 5million hectares - was transferred from production forests operated on public land by state forestry agencies. At the same time, the area under plantation has grown steadily, with something like 900,000ha of hardwood plantation reported in production statistics for 2011.
Read the full article in The Canberra Times.
ACT better get used to it - we're stuck with just two seats
Malcolm Mackerras
10 October 2011
The Canberra Times
On September 30, the federal Electoral Commissioner, Ed Killesteyn, issued a statement which was noticed only by a few electoral officials and psephologists. It caused very little comment - except in Canberra.
What caused the comment in Canberra was that notice was given that the number of members of the House of Representatives to be elected in October 2013 (my expected date for the next election) would be the same as were elected in August 2010, namely 48 in NSW, 37 in Victoria, 30 in Queensland, 15 in Western Australia, 11 in South Australia, five in Tasmania and two each in the territories, for a total of 150.
Read the full article in The Canberra Times.
US arms sales to Taiwan: impact on Sino-American relations
Carlyle A Thayer
4 October 2011
The East Asia Forum
The Obama Administration's decision to sell Taiwan an arms package worth $5.85 billion is a carefully calibrated decision designed to meet US legal obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979.
It is also a decision that carefully calibrates the impact on Sino?American relations at a time of improved relations not only between Washington and Beijing but between Beijing and Taipei.
Read the full article in The East Asia Forum.
Ozawa once more in charge of Japan's DPJ
Aurelia George Mulgan
24 September 2011
The East Asia Forum
One of the big questions hanging over the newly formed Noda administration is whether the prime minister will be able to restore harmony within the ruling DPJ after the internal party discord that characterised the Kan administration.
Noda appeared to take a step in the direction of party unity by making a number of DPJ executive and cabinet appointments from among close supporters of party kingpin Ichiro Ozawa. It was Kan's 'escaping from Ozawa' (datsu Ozawa) line that produced such high levels of discord between supporters and detractors of Ozawa. As Noda himself was generally aligned with the anti-Ozawa camp, he clearly made concessions for the sake of reconciliation within the DPJ.
Read the full article in The East Asia Forum.
Opposition walks into Labor trap over asylum policy
Malcolm Mackerras
21 September 2011
The Canberra Times
In my article ''High Court minority opinion will be vindicated'' (September 7, p11) I predicted that the dissenting judgment of Justice John Dyson Heydon in the High Court's decision on the so-called ''Malaysian solution'' would not merely be vindicated but also that it would ''come quite quickly''. I regret to say now that I do not expect this prediction to be fulfilled.
The Gillard Government will today present its Migration Legislation Amendment (Offshore Processing and other measures) Bill designed to amend the Migration Act to circumvent the decision of the six majority justices (handed down on August 31) in the case known as Plaintiff M70/2011 v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship.
Read the full article in The Canberra Times.
2011 University Lecture
Phillip Adams
14 September 2011
Phillip Adams delivered 2011 UNSW Lecture "How the audience fails the media - how voters fail democracy" on 14 September.
Financial Reporting: What's Really in the Eyes of the Beholders?
13 September 2011
Knowledge@Australian School of Business
Understanding financial statements can be a tricky business. Even for experienced business professionals, discrepancies in formatting and the sheer volume of data can often lead to an inability to interpret information effectively.
Read the full article in Knowledge@Australian School of Business.
Reassessing Australia?s commitment to the F-35
Eddie Walsh
10 September 2011
The East Asia Forum
Alan Stephens, Visiting Fellow at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at UNSW Canberra comments on Australia?s reassessment to purchase F-35 fighter jets.
Read the full article in The East Asia Forum.
Read more on the same issue at:
The Examiner
The Diplomat
High Court minority opinion will be vindicated
Malcolm Mackerras
7 September 2011
The Canberra Times
If Australians really want to stop the boats the arrangement with Malaysia would be by far the most effective. It must be resurrected. It is described by some as ''discredited'' but that means nothing to me.
Read the full article in The Canberra Times.
Fiji casts shadow on Pacific forum
Rowan Callick
5 September 2011
The Australian
Satish Chand, an expert in development economics at the University of NSW, based at the Australian Defence Force Academy, engages in the discussion about the Pacific Forum.
Read the full article in The Australian.
More on the discussion on the Pacific Forum on the Pacific Scoop.
A family affair
Susi Hamilton
Spring 2011
Uniken
A shirt, a gift from her adoptive ?sister?, reminds this anthropologist of her connections to Indonesia. Minako Sakai, who is based at UNSW@ADFA, has been travelling to Indonesia for decades for her research, most recently into Islamic social movements. While she is now looking at microfinancing in that country, she originally went to the highlands of South Sumatra for her PhD fieldwork on Islamic and customary ritual practices.
Read the full article in Uniken.
A fantasy debate, disdainful of basic facts
Anthony Burke, UNSW Canberra
2 September 2011
The Drum, ABC News
The High Court's stunning decision on the illegality of the offshore processing of asylum seekers should have profound implications for our national politics, but I am not holding my breath.
I am not referring to its implications for the credibility or electability of the Gillard Government, which seems to preoccupy so many journalists. That impulse - to abandon the task of explaining complex public policy for scriptwriting political soap opera - is part of the disease. It prevents us asking some hard questions about the nature of our policy framework and political discourse.
Read the full article in The Drum, ABC News.
Yoshihiko Noda, Japan?s not-so-ordinary prime minister
Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW Canberra
31 August 2011
East Asia Forum
There was an audible gasp from the assembled DPJ Diet members when Noda?s high vote tally was read out after the first round of balloting.
Many outside observers thought that DPJ Diet members had taken leave of their senses. To pass over someone like Seiji Maehara, with the highest public popularity rating of any politician in Japan, for someone like Noda, who barely registered on the popularity scale, seemed to fly in the face of good political judgment, particularly at a time when the DPJ?s stocks are so low.
Read the full article in the East Asia Forum.
`
September will be the real test for Julia Gillard
Malcolm Mackerras, UNSW Canberra
24 August 2011
The Canberra Times
Surviving that should take her to the next election.
I believe historians will record September 2011 as the month which determined whether Julia Gillard is seen as a significant prime minister.
If she can survive that month without too much damage she will, I believe, go as Prime Minister into the next general election which would be held on October 26 or November 2 in 2013.
Read the full article in The Canberra Times.
