School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Annual Report 2014 Never Stand Still
Engineering
Civil and Environmental Engineering
©2014 School of Civil and Environmental Engineering UNSW AUSTRALIA 2052 Address
CONTENTS
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (H20)
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The University of New South Wales UNSW SYDNEY NSW 2052 AUSTRALIA Enquiries
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T +61 (0)2 9385 5033 F +61 (0)2 9385 6139 E Cven.enquiries@unsw.edu.au W http://www.civeng.unsw.edu.au/
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Project Coordinator & Editor Mary O’Connell With thanks to providers of text, statistics, stories and images,
OUR PEOPLE
including Andy Baker, Kate Brown, Irene Calaizis, Ron Cox, Henry Deng, Kristy Guia, Maria Lee, Pauline Manley, Sam McCormick, Chris Mundy, Kath O’Sullivan, Tamara Rouse, Johnson Shen, Grantley Smith, Robert Steel, Ian Turner, David
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Waite, Travis Waller, Conrad Wasko and Betty Wong. Special thanks to Anthony Dever, Kurt Douglas, Mike Gal, and Tricia Tesoriero. Graphic Design
OUR RESEARCH
The Imagination Agency Pty Ltd helena@theimaginationagency.org Print
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Faastprint Photography Professional photography: Emeritus Professor Mike Gal (pictured below)
OUR TEACHING
Grateful thanks also to Kurt Douglas
61 INDUSTRY AND COMMUNITY
71 Cricos Provider Number: 00098G
OUR CENTRES
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ABOUT US The School of Civil & Environmental Engineering is the largest and most successful School of its kind in Australasia and is ranked as number one in Australia and in the top 20 in the world (QS World University Rankings). We are the largest School in the UNSW Faculty of Engineering, itself the pre-eminent centre for engineering studies and research in Australia, and the first University of choice for NSW’s top students. From our foundation in 1949, the School has pursued excellence and innovation in education and research. Our alumni are to be found as leaders and decision makers in industry, government and the community. With over 2,300 current students, we play a leading role in the delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs – with a focus on sustainability as well as core engineering knowledge, preparing our students to confidently face the challenges of contemporary global society. We believe that civil and environmental engineers are uniquely placed to understand, meet and solve those challenges. We are at the forefront of fundamental and applied research across the breadth of civil and environmental engineering with three internationally acclaimed research centres – in infrastructure (CIES), water (WRC) and transport (rCITI). Our academic staff are recognised world leaders in their fields, supported by over 70 full time researchers. Each year we work with or on behalf of over 100 industry and government organisations on specific industry related projects and have won millions of dollars in federal funds in order to pursue investigations into issues of national importance. We continue to forge new links with industry and community partners to ensure a continuing real-world focus for both our teaching and our research.
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MESSAGE FROM HOS It is with great pleasure that we bring you the School’s Annual Report for 2014. As I write this introduction, the QS Top Universities rankings have again placed our School in the world’s Top 20. This is of course pleasing but, more importantly, it is a statement about and recognition of the quality of our staff and of our teaching and research programs. The best Schools of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the best universities in the world are both deep and broad. Our School is as strong in its depth as it is in its breadth. Our depth provides for excellence to the degree that our research teams draw from each other’s inspiration, providing for strong collaborations - and with mentorship provided to our great young researchers ensuring the future of the School for lasting excellence. Our breadth allows us to cover the full range of disciplines in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Surveying and Geospatial Engineering and to provide leadership and excellence in our teaching and research. One question that I commonly get asked is “where do I see Infrastructure Engineering in the next 30 years and what are likely to be the grand challenges”. To answer this it is worth reflecting on where the profession was 20 and 30 years ago. In 1981 Professor Noel Svensson – a former Dean of Engineering UNSW – prophetically wrote on where future engineers will be directing their knowledge and creativity: \\
“Resolution of the conflict between industrial expansion and the conservation of natural resources;
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Improvement in health care without unacceptable rises in costs;
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Automation in the factory and office whilst retaining employment opportunities;
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Domestic waste disposal at low cost.
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Elimination of hazards to health at work, in the home and during recreation; and
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Protection from the effects of natural disasters – earthquakes, floods, bushfires.”
I ask myself today, what has changed? The last 30 years, the last 10 years even, has seen exponential expansion in knowledge and technology, yet these six challenges, together with the seventh great challenge – managing and adapting to climate change – remain every bit as relevant today as they did then, as no doubt they will be thirty years from now. We can be confident that the graduates of our School will lead in the debates and in finding the solutions to the above challenges, as well as new ones that the future may bring.
The successes of 2014, many of which are highlighted in this Annual Report, are entirely attributable to the great staff of our School: our academics and researchers, professional and technical staff, and to our students. Without their dedication to excellence – in all that they do - our successes would not have been achievable. I am immensely grateful for their dedication and for their support.
Stephen J Foster, Head of School
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SCHOOL MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
L-R Mario Attard, Arnaud Castel, Brian Uy, David Carmichael, Richard Stuetz, Martin Andersen, Ian Turner(for WRL), Vinayak Dixit (for rCITI), Kristy Guia, Steve Davis, Stephen Foster (HoS), Anthony Dever Absent: Ron Cox, Kurt Douglas, Nasser Khalili, Linlin Ge, Bill Peirson, Chris Rizos, Chongmin Song, Travis Waller, Betty Wong The School Management Committee (SMC) represents the peak decision-making body in the School with all key decisions relating to academic matters and overall direction debated and ratified by this group. The SMC is chaired by the Head of School and is made up of the Chairs of the School’s major committees, the Associate Head (Academic), the School Business Manager, the Student Admin Manager, the Directors of UNSW Centres based within the School, and other discipline group leaders. The School Executive Group is an advisory group to the Head of School. It meets monthly with the Head of School to discuss key and current issues on matters of strategy, planning, budgeting and policy directions for the School.
2014 School Executive Group Members Prof Stephen Foster, HoS; A/Prof Mario Attard, Associate Head (Academic); Prof David Carmichael; Anthony Dever (Business Manager); Prof Nasser Khalili; A/Prof Bill Peirson; Prof Richard Stuetz; Prof Brian Uy; Prof Travis Waller. The School Board is chaired by the Head of School and comprises all academic and research staff in the School, together with student and professional and technical staff representatives. The Board meets twice a year; it provides advice to the Head of School about academic governance arrangements, on the quality of the School’s learning and teaching, and on research activities. It also provides advice to the Head of the School about the School Committee structure. Committee Chairs report to the Board on the outcomes of committee
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activities, on decisions, and on strategic direction. The Head of School reports to the Board on the management of the School and related activities and issues and direction. 2014 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEMBERS Chair & Head of School: Associate Head (Academic): Admin: School Committee Chairs Research Management Committee (RMC): Computing & IT (CIT) and Educational Technology Committee (ETC): Teaching and Learning Committee (TLC): External Relations Committee (ERC): International Relations Committee: School Centre Directors rCITI: WRC:
Professor Stephen James Foster Associate Professor Mario Attard Betty Wong Professor S Travis Waller Professor Chongmin Song Dr Steve Davis Co-Chairs Associate Professor Ron Cox & Dr Kurt Douglas Associate Professor Linlin Ge
Professor S Travis Waller Associate Professor William Peirson & Professor Richard Stuetz CIES: Professor Brian Uy CWI: Dr Martin Andersen Discipline Group Leaders: Professors David Carmichael; Nasser Khalili; Chris Rizos Business Manager: Anthony Dever Student Admin Manager: Julijana Baric/ Kristy Guia
SCHOOL STATISTICS School Statistics 2014 Academic Staff
48
Professional & Technical Staff (School)
27
Research Centre Academic Staff
75
Postgraduate Research Students
216
Postgraduate Coursework Students
623
Undergraduates
1682
Equivalent Full-time Students (EFTSU)
1712
Doctoral Graduates
40
Postgraduate Coursework Graduates
265
BE Graduates
340
Grant Funding
11.85M
Research Publications Refereed
502
Recurrent Income
17.8M
The Growth Continues 2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
STUDENT NUMBERS Total EFTSU
567
592
805
1172
1410
1712
BE
647
730
1012
1307
1509
1682
Postgrad Coursework
330
319
354
398
510
623
99
90
77
90
124
216
11
8
13
19
14
40
139
134
136
192
309
265
95
103
119
142
382
340
25
28
28
36
48
13
13
9
12
12
7
9
9
12
15
198
234
267
368
502
7.7M
10.7M
15.1M
Higher Degrees GRADUATES Higher Degrees Postgrad coursework BE All
STAFF (Full-time, tenured) 33 Academic Technical 14 (School) Administration 8 (School) RESEARCH GROWTH 177 Publications 6.3M Research Income
15.6M 11.85M
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ARC GRANTS
L-R: ARC Grant Winners -Chongmin Song, David Waite, Sawekchai Tangaramvong, Vinayak Dixit, Xiaomin Li, Kristen Splinter, Mark Bradford, Hamid Valipour, Stephen Foster, Arman Khoshghalb, Samsung Lim, Fiona Johnson, Adrian Russell, Ian Turner, Chris Blenkinsopp. Absent: Lauren Gardner, Nasser Khalili, Francis Tin-Loi, Brian Uy, Travis Waller, Tommy Wiedmann, Gaofeng Zhao
The School remains at the top of its research game having won 10 Australian Research Council (ARC) grants in 2014 – 7 Discovery, 1 Early Career (DECRA), 1 Linkage and 1 LIEF (Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities) grant, as well as a shared NHMRC award. These wonderful results make the School one of the highest UNSW achievers in amount of grant funds – to the value of $4.15M. Overall, UNSW researchers won the highest amount of ARC funding in Australia – ‘a testament, said Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Les Field, ‘to the importance and impact of the work we are doing.’ School ARC Grant winning research projects include Scientia Prof Mark Bradford ‘s investigation of the capacity of high-strength steel beams, with a view to contributing to the production of an advanced design standard, and Prof Stephen Foster & Dr Hamid Valipour’s research into behaviour and robustness of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) moment hinges. Prof Ian Turner leads a team which aims to deliver the best available solution to storm coastal erosion prediction, while Scientia Prof David Waite’s research into the electron transfer (redox) properties
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of terrestrially and microbially-derived natural organic matter (NOM) will provide new insights to factors influencing the quality of our natural aqueous resources. Prof S Travis Waller will address some of the limitations of dynamic transport network modelling in the planning process particularly related to traffic uncertainty, driver adaptivity and information-provision. Head of School Professor Stephen Foster congratulated the 22 academic staff who have been successful in 2014, and thanked all staff who had applied for their hard work. ‘As we know’ he said, ‘these are extremely competitive grants.’ Three UNSW Goldstar awards also went to School staff – Dr Ehab Hamed for his project on ‘Coupled hygrothermal-creep effects in adhesively bonded lap joints’, Associate Professor Stuart Khan for his research into ‘Inversion of chiral pharmaceuticals during biological wastewater treatment’, and ARC Future Fellow Dr Lucy Marshall for her work on ‘characterising hydrologic uncertainty via approximate Bayesian computation.’ For a full list of ARC grant topics – please see Our Research section
VICE-CHANCELLOR’S AWARD FOR TEACHING EXCELLENCE
The UNSW Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Teaching Excellence were established in 1989 to encourage, recognise and reward excellence in teaching by members of staff.
methods that encouraged student engagement, deep learning, and independent learning. Students valued the real-world emphasis in the course and rated her as one of the best lecturers they have ever had at UNSW.
The School has had several award winners over the years but 2014 was a very special year – with six members of School staff recognised for their teaching excellence.
Since 2009 Professor David Carmichael and his team at the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering have worked with Leighton Holdings in the design, development and successful delivery of a specially designed Master of Engineering Science (MEngSc) degree program in project management. This educational partnership and collaboration with Australia’s largest construction and contract mining company - is designed to nurture and develop emerging leaders across the Leighton Group.
Dr Carolin Birk won an Early Career Teaching Excellence Award while the Construction Engineering and Project Management Team, Professor David Carmichael, Dr Steven Davis, Dr Ali Akbar Nezhad and Dr Johnson Shen, along with External Relations Manager Dr Mary O’Connell received a team Award for Teaching Excellence specifically for their innovative work with Leighton Holdings in the design and delivery of the MEngSc in project management. Dr Carolin Birk’s enthusiasm for her field of knowledge in structural dynamics and her skills as a lecturer and course designer resulted in extremely high student satisfaction, as well as the respect of the leadership team and all her colleagues at the School. Carolin developed a new fourth year course on structural dynamics – an extremely important area in Structural Engineering for bridges, seismic design and building vibrations. She used both embodied and online teaching techniques and a variety of assessment
The Program is delivered by distance to students around the country, Middle East and the Asia – Pacific region, and has been instrumental in building a cohort of outstanding project leaders for Leighton. The testimonials of Leighton management, current students and the first graduates affirm the significant education and training outcomes achieved: the empowerment, confidence building, networking benefits and overall improvement in performance and strategic thinking which the MEngSc program for Leighton has provided. Leighton received over 300 applications from their staff for the 30 places available in the 2014 program.
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IMPACT AND INNOVATION – PEERS RECOGNISE GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING RESEARCH AT CVEN
2014 Chandra S. Desai Medal
Impact
Innovation
Professor Nasser Khalili was among the three recipients of the Chandra S Desai Medal awarded by the International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (IACMAG) at its 14th conference, held in Kyoto, Japan.
Professor Khalili also received the Outstanding Paper Award from the journal Computers and Geotechnics for his constitutive modelling work presented in the paper “A fully coupled flow deformation model for cyclic analysis of unsaturated soils including hydraulic and mechanical hysteresis”. The paper, published in Computers and Geotechnics in 2008, was judged to have made a highly significant impact to geotechnical engineering, based on citations over a five year period and the opinion of the journal’s Editors.
In 2014 Associate Professor Adrian Russell received the International Innovation Award from TC106, the Technical Committee on Unsaturated Soils within the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, for his physical modelling research in the field of unsaturated soil mechanics. At UNSW A/Prof Russell developed with colleagues a calibration chamber, lateral earth pressure rig and shallow foundation rig to conduct full scale cone penetration tests, retaining wall tests and shallow foundation tests to study the influence of soil suction.
The Chandra S Desai medal is awarded every three years by the International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (IACMAG). The prestigious award honours individuals who have made seminal contributions to research in geomechanics, particularly in computational modelling, advanced laboratory and field testing, computer methods and applications in geotechnical practice. The citation received by Professor Khalili was for his “outstanding contributions to experimental, constitutive and numerical modelling of unsaturated soils”.
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OUTSTANDING ENGINEERING ACHIEVEMENTS RECOGNISED AT SYDNEY ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE AWARDS The School’s research and teaching teams won acclaim and awards at the 2014 Sydney EA Engineering Excellence Awards. The School’s Water Research Laboratory won the Environment and Heritage Award for their world-leading example of eco-engineering – the Tomago Wetlands Restoration Project. Congratulations to Dr Will Glamore and his team at WRL, (pictured top right) as well as their industry and community partners – NSW Parks and Wildlife Group, Office of Environment & Heritage, Conservation Action Group, NSW Dept of Primary Industries & NSW Fisheries. The Tomago Wetlands Project has become a worldleading example for how eco-engineering can provide adaptive management outcomes for sensitive environments with complex hydrologic issues. According to the Judges’ comments, the project received high scoring due to a range of measures undertaken: \\
Design and application of a staged restoration approach
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Detailed hydrodynamic modelling to test and finetune tidal inundation extent and hydraulic controls across the wetland during design,
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Design, construction and application of innovative on-ground engineering works.
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Effective adaptive management of habitat type and extent through remote and on-ground monitoring
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Enhanced ecosystem services to the wider community through increased fisheries and bird populations.
The School also received the highest honour awarded for the Education and Training category – for the innovative MEngSc in project management specifically developed for industry partners Leighton Holdings. Congratulations to Professor David Carmichael and the academic and professional staff team at CVEN, as well as to our partners at Leighton Holdings, in particular Iain Scoular – General Manager, Group Services, Kathy Baker – Group Manager, Talent and Diversity, and Janette Stewart – Masters Coordinator.
The Research Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation – rCITI’s project for instrumented vehicle technology also reached the finals in two categories; Research and development and, Welfare, Health and Safety. Our congratulations to Professor Travis Waller, Dr Vinayak Dixit, Dr Zhitao Xiong (pictured above) and their GoGet Carshare partners for their cutting edge work.
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SETTING INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS In January the School played co-host - along with Standards Australia – to more than 100 delegates from 20 countries for the 20th Plenary meeting of ISO/ TC International Organization for Standardization – Technical Committee 71 – Concrete, reinforced concrete and pre-stressed concrete.
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Test methods for concrete;
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Concrete production and execution of concrete structures;
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Performance requirements for structural concrete;
“The week of meetings, workshops and networking events got the year off to a great start” said Professor Stephen Foster, Head of School.
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Simplified design standard for concrete structures;
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Non-traditional reinforcing materials for concrete structures;
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Maintenance and repair of concrete structures; and
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Environmental management for concrete and concrete structures.
The work of ISO/TC 71 operates to develop standards in the technology of concrete, of the design and construction of concrete, reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete structures. This ensures progressive development both in quality and in price reduction; and of definitions and terms, as well as testing procedures, to facilitate international exchange of research work. Established in 1949 and with 36 full participating members, this committee has been involved in the development of 34 International Standards. The seven working groups of this technical committee are currently working on a number of important projects relating to:
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Standards Australia acknowledged the contribution of the Australian mirror committees to ISO/TC 71, including the work of BD-002 Concrete Structures. BD-002 Concrete Structures is a committee constituted of industry associations, concrete and steel professionals, government, consulting engineers, regulators and consumer groups. These committee members have worked together to provide a valuable contribution to the development of International Concrete Standards.
SNAP LAB RELAUNCHED Earth scientists today can measure the motion of the continents and the rupture of the ground after an earthquake to centimetre accuracy… and anyone can navigate to a party on a Saturday night using their mobile phone. All rely on the extraordinary Global Positioning System (GPS), a satellite-based technology critical to the functioning of a modern society. For over 20 years the Satellite Navigation and Positioning (SNAP) Laboratory at UNSW has been Australia’s premier academic group conducting research on wireless, ground-based and satellitebased positioning technologies and applications. This concentration of researchers was originally located within the School of Surveying & Geospatial Engineering (SAGE). Following the merger of SAGE with the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering the SNAP Lab was relaunched in mid-2014 as a collaborative research initiative between the Schools of Civil & Environmental Engineering (CVEN) and Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications (EET). For the first time in Australia, positioning research will be conducted in a cross-disciplinary environment, combining expertise in geodesy, surveying & geospatial science on the one hand, with that of electronics, signal processing and space engineering. The latter drawn principally from the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research within EET. The co-directors of the SNAP Lab are Professor Chris Rizos (CVEN pictured) and Professor Andrew Dempster (ACSER/ EET). The SNAP web site is at http://www.snap.unsw. edu.au.
but a few PNT applications. Nowadays there are several Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) deployed or under development, and include in addition to the US’s GPS, Russia’s GLONASS, Europe’s Galileo and China’s BeiDou. Notable achievements and unique characteristics of the SNAP Lab include: \\
Development of a fully functional FPGA-based GNSS receiver known as “Namuru”, that is today the basis of research into future GNSS for a wide range of ground and spaceborne applications.
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Unique signal processing expertise for multipath analysis, RF interference detection and self-interference mitigation, signal strength measurement, GNSS-reflectometry, and structural deformation monitoring.
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Operating several permanent GNSS receivers at UNSW, including a Galileo tracking receiver, as well as a reference receiver station in the CORSnet-NSW.
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Addressing the requirements for indoor, UAV and vehicle-to-vehicle positioning, by conducting research into the use of a variety of technologies, singly or in multi-sensor integrated systems.
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More than 1400 archived papers available from the SNAP website, the majority on positioning and navigation topics.
Today the new SNAP Lab continues to make its mark in the field of wireless, ground and satellite positioning and navigation.
GPS is a positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) system that has since the early 1980s revolutionised the geoscience of geodesy, the engineering field of surveying, the geospatial discipline, and all forms of navigation (land, sea, air and space). Furthermore, as a result of the revolution wrought by the introduction of GPS, positioning and navigation has increasingly become a critical technology for machine automation, emergency services, military operations, rapid mapping, transport management, and personal mobility, to name
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CRAIG ROBERTS: INDUSTRY RECOGNISES GREAT TEACHING There are many, many kinds of teachers. Dr Craig Roberts is the kind who is not afraid to use novelty and humour to communicate important ideas. His classes may be transformed into a quiz show, using competition to stimulate learning. Perhaps an impromptu fashion parade to demonstrate appropriate surveying footwear. He has a ‘constant desire to find new ways of presenting; new media, new exercises and new approaches.’ Then he actively searches for student feedback to ensure these innovative methods are ‘hitting the mark.’ This ebullient and entertaining teacher is held dear by students who consistently rate him as an outstanding teacher. Craig’s remarkable teaching continues to be applauded also by the national surveying industry, who awarded him the 2014 SSSI (Surveying & Spatial Sciences Institute) National Award for Education Development. This follows on his winning the 2014 NSW award for Education Development announced at the NSW Spatial Excellence Awards.
PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE In November, Patricia McLaughlin was awarded the Faculty Professional Staff of the Year for her service to our post-graduate students. As HoS Steve Foster noted, ‘Pattie has contributed to the success of our School over many years and in many ways. I cannot think of a more deserving winner – I know all will share with me in congratulating Pattie on this fantastic achievement!’
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SCHOOL FOCUSES ON TEACHING
L-R Steve Davis, Richard Stuetz, Fiona Johnson. Stephen Moore, Hamid Valipour (Absent: Stuart Khan)
With the School’s continuing focus on promoting, acknowledging and rewarding a culture of teaching excellence, six academic staff (pictured) were awarded School Teaching Initiative Grants for 2014. Dr Steven Davis’s work is on continuing online assessment of graphical modelling programs in project management postgraduate courses. Many engineering problems require that students be able to think in terms of graphic models in order to solve them. With these tools students will be required to think at the modelling level and not just about how to apply mathematics to premade models.
Stephen Moore and Professor Richard Stuetz are involved in a one day Sustainable Infrastructure Showcase Event working with fourth year students. In 2014 this involved looking at the environmental issues associated with the proposed Ranger uranium mine extension in Kakadu. In addition to this, students designed more sustainable infrastructure to support the transformation of the nearby town of Jabiru into an ecotourism destination by the year 2030. This event featured student posters and discussions, with visiting high school students welcomed during the day and alumni and industry colleagues in the evening.
Dr Fiona Johnson plans to develop hydrology/water resources engineering online assessment tasks for third year students. One outcome will be that the assignment questions can be expanded to allow students to move from just analysing data to evaluating the implications of different evaporation estimates.
Stephen and Richard are also involved in creating scenario based eLearning – analysing and developing of water/wastewater process treatment flowsheets: This is just the first part of a planned building of more online learning objects and systems that can be shared across different CVEN classes and at different levels.
Associate Professor Stuart Khan will purchase new equipment to provide postgraduate coursework students with three practical ‘Hands-on’ Water Quality Analysis Laboratory classes – along with a new specifically designed and comprehensive laboratory handbook.
Finally, Dr Hamid Valipour aims to enhance the student learning experience in structural design by using podcasts – focusing on practical design of steel and reinforced concrete structures to complement current teaching materials and delivery in both undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
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is expensive at small scale and can be challenging to maintain in its operating condition. Researchers from the School’s Water Research Centre, Dr Peter Kovalsky and Professor David Waite (pictured), with input from doctoral student Wangwang Tang, are refining technologies based on use of electrochemistry – including capacitive deionisation (CDI) and electrodialysis reversal (EDR) – to treat such waters.
WATER RESEARCH SHOWING REAL PROMISE Just take a drop of arsenic, a little nitrate and fluoride then add salt……………….!!!!! This might be a recipe to cure all ills or, more likely, create all ills. The reality is that these contaminants are present in many of the groundwaters used to supply remote communities in Australia, China, India and many other places deprived of frequent, fresh rainfall. Such contaminants must be removed before these waters are fit for human (or even animal or plant) consumption. The trouble is that low cost, robust, sustainable technologies for doing just this are few and far between. Reverse osmosis membrane treatment is an option but
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These techniques involve attracting charged ions to electrodes of opposite charge (sodium to the cathode and arsenic, nitrate, fluoride and chloride to the anode) resulting in treated water with much reduced concentrations of contaminants. The beauty of the CDI technique in particular is that it can potentially, with a little R&D, be operated using solar energy. Even better, this energy, after being used to remove the charged contaminants from the water, could potentially be recaptured and used again. Research is continuing into refining the technology for this purpose. These exciting possibilities have been recognised by Tata Trusts, the philanthropic arm of Tata Corporation in India, who have agreed to support R&D by UNSW in this area with the promise of developing technologies that could be used in Indian village communities to treat brackish, contaminated groundwaters and render these waters fit for use.
L-R: Prof Richard Stuetz, A/Prof Bill Peirson (staff) - PhD graduates Dr Di He, Dr Thi Thanh Trang Trinh, Dr Russell Yap, Dr Juan Pablo Alvarez Gaitan - (with staff) A/Prof Stuart Khan, Dr Rita Henderson.
PhD SCHOLARS In 2014 a record number of PhD scholars – 40 in total graduated from the School in what is believed to be the largest amount of PhD graduates in any one year by a UNSW School. Our 40 graduates – including 9 women – have delivered new ideas, insights, information and research excellence to the global engineering and scientific communities in a number of fields including construction, engineering management, geotechnical engineering, geospatial engineering, hydrology, materials, ocean engineering, structural engineering, surveying, sustainability, transport, waste management and water treatment.
Their achievements and those of their leading research supervisors begin to approach critical scholarly mass – certainly the School now provides one of the largest, consistent and top quality contributions towards civil, environmental and geospatial engineering knowledge across Australasia and the world. A full list of our 2014 PhD graduates, topics and supervisors are on p45. We congratulate them all.
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In 1998 he took on the huge job of WRL Business Manager. Finally, he became Director in 2006. While he was Director the WRL celebrated its fiftieth anniversary – in 2009: an amazing story of resilience and growth. Bill Peirson’s commitment to and affection for WRL and CVEN are clearly evident in this journey. One of the things he prizes most highly about his long term association is the generosity of teachers, supervisors and mentors who became colleagues, many of them dear friends. He became of a community who understand and support each other. This collegiality is also one of the reasons the WRL has flourished. Dr Peirson recognised this as one the organisation’s great strengths. “It is a special place, a community. Everybody helps”. Building on the firm base of industry-supported research created by the previous director, Associate Professor Ron Cox, Bill guided a research transformation at WRL. Big picture, blue-sky research expanded significantly during his directorship, often funded by ARC grants, supported proactive projects worth millions of dollars. This forward thinking approach acknowledged the greatest challenge that faces civil and environmental engineers in Australia: how do we re-think future strategies for a sustainable future.
A SEA CHANGE FOR BILL PEIRSON In 2014, after nearly 9 years as Director of Water Research Laboratory, and 30 years of service to the School, Associate Professor Bill Peirson resigned his position to take up a new opportunity as Dean of Residents at UNSW’s New College. The new WRL director is Professor Ian Turner. Bill Peirson first joined the School as an undergraduate student completing a double degree in Civil Engineering and Science. In 1987 he completed a CVEN Masters degree in Engineering Science, then moved on to a PhD in Mathematics and Ocean Engineering As a teacher of undergraduate and post graduate students, Dr Peirson has shared his expertise in water engineering and numerical modelling, constantly re-invigorating his units with new teaching materials and methods. As a researcher he has published prolifically in wave dynamics, coastal structures, water management systems, hydraulics and estuarine processes. But perhaps Bill’s career is best articulated in the development of a 30 year association with the Water Research Laboratory. In 1983 he became a WRL Engineer, in 1990 he was promoted to Senior Engineer. 18
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So he was delighted when the WRL helped secure the 37th International Conference on Coastal Engineering for Sydney. The success of this bid is testament to an ever expanding and international profile of leadership and innovation. Bill Peirson has always recognised that it is the individuals that drive complex systems. As all industries become more globalised, career trajectories have moved away from the local toward international networks. Bill has recognised the great need to support students navigate the anxieties that globalisation brings. His new position as Dean of New College offers him the opportunity to re-connect with young students in need of the ballast that experience can offer. He can offer them a genuinely interested ear and gentle advice. He seems already at home at New College. As he walks around students greet him and he knows their names and their achievements. The professional association between the School and Bill will persist. He will continue as an Adjunct Fellow and the close personal and professional ties formed over thirty years cannot be broken. The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering would like to thank Bill Peirson not only for his many contributions and achievements, but for his kindness, his ethics and his collegiality. He will be missed.
