What's On at UWA

The Graduate School of Education invites you to participate in this inaugural Seminar Series.

With a focus on sharing personal insights into timely and relevant topics in education research, these seminars will engage participants in a lively discussion of some of the pressing issues affecting Australia’s academics, schools and society today.

Speakers and topics for 2012

15 August

Winthrop Professor Grady Venville

“Choosing science comes more from the heart than from the brain (or the pocket)”: A retrospective study of why scientists chose to study science.”

26 September

Winthrop Professor Stephen Houghton

“Are the seeds of antisociality and psychopathic traits sown early in life?”

10 October

Winthrop Professor and Chapple Chair David Andrich

“Sliding Doors in Academe: Idiosyncrasies of autobiography and controversy in psychometrics”

31 October

Winthrop Professor and Faculty Dean Helen Wildy

“NAPLAN Data: Improving student learning OR doing the work of the Devil?”

14 November

Winthrop Professor Thomas O’Donoghue

The primary school’s invasion of the privacy of the child: Unmasking the potential of some current practices

Venue Details

RSVP to Ms. Alyce Green, Administrative Assistant, GSE [email protected]

Abstracts and additional details will be distributed closer to the event date.

The ‘science pipeline’ in Australia is under threat because not enough budding scientists are moving through from school to university to science-based jobs. The aim of this research was to retrospectively survey current Australian and New Zealand scientists to ascertain why they chose to study science. The quantitative data from 722 respondents showed that, unsurprisingly, the main reasons were that they were interested in science and they were good at science. Secondary school science classes and one particular science teacher also were found to be important factors. Of more interest are their anecdotes about the challenges of becoming a scientist, some of which will be shared in this presentation.

Not only is volunteering an opportunity to give back to the community but it provides invaluable experience which can be included on your resume and helps to boost your employablity.

Come and learn more about the value of volunteering and the opportunities available.

The 2012 Blakers Mathematics Competition is now open.

Eligible candidates are all undergraduates in first, second and third years at a WA university.

Entries must be received by Friday, September 28, 2012. They may be mailed or given to Dr Greg Gamble, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, 6009. Please mark your entry Blakers Mathematics Competition 2012, and include your name, address, email address, university, and number of years you have been attending any tertiary institution.

More details about how to enter can be found at http://www.maths.uwa.edu.au/students/competitions

Groups and Combinatorics Seminar

Pablo Spiga (University of Milano-Bicocca)

will speak on

Compositions of n and an application to the covering number of the symmetric groups

at 1pm in MLR2 on Tuesday 21st of August

Abstract: Given a positive integer n, a k-composition of n is an ordered sequence of k positive integers summing up to n. In this short talk, we are interested on the number of k-compositions satisfying some "coprimeness" condition. As an application we give a Classification-free proof of some results on the covering number of the symmetric group.

All welcome

SIFE is a global network of university teams competing in over 40 countries, creating change in the lives of others through the positive power of business.

Being the 2012 National Australian Champions, SIFE UWA will be travelling to Washington D.C in September to represent Australia at the SIFE World Cup. SIFE UWA has projects in areas including financial literacy, environmental sustainability and economic development whilst simultaneously impacting communities across Australia and beyond.

Want to help make a difference and gain invaluable business experience?? SIFE UWA is looking for talented, switched-on students from a range of disciplines to help us make a difference.

If you are interested in getting involved, we would like to invite you to the SIFE UWA Information Session WHEN: 1pm, Tuesday 28th of August, 2012 WHERE: Law Lecture Room 1, G.31

For more information – please contact [email protected]

Groups and Combinatorics Seminar

BIll Smyth (McMaster University/Kings College London/UWA)

will speak on

Are Three Squares Impossible?

at 1pm Tuesday 28th of August in MLR2.

