NSW Branch Technical Meeting - 17 November 2021

NSW Branch Technical Meeting - 17 November 2021 Undergraduate Student Presentation Competition

Source: Scott Jones

The New South Wales (NSW) Branch of Materials Australia was delighted to hold its annual Undergraduate Student Presentation Competition on Wednesday 17 November. This year’s event was held online via zoom, with a great attendance of students from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), University of Newcastle (UON), University of Technology Sydney (UTS), University of Sydney (USYD) and University of Wollongong (UOW). These students provided highly insightful and professional presentations on their honours theses, developed over the last year. Topics ranged from advanced nuclear materials to additive manufacturing, advanced steel, boron nitrides, materials recycling, new methods for imaging biological materials, and next generation of advanced materials for water purification. We were grateful to have a judging panel consisting of Professor Madeleine Du Toit (UOW), Dr Igor Chaves (ACA National President, UON), Dr Rachel White (ANSTO) and Dr Taka Numata (Brickworks Building Products). Together, the judges decided on the top four presenting students. This year’s students all provided presentations of exceptional quality, making the judges’ choices even more difficult. The award-winning students were announced as: 1st Place: Lucy Chen – UNSW Engineering 2nd Place: Edward Whitelock – UNSW Science 3rd Place: Georgia Fardell – UON 4th Place: Vienna Wong – UNSW Science Award winners were provided with individual cash prizes. In addition, all presenting students were awarded a 1½ year free student membership of Materials Australia, normally $30 per year. Our event sponsors—SOTO Group, Gravitas Technologies, United Steel and ANSTO—graciously provided the financial awards. Sponsors were each afforded an opportunity for a brief presentation or video to provide an insight into their businesses. The Materials Australia NSW Branch is sincerely grateful to all those that attended the Undergraduate Student Presentation Competition including; the event sponsors, judges, student presenters and all other attendees from industry and academia. The presentations provided great insight into the research that is occurring in the different facets of materials science, despite the challenges associated with COVID-19 restrictions in the last few months, and gave all attendees an opportunity to broaden their understanding. We highly anticipate next year’s event, which we are optimistic will provide new opportunities for networking and in-person presentations by students.

Screen capture of the student presenters, judges and other attendees at the Undergraduate Student Presentation online event

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