Prof Graham Davies became dean of engineering at the University of NSW in April. He was previously executive dean of the School of Engineering at the University of Birmingham, UK.
One of his priorities in the new role would be encouraging interdisciplinary research, he said. He is particularly interested in the relationship between engineering and life sciences. For example, the university’s Australian Vision Prosthesis Group is developing a bionic eye in conjunction with the Centre for Eye Research Australia, the University of Melbourne, the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, the Bionic Ear Institute and NICTA. The 2020 summit in Canberra named the bionic eye as a key health goal for Australia.
Davies has been honorary professor in Wales at Swansea University, and in China at the Harbin Institute of Technology and Xi’An Jiaotong University.
close

Dr Alan Finkel was appointed the new chancellor of Monash University in January. It is the first time a Monash graduate has held this position. His appointment will be for three years. The university has 55,000 students and over 6000 staff.
After receiving his PhD in 1981 and some postdoctoral work, he went to Silicon Valley in 1983 and started Axon Instruments, a company making electronic amplifiers and data acquisition software for neuroscientists and pharmaceutical companies.
Finkel returned to Australia in 1988 but kept running the company until he sold it in 2004. He stayed on at the company for another year, but now divides his time between leading a small property investment company and several charitable pursuits. For instance, he chairs Child Abuse Research Australia, a collaboration between the Australian Childhood Foundation and Monash University, and runs a program for the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering on enticing more secondary school students to study physics, chemistry and maths.
“As a successful professional who now has the time, I believe I have an obligation to help train the next generation,” he said. “Education is the best investment we can make in our young people.” Finkel also cofounded the small publishing company Luna Media, which publishes the popular-science magazine Cosmos and the sustainable-lifestyle magazine G.
His sense of adventure is demonstrated by his purchase of a ticket with Virgin Galactic to be one of the first 100 passengers to fly into space in a commercial spacecraft.

close

Since 2001 Geoff Garrett has been managing the CSIRO, an organisation with 6350 staff and a budget of nearly $1 billion. His term expires at the end of this year.
Garrett is disappointed by the federal government’s decision to reduce funding by $63.4 million over the next four years. “The challenge is now to work within these new constraints – and opportunities – with which the organisation is presented,” he said.
The CSIRO will close its livestock laboratories in Bakers Hill, WA, and Rockhampton, Qld, and its plant laboratory in Merbein, Vic, and will divide the Forest Biosciences Division between other divisions. The Textiles and Fibre Technology Division will merge with the Materials Science and Engineering Division.
As chief executive, Garrett oversaw the reorganisation of the CSIRO into Flagship programs and strove to improve communication and industry partnerships.
Prior to joining the CSIRO, he was president and chief executive of South Africa’s national science agency CSIR. He intends to have a “gap year” in 2009. “Thereafter I’m sure some exciting opportunities will emerge,” he said. “Retirement per se isn’t an option.

close

Prof Paul Greenfield became vice-chancellor of the University of Queensland last January, having worked at the university since 1975. He said his priorities in the new role are to identify key research areas, to improve the experience of undergraduate students, and to foster closer ties between the university and alumni, industries and schools.
The university has 37,200 students, of which 3300 study engineering. This year the university will start offering summer research semesters to undergraduate students, giving them a glimpse of working in a lab. Greenfield also wants to increase the number of students going on exchange overseas by offering more scholarships and streamlining the application process.
Greenfield helped establish the first Australian Centre of Excellence in Geothermal Power Generation with funding from the Queensland government. He has also chaired the River symposium and the Scientific Committee of Healthy Waterways for the Queensland Water Commission.

close

Aside from managing the faculty with some 3000 engineering students, Prof Gregory Hancock is the executive dean of a cluster comprising the engineering and architecture faculties. In this role he encourages the faculties to work together more closely.
Hancock has been involved in developing a new double degree in civil engineering and architecture which will start next year. It is aimed at students who are interested in both artistic and technical aspects and at employers who want graduates with skills in both disciplines.
One of Hancock’s major achievements has been integrating the school of IT into the engineering faculty. This year the faculty started offering a flexible first year program to both IT and engineering students.
Hancock has also established a graduate school of engineering and IT, doubling the number of postgraduate enrolments.

close

Prof Archie Johnston is currently overseeing the merger of the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Information Technology. The two faculties are reorganising into five schools to “build a critical research mass”, he said.
Johnston said his job sometimes requires him to be “a bit of a showman” and engage people such as government ministers.
He is interested in how education can be a conduit for new businesses. For example, he said the university’s Chinese engineering students could help Australian companies expand into China. The faculty has links to China and Johnston is an adviser to Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
He is also chair of Engineers Australia’s Centre for Engineering Leadership and Management. He believes interpersonal skills are particularly important in a globalised world where most engineers would spend some time working overseas. Engineers need to understand the politics of a country or a company, he said.
Last November, Engineers Australia’s Civil College named him the Sir James Holland Civil Engineer of the Year.

