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VU-Internet > ISI > Knowledge > ISI Activities ISI Activities2010
February
Envirohub presented an abbreviated form of the Carbon 101 Briefing to the February meeting of the Melton Chamber of Commerce in Caroline Springs. This briefing followed on from the one delivered to businesses in December in partnership with the Shire of Melton. This was the fifth Carbon 101 Briefing held in Melbourne’s west by Envirohub. The briefings are delivered on behalf of Carbon Down a Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce and Industry program funded by Sustainability Victoria.
January
Ludovic Dumee and Zongli Xie (PhD students) were successful in getting CSIRO travel grants to a nano-membranes course in the Netherlands. 2009 December
Professor Paul Boon (ISI), “Victorian coastal saltmarsh and mangroves: State-wide inventory of extent (current, pre-European and 2050), condition and threats, and community attitudes”, 20 November 2009.
Mr Shishutosh Barua (SES), “Development of a Nonlinear Aggregated Drought Index”, 20 November 2009. Guest speaker Dr Madhat Abdel-Jawad, Worley Parsons , “Applications of High temperature Gas Dynamics - Capsules, Rockets and Explosions” , 27 November 2009. Dr Peter Sanciolo (ISI), “Interstage Precipitation to enhance RO water recovery”, 4 December 2009. Dr Marija Gradinscak, Dr S. Eren Semercigil and Dr Ozden F Turan (SES), “A finite element based prediction model to control liquid sloshing with container flexibility, 4 December 2009. Mr Sergiu Dragomir, Dr Matthew Sinnott, Dr S. Eren Semercigil, Dr Ocden F. Turan (SES), “Predicting energy dissipation characteristics of a tumbling granular-flow damper using dem”, 4 December 2009. November
A/Professor Mikel Duke’s has been selected to receive a 2010 Endeavour Executive Award to visit Fudan University, People’s Republic of China. Dr Ashok Sharma has been awarded the honorary title of Adjunct Professor within the Institute for Sustainablity and Innovation for a period of 3 years. Dr Gayle Morris has been re-elected as Treasurer (2009-2011) of the Colloid and Surface Science Division, Royal Australian Chemical Institute. Mr Tom O’Rielly will be presenting on “Demonstration of industry water recovery using membranes and waste heat” at the City West Water’s special student development program presentations on 27th November 2009, 9.00am-2.30pm at the Victoria University Main Auditorium. Adjunct Prof Syed Hussainy and Dr Nitin Muttil conducted a re-run “Sustainable Management of Cyanobacteria (Blue-Green Algae) in Inland Water” workshop on 9 November, Werribee Campus. Mr Peter Dennis from Hunter Water gave a presentation on “Algae wastewater treatment process at Cessnock”, 11 November, Werribee Campus. Dr Dung Tran (SES) gave a talk on “Application of Decision Support Models for Asset Management of Sewer Networks”, 30 October 2009 October
A/Professor Mikel Duke’s WQRA Summer Scholarship Project Proposal “Robust Ceramic Membranes for Waste Water Treatment and Demonstration of Novel Ozone Cleaning” has been successful in being funding a Summer Scholarship student. Dr Peter Sanciolo’s WQRA Summer Scholarship Project Proposal “Recycling of hydroponic wastewater” has been successful in being funded a Summer Scholarship student. Mr Roger Wilkinson, an ISI PhD student supervised by Professor John Cary and ISI adjunct Dr Neil Barr had his Doctor of Philosophy degree awarded at the VU graduation ceremony on 14 October. Roger’s research examined the future of family farming in Australia’s sheep industry, using demographic analysis and in-depth interviews. The research revealed a strong family farming identity within the sheep industry, which suggests its persistence despite ageing and declining numbers of sheep farmers. Following the successful launch of Envirohub during Wyndham Sustainability Week in September, a number of events have taken place where businesses have been able to learn, network, converse and plan their sustainablity journey. To date two Carbon 101 briefings have taken place with 40 people attending in Werribee and at Victoria Univeristy’s Footscray Park campus; and Ralph Plarre from Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses, the 2009 Gold Banksia Award winner, has spoken to an entreprenuers network of 40 in Footscray. Events planned during October included a talk on biodeisel by Peter Fitzgerald from Cookers Bulk Oil Stystembs in Derrimut. Cookers has been using biodeisel in their truck fleet for many years. A further Carbon 101 briefing will be held with the City of Maribyrnong in late October. In November chemical manufactuer Malcolm Dobson from Tollman will be speaking about turning waste into an agricutural