What's On at UWA

You might have a great idea, but are you ready for the business world?

Whether you are working on a specific project or have a bunch of ideas that might be a future business or product, this workshop will help you get started!

Our presenter, Jane Garrett is an entrepreneur with firsthand experience of the path to success and can help you develop your skills. Jane is passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship and is the instigator and program director of the inspirational ‘Ignition’ program for inventors and business developers at the Curtin Centre for Entrepreneurship. Jane is also a regular contributor to the WA Innovator of the Year program and part of the WA Innovation Centre Team.

Come and join the discussions and learn!

Register your interest with Kerry for a tour of the Scitech workshop where we make our amazing exhibitions. Tour will start at 3.00pm. Refreshments and complimentary entry to Scitech are included in the ticket price.

A public lecture by Dr Scott Draper, Centre of Offshore Foundation Systems and UWA Oceans Institute.

Western Australia is bordered by substantial resources of marine energy - waves generated from storms in the Southern and Indian Oceans provide significant energy flux to the South of the state, and the Kimberley tides in the North offer some of the largest tidal fluctuations in the world.

In this lecture Dr Scott Draper will summarise the latest and best estimates, or upper bounds, of the renewable energy potential of these resources and compare them to other well-known forms of renewable energy. He will then begin to refine the upper bounds, allowing for theoretical and practical constraints. This necessitates a basic discussion of tidal and wave energy devices, beginning with the simplest idealisations and stepping up to the devices currently under development in Australia and the world.

He will conclude with refined estimates for the (technically) exploitable marine energy resources of Western Australia and outline the key challenges facing marine energy device developers in the race to become an economical form of energy supply.

Cost: Free, but booking essential. Book a seat (unreserved): http://www.ias.uwa.edu.au/lectures/draper

Whilst trade and enterprise have led Australia's bilateral relations with China, education promotes mutual understanding and long lasting links. This year's forum will focus on developing Chinese language and cultural competency in schools, universities and industry. His Excellency Mr Chen Yuming, Chinese Ambassador to Australia, will provide the keynote address and a panel of business leaders and education representatives will share their experiences.

Organisational accidents are typically rare, catastrophic events that can occur within complex modern systems such as nuclear power plants, commercial aviation, petrochemical plants, aerospace, marine, rail transport and complex technological organisations such as banks and mines. It is generally appreciated that single causes of system failures are extremely rare and that they usually result from a series of (relatively minor) events that become chained together to enable a disastrous outcome or failure to occur. Organisational accidents therefore, usually have multiple causes involving many systems and people operating at different levels of their respective companies and can have devastating effects on stakeholders, assets and the environment.

Today there are very few mining organisations that can survive the financial, legal and environmental repercussions from a major failure. This talk will illustrate how systemic (epidemiological) accident model theory, that has been very successfully applied in the aerospace and petrochemical industries in particular, can and has been applied to prevent failures in all aspects of mining organisations. The presentation will illustrate how the design and construction of successive layers of protection and defences contribute to ensuring a complex well‐defended mining operational system that not only addresses risks from physical mining activities and processing, but the stability of all types of landforms on the mine as well as surface and ground water contamination and management.

A critical issue in managing mining organisational risk is adapting to constant change that includes transfer of ownership and temporary cessation of mining activities (i.e. periods of care and maintenance). During these periods, organisation risk from the stability of landforms and water contamination does not reduce and may actually increase. The final aspect of the presentation details how layers of protection and defences need to be adapted accordingly to meet different types of change management requirements.

PS* This seminar is free and open to the public & no RSVP required.

****All Welcome****

As part of our continue tradition free screening, this week the University Physics Society will be screening one of the widely acclaimed recorded lectures by famous physicist Richard Feynmann. Entry is free and drinks and snacks will be available.

For more details email us at [email protected]

Building on the theme of the UWA Future Farm 2050 Project

The biggest issue facing humanity: how to feed 9 billion people in 2050 without destroying the planet. What science and technology is needed to meet this challenge?