close

Prof Peter Lee oversees all of the university’s academic programs. This includes determining which courses the university offers, their quality, direction and designing new courses. He has recently initiated a complete review of the curriculum, which is due to be completed in 2010.
The review is part of developing a new teaching and learning framework for the university called Step 2010. This includes a greater focus on practice-based and flexible learning, graduate attributes, and links between learning and research.
The university has 33,700 students, of which about 2300 study engineering.
Prior to his appointment to the University of South Australia in 2006, Lee was executive dean of the Division of Engineering, Science and Computing at Curtin University of Technology. He founded the school of engineering at Murdoch University.

close

Prof Iven Mareels oversees an engineering school that caters for 4400 students. This year the school started offering the Melbourne Model of engineering education. Mareels has been involved in developing the model from the beginning, reviewing the curriculum and supervising the implementation.
The model requires students to study engineering as a major in a generalist undergraduate degree such as commerce, science or environmental studies. To qualify as professional engineers they can go on to complete a two-year masters degree in engineering. Mareels said the school is looking to have more engineers from industry teach these postgraduate courses.
According to Mareels, students and employers have welcomed the Melbourne Model. However, it is too early to tell how many students will study the engineering majors and progress to masters degrees. “We of course need to see how this pans out in the marketplace, when our students graduate in about four years from now,” he said.
Mareels has a PhD in systems engineering from the Australian National University. He recently received the Clunies Ross Award from the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering for improving the efficiency of irrigation.

close

“One of the fundamental goals of NICTA when it was created was to grow the Australian ICT industry,” its chief executive Dr David Skellern said. “NICTA does this by working in close collaboration with industry and other research institutions to solve problems and make breakthroughs in ICT which can underpin the development of globally competitive products, processes and services.”
In March, NICTA launched a spin-off network monitoring company called Monitoring Division. The company has its headquarters in the US with a research office in Melbourne. It is the fourth spin-off company established in NICTA’s six years of operation.
NICTA plans to develop closer ties with European partners this year. It also intends to work out a new intellectual property policy, weighing up the advantages of open source.
NICTA has recently been classified as a registered research agency. Companies contracting work to a registered research agency may claim the R&D tax concession.

close

Prof Moses Tadé became dean of engineering in January. Previously he was the university’s head of chemical engineering.
He is involved in encouraging industry-sponsored scholarships for engineering students. “I am still chasing about 10 companies on this initiative,” Tadé said. He also leads the university’s outreach scheme, designed to attract more high school students to consider a career in engineering. One of the programs involves working together with other Australian Technology Network universities to target year 9 students in three Western Australian high schools and 12 high schools in other states.
Tadé and his colleagues have secured nearly $1 million in grants from the Australian Research Council for projects in process systems engineering which start this year.
Tadé holds masters and PhD degrees from Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada.

close

At Central Queensland University Prof Elizabeth Taylor has presided over a reorganisation of the faculty into interdisciplinary groups with a greater emphasis on project-based learning. The faculty has some 4400 students of which about 1060 study engineering-related programs.
Taylor began her engineering career with the NSW Maritime Services Board, leaving after becoming a mother. She studied for a law degree while raising her three children.
In her next job at the University of Technology Sydney, she set about changing the curriculum to attract more women into the profession, developing seven non-technical subjects such as engineering practice, communication and economics. According to Taylor, engineering curricula have often been “about constructing docile bodies” for industry. She feels that a purely technical approach inhibits people’s creativity.
Taylor is president of the Australian Council of Engineering Deans and chair of the Queensland Board of Professional Engineers. She is also deputy chair of the board of Engineers Media, publisher of Engineers Australia magazine, and on the board of RedR Australia.

close

Prof Ian Young manages a dual-sector institution which contains a TAFE and a university. There are about 3600 engineering students in the university, a number that rises to over 7000 if TAFE courses are included. Overall, Swinburne has about 17,900 university and some 37,000 TAFE students. It is also one of the top five universities in Australia for the number of times its researchers’ publications are cited.
Last year Young announced his plan for Swinburne to become a major research university. The university is currently investigating ways of attracting and retaining outstanding staff. It has also embarked on a $250million capital investment program. The plan calls for Swinburne to build the largest structural research laboratory in Australia and increase its budget from $330 million to $550 million over seven years.
Young has published three books and more than 100 research papers on coastal and ocean engineering.

close