School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Annual Report 2014

Never Stand Still Engineering Civil and Environmental Engineering

©2014 School of Civil and

Environmental Engineering

UNSW AUSTRALIA 2052

Address

School of Civil and

Environmental Engineering (H20)

The University of New South Wales

UNSW SYDNEY NSW 2052

AUSTRALIA

Enquiries

T +61 (0)2 9385 5033

F +61 (0)2 9385 6139

E Cven.enquiries@unsw.edu.au

W http://www.civeng.unsw.edu.au/

Project Coordinator & Editor

Mary O’Connell

With thanks to providers of text, statistics, stories and images,

including Andy Baker, Kate Brown, Irene Calaizis, Ron Cox,

Henry Deng, Kristy Guia, Maria Lee, Pauline Manley, Sam

McCormick, Chris Mundy, Kath O’Sullivan, Tamara Rouse,

Johnson Shen, Grantley Smith, Robert Steel, Ian Turner, David

Waite, Travis Waller, Conrad Wasko and Betty Wong. Special

thanks to Anthony Dever, Kurt Douglas, Mike Gal, and Tricia

Tesoriero.

Graphic Design

The Imagination Agency Pty Ltd

helena@theimaginationagency.org

Print

Faastprint

Photography

Professional photography:

Emeritus Professor Mike Gal (pictured below)

Grateful thanks also to Kurt Douglas

Cricos Provider Number: 00098G

THE BIG PICTURE

OUR PEOPLE

OUR RESEARCH

OUR TEACHING

INDUSTRY AND COMMUNITY

OUR CENTRES

CONTENTS3

19

29

71

61

47

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ABOUT US

The School of Civil & Environmental Engineering is

the largest and most successful School of its kind in

Australasia and is ranked as number one in Australia

and in the top 20 in the world (QS World University

Rankings).

We are the largest School in the UNSW Faculty

of Engineering, itself the pre-eminent centre for

engineering studies and research in Australia, and the

first University of choice for NSW’s top students.

From our foundation in 1949, the School has pursued

excellence and innovation in education and research.

Our alumni are to be found as leaders and decision

makers in industry, government and the community.

With over 2,300 current students, we play a leading

role in the delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate

degree programs – with a focus on sustainability

as well as core engineering knowledge, preparing

our students to confidently face the challenges of

contemporary global society. We believe that civil

and environmental engineers are uniquely placed to

understand, meet and solve those challenges.

We are at the forefront of fundamental and applied

research across the breadth of civil and environmental

engineering with three internationally acclaimed

research centres – in infrastructure (CIES), water

(WRC) and transport (rCITI). Our academic staff are

recognised world leaders in their fields, supported

by over 70 full time researchers. Each year we work

with or on behalf of over 100 industry and government

organisations on specific industry related projects and

have won millions of dollars in federal funds in order to

pursue investigations into issues of national importance.

We continue to forge new links with industry and

community partners to ensure a continuing real-world

focus for both our teaching and our research.

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It is with great pleasure that we bring you the School’s

Annual Report for 2014. As I write this introduction,

the QS Top Universities rankings have again placed

our School in the world’s Top 20. This is of course

pleasing but, more importantly, it is a statement about

and recognition of the quality of our staff and of our

teaching and research programs.

The best Schools of Civil and Environmental Engineering

in the best universities in the world are both deep and

broad. Our School is as strong in its depth as it is in

its breadth. Our depth provides for excellence to the

degree that our research teams draw from each other’s

inspiration, providing for strong collaborations - and with

mentorship provided to our great young researchers

ensuring the future of the School for lasting excellence.

Our breadth allows us to cover the full range of

disciplines in Civil and Environmental Engineering and

Surveying and Geospatial Engineering and to provide

leadership and excellence in our teaching and research.

One question that I commonly get asked is “where do I

see Infrastructure Engineering in the next 30 years and

what are likely to be the grand challenges”. To answer

this it is worth reflecting on where the profession was

20 and 30 years ago. In 1981 Professor Noel Svensson

– a former Dean of Engineering UNSW – prophetically

wrote on where future engineers will be directing their

knowledge and creativity:

\ “Resolution of the conflict between industrial

expansion and the conservation of natural

resources;

\ Improvement in health care without unacceptable

rises in costs;

\ Automation in the factory and office whilst retaining

employment opportunities;

\ Domestic waste disposal at low cost.

\ Elimination of hazards to health at work, in the home

and during recreation; and

\ Protection from the effects of natural disasters –

earthquakes, floods, bushfires.”

I ask myself today, what has changed? The last 30

years, the last 10 years even, has seen exponential

expansion in knowledge and technology, yet these six

challenges, together with the seventh great challenge

– managing and adapting to climate change – remain

every bit as relevant today as they did then, as no doubt

they will be thirty years from now. We can be confident

that the graduates of our School will lead in the debates

and in finding the solutions to the above challenges, as

well as new ones that the future may bring.

The successes of 2014, many of which are highlighted

in this Annual Report, are entirely attributable to

the great staff of our School: our academics and

researchers, professional and technical staff, and to our

students. Without their dedication to excellence – in

all that they do - our successes would not have been

achievable. I am immensely grateful for their dedication

and for their support.

MESSAGE FROM HOS

Stephen J Foster, Head of School

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SCHOOL MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

L-R Mario Attard, Arnaud Castel, Brian Uy, David Carmichael, Richard Stuetz, Martin Andersen, Ian Turner(for WRL), Vinayak Dixit (for rCITI), Kristy Guia, Steve Davis, Stephen Foster (HoS), Anthony DeverAbsent: Ron Cox, Kurt Douglas, Nasser Khalili, Linlin Ge, Bill Peirson, Chris Rizos, Chongmin Song, Travis Waller, Betty Wong

2014 SCHOOL MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Chair & Head of School: Professor Stephen James Foster

Associate Head (Academic):

Associate Professor Mario Attard

Admin: Betty WongSchool Committee ChairsResearch Management Committee (RMC):

Professor S Travis Waller

Computing & IT (CIT) and Educational Technology Committee (ETC):

Professor Chongmin Song

Teaching and Learning Committee (TLC):

Dr Steve Davis

External Relations Committee (ERC):

Co-Chairs Associate Professor Ron Cox & Dr Kurt Douglas

International Relations Committee:

Associate Professor Linlin Ge

School Centre DirectorsrCITI: Professor S Travis WallerWRC: Associate Professor

William Peirson & Professor Richard Stuetz

CIES: Professor Brian UyCWI: Dr Martin AndersenDiscipline Group Leaders: Professors David

Carmichael; Nasser Khalili; Chris Rizos

Business Manager: Anthony DeverStudent Admin Manager: Julijana Baric/

Kristy Guia

The School Management Committee (SMC)

represents the peak decision-making body in the School

with all key decisions relating to academic matters and

overall direction debated and ratified by this group. The

SMC is chaired by the Head of School and is made

up of the Chairs of the School’s major committees,

the Associate Head (Academic), the School Business

Manager, the Student Admin Manager, the Directors

of UNSW Centres based within the School, and other

discipline group leaders.

The School Executive Group is an advisory group to

the Head of School. It meets monthly with the Head of

School to discuss key and current issues on matters of

strategy, planning, budgeting and policy directions for

the School.

2014 School Executive Group Members

Prof Stephen Foster, HoS; A/Prof Mario Attard,

Associate Head (Academic); Prof David Carmichael;

Anthony Dever (Business Manager); Prof Nasser Khalili;

A/Prof Bill Peirson; Prof Richard Stuetz; Prof Brian Uy;

Prof Travis Waller.

The School Board is chaired by the Head of School

and comprises all academic and research staff in the

School, together with student and professional and

technical staff representatives. The Board meets twice

a year; it provides advice to the Head of School about

academic governance arrangements, on the quality of

the School’s learning and teaching, and on research

activities.

It also provides advice to the Head of the School about

the School Committee structure. Committee Chairs

report to the Board on the outcomes of committee

activities, on decisions, and on strategic direction.

The Head of School reports to the Board on the

management of the School and related activities and

issues and direction.

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SCHOOL STATISTICS

School Statistics 2014

Academic Staff 48

Professional & Technical Staff (School) 27

Research Centre Academic Staff 75

Postgraduate Research Students 216

Postgraduate Coursework Students 623

Undergraduates 1682

Equivalent Full-time Students (EFTSU) 1712

Doctoral Graduates 40

Postgraduate Coursework Graduates 265

BE Graduates 340

Grant Funding 11.85M

Research Publications Refereed 502

Recurrent Income 17.8M

2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014

STUDENT NUMBERS

Total EFTSU 567 592 805 1172 1410 1712

BE 647 730 1012 1307 1509 1682

Postgrad

Coursework330 319 354 398 510 623

Higher Degrees 99 90 77 90 124 216

GRADUATES

Higher Degrees 11 8 13 19 14 40

Postgrad

coursework139 134 136 192 309 265

BE All 95 103 119 142 382 340

STAFF (Full-time, tenured)

Academic 33 25 28 28 36 48

Technical

(School)14 13 13 9 12 12

Administration

(School)8 7 9 9 12 15

RESEARCH GROWTH

Publications 177 198 234 267 368 502

Research Income 6.3M 7.7M 10.7M 15.1M 15.6M 11.85M

The Growth Continues

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The School remains at the top of its research

game having won 10 Australian Research Council

(ARC) grants in 2014 – 7 Discovery, 1 Early Career

(DECRA), 1 Linkage and 1 LIEF (Linkage Infrastructure,

Equipment and Facilities) grant, as well as a shared

NHMRC award. These wonderful results make the

School one of the highest UNSW achievers in amount of

grant funds – to the value of $4.15M.

Overall, UNSW researchers won the highest amount of

ARC funding in Australia – ‘a testament, said Deputy

Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Les Field, ‘to the

importance and impact of the work we are doing.’

School ARC Grant winning research projects include

Scientia Prof Mark Bradford ‘s investigation of the

capacity of high-strength steel beams, with a view

to contributing to the production of an advanced

design standard, and Prof Stephen Foster & Dr Hamid

Valipour’s research into behaviour and robustness

of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) moment

hinges. Prof Ian Turner leads a team which aims to

deliver the best available solution to storm coastal

erosion prediction, while Scientia Prof David Waite’s

research into the electron transfer (redox) properties

of terrestrially and microbially-derived natural organic

matter (NOM) will provide new insights to factors

influencing the quality of our natural aqueous resources.

Prof S Travis Waller will address some of the limitations

of dynamic transport network modelling in the planning

process particularly related to traffic uncertainty, driver

adaptivity and information-provision.

Head of School Professor Stephen Foster congratulated

the 22 academic staff who have been successful in

2014, and thanked all staff who had applied for their

hard work. ‘As we know’ he said, ‘these are extremely

competitive grants.’ Three UNSW Goldstar awards also

went to School staff – Dr Ehab Hamed for his project

on ‘Coupled hygrothermal-creep effects in adhesively

bonded lap joints’, Associate Professor Stuart Khan for

his research into ‘Inversion of chiral pharmaceuticals

during biological wastewater treatment’, and ARC

Future Fellow Dr Lucy Marshall for her work on

‘characterising hydrologic uncertainty via approximate

Bayesian computation.’

For a full list of ARC grant topics – please see Our

Research section

ARC GRANTS

L-R: ARC Grant Winners -Chongmin Song, David Waite, Sawekchai Tangaramvong, Vinayak Dixit, Xiaomin Li, Kristen Splinter, Mark Bradford, Hamid

Valipour, Stephen Foster, Arman Khoshghalb, Samsung Lim, Fiona Johnson, Adrian Russell, Ian Turner, Chris Blenkinsopp.

Absent: Lauren Gardner, Nasser Khalili, Francis Tin-Loi, Brian Uy, Travis Waller, Tommy Wiedmann, Gaofeng Zhao

THE BIG PICTURE 9

The UNSW Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Teaching

Excellence were established in 1989 to encourage,

recognise and reward excellence in teaching by

members of staff.

The School has had several award winners over

the years but 2014 was a very special year – with

six members of School staff recognised for their

teaching excellence.

Dr Carolin Birk won an Early Career Teaching

Excellence Award while the Construction Engineering

and Project Management Team, Professor David

Carmichael, Dr Steven Davis, Dr Ali Akbar Nezhad

and Dr Johnson Shen, along with External Relations

Manager Dr Mary O’Connell received a team Award

for Teaching Excellence specifically for their innovative

work with Leighton Holdings in the design and delivery

of the MEngSc in project management.

Dr Carolin Birk’s enthusiasm for her field of knowledge

in structural dynamics and her skills as a lecturer and

course designer resulted in extremely high student

satisfaction, as well as the respect of the leadership

team and all her colleagues at the School. Carolin

developed a new fourth year course on structural

dynamics – an extremely important area in Structural

Engineering for bridges, seismic design and building

vibrations. She used both embodied and online

teaching techniques and a variety of assessment

methods that encouraged student engagement, deep

learning, and independent learning. Students valued

the real-world emphasis in the course and rated her as

one of the best lecturers they have ever had at UNSW.

Since 2009 Professor David Carmichael and his team

at the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering

have worked with Leighton Holdings in the design,

development and successful delivery of a specially

designed Master of Engineering Science (MEngSc)

degree program in project management. This

educational partnership and collaboration with

Australia’s largest construction and contract mining

company - is designed to nurture and develop

emerging leaders across the Leighton Group.

The Program is delivered by distance to students

around the country, Middle East and the Asia – Pacific

region, and has been instrumental in building a cohort

of outstanding project leaders for Leighton. The

testimonials of Leighton management, current students

and the first graduates affirm the significant education

and training outcomes achieved: the empowerment,

confidence building, networking benefits and overall

improvement in performance and strategic thinking

which the MEngSc program for Leighton has provided.

Leighton received over 300 applications from their staff

for the 30 places available in the 2014 program.

VICE-CHANCELLOR’S AWARD FOR TEACHING EXCELLENCE

THE BIG PICTURE10

2014 Chandra S. Desai MedalProfessor Nasser Khalili was

among the three recipients of the

Chandra S Desai Medal awarded

by the International Association for

Computer Methods and Advances in

Geomechanics (IACMAG) at its 14th

conference, held in Kyoto, Japan.

The Chandra S Desai medal is

awarded every three years by

the International Association for

Computer Methods and Advances

in Geomechanics (IACMAG).

The prestigious award honours

individuals who have made

seminal contributions to research

in geomechanics, particularly in

computational modelling, advanced

laboratory and field testing,

computer methods and applications

in geotechnical practice.

The citation received by Professor

Khalili was for his “outstanding

contributions to experimental,

constitutive and numerical modelling

of unsaturated soils”.

Innovation

In 2014 Associate Professor Adrian

Russell received the International

Innovation Award from TC106, the

Technical Committee on Unsaturated

Soils within the International

Society for Soil Mechanics and

Geotechnical Engineering, for his

physical modelling research in the

field of unsaturated soil mechanics.

At UNSW A/Prof Russell developed

with colleagues a calibration

chamber, lateral earth pressure

rig and shallow foundation rig to

conduct full scale cone penetration

tests, retaining wall tests and

shallow foundation tests to study the

influence of soil suction.

Impact

Professor Khalili also received the

Outstanding Paper Award from the

journal Computers and Geotechnics

for his constitutive modelling work

presented in the paper “A fully

coupled flow deformation model for

cyclic analysis of unsaturated soils

including hydraulic and mechanical

hysteresis”. The paper, published

in Computers and Geotechnics in

2008, was judged to have made

a highly significant impact to

geotechnical engineering, based on

citations over a five year period and

the opinion of the journal’s Editors.

IMPACT AND INNOVATION – PEERS RECOGNISE GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING RESEARCH AT CVEN

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OUTSTANDING ENGINEERING ACHIEVEMENTS RECOGNISED AT SYDNEY ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE AWARDS

The School’s research and teaching teams won

acclaim and awards at the 2014 Sydney EA

Engineering Excellence Awards.

The School’s Water Research Laboratory won the

Environment and Heritage Award for their world-leading

example of eco-engineering – the Tomago Wetlands

Restoration Project. Congratulations to Dr Will Glamore

and his team at WRL, (pictured top right) as well as

their industry and community partners – NSW Parks

and Wildlife Group, Office of Environment & Heritage,

Conservation Action Group, NSW Dept of Primary

Industries & NSW Fisheries.

The Tomago Wetlands Project has become a world-

leading example for how eco-engineering can

provide adaptive management outcomes for sensitive

environments with complex hydrologic issues.

According to the Judges’ comments, the project

received high scoring due to a range of measures

undertaken:

\ Design and application of a staged restoration

approach

\ Detailed hydrodynamic modelling to test and fine-

tune tidal inundation extent and hydraulic controls

across the wetland during design,

\ Design, construction and application of innovative

on-ground engineering works.

\ Effective adaptive management of habitat type and

extent through remote and on-ground monitoring

\ Enhanced ecosystem services to the wider

community through increased fisheries and bird

populations.

The School also received the highest honour awarded

for the Education and Training category – for the

innovative MEngSc in project management specifically

developed for industry partners Leighton Holdings.

Congratulations to Professor David Carmichael and the

academic and professional staff team at CVEN, as well

as to our partners at Leighton Holdings, in particular

Iain Scoular – General Manager, Group Services, Kathy

Baker – Group Manager, Talent and Diversity, and

Janette Stewart – Masters Coordinator.

The Research Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation

– rCITI’s project for instrumented vehicle technology

also reached the finals in two categories; Research

and development and, Welfare, Health and Safety. Our

congratulations to Professor Travis Waller, Dr Vinayak

Dixit, Dr Zhitao Xiong (pictured above) and their GoGet

Carshare partners for their cutting edge work.

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In January the School played co-host - along with

Standards Australia – to more than 100 delegates

from 20 countries for the 20th Plenary meeting of ISO/

TC International Organization for Standardization –

Technical Committee 71 – Concrete, reinforced concrete

and pre-stressed concrete.

“The week of meetings, workshops and networking

events got the year off to a great start” said Professor

Stephen Foster, Head of School.

The work of ISO/TC 71 operates to develop standards

in the technology of concrete, of the design and

construction of concrete, reinforced concrete and pre-

stressed concrete structures. This ensures progressive

development both in quality and in price reduction; and

of definitions and terms, as well as testing procedures,

to facilitate international exchange of research work.

Established in 1949 and with 36 full participating

members, this committee has been involved in the

development of 34 International Standards.

The seven working groups of this technical committee

are currently working on a number of important projects

relating to:

\ Test methods for concrete;

\ Concrete production and execution of concrete

structures;

\ Performance requirements for structural concrete;

\ Simplified design standard for concrete structures;

\ Non-traditional reinforcing materials for concrete

structures;

\ Maintenance and repair of concrete structures; and

\ Environmental management for concrete and

concrete structures.

Standards Australia acknowledged the contribution of

the Australian mirror committees to ISO/TC 71, including

the work of BD-002 Concrete Structures.

BD-002 Concrete Structures is a committee

constituted of industry associations, concrete and

steel professionals, government, consulting engineers,

regulators and consumer groups. These committee

members have worked together to provide a valuable

contribution to the development of International

Concrete Standards.

SETTING INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS

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SNAP LAB RELAUNCHEDEarth scientists today can

measure the motion of the

continents and the rupture

of the ground after an

earthquake to centimetre

accuracy… and anyone

can navigate to a party on

a Saturday night using their

mobile phone. All rely on

the extraordinary Global

Positioning System (GPS), a

satellite-based technology

critical to the functioning of

a modern society.

For over 20 years the Satellite Navigation and

Positioning (SNAP) Laboratory at UNSW has been

Australia’s premier academic group conducting

research on wireless, ground-based and satellite-

based positioning technologies and applications. This

concentration of researchers was originally located

within the School of Surveying & Geospatial Engineering

(SAGE). Following the merger of SAGE with the School

of Civil & Environmental Engineering the SNAP Lab was

relaunched in mid-2014 as a collaborative research

initiative between the Schools of Civil & Environmental

Engineering (CVEN) and Electrical Engineering &

Telecommunications (EET).

For the first time in Australia, positioning research will

be conducted in a cross-disciplinary environment,

combining expertise in geodesy, surveying & geospatial

science on the one hand, with that of electronics,

signal processing and space engineering. The latter

drawn principally from the Australian Centre for Space

Engineering Research within EET. The co-directors

of the SNAP Lab are Professor Chris Rizos (CVEN -

pictured) and Professor Andrew Dempster (ACSER/

EET). The SNAP web site is at http://www.snap.unsw.

edu.au.

GPS is a positioning, navigation and timing (PNT)

system that has since the early 1980s revolutionised

the geoscience of geodesy, the engineering field of

surveying, the geospatial discipline, and all forms of

navigation (land, sea, air and space). Furthermore, as

a result of the revolution wrought by the introduction

of GPS, positioning and navigation has increasingly

become a critical technology for machine automation,

emergency services, military operations, rapid mapping,

transport management, and personal mobility, to name

but a few PNT applications. Nowadays there are several

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) deployed or

under development, and include in addition to the US’s

GPS, Russia’s GLONASS, Europe’s Galileo and China’s

BeiDou.

Notable achievements and unique characteristics of the

SNAP Lab include:

\ Development of a fully functional FPGA-based

GNSS receiver known as “Namuru”, that is today the

basis of research into future GNSS for a wide range

of ground and spaceborne applications.

\ Unique signal processing expertise for

multipath analysis, RF interference detection

and self-interference mitigation, signal strength

measurement, GNSS-reflectometry, and structural

deformation monitoring.

\ Operating several permanent GNSS receivers at

UNSW, including a Galileo tracking receiver, as well

as a reference receiver station in the CORSnet-NSW.

\ Addressing the requirements for indoor, UAV and

vehicle-to-vehicle positioning, by conducting

research into the use of a variety of technologies,

singly or in multi-sensor integrated systems.

\ More than 1400 archived papers available from

the SNAP website, the majority on positioning and

navigation topics.

Today the new SNAP Lab continues to make its mark

in the field of wireless, ground and satellite positioning

and navigation.

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CRAIG ROBERTS: INDUSTRY RECOGNISES GREAT TEACHINGThere are many, many kinds of teachers. Dr Craig

Roberts is the kind who is not afraid to use novelty and

humour to communicate important ideas. His classes

may be transformed into a quiz show, using competition

to stimulate learning. Perhaps an impromptu fashion

parade to demonstrate appropriate surveying footwear.

He has a ‘constant desire to find new ways of presenting;

new media, new exercises and new approaches.’ Then

he actively searches for student feedback to ensure these

innovative methods are ‘hitting the mark.’ This ebullient

and entertaining teacher is held dear by students who

consistently rate him as an outstanding teacher. Craig’s

remarkable teaching continues to be applauded also

by the national surveying industry, who awarded him

the 2014 SSSI (Surveying & Spatial Sciences Institute)

National Award for Education Development. This follows

on his winning the 2014 NSW award for Education

Development announced at the NSW Spatial Excellence

Awards.

PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE

In November, Patricia McLaughlin was awarded the

Faculty Professional Staff of the Year for her service to

our post-graduate students. As HoS Steve Foster noted,

‘Pattie has contributed to the success of our School

over many years and in many ways. I cannot think of a

more deserving winner – I know all will share with me in

congratulating Pattie on this fantastic achievement!’

THE BIG PICTURE 15

SCHOOL FOCUSES ON TEACHING

With the School’s continuing focus on promoting,

acknowledging and rewarding a culture of teaching

excellence, six academic staff (pictured) were awarded

School Teaching Initiative Grants for 2014.

Dr Steven Davis’s work is on continuing online

assessment of graphical modelling programs in project

management postgraduate courses. Many engineering

problems require that students be able to think in terms

of graphic models in order to solve them. With these

tools students will be required to think at the modelling

level and not just about how to apply mathematics to

premade models.

Dr Fiona Johnson plans to develop hydrology/water

resources engineering online assessment tasks for third

year students. One outcome will be that the assignment

questions can be expanded to allow students to move

from just analysing data to evaluating the implications of

different evaporation estimates.

Associate Professor Stuart Khan will purchase new

equipment to provide postgraduate coursework

students with three practical ‘Hands-on’ Water Quality

Analysis Laboratory classes – along with a new

specifically designed and comprehensive laboratory

handbook.

Stephen Moore and Professor Richard Stuetz are

involved in a one day Sustainable Infrastructure

Showcase Event working with fourth year students.

In 2014 this involved looking at the environmental

issues associated with the proposed Ranger uranium

mine extension in Kakadu. In addition to this, students

designed more sustainable infrastructure to support

the transformation of the nearby town of Jabiru into an

ecotourism destination by the year 2030.

This event featured student posters and discussions,

with visiting high school students welcomed during the

day and alumni and industry colleagues in the evening.

Stephen and Richard are also involved in creating

scenario based eLearning – analysing and developing

of water/wastewater process treatment flowsheets: This

is just the first part of a planned building of more online

learning objects and systems that can be shared across

different CVEN classes and at different levels.

Finally, Dr Hamid Valipour aims to enhance the student

learning experience in structural design by using

podcasts – focusing on practical design of steel and

reinforced concrete structures to complement current

teaching materials and delivery in both undergraduate

and postgraduate courses.

L-R Steve Davis, Richard Stuetz, Fiona Johnson. Stephen Moore, Hamid Valipour (Absent: Stuart Khan)

THE BIG PICTURE16

WATER RESEARCH SHOWING REAL PROMISEJust take a drop of arsenic, a little nitrate and fluoride

then add salt……………….!!!!!

This might be a recipe to cure all ills or, more likely,

create all ills. The reality is that these contaminants are

present in many of the groundwaters used to supply

remote communities in Australia, China, India and many

other places deprived of frequent, fresh rainfall. Such

contaminants must be removed before these waters are

fit for human (or even animal or plant) consumption.

The trouble is that low cost, robust, sustainable

technologies for doing just this are few and far between.

Reverse osmosis membrane treatment is an option but

is expensive at small scale and can be

challenging to maintain in its operating

condition.

Researchers from the School’s Water

Research Centre, Dr Peter Kovalsky and

Professor David Waite (pictured), with

input from doctoral student Wangwang

Tang, are refining technologies based

on use of electrochemistry – including

capacitive deionisation (CDI) and

electrodialysis reversal (EDR) – to treat

such waters.

These techniques involve attracting

charged ions to electrodes of opposite

charge (sodium to the cathode

and arsenic, nitrate, fluoride and chloride to the

anode) resulting in treated water with much reduced

concentrations of contaminants.

The beauty of the CDI technique in particular is that it

can potentially, with a little R&D, be operated using solar

energy. Even better, this energy, after being used to

remove the charged contaminants from the water, could

potentially be recaptured and used again. Research is

continuing into refining the technology for this purpose.

These exciting possibilities have been recognised by

Tata Trusts, the philanthropic arm of Tata Corporation

in India, who have agreed to support R&D by UNSW in

this area with the promise of developing technologies

that could be used in Indian village communities to treat

brackish, contaminated groundwaters and render these

waters fit for use.

THE BIG PICTURE 17

L-R: Prof Richard Stuetz, A/Prof Bill Peirson (staff) - PhD graduates Dr Di He, Dr Thi Thanh Trang Trinh, Dr Russell Yap, Dr Juan Pablo Alvarez Gaitan - (with staff) A/Prof Stuart Khan, Dr Rita Henderson.

PhD SCHOLARSIn 2014 a record number of PhD scholars – 40 in total -

graduated from the School in what is believed to be the

largest amount of PhD graduates in any one year by a

UNSW School.

Our 40 graduates – including 9 women – have

delivered new ideas, insights, information and

research excellence to the global engineering and

scientific communities in a number of fields including

construction, engineering management, geotechnical

engineering, geospatial engineering, hydrology,

materials, ocean engineering, structural engineering,

surveying, sustainability, transport, waste management

and water treatment.

Their achievements and those of their leading research

supervisors begin to approach critical scholarly mass

– certainly the School now provides one of the largest,

consistent and top quality contributions towards civil,

environmental and geospatial engineering knowledge

across Australasia and the world.

A full list of our 2014 PhD graduates, topics and

supervisors are on p45.

We congratulate them all.

THE BIG PICTURE18

In 2014, after nearly 9 years as Director of Water

Research Laboratory, and 30 years of service to the

School, Associate Professor Bill Peirson resigned

his position to take up a new opportunity as Dean of

Residents at UNSW’s New College. The new WRL

director is Professor Ian Turner.

Bill Peirson first joined the School as an undergraduate

student completing a double degree in Civil Engineering

and Science. In 1987 he completed a CVEN Masters

degree in Engineering Science, then moved on to a PhD

in Mathematics and Ocean Engineering

As a teacher of undergraduate and post graduate

students, Dr Peirson has shared his expertise in water

engineering and numerical modelling, constantly

re-invigorating his units with new teaching materials

and methods. As a researcher he has published

prolifically in wave dynamics, coastal structures,

water management systems, hydraulics and estuarine

processes.

But perhaps Bill’s career is best articulated in the

development of a 30 year association with the Water

Research Laboratory. In 1983 he became a WRL

Engineer, in 1990 he was promoted to Senior Engineer.

In 1998 he took on the huge job of WRL Business

Manager. Finally, he became Director in 2006. While he

was Director the WRL celebrated its fiftieth anniversary

– in 2009: an amazing story of resilience and growth.