product. The website – www.envirohub.net.au – while visible, is taking longer than expected to populate due to technical problems. Further information on Envirohub can be obtained from project manager Barbara McLure on 9919 4159. If you would like to be added to the email mailing list for Envirohub please contact envirohub@vu.edu.au. Dr Nivedita Datta gave a talk on “Ultra-high temperature (UHT) Processing of Milk” on 18 September. Dr Nicholas Milne gave a talk on “Water and Industry: The Potential for Recycled Water” on 25 September Dr Marlene Cran gave a talk on “Current progress in antimicrobial packaging films using naturally derived agents” on 2 October. . Dr Bo Zhu gave a talk on “influence of seawater ions on the structural features of MFI type zeolites” on 9 October. Dr Muditha Dissanayake gave a talk on “Whey Proteins – Variation and Modulation” on 16 October. Ms Farial. A. JAFAR, Professor Graham. R. THORPE and Associate Professor Özden.F. TURAN gave a talk on “Flow Mode Characterisation of Liquid Films falling on Horizontal Plain Cylinders” on 19 October. Mr Andrew Antiohos, Dr S. Eren Semercigil and Associate Professor Özden F. Turan gave a talk on “CFD Design of a Generic Controller for Vortex-Induced Resonance” on 19 October 2009. September Envirohub was launched by Institute director Professor Stephen Gray at the business breakfast at the start of the City of Wyndham’s Sustainability Week on 9 September attended by 140 people from across Melbourne’s west. Staff were also present throughout the following weekend manning a stand at the Sustainability Expo. Adjunct Fellow Sam Kashuk and Professor Graham Thorpe were awarded a grant of $16,000 to devise innovative approaches to teaching the Environmentally Sustainable Design. A/Professor Mikel Duke visited the European Membrane Institute at the University of Montpellier on Friday 11 Sept and toured their labs. He gave the talk “Membranes in Advanced Energy Systems and Water Treatment” to their group. Mr. Shishutosh Barua and Ms Leni NiNyoman had submitted their PhD project proposal in the graduate research expo 2009 competition conducted by the University of Melbourne. The competition was within the Victorian Universities in all science and engineering discipline. They have selected best 14 projects from all Victorian Universities for the expo will be held in coming 25th Sept, 2009. Seven projects selected for demonstration and equally seven other projects selected for the poster presentation based on suitability for demonstration and poster presentation. Shishutosh’s and and Leni's projects have been allocated within the selected top 14 projects for the poster presentation and also for the proceedings publication under IEEE. The Membrane Society of Australasia presented “Energy Issues in Desalination Processes” by Visiting Professor Raphael Semiat (Technion, Israel), 5th October, Victoria University, City Flinders Campus, Level 11, Room C1105. ISI conducted a 1 day seminar with the Victorian Branch of the AWA on “Recent Advances in Desalination and Recycling” on 14 September. Invited speakers included: Professor Yoram Cohen (UCLA), Professor Rafael Semiat (Technion, Israel), Professor Tony Fane (Singapore) and Professor Rami Massalem (Ben Gurion, Israel). Kenneth Moore from CH2MHill and Carsten Berberich from Worley Parsons also presented, along with Prof Stephen Gray. August Professor Raphael Semiat, professor in the Chemical Engineering Department, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel and currently Director of the Grand Water Research Institute (GWRI) visited ISI for a period of 8 weeks. He arrived on 14 August 2009. PhD student Nyoman Marleni successfully presented her candidature presentation on the 24th of July. Her PhD topic is to study the impact of high strength sewage on septicity in existing sewer networks. Higher pollutant concentration in sewage and lower discharges to the sewer pipe lead to high strength sewage. Even domestic sewage is considered as high strength due to various practices like water conservation measures, demand management, use of decentralised wastewater management technologies, etc. This study involves research on the impact of high strength on existing sewer networks, with focus on septicity. Adjunct Prof Syed Hussainy conducted a 1 day workshop on “Sustainable Management of Liquid Wastes and the Re-Use of their End Products” on 17 August 2009. Dr Mikel Duke gave a talk on “Energy hydrogen production using membranes in waste water treatment” on 31st July 2009. Dr Nitin Muttil gave a talk on “Spatio-temporal Analysis of Trends in Hydro-Meteorological Variables over the Yarra” on 7 August 2009. Guest Speaker, Professor Dongyuan Zhao from Fudan