R&D

summer 2010

precision expertise

Cultural studiesHow you play the game

Applied economicsAustralian markets: safe as houses?

Health sciencesGood news in green tea leaves

New frontiers for spatial sciences

tHe mAGAzine of tHe office of ReseARcH AnD Development

cuRtin’s ReseARcHstRenGtHsCurtin is renowned for practical research that solves real-world problems. Curtin’s four areas of research strength that serve to focus our endeavours are:

the Australian sustainable Development institute (AsDi) combines scientific research, engineering and social science in its focus on three key challenges for sustainable development: energy, water and coastal zone management. AsDi brings together the expertise of 16 research centres to tackle issues linked with climate change, diminishing resources and population growth.

curtin is the most comprehensive provider of health sciences research in Western Australia. our expertise in population health, ageing, chronic disease, indigenous health and mental health is applied through the curtin Health innovation Research institute, which aims to produce new models of health care that address the changing needs of Australian communities.

curtin’s ict research continues to grow at the institute for multi-sensor processing and content Analysis, and the Digital ecosystems and Business intelligence institute. the Department of spatial sciences undertakes world-class research in geodesy, Giscience and remote sensing. ict also underpins curtin’s work in emerging technologies, such as research in nanotechnology at the Western Australian nanochemistry Research institute.

curtin supports Australia’s key industry sector with high-impact research and development in areas such as mining, engineering and chemistry. to this end, the curtin Resources and chemistry precinct – a $116 million development – is meeting the needs of business and industry.

minerals and energy

Health

sustainable development

ict and emerging technologies

contentsminerals and energy A meeting of minds 2

profile professor samar Aoun 4

public health A good brew 4

cultural studies it’s not just how you play the game 4

spatial sciences precision expertise 6

profile professor Richard oliver 8

Drug and alcohol research House proud 8

ict sign of the times 10

Radio astonomy staring at the stars 10

Q+A professor lance leslie 12

profile Associate professor Jeff charrois 13

Applied economics Risk and mortar 14

commercialisation innovations 2010 16

Higher degrees by research Graduate studies overview 2010 18 Graduate profiles 18

public policy Democratic by design 20

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02

04

This edition of R&D Now introduces to you many of Curtin’s leading research teams who are achieving high-quality outcomes across a range of areas. We highlight the international contribution of research undertaken at the Curtin Institute of Radio

Astronomy, and feature exciting new developments at the GNSS research laboratory led by Curtin’s Professor of Geodesy and Navigation, Peter Teunissen.

Once again, the past year has seen Curtin achieve important initiatives in minerals and energy research for Australia, including a new partnership with the Colorado School of Mines, which will deepen our capabilities in deep-exploration technologies, C02 sequestration and energy economics.

We show why there is a continually increasing demand for the expertise of our Centre for Research in Applied Economics, in profiling the centre’s high-impact research in housing affordability issues and the forecasting of financial risk.

Sustainable development is one of Curtin’s four recognised research strengths. In this edition we document the creative action-research led by Professor Janette Hartz-Karp and a team at the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute, as they explore the transitions to sustainable cities.

We are particularly delighted to be presenting an interview with world-renowned meteorologist Professor Lance Leslie, regarding his work on environmental modelling and planning for climate change. Professor Leslie is joining us from the University of Oklahoma, and his research interests are concerned with atmospheric and oceanic dynamics ranging from the mesoscale to the planetary scale.

At the Centre for Aboriginal Studies, Dr Sean Gorman, one of our Senior Curtin Research Fellows, is leading a collaborative project with the Australian Football League. The research is assessing the AFL’s racial and religious vilification rule to promote community harmony, multiculturalism and reconciliation.

Health sciences research – one of Curtin’s longstanding strengths – is well represented in this edition. We announce some conclusions of an interesting study into the health benefits of green tea, and present a project by the National Drug Research Institute that is gauging the effectiveness of residential detoxification and rehabilitation services for young people.

This edition also illustrates our focus on ICT and emerging technologies, featuring the international work of Professor Ric Lowe from Curtin’s School of Education. His collaboration with the French National Research Institute for Transport and Safety is designing visual communication technologies that will improve public information in complex transport hubs.

Professor Samar Aoun, Director of the WA Centre for Cancer and Palliative Care, is one of this edition’s three researcher profiles. We also introduce Curtin’s Professor of Agriculture, Professor Richard Oliver, and our new Director of the Curtin Water Quality Research Centre, Associate Professor Jeff Charrois.

We are delighted to have this timely opportunity to announce that in November two Curtin researchers received prestigious national awards for their research endeavours. Dr Katherine Trinajstic, from the Western Australian Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre, received the $50,000 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year, at the Parliament House presentation of the 2010 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science. We will we be featuring Dr Trinajstic and her research in our next edition of R&D Now. In Sydney, Professor Colin Binns received the Research Australia Lifetime Achievement Award in honour of his contribution to Australian health and medical research. Professor Binns has been undertaking public health research at Curtin for more than 33 years.

Finally, we would like to acknowledge the late Emeritus Professor John de Laeter (1933–2010) – a physicist, educator and science luminary of international standing. We have recently invited nominations for the John de Laeter Award for Research Leadership, which we trust will provide us with an opportunity to recognise an outstanding research leader at Curtin University and in so doing, honour a treasured colleague and friend.

Professor Jeanette HacketVice-Chancellor

Professor Linda KristjansonDeputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Development

2010 R&D OVERVIEWAt Curtin we are committed to research excellence, and strive to ensure that our research benefits our clients and the wider community. Professor

Linda Kristjanson

Professor Jeanette Hacket

NOWR&D 01

Minerals and energy

The 21st Century Earth Resources Initiative between Curtin and the Colorado School of Mines will involve collaborative research in energy economics for the minerals industry, the availability of strategic metals and minerals, and carbon management – including CO2

sequestration and its environmental and societal impacts.

Research under the new Memorandum of Understanding will also target the development of new technologies for the rapidly expanding tight gas industry, which is emerging globally as a newly identified source of energy.

Another broad area identified for research support is water and the minerals industry. Topics include the nexus between conventional and renewable energy sources, and the technical, economic, environmental and societal considerations of water supplies.

The Curtin Institute of Minerals and Energy (CIME) will coordinate the University’s research activities that fall within the scope of the MOU. Based at Curtin’s new Resources and Chemistry Precinct, CIME is amassing research capabilities that help Australian minerals and oil and gas industries remain profitable and sustainable.

Executive Director of CIME Mr Mark Woffenden said the new link between Curtin and the Colorado School of Mines is a ‘meeting of minds’.

ameeting of mindsMineraLs and energy is a Longstanding researcH strengtH for curtin. WitHin tHis area, tHe university’s acHieveMents over tHe Past year incLude an internationaL agreeMent for coLLaborative researcH to address sustainabiLity cHaLLenges WitHin tHe MineraLs and energy industry.

NOWR&D 03

‘An agreement between two world-class mining research institutions is an acknowledgment that the challenges facing minerals and energy industries are no longer confined as domestic concerns – they now demand international research cooperation,’ Woffenden said.

