issue 20 / dec 2009 20 - unsw faculty of engineering · unsw engineers is published by the faculty...

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News and special events

The Faculty: A brief history

More than big projects...

With over 9,000 employees and over $8 billion of work in hand, our business is stronger than ever. As we grow and evolve, it’s our values that drive our culture and make our people unique.Leighton Contractors. More than you’d imagine. www.leightoncontractors.com.au/careers

We’re big on our people.(All 9,000 in fact).

UNSW.ENGINEERS Issue 20/Dec 2009 3UNSW.ENGINEERS Issue 20/Dec 2009 3

UNSW Engineers is published by the Faculty of Engineering, UNSW.Phone +61 2 9385 4023Fax + 61 9385 5456Email [email protected]

EditorBen Allen

DesignFox Owens Creative

Printed byRostone Print

All photographs are provided courtesy of UNSW Archives or the Faculty of Engineering, unless otherwise specified.

ISSN 1442-8849

[Cover images] 60 years of the Faculty of Engineering.

contents4 News

6 Special events

8 The Faculty: A brief history

16 School histories

26 Obituary

26 Blast from the past

From the Dean’s desk ...2009 has truly been a year of celebration as we mark the 60th anniversary of UNSW and the Faculty of Engineering. Great things often come from small beginnings and this is certainly true of Engineering at UNSW: in a relatively short time it has become Australia’s largest engineering faculty – with ten schools, over 8000

students and a first-rate international reputation. One thing that makes this Faculty so special is our students,

both past and present. It is their achievements that reflect so well on us and show that UNSW engineers are truly the cream of the crop. Our graduates can be found all over the world at the highest levels of academia, industry and government, working to tackle global issues and build a positive future through their leadership, intelligence and creativity. It’s also gratifying that so many of our alumni are proud of UNSW and maintain a connection with the University and the Faculty throughout their lives.

I hope you enjoy this special commemorative edition of UNSW Engineers. Our feature article tells the Faculty’s story – from its modest beginnings to its current directions in research and teaching – while our School snapshots offer brief histories of each of our ten schools, including their milestones and successes. You’ll also find information on some of our recent special events including the launch of our new book, The History of the UNSW Faculty of Engineering 1949–2009. But perhaps most importantly, the magazine features a range of photos of UNSW through the years for anyone who wants to take a walk down memory lane.

With this, our twentieth issue, UNSW Engineers itself is celebrating ten years of publication. The magazine continues to be a great way for us to keep in touch with our friends and alumni and to showcase the many achievements of which we’re so proud.

To all of you, I thank you for your continuing support and advocacy, and I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing the Faculty a happy anniversary and a bright and successful future.

Professor Graham DaviesDean, Faculty of Engineering

Greening the WharfScientia Professor Martin Green, Executive Research Director of the ARC Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence, and Dr Richard Corkish, Head of the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, joined Federal Ministers Penny Wong and Peter Garrett, Sydney Theatre Company (STC) artistic directors Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton, and other prestigious guests at the Greening the Wharf launch in July.

As part of the Greening the Wharf project, solar-cell technology jointly developed by UNSW and Suntech Power will be installed in Australia’s largest-capacity rooftop solar panel array at the STC’s historic Walsh Bay building. The array will comprise 2000 high-efficiency Pluto solar photovoltaic panels and will supply up to 70 per cent of the STC’s power requirements, cutting its carbon emissions by about 555 tonnes a year. The Pluto cell used in the panels is a low-cost implementation of UNSW’s world record-holding 25 per cent efficiency PERL solar technology, and this is the first major Pluto installation in Australia.

Engineering Excellence Awards Two School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications graduates were recently recognised in the Sydney Division of Engineers Australia’s 2009 Engineering Excellence Awards. The Entrepreneur of the Year Award went to Dr Ian Campbell, co-founder of the CPS Group of Companies, who has overseen the development of several award-winning software innovations. Adrian Clark was named Young Professional Engineer of the Year for his leading role in developing and implementing Energy Australia’s smart grids program, part of a major transformation of the electricity industry.

First Honorary Doctor of Engineering Degrees UNSW’s first Honorary Doctor of Engineering degrees were recently conferred on Professor Lu Yongxiang, Chairman of the China Academy of Science, and Dr Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom, UNSW alumnus and founder of Thailand’s Mahanakorn University. The degrees were conferred by UNSW President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Fred Hilmer during a special UNSW 60th anniversary celebration in Beijing on 16–18 October, which was held to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.

Confucius Institute Opens NSW Premier Nathan Rees, former Prime Minister Bob Hawke and a senior delegation from China’s prestigious Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) attended the opening of the new Confucius Institute at UNSW in July. The joint UNSW/SJTU Institute will facilitate student exchanges and expand opportunities for cultural, scientific and commercial links between the two

countries. Describing SJTU as “a distinguished Chinese partner for UNSW”, the Premier said collaboration through the Confucius Institute would advance important areas of research.

Scientia Professor Martin Green, UNSW Chancellor David Gonski, Dr Richard Corkish, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts Peter Garrett, Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton. Photo: Jamie Williams.

Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke. Photo: Grant Turner, Mediakoo.

Dr Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom receiving his Honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from UNSW President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Fred Hilmer in Beijing. Photo: Creative District Pte Ltd.

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Mitsubishi Funds Mining Chair Mitsubishi Development, a subsidiary of Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation, has committed $1.1 million for UNSW to develop activities in the emerging field of sustainable mining practices. The funds will enable the School of Mining Engineering to establish a Mitsubishi Chair in Sustainable Mining Practices, with the inaugural occupant expected to be chosen by the end of this year.

The Chair will head the planned Australian Centre for Sustainable Mining Practices, an international centre of teaching and research excellence that will address the technical, environmental and community issues associated with mining. With a particular focus on the Asia–Pacific region, the Centre will enable significant knowledge transfer among local and international students and mining industry professionals.

World Solar Record UNSW solar-cell researchers have played a key role in achieving the highest efficiency for solar power, setting a new world record of 43 per cent of sunlight converted into electricity.

The UNSW team, led by Scientia Professor Martin Green, worked with two groups from the United States to demonstrate a multi-cell combination that has set the new benchmark for converting sunlight into electricity by any possible approach.

“This latest record involves an expensive combination of cells and the sunlight was focused to produce a much higher intensity than standard sunlight for these measurements,” said Professor Stuart Wenham, Director of the UNSW ARC Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence. “It does show, however, what eventually may be practical.”

NSW Scientist of the Year Awards The second annual NSW Scientist of the Year Awards were held in September, with UNSW Engineering researchers winning two of the six categories. Associate Professor Linlin Ge, of the School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems, won the Physics, Earth Sciences, Chemistry and Astronomy category for his pioneering work in satellite remote sensing.

Professor Gernot Heiser, of the School of Computer Science and Engineering and NICTA, won the Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Sciences category for his recent breakthrough in mathematically proving a computer operating system’s bug-free status, ensuring it is immune to crashes and failures.

Queen’s Birthday Honours Three UNSW Engineering alumni and staff were recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for 2009. Kurt Lambeck, a UNSW surveying graduate and a Professor of Geophysics at ANU and President of the Australian Academy of Science, was awarded an AO for his service to science through the development of policy, the promotion of educational programs and as a geoscience researcher and educator. Bruce Forster, a Visiting Professor in the School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems, received an AM for service to surveying, mapping and remote sensing, and to research and education. Fellow remote sensing expert John Richards, a UNSW electrical engineering graduate and Emeritus Professor, and former Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Engineering and Computer Science at ANU, was awarded an AM for service to electrical engineering and as a contributor to the development of space science.

Chemical Engineering AccoladesThree School of Chemical Engineering staff were recently recognised for their achievements in research and academia. Scientia Professor Neil Foster received the 2009 RK Murphy Medal of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, which is presented for outstanding achievement in process chemistry, chemical engineering or related areas. Professor Robert Burford, Head of School, was named by the Australian and New Zealand Federation of Chemical Engineers as this year’s recipient of the Caltex Award for his outstanding achievements in the teaching of chemical engineers. Emeritus Professor Ken Buckle was elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists for more than 30 years’ service to the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology and his commitment to teaching and promoting food safety.

Habitat for Humanity Since its foundation in 1976, Habitat for Humanity has built over 300,000 houses around the world, providing more than 1.5 million people in 3000 communities with safe and affordable housing. The UNSW Habitat Society, of which the Faculty of Engineering is a major sponsor, works with Habitat for Humanity through its Global Village program.

