Graduate takes on TV’s
$20 challenge
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QUT Central Administration 2 George Street Brisbane 4000 Telephone (07) 3864 2111 Registered by Australia Post – Publication No. QBF 4778
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Official party arrives
in style
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Visiting academic sees super-vision coming
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Queensland University of Technology Newspaper • Issue ... • Month, 1999 Queensland University of Technology Newspaper • Issue 207 • September 19-October 16, 2000
Seniors play their own games
More than 550 clients from respite centres throughout Brisbane displayed good cheer at the Seniors Games, held at Kelvin Grove campus on September 8. Pictured (l-r) Leonie Pretsel, Ivy Diamond, Mena Solomon and Enid Gurowski from Clayfield Respite Centre show their support for team-mate Ronnie Blatchford as she tries her hand at coits. For a full report on the games, see page 8.
Visit Inside QUT on-line at http://www.corpcomm.qut.edu.au/insidequt/index.html
Studies call for kids to
be active
by Toni Chambers & Margaret Lawson
A
QUT researcher has found children as young as five years of age are at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease because of reduced activity levels, sparking renewed calls for children to be more active.Human movement studies PhD student Rebecca Abbott delivered the findings of her research at the 2000 Pre- Olympic International Congress in Sport Science, Sport Medicine and Physical Education in Brisbane earlier this month.
Her study of 50 children aged between five and 10 looked at the functioning of the inner lining of arteries, called the endothelium, which is responsible for artery dilation.
This was matched against the normal daily activity levels of each child.
“Reduced arterial dilation or elasticity is a known marker of cardiovascular disease. We know, for example, that adults with cardiovascular disease have limited or no arterial dilation,” Ms Abbott said.
“The children I studied were all in the healthy range of arterial dilation, but the more active the child, the better their dilation.”
Ms Abbott said the study marked not only the first time that this technique had been performed on such young
healthy children, but the first time the relationship between arterial dilation and normal daily activity levels had been investigated.
Her research also found that, as activity levels increased, cholesterol levels and body fatness decreased.
She said that, while this had been found in adolescents and adults, the study of these links in young children was rare.
“These outcomes support the fact that we should be concerned about children watching more television, playing on computers more and not playing outside as much as they used to,” she said.
Associate Professor Andrew Hills from human movement studies has also been researching childhood inactivity.
Professor Hills, who has just released a book titled Childhood Obesity: prevention and treatment, said there was now evidence that childhood inactivity was at the root of many adult health problems.
He said parents needed to set an example for children to become more active.
“Up to 60 per cent of Australia’s adult population is overweight or obese and facing greater risks of health problems because of poor diet and a lack of physical activity,” he said.
“Parents should try to go for walks with their kids, play games with them, and encourage them to participate in physical activities whenever possible.”
Several QUT researchers presented their findings at the 2000 Pre-Olympic International Congress in Brisbane earlier this month.
Among those in attendance were the International Olympic
Committee’s ambassador chief of protocol, Dr Pal Schmitt, and School of Human Movement Studies head Professor Tony Parker.
Page 2 INSIDE QUT September 19-October 16, 2000
From the Inside ... by David Hawke
A word from the Vice-Chancellor
The medical profession is being urged to encourage cancer patients to continue their normal daily activities after treatment, as a means of facilitating their recovery and improving quality of life.
QUT PhD student Sandi Hayes has looked at the impact of peripheral blood stem cell transplants (a refined type of bone marrow transplant) on the physical function and quality of life of people with advanced breast cancer, leukemia and lymphoma.
She found the treatment caused a rapid decline in both fitness and quality of life to such an extent that an individual’s lifestyle was dramatically affected.
Ms Hayes also studied the role of exercise in facilitating recovery.
“Following treatment, without an exercise intervention, we are starting to see a trend whereby fitness and quality of life levels either stabilise at comparably low levels or continue to decline,” she said.
“I found that exercise plays a crucial role in not only returning patients to ‘normal’
levels, but in preventing further declines.”
The study also found that fitness levels in patients engaged in the exercise program after treatment improved by 40 per cent.
Further, the exercise participants enjoyed a higher quality of life than non-exercise participants – including improved self- confidence, ability to work and concentrate, and ability to engage in social activities.
“Advice to patients from health professionals and family members such as
‘take it easy’ or ‘get plenty of rest’ could also prevent them from participating in activities which could actually assist in recovery.”
She said more than half of patients diagnosed with cancer were surviving longer than five years, so a huge population was trying to return to normal life.
“Unfortunately, the side effects of cancer and its treatment often have such a debilitating effect on a patient’s physical function that returning to a normal lifestyle is impossible,” she said.
“It’s important to begin by doing as many little things as possible, like washing, cooking and making beds, and then introduce a gradual and planned exercise program.”
Exercise important for cancer recovery
Staff rock on at cocktail party
T
he official party arrived in style at QUT’s second annual staff cocktail party held at Kelvin Grove campus on September 1.Chancellor Dr Cherrell Hirst, Vice- Chancellor Professor Dennis Gibson and Academy of the Arts head Professor Peter Lavery were escorted to the podium as pillion passengers on motorbikes.
Their leather-clad escorts included QUT desktop support services manager Graham Keys and his biker buddies Nick Lee and Garry Sutton (whose employer Tessman Concreting gave him some time off for the occassion).
Powercycle Triumph donated a Triumph 600 for the day at no charge.
Part of the afternoon’s official proceedings included the announcement
of the winner of the competition to name the new area outside A Block at Kelvin Grove, where the party was held.
Development’s Sharon Norris won a gift hamper supplied by The Critic.
The selected name was Rocks’ Gate, named after James Robinson (aka Rocks Robbie), the first principal of predecessor institution the Queensland Teachers’
College when it moved to A Block in 1942.
Chancellor Dr Cherrell Hirst arrives at the newly-named “Rocks’ Gate” at Kelvin Grove for the staff cocktail party, on a Triumph Sprint driven by Garry Sutton from Tessman Concreting.
always give more than the basics and, as a result, they often suffer.
“We train teachers to be conservative and careful, while students are quite bored with the average teacher and respond better to teachers who are somewhat different, and who challenge these stereotypes.
“Fun teachers push the edges but they do it in safe ways that are not at the expense of effective learning.
