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Queensland University of Technology Newspaper Issue 298 October, 2009
Professor Kerry Carrington said girls are catching up to boys in violent crime.
www.news.qut.edu.au George Street Brisbane 4000 Telephone (07) 3138 2361 Registered by Australia Post – Publication No. QBF 4778. CRICOS No 00213J
Justice
THE link between cyber-bullying and an increase in violence among young women will be featured in a new book published in November.
Professor Kerry Carrington, head of QUT’s School of Justice, has collected 45 years of data and can confi rm, contrary to general academic opinion, young women are fast catching up to boys in violent crime.
Professor Carrington’s fi ndings will be published next month in her book Off ending Youth: Sex, Youth and Crime.
She has examined whether increases in cyber-bullying are related to increases in female delinquency and boys’ continuing monopoly over sexually violent crimes.
The book also includes chapters
on the over-representation of Indigenous youth in the juvenile justice system, dispelling unfounded myths and fears about ethnic youth gangs, and key contemporary patterns of delinquency and the response to these by juvenile justice agencies.
Professor Carrington said her data backed up anecdotal reports that violence among g irls was increasing.
“There’s been a long dispute whether it was happening, but this data shows a pattern of statistics that points to a clear trend,” Professor Carrington said.
“And it is not just in Australia, but across Europe, the UK and US as well.”
Professor Carrington said there were diff erent theories about why this was the case, including treating girls’ crime equally with boys’ crime and increasing female participation
in what used to be traditional masculine roles, but these did not adequately explain the recent sharp increase.
“Increases in violence began when girls began moving into drug and street cultures in the 1980s, but the most signifi cant increases in violence was in the past decade,” she said.
“Girls are taking to cyber space, e-technology and mobile phones with a passion and evidence shows girls are more likely to use these to bully.
“These technologies massively inflame conflict between g irls.
Increasingly, girls are bashing other girls, and videos of these are being put onto YouTube.
“Bullying used to end at the end of school, but now it follows you home and can escalate overnight.”
Professor Carrington said a long-standing reluctance to accept increasing violence between girls
meant there were few specif ic programs to address it.
“The majority of rehabilitation p r o g r a m s f o c u s o n b o y s ’ delinquencies which may not be as eff ective in dealing with violent girls,” she said.
Professor Carrington said from 1960 to 2007, the ratio of young women to young men appearing before the NSW Children’s Courts for criminal matters has narrowed from one in fourteen to one in fi ve, and girls continued to narrow the gap in violent crime.
“Boys’ crime rates are falling in overall terms, but within that, rates of sexual violence are of an increasing concern,” she said.
Girls’ crime rates are increasing overall and girls’ violence, usually directed towards other girls, is increasing.”
- Rachael Wilson
Green solutions in the bag
Daniella Rodrigues, left, and Rahwa Merhazion are members of QUT Young Achievement Australia team GreenSpiya.
Girls’ violence on the rise
Business
A TEAM of QUT business students has come up with an award-winning solution to a shopper’s ever-growing pile of green bags collected in lieu of an ever-growing pile of plastic bags.
The perennial 21st century problem of forgetting to take your green bags to the supermarket has been solved with a car key holder made from excess green bags, dreamt up and marketed by QUT Young Achievement Australia team GreenSpiya.
The Reminder Key Ring won the team the overall award at the Trade Expo at South Bank, the fi rst event of the 13-week annual business skills challenge for high school and tertiary students in which they must design, start, operate and wind up a business in three months.
GreenSpiya’s managing director QUT science and technology student Andrew Quay said the students were inspired to use the green bags to put a reminder to be eco-friendly into everyone’s hand.
“We came up with the idea for this business because we realised we could put a simple reminder that would jolt anyone’s memory to take their recycle bags,” Andrew
said.
“We are all concerned about the environment and have the best intentions of doing our bit but
somehow those green bags manage to stay at home when you are shopping and you end up with another pile of plastic bags or more green bags.
“We had keen interest in our Reminder Key Ring and other products made out of recycled green bags.”
The team of 17 students from the Faculties of Business, and Science and Technology has a few weeks of the challenge to go in which time they will liquidate their business.
- Niki Widdowson
Professor Kerrie Mengersen Mathematical Sciences,
Faculty of Science and Technology - for Partnerships and
Engagement, Leadership, Research
Professor Andy Arthurs Music and Sound, Creative Industries Faculty - for Innovative
and Creative Practice
Barbara Kent Sessional Academic, Faculty of Law
- for Learning and Teaching, Partnerships and Engagement, Leadership
Dr Joanne Fuller
Lecturer, Economics and Finance, Faculty of Business
- for Learning and Teaching
Dr Wilhelmina Huston Peter Doherty Fellow, Life Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology - for Research
Michelle Cunningham Sessional Tutor and Lecturer, Art and Design, Creative Industries Faculty
- for Learning and Teaching
Awards for real excellence
QUT congratulates our exceptional staff who have received Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence for 2009. The awards, which are open to all QUT staff , reward and recognise
outstanding and sustained performance in teaching, research and professional activity.
