www.news.qut.edu.au George Street Brisbane 4000 Telephone (07) 3864 2361 Registered by Australia Post – Publication No. QBF 4778. CRICOS No 00213J
The face of QUT Page 5
The eagle has landed Page 6
Quicksilver Paul
Page 8
Aspiring rural journalist and third year student Grant Robertson seeks advice from retired ABC rural reporter Adrian Scott, who helped drive the establishment of the new QUT rural journalism scholarship
By Toni Chambers
LOW–income earners are struggling to put a roof over their heads due to a lack of public housing and often discriminatory private rental practices, according to new research.
QUT lecturer Dr Barbara Adkins is leading a study for the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) looking at the increasing use of tenancy databases to list and screen
Housing trap for vulnerable
By Janne Rayner
BUSH and beauty will be the focus of two new fi elds of opportunity for Creative Industries students keen to specialise in their journalism studies.
A rural journalism scholarship and Australia’s fi rst university unit in fashion journalism have just been launched at QUT.
The scholarship will support a g raduate research student to investigate and analyse issues in rural journalism.
In partnership with the Adrian Scott Rural Journalism Trust and the Queensland Department of Primary Industries, QUT will offer $5,000 a year to the successful candidate as part of its masters program.
The partnered endowment of $100,000 has guaranteed the scholarship will be perpetual.
private rental tenants.
“These databases have helped to make the private rental market a bit like the labour market,” Dr Adkins said.
“It’s not good enough just to apply for a job these days, you have to have a job history and operating in the private rental market is like that.
“It’s not just that you need accommodation. Increasingly to survive in the private rental market
you have to be shown to be a worthy participant in that market.
“Databases have aided the tendency of the sector to want the best and dump the rest.”
She said demand for low-cost private rental properties had risen as a result of a decline in real terms in funding for public housing over the past 20 years.
A proliferation in the use of tenancy databases had meant that many low– income, high-needs people were The establishment of the Adrian
Scott Rural Journalism Scholarship Trust coincided with the retirement of Adrian Scott in 1996, a rural ABC journalist who for decades provided a vital link to rural communities.
Speaking at the offi cial launch at the Ekka this month, Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Coaldrake said QUT had a strong track record of more than 20 years for educating journalists, many of whom came to study from rural areas and aspired to return as rural journalists.
“It is important to look in an educational sense at how rural issues are communicated,” Professor Coaldrake said.
“QUT sees rural journalism, not as a ‘country cousin’ to metropolitan media, but a vital communication activity in contemporary Australia.”
refused accommodation in the formal rental market, she said.
“As people are excluded from the formal rental market, they fall to the informal part which is governed by individual private landlords who are least equipped to deal with this group of people.”
The State Government has recently legislated to address regulation of tenancy databases and tenants rights but Dr Adkins said no legislation could
entirely address the way private rental tenure was managed.
She said this was what her research aimed to inform.
“Exhaustive research and data analysis by our QUT research team of Patricia Short, Elspeth Mead and Andrew Peake has helped produce the most detailed data on tenure management impacts of tenancy databases in the country,” Dr Adkins said.
Second year student and would-be fashion journalist Caroline Attwood – undertaking the new fashion journalism unit this semester
The news is good for QUT journalism students
Aspiring rural jour nalist and third–year journalism student Grant Robertson said he was looking forward to heading back to the bush when he fi nished his degree.
From Guyra, near Armidale in northern News South Wales, Grant said he had already tasted work on a country paper and loved it.
“It was really satisfying to work in a close knit community that really values its local newspaper,” Grant said.
“ I know it will be challenging too, because there’s a lot of pressure for media to not only succeed, but survive in rural areas,” he said.
In shar p contrast, second–year fashion student Caroline Attwood has her sights on a high-fl ying career in the world’s fashion capitals – and is using QUT’s new fashion journalism subject as a launching pad.
Continues page 3
Queensland University of Technology Newspaper Issue 237 August 26 - September 15, 2003
By Mechelle Webb
QUT’S Science Dean has called for plastic bags to be taken off the endangered list, despite moves to rid Australian supermarkets of the
“dangerous” non-biodegradable bags by 2008.
Professor Graeme George has challenged others to come up with a better mass method of getting the groceries home and said the Greens’ proposal of a 25 cent plastic bag levy would do little to stop people dumping bags in the wrong places.
Professor George said that, for their given purpose, plastic bags were hard to beat.
The polymer expert said irresponsible people were the problem, not the plastic.
“Do we ban everything that people misuse?” he asked.
“The issue is: What are you going to replace it with? …You’ve got a material with very good properties but people abuse it.”
Although many of the nation’s plastic bags end up in waterways, the ocean and other environmentally- unfriendly places, Professor George said many people did the right thing and reused their bags for rubbish and other purposes.
“In many cases a plastic bag is used fi ve or six times before it’s discarded,”
he said.
“My wife takes her own bags when she goes to the supermarket.”
Save plastic bags from extinction: academic
P r o f e s s o r George said technolog y was available for mak ing plastic shopping bags deg rade in compost – but that this added to the cost of
People are the problem, not plastic bags, says Dean of Science, Professor Graeme George
the bag.
