3. AUES Hysteresis 2011
The Adelaide University Engineering Society
would like to present
Hysteresis
Hysteresis n.
1. The lagging of an effect behind its cause, as when the change in magnetism of a body lags behind
changes in the magnetic field.
2. The annual publication of the Adelaide University Engineering Society, documenting the most vital
parts of the greatest student society on campus.
Published by the Adelaide University Engineering Society
Edited by Lara Rocke
Published October 2011
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4. AUES Hysteresis 2011
Contents
Origins of the AUES...............................................................................................................................1
Highlights of the AUES in 2011..............................................................................................................3
AUES Committee 2011..........................................................................................................................7
From The Editor....................................................................................................................................8
Sponsors................................................................................................................................................9
Executive Committee Reports
President’s Report...................................................................................................................10
Vice President’s Report...........................................................................................................12
Treasurer’s Report..................................................................................................................13
IT Officer’s Report...................................................................................................................13
Equity Officers Report.............................................................................................................14
AUES Events
O Week....................................................................................................................................15
O Party....................................................................................................................................17
BBQ’s.......................................................................................................................................18
Pub Crawl................................................................................................................................20
Quiz Night................................................................................................................................24
Careers Night...........................................................................................................................26
Cocktail Night..........................................................................................................................27
Vox Pops..............................................................................................................................................28
Faculty Reports
Executive Dean’s Report.........................................................................................................32
Australian School of Petroleum...............................................................................................33
School of Chemical Engineering..............................................................................................38
School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering..........................................................42
Electrical and Electronic Engineering......................................................................................46
School of Mechanical Engineering..........................................................................................48
Student Society Reports
AIAA.........................................................................................................................................53
AUCE........................................................................................................................................57
CHEMS.....................................................................................................................................58
EESSAU....................................................................................................................................62
Robogals..................................................................................................................................63
SPE...........................................................................................................................................64
Reports from Associated Organisations
Engineers Australia..................................................................................................................66
Engineers Without Borders.....................................................................................................67
University of Adelaide Club.....................................................................................................68
AUES in Numbers................................................................................................................................70
Staff Profile – Dr. David Walker...........................................................................................................74
Blast from the Past - Frank Spartalis...................................................................................................76
History-sis............................................................................................................................................79
2011: The year in review.....................................................................................................................81
Photo Gallery......................................................................................................................................84
AUES Committee 2012........................................................................................................................94
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5. AUES Hysteresis 2011
Origins of the AUES
The origins of the AUES can be traced back to the early Neanderthal days. Unfortunately, cavemen
Engies were severely limited in what they could design by several factors - for example the wheel
was square, electricity was something to be avoided, and finally (and most importantly) no-one
knew how to brew a good beer.
But as man evolved so too did the Engie Societies - until the advent of the Romans and the Greeks
and their love of sharp pointy metal things and sticking them in people. Although the introduction
of wine boosted Engie’s abilities, there was still a certain spark of integrity and stability lacking;
beer. This lack of beer sadly resulted in the fall of the Roman Empire, as the beer drinking Gaul and
Germanic tribes, aided by their superior beer drinking engineers decided to ‘shut the neighbours up’
once and for all by having a REALLY big barbeque.
Around this period Engie Societies began to appear in what was to become known as Asia through
evidence found in the great Engie scrolls. Apparently a wall-building event organised by the local
Engie committee got a little out of control after a few too many Tsingtaos. This epic struggle
continued for many years with the wall getting longer and longer (which pays testament to the
stubbornness of Engies) until our ancient brethren, the “Sciences”, discovered gunpowder, and the
Engies came to realise it was much more fun to blow things up rather than to build them…as is still
evident in our modern pub crawls!
It wasn’t until sometime in the middle ages that the holy fluid, beer, came into greater prominence.
This gave rise to huge feats of engineering; giant pubs made out of stone and surrounded by moats
full of keg dregs. The reasoning for this is written by the sage Beerscullo in his writings, which state
“ye any invader toppled into thy moat would consume too much libations (beer) and henceforth be
rendered unable to continue fighting, standing, or talking…”. The first pub crawls also began to be
organised in this period, and owing to the growing popularity of beer, were extremely large. These
pub crawls became known as the Crusades, and tended to go long distances looking to quench their
thirsts. Things remained much the same until another major source of knowledge was discovered -
spirits. The advent of spirits gave rise to a giant increase in learning, which became known as
the Renaissance period. Modern wonders such as the alcohol powered car and locomotive were
invented, and, with the lack of breath testers, filling up the jalopy took on a whole new meaning.
Fortunately, a bright young engineer pointed out that precious alcohol was being wasted on
machines that couldn’t really enjoy the taste or other effects, and so petroleum was used to power
vehicles instead.
The end of this period saw, in the little known colony of Australia, an initial rising of the AUES,
which was temporarily stunted due to the first appearance of the great evil - Prohibition. This
dastardly law was made by the evils known as ‘law and order’, to prevent the rise of the Great
Society. Fortunately the population rose up in favour of the ‘good drop’ and threw down the great
evil.
As the Society grew in power and influence, senior members of the AUES decided it was time to
elect a president, via secret ballot. Unfortunately an ongoing argument between the Germans and
the rest of the world about who brewed the best beer got out of hand and the Great War broke out,
so theAUES election was postponed in favour of a barbeque – which seemed a more appropriate
way to settle the argument.
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6. AUES Hysteresis 2011
The issue was finally settled by everyone getting hammered and throwing ‘empties’ at the Germans.
But unfortunately the issue was to come up again several years later, when a little German brewer
with his trademark moustache convinced some of his mates of the power of the dark side of beer -
began World War II. Once again, the AUES came up with the excellent idea of resolving the conflict -
another barbeque!
During the barbeque, one of the more enlightened members of the AUES bellowed “Hitler’s a
D**KHEAD!” and everybody cheered! Such a bold display did not go unnoticed by the world leaders
that were present, who, in turn used this cry to inspire allied troops to victory. It was also decided
that such arguments should never happen again, so the political arm of the AUES, along with the
enlightened boisterous chap as leader, became the United Nations, but only after the first
choice “United Breweries” was abandoned. In more recent times the AUES has continued to grow
in power and influence. While we still undertake historical recreations of some our most prominent
past events, such as the pub crawl (a recreation of the great wall building event is just a little too
daunting), the AUES now prefers to keep a lower profile. But we continue to work behind the
scenes, and few important decisions are made without first consulting the AUES. It is widely
accepted that if peace comes to the Middle East, it will be due, in no small part, to the tireless
workings of the AUES and its members. And so it can be seen that from its humble beginnings
millennia ago, when the society for engineers was a mere twinkle in the eye of our strange, yet
prophetic, forefathers, the AUES has developed into a mighty organisation. While some may
describe its operations as bizarre or even crazy, society in general has come to see the AUES as a
symbol of all that life should be, as a beacon of hope guiding them away from the rocky shoals of
their past to a brighter, more interesting future…
Anonymous
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7. AUES Hysteresis 2011
Highlights of the AUES in 2011
O’week: Selling about 1000 shirts in a week. A few sneaky
beers and the creation of the O’Week leaders board.
O’Party: Bigger and better than ever before. 300
excitable first-ish years packed into Mansions. It
was like after formal party all over again. 3 hours
sleep and it was time to set up for day 3 of
O’week.
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8. AUES Hysteresis 2011
4 BBQ’s: Running four BBQ’s non-stop. ICE CREAM VAN with free soft serves or hot donuts.
This Moment: Will go down in history. Crowd surfing on a sea of red – good fun.
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9. AUES Hysteresis 2011
NEW SPEAKERS: To make sure that the
entire uni know that the AUES is having a
little shin-dig on the lawns.
