research & innovation ISSUE 2 2015
Inside DEMENTIA GRANTED
Latest fellowships and funding to bring new understanding
INDIGENOUS ART & EMPIRE During the colonial settlement of Sydney
CREATING CONNECTIONS
Research-industry partnerships in the spotlight
The University of Wollongong ranks in the top 2% of research universities worldwide Source: QS World University Rankings 2016/2016, Academic Rankings of World Universities 2015 & Times Higher Education World Universtiy Rankings 2015/2016
Research & Innovation is the research magazine of UOW. Contact: Research Services Office Building 20, Level 1 University of Wollongong Northfields Ave, Wollongong NSW, Australia, 2522 T: 02 4221 3386 E: research@uow.edu.au Subscriptions: Visit www.uow.edu.au/research/newsletter to subscribe to electronic versions of Research & Innovation. This publication is produced by: Sharon Martin Amanda Morgan With thanks to our other UOW contributors
For updates, follow uowresearch
Contents
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FROM THE DESK Message from Director, UOW Global Challenges
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07 staff awards
Numbers stack up for Researcher of the Year, Professor Aidan Sims
10 learning for life
The case for quality early childhood education
14 indigenous art & empire
The corroboree as performance art during the colonial settlement of Sydney
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PITCH PERFECT
Uncovering bright, energetic, entrepreneurial- minded people for UOW Pitch
24 postcards from abroad
Global Challenges Travel Scholars and PhD Scholars take on the world
12 destined for discovery
Early career researchers shine in latest ARC funding outcomes
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Endless possibilities
PhD student dreams of breaking new ground studying the magnetic fields of superconductors
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FROM THE DESK
Message from the Director, UOW Global Challenges with external organisations, industry and community groups towards practical outcomes. UOW’s challenge-led funding scheme Global Challenges is in its third year, and from this experience are instructive insights for the broader national picture. The good news is that this type of funding can work, given the right institutional architecture. Critical are stable institutions. Challengeled funding should stem from a different, central pool than for recurrent funding of schools and research centres. Researchers are prepared to embrace challenge-led projects when underlying employment conditions, funding mechanisms and institutional structures are not threatened by short-term funding cycles and crises. Federally, the implication is that creating new opportunities for challenge-led funding ought not come at the expense of ‘blue sky’ research resources allocated through the Australian Research Council.
Challenge-led funding requires a shift in approach for institutions looking to activate cutting-edge research projects and collaborations. Here, Professor Chris Gibson offers insights for success, based on the UOW Global Challenges program. Following the lead of the University College London in the UK and Princeton in the US, Australian universities in search of new funding sources outside of the traditional government channels are creating their own challenge-led funding schemes. Challenge-led research involves funding bodies (such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) setting a global agenda, or a specified goal, and asking research teams or institutions to respond with project proposals. The listed challenges are not meant to be universal or comprehensive. Typically, they are framed around a high profile societal or environmental problem, and encourage researchers to collaborate
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Another key variable that underpins success is designing a program of funding that taps into researchers’ core motivations for pushing forward knowledge frontiers and engages them from the onset. For example, researchers should be encouraged and expected to deliver high quality scholarly outcomes, and to pursue new external grant funding opportunities – both key markers of success for researchers that already fuel motivation. The result is strikingly ambitious research that combines practical relevance, a social conscience, and a sharp scholarly edge. One of the core challenges in UOW’s program is ‘Manufacturing Innovation’ where engineers and materials scientists are supported to develop new products that improve society, but also combine efforts with other disciplines to ensure innovations are adopted. Researchers in materials science matched University challenge funding with a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant to develop the next generation condom that feels better to the user, and thus promises higher rates of use and accompanying reductions in sexuallytransmitted disease in the developing world. Social marketers are exploring how to diffuse the new product as socially acceptable. Challenge-led funding can motivate a combination of talented people with a shared desire to make a difference. A third variable that underpins success is setting a high bar on interdisciplinary researcher mix, and an assessment process focused on face-to-face ‘pitches’, interviews and consultation, rather than paper-only applications minimising the
risk of new funding rules being ‘gamed’. At UOW, successful Global Challenges projects must include researchers from at least three of the University’s five faculties, and those researchers must demonstrate in an interview context their shared passion or goals. Equally loved and hated, the ‘three faculty rule’, as it has become known, has encouraged researchers to have conversations with, and find, unlikely allies across vastly different research fields. It is a tough criterion to meet, but most who have made the effort enjoy the challenge. From our experience, it is clear that a kind of chemistry happens when truly novel combinations of researchers are brought together on such projects. One brought together an unlikely team of biochemical scientists, engineers and creative artists who discovered a shared fascination with paint – as a creative medium, a surface covering, and a fundamental problem of physics and radiation. To make the most from such radical combinations of researchers, challengeled schemes need to take some risks – initially funding riskier projects and teams who have never collaborated together before. This is precisely the opposite logic to conventional funding schemes that only reward teams with proven collaborative experience. Our key insight is that the right kind of program design and institutional setting is needed to capitalise on the latent resource that is academic freedom. Challengeled research schemes tread a fine line between demanding accountability for practical outcomes of research, and telling researchers in a top-down fashion what they should be doing research on. Too much top-down directive deadens curiosity, enthusiasm and passion, and risks producing uninspiring research outcomes. Stable institutions, secure funding for foundational research, and a solid understanding of what motivates researchers in the first place, are key prerequisites if Australian researchers are to truly respond to our societal challenges. >> www.uow.edu.au/transformingresearch Professor Chris Gibson Director, UOW Global Challenges Program
NEWS
Important step in bacterial DNA replication uncovered
Unravelling the molecular mechanisms of DNA replication to provide fundamental knowledge of disease mechanisms and antibiotic resistance Imagine a traffic accident with a 20 tonne truck colliding with a small car. It can be a head-on or a rear-end collision. Does it matter which direction the car is facing, and what chance does it have of stopping the truck? Now let’s scale this imaginary scene down a billion-fold and on this occasion the truck moving at super high speed is the molecular machinery that copies the DNA in cells that are soon to divide and the car is a roadblock that never ever stops the truck when it is hit from behind. No surprise there! But when the car is hit from the front, it can stop the truck dead within a few centimetres. But it only does this half of the time. The other half of collisions result in the truck continuing without even slowing at all, as if the car wasn’t there. A team of scientists, including four researchers from UOW, have now reported in the prestigious journal, Nature, how at the molecular level in the bacteria cell the ‘car’ (also known as the replication terminator protein Tus) stops the ‘truck’ only when it faces in one direction, and why it does it only half of the time. The answer lay in a careful study of the effect of changes in the structure of Tus as it is bound to Ter, the DNA sequence it recognises. Both Tus and Ter were systematically changed in small ways and the effects on the strength of their interactions, their atomic structures, and the efficiency at which the Tus-bound blocks the DNA replication machinery
were studied and correlated. This required the use of three different techniques in a collaborative effort among three research groups. Solving this puzzle of the ‘truck’ and ‘car’ scenario at the molecular level is another significant step in generally understanding how DNA gets replicated in cells. It’s all part of unravelling the molecular mechanisms of DNA replication and providing the fundamental knowledge required to understand disease mechanisms and antibiotic resistance. “We have now basically worked out how particular proteins bound to DNA can be a barrier to DNA replication and how a faster moving replication machinery can escape the blockage. This has implications for understanding how similar blocks may form and be overcome in human cells,” says UOW’s lead author of the Nature paper, Professor Nick Dixon. “When talking about ‘trucks’ and ‘cars’ – one would expect faster moving trucks to be more efficient in crashing through the cars. “And that’s what we found at the molecular level too – faster moving DNA copying machines get through the ‘car’ roadblock more often than slower ones.” Fundamental problems about how molecules work in cells have intrigued Professor Dixon for the past 35 years. “Nine years ago in a paper in Cell [2], we thought we had the answer, but there were still some unexplained aspects that continued to bug me. So I arranged to
work with three collaborators with leading expertise in new technologies. “As a result I think we now understand this intriguing problem in molecular detail as exquisite as any other mechanistic challenge in biology.” The breakthrough was achieved using new techniques in single-molecule biochemistry developed by UOW Laureate Fellow, Professor Antoine van Oijen. A pioneer and leader in his field of research, Professor van Oijen has developed biophysical tools to study, at the level of individual molecules, important molecular processes such as DNA replication, viral fusion and membrane transport. Professor Dixon’s Nature paper co-authors from the School of Chemistry, the Centre for Medical and Molecular Bioscience and the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute at UOW were Dr Slobodan Jergic, Dr Zhi-Qiang Xu and Associate Professor Aaron Oakley. The paper’s external authors were PhD student Mohamed Elshenawy and Mohamed Sobhy, Masateru Takahashi and Samir Hamdan from the Division of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia. >> Mohamed M. Elshenawy, Slobodan Jergic, Zhi-Qiang Xu, Mohamed A. Sobhy, Masateru Takahashi, Aaron J. Oakley, Nicholas E. Dixon, Samir M. Hamdan Replisome speed determines the efficiency of the Tus-Ter replication termination barrier, Nature, Vol. 525, Iss. 7569
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RESEARCH
Dementia in focus: New NHMRC fellows and project grant recipients Announced in November, UOW received six NHMRC grants, including the two Fellowships, worth $3.2 million. Four researchers are also investigators on projects hosted at other universities. Project Grants (three-years): A/Prof Michael Kelso, Prof Marie Ranson and Prof Mingdong Huang ($611,966) Repurposing Amiloride into Breast Cancer Drugs with a Dual-Targeting Mechanism. A/Prof Chao Deng and Dr Jiamei Lian ($576,495.50) Understanding the mechanisms for ameliorating/preventing antipsychotic-induced obesity in paediatric patients. Dr Amy Wyatt (New Investigator) ($461,495.50) The effect of hypochlorite on the toxicity and clearance of the Alzheimer’s disease-associated amyloid beta peptide. 2015 NHMRC-ARC Dementia Fellow Dr Lyn Phillipson
The impact of reforms to home care arrangements for people with dementia will be the focus of new research by UOW’s Dr Lyn Phillipson, who has been awarded $571,648 as part of a NHMRC-ARC Dementia Fellowship. Meanwhile, characterising new therapeutic targets for Alzheimer’s disease prevention and treatment will be the focus of Professor Brett Garner, who received more than $687,000 for a five-year NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship. Dr Amy Wyatt also received over $461,000 in funding to examine the relationship between inflammation in the brain and the accumulation of amyloid beta in the development of Alzheimer’s. As part of her research, Dr Phillipson will examine how changes to Home Care Packages (HCP) – which allow people aged 65 and over to receive care in their own home – will affect people with dementia. Under the new requirements, introduced on 1 July, HCPs now have to be delivered under a model of Consumer Directed Care (CDC), in which consumers are given greater freedom to advocate for, and engage with, services for their care. “These are some of the biggest reforms Australia has seen in aged care,” Dr Phillipson, from the School of Health and Society, said. “We want to understand the impact of these changes, in particular on those who may be less able to clearly articulate their needs because of dementiarelated cognitive impairment.” Her project, titled Consumer Directed Care: Understanding and promoting participation and care outcomes for people living with dementia in receipt of a Home Care Package, will examine questions including:
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Development Grant (three-years): • How engaged are people with dementia in the process of establishing a HCP under the new arrangements? • How do we know that their needs have been identified and are being met? • To what degree does their ability to participate contribute to the care outcomes of people with dementia ? • What strategies are useful to promote greater participation and control in care for people with living with dementia? The Dementia Research Development Fellowships Scheme is a new, joint initiative by the NHMRC and ARC to increase research capacity in dementia. One of just a few health services based research projects being undertaken by the 76 Fellows awarded funding under the scheme, Dr Phillipson said her study, to be based at the Australian Health Services Research Institute, will provide much needed information for policy and practice to ensure people with dementia receive the most appropriate care under a HCP. Professor Garner, from the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, received his second NHMRC Senior Fellowship as part of funding announcements made in late October. “My goal is to fully characterise the molecular targets we have recently discovered in order to provide therapeutically plausible approaches to treat Alzheimer’s, a devastating disease that lacks a curative treatment,” Professor Garner said. Dr Wyatt, also from IHMRI, received a New Investigator project grant to focus on the toxicity and clearance of amyloid beta when it is modified by hypochlortie, a chemical that is generated during inflammation.