“This would be a better approach than either banning traditional bags or placing a levy on them to reduce consumption,” he said.
The Federal Government is part-way through a Senate inquiry into plastic bag waste and a possible levy, but this month said the levy now seemed unlikely. Instead, Environment Minister David Kemp and the Australian Retailers Association plan to cut bag use by 50 per cent by 2005, and phase them out completely over fi ve years.
Australians lug home more than six billion plastic bags a year, with more than half of those originating from supermarkets. The proposal to reduce usage over the next couple of years hinges on supermarkets convincing their staff to pack more into each bag they hand over to shoppers.
But hardware retail giant Bunnings has taken up the levy idea and will introduce a 10 cent levy on all its plastic bags from September 15. All money raised will go to Keep Australia Beautiful coffers for environmental campaigns.
A word from the Vice-Chancellor
Better opportunities for school-leavers
ONE of the welcome initiatives of the Federal Government’s higher education reform package is the commitment to provide 25,000 fully-funded university places from 2005, to replace the current levels of partially-funded over-enrolment in the sector.
Obviously the fi nal distribution of these places will be of great interest to all universities, to state gover nments and to the wider community.
State and federal ministers have agreed to work together to try to develop a realistic and fair mechanism for the allocation of these places, and have invited all publicly funded higher education institutions to contribute to this process.
QUT will be actively participating in this endeavour, which initially will be considering the most appropriate models for the national distribution of university places.
The process is not intended at this stage to be an institutional bid for places.
However, in addressing the basic concepts that should underpin a model of fair distribution, QUT – along with other players – will be able to put forward a strong argument based on population growth in Queensland, especially in
the 15 to 19 year age cohort in the south-east of the State, for higher education places.
For its part, QUT will be reaffirming our commitment to providing additional places for school-leavers across a range of disciplines.
We are sensitive to the fact that the very strong demand for our courses, coupled with the broader demographic picture, means that high-performing school-leavers have experienced increasing diffi culty in accessing the course of their choice at QUT.
Over the next few years we will be making a deliberate effort to improve those opportunities for such school-leavers.
The proposed reforms also target the areas of nursing and teacher education as requiring particular support, and QUT’s commitment to these areas will reflect the Gover nment’s deter mination to assist students wishing to pursue careers in either of these professions.
Professor Peter Coaldrake Vice-Chancellor
By Greg Davis
DEVELOPING a mathematical model to improve the understanding and treatment of cancer has helped a QUT PhD student land a dream job at a prestigious research institute in the United States.
Mathematics PhD candidate Robyn Araujo will begin work early next year at the National Cancer Institute in Washington DC.
Ms Araujo said the chance to work with some of the world’s best scientists was an amazing opportunity.
“I’ll be working alongside some great researchers, using some of the best facilities available so it is a fantastic opportunity to take my research to the next level,” she said.
“They are doing a lot of different k inds of research in cancer over there. I’ve been using mathematical modelling to study cancer and they are interested in having another mathematician work with them to assist in their research.
“There are two aspects to my research, one aspect is how it can help therapies but the other aspect is gaining a better understanding of how tissues develop and the biology of tumours
… mathematics has the potential to contribute to both aspects.”
Ms Araujo is studying tissue mechanics and how mechanical stresses evolve in tumour tissue as it grows, and how these stresses can induce vascular collapse.
She said the research was vital to anti- cancer therapy because when blood vessels collapsed, the effectiveness of therapy was compromised, as it was diffi cult to get the anti-cancer drugs into the tumours.
“I’ve been able to use mathematical techniques to understand a little better how these stresses evolve in tissue and why that might be happening.
“If we understand that better,
Maths student scores well with plum US research job
MORE than a dozen QUT academics represented the university at a highlight of the recent National Science Week.
The senior members of staff from the Faculties of Science, Health, Education, Information Technology, Business, and Built Environment and Engineering were selected to attend the “Queensland Science in Parliament” event at Parliament House in Brisbane.
“Queensland Science in Parliament”
is designed to bring politicians and scientists together so they can gain a better understanding of how they can support each other to create a prosperous economy and vibrant society.
The QUT staff invited to the day-long event included: Dr Rossen Halatchev, Associate Professor Jan
Scientists have their say in Parliament
Lovie-Kitchin, Associate Professor John Bell, Dr Malcolm Cox, Associate Professor Ray Frost, Dr Har jeet Khanna, Associate Professor Michael Rosemann, Adjunct Professor Margaret Steinberg, Dr Zee Upton, Dr Viktor Vegh, Dr James Watters, Dr Geoffrey Will and Adjunct Professor David Wyatt.
Nobel Laureate, Professor Peter Doherty, was the guest speaker on the day.
National Science Week ran from Saturday, August 16 to Sunday, August 24 and is Australia’s annual celebration of science and technology with universities, schools, science organisations, research centres, businesses and industry organisations all participating in events to thrust science into the spotlight.
we could use these insights to our advantage to approach therapies differently,” Ms Araujo said.
She was offered the job at the National Cancer Institute after being awarded a Conference Fellowship by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to attend the Second MIT Conference on Computational Fluid and Solid Mechanics in the United States in June this year.