Earlier this year, two teams of 14 UNSW students each travelled to the Philippines and Vietnam to build houses in local communities, working alongside local labourers and residents. Chemical engineering student Ben Drew, who travelled to the Philippines, said: “Working with the UNSW Habitat Society has reinforced my reasons for doing engineering. Even when you think about how the bricks are made, you can see the benefit of engineering to society at large.”

This year the Faculty hosted a range of special events to celebrate 60 years of achievements and highlight the importance of the engineering profession. These events offered something for everyone – from students and alumni to staff and industry partners – and marked the Faculty’s significant role in shaping the past, present and future of engineering in Australia.

Engineering Students Sports DayOn Thursday 6 August, the various Faculty of Engineering student societies joined forces to hold an Engineering Students Sports Day. The event was a great success, with over 700 people in attendance. Highlights included the landing of a naval helicopter on the Village Green and also the touch football competition, which saw the Civil and Environmental Engineering Society (CEVSOC) claim victory for the second year in a row.

Great Engineering ChallengeAs part of Australian Engineering Week, the Faculty sponsored Engineers Australia’s Great Engineering Challenge, in which teams of Year 10 and 11 students undertook practical tasks that tested their science, engineering and technology prowess. Held in the Roundhouse on Tuesday 4 August, 35 Sydney schools were represented by over 200 students, 60 per cent of whom were female. Participants demonstrated their creativity as they faced three different engineering challenges: building a road crash barrier, creating a functioning wind turbine and constructing a cantilever bridge. The event was an excellent opportunity to promote engineering as an exciting career choice.

Engineering Industry BreakfastDuring Australian Engineering Week, the Faculty joined with Engineers Australia to host an Engineering Industry Breakfast, held on Thursday 6 August at L’Aqua on Sydney’s Cockle Bay Wharf. As well as being the Faculty’s 60th anniversary, 2009 also marks the 90th anniversary of Engineers Australia. NSW Minister the Hon Joe Tripodi was the guest speaker at the breakfast, and addressed the audience on “Infrastructure decision-making for the best national outcomes”. The function was well attended, with representatives of academia and industry discussing the future challenges and opportunities for engineers in Australia.

Design Centre OpeningThe Faculty’s newest state-of-the-art facility is its multidisciplinary design centre, Design@Eng, which was officially opened on 23 November 2009. Housed in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, the 800 m2 facility boasts a leading-edge Design Space, Student

and Industry Space and Design Research Laboratory to integrate research, teaching and professional practice. Expertly designed by architects Woods Bagot, Design@Eng is set to become a key centre for education and research in engineering design.

Great Engineering Challenge participants. Courtesy Engineers Australia.

Professor Graham Davies and the CEVSOC touch football team.

Artist’s impression of Design@Eng. Courtesy Woods Bagot.


Alumni Anniversary Dinner and Faculty History Book LaunchOn Friday 21 August the Faculty hosted a dinner to celebrate the graduating classes of 1959, 1969, 1979, 1989 and 1999, and to launch The History of the UNSW Faculty of Engineering 1949–2009. Among the 250 guests were alumni, industry partners and past and present staff members, who all came together in The John Niland Scientia Building’s Leighton Hall to reconnect, remember and take a look at the future.

Throughout the evening, films of the Kensington campus through the decades brought back many happy memories for the audience. Ray McDermott, a 1959 electrical engineering graduate who began his degree when the University was based at the Sydney Technical College in Ultimo, recalled the transport difficulties of the early days: “Students had to travel between the Kensington campus and Ultimo. Few of us had cars and trams were the major form of transport. I had a Triumph motorbike and I charged my pillion passengers one apple pie for the ride. I thought that was a pretty good deal.”

Ray’s classmate Ian Shearman remembers the University’s early photocopying process, which involved going to “the photocopy man” who took a photograph of the material with a camera on a stand. “You were lucky to get the copy back within two weeks.”

In his address to the audience, 1959 civil engineering graduate Eric Lesleighter described the engineers of his day as carrying “a Phillips head screwdriver, a copy of Quantum Physics and a peanut-butter sandwich in their briefcases”. Eric added: “UNSW holds top place in this country as the university that launched many top engineers.”

Professor Graham Davies, Dean of Engineering, summed up the Faculty’s achievements as “simply the best”, striking a chord with many alumni who agreed that studying engineering at UNSW has had a positive impact on their professional and personal lives.

The dinner was also the occasion for the launch of The History of the UNSW Faculty of Engineering 1949–2009. Emeritus Professor Mark Wainwright AM, former UNSW Vice-Chancellor and former Dean of Engineering, explained how research for the book began in 1999 with a Faculty oral history project, run in conjunction with UNSW Archives, followed by contributions from alumni including photographs and graduate surveys. An authoring team of Blanche Hampton, Ben Allen and Robert Loeffel was commissioned in 2007 to prepare this Faculty-wide illustrated history, and an Editorial Committee representing

most Faculty schools was convened to work actively with the authors.

The book was formally launched by Professor Robin Batterham AO, President of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, who wrote the book’s introduction. In his address, Professor Batterham applauded the Faculty of Engineering for producing “not just engineers, but very good engineers.”

“It is a marvellous tale,” he said, “that chronicles the history of the UNSW Faculty of Engineering from its humble beginnings based at Sydney Technical College to the internationally reputed education and research hub that it is today … and it’s a darned good read.”

See page 26 to find out how to purchase a copy of The History.

by Belinda Henwood


Clockwise from top left: UNSW Engineering Deans, past and present: Brendon Parker, Al Willis, Mark Wainwright, Chris Fell and Graham Davies; 1959 electrical engineering graduates Donald Gray, Ray McDermott and Ian Shearman; Dinner guests in Leighton Hall; Professor Robin Batterham. Photos: Prudence Upton.

The story of UNSW and the Faculty of Engineering begins with World War II, when Australia was still a relatively young nation. The war had driven worldwide growth in all aspects of engineering, which highlighted a critical need for greater scientific and technical expertise throughout the country’s growing industrial sectors.

Eager to improve the situation, the NSW Government resolved to establish a new university in Sydney, or rather, an “Institute of Technology” that would focus on engineering and related technical disciplines, with a view to increasing Australia’s workforce of tertiary-educated and locally trained engineers. The content of the degree programs was to be completely modern

and the course structures themselves were to be innovative: each curriculum was to include set periods of industrial work experience, through which students would gain practical skills, and compulsory instruction in the humanities, or “General Studies”, to provide students with a well-rounded education.

The “Institute” versus “University” question was the cause of much debate. Although several institutes of technology were well established in the United States and Britain, the model was not immediately recognisable in 1940s Australia as being a degree-level institution. Therefore, by the time the Institute was formally established on 1 July 1949 it had been renamed the NSW University of Technology (NSWUT), which then became the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 1958.

Until it found a home of its own, the University was incubated at the

Sydney Technical College (STC) in the inner-city suburb of Ultimo, relying on STC space, equipment and staff. During 1947 the STC’s senior academics, some of whom became leading figures in the Faculty, began developing the early engineering degree programs: these were in civil, electrical, mechanical and mining engineering, with the first classes beginning in March 1948. Programs in applied chemistry, chemical engineering and a postgraduate course in electronic engineering commenced the following year. Of the initial intake of 46 students across the four founding disciplines, most were on special cadetships funded by industry bodies such as the Joint Coal Board or government departments like the NSW Electricity Commission, NSW Railways or the Department of Public Works, while the remainder either paid their own fees or were supported through the national postwar reconstruction scheme.

EARLYDAYS


The new University was also responsible for meeting educational demands around New South Wales. Regional campuses known as “University Colleges” were established during the early 1950s in the industrial centres of Newcastle, Wollongong and Broken Hill, with staff of the various Engineering schools providing teaching and administrative support as required.

In 2009 UNSW celebrates 60 years as one of Australia’s leading universities, with the founding Faculty of Engineering also marking its 60th anniversary. From modest beginnings with a handful of enrolments and no campus to call home, the Faculty has emerged as the largest of its kind in Australia, with ten schools, over 8000 students and an international reputation for sustained excellence in engineering research and education.

Resources were stretched at the STC, and students and staff soon became used to overcrowded classrooms and makeshift furniture and equipment. There was, however, a light at the end of the tunnel when the University began to move to its permanent home in the Sydney suburb of Kensington. This took some years though; in 1955 Mining Engineering became one of the first schools to relocate, while Civil Engineering was one of the last, finally completing the move in 1966. In the meantime, engineering students had to travel by tram between Ultimo and Kensington to attend classes at both campuses, braving the elements at the sandy, desolate and flood-prone Kensington site.