The return of Japan?s shadow shogun Ichiro Ozawa?
Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW Canberra
23 August 2011
East Asia Forum
Diet politicians in Japan?s ruling party are reverting to form: they are consumed with the politics of power and position rather than with policy.
The last thing Japan needs at this time is more jockeying for political advantage among a group of would-be prime ministers. But that is what is occurring as the process of replacing Prime Minister Kan reaches its expected climax on the 29th of this month.
Read the whole article in the East Asia Forum.
Left to right: Prof Robin Stanton, Pro-Vice Chancellor, ANU; Dr Sameer Alam, UNSW; Mr David George, Manager of Innovation and Industry Development, Economic Development Directorate, ACT Government Sameer Alam - 2011 ACT Young Tall Poppy of the Year
18 August 2011
Dr Sameer Alam, from UNSW Canberra has been named as the 2011 ACT Young Tall Poppy by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science (AIPS) at the National Convention Centre yesterday.
?I'm absolutely delighted by the recognition of the research work in simulation & modeling of advanced air traffic systems that we are carrying out at UNSW Canberra at ADFA and at the same time feel humbled to be included among the tall poppies.? - commented Dr Alam.
Dr Alam was also one of four ACT scientists who received the 2011 ACT Young Tall Poppy Science Awards and he collected the ANU Science Medal.
"These awards recognise early career researchers in very state and territory of Australia who have achieved significant scientific milestones but who have found the time and passion to communicate their work to the broader community," says AIPS Executive Director, Elektra Spathopoulos.
Dr Sameer Alam is a scientist at the UNSW Canberra campus located at the Australian Defence Force Academy, his research focuses on Simulation and Modelling of Air Transport.
'This award motivates me to further my research efforts towards enabling safe, efficient, robust and green air transportation. And that is ultimately what will make air travel fun once again for everyone.' - said Dr Alam.
Dr Alam has developed the Air Traffic Operations and Management Simulator (ATOMS). This simulation environment incorporates variables to predict and provide optimal flight paths that will enhance overall capacity and efficiency, reducing fuel as well as air and noise pollution. Introducing these new procedures, growth in air travel can be achieved by making operations more efficient.
Sameer took part in various outreach activities during Fresh Science Week in 2008. He has also taken opportunities to present his work to aviation industry stakeholders such as the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Boeing, Air Services Australia, Eurocontrol France and NASA.
Read the article in the Canberra Times: Tall poppies' budding careers win gongs
Dr Alam's webpage http://seit.unsw.adfa.edu.au/staff/sites/s3147403/
Media contact details: Natalia Komarova, 0434662874 (mobile), 02 62688760 (work).
AIPS Executive Director, Elektra Spathopoulos, 0425433954
Prof Ian Petersen receives $3M as ARC Laureate Fellowship
Professor Ian Petersen from UNSW Canberra was awarded a very prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Fellowship from the only 17 awarded scientists Australia-wide. Even more important, Professor Petersen was awarded the most funding of any of the Laureates - more than $3M in ARC funding.
Professor Ian Petersen is an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow and Professor at the School of Engineering and Information Technology at The University of New South Wales (UNSW) at Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), ACT.
His most significant contributions have been made in the field of Systems and Control Theory, and in particular within the areas of Robust Control Theory, Stochastic Control Theory and Quantum Control Theory.
Australia has considerable strengths in quantum technology research and as these technologies advance, the issue of control becomes a critical one. Professor Petersen's project aims to strengthen Australia's position in quantum technology by developing new methodologies for designing high performance feedback control systems for emerging complex quantum applications.
"I was thrilled to receive the fellowship since it will enable me to build a group of talented young researchers who will work with me in developing new aspects of applied mathematics and engineering directed towards the exciting new field of quantum technology."
Professor Petersen was awarded his PhD in Electrical Engineering at the University of Rochester, USA in 1984. He has held several appointments including a Postdoctoral Fellowship at The Australian National University before joining UNSW in 1985. Professor Petersen has also had a Visiting Fellowship at the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University, and has served as the Australian Research Council Executive Director for Mathematics, Information and Communications for the years 2002 to 2004 whilst on secondment from UNSW. He was also Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research at UNSW from August 2004 until March 2005.
Professor Petersen is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the Institution of Engineers Australia (I.E. Aust) and a member of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He has served as an Associate Editor for journals such as IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Systems and Control Letters, Automatica and SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization. He is currently the Corresponding Editor for the journal Automatica in the area of Control and Estimation Theory. Professor Petersen has also been the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship.
Media contacts
For project information, contact Australian Laureate Fellow Professor Ian Petersen - 02 6268 8446 For Australian Laureate Fellowships scheme information, contact the ARC 0412 623 056 or Communications@arc.gov.au
Academy Racing Car is back from the UK
Read about the adventures of the Academy Racing SAE team in the UK. The team collected the sixth place in a "design and build" competition and had a great experience and fun participating in their first overseas car race competition.
Time to refine energy security
By Jenny Stewart
The Canberra Times
15 August 2011
What are we to make of the energy debate? If good public policy is the art of distilling the signal from the noise, the challenge has never been greater.
How to balance the risks of climate change against the costs of doing anything about it? And what, in turn, might these decisions mean for energy security?
For the past six months our national attention has, understandably, been focused on the carbon tax issue.
The policy agenda now needs to move in a related, but different direction. The reason is a three-letter word ? oil.
Read the full article in the The Canberra Times.
Public Lecture: The Threat of asteroids and comets
Topic: Assessing and mitigating the threat posed by asteroids and comets: a legitimate part of Defence business
Presenter: Dr Duncan Steele, QinteiQ Canberra
Date: Thursday 18 August 2011
Time: 12:15 - 13:15
Location: Seminar Room, Level 1, Building 27, School of Business
Abstract: The word disaster literally means 'bad star'. Bizarre though the notion may be, you have a greater chance of dying due to an asteroid or comet slamming into the Earth than being killed in a jetliner crash. Of all natural hazards such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, storms and cyclones, this particular threat is the most amenable to assessment and mitigation, and at an economic cost that is orders of magnitude lower than the expectation of loss. In the US the Department of Defense is playing a leading part in tackling this problem. Should the Defence departments in other countries also be involved?
