NEWS RELEASE
July 26 2002
UniSA
electrical and information engineering
students win a place in the Sun
Electrical
and Information Engineering (EIE) students at UniSA’s Mawson Lakes
campus will be in a unique position to gain industry project experience in
designing complex hardware and software developments for real time
applications in computer systems thanks to the support of key industry
partner Sun Microsystems.
The
computer giant has donated 20 Sun Blade 100 workstations to UniSA worth
more than $100,000, providing the foundation for one of the most advanced
specialist real time labs of its kind in SA.
EIE
head of school at UniSA, Professor Andrew Nafalski, says the equipment
grant from Sun Microsystems will allow students to build a level of real
world experience in systems design that was not possible before.
“With
the introduction of the workstations our students will have the computer
grunt to work on complex computer systems design projects and our aim will
be to forge collaborations with industry so that the projects they are
working on have application in the working world.
“This
style of teaching is empowering and invigorating for students, creating a
learning environment that builds from the theoretical to the actual. It
also means graduates from the program are immediately more employable and
it ensures that they know what will be required of them when they get out
there and take up a career in industry.”
Professor
Nafalski congratulated Sun Microsystems on its strong investment in
education and its ongoing support for the development of next generation
professionals in the engineering and IT industries. The support of John
Noonan, National Education Business Development Manager from Sun, was
decisive in winning the grant.
He
said the new lab will give more than 200 students each year access to the
kind of facilities that will allow them to work on a range of electrical
and information engineering projects that are vital to rapidly advancing
communications and systems engineering including the development of
improved chips for mobile phones and sophisticated communications systems
for large scale military and civil operations.
He
said one of the key experimental advantages of the new lab is that
students and staff could work on experiments via the Internet so that
distance was no barrier to education and research.
Contacts:
Professor Andrew Nafalski (08) 8302 3932
Michèle Nardelli (08) 8302 0966 or 041 8823673
email: michele.nardelli@unisa.edu.au