Importantly, they refuse to suffer and cope better with the strain and changes.”
Dr Pendergast said home economics teachers defined themselves as professional, organised, hardworking, caring and multi-skilled.
Teachers and student teachers should be encouraged to incorporate more fun into their classrooms, PhD graduate Dr Donna Pendergast said recently.
Dr Pendergast’s research results challenged some teaching and learning assumptions when her study of 300 home economics teachers revealed that those who had fun and made teaching pleasurable coped better with change.
“Many teachers are suffering from change fatigue with the many reforms in the education system, and they are struggling to get any work satisfaction – let alone fun or pleasure – from their day-to-day teaching,” she said.
“Teachers are expected to be strong role models, to be self-sacrificing, to
“Home economic teachers are expected to wear the right clothes, eat the right food and not eat junk food,”
she said.
“They are expected to be role models above most other teachers.”
Her PhD, entitled Re-thinking home economics: From modern to postmodern accounts of pedagogical bodies, was nominated for the Australian Association for Research in Education’s (AARE) best thesis award.
Dr Pendergast, who recently wrote the home economics syllabus for junior high school students, is the national president of the Home Economics Institute of Australia.
– Amisha Patel
Teachers should be fun in class
As Microsoft releases its new .NET framework this month, Information Technology dean John Gough is watching with more than his usual professional interest.
Professor Gough and School of Computing Science senior lecturer Dr Paul Roe were among the first to try the new framework, and have been quietly contributing to the product’s development over the past year.
“The significance of the .NET framework is that it allows programs written in any language to run seamlessly on one computer,” Professor Gough said.
“This will be big news for software developers, because it means they can now create new software from components written in different languages, without going through the complicated process of translating each one.
“Microsoft describes it as doing away with the ‘Tower of Babel’ effect that exists
with the range of programming languages now available.”
Professor Gough said he and Dr Roe were asked to give feedback during the product’s development, and were one of six research teams then chosen to give a demonstration of the software’s potential.
“Along the way, we gave a lot of feedback to the development team and turned up a couple of problems in the early versions,” Professor Gough said.
“Now .NET is ready to go, and we showed an audience of 1,000 software developers in Florida how it could work.
“We demonstrated using two common languages and our own Gardens Point Component Pascal (a language translator designed at QUT), which were able to work side by side using .NET.
“It was the first time I had ever given a demonstration like that and got applause at the end.”
– Margaret Lawson
Researchers in .NET revolution
It was with great sadness that I heard of the death of Walter Kerrison, QUT’s oldest male graduate, on September 9.
The name of Kerrison has been associated with QUT and its predecessors since 1925, when Walter graduated from the Central Technical College.
His son Russell and grandson Paul are also members of QUT’s alumni.
Walter’s greatest passion was for church architecture, and one of his biggest triumphs occurred when Robin Gibson, the project architect for the restoration of St Stephen’s Cathedral, became aware of some sketches that Walter had done of the Cathedral in his final year of architecture.
Although the sketches were more than 70 years old, Gibson referred to them in his work, describing them as
“a beautiful set of drawings”.
Walter did us the honour of opening D Block at Gardens Point just last year, and his speech on this occasion reflected the need for a “dreaming place” for architects.
At the opening, he said “For me personally, my garden was the place to see visions and dream dreams.”
“Briefly I want to say I believe every planner, architect or designer of any kind needs a dreaming time on his/
Graduate remembered
her agenda and, just as importantly, I suggest that every project, be it large or small, deserves a place in the designer’s dreaming program.”
His assertion was that architects need to go through the sometimes painful process of meshing these dreams with the practicalities of daily living and that QUT’s School of Architecture, Interior and Industrial Design aimed to help them achieve this goal.
He will be greatly missed by those who knew and worked with him.
– Professor Dennis Gibson See Page 4 for full story.
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I
f you’re heading to hospital for heart surgery, how important is it that you know your chances of an adverse outcome?Hospital administrators around the world now consider this type of information an important part of their operations.
Thanks to a mathematical model developed by QUT masters student Fiona Stephens, Brisbane’s Prince Charles Hospital is the first in Queensland to be able to predict a patient’s chance of survival from heart surgery using their own patient base and specialised methodology.
Based at the Centre in Statistical Science and Industrial Mathematics, Ms Stephens investigated 113 factors, including a person’s age and weight, whether they had angina or liver disease, whether they were taking blood pressure tablets or had undergone previous heart surgery.
For example, for those patients who are older, not overweight and have unstable angina (which is actively managed) there is minimal risk.
But for overweight patients, the risk of death is 200 times greater than average.
“They may still operate on these people, even though they are at a high risk, but they can monitor them a little more closely and be aware they are in a group of people who may not always get through,” Ms Stephens said.
She said this move to evidence-based practice was increasing in Australia, and allowed hospitals to better determine their budgets and
Student’s maths model predicts
heart surgery risk
improve their service to patients.
“It’s given them a measure of risk, so we know how much more at risk people with particular attributes are compared to everyone else who’s having surgery for acquired heart disease,”
she said.
“It’s reinforced ideas the doctors had but it’s also given more breakdown of other people who are a little at risk.”
For example, Ms Stephens said, doctors were always careful with female patients who were older and overweight, often waiting
until a patient lost weight before operating.
Using Ms Stephens’ Risk Stratification Model, doctors can now determine the predicted risk and how individual patients compared to people with similar characteristics.
– Toni Chambers Masters student Fiona Stephens is using maths to assist doctors to predict their patients’ chances of survival from heart surgery.
SOSE trial defended
A QUT academic has defended the embattled state school Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE) syllabus, condemning the “dumbing down” of debate surrounding the issue.
School of Humanities lecturer Drew Hutton said critics of the trial Year 1 to 10 syllabus were putting politics into a debate that “should be about education and good teaching”.
“Criticism about SOSE is coming from people with a conservative agenda who seem to think that teaching history should transmit cultural heritage,”
Mr Hutton said.
“History is about more than this. It is about exposing students to relevant material that enhances their ability to inquire purposefully, think critically and investigate alternatives.
“You’re not going to develop students’
higher-order capabilities with the old rote-learning, fact-based curriculum they used when I first taught history.”
Mr Hutton, who teaches history at QUT, is a former member of the State
history syllabus sub-committee and has contributed to several history textbooks.