Dr Marco Petasecca, Prof Anatoly Rozenfeld, A/Prof Michael Lerch, Dr Joseph Bucci, Mr Marco Favoino, Mr Francesco Carriero ($359,105) 3D-BrachyView: a 3D real-time virtual reality intraoperative Quality Assurance system for brachytherapy. Senior Research Fellowship (five-years): Prof Brett Garner ($687,975) Defining the mechanisms by which ABCA7 and apoE control Alzheimer’s disease risk. Functional characterisation of new therapeutic targets for dementia prevention and treatment. NHMRC-ARC Dementia Research Development Fellowship (four-years): Dr Lyn Phillipson ($571,648) Consumer Directed Care: Understanding and promoting participation and care outcomes for people living with dementia in receipt of a Home Care Package. UOW researchers on Project Grants led by other institutions: Prof Antoine van Oijen (Lead CI Dr Till Boecking, UNSW) Formin’ actin filaments associated with cancer Dr Justin Yerbury and Dr Lezanne Ooi (Lead CI A/Prof Ian Blair, Macquarie University) The role of mutant cyclin F in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Dr Xiaoqi Feng (Lead CI Dr Thomas Astell-Burt, UWS) What types of local built environment synergise with, or antagonise the benefits of clinical management for the prevention of cardiovascular events among people with type 2 diabetes mellitus? Longitudinal analysis of a cohort of 20,765 Australians Prof Brett Garner ($857,656 Lead CI Dr Anthony Do, UNSW) Restoring neuroprotective sphingosine 1-phosphate signalling in Alzheimer’s Disease
AWARDS
Vice-Chancellor’s Staff Awards recognise high achievers Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Research recipients Researcher of the Year Professor Aidan Sims, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences Research Excellence for Emerging Researchers Recipient: Dr Dylan Cliff, Faculty of Social Sciences Highly Commended: Dr Md Shahriar Al Hossain, Australian Institute for Innovative Materials Excellence in Research Supervision Recipient: Professor Paul Keller, Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health Highly Commended: Professor Frank Deane, Faculty of Social Sciences Highly Commended: Professor Long Nghiem, Faculty of Engineering & Information Sciences Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Wellings, left, presents Dr Dylan Cliff with the Research Excellence for Emerging Researchers Award
UOW Chancellor, Jillian Broadbent, joined University Council members and Executive staff along with recipient families and friends at the 2015 ViceChancellor’s Staff Awards, held in August. Individuals and teams of professional and academic staff were acknowledged for their efforts across a range of categories including research, teaching and learning, community engagement and workplace health and safety. Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paul Wellings, told recipients and guests that the University had achieved some excellent outcomes in recent times due to the efforts of staff such as those being honoured with awards. The full list of recipients is available at: www.uow.edu.au/about/vcawards/
Outstanding Achievement in Research Partnerships Recipient: Professor Paul Cooper, Sustainable Buildings Research Centre, and research partner BlueScope (UOW-Industry) Highly Commended: Professor Zhengyi Jiang, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, and research partner Boasteel Australia Joint R&D Centre Project Interdisciplinary Research Excellence (shared) An Innovative Ergonomic Heavy Vehicle Driver Seat Associate Professor Haiping Du, Professor Weihua Li, Dr David Stirling, Dr Montse Ros Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences Associate Professor Stephen Palmisano - Faculty of Social Sciences Associate Professor Paul Stapley - Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health Associate Professor Zhenxiang Cheng - Australian Institute for Innovative Materials Dementia-Friendly Communities and Organisations Dr Lyn Phillipson, Dr Chris Brennan-Horley, Dr Danika Hall, Dr Elizabeth Cridland Faculty of Social Sciences Professor Richard Fleming - Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health Associate Professor Helen Hasan - Faculty of Business Professor Chris Cook - Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences Outstanding Achievement in Research Commercialisation An exclusive license to Neami National for the IP in relation to the Collaborative Recovery Training Program and LifeJET components Professor Frank Deane, Dr Trevor Crowe - Faculty of Social Sciences Associate Professor Lindsay Oades - Faculty of Business
Numbers stack up for Researcher of the Year Researcher of the Year, mathematician Professor Aidan Sims, was recognised for his track record of papers published in well-regarded mathematics journals, and attraction of national competitive grants, including a Future Fellowship. Professor Sims’ well-established international profile and collaborations, and dedication to training and mentoring of research students, was also cited. In his research field, Professor Sims has been instrumental in creating vibrant and influential new research areas, particularly in the field of higherrank graphs and their C* -algebras, with his foundational papers on the subject cited 49 and 44 times respectively.
“Most of the awards that you receive as a researcher are in the context of your own research discipline. This one is very different because the context is researchers across a broad spectrum of disciplines, and that’s a context where it can be hard for fundamentallevel research, like the mathematical sciences, to stand out,” Professor Sims said. “This award ... exemplifies the fact that UOW values excellent research at every stage of the progression from fundamental-level research to practical applications. It’s one of the distinguishing features of a mature, research-focussed university.”
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COLLABORATION
Solution focused Sharing the success of three UOW research-industry partnerships
Key local partnership sustaining innovation and the environment A close working relationship is the foundation of success for the partnership between the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre (SBRC) and BlueScope, according to SBRC Director Professor Paul Cooper. The recipient of the 2015 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research Partnerships, Professor Cooper’s efforts over the past six years in building the SBRC-BlueScope partnership was a “model of academic-industry collaboration”, according to the award citation. Professor Cooper (pictured) is quick to point out the success is a collective effort of two research teams focused on “developing, testing and demonstrating a range of new technologies and products for sustainable buildings”. “The partnership with BlueScope has been extremely valuable in terms of both the wide range of interests that have been covered, and the development and
practical application of new products to real buildings,” Professor Cooper says. “Our research projects have all been jointly developed, and often external funding has been won through our close cooperation and our mutually complementary capabilities.” One of these joint projects was the development of the Team UOW-BlueScope Solar Assisted Heating Ventilation and Cooling (HVAC) system, which was demonstrated on a retrofitted, modular, net zero-energy Australian fibro home entered by Team UOW in the Solar Decathlon. Team UOW was the first Australian team to gain entry to any Solar Decathlon, and took out first prize. “This system played a key part in the win for Team UOW in the Solar Decathlon 2013 China competition, but also in demonstrating the potential of the photovoltaic-thermal roofing system developed by BlueScope and the SBRC to Australian industry and
community,” Professor Cooper says. Based in their six Green Star rated building on the UOW Innovation Campus, SBRC is working with BlueScope, its primary industry partner, and a number of others, on research projects aimed at improving the environmental credentials of Australia’s new, and existing buildings. The collaborations provide an exchange of ideas and expertise in areas including the development of sustainable building technologies for residential and commercial applications, the analysis and improvement of thermal design for buildings, and developing control and sensor technology to improve building performance. Critically, they also provide the access to manufacturing capabilities and industry marketing channels that are necessary for bringing these innovative, relevant technologies developed in the laboratory into the homes and offices of Australians.
Providing confidence the key to partnership track record With eight ARC Linkage grants as Chief Investigator in the last 10 years under his belt, Professor Buddhima Indraratna is surely a keeper of the key to successful collaboration with industry. “Our passion is research to deliver goods to industry where there are real problems. All of our research projects are practically focused on solving industry problems,” says Professor Indraratna, Professor of Civil Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences and Founding Director of the Centre for Geotechnical and Railway Engineering (GRE). Professor Indraratna’s recognition in the 1990s that Australia’s railway infrastructure 8
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lagged behind many other developed nations, and his adoption of railway engineering research - which he says was not being addressed by universities at the time – has paved the way for a career that has contributed strongly to the theoretical and practical aspects of the field. Focusing predominately on innovation in ground improvement techniques for transport infrastructure, the research of Professor Indraratna and his team has revolutionised the field in terms of design innovations and extended longevity, enabling faster trains carrying heavier loads. It has also positively influenced Australian practices over the years, particularly in the
revision of existing Australian standards, as well as driving the formulation of new Australian standards. The team’s active ARC Linkage projects include Load-displacement and consolidation behaviour of soft soils stabilized by stone columns for transport infrastructure and Performance of Soft Clay Consolidated by Biodegradable and Geosynthetic Vertical Drains under Vacuum Pressure for Transport Infrastructure. In these projects, they collaborate with a number of key industry organisations including Australian Rail Track Corporation
Ltd., Aurizon, Coffey Geotechnics, Douglas Partners and Menard Bachy. With the ability to conduct large scale experimental work in their UOW laboratory that practically captures what happens in the field, combined with expertise in predictive computer simulations, the researchers are able to more swiftly integrate their research work into ‘realworld’ applications. “Industry is happy to apply research, but you’ve also got to validate. Once industry has the confidence that the research methods proposed are working well, then
they have the confidence to apply that to other projects and ultimately advance the Australian state of practice.” As well, industry collaborations help cultivate synergy and momentum within the GRE providing an ideal environment for challenging research, Professor Indraratna says, which flows on to recognition in the form of national and international awards for the research team and their partners. Among these accolades, Professor Indraratna was the recipient of the 2013 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research Partnerships.
Mutual benefit fosters enduring marketing collaboration The research team has published a number of papers from their previous research together, including in the top ranked British Journal of Social Work. As well, the findings have been reported at national and international conferences. Sharing study results, including a synthesis of what they mean, in practical terms, with partners is an important pillar supporting the longevity of the collaboration, Dr Randle says.