University in China gave a talk on “Super Paramagnetic Core-Shell Porous Microspheres: Synthesis and Applications in catalysis, separations, drug delivery and biolabeling" on 14 August 2009. July Professor Il-Shik Moon from Sunchon National University, Korea visited VU from 29 June to 10 July. He is collaborating with Professor Stephen Gray, A/Prof Mikel Duke and Dr Jun-de Li on membrane distillation and his research student will be in the VU laboratories for 8 weeks undertaking experiments. An ex-Melbourne Water MBR pilot plant was delivered to the Werribee campus and will be available for use on ISI projects. Some maintenance is required, but it will provide us with additional capability to demonstrate technologies for research partners. Professor John Orbell has been appointed for the third successive year to sit on the EPA panel for the assessment of Environmental Auditors (Contaminated Sites)". Dr Roger Jones have a talk on “The Melbourne Water Climate Change Study – 5 years on and what have we learned?” on 26 June 2009. Dr Todor Vasilijevic gave a talk on “Whey – a golden mine of opportunities” on 3 July 2009. Guest Speaker, Mr John Fawcett from City West Water gave a talk on “City West Water’s Cleaner Production Program” on 10 July 2009. June A/Prof Mikel Duke, Dr Todor Vasiljevic, Dr Peter Sanciolo and Dr Elankovan Ponnampalam’s ARC Linkage Project with Dairy Innovation Australia "Innovative zero-energy membrane technologies to reduce water consumption in the dairy industry" was successful. Dr Todor Vasiljevic, Dr Osaana Donkor, Dr Michael L Mathai, Dr IA Knuckey and Mr WA Street’s ARC Linkage Project “The effect of dietary fish peptides on biomarkers of human health – the influence of processing conditions and the environment” was successful. Dr Sally Weller, A/Prof WN Pritchard, Prof M Alston and Prof MJ Webber’s ARC Linkage Project “Rural adjustment or structural transformation? Discovering the destination of exiting” was successful. Guest speaker Dr Maria Beger (University of Queesland) and Dr Eric Peterson (Vic Uni) gave a talk on “Marine Conservation Planning in the Marshall Islands” on 22 May. Prof John Cary gave a talk on “Monitoring River Health in Victoria: The Social Dimensions” on 5 June. Adjunct Professor Syed Hussainy gave a talk on “Sustainable Management of Liquid Wastes and the Re-Use of their End Products” on 12 June. May Associate Professor Mikel Duke and Dr Todor Vasiljevic received funding of $93,000 from Dairy Innovation to investigate the manufacture of cheese manufacturing. A Post-doc fellow will be employed for 12 months. The Membrane Society of Australasia (MSA) launch held on 5 May 2009 at VU Flinders Campus was a huge success with 55 attendees from the industry, research and academia sectors. The event was sponsored by Siemens Water Technologies. The launch was facilitated by A/ Prof Mikel Duke (Chair of the Inaugural Board, Membrane Society of Australasia) followed by brief talks from the following distinguished MSA supporters: - Bruce Biltoft (Managing Director)/Dr Andrew Groth (Director Chemistry and Membrane Development): Siemens Water Technologies. - Professor Tony Fane, the patron of the MSA. A/Prof Mikel Duke and the team at the Institute for Sustainability and Innovation went on to ABC Radio National Current Affairs program AM on 5 May 2009 to promote the launch of the Membrane Society of Australasia.
Professor John Cary participated as a member of a two person review team of the Social Research Program in the federally funded Landscape Logic Project. Landscape Logic is a research hub funded under the Commonwealth Environment Research Facilities (CERF) scheme administered by the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. Landscape Logic is concerned with linking land and water management with resource condition targets. It is a partnership between six regional resource management agencies, five research institutions and state land management agencies in Tasmania and Victoria. Landscape Logic is based at the University of Tasmania and the Social Research Program is led by Charles Sturt University. Dr Bo Zhu received an award at Australian Synchrotron for being the 1000th new user. Murdoch University was successful in its proposal for the National Centre of Excellence for Desalination. Victoria University is a collaborator on this proposal. Guest Speaker: Mr Poh Ban Eng from CC Technologies gave a talk on “Silver Ion Technology” on 24 April at the Werribee Campus. Mr Noel Dow gave a talk on “Accreditation of MF and UF membranes” on 8 May 2009. Dr Jun-De Li gave a talk on “Biofuels from Algae” on 15 May at the Werribee Campus. Mr Noel Dow gave a talk on “Accreditation of MF and UF membranes” on 8 May 2009.
