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HEAlTHcArE ‘ASSiSTivE TEcHNology’

australian academy oF technological sciences and engineering (atse)

number 176February 2013

BUiLDinG A nETWOrK TO HELP AUSTrALiAnS LiVE BETTEr

contributors discuss how an ‘assistive technology’ network could better link assistive technology research and help

translate it into commercialisation and adoption

Thoughts

Although leadership is taught at more institutions and is the subject of more books and articles than ever before, we live in a world where our leaders are chastised for demonstrating a distinct lack of it. The issue is that it is far easier to preach the theory than it is to put that theory in to practice because the key ingredient that cannot be taught is passion, passion for a cause or goal.

It’s passion that results in a person wanting to rise to the challenge of trying to achieve a goal and taking others on that journey. So there is much that can be learnt from practical expedi-tions that can be applied to leadership in the corporate or policy environment: from clarity of purpose, to adaptability, to a perspective on risk.

Conceiving and undertaking extreme expeditions to some of the world’s most remote places requires great teamwork and a great amount of vision. Organisationally, the emphasis is on achieving outcomes rather than simply participating in a process. You pare down the plan-ning to the point where there are no excess process-based steps. Every meeting, every piece of equipment, everything you do has to have a purpose or it gets discarded. You need a lot of detail to keep you going for 50 days in -25 to -30°C.

It is something many process-based organisations could learn from, not least the international roadshows on climate change and international trade where lack of a clear vision and a focus on what the intended outcomes are has meant painfully slow progress.

Taking risks is supremely important – because, to progress, mankind relies upon adventurous souls taking risks. This spirit of adventure lies at the heart of artistic self-expression, advances in science, medicine and politics, the growth of a business or the need to climb mountains or walk to the poles to discover what lies within. In expedition terms this is akin to a leader go-ing first to determine the strength of a snow bridge over a deep crevasse before asking others to cross it.

My next expedition will attempt to recreate the epic 1915 journey of one of the leadership greats: Sir Ernest Shackleton. His leadership is perhaps best defined by his ability to work towards big goals unrelentingly, but also to be flexible enough to know when they were no longer achievable, accept this, adjust and pursue his new goal with the same dedication and conviction as the unachievable original.

When Shackleton’s ship Endurance was crushed in the pack ice.....Read the rest of Tim’s blog at: http://thoughts.arup.com/post/details/265/leaders-need-passion

Health / Leaders need passion17 January 2013 / 1 / Tim Jarvis

We shape a better world | www.arup.com

Contributor / Tim Jarvis

Thoughts /

The best solutions can only come about by continually listening, learning and chal-lenging. That’s why we’ve created Thoughts - a place for experts, practitioners and enthusiasts to talk about the issues affecting the built environment now and in the future. Please join us.

www.arup.com/thoughts

I am a sustainability and climate change strategist for Arup in Australasia, where I focus on delivering environmental initiatives that generate maximum social benefit as well as addressing how industry and society can overcome resistance to change. I am a director of an outcome-focused environmental initiative Do-Tank, providing sustainability advice on multilateral aid projects for the World Bank and AusAID. I am also an adventurer and author, and hold the record for the fastest unsupported journey to the South Pole and the longest unsupported journey in Antarctica in 1999.

Join Australia’s Best Minds� e University of Melbourne is seeking high calibre PhD students to contribute to projects at the forefront of international research.At the University of Melbourne, one of Australia’s leading research universities, you will become part of a dynamic research community, working alongside the best and brightest researchers in the country.Our generous scholarship programs provide students with � nancial support and opportunities for international � eldwork and travel.To � nd out more about undertaking a graduate research degree at Melbourne, visit: www.unimelb.edu.au/research/

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Focus February 13

www.atse.org.au

coPYRIGht

this publication contains copyright material. Some of the material is owned by Australian Academy of technological Sciences and Engineering Ltd AcN 008 520 394 (AtSE) and some material is owned by others. All copyright and other intellectual property rights in the materials remain with the owner. No material in this publication may be copied (except as legally allowed) or further disseminated without the express and written permission of the holder of that copyright.

copyright © AtSE 2013

5 Engagement and action in the internet Age

12 Health technology can have an enormous impact

13 The changing paradigm in aged and disability care

16 Our prosperity rests on a new approach to innovation

19 israel visit valuable for neuroscience team

19 2013 Awards Dinner in Melbourne

21 nuclear energy for Australia?

21 Transforming SA manufacturing

22 More Fresh Science research

42 ATSE in FocusHealtHcare ‘assistive

tecHnology’

AustrAliAn AcAdemy of technologicAl sciences And engineering (Atse)

number 176 februAry 2013

building a network to help australians live better

Contributors discuss how an ‘assistive technology’ network could better link assistive technology research and help

translate it into commercialisation and adoption

Focus_1302_cover.indd 1 30/01/13 1:56 PM

Front cover: Linking healthcare technology in the electronic age.Photo: iStock.com

3new focus to achieve our potential in medtechBy Anne Trimmer

7seeking better value in assistivehealth technologies networkBy Greg Tegart

9sa’s Partnering Program drives innovation through collaborationBy Karen reynolds

AtSE Focus is produced to stimulate discussion and public policy initiatives on key topics of interest to the Academy and the nation. Many articles are contributed by AtSE Fellows with expertise in these areas. opinion articles will be considered for publication. Items between 800 and 1400 words are preferred. Please address comments, suggested topics and article for publication to [email protected].

Deadline for the receipt of copy for next edition of Focus is 16 March 2013.

PUBLIShER

CEO: Dr Margaret hartley FtSEEditor: Bill Mackey

AUSTrALiAn ACADEMy OF TECHnOLOGiCAL SCiEnCES AnD EnGinEErinG (ATSE)

Address: Level 1, 1 Bowen crescent, MelbournePostal Address: GPo Box 4055, Melbourne, Victoria 3001

Telephone: 03 9864 0900Facsimile: 03 9864 0930Email: [email protected]

AcN 008 520 394ABN 58 008 520 394Print Post Publication No 341403/0025ISSN 1326-8708

Design and production: coretext 03 9670 1168 www.coretext.com.au

contents

Longevity means increased chronic diseases among the elderly, leading to increased healthcare costs to the nation.

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Focus February 13

healthcare assistive technologywww.atse.org.au

The medical technology industry is one of Australia’s bright manufacturing prospects – if we get the policy settings right. Improving

the linkages between researchers, industry and end users is one way to achieve our ambition of a robust, innovative Australian medical technology industry.

The medtech sector in financial year 2011-12 was larger than the wine industry and on par with the automotive industry, with turnover of a little more than $10 billion – and yet it is overlooked as a prospective contributor to Australia’s economic future.

Australia has many of the right attributes to grow a strong domestic medical technology industry – a significant health and medical research capability, quality health system, highly skilled manufacturing workforce, stable financial system and access to the growing middle-class markets of Asia.

Australia has excelled in the development of niche products to supply the global market – Resmed’s devices to treat sleep disorders, Cochlear’s electronic hearing device and Sirtex’s Sirsphere’s cancer treatment device.

Despite this track record, and despite having many of the attributes required to underpin a strong local industry, Australia has yet to achieve its potential as a country known for its medical technology. The Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA) has examined the reasons for this position and put forward some ideas on how this deficiency can be addressed in a White

New focus to achieve our potential in medtechMedical devices manufacturing needs skills similar to the automotive industry – highly skilled engineering, componentry, miniaturisation, computerisation and materials science.

By Anne [email protected]

Paper, ‘Building a Sustainable Australian Medical Technology Industry’, published in 2012 (available at www.mtaa.org.au).

In reviewing the drivers for success in other countries, there are a number of common attributes:¢�national strategy and national leadership;¢�dedicated national institutions

or networks;¢�tax and other critical incentives;¢�market access and integration

with the health system;¢�commitment to advanced

sector training; and¢�sustained long-term focus.

Of these, national strategy and national leadership are an immediate critical need. With national leadership and commitment the sector provides a first-rate opportunity for growth. This is an industry that will contribute not only to the management of Australia’s health needs but also to the future employment of a skilled manufacturing workforce as existing industries wind back, and where there will be increased demand for exports to countries in our region and more broadly.

Let’s look at some of the specific proposals.

Manufacturing baseInvestment in innovation is the only way to build industries that compete in an advanced economy. Innovation can be advanced through strengthening collaboration between industry, education, researchers and end users.

The non-government members of the Prime Minister’s Taskforce on

Manufacturing proposed a simple strategy in their report released in 2012, Smarter Manufacturing for a Smarter Australia. The report produced recommendations, many at a structural level.

The UK Government has also focused on the need to transition its economy to high-skilled manufacturing. The White Paper ‘New Industry, New Jobs’ (NINJ), published in April 2009, set out a number of specific technological opportunities for economic growth and renewal. In response to the commitment laid down in NINJ, in July 2009 the report Advanced Manufacturing – Building Britain’s Future announced a package of funding measures to help UK manufacturers of all sizes and sectors to fully benefit from innovation drawing on key emerging technologies and new market opportunities.

Skilled workforceIn order to advance the medical technology sector in Australia it is critical that we harness a sufficient number of appropriately skilled workers. The lack of a skilled workforce is identified by manufacturers in particular as a significant challenge. The skills required for manufacturing of medical devices are similar to those used in the automotive industry. They include high skilled engineering, componentry, miniaturisation, computerisation and materials science.

Australia already has some first-class higher education research centres in the biomedical engineering field, with research ranging from biomolecular engineering to

ATSE Focus welcomes letters from readers in response to published article or on technological science and related topics.

PlEASE kEEP lETTErS briEf. loNgEr lETTErS MAy bE ruN AS coNTribuTEd ArTiclES. Please address to [email protected]

lettersto theeditor

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February 13 Focus

healthcare assistive technology www.atse.org.au

could provide by utilising the products developed by Australia’s innovative medical technology companies. With health expenditure at around $120 billion a year, health purchasers are potentially a significant driver of industry economic development.

The UK Government has recognised this and has reoriented its focus, describing the strategy as placing innovation at the heart of healthcare delivery as well as supporting the country’s knowledge industries.

In December 2011 Prime Minister Cameron presented the Strategy for UK Life Sciences (SLS) to further the work of previous programs. The SLS is a wide-ranging strategy based on three key principles:¢�building a life sciences ecosystem;¢�attracting, developing and

rewarding the best talent; and¢�overcoming barriers and creating

incentives for the promotion of health care innovation.The strategy aims to cultivate

investment that pushes innovative UK medtech development and production to the global marketplace. In parallel with the SLS, the UK Government released in December 2011 its review of innovation, Innovation, Health and Wealth, with the aim of accelerating adoption and diffusion of innovation within the UK health system.

Innovation, Health and Wealth provides an excellent roadmap for the integration of health system need with facilitation of industry development. The report identifies four ways in which the NHS contributes to the UK economy. Importantly, these include the support it provides to the life sciences industry by accelerating adoption and diffusion of innovation. By exporting innovation, ideas and expertise, working in partnership with UK industry, it also provides new business opportunities overseas for UK-based companies.

Among the agreed actions are a commitment to enhance the local showcase hospital program to evaluate effectiveness of medical technologies that are safe but don’t yet have evidence of effectiveness. The report also commits to expansion of the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), which provides seed funding to support the development of innovative products and services to meet identified health needs and a commitment by the NHS to procure

bionanomaterials and medical radiation physics. Biomedical engineering is the fastest growing area of engineering education but we need to do better in capturing the talent among our students and directing them into the industry.

There is little formal collaboration between the universities and industry, an area that needs improvement. Collaboration will help to focus research into areas that support product development to meet identified need.

Entrepreneurial environmentOne of the stimulators for entrepreneurial growth in an innovative sector like medical technology is the co-location, or clustering, of established industry with research facilities, clinical centres and start-up companies.

The non-government members of the PM’s Taskforce on Manufacturing have recommended the establishment of Smarter Australian Precincts, which would involve large-scale facilities that bring together a critical mass of capabilities and industries – across businesses, researchers, end users, students and government – to share resources and support knowledge spillovers and diffusion.

The Australian Government has announced it will make available through the Australian Research Council funding for up to 20 hubs as part of an industrial transformation research program. The program will: ¢�focus on research areas that are vital

for Australia’s future economic prosperity – such as engineering, materials science and nanotechnology,

communications, chemical engineering and biotechnology;

¢�support industrial PhD students and researchers to gain ‘hands-on’, practical skills and experience in these important areas; and

¢�foster important partnerships between business and universities.

Emerging companiesAustralia has a well-deserved reputation for its health and medical research. In order to translate that research into viable products for a health market there is a need to support the development of prototype products at the critical early commercialisation stage. This means providing appropriate assistance to entrepreneurs to translate an idea into a product that can be developed for use across the health system for wide community benefit.

An option to address this is the establishment of seeding funds, which would be tasked with linking people, processes and investments, particularly targeted at small and emerging companies in the industry.

The funds would operate by supporting innovations that respond to priority health needs, providing key financial and expert technical assistance to companies when a working prototype is being developed. The NSW Government announced funding for a medical device seeding fund in its 2012 Budget.

integration An area of great opportunity in Australia is the leverage that the health system

Professor Branko Celler FTSE, an international leader in the field of telehealth, records an electrocardiogram.

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Focus February 13


products that result from SBRI funding.The report proposes many valuable

actions worthy of examination for implementation in Australia.

Developing solutions to future healthcare needs while nurturing a sustainable medical technology industry for the long term will enable Australia to benefit from its strengths – a significant health and medical research capability, quality health system, highly skilled

manufacturing workforce, stable financial system, and access to the growing middle-class markets of Asia, with improved linkages between researchers, industry and end users.

MS AnnE TriMMEr is Chief Executive Officer of

the Medical Technology Association of Australia

(MTAA). Prior to joining MTAA, she had an extensive

career in the legal profession, practising law as

a commercial partner of a major Australian law

firm. She has held several leadership positions in

professional and educational bodies, including a

period as President of the Law Council of Australia,

Deputy Chancellor of the University of Canberra

and Chair of the Australian Government’s Advisory

Council on intellectual Property. Ms Trimmer chairs

the Centre of Excellence in Vision Sciences at the

Australian national University and is a director of

organisations with interests in medical research and

legal policy.

Engagement and action in the Internet Age

Attempting to harness the power of technology and connectivity.Photo: IStockPhoto

A regular observation from those involved in thinking deeply about, and planning for, the future is that there are frequently two substantial drivers operating in opposite directions.

While the drivers can be fairly easily identified, the interaction between the two, and which one might dominate, is almost impossible to establish a priori.

As an example, the world of the internet is allowing unparalleled connectivity between people who share some sort of interest. But there is strong evidence that our capacity to engage in long-term committed thought and action to address a major challenge has been reduced, at least in comparison with that of small discrete communities of the past.

the ageing of our population (and each one of us) presents just such a challenge. the extraordinary success of our longevity extension, with average age advancing in front of us at a rate of three months a year, is challenging the foundations of all the institutions whose design to care for this sector of the population is based on rapidly outdated assumptions.

health costs are escalating. our hospital systems are in huge disarray. the availability of, and level of care in, facilities for the aged – no matter how well managed and intentioned – are far less than desirable, and for many a source of considerable distress.

the Emerging Assistive and Medical technologies Network (EAMtN) – or Enabling Assistive technology Network (EAtN) – proposed by AtSE is an attempt to harness the power of technology and connectivity to provide the basis for “building a healthier and more fulfilling life for present and future Australians”.

the needs and opportunities identified through the recent AtSE health technology Workshop, based on the long experience of a wide range of people associated with services to the aged and disability sectors, were:¢�facilitating connections and information flow between the many

players in aged/disability care;¢�enhancing the awareness of relevant government agencies of the

learning occurring in the industry and opportunities for new approaches;¢�building the capacity for coordinated cross-sector initiatives;¢�informing researchers of the real issues that assistive technology

needs to address; and¢�ensuring more effective translation of relevant research into practical

service delivery.For our traditional forms of organisation, and systems of governance,

designing and delivering such a capability is a substantial challenge. But with the tools of social networking to hand, and with the

enthusiasm of those wishing to see significant changes in the experience of ageing – “Australia leading the world in the way it provides care and opportunity for all its citizens” – it is possible to think of new ways to connect and empower. this can be achieved without loss of accountability, but also without the dead hand of excessive bureaucratic control.

the network will be designed to:¢�be open, inclusive and user-focused;¢�act as a ready source of authoritative information on which to base

practice and policy;¢�operate as an independent, influential driver of change towards

fulfilled ageing for all;¢�provide opportunities for trialling new approaches and technologies; and¢�facilitate community engagement in improving aged/disability care.

this is a new kind of initiative from AtSE. But it has become apparent that while continued support for research and technology development is imperative, the far more important and difficult task is ensuring that the technology is in a form that is easily accessible and can meet the needs of those it is designed to assist.

– Professor Ron Johnston FTSE

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Focus February 13


Like many other countries in the world, Australia is undergoing an unprecedented demographic change as the proportion of elderly

people in the population increases, particularly the elderly over 85, and the number of younger people to provide economic support declines.

This situation will lead to increased chronic diseases among the elderly coupled with a shortage of carers, which will, in turn, have a major impact on healthcare costs to the nation, which are projected to rise in the coming decades.

The application of new technologies such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, information and communication technology, and cognitive science is leading to the development of smarter and more cost-effective approaches to assistive technologies. These can enable elderly people to continue to live in their own homes for longer, control their treatments and medications better, identify the onset of conditions before they need to seek emergency hospital treatment, and maintain close connections with the family and society.

These technologies also have applications to younger people who are disabled by accidents or disabling diseases.

Like other academies around the world, ATSE’s Fellowship consists of scientists and technologists with a broad spectrum of interests across healthcare technology and its applications.

ATSE has recognised the value to be

gained by gathering this expertise in a Health and Technology Forum within the Academy. One of the first contributions from ATSE in this area was the publication of a major report in 2010, Smart Technology for Healthy Longevity, which set out the opportunities for Australia in security and safety, diagnosis and treatment, and assistive technologies.

In preparing the report ATSE consulted widely across Australia and it rapidly became evident that there was a broad spectrum of people working on

Seeking better value in an assistive health technologies networkThe creation of a network is essential if we are to harness assistive technologies to meet the future needs of Australian society.

developments without knowledge of others in complementary fields. This perception was confirmed in two overseas missions organised by ATSE to meet with overseas experts, one with experts from European engineering academies in Paris in 2009 and other with experts in Taiwan in 2010.

On both occasions, the members of the missions had not met before in Australia and new links were forged between the participants. Based on these experiences the ATSE report recommended that a national approach was essential to utilise our resources more effectively.

By Greg Tegart [email protected]

Longevity means increased chronic diseases among the elderly, leading to

increased healthcare costs to the nation.

Photo: IStockPhoto

opinion pieces on technological science and related topics, preferably between 600 and 1400 words, will be considered for publication.

They must list the full name of the author, if a fellow of the Academy. other contributors should provide their full name, title/role and organisation (if relevant) and email address.

Please address to [email protected]

contributions are welcome

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February 13 Focus


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Th is theme was taken up in a workshop organised by the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR) in Brisbane in 2011. Th is brought together a wide range of technologists, aged-care providers, medical specialists, medical industry representatives and government policy offi cials. A major conclusion was the need for the establishment of a multidisciplinary, cross-sector network to create ongoing opportunities for dialogue and collaborative partnerships on the basis that better connectivity can enhance productivity and innovation.

With support from DIISR, ATSE convened a workshop in Sydney in October 2012 that brought together technology providers, researchers, consumers and carer organisations across the disability and aged-care sectors. Th e participants reviewed the existing situation and unanimously agreed that the multidisciplinary nature of technologies to support aged-care services made the creation of a network essential if we are to harness assistive technologies to meet the future needs of Australian society.

Recognising that there are already a signifi cant number of organisations with their own constituencies, the workshop established a clear vision for an Emerging Assistive and Medical Technologies (EAMT) Network as “a network of networks”.

It agreed that a self-sustaining model for the network was essential and would need to be based on an appropriate business model that generated the revenue necessary for the network to operate as an independent and authoritative body.

ATSE is working to develop a value proposition and draft business plan for an EAMT Network with a view to start-up in mid 2013. Th is involves consultation with

potential investors and sponsors over a wide range of interests.

PrOFESSOr GrEG TEGArT graduated in Melbourne

and then spent 11 years in teaching and research

in universities in England and the US. He returned

to Australia to head a major industrial research

laboratory in Melbourne for BHP and then moved

to Canberra as a Member of CSirO Executive. Later

he became Secretary of the Australian Department

of Science and Technology and then Secretary of

the Australian Science and Technology Council. He

has since held academic positions at the University

of Canberra, AnU and Victoria University, and

was for nine years a leader in the APEC Center for

Technology Foresight in Bangkok. He is Chair of the

ATSE Forum on Health and Technology.

The application of new technologies such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, information and communication technology, and cognitive science is leading to the development of smarter and more cost-eff ective approaches to assistive technologies. These can enable elderly people to continue to live in their own homes for longer, control their treatments and medications better, identify the onset of conditions before they need to seek emergency hospital treatment, and maintain close connections with the family and society.

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Focus February 13


With the ageing demographic and increasing expectations of quality of life, the demand for medical devices and assistive

technologies continues to grow steadily in Australia and across the world.

While Australia is well placed to expand its involvement in the sector, and in particular in the rapidly developing Asian market, there are increasing challenges for Australian medical device companies to engage in research and innovation and to deliver useful end products.

Th e medical device industry is highly competitive and new Australian medical devices must typically be highly innovative and aimed at niche markets in order to succeed. Yet companies in this industry are typically very small and the innovation process in a small-to-medium-enterprise environment is fraught with obstacles. Current development, although opportunistic, is fragmented and hard to negotiate, especially for a small company.

