From The Head

Dr Nicholas Chileshe has accepted an appointment as Senior Lecturer in Construction and Project Management after a long and distinguished academic career with Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. Nicholas is already working with us by supervising some of our Doctor of Project Management students, but he should be arriving in person in late June or early July to take up the position in person. Ralph McLaughlin is a young and exciting early career planner who is about to complete his PhD at the University of California Irvine, following which again in early July he should be arriving to join the Planning Discipline.

Last but by no means least is Terry Lucke, who has been working on a contract with us teaching within the Civil Engineering Discipline. Terry has now been appointed as a full-time continuing lecturer, as well as taking up the roles of Program Director for our offshore BUCEA Civil Engineering and Water Resource Management Masters degree programs. A most warm welcome must go to each of these incoming academics. As a School we should be very pleased, in the currently stringent financial climate, that the University allowed us to appoint new staff at this time, but also that we were able to attract such an outstanding group of new academics. They will be a great boost to the capacity and capabilities of our academic staff.

As a member of the Heads of Schools Steering Committee for the last two years and as convener of this group for 2008/9, I recently attended the HOS/Directors annual retreat in Glenelg. We were briefed on the very active current higher education policy environment in Australia in terms of the recent Bradley and Cutler reviews of higher education and also the climate of competition, internationalisation and most importantly scrutiny of the quality of our institution. The pilot and then full ERA audits of our research inputs and outcomes discipline by discipline will certainly drive the strategic agenda for further improving our research, whilst our recent improvement in the Learning and Teaching Improvement fund rankings and with Step2010 about to ”go live”, it is clear that we are making large inroads into quality improvement.

At our retreat, the Vice Chancellor also outlined his continued drive to improve the quality of the Institution through the ongoing New Horizons strategies, which have been recently updated and are available on the UniSA website. He also highlighted those major recent successes in achieving LTPF funding together with the new HEEF $40m minerals and material centre building (adjacent to P building) at Mawson Lakes award amongst a number of other achievements. We were reminded that the forthcoming AUQA audit of UniSA will also be a defining event this year to define and benchmark our position amongst Australian and International universities.

Over the last couple of months our School has again had many visitors and many events. The 60th Anniversary of our Planning programs has continued with the significant achievement of our staff (Prof Steve Hamnett and Dr Matthew Rofe) editing a full issue of the Australian Planner journal.

We recently held awards, and scholarships event nights for our prizewinning students and the large audiences of staff, students, families and especially the industry sponsors clearly demonstrate the goodwill that industry considers in their relationship with us. SA Water, Built Environs, Hansen Yuncken, Ahrens, Dept for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure, Depertment for Environment and Heritage, Australian Steel Institute, Bluescope Steel, Flinders Camping, Lysaght and the Steel Reinforcement Institute of Australia were all represented with their various awards going to our leading student achievers.

We held a most successful fifth graduation function in March, the launch of the new Barbara Hardy Centre for Sustainable Urban Environments, another postgraduate function with the student Poster Day, and an industry-sponsored Spaghetti Bridge building competition, amongst many other interesting and excellent events. I was pleased to be present and available to attend many of these activities, which clearly show the breadth and depth of our achievements, and from which I take significant personal pride on behalf of our School.

At the recent School Board meeting on 8th May , I mentioned many of these activities which I have been involved with in the School. In particular, I described the growing research collaboration activities and opportunities with our colleagues at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) in Wuhan. As I was planning to be in China for both the high-level VC’s visit to some of our Chinese collaborating and partner Universities and also to assist with the teaching of the Principles of Project management course to the BUCEA second cohort of civil engineering masters students, with Dr Jian Zuo and Lewis Liao, I took the opportunity for a side visit to HUST, Wuhan, a major central urban conglomeration straddling the Yangtse River about 650km west of Shanghai.

This was my third visit to HUST and to Professor Wang Xiaoming and his team, and follows his visit to our campus and field sites with an associated research workshop in October last year in conjunction with ISST and the UniSA Sustainability Cluster. I was also able to make the visit with colleagues Dr Zuo from the Building Discipline, Dr Barb Koth from GEM and with Lewis Liao, who was again invaluable both for his advice and contributions and of course interpreting skills.

This time, we visited the “old” Wuhan CBD district of Jiang’An, where the central government agencies (Jiang’An office and administrative centre for China’s Agenda 21) and HUST have invited us to contribute to a project investigating sustainable infrastructure renewal and eco-(environmentally friendly) efficiency for this major central city upgrade. Old “shop-houses” and valuable built heritage sit side by side with rapidly emerging apartment-style accommodation and office buildings on an incredible scale. Here CBD infrastructure including energy-reduction, transport planning, urban ecology and water sustainable urban design are all being considered as critical elements in growing the city without destroying its heritage, livability or sense of place.

Likewise the adjacent Hanyang District south of the Hanjiang River has proposed research projects relating to large-scale industrial and urban development in this fast growing centre for automobile and other manufacturing industries. The city parks (urban ecology) project of Wuhan, and especially the very large-scale (Yangtse River) waterfront parks clearly demonstrate a commitment by the local people government, industry and academics, including HUST staff, to their desire to provide a buoyant, vibrant but also environmentally-aware and -active future in making this development sustainable.

Our last and most impressive visit was 300km away from Wuhan in the Eco-village demonstration site of Yanhe Village. This cooperation of village inhabitants and farmers, local/regional government and again our HUST colleagues showed a remarkable understanding and sophisticated outlook on presenting sustainable solutions to rural life and growth in China. From the house bricks made from recycled crushed aggregate, to the ultra lightweight and modern roof insulation and from the village-wide material recycling system to the wetland biofiltration system, this village demonstrated a commitment to environmental and eco-efficiency that left us speechless (well almost).

Modern bus shelters and playgrounds, PV panels on street lights, solar boosted hot water systems and energy efficiency monitoring in all of the model houses were impressive. The fact that local farmers had assisted in building and rebuilding their own houses and farms was sensational. The fact that this village sat amongst the quiet and serene upland tea-plantations of the Hebei region with major ecotourism and farm tourism potential, was an added bonus. They were proud to show us their progress, which they were also showing off to local TV stations and to many visiting delegations from neighbouring and far-flung districts. I hope that some of the following/attached images can emphasise that this is action-research of the best kind in action, and we have been invited to contribute.

Apart from a short visit to Indonesia, this will be my last major activity and communication to my friends and colleagues in the School for a while, as following my 5th Anniversary as Head of School, I have decided that a short break would do me good. To recharge the batteries I shall be taking three months leave from mid-June to mid-September, when I anticipate returning to continue the growth, development and progress of our excellent School. I look forward to catching up with all again on my return.

Regards,

Pat