He said that SOSE was a relevant syllabus that struck a good balance between content suggestion and skill development.
“The SOSE syllabus supports a view of history where students do more than rote-learn. That is why it is supported by the Queensland History Teachers’
Association,” Mr Hutton said.
“It stresses conceptual understandings about time, continuity and change;
culture and identity; place and space;
and systems, resources and power. These are things you’re going to cover if you’re teaching history well.”
Mr Hutton said comments from trial schools indicated they were happy with the SOSE syllabus and the degree of content flexibility it gave teachers.
“You have to give them a say because they’re the ones who know the kids.
“I think this debate deserves a fairer treatment than the dumbed-down criticism it has received to date.”
by Amisha Patel
Fewer than half of Australia’s private organisations have implemented equal-opportunity strategies designed to increase the number of women in management, a QUT lecturer and PhD candidate said recently.
Management lecturer Erica French analysed equity management plans from around 2,000 Australian organisations to evaluate strategies, such as job sharing and parental leave, that companies use to achieve management equity.
Her research revealed that, in many organisations, strategies designed specifically for women were not considered to be appropriate.
“Women need to be treated differently but fairly in the workplace,”
Ms French said.
“Assuming people are the same, and designing practices and processes that treat everyone the same limits both the organisation and the individual.
“Organisations should encourage equal opportunities and outcomes by addressing the specific needs of both the staff and organisation itself.”
Ms French said organisations were wary of “identity-conscious” strategies
because of accusations of preferential treatment or reverse discrimination.
“Higher numbers of women in management are associated with identity- conscious strategies such as job sharing, parental leave, equal employment structures, women’s groups and mentoring schemes.
“Organisations that include these programs in their equity programs have significantly higher numbers of women in management.
“However, not many private sector organisations in Australia are actively involved in such practices.”
According to Ms French, many organisations find it difficult to evaluate equity programs.
“Many organisations will not see the results for a considerable period of time, depending on such things as turnover rates and organisational growth and market demand.”
Ms French said she believed her research would help organisations to identify successful strategies that would lead to more women in management.
Other strategies associated with higher numbers of women in management were child-care assistance, EEO structures and formal mechanisms for consulting with women.
Private sector has
unequal opportunities for female managers
Governments around Australia should reconsider using graphic advertising campaigns in their efforts to reduce drink-driving-related road fatalities, a QUT researcher has suggested.
The Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety’s (CARRS-Q) Associate Professor Richard Tay has looked at the effectiveness of a New Zealand advertising campaign modelled on the gruesome Victorian strategy which began in 1989 using emotion and shock to reduce the road toll.
Fear campaigns don’t deter drink drivers
Males aged between 18 and 24 were the main target of the campaign with statistics revealing men accounted for 84 per cent of alcohol-related crashes – and 18 to 24 year olds were most at risk.
Professor Tay said his research found that the campaign demonstrated success in reaching all other age groups except the target audience.
Professor Tay said “high-fear” advertisements failed to provide the younger male audience with a viable alternative course of action to reduce the danger presented to them.
The researcher suggested a more effective strategy would be to focus on alternatives like using a designated driver or taking a taxi.
“Most advertisements that use fear provide something the audience thinks it can do to get rid of the problem. If it’s not easy, the most likely course of action is to reduce the fear, not reduce the danger,” he said.
Professor Tay suggested that an alternative strategy for young men would involve using humour combined with a course of action.
The Equity Section will co-ordinate QUT’s staff census next month to investigate how the university’s workforce reflects the diversity of the wider community.
Acting project officer Chargn Keenan said data collection would take place between October 2 and 13, and all staff would have the opportunity to be counted.
QUT will collect data on staff’s indigenous status, disabilities, and language and cultural background. Mr Keenan said data was already collected on staff gender and on students from equity target groups.
“This latest collection builds on the experience of Australian workplaces and follows national best practice in collecting statistical data,” he said.
Census to assess diversity in QUT’s workforce
“The information disclosed by staff will be treated as strictly confidential and statistics will not identify individuals.”
Later this month, staff will receive their equity data collection pack including a questionnaire.
Staff wishing to volunteer as data collection assistants should contact Mr Keenan via e-mail at [email protected] or phone 3864 3653.
Page 4 INSIDE QUT September 19-October 16, 2000
Queensland University of Technology GPO Box 2434 Brisbane QLD 4001 Website: qut.com
Alumni Annual General Meeting - 4 October
Invitation to QUT Graduates
A university for the real world
GEN39
If you are a QUT graduate (including QIT and BCAE graduates) or an active member of Alumni, you are invited to come and meet with fellow Alumni members and QUT staff at the Alumni Annual General Meeting to be held on Wednesday, 4 October at 5pm in the Owen J Wordsworth Rooms, Level 12, S Block Gardens Point Campus.
You can find out how Alumni members are participating in the operation of QUT, identify issues that you want Alumni to address, and participate in the Alumni Board elections.
To RSVP for the Annual General Meeting, register as an active member of QUT Alumni or if you are interested in nominating for President of QUT Alumni or for one of the five elected Board members, please contact Mr Gary Allen on (07) 3864 2902 or email [email protected]
Nominations open on 11 September and nomination forms for elected positions must reach the Registrar by noon on Monday, 2 October 2000.
T
he QUT community has been saddened by the recent death of its oldest male alumnus, Walter Kerrison, 97.Mr Kerrison graduated with a Diploma of Architecture from QUT predecessor institution Central Technical College in 1925.
His son, Russell, followed in his father’s footsteps by graduating in architecture from the college in 1967, while grandson Paul was awarded a Bachelor of Business (Communication) from QUT in 1993.
Mr Kerrison’s career began with the Brisbane City Council designing public buildings including the library at West End, signified by its prominent clock tower.
In an interview with alumni magazine QUT Links in1998, he said the library was one of the buildings he was most proud of.
Following his time with BCC, Mr Kerrison started a private architectural practice before entering into partnership with Harold Cook – a partnership that lasted 40 years.
Mr Kerrison’s side of the practice mostly concerned church work and, throughout his career, he designed more than 200 churches and church buildings in Queensland.
In April last year, Mr Kerrison returned to QUT to officiate at the opening of the refurbished and extended architecture building, D Block, at Gardens Point.
