Test star weighs in on sports tech

Orchestra Founder and Manager Anna Stoddart said the event featured a special birthday tribute to Dr John Kearney who is patron of the orchestra, along with wife Elena. The partnership between the University and the orchestra is part of Bond's Creative Connections program. The closing act of Homecoming featured a memorable performance by the orchestra at the Basil Sellers Theatre.

Gold Coast Chamber Orchestra members Elias Kokkoris (double bass) and Ayesha Gough (piano).

Picture: Cavan Flynn

Usman Khawaja's academic focus is currently a Bond MBA, but his skills in diplomacy might also make him a candidate for a career in international relations.

The Australian Test cricketer joined Professor Steven Stern and international cricket umpire Bruce Oxenford at the University earlier this year to debate the use of technology in sport.

Professor Stern is the custodian of the DuckworthLewis-Stern method, the formula for deciding revised target scores in rain-affected cricket matches. The Professor of Data Science at the Bond Business School gave a fulsome explanation of the calculations underpinning the DLS.

“It's actually not that complicated,” Professor Stern insisted during the debate. “It's complicated to build but it's not that complicated to understand and use.”

But Mr Khawaja, who has been on the receiving end of what he said were some questionable calculations by the DLS method, was unconvinced.

“I mean, it's the best thing we have at the moment,” he said tactfully before going on to list his grievances with the system.

Mr Khawaja did concede that the use of technology in cricket was ultimately a good thing – and Mr Oxenford agreed.

The umpire in more than 60 Test matches is constantly under the scrutiny of technology including HotSpot, Snicko, HawkEye and the Decision Review System.

“We’re human and we all make errors - it's unavoidable,” he said.

“I’ve come to the realisation I can't be perfect and (the technology) corrects my decision-making from somewhere around 90 per cent correct to 95-97 per cent.”

Oxenford said there would always be a role for human umpires in cricket.

“Everyone always needs someone to blame,” he joked.

“There’s too much tradition in cricket to not have a person in charge out in the middle.”

Arch photo snaps up award

A photograph of businessman, philanthropist and art patron Dr Patrick Corrigan AM has snared Bond University Photographer and Visual Content Producer Cavan Flynn top honours at the CASE Circle of Excellence 2022 Best of Asia-Pacific Awards.

Mr Flynn captured the winning image (pictured) at SBS television studios in Sydney in 2021.

Many of Dr Corrigan's collected artworks hung there at the time.

“The timing of the photograph emerged fairly organically,” Mr Flynn said.

“Patrick was in a business meeting when I came across a spot that showed off some appealing shades and angles that would let me highlight a selection of paintings.”

Dr Corrigan is considered one of Australia’s most significant collectors of

Indigenous art. The Corrigan Walk at Bond University is the largest private collection of Indigenous Australian art on public display.

Mr Flynn's image originally appeared in Edition 28 of the Arch.

Bond No.1 for CEO successes

Bond University produces more business leaders as a proportion of its alumni than any other Australian university according to a survey published in the Australian Financial Review

The survey of LinkedIn profiles by resume.io found Bond produced 60.6 business leaders per 1000 alumni.

Bond alumnus David Baxby - Co-Founder of Coogee Capital and former Co-CEO of the Virgin Group – was interviewed by AFR about the survey results.

“There was a lot of flexibility (at Bond) – I was able to shape my degree to the things I was interested in. I had a passion for investment banking and the university made it happen for me,” Mr Baxby said.

“It wasn’t so much that we felt special but we had all made an active choice to try something new. So, it attracted people of the same mindset. And those relationships have been maintained ever since.”

The Class of 1992 graduate told the AFR he grew up in Logan with parents who left school at 16.

His school careers counsellor thought he might become a tradie –but Mr Baxby secured a half scholarship to Bond.

He completed degrees in law and commerce in three years, launching a meteoric rise up the corporate ranks.

Fifth generation farmer’s pest control breakthrough

Some things need to be properly experienced to be fully understood.

And for this year’s Bond University Transformer Launchpad winner, Angus Croser, witnessing first-hand the destruction to livestock caused by pests and invasive species could prove to be career-defining.

“Predation and disease caused by foxes and feral cats costs the Australian sheep industry $47 million each year,” he says. “The devastation imposed on families and the violence experienced by the animals is horrendous.”

Croser, founder of Ag Guard, is now planning for his prototyped Bait SafeGuard to be used for fox and cat control but says it’s easily adapted for other species like feral dogs, rabbits or even cane toads.

“The Bait SafeGuard is product designed to revolutionise poison baiting for pest control by being safer, more efficient, and more economically viable. Basically, everything that current options are not.”

The Bait SafeGuard is solar powered and can be controlled remotely. It dispenses baits automatically and it’s specially designed to target species at specific feeding times.

Overseas markets are a possibility.

“It could absolutely be applied to the control of problematic species in other countries like possums in New Zealand or wolves in North America,” he says.

Bait SafeGuard is also designed to distribute just one bait per pest, a significant improvement both economically and ecologically on the labour-intensive, scattergun poisoning systems currently implemented.

Croser says the $2000 he collected as this year’s Transformer winner will be pumped straight back into Ag Guard, the business he founded to develop his concept.

“At this stage I’m seeking product developers to help me with a product design for testing. Everything looks really promising at the minute. I’m super grateful for the prizemoney. I’ll be putting it all towards product development.”

Although he’d been carrying the idea for the Bait SafeGuard for a long time, it was learning about the Transformer Launchpad program that sharpened his focus.

“I was really unsure about what I wanted to do after high school when I was back in Adelaide. I had this idea, and I thought it was a good one, but I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to go forward with it. One of Bond University’s representatives came down and presented on Transformer. I was totally inspired by it. Everything has pointed in the right direction since.”

Bond welcomes new Councillors

Former Paralympics Australia Vice President Annabelle Williams OAM (Class of 2007) and former Vice President of Operations at Bond University John Le Lievre have been appointed to the Bond University Council, the University’s peak governing body.

They take over from David Baxby (Class of 1992) and Derek Cronin (Class of 1989) who have served the maximum terms allowed. Vice Chancellor and President Tim Brailsford thanked Mr Baxby and Mr Cronin for their dedicated service to the Council.