The Newcastle and Wollongong colleges grew until they became autonomous universities in 1965 and 1975 respectively, while the college in the mining town of Broken Hill continued to operate as a UNSW campus until its closure in 1984. UNSW was also instrumental in the development of the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) in Canberra, established in

A GROWING CAMPUS

From far left: Crawford Munro, foundation Professor of Civil Engineering, with the School’s first graduates, 1952; Electrical engineering students celebrate the end of exams, 1958 (courtesy Ray McDermott); Engineering laboratory at Ultimo, c 1950. Below: Former Kensington campus icons Ian “The Wizard” Channell, c early 1970s, and the Engineering Fountain, c early 1980s.

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1986, and today the Faculty maintains strong links with ADFA’s School of Engineering and Information Technology.

During the 1950s, managing the University’s activities at Ultimo and Kensington, as well as the University Colleges, was quite a challenge. Things became even more complicated in 1956 when the University Council decided to split the faculties of Engineering and Science and create a Faculty of Technology, later renamed the Faculty of Applied Science. Mining Engineering moved across to the new Faculty, as did Chemical Engineering (which had originated in the Faculty of Science), while Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Civil Engineering (which included the Department of Surveying) remained in their home Faculty. When

Applied Science was disestablished in 1997, the Faculty of Engineering welcomed the School of Chemical Engineering and Industrial Chemistry, the School of Mining Engineering and the Centre for Petroleum Engineering, which became a School the following year.

As teaching and research activities gradually developed at Kensington, so did campus buildings, facilities and services. From the early days, on-campus student accommodation was provided in a collection of wooden buildings near High Street known as “the Huts”, which were stiflingly hot in summer and freezing in winter. Accommodation improved, however, when Basser College opened in 1959, followed by a range of other residential colleges: Goldstein (1964), Baxter (1966), New (1969), Creston (1970), Warrane (1971) and

Shalom (1973), along with International House (1968).

As for engineering facilities, the campus was transformed when the complementary Mechanical and Electrical Engineering buildings opened in 1963, followed by the nine-storey Civil Engineering Building three years later. Each Engineering School was furnished with state-of-the-art laboratories, which were the domain of the technical staff responsible for maintaining experiments and laboratory equipment, and workshops containing a host of staff such as fitters, turners and other tradesmen.

General staff were essential to the day-to-day running of the schools, but many positions were gradually phased out as infrastructure evolved and traditional tools were replaced by equipment that enabled greater scientific accuracy. Cuts to university funding in the 1970s had a dramatic impact on general staff numbers, with fewer staff having to deal with the demands of a growing student body. In the School offices, the roles of administrative staff changed significantly with the advent of personal computers, photocopiers, fax machines and the internet. From the 1980s the Faculty’s general staff also included growing numbers of computer support officers who guided the transition from hands-on experimentation to computer simulation, and today’s IT specialists maintain the Faculty’s many software and hardware systems.


THE TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION

While technological progress has greatly affected general staff numbers and their roles, it has also been a driving force behind engineering research. In 1956 the University acquired its first computer, known as UTECOM (University of Technology Electronic Computer), which was the third electronic computer built or installed in Australia. Before long, UTECOM was in constant use by Faculty of Engineering academics pursuing their own research activities or undertaking statistical projects sponsored by industry or government.

UTECOM was superseded by an IBM 1620 then an IBM 360/50, both acquired in the early 1960s, by which time computer technology was making a worldwide impact. In 1965 the School of Electrical Engineering established a phenomenally successful Department of Electronic Computation, which eventually became the Faculty’s independent School of Computer

Science and Engineering, a world leader in computing education and research.

The technology revolution continued to pick up speed during the 1970s and 1980s. Innovations in computer-aided design enabled the Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) of circuits and systems, driving the establishment of the Faculty’s VLSI and Systems Technology (VaST) laboratory in 1978 and the Joint Microelectronics Research Centre (JMRC) in 1982. With a focus on VLSI circuit design and photovoltaic technology, research conducted in the JMRC provided the foundations for the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering and a wealth of commercialisation opportunities for UNSW’s award-winning solar cells.

Around that time, computer technology was increasingly used in medical experiments, which accelerated developments in the burgeoning field of biomedical engineering. Research in traditional engineering disciplines was also moving in new directions: computer-aided design and manufacturing revolutionised activities in the School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, while the

School of Surveying began to shift its focus towards areas such as remote sensing and satellite positioning. More recently, the Schools of Chemical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering have applied new technologies to tackle critical environmental problems like climate change and water supply, while Mining Engineering’s use of virtual reality systems in teaching and research is an important step towards increasing the safety of mining operations.

Changing technology has also had a major impact on teaching and learning within the Faculty. In the early days, the focus was heavily on “chalk and talk” lectures, but computers gradually made their way into all schools and programs, allowing for more flexible teaching delivery and greater focus on specialised areas of learning. More and more, students in the 21st century are able to download lectures or participate in “virtual classrooms”, regardless of where they are in the world, through the use of state-of-the-art video conferencing and visual collaborative computing tools.

Clockwise from above: Campus flour fight, 1974 (photo: Sir Rupert Myers); Computer room featuring the IBM 360/50, c 1966 (photo: John Todd, courtesy Keith Titmuss); Electrical Engineering Professional Officer Kevin Flynn, c 1970s; Surveying student and future Senior Lecturer Tony Robinson at the 1960 Survey Camp, Bathurst (courtesy Dr Tony Robinson); Mechanical engineering students at the inaugural UNSW Foundation Day Parade, 1961.

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The Faculty’s student body has steadily increased during the last 60 years, reflecting UNSW’s growing reputation, although external forces have also had an impact on enrolment trends. A sharp reduction in commencing enrolments for 1967, for example, was caused by changes to the NSW education system that meant students had to remain at high school for an additional year, while mid-1970s enrolments rose slightly with the introduction of the federal government’s free tertiary education policy. Industry demand for IT professionals drove rapid enrolment growth in Computer Science and Engineering during the 1990s, whereas the dot-com crash of the early 2000s saw renewed interest in traditional disciplines such as civil and mechanical engineering. The most significant impact on the Faculty’s enrolments, however, was the 1997 disestablishment of the Faculty of Applied Science, when chemical, petroleum and mining engineering students joined the Faculty of Engineering.

The educational options available to students continue to evolve with the emergence of new disciplines and technologies, and today the Faculty offers Australia’s broadest range of engineering programs, as well as combined degrees in conjunction with

other faculties. To complement the Faculty’s early undergraduate programs, it soon led the way in Australian postgraduate education with courses in fields such as electronic engineering, television, highway engineering and traffic engineering. In 1958 the Faculty offered the country’s first master’s by coursework programs, initially called the Master of Technology, which evolved into the Master of Engineering Science (MEngSc) and which continues to be an integral part of engineering education at UNSW. The Faculty has also maintained a strong emphasis on research training: its first PhD was awarded in 1955 to electrical engineering student Edward Hopkins (BE (Elec) ’52, PhD ’55) and today the Faculty has the highest number of engineering research students in Australia.

Since government and industry cadetships were first offered to the University’s early undergraduates, scholarship schemes have given vital financial assistance to many engineering students, as well as providing opportunities to gain practical experience through industry work placements. Of particular importance is the UNSW Cooperative Education (Co-op) program, launched in 1989, whereby Co-op scholarship recipients undertake work experience with up to four different organisations during their degrees.

First offered by ten UNSW schools including Civil, Mechanical and Mining

Engineering, the Co-op program has continued to expand; recent additions include the Bachelor of Software Engineering and the Bachelor of Photovoltaic and Solar Energy, with the latter enabling students to undertake work experience with solar companies in China and Norway. The Faculty has a broad range of other schemes available to assist high-achieving students with their engineering studies, including the highly successful Australian Rural and international Golden Jubilee scholarship programs.

Early on, the Faculty was very much the realm of male students and academics; women who did embark on tertiary study usually headed towards teaching, nursing or the arts. In 1959 Eleanora Kopalinsky (BE (Mech) ’66, PhD ’71) became the Faculty’s first female student, completing her mechanical engineering degree part time and subsequently becoming a UNSW Associate Professor. Despite scattered female enrolments across the Faculty, the Engineering schools remained male dominated for many years. The School of Chemical Engineering and Industrial Chemistry in Applied Science was the exception to the rule, and always had relatively strong female enrolments.