He is survived by two sons Graham and Russell, their wives Ruth and Penny, and his grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Read Mr Kerrison’s speech from the D Block opening at http://www.corpcomm.
qut.edu.au/insidequt/index.html.
QUT mourns
Walter Kerrison
A group of four students from Aspley State High School has gained a head start to their tertiary studies with visiting student scholarships from QUT’s Carseldine campus.
Each student is studying one subject from a QUT degree course, on top of their normal school load, through the visiting student scholarship program.
The Year 12 students are among 20 students from north Brisbane schools who have taken advantage of the scholarships this year.
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Northern Corridor Development) Associate Professor Adam Shoemaker said he hoped to double the number of scholarships in 2001.
“As well as making this opportunity widely available in the region, QUT is embarking on an innovative program in partnership with Aspley State High School,”
Professor Shoemaker said.
“While it’s still under development, it is expected the Aspley QUT Links Program will see a new senior studies option introduced into the school.
“A select group of students will complete a two-year program comprising preparation and career planning in the school, and studies of a QUT subject in each semester of Year 12.”
Aspley State High School students (l-r) Shane Ogden, Steven Cahill, Helen Chapple and Gavin Shaw are completing university subjects at Carseldine this semester.
School’s in at Carseldine
A lecturer is planning an international campaign to place the coral reefs off New Caledonia on the World Heritage list in a bid to protect them against the impact of nickel mining.
Humanities lecturer Drew Hutton recently visited nickel mining sites on the island and documented their impact on the nearby reef.
His visit formed part of his research into the way social movements influence public policy and the political process.
New Caledonia mines 30 per cent of the world’s nickel and its reefs are the second largest in the world.
Mr Hutton said there were 15 large and many small mines in New Caledonia, including the Thio mine which is the world’s largest.
“There is minimal environmental management and the enormous waste generated by mines is washed into rivers and finds its way into the lagoon which often runs blood-red with the mineralised sediment,” he said.
“Only about 1 per cent of the reefs have been studied but it’s clear that something must be done urgently to protect the reefs or they’ll be in serious trouble.”
Mr Hutton described the suburbs of Noumea as a “soupy cocktail of nickel- rich dust and sulphur dioxide” – nickel is a confirmed Group 1 and Grade A human carcinogen, making the human impacts of mining a major concern.
But, he said, the political environment was not conducive to
change – the French Government was too focused on mining as a money- earner for New Caledonia.
“There is also resistance from the New Caledonian Government because the most politically powerful man also owns many of the nickel mines,” he said.
Mr Hutton is spearheading the campaign to mobilise support for the World Heritage listing of the reef and to force environmental management legislation for nickel mining.
He will at the same time appraise the campaign for his research.
“I’ll be looking at the way the different elements and groups structure their lobbying to change the Government’s agenda,” he said.
– Toni Chambers
Lecturer mines for protected reefs
A QUT ethicist told a professional forum this month that codes of ethics were “overrated” and were not an effective way to foster ethical conduct.
School of Communication lecturer Dr John Harrison made several recommendations to the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) forum on crisis management about how organisations could “clean up their acts” by going beyond ethical codes.
“Organisations relying solely on a code of conduct or ethics are going to find themselves facing the same crises again and again,” Dr Harrison said.
“In many cases staff don’t know of their organisation’s code and don’t have access to appropriate advice or ethical decision-making processes.
“The codes often do not have adequate sanctions for non-compliance.”
Dr Harrison said organisations and professional associations that relied solely on codes to induce good practices needed to implement a broader strategy.
“Organisations need to have a strategy that is about internalising values. This can be achieved by providing staff with ethics training or having an ethics counsellor available,” Dr Harrison said.
“Best practice is where organisations have set up an ethics hotline which staff can call anonymously.”
Dr Harrison said that, in the future, there may be big incentives for Australian organisations to implement such ethical strategies.
“In the United States, penalties in sentencing legislation are mitigated if you can show that your organisation had a fraud and corruption prevention system in place.”
Ethicist criticises codes of ethics
Communication lecturer Dr John Harrison
Communication team triumphs
A group of communication students has been presented with awards from Triumph International for market research projects they conducted about the company’s range of bras.
The work of Megan Luckie, Lauren McPherson, Katherine Davies and Samantha Champman-Tucker was chosen by the Triumph marketing team
from dozens of communication projects submitted by students last semester.
The students worked in pairs in the unit Communication Research Methods to conduct focus groups and surveys about Triumph’s range of sports and teenage bras. They then prepared reports for the company about their findings.
Walter Kerrison
Admissions manager Bruce McCallum is known for his ability to answer the trickiest admissions enquiries. But he met his match recently when he fielded a call from a
concerned mother wanting to know which primary school she should send her daughter to in order to guarantee entry into QUT. My, my it’s getting competitive.
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IQ2
by Noel Gentner
S
tudents and staff at QUT have snapped up the opportunity to be volunteers at the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games.The Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) is being helped by 6,000 TAFE and university students who are providing their skills to contribute to the success of the games.
Of the 60 QUT students who are working at the games, 30 come from the School of Media and Journalism including some double degree business students.
The students are undertaking a variety of roles including media assistants to overseas journalists, press conference assistants and supervisors, tribune supervisors, and contributers to the Olympic news service.
Associate lecturer in journalism Sharon Tickle will also attend the games as a volunteer, and has been assigned to work as a press assistant to foreign journalists from the five-event Pavilion’s venue in Sydney.
Prior to her departure, Ms Tickle said working at the Olympic Games would be a most rewarding experience for the students.
The games begin for students
“It’s just going to be bigger than Ben Hur for them in terms of developing their skills rapidly in an intensive time period,” Ms Tickle said.
“They will learn to work within a team of people, quickly find their place in that team and decide how best to utilise their skills,” she said.
“They will learn on the job how to communicate with people from a number of countries and work alongside experienced journalists.”
Ms Tickle said the QUT volunteer team was not confined to Australian students.
“We have several Singaporean students who have been accepted, some of whom have completed their studies but are returning for the Olympic experience.”
Ms Tickle said the school had made some special arrangements for volunteer students to ensure their studies were not affected.
“On balance it is more important for them to gain this experience,”
Ms Tickle said.
