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Staff Bulletin
| May 18 2006Next Newsletter published 1 June Message From the RectorDefence – Related Research WorkshopOn Tuesday 16 May 2006, the Research and Research Training Office brought together research staff from UNSW@ADFA, members of DSTO and representatives from the three Services to participate in a day of presentations, deliberations and outcomes. The aim of day was to promote research collaboration between UNSW@ADFA and Defence. Participants were welcomed by the Rector, Professor John Baird who commented on the close linkages already in place between the University and Defence. Opening remarks were delivered by Professor Les Field, DVC Research who expanded on the important role that UNSW played in the field of research. The workshop was formally opened by Dr Roger Lough, Chief Defence Scientist. Dr Lough applauded the initiative and the importance of promoting the inter-institutional relationship between DSTO and ADFA. He saw the establishment of the ADFA Defence Research Committee as harmonising and in synergy with the current relationship between both organisations. Dr Lough saw the work being carried out by DSTO as being totally driven by the needs of his clients which in this case are principally the ADF and security agencies. He applauded the establishment of the new Defence and Security Applications Research Centre, seeing the Centre as providing an internal focus within ADFA. The morning sessions of the workshop were given over to presentations from UNSW@ADFA researchers including Matt Garratt, Ian Peterson, Spike Barlow, David Cornforth, Hussein Abass, Greg Milford, Russell Boyce and Krishna Shankar. Each researcher outlined their broad project base applicable to defence which included Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, complex computing to hypersonics, structures and non-destructive testing. Defence and DSTO also provided information on their respective research priorities. Development work on sensors and weapons systems, development of Network Centric Warfare systems to rapid environmental assessment were covered in their presentations. The afternoon was given to small group discussions and a follow up outcome presentation. A number of generic outcomes arose from the small discussion groups. These ranged across staff exchange programs between DSTO and the University, joint seminar series and co-supervision of PhD candidates. There appeared to be a common thread of interest in simulation, UAVs and the development of on board data processing for enabling rapid response. Follow up activities were discussed between the groups and these will be reported upon as they come to fruition. Further details can be obtained through the Research and Research and Training Office. The launch of the Defence and Security Applications Research CentreSenator the Honourable Sandy MacDonald, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence launched the UNSW@ADFA Defence and Security Applications Research Centre (DSA) on Tuesday 16 May 2006. Lieutenant General Kenneth J. Gillespie, the Vice Chief of the Defence Force and Professor Les Field, Deputy Vice Chancellor Research of UNSW welcomed guests to the launch ceremony. Attendees included Major General David Morrison, the Commander of the Australian Defence College , Brigadier Brian Dawson, Commandant of ADFA, the Rector Professor John Baird , University staff and a number of government and industry representatives. In his speech Senator MacDonald complimented the Academy on its academic and military training which reflected on the high calibre of its graduates. Senator MacDonald then went on to extol the values of DSA in a turbulent climate of security concerns and opportunities in relation to defence research. The Senator saw DSA as an extra piece of the jigsaw that would make valuable contributions to both defence and security research. Associate Professor Hussein Abbass, the Director of DSA, gave an overview of the Centre emphasising that the establishment of this Centre is a continuation of the UNSW commitment to Defence. “We are looking at both Military and Civilian Security. Our definition of Security is broad and covers a wide spectrum of areas including safety issues in land, sea and air, crowd behaviour and dynamics, domestic stability, surveillance and intelligence, spread, management and control of epidemics and bushfires, and policies and standards. We are looking forward to working closely and supporting activities in the defence and security industries,” said Associate Professor Abbass. Professor John Baird said that UNSW@ADFA is uniquely positioned as a faculty of UNSW with expertise from a variety of areas in Science, Engineering, IT and Humanities. “DSA will be a single point of entry to Defence and Security Applications Research on the UNSW@ADFA campus with a strategic aim to provide expertise that DSTO and other defence and government organizations can leverage.” The launch ceremony also provided the opportunity for the formal signing of DSA' first contract with the company Leadership Solutions Ltd . The contract called ‘Decision Consideration Diagnostic Information Systems will be developed by DSA to provide the client with a system to measure leadership. DSA undertakes fundamental research, research and development, linkages with industry and government projects, consultancies, post-graduate training (Masters and PhD for both defence and civilian students), and short specialized training courses. DSA is looking for young bright students who wish to build multiple skills in Defence and Security by undertaking post-graduate studies in this area. More information about the proposed activities DSA can be found at www.dsa.adfa.edu.au