Successful medical device innovation requires collaboration between medical device companies, research organisations and end users. Traditionally, the relationships between these various stakeholder groups are complex and problematic, each having diff erent motivations and expectations, and being driven by diff erent rewards.

Medical device development also requires collaboration across the diverse disciplines of engineering, medicine and science. Th is further complicates the process for small companies unsure how to access multidisciplinary expertise. Adding to this complexity, research organisations can fi nd it hard to work together due to the inherent competition between institutions for research funding.

Partnering ProgramAt Flinders University we have experienced these challenges fi rsthand and, with the support of the South Australian Government, have developed a program that facilitates innovation, providing a single entry point to diverse capabilities and a model for engagement focused on building relationships.

Th e Medical Device Partnering Program (MDPP) was established in 2008 to proactively drive new innovation, to help build a sustainable industry and to assist in the development of new products. Th e MDPP was structured to address the challenges by providing a market-driven model for research that develops links with industry and end users from the outset, identifying opportunities for stakeholders to work together to achieve mutual benefi ts, and providing guidance and assistance through the development and commercialisation pathway.

Th e MDPP focuses on the importance

Successful medical device innovation requires collaboration between medical device companies, research organisations and end users – traditionally with complex and problematic relationships.

of relationship building in innovation, facilitating interactions between medical device companies, research organisations, and clinical and client service groups. It provides a transparent model for collaboration where all parties are empowered by participating in and knowing what they can expect from the process.

It provides a streamlined mechanism for research and development and draws on the breadth of capabilities from its partner network to identify opportunities for medical device development, exploring potential solutions, turning ideas into prototypes and performing product evaluations.

Th e Partnering Program has a focus on recognising and understanding the needs of the end users of technology-based medical products and services, a multidisciplinary creative approach to meeting that need and a structured approach to delivering solutions within a short timeframe. Underpinning these principles is a solid foundation of fundamental scientifi c knowledge and expertise from the three major South Australian universities.

In brief, the Partnering Program model works as follows:¢ �during initial stages of the partnering

process, an MDPP Project Manager works with the client (who may be a company, an end user or an inventor) to identify opportunities for collaborative product development;

By Karen Reynoldskaren.reynolds@fl inders.edu.au

SA’s Partnering Program drives innovation through collaboration

Focus February 13


Karen reynolds and colleagues brainstorming new concepts in

orthopaedics.

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Focus February 13


¢ �following a decision to accept the project into the MDPP, a project ‘brainstorming’ workshop is coordinated between the client and up to 10 multidisciplinary specialists – researchers from across the three partner universities, manufacturers, end users, service providers and commercialisation experts;

¢ �projects progress from the workshop to a carefully structured ‘technical exploration project stage’, which involves up to 250 hours of prototype development, proof-of-concept work, product validation or evaluation undertaken by a research team from across the partner institutions. The client makes a small investment into the project at this stage; and

¢ �at the end of the project, results, data, and prototypes are released to the client, together with plans for further research, development and/or commercialisation. One key to the success of the MDPP

is the simplicity and low risk of its offering to industry – 250 hours of coordinated assistance to relevant projects that demonstrate market potential. This simple concept removes the barriers between stakeholders and provides a space for ideation and innovation. The short projects also provide opportunities for those involved to establish trust and common ground, and a basis for future funding or investment.

Furthermore, the MDPP provides a non-competitive environment for engagement across the research partner organisations, allowing true collaboration among traditionally competitive universities. Projects are often undertaken by a team of researchers from more than one institution working alongside each other together with the industry partner. In this way, the MDPP provides industry with the opportunity to access South Australia’s most appropriate research expertise and facilities via a single point of contact.

The MDPP also maintains a network of contacts and has regular networking and informative functions that allow the small-to-medium enterprises to share their experiences and learn from each other in a supportive environment.

outcomesThe effectiveness of the Partnering Program is demonstrated by the enthusiasm shown by companies to

work with researchers and to invest in early stage products or ideas.

Since it was established, the MDPP has worked with more than 100 new medical device ideas, developed 18 prototypes and validated another 20 or so new product ideas. Projects include:¢ �a simulator for cognitive

rehabilitation following stroke (stroke affects more than 50,000 Australians each year), trialled in the Repatriation General Hospital;

¢ �the design and manufacture of a low-cost, market-entry prototype of bright-light therapy glasses for use in the treatment of insomnia and related disorders;

¢ �the development of an innovative touch screen vision therapy and assessment tool for use following acquired brain injury;

¢ �a clinical trial to assess the performance and accuracy of a handheld ultrasound device in estimating bladder volume in postpartum women; and

¢ �a novel hand hygiene detection product, which has been installed in the coronary care unit of a local hospital.The MDPP has become the recognised

portal for medical device collaboration in SA, with support from all relevant stakeholder groups across the state and increasingly across the country.

The outcomes of the Program are:¢ �companies have benefited from

new collaborative relationships that optimise future opportunities and reduce risks inherent in the research and development process;

¢ �researchers have benefited from engagement in innovative, real-world projects, enhanced relationships with industry partners and end users, and new funding prospects;

¢ �collaboration has increased between research institutions and across disciplines;

¢ �companies have worked together, sharing expertise, information and equipment;

¢ �manufacturers have diversified into new markets;

¢ �end users have benefited from working with research and commercial partners to provide solutions to identified problems and needs; and

¢ �the community has been engaged through targeted focus groups providing feedback on new medical device concepts.

lessons learntThe MDPP has provided evidence that – given a simple, clear partnering model – traditionally competing parties are willing to engage and work together collaboratively with successful outputs.

The manufacturing and medical device sectors are supportive, happy to seek diversification, willing to engage with research organisations and prepared to invest.

Researchers value the project support they receive through the Partnering Program and thrive on the challenge of new projects.

There are many pre-seed ideas with potential, providing significant opportunity for Australia to grow its medical device industry. However, inventors often have a poor understanding of path to market and there is a worrying lack of engagement with, and understanding of, the end users of their products.

The MDPP is currently exploring opportunities to extend nationally, to work with more end users, companies and manufacturers – and to bring together the best research capabilities in the country to assist them. There is enthusiasm from the sector and the opportunity to build a successful and ‘smart’ medical device industry in Australia, delivering health and economic benefits to the nation.

The clear message from the MDPP is that, given the right opportunity and a transparent and effective model for engagement, barriers to collaboration and innovation can be overcome.

However, these kinds of activities cannot occur without support, and the ongoing need to fund programs aimed at stimulating innovation and bridging the gap between research activity and industry development must be recognised.

PrOFESSOr KArEn rEynOLDS is Matthew

Flinders Distinguished Professor of Biomedical

Engineering at Flinders University. As Director of

the university’s Medical Device research institute

she is motivated by her passion to make a practical

difference, using science and engineering to

bridge the gap between patients’ needs and

clinical knowledge. Karen was named South

Australian Scientist of the year in 2012. She was

listed in the ‘Top 100 Most influential Engineers

in Australia’ in 2012, elected a Fellow of ATSE in

2011, and was awarded the title of Australian

Professional Engineer of the year in 2010.

12

February 13 Focus


AtSE and the SA Department for Manufacturing, Innovation, trade, Resources and Energy (DMItRE) will focus on how South Australia’s manufacturing sector can enter new and emerging markets in a one-day seminar in Adelaide on 26 February.

Presenters from South Australia and beyond will discuss the various ways that government, research institutions, education providers and industry can work together to help transform manufacturing in SA – including

how the creation of ‘centres of Excellence’ could assist maximise value-chain opportunities in SA from resource and energy expansion, defence industry capabilities, and premium food and wine.

Speakers include: ¢�Professor Robin Batterham Ao FREng FAA

FtSE, former chief Scientist to the Australian Government and Immediate Past President of AtSE;

¢�Professor Magnus Nyden, Director, Ian Wark Research Institute, UniSA;

¢�Professor Don Bursill FtSE, chief Scientist, SA;¢�Professor Goran Roos, former Adelaide

thinker in Residence and chair of SA’s Advanced Manufacturing council;

¢�Professor karen Reynolds FtSE, Director of Flinders University Medical Device Research Institute and Deputy chair, AtSE health technology Forum; and

¢�Dr craig Mudge FtSE, cSIRo.

register at www.atse.org.au.

stimulation has huge potential, and as we begin to understand more about brain plasticity, coupled with increasing microprocessor power in hand-held devices, we have the potential for complex adaptive systems that can bring real benefits to those with disabilities.

So while technology provides us with exciting prospects, there is an urgent need to address the sources of research funding, the precision with which research is matched to need, and resourcing of those responsible for delivering and implementing

the care services that use these new technologies. While developers get excited about developing technologically

advanced solutions, our publicly funded health system struggles to purchase such devices and care deliverers complain about poorly designed devices that remain unused because buttons break too easily or systems require too many expensive calls to service engineers to keep them going.

how best can we connect those who could benefit from the technology with those able to develop the solutions?

Fascinatingly, one innovative solution could come from a recent technology success – social media. In a way that has never been possible before, individuals have a voice directly into the broader community. Products such as Facebook are used by a wide section of the community of all ages.

We could engineer a process by which those most impacted by assistive technologies for aged and disability care could have valuable dialogue with the researchers, engineers and companies seeking to develop new products and services.

how this would work, and how the conversations it encourages could add value to our system, is one of the questions posed by the recent Enabling Assistive technologies Network workshop held by AtSE.

Innovative solutions could place Australia well ahead of the rest of the world tackling exactly the same issue.

– Dr Erol Harvey FTSE

health technology can have an enormous impact

Pundits predict that this will be the century of biology, following the domination of the 20th century by physics and the 19th century by chemistry.

If this is so, then it is the technological combination of all of these with bioengineering, materials engineering and information and communication technology (Ict) that will have an enormous impact on people’s lives – not least of all for the aged and those with disabilities.

It is in the last few years of an individual’s life that the greatest expenditure on health care occurs. our current health system has a focus on intervention – on fixing something when it has been identified as not working correctly.

hence, there is much interest in diagnostic devices and methods for interpreting the ever-increasing depth and complexity of pathological data. We are seeing the development of disposable lab-on-a-chip and point-of-care diagnostic devices using microfluidics, nanotechnology and microtechnology.

At the annual J.P. Morgan healthcare conference, held in San Francisco in January 2013, it was clear that molecular diagnostics (the measurement of DNA and related systems) is the hot area for investment over the next few years, with the prospect soon of having an individual’s genetic sequence fully decoded for less than $1000.

Blood glucose measurement for diabetics is a familiar example of simple and low-cost point-of-care diagnostics. however, in the near future complex diagnostic systems will be run at the doctor’s surgery or even at home, providing time-stamped data that can be used for greater precision analysis of more complex diseases.

the ability to measure more regularly and with greater ease brings the prospect of monitoring to provide so called ‘wellness care’ and encourage healthy habits that delay the onset of chronic pathological conditions.

In terms of assistive medical devices the future holds much potential. the cochlear implant is a great Australian success story, and the ARc-supported research effort at the Monash Vision Group and Bionic Vision Australia positions the country in the race to develop a bionic eye.

the knowledge and technology developed for direct neurological

Monash University researcher Damien Browne tests the wireless system of the bionic eye.

TrANSforMiNg SA MANufAcTuriNg

13

Focus February 13


A 78-year-old woman lives by herself and crashes to the floor one day, unable to call for help. If not for an attentive

neighbour, who notices she hasn’t checked her mailbox that morning, she may have lain there for hours or days.

Now her family needs to decide ‘what to do with her’. Health professionals have said she needs help and should move in with family or take up residence at an aged-care village, but practicalities and feasibility make these near-impossible options. The woman, like thousands of senior Australians, is adamant that she wants to remain living in her family home.

This situation is reminiscent of the calls heard daily by the Aged Care Advisory Service at Feros Care – but Feros Care has been changing the landscape of aged-care solutions for seniors wanting to remain at home by providing smart technology services that can mean costly moves or increasing family pressures are all but eliminated.

As an aged-care industry player we have acknowledged early on that Australia is facing a booming ageing population with a multitude of needs and wants and, along with that, tightening government coffers and a stretched workforce.

We are also currently experiencing a shift in the way older people want to live. They would like a variety of services that enhance their mind and body, and fit into their current lives, at their home. We believe smart technology is a way to address these challenges head on.

Smart technology has allowed us to offer a more dynamic support package. Instead of just allocating individual funds into daily 10-minute support visits, for example, we are able to modify homes to assist seniors ‘virtually’ with certain

tasks and monitoring, and spread their government package further by also including other ‘wants’ such as transport, attending local events and internet access. For us, aged-care services are not just about caring for a client but keeping them invigorated, independent and happy, and actively participating in their communities.

Since running a self-funded trial of the technology – our 2010 results can be found at www.lifelink.com.au – we have worked tirelessly to lead the way in mainstreaming gadgets that turn an ordinary home into a Smart Home. We recently reached the milestone of 800 Smart Homes along the east coast of Australia.

Importantly, we have worked hard to ensure technology is used as part of a holistic mix of virtual and physical services, where care isn’t dehumanised and the individual is able to live a fulfilling and active life.

It hasn’t all been smooth sailing. We have gained valuable insights,

The changing paradigm in aged and disability careSmart technology has allowed us to offer a more dynamic support package that can mean costly moves or increasing family pressures are all but eliminated.

adopted a new way of thinking within the organisation and discovered areas for growth. We believe we have a roadmap of where we need to improve and how we can move forward.

The key clients for smart technology are:¢�people living alone with chronic health

conditions – chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), congestive heart failure (CHF), diabetes and so on);

¢�people who are at a high risk of falls, have great anxiety or live with a disability;

¢�people living with dementia (with or without a live-in carer);

¢�people living in regional and remote locations, particularly with limited health and support services; and

¢�carers, friends or family members who have assumed the primary contact role and are anxious, worried and stressed about the responsibility.

By Jennene [email protected]

The emergency response pendant should get help to a collapsed person quickly.

Nuclear Energy for Australia?Don’t miss out!

Seats are limited and will sell out fast!ThE PowErhouSE MuSEuM, SyDNEy

25-26 July, 2013

Inquiries to Nichole Abruzzise (03) 9864 0908 or [email protected]

Nuclear energy for Australia? It’s a question that is too important to ignore in any examination of Australia’s energy options, but attracts immediate questions about the implications.

Are nuclear power stations safe? What would we do with the wastes? Where would such power stations be located? How would they be cooled? Are they dangerously radioactive? Can they be the source of nuclear weapons? Is the regulatory environment adequate? On the other hand – Could they reduce emissions and help Australia meet its carbon reduction targets? Would they provide low-cost baseload power, able to charge low-emission electric vehicles at night? Would they provide high level secure jobs – and more?

} KEyNoTE SPEAKErSProfessor Peter Guthrie | Professor of Sustainability, Cambridge University, UKDr Ron Cameron FTSE | Head of the Nuclear Development Division,

OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, FranceMr Lee Hee-Yong | Senior Vice President, Overseas Nuclear Power Projects, KEPCO, Korea Dr Massimo Salvatores | Senior Scientific Advisor to the Director of the

Nuclear Energy Division of the CEA, FranceMr Timo Äikäs | Executive Vice President, Posiva Oy, Finland

The Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), an independent body of professional engineers and technologists, believes the hesitant debate on nuclear energy in Australia needs to be responsibly refocused and reliably and factually informed. It is bringing together highly respected international and national speakers – representing the broad spectrum of opinion on nuclear power – to lead open debate in this two-day seminar on the key technological, economic, social and environmental issues relating to nuclear power generation.

DNEy

nuclear weapons? Is the regulatory environment adequate? On the other nuclear weapons? Is the regulatory environment adequate? On the other

This is a “don’t miss” event if you’re part of – or

interested in – the national debate

about Australia’s energy options.

REGiSTRATioN oPEN Now.W: www.ATSE.oRG.Au | e: [email protected] | T: 03 9864 0908

15

Focus February 13


Smart Home toolsThere is a variety of technology-based equipment that works within the home and is tethered to a centrally located base alarm – which communicates with a 24/7 response centre:¢�Emergency Response – a pendant-

style button worn around the neck or on a belt, as well as help buttons/pull-cords in the bathroom;

¢�Falls Detection – alerts automatically if the client falls, even if unconscious or immobile;

¢�Falls Prevention – bed and chair sensors, automatic night lighting and response lighting to movement;

¢�Daytime Exit Sensor – door sensors that automatically alert if the person vacates the home unaided or for an unusually long time;

¢�Night-time Exit Sensor – door sensors and pillow shakers that automatically alert a sleeping carer or the response centre;

¢�Wandering Behaviour – the “Find-Me” Carer’s watch with GPS tracking for wandering high-risk clients;

¢�Inactivity Alert – alarm sounds if there is no movement or activity in the client’s home over a period of time (for example, all morning or around meal times);

¢�Live-in carer daytime alert – a pager and/or audio speaker from base alarm that will raise an in-house alarm for a live-in carer;

¢�Critical Visits – provision for care workers to record any critical visits attended or not attended;

¢�Unwelcome Visitor – an activated alarm to the response centre should the client feel anxious about an unexpected person at the front door;

¢�Fire, Flood and Gas Prevention – an automated sensor alerts the response centre if there is a change in the home environment;

¢�Key Safe – security pin-based access to a spare house key for emergency services, carers, trusted friends and so on; and

¢�Automatic reminders – to remind clients of medications, appointments and so on, which can be set up remotely by mobile phone.

telecare beneFits – used to secure a home with sensors and alarmsThe changes brought about by telecare technology, once adopted in a home,

are quite often obvious, but they are also fed back to our Gateway team, with much enthusiasm from the clients themselves and their families, reflecting their new sense of freedom.

Telecare technology has the ability to reduce the burden, anxiety and stress experienced by both individuals and their families/carers. Our pilot trial found that more than 90 per cent of clients strongly agreed or agreed that the technology “allowed them to be more independent” and “improved their security”. As well, 80 per cent of respondents said that the technology had improved the quality of their life.

The establishment of a Smart Home has allowed people to stay at home longer than they expected to, particularly as an adverse incident had led them to adopt the technology. A significant benefit to live-in carers, they report, is their ability to maintain paid employment outside the home and regain freedom and peace of mind in undertaking social activities.

In our view, telecare technology-backed Smart Homes have allowed 800 Australians to remain at home, instead of going into the healthcare system as a consequence of falls, medication errors or other frailties that would normally lead to residential aged care. We see telecare technology as a possible solution to alleviate the burden placed on the country’s healthcare system and workforce.

The greatest challenge we are facing with telecare at present is the lack of awareness and/or adoption by the wider aged-care and healthcare sectors. Referral rates and implementation is low compared to traditional support mechanisms, and it is therefore not considered a mainstream option within the industry.

Government support and funding are also marginal, requiring organisations like ours to undertake self-funded trials, research and adoption. Feros Care plans to take an education roadshow to the Federal Parliament and to the wider health sector.

telehealth beneFits – used by individuals to monitor chronic health conditionsThe use of individual daily health monitoring has been of great benefit to

our clients who live with chronic health conditions and are not otherwise physically or mentally in need of greater support. Telehealth has also opened up our clientele reach, attracting the interest of middle- aged individuals not eligible for aged-care services, but living with a chronic health condition.

Client improvements in self-management, compliance and convenience have all added up to improved health outcomes, enhancing their lifestyles. Such improvements have reduced the stress on primary care resources and longer-term burdens experienced as a result of chronic diseases.

Looking at the benefits for the wider industry, by leveraging technology and in particular the internet, telehealth has radically increased the reach of medical services and the management of clients. The current model enables a stretched healthcare system and its workforce to manage a far greater number of clients for improved health outcomes – much more than a traditional face-to-face model could.

Once again, however, awareness and willingness to adopt a new model has resulted in a slow uptake and low referrals.

The current Medicare rebate system is a structural barrier as there is no subsidy allowance for clients based at home. Telehealth is not considered a mainstream service offering, so funding is not available for providers.

We would encourage support and funding that would allow us and the industry to explore the technology further, particularly addressing implementation issues we have experienced and tried to combat alone, as well as wider education and adoption.

JEnnEnE BUCKLEy is CEO of Feros Care, a multi-

award-winning, non-profit organisation that provides

aged and community care. in her 12 years as CEO,

Jennene has expanded Feros Care from a single

locality, residential provider to one of the fastest-

growing aged and community care services on the

east coast of Australia, spanning 1000 kilometres

from Forster, nSW, to Bundaberg, Queensland. One

of Feros Care’s major initiatives is pioneering the

use of telehealthcare assistive technologies in the

Australian aged-care industry, which are now in use

in more than 800 Smart Homes.

The greatest challenge we are facing with telecare at present is the lack of awareness and/or adoption by the wider aged-care and healthcare sectors.

v

16

February 13 Focus

www.atse.org.auatse in action

Australia needs a different approach to innovation to sustain and further build the prosperity and social cohesiveness we now enjoy

so much. We are not organising our reward systems to ensure that the innovation dividends flowing from our investment in university research are optimal.

This is a view partly reflected in a recommendation that a working party I chaired made to the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council in 1999: that all PhD programs must include components that familiarise the students with the essential steps to – and satisfaction to be gained from – bridging the gap between the science and its application.

A greater proportion of our research effort should get taken further to deliver more tangible outcomes in the broader community.

1We have to invest more in (and reward) the elements of research activity

that lead to positive economic and wider societal impacts through translational activity in partnership with potential end users of research. Many policy settings and institutional assessment schemes have seen us go backwards – for example, the Australian Research Council’s wonderful Linkage scheme has been reduced in scope, as has the very successful CRC program, while the limited scope of the otherwise useful Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) evaluation scheme has encouraged researchers to ‘move on to the next paper’.