Bill Peirson’s commitment to and affection for WRL

and CVEN are clearly evident in this journey. One of

the things he prizes most highly about his long term

association is the generosity of teachers, supervisors

and mentors who became colleagues, many of

them dear friends. He became of a community who

understand and support each other.

This collegiality is also one of the reasons the WRL

has flourished. Dr Peirson recognised this as one the

organisation’s great strengths. “It is a special place, a

community. Everybody helps”. Building on the firm base

of industry-supported research created by the previous

director, Associate Professor Ron Cox, Bill guided a

research transformation at WRL. Big picture, blue-sky

research expanded significantly during his directorship,

often funded by ARC grants, supported proactive

projects worth millions of dollars. This forward thinking

approach acknowledged the greatest challenge that

faces civil and environmental engineers in Australia:

how do we re-think future strategies for a sustainable

future.

So he was delighted when the WRL helped secure the

37th International Conference on Coastal Engineering

for Sydney. The success of this bid is testament to an

ever expanding and international profile of leadership

and innovation.

Bill Peirson has always recognised that it is the

individuals that drive complex systems. As all

industries become more globalised, career trajectories

have moved away from the local toward international

networks. Bill has recognised the great need to support

students navigate the anxieties that globalisation brings.

His new position as Dean of New College offers him the

opportunity to re-connect with young students in need

of the ballast that experience can offer. He can offer

them a genuinely interested ear and gentle advice. He

seems already at home at New College. As he walks

around students greet him and he knows their names

and their achievements.

The professional association between the School and

Bill will persist. He will continue as an Adjunct Fellow

and the close personal and professional ties formed

over thirty years cannot be broken. The School of Civil

and Environmental Engineering would like to thank

Bill Peirson not only for his many contributions and

achievements, but for his kindness, his ethics and his

collegiality. He will be missed.

A SEA CHANGE FOR BILL PEIRSON

OUR PEOPLE

OUR PEOPLE20

Acworth, R. Ian Director, Connected Waters Initiative Gary Johnston Professor of Water ManagementBSc Leeds, MSc PhD Birm, FGS

Research Interests: Investigation of groundwater dynamics & hydrochemical processes in the coastal zone: Development of field instrumentation & analysis methods in groundwater studies: Electrical methods in the investigation of groundwater & salinity: Relationship between Palaeoclimate & dryland salinity.

Akbarnezhad, AliLecturerBE AUT, Tehran, PhD NUS

Research Interests: Sustainable Construction: Sustainability Assessment: Information Modelling: Construction Technology: Non-Destructive Tests: Health Monitoring: Concrete Technology: Design for Deconstruction

Andersen, MartinSenior LecturerMSc in Engineering, PhD DTU, Denmark

Research Interests: Investigations of physical & geochemical processes at the surface water groundwater interface; groundwater dynamics in the coastal zone; reactive flow & transport modelling; developing methodologies for using heat as a tracer of groundwater flow; karst hydrology.

Attard, MarioAssociate ProfessorAssociate Head – AcademicBE PhD MHEd UNSW, MIEAust, CPEng

Research Interests: Finite Strain Isotropic & Anisotropic Hyperelastic Modelling: Fracture in Concrete & Masonry: Crack Propagation due to Creep: Ductility of High Strength Concrete Columns: Buckling of Sandwich Columns: Lateral Buckling of Thin-Walled Beams.

Birk, CarolinLecturerBEng DEng Dresden

Research Interests: Numerical modelling of wave propagation in unbounded domains: Soil-structure interaction, fluid-structure interaction: Longitudinal railway track-structure interaction: Artificial boundary conditions for diffusion: Fractional calculus.

Carmichael, D GProfessorBE MEngSc USyd, PhD Cant, CPEng, FIEAust, MASC

Research Interests: Management, systems applications of optimisation, synthesis: Identification & analysis: Contracts & disputes: Project delivery: Construction operations: Project management & management functional areas including risk, economics, finances, people resources & scope: Construction management: Problem solving & decision making.

Castel, ArnaudAssociate ProfessorBE, MEngSc, PhD Toulouse

Research Interests: Durability of construction materials - Steel corrosion in concrete, concrete pathologies, SCM’s: Concrete construction in chloride environment -Performance & service life design of reinforced/prestressed concrete affected by steel corrosion: Repair & Strengthening using CFRP - Failure analysis & modelling of CFRP strengthened beams including reinforcing steel corrosion.

CVEN ACADEMICS 2014

Cox, RonAssociate ProfessorCo-Chair, External RelationsConvenor, ACCARNSIBE PhD UNSW, FIEAust

Research Interests: Climate change adaptation for settlements & infrastructure: Coastal engineering & coastal zone management: Stability, design & safety of coastal structures: Application of sand filled geo-containers in coastal protection: Environmental monitoring & modelling: Desalination plant brine disposal: Hydraulics of water & wastewater treatment plants: Flood hydraulics & floodplain management: Life safety, emergency warning & evacuation.

Davis, SteveLecturerChair, Teaching & Learning CommitteeBE PhD UNSW

Research Interests: Stochastic Systems: Evolutionary Programming: Parallel Computing Applications to Civil Engineering: Online Assessments

Dixit, VinayakSenior LecturerMT Institute of Technology, Delhi, PhD University of Central Florida

Research Interests: Behaviour under Risk & Uncertainty in Transportation Systems: Transportation Modelling & Simulation: Traffic Flow Theory: Traffic Safety: Workzone Management Strategies: Experimental Economics.

Douglas, KurtPells Sullivan Meynink Senior Lecturer of Rock Mechanics, Co–Chair External RelationsBE (Hons1)USyd, PhD UNSW

My main interests lie in the field of rock mechanics. Predicting strengths of large-scale rock masses (hundreds of meters) continues to be a major challenge. I am attempting to improve our understanding using laboratory tests, field studies & numerical methods. I am also currently involved in an ARC & Industry sponsored project researching erosion of rock spillways & backward erosion of embankment dams.

Felder, StefanLecturerDipl.-Ing. RWTH Aachen, PhD UQ

Stefan is an expert in hydraulic engineering and environmental fluid mechanics. His research interests include: Physical modelling of turbulent flows; Design optimisation of hydraulic structures; Energy dissipation and aeration in high-velocity free-surface flows and hydraulic jumps; Air-water mass transfer across hydraulic structures; Design of instrumentation and advanced data processing tools.

Foster, StephenProfessorHead of SchoolBE NSWIT, MEngSc PhD UNSW, MIEAustdf

Research Interests: I research the behav-iour of structural systems (buildings and bridges) constructed of reinforced and prestressed concrete. I’m particu-larly interested in bringing new and advanced materials technologies to the engineering of structures. My interests are in the use of high and ultra-high performance concretes, fibre-reinforced concretes and geopolymer concretes and in use of carbon fibre technologies for strengthening and repair of structures and structural systems. I develop physical-mechanical models for use in advanced computational and numerical tools such as FEM and for their use in the study of behaviour of concrete structures that are subjected to extreme events such as overload, fire, impact and blast loading.

OUR PEOPLE 21

Gao, WeiAssociate ProfessorBE HDU, ME PhD Xidian, MIIAV, MAAS

Research Interests: Uncertain modelling & uncertain methods: Vehicle-bridge interaction dynamics: Wind and/or seismic induced random vibration: Train-rail-sleeper-foundation-tunnel/bridge system: Stochastic nonlinear system: Vehicle dynamics & vehicle rollover: Structural optimization & control: Smart structures: Stability & reliability analysis.

Gardner, LaurenLecturerBS ArchE, MSE, PhD University of Texas at Austin

Research Interests: Network modelling for multi-domain integrated systems: congestion pricing models accounting for uncertainty, the role of real-time information & adaptive pricing: Sustainability models integrating transportation & electricity systems: developing network-based optimization models to predict the role of global transport systems in the spread of contagious disease.

Ge, LinlinAssociate ProfessorBE, MSc Wuhan, PhD UNSW

Research Interests: I combine remote sensing with GPS & GIS to produce cost-effective & highly reliable maps. Integrating radar & optical remote sensing with GPS & GIS, we measure the subtle change on the surface of the Earth with minimum latency using data collected from satellite, airborne & UAV platforms.

Hamed, EhabSenior LecturerBSc MSc PhD Technion

Research Interests: Viscoelasticity of concrete & composite materials, Creep buckling of concrete domes & shells, Strengthening of concrete & masonry structures with composite materials (FRP), Nonlinear dynamics of concrete structures.

Harvey, BruceSenior LecturerBSurv (Hons 1), GradDip Higher Ed, PhD UNSW

Research Interests: Least Squares analysis of surveying measurements is my main interest, but I also investigate alternative analysis methods & the latest measurement technologies. Are there better ways to analyse surveying measurements & can we improve Least Squares, L1 norm & topological grid searches?

Johnson, FionaLecturerBE, PhD UNSW

Research Interests: statistical hydrology & modelling; climate change impacts on water resources systems; bias correction methods that can be applied to climate model simulations; models for design rainfalls & flooding; models for regionalisation of rainfall data, questions on stationarity of large to extreme rainfalls & the impacts of climate change on these events & the resulting implications for engineering design.

Khalili, Nasser Professor Associate Dean, Research BSc Teh, MSc Birm, PhD UNSW

Research Interests: Mechanics of unsaturated soils: Flow & deformation in double porosity media: Numerical methods applied to geotechnical engineering: Pavement engineering.

Khan, StuartAssociate ProfessorBSc (Hons 1) USyd, PhD UNSW, MIEAust.

Research Interests: Advanced Water & Wastewater Treatment & Analysis: Trace Chemical Contaminants in Water: Chemical Risk Assessment: Probabilistic Chemical Exposure Assessment: Water Recycling & Seawater Desalination: Sustainability Assessment & Risk Assessment: Environmental Fate Modelling: Water Quality Impacts of Extreme Weather Conditions.

Khoshghalb, ArmanLecturerBEng, MEng, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, PhD UNSW

Research Interests: large deformation analysis in geomechanics, advanced numerical methods in geomechanics, mechanics of unsaturated soils & coupled analysis of porous media.

Lim, SamsungAssociate Professor BA, MA (Mathematics) Seoul, PhD U Texas at Austin

Research Interests: I conduct geospatial information science & research that allow us to improve the way we view, understand, design, plan, manage, analyse, interpret, & extract spatio-temporal information such as patterns & trends of geospatial data. I investigate spatial information extraction from lidar (known as light detection & ranging) & aerial/satellite data e.g. data segmentation & classification, digital elevation modelling, feature extraction, building edge detection, & change detection.

Moore, StephenDirector, Environmental Engineering StudiesBE UNSW, MEngSc Adel., CPEng, MIEAust

Research Interests: Development of environmental material accounting techniques, such as Material Flux Analysis, for regional & corporate environmental management systems; Simulation & decision analysis applied to waste management systems.

Peirson, WilliamAssociate Professor Director, Water Research LaboratoryCo-Director, Water Research CentreBE BSc MEngSc PhD UNSW

Bill is an international expert in Civil & Environmental Engineering fluid mechanics & undertakes specialist research in the fields of coastal engineering, air-sea & air-water interaction & exchange, fluvial hydraulics, estuarine processes & the hydraulics & mechanical behaviour of turbomachines.

Rashidi, Taha HosseinLecturerBSc MSc Sharif UT Tehran; PhD UI Chicago

Research Interests: Travel Behaviour Analysis: Transportation Planning: Activity-Based Travel Demand Modeling: Housing Search & Land Use Modelling: Integrated Land-Use & Transportation Models: Goods Movement Modelling: Microsimulation Modeling Methods for Urban Activities.

Rizos, ChrisProfessorBSurv (Hons), PhD UNSW

Research Interests: How geospatial technology such as satellite-based positioning, modern geodesy & digital mapping is used for science, & by society in general; Political issues related to GNSS and geospatial information management; Modern geodesy’s technologies & applications; Australia’s new mapping datum; The technology & applications of satellite-, wireless- & inertial-based sensors for high accuracy positioning; The use of GNSS (GPS, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS) for all classes of uses from Navigation to Geodesy; GNSS receiver design; GNSS positioning infrastructure.

Roberts, CraigSenior LecturerBSurv, University of South Australia, PhD UNSW

Research Interests: High precision GPS/GNSS positioning and leveraging CORS infrastructure for practical application to surveying and geospatial engineering. The implications of kinematic 3D datum modernisation for professional and mass market users. GPS for cadastral surveying. Kinematic positioning with robotic total stations.

OUR PEOPLE22

Russell, AdrianAssociate ProfessorChair, Technical ServicesBE, PhD UNSW, PGCert Bristol

Research Interests: Unsaturated soils: Fibre reinforced soils: Particle crushing in granular media: In situ testing of soils: Constitutive modelling of soils: Wind turbine foundations.

Senetakis,Kostas Lecturer Dipl. Civil Engineering, MSc and PhD, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki

Expertise in Earthquake Engineering, Experimental Soil Dynamics and Micro-mechanics. Main research interests: Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering: Experimental Soil Mechanics and Dynamics: Pavement Engineering: Engineering Geology: Particulate Media - Micromechanics of Soils - Contact Mechanics & Tribology: Fracture Mechanics.

Shen, Johnson XuesongLecturerBEng, MSc Nanjing, PhD Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Research interests: - Rapid As-Built Field Modelling in Construction;- Sustainable Construction Operations;- Construction Automation and Robotics;- Structural Health Monitoring;- Dynamic Data-Driven Project Management

Song, ChongminProfessorChair, Computing ServicesBE ME Tsinghua, DEng Tokyo

Research Interests: Scaled Boundary Finite-Element Method: Dynamic Soil-Structure Interaction: Structural Dynamics & Earthquake Engineering: Wave Propagation: Fracture Mechanics: Elasto-Plastic-Damage Constitutive Modelling: Finite Element Method, Boundary Element Method.

Stuetz, RichardProfessorCo-Director, Water Research CentreBSc, PhD UNSW

Research Interests: On-line instrumentation for monitoring water & wastewater quality: Biological monitoring for process control: Biotreatment of odours & volatile emissions: Bioprocesses for water & wastewater treatment: Biodegradation of micropollutants.

Taiebat, HosseinSenior Lecturer PhD USyd

Research Interests: Behaviour of embankment dams under earthquake loading: Large deformation analysis and post failure deformation of slopes and embankments: Bearing capacity of foundations on unsaturated soils: Caisson foundations: Vertically loaded anchors: Shallow foundations under combined loading: Numerical modelling & liquefaction analysis.

Tangaramvong, Sawekchai (Ball)LecturerBEng, Chulalongkorn, MEngSc, PhD UNSW, Grad Cert (Ed) RMIT

Research interests: Development of advanced computational models & analyses of practically-motivated inelastic structures. Optimal design of new structures & cost-effective rehabilitation of damaged ones. Adoption of integrated (complementarity) mathematical programming & nonlinear engineering mechanics concept to map the complete responses of structures in the presence of elastoplastic strain-softening materials, high-order geometric nonlinearity, limited ductility, nonassociativity, contact, high-impact loading & uncertainty.

Turner, IanProfessorBSc (Hons) USyd, MEnvEngSc UNSW, PhD USyd

Research Interests: Coastal Engineering & Coastal Management; Innovative coastal measurement & monitoring techniques; Sediment transport at the beachface; Modelling of coastline variability & change spanning storm, seasonal, annual & decadal time-scales; Assessment of coastline adjustment to a changing climate.

Uy, BrianProfessor & Director of CIESBE (Hons 1), PhD UNSW

Research Interests: Composite steel-concrete structures, critical infrastructure protection systems, deconstruction techniques, rehabilitation & strengthening techniques, steel structures, structural health monitoring, structural systems, sustainable construction materials.

Valipour, HamidSenior LecturerBE, MEngSc, PhD UNSW

Research Interests: Structural Mechanics including reinforced concrete & steel, steel-concrete, timber & timber-concrete composite materials: Behaviour of structures subjected to extreme loading scenarios such as seismic action, critical member loss, impact, blast and explosion: Computational mechanics and non-linear finite element modelling of structures: Constitutive modelling of concrete and timber.

Vandebona, UpaliSenior LecturerBSc (Eng) Ceylon, MEng AIT, PhD Monash

Research Interests: Modelling of Transport Systems: Development of simulation & animation models for light rail train systems & bus services. Facility Location: Environmental considerations related to transport facility location: Demand Modelling: Analysis of public awareness & attitudes related to transport systems: Air Transport: Intelligent Transport Systems: Signage systems.

Waite, T David Scientia Professor BSc Tas, GradDip RMIT, MAppSc Monash, PhD MIT, FRACI

Research Interests: Separation processes involving colloids & particles in water & wastewater treatment; redox chemistry at the solid-solution interface; photochemistry in aquatic systems; hydrogeochemistry; theoretical & experimental studies on the fate & effects of chemical pollutants; interactions between trace elements & microbiota in aquatic systems.

Waller, S TravisEvans & Peck Professor of Transport InnovationChair, Research Management CmteBSc Ohio State, MSc, PhD Northwestern

Research Interests: Transportation network modelling, particularly systems characterized by dynamics, uncertainty & information; large-scale integrated transport optimization & planning. Specific applications or problem domains include Dynamic Traffic Assignment (DTA), routing algorithm development, network equilibrium, stochastic optimization, integrated demand/supply modelling, network design, adaptive equilibrium, system analysis of public-private partnerships, & bi-level optimization of transport networks.

Wang, JinlingAssociate ProfessorBSc, MSc Wuhan, PhD Curtin

Research Interests: Global Navigation Satellite Systems - GNSS (GPS, Glonass, Galileo, BeiDou System-BDS) & Their Integration: Multi-Sensor Integration for Positioning, Mapping & Navigation: Statistical Theory & Its Applications in Positioning, Mapping & Navigation.

Wiedmann, TommyAssociate ProfessorMSc, PhD Ulm

My main research question is how to achieve human wellbeing without increasing environmental impacts. My expertise is in integrated sustainability assessment & environmental footprint analysis. I develop & apply environmental input-output analysis as part of a holistic concept to life cycle assessment, industrial ecology & sustainable consumption & production research.

OUR PEOPLE 23

Bradford, MarkARC Laureate Fellow UNSW Scientia Professor BSc BE PhD USyd, DSc UNSW, CPEng, CEng, MASCE, FIEAust, MIStructE

Research Interests: Structures subjected to elevated temperatures, curved members, arches, steel structures, composite steel-concrete structures, concrete structures, numerical methods, stability, viscoelastic effects, non-discretisation techniques, design codes, structural retrofit.

Garg, ShikhaARC DECRA FellowSenior Research Associate UNSW Water Research Centre

Research interests: Extracellular electron transfer: Biogeochemical process :Environmental microbiology : Pollutant transformation

Murphy, KathleenSenior Research Associate UNSW Water Research Centre

Thai, Huu-Tai Research FellowCentre for Infrastructure, Engineering & Safety (CIES)

Current research: assessing the system reliability of concrete-filled steel tubular frames designed by advanced analysis.

Xiaomin LiARC DECRA Fellow Water Research Centre (WRC)

Research interests: Extracellular electron transfer: Biogeochemical process: Environmental microbiology : Pollutant transformation

Zhao, GaofengARC DECRA FellowCentre for Infrastructure, Engineering & Safety (CIES

Research: investigation of fracturing rock using the microscopic and macroscopic coupled numerical model, e.g. Distinct Lattice Spring Model (DLSM), Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM), and Particle based Manifold Method (PMM).

Bellie, SivakumarAssociate Professor ARC Future Fellow UNSW Water Research Centre

Research Interests: Water resources assessment, planning, and management. Sivakumar’s research focuses on simplification and generalization in hydrologic modeling, especially using nonlinear dynamic and scaling theories

Collins, RichardARC Future Fellow UNSW Water Research Centre

Research Interests: Environmental Molecular Geochemistry of trace elements (metals, metalloids and actinides) in both natural and engineered systems. Richard’s research covers aspects related to metal(loid) bioavailability and speciation, redox chemistry and biogeochemical transformations assessed through field/laboratory studies, computational approaches (e.g. DFT) and X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy.

Marshall, LucySenior Lecturer & ARC Future FellowBE, MEngSc, PhD UNSW

Research Interests: I use computer models to simulate rainfall & runoff processes in catchments, working to improve hydrologic forecasts through improved catchment model structures & methods for model calibration & uncertainty assessment. I quantify new conceptualizations of hydrologic processes & develop methods for model diagnostics & uncertainty analysis (especially via Bayesian statistics & multi-model methods).

Sharma, AshishProfessor ARC Future FellowBE Roorkee, MTech IIT Delhi, PhD Utah State

Research Interests: Stochastic hydrology: Synthetic generation of seasonal streamflow; Medium to long-term probabilistic forecasting: Stochastic downscaling of hydrologic variables under climate change scenarios: Radar rainfall estimation: Rainfall runoff model & parameter uncertainty assessment in a Bayesian framework: Water Resources Management: new developments in statistics to solve water problems.

ARC LAUREATE ARC DECRA & POST DOC FELLOWS

ARC FUTURE FELLOWS

OUR PEOPLE24

CVEN WELCOMES

Dr Stefan FelderDipl.-Ing. RWTH Aachen, PhD UQ

In 2014 the School welcomed Dr Stefan Felder as an

academic member of staff and one who will further

strengthen our Water Research Laboratory’s hydraulic

engineering competencies. Stefan is an expert in

turbulent free-surface flows, and his current research

interests include transitional open-channel flows and

air-water flows in hydraulic structures. He has broad

international experience gained at major hydraulic

laboratories in Germany, the UK and Australia and is

expanding his research into spillway flows using the

unique, large-scale facilities available at WRL.

His PhD thesis was titled: Air-Water Flow Properties on

Stepped Spillways for Embankment Dams: Aeration,

Energy Dissipation and Turbulence on Uniform, Non-

Uniform and Pooled Stepped Chutes. Stefan won

the UQ Dean’s Award for Research Higher Degree

Excellence in 2013.

Dr Kostas SenetakisDipl. Civil Engineering, MSc, PhD, Aristotle University

Dr Kostas Senetakis is a new Lecturer in Geotechnical

Engineering at the School. His current research theme is

the laboratory study of energy dissipation mechanisms

of particulate media with a focus on shear wave

velocities, Poisson’s phenomena and material damping

of crushable assemblies. This provides a fundamental

link into the behavior of the ground subjected to variable

types of dynamic loading, including seismic vibration.

Dr Senetakis hopes his research will provide a clearer

link between the dynamics and behaviour of particles

in crushable soils on the nano-scale (observed in

micromechanical experiments) and the macro-scale

response (observed in laboratory element testing). “We

are working towards the advancement of our knowledge

associated with the mechanics and dynamics of soils

and a framework for specifications and design codes,’

he explains, ‘that engineers can use in real foundation

or pavement engineering design.’

OUR PEOPLE 25

CVEN SPONSORSThanks:

Several School academic positions

are currently funded through the

generosity of industry including:

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) – a public research

organisation – provides funding

support for a Senior Research Fellow

(Dr Andrew Kinsela) at the School’s

Water Research Centre whose work

on trace element (metal, metalloid

and actinide) environmental

chemistry – aims for aquatic and soil

remediation.

Evans & Peck - an international

infrastructure-based advisory

company – established a new

Chair in 2010 – the Evans & Peck

Professor for Transport Innovation.

Professor S Travis Waller now leads

a new and expanding Faculty–wide

Research Centre for Integrated

Transport Innovation (RCITI) based

in the School. In 2014 Evans & Peck

became Advisian.

Gary Johnston provides funding

support for the Gary Johnston

Professor of Water Management, a

joint Chair between the School of

Civil and Environmental Engineering

and the School of Biology, Earth and

Environmental Sciences (BEES) in

the Faculty of Science, which is held

by the School’s groundwater expert

Professor Ian Acworth.

Pells Sullivan Meynink Pty Ltd,

a high profile firm of specialist

geotechnical consultants, provide

funding support for the position

of Pells Sullivan Meynink Senior

Lecturer of Rock Mechanics, Dr

Kurt Douglas.

MORE WELCOMES & CVEN PROMOTIONS

In 2014 the School also welcomed

new professional and technical staff

– Lena Comino as Administrative

Officer for the Student Centre,

Tim Weston as Technical Officer,

and Danny Wu as part of the

School’s Finance team. All have

quickly become part of the CVEN

hardworking, efficient and ‘go-to’

professional team.

In September 2014 Dr Wei

Gao, senior lecturer in structural

engineering, and expert in

computational mechanics was

promoted to Associate Professor.

In November, Associate Professor

Ian Turner, coastal engineering

expert, Postgraduate Research

Student Coordinator, and Deputy

Director of the Water Research

Laboratory, was promoted to

Professor.

As Head of School, Professor

Stephen Foster noted, this is due

acknowledgement and recognition

of the significant contribution that

Wei and Ian have made to their

fields of research, to teaching and

service to the School, Faculty and

profession.

In 2014 we farewelled academic

staff A/Prof Leonhard Bernold,

Dr Chris Blenkinsopp, and Dr

Gregoire Mariethoz. We wish

them all the very best for the

future.

CIVIL FAREWELLS:

We also farewelled technical

officer Richard Berndt who had

been with the School since 2003.

As A/Prof Adrian Russell noted at

Richard’s farewell, his positive and

‘can do’ attitude in a demanding

environment had helped the School

to continue to deliver outstanding

outcomes in teaching and research

at a time of trebling of activity in

our labs.

OUR PEOPLE26

PROFESSIONAL STAFF

STUDENT CENTRE

Julijana BaricStudent Centre Manager

ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF

Les BrownAdministrative Assistant

Lena Comino Administrative Officer

Flora Fan Administrative Officer

Kristy GuiaStudent Services Officer

Olivia Huang Student Services Officer

Patricia McLaughlinAdministrative Officer

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Betty WongEA to Head of School

BUSINESS

Anthony DeverBusiness Manager

Lekana ToubiaAdministrative Officer - Finance

Danny Wu Administrative Assistant- Finance

EXTERNAL RELATIONS

Dr Mary O’ConnellExternal Relations Manager

Tricia TesorieroExternal Relations Projects P/T

WEB / IT STAFF

Kate BrownWeb/IT Coordinator

Patrick VuongComputer Systems Officer

Xiaobo NiWeb Developer

PROFESSIONAL OFFICERS

Dr Gautam ChattopadhyayLaboratory Manager

Paul Gwynne Manager

Hugh McMullenOHS & Facilities Officer

Dr Yincai ZhouProfessional Officer SAGE

CENTRE MANAGERS

Irene Calaizis CIES

Maria LeerCITI

Grantley Smith WRL

Robert SteelWRC Kensington

SENIOR TECHNICAL OFFICERS

Anthony Macken

Rudino Salleh

William Terry

TECHNICAL OFFICERS

Richard Berndt

John Gilbert

Rob JenkinsWater Research Laboratory

Ron Moncay

Patricia KarwanWRC and CIES Administrative Assistant

OUR PEOPLE 27

RESEARCH, ADJUNCT AND VISITING ACADEMIC STAFF (SCHOOL)

Kelvin Chun H Ong

Larry Paice

Greg Worthing

Tim Weston

Emeritus ProfessorsJohn Black

Robin Fell

Ian Gilbert

Francis Tin Loi

John Trinder

Somasundaram Valliappan

VC’S Post-Doctoral Research FellowsAlfredo Anceno

Tongxu Liu

ANSTO Post-Doctoral Research FellowAndrew Kinsela

Research AssociateMohammad Choudhury

Post Doctoral FellowBinghao Li

Professorial Visiting FellowsBruce Forster

David Hui

Kourosh Kayvani

Arthur (Bill) Kearsley

Senior Visiting FellowsTieding Lu

Jean Rueger

Jianghan Zhu

Visiting FellowsChen Cai

Hiram Chavez

Alan Forghani

Peter Hidas

Atsuko Ikeda

Svitlana Ilnytska

Slavomir Krahulec

Adjunct ProfessorsScott Hensley

Matthew McCabe

Petrus Teunissen

Adjunct Associate ProfessorsJames Aldred

Alan Seed

Adjunct Senior LecturersKenneth Doust

Ramesh Govind

Gregoire Mariethoz

Adjunct LecturerChristopher Blenkinsopp

OUR PEOPLE28

STUDENT AND BUSINESS CENTRES

The School’s administration teams had a very

successful year in meeting the high demand for advice

and requests from all stakeholders associated with our

School.

In the Student Centre, Julijana welcomed the birth of

a healthy baby boy. Both mother and baby are doing

well. This led to Kristy Guia taking up the challenge

of managing the Centre in Julijana’s absence and

Lena Comino joining the team. We have also recently

welcomed Hannah Rizzo and Renata Melis who are

replacing Olivia Huang whilst on maternity leave and

Flora Fan who is on long service leave.

The Student Centre has continued to provide accurate,

reliable support and advice to our academic staff as

well as undergraduate and postgraduate students. All

staff have taken the initiative to be active learners and

strive to be experts in their current roles. This is clearly

demonstrated in the quality of their work and service to

all.