Biography: Dr Duncan Steel has been involved in space research for 33 years, including spells with both NASA and ESA. He is the author of four books, numerous book chapters and scientific reports for the governments of the UK, US and Australia, over 130 refereed research papers, and more than a thousand other publications in magazines and newspapers. There are over 100,000 web sites that refer to his work.
In 1988 Duncan set up his own company (called Spaceguard) to provide scientific assessments of the space debris hazard to satellite re-insurers. In 1990 he established the first southern hemisphere search for Earth-approaching asteroids and comets. In 1992 Duncan was the only non-US member of NASA's Near-Earth Object Interception and Deflection Committee. Since then he has been involved in various space projects with NASA, DARPA and USAF Space Command.
Duncan's first book spawned those terrible Hollywood movies Deep Impact and Armageddon. He has appeared in dozens of TV documentaries and current affairs programs, and in 1998 he was joint winner of an Emmy for Best Documentary Script.
In 1999-2003 Duncan was Associate Professor of Space Technology at the University of Salford. Since 2004 he has worked in the Defence industry in Canberra.
The discoverer of a dozen minor planets, (4713) Steel was named for him by the International Astronomical Union. There is also a lunar-roving robot named for him in one of Arthur C. Clarke's novels.
Industry versus agriculture in Japan?s TPP debate
27 July 2011
By Aurelia G Mulgan, UNSW Canberra for East Asia Forum
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) issue is clarifying the lines of division between Japanese industrial and agricultural interests in a way not seen before.
The Great Eastern Earthquake is serving to solidify these lines even further because both sides are using the disaster to argue for and against trade liberalisation respectively.
Read the full article in the East Asia Forum
Geolocation Marketing:
The Next Big Deal is Thinking Local
2 August 2011 in Knowledge@Australian School of Business
"Location, location, location" was once confined to the real estate industry. But now thanks to global positioning system (GPS) technology, the whereabouts of individuals, devices and machines is fast becoming a mainstream preoccupation for marketers.
It's not just smart phones such as those running Google's Android platform or Apple's iPhone that are using it, but cameras with GPS-enabled memory cards and even cars. In the case of the Nissan Leaf, a 100% electric hatchback, the GPS sends data back to the carmaker ? although a benevolent hacker in Seattle in the US has aggregated the data into an RSS feed, deftly demonstrating the privacy issues that come with location-based marketing.
Read the full article in Knowledge@Australian School of Business
The Three Minute Thesis Competition (3MT)
The UNSW@ADFA heats of the national 3MT competition were held on Wednesday 3 August 2011. Ten postgraduate research students took on the challenge of distilling their research projects down to three minute presentations.
It was a good-humoured occasion followed by a barbecue at which Professor Michael Frater, presented the winners with certificates and prize cheques for $500 each.
The winners travelling to Kensington for the UNSW finals on 1 September are:
- Ms Dan He (School of Business) for "Anticedents and consequences of identification at work"
- Mr Vishal Naidu (School of Engineering and Information Technology) for "Four-wing flapping wing - effects of motion, phasing and material flexibility"
- Mr Guofeng Zhu (School of Engineering and Information Technology) for "Micro-hydrocyclone: separate ultra-fine particles in a fast, simple and low cost way"
The Two Canberras: essays on public policy
Jenny Stewart?s new book The Two Canberras: essays on public policy, (Ginninderra Press) was launched by Jack Waterford, Editor-at-large of The Canberra Times on 3 August 2011.
Public policy is all around us - it is, after all, what government is supposed to be about - but it is often difficult for citizens to sort out the spin from the substance, the values from the rhetoric. In these clearly written and highly enjoyable essays, Jenny Stewart (Professor of Public Policy in the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy) tackles the core policy dilemmas of our time, from population growth to innovation, from a perspective that is both personal and analytical.
Professor Jenny Stewart joined the School of Business in July 2009 as Professor of Public Policy. Before joining the School Jenny was Associate Professor of Public Policy at the University of Canberra and prior to that until 1993, Jenny was a policy adviser in the Australian Public Service, working in a number of agencies, including the Australian Science and Technology Council.
Jenny researches, teaches and writes in the fields of policy analysis, change management and public sector reform. Her books include The lie of the level playing field, (Text Publishing 1994), Renegotiating the environment: the power of politics (co-authored with Grant Jones and published by Federation Press in 2003) The decline of the tealady: management for dissidents (Wakefield Press, 2004). In 2009 Palgrave Macmillan published Jenny?s monograph Public Policy Values. She is currently developing a major project linking public policy and governance.
The book is available from the Co-op bookshop on Campus.
SOMETHING BIG IS HAPPENING
TERTIARY OPEN DAY 2011
All About TOD
Did you know something BIG is happening on Saturday 27 August from 9am to 4pm?
It?s Tertiary Open Day! And it?s a collaboration between Canberra's five tertiary institutions (ADFA, ANU, UC, ACU and CIT) to host an open day at their corresponding campuses on one single day ? Saturday 27 August 2011.
So, if you are considering tertiary study next year then you don?t want to miss out on this BIG DAY!
Read all about it in the Canberra Times.
War in Afghanistan - Book Launch
Book Launch: War in Afghanistan: 80 Wars and Conflicts in Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier 1839 to 2011
Author: Dr Kevin Baker
Launched by: Former Chief of Army Professor Peter Leahy (Lieutenant General, ret.)
When: Wednesday 27 July 2011, at 1700 hours
Where: South Lecture Theatre bld 30, UNSW, Australian Defence Force Academy, Northcott Drive, Canberra, ACT
A book revealing the history of conflicts in Afghanistan and Northwest Pakistan, was launched by the former Chief of Army Professor Peter Leahy (Lieutenant General, ret.) on Wednesday, 27 July 2011.
War in Afghanistan: 80 Wars and Conflicts in Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier 1839 to 2011 is a well-researched history on the conflicts that have taken place in Afghanistan and Northwest Pakistan, beginning in 1839. The book with over 100 illustrations puts Afghanistan's conflicts into the broadest perspective, with the inclusion of the numerous wars and conflicts on the Northwest Frontier. Drawing heavily on resources such as unit histories, the book includes information on all such wars in Afghanistan, including the conflicts of various tribes and nations, not just those involving British armies.
