www.news.qut.edu.au George Street Brisbane 4000 Telephone (07) 3864 2361 Registered by Australia Post – Publication No. QBF 4778. CRICOS No 00213J
IT students track history Page 5
Top Alumni Awards Page 7
Careers Day draws crowds Page 8
Seeking key to cancer,
diabetes
By Greg Davis
THE early diagnosis and treatment of serious diseases such as cancer and diabetes are fast becoming a reality due to the work by QUT researchers in the g round-break ing f ield of bioinformatics.
With the offi cal opening of the QUT Advanced Bioinformatics Research Laboratory this month, expectations of improved health due to the power of this new discilpine are closer to fruition.
Bioinfor matics integ rates biotechnology, computer science, mathematics and infor mation technology to investigate and interpret biological data.
One of the largest areas of bioinformatics is analysing genome sequence data.
While most activity to date has been focused on research, the fi eld is rapidly becoming an industry with new start- up companies emerging.
Associate Professor Peter Timms from the School of Life Sciences said QUT’s joint venture with Brisbane company Genetraks was a perfect example of science, business and infor mation technolog y coming together.
“Genetraks is using bioinformatics analysis of horse genomes to predict health status in racehorses,” Professor Timms said.
Creative Industries has nominated students (l-r) Joy Chen, Oksana Zelenko and Alycia Johnston, who worked on the Kids Help Line project for a “Smart Women – Smart State Award”. The awards, which recognise the outstanding achievements of Queensland women in the fi elds of science, engineering, and information and communication technology, will be presented on August 21
By Carmen Myler
YOUNG people seek ing help are benef iting from enhanced online counselling services designed by students and staff at QUT’s Creative Industries Faculty and Kids Help Line.
Project creative director Richard Jones said the university approached Kids Help Line to contribute to its pioneering web counselling service, Kids Help OnLine, which offers real-time web-counselling similar to a chat room except it is a private interaction between a young person and a counsellor.
Project helps kids online
MAJOR reforms to the way child sex assault victims are treated in the legal system – suggested by a QUT study last year – are about to be adopted by the Queensland Government.
The Evidence (Protection of Children) Amendment Bill will be debated by the Queensland Parliament later this month and will feature key changes flagged by Dr Christine Eastwood from the QUT School of Learning and Professional Studies.
Dr Eastwood conducted in- depth interviews with 130 children,
Study speeds reforms for child victims
While the anonymity offered by online counselling is appealing to young people, the service found the absence of clues from voice, pitch and tone in an online text environment could make it diffi cult to communicate and read emotions.
Mr Jones co-ordinated the QUT team to work in conjunction with Kids Help Line counsellors to develop visual resources for young people to interact with while they wait in a queue for online counselling.
“Clients can now access screen savers, design their own images, view artwork and fi lms made by student filmmakers, and read inspirational
“Genetraks recently based its powerful new $500,000 Affymetrix Gene Chip instrument here at QUT enabling our researchers to also use the state-of-the-art instrument to analyse tens of thousands of genes overnight.
“The machine is one of only a handful in Australia and by having access to it, we are able to perform experiments in one single run over one day that would previously have taken as long as six months to do.
“Obviously, the research, and importantly also the commercial benefi ts, can be quite signifi cant.”
Queensland is now seizing the opportunities, particularly in the area of commercialisation.
Professor Timms said QUT was one of the key stakeholders in the recently formed Queensland Bioinformatics Consortium that includes other Brisbane universities, commercial bioinfor matics companies and corporations such as IBM.
“It’s all about working hand in hand with industry and turning the cutting- edge research into viable business opportunities,” he said.
“QUT is rapidly expanding its own bioinformatics capacity, having recently won a series of grants worth more than a million dollars to support activities across several faculties.”
quotes,” he said.
“We also developed tools to be used within a counselling session, such as icons or ‘emoticons’ that help a young person visualise their feelings and rate the intensity and frequency of these emotions.”
Kids Help Line R&D Director Wendy Reid said being able to communicate with counsellors visually, in addition to text, meant young people had more ways to express themselves in a medium they found relevant and engaging.
The project has attracted $200,000 in funding over three years from the Australian Research Council.
parents, judges, defence counsel and prosecutors in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia for her study that was recently released by the Australian Institute of Criminology.
“The children described the damage done by their wait for trial, by being forced to see the accused, by repeated questioning and brutal cross-examination and by being treated with inhumanity and disrespect by adults throughout the criminal justice process,” Dr Eastwood said.
She said the issues of waiting for the trial, seeing the accused and Life sciences researchers (l-r) PhD student Chris Swagell and Associate
Professor Peter Timms – exciting new advances in the new fi eld of bioinformatics
cross-examination, were all addressed in the proposed legislation which was expected to be passed by parliament in mid-August.