OUR PEOPLE
CVEN ACADEMICS 2014
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OUR PEOPLE
Acworth, R. Ian Director, Connected Waters Initiative Gary Johnston Professor of Water Management BSc Leeds, MSc PhD Birm, FGS
Research Interests: Investigation of groundwater dynamics & hydrochemical processes in the coastal zone: Development of field instrumentation & analysis methods in groundwater studies: Electrical methods in the investigation of groundwater & salinity: Relationship between Palaeoclimate & dryland salinity.
Akbarnezhad, Ali Lecturer BE AUT, Tehran, PhD NUS
Research Interests: Sustainable Construction: Sustainability Assessment: Information Modelling: Construction Technology: Non-Destructive Tests: Health Monitoring: Concrete Technology: Design for Deconstruction
Andersen, Martin Senior Lecturer MSc in Engineering, PhD DTU, Denmark
Research Interests: Investigations of physical & geochemical processes at the surface water groundwater interface; groundwater dynamics in the coastal zone; reactive flow & transport modelling; developing methodologies for using heat as a tracer of groundwater flow; karst hydrology.
Attard, Mario Associate Professor Associate Head – Academic BE PhD MHEd UNSW, MIEAust, CPEng
Research Interests: Finite Strain Isotropic & Anisotropic Hyperelastic Modelling: Fracture in Concrete & Masonry: Crack Propagation due to Creep: Ductility of High Strength Concrete Columns: Buckling of Sandwich Columns: Lateral Buckling of Thin-Walled Beams.
Birk, Carolin Lecturer BEng DEng Dresden
Research Interests: Numerical modelling of wave propagation in unbounded domains: Soil-structure interaction, fluid-structure interaction: Longitudinal railway track-structure interaction: Artificial boundary conditions for diffusion: Fractional calculus.
Carmichael, DG Professor BE MEngSc USyd, PhD Cant, CPEng, FIEAust, MASC
Research Interests: Management, systems applications of optimisation, synthesis: Identification & analysis: Contracts & disputes: Project delivery: Construction operations: Project management & management functional areas including risk, economics, finances, people resources & scope: Construction management: Problem solving & decision making.
Castel, Arnaud Associate Professor BE, MEngSc, PhD Toulouse
Research Interests: Durability of construction materials - Steel corrosion in concrete, concrete pathologies, SCM’s: Concrete construction in chloride environment -Performance & service life design of reinforced/ prestressed concrete affected by steel corrosion: Repair & Strengthening using CFRP - Failure analysis & modelling of CFRP strengthened beams including reinforcing steel corrosion.
Cox, Ron Associate Professor Co-Chair, External Relations Convenor, ACCARNSI BE PhD UNSW, FIEAust
Davis, Steve Lecturer Chair, Teaching & Learning Committee
BE PhD UNSW
Research Interests: Climate change adaptation for settlements & infrastructure: Coastal engineering & coastal zone management: Stability, design & safety of coastal structures: Application of sand filled geo-containers in coastal protection: Environmental monitoring & modelling: Desalination plant brine disposal: Hydraulics of water & wastewater treatment plants: Flood hydraulics & floodplain management: Life safety, emergency warning & evacuation.
Research Interests: Stochastic Systems: Evolutionary Programming: Parallel Computing Applications to Civil Engineering: Online Assessments
Dixit, Vinayak Senior Lecturer MT Institute of Technology, Delhi, PhD University of Central Florida
Research Interests: Behaviour under Risk & Uncertainty in Transportation Systems: Transportation Modelling & Simulation: Traffic Flow Theory: Traffic Safety: Workzone Management Strategies: Experimental Economics.
Douglas, Kurt Pells Sullivan Meynink Senior Lecturer of Rock Mechanics, Co–Chair External Relations BE (Hons1)USyd, PhD UNSW
My main interests lie in the field of rock mechanics. Predicting strengths of large-scale rock masses (hundreds of meters) continues to be a major challenge. I am attempting to improve our understanding using laboratory tests, field studies & numerical methods. I am also currently involved in an ARC & Industry sponsored project researching erosion of rock spillways & backward erosion of embankment dams.
Felder, Stefan Lecturer Dipl.-Ing. RWTH Aachen, PhD UQ
Stefan is an expert in hydraulic engineering and environmental fluid mechanics. His research interests include: Physical modelling of turbulent flows; Design optimisation of hydraulic structures; Energy dissipation and aeration in high-velocity free-surface flows and hydraulic jumps; Airwater mass transfer across hydraulic structures; Design of instrumentation and advanced data processing tools.
Foster, Stephen Professor Head of School BE NSWIT, MEngSc PhD UNSW, MIEAustdf
Research Interests: I research the behaviour of structural systems (buildings and bridges) constructed of reinforced and prestressed concrete. I’m particularly interested in bringing new and advanced materials technologies to the engineering of structures. My interests are in the use of high and ultra-high performance concretes, fibre-reinforced concretes and geopolymer concretes and in use of carbon fibre technologies for strengthening and repair of structures and structural systems. I develop physical-mechanical models for use in advanced computational and numerical tools such as FEM and for their use in the study of behaviour of concrete structures that are subjected to extreme events such as overload, fire, impact and blast loading.
Gao, Wei Associate Professor BE HDU, ME PhD Xidian, MIIAV, MAAS
Research Interests: Uncertain modelling & uncertain methods: Vehicle-bridge interaction dynamics: Wind and/or seismic induced random vibration: Train-rail-sleeper-foundation-tunnel/ bridge system: Stochastic nonlinear system: Vehicle dynamics & vehicle rollover: Structural optimization & control: Smart structures: Stability & reliability analysis.
Gardner, Lauren Lecturer BS ArchE, MSE, PhD University of Texas at Austin
Research Interests: Network modelling for multi-domain integrated systems: congestion pricing models accounting for uncertainty, the role of real-time information & adaptive pricing: Sustainability models integrating transportation & electricity systems: developing network-based optimization models to predict the role of global transport systems in the spread of contagious disease.
Ge, Linlin Associate Professor BE, MSc Wuhan, PhD UNSW
Research Interests: I combine remote sensing with GPS & GIS to produce cost-effective & highly reliable maps. Integrating radar & optical remote sensing with GPS & GIS, we measure the subtle change on the surface of the Earth with minimum latency using data collected from satellite, airborne & UAV platforms.
Hamed, Ehab Senior Lecturer BSc MSc PhD Technion
Research Interests: Viscoelasticity of concrete & composite materials, Creep buckling of concrete domes & shells, Strengthening of concrete & masonry structures with composite materials (FRP), Nonlinear dynamics of concrete structures.
Research Interests: Least Squares analysis of surveying measurements is Harvey, Bruce my main interest, but I also investigate Senior Lecturer alternative analysis methods & the BSurv (Hons 1), latest measurement technologies. Are GradDip Higher Ed, there better ways to analyse surveying PhD UNSW measurements & can we improve Least Squares, L1 norm & topological grid searches?
Johnson, Fiona Lecturer BE, PhD UNSW
Research Interests: statistical hydrology & modelling; climate change impacts on water resources systems; bias correction methods that can be applied to climate model simulations; models for design rainfalls & flooding; models for regionalisation of rainfall data, questions on stationarity of large to extreme rainfalls & the impacts of climate change on these events & the resulting implications for engineering design.
Khalili, Nasser Professor Associate Dean, Research BSc Teh, MSc Birm, PhD UNSW
Research Interests: Mechanics of unsaturated soils: Flow & deformation in double porosity media: Numerical methods applied to geotechnical engineering: Pavement engineering.
Khan, Stuart Associate Professor BSc (Hons 1) USyd, PhD UNSW, MIEAust.
Research Interests: Advanced Water & Wastewater Treatment & Analysis: Trace Chemical Contaminants in Water: Chemical Risk Assessment: Probabilistic Chemical Exposure Assessment: Water Recycling & Seawater Desalination: Sustainability Assessment & Risk Assessment: Environmental Fate Modelling: Water Quality Impacts of Extreme Weather Conditions.
Khoshghalb, Arman Lecturer BEng, MEng, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, PhD UNSW
Research Interests: large deformation analysis in geomechanics, advanced numerical methods in geomechanics, mechanics of unsaturated soils & coupled analysis of porous media.
Lim, Samsung Associate Professor BA, MA (Mathematics) Seoul, PhD U Texas at Austin
Research Interests: I conduct geospatial information science & research that allow us to improve the way we view, understand, design, plan, manage, analyse, interpret, & extract spatiotemporal information such as patterns & trends of geospatial data. I investigate spatial information extraction from lidar (known as light detection & ranging) & aerial/satellite data e.g. data segmentation & classification, digital elevation modelling, feature extraction, building edge detection, & change detection.
Moore, Stephen Director, Environmental Engineering Studies BE UNSW, MEngSc Adel., CPEng, MIEAust
Research Interests: Development of environmental material accounting techniques, such as Material Flux Analysis, for regional & corporate environmental management systems; Simulation & decision analysis applied to waste management systems.
Peirson, William Associate Professor Director, Water Research Laboratory Co-Director, Water Research Centre BE BSc MEngSc PhD UNSW
Bill is an international expert in Civil & Environmental Engineering fluid mechanics & undertakes specialist research in the fields of coastal engineering, air-sea & air-water interaction & exchange, fluvial hydraulics, estuarine processes & the hydraulics & mechanical behaviour of turbomachines.
Rashidi, Taha Hossein Lecturer BSc MSc Sharif UT Tehran; PhD UI Chicago
Research Interests: Travel Behaviour Analysis: Transportation Planning: Activity-Based Travel Demand Modeling: Housing Search & Land Use Modelling: Integrated Land-Use & Transportation Models: Goods Movement Modelling: Microsimulation Modeling Methods for Urban Activities.
Research Interests: How geospatial technology such as satellite-based positioning, modern geodesy & digital mapping is used for science, & by society in general; Political issues related to GNSS and geospatial Rizos, Chris information management; Modern Professor geodesy’s technologies & applications; BSurv (Hons), PhD Australia’s new mapping datum; The UNSW technology & applications of satellite-, wireless- & inertial-based sensors for high accuracy positioning; The use of GNSS (GPS, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS) for all classes of uses from Navigation to Geodesy; GNSS receiver design; GNSS positioning infrastructure. Research Interests: High precision GPS/GNSS positioning Roberts, Craig and leveraging CORS infrastructure for practical application to surveying and Senior Lecturer BSurv, University geospatial engineering. The implications of South Australia, of kinematic 3D datum modernisation PhD UNSW for professional and mass market users. GPS for cadastral surveying. Kinematic positioning with robotic total stations.
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Russell, Adrian Associate Professor Chair, Technical Services BE, PhD UNSW, PGCert Bristol
Research Interests: Unsaturated soils: Fibre reinforced soils: Particle crushing in granular media: In situ testing of soils: Constitutive modelling of soils: Wind turbine foundations.
Senetakis, Kostas Lecturer Dipl. Civil Engineering, MSc and PhD, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki
Expertise in Earthquake Engineering, Experimental Soil Dynamics and Micromechanics. Main research interests: Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering: Experimental Soil Mechanics and Dynamics: Pavement Engineering: Engineering Geology: Particulate Media - Micromechanics of Soils - Contact Mechanics & Tribology: Fracture Mechanics.
Shen, Johnson Xuesong Lecturer BEng, MSc Nanjing, PhD Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Research interests: - Rapid As-Built Field Modelling in Construction; - Sustainable Construction Operations; - Construction Automation and Robotics; - Structural Health Monitoring; - Dynamic Data-Driven Project Management
Song, Chongmin Professor Chair, Computing Services BE ME Tsinghua, DEng Tokyo
Research Interests: Scaled Boundary Finite-Element Method: Dynamic Soil-Structure Interaction: Structural Dynamics & Earthquake Engineering: Wave Propagation: Fracture Mechanics: Elasto-Plastic-Damage Constitutive Modelling: Finite Element Method, Boundary Element Method.
Stuetz, Richard Professor Co-Director, Water Research Centre BSc, PhD UNSW
Research Interests: On-line instrumentation for monitoring water & wastewater quality: Biological monitoring for process control: Biotreatment of odours & volatile emissions: Bioprocesses for water & wastewater treatment: Biodegradation of micropollutants.
Taiebat, Hossein Senior Lecturer PhD USyd
Research Interests: Behaviour of embankment dams under earthquake loading: Large deformation analysis and post failure deformation of slopes and embankments: Bearing capacity of foundations on unsaturated soils: Caisson foundations: Vertically loaded anchors: Shallow foundations under combined loading: Numerical modelling & liquefaction analysis.
Research interests: Development of advanced computational models & analyses of practically-motivated inelastic structures. Optimal design of new Tangaramvong, structures & cost-effective rehabilitation Sawekchai (Ball) of damaged ones. Adoption of integrated Lecturer (complementarity) mathematical BEng, Chulalongkorn, programming & nonlinear engineering MEngSc, PhD mechanics concept to map the complete UNSW, Grad Cert responses of structures in the presence of (Ed) RMIT elastoplastic strain-softening materials, high-order geometric nonlinearity, limited ductility, nonassociativity, contact, highimpact loading & uncertainty.
Turner, Ian Professor BSc (Hons) USyd, MEnvEngSc UNSW, PhD USyd
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Research Interests: Coastal Engineering & Coastal Management; Innovative coastal measurement & monitoring techniques; Sediment transport at the beachface; Modelling of coastline variability & change spanning storm, seasonal, annual & decadal time-scales; Assessment of coastline adjustment to a changing climate.
Uy, Brian Professor & Director of CIES BE (Hons 1), PhD UNSW
Research Interests: Composite steel-concrete structures, critical infrastructure protection systems, deconstruction techniques, rehabilitation & strengthening techniques, steel structures, structural health monitoring, structural systems, sustainable construction materials.
Valipour, Hamid Senior Lecturer BE, MEngSc, PhD UNSW
Research Interests: Structural Mechanics including reinforced concrete & steel, steel-concrete, timber & timberconcrete composite materials: Behaviour of structures subjected to extreme loading scenarios such as seismic action, critical member loss, impact, blast and explosion: Computational mechanics and non-linear finite element modelling of structures: Constitutive modelling of concrete and timber.
Vandebona, Upali Senior Lecturer BSc (Eng) Ceylon, MEng AIT, PhD Monash
Research Interests: Modelling of Transport Systems: Development of simulation & animation models for light rail train systems & bus services. Facility Location: Environmental considerations related to transport facility location: Demand Modelling: Analysis of public awareness & attitudes related to transport systems: Air Transport: Intelligent Transport Systems: Signage systems.
Waite, T David Scientia Professor BSc Tas, GradDip RMIT, MAppSc Monash, PhD MIT, FRACI
Research Interests: Separation processes involving colloids & particles in water & wastewater treatment; redox chemistry at the solid-solution interface; photochemistry in aquatic systems; hydrogeochemistry; theoretical & experimental studies on the fate & effects of chemical pollutants; interactions between trace elements & microbiota in aquatic systems.
Research Interests: Transportation network modelling, particularly systems characterized by dynamics, uncertainty Waller, S Travis & information; large-scale integrated Evans & Peck transport optimization & planning. Professor of Specific applications or problem domains Transport Innovation include Dynamic Traffic Assignment Chair, Research (DTA), routing algorithm development, Management Cmte network equilibrium, stochastic BSc Ohio State, optimization, integrated demand/ MSc, PhD supply modelling, network design, Northwestern adaptive equilibrium, system analysis of public-private partnerships, & bi-level optimization of transport networks. Wang, Jinling Associate Professor BSc, MSc Wuhan, PhD Curtin
Research Interests: Global Navigation Satellite Systems - GNSS (GPS, Glonass, Galileo, BeiDou System-BDS) & Their Integration: Multi-Sensor Integration for Positioning, Mapping & Navigation: Statistical Theory & Its Applications in Positioning, Mapping & Navigation.
Wiedmann, Tommy Associate Professor MSc, PhD Ulm
My main research question is how to achieve human wellbeing without increasing environmental impacts. My expertise is in integrated sustainability assessment & environmental footprint analysis. I develop & apply environmental input-output analysis as part of a holistic concept to life cycle assessment, industrial ecology & sustainable consumption & production research.
ARC LAUREATE Bradford, Mark ARC Laureate Fellow UNSW Scientia Professor BSc BE PhD USyd, DSc UNSW, CPEng, CEng, MASCE, FIEAust, MIStructE
ARC DECRA & POST DOC FELLOWS Research Interests: Structures subjected to elevated temperatures, curved members, arches, steel structures, composite steel-concrete structures, concrete structures, numerical methods, stability, viscoelastic effects, nondiscretisation techniques, design codes, structural retrofit.
ARC FUTURE FELLOWS Bellie, Sivakumar Associate Professor ARC Future Fellow UNSW Water Research Centre
Research Interests: Water resources assessment, planning, and management. Sivakumar’s research focuses on simplification and generalization in hydrologic modeling, especially using nonlinear dynamic and scaling theories
Collins, Richard ARC Future Fellow UNSW Water Research Centre
Research Interests: Environmental Molecular Geochemistry of trace elements (metals, metalloids and actinides) in both natural and engineered systems. Richard’s research covers aspects related to metal(loid) bioavailability and speciation, redox chemistry and biogeochemical transformations assessed through field/laboratory studies, computational approaches (e.g. DFT) and X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy.
Research Interests: I use computer models to simulate rainfall & runoff processes in catchments, working to improve hydrologic forecasts through Marshall, Lucy improved catchment model structures Senior Lecturer & & methods for model calibration & ARC Future Fellow uncertainty assessment. I quantify BE, MEngSc, PhD new conceptualizations of hydrologic UNSW processes & develop methods for model diagnostics & uncertainty analysis (especially via Bayesian statistics & multi-model methods).
Garg, Shikha ARC DECRA Fellow Senior Research Associate UNSW Water Research Centre
Research interests: Extracellular electron transfer: Biogeochemical process :Environmental microbiology : Pollutant transformation
Murphy, Kathleen Senior Research Associate UNSW Water Research Centre Thai, Huu-Tai Research Fellow Centre for Infrastructure, Engineering & Safety (CIES)
Current research: assessing the system reliability of concrete-filled steel tubular frames designed by advanced analysis.
Xiaomin Li ARC DECRA Fellow Water Research Centre (WRC)
Research interests: Extracellular electron transfer: Biogeochemical process: Environmental microbiology : Pollutant transformation
Zhao, Gaofeng ARC DECRA Fellow Centre for Infrastructure, Engineering & Safety (CIES
Research: investigation of fracturing rock using the microscopic and macroscopic coupled numerical model, e.g. Distinct Lattice Spring Model (DLSM), Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM), and Particle based Manifold Method (PMM).
Research Interests: Stochastic hydrology: Synthetic generation of seasonal Sharma, streamflow; Medium to long-term Ashish probabilistic forecasting: Stochastic Professor downscaling of hydrologic variables ARC Future Fellow under climate change scenarios: Radar BE Roorkee, MTech rainfall estimation: Rainfall runoff model IIT Delhi, PhD Utah & parameter uncertainty assessment in State a Bayesian framework: Water Resources Management: new developments in statistics to solve water problems.
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CVEN WELCOMES Dr Stefan Felder Dipl.-Ing. RWTH Aachen, PhD UQ In 2014 the School welcomed Dr Stefan Felder as an academic member of staff and one who will further strengthen our Water Research Laboratory’s hydraulic engineering competencies. Stefan is an expert in turbulent free-surface flows, and his current research interests include transitional open-channel flows and air-water flows in hydraulic structures. He has broad international experience gained at major hydraulic laboratories in Germany, the UK and Australia and is expanding his research into spillway flows using the unique, large-scale facilities available at WRL. His PhD thesis was titled: Air-Water Flow Properties on Stepped Spillways for Embankment Dams: Aeration, Energy Dissipation and Turbulence on Uniform, NonUniform and Pooled Stepped Chutes. Stefan won the UQ Dean’s Award for Research Higher Degree Excellence in 2013.
Dr Kostas Senetakis Dipl. Civil Engineering, MSc, PhD, Aristotle University Dr Kostas Senetakis is a new Lecturer in Geotechnical Engineering at the School. His current research theme is the laboratory study of energy dissipation mechanisms of particulate media with a focus on shear wave velocities, Poisson’s phenomena and material damping of crushable assemblies. This provides a fundamental link into the behavior of the ground subjected to variable types of dynamic loading, including seismic vibration. Dr Senetakis hopes his research will provide a clearer link between the dynamics and behaviour of particles in crushable soils on the nano-scale (observed in micromechanical experiments) and the macro-scale response (observed in laboratory element testing). “We are working towards the advancement of our knowledge associated with the mechanics and dynamics of soils and a framework for specifications and design codes,’ he explains, ‘that engineers can use in real foundation or pavement engineering design.’
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MORE WELCOMES & CVEN PROMOTIONS In 2014 the School also welcomed new professional and technical staff – Lena Comino as Administrative Officer for the Student Centre, Tim Weston as Technical Officer, and Danny Wu as part of the School’s Finance team. All have quickly become part of the CVEN hardworking, efficient and ‘go-to’ professional team. In September 2014 Dr Wei Gao, senior lecturer in structural engineering, and expert in computational mechanics was promoted to Associate Professor. In November, Associate Professor Ian Turner, coastal engineering expert, Postgraduate Research Student Coordinator, and Deputy Director of the Water Research Laboratory, was promoted to Professor. As Head of School, Professor Stephen Foster noted, this is due acknowledgement and recognition of the significant contribution that Wei and Ian have made to their fields of research, to teaching and service to the School, Faculty and profession.
CIVIL FAREWELLS: In 2014 we farewelled academic staff A/Prof Leonhard Bernold, Dr Chris Blenkinsopp, and Dr Gregoire Mariethoz. We wish them all the very best for the future.
We also farewelled technical officer Richard Berndt who had been with the School since 2003. As A/Prof Adrian Russell noted at Richard’s farewell, his positive and ‘can do’ attitude in a demanding environment had helped the School to continue to deliver outstanding outcomes in teaching and research at a time of trebling of activity in our labs.
CVEN SPONSORS Thanks: Several School academic positions are currently funded through the generosity of industry including: The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) – a public research organisation – provides funding support for a Senior Research Fellow (Dr Andrew Kinsela) at the School’s Water Research Centre whose work on trace element (metal, metalloid and actinide) environmental chemistry – aims for aquatic and soil remediation. Evans & Peck - an international infrastructure-based advisory company – established a new Chair in 2010 – the Evans & Peck Professor for Transport Innovation. Professor S Travis Waller now leads a new and expanding Faculty–wide Research Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation (RCITI) based in the School. In 2014 Evans & Peck became Advisian. Gary Johnston provides funding support for the Gary Johnston Professor of Water Management, a joint Chair between the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the School of Biology, Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES) in the Faculty of Science, which is held by the School’s groundwater expert Professor Ian Acworth. Pells Sullivan Meynink Pty Ltd, a high profile firm of specialist geotechnical consultants, provide funding support for the position of Pells Sullivan Meynink Senior Lecturer of Rock Mechanics, Dr Kurt Douglas.
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PROFESSIONAL STAFF STUDENT CENTRE
BUSINESS
Julijana Baric Student Centre Manager
PROFESSIONAL OFFICERS
Anthony Dever Business Manager
Dr Gautam Chattopadhyay Laboratory Manager
Patricia Karwan WRC and CIES Administrative Assistant
SENIOR TECHNICAL OFFICERS ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF
Les Brown Administrative Assistant
Lena Comino Administrative Officer
Lekana Toubia Administrative Officer - Finance
Paul Gwynne Manager
Anthony Macken
Danny Wu Administrative AssistantFinance
Hugh McMullen OHS & Facilities Officer
Rudino Salleh
Dr Yincai Zhou Professional Officer SAGE
William Terry
EXTERNAL RELATIONS
Dr Mary O’Connell External Relations Manager
Flora Fan Administrative Officer
CENTRE MANAGERS
Tricia Tesoriero External Relations Projects P/T
Kristy Guia Student Services Officer
TECHNICAL OFFICERS
Irene Calaizis CIES
Richard Berndt
Maria Lee rCITI
John Gilbert
Grantley Smith WRL
Rob Jenkins Water Research Laboratory
Robert Steel WRC Kensington
Ron Moncay
WEB / IT STAFF
Olivia Huang Student Services Officer
Patricia McLaughlin Administrative Officer
Kate Brown Web/IT Coordinator
Patrick Vuong Computer Systems Officer
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
Betty Wong EA to Head of School
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Xiaobo Ni Web Developer
RESEARCH, ADJUNCT AND VISITING ACADEMIC STAFF (SCHOOL) Emeritus Professors Kelvin Chun H Ong
John Black Robin Fell Ian Gilbert Francis Tin Loi John Trinder Somasundaram Valliappan
VC’S Post-Doctoral Research Fellows Larry Paice
Alfredo Anceno Tongxu Liu
ANSTO Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Andrew Kinsela
Research Associate Greg Worthing
Mohammad Choudhury
Post Doctoral Fellow Binghao Li
Professorial Visiting Fellows Tim Weston
Bruce Forster David Hui Kourosh Kayvani Arthur (Bill) Kearsley
Senior Visiting Fellows Tieding Lu Jean Rueger Jianghan Zhu
Visiting Fellows Chen Cai Hiram Chavez Alan Forghani Peter Hidas Atsuko Ikeda Svitlana Ilnytska Slavomir Krahulec
Adjunct Professors Scott Hensley Matthew McCabe Petrus Teunissen
Adjunct Associate Professors James Aldred Alan Seed
Adjunct Senior Lecturers Kenneth Doust Ramesh Govind Gregoire Mariethoz
Adjunct Lecturer Christopher Blenkinsopp
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STUDENT AND BUSINESS CENTRES
L-R: Lena Comino, Kristy Guia, Renata Melis , Les Brown, Hannah Rizzo and Patricia McLaughlin The School’s administration teams had a very successful year in meeting the high demand for advice and requests from all stakeholders associated with our School. In the Student Centre, Julijana welcomed the birth of a healthy baby boy. Both mother and baby are doing well. This led to Kristy Guia taking up the challenge of managing the Centre in Julijana’s absence and Lena Comino joining the team. We have also recently welcomed Hannah Rizzo and Renata Melis who are replacing Olivia Huang whilst on maternity leave and Flora Fan who is on long service leave. The Student Centre has continued to provide accurate, reliable support and advice to our academic staff as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students. All staff have taken the initiative to be active learners and strive to be experts in their current roles. This is clearly demonstrated in the quality of their work and service to all. In the Business Centre, we implemented an online Teaching Allocation System (TAS). The system allows teaching staff, demonstrators and other teaching assistants to view live data via a web browser with administrator access to our staff via MS Access Interface. Lekana Toubia became the coordinator of the system and so Danny Wu joined the team to provide financial support to the School. The Business team continued to provide financial, administration, office accommodation and other workplace support to staff and students.