2We need to educate a greater proportion of both undergraduate and

By Peter Hø[email protected]

our prosperity rests on a new approach to innovation

postgraduate students to take pride in and be enthused by the opportunity to become innovators. This will see the number of researchers employed in business boosted greatly and include a mindset to see initial failure as a career-enhancing event, as opposed to a career death sentence.

3We need to change attitudes in Australian businesses towards

innovation both in terms of hiring and investment principles. An improvement in our innovation effort is not only about universities (and other publicly funded research organisations) reaching out, but very much about business’ ability to spot the opportunities for meaningful partnerships and investment at an early stage of the innovation cycle.

university rankingsDepending on which of three widely known rankings systems you look at (Shanghai Jiao Tong, Quacquarelli Symonds or Times Higher Education), Australia has five, six or seven universities in the top 100 and about 20 in the top 500.

This is not a bad effort given the current resourcing of Australian university research.

Over the past decade, a strong obsession has developed with university rankings, not only amongst academics but also in the public press and amongst politicians. It is perhaps the closest we have come to being recognised as sports stars and it is therefore not surprising that we have heard political calls for Australia to do better.

I am all for doing better but it has to be in a competition that is relevant to our preferences and needs. I am not sure that

the many calls for Australian universities to do better have been made with the full knowledge of what that actually means.

The juxtaposition of various measures in Table 1 is not necessarily related to causation, but the correlations require us to reflect on what we wish for. The table compares the current account balances of Australia, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany the UK and the US.

Three of these have problems with trade imbalances: Australia, the UK and the US. Finland has also slipped a bit in this regard, perhaps due to the very strong reliance on one type of product that no longer is in as great demand as a decade ago. The parallel to the Australian economy springs to mind.

The two countries with the worst current account deficits also have the most universities in the global top 20 and a relatively poor performance in the indicator of triadic patents, although still ahead of Australia, which has a worryingly low performance on this indicator.

Those with the healthiest trade ledgers do not have a single university in the global top 20 of the Shanghai Jiao Tong index, and only one (ETH Zurich) in the top 20 of Times Higher and QS.

On the other hand they clearly possess a large business expenditure on research and development and a good number of triadic patents – compare Switzerland at 115 triadic patents per million capita versus Australia and the UK at 14 and 37, respectively.

Can it be that the commonly accepted measures for university excellence are at best lacking and at worst in danger of moving us in the wrong direction? I believe so.

The Chief Scientist’s Office (May 2012) revealed that academic publications per 1000 population in the OECD were highest in Sweden, Denmark and Finland – well ahead of Australia,

This is an edited version of the 2012 ATSE Oration delivered at the AGM/new Fellows dinner on 23 november 2012 at the Hotel Windsor, Melbourne, by Professor Peter Høj FTSE, Vice Chancellor of The University of Queensland. The full Oration with references is available on the ATSE website (www.atse.org.au/resource-centre/ATSE-Orations/).

v

17atse in action

Focus February 13

www.atse.org.au

the UK and the US. Similarly, the proportion of publications in the top 25 per cent of journals was the highest in Denmark and Sweden – again well ahead of Australia, Canada and the US. Finland, Sweden and Denmark also have more researchers per 1000 capita than the US, Australia and the UK.

The key message to take from these comparisons is that the number of highly ranked universities in a nation does not necessarily reflect its qualitative and quantitative research capability relative to population size and it might therefore not correlate well with strong export economies. In contrast, the quality and quantity of the published output per 1000 population does – and so does, perhaps to a greater extent, the number of researchers per 1000 population.

Put differently, would moving all of the University of NSW’s highly cited researchers to the Australian National University enhance our innovation system, even though it certainly would enhance the ranking of an already highly ranked ANU? I suggest the answer would be no.

On the other hand, would raising the number of good researchers per 1000 capita help? Yes, most likely – especially if it is linked to areas where a strategic roadmap has shown a need for disciplinary and interdisciplinary expertise.

Our gross domestic expenditure on research and development is the key. Table 1 indicates that the secret to the success of most of these countries and their capacity for high researcher density per capita could very well relate to their high gross domestic expenditure on research and development and possibly even more so their business expenditure on research and development (BERD).

innovation driversWe need more innovators employed in business and other settings.

Australia and the UK are uniquely characterised by having the minority of their researchers employed in business relative to higher education. Per 1000 workers: ¢�Australia and the UK have about two

researchers in business enterprises and five in higher education (excluding CSIRO) – a ratio of 0.4;

¢�Finland has about 10 researchers in business enterprises and five in higher education – a ratio of 2;

¢�Denmark has about eight researchers in business enterprises and four in higher education – again a ratio of about 2; and

¢�Germany has more than four researchers in business enterprises and two in higher education – another ratio of at least 2. These are startling differences, reflected

in innovative capabilities as measured by triadic patent families, high value manufactured products and so on.

To change these trends to create a resilient Australia with a much more diversified economy we need to operate at two levels.

First, we must give a larger proportion of our university graduates the self-confidence and enthusiasm to become researchers, entrepreneurs and innovators outside the academic sphere. This needs a multicomponent approach, including:

1A curriculum that includes tuition by enthusiastic innovators who

‘have been there and done that’. Britain has moved to address some

of the imbalances I have illustrated by establishing doctoral training centres, where industry connectivity and input into doctoral training are much enhanced. In Australia we are tentatively moving in that direction – the Australian Research Council’s announcement of Industrial Transformation Research Hubs and

Table 1 comparison of ‘top 20’ universities, gdP per capita, current account balances, bErd and triadic patents of Australia, Switzerland, Sweden, denmark, finland, germany, the uk and the uS

countrynumber of ‘top 20’ universities

gdP per capita (us$) 2011 (imF) est.

current account balance as share of gdP (%) 2009



berd as % of gdP 2008

berd as % of gdP 2009

triadic patents per million capita 2007–09

australia 0 66,371 – 4.4 – 2.9 – 2.3 1.34 (08/09*) 1.3 (09/10*) 14

denmark 0 59,709 4.5 5.5 6.7 2.01 2.02c 53

Finland 0 48,783 1.3 1.4 – 1.2 2.76 2.83 65

germany 0 44,111 5.9 6.0 5.7 1.86 1.88P 72

sweden 0 57,638 7.2 6.8 6.9 2.74 2.55 100

switzerland 0 83,072 8.5 14.3 10.5 2.20 n/a 115

uK 2 38,811 – 1.1 – 2.5 – 1.9 1.10 1.12 37

us 17 48,328 – 2.7 – 3.0 – 3.1 2.02JP n/a 46

P = provisional c = national estimate J = excludes most or all capital expenditure berd = business expenditure on research & developmentsources: number of top 20 universities – academic ranking of world universities (shanghai Jiaotong university);

gdP per capita – imF, world economic outlook database, oct. 2012; current account balance – world economic outlook database, oct. 2012; berd as a % of gdP – main science and technology indicators, oecd vol 2011/1 (*abs 8104.0); triadic patents per million capita 2007–09 – www.oecd.org/sti/innovationinsciencetechnologyandindustry/oecdpatentdatabases.htm

We must give a larger proportion of our university graduates the self-confidence and enthusiasm to become researchers, entrepreneurs and innovators outside the academic sphere.

18

February 13 Focus

www.atse.org.auatse in action

the Australian Technology Network of Universities’ mathematics doctoral training centre that at equilibrium will have more than 100 mathematics PhDs enrolled in co-sponsored programs.

2A university system where reward for high-quality research absolutely

must continue, but augmented by reward for success in translating research to an application and commercialisation stage.

This is an element of assessment that is sadly missing from evaluation and reward of research activity in Australia. In other words, if the trainers have no incentive to engage with the impact side of things, they will not project the enthusiasm to our students. It brings us back to the old saying: ‘Tell me how you reward your people and I will tell you how they behave’.

3An innovation system where we clearly decide on areas where

we want to be world-leading. We must then establish innovation

precincts around such strengths, much as are happening at Cambridge University or Medicon Valley between Copenhagen and Malmö in Sweden. A prerequisite for industry investment is that we demonstrate world-leading capacity, much as I saw at The Wark/Mawson Institutes at the University of South Australia and much as I have seen at The University of Queensland.

At UQ many resources companies, including Rio Tinto at a large scale, are making repeated and very significant investment in engaged and translatable high-calibre research, based on the outstanding capabilities in the relevant core engineering and science disciplines increasingly augmented by high-quality social sciences research.

Eventually, I believe we could arrive at a situation where the employment of researchers and their physical work environment can oscillate between research institutions and businesses

business investmentBusiness investment in innovation is too low in Australia, despite some notable exceptions.

There is an interesting lack of systemic

investment in R&D leading to deep innovation across the board. Some blame this on the abundance of natural resources, others on the distance from major markets, but it must be addressed now.

One strategy business could try is to employ more PhD-educated people. Rightly or wrongly they are relatively inexpensive, have much experience and a globalised mindset. Such people will assist you in identifying new opportunities by scanning publicly funded research institutions for collaborative opportunities relevant to your business. They will help you devise new strategies internally and enhance productivity through incremental improvements.

This would be consistent with one of the main conclusions from the 2003 Lambert Review of Business–University Collaboration in Britain: “…the question is about how to raise the overall level of demand by business for research from all sources”.

Clearly, from Table 1, other countries see the benefit. Indeed, the better companies see the supply of PhD graduates as industry support in a globalising race for talent.

It should happen here as well, and first-movers have an incredible opportunity to tap into fantastic innovation potential which currently is not sufficiently explored.

Germany provides a great example. UQ Alumnus (and ATSE Fellow) Andrew Liveris, CEO and Chairman of The Dow Chemical Company, writing in his book Make it in America: The case for re-inventing the economy notes: “To put their manufacturing might in perspective, Germany makes up 1.2 per cent of the world’s population, but German industry accounts for 17 per cent of global market share.”

Deloitte’s 2012 Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index (GCMI) ranked China first and Australia at 15, but Germany was ranked second, despite the constant talk about Europe being in a mess.

German CEOs were clear that the close connection between universities and industry, as well as their dual university/vocational system, was of utmost importance, an issue that I believe we need to look very carefully at here in Australia.

If we get our institutional framework right in Australia, then I think anything is possible – there have been some promising developments recently.

Notably the Australian Technology Network and Group of Eight universities have undertaken the extensive Excellence in Innovation for Australia (EIA) trial to see whether impact could be readily identified and measured in Australian university research. The study showed, beyond doubt, that it is possible using a case-study approach to assess and determine the impact of Australian research, with clear indications that high impact invariably has an origin in basic research of the highest calibre.

The ATN/Go8 trial indicates the strong potential to measure and encourage a greater impact flowing from excellent research. There is no longer any justification for not seeking to identify and reward impact alongside the essential recognition for research excellence. I hope our Government will see such translations as part of establishing what is, and what is not, a top university – and this cannot happen too soon!

History shows that those who back innovation prosper, as research delivers way beyond our wildest dreams.

Australia can do it if we take the approaches I have outlined, but we must start now. If we manage to do so, we will be the creators of the ‘big thing’ after the next ‘big thing’.

Is it going to be easy? No! Is it going to take a while? Yes. Does that mean we should not do it? No, we have no choice.

In this case, the difficulty of the task can never be allowed to be a barrier.

PrOFESSOr PETEr HøJ FTSE is Vice-Chancellor

of The University of Queensland. He was formerly

VC of the University of South Australia and earlier

Chief Executive Officer of the Australian research

Council and Managing Director of the Australian

Wine research institute. He is a member of the

CSirO Board. Professor Høj has a Master of Science,

PhD and Honorary Doctorate from the University of

Copenhagen. He has served on the Prime Minister’s

Science, Engineering and innovation Council, and

his many awards include the Boehringer-Mannheim

Medal from the Australian Society for Biochemistry

and Molecular Biology. He is a Foreign Member

(natural Sciences Class) of The royal Danish

Academy of Sciences and Letters.

if the trainers have no incentive to engage with the impact side of things, they will not project the enthusiasm to our students. it brings us back to the old saying: ‘Tell me how you reward your people and i will tell you how they behave’.

19www.atse.org.au

Focus February 13

atse in action

AtSE President Dr Alan Finkel AM FtSE led an Australian delegation to Israel in December 2012 for a Neuroscience Workshop and associated technical visits, held in conjunction with the Israel Society for Neuroscience’s (ISFN) Annual Meeting.

It was organised under the Australia Israel Research Exchange (AIRE), established by the Israeli Ministry of technology and Science and the Australian Government, with AtSE administering the Australian program.

the delegation included leading Australia neuroscientists – Laureate Professor Sam Berkovic FAA FRS, Professor Ashley Bush, Professor Geoff Donnan Ao, Professor Sarah Dunlop, Professor Andrew kaye, Laureate Professor colin Masters FAA FtSE, Dr Michael Nilsson, Professor Linda Richards, Professor John Rostas, Professor Peter Schofield and Professor cyndi Shannon Weickert.

the visit included discussions at the tel Aviv Medical centre Ichilov, the tel Aviv University, Bar-Ilan University, the technion, the Weizmann Institute of Science and the hebrew University of Jerusalem, allowing for Australian and Israeli expertise in neuroscience and areas for collaborative research to be discussed.

the ISFN conference drew more than 800 international delegates, with concurrent workshops held on various topic areas.

the delegation also participated in meetings to discuss commercialisation in

israel visit valuable for neuroscience team

Israel in cooperation with the Australia Israel chamber of commerce, a reception with the Australian Ambassador to Israel, Ms Andrea Faulkner, and a dinner hosted by Professor Ruth Arnon, President of the Israel Academy of Sciences and humanities.

these allowed for the Australian delegates to meet with key stakeholders in the Australia–Israel relationship, engage in high-level discussions and identify specific areas of complementarity.

the Australian Minister for Mental health and Ageing, Minister for Social Inclusion and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Mental health Reform, Mark Butler, also joined the delegation in Israel, along with Ms Virginia hart, Executive Director, Research Programs Branch, National health and Medical Research council.

A call for fellowships in the area of neuroscience will be made shortly, following on from this visit, which will allow for Australian early to mid-career researchers to travel Israel for up to four weeks to undertake research at an Israeli institution in specified topic areas.

A delegation of Israeli marine scientists will visit Australia during 2013 for a workshop and technical visits. the Australian convenor of this is Dr Ian Poiner FtSE, former cEo of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) at townsville.

the 2013 AtSE clunies Ross Awards Dinner will be held in Melbourne on Wednesday 15 May at the Melbourne convention centre. the dinner is supported by the Victorian Department of Business and Innovation and principal sponsors include Monash University and ANSto.

this is an annual highlight event on the national awards calendar.the awards highlight AtSE’s commitment to innovation,

commercialisation and productivity, and honour those taking the nation’s leading technologies to the marketplace. the clunies Ross Awards are the nation’s pre-eminent acknowledgement for commercialisation of services and products.

the Awards have recognised the achievements of more than 100 people over the past 21 years, including: Professor Ian Frazer, co-inventor of the cervical cancer vaccine; Professor Graeme clark, inventor of the bionic ear; Nobel laureate Dr Barry Marshall, who discovered the bacteria that causes stomach ulcers; and Dr Fiona Wood, inventor of spray-on skin.

the Awards dinner is followed on 16 May by the Extreme Science

Experience – a one-day ‘experience’ for Year 10 science students to go hands-on in workshops with the Award winners and ‘speed meet’ prominent scientists. the event will once again be hosted by Bernie hobbs of ABc tV’s The New Inventors. the 2013 ESE is backed by the Victorian Department of Education and Early childhood Development and principal sponsors include cSIRo and Monash University.

For more information or to discuss sponsorship of the events, please contact nichole Abruzzise (03 9864 0908, [email protected]).

(Above) The Australian delegation in israel.

(Left) Alan Finkel and ruth Arnon.

2013 cLUNIES RoSS AWARDS DINNER IN MELBoURNE

Professor Les Field, for sponsor the University of nSW Malcolm Chaikin Foundation, presents a 2013 Clunies ross Award certificate to Professor Peter Blamey.

20 atse in action www.atse.org.au

February 13 Focus

STElr gets thumbs up in indonesiaIndonesian science teachers have trialled the StELR schools kit at the national science training centre – and given it their approval.

Dr Ismunandar, Director, SEAMEo (South East Asian Ministers of Education organisation) Regional centre for Quality Improvement of teachers and Education Personnel (QItEP) in Science , Indonesia, advised StELR Project Manager Peter Pentland that teachers had tested

the kit in January. they appreciated the quality of the student and teacher guidebooks and noted that the build quality of materials, the convenience and the safety of StELR was better than other renewable energy kits. Subject to availability the kit could also be directly tested with students in Indonesian schools, he said.

hosted by the Ministry of National Education Indonesia, the SEAMEo QItEP for Science offers courses and training programs for educators and teachers development. Located in Bandung, the centre promotes programs and activities in improving the quality of science teachers and education personnel.

AtSE donated a StELR teacher kit and student kit to the centre following the Innovative teaching and Learning of Science through Inquiry-based Science Education (IBSE) seminar-workshop in Penang, Malaysia, october 2012, organised by AtSE Foreign Fellow Dato Lee Yee cheong and attended by Mr Pentland.

AtSE also donated a similar kit to the SEAMo centre in Penang.

the Academy will host a national conference titled Nuclear energy for Australia?’ at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney on 25 and 26 July – a ‘don’t miss’ event if you’re part of, or interested in, the national debate about Australia’s energy options.

It’s a question that is too important to ignore in any examination of Australia’s energy options, but attracts immediate questions about the implications: Are nuclear power stations safe? What would we do with the wastes? Where would such power stations be located? how would they be cooled? Are they dangerously radioactive? can they be the source of nuclear weapons? Is the regulatory environment adequate?

on the other hand: could they reduce emissions and help Australia meet its carbon reduction targets? Would they provide low-cost baseload power, able to charge low-emission electric vehicles at night? Would they provide high-level, secure jobs – and more?

Nuclear energy for Australia?

Science teachers testing the STELr equipment in indonesia.

the recent Energy White Paper for Australia acknowledges the option of nuclear power as a proven low-emissions-generation technology and Australia has a potentially strong position as one of the world’s major safe and reliable exporters of uranium fuel. But nuclear power generation is only considered currently as a reserve technology in the event that other low-emission technologies – wind, solar, geothermal, carbon capture and sequestration, and clean coal – prove not to be economically viable to meet Australia’s declared carbon reduction targets.

the Academy believes the hesitant debate on nuclear energy in Australia needs to be responsibly refocused and reliably and factually informed.

It is bringing together highly respected international and national speakers – representing the broad spectrum of opinion on nuclear power – to lead open debate in this two-day seminar on the key

technological, economic, social and environmental issues relating to nuclear power generation.

key international speakers include:¢�Professor Peter Guthrie, Professor of

Sustainability, cambridge University;¢�Dr Ron cameron FtSE, head of the Nuclear

Development Division, oEcD Nuclear Energy Agency;

¢�Mr Lee hee-Yong, Senior Vice President, overseas Nuclear Power Projects, kEPco;

¢�Dr Massimo Salvatores, Senior Scientific Advisor to the Director of the Nuclear Energy Division of the cEA; and

¢�Mr timo Äikäs, Executive Vice President, Posiva oy, Finland.Seats for Nuclear energy for Australia?

are limited and will sell out fast. For more information contact Nichole Abruzzise (03 9864 0908, [email protected]).

register at www.atse.org.au/events

www.atse.org.au

Focus February 13

atse in action / oPinion 21

singaPore students tacKle stelr Students at Zonghua Secondary School in Singapore are coming to grips with the StELR concept, with the school evaluating the program.

If the pilot and proof-of-concept programs being conducted in association with Amdon consulting, a Singapore-based education consultancy, are successful, Zonghua will evaluate and explore how to fit the StELR–Amdon program into their core curriculum program.

the students enjoyed the integrated use of StELR’s laboratory kits with a modified e-book of activities and they felt that this combination of resources helped them understand the concepts in physical sciences better.

Amdon is discussing the program with other top Singapore schools with a view to introducing the StELR concept into Singapore schools.

lETTEr

iTALiAn QUAKE VErDiCTthe comments from Australian and overseas experts in the December issue of Focus (opinion, page 27) were surprising in one respect. their defence of the scientists, members of the Italian Major Risks committee, was to be expected. What was surprising was that none of those who wrote the comments mentioned the fundamental reasons for the Italian verdict.

In short, the accused were found guilty of “inaccurate, incomplete and contradictory” information. In no way were they accused of not having been able to predict earthquakes.

It is a sad reality of life in Italy that misinformation is common and at the service of political/personal interests. this is what was found to have happened in this case. Normally this type of behaviour serves favouritism and political ambitions. here the decision not to tell what the experts knew may have cost lives.

the evidence for the court came from intercepted phone calls by the head of the civil Protection Agency, Guido Bertolaso, who was under surveillance for another case of mismanagement. he asked and obtained cooperation from the Risks committee in withholding information from the public and in minimising the known risks. In those intercepted phone calls, Bertolaso asked in no uncertain terms “not to tell the truth”. Enzo Boschi, a member of the Risks committee and former president of the National Institute of Geophysics, responded on the phone: “Don’t worry, we’ll cooperate.”

their cooperation and the reassurance of Bertolaso that the community should not worry induced people to return to their homes and hostels after the initial tremors. those buildings were flattened a few days later.

to progress the debate forward there is a clear need in Italy to protect scientists from political interference and intimidation, so that they can discharge their responsibility to the best of their abilities without fear or favour.

– ALESSAnDrA A. PUCCi FTSE

year 8 students at Zhonghua Secondary School in Singapore get to grips with STELr equipment.

TrANSforMiNg SA MANufAcTuriNg

The STELr (Science and Technology Education Leveraging relevance) Project is a national secondary school science education initiative of ATSE. Developed to address the decreasing number of students choosing to further their studies in the enabling sciences and mathematics, STELr focuses on key contemporary issues.

