Issue 20 – December 2015
From the Associate Dean Research As the 2015 academic year draws to a close, there is inevitably pause for reflection on the year past and the year ahead. The upcoming End of Year Staff Celebration provides the opportunity to stocktake the highlights of 2015, most especially through announcing five winners for the annual Research Excellence Awards. But in this final Research News for the year, when looking ahead to 2016 we begin to identify some of the opportunities and challenges which likely lie ahead. Implementation of the new UNSW 2025 Strategy will provide a crucial framework for organising our efforts to help attain the aspiration to be one of the top 50 research-intensive universities globally. The appointment of a new Dean to succeed Professor Tzannes will inject a new dimension and perhaps new priorities in that process. The identification of urbanisation as one of the prospective ‘grand challenges’ to help focus UNSW’s ambitions in social engagement and thought leadership represents a significant opportunity for the faculty. At the national level, the imminent release of the results for ERA (Excellence in Research for Australia) 2015 will also inform research priorities not only in 2016 but in the lead-up to the next ERA likely in 2018. At the same time, with increasing discussion in the tertiary sector about knowledge exchange, innovation, industry relations, and commercialisation, both ‘social impact’ and industry fundedresearch are destined to become a significant issue. The allocated research budget for 2016 has had to be trimmed to meet fiscal constraints at the faculty and university level, but at this stage it is still intended to fund the same spectrum of research support programs in place this year. Next year will also be important as the faculty beds down its investment in Urban Informatics, led by Professor Chris Pettit, and High Performance Architecture, with strategic new appointments already in train. The new postgraduate node of excellence funded by the CRC for Low Carbon Living will be an important element of this turn towards architectural science. At the same time we will be investigating further strategic opportunities for investing in enhanced research capacity in other subject areas, existing and new. All in all, 2016 fast approaches as a year for both consolidation and continued innovation for our research agenda, which ultimately rests on the valued contributions of individuals, clusters, partnerships, programs and centres. The welcome Christmas-New Year break will hopefully give everyone the chance to recharge their batteries and launch full steam ahead into 2016. BE Research News will resume in February 2016. Rob Freestone Associate Dean Research
Researcher Highlights 2015 PLANNING INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA (WA) AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN CUTTING EDGE RESEARCH AND TEACHING Congratulations to Senior Lecturer Christine Steinmetz for being awarded the PIA (WA) Award for Excellence in the Cutting Edge Research and Teaching Category her book titled ‘(Sub) Urban Sexscapes: Geographies and Regulation of the Sex Industry.’ This award recognises outstanding achievement in planning and scholarship and excellence in teaching. The judge’s citation for the award read:
“The judging panel felt that this was a truly original piece of high quality research. It has taken a taboo land use and applied rigorous research and analysis. The work moves the land use issue out of the emotive and reactive to a considered and comprehensive understanding of the forces that shape the types, economics and geography of adult sex services. It goes beyond the parochial concerns to look at the industry in an international context and provides comparison and an outline of emerging trends. The informed and insightful work is guided by a methodology that can be applied to other land uses that fall outside the normal planning framework.”
ARTICLE SELECTED TO APPEAR IN EMERALD GEMS PUBLICATION Congratulations to Professor Martin Loosemore as his article titled ‘The politics of sameness in the Australian construction industry: Comparing operative & manager attitudes towards cultural diversity’ has been selected by Emerald to appear in ‘Built Environment & Property Management-A Focus on Australia.’ This is a unique collection of articles that present the very highest level of scholarship in the field. Emerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society and has a portfolio of nearly 300 journals, more than 2500 books and over 450 teaching cases.