QUT appreciates the wonderful contributions of our staff .
ACADEMIC
ACADEMIC TEAM
Associate Professor Marilyn Campbell
Learning and Professional Studies, Faculty of Education
- for Research
Adjunct Professor John McAuliffe
Sessional Academic, Urban Development, Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering - for Partnerships and Engagement
Dr Christy Collis
Senior Lecturer, Media and Comm- unication, Creative Industries Faculty - for Learning and Teaching,
Partnerships and Engagement, Client Focus, Innovative and Creative Practice
Airports of the Future Project Team - for Research, Partnerships
and Engagement
Maree Izatt
Senior Research Assistant, Engineering Systems, Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering - for Research, Partnerships and
Engagement
Lizzie Grist
Administrative Assistant, Faculty of Law
- for Learning and Teaching, Partnerships and Engagement, Client Focus, Innovative and Creative Practice, Leadership Dr Edwina Luck
Lecturer, Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations, Faculty of Business
- for Learning and Teaching, Innovative and Creative Practice
Professor Greg Hearn Coordinator, Research Intensive Staff, Creative Industries Faculty - for Research
Student Business Services Admissions and QUT International Team Division of Administrative Services and Division of International and Development - for Client Focus Colin Melvin
Director, Offi ce of Commercial Services, Division of Research and Commercialisation
- for Leadership
Greg Palmer
Technical Leader, Information Technology Services, Division of Technology, Information and Learning Support
- for Partnerships and Engagement, Innovative and Creative Practice, Leadership
Elizabeth Stein
Senior Administration Offi cer and Pharmacy Placements Offi cer, Life Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology
- for Partnerships and Engagement, Client Focus From centre bottom, clockwise, Professor Kerrie Mengersen,
Professor Vesna Popovic, Professor Michael Rosemann, Professor Robin Drogemuller, Professor Ashantha Goonetilleke, Dr Paul Barnes, Professor Prasad Yarlagadda, Dr Clinton Fookes (Not pictured:
Emeritus Professor Ed Dawson and Professor Sridha Sridharan)
June Ho and Irene Koh (Student Business Services) and Sharon Tickle (QUT International)
PROFESSIONAL
SENIOR STAFF SENIOR STAFF / PROFESSIONAL TEAM
Public health
INFECTIONS caught in hospital are costing the Australian healthcare system more than 850,000 lost bed days per year, according to a new QUT study.
Associate Professor Nick Graves, from the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, said there were 175,153 cases where patients had acquired an infection during their hospital stay.
“If rates were reduced by just one per cent, then 150,158 bed days would be released for alternative uses, allowing an estimated 38,500 additional admissions annually,”
he said.
The results, which have been published in the Australian journal Healthcare Infection, calculate the economic consequences of healthcare-acquired infections arising among admissions to Australian acute care hospitals.
Professor Graves said the research
revealed there was an opportunity to improve the efficiency of the Australian healthcare system.
“Acute hospitals in Australia cannot meet current demand,” he said.
“ Wa i t i n g l i s t s f o r e l e c t ive surgery and specialist outpatient appointments are lengthening in every state and territory.”
Professor Gr aves said many infections were preventable and Au s t r a l i a n i n f e c t i o n c o n t r o l practitioners could reduce rates if they had additional resources.
“Healthcare-acquired infection rates are about fi ve per cent of all admissions at the moment and with bed days valued at $1005 each, the total economic burden is close to $1 billion per annum,” he said.
Professor Graves said the bulk of the costs were faced by the most populous states of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria.
“New South Wales loses 272,844 bed days, Victoria 232,951 and Queensland 170,126,” he said.
Infections
cost $1 billion
in lost bed days
Training
QUT is collaborating with one of India’s most prestigious open universities to provide two million Indian in-service primary teachers with an online Diploma of Education (DPE).
The project was offi cially launched on September 1 by Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, in a ceremony held at the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in Delhi.
QUT’s Professor Kar-Tin Lee, Head of the School of Maths, Science and Technology Education in the Faculty
of Education, is leading this project with a team of faculty members.
Some of the team will soon head to India to provide professional development to Indian educators, to ensure they are comfortable using the new technologies.
“All content for the DPE has been re-designed and digitised for upload onto a learning management system for online delivery across India,” said Professor Lee.
“All in-service teachers undergoing the training will become trained online where technolog y allows,
shifting from the current paper-based distance education mode. This will mean learning will become more interactive and engaging and access to online materials will be much easier for all students.
“The Indian Government would like to train two million primary teachers over the next fi ve years and this online course will be used to ensure all Indian primary teachers are suitably trained.
“The team from QUT is providing expertise in online design and teaching strategies for the enhancement of student learning outcomes.
“India is advanced in the fi eld of information technology, but QUT has much to off er in the way of online learning. The QUT team has many years of experience in online delivery and in running education courses.”
Over the next few months Professor Lee and her team of academics from QUT will provide training and information about online delivery to IGNOU staff to build their capacity to cater for the demand for teacher training throughout India.
“The diploma is expected to commence in some areas at the start
of next year,” she said.