Ms Araujo was one of only four
Australians to receive this prestigious fellowship which was awarded to about 100 top young researchers from around the world.
She said she was thrilled to have obtained such a coveted position several months before her PhD was submitted for examination.
“I suppose it’s unusual for people to get a job before they have fi nished their PhD. It’s a pretty exciting time,”
Ms Araujo said.
By Carmen Myler
THEY’RE barely in their 20s and they haven’t graduated from university yet but the QUT students behind biobusiness development company Genero are already working on a project with Australian Red Cross Blood Service which could impact on pregnant women around the country.
Genero is a group of 10 second-, third- and final-year students from QUT’s Bachelor of Biotechnology Innovation, a course started four years ago in an effort to produce a generation of money-smart scientists.
The fi rst cohort of students will graduate from the course at the end of the year but will already have gained experience in running their own start-up companies, such as Genero, through the course’s “bioindustries”
program which links students to
Students mix science with business
industry to undertake real projects.
Executive coordinator of Genero Yoko Asakawa said the company was working with Australian Red Cross Blood Service to develop a commercialisation strategy for a patent they hold, in order to recover the annual cost of maintaining the patent for the non-profi t organisation.
“They hold a patent for technology which can genotype the blood type of an unborn baby and determine if it is compatible with the mother’s blood,”
Ms Asakawa said.
“If the blood isn’t compatible, this can lead to haemolytic disease in newborns which causes the mother’s blood to attack the baby’s blood and can result in serious complications and sometimes death.”
Marketing and strategic planner Lahn Straney said as part of the project the students had been conducting a
feasibility study of the Blood Service’s genotyping technology.
“We’re looking at how capable the technology is and investigating other genotyping technologies being used around the world to see if the Blood Service might further develop this technology in Australia,” Mr Straney said.
On graduating, fi nal-year students Ms Asakawa and Mr Straney – along with Douglas Bugden and Aisha Laguerre – will leave the company in the capable hands of students Shakeel Yusuf, David Dobraskievicz, Gaurav Jaggi and Leo Huang, who will continue to work with industry on biobusiness projects.
The only course of its k ind in Australia, the Bachelor of Biotechnolog y Innovation has received $1.6million in Federal and State Government funding.
Money-smart biotechnology innovation students – working with Australian Red Cross Blood Service PhD student Robyn Araujo
From page one
N I N T E E N – y e a r - o l d Caroline is part of new breed who, rather than shunning the lighter side of news, is determined to become a serious fashion journalist.
“The notion that fashion is not important is nonsense,” Caroline said, when gently challenged about her career choice.
“Fashion brings together ideas of style, attitude, image, private life and consumption into the so-called
‘serious’ end of the news business.
“It is a vehicle for change and fashion journalism is a voice for that change.”
Caroline is currently undertaking Creative Industries’ new fashion journalism unit, a course addition that was hailed by some of the nation’s leading fashion writers at an international fashion conference recently held in Brisbane.
Creative Industries Dean Professor John Hartley said fashion and lifestyle journalism had always been viewed suspiciously compared to news journalism.
“However, with the drift towards interactive media and the growing popularity of fashion online, this is where the market is moving,”
Professor Hartley said.
“This new course is very timely as it will promote non-news journalism as a proper topic for research, teaching and career, and will say something about the cultural impact of the form.”
Professor Hartley said fashion and style journalism offered career options for journalists, photographers, designers, writers, videographers and fashion specialists.
For more information on how to apply for the rural journalism scholarship or information on fashion journalism, call Creative Industries on 07 3864 1729.
Fashion business is serious business
By Mechelle Webb
FATHERHOOD has been an emotional rollercoaster for Brisbane dad Glenn Daye.
He spent three years work ing from home and jointly caring for his children 24 hours a day, but then didn’t see them at all for three years after a less-than-amicable marriage break-up in 1997.
The fi nance broker and his ex-wife are now on good terms and have a flexible custody arrangement that includes school holiday visits.
He is currently looking after his kids – Cory, 10, and Shelby, 9 – for three months, but they usually live in Rockhampton.
Next month will mark the first Father’s Day he has spent with them for fi ve years.
Mr Daye, who is participating in a QUT research study, said he thought society underestimated how much men could be affected by separation
Dad’s the word for this family unit
By Mechelle Webb
A QUT researcher has launched a study into separated fathers in a bid to help combat depression and the high risk of male suicide.
Helen McKeering, from the Centre for Health Research - Public Health, said there had been little research done into how men were affected by separation from their kids, despite many studies on the effects of separation on mothers and children.
She said Father’s Day, which falls on September 7 this year, was one of the toughest times for men to be without their children.
“Often their children are with another father (the ex-wife’s new partner) … that’s very hard for them to take on days like Christmas Day and Father’s Day,” she said.
Ms McKeering has conducted a preliminary study with 27 fathers but now needs to fi nd 200 separated dads from around Queensland to help her research project.
She hopes the results will be used to guide health promotion programs and help fathers to better adjust to new family situations and work out the best post-divorce arrangements.
The psycholog y and teaching graduate, who is also a medical education off icer for Queensland Health, has also constructed a grief scale in a bid to measure men’s emotions.