Time: 1:00pm – 5:15pm followed by refreshments

Cost $40 + GST - RSVP for catering purposes by 2 April 2013 purchase tickets online at http://www.ioa.uwa.edu.au/industry-forum/

****************Program**************

1.00pm Welcome: W/Professor Kadambot Siddique, AM FTSE, Hackett Professor of Agriculture Chair, Director,The UWA Institute of Agriculture (IOA), UWA

1.10pm Why are we here?: Mr Graham Laitt, Managing Director, Milne Agrigroup Pty Ltd

1.28pm Future Food and Health: W/Professor Peter Leedman, Deputy Director, Western Australian Institute for Medical Research (WAIMR)

1:40pm Food Security or Food Quality for Australia?: Professor William Erskine, Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA), UWA

1.53pm CGE animal food production: W/Professor Graeme Martin, Head, School of Animal Biology, Deputy Director,Chair of Animal Science, The UWA Institute of Agriculture

2.05pm Farming and Biodiversity: Mr Chris Curnow, Program Manager – Southwest Australia Land Manager Engagement WWF-Australia

2.17pm Energy Independence: W/Professor Dongke Zhang, Director, UWA Centre for Energy

2.30pm Valuing Water: Asst/Professor Nik Callow, School of Earth and Environment, UWA

2.43pm Soils alive and productive: W/Professor Andrew Whiteley, School of Earth and Environment, UWA

2.55pm Afternoon Tea

3:22pm Food provenance: W/Professor John Watling, Centre for Forensic Science, UWA

3:35pm Instant monitoring of food quality: W/Professor Laurie Faraone, School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, UWA 3.48pm People/Rural Communities: Professor Matthew Tonts, Head, School of Earth and Environment, UWA

4:00pm Farmhouse Design for the Regions: Asst/Professor Patrick Beale, Chair of Architecture, School of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts, UWA

4.12pm Rural Enterprises: W/Professor Tim Mazzarol, UWA Business School

4.25pm Financial World View

4.38pm The Oxford Example and US Examples: Dr Annie Kerr, 3E Farming; Catherine Marriott, Influential Women,2012 WA RIRDC Rural Women’s Award recipient and the National Runner-up

4.50pm Summing Up and Discussion: W/Professor Peter Davies, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research)

5:10pm Refreshments

Lunch time talk: What Matters to me and Why (with W/Prof John Dell)

When: Wednesday 22nd May, 2013, 12pm to 1.30pm

Where: Science Library – 3rd Floor meeting room

'What Matters to me and why' is a series of lunch time talks and conversations with UWA Academics. The talks explore personal stories of family, place, formative influences and how such factors continue to shape people's lives and academic work.

The next conversation is with Winthrop Professor John Dell, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Professor Dell will share some of his story and then there will be the opportunity for questions/conversation. BYO Lunch. Tea/Coffee will be available in the meeting room. At the request of the Science Library, please don’t carry drinks through the library.

Come and find out about our undergraduate and postgraduate courses, career options, scholarship opportunities, our valuable research, community programs and facilities.

There's also residential college tours, hands-on activities, live music, entertainment, and plenty of fun activities for the whole family as we celebrate our 100th birthday.

As the Australian LNG sector continues to grapple with productivity challenges, Doug Buckley, VP Commercial Shell Australia, will talk about the role innovation has to play in keeping Australia competitive in the global gas market, and attracting future investment.

Peter Hartley, BHP Billiton Chair in the Business of Resources at The University of Western Australia will discuss the possible implications of the US shale gas on natural gas markets and the impact on Australia as a major global LNG supplier. contact [email protected] for ticket prices and details