AtSE and the South Australian Department for Manufacturing, Innovation, trade, Resources and Energy (DMItRE) will focus on how South Australia’s manufacturing sector can enter new and emerging markets in a one-day seminar in Adelaide on 26 February.

Presenters from South Australia and beyond will discuss the various ways that government, research institutions, education providers and industry can work together to help transform manufacturing in South Australia – including how the creation of ‘centres of Excellence’ could assist maximise value-chain opportunities in South Australia from resource and energy expansion, defence industry capabilities, and premium food and wine.

Speakers include: ¢�Professor Robin Batterham Ao FREng FAA FtSE, former chief Scientist for Australia and

Immediate Past President of AtSE;¢�Professor Don Bursill FtSE, chief Scientist, SA;¢�Professor Goran Roos, former Adelaide thinker in Residence and chair of SA’s Advanced

Manufacturing council;¢�Professor Magnus Nyden, Director, Ian Wark Research Institute, UniSA;¢�Professor karen Reynolds FtSE, Director of Flinders University Medical Device Research

Institute and Deputy chair, AtSE health technology Forum; and ¢�Dr craig Mudge FtSE, cSIRo.

register at www.atse.org.au.

v

February 13 Focus

www.atse.org.au22 Fresh science

guMS MAy HElP PrEdicT ArTHriTiS Adelaide scientists have found that mice with gum disease develop worse arthritis and are using this knowledge to investigate whether treating mouth conditions could help relieve human arthritis.

As part of her PhD studies, Melissa cantley worked with colleagues at the University of Adelaide to develop a new way to study these two diseases and their relationship.

“We can induce gum disease in mice using a type of bacteria associated with human disease,” she said. “We can then induce inflammatory arthritis to better understand how one disease influences another.

“We found that mice with gum disease developed worse arthritis.” Studies have shown that patients with rheumatoid arthritis are

more likely to suffer tooth loss than those without the disease. this is often associated with a gum disease called periodontal disease, which results in red, inflamed gums and loss of bone and tissues that support the teeth. More than 60 per cent of the world’s population suffers from periodontitis.

In rheumatoid arthritis, the body’s immune system attacks healthy tissue in the joints, leading to inflammation and loss of bone and cartilage. this results in a painful condition that impacts normal joint function.

the research also found signs of bone loss in the joints of mice with gum disease alone and bone loss in the jaws of mice with arthritis alone

“Not only did the gum disease influence joint tissues, but arthritis also influenced tissues in the mouth,” Melissa said. “the relationship between

these two common diseases is very complex and we can now use this model to further our understanding.”

translation to clinical studies is underway to determine if treatment of periodontitis can help reduce the symptoms associated with arthritis.

the research is a result of unique collaborations between the disciplines of anatomy and pathology

in the School of Medical Sciences and the School of Dentistry.

SToPPiNg MiNErAlS TurNiNg To jElly cooking minerals in huge mixing tanks can turn them to jelly – and an Adelaide researcher has found out why. the work could save the industry millions of dollars a year in lost production and cleaning costs.

Dr Ataollah Nosrati, a research associate at the Ian Wark Research Institute (the Wark) at the University of South Australia, has found that sticky gel-like materials form during the liquid processing of mineral ores, when clays present in the deposits release elements such as silicon and aluminium into the liquid under particular conditions of temperature and acidity.

to extract valuable metals, some of world’s largest mineral deposits are mined and processed as concentrated slurries. this generally occurs in mixing tanks at high temperatures under aggressive acidic or alkaline conditions. Zinc silicate ores, for instance, are typically cooked at between 50°c and 80°c under very acidic conditions for a couple of hours.

But occasionally, the breakdown of the attached silicon compounds results in everything thickening into a gel. this kind of thing can also happen with other ores containing reactive clays or silicates.

“If we can prevent or mitigate this,” Ataollah says, “it would lead to a higher recovery rate of valuable metals, lower operating

costs, and a dramatic increase in throughput with a greatly reduced number of plant shutdowns. the decreased need for cleaning the mixing tanks would also increase safety.”

Due to their high solubility at elevated temperatures under acidic conditions, the clay-based minerals release significant amounts of gel-forming elements into the processing solution, Ataollah found. Reactions among these elements can have a significant impact on the particle interactions and flow behaviour in the solution, and that is what leads to gelling.

the research findings pave the way for enhancing our ability to process complex, low-grade ores of copper, gold, nickel and cobalt that contain silicates and aluminosilicate clays.

More fresh Science researchnow in its 15th year, Fresh Science is a national event that brings together scientists, the media and the public. in 2012 a selection of 12 bright young scientists were selected and supported to be ambassadors for science in Australia.

Fresh Science is supported by the Department of innovation, industry, Science, research and Tertiary Education – through the inspiring Australia initiative – Museum Victoria, CSL Ltd and New Scientist magazine. State finals were also supported by the University of Queensland, AnSTO and the South Australian Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology.

Focus brought you a look at the work of two of these young scientists in the last issue. Here’s some more of their work.

Ataollah nosrati performing measurments in the lab.

Melissa Cantley Photo: DALE cAVILLE, UNIVERSItY oF ADELAIDE

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www.atse.org.au

Focus February 13

23Fresh science

SuSTAiNAblE fuElS rAiSE HEAlTH coNcErNS compounds that affect respiratory health have been found in biodiesel exhausts, which might lead to restrictions on the use of this form of biofuel as an alternative to fossil fuel, according to researchers from the Queensland University of technology (QUt).

“With fossil fuel reserves dwindling, developing renewable alternative fuels is important,” says postdoctoral fellow Dr Nicholas Surawski, one of the 2012 Fresh Scientists. “But we should be particularly careful to protect against unwanted respiratory illness when we adopt new transport fuels.”

the team looked at a range of biodiesels made from soy, tallow and canola. Using specialised analytical monitoring equipment developed at QUt, they discovered that burning diesel fuels with a high percentage of biodiesel (up to 80 per cent) produced higher emissions of compounds linked to respiratory disease.

these biologically active compounds – called reactive oxygen species – form on the surface of small soot particles in the exhaust emissions. Reactive oxygen species can lead to the cell damage called oxidative stress which, over long periods of time, can progress to serious respiratory disease.

“this is a very important discovery,” Nicholas says. “Now we’ve identified a component of the emissions that causes

the problem we can start to look for solutions.”the research team, led by Professor Zoran Ristovski, is now focusing

on understanding the way the reactive oxygen species in the emissions are generated, and on how to remove them. this work is aimed at providing the transport industry with fuels that not only have a favourable environmental impact, but that also place a lesser burden on respiratory health.

A simulation of a hypersonic vehicle in the upper atmosphere cREDItS: PRoFESSoR MIchAEL SMARt, PRoFESSoR JohN DRENNAN, DAVID YU – thE UNIVERSItY oF QUEENSLAND

nicholas Surawski describing his research in the time it takes a sparkler to burn.Photo: thAMI cRoESER

cErAMicS MAy Hold THE kEy To rockET SciENcEMelbourne researchers are literally doing rocket science with clay. they have developed a cheaper and more efficient way of making the complex, heat-resistant ceramic parts needed to build tomorrow’s rockets and hypersonic airliners.

Using clever chemistry to modify a standard method of casting ceramics in a mould, they have developed an alternative to the traditional technique of forming these ceramics as blocks at high temperatures and pressures. And their new method, a form of slip casting, allows them to generate ultra-high-temperature ceramic components at lower temperatures and pressures, which do not require extensive machining, hence saving time and energy.

“the ceramic pieces we have made are stronger and will survive to higher temperatures than those used on the Space Shuttle,” says Dr carolina tallon, who is developing the processing techniques with Professor George Franks of the Department of chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Melbourne. their work is part of the propulsion program of the Defence Materials technology centre to develop manufacturing capabilities of advanced materials within Australia.

hypersonic flight will allow passengers to travel at up to five times faster than the speed of sound (Mach 5). A flight between Melbourne and London would take about two hours. Jets have already been built that can achieve these speeds for a few seconds, but maintaining those conditions for an entire flight remains a challenge, and it is partly a materials challenge.

“In order to lengthen the duration of the hypersonic flight, we need to find a perfect match between aerodynamic design and the materials able to survive what that design entails,” carolina says. “At Mach 5, for instance, several of the components of the vehicle will be at temperatures of above 3000°c. At these temperatures, most of the materials typically used in the aerospace industry will already have melted or, if they have not, their properties will be severely damaged and they will not perform correctly.”

Ultra-high-temperature ceramics are a potential solution since they can survive such extreme conditions. But finding the right material is not the end of the story. the actual components to be used in the vehicle have to be formed into complex shapes.

With traditional processing techniques, the nose of a rocket, for example, would be manufactured using very high temperatures and pressures to produce a very simple geometry such as a solid cylinder, which would then require extensive and costly machining. the new slip casting technique simply requires a mould into which a low-viscosity slurry of a particular chemistry can be poured. the ceramic particles then

pack efficiently into the required shape as the solvent is removed.“Using these techniques, I can manufacture components that already

resemble their final shape without machining,” carolina says. “this can all be done at lower temperatures and pressures – and the end products are stronger than those made in the traditional manner. the preliminary tests showed that the components we made were able to survive temperatures above 3400°c while keeping their shape and mechanical integrity.

“this technique is so versatile that we can fabricate anything from hip replacements to turbine rotors.”

this Australian technology is the result of extensive collaboration between researchers at universities, national laboratories and industry, within the Defence Materials technology centre.

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February 13 Focus

www.atse.org.aueducation / manuFacturing

china now our key education partnerchina is now Australia’s number one knowledge partner, with our 39 universities having more formal agreements with universities and similar institutions in china than any other country.

A Universities Australia report shows a 72 per cent increase in the number of university agreements with china since 2003, rising from 514 to 885 and overtaking the US as our leading partner for the first time.

overall, the survey behind the report found that our universities continue to strongly pursue partnerships around the globe, with a 28 per cent jump in formal agreements since 2009, from 5561 to 7123 (with more than 100 countries).

of the 885 agreements with china, 89 per cent included academic or research collaboration, 25 per cent included student exchanges, 48 per cent included staff exchanges and six per cent included a study abroad component.

“these figures show that Australian universities are leading the way when it comes to capitalising on the opportunities of the Asian century,” said Universities Australia chief Executive Belinda Robinson.

“From just 200 links in 1990 when we started collecting this data, to over 7100 this year, the global reach of our universities continues from strength to strength and shows no sign of slowing.

“the value of these partnerships to Australia both in terms of productivity, trade, foreign relations and cultural understanding is enormous. What we are talking about here is not selling finite resources, but generating infinite knowledge.”

EducATioN vicToriA’S biggEST ExPorT EArNErhigher Education is contributing significantly to Australia’s economic prosperity as the largest service export and plays a leading role in the economies of our most populous states – Victoria and New South Wales.

Education is Victoria’s largest export and it is the second biggest in New South Wales, according to a report for Universities Australia by consultant Alan olsen.

Universities Australia’s chief Executive Belinda Robinson said the report highlighted the contribution of international education to Australia’s economic prosperity as it found education exports to have doubled in value every five years from 1990 to 2010, overtaking tourism as the top service export in 2007-08.

“Education globally is a high-growth industry – by 2030 the number of higher education students enrolled around the world is expected to reach an astonishing 414.2 million, up from 99.4 million in 2000. of these students, 10.5 million are expected to be in the market for international education.

“Already students from over 100 countries are choosing to undertake higher education in Australia and universities are working hard to expand international student numbers,” Ms Robinson said.

10 MillioN dowNloAdS for lA TrobE La trobe University courses on itunes U reach more than 10 times the number of ‘on campus’ students, according to the university.

La trobe says its podcasts and videos have had more than 10 million

downloads since launching on itunes U in october 2009. Five of the courses are currently in the top 50, amongst worldwide providers such as tED and Yale and harvard universities.

La trobe had 13 courses available on itunes U, ranging from children’s literature and physics to sports economics and ancient history, and received a worldwide audience of more than 325,000 subscribers.

grAPHENE kEy To NEw ElEcTroN coNducTiviTyScientists at cSIRo and RMIt University have produced a new two-dimensional material that could revolutionise the electronics market and make ‘nano’ more than just a marketing term.

the material – made up of layers of crystal known as molybdenum oxides – has unique properties that encourage the free flow of electrons at ultra-high speeds.

In a paper published in the January issue of materials science journal Advanced Materials, the researchers explain how they adapted a revolutionary material known as graphene to create a new conductive nano-material.

Graphene was created in 2004 by scientists in the Uk and won its inventors a Nobel Prize in 2010. While graphene supports high speed electrons, its physical properties prevent it from being used for high-speed electronics.

In the paper titled ‘Enhanced charge carrier Mobility in two-Dimensional high Dielectric Molybdenum oxide’, the researchers describe how they used a process known as ‘exfoliation’ to create layers of the material about 11 nanometres thick.

the material was manipulated to convert it into a semiconductor and nanoscale transistors were then created using molybdenum oxide. the work, with RMIt doctoral researcher Sivacarendran Balendhran as the lead author, was supported by the cSIRo Sensors and Sensor Networks transformational capability Platform and the cSIRo Materials Science and Engineering Division. It was also a result of collaboration between researchers from Monash University, the University of california Los Angeles (UcLA), cSIRo, the Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIt) and RMIt.

An artist’s impression of high carrier mobility through layered molybdenum oxide crystal lattice.

cREDIt: D

R DA

NIEL J W

hItE, ScIEN

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Focus February 13

www.atse.org.au energy / communications

Future Grid Forum to lead electricity transformationIn a first for Australia, more than 35 industry partners will work together to explore a future vision for Australia’s electricity system. this vision will help guide the expected $240 billion investment required by the sector over the next 20 years.

the partners – including electricity generators, distributors, transmission service providers, retailers, regulators, government and consumer and environment groups – will collaborate over the next 12 to 18 months as part of the cSIRo facilitated Future Grid Forum.

Dr Alex Wonhas, cSIRo Energy transformed Flagship Director, said the Forum would play an important part in providing guidance for Australia’s electricity sector to shape its future for the 21st century.

“the sector recognised that a whole-of-system approach was required and that there is a need to develop a common view of the key options available. We have a huge energy transformation ahead of us.

“the industry will be very different in 50 years time. this Forum aims to inform the decisions we need to make today that will shape Australia’s future electricity supply and prices, and the industry’s carbon emissions,” Dr Wonhas said.

this project builds on past forums, including energy futures, future fuels and sustainable aviation fuels – all based on forum methodology that centres on collaboration with industry, consumers and other stakeholders to develop a clear roadmap for the future of energy in Australia.

the Forum will draw on the expertise of participants and use sophisticated economic and energy market modelling to map out future scenarios.

the Forum process will complement the Australian Government’s Energy White Paper and reviews carried out by the Australian Energy Market commission and the Productivity commission.

More information: www.csiro.au/future-grid-forum

$7.5 MillioN for MiNErAlS rESEArcH iNSTiTuTEthe Western Australian Government has announced its investment of $7.5 million over three years to establish a new Minerals Research Institute in WA – the Western Australian Minerals Research Institute (WAMRI) – which aims to bolster minerals research in WA and build on the achievements of the state’s existing Minerals and Energy Research Institute (MERIWA).

BhP Billiton’s Senior Research and Development Manager and the Academy’s WA Division chair, Dr Peter Lilly FtSE, will chair the new Interim Board for WAMRI. other directors are Rio tinto General Manager for Innovation Andrew Shook, and Resources capital Fund co-founder and Managing Partner James Mcclements.

University of WA Energy and Minerals Institute Director tim Shanahan said the interim Board had a great capacity, experience and knowledge to guide the establishment of WAMRI, and UWA looked forward to working closely with them.

“WAMRI is set to become a globally recognised body coordinating and targeting minerals research in WA,” said WA Mines and Petroleum Minister Norman Moore.

UWA Vice-chancellor Professor Paul Johnson said the University looked forward to working closely with the new Institute on expanding the university’s contribution to world-class mineral research.

“It will directly benefit Western Australia and the nation through the advancement of knowledge and education in an area vital to the Australian economy and the nation’s future,” Professor Johnson said.

ligHT-PowErEd coMMuNicATioNA new chip, which uses light instead of electronic signals to process information, could lead to high security, energy-efficient internet links more than 1000 times faster than today’s networks.

this ‘photonic chip’ uses special glass – photonic crystals – to bend light and slow it down. the slower the light travels, the more efficiently the chip can operate – and the smaller and more energy efficient the resulting devices can be.

Developed by Professor Ben Eggleton FtSE and his team at the Australian Research council centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for optical Systems (cUDoS) at the University of Sydney, the same technology could be used to build quantum computers and secure communications networks.

Professor Eggleton discussed the developments at the 20th Australian Institute of Physics congress in Sydney in December, which was held with the 37th Australian conference on optical Fibre technology (AcoFt).

A future vision for Australia’s electricity system. IMAGE: ScIENcEIMAGE

Peter Lilly

Ben Eggleton

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February 13 Focus

www.atse.org.auhealth

Printing live cells now a prospectSurgeons may soon be able to regrow patients’ nerves, such as those in damaged spinal cords, using technology adapted from the type of inkjet printer most of us have connected to our computer at home.

Researchers at the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI), ARc centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (AcES), University of Wollongong (UoW) node in NSW, led by Professor Gordon Wallace FtSE, have spent the past three years developing the technology to print living human cells – nerve cells and muscle cells – onto tiny biodegradable polymer scaffolds.

they have also developed a special ‘ink’ that carries the cells. the ink has to keep the cells in suspension, as well as having the right chemical composition to keep them alive. It also protects them as they are shot out of the printer at high speed.

the scaffolds act as the base upon which the cells thrive and contain substances such as growth factor molecules and electrical conduits to enable stimulation to promote cell growth.

the aim is to produce structures up to four centimetres long, which can be ‘patched’ into broken or damaged nerves or muscles.

“to date, none of the available inks have been optimised in terms of both printability and cell suspending ability,” said AcES Associate Researcher cameron Ferris. “our new bio-ink is printable and cell-friendly, preventing cell settling and allowing controlled deposition of cells.”

“there’s great interest from the medical world, and we are working closely with clinicians at St Vincent’s hospital in Melbourne,” said Professor Wallace, director of the Materials node of Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) and AcES.

“they’re very interested in the possibilities it raises, and the collaboration is resulting in new ideas almost every week.”

“the support from ANFF and the collaborative, interdisciplinary approach that our facilities bring has attracted the best people in the world to join our teams,” he added.

TurNiNg PrESSurE iNTo PowErInnovative research on materials that convert pressure into electricity could enable a new generation of medical implants that harvest their own energy.

this phenomenon, called piezoelectricity, is best known for its use in push-button gas hob and barbeque lighters, where pressure is applied to a crystal to generate sparks.

By using these materials to create nanoscale surfaces known as thin films, RMIt researchers hope to create pacemakers and other medical implants that convert blood pressure into electrical energy, reducing the reliance on internal batteries.

While research is progressing, implementation has been severely limited by a lack of measurement methods to determine the performance of piezoelectric thin films.

“the need to develop a new measurement technique was quite apparent,” said RMIt’s Dr Sharath Sriram.

“the performance of piezoelectric materials is determined by quantifying five distinct characteristics, so accurately measuring them is an important step in understanding how they behave. Without these measurements, researchers can’t be certain that they have actually improved the performance of thin films.”

Dr Sriram’s technique exploits the reversibility of the piezoelectric effect: applying pressure to the material produces an electric charge, while applying the same charge creates an equivalent pressure inside the material. By applying different electric charges to piezoelectric thin films and using atomic force microscopy to measure how much the material contracts, Dr Sriram was able to accurately and repeatedly determine the piezoelectric performance of the material.

As a result of Dr Sriram’s research, scientists are implementing this new technique to create devices that use piezoelectric thin films to generate electricity.

Without accurate measurement techniques, researchers cannot quantify the results of their experiments. As the frontiers of science extend into new realms of scale, measurement research becomes an integral part of the development process.

Dr Sriram’s endeavours in this field were recognised by the National Measurement Institute, which awarded him the 2012 NMI Prize for Measurement Research.

his work involves testing ‘nanoislands’ – dots of piezoelectric material on a conductive substrate, using ‘nanoislands’ 200nm and 400nm across.

ACES Associate researcher Cameron Ferris working on the project.

This artist’s impression shows a nanoindenter, which can apply precise pressures to the nanoislands while also measuring the electricty produced via the ‘tip’.

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Focus February 13

boosting our smeswww.atse.org.au women in tse

UNSW goes to camp to attract female engineersFor mechanical engineer Debbie Mackay, completing her PhD thesis at the University of NSW meant playing with fire in confined spaces, and doing it through two pregnancies.

her first child came midway through her research project with Fire and Rescue NSW – building advanced computer models of house fires; and her second was born just one week after submitting her thesis.

the end result of her studies was a new toolset for firefighters battling dangerous blazes.

Beginning with an ignition point, her models can map how fires behave as they grow, accurately predicting their overall temperature, how they will respond to bursts of oxygen from opened doors or smashed windows, and pinpointing dangerous hotspots that responding personnel should avoid.

It gives them an added tool to plan routes of attack and evacuation, Dr Mackay says. “When you’re sending a firefighter into a dangerous situation you want to have an idea of the temperatures they’re going to face. there are all sorts of little things the firefighters can learn from the models which they can’t actually see when they are facing a real fire.”

Dr Mackay began her career at UNSW with a combined physics and aerospace engineering degree in 2001, and started her PhD research in 2006. She joined female engineering students at UNSW in varied areas – from developing a bionic eye and advancing nanomedicines to combat cancer, to keeping drinking water clean and making renewable energy a viable reality.