“It really is an excellent opportunity for our staff to engage with people in India, learn about the challenges they face and methods they have, and be immersed in an environment where teacher education takes place under extremely diffi cult conditions.
“It is of course a huge challenge, but an extremely exciting one. IGNOU’s transition to this innovative way of delivery will allow all educators to work together to reeng ineer pedagogical approaches for the greater benefi t of our students.”
Professor Wendy Patton, Executive Dean of Education, Deputy Vice- C h a n c e l l o r ( I n t e r n a t i o n a l a n d D eve l o p m e n t ) P r o fe s s o r S c o t t Sheppard, Professor Arun Sharma, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Commercialisation) and Dr.
Sheel Nuna, Director South Asia, have supported the project.
- Sharon Thompson
Education
Q U T ’ S I n d i g e n o u s E d u c a t i o n Leadership Institute has received
$16.4 million from the Australian Government to help continue its work on successful strategies for Indigenous education.
The funding was announced last week by Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Julia Gillard during the institute’s inaugural Stronger Smarter Summit in Brisbane.
“I am pleased to announce today that the Australian Government has committed $16.4 million to the Stronger Smar ter Lear ning Communities project,” she said.
“The project, to be led by Chris Sarra, will help ensure that school
leaders across Australia are supported and challenged in ways that will help them turn outcomes around for Indigenous students.”
A name change for the institute was also announced at the summit – it will become the Stronger Smarter Institute, refl ecting its key “stronger smarter” message for Indigenous children.
The institute, which is part of QUT’s Faculty of Education, was established in 2005 as a partnership between Education Queensland and QUT. It is led by Dr Chris Sarra, pictured, who is a QUT education graduate and former Queenslander of the Year.
Its “stronger smarter” message has reached an estimated 15,000 school children over the past two years.
Staff pursue improved educational outcomes for Indigenous children by working with principals, teachers and community leaders – who then inspire positive change among their peers and relay those positive messages to their local children.
This initiative was funded by the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.
The institute has also been backed by the Queensland Government and has received more than $2 million in philanthropic support from the Telstra Foundation and the Sidney Myer Fund.
- Mechelle McMahon
“This accounts for almost 56,000 infection cases in NSW, 47,700 cases in Victoria and 34,900 cases in Queensland.”
Lost bed days for other states and ter ritories are: 80,619 for Western Australia, 72,753 for South Australia, 11,257 for Tasmania, 7408 for Australian Capital Territory and 7079 for the Northern Territory.
“ S p e n d i n g m o re m o n ey o n
infection control could reduce rates, release bed days and increase hospital throughput. This is likely to improve the effi ciency of the hospital sector,”
he said.
Professor Graves said the next step was to investigate cost-eff ective ways of spending extra dollars on new and expanded research programs.
He said a national program was being undertaken to encourage
healthcare workers to wash their hands before and after touching every patient, which had the potential of being eff ective at reducing infection and cost-eff ective.
The research was f unded by T h e C e n t r e f o r H e a l t h c a r e Related Infection Surveillance and Prevention.
- Sandra Hutchinson
$16 million boost for
Stronger Smarter message
Associate Professor Nick Graves said an extra 38,500 patients could be treated each year if hospital- acquired infections were reduced by just one per cent.
QUT coup for online Indian
teacher training
Creative writing
VOLUNTEERS who help others often say they get more out of it than they give.
For QUT creative writing PhD student Kate Cantrell the time she spent volunteering in a Bangkok slum has helped her win an international writing prize, a trip to Spain and a sure knowledge of what she wants to do with her life.
Kate, pictured, who is a Queensland Government Smart Futures PhD Scholarship holder, won the 2009 Bradt Travel Guides Travel Writing Competition for unpublished writers after she submitted an evocative story on her experience in Thailand under
the theme of Destination Unknown.
She fl ew to London as a semi-fi nalist and came back a winner after the awards evening at Stanfords Bookshop in London.
Her prize is a place on a prestigious
travel writing course in Cordoba next October and a professional reputation that will make her a much sought after travel writer.
“My trip to Thailand was my fi rst time overseas,” Kate said.
“As you can imag ine, it was a confronting experience. I worked in the Rong Muu slum in Bangkok for fi ve weeks before going to Chiang Mai in the north to teach English to the hill tribe refugees from China and Burma.
“When I fi nish my PhD I want to lecture and continue to write. I also want to return to Thailand and set up a school in the slums for the kids who want to learn English. Most of these kids don’t have rice or school books or toys to play with. Some don’t even have mothers. What they do have is their stories. I know I have to go back.”
Kate’s creative writing PhD is on wandering women who write themselves across landscapes and language. She is currently writing a travel memoir called Things Past about the places she has wandered to and through, the most recent of which is Holland.
You can read Kate’s story at www.
bradt-travelguides.com.
- Niki Widdowson
Korea-
bound for career trip
Fashion
QUT third-year fashion/business double degree student Angela Leggett has won an inter nship in South Korea.
Angela, pictured, who majors in marketing, was one of eight university students chosen from across Australia for the Australia Korea Internship Program, an initiative of the Australia- Korea Foundation of the Department of Foreign Aff airs and Trade.
