Welcome From George Simon
Folks. I hope 2008 finds you healthy and enjoying life. It has been busy so far here at Monash this year. Our undergraduate numbers are up, with more enrolments in straight engineering, as well as more people in double degrees, particularly the exciting new Biomedical Science/Engineering double degree, specializing in Materials Engineering. We have ongoing 2+2 programs with two Universities in China - Central South University in Chengsha and Wuhan University of Technology in Wuhan. Some of their students do 2 years in their home university, then 3rd and 4th year in our Department, ending up with a degree from both Universities. The first large group of Wuhan students recently went through, did very well and half a dozen of them stayed on to do postgraduate research. Our postgraduate numbers are also on the rise, with more local and international students opting to do research. Research is a key part of a Department and the areas being covered are diverse. The current major themes are: advanced materials and manufacturing, biomaterials, nanomaterials, green materials engineering, energy, ceramics, polymers, modeling of materials properties and surface engineering and corrosion. We welcome industry interaction in these and other areas, so please contact us if you have further questions.
The Department continues to refresh in terms of personnel. This month we welcomed two new academic staff members Drs Qizhi Chen and Nick Birbilis as continuing Senior Lecturers. They bring skills in biomaterials and surface engineering, respectively. We welcome them to the Department, and have included a short biography of each inside the newsletter.
March saw the important, but time consuming, five yearly accreditation of the Engineering Faculty by Engineers Australia. A large amount of work to gather primarily information about what we teach, how we do it and how we ensure its quality is examined. Whilst we await the final report, the informal feedback from the Panel was very positive. A number of our alumni helped us out here, meeting the Engineers Australia panel members and talking about the Department. A big thank you to them. Speaking of matters engineering a point of much discussion at Universities and elsewhere is the skills shortage that currently exists in science and engineering. Of course, our contention is that materials science and engineering is a key component, enabling many other branches of engineering. We increasingly need better performing materials with a host of other functionalities. These are achieved usually through a combination of structure and processing. I'm sure I'm preaching to the converted.
Being an engineering department, our ability to make things and characterize them is always of importance, and also potentially of interest to people outside of the University who may wish to access such capabilities and collaborate (we welcome industrial interaction and please don't hesitate to call if we can do something together!) Alongside items such as nano indenters to measure mechanical properties on a nanoscale, we have recently taken delivery of a desktop SEM (yes, they do exist), a Raman spectrometer, an optical profiler for imaging surface features, a contact large device for measuring surface tension of liquids and melts, and surface energy of solids and an automated water uptake device for looking at moisture impress into powders and films. You will find some more information of some of these inside this newsletter. Should you be interested in accessing and collaborating using these or our other facilities
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| Nick Birbilis with the new desktop FEI scanner |
Peter Miller and David Vowles in one of the purpose built suites of the new MCEM facility |
http://www.eng.monash.edu.au/mat/services/equipment.html
The Universities wonderful new electron microscopy centre is also getting up and running,
http://www.mcem.monash.edu.au/
with a suite of new FEG-SEMS and TEMS and another atom probe device, a report is contained inside about some of these things. Of course, across Blackburn Rd from Monash is the Synchrotron the ultimate in new high resolution characterization. It is up and open for business.
http://www.synchrotron.vic.gov.au/content.asp?Document_ID=1
The folk at the synchrotron have kindly put together some words and pictures about its capabilities included further on.
I have enjoyed with talking with many of you over the last year or so, and finding out what you are doing. The areas of work covered are very diverse. A number of alumni have filled in a questionnaire that I have about life in- and post-Monash, and we have converted these into mini-case studies of what a number of you are doing now. Apart from being interesting for old classmates and alumni, it is also a great advertisement for prospective Materials Engineering students, giving some idea as to jobs they may end up in. Please have a look at it
http://www.eng.monash.edu.au/materials/alumni/index.html
If you are interested and willing to see yourself here, please let me know and I will send you a questionnaire. Speaking of matters alumni, there are a few events on the horizon. There will be a Materials Engineering Alumni Event organised for early August at the synchrotron. I hope many of you will be able to come and tour the synchrotron, as it is a fascinating facility. It will also be a chance with you to mix with other alumni and Materials Engineering staff. More about this soon! The Faculty of Engineering is also planning a bigger alumni event in November, where you can see some of the laboratories and attend an alumni dinner.
Hope to catch up with you soon in person, or by email
George Simon
george.simon@eng.monash.edu.au