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News from ECSE

The department would like to congratulate:

Prof David Suter elected to the College of Experts of the ARC

Prof Arthur Lowery who became a Fellow of the Australia Academy of Technological Science and Engineering (ATSE)

Future Energy Challenge Team who scored second place in the finals in Dallas.

ARC Grant recipients:

Prof RA Jarvis; Prof I Zukerman; Dr J Alexandersson; Prof Y Shirai Multisensory Fusion and Understanding in Robotic Assistive Technology Environments

Dr MH Premaratne; Prof AJ Lowery; Prof GP Agrawal; Prof B Jalali Design and Experimental Demonstration of Ultrabroadband Silicon Optical Amplifiers

A/Prof RA Russell Manoeuvrable burrowing robots for underground search

Prof D Suter; A/Prof A BabHadiashar Statistical Methods of Model Fitting and Segmentation in Computer Vision

The Australian Robotics and Automation Association Best Student Paper Prize

The Australian Robotics and Automation Association Best Student Paper Prize has been awarded to Alan Zhang and Associate Professor Lindsay Kleeman at the Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation held in December 2007 for their paper "Robust Appearance Based Visual Route Following in Large Scale Outdoor Environments" .

Clunies Ross Award

Prof Arthur Lowery is a recipient of the 2007 Clunies Ross Awards for his work in photonics. (April 2007)

Engaging youth through science

In just under three hours, Dr Andrew Price, was able to teach a class of Year 12 students how to build their own microcontroller system -- resulting in a product the students could use on their home computers and continue to develop long after the lesson was over. The students attending the National Youth Science Forum (NYSF) earlier this month were from across Australia. Many had travelled thousands of kilometers to attend the Monash University Science session held at the Clayton campus on 9 February. (Feb 2007)

T.J. Tarn Best Paper in Robotics

Assoc Prof Andy Russell's paper "Tracking Chemical Plumes in 3-Dimensions" was awarded the T.J. Tarn Best Paper in Robotics, Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO 2006). (Dec 2006)

Electricity supply research centre opens

The Victorian Minister for Innovation, Mr John Brumby, has officially opened a new Monash research centre that will play a pivotal role in improving the operation of Australia's power transformers. The Centre for Power Transformer Monitoring, Diagnostics and Life Management, at the university's Clayton campus, is a world first. The centre's partners include the Wilson Transformer Company, Dynamic Ratings and TJ|H2b Analytical Services. (Oct 2006)

Faster optical communications coming down the line

Professor Arthur Lowery and Associate Professor Jean Armstrong, with Business Development Manager Ms Leonore Ryan, have won the 2006 Peter Doherty award. Professor Arthur Lowery and Associate Professor Jean Armstrong, from the Faculty of Engineering, won the Peter Doherty prize for developing optical OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) -- the optical equivalent of ADSL. The Peter Doherty prize recognises optical OFDM technology as the most outstanding commercialisation opportunity... (June 2006)

Recent articles featuring members of our department:

Monash's future engineers win

A team of Monash engineering students has won an international competition for its design of a cost effective, environmentally friendly power source for homes in developing nations. Monash team co-leader Mr John Luo said the win provided a chance to promote Australia. The win provided a cash prize of US$11,000 to be split between Monash University and the team. (Aug 2005)

"Smart" wheelchair gives obstacles the run around

A Monash University robotics expert has built a "smart" semi-automatic wheelchair that can navigate itself around obstacles if its user becomes temporarily incapacitated. (Monash Newsline May 2005)

Centre for Power Transformer Monitoring, Diagnostics and Life Management STI bid successful

A Victorian Government STI Fund grant of $1.59 million over three years towards establishing a world class centre that will facilitate laboratory, factory and field research and development activities for oil-filled power transformers has been announced. Total project value is estimated at $3.61 million. Maintaining and upgrading infrastructure to meet power services demand is a worldwide challenge. This project focuses on building new capabilities that expand upon internationally recognised expertise in power transformer research. The Centre for Power Transformer Monitoring, Diagnostics and Life Management will enable the performance of insulation systems to be studied under different conditions, and allow examination
of methods to manage and extend the life of transformers. The new test facility will enable research into effective and attractive solutions for a number of identified technical areas including:
• Development of new cost-effective monitoring
• Diagnostic and life management technologies for industrial applications, such as algorithms, software, hardware and instrumentation
• Investigation of environmentally friendly, renewable, and less flammable alternative to current petroleum oils
• Improved reliability of power supply by minimising transformer related power disruptions
The project brings together representatives of the entire power transformer supply chain and an internationally recognised research team to deliver the project outcomes.

Founding Members Consortium
Monash University
Wilson Transformer Company (Vic)
Dynamic Ratings (Vic)
TJ/H2b Analytical Services (Vic & USA)
Affiliates
Ergon Energy
Weidman Company (Switzerland)
SPI PowerNet (Vic)
TXU (Vic)
Powercor/CitiPower (Vic)
Country Energy (NSW)
Energy Australia (NSW)
Powerlink (Qld)
Transpower (New Zealand)
Contact
Dr Valery Davydov, Monash University

(April 2005)