In the Business Centre, we implemented an online

Teaching Allocation System (TAS). The system allows

teaching staff, demonstrators and other teaching

assistants to view live data via a web browser with

administrator access to our staff via MS Access

Interface. Lekana Toubia became the coordinator of the

system and so Danny Wu joined the team to provide

financial support to the School. The Business team

continued to provide financial, administration, office

accommodation and other workplace support to staff

and students.

Our IT staff had a number of achievements in 2014. We

migrated our four Centres websites to Drupal 7 platform

with a uniform Engineering template complying with

UNSW Branding Guidelines. We launched an online

Demonstrator Casual Claim Form. This application is

now being used by over 150 sessional support staff

each semester and has replaced a paper based

system.

The IT team also launched an online Honours

Thesis submission and access system for current

undergraduate students and staff. We migrated the

GMAT server that contains surveying and geospatial

data to a new Virtual Machine and migrated all data and

images to other appropriate systems. The computer

laboratories were refurbished to cater for laboratory

classroom teaching with built-in AV equipment and

increased the capacity of Lab 201 from 40 seats to 57

seats.

Our teams are working on a number of projects as

we continue to look for process improvement and

efficiencies across all areas of the School, with our

ultimate aim of providing a high level of service to staff

and students.

Kristy Guia, Student Centre ManagerAnthony Dever, School Manager

L-R: Lena Comino, Kristy Guia, Renata Melis , Les Brown, Hannah Rizzo and Patricia McLaughlin

OUR RESEARCH

OUR RESEARCH30

RESEARCH MANAGEMENT REPORT

The School’s Research Management Committee (RMC)

manages and supports research activities within the

School, including research undertaken by both the

staff and the School’s postgraduate research students,

and liaises with and contributes directly to the Faculty’s

Research Management Committee. In 2014, the RMC

met every month to oversee and progress all research

related aspects of the School’s operation.

RMC Committee Membership 2014

Prof S. Travis Waller Chair, RMC & rCITI

Director

Prof Ian Turner Deputy Chair, Postgrad

Research Student

Coordinator, WRL

Research Director

A/Prof Samsung Lim Deputy Research Student

Coordinator

Prof Mark Bradford CIES Research Director

Prof Richard Stuetz WRC Co-Director

Prof Brian Uy CIES Director

Dr Martin Andersen CWI Representative

Dr Vinayak Dixit RCITI Representative

A/Prof Adrian Russell Practicum Scholarships

Dr Wei Gao Taste of Research

Coordinator

Prof David Carmichael

A/Prof Linlin Ge

Prof Ashish Sharma

Ms Patricia McLaughlin Admin

Postgraduate Research Student Management

An important aspect of the Committee’s work involves

the management of the School’s postgraduate research

student’s program. At the end of Semester 2 2014,

the School had 218 postgraduate research students

enrolled in either ME (23) or PhD (195) programs, as

well as having graduated a record number during the

year. Forty hardworking students – including 9 women

– were awarded the honour of a UNSW PhD in 2014 –

estimated to be the highest number of PhDs graduated

from any School in any one year in the history of UNSW.

We congratulate them all.

Management of this vital research activity within

the School involves the assessment of applications

to undertake higher degrees within the School, the

formulation of specific research plans for each student

accepted into the program, the nomination of suitable

supervisors, reviewing the progress of students at regular

intervals, making recommendations on progress to the

Faculty’s Higher Degree Committee, and finally nominating

examiners when the thesis is completed and, where

necessary, following up on the examination process.

Each student is assigned a review committee of three

academic staff chaired by a member of the RMC. The

review committee meets to interview the student and

supervisor(s) at 6 or 12 monthly intervals, depending

on the student’s progress, and, at these reviews, the

student is invited to present a brief seminar outlining

progress since the last review. Most academic staff and

several research only staff participated in the student

review panels in 2014. Much of the heavy work load

OUR RESEARCH 31

in this area is carried by the School’s Postgraduate

Coordinator Professor Ian Turner and the Postgraduate

Research Student Administrator Ms Pattie McLaughlin,

who deservedly won the Faculty of Engineering

Professional Staff of the Year Award in 2014. Excellent

support was also provided to the Coordinator by A/

Prof Samsung Lim, who in 2014 took over a component

of that role in dealing with all HDC Admission and

Scholarships matters for the School. A big task.

Research Grants

The RMC also provides input to the preparation and

coordination of research grant applications. This

includes ranking the School’s applications for internal

Faculty Research Grants (FRGs) and UNSW Major

Research Equipment and Infrastructure Initiative

(MREIIs) and reviewing applications for competitive

external grants such as the Australian Research Council

(ARC) Grants and from industry.

In 2014 UNSW won the largest number of ARC grants

in the country – leading its peers in the Group of 8 – a

coalition of Australia’s leading research universities.

Not surprisingly 2014 also saw the School continue on

its ARC success story – winning a total of $4.15 million

in 7 Discovery, 1 Linkage, 1 LIEF and 1 Early Career

Researcher Grant – with 18 of our academic staff

involved.

Fuller details of the ARC funded research projects are

overleaf.

Continuing Growth in Research

Publications 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Books 4 5 5 2 6 5 5 4 3 1 2

Chapters in Books 3 7 8 11 12 4 11 9 9 6 10

Refereed Journal Articles 76 90 98 113 128 125 183 196 241 330 357

Refereed Conference 94 83 87 100 88 114 68 148 115 161 133

Total Publications 177 185 198 226 234 248 267 357 368 498 502

ARC Grants (year announced)

$3.33M $2.13M $1.53M $1.74M $3.06M $4.32M $1.75M $3.26M $1.38M $4.3M $4.15M

Total Research Income pa $6.3M $6.9M $7.7M $8.0M $10.7M $13.6M $15.1M $17.35M $15.56M $13.7M* $11.85M

Higher Degree Student Numbers

99 90 90 76 77 65 90 105 124 195 216

*errata in 2013 Annual Report now corrected.

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AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL DISCOVERY, LIEF ANDLINKAGE GRANTS 2014

Professor Mark Bradford – DP 150100446 – $664,300

This project aims to investigate the capacity of high-

strength steel (HSS) flexural members by undertaking

physical tests and numerical simulations, and proposes

to craft innovative overarching design guidance for

them within a paradigm of Design by Advanced

Analysis. HSS structures are significant as they are

lighter than their mild steel counterparts and so use less

material, with a much lower carbon footprint. Modern

metallurgical process can produce HSS of Grade

1000 Megapascals or higher, but there is no specific

structural code governing their design. Surprisingly little

research has been reported on HSS flexural members

which fail by lateral buckling, and this is the focus of the

project, filling the gap needed to produce an advanced

design standard.

Professor Stephen Foster & Dr Hamid Valipour – DP 150104107 – $266,300

In January 2014 the draft Australian Standard for the

design of concrete bridges was released; this is the first

standard in Australia, and one of the first in the world,

to include design procedures for steel fibre reinforced

concrete (SFRC) in a comprehensive way. While rules

have been introduced for flexure and shear, strict

limitations are placed on application where large plastic

rotations are expected. This study investigates the

moment-rotation performance of SFRC beam-column

connections containing economical fibre dosages. The

study is expected to provide data on the post-ultimate

behaviour and robustness of SFRC moment hinges and

determine moment-rotation relations for adoption by

engineers and Standards bodies

Associate Professor Adrian Russell, Prof David Muir Wood – DP 150104123 – $325,500

This project aims to make discoveries for modelling

initiation, rate of progression and consequences of

seepage induced internal erosion through soils which

make up critical water retaining infrastructure like dams.

It aims to achieve an understanding of how fundamental

microstructural (particle and pore) properties governing

erosion have the potential to destroy infrastructure.

Major expected outcomes include experimental

evidence of governing mechanics, theories which

couple microstructure with erosion and models to

describe the altered soil strength and stiffness. It aims

to lead to increased safety and economic efficiencies

in Australia where many tens of millions of dollars are

spent each year to reduce risks associated with internal

erosion.

Professor Chongmin Song, Emeritus Professor Francis Tin-Loi, Dr Sawekchai Tangaramvong – DP 150103747 – $384,700

This project aims to develop, directly from computer-

aided design models or digital images, an automatic

numerical simulation approach for the safety

assessment of engineering structures in three

dimensions. Underpinning this novel approach is

the proposed use of scaled boundary polytope

elements and a complementary octree algorithm for

mesh generation. Complex loadings are intended to

be addressed effectively by the developed adaptive

shakedown analysis leading to factors of safety

familiar to engineers and directly usable in design. The

expected primary outcome is an innovative technology

for numerical simulation and the development of

an invaluable numerical tool for the effective safety

assessment of engineering structures.

OUR RESEARCH 33

Professor Ian Turner, Professor Jason Middleton, Dr Kristen Splinter, Professor Ad J Reniers, Dr Mark Davidson, Dr Chris Blenkinsopp – DP 150101339 – $423,200

Coastal erosion is confronting societies and the natural

environment. The economic value in Australia of built

assets at risk includes roads ($60 billion), commercial

buildings ($81 billion) and homes ($63 billion). Hard

engineering entire coastlines is rarely feasible, with

beaches providing the best coastal defence along the

great majority of sandy coastlines. But how wide should

a buffer zone be to provide adequate protection from

storms? And critically, how reliable are the present

modelling tools used to predict this, and can they be

improved? Underpinned by innovative field observations

to fill fundamental knowledge gaps, this project aims to

deliver advanced understanding and the best available

solution to storm erosion prediction.

Professor David Waite – DP 150102248 - $514,700

This project aims to determine the electron transfer

(redox) properties of terrestrially and microbially-

derived natural organic matter (NOM) and the

implications of these redox characteristics to reactive

oxygen species generation, metals transformation

and carbon cycling. Experimental and computational

studies using model compounds containing quinone

and thiol-containing functional groups as well as well-

characterised humic substances and algal exudates

will be undertaken under both dark and light conditions.

Kinetic models of these processes will be developed

enabling prediction of the impact of NOM-mediated

electron transfer processes on oxidant generation,

metals transformation and carbon cycling.

Professor S Travis Waller – DP 150104687 – $275,200

This project aims to address some of the limitations of

dynamic transport network modelling in the planning

process particularly related to traffic uncertainty, driver

adaptivity and information-provision. Previous advances

facilitate the proposed methods to introduce; new

network routing algorithms that account for numerous

increasingly important problem characteristics such as

driver route-choice response to real-time information

and uncertainty; new formulations for the stochastic

dynamic traffic assignment problem which employ the

novel routing algorithms as sub-problems; and new

methods for relevant bi-level optimisation transport

applications such as network design and incident

management

DECRA – EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS

Dr Xiaomin Li – DE150100500 - $321,000

This project aims to develop the kinetic (both in

vivo and in vitro) and thermodynamic models of the

extracellular electron transfer processes at the microbe-

mineral interface via outer membrane cytochromes

and exudates of dissimilatory iron-reducing bacteria,

and elucidating the potential electron transfer process

from iron-reducing bacteria to semiconducting iron

minerals. The observed models will provide a more

comprehensive understanding of electron transfer

reactions at the microbe-mineral interface, which will

be helpful in the prediction of natural redox processes

of iron transformation and in the development of

bioremediation strategies for contaminated sites.

OUR RESEARCH34

ARC LINKAGE GRANTS

Prof Nasser Khalili, Dr Arman Khoshghalb, Mr John A Rubsov, Total $314k

Partner Organisation - Roads and Maritime Services

The aim of this project is to advance experimental,

theoretical and computational bases for the mechanics

of weak rocks, and provide scientists and engineers

with much-needed predictive tools for quantitative

evaluation and assessment of their behaviour in

geological settings. Based on the theoretical results of

the research, numerical algorithms will be developed

that will assist engineers to apply the findings of

the project to geotechnical engineering problems.

By incorporating previously neglected aspects in

the behaviour of weak rocks such as mechanical,

environmental as well as cyclic loading degradation,

confidence in the design methods will be increased to

the point that costly over designs can be avoided.

ARC LIEF – Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities

Russell, A/Prof Adrian R; Khalili, Prof Nasser; Zhao, Dr GaoFeng; Khoshghalb, Dr Arman; Sloan, Prof Scott W; Kouretzis, Dr Georgios; Indraratna, Prof Buddhima N; Rujikiatkamjorn, A/Prof Cholachat; Cassidy, Prof Mark J; Gaudin, Prof Christophe; Williams, Prof David J; Scheuermann, Dr Alexander LE 150100130 – $320,000

Partner/Collaborating Eligible Organisation(s): The University of Newcastle, University of Wollongong, The University of Western Australia, The University of Queensland

An earthquake shaking table to investigate soil-structure

interactions: This project aims to develop Australia’s

most advanced earthquake shaking table. Earthquakes

are a problem of great significance to Australia.

Infrastructure in civil, transport, mining and energy

sectors may be at an unacceptable risk of damage

under earthquake loading as current design practices

do not account for the interaction between infrastructure

and the ground under such loading. The shaking table

will simulate earthquakes and enable controlled testing

of three-tonne models of foundation and soil-structure

interaction systems typical of Australia’s infrastructure.

The discoveries made are expected to be integral to the

modernisation of Australia’s seismic design standards

so that earthquake-induced damage and risk exposure

can be minimised.

National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)

Dr Lauren Gardner was co awarded a NHMRC Project Grant, – $267,000 in collaboration with Prof Raina MacIntyre and Dr Anita Heywood from UNSW Medicine.

Modern transportation networks have bridged the

natural barriers which previously limited disease to

specific geographic regions. It is therefore imperative

to develop predictive integrated models which are able

to quantify the risk of importing infected passengers

and vectors into new regions, as well as the expected

impact an infectious disease would have on a given

region once introduced. Such models will be developed

as part of the recently awarded NHMRC Project Grant,

“Models to inform prevention and control of emerging

infectious diseases in real time.”

Seven other academic staff are also involved in

successful Discovery projects administered by

other universities. We congratulate Dr Vinayak Dixit,

Dr Fiona Johnson, Associate Professor Samsung

Lim, Professor Brian Uy (ARC Linkage), Professor

S. Travis Waller, Associate Professor Tommy

Wiedmann and Dr Gaofeng Zhao.

OUR RESEARCH 35

GRANT INCOME 2014 TOTAL $11.85M

Researcher(s) Research Topic Granting Organisation 2014 Income

Jinling Wang New carrier phase processing strategies for achieving precise and reliable multi-satellite, multi-frequency GNSS/RNSS positioning in Australia

Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information

36,000

Chris Rizos High Accuracy Real-time Positioning Utilising the Japanese Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) Augmentation System

Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information

42,000

Chris Rizos Next Generation Australian and New Zealand Datum Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information

55,000

Chris Rizos Evaluating the Positioning Capabilities of Locata Terrestrial Signals in GNSS Unfriendly Environments

Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information

30,000

Binghao Li Expert advice on the appropriate use of GNSS technology for forestry compliance

NSW Environment Proctection Authority 10,000

Chris Rizos Study on Expansion of GNSS Wide Area Augmentation Service to the Asia Region

Electronic Navigation Research Institute 10,075

Jinling Wang Indoor Positioning and Navigation with Beidou Pseudolites China Hunan Engineering Research Center of Navigation Instrument

211,900

TOTAL SAGE $394,975

Surveying and Geospatial Engineering

Senior Investigator(s) / Advisor(s) / Researcher(s)

Subject Area / Research TopicGranting Organization(s) / Industry Sponsor(s)

2014 Income

Prof S. Travis WallerA Collaboration to Develop and Deploy Novel Integrated Network Techniques to Enhance the NSW Transport System.

Transport for NSW 500,000

Dr Taha Hossein Rashidi Incorporating Complex Adaptive System Theory and rule-Base Methods for Novel Travel Activity-Based Models: A Sydney Metropolitan Area Demonstration

UNSW Engineering Faculty, Research Grant / Early Career Researcher Grants Program

20,000

Prof S. Travis Waller, Prof Michiel Bliemer, Dr Vinayak Dixit, Prof Michael G Bell and Dr Alexandre Torday (TSS)

Methodologies for the Incorporation of Congestion Propagation and System Reliability into Transport Network Models for Consistent Multi-Scale Planning.

LP130101048 Australian Research Council - Linkage Project / TSS-Transport Simulation Systems Australia Pty Ltd - ARC Linkage Project Industry Partner Contribution

278,294

Prof S. Travis WallerIdentification & Evaluation of Transformative Environmental (AERIS) Applications and Strategies Project.

United States Department of Transport contract with Booz Allen Hamilton Inc

107,660

Prof S. Travis Waller, Dr Vinayak Dixit, Dr Lauren Gardner, Dr Taha Hossein Rashidi and Mr Bruce Jeffreys

Integrating Network Modelling with Observed Choice Data for Multi-Criteria Optimization of Complex Carshare Systems: Cost, Mobility and Transit Usage

LP130100983 Australian Research Council - Linkage Project/ GoGet CarShare - ARC Linkage Project Industry Partner Contribution.

173,748

Prof Chandini MacIntyre, Dr Lauren Gardner and Dr Anita Heywood

Models to inform prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases in real time

UNSW Goldstar Award $40,000

Prof S. Travis Waller and Dr Vinayak Dixit, Review of Managed Motorway Control Technology System. Roads and Maritime Service 125,000

TOTAL rCITI $1,244,702

rCITI

CWICVEN Researchers within CWI Granting Organisation 2014 Income

Acworth,Ian DIICSRTE (66%) 107,415

Acworth,Ian DIICSRTE - CRIS 146,562

Acworth,Ian DIISR Educ Invest Fund EIF 6,906

Acworth,Ian ENG Gary Johnston Chair 194,239

Andersen,Martin Sogaard Cotton R& D Corp _-PhD Scholarship 14,280

Rau,Gabriel Christopher AINSE Hons S'ship: heat & radon as tracers 2,128

Andersen,Martin Sogaard ARC Linkage P130100177 Baker,Andrew & Andersen (50%) 51,661

Acworth, Ian & Timms, Wendy ARC/NWC Co-Funded Centre for G - NCGRT 11,339

Andersen,Martin Sogaard ARC/NWC Co-Funded Centre for G - NCGRT 13,701

TOTAL CWI $548,231

ACCARNSI 2014 Grant IncomeResearchers Research topic Industry partners 2014 Income

Sydney Institute of Marine Science (SIMS)/ACCARNSI

Coastal Processes and Responses

Climate Adaptation Research Hub – NSW Office of the Environment and Heritage (OEH)

$184,800

CWI rotates between presiding faculties and in 2014 it was included in the Faculty of Science.

OUR RESEARCH36

Investigators Research Topic Granting Organisation / Industry PartnersCash received 2014 (ex GST)

A. Sharma, J. Evans, A. Sen Gupta (UNSW), A. Chanan, G. Singh (State Water Corporation), M. Bari, J. Luo (Bureau of Meteorology), F. Chew (CSIRO), L. Band (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

A Decadal to Inter-decadal Streamflow Prediction System

ARC LP130100072, State Water Corporation, Bureau of Meteorology

308,637

D. Waite, G. Leslie (UNSW), X. Wang (Tsinghua University), J. Guan (Beijing Origin Water Technology), C. McInnes (Water Research Australia), P. Spencer (Water Corporation of WA), N. Riethmuller (Power and Water Corporation)

Innovative hybrid membrane-based pretreatment strategies for remote community groundwater supplies

ARC LP130101107, Beijing Origin Water, Water Research Australia, Water Corporation of WA, Power and Water Corporation

241,756

R. Henderson, R. Stuetz, W. Peirson, V. Bulmus, M. Whittaker (UNSW), G. Newcombe (Australian Water Quality Centre), B. Jefferson (Cranfield University)

Optimising dissolved air flotation (DAF) for algae removal by bubble modification in drinking water and advanced wastewater systems

ARC Linkage Project Grant 2009 Round 2 LP0990189, APAI, APDI, Melbourne Water Corporation, United Water, SEQWater, South Australia Water Company

796

M. McCabe (UNSW), J. P Walker, R. C. Pipunic (University of Melbourne), M. Abuzar, D. M. Whitfield (Dept. of Primary Industries)

A new paradigm for improved water resource management using innovative water modelling techniques

ARC Linkage project LP0989441 Shared Grant / Subcontract , University of Melbourne, Department of Primary Industries, Victoria

757

D. Waite (UNSW) R. Luthy (Stanford University) S. Al-Abed (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) G. Batley (CSIRO)

Synthesis of Activated Carbon Supported Zero Valent Iron Nanoparticles and Application to Contaminant Degradation in Benthic Sediments. LP100100852

ARC Linkage Project LP100100852, APAI (2), DECCW, Sydney Ports Corporation, Orica Australia, Maritime Authority of NSW, Sydney Catchment Authority

29,842

D. Waite, X. Wang, G. Leslie (UNSW), X. Huang, X. Wen (Tsinghua University), H. Bustamante (Sydney Water Corporation), J. Guan (Beijing Origin Water Technology)

Optimisation of nutrient removal, membrane fouling and sludge dewatering in hybrid coagulation/submerged membrane bioreactor treatment of wastewaters - ARC Linkage LP100100056

ARC Linkage LP100100056, APAI (2), Beijing Origin Water Technology Company Ltd, Sydney Water Corporation, WQRA

29,842

D. Waite, R. N Collins, B. A Neilan (UNSW), G. Sinclair (Energy Resources of Australia), R. JRing (ANSTO)

BioGeoChemical Controls on efficacy and sustainability of uranium heap leaching

ARC Linkage Project LP100200792, APAI, Energy Resources of Australia

14,921

R. Henderson (UNSW), A. Baker, J. Bridgeman (University of Birmingham), Partner Organisations: Melbourne Water Corp., Hunter Water Corp., SEQWater, WQRA

Monitoring organic matter in drinking water systems using fluorescence spectroscopy: improved early warning, process optimisation and water quality

ARC Linkage Project LP100200259, APAI, Hunter Water Corporation, Melbourne Water Corporation, Queensland Bulk Water Authority, Water Quality Research Australia Ltd

16,825

R. Collins (UNSW), Partner Organisations: Tweed Shire Council, NSW Cane Growers, NSW Milling Co-op

Exploiting natural processes to effectively remediate acidified coastal environments

ARC Linkage Project LP110100480, Tweed Shire, NSW Cane Growers, NSW Sugar Milling Co-Op Scholarship

28,155

S. Khan (UNSW), G. Peters (Chalmers University of Technology), N. J Ashbolt (University of Cincinnati), S. Shields (EPA Victoria)

Deeper and broader life cycle risk assessment - extending the frontier for hybrid methodologies

ARC Linkage Project LP110200594, APAI, Environmental Protection Authority (EPA)Victoria

19,745

WRL - Robin Fell, Chongmin Song, Bill Peirson, Kurt Douglas

Erosion of embankment dams and dam spillways Australian Research Council - Linkage LP110100389 16,500

WRL - Michael Banner (UNSW Mathematics), Bill Peirson, Frederic Dias (ENS Cachan, France)

Transitions in wave breaking from deep to shallow water

Australian Research Council - Discovery DP120101701 122,212

WRL - Tom Baldock (UQ), Dave Callaghan (UQ), Peter Nielsen (UQ), Ian Turner (UNSW), Chris Blenkinsopp (Bath), Rosh Ranasinghe (TU Delft)

Assessing and enhancing the resilience of Australian beaches to sea level rise

Australian Research Council - Discovery DP140101302 18,000

A. Sharma, F. Johnson, Y. Liu (UNSW), L. Marshall (Montana State University), H. Moradkhani (Portland State University), S. Muddu (Indian Institute of Science), Q. Wang, D. Robertson (CSIRO)

Reducing flood loss - A data-assimilation framework for improving forecasting capability in sparsely gauged regions

ARC Discovery Grant DP140102394 206,044

D. Waite (UNSW), M. Wiesner (Duke University)Reactive oxygen species generation by zerovalent silver nanoparticles; implications to toxicity and contaminant degradation

Australian Research Council / Discovery Project - DP120103222

127,767

D. Waite, R. Collins (UNSW), A. Rose (Southern Cross University), G. Waychunas (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

New perspectives on iron oxide transformations in oxic and anoxic aqueous environments: Implications for iron bioavailability and contaminant mobility

Australian Research Council / Discovery Project - DP120103234, Southern Cross University

105,543

A. Sharma, R. Mehrotra, S. Westra (UNSW)A new strategy for design flood estimation in a nonstationary climate

Australian Research Council / Discovery Project - DP120100338

86,657

M. McCabe (UNSW), E. Wood (Princeton University)Closing the water cycle using land surface modelling, remote sensing and an Australian hydrological observatory

Australian Research Council / Discovery Project - DP120104718

6,678

R. CollinsIron- A solution for uranium resource recovery and pollutions response

Australian Research Council / Future Fellowships FT110100067

166,322

B. SivakumarDevelopment of generic catchment classification framework in hydrology

Australian Research Council / Future Fellowships FT110100328

182,165

A. SharmaRepresenting low-frequency variability in hydro-climatic simulations for water resources planning and management in a changing climate

ARC Future Fellowships FT100100197 106,702

S. GargInteraction between silver ions, silver nanoparticles and reactive oxygen species: implication to toxicity

Australian Research Council / (DECRA) - DE120102967 138,953

R. Henderson

Optimising dissolved air flotation (DAF) for algae removal by bubble modification in drinking water and advanced wastewater systems - Scholarship for Russell Yap

WQRA 1,665

OUR RESEARCH 37

Investigators Research Topic Granting Organisation / Industry PartnersCash received 2014 (ex GST)

D. Waite

Physic-chemical controls on growth, toxicity and succession of Microsystems and Anabaena species in water supply reservoirs. Scholarship for Anna Yeung

WQRA 10,130

R. HendersonMonitoring organic matter removal in drinking water systems using fluorescence spectroscopy - Postgraduate Scholarship for - Yulia Shutova

WQRA 6,714

D. Roser, D. Deere, P. White (UNSW), S. Petterson (Water and Health Pty Ltd, Sydney), N. O'Connor (Ecos Environmental Consulting), P. Monis (Australian Water Quality Centre), U. Ryan (Murdoch University), M. Sinclair (Monash University)

Treatment requirements for Australian source waters to meet health-based targets

WQRA 78,500

R. Collins

Aluminium mobility and geochemistry in Acid Sulfate Soils using novel exchange techniques and Accelerator Mass Spectrometry. Student Ms Yliane Yvanes-Giuliani

AINSE 3,750

A. SharmaSimulating persistence in future rainfall: correcting GCM bias in regional climate models - Scholarship for Eytan Rocheta

NSW Office of Water / 2012 Peter Cullen Postgraduate Scholarship

20,000

R. Henderson, P. Le-Clech (UNSW)Advanced characterisation of organic matters in desalination pretreatment and its removal strategies - Scholarship for Barun Karna

National Centre of Excellence in Desalination 7,500

T. Wiedmann (UNSW), Partner Organisations: University of Sydney, University of Ballarat, Intersect Australia, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Griffith University, University of South Australia, University of Queensland, University of Melbourne

Virtual Laboratory Program: The Industrial Ecology Lab - Integrating data and tools for powerful sustainability analysis

Univ of Sydney/VL201 Nectar 47,930

R. StuetzLitter management strategies to reduce odour emissions from poultry litter

Poultry CRC/Nutrition and Envi 43,344

R. StuetzLitter management strategies to reduce odour emissions from poultry litter

UNSW Strategic Support Grant 50,000

A. Anceno

Multi-functional reactor systems for liquid and gas phase treatment of agroindustrial and municipal effluents: toward pollution and odour abatement with energy cogeneration

UNSWVC PostDoc Support 10,997

T. Wiedmann (UNSW), R. Zito, S. Lehmann (UniSA), A. Berry (CSIRO), O. Vitkovskaya, J. Ting, L. Oxlad (SA Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources), P. Donaldson (Renewal SA), K. Rouse (SA Water), N. Nelson (Sydney Water), L. Partridge (AECOM)

Integrated ETWW demand forecasting and scenario planning for precincts

CRC for Low Carbon Living Ltd 64,014

G. Mariethoz, A. Sharma, S. Jha (UNSW), G. Mathews, S. Maheswararajah, N. Okello, D. De Re (NICTA)

Data centric groundwater modelling NICTA (National ICT Aust) 100,589

A. Sharma (UNSW), S. Muddu (Indian Institute of Science)

What will the future be? Projecting environmental change in a warming world for semi-arid landscapes

Dept. of Industry / AISRF 130,638

S. Khan (UNSW), Partner Organisations: WaterFutures, Griffith University, National Measurements Institute, SA Water, Melbourne Water, WaterCorp, SouthEast Water

SP4-Validation protocols(integrated testing strategy) for multi-barrier approach in water recycling

Water Rsch Aust Ltd - SP4 /WRCoE 75,921

M. Ujevic BosnjakGo8 European Fellowship for Dr Magdalena Ujevic Bosnjak

Go8/European Fellowships 20,000

A. SharmaAustralian Rainfall & Runoff Revision: Stage 3 Project 4 - Delivery output to users

Engineers Aust/Contract Rsch 10,000

R. Stuetz (UNSW), Partner Organisations: University of SA, Sydney Water Corp., SA Water, Prospect Water Patnership, Degremont, Suez Environment, Hunter Water