The situation changed somewhat in 1991 when the School of Civil Engineering launched its landmark environmental engineering degree. More than ever, students were looking for careers that would have a positive impact on the world around them,

ENGINEERING STUDENTS


and the program attracted 60 per cent female enrolments in its first year. Women have since had an increasing presence in engineering, not only among the Faculty’s student body and academic staff, but throughout all levels of industry.

Since its early days, the Faculty has been enriched by the vast numbers of international students looking to undertake engineering studies in Australia. In 1950 the Colombo Plan was devised by various British Commonwealth countries to increase technical expertise and resources in developing Asian countries, with overseas tertiary scholarships being a key feature of the plan. The University began accepting Colombo Plan students from the early 1950s, many of whom studied engineering. As UNSW’s reputation grew outside Australia, so did its overseas enrolments, with students arriving from even further afield to gain qualifications at a leading international university.

From the late 1980s, the Faculty began strengthening its links with institutions in the Asia–Pacific region, particularly polytechnics in Singapore and tertiary colleges in Malaysia, and various student and staff exchange schemes were initiated. A notable

and mutually beneficial relationship also developed with Thailand’s Mahanakorn University of Technology, established in 1990 by UNSW alumnus Dr Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom (BE (Elec) ’72, PhD ’76, DEng (Hon) ’09), which was recently ranked as the country’s leading university by Thailand’s Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment. The Faculty increased its presence worldwide by actively recruiting students from North America and Europe and, more recently, China, India and Pakistan.

UNSW Engineering students have always been talented and eager to take on a challenge. These qualities especially come to light in a range of projects that provide opportunities for students to apply classroom theory and demonstrate innovation and entrepreneurship. Since 1996 the Faculty’s flagship student program has seen multidisciplinary engineering teams design, construct and race a series of Sunswift solar cars in the biannual World Solar Challenge race from Darwin to Adelaide. The team’s entry in the October 2009 event (now part of the Global Green Challenge) was the newest state-of-the-art Sunswift model, known affectionately as Sunswift IVy, which was the first Australian car to

cross the finish line. Other student programs include the Redback Racing Team’s regular participation in the Formula SAE-A championship, which involves designing and building a racing car from scratch, and the BLUEsat (Basic LEO UNSW Experimental Satellite) project, which provides students of various disciplines with hands-on experience in space research.

Other activities present opportunities for UNSW Engineering students to represent the University around the world. Artificial intelligence students have made a name for themselves since 1999 in the international RoboCup competition, which involves teams of robots battling it out on an indoor soccer field, while in recent years the MAVSTAR team have showcased their leading-edge micro-aerial vehicles at events in India and the United States. Developing Countries projects have seen teams of photovoltaics students designing and implementing solar systems in remote communities in Nepal, Nicaragua and Vanuatu.

From far left: Eleanora Kopalinsky, c 1968 (courtesy Robbie Robertson); Environmental engineering students at Botany Bay, 1990s (photo: Tony Potter); UNSW welcomes international students, 1963 (photo: Norman Danvers). Above: The Aldebaran Nao, the UNSW RoboCup Robot for 2008 and 2009 (courtesy CSE); Sunswift IVy, 2009 (photo: Daniel Friedman).

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The 21st century brings many complex problems – from climate change and depleting energy and water supplies to child obesity and an ageing population – all of which have potential solutions in the multifaceted sphere of engineering. The engineering challenges are great, but they also offer many opportunities for engineers to make their mark and play a role in shaping the world’s future.

As well as being proficient in their chosen fields, today’s engineers must be expert communicators, problem solvers and managers. Employers also expect graduate engineers to be highly creative, with a knack for innovation, which is

why engineering design is integral to all the Faculty’s undergraduate programs. As 2009 draws to a close, the Faculty celebrates the opening of its new multidisciplinary design facility, Design@Eng, which will become a key centre for engineering education, research and industry collaboration.

Another major facility that will soon make its mark on the Kensington campus is the Tyree Energy Technologies Building, due for completion in 2012, which will house the School of Petroleum Engineering, the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, the Centre for Energy Research and Policy Analysis (CERPA), the Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets (CEEM) and the Particles and Catalysis Research Group. With a focus on collaborative research

and education, the facility’s activities will be vital to Australia’s role in tackling global environmental and energy challenges.

UNSW is also working towards a cleaner, greener future as a foundation member of the Australian Solar Institute, dedicated to accelerating the development of photovoltaic and solar thermal energy engineering. Next year a Solar Institute Research Facility – the first of its kind in Australia – will begin operating on the campus, featuring a state-of-the-art production line for silicon solar cells developed in partnership with German solar company, Roth & Rau.

The establishment of these facilities demonstrates, more than ever before, the importance of collaboration in engineering research – an ethos that is

INTO THE FUTURE

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UNSW Faculty of Engineering Deans

Harold Brown:

1950–51

David Phillips:

1952–56

Al Willis:

1956–67

Tom Fink:

1969–78

Rupert Vallentine:

1978–80


reflected throughout the Faculty. The Schools of Mining Engineering and Surveying and Spatial Information Systems, for example, have recently joined forces to improve mining safety through the use of satellite technology, while artificial intelligence activities continue to span the disciplines of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and computer science. Civil and Environmental Engineering’s focus

on sustainable infrastructure presents opportunities for collaboration with the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, while the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, multidisciplinary in origin and nature, is leading developments as futuristic as the implantable bionic eye and working alongside the School of Chemical Engineering in the advancement of nanotechnology.

The UNSW Faculty of Engineering continues to be greater than the sum of its parts: it is the continuing achievements of the staff and students of the ten Engineering schools that have built the enviable reputation the Faculty enjoys today. A pioneering spirit and a shared pursuit of excellence have served the Faculty well, and will undoubtedly continue to do so for the next 60 years and beyond.

From far left: Mining engineering education in the 21st century (photo: Jamie Williams); Colin Tan working on electronics for the Faculty’s BLUEsat project, and the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering’s flight simulator demonstration, UNSW Open Day 2009 (photos: Grant Turner, Mediakoo). Below: Artist’s impression of the Tyree Energy Technologies Building (courtesy Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp).

Noel Svensson:

1981–88

Chris Fell:

1989–91

Mark Wainwright:

1991–2000

Brendon Parker:

2002–07

Graham Davies:

2008–

Biomedical engineering began at UNSW in the late 1960s when researchers from the School of Mechanical

and Industrial Engineering and the Faculty of Medicine collaborated to investigate the lubricating properties of fluids in knee joints. Further research opportunities emerged in cross-disciplinary areas such as artificial kidneys and hip prosthetics, and in 1976 the Centre for Biomedical Engineering was jointly established by the faculties of Engineering, Applied Science, Medicine and Biological Sciences.

The Centre’s aim was to coordinate and foster teaching and research in this rapidly expanding field that applied engineering techniques to clinical problems. Drawing on expertise in mechanical and chemical engineering, much of the Centre’s research in the mid-1970s focused on the performance of artificial kidneys and haemodialysis systems. Funding for these projects was provided from several sources including the Australian Kidney Foundation and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

Postgraduate teaching and research programs were introduced in the late 1970s. In 1981 the Centre – the only one of its kind in Australia – was formally established within the Faculty of Engineering. New laboratories equipped for studies of artificial organs (heart, liver and kidney), cardiovascular dynamics, medical instrumentation, biomaterials and pharmacokinetics were opened in 1982. By that time the Centre’s research had started to attract major overseas funding and staff numbers had increased to 16 from the initial three when the Centre had first opened. A new

computer system also allowed many experiments to be automated and experimental results to be analysed rapidly.

Research and development of novel biomaterials and biomedical devices increased during the 1980s. In 1991 the Centre was involved in successful applications for two Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs): the CRC for Cardiac Technology, which operated until 1998, and the CRC for Eye Research and Technology, which was absorbed into the Vision CRC in 2003.

Collaborative research programs continued to develop between the Centre’s researchers, the medical device and pharmaceutical industries and medical schools and hospitals around Australia, resulting in several commercial successes. Working with the CRC for Eye Research and Technology, researchers produced a breakthrough soft contact lens that could be worn continuously for up to 30 days, and through the CRC for Cardiac Technology, a biostable polyurethane was developed for use in implantable medical devices such as pacemakers and stents.