The book's author, Dr Kevin Baker, is a Visiting Fellow at the School of Business, University of New South Wales Canberra campus at the Australian Defence Force Academy. Kevin Baker has Master's degrees in Economics and Theology and a PhD from Sydney University. He has filled academic posts in China and Germany as well as Australia. He has consulted on finance and reform issues in China, Indonesia and Thailand. He has been a lecturer at UNSW@ADFA and is currently a Visiting Fellow. His published books range from a biography of General Paul Cullen, an analysis of sedition in Australia, to Economic Tsunami (an analysis of the growth of China's motor vehicle manufacturing industry). He has also written a history of the Orthodox Church in China, Japan and Korea.
The associated DVD War in Afghanistan was shown at the book launch.
For further information, please contact Natalia Komarova, Public Relations Manager of the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy on (02) 6268 8760 (w), 0434 662 874 (m), or email n.komarova@adfa.edu.au
Beijing's maritime push irks ASEAN
By Peter Alford
25 Jul, 2011
The Australian
FOR the second year running Beijing has suffered through an ASEAN Regional Forum unhappily fixated on its expansive but strangely undefined territorial ambitions in the South China Sea.
The problem risks triggering armed clashes, and China's diplomatic interests are suffering while US re-engagement with Southeast Asia gains popularity.
Among the broader ARF membership, the US, Australia, India, Japan and South Korea urged China to pursue its claims under international law.
But as Carl Thayer of the Australian Defence Force Academy pointed out, China has not even defined its claims to the rest of the world. "If China would clarify what it really wants, then we would at least have a basis for discussing what's in dispute and what is not," he said yesterday.
Read the complete article in The Australian.
World's a stage for softly, softly diplomats
By Hamish Mcdonald
23 Jul, 2011
The Sydney Morning Herald
In the world of Australian foreign policy formation, few of the movers and shakers outside government stand out more than Phil Scanlan and Albert Dadon.
Scanlan is a former top business executive with Coca-Cola Amatil and dairy group Bonlac. Yet he is best known for starting and running the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue, an annual closed-door gathering of influential and rising figures in government, media, business and academia.
When a new US administration is sworn in, you usually find a deputy or assistant secretary of state who has been a regular attendee at Scanlan's dialogues: a current example is Kurt Campbell, Hillary Clinton's top official for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
Read the complete article in The Sydney Morning Herald .
Flaws in ACT's land system
BY JENNY STEWART
15 Jul, 2011
The Canberra Times
The leasehold system of land tenure has a sometimes uneasy co-existence with the statutory planning system of land use.
One of the distinctive features of Canberra's heritage as a planned city is its leasehold system of land tenure. While, virtually since it started, the operation of the system has been the subject of both debate and inquiry, its fundamental principle is clear. Public leasehold enshrines public ownership. So, if you are a house owner in Canberra, unlike most of your counterparts interstate, you don't have freehold title to your land. Rather, you are the grantee of a 99-year lease.
ACT leases are quite prescriptive. They allow some activities on the land in question, and prohibit others. They come in a number of different types. There are residential leases, rural leases, commercial leases and concessional leases. For many years, lease-based controls formed the basis for the administration of planning. But as the city has evolved since self-government, there has been a shift towards statutory planning; that is, what you can do and where you can do it, is controlled by a zoning mechanism that is underpinned by legislation.
Read the complete article in The Canberra Times .
A/Prof A Neely attended the launch of Atlantis space shuttle.
8 Jul, 2011
Associate Professor Andrew Neely from UNSW Canberra travelled to Florida to attend the launch of Atlantis space shuttle. STS-135 (Atlantis) was launched on Friday 8th July from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) next to Cape Canaveral in Florida.
A day before the launch A/Prof Neely visited various facilities at the NASA's Kennedy Space Center with other VIPs including the Australian Ambassador to the USA, Kim Beazley and his family. The tour included behind-the-scenes access to the huge Vertical Assembly Building (VAB) where the Space Shuttle stack (orbiter, solid booster rockets and external fuel tank) are assembled on top of the mobile launch pad. This is the same building originally built to assemble the Apollo moon rockets. The group also viewed the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) and stood beneath the Orbiter Discovery which returned from its final mission in March, toured the Space Shuttle Main Engine maintenance facility and viewed Atlantis close up on the launch pad
A/Prof Neely was a launch guest of the International & Interagency branch of NASA HQ's Office of External Relations. This office invites a range of VIP guests with an interest in spaceflight to launches. These range from foreign dignitaries such as the Australian Ambassador, international scientists working in related areas (Neely/s academic research is in hypersonic aerothermodynamics and propulsions), foreign defence personnel, members of international space agencies (there were members of the European Space Agency (ESA), and a large contingent from the Canadian Space Agency there) as well as those involved with the actual mission and some media celebrities.
At the moment A/Prof Neely is still travelling, this week in Manchester for the 28th International Symposium on Shock Waves and then on to Stuttgart next week to give an invited presentation at the annual Scramjet Summer School. Neely will be back at ADFA on Monday 1 August.
Sorry Opposition, but don't expect a by-election
BY MALCOLM MACKERRAS
06 July 2011
The Canberra Times
Gillard's Government will run its full term.
My most recent article in The Canberra Times was published on May 26 and the heading was "Lesson for Labor: remember Menzies in 1954". It contained this sentence: "I am quite confident in predicting there will be no by-elections during the current term."
A couple of weeks ago I watched the ABC program Q and A and one of the participants was shadow treasurer Joe Hockey. He expressed confidence that the Coalition would be able to block any legislation for a carbon tax.
When asked for more detail to explain that confidence Hockey said: "History tells us that it is virtually inevitable there will be a by-election during this term."
How does one explain the difference between Hockey's prediction and mine? Let me set out some facts.
The last time there was a term of the House of Representatives without a by-election was in the 19th Parliament.
The 19th Parliament was elected on December 10, 1949. It first met on February 22, 1950 and was dissolved (double dissolution) on March 19, 1951. Consequently that term lasted one year and 25 days, making it the third shortest term in all our federal history.
Every subsequent term has seen at least one by-election.
The above facts would seem to suggest that Hockey is right.
However, beginning with the 33rd Parliament (elected on March 5, 1983) there has been a pattern which suggests that my prediction is going to be proved correct.
Read the complete article in The Canberra Times .
Research team at UNSW Canberra, develops World's most portable personal radiation monitoring system
22 June 2011
Associate Professor Hans Riesen
The system is based on patented X-ray storage phosphor technology and a laser based readout system that can be incorporated into a mobile phone size housing.
