News and Events
UNSW Inventor of the year Awards:
Entries for the 2011 UNSW Inventor of the Year Awards are now open.
The UNSW Inventor of the Year Awards recognise and reward inventors that are making the world a better place. Boasting a total cash prize pool of $28,000, the awards are open to UNSW academics and students who are commercialising their research with NewSouth Innovations, the university's commercialisation company.
Please visit the competition web site for further details and application forms http://www.unswinventorawards.com.au/
Don't forget the new Best New Invention and Student Inventor of the Year categories.
The competition closes on 13th May 2011
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The Military-University Overwater Obstacle Challenge was run for the third year in October. Competitors pit their skill, strength and agility against each other, as well as against the ropes, beams and assorted hazards of the course, which is suspended perilously over the swimming pool. The inaugural competition was won by the University team, and the 2009 round by the Military. In 2010, the University team which mixed academic and general staff with postgraduate students soundly defeated the team of military staff in front of a delighted crowd which was also enjoying one of the final Rector’s and Commandant’s Morning Teas of the year. In his role as Master of Ceremonies, Corporal Aaron Cody of the Indoor Sports Centre staff did a fine job of entertaining all present.
The mighty Jon Lowry of the University team preparing to do his final ‘heaves’
The victorious University team book-ended by the Rector, Prof John Baird and DCOM (COL Paul Petersen). The team from left: Mr Canh Do, Dr John Young, Mr Simon Reynolds and Mr Stefan Brieschenk (back), and Mr Jon Lowry and Mr Jake Warner (front)
Dr Sean Farrell recently completed his PhD in astronomy under A/Prof Ravi Sood at UNSW@ADFA. He is part of a team of astrophysicists centred at the Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements in France which has found the first solid evidence of a new class of medium-sized black holes. The researchers detected the new black hole, known as ‘Source HLX-1’, at approximately 290 million light years from Earth with the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray space telescope. It has a mass more than 500 times that of the Sun. This exciting discovery has been published in the journal Nature.
Artist's impression of the new source HLX-1 (represented by the light blue object to the top left of the galactic bulge) in the periphery of the edge-on spiral galaxy ESO 243-49. Image credit: Heidi Sagerud
Dr John Young of the School of SEIT is studying the physics of insect flight, specifically the physics of flapping wings. Although a lot of work is going on world-wide into developing self-piloting, miniature helicopters, it turns out that flapping wings are much more efficient at small scales. Dragonflies, for example can pull off manoevres which are beyond even the most advanced jet aircraft, and can also hover with great precision. Dr Young has had a paper on the physics of insect flight published in the journal Science. The paper titled ‘Details of Insect Wing Design and Deformation Enhance Aerodynamic Function and Flight Efficiency’ records the highest-fidelity simulation of locust wing aerodynamics yet published, and highlights the importance of wing structure for performance. It generated significant media attention from outlets including the New York Times, the Sydney Morning Herald, ABC TV and radio.
Simulated flow over a dragonfly hind wing, showing the spiral vortex over the wing leading edge that helps generate high lift.