Tug of War: AUES 1: Meds 0, Australian Army 1: Everyone else 0
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11. AUES Hysteresis 2011
AUES Committee 2011
EXECTUTIVE COMMITTEE
President Vice – President Treasurer Secretary Equity Officer
Henry Harch Michael Lee Nick Davis Lara Rocke James Hardy
GENERAL COMMITTEE
Sponsorship Director IT Officer Publicity Officers
Kris Noicos James Schulte Nick Baum and James Furler Dylan Del Campo
Peta Johannsen Stefanie Tiggemann Nicholas Adriaanse Kailash Thiyagarajah Chris Quek
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12. AUES Hysteresis 2011
From the editor…
As secretary for the AUES this year, my responsibilities were.. writing
minutes. Feeling as though I had not left enough of a stamp on the
AUES in 2011, I volunteered to edit Hysteresis. Hysteresis is a
publication first started in the 1940’s of this club, and a tradition we
endeavour to uphold every year.
Any committee member will tell you that this year has been the
biggest yet for the AUES, and it’s something we say each and every
year. This is due to the support of our members who attend our
events, buy our pub crawl t-shirts, drink our beer, wait in line at BBQ’s.
To all the punters, thank you for your support and we hope we can
keep organising events that you want to go to.
Some thanks are due, and to start I’d like to thank the Dean of the
faculty of the ECMS, Professor Dowd. To the Heads of Schools for
taking the time to write an article for us and to both the Dean and
Heads of Schools that sponsored us to print as many copies as
possible.
To all the committee members, you’ve been a pleasure (and sometimes a pain) to work with and
I’m taking this opportunity to say thank you for all the hard work, and the fun times we’ve had
together as result of the time and effort put in. Pres Henry, although I may have groaned once or
twice when my phone came up with “1 new message: Henry Harch”, you have been an amazing
president and the AUES will miss you. Lastly, to Kris, the Queen of the AUES: we can’t tell you
enough how much we love you and appreciate what you’ve done for the AUES. This is her last year
as an “official” committee member but I am hoping she will continue to kick it with us behind the
scenes.
After far too many hours spent at a computer screen editing this magazine, and the many outbursts
of frustration and cursing at Microsoft Word and the mysteries of it that I still don’t comprehend, I
would like to present Hysteresis 2011. Enjoy.
Lara Rocke
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14. AUES Hysteresis 2011
President’s Report
2011 for the AUES has been epic. This year has been the biggest in
the history of the AUES. This gets said every year but to think we
sold an EXTRA 1000 pub crawls shirts than last year gives an
indication of how big that event has become and how quickly it is
growing. 4000 shirts and a city wide pub crawl next year sends
shivers down the spine. I think now is a pretty good time and
place to take the entire responsibility for this year’s success (and
pass the failures off to the equity officer) but to be honest I have
received some amazing support from a range of people.
This year I’ve learnt many things about myself, the AUES, the
university and life in general. I’ve learnt that I like to have control
and know what’s going on and how it’s happening. This has
prevented a few disasters but also probably made a few people
think I thought they were stupid or didn’t trust them. Usually it
was just the latter. I have also found that people love the AUES
and that we can really provide a difference at uni. Unfortunately I
have also begun to get an idea of the direction that the university
is heading with respect to any social goings on at the uni and not
just the AUES’s events.
This year we pretty much just made the events bigger. We didn’t want to change a winning
formula and the result of this was a sold out Pub Crawl, packed careers night, a quiz night that sold
210 tickets in three hours and BBQ’s with more people, food and drink. I think over the past two
years as things have started to get really big we’ve just tried to make things easier to run. From an
outsiders view it all looks pretty simple but behind the scenes it’s controlled chaos and there is
heaps of little jobs that are all as important as the big ones. For example, you might say that
ordering the kegs is the most important part of the BBQ but if we don’t have any cups (or tongs,
plates, tables, gas) we’d be up the Torrens without a paddle. I have also personally tried to bring
something different to each BBQ. We’ve had soft serves, donuts and a tug of war team from the
Australian Army, just to keep you on your toes.
2011 has shown me that the AUES can still continue to get bigger and better. Unfortunately I’m
alert but not alarmed that Big Brother is watching and waiting to pounce on anything fun. But as
Engineers we’re used to solving the problems of the world and I can’t see anything slowing the
success of this mighty society.
As I sign off I have to say that I’m proud to have held this position in 2011. It would almost be the
most highly esteemed position a student can hold at the University of Adelaide and after going
from member to committee member and back to just member, I can see why it is, and hope that it
remains so.
This year’s success is mostly due to a committee of 15 members that have worked day and night to
keep the club running. All of them have put up with me, and most whinged over the “single BBQ
chicken incident”. They have been fantastic and 2012 is secured in good hands, especially with
Michael Lee as Pres as he did an amazing job as VP this year. Special thanks goes to Girl Kris who
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15. AUES Hysteresis 2011
has been the recipient of 100’s of emails with questions, especially in the first few months. Tom,
Brad and Anthony from the Uni Club have been amazing and consistently support our events in
various ways. Jackie and the girls in the ECMS office, Chris from Red Bull, Leanne from AUU and
even the Meds have helped me out plenty of times this year. Finally a big thanks to my girlfriend
who has got used to me getting up at 1AM to write a list and has put up with more event and
meeting debriefings than any committee member.
THE LAST BIG THANK YOU, goes to our members, you’re the ones that have invited your friends to
pub crawl and allowed us to do what we do. To the volunteers at BBQ’s, you are the life of the
society and you’re sexy and amazing. (“too long speech” music begins to start to play....)
Henry Harch
A review of the President’s infamous facial expressions during his time with the AUES
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16. AUES Hysteresis 2011
Vice President’s Report
2011 was the year I finally took some responsibility in this family
I‘ve been a part of since my first year in 2008. And what a
rewarding responsibility it has been. I wouldn’t have thought it but
realistically, VP is the best job in the AUES. Just think all the fun
and all the power but no responsibility. Sure, you organise a party,
a careers night and have a cocktail night on the way but who
doesn’t like organising epic drinking sessions and gaining many
opportunities for vacation work. To quote Charlie Sheen, that’s ‘Bi-
winning’ in my book.
But seriously it’s been great. AUES wise, O’Party was a tremendous
success. Careers night, even more so. With Cocktail Night coming
up, it’s only going to get better. The club has never been in a better financial state, sponsorship is
strong with Nando’s and Coopers and even the ECMS aren’t totally annoyed at us, even though I
may have got carried away with some postering and annoyed his highness, the Lord P.Diddy.
Most importantly though is the popularity of the AUES to the wider community. Venues are
flocking to the pub-crawl like seagulls to chips and careers night was so popular, that industry had
to be declined left, right and centre as numbers filled up in record time. A first time this has ever
happened. Nando’s are throwing chickens at us like there’s a coming a famine and Cooper’s want to
deck us out in the latest gear. Undisputedly we have never been in a better position. Now time for
that QANTAS sponsorship and a club jet (I’m looking at you 2012 Sponsorship officer – Stef?).
On a personal note, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as Vice President. It’s been a massive
learning curve, one which will hold me in good stead for whatever the future holds. If you ever
wanted to learn some decent time management skills, VP is the job. If you don’t sink, you’ve
succeeded in that goal. Communication has been a less than fabulous in previous years and, as such
has been a high priority for me this year. Thankfully under the leadership of El Presidente Henry
Harch and his thorough use of group messaging and the set up online communication tools such as
google documents, communication has never been better. Definitely a standard I would like to see
maintained in 2012.
I would like to finish by thanking a few people. Firstly, I’d like to thank Kris Noicos. Seriously, what
you’ve done for the AUES over the last few years in terms of simplifying and defining retrospective
roles has been such a benefit and makes every task look less daunting. That’s not to take anything
away from your endless contributions that would take too long to list and just the great company
and amazing source of advice you always provide. Secondly, I would like to give a special mention
to Henry Harch for his leadership and guidance this year. Cheers to you mate. A special mention
must also be given to ECMS Events and Liaison Officer, Johanna Kohler. Thank you so much for your
help and support in organising the careers night this year. It could not have reached the heights of
this year without your help. To the rest of the committee, past presidents, members and hangers
on, I hope I have served you well in my role as Vice President and that you have thoroughly enjoyed
the year alongside me. For those of you not returning in 2012, best of luck. To the new and
returning committee, get ready. I’m in charge next year. And finally, to Lara Rocke, you are going to
love VP. All the best.
