NSW Report Card: Experts assess the grades Gary Nairn: A ... · David Pilgrim BE(Civil), John...

UNSW.ENGINEERS Issue 9/Dec 2003 19ISSUE 9 / DEC 2003

Engineers Australia’s NSW Report Card:Experts assess the grades

Gary Nairn:A surveyor in Federal Parliament

School snapshots

2 UNSW.ENGINEERS Issue 9/Dec 2003UNSW.ENGINEERS Issue 9/Dec 2003 3

From the DeanToday’s academics do not work in isolation. Nor do we exist in ivory towers. Through our research, consultancy and professional development programs, we at the Faculty of Engineering are intrinsically engaged with our industry colleagues and key decision-makers in government and the corporate world, on both a national and international scale.

We are aware of the issues confronting engineering professionals and have eagerly taken on the leadership role expected of us. Hence we actively seek to raise awareness of the importance of quality engineering education, and keenly promote engineering as an important discipline, integral to the development of the modern world.

But we’re not prepared to rest on our laurels. Relationships need constant attention.

While we recognise the contribution and commitment of our industry partners towards the sustained development of our association, the Faculty’s strategic plan involves practical measures to enhance our bonds with other engineering professionals – particularly our alumni.

Some of you may be in regular contact with us, perhaps through the ongoing Faculty History Project which has led to the re-establishment of many important collegial ties. But some readers – particularly recent graduates – may wish to re-engage with the Faculty. I encourage each of you to keep in touch with us and to update your contact details by completing the back page of this publication.

And we are keen to hear your views. Do you have ideas about how we should promote the Faculty’s expertise? Ways we can continue to attract quality students to our profession? How engineering can boost its public image?

Please feel free to forward your comments on professional matters, Faculty issues, on UNSW Engineers itself. I also encourage you to share your story with us. What have you been up to since graduation? Are you in contact with any of your classmates? If you have any personal stories you would like to share with your fellow graduates, please forward them to [email protected]

We very much look forward to receiving your feedback.And as another busy and productive year draws to a close,

on behalf of the Faculty, I wish all our readers best wishes for the Festive Season and a prosperous 2004.

Professor Brendon ParkerDean, Faculty of Engineering

NEWS

UNSW Engineers is published by the Faculty of Engineering, UNSW.Phone +61 2 9385 4023Fax + 61 9385 5456Email [email protected]

EditorJulie-Anne O’HaganDesign and productionKim Allen DesignPhotographyGeoff Boccalatte and Kristen ClarkePrinted byHeaneys Performers in Print

ISSN 1442-8849

Special thanks to UNSW Archives staff.

[cover image] COUNTING CARS: Dr Peter Hidas believes public transport in NSW is in dire need of attention

contents 3 News

4 Achievements

6 Feature: Engineers Australia NSW 2003 Infrastructure Report Card

11 School snapshots

18 Graduate profile: Gary Nairn MP

UNSWENGINEERS

Inaugural Dean’s AwardsThe Faculty has initiated a new award for undergraduate students to recognise outstanding academic achievement.

Sponsored by Esso Mobil, Faculty of Engineering Dean’s Awards were presented to 126 students earlier this year at a ceremony at the Squarehouse, attended by the students’ family and friends. Each student received a certificate and medal to acknowledge their success.

It is anticipated that these students will, on graduation, be leaders in their profession and communities.

Engineering Excellence AwardsEngineers Australia’s Sydney Division Engineering Excellence Awards saw UNSW come up trumps again.

Margaret Rozali, a 22-year-old electrical engineering student took out the Engineering Student of the Year Award in recognition of her excellence in industrial training, particularly her work placement at the AlcoaKAAL rolling mill where she was involved in several projects.

Ten UNSW students have won the award in its 11-year history.

Honours graduate in electrical engineering Peter Koulos was named Young Professional of the Year, an award which acknowledges graduates who are excelling in their careers.

Engineering on show In what was a spectacular display of research, innovation and creativity, the Faculty hosted an Engineering Première as part of UNSW Expo in September.

One-hundred-and-twenty guests from industry and the community attended the cocktail reception and interactive exhibition, held on campus at the Scientia.

The evening profiled the latest research and student-led projects from each of the Faculty’s 10 schools, including demonstrations of bionic eye and tissue-engineering technology, speech enhancement for cellular phone applications, a program that tracks the advance of cane toads in Northern Australia, a virtual reality training program for underground miners, as well as interactive cinema.

The Sunswift Solar Racing Car was also exhibited, alongside a Formula SAE (The Society of Automotive Engineers) racing car, and a solar-powered helicopter.

The Faculty has signed an agreement with Italy’s Campania region to promote collaborative research projects, as well as staff and student exchanges.

The Campania Region will fund the visit of two UNSW doctoral researchers who will be based at Campania Region Research Centres for three months to engage in collaborative research with the University of Naples.

The Faculty will fund one doctoral researcher from Italy to visit UNSW for three months to engage in collaborative research on health telematics.

The agreement, signed in November, also allows for other research projects and exchanges with the Faculty.

ACADEMIC ACHIEVER: Second-year mechanical engineering

student and Co-op Scholar Thomas Arnott celebrates receiving a Dean’s Award

with his family

ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE: Professor Brendon Parker

congratulates Margaret Rozali and Peter Koulos on their awards

INNOVATION ON DISPLAY: Mr Mark Gordon from the Road Transport Authority of NSW, Mr Greig Galey, CEO of Pasminco, and Ms Danielle Collins from Telstra at the Engineering Première

IN AGREEMENT: Professor Luigi Nicolais, regional minister for University and Scientific Research Technological Innovation and New Economy, Campania Region, and Professor Brendon Parker sign the memorandum of understanding

Closer collaboration with Italy

2 UNSW.ENGINEERS Issue 9/Dec 2003


achievements

Dear EditorI write with reference to the photo in the May issue’s Letters section.

I was there. I was on the team. In fact I may have even taken the photo!

The person in the photo is Simon Blake, circa 1978. He was working on part of a second- or third-year design project to try to raise a volume of water by a couple of metres. It was called project WET [water elevation and transportation].

Our design was a simple, single-action pump but it relied on a good seal between piston and cylinder to be successful. The seal wasn’t good enough. Simon tried to compensate by going at it harder – the result is observed in the photo.