Left to right: Assoc Prof Hussein Abass, LTGEN Ken Gillespie, Dr Spike Barlow, Senator the Honourable Sandy MacDonald, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence. Photograph:www.geoffcomfort.com
Staff BulletinThe Newsletter will now be published on a fortnightly basis. If you have something you would like to contribute, please download and complete the submission form and email the information to newsletter@adfa.edu.au by 12 noon on the Wednesday prior. The website will be changed to reflect Fortnightly news rather than weekly as show above. NEXT PUBLISHED CAMPUS NEWSLETTER THURS 18 MAY 2006.Library & Information Week 22 - 28 Maylinking people with ideas @your library ® is the theme this year for Library Week. Visit the new foyer of the Academy Library to see displays showcasing our diverse collection – from the interesting to the intriguing, the respectable to the ridiculous, the old to the new. There will also be a display of ABS material on the up coming Census on 8 August and how you can use a variety of ABS material for different purposes. We would love to hear from you on how you use ABS statistics whether in teaching or using ABS products in your assignments or briefings. Please send your comments or suggestion in via http://www.lib.adfa.edu.au/forms/reqform.htm We are also running a competition with great prizes – 512MB Flash Drive, and food vouchers for ADFA Café. Please refer to the displays or ask at the Service Desk on how to enter. Launch of the lounge – Tuesday 23 May If you haven't already visited the lounge , here's a reason to! What is the lounge ? It is an area on the ground floor of Academy Library near the Library Service desk that has been reconfigured and renamed 'the lounge' . The lounge is a centre offering an enhanced technological and physical environment for learning, communication and collaboration among library clients. It offers Academy students and staff integrated access to electronic information, multimedia and print resources and a range of support services. It also provides a one-stop point to foster information literacy skills for research and learning. The Academy Library invites you to join us Tuesday 23 May 4.30-6.00pm. The Rector will launch this popular new library service. Come and share wine and savouries with us and do some linking with library staff. RSVP by Monday 22 via e-mail to v.hudson@adfa.edu.au . Outline of ETS STePs' - Conference Posters WorkshopWhat? This workshop addresses the practicalities of presenting your work to colleagues in conference poster sessions. Areas to be covered include:
The workshop will help you to make the most of ETS Print and Design support in this area, but it should also be useful if you are doing a ‘cut-and-paste' job on your own. How?
Who?
Our main target is people who may have previously attended academic conferences but are new to producing large format posters. We also welcome involvement from more (and less!) experienced participants. Attendees would ideally have the planning a particular poster in mind when they come: postgraduate research students developing ideas for presentations at the Research Day in October are encouraged to join in. When and Where?
Bookings and Enquiries?
Want to know more about supports provided here at UNSW@ADFA by ETS? We work in the areas of educational technologies, media development and flexible learning. Explore the ETS website: www.unsw.adfa.edu.au/ets back to topWebCT Skills Training in June/July 2006Note: This training offering assumes a familiarity with at least the basics of WebCT. If interested in coming along, please note the short lead-time on booking-in for any, or all, of the first 3 elements in this program.Thanks to an arrangement just made with experienced colleagues in TEDS (Technology and Educational Design Services) at the University of Canberra , ETS are happy to be able to offer UNSW@ADFA staff a veritable ‘smorgasbord' of professional training in the use of WebCT here on campus over the next couple of months. What's on the menu and when? Friday 2nd June -> Book by Tuesday 23rd May 10.00 – 11.00 Dropbox 11.15 – 13.00 Online Markbook 14.00 – 17.00 Quiz
Tuesday 11th July -> Book by Friday 30th June 10.00 – 12.00 WebCT Housekeeping
Wednesday 19th July -> Book by Friday 7th July 10.00 – 13.00 Discussion Tool (Bulletin Board) Your chefs? Sue Demoor and Doreen Brooks of the University of Canberra. How do I get involved? Bookings are REQUIRED on all of the above to ensure they run. Place yours via an email to Anne Green in Staff Development before specified closing date/s: a.green@adfa.edu.au Please be SPECIFIC about which of the above 5 events you wish to attend and book in now, as numbers are limited. A wait list will be kept, if necessary. Want more information? Read the ‘dish' descriptions for each of the individual training sessions below. If you need more than that, please talk to James Meek, Flexible Learning Developer in ETS: Bld 13, room 1.130, ph 62688213, j.meek@adfa.edu.au Bonus EventThursday 22nd June 12.15 – 13.00 Putting a different skin on WebCT Matt Bacon, Sue Bebbington, Peter Delgado and Deborah Veness of UC will also be visiting to show us a flagship WebCT site they have recently made for a creative writing course. An ODLAA Award winner, this site has several interesting features, including a virtual reality style interface that makes it hard to even recognise at first as a WebCT site. (Booking is not required for this Bonus item