Michael Lee
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17. AUES Hysteresis 2011
Treasurer’s Report
60 kegs, 48 punch bowls, more than 1000 cans of soft drink,
around 100kg of salad, over half a ton of sausages, god knows
how much onion and some napkins. Throw in an ice cream
truck and some hot donuts both free and you get 4 wicked
BBQ’s. Some might think that were selling weapons to Libyan
strong man Gaddafi or drugs at Skullduggery but through our
massive pub crawl selling 3000 shirts allowed the
awesomeness of AUES events to continue to grow. With
$30000 being spent annually on BBQ’s, the pub crawl is
essential for running the AUES. With around $60000 income
and 3 other big events throughout the year we have some
room to move within our budget. Getting new speakers this
year has improved the quality of sound at our events.
The planning for next year’s pub crawl is already underway and the future of the AUES looks very
bright (pending any law suits). We will continue buying assets like the speakers that are long term
purchases. The vending machines have finally been moved in to the new Innova building. The AUES
is in a very strong financial position.
Nick Davis
IT Officer’s Report
2011 was an eventful year for the AUES with the IT department
leading the charge to redesign the website (aues.org.au) and get
an official AUES iPhone App. Beginning in January the IT officer
began to attack the task with the youthful naivety of fresh-
faced, young, arts first year, as you may have guessed things did
not progress well.
After many months of continuous reminders and borderline
psychotic rants from the Pres and a number of other committee
members a small amount of work was done, and the iPhone app
had seen little progress. Still we stuck with it and decided to
have past Engie and ex-pres Chris Schwartz come in and help
out. Finally the website started to see some progress with new
features like online signups and a redesigned look.
Now the iPhone app was slated for release somewhere before pub crawl and well that didn’t
happen, in fact we still haven’t released it. With some luck and a new IT officer you should be able
to feast you eyes on the glorious AUES iphone app by pubcrawl next year.
tl;dr AUES got a new website and iPhone app coming soon
James Schults
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18. AUES Hysteresis 2011
Equity Officers Report
The 2011 year has been the biggest year for the AUES
in history. We have had more members than ever
before, and over 3000 people attending our annual
pub crawl. As equity officer in 2011, the increasing
magnitude of our events had me on edge at the
beginning of the year with the fear that having a more
diverse and larger group of members could lead to
issues occurring that would require my help to resolve
them. As it turns out I had nothing to worry about,
with the AUES having zero complaints received
throughout the year to date. For this reason I would
like to thank you all for making my job so much easier
through such a big year for the AUES.
It has been known for many years that engineering
events do not usually have a great ratio when it comes to guys and girls. With this being said, I think
that this year would have to be one of the best years yet with a good male female ratio being
achieved at all of our events throughout the year. This may have been due to the creation of male
and female tickets for events such as o-party, or just the irresistible charm of those selling the
tickets to lure in the ladies, who knows. All that I can say for certain is that the AUES has come a
long way in ensuring all minorities are encouraged to attend out events throughout the past few
years and I’m sure this trend will continue to occur well into the future.
I would like to finish by introducing you all to our new equity officer for 2012 Natasha Rayan, I hope
that you can all make the 2012 year as incident free and enjoyable for her as the 2011 year has
been for me.
James Hardy
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19. AUES Hysteresis 2011
O Week
Every year this fun and virile week seems to pass by
more and more quickly. This may be to the mass
alcohol consumption or the fact that the University
cut it down by a day, like the gangrenous limb it is.
Either way we use our position on the lawns to our
full advantage to kick off selling pub crawl shirts for
possibly the greatest night of your life, sell
membership to our state of the art BBQ’s and trick
the freshers into buying stuff they may never use, or
even need.
Nick’s seat in the shade
This is our third year in a row down on the lawns and
it truly is paying dividends with selling more shirts and memberships than we ever had before. Our
tent sits down in the back corner where all the cool kids hang, I even get my own seat in the shade
so I didn’t get burnt. The AUES really does care. This year we had set up a sculling competition,
“Top Beer” (run something like Top Gear’s Star In A Reasonably Priced Car) in order to establish The
Greatest Boat Racing Team The AUES Has Ever Seen and other stuff with things. There were also
fun and games on the lawns that we didn’t even have to organise, which was awesome! The AUES
showcased far too much nudity to really be acceptable during the daytime, some from ex-president
Tim Hickson, some from beer sculling champion and future committee member Shirtless Paul.
Looking back on o-week this was probably one of the highlights (considering that the Popeye
cruises have been removed, BRING THEM BACK! Please).
Smart O’Weekers getting on the pub crawl shirts early in the game
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20. AUES Hysteresis 2011
But let’s not forget what O week is all about, the freshers.
These strange creatures are like moths in the way they are
attracted to shiny things and fly into the light, only be
finding it to be a bug zapper which brings them back to
the reality that is life. Welcome to engineering suckers!
You can recognise one by the way they hang out with their
parents and still have that look of innocence on their face.
This is where we come in, to remove the parents and this
stark innocence from them in one foul swoop. We give
them a fresher guide, O party ticket and pub crawl T shirt
because this is where the real learning begins, not in a text
book, lecture theatres or in your mother purse.
A hopeful sculler
The University’s introductory lectures are
questionable in their content and won’t
win you any friends, but our O’Party will.
Obviously the most popular tent on the lawns
The medical students also throw a party. It’s not very
good so I don’t dare tarnish the name of the
prestigious magazine by revealing its name here (if
you’d like to find the name of this event, message this
number 0419 317 446 and put the code word ‘I Love
Panda’s’ and wait for a response). They had boat races
in which we assembled our own team to enter.
Unfortunately the medical students discovered our
plan to acquire a highly qualified team of beer
drinkers and became quite apprehensive. Knowing of
our unbeatable team the medical team decided to
Shiny demonstrating the Top Beer leader board continue their long tradition of cheating. Long and
short we lost because the medical may (or may not
have (totally did)) have cheated.
This was a great start to the AUES year with many membership and shirts being sold, a great party
being thrown and helping some fresher slide into their newly appointed university degrees.
Nick Baum
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21. AUES Hysteresis 2011
..and the subsequent O Partayin’ (I can use it as verb because I’m the literary genus of our time)
If you didn’t hear about O Party you obviously
did not take advantage of O Week, or you took
full advantage of O Week and can’t remember
attending. The latter is acceptable. Full of fun (by
fun I mean alcohol) and alcohol (by this I mean
fun). The ratio was high this year with many
ladies attending our event, contradicting the
normal trend of engineering. There was love in
the air, and it was so thick you couldn’t breathe.
The free cocktails were perhaps a sign of things
to come: strong enough to get you drunk but not
overly pleasant in flavour.
The good old president bought shots for the
attendees if they were lucky enough to get the
social flow on. He also decided it was a good
idea to put his drunken thoughts onto the
Facebook site for everyone to critique, too bad
it was gibberish that was indecipherable.
The next morning obviously had an effect on
the newly initiated president with him calling
Furler (the other publicity officer) early in the
morning to tell him that he and I were on setting up duty. We were also not feeling too well (a sign
of a good night) but did what we were told. I even took had a shower in the toilet block under
union hall, and am pleased to report it was quite pleasant. Maybe next time when you’re at the
BBQ and you realise you stink of beer and
punch and have managed to get tomato sauce
in places you shouldn’t, you can indulge
yourself in a quick shower before heading up
to unibar (decreasing chances of being
refused service by at least 30%). During my
shower someone went and bought juice, this
was a nice surprise.
O’Party has only one way to go from here:
headier with liberal amounts of love.
Nick Baum
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22. AUES Hysteresis 2011
BBQ’s
Did somebody say BBQ on the lawns?