The winning design by Albert Wong’s team was vastly superior – no valves, no seals – just a simple bucket and continuous rope arrangement.

Simon went on to greater success in ensuring the watertight integrity of the Royal Australian Navy’s ships.

Paul Couvret, BE [Aeronautical] ’81Consultant, Jacobs Sverdrup, Canberra [email protected]

Engineering often involves weird science >What is the excited young man in the lab coat doing now? Who is he? When and why was the photo taken? Email us [email protected]

Share your storyAlumni are invited to send in stories about their university days as well as to share career highlights. Email us [email protected]

Goldman Sachs Global Leader

Environmental engineering student and Faculty Rural Scholarship holder Rebecca Barnes [above] is one of four UNSW students to be awarded a fellowship under the Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Program.

Only 100 students from 17 countries worldwide are selected for the program, with just eight places going to Australians.

Administered by the Institute of International Education and the Goldman Sachs Foundation, the program rewards academic excellence and leadership potential.

Rebecca was also one of four fellowship holders to represent Australia at a Global Leadership Institute forum in the United States.

Women engineers at AuntyFourth-year Bachelor of Engineering Telecommunications / Master of Commerce student Chris Shi has won an Australian Broadcasting Corporation women in engineering scholarship.

One of two NSW scholarship recipients, Chris has secured a monetary prize as well as valuable industry experience at the ABC.

Sunswift aims to be back on track While travelling to Darwin to compete in the bi-annual World Solar Challenge in October, 12 UNSW students visited schools and community centres in NSW and Queensland, exhibiting UNSW Sunswift II, the student designed and built solar-powered car.

Students acted as ambassadors for the university, explaining how the car worked and describing the types of student projects undertaken at UNSW, as well as promoting rural scholarship programs.

However, the car was involved in a road accident near Winton in Queensland, causing damage to the vehicle and preventing the team from competing in the Darwin to Adelaide race.

Fortunately, the team incurred only minor injuries and is looking to rebuild the car and take up the challenge again.

SOLAR CHALLENGE: Sunswift II

and the solar car racing team. Onwards and upwards!

The university hosted a Golden Jubilee luncheon and campus tour on 16 May to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the class of 1953’s graduation.

Welcomed by Vice-Chancellor Professor Rory Hume, the event saw graduates from the Faculties of Engineering and Science celebrate the occasion together.

Cecil Forbes (BE [Mining]) travelled from Western Australia to attend the function.“It was absolutely worthwhile, marvellous,” he says. “I was thrilled to receive the invitation and thrilled to be there. I knew most of the engineering graduates and I’m glad I made the special trip. I’d do the same again.”

Bruce Rabbidge (BE [Electrical]) of St Ives, NSW, agrees.“It was lovely, one of the highlights of my retirement,” he says. “It was great to meet up with old friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen in 50 years. And seeing the university in its current state was terrific. They had just turned the soil of the foundation buildings when we graduated and it was good to see how it had developed. It was also nice to be feted by the university. It was a wonderful opportunity to express a lot of blatant, unabashed nostalgia without feeling old! I’d like to be around for the 60th reunion!”

Diary note:

The reunion for 1954 graduates will be held on

19 March 2004

TOGETHER AGAIN: Back Row (l to r) John Fenner BSc(AppChem), Cecil Forbes BE(Mining), Malcolm Smith BE(Mining), Len Matthews BE(Civil), David Pilgrim BE(Civil), John Warren BE(Elec), MEngSc 1970.Front Row (l to r) Lloyd Baker BE(Elec), Alan Hislop BE(Elec), John Southwell BE(Mech), Basil Anderson BE(Elec), Bruce Rabbidge BE(Elec)

ABC Science Media FellowshipDr Julian Cox, Senior Lecturer in Food Science and Technology (soon to be part of the School of Chemical Engineering and Industrial Chemistry) has won an ABC Science Media Fellowship for 2004. One of three Fellows selected from 76 applicants, Dr Cox now has the opportunity to develop his communication skills and make valuable media contacts.

First graduates for world-first degreeThe Key Centre for Photovoltaic Engineering has graduated its first students in Photovoltaics and Solar Energy, the first degree of it’s kind in the world. As part of the program, students participated in the Technical Innovation award for TopCell (Sunrace 2001), the 2002/2003 Siemens Prize for Innovation – winning 1st in NSW and 3rd in Australia – and the IEAUST Top Undergraduate Thesis Award 2002.

Surveying and Spatial Information Systems shineProfessor Chris Rizos is the new chair of the Advisory Board on the Law of the Sea, a body with representatives drawn from the International Association of Geodesy, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and the International Hydrographic Organisation. Appointed in October, Professor Rizos will hold this position for two years.

Wave designRecent research by Professor Lawrence Doctors, of the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, into the hydrodynamics of catamarans and trimarans focuses on the waves these vessels generate in shallow water. The waves and the ensuing riverbank erosion concern residents living along the shores of ferry routes. To date, research has involved the development of the RiverCat catamaran, which travels the Parramatta River in Sydney, as well as a trimaran – Triumphant – based in Korea.Professor Doctors has so far determined that a greater spacing between a vessel’s demi-hulls is beneficial in terms of lowering wave height.

blast from the past

1953 graduates return to UNSW


StormwaterAssociate Professor James Ball is a researcher with the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Water Research Laboratory. His areas of research include computational hydrology and hydraulics, hydro-informatics, urban drainage systems – both storm and sanitary – and free-surface fl ows in natural river systems. He has just completed his term on the International Joint Committee on Urban Drainage, which is a working committee of the International Water Association and the International Association of Hydraulic Engineering and Research. Professor Ball is also technical editor of Australian Rainfall and Runoff, the pre-eminent document used for fl ow estimation in Australia.

“The report doesn’t surprise me. Infrastructure is a long-term investment for which there are no short-term returns. With the current economic focus on short-term returns, no one really wants to invest in the future. Additionally, the political framework pushes the short term.

“When you consider the various infrastructure components – electricity, roads – there are signifi cant investments being made in visual components and this is refl ected in how each is ranked in the report. Where infrastructure is out of sight – like water – it’s out of mind, and investments are not occurring the way they should be.

“Decision-makers need to focus on what they are trying to achieve, what are the community expectations? The community also needs to recognise that current investments in infrastructure are for the next generation.