“The government was looking into this issue last year just as I was fi rst releasing my study so I’d like to think the timeliness of the report was spot- on,” Dr Eastwood said.
Dr Eastwood’s study found that only 44 per cent of children in Queensland would report sexual abuse if it occurred again while not one defence counsel and only 18 per cent of legal participants said they would want their child to go through the process.
Queensland University of Technology Newspaper Issue 236 August 5 – August 25, 2003
By Carmen Myler
EVEN in a “family-friendly” work environment, many mothers perceive it is a struggle to advance their careers unless they commit to working full- time, a QUT study has found.
School of Psycholog y and Counselling PhD student Paula McDonald has just completed research into the infl uences, trade-offs and policy implications for mothers participating in the workforce.
Ms McDonald said that in order for the situation to improve for all working mothers, there needed to be a greater uptake of part-time work options by fathers, increased consideration of four- day week positions for managers and supervisors, and a closer examination of what made a successful job-sharing arrangement.
Her study of employees in a progressive workplace offering 12 weeks’ fully-paid maternity leave and generous work-family policies, found that while mothers who worked part- time were satisfi ed with the hours they worked, many with under-school- aged children enjoyed only “static”
participation in their careers.
Ms McDonald said she found some discrepancies between the values espoused in work-family policies and women’s experiences of those policies, particularly in relation to part-time work arrangements.
“Things like the provision of on-site child care, fl exible work arrangements
Research has found that many part-time working mothers feel disadvantaged in terms of career progression, secondment opportunities, and being recognised as a valuable member of the team
Careers static in effort to balance work, family
and paid maternity leave were highly consistent with the values espoused in work-family policy,” she said.
“But most women work ing part-time perceived inequities compared to full-time staff in terms of career progression, secondment opportunities, and being recognised as a valuable member of the team.”
Ms McDonald said the inconsistencies had more to do with broader community attitudes about working mothers, particularly part- time working mothers, rather than being organisation-specifi c.
She said the sample of women in her research were better off than most, being more highly educated and better paid than Australian women across the board.
Ms McDonald said her findings –based on 285 surveys and 24 interviews – could make an important contribution to future policy directions, particularly for women with under- school-aged children.
“If a woman has two children and they’re spaced two or three years apart, then she’s likely to have under-school- aged children for at least seven years,”
she said.
“This usually happens at a time through her late 20s and 30s when a lot of men and women without children are spending time developing their careers so I personally think these issues need to be addressed for this group.”
A word from the Vice-Chancellor
Planning future directions
OVER the next few months we will be developing a new overarching strategic plan for QUT.
While the Federal policy announcements on higher education provide an obvious backdrop for this exercise, there are more important factors to consider as we seek to chart a course for QUT’s future.
We are determined to build on QUT’s strengths and reputation and to explore new directions and opportunities which will confi rm our position as a leading Australian university.
Some of the propositions in the plan will be unarguable, including our positioning as a university of technology and our “real world”
brand, but these notions are not static and need to be interpreted afresh for the years ahead.
QUT needs to build its research capacities, to strengthen its learning environments, and to refl ect a deeper understanding of the international dimension in research as well as education.
Such an understanding will be different to the model of a decade ago, as new opportunities and risks emerge.
Further, we must continue to demonstrate our commitment to service.
We all have high aspirations for QUT, and belief in its potential.
The task is now to achieve a shared vision for its future, and to mark out pathways to achieve that vision.
My “Framing the Future” paper and the comments that have been made in response are a step in that direction.
I look forward to the involvement of the QUT community, its stakeholders and the Council as we work together over the rest of 2003 on developing the new strategic plan.
Professor Peter Coaldrake Vice-Chancellor
ONE of the biggest hitters in Australian business will follow on from one of the country’s true corporate heavyweights when the next QUT Business Leaders’
Forum is held this month.
Westpac Chief Executive Dr David Morgan addressed the Business Leaders’ Forum in July when he spoke about the role of business in ensuring the country’s f uture prosperity and gave the audience of more than 500 an insight into the philosophies of one of Australia’s
“big four” banks.
In a wide-rang ing speech, Dr Morgan predicted the booming property market to cool down in the near future with interest rates likely to remain the same for the next six to nine months.
He also said it was important for the Australian economy that more women as well as elderly and Indigenous people were engaged in the workforce as more members of the “baby boomers” generation head into retirement.
Dr Morgan’s place in the forum spotlight will be taken by Fairfax Holdings Ltd Chief Executive Fred Hilmer at the next event on Friday, August 22 at the Brisbane Hilton.
As CEO of the newspaper giant responsible for such distinguished publications as The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review, Mr Hilmer is an infl uential fi gure in the media industry.
He is at the forefront of the topical debate on media ownership laws, and is a strong advocate for the deregulation of the restrictions introduced in the 1980s.