ONLY --> just turn up: Library Seminar Room.) More detail on the individual training sessions Dropbox This workshop covers the use of the dropbox for collecting, marking, and returning assignments to students. It is usually followed by the Online Markbook workshop. By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Online Markbook Use of the Markbook function in WebCT can save lots of time as there are automatic ways to include marks from quizzes, and assignments, grades based on marks, and formulas for adding columns. This is much easier than in Excel, and as well, it is easy to release marks and/or grades to students if desired. By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Quiz This tool is used to set up and run quizzes, surveys and self-tests in WebCT. The Quiz tool allows selective release to students, and permits question sets to be randomly generated. Once set up quizzes can automatically generate marks. By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
WebCT Housekeeping This workshop will run for approximately one hour. The second hour has been set aside to allow staff to drop in for help with their housekeeping problems. It is important that everyone re-sets their old WebCT sites before using them. During this workshop participants will learn how to clean up the WebCT site for a course in order to be able to re-use the site with new students or to use it as a template for another WebCT course. By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Discussion Tool (Bulletin Board) This workshop gives you the experience and knowledge to use and manage the Discussion Tool. This very powerful tool for online teaching can be used to facilitate deep learning. By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Farewell Reception for Outgoing Vice-Chancellor Professor Mark Wainwright - 13 June 2006TO: All UNSW Staff You are cordially invited to a Farewell Reception for the outgoing Vice-Chancellor, Professor Mark S Wainwright. Professor Wainwright is retiring after thirty-two years of service to UNSW and he would be delighted if you would join him as he farewells his many friends and colleagues at the University. The Reception will be held on Tuesday 13 June 2006 from 4.00pm till 6.00pm in Leighton Hall, the John Niland Scientia Building. Please RSVP (acceptances only) to Ms Alyson Wills by Tuesday 6 June 2006, via email vcreception@unsw.edu.au or telephone: 02 9385 2884. EXHIBITION - Passchendaele Beyond ImaginationAn Exhibition of Drawings by Murray KirklandThe Library, ADFA - 20 April to 18 June Library hours: Mon-Turs: 9am - 9pm Friday: 9am to 5pm Sat-Sun: 1pm - 4pm For information email: jeff.doyle@adfa.edu.au or phone the Library on 6268 8111. Trooping the Queen's Colour Parade - 10 JuneTo celebrate the official birthday of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, the Royal Military College will conduct the annual ceremonial Trooping of the Queen's Colour Parade at Duntroon, on Saturday, 10 June 2006, commencing at 1015 h. An invitation has been extended by the Commandant of RMC, BRIG Chris Appleton, to all military and University staff of ADFA to attend the parade. Any member of the academy who wishes to attend should forward the following details onto robert.odonnell1@defence.gov.au by Friday, 19 May: a. rank, initials, name and post nominals (if applicable); b. if being accompanied; and c. an address for correspondence (including postcode). B.R. Dawson Workshop "Preparation for Retirement" - 13 JulyOn Thursday 13th July the Staff Development Unit has organised a one day workshop Preparation for Retirement and if you wish to attend please forward your expression of interest to the Staff Development Unit to secure a place. The cost will be $185/person and will commence at 9.00am finishing at 5.00pm with lunch and light refreshments included. A copy of the workshop content is below. "SUCCESSFUL RETIREMENT – WORKSHOP / COURSE OVERVIEW Helping Pre-retirees plan their
Retirement Lifestyle While many approaching retirement age have taken financial planning advice, few invest time and energy planning the nonfinancial aspects of retiring. Many underestimate the impact this significant change will have on them, and with hindsight, wish they'd planned it better. The goal of this workshop is to encourage attendees to take responsibility for creating a retirement they'll love. It will stimulate their self-awareness, discuss their belief systems around retirement, give advice on making a smooth transition, and examine eight important areas to consider when putting in place a Retirement Plan for the next 20 plus years of their life. Attendees must bring a pen and an open mind. TIMING AND DURATION 9.00-10.30 (20min tea/coffee break) RESOURCES AND TRAINING AIDS W orkbooks including presentation material with space for personal notes, questionnaires, exercises, motivational pieces, inspiring case studies, summary of suggested further reading and websites with useful information will be provided." Anne Green, Staff Development and Equity Units
Email: a.green@adfa.edu.au
