Issue 5 November to December - 2012

Welcome to the Engineering newsletter for 2012

Featured in this issue:  Editorial  UOW FSAE Success at Werribee  2012 Engineering Promotions AUSIMM Student Thesis Competition  Honeywell Summer School  CME Graduate Lunch  EEAS 2012  Gifted Students Visit Engineering  Accolades for Prof Pereloma  Engineering Studies Days  ERA 2012 Outcomes NSW Pearcey Awards  MMM Student Success 2012 Summer Graduation Merry Christmas from Engineering  

This newsletter is published by the Faculty of Engineering.

For further information about items in this newsletter, email

jcurcio@uow.edu.au or telephone ext 5364

One of the last and most enjoyable events of the year is our Graduation ceremony held in December. Our students receive their degrees, a fitting reward for their academic work during their time at our University. On the 12th December I read out the names of over 200 of our students as they were presented to our Chancellor, Ms Jillian Broadbent AO, so that she could give them their degree testamurs and their colours to the applause from the audience as they then left the stage with their degrees formally conferred. Undergraduate degrees in all our Engineering and Physics disciplines including our double degrees, as well as our course work Masters such as Masters of Engineering Practice, in Professional Engineering, in Asset Management and Engineering Management, and our Research Degrees at both Masters and PhD levels were awarded on this day. It is a very rewarding day not only for the students and their friends, relatives and families but also for our University staff who on Graduation day see the very real and practical results of their work. In talking afterwards over morning tea to many of our graduates it is clear they are very excited about their future, with many being very happy to talk about the jobs they have already been offered, and others about the opportunities they are hoping for in the future. Another rewarding part of this particular ceremony was the awarding of the title of Emeritus Professor to John Norrish. John is internationally famous for his lifelong contributions to Industry and to research and teaching and he retired as Professor of Welding this year. He has written the definitive textbook for researchers and practitioners in the area, and has immense experience in materials, welding and joining technologies, and robotics and automation. His collegial attitude, unselfish mentoring of colleagues, desire and ability to inspire students at under and post graduate levels, and his creative and imaginative innovations are legendary and the Emeritus Professor title is a much deserved award. Even in retirement he continues to contribute ideas, write and deliver papers, and serve on the Board of one of Australia’s peak research organisations, the Defence Materials Technology Centre. We also had an outstanding guest speaker, Mr Troy McDonald, President of Illawarra Coal, a member of the BHP Billiton group, an Australian company which is one of the world’s largest multi-national mining companies.

Continued next page

Message from the Dean 

UOW FSAE Success at Werribee This year, a team of 21 UOW students competed at the 14th Australasian Campaign in Werribee from 6th - 9th December. Twenty one cars competed - 19 petrol cars, 15 from Australia, 2 from New Zealand and 2 from Japan while RMIT and Swinburne entered electric cars. Formula SAE-A is an exciting international educational program where University students design, build and compete in small open-wheeled vehicles. Formula SAE graduates worldwide are considered to be among the most work-ready graduates emerging from the University system. In delivering a fully functioning vehicle, the student teams undertake a full, real-world

product development project. They design, build and test their vehicles, but they also must attend to the non-technical aspects of a project such as fund-raising, marketing and managing a team of people. Each team effectively works as a small start-up business, and it is this experience that makes Formula SAE graduates stand apart from their peers. UOW Formula SAE achieved an incredible 3rd Place Finish with a total pointscore of 698.4/1000 in spite of a number of setbacks including losing the front wheel off the car after just two laps. The team quickly put together a contingency plan in place while waiting for the car to be retrieved. Congratulations need to be extended to Chris Doumbos, the Team Principal, as well as to every Team member who worked so hard during the year and especially at the Competition. The team also acknowledges the very valuable assistance of all its sponsors, both cash and in-kind, as well as the support of the Workshop Staff and Faculty Administration, especially the Finance Section. It was a pleasure for Oliver Kennedy, John Montagner and myself to be able to attend the Competition and support and encourage the Team. By Dr Bob Wheway

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From Page 1 He is a past graduate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wollongong and he gave a very inspiring speech to our graduates about the opportunities available to them to make the world a better place as professional engineers, and for the need for engineers to respect, appreciate and value the contribution made via the skills and attributes of non-engineers if they are to take their proper place as leaders in the community. Finally Jacqui Jezzard, who was one of the day’s engineering graduates, gave a very gracious ‘Vote of Thanks’ to Troy with immense presence and grace and some very witty comments, reflecting on the hard work required to obtain a degree, and the rewards that come from such achievement. The Faculty and University are very proud of all our graduates. We think of you as ambassadors for our University working for the good of the community for the whole of your working lives, and we wish you all the best for your future.