Westpac chief predicts property slow-down
Westpac chief David Morgan shared his views on interest rates with more than 500 guests at QUT’s Business Leaders’ Forum on July 17
“An interesting exception was adult males who were aged 40-50 at the time of the experience – they stand out from all other visitors in terms of their abilities to report the details of what they saw.
“The findings spoke to the ways people filtered experiences and were only able to perceive a very thin set of memories, even though they sensed they experienced many more things then their ‘fi lters’ allowed them to report.”
Dr Anderson said even people who worked at Expo tended to recall the experience though the cultural fi lters of their own professions.
For example, police offi cers would dominantly recall the duties of crowd control, investigating crime, security for VIPs, but had diffi culty recalling what was on display in pavilions despite the fact that they acknowledged visiting many of them on numerous occasions.
He said the study findings would be a valuable resource for developers of museum exhibitions and future expositions.
“The study shows that developers need to provide experiences rich in social interaction while catering for the diversity of the people, and their personal agendas, attending the event.”
By Janne Rayner
VISITORS to Brisbane’s World Expo 88 were more likely to remember a conversation in a queue or what the bathrooms looked like than any of the international displays, a QUT PhD alumnus and former staff researcher has found.
Dr David Anderson, now a museum learning specialist with Canada’s University of British Columbia, was back in Brisbane recently, to complete a study at QUT into long- term memories of world expos.
Dr Anderson has already considered visitors’ memories of World Expo 86 in Vancouver and part of his mission to Brisbane was to collect comparative data of people’s memories of Expo 88.
“It was quite exciting because I found that many of the same themes emerged from the Brisbane phase of the study,”
Dr Anderson said.
“Most people’s memories of Expo rely on their social agenda – for example, a child at the time will remember climbing over statues while a young mother will remember the bathrooms or shepherding children onto a monorail.
“Most groups were extremely rich in their reporting of the social dimensions of the Expo experiences, but poor on details of what they saw.
Street sculptures from Expo 88 – for some, an enduring memory of the international event
Expo 88 – what do we remember?
By Toni Chambers
HEALTH care professionals who treat terminally ill patients will soon be protected from possible criminal charges under planned law changes in Queensland.
A seminar was held at QUT recently to explain the changes which will also allow doctors to more effectively relieve the pain and suffering of people receiving palliative care.
Associate lecturer in Law Ben White said prior to the changes, health care professionals working in the field of palliative care risked possible prosecution if the treatment required to relieve a patient’s pain could also hasten death.
“As a result, there have been concerns about doctors and other healthcare professionals being conservative in their palliative care treatment,” he said.
“This piece of legislation removes concerns held by some health care professionals by making the law clear so doctors know that if they act in the way set out in the legislation, they will not be liable for criminal prosecution.”
Law lecturer Associate Professor Lindy Willmott said while a doctor had never been successfully prosecuted in
New laws for health care professionals
Australia there was evidence that some patients died without receiving adequate pain relief because of the threat of prosecution.
“The new laws will provide legal certainty for those who care for the terminally ill,” she said.
“However, the real beneficiaries will be terminally ill patients and their friends and families because the changes to the law will mean the patient can die more comfortably.”
Law lecturer Associate Professor Lindy Willmott
Drumming up support
QUT’s Caboolture Community Campus has helped young local musicians take part in the world premiere of a new show at the recent Queensland Biennial Festival of Music.
The Caboolture Community Campus sponsored 60 local youths to take part in “The Big Percussion Concert” which featured some of the world’s leading percussion artists and ensembles.
The sponsorship enabled the young musicians to work with leading
instrument makers and percussionists so they could perform alongside top percussionists in “Brisbane Drumming”, a new work by Gerald Brophy.
“Brisbane Drumming” made its world premiere at Brisbane City Hall as a signature event of this year’s Queensland Biennial Festival of Music.
The campus is a joint venture between QUT, the Caboolture Shire Council and the Brisbane North Institute of TAFE.
By Toni Chambers
IN an unusual combination of disciplines, QUT’s fashion and industrial design students have joined forces to design new products to make life easier for people experiencing disability.
Students spent time with a diverse range of creative people from Access Arts, an organisation set up to encourage creative practice by people with disabilities.
They then came up with innovative designs as diverse as a labelling system for clothes that gives visually impaired people fashion advice to a cup that senses when it is full.
Head of fashion at QUT, Associate Professor Suzi Vaughan said in Queensland, around 20 per cent of people lived with a disability, making it an important experience for students.
She said it was particularly valuable for fashion students who were being trained for a career in an industry that did not traditionally have to respond
Student designs help ease living with a disability
to client needs.
“Fashion has become increasingly about show business and shock value. It doesn’t often involve itself with people’s real needs and that’s something industrial designers do everyday,” she said.
“But with an ageing population it’s important for students to work with real demands.