“But let’s look at the here and now. The report gave stormwater a D only because the writers weren’t game to give it an F.

“There are a multitude of problems with the management of stormwater infrastructure. We have boundaries for management defi ned not on a catchment basis but on a political basis. You have many drainage systems running through an area involving a multitude of management concerns, each with different agendas and operations.

“There are some systems where 16 entities are involved in its management, including the Department of Health where a hospital might own part of a trunk stormwater drainage system. Their overriding concern is, naturally, the management of the hospital, not stormwater management.

“The most effective way for management systems to work is for one authority to take over.

“Also, NSW is ridden with old stormwater infrastructure. Some parts owned by Sydney Water date back to the 1880s and 1890s. Others are from the 1920s. They have had minimal maintenance. And when the systems were constructed in the 1880s, little information was available to assist in their design. Most designs were European, not accounting for Australian weather patterns, or the magnitude of water fl ow. In some cases, our systems cannot handle the water fl ow so fl ood the surface, pouring water into the sewerage system and increasing the potential for sewer overfl ows, causing biological contamination of receiving waters, creeks and river systems.

“The other factor is the growing density of urbanisation. This has substantially increased yet we haven’t signifi cantly increased the capacity of urban water systems.

“There are positive moves afoot though. Stormwater is being recognised as a major issue by the State Government. It did give resources to the Environmental Protection Agency to assist local government to manage stormwater issues through its Stormwater Trust. But the money ran out. Their work made an impact, if just small steps in the right direction.

“As well as Engineers Australia, the Australian Water Association and the Stormwater Industry Association are also pushing for increased attention, funding and research on the community’s stormwater infrastructure.

Engineers Australia NSW 2003 Infrastructure Report Card the experts respond >

IntroductionEngineers Australia recently published its NSW 2003 Infrastructure Report Card, which examines the state’s essential services and assesses their quality in terms of asset condition, availability, reliability, management, sustainability – including economic, environmental and social issues – and security.While the report notes that NSW infrastructure is generally in a better-than-average condition when compared with that of the rest of Australia, it emphatically states that all sectors require signifi cant enhancement before they can meet current and future needs.Hence, the highest mark awarded was a B – for electricity – with Ds falling on rail and stormwater. But are the grades fair? The Faculty of Engineering’s infrastructure specialists give expert feedback on the Report Card, addressing whether its comments are justifi ed, and identifying the real issues at stake.

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The report gave stormwater a D only because the writers weren’t game to give it an F


“You see the same things worldwide. Potable water systems generally get looked at more closely and secure greater investment because of their immediate health implications. Stormwater management is a long-term issue, and getting it higher on the agenda is a frustrating business.”

Potable waterProfessor David Waite is director of the Centre for Water and Waste Technology. He is an expert in aquatic chemistry, pollutant transformation and fate, water quality management, water treatment and hydrogeochemistry. He has had extensive involvement with government agencies and companies in providing advice with regard to optimising water treatment plant performance and is involved with national and international partners in the water industry in examining and trialing new technologies. He is also active in providing advice to government agencies, particularly in Queensland, with respect to the impact of development on Australia’s coastal waters.

“I agree with the report’s comments on metropolitan urban potable water. Continuing to emphasise the need for maintaining catchment protection and control of source water quality is critical. In relation to water treatment plants, NSW has built a number of new plants in the past 10 years. While operating reasonably well, at times those plants do suffer difficulties in removal of natural organic matter, and with the optimum use of treatment chemicals. These problems arise because of the highly variable – and, at times, quite poor – raw water quality.

“In terms of non-metropolitan potable water, the report makes fair comments but add to those the continuing use of source waters and raw water that are decreasing in quality because of increased catchment use. This is leading to continuing occurrence of algal blooms and to acidification of source waters. Such acidification may lead to increased levels of contaminants such as aluminium and arsenic in source waters.

“With regard to metropolitan urban waste water, I emphasise the fact that effluent re-use is poor. We should be recycling much more wastewater. Instead it is being dumped in the ocean. Sydney Water has goals for re-use but will only achieve them when there are significant improvements in treatment, and an acceptance by the public that the quality is fine and it is safe to re-use. Good examples of re-use exist such as that at Rouse Hill, the Sydney Olympic Park Authority’s development at Newington, and some industrial re-use projects such as BHP’s re-use of municipal wastewater at Port Kembla. Each shows how water can be re-used effectively but introduction at a broader level needs speeding up. This will only receive full community support if the public are properly involved in the initiation and assessment of re-use possibilities.

“I believe a new approach to the governance of water is required, with much greater public participation, if we are to really progress to a new level of re-use.

“The report’s comments about non-metropolitan urban wastewater are also well stated. But a grade of C- is generous. The issues raised are important ones that authorities have been slow to address. A number of non-metropolitan authorities have been extremely creative in finding better ways to manage their water resources and to maintain and upgrade their infrastructure. Incentives are needed to see more authorities adopt alternative strategies that enable management of water – and the associated delivery and retrieval systems – in a more holistic, creative way.

“We also use huge volumes of water in the agricultural sector and there is a critical need to look at ways to capture those used waters, and to cost-effectively treat and re-use them. Particular scope for development and application of low-cost treatment technologies exists in the agricultural sector with the need to efficiently remove trace contaminants such as herbicides and pesticides.”

Associate Professor Nick Ashbolt is the Centre’s deputy director. A specialist in public health and environmental

Professor Brendon Parker

Associate Professor Nick Ashbolt

Associate Professor James Ball Dr Peter Hidas

Associate Professor Hugh Outhred

Professor David Waite

From the Dean >The Faculty of Engineering does more than educate future professionals and spearhead cutting-edge research – we seek to inform both our profession and the public at large about important issues by actively engaging in essential discussion and debate.

That is why it is vital we address the NSW 2003 Infrastructure Report Card. It is a discussion document, after all. While attracting some media coverage, the issues it raises need consistent attention in the professional arena, and to be frequently highlighted to the community.

All too often, infrastructure issues only come to light in time of crisis, when everything goes horribly wrong and powers-that-be resort to knee-jerk reactions when, clearly, a band-aid solution isn’t the answer. Yet because infrastructure is, as Associate Professor James Ball puts it, “out of sight, out of mind”, the issues quickly go underground again.