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Our IT staff had a number of achievements in 2014. We migrated our four Centres websites to Drupal 7 platform with a uniform Engineering template complying with UNSW Branding Guidelines. We launched an online Demonstrator Casual Claim Form. This application is now being used by over 150 sessional support staff each semester and has replaced a paper based system. The IT team also launched an online Honours Thesis submission and access system for current undergraduate students and staff. We migrated the GMAT server that contains surveying and geospatial data to a new Virtual Machine and migrated all data and images to other appropriate systems. The computer laboratories were refurbished to cater for laboratory classroom teaching with built-in AV equipment and increased the capacity of Lab 201 from 40 seats to 57 seats. Our teams are working on a number of projects as we continue to look for process improvement and efficiencies across all areas of the School, with our ultimate aim of providing a high level of service to staff and students. Kristy Guia, Student Centre Manager Anthony Dever, School Manager
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RESEARCH MANAGEMENT REPORT
The School’s Research Management Committee (RMC) manages and supports research activities within the School, including research undertaken by both the staff and the School’s postgraduate research students, and liaises with and contributes directly to the Faculty’s Research Management Committee. In 2014, the RMC met every month to oversee and progress all research related aspects of the School’s operation.
RMC Committee Membership 2014 Prof S. Travis Waller
Chair, RMC & rCITI Director
Prof Ian Turner
Deputy Chair, Postgrad Research Student Coordinator, WRL Research Director
A/Prof Samsung Lim
Deputy Research Student Coordinator
Prof Mark Bradford
CIES Research Director
Prof Richard Stuetz
WRC Co-Director
Prof Brian Uy
CIES Director
Dr Martin Andersen
CWI Representative
Dr Vinayak Dixit
RCITI Representative
A/Prof Adrian Russell
Practicum Scholarships
Dr Wei Gao
Taste of Research Coordinator
Prof David Carmichael A/Prof Linlin Ge Prof Ashish Sharma Ms Patricia McLaughlin
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Admin
Postgraduate Research Student Management An important aspect of the Committee’s work involves the management of the School’s postgraduate research student’s program. At the end of Semester 2 2014, the School had 218 postgraduate research students enrolled in either ME (23) or PhD (195) programs, as well as having graduated a record number during the year. Forty hardworking students – including 9 women – were awarded the honour of a UNSW PhD in 2014 – estimated to be the highest number of PhDs graduated from any School in any one year in the history of UNSW. We congratulate them all. Management of this vital research activity within the School involves the assessment of applications to undertake higher degrees within the School, the formulation of specific research plans for each student accepted into the program, the nomination of suitable supervisors, reviewing the progress of students at regular intervals, making recommendations on progress to the Faculty’s Higher Degree Committee, and finally nominating examiners when the thesis is completed and, where necessary, following up on the examination process. Each student is assigned a review committee of three academic staff chaired by a member of the RMC. The review committee meets to interview the student and supervisor(s) at 6 or 12 monthly intervals, depending on the student’s progress, and, at these reviews, the student is invited to present a brief seminar outlining progress since the last review. Most academic staff and several research only staff participated in the student review panels in 2014. Much of the heavy work load
In 2014 UNSW won the largest number of ARC grants in the country – leading its peers in the Group of 8 – a coalition of Australia’s leading research universities. Not surprisingly 2014 also saw the School continue on its ARC success story – winning a total of $4.15 million in 7 Discovery, 1 Linkage, 1 LIEF and 1 Early Career Researcher Grant – with 18 of our academic staff involved.
in this area is carried by the School’s Postgraduate Coordinator Professor Ian Turner and the Postgraduate Research Student Administrator Ms Pattie McLaughlin, who deservedly won the Faculty of Engineering Professional Staff of the Year Award in 2014. Excellent support was also provided to the Coordinator by A/ Prof Samsung Lim, who in 2014 took over a component of that role in dealing with all HDC Admission and Scholarships matters for the School. A big task.
Fuller details of the ARC funded research projects are overleaf.
Research Grants The RMC also provides input to the preparation and coordination of research grant applications. This includes ranking the School’s applications for internal Faculty Research Grants (FRGs) and UNSW Major Research Equipment and Infrastructure Initiative (MREIIs) and reviewing applications for competitive external grants such as the Australian Research Council (ARC) Grants and from industry.
Continuing Growth in Research Publications
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Books
4
5
5
2
6
5
5
4
3
1
2
Chapters in Books
3
7
8
11
12
4
11
9
9
6
10
Refereed Journal Articles 76
90
98
113
128
125
183
196
241
330
357
Refereed Conference
94
83
87
100
88
114
68
148
115
161
133
Total Publications
177
185
198
226
234
248
267
357
368
498
502
ARC Grants (year announced)
$3.33M
$2.13M
$1.53M
$1.74M
$3.06M
$4.32M
$1.75M
$3.26M
$1.38M
$4.3M
$4.15M
Total Research Income pa $6.3M
$6.9M
$7.7M
$8.0M
$10.7M
$13.6M
$15.1M
$17.35M
$15.56M
$13.7M*
$11.85M
Higher Degree Student Numbers
90
90
76
77
65
90
105
124
195
216
99
*errata in 2013 Annual Report now corrected. OUR RESEARCH
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AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL DISCOVERY, LIEF AND LINKAGE GRANTS 2014
Professor Mark Bradford – DP 150100446 – $664,300 This project aims to investigate the capacity of highstrength steel (HSS) flexural members by undertaking physical tests and numerical simulations, and proposes to craft innovative overarching design guidance for them within a paradigm of Design by Advanced Analysis. HSS structures are significant as they are lighter than their mild steel counterparts and so use less material, with a much lower carbon footprint. Modern metallurgical process can produce HSS of Grade 1000 Megapascals or higher, but there is no specific structural code governing their design. Surprisingly little research has been reported on HSS flexural members which fail by lateral buckling, and this is the focus of the project, filling the gap needed to produce an advanced design standard.
Professor Stephen Foster & Dr Hamid Valipour – DP 150104107 – $266,300 In January 2014 the draft Australian Standard for the design of concrete bridges was released; this is the first standard in Australia, and one of the first in the world, to include design procedures for steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) in a comprehensive way. While rules have been introduced for flexure and shear, strict limitations are placed on application where large plastic rotations are expected. This study investigates the moment-rotation performance of SFRC beam-column connections containing economical fibre dosages. The study is expected to provide data on the post-ultimate behaviour and robustness of SFRC moment hinges and determine moment-rotation relations for adoption by engineers and Standards bodies
32
OUR RESEARCH
Associate Professor Adrian Russell, Prof David Muir Wood – DP 150104123 – $325,500 This project aims to make discoveries for modelling initiation, rate of progression and consequences of seepage induced internal erosion through soils which make up critical water retaining infrastructure like dams. It aims to achieve an understanding of how fundamental microstructural (particle and pore) properties governing erosion have the potential to destroy infrastructure. Major expected outcomes include experimental evidence of governing mechanics, theories which couple microstructure with erosion and models to describe the altered soil strength and stiffness. It aims to lead to increased safety and economic efficiencies in Australia where many tens of millions of dollars are spent each year to reduce risks associated with internal erosion.
Professor Chongmin Song, Emeritus Professor Francis Tin-Loi, Dr Sawekchai Tangaramvong – DP 150103747 – $384,700 This project aims to develop, directly from computeraided design models or digital images, an automatic numerical simulation approach for the safety assessment of engineering structures in three dimensions. Underpinning this novel approach is the proposed use of scaled boundary polytope elements and a complementary octree algorithm for mesh generation. Complex loadings are intended to be addressed effectively by the developed adaptive shakedown analysis leading to factors of safety familiar to engineers and directly usable in design. The expected primary outcome is an innovative technology for numerical simulation and the development of an invaluable numerical tool for the effective safety assessment of engineering structures.
Professor Ian Turner, Professor Jason Middleton, Dr Kristen Splinter, Professor Ad J Reniers, Dr Mark Davidson, Dr Chris Blenkinsopp – DP 150101339 – $423,200 Coastal erosion is confronting societies and the natural environment. The economic value in Australia of built assets at risk includes roads ($60 billion), commercial buildings ($81 billion) and homes ($63 billion). Hard engineering entire coastlines is rarely feasible, with beaches providing the best coastal defence along the great majority of sandy coastlines. But how wide should a buffer zone be to provide adequate protection from storms? And critically, how reliable are the present modelling tools used to predict this, and can they be improved? Underpinned by innovative field observations to fill fundamental knowledge gaps, this project aims to deliver advanced understanding and the best available solution to storm erosion prediction.
Professor David Waite – DP 150102248 - $514,700 This project aims to determine the electron transfer (redox) properties of terrestrially and microbiallyderived natural organic matter (NOM) and the implications of these redox characteristics to reactive oxygen species generation, metals transformation and carbon cycling. Experimental and computational studies using model compounds containing quinone and thiol-containing functional groups as well as wellcharacterised humic substances and algal exudates will be undertaken under both dark and light conditions. Kinetic models of these processes will be developed enabling prediction of the impact of NOM-mediated electron transfer processes on oxidant generation, metals transformation and carbon cycling.
Professor S Travis Waller – DP 150104687 – $275,200 This project aims to address some of the limitations of dynamic transport network modelling in the planning process particularly related to traffic uncertainty, driver adaptivity and information-provision. Previous advances facilitate the proposed methods to introduce; new network routing algorithms that account for numerous increasingly important problem characteristics such as driver route-choice response to real-time information and uncertainty; new formulations for the stochastic dynamic traffic assignment problem which employ the novel routing algorithms as sub-problems; and new methods for relevant bi-level optimisation transport applications such as network design and incident management
DECRA – EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS Dr Xiaomin Li – DE150100500 - $321,000 This project aims to develop the kinetic (both in vivo and in vitro) and thermodynamic models of the extracellular electron transfer processes at the microbemineral interface via outer membrane cytochromes and exudates of dissimilatory iron-reducing bacteria, and elucidating the potential electron transfer process from iron-reducing bacteria to semiconducting iron minerals. The observed models will provide a more comprehensive understanding of electron transfer reactions at the microbe-mineral interface, which will be helpful in the prediction of natural redox processes of iron transformation and in the development of bioremediation strategies for contaminated sites.
OUR RESEARCH
33
ARC LINKAGE GRANTS Prof Nasser Khalili, Dr Arman Khoshghalb, Mr John A Rubsov, Total $314k Partner Organisation - Roads and Maritime Services The aim of this project is to advance experimental, theoretical and computational bases for the mechanics of weak rocks, and provide scientists and engineers with much-needed predictive tools for quantitative evaluation and assessment of their behaviour in geological settings. Based on the theoretical results of the research, numerical algorithms will be developed that will assist engineers to apply the findings of the project to geotechnical engineering problems. By incorporating previously neglected aspects in the behaviour of weak rocks such as mechanical, environmental as well as cyclic loading degradation, confidence in the design methods will be increased to the point that costly over designs can be avoided.
ARC LIEF – Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities Russell, A/Prof Adrian R; Khalili, Prof Nasser; Zhao, Dr GaoFeng; Khoshghalb, Dr Arman; Sloan, Prof Scott W; Kouretzis, Dr Georgios; Indraratna, Prof Buddhima N; Rujikiatkamjorn, A/Prof Cholachat; Cassidy, Prof Mark J; Gaudin, Prof Christophe; Williams, Prof David J; Scheuermann, Dr Alexander LE 150100130 – $320,000 Partner/Collaborating Eligible Organisation(s): The University of Newcastle, University of Wollongong, The University of Western Australia, The University of Queensland An earthquake shaking table to investigate soil-structure interactions: This project aims to develop Australia’s most advanced earthquake shaking table. Earthquakes are a problem of great significance to Australia. Infrastructure in civil, transport, mining and energy 34
OUR RESEARCH
sectors may be at an unacceptable risk of damage under earthquake loading as current design practices do not account for the interaction between infrastructure and the ground under such loading. The shaking table will simulate earthquakes and enable controlled testing of three-tonne models of foundation and soil-structure interaction systems typical of Australia’s infrastructure. The discoveries made are expected to be integral to the modernisation of Australia’s seismic design standards so that earthquake-induced damage and risk exposure can be minimised.
National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Dr Lauren Gardner was co awarded a NHMRC Project Grant, – $267,000 in collaboration with Prof Raina MacIntyre and Dr Anita Heywood from UNSW Medicine. Modern transportation networks have bridged the natural barriers which previously limited disease to specific geographic regions. It is therefore imperative to develop predictive integrated models which are able to quantify the risk of importing infected passengers and vectors into new regions, as well as the expected impact an infectious disease would have on a given region once introduced. Such models will be developed as part of the recently awarded NHMRC Project Grant, “Models to inform prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases in real time.” Seven other academic staff are also involved in successful Discovery projects administered by other universities. We congratulate Dr Vinayak Dixit, Dr Fiona Johnson, Associate Professor Samsung Lim, Professor Brian Uy (ARC Linkage), Professor S. Travis Waller, Associate Professor Tommy Wiedmann and Dr Gaofeng Zhao.
GRANT INCOME 2014 TOTAL $11.85M Surveying and Geospatial Engineering Researcher(s)
Research Topic
Granting Organisation
Jinling Wang
New carrier phase processing strategies for achieving precise and reliable multi-satellite, multi-frequency GNSS/RNSS positioning in Australia
Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information
36,000
Chris Rizos
High Accuracy Real-time Positioning Utilising the Japanese Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) Augmentation System Next Generation Australian and New Zealand Datum
Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information
42,000
NSW Environment Proctection Authority
10,000
Electronic Navigation Research Institute
10,075
Chris Rizos Chris Rizos
Evaluating the Positioning Capabilities of Locata Terrestrial Signals in GNSS Unfriendly Environments
Binghao Li
Expert advice on the appropriate use of GNSS technology for forestry compliance Study on Expansion of GNSS Wide Area Augmentation Service to the Asia Region Indoor Positioning and Navigation with Beidou Pseudolites
Chris Rizos Jinling Wang
2014 Income
55,000 30,000
China Hunan Engineering Research Center of Navigation Instrument
211,900
TOTAL SAGE
$394,975
rCITI Senior Investigator(s) / Advisor(s) / Researcher(s)
Subject Area / Research Topic
Granting Organization(s) / Industry Sponsor(s)
Prof S. Travis Waller
A Collaboration to Develop and Deploy Novel Integrated Network Techniques to Enhance the NSW Transport System.
Transport for NSW
Dr Taha Hossein Rashidi
Incorporating Complex Adaptive System Theory and rule-Base Methods for Novel Travel Activity-Based Models: A Sydney Metropolitan Area Demonstration
UNSW Engineering Faculty, Research Grant / Early Career Researcher Grants Program
20,000
Prof S. Travis Waller, Prof Michiel Bliemer, Dr Vinayak Dixit, Prof Michael G Bell and Dr Alexandre Torday (TSS)
Methodologies for the Incorporation of Congestion Propagation and System Reliability into Transport Network Models for Consistent Multi-Scale Planning.
LP130101048 Australian Research Council - Linkage Project / TSSTransport Simulation Systems Australia Pty Ltd - ARC Linkage Project Industry Partner Contribution
278,294
Prof S. Travis Waller
Identification & Evaluation of Transformative Environmental (AERIS) Applications and Strategies Project.
United States Department of Transport contract with Booz Allen Hamilton Inc
107,660
Prof S. Travis Waller, Dr Vinayak Dixit, Dr Lauren Gardner, Dr Taha Hossein Rashidi and Mr Bruce Jeffreys
Integrating Network Modelling with Observed Choice Data for Multi-Criteria Optimization of Complex Carshare Systems: Cost, Mobility and Transit Usage
LP130100983 Australian Research Council - Linkage Project/ GoGet CarShare - ARC Linkage Project Industry Partner Contribution.
173,748
Prof Chandini MacIntyre, Dr Lauren Gardner and Dr Anita Heywood
Models to inform prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases in real time
UNSW Goldstar Award
$40,000
Prof S. Travis Waller and Dr Vinayak Dixit,
Review of Managed Motorway Control Technology System.
Roads and Maritime Service
125,000
TOTAL rCITI
CWI
2014 Income
500,000
$1,244,702
CWI rotates between presiding faculties and in 2014 it was included in the Faculty of Science.
CVEN Researchers within CWI
Granting Organisation
2014 Income
Acworth,Ian
DIICSRTE (66%)
107,415
Acworth,Ian
DIICSRTE - CRIS
146,562
Acworth,Ian
DIISR Educ Invest Fund EIF
Acworth,Ian
ENG Gary Johnston Chair
Andersen,Martin Sogaard
Cotton R& D Corp _-PhD Scholarship
Rau,Gabriel Christopher
AINSE Hons S'ship: heat & radon as tracers
Andersen,Martin Sogaard
ARC Linkage P130100177 Baker,Andrew & Andersen (50%)
51,661
Acworth, Ian & Timms, Wendy
ARC/NWC Co-Funded Centre for G - NCGRT
11,339
Andersen,Martin Sogaard
ARC/NWC Co-Funded Centre for G - NCGRT
13,701
6,906 194,239
TOTAL CWI
14,280 2,128
$548,231
ACCARNSI 2014 Grant Income Researchers
Research topic
Sydney Institute of Marine Science Coastal Processes and (SIMS)/ACCARNSI Responses
Industry partners Climate Adaptation Research Hub – NSW Office of the Environment and Heritage (OEH)
2014 Income $184,800
OUR RESEARCH
35
Investigators
Research Topic
Granting Organisation / Industry Partners
Cash received 2014 (ex GST)
A. Sharma, J. Evans, A. Sen Gupta (UNSW), A. Chanan, G. Singh (State Water Corporation), M. Bari, A Decadal to Inter-decadal Streamflow Prediction J. Luo (Bureau of Meteorology), F. Chew (CSIRO), L. System Band (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
ARC LP130100072, State Water Corporation, Bureau of Meteorology
308,637
D. Waite, G. Leslie (UNSW), X. Wang (Tsinghua University), J. Guan (Beijing Origin Water Technology), C. McInnes (Water Research Australia), P. Spencer (Water Corporation of WA), N. Riethmuller (Power and Water Corporation)
Innovative hybrid membrane-based pretreatment strategies for remote community groundwater supplies
ARC LP130101107, Beijing Origin Water, Water Research Australia, Water Corporation of WA, Power and Water Corporation
241,756
R. Henderson, R. Stuetz, W. Peirson, V. Bulmus, M. Whittaker (UNSW), G. Newcombe (Australian Water Quality Centre), B. Jefferson (Cranfield University)
Optimising dissolved air flotation (DAF) for algae ARC Linkage Project Grant 2009 Round 2 LP0990189, removal by bubble modification in drinking water and APAI, APDI, Melbourne Water Corporation, United Water, advanced wastewater systems SEQWater, South Australia Water Company
M. McCabe (UNSW), J. P Walker, R. C. Pipunic A new paradigm for improved water resource (University of Melbourne), M. Abuzar, D. M. Whitfield management using innovative water modelling (Dept. of Primary Industries) techniques
ARC Linkage project LP0989441 Shared Grant / Subcontract , University of Melbourne, Department of Primary Industries, Victoria
796
757
D. Waite (UNSW) R. Luthy (Stanford University) S. Al-Abed (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) G. Batley (CSIRO)
Synthesis of Activated Carbon Supported Zero Valent ARC Linkage Project LP100100852, APAI (2), DECCW, Iron Nanoparticles and Application to Contaminant Sydney Ports Corporation, Orica Australia, Maritime Degradation in Benthic Sediments. LP100100852 Authority of NSW, Sydney Catchment Authority
29,842
D. Waite, X. Wang, G. Leslie (UNSW), X. Huang, X. Wen (Tsinghua University), H. Bustamante (Sydney Water Corporation), J. Guan (Beijing Origin Water Technology)
Optimisation of nutrient removal, membrane fouling and sludge dewatering in hybrid coagulation/ submerged membrane bioreactor treatment of wastewaters - ARC Linkage LP100100056
ARC Linkage LP100100056, APAI (2), Beijing Origin Water Technology Company Ltd, Sydney Water Corporation, WQRA
29,842
D. Waite, R. N Collins, B. A Neilan (UNSW), G. Sinclair (Energy Resources of Australia), R. J Ring (ANSTO)
BioGeoChemical Controls on efficacy and sustainability of uranium heap leaching
ARC Linkage Project LP100200792, APAI, Energy Resources of Australia
14,921
R. Henderson (UNSW), A. Baker, J. Bridgeman (University of Birmingham), Partner Organisations: Melbourne Water Corp., Hunter Water Corp., SEQWater, WQRA
Monitoring organic matter in drinking water systems using fluorescence spectroscopy: improved early warning, process optimisation and water quality
ARC Linkage Project LP100200259, APAI, Hunter Water Corporation, Melbourne Water Corporation, Queensland Bulk Water Authority, Water Quality Research Australia Ltd
16,825
R. Collins (UNSW), Partner Organisations: Tweed Shire Council, NSW Cane Growers, NSW Milling Co-op
Exploiting natural processes to effectively remediate acidified coastal environments
ARC Linkage Project LP110100480, Tweed Shire, NSW Cane Growers, NSW Sugar Milling Co-Op Scholarship
28,155
S. Khan (UNSW), G. Peters (Chalmers University of Technology), N. J Ashbolt (University of Cincinnati), S. Shields (EPA Victoria)
Deeper and broader life cycle risk assessment extending the frontier for hybrid methodologies
ARC Linkage Project LP110200594, APAI, Environmental Protection Authority (EPA)Victoria
19,745
WRL - Robin Fell, Chongmin Song, Bill Peirson, Kurt Douglas
Erosion of embankment dams and dam spillways
Australian Research Council - Linkage LP110100389
16,500
Transitions in wave breaking from deep to shallow water
Australian Research Council - Discovery DP120101701
122,212
Assessing and enhancing the resilience of Australian beaches to sea level rise
Australian Research Council - Discovery DP140101302
18,000
A. Sharma, F. Johnson, Y. Liu (UNSW), L. Marshall (Montana State University), H. Moradkhani (Portland State University), S. Muddu (Indian Institute of Science), Q. Wang, D. Robertson (CSIRO)
Reducing flood loss - A data-assimilation framework for improving forecasting capability in sparsely gauged regions
ARC Discovery Grant DP140102394
206,044
D. Waite (UNSW), M. Wiesner (Duke University)
Reactive oxygen species generation by zerovalent silver nanoparticles; implications to toxicity and contaminant degradation
Australian Research Council / Discovery Project DP120103222
127,767
Australian Research Council / Discovery Project DP120103234, Southern Cross University
105,543
WRL - Michael Banner (UNSW Mathematics), Bill Peirson, Frederic Dias (ENS Cachan, France) WRL - Tom Baldock (UQ), Dave Callaghan (UQ), Peter Nielsen (UQ), Ian Turner (UNSW), Chris Blenkinsopp (Bath), Rosh Ranasinghe (TU Delft)
D. Waite, R. Collins (UNSW), A. Rose (Southern New perspectives on iron oxide transformations in Cross University), G. Waychunas (Lawrence Berkeley oxic and anoxic aqueous environments: Implications National Laboratory) for iron bioavailability and contaminant mobility A. Sharma, R. Mehrotra, S. Westra (UNSW)
A new strategy for design flood estimation in a nonstationary climate
Australian Research Council / Discovery Project DP120100338
86,657
M. McCabe (UNSW), E. Wood (Princeton University)
Closing the water cycle using land surface modelling, Australian Research Council / Discovery Project remote sensing and an Australian hydrological DP120104718 observatory
6,678
R. Collins
Iron- A solution for uranium resource recovery and pollutions response
Australian Research Council / Future Fellowships FT110100067
166,322
B. Sivakumar
Development of generic catchment classification framework in hydrology
Australian Research Council / Future Fellowships FT110100328
182,165
A. Sharma S. Garg
R. Henderson
36
OUR RESEARCH
Representing low-frequency variability in hydroclimatic simulations for water resources planning and ARC Future Fellowships FT100100197 management in a changing climate Interaction between silver ions, silver nanoparticles Australian Research Council / (DECRA) - DE120102967 and reactive oxygen species: implication to toxicity Optimising dissolved air flotation (DAF) for algae removal by bubble modification in drinking water WQRA and advanced wastewater systems - Scholarship for Russell Yap
106,702 138,953
1,665
Cash received 2014 (ex GST)
Investigators
Research Topic
Granting Organisation / Industry Partners
D. Waite
Physic-chemical controls on growth, toxicity and succession of Microsystems and Anabaena species in water supply reservoirs. Scholarship for Anna Yeung
WQRA
10,130
R. Henderson
Monitoring organic matter removal in drinking water systems using fluorescence spectroscopy Postgraduate Scholarship for - Yulia Shutova
WQRA
6,714
D. Roser, D. Deere, P. White (UNSW), S. Petterson (Water and Health Pty Ltd, Sydney), N. O'Connor (Ecos Environmental Consulting), P. Monis (Australian Water Quality Centre), U. Ryan (Murdoch University), M. Sinclair (Monash University)
Treatment requirements for Australian source waters to meet health-based targets
WQRA
78,500
AINSE
3,750
R. Collins
A. Sharma
Aluminium mobility and geochemistry in Acid Sulfate Soils using novel exchange techniques and Accelerator Mass Spectrometry. Student Ms Yliane Yvanes-Giuliani Simulating persistence in future rainfall: correcting GCM bias in regional climate models - Scholarship for Eytan Rocheta
NSW Office of Water / 2012 Peter Cullen Postgraduate Scholarship
20,000
R. Henderson, P. Le-Clech (UNSW)
Advanced characterisation of organic matters in desalination pretreatment and its removal strategies - National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Scholarship for Barun Karna
T. Wiedmann (UNSW), Partner Organisations: University of Sydney, University of Ballarat, Intersect Australia, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Griffith University, University of South Australia, University of Queensland, University of Melbourne
Virtual Laboratory Program: The Industrial Ecology Lab - Integrating data and tools for powerful sustainability analysis
Univ of Sydney/VL201 Nectar
47,930
R. Stuetz
Litter management strategies to reduce odour emissions from poultry litter
Poultry CRC/Nutrition and Envi
43,344
UNSW Strategic Support Grant
50,000
UNSWVC PostDoc Support
10,997
64,014
R. Stuetz
A. Anceno
Litter management strategies to reduce odour emissions from poultry litter Multi-functional reactor systems for liquid and gas phase treatment of agroindustrial and municipal effluents: toward pollution and odour abatement with energy cogeneration
7,500
T. Wiedmann (UNSW), R. Zito, S. Lehmann (UniSA), A. Berry (CSIRO), O. Vitkovskaya, J. Ting, L. Oxlad (SA Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources), P. Donaldson (Renewal SA), K. Rouse (SA Water), N. Nelson (Sydney Water), L. Partridge (AECOM)
Integrated ETWW demand forecasting and scenario planning for precincts
CRC for Low Carbon Living Ltd
G. Mariethoz, A. Sharma, S. Jha (UNSW), G. Mathews, S. Maheswararajah, N. Okello, D. De Re (NICTA)
Data centric groundwater modelling
NICTA (National ICT Aust)
100,589
A. Sharma (UNSW), S. Muddu (Indian Institute of Science)
What will the future be? Projecting environmental change in a warming world for semi-arid landscapes
Dept. of Industry / AISRF
130,638
S. Khan (UNSW), Partner Organisations: WaterFutures, Griffith University, National SP4-Validation protocols(integrated testing strategy) Measurements Institute, SA Water, Melbourne Water, for multi-barrier approach in water recycling WaterCorp, SouthEast Water
Water Rsch Aust Ltd - SP4 /WRCoE
75,921
M. Ujevic Bosnjak
Go8 European Fellowship for Dr Magdalena Ujevic Bosnjak
Go8/European Fellowships
20,000
A. Sharma
Australian Rainfall & Runoff Revision: Stage 3 Project 4 - Delivery output to users
Engineers Aust/Contract Rsch
10,000
R. Stuetz (UNSW), Partner Organisations: University of SA, Sydney Water Corp., SA Water, Prospect Water Patnership, Degremont, Suez Environment, Hunter Water
Beneficial Reuse of Solids from Wastewater Treatment Operations
CRC for Low Carbon Living Ltd
618,590
A. Sharma, R. Mehrotra
Multivariate Iterative Nested Bias Correction (MINBC) package
DFP Recruitment Serv.