‘The MOU also illustrates Curtin’s capacity to contribute world-class research to issues in the minerals and energy sectors.’

The Colorado School of Mines’ Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer, Dr John Poate, visited WA to sign the agreement with Curtin.

‘We’re bringing together two leaders in the minerals and energy arena to focus on crucial issues in the minerals and energy space, including the worldwide supply of uranium,’ Poate said.

The expanding uranium mining industry in Australia is an increasing area of research here, and researchers from the Nanochemistry Research Institute at Curtin will be at the forefront through the agreement with Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).

Other Curtin groups involved in MOU projects include the Department of Exploration Geophysics, the Centre of Excellence in Cleaner Production, the Department of Petroleum Engineering and the Centre for Research in Energy and Minerals Economics.

Curtin’s international standing in minerals and energy research is underpinned by the Western Australian School of Mines (WASM), established in 1902. WASM’s research capabilities have continually expanded over the past century, and now encompass mining engineering, mining geomechanics, metallurgy and minerals engineering, exploration geophysics, applied geology, gold technology and spatial sciences. In addition, the Rio Tinto Centre for Materials and Sensing in Mining, based at Curtin’s Bentley Campus, provides unique opportunities for WASM researchers to enhance the most advanced mining systems in the world.

CIME is also destined to be internationally recognised as a hub for research, education and industry service. Launched at Curtin in 2009 by the federal Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson, the institute draws together Curtin’s expertise in chemical and petroleum engineering, petroleum geosciences, safety engineering, environmental health, and energy economics, among other areas.

‘Such extensive capabilities enable Curtin to produce major initiatives to help Australia’s resources industries be a sustainable powerhouse for the national economy,’ Woffenden said.

rcp.curtin.edu.au

wasm.curtin.edu.au/research

Journey to tHe centre of tHe eartH

Australia’s mineral resources contribute 50 per cent of the nation’s exports, yet 80 per cent of production is from deposits discovered

more than 30 years ago. To help address the issue of dwindling supply, in 2009 the federal government established a Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Deep Exploration Technologies.

The CRC aims to develop new technologies able to sample hard-to-reach mineral deposits beneath the regolith layer that covers much of Australia’s land mass. Regolith can extend to a depth of one kilometre, and sample drilling for mineral deposits within and beneath the layer is usually not viable.

Curtin is a core research partner in the CRC, and its researchers have major roles in various programs and projects.

At Curtin’s Department of Exploration Geophysics the broad aim is to improve current seismic exploration techniques and develop new techniques that resolve underground complex geological structures in hard rock environments. Associate Professor Anton Kepic is managing one of the CRC’s three research programs, the data fusion program, which will develop down-hole and on-site surface technologies that enable data acquisition and imaging in real time. Within the deep targeting program, Associate Professor Milovan Urosevic is leading a seismic imaging project that aims to improve the 3D seismic images acquired in hard rock terranes.

In addition, at Curtin’s Department of Petroleum Engineering, Associate Professor Jorge Sampaio is leading a project in next-generation hard-rock drilling systems, as part of the CRC’s drilling technologies program.

CSIRO and the University of Adelaide are also core research partners in the CRC.

www.geophysics.curtin.edu.au

petroleum.curtin.edu.au/research

a good brew

Professor Samar Aoun was appointed Director of the Western Australian Centre for Cancer and Palliative Care (WACCPC) in mid-2008.

The centre’s five research foci are the palliative care needs of special population groups; psychosocial care and quality of life in cancer treatment; chronic disease self-management; health services evaluation; and the palliative approach in aged care.

Since completing her PhD in medical demography at the University of London in 1989, Aoun has specialised in health services research, particularly for disadvantaged population groups. Her work in Australia has informed policy on service planning and the development of support structures for the palliative care community.

At the WACCPC, Aoun has sought to identify under-served populations to bring within the centre’s scope. Her research objectives include how to support family caregivers pre- and post-bereavement; and how best to provide palliative care services for dying people who are living alone, and for patients with neurodegenerative conditions.

With support from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the National Health and Medical Research Council, Aoun is developing a palliative care educational program for health professionals working with people with motor neurone disease (MND), and evaluating dignity therapy as a novel psychotherapeutic intervention for MND patients. The ARC is also supporting her work to implement and evaluate flexible models of palliative care service delivery for terminally ill people living alone at home.

Her leadership in end-of-life care is demonstrated by her role as a founding member of the collaboration between Australia, the UK and Canada on family caregiving research in end-of-life care. Reflecting the growing importance of this area of health research, the ARC recently awarded a Linkage Project grant to Aoun, her international partners and Silver Chain Hospice Care.

Another focus for Aoun is her research program in chronic disease self-management. In particular, her community-based intervention known as ‘the Waist Disposal Challenge’, undertaken with Rotary, is addressing the increasing rate of obesity in men and encouraging them to embrace healthier lifestyles.

Aoun has chaired the WA Country Health Service Research Ethics committee for the past 16 years. Her commitment to improving health and community engagement has earned her several prestigious awards, including the Centenary Medal awarded by the Governor-General in 2003 and a Paul Harris Fellowship awarded by Rotary International in 2008.

supportiveandpalliativecare.org.au

samar aounDirector, Western Australian Centre for Cancer and Palliative Care

Faculty of Health Sciences

Profile Public health

Cultural studies

it’S NOt juSthOW yOu PlAy the gAme

Professor Andy Lee, from the Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, has collaborated with a Japanese

research team and shown that green tea could help prevent urinary incontinence.

The research, soon to be published in the high impact urology journal Neurourology and Urodynamics, was undertaken in Japan by Lee and Dr Fumi Hirayama at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Medicine.

The research team investigated the possible link between the consumption of green tea and urinary incontinence, by interviewing 300 women aged between 40 and 75. While incontinence was a problem for almost 28 per cent of the participants, the results showed that those who drank four or more cups of green tea daily were significantly less likely to suffer from the condition. However, there was no such association with consumption of black tea, oolong tea (a traditional Chinese tea) or coffee.

Lee suggests that green tea contains particular compounds that may be responsible for various health benefits.

‘The difference between green tea and black tea is that the former is a non-fermented product,’ he said. ‘Both teas are produced from the leaves of Camellia sinensis, but green tea has undergone far less oxidation during processing, and it has far less caffeine.’

Of the principal chemical constituents of green tea, epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG, is the most active polyphenol, and previous research has shown EGCG to be mainly responsible for the inhibitory effect of green tea on urinary stone formation.’

While age, gender, obesity and smoking are known to have links with the incidence of urinary incontinence, the new findings suggest that drinking green tea may provide protection against the condition.

‘We would now like to undertake a population-based prospective cohort study to confirm the benefits. But, as part of a preventative strategy, we recommend that women replace their consumption of other beverages, such as coffee, with green tea,’ Lee said.

publichealth.curtin.edu.au

urinary incontinence is a coMMon HeaLtH issue for oLder PeoPLe. tWice as coMMon in WoMen, it can Have a Profound negative effect on tHeir quaLity of Life. HoWever, neW researcH suggests tHat drinKing green tea can HeLP.

a good brew

deterMining tHe effectiveness of tHe afL’s ‘ruLe 30’ WiLL Provide More KnoWLedge about HoW etHnic HarMony and diversity can be acHieved tHrougHout tHe coMMunity.

