Feet on the ground firm relies on high fliers

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A bulletin from QUT Foundation Inc., GPO Box 2434, Brisbane 4001 Tel (07) 223 2821 Issue 3 •April 1990

Feet on the ground firm relies on high fliers

A

n unmarked door at the top of a stairway was an unlikely entrance to an innovative giant in Australia's small business brigade.

If Aeronautical Designs Australia Pty Ltd had a slogan then it would most aptly read: no engineering

;::iroblem is too great.

Although aircraft design, construc- tion and testing accounts for the majority of the work, Aeronautical Designs have completed all manner of "feet on the ground" projects.

Most recently they did the documentation for a new process which turns rubbish into lightweight aggregate. This as yet unpatented system is more environmentally friendly than another now popular process.

Aeronautical Designs Australia con- sists of two engineers, three draftsmen and a secretary /recep- tionist who doubles as morale booster. Staff enthusiasm, a team spirit and a love for flight has been the firm's key to success.

Manager, QUT Foundation member and helicopter pilot, Michael Jarvis, :::onfirmed the company had rather a glitzy birth.

Together with former QUT engineer- ing lecturer Bill Whitney, he drafted and designed a replica Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith favourite. The Bristol Tourer was commissioned for the mini-series "A thousand skies".

Although Michael and Bill were work- ing separately, they banded together to complete the planes in 13 weeks. One still remains at Archer- field Airfield, while the other was con- verted back to the World War One fighter from which Kingsford-Smith originally styled the tourer model.

A year later, in 1988, Seabird Aviation contracted the pair to design, manufacture and test a revolution- ary low speed surveillance plane.

This plane, the Seabird Sentinel, has been undergoing flight tests recent- ly. The two-seater looks like the child of an unlikely marriage between a helicopter and a light aircraft.

The seabird contract had been signed under the proviso that Michael and Bill formalise what had been a temporary business arrangement. Aeronautical Designs was thus born in June 1989.

Since then the company has been involved in the design of many aircraft and helicopters.

Part-time engineering student Jason Derry, QUT civil engineering graduate Matthew Denning, en- gineer Mark Stanard and "Person Friday" Shelley Collins complement the enterprising duo.

Michael said: "We have no desire to grow in employee numbers because six is a tidy number that allows us depth in both engineering and draft- ing."

Not once since the Bristol Tour er con- tract had the team been wanting for work. "This stems mostly from Bill's reputation in the industry, although the business name is becoming known," he said.

Of the six Australian aeronautical firms, they are the only one produc- ing designs on an AutoCAD/

AeroCAD (computer aided design) system. "The better known aero- nautical firms, such as Hawker de Havilland and Asta, do some design work but not complete designs, as we have done," said Michael.

Matthew graduated from QUT in 1983. He is an aerobatic pilot who Bill Whitney happened across at a Coolangatta air show last year. Mat- thew was restoring an old

"Boomerang" plane, Bill has worked

on many replicas and a mutual inter- est led to serious business.

Another of Matthew's achievements is as much a QUT story as his own. The year of his graduation was the first the university had offered engineer- ing associate diplomas with distinc- tion and Matthew was the first to graduate with the new honour.

"Graduates lined up alphabetically for the awards and my name just happened to come first," he said.

Unlike Matthew, Michael did not com- plete his degree course due to work pressures. He does hold a mechanical engineering certificate from QUT, however. "I started the mechanical engineering degree course after realising I knew just enough to get me into trouble," he said.

None the less; he was uncompromis- ing in his praise for QUT and the op- portunities it afforded him. "I still recall the quality of three lecturers:

Bill, Arn Winter and David Geldard."

A QUT stickpin fastened to his collar stood out against the contrasting stripes of his shirt.

Mike Jarvis (left) shows off his team with a replica biplane

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Planners swap shoes for different view

T he outlook from Ms Robin King- Cullen' s room on the QUT cam- pus is very different from that at her Brisbane City Council office. And with the change in scenery has come a metamorphosis in lif es tyle.

Ms King-Cullen, the BCC' s Prin- cipal P[anner Statutory, changed places with QUT's Head of Plan- ning and Landscape Architecture, Associate Professor Phil Heywood, for six months .

Th e exchange is the first Brisbane City Council has undertaken with

Ms King-Cullen

an academic institution.

For Ms King-Cullen, a part-time lecturer at QUT since the mid-80s, the conversion to academia has meant a conducive environment in which to complete her PhD (from the University of Queensland).

She recognised the exchange gave her the opportunity to share with students valuable personal insight.

"When students first leave univer- sity they know the principles and theories of their work but lack the basic surviva l skill s," she said.

