School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
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1 Contents From the Head of School Highlights of 2005 Organisational Framework of the School Page 1 OVERVIEW OF SCHOOL 7 2 SCHOOL STAFF 9 3 RESEARCH ACTIVITIES 21 4 UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING ACTIVITIES 23 5 POSTGRADUATE TEACHING PROGRAMS 26 6 GRADUATES - 2005 28 7 AWARDS & PRIZE WINNERS 28 8 SCHOOL FACILITIES, CENTRES & LABORATORIES REPORTS 29 9 INTERACTIONS WITH INDUSTRY, THE PROFESSION & THE COMMUNITY 43 APPENDIX A – RESEARCH GRANTS & CONTRACTS 2005 50 APPENDIX B - ARC GRANT SUCCESS 2005 57 APPENDIX C - RESEARCH STUDENTS & TOPICS 2005 59 APPENDIX D – PUBLICATIONS 2005 63 2 Courier Address 4th Floor, Room 407 School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Civil Engineering Building, H20 Via Gate No.11, Botany Street, Randwick The University of New South Wales UNSW SYDNEY NSW 2052 AUSTRALIA Phone: +61 (0)2 9385 5033 Fax: +61 (0)2 9385 6139 Web: http://www.civeng.unsw.edu.au/ Email General Enquiries [email protected] ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To all staff who provided information and photographs for this report Co-ordinated and compiled by Professor NJ Ashbolt Betty Wong Printed by UNSW Publishing and Printing Services School of Civil and Environmental Engineering UNSW ©Annual Report 2005 School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, UNSW Annual Report 2005 3 From the Head of School Professor Nicholas Ashbolt* Head, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering *Professor Nicholas Ashbolt accepted the role of the Head of School in August 2005 after the stepping down of the former Head, Professor Ian Gilbert, who took up his awarded ARC Australian Professorial Federation Fellowship. I am delighted to present herein a summary of disciplines to strengthen innovation and leadership activities and achievements for 2005 from the staff qualities in our graduates. and students of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The wealth of talent Further changes are also ongoing across our and breadth of outcomes across the School is postgraduate coursework programs. One of the impressive against all benchmarks, and continues School’s trademarks is our invaluable service to the to position us as one of the finest schools of its type profession through a range of Masters by in Australia and the region. Indeed, within the coursework offerings, which distinguishes our Faculty of Engineering we were one of the highest School from all of its competitors. Here we are performers and the Faculty was place first in working with industry and other stakeholders to Australia and sixteenth in the world (Times higher establish the right mix of courses/programs with education supplement, 2005). new external funding to further strengthen our position within the South-East Asian region. The particularly high demand for our graduates is, UNSW’s new private university in Singapore (UNSW however, a mixed blessing. Despite one of the Asia) commencing in 2007 also adds opportunities most buoyant job market ever for civil and for the School, initially via our extensive external environmental engineers, across the country we are studies postgraduate coursework offerings. still faced with a poor proportion of secondary school leavers entering our disciplines, particularly Highlights for 2005 and general information on the for environmental engineering. While overall organisation framework of the School and its numbers of undergraduates entering our School is outcomes follow. So to conclude I would like to on the increase and our research success, thank all those in and associated with the School particularly with ARC Discovery Grants was one of that have made 2005 such a success, despite the best ever, budget changes across the university outside difficulties. In particular I wish to thank necessitated a painful staff restructure. It is also Professor Ian Gilbert for an outstanding very difficult to attract local PhD students due to contribution to the School. Ian stepped down in the current market opportunities. August 2005 after over nine years as Head of School, so as to take up his five-year ARC Overall, we are seeing the results of a perceived Professorial Fellowship within the structures mature field (engineering) amongst ‘smart’ upstarts discipline of the School. in different business and marketing areas, which have been attracting more of the higher achieving students. To counter these trends, the School has totally revised its two undergraduate degree programs in civil and environmental engineering. We are also preparing other initiatives with degrees that foster stronger trans-disciplinary skills with Architecture, Sciences and Management; to supplement our broad undergraduate education with the most comprehensive coverage of engineering electives in the country. While