VIC/TAS Branch Report Borland Forum

Source: Rob O'Donnell - VIC/TAS State Treasurer

The Borland Forum honours the memory of Dr Doug Borland who made a significant contribution to the study and teaching of metallurgy and materials engineering during his long and distinguished career. This Forum showcases high calibre postgraduate students nominated by their tertiary institution, who give a short presentation on their materialsrelated research project. The top presenter receives the Borland Forum Award and a cash prize.

This year the Borland Forum was hosted by Deakin University (Institute of Frontier Materials & the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment). Once again Victoria’s five top Universities were represented. The presentations were of a high calibre and represented a broad mix of materials research activities. The presenters and their respective topics were as follows: Deakin University – Manesha Fernando “Value Addition to Reclaimed Carbon Fibers: A Shift Towards Sustainable Waste Management”

RMIT University – Jason Rogers “Aggregate Surface Defect Fatigue Degradation of Powder Bed Fusion Ti6Al-4V Allo”

Monash University – Enamul Haque “When Mysterious ‘Lossless’ Electrical

Energy Transport in Topological Insulators Becomes a Mirage”

University of Melbourne – Amal Jayawardena “Novel Anti-Microbial Agents vs Superbugs: Molecular Simulations Reveal Bacterial Cell Death

Swinburne University of Technology –Sameera Mudiyanselage “Reinforcing the Future: Steel Fibres Transforming Concrete Roads”

A large crowd of MA members, postgrad students and numerous friends/ colleagues came from as far afield as Geelong and enjoyed a period of networking and discussions over a selection of warm savouries and refreshments provided by the host

Rosy Borland (Doug’s daughter) was joined by two other independent judges from private industry to determine the best presentation on the night. Whilst the competition was fierce due to the high quality of the science/ presentations, the judges determined a winner and awarded the Borland Forum Award to Amal Jayawardena from the University of Melbourne.

Materials Australia would like to express our appreciation to Deakin University for hosting an excellent evening.