Inside QUT journalist Noel Gentner has been working with SOCOG as chief-of-staff of the media team reporting on Olympic soccer being held in Brisbane.
Journalism students (l-r) Gary Sim,John Malony, Sharon Tickle (lecturer), Elaine Ford, Kylie Gillespie and Dane Svenson are working at the Olympics assisting overseas media representatives.
Although he didn’t win the recent television challenge set before him, 1998 civil engineering graduate Chad Carey partly got what he’d hoped for – by escaping his computer for a few days.
Twenty-three-year-old Mr Carey was one of just four young Australians chosen to spend three days in London for the Ten Network’s $20 Challenge program.
The catch was that, to stay in the competition, challengers had to survive on US$20 (over three days) and perform a specific set of tasks each day.
And the rules were tough – they were not allowed to seek help from people they knew, stay in one place for more than one night, break the law or beg.
A seasoned traveller, Mr Carey has been to New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, F i j i , M e x i c o , C a n a d a a n d t h e United States.
He thought the trip was a good way of “tiding him over” until he could afford a trip to his next destination – the United Kingdom.
He said one of the most memorable moments came early in the morning on the final day – it was 2am and he still did not have a bed for the night when he came across firefighters selling plastic fire hats as a fundraiser.
They saved him from being thrown out of the competition by letting him sleep at the fire station.
“On the same night, I was walking down an alleyway in desperate need of accommodation and I walked past a homeless person who asked me for money – ironic really isn’t it?” he asked.
Mr Carey said his aim was not to spend any money at all, but on the last day it got too much for him and he splurged on McDonalds which left him with just five pounds.
The graduate was up against two women and another man.
In the final hour, 20-year-old Rhiannon Kelly-Pearce from Melbourne won the challenge by audience ballot.
– Toni Chambers
Graduate takes on TV’s $20 challenge
A gutsy QUT graduate has helped two friends take on the mighty Mississippi River to raise money for people with cancer – and she succeeded.
Education graduate Jo Mackey was part of the “Mississippi Challenge” team that recently broke the world record for the fastest water-ski dash down America’s longest, most treacherous river.
Ms Mackey, a full-time English teacher at Emmanuel College on the Gold Coast, helped co-ordinate the record effort and photographed friends Brenton and Sean McGrath as the pair skied for six days and 3,042km in terrible conditions.
She watched her two friends – one of whom is in remission from leukemia – suffer bruises, fatigue and chemical burns from polluted water as they skied into the record books.
“The challenge was about ordinary people achieving the extraordinary,”
Ms Mackey said.
“It was more than challenging at times, but I think achieving a world record would be very hollow if there was no purpose to your success.”
The team, which has set up the Challenge Charity Trust, aims to raise enough money to establish a respite centre at the Gold Coast for people with cancer and leukemia.
“It was a very personal mission for all of us,” Ms Mackey said.
“There were originally going to be three skiers but Neville Wilson, who was a driving force behind the idea, had stomach cancer and passed away six months before the challenge.
“We carried out his last wish on the trip, which was to scatter his ashes in the Mississippi.”
After she returned from the emotional, record-breaking trip, Ms Mackey was honoured with a $10,000 Queen’s Trust award to publish a record of the Mississippi Challenge.
She plans to write a coffee-table book featuring photographs she took during the challenge.
Photos and information on the Mississippi Challenge are on the Web at www.mississippi challenge.better.net.au.
Jo makes successful cancer quest
Two QUT physiotherapists have been chosen to work with the international gymnastic teams during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
Jan Smith and Mardi Watson will work alongside 200 other physiotherapy volunteers for almost three weeks.
Chad Carey spent three days in London on a $20 budget.
Physios head for Olympics
QUT has found itself with an unexpected “slush fund”, in the wake of Course and Careers Day, that will be used to help needy students.
Student Administration director Ray Morley said Rainbow Smash – which supplied crushed ice drinks on the day – presented the university with $270 as part of its standard profit-sharing arrangement.
“Because the event is organised by the university’s Recruitment Unit, which has a strong student focus, it seems appropriate to donate the money to QUT’s Equity Endowment which provides $500 bursaries to needy students.”
Careers day profits equity
Jo Mackey
Page 6 INSIDE QUT September 19-October 16, 2000
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Scientists work out tree carbon content
by Toni Chambers
R
esearchers at QUT are working to establish accurate and quick methods to help determine the effect of Queensland’s forest management on Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.Australia is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.
The changes in the carbon content of Queensland’s forests may be a large contributor to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions but there is a lack of scientific knowledge informing policy on the issue.
School of Mathematical Sciences masters student Norm Good and senior research assistant Robert Denham have spent three weeks mapping trees in a 2,400 square kilometre area near Injune in southern Queensland.
The pair – from the Centre in Statistical Science and Industrial Mathematics –␣ has been working with the Department of Natural Resources, the University of New South Wales, the Bureau of Resource Sciences and the Department of Primary Industries Tropical Beef Centre to determine carbon content of woodlands based on 34 sites in the region.
To do this, the researchers used a NASA aircraft to capture radar imagery allowing them to establish a relationship with ground-based estimates of forest biomass.
Senior research assistant from the Centre in Statistical Science and Industrial Mathematics Robert Denham has been working on developing the world’s first software for forestry inventory using laser-scanning data.
“The resulting relationship can be used over time and for other similar parts of Australia, to track the amount of carbon that is being gained or lost in woodlands,” Mr Good said.
“Current ground-based methods for estimating forest biomass of a tree are time consuming and require a large amount of resources.
“We are trying to (find) more efficient methods for estimating the biomass of trees.”
The information obtained from radar and other remotely sensed data, will also be used to track the changes in forest structure such as species diversity.
Mr Denham, in conjunction with the DNR and AAM Surveys, is hoping to develop the world’s first software for forest inventory using laser-scanning data.
He has developed a set of mathematical routines to assess and monitor the height and foliage density of vegetation, but aims to finetune the process into a software package to be sold around the world.
Mr Denham said that, until now, laser-scanning information relating to forests had largely been ignored, but it was now becoming a growth area.
“Laser scanning is something that has the potential to reduce the amount of time spent in the field, so you can quickly get information on a forest which you would normally have to go out and measure,” he said.
A pair of QUT education lecturers has received well-earned recognition from the United States Government, for a maths program they have been developing over the past 20 years.