At Curtin’s Centre for Aboriginal Studies, Dr Sean Gorman is investigating how players and staff in the Australian Football

League understand racism and intolerance as it relates to the AFL’s racial and religious vilification law, ‘Rule 30’. The rule was established in 1995 after footballer Michael Long reported racist remarks by an opposition player.

The research aims to determine the effectiveness of AFL corporate policy on racial and religious vilification, with a view to providing recommendations for further public policy actions.

‘The AFL is one of the largest corporate employers of Indigenous and multicultural Australians, and the implementation of Rule 30 has been the single biggest act of reconciliation by any sporting code in Australian history,’ Gorman said.

‘What we’ll gain, for the first time, will be valuable baseline data from probably the biggest Australian professional sporting organisation about its policies and education programs, which can have national implications across sectors and communities.’

The four-year project is being undertaken with the AFL, the Victorian Multicultural Commission and the AFL Players Association, with support from an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project grant.

About 250 players, coaching and support staff from five AFL clubs from Victoria and Western Australia will participate in the interdisciplinary project.

Participants will be interviewed about their experiences of Rule 30, providing personal histories, emotions, stories and motivations. A social network analysis survey will then measure social processes including attitudes towards prejudice, social identities, social network relations, and other factors such as experience and sporting ability that are known to be relevant to social norms and team hierarchy.

‘A statistical modelling approach will help us to unpack the social processes that drive

how clubs operate and interact in terms of vilification,’ Gorman said.

‘For example, we already recognise there are state-based and cultural differences – some of the Victorian clubs are more than 100 years old, and they’re characterised by distinctive cultural “heritages” that can serve to reinforce embedded norms.

‘Outside of their own clubs, the public status that players have means they can influence racial perceptions, interactions and behaviour throughout the broader community.’

Gorman anticipates that the benefits of the project will include recommendations to develop policy frameworks, cross-cultural training and community capacity-building.

‘The AFL is regarded as a leader and key stakeholder in the promotion of tolerance and understanding within Australian sport. So the development of best practice by the AFL can motivate a top-down influence of understanding and respect into the wider community,’ he said.

‘You could say we’re trying to “crack the code” of the biggest game in town.’

karda.curtin.edu.au

it’S NOt juSthOW yOu PlAy the gAme

NOWR&D 05

Spatial sciences

Precision expertise

tHe austraLian sPace researcH PrograM is encouraging austraLia into a Leading Position in Precision sPace surveiLLance

and navigation tecHnoLogies.

A Curtin research group in global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) is part of a six-member international consortium

developing new geospatial technologies that will help monitor climate change in Australia.

Australian Research Council (ARC) Federation Fellow, Professor Peter Teunissen, heads the Curtin team that is part of the $8 million, three-year initiative. The project, led by RMIT University, is being funded under the Australian Space Research Program, as ‘Platform technologies for space, atmosphere and climate’.

‘It’s an impressive collaboration of Australian and international expertise in space-related research,’ Teunissen said.

‘Our aim is to produce software and system platforms with technologies for precise real-time, in-space tracking, precise orbit determination and satellite positioning.

‘The suite will also include new technologies for monitoring space weather, atmospheric modelling and climate monitoring.’

Teunissen – internationally regarded for his expertise in GNSS data processing – will oversee the Curtin team’s development of

methods and algorithms for the new GNSS technologies. This includes investigating theory and methods to integrate the use of multiple constellations from the next generation GNSS for high-precision positioning and navigation of air-based and space-based platforms.

‘Our goal is to enable fast and reliable ambiguity resolution to make possible very precise real-time kinematic (RTK) remote-sensing platform positioning in space,’ he said.

‘The new space technology program is a vital step towards improving our understanding of climate change in Australia and will play an important role in the way we cope with changes in our environment.’

The capabilities realised by the project will also address some limitations of ground-based meteorological observation stations, which affect the accuracy and reliability of current climate models, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere.

Consortium members also include the University of New South Wales (UNSW), the Bureau of Meteorology, Electro Optic Systems Space System, GPSat Systems Australia Pty Ltd, Taiwan’s National Space Organisation, and the US World Data Centre for Metrology.

Teunissen has also begun working on a second project funded by the Australian Space Research Program. If successful, the research could provide new satellite-based systems for improved monitoring of bushfires, floods, storms, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

The project is an international collaboration in space engineering in the expanding field of satellite earth observation, and involves Curtin; UNSW; Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands; and two industry partners.

Titled ‘Earth environment monitoring using Formation Flying SAR’, the project is investigating whether synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites flying in small formations can enhance real-time environmental monitoring.

Singular SAR satellites are currently used for measuring elevation and biomass. The research will develop the satellite-positional accuracy that is essential for formation flying, and determine the capability of multiple SARs, configured into various formations, to provide more effective environmental monitoring.

geology.curtin.edu.au/research

the gNSS Research laboratory

Since receiving an ARC Federation Fellowship in 2009, Professor of Geodesy and Navigation Peter Teunissen has been building a specialist GNSS research team to work with him on leading-edge national and international projects.

Teunissen’s fellowship has enabled him to appoint 10 researchers, many of whom have left European-based research organisations to join Curtin. Concurrently, Teunissen has been acquiring the scientific instrumentation for a dedicated GNSS

research laboratory within Curtin’s Department of Spatial Sciences.

During 2010 Teunissen was appointed science director of one of three programs of the national Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRC-SI). This Geospatial Positioning program aims to realise a National Positioning Infrastructure that enables instantaneous positioning anywhere, anytime, with the highest possible accuracy and integrity.

NOWR&D 07

Professor Richard Oliver joined Curtin in November 2009. Oliver is known in the agricultural industry for his fundamental research into fungal pathogens

of crop plants – diseases that cost Australian broadacre agriculture more than $2 billion and 20 per cent in yield loss each year.

His work to improve the understanding of how pathogens act typically starts with genome sequencing in the laboratory. He has successfully applied these techniques to determine the mechanisms that cause various necrotrophic fungi to be pathogenic to wheat. Necrotrophic pathogens cause spots, blotches and blights and benefit from the death of host plant tissue.

In 2005, with support from the national Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), he completed breakthrough research in the phenomenon of lateral gene transfer. Oliver identified a particular protein that indicated a gene from Stagonospora nodorum blotch had ‘jumped’ to the tan, or yellow, spot fungus about 90 years ago (when the fungus was first detected in wheat). Tan spot has become the biggest disease in Australian cropping, and the new knowledge has enabled farmers to select resistant cultivars.

The GRDC and the Australian Research Council are supporting his ongoing research into how crop pathogens work. The support has enabled him to determine how the fungi that cause the diseases interact with wheat tissues.

Oliver is also the Director of the Australian Centre for Necrotrophic Fungal Pathogens. As part of his goal to develop sustainable strategies for crop protection, he is working to protect the value of fungicides to growers, which cost farmers $250 million a year.

