News Archive

Engineering students at UWA are reaping the benefits of academic/industry partnerships in the form of talks and discussions with industry experts.

Final year design students from SESE and Mechanical/Chemical Engineering met engineers and hydrologists with expertise and authority in the real world of floods, roadways, drinking water and water safety.

Projects Director of the Centre of Excellence in Ecohydrology, Associate Professor Neil Coles , originally from DAFWA (Department of Agriculture and Food), was able to call on his peers in government bodies to bring their skills to UWA to augment the excellent coursework with the spice of experience.

"It was fantastic to have people from industry to add a real perspective to the students' projects" said Ms Kay Horn of SESE.

Dr Jerome Goh , the Senior Waterways Engineer from the Department of Main Roads, spoke about his experience designing and re-designing roads and bridges in the flood-prone Kimberley. He spoke of the practical aspects of design and the necessity of looking at the large picture when designing water engineering systems and emphasized the need for consideration of failure scenarios.

Richard Theobald , a senior policy officer from the Department of Health's Environmental Health Water unit, gave an introduction to water-reuse and water licensing - perhaps the driest subjects in the hydrology curriculum - but ones with which these students will need to be familiar when they graduate. He also discussed the Rouse Hill Recycled Water Scheme , including some of the problems being experienced in implementing the scheme.

From the Economic Regulation Authority (ERA) Executive Director Licensing, Monitoring and Customer Protection, Paul Kelly , discussed water licensing from perspective of the "final authority". His colleague Greg Watkinson , Director References and Research, gave a stimulating talk on water pricing, including some issues and opinions not often heard by the students.

SESE student Laura Ellis was surprised by some of the comparisons of the economic and social costs of water use, but conceded that having to think about these anomalies will prove useful when working in the "real world".