She will spend two months working for a Korean company.
“It’s a chance to explore Korean culture in a casual way through cultural immersion,” Ms Leggett said.
“It is a great opportunity to network and experience corporate marketing in the professional world.
“It will help me to determine what facet of industry I want to work in when I fi nish my degree.”
Angela said she had not been to Korea before.
She is a stellar student who represented QUT at the National Student Leadership Forum in Canberra in September.
- Rachael Wilson
Journalism
HEAVY metal and cult movie- loving QUT journalism student Tom Hersey has been named this year’s Most Outstanding Journalism Student – Metropolitan at the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance’s Queensland Media Awards.
The fourth-year Bachelor of Journalism/Bachelor of Business student, pictured, was selected from three finalists, including another QUT student, Jane Chudleigh, and won $6000 in prize money.
Mr Hersey’s winning entry was a group of articles, including stories
he has written as resident heavy metal music writer for street press publication Rave Magazine and a piece featuring cult movies.
“I went around using lines of dialogue from cult movies to see how people reacted,” he said.
“It was very funny, some people got the joke immediately but others were totally nonplussed.”
QUT graduates also won at the event, including Caitlin Shea (Best TV Current Aff airs, Documentary or Feature), Stefan Armbruster (Best Radio News Report), Michael Best (Best TV News Report) and Michael Crutcher (Best Investigative Report).
Journalism student nets industry award
Business
WITH big ideas but no budget, QUT business students will rely on their innovation and initiative when they pitch their marketing skills against one another in the fi nal of the bi-annual QUTopia project on October 10.
The idea behind QUTopia is to
group together second-year marketing students into small teams, with the challenge to create simulated businesses that must produce real products without spending any real money.
Project founder Associate Professor Rebekah Russell-Bennett, from the School of Advertising, Marketing and
PR, said it was designed to teach students real-world skills.
“It’s not about how much
money you make, it’s about what you learn so if at the end you have only made a small amount of money but you have taken risks, made mistakes and learnt from those mistakes then you will get a good mark,” she said.
The students’ ventures include selling chocolate mousse, cookies, photog r a phy and developing a magazine – BRANDED, a free weekly magazine sponsored by Snap Printing Queen Street.
Magazine project leader Ebony Johnson said QUTopia had been an exhilarating experience.
“The QUTopia projects throw you in the deep end of real-world marketing with budgets, regulations and tight deadlines,” Ebony said.
The fi nal QUTopia event of 2009 will be held on Saturday October 10 in the level 4 foyer of Z Block from 9.30am-10.45am.
- Sandra Hutchinson
QUT avionics graduate’s
international career takes fl ight
Words
of wander
Marketing students on QUTopia quest
Aerospace avionics
GEE, it’s a hard life being a postgraduate student – what with winning a Queensland Government scholarship and then having to live in Italy for a year while immersing yourself in your favourite topic – navigation!
Such is life for Chris Turner, pictured, who won a scholarship to study for his masters at the Politecnico di Torino in Italy, after graduating with a Bachelor of Engineering (Aerospace Avionics) from QUT.
Chris is undertaking a one-year masters program to pursue his interest in electronic and computer systems for aircraft thanks to the 2009 Queensland-Piemonte Scholarship from the Queensland Government’s Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation.
He is studying navigation and related applications, namely the use of Europe’s network of satellites, known as Galileo, to guide aircraft safely to their destinations.
“Galileo is civilian-owned and run, unlike the GPS system which is run by the US military. It has high accuracy and reliability and is available for many uses,” Chris said.
“Satellite navigation subjects interested me the most during my undergraduate degree and this masters is pretty much an extension of those subjects with the added bonus of exposing me to the industry at an international level.”
QUT Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering executive dean Professor Martin Betts said aerospace avionics was a specialisation of engineering at QUT.
“It ’s a stand-out course of choice for students who excel in maths and physics in high school,” he said.
Professor Betts said the faculty encouraged international exchange through various partnership programs, including scholarships like the flagship Dean’s Scholars Program.
The Dean’s Scholars Program provides scholarship and development opportunities to high achieving engineering students each year.
A p p l i c a t i o n s f o r Q U T scholarships, including the Dean’s Scholars Program are now open.
For further information, visit www.
bee.qut.edu.au/deansscholars.
- Niki Widdowson
Botswana orphans
SIXTY orphans from Botswana have a new sustainable home and school thanks to the hands-on work of 10 QUT students and staff .
Eight students and two lecturers from the School of Urban Development, pictured top, have returned from three weeks in Botswana after designing and constructing three buildings to house children orphaned by AIDS.
Construction management lecturer Paul den Ronden said the team, which included 16 volunteers recruited by QUT students and their contacts, laid 18,000 soil blocks made on site, fabricated and installed 56 steel trusses and roofed three buildings.
“It was a great success with the three buildings erected in 16 working days. We worked some huge days to achieve this with one herculean eff ort going till 4.30am,” Mr den Ronden said.