Beneficial Reuse of Solids from Wastewater Treatment Operations

CRC for Low Carbon Living Ltd 618,590

A. Sharma, R. MehrotraMultivariate Iterative Nested Bias Correction (MINBC) package

DFP Recruitment Serv. 43,019

A. SharmaFlood inundation data assimilation - scholarship for Sahani Pathiraja

CSIRO - Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation / Postgraduate Studentship

2,044

R. Stuetz (UNSW), R. Barczak (Warsaw University of Technology)

OdourCOB - Odour Characterization of Odorants from Biosolids

European Commission / Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowships for Career Development (IOF)

4,355

T. Wiedmann (UNSW), University of Melbourne, University of SA, AECOM, Aurecon, Sydney Water, Bluescope Steel

Integrated Carbon Metrics (ICM) – a multi-scale life cycle approach to assessing, mapping and tracking carbon outcomes for the Built Environment

CRC For Low Carbon Living Limited 175,548

R. Stuetz, S. MalekniaRapid continuous chemical analysis of broiler shed emissions by SIFT-MS

Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (QLD) / RIRDC Research Funding R&D Program Shared Grant

8,404

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Investigators Research Topic Granting Organisation / Industry PartnersCash received 2014 (ex GST)

R. StuetzExploratory investigation of taste and odour compounds in water supply by GC-MS olfactory analysis - Honours Scholarship for Lily Liu

Water Research Australia Limited / Scholarship Honours 7,000

E. Sivret, X. Wang, G Parcsi, N. Le Minh Volatile Sulfur Analysis The Odour Unit 2,100

R. Henderson Y. Shutova Water Analysis RMIT 13,640

S. Dever Training GHD Pty Ltd 3,000

R. Henderson Y. Shutova Water Analysis Curtin University 2,500

R. Henderson Y. Shutova Water Analysis GWMWater 1,100

J. McDonald S. Khan Water Analysis University of Applied Sciences and Arts 6,440

J. McDonald S. Khan Water Analysis Yarra Valley Water Limited 12,600

E. Sivret, X. Wang, G Parcsi, N. Le Minh Odour testing Airepure Australia Pty Ltd 1,600

J. McDonald S. Khan Water Analysis University of Technology, Sydney 13,550

S. Lundie Review IVL Swedish Environmental Research Inst 1,442

K. Murphy Consulting Trollhattan Energi AB 7,825

K. Murphy Consulting Kretslopp och vatten 1,637

K. Murphy Consulting Swerea IVF AB 476

A. Hambly Process Test CNF & Associates 5,480

R. Stuetz G Parcsi Gas Analysis Dept of Agriculture Fisheries & Forestry 3,720

S. Dever Consulting Econtext Pty Ltd 5,375

E. Sivret, X. Wang, G Parcsi, N. Le Minh VSC, VOC Analysis Degremont Pty Ltd 14,875

K. Murphy Consulting EC Sustainable Pty Ltd 545

K. Murphy Data Analysis Smithsonian Environmental 6,481

D. Roser S. Khan Risk Review UNSW Expert opinion Services 77,363

WRL - Brett Miller, Bruce Cathers, Grantley Smith, Bill Peirson, Nathan Guerry, Francois Flocard, Stefan Felder

Civil Engineering HydraulicsAurecon; Cardno Pty Ltd; FPP Industries Pty Ltd; Outotec Australia Pty Ltd; Sydney Catchment Authority; Sydney Water Corporation

307,581

WRL -James Carley, Matt Blacka, Ian Turner, Ron Cox, Ian Coghlan, Francois Flocard, Erica Davey, Kristen Splinter, Jamie Ruprecht, Duncan Rayner, Chris Drummond

Coastal Engineering and climate change

Aurecon; AW Maritime; Blue Pacific Constructions; BMT JFA Consulting; BOTTEN LEVINSON Development & Environment Lawyers; Byron Shire Council; Crown Lands- NSW Trade & Investment; Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, South Australia; Energy Resources of Australia Ltd; Environmental Defenders Office; Gartner Trovato Architects ; Gold Coast City Council; Griffith University; HWL Ebsworth Lawyers; James de Soyres & Associates Pty Ltd; Kapiti Coast District Council; Lake Macquarie City Council; Moyne Shire Council; NSW DPI, Crown Lands Division, Coastal and Infrastructure Group; NSW Office of Environment and Heritage OEH; Platform Architects; Tonkin & Taylor; Tweed Shire Council; Warringah Council

601,914

WRL -Will Glamore, Duncan Rayner, Jamie Ruprecht, Erica Davey, Martin Anderson, Priom Rahman, Ian Coghlan

Estuaries and Wetland Restoration

Clarence Valley Council; Department Of Commerce (For Clarence Valley Council); Environmental Defenders Office; Greater Taree City Council; Hornsby Shire Council; Hunter Water Corporation; John Holland Group Pty Ltd; Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group; Newcastle City Council; North Coast Local Land Services; NSW Department of Planning and Environment; NSW Department of Primary Industries – Fisheries; NSW Environmental Trust; Parks and Wildlife Division of Office for Environment and Heritage; Shoalhaven City Council; Sydney Institute of Marine Science (SIMS); Sydney Water Corporation; Wyong Shire Council

764,184

WRL -Grantley Smith, Ron Cox, Brett Miller, Erica Davey, Nathan Guerry, Priom Rahman, Bill Peirson

Floodplain Management

Connected Waters Institute (CWI); Crown Solicitors Office; Department of the Environment; Department of Environment and Primary Industries, Victoria; DHI WATER AND ENVIRONMENT PTY LTD; National Flood Risk Advisory Group; NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure; Sydney Water Corporation; Tamworth Regional Council; Willis Re

93,067

WRL - Doug Anderson, Martin Andersen, William Glamore, Grantley Smith, Brett Miller, Ian Acworth, Priom Rahman, Alexandra Badenhop

Groundwater resources

Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO); Caroona Coal Action Group; Energy Resources of Australia Ltd; Office of the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer: DNRM - Office of Groundwater Impact Assessment (Queensland); Office of Water Science – SEWPAC; Office of Water Science (Commonwealth); SKM.

406,694

WRL - William Glamore, Brett Miller, Bill Peirson, Duncan Rayner, Jamie Ruprecht, Priom Rahman, Grantley Smith, Ian Coghlan

Water Quality in Rivers, Estuaries and Coastal Waters ERA Ltd, Manly Golf Club, Sydney Water $153,663

TOTAL WATER RESEARCH CENTRE 2014 $6,024,323

OUR RESEARCH 39

CIES Researcher(s) Research Topic Granting Organisation $ Value at 2014

MA Bradford An Innovative and Advanced Systems Approach for Full Life-Cycle, Low-Emissions Composite and Hybrid Building Infrastructure

ARC Laureate Fellowship including Faculty of Engineering & UNSW support ARC FL100100063

600,392

B Uy The behaviour and design of innovative connections to promote the reduction and reuse of structural steel in steel-concrete composite buildings

ARC DiscoveryDP140102134

195,742

A Russell, N Khalili Shallow foundations in unsaturated soils: mechanistic design through numerical modelling, analysis and experimental investigation"

ARC Discovery DP140103142 149,382

W Gao, Y-L Pi, F Tin-Loi Stochastic geometrically nonlinear elasto-plastic buckling and behaviour of curved grid-like structures

ARC Discovery DP140101887 124,673

G Ranzi (USYD), A Castel, R I Gilbert,D Dias-da-Costa

Stiffness degradation of concrete members induced by reinforcement corrosion.

ARC Discovery DP140100529 50,000

C Song A high-performance stochastic scaled boundary finite-element framework for safety assessment of structures susceptible to fracture

ARC Discovery DP130102934 144,017

RI Gilbert Control of cracking caused by early-age contraction of concrete ARC Discovery DP130102966 139,081

N Khalili Dynamics analysis of unsaturated porous media subject to damage due to cracking

ARC Discovery DP130104918 106,986

L Ge Advanced techniques for imaging radar interferometry ARC Discovery DP130101694 117,684

MA Bradford Thermal-induced unilateral plate buckling of concrete pavements: design and evaluation

ARC Discovery DP120104554 133,322

B Uy; Z Tao; F Mashiri The behaviour and design of composite columns coupling the benefits of high strength steel and high strength concrete for large scale infrastructure

ARC Discovery DP120101944 144,433

C Song, F Tin-Loi, W Becker Scaled boundary finite-element approach for safety assessment of plates and shells under monotonic and shakedown loadings

ARC Discovery DP120100742 $111,102

Ehab Hamed; Stephen Foster Nonlinear long-term behaviour and analysis of high strength concrete panels ARC Discovery DP120102762 99,992

S Foster; Hamid Valipour Progressive collapse resistance of reinforced concrete framed structures with membrane action

ARC Discovery DP120103328 66,102

G Zhao Dynamic fracturing in shale rock through coupled continuum-discontinuum modelling

ARC DECRADE130100457

132,294

T Thai Reliability assessment of concrete-filled steel tubular frames designed by advanced analysis

ARC DECRA DE140100747 127,476

MA Bradford Climate adaptation technology and engineering forextreme events.

CSIRO / Flagship Collaborative Research Program

182,650

H M Goldsworthy, E Gad, B Uy, S Fernando

Development of efficient, robust and architecturally-flexible structural systems using innovative blind-bolted connections

ARC Linkage LP110200511 30,000

S Foster; E Hamed; Z Vrcelj

Advanced Composite Structures Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Composite Structures Ltd (CRC-ACS)

140,180

S Foster Performance based Criteria for Concretes: Creating Pathways for Low Carbon Concrete Manufacture with Existing Standards

Cooperative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living Ltd(CRC LCL)

110,676

H Valipour FRG Grant Faculty of Engineering 40,000

M Attard Orthotropic Hyperelastic Modelling for the Analysis of Composites UNSW Goldstar Award 40,000

L Ge Mapping decadal change of the Australian landscape from space UNSW Goldstar Award 40,000

A Russell Triaxial System for Stress Path and Dynamic Tests UNSW MREII $99,755

A Castel Equipment to develop a World class laboratory for carrying out durability tests at the material and structural level

UNSW MREII 57,545

L Ge Dedicated Computing Cluster for Near Real-Time Satellite Remote Sensing (NRT-RS)

UNSW MREII 100,000

Industry funded research undertaken by the CIES Projects team

Various 168,191

TOTAL CIES $3,451,675

OUR RESEARCH40

RESEARCH STUDENTSRESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS

Abdala Prata Junior, Ademir

Assessment of odours emission rate.

Stuetz, Richard / Timchenko, Victoria

Abu Shoaib, Syed

The relative importance and characteristics of Input Uncertainty in Hydrology.

Marshall, Lucy Amanda

Aghighi, Hossein

Markov random field models for classification of remote sensing data and super-resolution mapping.

Trinder, John

Ahmadian Fard Fini, Alireza

Predicting delay and minimizing its impact in construction context

Waller, S Travis/ Akbar Nezhad, Ali/ Hossein Rashidi, Taha

Ahmed, Sayeed

Micro-sensor networks for validation of remote sensing.

Ge, Linlin

Alac Barut, Ruken

Integration of InSAR with GPS & Geophysical Modeling.

Rizos, Chris

Alghananim, Ma’Mon Saeed Abdel Rahman

Site selection for solar power stations using remote sensing and GIS.

Lim, Samsung

Aliabadian, Zeinab

Dynamic fracture of rock by continuum - discontinuum coupled model.

Zhao, Gaofeng

Alipour Esgandani, Golnaz

Numerical modelling of unsaturated soils under earthquake loading.

Khoshghalb, Arman

Allan, Rebecca Jane

Backward erosion piping of dams.

Douglas, Kurt

Almohssen, Abdulaziz Saud

Tracking subcontractor reputation.

Davis, Steven Richard

Alqurashi, Muwaffaq Awadh O

Quality control in GNSS/INS/vision integration for 3D mapping.

Wang, Jinling

Alsalhi, Raed

Traffic flows in urban networks.

Dixit, Vinayak

Alsultan, Abdulmajeed Sulaiman M

Urban traffic network design.

Dixit, Vinayak / Waller, S Travis

RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS

Amin, Ali

Steel fibre reinforced concrete.

Foster, Stephen

Amini, Nima

Transport modelling.

Gardner, Lauren / Waller, S. Travis

Arbis, David

Modelling Strategic Interactions of Driver Manoeuvres.

Dixit, Vinayak / Hossein Rashidi, Taha

Asadi Zarch, Mohammad Amin

Developing and projecting a new ecohydrolic aridity index for a nonstationary climate.

Bellie, Sivakumar / Sharma, Ashish

Asefi, Hossein

A multi-objective optimisation approach for solving a Green Two - echelon Integrated Waste Collection Location - Routing Problem (G - 2E - IWCLRP).

Lim, Samsung

Ataei, Abdolreza

Steel and composite structures.

Bradford, Mark Andrew

Azcurra, Cecilia

Isotopes in hydrology.

McCabe, Matthew / Baker, Andrew Blair

Babaee, Seyed Mahdi

Durability of geopolymer concrete in marine environments.

Castel, Arnaud / Akbar Nezhad, Ali

Bai, Yun

Coupled thermo-chemo-flow-deformation analysis of multiphase multi-porous media.

Khalili-Naghadeh, Nasser

Barati, Khalegh

Construction resources networks tracking and management.

Shen, Xuesong

Bertuzzi, Robert

Estimating rock mass strength and stiffness with particular interest in the load on a tunnel lining.

Douglas, Kurt John

Bracs, Melissa Anne

Monitoring and modelling coastal variability on a regional scale: implications for the establishment of a national coastal observing network.

Turner, Ian

Carey, David Anthony

Shared spaces and the relationship between traffic and pedestrains.

Waller, S Travis/ Hossein Rashidi, Taha

Carvajal Ortega, Guido Esteban Aquiles

Reliability assessment and management for direct potable water recycling.

Khan, Stuart / Roser, David

RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS

Castilla Rho, Juan Carlos

Agent-based modelling of managed groundwater systems.

Andersen, Martin Sogaard / Mariethoz, Gregoire

Chakka, Mohana Naga Sai Chand

Macroscopic modelling for large urban networks.

Dixit, Vinayak / Waller, S Travis

Chang, Xiaofeng

Remote sensing for earth observation.

Ge, Linlin

Chang, Yingyue

Development and application of biomimetic high valence state iron complexes for contaminant oxidation.

Waite, David / Miller, Chris

Chen, Guangwu

City-scale Carbon Footprint accounting and decarbonisation policy analysis.

Wiedmann, Thomas

Chen, Nan

Multilayer network analysis.

Dixit ,Vinayak / Gardner, Lauren

Chen, Xiaojun

Dynamic Soil-Structure Interaction Analysis in the Time Domain.

Song, Chongmin / Birk, Carolin

Choudhury, Dipayan

Assessment and correction of climate drift in decadal predictions from a hydrological viewpoint

Sharma, Ashish

Dang, Jin Jerry

Durability of construction materials, low - carbone concrete technology, time - dependent behaviour.

Shen, Xuesong

de Burgh, James Matthew

Modelling and analysis of concrete building and tunnel structures in fire.

Foster, Stephen

Dissanayake, Dilina

Automated Image Based Modelling for Elastoplasticity and Damage Analysis.

Song, Chongmin

Do, Anh Tuan

Stability of composite steel concrete T-section beams continuous over one or more supports.

Bradford, Mark Andrew

Do, Duy Minh

Stochastic interval analysis of structures with a mixture of random and interval uncertainties.

Gao, Wei

Donnelly, Nicolas Ian

Next generation datum for Australia and New Zealand: Accounting for Deformation.

Rizos, Chris

OUR RESEARCH 41

RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS

Du, Zheyuan

New Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry for Earth Surface Deformation Detection.

Ge, Linlin

Duell, Melissa

Strategic Traffic Assignment: Models and Applications to Capture Day-to-Day Flow Volatility.

Gardner, Lauren / Waller, S Travis

Dunlop, Mark Wayne

Odour emissions from poultry litter.

Stuetz, Richard

Ebrahimi Nejad Rafsanjani, Meysam

Projects and carbon.

Carmichael, David Gordon

Eghdamirad, Sajjad

Assessing the impact of uncertainty in hydrology through numerical climate modelling.

Johnson, Fiona Michelle / Sharma, Ashish

Elhadayri, Farj

Constitutive modelling of lightly cemented unsaturated soils.

Khalili-Naghadeh, Nasser

Fabiao Dionizio, Manuel

LIDAR for carbon accounting.

Trinder, John Charles

Figueroa, Ligaya Leah

Development of a GeoWeb Tool for Education Resource Planning & Management in the Philippines.

Lim, Samsung

Fisher, Ruth Margaret

Optimisation of biosolid management.

Stuetz, Richard / Moore, Stephen

Foerster, Jean

Natural resource projects

Carmichael, David Gordon

Ghaffaripour, Omid

Numerical algorithms for penetration problems in variably saturated porous media.

Khoshghalb, Arman

Gharib, Mohammadmahdi

Numerical modelling for service life prediction and performance evaluation of deteriorated reinforced concrete structures due to climate change impacts.

Foster, Stephen James

Ghasrikhouzani, Milad

Disaggregate behavioural land use modelling: Integration of housing search, job search and households’ dynamics.

Waller, S Travis/ Hossein Rashidi, Taha

Ghosni, Nassim

Fibre reinforced concrete structures.

Vali Pour Goudarzi, Hamid Reza /Foster, Stephen James

Green, David Kristopher

Probabilistic analysis in computational mechanics with applications in civil engineering.

Gao, Wei / Douglas, Kurt

RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS

Habaragamu Arachchige, Dinesh Mahanama

Durability of Geo-Polymer Concrete with respect to Alkali Aggregate Reaction (AAR)

Castel, Arnaud

Haji Abdul Hamid, Nor Zetty Akhtar

Advanced Management of Geocoded Address for Spatially Enabling Government: A Case in Brunei Darussalam.

Lim, Samsung

Halloran, Landon James Szasz

Groundwater.

Andersen, Martin Sogaard

Hammad, Ahmed W A

Multi-Objective Optimisation.

Akbar Nezhad, Ali

Hasan, Mohammad Mahadi

Hydrology.

Johnson, Fiona Michelle / Sharma, Ashish

Hashemiheidari, Seyedkomeil

Evaluating bridges subjected to extreme loading.

Bradford, Mark Andrew

Hassan, Asif

Mobile Phone Distraction and Traffic Safety.

Dixit, Vinayak / Waller, S Travis

Hassan, M. Mahmudul

Climate change adaptation.

Peirson, William Leslie

Hassan, Mohammad Nurul

Demand estimation for public transportation.

Waller, S Travis/ Hossein Rashidi, Taha

Hassanieh, Amirhossein

Development of steel-timber composite system for large scale construction.

Vali Pour Goudarzi, Hamid Reza

Hayes, James Emerson

Olfactory analysis of ardorous emissions.

Stuetz, Richard

He, Ke

TBA

Song, Chongmin / Birk, Carolin Claudia

Henderson, Ian Edward James

The use of innovative anchors for the achievement of composite action for rehabilitating existing and deployment in demountable steel structures.

Uy, Brian

Ho, Lam

Synthesis of activated carbon supported zero valent iron nanoparticles and application contaminant degradation in benthic sediments.

Waite, David

RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS

Homainejad, Nina

Applications of UAVs for disaster management.

Rizos, Chris

Howe, Daniel

Coastal engineering.

Blenkinsopp, Christopher Edwin /Turner, Ian

Huang, Yue

Nonlinear long-term behaviour of high-strength concrete wall panels.

Hamed, Ehab

James, Edward Malcolm

Pavement systems on soft soils.

Oeser, Markus / Russell, Adrian

Jayakumar Nair, Divya

TLogistics of surplus food rescue and distribution.

Dixit, Vinayak / Hossein Rashidi, Taha

Jian, Sisi

Network modeling.

Dixit, Vinayak / Waller, S Travis

Jiang, Chao

Mechanism and kinetics of ferrous iron oxidation and ferric iron reduction in photolysed natural waters.

Garg, Shikha / Waite, David

Jiang, Chao

Hydraulic fracture.

Zhao, Gaofeng / Khalili-Naghadeh, Nasser

Jiang, Wei

Locata/GNSS/INS.

Rizos, Chris

Kamarulzaman, Nor Hidayaty Binti

Characterisation of Odourants from Natural Rubber Processing.

Stuetz, Richard / Moore, Stephen

Kang, Tae Ho

Piggy Back Modelling.

Sharma, Ashish

Karki, Alex

Parking Optimization.

Dixit, Vinayak / Hossein Rashidi, Taha

Karna, Barun Lal

Advanced characterisation techniques to assess seawater organic matter removal by Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF).

Le Clech, Pierre / Henderson, Rita Kay

Kearney, Edward Tah Dah

The design, application, and assessment of rapid-response airborne lidar for monitoring of storm induced beach erosion.

Turner, Ian

Khan, Mahbub Hossain

Behaviour and design of composite columns coupling the benefits of high strength steel and high strength concrete.

Uy, Brian

OUR RESEARCH42

RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS

Khan, Mohammad Zaved Kaiser

Hydrology.

Sharma, Ashish

Khezri, Mani

Generalised RKP-FSM and it’s application in analysis of thin plates with abrupt rigidity changes and generally laminated composite plates.

Bradford, Mark Andrew

Kim, Seokhyeon

Flood forecasting.

Johnson, Fiona Michelle / Sharma, Ashish

Knight, Nathan Luke

Fault detection and quality control measures for satellite positioning.

Wang, Jinling

Kobayashi, Yumi

Life cycle assessment and risk assessment.

Peters, Gregory / Khan, Stuart

Le, Hung Viet

Fate of volatile Organo-Sulfur compounds in odour assessment.

Stuetz, Richard

Lee, Seul Ki

Estimation of microsimulation models (car following).

Dixit, Vinayak / Waller, S Travis

Lee, Seung Ho

Remote Sensing Satellite Image using Hybrid Methods.

Rizos, Chris

Li, Calvin Pengfei

Quantifying the importance of flood events for the replenishment of groundwater resources.

Andersen, Martin Sogaard

Li, Chenyang

Traffic Microsimulation and Choice Modelling.

Dixit, Vinayak

Li, Dongxu

Structure Engineering - composite structures.

Uy, Brian

Li, Jingwan

Hydroclimatology.

Evans, Jason Peter / Sharma, Ashish / Johnson, Fiona

Li, Liyuan

SAR and optical imagery registration.

Ge, Linlin

RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS

Li, Xiang

Advanced characterisation of dissolved organic nitrogen in drinking water sources.

Henderson, Rita Kay / Khan, Stuart James

Li, Xun

Equity in transportation system.

Dixit, Vinayak / Waller, S Travis

Li, Zeyu

Vision-based Mapping and Navigation.

Wang, Jinling

Liu, Lei

Noise and vibration analysis using the scaled boundary finite element method.

Birk, Carolin Claudia

Liu, Li

TBA

Lim, Samsung

Liu, Qingxiang

Imagery-based modelling.

Ge, Linlin

Liu, Xuefen

Vulnerability analysis and evacuation simulation.

Lim, Samsung

Liu, Youtian

InSAR technique for earthquake studies.

Ge, Linlin

Lu, Xueqing

Risk.

Davis, Steven Richard

Lui, Gough Yumu

Photovoltaic powered UV diode disinfection of drinking, surface, and groundwater.

Corkish, Richard /Roser, David

Luo, Kai

Structural analysis and optimization, computational mechanics, structural safety and reliability.

Gao, Wei / Pi, Yong Lin

Luu, Trung Kien

Numerical simulation of the behaviour of composite frames at elevated temperatures.

Bradford, Mark Andrew

Ma, Xiaoming

Application of nanoparticulate zero valent iron to remediation of contaminated benthic sediments.

Waite, David

Mac, Thi Ngoc

A bounding surface viscoplasticity model for soils.

Zhao, Gaofeng / Khalili-Naghadeh, Nasser

Maheshwari, Pradeep

Optimisation of coagulant addition to submerged membrane bioreactors using computational and experimental methods.

Waite, David

RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS

Mahmud, Kashif

Groundwater modelling, heterogeneity, transport processes, contaminated sites.

Mariethoz, Gregoire / Sharma, Ashish

Mao, Tuo

Transport network modelling and optimisation.

Dixit, Vinayak / Gardner, Lauren

Masoumi, Saeed

Multiscale modeling of FRP-Concrete interface.

Vali Pour Goudarzi, Hamid Reza

Mellati, Afshin

The Iterative Limit & Shakedown Analysis of Structures using A Scaled Boundary Finite Element Method.

Tangaramvong, Sawekchai /Tin Loi, Francis Shay Khiet

Miller, Hugh David

Nanotechnological improvements to ultra-high-performance concrete.

Akbar Nezhad, Ali / Foster, Stephen

Moalafhi, Ditiro Benson

Regional Climate Modeling for Hydrological Applications.

Sharma, Ashish / Evans, Jason

Moghaddasi Kelishomi, Hamed

Constitutive modelling ofweak rocks subject ot mechanical and moisture degradation.

Khoshghalb, Arman / Khalili-Naghadeh, Nasser

Mohd Zaki, Zaizatul Zafflina Binti

The Effect of Group Wave on Wave Setup at Estuaries.

Peirson, William Leslie

Moussavi Nadoushani, Zahra Sadat

Estimation of life cycle carbon of residential and office buildings.

Akbar Nezhad, Ali

Murray, Angus Lachlan

Structural Engineering / Concrete Technology.

Castel, Arnaud / Gilbert, Raymond Ian

Mustaffa, Nur Kamaliah

Sustainability: Carbon Emission in Construction.

Carmichael, David Gordon

Mustapha, Azwan

Dimension reduction.

Sharma, Ashish

Nahar, Jannatun

Bias correction of general circulation models.

Johnson, Fiona Michelle

Naseem, Bushra

Surface water hydrology.

Sharma, Ashish

Nguyen, Thi Thu Ha

Hydrology.

Sharma, Ashish

OUR RESEARCH 43

RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS

Stanaway, Richard Frank

Development geodetic ref system of dynamic transformation parameters to relate the ITRF to static regional dynamic datum.

Roberts, Craig Ashley

Su, Lijuan

Lateral and post buckling with shear effects.

Attard, Mario

Sufian, Adnan

Multi-Scale Modelling of Granular Material.

Russell, Adrian

Sun, Liran

The application of remote sensing on bushfire.

Rizos, Chris / Trinder, John

Sun, Yingying

Iron and copper-mediated oxidant production in natural and engineered aquatic systems.

Pham, An Ninh / Waite, David

Sun, Zhicheng

Fracture analysis by using the scaled boundary finite element method.

Song, Chongmin

Taheriattar, Reza

Sustainability and adaptable/flexible infrastructure.

Akbar Nezhad, Ali / Carmichael, David Gordon

Tamjis, Mohammad Ridhwan

Satellite imagery processing.

Lim, Samsung

Tang, Wangwang

Removal of arsenic, fluoride, nitrate from groundwater by capacitive deionization.

Waite, David

Tang, Yating

The analysis of uncertainties in Hydrological Models.

Marshall, Lucy Amanda

Tang, Yi

Numerical modelling of foundation on unsaturated soils.

Taiebat, Hossein

Teh, Soo Huey

Integrated carbon metrics in the built environment and assessment of indirect carbon flows in Australia. Sustainability assessment program.

Wiedmann, Thomas / Moore, Stephen

Teo, Tiffany Li Lee

Risk assessment of exposure to chemical contaminants in swimming pool.

Khan, Stuart James

Tootoonchi, Arash

Numerical modelling of behaviour of unsaturated soils under large deformation.

Khoshghalb, Arman

RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS

Rocheta, Eytan

Simulating persistence in future rainfall: correcting GCM bias in regional climate models.

Sharma, Ashish

Rong, Hongyan

Production of oxidants on photolysis of silver halides: Kinetics, mechanism and technology optimisation.

Waite, David / Garg, Shikha

Saket, Arvin

Ocean energy.

Peirson, William Leslie

Saputra, Albert Artha

Computational mechanics and structural analysis.

Song, Chongmin / Birk, Carolin Claudia

Saxena, Neeraj

Route Choice under Stop-and-Go Conditions.

Dixit, Vinayak / Waller, S Travis

Scaturro, Salvatore

CFD modelling of negatively buoyant jets.

Peirson ,William Leslie / Cathers, Bruce

Sepasgozar, Samad Mohd E

Technology adoption decision-making in construction.

Davis, Steven / Carmichael, David G

Shakeel, Kiran

Mode choice behaviour modelling with adaptive data collection method.

Waller, S Travis/ Hossein Rashidi, Taha

Shammay, Ariel Tal

Odour Abatement in Sewer Networks.

Stuetz, Richard

Shao, You

A Fusion Approach for Building Boundary Extraction using Lidar Data and Multi-spectral Images.

Lim, Samsung

Shi, Xue

Uncertain analysis of engineering structures, structural reliability analysis, structural dynamics.

Gao, Wei / Pi, Yong Lin

Shirowzhan, Sara

Development of 3-D urban form metrics using lidar in GIS environment.

Lim, Samsung / Turner, Ian

Shutova, Yulia

Monitoring of organic matter in drinking water treatment systems using fluorescence spectroscopy.

Henderson, Rita Kay / Baker, Andrew Blair

Simmons, Joshua Andrew

Real-time forecasting of storm impacts on a high energy coastline.