"The system may prove to be highly valuable for Australian and US Defence Personnel deployed in conflict zones around the world and may also serve to monitor large numbers of civilians and space, in nuclear accidents such as the recent Fukushima event, or after the application of dirty bombs", says Hans Reisen.
"This innovative technology has the potential to help reduce radiation exposure and to also provide early warning of excessive radiation exposure", says Hans Reisen.
"Exposure to ionising radiation is an ever increasing issue both in medicine and for large sections of the general population in everyday life", commented Anthony Ujhazy, CEO of Dosimetry & Imaging Pty Ltd, a spin-off company of UNSW, that is currently in the process of commercialising the system and has so far attracted almost $2,000,000 in venture capital.
The research became possible due to ARC Discovery Project and internal Defence Related Research Funding. Work commencing under a recent ARC Linkage grant will further develop the technology for use in a number of medical fields.
Read a related article in The Canberra Times .
Associate Professor Hans Riesen is an academic at the School of Physical, Environmental and Mathematical Sciences, UNSW Canberra located at the Australian Defence Force Academy; ph: 02 6268 8679, e: h.riesen@adfa.edu.au
AIS SmartTalk
UNSW Academic Calls for a World Agency for Sports Integrity
What: SMART TALK: A Case for the World Agency for Sports Integrity
Who: Dr Jason Mazanov, Dr James Connor, Dr Twan Huybers, UNSW Canberra
When: 22 June 2011, 1pm
Where: AIS Visitor Centre Theatrette, Bruce, Canberra.
The increasing media discussion around sports integrity has been fuelled by corruption allegations at the highest levels of sport. Notably, there are concerns around the influence of Organised Crime at London 2012, the bribery scandal at FIFA, and the spot and exotic betting problems for the NRL and AFL.
A research team with UNSW Canberra, led by SMA Member Jason Mazanov, has been exploring the integrity of sport relative to a different kind of corruption in sport, doping.
Dr Mazanov says, "This has been exciting and timely research. We started off looking at the moral basis for protecting the integrity of sport from doping, and whether it should be managed based on athlete health and welfare.
"The team then asked if doping was the only thing the integrity of sport needed protection from, so we developed and tested a list of sport harms with the potential to undermine the integrity of sport. Drugs and corruption were seen to be the biggest threats."
As a result of this research, Dr Mazanov's team suggested the formation of a World Agency for Sports Integrity (WASI). This organisation would be dedicated to protecting the integrity of sport from issues like doping, corruption and athlete exploitation.
"However, there are implications associated with creating WASI that may be problematic. We could end up with a Big Brother in sport", cautions Dr Mazanov. He asks "Do we want to replace the joy of sport with fear?"
The UNSW Canberra research team will present their arguments and evidence at the AIS SmartTalk seminar series, 1pm on 22 June 2011, AIS Visitor Centre Theatrette, Bruce, Canberra.
Contacts:
Dr Jason Mazanov, UNSW Canberra 0418 413 820 (m) 02 6268 8071 (w)
Natalia Komarova PR Manager UNSW Canberra 0433 662 874 (m) 02 6268 8760 (w)
Honouring the Enemy - Historian Bob Hall has turned a tour of duty in Vietnam into a life's work
Susi Hamilton
Uniken
17 June 2011
There's an old backpack that hasn't been used in more than 40 years in Bob Hall's garage. While it is tattered and has a few holes, he still can't bring himself to throw it out.
"I used that during my time in the Vietnam War," he recalls. "I carried all my worldly goods in it. Occasionally I stand at the door of my garage wondering whether I should put in on the trailer to take to the tip, but I just haven't been able to."
An infantry platoon commander in the conflict from 1969 to 1970, Dr Hall knows more than most how tempting it can be to keep souvenirs used or found during a tour of duty and the ethical dilemmas of what to do with them decades later.
The war got under his skin. Now a military historian at UNSW@ADFA, he has turned his personal interest into the most comprehensive assessment of Australia's involvement in Vietnam.
read the full story in Uniken (page 6)
ADFA crew builds up for amazing race
DAVID ELLERY
The Canberra Times
16th June 2011
He might be a "bloody Volvo driver" but Australian Defence Academy acting commandant, Group Captain Loch Mitchell, is 100 per cent behind the open-wheeler racing car program which will pitch eight of his students against world class competition in England next month.
The students are currently engaged in an intense practice and development program ahead of their July 1 departure to compete in the IMechE Formula Student racing competition.
They are updating the car that took them to seventh place in the Australian equivalent the FSAE-A competition last year.
It will arrive in England on July4 before three days of intense competition at Silverstone from July 14 to July 17.
Photo: GARY SCHAFER
Cruel wounds of war
DAVID ELLERY
The Canberra Times
The courage of the Anzacs took many different forms. Men who were brave enough to risk an agonising death on the bayonets of the enemy lived with a largely unspoken fear that sometimes found a voice when they wrote their letters home.
Kerry Neale, a postgraduate research student from UNSW Canberra at the ADFA, found an example of this fear in one of these letters. She said, "It went: "I'm not afraid of being killed but I don't want to be mutilated or disfigured."' That fear was very real.
Unlike previous battlefields, the trench warfare on the Western Front was an environment in which men could receive the most horrific injuries and still live, thanks to the proximity of field hospitals behind the lines.
WARMAN DESIGN & BUILD COMPETITION
MAIN LABORATORY, BUILDING 18
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Friday 27 May, 2011
FIRST ROUND ? 1.30 PM START
SECOND ROUND ? 2.30 PM START
Project "PnP"
THE CONTEXT:
A strategically important Gondwanan manufacturing industry is facing a challenge in material handling ? unfortunately as a result of poor systems engineering and risk management. In a congested location, new infrastructure in the form of an overhead bridge structure to carry slurry has been introduced at great expense, but, the planning process failed to account for the spatial impact it now has on moving other product in specialised spherical containers between a recently recommissioned processing plant and the corresponding warehousing facilities. The slurry bridge significantly bisects and limits the space between the plant and warehouse facilities. In the new constrained environment, the old handling system will not work. Therefore, tenders are being called for a new and novel approach to moving the spheres.
Output from the processing plant is presented at three levels and is to be transferred to the warehouse which has similarly spaced receiving stations, also at three levels. While there is an ability to shuffle containers in the warehouse it is preferable that the new handling system minimise additional work in the warehouse.