As Professor of Agriculture, Oliver aims to build research that applies genomic approaches to all wheat, barley and legume pathogens. He will also establish new courses in the School of Agriculture and Environment, in molecular biology and genetics, and plant pathology.

Describing Curtin as ‘a university with a genuine history in and commitment to research and teaching in agriculture’, Oliver anticipates significant growth in the area of molecular and genomic agriculture, and many collaborations with Curtin research teams in the area of agronomy and pathology of crop proteins.

He received his PhD in plant biochemistry from the University of Bristol, UK, in 1982.

acnfp.curtin.edu.au

Profile Drug and alcohol research

hOuSe PROuD

richard oliverProfessor of Agriculture

Faculty of Science and Engineering

Residential detoxification and rehabilitation provides a supervised environment for people seeking to overcome or control substance use, where they can re-acquire everyday behaviours and routines, such as personal hygiene practices and household tasks.

However, there is a lack of rigorous assessment of the effectiveness of residential programs used as a treatment option by young people.

To address this, the Australian Research Council is funding a project that will provide front-line alcohol and other drug (AOD) workers, clinicians and policymakers with a meaningful measure of treatment efficacy, and contribute to evidence-based treatment options.

Professor Sherry Saggers, from the National Drug and Alcohol Institute based at Curtin, is leading the project.

‘The overarching issue is that substance misuse among adolescents in Australia is increasing, and we need new research collaborations to respond to that,’ Saggers said.

‘Our goal is to use applied research that combines the expertise of health researchers, addiction specialists, and staff within residential rehabilitation services, to improve the efficacy of residential services.’

The research will establish and test a qualitative framework and a corresponding assessment instrument for measuring treatment progress. The framework comprises social, emotional and psychological, physical, behavioural, substance use and developmental categories.

Applying what some health researchers consider to be an under-utilised method, ‘narrative inquiry’, the framework will be used

Mission austraLia and otHer organisations Provide residentiaL services tHat are in HigH deMand for treating drug and aLcoHoL addiction. sucH services are costLy, so HoW WeLL do tHey WorK?

Note: m

odels used for this photograph

to capture and analyse the experiences of young people using residential services in Western Australia, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.

‘The personal perceptions of journeys through drug treatment are a good resource for providers needing to understand what they are accomplishing with their clients,’ Saggers said.

‘Narrative accounts have revealed that the drug-taking trajectory can be conceptualised along five stages, from feeling removed from normality through to returning to self and “being normal” again.’

The decision to use the approach was motivated, in part, by the increasing recognition in health research that clients understand their health issue in the context of their social life, and that these personal understandings can provide useful insights to service providers and health policymakers.

‘It enables us to determine what characterises progress for young people who are using residential services,’ Saggers said.

‘From that we can develop an assessment tool that AOD staff can use on admission, on completion and at a six-month follow-up. It’s important to offer more than a survey “checklist”, one that better describes the rehabilitation process and that staff feel comfortable using.’

Research partners on the three-year project, titled ‘Psychometric properties of a measure of young people’s progress in residential rehabilitation’, include Mission Australia, The University of Western Australia, the University of Western Sydney, the WA and New South Wales health departments, and the Ted Noffs Foundation.

ndri.curtin.edu.au

tHe MccusKer centre for action on aLcoHoL and youtH

Curtin has launched the McCusker Centre for Action on Alcohol and Youth (MCAAY), with $400,000 support from the McCusker Charitable Foundation. The centre’s overarching goal is to reduce alcohol-related harm among Western Australians aged 14–25. To achieve this, MCAAY will initiate research and community initiatives that reduce overall consumption and lower the risk patterns of consumption.

MCAAY is an initiative by Malcolm McCusker QC and Tonya McCusker, and is headed by Curtin’s Professor of Health Policy Mike Daube. Daube will oversee the centre’s work with a range of groups including health, education and law enforcement agencies, and the involvement of young people. MCAAY will also have a key role in generating public discussion and action on issues related to alcohol consumption.

‘We need to change a culture where young people are drinking at earlier ages, and drinking to get drunk is becoming a norm,’ Daube said.

At the centre’s launch in September, Tonya McCusker, who is a trustee of the McCusker Foundation, said she hopes the new centre will help save the lives of the five young Australians who would die this week as a result of alcohol-related injuries.

‘Whilst enormous headway has been made in educating our young people about the detrimental effects of tobacco and drugs, alcohol remains a glorified killer in disguise,’ she said.

mcaay.org.au

House Proud

NOWR&D 09

The ultimate goal of research at the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (CIRA) is to ensure Australia has the capabilities to host the most

powerful radio telescope ever built, the international Square Kilometre Array.

The linked array of thousands of antennas, spanning 3000 kilometres, will source data from deep space, and lead to an immense amount of new knowledge about the origins and actions of the Universe.

Technological preparation for the SKA involves numerous ‘pathfinder’ projects around the world. A key precursor project is the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in Western Australia, comprising 512 prototype antennas to scan the Universe in the low-frequency SKA range.

The MWA is likely to be the first operational pathfinder in WA, so its success could help steer the international decision (expected in 2012) as to whether Australia or South Africa hosts the $2.5 billion SKA. To this end, during the past two years Australian and international collaborations and funding have escalated to support the MWA project.

In 2009 Curtin and The University of Western Australia established the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Perth. Super Science Fellowships, awarded earlier this year to CIRA co-director Professor Steven Tingay by the Australian Research Council (ARC), will fund MWA early science research and ICRAR projects that focus on MWA apparatus. These initiatives have enabled CIRA to double in size over the past 12 months, to a team of more than 40 science and engineering researchers.

Another significant boost to CIRA is the ARC’s new Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO) led by the University of Sydney. Tingay is one of CAASTRO’s seven chief investigators and a member of the six-person executive team.

‘CAASTRO activities complement CIRA’s work on the MWA program,’ Tingay said. ‘The aim is to bring together top astronomers into a focused collaboration to help Australia become the international leader in wide-field astronomy, including leading major science programs for the SKA.’

The level and diversity of support for the MWA is a reflection of both the scientific and economic benefits the SKA will bear. Work on the MWA has been able to accelerate via a $4.6 million grant from the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy fund and $3.1 million from the Education Investment Fund, as well as substantial support from the Australia–India Strategic Fund and from Curtin.

Curtin’s Professor of Radio Astronomy Engineering, Peter Hall, will lead Australia’s engagement with the European Aperture Array Verification Program (AAVP) set to begin at ICRAR and at the Murchison Radioastronomy Observatory, where the MWA is based.

‘The large European consortium is a new community to WA,’ Hall said. ‘And, importantly, the engineering challenges in the MWA enable local industries to get a head start on partnering with us on next-generation AAVP pathfinder research.’

astronomy.curtin.edu.au

SigN Of the timeS >>

Radio astronomy

ICT

StARiNg At the StARSaustraLia’s ProsPects of Hosting one of tHe 21st century’s biggest science endeavours, a $2.5 biLLion ‘aLL-sKy’ radio teLescoPe, are LooKing brigHt.