RESEARCH & RESEARCH TRAINING OFFICE REPORTDiagnosis by dustWell, those avid star-gazers in the School of Physical , Environmental and Mathematical Sciences (PEMS) are still continually perusing the skies! Obviously they do so very effectively, and we are pleased to advise that Dr Chris Wright has been requested by the Anglo-Australian Observatory to provide some input for publicising Australia 's role in the Gemini telescope project into the next issue of Australian Sky and Telescope. Dr Chris Wright : Dust in space is no longer just a nuisance to optical astronomers: to those working in the infrared it's now a source of information about cosmic processes. The fairly new field of astromineralogy is about determining the chemical composition, crystal structure, grain size and distribution of dust. It's been made possible by progress in infrared observing instruments and techniques. Small silicate grains at temperatures of several tens of degrees Celsius emit strongly in the thermal infrared: instruments such as T-ReCS (the Thermal Region Camera and Spectrograph) on Gemini South can now take spectra whose spatial and spectral resolution is good enough to study the distribution and nature of dust in, for instance, disks around stars, where it may signal planet-formation. Cosmic dust grains can range in size from only a few tens of molecules' worth up to about a millimetre across. (Above this size the ‘grains' are more formally called planetesimals.) They form as sub-micron sized particles in the atmospheres of old, cool stars: carbon stars make carbon-rich grains, and red giants exhale oxygen-rich grains, such as silicate particles and water ice. Shed into the interstellar medium, these grains are recycled into molecular clouds and then into the stars that form from them, changing their chemistry, structure and size along the way. Dust in circumstellar disks clumps itself into planetesimals (and thence into planets), comets and meteoroids. But the process is not one-way: when these small bodies collide they make dust anew, while mature comets fray away on their travels. Dr Chris Wright, an Australian Research Council Fellow of UNSW@ADFA in Canberra studies astromineralogy. “We understand only very generally the various processes dust goes through in our solar system. But we have to infer what happened in the early stages by observing the present, more than four billion years after the event. Another way is to observe much younger star systems and compare what we see there with what is now observed in our own solar system,” he said. “For instance, one of the questions we can ask of any other stellar system is, is dust processed the same way there?” The answer seems to be that the processing is quite similar, at least in a couple of systems examined by Wright and his colleagues. In the 1990s they used observations made with the Anglo-Australian Telescope to compare dust in the 10-20 million year old disk around ? Pictoris with that shed by Comet Halley. “Both spectra have features at 9.7 and 11.2 microns, indicating amorphous and crystalline silicates respectively,” said Wright. “Given such a similarity, then perhaps that means comets are present in the ??Pic disk, and so by extrapolation also planets, though such assertions require much more evidence.” In April and May this year, they used T-ReCS on Gemini South to study dust around the 10-million-year-old star HD100546. “This dust was already known to be similar to that shed by Comet Hale-Bopp,” said Wright. “Again, we see a mixture of crystalline and amorphous silicates. But we don't find crystalline silicates in the space between stars, the so-called interstellar medium, so the silicates in the disk have probably crystallised before comets formed—but when and how? That's still to be answered,” he said. “There are theories, but they need to be tested by observation, for example by looking for a spatial difference between populations of amorphous and crystalline silicates in the disk. Our Gemini observations, which probe a region within the planet and comet formation zone, are part of that testing regime.” Can dust show clearly if a circumstellar disk is forming planets? One of the best-studied circumstellar disks is that of the star ? Pictoris. Early observations suggested it had a partial inner gap, possibly cleared by dynamical interaction with an unseen planet. Then observations published in 2004 suggested that the dust in this disk was concentrated in three rings, rings that might harbour comets or planetesimals whose collisions would create the dust. But this multiple ring structure wasn't confirmed by other observations published in 2005. “So we thought we might be able to clarify the picture,” said Wright. In 2005 Wright and colleagues used T-ReCS on Gemini South to observe ? Pictoris and the 10-million-year-old HR4796A, another star with hints of planet formation in its disk. Both stars are similar to the Sun, although much younger and with slightly higher temperatures and luminosities. Their disks are roughly the same size: both have a radius of about 150 AU when observed in the thermal infrared. But despite the stars' similarities, their dust disks “are strikingly different in structure,” Wright said. Although one side of the disk is brighter in both cases, emission from HR4796A is high right across the disk, then falls off very sharply. There is little extra emission at the position of the star itself, suggesting the dust is distributed in a ring rather than a continuous disk. By contrast, despite the inferred partial inner dust clearing, ? Pic's emission peaks sharply at the position of the star and then gradually falls off with radius. “Could both of these structures harbour planets?” asked Wright. At present, it's unclear. Wright and his colleagues are still analysing the data from all three stars, and will make further observations. For instance, they are using the CSIRO Australia Telescope near Narrabri to search for signs of extremely cold (down to a few hundred degrees C), millimetre-sized particles toward HD100546, and the Spitzer Space Telescope to perform thermal spectroscopy of a larger sample of stars.
