What's On at UWA

The Gates Foundation and its Grand Challenges partners are now accepting applications for a number of programs, including its Grand Challenges Explorations initiative, which encourages innovative and unconventional global health and development solutions.

To learn more about the Foundation, and how to approach its grant application process, you are invited to attend an information session featuring Dr Laura Boykin -- a Research Fellow, Computational Biologist, TED Fellow, and a CI on a new US$15.75 million Gates grant to the University of Greenwich's Natural Resources Institute entitled "African cassava whitefly: outbreak causes and sustainable solutions."

2015 UWA Gleddon Visiting Fellow Dr Kirill V. Larin, Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Texas, USA will talk about "Optical Coherence Tomography: imaging from molecules to whole (embryonic) body" and Dr Kirk W. Feindel, Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis (CMCA), UWA will talk about "The evolution of noninvasive imaging for embryo characterisation". Refreshments will be served during an informal networking break. Please register your attendance to [email protected] by Friday 20 March (with 'Bioengineering Seminar-Thursday 26 March' in the subject line of your email.).

Time and place: 15:00 Friday 27 March in Weatherburn LT.

Speaker: Gabriel Verret (University of Western Australia)

Title: Vertex-primitive digraphs having vertices with almost equal neighbourhoods.

Abstract: Apart from some very trivial examples, a vertex-primitive digraph cannot have two vertices with equal neighbourhoods. (This is an easy exercise.) The first non-trivial case is thus when a vertex-primitive digraph has two vertices with neighbourhoods differing by one. I will give a proof of the classification of such digraphs, and describe a more general result and some applications.

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has a range of opportunities for health professionals and engineers. Find out more at the ADF information sessions on 31 March where you can speak to a serving Engineering Officer. Register at: uwa.careerhub.com.au

The Australian Defence Force has a variety of technologically advanced capabilities which includes a range of air, maritime and land platforms with integral and supporting operating, communications, intelligence, surveillance, weapons and electronic warfare systems. As an Engineering Officer you'll be part of a highly qualified team whose role it is to keep these capabilities operating reliably and with precision, to update or add new technology to the system and to support the design and development of the next generation of advanced capabilities. Find out more about being an Engineer in the ADF at this information session and speak to a serving Engineering Officer.

The Telethon Kids Institute Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines & Infectious Diseases invite consumers and community members to have a say on a wide range of research into childhood infectious diseases including: - Ear Health - Vaccines - Antibiotic use - Infections in pregnancy. If you have an opinion we would like to hear it so come and have a say! Light lunch and payment for out of pocket expenses are provided.

Time and place: 15:00 Friday 10 April in Weatherburn LT.

Speaker: Jason Semeraro (University of Bristol)

Title: Conway Groupoids.

Abstract: To a supersimple 2-(n,4,lambda) design (a simple design where lines intersect in at most two points), one may associate a "Conway groupoid." This is a generalization of the Mathieu groupoid associated to Conway's M_13 using a `game' played on P_3, the finite projective plane of order 3. We will discuss what is known so far about Conway groupoids. Highlights include a full classification for lambda<3, a structural characterization of the Mathieu groupoid, and a surprising connection with 3-transposition groups. We also speculate on the possibility of a full classification subject to the condition that the analogue of the set M_13 actually forms a group. If time permits, we will describe a new infinite family of completely transitive codes which were discovered along the way. The talk is intended to be accessible, with plenty of time given to motivation and context. This is joint work with Nick Gill and Neil Gillespie.

Dear Researcher,

The Pawsey Supercomputing Centre (formerly known as iVEC) is calling for applications from researchers to access time on the Petascale supercomputer - Magnus. If you are interested in using supercomputing resources for your research in 2015 - 2016, please consider applying. Researchers at CSIRO, Curtin, ECU, Murdoch and UWA can access the Partner Merit Allocation Scheme - with 58 million core hours available. Information about the call is available at http://www.ivec.org/applications-now-open-for-2015-mid-year-access-to-supercomputers/ The 2015 mid-year Merit Allocation calls are for the following schemes:

Geosciences Merit Allocation Scheme - supports geosciences-focused research projects from across Australia. There are 48 million core hours available in this call.