Long-term research and analysis, streamlined management and considerable and sustained investment is the only way ahead if crises are to be avoided.

And just as Associate Professor Hugh Outhred notes that attracting talented engineering professionals to the power industry is critical, young people must be encouraged to seek careers in the vitally important infrastructure economy across the board.

This Report Card – despite some inadequacies as noted by my colleagues – is a call to action.

The State Government is beginning to recognise the urgent need to address infrastructure requirements but as professionals it is imperative that we independently lobby infrastructure owners, managers and policy makers to acknowledge and act upon Engineers Australia’s comments.

The Faculty of Engineering at UNSW is open for business – the business of leadership. Those responsible may want to hide our state’s infrastructure failings under a bushel but we have a responsibility as professionals to speak out. As this collaborative response shows, speaking out is our business.

We are keen to engage alumni in debate on this topic. Should you wish to share your comments on this story – or suggest other issues for discussion – please email the Faculty at [email protected]

NSW 2003 Infrastructure Report Card summary table > C+ National Roads

C+ State Roads

C– Local Roads

D Rail

B– Metropolitan Urban Potable Water

C– Non Metropolitan Urban Potable Water

C Metropolitan Urban Wastewater

C– Non Metropolitan Urban Wastewater

D Stormwater

B Electricity

ratingsA > Very good Infrastructure is fit for current and anticipated purpose in terms of infrastructure condition, committed investment, regulatory appropriateness and compliance, and planning processes.B > GoodMinor changes required in one or more of the above areas to enable infrastructure to be fit for its current and anticipated purpose.C > AdequateMajor changes required in one or more of the above areas to enable infrastructure to be fit for its current and anticipated purpose.D > PoorCritical changes required in one or more of the above areas to be fit for its current and anticipated purpose.F > InadequateInadequate for current and future needs.

This Report Card… is a call to action

NSW 2003 Infrastructure Report Card, Engineers Australia, August, 2003. Prepared by GHD Pty Ltd. The report may be downloaded from www.InfrastructureReportCard.org.au

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“There is also the implication that we can separate hardware and equipment issues from institutional and people issues. You cannot make such a clear distinction.

“If both areas matter, we have to keep investing in new infrastructure as well as get smarter about how we use it. We need good people working in good institutions.

“Remember, with electricity, if it’s working, people take it for granted. If it’s not, people panic. There’s not much in between. That’s not a good environment to run an industry. We need more engagement of end users, so they have a more complete understanding of the industry. But that’s not politically palatable. Politicians prefer not to worry the population about ‘hard’ issues like these.

“What we need is a broader definition of infrastructure – not just looking at electricity or water as a supply-side problem. It’s all very 1960s.

“We need to focus on service delivery and address issues of cultural acceptance. Do we really need air-conditioning to make houses comfortable rather than better house design, for example?

“We have yet to properly address these strategic problems facing electricity infrastructure provision in NSW. We need to identify who is responsible for delivering appropriate investments on the demand-side because the present licence conditions on distributors and retailers are not an adequate response. With the restructuring of the electricity industry, the State Government has to rethink its relationship with industry and develop a sensible policy framework in which the electricity industry can operate.

“After all, the solution won’t be found in just building more wires and power stations.”

TransportDr Peter Hidas is a senior lecturer in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He specialises in the development of intelligent transport systems, including traffic engineering, traffic management, travel demand management, transport planning and highway design. He is a member of Engineers Australia’s Sydney Transport Panel and its National Committee on Transport.

“I look at this report from the point of view of the travelling public.

“Overall it is a positive document. Many comments are in line with my views. The important issues are sustainability and the future of transport, highlighted in many sections.

“But while it has many positive aspects, the report’s biggest problem is that it addresses issues the wrong way.

“Rather than dealing with infrastructure alone – roads, rail – we should be looking at the transport task overall.

“We could break transport tasks up according to user needs – passenger, freight, urban transport, inter-urban transport – and analyse how well we satisfy the needs of end-users, rather than look at how good the roads themselves are.

“But the report is infrastructure focused and has a strong emphasis on private transport.

“Public transport is a far more important issue. “It is seriously under-funded in this state yet the State

Government’s Ministerial Inquiry into sustainable transport in NSW has drafted a report proposing serious public transport subsidy reductions.

“We all know public transport is very expensive but approaching it from a financial – rather than service-delivery – point of view is a step in the wrong direction and goes against the principles of sustainability.

“The Government has to be prepared to spend money if it really wants to encourage people to use public transport. Without investment, our current infrastructure will soon be unable to operate at capacity levels.

“For example, everybody knows the difficulties faced by the Sydney rail system. The big problems are in central Sydney where even now the whole system is congested. It is unable to deal with a higher level of demand yet with increasing urbanisation, it will eventually reach a crisis point. Without investing in new lines across Sydney and addressing commuter needs, we’re heading for trouble.

“In addition to increasing subsidies, I suggest the Government also looks at a different transport pricing structure. More and more institutions are talking about introducing some kind of road-user pricing which could fund transport improvements and create better road conditions. These considerations should be part of a state-wide, long-term infrastructure strategy.

“The Engineers Australia report mentions strategic planning, co-ordination and integration, and that is positive. It also mentions the Warren Centre for Advanced Engineering’s Sustainable Transport in Sustainable Cities Report, and suggests its recommendations be taken into account.

“But overall, transport needs to be approached from a holistic perspective. Examining the nuts and bolts isn’t enough. Their relationship to the end-user is paramount.”

microbiology, biological nutrient removal and environmental engineering and microbial risk assessment, he advises on water quality management at a global level. He is a member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Technology committee for water re-use, he drafted the WHO’s recycled water guidelines, has sat on expert panels for the NH&MRC, and is involved in an EU-funded project looking at best practice for water supply systems.

“The report states that existing impoundments provide relatively secure sources of urban potable water supply, but the reality is there will be insufficient supply in the longer term for Sydney and beyond. Water restrictions are already in place and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

“And where it comments on the low uptake by consumers of alternative water sources, the fact is there’s a low uptake because for most people there is no option to access alternatives. Their living and working environments are not fitted with rainwater tanks or grey (waste) water pipes.