WHat is tHe best Way to inforM coMMuters about service disruPtions in busy and noisy raiLWay stations?

Curtin’s Professor of Learning Technologies Ric Lowe is collaborating with two French research organisations to investigate the effectiveness

of animated visual information for commuters.

‘The aim is to find an alternative to the transitory verbal announcements about transport service disruptions,’ Lowe said.

‘Voice-over announcements are hard to hear in busy stations – especially for travellers who do not speak the local language. And announcements are transitory, so people can easily miss the information and be stranded.’

Text displays, as opposed to graphic displays, are also problematic.

‘They take time to scan and determine whether there is information relevant to you, and they are not communicating in a universal language,’ Lowe said.

The project was initiated by Dr Laurence Paire-Ficout of the French National Research Institute for Transport and Safety, for the French National Railways. The research is being led by Lowe and Professor Jean-Michel Boucheix of the French National Centre for Scientific Research.

Lowe and Boucheix have developed short looped animations displayed on screens, and compared their effectiveness with static ‘compartmentalised’ graphic displays.

The animations are simple, dynamic graphics designed according to the animation processing model they developed from empirical investigations. Importantly, the displays can be small enough to be incorporated into existing infrastructure, such as ticketing machines.

‘We’re using eye-tracking studies to determine how well people process four-part animations that illustrate the cause of the disruption, the nature of the disruption, the effect on the traffic, and what actions travellers should take,’ Lowe said.

‘For example: first, what has gone wrong – such as repairs on the track; second, the

consequence – service cancelled; third, the implications – you can catch an alternative train; and last, the required action – graphic directions to the correct platform.’

To their surprise, they found that while the animations work very well in the French context, Australian travellers do not appear to benefit as much. Their aim now is to determine why, and how the animation design can be tailored accordingly.

The difference, Lowe suggests, might be due to French travellers having special background knowledge about the complexity of their railway system and the nature of service disruptions.

‘However, visitors can be overwhelmed by the complexity of the French rail system, and not understand what to do during disruptions. Australia’s rail system is relatively simple, and far less utilised, in comparison,’ he said.

‘Visual communication is increasingly relied on for conveying public information and it is vital that graphic messages be well designed.’

humanities.curtin.edu.au/schools/edu/education/ltg.cfm

NOWR&D 11

Q+A

Q+A

Professor Lance Leslie is the Robert E. Lowry Chair Professor in the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma. He has received significant awards and prizes for his research, including the Max Planck Research Prize, awarded in Bonn, Germany,

1994; and a George Lynn Cross Research Professorship at the University of Oklahoma. He is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society, and of the Eurasian Academy of Science, Beijing, China.

Professor Leslie will soon commence full-time research activities at the Australian Sustainability Development Institute at Curtin.

WHy Have you returned to austraLia to continue your researcH at curtin?

Australia arguably is the most environmentally fragile, and therefore most vulnerable, continent on the planet. It requires much less natural variability or human-induced change to turn productive land into arid zones and arid zones into deserts. Moreover, as an island continent, with almost all major urban areas on the coast, Australia is threatened more than most countries by possibly the greatest of all consequences of climate change – sea-level rise.

The Australian Sustainability Development Institute is one of only a few centres in Australia to have what seems to be a relatively fearless commitment to planning adaption and mitigation strategies, in the face of mounting evidence for the possibility of true climate change as opposed to simply a period of high natural climate variability.

HoW do We distinguisH betWeen cLiMate variabiLity and cLiMate cHange?

This is a common, and very reasonable, question, given that the climate system has natural cycles. The measure I commonly use looks at the range of behaviour in past observations. For example, the highest and lowest decadal mean rainfall totals per year for Perth over a 100-year period might be 1300 mm and 550 mm, respectively. If the decade 2001–10 has values outside that range, it is considered likely due to climate change. My own climate model analysis shows a steadily decreasing rainfall for south-west WA over the 21st century, and exceeding the reach of natural variability – suggesting the region is entering a period of climate change (drying).

WHat roLe does cLiMate ModeLLing Have in addressing sustainabiLity issues?

Climate modelling and, more generally, environmental modelling has a pivotal role in planning for the impacts of both climate change and climate variability on the environment. Observations taken over the past decades, centuries and beyond provide an

Associate Professor jeff Charrois joined Curtin in july 2010 as Director of the Curtin Water Quality Research Centre (CWQRC).

The centre was established in 2004 as a strategic alliance between Curtin and the Water Corporation of Western Australia, to undertake fundamental research in water quality. Its scope includes research into natural organic matter characterisation in source and treated waters; disinfection by-product identification; water treatment; water reuse; and aesthetic issues (taste and odour) in drinking water.

Charrois’s expertise lies at the nexus of environmental chemistry and public health. Following his PhD in Environmental Health Sciences, conferred by the University of Alberta in 2006, he has focused on public health management practices that ensure the provision of safe drinking water. His work includes the identification of emerging drinking water disinfection by-products, and the development of novel analytical methods for determining trace organic contaminants in a variety of matrices.

The high-impact Canadian Medical Association Journal recently published Charrois’s paper on ‘Private drinking water supplies: challenges for public health’. In 2009 he also completed a multinational project, funded by the US-based Water Research Foundation, which involved major water utilities from Australia, the UK, Canada and the US. Motivated by organisational trends within the international water utility sector, the research evaluated risk management strategies for protecting public health by studying best-in-class drinking water utilities.

Australia’s role as a global leader in water quality research was a key factor in Charrois’s decision to leave a research appointment at the Alberta Research Council in Canada, and join Curtin. He acknowledges that the increasing stresses on drinking water resources, as a result of climate change and a growing population, will continue to drive Australia’s position to be at the cutting edge of water quality research, and provide exceptional research opportunities.

Accordingly, as director of the CWQRC Charrois aims to advance the centre’s expertise in wastewater recycling and desalination, by building on the centre’s existing core expertise in water quality.

He will develop research partnerships with colleagues in agriculture, environmental science, engineering, and the social sciences. He also anticipates growth in collaborations with Curtin’s School of Public Health, for research outcomes that enable evidence-based decisions regarding the provision of safe, secure drinking water supplies.

cwqrc.curtin.edu.au

Profile

Jeff charroisDirector, Curtin Water Quality Research Centre

Faculty of Science and Engineering

with PROFESSOR LANCE LESLIE

increasing understanding of what the climate system is capable. The analysis of past datasets is a huge growth area. Climate models, even with their known imperfections, can warn us of the likelihood of catastrophes such as sea-level rise, marginal areas becoming arid zones, extreme weather events and so on.

I have been carrying out research on key variables that affect Australia in general and WA in particular. These include rainfall amount and distribution, tropical cyclone activity, and also the modelling of possible future trends in these key variables – especially rainfall, temperature, wind, severe storms and sea-level rise, to name a few. This knowledge has ready application to planning and mitigation strategies for water resources, air quality, urban and non-urban habitability, alternative energy (for example, solar and wind), agriculture, building design, spread of disease and pests, and protection of inland, coastal and open ocean natural environments, and human infrastructure.

is cLiMate-cHange scePticisM Justified?