A. Sharma
Flood inundation data assimilation - scholarship for Sahani Pathiraja
CSIRO - Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation / Postgraduate Studentship
2,044
R. Stuetz (UNSW), R. Barczak (Warsaw University of Technology)
OdourCOB - Odour Characterization of Odorants from Biosolids
European Commission / Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowships for Career Development (IOF)
4,355
T. Wiedmann (UNSW), University of Melbourne, University of SA, AECOM, Aurecon, Sydney Water, Bluescope Steel
Integrated Carbon Metrics (ICM) – a multi-scale life cycle approach to assessing, mapping and tracking carbon outcomes for the Built Environment
CRC For Low Carbon Living Limited
R. Stuetz, S. Maleknia
Rapid continuous chemical analysis of broiler shed emissions by SIFT-MS
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (QLD) / RIRDC Research Funding R&D Program Shared Grant
43,019
175,548
OUR RESEARCH
8,404
37
Cash received 2014 (ex GST)
Investigators
Research Topic
Granting Organisation / Industry Partners
R. Stuetz
Exploratory investigation of taste and odour compounds in water supply by GC-MS olfactory analysis - Honours Scholarship for Lily Liu
Water Research Australia Limited / Scholarship Honours
7,000
E. Sivret, X. Wang, G Parcsi, N. Le Minh
Volatile Sulfur Analysis
The Odour Unit
2,100
R. Henderson Y. Shutova S. Dever R. Henderson Y. Shutova
Water Analysis Training Water Analysis
RMIT GHD Pty Ltd Curtin University
R. Henderson Y. Shutova
Water Analysis
GWMWater
J. McDonald S. Khan
Water Analysis
University of Applied Sciences and Arts
J. McDonald S. Khan
Water Analysis
Yarra Valley Water Limited
12,600
E. Sivret, X. Wang, G Parcsi, N. Le Minh J. McDonald S. Khan S. Lundie K. Murphy K. Murphy K. Murphy A. Hambly R. Stuetz G Parcsi S. Dever
Odour testing Water Analysis Review Consulting Consulting Consulting Process Test Gas Analysis Consulting
Airepure Australia Pty Ltd University of Technology, Sydney IVL Swedish Environmental Research Inst Trollhattan Energi AB Kretslopp och vatten Swerea IVF AB CNF & Associates Dept of Agriculture Fisheries & Forestry Econtext Pty Ltd
1,600 13,550 1,442 7,825 1,637 476 5,480 3,720 5,375
E. Sivret, X. Wang, G Parcsi, N. Le Minh
VSC, VOC Analysis
Degremont Pty Ltd
14,875
K. Murphy
Consulting
EC Sustainable Pty Ltd
K. Murphy
Data Analysis
Smithsonian Environmental
D. Roser S. Khan
Risk Review
UNSW Expert opinion Services
WRL - Brett Miller, Bruce Cathers, Grantley Smith, Bill Peirson, Nathan Guerry, Francois Flocard, Stefan Civil Engineering Hydraulics Felder
WRL -James Carley, Matt Blacka, Ian Turner, Ron Cox, Ian Coghlan, Francois Flocard, Erica Davey, Kristen Splinter, Jamie Ruprecht, Duncan Rayner, Chris Drummond
Coastal Engineering and climate change
WRL -Will Glamore, Duncan Rayner, Jamie Ruprecht, Erica Davey, Martin Anderson, Priom Rahman, Ian Estuaries and Wetland Restoration Coghlan
WRL -Grantley Smith, Ron Cox, Brett Miller, Erica Davey, Nathan Guerry, Priom Rahman, Bill Peirson
Floodplain Management
Aurecon; Cardno Pty Ltd; FPP Industries Pty Ltd; Outotec Australia Pty Ltd; Sydney Catchment Authority; Sydney Water Corporation Aurecon; AW Maritime; Blue Pacific Constructions; BMT JFA Consulting; BOTTEN LEVINSON Development & Environment Lawyers; Byron Shire Council; Crown LandsNSW Trade & Investment; Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, South Australia; Energy Resources of Australia Ltd; Environmental Defenders Office; Gartner Trovato Architects ; Gold Coast City Council; Griffith University; HWL Ebsworth Lawyers; James de Soyres & Associates Pty Ltd; Kapiti Coast District Council; Lake Macquarie City Council; Moyne Shire Council; NSW DPI, Crown Lands Division, Coastal and Infrastructure Group; NSW Office of Environment and Heritage OEH; Platform Architects; Tonkin & Taylor; Tweed Shire Council; Warringah Council Clarence Valley Council; Department Of Commerce (For Clarence Valley Council); Environmental Defenders Office; Greater Taree City Council; Hornsby Shire Council; Hunter Water Corporation; John Holland Group Pty Ltd; Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group; Newcastle City Council; North Coast Local Land Services; NSW Department of Planning and Environment; NSW Department of Primary Industries – Fisheries; NSW Environmental Trust; Parks and Wildlife Division of Office for Environment and Heritage; Shoalhaven City Council; Sydney Institute of Marine Science (SIMS); Sydney Water Corporation; Wyong Shire Council Connected Waters Institute (CWI); Crown Solicitors Office; Department of the Environment; Department of Environment and Primary Industries, Victoria; DHI WATER AND ENVIRONMENT PTY LTD; National Flood Risk Advisory Group; NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure; Sydney Water Corporation; Tamworth Regional Council; Willis Re Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO); Caroona Coal Action Group; Energy Resources of Australia Ltd; Office of the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer: DNRM - Office of Groundwater Impact Assessment (Queensland); Office of Water Science – SEWPAC; Office of Water Science (Commonwealth); SKM.
WRL - Doug Anderson, Martin Andersen, William Glamore, Grantley Smith, Brett Miller, Ian Acworth, Priom Rahman, Alexandra Badenhop
Groundwater resources
WRL - William Glamore, Brett Miller, Bill Peirson, Duncan Rayner, Jamie Ruprecht, Priom Rahman, Grantley Smith, Ian Coghlan
Water Quality in Rivers, Estuaries and Coastal Waters ERA Ltd, Manly Golf Club, Sydney Water
TOTAL WATER RESEARCH CENTRE 2014
38
OUR RESEARCH
13,640 3,000 2,500 1,100 6,440
545 6,481 77,363 307,581
601,914
764,184
93,067
406,694
$153,663 $6,024,323
CIES Researcher(s)
Research Topic
Granting Organisation
MA Bradford
An Innovative and Advanced Systems Approach for Full Life-Cycle, LowEmissions Composite and Hybrid Building Infrastructure
ARC Laureate Fellowship including Faculty of Engineering & UNSW support ARC FL100100063
600,392
B Uy
The behaviour and design of innovative connections to promote the reduction and reuse of structural steel in steel-concrete composite buildings
ARC Discovery DP140102134
195,742
A Russell, N Khalili
Shallow foundations in unsaturated soils: mechanistic design through numerical modelling, analysis and experimental investigation"
ARC Discovery DP140103142
149,382
W Gao, Y-L Pi, F Tin-Loi
Stochastic geometrically nonlinear elasto-plastic buckling and behaviour of curved grid-like structures
ARC Discovery DP140101887
124,673
G Ranzi (USYD), A Castel, R I Gilbert, D Dias-da-Costa
Stiffness degradation of concrete members induced by reinforcement corrosion.
ARC Discovery DP140100529
50,000
C Song
A high-performance stochastic scaled boundary finite-element framework for safety assessment of structures susceptible to fracture
ARC Discovery DP130102934
144,017
RI Gilbert
Control of cracking caused by early-age contraction of concrete
ARC Discovery DP130102966
139,081
N Khalili
Dynamics analysis of unsaturated porous media subject to damage due to cracking
ARC Discovery DP130104918
106,986
L Ge
Advanced techniques for imaging radar interferometry
ARC Discovery DP130101694
117,684
MA Bradford
Thermal-induced unilateral plate buckling of concrete pavements: design and evaluation
ARC Discovery DP120104554
133,322
B Uy; Z Tao; F Mashiri
The behaviour and design of composite columns coupling the benefits of high strength steel and high strength concrete for large scale infrastructure
ARC Discovery DP120101944
144,433
Scaled boundary finite-element approach for safety assessment of plates and shells under monotonic and shakedown loadings
ARC Discovery DP120100742
$111,102
Ehab Hamed; Stephen Foster
Nonlinear long-term behaviour and analysis of high strength concrete panels
ARC Discovery DP120102762
99,992
S Foster; Hamid Valipour
Progressive collapse resistance of reinforced concrete framed structures with membrane action
ARC Discovery DP120103328
66,102
G Zhao
Dynamic fracturing in shale rock through coupled continuum-discontinuum modelling
ARC DECRA DE130100457
132,294
T Thai
Reliability assessment of concrete-filled steel tubular frames designed by advanced analysis
ARC DECRA DE140100747
127,476
MA Bradford
Climate adaptation technology and engineering for extreme events.
CSIRO / Flagship Collaborative Research Program
182,650
H M Goldsworthy, E Gad, B Uy, S Fernando
Development of efficient, robust and architecturally-flexible structural systems using innovative blind-bolted connections
ARC Linkage LP110200511
S Foster; E Hamed; Z Vrcelj
Advanced Composite Structures
Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Composite Structures Ltd (CRC-ACS)
140,180
S Foster
Performance based Criteria for Concretes: Creating Pathways for Low Carbon Concrete Manufacture with Existing Standards
Cooperative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living Ltd (CRC LCL)
110,676
H Valipour
FRG Grant
Faculty of Engineering
40,000
M Attard
Orthotropic Hyperelastic Modelling for the Analysis of Composites
UNSW Goldstar Award
40,000
L Ge
Mapping decadal change of the Australian landscape from space
UNSW Goldstar Award
40,000
A Russell
Triaxial System for Stress Path and Dynamic Tests
UNSW MREII
$99,755
A Castel
Equipment to develop a World class laboratory for carrying out durability tests at the material and structural level
UNSW MREII
57,545
L Ge
Dedicated Computing Cluster for Near Real-Time Satellite Remote Sensing (NRT-RS)
UNSW MREII
100,000
Industry funded research undertaken by the CIES Projects team
Various
C Song, F Tin-Loi,
TOTAL CIES
W Becker
$ Value at 2014
30,000
168,191 $3,451,675
OUR RESEARCH
39
RESEARCH STUDENTS RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS
RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS
RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS Castilla Rho, Juan Carlos
Abdala Prata Junior, Ademir
Amin, Ali
Assessment of odours emission rate.
Steel fibre reinforced concrete.
Stuetz, Richard / Timchenko, Victoria
Foster, Stephen
Abu Shoaib, Syed The relative importance and characteristics of Input Uncertainty in Hydrology. Marshall, Lucy Amanda Aghighi, Hossein Markov random field models for classification of remote sensing data and super-resolution mapping. Trinder, John Ahmadian Fard Fini, Alireza Predicting delay and minimizing its impact in construction context Waller, S Travis/ Akbar Nezhad, Ali/ Hossein Rashidi, Taha
Chang, Xiaofeng
Modelling Strategic Interactions of Driver Manoeuvres.
Remote sensing for earth observation. Ge, Linlin
Dixit, Vinayak / Hossein Rashidi, Taha
Chang, Yingyue
Asadi Zarch, Mohammad Amin
Development and application of biomimetic high valence state iron complexes for contaminant oxidation.
Developing and projecting a new ecohydrolic aridity index for a nonstationary climate. Bellie, Sivakumar / Sharma, Ashish
Integration of InSAR with GPS & Geophysical Modeling.
Lim, Samsung
Rizos, Chris
Ataei, Abdolreza
Lim, Samsung
Dixit, Vinayak / Waller, S Travis
Arbis, David
A multi-objective optimisation approach for solving a Green Two - echelon Integrated Waste Collection Location - Routing Problem (G - 2E - IWCLRP).
Site selection for solar power stations using remote sensing and GIS.
Macroscopic modelling for large urban networks.
Gardner, Lauren / Waller, S. Travis
Micro-sensor networks for validation of remote sensing.
Alghananim, Ma’Mon Saeed Abdel Rahman
Chakka, Mohana Naga Sai Chand
Transport modelling.
Asefi, Hossein
Alac Barut, Ruken
Andersen, Martin Sogaard / Mariethoz, Gregoire
Amini, Nima
Ahmed, Sayeed Ge, Linlin
Agent-based modelling of managed groundwater systems.
Waite, David / Miller, Chris Chen, Guangwu City-scale Carbon Footprint accounting and decarbonisation policy analysis. Wiedmann, Thomas
Chen, Nan Multilayer network analysis.
Steel and composite structures.
Dixit ,Vinayak / Gardner, Lauren
Bradford, Mark Andrew
Chen, Xiaojun Azcurra, Cecilia
Aliabadian, Zeinab
Isotopes in hydrology.
Dynamic Soil-Structure Interaction Analysis in the Time Domain.
Dynamic fracture of rock by continuum discontinuum coupled model.
McCabe, Matthew / Baker, Andrew Blair
Song, Chongmin / Birk, Carolin
Zhao, Gaofeng
Choudhury, Dipayan Babaee, Seyed Mahdi
Alipour Esgandani, Golnaz
Durability of geopolymer concrete in marine environments.
Assessment and correction of climate drift in decadal predictions from a hydrological viewpoint
Numerical modelling of unsaturated soils under earthquake loading.
Castel, Arnaud / Akbar Nezhad, Ali
Sharma, Ashish
Khoshghalb, Arman
Dang, Jin Jerry Bai, Yun
Allan, Rebecca Jane
Coupled thermo-chemo-flow-deformation analysis of multiphase multi-porous media.
Durability of construction materials, low - carbone concrete technology, time dependent behaviour.
Backward erosion piping of dams.
Khalili-Naghadeh, Nasser
Shen, Xuesong
Douglas, Kurt
de Burgh, James Matthew
Barati, Khalegh Almohssen, Abdulaziz Saud
Construction resources networks tracking and management.
Tracking subcontractor reputation.
Shen, Xuesong
Davis, Steven Richard
Alqurashi, Muwaffaq Awadh O Quality control in GNSS/INS/vision integration for 3D mapping.
Automated Image Based Modelling for Elastoplasticity and Damage Analysis.
Douglas, Kurt John
Song, Chongmin
Bracs, Melissa Anne
Traffic flows in urban networks.
Turner, Ian
Alsultan, Abdulmajeed Sulaiman M Urban traffic network design. Dixit, Vinayak / Waller, S Travis
40
Dissanayake, Dilina
Estimating rock mass strength and stiffness with particular interest in the load on a tunnel lining.
Alsalhi, Raed Dixit, Vinayak
OUR RESEARCH
Foster, Stephen
Bertuzzi, Robert
Monitoring and modelling coastal variability on a regional scale: implications for the establishment of a national coastal observing network.
Wang, Jinling
Modelling and analysis of concrete building and tunnel structures in fire.
Carey, David Anthony
Do, Anh Tuan Stability of composite steel concrete T-section beams continuous over one or more supports. Bradford, Mark Andrew Do, Duy Minh
Shared spaces and the relationship between traffic and pedestrains.
Stochastic interval analysis of structures with a mixture of random and interval uncertainties.
Waller, S Travis/ Hossein Rashidi, Taha
Gao, Wei
Carvajal Ortega, Guido Esteban Aquiles
Donnelly, Nicolas Ian
Reliability assessment and management for direct potable water recycling.
Next generation datum for Australia and New Zealand: Accounting for Deformation.
Khan, Stuart / Roser, David
Rizos, Chris
RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS
RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS
Du, Zheyuan New Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry for Earth Surface Deformation Detection. Ge, Linlin
RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS
Habaragamu Arachchige, Dinesh Mahanama
Homainejad, Nina
Durability of Geo-Polymer Concrete with respect to Alkali Aggregate Reaction (AAR)
Rizos, Chris
Applications of UAVs for disaster management.
Castel, Arnaud
Howe, Daniel
Duell, Melissa
Haji Abdul Hamid, Nor Zetty Akhtar
Coastal engineering.
Strategic Traffic Assignment: Models and Applications to Capture Day-to-Day Flow Volatility.
Advanced Management of Geocoded Address for Spatially Enabling Government: A Case in Brunei Darussalam.
Blenkinsopp, Christopher Edwin /Turner, Ian
Gardner, Lauren / Waller, S Travis
Lim, Samsung
Dunlop, Mark Wayne
Halloran, Landon James Szasz
Hamed, Ehab
Odour emissions from poultry litter.
Groundwater.
James, Edward Malcolm
Stuetz, Richard
Andersen, Martin Sogaard
Pavement systems on soft soils.
Huang, Yue Nonlinear long-term behaviour of high-strength concrete wall panels.
Oeser, Markus / Russell, Adrian Ebrahimi Nejad Rafsanjani, Meysam
Hammad, Ahmed W A
Jayakumar Nair, Divya
Projects and carbon.
Multi-Objective Optimisation.
Carmichael, David Gordon
Akbar Nezhad, Ali
TLogistics of surplus food rescue and distribution. Dixit, Vinayak / Hossein Rashidi, Taha
Eghdamirad, Sajjad Assessing the impact of uncertainty in hydrology through numerical climate modelling.
Hasan, Mohammad Mahadi
Jian, Sisi
Hydrology.
Network modeling.
Johnson, Fiona Michelle / Sharma, Ashish
Dixit, Vinayak / Waller, S Travis
Hashemiheidari, Seyedkomeil
Jiang, Chao
Evaluating bridges subjected to extreme loading.
Mechanism and kinetics of ferrous iron oxidation and ferric iron reduction in photolysed natural waters.
Johnson, Fiona Michelle / Sharma, Ashish Elhadayri, Farj Constitutive modelling of lightly cemented unsaturated soils. Khalili-Naghadeh, Nasser Fabiao Dionizio, Manuel
Bradford, Mark Andrew
LIDAR for carbon accounting. Trinder, John Charles Figueroa, Ligaya Leah Development of a GeoWeb Tool for Education Resource Planning & Management in the Philippines. Lim, Samsung Fisher, Ruth Margaret
Garg, Shikha / Waite, David
Hassan, Asif
Jiang, Chao
Mobile Phone Distraction and Traffic Safety.
Hydraulic fracture.
Dixit, Vinayak / Waller, S Travis
Zhao, Gaofeng / Khalili-Naghadeh, Nasser
Hassan, M. Mahmudul Climate change adaptation.
Jiang, Wei
Peirson, William Leslie
Locata/GNSS/INS. Rizos, Chris
Optimisation of biosolid management. Hassan, Mohammad Nurul
Stuetz, Richard / Moore, Stephen
Demand estimation for public transportation.
Kamarulzaman, Nor Hidayaty Binti
Waller, S Travis/ Hossein Rashidi, Taha
Foerster, Jean
Characterisation of Odourants from Natural Rubber Processing.
Natural resource projects Carmichael, David Gordon
Development of steel-timber composite system for large scale construction.
Ghaffaripour, Omid Numerical algorithms for penetration problems in variably saturated porous media.
Hayes, James Emerson
Gharib, Mohammadmahdi
Olfactory analysis of ardorous emissions.
Numerical modelling for service life prediction and performance evaluation of deteriorated reinforced concrete structures due to climate change impacts.
Stuetz, Richard
Fibre reinforced concrete structures. Vali Pour Goudarzi, Hamid Reza /Foster, Stephen James Green, David Kristopher Probabilistic analysis in computational mechanics with applications in civil engineering.
Sharma, Ashish
He, Ke
Parking Optimization.
TBA
Dixit, Vinayak / Hossein Rashidi, Taha
Song, Chongmin / Birk, Carolin Claudia
Ghasrikhouzani, Milad
Ghosni, Nassim
Piggy Back Modelling.
Karki, Alex
Foster, Stephen James
Waller, S Travis/ Hossein Rashidi, Taha
Kang, Tae Ho
Vali Pour Goudarzi, Hamid Reza
Khoshghalb, Arman
Disaggregate behavioural land use modelling: Integration of housing search, job search and households’ dynamics.
Stuetz, Richard / Moore, Stephen
Hassanieh, Amirhossein
Karna, Barun Lal Henderson, Ian Edward James The use of innovative anchors for the achievement of composite action for rehabilitating existing and deployment in demountable steel structures.
Advanced characterisation techniques to assess seawater organic matter removal by Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF). Le Clech, Pierre / Henderson, Rita Kay Kearney, Edward Tah Dah
Uy, Brian
The design, application, and assessment of rapid-response airborne lidar for monitoring of storm induced beach erosion.
Ho, Lam Synthesis of activated carbon supported zero valent iron nanoparticles and application contaminant degradation in benthic sediments. Waite, David
Turner, Ian Khan, Mahbub Hossain Behaviour and design of composite columns coupling the benefits of high strength steel and high strength concrete. Uy, Brian
Gao, Wei / Douglas, Kurt
OUR RESEARCH
41
RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS
RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS
Khan, Mohammad Zaved Kaiser Hydrology. Sharma, Ashish
RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS
Li, Xiang
Mahmud, Kashif
Advanced characterisation of dissolved organic nitrogen in drinking water sources.
Groundwater modelling, heterogeneity, transport processes, contaminated sites.
Henderson, Rita Kay / Khan, Stuart James
Mariethoz, Gregoire / Sharma, Ashish
Khezri, Mani
Mao, Tuo
Li, Xun
Generalised RKP-FSM and it’s application in analysis of thin plates with abrupt rigidity changes and generally laminated composite plates.
Transport network modelling and optimisation.
Equity in transportation system. Dixit, Vinayak / Waller, S Travis
Dixit, Vinayak / Gardner, Lauren
Bradford, Mark Andrew Masoumi, Saeed
Li, Zeyu
Kim, Seokhyeon
Multiscale modeling of FRP-Concrete interface.
Vision-based Mapping and Navigation.
Flood forecasting.
Wang, Jinling
Johnson, Fiona Michelle / Sharma, Ashish
Liu, Lei
Knight, Nathan Luke
Noise and vibration analysis using the scaled boundary finite element method.
Fault detection and quality control measures for satellite positioning.
Birk, Carolin Claudia
Wang, Jinling
Vali Pour Goudarzi, Hamid Reza Mellati, Afshin The Iterative Limit & Shakedown Analysis of Structures using A Scaled Boundary Finite Element Method. Tangaramvong, Sawekchai /Tin Loi, Francis Shay Khiet Miller, Hugh David Nanotechnological improvements to ultrahigh-performance concrete.
Liu, Li
Kobayashi, Yumi
TBA
Life cycle assessment and risk assessment.
Akbar Nezhad, Ali / Foster, Stephen
Lim, Samsung
Peters, Gregory / Khan, Stuart
Moalafhi, Ditiro Benson
Liu, Qingxiang Le, Hung Viet
Imagery-based modelling.
Regional Climate Modeling for Hydrological Applications.
Fate of volatile Organo-Sulfur compounds in odour assessment.
Ge, Linlin
Sharma, Ashish / Evans, Jason
Stuetz, Richard
Vulnerability analysis and evacuation simulation.
Moghaddasi Kelishomi, Hamed
Lim, Samsung
Constitutive modelling ofweak rocks subject ot mechanical and moisture degradation.
Liu, Xuefen
Lee, Seul Ki Estimation of microsimulation models (car following). Dixit, Vinayak / Waller, S Travis Lee, Seung Ho Remote Sensing Satellite Image using Hybrid Methods. Rizos, Chris
Khoshghalb, Arman / Khalili-Naghadeh, Nasser
Liu, Youtian InSAR technique for earthquake studies.
Mohd Zaki, Zaizatul Zafflina Binti
Ge, Linlin
The Effect of Group Wave on Wave Setup at Estuaries.
Lu, Xueqing
Peirson, William Leslie
Risk. Davis, Steven Richard
Li, Calvin Pengfei
Lui, Gough Yumu
Quantifying the importance of flood events for the replenishment of groundwater resources.
Photovoltaic powered UV diode disinfection of drinking, surface, and groundwater.
Andersen, Martin Sogaard
Corkish, Richard /Roser, David
Moussavi Nadoushani, Zahra Sadat Estimation of life cycle carbon of residential and office buildings. Akbar Nezhad, Ali Murray, Angus Lachlan Structural Engineering / Concrete Technology.
Luo, Kai
Li, Chenyang
Structural analysis and optimization, computational mechanics, structural safety and reliability.
Traffic Microsimulation and Choice Modelling. Dixit, Vinayak
Castel, Arnaud / Gilbert, Raymond Ian
Gao, Wei / Pi, Yong Lin
Mustaffa, Nur Kamaliah
Luu, Trung Kien Li, Dongxu Structure Engineering - composite structures.
Numerical simulation of the behaviour of composite frames at elevated temperatures.
Uy, Brian
Bradford, Mark Andrew Ma, Xiaoming
Li, Jingwan Hydroclimatology. Evans, Jason Peter / Sharma, Ashish / Johnson, Fiona
Application of nanoparticulate zero valent iron to remediation of contaminated benthic sediments. Waite, David Mac, Thi Ngoc
Li, Liyuan SAR and optical imagery registration. Ge, Linlin
Mustapha, Azwan Dimension reduction. Sharma, Ashish Nahar, Jannatun Bias correction of general circulation models. Johnson, Fiona Michelle Naseem, Bushra Surface water hydrology.
Zhao, Gaofeng / Khalili-Naghadeh, Nasser
Optimisation of coagulant addition to submerged membrane bioreactors using computational and experimental methods. Waite, David
OUR RESEARCH
Carmichael, David Gordon
A bounding surface viscoplasticity model for soils.
Maheshwari, Pradeep
42
Sustainability: Carbon Emission in Construction.
Sharma, Ashish Nguyen, Thi Thu Ha Hydrology. Sharma, Ashish
RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS
RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS
RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS
Norzahari, Nur Fadhillah
Rocheta, Eytan
Stanaway, Richard Frank
Stem classification and modelling from lidar for a semiautomated forest inventory.
Simulating persistence in future rainfall: correcting GCM bias in regional climate models.
Development geodetic ref system of dynamic transformation parameters to relate the ITRF to static regional dynamic datum.
Sharma, Ashish
Roberts, Craig Ashley
Lim, Samsung / Turner, Russell Noushini, Amin
Rong, Hongyan
Low carbon concrete design.
Production of oxidants on photolysis of silver halides: Kinetics, mechanism and technology optimisation.
Castel, Arnaud/ Gilbert, Raymond Ian
Su, Lijuan Lateral and post buckling with shear effects. Attard, Mario
Waite, David / Garg, Shikha
Nur, Ismawaty Climate adaptation (coastal). Peirson, William Leslie Parvez, Md. Ahsan Fatigue behaviour of steel-fibre-reinforced concrete beams and sleepers. Foster, Stephen James Pathiraja, Sahani Darshika Improving the use of Data Assimilation for Flood Forecasting. Sharma, Ashish
Erosion of rock in spillways.
Multi-Scale Modelling of Granular Material.
Peirson, William Leslie
Russell, Adrian
Saputra, Albert Artha
Sun, Liran
Computational mechanics and structural analysis.
The application of remote sensing on bushfire.
Song, Chongmin / Birk, Carolin Claudia
Rizos, Chris / Trinder, John Sun, Yingying Iron and copper-mediated oxidant production in natural and engineered aquatic systems.
Route Choice under Stop-and-Go Conditions.
Study of small strain dynamic properties of saturated and unsaturated soils.
Pells, Steven Edward
Sufian, Adnan
Ocean energy.
Saxena, Neeraj
Payan, Meghdad
Khoshghalb, Arman
Saket, Arvin
Dixit, Vinayak / Waller, S Travis
Pham, An Ninh / Waite, David
Scaturro, Salvatore
Sun, Zhicheng
CFD modelling of negatively buoyant jets.