Ms King-Cullen said the philosophy behind contact with the public in her council role and with students at QUT was similar - you do your best for the p eople with whom you are dealing.

When asked what were the most im- portant factors planners needed to consider, she said aesthetics rated very highly.

This philosophy could partially ex- plain why Ms King-Cullen was recently seconded to head the team which reviewed the Residential B council zoning. She has been en- couraging Brisbane developers to consider the aesthetics of their crea- tions .

"Although the common six-pack of units is ugly, they are also economi- cal to build," she said.

To lift standards, she and the team have designed a more elegant look- ing building with more landscaping and a far larger common domain to the rear of the units or flats.

Ms King-Cullen sees the face of Brisbane changing over the next couple of decades with smaller sub- urban blocks in new estates, greater dual occupancy on inner city blocks and more townhouses for an ageing population.

"We can't keep spreading forever,"

she said.

She believes clear design guidelines will help retain the uniquely Queensland character of Brisbane.

"This has already happened to an extent in Spring Hill where council guidelines limit the roof pitch and window style, for instance," Ms King-Cullen said.

She has r eservation s about whether strict guidelines would encroach on personal rights. " What's needed is incentives rather than the big stick approach ," she said.

Ms King-Cullen holds a QUT graduate diploma in urban and regional planning and is a QUT Foundation memoer.

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Quincy-clone survives tough forensic world

T

he enthusiasm and dedication policeman Karl Nystrom ob- served in his instructors 18 years ago when he was a cadet has enabled him to survive an environment lesser souls would have fled.

As a member of the scientific section of the Queensland Police the majority of Karl's career has been spent fine tooth combing crime scenes for vital clues and testing for material evidence.

He admitted some episodes, such as 'nurder investigations, made him ,hink hard about continuing with forensics, but found reconciliation in the thought that people were either convicted, acquitted or their in- nocence proved on forensic results.

Now second in charge of the scien- tific division, Karl has moved into a management and planning role. The 15 member scientific team recent- ly moved to a new home in the police headquarters building -the finale to three years dreaming, sweating and planning by Karl. He was rightly proud of his achievements but conceded much more work was needed before downing tools.

Much of the fourth floor facilities are used to analyse blood splash pat- terns, drugs, chemical residue from fires and crime scene reconstruc- tions. A bullet recovery tank offers clues to the likelihood that a par-

1 i cu I ar bullet was fired from a retrieved gun and two dust free suites allow comparative analyses between suspects' possessions and evidence from crime scenes.

Karl's crew analyse data from bul- lets, foot and tyre prints, marijuana, cigarette butts and clothing. The up- dated technology - new micro- scopes, computers and all manner of analytical gismos -required to turn such clues into indisputable evidence will cost more than $1 mil- lion, he said.

Although no facilities exist at the mo- ment for DNA fingerprinting analyses, Karl considered the tech- nology in the design and space has been set aside. However, he gave a warning that much of the miracle mystique surrounding the DNA process was media hype.

Briefly, DNA fingerprinting is a com- parison of genetic "bar codes"

Karl Nystrom examines a blown light bulb filament, seen also magnified 50 times

which map "hyper-variable" physi- cal characteristics inherited in an in- dividual. DNA is the genetic blueprint contained in every cell type in the human body except red blood cells.

Police investigations concentrate on the analyses of hyper-variable coded characteristics.

Matching hyper-variable charac- teristics will increase the probability that a suspect and offender are in- deed the same individual.

"It vastly improves the probability of identification and reduces the mag- nitude of tests previously required to arrive at a conclusion. The technol- ogy is not at a stage where it gives identification at a genetic level."

"However, early on, the media gave

the opposite impression," Karl said. He headed the team which forged an historic link between the Queensland Police, QUT and Griffith University. His ten year strategic plan finale came when a $400 000 scan- ning electron microscope was in- stalled at QUT last year for forensic and other purposes with the aid of a

$260 000 Queensland Police depart-

ment contribution. All three parties use the facility.

The Jeol 840A microscope, which can magnify a sample by 300 000 times, is far more sensitive than machines previously available in Bris-

bane. The agreement between the

police and QUT's AEMF (Analytical Electron Microscope Facility) began after 12 months negotiations in 1987.

"The collaboration means a greater rationalisation of both equipment and people resources," Karl said.

He completed a degree in chemistry at QUT in 1977. "A small student-to- lecturer ratio allowed a greater pur- suit of excellence. An education al- lows people to indulge in vital self-im- provement," Karl said.

For this reason he began a QUT de- gree in medical laboratory science two years later to back the chemistry qualifications. Although he reached final year, work commitments prevented him from completing the degree. Karl has now returned to QUT to study a Master of Business Administration.