R i c h a rd M i l l s, a t h i rd - ye a r u r b a n development student, said the project was particularly satisfying because it took a three- pronged approach to sustainability.
“We built a bakery so that the locals could
learn a skill and become fi nancially sustainable.
It is environmentally sustainable because they can repair or expand by making more soil blocks, and it has human sustainability because we trained the local people in simple building techniques with materials that come readily to hand,” Richard said.
Student Luke Hempenstall said the students raised about $47,000 through concerts, bingo and trivia nights and about $100,000 in materials and business sponsorship to assist with their ongoing project.
Timor designs
QUT students are also hard at work designing a much needed cultural centre on a spectacular site in Dili the capital of Timor Leste (East Timor).
QUT landscape architecture lecturer Dr Ian Weir has recently returned from East Timor where he surveyed the land – an eye-popping location on the edge of a mountain by the sea – on which the cultural centre will be built.
“We have 83 QUT students – 63 from landsca pe architecture and 20 from architecture – who are all developing designs
for the cultural centre which is badly needed to help unify the people from the 13 provinces of East Timor,” Dr Weir said.
“The centre will have a theatre, auditorium and recording studios. The initial building will be built out of bamboo as the parents of one of our students are working in East Timor teaching the local people to build using bamboo. It’s an excellent building product because it is durable, readily available, and sustainable and has low embodied energy.
“The project is a great case study for the fourth-year architecture students who are working with lecturer Yaso Santo to develop ecological sustainable designs for developing countries.”
Bentinck blitz
A g roup of budding eng ineering and constr uction students from the QUT Engineers Without Borders chapter have visited Bentinck Island, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, to work with traditional owners in building sustainable infrastructure for the island’s Indigenous residents.
Their work included building community
facilities including public toilets and temporary accommodation shelters and was dubbed
“Bentinck Blitz”.
The group of built environment and engineering students, pictured bottom right, was led by the Alice Springs-based Centre for Appropriate Technology (CAT) and accompanied by professional engineers, safety offi cers and QUT staff . The project is a partnership between Engineers Without Borders, QUT, CAT and the local Kaiadilt Aboriginal Corporation.
Project leader Michael D’Onofrio, who is a Masters of Project Management student, said there were many benefi ts.
“The outcomes really went beyond further development of our own technical skills, as for the community it was all about building capacity and empowering them to have the confi dence to come back to us and ask to create a partnership for future projects,” he said.
The project has received major support from McConnell Dowell, who also run a bursary scheme at QUT, as well as ARUP Consulting Engineers, SKM and Brookfi eld Multiplex.
- Niki Widdowson and Sharon Thompson
We worked some huge days with one herculean eff ort going till 4.30am
A world of difference
QUT students are travelling the globe helping build better communities
Biomedical engineering
A NEW, more accur ate way of diagnosing the severity of osteoarthritis with less invasive surgery is being developed by QUT biomedical engineer Hayley Moody.
Ms Moody, from QUT’s Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering, said the new system would use near infrared spectroscopy - electromagnetic waves - to allow surgeons to improve early diagnosis of osteoarthritis and would lead to improved patient outcomes.
“Osteoarthritis is the degeneration of cartilage in the joints and is more commonly found in the aging population, and increasingly in athletes, and those whose jobs involve heavy lifting or other joint-intensive activities,” Ms Moody said.
“More than three million Australians suff er from osteoarthritis and with the aging population growing, the number
of osteoarthritis suff erers is projected to increase to 4.2 million in Australia by 2021.”
Ms Moody said the predominantly visual surgical tools currently available to diagnose osteoarthritis may not provide the level of information required to compliment new techniques in repairing damaged and diseased cartilage.
“There is a need to provide a more precise and accurate evaluation of early stage cartilage damage,” she said.
“The novel method that will result from my research will provide a ‘virtual biopsy’ of the diseased cartilage.
“This will essentially provide the surgeon with more detailed information about the level of disease in and around the aff ected cartilage.”
Ms Moody said with more accurate diagnosis and treatment, patients would require less recovery time, incur lower associated costs, return to work and sports sooner, and importantly,
reduce pain and suff ering.
“This research will also provide important insight into the characteristics of the stages of osteoarthritis, bringing researchers closer to understanding the mechanisms behind this disease,”
she said.
“It is hoped that this new information will potentially contribute to a decrease in late stage osteoarthritis through improved diagnosis and management of early stage osteoarthritis and in turn decrease the socio-economic burden of the disease.”
Ms Moody’s research is funded by a Queensland Government Smart Futures Scholarship, Nigel G. Shrive (Killam Memorial CIHR chair) grant, Cy Frank (McCaig Professor CIHR) grant, the Alberta Heritage Foundation of Medical Research, McCaig Fund and The Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
- Sandra Hutchinson
Dance
QUT has embraced the state’s dance heritage by hosting a special awards ceremony to recognise eight infl uential dance teachers.
The dance community gathered at QUT last month for Queensland’s Great Dance Teacher Awards - an inaugural event that was the brainchild of the Creative Industries Faculty.