Fracture analysis by using the scaled boundary finite element method.
Peirson ,William Leslie / Cathers, Bruce
Peirson, William Leslie / Douglas, Kurt John
Sepasgozar, Samad Mohd E
Song, Chongmin
Peng, Yuan Cost contingency.
Technology adoption decision-making in construction.
Taheriattar, Reza
Davis, Steven Richard
Davis, Steven / Carmichael, David G
Sustainability and adaptable/flexible infrastructure.
Perera, Weebadda Arachchilage Salinda
Shakeel, Kiran
Akbar Nezhad, Ali / Carmichael, David Gordon
Improving quality performance in Australian building construction through productive construction environments.
Mode choice behaviour modelling with adaptive data collection method. Waller, S Travis/ Hossein Rashidi, Taha
Davis, Steven Richard Peterson, Mark Aaron
Shammay, Ariel Tal
Ground water resources in fractured rock aquifers using geochemical and isotopic methods.
Odour Abatement in Sewer Networks.
Andersen, Martin Sogaard / Cendon, Dioni
Shao, You
Stuetz, Richard
Pflugrath, Brett Dean
A Fusion Approach for Building Boundary Extraction using Lidar Data and Multispectral Images.
Passage of fish through hydraulic structures. Peirson, William Leslie / Cathers, Bruce
Lim, Samsung
Phillips, Matthew Sean
Shi, Xue
Beach Recovery Following Storm Erosion.
Uncertain analysis of engineering structures, structural reliability analysis, structural dynamics.
Turner, Ian / Splinter, Kristen / Cox, Ron
Piscesa, Bambang
Gao, Wei / Pi, Yong Lin Shirowzhan, Sara
Ductility of reinforced concrete frames.
Development of 3-D urban form metrics using lidar in GIS environment.
Attard, Mario Paul
Lim, Samsung / Turner, Ian
Rana, Mohammad Masud
Shutova, Yulia
Tamjis, Mohammad Ridhwan Satellite imagery processing. Lim, Samsung Tang, Wangwang Removal of arsenic, fluoride, nitrate from groundwater by capacitive deionization. Waite, David Tang, Yating The analysis of uncertainties in Hydrological Models. Marshall, Lucy Amanda Tang, Yi Numerical modelling of foundation on unsaturated soils. Taiebat, Hossein Teh, Soo Huey Integrated carbon metrics in the built environment and assessment of indirect carbon flows in Australia. Sustainability assessment program. Wiedmann, Thomas / Moore, Stephen
Behaviour of post-tensioned composite steelconcrete slabs.
Monitoring of organic matter in drinking water treatment systems using fluorescence spectroscopy.
Uy, Brian
Henderson, Rita Kay / Baker, Andrew Blair
Robson, Edward Nguyen
Simmons, Joshua Andrew
General equilibrium model to evaluate economic impact of transport projects.
Real-time forecasting of storm impacts on a high energy coastline.
Tootoonchi, Arash
Dixit, Vinayak / Waller, S Travis
Turner, Ian / Splinter, Kristen
Numerical modelling of behaviour of unsaturated soils under large deformation.
Teo, Tiffany Li Lee Risk assessment of exposure to chemical contaminants in swimming pool. Khan, Stuart James
Khoshghalb, Arman
OUR RESEARCH
43
RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS
RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS
Tran, Thao Minh Performance and sustainability of membrane coupled with upflow anaerobic sludge blanket process. Le Clech, Pierre / Stuetz, Richard Tsarev, Sergey Biogeochemistry. Collins, Richard Nicholas
RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS
Wijayaratna, Kasun Pradeepa
Yin, Peijie
Modelling Disrupted Transport Network Behaviour.
Micromechanics of Unsaturated Flow in Fractured Porous Medium.
Dixit, Vinayak / Waller, S Travis
Zhao, Gaofeng
Wijesekara, Dinusha Madushani
Yousefnia Pasha, Amin
Prediction of Strong Ground Motions by Advanced Numerical Modelling of Seismic Wave Propagation.
Study of soil-water characteristic curve in deformable porous media. Khoshghalb, Arman / Khalili-Naghadeh, Nasser
Birk, Carolin Claudia Vazquez Campos, Xabier
Wijesiri Pathirana, Indika Sameera
Geomicrobiological aspects of the (bio) leaching of weathered low-grade uranium ore
Use of innovative anchors as shear connectors in composite steel-concrete beams for the rehabilitation of existing structures and deployment of new structures.
Neilan, Brett Anthony / Waite, David
Uy, Brian
Yu, Huijie Contaminant degradation by supported Ag nanoparticles. Waite, David
Wu, Binhua
Wang, Bei
Yuan, Fang
Chemical assessment of emissions from sewage collection facilities.
Advanced methods for structural analysis, structural safety and reliability, structural dynamics and optimization.
Stuetz, Richard
Gao, Wei
Cox, Ron
Wang, Jun Chao
Wu, Di
Yvanes-Giuliani, Yliane Auriane Morgan
Computational mechanics.
Limit and shake down analysis, uncertain methods and non-deteministic analysis, structural analysis and optimization.
The geochemistry of aluminium in coastal lowland acid sulfate soils (CLASS): exchangeability, complexation and partitioning.
Song, Chongmin Wang, Kai
Tangaramvong, Sawekchai / Gao, Wei
Implications of extracellular electron transfer by marine and freshwater phytoplankton.
Wu, Hao
Waite, David
Optimisation of excess sludge dewatering and phosphorus recovery in submerged membrane bioreactors.
Wang, Ke Isabella
Wang, Yuan / Waite, David
The Applicability of Remote Sensing Techniques for Meteorological and Environmental Monitoring.
Xiang, Tingsong
Collins, Richard Nicholas / Waite, David Zainuddin, Nur Syahiza Sources and mobility of arsenic in alluvial river sediments. Andersen, Martin Sogaard
Trinder, John
Scaled boundary finite element analysis of plates and shells.
Wang, Lili
Song, Chongmin
Enantiospecific fate of polycyclic musks in biological wastewater treatment processes and the environment.
Xiao, Wei
Zhang, Xinlei
Khan, Stuart James
Biogeochemical processes in natural waters.
Alternative project management practices.
Bligh, Mark William / Waite, David
Carmichael, David Gordon
Waqas, Rumman
Uy ,Brian Warmate, Fubara George
Natural hazards analysis. Lim, Samsung
Rizos, Chris / Trinder, John
Generation of Oxidative Products in Quinonemediated Cu/H202 system.
Xu, Wenhua
Sharma, Ashish
Global flood forecasting. Johnson, Fiona Michelle / Marshall, Lucy Amanda
Watson, Phillip John
Yang, Chengwei
TBC
Nondeterministic analysis of linear and nonlinear structures.
Cox, Ron
Tangaramvong, Sawekchai / Gao, Wei Yang, Yang Upheaval buckling.
Rizos, Chris / Trinder, John
OUR RESEARCH
Waite, David Zhou, Peiyuan Ionosphere modelling for precise GNSS positioning. Wang, Jinling Zhou, Yuening Research on China-Australia construction supply chain. Bernold, Leonhard Emi l/ Davis, Steven Richard Zhu, Jianbei Lateral buckling analysis of oil and gas pipelines. Attard, Mario
Bradford, Mark Andrew Yeung, Anna Chi Ying
Using L-Band SAR to detect and map subsurface archaeology in desert environments.
Phosphorus removal and membrane fouling and cleaning in iron-dosed submerged membrane bioreactor treatment of wastewaters.
Waite, David
Hydroclimatology.
Wiig, Frances
Zhang, Zhenghua
Xing, Guowei
Wasko, Conrad Dominic
Gardner, Lauren / Waller, S Travis
Waller, S Travis/ Rey, David
Effect of calcium and iron(III) on membrane fouling under conditions typical of submerged membrane bioreactor treatment of wastewaters. Waite, David
Transport network modelling.
Transport modeling.
Xin, Yongjia
Conditional Random Field Approach to Urban Growth Monitoring using Multisource Remote Sensing Data.
Wen, Tao
Zhang, Xiang
Zhang,Yang
The Development of Efficient, robust and architecturally flexible structural systems using blind bolted connections.
44
Climate change impacts on coastal shoreline erosion processes.
Factors influencing the growth and toxicity of cyanobacteria in drinking water supplies. Neilan, Brett Anthony / Waite, David
Apologies to Sachin Singh, we used the wrong photo in last year’s annual report when he graduated. His topic was fluorescence as an online monitoring tool or water recycling. His supervisors were S Khan / R Stuetz, R Henderson.
RESEARCH 2014 GRADUATES PHD RESEARCH 2014 GRADUATE / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS
RESEARCH 2014 GRADUATE / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS
RESEARCH 2014 GRADUATE / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS
Agarwal, Ankit
Jiang, Yiping
Rancic, Aleksandra Sanja
Behaviour of steel-CFRP adhesively bonded connections under thermal loading.
Receiver autonomous integrity monitoring schemes for global navigation satellite systems.
Reconstruction of bore hydrograph trends in fractured rock aquifers using data mining techniques.
Foster, SJ & Hamed, E
Wang, J
Acworth, I
Allis, Michael James
Kaboli, Seyed Alireza
The speed, breaking onset and energy dissipation of 3D deep-water waves.
Cost and emissions analysis of earthmoving operations.
Peirson, W
Carmichael, DG
Salimzadeh, Saeed Numerical modelling of two-phase fluid flow through deformable fractured porous media. Khalili, N
Alvarez Gaitan, Juan Pablo Comprehensive development of process, hybrid and consequential life cycle inventory models with demonstration in the water industry chemicals sector.
Khajeh Samani, Ali
Moore, S & Peters, G
Khan, Urooj
Evaluating and enhancing the impact of sustainability reporting tools (SRTs).
Ductility In Reinforced Concrete Columns. Attard, Mario
Boland, Daniel
Carmichael, DG & Balatbat, M Sriskandarajah, Sanchayan
A new framework for process based computationally efficient semi-distributed hydrological modelling.
Fe(II)-accelerated Fe(III) oxyhydroxide transformation: geochemical controls and implications for contaminant reduction.
High temperature behaviour of reactive powder concrete (RPC). Foster, SJ
Sharma, A & Tuteja, N K
Waite, TD & Collins, R Chiong, Irene The development of a polygon based numerical technique for structural analyses: scaled boundary polygons. Song, C
Li, Chao
Tran, Trong Binh
Fracture analysis of Piezoelectric composites using scaled boundary finite element method.
The relationship between staffing levels and performance in manufacturing organisations.
Song, C
Davis, S
Liu, Nengguang
Cholathat, Rattanasuda
Vo, Thanh Liem
Dynamic analysis of vehicle-bridge interaction system with uncertain parameters.
Mapping the impact of CO2 sequestration using NDVI time-series from multi-sensor optical satellite data.
Interaction between a rigid retaining wall and unsaturated soils. Russell, A
Gao, W
Ge, L
Ma, Jianjun
Chowdhury, Morsaleen Shehzad A non-deterministic fracture analysis tool by extending the scaled boundary finite element method.
Coupled flow deformation analysis of fractured porous media subject to elastoplastic damage.
Song, C
Khalili, N
Wang, Chen Stochastic interval analysis of structures with uncertainties. Gao, W
Ershadi Esmaeilabadi, Ali
Ma, Tian
Wang, Xin
Evapotranspiration: application, scaling and uncertainty.
Oxidant generation on photolysis of silver chloride suspensions: implications to organic contaminant degradation.
The feasibility of using satellite SAR images to monitor pasture in Australia.
McCabe, M & Evans, J
Ge, L
Waite, TW
Woldemeskel, Fitsum Markos
Esfahani Kan, Mojtaba
Maghrebi, Mojtaba
Seismic Deformation Analysis Of Earth And Rockfill Dams.
Using machine learning to automatically plan concrete delivery dispatching.
A framework for quantifying and incorporating climate data uncertainty into water resource assessments.
Taiebat, H
Waller, ST & Sammut, C
Sharma, A
Gholamhoseini, Alireza
Mazumder, Maruful Hasan
Yang, Hongwei
Time-dependent behaviour of composite concrete slabs.
The anchorage of deformed bars in reinforced concrete members subjected to bending.
In-Situ Testing Of Unsaturated Soils.
Gilbert, RI
Gilbert, RI Mohamad Abas, Fairul Zahri
Gui, Yilin
Strength of fibre reinforced concrete composite slabs with deep trapezoidal profiled steel decking.
Desiccation cracking in unsaturated soils.
Gilbert, RI
Russell, A Yang ,Ling Fault Detection And Isolation And Its Application In GNSS/Locata/INS Integrated Navigation System.
Khalili, N
Moon,Sungkon
Rizos, C
He, Di
Dynamic control of supply chain quality to improve process performance in construction.
Yap, Russell Kong Leng
Biotic and abiotic interactions of silver nanoparticles: Aggregation, dissolution and reactive oxygen species generation. Waite, TD
Bernold, L & Davis, S Park,Hong Joo
Islam, Md Kamrul
Analysis of full waveform airborne LIDAR remote sensing data for the individual tree inventory in Australian forest.
Stochastic Modelling for evaluation of impacts of headway variability of public transit performance.
Lim, S
Vandebona, U
Siew, Yung Jhien Renard
Rahnamayie Zekavat, Payam
Polymer-coated Bubbles in Dissolved Air Flotation for Processing Algae-laden Water. Henderson, R & Stuetz, R Yuan, Xiu Kinetics and Mechanism of Copper Transformations in Natural Water at Circumneutral pH. Waite, TD
Performance assessment of agile communication in construction. Bernold, L
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CERSA 2014
The Civil and Environmental Engineering Research Student Association (CERSA) is the student body which represents postgraduate research students within the School.
2014 CERSA Committee Conrad Wasko, Milad Ghasrikhouzani, Nima Amini, Guido Carvajal Ortega, Seyedkomeil Hashemiheidari, Xabier Vázquez Campos, Arvin Saket, Juan Carlos Castilla In 2014 the number of students within the school swelled again with the total number of students tipping 200. CERSA kicked off the year with a welcoming BBQ to meet and greet the new students and elect a representative committee for the coming year. All in all, 2014 turned out to be a big year for CERSA. Among the usual social events which included a Board Game Night, Movie Night and several End of Month Drinks, two new sporting events were added to the social calendar. This year saw CERSA host the inaugural CERSA Table Tennis Tournament and CERSA Futsal Tournament. Both events proved to be a huge success with even a couple of staff members showing up to compete for spoils that come with being crowned a CERSA sporting champion. Continuing from feedback received from students, past and present, CERSA also facilitated a two-day Academic Writing Workshop run by Pam Port where students were invited to come and improve their journal and thesis writing skills. Finally, this year also saw CERSA make its annual pilgrimage to the Water Research Laboratory at Manly Vale for a tour of the laboratories and a BBQ by the picturesque Manly Dam. Without the generous support from both the school’s staff and students, CERSA would not have had as successful year as it did. Thank you for attending our events and we look forward to seeing you all in 2015!
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L-R Guido Carvajal Ortega, Conrad Wasko, Xabier Vázquez Campos, Arvin Saket, Nima Amini, Milad Ghasrikhouzani, Seyedkomeil Hashemiheidari. Absent: Juan Carlos Castilla’
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THE TEACHING AND LEARNING REPORT The Teaching and Learning Committee (TLC) of the School is responsible for all academic matters relating to all undergraduate and postgraduate coursework programs; these involve: \\
Teaching and Learning Committee 2014 Dr Steven Davis Stephen Moore
encouraging teaching quality,
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providing teaching aids to staff,
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monitoring courses through student focus group surveys,
Associate Professor Mario Attard Julijana Baric/ Kristy Guia Dr Johnson Shen Dr Carolin Birk
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interaction with student representatives of CEVSOC and research student tutors through CERSA,
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setting policy regarding academic aspects of undergraduate and postgraduate examinations and enrolments,
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providing a focal point for student assistance in undergraduate and postgraduate coursework matters.
The major drive behind the Committee’s agenda is to improve the learning experience of students. The members of the committee in 2014 were:
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Dr Kurt Douglas Dr Lauren Gardner Dr Bruce Harvey Dr Arman Khoshghalb Dr Ehab Hamed A/Prof Bill Peirson Dr Taha Rashidi Dr Hossein Taiebat Dr Hamid Valipour Dr Upali Vandebona A/Prof Jinling Wang
Chair Deputy Chair & Environmental Eng Program Coordinator Assoc Head (Academic) Civil Engineering Program Coordinator Student Services Manager Year 2 Coordinator Structures Representative & Elite Student Coordinator Geotechnical Representative Civil with Arch Program Coordinator Surveying Representative CIT & ET Liaison Year 3 Coordinator Water Representative Year 4 Coordinator Postgraduate Coursework Coordinator Year 1 Coordinator Industrial Training Coordinator Faculty IRC Rep
In Feb the TLC strongly supported the School’s one day staff retreat focused on ‘Efficacy & Quality in Teaching’. All academic staff attended, and the
TEACHING EQUIPMENT GRANTS An initiative for 2014 was the introduction of the “Teaching Equipment Grants”. Modelled on the School’s longstanding call for Research Equipment grants for the support of research facilities, a School grant scheme was introduced through its Teaching and Learning Committee for the support of in-class teaching equipment to improve teaching to large classes and improve student experience by bringing the laboratory to the classroom. The following grants were awarded for 2014: Ehab Hamed: Physical structural modelling in large classes Johnson Shen: Miniature construction equipment Carolin Birk: Instructional Shake Table II Workstation Stefan Felder and Bill Peirson: Upgrade hydraulic flow meters This initiative will be continued to be developed for 2015.
programme was very effectively MC-ed by Ian McIntyre, Principal of Evans & Peck (now Advisian), and Chair of the School’s Industry Advisory Committee. Topics explored and shared included current innovations in School online and blended teaching and learning; improving the student experience with field work, excursions and laboratories; upcoming curriculum and program changes; supporting independent student learning; managing large classes; and how to measure, acknowledge and reward good teaching. In 2014 the Committee administered the second year of the innovative School Teaching Initiative Grant Scheme (STIGS) – the aim being to develop and implement innovations in School teaching and learning, and to support the improvement of the student experience through teaching related activities. Six teaching initiatives applications were successful in receiving funding commitments for 2014. These initiatives ranged from continuing with online teaching innovations and improvements within undergraduate and postgraduate courses, to providing a more handson approach in water quality laboratory classes, and to supporting a fourth year student-industry showcase forum on sustainable infrastructure design.
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SELECTED STUDENT PROFILES
Our hardworking and high achieving students come from a wide variety of backgrounds, but they share a common desire to be of real use in the world. We asked five of them to tell us their stories.
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“After the experience with Design Thinking I feel a greater ability to innovate and become an entrepreneur,”
James’s interest was sparked when he attended a UNSW function for high achievers as a high school student.
Joseph Babana
Nurinda Triwahyuni Suastha is one of UNSW’s most outstanding students, having collected no less than four academic awards in the last three years.
“More than just a sum of money, the scholarship was what allowed me to pursue my dreams of studying engineering at a world-class institution like UNSW”
Nurinda Triwahyuni Suastha
Jotham Young
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James Dunn
Afrida has enjoyed sharing her passion for engineering by facilitating workshops and engaging with high school students.
Afrida Salman
Joseph Babana Year 3 Winning a scholarship offers much more than financial assistance, as Joseph Babana can attest. Thanks to his Future Direction Network (FDN) scholarship, Joseph was able to attend the International Design Thinking Week in Berlin last year – an experience which has been life changing. The FDN is a private foundation run by former NRL star Corey Payne. It focuses on supporting young people from Sydney’s South West. In 2013, Joseph was one of three students awarded the scholarship, which recognises both academic achievement and socioeconomic disadvantage. However, Joseph says, the scholarship has provided much more, with great mentors to help guide him though his studies. “After the experience with Design Thinking I feel a greater ability to innovate and become an entrepreneur,” he says. The trip to Germany was Joseph’s first time overseas, and it has encouraged him towards further travel. He is now on track to spend a semester on exchange at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and his sights are set on a second exchange in Europe. Joseph chose the double degree in civil and environmental engineering because he sees sustainability principles as being more and more a part “of everything we build.” He feels a responsibility to future generations for wiser management today of Earth’s finite resources. He dreams of one day being behind the creation of a Sydney public transport and roads system that is the best in the world. He would love to travel and work on projects overseas, reconstruct war or disaster-torn cities and eliminate poverty caused by lack of infrastructure.
James Dunn Year 2 It wasn’t until the middle of his HSC year that McCarthy College Tamworth’s vice captain, James Dunn, decided what type of engineering he wanted to do. Having always been environmentally conscious, he was drawn towards a degree related to renewable energy; but he also had a keen interest in design. James received scholarship offers from several institutions and chose the Bernard William Gould Rural Scholarship at UNSW because it allowed him to do a double degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering. It also meant the fulfillment of a desire to study at one of the top ranked engineering schools in the country. James’s interest was sparked when he attended a
UNSW function for high achievers as a high school student. He says the scholarship has allowed him to pursue his goal of studying at UNSW without a large financial burden. “It is a great privilege to be awarded such a major scholarship,” says James. “Having met my donor on a couple of occasions and learnt the background of the scholarship, it really pleases me to be chosen out of the many applications that were received.” James is now a second year resident at Philip Baxter College on campus. “I can easily say that my first year of university study and living in college was the best year of my life. I knew no one before I moved to Sydney but after just one year I have already met an enormous amount of people.” Asked about his career aspirations, James says he would like to revolutionise the way environmentally friendly constructions are undertaken and build an appreciation for the unique qualities of green technology designs. “I would like to be a part of a design team that creates something that truly makes a difference to the community in which it resides and is recognised worldwide as a step forward in a sustainable future.”
Afrida Salman Year 5 From Hornsby Girls’ High to final year Engineering Honours student and Student Ambassador for the Faculty of Engineering, Afrida Salman has had quite an academic journey. Having first enrolled in Engineering/ Arts so she could continue studying languages, Afrida switched to Civil/Enviro in her second year after a taste of environmental engineering in a first year elective. She discovered the degree was quite flexible and could easily accommodate her interest in German. Afrida has also been Student Ambassador for UNSW Engineering for two years. This involves representing the faculty to prospective students and parents at a range of on- and off-campus events. Afrida has enjoyed sharing her passion for engineering by facilitating workshops and engaging with high school students. “I think it has given me the opportunity to develop strong communication and leadership skills,” she says. This year Afrida spoke to an audience of around 300 at the Faculty of Engineering presentation on UNSW Information Day. She also represented UNSW at the National Youth Science Forum in Canberra and presented to an audience of 200 keen students.
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Afrida says University has been a great experience. “In a span of five years I’ve met some amazing people, spent a year studying in Switzerland, become involved with Engineers Without Borders, and now have the opportunity to do research in an area of choice (groundwater) with the final year Honours thesis. Every year has been a new and different experience.” As for the future? Afrida would like to enter the field of engineering consulting. Her dream for the industry is to see more women in senior engineering positions.
Nurinda Triwahyuni Suastha Year 3 Nurinda Triwahyuni Suastha is one of UNSW’s most outstanding students, having collected no less than four academic awards in the last three years. In 2013 she was won the Jacob Frenkel prize for outstanding first year. The Prize is awarded for the best achievement in Civil Engineering for a first year student. Nurinda has also won the Faculty of Engineering Dean’s Award – twice. The Dean’s Award recognises the top two per cent of students across the Faculty with a minimum WAM of 85 (High Distinction). “Obtaining these awards has meant the world to me,” Nurinda says. “I am truly grateful to be able to make my parents and community proud. It boosts my confidence and self-respect, and motivates me to keep persevering to achieve the best I can. ” The final feather in Nurinda’s academic cap (so far) is the JK Geotechnics Prize for the best performance in CVEN2201 Soil Mechanics, which she won in 2014. Nurinda’s many achievements reflect her capability, diligence and avid interest in the field of civil engineering. However, excellence in academia is not Nurinda’s only passion. She is also involved in the Indonesian Student Association (ISA), which she says has helped her develop important ‘soft’ skills and expand her social network. Although Nurinda herself is fluent in English, she understands that some common issues faced by Indonesian students are the “language barrier, home-sickness, and different learning approach.” Of her time so far at UNSW, she truly treasures meeting new people and making new friends from several cultural backgrounds. She strongly believes that relationship skills, “soft skills” are just as crucial as academic excellence.”
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Nurinda’s dream is to be a successful entrepreneur and property developer, building structures that are advanced, sustainable and meeting clients’ needs. Once she has made her mark, she would like to give back to the community and build amenities to help the less fortunate.
Jotham Young Year 3 Jotham Young says it is hard to comprehend how different his life would be if he didn’t have the financial support of the Stockton Drilling Services Award, which he won in 2013. “More than just a sum of money, the scholarship was what allowed me to pursue my dreams of studying engineering at a world-class institution like UNSW,” he says. Without the scholarship, Jotham believes he would never have packed his bags and left his hometown on the Mid-North Coast. “I am incredibly grateful to my industry sponsors for providing this life-changing opportunity.” He is certainly making the most of it. A New Colombo Plan Scholarship will send him to Malaysia for a year, starting Semester 2, 2015. The New Colombo Plan is a government initiative that aims to build knowledge of the Indo-Pacific Region within Australia by supporting undergraduates to relocate to the region. Jotham will undertake 12 months of study in Malaysia, and pursue language training, research and internship opportunities. Jotham likens his double degree to a peanut butter and jam sandwich – an unlikely combination that works. He says Engineering provides tools to develop and design solutions to problems, while Commerce teaches the financial know-how and big-picture perspective to bring those solutions to life. “Everything, from the 9am lectures to the late nights out, has made my University experience one massive adventure and, as the saying goes, one of the best times of my life.” Asked about his wildest career dreams, Jotham says: “Over 750 million people lack access to clean drinking water, more than 840,000 people die each year from water-born diseases, and more people worldwide have access to a mobile phone than a toilet. I would like to build and manage infrastructure solutions that make a difference to those numbers.”
2014 admissions, enrolments, graduates Undergraduate 3620 BE Civil Engineering 3624 BE Civil with Architecture 3625 BE Environmental Combined Degrees 3146 BE Civil/BE Mining 3621 BE BA (Civil/Arts) 3626 BE BA (Environmental/Arts) 3631 BE Civil/ BE Enviro 3703 BE BA (Engineering/Arts) 3704 BE BA (Engineering/Arts) 3715 BE/BCom 3730 BE BSc (Civil/Science) 3735 BE BSc (Environmental/Science) 3741 BE Surveying 3746 BE Surveying and SIS/Science 3742 BE Surveying & Geoinfo Systems 4776/4777/4778 BE/LLB (Engineering/Law) Total Undergraduates Postgraduate Coursework 5338 Graduate Diploma 7338 Graduate Certificate 8538 MEngSc 8539 MEngSc (Extension) Total
Commencing 209 53 20
Enrolled 686 195 71
Graduated 200 38 14
33 n/a n/a 40 n/a 3 88 12 5 n/a 2 24 5 494 Commencing 22 4 184 80 290
133 3 3 116 8 13 317 50 17 0 1 52 17 1682 Enrolled 37 16 452 118 623
10 3 0 12 0 0 41 3 0 1 0 14 4 340 Graduated 5 3 248 8 265
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TUNNELLING DELIGHTS Fourth year construction students in the undergraduate course CVEN4102 Operations and Projects visited the North West Rail Link (NWRL) Project at Bella Vista in Semester 2, 2014. They were accompanied by their course coordinator Dr Johnson Shen who had organised the site visit – and three other academic staff members Prof David Carmichael, Dr Steve Davis, and A/Prof Linlin Ge. During the visit, NWRL Project Manager Tim Burns gave students a one hour talk introducing the entire project and tunnelling method using tunnel boring machines (TBM). Jodie Grant, NWRL Community Place Manager, led the site tour to the TBM launching shaft and precast concrete plant on the site. Students were very impressed. Ranie Nguyen felt ‘it was truly an informative tour that gave me the opportunity first hand to see how a construction site is operated’ – while Jovin Saymontry declared it was ‘by far the best field trip I have been part of during my university career.’