Dr Calvin Irons and Rosemary Irons – both lecturers in the School of Maths, Science and Technology Education – are the authors of the Growing with Maths program which uses language a n d c o n c e p t s c h i l d r e n a l r e a d y u n d e r s t a n d t o t e a c h t h e m a b o u t mathematics.
“We also try to get them involved in using mathematics which makes them do problem solving so, in other words, applying mathematics,” Ms Irons said.
“We also want children to be better reasoners and, from problem solving and the variety of our approach with language, we want them to become better thinkers, because we’re always trying to challenge their ideas.”
Growing with Mathematics evolved from the Irons’ work that began in 1977 and led to the development of two maths programs in Australia.
The ideas from these programs were used as the basis for the resources used in the United States – the materials are currently being redeveloped for the United Kingdom and Australia.
The program has just undergone extensive investigation by the US Government’s Expert Panel on
US Government recognises school maths program
School of Maths, Science and Technology Education lecturers Rosemary and Dr Calvin Irons surrounded by resources from their Growing with Mathematics program which they have been developing since 1977.
Two QUT staff and seven dance students were involved in the International Dance Academy’s World Dance 2000 festival in Seoul, Korea in late July.
The students performed Tip of the Iceberg, a dance piece choreographed by QUT lecturer John Utans.
Associate Professor Cheryl Stock, who led the tour, said the program offered insight into the cultural and technical aspects of Korean dance.
“What we all gained from exposure to such a diverse and large range of Korean dance was the beginning of an understanding into the rich traditions underlying and driving dance developments in Korea,” she said.
Although they have performed many times, the Academy of the Arts students gained an appreciation of the demands of professional and international tours.
“The students learnt how tiring an international tour could be and how to cope with a different environment, and balance performances with classes and sightseeing.
“Apart from performances, students attended a range of master classes in Korean traditional dance, ballet and contemporary dance. They were also able to watch renowned dancers in training as well as in performances.”
– Amisha Patel
Students get dancing at Seoul festival
(l-r) Julieanne Bergmann, Ryan Funnell, Jason Northam, Anthony divito, I-Fen Tung, Monica Wensing, Cheryl Stock (dance head), Sue Leclerq (lecturer) and Amber Moelter
Researchers put trust in web
Mathematics and Science, which was established to find promising and exemplary programs in those fields.
The aim of highlighting specific programs is to improve the country’s international record in these two areas.
The Growing with Mathematics program was found to have resulted in improvements in students’ performances and, as such, was rated as “promising” – one of only three programs used in the US to receive the recognition.
The Irons’ admit their philosophy isn’t new, but say what is novel about their program is that the emphasis is on helping the teacher support the child’s learning.
“Most teachers have as a goal in mathematics, encouraging children to become better problem solvers and reasoners, but they need resources and ideas on how to achieve the goal and what is appropriate at certain levels,” Dr Irons said.
“Many teachers when they see the classroom materials don’t know what to do with them, because they still see mathematics as something that’s got to be written numbers on a page.
“They need the teacher references to help them implement the program, so the key to a good program is a well-written teacher reference.”
The Irons’ hope the recognition will result in more schools using the resources, but also that it will endorses the concept of maths development.
QUT-based researchers are translating consumer views of trust into on-line security systems as part of an 18-month project that has already sparked interest from Telstra, and the Defence, Science and Technology Organisation.
According to Dr Matt Davey, senior research scientist at the Distributed Systems Technology Centre (DSTC), most people worry about doing business on the web and exposing their details.
“This project aims to help companies and consumers decide if an e-commerce transaction is safe,” Dr Davey said.
The first part of the project involved the development of a trust inference engine, which assessed and applied trust as a decision-making tool for consumers and businesses.
“A simple explanation is if you were in a new city and wanted to visit a good restaurant then you would seek reviews from various critics and based on their collective advice, make a decision.”
The system operating behind the views of those critics and how you would judge their advice could be a trust inference engine, which would normally be hidden but still accessible to the consumer.
An example of the trust inference engine can be found at security.dstc.qut.edu.au/spectrum/.
“Currently, companies usually only provide a digital certificate, which is essentially only a guarantee of the firm’s identity certified by a trusted third party. We want to go broader in scope and add trust assessments of on-line companies to the digital certificates.”
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CEED Bulletin Board
@ www.corptech.com.au
by Toni Chambers
A
visiting research fellow at QUT’s Centre for Eye Research has predicted super-normal vision could be only a quarter of a century away.Professor Pablo Artal from the University of Murica in Spain worked with the School of Optometry’s Associate Professor David Atchison for five weeks.
Professor Artal has spent the past 15 years looking at how the optics of the eye work in normal eyes and in eyes with defects.
He said it was now possible with new technology to correct defects like myopia and astigmatism without using traditional methods, and also to measure small optical defects.
The next phase was developing technologies to correct smaller defects, taking people down the road to super-vision.
“For the last two centuries, if you had a problem with your eyes, optometrists would fit you with conventional lenses,” Professor Artal said.
“From this research, we are in a position to go beyond the conventional correction methods – if we can correct a little bit more t h e r e i s a p r o s p e c t t h a t , i n principle, people can see better than normal.”
Professor Artal said even people considered to have normal vision had defects, and others had defects which could not be corrected with conventional technology.
“In the future, like science fiction, you can imagine people wearing glasses that every 30 or 40 seconds measure your aberrations and correct them in real time, so you can have a super-normal vision,” he said.
“We’ll have to wait for more technology (before that’s possible) – maybe 25 years or so.”
Professor Artal and Professor Atchison have been also involved in the first major investigation into the benefits of the Stiles Crawford Effect.
“When light goes through the periphery of the pupil of the eye it doesn’t appear to be as bright as light going through the centre – this is know
Visitor looks at super-vision
Learning from each other … Professor Pablo Artal (left) from the University of Murica in Spain, who has dedicated his life’s work to investigating ways of developing super-normal vision, with QUT’s Associate Professor David Atchison from the School of Optometry.
as the Styles Crawford Effect,”
Professor Atchison said.
“It has been thought to have an important effect on how well we see by counteracting the effects of optical defects, however, the QUT study found the effect does not appear to improve vision significantly.”
QUT’s Dean of Science, Professor Graeme George, has proposed a revamp of appointment and promotion criteria to boost the status of teaching in the university.