Abstract: This talk describes work done over the last 30 years or so both to understand and to compute repetitions in strings -- especially since 1999. We will discover that, although much has been learned, much combinatorial insight gained, there remains much more that is unknown about the occurrence of repetitions in strings and the restrictions they are subject to. I present combinatorial results discovered only recently, and I suggest that possibly extensions of these results can be used to compute repetitions in an entirely new way. I hope that members of the audience will be motivated to work on some of the many open problems that remain, thus to extend combinatorial knowledge even further.

All welcome

Join us for a free welcome BBQ during common lunch hour - meet new friends, catch up with old ones and chat about burning Australia-China issues!

Green chemistry is about developing processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture and use of chemical products.

The presentation will track the development of green chemistry, as a drive towards getting the planet onto a sustainable trajectory, followed by our recent contributions to the field. This includes the use of continuous flow microfluidic platforms to control organic synthesis without generating waste, and avoiding the use of toxic reagents, with scope for carryout reactions in water as a benign solvent. The same technology can also be used to fabricate nano-particles with fine control of size, shape, phase, agglomeration and defects.

Here the ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’ processing features in gaining access to functional materials for application in three areas facing humanity – health, energy and protecting the environment.

Bio,

Professor Colin Raston is an ARC Australian Professorial Fellow, and Director of the Centre fro Strategic Nano-Fabrication (Incorporating Toxicology) at The University of Western Australia (UWA), and is on the NICNAS Nano-technology Advisory Group. He has been at UWA since 2003, and has held Chairs at Griffith University, Monash University, and the University of Leeds, with previous positions at UWA as a Lecturer, and Sussex University as a Postdoctoral Fellow. He has received the Royal Australian Chemical Institute’s Green Chemistry Challenge Award, the H.G. Smith Award, the Burrows Award, and the Leighton Memorial Award, and is a former recipient of an ARC Special Investigator Award, ARC Senior Research Fellowships, and played a leading role in establishing the ARC Centre of Excellence in Green Chemistry at Monash University. He recently completed a five year term as Associate Dean Research in the Faculty of Life and Physical Sciences (2005-2009) and a three year term on the College of Experts for the Australian Research Council (2007-2009),

He has been on editorial board of several journals including Aust. J. Chem., and as Topic Editor for Crystal Growth and Design. He has completed a term as Chair of the Editorial Board of Green Chemistry, and member of the Editorial Board of Chem. Commun., and the International Advisory Committee for Angew. Chem. He is a former President of the RACI, as a Fellow of the Institute, Chairperson of the Queensland Branch, and Chairperson of the Inorganic Division. In 1996 he chaired the 17th International Conference on Organometallic Chemistry in Brisbane.

Professor Raston has published over 580 journal articles, and has a book, chapters in books, and has patents on fullerene, nano-particles, calixarenes, carbon nanotube separation and surface technology. His current research interests include nano-technology incorporating sustainability, process intensification, supramolecular chemistry and green chemistry.

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

****All Welcome****

Tourist movement is a complex process. It can be modelled from a number of different perspectives; for example, Tourism, Geography, Economics, Mathematics, Computer Sciences and Psychology. This talk aims to discuss a sound methodology, using Markov and Semi-Markov processes to model the spatial and temporal movement of tourists.

The objective is to understand, predict, control for, and optimise the decisions made by tourists in their choice of attractions.

Among other things, in recent years I have investigated infinite divisibility properties of some new probability laws: generalized Planck, Lambert, and generalized stable. Although infinite divisibility is now important in physics and quantitative finance, it has dropped out of the undergraduate curriculum.

So the first of two talks is aimed at introducing the elements of the subject. I will cover concepts and examples, with a few intuitive proofs to give a feel for why things are as they are.

As part of a tradition at the University Physics Screening, fortnightly screenings of various Science Fiction Movies, documentaries and famous recorded lectures will continue screening weekly all through this semester.