Melanie Randle (centre), with Chris Stubbs (CareSouth), Andrew Munro (William Campbell Foundation), Michael Austin (CatholicCare Wollongong) and UOW Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Wellings
When eight years of ARC funding for collaborative research into foster care marketing between UOW, CareSouth, CatholicCare Wollongong and the William Campbell Foundation wrapped up in 2013, it didn’t signal the end of the partnership. In fact, it went from strength to strength. “It has been very successful, from both an academic and sector perspective, so we didn’t want it to end,” Dr Melanie Randle, from the School of Management, Operations and Marketing in the Faculty of Business, says. “Given we’d worked together for so long, we thought why not see if there are other opportunities for collaboration that could leverage a proven partnership?” Around the same time, a significant change to the funding of disability services in Australia had recently passed Federal Parliament – and the research team saw the opportunity for a collaboration that would both contribute to academic literature, and provide practical information for industry as well as policy development more generally. Both CareSouth and CatholicCare Wollongong were preparing for the transition to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). The NDIS, scheduled to begin implementation in 2016,
will see support payments for disability services transferred from organisations to individuals, who will choose which services they want to receive from one, or multiple, providers. “We’re moving from a system where agencies largely determined which services they would provide, to a more customer oriented, market driven system. Agencies will now essentially compete for business and from a marketing perspective that is set to change the sector significantly,” Dr Randle says. “In discussions with our partners about potential new avenues for research, we identified their uncertainty about exactly what they needed to do to operate effectively in this new environment. We worked together to develop the research proposal and we were fortunate to receive another ARC Linkage grant this year to make it happen.” The project, Consumer value and disability services: The impact of increased autonomy, will identify changes in objective and perceived consumer value pre-NDIS and post-NDIS, differences in how market segments use their autonomy, and whether this leads to differences in the benefits gained by individuals receiving funding through the NDIS.
“That’s an important aspect of partnerships which is often overlooked. Writing industry reports which are practically translatable and sharing results at industry conferences adds value for partners and is one of the reasons our collaboration has worked well for so long.” From the perspective of the partners, the collaboration provides an exchange of expertise, the ability to translate the latest research findings into practice, and to take a sector-leading role in learning, and the sharing of experience, she says. “While our contribution from an academic perspective is theoretical, our partners have been extremely valuable in providing practical validation for our research: That what we’re doing is practically useful, and supports the effective delivery of social services. “All of our partners have increased their number of foster carers in recent years, which is due to a range of factors, but certainly as well due to the marketing insight gained from the research.” The team, both together and separately, have received awards for collaborative success of the project, including the 2014 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research Partnerships. “The sharing of expertise, the gaining of knowledge, the achievement of outcomes and the independent recognition of both sides of the partnership has built to a really strong case for an enduring, sustainable partnership. It takes time, but once it is established it’s very rewarding.” R esear c h & I n n o v ati o n News
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RESEARCH
The case for quality early childhood teaching The approach educators take to interacting with children in early childhood settings can influence long-term learning outcomes, according to Professor Iram Siraj On any given weekday around Australia, thousands of young children aged two to four years of age attend preschool or a long day care centre. Imagine, in one of these preschools, two three-year-olds – Clare* and Eve* – are creating sculptures from clay. They model, paint, stick and talk continuously during the activity. Eve says her creation is going to be a gift for one of the other children in their class. Her friend Clare says she will give hers to the other child too. Eve tells Clare that the gift is a surprise, and they must keep it a secret. Clare thinks for a few seconds and says: “but we have to do show and tell, show the teacher what we’ve been doing”. Eve says, no, then it won’t be a secret; again, her friend insists it can’t be kept a secret because of show and tell. What happens next in this scenario, in terms of how an educator mediates the problem between the friends, could be a telling factor of the quality of education at the preschool. And higher quality settings have been shown to be very important in the future schooling outcomes of children like both of these girls, their classmates, and for preschoolers everywhere. Assessing quality is one research focus of Iram Siraj, Professor of Early Childhood Education at the Institute of Education at the University College London, and Research Professor at UOW’s Early Start.
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Her 15-year study Effective Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education (EPPSE) provided landmark insights into the influence of preschool on the success of a child’s entire school career. At September’s inaugural Early Start conference, which hosted speakers from around the world and attracted 650 delegates, Professor Siraj presented a snapshot of the EPPSE findings, as well as those from a related study Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years (REPEY). The REPEY project studied in-depth settings which were more effective in promoting children’s social and educational learning. It was this qualitative study which homed in on the factors which set good centres apart from great centres. Her conference talk included a video observation case study from a preschool in England – the ‘secret problem’. In it, the staff member with the two girls effectively manages the impasse between them by encouraging Clare to listen while Eve explains how the problem of keeping their work a secret will be overcome (she will tell her teacher she’s been busy, but that she has to keep her work a secret). There is now understanding between the friends, and the problem has been resolved. It is just one point in an extensive interaction in the video that demonstrates how the staff member at this setting is putting into practice techniques which enhance the quality of the educational and
social learning occurring. Throughout the almost 20-minute activity, the staff member is asking the girls open ended questions, modelling vocabulary and extending their thinking and their language through encouragement and respectful dialogue. She guides their learning and offers thoughtful challenge without dominating their interactions. It is an example of a concept which Professor Siraj has developed called ‘sustained shared thinking’, and which is now extensively integrated into the training of early childhood educators. According to Professor Siraj’s REPEY study, the highest quality settings were offering twice the amount of ‘sustained shared thinking’ in the day for children, compared with the good preschools. “The patterns that were strongest in terms of quality are the level of involvement and engagement that adults and children have with each other,” Professor Siraj said. “It’s not about standing back and letting the children get on with it, it’s also about our own intentional and relational pedagogy. “It’s about co-construction in acquiring knowledge, being able to scaffold the acquisition of knowledge with children in ways that are appropriate and interesting to them, and use of appropriate techniques of instruction for young children; that is, demonstrating, explaining, questioning, modelling.” The REPEY study used a number of
Call for Australia to consider universal free preschool Australia should consider following the lead of the United Kingdom and introduce free preschool education, according to Professor Edward Melhuish.
standardised instruments to identify the highest quality settings and then study them in a qualitative way. Among its findings were that excellent settings provided a much better balance of teacher-led and child-initiated interactions. There were powerful patterns of teachers extending thinking through everyday activities, where an activity might be initiated and followed by a child, but at an appropriate time the teachers sensitively extend it. As well, the research team found highly effective settings provided personalised experiences, accommodating the different individuals and groups within the class – for example, smaller groups of children who used English as a second language at home, or individual children who were very capable linguistically getting personalised and challenging experiences relevant to their needs. “We also found in most settings practitioners tended to prioritise social and emotional development but actually, the settings that did the absolute best were the ones that viewed social and emotional development as complementary to educational learning,” Professor Siraj said. “They engaged children in everyday conversations, supporting children to rationalise and push their cognitive limits, practising relational and intentional techniques very deliberately.” It wasn’t enough to take the approach of basing all learning on the children’s interests, because children were also curious about the interests of adults,
of the world around them and of other children. Another key practice of top quality settings was the use of more open ended questions. As small as this may seem, it makes a big difference in terms of intellectual and social outcomes for children, according to Professor Siraj. “When we analysed the 6000 questions that we observed were asked of three and four year olds, we found that only five and a half per cent were open ended. “When you think of the power of an openended question, even something as simple as ‘What do you think?’ is a powerful promoter for children to develop better cognition and awareness of their own thinking processes.” Taking a sustained shared thinking approach and integrating it into practice took training and time, according to Professor Siraj. “It’s not about dominating a child in terms of expression of thoughts or ideas, or dominating a discourse between two children; it’s about taking a guiding, complementary approach to learning. That’s what really makes a difference.” * Names used for example only
>> A new UOW study examining specific early childhood teaching practices - the Fostering Effective Early Learning (FEEL) study - was announced by the NSW Government on October 30. It will be led by Professor Siraj. More details: http:// media.uow.edu.au/releases/UOW204574
In the UK, all three-and-four-year-olds are currently entitled to 15 hours of free preschool each week. As well, 40 per cent of two-year-olds of the most disadvantaged families are eligible. In a column published in The Guardian that coincided with September’s UOW Early Start conference, Professor Melhuish argued the emphasis behind the provision of subsidised preschool in Australia needed to change from one that regarded preschool as a solution for working or studying parents, to one that also recognised the critical value of preschool for a child’s long-term educational and social outcomes. “The effects are present for all children according to longitudinal research of 4000 children across the UK,” Professor Melhuish wrote. “Access to quality preschool from the age of two can boost educational and social development that is apparent from the start right through to the end of schooling. “The boost provided is greatest for the disadvantaged, but significant for middle class children as well. Similar evidence comes from Denmark, France, Germany, Norway and Switzerland.” He argued that a “stable, high-quality early childhood education and care system” should be regarded as part of the infrastructure for a country’s long-term economic and social development. “Australia has choices, and there are plenty of options,” Professor Melhuish concluded. Read the full article: http://media.uow.edu. au/opinions/UOW202886.html Professor Melhuish is based at the University of Oxford and Birbeck, University of London and the UOW Early Start Research Institute.