“Water management is political in nature, influenced by water agencies, environmental and health departments, community and lobby groups. We need a mind shift about how we manage water in the long term, and to seriously look at alternative systems of managing waste and harnessing the most reliable sources of water. Usually it’s in the sewer. We have a constant supply, we just need to harness and institute a recycling stream.

“But generally, when a report summarises a range of areas, you lose the detail – which is where interest lies.”

ElectricityAssociate Professor Hugh Outhred researches energy systems, particularly electricity industry restructuring and sustainability, and new technologies for electricity production and use. He consults to governments and industry on these matters as well as on electricity pricing, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and improving the sustainability of the electricity industry.

“The basic problem with this kind of report is that it’s much easier to assess history than it is to predict the future. The Report Card appears to be trying to do both. Looking back is okay for examining historical performance on network and generator reliability. Then the report seems to

be offering some sort of assurance for the future based on historical performance. I’m not sure if it intends to do that.

“And in a forward-looking sense, documents such as the National Electricity Market Management Company’s Statement of Opportunity project up to 10 years, discussing issues and what might be done.

“Other material published by Transgrid, Energy Australia and other industry bodies also discusses these issues. But it doesn’t seem as though the Report Card has taken this material into account. For example, the NEMMCo report anticipates tight supply conditions emerging in the national electricity marketplace, given current generating capacity and meeting demand. Likewise, the network service providers predict emerging network flow constraints that they believe can only be avoided by investment in network augmentation.

“At a specific level, the report notes that generation availability for the past two years has been below the national average. Availability means ‘being in a working state, able to produce electricity as needed’. Broadly speaking, there are times when a plant is not available. It might be out of service for maintenance – a planned outage – or because of a forced outage. Data needs to be split into two categories to cater for these two types of outage. It might have been entirely rational, legitimate, for a plant to be unavailable to generate if that was part of a planned maintenance strategy, yet that is not made clear.

“Another important underlying issue is the growing electricity demand. It doesn’t matter what existing infrastructure you have, it can run out of puff. There’s a need to discuss demand growth and NSW is predicted to have more rapid growth than other states.

“Lifestyle factors can come into play here. For example, there’s a fast-moving expectation for people to air-condition houses, causing demand to grow and putting pressure on transmission distribution networks, not to mention pricing.

“The words used in the report – ‘there is a concern that the infrastructure may not meet demands in the medium and longer terms due to capacity and reliability issues’ – do not explain that underlying driver or the choice that we have as a society to investigate ways to reduce demand growth rather than just build more supply-side infrastructure. That is, ‘infrastructure’ should be interpreted to include demand-side as well as supply-side equipment.

“A possible alternative implication of these words is that the infrastructure is falling apart. I would have liked to see the report mention demand growth and its implication on infrastructure. Plus the fact that, by not addressing demand growth, there will be even fewer opportunities to maintain what we have.

Engineers Australia NSW 2003 Infrastructure Report Card

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the fact is there’s a low uptake because for most people there is

no option to access alternatives

We all know public transport is very expensive but approaching it from a financial – rather than service-delivery – point of view is a step in the wrong direction


CAMD RESEARCHERS: (l to r) Dr Christopher Barner-Kowollik, Dr Martina Stenzel and Professor Tom Davis

CONCENTRATION AND ANALYSIS: Honours student Kevin Chi-Pei Lin studied dust samples from 82 homes

UNSW.ENGINEERS No.7/Dec 2003 13

Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering

The elderly won’t fall for TriaxMerryn Mathie

THE TRIAX: Moving in the right direction

SCHOOLsnapshots

the fabrication of molecular electronic devices, and photonic and band-gap materials. Honeycomb-structured micro arrays with different functionalities may be used in a range of potential applications, specifically in high through-put combinatorial chemistry and cell patterning.

To enable the application of these innovative materials, CAMD collaborates with a range of UNSW researchers, including faculty from the School of Biomedical Engineering and St. George Hospital.

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Lead levels raise alarm about children’s health

A new UNSW study has found lead levels in inner-western Sydney homes are almost three times higher than the rest of the metropolitan area, raising questions about the health of children living in the locale.

Dust samples from domestic vacuum cleaners from 82 homes across Sydney were analysed for heavy metal concentration by School of Civil and Environmental Engineering honours student Kevin Chi-Pei Lin, using a plasma spectrometer.

The study found lead (Pb) concentration in inner-west homes has changed little in the past 10 years.

In a separate 1993 study, 51 per cent of children in the inner-west had Pb blood levels higher than the recommended National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines.

“Given that children’s blood lead levels are highly correlated with household dust, there is need for a more detailed environmental

study to determine the causes of the problem and possible solutions,” study designer Dr Gautam Chattopadhyay says. “However, ambient air lead concentration in Sydney has declined by more than 70 per cent due to the phasing out of leaded petrol in the same period.”

The results of the study, co-authored with Dr Andrew Feitz of the UNSW Centre for Water and Waste Technology (CWWT), will be published in an upcoming issue of Environmental Research.

Dr Chattopadhyay says the indoor environment is well researched in Europe and the United States yet remains largely unexplored in Australia.

However, the CWWT has recently expanded its facility and research program in indoor air quality (IAQ). Its projects include an odour investigation at University of Technology, Sydney and volatile organic compounds emissions from building materials in post-disaster housing in Abuta, Japan. Large projects are being planned with the School of Built Environment to investigate IAQ problems in commercial buildings, tourism infrastructure and schools.

Becoming ill and falling over are two of the biggest concerns facing the almost 700,000 elderly Australians who live alone.

To counter these fears, the Faculty’s Biomedical Systems Laboratory has developed a simple, low-cost, round-the-clock monitoring system that automatically detects changes in health, increased risk of falls and actual falls in people living at home.

The ambulatory monitor, called the Triax – short for triaxial accelerometer – is a pager-sized device, worn at the waist, which measures accelerations generated by a person as they move. Information is sent via a wireless link to a home computer that processes the acceleration data to determine what the person is doing, that is, sitting, standing, lying down or walking. If a fall is detected, the system immediately contacts an emergency call centre to obtain assistance.

During normal movement the system extracts important parameters,

such as metabolic energy expenditure, walking speed and postural sway when standing. Any changes that suggest deterioration in health are flagged and the person’s doctor or carer is alerted. For example, new medication might cause a person to become wobbly. The system would detect an erratic walking style and a large amount of sway when standing, flagging a problem. Or when people become ill they become lethargic and the system would highlight a drop in metabolic energy expenditure.