As a scientist seeking ‘truth’ (insofar as it can be achieved), I welcome scepticism, provided it is based on an equally scientific agenda. However, there has been excess on both sides: there have been premature claims of climate change and these have been matched by counter-arguments based on poor science or non-scientific agendas. I believe the evidence is sufficiently strong that either we are experiencing an exaggerated form of climate variability, or indeed we have entered a new climate regime. Either way, the impacts will be serious and extensive, and immediate planning of measures for adaptation and mitigation must be undertaken.

is cLiMate-cHange science Having enougH of an iMPact on Mitigation strategies?

Not nearly enough, and the longer mitigation strategies are delayed, the more disastrous will be the impact of major climate variability or true climate change. Much has been written about ‘tipping points’ which, once exceeded, lead to irreversible consequences – such as the devastation that would accompany the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and/or the polar ice caps. Waiting to see if this is the case is like rolling dice to decide whether or not to act. Albert Einstein once famously said ‘God does not play dice’ – to which I would add, ‘and neither should we’.

asdi.curtin.edu.au

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Applied economics

RiSk mORtARANDtHe continuing after-effects of tHe gLobaL financiaL crisis Have necessitated first-rate researcH in aPPLied econoMics, to HeLP ensure tHe stabiLity of financiaL MarKets.

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The global financial crisis that erupted in 2007 – better known as the GFC – has shown governments that financial markets are not as stable as

expected, and are vulnerable to gaps in knowledge about new financial products and their risks. A harsh outcome for many Australians was the abrupt downturn in housing markets, and impacts on housing finance and affordability.

Housing affordability and the forecasting of financial risk are therefore two research areas in applied economics that are evermore relevant to Australia’s economic and social wellbeing. Accordingly, the expertise of Curtin’s Centre for Research in Applied Economics (CRAE) is increasingly sought by government, industry and community groups nationwide.

The Australian Research Council is funding CRAE researcher Associate Professor Felix Chan to develop a framework to better measure and forecast financial risk.

Chan will apply a set of techniques, known collectively as entropic analysis, to measure the amount of information that can be extracted from historical data for modelling financial risk. The results will give insight into the predictability of extreme events, such as the GFC.

The project is novel in that it applies and extends established techniques in information theory and the signal processing branches of applied mathematics, involving the quantification of information and data analysis. More specifically, Chan will apply the concept of maximum entropy – a measure of uncertainty associated with a given system, whereby uncertainty is highest when all possible outcomes are equally probable.

‘The concept has been applied in economics before, but its usefulness for empirical finance hasn’t had enough attention,’ Chan said.

‘The financial crisis highlighted the need to improve our ability to evaluate financial risk more accurately, to protect Australian investment in domestic and international financial markets.’

The end goal is to provide new and accurate methods to assess risk of financial products. This will help Australia’s regulatory authorities design the policies and regulations they need to evaluate new financial products, their risks and their impacts on the financial markets.

Although the GFC brought to the fore various issues surrounding housing markets, housing affordability has

become increasingly critical in Australia over the past 20 years.

The topic is a key research focus of a team led by the Deputy Director of CRAE, Dr Rachel Ong, whose work in housing affordability and housing markets informs policy and practices across Australia. She recently completed a collaborative project funded by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), which aimed to determine the nature of movements in and out of housing affordability stress in Australia.

‘We found that most people who undergo “housing affordability stress” escape within a year, but there is a high chance they’ll return to a precarious situation,’ Ong said.

‘These uncertainties are especially evident among younger couples with dependent children – a life-cycle stage that demands higher spending.’

The research also showed that, with regard to affordable rental housing, about one-quarter of property investments are

withdrawn from the rental market within 12 months. Low-income and negatively geared property investors are more likely to make early exits from the rental housing stock.

‘This means that one-quarter of private renters are occupying insecure accommodation, and within a year will be looking for somewhere else to live,’ Ong said.

‘However, the ability of renters to escape housing affordability stress is helped by their ability to be more mobile, whereas homebuyers tend to be less mobile.’

The project was undertaken with Professor Gavin Wood from RMIT University, and an adjunct professor at Curtin’s School of Economics and Finance. Their results provided important insights into potential initiatives to improve the supply of affordable housing, and they are now extending the work in another AHURI-funded project.

The new project will model the impacts of recommendations from Australia’s Future Tax System Review (commonly known as the Henry review) on housing supply and affordability.

The final report of the Henry review, issued by the federal government in May 2010, recommended changes to negative gearing, stamp duty and land tax policies.

Ong and Wood will examine the impacts of those recommendations on housing supply decisions of landlords and the housing affordability positions of Australian households.

‘In light of continuing concerns about the affordability of housing in Australia, our findings should impact on future policies that affect housing – the market, investment and supply,’ Ong said.

centre for researcH in aPPLied econoMics (crae)

As the research arm of the School of Economics and Finance, CRAE’s strengths are housing affordability; employment-related issues, such as gender pay equity and Indigenous employment; tax policy; infrastructure issues; and Commonwealth–state financial relations.

The centre’s various research teams apply their expertise in economic modelling; financial forecasting; policy simulations and evaluation; and qualitative economic analysis.

CRAE was established in 2006 to serve the research needs of local, national and international organisations, including government, NGO, corporate businesses and community groups.

business.curtin.edu.au/crae

mORtAR

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Commercialisation

: innovations

gasification of LoW-ranK fueLs

A Curtin research team has developed a breakthrough technology that converts biomass into clean gaseous fuels. The technology aims to offer a sustainable and economical alternative source of energy through generation of base-load electricity, especially in rural areas where diesel is mostly used.

Current problems with existing gasification processes for electricity generation include the fouling of gas engines and turbines with tar and other contaminants. Despite numerous efforts worldwide, there has been limited success in using existing gasification processes to clean up product gas in a cost-effective way.

However, Curtin’s gasification technology is able to produce clean product gas with a high energy content very efficiently.

The process is suitable for biomass such as mallee, which is abundant in Western Australia and actively grown to minimise dryland salinity. Other low-rank fuels such as lignite, brown coal and peat can also be converted.

A pilot scale gasifier has been built and successfully operated, and the construction of a demonstration plant at Curtin is planned.

The research and development for the technology is led by Professor Chun-Zhu Li at the Curtin Centre for Advanced Energy Science and Engineering, who won first prize at the Curtin Commercial Innovation Awards 2010.

energy.curtin.edu.au

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deePvision 3dCurtin has established a company, DeepVision3D, to commercialise underwater 3D video cameras developed at Curtin’s Centre for Marine Science and Technology (CMST). Designed to overcome the limitations of 2D video, the cameras provide operators of underwater vehicles with an added sense of depth perception when viewing underwater infrastructure.

During 2010 the cameras were deployed in the Gulf of Mexico to assist with repairs to the ruptured Macondo oil well. Canadian oil and gas service company Welaptega Marine, which owns eight of the CMST 3D cameras, was contracted to use two of its 4000m-rated 3D cameras to assess damage to the broken well, prior to the well’s successful shutdown.