In 1995 the Centre became the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering (GSBmE) within the Faculty of Engineering, offering concurrent degree programs whereby students obtain a Bachelor of Engineering with a Master of Biomedical Engineering over five years. The first two streams of this unique program were in mechanical and electrical engineering, with a computer engineering stream beginning soon after. A chemical engineering stream joined the ranks in 1998, followed by telecommunications and mechatronics in 2001 and software engineering and bioinformatics in 2004. The first concurrent cross-faculty degree program began in 2002 with the introduction of a materials science stream in conjunction with the Faculty of Science.

Today, the School’s research focuses on two main areas: cell and tissue engineering and biophysical monitoring and modelling, which currently includes the development of a bionic eye. Collaboration continues to be integral to the School’s work, with expertise drawn from the engineering, science and medicine disciplines within UNSW and from institutions around the world, as well as research organisations like the CSIRO and a broad range of companies with biomedical interests. The School’s activities aim to increase our knowledge of biological systems to enable the development of biomedical devices, as well as reducing healthcare costs and improving the quality of treatment for patients.

16 UNSW.ENGINEERS Issue 20/Dec 2009

Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering

Professor Peter Farrell (inaugural Centre for Biomedical Engineering director) at the opening of the Centre’s laboratories, 1982. Photo: Kevin Doig. Courtesy UNSW Archives.

SCHOOLhistories


The School of Chemical Engineering was established in 1949 with a view to developing Australia’s chemical

industry following World War II. Initially part of the Faculty of Science, in 1956 Chemical Engineering joined other industry-oriented schools in the newly created Faculty of Technology (later renamed Applied Science).

In 1960 the School was divided in two. The reformed School of Chemical Engineering comprised departments of Chemical Engineering, Food Technology (an independent School from 1976 to 2004) and later, Biological Process Engineering (now part of the Faculty of Science) and Fuel Technology. A new School of Chemical Technology encompassed Industrial Chemistry, Polymer Science and Ceramics (also now within the Faculty of Science), as well as activities involving plastic, rubber and paint technologies. Although both schools were external to the Faculty of Engineering, students took various subjects taught within the Engineering schools.

From 1971 the School of Chemical Engineering offered Australia’s first master’s by coursework program in environmental pollution control. The program attracted high enrolments and its graduates went on to populate many of the newly established pollution control authorities around Australia.

Throughout the 1970s both schools greatly increased their research output. Chemical Engineering focused on separation technologies, with projects extending into water purification, biomedical engineering, mineral processing, liquid waste treatment and alternative fuels. Within Chemical Technology, activities included catalysis research and the manufacture of materials such as glass, rubber and polymers.

In 1980, two decades after the schools had divided, they reunited as the School of Chemical Engineering and Industrial Chemistry. Research increasingly focused on pollution control and membrane technology, and the School was instrumental in creating the UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology in 1988. Activities in petroleum reservoir engineering drove the establishment of the Centre for Petroleum Engineering Studies in 1985, which became a School in 1998. Another emerging research area was supercritical fluids, and the School’s internationally recognised work in this field has recently been applied to nanomedicine, in particular the development of novel drug delivery systems.

The School’s expertise in catalysis and polymer science also grew. In 1990 the Centre for Particle and Catalyst Technologies (now the Particle and Catalysis Research Group) was founded, and its research led to the formation of the ARC Centre for Functional Nanomaterials in 2004. In 1999 the School established the Centre for Advanced Macromolecular Design (CAMD), which is closely affiliated with the CRC for Polymers.

During the 1990s it was apparent that many UNSW Engineering programs lacked the application of chemistry-to-engineering techniques, and the School was therefore transferred to the Faculty of Engineering when Applied Science was disestablished in 1997. The move enhanced research strengths across the Faculty, providing insight into the increasing use of polymers and ceramics as modern construction materials, a chemical dimension to the properties of water in waste and water engineering projects, and support in the fabrication of batteries and large-scale integrated circuits. It also created opportunities for joint research applications in areas with significant chemical and engineering components.

Today, the School is once again the School of Chemical Engineering, with a strong international reputation in several fields. Researchers in the UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology are pursuing projects involving water treatment, desalination and the fabrication of high-performance gas separation membranes for the capture of greenhouse gases. CAMD has developed polymers that enable advancements in biomedical engineering and nanomedicine, while the Particles and Catalysis Research Group is focused on innovative approaches to producing functional nanoparticles with potential health and environmental applications. Activities in the Department of Food Science and Technology include food engineering, microbiology, nutrition, sensory analysis and product development.

Chemical Engineering’s Trace-activity Laboratory, one of two laboratories in Australia at the time with equipment for carbon dating, 1961. Photo: Max Dupain. Courtesy UNSW Archives.


School of Chemical Engineering

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Civil engineering was one of UNSW’s four

foundation engineering disciplines. Nine students enrolled in the undergraduate program in 1948, which focused on water supply, structural analysis and design, experimental stress analysis, materials and surveying. A Bachelor of Surveying was introduced in 1957, with the School’s Department of Surveying eventually becoming an independent School in 1970. Also in the 1950s, Civil Engineering broke new ground in postgraduate education with the introduction of master’s programs in concrete structures, structural analysis and

water engineering. In 1959 the School established its now internationally renowned Water Research Laboratory (WRL) at Manly Vale.

By the mid-1960s Civil Engineering was the University’s largest School, making its name as a leading Australian centre for civil engineering education and research. Laboratory facilities expanded as its researchers provided technical solutions on projects such as subsidence assessments and roof-tile adhesion tests for the Sydney Opera House, lateral load modelling of Australia Square Tower and stress measurements in double-deck train systems. Facilities were further supplemented by a Heavy Structures Laboratory, established at the Randwick sub-campus, which proved ideal for testing prototype structures.

In the 1970s the School comprised four departments: Structural Engineering, Water Engineering, Civil Engineering Materials (later Geotechnical Engineering) and Engineering Construction and Management. The School of Transport and Highways, combining the University’s first two postgraduate schools, Highway Engineering and Traffic Engineering, was absorbed in 1980 as the Department of Transport Engineering. The departmental system was eventually abolished in 1998 and

the School has since been managed as a single organisational unit; the five academic groupings remain in a teaching and research sense, although there is increasing interaction between them.

By the early 1980s the School had become Australia’s pre-eminent centre for postgraduate civil engineering studies, with more civil engineering master’s by coursework students graduating from UNSW than from all other Australian universities combined. The School was also pursuing collaborative educational ventures in Asia, which included programs for Indonesian engineers that focused on rural roads and bridge engineering. During the 1980s the Centre for Wastewater Treatment (later the Centre for Water and Waste Technology) was founded, while the WRL continued to provide water engineering solutions to the public and private sectors.

Growing concerns about the environmental impacts of industrial development led to the introduction of a Bachelor of Environmental Engineering in 1991, and the program’s success ultimately drove a name change to the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering in 1997. The program was especially popular with female students, giving the School the highest ratio of female-to-male students in the Faculty. Although the School faced reduced enrolments due to the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, student demand has since increased and its total undergraduate enrolment for 2009 reached an all-time high with 1140 students. The demand for places has also been driven by the 2006 introduction of a degree in civil engineering with architecture, a cross-faculty initiative with the Faculty of the Built Environment.

The School continues to pursue its research strengths in geotechnical, structural and water engineering and in engineering construction and management. Increased government and industry linkages have recently seen the School’s research income rise to over $10 million annually.

The UNSW Water Research Centre was formed in 2008 to coordinate the School’s wide range of water research projects, while the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety, established in 2007, integrates the School’s structural and geotechnical engineering research activities. The School aims to relate all its teaching and research programs to industry and community needs, with a particular focus on sustainable development and climate change adaptation, hosting both the Sustainable Engineering Systems Initiative and the Australian Climate Change Adaptation Research Network for Settlements and Infrastructure.

SCHOOLhistories

Senior Lecturer Dr Peter Balint and senior technician Rex Lee, with the modelling of Australia Square Tower, c 1960s. Courtesy UNSW Archives.



School of Computer Science and Engineering

In 1956 the University acquired its first digital computer, UTECOM, which filled an entire room despite its meagre

1500 bytes of RAM. The world was beginning to realise the potential of computers, and in 1965 Electrical Engineering established a Department of Electronic Computation (later the Department of Computer Science). In the 1970s, largely through the groundbreaking work of UNSW researcher John Lions, the University became the first institution outside the United States seriously committed to computer research based on the UNIX operating system.