not diluting core engineering skills and practice, we are Professor Nicholas Ashbolt introducing sustainability principles across our June 2006 School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, UNSW Annual Report 2005 4 Highlights of 2005 Highlights of 2005 ARC Discovery Grant Success - The Best in Australia In the highly competitive ARC Discovery program, the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering was once again the most successful school or department in the discipline in Australia. Of the successful ARC Discovery grants commencing in 2005, School staff won eight new grants, totaling in excess of $3.18 million. This confirms the School’s place as one of UNSW’s most successful research schools. International Award for Excellence in Research Professor Nasser Khalili was presented with the International Association for Computational Mechanics and Advances in Geomechanics Excellent Contributions Award, Regional at the 11 IACMAG Conference, Turin Italy, June 19-24 2005 for his contributions to constitutive and numerical modelling of unsaturated soils. This award is presented every three years to a single person with outstanding contributions to research in the field of geomechanics. Churchill Fellowship awarded to Dr William Glamore of the Water Research Laboratory (WRL) to investigate international practices for restoring coastal wetlands. His aim was to visit practitioners overseas that have already restored coastal wetlands and to use their expertise to improve/develop Australian methods. Upon his return, Dr Glamore composed Australian methods to effectively restore coastal wetlands. Universitas21 Fellowship awarded to Lecturer, Dr Zora Vrcelj to investigate international practices in developing high quality, novel teaching and learning tools in Structural Engineering Education. The emphasis was on developing benchmarks in educational and teaching programs, in collaboration with colleagues at U21 universities. In general the focus was on new educational delivery methods and technologies leading to the development of a design studio for the School. ARC Research Successes Continued in 2005 In the Australian Research Council (ARC) Grants announced on 9 November 2005, the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UNSW was once again the most successful school in its discipline in Australia by a huge margin. With 5 new ARC Discovery Grants and 2 new ARC Linkage Grants worth in excess of $2.1m over the next three years, the School continues to lead the way nationally in research. (details of all the successful projects and staff are listed in Appendix B). School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, UNSW Annual Report 2005 5 Organisational Framework of the School Faculty of Engineering School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Finance and Senior Management Budget Head of School Group Research Water Central Management Research Administration Management Committee Computer Teaching & Support Learning Technical External Relations Services & Marketing Research and Level 3 Teaching groups Occupational Health & Safety WRL at Manly Vale CWWT SCHOOL COMMITTEES PERSONNEL The School is managed by the Head of School, a Senior Administrative Officer, a Senior Management Group Committee, and by other management committees, each assigned particular tasks and responsibilities. Each of these committees has a Chair person who reports to the Head of School. In addition to the facilities at Kensington in the Civil Engineering Building (H20) and the Vallentine Annexe (H22), the School is also home to the Centre for Water and Waste Technology (CWWT, in H22), Water Research Laboratory (WRL) at Manly Vale and the Heavy Structures Laboratory at Randwick. The School’s administrative group is led by the Senior Administrative Officer. School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, UNSW Annual Report 2005 6 In 2005, the School management team was as follows: Head of School Professor Nicholas Ashbolt Senior Management Group Committee Professor Nicholas Ashbolt (Chair) Executive Assistant Computing Services Vacant Professor Francis Tin-Loi (Chair) Senior Administrative Officer External Relationships and Marketing Ms Karenne Irvine Professor Marton Marossezky (Chair) Research Management Professor David Waite (Chair) University Centre;- Teaching and Learning Centre for Water and Waste Technology Dr Bruce Cathers (Chair) Professor David Waite (Director) Water Research Laboratory Technical Services – Kensington & Randwick Associate Professor Ron Cox (Director) Heavy Structures Labs Associate Professor Nasser Khalili (Chair) Level 3 Occupational Health and Safety Mr Paul Gwynne (Chair) School Statistics Academic Staff 30 Technical and Support Staff 23 Research Staff 14 Postgraduate Research Students 79 Equivalent Full-time student units (EFTSU) 615 Equivalent Full-time postgraduates units (EFTSU) 351 Doctoral