The 3D camera and related 3D technologies have been developed by Mr Andrew Woods, a WA Energy Research Alliance (WA:ERA) Research Fellow with the CMST. DeepVision3D plans to market two products based on the technology – a marine 3D camera, for subsea inspection use in the oil and gas industry, and a hostile environment 3D camera for use in hostile environments such as underground mines and smelters.

cmst.curtin.edu.au/products/3d.cfm

Curtin researchers continue to push the boundaries of high-quality research to develop technologies that are relevant to industry and the wider community. the university’s commitment to supporting early stage commercialisation of innovative technologies has resulted in an investment in 13 rapidly growing companies, generating revenues in excess of $10 million per annum.

here we showcase a selection of new technologies developed at Curtin. these include the 2010 Commercial innovation award-winners being supported by Curtin’s Office of iP Commercialisation. Now in its third year, Curtin’s Commercial innovation Awards acknowledges the best new innovations arising from research by Curtin staff and students.

research.curtin.edu.au/ip

array Precise Point Positioning systeM

A novel multi-antenna processing algorithm has been developed at Curtin that considerably improves positional accuracy.

More accurate and precise positional information is increasingly vital to a number of industries such as precision agriculture, offshore positioning, land surveying, emergency responses and military services.

While Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have extended the range of precision positioning data options available through relative and differential GPS, drawbacks include limited accuracy, long convergence times and receiver integrity issues – which ultimately affect efficiencies.

The Array Precise Point Positioning (A-PPP) system developed by Professor Peter Teunissen and his team from Curtin’s Department of Spatial Sciences, counteracts these problems. The A-PPP leverages GNSS data by utilising a multi-antenna solution for positioning.

With the worldwide precision GPS market expected to reach $7 billion by 2012, Curtin and potential investors are well placed to tap into this growth with this technology. The A-PPP won second prize at the Curtin Commercial Innovation Awards 2010.

gnss.curtin.edu.au

data quaLity and integrity tooLKit

A research team at Curtin’s Digital Ecosystem Business Intelligence Institute have developed a software tool able to clean up duplications and errors in corporate and government databases.

The Data Quality and Integrity Toolkit developed by Dr Fedja Hadzic and Dr Michael Hecker can also detect the source of contamination and prevent future data pollution with business process mining.

Data quality management software tools are typically designed to evaluate and cleanse data to improve the integrity of enterprise information. Areas where data quality is of major concern include crime, national security and the health industry.

Although a range of vendor solutions attempting to address data integrity problems exist, many are ineffective as they tend to ignore the rules and policies of the individual organisation, and do not take into account or attempt to resolve sources of data pollution.

The toolkit addresses these inefficiencies and provides for subject domain specific support. The technology was the winner of the Early Career prize at the Curtin Commercial Innovation Awards 2010.

debii.curtin.edu.au

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graduate studiesOverview 2010

graduate profiles

Higher degrees by research

It has been a highly successful year for Graduate Studies with more than 100 students awarded Australian Postgraduate Awards, and 25 IPRS

(International Postgraduate Research Scholarships) and Curtin IPRS Scholarships awarded.

Curtin has continued to roll out one of its flagship scholarship programs – the Curtin Strategic International Research Scholarships. From early 2011 there will be more than 40 scholars at Curtin supported by the scheme.

As part of this program Curtin provided two doctoral scholarships to researchers in collaboration with the Institute for Infocomm Research based in Singapore. In addition, we provided scholarships for two scholars from the Sichuan area in China, to provide capacity building in public health and nutrition in the wake of the major earthquake of May 2008. The scholarships are targeted at Curtin’s priority research areas and enable talented international students to pursue doctoral degrees in important areas of research.

Curtin supervisors have embraced the Register of Supervisors; we now have more than 800 registered supervisors from across the University, up from 270 in May 2008. With increased membership, the register is now a valuable web resource for prospective students to identify potential supervisors, and enables targeted matching of students to supervisors.

The Curtin Annual Student Satisfaction Survey and the national Postgraduate Research Experience Questionnaire provide indicators of the quality of the research student experience at Curtin. Good results for both of these measures have again been achieved in 2010, and Curtin will continue to improve facilities and resources for research students along with the support and commitment demonstrated by the Graduate Studies team.

Professor Graeme WrightDean, Graduate Studies

Research by james earnest is believed to be among the first academic projects worldwide to examine how project management knowledge areas can be applied to renewal efforts in a post-conflict society.

The complex issues between peace and development of economic reconstruction in a post-conflict environment are poorly understood and much debated. Agencies and government need to design and implement post-conflict reconstruction policies and projects that promote local community participation, equity and ownership in post-conflict rebuilding programs.

The concept of managing post-conflict reconstruction and development projects by use of internationally accepted project management processes is a relatively new research field. Recovery of war-torn societies is a development challenge due to limited resources of humanitarian aid practitioners, non-government organisations, and local and international aid agencies; and, Earnest says because operational practices continue to contradict principles and lessons learnt from experience.

His PhD thesis focuses on the post-conflict society of Kosovo, with the aim of developing a ‘project-based management’ framework within which economic infrastructure projects and programs can be designed, implemented and supported by local and international agencies.

The project, which will be completed in 2011, aims to provide humanitarian practitioners and international development organisations with a workable response methodology to formulate, implement and evaluate reconstruction projects established through peace-building initiatives.

James earnestSchool of Management

Curtin Business School

curtin.edu.au/research/futurestudents

susanne sugiartoDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Faculty of Science and Engineering

carla ZammitSchool of Environmental Biology

Faculty of Science and Engineering

environmental biologist Carla Zammit is investigating an ancient process with the aim of providing Western Australia’s mining industry with a more efficient minerals processing technique.

Termed ‘biomining’, the technique exploits the ability of some microorganisms to break down mineral sulphides – and can be used to extract metals from ores that are low-grade or difficult to process.

The Romans are reported to have exploited the phenomenon for recovering copper from discarded ore about 2000 years ago. Biomining accounts for about 20 per cent of global copper production. However, as most biomining microorganisms are sensitive to salt, the high salinity of WA’s water means that biomining technologies have limited use in the state’s mining industry.

As part of her doctoral research, Zammit has identified two salt-tolerant microorganisms that can be used to extract metals from ores using water that contains high levels of chloride, suitable for use in WA.

Zammit says biomining is a promising, emerging technology because it is more environmentally friendly and cost-effective than other mineral processing methods. In addition, the process does not produce harmful emissions traditionally associated with smelting.

Her research is being supported by the federal government, through an Australian Postgraduate Award, the Minerals and Energy Research Institute of Western Australia, and the Parker Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Integrated Hydrometallurgy Solutions.

In 2010 Zammit was one of only eight early career scientists from across Australia invited to present her research at the national CRC Association Conference in Alice Springs.

Susanne Sugiarto anticipates that her research into efficient wind energy technologies will ultimately help mitigate the problem of global warming.

