In Brief
Health dream on track
Port Pirie teenager Krichelle Oaklands’ dreams of becoming a
health care professional are a step closer to reality after she was
named the first recipient of the Annette and Leon Davis Scholarship.
Established by the Davis family in 2008 and valued at up to $45,000, the scholarship is specifically for students from Port Pirie who are enrolled in an undergraduate degree at UniSA.
For Oaklands,17 (pictured right), the endowment represents a lifeline in her transition to university life.
"I don’t think the transition to university is necessarily easy for anyone, but for students that come from rural or regional areas like Port Pirie there are lots of added pressures and stresses that come with having to find a job, a house, and getting used to living in the city," Oaklands said.
"Traditionally there hasn’t been a lot on offer in terms of scholarships for students from Port Pirie, so obviously I was really excited about this one when it was announced."
Oaklands said it has been her dream to study medical radiation since Year 10 and she hopes to transfer into that degree after her first year of Health Science.
"Winning this scholarship is really going to help me in terms of focusing on my goal," she said. "It’s a great safety net to have."
Annette and Leon Davis were both born in Port Pirie and understood the barriers sometimes experienced by young people from regional areas, according to UniSA Deputy Vice Chancellor & Vice President: Academic, Professor Peter Lee.
"Leon Davis is a great example, rising from a cadet at the old Broken Hill Associated Smelters to head up Rio Tinto and more recently the Westpac Banking Corporation," Prof Lee said.
The scholarship will be offered again in 2011.
Aiding healthy development
Five young UniSA researchers have been awarded PhD top-up scholarships to help them continue research into issues about healthy development of people.
The Healthy Development Adelaide (HDA) scholars will receive an extra $5000 a year for three years, mostly funded by the Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation.
The scholars and their projects are:
- Georgie Chrichton: Can low fat dairy foods improve your brain function and physical health?
- Dorota Zarnowiecki: Defying the odds: the healthy child in an obesogenic environment.
- Natasha Schranz: I may be overweight but I’m strong: can weight training improve the confidence of overweight teenage boys?
- Long Nguyen: Early nutrition for optimal bone health.
- Zhi Yi Ong: Junk Food during pregnancy: effects on the mother and baby.
Two University of Adelaide scholars have also been awarded scholarships. Lisa Atkinson will look at ovulation and preserving normal female fertility, while Luca Prisciandaro will investigate probiotics for better treatment in chemotherapy-induced bowel injury.
The scholars will take part in a HDA Research Training Program with mentoring, career development opportunities, and research training placements for each of the scholars.
HDA fosters research in more than 20 disciplines, working with State-wide partners to develop a portfolio for SA in developmental health research to ensure the physical, psychological and social health of Australian infants, children and adolescents. UniSA’s Professor Caroline McMillen is HDA Co-Convenor, along with the University of Adelaide’s Professor Rob Norman.
Computer sytems PhD comes up top
A PhD student who looked into a new way of increasing and
simplifying information sharing between complex computer systems has
been recognised with a prize for UniSA’s best overall PhD thesis.
PhD student Georg Grossmann was recently awarded the 2009 Ian Davey Thesis Prize.
The prize was established by former Pro Vice Chancellor of Research, Emeritus Professor Ian Davey, to recognise excellence in research and research education.
Ian Davey himself called Grossman to tell him that he had been chosen for the award.
"I was amazed when I got the phone call," he said. "It is just such a big honour."
Since completing his PhD, Grossman, who moved to Australia from Austria five years ago, has been offered a position as a research fellow at the University and is excited to be able to extend his research and keep working with his supervisor Markus Stumptner.
Grossman’s work is based on a general problem that many organisations are facing – they are running several information systems in parallel.
"Information systems are software applications that manage huge amount of data for a specific purpose," Grossmann said.
"Running them in parallel is like sharing an office with someone who does a job that’s important to your work, but never talking to one another.
"For example, one computer system may deal with the allocation of resources to a human task like repairing a pump and another system deals with the collection of data from sensor readings at the pump, things like pressure and pump temperature.
"It is important that those systems exchange data because the information they deal with is related, and it’s obvious that if one system dispatches an engineer to repair a pump, data from the other should be included so the engineer can isolate the cause of the fault."
In his thesis, Grossmann identified common integration problems along with standard solutions that can be applied to remedy them, similar to a troubleshooting guide.
"It’s an easy to understand approach that relies on visual representation that can be translated automatically into executable code, meaning it can be applied by just about anyone.
"Further, it allows to simulate the communi-cation between systems which leads to an early identification of problems before it is applied in the real world.
"It’s a system that’s going to save time and money for many organisations and companies."
International links take root
UniSA is getting behind an international aid program that will engage hundreds of South Australian secondary students to make a difference in the developing world.
UniSA is sponsoring the OakTree Foundation’s Schools 4 Schools program which has kicked off in five secondary schools this year.
Schools 4 Schools provides students with the opportunity to make a difference in a unique, challenging and real way by partnering Australian secondary schools with schools in the developing world.
The local schools involved - Pembroke School, Annesley College, Pulteney Grammar School, Trinity College and Tabor College - will be partnered with South African schools throughout 2009.
UniSA manager of domestic student recruitment, Darren McInnes, said local students would interact with South African students through online programs, fundraising and student exchanges.
"The program is a nice fit with UniSA because we share a number of values," McInnes said.
"Schools 4 Schools is an experiential learning program which educates students to make a difference. It’s also about community engagement and service learning. This fits with UniSA’s own philosophies, programs such as our Global Experience program, and our commitment to social responsibility, equity and diversity."
The OakTree Foundation’s Schools 4 Schools program was officially launched in SA at UniSA’s Civic Gallery on March 3.