“Also the customer these days has quite strong thoughts about what they want to buy which is quite different from the days when the designer led the passive consumer.”
Industrial design lecturer Sam Bucolo said the real benefi t for industrial design students was working with real people with unique needs.
“It was an essential awareness building exercise – they had to go to people’s homes and see the barriers for them to do everyday things like catch a bus,” he said.
“The other challenge was incorporating universal design. A common issue with designing for people with disability is that the
By Carmen Myler
CONCERNS about security, community support and health are enough to prompt many older people to make the transition into a retirement village, a new QUT study has found.
PhD student and senior lecturer in nursing Robert Thornton has found that older people often felt insecure in their own homes due to a perceived decline in community standards.
Mr Thornton conducted in-depth interviews with residents who had lived in retirement villages for less than six months, in an effort to determine the experiences of older people undertaking the transition into a retirement village.
“I found that people started thinking about making the transition because they felt insecure,” he said.
“In terms of this insecurity, there
Insecurity forces elderly
from own homes: research
were four main areas identif ied:
declining community standards, concerns about community services, health-related issues, and personal and social concerns such as safety.
“Some people worried that the neighbours might sell up and rowdy young people would move in, or became concerned about uncontrolled dogs, unreliable tradespeople or having to negotiate a large shopping centre to do their shopping.”
Mr Thornton established that all the residents he interviewed moved through the following five stages of transition before feeling secure in a retirement village: realisation, investigation, negotiation, facilitation and assimilation.
He said the realisation stage of the transition was often triggered by an acute situation – something as minor as not being able to change a light bulb.
Mr Thornton said that his study By Janne Rayner
IF you were asked for your impressions of Brisbane, what would you answer?
Possibly you would talk about its meandering river, or the city’s sunny, modern atmosphere, punctuated by historic icons such as City Hall or the new-age landmark, South Bank.
Now think about what you have seen on fi lm, in stories or marketing material associated with Brisbane.
Are your responses infl uenced by what you have seen on fi lm?
The answer to this question, among others, is currently being explored by the new head of Creative Industries’
Film and Television, Associate Professor Stephanie Hemelryk Donald, through a government-funded project, which looks at how fi lms have branded cities - namely Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney and Brisbane.
“The purpose of the project is to investigate the links between the commercial creativity of city logos, and the historical and contemporary creativity of fi lmmaking,” Professor Donald said.
“Specifi cally, we are exploring to what extent tourism marketers who produce city logos rely – whether consciously or unconsciously – on
Associate Professor Stephanie Hemelryk Donald – seeking new knowledge to the fi eld of fi lm study in a creative industries context
Branding cities:
a fresh take by Film and TV head
fi lm representations of the cities.
“The results will contribute to new knowledge to the fi eld of fi lm study in a creative industries context.”
Professor Donald said this research was just one of the avenues in which she is looking to expand the understanding of visual communication in the new degree Bachelor of Creative Industries (Television).
“A lot of institutions teach media practice skills, but what’s exciting about QUT is that we are allowing students to also think in terms of the intellectual contribution they can make to Australia’s creative practice,”
she said.
With experience in theatre and radio in the UK and teaching roles in media studies and Chinese cultural studies at Sussex, Westminster, Murdoch and Melbourne Universities, the new head said she was keen to establish a real engagement with the global fi lm and TV industry in her new role.
Those wishing to be part of the branding cities project or just wishing to share their views on the use of city images, should contact Sandy Ng at [email protected] at the Creative Industries Research and Application Centre (CIRAC).
also found that older people appeared to have misconceptions about what services were available in retirement villages.
“The perception that they will have 24-hour maintenance and health care services on-hand is very appealing”, he said.
“Some of the residents interviewed thought the retirement village had doctors on call, and regular security patrols, but this wasn’t necessarily the case.
“One of my recommendations is for retirement village management and staff to develop strategies to make sure residents do understand the services offered, to avoid misinterpretation.
“I would also encourage an increase in the availability of a comprehensive and integ rated range of support services that assist older persons to live in their own homes.”
From left, fashion design student Carla Bergs, industrial design students Faith Ong and Philip Wee with creative partner Katherine Brennan from Access Arts
product volumes are often too small to justify large investments in design development.
“With universal design the objective is to ensure the wider community could also make use of the design.”
Spokesperson for Access Arts Ludmila Doneman said members were delighted with the results of the project.
“This practice should be encouraged and explored in other fi elds including town planning, architecture, marketing, performing arts, health, education and transport,” she said.
Among the designs was a labelling system that would help visually impaired people buy, select, organise, care for and coordinate their wardrobe; branding for clothes aimed at providing visually impaired teenagers with f ashion advice; a bag for people with spinal injuries and visual impairment that provides ready access, protection against theft and internal organisation; and a spiral bookcase that spins up and down to improve access for cerebal palsy sufferers.