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Destined for discovery: new funding for research The pioneering work of UOW’s material scientists has been recognised in new research funding announced in October. The projects are part of $7.6 million in research funding UOW received from the Australian Research Council for Discovery Projects; Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF); Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards (DECRA); and Discovery Indigenous Projects. Grants included almost $1 million for an advanced focused ion beam microscope. Led by Professor Elena Pereloma (pictured), Director of the UOW Electron Microscopy Centre, this cutting edge microscope is the first in Australia to offer researchers not only 2D and 3D analysis and micromachining capabilities but also a super-sensitive detector that is able to pick up traces of elements across the entire periodic table. Nine DECRA research projects were funded, demonstrating how strongly the University was regarded for supporting emerging researchers, Deputy ViceChancellor (Research & Innovation) Professor Judy Raper said. “It was pleasing to see those in the early phase of their research career being rewarded in this funding round, with projects that represent a brave new world of discovery.” AIIM researchers received four DECRAs, including that of Dr Simone Ciampi, who is looking to gain a deeper understanding of electrical fields. “The great majority of the technological processes we know today, from removing pollutants from drinking water to preparing high-tech pharmaceutical drugs, involve chemical reactions at solid or liquid interfaces,” Dr Ciampi said. “This research will look at manipulating the precision of these processes by understanding the role of electrical fields on chemical reactions that happens at an interface.” 12
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UOW received six Discovery Project grants, including $980,900 to Professor David Griffith and colleagues at the Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry in the Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health to monitor and analyse atmospheric composition in the Southern Hemisphere. Associate Professor Bronwyn Carlson, from the Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts, received her second Discovery Indigenous grant to undertake research on Aboriginal help-seeking behaviours on social media. Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards Dr Katherine Bagnall ($357,793) Chinese seeking citizenship in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, 1860-1920 Dr Tran Vu Khanh ($315,000) Partial Differential Equations in Several Complex Variables Dr Luping Zhou ($300,000) Learning Network Structures from Neuroimages for Diagnosing Brain Diseases Dr Andrew Nattestad ($370,000) Intermediate Band Solar Cells Based on Triplet-Triplet Annihilation Dr Wenping Sun ($372,000) Lithium-Ion Conducting Sulfide Cathodes for All-SolidState Li-S Batteries Dr Aleicia Holland ($368,394) Dissolved organic carbon quality influences metal toxicity in freshwaters Dr Simone Ciampi ($359,544) Electrostatic Catalysis: guiding reactive interfaces using electric fields Dr Nadim Darwish ($348,741) Single-Molecule Circuitry for Nanoscale Electronic Devices Dr Lucas Ihlein ($340,000) Sugar vs The Reef: Socially-engaged art and urgent environmental problems Discovery Projects (UOW Chief Investigators) Prof Mark Wilson, A/Prof Heath Ecroyd ($452,800) Defining systems that clear dangerous misfolded proteins from body fluids Prof David Griffith, Dr Nicholas Deutscher, Dr Jenny Fisher, Dr Clare Murphy and A/
Prof Stephen Wilson ($980,900) Tackling Atmospheric Chemistry Grand Challenges in the Southern Hemisphere Prof Chao Zhang, Prof Roger Lewis and Dr Zhi Li ($395,000) Coherent, tuned terahertz photons from nonlinear processes in graphene Prof Susan Turnbull ($148,000) Border Crossing: The Transnational Career of the Television Crime Drama Prof Shi Xue Dou, Dr Ziqi Sun, Dr Xun Xu and Dr Ting Liao ($610,000) Multifunctional 2D materials for sustainable energy applications Dr Wendy Nielsen, Prof Garry Hoban, Dr Pauline Jones ($160,000) The Quality of Learning as Students Create Digital Explanations of Science Discovery Indigenous A/Professor Bronwyn Carlson ($382,929) Aboriginal Help-Seeking behaviours on Social Media Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (UOW Chief Investigators) Professor Elena Pereloma, Professor Shi Xue Dou, Professor Allen Nutman, Professor Kiet Tieu, Dr Azdair Gazder ($980,000) Focused ion beam microscope for trace element analysis and nanomachining Distinguished Professor Antoine van Oijen, Professor Nicholas Dixon ($355,000) Superresolution fluorescence imaging in microbiology UOW researchers on grants led by other institutions: Dr Thomas Birtchnell (Lead CI Anthony Elliott, ANU) Robotics, Enhanced Humans and the Future of Work Prof Jan Wright (Lead CI JaneMaree Maher, Monash University) Children as health advocates in families: assessing the consequences Dr Kerrylee Rogers (Lead CI Darryl Low Choy, Griffith University) Managing environmental change through planning for transformative pathways Prof Robert Barry (CI David Copland, University of Queensland) The flipside of noise: does it benefit listening and learning?
NEWS
Supporting the wellbeing of young men through organised sport The UOW researcher who found that children who drop out of organised sports have a far greater risk of mental health problems will present the next Uni in the Brewery on Wednesday, 18 November at 5.30pm at the Illawarra Brewery. Sports psychologist Dr Stewart Vella, from the Early Start Research Institute, is working with Illawarra sporting clubs, peak sports bodies and mental health organisations to investigate how involvement in youth sports promotes wellbeing and prevents mental health problems.
will be joined by his research colleague, Dr Andrea Fogarty, from the Black Dog Institute. This important, community-oriented research program, funded by the Movember Foundation and UOW Global Challenges,
has the potential to change lives and help arrest the alarming rate of mental health problems and suicide among young Australian men. Register to attend: http://www.uow.edu.au/ research/unibrewery
In his talk, Dr Vella will provide insights from this work, and also discuss the development of a grass-roots approach to providing sporting clubs with the tools they need to support young members grappling with depression and suicidal thoughts. He
Latest world rankings strengthen research credentials UOW’s elevation in these highly-respected rankings reflects an increase in the number of its researchers being cited by academics around the world. Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Global Strategy) Professor Joe Chicharo said: “This fantastic result cements UOW’s place as an internationally recognised researchintensive university that sits among the top two per cent in the world and attracts world-class researchers to do worldleading research”.
UOW’s standing among the top two per cent of world universities has been further strengthened by the release of the latest international rankings. In September, the QS World University Rankings saw UOW surge from its 2014 ranking of 283rd to 243rd - a rise of 40 places, representing one of the biggest improvements of any university. The QS citations rating - a measure of how often the work of UOW researchers is cited around the world - placed UOW as 8th in Australia, ranking 195th internationally. The QS faculty rankings also revealed big improvements for UOW. Its natural sciences ranking jumped 97 places from 298th to 201st, social sciences and management improved 81 places from 259th to 178th while engineering and
technology jumped 45 places from 208th to 163rd. The QS World University Rankings result followed UOW’s ascent in the Academic Rankings of World Universities (ARWU), released in August. UOW’s international standing in the ARWU improved from its previous ranking of 329th to 262nd. It is UOW’s best ever ranking in the table, moving the University into a higher ranking bracket and from 13th in Australia to tenth place behind the Group of Eight universities and Macquarie University. Among the five subject areas monitored by the ARWU rankings, UOW rose from the 151-200 band into the 101-150 band for social sciences and debuted in computer science rankings in the 151-200 band.
Professor Chicharo singled out researchers from the Centre for Archaeological Science, which includes Dr Zenobia Jacobs and Professor Richard (Bert) Roberts (pictured, with Deputy Vice Chancellor Research & Innovation Professor Judy Raper at centre). The two researchers were awarded a Thomson Reuters Citation Award in June. “We are particularly proud of the scientists in our Centre for Archaeological Science, whose research to answer fundamental questions of human evolution has been closely followed internationally and been a significant contributor to this result,” Professor Chicharo said. The latest international ranking endorsements follow similar recent improvement in UOW’s standing in the UK Times Higher Education Top 100 Under 50 rankings, and a strong performance in the Good Universities Guide.
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RESEARCH
Indigenous art and empire in Sydney 1788 -
Artistic expression through performance transcended cultural difference and built political influence for Aborigines during the colonial settlement of Sydney, says Professor Ian McLean “We can write an art history of Indigenous drawings and paintings from about the mid-nineteenth century, but before that it gets tricky, not because Aborigines didn’t previously paint but because painting was just one part of a larger performance – more like makeup and theatre backdrops in a play than an autonomous object. Historically the origins of the Indigenous paintings now celebrated in our art galleries are in performance. Thus in researching Indigenous art in the early years of colonisation, I did something unusual for an art historian: I looked to accounts of corroborees as if they were describing performance art. Contact art across Australia shows that Aborigines responded with transcultural curiosity and verve to the invaders. It is mostly evident in the principal mode of pre-contact Indigenous aesthetic expression: corroborees. Corroboree is a Dharug word for dance, and generally refers to public performances, rather than restricted ceremonies. They were the crucible of early modern Indigenous art. The amateur ethnologist and clergyman, John Mathews, who worked in the Burnett River area in the latter 1860s, gave the example of ‘popular English songs’ being ‘transformed into corroborees’. Contact corroborees that included sequences emulating the most colourful of British corroborees – soldiers parading and acting under orders – were reported at either end of the continent. The most extraordinary contact corroboree – extraordinary because 14
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of its expressive ambition but also extraordinary because it is the first truly modern performance artwork in Australia – was the spearing of Governor Arthur Phillip in September 1790. Bennelong produced, directed and played the principal character in the performance. It was a typical corroboree in that it included mimicry, showmanship and spears. The throwing and dodging of spears is an Indigenous sport and game of brinkmanship, as the colonists quickly discovered. When Cook and 40 of his crew landed at Botany Bay, three spears were thrown into their midst but miraculously did no harm. The same thing happened on Phillip’s second day at Botany Bay to a group of marines exploring an inlet, and on other occasions. On this occasion, however, Phillip could not dodge the spear. Manly Cove corroboree: The context To understand Phillip’s spearing as performance art requires reading between the lines of the many journals detailing the early years of the Sydney colony on a site that its Cadigal owners knew as Weèrong. Appreciating the spearing as performance art does not contradict its now usual interpretation as ritual retribution, but it does require an understanding of its larger political, participatory and aesthetic contexts – the sort of contexts evident in contemporary post-conceptual art practices. The political context was a vacuum in the Aboriginal leadership following the decimation of the clans around Sydney harbour following a smallpox epidemic
in April 1789. Bennelong stepped into the Wangal power vacuum caused by the death of the Elders – the elderly being the first to succumb to smallpox. He also may have sought to gain control of the awesome white sorcery that had created the epidemic, thus reversing the previous strategy of boycotting the newcomers, which had frustrated Phillip’s desire to conciliate with the Aborigines. With the colonists and their sorcery ensconced at Weèrong, Bennelong had significant leverage amongst the clans because of his relationship with Colbee, the only surviving initiated Cadigal after the epidemic. The machinations by which Bennelong entered Phillip’s court and won its confidence was his ability to learn to mimic British manners (mimicry being a key theatrical device in Indigenous and indeed most performance) and in effect become British. Additionally, he inducted Phillip and his officers into his world, as if in a reciprocal exchange. This is evident in the names Bennelong gave Phillip. He called Phillip, who was about 25 years his senior, Beenena, which means father and also head of the clan, and called Captain David Collins, the Chief Judge who was closer to his age, Babunna, or brother. Bennelong thus deliberately drew Phillip, his officers, and himself into the same circle of power and obligation. Thus prepared, on 7 September 1790, he improvised a remarkable contact corroboree during a multi-clan meeting at Manly Cove. Bennelong first lured Phillip
- 1830
perceiv’d fall close at Capt Collins’. While totally outnumbered and caught in a deadly ambush, the spears miraculously fell ‘without effect’, and the Englishmen made their escape. Phillip had been struck in a relatively harmless spot that left a clean rather than mortal wound. A new transcultural format