MAJOR RESEARCH EQUIPMENT & INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVE (MREII) AWARDED TO PROFESSOR CHRIS PETTIT Congratulations to Professor Chris Pettit who has been awarded $130,000 for equipment supporting the establishment of a portable geographical visualization and virtual reality lab. The Geographical Visualization and Virtual Reality Lab will be a portable state-of-the-art tactical facility supporting multidisciplinary, collaborative research and decision-making across a number of application domains including: urban science, environmental hazards, geography, geology, and climate science. The lab will enable researchers to explore and enhance understanding of big and complex datasets in the aforementioned disciplines. With the ability to visualize 3D and 4D datasets, the lab will support data driven collaborative place-making analysis, and the modelling and simulation of natural and built environment future scenarios.
Meet the Researchers – Lisa Zamberlan Lisa Zamberlan is a Senior Lecturer and Design Studio Leader in the Interior Architecture program. She teaches design studio across all levels of the program and, in partnership with Bruce Watson, coordinates the Interior Architecture public exhibition program. Lisa’s research examines three interrelated themes: discipline identity in interior architecture; the practice of learning and teaching in the design studio; and the future of design practice. Her Masters thesis, completed in 2009, considered prevailing attitudes in the scholarship of interior architecture in relation to academic and gender politics and provided an analysis of contemporary practitioners in the field. Aligned with a Faculty Learning and Teaching Fellowship from 2009 – 2012, her research has since focused on transformative learning in the design studio and the changing landscape of contemporary design practice. Supported by Faculty FRG (Faculty Research Grants) and SoTL (Scholarship of Teaching & Learning) research grants, her recent publications examine the role of collective creativity in contemporary practice, reconsidering the nature of creativity in design education and the impact of peer learning in the design studio. This research has been published in Design Issues, IDEA, International Journal of Art and Design Education, Journal of Peer Learning and International Journal of Design Education. In collaboration with Dr Stephanie Wilson from the University of Sydney, Lisa also has a current proposal with the Office of Learning and Teaching to investigate emerging forms of creative capability in contemporary practice in order to support education for design-led enterprise and innovation.
BE Research in the News Susan Thompson: Report says, suburbs are in a healthy state. Mosman Daily, Sydney, 5 November 2015. Bill Randolph: Leppington fields become sites for 9000 new homes. SMH, 5 November 2015. Bill Randolph: Leppington to get 9000 homes. St George & Sutherland Shire Leader, 10 November 2015. Bill Randolph: The inequality in our suburbs is growing worse. SMH, 10 November 2015. View Online. UNSW: Laws to protect owners of units. Penrith Press, Sydney, 10 November 2015. UNSW: Building bond scheme to bail out new buyers. Inner West Couriers, Sydney, 10 November 2015. Bill Randolph: Suburb planned for 30,000. Campbelltown-Macarthur Advertiser, Sydney. 11 November 2015. Bill Randolph: New suburb coming. Camden Advertiser, Sydney. 11 November 2015.
UNSW: Bond empowers unit buyers. Blacktown Advocate, Sydney. 11 November 2015. Martin Loosemore: How to Ensure Innovation and Productivity Construction. Sourceable.net. 13 November 2015. View Online. Paul Osmond: Interview with Sara Wilkinson, Associate Professor, School of Built Environment, UTS. Radio National, Canberra. 14 November 2015. Hal Pawson: Interview with Professor Hal Pawson, UNSW. 2UE Sydney, Mornings with Stuart Bocking. 16 November 2015. Bill Randolph: Our high life future. Southern Courier, Sydney. 17 November 2015. Hal Pawson: Slim pickings for renters in Sydney. Sydney Morning Herald. 21 November 2015. Jonathan Fox: Blowing hot or cool depends on what buildings suck in the city. Sydney Morning Herald. 21 November 2015. Bill Randolph: Owners of crumbling units may be stuck with them: report. Sydney Morning Herald. 25 November 2015. Ryan van den Nouwelant: Homing in on a solution. Northern District Times, Sydney. 25 November 2015. Laurence Troy, Bill Randolph, Hazel Easthope & Laura Crommelin: When developers come knocking: why strata laws shake-up won’t deliver cheaper housing. The Conversation. 25 November 2015. View Online. Bill Randolph, Linda Corkery: The ‘pitch’ battle for Sydney’s green space intensifies as population density rises. Sydney Morning Herald. 27 November 2015. View Online. Hal Pawson: The price of being a global city: Sydney’s rent crisis. Sydney Morning Herald. 28 November 2015. View Online. Hal Pawson: The Walled City. Sydney Morning Herald. 28 November 2015. Bill Randolph: The battle of Sydney’s green space. Sydney Morning Herald. 28 November 2015. UNSW: Strata laws rushed without research, says NSW opposition. Sydney Morning Herald. 29 November 2015. View Online. UNSW: Opposition attacks ‘sloppy’ process behind UNSW strata laws. Sydney Morning Herald.30 November 2015.
