 |
||
 |
 |
      |
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
||
Getting
smarter with water
Deakin University researchers have secured more than $500,000 in funding to tackle the worsening water crisis under the Victorian Government’s Smart Water initiative.
Dr Eric Hu, an associate professor in mechanical engineering at Deakin’s Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds, will head a world first project to transform wastewater into high quality drinking water in an economic and energy efficient manner.
“This $350,000 two-year project will be a world first attempt to adapt a technology known as adsorption, something that is more commonly used in air-conditioning and chilling water, for desalinating water,” Dr Hu said.
“The pilot plant will treat water
ranging in salt concentration from brackish to sea water to produce drinking
quality water using one-third to half the energy of normal desalination
technology.
“We also expect the Deakin plant to require less maintenance and eliminate bio-contamination.”
Deakin also received $213,000 to investigate community attitudes to water saving and recycling across South West Victoria. This will be a three year project.
Supported by Wannon Water, Alcoa and the Victorian Water Trust, the project will research community attitudes to water saving and recycling and trial water conservation models.
Project Manager and lecturer with Deakin’s
School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Dr Anne Wallis, said the project
was timely given the current water crisis in Victoria.
“In the face of our worst ever
drought our regional communities have taken great strides in saving our
precious water resources,” Dr Wallis said. “We need to harness
that knowledge in our communities and use it to work out how we can make
these water savings permanent.”
The project will look at the differences
between high, low and average water users
and develop strategies to help high water users reduce their consumption.
Passionate match-maker sustaining Deakin’s researchers
Sandra
McClelland is passionate about Research Partnerships. In a career spanning
more than 20 years in Research Organisations, including CSIRO, Primary
Industries Research Victoria and now Deakin, she has worked to build connections
between researchers and the end users of their research.
“I like to think of myself as a match-maker, bringing industry and researchers together and brokering long term research relationships where excellent research applied to real world problems makes a difference in economic, social and environmental terms,” she said.
Sandra is a member of Deakin’s Innovation and Research Development group where she is focused on Deakin’s Sustainability, Ecology and Environment research. The other members of the group are Tania Bezzobs, Marcus Bolger and Julie Hunter.
Put simply sustainable development is development that "meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (1987 Brundtland Report).
“Building successful research projects in the sustainability, environment and ecology areas is a real challenge, it relies on being connected into the right partnerships,” said Professor Gerry Quinn, Chair of the Sustainable Research Management Research Priority Area.
“There is a mosaic of funding agencies, government departments, regulators, policy makers, industries and other research organisations with which Deakin must engage in a meaningful and ongoing way to stay at the forefront of this research sector.
“Sandra is our ears and our voice in many of these forums and helps us stay abreast of the issues and opportunities across the sector. She is also key to capturing many of the research opportunities available to us.”
According to Sandra, Deakin is fortunate to have a fantastic group of landscape, freshwater and marine ecologists, environmental and social scientists and engineers that are not only leading the way in their scientific fields but are valued members of our regional and rural communities as problem solvers in the face of dwindling water resources, drought and climate change.
“It is very rewarding to work with such a committed group of researchers making a difference from the top of catchments through to our coastal and marine ecosystems,” she said.
“The fact that our researchers are successful with the same research clients and funding agencies year after year, for example Smartwater, Catchment Management Authorities, NHT, is testament to the value they are adding in the sector and a credit to the relationship management provided by our Innovation and Research Development group.”
Associate Professor Kevin O’Toole acknowledges the important role of the Research Services Division’s Innovation and Research Development team in building his research collaborations. “I consider this group to be an extension of my team, behind the scenes of our recent success with Gardiner Foundation, the IRD team was working to secure support from our CMA and Local Government partners which was key to the success of our application to Gardiner,” he said.
Sandra is particularly excited about one of her projects that has been six months in the making and brought together the widest range of organisation.
“Under the auspices of the South West Sustainability partnership, we have established a sustainability research network which will improve the communication and adoption of sustainability research outcomes and attract more R&D investment to our region,” she said.
“The network has an invitation list of over 35 organisations, including private enterprise, Government agencies, Local Government and research providers across the Wimmera, Glenelg Hopkins and Corangamite regions. Deakin University has been a leader in the establishment of this research network.”
According to the Interim Head of the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Brad Mitchell, the role of the Innovation and Research Development group is absolutely critical in the development of the kind of complex applied research projects that are our core business in his School.
“Sandra has played a pivotal role in the development of all major research grants we have won in the school over the last few years,” he said. “She is regarded by staff as an integral part of our research team, and the research profile of the School has been greatly enhanced by her work.”
Sandra says the future of Deakin’s research in sustainability and environment looks bright.
“Our capability is positioned across three campuses which is a real strength in ensuring we have close proximity to the policy makers in Melbourne and the managers and practitioners in rural and regional Victoria,” she said.
“We have a range of projects in the pipeline across water efficiency and re-use, estuary management, climate change, sustainable aquaculture and social and economic impacts in rural and regional Victoria.”
Sandra works at the Warrnambool Campus each Monday and Friday and the Geelong Campus on Wednesday. She is available on mobile: 0409 196 856 and email: Sandra.mcclelland@deakin.edu.au
Research Services Division:
Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds
Pigdons Road, Geelong, Victoria 3217 Australia
Telephone: +61 3 5227 2673 Facsimile:
+61 3 5227 2175
Email: dvc-research@deakin.edu.au
www.deakin.edu.au/research
Deakin Research Updates - back copies
Back issues of Deakin Research Updates are available at: www.deakin.edu.au/research
Betime shops for future engineers
BETIME Nuhji is not content to be one of Deakin’s brightest young engineering researchers. She wants everyone else to join in the fun - especially women.
A PhD student working in nanocomposites Betime is the loud, happy voice at Deakin University open days encouraging female Year 12 students to get into engineering.
“I chose engineering because it was a challenge and I love a little bit of a challenge,” she laughs. “I’m always curious about how and why things work the way they do. Science helps solve these questions.
“I came to Deakin on open days when I was still at school and found the lecturers to be really friendly. I got to see all the robots that they have here and I remember one going through a maze and I thought ‘that’s what I want to do!’
“When I started first year, there were about five or 10 women here and most of them were in environmental engineering, which means our units didn’t always meet up with there’s.
“So I thought ‘all right, I want more women here’. When open days would come up, I would be talking to a lot of girls. Those girls that I did talk to came the next year and that was brilliant.”
Despite her enthusiastic recruiting Betime accepts that it will be a while yet before the number of women in engineering gets even reasonably close to the number of men.
“I don’t think that people get enough information in High School about engineering,” she says. “Girls will look at it and think ‘I don’t want to do this to a car, I don’t want to pull it apart’.
“But the sort of work I am doing is way beyond that. It is very exciting science, it is about helping build the cars of the future. Nanocomposites will help make cars and aeroplanes safer and more efficient.
Vintage crop – Deakin producing talented wine-makers
David Pettavel, the pioneering vigneron, would be chuffed to know that his old stomping ground around Waurn Ponds is not only producing world class grapes again, but world class wine-makers.
Graduates from Deakin University’s wine science program – which is housed in the Geelong Technology Precinct on the Waurn Ponds campus - are being sought by wineries all over the globe.
“Our mission is to land winemakers on their feet anywhere in the world,” said Professor Duncan McGillivery, the Director of the Cool Climate Wines Program.
“Already we are developing a reputation for the quality of our graduates in the area of cool climate wines and this was most recently re-enforced when Andrew Santarosa was snapped up by Domaine Chandon as winemaker."
Geoff Wilson medal winner...