QUT News & Events Wrap

NEWS

Paramedic students learn to interact with patients and their assistance dogs: The next generation of ambulance officers are receiving some special training from QUT to help people who live with assistance dogs in emergency situations.

Is Myrtle Rust the new threat to native fauna?: QUT scientists led by Dr Grant Hamilton (pictured) have begun a world-first study using unmanned aircraft to determine the impact the spread of the fungus Myrtle Rust will have on Australian native animals as well as the environmental conditions that encourage the pest to spread and attack plants including eucalypts, tea-trees, bottlebrushes and lillipillies.

QUT campuses become smoke-free from July 1: QUT campuses and off-site research facilities will be smoke-free from July 1, QUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Coaldrake announced on World No Tobacco Day.

Learning to drive in a simulator: what do you think?: The idea of being taught to drive in a simulator as well as behind the wheel will be investigated by CARRS-Q researcher Alana Hawkins (pictured) as part of a new QUT study aimed at reducing the crash rates of young drivers.

New image competition to showcase QUT research with impact: The QUT Science in Focus Image Competition has been launched to celebrate the most original, informative and technically innovative images that tell the stories behind important QUT research.

Online love rats after money not romance: Brisbane symposium: Online romance frauds break more than hearts, according to Dr Cassandra Cross from QUT's School of Justice and the QUT Crime and Justice Research Centre.

Paris, here they come! QUT business student team on way to world final of L'Oreal competition: Three QUT business students (pictured) are on their way to Paris to take part in the international L’Oreal Brandstorm competition against student teams from around the world.

New Queensland design strategy crucial for age of innovation: Do we need a new Queensland design strategy for the state to successfully embrace the age of innovation? QUT’s School of Design says ‘yes’ and will host the Queensland Design Policy Summit on June 9 in Brisbane to brainstorm ideas for a new strategy.
 

EVENTS

Now - June 8: DIS 2016 (ACM SIGCHI Conference on Designing Interactive Systems) @ Gardens Point
Now - June 10: Season of The Absurd (featuring QUT actors) @ The Loft
Now - June 17: Inspirations (free) @ William Robinson Gallery
Now - August 14: Frontier imaginaries: the life of lines (free) @ QUT Art Museum
June 7-11: Essentially Dance, featuring QUT dance students @ Gardens Theatre
June 8: Moreton Bay STEM Fest @ QUT Gardens Point
June 9: Queensland Design Policy Summit @ Room Three Sixty
June 29: Free health checks for children @ QUT Caboolture
July 7: MBA and Postgraduate Business Information Evening @ Gardens Point
July 8: Australia's first Saliva Symposium @ Gardens Point
July 16-17: TSXPO (Tertiary Studies Expo) (free) @ Brisbane Showgrounds
July 31: QUT Open Day (free) @ Gardens Point
August 18: Murri-Ailan Way @ QUT

MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

- Professor Peter Coaldrake’s smoke-free campus announcement on World No Tobacco day was covered by Channel 7, The Courier Mail,  The Courier Mail’s City Beat, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times, UK- based Audio boom, 4BC, and 4ZZZfm, the Herald Sun, and the Daily Telegraph.
- Dr Grant Hamilton’s research into the impact the fungus Myrtle Rust will have on Australia’s native animals was shown on ABC TV News, News24 Weekend Breakfast and online. It was also picked up in the US by Can Mua.

   

- 612ABC Brisbane staged a three-hour outside broadcast at QUT’s Kelvin Grove campus titled “Doing the maths on education” with guests including Vice-Chancellor Peter Coaldrake (pictured above with presenter Emma Griffiths), Executive Dean of Education Professor Carol Nicoll (pictured above), Professor Karen Thorpe (pictured below), Associate Professor Linda Graham and QUT’s education students (pictured below).

   


- Nine News featured a story about the next generation of ambulance officers receiving some special training from QUT to deal with people who live with assistance dogs.
- Dr Gary Mortimer was a guest on 702 Sydney ABC’s morning show (39:41) where he discussed supermarket wars with Wendy Harmer and her listeners. He also wrote about ‘how Kmart ate Target’ for The Conversation, which was republished by ABC Online, Business Insider, RetailBiz and across the Fairfax network. He also discussed the $355m redevelopment of Westfield Chermside with Nine News.
- Dr Amanda Mergler featured in a Courier-Mail story, and other News Corp papers, discussing how research showed parents worry too much about what age to send their kids to school.
- Associate Professor Ian O’Hara’s research on converting sugarcane waste into biogas which is then upgraded to biomethane for diesel engines was featured in The Guardian’s article on “visionary renewable energy projects that could pay off for Australia”.
- Dr Christina Chalmers featured on ABC Radio, Phys.org, e Science News, and IT Resan explaining how children from the age of four can become robot programmers.
- Professor Chris Eves told the Courier-Mail Logan needed to upskill its workforce in any plans to position itself as a second CBD.
- The QUT Crime and Justice Research Centre’s Tainted Love symposium and research by Dr Cassandra Cross (pictured) received wide coverage including ABC News 24, ABC radio and TV news, ABC Online Radio National’s PM and Breakfast programs, and regional ARM papers including the Sunshine Coast Daily. It also ran across the News Limited network including the Courier Mail, as well as SBS and the New York Post.
- Dr Kate Letheren spoke to the Geelong Advertiser about consumers buying for self-indulgence rather than necessity.
- Professor Edward Chung told Fairfax publications he supported the idea of integrating taxis into Queensland’s public transport systems, outlined in a transport green paper.
- The Queensland Times and Gladstone Observer covered a study into blackspots by CARRS-Q researcher Amir Afghari.
- Professor Rebekah Russell-Bennett talked to ABC Western Queensland about designing an app to encourage boys to have respectful relationships. She was also featured on Channel Seven (@ 1 minute) talking about her new app to help people save on their power bills, covered also by Brisbane Times.
- Bruce McCallum told News Corp papers focus should be placed on better training for exam supervisors rather than banning students from wearing watches into exams for fear of cheating.
- Findings by Dr Alex Black and his team that visual blurring can cause slips and trips was reported by The Medical News, Science Newsline and Health, Medical and Science Updates.
- Peter Black joined 612 ABC’s Spencer Howson on Tuesday for his regular technology segment.
- Anatomy lecturer Donna MacGregor was shown in a Ten News story on the repatriation of 33 Australian soldiers’ and their dependents’ remains after working with the army team on the exhumation.
- PhD candidate Kate Raynor told QWeekend she was concerned Brisbane has neglected to plan for families in the inner suburbs.
- The Redland City Bulletin featured a story on QUT IT and mathematics student David Maine, winner of the 2016 Westpac Young Technologists Scholarship.
- Professor Greg Kyle spoke to ABC Canberra about the painkiller Fentanyl.
- QUT alumni who formed the company Tanda called on hackers to join their annual hackathon via Business Acumen magazine.
- The Australian featured QUT alumni Robyn Cooper in a story about internal auditing.
- Dr Sandra Phillips’ Conversation article celebrated a Paris film festival highlighting the best of Australian Indigenous filmmaking.
- Professor Marcus Foth’s Conversation article discussed why city plans should focus on people first.
- IFLScience put Dr Rebecca English’s Conversation article about popular parenting styles into its editor’s blog.

Release date: Monday, June 6, 2016
Media contact: media@qut.edu.au

QUT is part of a national collaborative group of five major Australian universities that form the ATN (Australian Technology Network of Universities).