There’s no doubt that the single handedly most awesome
student run event on campus are the AUES BBQ’s (besides
the AUES pub crawl, AUES quiz night, AUES cocktail night
and AUES careers fair, which are also kickass.)
If you are unfamiliar the AUES BBQ, then you obviously live
under a rock because what the AUES BBQ is, is four FREE
BBQs for members which give you all you can eat gourmet
goodness and as much cold, bubbly amber fluid as your
stomach can hold in. Our unlimited white coloured square
napkins are also a big hit and make some people very
happy.
Yes the AUES literally throws not three but FOUR free food
and all you can drink BBQs for our all our members (member ship is only $5 per year by the way). If
you are thinking hang on a second, I can’t even buy a can of coke for $1.25 these days, what’s the
catch?
The truth is, in good spirit to create a good atmosphere on campus the AUES makes a $8,000 loss
on each of our BBQs, no joke but we still do it anyway because we love you guys so much! (that
much!) The BBQs the hugest source of expenditure for the AUES is our way of saying thanks for the
good times.
In order to pull this off, we have our awesome
committee who work tirelessly throughout the
year negotiating sponsorship opportunities
with engineering companies, and a lot of the
funding comes from t-shirt sales from the
legendary AUES pub crawl (largest pub crawl
on the southern hemisphere) which is held
during march every year.
You can tell that it’s an AUES BBQ from a mile
away, the thumping music on the lawns and
smell of 350kg of sausages being cooked is a
huge giveaway. On any regular day you would see several hundred uni students chilling on the
lawns and enjoying good company and music. It’s very nice to be able to have an event to look
forward to and have a beer with your friends on a sunny day. Some lecturers even take the chance
to come hang out with students, which is nice thing.
Occasionally a company will send a team to come and meet students too so it’s a good way to build
contacts with potential future employers too.
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23. AUES Hysteresis 2011
In 2011 the AUES BBQ is bigger and better, our BBQs
continue to climb the awesomeness scale with more food,
more salad, more goon, more napkins. We want more! At
the last BBQ we officially had 2000 sausages and 17 kegs
of beer which is on a scale never seen before on campus.
In true engineer fashion, the AUES is always looking for
ways to improve on efficiency & pleasure. Our new BBQ
setup which involves switching the beer line right next to
the music and has been proven to increase punter
happiness by 220%.
Engineers have also been known to take our music very
seriously, our latest long term AUES investment which
involves but a new pair of Big Ass JBL speakers is a
breakthrough in campus BBQ sound quality. Our songlists
are always updated for you boys and girls too!
The quest for the holy grail of BBQ punch
continues with various experimental
punch and alcohol mixes and we think
we’ve got it right. Think we could make it
better? Send us your suggestions!
Other good memories from the year keg
stacking, tug of war with soldiers from the
Australian Army, AUES vs. Med tug of
war, fairy floss, ice cream truck, a chicken
suit... pictures can be seen on our website
& Facebook page.
Perfect weather has always been the coolest thing about AUES BBQs. Did you know the AUES have
had fine weather on all our BBQs for 20 years in a row now? That’s partly due to our secret and not
stolen weather machine which tells us when we should have our BBQs. There is no reason why you
shouldn’t be at the next one!
Please don’t forget to thank your friendly AUES committee for all the love and getting up at 7am on
BBQ days for setting up the lawns for an awesome day, you guys are the only reason we ever get up
in the morning!
The AUES BBQ. #goodtimes.
Chris Quek
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24. AUES Hysteresis 2011
Pub Crawl
I’m often stopped on the
street and asked “James,
You’re an attractive male who
is also the publicity officer for
the best club in the world.
How do you handle the
pressure of making those fine
posters, and talking to all
those pubs about drink
specials for pub crawl, all
while keeping those 9
smoking-hot-super model
girlfriends of yours satisfied?”
It’s not unusual for children,
fathers, and grand-mothers to ask me this, and I’m actually quite used to it by now. I’ll put my hand
on their shoulder, take off my sun-glasses, and uh… actually this is quite off topic. We’ll come back
to that later.
The annual pub crawl is easily the biggest event on our calendar, the most well known, and our
biggest source of revenue, which we then of course throw into BBQs, cocktail nights, quiz nights,
and nude, oiled Brazilian slave boys (a 10 year contract that Kris insisted on while in power). It also
requires the most planning and effort from committee members. This is why by the time you read
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25. AUES Hysteresis 2011
this, we’ll already be planning 2012’s pub crawl.
It all starts around October with the brainstorming of a theme. After the huge success of Grog
Father, this theme had to be something that would live up as a proper successor. Something easily
recognisable, appealing to the masses, and have a catchy, non-offensive name (that last part is
particularly hard). After much deliberation, we finally decided on PlasterChef, our artist was given
the go to draft designs, and shirt suppliers were investigated.
In early January, Kris, Hardy and
myself started putting together the
pubs. There was originally an
ambitious 26 or so pubs on our
hunting list, but this was eventually
shortened to the list you’re all
familiar with. Many people said
Kris was mad to try that many,
maybe a little delusional.
Personally, I think it had something
to do with her heavy drinking. She
would often come to meetings
late, smelling of scotch, and
making outrageous claims along
the lines of she invented the pencil.
I remember one particularly bad meeting at the Cooper’s Alehouse where she assaulted a
bartender, and stole a Beef Mexicana Schnitzel by hiding it down her pants. Somehow, we managed
to organise 19 pubs that Kris wasn’t banned from, 7 food venues, and Stef had worked hard to
ensure our first load of shirts were about to arrive. Things were looking good. Too good.
Sales of shirts during O’Week were steady as expected.
President Henry wanted nothing more than to sell out a
2000 shirt pub crawl, and it was looking a real
possibility. As the weeks went by, we’d sell 3 days a
week outside Innova. As we started selling out of the
more popular sizes, as to be expected, people started
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26. AUES Hysteresis 2011
buying other sizes out of sheer desperation rather than waiting for the remainder of the order to be
shipped. This created a snowballing effect and soon we were completely sold out, with still a week
to go and many people asking for more. An emergency decision was voted on to order more, which
we basically sold out of in one afternoon, bringing to total shirt count to just below 3000. Henry had
got his birthday wish, and even after people still posted all over Facebook desperately seeking
second hand shirts. That Friday afternoon, the 25th of March, an eerie silence fell over the city (I
assume), and when it was broken, it was broken by 3000 red shirted, AUES pub crawlers.
Now the actual pub crawl is a bit hazy for me. I’m sure each and every one of you has your own
experiences and memories of the night, but if you weren’t there, Sweet Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
you missed out.
One of the main highlights for me was the group photo. We put on our Facebook page to meet at
the HJ’s and Target intersection on Pultney Street, where our photographer would be in the car
park building looking down. Quite frankly, I expected Henry, and maybe two or three other people
to be there. My first red flag that I may have underestimated our members came as I was walking
down Rundle Street, hearing cars honking, and people screaming. Turns out a few hundred people
had come for the photo, and were all running onto the road when the crossing lights went green.
When it was back red they would all run back onto the curb, and maybe a lucky car or two would
make it through before the crossing was green again. The road was effectively blocked up, by our
pub crawlers. I don’t know about you, but when the event you organised more or less shuts down a
main road, I feel a hint of satisfaction. Anyway, pretty soon I saw a police car and split for Mansions
(I didn’t want to be tear gassed, things escalated pretty fast, and I’m pretty sure I saw Hardy kill a
22
27. AUES Hysteresis 2011
police officer). The next few hours were, as I mentioned, pretty hazy. There was drinking, and
people asking what my blue shirt meant (It meant I was on the committee, Bitches). I hope you
have your own fond memories of the pub crawl, because they’re probably better then my attempts
to put joy that pub crawl is into words.
Plasterchef was a massive success that completely exceeded our expectations in every way. No
doubt there were a few kinks that need to be ironed out, like line lengths, an improved final venue,
and getting the iPhone app James Schults has been promising us all year finally up. With all the
extra shirt sales we were able to provide free ice cream, hot donuts, and whipped cream at our
BBQs.