Turner, Ian / Splinter, Kristen

RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS

Norzahari, Nur Fadhillah

Stem classification and modelling from lidar for a semi-automated forest inventory.

Lim, Samsung / Turner, Russell

Noushini, Amin

Low carbon concrete design.

Castel, Arnaud/ Gilbert, Raymond Ian

Nur, Ismawaty

Climate adaptation (coastal).

Peirson, William Leslie

Parvez, Md. Ahsan

Fatigue behaviour of steel-fibre-reinforced concrete beams and sleepers.

Foster, Stephen James

Pathiraja, Sahani Darshika

Improving the use of Data Assimilation for Flood Forecasting.

Sharma, Ashish

Payan, Meghdad

Study of small strain dynamic properties of saturated and unsaturated soils.

Khoshghalb, Arman

Pells, Steven Edward

Erosion of rock in spillways.

Peirson, William Leslie / Douglas, Kurt John

Peng, Yuan

Cost contingency.

Davis, Steven Richard

Perera, Weebadda Arachchilage Salinda

Improving quality performance in Australian building construction through productive construction environments.

Davis, Steven Richard

Peterson, Mark Aaron

Ground water resources in fractured rock aquifers using geochemical and isotopic methods.

Andersen, Martin Sogaard / Cendon, Dioni

Pflugrath, Brett Dean

Passage of fish through hydraulic structures.

Peirson, William Leslie / Cathers, Bruce

Phillips, Matthew Sean

Beach Recovery Following Storm Erosion.

Turner, Ian / Splinter, Kristen / Cox, Ron

Piscesa, Bambang

Ductility of reinforced concrete frames.

Attard, Mario Paul

Rana, Mohammad Masud

Behaviour of post-tensioned composite steel-concrete slabs.

Uy, Brian

Robson, Edward Nguyen

General equilibrium model to evaluate economic impact of transport projects.

Dixit, Vinayak / Waller, S Travis

OUR RESEARCH44

RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS

Tran, Thao Minh

Performance and sustainability of membrane coupled with upflow anaerobic sludge blanket process.

Le Clech, Pierre / Stuetz, Richard

Tsarev, Sergey

Biogeochemistry.

Collins, Richard Nicholas

Vazquez Campos, Xabier

Geomicrobiological aspects of the (bio)leaching of weathered low-grade uranium ore

Neilan, Brett Anthony / Waite, David

Wang, Bei

Chemical assessment of emissions from sewage collection facilities.

Stuetz, Richard

Wang, Jun Chao

Computational mechanics.

Song, Chongmin

Wang, Kai

Implications of extracellular electron transfer by marine and freshwater phytoplankton.

Waite, David

Wang, Ke Isabella

The Applicability of Remote Sensing Techniques for Meteorological and Environmental Monitoring.

Trinder, John

Wang, Lili

Enantiospecific fate of polycyclic musks in biological wastewater treatment processes and the environment.

Khan, Stuart James

Waqas, Rumman

The Development of Efficient, robust and architecturally flexible structural systems using blind bolted connections.

Uy ,Brian

Warmate, Fubara George

Conditional Random Field Approach to Urban Growth Monitoring using Multisource Remote Sensing Data.

Rizos, Chris / Trinder, John

Wasko, Conrad Dominic

Hydroclimatology.

Sharma, Ashish

Watson, Phillip John

TBC

Cox, Ron

Wen, Tao

Transport network modelling.

Gardner, Lauren / Waller, S Travis

Wiig, Frances

Using L-Band SAR to detect and map subsurface archaeology in desert environments.

Rizos, Chris / Trinder, John

RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS

Wijayaratna, Kasun Pradeepa

Modelling Disrupted Transport Network Behaviour.

Dixit, Vinayak / Waller, S Travis

Wijesekara, Dinusha Madushani

Prediction of Strong Ground Motions by Advanced Numerical Modelling of Seismic Wave Propagation.

Birk, Carolin Claudia

Wijesiri Pathirana, Indika Sameera

Use of innovative anchors as shear connectors in composite steel-concrete beams for the rehabilitation of existing structures and deployment of new structures.

Uy, Brian

Wu, Binhua

Advanced methods for structural analysis, structural safety and reliability, structural dynamics and optimization.

Gao, Wei

Wu, Di

Limit and shake down analysis, uncertain methods and non-deteministic analysis, structural analysis and optimization.

Tangaramvong, Sawekchai / Gao, Wei

Wu, Hao

Optimisation of excess sludge dewatering and phosphorus recovery in submerged membrane bioreactors.

Wang, Yuan / Waite, David

Xiang, Tingsong

Scaled boundary finite element analysis of plates and shells.

Song, Chongmin

Xiao, Wei

Biogeochemical processes in natural waters.

Bligh, Mark William / Waite, David

Xin, Yongjia

Effect of calcium and iron(III) on membrane fouling under conditions typical of submerged membrane bioreactor treatment of wastewaters.

Waite, David

Xing, Guowei

Generation of Oxidative Products in Quinone-mediated Cu/H

20

2 system.

Waite, David

Xu, Wenhua

Global flood forecasting.

Johnson, Fiona Michelle / Marshall, Lucy Amanda

Yang, Chengwei

Nondeterministic analysis of linear and nonlinear structures.

Tangaramvong, Sawekchai / Gao, Wei

Yang, Yang

Upheaval buckling.

Bradford, Mark Andrew

Yeung, Anna Chi Ying

Factors influencing the growth and toxicity of cyanobacteria in drinking water supplies.

Neilan, Brett Anthony / Waite, David

RESEARCH STUDENT / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS

Yin, Peijie

Micromechanics of Unsaturated Flow in Fractured Porous Medium.

Zhao, Gaofeng

Yousefnia Pasha, Amin

Study of soil-water characteristic curve in deformable porous media.

Khoshghalb, Arman / Khalili-Naghadeh, Nasser

Yu, Huijie

Contaminant degradation by supported Ag nanoparticles.

Waite, David

Yuan, Fang

Climate change impacts on coastal shoreline erosion processes.

Cox, Ron

Yvanes-Giuliani, Yliane Auriane Morgan

The geochemistry of aluminium in coastal lowland acid sulfate soils (CLASS): exchangeability, complexation and partitioning.

Collins, Richard Nicholas / Waite, David

Zainuddin, Nur Syahiza

Sources and mobility of arsenic in alluvial river sediments.

Andersen, Martin Sogaard

Zhang, Xiang

Transport modeling.

Waller, S Travis/ Rey, David

Zhang, Xinlei

Alternative project management practices.

Carmichael, David Gordon

Zhang,Yang

Natural hazards analysis.

Lim, Samsung

Zhang, Zhenghua

Phosphorus removal and membrane fouling and cleaning in iron-dosed submerged membrane bioreactor treatment of wastewaters.

Waite, David

Zhou, Peiyuan

Ionosphere modelling for precise GNSS positioning.

Wang, Jinling

Zhou, Yuening

Research on China-Australia construction supply chain.

Bernold, Leonhard Emi l/ Davis, Steven Richard

Zhu, Jianbei

Lateral buckling analysis of oil and gas pipelines.

Attard, Mario

Apologies to Sachin Singh, we used the wrong photo in last year’s annual report when he graduated.

His topic was fluorescence as an online monitoring tool or water recycling. His supervisors were S Khan / R Stuetz, R Henderson.

OUR RESEARCH 45

RESEARCH 2014 GRADUATES PHDRESEARCH 2014 GRADUATE / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS

Agarwal, Ankit

Behaviour of steel-CFRP adhesively bonded connections under thermal loading.

Foster, SJ & Hamed, E

Allis, Michael James

The speed, breaking onset and energy dissipation of 3D deep-water waves.

Peirson, W

Alvarez Gaitan, Juan Pablo

Comprehensive development of process, hybrid and consequential life cycle inventory models with demonstration in the water industry chemicals sector.

Moore, S & Peters, G

Boland, Daniel

Fe(II)-accelerated Fe(III) oxyhydroxide transformation: geochemical controls and implications for contaminant reduction.

Waite, TD & Collins, R

Chiong, Irene

The development of a polygon based numerical technique for structural analyses: scaled boundary polygons.

Song, C

Cholathat, Rattanasuda

Mapping the impact of CO2 sequestration

using NDVI time-series from multi-sensor optical satellite data.

Ge, L

Chowdhury, Morsaleen Shehzad

A non-deterministic fracture analysis tool by extending the scaled boundary finite element method.

Song, C

Ershadi Esmaeilabadi, Ali

Evapotranspiration: application, scaling and uncertainty.

McCabe, M & Evans, J

Esfahani Kan, Mojtaba

Seismic Deformation Analysis Of Earth And Rockfill Dams.

Taiebat, H

Gholamhoseini, Alireza

Time-dependent behaviour of composite concrete slabs.

Gilbert, RI

Gui, Yilin

Desiccation cracking in unsaturated soils.

Khalili, N

He, Di

Biotic and abiotic interactions of silver nanoparticles: Aggregation, dissolution and reactive oxygen species generation.

Waite, TD

Islam, Md Kamrul

Stochastic Modelling for evaluation of impacts of headway variability of public transit performance.

Vandebona, U

RESEARCH 2014 GRADUATE / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS

Rancic, Aleksandra Sanja

Reconstruction of bore hydrograph trends in fractured rock aquifers using data mining techniques.

Acworth, I

Salimzadeh, Saeed

Numerical modelling of two-phase fluid flow through deformable fractured porous media.

Khalili, N

Siew, Yung Jhien Renard

Evaluating and enhancing the impact of sustainability reporting tools (SRTs).

Carmichael, DG & Balatbat, M

Sriskandarajah, Sanchayan

High temperature behaviour of reactive powder concrete (RPC).

Foster, SJ

Tran, Trong Binh

The relationship between staffing levels and performance in manufacturing organisations.

Davis, S

Vo, Thanh Liem

Interaction between a rigid retaining wall and unsaturated soils.

Russell, A

Wang, Chen

Stochastic interval analysis of structures with uncertainties.

Gao, W

Wang, Xin

The feasibility of using satellite SAR images to monitor pasture in Australia.

Ge, L

Woldemeskel, Fitsum Markos

A framework for quantifying and incorporating climate data uncertainty into water resource assessments.

Sharma, A

Yang, Hongwei

In-Situ Testing Of Unsaturated Soils.

Russell, A

Yang ,Ling

Fault Detection And Isolation And Its Application In GNSS/Locata/INS Integrated Navigation System.

Rizos, C

Yap, Russell Kong Leng

Polymer-coated Bubbles in Dissolved Air Flotation for Processing Algae-laden Water.

Henderson, R & Stuetz, R

Yuan, Xiu

Kinetics and Mechanism of Copper Transformations in Natural Water at Circumneutral pH.

Waite, TD

RESEARCH 2014 GRADUATE / TOPIC / SUPERVISORS

Jiang, Yiping

Receiver autonomous integrity monitoring schemes for global navigation satellite systems.

Wang, J

Kaboli, Seyed Alireza

Cost and emissions analysis of earthmoving operations.

Carmichael, DG

Khajeh Samani, Ali

Ductility In Reinforced Concrete Columns.

Attard, Mario

Khan, Urooj

A new framework for process based computationally efficient semi-distributed hydrological modelling.

Sharma, A & Tuteja, N K

Li, Chao

Fracture analysis of Piezoelectric composites using scaled boundary finite element method.

Song, C

Liu, Nengguang

Dynamic analysis of vehicle-bridge interaction system with uncertain parameters.

Gao, W

Ma, Jianjun

Coupled flow deformation analysis of fractured porous media subject to elasto-plastic damage.

Khalili, N

Ma, Tian

Oxidant generation on photolysis of silver chloride suspensions: implications to organic contaminant degradation.

Waite, TW

Maghrebi, Mojtaba

Using machine learning to automatically plan concrete delivery dispatching.

Waller, ST & Sammut, C

Mazumder, Maruful Hasan

The anchorage of deformed bars in reinforced concrete members subjected to bending.

Gilbert, RI

Mohamad Abas, Fairul Zahri

Strength of fibre reinforced concrete composite slabs with deep trapezoidal profiled steel decking.

Gilbert, RI

Moon,Sungkon

Dynamic control of supply chain quality to improve process performance in construction.

Bernold, L & Davis, S

Park,Hong Joo

Analysis of full waveform airborne LIDAR remote sensing data for the individual tree inventory in Australian forest.

Lim, S

Rahnamayie Zekavat, Payam

Performance assessment of agile communication in construction.

Bernold, L

OUR RESEARCH46

CERSA 2014

The Civil and Environmental Engineering Research

Student Association (CERSA) is the student body which

represents postgraduate research students within the

School.

2014 CERSA Committee

Conrad Wasko, Milad Ghasrikhouzani, Nima Amini, Guido

Carvajal Ortega, Seyedkomeil Hashemiheidari, Xabier

Vázquez Campos, Arvin Saket, Juan Carlos Castilla

In 2014 the number of students within the school

swelled again with the total number of students tipping

200. CERSA kicked off the year with a welcoming

BBQ to meet and greet the new students and elect a

representative committee for the coming year. All in all,

2014 turned out to be a big year for CERSA. Among

the usual social events which included a Board Game

Night, Movie Night and several End of Month Drinks, two

new sporting events were added to the social calendar.

This year saw CERSA host the inaugural CERSA Table

Tennis Tournament and CERSA Futsal Tournament. Both

events proved to be a huge success with even a couple

of staff members showing up to compete for spoils that

come with being crowned a CERSA sporting champion.

Continuing from feedback received from students,

past and present, CERSA also facilitated a two-day

Academic Writing Workshop run by Pam Port where

students were invited to come and improve their

journal and thesis writing skills. Finally, this year also

saw CERSA make its annual pilgrimage to the Water

Research Laboratory at Manly Vale for a tour of the

laboratories and a BBQ by the picturesque Manly Dam.

Without the generous support from both the school’s

staff and students, CERSA would not have had as

successful year as it did. Thank you for attending our

events and we look forward to seeing you all in 2015!

L-R Guido Carvajal Ortega, Conrad Wasko, Xabier  Vázquez Campos, Arvin Saket, Nima Amini, Milad Ghasrikhouzani, Seyedkomeil Hashemiheidari. Absent: Juan Carlos Castilla’

OUR TEACHING

OUR TEACHING48

THE TEACHING AND LEARNING REPORT

The Teaching and Learning Committee (TLC) of the

School is responsible for all academic matters relating

to all undergraduate and postgraduate coursework

programs; these involve:

\ encouraging teaching quality,

\ providing teaching aids to staff,

\ monitoring courses through student focus group

surveys,

\ interaction with student representatives of CEVSOC

and research student tutors through CERSA,

\ setting policy regarding academic aspects of

undergraduate and postgraduate examinations and

enrolments,

\ providing a focal point for student assistance in

undergraduate and postgraduate coursework

matters.

The major drive behind the Committee’s agenda is

to improve the learning experience of students. The

members of the committee in 2014 were:

Teaching and Learning Committee 2014

Dr Steven Davis Chair

Stephen MooreDeputy Chair &Environmental Eng Program Coordinator

Associate Professor Mario Attard

Assoc Head (Academic)Civil Engineering Program Coordinator

Julijana Baric/ Kristy Guia

Student Services Manager

Dr Johnson Shen Year 2 Coordinator

Dr Carolin BirkStructures Representative & Elite Student Coordinator

Dr Kurt Douglas Geotechnical Representative

Dr Lauren GardnerCivil with Arch Program Coordinator

Dr Bruce Harvey Surveying Representative

Dr Arman Khoshghalb CIT & ET Liaison

Dr Ehab Hamed Year 3 Coordinator

A/Prof Bill Peirson Water Representative

Dr Taha Rashidi Year 4 Coordinator

Dr Hossein TaiebatPostgraduate Coursework Coordinator

Dr Hamid Valipour Year 1 Coordinator

Dr Upali Vandebona Industrial Training Coordinator

A/Prof Jinling Wang Faculty IRC Rep

In Feb the TLC strongly supported the School’s one

day staff retreat focused on ‘Efficacy & Quality in

Teaching’. All academic staff attended, and the

OUR TEACHING 49

programme was very effectively MC-ed by Ian McIntyre,

Principal of Evans & Peck (now Advisian), and Chair

of the School’s Industry Advisory Committee. Topics

explored and shared included current innovations in

School online and blended teaching and learning;

improving the student experience with field work,

excursions and laboratories; upcoming curriculum and

program changes; supporting independent student

learning; managing large classes; and how to measure,

acknowledge and reward good teaching.

In 2014 the Committee administered the second year of

the innovative School Teaching Initiative Grant Scheme

(STIGS) – the aim being to develop and implement

innovations in School teaching and learning, and to

support the improvement of the student experience

through teaching related activities.

Six teaching initiatives applications were successful

in receiving funding commitments for 2014. These

initiatives ranged from continuing with online teaching

innovations and improvements within undergraduate

and postgraduate courses, to providing a more hands-

on approach in water quality laboratory classes, and

to supporting a fourth year student-industry showcase

forum on sustainable infrastructure design.

TEACHING EQUIPMENT GRANTS

An initiative for 2014 was the introduction of the

“Teaching Equipment Grants”. Modelled on the School’s

longstanding call for Research Equipment grants

for the support of research facilities, a School grant

scheme was introduced through its Teaching and

Learning Committee for the support of in-class teaching

equipment to improve teaching to large classes and

improve student experience by bringing the laboratory

to the classroom. The following grants were awarded for

2014:

Ehab Hamed: Physical structural modelling in large classes

Johnson Shen: Miniature construction equipment

Carolin Birk: Instructional Shake Table II Workstation

Stefan Felder and Bill Peirson: Upgrade hydraulic flow meters

This initiative will be continued to be developed for 2015.

OUR TEACHING50

SELECTED STUDENT PROFILES

Joseph Babana James Dunn Afrida Salman

Jotham Young Nurinda Triwahyuni Suastha

Our hardworking and high achieving students come from a wide variety of backgrounds, but they share a common desire to be of real use in the world. We asked five of them to tell us their stories.

“After the experience with Design Thinking I feel a greater ability to innovate and become an entrepreneur,”

James’s interest was sparked when he attended a UNSW function for high achievers as a high school student.

Afrida has enjoyed sharing her passion for engineering by facilitating workshops and engaging with high school students.

Nurinda Triwahyuni Suastha is one of UNSW’s most outstanding students, having collected no less than four academic awards in the last three years.

“More than just a sum of money, the scholarship was what allowed me to pursue my dreams of studying engineering at a world-class institution like UNSW”

OUR TEACHING 51

UNSW function for high achievers as a high school student. He says the scholarship has allowed him to pursue his goal of studying at UNSW without a large financial burden.

“It is a great privilege to be awarded such a major scholarship,” says James. “Having met my donor on a couple of occasions and learnt the background of the scholarship, it really pleases me to be chosen out of the many applications that were received.”

James is now a second year resident at Philip Baxter College on campus. “I can easily say that my first year of university study and living in college was the best year of my life. I knew no one before I moved to Sydney but after just one year I have already met an enormous amount of people.”

Asked about his career aspirations, James says he would like to revolutionise the way environmentally friendly constructions are undertaken and build an appreciation for the unique qualities of green technology designs.

“I would like to be a part of a design team that creates something that truly makes a difference to the community in which it resides and is recognised worldwide as a step forward in a sustainable future.”

Afrida SalmanYear 5

From Hornsby Girls’ High to final year Engineering

Honours student and Student Ambassador for the

Faculty of Engineering, Afrida Salman has had quite an

academic journey. Having first enrolled in Engineering/

Arts so she could continue studying languages, Afrida

switched to Civil/Enviro in her second year after a taste

of environmental engineering in a first year elective.

She discovered the degree was quite flexible and could

easily accommodate her interest in German.

Afrida has also been Student Ambassador for UNSW

Engineering for two years.

This involves representing the faculty to prospective

students and parents at a range of on- and off-campus

events. Afrida has enjoyed sharing her passion for

engineering by facilitating workshops and engaging

with high school students.

“I think it has given me the opportunity to develop

strong communication and leadership skills,” she

says. This year Afrida spoke to an audience of around

300 at the Faculty of Engineering presentation on

UNSW Information Day. She also represented UNSW

at the National Youth Science Forum in Canberra and

presented to an audience of 200 keen students.

Joseph BabanaYear 3

Winning a scholarship offers much more than financial assistance, as Joseph Babana can attest. Thanks to his Future Direction Network (FDN) scholarship, Joseph was able to attend the International Design Thinking Week in Berlin last year – an experience which has been life changing.

The FDN is a private foundation run by former NRL star Corey Payne. It focuses on supporting young people from Sydney’s South West. In 2013, Joseph was one of three students awarded the scholarship, which recognises both academic achievement and socioeconomic disadvantage.

However, Joseph says, the scholarship has provided much more, with great mentors to help guide him though his studies.

“After the experience with Design Thinking I feel a greater ability to innovate and become an entrepreneur,” he says.

The trip to Germany was Joseph’s first time overseas, and it has encouraged him towards further travel. He is now on track to spend a semester on exchange at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and his sights are set on a second exchange in Europe.

Joseph chose the double degree in civil and environmental engineering because he sees sustainability principles as being more and more a part “of everything we build.” He feels a responsibility to future generations for wiser management today of Earth’s finite resources. He dreams of one day being behind the creation of a Sydney public transport and roads system that is the best in the world. He would love to travel and work on projects overseas, reconstruct war or disaster-torn cities and eliminate poverty caused by lack of infrastructure.

James DunnYear 2

It wasn’t until the middle of his HSC year that McCarthy College Tamworth’s vice captain, James Dunn, decided what type of engineering he wanted to do. Having always been environmentally conscious, he was drawn towards a degree related to renewable energy; but he also had a keen interest in design.

James received scholarship offers from several institutions and chose the Bernard William Gould Rural Scholarship at UNSW because it allowed him to do a double degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering. It also meant the fulfillment of a desire to study at one of the top ranked engineering schools in the country. James’s interest was sparked when he attended a

OUR TEACHING52

Afrida says University has been a great experience.

“In a span of five years I’ve met some amazing people,

spent a year studying in Switzerland, become involved

with Engineers Without Borders, and now have the

opportunity to do research in an area of choice

(groundwater) with the final year Honours thesis. Every

year has been a new and different experience.”

As for the future? Afrida would like to enter the field of engineering consulting. Her dream for the industry is to see more women in senior engineering positions.

Nurinda Triwahyuni SuasthaYear 3

Nurinda Triwahyuni Suastha is one of UNSW’s most

outstanding students, having collected no less than four

academic awards in the last three years.

In 2013 she was won the Jacob Frenkel prize for

outstanding first year. The Prize is awarded for the best

achievement in Civil Engineering for a first year student.

Nurinda has also won the Faculty of Engineering Dean’s

Award – twice. The Dean’s Award recognises the top

two per cent of students across the Faculty with a

minimum WAM of 85 (High Distinction).

“Obtaining these awards has meant the world to me,”

Nurinda says. “I am truly grateful to be able to make my

parents and community proud. It boosts my confidence

and self-respect, and motivates me to keep persevering

to achieve the best I can. ”

The final feather in Nurinda’s academic cap (so far) is

the JK Geotechnics Prize for the best performance in

CVEN2201 Soil Mechanics, which she won in 2014.

Nurinda’s many achievements reflect her capability,

diligence and avid interest in the field of civil

engineering. However, excellence in academia is

not Nurinda’s only passion. She is also involved in

the Indonesian Student Association (ISA), which she

says has helped her develop important ‘soft’ skills

and expand her social network. Although Nurinda

herself is fluent in English, she understands that some

common issues faced by Indonesian students are

the “language barrier, home-sickness, and different

learning approach.” Of her time so far at UNSW, she

truly treasures meeting new people and making new

friends from several cultural backgrounds. She strongly

believes that relationship skills, “soft skills” are just as

crucial as academic excellence.”

Nurinda’s dream is to be a successful entrepreneur and

property developer, building structures that are advanced,

sustainable and meeting clients’ needs. Once she has made

her mark, she would like to give back to the community and

build amenities to help the less fortunate.

Jotham YoungYear 3

Jotham Young says it is hard to comprehend how

different his life would be if he didn’t have the financial

support of the Stockton Drilling Services Award, which

he won in 2013.

“More than just a sum of money, the scholarship was

what allowed me to pursue my dreams of studying

engineering at a world-class institution like UNSW,” he

says. Without the scholarship, Jotham believes he would

never have packed his bags and left his hometown on

the Mid-North Coast.

“I am incredibly grateful to my industry sponsors for

providing this life-changing opportunity.”

He is certainly making the most of it. A New Colombo

Plan Scholarship will send him to Malaysia for a year,

starting Semester 2, 2015. The New Colombo Plan is

a government initiative that aims to build knowledge of

the Indo-Pacific Region within Australia by supporting

undergraduates to relocate to the region. Jotham

will undertake 12 months of study in Malaysia, and

pursue language training, research and internship

opportunities.

Jotham likens his double degree to a peanut butter and

jam sandwich – an unlikely combination that works. He

says Engineering provides tools to develop and design

solutions to problems, while Commerce teaches the

financial know-how and big-picture perspective to bring

those solutions to life.

“Everything, from the 9am lectures to the late nights

out, has made my University experience one massive

adventure and, as the saying goes, one of the best

times of my life.”

Asked about his wildest career dreams, Jotham says:

“Over 750 million people lack access to clean drinking

water, more than 840,000 people die each year from

water-born diseases, and more people worldwide have

access to a mobile phone than a toilet. I would like to

build and manage infrastructure solutions that make a

difference to those numbers.”

OUR TEACHING 53

2014 admissions, enrolments, graduates

Undergraduate Commencing Enrolled Graduated3620 BE Civil Engineering 209 686 2003624 BE Civil with Architecture 53 195 383625 BE Environmental 20 71 14Combined Degrees3146 BE Civil/BE Mining 33 133 103621 BE BA (Civil/Arts) n/a 3 33626 BE BA (Environmental/Arts) n/a 3 03631 BE Civil/ BE Enviro 40 116 123703 BE BA (Engineering/Arts) n/a 8 03704 BE BA (Engineering/Arts) 3 13 03715 BE/BCom 88 317 413730 BE BSc (Civil/Science) 12 50 33735 BE BSc (Environmental/Science) 5 17 03741 BE Surveying n/a 0 13746 BE Surveying and SIS/Science 2 1 03742 BE Surveying & Geoinfo Systems 24 52 144776/4777/4778 BE/LLB (Engineering/Law) 5 17 4Total Undergraduates 494 1682 340Postgraduate Coursework Commencing Enrolled Graduated5338 Graduate Diploma 22 37 57338 Graduate Certificate 4 16 38538 MEngSc 184 452 2488539 MEngSc (Extension) 80 118 8Total 290 623 265

OUR TEACHING54

TUNNELLING DELIGHTS

Fourth year construction students in the undergraduate

course CVEN4102 Operations and Projects visited

the North West Rail Link (NWRL) Project at Bella Vista

in Semester 2, 2014. They were accompanied by

their course coordinator Dr Johnson Shen who had

organised the site visit – and three other academic staff

members Prof David Carmichael, Dr Steve Davis, and

A/Prof Linlin Ge.

During the visit, NWRL Project Manager Tim Burns gave

students a one hour talk introducing the entire project and

tunnelling method using tunnel boring machines (TBM).

Jodie Grant, NWRL Community Place Manager, led

the site tour to the TBM launching shaft and precast

concrete plant on the site. Students were very

impressed. Ranie Nguyen felt ‘it was truly an informative

tour that gave me the opportunity first hand to see how

a construction site is operated’ – while Jovin Saymontry

declared it was ‘by far the best field trip I have been

part of during my university career.’

The $8.3 billion North West Rail Link is Australia’s

largest public transport infrastructure project currently

under construction and a priority rail project for the NSW

Government. The project includes construction of twin

15 km tunnels from Bella Vista to Epping – Australia’s

longest rail tunnels.

Pics authorised by Thiess/John Holland/Dragados

OUR TEACHING 55

In June 2014 the School held a showcase event to

celebrate the work of our creative and forward thinking

young engineers. For three months, sixty-five Year 4

students enrolled in CVEN4701 Planning Sustainable

Infrastructure had looked at the environmental issues

associated with the proposed Ranger uranium

mine extension in Kakadu. In addition to this, they

designed more sustainable infrastructure to support

the transformation of the nearby town of Jabiru into an

ecotourism destination by the year 2030.

The four components of regional infrastructure of

materials and waste, water, energy and transport, were

included in the students’ brief. It is a sensitive area;

there have been environmental problems with past

mining; consultation and negotiations with Indigenous

landholders will be required; and the climate creates

problems for water management and comfortable living.

The engineers needed to practise critical thinking,

creative problem solving, and teamwork skills to meet

these challenges. For the showcase event – organised

by School academic and course coordinator Stephen

Moore – students created posters to display their

findings and make their recommendations.

These were judged by special guests and industry

partners including leading international waste

management expert Professor Shinichi Sakai from Kyoto

University; Professor Nakata from Nura Gili, Centre for

Indigenous Programs at UNSW; and Safiah Moore, a

planner from Arup, a leading global engineering design

consultancy, and industry partner of the School.

SHOWCASE- EVENT: PLANNING OF SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE.

