UWS Sculpture Award 2012

Last Friday, the UWS Vice Chancellor Prof. Janice Reid opened the biannual University of Western Sydney Sculpture awards and announced the winner, Louisa Dawson for her scupture New Arrivals. The VC phoned Ms Dawson in London during the opening ceremony to tell her the exciting news.
The sculpture awards have become a real  cultural event in the Campbelltown region. More can be found at http://virtualtours.uws.edu.au/sculptureaward/sculptureaward2012#audio. Excerpt below:
 The campus landscape - open space, rolling hills, lakes and vegetation - is an ideal setting to display large outdoor sculptures. The UWS Sculpture Award showcases major works by significant Australian artists, some of whom have created sculptures especially for the University's Campbelltown Campus.
The UWS Sculpture Award and Exhibition aims to establish closer links between the University and artists, and engage with the community by providing a valuable educational and cultural resource, as well as enhancing the campus environment for teaching and learning.

If you are interested with engaging with UWS for Innovations and access to leading researchers please contact as at UWS Innovation ip@uws.edu.au .

Knotty Problems

Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Associate Professor Andrew Francis from the School of Computing and Mathematics is using mathematical modelling to explore biological systems. This research is funded by the Australian Research Council.

‘Mathematics has made numerous significant contributions to our understanding of the evolution of biological systems,’ says Associate Professor Francis. ‘Both algebra and biology have developed at an unprecedented pace over the last 30 years. The structural approach at the core of algebra has long found applications in sciences such as physics and analytical chemistry but only in a limited way, so far, in biology. I will be modelling DNA cutting and rejoining as operations in an algebraic setting. The goal is to enable scientists to address certain specific biological problems in new ways, provide new tools and ways of thinking for biologists, and bring new problems in algebra to the mathematical community. In turn, this could lead to a better understanding of such problems as cross-species infections, and the development and proliferation of antibiotic resistant bacteria.’

The research will use algebraic methods such as knot theory and group theory to develop models of evolution in bacteria, the dominant form of life on our planet. These models will allow scientists to understand the evolutionary processes giving rise to the richly diverse genetic structures we observe today. Such processes cannot be studied directly in the laboratory because the time scales are too long. Mathematical methods using the latest genetic data provide a way to address these questions. Developing accurate models that explain the present diversity may also help to predict the consequences of specific genetic changes in bacteria, and has the potential to affect the way we do both algebra and biology.
This research will demonstrate new ways in which computational and mathematical power can be applied to novel questions in living systems. Algebraic methods can give biologists novel ways to deal with large amounts of data in the study of evolution due to genetic mutations.
http://www.uws.edu.au/computing_mathematics

if you are interested in engaging with UWS researchers, licensing opportunities www.uws.edu.au/innovate  and UWS Innovation contact us on ip@uws.edu.au.

UWS visits Intellectual Ventures in Seattle

UWS Innovation dropped in to Seattle to Intellectual Ventures (IV) headquarters while in the US this month. It may be wet, cold and grey in Seattle, but the blossom trees outside the IV building believe it is Spring – beautiful.

UWS has a signed agreement with IV to jointly develop new inventions, and it was fascinating to see the depth and breadth of the undertaking based in Seattle. Having been established for a number of years, IV now has 800 people across its various teams and in addition to its US headquarters, has a footprint in 8 other countries, including Australia.

The tour of the separate IV laboratory was a real eye opener, focused on some fascinating global good projects utilising Bill Gates foundation funding. The photo above of Nicole Bates from IV with Michael Manion of Invention Evaluator (Australia) who toured the facility with me, shows a prototype in the Cold Chain project. This project aims to solve the cold chain problem of maintaining the viability of vaccines being delivered into underdeveloped countries, many of which struggle to deliver vaccines which are still useful at the point of injection.

IV’s co-founder, Nathan Myhrvold, also produced a significant sized “cook book” which takes a very different scientific look at food and cooking equipment to your usual food technologist or domestic chef. This book, “Modernist Cuisine” took 4 lbs of ink to print! Fiona Cameron, Ass. Director of UWS Innovation and Michael Manion are picture at the test kitchen with 2 of the experimental chefs.

UWS researchers who are interested in finding out more about our relationship with IV should contact UWS Innovation on ip@uws.edu.au.