“For separated fathers, the loss of satisfactory contact with children may result in unresolved grief,” she said.
“This grief may be associated with an elevated risk of suicide which, in Australia, is six times higher for separated men than for married men.
“Stressors include loss of income, loss of family, breakdown of social networks, change in housing, and ongoing confl ict with the ex-spouse.”
Ms McKeering urged fathers who were depressed after marriage break- downs to seek help from a counsellor – particularly around trigger times like Father’s Day.
She said just because men didn’t always show obvious signs of emotions, didn’t mean they weren’t feeling them.
“Men often show their love through
Study to unlock how
fathers handle isolation
doing things, rather than talking about it,” she said.
“When a man says to his wife ‘Of course I love you – didn’t I just wash your car?’, he’s not being facetious, he means it.”
The researcher said fathers who were separated from their children
Finance broker Glenn Daye at home in Brisbane with his children, 10 year-old Cory and 9 year-old Shelby, with whom he will share this Father’s Day for the fi rst time in fi ve years
QUT attracts infl ux of Taiwan nurses to Kelvin Grove
from their children.
He said no longer being a permanent part of his k ids’ lives had been horrendous at fi rst and that he had been acutely aware of what he was missing during the three-year loss of contact.
“It really did wreck your whole mental attitude toward life and put your brain in a different spin,” he said.
“It was pretty hard … you often wonder how they are doing and you miss the milestones. But the kids still knew me and had photos of me.”
He said the separations had become easier as time went on.
“You never fully adjust, I don’t think,” he said.
“You’ve just got to make the best of the situation you’ve got.”
Mr Daye said the best part of being a dad was the love and affection that was exchanged with the children.
“They love you unconditionally and you try to give that back,” he said.
Health researcher Helen McKeering is seeking 200 separated dads to help with her research project
Attracted by the excellent reputation of QUT’s School of Nursing, some 20 Taiwanese research students have arrived, or applied, to join the school this year
had less time to do things for them to show they cared, which increased feelings of isolation and loss.
Ms McKeering needs to fi nd 200 separated dads with a child or children under 18 to be part of her survey.
Contact her on 07 3321 0151 or [email protected]
By Carmen Myler
CROSS-cultural understanding for nurses will be greatly enhanced by the work of more than 10 Taiwanese research students joining QUT’s School of Nursing this year.
Half of the PhD and masters students have come from the National Taipei College of Nursing with whom the school has developed close links over the past fi ve years.
According to the school’s director of research Professor Mary Courtney, another 10 students from around Taiwan had already applied for entry into research programs and a “pipeline”
effect would see at least another fi ve PhD students from Taiwan joining the school annually.
“Such a large number of students from Taiwan are attracted to QUT’s School of Nursing because we offer an individualised PhD program which allows students to undertake their studies using a mix of external and internal study,” she said.
“As the majority of these students are lecturers in nursing in Taiwan, this multi-modal structure enables them to balance their study commitments with busy work and family commitments.”
For Shiu-Yun (Kimberley) Fu, the
decision to do her PhD research through QUT was fuelled by a desire to undertake a cross-cultural study into the mid-life experiences of men and women.
“I want to examine the differences and similarities in the culture and values between Australian and Taiwanese people in their mid-life health and wellbeing, and their perceptions of mid-life events,” said Ms Fu, who also has a masters from QUT.
Ms Fu said that such studies were significant because the increasing fl exibility of world travel and a global population was presenting more opportunity for nurses to interact with other cultures.
Fellow PhD student Shou-Yu (Cindy) Wang is undertak ing her study into decision-mak ing by Taiwanese cancer patients and the use of complementary and alternative medicines.
She said that, although she was not undertaking cross-cultural research, she wanted to come to QUT for her PhD research because the university has a “good reputation” in cancer nursing education.
“I spend six months in Taiwan and then travel back here,” Ms Wang said.
By Greg Davis
QUT graduate Angela Tottey has had no reservations about telling the world where she went to university and where her business degree is taking her.
Well, almost.
As the star of the latest QUT advertising campaign, the employee of surf giant Billabong has been heavily featured on prime time television commercials, full-colour newspaper advertisements and dozens of prominent bus shelters.
Angela was more than happy to be a part of the campaign and has been delighted with the feedback she has received since it got underway. However at the recent mid- year social function for Billabong staff, the exposure all got a little too much.
“We were all watching Australia play
New Zealand at a local bar and in one of the ad breaks the QUT ad came up and there I was on the huge screen as well as all the other TV screens around the place,” she said.
“The place was full of Billabong employees who all knew me, so they all turned around and started pointing and yelling at me and then the screen.
“I nearly died of embarrassment because being in the spotlight like that isn’t usually my style.
“Seriously though, I’m glad I did the ad because it was a great opportunity and I have really enjoyed the whole experience.
“I don’t get embarrassed anymore…
I’ve become far more g racef ul at accepting the recognition and compliments I receive.
“I’m more than happy extolling the virtues of QUT and I’m more than happy extolling the virtues of
By Mechelle Webb
A BRISBANE writer’s f ilm about forbidden love during Australia’s wartime years has won a feature screenplay award at a major festival dubbed “the American Cannes”.