Reflecting burgeoning student interest in the discipline, the School was renamed Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1981. By 1989, the year it introduced Australia’s first bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, the School’s network of 120 workstation computers made it the largest teaching complex of its kind in Australia.

In 1991 the Department of Computer Science became the independent School of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE). By the end of the 1990s it was UNSW’s largest School and arguably Australia’s leading provider of hardware and software design education. The network had grown to over 500 computers, and the School also housed specialised laboratories in operating systems, networks, real-time systems, embedded systems, visualisation, human–computer interaction and robotics.

In 1997 the School introduced one of the world’s first undergraduate software engineering programs. To meet the industry demand for engineers with computing expertise, CSE also began offering combined degrees with other schools in the Faculty, linking traditional engineering programs with a computer science degree. The School also began gaining recognition through its annual participation in the international RoboCup (Robot Soccer World Cup) competition; since 1999 UNSW has achieved the best overall results of any participating university in the Legged League, in which robot teams clash in games of indoor soccer.

The dot-com boom saw undergraduate enrolments double between 1997 and 2001, which brought funding challenges and strained the School’s facilities. Following the dot-com crash, however, there was a reduced global demand for ICT education and enrolments began to decline, although the School was still larger than several of the University’s faculties.

In 2001 CSE was instrumental in establishing the CRC for Smart Internet Technology, which was succeeded by the Smart Services CRC. In 2002 UNSW collaborated with the Australian National University and the NSW and ACT

governments on a successful bid to develop NICTA, the Australian Government’s national ICT centre of excellence, with federal funding of $50 million annually. CSE continues to be one of NICTA’s four members and a major research partner.

A significant outcome of CSE’s research in artificial intelligence has been the sale of three patents to Google, and the resulting technology is now part of Google’s main search function. Another key research area is embedded and operating systems, with a focus on designing trustworthy and energy-efficient systems and hardware. The School’s work in this field, in collaboration with NICTA, led to the formation of spin-out company Open Kernel (OK) Labs, and the company’s L4 microkernel operating system is used in over 300 million mobile phones globally. Robotics is another strong research area, and CSE is a partner in the ARC Centre of Excellence in Autonomous Systems, one of the world’s leading robotics centres. The School is also a partner in the Centre for Interactive Cinema (iCinema), which is renowned for its virtual reality technologies.

Today, the School offers undergraduate degrees in computer science, computer engineering, software engineering and bioinformatic engineering, as well as a range of postgraduate programs. CSE’s focus on technical excellence has seen a high demand for its graduates by innovative organisations around the world.

Associate Professor John Lions and computing students Michael Leach and Elizabeth Broderick, 1979. Photo: GM Downie. Courtesy UNSW Archives.


School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications

In 1948 eight foundation students embarked on the University’s electrical engineering degree program, which

focused on control and electric power engineering, as well as radio and television communications. The following year the School of Electrical Engineering offered the University’s first postgraduate program, which was in electronic engineering, and in 1950 it began a trailblazing postgraduate course in television, six years before television broadcasting began in Australia. Part-time Master of Technology programs in control, power, communications and electronics were introduced in 1958, and a decade later this degree was renamed the Master of Engineering Science, a modernised version of which is still offered today.

From 1956 Electrical Engineering staff were charged with managing the University’s first electronic digital computer, UTECOM. Its users included government agencies and private firms, and one of the School’s own research projects was to program the computer to control complex electricity-generating processes.

By 1967 the School comprised four departments: Control Engineering, Electric Power Engineering, Communications and Electronic Computation. The Control Engineering Department developed control systems for turbines in the electricity-generating industry, while Electric Power Engineering focused on computer-controlled protection of power systems. Australia’s geographic size and location drove the Communications Department’s research into long-distance communications, as well as lasers in optical communication systems and digital and microwave technology. Computing research largely focused on graphic technology.

Also within the School was a Solid-State Electronics Research Group, which became the School’s fifth department.

The Group’s research led to the 1982 establishment of the Joint Microelectronics Research Centre (JMRC) in collaboration with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). One of its major strengths was photovoltaic power: the School became a world leader in solar-cell research, ultimately resulting in the establishment of the School of Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy Engineering in 2006.

The 1970s saw increased activity in digital communications research, which laid the foundations for the School’s recent work on data networks. Signal processing underpins much of the School’s current telecommunications activities, with additional research strengths lying in speech and image processing. Since 1994 the School has offered an undergraduate telecommunications degree.

In 1981 the School was renamed Electrical Engineering and Computer Science as a measure of the increasing importance of computer technology. Computing advancements revolutionised the sub-disciplines of power engineering, control, communications, signal processing, electronics and later, biomedical systems. In 1991 Computer Science and Engineering became a School in its own right.

During the 1990s the School of Electrical Engineering gained further recognition for its development of telemedicine systems for healthcare and aged care. Communications research moved towards satellite and mobile communications, while the School’s participation in the Photonics CRC (1992–2006) built on the significant optical fibre research of Professor Pak Chu. In 2003 an undergraduate photonics degree was introduced.

The School changed its name to Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications (EE&T) in 1998. Also that year, driven by the rise of quantum computing, the School established a Semiconductor Nanofabrication Facility (SNF) at UNSW in conjunction with the Faculty of Science’s School of Physics. The SNF was absorbed in 2000 by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computer Technology, which operates a range of research programs around Australia.

The School continues to be characterised by fundamental and applied research across five areas: electrical energy, systems and control, telecommunications, signal processing and microelectronics. The School also maintains strong research links with the Centre for Health Informatics, an international leader in telemedicine technology, and NICTA. Since 2008 EE&T has played a major role in the UNSW Centre for Energy Research and Policy Analysis (CERPA), a multidisciplinary unit working to develop innovative solutions for the world’s energy challenges.

SCHOOLhistories

Electrical engineering students, 1960s. Photo: Max Dupain. Courtesy UNSW Archives.



School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering

Following World War II, the scarcity of manufactured goods from traditional Northern Hemisphere sources

exposed a weakness in the Australian economy. With a view to expanding the country’s manufacturing base, a mechanical engineering program was developed for the new University, with the first ten students beginning classes in 1948.

As well as offering degrees in mechanical and production engineering, during the 1950s School staff delivered technical college diploma courses in these disciplines and in aeronautical and marine engineering (naval architecture). The diploma courses were terminated in 1961 and replaced by degree programs, followed by the School’s first Master of Technology in mechanical engineering the following year.

By the 1960s the School was the largest of its kind in Australia. Laboratories were established for agricultural engineering, hydraulics, refrigeration, internal combustion engines, aerodynamics, manufacturing, control and solar research, and the School also became one of the first to be active in the field of computational heat transfer and fluid mechanics. Collaborative biomedical engineering projects began in the mid-1960s with the Faculty of Medicine, ultimately driving the establishment of the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering.

In 1965 the School had four departments: Agricultural Engineering, Applied Mechanics, Industrial Engineering, and Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics (with sub-departments in Aeronautical Engineering and Naval Architecture). Two years later the School changed its name to Mechanical and Industrial Engineering to reflect its research strengths, with research activity and postgraduate enrolments increasing during the 1970s.

In 1985 the School’s Department of Agricultural Engineering was disestablished, and a Centre for Manufacturing and Automation was created in 1986. Through the Centre, the School offered postgraduate and short courses focusing on manufacturing, automation, computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) and financial analysis.

The findings of the 1987 Williams Review into Australian engineering education prompted major changes to the School, including a greater focus on manufacturing processes and a subsequent renaming to the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering in 1990. By the mid-1990s the School had been organised into seven departments: Applied Mechanics, Fluid and Thermal Engineering, Industrial Technology and Management, Design, Aerospace Engineering, Naval Architecture and Mechatronics.

School facilities were revitalised, with improvements made to the manufacturing and aerodynamics laboratories and new facilities established for design and mechatronics. Major funding also went into building computer-controlled-temperature rooms for refrigeration and air-conditioning projects. Experimental research, which had previously been heavily oriented towards fluid dynamics and thermodynamics, began to focus on noise and vibrations, solid mechanics and robotics.

During the 1990s the School became involved in the CRC for Aerospace Structures (until 1996), the Australian Maritime Engineering CRC (until 2000) and the CRC for Intelligent Manufacturing Systems and Technologies (until 2005). Today, the School is an active participant in the Advanced Manufacturing CRC and the CRC for Advanced Composite Structures. The project management group, Mechlab @ UNSW, has its home within the School and provides testing facilities, research capabilities and consultancy to industry across a range of mechanical and manufacturing disciplines.