to the beach, which was the principal ritual ground in the harbour. As Phillip and his entourage – two officers and several armed marines – approached the shore, Phillip called out in Bennelong’s Dharug language that he was his Father, thus unwittingly confirming to all gathered his relationship and obligations to Bennelong. Unknown to Phillip, it is the duty of the father to take the spear for the misdemeanours of his children. In a highly controlled manoeuvre Bennelong drew Phillip and his two officers away from the boat and the marines into the tree line. Bennelong, shaved and wearing two jackets, then improvised a transcultural ritual that involved toasting the King with wine, eating bread and beef, and a lengthy 30-minute animated discussion with Phillip and the officers. He even kissed Lieutenant Waterhouse, laughing aloud. As 19 armed men began to form a circle around them, the apprehensive Phillip sought to retire. Bennelong delayed him by showing Phillip his scars, but still Phillip didn’t understand. When he again sought to leave, Bennelong introduced Phillip to a shaman, Wilee-marin, who at this point speared Phillip. Wilee-marin ‘was observed to keep his eye steadily fixed on the lance until it struck its object, when he directly dashed into the woods and was seen no more’. Collins made a dash for the boats and as Waterhouse paused to aid Phillip ‘another Spear came & grazed the skin off between the thumb & forefinger of my right hand’. ‘Spears were then flying very thick, one of which I
How is this performance’s achievement to be measured as art – for ritual is always conducted in an aesthetic mode? Firstly, its performative and participatory format unwittingly pre-empts those contemporary art practices, which said the French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud, take ‘as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context’, rather than private contemplation. Secondly, appropriated Indigenous and Western elements are combined into a new transcultural format. Bennelong’s appropriation through mimicry of Western rituals by wearing two jackets, shaving, toasting the king and kissing Waterhouse, effectively incorporated each into a new transcultural realm. If as an art performance this new realm is imaginary rather than real, art is the way by which, in Indigenous terms, the new gains ancestral legitimation and thus becomes real. In this, Bennelong’s performance art had a direct political purpose, and the success of his performance effectively established his new standing amongst the clans. Colony expands; performance evolves Bennelong’s politics was embedded in his relationship with Phillip. This explains his decision to travel with Phillip to London. They departed with Bennelong’s Wangal kinsman Yem-mer-raw-anne in December 1792. If Bennelong’s initial contact performances were initially a means of asserting his political ascendancy and Indigenous sovereignty, now, in the colony’s mother country, Bennelong would have realised the enormity, indeed impossibility, of his task. When the First Fleet deposited about 1000 colonists there was estimated to be about 1500 Aborigines living around the harbour. Within 15 months the smallpox reduced this number by half, if we accept Phillip’s likely conservative estimate. By the time Bennelong returned from London to the colony in September 1795 it had entered a new level of expansion. The number of colonists had grown to three or four thousand. Without Phillip, now retired in London, Bennelong had no political leverage in the colony. He thus changed tactics and sought to establish a niche market in entertainment – perhaps a lesson from his London visit. Sydney’s post-contact art entered its final politically emasculated form of showbiz: mock gladiatorial battles. It
had, as the art critic Clement Greenberg would say, become ‘kitsch’, which he considered an invention of modernity. Kitsch, says Greenberg, borrows ‘devices, tricks, stratagems’ from a ‘fully matured cultured tradition’, converts them into a system, and discards the rest’. In its appropriation or mimicry, kitsch, says Greenberg, emasculates what he believed to be real art. Thus he dismissed kitsch’s appropriations as ‘rear-guard’, missing that its mimetic excesses preserve a utopian moment. In the despair and hopelessness of the fully colonised regions, kitsch would become a favoured Indigenous aesthetic stratagem. With no Phillip to give his transcultural performances political focus, like the future purveyors of Western kitsch, Bennelong took his show public, reaching out to the large convict population. In these kitsch versions of the sort of payback rituals that Phillip had endured, Bennelong played up their inherent sense of spectacle – an entertainment for its own sake. After Phillip left, the colonial authorities effectively withdrew from any politics of cross-cultural recognition. Nevertheless, Bennelong’s achievements and example, along with those of his successor, Bungaree, have not been forgotten largely because the outlines of the rich transculturation that occurred in Indigenous contact and post-contact performance art in Sydney can be discerned between the lines of colonists’ journals. We might only be able to imagine the full performativity and genius of their art, but that has been enough.”
This is an edited extract of a public lecture Indigenous Art in the Age of Enlightenment 1788 -1830 by Ian McLean, Senior Research Professor of Contemporary Art, UOW Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts. It is based on a chapter from Professor McLean’s forthcoming book, Rattling Spears: A history of Indigenous art (Reaktion Press). Professor McLean’s public lecture can be watched in full online at: http://lha. uow.edu.au/publiclectureseries/
Image credit: The Governor making the best of his way to the Boat after being wounded. Drawing 23 from the Watling Collection, by the Port Jackson Painter, c. 1790. © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.
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RESEARCH
Maths on high order
How fundamental investigations of higher order Partial Differential Equations may provide insights into the blood disorder spherocytosis It was the seminars of a visiting German scholar on the Willmore flow that sparked Monash University PhD student James McCoy’s interest in higher order partial differential equations (PDEs) almost 15 years ago. Although McCoy completed his thesis in the field of second order PDEs the curiosity never left him, and when he arrived at UOW in 2005 he and his then PhD student, Glen Wheeler, began to investigate higher order PDEs related to the Willmore flow in earnest. This was the beginning of the establishment of what is now Australia’s largest research group in the field, which attracts significant national competitive funding grants and regularly publishes in quality international journals. “We started by asking questions about other applications for these equations, like where they had been used before. We discovered at the heart of many higher order equations was often a problem of minimising certain physical energies that are dependent on properties of the shape of the interface being modelled, including its curvature,” Associate Professor McCoy says. Now, Associate Professor McCoy and his research team are pushing at the boundaries of translating pure mathematical research into potential real-world applications in surprising areas. His current research project, funded by 16
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an Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant, includes looking into higher order PDEs underlying the shape of red blood cells, in particular in a blood disorder called spherocytosis – where a person’s body produces red blood cells that are sphere shaped, rather than shaped like a biconcave disk. Spheres, disks and doughnuts Higher order partial differential equations have various important applications, including in the efficient construction of smooth images from limited data, for example in computer graphics, or medical imaging. Associate Professor McCoy’s team at UOW is working with models of surface diffusion, introduced in the 1950s, and the Helfrich model for reproducing the shape of biomembranes, from the 1970s. Both of these models seek to minimise certain physical energies that are dependent on properties of the shape of the object’s interface, including curvature. Examples of where these and related models have been applied include in architecture, in the design and construction of curved roofs, and in engineering, in understanding the annealing of metals. Mathematically, the Helfrich energy is a generalisation of the Willmore energy, Willmore surfaces being a generalisation of minimal surfaces, which are surfaces of minimal area spanning a given boundary
curve – like the surface formed when a wire loop is dipped in soapy water and creates a film across the wire boundary. A Willmore surface minimises the Willmore energy, which is the integral of the squared mean curvature of the surface. The mind behind Willmore energy was British geometer Thomas Willmore, who conjectured that for all doughnuts, this energy must be at least two pi squared (for all closed surfaces without holes, the Willmore energy is at least four pi). “In the early 2000s, much mathematical theory was developed for a geometric flow approach to proving the Willmore conjecture,” Associate Professor McCoy says. “Willmore’s conjecture was finally proven in 2012 using different techniques, more closely related to those used to model minimal surfaces, but we’ve continued to investigate the geometric equations developed for analysing the Willmore functional to provide new results on surface diffusion and the Helfrich model.” Using these theories and applying modern mathematical techniques, Associate Professor McCoy and his team have found conditions on the parameters in the Helfrich model that dictate whether minimising shapes will be spherical, or not spherical. Medical mathematics Spherocytosis is a usually hereditary
Financial gain can motivate some to lose weight: study
Conventional weight-loss counselling alone is ineffective at inducing women, single people and those not working to lose weight. However, coupling counselling with a financial incentive leads to success at weight loss, according to the results of a collaborative research study involving Dr Alfredo Paloyo from the UOW Faculty of Business.
disease where the red blood cells that the body produces are shaped like a sphere, rather than a biconcave disk (like a doughnut without a hole). The difference in shape in people with spherocytosis has implications for the ability of the cell to absorb and transport oxygen throughout the body. As well, these cells are recognised by the spleen as damaged, leading to auto-haemolysis, where the body destroys its own blood supply. “Red blood cells – whether biconcave disks or spherical – are a minimising shape, with different parameters in the Helfrich model. We’ve nailed down conditions on the parameters that determine whether the shape will be spherical, or not. Our next step will be to characterise when minimising shapes are indeed biconcave disks,” Associate Professor McCoy says. “Hopefully then we can work with medical scientists to understand the relationship between treatments of this disease and the parameters in the Helfrich model, ultimately developing a regime under which spherically shaped blood cells cannot occur.” He says these unexpected outcomes of fundamental investigations into higher order PDEs is an example of the twists and turns of pure mathematics research that keep his career motivating and interesting. “You start in one place, and it leads you to another, often unexpected one,” Associate Professor McCoy says.
Moreover, increasing the amount of financial incentive had a positive effect on the amount of weight loss for two groups – women and migrants – but not for others, the study published in the journal Social Science and Medicine, has found. The results provide significant insights for health policy planners, as well as health risk insurers, looking to mitigate the burden placed on the health system by diseases related to obesity, which is on the rise across the developed world. Currently 63 per cent of Australian adults are classed as overweight or obese, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Based on previous studies showing that an output-based financial incentive is an effective instrument to achieve weight-loss among the obese, Dr Paloyo and colleagues set out to discover how this incentive worked among different socioeconomic or demographic groups. The research team undertook a randomised controlled trial of 700 obese individuals to observe any differences among three experimental groups based on the size of incentive. Individuals in two treatment groups would obtain a cash reward of €150 (AUD$235) and €300 (AUD$471) respectively for achieving an individually-assigned target weight within four months, while a control group was not incentivised. “Financial incentives effectively help obese individuals to reduce weight
across all subgroups, whereas the magnitude of the reward seems to be relevant only for certain subgroups,” according to the study authors. “Monetary rewards have the capacity to induce people to lose significant weight even if their individual characteristics imply unfavorable weight-loss prospects, i.e., people for whom the conventional weight-loss intervention programs are unsuccessful. “If the objective of a policy based on financial incentives is to ensure that everyone loses weight, a larger part of the monetary amount might be better allocated to these groups,” the authors found. The study acknowledges the ethical issues of offering financial incentives to achieve a certain personal outcome. These issues include that the financial incentive could be construed as coercive since the amount matters for particular subgroups, and that the potential for resources to be diverted from those who would lose weight anyway without the financial incentive to those who would only lose weight with the incentive, creating a situation where an individual is rewarded for an outcome that another individual is able to achieve without the additional incentive. Along with Dr Paloyo, an economist based at the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance, the research team included colleagues from the World Bank, USA, Rehazentren BadenWürttemberg, and the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg in Germany. >> Alfredo R. Paloyo, Arndt R. Reichert, Monika Reuss-Borst, Harald Tauchmann Who responds to financial incentives for weight loss? Evidence from a randomized controlled trial, Social Science & Medicine, Volume 145, November 2015, 44–52 R esear c h & I n n o v ati o n News
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GLOBAL CHALLENGES
Students showcase innovations for prototyping competition “Successful manufacturing these days is all about innovation. The prototyping competition exposes students to the innovation process, so they can be better innovators and more effectively meet the challenges they will face in their future careers.” Teams were judged against the criteria of how well their prototype performed; originality; and their plans for taking their ideas forward.