The Gondwanans have aptly described the project as "Pick-and-Place", have contracted this to "pick'n'place" and now refer to it as Project PnP. For them it has a high priority for resolution.
THE CHALLENGE:
The challenge is to design a prototype system to meet the needs of the Gondwanan industry. The industry is important to the Gondwanans and the product is highly valuable yet volatile. Therefore, for safety reasons, an effective and efficient unmanned automatic system is perceived by the Gondwanans to be most appropriate. This concept frames their call for tenders and the competition they are conducting.
Fortunately, teams of engineering students from Earth are about to visit Gondwana as part of their work experience programmes. On previous visits such engineering students have rendered invaluable assistance with solutions to similar engineering problems, and the Gondwanans again are hoping to benefit from the ideas of the innovative budding engineers.
Objective
The objective is to design, build and prove a prototype system in a laboratory environment that serves to transfer a payload of game balls on the defined track in accordance with the rules. In context, can you design the best system to pick and place product in the form of spherical containers between production and warehousing facilities?
Time for consumers to rebel, as product confusion reigns
BY JENNY STEWART
The Canberra Times
02 May, 2011 04:00 AM
Retailers complain that more and more of their customers are buying online. Although I have some sympathy with recent campaigns to enforce the payment of GST on goods bought overseas via the internet, I would suggest that shoppers are not motivated solely by price when it comes to internet shopping. We are voting with our keyboards because, increasingly, shopping in an actual, rather than a virtual shop, is such a dispiriting experience. Department stores, in particular, seem to operate a kind of conspiracy against the customer. Finding someone to take your money is difficult enough. But finding what you want is even tougher. The subdivision of women's clothing into numerous retail boutiques, for example, means that if you are in search of a particular item, you have to work through them all in order to see what is on offer. I assume that the previous arrangement, where reasonably knowledgeable shop assistants helped you choose from apparel classified by type rather than brand, was abandoned because it is more financially advantageous for the department store to rent the space to the clothing provider.
But for women with limited time to go shopping, it is a truly dismal experience to traipse from boutique to boutique, each one staffed by an 18-year-old who, with the best will in the world, is unlikely to have much useful advice to offer older customers with older figures.
The problems of finding what you want are not all the fault of the retailer. If (like me) you have left your run a bit late, it is almost inevitable that the store has run out of the most commonly-purchased sizes. There are very small and very big sizes on the racks, but nothing in between. The shop assistants invariably say they could sell a lot more if the manufacturers would provide a better balance between the more and less-common sizes, but apparently the message never gets through.
The lack of common clothing sizes has long been a problem for the average customer. For shoes, where the requirements of a good fit are more exacting, there is the additional issue of excessive standardisation. I have a theory that all the shoes worn by Australians with a given foot length are made on a single Chinese last that is of one width only. If our feet are wider than the norm, we must jam them into the shoe of the decreed width.
Whatever happened to fittings that went right through the alphabet, from AA to FF and beyond, and accommodated feet that were as slender as poles as easily as those that were built like small boats? Our production system heaps profits on those who can use the latest technology to cripple us.
And what about the constituents of the said shoes? Having given up on leather, modern shoes are assemblages of every plastic and man-made fabric known to man. The appearance may be high-tech, but the durability is not. No matter what brand he buys, my son's football boots have disintegrated within a couple of months of purchase. And you can forget about breathability.
The military need look no further than the modern football sock, ripened over a strenuous couple of hours in the modern football boot, for germ warfare purposes. But all of us, if we are honest, struggle at times with shoes that are so full of synthetic materials, we may as well be wearing plastic bags on our feet.
We are accustomed to thinking that, in a market-based economy, our power as consumers gives us the goods and services we want. If our needs are not met, or so the theory goes, competition between producers will soon supply them. But a bit like evolution perhaps, markets sometimes wander into bizarre cul-de-sacs.
Take the apparently banal matter of buying a new mattress (a difficult exercise, given the size of the average mattress, for even the most devoted internet consumer). When my spouse and I bought our first marital mattress, we bought a top of the range Dunlop inner spring. It was perfect for many years, but then began to sag and give way.
We popped down to Fyshwick, thinking that a replacement would be perfectly straight forward. Alas, it was anything but. Somehow, in the intervening years, mattresses had sprouted excrescences called pillow tops. These are layers of padding built onto the top of the supportive part of the mattress, designed to give everyone a softer ride.
Fair enough, except that the effect is to produce a kind of mattress gigantism. Even the most ordinary offering is a slab at least 40cm thick. And that's not all. There are pocket springs and latex, comfort foam and memory foam layers and layers of it that ends up by wrapping the purchaser's brain in a cocoon of confusion.
Is this complexity really helpful to us, or simply the result of manufacturers' (and retailers') desperation to get us to spend more than we need to, on what should be a fairly straightforward, if important, purchase?
It is true that the internet gives consumers more power of choice, in the sense that if we can find someone to make it for us, we can (for a price) access supplies of just about anything we want. But for much of what we buy, we must enter supply chains that follow the dictates of economies of scale and scope, where manufacturers determine what we are going to buy, and for that year, or that season, we don't have much alternative.
We must buy clothes in the decreed colour and style; we must purchase houses with funny box-like facades because that is the fashion; we must purchase cars with front and rear windows that slope so much, they produce their own greenhouse effect on wheels.
I am sure the manufacturers would argue that, to the contrary, it is consumers that determine the demand for fashion and that, in any case, a degree of standardisation is inevitable if they are to continue to make goods that are cheaper, relative to the incomes of many people, than ever before. The economists would tell us that it is no good fretting. Interfering with markets is generally more trouble than it is worth. But modern markets are weird, game-like configurations in which it is perfectly possible for competition to produce outcomes that no one really wants.
Jenny Stewart is professor of public policy in the University of NSW at the Australian Defence Force Academy.
View the article on The Canberra Times website.
Peace at last for souls lost in war
BY TOM HYLAND
The Sydney Morning Herald
April 24, 2011
THEY are called wandering souls, and there are 3906 of them, mourned by families who don't know where they are buried. Until they know, they believe the spirits of the dead will wander in torment.
But Australians know, because they killed the 3906 and logged where they buried them in fields, jungles and rubber plantations. The dead were soldiers in the North Vietnamese Army or Vietcong. They are a fraction of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese still listed as missing in action - MIA - from a war that ended in 1975.