Pawsey Partner Merit Allocation Scheme - supports the whole range of computational research in Pawsey Partner institutions. There are 58 million core hours available in this call.

For this round, Pawsey will be piloting a pre-submission check for researchers who complete their applications by 16th April. Upon request, Pawsey supercomputing staff will check an application, highlighting any potential omissions or errors they identify, plus suggesting changes that may improve the technical assessment for the proposal. Project leaders who wish to take advantage of this pre-submission check, should email a request to [email protected] in advance of 16th April, noting the URL of the application from the Pawsey Allocation Portal.

Pawsey will be running Merit Allocation workshops to provide support for those submitting applications. Workshop times and locations are:

- Tuesday 14th April, 2:00pm: Murdoch University

- Thursday 16th April, 10:00am: CSIRO, Kensington

Please register online for these workshops at http://www.ivec.org/event/merit-allocation-workshops-2015-mid-year/.

Limited places are also available for our introductory supercomputing training on 14-15 April. For more information and to register, please visit http://www.ivec.org/event/april-supercomputing-training/

For assistance with your application or for any other enquiries, please contact the Pawsey Helpdesk at [email protected].

Time and place: 16:00 Tuesday 14 April in Weatherburn LT.

Speaker: Laura Mancinska (National University of Singapore)

Title: Graph homomorphisms for quantum players.

Abstract: A homomorphism from a graph X to a graph Y is an adjacency preserving mapping f:V(X)->V(Y). We consider a nonlocal game in which Alice and Bob are trying to convince a verifier with certainty that a graph X admits a homomorphism to Y. Classical players can succeed if and only if X admits a homomorphism to Y. In contrast, entangled quantum players can sometimes succeed even when the corresponding homomorphism does not exist. This motivates the introduction of quantum homomorphisms which turn out to be natural graph-theoretic objects and can also be defined in purely combinatorial terms.

Via systematic study of quantum homomorphisms we prove new results for the previously studied quantum chromatic number. Most importantly, we show that the Lovasz theta number of the complement lower bounds the quantum chromatic number, which itself is not known to be computable. We also show that other quantum graph parameters, such as quantum independence number, can differ from their classical counterparts. Finally, we show that quantum homomorphisms closely relate to zero-error channel capacity. In particular, we use quantum homomorphisms to construct graphs for which entanglement-assistance increases their one-shot zero-error capacity. This talk is based on http://arxiv.org/abs/1212.1724 which is a joint work with David E. Roberson.

Find out which of our undergraduate mature-age entry pathways are most appropriate to you based on your individual study history, and learn more about what to expect from student life.

Our staff will also be on hand to answer any questions you have about studying at UWA.

Representatives from UWA's Exchange Partner institutions, returned students and faculty representatives will be there to tell you all about the fantastic opportunities they have available. Make sure your students come along to the Oak Lawn to check it out!

Time and place: 15:00 Friday 17 April in Blakers LT.

Speaker: Alastair Litterick (University of Auckland)

Title: The Many Faces of Triangle Groups.

Abstract: Do the finite groups in a given class have generating sets of a prescribed form? Versions of this problem are as old as group theory itself, and still arise naturally today in enumerative geometry, combinatorics, the inverse Galois problem, and computational algebra.

This talk will consider `triangle-generated finite groups', i.e. 2-generated groups where the generators and their product have specified orders. We will discuss in particular the `rigidity conjecture' of Claude Marion, which relates triangle generation in a family of finite groups of Lie type to a property of the corresponding algebraic group. Recent progress on this conjecture has required a surprising variety of approaches, and we will discuss each of these and their limitations..

What is Ladies S&C? A gym-based strength session designed specifically for women on the school run who are keen to maintain fitness and health as they get older!