The School’s international activities have included working with NASA on a materials research project and establishing an engineering college in the beleaguered nation-state of Eritrea in northeast Africa, as well as maintaining collaborative ties with institutions around the world.

Programs are currently offered in mechanical engineering, manufacturing and management, aerospace engineering, naval architecture and mechatronic engineering. Reflecting the hands-on nature of these disciplines, many of the School’s students are active in a range of multidisciplinary Faculty of Engineering groups tackling real-world engineering challenges, from the Sunswift Solar Racing Team and Redback Formula SAE-A Racing Team to the MAVSTAR micro-aerial vehicles group and BLUEsat space research group.

Technical Officer Norman Winters and Laboratory Craftsman Max Manwaring, with high-precision measurement instruments for mechanical and production engineering, c 1960. Courtesy UNSW Archives.


School of Mining Engineering

Mining Engineering was one of the University’s four foundation engineering disciplines, with classes

beginning in 1948. The degree program was immediately embraced by industry, with all but one of the first 16 students funded by scholarships from the NSW Combined Colliery Proprietors’ Association or the Joint Coal Board.

The School established a Department of Applied Geology in 1951, effecting a name change to the School of Mining Engineering and Applied Geology. In 1956 the School left the Faculty of Engineering to join the newly formed Faculty of Technology (later the Faculty of Applied Science), along with the School of Chemical Engineering and other disciplines. From the early 1950s, the School was also closely connected with the University College in the mineral-rich town of Broken Hill until its eventual closure in 1984.

The School established a Department of Fuel Technology in 1958 and a related degree program to complement its existing departments: Mining Engineering, Mineral Processing and Applied Geology. In 1963, however, Applied Geology became a School in its own right and Fuel Technology joined Chemical Engineering. The reformed School of Mining Engineering incorporated the Department of Mineral Processing, which was replaced with the Centre for Minerals Engineering (now the Centre for Electrochemical and Minerals Processing) in the early 1990s.

In 1986 UNSW established the School of Mines, the largest fully integrated mining school in an Australian university, bringing together Mining Engineering, Applied Geology and Mineral Processing as departments of the combined School. Two years later the Key Centre for Mines

was established as a joint venture between UNSW and the University of Wollongong for the ongoing education and development of mining and geology professionals.

During the 1990s the School of Mines operated a teaching unit at the site of the former Wyee Colliery, north of Sydney. Students attended the site for block sessions of two or three days, with morning classes followed by sessions underground. Practical training has always been integral to the School’s programs, and students continue to gain mining experience through field excursions around New South Wales and participation in the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy’s annual Mining Games.

When the Faculty of Applied Science was disestablished in 1997, the Department of Mining Engineering returned to its roots in the Faculty of Engineering and regained School status. It took over much of the professional development work of the Key Centre for Mines, which in 1999 was incorporated into the UNSW Mining Research Centre. A small unit continued operating as the Key Centre for Mines – International.

In 2006 the School was a leading participant in the establishment of Mining Education Australia (MEA), a world-class national mining engineering degree program. Supported by funding from the Minerals Council of Australia, MEA is a “virtual” school that integrates the resources of Australia’s major mining universities and gives students access to the expertise of leading international mining academics and practitioners. Students undertake the new MEA curriculum in their third and fourth years, and the first UNSW cohort of 32 MEA students graduated in 2009.

The School has a wide range of laboratory facilities for rock mechanics, rock excavation, mine ventilation, mine safety, mineral processing and coal preparation. Since 2000 it has operated a virtual reality training and research laboratory that allows students to undertake simulated mine training and “experience” hazard situations in a risk-free environment. Recently, the School also established an Advanced Visualisation and Interaction Environment (AVIE) theatre, a world-class facility featuring technology developed by UNSW’s iCinema team. The AVIE allows groups of students or mining professionals to participate in fully immersive virtual-reality scenarios to gain a better understanding of complex and often hazardous mining operations from the safety of the virtual world.

SCHOOLhistories

Mining engineering students and their guides on a geology excursion to Broken Hill, 1951. Courtesy John Baker/UNSW Archives.



School of Petroleum Engineering

The School of Petroleum Engineering’s origins can be traced to research conducted at UNSW as early as the

1950s. In 1958 the School of Mining Engineering established a Department of Fuel Technology, which was transferred to the School of Chemical Engineering in 1963.

At the time, the University was looking to establish a postgraduate program in petroleum technology, similar to the specialised courses that were being run in the United States. Although it would be many years before UNSW offered a dedicated petroleum engineering program, the School of Chemical Engineering’s facilities and expertise in this field slowly grew and by the early 1980s several of its programs included a petroleum reservoir engineering component.

In 1985 the Centre for Petroleum Engineering Studies was established in the Faculty of Applied Science, as a joint initiative of industry and the Schools of Mining Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Applied Geology. A Bachelor of Petroleum Engineering was introduced in 1986, the first undergraduate degree of its kind in Australia and the world’s first petroleum engineering course to be accredited by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (London). Since its introduction, the program has included comprehensive studies in geology and geophysics, as well as specialised petroleum and chemical engineering subjects.

The Centre’s research activities in the 1980s included projects supported by government and industry, such as oil recovery from Australian fields and methane drainage from coal seams. An international reputation developed as the Centre’s staff advised institutions in Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and Indonesia that were looking to develop their own petroleum studies programs.

In 1991 the Centre participated in the establishment of the Australian Petroleum CRC (APCRC) and a decade later the Centre (by then a School) became involved in the APCRC’s Geodisc program. Since 2005 it has been a major contributor to the CO2CRC, which conducts economic and reservoir engineering research. UNSW chemical and petroleum engineers collaborate closely with the CO2CRC to develop technologies and techniques for the capture and geological storage of carbon dioxide, with a view to minimising carbon emissions.

The Centre was transferred to the Faculty of Engineering in 1997 when the Faculty of Applied Science was disestablished. The following year it became the School of Petroleum Engineering (SCOPE).

In 1999 SCOPE launched a very successful online distance-learning program in postgraduate coursework. The program,

designed for industry professionals who are unable to attend classes on campus, draws participants from around the world and has played a major role in establishing the School as a significant international force in petroleum education. SCOPE also offers several research degrees and a continuing-education program focusing on environmental issues and emerging technologies.

The School’s research reflects Australia’s unique environment and addresses the recovery problems found in hydrocarbon reserves. School facilities include laboratories for rock and fracture mechanics, core drilling fluid and cementing, computing modelling and borehole stability analysis. As well as collaborating with the School of Chemical Engineering and the CO2CRC, SCOPE researchers work with the School of Mining Engineering to investigate the potential gas yields of Australia’s extensive coal deposits. Further collaborative links have been forged with the Australian National University, resulting in cutting-edge activities in the high-resolution imaging and modelling of porous rock microstructure. This partnership led to the recent establishment of Australia’s first high-tech petroleum engineering spin-out company, Digital Core Laboratories.

SCOPE maintains relationships with Australia’s oil and gas industry through sponsored scholarships and work experience programs. School staff have also consulted to industries and governments throughout the Asia–Pacific region in areas such as field development geology, reservoir characterisation and engineering, well-test analysis, and conventional and unconventional oil and gas development.

Professor Val Pinczewski (right), director of the Centre for Petroleum Engineering Studies (and current Head of School), with PhD student Andrew Grogan, c 1985. Photo: Kevin Doig. Courtesy UNSW Archives.



UNSW’s interest in solar energy began in the late 1950s, with early research into solar water heating. In 1975 the School

of Electrical Engineering’s Photovoltaic Group fabricated its first solar cell in the Integrated Circuits Laboratory, and two years later a laboratory dedicated to photovoltaics (the conversion of sunlight to energy) was established. This led to the founding of the Joint Microelectronics Research Centre (JMRC) in 1982.

With the aim of making silicon solar cells as efficient and affordable as possible, UNSW researchers reached the important milestone in 1985 of achieving the world’s first 20 per cent efficient photovoltaic module. The “Buried Contact Solar Cell” developed during the 1980s by future Scientia Professors Martin Green and Stuart Wenham was selected as one of the Top 100 Australian innovations of the last century by the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

With support from the ARC and Pacific Power, in 1990 the Photovoltaic Group joined forces with the School of Electrical Engineering’s Power Department to form the Special Research Centre for Photovoltaic Devices and Systems. The Centre drew together multidisciplinary expertise, becoming a world leader in the development of high-efficiency silicon solar cells. In 1994 the Centre prototyped silicon-on-glass cells that were lower in performance but could produce electricity substantially cheaper than any other solar-cell technology. The following year Pacific Solar was formed by Pacific Power and the University’s commercialisation arm, Unisearch (now

NewSouth Innovations), to manufacture the cells.