When the war was over, six Australians were still missing. Forty years later, their remains were found and came home in flag-draped coffins. Politicians made speeches, generals saluted, bugles played and families finally laid their loved ones to rest.
Read more: on the Sydney Morning Herald Website
The cat, the teleporter and the next step in quantum communications
Researchers have achieved a breakthrough in quantum communications and computing using a teleporter and a paradoxical cat.
The breakthrough is the first-ever transfer, or teleportation, of a particular complex set of quantum information from one point to another, opening the way for high-speed, high-fidelity transmission of large volumes of information, such as quantum encryption keys, via quantum communications networks.
Teleportation ? the transfer of quantum information from one location to another using normal, "classical" communications - is one of the fundamental quantum communication techniques.
The cat in the equation was not a living, breathing feline but rather "wave packets" of light representing the famous "thought experiment" known as Schrodinger's Cat. Schrodinger's Cat was a paradox proposed by early 20th century physicist Erwin Schrodinger to describe the situation in which normal, "classical" objects can exist in a quantum "superposition" - having two states at once.
Professor Elanor Huntington, from the School of Engineering and Information Technology at UNSW's Canberra campus at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), was part of a team led by University of Tokyo researchers. She said the team's achievement was another step towards building a super-powerful quantum computer and transmitting quantum information.
"One of the limitations of high-speed quantum communication at present is that some detail is lost during the teleportation process. It's the Star Trek equivalent of beaming the crew down to a planet and having their organs disappear or materialise in the wrong place. We're talking about information but the principle is the same ? it allows us to guarantee the integrity of transmission.
"Just about any quantum technology relies on quantum teleportation. The value of this discovery is that it allows us, for the first time, to quickly and reliably move quantum information around. This information can be carried by light, and it's a powerful way to represent and process information. Previous attempts to transmit were either very slow or the information might be changed. This process means we will be able to move blocks of quantum information around within a computer or across a network, just as we do now with existing computer technologies.
"If we can do this, we can do just about any form of communication needed for any quantum technology."
The experiments were conducted on a machine known as "the teleporter" in the laboratory of Professor Akira Furusawa in the Department of Applied Physics in the University of Tokyo. (Note: Image available)
Professor Huntington, who leads a research program for the Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, developed the high-speed communication part of the "teleporter" with PhD student James Webb.
The research will be published in April 15 issue of the journal Science.
Media contact: Peter Trute, UNSW Media Office | 02 9385 1933 | 0410 271 826 | p.trute@unsw.edu.au
High Achievers at ADFA
Professor Michael Frater, Rector of UNSW Canberra at ADFA and the Chief of Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston today congratulated 58 young men and women at the High Achievers' reception at the ADFA Cadet’s Mess.
The first year students were selected to receive the honour, based on their score of 95 and over. These students have been offered a place in the Chief of Defence Force Students Program, which provides them with an optional additional level of academic challenge.
Congratulations to all of these students for their commitment and hard work. The University of New South Wales is priveleged to be associated with some of the finest students in the country.
2011 High Achievers: Michael Bailey, Michael Bowden, Ian, Brooks, Cameron Brunton, Ben Carruthers, Kent Chua, Patrick Collins, Kieran Davis, Iain Elliott, Zach Fitzgerald, Benjamin Flood, John Foo, Joshua Friend, Christopher Garrett, Timothy Gough, Benjamin Graham, Jack Herrod, Georgie Hicks, Calum Jackson, Scott Johnson , Matthew Jones, Stephen Jones, Phillip Kennedy, William Leben, Claudia Lewis, Joshua Lowe, Aden Mann, Sarah McIlwain, Richard Morris, Debayu Mukherjee, Daniel Myers, Justin Nash, Andrew Nicholls, Elizabeth Oermann, Kurt Pearce, Zachary Pearse, Aden Petersen, Hannah Phelps, Douglas Phillips, Nicolas Power, Mark Robson, Bronson Rogers, Morgan Rush, Conrad Sallans, Joshua Seidal, Thomas Sellings, Timothy Sexton, Cameron Sheridan, Callum Smyth, Peter Spearman, Dylan Stevenson, Samuel Stockdale, Jessica Stone, Joshua Tamm, Terence Tan, James Tockuss, Aimee Van Dartel, Andrew Wilson
Paul Eggert receives the Finneran Award in Textual Studies
Professor Paul Eggert, ARC Professorial Fellow in HASS, has received the prestigious Finneran Award for his book Securing the Past: Conservation in Art, Architecture and Literature, published by Cambridge University Press in 2009.
The book is the first concerted effort to examine together the linked philosophies of the different arts of preserving and uncovering the past: the restoration of buildings, conservation of works of art, and editing of literary works to retrieve their original or intended texts. By investigating a series of recent crises in each of these areas, Securing the Past charts a richer way forward to a new future for the past.
The Award judges have welcomed the book: 'This ambitious monograph, which marks the culmination of a prominent scholar's thinking and experience in textual studies and which has been in the works since at least 1992, signals a major advancement in the field that all future work will have to reckon with.'
Another judge added:
'I am dazzled by the range of not just objects but situations this book handles. . . . I think it has good potential to shape conversations not just in textual studies but beyond it.'
About the Finneran Award
The Award was established in 2005 in the USA by the Society for Textual Scholarship as an enduring memorial to Richard J. Finneran, the renowned Yeats scholar and editor. It is given in recognition of the best edition or book about editorial theory and practice published in the English language during the preceding two calendar years. The award ceremony formed part of the STS conference and followed a symposium in February at North-West University in South Africa that directly addressed the themes of the book. In between the two events Professor Eggert gave the annual D. F. McKenzie lecture on book history at the University of Oxford.
Nuclear As a Power, and The Lessons Awaiting Malaysia
Heiko Timmers, Nuclear Physicist at UNSW Canberra Campus at ADFA discusses Malaysia's nuclear plans and the nuclear crisis in Japan with the Malaysian radio network. Listen to the podcast
http://www.bfm.my/heiko-timmers-nuclear-physicist.html
Professor Ian Petersen a new member of the Australian Academy of Science
Professor Ian Richard Petersen, UNSW Canberra Campus at ADFA is one of the seventeen of Australia's leading scientists who was honoured to become a Member of the Australian Academy of Science.
Election to the Australian Academy of Science recognises a career that has significantly advanced, and continues to advance, the world's scientific knowledge.