The winning team were Belinda Lau, Fatima Raposo,

Lisa Teng and Clayton Wills.

Highly Commended Teams: Annie Mak, Caio Muraki de

Sa, Dariane Miranda Pereira; and Marc Beckett, Carlos

Navarro Mingarro, Siddhartha Padhye and Shaoxiong Yu.

1ST

2ND

3RD

OUR TEACHING56

University Medal

\ University Medal in Civil Engineering: Han Su

\ University Medal in Civil Engineering: Timothy

Cheung (pictured page 57 far right)

\ University Medal in Civil Engineering with

Architecture: Nell B Hardy (pictured page 57 centre

right)

\ University Medal in Environmental Engineering:

Kelvin Nguyen (pictured page 57 left)

Engineering Prizes

\ The Alexander Wargon Prize – Timothy Cheung

\ The Jacob N Frenkel Prize – Jason Lam

\ The Welding Technology Institute of Australia Prize

– Yang Yu

\ Engineers Australia Civil and Structural Engineering

Prize – Joel Willey

\ The ASI Undergraduate Steel Design Award –

Jonathan CHAN

\ The Full Time Class of 1962 Civil Engineering and

Surveying Alumni Prize – Lynette Qian

\ The George Bennett Millenium Prize – Hannah

Pearce

\ The Institution of Surveyors New South Wales

Incorporated Prize – Amanda Nicholas

\ The EGM Memorial Prize – Robert Dicker

\ The JK Geotechnics Prize – Nurinda Suastha

\ The Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute Prize –

Shuyi Liu & Robert Dicker

\ The Association of Consulting Surveyors’ NSW Prize

in Land Development – Amanda Nicholas

\ The BOSSI Medal – Peter Boorer

\ The Association of Public Authority Surveyors’ Prize

– Hannah Pearce

\ The R S Mather Memorial Prize – Amanda Nicholas

\ The Crawford Munro Memorial Prize – Jonathan

Chan

AWARDS AND PRIZES

SCHOOL INDUSTRY TRAINING

GHD

OUR TEACHING 57

Dean’s Awards

Deans Awards in 2015 for

students from the School of Civil &

Environmental Engineering – studies

completed in 2014

\ Mr Ahmed Abdul Matheen

\ Mr Tomas Beuzen

\ Mr Matias Braga San Martin

\ Mr Jonathan Chan

\ Mr Ming Chin

\ Ms Mingyi Dong

\ Ms Jingting Duan

\ Mr James Dunn

\ Mr Josiah Fajardo

\ Ms Faiza Kazmi

\ Mr Abhikaar Kishor

\ Mr Jason Lam

\ Ms Monica Laut

\ Mr Xiao Li

\ Mr William Manning

\ Mr Daniel Setioso

\ Ms Karina Siems

\ Miss Nurinda Suastha

\ Miss Kelly Tang

\ Mr Anh Tran

\ Mr Atheththan Vigneswaran

\ Miss Camellia Wong

\ Ms Sum Wong

\ Mr Hubert Xiao

\ Mr Koray Yurt

Year 4 Industry sponsored Prizes

\ Civil with Architecture – Prize

sponsored by Arup – Winner: Michael

Chernyavsky

\ Civil & Environmental Engineering

Practice – Prize sponsored by Cardno

– Winner: Matthew Bugden

\ Construction Management – Prize

sponsored by Brookfield Multiplex –

Winner: Ravi Kaberwal

\ Environmental Engineering – Prize

sponsored by Royal Haskoning

DHV– Winner: Ellen Howley

\ Geospatial Engineering – Prize

sponsored by AAM Group – Winner:

Amanda Nicholas

\ Geotechnical Engineering – Prize

sponsored by PSM – Winner: Koray

Yurt

\ Industrial Training – Prize sponsored

by CVEN – Winner: Alison Goddard

\ Structural Engineering – Prize

sponsored by Aurecon – Winner:

Timothy Cheung

\ Surveying – Prize sponsored by

Jacobs – Winner: Peter Boorer

\ Transport Engineering – Prize

sponsored by AECOM – Winner:

Jarrah Duckhs

\ Water Engineering – Prize sponsored

by GHD – Winner: Nell Hardy

AECOM

CARDNO

PSM

BROOKFIELD MULTIPLEX

OUR TEACHING58

CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING SOCIETY (CEVSOC)

Presidents Report 2014

CEVSOC this year has aimed to hold more frequent,

social and professional events with a goal of promoting

both the academic and social side of University

life. Online membership increased by 40% to 1780

members – evident by the increased turnout to events

and participation in everything CEVSOC. Expansion has

enabled growth in new regions of study and social life.

CEVSOC began the year in style with a start of session

pizza night enabling all students to meet and greet the

new 2014 committee. Immediate weeks to follow saw

frequent BBQ’s including CEVSOC’s first Breakfast

BBQ, which was a major success! 2014 also saw

CEVSOC join with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition

(AYCC) Charity raising money for the villages of Nepal.

The 4th consecutive First Year Camp was run early in

2014 accommodating over 100 first year students. This

event has yet again proved a major hit enabling first

years to meet a range of new people, including those in

their own year as well as older years. With engineering

challenges, mini Olympics and nights to socialize the

camp is a great initiative run by CEVSOC in order to get

students involved in CEVSOC and University life.

CEVSOC’s annual Harbour Cruise saw both the

Architecture Society (ARCSOC) and Interior Architecture

Society (INTASOC) join together holding over 200

people on a night theme “Sailors on the Blue”. The night

proved successful permitting the three clubs to expand

friendship circles and develop essential networking skills.

By holding events such as IT and Electives Night,

Employment Skills Seminar, Industry BBQ’s, Thesis

Night and Alumni Night, CEVSOC has a powerful tool

for students. With outside sources such as industry

partners and alumni students as well as internal tools

including senior lecturers and Head of School, Steve

Foster, CEVSOC has held these events in order to

enable students to get the most out of their University.

Whether it be conversing with industry representatives

about future professional prospects or third and

fourth years debating thesis topics with supervisors

and lecturers, there has been a massive opportunity

presented and that is what CEVSOC is about.

CEVSOC looks back on a great 2014 and towards an

exciting and promising 2015. Having succeeded in

growing and improving upon past events, we look to the

future and see even more gains to be had with new and

innovative ideas.

Sam McCormickCEVSOC President 2014

The office bearers for 2014 are as follows:President: Sam McCormick

Vice President: Georgia Harmey

Secretary: Jono Lustre

Treasurer: Teresa Tran

WHS Representative: Catriona Tait

Arc Delegate: Ravi Kaberwal

Sports Representative(s): Adam Refki and Joel

Chapman

2014 CEVSOC Executive and team: Back L-R: Jono Lustre, Teresa Tran, Catrionia Tait, Leila Bowe, Sam McCormick, George Chard, Alex Warren, Ravi Kaberwal, Celine El Khouri,  Georgia Harmey, Adam Refki Front row (kneeling) Claudia Burbidge, Chris Mundy(reclining), Joel Chapman, Karina Baumber

OUR TEACHING 59

The Surveying Society (SURVSOC) is an undergraduate

student society for students enrolled in the BE Surveying

and BE Geoinfo systems programs. We aim to enrich

the university experience for students by hosting social

events that cater to what the students want out of the

society and their time at university. This ranges from

barbeques and pizza nights to jumpers and shirts.

Furthermore, we strive to give students the opportunity

to meet representatives of the industry and inform them

of the opportunities that exist during and after their

degree. These events give students of all years the

opportunity to meet and share their experiences and

ideas over food and drink. It also gives students and

staff the chance to get to know each other outside the

classroom.

2014 – 2015 SURVSOC Office-BearersPresident: Henry Deng

Vice President: Phillip Dao

Treasurer: Simon Yu

Secretary: Mitchel Bradac

ARC Delegate: Jacky Chan

AUSIM/Industry Representative: John Ngyuen

4th Year Representative: Jerom Vanderstappen

3rd Year Representative: Luke Chidzy

2nd Year Representative: Hanna Jayne

SURVEYING SOCIETY (SURVSOC)

You may not hear it all that often (as an ex-teacher I know it is rare to

hear back from students) but I wanted to let

you know my daughter Julianne really enjoyed

studying at UNSW and has left an extremely

confident and capable person. She had some

really terrific lecturers and tutors who guided

and helped her in what are arguably the most

difficult subjects anyone can take at University.

I was looking at the web site for CVEN and saw

the lovely group photograph of her (RHS in the

black and white outfit) with her friends that had

been taken at the special Year 4 dinner. The

students looked so poised and professional.

It was such a great photograph also because

it showed both males and females in the shot

because that is the future of Engineering.

The School can be very proud of its

achievements and it is wonderful to see that all

the hard work has paid off in its very high world

ranking. Congratulations to all of you and may

the new intake for 2015 have as much enjoyment

as Julianne did.

Kind regards

Mrs Lyndy Lipman

In 2014 Julianne Lipman, a BE Civil with Architecture student, won one of only five scholarships through the MADE by the Opera House program. The scholarship allowed students of the built environment including engineers, architects and designers to work in Denmark on a multidisciplinary project. Julianne is currently doing an internship with Arup Italy in Milan.

OUR TEACHING60

YEAR 4 DINNER

INDUSTRY AND COMMUNITY

INDUSTRY AND COMMUNITY62

Ian McIntyre Principal and Service Lead, Contractual Services, Advisor

As a consultant for the past 27 years, Ian has advised in relation to project delivery processes on a wide range of infrastructure, building and systems integration projects throughout Australia and South East Asia. His previous experience was in project management and construction engineering for a contractor on major civil engineering and multi disciplinary projects throughout Australia and in Hong Kong.He is frequently retained in “trouble shooting”, independent review and due diligence roles and has considerable experience in analysis of the reasons for project delivery problems, and of the factors which are typically associated with successful project delivery strategies leading to successful project outcomes. He is an experienced expert witness in relation to project performance issues.

Deirdre Agnew Student Careers AdvisorSt Aloysius Kirribilli

Deirdre has worked in banking, insurance broking and market research in UK. She has also been employed in public relations/events management role for international conferences at the University of the Witwatersrand. She taught at Hornsby Girls’ High School, before moving into careers counselling. She spent fifteen years at St. Ignatius’ College, Riverview and has been at St. Aloysius College at Milsons Point since 2005. Deirdre is also a director of Australian Careers Advice, a professional careers consultancy.

Eric de Rooy General Manager, Service Delivery - Sydney Water

Eric was appointed General Manager, Service Delivery, Sydney Water in July 2012, prior to which he was General Manager, Maintenance from November 2008. Since joining Sydney Water in January 1975 as a trainee civil engineer, Eric has worked in many of the asset-re-lated areas, including construction, design, treatment operations/maintenance, capital projects and network operations. In 1998 Eric took up the role of Water Networks Manager and was later appointed as Manager Strategic Operations in 2004. He was appointed as the General Manager of the new Service Delivery Division in 2012, with responsibility for the planning, operation, maintenance and renewal of all of Sydney Water’s service related assets.

Dr Mehreen Faruqi, Greens NSW MP

CVEN alumnus Dr Mehreen Faruqi joined the NSW Legislative Council in June 2013. She has worked in leadership positions in local government, consulting firms and higher education institutions including UNSW - in Australia and internationally. Mehreen has delivered major engineering projects such as stormwater reuse and recycling infrastructure, cycle ways, hydropower generation and rainforest rehabilitation. She has chaired a number of panels and committees on sustainability, water and waste management for industry, local, state and federal government .She is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers Australia and a member of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand

Laurie Foy, Regional Director, Construction + Development, Brookfield Multiplex

Laurie has over 30 years construction industry experi-ence gained both locally and in South East Asia. Laurie joined Brookfield Multiplex in 1991 to lead the Sheraton on the Park project. Since then he has provided leader-ship to teams on some of Brookfield Multiplex’s most challenging projects, among them the $287m Parramatta Justice Precinct, the $360m BER Schools Program and more recently, Lifehouse at RPA and the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney. Laurie works closely in skills training of junior staff members and is also involved in development of op-portunities for long term unemployed in the Indigenous population

INDUSTRY ADVISORY COMMITTEE

The Industry Advisory Committee is an important means

by which links between the School and industry are

maintained. Members of the IAC are drawn from private

sector, government and consultant organisations. Its

main function is that of “sounding board” for the School

in regard to undergraduate and graduate programs,

and research directions.

The IAC membership represents a broad cross section

of relevant industry sectors at a senior and influential

level. This year, 2014, a year of significant change, we

welcomed Dr Mehreen Faruqi, (NSW MLC), Laurie Foy

(Brookfield Multiplex) , Dr James Glastonbury (Laing

O’Rourke), Iain Scoular (Leighton Holdings), Dave

Stewart (Transport for NSW – subsequently returned

to Queensland) and Athena Venios ( AECOM) to our

Committee. With the honourable exception of Laurie all

are alumni of the School.

The IAC and the School have taken a long term

approach to improving the standing of the School

within the awareness and perception of possible future

students, their parents, teachers and careers advisers.

As a consequence, the School now reaches out to these

groups in several practical ways: Presentation of maths

prizes in primary schools, Year 10 visits to engineering

projects and activities as an alternative form of “industry

work experience” for high school students, and

sponsorship of attendance by school careers advisers

at industry awards dinners for engineering excellence.

Each of these means of outreach continues to receive

very favourable feedback from participants.

For 2014, the Committee requested the School to put

extra efforts into reaching regional careers advisers,

and meeting three of these at the EA Awards evening

was a particularly rewarding experience. Also rewarding

was the visit of a dedicated Sydney careers adviser,

Lorna Charters, to our last meeting of the year where

she analysed and demonstrated for the IAC the road, we

believe, to engineering ruin. That is, the almost systemic

ways in which students are being turned away from

studying higher level maths in our secondary schools.

Finally, our sincere and grateful thanks to departing

IAC members: Stephen Boss and Adrian Bull (both

longstanding members of the Committee - from 2006

to 2013), Ian Hosking and Bruce Munro for all their

support and service. We wish them all the best as they

continue to serve their industry and community with

great distinction.

Ian McIntyre

Chairman

INDUSTRY AND COMMUNITY 63

Dr James Glastonbury, Engineering Director, Laing O’Rourke

For his PhD in geotechnical engineering at UNSW James developed slope risk management tools that have been used by various agencies for better managing landslide risk, igniting a passion for innovation which has remained to this day. He now works with a global team of technical specialists that seek smarter ways to do things, to challenge traditional practice. He relishes the conversations he has with clients about how new ideas and technologies could be integrated into projects to provide greater efficiency, quality and performance,

Mark Gordon Principal Surveyor - RMS NSW

In 2008 Mark was named the NSW Professional Sur-veyor of the Year. Mark was Chairman of the NSW Sur-veying & Mapping Industry Council from 1999 to 2013 and Chairman of UNSW Australia School of Surveying & Spatial Information Systems Advisory Board from 2008 to 2013. Mark was also the Assistant Congress Director for the World Surveying Congress held in Sydney in the year 2010, which attracted 2000 delegates and for which he received the Surveying & Spatial Sciences Institute’s President’s Award.From 2011 to 2013, Mark was the convenor of the Standards Australia committee for the development of an Australian Standard in Subsurface Utility Information. The new Standard was published in May 2013.

Andrew Johnson Principal, ARUP

Andrew leads an integrated buildings design team in the Sydney Arup office delivering bespoke high level multi-disciplinary design to achieve better and more sustainable buildings.Andrew is a structural engineer with a passion for design philosophies combining innovation with efficiency in ho-listic building or structural solutions, and his experience designing and delivering projects in Australia, the UK, and around the world over 17 years.His specific structural expertise includes tall buildings, hybrid structures, long-term serviceability of structures, seismic analysis and design, and long-span lightweight roof structures.

Dr Kourosh Kayvani Building Structures Leader and Head of InnovationAurecon

Dr Kourosh Kayvani is Aurecon’s global Head of Innovation. Over a 20+ year career, he played key roles in the design of many innovative and award-winning structures including Wembley National Stadium (Arch and Roof), London; the ANSTO OPAL Reactor Building, Lucas Height, NSW; and State Hockey Centre, Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney.Kourosh has been listed in Engineers Australia Top 100 most influential engineers in 2009 in recognition of his Engineering Expertise. He is also a Laureate of the IABSE Prize awarded by the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering for his contribution to design of long span structures worldwide. Kourosh is a Fellow of Engineers Australia, a Director of Australian Steel Institute (ASI) and a Director of Association of Structural Engineers, NSW (ASCE).

David KinniburghGlobal Market Lead-er – TransportationGHD

David Kinniburgh is responsible for overseeing the development and delivery of GHD’s global transportation strategy. David has worked with GHD for more than 16 years and has strong experience ranging from concept development to detailed design and construction management, predominantly in the transportation sector. Previously, he was the Operating Centre Manager for GHD’s Sydney operations, responsible for business in Sydney, Wollongong, Dubbo and Orange.

Garry Mostyn Principal, PSM

Garry worked with the NSW Department of Public Works and with consulting geotechnical engineers from 1970 until 1986.He then joined the School of Civil Engineering at UNSW where he lectured in civil and environmental engineering practice and geotechnical engineering. He joined PSM in 1997 as a Principal Consultant. Garry’s fields of specialist expertise include slope engineering; foundation engineering; rock mechanics; geo-technical risk analysis; and forensic engineering. He has authored or co-authored over 60 journal and conference papers. He has worked on major projects throughout Australia and in Thailand and PNG. He has been an active member of several national and international code and practice com-mittees and been involved at the highest levels of the Australian Geomechanics Society and the International Society for Rock Mechanics.

Iain Scoular, General Manager, Group Services, Leighton Holdings

Iain graduated from UNSW with an Hons degree in civil engineering in 1980. Leighton has a long and proud partnership with UNSW having offered engineering scholarship programs and prizes worth a total value of over $750,000 since 2004, and Iain has been at the heart of it all. He was also one of the leaders responsible for establishing the award winning MEngSc in project management developed by the School for the Leighton Group.

Dave Stewart, Secretary, Transport for NSW

As the Secretary of Transport for NSW, Dave Stewart led 25,000 people employed by the state’s Transport cluster, shaping the policy and delivery of public transport, roads and freight across NSW. Dave brought more than 30 years of experience in identifying and meeting the needs of the transport cluster’s diverse customers, in-cluding time as Head of Projects in Queensland’s Treas-ury and Director-General of the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads. He has worked within the private sector, in Queensland and the United Kingdom, on a range of road, construction and geotechnical and advisory roles. He is a Fellow of Engineers Australia.

Athena Venios, Technical Director – Transport Group, AECOM

Athena graduated from UNSW with a BE (Civil) Honours degree in 1997. She currently manages a team of 240 consulting professionals at AECOM servicing the trans-port market in NSW, including roads (including bridges and tunnels), rail, ports & marine and aviation.

Left to Right: Professor Stephen J Foster (Professor, Head of School); A/Prof Ron Cox (Co-Chair, External Relations Committee, Convenor, ACCARNSI); Dr Kurt Douglas (Co-Chair, External Relations Committee); Dr Mary O’Connell (Manager - External Relations)

IAC School Members

INDUSTRY AND COMMUNITY64

Associate Professor Ron Cox Co-Chair

Dr Kurt Douglas Co-Chair

Dr Lauren Gardner

Dr Fiona Johnson

Dr Mary O’Connell External Relations Manager

Dr Craig Roberts

Dr Kristen Splinter

Dr Sawekchai Tangaramvong Scholarships Officer

Ms Tricia Tesoriero Special Projects Administrator

The strategic objectives of the External Relations

Committee (ERC) of the School of Civil & Environmental

Engineering include the development of effective

outreach and marketing programs, as well as building

good relationships with industry and our alumni

community.

ERC members represent and promote the School at

many presentations and functions on and off campus.

These include UNSW and Engineering Information Days,

UNSW Open Day, High School visits on and off campus,

the Indigenous Australian Engineering Summer School

and UNSW Nura Gili Winter School, and working closely

with the Women in Engineering camp – an annual week-

long event coordinated by the Faculty of Engineering.

As well as liaising with the School’s Industry Advisory

Committee, the ERC also administers the Industry

Partner Program and within that portfolio organises

an annual Industry Partners Careers Market, an

Elite Student/Industry breakfast at Sydney’s Botanic

Gardens, a Year 10 work experience week, and the

Maths Primary Prize.

To continue to raise the profile of the profession

amongst high school students, the ERC also sponsors

careers advisors’ attendance at the gala night of

Sydney EA’s annual Engineering Excellence Awards.

In 2014 the ERC made a special focus on regional

careers advisors and, as well as hosting a table for 8

Sydney school careers advisers, and three staff from

the NSW Department of Education and Communities,

were also joined by three regional careers advisers.

The ERC also supported School EA award entrants

from the research centres – rCITI and WRC with co-

production of new videos about their work – the WRL

restoration of the Tomago Wetlands and the rCITI

creation of a ‘self-driving’ car by fitting sensors and

other technology to a vehicle owned by car sharing

service GoGet.

2014 saw the continuation of promoting the Surveying

degrees following the integration of the School of

Surveying and Geospatial Engineering into the larger

School in 2013. In October members of the ERC, IAC,

Faculty digital marketing team, surveying alumni and

industry reps met to discuss marketing strategies and

synergies, in particular using digital platforms. Back

on the ground, Craig Roberts was part of Maths in

Surveying day held at Homebush for high school

students - linking them with industry practitioners. A

new poster was designed for UNSW Info day (pic) while

work began on collating email and address data on

SAGE alumni resulting in 600 SAGE alumni now being in

email connection with the School.

The Careers Advisors Association of NSW and ACT

held their Annual Conference in October 2014 in Darling

Harbour. Drs Kurt Douglas and Craig Roberts ably

represented the School with a stall focusing particularly

on getting the surveying message across. Craig Roberts

reported a constant stream of interest hovering around

the School table. There were ‘lots of questions about

EXTERNAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE REPORT 2014

INDUSTRY AND COMMUNITY 65

EXTERNAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE REPORT 2014

the technical side of the career but also how to get in,

pathways etc. We got the feeling that people already

knew a bit about surveying and we were reinforcing the

message. Unlike the others, Kurt and I stood in front of

our stand and accosted people…. And let’s face it, we

are both also very good looking.’

In 2014 we produced a Research Excellence @

Civil & Environmental Engineering booklet which

showcased fourteen current research projects – ranging

from water recycling to self-driving cars, and including

improving the safety and stability of our infrastructure,

pursuing sustainability in construction materials and

processes, improving geotechnical engineering design

tools, and extending the geospatial revolution.

The Year 10 work experience bus tour, which was

held in June, and coordinated by Tricia Tesoriero and

Ron Cox, is another clear ERC success. In 2014 we

accepted 60 students from 59 high schools around

NSW. Student feedback comments were overwhelmingly

positive: ‘- incredibly enjoyable and instructive and

probably one of the best times of my life.’ ‘I will cherish

my memories here and also work harder to meet you

all back here at UNSW’, while parents were equally

appreciative: ‘I can see since this opportunity my

son has gained lots of confidence...and a foundation

towards his career ambition of becoming an Engineer.’:

‘George had a terrific week and learnt so much! He

met a bunch of super people, all likeminded and has

his heart set on UNSW now, so I know you all made an

impact!’ : ‘The best thing was seeing Dom out of bed ,

keen every morning right through the whole week, and

taking responsibility for getting where he needed to be.

It showed how relevant he found your programme.’

A total of 47 NSW primary schools participated in the

CVEN Maths Primary Prizes also ably coordinated

by Tricia Tesoriero. Members of the School’s Industry

Advisory Committee, School staff and some illustrious

alumni presented 132 students with their awards at end

of year ceremonies, further raising the profile of the

profession to hundreds of young people, their families

and community. See full list of winners on page 70.

The ERC continues to develop the School’s relationship

with graduates through the Annual Report and the

annual CVEN Alumni newsletter - distributed to all

engineering alumni through the University’s alumni

magazine UNSWorld. The 2014 alumni newsletter

profiled six of our innovative alumni: Dave Stewart,

Secretary Transport for NSW; Dr Jacqueline Thomas,

a Water research scientist in Tanzania; Dr James

Glastonbury part of the Engineering Excellence Group

at Laing O’Rourke; Narelle Underwood, Geospatial

Technologies, RMS; Lisa Thom; Graduate Engineer at

Lend Lease with expertise in timber technology; and

Dr Yen Lei Voo, who builds innovative IHPFRC bridges

in Malaysia. Alumni reunions – the shining diamonds

of 1954 and the golden ones from 1964 were also

supported by the ERC admin team.

Other School success stories reached all UNSW

engineering alumni through UNSW Engineers magazine.

The ERC works with Faculty and UNSW media offices

to identify positive and useful stories coming from the

School. For further information on external relations,

alumni, the IAC and School Industry Partnership

Program contact Dr Mary O’Connell at m.oconnell@

unsw.edu.au

INDUSTRY AND COMMUNITY66

The School has strong active links

with industry and is very committed

to continuing and developing

these ties. Our Industry Partners

Program is one of the ways these

relationships are maintained and

nurtured.

Funds raised through the Industry

Partners Program is administered

by the School’s External Relations

Committee and used to raise

the profile of the profession at

primary and secondary schools.

We do this in a variety of ways

including delivering a Primary

School Mathematics Prize, running

a highly sought after Year 10 work

experience tour of engineering

sites, and through building

ABOUT OUR INDUSTRY PARTNERSwhere our top students engage with

Industry Partner representatives in a

relaxed setting. The School will also

directly email career information

on behalf of Industry Partners to

all relevant undergraduate and

postgraduate students.

List of Industry Partners and

Supporters for 2014

AAM Group, Advisian, AECOM, ANSTO,

ARUP, Aurecon, Brookfield Multiplex,

Cardno, GHD, JK Geotechnics, Jacobs,

Laing O’Rourke, Leighton Contractors,

Leighton Holdings, Parsons

Brinckerhoff, Pells Sullivan Meynink

PSM, Royal HaskoningDHV, SMEC

Australia, Taylor Thomson Whitting

(TTW),

relationships with careers advisers.

We work in conjunction with the

UNSW Faculty of Engineering and

the School’s Industry Advisory

Committee (IAC) which represents

a broad cross section of relevant

industry sectors at a senior and

influential level.

The annual Industry Partners

Careers Market is an important

activity where Industry Partner

representatives meet with Year

3 and Year 4 students. This

allows Industry Partners to

identify students for industrial

training placements or graduate

employment. The School also hosts

an annual Elite Student Breakfast

at the Sydney Botanic Gardens

As part of our mission to raise

the profile of the profession and

to inspire the next generation, the

School hosted tables at the 2014

Sydney EA Excellence Awards

Night event for careers advisers

from 9 Sydney schools and several

key vocational guidance staff from

the NSW Department of Education.

As one of our delighted guests

said, the SEA Awards were ‘a really

enjoyable and eye-opening event,

celebrating such a fantastic range

of achievement and such a variety

of areas of expertise. It amazes me

that engineering is such a diverse

profession!’

REGIONAL REACH OUT

We also sponsored the visit of three

regional careers advisors to the

Awards Night –Erin Gibson from

Orange and Helen Pinkerton from

Tamworth and Anna Bergamin from

Griffith, (pictured l-R with members

of the IAC; Iain Scoular, Ron Cox,

Mary O’Connell and Ian McIntyre,

Chair)

Anna Bergamin wrote back to

us: ‘It was very clear, both during

my visit to UNSW and at the gala

evening, that the School of Civil and

Environmental Engineering staff are

very passionate about what they

do and that UNSW Engineering is

unrivalled. Thank you for giving me

the opportunity to expand my own

horizons so that I can, hopefully,

expand those of my students.’

INDUSTRY AND COMMUNITY 67

In 2014 we welcomed JK

Geotechnics as a new industry

partner for the School.

JK Geotechnics is one of four

trading companies of the JK

Group, established as Jeffery

and Katauskas Pty Ltd in 1976.

Their geotechnical engineers and

engineering geologists undertake

investigations and assessments

and prepare geotechnical

reports for various residential,

commercial, retail and infrastructure

developments. Specialist areas

include: geotechnical investigations:

slope stability: groundwater

assessment and modelling:

construction supervision: finite

element modelling of shoring,

tunnels and raft foundations:

route assessments, pavement

appraisal and design, landfill and

quarry evaluation, and dam/levee

investigation and design.

Andrew Jackaman, Senior

Associate, said “As a UNSW

alumnus, I am proud of our

association with the School of Civil

and Environmental Engineering.

In the last two years, we have

experienced significant growth

with the purchase of new drilling

rigs and the employment of six

WELCOMING NEW INDUSTRY PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS

Jacobs Prize presented by Josh Cowley Daniel Krumiel AAM GroupAndrew Jackaman of JK Geotechnics

graduates. Our total number of

employees is in the order of 70,

making us one of the largest

geotechnical groups in Sydney. The

majority of our junior staff are or

have been enrolled in the UNSW

MEngSc program; our structured

training program complements the

post-graduate studies. Our links

with UNSW have also resulted in

our being invited to present lectures

this year, and meeting students who

may in the future consider a career

with JK Geotechnics.”