Parliament House Book LaunchOn Thursday last week, Professor David Lovell from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences attended the official launch of Prof Peter Edwards' book: 'Arthur Tange: Last of the Mandarins' (Allen & Unwin, 2006). Prof Edwards is a Visiting Fellow within the School. The book was launched at Parliament House by the Minister of Defence, The Hon Dr Brendan Nelson. In Peter Edwards' words, the book is about 'personality, policies, and public administration', and devotes considerable attention to the period when Sir Arthur was Secretary of the Department of Defence, during the bulk of the 1970s. Sir Arthur was a great advocate of the university-level education of officers in the ADF, and championed ADFA and the spirit of enquiry it would engender in its students. (He was unsuccessful in his wish to see Philosophy as a part of the curriculum.) Professor Edwards gave generous acknowledgement to UNSW@ADFA assistance in writing the book, both in the book itself and at the book launch.
Congratulations to ITEE studentsCongratulations to Mr Lam Bui and Mr Sameer Alam from the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering. It has come to the attention of the Research and Research Training Office (RRTO) that their proposed edited book "Multi-objective Optimization in Computational Intelligence: Theory and Practice" has been accepted for publication by Idea Group Publishing (IGP), USA . Professor Joseph Lai, Associate Dean (Research) congratulates both students on their good work, and notes that A/Professor Hussein Abbass (who is not a co-editor) has applauded the students for their excellent teamwork.
New Endeavour Scholarships ProgramRecently DEST announced the details for the enhanced Endeavour Scholarships program at a number of workshops held nationally. You can obtain the entire presentation from the Research and Research Training Office website at: http://www.unsw.adfa.edu.au/units/research/index.html as there may be other items of interest to both researchers and research students. The link directly to the DEST site for the Endeavour program itself is included. http://www.endeavour.dest.gov.au/ ClassifiedsThe Newsletter is published each Thursday fortnight. If you have something you would like to contribute, please download and complete the submission form and email the information to newsletter@adfa.edu.au by 12 noon on Wednesdays. For SaleHolden Barina - 1998 - 121,000 - one owner - excellent condition - service history available - $4,800. For inspection or further information please call 6286 6542. Recycled Canberra Red Bricks great for paving, suitable for extensions etc $1.00 each. We also have various other solid bricks suitable for paving or building @75¢ each. Delivery available. Contact Richard 6241 1018 Nissan Pathfinder ST 4WD 2000: Full Service History log book Condition As New Kilometres 54,400 Transmission Automatic Engine 3275 cc Fuel Unleaded External Colour Chamois Beige Interior Grey Registration ACT until April 2007 Cylinders 6 Price 20,500 or nearest offer Comments: Life time warranty on DiamondGuard Paint, DiamondGuard Fabric and DiamondGuard Vinyl products in the Pathfinder. Registered for 12 months and with 2 new tyres Features: 16" Alloy Wheels, 4 Speaker Stereo, Adjustable Steering Col. - Tilt only, Air Conditioning, Airbag – Drivers, CD Player, Central Locking, Flares, Intermittent Wipers, Limited Slip Diff, Power Antenna, Power Door Mirrors, Power Steering, Power Windows - Front & Rear, Remote Boot/Hatch Release, Remote Fuel Lid Release, Side Steps and Tachometer. Contact: Dennis Isbister 6268 8061 Wanted to BuySofa bed and reliable washing machine, both in very good condition, suitable for aged pensioner. Northside preferable (unless you can help arrange delivery). Please call ADFA 62688356. back to topUpcoming Events
FREE COMMUNITY LECTURESSchool of Physical , Environmental & Mathematical Sciences - 26 MayFriday 26 May 11.10am
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