By Janne Rayner
MUSEUMS must embrace latest design technolog y if they are to continue to attract visitors, according to the new head of Creative Industries’
Communication Design.
A specialist exhibition / interaction designer, Ms Angelina Russo said if museums don’t develop exciting virtual experiences of heritage and culture, they will quickly become irrelevant to younger audiences.
“Take a shipwreck for example, how does a museum represent its history in a way that preserves it and yet meets the expectations of today’s
Explore the past with future
design technology – new head
visitors – this is a real challenge,” Ms Russo said.
“A solution lies at the intersections of design and technology – and it is now our role to evolve the discipline to meet the future demands of everyday business and the community.
“Communication design g rew quickly out of the dot.com boom, and now we are maturing beyond websites and games to become a part of everyday business in the creative industries.”
Ms Russo said there was exciting progress already being made in the field of interaction design where virtual and physical spaces are being
Communication Design head Angelina Russo says predicting the future is the challenge
VISITORS to the Brisbane Powerhouse can now track the site’s history at the touch of a button, thanks to QUT Information Technology students.
In collaboration with Brisbane arts company Arterial Group and Creative Industries’ Communication Design, IT students have developed a multimedia presentation which portrays the cultural and historical signifi cance of the old Powerhouse, on the river at New Farm.
Described as “industrial transactive infor mation systems” TRACK was launched recently and is now a per manent installation at the Powerhouse.
Bachelor of IT students Tracey Nguyen, Ruth Williams and Leanne Ronalds worked on the project under the supervision of lecturers Dr Tim Dunn and Greg Timbrell from the School of Information Systems.
Dr Dunn said TRACK was designed to combine undocumented local histories, cross-cultural stories and mythologies of people connected to
the Powerhouse site.
He said various communities, individuals and groups associated with the Powerhouse in its twin incarnations as an industrial centre (1926 to 1971) and a derelict site have contributed to the process.
“This IT tool is an important instrument in providing local residents an integral piece of history of the Powerhouse,” Dr Dunn said.
“Memories and stories were collected and woven into this work from an enormous variety of people from electricity workers to performance artists.
“It was a complex project involving sophisticated navigational functions throughout the user interface, using a control panel custom built from discarded electrical components.
“The students had to integrate, program and control the visual and audio aspects of the multimedia system.”
The Faculty of IT contributed $8,000 towards the project.
IT students track old Powerhouse history
By Greg Davis
MODERN acts of terrorism were less frequent but were becoming far more violent, a visiting American academic said.
Dr Walter Enders from the University of Alabama worked at QUT recently as an adjunct professor and is considered a leading terrorism expert after studying the fi eld for almost 15 years.
Dr Enders has direct access to a database called ITERATE that details every publicly available transnational terrorist act in the world since 1968.
“Although you wouldn’t know it if you followed the media, the number of terrorist events has actually come down fairly dramatically,” Dr Enders said.
“However, the proportion of events that have deaths or casualties associated with them has gone up markedly.
“The typical terrorist incident is now way more deadly than it used to be.
“Going back over the years if a bomb went off outside some American Express offi ce in Paris it would make the newspapers but these days I don’t think that it would receive any publicity.
“In order to get their message out, terrorists have had to continually escalate the levels of violence.”
He said the nature of terrorism had changed and moved towards more of a religious basis.
“Terrorists used to want to change the state of the economic system, they were concerned about needs of the poor and the world’s needy,” Dr Enders said.
“They had a message and they wanted to convert people to a Marxist- based philosophy.
“These people today don’t want to convert anyone so they don’t mind being brutal and they are not particularly afraid of getting hurt or getting killed.”
He said based on the data collected since 1968, it’s possible that Australia could be a terrorist target after joining the United States in the war against Iraq.
“If I were to project the patterns of the past, countries that have cooperated with the United States have seen the same types of retaliation that the United States has seen.”
navigated using a mixture of sound, image and human interaction.
“Just as landscape architects use various pathway colours and textures to direct pedestrian traffic, we are exploring ambient technologies to guide people through spaces.”
With a PhD in architecture and design, Ms Russo previously lectured at the University of Queensland and at the University of South Australia.
The new head also spent two years at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum designing interactive exhibitions following an early stint in the fi lm industry, designing sets for television, fi lm, commercials and short fi lms.
Bachelor of IT students Ruth Williams and Leanne Ronalds – using their IT skills to track the history of the old Powerhouse at New Farm
Terrorism getting more violent:
academic
In 2001 Ms Russo managed a series of workshops for the History Trust of South Australia to help regional museums undertake inter pretive exhibitions and she is soon to deliver media interaction training workshops to Global Arts Link in Ipswich and the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.
“The real challenge in this discipline is predicting the future, because when today’s Year 3 students reach university, they will already have pretty amazing technical skills – they will have been designing web sites since primary school.