Creative Industries executive dean Professor Susan Street said the night celebrated the contribution of teachers who “laid the foundation for what we enjoy in dance today”.
“These women are eight dance pioneers who have guided generations of aspiring young dancers,” she said.
“Throughout their careers, they have not only trained dancers, but the next generation of dance teachers.”
She said the eight teachers had helped create the strong Queensland dance community which QUT was part of through its innovative dance degree.
The eight dance teachers (or their
representatives) were presented with a QUT achievement award by David McAllister, the artistic director of The Australian Ballet.
The recipients are:
Mary Heath – founding member of the Lisner Ballet, which later became the Queensland Ballet; teaching career has included running the Queensland Ballet School.
Pam Keir – former member of Ballet Theatre of Queensland who established her own dance school in Pine Rivers when she was 16; life member and teacher of the Royal Academy of Dance.
Jacqueline Morland – established the Jacqueline Parker School of Dancing in Rockhampton in the mid- 1940s when she was 17; board member of the Queensland Ballet.
Elsie Seguss – has taught dancers including Justin Meissner of the Royal Ballet during her 71 years of teaching;
was awarded life membership of the Royal Academy of Dance in 1986.
Shirley Treacy, OAM – opened her Townsville dance school in 1956; has been a Royal Academy of Dance (RAD)
examiner for 40 years and worked internationally; co-founder of the Queensland School of Excellence.
Phyllis Danaher, MBE (posthumous, 1908 - 1991) – dancer, teacher and choreographer; founded Ballet Theatre of Queensland in 1937; pupils included Australian Ballet principal dancers, Garth Welch and Lucette Aldous.
Patricia MacDonald (posthumous, 1928 - 2001) – studied at the Royal Ballet School in London; founded her own ballet school in Brisbane’s CBD;
former board member of Queensland Ballet; international examiner for the Royal Academy of Dancing; gifted money to dancers through the Patricia MacDonald Memorial Foundation.
Ann Roberts, OAM (posthumous, 1923 - 2002) – established the Ann Roberts School of Dance in Townsville in 1957;
founded the North Queensland Ballet and Dance Society (now Dance North);
pupils included dancer/choreographer Natalie Weir (Expressions Dance Company artistic director).
- Mechelle McMahon
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National Trust award QUT’s restoration and adaptation of Old Government House has received the John Herbert Memorial Award – the grand award of The National Trust of Queensland’s Bendigo Bank Heritage Awards.
As well as the overall award, QUT also received two gold awards in other categories for the fi ve-year,
$15 million restoration of the 1862-built sandstone house at Gardens Point.
QUT historian and Old Government House curator Dr Katie McConnel received the Governor’s Heritage
Award for her development of a multi-media, interpretative, touch-screen display about the lives of Queensland’s fi rst 11 governors and their families. The restoration team comprising QUT, Conrad Gargett Architects, Allom Lovell Architects, Andrew Ladlay Architect and Kane Constructions won gold in the Queensland Heritage Council’s awards.
Creative PhD scholarship Scholars wishing to broaden their horizons with industry-partnered PhD research projects have the ideal opportunity at QUT.
Australian scholars have until October 9 to apply for a PhD scholarship along with an industry-linked project at the QUT ARC Centre
of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation.
For details, contact Britta Froehling on 07 3138 3716 or [email protected].
Media map
Final-year media and
communication students from QUT are getting a taste of the real world by contributing to the Brisbane Media Map – a directory of media services in the greater Brisbane area, which has been a student project since 1999. Unit coordinator Dr Stephen Harrington said that students were assigned a category and then had the responsibility to contact, edit, update the entries. Version 10 of the BMM will be unveiled at the Launch Party on October 29. Visit www.bmm.qut.edu.au.
Eliminating
unnecessary surgery
QUT honours eight giants of dance education
Ann Roberts Phyllis Danaher
Elsie Seguss Patricia MacDonald Hayley Moody
Education
STORYTELLING is a tool which can be utilised to make young children aware of political issues and help them to express themselves, according to a QUT researcher.
Louise Phillips, a PhD researcher with the Faculty of Education, recently completed a study during which she examined children’s responses when listening to a range of stories, and said storytelling was sometimes overlooked as a way to get children to express their ideas and thoughts.
She said it could be used as a platform to explore social injustices and create a forum for discussion.
For her PhD study, Ms Phillips told stories in a performative style
to a group of prep students for 13 90-minute sessions. She had follow-up focus sessions with the children’s teacher and the children themselves after the sessions.
“The stories ranged from folk tales to stories about children in other cultures with biographical details, and then we would have a discussion and go on to group activities,” she said.
“Holding all of the stories together, the resonating theme which seemed to strike a chord with the children was that of human greed and its impact on other people and on animals.”
Ms Phillips said the point of her research was to show children can, and want to, engage as active social citizens, share opinions and be political.
“We had children writing letters, making petitions, for various issues
which came up and they got a real sense of achievement. Doing this as a group made them feel they could actually do something, ask questions and fi nd out about the world around them, and think about their own values,” she said.
“There are some really interesting ideas which come from seeing how children respond to things they see as unfair or wrong, and ways they may suggest to solve these things.