A 3D printed music record, an unmanned search and rescue aircraft and a system for waste heat recovery were just some of the finalists of UOW’s 2015 Innovation Works! competition. A collaboration between UOW’s Global Challenges Program and the Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM), Innovation Works!, in its second year, aims to help UOW students turn their novel ideas into reality. Finalists participated in a 10-week program to assist them to design and
build a new product concept. Through this competition both undergraduate and postgraduate students gain access to mentoring and world-class facilities at AIIM where researchers are 3D printing human tissue and creating artificial muscles. Innovation Works! judge and Global Challenges Manufacturing Innovation leader, Professor Geoff Spinks, said the competition is part of a larger plan that aims to reposition the Illawarra as a place of intense creativity and experimentation.
The judging panel were very impressed by all finalists, but awarded first prize to Mechanical Engineering students Sally Reynolds and Nathan Tarlinton (pictured, left) who developed an unmanned aircraft that can search for missing persons, while saving time and resources. Nathan said hands-on programs like Innovation Works! were “immensely valuable” to students. “Problem-solving projects like this one force you to think about the entire process, from start to finish, and to develop your own testing and validation methods. “It’s a very different challenge to solving a question from a textbook, and it teaches you to be realistic about how your design translates from paper to the real world.”
Planting the seed for funding research of global importance Nine new research projects have been awarded nearly $112,000 in the latest round of seed funding from UOW’s Global Challenges program. The successful projects each address one of the program’s four challenges. One project will investigate how Australia cares for its prison population, informing public debate around the idea of the privatisation of prisons and policies for the future. Another pilot study will look into the relationship between the interaction of caregivers and care recipients with dementia and their anxiety in Residential Aged Care. Other projects include: • Investigations into a community based multi-sensory room for people with developmental disabilities and dementia in the Illawarra. • An exploration of the redesign of food and beverage packaging in hospitals to assist older patients and those undergoing physical rehabilitation. •
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The legal issues surrounding new
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drugs developed from organisms found in the deep sea.
research that has the power to effect real change.”
• The development of 3D printed surfboard fins inspired by whale fins that are customisable to individual surfers to improve performance.
>> More information: http:// globalchallenges.uow.edu.au
• The evaluation of a smart textile for use in embedded communication and tracking systems for personnel working in mines or other hazardous situations. • Integrated approaches to enhancing marine and coastal governance in the South Pacific Ocean island country Niue, which is poised to be one of the most severely affected by the impacts of climate change. The Global Challenges approach to interdisciplinary research is all about the people, their passion and the projects, Director Professor Chris Gibson said. “The magic happens when truly novel combinations of researchers, with specialist knowledge, are brought together on projects to address complex issues of regional and global significance. This translates into truly remarkable
New projects awarded seed funding will address one of four challenges, including Improving the Health and Wellbeing of Australians, under the Global Challenges program
INNOVATION
Pitch perfect for UOW innovators and entrepreneurs From a modular music system for children, to a fatigue measurement tool for chemotherapy patients and a mobile app for Grey Nomads, the 2015 Pitch program represented the breadth of entrepreneurial spirit at UOW.
The competition is designed to build on the success of iAccelerate and further promote student and staff involvement in entrepreneurialism and the commercialisation of ideas, inventions and research outcomes at UOW.
UOW Pitch is a SAF (Services and Amenity Fee) funded initiative supporting innovation and entrepreneurial pathways for staff and students. This was the third year of UOW Pitch, and attracted a total of 45 applications.
It provides participants with the opportunity to receive professional pitch training and gain feedback from industry experts.
Each year the program looks to uncover bright, energetic entrepreneurial-minded people who are passionate about their ideas and require funding to pursue them.
UOW Pitch 2015 Winners Undergraduate Winner ($6,000) and Best Pitch ($2,000): Annabel Blake with Nifty, a solution to sell and purchase used clothing under $50. Runner Up ($4,000): Lavender Lily with The Rainbow Tunetable, modular music system for children. Encouragement Award ($1,000): Kevin Pfitzner with Photochromic Screen Protector, to enhance technology’s use outdoors. Encouragement Award ($1,000): Connor O’Neill, Hannah O’Sullivan, Matt Phillips and Vanessa Dwyer with ASAP, to enable businesses to electronically track and record temperature of products during delivery.
The awards ceremony was held in September. A total of $37,000 in cash prizes was given out at the ceremony, along with seven iAccelerate Scholarships and a Coaching Award from Tactician. >> www.iaccelerate.com.au/programs/iaccelerate-pitch
Best Pitch ($2,000) and Encouragement Award ($2,000): Adam Taylor, Leo Stevens, Ammar Manaa and Qi Gu with Bio-Box, aims to improve quality of treatment for cancer patients. Staff Winner ($6,000) and Best Pitch ($2,000): Amy Wyatt and Mark Wilson with A novel half-molecule strategy to combat inflammatory disorders.
The Rainbow Tunetable: Lavender Lily ASAP: Connor O’Neill, Hannah O’Sullivan, Matt Phillips and Vanessa Dwyer iAccelerate X scholarship Pixel Wear by Danijel Boskovic Tactician Award The Rainbow Tunetable - Lavender Lily
Runner Up ($4,000): Simon Cook with Development of novel bacterial minicellbased cancer therapeutics. Encouragement Award ($1,000): Long Nghiem, Will Price and Faisal Hai with Poop Mining, recovering energy from sewage waste.
Postgraduate
iAccelerate scholarships
Co-Winner ($5,000): Sina Ameli with Objective fitness measurement tool, measures fatigue in chemotherapy patients.
Pioneer Road: Jess Oliver and Matthew Clark
Co-Winner ($5,000) and Best Pitch ($2,000): Jessica Oliver and Matthew Clark with Pioneer Road, a grey nomads app.
Photochromic Screen Protector: Kevin Pfitzner
Objective fitness measurement tool: Sina Ameli BioBox: Adam Taylor, Leo Stevens, Ammar Manaa and Qi Gu
UOW Pitch Staff Award winners: Amy Wyatt (centre) and Professor Mark Wilson
iAccelerate invites VIPs for tour of business incubator build iAccelerate CEO Dr Elizabeth Eastland hosted a VIP information night in September, where she shared her journey of taking the iAccelerate initiative from concept to the construction of a multimillion dollar centre for innovative new businesses.
Innovation Campus have already being reserving their spaces in the new Centre.
“The iAccelerate Centre will be able to house over 280 entrepreneurs. It will bring together the iAccelerate Educate Program, mentors, professional services, other start-up and more advanced businesses with international aspirations,” Dr Eastland said. “Residents also gain access to our network of industry experts and investors.“
“This will lead to new local opportunities for C-Suite employment opportunities and professional services created out of iAccelerate,” Dr Eastland said.
“Our long-term goal remains to consistently graduate successful companies into the Illawarra economy with global footprints.
With the opening of the iAccelerate Centre slated for April 2016, the iAccelerate executive team were excited to share the building’s progress with a group of key startup and innovative businesses in the Illawarra. A large percentage of the build has been completed, including an office which was fitted out for the VIP tour. The floor plans were also on show for attendees, giving them the opportunity to reserve their space in the new facility. Current residents of the iAccelerate Hub in the Mike Codd building on R esear c h & I n n o v ati o n News
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RESEARCH
Understanding the culture of leisure cycling
Why do people cycle? What inspires them to spend eye-watering amounts of money on a bike that doesn’t even have a motor? And why does discussion of cyclists’ place as road users, including simple safety campaigns to make it mandatory for motorists to give cyclists a minimum of one metre space when passing, stir such passion and heated debate?
“There’s not a lot in the academic literature about cycling. There’s plenty of research about the infrastructure needs to improve cycling as way to get from point A to point B, but very little delves into the user experience.”
wheels” by prominent media personalities to the abuse hurled from a window of a passing car, Barrie says there’s a theme of divisive and vitriolic language surrounding cycling he hopes his research can contribute to changing.
His work will dig into the tribal rituals that accompany cycling, from the coffee habit to the clothing as a marker of identity.
“There’s a juxtaposition where people say cycling is great for health, good for the environment and so on, but when they talk specifically about their own interaction with cyclists it’s a whole different story.
PhD student Lance Barrie, from UOW’s Australian Centre for Cultural Environmental Research, is embarking on an urban and cultural geography research project to answer those questions.
Barrie will immerse himself in the culture to get a first-person experience of all aspects of the cycling culture: young and old, male and female, and social riders to the training obsessed.
His work is aimed at understanding the user experience, which will hopefully lead to better decisions around infrastructure planning and changing the attitudes toward the humble bike and its rider.
“I’ve started a pretty rigorous training program so I can go on much longer rides and keep up with the faster bunches,” he says. “This part of the project is about documenting the cyclists’ experience.
“Compared to running and swimming, leisure cycling has a very unique and strong subculture,” Barrie says. “From the way people dress, to the language they use and the bikes they ride.”
“I’ll be videoing rides and asking cyclists to carry video cameras. After the ride I’ll sit down with the participants to watch the edited footage and ask them to reflect on the experience, helping them to communicate the emotional experience and their personal attachment to cycling.”
Barrie says he wants to understand cycling as an experience rather than simply a mode of transport.
From being described as “cockroaches on
“Suddenly they are viewed as risk-taking, a nuisance, law-breakers and the list of quite strong language goes on. It would seem there’s a car-centric view where the bike is no longer healthy and sustainable, it’s simply an impediment to the person who is using their car.” The research could be used to assist in the discourse around cycling policy and planning, and also help understand cycling as a leisure cultural practice, Barrie says. >> Interested in participating? Contact lanceb@uow.edu.au
Strategies for ensuring fisheries management plan success Strengthening community-based ecosystem approaches to fisheries management in the Pacific region is the focus of a white paper recently published by researchers in the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS). Authors Dr Vicki Vaartjes, Associate Professor Quentin Hanich and Dr Aurélie Delisle make five recommendations aimed at supporting a capacity development approach for training and learning across the community, industry and government sectors. The white paper’s publication followed a collaborative planning initiative between Pacific governments and regional stakeholders in March 2015 to establish a new direction in the management 20
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of coastal fisheries and ecosystems. The subsequent report A new song for coastal fisheries - pathways to change: The Noumea strategy is “an important step forward for fisheries management”, according to Associate Professor Hanich. The ANCORS team’s white paper Empowering Community-Based Ecosystem Approaches to Fisheries Management: Strategies for Effective Training and Learning aims to support the full implementation of the A New Song report. It argues for a long-term commitment to learning that is conductive to sustainable, iterative change, and is backed up by regional and national coordination that allows for sharing of data and learning across the many stakeholders and
promoting organisations that are engaged in the training and learning space. >> The white paper is available at UOW Books: http://ro.uow.edu.au/uowbooks/11/
NEWS
Social media SMARTs Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation - which owns that country’s worldrenowned MTR railway system - have commissioned the SMART Infrastructure Facility to investigate how social media chatter can be captured and used to boost innovation and customer service. Collaborating with the Faculty of Business and using advanced geosocial techniques developed at SMART, researchers aim to enable MTR to develop a knowledge sharing platform that will capture, organise and act on information harvested from social networks. SMART, a respected partner and leader in the space of geosocial intelligence, will custom build a platform to suit MTR’s needs. “Social media generates more data than we’ve ever seen before, yet it is still largely an untapped source of actionable information,” SMART Rail Logistics Lab Director Andrew McCusker said. With a geosocial intelligence system, MTR will be able to detect in real time the reactions or mood of its customers, allowing staff to better allocate tasks for immediate action, prioritise, review or respond to an issue. The project adds to UOW’s growing presence in the Asia-Pacific Region, and will be delivered in collaboration with partners in Hong Kong and at the University of Sydney.
