SCEM Bytes - News

Australian Institute of Building - Awards 

From Left to right Ee Loon Tan, Vute Sirivivatnanon, Yingbin Feng, Swapan Saha, James Paton (top UWS graduate for 2013), Goran Runeson, Vivian Tam, Sasha Alexander, Mary Hardie (the short one), Sean Jin and Phil Love.

The annual Australian Institute of Building awards ceremony was held last Friday night at Darling Harbour.  Mr James Paton received an award as the best UWS graduate in Construction Management for 2013.  Dr Mary Hardie received a Chapter President’s award for research  and Dr Swapan Saha accepted the Institute’s accreditation award for the Bachelor of Construction Management program.

UWS exhibition sheds light on bright student designers

Chris Stuckey's lamp, a metaphor on the complexity of maps and grid systems, is woven from dissected old street directories to create a striking light sculpture. The old maps produce a subtle glow with sepia tones. Read the the Full Story

Next-generation social networks for developing countries 

Social networking has been embraced by businesses in developed nations across the globe as a way of connecting with customers, staff and stakeholders. Now, Professor Athula Ginige from the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics has been turning his talents towards how farmers in developing countries can tap into social networking to make better business decisions. Read the full story... 

SCEM showcases its expertise at CeBIT

The University of Western Sydney’s innovative technology research has recently received prominent coverage on national television and in a popular metropolitan newspaper.

Teleoperation of robotics, virtual environments and the interactive display system, Wonderama (pictured below), were demonstrated at the annual CeBIT technology exhibition at Darling Harbour.

Media attention for the UWS demonstrations at CeBIT have been strong.

Seven News broadcast a story in the 6pm bulletin and this morning both Seven’s Sunrise and Nine’s Today Show featured UWS projects. In total an estimated 1.5 million viewers saw the television segments on UWS.

The Today Show crossed lived to Dr Anton Bogdanovych, School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics and Dr Chris Stanton (pictured Below right), MARCS Institute, for a fun demonstration of the teleoperation of robots. The Today Show host explained teleoperated robots also have the potential to work in dangerous environments – saving workers’ lives. See Sunrise Tech Show on YouTube.  

The MX newspaper published a story on the telerobots research.  “Bogdanovych and Stanton are among some of the nation’s brightest minds showcasing their best ideas at CeBIT,” writes MX. See MX Twitter feed (opens in a new window).

Also participating and greatly assisting with the UWS media coverage during CeBIT were Michael Walsh (pictured left) and Andrew Leahy.

Many thanks to all the University staff who assisted with the media demonstrations, particularly those required for the early morning live cross which required them to be at the exhibition well before dawn.

Apps4NSW awards

SCEM Staff enter Competition to develop apps for NSW Health

Present are Dr Joanne Curry and the Minister for Health and Minister for Medical Research, Hon Jillian Skinner 

Joanne Curry with a member of her team from Staywell Health Solutions, with Ms Skinner and Hon Greg Pearce, Minister for Finance and Services. The event was held at State Parliament. 

Challenge 2: winner with Breathe Right

Air quality, whether it is air pollution, pollen, or temperature, affects many people every year; especially those with respiratory illnesses, allergies, or those who are susceptible to changes in the environment. It is well known that asthma attacks are on the increase, and currently as we write, NSW is announcing warnings of a heat wave and with it an expected increase in hospital admissions.

The "Breathe Right" app is targeted at providing people with timely information about air quality, pollen, and temperature changes to assist with travel and daily living planning as well as general personal environment management.

Challenge 4: winner with The Grey Book and People’s Choice award

The primary goal of the Grey Book app is to encourage our ageing population to take ownership of their own health by providing a simple and friendly medium for those over the age of 50 to keep track of their personal health. This includes not only medical data such as medications and personal test results (ie: blood glucose or blood pressure readings) but also other factors such as emotions and feelings, exercise, social outings, nutritional intake and general wellness.

Data can also be "pushed" to the "book" by the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) and Government and Professional bodies, regarding latest medical advances and research that relates to the "book owner", such as new blood pressure medications.

The app also provides a valuable resource for Doctors as if the person needs medical help, the clinician can view the information in the Grey Book, potentially leading to faster diagnosis and reduced medication errors due to ready access to pertinent health history.

In short the Grey Book will provide a one-stop-shop for recording, viewing and educating patients on, medical and wellness information as they grow older and will provide a valuable resource for clinicians, carers and family members. Such information will potentially help older people to avoid critical health incidents and related unnecessary hospital admissions.

SCEM Staff attend construction industry reception at the Government House

Dr Swapan Saha (pictured) with the NSW Governor General Professor Marie Bashir attended a construction industry reception at the Government House on 13 May 2013. Dr Saha emphasised in his brief speech that the Industry and the Government should support low SES Construction management students and graduates from greater western Sydney. 

The response was spontaneous and a number of organisations approached him and assured their future support. Governor also acknowledged our Vice Chancellor Prof Janice Reid and told the crowd that the University of Western Sydney is a good university and doing a great job.

ISSN 1837-4875 Volume 4 – Issue 1 – August 2012

IT student unleashes green app

University of Western Sydney Bachelor of Computer Science (Honours) student Daniel Grech has received nation-wide recognition for his new Smartphone app.

(L-R) Dr Terry Percival, NICTA, Daniel Grech and Austin Bryan, SingTel & Optus.

The UWS Solar Car Challenge 

The University of Western Sydney Solar Car Team has their sights set on international acclaim as they power towards the 2013 World Solar Challenge.

Dr Ali Hellany (pictured below), senior lecturer at the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics and academic supervisor for the Solar Car project believes UWS has the potential to succeed in the 2013 World Solar Challenge and do well. 

Research Collaboration between UWS and UTS brings Hollywood science fiction to life

Researchers from UTS and UWS have developed real-time full-body robot teleoperation technology portrayed in last year's Hollywood movie "Real Steel".

More news stories for the School of Computing, Mathematics and Engineering is accessible through Archived News.