We also welcomed three new Year 4

dinner industry supporters

AAM Group who sponsored a

prize in geospatial engineering,

won by Amanda Nicholas in 2014,

presented by Daniel Krumiel,

Jacobs who sponsored the prize

for surveying, won by Peter Boorer,

prize presented by Josh Cowley,

NSW Survey Manager for Jacobs

And Royal HaskoningDHV

who sponsored the prize for

environmental engineering, won by

Ellen Howley. Prize presented by

Sally Hunton (pictured right).

We are very grateful for all our

industry supporters participation

in the Year 4 dinner and support of

our students.

INDUSTRY AND COMMUNITY68

Dr Robert Care, AM, (BE Hons

’73, PhD ’78) Principal at Arup

(pictured above), was awarded the

2014 Engineers Australia National

Professional Engineer of the Year

Award.

In the Australia Day Awards 2014,

alumnus John ‘IronMan’ Holt - BSurv

’75 was awarded the Order of

Australia Medal for his ‘service to

ALUMNI 2014 HONOURS AND SUCCESSES

Six surveying alumni from Hong

Kong came to say hello to Professor

Chris Rizos while he was visiting for

a conference. They are very proud

UNSW Graduates. From L-R: Mark

Tse (BE ‘99, MRE ‘00), Ken Siu Tong

Ching (BE ‘97), George Leung (BE

’98 MEngSc ‘05), Professor Chris

Rizos, Jenny Chow ( BE ‘01), Henry

Ng (BE ‘99), Vicki Sui Lau (BE ‘98)

sport, administration and competition

in surf lifesaving and triathalon’.

In the Queen’s Birthday Honours

2014, Col Nicholson, MEngSc’84

and valued member of the School’s

Industry Advisory Committee from

2006 – 2013, was awarded the

Public Service medal for outstanding

public service to the quality of water

and wastewater services across

Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the

Illawarra region.

Four of our alumni were included

in EA’s Top 100 Most influential

Engineers in 2014 – we congratulate

them all.

Grant King, (BE Civil ’77) Managing

Director, Origin Energy, Sydney

Bruce Munro, (BE Civil Hons ’75)

Managing Director, Thiess Pty Ltd,

Brisbane

David Stewart, (MEngSc ’99)

Secretary, Transport for NSW, Sydney

Elizabeth Taylor, (BE ’78) Chair RedR

Australia and RedR International,

Sydney

In the 2014 NSW Excellence in

Surveying and Spatial Information

(EISSI) Awards, Professional of the

Year Award went to Robert Harrison,

(UNSW BSurv’73) - Principal at

Harrison, Friedmann and Associates.

At home, Dr Jacqui Thomas (phD

2012) Senior Scientist, Water,

Sanitation and Hygiene Research, at

Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania was

awarded the 2014 UNSW Alumni

award in Science and Technology,

while Maha Sinnathamby, BE

’62, Brisbane property developer

-received the 2014 UNSW Alumni

award in Design, Engineering and

Sustainability

In November, we welcomed a golden

jubilee group of alumni led by the

indefatigable Rod Jeffery to the

L-R: Rod Jeffery, Rob Schwarzer, Paul Gwynne, Lab Manager, Peter Connolly, Klaus Teichart, Phil Johnston, and Greg Connolly

School for a talk about past and

present, lab tour and lunch. The

proverbial good time was had by all.

Rod wrote to us: ‘On behalf of all the

1964ers who attended on last Friday

I sincerely thank you for being so

welcoming, well organised, giving

an excellent summary of past years

of UNSW and making the lunch a

very enjoyable and sociable time. I

can assure that virtually every aspect

we experienced at Civil School has

changed very much for the better

since our days …. Thanks again from

us all, Rod J.

Golden Jubilee BE ‘64

INDUSTRY AND COMMUNITY 69

VALE DAVID EVANS

During a career that spanned

more than 40 years, David

Evans demonstrated time and

time again a remarkable vision for

what Australian innovators could

achieve. Working with innovators

Fund (Uniseed) with an initial

capitalisation of $20 million.

David was made a Member of

the Order of Australia in 2013 for

‘significant service to science and

innovation through commercialising

and developing new technologies.’

David clearly made his mark in

the world from a very early age.

As a graduating civil engineering

student, he is seen here giving a

talk in front of UNSW founding Vice-

Chancellor Phillip Baxter (right) and

Founding Head of School Professor

Crawford Munro.

Information gathered from Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia (KCA) http://www.kca.asn.au/blog

Picture: David Evans 1962 UNSW Archives

School Alumnus Dr David Alexander Evans, AM (1941 – 2014).and commercialisation

professionals David supported,

facilitated or encouraged new

technologies in IT, physical

sciences, engineering and

biotechnology that have

delivered hundreds of millions

of dollars to the Australian

economy and generated

significant social and

environmental benefits.

David was instrumental in

transforming Uniquest at

UQ in the mid-90s into a leading

powerhouse. David was also

the visionary who went on to

pioneer UniSeed, Australia’s first

university based Venture Capital

There were sixteen hopeful

young men at the UNSW BE civil

engineering graduation in 1954 – it

was only the third year of graduation

ceremonies for their equally hopeful

and even younger University. The

actual ceremony had to take place

at the Great Hall of the University

of Sydney because UNSW (then

known as NSWUT – NSW University

of Technology) had no such room or

place for ceremonial occasions.

It was a time of post war austerity

and great future hopes. Building

materials were scarce, structural

steel almost unobtainable, and the

new university short on space and

cash. Yet morale was high. UNSW

historian Patrick O’Farrell has noted

that the university ‘had an apostolic

vision of itself, serving the worldwide

cause of science and technology,

not to be obstructed by mere lack

of money.’ Founding academic Stan

Hall would write, ‘the standard of

our students was the envy of other

schools. So despite the chaotic

material conditions, teaching was

a pleasure and there was good

rapport between students and staff.’

Sixty years later, nine of the student

comrades: Les Bagust, Sydney

Cashman, Bill Copeland, Colin

Dudgeon, Ron Fletcher, Ken Griffiths,

Bruce Jenkins, Trevor Newton

(chief organiser), and Alan Wells

gathered for a celebratory luncheon

at UNSW with friends and family

– as guests of the School of Civil

& Environmental Engineering. The

Chancellor David Gonksi AC, and the

Head of School Professor Stephen

Foster were able to share with them

the new landscape of UNSW and

CVEN achievement and success,

in students, reputation, research,

international rankings – a landscape

which they and all our founding staff

and students worked so hard to

manifest.

SCHOOL ALUMNI CELEBRATE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF GRADUATION

INDUSTRY AND COMMUNITY70

Alexandria Park Community SchoolCian Cameron-GleesonGregory KokkinisPeter LimAndrew NguyenWilliam ZamanyAnnandale North Public SchoolFour studentsAvondale SchoolTy DoubikinBalgowlah North Public SchoolJayden AgapoiuBalmain Public SchoolYou Qi XueMarie SchlesingerBankstown West Public SchoolAbid ArimanLouisa FangKhiem NguyenTiffiny NguyenBeauty Point Public SchoolAngus BendallMatthew BrittonXavier FosterAlexander SinBeecroft Public SchoolRaymond YuBelrose Public SchoolJordan HiscoxClaudia JackaCharlie FaircloughIshan ShahBellevue Hill Public SchoolTom AhronElan BlausteinBerowra Public SchoolJai CarlsonMatthew ClaytonDaniel CookeAaron Munro

Loquat Valley Alec SeniorLiam VauxManly West Public SchoolJoseph GayTristan Harland-PetersonFionn McMorrow-DermodyJames NgaiMosman Public SchoolJacques MathotMount Colah Public SchoolMatthew HieblMinha LeeNarrabeen North Public SchoolHannah DavidWilliam VincentNorth Haven Public SchoolMikha EveringhamBrad SmithNorthmead Public SchoolDaniel BalmerSamantha GonzalesKaelan NahIsabel Szatmary SullivanPennant Hills Public SchoolPatrick AdjiPicnic Point Public SchoolFrederick DingFelix LamEdward LamAndy LinRandwick Public SchoolNicholas ChanRoselea Public SchoolDarcy BarlowCindy WangSt Christopher’s Catholic Primary SchoolSebastian Cerecedo

Elliot KirganJoshua SilkJonathan TranSt Declan’s Primary SchoolJet EliasTara KapilaKristian LisicaTom MihaljevicSt Joseph’s Primary SchoolJacob CorrySamantha HendersonJames HizartTacking Point Public SchoolAlice BarnabyAlexander GreenToongabbie West Public SchoolDaniel KimAnmol SimkhadaTurramurra Public SchoolPippa DayAnne PanWest Pennant Hills Public SchoolConnor GoodsellRachael LeeMatthew PosenerSeth SweeneyWheeler Heights Public SchoolAnna DahlstromCian HayKai TurnerMaya TurnerWollondilly Anglican CollegeAmy HvejselHarrison OllisWoollahra Public SchoolIsaiah IliffeEsme PowerFreja ReadLuis Soncini

2014 MATHS PRIZE CERTIFICATES

In 2014, 132 students from

47 schools were awarded

our Primary School

Prize in Mathematics.

The key objective of this

prize is to encourage 

a lifelong interest in

mathematics, as one of

the key requirements for

a rewarding, fulfilling and

socially useful career in

engineering.

Cammeray Public SchoolCharlotte DavisTarin LeslieCharles LongmoreHarry MortonCarlton South Public SchoolAndrew JurukovskiVanessa YanChifley Public SchoolHermione MarzukieCowra Public SchoolMarcus O'ConnorArchie OsbourneCrescent Head Public SchoolCoen MooreNitin NaikCroydon Public SchoolAngela FangBenjamin HamerCathy LiDerek TanDaceyville Public SchoolDylan NguyenBill RenSanskriti SharmaNicholas ThomasDouble Bay Public SchoolCem DoganEastlakes Public SchoolNabeena ChowdhuryMohammad MayazMuhammad idraki Mohd RadziOditi ShahiEpping Heights Public SchoolNoah BywaterJaeho JungDaniel ParkDaniel XingGlenhaven Public SchoolAnnabelle KittoHarbord Public SchoolFinn HarteKlaudia HerlihyJulia JiangSally OatesJasper Road Public SchoolJeffrey ChenAiden HawronNikki LiangWill LiKambora Public SchoolHamish KemmersJensen SchramkoCallum WattsKensington Public SchoolNirooshan AthithanTri NguyenRowen SaputraEdward Xu

OUR CENTRES

OUR CENTRES72

THE AUSTRALIAN CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION RESEARCH NETWORK FOR SETTLEMENTS AND INFRASTRUCTURE (ACCARNSI) continued to consolidate its position in 2014 with the negotiation of key funding as one of four research networks confirmed by the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility NCCARF as part of their Phase 2 operations.

ACCARNSI’s new 2 ½ year contract with NCCARF will start in 2015 and will focus on climate change adaptation for settlements and infrastructure with host institution UNSW and partner universities, Griffith University, the University of South Australia and the University of Canberra each bringing access to researcher expertise and capabilities in coastal management, planning and adaptation of infrastructure, risk assessment and adaptation, in both urban and regional contexts.

ACCARNSI will support NCCARF in matters related specifically to coastal settlements and infrastructure including the development of a National Coastal Adaptation Framework, the synthesis and

distribution of adaptation knowledge and stakeholder engagement.

2014 industry activities included training support for the ‘Learning to Adapt’ master-class, EIANZ’s innovative and certified climate change adaptation professional development program.

ACCARNSI Convenor Associate Professor Ron Cox continued to be a sought after speaker at local and international conferences, congresses and meetings in 2014 with an invitation to participate in the ‘Working with Nature’ Initiative and a paper on ‘Climate Change Risk Assessment for Ports in the Pacific’ at the International PIANC Congress in San Francisco in June followed by the International Conference on Coastal Engineering (ICCE) in Seoul authoring and presenting papers on coastal adaptation, beach nourishment and climate change implications for coastal design storms in eastern Australia. In October, Ron presented at an international workshop to over 200 participants from across the Philippines on the importance of Climate Change to Ports and Coastal Infrastructure. Closer to home, papers were authored and presented by Ron and Bill Peirson, at the NCCARF Conference in October on extreme water levels, adaptation of sea walls and the relative importance of wave climate change and sea level rise. Ron also presented a summary of Coastal Processes and Responses research being undertaken for the NSW Office of Environment and

Heritage (OEH) Climate Adaptation Research Hub (CARH) . In Mandurah Western Australia, Ron chaired sessions at the Australian Coast to Coast Conference as well as organising and presenting a one-day training workshop for local and state government participants in the application of the Engineers Australia Climate Change Guidelines for Coasts, Sustainability and Adaptation. In November, Ron gave the keynote address at the Engineers Australia Practical Responses to Climate Change Conference on ‘The Challenges of Climate Change Adaptation in Coastal Environments’.

ACCARNSI in partnership with the Sydney Institute of Marine Science (SIMS) is undertaking a 3 year research program as the Coastal Processes and Responses Node funded under the CARH by NSW OEH. Specific research is being undertaken in regard to beach erosion and recovery, effective application of beach nourishment and upgrading sea walls as means of adaptation to climate change. Targeted research is also being undertaken on the physical and environmental/ecological aspects of climate change within estuaries.

2015 promises to further strengthen ACCARNSI’s climate change adaptation research base with the first in a series of themed Early Career Researcher Forums, review of the National Adaptation Research Plan and Stakeholder Panel workshops.

OUR CENTRES 73

About us

We are the leading internationally

recognised research centre

in the region for investigating,

understanding and predicting the

safety and behaviour of engineering

infrastructure under in-service and

overload (or limit) conditions.

We aim to be the nexus of the

various scientific disciplines in

the broad fields of engineering

infrastructure; its design, evaluation,

performance and retrofit.

We recognise that existing

infrastructure in the developed world

is aging, and strengthening and

rehabilitating bridges, buildings,

dams and other critical infrastructure

is a demanding challenge to creative

engineering solutions.

We recognise the challenge of

engineering for climate change and

the need for advanced and high

performance materials to meet the

needs of society’s infrastructure

within looming carbon constraints.

The demands of new structures,

and the use of new or advanced

materials require advanced

solutions, which challenge and unite

creativity and scientific rigour.

Providing solutions to all of the

above is fundamental to CIES

activities.

Specifically, we apply our skills to:

Development of new technologies

and materials such as advanced

fibre composites, high performance

cementitious materials and

geopolymers; for engineering and

safety assessments and with the risk

management of buildings, bridges,

dams, roads and other infrastructure

when subjected to both in-service

conditions and overload (or limit)

conditions, such as may occur in

fire, earthquake, cyclone or blast

situations, or when structures are

exposed to hostile environments.

Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety

ADVANCED ENGINEERED MATERIALS

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

PAVEMENT ENGINEERING

COMPUTATIONAL MECHANICS

OUR CENTRES74

CIES RESEARCH FUNDING SUCCESS

CIES ARC LINKAGE GRANT SUCCESS

CIES Researchers Prof Nasser

Khalili, Dr Arman Khoshghalb and

Mr John A Rubsov - Engineering

Services Manager, Roads & Maritime

Services have been successful in

securing an ARC Linkage for the

period 2014-2017. The project titled

“ Experimental investigation and

constitutive modelling of weak rocks

subject to mechanical and moisture

degradation” aims to advance

the experimental, theoretical

and computational bases for the

mechanics of weak rocks, and will

provide scientists and engineers

with much-needed predictive tools

for the quantitative evaluation and

assessment of their behaviour in

geological settings.

CIES has also received ARC Linkage

Project funding to develop innovative

Blast Mitigation Technologies. CIES

Director Professor Brian Uy along

with colleagues from UWS and

Qingdao Technological University

in China were successful with the

Shandong Zhihua Construction

Group Company in receiving close

to $270,000 to carry out research on

“Development of novel viscoelastic

sprayed material for the effective

blast resistance of critical and

resource infrastructure”. The project

will also utilise the National Facility

for Physical Blast Simulation due to

be commissioned at UNSW in early

2016.

Best of the best – School and CIES - one of the highest UNSW achievers in ARC research grants

The School and CIES remained at

the top of the research game having

won ARC grants in the latest round

(with funding to commence in 2015).

With 4 new Discovery grants and

1 new LIEF grant, CIES won more

than half the School’s total and

more than any other research centre

in its discipline nationwide. These

wonderful results consolidate CIES’

position as the leading infrastructure

centre in Australia.

Discovery Project Grants:

Professor Mark Bradford - DP

150100446 -To investigate the

capacity of high-strength steel (HSS)

flexural members by undertaking

physical tests and numerical

simulations, and proposes to craft

innovative overarching design

guidance for them within a paradigm

of Design by Advanced Analysis.

Professor Stephen Foster & Dr

Hamid Valipour - DP 150104107 -

TO investigate the moment-rotation

performance of steel fibre reinforced

concrete ( SFRC) beam-column

connections containing economical

fibre dosages.

Associate Professor Adrian Russell,

Prof David Muir Wood – DP

150104123 - To make discoveries for

modelling initiation, rate of progression

and consequences of seepage

induced internal erosion through soils

which make up critical water retaining

infrastructure like dams

Professor Chongmin Song, Emeritus

Professor Francis Tin-Loi, Dr

Sawekchai Tangaramvong - DP

150103747 - To develop, directly

from computer-aided design models

or digital images, an automatic

numerical simulation approach

for the safety assessment of

engineering structures in three

dimensions.

LIEF – Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities

Russell, A/Prof Adrian R; Khalili,

Prof Nasser; Zhao, Dr GaoFeng;

Khoshghalb, Dr Arman; Sloan, Prof

Scott W; Kouretzis, Dr Georgios;

Indraratna, Prof Buddhima N;

Rujikiatkamjorn, A/Prof Cholachat;

Cassidy, Prof Mark J; Gaudin, Prof

Christophe; Williams, Prof David J;

Scheuermann, Dr Alexander LE

150100130 - To develop Australia’s

most advanced earthquake shaking

table to investigate soil-structure

interactions.

Dr Gaofeng Zhao and Professor

Khalili were also involved

in a successful LEIF grant

(LE150100058) administered by

Monash University.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)

Professor Les Field welcomed the

result.

“This impressive result in ARC grants

recognises the calibre of research

underway at UNSW. Our position as

number one in the country this year

is a testament to the importance and

impact of the work we are doing,” he

said.

OUR CENTRES 75

CIES RESEARCH COLLABORATIONSCIES – Promoting Sustainable Concrete Technology

CIES continues to promote a sustainable concrete technology within the CRC for Low Carbon Living under the

leadership of A/Professor Arnaud Castel and Professor Steve Foster.

In July 2014, this new project was approved by the CRC-LCL Board with a cash contribution of $1,100,000 in

combination with the In-kind contributions from partner organisations of $1,900,000.

Geopolymer concrete has an 80% lower carbon footprint compared to the conventional Portland cement concrete.

Using field and laboratory data, a comprehensive Handbook for geopolymer specification will be developed and

published through Standards Australia.

Partner organisations include CIES at the UNSW, Swinburne University of Technology, ADAA, ASA, AECOM, Sydney

Water and Standards Australia. The project coordinators also obtained letters of support from the main Australian

geopolymer concrete suppliers: Zeobond Pty Ltd, Wagners Concrete Pty Ltd, Milliken Infrastructure solutions as well

as RMS Pavement Structures, Transport and Main Roads QLD, Vicroads.

ASCE Presidential visit: Mark Bradford explaining some of the test work associated with his Australian Laureate Fellowship during the delegation’s visit to the Heavy Structures Research Laboratory at Randwick

In February 2014, CIES hosted a visit

by the Governors of the American

Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

The visit included an inspection

of the Heavy Structures Research

Laboratory at Randwick, where it

provided an excellent opportunity

for our PhD students and staff to

showcase CIES’s structures activities

to the top executive group of ASCE.

Some PhD students had the good

fortune to explain their work to the

ASCE leaders.

CIES Research Director Professor

Mark Bradford - one of ASCE’s

only two Australian Distinguished

Members and also President-Elect

of the ASCE Australia Section, was

ASCE GOVERNORS’ VISIT TO CIESinvolved in this group’s Australian

visit. The ASCE delegation included

its President and its Chief Executive

and expressed positive feedback

on the facilities at Randwick Heavy

Structures Laboratory as well as the

high calibre and groundbreaking

research activity being carried out

there.

OUR CENTRES76

Scholarly Works

Emeritus Professor Ian Gilbert,

Deputy Director of CIES, published

his latest text book (CRC Press –

USA).

The book titled “Structural Analysis –

Principles, Methods and Modelling”

is co-authored with A/Professor

Gianluca Ranzi of the University

of Sydney. It is intended as a text

for undergraduate students of Civil

or Structural Engineering about

to embark on the adventure of

learning how to analyse engineering

structures. It provides a unique and

in-depth treatment of structural

analysis where fundamental aspects

and derivations of the analytical and

numerical formulations are outlined

and illustrated by numerous worked

examples.

UNSAT2014

The best and brightest geotechnical

engineering scholars and engineers

visited Sydney during July 2014 to

take part in the Sixth International

Conference on Unsaturated

Soils. The event was chaired and

organised by CIES academics

Professor Nasser Khalili, Dr Arman

Khoshghalb and Associate Professor

Adrian Russell.

The conference was a great

success, showcasing the latest

research on unsaturated soils

from around the world on topics

including unsaturated soil behaviour,

experimentation, modelling, case

histories, multidisciplinary problems

and emerging research areas.

Impact and innovation – peers recognise geotechnical engineering research at UNSW

The research of CIES geotechnical

engineering academics Professor

Nasser Khalili and Associate

Professor Adrian Russell has

been awarded for its impact and

innovation.

Professor Khalili received the

Outstanding Paper Award for

his constitutive modelling work

presented in the paper “A fully

coupled flow deformation model for

cyclic analysis of unsaturated soils

including hydraulic and mechanical

hysteresis”. The paper, published

in Computers and Geotechnics in

2008, was judged to have made

a highly significant impact to

geotechnical engineering, based on

citations over a five year period and

the opinion of the journal’s Editors.

A/Professor Adrian Russell received

the International Innovation Award

for his physical modelling research

in the field of unsaturated soil

mechanics. At UNSW A/Professor

Russell developed with colleagues

a calibration chamber, lateral earth

pressure rig and shallow foundation

rig to conduct full scale cone

penetration tests, retaining wall tests

and shallow foundation tests to study

the influence of soil suction.

Dr Arman Khoshghalb (L, secretary), Professor Nasser Khalili (C, chair) and Emeritus Professor Somasundaram Valliappan (R, honorary chair)

CIES member Professor Nasser Khalili was among the three recipients of the prestigious Chandra S Desai Medal awarded by the International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (IACMAG) in 2014. For story please see p10

OUR CENTRES 77

CIES 2014 Symposium - “NATIONAL ROAD AND RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE - Structural Engineering Perspectives for Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure”The November symposium

brought together an array of local,

national and international leaders

working in the area of road and

rail infrastructure to try and bring a

focus to this issue and the potential

remedies to this situation.

The speakers discussed the current

state of road and rail infrastructure

systems, the areas of primary need

and future areas of research and

potential government investment.

Inherent in much of this future

L to R Back Row: A/Prof Wei Gao; Prof Chongmin Song; A/Prof Alex Remennikov; Dr Stephen Hicks; Adj. Prof Wije Ariyaratne; Prof Mark Stewart; Richard Hitch; Prof Ian Gilbert; Prof Hong Hao

NATIONAL ROAD AND RAIL INFRASTRUCTUREStructural Engineering Perspectives for Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure

CIES SYMPOSIUMinvestment is that structures must be

both sustainable and resilient.

PRESENTERS:Ian Pedersen - Managing Director,

Pedersen Engineers.

Professor Mark A Bradford CIES

A/Prof Alex Remennikov - UoW

Professor Stephen Foster - CIES

Professor Hong Hao - Curtin

University

Adj. Professor Wije Ariyaratne - RTA/

RMS

Dr Stephen Hicks – HERA NZ

Professor Tommy Chan - QUT

Professor Mark Stewart - The

University of Newcastle

Mr Richard Hitch - Transport, NSW’s

Asset Standards Authority

Mr Peter Runcie - NICTA (National

ICT Australia Ltd).

CIES PROMINENCEPlenary Meeting ISO TC 71

Concrete, Reinforced Concrete

and Pre-Stressed Concrete

Technical Committee

CIES & The Faculty of Engineering

were major sponsors of the Plenary

Meeting of ISO TC71 held in Sydney

January 2014.

As part of activities, CIES also

hosted a workshop on: “Robustness

of Concrete Structures”

ISO (International Organization for

Standardization) is the world’s largest

developer of voluntary International

Standards and in Australia, is

represented by Standards Australia

- recognised by the Commonwealth

Government as the nation’s peak

Standards body.

OUR CENTRES78

2014 CIES STAFF

Director

Professor Brian Uy, BE PhD UNSW CPEng, CEng, PE, MIE Aust, MASCE, MIStructE, FICE, MAICD

Research Director

Scientia Professor Mark Bradford, BSc BE PhD Syd DSc UNSW FTSE PEng CPEng CEng FIEAust FIStructE MAICD MASCEt MACI

Deputy Directors

Emeritus Professor Ian Gilbert, BE PhD UNSW CPEng FIEAust MACI

Professor Chongmin Song, BE ME Tsing-hua, DEng Tokyo

Centre Management

Centre Manager

Irene Calaizis, BCom UNSW

Administrative Officer

Patricia Karwan

Other Academics

Professor Stephen Foster, BE NSWIT, MEngSc PhD UNSW, FIEAust

Professor Nasser Khalili, BSc Teh MSc Birm PhD UNSW Professor Yong Lin Pi, BE Tongji ME Wuhan PhD UNSW CPEng MIEAust

A/Professor Mario Attard BE PhD MHEd UNSW, MIEAust, CPEng

A/Professor Arnaud Castel BE, MEngSc, PhD Toulouse

A/Professor Wei Gao BE HDU, ME PhD Xidian, MIIAV, MAAS

A/Professor Linlin Ge, PhD UNSW, MSc Inst of Seismology, BEng WTUSM

A/Professor Adrian Russell BE, PhD UNSW, PGCert Bristol

Dr Carolin Birk BE DEng Dresden

Dr Kurt Douglas BE Syd. PhD UNSW, MIEAust

Dr Ehab Hamed, BSc MSc PhD Technion

Dr Arman Khoshghalb BE ME Sharif Uni of Tech, PhD UNSW

Dr Kostas Senetakis, BEng, MSc, PhD AUTh

Dr Hossein Taiebat BSc Isfahan M.E.S. PhD Syd

Dr Sawekchai Tangaramvong BEng Chulalongkorn, MEngSc PhD UNSW, MIEAust

Dr Hamid Vali Pour Goudarzi BSc MSc Tehran, PhD UNSW

Dr Ghaofeng Zhao,BSc MSc CUMT, PhD EPFL

Other Research Staff (alphabetical order)

Dr Ankit Agarwal, B-Tech IIT Kanpur PhD UNSW

Dr Farhad Aslani, BSC, MSc, PhD UTS

Dr Huiyong Ban BE PhD Tsinghua University, Beijing

Dr Zhen-Tian Chang, BE ME Hunan PhD UNSW

Dr Yue Huang, BE MPhil CityU HK, PhD UNSW

Dr David Kellerman BE, PhD UNSW

Dr Inamullah Khan, BE MEngSc PhD University of Toulouse 

Dr Nima Khorsandnia, BSc MSc BIHE, PhD UTS

Dr Brendan Kirkland BE PhD UWS

Dr Jean Xiaojin Li, PhD UNSW, BEng WTUSM

Dr Xinpei Liu BE SCUT, MEngSc MPhil PhD UNSW

Dr Michael Man, BE PhD UNSW

Dr Sundararajan Natarajan BE Mech Eng, PhD Cardiff

Dr Alex Hay-Man Ng, PhD UNSW, MEngSc UNSW, BE UNSW

Dr Ean Tat Ooi, BE UTM, PhD NTU

Dr Vipulkumar Patel, BE, ME, PhD VU

Dr Saeed Salimzadeh, BSc MSc Sharif SU) PhD UNSW

Dr Babak Shahbodaghkhan, BSc. IKIU, MSc. Univ. of Tehran, PhD Kyoto Univ.

Dr Hossein Talebi, BSc, MSc, PhD Bauhaus-University Weimar BUW

Dr Tai H. Thai, BE ME HCMUT, PhD Sejong

Dr Thanh Vo, BE/BCom Syd, MEngSc, PhD UNSW

Dr Guotao Yang, BE PhD Tongji

Technical Team

John Gilbert

Greg Worthing

Ron Moncay

Emeritus Professor

Somasundaram Valliappan BE Annam, MS Northeastern, PhD DSc Wales, CPEng, FASCE, FIACM

Francis Tin-Loi BE PhD Monash, CPEng MIEAust

UNSW Members

Professor Alan CroskySchool of Materials Science & Engineering

Professor Gangadhara PrustySchool of Mechanical Engineering

Dr Mahmud AshrafSchool of Engineering and Information Technology (SEIT), UNSW Canberra.

OUR CENTRES 79

Connected Waters Initiative Research Centre

The Connected Waters Initiative Research Centre (CWI)

operates a wide portfolio of research projects across

the faculties of Science, Engineering and Law. As a

cross-faculty centre, the CWI rotates between presiding

faculties, and at the end of 2013 the Centre rotated from

Engineering to the Faculty of Science.

