What can be done against Global Warming, atmospheric pollution and fuel prices at record highs? In January 2008, the Renewable Energy Vehicle (REV) project was re-started under the leadership of Associate Professor Thomas Bräunl and Dr Kamy Cheng.

It is no surprise that China’s demand for raw materials such as iron ore has fuelled Western Australia’s economic growth. China is now WA’s number one trading partner accounting for 21.45% of WA exports in 2007. Given the overall strength of the Chinese economy, the WA mining boom is set to continue with the Sino-Australian trade relationship currently worth billions. WA’s sister state in China is Zhejiang Province, a major recipient of iron ore. In order to take advantage of the trade partnership, engineers need to be well versed in Chinese business, language and culture. The Confucius Institute at The University of Western Australia exists to promote Chinese language, culture and business and to strengthen Sino-Australian ties.

The Class of 1981 held their 25th Year Engineering Reunion on Saturday 10 November 2007. Forty-one engineering graduates returned to UWA to celebrate their year’s reunion with some returning from interstates. The reunion, a cocktail party was held in the UWA Boat Shed.

Addressing the engineering skill shortage and creating opportunities to train our future engineers to take them to a new level of professional job readiness has lead to a strategic industry partnership between UWA and Lycopodium.
Lycopodium General Manager of Operations, Mr Peter De Leo and the Vice-Chancellor Professor Alan Robson signed a sponsorship agreement on 14 December 2007 to secure the Lycopodium Design Studio within the Monadelphous Integrated Learning Centre (ILC).

The Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics would like to congratulate Mr Rahul Khubchandani on recently being awarded the Engineers Australia 2008 Russell Dumas Medal.

2008 is proving to be a bumper year for the School of Civil & Resource Engineering. The UWA Civil Engineering Futures Foundation welcomed SKM, Theiss, VDM Consulting, Monadelphous and McConnell Dowell, bringing the total number of members to 21.

A major initiative of the Foundation, through which laptop computers are supplied to all second year students enrolled in the Civil Engineering program, continued this year: 150 future Civil Engineers were presented with laptops at a sundowner on 8 April.

• Class of 1983 – Mechanical Engineering 25th Year Reunion Dinner – Friday 24 October 2008
• Class of 1998 – 10th Year Engineering Reunion Cocktail – Saturday 8 November 2008
• Class of 1957 – 50th Year Engineering Reunion Dinner – Friday 21 November 2008
• UEC’s Past-Committee Reunion
  Enjoy a casual evening with other alumni in early August 2008. A light dinner included. To register your interest please email Aisha at or visit the website.

The Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics would like to congratulate Mr David Hng on recently being awarded the Peter Fillery Award for the best student project at the 17th Annual WA Information Technology and Telecommunications (WAITTA) Awards on 14 March 2008.

We are very pleased to be able to report that global energy company, Chevron, has selected The University of Western Australia to join its prestigious worldwide University Partnership Program (UPP).