We’re all pretty excited to start planning 2012 pub crawl, but there will be one thing missing, and
that’s our beloved Kris. Sure, she get’s violent and tells people question marks are the tool of the
Devil, but the fact of the matter is she’s single handedly made the pub crawl the massively
successful event it is today. Although she won’t be working behind the scenes, she’ll no doubt be
on the streets come one fine Friday evening in March, 2012, and I personally ask each and every
one of you buy her a drink. I also recommend you hide your purses or phones, she has sticky
fingers.
James Furler
23
28. AUES Hysteresis 2011
Quiz Night
As any first year engineering student, I had been to many an AUES event throughout 2011. Quiz
Night though, this year held at Heaven was my first event as an AUES committee member.
Automatically I was given entry to an event that had sold out in the blink of an eye; the best quiz
night on the Adelaide University calendar, as I'd been told (can't expect any less from the AUES,
right?).
22 tables and 10 on each table, the excited
quiz night goers eagerly rushed to the bar,
hoping to grab as many jugs as they could
before Pres Henry, this year’s MC kicked off
the quiz night. Beginning with the cheaters
favourite, “iPhone Round”, participants were
allowed to use their smart phones for this
portion of the night only, asking questions that
only the best googlers could answer. Many
ignored the rule of “no smart phones” for the
rest of the evening, and shortly the dress of
was being passed from table to table,
accompanied by a loud impassioned chant of
“DRESS OF SHAME! DRESS OF SHAME!”
Ronnie Ling modelling the Dress Of Shame
First round was over, and it was about this time
I was asked to help marking (which I would later
come to regret). Before we had even the
slightest chance to work out which sheet was
from which table, the next round was over and
more papers started flying in from every
direction. It seemed that Henry had gotten a bit
excited, as the rounds only seemed to pick up in
pace until a few students, now well on their
way, came up to whinge and whine about the
pace. Getting through the first three rounds in
less than twenty minutes, the overly fast pace
was finally realised by Henry and the rounds
started to slow. Henry then turned his attention
to table 22, and they remained the butt of all his
jokes for the remainder of the evening.
Pyramids for the scavenger hunt
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29. AUES Hysteresis 2011
Henry’s beloved table 22
The bribery had started early, our table soon overflowing with bribes from various tables.
Unfortunately for some tables, all the bribes in the world couldn't help them come back from their
pitiful start. Little to my surprise marking was becoming increasingly difficult after far too many
beers and equally as many ciders, making the marking system a little foggy.
The bar was now calling last
drinks, the rounds drawing
to an end and the quiz goers
now particularly rowdy.
Students eagerly uploading
their scavenger hunt photos
to the event facebook page,
while the drunken people
pyramids were not really
impressing the Heaven staff.
It was a close ending, with
table 18 taking the cake,
followed closely by table 17
and 22, whilst table 13 took
out the wooden spoon.
The winning table with ex-pres Tim Hickson
The night was far from over, with the congregation moving downstairs for the after party. Armed
with free drink cards, kindly given out by the AUES, the rowdy group partied on well into the night.
Unfortunately for me, in true AUES style I partied a little too hard, blacking out after a number of
shots I never knew existed. From what I've been told although, the after party went far into the
night.
Beth McIntyre
25
30. AUES Hysteresis 2011
Careers Night
Frankie Sinatra once said that ‘Luck is only important in so far as getting the chance to sell yourself
at the right moment. After that, you’ve got to have talent and know how to use it’. This got the very
sophisticated, intelligent and well read individuals at the AUES thinking. The GFC crisis since 2007
has left many an engineer struggling to find employment and the humanitarians that we are at the
AUES, wanted to find a cure. We soon quickly realised though that talent was dependent on the
individual, something that would not be easily fixed. However, following a ‘EUREKA’ moment we
here at the AUES thought we could channel the luck of the Irish and increase the employment
prospects for our members. From this the annual careers night was born. The rest they say is
history.
In 2011, the AUES Careers Night was held on the 11th of May in Term 2. This was moved from the
traditional Term 3 slot in order to be more appealing to companies. Additionally, the focus of the
night was changed vacation work thereby providing a unique opportunity for our members.
Following on from last year’s tremendous success, 2011 was just as much an equal, if not
surpassing last year. Held in the surprisingly warm annex of the Innova 21 building and surrounding
lecture theatres on a cold rainy autumn night, 300 students braved the cold and attended over the
course of this night to speak to a self imposed limit of 25 companies. So popular was this year’s
careers night that positions booked out within 2 weeks, with companies still expressing interest to
participate 2 months later. It is astounding how much this event has grown in just one year!
As was the case last year, the night was split into 2 sections; presentations and networking. This
year presentation were split into 4 categories; Civil, Mechanical, Electrical and Mining in order to
try and provide students with discipline specific information. In the networking room, all attendees
were free to mingle with industry over drinks and finger food and develop new contacts/networks.
As a side note, BHP deserves a special mention for their cupcakes. It was also very pleasing that
unlike 2010 presentations continued once the networking room opened and despite this were still
strongly attended. Many thanks to the returning companies in attendance, as well as some new
faces. Additionally, the AUES would like to thank representatives who flew in from interstate and
the many ‘higher ups’ that took an interest and the time to personally meet students.
On the industry side, companies have responded very favourably, with many companies eager to
return next year. We are also very happy to share with you that many students have acquired or
have been contacted by industry for vacation work.
To summarise, the 2011 Careers Night was an overwhelming success, far exceeding expectations
whilst providing a very value resource to our members. As always please let us know how we can
improve these events. A private message on the facebook or an email to aues@clubs.org.au is a
good place to start.
Finally, many thanks to Henry Harch and the rest of the committee in helping me organise and run
this superb event. Special mentions and gratitude must go towards ECMS Faculty Officer, Johanna
Kohler and the ECMS Events and Liaison Officer. Johanna, thank you so much for your guidance,
advice and help in running this event. A special mention must also go to resident ranga, Nick Baum.
Nick, your security credentials are amazing. See you all next year.
Michael Lee
26
31. AUES Hysteresis 2011
Cocktail Night (P)Review
As the Cocktail Night falls outside the
timeline of Hysteresis in 2011, we have an
opportunity to look back at 2010’s amazing
event. It was a little damp for the red carpet
showing, which unfortunately got bumped
from the live Channel Seven screening for an
episode of Better Homes and Gardens. A
pity as this event was an absolute stunner,
with crowds of beautifully dressed women
on show, accompanied by very flash looking
men, dispelling any stereotypes of
engineers, without a pair of jeans or sneakers in sight.
Cocktail night is the AUES’ excuse for dressing up classy and getting substantially unclassy as the
night goes on. This year we had 2 DJ’s with some banging tunes that had the d-floor cranking, if you
weren’t on the dance floor then you were probably in line for a drink.
With some long serving friends of the AUES behind the
bar, Tom Vincent (more widely recognised as THAT
“friendly” statics tutor), Lloyd Moffat, Henry, Jimmy,
Kris and a few others , “let’s not run out of booze this
time” was the aim. Armed with plenty of alcohol and
some different methods of distribution this was
mostly achieved. Safe to say that without their quick
service and drink skills the night would definitely not
have run so smoothly. Although, I’m still not sure why
my last few ‘frozen’ daiquiris were liquid. A big thank
you to Kristina Noicos for her work with creating all of
the delicious cocktail recipes, and for holding a
meeting in which committee members taste tested each and every recipe for quality assurance.
The sponsorship from GPA engineering was very welcome, giving the event a bit more of a
professional feel and adding networking to fun just introduced a little bit extra to one of the classier
nights on the AUES calendar.
In 2011 cocktail night is again going to be a wonderful
event. With another change in venue, this year we
will be at the Masonic Grand Hall, which means we
can have more wonderful engineers along. The
theme for the night has yet to be set at the time of
writing but my personal favourite is the possibility of
a ‘Chocolate Burlesque Cowboy Theme Set At A Frat
Party’. If you haven’t bought your ticket yet, go to the
Chemical, Mechanical or Civil school offices and do it,
coz let’s face it, you bought that suit, now we’re giving you the perfect excuse to wear it.