In the most recent presentation in the Scholarship of Teaching series, Professor George said the current appointment and promotion criteria – research and scholarship, academic leadership, professional leadership, and teaching performance and leadership – did not provide good teachers who were also scholars of teaching with the best opportunity to demonstrate their achievements.
He said that condensing the existing criteria into three areas – research and teaching scholarship, teaching and professional practice, and academic and community leadership – would make it easier for academic staff to make a contribution in the areas in which they excelled, and still be recognised for their achievements.
“This (proposed) system gives people the chance to be rewarded for excellence in research or teaching scholarship, teaching or professional practice (such as consultancy), and service to the university…or the broader community,” Professor George said.
“The debate of research versus teaching would no longer have any currency since they would be in the same category of scholarly achievement.
“Teaching is embedded in all three areas of activity, providing clear recognition of our role as an academic institution.”
Changes needed to criteria - Dean
Professor George said his model would improve the current system where staff who conducted scholarly activity in teaching and learning counted their achievements under
“teaching performance and leadership”, and were under pressure to conduct research as well.
“For a scholar of teaching and learning to also make original contribution to the knowledge base of a discipline is a very tall ask and one which may well jeopardise their contributions (in the research area),”
he said.
Professor George said a rethink of the current appointment and promotion criteria that rewarded teaching equally with other forms of scholarly work could contribute to a QUT “culture that values good teaching”.
The presentation was one of several recent fora that have put teaching high on the agenda at QUT.
In August, Teaching and Learning Support Services ran the
“Recognising good teaching showcase” featuring a presentation by School of Maths, Science and Technology Education senior lecturer Dr Jim Watters about generic attributes.
Teaching generic attributes also featured in a Teaching and Learning Development Unit forum on September 12 run by Professor Gail Hart.
The next presentation in the Scholarship of Teaching series will be
“Making judgments about the scholarship of teaching”, presented by Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Coaldrake on October 4.
A new course in advertising on the Internet being offered by QUT is a first for the advertising industry in Queensland.
More than 25 advertising professionals are involved in the
“internet@university” course that is Queensland’s first formal professional development course in advertising.
Co-ordinator and QUT lecturer Gayle Kerr said the Executive Certificate in Internet Advertising benefited students, the university and the advertising industry in Queensland.
“The course helps QUT retain our position as the number one place for advertising education in Queensland among the industry,” she said.
“There’s a real need for professional development programs and because it’s driven by the AFA – advertising’s professional body – and held at university, it makes the course more credible.
“If the demand is there for good quality education programs then QUT is happy to provide them.”
Ms Kerr said the Internet was the way of the future for advertising.
“Advertising was always shaped by technology. It responded to television and radio, and the Internet will no doubt be important because of accountability to clients, and precise targeting and relationship building with customers.”
The executive certificate involved two subjects: Internet advertising principles which is taught mainly by industry professional Simon Moore; and Internet advertising practice, which is conducted on-line.
The course was designed by the Advertising Federation of Australia (AFA) and University of Technology Sydney.
–Amisha Patel
Execs learn Internet
advertising at university
Learning about Internet advertising … ad executives Dick Grantley, Mark Grey, Simon Moore (lecturer) and Chris Gilbert
QUT’s Where are you going?
television commercial has won a prestigious industry award for cinematography.
The advertisement, which was created by agency BCM Partnership and is appearing on television until late September, was announced as a winner at the Brisbane Art Directors’ Club 26th Annual Awards for Advertising.
QUT’s undergraduate advertising program recently received international accreditation by the International Advertising Association (IAA).
The accreditation process took less than three months with no changes required to the advertising course.
School of Communication lecturer Gayle Kerr said the accreditation benefits both students and staff in terms of international jobs and competitions.
“It is important to have international connections,” Ms Kerr said.
“Our ad campaigns’ students entered the IAA international student competition and one group was a regional finalist.
“There are also opportunities for international internships and staff exchanges.”
Universities in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Western Australia are also IAA accredited.
Course earns global accreditation from IAA
Ad gets gong
Academic staff now have the opportunity to vote electronically on the QUT Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (Academic Staff) 2000-2003.
Polling closes on Monday, September 25.
The agreement is available at http://www.qut.edu.au/admin/
hrd/eba2000_acad.htm.
EB voting
Page 8 INSIDE QUT September 19-October 16, 2000 Check out What’s On and post your entries at
http://www.whatson.qut.edu.au/
STUDENT GUILD
Oct 1 Aquathon. A 750m swim, followed by a 5km run in the City Botanic Gardens. Free breakfast, prizes, all welcome, volunteers needed, parking available. $2 from every entry will assist the Asthma Foundation of Queensland. E-mail [email protected] or call 3864 1688.
ARTS EVENTS
Sept 14- Picture This. This is a photographic exhibition exploring
Oct 15 contemporary art practice in various photomedia. The exhibition is from South Australia and contains work from Di Barrett, Ian North, Deborah Paauwe and Les Walkling. QUT Art Museum, QUT Cultural Precinct, Gardens Point campus. Open 10am-4pm (Tues-Fri), Noon- 4pm (Sat-Sun), closed Mon. Free entry. Call 3864 5370.
Oct 2-28 Fountains Beyond. Queensland dramatist and social crusader George Landen Dann wrote this play in 1942. It was well ahead of its time by putting Aboriginal people centre stage when the closest many Aborigines had come previously was the boxing tent. The play will be presented by an all-black cast which is touring regional Queensland in the lead up to Federation. The Gardens Theatre, QUT Cultural Precinct, Gardens Point campus. E-mail [email protected] or call 3864 4213.
SEMINARS, WORKSHOPS, CONFERENCES
Sept 28- Writing and Self Publishing workshops. Evening and weekend Oct 28 workshops are available on story writing, writing family history, writing
short stories, writing your life and hyper text writing. E-mail [email protected] or [email protected] or call 3864 3726.
Oct 24-27 Radiation Protection course. These courses are designed to ensure people using radiation sources have an understanding of the potential hazards of ionising radiation and the necessary safety precautions.
It provides a major part and in some cases, all of the required training for a Queensland Department of Health radiation safety officer’s license. Runs Tues-Fri. E-mail [email protected] or [email protected] or call 3864 1581.