Have you have had your research mentioned in the media recently? Send details to Serap Yilmaz for inclusion in the next newsletter.
Faculty Seminar th
On Monday 30 November, around 25 BE staff and HDR students attended a research seminar presented by Simin Davoudi, Professor of Environmental Policy and Planning at the University of Newcastle, UK. In her presentation, Professor Davoudi outlined how resilience, as a catch-all concept is increasingly replacing sustainability as the main anticipatory action for coping with the state of flux. Professor Davoudi spoke about the meaning of resilience in a range of contexts and identified the conceptual and normative implications of translating resilience from its ecological
origin to the social domain. The presentation was thought provoking as Professor Davoudi explained that the ideological fit between resilience and neoliberal mentality allows for public policy to become more receptive to the concept of resilience.
News from the Centres CITY FUTURES RESEARCH CENTRE During the month of November City Futures Blog had 670 page views from 358 visitors and uploaded 6 new posts:
Metro governance and planning It’s not all SINKS, DINKS and nuclear families Cities@UNSW Crtl+H the tax reform debate: find ‘GST’; replace with ‘land tax’ The inequality in our suburbs Big Data and Smart Cities
CRC LOW CARBON LIVING The CRC for Low Carbon Living’s first Student Forum for researchers in low carbon living and the built environment on Wednesday 25 November attracted close to 60 students from around the country to the University of New South Wales Kensington campus, ahead of the CRCLCL’s Participants Annual Forum at the Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney. Part of the CRCLCL’s strategy to prepare industry-ready graduates for the built environment sector, the event included student poster presentations, professional development sessions, and a presentation from international guest speaker and leading expert on solar, organisational theory and innovation management, Professor Nicole Woolsey Biggart from University of California Davis. Professor Biggart talked to students about the benefits of experiential learning, or ‘learning by doing’, and encouraged them to participate in the Solar Decathlon, an international competition to design, build and operate a full-scale, functional solar-powered house.
HDR News Graduating Students Congratulations to the following HDR candidates who have recently received their completion letters. • •
Laura Crommelin (PhD), supervised by Simon Pinnegar and Rob Freestone Anna Field (MPhil), supervised by Catherine Lassen and Harry Margalit
We wish them well in their future research endeavours. Congratulations also to the following HDR candidates who also recently completed their degrees and graduated in the November Ceremony:
Name
Degree
Supervisors
MPhil
Cynthia Wang, Imriyas Kamardeen and Jim Plume
MPhil
Hazel Easthope and Gethin Davison
Rui Wang
PhD
Sid Newton and Russell Lowe
David Marchant
PhD
Jim Plume and Harry Margalit
Alex (Peng) Zhao Sian Thompson
Imriyas Kamardeen and Haitham Alrasheed
PhD
Nelia Hyndman-Rizk
Ji Yu
PhD
Alan Peters and Hoon Han
Events 1.