This week's screening features a recorded lecture "Fun To Imagine" by Richard Feynamn and Part 3 of "ATOM" by Jim Al-Khalili

FREE ENTRY, and drinks and snacks can be purchased at the door

Groups and Combinatorics Seminar

Irene Pivotto (UWA)

will speak on

Packing Steiner trees

at 1pm Tuesday 2nd of October in MLR2

Abstract: A classic theorem of Nash-Wiliams and Tutte gives necessary and sufficient conditions for a graph to have k pairwise edge-disjoint spanning trees. We will discuss the natural generalization of this problem to trees spanning a distinguished set of vertices (which we refer to as Steiner trees). Finding edge-disjoint spanning trees is a considerably easier problem that finding edge-disjoint Steiner trees. This is due to the fact that spanning trees are bases of the natural matroid associated with a graph, while Steiner trees are not bases of any matroid. We will present a result that provides sufficient conditions for the existence of k edge-disjoint Steiner trees, reducing this problem to finding disjoint bases of a particular matroid. No prior knowledge of matroid theory is required to attend the talk.

As part of a tradition at the University Physics Screening, fortnightly screenings of various Science Fiction Movies, documentaries and famous recorded lectures will continue screening weekly all through this semester.

This week's screening features the famous cult-hit movie classic Donnie Darko by Richad Kelly.

FREE ENTRY, and drinks and snacks can be purchased at the door

Groups and Combinatorics Seminar

Michael Giudici (UWA)

will speak on

Commuting graphs of groups

at 1pm Tuesday 9th of October in MLR2

Abstract: The commuting graph of a group G is the graph whose vertices are the noncentral elements of G and two vertices are adjacent if and only if they commute. Iranmanesh and Jafarzadeh conjectured that the commuting graph of a finite group is either disconnected or has diameter bounded above by some constant. I will discuss recent joint work with Chris Parker on this conjecture.

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 Professor J. Hyam Rubinstein, Department of Mathematics & Statistics, University of Melbourne.

The Poincare conjecture was one of the most celebrated questions in mathematics. It was amongst the seven millennium problems of the Clay Institute, for which a prize of $1million was offered.

The Poincare conjecture asked whether a 3-dimensional space with `no holes’ is equivalent to the 3-dimensional sphere.

In 2003 Grigori Perelman posted three papers on the internet ArXiv outlining a marvellous solution to the Poincare conjecture, as part of the completion of Thurston’s geometrisation program for all 3-dimensional spaces. Perelman introduced powerful new techniques into Richard Hamilton’s Ricci flow, which `improves’ the shape of a space. Starting with any shape of a space with no holes, Perelman was able to flow the space until it became round and therefore verified it was a sphere.

A brief history of the Poincare conjecture and Thurston’s revolutionary ideas will be given. Hamilton’s Ricci flow will be illustrated.

Famously, Perelman turned down both the Clay prize and a Field’s medal for his work.

Cost: Free. RSVP to [email protected]

Groups and Combinatorics Seminar

Cai Heng Li (UWA)

will speak on

Finite meta-primitive permutation groups

at 1pm Tuesday 16th of October in MLR2

Abstract: A transitive permutation group is called meta-primitive if its any imprimitive quotient action is primitive, namely, each of the block systems is maximal. I will discuss the structural properties of meta-primitive groups.

All welcome.

As part of a tradition at the University Physics Screening, fortnightly screenings of various Science Fiction Movies, documentaries and famous recorded lectures will continue screening weekly all through this semester.

This week's screening features the sci-fi classic 'Alien'

FREE ENTRY, and drinks and snacks can be purchased at the door

***NOW RESCHEDULED TO 18 OCTOBER***

“Individual(s) ….embrace a new paradigm for all sorts of reasons ... . Some of these … lie outside the sphere of science entirely. Others depend upon idiosyncrasies of autobiography….” (Kuhn, 1970, p.l52). I will highlight some “idiosyncrasies of autobiography” that have led to enjoying an academic life – the opportunity to research and teach, to construct and communicate knowledge. I plan to illustrate how psychometrics, a field in which I had the opportunity to ignore or embrace an emergent, non-standard statistical paradigm, has lead beyond mathematical modelling to areas such as the philosophy of science, the sociology of knowledge and academic controversy. I plan to also illustrate the challenges in negotiating the complex world of academic research and communication.