As well as acting as a personal alarm, the system can be used to monitor a patient on new medication, as a movement detector in hospitals to alert nurses when a patient is getting out of bed, and to monitor patient rehabilitation at home.

A three-month technical pilot trial has been successfully conducted in the homes of six elderly subjects.

The School is hoping to run a longer clinical field trial with at least 50 patients next year.

School of Chemical Engineering and Industrial Chemistry

Taking polymers to the nano-scaleChristopher Barner-Kowollik, Martina H Stenzel and Thomas P Davis

Researchers at the Centre for Advanced Macromolecular Design (CAMD) are investigating strategies to design novel materials for applications in biomedicine and nano-technology.

One route to such materials is via chain polymerisation techniques that allow for the construction of complex architectures such as star- and comb-shaped molecules.

CAMD, in collaboration with the Royal Technical Institute in Stockholm, has recently generated spheres of nanometer size that have a coral-like structured core – a so-called dendrimer – and a shell made up of polymer chains. The resulting core/shell star polymers can be generated with high precision with relative ease and can find application as guest/host systems in biomedical applications.

Similar star molecules have been used by CAMD for the formation of honeycomb-structured arrays that have pore sizes on the nano- and micrometer scale. The polymers used for the array formation can carry various functional groups that alter the surface of the array. For example, CAMD has recently generated a micro-structured light-emitting polymer film that not only shows the distinct ordering of the polymer material around hollow pores, but an additional superimposed pattern of light emission. It is envisaged that this self assembly of macromolecular material containing light-emitting functionalities on the nano- and micro-scale finds potential applications in



that interacts betweens the mobile and manipulative elements, and a DENSO robotic arm, mounted on the loader, with a reach of about 60cm.

Various sensors – located on both the tractor and the robotic arm – assist with mobility. These include a laser range finder, a compass, a GPS system, an inertial navigation system, two colour vision systems and others to aid the autonomous navigation. Tilt sensors are used to address stability concerns.

The robotic arm will also have its own stereo imaging system. Initially fruit picking will be based on size and colour rather than ripeness. The team is also working with colleagues from the School of Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering on control aspects.

Results to date are positive. The aim is for the machine to match the speed of human fruit pickers. At the moment it takes about five minutes to pick an apple. Thirty seconds is the target.

Being heavily reliant on casual labour to perform manual tasks such as fruit picking is one of the pitfalls of agriculture, but the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering is working on transforming farming culture.

Through its Agricultural Mechatronics (AgMex) initiative, it is seeking to automate traditional agricultural tasks, eliminating labour costs, occupational health and safety concerns and the ensuing recruitment and staff accommodation expenses.

Using advanced engineering methodologies, the team of academics and students is working on a machine with near-human intelligence that operates autonomously – moving and detecting obstructions to carry out tasks such as fruit picking, pruning and planting/transplanting.

The current model comprises a John Deere tractor with an ‘on-board’ computer, a hydraulically operated loader

When surveyed, 61 per cent of the students were in favour of this delivery mode, 68 per cent thought delivery from a remote location was acceptable, and almost all (90 per cent) thought the teaching mode did not take significant time to get used to and that it should be made available in the future.

“The broader objective of our work is the development and evaluation of novel and integrated teaching methodologies,” project champion Professor Branko Celler says.

“The initiative is motivated by the need to share expertise from around the world and the need for mixed-mode delivery of learning solutions.”

THE INTERACTIVE CLASSROOM:[above] Postgraduate students receive their lecture from AIT, Ireland[below] The interactive electronic whiteboard

AUTOMATION IN ACTION: The tractor/loader/robotic arm combination will eventually cut labour costs for farmers

School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering

Revolutionising farming

rUNSWift – a talented team of final-year undergraduate computer science and engineering students and their soccer-playing robotic ‘dogs’ – has done it again.

In what makes three 1st and two 2nd places in five years of international competition for UNSW, they’ve won the Sony Four-Legged Robot League Robocup Championship in Padua, Italy.

Sponsored by UNSW and NICTA (National ICT Australia Limited) – Australia’s new Information and Communications Technology Centre of Excellence – they represented Australia against 30 universities worldwide, their win confirming them among world leaders in artificial intelligence and robotics.

The dogs are programmed to play tactically and intelligently, with no remote control – they can autonomously detect a ball, aim for the goal, kick it, and hopefully score. They now have real teamwork, utilising the wireless communication between the dogs. The rUNSWift team’s tactic included passing to a striker and having the winger out wide when needed.

To acknowledge rUNSWift’s achievements, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Wyatt Hume, hosted a reception in their honour in September.

“It took seven months of hard coding to achieve this success,” student development coordinator Brad Hall says.

“And our secrets are already out. This is an ‘open-source code’ project so every team involved releases the code they use when the project is over.

“It means we have to improve on ours and others’ work every year if we want to keep winning. It’s always challenging.”

While these competitions might seem all fun and games from an outsider’s perspective, Hall says no one should underestimate the impact of this technology.

“Our dogs are moving towards playing with a black and white ball – just like the real thing – and there’s talk that by 2050, humanoid robots will beat FIFA world champions!”

School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications

Beam me in classAssociate Professor E. Ambikairajah

The School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications has put its Virtual Teaching Laboratory to the test, delivering a postgraduate course taught entirely by ‘remote mode’ from Ireland.

Last year, 30 postgraduate students received three-hour lectures on digital signal processing and applications over a 14-week period, facilitated by state-of-the-art communications technologies, including ISDN-based video conferencing and Internet-based electronic whiteboard technology.

Students followed lectures in an interactive manner and in real time, with appropriate visual and contextual realism, the technology permitting full, two-way audio and video communications between the remote lecturer and students.

While an electronic whiteboard projected PowerPoint slides from Ireland’s Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT), Sydney-based students viewed diagrams or text transmitted on a similar electronic whiteboard, using an electronic pen to complete examples, draw diagrams and write questions.

The School is now developing new technology to enhance the interactive classroom experience. Initiatives include a separate lecture console for monitoring student responses and answering requests for assistance, plus a fully automated audio-visual streaming facility that allows students to browse a CD recording of the lecture.