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The $8.3 billion North West Rail Link is Australia’s largest public transport infrastructure project currently under construction and a priority rail project for the NSW Government. The project includes construction of twin 15 km tunnels from Bella Vista to Epping – Australia’s longest rail tunnels. Pics authorised by Thiess/John Holland/Dragados
1ST
SHOWCASE- EVENT: PLANNING OF SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE. In June 2014 the School held a showcase event to celebrate the work of our creative and forward thinking young engineers. For three months, sixty-five Year 4 students enrolled in CVEN4701 Planning Sustainable Infrastructure had looked at the environmental issues associated with the proposed Ranger uranium mine extension in Kakadu. In addition to this, they designed more sustainable infrastructure to support the transformation of the nearby town of Jabiru into an ecotourism destination by the year 2030. The four components of regional infrastructure of materials and waste, water, energy and transport, were included in the students’ brief. It is a sensitive area; there have been environmental problems with past mining; consultation and negotiations with Indigenous landholders will be required; and the climate creates problems for water management and comfortable living. The engineers needed to practise critical thinking, creative problem solving, and teamwork skills to meet these challenges. For the showcase event – organised by School academic and course coordinator Stephen Moore – students created posters to display their findings and make their recommendations.
The winning team were Belinda Lau, Fatima Raposo, Lisa Teng and Clayton Wills. Highly Commended Teams: Annie Mak, Caio Muraki de Sa, Dariane Miranda Pereira; and Marc Beckett, Carlos Navarro Mingarro, Siddhartha Padhye and Shaoxiong Yu.
2ND
3RD
These were judged by special guests and industry partners including leading international waste management expert Professor Shinichi Sakai from Kyoto University; Professor Nakata from Nura Gili, Centre for Indigenous Programs at UNSW; and Safiah Moore, a planner from Arup, a leading global engineering design consultancy, and industry partner of the School.
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AWARDS AND PRIZES
University Medal \\
University Medal in Civil Engineering: Han Su
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University Medal in Civil Engineering: Timothy Cheung (pictured page 57 far right)
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University Medal in Civil Engineering with Architecture: Nell B Hardy (pictured page 57 centre right)
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University Medal in Environmental Engineering: Kelvin Nguyen (pictured page 57 left)
Engineering Prizes
GHD
SCHOOL INDUSTRY TRAINING
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The Alexander Wargon Prize – Timothy Cheung
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The Jacob N Frenkel Prize – Jason Lam
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The Welding Technology Institute of Australia Prize – Yang Yu
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Engineers Australia Civil and Structural Engineering Prize – Joel Willey
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The ASI Undergraduate Steel Design Award – Jonathan CHAN
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The Full Time Class of 1962 Civil Engineering and Surveying Alumni Prize – Lynette Qian
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The George Bennett Millenium Prize – Hannah Pearce
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The Institution of Surveyors New South Wales Incorporated Prize – Amanda Nicholas
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The EGM Memorial Prize – Robert Dicker
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The JK Geotechnics Prize – Nurinda Suastha
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The Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute Prize – Shuyi Liu & Robert Dicker
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The Association of Consulting Surveyors’ NSW Prize in Land Development – Amanda Nicholas
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The BOSSI Medal – Peter Boorer
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The Association of Public Authority Surveyors’ Prize – Hannah Pearce
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The R S Mather Memorial Prize – Amanda Nicholas
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The Crawford Munro Memorial Prize – Jonathan Chan
AECOM
Year 4 Industry sponsored Prizes
Dean’s Awards
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Civil with Architecture – Prize sponsored by Arup – Winner: Michael Chernyavsky
Deans Awards in 2015 for students from the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering – studies completed in 2014
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Civil & Environmental Engineering Practice – Prize sponsored by Cardno – Winner: Matthew Bugden
CARDNO \\
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\\ PSM \\
\\ \\ BROOKFIELD MULTIPLEX
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Mr Ahmed Abdul Matheen
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Mr Tomas Beuzen
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Mr Matias Braga San Martin
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Mr Jonathan Chan
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Mr Ming Chin
Environmental Engineering – Prize sponsored by Royal Haskoning DHV– Winner: Ellen Howley
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Ms Mingyi Dong
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Ms Jingting Duan
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Mr James Dunn
Geospatial Engineering – Prize sponsored by AAM Group – Winner: Amanda Nicholas
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Mr Josiah Fajardo
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Ms Faiza Kazmi
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Mr Abhikaar Kishor
Geotechnical Engineering – Prize sponsored by PSM – Winner: Koray Yurt
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Mr Jason Lam
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Ms Monica Laut
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Mr Xiao Li
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Mr William Manning
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Mr Daniel Setioso
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Ms Karina Siems
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Miss Nurinda Suastha
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Miss Kelly Tang
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Mr Anh Tran
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Mr Atheththan Vigneswaran
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Miss Camellia Wong
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Ms Sum Wong
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Mr Hubert Xiao
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Mr Koray Yurt
Construction Management – Prize sponsored by Brookfield Multiplex – Winner: Ravi Kaberwal
Industrial Training – Prize sponsored by CVEN – Winner: Alison Goddard Structural Engineering – Prize sponsored by Aurecon – Winner: Timothy Cheung
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Surveying – Prize sponsored by Jacobs – Winner: Peter Boorer
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Transport Engineering – Prize sponsored by AECOM – Winner: Jarrah Duckhs
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Water Engineering – Prize sponsored by GHD – Winner: Nell Hardy
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CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING SOCIETY (CEVSOC) 2014 CEVSOC Executive and team: Back L-R: Jono Lustre, Teresa Tran, Catrionia Tait, Leila Bowe, Sam McCormick, George Chard, Alex Warren, Ravi Kaberwal, Celine El Khouri, Georgia Harmey, Adam Refki Front row (kneeling) Claudia Burbidge, Chris Mundy(reclining), Joel Chapman, Karina Baumber
Presidents Report 2014 CEVSOC this year has aimed to hold more frequent, social and professional events with a goal of promoting both the academic and social side of University life. Online membership increased by 40% to 1780 members – evident by the increased turnout to events and participation in everything CEVSOC. Expansion has enabled growth in new regions of study and social life. CEVSOC began the year in style with a start of session pizza night enabling all students to meet and greet the new 2014 committee. Immediate weeks to follow saw frequent BBQ’s including CEVSOC’s first Breakfast BBQ, which was a major success! 2014 also saw CEVSOC join with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) Charity raising money for the villages of Nepal. The 4th consecutive First Year Camp was run early in 2014 accommodating over 100 first year students. This event has yet again proved a major hit enabling first years to meet a range of new people, including those in their own year as well as older years. With engineering challenges, mini Olympics and nights to socialize the camp is a great initiative run by CEVSOC in order to get students involved in CEVSOC and University life. CEVSOC’s annual Harbour Cruise saw both the Architecture Society (ARCSOC) and Interior Architecture Society (INTASOC) join together holding over 200 people on a night theme “Sailors on the Blue”. The night proved successful permitting the three clubs to expand friendship circles and develop essential networking skills. 58
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By holding events such as IT and Electives Night, Employment Skills Seminar, Industry BBQ’s, Thesis Night and Alumni Night, CEVSOC has a powerful tool for students. With outside sources such as industry partners and alumni students as well as internal tools including senior lecturers and Head of School, Steve Foster, CEVSOC has held these events in order to enable students to get the most out of their University. Whether it be conversing with industry representatives about future professional prospects or third and fourth years debating thesis topics with supervisors and lecturers, there has been a massive opportunity presented and that is what CEVSOC is about. CEVSOC looks back on a great 2014 and towards an exciting and promising 2015. Having succeeded in growing and improving upon past events, we look to the future and see even more gains to be had with new and innovative ideas. Sam McCormick CEVSOC President 2014
The office bearers for 2014 are as follows: President: Sam McCormick Vice President: Georgia Harmey Secretary: Jono Lustre Treasurer: Teresa Tran WHS Representative: Catriona Tait Arc Delegate: Ravi Kaberwal Sports Representative(s): Adam Refki and Joel Chapman
SURVEYING SOCIETY (SURVSOC)
The Surveying Society (SURVSOC) is an undergraduate student society for students enrolled in the BE Surveying and BE Geoinfo systems programs. We aim to enrich the university experience for students by hosting social events that cater to what the students want out of the society and their time at university. This ranges from barbeques and pizza nights to jumpers and shirts. Furthermore, we strive to give students the opportunity to meet representatives of the industry and inform them of the opportunities that exist during and after their degree. These events give students of all years the opportunity to meet and share their experiences and ideas over food and drink. It also gives students and staff the chance to get to know each other outside the classroom.
2014 – 2015 SURVSOC Office-Bearers President: Henry Deng Vice President: Phillip Dao Treasurer: Simon Yu Secretary: Mitchel Bradac ARC Delegate: Jacky Chan AUSIM/Industry Representative: John Ngyuen 4th Year Representative: Jerom Vanderstappen 3rd Year Representative: Luke Chidzy 2nd Year Representative: Hanna Jayne
You may not hear it all that often (as an ex-teacher I know it is rare to hear back from students) but I wanted to let you know my daughter Julianne really enjoyed studying at UNSW and has left an extremely confident and capable person. She had some really terrific lecturers and tutors who guided and helped her in what are arguably the most difficult subjects anyone can take at University. I was looking at the web site for CVEN and saw the lovely group photograph of her (RHS in the black and white outfit) with her friends that had been taken at the special Year 4 dinner. The students looked so poised and professional. It was such a great photograph also because it showed both males and females in the shot because that is the future of Engineering. The School can be very proud of its achievements and it is wonderful to see that all the hard work has paid off in its very high world ranking. Congratulations to all of you and may the new intake for 2015 have as much enjoyment as Julianne did. Kind regards Mrs Lyndy Lipman
In 2014 Julianne Lipman, a BE Civil with Architecture student, won one of only five scholarships through the MADE by the Opera House program. The scholarship allowed students of the built environment including engineers, architects and designers to work in Denmark on a multidisciplinary project. Julianne is currently doing an internship with Arup Italy in Milan.
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YEAR 4 DINNER
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INDUSTRY AND COMMUNITY
INDUSTRY ADVISORY COMMITTEE The Industry Advisory Committee is an important means by which links between the School and industry are maintained. Members of the IAC are drawn from private sector, government and consultant organisations. Its main function is that of “sounding board” for the School in regard to undergraduate and graduate programs, and research directions. The IAC membership represents a broad cross section of relevant industry sectors at a senior and influential level. This year, 2014, a year of significant change, we welcomed Dr Mehreen Faruqi, (NSW MLC), Laurie Foy (Brookfield Multiplex) , Dr James Glastonbury (Laing O’Rourke), Iain Scoular (Leighton Holdings), Dave Stewart (Transport for NSW – subsequently returned to Queensland) and Athena Venios ( AECOM) to our Committee. With the honourable exception of Laurie all are alumni of the School. The IAC and the School have taken a long term approach to improving the standing of the School within the awareness and perception of possible future students, their parents, teachers and careers advisers. As a consequence, the School now reaches out to these groups in several practical ways: Presentation of maths prizes in primary schools, Year 10 visits to engineering projects and activities as an alternative form of “industry work experience” for high school students, and sponsorship of attendance by school careers advisers at industry awards dinners for engineering excellence. Each of these means of outreach continues to receive very favourable feedback from participants. For 2014, the Committee requested the School to put extra efforts into reaching regional careers advisers, and meeting three of these at the EA Awards evening was a particularly rewarding experience. Also rewarding was the visit of a dedicated Sydney careers adviser, Lorna Charters, to our last meeting of the year where she analysed and demonstrated for the IAC the road, we believe, to engineering ruin. That is, the almost systemic ways in which students are being turned away from studying higher level maths in our secondary schools. Finally, our sincere and grateful thanks to departing IAC members: Stephen Boss and Adrian Bull (both longstanding members of the Committee - from 2006 to 2013), Ian Hosking and Bruce Munro for all their support and service. We wish them all the best as they continue to serve their industry and community with great distinction. Ian McIntyre Chairman 62
INDUSTRY AND COMMUNITY
Ian McIntyre Principal and Service Lead, Contractual Services, Advisor
As a consultant for the past 27 years, Ian has advised in relation to project delivery processes on a wide range of infrastructure, building and systems integration projects throughout Australia and South East Asia. His previous experience was in project management and construction engineering for a contractor on major civil engineering and multi disciplinary projects throughout Australia and in Hong Kong. He is frequently retained in “trouble shooting”, independent review and due diligence roles and has considerable experience in analysis of the reasons for project delivery problems, and of the factors which are typically associated with successful project delivery strategies leading to successful project outcomes. He is an experienced expert witness in relation to project performance issues.
Deirdre Agnew Student Careers Deirdre has worked in banking, insurance broking and Advisor St Aloysius Kirribilli market research in UK. She has also been employed in public relations/events management role for international conferences at the University of the Witwatersrand. She taught at Hornsby Girls’ High School, before moving into careers counselling. She spent fifteen years at St. Ignatius’ College, Riverview and has been at St. Aloysius College at Milsons Point since 2005. Deirdre is also a director of Australian Careers Advice, a professional careers consultancy. Eric de Rooy General Manager, Service Delivery Sydney Water
Eric was appointed General Manager, Service Delivery, Sydney Water in July 2012, prior to which he was General Manager, Maintenance from November 2008. Since joining Sydney Water in January 1975 as a trainee civil engineer, Eric has worked in many of the asset-related areas, including construction, design, treatment operations/maintenance, capital projects and network operations. In 1998 Eric took up the role of Water Networks Manager and was later appointed as Manager Strategic Operations in 2004. He was appointed as the General Manager of the new Service Delivery Division in 2012, with responsibility for the planning, operation, maintenance and renewal of all of Sydney Water’s service related assets.
Dr Mehreen Faruqi, Greens NSW MP
CVEN alumnus Dr Mehreen Faruqi joined the NSW Legislative Council in June 2013. She has worked in leadership positions in local government, consulting firms and higher education institutions including UNSW - in Australia and internationally. Mehreen has delivered major engineering projects such as stormwater reuse and recycling infrastructure, cycle ways, hydropower generation and rainforest rehabilitation. She has chaired a number of panels and committees on sustainability, water and waste management for industry, local, state and federal government .She is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers Australia and a member of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand
Laurie Foy, Regional Director, Construction + Development, Brookfield Multiplex
Laurie has over 30 years construction industry experience gained both locally and in South East Asia. Laurie joined Brookfield Multiplex in 1991 to lead the Sheraton on the Park project. Since then he has provided leadership to teams on some of Brookfield Multiplex’s most challenging projects, among them the $287m Parramatta Justice Precinct, the $360m BER Schools Program and more recently, Lifehouse at RPA and the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney. Laurie works closely in skills training of junior staff members and is also involved in development of opportunities for long term unemployed in the Indigenous population
Dr James Glastonbury, Engineering Director, Laing O’Rourke
Mark Gordon Principal Surveyor - RMS NSW
Andrew Johnson Principal, ARUP
Dr Kourosh Kayvani Building Structures Leader and Head of Innovation Aurecon
Garry Mostyn Principal, PSM For his PhD in geotechnical engineering at UNSW James developed slope risk management tools that have been used by various agencies for better managing landslide risk, igniting a passion for innovation which has remained to this day. He now works with a global team of technical specialists that seek smarter ways to do things, to challenge traditional practice. He relishes the conversations he has with clients about how new ideas and technologies could be integrated into projects to provide greater efficiency, quality and performance,
In 2008 Mark was named the NSW Professional Surveyor of the Year. Mark was Chairman of the NSW Surveying & Mapping Industry Council from 1999 to 2013 and Chairman of UNSW Australia School of Surveying & Spatial Information Systems Advisory Board from 2008 to 2013. Mark was also the Assistant Congress Director for the World Surveying Congress held in Sydney in the year 2010, which attracted 2000 delegates and for which he received the Surveying & Spatial Sciences Institute’s President’s Award. From 2011 to 2013, Mark was the convenor of the Standards Australia committee for the development of an Australian Standard in Subsurface Utility Information. The new Standard was published in May 2013. Andrew leads an integrated buildings design team in the Sydney Arup office delivering bespoke high level multi-disciplinary design to achieve better and more sustainable buildings. Andrew is a structural engineer with a passion for design philosophies combining innovation with efficiency in holistic building or structural solutions, and his experience designing and delivering projects in Australia, the UK, and around the world over 17 years. His specific structural expertise includes tall buildings, hybrid structures, long-term serviceability of structures, seismic analysis and design, and long-span lightweight roof structures. Dr Kourosh Kayvani is Aurecon’s global Head of Innovation. Over a 20+ year career, he played key roles in the design of many innovative and award-winning structures including Wembley National Stadium (Arch and Roof), London; the ANSTO OPAL Reactor Building, Lucas Height, NSW; and State Hockey Centre, Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney. Kourosh has been listed in Engineers Australia Top 100 most influential engineers in 2009 in recognition of his Engineering Expertise. He is also a Laureate of the IABSE Prize awarded by the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering for his contribution to design of long span structures worldwide. Kourosh is a Fellow of Engineers Australia, a Director of Australian Steel Institute (ASI) and a Director of Association of Structural Engineers, NSW (ASCE).
David Kinniburgh Global Market Leader – Transportation David Kinniburgh is responsible for overseeing the GHD development and delivery of GHD’s global transportation strategy. David has worked with GHD for more than 16 years and has strong experience ranging from concept development to detailed design and construction management, predominantly in the transportation sector. Previously, he was the Operating Centre Manager for GHD’s Sydney operations, responsible for business in Sydney, Wollongong, Dubbo and Orange.
Iain Scoular, General Manager, Group Services, Leighton Holdings
Dave Stewart, Secretary, Transport for NSW
Garry worked with the NSW Department of Public Works and with consulting geotechnical engineers from 1970 until 1986.He then joined the School of Civil Engineering at UNSW where he lectured in civil and environmental engineering practice and geotechnical engineering. He joined PSM in 1997 as a Principal Consultant. Garry’s fields of specialist expertise include slope engineering; foundation engineering; rock mechanics; geotechnical risk analysis; and forensic engineering. He has authored or co-authored over 60 journal and conference papers. He has worked on major projects throughout Australia and in Thailand and PNG. He has been an active member of several national and international code and practice committees and been involved at the highest levels of the Australian Geomechanics Society and the International Society for Rock Mechanics.
Iain graduated from UNSW with an Hons degree in civil engineering in 1980. Leighton has a long and proud partnership with UNSW having offered engineering scholarship programs and prizes worth a total value of over $750,000 since 2004, and Iain has been at the heart of it all. He was also one of the leaders responsible for establishing the award winning MEngSc in project management developed by the School for the Leighton Group.
As the Secretary of Transport for NSW, Dave Stewart led 25,000 people employed by the state’s Transport cluster, shaping the policy and delivery of public transport, roads and freight across NSW. Dave brought more than 30 years of experience in identifying and meeting the needs of the transport cluster’s diverse customers, including time as Head of Projects in Queensland’s Treasury and Director-General of the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads. He has worked within the private sector, in Queensland and the United Kingdom, on a range of road, construction and geotechnical and advisory roles. He is a Fellow of Engineers Australia.
Athena Venios, Technical Director – Transport Group, AECOM Athena graduated from UNSW with a BE (Civil) Honours degree in 1997. She currently manages a team of 240 consulting professionals at AECOM servicing the transport market in NSW, including roads (including bridges and tunnels), rail, ports & marine and aviation.
IAC School Members
Left to Right: Professor Stephen J Foster (Professor, Head of School); A/Prof Ron Cox (Co-Chair, External Relations Committee, Convenor, ACCARNSI); Dr Kurt Douglas (Co-Chair, External Relations Committee); Dr Mary O’Connell (Manager - External Relations)
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EXTERNAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE REPORT 2014
Associate Professor Ron Cox Co-Chair Dr Kurt Douglas Co-Chair Dr Lauren Gardner Dr Fiona Johnson Dr Mary O’Connell External Relations Manager Dr Craig Roberts Dr Kristen Splinter Dr Sawekchai Tangaramvong Scholarships Officer Ms Tricia Tesoriero Special Projects Administrator The strategic objectives of the External Relations Committee (ERC) of the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering include the development of effective outreach and marketing programs, as well as building good relationships with industry and our alumni community. ERC members represent and promote the School at many presentations and functions on and off campus. These include UNSW and Engineering Information Days, UNSW Open Day, High School visits on and off campus, the Indigenous Australian Engineering Summer School and UNSW Nura Gili Winter School, and working closely with the Women in Engineering camp – an annual weeklong event coordinated by the Faculty of Engineering. As well as liaising with the School’s Industry Advisory Committee, the ERC also administers the Industry Partner Program and within that portfolio organises an annual Industry Partners Careers Market, an Elite Student/Industry breakfast at Sydney’s Botanic Gardens, a Year 10 work experience week, and the Maths Primary Prize. To continue to raise the profile of the profession amongst high school students, the ERC also sponsors
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careers advisors’ attendance at the gala night of Sydney EA’s annual Engineering Excellence Awards. In 2014 the ERC made a special focus on regional careers advisors and, as well as hosting a table for 8 Sydney school careers advisers, and three staff from the NSW Department of Education and Communities, were also joined by three regional careers advisers. The ERC also supported School EA award entrants from the research centres – rCITI and WRC with coproduction of new videos about their work – the WRL restoration of the Tomago Wetlands and the rCITI creation of a ‘self-driving’ car by fitting sensors and other technology to a vehicle owned by car sharing service GoGet. 2014 saw the continuation of promoting the Surveying degrees following the integration of the School of Surveying and Geospatial Engineering into the larger School in 2013. In October members of the ERC, IAC, Faculty digital marketing team, surveying alumni and industry reps met to discuss marketing strategies and synergies, in particular using digital platforms. Back on the ground, Craig Roberts was part of Maths in Surveying day held at Homebush for high school students - linking them with industry practitioners. A new poster was designed for UNSW Info day (pic) while work began on collating email and address data on SAGE alumni resulting in 600 SAGE alumni now being in email connection with the School. The Careers Advisors Association of NSW and ACT held their Annual Conference in October 2014 in Darling Harbour. Drs Kurt Douglas and Craig Roberts ably represented the School with a stall focusing particularly on getting the surveying message across. Craig Roberts reported a constant stream of interest hovering around the School table. There were ‘lots of questions about
the technical side of the career but also how to get in, pathways etc. We got the feeling that people already knew a bit about surveying and we were reinforcing the message. Unlike the others, Kurt and I stood in front of our stand and accosted people…. And let’s face it, we are both also very good looking.’ In 2014 we produced a Research Excellence @ Civil & Environmental Engineering booklet which showcased fourteen current research projects – ranging from water recycling to self-driving cars, and including improving the safety and stability of our infrastructure, pursuing sustainability in construction materials and processes, improving geotechnical engineering design tools, and extending the geospatial revolution. The Year 10 work experience bus tour, which was held in June, and coordinated by Tricia Tesoriero and Ron Cox, is another clear ERC success. In 2014 we accepted 60 students from 59 high schools around NSW. Student feedback comments were overwhelmingly positive: ‘- incredibly enjoyable and instructive and probably one of the best times of my life.’ ‘I will cherish my memories here and also work harder to meet you all back here at UNSW’, while parents were equally appreciative: ‘I can see since this opportunity my son has gained lots of confidence...and a foundation towards his career ambition of becoming an Engineer.’: ‘George had a terrific week and learnt so much! He met a bunch of super people, all likeminded and has his heart set on UNSW now, so I know you all made an impact!’ : ‘The best thing was seeing Dom out of bed , keen every morning right through the whole week, and taking responsibility for getting where he needed to be. It showed how relevant he found your programme.’
A total of 47 NSW primary schools participated in the CVEN Maths Primary Prizes also ably coordinated by Tricia Tesoriero. Members of the School’s Industry Advisory Committee, School staff and some illustrious alumni presented 132 students with their awards at end of year ceremonies, further raising the profile of the profession to hundreds of young people, their families and community. See full list of winners on page 70. The ERC continues to develop the School’s relationship with graduates through the Annual Report and the annual CVEN Alumni newsletter - distributed to all engineering alumni through the University’s alumni magazine UNSWorld. The 2014 alumni newsletter profiled six of our innovative alumni: Dave Stewart, Secretary Transport for NSW; Dr Jacqueline Thomas, a Water research scientist in Tanzania; Dr James Glastonbury part of the Engineering Excellence Group at Laing O’Rourke; Narelle Underwood, Geospatial Technologies, RMS; Lisa Thom; Graduate Engineer at Lend Lease with expertise in timber technology; and Dr Yen Lei Voo, who builds innovative IHPFRC bridges in Malaysia. Alumni reunions – the shining diamonds of 1954 and the golden ones from 1964 were also supported by the ERC admin team. Other School success stories reached all UNSW engineering alumni through UNSW Engineers magazine. The ERC works with Faculty and UNSW media offices to identify positive and useful stories coming from the School. For further information on external relations, alumni, the IAC and School Industry Partnership Program contact Dr Mary O’Connell at m.oconnell@ unsw.edu.au
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ABOUT OUR INDUSTRY PARTNERS The School has strong active links with industry and is very committed to continuing and developing these ties. Our Industry Partners Program is one of the ways these relationships are maintained and nurtured. Funds raised through the Industry Partners Program is administered by the School’s External Relations Committee and used to raise the profile of the profession at primary and secondary schools. We do this in a variety of ways including delivering a Primary School Mathematics Prize, running a highly sought after Year 10 work experience tour of engineering sites, and through building
relationships with careers advisers. We work in conjunction with the UNSW Faculty of Engineering and the School’s Industry Advisory Committee (IAC) which represents a broad cross section of relevant industry sectors at a senior and influential level. The annual Industry Partners Careers Market is an important activity where Industry Partner representatives meet with Year 3 and Year 4 students. This allows Industry Partners to identify students for industrial training placements or graduate employment. The School also hosts an annual Elite Student Breakfast at the Sydney Botanic Gardens
where our top students engage with Industry Partner representatives in a relaxed setting. The School will also directly email career information on behalf of Industry Partners to all relevant undergraduate and postgraduate students. List of Industry Partners and Supporters for 2014 AAM Group, Advisian, AECOM, ANSTO, ARUP, Aurecon, Brookfield Multiplex, Cardno, GHD, JK Geotechnics, Jacobs, Laing O’Rourke, Leighton Contractors, Leighton Holdings, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Pells Sullivan Meynink PSM, Royal HaskoningDHV, SMEC Australia, Taylor Thomson Whitting (TTW),
REGIONAL REACH OUT We also sponsored the visit of three regional careers advisors to the Awards Night –Erin Gibson from Orange and Helen Pinkerton from Tamworth and Anna Bergamin from Griffith, (pictured l-R with members of the IAC; Iain Scoular, Ron Cox, Mary O’Connell and Ian McIntyre, Chair)
As part of our mission to raise the profile of the profession and to inspire the next generation, the School hosted tables at the 2014 Sydney EA Excellence Awards Night event for careers advisers from 9 Sydney schools and several key vocational guidance staff from the NSW Department of Education.
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As one of our delighted guests said, the SEA Awards were ‘a really enjoyable and eye-opening event, celebrating such a fantastic range of achievement and such a variety of areas of expertise. It amazes me that engineering is such a diverse profession!’
Anna Bergamin wrote back to us: ‘It was very clear, both during my visit to UNSW and at the gala evening, that the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering staff are very passionate about what they do and that UNSW Engineering is unrivalled. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to expand my own horizons so that I can, hopefully, expand those of my students.’