QUT PhD student Cory Taylor received a Columbine Award (non- violent fi lms) at the USA Moondance International Film Festival.
The children’s author (Rat Tales) and television scriptwriter’s next task will be to fi nd an agent and producer to help her fi lm reach the big screen.
The project, titled The Rushworth War, impressed Moondance judges with its tale about an Australian guard and a Japanese woman interned at the Rushworth “enemy alien” camp in Victoria during World War II.
Their story – which has the logline
“In the end, all you remember is who you’ve loved” – is told via fl ashbacks through a parallel love story about the pair’s descendants.
Although her characters are fictitious, Ms Taylor said she had been inspired by true stories about the World War II guards and internees – and her own Japanese love story.
She met her husband – a Japanese artist – while teaching English in a remote town in Japan in 1983, with the pair later facing cross-cultural challenges including trialling living in both countries with their two children.
Now permanent Brisbane residents, Ms Taylor said “writing about what you knew” was often the basis of a good script.
“It’s a cliché, but it’s an absolute golden rule,” she said.
“And if there’s another motive behind my screenplay fi lm, it’s that too many fi lms about Australia are actually about a fairly limited defi nition of our identity – the typical larrikin Aussie bloke, etc.
“My experience of Australia is an utterly different one.
It’s a lot more varied, complicated, and multi-racial. I think fi lm, to be interesting, has to embrace that.”
Ms Taylor said being the recipient of QUT’s Owen J Wordsworth scholarship for postgraduate study had given her the fi nancial freedom to concentrate on The Rushworth War and a second screenplay about a Japanese riches-to-rags tale on the Gold Coast.
“It’s just a tremendous privilege to be able to work in a supportive environment without commercial pressure,’’ she said.
Cory’s
Japanese love affair wins award
Billabong too, it’s a great company to work for.”
Angela graduated in 1999 with a business degree in communications and public relations and is currently completing a Graduate Diploma in Marketing also from QUT.
She started at Billabong a year ago, working exclusively for its sunglass brand Von Zipper and its skate brand Element.
As the assistant to the National Brand Manager, Angela said her duties were wide and varied.
“I make sure all the surfers and skaters we sponsor are decked out in our latest gear as well as coordinating advertising and editorial material for magazines, and a lot of sales and internal reporting,” she said.
“That’s just to name a few of the things I do. There’s always something interesting going on and I can’t see
myself leaving any time soon…it’s my dream job.
“I love the beach and surf lifestyle so this is perfect for me.”
Angela said her phone had been ringing hot since the campaign started and the feedback had been nothing but positive.
“I get a call almost every time the ad is on TV but it has been great because people I haven’t seen for a long time are calling me and we’re getting back in touch,” she said.
“I’m getting a lot of positive feedback with people saying how great the ad is, how fun it is and well put together it is…people really seem to love it.”
“Our CEO saw the ad for the fi rst time during that football match and started introducing me to everyone as
“our TV star” so he’s very happy with the way it turned out.”
Angela rides wave of success
Angela Tottey – a familiar QUT face, making headway in the real world
Award-winning QUT fi lm and TV PhD student Cory Taylor – inspired by her own cross-cultural marriage to Japanese artist Shin Koyama ACADEMICS from QUT, UQ and
Griffi th University have been awarded a $50,000 grant to develop an education network to strengthen the link between law and biology.
QUT’s assistant dean of research in the Faculty of Law, Dr Barbara Hocking, said legal education needed to be broadened to better equip lawyers to deal with the scientifi c challenges now featuring in the law.
She said lear ning about issues including statistical probability, crime- related DNA and even the philosophy of science could be of benefi t.
“It’s important for both sides to understand the ways in which each other communicate,” Dr Hocking said.
“The network will aim to elaborate the legal implications of bio-statistical
Research network to link the law and biology
information in its many applications, from biodiversity as an input in industrial processes to crime-related DNA, to genetic testing in medicine.
“In forensic genetics and conservation biology, bio-statistical analysis can also quantify variables that are often presented only qualitatively in the law.”
Dr Hock ing said legal, ethical and genetic researchers from all over the world, including Sweden, France, Canada and the UK, had already pledged their support for the network.
“The aim is to make Australia a springboard to facilitate rational regional choices, not only between the scientifi c and legal communities but also within civil society,” she said.
The Australian Research Council
Inter national Linkage g rant was awarded to help fund the network, which also includes two key UQ academic members – Associate Professor Hamish McCallum from the School of Life Sciences and Dr Piero Giorgi from the School of Biomedical Sciences.
Dr McCallum said lawyers and the law had diffi culty in understanding biological issues.
“Scientists work from theories whereas lawyers work from case studies,” he said.
“Lawyers have an idea of proof beyond reasonable doubt but are reluctant to quantify uncertainty and doubt as scientists do routinely. This makes it diffi cult to deal with scientifi c evidence.”
The network will foster
interdisciplinary knowledge and communication with the help of other national and international research institutions.
It will cover fi ve main areas: bio- logic and legal-logic; feminism in law and biology; biological governance;
artifi cial intelligence; and bio-security.
Dr McCallum said the network would look at the communication between the disciplines of law and biolog y and the ways in which communication could be made more effective.