2012 Promotions Congratulations to the members of academic staff in the Faculty who were successful in very well-deserved promotions this year. They are: Dr Brad Stappenbelt Dr Nam Huynh Dr Jeff Moscrop Dr Faisal Hai Dr Konstantin Konstaninov Dr Germanas Peleckis In addition Dr Faisal Hai has also been confirmed in a Continuing Appointment. Well done and a fitting reward for successful work in teaching and research, making great contributions to Faculty and University.

AUSIMM Student Thesis Competition

For the 5th year in a row, a Materials Engineering student, from the University of Wollongong, has won the combined AusIMM Lachlan and Illawarra Branches Annual Thesis Competition. Matt Whittaker was presented the prize from Bear McPhail, the Geology course co-ordinator at the Australian National University, (ANU) and Rod Haselden, Chair of the AusIMM Illawarra Branch. Matt's presentation was on the "Assessment of Slag Adhesion to Copper Staves". Matt was supervised by Associate Professor Brian Monaghan and the project sponsored by the Blue Scope Metallurgy Centre (BSMC). The competition involves three final year geology honours students from ANU and three from geology, materials and mining engineering from UOW. Past winners from UOW David Bedward, (Mining) and Phil Drain, (Materials), have gone on to win AusIMM's G. B. O'Malley medal - the highest annual award the Institute can give to a student, for the best technical presentation by an undergraduate.

Honeywell Summer School In December over 100 students attended workshops in the Faculty of Engineering as part of the Honeywell Engineering Summer School (HESS). The aim of the workshops is to bring together Year 11 students who are interested in pursuing engineering as a career. In past years students have come from all over NSW and the ACT, including regional and city centres such as Broken Hill, Tumbarumba and Inverell. Throughout the week-long program, students are introduced to five universities, including University of New South Wales (host university), University of Sydney, University of Western Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, and University of Wollongong. Whilst here at UOW the students participated in various activities and also spent time at BlueScope to see engineers at work. Thank you to Marina and Engineering staff for running the various activities.

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CME Graduate Lunch Students in their final year of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering recently attended a pizza lunch hosted by The Civil Engineering Society and supported by the Faculty of Engineering. The event was to celebrate and farewell graduating CME students. It was a great day attended by over 60 students and academics.

EEAS 2012 Dr Bob Wheway, on behalf of the Faculty of Engineering, submitted an entry entitled "Promoting Engineering in Regional High Schools in the Year of the Regional Engineering Team" in this year's Sydney Division's Excellence Awards Scheme. At the Presentation Evening, held late September, the entry received a Highly Commended Award in the Engineering for Regional Communities Category. The award is recognition for the 9 NSW and ACT Senior Competitions targeting students in Years 10, 11 & 12 enrolled in Engineering Studies, Design & Technology and Industrial Technology. The Competitions aim to acknowledge student’s efforts and encourage them to consider pursuing a career in Engineering / Design / Technology / Science related fields.

Gifted students visit the Faculty of Engineering

About 30 academically gifted Year 5 and Year 6 students were on campus on 22nd November as part of the Illawarra Academically Gifted Program. Whilst at UOW they visited different faculties including the Faculty of Engineering. Professor Gursel Alici, Head of the School of Mechanical, Materials and Mechatronic Engineering, gave a talk on the topic ‘What is Engineering? Let’s Imagine the World Without Engineers’. The students viewed a robotic demonstration and then had a chance to use and navigate the robots themselves. The students were under the supervision of teacher Chester Meurant. UOW student representatives hosted the school students around the campus.

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Accolades for Professor Elena Pereloma Professor Elena Pereloma has been awarded the title of ‘Honorary Doctorate of Science’ of the G.V. Kurdyumov Institute for Metal Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. This award recognises her exceptionally high international standing in her field and her contributions to the Institute. Professor Pereloma also received the G.V. Kurdyumov Medal; named in honour of the founder of IMP, Ukraine. Professor Kurdyumov was an outstanding Russian physical metallurgist who discovered the orientation relationships that were subsequently named after him between the austenite and martensite phases of steel in the 1930s. The recognition and praise of Professor Pereloma’s achievements by her peers at IMP hold a special meaning for her, as she received her PhD from the Institute in 1987, and has continued to be actively involved in collaborative research with IMP-based researchers on various steel and titanium alloys.