“We will have to continually speculate and explore the fi eld to be ahead of them.”
David Hawke’s Eyeview
Looking for short- sighted volunteers
Volunteers are required to help the Centre for Eye Research at the QUT School of Optometry fi nd a long-term solution for short-sighted people.
A study is being undertaken to examine what determines the visual performance of emmetropic people (those requiring no correction) and myopic people (those who are short-sighted).
Researchers hope to explain why some people become short -sighted (myopic) and these results may contribute to an eventual cure for the condition.
People who are myopic and are aged between 18 and 35 years are being recruited for the study.
The total time required for volunteers is four and a half hours for the series of scans and tests at the Kelvin Grove campus and the Prince Charles Hospital.
There are no foreseeable risks in the screening or study procedures and there will be no cost to participate.
Please contact researcher Nicola Pritchard by email on [email protected] or phone 07 3864 5668 for more information.
New mental health courses
The QUT Faculty of Health, in conjunction with the Open Learning Institute of TAFE, is currently developing two new courses in mental health, to be available through distance education.
The Certifi cate IV in Mental Health Services and Graduate Diploma in Mental Health will commence in October this year,
with 40 staff members from Queensland Health.
Course Coordinator Dr Kathryn Gow said the units of study are specifi cally targeted at staff working in mental health related positions.
“We are working closely with Queensland Health and other government departments to ensure the curriculum meets the needs of people working in the fi eld,” she said.
QUT in new Subtropical Design Centre
The Brisbane City Council has announced QUT as its preferred partner in a new Subtropical Design Centre, after a tender process.
Head of QUT’s School of Design and Built Environment Professor John Hockings said the centre’s aim, underpinned by principles of sustainability, was to bring the best subtropical designs and latest building materials and techniques to Brisbane through research and international visits.
He said the ultimate aim was to give Brisbane a character of its own.
“Cities are becoming increasingly alike as a result of global pressures,” Professor Hockings said.
“We have an extraordinary climate, geography and mix of people that isn’t the same as Sydney, Melbourne, Dallas or Amsterdam.
“The climate is benign, the landscape is lush and there’s the potential to live in an indoor- outdoor mode which you can’t do anywhere else.”
Professor Hockings said the Centre for Subtropical Design would eventually include a space to display the latest subtropical designs.
In Brief...
Paralympic sports have a wide range of categories to ensure a level playing fi eld for all competitors however courses for classifying offi cials are in short supply – making QUT’s new online course an invaluable resource
By Greg Davis
THE world’s fi rst on-line teaching course for classifi cation in Paralympic sports has been developed by the School of Human Movement Studies and the International Paralympic Committee for Swimming.
All athletes in Paralympic sports are classif ied by off icials who evaluate the impact of an athlete’s disability on their performance and place them in a competition category.
Paralympic sports have a wide range of categories to ensure a level playing fi eld for all competitors however courses for classifying offi cials are in short supply.
In Australia and throughout the world there is currently a very small number of individuals qualifi ed to classify athletes with a disability at a national level and an international
level.
Many of the courses are run in conjunction with major international competitions such as world, regional and national championships making them inaccessible to a vast majority of sporting offi cials who require the technical training.
At present there are no Paralympic sports using an on-line environment to increase the availability of their course to those that cannot attend a competition venue.
However, the training course developed by IPC Swimming with QUT’s assistance has been designed to educate potential swimming classifi ers and the on-line format will allow the demands to be met for trainee classifiers in regional areas, interstate and overseas.
International swimming classifi er Jane Buckley said the course – which comprehensively covers medical,
technical and practical aspects – was a blueprint for the future of Paralympic sports.
“Paralympic Swimming has long been acknowledged as a front runner – this course confi rms IPC Swimming’s place as a key innovator and leader in the Paralympic movement,” Ms Buckley said.
Dr Jarrod Meerk in from the QUT School of Human Movement Studies said a lot of people had made valuable contributions to the cutting-edge course which features the latest in on-line education technolog y such as interactive learning, continual feedback and on-going assessment.
“The expertise and professionalism of the ETV group and TALSS- SMILE have provided a fantastic environment for the development of future classifiers not only in Australia but worldwide,” he said.
New online swimming
course makes a splash
Eye specialist
honoured as top QUT alumnus
By Greg Davis
AN enviable global reputation as a vision scientist has seen Professor Robert Hess claim the most coveted honour for QUT graduates – the Chancellor’s Outstanding Alumnus Award.
The annual Alumni Awards recognise the professional achievements and contributions by graduates of QUT and its predecessor institutions and traditionally assemble a highly prestigious fi eld.
The Outstanding Alumni Awards of 2003 were certainly no different with Professor Hess being one of an esteemed group of alumni receiving awards including architect Gabriel Poole, director of news and current affairs for the Nine Network Jim Rudder and human resources guru Peter Howes.