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Wellbeing Workshop – Focusing on positive strategies - Thursday 3 December - Red Centre, Level 2, AGSU Room (RC2001) 11am-12:30pm CAPS Workshop Title: Wellbeing and Psychological Resilience for the Postgrad Journey Presenter: Ed Lukaszewski – Counsellor, UNSW Counselling and Psychological Services This 90 minute workshop/seminar will be run by CAPS Services. This workshop will focus on practical strategies for balancing the demands of postgraduate study, work and family life. These strategies include: • • • • • •
Recognising sources of stress and how stresses affect our wellbeing Building supportive relationships with teachers, fellow students and friends Developing good communication and problem-solving skills Making realistic plans and managing time effectively Establishing boundaries between work and non-work Maintaining physical & mental health through regular sleep, exercise, balanced diet, & meditation.
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The Cohort Cultural Odyssey Day 2015 – Thursday 10 December (10am-2pm) The whole cohort is very excited about the Cultural Odyssey day; this event has become very popular with the cohort and is much anticipated. Once again we will gather at 10am to share wonderful stories about food, culture and fashion from around the world. Then we will stop for a delicious lunch, some students have also offered to bring a plate of national food to share with the rest of the cohort. Students can come dressed in their national costume; National wear is encouraged but is optional.
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PGRS End of Year Dinner – Friday, 4 December TANDOORI PALACE Dinner, Karaoke, Guest Host & Belly dancer This year we are all off to The Tandoori Palace on Oxford Street Darlinghurst for an authentic Indian Feast. Teamed up with a night of hosted entertainment and then followed by Curry-oke should make for a great night.
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Monthly Cohort Workshop th
Last month’s monthly cohort workshop was held on Wednesday 4 November, we had two guest speakers from the cohort come along to give a talk and share some tips with the rest of the students. Masud Karim shared his tips on how he went about setting up his research survey questionnaire on Survey Monkey. He talked about his experience and the trials and challenges of data gathering through the use of survey method. His research topic is: “Co-benefits of Low Carbon Policies in the Built Environment: An Investigation into Adoption of Co-benefits in Australian Local Government” Mao Chindapol talked about her interview process and the unique questionnaire format she used to incorporate the challenges of interviewing the elderly. Her presentation was titled “An interview process: in practice”
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The last monthly cohort workshop for 2015 is scheduled on Wednesday 2 December at 11am in the AGSM room (2001). The DPGR will be attending and all HDR students are encouraged to come along to contribute their ideas and opinions.
Announcements Anjalika Wijesurendra and Phillippa Carnemolla were both invited by ABC Radio to feature in their Science Show, following their presentation at the UNSW 3MT thesis competition in September. This segment was recorded and will be broadcast at a future date.
Congratulations to Anjalika and Phillippa.
Did You Know…? …the summer break is the ideal time to record and check your 2015 publications? The annual checking process of publications for the Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC) return is about to begin. The return includes research income and publications information and impacts the annual funding we receive for research activities. If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to log into ROS and check your 2015 publications. There are four important tasks to cover off: •
Check for any “Pending” publications and claim or reject them as appropriate.
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Look at your 2015 publications list and make sure it’s complete. If it isn’t, add any relevant publications and nominate them for HERDC consideration.
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Go to “HERDC” >> “My Nominations” and check if any of your nominated publications require further information.
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Also in “HERDC” >> “My Nominations”, check for any publications that say not nominated and nominate them if they are eligible for HERDC.
