July 2010 - Swinburne University of Technology

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www.swinburne.edu.au Vanishing plastics P12 Electric cars start to rev P6 swinburne JULY 2010 Contents ISSUE 10 | JULY 2010 People power from gran’s gift P16 Network man The mathematics of consumer protection 06 08 UPFRONT 2 EDUCATION’S ROLE IN DRIVING SUSTAINABILITY Swinburne University of Technology’s sense of responsibility in preparing tomorrow’s leaders for the challenges of a rapidly changing, interconnected world means we are embracing a broad concept of sustainability, one that includes interrelated environmental, socio-cultural and financial dimensions. We recognise that students, businesses and our communities need to be equipped to embrace important issues as they emerge – and sustainability is one such issue. We are passionate about sustainability and believe that educational institutions are uniquely placed to contribute to the future. We are especially confident that as a dual-sector university we will have a significant role in the future of Australia through our graduates, staff, research, skills development and organisational effectiveness. In late 2009 we developed a university-wide Sustainability Strategy. This embraces and interlinks teaching and learning, research, people development, and the sustainability of our operations and communities. We did not develop this strategy lightly. It will fundamentally change our organisation. Swinburne has a strategic involvement in sustainability with government at all levels, for example through our National Centre for Sustainability’s involvement in implementing the (national) Green Skills Agreement, and with skilling and re-skilling Australia’s workforce to meet industry’s future requirements. Our relationships with industry and our research, which is highlighted in this edition, helps to transform businesses to work successfully in a low-carbon economy. We are making a real difference. We continue to build strong relationships with local government, community groups and schools through programs that support their emerging needs in knowledge, and sustainability skills. These groups are highly influential in changing households and communities, and in developing sustainability leaders and ambassadors for the future. More than 6000 students have already enrolled in sustainability training and more than three-quarters of our staff have key performance indicators based on sustainability. Behavioural change is critical to the success of our strategy; the high level of engagement and commitment across the university and with our partners reinforces the university’s international status as a leader in the sustainability agenda. This edition of Swinburne draws together some of the research and education developments that illustrate Swinburne’s commitment to sustainability and environmental practice. Join us in shaping a better future. LINDA BROWN Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Director, TAFE COVER STORY 04 Switched-on scholar masters the power game The delivery, affordability and reliability of electricity is constantly challenged. Now comes the puzzle of also fitting in new ‘green’ technologies BRAD COLLIS FEATURES 03 WEB TOOL TO GET US TANKED UP KELLIE PENFOLD 06 CAR MAKERS HEAR AN ELECTRIC BUZZ Universities and other research bodies in Victoria are teaming up to put Australia at the forefront of electric car technology BARRY PESTANA 08 FUTURE TRAVELS DOWN A GLASS HIGHWAY Mountains of waste glass that would otherwise go to landfill may soon find a home in Victoria’s roads and footpaths KARIN DERKLEY 09 SLOW LIFTS A LESSON IN STEP-CHANGE KARIN DERKLEY 11 SURPRISE FINDINGS IN BUSINESS CARBON CHASE TIM TREADGOLD 12 H UMBLE SHELLFISH MAY GIVE US ‘VANISHING PLASTIC’ A truly biodegradable plastic made from a renewable resource, arguably one of the more practical wastemanagement goals being pursued around the world, is a step closer through the research of two Australian PhD students CLARISA COLLIS 14 INTERNET POWER MAY NEED COMPUTERS TO SLEEP DAVID ADAMS 16 HOW GRAN’S GIFT TURNED SUNLIGHT INTO PEOPLE POWER This Swinburne student actually has a lot to teach, after interrupting his studies to build an energy company TIM TREADGOLD 18 OUR CANNIBAL GALAXY In a fascinating new piece of ‘galactic archaeology’ astronomers have found that up to one-quarter of the Milky Way’s galactic clusters are intruders JULIAN CRIBB 20 QUEEN TO VIRAL PAWN Mathematicians are attempting to develop algorithms to solve ‘master equations’ that could one day help biomedicine even the odds against infectious diseases DR GIO BRAIDOTTI 22 AUSSIE AMBITIONS FOR GOURMET TREASURE A Swinburne horticulturalist has travelled to the horticultural and gastronomic home of truffles to help develop truffle growing in Australia KELLIE PENFOLD •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •••• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• 18 22 Published by SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Editorial coordinator: Julianne Camerotto, Communications Manager (Research and Industry), Marketing Services, SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, Melbourne The information in this publication was correct at the time of going to press, July 2010. The views expressed by contributors in this publication are not necessarily those of Swinburne University of Technology. Written, edited, designed and produced on behalf of SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY by CORETEXT, www.coretext.com.au, +61 3 9670 1168 SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY John Street (PO Box 218), Hawthorn, Victoria, 3122, Australia CRICOS provider Code 00111D ISSN 1835-6516 (Print) ISSN 1835-6524 (Online) Enquiries: +61 3 9214 8000 Website: www.swinburne.edu.au/magazine Email: magazine@swinburne.edu.au eSubscribe to Swinburne magazine: www.swinburne.edu.au/magazine/subscribe Cover photo: Paul Jones The International Association of Business Communicators awarded Swinburne magazine a 2010 Gold Quill Merit Award.