Professor Hess’ area of expertise is vision processing with a particular focus on the condition of amblyopia (lazy eye) and his efforts have gone a long way towards unravelling the neural mysteries of the condition which affects 5 per cent of all children.
His research has had a major impact on the understanding of normal and abnor mal human vision and the excellence of his work is recognised worldwide.
He spent 14 years at the University of Cambridge and has been leading a major vision research unit at McGill University in Montreal for the past 13 years.
His innovative approach of establishing research prog rams
featuring a variety of academic disciplines is now accepted as being critical for outcomes in vision and other fi elds.
Professor Hess graduated from QIT in 1971 with a Diploma of Applied Science (Optometry) and went on to earn a Master of Science and Doctor of Science at Aston University in the United Kingdom as well as a PhD from the University of Melbourne.
Professor Hess was one of 11 alumni to collect an award at the presentation ceremony late last month.
Being director and co-founder of a thriving Internet services company e-JAZ, ensured businessperson and lawyer Sharon Gillett was a worthy winner of the QUT Alumni Young Achiever award.
The Business/Law degree holder was admitted to the Queensland Solicitors Board in 2001 and has established a well-earned reputation as an emerging young entrepreneur.
An Excellence in Contribution to the Community award went to renowned educator Megan McNicholl who is the federal president of Isolated Children’s and Parents’ Association.
Since graduating from the Brisbane Kindergarten Teachers College at Kelvin Grove in 1970, Ms McNicholl has been passionately committed to ensuring that rural and remote families obtain high quality education for their children.
An Excellence in Globalising Indigenous Arts and Culture award was given to Jenny Fraser who is part of a new wave of artists working at the cutting-edge of art, fi lmmaking and new technology.
Chancellor’s Outstanding Alumnus and Faculty of Health winner: Professor Robert Hess (see story at left)
• Built Environment and Engineering: Gabriel Poole Gabriel is inter nationally recognised for his environmentally responsible housing designs. He has won 13 awards, including the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) Gold Medal for lifetime services to Australian architecture.
• Business: Peter Howes
Peter has distinguished himself as an innovator in the area of strategic human resource planning and management. His company, HRM Consulting Pty Ltd, has developed internet- based human resource planning tools, which have assisted over 150 major companies and organisations worldwide in harnessing their human capital to support strategic goals.
• Creative Industries: Jim Rudder
As a key executive of British Sky Broadcasting, Jim contributed much to Sky’s strong leadership position in Europe in news, sports and interactive programming. He returned to Australia in June to take up his new appointment as director of news and current affairs with the Nine Network Australia.
• Education and the Excellence in Contribution to the Community: Megan McNicholl
Megan is Federal President of the Isolated Children’s and Parents’ Association where her outstanding leadership on issues faced by rural and remote families has made the organisation one of Australia’s most effective educational lobby groups.
• Humanities and Human Services: Kevin Cocks Kevin is Director of Queensland Advocacy Incorporated, which has been highly infl uential in bringing reform to the structures, policies and legislation governing access to services and public utilities by people with disabilities.
• Information Technology: Michael Clarke
Michael’s entrepreneurship and expertise in the design of insurance software have enhanced the growth of Australia’s information technology industry. Currently, he is Senior Vice-President and General Manager of SOLCORP Asia Pacifi c, which provides software solutions and consulting services to the life insurance and wealth management industries.
• Law: Michael Baumann
Michael is a distinguished lawyer and Queensland’s fi rst appointee to the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia. In 1991 he was named the Law Council of Australia Young Lawyer of the Year and was later elected the youngest ever president of the Queensland Law Society.
• Science: Stewart Bell
Stewart is Director of the Safety in Mines Testing
2003 OUTSTANDING
ALUMNI AWARD WINNERS
QUT Chancellor Dr Cherrell Hirst presented vision scientist Professor Robert Hess with the 2003 Chancellor’s Outstanding Alumnus Award on July 23.
Professor Hess has had a major impact on the understanding of normal and abnormal human vision and the excellence of his work is recognised worldwide
and Research Station. His work on the development of equipment, techniques and procedures to prevent and manage potentially disastrous mine fires, has had an enormous impact on the welfare of mining communities and the mining industry in Australia and abroad.
• Alumni Young Achiever Award: Sharon Gillett A Business/Law graduate, Sharon is a solicitor, accountant, and a highly successful young businessperson in information technolog y. Last year, she and her software business e-JAZ Pty Ltd, won six business awards for entrepreneurship and innovation in the e-commerce industry.
