QUT News & Events Wrap

NEWS

Fans see the art in sporting fights: It's the sport with a brutal reputation taking the world by storm.

QUT Real Decisions event welcomes future students @ Gardens Point and Caboolture: Meet academic and admissions staff to discuss your study choices at QUT's Real Decisions event at its Gardens Point and Caboolture campuses on Tuesday 23 December.

QUT art students given regular gallery space at TransLink: One of the biggest challenges for up-and-coming artists is finding a gallery to exhibit their work but Visual Art students from QUT's Creative Industries faculty now have a regular exhibition space thanks to an agreement with TransLink.

Buying gift cards this Xmas? Beware, scammers are ever-present: You may not be able to give your kids' favourite teachers a gift card, but for many people they are the perfect gift to receive because you can buy just what you want, and the perfect solution for gift givers who are time-poor or out of ideas.

Excellence recognised in Australian Awards for University Teaching: QUT is celebrating two awards for Teaching Excellence in the Australian Awards for University Teaching that went to Associate Professor Rachael Field from the School of Law and Associate Professor Dann Mallet from QUT's Mathematical Sciences School.

Last stand at Winton still waiting for right answer: The Federal Government must quickly find a sustainable way to help farmers facing a debt crisis as a "grim" future looms, a QUT economist has warned.

Don't let unhealthy habits hamper festive season fun: With school holidays and Christmas approaching parents are advised by a QUT expert to maintain a balance of healthy food and physical activity for the family despite festive season temptations.

QUT researchers help power the next generation of electric vehicles: QUT researchers in Brisbane have joined with Australia's AutoCRC and the Malaysia Automotive Institute (MAI) to develop longer lasting lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and help wean the world off fossil fuels.

British Olympic Committee Chair Lord Sebastian Coe to address QUT Business Leaders' Forum: Olympic gold-medallist and British Olympic Committee Chair Lord Sebastian Coe KBE will address the next QUT Business Leaders' Forum on Monday 9 February at the Hilton Brisbane.

Top 10 road safety tips from CARRS-Q researchers: Christmas is synonymous with visiting friends and relatives and taking that well-earned break. For many, this means spending more time behind the wheel or on two wheels, whether that's for short trips or longer ones.

Schools 'data guru' teaches the teacher to drill down on key literacy, numeracy trends: National testing is driving improvements to students' results and a QUT-based data analysis tracking method is being used in Australian schools to prove it, says leading education academic Dr Judy Smeed.

EVENTS

Dec 23: Real Decisions (free) @ QUT Caboolture

Dec 23: Real Decisions (free) @ QUT Gardens Point

Now - Dec 2014: Chem World (free) @ The Cube

Jan 6 - 23: The Voice in the Walls (children's event) @ Old Government House

Jan 13 - 21: 2015 Summer Holiday Program @ The Cube

Now - March 1: Performance Now exhibition (free) @ QUT Art Museum

Now - July 2015: William Robinson: Infinite sphere (free) @ William Robinson Gallery

MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

The nanotechnology research breakthrough by Dr Jinzhang Liu, Professor Nunzio Motta and Marco Notarianni that could lead to cars powered by their own body panels continued to pick up international coverage. The research was featured in MIT Technology Review and an interview with Professor Motta was in Venerdi di Repubblica, a weekly supplement of the Italian national newspaper.

Dr Andrew Baker talked to Australian Geographic about his research that helped discover Australia's newest mammal, the buff-footed antechinus.

Associate Professor Mark Lauchs discussed the siege in Sydney on 4BC, saying it was not a terrorist attack and pointing out the hostage taker appeared to have had a lot of mental health issues.

And Associate Professor Jane Shakespeare-Finch told 4BC the hostages will have experienced deep trauma, but could hopefully also use the experience as an opportunity to grow.

Dr Jason Sternberg explained to Channel Nine's Today Show why the event app Kick On isn't the end of the world.

Dr Mary Crawford spoke to 4BC about the latest Newspolls and some of the problems the Federal Government has faced.

Dr Michael Milford explained to ABCNews24 how Nobel Prize-winning research into the brain could prove helpful for Alzheimer's and robotics research.

Research from Professor Brett Martin and Dr Michael Devine that found fans of Mixed martial arts are more interested in skill than violence was covered by Mx.

Dr Jodi Death spoke to AAP about celibacy in the Catholic church for a story that ran on News Corp websites including News.com.au.

Professor Prasad Yarlagadda was featured in several Indian newspapers, including photos with Prime Minister Nardendra Modi, regarding his role at the Global Congress on Manufacturing and Management.

ABC radio spoke to Dr Mark McGovern about the rural debt crisis and what can be done to help struggling farmers for a program that ran across Queensland and his comments at the Winton Rural Debt Crisis Summit were mentioned in a Queensland Country Life article.

The Sunday Mail's U on Sunday magazine had a feature on the Voice in the Walls play that will take place at Old Government House.

Rebecca English explained to Channel 10 and The Sydney Morning Herald how unschooling works and questioned why evidence of homeschooling success was erased from the NSW inquiry report into homeschooling in a piece for The Conversation.

mX sought Dr Mark King's expertise on a story about Gen Y choosing not buy cars.

Professor Ben White's research showing more than 80 per cent of Australians don't have an advance care directive was covered by The Senior.

Dr Gary Mortimer told ABC Regional radio that while there's growth in online sales, 93 per cent of Australians still shop in stores. He also spoke to 4BC about marathon opening hours at some Brisbane shopping centres this Christmas and mX and Channel 9 ran a story from him about the pitfalls of giving gift cards.

Dr Rohan Jayaratne spoke to AAP about the causes and consequences of lightning strikes for a story which appeared on the website of the Adelaide Advertiser.

John Willsteed explained to 2SER how reviving Countdown wouldn't do much for Australian musicians in this digital era.

The "life-changing" experience the Kunst family had with the PEACH healthy family lifestyle program was covered across several Quest newspapers.

ABC Radio National's Bush Telegraph replayed a Field Institute panel discussion on the Coles and Woolworths duopoly which included Dr Carol Richards.

Sustainability Matters reported on Professor Lidia Morawska heading up the new Australia-China Centre for Air Quality Science and Management.

The Academy of Technological Science and Engineering's Focus magazine featured stories about: Professor Lyn English and Dr Kathryn Fairfull-Smith's ARC grants successes (p28); Albert Tietz and Associate Professor Les Edye's new recyclable waterproof coating for boxes (p30); the launch of Chem World (p41); and Professor James Dale's election as a 2014 ATSE Fellow (p44).

Fatin Radziah Binti Ramli, a QUT student from Brunei won Study Brisbane's The Ultimate Graduation competition, scoring airfares and accommodation for her family to attend her graduation. The good news story was covered by the PIE News.

Cassandra Cross' piece for The Conversation about the costly reality of online dating fraud was published by Australasian Science.

Dr Nicolas Suzor and Eleanor Angel's The Conversation piece about the government's anti-piracy code was published by Gizmodo and Lifehacker Australia.

Professor Peter Grace wrote a Conversation piece about the greenhouse gas that's 300 times worse than CO2.

Professor Brian McNair told The Conversation outgoing editor Alan Rusbridger will leave big shoes to fill at The Guardian.

Erin O'Dwyer discussed celebrity nudes and online pornography in a piece for The Conversation.

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Media contact: media@qut.edu.au