Given the escalating demand for energy and the fast depletion of conventional sources, Sugiarto believes it is inevitable that wind energy will be increasingly fed into the power system. A clean, abundant energy source, wind technology is also better developed than other types of renewable energy generation.

Her PhD research aims to improve particular aspects of the fixed-speed wind energy conversion system so that its efficiency can be enhanced without the need for expensive and high-maintenance additional equipment.

In 2009 the potential of Sugiarto’s research earned her a prestigious Prime Minister’s Australia Asia Endeavour Award, which enables recipients to undertake one year of study in Asia. She is currently at Tsing Hua University – renowned as one of the best engineering universities in China – in a research team that specialises in the control strategies of wind energy systems.

Sugiarto says that while Australia lags behind the advanced world in the integration of wind into our power systems, China is one of the largest wind energy producers in the world and has numerous wind turbine manufacturing and integration companies. At Tsing Hua she will validate aspects of the control system she has designed, then return to Perth in 2012 and finalise her thesis, ‘Efficiency enhancement of wind-driven grid connected induction generator systems’. She hopes to then continue research into wind energy conversion systems.

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Public policy

a ProJect by tHe curtin university sustainabLe PoLicy institute Has been sHort-Listed as one of Just 20 ProJects for tHe internationaL 2011 reinHard MoHn PriZe, ‘vitaLising deMocracy tHrougH ParticiPation’.

The prize, awarded by the largest German-based foundation Bertelsmann Stuftung, recognises that the face of democracy is rapidly changing, and that new ways to involve citizens in politics are being tested around the world.

The project, called ‘Transitions to a Sustainable City, Geraldton WA’ is an applied study that aims to better link citizens with government to co-create sustainability.

The initiative responds to the complex economic, social and environmental changes facing Geraldton-Greenough, Western Australia’s fourth-largest city, with a population of more than 36,000.

With traditional industries of fishing and agriculture giving way to mining, diversification of the city’s economic base is an important factor for future growth. A key objective of the Curtin project is to engage the local community to help develop a long-term framework for sustainable development and growth.

‘It is underpinned by the theory and practice of deliberative democracy, which is an inclusive form of public dialogue and deliberation for influencing political and community action,’ chief investigator Professor Janette Hartz-Karp said.

‘Democratic governments need to increase their capacity for effective problem-solving, to address sustainability in a way that brings people with them to a new level of cooperation.’

The project will comprise three stages over the next four years. In stage 1 the team will collaboratively design, implement and assess inclusive deliberations. In stage 2 they will develop a social media platform and translate scientific findings into easy-to-understand formats. Stage 3 will culminate with research on the transformative effects of this deliberation on individual, community and city-wide carbon footprints.

The deliberative process will be overseen by the Greater Geraldton City Regional Alliance Governance Group, which includes government, industry, NGO and media decision makers, as well as community members.

For the project, a group of 40 ‘champions’ volunteered to be trained in engagement techniques, including the ‘world cafe’, an online method for bringing people together for lively conversations around questions that matter.

‘The champions have carried out 35 world cafes with about 400 community members. They will learn additional techniques, including online deliberation and “citizens’ choicework”, which will help the community deliberate about future scenarios,’ Hartz-Karp said.

The governance group then has the task of determining priorities for action and fast-tracking community recommendations.

The Australian Research Council is funding the research as a Linkage Project between Curtin and the city.

‘The knowledge generated could be deployed in future institutional designs of governance in Australia and elsewhere,’ Hartz-Karp said.

The winner of Reinhard Mohn Prize 2011 will be announced in February. Founded in 1977, the foundation has invested around $666 million in more than 700 projects that have demonstrated good community involvement and outcomes.

sustainability.curtin.edu.au

democratic by design} }

10

02University research institUtes

Australian Sustainable Development Institute Centre for Advanced Studies in Australia, Asia and the Pacific Curtin Institute for Biodiversity and ClimateCurtin Institute for Radio Astronomy Curtin Institute of Minerals and EnergyCurtin University Sustainability Policy InstituteDigital Ecosystems and Business Intelligence InstituteInstitute for Multi-sensor Processing and Content AnalysisInstitute of Theoretical Physics John Curtin Institute of Public PolicyNanochemistry Research InstituteNational Drug Research InstituteScience and Mathematics Education CentreThe Institute for Geoscience ResearchWestern Australian Biomedical Research Institute

University research centres

Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer ControlCentre for Developmental HealthCentre for Ecosystem Diversity and DynamicsCentre for International HealthCentre for Labour Market Research Centre for Marine Science and TechnologyCentre for Materials ResearchCentre for Population Health ResearchCentre for Process Systems Computations Centre for Research in Applied EconomicsCentre for Research in Energy and Minerals EconomicsCentre for Research into Disability and SocietyCentre for Research on AgeingCommunication Economics and Electronic Markets Research CentreCorrosion Centre for Education, Research and TechnologyCurtin Centre for Advanced Energy Science and EngineeringCurtin Centre for Rock CharacterisationCurtin Indigenous Research CentreCurtin Water Quality Research CentreCurtin Industrial Modelling and OptimisationIsotope Science Research Laboratories Physiotherapy Research Centre Psychological Wellbeing Across the LifespanResearch Centre for Applied PsychologyWA Organic and Isotope Geochemistry CentreWestern Australian Centre for Health Promotion Research

Government-fUnded institUtes and centres

Centre for High Definition GeophysicsCentre for Sport and Recreation ResearchCentre of Excellence in Cleaner Production Centre of Excellence for Science, Seafood and Health John de Laeter Centre for Mass SpectrometryRadio Astronomy Science and Engineering Centre of Excellence Western Australian Geothermal Centre of Excellence Western Australian Nanochemistry Research InstituteWestern Australian Telecommunications Research Institute

indUstry research centres

Environmental Health Impact Assessment WHO Collaborating CentreHousing and Urban Research Institute of Western AustraliaRio Tinto Centre for Materials and Sensing in MiningWoodside Research Facility

mUlti-institUtional research centres

Australian Housing and Urban Research InstituteAustralian Centre for GeomechanicsCentre for Exploration TargetingCentre for Sustainable Built EnvironmentCurtin–Monash Accident Research CentreInternational Centre for Radio Astronomy ResearchiVEC – The Hub of Advanced Computing in Western AustraliaNanoscale Characterisation CentrePlanning and Transport Research CentreSustainable Built Environment National Research CentreWA Energy Research AllianceWestern Australian Centre for Cancer and Palliative CareWestern Australian Centre for Urban DesignWestern Australian Marine Science Institute

cooperative research centres

coreAustralian Seafood CRCCRC for Greenhouse Gas TechnologiesCRC for Integrated Engineering Asset ManagementCRC for Remote Economic ParticipationCRC for Sustainable Resource ProcessingCRC MiningDeep Exploration Technologies CRCParker CRC for Integrated Hydrometallurgy SolutionsSpatial Information CRCWound Management Innovation CRC

supportingCRC for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the EnvironmentCRC for Innovative Grain Food ProductsCRC for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment

INSTITUTES & CENTRES

NOWR&D

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