Yet despite their efforts to develop practical, technology-driven solutions to both local and global problems, women engineers are still a minority in a field historically and currently dominated by men.

According to a 2012 Engineers Australia report, Women in Engineering: A Statistical Update, female students at all tertiary levels comprised only 15.8 per cent of commencements in engineering programs across Australian universities in 2010. “Women continue to be under-represented in the engineering profession at considerable cost to the economy,” says the report’s executive summary.

“The evidence suggests that young Australian women have the capacity to study mathematics and science at school, but this potential

is not reflected in the choice of Year 12 school subjects, where young women account for much of the decline in mathematics enrolments ...”

At UNSW, 2012 enrolment figures show that female students make up slightly more than 20 per cent of the student population in the Faculty of Engineering. that’s a total of almost 2000 female undergraduate and postgraduate students currently studying engineering.

twenty per cent has been more or less the benchmark at UNSW over the past decade, and while it is significantly better (+20 per cent) than the national average, it’s still a hefty distance from ideal in the eyes of Professor Graham Davies, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering.

“Female engineers are valuable, and inspiring women to join our exciting

profession must start at the high school level or before to ensure they make the correct course selections and are not excluded from engineering pathways,” Professor Davies says.

Within the Faculty’s 10 schools there are some exceptions to the rule. the School of chemical Engineering and the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, for instance, both boast enrolment numbers where women comprise upwards of 35 to 50 per cent of students. In addition, women also comprise roughly 27 per cent of undergraduate scholarship recipients in engineering, and a quarter of scholarship recipients for engineering research degrees at UNSW. But Professor Davies is hoping to see these percentages increase further, and the trend of higher female enrolments begin to take shape across the board.

On A MiSSiOnthe Faculty is on a mission to boost female enrolments to 25 per cent by 2020 or sooner, and is exploring several proactive approaches to bolster recruitment efforts and get it done, such as the possibility of partnering with industry to appoint a dedicated Women In Engineering outreach staff position.

the university has already taken an initiative – UNSW Women in Engineering camp (WIEc) – which aims to help attract, engage, and inspire prospective female students while they are still in high school and making critical decisions about their academic futures.

the inaugural 2013 Women in Engineering camp saw 20 exceptional female high school students immersed in a five-day program at UNSW from 14 to 18 January. they worked with each other and mentors on assignments that focused on sustainability across the Faculty’s seven core research pillars: energy, water, health, infrastructure, manufacturing, digital services and natural resources. the Year 11 and 12 students came from high schools across NSW, Victoria, South Australia and the Act.

In addition to academic activities, they also participated in a number of networking events and site visits including trips to the ABc headquarters, Sydney theatre company, Government house to meet the Governor of NSW, Professor Marie Bashir Ac cVo FtSE, and a harbour Bridge climb. “our Women in Engineering camp was designed to offer participants a glimpse of what engineering is all about and to break down some of the misconceptions they might have about what engineers do,” Professor Davies says.

Engineering Camp participants check solar panels on the roof of

the Sydney Theatre Company.

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“hopefully it has inspired them and proven that engineering is indeed a viable and rewarding career path for women. It’s a model that we’re proud of, and the participant feedback has been overwhelmingly positive so this is a program that we hope to continue indefinitely into the future.”

Dr Mackay’s interest in engineering was spawned through an experience at a similar camp in Year 10. “the women in engineering camp I attended gave me the chance to investigate a variety of different types of engineering and it was the mechanical and aerospace work that really appealed to me. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to pursue science or engineering so a combined degree in both was a perfect fit for me.”

Lucy cooper is a fourth-year renewable energy student who is working on modelling the future role of clean energy sources in Australia’s national power grid and an engineering ambassador at UNSW. She worked as a mentor and house supervisor at the WIEc and says this type of camp is vital to engaging with female high school students.

“In my work as an engineering student ambassador I’ve seen that one of the largest barriers to girls entering engineering is simply that they don’t know what it is. Some are daunted by the maths and others think it’s only about building bridges or digging holes,” she says.

“this camp is a great way of reaching out to those girls and showing them the huge range of engineering areas, and how in engineering we take scientific understanding and use it to tackle global problems.”

Ms cooper says studying among her male peers isn’t daunting but does think it would be beneficial to have more female peers. “there are times, during group projects for instance, when I do wish there were more girls around. Girls study and problem-solve in a different way to boys and it can be useful to have another girl to bounce ideas off.”

KEEn inTErESTIt’s an observation shared by Professor Anne Simmons, head of the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at UNSW.

“Women bring a subtly different view to engineering problems. It shows up in how they conduct their research, interact in teams and design solutions. It’s a very valuable and important aspect and desperately missed when it’s absent,” Professor Simmons says.

the Faculty of Engineering wants to make sure new and existing female students have adequate support, enabling them to successfully finish their degrees – and area where UNSW is above the national average (16 per cent) with a completion rate of around 20 per cent.

It sees one way of ensuring support is through the presence of strong female role models.

Professor Simmons was a runner-up for the 2012 NSW Premier’s Woman of the Year Award, nominated on the basis of her contributions to Australian engineering and for being an outstanding role model and mentor to aspiring female engineers.

Professor Simmons developed a keen interest in physics, chemistry and maths – and a love of building things – at high school and, despite her teachers urging her toward medicine, opted for mechanical engineering.

She doesn’t recall a single female lecturer in engineering during her undergraduate degree at the University of Queensland in the late 1970s, and only one other female classmate. But she discovered the rapidly emerging field of biomedical engineering, which was taking shape in Australia at UNSW, where she later completed both her Masters and PhD.

At UNSW, she applied her love of engineering and her interest in medical sciences towards designing innovative solutions for healthcare. this began in the early 1980s when she was involved in pioneering work in haemodialysis systems, which remove waste from the blood when patients experience kidney failure.

Professor Simmons’ research has ranged from improving prosthetic limbs for amputees, to optimising the design of coronary stents to improve blood flow through clogged arteries, to developing drug delivery systems with improved outcomes for patients.

In 2006, Professor Simmons was appointed head of the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering at UNSW, and by the time she left in 2011, the proportion of female students was about 40 per cent. She continues to be a role model for female students and staff alike in her new position, and an outspoken advocate for women in engineering.

As Engineers Australia concluded in its report: “there are many outstanding women engineers in Australia. However, the statistics reviewed in this paper suggest that progress towards greater participation by women in engineering has stalled. The factors involved are complex and pose major challenges but they must be faced to achieve real progress.”

cHEryl PrAEgEr wiNS MATHS MEdAl

Winthrop Professor cheryl Praeger AM FAA, an ARc Federation Fellow at the University of Western Australia, has won the Australian Academy of Science’s 2013 thomas Ranken Lyle Medal for research in mathematics or physics.

Professor Praeger is Director of UWA’s centre for Mathematics of Symmetry and computation, was head of the Department of Mathematics 1992–94, inaugural Dean of Postgraduate Research Studies 1996–98, chair of the Promotions and tenure committee 2000–04, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Engineering computing and Mathematics 2003–06, and ARc Professorial Fellow 2007.

She is an Executive committee member of the International Mathematical Union, member of the Australian Research council college of Experts, foundation board member of the Australian Mathematics trust, chair of the Australian Mathematics olympiad committee, former president of the Australian Mathematical Society, former chair of the Australian council of heads of Mathematical Sciences, and was 2009 WA Scientist of the Year.

Dr Ulrike Mathesius, ANU, won the 2013 Fenner Medal for research in biology (excluding the biomedical sciences), an early-career research award. others went to: Professor Alexandra Filipovska, WA Institute for Medical Research (Ruth Stephens Gani Medal for research in human genetics), Dr Lisa Alexander, UNSW (Dorothy hill Award for female researchers in the earth sciences including reef science, ocean drilling, marine science and taxonomy in marine systems) and Dr Aurore Delaigle, University of Melbourne (Moran Medal for research in statistics).

Cheryl Praeger – the photo used with her ATSE Focus 160 article (February 2010) on the importance of maths in high schools.

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rosslyn Prinsley to head STEM pushDr Roslyn Prinsley has been appointed to the new position of National Science and Mathematics Education and Industry Adviser, working within the office of the chief Scientist, Professor Ian chubb, to develop and provide policy advice to government.

Dr Prinsley is currently a Principal Strategic consultant with Sinclair knight Merz. Prior to this role, she held a number of senior positions at the Rural Industries Research and Development corporation (RIRDc) and was manager of the Agricultural Sciences Program for the commonwealth Science Adviser to the commonwealth Secretary General in the Uk.

Dr Prinsley holds a Bachelor of Science, a Diploma of Education (Science), a PhD in photosynthesis, and a Masters in Intellectual Property Law and is a graduate of the Australian

Institute of company Directors. She has published more than 70 books and reports and also worked as a science and mathematics teacher early in her career.

the appointment is a key component of the Australian Government’s package of measures announced in the May 2012 budget to help address the issue of emerging science, technology, engineering and mathematics (StEM) skill shortages.

Dr Prinsley will champion the importance of StEM across both the education and industry sectors, a role Professor chubb says is crucial to Australia’s future.

woMEN wiN MENziES ScHolArSHiPSWomen researchers have won two of the recent three Menzies Scholarships awarded in November by the Menzies Foundation.

Ms Mahala McLindin, a water resources engineer with Sinclair knight Merz (SkM) in Sydney, won the Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Scholarship in Engineering for 2013. Mahala will attend the School of Geography and Environment, University of oxford, to undertake a one-year MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management.

Mrs Verity Pacey, a senior physiotherapist at the children’s hospital at Westmead in Sydney, won the Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Research Scholarship in Allied health Sciences for 2013. the two-year scholarship will help her complete her PhD at the University of Sydney into the management and treatment of connective tissue dysplasias, particularly hypermobility (loose joints), an inherited condition which tends to occur most commonly in adolescent girls and can lead to pain, injury and fatigue.

the third went to Mr David heaton, a Melbourne lawyer who won the Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Scholarship in Law for 2013. David will undertake a Bachelor of civil Law/Master of Philosophy at oxford University.

Each year the Menzies Foundation provides scholarships for graduates to pursue studies in engineering, law, business, allied health sciences and medical research. It provided seven scholarships in 2012.

Four other Menzies Scholars received their awards earlier this year, and are already overseas. two were women: ¢ �Dr Sarah-Jane Dawson, a molecular biologist from the translational

Research Laboratory at the Peter Maccallum cancer centre, who won the 2012 National health and Medical Research council (NhMRc)/RG Menzies Fellowship. She has taken up a position in the Breast cancer Functional Genomics Laboratory at the cambridge Research Institute where she is studying breast cancer markers in the bloodstream; and

¢ �Ms Jessica Roth, a lawyer from Mallesons Stephen Jaques in Sydney, who won a Menzies Scholarship to harvard Law School to undertake a Masters in Law.

Pb SuPPorTS woMEN ENgiNEErS AT uQthe University of Queensland (UQ) and Parsons Brinkerhoff, the global engineering and consulting firm, have linked to provide the Parsons Brinkerhoff Scholarship for Women in engineering, to be awarded to a female student commencing study in 2013.

Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information technology, Professor Graham Schaffer FtSE said the scholarship had been established to encourage and support female students who had been educationally disadvantaged due to financial circumstances or geographical location. It will provide $5000 for the student’s first year of study.

General Manager for transport Services and chair of the Diversity council at Parsons Brinkerhoff, charlie Jewkes said in recent years the council’s initiatives had made a positive impact on the participation of women in all areas of the workplace.

“In the Australia–Pacific region we have achieved an increase in our targeted intake of female graduates from 27 per cent in 2010 to 40 per cent in 2013,” Mr Jewkes said.

Recent UQ graduate and Parsons Brinkerhoff mechanical engineer Monica Dryden believes that engineering is a rewarding career. “I have always felt a sense of achievement when I see my work come to life, and this has been particularly so in design and consulting engineering,” she said.

fAHEy joiNS cHiNA boArdProfessor Stephanie Fahey, Monash University’s Deputy Vice-chancellor for Global Engagement and Lead Partner for Education in oceania for Ernst and Young, has joined the Australia–china council Board.

Previously, she was Director of the Research Institute for Asia Pacific and Acting Assistant Pro Vice-chancellor (International–Asia Pacific) at the University of Sydney.

Professor Fahey has served on the Foreign Affairs council, the National Board of the Australia china Business council, Australia korea Foundation, European Australia Business council, and the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation committee.

Professor Fahey and Mr David olsson took up their appointments on 1 January 2013. Mr olsson, a finance and debt capital markets specialist, is a senior partner in the Beijing office of international law firm king & Wood Mallesons. he was formerly a Managing Partner of Australian law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques, heading its hong kong, Beijing and Melbourne offices. he is the current chairman of the china–Australia chamber of commerce in Beijing.

roslyn Prinsley

Mahala McLindin

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In recent years we have outrun our ability to fabricate structures from the amazing materials that we can now create, particularly in the area

of biomaterials, where we are often confronted with delicate compositions with nano- to microscopic features that will not survive the traditional (hammer and chisel) approach to fabrication.

There is good reason why nature ‘grows’ complex, highly functional structures. Such structures, with functionality determined by the spatial distribution of composition with nanodimensional resolution, cannot be chiselled from a slab of material.

Additive fabrication (AdFab), often referred to as 3D printing, involves layer-by-layer deposition and fusion of

By Gordon Wallace and Stephen [email protected], [email protected]

Adbiofab will have a “staggering impact”Changing the way we teach, commercialise and do research – now we in materials science can be bold, even audacious.

materials to create customised structures. The structure to be produced can be conceptualised, manipulated and defined within a growing array of modelling environments – from conventional parametric computer-aided design (CAD) solutions such as Solidworks™ or ProE™, through to free-form animation toolsets such as Autodesk 3ds Max™, and even free web-based applications such as Tinkercad™.

Once a design is completed, a file that describes the structures’ surface geometry is generated and a set of digitised instructions then drives the printer to create the required structure layer by layer.

The fabrication process can involve several deposition modes. In fused-deposition modelling/extrusion printing,

a molten build material is deposited and solidified on cooling. For higher resolution structures (layer thicknesses as low as 16 micrometres), a fluid material precursor is ink-jetted onto a substrate and simultaneously transformed into a solid structure via a chemical reaction (UV-induced polymerisation). Metal structures can be fabricated through a physical micron-scale welding process known as selective laser melting. [A micrometre is one-millionth of a metre, or one-thousandth of a millimetre (0.001mm). Its unit symbol in the International System of Units (SI) is µm.]

The impactThe recent race to embrace AdFab has had significant wide-ranging impact on those of us involved in biomaterials and biodevices research.

At the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI), in Wollongong, we have established Additive Biofabrication (AdBioFab) capabilities within a dedicated Processing and Devices Facility, housing commercial additive fabrication systems such as the Objet Connex 350™ and Relaizer SLM50™, commercial bio-fabrication systems such as the EnvisonTec Bioplotter™ and customised printing systems such as the KIMM SPS1000, a Reactive Ink-jet Printer and an Extrusion Printer.

The ability to create customised 3D polymeric or metallic structures in the laboratory accelerates experimental design by enhancing the realisation of material components that facilitate experimentation. Additive fabrication provides an in-house capability to design and realise unique set-ups in a minimal period of time.

Industry invited to AcES lab bench Industry representatives can go to the heart of scientific innovation through an eight-week fellowship program at the ARc centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (AcES).

the in-house program is to host AcES Fellows in its Wollongong facilities at the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI), where they can develop a hands-on understanding of innovative technology and materials potential as they work alongside researchers on a nominated project.

According to AcES Director Professor Gordon Wallace FAA FtSE, the inaugural round of AcES-Industry Advanced Fabrication Fellowships aims to foster knowledge exchange, creating an effective, pragmatic nexus between researchers and industry.

“having people from industry, who we usually refer to as ‘end users’, in our facility uniquely places them at the heart of research being undertaken and enriches the collaborative nature of work already being done at AcES. this will inevitably lead to more effective commercialisation of research,” Professor Wallace said.

“We also envisage clear benefits for the companies our Fellows represent, with the opportunity to explore how to improve business productivity and harness innovation for their production line.”

“We are really excited to see where the Fellows’ contribution and exposure to our work may lead. the Fellowship is a whole new platform for the cross-pollination of ideas,” he said.

The 2013 ACES-industry Advanced Fabrication Fellowship scheme invites paid employees from the industry sector with the endorsement of their company to apply. More information: www.electromaterials.edu.au/news/UOW140866

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One case in point was the development of an experimental procedure to electrically stimulate cells in vitro on organic conducting polymer surfaces (a study in the field of ‘organic bionics’1). Off-the-shelf chamber wells were removed from their original substrate and bonded to a conducting polymer-coated gold Mylar substrate to act as a media reservoir. A custom platinum counter electrode mount was produced by additive fabrication to allow accurate placement of the platinum mesh electrodes in the media reservoir and ensure a repeatable electrode orientation. A proprietary bio-compatible material, Objet MED610™, was chosen as the build material. Production of these components by conventional machining would have been relatively expensive and would not have easily facilitated the small dimensional features of the component.

Another example of experimental tool production involved the development of a device to enable studies related to the alleviation of eye pressure arising from glaucoma – a study led by Professor Michael Coote at the Centre for Eye Research Australia. Concept outline sketches were provided and translated into 3D CAD models. Graphical representations of the implant design allowed for revisions and modifications to be easily communicated and implemented before fabrication. Batch production of an array of design permutations was achieved in a single-build tray printing cycle. Design iterations were simply undertaken without any concern for re-tooling of the hardware.

These examples illustrate what can be achieved with commercially available machinery and materials.

In other aspects of our work at ACES we are concerned with the fabrication of structures containing biopolymers, organic conductors and even living cells within new structures for bionics1. Existing commercially available equipment cannot handle such materials. Consequently we have been involved with the Korean Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) and the company M4T, who have supplied a customised Scaffold Plotting System (SPS1000™) that is capable of extrusion printing biopolymers – including synthetic biodegradables such as polycaprolactone (PCL), or naturally occurring biopolymers such as chitosan.

Using this system we have printed

3D scaffolds, which have previously proven useful as scaffolds for tissue regeneration. More recently we have modified this extrusion printer to enable co-axial printing. This required the design and fabrication of a dual-reservoir system and a co-axial print head. These components were designed and fabricated in house, with the printhead itself produced using a 3D metal printer – the era of printing printers is upon us!

Co-axial structures with an inner core diameter range of 200 to 500µm and an outer core of 600 to 1200µm diameter were produced. This customised co-axial printing system has already proven useful for the creation of alginate/polycaprolactone co-axial 3D structures and even the creation of structures containing living cells2.

Using a commercially available ink-jet printer from Dimatix™ and a customised ink using organic conducting polymer nanoparticles, we have printed features as small as 20µm that have been used as bionic

guidance tracks to control the direction of nerve growth3. Another addition to our printing armoury is a custom-built, multi-head ink-jet printer that allows printing of multiple components to create new material structures during fabrication – so-called reactive printing, wherein the individual components react to form a more mechanically robust structure. This has been used to form biopolymer hydrogel structures that are ionically cross-linked during printing.

With minimal modification, we have also found these print heads to be useful in allowing for the effective delivery of living cells during the printing process – delivering both nerve and muscle cells to create unique biofunctional structures. The cells are maintained using a biopolymer suspension with optimised rheological properties that enable effective delivery through the ink-jet head. The formulation used is multi-purpose and multi-functional, in that it maintains the cells in a healthy state in suspension for

PCL structures produced through hot-melt extrusion printing.

Platinum mesh electrode mount, as used to provide repeatable spacing

between electrode surfaces during cell stimulation trials.

More recently we have modified this extrusion printer to enable co-axial printing. This required the design and fabrication of a dual-reservoir system and a co-axial print head. These components were designed and fabricated in house, with the printhead itself produced using a 3D metal printer – the era of printing printers is upon us!

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many hours, protects cells during delivery and sustains cell viability after printing4.

AdBioFab is changing the way we teach, commercialise and do research.

After a number of decades where advances in materials science have often been limited by our inability to fabricate effectively, we have now entered a new era. Biomaterials researchers have been empowered with the ability to fabricate customised structures using hardware that can be accommodated in most research laboratories at reasonable cost.

The convergence of advances in biomaterials, AdBioFab, information technology, nanotechnology and biotechnology is set to move us forward in biomedical science at an unprecedented rate. Our ability to convert data into knowledge and to effectively disseminate that knowledge has been outrun by our ability to create the primary data.

The knowledge dissemination gap continues to grow wider and this has implications for:¢ �schools and universities – those

responsible for skilling the next generation of researchers;

¢ �regulatory authorities – who require information and an understanding of the implications of advances occurring on a number of technological fronts simultaneously;

¢ �the commercialisation sector – these advances are challenging traditional commercialisation models that are based on mass-manufacturing/cost reduction/sales targets. With additive biofabrication, localised manufacture using exotic materials will deliver the most effective solutions; and

¢ �the community – social acceptance of advances in the medical sector is obviously critical to success. We must develop innovative approaches to present understandable chunks of knowledge.Now we in materials science can be

bold, even audacious. We can develop materials not amenable to current processing and fabrication approaches with the knowledge that we can print-printers – creating the fabrication machinery of the future in tandem with breakthroughs in materials science.

Advances in AdBioFab will have a staggering impact because it not

The Processing and Devices Building located at the innovation Campus, north Wollongong, houses the ACES-AnFF Bio Fabrication Facility.

only accelerates the thought-to-thing process, delivering practical solutions sooner, but it also empowers us to make unprecedented fundamental advances.