WELCOMING NEW INDUSTRY PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS
Andrew Jackaman of JK Geotechnics
Jacobs Prize presented by Josh Cowley
In 2014 we welcomed JK Geotechnics as a new industry partner for the School. JK Geotechnics is one of four trading companies of the JK Group, established as Jeffery and Katauskas Pty Ltd in 1976. Their geotechnical engineers and engineering geologists undertake investigations and assessments and prepare geotechnical reports for various residential, commercial, retail and infrastructure developments. Specialist areas include: geotechnical investigations: slope stability: groundwater assessment and modelling: construction supervision: finite element modelling of shoring, tunnels and raft foundations: route assessments, pavement appraisal and design, landfill and quarry evaluation, and dam/levee investigation and design. Andrew Jackaman, Senior Associate, said “As a UNSW alumnus, I am proud of our association with the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. In the last two years, we have experienced significant growth with the purchase of new drilling rigs and the employment of six
graduates. Our total number of employees is in the order of 70, making us one of the largest geotechnical groups in Sydney. The majority of our junior staff are or have been enrolled in the UNSW MEngSc program; our structured training program complements the post-graduate studies. Our links with UNSW have also resulted in our being invited to present lectures this year, and meeting students who may in the future consider a career with JK Geotechnics.�
Daniel Krumiel AAM Group
We are very grateful for all our industry supporters participation in the Year 4 dinner and support of our students.
We also welcomed three new Year 4 dinner industry supporters AAM Group who sponsored a prize in geospatial engineering, won by Amanda Nicholas in 2014, presented by Daniel Krumiel, Jacobs who sponsored the prize for surveying, won by Peter Boorer, prize presented by Josh Cowley, NSW Survey Manager for Jacobs And Royal HaskoningDHV who sponsored the prize for environmental engineering, won by Ellen Howley. Prize presented by Sally Hunton (pictured right).
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ALUMNI 2014 HONOURS AND SUCCESSES sport, administration and competition David Stewart, (MEngSc ’99) Secretary, Transport for NSW, Sydney in surf lifesaving and triathalon’.
Dr Robert Care, AM, (BE Hons ’73, PhD ’78) Principal at Arup (pictured above), was awarded the 2014 Engineers Australia National Professional Engineer of the Year Award. In the Australia Day Awards 2014, alumnus John ‘IronMan’ Holt - BSurv ’75 was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for his ‘service to
In the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2014, Col Nicholson, MEngSc’84 and valued member of the School’s Industry Advisory Committee from 2006 – 2013, was awarded the Public Service medal for outstanding public service to the quality of water and wastewater services across Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the Illawarra region.
Elizabeth Taylor, (BE ’78) Chair RedR Australia and RedR International, Sydney
Four of our alumni were included in EA’s Top 100 Most influential Engineers in 2014 – we congratulate them all.
At home, Dr Jacqui Thomas (phD 2012) Senior Scientist, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Research, at Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania was awarded the 2014 UNSW Alumni award in Science and Technology, while Maha Sinnathamby, BE ’62, Brisbane property developer -received the 2014 UNSW Alumni award in Design, Engineering and Sustainability
Grant King, (BE Civil ’77) Managing Director, Origin Energy, Sydney Bruce Munro, (BE Civil Hons ’75) Managing Director, Thiess Pty Ltd, Brisbane
Golden Jubilee BE ‘64
L-R: Rod Jeffery, Rob Schwarzer, Paul Gwynne, Lab Manager, Peter Connolly, Klaus Teichart, Phil Johnston, and Greg Connolly
In November, we welcomed a golden jubilee group of alumni led by the indefatigable Rod Jeffery to the
In the 2014 NSW Excellence in Surveying and Spatial Information (EISSI) Awards, Professional of the Year Award went to Robert Harrison, (UNSW BSurv’73) - Principal at Harrison, Friedmann and Associates.
School for a talk about past and present, lab tour and lunch. The proverbial good time was had by all. Rod wrote to us: ‘On behalf of all the 1964ers who attended on last Friday I sincerely thank you for being so welcoming, well organised, giving an excellent summary of past years of UNSW and making the lunch a very enjoyable and sociable time. I can assure that virtually every aspect we experienced at Civil School has changed very much for the better since our days …. Thanks again from us all, Rod J.
Six surveying alumni from Hong Kong came to say hello to Professor Chris Rizos while he was visiting for a conference. They are very proud UNSW Graduates. From L-R: Mark Tse (BE ‘99, MRE ‘00), Ken Siu Tong Ching (BE ‘97), George Leung (BE ’98 MEngSc ‘05), Professor Chris Rizos, Jenny Chow ( BE ‘01), Henry Ng (BE ‘99), Vicki Sui Lau (BE ‘98)
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SCHOOL ALUMNI CELEBRATE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF GRADUATION Hall would write, ‘the standard of our students was the envy of other schools. So despite the chaotic material conditions, teaching was a pleasure and there was good rapport between students and staff.’
There were sixteen hopeful young men at the UNSW BE civil engineering graduation in 1954 – it was only the third year of graduation ceremonies for their equally hopeful and even younger University. The actual ceremony had to take place at the Great Hall of the University of Sydney because UNSW (then known as NSWUT – NSW University of Technology) had no such room or place for ceremonial occasions.
It was a time of post war austerity and great future hopes. Building materials were scarce, structural steel almost unobtainable, and the new university short on space and cash. Yet morale was high. UNSW historian Patrick O’Farrell has noted that the university ‘had an apostolic vision of itself, serving the worldwide cause of science and technology, not to be obstructed by mere lack of money.’ Founding academic Stan
Sixty years later, nine of the student comrades: Les Bagust, Sydney Cashman, Bill Copeland, Colin Dudgeon, Ron Fletcher, Ken Griffiths, Bruce Jenkins, Trevor Newton (chief organiser), and Alan Wells gathered for a celebratory luncheon at UNSW with friends and family – as guests of the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering. The Chancellor David Gonksi AC, and the Head of School Professor Stephen Foster were able to share with them the new landscape of UNSW and CVEN achievement and success, in students, reputation, research, international rankings – a landscape which they and all our founding staff and students worked so hard to manifest.
VALE DAVID EVANS School Alumnus Dr David Alexander Evans, AM (1941 – 2014). and commercialisation professionals David supported, facilitated or encouraged new technologies in IT, physical sciences, engineering and biotechnology that have delivered hundreds of millions of dollars to the Australian economy and generated significant social and environmental benefits.
During a career that spanned more than 40 years, David Evans demonstrated time and time again a remarkable vision for what Australian innovators could achieve. Working with innovators
David was instrumental in transforming Uniquest at UQ in the mid-90s into a leading powerhouse. David was also the visionary who went on to pioneer UniSeed, Australia’s first university based Venture Capital
Fund (Uniseed) with an initial capitalisation of $20 million. David was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2013 for ‘significant service to science and innovation through commercialising and developing new technologies.’ David clearly made his mark in the world from a very early age. As a graduating civil engineering student, he is seen here giving a talk in front of UNSW founding ViceChancellor Phillip Baxter (right) and Founding Head of School Professor Crawford Munro. Information gathered from Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia (KCA) http://www. kca.asn.au/blog Picture: David Evans 1962 UNSW Archives
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2014 MATHS PRIZE CERTIFICATES
In 2014, 132 students from 47 schools were awarded our Primary School Prize in Mathematics. The key objective of this prize is to encourage a lifelong interest in mathematics, as one of the key requirements for a rewarding, fulfilling and socially useful career in engineering. Alexandria Park Community School Cian Cameron-Gleeson Gregory Kokkinis Peter Lim Andrew Nguyen William Zamany Annandale North Public School Four students Avondale School Ty Doubikin Balgowlah North Public School Jayden Agapoiu Balmain Public School You Qi Xue Marie Schlesinger Bankstown West Public School Abid Ariman Louisa Fang Khiem Nguyen Tiffiny Nguyen Beauty Point Public School Angus Bendall Matthew Britton Xavier Foster Alexander Sin Beecroft Public School Raymond Yu Belrose Public School Jordan Hiscox Claudia Jacka Charlie Fairclough Ishan Shah Bellevue Hill Public School Tom Ahron Elan Blaustein Berowra Public School Jai Carlson Matthew Clayton Daniel Cooke Aaron Munro
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Cammeray Public School Charlotte Davis Tarin Leslie Charles Longmore Harry Morton Carlton South Public School Andrew Jurukovski Vanessa Yan Chifley Public School Hermione Marzukie Cowra Public School Marcus O'Connor Archie Osbourne Crescent Head Public School Coen Moore Nitin Naik Croydon Public School Angela Fang Benjamin Hamer Cathy Li Derek Tan Daceyville Public School Dylan Nguyen Bill Ren Sanskriti Sharma Nicholas Thomas Double Bay Public School Cem Dogan Eastlakes Public School Nabeena Chowdhury Mohammad Mayaz Muhammad idraki Mohd Radzi Oditi Shahi Epping Heights Public School Noah Bywater Jaeho Jung Daniel Park Daniel Xing Glenhaven Public School Annabelle Kitto Harbord Public School Finn Harte Klaudia Herlihy Julia Jiang Sally Oates Jasper Road Public School Jeffrey Chen Aiden Hawron Nikki Liang Will Li Kambora Public School Hamish Kemmers Jensen Schramko Callum Watts Kensington Public School Nirooshan Athithan Tri Nguyen Rowen Saputra Edward Xu
Loquat Valley Alec Senior Liam Vaux Manly West Public School Joseph Gay Tristan Harland-Peterson Fionn McMorrow-Dermody James Ngai Mosman Public School Jacques Mathot Mount Colah Public School Matthew Hiebl Minha Lee Narrabeen North Public School Hannah David William Vincent North Haven Public School Mikha Everingham Brad Smith Northmead Public School Daniel Balmer Samantha Gonzales Kaelan Nah Isabel Szatmary Sullivan Pennant Hills Public School Patrick Adji Picnic Point Public School Frederick Ding Felix Lam Edward Lam Andy Lin Randwick Public School Nicholas Chan Roselea Public School Darcy Barlow Cindy Wang St Christopher’s Catholic Primary School Sebastian Cerecedo
Elliot Kirgan Joshua Silk Jonathan Tran St Declan’s Primary School Jet Elias Tara Kapila Kristian Lisica Tom Mihaljevic St Joseph’s Primary School Jacob Corry Samantha Henderson James Hizart Tacking Point Public School Alice Barnaby Alexander Green Toongabbie West Public School Daniel Kim Anmol Simkhada Turramurra Public School Pippa Day Anne Pan West Pennant Hills Public School Connor Goodsell Rachael Lee Matthew Posener Seth Sweeney Wheeler Heights Public School Anna Dahlstrom Cian Hay Kai Turner Maya Turner Wollondilly Anglican College Amy Hvejsel Harrison Ollis Woollahra Public School Isaiah Iliffe Esme Power Freja Read Luis Soncini
OUR CENTRES
THE AUSTRALIAN CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION RESEARCH NETWORK FOR SETTLEMENTS AND INFRASTRUCTURE (ACCARNSI) continued
distribution of adaptation knowledge and stakeholder engagement. 2014 industry activities included training support for the ‘Learning to Adapt’ master-class, EIANZ’s innovative and certified climate change adaptation professional development program.
ACCARNSI Convenor Associate Professor Ron Cox continued to be a sought after speaker at local and international conferences, to consolidate its position in 2014 congresses and meetings in 2014 with the negotiation of key funding with an invitation to participate in the as one of four research networks ‘Working with Nature’ Initiative and confirmed by the National Climate a paper on ‘Climate Change Risk Change Adaptation Research Facility Assessment for Ports in the Pacific’ NCCARF as part of their Phase 2 at the International PIANC Congress operations. in San Francisco in June followed by the International Conference ACCARNSI’s new 2 ½ year contract on Coastal Engineering (ICCE) in with NCCARF will start in 2015 Seoul authoring and presenting and will focus on climate change papers on coastal adaptation, adaptation for settlements and beach nourishment and climate infrastructure with host institution change implications for coastal UNSW and partner universities, design storms in eastern Australia. Griffith University, the University of In October, Ron presented at an South Australia and the University of international workshop to over Canberra each bringing access to 200 participants from across the researcher expertise and capabilities Philippines on the importance of in coastal management, planning Climate Change to Ports and Coastal and adaptation of infrastructure, risk Infrastructure. assessment and adaptation, in both urban and regional contexts. Closer to home, papers were ACCARNSI will support NCCARF in matters related specifically to coastal settlements and infrastructure including the development of a National Coastal Adaptation Framework, the synthesis and
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authored and presented by Ron and Bill Peirson, at the NCCARF Conference in October on extreme water levels, adaptation of sea walls and the relative importance of wave climate change and sea level rise. Ron also presented a summary of Coastal Processes and Responses research being undertaken for the NSW Office of Environment and
Heritage (OEH) Climate Adaptation Research Hub (CARH) . In Mandurah Western Australia, Ron chaired sessions at the Australian Coast to Coast Conference as well as organising and presenting a one-day training workshop for local and state government participants in the application of the Engineers Australia Climate Change Guidelines for Coasts, Sustainability and Adaptation. In November, Ron gave the keynote address at the Engineers Australia Practical Responses to Climate Change Conference on ‘The Challenges of Climate Change Adaptation in Coastal Environments’. ACCARNSI in partnership with the Sydney Institute of Marine Science (SIMS) is undertaking a 3 year research program as the Coastal Processes and Responses Node funded under the CARH by NSW OEH. Specific research is being undertaken in regard to beach erosion and recovery, effective application of beach nourishment and upgrading sea walls as means of adaptation to climate change. Targeted research is also being undertaken on the physical and environmental/ecological aspects of climate change within estuaries. 2015 promises to further strengthen ACCARNSI’s climate change adaptation research base with the first in a series of themed Early Career Researcher Forums, review of the National Adaptation Research Plan and Stakeholder Panel workshops.
Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety
About us We are the leading internationally recognised research centre in the region for investigating, understanding and predicting the safety and behaviour of engineering infrastructure under in-service and overload (or limit) conditions. We aim to be the nexus of the various scientific disciplines in the broad fields of engineering infrastructure; its design, evaluation, performance and retrofit. We recognise that existing infrastructure in the developed world is aging, and strengthening and rehabilitating bridges, buildings, dams and other critical infrastructure is a demanding challenge to creative engineering solutions. We recognise the challenge of engineering for climate change and the need for advanced and high performance materials to meet the needs of society’s infrastructure within looming carbon constraints.
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING PAVEMENT ENGINEERING ADVANCED ENGINEERED MATERIALS COMPUTATIONAL MECHANICS
The demands of new structures, and the use of new or advanced materials require advanced solutions, which challenge and unite creativity and scientific rigour. Providing solutions to all of the above is fundamental to CIES activities. Specifically, we apply our skills to: Development of new technologies and materials such as advanced fibre composites, high performance cementitious materials and geopolymers; for engineering and safety assessments and with the risk management of buildings, bridges, dams, roads and other infrastructure when subjected to both in-service conditions and overload (or limit) conditions, such as may occur in fire, earthquake, cyclone or blast situations, or when structures are exposed to hostile environments.
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CIES RESEARCH FUNDING SUCCESS CIES ARC LINKAGE GRANT SUCCESS CIES Researchers Prof Nasser Khalili, Dr Arman Khoshghalb and Mr John A Rubsov - Engineering Services Manager, Roads & Maritime Services have been successful in securing an ARC Linkage for the period 2014-2017. The project titled “ Experimental investigation and constitutive modelling of weak rocks subject to mechanical and moisture degradation” aims to advance the experimental, theoretical and computational bases for the mechanics of weak rocks, and will provide scientists and engineers with much-needed predictive tools for the quantitative evaluation and assessment of their behaviour in geological settings. CIES has also received ARC Linkage Project funding to develop innovative Blast Mitigation Technologies. CIES Director Professor Brian Uy along with colleagues from UWS and Qingdao Technological University in China were successful with the Shandong Zhihua Construction Group Company in receiving close to $270,000 to carry out research on “Development of novel viscoelastic sprayed material for the effective blast resistance of critical and resource infrastructure”. The project will also utilise the National Facility for Physical Blast Simulation due to be commissioned at UNSW in early 2016.
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Best of the best – School and CIES - one of the highest UNSW achievers in ARC research grants The School and CIES remained at the top of the research game having won ARC grants in the latest round (with funding to commence in 2015). With 4 new Discovery grants and 1 new LIEF grant, CIES won more than half the School’s total and more than any other research centre in its discipline nationwide. These wonderful results consolidate CIES’ position as the leading infrastructure centre in Australia.
Discovery Project Grants: Professor Mark Bradford - DP 150100446 -To investigate the capacity of high-strength steel (HSS) flexural members by undertaking physical tests and numerical simulations, and proposes to craft innovative overarching design guidance for them within a paradigm of Design by Advanced Analysis. Professor Stephen Foster & Dr Hamid Valipour - DP 150104107 TO investigate the moment-rotation performance of steel fibre reinforced concrete ( SFRC) beam-column connections containing economical fibre dosages. Associate Professor Adrian Russell, Prof David Muir Wood – DP 150104123 - To make discoveries for modelling initiation, rate of progression and consequences of seepage induced internal erosion through soils which make up critical water retaining infrastructure like dams
Professor Chongmin Song, Emeritus Professor Francis Tin-Loi, Dr Sawekchai Tangaramvong - DP 150103747 - To develop, directly from computer-aided design models or digital images, an automatic numerical simulation approach for the safety assessment of engineering structures in three dimensions.
LIEF – Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities Russell, A/Prof Adrian R; Khalili, Prof Nasser; Zhao, Dr GaoFeng; Khoshghalb, Dr Arman; Sloan, Prof Scott W; Kouretzis, Dr Georgios; Indraratna, Prof Buddhima N; Rujikiatkamjorn, A/Prof Cholachat; Cassidy, Prof Mark J; Gaudin, Prof Christophe; Williams, Prof David J; Scheuermann, Dr Alexander LE 150100130 - To develop Australia’s most advanced earthquake shaking table to investigate soil-structure interactions. Dr Gaofeng Zhao and Professor Khalili were also involved in a successful LEIF grant (LE150100058) administered by Monash University. Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Les Field welcomed the result. “This impressive result in ARC grants recognises the calibre of research underway at UNSW. Our position as number one in the country this year is a testament to the importance and impact of the work we are doing,” he said.
ASCE Presidential visit: Mark Bradford explaining some of the test work associated with his Australian Laureate Fellowship during the delegation’s visit to the Heavy Structures Research Laboratory at Randwick
ASCE GOVERNORS’ VISIT TO CIES In February 2014, CIES hosted a visit by the Governors of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The visit included an inspection of the Heavy Structures Research Laboratory at Randwick, where it provided an excellent opportunity for our PhD students and staff to showcase CIES’s structures activities
to the top executive group of ASCE. Some PhD students had the good fortune to explain their work to the ASCE leaders. CIES Research Director Professor Mark Bradford - one of ASCE’s only two Australian Distinguished Members and also President-Elect of the ASCE Australia Section, was
involved in this group’s Australian visit. The ASCE delegation included its President and its Chief Executive and expressed positive feedback on the facilities at Randwick Heavy Structures Laboratory as well as the high calibre and groundbreaking research activity being carried out there.
CIES RESEARCH COLLABORATIONS CIES – Promoting Sustainable Concrete Technology CIES continues to promote a sustainable concrete technology within the CRC for Low Carbon Living under the leadership of A/Professor Arnaud Castel and Professor Steve Foster. In July 2014, this new project was approved by the CRC-LCL Board with a cash contribution of $1,100,000 in combination with the In-kind contributions from partner organisations of $1,900,000. Geopolymer concrete has an 80% lower carbon footprint compared to the conventional Portland cement concrete. Using field and laboratory data, a comprehensive Handbook for geopolymer specification will be developed and published through Standards Australia. Partner organisations include CIES at the UNSW, Swinburne University of Technology, ADAA, ASA, AECOM, Sydney Water and Standards Australia. The project coordinators also obtained letters of support from the main Australian geopolymer concrete suppliers: Zeobond Pty Ltd, Wagners Concrete Pty Ltd, Milliken Infrastructure solutions as well as RMS Pavement Structures, Transport and Main Roads QLD, Vicroads.
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UNSAT2014 The best and brightest geotechnical engineering scholars and engineers visited Sydney during July 2014 to take part in the Sixth International Conference on Unsaturated Soils. The event was chaired and organised by CIES academics Professor Nasser Khalili, Dr Arman Khoshghalb and Associate Professor Adrian Russell. The conference was a great success, showcasing the latest research on unsaturated soils from around the world on topics including unsaturated soil behaviour, experimentation, modelling, case histories, multidisciplinary problems and emerging research areas.
Impact and innovation – peers recognise geotechnical engineering research at UNSW The research of CIES geotechnical engineering academics Professor Nasser Khalili and Associate Professor Adrian Russell has been awarded for its impact and innovation. Professor Khalili received the Outstanding Paper Award for his constitutive modelling work presented in the paper “A fully coupled flow deformation model for cyclic analysis of unsaturated soils including hydraulic and mechanical hysteresis”. The paper, published
Dr Arman Khoshghalb (L, secretary), Professor Nasser Khalili (C, chair) and Emeritus Professor Somasundaram Valliappan (R, honorary chair) in Computers and Geotechnics in 2008, was judged to have made a highly significant impact to geotechnical engineering, based on citations over a five year period and the opinion of the journal’s Editors. A/Professor Adrian Russell received the International Innovation Award for his physical modelling research in the field of unsaturated soil mechanics. At UNSW A/Professor Russell developed with colleagues a calibration chamber, lateral earth pressure rig and shallow foundation rig to conduct full scale cone penetration tests, retaining wall tests and shallow foundation tests to study the influence of soil suction.
Scholarly Works Emeritus Professor Ian Gilbert, Deputy Director of CIES, published his latest text book (CRC Press – USA). The book titled “Structural Analysis – Principles, Methods and Modelling” is co-authored with A/Professor Gianluca Ranzi of the University of Sydney. It is intended as a text for undergraduate students of Civil
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or Structural Engineering about to embark on the adventure of learning how to analyse engineering structures. It provides a unique and in-depth treatment of structural analysis where fundamental aspects and derivations of the analytical and numerical formulations are outlined and illustrated by numerous worked examples.
CIES member Professor Nasser Khalili was among the three recipients of the prestigious Chandra S Desai Medal awarded by the International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (IACMAG) in 2014. For story please see p10
CIES PROMINENCE Plenary Meeting ISO TC 71 Concrete, Reinforced Concrete and Pre-Stressed Concrete Technical Committee CIES & The Faculty of Engineering were major sponsors of the Plenary Meeting of ISO TC71 held in Sydney January 2014.
As part of activities, CIES also hosted a workshop on: “Robustness of Concrete Structures” ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the world’s largest developer of voluntary International Standards and in Australia, is represented by Standards Australia - recognised by the Commonwealth Government as the nation’s peak Standards body.
CIES 2014 Symposium - “NATIONAL ROAD AND RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE - Structural Engineering Perspectives for Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure” The November symposium brought together an array of local, national and international leaders working in the area of road and rail infrastructure to try and bring a focus to this issue and the potential remedies to this situation. The speakers discussed the current state of road and rail infrastructure systems, the areas of primary need and future areas of research and potential government investment. Inherent in much of this future
investment is that structures must be both sustainable and resilient.
PRESENTERS: Ian Pedersen - Managing Director, Pedersen Engineers. Professor Mark A Bradford CIES A/Prof Alex Remennikov - UoW Professor Stephen Foster - CIES Professor Hong Hao - Curtin University Adj. Professor Wije Ariyaratne - RTA/ RMS Dr Stephen Hicks – HERA NZ
CIES SYMPOSIUM
NATIONAL ROAD AND RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE Structural Engineering Perspectives for Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure
Professor Tommy Chan - QUT Professor Mark Stewart - The University of Newcastle Mr Richard Hitch - Transport, NSW’s Asset Standards Authority Mr Peter Runcie - NICTA (National ICT Australia Ltd).
L to R Back Row: A/Prof Wei Gao; Prof Chongmin Song; A/Prof Alex Remennikov; Dr Stephen Hicks; Adj. Prof Wije Ariyaratne; Prof Mark Stewart; Richard Hitch; Prof Ian Gilbert; Prof Hong Hao
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2014 CIES STAFF Director Professor Brian Uy, BE PhD UNSW CPEng, CEng, PE, MIE Aust, MASCE, MIStructE, FICE, MAICD
Research Director
Dr Michael Man, BE PhD UNSW
Dr Carolin Birk BE DEng Dresden
Dr Sundararajan Natarajan BE Mech Eng, PhD Cardiff
Dr Kurt Douglas BE Syd. PhD UNSW, MIEAust
Dr Alex Hay-Man Ng, PhD UNSW, MEngSc UNSW, BE UNSW
Dr Ehab Hamed, BSc MSc PhD Technion
Dr Ean Tat Ooi, BE UTM, PhD NTU
Scientia Professor Mark Bradford, BSc BE PhD Syd DSc UNSW FTSE PEng CPEng CEng FIEAust FIStructE MAICD MASCEt MACI
Dr Arman Khoshghalb BE ME Sharif Uni of Tech, PhD UNSW
Dr Vipulkumar Patel, BE, ME, PhD VU
Deputy Directors
Dr Hossein Taiebat BSc Isfahan M.E.S. PhD Syd
Emeritus Professor Ian Gilbert, BE PhD UNSW CPEng FIEAust MACI Professor Chongmin Song, BE ME Tsinghua, DEng Tokyo
Centre Management Centre Manager Irene Calaizis, BCom UNSW
Administrative Officer Patricia Karwan
Other Academics Professor Stephen Foster, BE NSWIT, MEngSc PhD UNSW, FIEAust Professor Nasser Khalili, BSc Teh MSc Birm PhD UNSW Professor Yong Lin Pi, BE Tongji ME Wuhan PhD UNSW CPEng MIEAust
Dr Kostas Senetakis, BEng, MSc, PhD AUTh
Dr Sawekchai Tangaramvong BEng Chulalongkorn, MEngSc PhD UNSW, MIEAust
Dr Babak Shahbodaghkhan, BSc. IKIU, MSc. Univ. of Tehran, PhD Kyoto Univ. Dr Hossein Talebi, BSc, MSc, PhD Bauhaus-University Weimar BUW Dr Tai H. Thai, BE ME HCMUT, PhD Sejong Dr Thanh Vo, BE/BCom Syd, MEngSc, PhD UNSW
Dr Ghaofeng Zhao,BSc MSc CUMT, PhD EPFL
Dr Guotao Yang, BE PhD Tongji
Other Research Staff (alphabetical order) Dr Ankit Agarwal, B-Tech IIT Kanpur PhD UNSW Dr Farhad Aslani, BSC, MSc, PhD UTS Dr Huiyong Ban BE PhD Tsinghua University, Beijing Dr Zhen-Tian Chang, BE ME Hunan PhD UNSW Dr Yue Huang, BE MPhil CityU HK, PhD UNSW Dr David Kellerman BE, PhD UNSW
A/Professor Mario Attard BE PhD MHEd UNSW, MIEAust, CPEng A/Professor Arnaud Castel BE, MEngSc, PhD Toulouse
Dr Nima Khorsandnia, BSc MSc BIHE, PhD UTS
A/Professor Wei Gao BE HDU, ME PhD Xidian, MIIAV, MAAS
Dr Brendan Kirkland BE PhD UWS
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Dr Saeed Salimzadeh, BSc MSc Sharif SU) PhD UNSW
Dr Hamid Vali Pour Goudarzi BSc MSc Tehran, PhD UNSW
Dr Inamullah Khan, BE MEngSc PhD University of Toulouse
A/Professor Linlin Ge, PhD UNSW, MSc Inst of Seismology, BEng WTUSM
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A/Professor Adrian Russell BE, PhD UNSW, PGCert Bristol
Dr Jean Xiaojin Li, PhD UNSW, BEng WTUSM Dr Xinpei Liu BE SCUT, MEngSc MPhil PhD UNSW
Technical Team John Gilbert Greg Worthing Ron Moncay
Emeritus Professor Somasundaram Valliappan BE Annam, MS Northeastern, PhD DSc Wales, CPEng, FASCE, FIACM Francis Tin-Loi BE PhD Monash, CPEng MIEAust
UNSW Members Professor Alan Crosky School of Materials Science & Engineering Professor Gangadhara Prusty School of Mechanical Engineering Dr Mahmud Ashraf School of Engineering and Information Technology (SEIT), UNSW Canberra.