JULY 2010 swinburne WEB TOOL TO GET US tanked up STORY BY Kellie Penfold DR MONZUR IMTEAZ is a glass-half-empty kind of chap. He’s not being unduly negative, he just sees wasted opportunity in not being able to fill to the top. In particular he recoils at the thought of half-empty rainwater tanks, or worse, tanks that can’t hold any more water, just because there’s no simple tool to help people better match storage with catchment. Water is again becoming our most precious resource – as it used to be when Australians better understood the realities of living on the world’s driest continent – and collecting urban water, in particular, is likely to become crucial for our fast-growing towns and cities. Dr Imteaz’s interest in the re-emerging popularity of rainwater tanks – which for a period were actually banned by some municipalities – stems from his research at Swinburne University of Technology’s Centre for Sustainable Infrastructure, where he specialises in the development of stormwater as a resource. This under-used water source and the commercial, rather than scientific, approach to capturing it is driving Dr Imteaz to develop a number of simple tools, building on the STORMKIT system he has already developed, to analyse and design stormwater systems. “House tanks are a good example. People want to catch the stormwater collected on their own roofs, but tanks are often installed with little or no planning as to whether they are the right size. There are plenty of tanks that will never fill and there are plenty that are too small to capture all the water which is available,” Dr Imteaz says. He says engineers and managers dealing generally with water and drainage matters either use tedious manual calculations or sophisticated, large, data-dependent programs to perform stormwater analysis and design. The advantages of a tool such as STORMKIT are its accuracy and simplicity. STORMKIT was presented and demonstrated at the 32nd Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium, held in Newcastle in November 2009, and is now available to water managers and other users. Dr Imteaz is now developing an internetbased tool to help householders establish PHOTO: PAUL JONES Across Australia householders are installing rainwater tanks … without any handy way to calculate the optimum tank size. Swinburne researcher, Dr Monzur Imteaz, has set out to rectify this. rainfall capture capacity which, with suitable funding to help develop the website, could also be available this year. Corporate and local government stakeholders regularly employ consultants to analyse the potential water catchment in urban projects, but Dr Imteaz feels that this information – often obtained at a high price – is subsequently used by just a few people, whereas a web-based tool would be available to everyone and could be used over and over again. Using information such as contributing catchment size, tank volume, geographic location, weather conditions and the water’s intended use, his proposed calculation tool will determine the volume of water likely to be captured each year according to different rainfall scenarios. He notes that historic rainfall figures are not much help any more. “If you look at Melbourne, it was 650 millimetres for 70 or 80 years. Yet for the past 12 years it has been 360 to 630mm. Therefore, water storages are subject to high rainfall, average rainfall and below-average rainfall.” Near his office on the university’s Hawthorn campus are two large rainwater tanks with which Dr Imteaz has put his theory into practice, establishing their effectiveness and payback period. Applying his calculations to the capture area, he was able to measure by how much one tank was too large to readily fill, and the extent to which the other was too small to capture all available rainfall. The point Dr Imteaz makes is that better analysis and design before constructing such facilities would significantly improve their effectiveness and cost-benefit. Initially, the proposed tool is for stormwater capturing analysis for impervious roofs only. But it can be extended for pervious surfaces (such as golf courses and playing fields) by incorporating soil loss parameters. While the complete development of the proposed tool depends on the success of getting funds from relevant authorities, Dr Imteaz is moving his focus to fog water – to see what value there would be in harvesting moisture created during foggy weather conditions. •• CONTACT. . Swinburne University of Technology 1300 275 788 magazine@swinburne.edu.au www.swinburne.edu.au/magazine Key points Swinburne’s Dr Monzur Imteaz is developing simple tools to analyse and design stormwater systems. His proposed calculation tool will determine the volume of water likely to be captured each year according to different rainfall scenarios. SUSTAINABILITY 3
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July 2010 - Swinburne University of Technology

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