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KEEPING IN TOUCH

The QUT Foundation has had a tremendous response from mem- bers, such as:

John Adams, Diploma in Mechanical Engineering 1978. He is now Occupational Health and Safety Consultant at Kaiser En- gineering and is interested in professional contact with others who have an interest in occupational health and safety. 221 3000.

David Anderson, B Applied Science 1988. He is working in Vancouver BC Canada as Planetarium Operator and Lecturer at the H R MacMillan Planetarium and Gordon Southam Obser- vatory. His Canadian telephone number is (604) 736 4431. Greg Anderson, B Tech (Civil) 1974, Graduate Diploma in Business Administration 1979. Greg is State Marketing En- gineer for the BHP Structural Steel Development Group.

834 7519.

John Asson, B Electrical Engineering (Electronic Systems) 1988, is with Essa in Sale Victoria as Systems Manager. "I manage VAT 6310 which has approximately 600 users with over +25 network onshore and offshore". (051) 49551

Geoffrey Atkinson, LLB (Law) 1986, has been admitted as Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland and the High Court of Australia, is a Fellow of the Taxation Institute of Australia, Member of the Queensland Justices Association and Justice of the Peace. He is with Dale and Fallu at Ipswich. 281 4999.

Sonja Chandler, Diploma in Applied Science (Nursing) 1983 and B Business Communication 1986. She spent the last two years as a Researcher at Griffith University before moving to Adelaide for the Work Cover Corporation as an Industry Consult- ant. (08) 233 2 411. She is doing a research masters in occupation- al health and safety.

KEEP IN TOUCH RESPONSE CARD Name (please print)

Degree(s) .. . .. . Year(s) of graduation Company /Organisation Position

Phone News

I am happy for this information to appear in

¹¹

QUT Links".

Signature . . . . . . . . . . Date

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David Dodd, B Applied Science (Computing) 1984, is Senior Consultant, Duesburys Information Technology. (02) 250 9517(work), (02) 569 0506 (home).

Susan Grigson, B Business Communication 1982, has been elected President of the Public Relations Institute of Australia in Queensland for a second year. She is the first woman and graduate to hold this position and would be pleased to hear from Com- munication graduates seeking PRIA membership on 366 1841 (home).

Kaye Hogan, B Business Communication 1983. She is Cor- porate Promotions Officer, Queensland Industry Development Corporation. She said: "Thinking of starting your own business?

Contact QIDC for a commercial loan". 232 4000.

Chris Lane, Associate Diploma in Applied Chemistry 1983.

Chris is Senior Laboratory Technician at the Logan City Council and is interested in the establishment of the Science Alumni.

209 9155.

David Rankin, B Engineering (Civil) 1985, is involved in civil work design and contract administration on subdivision works with Bornhost and Ward Pty Ltd. 831 4699.

Peter Robson, B Engineering (Mechanical) 1988, is having a good time as a Plant Engineer at BHP Long Products Division in Wyalla (despite some limitations which we cannot publish!) Peter said: "It is great having cash in the claw!" (086) 40 4714.

Mark Thompson, Diploma in Applied Science 1987, has taken leave without pay from Prince Charles Hospital to work at the Yarrabah aboriginal rnmmunity outside Cairns.

Calendar of events

Professor Peter Coaldrake will be guest lecturer at an En- gineering and Surveying Alumni supper on Friday 18th May 1990. Cost will be $15.

The Engineering and Surveying Alumni dinner at the TAFE College Bald Hills. $23 all inclusive.

Further information is available from Barbara Hosegood on 223 2813.

The Nursing Alumni have organised a Market Career Day in August at the Wesley Hospital for oncology, gerontology and theatre. The alumni intends to cover all nursing fields in the future.

Science has formed the third QUT alumni group and have elected Mr Peter White as president. He can be contacted on 228 7316 (wk) or 269 6255 (h).

Mr White holds a QUT certificate in Chemistry (1975), an Associate Diploma in Applied Science (1982) and a Bachelor of Applied Science (1989).

Library notice DOD

Some Special Members who joined the QUT Foundation after August last year have library cards which expired last December.

Such members are entitled to borrow books for the remainder of their Foundation membership and should contact the library on 223 2717 to arrange the appropriate extension. Members will need to produce the expired card.

Key rings for sale DOD

In the last issue of LINKS the Foundation offered members QUT coffee mugs, ties and polo shirts - ·'tie for work, shirt for play and mug to help escape exhaustion from too much work and play'·.

Although the mugs and shirts have sold out. the university tie -cousin to the old school tie -is still available for $15.

The Foundation has now released a QUT keyring for $9 (including postage).

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