“A word that means one thing to lawyers can mean something else to scientists,” he said.
“Good scientists will always qualify what they say and allow for almost any possibility whereas lawyers work on the principal of reasonable doubt.”
David Hawke’s Eyeview
Festival closes bridge
The Goodwill Bridge will be closed to all pedestrians and cyclists from 4pm to 8.30pm on Saturday (August 30) for Brisbane’s Riverfi re event.
The riverbanks next to QUT and opposite will offer some of the best vantage points for the annual fi reworks spectacle.The bridge will also be closed during the Riverfeast – an outdoor dining event staged at three locations – from 10am Wednesday, September 3, to 5am Thursday, September 4.
Both events are part of the 2003 Riverfestival, which runs from August 29 to September 7.
Talks a big hit
A series of one-night exhibitions at Gardens Point is building up a solid following with some of the leading fi gures in Australian architecture drawing large crowds. More than 200 people a night are attending the “Tuesday Night Talks Series” hosted by the School of Design and Built Environment. Gabriel Poole – one of Australia’s most renowned architects and a recent winner of a QUT Outstanding Alumni Award – will be the centre of attention at the next event on Tuesday, August 26.
The “Tuesday Night Talk Series” exhibitions are held in lecture theatre D101 from 6pm. For more information phone 3864 2670 or visit www.dbe.bee.qut.edu.au
University funding conference
The increasing challenge of
funding universities will be the focus of the fi rst University Advancement Conference to be held in Australasia. QUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Coaldrake will offi cially welcome guests to day one of the conference at Rydges Southbank tomorrow (August 27). The conference will focus on current issues facing fundraising and alumni professionals. UCLA’s Assistant Vice-Chancellor, Keith Brant, has fl own in from the United States to be part of the guest speaker line- up and will discuss alumni relations.
Ex-staff maintain links
Working at QUT is a hard bug to get out of your system. But now a new club is enabling former staff members to keep their ties with the university and old colleagues. The Community of Former Staff of QUT has just celebrated its fi rst birthday. Its primary aims are to provide fellowship and social activities for former staff within the context of the current QUT community. Their next event is a visit to the QUT Art Museum on September 12.
For details, call 3864 2950 or e-mail [email protected]
Alumni business club
The new Brisbane Executive Club (BEC) is up and running, having just elected its fi rst executive committee. A Chapter of QUT Alumni specifi cally for students and alumni of the Brisbane Graduate School of Business, the BEC aims to enhance the university experience of students and alumni. Contact Mary Henley on 3864 4499 or [email protected] for more information.
In Brief...
THE eagle clearing King George Square of annoying ibis birds has stretched its wings to include the City Botanic Gardens in its swoop.
And that’s good news for QUT, which often receives unwelcome visits from food-snatching ibis.
The glutinous birds are also guilty of fouling the university’s pedestrian walkways, seats and buildings.
But Brisbane City Council has combated the lack of competition from other birds by hiring Paul Mander and his native wedge-tailed
eagle, Soren, to scare away the ibis.
Soren’s presence – on and off – has successfully reduced numbers of the gangly white bird in King George Square, and looks set to do the same in the Botanic Gardens.
The eagle’s garden visits began this month, creating an interesting lunchtime spectacle for nearby university students and staff.
The council hit upon the idea of recruiting Soren following similar attempts to scare away ibis at landmarks including Cardiff ’s
Millennium Stadium.
But he’s not the f irst animal employed in a bid to reduce CBD ibis numbers.
Campus Services at Gardens Point recruited a stuffed toy tiger – which was wedged into a tree overhanging Main Drive – a couple of years ago that met with some success.
And ibis fans need not worry that the new scare tactic will endanger the problem birds.
According to his handler, Soren is all bark and no bite.
Soren strikes again
Paul Mander and Soren, a wedge-tailed eagle, at the City Botanic Gardens. Mr Mander’s business, “Broadwings,”
has been contracted to rid ibis from community areas in Brisbane
FedSat reaches sky- rocketing success
By Greg Davis
SYSTEMS developed by QUT-based researchers for the FedSat satellite have passed with fl ying colours, with Australia’s fi rst venture into space in more than 30 years proving to be a resounding success.
Australia re-entered the “space race” in December last year when the FedSat micro-satellite was launched in Japan after five years of development by the Cooperative Research Centre for Satellite Systems (CRCSS).
FedSat can lay claim to being the most successful satellite in Australia’s history as its eight-month stay in space so far has easily surpassed the two previous efforts that spent a combined total of fi ve months in orbit.
QUT researchers developed both the high- performance computing device and the global positioning system (GPS) for FedSat that have the potential to help improve regional surveillance and telecommunications, weather forecasting and satellite computer technology.
CRCSS Queensland Node Director and Professor of Electrical Engineering at QUT Miles Moody said his team was delighted with the results so far.
“We are very happy with how it is all going. More than fi ve years of work went into the project so it is extremely rewarding to see that it is doing its job,”
Professor Moody said.
“Our next challenge is gaining data for other purposes such as meteorology analysis, positioning experiments and proving the computing technology.”
He said the GPS receiver was fully operational and could predict three days out where the satellite would be within a 100 metre radius.