For example, the ability to arrange living cells in 3D within naturally occurring or synthetic biomaterial structures will give us hitherto unavailable insights into environmental effects on cell behaviour.

references1 Wallace, G.G., Moulton, S.E., higgins, M.J.,

kapsa, R.M.I. Organic Bionics Wiley-Vch Verlag & co. kGaA, Boschstr. 12, 69469 Weinheim, Germany 2012.

2 cornock, R., honours thesis, University of Wollongong 2012.

3 Weng, B., Liu, X., higgins, M.J., Shepherd, R., Wallace, G. “Fabrication and characterization of cytocompatible Polypyrrole Films Inkjet Printed from Nanoformulations cytocompatible, Inkjet-Printed Polypyrrole Films” Small 2011, 7 (24), 3434-3438.

4 Ferris, c.J., Gilmore, k.J., Beirne, S., Mccallum, D., Wallace, G.G., in het Panhuis, M. “Bio-ink for on-demand printing of living cells” Biomaterials Science, 2013, 1, 224-230.

PrOFESSOr GOrDOn WALLACE FAA FTSE is a

leading scientist in the field of electromaterials.

He is an Australian research Council Laureate

Fellow, Executive research Director of the ArC

Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science

(ACES), Director of the intelligent Polymer research

institute, University of Wollongong, and Director

of the Australian national Fabrication Facility,

Materials node. He is a Fellow of the institute of

Physics (UK) and the royal Australian Chemical

institute. Professor Wallace’s research interests

include organic conductors, nano-materials and

electrochemical probe methods of analysis. A

current focus involves the use of these tools and

materials in developing bio-communications

from the molecular to skeletal domains in order to

improve human performance via medical bionics.

Dr STEPHEn BEirnE is a ACES/AnFF research

Fellow who joined the intelligent Polymer research

institute in 2010 with direct responsibility for the

implementation of a suite of commercial and custom

additive fabrication tools. His current research is

focused on the development of custom systems to

facilitate production of multi-material structures

through additive bio-fabrication (AdBioFab). His

research interests include additive fabrication

techniques and systems, materials processing for

deposition, rapid prototyping, autonomous sensor

platforms and wireless sensor networks.

The establishment of Additive Biofabrication capabilities in Wollongong has been made possible through the support of the Federal Government’s EiF program in providing a processing and devices fabrication facility. Equipment has been made available through EiF as well as the Australian national Fabrication Facility (AnFF) through the Government’s nCriS program. Personnel and personnel support has been provided through the nSW Government Science Leveraging Fund and the AnFF.

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The residents of remote Australia have a real ‘beef ’ with the governments of Australia.

Comprising a population larger than the ACT or Tasmania, spread over 85 per cent of the continent, they see themselves as ill-served by government and demonstrate a deep sense of disconnect and discontent with the way Australia is run.

Many Australians view remote Australia in terms of extremes – variously as a ‘last frontier’, a vast unsettled and isolated terrain, a place of Aboriginal crisis or the ‘heart’ of a nation (often including a romanticised notion of ‘rugged outback’ life).

It is also seen as an economic wasteland, a place of market failure and extreme poverty (even a ‘failed state’), somewhere to drive to when you retire, or more recently a quarry for the mining boom driving the nation’s economic performance.

To some it is a legitimate part of the Australian narrative only because of the heritage status of the pastoral industry and the major resource development projects scattered through it.

There is a fundamental discord between these opinions and the thinking of many Aboriginal Australians, who see remote Australia as Country – a place that nourishes and provides meaning and identity and is their spiritual and physical home.

One set of views is centred on a desire to dominate and tame the space, while the other lives in and adapts within it.

This discord is part of the complex contest that requires addressing and resolution and was part of the underpinning of a study involving attaining the views of many Australians in remote Australia. It was conducted by the remoteFocus project – an initiative

facilitated by Desert Knowledge Australia, a national organisation that works to bring about change to sustain and enhance the lives and livelihoods of all Australia’s desert people.

The resulting report, Fixing the hole in Australia’s Heartland: How government needs to work in remote Australia, was published in 2012, with the support of the Australian Government, BHP Billiton, MacDonnell Shire, Pilbara Development Commission and Royalties for Regions.

It notes that Australia has changed significantly in the past 30 years, during which it has become the most urbanised continent in the world, with more than 85 per cent of Australians living within 50 kilometres of the coast. It claims Australia’s view of itself has shrunk to its coastal fringe and its system of democracy and economy has progressively been altered to serve the coastal areas and urban Australia.

Fixing the hole in Australia’s HeartlandThe governance of remote Australia should not be cast as an ‘Aboriginal issue’ – it is about ineffective government arrangements, disengagement and national indifference.

Structural response – which has to be led by governments – is required to deal with the five key elements of discord and disconnect noted from the consultations with remote Australians in the report:

1A say in decisions which affect them.

2Equitable and sustainable financial flows.

3Better services and a locally responsive public service.

4Local control and accountability wherever possible.

5Inclusion in a greater Australian narrative.The governance of remote Australia

should not be cast as an ‘Aboriginal issue’ – it is about ineffective government arrangements, disengagement and national indifference.

Governance arrangements are a threshold cause of policy failure. Policy

By Dr Bruce Walker [email protected]

Many Australians see remote Australia merely as a quarry for the mining boom driving the nation’s economic performance.Photo: IStock

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for remote Australia should be separately conceived and framed – custom-built for specific circumstances and needs. A paradigm shift in policy is necessary to change structurally embedded habits, practices and approaches –

which cannot come from within the present governance framework.

The current three-tiered system of government fails to do this adequately in remote Australia, where Aboriginal organisations effectively constitute a

fourth tier of governance, adding to the complexity of arrangements.

The nature and pace of economic, social and technological change in remote Australia and the deep and consistent concerns expressed during the consultations with the people of remote Australia require creation of governance responses that:¢ �provide a structure or institution with

the authority and legitimacy to create and sustain a vision for a region;

¢ �incorporate ‘negotiated compacts’ which adequately mandate institutions to mediate contests and reach durable agreements;

¢ �invoke ‘place-centred’ and innovative responses; and

¢ �adopt the ‘resourcing must follow function’ principle – typically acknowledged only in the breach in Australian public policy.In the absence of a narrative that

embraces micro-economic reform and establishes the national interest in remote Australia, and a settlement pattern that supports that national interest, little is going to change and initiatives will be ad hoc rather than systematic.

The market will not decide the national interest in remote Australia. Reforming public sector governance in remote Australia demands leadership at the top level of government – and a willingness to support real change for the good of both remote Australians and the nation as a whole.

Full report www.desertknowledge.com.au/remoteFOCUS

Dr BrUCE WALKEr AM FTSE has lived and worked

in central Australia for 33 years. He founded

the Centre for Appropriate Technology inc and

pioneered the development, application and

delivery of technology to improve the livelihood

of Australia’s remote indigenous population.

He was one of the initiators of the Desert

Knowledge movement. He is a Director of the

Desert Knowledge Australia Statutory Authority,

Centrecorp Foundation and the national Australia

Day Council and was until recently Chair of the

northern Territory research and innovation Board.

He won an ATSE Clunies ross Award in 1999. He

is the lead author of the report Fixing the Hole in

Australia’s Heartland: How governments need to work

in remote Australia.

Desert knowledge in the centrethe Desert knowledge Precinct (DkP) in Alice Springs is the outcome of community initiative to create a ‘knowledge economy’ in desert Australia. Backed by the Northern territory Government, the precinct partnerships provide an intercultural space that draws together Aboriginal and other people in knowledge-related activities and enterprises.

Aboriginal organisations – the centre for Appropriate technology Inc and Batchelor Institute of Indigenous tertiary Education – and their jointly owned Desert Peoples centre bring

expertise in technology and infrastructure and education and training

together to create livelihood pathways for Aboriginal people. the cSIRo Ecosystems Science Laboratory brings a vital national research presence to the precinct engaged in research on ecology, natural resource management and socio-economic systems in arid and semi-arid rangelands.

the precinct is the headquarters for Ninti one Ltd, a national not-for-profit company established in 2003 to be the management

company for the Desert knowledge cRc and which now manages the cRc for Remote Economic Participation along with a number of spin-off companies – Precision Pastoral Pty Ltd and the Australian Feral camel Management Project. Ninti one aims to build opportunities for people living in remote areas through research and enterprise development.

the precinct is managed by Desert knowledge Australia (DkA) Statutory Authority, which has a national mandate to bring about change to sustain and enhance the lives and livelihoods of all desert peoples through programs such as outback Business Networks, the remoteFocUS governance project, Desert Leadership and the application of the science of desert living that contribute to a sustainable desert future.

the precinct includes the DkA Solar centre that provides 30 per cent of the precinct’s energy requirements and is home to cAt Projects Pty Ltd, winner of the Engineers Australia Sir William hudson Award in 2011.

the precinct is a unique national centre of innovation for the desert and remote Australia.

More information: www.desertknowledge.com.au/precinct

The Desert Knowledge precinct.

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Temperatures in parts of Australia have soared to new heights this summer. The south-eastern states have experienced devastating

bushfires, which dominated the headlines in January, while fires have damaged property and land in every state.

The combination of high levels of rainfall over the winter and a relatively dry September and October created a dangerous situation: the abundant grass growth that occurred over winter has dried off to become a significant fire hazard to many communities.

The 2012-13 Seasonal Outlook of the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) highlighted the above average fire potential for large areas of southern Australia this summer.

At this time, when fire protection and safety should be topping the environmental agenda, the funding of fire brigades and emergency services in cities and rural areas is undergoing cuts as governments struggle with deficits or strive to balance budgets. In Victoria, the state government has reduced fire brigade funding for this year alone by $65 million. Cuts in funding of fire services in NSW and Queensland have created similar pressures on valuable fire-fighting resources.

It is, of course, important to remember fire risk is compounded by a number of factors besides emergency services, namely:¢ �The lack of preparedness in rural and

regional communities. The Victorian CFA Chief Euan Ferguson expressed concern in an article in The Age newspaper over recent surveys which suggest that despite the tragedy of Black Saturday only three years ago, a mere one-third of people in these fire-prone areas currently have proper emergency preparedness plans for

bushfires or understand the risks. ¢ �Evidence from the Bushfire CRC as

late as October 2012 in its Fire Note 98 shows that most people either do not evacuate their homes early enough on days of high or extreme fire danger, or often make decisions quite late to reach places of safety.

¢ �Some governments, including the Victorian, which has one of the highest fire threat levels in Australia, have done little planning to improve fire safety of communities. The Australian Standard AS3959 for bushfire protection of defendable individual dwellings has been prescribed for new homes and renovations in bushfire-prone areas, but does not require application to existing homes. Similarly, an Australian Standard has been developed for domestic refuges, but its value has been questionable.

Australia unprepared for bushfiresWe need a national approach to fire data collection, analysis and dissemination and ‘defendable spaces’ in high-risk, fire-prone areas to create resilient or self-reliant communities.

Australia – one of the most bushfire-prone nations in the world – has a shameful lack of information or data on the losses and costs of fire events in Australia in comparison with other countries, although the Bushfire CRC is starting to address this shortcoming. This lack of publicly available data is significantly affecting our ability to make the right decisions in terms of changes to building codes and regulations, infrastructure design and ability to develop new technologies, which will provide more cost-effective fire safety solutions.

I believe what’s needed first and foremost is a national approach to fire data collection, analysis and dissemination, with the Fire Protection Association Australia or an alternative body such as a broader Fire or All Hazards CRC charged with this critical fire-safety task.

What we also need is the development of ‘defendable spaces’ in high-risk,

By Peter [email protected]

Another frightening fire Photo: IStock

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research & technology / resources www.atse.org.au

fire-prone areas to create resilient or self-reliant communities. Defendable space denotes an area of land around a building where vegetation is modified and managed to reduce the effects of fire and other protective structures are put in place. In order to protect those who are most vulnerable to the impact of bushfires, we need defendable community space close to schools, aged-care buildings, community centres and other facilities at which vulnerable people can congregate. These buildings also need to be made resistant to bushfire attack. This is particularly essential if we consider the evidence that many people are simply not leaving fire-stricken areas in time.

Importantly, there must be high-quality, well-protected and resilient infrastructure, including warning and communication systems to facilitate quicker community actions and effective evacuation processes. The late 2012 fire in the regional telephone

exchange at Warrnambool showed how communities and emergency services can be paralysed when ‘000’ calls, mobiles, landlines and the internet are all lost when one facility goes down.

Over the past 10 years, Australia has lost significant portions of its natural environment to massive and highly destructive bushfires across the country. We are losing valuable flora and fauna on top of expensive economic damage and, at times, a tragic human toll.

Unfortunately for us, this pattern is only expected to worsen over time as the frequency and severity of extreme weather events is predicted to increase. To combat this, we need more research and better planning for climate change adaption, as well as a greater understanding of the full impact of bushfires on communities and the emergency services.

It is a huge challenge, but one that must be faced in our current world.

The heatwave affecting Australia in late December and early January brought extreme heat to most of the Australian continent over a sustained period. Temperatures above 40°C and 45°C were unprecedented in their extent across the continent, breaking new records for Australian averaged maximum temperatures. The heat was also unprecedented in its duration.

– From Off the Charts: Extreme Australian summer heat, a report by the Climate Commission

PETEr JOHnSOn is a Principal, Fellow and

former international practice leader in fire safety

engineering at Arup, the international planning,

design, engineering and management consulting

firm. He is an Honorary Life Member and Board

Adviser to the Fire Protection Association, Australia.

He is Fellow of the Engineers Australia and the

US based Society of Fire Protection Engineers. He

was inducted recently as a Fellow of ATSE for his

international contributions to the research and

application of performance-based design of fire

safety for buildings and infrastructure.

Sam Walsh to head Rio tintoMr Sam Walsh Ao FtSE, a 2012 Fellow and chief Executive, Iron ore Group, Rio tinto Ltd, has been appointed chief Executive of Rio tinto and is moving from Perth to London to take up his new role.

Mr Walsh was appointed chief Executive of Rio tinto’s Iron ore group in 2004, with responsibilities covering operations and projects in Australia, canada, Guinea and India, and in 2009 he was appointed chief executive of Rio tinto Australia.

Prior to joining Rio tinto, Mr Walsh worked in the automotive industry for more than 20 years in Australia and the US. he has a Bachelor of commerce from the University of Melbourne and has

completed a Fellowship Program at kettering University in Michigan. he was awarded an honorary Doctor of commerce by Edith cowan University in 2010.

Mr Walsh is a non-executive

Director of Seven West Media. he is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management, the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, the chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, and the Australian Institute of company Directors.

other roles include vice president of the Australia-Japan Business

co-operation committee, chair of the WA chapter of the Australia Business Arts Foundation, the Black Swan State theatre company and the chamber of Arts and culture WA Inc, patron of the State Library of Western Australia Foundation, a patron of the UWA hackett Foundation and president of Scouts Australia (WA Branch).

In 2007, Mr Walsh was awarded Australian Export hero and Western Australian citizen of the Year – Industry and commerce.

iM4dc ANd iNdoNESiA SigN rESourcES TrAiNiNg dEAlIndonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources training Agency and representatives from the International Mining For Development centre (IM4Dc) − a partnership between the University of Western Australia and the University of Queensland – have signed an agreement for a new program to deliver education, training and capacity-building for Indonesia’s mining, oil, gas and technology sectors.

the Memorandum of Understanding was signed at UWA. IM4Dc Director Ian Satchwell said the Indonesian Ministry had

independently identified UWA as its preferred partner for capacity-building in oil and gas administration. he said IM4Dc was already delivering a project through UQ to cooperatively develop new competency standards and training for about 1000 Indonesian inspectors to administer new mining laws in that country.

the IM4Dc partnership was formed in 2011 between UWA’s Energy and Minerals Institute, UQ and AusAID to support governance, sustainability and expertise in developing nations.

IM4Dc’s program includes scholarships for students from developing nations to study advanced mine sciences at research-intensive universities in Australia’s two main resource-rich states.

Sam Walsh

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www.atse.org.au water

Great rivers are “running on empty”Four of the world’s great rivers, including the Murray–Darling, are all suffering from drastically reduced flows as a direct result of water extraction, according to new Australian National University research.

the multi-author study – led by ANU researchers Professor Quentin Grafton, Dr Jamie Pittock, Professor tom kompas and Dr Daniel connell of the crawford School of Public Policy – examined the threats from water extractions and climate change on four of the world’s iconic river systems; the colorado River (the US), the orange River (South Africa), the Yellow River (china) and the Murray.

the researchers found that in all four basins, over a long period of time, outflows had greatly reduced as a direct result of increased water extractions, and that urgent changes in governance of water were needed to ensure the systems remained healthy and viable.

“While climate change will aggravate changes in flows in river systems, current high levels of water extractions remain the principal contributor to reduced flows and degradation of these rivers,” Dr Pittock said.

“Stronger action is needed to ensure that in dry times, the rivers get a fair share of the available water.”

the researchers said that the key to securing the future of the world’s rivers lies in plans to share water use between users and the environment, and water markets to manage allocations. they added that,

although the management of the Murray–Darling Basin was favourable when compared to other places in the world, there was much more that could be done to ensure a healthy future for the system.

the work was conducted with researchers from the University of Queensland, the University of canberra and international collaborators from universities in the US, china and South Africa, and produced a paper, ‘Global insights into water resources, climate change and governance’, published in Nature Climate Change.

• Dr Pittock was a keynote speaker at the launch in May 2012 of the Academy’s report Sustainable Water Management, which included a half-day seminar on a sustainable water management strategy for the Murray–Darling Basin.

‘woNky HolES’ HElP wATEr PlANNiNg the discovery of ‘wonky holes’ – strange freshwater seeps resembling miniature volcanoes on the seafloor – is giving Australian water scientists important new insights into the nation’s groundwater resources and how they may be used by coastal communities.

Wonky holes – named by fishermen whose nets they snagged, threatening to capsize their boats – were first found in a 60-kilometre-wide strip fringing the Great Barrier Reef coastline.

these mysterious holes resemble pockmarks on the seafloor, about 10 to 20 metres across, and up to four metres deep. So far, researchers have identified some 200 holes along the reef. thought to be the

remnants of fossilised rivers, they may also exist in other places around the 35,000km Australian coast.

originally greeted with scepticism, wonky holes have prompted researchers to ask whether ecosystems in the marine environment depend on groundwater from the land, how much they use and whether this draining of freshwater in turn affects coastal environments and human communities.

“For years people thought of water as draining from the land into the ocean mainly through surface rivers. We didn’t realise how much groundwater also leaks from shore into the ocean floor itself – or the implications for the supply of fresh water on land,” says Professor craig Simmons of the National centre for Groundwater Research and training (NcGRt) and Flinders University.

“We think that wonky holes are actually undersea freshwater springs – the remains of ancient river channels – that still flow sporadically when water levels in aquifers on land are high,” says Dr thomas Stieglitz of NcGRt and James cook University.

“Now we think wonky holes could help us assess how much groundwater discharges from our aquifers to the sea – and also its role in sustaining ecosystems on both the seabed and on land.”

Dr Stieglitz says that wonky holes were formed when the last ice age ended 15,000 years ago.

“Previously, the sea water level was 120 metres lower than it is today, and we had rivers flowing right across where the reef is today. once the ice melted, the sea level rose and inundated these rivers. they were then covered by sand and mud, becoming springs whenever freshwater broke out through the seabed.”

NANoMATEriAl cAN filTEr ToxiNS froM wATErNew research has demonstrated the potential of a new kind of nanomaterial to filter out environmental toxins in water.

A team of researchers, led by Dr Mainak Majumder and Phillip Sheath from Monash University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and Dr Matthew hill from cSIRo, has developed a highly porous metal organic framework (MoF) that, almost uniquely, is stable and able to filter substances in water.

the researchers demonstrated the filtering ability of the new MoF by sieving paraquat – a herbicide that has been linked with the onset of Parkinson’s Disease. the MoF was a very precise filter, removing paraquat but leaving other contaminants.

MoFs are clusters of metal atoms connected by organic molecules and known for their exceptional abilities to store or separate gases such as carbon dioxide. this is one of the first studies to demonstrate their separation applications in an aqueous environment.

Dr Majumder said the uniform structure of MoFs made them very efficient filters.

“these are crystalline materials with a difference: they have pores that are all exactly the same size. So while one substance can fit in the pores and be captured, another, just one tenth of a nanometre bigger, can’t fit,” Dr Majumder said. “As a result you can detect and capture substances that are present in low concentrations, or in a mixture with other materials.

“Because MoFs are flexible, we found that their structure changed when they absorbed the paraquat. this means that our MoF could form the basis of a device for quickly and easily testing for the contaminant in water,” Dr hill said. “Due to its very precise filtering properties, this testing application could deliver very accurate contamination readings in the field.”

Jamie Pittock

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trees offer water early warning A team from the National centre for Groundwater Research and training (NcGRt) and the University of technology, Sydney (UtS) has come up with an early warning system that can potentially tell Australian groundwater managers and users when they are in danger of taking too much water away from the trees.

“All across Australia there are vast tracts of woodland, forest and riparian vegetation that depend on groundwater for survival, particularly during drought,” says Professor Derek Eamus of NcGRt and UtS.

“We know that if we extract too much water from under these ecosystems, there is a good chance the trees will die. But until now we didn’t know clearly what the cut-off was – how much water you can take before it adversely affects the forest that depends on it.”

Working in pristine woodland in the Sydney catchment, Professor Eamus and researchers Sepideh Zolfaghar and Randol Villalobos-Vega have been measuring tree girth, leaf area and other factors associated with vegetation and have for the first time managed to establish a clear relationship between the depth of groundwater and the health of the forest – one of the ‘holy grails’ of groundwater science.

“Up to a groundwater depth of six to nine metres the forest does fine, the trees grow well and develop thick trunks and heavy leaf canopies. the diversity of tree species is high,” he explains. “But when the watertable sinks below 10 metres you begin to see a steep decline in all these things.