W.A. has an economy that is highly dependent on mining and minerals processing. The state, which covers the western third of the Australian continent, has a population of only 2.3 million people (10% of Australia’s total), but is responsible for 46% of Australia’s total exports and 58% of mineral and energy exports. In 2012, there were 975 operating mines and 169 processing plants with more than 50 minerals mined in commercial quantities [1]. Over the last five years, demand from China, Korea and South East Asia has resulted in an state economy with an average annual growth of 4.4% and 15% business investment growth [2]. These mining operations may have many problems. Many of the ores may be unpredictably more difficult or costly to process or handle. As natural samples they can be complicated, they have multiple phases, with variations in particle size, substitution, order and morphology or contain trace phases that often have effects greater than their proportion in the materials would suggest. Until recently, many of these materials would have been examined only on the basis of their chemistry, usually by XRF or ICP-OES. The evolution of better and more flexible diffractometers, especially faster detectors and more robust analysis programs, has greatly reduced the instrument time and analyst time required and subsequently the cost of obtaining good XRD data. Mining and mineral processing companies that would have previously only analysed tens of samples by XRD, if any, can now analyse hundreds or even thousands of samples. Several past and potential future problems will be discussed where lab-based diffraction or synchrotron diffraction are a significant contributor to understanding the problem and providing solutions [1] Government of Western Australia, Dept of Mines and Petroleum. (2012) Western Australian Mineral and Petroleum Statistics Digest, 2011-2012. [2] Government of Western Australia, Dept of State Development. (2013) Western Australia – Economic Profile, January 2013

The workshop examines the fundamentals of Australian oil and gas law. Topics covered may include:

* the legal nature and protection of oil and gas exploration and production rights, both generally and in Australia * the Australian regulatory and licensing regime * control of operations * operating and other agreements * infrastructure issues * regulation of downstream operations including gas codes * fiscal arrangements.

The workshop will be accessible not only to lawyers entering the field, but also to those already concerned with oil and gas issues, government officials, resource company personnel, and others who seek an understanding of the legal context in which issues arise.

The workshop will be led by Professor Terence Daintith, The Centre for Mining, Energy and Natural Resources Law. Other participants will include:

* Members of the Resources and Energy Law Association (AMPLA) * Members of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) Australia/Asia chapter * Other leading specialists in oil and gas law drawn from private practice and in-house counsel.

A full set of reading materials will be distributed. Plenary sessions, in the form of lectures interspersed with class discussion, will be supplemented by small-group sessions examining in greater detail concrete or topical problems in the framing or application of the law.

Continuing Professional Points (CPD)

7 points (Competency Areas 1 and 3) - see brochure for further information

Enquiries The Centre for Mining, Energy and Natural Resources Law Co-Director Professor John Chandler (08) 6488 1907

Administrative Officer Jennifer Rhodes (08) 6488 2995

Visit the Centre's webpage for the full list of 2014 CPD activities and the latest news.

In the week beginning 24 March 2014, iVEC will offer the following short courses on supercomputing topics:

Introduction to iVEC: 1:00 – 2:00pm Mon 24th March

Introduction to Linux: 3:00 – 4:00pm Mon 24th March

Introduction to Supercomputing: 10:00am – 4:00pm Tues 25th March

Developing with MPI and OpenMP: 10:00am – 4:00pm Wed 26th March

Debugging with DDT: 10am – 12:00 noon Thurs 27th March

Introduction to Optimisation and Profiling: 1:00 – 4:00pm Thurs 27 March

Courses are delivered in a face to face classroom style. Attendees are encouraged to bring and work on their own laptops. Staff from the Supercomputing Team will be facilitating so you can meet and chat with them.

Free parking available on-site.

Courses are free of charge and open to all, however places are limited.

Light refreshments and lunch will be provided on each day (no lunch on Monday).

Register online at http://www.ivec.org/ai1ec_event/ivec-supercomputing-training-february-2014-2/?instance_id=

A public lecture by Denis Weaire, Emeritus Professor, School of Physics, Trinity College, Dublin and 2014 UWA Gledden Visiting Fellow.

The study of liquid foams has a long and fascinating history, involving for example the blind Belgian physicist JAF Plateau and the inspiring figure of Lord Kelvin in the 19th century. It remains a lively and wide research topic, and has spilled over into art and architecture, as well as many applications in industry. Professor Weaire will present a personal overview of the subject, ranging from basic mathematical questions to tomographic analysis of foam structures, which should interest a wide range of scientists and engineers, and be accessible to a wider audience as well.