• Excellence in Globalising Indigenous Arts and Culture Award: Jenny Fraser
Jenny, a member of the Bundjalung Nation, is part of a new wave of exciting new media artists working at the nexus of art, fi lmmaking and technology. She has exhibited in Mexico and her works are in the permanent collections of the RMIT Gallery and the Australian Centre for Photography. Jenny produces the Indigenous online gallery CyberTribe and the website Blackout, both of which have raised the profi le of Indigenous artists internationally.
Successful young businessperson Sharon Gillett with her Alumni Young Achiever Award. Sharon has already won business awards for entrepreneurship and innovation in the fi eld of e-commerce
Megan McNicholl, recipient of the Award for Education and the Excellence in Contribution to the Community, is passionately committed to ensuring rural and remote families can obtain quality education for their children
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By Greg Davis
DESPITE claiming a swag of medals, QUT fell agonisingly short of claiming the overall honours at the AUS North University Games in Brisbane last month.
QUT fi elded its largest university games team ever with competitors, coaches and managers numbering almost 400, however arch rival University of Queensland managed to top the standings by just 25 points.
The QUT Student Guild entered teams in every sport contested at the games that attracted competitors from 14 universities throughout Queensland, northern New South Wales and the Northern Territory.
QUT struck a rich vein of gold on the football fi elds with fi ve teams earning the highest accolade at the games.
Both the men’s and women’s rugby union teams won gold while the men’s and women’s touch football squads along with the rugby league sevens team also fi nished on top of the medal dais.
The men’s water polo, women’s hockey and men’s baseball teams also claimed gold for QUT.
QUT won medals in the golf competition for the fi rst time in more than a decade with three second placings while the Australian football, mixed netball, women’s water polo and both indoor volleyball teams also won silver medals.
Bronze medals were won by the women’s basketball, netball, mixed beach volleyball and men’s squash teams.
By fi nishing in the top three places, the QUT teams have qualifi ed for the National University Games in Newcastle from September 28 to October 3.
For more information on the National University Games call the Sports Office on 07 3864 5536 or 07 3864 3708.
QUT’s golf team – won medals for the fi rst time in more than a decade
Close, but no cigar
for QUT at uni games
By Carmen Myler
COURT orders removing per petrators of domestic violence from the family home should be issued more frequently, and not just in cases of extreme physical violence, according to two academics from the School of Justice Studies.
Ms Rachael Field and Dr Belinda Carpenter told a research symposium at QUT last month that the common practice of magistrates resisting issuing ouster orders except in cases of physical violence prevented perpetrators from taking responsibility for their crimes.
Ms Field said research had shown that circumstances in which there was a clear and present danger to the victim of domestic violence and where there was
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Evict violent men from home - academics tell symposium
evidence of physical violence were the most inappropriate circumstances in which to issue ouster orders.
“Ouster orders challenge legal notions of proprietorial rights, that a man’s home is his castle,” she said.
“And yet they also offer one of the most legally and socially signifi cant ways to ensure that a perpetrator of domestic violence is held responsible for his actions, as well as providing some sense of normalcy for women and children whose lives are otherwise in chaos.
“Unless ouster orders become more commonplace in domestic violence legal proceedings the responsibility for escaping domestic violence will continue to lie with women and their children.”
Ms Field said the alternatives to ouster BEAUTIFUL weather and the chance to get
advice about the future drew about 15,000 people to QUT’s annual Course and Careers Day held on Sunday, July 27.
Marketing coordinator Andrea Hammond said the event had a strong focus on helping Year 12 students choose a university course.
“This year we offered information seminars that recognised the important role that parents play in the Year 12 student’s choice of course and choice of university,” she said.
“Our careers counsellors ran seminars on how to make informed career and course decisions, our school liaison officers ran sessions on the QTAC application process, and QUT Counselling Service gave practical advice on how parents can help their children make the transition from school to university.
“These sessions – combined with course information sessions by our academic staff and the opportunity to speak to QUT students about study and student life – gave people visiting Gardens Point a real feel for what it might be like to be a QUT student.”
Other highlights for 2003 Course and Careers Day included performances by the QUT Big Band throughout the day, a witness examination in QUT’s Moot Court, and tours of state-of-the-art science laboratories.
Thousands fl ock to QUT’s Course and Careers Day
orders included women seeking shelter at a refuge, or remaining in the violent situation because they could not afford or did not want to leave the family home.
She said an increase in ouster orders would result in a need for measures which will more adequately protect women and children in their home after the perpetrator has been ousted.
“It will also create demand for funding of men’s emergency accommodation but this should not place at risk funding for victims’
services such as women’s shelters and refuge accommodation,” she said.
The “Addressing Violence Against Women”
research symposium was jointly presented by QUT’s School of Management in the Faculty of Business, the Faculty of Health and the Domestic Violence Resource Centre.
Thousands of prospective students and their families gathered on Main Drive to seek advice and information at QUT’s 2003 Course and Careers Day
Throughout the day more than 500 QUT staff provided information to students and their parents on career choices