“Even though some tree roots may go much deeper in some parts of Australia, it appears that 10 metres is the point at which tree health is clearly suffering. We think that this rule broadly applies to most types of groundwater-dependent ecosystem across Australia.”

the research is helping to establish sustainability limits that will eventually be incorporated in all licences to extract groundwater. “Basically, it is an easy way to tell if we are over-extracting water, which is the case in many of Australia’s major aquifers, especially in the Great Artesian Basin and parts of the Murray–Darling Basin.”

the team has been using a tiny heat sensor to measure the amount of water used by trees. It injects a small amount of heat, which the rising sap then carries up the tree trunk, enabling the researchers to measure the sap flow and calculate how much water the tree is using. And they use a surprisingly large amount.

“A lot of people talk about using trees to lock up carbon, but for every molecule of carbon you lock up, the trees will use between 1000 and

3000 molecules of water. Given the long-term water-scarcity issues facing Australia, we may need to consider alternative ways to store carbon than by only planting trees,” Professor Eamus says.

AuSTrAliA urgEd To ‘bANk’ iTS wATErAustralia should prepare now for dry times ahead by ‘banking’ its water underground when rainfall is plentiful, according to a new scientific study.

“there is enormous national potential to store surplus water in aquifers, ensuring sufficient water is available for cities, homes, industry, farming and the environment when drought strikes,” says researcher Andrew Ross of the National centre for Groundwater Research and training (NcGRt).

“We need to start thinking of surface water and groundwater as a single resource – and managing them together, in an integrated way over time.

“We also need to tune water management to our climatic cycles and to harness the power of floods to help us to deal with drought. that means banking surplus water underground during wet periods and bringing it up for use in dry times.

“While it needs national leadership, the concept of water banking can be implemented at grassroots level by Landcare and catchment management groups, even by individuals, as well as by larger organisations and agencies. this role can breathe new life into the Landcare movement,” he adds.

In his doctoral thesis, Mr Ross proposed that Australia should develop and implement water banking at the national scale, taking advantage of the wet/dry climate cycle and the immensity of our network of underground aquifers. Based on observations of water management in the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) and the western US, he argues that water banking can provide a big part of the solution to “Australia’s perpetual boom/bust relationship” with water and the climate.

“Water banking augments the natural processes of water storage in the landscape, avoiding evaporative losses. In the MDB up to 3000 gigalitres (or billion litres) of water a year evaporates from surface water storages.”

Good management of groundwater banks also requires some changes to current water management practices, he says. When Australians deposit water in an underground water bank they generally do not retain any legal ownership rights, or have any guarantee that they can recover their water. these rights and guarantees would need to be established.

Also, restrictions on how much of their water entitlement they could carry over from one year to another prevented Australians from saving enough water to buffer them against the next drought. Extended carry-over could be developed, with rules to prevent excessive aquifer drawdown during droughts.

Water banking helps communities adjust to climate variability and uncertainty and enables irrigators to receive additional water during drought. In california, one water bank holds up to 800GL for its members; another has released 750GL back to its members over a recent three-year period.

Water banking could assist environmental water managers by allowing them to synchronise supply with specific environmental watering requirements. It could help the development of water markets by bringing diverse sources of water under common rules of use and trade.

“It can also help to increase Australian agricultural exports. Water banking expertise and technology could also be a valuable new export industry in its own right,” Mr Ross said.

Andrew ross

Trees can warn of water

shortages.

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www.atse.org.au agriculture / research & technology

Microwaves deliver weed control, chemical-freethe technology used in the common kitchen microwave oven has been adapted to deliver a chemical-free solution to Australia’s weed problems.

Dr Graham Brodie, of the University of Melbourne, has developed a fully operational prototype machine that can successfully focus microwave energy at ground level, killing weeds within seconds.

“herbicide resistance and environmental concerns already limit the chemical options available for weed management,” Dr Brodie said. “Microwave treatment is immediate, chemical-free and leaves no residue at the treatment site.”

Weeds are one of the major threats to Australia’s primary production and to the natural environment. It has been estimated that weeds cost Australian agriculture more than $4 billion each year, including control costs and lost production.

Dr Brodie’s research initially tested a 600-watt kitchen microwave, before developing the 8-kilowatt field unit that has been tested in the paddocks at the university’s Dookie campus.

A series of four microwave horn antennae, each just 11 centimetres wide and transmitting 2kW of microwave energy, were fitted to a trailer to focus their transmission solely onto the weeds in the inter-row space of agricultural field crops.

Dr Brodie said that in a broadscale agricultural operation numerous antennae could be mounted on a tractor trailer at spacings in line with whatever crop was being treated. treatment could take place regardless of the weather conditions, would successfully kill herbicide-resistant species, and would not limit production schedules with withholding periods at the site once treatment was completed.

“there is potential to develop an industrial 15kW unit which could operate in broadacre situations at near the speed of current chemical spray applicators, with each weed requiring less than a second of exposure to the microwave transmission,” Dr Brodie said.

Interest in the effect of microwaves on plant health dates back to the 1920s, but it was not until recently that studies shifted away from attempting to treat seeds in the soil and instead targeting plant seedlings. the concentration of microwave energy collapses the structures within the weeds that carry water through their stems. Depending on the amount of energy applied, irreversible wilting and subsequent death occurs within just seconds of the microwave exposure.

Dr Graham Brodie with the vehicle-mounted prototype machine that can successfully focus microwave energy at ground level, killing weeds in seconds.

Dr Brodie’s research during 2011-12 was conducted as part of the Australian Government’s National Weeds Research and Productivity Program, administered by the Rural Industries Research and Development corporation.

SoilMapp cAN AccESS Soil SciENcE dATAbASESAustralia’s national soil databases can now be accessed in real time online through a new iPad app called SoilMapp. the new app provides open access to the most up-to-date information for soil at any location in the country within a matter of seconds.

Information such as soil depth, acidity, salinity, carbon, water-holding capacity and other attributes will help land managers, farmers and rural advisers make on-the-spot decisions about how to more effectively manage their land.

this mobile device technology will deliver detailed scientific information on soils directly into the hands of farmers, rural consultants, agronomists, and potentially other soil enthusiasts like real estate agents, hobby farmers and keen bushwalkers.

the app has been developed by the Australian collaborative Land Evaluation Program (AcLEP) and cSIRo, with funding from the Grains Research and Development corporation (GRDc).

uNivErSiTy rESEArcH HAS “SigNificANT” iMPAcTA national trial by 12 Australian universities has found significant economic, social and environmental benefits – or ‘impact’ – arise from research undertaken at Australian universities. the trial also confirmed that this impact is able to be assessed.

the 12 universities taking part in the trial were members of the Australian technology Network of Universities (AtN) and the Group of Eight Universities (Go8), plus charles Darwin and Newcastle universities and the University of tasmania.

the Excellence in Innovation for Australia (EIA) trial involved seven panels of 75 volunteers (of which 70 per cent were external industry and business sector experts) assessing 162 case studies provided by the participating universities. of these case studies, 87 per cent were found to have considerable, very considerable or outstanding impact.

AtN chair Professor Jeanette hacket said the importance of the EIA trial’s positive outcome related to its synergy with the numerous studies which had highlighted the role of innovation and research as key drivers for Australia of productivity and economic growth at a time when it is a stated aim of Australia to be a world leader in innovation.

“the trial indicates clearly that the research funding provided to Australian universities by government can deliver evidence that it is a worthy investment by taxpayers in our nation’s future through its measurable impact for the nation, the region and the world.”

Professor Fred hilmer, chair of the Go8, said: “In undertaking the trial, the AtN and the Go8 share a commitment, in the national interest, to producing research that is not only excellent but also benefits the broader Australian community.

“critical to this commitment is the ability of our universities to reliably measure the benefits of the full range of our research output to the broader community. Such indicators show the importance of the investment government makes in university research,” he said.

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UNSW, ANSto take lead on joint research centresAtSE Fellows at the University of NSW will be heavily involved in the new Minerals, Metallurgy and Materials (3-M centre) at UNSW, one of six new joint research centres being established under the Australia-china Science and Research Fund.

Scientia Professor Aibing Yu FtSE, from the UNSW School of Materials Science and Engineering, will head the 3-M centre, with the china Iron

and Steel Research Institute Group as lead partner and start-up funding of $833,000.

“the 3-M industries represent significant contributions to the economies of both Australia

and china,” Professor Yu says. “however, many of the processes involved are traditionally regarded as energy intensive and

environmentally unfriendly.“Australia and china both face considerable

challenges in securing the future value of these industries and sustaining a competitive advantage in a carbon and resource constrained world.

“Part of the aim of this centre is to develop and apply innovative new technologies to improve energy efficiency in these important industries, and to promote the production and application of advanced materials, such as photovoltaic and catalyst materials, for renewable energy production.”

the centre will also focus on building a stronger economic partnership with china, which is the largest consumer of Australia’s mineral resources and has a huge market in the 3-M industries, where advanced Australian-developed technologies can be applied and commercialised, Professor Yu says.

the 3-M centre is supported by a strong talent pool of more than 40 academics from the Australian and chinese academies of sciences and engineering. Among these are prominent UNSW engineers including Scientia Professor Martin Green AM FAA FtSE (School of Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy Engineering), Professor Rose Amal FtSE (School of chemical Engineering), Professor Veena Sahajwalla FtSE (School of Materials Science and Engineering) and Profesor Liangchi Zhang FtSE (School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering).

the ANSto-SINAP Joint Materials Research centre, hosted by ANSto and the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP), is another of the joint research centres being established under the Australia-china Science and Research Fund. ANSto and SINAP will undertake a range of collaborative projects, provide postgraduate and postdoctoral training, and hold regular workshops. ANSto has been awarded $833,000 to deliver on the Australian commitments for the research centre.

the research centre announcement and the conclusion of the MoU in December recognised the mutual research links between two of the region’s key nuclear science and technology organisations.

ANSto’s cEo Dr Adi Paterson FtSE said international collaborations like these helped to ensure Australia remains at the forefront scientific discovery and the practical application of knowledge to improve quality of life and environmental sustainability.

the Australian and chinese governments signed a new higher education and research agreement in December to mark the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations, when the Minister for tertiary

Education, Senator chris Evans, and the chinese Vice Minister of Science and technology, Mr Wang Zhigang, announced the six new joint research centres. Each government is providing a total of $5 million to support these joint research centres. the announcement was part of a visit to Australia by a chinese delegation, headed by State councillor Madame Liu Yandong, Minister of Education Mr Yuan Guiren and Mr Wang.

other centres to be established under the initiative are the Australia-china Joint Research centres for: ¢ �Energy, at curtin University of technology;¢ �Light Metals, at Monash University; ¢ �Wheat Improvement, at Murdoch University; and ¢ �River Basin Management, at the University of Melbourne.

NEw NATioNAl rESEArcH iNvESTMENT PlANthe National Research Investment Plan is a comprehensive national research planning process that will enable a coordinated approach to research investment to ensure it meets national needs and provides value for money, according to the Minister for Science and Research, Senator chris Evans.

“Research and innovation delivers new technologies, new knowledge, better living standards, improved health and more sustainable communities,” Senator Evans said, launching the plan. “We recognise the vital contribution science and research make in driving innovation and keeping Australia competitive, and we want to ensure our investment is best targeted to deliver real benefits for Australians.”

he said the investment plan would support future funding decisions by the government and sets a path to achieving national research goals. “the Australian Research committee will use the plan to develop a set of strategic research priorities and to guide future government funding to ensure it is delivered most efficiently.

“to remain competitive, we need to improve the way we use our research to boost productivity, grow the economy and deliver better social, economic and environmental outcomes for all Australians.

“the investment plan will enable our research sector to better respond to the needs of industry and to improve national wellbeing by boosting productivity and addressing the nation’s key challenges.”

rEPorT liNkS iNNovATioN ANd ProducTiviTythe latest report into Australia’s national innovation system has confirmed the role of innovation in driving productivity, indicating innovative firms of all sizes are almost twice as likely to report an increase in productivity compared those that do not innovate.

the Australian Innovation System Report 2012, issued by the Australian Government in December, revealed that compared with firms that do not innovate, innovative Australian firms are also:¢ �42 per cent more likely to increase profitability;¢ �three times more likely to export;¢ �four times more likely to increase the range of goods or services offered;¢ �more than twice as likely to create new jobs; and¢ �more than three times more likely to increase training opportunities

for their employees.the report showed improvements in the national innovation

system against the Australian Government’s targets, particularly in the areas of research and skills.The report is at www.innovation.gov.au/aisreport

Adi Paterson

Aibing yu

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Focus February 13


$87 million solar research to cut costscSIRo will lead a new eight-year solar thermal research initiative, worth a total of over $87 million, which aims to lower the cost of solar thermal power from 25 to around 10 cents per kilowatt hour.

Solar thermal power uses mirrors to concentrate sunshine to generate heat, which then powers a turbine to create electricity or solar-derived fuel. cSIRo’s solar thermal tower at Newcastle is an example of the technology.

cSIRo will partner with six Australian universities and the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Sandia corporation and Arizona State University with the goal of creating solar technology to supply cheap, zero-emission, secure energy for Australia, and the world.

the Australian Solar Institute and Australian Renewable Energy Agency contributed $35 million to the initiative, which seeks to ensure Australia remains at the leading edge of global solar research.

cSIRo’s Energy transformed Flagship Director, Dr Alex Wonhas, said the funding provides cSIRo with the opportunity to work with the world’s best and fully develop solar thermal technology.

Australian university partners are the Australian National University, the University of Queensland, the University of Adelaide, the University of South Australia, Queensland University of technology and Flinders University.

crcS MAkE iMPAcT oN rESEArcH EducATioNA new report by the University of Melbourne’s centre for the Study of higher Education shows that Australia’s cooperative Research centres (cRcs) are making a significant contribution to postgraduate training.

completion rates of cRc-affliated postgraduates are high and most cRcs offer industry-oriented development opportunities for their students. In 2010, 218 cRc-affliated students graduated with a PhD, representing about four per cent of Australia’s total doctoral graduates for the year.

Importantly, cRcs assist postgraduates through the five dimensions of research training – resources, supervision, professional development, collegiality and administration. these are the likely factors leading to good completion rates. Some cRcs have gone to considerable

effort in particular aspects, such as bringing students from different university settings together regularly for professional development and involvement with their respective industry. Several have pulled together frameworks to ensure a ‘complete’ postgraduate experience.

cRc Association cEo, Professor tony Peacock, said the association commissioned the report to give guidance on the best way to train postgraduates in the future.

Argo MAkES iTS MillioNTH obSErvATioNAn innovative global observing system based on drifting sensors cycling from the surface to the ocean’s mid-depths has recorded one million ocean observations.

From 10 drifting robotic sensors deployed by Australia in the Indian ocean in late 1999, the international research program – named Argo – has been building up a global array, which is now enabling new insights into the ocean’s central influence on global climate and marine ecosystems.

the initial objective was to maintain a network of 3000 sensors in ice-free open ocean areas, providing both real-time data and higher quality delayed mode data and analyses to underpin a new generation of ocean and climate services.

the Argo array now exceeds 3500 sensors, the largest there has ever been, and collects one profile about every four minutes – 360 profiles per day or 11,000 a month.

to put the million observations achievement in context, since the start of deep sea oceanography in the late 19th century, ships have collected just over 500,000 temperature and salinity profiles to a depth of one kilometre and only 200,000 to two kilometres. At the present rate of data collection, Argo will take only eight years to collect its next million profiles.

Presently 28 countries contribute to the annual $25 million cost of operating the program. the US is the largest provider of sensors to the network, with Australia – led by cSIRo with the Integrated Marine observing System and the Bureau of Meteorology – maintaining more than 300 profilers for deployment mainly in the Indian and Southern oceans and the tasman Sea.

“In its short life, the Argo dataset has become an essential mainstay of climate and ocean researchers, complementing information from Earth-observing satellites and uniquely providing subsurface information giving new insights into changes in the Earth’s hydrological warming rates and opening the possibility of longer-term climate forecasting,” said Argo co-chair and cSIRo Wealth from oceans Flagship scientist Dr Susan Wijffels.

The solar tower and field at the national Solar Energy Centre in newcastle.Photo: cSIRo

Susan Wijffels briefs Senator Chris Evans on the Argo program.Photo: chRIS cRERAR

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Aquarid and Geminid meteor showers, plus close encounters between the planets Venus and Jupiter and Venus and Saturn throughout the year.

“this easy to read and compact sky guide is suitable for all ages, whether you’re an occasional star-spotter or a budding astronomer,” says author Dr Nick Lomb.

2013 Australasian Sky Guide (paperback, 112pp, $16.95) available from bookshops, www.powerhousemuseum.com/publications or as an ebook through iTunes.

Despite its generic title, Innovation Economics, this book is really about America and only peripherally about the competition it suffers

from other nations, notably the People’s Republic of China. Its subtitle – The Race for Global Advantage – should have given it away, but until one is well into the book it’s not so obvious that there is a favourite in this race, albeit one with some work to do if it is to succeed.

The authors, from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation in Washington, DC, write from a liberal perspective and they characterise traditional economists (‘neoclassicists’) as unable to understand and appreciate innovation.

The lack of interest on the part of government and corporations in the value of innovation, they claim, has seen a shift of resources towards short-term profit-making (‘financial engineering’) in financial institutions such as banks, and an unhealthy dependence on the financing of overpriced housing. The ‘me, now’ society – their phrase – got its come-uppance when the housing bubble burst, with American making a major contribution to the global financial crisis.

why their country needs one. An interesting table on page 178 lists 20 countries with national innovation strategies, and the accompanying text mentions a number of others, including Australia, that have “dedicated innovation-promotion agencies”.

Following this, they explore three ways to “win the race”: by crafting innovation policy, by cheating and by following the ‘eight ‘I’s’ of innovation. This last is couched in the language of the business school that any consultant would be proud of: inspiration, intention, insight, incentives, institutional innovation, investment, and information technology. If I make it sound glib, that’s being unfair to the authors, for there is a good deal of sound material in these 20-or-so pages.

In their final chapters they dish out some stern advice to the US governments which could be facing “the end of the American century”. This is accompanied by criticism of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization. The authors even speculate that a new Bretton Woods agreement (which gave rise to these institutions in 1945) might be needed to set things aright.

This is a solid piece of work, with 50 pages of notes (more than half of them to internet URLs), and 15 pages of index. It will probably be most useful to governments and private-sector bodies such as the Business Council of Australia, rather than the people who are actually innovating. In the same vein, it could also be a handbook for ATSE contributions to the national debate.

PrOFESSOr iAn rAE FTSE, an Honorary Professorial

Fellow at the University of Melbourne, is a former

Technical Director of ATSE. He was President of the

royal Australian Chemical institute (2006–08) and

has served for more than a decade as a technical

adviser to the United nations Environment Program.

By Ian [email protected]

racing for global advantage

The desire for short-term profit caused companies to pay dividends (and huge executive salaries and bonuses) rather than accumulate funds for education, skill development, research and wealth-creating technology.

While I was absorbing and thinking about these views, I noted coverage in Australian newspapers of Qantas’s withholding of dividends to fund development, and the willingness of Asian, notably Indian, businesses to worry less about their share prices than about “building teams, raising employee productivity, increasing motivation and retaining good talen”.

By contrast, according to the authors, Atkinson and Ezell, the outsourcing of production from America to low-wage countries is short-sighted because it leads, sometimes unwittingly, to the outsourcing of R&D, design and innovation, for which US customers then have to pay dearly.

Following some chapters dealing with the economic decline of America, and comparing it to that suffered by Britain in the decades after World War II, the authors expand in a rather academic chapter on just what constitutes an innovation policy and

Innovation Economics by robert D. Atkinson and Stephen J. Ezell (2012, yale University Press, viii + 431 pp, hardcopy US$19.05)

Sky Guide availablethe Sydney observatory and the Powerhouse Museum have released the 2013 Australasian Sky Guide, the 23rd edition of this popular and easy-to-use field guide to the southern night sky, which is recommended for photographers, sailors, travellers, teachers and students.

the celestial equivalent of a street directory, the 2013 Australasian Sky Guide features monthly astronomy maps, viewing tips and highlights, plus information on the solar system, updated with the latest findings from space probes.

It enables readers to estimate local rise and set times for the sun, moon and planets, anywhere in Australia or New Zealand, and to find out about 2013 celestial events including a partial eclipse of the Moon in April, an annular eclipse of the Sun in May, the annual Eta

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number 173 august 2012

veena wins The Australian innovation challengeProfessor Veena Sahajwalla FtSE won the top prize of $30,000 in The Australian Innovation challenge awards for her use of recycled rubber to revolutionise steel-making.

the technology – which was developed at the University of NSW – has already prevented more than 1.4 million tyres from becoming landfill, with the rubber, along with recycled plastic containers, partly replacing coke in generating power for the production of steel.

Professor Sahajwalla, who studied in India before completing a PhD at the University of Michigan, said the principles underlying her polymer injection technology to create an environmentally friendly steel industry could also be applied to other industries. the technology could cut power consumption by millions of kilowatt hours a year, she said.

“In the process of making steel you need an input of carbon, which traditionally comes from coal-based resources,” she says. “What we’ve shown is that you don’t need to rely on the conventional materials, which has changed the paradigm of energy creation.”

the challenge is run by The Australian in association with Shell, with the support of the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and tertiary Education.

UNSW’s industry partner, Arrium, is using Dr Sahajwalla’s technology in Australia, has sub-licensed it to a plant in thailand and is in talks with other overseas steel-makers.

