News Archive

The School of Civil and Resource Engineering at UWA is currently ranked 18th in the world in terms of research output in the sub-discipline of Civil Engineering, according to the Centre for Evaluation of Science and Technology.

This remarkable achievement was emphasised in 2006 by the promotion of Barry Lehane and Liang Cheng to Professor, bringing the proportion of academic staff at the level of Professor to one of the highest in the University.

The research being performed in he School includes the most active tructural Dynamics research group n the country, lead by Professor Hong ao. This group specialises in structural ondition assessment using dynamic ibration techniques and blast loadings on tructures. The problem of assessing the ondition of civil engineering structures is a difficult one, due to their scale. By deploying accelerometers on a structure and monitoring the response of the structure to an applied excitation, Professor Hao’s group has demonstrated that it is possible to obtain an estimate of the condition of the structure. The group has applied the technique to assess a number of bridges in WA.

On the teaching side, 2006 saw the School significantly increase the involvement of industry to enhance the professional aspects of its programmes. Early in 2006, the Bachelor of Engineering (Mining Systems) gained course recognition from the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM). This provides not just credibility of the course with industry, but also gives students access to AusIMM scholarships and awards. The citation for the Mining Systems Bachelor of Engineering described it as “designed to produce top quality engineers skilled in all aspects of ore extraction systems with particular emphasis on the analysis, design and optimisation of complete mining operations”. In the Civil Engineering programme, the final year Engineering Practice unit was presented through an alliance with Main Roads Western Australia (MRWA). MRWA provided senior engineers to give the lectures and young engineers to tutor and mentor the students. The project involved the future of the Fremantle Traffic Bridge, allowing the students to be involved with a real project.

Despite these successes, the School is struggling to meet the industry demand for graduates. Leading local employers of Civil Engineers have now joined with the School to establish the UWA Civil Engineering Futures Foundation. The Foundation was launched in August 2006 by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Alan Robson. The purpose of the Foundation is to promote Civil Engineering as a career of choice for capable students. In 2007 the Foundation will present a laptop computer to every student entering the School of Civil and Resource Engineering second year Civil Engineering from the common first year. Far from being a ‘bribe’, the laptop is a means by which the firms are demonstrating to the students how seriously they need Civil Engineering graduates. The scheme will also allow the School to adopt innovative state of the art teaching techniques, further enhancing the student experience.

Media references

For more information please contact:
Mr Qinyuan (John) Jiang
School Manager
Phone: (+61 8) 6488 7320
Website: https://www.civil.uwa.edu.au