Researchers at Deakin University and University of Ballarat are joining forces on a number of research projects including one to improve the energy efficiency of car engines by more than seven per cent.
A Heads of Agreement between the two universities signed in June sets the framework for Deakin and the University of Ballarat to continue to work together on a range of teaching and research projects.
The universities will also share facilities, exchange staff and continue to collaborate on regional engagement. Deakin University’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Sally Walker and the Vice-Chancellor of University of Ballarat signed the heads of agreement at the Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds.
“Partnerships depend on both parties compromising and this partnership works because both parties recognise that need,” Professor Walker said.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ballarat, Professor David Battersby, said the University looked forward to continuing its partnership with Deakin on a wide range of research projects.
“Both universities are well placed to work together on many issues relevant to regional development and beyond,” he said.
Eleven projects will be initiated at the two universities in 2010, including one to develop a method to make car engines over seven per cent more energy efficient, and thus more environmentally friendly.
Only around 15 per cent of the energy in the fuel is used to drive a car at the moment, the rest is wasted.
Projects initiated in 2009 included developing a water allocation decision support tool designed to provide transparency and traceability in water allocation decisions and a pilot study that investigated the physical demands of training and competition in elite junior Australian football.
Other projects to be initiated in 2010:
- Cancer biomarkers induced by persistent environmental organic pollutants; strengthening work integrated learning (WIL) experiences for rural teacher education students
- Exploring community based partnerships
- The evaluation of community based intervention to address the impact of developmental and economic disadvantage in childhood
- Student perceptions of their learning and professional identity formation in their first year of higher education
- A sociology of football in two regional towns
- Data pre-processing in sleep stage identification problems
- Fire in temperate forest ecosystems: how does pyrodiversity affect biodiversity?
- Building learning partnerships through Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE)
Other projects initiated in 2009 included:
- Diabetes care in Barwon and Ballarat public residential care
- Factors affecting the participation of men from low socioeconomic backgrounds in physical activity
- Blended learning environments in rural and remote communities
- Classification and clustering algorithms for anti-phishing
- Adult learning through changes in water availability in four Australian Murray Darling Basin communities.
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