More information on the HERDC return, including the criteria for nominating a publication for the HERDC collection, can be found on the faculty’s research intranet. If you have any questions regarding ROS contact Amy Barker, our outreach librarian, or faculty research manager, Toni Hodge. Please aim to have all of your updates completed by the end of March 2016
Upcoming Events Faculty Briefing: UNSW Data Archive th
Tuesday 15 December The UNSW Data Archive provides long-term data management and storage options for UNSW research staff and students. Members of the Data Archive Project team will provide a briefing on the data archive and how you can put it to use. th
RSVP: Serap Yilmaz by Friday 11 December International High Performance Built Environments Conference: A Sustainable Built Environment Conference 2016 series 17-18 November 2016, Sydney Australia The conference aims to ‘drive innovation in design, planning & management of high-profile built environments as well as promote education and collaboration in the field.’ Call for abstracts are now th open and the deadline to submit abstracts is Friday 4 December, 2015. More information and to Register
Publications The following 2015 research activities have been entered into ROS since the release of the last newsletter. Book Chapters Lieske, S. (2015). Visualization Methods for Linking Scientific and Local Knowledge of Climate Change Impacts. In Planning Support Systems and Smart Cities (pp. 373-389). Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-18368-8_20 Conference Papers Pakzad, P., & Osmond, P. W. (2015). Developing a sustainability indicator set for measuring green infrastructure performance. In Urban Planning and Architecture Design for Sustainable Development. Lecce, Italy. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.2343.1121 Diaz, C., King, S., & Osmond, P. (2015). Reconceptualization of climate classifications and climate analysis tools to support evaporative building cooling strategies in the hot humid tropics. In A. Lemonsu, & V. Masson (Eds.), ICUC9 - 9th International Conference on Urban Climate. Toulouse, France. Retrieved from https://www.conftool.com/icuc9/index.php?page=browseSessions&form_session=117&prese ntations=hide Williams, P., & Williams, A. (2015). Planning law and sustainability in Australia: achievements and challenges. In M. Macoun, & K. Maier (Eds.), Definite Space - Fuzzy Responsibility. Book of Proceedings AESOP Annual Congress 2015 (pp. 749-760). Czech Technical University, Prague, Czech Republic: AESOP. Easthope, H. (2015). Losing Control at Home?. In European Network of Housing Researchers Conference. Lisbon, Portugal. Easthope, H., & Stone, W. (2015). The challenge of private housing market settlement for newly arrived migrants. In Australasian Housing Researchers Conference. Troy, L., Easthope, H., & Randolph, B. (2015). ‘It depends what you mean by the term rights’: What debates around strata termination can tell us about understandings of housing rights in Australia. In Multi-owned Properties Colloquium. Melbourne, Australia. Sherry, C., & Easthope, H. (2015). High density development in Sydney and the need for a new inner city high school. In Multi-owned Properties Colloquium. Melbourne, Australia. Conference Presentations Crommelin, L. M. (2015, October 15). "Tales from the Intersection of Creative Class Theory, Place Branding, and Urban Revitalization in the Post-industrial Cities of Detroit and Newcastle". In Spaces and Flows 6th International Conference on Urban and ExtraUrban Studies. Chicago, USA. Retrieved from http://spacesandflows.com/2015-conference/special-focus Maginn, P. J., & Steinmetz, C. A. (2015, September 15). 'The 50 Shades Effect': Geography, typology and regulation of adult retailing in Perth and Sydney. In Policy and Politics. Bristol, UK. Retrieved from http://www.bris.ac.uk/sps/policypolitcs/policyandpolitics2015/ Easthope, H. (2015, November 6). Strata Schemes Termination. In Strata Community Australia (NSW) Convention. Sydney, Australia. Easthope, H. (2015, March 19). Strata Schemes Termination. In Australian College of Community Association Lawyers Conference. Brisbane, Australia. Journal Articles Williams, P. (2015). The affordable housing conundrum: shifting policy approaches in Australia. Town Planning Review, 86(6), 651-675.