April
Guest Speaker: Mr Poh Ban Eng from CC Technologies gave a talk on “Silver Ion Technology” on 24 April at the Werribee Campus.
Dr Nicholas Milne gave a talk on “Electrochemically Formed Titanate Films in Lithium Batteries”, 17 April, Werribee Campus.
Guest Speakers: Dr Michele Akeroyd and Dr David Halliwell from Water Quality Australia (WQRA) gave a talk on “Overview of WQRA” at the Werribee Campus. They also met with some staff members and were given a tour of the labs at Werribee Campus.
Guest Speakers: Dr Craige Trenerry and Dr Robyn Warner from Department of Primary Industries gave a talk on “Research Activities at DPI”, 3 April, Werribee Campus.
March Dr Eric Peterson gave a talk on “Green Powered Desalination”, 20 March, Footscray Park Campus.
Professor Nagendra Shah was awarded the William C. Haines Dairy Science Award by the California Diary Research Foundation on March 10 in recognition of his contribution to the field of dairy science at the 11th Cal Poly Dairy Ingredients Symposium in San Francisco.
Paul Boon hosted the second meeting of the Project Reference Group for his NHT-funded project on 'Conserving Victoria's Coastal Saltmarsh'. The meeting was held at VU's Flinders Street campus and attracted representatives from key natural-resource management agencies across Victoria.
Paul Boon had joined the Friends of Kurth Kiln Waterwatch project as its technical advisor. Kurth Kiln is a site valued for its industrial archaeology, as kilns were established there in the 1940s to provide charcoal from the surrounding forests to run cars during petrol rationing
of World War 2. The site is on Tomahawk Creek, near Gembrook; the Friends group had received support from Melbourne Water to undertake water-quality monitoring on the creek and its weir pools created during WW2.
Paul presented at the 'Coastal Ecology & Management' workshop at Inverloch, 3-5 April. He talked on coastal saltmarsh on the Saturday and lead a field trip on Sunday around the coastal wetlands of Anderson Inlet, South Gippsland.
Dr Huanting Wang (Monash University) gave a seminar on "Zeolite nanocrystals and zeolite-polymer nancomposite membranes" at the Werribee Campus.
February
A/Professor Mikel Duke’s student Tom’O Reilly presented his work “Demonstration of Industry Water Recovery using Membranes and Waste Heat” at the WQRA Summer Research Scholarship Reporting Seminar on 17 February and received first prize for his presentatation.
A/Professor Nalin Sharda’s student Jack Toke presented his work “Modelling a Digital Ecosystem for Maximising the Utilisation of Harvested Rainwater” at the WQRA Summer Research Scholarship Reporting Seminar. His presentation was well received and Jodieann Dawe, CEO of WQRA expressed interest in further joint research in this area. 2008
February
The Victorian Minister for Water, The Hon Tim Holding, MP launched the funding for the establishment of THE WERRIBEE CENTRE FOR SUSTAINABLE WATER USE on the 19th of February 2008 at the Werribee Campus. The funding comes via the Victorian Water Trust and is $1 million over 5 years. March Stephen Gray chaired the Sunbury Rotary Water Summit at VU's Sunbury campus on Tuesday evening, 11/3/08. The event was strongly supported by Western Water, Hume City Council and VU, and there was lively discussion following presentations from Robert Franklin (Western Water), Michael Smit (Savewater Alliance), Cheyne McKee (Smart Water), John Robinson (Port Philip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority) and Vasili Kanidiadis from Vasili's Garden on SBS. May
Stephen Gray chaired the ACF Urban Water Management Seminar which was held on 9th of May at the Wyndham Leisure Centre. This is part of the current “Vision for Werribee Plains” program that is run by DSE. Stephen Gray presented at the Point of Entry/Point of Use workshop at York Conference Room, Sovereign Park , Ballarat on Wednesday 14th May 2008.
