University Highlights: Bubbles in Ireland, Brews in New Zealand, Nature Make-Overs In Australia
Ireland
Trinity College Dublin’s Science Gallery Bursting with BUBBLE Exhibition
Fizz, foams and physics are on display this month via the BUBBLE: DON’T BURST IT exhibition at the Pearse Street Science Gallery.
A giant ZORB (clear plastic globe) rolls into Front Square at Trinity College Dublin, as the BUBBLE exhibit is introduced July 30, 2009, at Science Gallery. Photo, Science Gallery
BUBBLE at Science Gallery explores the physics of foams and bubbles and was developed in collaboration with leading physicists Professor Denis Weaire and Dr. Stefan Hutzler, of the Foams and Complex Systems Group, School of Physics at Trinity College Dublin.
“There’s a huge variation of bubbles,” says Michael Boran in a Science Gallery video about his “Palace Of Bubbles” photographic exhibition. “As I worked with them, I realized you have different shapes, structures, colors, bubbles that have burst, bubbles about to burst and the way they are joined together.”
What’s nice about bubble science, Boran explains in the video clip, is that it’s science on a scale anyone can understand.
“It’s not in space,” he says. “It’s not subatomic. It’s the world that we all live in.”
BUBBLE runs through Sept. 25.
New Zealand
Lessons In Engineering, Nutrition, Agriculture Brewing On Massey University’s New Microbrewery
Brewing team member Dr. Richard Love pours a Pilot Pils for Associate Professor John Mawson at the microbrewery at the Massey University School of Engineering and Advanced Technology. Photo, Massey News.
The first ever microbrewery at a New Zealand university was officially opened this month at Massey University’s Manawatu campus in Palmerston North.
The microbrewery at the School of Engineering and Advanced Technology provides a teaching facility for students of process engineering and brewing and beverage technology; a research facility for students and industry; and a social environment where interaction among students and staff will contribute to campus life.
“It is entirely appropriate then that this microbrewery should be here at Massey where we have existing expertise in food, nutrition and health, and in the agricultural sector from agribusiness to production,” said Professor Richard Archer in a university news article. “The process design, electrical work, control systems and quality assurance protocols behind the brewery are all Massey endeavor.”
The project brings together all that is required to run a factory, just on a small scale, Archer said.
“We know we have a can-do approach and this is the core of what Massey contributes: it sets us apart.”
For more on the microbrewery, visit “Microbrewery’s Pilot Pils A Good Kiwi Drop.”
Australia
AustraLearn Students Participate In Conservation Volunteers Effort To Rehabilitate Wollombi Brook Habitat
A team of international volunteers assisted Aug. 14-16, 2009, in the rehabilitation of important habitat areas along Wollombi Brook, Wollombi.
American students studying abroad in Australia at the University of Newcastle through Australearn – a provider of study abroad programs for North American students to study in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific – used best-practice bush-regeneration techniques to remove weeds and restore habitat for native animals. The volunteer effort was previewed in NewcastleOnHunter online magazine in an article, “Nature Make-over at Wollombi Brook: Conservation Volunteers and AustraLearn Target Wollombi Brook.”
Volunteers also got to explore this bush paradise set on 600 acres of spectacular eucalypt forest providing a haven to native animals.
Australearn volunteers stayed at the property for the weekend and participated in daily conservation activities. Locals were invited to join them for a day or even the weekend.
Conservation Volunteers Australia is Australia’s leading organisation for practical conservation, completing more than 2000 conservation projects across Australia every year.
2010 Good Universities Guide Released
Some Australian universities are highlighting their showings in the recently released 2010 Australian Good Universities Guide, an independent consumer guide and Australia’s only definitive resource on to university performance, providing ratings, rankings, comment and information about all Australian higher education institutions.
With information collected and collated from graduate surveys and government data, The Good Universities Guide is able to accurately rate and rank across numerous student-relevant criteria.
Rankings announcements:
– Bond University announced it is Australia’s highest rated university after earning the most five-star ratings across nine categories, including the important markers of “Educational Experience” and “Graduate Outcomes.”
University Vice-Chancellor Professor Robert Stable said this was the third year running Bond has been the only university nationwide to achieve a five-star assessment in all of the critical areas and is a testament to Bond’s focus on the staff-student relationship.
“Bond maintains a strong focus on the individual and fostering opportunities so graduates are work-ready for the world stage,’’ Professor Stable said in a university news article.
“We are distinct from other universities in that we are private and not-for-profit, comparatively small in size and unique in our approach to teaching.”
The Guide found Bond’s business and management graduates to be standout beneficiaries of the university’s focus on quality and opportunities, enjoying the equal highest rates of employment and as high or higher salaries than like graduates across Australia.
- The University of Wollongong announced it is celebrating a decade of five-star successes following its 2010 Good Universities Guide showing.
UOW has reached a continuous decade of five-star successes in the key categories of “Getting a Job,” “Positive Graduate Outcomes,” and “Graduate Starting Salary.”
The latest guide shows UOW has retained all five-star standings it achieved last year:
• Research intensity
• The educational experience (generic skills)
• The educational experience (graduate satisfaction)
• Graduate starting salary
• Getting a Job and
• Positive Graduate Outcomes
“Australian and overseas students scrutinizing this guide will see just how UOW is among the elite research and teaching universities in Australia,” said Professor Gerard Sutton, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wollongong, in a university news article.
University of Tasmania Hopes For Hit With New Human-Computer Interface Technology – or “HIT” – Lab
HIT Lab AU is a newly formed teaching and research facility within the School of Computing and Information Systems at the University of Tasmania. The lab is situated on the Newnham campus in Launceston.
VisionSpace at HIT Lab NZ is a three-screen immersive stereo projection system that enables groups of people to view and intuitively interact with 3D virtual data in new ways. Photo, HIT Lab NZ.
The mission of the HIT Lab AU is to empower people by building advanced human-computer interface technology that will unlock the power of human intelligence, improve quality of life and link minds globally, according to a university news article.
The Lab is a partner of the world-leading HIT Lab based in the United States at the University of Washington in Seattle, in conjunction with the HIT Lab NZ at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, and shares its goals of developing revolutionary interfaces that transform how people interact with computers and improve the human experience.
HIT Lab AU will bring virtual/mixed reality technologies to the Launceston campuses with a focus on design, visualisation, simulation and games. A key development will be collaborative teaching and research programs with schools and disciplines including Computing & Information Systems, Architecture & Design, Visual & Performing Arts, Human Life Sciences, Nursing, Education, Human Movement, and the Australian Maritime College.
Special facilities in HIT Lab AU include the VisionSpace, a three-screen immersive stereo projection system enabling groups of people to view and interact intuitively with virtual 3D data, and an Access Grid, a high-end, collaborative communication facility including HD videoconferencing capabilities.
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