UWS Futures Forum showcases our young researchers' potential

The University of Western Sydney recently showcased the achievements of its future scientific minds at the annual College of Health & Science, Research Futures Postgraduate Forum.

A diverse range of research within the College was presented from over 250 candidates and 120 honours students in the form of either a seminar or poster presentation, providing an excellent opportunity for learning and collaboration with other scientists from across the College in the fields of natural sciences, medical science, health education, nursing and midwifery, civionics, engineering, mathematics and computing to name a few.

Dr Julia Bowman (School of Biomedical and Health Sciences) and Dr Kathryn Sunn (Innovation & Consulting) had the arduous task of judging each of the 140 posters against set criteria related to technical, communication, organisational and conceptual thinking skills. The judges unanimously awarded, Engineering (construction) honours student, Zhenya Kremyshev’s poster on “Analysis of Sustainable Housing” as the overall winner. Second place also went to an honours student from the School of Engineering. Mitchell Dumesny’s poster on the ”Analysis and design of Electromagnetic Shock-Absorbers” was a very close second.

Again this year, UWS will be competing in the Australia wide 3 Minute Thesis Competition. The College of Health and Science will be sending 3 finalists to compete at the university level Competition. The 3 Minute Thesis Competition, requires graduate researchers to explain their research topic in accessible terms to a lay audience. It is based on the premise that the capacity to present a clear, concise, yet engaging description of the research project in 3 minutes is an essential skill that all graduate researchers should develop.

Whilst the competition was fierce, the ultimate finalists were PhD students Cherylea Browne for her presentation on “Investigating the mechanisms of tinnitus”, Aimee Bourne for her presentation on “Species diversity effects on forest ecosystem water-use” and Greg Whitely for his presentation on “Validation of Cleaning Surveillance Methods in the Control of Healthcare Associated Infection”. The 3 College finalists each received a cash prize of $500, to be used to enhance the research outcomes of their candidature.

If you have any inquiries about UWS research, please contact Professor Deborah Sweeney, College of Health & Science Director of Research on (02) 4736 0995.

UWS open to creating stronger links with industry

Image: Dr Rowan Gilmore FTSE, CEO Australian Institute for Commercialisation

The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE http://www.atse.org.au/) workshop held in May at the NSW Trade and Investment Centre in Sydney was entitled “Strengthening Links Between Industry and Public Sector Research Organisations”. Within a room packed with the Who’s Who of Science and Technology in Australia, it was concerning to hear industry’s consistent concerns about working with universities. There appeared to be a consensus view that universities will always claim the intellectual property for any project undertaken with an industry partner and drag out contract negotiations.

At UWS, we have been aware that such concerns may “frighten off” potential industry partners and have made a concentrated effort to consider all IP ownership scenarios based on input, background and commonsense.

It’s clear that from within the university environment that we need to make a better effort to communicate the coming of age of “tech transfer offices” and our open views to IP ownership, partnerships and contract negotiation.

If you are interested in exploring the opportunities at UWS for research, business or consulting purposes, please contact UWS I&C on ip@uws.edu.au

Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment (HIE) pushing the frontiers of environmental research

This multimillion dollar research institute dedicated to understanding how terrestrial ecosystems adapt to environmental change will be launched by UWS in 2011. The substantial body of researchers and technical experts in the HIE will undertake high level environmental research and provide scientific expertise through their applied research and land management programs to government and industry.

The establishment of the of the institute comes at a critical time as there is an ever increasing need to better understand how environmental changes impact upon ecosystems. A groundbreaking report by the UK National Ecosystem Assessment (UK NEA) is being used by policy makers in the UK to strengthen the argument for protecting the environment. The report puts a price on “nature” by determining the monetary value of UK natural environments. Examples include valuing the benefits that wetlands provide to water quality at £1.5 Billion, while pollinators are estimated to be worth £430 Million per year to British agriculture.

Aimed at solving critical environmental problems, the key issues being investigated by the HIE are those related to climate change, landscape revegetation and reforestation, bio-fuel production, and soil remediation.

Innovation & Consulting looks forward to being a part of the important industry collaborations that will emerge from the institute’s research outcomes. If you have any inquiries about harnessing UWS research for your business, please contact UWS Innovation & Consulting on (02) 9685 9742 or by email at ip@uws.edu.au

Boost for UWS to support the shifting complementary medicine field

A recent regulatory ruling by the European Union (EU) presents an opportunity for UWS researchers at the Centre for Complementary Medicine Research (CompleMED).

The herbal medicine market is in shock after new EU regulations were introduced that only allow medicines that are licensed, well established or prescription-based to be sold. The new regulations are a result of growing concern about how some remedies interact with conventional drugs, as well as the detrimental effects a number of them may have when taken on their own. For example, much attention has been paid to evidence that shows ginkgo and ginseng can interfere with blood-thinning drugs, while St. John's Wort has been shown to undermine the effects of oral contraceptive medications.

The Australian market for complementary medicine has an estimated value of AUD$3.1 Billion per annum, while the international market presents even greater opportunities, with international sales of herbal remedies alone estimated at US$83 Billion per annum. While it could be perceived that the recent EU rulings may hinder growth of the market, it should be noted that they also present an opportunity to those best able to adapt to the changes.

As part of a pilot innovation and technology partnership program, CompleMED will receive funding of AUD$75,000 from the NSW Government to provide expert advice to Australian and Chinese herbal medicine companies. Importantly, the team will look at the evidence-base of products making high-level therapeutic claims against the regulatory requirements of international markets. The importance of this is made clear by the recent EU regulatory changes, with UWS now well positioned to be at the leading edge in this field.