John Orbell sat on the EPA Panel for the Appointment of Environmental Auditors (Contaminated Sites) on Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th May. Stephen Gray attended the Water Wise Showcase “Wyndham’s Water Future” which was hosted by The Honourable Julia Gillard, Deputy Prime Minister on Friday, 30th May at the Italian Sports Club, Werribee. June Professor Il-Shik Moon from Sunchon National University, Korea visited ISI. ISI was a finalist in The Wyndham Business Awards 2008. The event was held at the Wyndham Leisure Centre on 20th June, 2008. Mr. Hao Ju, Visiting Scientist from University of Texas at Austin (supervisor: Prof Benny Freeman) gave a seminar on “Crosslinked poly(ethylene oxide) fouling resistant coating materials for oil/water separation”, Werribee Campus. July
Mr Andrew Speers previously from CSIRO and currently working on water policy project with the Australian Water Association (AWA) gave a talk about “International Trends in Water Policy and Regulations” on the 2nd of July, Flinders Street Campus. August Stephen Gray was appointed an Associate Editor of the “Water Research” journal. September Dr Saman Buddhadasa and Mr Shyam Kumaran, guest speakers from National Measurement Institute Australia gave a presentation on “Introduction to the National Measurement Institute Australia". ISI conducted the first “Management of Cyanobacteria (Blue-Green Algae) in Inland Waters” workshop at Ballarat. Mikel Duke was the Chair of the Inaugural Membrane Society of Australasia. The society provided a forum for membrane science and technology in Australia and New Zealand. It is currently involving VU, UQ, UNSW, Melbourne Uni, Monash, Deakin and CSIRO. Jianhua Zhang and Stephen Gray were also involved. The advanced Membrane Technologies for Water Treatment Research Cluster was launched at Victoria University's City Flinders Campus. The Membrane Technologies for Water Research Cluster brings together some of Australia's leading scientists and institutions, with the goal of placing Australia at the forefront of innovative membrane development. There were presentations by Dr Tom Hatton, CSIRO, Professor Linda Rosenman, Victoria University, Dr. Michael Barber, CSIRO, Mr Alan Gregory, CSIRO and Professor Stephen Gray, Victoria University. 2006 August DECEMBER Professor Paul Boon (ISI), “Victorian coastal saltmarsh and mangroves: State-wide inventory of extent (current, pre-European and 2050), condition and threats, and community attitudes”, 20 November 2009. Mr Shishutosh Barua (SES), “Development of a Nonlinear Aggregated Drought Index”, 20 November 2009. Guest speaker Dr Madhat Abdel-Jawad, Worley Parsons , “Applications of High temperature Gas Dynamics - Capsules, Rockets and Explosions” , 27 November 2009. Dr Peter Sanciolo (ISI), “Interstage Precipitation to enhance RO water recovery”, 4 December 2009. Dr Marija Gradinscak, Dr S. Eren Semercigil and Dr Ozden F Turan (SES), “A finite element based prediction model to control liquid sloshing with container flexibility, 4 December 2009. Mr Sergiu Dragomir, Dr Matthew Sinnott, Dr S. Eren Semercigil, Dr Ocden F. Turan (SES), “Predicting energy dissipation characteristics of a tumbling granular-flow damper using dem”, 4 December 2009. DECEMBER Professor Paul Boon (ISI), “Victorian coastal saltmarsh and mangroves: State-wide inventory of extent (current, pre-European and 2050), condition and threats, and community attitudes”, 20 November 2009. Mr Shishutosh Barua (SES), “Development of a Nonlinear Aggregated Drought Index”, 20 November 2009. Guest speaker Dr Madhat Abdel-Jawad, Worley Parsons , “Applications of High temperature Gas Dynamics - Capsules, Rockets and Explosions” , 27 November 2009. Dr Peter Sanciolo (ISI), “Interstage Precipitation to enhance RO water recovery”, 4 December 2009. Dr Marija Gradinscak, Dr S. Eren Semercigil and Dr Ozden F Turan (SES), “A finite element based prediction model to control liquid sloshing with container flexibility, 4 December 2009. Mr Sergiu Dragomir, Dr Matthew Sinnott, Dr S. Eren Semercigil, Dr Ocden F. Turan (SES), “Predicting energy dissipation characteristics of a tumbling granular-flow damper using dem”, 4 December 2009. January newsletter Ludovic Dumee and Zongli Xie (PhD students) were successful in getting CSIRO travel grants to a nano-membranes course in the Netherlands. February newsletter Envirohub presented an abbreviated form of the Carbon 101 Briefing to the February meeting of the Melton Chamber of Commerce in Caroline Springs. This briefing followed on from the one delivered to businesses in December in partnership with the Shire of Melton. This was the fifth Carbon 101 Briefing held in Melbourne’s west by Envirohub. The briefings are delivered on behalf of Carbon Down a Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce and Industry program funded by Sustainability Victoria.
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