Knowledge about the morphology and chemical composition of heterogeneous materials on a sub-micrometer scale is crucial for the development of new material properties for highly specified applications. However, each analytical measuring technique has limitations, which may be overcome by their combination. Confocal microscopy has been used to reconstruct three-dimensional images of micro-objects by using a spatial pinhole to eliminate out-of focus light in specimens thicker than the focal plane. Raman spectroscopy on the other hand is able to determine the chemical compositions of materials. The confocal Raman microscope combines Raman spectroscopy with high resolution confocal microscopy. The discrimination of out of focus information used in confocal microscopy is particularly beneficial for confocal Raman imaging since it reduces the volume from which the Raman spectrum is collected. Due to the confocal principle, depth information from transparent materials can be easily obtained, leading to full three dimensional chemical reconstructions of the material’s composition. The combination of confocal Raman microscopy with SPM and true surface microscopy permits characterization of materials at submicron resolution, as well as on mm-rough surfaces across large areas. Examples from various fields of applications will be presented.

Come and find out about UWA’s undergraduate and postgraduate courses, scholarship opportunities, outstanding career options and explore our community programs and facilities.

This year there will be campus tram tours, hands-on activities, live music and entertainment, as well as plenty of fun activities for the whole family to enjoy.

Join us for Open Day 2014 from 10.00am to 4.00pm on Sunday 10 August.

Surface science underpins all modern technology from Gore-Tex to the iPhone. We need to think about surfaces for catalysis, corrosion, coatings, growth of thin films, chemical/biological functionalization and nanotechnology just to name a few. Over the last few months Curtin has established a surface analysis facility based around a brand new x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) system. Using XPS one can determine the elemental and chemical composition of the first few nanometres of a sample surface. The XPS can also take images for chemical mapping and has a number of other electron, ion and photon-based techniques for surface analysis. The lab was established in partnership with UWA and can be accessed by all UWA researchers.

This talk will introduce the techniques available with a focus on XPS, and give some examples of how they can be used for materials science. The surface analysis facility is now available for users and a brief explanation will be given on how people can get training and access.

St George's College will throw open its doors for everyone to visit, explore and discover what life is like in the 'castle'! In conjunction with Open Gardens Australia the day will feature building and garden tours, a variety of musical performances, extensive art exhibition (including works by Jarrad Seng and John Ogburn), poetry readings, recitals of Randolph Stow works, food and beverages also available for purchase.

A live broadcast will also be held at the College of the 720 ABC James Lush program and the "Roots and Shoots" segment with Sabrina Hahn. Everyone is welcome to attend the broadcast from 8.30 am until 10.00 am.

An entry fee will be applicable from 10.00 am onwards of $8.00 per person (under 18 are free of charge). The monies raised will go towards our Scholarship Fund.

Come along and enjoy the beautiful spring day at St George's College.

A public lecture by Professor Pere Masqué, Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and 2014 UWA Gledden Visiting Fellow.

The accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in March 2011 caused the largest accidental release of radiation to the ocean. The magnitude of the disaster raised the alarm on the potential impact in marine ecosystems, aside from the obvious concern on the implications for human health via seafood consumption. Several monitoring programs were implemented soon after the accident, evidencing the relevance of the emissions of Iodine-131, Cesium-134 and Cesium-137: the concentrations of these radionuclides in seawater offshore the coast of Japan were enhanced by several orders of magnitude relative to background levels derived from the global fallout during the 20th century. Efforts on evaluating other potentially significant radionuclides, such as Iodine-129, Strontium-90 or Plutonium isotopes, were scarcer, largely because of the complexity of the required analysis. Here we will examine the already substantial amount of data and information accumulated over these last two years, and see how well we understand the impact of the accident in the marine environment.

Cost: Free, but RSVP required via http://www.ias.uwa.edu.au/lectures/masque

Missed out on the Postgrad & Honours Expo? Come along to the Business School foyer between 1pm and 2pm to meet staff from faculties across UWA. Have your questions about postgraduate studies answered and grab some free pizza!

FREE PIZZA! Missed out on the Postgrad & Honours Expo? Don't worry. 9 faculties come together in a mini expo in the Business School foyer to promote postgraduate and honours courses. We're here to answer any questions you may have.