Friday, 17 August 2018

The Faculty of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences would like to acknowledge the following achievements of our staff and students:

Dr Matthew Young and Dr Darren Grasso from the Department of Physics have been awarded UWA Student Guild’s Students’ Choice Awards for Semester 1, 2018. These awards were created in Semester 1 2014 to recognise academic and professional staff at UWA who have positively contributed to the educational experience of students on campus each semester. The nominations are open to all teaching and professional staff including lecturers, tutors, demonstrators, faculty advisors, counsellors and members of support staff.

Emeritus Professor David Blair from the Department of Physics was awarded The Royal Society of WA Medal. The medal is awarded every four years for distinguished work in science connected with Western Australia. Emeritus Professor Barbara York Main , another UWA graduate was also awarded the medal.

Louis Parker won the prestigious Asia-Pacific Mimics Innovation Award at the World Congress of Biomechanics for his work on the pre-surgical planning of aortic dissection using computational modelling. Louis is currently in the 3rd year of his PhD with Barry Doyle at Vasclab. This is the second year in a row that a member of the group has won the award, Nik Bappoo received the award in 2017.

Nik Bappoo won 2nd prize in the Bachelor Level Best Student Paper award, also at the World Congress of Biomechanics, for his work on feto-placental haemodynamics. There were approximately 400 submissions for the award. Nik is currently applying for a scholarship to do his PhD with Barry Doyle at Vasclab.

Dr David Matthews and Dr Ben Travaglione from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, along with their colleague Andrew Munyard from the Department of Defence, Science and Technology (DST) have been recognised by Dr David Kershaw, Chief of Maritime Division, DST, for their contribution and collaboration with the Faculty over the last eight years.

Dr Brendan Kennedy and the team from the start-up company OncoRes Medical , whose development is taking place in partnership with EMS through BRITElab, have been selected as a finalist in the WA Innovator of the Year Awards, for both the Emerging Innovation Category and the Business News “Great for State” Encouragement Award.

The following members of the Faculty have been successful in applying for the following research grants

Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowships:

Dr Vincent Wallace

Biological Applications of Terahertz Technology - from molecules to tissues

$870,125 over four years.

This project aims to develop new knowledge for exploring the interaction of terahertz (THz) radiation with different materials. THz technology is in use in diverse applications from security screening to biomedical imaging. A hurdle to the widespread adoption of the technology is the poor understanding of the basic interaction between THz radiation and molecules, proteins, cells and tissues. This project will enable development of advanced THz technology and applications and will lead to accelerated implementation for use in chemistry, biology and, ultimately, medical applications such as cancer detection.

Dr Gabriele Tartaglino-Mazzucchelli

Supersymmetry and Supergravity: New Approaches and Applications

$703,125 over four years.

This project aims to advance our understanding of supersymmetric quantum field, gravity, and higher-spin theories. Supersymmetry and supergravity play crucial roles in modern developments in fundamental particle physics and cosmology. They also have rich connections with many branches of mathematical physics. Major conceptual questions in the description of general supergravity-matter couplings are still unsolved. By performing state of the art analysis in supergravity and holographic dualities, the project will advance our understanding of quantum gravity, black holes, and cosmology placing Australia at the forefront of these important research fields.

Dr Luca Cortese

Beyond appearance: revealing the physics of galaxy transformation

$853,125 over four years.

This project aims to reveal the physical origin of the large variety of galaxies in the universe by utilising multi-wavelength observations of nearby galaxies combined with advanced data analysis techniques and cutting-edge numerical simulations. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of astrophysics by providing a physically-motivated foundation to the subjective and qualitative taxonomic scheme generally used to understand how galaxies, and ultimately stars and planets, formed and evolve.

Professor Eric May

Unlocking Australia's Offshore Gas Endowment

$998,125 over four years.

This project aims to develop practical new methods of predicting and detecting the formation of solids in gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. Australia has large offshore reserves of natural gas and has made the investments necessary to help fuel the global transition to cleaner, reliable energy sources. However, conventional engineering approaches of producing gas from deep-water reserves have reached the limits of viability because of the costs required to prevent solids forming in subsea pipelines or cryogenic LNG plants. The project’s expected outcome include sophisticated tools in open-access software based on these new predictive methods, and a step-change in Australia’s ability to access its offshore gas.

Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformation Research Program:

Winthrop Professor Mohammed Bennamoun, Associate Professor Ajmal Mian et al

ARC Research Hub for Driving Farming Productivity and Disease Prevention.

$8,830,000 total funding, $5,000,000 from the ARC and $3,830,000 industry partner funding

The ARC Research Hub for Driving Farming Productivity and Disease Prevention aims to increase farm production and disease prevention through advancing and transferring new artificial intelligence technologies into industrial deployment. The Hub will combine machine vision, machine learning, software quality control, engineering, biology, and farming industries to develop technologies to build more intelligent systems. These dynamic systems will help determine what goal to achieve and the most efficient plan to achieve it. This Hub is expected to contribute to higher farming efficiency, lower production costs and fewer disease risks, giving the Australian industry new business opportunities and an international competitive advantage.

Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Projects:

A/Prof Britta Bienen, Prof Mark Cassidy, A/Prof Conleth O’Loughlin, Dr Neil Morgan
Design guideline for suction caissons supporting offshore wind turbines
$395,000 over three years from the ARC. $191,728 cash and $374,999 in-kind from the partner organisation Lloyd’s Register EMEA.

This project aims to develop an industry guideline for suction caisson foundations,that are a new form of fixed platform anchor, for offshore wind turbines. The project expects to generate new knowledge of caisson response during installation and over millions of wind/wave load cycles, by integrating field experience with measurements from innovative experiments. The expected outcomes of this project include new methods to guide suction installation in difficult soil layering and predicting rotation and stiffness over a turbine’s operational life. The benefits of these scientific advances will contribute to the economic and reliable design of suction caisson foundations and a more rapid take-up of offshore wind energy.

Prof Michael Johns, Prof Eric May, Dr Scott Seltzer
Shale Rock Characterisation using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
$290,521 over three years from the ARC. $210,000 cash and $90,000 in-kind from the partner organisation Chevron Energy Technology.

This project aims to assess the viability of potential shale oil and gas reserves, using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) core analysis and well logging techniques to characterise shale samples. Shale oil and gas reserves have the potential to provide a rapidly dispatchable energy source, which could play a key role as a transition fuel to renewable energy. The project will develop techniques to deliver quantitative fluid typing, producible porosity, pore sizes and permeability measurements for shale samples, which could be used in the shale gas and oil industry. These techniques will improve the predictability of shale field developments that better inform their economic and environmental impact.

Media references

Ben Robson (UWA Faculty of Engineering Mathematical Sciences) (+61 8) 6488 7501

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