The Connected Waters Initiative Research Centre (CWI) operates a wide portfolio of research projects across the faculties of Science, Engineering and Law. As a cross-faculty centre, the CWI rotates between presiding faculties, and at the end of 2013 the Centre rotated from Engineering to the Faculty of Science. 2014 saw the end of an era with the conclusion of funding in June from the ARC / National Water Commission co-funded centre for excellence, the National Center for Groundwater Research and Training. PhD researchers which have been part-funded by the NCGRT will continue to graduate over the next two years. Funding for the national groundwater infrastructure program continues, funded from the Federal Government National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy NCRIS program, and is managed by the CWI. (http://www.connectedwaters.unsw.edu. au/ncris). In 2014 Prof Ian Acworth and Dr Martin Andersen participated in the NCRIS capabilities workshop on the 2-3rd of September in Canberra. On the 30th of September Prof Andy Baker and Dr Martin Andersen represented UNSW Groundwater Infrastructure at the NCRIS Showcase in Parliament House, Canberra.
Some of our 2014 Research Highlights 1) Coal Seam Gas (Dr Bryce Kelly (BEES)) and surface water groundwater interactions (Dr Martin Andersen- CVEN) Cotton RDC - Baselining Groundwater Condition in the Condamine Alluvium and Assessing Coal Seam Gas Development Impacts.
Connected Waters Initiative Research Centre
This project is using a combination of hydrogeological modelling, groundwater geochemistry and methane in air measurements to map hydraulic connectivity between the Walloon Coal Measures and the Condamine Alluvium. In collaboration with Royal Holloway, University of London, extensive air methane surveys around CSG development, coal mines, the Condamine River, and irrigated farmlands have been conducted. Reference to this work was recently made in the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer review of CSG developments in NSW.
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Cotton RDC (scholarship top-up and operating costs) Spatial and temporal importance of diffuse and stream recharge in semiarid environments: implications for integrated water management. The scholarship was awarded to CVEN PhD student Calvin Li. The project aims to quantify aquifer recovery via stream recharge during the transition from drought to a wetter (La Niña) period using NCRIS groundwater infrastructure and publicly available monitoring data. It will also assess the importance of groundwater recharge via streams relative to diffuse recharge through the general land surface by developing numerical ground- and surface water transect model for quantifying groundwater recharge pathways during various climatic and management scenarios. The results will provide groundwater managers with improved data to inform science based policy.
2) Karst hydrogeology and isotope geochemistry (Professor Andy Baker (BEES)/ Dr Wendy Timms (Mining) / Dr Martin Andersen (CVEN)) ARC Discovery – The ARC Discovery project to develop novel lipid membrane and lignin biomarkers for karst processes concluded in 2014, with postdoctoral researcher Dr Catherine Jex leaving in May to start a new life in Denmark. Dr Jex retains an affiliate status with CWI, and presented the final lipid membrane project results at the AGU Fall Meeting in December. CVEN honours researcher Ellen Howley presented the results of her groundwater lignin research. Publications from this project have targeted Organic Geochemistry and further are anticipated through to 2016. ARC Linkage – Work commenced on the ARC Linkage Project looking at the impact of fire on karst hydrogeology in July, with the arrival of Research Associate Katie Coleborn. ARC LIEF - The ARC LIEF grant to procure an isotope ratio mass spectrometer with high temperature elemental analyser and gas chromatograph has resulted in the procurement of a Thermo DeltaV – GC – HTEA system. This was delivered to the Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre on 30th October and commissioned in November. The instrument is likely to see most use in the analysis of carbon and nitrogen isotopes in organic materials, with extensive interest already from colleagues in CES. You can read more about the centre at www. connectedwaters.unsw.edu.au Andy Baker Director, CWI Research Centre January 2015
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Connected Waters Initiative Research Centre - People 2014 Director Professor Andy Baker School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES)
Associate Director Dr Martin Andersen School of Civil & Environmental Engineering (CVEN)
Centre Manager Mr Antonio Woo
Academics Prof Ian Acworth, CVEN Dr Wendy Timms, MINE Dr Bryce Kelly, BEES Dr Cameron Holley, LAW
Post-doctoral Researchers Hoori Ajami, CVEN; Steve Bouzalakos, MINE; Alessandro Comunian, BEES; Richard Crane, MINE; Mark Cuthbert, CVEN; Catherine Jex, BEES; Sanjeev Jha, BEES; Ander Guinea Maysounave, CVEN; Gabriel Rau, CVEN; Hamid Roshan, CVEN; Helen Rutlidge MWAC.
Professional Staff Evan Jensen, CVEN; Dayna McGeeney, CVEN; Mark Whelan, MINE
About Us
Overview for 2014
The Research Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation’s (rCITI) aim is to become a world-leading organisation in integrated interdisciplinary transport research and development. In three short years since rCITI’s launch, we can see that the centre is now well on its way to achieving its goals through a range of research initiatives made possible through the groups investigation of sustainable approaches to transport infrastructure and operations and rCITI’s extensive liaison with industry and government.
2014 has been a stellar year for the centre. rCITI’s intake of research funding, students and staff has again increased, which made 2014 a busy and successful year. Staff and students participated in multiple new and ongoing research projects, seminars and conferences held on the UNSW campus and externally during the year. Significant achievements for 2014 include the award of three new grants from Australia’s most prestigious scientific organisations. This included one Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project Grant where rCITI is the administering organisation, one ARC Discovery Project grant jointly with the University of Sydney, and one NHMRC Project grant jointly with UNSW School of Public Health and Community Medicine. These new grants augment rCITI’s current research portfolio, which already include an ARC LIEF grant for major infrastructure, two ARC Linkage grants (which include industrial support) as well as substantial research contracts with Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW), Roads & Maritime Services (RMS), and the US. Department of Transportation as part of a consortium with Booz Allen Hamilton. In total, since being launched in November 2011, rCITI has attracted over $5M in external research support.
Research based around five pillars rCITI’s vision is to reshape the field of multi-modal transport engineering and planning by introducing new innovative techniques and technologies. This will enhance society by integrating methodologies across disciplines and contextual considerations. The Centre bases its research activities around five core research pillars:- Transport Planning – ITS Communications – Infrastructure – Energy/Fuel – Computational Sustainability.
The core rCITI staffing grew to 14 professionals in 2014. This is comprised of 4 continuing academics, 4 contract/adjunct/conjoint academics, 5 researchers and one centre administrator. In addition, 7 additional visiting researchers helped augment the centre’s capabilities.
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The rCITI group published 53 research papers in journals and proceedings in 2014. Throughout 2014, the core academic staff supervised and supported 25 PhD, 3 Masters by Research and 9 Honours students. In addition, rCITI hosted four visiting students including 1 Practicum Exchange Program student, 1 Research Internship student, and 2 visiting students.
Grants awarded in 2014 The Australian government is committed to building an education and research sector that is world class by providing funding towards grants that is applied to excellent basic and applied research. rCITI successfully won three competitive Research Grants in 2014:- 1. Prof S.T Waller (rCITI, UNSW) was awarded a 2015 ARC Discovery Research Grant funding the project “Adaptive Stochastic Dynamic Traffic Assignment”. [Australian Research Council, Discovery Project – DP150104687, $275,200] 2. Prof M. Bliemer (USyd), Prof S.T. Waller (rCITI, UNSW), Prof D. Hensher (USyd), Dr V. Dixit (rCITI, UNSW), Prof E. Rutstrom (Georgia State), Prof S. Hess (Uni Leeds) and Prof H. Van Lint (TUDelft Nederlands) were awarded a 2015 ARC Discovery Research Grant funding the project “Investigating travel choice behaviour: a new approach using interactive experiments with driving simulators”. [Australian Research Council, Discovery Project – DP150103299, $677,800] 3. Prof. R. MacIntyre (Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW), Dr L. Gardner (rCITI, UNSW) and Dr A. Heywood (Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW) were awarded a 2015 NHMRC Project grant funding the project “Real time models to inform prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases”. [National Health & Medical Research Council, Project Grant APP1082524, $532,796]
Current projects Current projects for the rCITI group in 2014 include:1. Prof S.T. Waller, “A Collaboration to Develop and Deploy Novel Integrated Network Techniques to Enhance the NSW Transport System.” [Transport for NSW, $1,500,000] 2. Dr T. Hossein Rashidi, “Complex Adaptive System Theory and rule-Base Methods for Novel Travel Activity-Based Models: A Sydney Metropolitan Area Demonstration.” [UNSW Engineering Faculty,
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Research Grant / Early Career Researcher Grants Program, $20,000] 3. Prof S.T. Waller, “Identification & Evaluation of Transformative Environmental (AERIS) Applications and Strategies Project. Booz Allen Hamilton (USA).” [United States Department of Transport contract with Booz Allen Hamilton Inc, $275,000] 4. Prof S.T. Waller, Dr V. Dixit, Dr L. Gardner, Mr B. Jeffreys, Dr T. Hossein Rashidi, “Integrating Network modelling with Observed Choice Data for MultiCriteria Optimization of Complex Carshare systems: Cost, Mobility and Transit Usage.” [LP130100983 Australian Research Council - Linkage Project/ GoGet CarShare - ARC Linkage Project Industry Partner Contribution, $520,738] 5. Prof S.T. Waller, Prof M. Bliemer, Dr V. Dixit, Prof M.G. Bell, and Dr A.Torday, “Methodologies for the Incorporation of Congestion Propagation and System Reliability into Transport Network Models for Consistent Multi-Scale Planning.” [ LP130101048 Australian Research Council - Linkage Project / TSS-Transport Simulation Systems Australia Pty Ltd - ARC Linkage Project Industry Partner Contribution, $845,604] 6. Prof S.T. Waller, Dr V. Dixit, Prof M. Bliemer, Prof D.G. Del Favero, “TRAvel Choice Simulation LABoratory (TRACSLab): A visualisation laboratory to study travel behaviour and drivers’ interactions.” [LE130100113 Australian Research Council / LIEF / UNSW, $680,000] 7. Prof S.T. Waller and Dr V. Dixit, “Review of Managed Motorway Control Technology System.” [Roads and Maritime Service, $200,000]
New Staff We welcomed 3 new staff members to its team. Dr Hanna Grzybowska was appointed as a Research Associate in January, her key research interests include vehicle fleet management, city logistics, real-time and dynamic vehicle routing problems, decision support systems and simulation and dynamic traffic assignment models. Dr Mojtaba Maghrebi was appointed as a Research Associate in April, his key research interests include innovative branching techniques in mixed integer programming, supervised and ensemble learnings and intelligent decision support systems. Dr Emily Moylan was appointed in August as a Research Associate; her research interests include stochastic treatment of travel time and the incorporation of travel time reliability into transportation policy decisions.
Conferences
CORE CENTRE STAFF – 2014
rCITI hosted 3 conferences in 2014. The International Symposium on Activity-Based Modelling (10 March 2014) and The Center for the Economic Analysis of Risk (CEAR)/ rCITI - Risk in Transport Systems (2021 March 2014), both brought together distinguished international and local speakers from academia and industry in activity based modelling and transportation risk. The third conference, the 32nd Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR) (17-18 February 2014), provided a forum for young transportation researchers from over 14 different universities, institutes and research groups, and with an opportunity to present their paper.
Director
Finalists at the Sydney Engineering Excellence Awards 2014
Dr Taha Hossein Rashidi, Lecturer
Researchers at rCITI were finalists at the Sydney Engineering Excellence Awards 2014 in the categories of Research and Development, and Welfare, Health and Safety, for the project “Instrumented Vehicle Technology to Promote Safer and Fuel Efficient Driving Behaviour”.
Professor S. Travis Waller, Evans & Peck Professor of Transport Innovation
Deputy Director Dr Vinayak Dixit, Senior Lecturer
Academics Dr Upali Vandebona, Senior Lecturer Dr Lavy Libman, Senior Lecturer (Computer Science and Engineering) Dr Lauren Gardner, Lecturer Dr Ken Doust, Adjunct Lecturer Dr Chen Cai, Conjoint Lecturer
Researchers Dr Hanna Grzybowska Dr Mojtaba Maghrebi Dr Emily Moylan Dr David Rey
We congratulate Dr Dixit, Prof. Waller, Dr Xiong and their GoGet Carshare partners for their cutting edge work.
Dr Zhitao Xiong
Centre Manager Ms Maria Lee
Adjunct & Visiting Academic Staff Visiting Fellow Dr Peter Hidas, Transport for New South Wales, Bureau of Transport Statistics (BTS), Sydney, Australia. Mr Alireza Ermagun, Researcher, Sharif University of Technology, Iran. Dr Jean-Luc Ygnace Research Engineer, French National Institute for Transportation Research (INRETS), France. Associate Professor Hillel Bar-Gera, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. Mr Haiyang Liu, Researcher, School of Transportation Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), Harbin, China. Senior Visiting Fellow Professor Sahotra Sarkar, University of Texas at Austin, Department of Philosophy, Section of Integrative Biology, Austin, Texas, USA. Visiting Professorial Fellow Professor Chi Xie, School of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China. OUR CENTRES
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water@ UNSW water research centre About Us The UNSW School of Civil and Environmental Engineering has a 60 year history of leading development of water technology in Australia. Apart from maintaining the largest postgraduate and undergraduate teaching programmes in water engineering in Australia, the School remains active in Australian fundamental water research: \\
surface and groundwater hydrology – ongoing Australian leadership of the quantifying of rainfall, runoff and groundwater flows at catchment scales (This history includes development of the lead Australian design document, Rainfall and Runoff, now published and developed by Engineers Australia).
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public health and water treatment – fundamental investigations of the chemistry and microbiology of water for urban use have been focussed within the Centre for Water and Waste Treatment over the last 20 years.
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civil and environmental hydraulics – practical Project-based and theoretical hydraulics research undertaken using the unique largescale facilities of the Water Research Laboratory at Manly Vale.
There are two primary centre nodes: at Kensington with staff and students accommodated within the Vallentine annex; and, at the Water Research Laboratory at Manly Vale. The centre is co-supervised by Richard Stuetz and Bill Peirson, who are respectively responsible for each node. Centre activities are grouped around three dominant research themes:
1. Water Supply Australia is a continent of low rainfall and its development and economic robustness is constrained by presently available and potential water supplies.
2. The Coast Over 86% of the Australian community live in the coastal zone with consequent environmental impact and climate vulnerabilities.
3. Sustainability To maintain Australia’s current level of population and economic growth, water and contamination management need innovative solutions in terms of environmental, energy and social considerations.
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WRL HIGHLIGHTS In 2014 the Water Research Laboratory celebrated 55 years of providing leading-edge expertise, research and training for industry and government, both in Australia and overseas. The continuing high quality of WRL’s research was acknowledged by our industry peers withan Engineers Australia’s (Sydney Division) Excellence Award (Environment and Heritage) for the Tomago Wetlands Restoration project, achieved in collaboration with NSW National Parks and NSW Fisheries. The project was also a finalist at Engineers Australia’s National Awards. Dr. Will Glamore, Duncan Rayner and Jamie Ruprecht have been guiding major wetland rehabilitation projects in several estuaries using environmental engineering design techniques. These approaches have successfully re-established major tracts of critically endangered saltmarsh habitat. Indeed, the
Tomago project recently attracted over 5000 migratory shorebirds in a single day 2014 has been a strong year for continued leadership in Australia’s water engineering profession at WRL: \\
During February and August, WRL hosted meetings of representatives of major dam owners from around Australia and internationally. These organisations are sponsoring a major Australian Research Council Linkage grant at UNSW led by Professor Robin Fell, Professor Chongmin Song, Dr. Kurt Douglas, Associate Professor Bill Peirson. The purpose of this project is to establish new engineering guidelines for managing erosion risks within major dams and on their spillways. PhD students Steven Pells and Rebecca Allan played a major role within these meetings.
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Members of the Tomago Project Team (L-R), Rob Williams, Kylie Russell (NSW Fisheries), Will Glamore (WRL), Ann Lindsey (Hunter Bird Observers), Jamie Ruprecht (WRL), Duncan Rayner (WRL), Jann Williams, Bill Peirson (WRL), Doug Beckers (National Parks & Wildlife Services).
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This year the National Flood Risk Advisory Group (NFRAG) released a landmark publication for floodplain management in Australia, the Australian Emergency Management Institute Handbook 7 Managing the floodplain - a guide to best practice in flood risk management in Australia. WRL’s Grantley Smith and Ron Cox were advisors to NFRAG and lead authors of the Technical Flood Risk Management Guideline on Flood Hazard, which directly supports Handbook 7.
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In early November, Alexandra Badenhop and Doug Anderson hosted a workshop on groundwater management for coastal local governments. A specific focus of the workshop included the management of groundwater extractions and recharge, construction dewatering, acid sulphate soils, groundwater contamination and the assessing the impacts of climate change.
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In November, Ron Cox, James Carley, Matt Blacka and Bill Peirson hosted a Coastal Climate Adaptation workshop at WRL. Senior figures from Australian coastal engineering and science joined with specialist coastal engineers Rod and Heidi Moritz of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to discuss pressing coastal problems in both the United States and Australia. This workshop has been a major activity of the Coastal Adaptation Research Node established by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage last year and the Australian Climate Change Adaptation Research Network for Settlements and Infrastructure – now in its 5th year.
Project and Research Highlights Pioneering the use of UAVs in Coastal and Environmental Engineering WRL are pioneering the use of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) drones for rapid and cost effective surveying in the coastal and environmental engineering sectors. A short 20 minute flight provides in excess of 30 million data points which has comparable accuracy to a traditional RTK-GPS survey. Over the past year WRL has deployed a fixed wing UAV over several locations including the Narrabeen-Collaroy embayment to monitor beach change, over the Big Swamp wetland near Taree to assess tidal inundation, and over Harrington Breakwater for asset management.
WRL Wins Large ARC Discovery Project Coastal erosion is confronting societies and the natural environment. The economic value in Australia of built assets at risk includes roads, commercial buildings and homes. Hard engineering entire coastlines is rarely feasible, with beaches providing the best coastal defense along the great majority of sandy coastlines. This project aims to deliver advanced understanding and the best available solutions to storm erosion prediction. Led by Prof Ian Turner, this $423K three year grant will bring together an international team of coastal scientists and engineers from the UK, the Netherlands and Australia.
Old Swamps and New Ideas – Project Update
ICCE2020
Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone (THPSS) are unique wetlands listed as endangered ecologic communities by both the NSW and Commonwealth Governments. These slow growing swamps have distinct ecological characteristics and are located throughout the Blue Mountains, Newnes Plateau and the Sydney Basin. The WRL report prepared for the Commonwealth Government has just been released and summarises:
The ASCE Coastal Engineering Research Council recently awarded the peak conference in coastal engineering, the International Conference on Coastal Engineering (ICCE) to Sydney in September 2020. This is a major coup for the local coastal engineering fraternity as bidding for the conference faced robust competition from several excellent international teams. Led by A/Prof Bill Peirson, a strong Australasian team had been promoting ICCE2020 Sydney on behalf of Engineers Australia’s National Committee of Coastal and Ocean Engineering, Business Events Sydney, PIANC Australia, the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand, and the New Zealand Coastal Society. The awarding of the conference to Sydney is a tribute to efforts of the entire bid team.
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Available information on THPSS and similar swamp communities and the way in which longwall mining can affect these communities.
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Existing techniques used by industry for mitigating impacts on swamps.
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Potential remediation techniques.
A major fieldwork research program is now underway.
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KENSINGTON Riverbank Vulnerability Assessment using a Decision Support System: Lower Hawkesbury River (Wisemans Ferry to Spencer – 29kms) in partnership with Hornsby Shire Council Shoalhaven River Floodplain Drainage Remediation Action Plan The lower Shoalhaven River estuary contains 39 large drainage sub-catchments, with many significantly impacted by acid sulphate soil drainage. remediation action plans are based on an estuary wide approach and outline the recommended on-ground works required to reduce or eliminate acid drainage from each site.
in Australia, Canada, China, India, Russia, United Kingdom, and the USA for the period 2000-2014. \\
We also prepared a background paper on coal seam gas resources to inform the NSW Office of the Chief Scientist and Engineer independent review of coal seam gas activities in NSW.
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Using WRL’s geotechnical centrifuge we have been able to fill in critical knowledge gaps in research and engineering practice on the vertical permeability of aquitards. Measures of vertical permeability are critically important for identifying competent aquitards that will protect water resource aquifers from the impacts of coal mining, coal seam gas and mineral resource development.
The Physics of Bubbles in Destratifying Reservoirs Staff at WRL have been solving problems associated with stratified water bodies with a specific focus on water quality issues in reservoirs for approximately 50 years.
New Coastal Imaging Stations on the Gold Coast
Groundwater Project News It has been a productive 12 months for WRL’s groundwater team in the water resources, coal seam gas and coal mining space. During this time we have, amongst many other projects, submitted the third and final report in a major international review of the impacts on water related to coal seam gas and coal mining developments. These studies are being undertaken for the Department of the Environment on the direction of the Independent Expert Scientific Committee on Coal Seam Gas and Large Coal Mining Development (IESC). Since March, WRL has finalised a comprehensive review of major projects underway or completed
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In March two new Coastal Imaging stations were installed on the Gold Coast. The new stations are located at Palm Beach and Surfers Paradise, and now takes the total number of Coastal Imaging cameras operated by WRL to 32.
Narrabeen Coastal Imaging Station Upgrade 3D Physical Modelling of Clump Point Jetty Breakwater The project was targeted at improving protection of the Clump Point Jetty near Mission Beach, approximately 100 km south of Cairns. from waves and improve berthing conditions.
Caseys Beach Seawall Upgrade Eurobodalla Shire Council engaged WRL in partnership with Aurecon to prepare the design for the Caseys
Water Research Centre 2014 – People
MANLY (WRL) Beach seawall upgrade. approximately 5 km south-east of the CBD of Batemans Bay.
WRL-Developed Barochambers Showcased at the Powerhouse Museum In February the Powerhouse Museum opened the exhibition “Engineering Excellence Awards 2013” showcasing innovative Australian engineering projects. One of the five projects showcased in the display was the specialist barochambers developed at WRL to test the amount of decompression that Australian fish species can safely tolerate.
Examining the Biological Impacts of Seawalls Big Problems Require Big Solutions at Big Swamp, Lower Manning River, NSW A two year collaborative project has turned a large acidic landscape into a new tidal wetland. WRL working with Greater Taree City Council and WetlandCare Australia, have undertaken a comprehensive scientific study to identify and remediate high priority acid farmlands on the Big Swamp floodplain, near Taree, NSW.. Based on Council’s preliminary monitoring, the water quality has significantly improved and the wetland vegetation is recovering.
PILAR Award Recognition WRL was recently nominated for the UNISDR’s inaugural Pacific Innovation and Leadership Award for Resilience (PILAR) for the recent work that we have undertaken in Rarotonga, Cook Islands. Led by Principal Coastal Engineer Matt Blacka, WRL’s work investigated hazards and risks from cyclone storm surge and waves for the township of Avarua (the capital of the Cook Islands). The award was presented at the Pacific Platform for Disaster Risk Management in Suva Fiji, with Matt receiving a Certificate of Recognition.
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Congratulations Ian
Two Engineers Celebrate 10 Years at WRL
Ian Turner is to be congratulated on his recent promotion to Professor.
Principal Coastal Engineer Matt Blacka and Project Engineer Alexandra Badenhop are both celebrating 10 years working at WRL.
Congratulations Kristen Splinter on her promotion to Senior Research Associate, as well as for securing a $20K Early Career Research Grant from the UNSW Australia Faculty of Engineering;
WRC STAFF Co-Directors
Dr Adele Jones
Project Engineers
Dr Andrew Kinsela
Alexandra Badenhop
Dr Peter Kovalsky
Ian Coghlan
Professor Richard Stuetz
Dr Nhat Le
Erica Davey
Deputy Director (WRL)
Dr Tongxu Liu
Chris Drummond
Dr Lucy Marshall
Dr Francois Flocard
Dr James McDonald
Nathan Guerry
Dr Rajeshwar Mehrotra
Duncan Rayner
Grantley Smith (WRL)
Dr Christopher Miller
Priom Rahman
Robert Steel
Dr Kate Murphy
James Ruprecht
Academics
Dr Gavin Parcsi
Technical and Administration
Associate Professor Bill Peirson
Professor Ian Turner
Business Managers
Professor Ashish Sharma Professor David Waite Associate Professor Ron Cox Associate Professor Stuart Khan
Dr Robert Parinussa Dr An Ninh Pham Dr David Roser Dr Hazel Rowley Dr Eric Sivret
Associate Professor Tommy Wiedmann
Dr Kristen D Splinter
Dr Stefan Felder
Dr Xinguang Wang
Dr Fiona Johnson
Dr Yuan Wang
Research Staff
Dr Fitsum Woldemeskel
Associate Professor Sivakumar Bellie Associate Professor Sven Lundie Dr Hoori Ajami Dr AJ Anceno Dr Radoslaw Barczak Dr Xavier Barthelemy
Dr Jacqueline Stroud
Michael Allis Judith Shinabeck
Professional Engineers WRL Principal Project Engineers Brett Miller Grantley Smith
Dr Mark Bligh
Senior Project Engineers
Dr Peter Brady
Doug Anderson
Dr Richard Collins
Matt Blacka
Dr Juan Pablo Alvarez Gaitan
James Carley
Dr Shikha Garg
Dr William Glamore
Dr Michalis Hadjikakou Dr Sanjeev Jha
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Thank you to all of our many supporters throughout industry and government. We look forward to continued collaboration in 2015. If you would like to find out more about our activities in 2014, please visit: www.wrl.unsw. edu.au, and follow the link to subscribe to our quarterly newsletter.
OUR CENTRES
Jodi Adams Lila Azouz Anna Blacka Robert Jenkins Coral Johnson Patricia Karwan Larry Paice Ross Mathews Hamish Studholme Joan Terlecky Robert Thompson
Water Reference Library Caroline Hedges
Visiting Academics Professor Nicholas Ashbolt, University of Cincinnati, USA
Associate Professor Mark Davidson, Plymouth University Associate Professor Gregoire Mariethoz, University of Lausanne, Switzerland Associate Professor Matthew McCabe, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia Associate Professor Andrew Rose, Southern Cross University, Australia Assistant Professor Mamoru Arita, Osaka University Dr Magdalena Bosnjak, Croatian National Institute of Public Health, Croatia Dr Baichuan Cao, Beijing Jiaotong University, China Dr Bruce Cathers, UNSW Australia Dr Heather Coleman, University of Ulster, United Kingdom Dr Stuart Dever, GHD, Australia Dr Manabu Fujii, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan Dr Weijia Gong, Harbin Institute of Technology, China Dr Jing Guan, Beijing Origin Water Technology, Beijing Dr Xiaomin Li, UNSW, Australia
Professor Gary Jones, eWater Limited, Australia
Dr Heng Liang, Harbin Institute of Technology, China
Professor Ian King, Member ASCE
Dr Simin Maleknia, UNSW, Australia
Professor Gregory Peters, Chalmers University, Sweden
Dr Michael Short, University of South Australia, Australia
Associate Professor Ian Cordery, UNSW, Australia
Dr Gareth Swarbrick, Pells Sullivan & Meynink, Sydney Australia
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Partners and Sponsors Never Stand Still
Funders of Academic Positions Mr Gary Johnston for the Gary Johnston Chair of Water Management
Engineering
Civil and Environmental Engineering
School Industry Partners
School Industry Supporters