AtSE had other links to the awards. the StELR program was a finalist in the Education category and Professor colin Sullivan, who won the health category for the Sonomat device for sleep monitoring, was an AtSE clunies Ross Award winner in 2008. Professor Peter Blamey, a finalist in the health category, won an AtSE clunies Ross Award in 2012.

david abramson heads to uQProfessor David Abramson FTSE from Monash University, the distinguished national e-research leader, has been appointed Director of the University of Queensland’s new Research computing centre.

UQ Deputy Vice-chancellor (Research) Professor Max Lu FtSE says the university is fortunate to have attracted a researcher of Professor Abramson’s calibre and experience to the role.

Professor Lu says under Professor Abramson’s stewardship, the UQ Research computing centre will bring critical mass and focus to currently dispersed support activities. It will ensure that research computing infrastructure is fully engaged with world-class research across a wide range of disciplines at UQ; and position UQ for prospective funding opportunities in this domain.

“UQ has assembled some of the best research computing and data resources in Australia, and hosts prominent research groups requiring such infrastructure,” Professor Lu says.

“the UQ Research computing centre (Rcc) will provide coordinated management and support of the university’s sustained and substantial investment in supercomputers,

tera-scale data archives and network connections, together with coordinated research user support.”

Professor Abramson has held a number of leadership roles in education and research over the past 30 years, having been a program leader at cSIRo, Associate Dean (Research) at Griffith University and head of the School of computer Science and Software Engineering at Monash. Most recently he has served as Science Director at the Monash e-Research centre and the Director of the Monash e-Education centre.

he has been involved in almost all aspects of the national e-research agenda, assisting in the formulation of policy and serving on a number of implementation committees. As a member of the ARc college of Experts he chaired a Special Research Initiative on e-Research, and has served on the committees that established and operated many of the national bodies.

he maintains active links to the oxford e-Research centre (oeRc) and the california Institute for telecommunications and Information technology (calIt2). he has a significant track record in research, having attracted funding from national and international government and industry bodies, and in applying and commercialising It.

A Fellow since 2010, he will move to Queensland in March.

number 176 February 2013

australian academy oF technological sciences and engineering

David Abramson

Veena Sahajwalla working at the UnSW SMarT Lab high temperature furnace.

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February 13 Focus

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Manton FtSE – representing cAEtS and the global change program, Monsoon Asia Integrated Region Study (MAIRS), as chair of the MAIRS scientific steering committee – attended the workshop.

the Future Earth program will have several broad themes:¢�Dynamic planet – which includes

observing, explaining, understanding, projecting Earth, environmental and societal system trends, drivers and processes and their interactions – and anticipating global thresholds and risks;

¢�Global development – which seeks to provide the knowledge for sustainable, secure and fair stewardship of biodiversity, food, water, health, energy, materials and other ecosystem services; and

¢�transformations towards sustainability – which focuses on understanding transformation processes and options, assessing how these relate to human values, emerging technologies and economic ideas, and evaluating strategies for governing and managing the global environment across sectors and scales.

the goals for the workshop were to:¢�develop a common understanding of

Future Earth, including its vision, research framework and governance;

¢�identify regional research priorities (research questions, required capabilities and so on) that will help shape the Future Earth research strategy in the Asia-Pacific region;

¢�discuss opportunities and challenges for implementing Future Earth in the region; and

¢�explore the best ways of establishing a regional interface for Future Earth.

Professor Manton said further meetings would be held across the region to better define the way forward and cAEtS was seen as a potential mechanism for the program to link with the engineering and technological sciences communities.

The International Council for Science (ICSU) is an international non-government organisation devoted to international cooperation in the advancement of science. Its members are national scientific bodies and international scientific unions. Paris-based, ICSU is one of the oldest NGOs in the world. It evolved in 1931 from the International Research Council (1919–31), which had carried on the work of the International Association of Academies (1899–1914).

A Western Australian invention that’s keeping atomic clocks accurate, searching for gravity waves and improving radar systems has won its creators a national physics prize.

the tool generates the world’s most precisely timed microwave signals, and could potentially be used in radar systems to detect a stealth bomber. It may even help reveal quantum gravity.

the precision electromagnetic measurement technology, developed and patented by Laureate Fellow Michael tobar FtSE and Professor Eugene Ivanov from the University of Western Australia, allows the generation of signals at a level of resolution only limited by basic thermal or quantum fluctuations.

the pure signals produced by this technology have particular application in reducing the noise that limits the resolution of radars and have been commercialised by the WA high-tech company Poseidon Scientific Instruments for this purpose. Poseidon was recently acquired by the US technical giant Raytheon.

Such has been the industrial application of their research that Professor tobar and Professor Ivanov won the Australian Institute of Physics Alan Walsh medal for service to industry, announced at AIP/AcoFt 2012, the joint Australian Institute of Physics congress and the Australian conference on optical Fibre technology, in Sydney in December.

Initially, this technology was developed from basic research to develop a precision gravitational wave detector. Also, a cryogenic version was developed, which is now a very important device for keeping atomic clocks accurate.

Professor tobar’s current work includes engineered quantum systems and highly

accurate tests of fundamental physics. he is also known for his contribution to the development of ultra-stable cryogenic sapphire oscillators. Such oscillators are used in various metrological laboratories around the world enabling modern atomic clocks to keep time with an unprecedented accuracy, neither losing nor gaining a second in more than 300 million years.

With funding from the Australian Research council, Professors tobar and Ivanov are still exploring uses of this technology, which could potentially lead to the discovery of quantum gravity – and revolutionise theoretical physics.

the Walsh Medal is awarded every two years for physics research and/or development that has led to patents, processes or inventions which, in the opinion of the judging panel, have led to significant industrial and/or commercial outcomes. the medal commemorates the late Sir Alan Walsh, one of Australia’s most eminent and distinguished scientists, who was the originator and developer of atomic absorption spectrophotometry and pioneered its use as a tool in chemical analysis.

Future earth a Focus For iscuthe future of the planet was the focus of the International Research council (IRc) Future Earth regional workshop in kuala Lumpur in November.

Future Earth is a 10-year international initiative on Earth system research for global sustainability. the goal of Future Earth is to provide the knowledge required for societies in the world to face risks posed by global environmental change and to seize opportunities in a transition to global sustainability.

AtSE retiring Director Professor Michael

Michael Tobar

Mike Manton

Michael tobar takes Alan Walsh Medal

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Focus February 13

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become a widely used technology as quickly as possible.

malcolm golley’s worK recognised by dstoDSto scientists past and present – including Dr Malcolm Golley FtSE – have been recognised for their work on the development of the Jindalee operational Radio Network.

the Minister for Defence Science and Personnel, Warren Snowdon, presented certificates of appreciation to the scientists at the inaugural National Defence Science Lecture in canberra, attended by DSto chief Scientist Dr Alex Zelinsky FtSE and Professor Mary o’kane FtSE, NSW chief Scientist and chief Engineer.

the lecture, given by the chief of Weapons Systems Division, Bruce Ward, outlined the triumphs and pitfalls of the JoRN project and explained the science behind over-the-horizon radar (othR).

“this is a story that has evolved over 60 years and it is one of which DSto can be rightly proud,” Dr Ward said.

the JoRN project arose out of extensive research undertaken by DSto into othR beginning in the early 1970s. As part of the

1987 Defence White Paper, the Government placed a high priority on wide-area surveillance of the north and north-

western approaches to Australia and othR was seen to be the most cost-effective solution. As a consequence, in December 1990 the Government approved the design and construction of JoRN.

“the thing that made JFAS (the Jindalee Facility Alice Springs) and JoRN a success is the dedication and effort of the people,” Dr Ward said.

“We worked ridiculous hours over days and months to meet milestones. these milestones were not driven by commercial incentives but they were a result of vision, passion, the pursuit of excellence and not wanting to let the team down.”

Mr Snowdon presented the 2012 Minister’s Award for Achievement in Defence Science to DSto marine acoustics expert Dr Doug cato for his extensive research achievements in underwater acoustics and the effect of sound on marine mammals.

the Minister’s Achievement Award has been presented annually since 1988 to a DSto scientist who has made an outstanding scientific contribution to enhance Defence effectiveness and efficiency.

Mr Paul Dougas FtSE took up the appointment in January as chair of the Global ccS Institute Board, replacing inaugural chair Russell higgins Ao.

Mr Dougas is chairman-elect of Norman, Disney and Young and non-executive Director of Mount Gibson Iron, Beacon Foundation, and Epworth healthcare. he is also Principal of consulting Advisory Services and a Professorial Fellow in Leadership and Management within the Engineering School of the University of Melbourne.

Previously, Mr Dougas was cEo and Managing Director of engineering and environmental consultancy Sinclair knight Merz, where he served in senior roles for more than 30 years.

“I am pleased that the Institute will benefit from Mr Dougas’s leadership and extensive knowledge and experience,” Mr higgins said. “his more than 40 years in sustainability, financial, social and environmental consulting and strategy development in the Australian, European, South American and Asian engineering and environmental sectors will be a significant asset.”

Mr Dougas said the Institute played an enormously important role in seeking to ensure that carbon capture and storage (ccS) is included in the portfolio of low-carbon technologies needed to mitigate greenhouse gases and tackle climate change.

“this role will allow me to use my technical, industry and commercial skills to help direct Institute activities.”

Welcoming Mr Dougas’s appointment, Institute cEo Brad Page said: “Under Mr Dougas’s Board stewardship, the Institute will consolidate its role as a global champion for, and leading authority on, ccS and further advance development and deployment of the technology.”

the Global ccS Institute accelerates the adoption of carbon capture and storage, a key solution in mitigating climate change and providing energy security. the Institute advocates for ccS as one of the many options required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, both from power generation and industrial sources. It shares information from its international membership (of 361), while building capacity to ensure that ccS can

Paul Dougas chairs ccS Institute

Malcolm Golley

(From left) Dr Alex Zelinsky, Dr Doug Cato and Minister Warren Snowdon.

Paul Dougas

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civil engineer Dr John Grill FtSE has been presented with the Peter Nicol Russell Memorial Award for 2012, Engineering Australia’s highest individual award.

Mr Ian Pedersen, chair of the Australian Engineering Excellence Awards national judging panel, said: “As the former chief executive of international resources and energy company WorleyParsons, Dr Grill has been a major global player in the energy, oil and gas services and engineering sector throughout his career, which spans more than 40 years.”

Dr Grill gifted the University of Sydney with a $20 million donation last october. this donation, made to the faculties of Engineering and Information technology, was the largest single donation ever made by a living Australian to an Australian university.

“the donation will be used to establish the John Grill centre for Project Leadership, which will focus on executive education, research and thought-leadership in the areas of engineering and It, integrated with business acumen,” Mr Pedersen said.

the award was announced at the Engineers Australia Annual General Meeting.

lyn beazley gets to choose her charitiesA brain injury research centre and the Western Australian Museum will be the beneficiaries of a decision by WA chief Scientist, Professor Lyn Beazley Ao FtSE, on how to allocate $100,000 made available through the WA Governor’s Giving Award.

She nominated two institutions to share the award, with $50,000 each – a brain injury rehabilitation centre and the museum.

As only the second recipient of the Governor’s Giving Award, made through the WA Governor, Malcolm Mccusker Ac, Professor Beazley suggested the funds be committed to educational needs that will serve the WA community.

“My choices, I believe, address issues central to our social, environmental and cultural future both in the short and longer term,” she said.

“Most importantly, I want to leave a legacy and one on which we and others can build.”

the award to the oats Street rehabilitation centre for people with brain injury run by Dr Penny Flett, cEo of Brightwater Group – one

of WA’s largest providers of care services – will fund a PhD scholarship to study neuroplasticity related to therapies at the oats Street Facility.

“the facility does amazing, world-leading work to truly transform the lives of those who have suffered from acquired brain damage, irrespective of its cause, but including trauma, substance abuse and stroke,” Professor Beazley said.

“Many victims are young and all face a bleak future often devoid of hope, dignity or purpose. through a carefully sculpted program, designed for each individual, many participants of the program graduate to live independent lives and become able to contribute to society. But more science can only improve the outcome for the clients and that’s why the PhD scholarship will be a big help.”

Professor Beazley described the WA Museum as a time machine, with education as a key function.

“It examines the past: to reflect, to rejoice about the good parts and to regret the not so good. It addresses the present: to explain, to explore and to educate. It looks to help us shape our future: to predict, to plan and to prioritise. It is about what we were, what we are and what we aspire to be. that is why I believe our museum is such a vital part of our society.

“the funds will support secondary and tertiary students to undertake projects at any of the Museum sites. they are especially for those who might not normally be offered such an experience nor have the resources to do so.

“the students might work on the biology, terrestrial or marine, undertaking field work and matching this with world-class molecular biology; another possibility would be palaeontology, or the archaeology of human history in Western Australia; or the study of the composition of meteorites, comets or even rock from Mars.”

this work could complement that of scientists taking part in the Square kilometre Array project, Professor Beazley said.

UniSA CHAnCELLOrthe December 2012 issue of Focus (175) carried a photo of an Adelaide farewell to Professor Peter høj, the former University of South Australia Vice chancellor. the caption identified Mr David klingberg Ao FtSE as the chancellor of the University of SA. Dr Ian Gould AM FtSE has held that position for more than four years.

John Grill wins highest engineering award

John Grill

(From left) WA Museum Director Alec Coles, WA Governor Malcolm McCusker, Lyn Beazley, Mrs Tonya McCusker and Martin Langridge, Treasurer, Brightwater Group.

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contributions” to food science and technology through:¢�initiating pioneering chemical work on

the bitter principles of citrus fruits, which resulted in a commercial process for ‘debittering’ orange juice and a dramatic growth in the Australian fruit juice industry;

¢�technology transfer to the food industry, particularly in canning technology; and

¢�pioneering educational and professional activity both within Australia and internationally.

he was a former member of the Food Standards committee of the National health and Medical Research council, President of the Australian Institute of Food Science and technology and subsequently Secretary General of the International Union of Food Science and technology. he also served as executive secretary of the Australian branch of the International Life Sciences Institute.

he was named the first an honorary Fellow of the NZ Institute of Food Science and technology in 1972 and was also an honorary Fellow of the Institute of Food Science and technology (Uk).

susan Pond leaves ca boardWell-known Ict entrepreneur Steve Baxter has been appointed to the Board of commercialisation Australia, replacing Dr Susan Pond AM FtSE, who was appointed by the Minister for Industry and Innovation, Greg combet, in August to chair the expert committee assisting Innovation Australia to deliver the $200 million clean technology Innovation Program.

the commercialisation Australia Board recommends applications for assistance and advises on other strategic matters related to the program.

“Dr Pond has made a significant contribution to commercialisation Australia during her time on the Board. She is now playing a vital role in assisting the Government with delivering the new clean technology Innovation Program,” Mr combet said.

Rear Admiral William J. Rourke Ao FtSE, RAN (Retd) was farewelled with full military honours during a ceremony at Garden Island chapel in Sydney in November.

this honour followed his death in Sydney, aged 84, which brought to a conclusion the decorated career of a man remembered as a pre-eminent naval engineer.

Admiral Rourke was born in 1928 in Pemberton, Western Australia. he attended Perth Modern School and joined the Royal Australian Navy as a cadet Midshipman in January 1942, subsequently graduating from the Naval college in August 1945.

chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Ray Griggs, remembered Rear Admiral Rourke as a dedicated and accomplished member held in extremely high esteem by all who knew him, particularly the Navy Engineering fraternity.

“Admiral Rourke was an exceptionally talented engineering officer. his contribution to the Navy engineering profession was unparalleled, and his legacy will remain,” Admiral Griggs said.

During his 43-year career Admiral Rourke served in a number of the RAN’s ships. During his time posted to HMAS Sydney he served in the korean War and was Mentioned-in-Despatches.

Rear Admiral Rourke also served in a number of ships during exchange with the Royal Navy.

Following a stint as the chief of Naval Materiel, Rear Admiral Rourke retired in 1985 and was appointed as the first chief Executive

officer of the Institution of Engineers (Engineers Australia).

In an obituary in its December issue, Engineers Australia magazine noted that Bill Rourke became known for his commitment to engineering education, doubling student membership within his first year. he promoted closer links between EA and Australian higher educational institutes.

“his belief was that young engineers with the right values and education could make the world a better place. he expanded programs and initiatives aimed at young people and the establishment of university scholarships.

“Rourke was committed to broadening EA’s community involvement and its relationship with governments. he was passionate about promoting engineering policies and firmly believed that the engineering profession had to keep abreast of change.

“he initiated the formation of EA’s engineering societies and special interest groups. Further, he expanded national office activities to include conferences in management, course accreditation and assessing foreign qualifications.”

JacK KeFFord remembered as an outstanding Food technologist

Long-time Fellow Mr Jack kefford died in Sydney on 15 November, aged 95.

An esteemed food technologist, Mr kefford was Assistant chief of the

cSIRo Division of Food Preservation when he retired in 1982 and served as Secretary-General of the International Union of Food Science and technology from 1978 to 1982.

A Fellow since 1984, Mr kefford graduated MSc from the University of Melbourne in 1938 and spent his career with cSIRo. he also lectured in food technology at two universities, served on numerous government bodies and participated in many professional and educational activities.

his nomination citation noted that Mr kefford had made “distinguished

Bill Rourke was top naval engineer

Bill rourke in rAn uniform.

Jack Kefford

Susan Pond

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More than two decades of artifi cial intelligence (AI) development in Australia were marked recently when nine AI pioneers were honoured with the Australasian Artifi cial Intelligence Foundation Award: outstanding Service plaques.

the plaques were presented at a dinner as part of the 25th Australasian Joint conference on AI by the Australian computer Society. Four of the recipients were AtSE Fellows: Dr Barry Jones Ao FAA FtSE FAhA FASSA, former Minister for Science in the Australian Government; Professor Mary o’kane FtSE, NSW chief Scientist

and chief Engineer and retiring AtSE Vice President; ANU Professor Robin Stanton FtSE, Act Division President; and Professor Greg tegart AM FtSE, chair of AtSE’s health technology Forum and former Secretary of the Department of Science.

Professor o’kane addressed the dinner, refl ecting on 25 years of AI in Australia.

She noted that Australian researchers were involved in AI quite early in the international picture, with a fair number entering the fi eld just as it was emerging in the 1960s and 1970s, although often didn’t come from computer science but were trained as physical scientists or engineers.

“they were often pioneers in getting their component fi elds established, such as machine learning, vision, speech and robotics,” she said.

“Most of the people who were prominent in AI in Australia received training in labs overseas, and often these international connections proved to be stronger than the domestic links.”

the AI fi eld got a big boost when Barry Jones was made Minister for Science in the hawke Government in 1983. the Minister had run into the notion of machine intelligence

on overseas trips and saw the importance of the fi eld. to fi nd out who was doing what in Australia he asked the Secretary of his Department, then Greg tegart, to look into it and subsequently established the Machine Intelligence Program.

“the Department conducted a survey, the results of which were published in a major report into AI known as the famous ‘Silver Book’. the Minister encouraged researchers in the fi eld to form a national group and, under the aegis of the Australian computer Society, the National committee on AI and Expert Systems was established.

“As part of the push for AI in Australia, this committee developed the bid for Sydney to host the International Joint conferences on Artifi cial Intelligence (IJcAI).

“this involved Greg tegart spruiking on a video the ease of travelling to the conference on the not-yet-built monorail to the not-yet-built Sydney convention centre. the bid pack also included a boomerang programmed to come home to Sydney in 1991 when the conference would be hosted.”

the IJcAI bid was successful and Sydney hosted IJcAI in 1991. the conference will return to Australia in 2017, to be held in Melbourne – its fi rst time repeat outside North America.

aleX Pucci reveals the scientistLong-time AtSE Fellow Dr Alex Pucci Ao FtSE has released her book – The Scientist: A Short

Essay and Two Stories – at a Sydney function where it was launched by ABc science broadcaster Robyn Williams FAA.

the book “off ers a glimpse into another world not just through

AI stalwarts awarded after 25 years

atse in Focus

its technical details but also because it shows how scientists think and behave,” according to the cover blurb. “We are in the factual world of IVF, embryology, stem cell research, commercial and scientifi c clashes, professional paranoia and the legal and ethical issues that all raise.”

the book actually is an essay and two stories. Dr Pucci describes them in her own words: “What I did was fi rst to write the second story, then the fi rst one, then the essay that links them together. I ended up with a kind of ‘science cocktail’: part essay, part memoir and part science fi ction.

“the essay is a small collection of historical examples that show some of the variables scientists have to deal with. these variables determine the way in which scientists develop their professional character. We are talking of specialty and scale, of time and space, of conscience and ethical dilemmas. You’ll see how variegated the character of a scientist can became in response to those variables.

“the fi rst story, ‘Bourse Brigands’, is based on a real event that I fi ctionalised to suit the narrative.

“Some of you may recognise yourselves in the story but rest assured, none of you is a brigand; I haven’t invited them,” she told the launch audience in Sydney.

“the second story, ‘Eve’s Speed’, is a near future-science fi ction that I think is realistic enough to be possible. Again, the protagonists are based on real people, except that they are fi ctionalised, spliced and recombined to suit the plot.

“Both stories describe bioethical dilemmas; and the way in which scientists resolve them is for me an important determinant of their character.”

Raised in Eritrea and attaining degrees in pharmacy and bioscience from the University of Pisa and the University of Florence, then a PhD from the University of Sydney, Dr Pucci joined the Academy in 1990.

The Scientist: A Short Essay and Two Stories, by Alex Pucci (paperback, 248pp) is published by Authorhouse (US) and available from Angus & robertson, Booktopia and Fishpond.com.au

(From left) Emeritus Professor ray Jarvis, Professor ross Quinlan, Professor Mary O’Kane, Professor Mike Georgeff and Professor John Lloyd at a conference panel session.

Alex Pucci

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