Women in STEM supported with new gender equity pilot UOW is one of the first universities in Australia to participate in a new program to help further the careers of academic women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
academics.”
As part of the Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) pilot, UOW will agree to uphold ten principles of gender equity, including commitment to preventing the loss of women across the career pipeline, tackling the gender pay gap, addressing the negative consequences of short-term contracts and stamping out discrimination against transgender staff.
“UOW already has a range of policies in place to address structural barriers, but is committed to improving our systems and coming up with new strategies to assist women in science.”
UOW will also undertake a comprehensive two-year data collection and evaluation of its gender policies, programs and outcomes. Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation), Professor Judy Raper said UOW had a proud history of gender equality, through a range of policies, strategies and initiatives, but was committed to do more. “We are very proud of our female academics, who are working on projects that are critical to Australia’s future, including finding cures for cancer and dementia, saving the Great Barrier Reef, campaigning for public policy change to curb childhood obesity and encouraging more women to take up careers in engineering,” Professor Raper, one of Australia’s most respected engineers, said. “However, we recognise that it can be a tough road to the top for many female
National figures show women comprise more than half of science PhD graduates and early career researchers, yet only 17 per cent of senior academics.
The UOW Promotion Prospects for Academic Women workshop forms one of the strategies to support academic women to progress their careers. This highly successful workshop provides informal mentoring opportunities for female academics – a chance to share information and insights with peers who have recently been through the process. As well, the linking Women Network has been providing mentoring, collaboration and resource sharing opportunities for more than 10 years and the Equity Fellowships program provides financial assistance to help women complete their PhD. Proudly contributing to UOW’s gender equality strategy, almost half of iAccelerate’s current start-up businesses have female founders, compared to only 19 per cent in the sector. In addition, female leaders make up three out of five of the senior executive. SAGE was officially launched in Canberra in September.
Celebrating 40 Years of Research Impact From the discovery of a new human species, the development of next generation condoms and the world’s first bionic bra to exciting new treatments for cancer, UOW has come a long way in 40 years. Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation), Professor Judy Raper, launched a new publication in August celebrating some of the landmark achievements of UOW researchers. At the launch, Professor Raper said UOW had become a hotbed for innovative research and had helped transition Wollongong from a manufacturing hub into a knowledge economy, with UOW researchers
receiving almost $1 billion in competitive national funding in the past 15 years. “That’s one billion dollars making an impact on our region, our country and our world every day – from new drugs to treat antibiotic resistance, to manufacturing improvements that allow steel to be made more cheaply, to informing debates about internet censorship for children,” she said. The booklet and video profiles of four of the research projects featured in it can be viewed at: www.uow.edu.au/ research/researchimpact/
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NEWS
New Executive Dean for Social Sciences faculty Public health expert, Professor Glenn Salkeld, is the next Executive Dean, Social Sciences at UOW. Professor Salkeld will bring more than 25 years experience in public health research and education when his appointment commences in February. He is currently Professor of Public Health and Head of the University of Sydney’s Sydney School of Public Health, one of Australia's largest public health schools with more than 1200 postgraduate students and the highest rating for research excellence in Australia. In announcing the appointment, UOW Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paul Wellings, said: “He has an impressive research record, particularly in the areas of health decision analysis, citizen preference and translational health”.
Women entrepreneurs across cultures - new project A team of researchers including Dr Jie (Jack) Yang and Dr Matthew Berryman from the SMART Infrastructure Facility will investigate the participation of female entrepreneurs in Australia and the United Arab Emirates. The project, ‘Networking Women Entrepreneurs in Sydney and Dubai: Innovation Hubs, Sustainable Policies and Strategies for Success’ will see the SMART researchers join with Dr Brian Yecies from the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry to investigate how women entrepreneurs in Australia and the UAE are participating in innovation hubs, and identify the strategies that are enabling them to develop effective personal and professional networks as well as cutting-edge projects. The research is being funded by a grant from the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, under the 2015-2016 Council for AustralianArab Relations (CAAR) Grant Round.
IHMRI appoints Executive Director Professor David Adams has been appointed Executive Director of the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute (IHMRI), its chairman Professor Alan Pettigrew announced in October. Professor Adams has held senior roles at the University of Miami, University of Queensland and Queensland Brain Institute and most recently has been Director of the Health Innovations Research Institute at RMIT University. His research interests include membrane physiology, cellular neuroscience (chronic pain) and molecular pharmacology. “The appointment represents a big win for IHMRI, our stakeholders and the Illawarra region,” Professor Pettigrew said. Professor Adams will take up his position in December.
New manufacturing group established A series of networking events has been established to provide a forum for manufacturers in the region to connect with researchers at UOW. The Southern Manufacturing Innovation Group (SMIG) aims to facilitate an exchange of ideas, research and development, and collaborative opportunities. Officially launched in May 2015, the group met again in September at an event which attracted 30 attendees. Areas such as smart materials, additive manufacturing, modelling of mechanical systems and manufacturing processes, energy generation, conversion and storage and renewable energy sources will be discussed at future forums. Researchers from a range of disciplines at UOW will present their research in those areas. SMIG provides the opportunity for members to discuss challenges or opportunities they may have with other companies and university researchers. “A unique feature of SMIG is the involvement of UOW and the real interest of companies in the research that is happening at our doorstep,” SMIG member, Jason Hinds, from Enware, said. >> globalchallenges.uow.edu.au/ manufacturing-innovation/
MoU formalises partnership in energy storage innovation A 20-year partnership between UOW researchers and a Japanese institute is furthering innovation in materials science for sustainable energy and development. UOW’s Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM) and Japan’s National Institute for Materials Sciences (NIMS) formalised an existing partnership by signing a Memorandum of Understanding on 29 September. UOW is the only university in New South Wales to link with the high-performing, prestigious Japanese institute. The ISEM-NIMS partnership has so far yielded seven joint research projects worth close to $3 million, staff and student exchanges, and 105 joint
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publications with over 1400 citations. Under the MoU, both parties will work on a proposal to form a joint research centre, and on further strengthening their collaboration through staff and student exchange and joint PhD projects. Collaboration with one of the major divisions within NIMS, the International Centre for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, will focus on pioneering functional materials with a vast array of applications that range from energy storage to medical services. A key plank of the partnership is ISEM’s ability to add its expertise in battery technology. Following the 2011 earthquake and
tsunami in Japan and subsequent nuclear power plant accident, NIMS has been part of a radical review of energy supply. That has led to the focus on developing high performing rechargeable batteries, fuel cells and similar technologies that harness natural energy sources such as solar power and wind power for small-scale power networks that replace large-scale power generation. ISEM Director, Distinguished Professor Shi Xue Dou, said: “NIMS has many collaborative partners worldwide but few could match the magnitude and extent of UOW and NIMS partnership.”
RESEARCH
Clinical process analytics to improve careflows careflow. It provides better information on likely outcomes for clinicians, and it is responsive in that outcomes can be analysed and modified at each step. “The overall benefit is in providing a higher quality of life for the patient, through the ability to make more informed decisions about likely treatment outcomes versus side effects, and ultimately better outcomes.” Building on this work, the team have begun working to provide a systems approach in the field of radiation oncology. As patients, we are far removed from the information management and technology of the healthcare system. We are more concerned with treatments, human care and our personal health. Yet the quality of our care, and the outcome of our treatment, is more closely related to information technology than most of us realise. Researchers from the School of Computing and Information Technology, working with clinicians, have developed an analytical application that draws the records of patients previously treated for the same condition to prepare the optimal clinical process – or careflow – based on the most positive outcomes of prior cases.
machine learning techniques in generating actionable insights from clinical data, but most of this work has been process agnostic, focusing on the what, rather than the how.
When physicians prepare a treatment protocol for radiation therapy, the area to be targeted is ‘drawn’, in graphic form, to assist in the assessment of its mass. All of the body parts involved in the area to be treated are labelled with a code.
“Our research has identified ways of partitioning clinical process histories to learn from instances where things went well, and also instances of where they didn’t. It enables distributed process analytics where insights leverage data about the clinical context, and incorporate the results of both diagnostic analytics – why the process behaved like it did, as well as predictive analytics – what is likely to happen over future steps of this process?”
“This analytics approach could potentially assist clinicians to better assess an area for treatment, reduce unnecessary therapy and improve the outcomes for patients.”
According to Professor Aditya Ghose, relatively little research has been conducted on mining clinical data in this way, which is sensitive to the sequence of clinical events and how this sequence may have affected the treatment outcome.
In partnership with medical physicists and radiation oncologists at the Illawarra Cancer Care Centre and Liverpool Hospital, Professor Ghose and his team focused on applying the techniques to analyse clinical processes in a variety of settings and have seen positive results so far.
“The treatment of medical conditions is highly contingent not only on what treatments are given, but also on how and when these treatments are administered. There has been much research focused on successfully applying data mining and
“This approach has great potential for efficiency and effectiveness over the entire
A broader adoption across the clinical sector would have positive benefits for both clinicians, and the patients they treat, Professor Ghose says.
“Here we saw an opportunity for these codes to be integrated with treatment outcomes and then analysed by a computer program, providing clinicians with access to more comprehensive information about outcomes before treatment commences.
In the medical informatics field, the UOW research team has established collaborations with international researchers at Maastricht University and the University of Vienna, as well as with researchers at Liverpool Hospital and the University of Sydney. These build on well-established industry collaborations the team have in the areas of enterprise analytics, business process management, service science and optimisation.
Innovative battery implant research rewarded An implantable lifesaving device that ultimately leaves no trace in the human body may be one step closer to reality thanks to the generosity of the Illawarra community. ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) PhD student Xiaoteng Jia received the 2015 Bill Wheeler Award recognising his research developing a biocompatible and biodegradable battery for bionic implants. Drawbacks of today’s implants, such
as pacemakers, include inflammation and problems surrounding surgery. A biocompatible and biodegradable implant would overcome these issues.
Illinois Urbana-Champaign and work with Professor John Rogers, a frontier researcher in bioresorbable electronics using soft materials,” he said.