The Diploma of the Honorary Doctor of Sciences and the G.V. Kurdyumov Medal awarded to Prof. Elena Pereloma.

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Engineering Studies Days The 12th Annual Engineering Studies Days were held on 30th October and 1st November 2012. The Engineering Studies Days were well attended by over 250 Year 11 High School students from 24 schools in the Illawarra and Southern Sydney regions. The aim of the Engineering Studies Days is to assist students in their various assessment tasks for Engineering Studies and other Senior Technology subjects that they may be studying. Bob Wheway once again coordinated

a team of staff and student volunteers from the different Schools in Engineering as well as the School of Electrical, Computer and Telecommunications Engineering to provide various fun activities for the students to partake in. The program consisted of the following activities: Testing of concrete Desalination of seawater with reverse osmosis Mechanical testing of various materials Cleaner coal Computer control of machines Generating electrical power Formula SAE Team car simulation The teachers and students from the various high schools all enjoyed the activities. Thank you to all the volunteers that contributed their time and expertise into making this an enjoyable experience for the Year 11 students and teachers. Lastly, special thanks to Bradken for coming on board to sponsor the Engineering Studies Workbook.

ERA 2012 Outcomes The Faculty of Engineering has continued its world-equaling and world-beating research, as judged by the 2012 ERA outcomes. Across the board the results are similar to 2010, with the headline numbers at the two-digit level unchanged: 02 Physical Sciences 3 09 Engineering 4 At the four-digit level, a couple of disciplines have moved up a notch, a couple slipped down one; net change zero. Most pleasing is that two disciplines now have the maximum score of 5, indicative of being well-above world standard: 0912 Materials Engineering 0915 Interdisciplinary Engineering Further details are available at: http://www.arc.gov.au/era/

NSW Pearcey Awards

In a competition held in October at NSW Parliament House, EMI PhD candidates, Yuankun (Mandy) Zhang (supervised by Scott Ding) won third place in the NSW Pearcey Awards.

The Pearcey Awards are organised by the NSW Pearcey Foundation to promote new technology before a panel of industry judges and an informed audience. The research staff and students finalists were selected from the University of Sydney, University of NSW, University of Wollongong and University of Western Sydney.

Mandy’s presentation was on the new manufacturing technology ‘Chain-die Forming’.

Mr Deon De Saldanha and the Innovation and Commercial Research Unit are also thanked for their support and encouragement for Mandy’s presentation.

MMM Student Success Two new journal papers have been selected as ‘featured articles’ by two prestigious international journals. The lead authors, Miss Ming Li and Mr Tongfei Tian, are PhD students from the School of Mechanical, Materials and Mechatronic Engineering. Journal paper information below: Ming Li, et al., “Continuous particle focusing in a waved micro channel using negative DC dielectrophoresis”, Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 22 (2012) 095001. Tongfei Tian, et al., “Study of shear stiffen elastomers”, Smart Materials & Structures, 21 (2012) 125009. Ming’s research project is Lab-on-a-chip for Bioparticle manipulation using DEP and Tongfei is studying “Shear Thickening Fluids with Enhanced Protection Properties”. Both students are under the supervision of Professor Weihua Li and Professor Gursel Alici.

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Congratulations to the 2012 Faculty of Engineering Graduates 

Sam Darlow (Bachelor of Engineering) and Tony Jose (Master of Engineering Management.

David Scimone , Erica D’Silva and Kirk Skinner all Bachelor of Engineering (Honours).

Hayley Middleton (Bachelor of Medical and Radiation Physics).

Professor of Materials Welding and Joining, John Norrish, (left) was admitted as an Emeritus Professor of

the University at the 12 December morning ceremony along with Bob Slater who was admitted as a Fellow of

the University. Bob was UOW’s Building and Construction Manager before retiring recently.

Dean Nealon (Bachelor of Engineering (Scholar) Honours).

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Natalie Pejcinovic’s family accepted her posthumous award of Bachelor of Medical and Radiation Physics. Pictured before the ceremony are her parents Stan and Kathy, brother Phillip (left) and sister Stephanie (right) and (in front) sister Kristina and brother Christopher. The family wished to acknowledge the

overwhelming support they received from the University.

Craig Innes' family was on hand at the morning ceremony on 12 December to receive his posthumous award. Pictured are his parents Carol and Barry Innes and Carol’s sisters Rosalyn Willis (left) and Jenny Torso. The family said Craig

was passionate about his degree and were very appreciate of the support they had received from UOW since his death.