“For example, in one folk tale about a hunter and a bird, the children suggested the thing to do would be to put the hunter in the cage which was used for birds to see how he liked it, so there was an idea of treating others as you would like to be treated.”
- Sharon Thompson
Storytelling explores social injustices
Sustainability
EFFECTIVE glazing and window f r a m e s c o u l d h e l p a l l e v i a t e Queensland’s growing reliance on energy-chewing air conditioners, said a QUT researcher.
Professor John Bell, from the QUT Faculty of Built Environment and Eng ineering, has researched how diff erent window options can increase the energy effi ciency of Queensland homes and decrease carbon emissions, while saving the homeowner money on heating and cooling costs.
“A i r c o n d i t i o n e r s c o n t r i bu t e signifi cantly to greenhouse gas emissions, and it is expected that by 2014, almost 60 per cent of Queensland homes will have these appliances,” Professor Bell said.
“But what people may not know is there are commercially available advanced glazing alternatives that can
help to greatly reduce the need for air- conditioning.”
Professor Bell said houses built in Queensland since 2008 were required to have a minimum fi ve star thermal effi ciency rating, but a vast number of the state’s 1.5 million homes were built before this regulation, and only achieve an average rating of 3.5 stars.
“Good windows can help to insulate the house, which helps to keep it war mer in winter and cooler in summer, and decrease the amount of energy required to heat and cool it,”
he said.
“Installing better windows typically increased a home’s star rating by between 1.5 and 2.5 stars.”
Professor Bell’s team researched four typical styles of houses in Queensland, including the single-storey brick home, the raised single-storey timber Queenslander, the double-storey brick house and the three-storey townhouse.
These were studied in fi ve diff erent climates across the state with 16 diff erent glazing options, ranging from standard aluminium-framed single glazing with clear glass to double- glazed windows in wood frames with specially treated glass.
“The greatest savings of energy and money were between 25 and 45 per cent in all houses, which were achieved with a double glazed window made up of a layer of tinted glass, a gap of air and a layer of glass which has a special clear insulating coating, called low-e glass,” he said.
“This can be quite an expensive option, but significant energy and greenhouse reductions ranging from 11 to 32 per cent can also be achieved with 4mm low-e single glazed options in either aluminium or timber framed windows, which are much cheaper and could be of signifi cant value for the retrofi t market for existing houses.”
Glazed windows cut energy costs
Preventing driveway
tragedies
Psychology
QUEENSLAND has the highest rate of driveway runovers in Australia – one of the leading causes of death and serious injury in young children – but QUT is embarking on a study funded by Queensland Health to reduce these tragic incidents.
Dr Kerry Armstrong, pictured below, from QUT’s Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety (CARRS-Q), said information was needed from parents and guardians which would help to reduce the risk of low-speed vehicle run-overs.
“CARRS-Q statistics show that Queensland has the highest per capita rate for low-speed vehicle run-overs - leading to approximately four children being killed and 81 hospital presentations each year,” Dr Armstrong said.
“Low-speed driveway reversing incidents show a number of consistent characteristics: children under fi ve years of age are at highest risk, most incidents occur at the child’s home, or a home of relatives or friends, and parents are most likely to be driving the vehicle.”
Dr Armstrong said four-wheel drives and light commercial vehicles were the most commonly involved vehicle types, with four-wheel drives accounting for 41 per cent of all low-
speed child driveway deaths between 1994 and 2000.
She said children in rural areas are also known to be at a higher risk, with approximately two in three driveway fatalities occurring in non- metropolitan areas.
“Impor tantly, in almost all driveway run-over incidents, there was no clear separation between the driveway and the rest of the yard or play area,” she said.
Dr Armstrong said parents could help researchers develop strategies for reducing the risk of these accidents.
“We will be asking parents and guardians what steps they took to ensure their young children stay safe in and out of the house, and how they found out about these safety measures,” she said.
“Using all of this information, we will develop guidelines for the Queensland Injury Prevention Council about how best to raise parents’ awareness about driveway safety.”
Parents and caregivers of children aged 5 or younger in the Brisbane area and regional Queensland are encouraged to take part in the study.
For further information, contact research offi cer Hanna Thunstrom on 3138 7712 or email hanna.
- Rachael Wilson Louise Phillips
Bid for safer cycling
Talks
OCTOBER 17 Modern Day Slavery – A Forum on Human Traffi cking is a forum on the global issue of human traffi cking within the Asia Pacifi c region. The Hall, Creative Industries Precinct, Kelvin Grove. Entry by gold coin donation. www.
moderndayslavery.
net.au.
OCTOBER 21 Listen to local art collectors speak about their approach to collecting at A Consuming Obsession:
Art Collecting with Brian Tucker. QUT Art Museum, October 21, 6pm. Entry is free. For details, call 3138 5370 or www.artmuseum.
qut.com.