And while this delivery mode cannot replace face-to-face teaching, participants found interaction more natural than they expected and pass rates were no different from those obtained via conventional course delivery.

School of Computer Science and Engineering

Legs ahead of the competition

SOCCER SENSATIONS: Robotic dogs go for goal

SCHOOLsnapshots14 UNSW.ENGINEERS Issue 9/Dec 2003

UNSW.ENGINEERS Issue 9/Dec 2003 15


SCHOOLsnapshots

used to visualise the three-dimensional microstructure of reservoir rocks and providing higher-resolution images of coal microstructure than ever before.

In collaboration with CSIRO, the School has also developed an advanced coal bed methane reservoir simulator, SIMED II, to study gas-flow behaviour in coal beds and to develop a strategy for coal bed methane gas production. SIMED II is being used by companies including GEOGAS which designs most of Australia’s coal bed and degasification projects.

The School is also at the leading edge of hydraulic fracturing technology for exploitation of tight gas and coal seams – its FRACSIM-3D software studies reservoir development processes involved in coal bed gas reservoirs – in the design and optimisation of horizontal well programs, particularly in the optimisation of well trajectories, and the school’s STRESS-CHECK and PATSIM software characterise reservoir properties, stress and natural fracture systems in coal bed methane reservoirs.

The School has close ties with industry, having participated in major laboratory, simulation and development studies for coal bed methane prospects in NSW and Queensland, and is currently negotiating a major development project – worth more than AU$1 million – with India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.

INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY: Micro-CT facility, developed with the School of Applied Mathematics at ANU

School of Surveying & Spatial Information Systems

Ground subsidence monitoring now underneath the radarDr Linlin Ge

Ground subsidence caused by underground mining is of major concern to the coal mining industry, government regulators, and environmental groups. To address these concerns, UNSW researchers are working with the latest technology to develop cost-effective and efficient monitoring systems.

The lowering or collapse of the land surface is caused because rocks above-mine workings, for example, long walls, may not be adequately supported, collapsing from their own weight during mining or long after mining completion.

Currently, subsidence is monitored by repeated ground survey using automatic/digital levels, total stations and GPS receivers on a point-by-point basis.

However, a new technology called the differential radar interferometry (DInSAR) can scan the mining region with radar beams, an ideal complement to current geodetic technologies.

Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometric techniques (InSAR) are based on the measurement of phase differences and magnitudes of two SAR images acquired from different satellite overpasses. SAR satellites send

radar signals to Earth from where they are reflected back, and the satellite then records the image data. InSAR processing involves the combination of the two SAR images, and the output is an image containing both topography and ground movement.

Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (DInSAR), which removes the topographic information from the InSAR result, has been widely used in recent years for monitoring crustal deformation caused by events such as earthquakes and volcanoes.

Supported by the Australian Research Council and the Australian Coal Association Research Program, researchers from the Schools of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems and Mining Engineering commenced feasibility studies on DInSAR for mine subsidence monitoring in January 2000.

Several dozen radar image pairs from a mining region near Sydney have been processed and centimetre-level accuracy has been demonstrated. In the result given above, the subsidence detected by DInSAR has been represented in contour lines and overlaid on the mining longwalls.

DIFFERENTIAL RADAR: A contour map of

mine-induced subsidence in a region south-west of

Sydney (in metres)

School of Petroleum Engineering

Tapping into a vast source of clean energy

SUM OF ITS PARTS:The Wheel of Safe Behaviour

Coal basins in eastern Australia house vast amounts of clean gas but because it is stored in highly stressed coal matrices with poor porosity and permeability, conventional drilling, completion and production technologies are unable to tap into this abundant resource.

However, innovative technology designed by the School of Petroleum Engineering is accessing this coal bed methane gas.

The School has developed advanced computer modelling and laboratory facilities to characterise coal bed methane reservoirs. It has also established extensive core flood facilities designed for well productivity evaluation and hydraulic fracturing.

A recent development in pore-scale characterisation is the School’s unique micro-CT scanning facility

Research shows many accidents and incidents on mine sites are caused by problems with rules and regulations. These problems include a lack of knowledge of rules, poor rule application, or the deliberate breaking of rules.

To discover why these problems exist, the School of Mining Engineering recently issued a questionnaire to 33 mines in Australia, Sweden and Canada. An outcome of the analysis of the questionnaire was a measure of attitudes towards safety. The attitude measure consisted of five components or subscales: knowledge, compliance, communication, risk perception and fatalism.

It was demonstrated that there were significant differences in the attitudes of mineworkers in different sectors of the industry, for example, coal, metal, quarries, open cut, or underground.

When these attitude scores were plotted against safety data, it was found that a correlation exists. This relationship was particularly strong when the knowledge subscale was plotted against fatality rates.

As a result of the research, the school developed guidelines for the formulation and implementation of more effective mine safety rules, and a ‘wheel of safety’ model to illustrate behavioural patterns.

The wheel (pictured) features an outer ‘tyre’ representing the legislative framework under which all mines operate. The ‘rim’ is the package of mine-specific rules and procedures. The inner ‘hub’ of the wheel is the mineworker. Connecting the hub to rim and tyre are wheel spokes, the characteristics exhibited by or required of mineworkers who practise safe behaviour.

As a bicycle wheel’s strength is dependent on a strong rim and a multiplicity of spokes, so too does the workforce’s safe behaviour depend on the strength and number of spokes.

If a crisis, emergency or unexpected hazard occurs in a mining situation, without effective rules and safe behaviours, a loss in the form of serious injuries, equipment damage or worse may occur.

School of Mining Engineering

Inventing the wheel of safetyAssociate Professor David Laurence



Engineering ScholarshipsThe Faculty is pleased to announce the establishment of two new scholarships, that acknowledge the contribution of two long-serving former staff members.

The Bernard William Gould Memorial Scholarship has been established by the family of the late Bernard William Gould for students from rural Australia to study in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.Known as “Bernie” or “The Prof”, Gould joined UNSW in 1968, becoming Associate Professor in Water and Wastewater Engineering long before environmental engineering became a degree. Highly regarded by his peers, he won the Institute of Engineers Management Prize in 1970, and the Water Research Foundation’s Inaugural Keith Milburn Award for distinguished contribution to water affairs in 1985.