Scientific contributions of the 2011 new Fellows cover a wide range of specialities that include sperm function, nuclear fusion, quantitative genetics with applications in agriculture, the ecology and evolution of microorganisms, and advances in wave science with applications in optical fibres and photonic crystals.
The full media release is available on the website of the Academy of Science on http://www.science.org.au/news/media/24march11.html
Professor Ian Richard Petersen FAA FIEAust FIEEE is distinguished for his work on robust control theory with innovative advances enabling the synthesis of robust state feedback controllers using standard software tools.
School of Engineering and Information Technology, University of New South Wales, at the Australian Defence Force Academy,
Canberra ACT 2600
Joint Tertiary Open Day signed off by the Canberra Education leaders
On Tuesday 22 March UNSW Canberra Campus together with ADFA and four of Canberra's other leading educational institutions signed a Memorandum of Understanding to continue their cooperation on conducting an Annual Tertiary Open Day through 2011-2013. The MOU signing brought together senior university leaders from The Australian National University, The Australian Catholic University, ADFA and UNSW Canberra Campus, Canberra Institute of Technology and The University of Canberra. It is the fifth three-year MOU for the group and it covers this year's Tertiary Open Day on 27 August.
Left to right: Professor Ian Young, Vice-Chancellor ANU; Associate Professor Patrick McArdle, Campus Dean ACU; Mr Adrian Marron, Chief Executive CIT; Professor Stephen Parker, Vice-Chancellor UC; Professor Michael Frater, Rector, UNSW Canberra; and Commodore Bruce Kafer, Commandant ADFA
Japan's Nuclear Reactors Difficult to Control, Timmers Says
In the interview with Bloomberg Television Heiko Timmers, a physicist with the UNSW Canberra at ADFA, said it would be difficult to control the nuclear reactors damaged by Japan's worst earthquake on record.
The situation may become more difficult if the containment chambers of the reactors are breached, he said in a telephone interview from Canberra with Bloomberg Television's Susan Li.
On the nuclear reactor:
"The situation is certainly serious and dramatic. Until this morning, I thought it was under control because the prime minister said in his earlier press conference that the cooling with seawater is ongoing and running smoothly. I think the concern about reactor 1 and reactor 3 is not so severe. However, because of the explosion at number 2, there is reason to be concerned because that explosion doesn't seem to be a hydrogen explosion under the roof which just blew off the weather shield. It might have damaged the pressure release tool underneath the reactor and possibly even the concrete wall next to it."
On possibility of a meltdown:
"If there's a melt on or not is not really important. What is really important is that the containment vessel holds. We will not experience a Chernobyl type situation because that explosion occurred while the reactor was operating and there was no containment vessel. In this case, the reactor has been switched off for three days and we are dealing with the afterglow, the heat which is produced by the decaying fission fragments."
"That heat production decays rapidly and at the moment we are only looking at 10 percent of the heat that was produced on Friday."
"However, if there is some damage to the steel structure or to the bottom of this steel structure then this becomes more and more difficult. The radiation levels outside the reactor, on the plant side within the fence, are such that a person staying there for an hour or two will suffer serious health consequences like vomiting or nausea. That's why there are only 50 operators left operating from a control bunker, I imagine. It must be very difficult now to control this second unit."
On structure of reactors:
"It should be noted that the reactors themselves, until maybe this morning, dealt with the situation really well. Technologically, the earthquake doesn't seem to have affected the reactors. What was problematic was the tsunami, which destroyed a lot of peripheral infrastructure like the diesel generators."
By Rebecca Keenan - Mar 15, 2011 5:01 PM
To contact the reporter on this story: Rebecca Keenan in Melbourne at rkeenan5@bloomberg.net
Dr Elanor Huntington received the inaugural Dorothy Green Award
Professor Michael Frater, Rector UNSW at ADFA formally presented the inaugural Dorothy Green Award to Dr Elanor Huntington for excellence in research by a female academic. Elanor's contribution to research include Opto-Electronics, Quantum Information Technology and Chaotic Semiconductor Lasers. The Dorothy Green Award recognises excellence by a female academic.
Dr. Dorothy Green became well known in the early 1980s for her book reviews in newspapers and Australian journals. She was the winner of the Townsville Foundation for Australian Literary Studies Award (1973) and the Fellowship of Australian Writers Barbara Ramsden Award for the Book of the Year (1973). She was awarded an AM in 1984 and an AO in 1988, in recognition of her services to Australian literature. In December 1987 she was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of New South Wales. And was an Honorary Life Member of the Association of Australian Literature which holds an annual Dorothy Green Lecture.
25 Years of Service Award to UNSW@ADFA Staff
On Wednesday 9 March Professor Michael Frater, Rector of UNSW at ADFA, awarded thirty six members of staff with the UNSW at ADFA medallion for the 25 years of service.
The award was given to academic, professional and technical staff members who have worked at UNSW at ADFA for 25 years or over.
The following people received the award: Professor John Arnold, Deputy Rector; David Paterson, photographer; ICTS - Mark Dumbrell and Wen Ung; Library - Lyn Christie, Christopher Dawkins, and Wilgha Edwards; School of Business - Dr Gary Manger.
From the School of Engineering and Information Technology: Dr Laurie Brown; Marion Burgess; Bob Clark; Doug Collier; Dr Michael Harrap; Phillip Hestbeck; Professor Joseph Lai; Carol O'Brien; Professor Ian Petersen; David Sharp; Associate Professor Sik-Cheung (Robert) Lo; Rick Whyte.
From the School of Humanities and Social Sciences: Professor David Lovell; Dr Linda Bowman; Emeritus Professor Peter Dennis; Jeff Doyle; Professor Jeffrey Grey; Shirley Ramsay; Professor Paul Eggert.
From the School of Physical, Environmental and Mathematical Sciences: Ray Lawton; Dr Mok Rahman; Dr Wayne Hutchison; Dr Garry Robinson; Peter Scott; Dr Paul Tranter; Assoc Prof John (Grant) Collins; Dr Anthony Day; Associate Professor Ravi Sood.
Professor Michael Frater thanked the recipients of the award for their service and loyalty to UNSW at ADFA, their contribution to the education of the future leaders of the Australian Defence Forces, their academic research and their achievements and input to Australian education.
The personalised silver plated medallion carries both UNSW and ADFA crests.