2014 saw the end of an era with the conclusion

of funding in June from the ARC / National Water

Commission co-funded centre for excellence, the

National Center for Groundwater Research and Training.

PhD researchers which have been part-funded by

the NCGRT will continue to graduate over the next

two years. Funding for the national groundwater

infrastructure program continues, funded from the

Federal Government National Collaborative Research

Infrastructure Strategy NCRIS program, and is managed

by the CWI. (http://www.connectedwaters.unsw.edu.

au/ncris). In 2014 Prof Ian Acworth and Dr Martin

Andersen participated in the NCRIS capabilities

workshop on the 2-3rd of September in Canberra.

On the 30th of September Prof Andy Baker and Dr

Martin Andersen represented UNSW Groundwater

Infrastructure at the NCRIS Showcase in Parliament

House, Canberra.

Some of our 2014 Research Highlights

1) Coal Seam Gas (Dr Bryce Kelly (BEES)) and surface water groundwater interactions (Dr Martin Andersen- CVEN)

Cotton RDC - Baselining Groundwater Condition in the Condamine Alluvium and Assessing Coal Seam Gas Development Impacts.

This project is using a combination of hydrogeological

modelling, groundwater geochemistry and methane

in air measurements to map hydraulic connectivity

between the Walloon Coal Measures and the

Condamine Alluvium. In collaboration with Royal

Holloway, University of London, extensive air methane

surveys around CSG development, coal mines, the

Condamine River, and irrigated farmlands have been

conducted. Reference to this work was recently made

in the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer

review of CSG developments in NSW.

OUR CENTRES80

Cotton RDC (scholarship top-up and operating costs) -

Spatial and temporal importance of diffuse and stream

recharge in semiarid environments: implications for

integrated water management.

The scholarship was awarded to CVEN PhD student

Calvin Li. The project aims to quantify aquifer recovery

via stream recharge during the transition from drought

to a wetter (La Niña) period using NCRIS groundwater

infrastructure and publicly available monitoring data.

It will also assess the importance of groundwater

recharge via streams relative to diffuse recharge

through the general land surface by developing

numerical ground- and surface water transect model

for quantifying groundwater recharge pathways during

various climatic and management scenarios. The results

will provide groundwater managers with improved data

to inform science based policy.

2) Karst hydrogeology and isotope geochemistry (Professor Andy Baker (BEES)/ Dr Wendy Timms (Mining) / Dr Martin Andersen (CVEN))

ARC Discovery – The ARC Discovery project to

develop novel lipid membrane and lignin biomarkers for

karst processes concluded in 2014, with postdoctoral

researcher Dr Catherine Jex leaving in May to start a

new life in Denmark. Dr Jex retains an affiliate status

with CWI, and presented the final lipid membrane

project results at the AGU Fall Meeting in December.

CVEN honours researcher Ellen Howley presented the

results of her groundwater lignin research. Publications

from this project have targeted Organic Geochemistry

and further are anticipated through to 2016.

ARC Linkage – Work commenced on the ARC

Linkage Project looking at the impact of fire on karst

hydrogeology in July, with the arrival of Research

Associate Katie Coleborn.

ARC LIEF - The ARC LIEF grant to procure an isotope

ratio mass spectrometer with high temperature

elemental analyser and gas chromatograph has

resulted in the procurement of a Thermo DeltaV –

GC – HTEA system. This was delivered to the Mark

Wainwright Analytical Centre on 30th October and

commissioned in November. The instrument is likely to

see most use in the analysis of carbon and nitrogen

isotopes in organic materials, with extensive interest

already from colleagues in CES.

You can read more about the centre at www.

connectedwaters.unsw.edu.au

Andy BakerDirector, CWI Research CentreJanuary 2015

Connected Waters Initiative Research Centre - People 2014

Director

Professor Andy Baker

School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences

(BEES)

Associate Director

Dr Martin Andersen

School of Civil & Environmental Engineering (CVEN)

Centre Manager

Mr Antonio Woo

Academics

Prof Ian Acworth, CVEN

Dr Wendy Timms, MINE

Dr Bryce Kelly, BEES

Dr Cameron Holley, LAW

Post-doctoral Researchers

Hoori Ajami, CVEN; Steve Bouzalakos, MINE;

Alessandro Comunian, BEES; Richard Crane, MINE;

Mark Cuthbert, CVEN; Catherine Jex, BEES; Sanjeev

Jha, BEES; Ander Guinea Maysounave, CVEN; Gabriel

Rau, CVEN; Hamid Roshan, CVEN; Helen Rutlidge

MWAC.

Professional Staff

Evan Jensen, CVEN; Dayna McGeeney, CVEN; Mark

Whelan, MINE

OUR CENTRES 81

About Us

The Research Centre for Integrated Transport

Innovation’s (rCITI) aim is to become a world-leading

organisation in integrated interdisciplinary transport

research and development. In three short years since

rCITI’s launch, we can see that the centre is now well

on its way to achieving its goals through a range of

research initiatives made possible through the groups

investigation of sustainable approaches to transport

infrastructure and operations and rCITI’s extensive

liaison with industry and government.

Research based around five pillars

rCITI’s vision is to reshape the field of multi-modal

transport engineering and planning by introducing

new innovative techniques and technologies. This will

enhance society by integrating methodologies across

disciplines and contextual considerations.

The Centre bases its research activities around

five core research pillars:- Transport Planning – ITS

Communications – Infrastructure – Energy/Fuel –

Computational Sustainability.

Overview for 2014

2014 has been a stellar year for the centre.  rCITI’s

intake of research funding, students and staff has

again increased, which made 2014 a busy and

successful year. Staff and students participated in

multiple new and ongoing research projects, seminars

and conferences held on the UNSW campus and

externally during the year.  Significant achievements

for 2014 include the award of three new grants from

Australia’s most prestigious scientific organisations.

This included one Australian Research Council (ARC)

Discovery Project Grant where rCITI is the administering

organisation, one ARC Discovery Project grant jointly

with the University of Sydney, and one NHMRC Project

grant jointly with UNSW School of Public Health and

Community Medicine. These new grants augment

rCITI’s current research portfolio, which already include

an ARC LIEF grant for major infrastructure, two ARC

Linkage grants (which include industrial support) as

well as substantial research contracts with Transport for

New South Wales (TfNSW), Roads & Maritime Services

(RMS), and the US. Department of Transportation as

part of a consortium with Booz Allen Hamilton. In total,

since being launched in November 2011, rCITI has

attracted over $5M in external research support.

The core rCITI staffing grew to 14 professionals in

2014. This is comprised of 4 continuing academics, 4

contract/adjunct/conjoint academics, 5 researchers and

one centre administrator. In addition, 7 additional visiting

researchers helped augment the centre’s capabilities.

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The rCITI group published 53 research papers in

journals and proceedings in 2014. Throughout 2014,

the core academic staff supervised and supported 25

PhD, 3 Masters by Research and 9 Honours students.

In addition, rCITI hosted four visiting students including

1 Practicum Exchange Program student, 1 Research

Internship student, and 2 visiting students.

Grants awarded in 2014

The Australian government is committed to building

an education and research sector that is world class

by providing funding towards grants that is applied

to excellent basic and applied research. rCITI

successfully won three competitive Research Grants in

2014:-  

1. Prof S.T Waller (rCITI, UNSW) was awarded a

2015 ARC Discovery Research Grant funding

the project “Adaptive Stochastic Dynamic Traffic

Assignment”. [Australian Research Council,

Discovery Project – DP150104687, $275,200]

2. Prof M. Bliemer (USyd), Prof S.T. Waller (rCITI,

UNSW), Prof D. Hensher (USyd), Dr V. Dixit (rCITI,

UNSW), Prof E. Rutstrom (Georgia State), Prof S.

Hess (Uni Leeds) and Prof H. Van Lint (TUDelft

Nederlands) were awarded a 2015 ARC Discovery

Research Grant funding the project “Investigating

travel choice behaviour: a new approach using

interactive experiments with driving simulators”.

[Australian Research Council, Discovery Project –

DP150103299, $677,800]

3. Prof. R. MacIntyre (Public Health and Community

Medicine, UNSW), Dr L. Gardner (rCITI, UNSW)

and Dr A. Heywood (Public Health and Community

Medicine, UNSW) were awarded a 2015 NHMRC

Project grant funding the project “Real time models

to inform prevention and control of emerging

infectious diseases”. [National Health & Medical

Research Council, Project Grant APP1082524,

$532,796]

Current projects

Current projects for the rCITI group in 2014 include:-

1. Prof S.T. Waller, “A Collaboration to Develop and

Deploy Novel Integrated Network Techniques to

Enhance the NSW Transport System.” [Transport for

NSW, $1,500,000]

2. Dr T. Hossein Rashidi, “Complex Adaptive System

Theory and rule-Base Methods for Novel Travel

Activity-Based Models: A Sydney Metropolitan

Area Demonstration.” [UNSW Engineering Faculty,

Research Grant / Early Career Researcher Grants

Program, $20,000]

3. Prof S.T. Waller, “Identification & Evaluation of

Transformative Environmental (AERIS) Applications

and Strategies Project. Booz Allen Hamilton (USA).”

[United States Department of Transport contract

with Booz Allen Hamilton Inc, $275,000]

4. Prof S.T. Waller, Dr V. Dixit, Dr L. Gardner, Mr B.

Jeffreys, Dr T. Hossein Rashidi, “Integrating Network

modelling with Observed Choice Data for Multi-

Criteria Optimization of Complex Carshare systems:

Cost, Mobility and Transit Usage.” [LP130100983

Australian Research Council - Linkage Project/

GoGet CarShare - ARC Linkage Project Industry

Partner Contribution, $520,738]

5. Prof S.T. Waller, Prof M. Bliemer, Dr V. Dixit, Prof

M.G. Bell, and Dr A.Torday, “Methodologies for

the Incorporation of Congestion Propagation and

System Reliability into Transport Network Models for

Consistent Multi-Scale Planning.” [ LP130101048

Australian Research Council - Linkage Project /

TSS-Transport Simulation Systems Australia Pty Ltd

- ARC Linkage Project Industry Partner Contribution,

$845,604]

6. Prof S.T. Waller, Dr V. Dixit, Prof M. Bliemer, Prof

D.G. Del Favero, “TRAvel Choice Simulation

LABoratory (TRACSLab): A visualisation laboratory

to study travel behaviour and drivers’ interactions.” [LE130100113 Australian Research Council / LIEF /

UNSW, $680,000]

7. Prof S.T. Waller and Dr V. Dixit, “Review of Managed

Motorway Control Technology System.” [Roads and

Maritime Service, $200,000]

New Staff

We welcomed 3 new staff members to its team. Dr

Hanna Grzybowska was appointed as a Research

Associate in January, her key research interests include

vehicle fleet management, city logistics, real-time and

dynamic vehicle routing problems, decision support

systems and simulation and dynamic traffic assignment

models. Dr Mojtaba Maghrebi was appointed as a

Research Associate in April, his key research interests

include innovative branching techniques in mixed

integer programming, supervised and ensemble

learnings and intelligent decision support systems. Dr

Emily Moylan was appointed in August as a Research

Associate; her research interests include stochastic

treatment of travel time and the incorporation of travel

time reliability into transportation policy decisions.

OUR CENTRES 83

Conferences

rCITI hosted 3 conferences in 2014. The International

Symposium on Activity-Based Modelling (10 March

2014) and The Center for the Economic Analysis of

Risk (CEAR)/ rCITI - Risk in Transport Systems (20-

21 March 2014), both brought together distinguished

international and local speakers from academia and

industry in activity based modelling and transportation

risk. The third conference, the 32nd Conference of

Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR)

(17-18 February 2014), provided a forum for young

transportation researchers from over 14 different

universities, institutes and research groups, and with an

opportunity to present their paper.

Finalists at the Sydney Engineering Excellence Awards 2014

Researchers at rCITI were finalists at the Sydney

Engineering Excellence Awards 2014 in the

categories of Research and Development, and Welfare,

Health and Safety, for the project “Instrumented Vehicle

Technology to Promote Safer and Fuel Efficient Driving

Behaviour”.

We congratulate Dr Dixit, Prof. Waller, Dr Xiong and their

GoGet Carshare partners for their cutting edge work.

CORE CENTRE STAFF – 2014

Director

Professor S. Travis Waller, Evans & Peck Professor of

Transport Innovation

Deputy Director

Dr Vinayak Dixit, Senior Lecturer

Academics

Dr Upali Vandebona, Senior Lecturer

Dr Lavy Libman, Senior Lecturer (Computer Science

and Engineering)

Dr Lauren Gardner, Lecturer

Dr Taha Hossein Rashidi, Lecturer

Dr Ken Doust, Adjunct Lecturer

Dr Chen Cai, Conjoint Lecturer

Researchers

Dr Hanna Grzybowska

Dr Mojtaba Maghrebi

Dr Emily Moylan

Dr David Rey

Dr Zhitao Xiong

Centre Manager

Ms Maria Lee

Adjunct & Visiting Academic Staff

Visiting Fellow

Dr Peter Hidas, Transport for New South Wales, Bureau

of Transport Statistics (BTS), Sydney, Australia.

Mr Alireza Ermagun, Researcher, Sharif University of

Technology, Iran.

Dr Jean-Luc Ygnace Research Engineer, French National

Institute for Transportation Research (INRETS), France.

Associate Professor Hillel Bar-Gera, Department of

Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben-Gurion

University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.

Mr Haiyang Liu, Researcher, School of Transportation

Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology

(HIT), Harbin, China.

Senior Visiting Fellow

Professor Sahotra Sarkar, University of Texas at Austin,

Department of Philosophy, Section of Integrative

Biology, Austin, Texas, USA.

Visiting Professorial Fellow

Professor Chi Xie, School of Naval Architecture, Ocean

and Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University,

Shanghai, China.

OUR CENTRES84

water@UNSWwater research centre

The UNSW School of Civil and Environmental Engineering has a 60 year

history of leading development of water technology in Australia. Apart

from maintaining the largest postgraduate and undergraduate teaching

programmes in water engineering in Australia, the School remains active

in Australian fundamental water research:

\ surface and groundwater hydrology – ongoing Australian leadership

of the quantifying of rainfall, runoff and groundwater flows at

catchment scales (This history includes development of the lead

Australian design document, Rainfall and Runoff, now published and

developed by Engineers Australia).

\ public health and water treatment – fundamental investigations of

the chemistry and microbiology of water for urban use have been

focussed within the Centre for Water and Waste Treatment over the last

20 years.

\ civil and environmental hydraulics – practical Project-based and

theoretical hydraulics research undertaken using the unique large-

scale facilities of the Water Research Laboratory at Manly Vale.

There are two primary centre nodes: at Kensington with staff and students

accommodated within the Vallentine annex; and, at the Water Research

Laboratory at Manly Vale. The centre is co-supervised by Richard Stuetz

and Bill Peirson, who are respectively responsible for each node.

Centre activities are grouped around three dominant research themes:

1. Water SupplyAustralia is a continent of low rainfall and its development and economic

robustness is constrained by presently available and potential water

supplies.

2. The CoastOver 86% of the Australian community live in the coastal zone with

consequent environmental impact and climate vulnerabilities.

3. SustainabilityTo maintain Australia’s current level of population and economic growth,

water and contamination management need innovative solutions in terms

of environmental, energy and social considerations.

About Us

OUR CENTRES 85

WRL HIGHLIGHTSIn 2014 the Water Research Laboratory celebrated 55

years of providing leading-edge expertise, research

and training for industry and government, both in

Australia and overseas.

The continuing high quality of WRL’s research was

acknowledged by our industry peers withan Engineers

Australia’s (Sydney Division) Excellence Award

(Environment and Heritage) for the Tomago Wetlands

Restoration project, achieved in collaboration with NSW

National Parks and NSW Fisheries. The project was

also a finalist at Engineers Australia’s National Awards.

Dr. Will Glamore, Duncan Rayner and Jamie Ruprecht

have been guiding major wetland rehabilitation

projects in several estuaries using environmental

engineering design techniques. These approaches

have successfully re-established major tracts of

critically endangered saltmarsh habitat. Indeed, the

Tomago project recently attracted over 5000 migratory

shorebirds in a single day

2014 has been a strong year for continued leadership in

Australia’s water engineering profession at WRL:

\ During February and August, WRL hosted meetings

of representatives of major dam owners from around

Australia and internationally. These organisations

are sponsoring a major Australian Research Council

Linkage grant at UNSW led by Professor Robin

Fell, Professor Chongmin Song, Dr. Kurt Douglas,

Associate Professor Bill Peirson. The purpose of this

project is to establish new engineering guidelines

for managing erosion risks within major dams and

on their spillways. PhD students Steven Pells and

Rebecca Allan played a major role within these

meetings.

OUR CENTRES86

\ This year the National Flood Risk Advisory Group

(NFRAG) released a landmark publication for

floodplain management in Australia, the Australian

Emergency Management Institute Handbook 7

Managing the floodplain - a guide to best practice

in flood risk management in Australia. WRL’s

Grantley Smith and Ron Cox were advisors to

NFRAG and lead authors of the Technical Flood

Risk Management Guideline on Flood Hazard, which

directly supports Handbook 7.

\ In early November, Alexandra Badenhop and Doug

Anderson hosted a workshop on groundwater

management for coastal local governments.

A specific focus of the workshop included the

management of groundwater extractions and

recharge, construction dewatering, acid sulphate

soils, groundwater contamination and the assessing

the impacts of climate change.

\ In November, Ron Cox, James Carley, Matt Blacka

and Bill Peirson hosted a Coastal Climate Adaptation

workshop at WRL. Senior figures from Australian

coastal engineering and science joined with

specialist coastal engineers Rod and Heidi Moritz

of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to discuss

pressing coastal problems in both the United States

and Australia. This workshop has been a major

activity of the Coastal Adaptation Research Node

established by the NSW Office of Environment

and Heritage last year and the Australian Climate

Change Adaptation Research Network for

Settlements and Infrastructure – now in its 5th year.

Members of the Tomago Project Team (L-R), Rob Williams, Kylie Russell (NSW Fisheries), Will Glamore (WRL), Ann Lindsey (Hunter Bird Observers), Jamie Ruprecht (WRL), Duncan Rayner (WRL), Jann Williams, Bill Peirson (WRL), Doug Beckers (National Parks & Wildlife Services).

OUR CENTRES 87

Project and Research Highlights

Pioneering the use of UAVs in Coastal and Environmental Engineering

WRL are pioneering the use of unmanned aerial vehicle

(UAV) drones for rapid and cost effective surveying in

the coastal and environmental engineering sectors. A

short 20 minute flight provides in excess of 30 million

data points which has comparable accuracy to a

traditional RTK-GPS survey. Over the past year WRL

has deployed a fixed wing UAV over several locations

including the Narrabeen-Collaroy embayment to monitor

beach change, over the Big Swamp wetland near

Taree to assess tidal inundation, and over Harrington

Breakwater for asset management.

WRL Wins Large ARC Discovery Project

Coastal erosion is confronting societies and the natural

environment. The economic value in Australia of built

assets at risk includes roads, commercial buildings

and homes. Hard engineering entire coastlines is

rarely feasible, with beaches providing the best coastal

defense along the great majority of sandy coastlines.

This project aims to deliver advanced understanding

and the best available solutions to storm erosion

prediction. Led by Prof Ian Turner, this $423K three year

grant will bring together an international team of coastal

scientists and engineers from the UK, the Netherlands

and Australia.

Old Swamps and New Ideas – Project Update

Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone

(THPSS) are unique wetlands listed as endangered

ecologic communities by both the NSW and

Commonwealth Governments. These slow growing

swamps have distinct ecological characteristics and are

located throughout the Blue Mountains, Newnes Plateau

and the Sydney Basin. The WRL report prepared for the

Commonwealth Government has just been released and

summarises:

\ Available information on THPSS and similar swamp

communities and the way in which longwall mining

can affect these communities.

\ Existing techniques used by industry for mitigating

impacts on swamps.

\ Potential remediation techniques.

A major fieldwork research program is now underway.

ICCE2020

The ASCE Coastal Engineering Research Council

recently awarded the peak conference in coastal

engineering, the International Conference on Coastal

Engineering (ICCE) to Sydney in September 2020.

This is a major coup for the local coastal engineering

fraternity as bidding for the conference faced robust

competition from several excellent international teams.

Led by A/Prof Bill Peirson, a strong Australasian

team had been promoting ICCE2020 Sydney on

behalf of Engineers Australia’s National Committee

of Coastal and Ocean Engineering, Business Events

Sydney, PIANC Australia, the Institution of Professional

Engineers New Zealand, and the New Zealand Coastal

Society. The awarding of the conference to Sydney is a

tribute to efforts of the entire bid team.

OUR CENTRES88

Riverbank Vulnerability Assessment using a Decision Support System: Lower Hawkesbury River (Wisemans Ferry to Spencer – 29kms) in partnership with Hornsby Shire CouncilShoalhaven River Floodplain Drainage Remediation Action Plan

The lower Shoalhaven River estuary contains 39 large

drainage sub-catchments, with many significantly

impacted by acid sulphate soil drainage. remediation

action plans are based on an estuary wide approach and

outline the recommended on-ground works required to

reduce or eliminate acid drainage from each site.

Groundwater Project News

It has been a productive 12 months for WRL’s

groundwater team in the water resources, coal seam

gas and coal mining space. During this time we have,

amongst many other projects, submitted the third and

final report in a major international review of the impacts

on water related to coal seam gas and coal mining

developments. These studies are being undertaken for

the Department of the Environment on the direction of

the Independent Expert Scientific Committee on Coal

Seam Gas and Large Coal Mining Development (IESC).

Since March, WRL has finalised a comprehensive

review of major projects underway or completed

in Australia, Canada, China, India, Russia, United

Kingdom, and the USA for the period 2000-2014.

\ We also prepared a background paper on coal

seam gas resources to inform the NSW Office of the

Chief Scientist and Engineer independent review of

coal seam gas activities in NSW.

\ Using WRL’s geotechnical centrifuge we have been

able to fill in critical knowledge gaps in research and

engineering practice on the vertical permeability

of aquitards. Measures of vertical permeability

are critically important for identifying competent

aquitards that will protect water resource aquifers

from the impacts of coal mining, coal seam gas and

mineral resource development.

The Physics of Bubbles in Destratifying Reservoirs

Staff at WRL have been solving problems associated

with stratified water bodies with a specific focus on

water quality issues in reservoirs for approximately 50

years.

New Coastal Imaging Stations on the Gold Coast

In March two new Coastal Imaging stations were

installed on the Gold Coast. The new stations are

located at Palm Beach and Surfers Paradise, and now

takes the total number of Coastal Imaging cameras

operated by WRL to 32.

Narrabeen Coastal Imaging Station Upgrade3D Physical Modelling of Clump Point Jetty Breakwater

The project was targeted at improving protection of the

Clump Point Jetty near Mission Beach, approximately

100 km south of Cairns. from waves and improve

berthing conditions.

Caseys Beach Seawall Upgrade

Eurobodalla Shire Council engaged WRL in partnership

with Aurecon to prepare the design for the Caseys

KENSINGTON

OUR CENTRES 89

Water Research Centre 2014 – People

MANLY (WRL)

Beach seawall upgrade. approximately 5 km south-east

of the CBD of Batemans Bay.

WRL-Developed Barochambers Showcased at the Powerhouse Museum

In February the Powerhouse Museum opened the

exhibition “Engineering Excellence Awards 2013”

showcasing innovative Australian engineering projects.

One of the five projects showcased in the display was

the specialist barochambers developed at WRL to

test the amount of decompression that Australian fish

species can safely tolerate.

Examining the Biological Impacts of SeawallsBig Problems Require Big Solutions at Big Swamp, Lower Manning River, NSW

A two year collaborative project has turned a large

acidic landscape into a new tidal wetland. WRL working

with Greater Taree City Council and WetlandCare

Australia, have undertaken a comprehensive scientific

study to identify and remediate high priority acid

farmlands on the Big Swamp floodplain, near Taree,

NSW.. Based on Council’s preliminary monitoring, the

water quality has significantly improved and the wetland

vegetation is recovering.

PILAR Award Recognition

WRL was recently nominated for the UNISDR’s inaugural

Pacific Innovation and Leadership Award for Resilience

(PILAR) for the recent work that we have undertaken

in Rarotonga, Cook Islands. Led by Principal Coastal

Engineer Matt Blacka, WRL’s work investigated hazards

and risks from cyclone storm surge and waves for the

township of Avarua (the capital of the Cook Islands).

The award was presented at the Pacific Platform for

Disaster Risk Management in Suva Fiji, with Matt

receiving a Certificate of Recognition.

OUR CENTRES90

Co-Directors

Associate Professor Bill Peirson

Professor Richard Stuetz

Deputy Director (WRL)

Professor Ian Turner

Business Managers

Grantley Smith (WRL)

Robert Steel

Academics

Professor Ashish Sharma

Professor David Waite

Associate Professor Ron Cox

Associate Professor Stuart Khan

Associate Professor Tommy Wiedmann

Dr Stefan Felder

Dr Fiona Johnson

Research Staff

Associate Professor Sivakumar Bellie

Associate Professor Sven Lundie

Dr Hoori Ajami

Dr AJ Anceno

Dr Radoslaw Barczak

Dr Xavier Barthelemy

Dr Mark Bligh

Dr Peter Brady

Dr Richard Collins

Dr Juan Pablo Alvarez Gaitan

Dr Shikha Garg

Dr Michalis Hadjikakou

Dr Sanjeev Jha

Dr Adele Jones

Dr Andrew Kinsela

Dr Peter Kovalsky

Dr Nhat Le

Dr Tongxu Liu

Dr Lucy Marshall

Dr James McDonald

Dr Rajeshwar Mehrotra

Dr Christopher Miller

Dr Kate Murphy

Dr Gavin Parcsi

Dr Robert Parinussa

Dr An Ninh Pham

Dr David Roser

Dr Hazel Rowley

Dr Eric Sivret

Dr Kristen D Splinter

Dr Jacqueline Stroud

Dr Xinguang Wang

Dr Yuan Wang

Dr Fitsum Woldemeskel

Michael Allis

Judith Shinabeck

Professional Engineers WRL

Principal Project Engineers Brett Miller

Grantley Smith

Senior Project EngineersDoug Anderson

Matt Blacka

James Carley

Dr William Glamore

Project EngineersAlexandra Badenhop

Ian Coghlan

Erica Davey

Chris Drummond

Dr Francois Flocard

Nathan Guerry

Duncan Rayner

Priom Rahman

James Ruprecht

Technical and Administration

Jodi Adams

Lila Azouz

Anna Blacka

Robert Jenkins

Coral Johnson

Patricia Karwan

Larry Paice

Ross Mathews

Hamish Studholme

Joan Terlecky

Robert Thompson

Water Reference LibraryCaroline Hedges

Visiting Academics

Professor Nicholas Ashbolt, University of Cincinnati, USA

Professor Gary Jones, eWater Limited, Australia

Professor Ian King, Member ASCE

Professor Gregory Peters, Chalmers University, Sweden

Associate Professor Ian Cordery, UNSW, Australia

Associate Professor Mark Davidson, Plymouth University

Associate Professor Gregoire Mariethoz, University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Associate Professor Matthew McCabe, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia

Associate Professor Andrew Rose, Southern Cross University, Australia

Assistant Professor Mamoru Arita, Osaka University

Dr Magdalena Bosnjak, Croatian National Institute of Public Health, Croatia

Dr Baichuan Cao, Beijing Jiaotong University, China

Dr Bruce Cathers, UNSW Australia

Dr Heather Coleman, University of Ulster, United Kingdom

Dr Stuart Dever, GHD, Australia

Dr Manabu Fujii, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan

Dr Weijia Gong, Harbin Institute of Technology, China

Dr Jing Guan, Beijing Origin Water Technology, Beijing

Dr Xiaomin Li, UNSW, Australia

Dr Heng Liang, Harbin Institute of Technology, China

Dr Simin Maleknia, UNSW, Australia

Dr Michael Short, University of South Australia, Australia

Dr Gareth Swarbrick, Pells Sullivan & Meynink, Sydney Australia

WRC STAFF

Congratulations Ian

Ian Turner is to be congratulated on his recent

promotion to Professor.

Congratulations Kristen Splinter

on her promotion to Senior Research Associate, as well

as for securing a $20K Early Career Research Grant

from the UNSW Australia Faculty of Engineering;

Two Engineers Celebrate 10 Years at WRL

Principal Coastal Engineer Matt Blacka and Project

Engineer Alexandra Badenhop are both celebrating 10

years working at WRL.

Thank you to all of our many supporters throughout

industry and government. We look forward to continued

collaboration in 2015. If you would like to find out more

about our activities in 2014, please visit: www.wrl.unsw.

edu.au, and follow the link to subscribe to our quarterly

newsletter.

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Partners and Sponsors

Mr Gary Johnston for the Gary Johnston Chair of Water Management

Funders of Academic Positions

School Industry Partners School Industry Supporters

Never Stand Still Engineering Civil and Environmental Engineering