Oct 25 Postgraduate Information Evening. The evening will showcase opportunities in a wide range of disciplines. All faculties will be represented. Z Block foyer, QUT Gardens Point campus, 4pm-8pm.
Call 3864 2000.
Inside QUT is published by QUT’s Corporate Communication Department.
Readership includes staff, students and members of the QUT community.
It is also circulated to business, industry, government and the media. Each story has been checked with the source prior to publication.
Letters to the editor are welcome via mail or email [email protected]. The Corporate Communication address: Level 3, G Block, Room 318, Gardens Point or GPO Box 2434 Brisbane 4001.
Opinions expressed in Inside QUT do not necessarily represent those of the university or the editorial team.
Carmen Myler (editor) 3864 1150
Noel Gentner/Amisha Patel (part-time) 3864 1841
Margaret Lawson 3864 2130
Toni Chambers 3864 4494
Fax 3210 0474
Photography: Tony Phillips, Suzie Prestwidge
Advertising: Rachel Murray 3864 4408 or 3864 1840 Our web address: http://www.corpcomm.qut.edu.au/releases/
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Seniors games a success
While the rest of the nation’s focus was on “those games” in Sydney, some equally deserving medal winners were recognised in their own games held at QUT earlier this month.
The sixth successful Seniors Games were held at Kelvin Grove campus on Friday, September 8, attracting more than 550 clients and staff from 22 respite centres in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.
A key organiser of the games, nursing senior lecturer Rob Thornton, said the annual event proved to be an enormously popular day out with people in respite care – who enjoyed watching and participating in events such as high jump, coits, a people’s steeplechase and tug-of-war.
Mr Thornton said the Seniors Games were an important community service activity involving QUT’s School of Nursing, School of Human Movement Studies, St Vincent’s Community Services, and Home and Community Care (HACC).
He said students and staff volunteered their time to be a part of the event.
“We had 30 students from the human movement studies and 50 nursing students helping out on the day,” he said.
“QUT grounds and security staff from Kelvin Grove campus – as well as staff from TALSS’ graphic design
and photography section – also gave us a lot of support. We really couldn’t host these games every year without their help.”
Like participants in the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games, winners receive medals and trophies to acknowledge their success at the Seniors Games.
“It means a lot to people to get medals and trophies at something like this,” Mr Thornton said.
“In fact, people have been known to incorporate medals into their wills because to win a medal at 93 years of age, for example, is really something.
“Over the years, a total of around 4,000 people from the community have enjoyed these games.”
Mr Thornton said that a similar event was now hosted in Japan, by Osaka Hospital, after he showed a video of the Kelvin Grove event to hospital staff during a study tour.
The Seniors Games are funded by Home and Community Care, and the Brisbane City Council, and receive in-kind support from QUT and St Vincent’s Community Services.
For more photos visit Inside QUT on-line http://
www.corpcomm.qut.edu.au/insidequt/index.html.
–Carmen Myler
Mini robots in soccer battle
student from IT, mechanical engineering and electronic engineering working together to design, build and operate a set of three mini- robots capable of playing a game of soccer against another team.”
Dr Sitte said the task was harder than it sounded, with students having to write programs to teach their robots the strategies and rules of the scaled-down game.
“Robots have to be programmed to recognise and co-operate with their team mates to win the game, and must be able to avoid collisions and intercept the ball or opponents,” he said.
“A television camera overhead is the eyes of each robot, filming and transmitting what is going on below to a computer.
“A computer signal travels via radiolink back to the robot, which interprets what’s happening and reacts according to the program the students have written.”
Dr Sitte said the project was a challenge for students, but that QUT was close to fielding a competitive robot team.
by Margaret Lawson
Y
ou won’t see them playing against Manchester United any time soon, but QUT’s robot soccer team is set to take on the IT world.The tiny robot players, each smaller than a coffee cup and containing a powerful microprocessor, are being programmed by teams of students to react to stimuli and play a scaled-down game of soccer all by themselves.
Project co-ordinator and senior computing science lecturer Dr Joaquin Sitte said the project, which harnesses the latest in robotics technology, was designed to give students from IT and engineering the chance to work together on a complex project.
“Traditionally, students in information technology and engineering disciplines don’t team up at university, though professionals in the field often need to collaborate,” Dr Sitte said.
“In this project each team has at least one
“We will (soon) see robots programmed to deliver mail in offices or distribute medication to hospital patients,” he said.
“Some of our students may end up using their expertise in robotics to develop this technology.”
“This project is at the frontier of research in robotics and artificial intelligence because the computing equipment has to be fast, cheap and very small.”
Dr Sitte said the robot soccer game also had a number of serious applications.
(l-r) Engineering student Timothy Chua and IT/
engineering student Dylan Muir create miniature robots that can play soccer without human help.
Close to 30 theatre studies students from QUT’s Academy of the Arts will take to the Powerhouse stage as part of the ENERGEX Brisbane Festival in October with Mirthless: A Suburban Seduction.
According to lecturer Paul Makeham, the group-devised work was a big challenge for the group, working with UK director, actor and comedian Peta Lily.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity to put into practice the skills that they had learned during the course,” Mr Makeham said.
“Working with an internationally renowned artist such as Peta Lily is a unique and invaluable experience for the students.
“They are getting direct, hands-on experience of creating theatre in a professional context.”
Dr Makeham said Mirthless started with a series of fax messages between Ms Lily in London, and himself and the students.
“The students suggested possible themes, and some of their early ideas were kind of heavy, reminding Peta of the speech from Hamlet: ‘I have of late – but wherefore I know not – lost all my mirth’”, he said.
“At the same time, Peta had been thinking about the movie The Graduate, and began to imagine a situation based on Hamlet, but set in an Australian version of The Graduate’s claustrophobic, suburban world. The show has grown from there.”
“Peta is getting extraordinary results, and we think audiences will be impressed with the originality, quality and exuberance of the show,” Dr Makeham said.
Mirthless: A Suburban Seduction will show from October 4 to 7 at the Brisbane Powerhouse.
Tickets are $10 each and available by phoning (07) 3254 4000.
Suburban seduction full of mirth
For results and photos from the QUT Fun Run, see Inside QUT on-line.
Photo supplied by QUT Teaching and Learning Support Services