Each year, the Illawarra community donates the $2000 prize in memory of former Kiama resident and champion of UOW bionics research, Mr Bill Wheeler.
ACES Director Professor Gordon Wallace tipped his hat to Xiaoteng and thanked the Illawarra community for their ongoing support.
Xiaoteng said he would use the prizemoney to travel to the US to further his battery work.
“I thank the people of the Illawarra for supporting Xiaoteng’s visions by providing this award that will help it become a reality.”
“I plan to study at the University of
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TRAVEL TALE
Above left: World Gymnaestrada Australian team. Top right: Ben Buckley with lab colleagues at Mount Gushan. Below right: Christopher Cadlow at the 1st Integrated Carbon Observing System Science Conference in Brussels.
Postcards from abroad: Global Challenge travel scholars South Africa, Finland, Edinburgh, Belgium, Fiji, China, USA – what do these places have in common? They are just some of the destinations visited by Global Challenges PhD scholarship recipients and winners of the Global Challenges annual Travel Scholar video competition. European tour Over three weeks Travel Scholar Christopher Cadlow visited five countries: Germany, The Netherlands, Finland, Estonia and Belgium, meeting researchers and attending workshops and conferences to present and discuss his PhD findings. He received excellent feedback on a poster he presented at the first Integrated Carbon Observing System (ICOS) Science Conference in Brussels, and was able to “engage in a large number of meaningful discussions with a great bunch of worldleading and pioneering researchers”. “The most lasting benefit of this travel was the establishment of an international community of scientists who study gas exchange between fresh waters and the atmosphere which is exactly what I am interested in,” Chris said. The group has since launched an online, community based forum of which Chris is a founding member. Active participation The first conference PhD Scholar Amy Carrad attended as part of her travels was the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity in Edinburgh. The final part of her research program was dedicated to participating in the World Gymnaestrada, the world’s largest participation-based event in Helsinki. It involves 23,900 people performing group gymnastics over the course of a week in a non-competitive environment. Australia was represented by six teams, with the youngest member
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being five-years-old and the eldest 64. ”Watching 268 teams from around the world performing, you are reminded it isn’t about being the best. It is about expressing the abilities of your team in a creative and entertaining way,” she says. One of the key insights Amy took away from this experience was to question the purpose of ‘sport’ in our nation. “In Australia we are still largely focused on competition and sporting excellence rather than lifetime participation.” Learning experience Martin Engel, Associate Research Fellow at the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, visited the laboratory of Andres Buonanno, a leading neuregulin 1 researcher, at the National Institute of Health in the USA for his travel scholarship. It has already had huge translational impact on his research. “I was able to learn how to use a new biochemical analysis method in his lab, which we are now setting up here at UOW. This new method gives us the opportunity to see the effect of neuregulin 1 treatment on the communication of neurons, particularly relevant to the symptoms of schizophrenia to improve quality of life without adding debilitating side effects caused by some current medications.” ‘Blade running’ in China Travel Scholar Benjamin Buckley visited world-leading expert in structural biology, Professor Mingdong Huang, at the Fujian Institute of Research, Fuzhou, to investigate into the structure of matter. At some stages of his journey, Ben said the trip was almost surreal. “As we moved towards the aura of the metropolis, the pilot lights of heavy industry were the only features recognisable against the dark silhouette of the mountain range that surrounds
Fuzhou. Once we crossed the Ming River, the forests of residential skyscrapers, glistening in their neon-studded glory, came into view. With the exhaustion of twenty hours in transit I could be forgiven for feeling like I’d stepped into a scene from Blade Runner!” Ben said the trip to Fuzhou was “an enlightening and fruitful opportunity to conduct research abroad, an experience ... which I’m immensely grateful for”. Ocean going PhD Scholars Harriet Harden-Davies and Genevieve Quirk from the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) attended the inaugural meeting of the Pacific Ocean Alliance held in Suva, Fiji. The gathering aimed to address the big issues facing the protection and management of an ocean space greater in area than the surface of the Moon. More than 130 Pacific Island stakeholders convened to discuss priorities for ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction and galvanise support for a new international treaty. Harriet was also a participant in the 14th Deep Sea Biology Symposium in Aveiro, Portugal, aligning perfectly with her research about marine genetic resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction. She gave a presentation and co-chaired a workshop. With so much yet to explore and discover about deep ocean life, Harriet said she was “struck by the critical importance of interdisciplinary approaches to conserve Earth’s last exploration frontier”. >> Learn about Global Challenges PhD Scholars and Travel Scholars: uowblogs. com/globalchallenges/
NEWS
Research clusters to focus SMAH research collaborations and interventions, such as new initiatives in interdisciplinary care, identifying high need for services and novel approaches to understanding chronic disease and its management. The Centre for Sustainable Ecosystem Solutions aims to lead nationally and internationally through collaborative and multidisciplinary research focused on the way threatening processes affect the structure, function and composition of ecosystems. Led by Professor Ross Bradstock and Professor Sharon Robinson, it is targeting strengthening the track record of its members to provide innovative solutions to societal challenges.
The Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry – which was recently announced as a key partner in the collaborative $8.88 million Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub – is one of three expertise groupings to have been recognised as a ‘research cluster’ by the Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health (SMAH).
Recognition as a SMAH Research Cluster will provide targeted funding to researchers and HDR students, and is expected to “encourage collegial activities which nurture collaborations and stimulate strategic discussions to optimise research outcomes,” SMAH Executive Dean, Professor Alison Jones, said.
The SMAH Research Clusters identify and support groupings of researchers involved in collaborative and synergistic projects that are aligned to Faculty and UOW objectives.
The Health Impacts Research Cluster will be led by Professor Linda Tapsell and Professor Andrew Bonney. Its aim is to improve the health of the community through research that informs and transforms clinical practice and health policy, such as the Illawarra HealthTrack study. It is expected that teams will form within this Research Cluster to focus on specific aspects of health information
The Centre for Sustainable Ecosystem Solutions and the Health Impacts Research Cluster comprise the two other research clusters.
The Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry, led by Dr Clare Murphy, will continue the world-class atmospheric composition and chemistry research and training program established at UOW for over 20 years. It collaborates widely within Australia, and is strongly linked with several international groups and networks. The CAC is the leader of the Clean Air theme of the Australian Government funded Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub, which is focused on supporting environmental quality in urban areas. The Hub, announced late in 2014, will bring together researchers across the nation to form evidence based policy and best practice implementation in urban environmental planning for better air quality over the next six years. >> http://smah.uow.edu.au/research/
UOW Big Ideas Festival a showcase of significant research From seaweed alginate brain structures to the revival of the medieval in modern political discourse, the second UOW Big Ideas Festival, held in August, was a showcase of the breadth and quality of research at the University. Around 400 people attended the event to hear 10 minute talks on a big research idea from 12 of the University’s newly appointed and promoted Professors. The event also included interactive research stalls featuring UOW’s research institutes. Aimed at engaging the campus community, university partners and the general public in UOW research, the event underscored the growing reputation of UOW for high quality, high impact research, said Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Wellings.
“It’s a wonderful time to be celebrating research at the University of Wollongong in this 40th anniversary year.” Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research & Innovation), Professor Judy Raper, told the audience the great interest in the event demonstrated the community’s desire to connect with research. “We relish the opportunity – and challenge – of sharing our research and demonstrating its importance and impact to the future of our planet and society,” she said. All of the talks can be watched online, and the Big Ideas website includes event photo galleries and research profiles. >> http://www.uow.edu.au/research/news/ bigideas2015/
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STUDENT PROFILE
Inspired by endless possibilities
Physics PhD student and UOW Three Minute Thesis winner Frederick Steven Wells on the rewards and challenges of studying the magnetic fields of superconductors “My PhD focuses on superconductors, which are basically things that can carry electricity without any losses. More specifically, I look at the magnetic fields around superconductors. That might sound really dull to anyone who’s not in the field, but anyone who knows me knows that I don’t do dull. For me, everything has to be colourful and exciting, from the clothes I wear to the adventures I have in my - limited - spare time. So why do I do it? I’ve always been passionate about learning new things. And superconductors are fascinating. They have properties so different to anything we see in our usual life: for example, being able to completely push out magnetic fields, and when they do let some field in, it’s in funny little lines that are even more interesting on a deeper level. The deeper and deeper you look into it, the more there is to see, and that’s what captivates me. I just love that feeling of finding out something new. Something that changes my perspective, even in a small way. I never really thought about what I wanted to do with my life, and when I had to choose something to study at Uni, I basically picked physics on a whim because I got good marks in it at high school. It was a good choice, because eight years later here I am: still going strong, and loving it! Superconductors have so many practical uses, and so many possiblilities! A lot 26
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of people have probably seen the Lexus hoverboard that came out recently on Youtube. There’s also the magnetic shields that were recently proposed by NASA to protect their astronauts from radiation. If you’re into more down-to-Earth things, then we can make more efficient wires and energy-saving power lines, as well as faster electronics for computers that don’t overheat. And if you’ve ever had an MRI, you’ve used superconductors.
The deeper and deeper you look into it, the more there is to see, and that’s what captivates me. There have been so many exciting opportunities for travel throughout my PhD study, that’s definitely my favourite part. From a semester overseas at the University of Twente in The Netherlands collecting data and working with the awesome team over there; a fun little training weekend at the Gold Coast; to my recent trip to a conference in Geneva, where I’ve just presented my results from that project in The Netherlands, along with a bunch of other stuff. I was actually a little star struck there:
seeing two Nobel Prize winners up close and in person, and experts from all over the world. It was more exciting to me than if I was at a Hollywood red carpet. It does get exhausting. On top of the travel, I’m halfway through writing quite a few scientific papers, as well as trying to finish my thesis by the end of this year, training new students to take over the work when I do finish, and finding the time for multiple part time jobs to pay the rent. It’s ridiculously stressful, but when you’re sitting on a balcony overlooking a beautiful European city, rubbing noses with the scientific elites, and enjoying a free meal at your hotel that someone else is paying for, it all seems worth it. One day in the future I hope to be one of those elites, I want to delve so deeply into the work that I find something that makes me worthy to stand at the front of these giant lecture halls. And not just to impress other scientists, I want to share things with the world! I have such a passion for teaching, I want to become the next famous science dude on TV explaining the world to people, and also to be a lecturer, passing on the passion to others in so much more depth. It all seems like a wild dream, but I think I’m on the right path. I don’t know when I’m going to get there, but some day.” >> Watch more: https://youtu.be/ d2VuXbmkPxg
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Research Services Office, Building 20, Level 1, University of Wollongong, Northfields Ave, Wollongong, NSW, Australia, 2522 research@uow.edu.au | +61 2 4221 3386 | www.uow.edu.au/research
The University of Wollongong attempts to ensure the information contained in this publication is correct at the time of production (Nov 2015); however, sections may be amended without notice by the University in response to changing circumstances or for any other reason. UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG CRICOS: 00102E
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