Nicholas ‘Shiny’ Adriaanse
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32. AUES Hysteresis 2011
Vox Pops
1. What is the most inappropriate encounter you have ever had with a lecturer/tutor?
2. Best engineering pick-up line?
3. You’re stuck on a desert island with Gareth Bridges, Colin Kestell, and the cast of the hit
musical ‘Cats’. What one item do you take with you and why?
4. What is longest time you’ve spent in CATS?
5. Tell us an interesting, non-course-related fact that you have learnt from a lecturer or
tutor?
6. Worst exam moment?
Paul Kemp (B.E. Mechanical)
1. Wearing a Mario outfit to Brownie's material lecture.
Surprisingly, he loved it.
2. Since when do engineers pick up?
3. Cat food. I guess Colin and I starve then?
4. 20 hours in second year. I then found I could 'legally'
download all programs used at the uni from home.
5. THERE'S ALWAYS TIME FOR LUBRICANT!
6. Opening the dynamics exam in first year and thinking,
'I will never complete this degree'.
Penny Nugent (B.E. Civil)
1. The time I got drunk as a first year on AUES pub crawl
and told my statics tutor I thought he was hot. Made
for an awkward semester...
2. “I'm a girl. In engineering"...then they usually faint in
surprise and I take them to my suspicious van.
3. Bear Grylls. He'll know what to do. Or can call his
rescue team.
4. 3-4 hrs. Although I heard this exponentially increases by
3rd/4th year... not excited.
5. That the tutors get together and laugh about the kids
who ask stupid questions...been too scared to ask ever
since.
6. When I choked on a red snake and had to go outside to
cough for 10 minutes...
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33. AUES Hysteresis 2011
Paul Bryson (B.E. Mining)
1. Respected lecturer (lecher-er?) in a first year first
semester engineering topic stopped five minutes into
his opening monologue about university in general to
mention “A lot of students seem to think that
relationships with lecturers are against university
policy, but whilst they are looked down upon they do
happen” – I am not making this up.
2. I have a rigid member in my pants and I forget the rest
but my name's Paul.
3. A rolling wheel to keep Gareth Bridges occupied for
weeks at a time, a forged letter from Cambridge telling
Colin he can come back and have the Dean's job so I
can watch him have mental breakdown about not
being able to get back to Cambridge.
4. Pulled a 15 hours cats stretch a couple of weeks ago
5. Apparently I'm a man whore.
6. Don't have a worst, but best - Knowing I had enough
marks accumulated by the halfway point to ditch and
then go to the Pub, like a boss.
Liam Wittert (B.E. Aerospace)
1. A phone went off in a lecture with a hilarious ring tone,
and everyone laughed. The lecturer didn’t hear the
phone and thought we were laughing at her accent. It
was a group encounter. Inappropriate no, hilariously
awkward yes!
2. Hey baby, let's make a stress-strain curve together.
3. A piano.
4. 18 hours.
5. I was first shown the Beached As video by Colin Kestel in
a communications lecture.
6. Walking into an exam a realising I could only answer
part of half of the questions.
Chris O’Callaghan (B.E. Architectural)
1. Nothing too inappropriate, just heard them say filthy sleazebag
comments about a chick.
2. I have never heard an engineering pickup-line because I’m
pretty sure that’s an oxymoron.
3. My boat so I can leave, or one pound of cocaine to see if those
guys can really party.
4. One all nighter.
5. Bananas replenish the serotonin in your system.
6. I really needed to fart in one and couldn’t do it because I
couldn’t leave the room as I thought I was doing so badly.
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34. AUES Hysteresis 2011
Stephanie Tyszta (B.E. Chemical)
1. My drunk boyfriend trying to converse with Zeyad
Alwahabi at the Alma!
2. Haha the least pathetic one “Do you want to be the
numerator or denominator tonight?” …what am I
talking about it that’s just as bad as the rest of them!
3. A boat to make a speedy get away!
4. 5 hours! It’s called a home computer.
5. Algebra is for dickheads.
6. Forgot my lollies!
Additional Comments: No matter how much Linda denies it,
she can’t keep her hands or eyes off Jayden!
Jayden Beattie (B.E. Chemical)
1. Professor Biggs idles up next to me in the urinal, all the
space in the world but stands nearly shoulder to shoulder
and sparks up a conversation midstream.
2. I wish I was your problem set, because then I'd be really
hard, and you'd be doing me on the desk.
3. Cat nip.
4. 27 hours.
5. It is possible to talk for more than an hour about French
bread.
6. Chris Symes not taking his notes to materials 3 exam.
Hilarious.
James Mons (B.E. Mechatronic)
1. Maybe myself and Erwin Gamboa discussing the fine art of
Japanese suicide.
2. You and me make a good couple, and providing you support
me, the moment will last forever, providing the stress
doesn't tear us apart.
3. A truck full of beer so hopefully Gareth passes out and stops
talking about internal bending moments and Colin will stop
bollocking on about Chelsea...
4. Probably around 5 hours straight. not impressive though.
5. How to commit suicide properly, Japanese style.
6. Deciding it was ok to go to Flashies the night before an exam.
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35. AUES Hysteresis 2011
Richie Frimpong (B.E. Civil)
1. I can’t recall an inappropriate moment, but there was
an embarrassing moment back in first year, Maths 1B.
A group of us decided to stand and salute when Stuart
Johnson said “The Kernel”. Of course, I was the only
one to stand up and actually do it.
2. Why don't we measure the coefficient of static
friction between me and you?
3. A plane so I could fly OUT of the there!!! The only
issue is I don’t know how to fly one......
4. Probably 14 hours. I pulled an all-nighter a home then
went to Cats that morning from 9am - 11pm. The
result of poor time management.
5. I might have an answer to that question if I
occasionally rocked up to a lecture
6. Not reading the exam instructions. Consequently, I
followed the multiple choice format incorrectly by
placing “MORE THAN ONE answer per question”. Just
through that, I threw away 50% of the exam.
Paul Weller (B.E. Mechanical & Petroleum)
1. No sexual advances unfortunately, only a few
good quotes, during petroleum engineering “if
you are penetrating too hard your tip may break
and you will have to pull out prematurely” (all
actual engineering terms Petro’s have dirty minds)
2. Two classics that engineers think will work but
never do (except on other engineers ;))
Hey baby the world does revolve around me
... I set the coordinate system.
It's not the length of the vector that counts,
but how you apply the force.
3. Lubricate ………. What else?
4. Nonstop 8am till like 5 pm the next day I think
would probably be the longest. Not too
extreme for an engineering student.
5. Seismic mapping tools can be used to find
Russian nuclear submarines.
6. Getting stuck in traffic on Greenhill road and
watching the clock as the materials exam
started
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36. AUES Hysteresis 2011
Executive Dean’s Report
It is with great pleasure that I am able to write this message while sitting
in my office in the wonderful new Faculty building. The administration
of the Faculty of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences,
along with the Schools of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Computer
Science and Mathematical Sciences moved into the new building in the
middle of 2010, and staff and students are enjoying the modern
facilities, as well as the light and airy sustainable design.
In addition to moving into the new building, the Faculty had a successful
year in education and research.
Four staff members, for example, were awarded major teaching awards
Executive Dean Peter Dowd from the University and from the Australian Learning and Teaching
Council. What is especially pleasing is that not only did two of our most
experienced and respected senior academics win awards, but so did two of our recently appointed
staff. Their recognition demonstrates that the Faculty is continuing to develop teaching staff of the
highest calibre.
Our researchers were also to the fore, having been awarded over $17 million in grants from the
Australian Research Council and other funding bodies. The grants were for a wide range of
research in the fields of mathematics, nanotechnology, energy technologies, computer science,
geothermal energy, radio-frequency identification and acoustics. Our researchers are contributing
significantly to knowledge in these fields while addressing critical issues, including cleaner energy
production and advanced computer technology, such as computer vision and internet traffic
matrices. Moreover, the work of the senior researchers in these areas supports and guides
numerous young postgraduates and postdoctoral researchers who will be future leaders in their
fields.