The high-performance computing device is also fully operational on-board FedSat and has met with the high expectations of researchers.
Professor Moody said it had already dynamically reconfi gured itself to correct radiation induced errors, considered to be the fi rst time such a function has been performed in space.
“We are getting new data from the high performance computing payload specifi c to its own health, so it is effectively doing a bit of naval gazing at the moment.
The payload can diagnose faults caused by radiation and can then repair itself by reconfi guring its own computing elements”, he said.
It has also been remotely reconfi gured using newly uplinked confi guration fi les and has successfully processed data as anticipated for specifi c applications such as disaster warning.
FedSat is expected to be operational for three years and should orbit the Earth for almost a century.
As part of the CRCSS, QUT researchers worked in conjunction with the CSIRO, University of South Australia, University of Technology Sydney, University of Newcastle, Auspace Ltd and Vipac Engineers and Scientists.
The efforts of QUT researchers have been rewarded with the outstanding success of FedSat
By Rebekah Van Druten TEN hard-working QUT journalism students recently embarked on a three-week trip to the European Union hoping to learn the ins and outs of what it is like to be an international news correspondent.
The tour group of Sam Edmonds, Vicki Efthivoulou, Kylie Hodge, Georgia Macmillan, Sabine Miranda, Elena Paredes, Rosie Purnell, Grant Roberts, Georg ia Royle and Rebekah Van Druten travelled to France, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium where they attended briefings on current issues at several major European institutions.
As part of the program they sent broadcast and print reports and features back to QUT news outlets – “Europe Special Report” programs on radio 4EB-FM; Briz 31 community TV; and the in-house publications, Communique online and print.
Among many other commitments, interviews and brief ing sessions took place at the Deutsche Beuse (the company currently running the expanded Frankfurt Stock Exchange), the Council of Europe at Strasbourg and
Journalism students travelled to Europe for real-world media experience – pictured on tour at Grand Place, Brussels (l-r) Rebekah Van Druten, Rosie Purnell, Elena Paredes, Kylie Hodge and Dale Roberts
Journalism students on European tour of duty
the European Parliament in Brussels.
The students took part in the daily media conference of the European Commission at Brussels, which is the home of the world’s biggest accredited media cor ps with close to 2,000 journalists listed.
The group also attended the daily editorial conference of the International Herald Tribune in Paris and a media briefi ng with former Federal minister Gareth Evans at the International Crisis Centre in Brussels.
Journalism lecturer Dr Lee Duffi eld mapped out the prog ram and led the students on the trip that was the third overseas reporting venture organised by QUT following previous trips to Asia.
“It is forced learning because the students are divorced from all of the normal background knowledge and security of home, so they need to really concentrate on the demands of the story,” Dr Duffi eld said.
“Our students are able to meet international standards very well and with the right study opportunities and practice will have an assured future in world media”.
Don’t buy socks ever again until you read this ...
If you are ready to experience real thrills, then we are looking for you. Yes!....you drive! This experience brings you extremely close to what few are able to experience in racing V8 Supercars. Our Race Experience programme will give you the opportunity to drive a V8 powered race car on Australia’s newest FIA standard race track.
FREE Gift Pack for all Father’s Day Orders
Call Now! Strictly Limited Numbers! Only $199!
Freeman Experience Call 1300 132 906 www.freemanX.com.au
By Greg Davis
IT took a world record performance to deny QUT student Paul Harpur a gold medal at the Blind Sports World Athletics Championships in Canada earlier this month.
The Law masters student ran a personal best time of 54.34 seconds in the fi nal of the B1/B2 (blind and vision impaired) 400 metre event to claim a silver medal behind Angola’s Jose Sayo Armando who smashed the world record on his way to victory.
Har pur’s outstanding effort in Quebec was the culmination of excellent lead-up form with the sprinter lowering his personal best time for the 400 metres on three separate occasions in warm-up meets in July.
It was Har pur’s f irst medal at world championship level and he was unlucky not to add to the tally.
The Queensland Academy of Sport athlete also set a new personal best time in reaching the 200 metre semi- fi nals.
He was considered a very strong
Paul Harpur – a champion on and off the fi eld. Besides being ranked one of the fastest blind runners in the world, Paul has completed a combined Law and Business Degree and is now studying a Masters of Laws and a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice at QUT
Paul blitzes blind games
QUT’s Singaporean students are probably only just starting to recover from their biggest party month of the year.
Three celebrations were held in the past three weeks to mark Singapore’s national day on August 9 – the National Day Fair on campus, a Hilton Hotel dinner hosted by the Singapore Club of Queensland, and the National Day Dance Party at Dome.
About 800 students from Singapore study at QUT – the university’s largest international group.
Singapore Students Association president Cheryl Leong, whose organisation coordinated the fair and dance party, said the fair had been a fi rst and should return next year.
She said the association was growing in numbers, with membership now at 300.
And while studying in a different country can present a world of opportunities, being away from home also has its challenges.
“It’s a real growth experience for everyone,” Ms Leong said.
“They have to rely on themselves because their families aren’t here – that’s why the club is so important. We’re here basically as a support network.”