Williams, P. (2015). Uncertainty in planning for places. New Planner, September 2015(104), 18. Smith, E., Keys, N., Lieske, S., & Smith, T. (2015). Assessing Socio-Economic Vulnerability to Climate Change Impacts and Environmental Hazards in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia. Geographical Research, n/a. doi:10.1111/1745-5871.12137 Ruan, X. (2015). Heyuan shenchu de zhongxi juzhu wenhua 合院深处的中西居住文化 [The Inner Meanings of Chinese and Roman Courtyard]. In Wenhui xueren – wenhui bao文汇学人 – 文汇 报 [Wenhui Scholar of Wenhui Daily] (pp. 10-13). Williams, P. (2015). Thumbs down to residential flat development. New Planner, June 2015(103), 33. Lieske, S. N., McLeod, D. M., & Coupal, R. H. (2015). Infrastructure Development, Residential Growth and Impacts on Public Service Expenditure. Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, 8(2), 113130. doi:10.1007/s12061-015-9140-8 Pinnegar, S., Randolph, B., & Freestone, R. (2015). Incremental urbanism: characteristics and implications of residential renewal through owner-driven demolition and rebuilding. Town Planning Review, 86(3), 279-301. doi:10.3828/tpr.2015.18 Hamerlinck, J. D., & Lieske, S. N. (2015). Siting Carbon Conversion Energy Facilities With Spatial Multicriteria Decision Analysis. Papers in Applied Geography, 1(2), 197-204. doi:10.1080/23754931.2015.1009330 Grant, B., Baldwin, C., Lieske, S. N., & Martin, K. (2015). Using participatory visual methods for information exchange about climate risk in canal estate communities. Australian Journal of Maritime & Ocean Affairs, 7(1), 23-37. doi:10.1080/18366503.2015.1014012 Lieske, S. N., & Hamerlinck, J. D. (2015). Integrating planning support systems and multicriteria evaluation for energy facility site suitability evaluation. Journal of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association, 26(1), 13-24. Retrieved from http://www.urisa.org/clientuploads/directory/Documents/Journal/Vol26No1.pdf Reports Troy, L., Easthope, H., Randolph, B., & Pinnegar, S. (2015). Renewing the Compact City: Interim Report. Sydney, Australia: City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Australia.
Funding/Research Opportunities Alexander von Humboldt Foundation | Research Awards and Fellowships (DE) The Humboldt Foundation promotes academic cooperation between scientists and scholars from abroad and from Germany. Research fellowships and research awards allow you to come to Germany to work on a research project you have chosen yourself together with a host and collaborative partner. Deadline: Applications accepted anytime
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Impact Philanthropy Application Program Perpetual operates an annual IMPACT Philanthropy Application Program to support many of our clients and co-trustees in making decisions on where their distributions could be directed. This program recognises the important role of the philanthropist, good grant making and governance in building a healthy and responsive charitable NFP sector. Deadline: Friday 4 December 2015
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Ian Potter Foundation | Round 1 Grants - Expressions of Interest - Arts, Community Wellbeing, Education, Environment & Conservation, Health & Disability
Deadline: Friday 11 December 2015
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NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship Program The NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship Program provides funding in the amount of $25,000 per award to Ph.D. students who are researching topics that will lead to major advances in the graphics and highperformance computing industries, and are investigating innovative ways of leveraging the power of the GPU. The sponsor will select up to ten students each year who have the talent, aptitude and initiative to work closely with us early in their careers. Recipients not only receive crucial funding for their research, but are able to conduct ground-breaking work with access to NVIDIA products, technology and some of the most talented minds in the field. Deadline: Friday 15 January 2016
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Mellon (Paul) Centre for Studies in British Art- Postdoctoral Fellowships The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art offers a variety of Fellowships (for individuals) and Grants (for institutions and individuals) twice a year in a strictly timetabled schedule. The programme supports scholarship, academic research and the dissemination of knowledge in the field of British art and architectural history from the medieval period to the present, although all supported topics must have an historical perspective. Deadline: Sunday 31 January 2016
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Urban Communication Foundation This annual James W. Carey Urban Communication Grant supports communication research that enhances urban social interaction and civic engagement in an age of global communication. Deadline: Sunday 31 January 2016
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Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Fine Arts The Graham Foundation offers Production, Presentation and Publication Support Grants to organizations. These grants assist organizations with the production-related expenses that are necessary to take a project from conceptualization to realization and public presentation. These projects include, but are not limited to, publications, exhibitions, installations, films, new media projects, conferences/lectures, and other public programs. Deadline: Thursday 25 February 2016
Related Links BE Research Resources UNSW Research
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