In addition to the accomplishments of our established educators and researchers, we welcomed to
the Faculty a new research group last year, the Nanomechanics Group, one of the leading groups in
Australia in this field.
All in all, 2010 was a very busy year and set the scene for another very busy year in 2011 in the
Faculty. I look forward, as always, to being part of such a dynamic group as they continue to
conduct award winning research and teach the students who will be our engineers, computer
scientists and mathematicians for the future.
Professor Peter Dowd
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37. AUES Hysteresis 2011
Australian School of Petroleum
The past year has been another successful one for staff and students at the Australian School of
Petroleum. In late February we welcomed Prof Steve Begg back as Head of School after 6 months
on study leave. During his leave Steve began an SPE Distinguished Lecturer tour presenting on
‘Reliability of Expert Judgments and Uncertainty Assessments’ in Bergen (Norway), Copenhagen
(Denmark), Câmpina (Romania), London (England) and Madrid (Spain). Being well known for
utilising football examples in his lectures, and with his Spanish accommodation about 1km from the
Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, home of Real Madrid, Steve took the opportunity to take a tour. His
visit to the stadium included the players dressing rooms, coaching area, pitch and trophy room
where he got to hold the European Cup and have his photo taken with Ronaldo (or at least a very
convincing ‘Photoshop’ version).
Prof Hemanta Sarma decided not to return at the end of his two-year leave of absence – the school,
which struggles to maintain a full complement of staff, is sorry to lose the services of an
experienced academic.
Staff and Student Awards
Throughout the last 12 months ASP staff and
student have received many awards and
achievements.
Senior lecturer Dr Mark Tingay has recently
been recognised as one of eight SA Tall Poppy
recipients for 2011. The Tall Poppy awards
recognise South Australian talent in the Science
community. Mark received his award from the
Governor at a formal reception at Government
House on August 25th.
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38. AUES Hysteresis 2011
In mid-August Dr Simon Holford was awarded the Walter Howchin Medal, presented at the annual
dinner of the Geological Society of Australia SA Division. The Walter Howchin Medal is awarded to
a researcher in the early stage of their career (under 35 years), who is distinguished by their
significant published research work within the earth sciences in South Australia, or from a South
Australian base.
2011 joint winners of the John Francis Kennedy Memorial Petroleum Engineering Entrepreneurial
Scholarship were recently announced as final year students Josh Stark and Sam Hutten. The
$20,000 award is sponsored by eXtreme Machining Australia and criteria for the award includes
demonstrated entrepreneurship, community involvement, innovation and academic merit.
PhD student Justin Macdonald has received several
postgraduate awards including a PESA Federal award in
December for being the top petroleum geoscience
postgraduate student in the country and the Midland
Valley Structural Prize in February for an outstanding
piece of work related to structural geology. Justin has
also been recently awarded 4th prize for a paper
delivered at the 2011 AAPG Annual Meeting in Houston,
Texas.
2010 Petroleum Engineering honours student Kenny (Kian) Kong was awarded a University Medal
for ‘outstanding academic performance’ and an Engineers Australia award. The University Medal
was awarded as part of the April 2011 graduation ceremony.
Petroleum Geoscience honours student Nik
Sykiotis was awarded the 2010 PESA SA Graduate
prize, worth $2000. Nik received the prize for his
overall performance during both his
Undergraduate and Honours Degree at the ASP.
It was presented at the October 2010 PESA
luncheon.
Field Trips
The annual 1st year student field trip was the
largest ever with over 70 students and staff
attending the 2 day trip in late April. Students
group enjoyed Sellicks Beach, Carrickalinga
Head and a night spent at Aldinga Camp.
Thanks to course co-ordinator Simon Holford
and several student and staff helpers the trip
was once again a huge success with
camaraderie built and the students experiencing
hands-on geology.
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39. AUES Hysteresis 2011
In late May the Petroleum Geoscience students and staff headed to Alice Springs for the annual
Amadeus Basin field trip. The trip includes exploration of the West Macdonald Ranges, Kings
Canyon, Ayers Rock and Erldunda Desert and is a rewarding experience for both local and
international students.
Seminar Series
The 2011 Seminar series has provided a weekly highlight in the ASP calendar with thanks to
postdoctoral fellow Dr Adrian Tuitt and more recently PhD student Abbas Zeinijahromi organising
the line up of speakers. As well as current ASP staff and students there have been presentations
from interstate and overseas visitors including Henning Omre from the Norwegian University of
Science and Technology, Doug Dickey from BP in Perth, Stephen Hasiotis from the University of
35
40. AUES Hysteresis 2011
Kansas, Yildiray Cinar from UNSW, Jonathan Turner from the BG Group in the UK, Rui Soares who is
an ex-ASP student and the Director of Development and Production at the National Oil Company of
East Timor, Mark Sykes from ExxonMobil in Houston, Zhang Eryong from the China Geological
Survey and Ray Johnson from QGC in Brisbane.
Research Highlights
On the research front the WAVE Consortium headed by Prof Bruce Ainsworth successfully
completed its Phase I in 2010 and begun Phase II (April 2011 – March 2014) with significant funding
and over 10 companies currently behind the continuation of the research. The LEBARG (Lake Eyre)
Consortium Phase III was also completed towards the end of 2010 with Dr Kathryn Amos pulling
together the final report for the 10 year project.
The School has made a strategic decision to increase our capability in “Unconventional” resource
recovery. For example, Dr Dennis Cooke, recently departed from Santos, was hired on a short term
contract to develop an industry-sponsored proposal around the use of sedimentology and
geomechanics to predict optimal well locations in shale gas reservoirs. In addition, we plan to
introduce an “Unconventional Resources and Recovery” course in our programs. Prof Pavel
Bedrikovetsky and Dr Manny Haghighi won an ARC linkage grant for a “Novel technology for
enhanced coal seam gas production utilising mechanisms of stimulated cleat permeability through
graded particle injection”.
The ASP is also pleased that the CO2CRC program was renewed for another 5 years at the
University of Adelaide which has helped secure Adelaide as the home of carbon storage research.
Student Societies
The ASP student societies have been very active over the last 12 months and it is great to see
engineering and geoscience integration happening with the advent of joint events between the
AAPG and SPE Student Chapters. The
SPE Student Chapter goes from
strength to strength, organising field
trips, term BBQs, pubcrawls and the
annual Petro vs Chem Soccer Match
which was played out in late August.
In October the 2011 SPE Ball
(Superheroes and Villains) is set to be
held at the Hilton Hotel.
In July a joint PESA-ASEG-SPE Quiz
night was held at the Unley Civic
Centre with a ‘Christmas in July’
theme and proceeds going to the
Royal Flying Doctors Service. The
event saw a good turnout from SPE Student Chapter members and ASP staff.
The AAPG (American Society of Petroleum Geologists) Student Chapter recently ran a highly
successful field trip to the central Flinders Ranges. The trip was led by Nick Lemon from Santos and
the students had the opportunity to interact with petroleum professionals from both industry and
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41. AUES Hysteresis 2011
government (BP, Woodside, Beach Energy, Santos and PIRSA) over four days in near-perfect
geological, scenic and climatic conditions. The field trip coincided with a visit by AAPG President
Paul Weimer from the University of Colorado who presented a half-day short course for the
students. In mid September AAPG has organised a Ball to be held at Ayers House.
Over the last year we have had the largest number of students completing their programs with ASP.
During 2010 we had over 80 students complete their programs and with a large cohort beginning at
the school in 2011 we hope to improve our completions numbers over the coming years. We wish
all our recent graduates the very best for their future careers.