Ms Leong, who finishes her combined Business-Law degree this semester, said QUT was one of the most popular university choices in Australia for students from Singapore.
She said studying and living in relaxed Brisbane was a great option.
“It’s like a big holiday,” she said, with a laugh.
Campus culture party for QUT Singapore student community
By Mechelle Webb
IF Shakespeare had owned a TV, he’d be tuning into Big Brother.
So says QUT media expert – and avid Big Brother fan – John Hartley, who believes Big Brother’s producers have created a modern-day version of Shakespeare.
He argues that the English playwright was another cultural icon loved by the masses, who copped plenty of fl ak in his day for his popular – but sometimes risqué – body of work … and was not fully recognised until long after he was buried.
Professor Hartley, Dean of Creative Industries, presented a research paper on the topic recently and came out swinging at Big Brother critics who dismiss the popular series as trash.
Instead, he labels it a “how-to” guide for citizenship – and one of the best tools available to today’s youth to learn how to mix with one another in sticky situations.
“It’s teaching people to get on with each other in a domestic environment,’” he said.
“Big Brother is a lesson in citizenship. I think it’s one of the better-imagined of all reality television shows – it’s about life in a recognisable situation.”
And Professor Hartley is not the only one who thinks people should be taking a leaf out of the Big Brother book.
British academic Stephen Coleman, in his paper Tale of Two Houses, suggests England’s politicians could learn some lessons from his country’s version of the show.
He highlights the popularity gap between young people voting out a housemate in a dialling and clicking frenzy and their apathetic voting turn-out during political elections.
Although Professor Hartley is not calling on Australia’s youth to “evict” their politicians from parliament, he said Big Brother offered plenty of lessons for us too.
“People are starting to take these entertainment, consumer-voting type formats seriously,’’ he said. “I think people will see the quality of Big Brother (in the future) in relation to what it’s doing for its own society.”
Professor Hartley’s new paper, Kiss Me Kat: Shakespeare, Big Brother and the Taming of the Self, will be published later this year in a book on reality TV: Startling! Heartbreaking!
Real! Reality TV and the Re-Making of Television Culture (edited by Susan Murray and Laurie Ouellette and published by New York University Press).
Big Brother labelled a
modern-day Shakespeare
Latest Big Brother winner Reggie (Regina Bird), the fi sh and chips shop worker who, like many of Shakespeare’s characters, won the hearts of a nation. But is her value to society yet to be really appreciated, asks Professor John
Hartley Photo: AAP Image
About iNSiDE QUT
Inside QUT is published by QUT’s Corporate Communication Department. Our readership includes staff, students and members of the QUT community. This paper is also circulated to business, industry, government and the media.
Letters to the editor are welcome. Email [email protected] or mail Janne Rayner, Inside QUT, GPO Box 2434, Brisbane, Qld, 4001. Corporate Communication is located at Room 501, Level 5, M Block, at Gardens Point.
Opinions expressed in Inside QUT do not necessarily represent those of the university or the editorial team.
Janne Rayner (editor) 07 3864 2361
Greg Davis 07 3864 1841
Carmen Myler 07 3864 1150
Mechelle Webb 07 3864 4494
Tony Phillips (Photography) 07 3864 5003 Stacey Lorraway (Advertising) 07 3864 4408
Fax 07 3864 9155
Celebrating Singapore National Day on August 9 at QUT was (l-r) Debbie Ng, Khuirman Johari and Naz Khamin
medal chance but unfortunately had to withdraw after his guide runner fell ill.
He will now concentrate on next year’s Paralympics in Athens as he has recorded qualifying times for both the 200 metre and 400 metre events.
Harpur – who also represented Australia at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics and 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester – recorded another personal best in the 100 metres in Canada but was not able to reach the fi nal rounds.
Meanwhile, the QUT Student Guild Cup Road Race has been won by Law student Sean Moynihan who completed the demanding course around the Kelvin Grove campus in just over six and a half minutes.
Last year’s winner Justin Hogg fi nished in second place 15 seconds behind Moynihan while the women’s race was easily won by Margot Manning, representing the Faculty of Health, with Fiona Quarterman in second place.
THE QUT Centre for Rugby Studies has played host to the fi rst international rugby union team to do battle on the hallowed turf of Suncorp Stadium.
QUT took the Japanese Schoolboys team under its wing for a week prior to its historic clash against Metropolitan Brisbane that was the curtain raiser to the recent test match between Australia and South Africa.
QUT coordinated all of the team’s arrangements during the Brisbane leg of its Australian tour including accommodation, transport, day trips to the Sunshine Coast, a guided tour of Suncorp Stadium and training facilities.
The Japanese tourists spent the week training at Ballymore and the
Rugby studies forges international links
thorough preparation paid dividends for the visitors.
They enjoyed a comprehensive victory over Metropolitan Brisbane that continued their successf ul tour of Australia that also included matches in North Queensland, Noosa and Sydney.
The hosting arrangement marked another signifi cant step in the Centre’s growing relationship with Japanese rugby.
Head of the QUT School of Human Movement Studies Professor Tony Parker met with Japan Rugby Union Vice-President Hiroshi Hibino during the team’s week-long stay in Brisbane to discuss future joint opportunities.