Undergraduate students in the School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems may now apply for The Peter Angus-Leppan Scholarship, established by the family of the late Peter Angus-Leppan. Joining UNSW in 1962, Angus-Leppan was Head of the School of Surveying from 1963 to 1984, and Foundation Professor of Surveying from 1963 until his retirement in 1990. He was also president of the International Association of Geodesy (1983-87), served on the Australian Academy of Science committee and the NSW Surveyors’ Registration Board, represented Australia on the Federation International de Geometres, and co-ordinated AusAID’s Land Titling Project for Thailand.

Federal member for Eden-Monaro Gary Nairn (B Surveying ’73) is often reminded of his ties to the Faculty.

A number of his 92,000-plus constituents are surveying alumni and because his 30,946sq m rural NSW electorate incorporates part

of the Snowy River hydro-electric scheme, he sometimes encounters a blast from the past.

“The surveying lecturers at UNSW really stood out because a number were from overseas,” Nairn, 52, says. “They [initially] came to Australia through the Snowy Mountains scheme.

“Not long after I was elected, I went to Khancoban in the Snowy Mountains to open a visitors’ centre at the Murray 1 Power Station. Before the presentations, we viewed a series of displays and one was a life-size photo of a Snowy Scheme surveyor standing behind a theodolite with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

“ ‘Ah’, I thought, ‘here’s Henry Werner’. He was 20–30 years younger in the photo than when I knew him, but you couldn’t not recognise him. He was a real character. He taught me Surveying I. When I think about surveying at UNSW, I think of him.”

After completing his HSC at Sydney Boys High, Nairn won a Commonwealth Scholarship and, having grown up in Kensington, chose to study at UNSW.

“I wanted a job that wasn’t going to keep you in the office, I wanted a combination of work environments,” he says. “Surveying also appealed because of the flexibility it offered in terms of where I might work. I subsequently found out that the UNSW course was probably the pre-eminent course in Australia.”

Nairn thinks surveying’s small class sizes encouraged the students to form a close-knit group: “It made uni life enjoyable. You were with a support group. It built camaraderie.”

After university, Nairn took up a post in Bathurst. He next went to London, working on projects across the UK, before taking a role at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), a high-energy physics laboratory near Geneva.

“While at CERN, I wrote a letter to the Institution [of Surveyors, Australia] advising them where I was working,” Nairn says. “The letter was passed to UNSW and I ended up getting university lecturers calling in on me while they were on sabbatical.”

After 18 months with CERN, Nairn returned to Sydney, later establishing a surveying and mapping practice in

Graduate profile >Gary NairnSCHOOLsnapshots

These proposed devices seek to overcome fundamental limits on conventional solar cells’ performance by capturing more energy from each photon from the blue end of the solar spectrum. Normal solar cell design involves a compromise that results in much of this energy being lost as heat instead of contributing to electrical output. In hot carrier cells, the energy of these photons must be collected at electrical contacts through narrow electron-energy filters before the electrons have the opportunity to dissipate kinetic energy as heat.

This yet-to-be-published work has identified problems in assumptions underlying a 1982 theory of their optimal operation.

Additionally, the hot carrier cell contact theory and the similar theory for mono-energetic contacts for converters of the energy in random fluctuations, previously developed by Tammy Humphrey at the UNSW School of Physics, have coalesced and Professor Würfel has theoretically identified the hot carrier cell as the ultimate thermoelectric device.

A three-month visiting professorship at the new Australian Research Centre of Excellence for Advanced Silicon Photovoltaics and Photonics in the Centre for Photovoltaic Engineering has enabled an intense collaborative effort resulting in rapid progress on hot carrier solar cell theory, integral to the Centre’s work on the next generation of solar cells.

Professor Peter Würfel joined the Centre this year, having recently retired from Germany’s University of Karlsruhe where he did important pioneering work on hot carrier cells, and the thermodynamics of the limiting performance of solar cells.

He was also an important member of the expert Advisory Committee of the UNSW-based ARC Centre for Third Generation Photovoltaics, now part of the Centre of Excellence.

While at UNSW, he worked with Scientia Professor Martin Green and Centre postdoctoral fellows Andrew Brown, Tammy Humphrey and Gavin Conibeer, making strong progress on a fundamental problem of hot carrier cells.

PROFESSOR PETER WÜRFEL: Hot carrier cell now the ultimate thermoelectric device

Centre for Photovoltaic Engineering

Collaboration progresses hot carrier solar cell theoryDr Richard Corkish

my electorate has a number of major infrastructure projects, my surveying background helps me understand the processes involved

Darwin, which he ran for 13 years. To expand the business, he moved to Canberra at the end of 1994.

He had joined the Country Liberal Party in 1987 (president from 1990-94) and soon after arriving in the ACT, decided to run for Federal Parliament.

“In politics there isn’t a huge pool of people with small business experience and there are precious little with a practical scientific background,” he says.

Nairn secured his seat in 1996, and says his surveying background is extremely valuable in his role as a politician.

“In surveying training, we have a basic principle: you work from the whole to the part, from the outside in,” he says. “I automatically use that mentality in solving people’s problems. As a Federal member, you could easily focus on bits and pieces but my professional training allows me to look at the bigger picture. And given that my electorate has a number of major infrastructure projects, my surveying background helps me understand the processes involved.”

While not a student politician at university, after graduation Nairn took on executive roles with professional organisations. He was president of the Institution of Surveyors in the Northern Territory (1985-86) and vice-chairman of the Association of Consulting Surveyors Australia (1995-96).

As a Federal member, he is now chairman of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Science and Innovation, and the Select Committee on the Recent Australian Bushfires.

“I get good feedback from the scientific community,” Nairn says. “People seem pleased that someone who has a scientific background is chairing the committee.

“That was one frustration before getting elected – having my own profession recognised, an understanding of the need for proper mapping. It’s been rewarding to be able to educate some of my [political] colleagues. With the unfortunate factors of terrorism and natural disasters becoming increasingly important, spatial data and mapping are coming to the fore, and people are seeking a better understanding of the field.”

Nairn’s continued involvement with UNSW includes addressing graduation ceremonies – “I think I was the first surveyor to address an engineering graduation,” he says – as well as attendance at alumni and networking events.


20 UNSW.ENGINEERS Issue 9/Dec 2003

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