Fashion
OCTOBER 21 Find fashion gems and donate quality pre-loved clothes at SWAP: History of the Garment, at The Glasshouse, QUT Creative Industries Precinct, Kelvin Grove from 5pm. For details, call 3138 5495 or www.
ciprecinct.qut.com
Show
OCTOBER 16 The Needle And The Damage Done will journey through the worst music ever released. QUT Gardens Theatre, Gardens Point at 8pm. Tickets $20 - $30. For details, call 3138 4455 or www.
gardenstheatre.qut.
com.
Exhibition
SEPTEMBER 16 – OCTOBER 25 The best of recent Queensland design will be showcased at qdos:
queensland design on show 2009 at QUT Art Museum, Gardens Point, open 10am – 5pm Tuesday to Friday, Wednesday 10am – 8pm, Saturday and Sunday, noon – 4pm.
For details, call 3138 5370 or artmuseum@
qut.edu.au.
Visit www.whatson.
qut.edu.au for more event listings and to submit your upcoming event.
WHAT’S on...
Ian Eckersley (Editor) 07 3138 2361 Sharon Thompson 07 3138 4494 Niki Widdowson 07 3138 1841 Rachael Wilson 07 3138 1150 Mechelle McMahon (Mo-Tu) 07 3138 2130 Sandra Hutchinson (Tu-We) 07 3138 2999 Erika Fish (Photography) 07 3138 5003 Marissa Hills (Advertising) 07 3138 5921 Richard de Waal (Design)
about IQ
Inside QUT is published by QUT’s Marketing and Communication Department.
Our readership includes staff, students and members of the QUT community. The paper is also circulated to business, industry, government and media. Opinions expressed in Inside QUT do not necessarily represent those of the university or the editorial team.
Creative industries
THEY are in great demand all over the world – people who can originate, design and run creative projects that entertain – they are called producers and they combine creativity with solid knowledge of business and law.
QUT’s new entertainment industries bachelor program – Bachelor of
Creative Industries (Entertainment Industries) – is one of the fi rst university courses in the world to train students in both the creative and business sides of the entertainment industries.
QUT Creative Industries lecturer Associate Professor Alan McKee said the new entertainment industries program in the Faculty of Creative Industries was a response to global demand for people who could take entertainment projects
from concept to sell-out reviews.
“Entertainment is one of the few industries that is recession-proof,”
Professor McKee said.
“In fact, it increases in a downturn.
Globally, entertainment industries are worth $1.8 trillion and that is projected to grow to $2.6 trillion by 2012.”
For further information, contact Professor McKee on a.mckee@qut.
edu.au.
QUT set to produce the producers
Around campus
Cycle safety
AS the popularity of pedal power grows, a team of QUT researchers is investigating the injury risks faced by diff erent cycling groups.
Through an online survey launched by QUT’s Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety (CARRS-Q), bike riders are being encouraged to share their cycling experiences in a bid to discover which groups are most at risk of injury.
Professor Narelle Haworth said cyclist numbers had increased dramatically in
the past few years, driven by rising fuel costs, health concerns, traffic congestion and more bike paths. She said not all cyclists were the same.
“Some are kids, some are adults, some are people who cycle for fun, others cycle for fi tness and others cycle as a sport,” she said.
“This study will look at which groups are most at risk of injury – whether that is as a result of crashes involving vehicles, crashes involving other cyclists or even crashes involving trees or potholes.”
Professor Haworth said police reported on-road bicycle fatalities and
serious injuries had cost Queensland
$34.5 million in 2006, but hospital records for the same time revealed two to three times as many cycling injuries.
The survey is available at www.
carrsq.qut.edu.au/cyclingsurvey.jsp or by phoning Amy on 3138 4944. The study has been funded by a Queensland Health Trauma Research grant.
To coincide with the survey launch, a team from QUT, pictured above, will don their bicycle helmets and take part in the 100km Brisbane to Gold Coast Challenge on October 11.
- Sandra Hutchinson
Mining entrepreneur Bob Bryan, pictured, was among the business greats inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame at a gala dinner last month. The Hall of Fame is a joint partnership between the QUT Faculty of Business, the State Library of Queensland and the Queensland Library Foundation.
The QUT Learning Potential Fund (LPF) Riverfi re cocktail event at Gardens Point campus attracted guests including Tracey Spicer (MC, pictured second from right), and LPF recipients Sara Kueth, left, Daniel Brennan, middle and Leah Koger, right.
Hayley Stockwell and Brad Marshall, pictured below, were among the QUT students who took part in international Park(ing) Day on September 18. The students paid for temporary parking spots around Brisbane’s CBD and Kelvin Grove and creatively fi lled the spaces instead of parking cars in them.
About 300 staff, students, friends and family gathered in the QUT Gardens Point refectory to enjoy traditional Middle-Eastern cuisine and to learn more about Islam during the faith’s holiest month, Ramadhan.
Royal act
- Cymbeline
QUT’s second-year actors perform the Shakespearean tragedy Cymbeline, about a rift in the British royal family.
Performances at The Loft, QUT Creative Industries Precinct, Kelvin Grove, from 7.30pm, October 1 – 3 and 6 – 10. Tickets
$8 - $12. Book on 07 3138 5495.