With the natural lapsing of the Special Research Centre’s funding at the end of 1999, the ARC Key Centre for Photovoltaic Engineering was established to meet industry demand for highly trained photovoltaic

School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering

SCHOOLhistories

The solar-cell research team, 1985. Clockwise from far right: Stuart Wenham, Jianhua Zhao, Martin Green, Michael Taouk, Andrew Blakers, Ted Szpitalak, Mohan Narayanan, Chee Mun Chong and Michael Willison. Courtesy SPREE.

engineers. The Key Centre introduced the world’s first Bachelor of Engineering in Photovoltaics and Solar Energy, which admitted its first 41 students in 2000, the same year the ARC Special Research Centre for Third Generation Photovoltaics was founded.

The degree program was designed to cover five main areas: device theory; photovoltaic technology and manufacturing; photovoltaic applications and system design; policy, analysis and modelling; and renewable energy technologies and sustainable energy. Students could also take on voluntary work with external organisations as part of their coursework to gain practical experience applying renewable energy technologies. This initiative has seen student groups travel to remote communities in Nepal, Vanuatu and Nicaragua to implement solar energy solutions.

In 2002 the Key Centre began offering postgraduate programs, followed in 2003 by an undergraduate degree in renewable energy engineering that encompasses energy efficiency and policy issues. In collaboration with the Australian CRC for Renewable Energy (ACRE), staff also developed distance-learning and community-education programs. The ARC Key Centre for Photovoltaic Engineering merged with the ARC Special Research Centre for Third Generation Photovoltaics and collaborating organisations in 2003 to become the ARC Centre of Excellence for Advanced Silicon Photovoltaics and Photonics (also known as the ARC Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence). The merger aimed to maximise Australia’s involvement in photovoltaic technology and accelerate its development.

The School of Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy Engineering (SPREE) was formally established in January 2006, with much of its current research conducted through the ARC Centre of Excellence. Research links with Suntech Power in China and other cell manufacturers have enabled the development and large-scale production of cutting-edge solar-cell technologies, and the Asia–Pacific region now has the world’s fastest-growing renewable energy manufacturing industry.

UNSW was recently selected as a member of the Australian Solar Institute, which will encourage collaborative photovoltaic research with local and overseas scientists and engineers. Initial government funding has been provided to establish Australia’s first state-of-the-art pilot production line for silicon solar cells, which will be the backbone of UNSW’s new Solar Industrial Research Facility.



School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems

Surveying students, 1980s. Mark Brayan, Bruce Johnston, Australian cricketer Mark Taylor, John Hughes and (kneeling) Steve Shimeld. Courtesy SSIS.

The growth of the Australian economy in the years following World War II highlighted a shortfall in local

surveying expertise. Although the School of Civil Engineering had taught surveying as part of its undergraduate program since the University’s inception, in 1957 it established a separate surveying degree to meet the demand.

The Department of Surveying became an independent School in 1970. During the 1970s, activities extended beyond traditional surveying to include gravitational and reference frame modelling, photogrammetry, remote sensing and cartography. Dramatic developments in electronics and space science, including satellite technology for geopositioning and remote sensing, led to important changes in the School’s curriculum, such as the gradual phasing out of astronomy subjects. Annual Survey Camps, however, which were originally compulsory for all UNSW Engineering students, continue to provide opportunities for surveying students to undertake practical, hands-on fieldwork.

From the early 1970s the School developed an international reputation in geodesy, which continues to be a core research interest. In 1981 the faculties of Engineering and Applied Science established the Centre for Remote Sensing (later the Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems), which was eventually disestablished in 2006 after advances in desktop PCs meant Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing software no longer needed dedicated high-performance computers to operate.

From 1983 to 1992 numerous School staff contributed their expertise to the highly successful Thailand Land Titling Project, a consortium endeavour funded by the Australian and

Royal Thai governments and the World Bank. The project involved establishing a viable land administration system for Thailand and providing secure land titles for rural landowners. The UNSW team undertook a complete remapping of Thailand, as well as establishing a registration, valuation and taxation system from scratch and providing surveying training. Recognised as an international benchmark, the project promoted the importance of land administration and cadastral studies around the world.

In 1994 the School changed its name to the School of Geomatic Engineering to reflect its increasing focus on remote sensing, geographic information analysis, image processing and satellite positioning. The name was never fully accepted by the NSW surveying profession however, and a second name change in 2001 to Surveying and Spatial Information Systems (SSIS) better highlighted the School’s traditional surveying roots, as well as its newer interests in the IT-linked areas of remote sensing, GIS and Global Positioning System (GPS) technology and applications.

During the 1990s the School’s Satellite Navigation and Position (SNAP) Research Group grew and it is now Australia’s leader in the field of satellite-based navigation, focusing on wireless location technology, inertial navigation and Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). Activities conducted in the SNAPlab are across several broad research themes: algorithms and software, geodesy and deformation monitoring, multi-sensor integration, new positioning technologies and applications, and GNSS receiver design and signal processing.

Since the early 2000s the School’s research has included radar remote sensing which, together with geodesy, laser scanning and satellite imaging, make up the new field of “earth observation”. SSIS research also has a range of applications in disaster monitoring and geohazard mitigation; for example, the School’s researchers provided vital remotely sensed ground deformation results to Chinese authorities following major earthquakes in China in May 2008, and SSIS is now collaborating with the School of Mining Engineering on mine imaging and mining safety. The School’s current research strengths can therefore be summarised under the new banner of “Navigation and Earth Observation”.

For the first time in its history, from 2010 the School will be offering two undergraduate degrees: the traditional surveying degree and a second degree in “geoinformation systems” encompassing GeoIT, earth observation, GIS and GPS.



Obituary Emeritus Professor Raymond Bryant1925–2009

On 8 October 2009 Emeritus Professor Raymond (Ray) Bryant died at the age of 84. He was a key figure in the development of the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, and served for 14 years as Head of School.

Ray Bryant was part of the early days of the University at its original home at the Sydney Technical College, receiving an Associate Diploma with honours in mechanical engineering in 1950 while working as a trainee engineer with NSW Railways. In 1951 Ray took a lecturing position in the School while working towards his research Master of Engineering. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1957, Associate Professor in 1961 and Research Professor in 1962. An active researcher in the field of gas dynamics, he initiated the School’s renowned work on two-phase flow and oversaw the School’s postgraduate research programs.

Professor Bryant served as Head of School from 1969 to 1979 and again from 1984 to 1988. During his headship he garnered substantial industry funding and support, enabling the School to expand significantly. In 1989 he retired after almost 40 years’ dedicated service to UNSW and was awarded the title of Emeritus Professor.

Faculty History Now Available The emergence of the UNSW Faculty of Engineering as one of the world’s leading engineering institutions is a story of major technological advances and rapid change. The History of the UNSW Faculty of Engineering 1949–2009 highlights not only the evolution of the Faculty, but the changing face of the multidisciplinary world of engineering. It paints a lively picture of the Faculty through the inclusion of over 300 photographs and

the recollections of staff and students who have contributed to the Faculty over the last 60 years.

The History is available for purchase through UNSW Press at www.unswpress.com.au or by calling 02 8778 9999.

Thanks to Greg Hobbs for describing last issue’s Blast from the Past photo. Here is an extract:

In small groups of three or four, as part of the 1978 Mechanical Engineering Design II class, we had to design,

build and test a water pump to lift as much water as we could up 3–4 metres in a few minutes. It was quite competitive and resulted in a range of interesting devices, a lot of fun and by the end of the test, some very wet people. Our pump pictured here used a heavy concrete roller to push the water up one hose whilst sucking it up another behind the roller.

Looking back it probably wasn’t all that energy efficient and we didn’t win the competition but it was a fairly unique solution and did work (unlike some – but I won’t go there). After the test we were not bowled over with offers to mass produce the design so we were not able to retire early on the proceeds. I am still working with water in the hydroelectric power generation industry.

Seeing the photograph certainly sparked some good memories of my days at UNSW. I’m pictured on the left-hand side with my back to the camera. Most of the others are watching the fun.Greg Hobbs (BE 1980)

blast from the past

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