How is Ladies S&C different to other exercise classes? Instructor Expertise - Accredited Exercise Physiologist, Strength & Conditioning Coach Group and individualised programming - designed to challenge participants physically and help them reach their individual fitness goal Focused - Goals based on individual female clients who are keen to maintain health & fitness throughout life!

When? 10-week block commencing 20th April (Monday 9am & Wednesday 9am)

To enrol contact the UWA Exercise and Performance Centre on 6488 3333 or [email protected] $110 x 1 class/week for 10 weeks or $220 x 2 classes/weeks for 10 weeks

Individual assessment session required prior to starting to develop a personalised program. Health fund rebates may apply.

Time and place: 15:00 Friday 24 April in Blakers LT.

Speaker: Bart De Bruyn (Ghent University)

Title: Regular near hexagons and Q-polynomial distance-regular graphs.

Abstract: A near 2d-gon is a point-line geometry with diameter d having the property that for every point x and every line L, there exists a unique point on L nearest to x. A near polygon is called thick if every line is incident with at least three points and regular if its collinearity graph is a so-called distance-regular graph. In my talk, I will discuss thick regular near 2d-gons with a so-called Q-polynomial collinearity graph. For d > 3, we show that apart from Hamming near polygons and dual polar spaces there are no thick Q-polynomial regular near polygons. A thick regular near hexagon is Q-polynomial if and only if t = s^3 + t_2 (s^2 - s + 1), where t + 1 is the number of lines through each point, s + 1 is the number of points on each line and t_2 + 1 is the constant number of common neighbors that two points at distance 2 have. We also show that there cannot exist (necessarily Q-polynomial) regular near hexagons whose parameters (s,t_2,t) are equal to either (3,1,34), (8,4,740), (92,64,1314560), (95,19,1027064) or (105,147,2763012). All these nonexistence results imply the nonexistence of distance-regular graphs with certain parameters. We also mention some applications of these non-existence results.

(Joint work with Frederic Vanhove)

Find out about the benefits of a UWA postgraduate course, how a postgraduate degree can help you to advance your career, gain a promotion or change your career path.

Prospective Student Advisers, faculty staff, academics and current postgraduate students will be on hand to answer your questions, talk you through how you can fit postgraduate studies into your life and discuss entry requirements, the application process and scholarships.

The course will focus on identifying what information is required, how to interpret measured data and how to apply to new system design and existing operations. Attendees will learn about slurry physical and chemical properties, how flow properties or rheology are measured and how to meaningfully interpret rheological data for viscosity, yield stress, time dependence and dewatering information.

RDI is sponsoring two UWA students or staff to attend the Ignition Innovation and Entrepreneurship Course in 2015.

Ignition is an intensive 5.5 day education program for aspiring entrepreneurs, academics and corporate innovators to trial and prepare their business ideas for the commercial environment.

The course will be held Sunday 23 - Friday 28 August 2015 however interested applicants should attend the information session held at UWA on 6 May which will outline the selection criteria and application process for scholarship selection.

RSVP for the information session required by 4 May to: [email protected].

The College is very excited to host our second Annual Youth Day Festival in partnership with the UWA Confucius Institute. Highlights of this year's concert will include The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto and The Yellow River Piano Concerto (movements II & III). Raymond Yong as conductor and soloists Riley Skevington (violin), Krista Low (cello) and Aidan Boase (piano) supported by an orchestra of young musicians.

A cultural festival will be held between the two concerts which are repeats. First concert is at 3.30 pm and the second concert is at 7.00 pm.

In this public lecture, Jan Cilliers, Professor of Mineral Processing and Head of Department of Earth Science and Engineering in the Royal School of Mines at Imperial College London, will discuss techniques of industrial flotation, rather than simply laboratory or research curiosities. The talk will show lots of videos and pictures, and should be of interest even to those who have no interest in flotation.

Cost: Free, but RSVP is requested via the webpage http://www.ias.uwa.edu.au/lectures/cilliers