If you have any inquiries about harnessing UWS research for your business, please contact UWS Innovation & Consulting on (02) 9685 9742 or by email at ip@uws.edu.au

IP Evaluation Panel

Image: (Left to right) Gal Winter and Dr Chris Curtin (standing), Dr Christian Kroos and Prof Oscar Hauptman (seated)











The University of Western Sydney's (UWS) growing innovation capability was showcased at the first of this year’s Intellectual Property (IP) Evaluation Panels, which took place on May 3rd at the historic Female Orphan School, Parramatta South Campus.

During the day, UWS PhD student Scott Willis presented his idea for nanoscale continuous flow separation devices and Gal Winter, a student of UWS co-supervised by Dr Chris Curtain at the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) presented her idea of a high throughput system for detecting odours in fermented foodstuffs. Both of these inventions stimulated very robust discussion from the panel.

Gal is seen here on the left, along with Dr Chris Curtin from AWRI along with other UWS participants Dr Christian Kroos (MARCS) seated left and Prof Oscar Hauptman (Centre for Innovation Studies UWS) seated right.

A presentation from Dr Anton Bogdanovych from the School of Mathematics & Computing on his recently reported invention (http://uwsinnovation.blogspot.com/2011/04/artificial-intelligence-takes-virtual.html) described his exciting, ground breaking artificial intelligence technology, with the panel providing valuable input on its current status and potential.

The panel itself consisted of a number of prominent people from within the IT and science innovation industries, as well as some of UWS’s prominent and up-and-coming academic minds. Mr Matthew Lang, a partner of Deloitte Consulting and Dr Stephan Wellink provided valuable external views to the discussion. With combined expertise in management consulting and scientific technology, they were able to provide valuable insight into the commercialisation potential of a new invention from Assoc/Prof Andrew Shalliker from our School of Natural Sciences that should revolutionise the efficiency of current separation technologies.

Ekta Nankani, a UWS PhD student in the School of Mathematics & Computing, sat on this recent panel as the non-voting student member, and was an active contributor to the discussions.

The latest panel stimulated very robust discussion of the exciting technologies. Our thanks to the dynamic panel members of the day; Dr Siew-Lee Hew (Patent Attorney, FB Rice), Prof Oscar Hauptman (CoB), Ekta Nankani (HDR Student, Maths & Computing), Dr. Antonio Lauto (CHS), Gar Jones (Director, ORS), Matthew Lang (Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu), Dr Christian Kroos (CoA-MARCS), Stephan Wellink (Stephan Wellink & Associates Pty Ltd), and Dr Fiona Cameron (UWS I&C, Chair).

Other IP Evaluation Panel dates for 2011 are:

»» Tuesday, 5 July 2011

»» Friday, 9 September 2011

»»Friday, 11 November 2011

Please contact us on ip@uws.edu.au if you have an interest in research or commercialisation of university IP.

UWS Engineering's Capabilities on Show

Image: Ian Stone (Advance), Yashar Ahmet (Advance), Sasha Alexander (UWS) and Mithra Fernando (UWS) viewing UWS School of Engineering exhibits.

The UWS Engineering School engaged this week with long time friends of UWS, Ian Stone and Yashar Ahmet of Advance Metal Products. Ian and Yashar discussed and planned collaborations in material testing and the possibility of supporting development of undergraduates and graduates with exciting real world projects.

Engineering academics Drs Sasha Alexander and Mithra Fernando along with Innovation & Consulting representative Dr Fiona Cameron, took the visitors on a tour of the engineering facilities and the new Engineering building "Z" at Kingswood. During the tour the visitors were shown a large hole in the ground at the testing facility which has been prepared for Engineering's new heavy duty 1000 Tonne load testing equipment which will be arriving in May and will be unique in Australia.

The tour coincided with the UWS Career's annual expo held in Engineering and facilitated by UWS Careers doyenne Freny Tayebjee. The tour group is seen here looking at some of the civil engineering exhibits prepared for the students.

For further information on accessing Engineering facilities or collaboration please contact UWS I&C on ip@uws.edu.au

Artificial intelligence takes a virtual leap

Image: Virtual agents interacting in the virtual world of Uruk








On February 16, NBC (A US television network) aired an episode of “Final Jeopardy” featuring Watson, an IBM supercomputer. Watson took on two human champions and the machine recorded a resounding victory over its human competitors. Watson’s performance has caused scientists, academics and businesspeople to ponder what future applications and business solutions could be addressed by such artificial intelligence (AI). Because of the difficulty and lack of success so far in building physical robots, there has been a tendency towards computer simulation where virtual agents in a virtual reality world attempt to achieve intelligent behaviour.

Important research in this field is happening in 3D virtual worlds such as Second Life, where they are becoming a new popular medium for a vast variety of so-called “serious games” applications. These games tackle problems like education, commerce, tourism etc. Significant advances are being made and some people are now wondering if the rise of AI platforms like Watson and those incorporated into programs like Second Life will mean the end of the live business agent model in the contact centre and customer care industry.

UWS research being conducted by Anton Bogdanovich is at the forefront of this field, and it is hoped that his research into the ability of a virtual agent to better interact in a dynamic virtual world will lead to better and more life-like AI. Anton’s work on the virtual city called Uruk recently placed 3rd at the 2011 Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge held by the US Army Research Laboratory – Simulation & Training Technology Centre, and we congratulate him on this great success.

UWS has filed a provisional patent based on Anton’s research and we encourage companies interested in co-development or commercial applications to contact Dr. Stephan Golla on 9685 9853 or email him at s.golla@uws.edu.au