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42. AUES Hysteresis 2011
School of Chemical Engineering
As the second year of my tenure as Head of School comes to a close, I look back
on the year with a little sadness as some of our longest serving staff move on to
new pastures, but also with much excitement as new staff arrive and we
continue to develop in the research and learning spheres.
As always, I was proud to see our 2010 cohort of
students graduate earlier this year. It was
particularly pleasing to see Edward Yapp (right)
collect one of the prestigious University Medals and
be granted the honour of carrying the Mace and
Prof. Mark Biggs thanking the Guest Speaker at the ceremony. He is
Head of School
continuing the long tradition of our brightest
graduates picking up a scholarship to study for a PhD at Cambridge.
This along with the continuing strong employment statistics for our
graduates is proof-positive that the degrees awarded by the School are
amongst the best in the world, and recipients should be rightly proud
of their achievement.
It was also, of course, a real pleasure to be able to attend the Annual Dinner of the Chemical
Engineering Society (CHEMS). This year saw the attendance of many of the academic and
administrative staff (see below Dr David Lewis with his table on the night). It was a great
opportunity for the staff and students to mix socially before many depart to start their careers as
chemical engineers.
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43. AUES Hysteresis 2011
Once again, the School is proud to acknowledge the sponsorship of two further undergraduate
scholarships in 2011 by BHP Biliton worth $40,000 each over four years. I am very pleased to
congratulate the recipients this year (right): Tom Merrett and Sophie Eustace. The School is also
pleased to acknowledge BTG Australasia Pty Ltd for very generously donating a personalised copy
of Perry’s Chemical Engineering Handbook to every first year student in Pharmaceutical
Engineering.
We are a relatively small school teaching two very distinct programs – Chemical Engineering and
Pharmaceutical Engineering – with three distinct streams in the first of these. This has meant for
some time now the academic staff in the School have carried teaching loads much greater than
those of other staff in the Faculty and their competitors in other universities around Australia. At
the 2010 Annual School Strategy Workshop, it was resolved that the School should work to
substantially reduce this load so as staff may focus greater effort on innovating in the classroom
and lifting their research profile. Much of 2011 has been spent identifying how this reduction may
be achieved without compromising the degrees programs we offer. I am pleased that the means of
achieving this reduction have now been identified over 2011, and I am looking forward to
implementing these over the next two years with the consequent improvement in learning
experience for our students and our research profile.
If 2010 was a good year for the micro-algae activity at Adelaide, then 2011 has been an outstanding
year. This activity, which was founded by Dr David Lewis and Professor Keith King in the earlier part
of this decade and has since been joined by A/Prof. Peter Ashman (see below Peter and David
showing off a pot of their algae), has recently spurned a spin-out company – Muradel Pty Ltd – to
commercialise the innovations that are in part being developed by this team at Adelaide. Muradel
is a joint venture between Adelaide, Murdoch University and SQC, a company that has put up much
of the $500,000 seed funding. The mission of Muradel is to develop “technology for reliable high-
productivity long-term culture of saline microalgae” – if successful, this will provide a unique biofuel
source that does not compete with food in terms of either land or water.
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44. AUES Hysteresis 2011
This year has seen a continuing strengthening of the School’s research
performance. Two staff – Dr Sheng Dai (left) being one of these – were
awarded Discovery grants from the Australian Research Council (ARC),
ending a decade-long drought of grants from this most prestigious of
grant schemes. Dr Dai’s grant is aimed at developing more rapid and
sensitive methods for detecting cancers; this is an excellent example of
how traditional process and chemical engineering principles can be
used to solve the World’s most challenging problems of today. The
School has continued to attract funding under other ARC schemes this
year and is hoping for some further positive news in November
following the submission of a record number of grants to the ARC’s
Discovery (17), Future Fellowship (4), and new Discovery Early Career
Research Award (7) schemes early this year.
On the staff front, the School has seen a few departures and many
new arrivals over the last 12 months. Prof. Keith King (right) retired
after more than 40 years service to the University – his outstanding
contributions over these many years were celebrated in a special
event at Ayres House attended by over 100 colleagues and friends
from around Australia and beyond. Andrew Wright, the School’s
long-serving Senior Technical Officer, moved in early 2011 to the new
Vet School out at Roseworthy to take up their newly-created School
HSW Officer position, a role that he enjoyed very much in the School
here. Dianne Parish, the School Business Manager for the past four or
more years, also retired after many years service to the University.
The high regard in which both were held whilst in the School was
reflected in the well attended and warm farewell events held in the School.
Since writing last year’s Hysteresis report, Ms Joanne England has joined the School in the brand
new Learning Support Officer (LSO) role. This role has been created with the aim of reducing the
barriers to introducing new and innovative methods into the mainstream learning and teaching
environment in the School. We have already seen an increased use of online assessment and other
tools not used to date in the School, and a lot of more strategic work has also been going on in the
background to bring much more significant changes from 2012 onwards.
The School has also taken on a number of new administrative staff –
Toni Thomas recently joined the School in the newly-created role of
Executive Assistant to the Head of School, whilst Monica Dinan has
taken on a similarly new role as Finance & Planning Officer. It is also a
real pleasure to welcome back Sue Earle to the School, this time in a
more permanent role alongside Mary Barrow (shown right collecting an
early retirement gift from outgoing CHEMS President, Brendan Moore,
at the CHEMS Annual Dinner) in preparation for the latter’s retirement
in mid-2012.
On the academic side, A/Prof. Bo Jin joined the School from the School of Earth and Environmental
Sciences. Bo is a chemical engineer with a wealth of experience in the field of water and waste
treatment, especially using nanomaterials and bioprocesses. As part of the University’s strategy to
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45. AUES Hysteresis 2011
improve the research performance in chemical engineering, the School has also recently appointed
A/Prof. Dusan Losic, an outstanding researcher who works in the area of design, synthesis and
exploitation of nanostructured materials such as carbon nanotube membranes. As I write this
report, the University has also just offered a Chair in Nanotechnology to a further outstanding
researcher. If he accepts, this will bring the total number of academic staff in the School working in
the nanotechnology area to six, creating a critical mass of researchers in this hugely important area
for the future. Finally, following much effort on the part of A/Prof. Ashman to raise nearly $750,000
from industry, the School is currently searching for a suitable candidate for an Associate Professor
in Process Safety and Integrity Management.
The growth in grant income and research activity in the School over 2011 has also seen the arrival
of four new postdoctoral research fellows over the year – Dr Sophie Fon Sing, Dr Luis Herrera, Dr
Milan Mijajlovic and Dr Joan Thomas – bringing the total to eight. With the arrival of Dusan Losic
and the potential appointment of the Chair in Nanotechnology should see this number very quickly
pass into double digits in early 2012 and, of course, we hope for an even greater number via the
many grant and fellowship applications submitted this year.
The arrival of so many new staff has created very real space pressures in the School. This has lead
to the Faculty funding the refurbishment of previously under-utilised office spaces in Engineering
North. More recently, the Faculty has also granted the School over $500,000 to renovate an old
laboratory and create two new laboratories, all to accommodate the growing nanotechnology-
related research in the School. A further $800,000 will also be released to the School to refurbish
and equip a further laboratory if the new Chair in Nanotechnology is taken up. This investment over
2011/12 is on top of the nearly $1.5M invested over 2009/10 in the establishment of the new
Pharmaceutical Engineering Laboratory, a facility that is now being fully utilised.
It is clear that the School is undergoing major change, and this will continue into the future as we
endeavour to improve in everything we do. This change does not come without a cost: much extra
work for staff and their commitment to trying the new over the long-established. I would like to
express my deepest thanks to all the staff of the School for sticking with the change process despite
this. It has also required the forbearance of the student body, especially those who have been at
the ‘sharp end’ of our experiments with the curricula such as the current final year cohort – I would
like to thank them for their patience and understanding.
In closing, I would like to wish our soon-to-be graduates of 2011 all the best in their new careers
and hope you will not forget to let us know from time to time what you are doing. Of course, we
would also most definitely welcome you back for a visit either as individuals or as a cohort.
Professor Mark J. Biggs
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