Built Environment

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Record numbers of young people interested in the future of their cities have chosen UNSW’s City Planning degree, with first preferences increasing by more than 100 per cent.

UNSW Built Environment’s Bachelor of City Planning (Hons) degree is designed to give students the skills to manage contemporary challenges facing the built and natural environments.

Sustainability and climate change issues, transport and infrastructure provision, facilitating urban renewal, and tackling social inequality and exclusion are all covered in the four-year degree.

What I like about City Planning is the idea that I can do something every day that has visibility and could potentially change lives.

Discipline Director Simon Pinnegar says the high demand for the degree, which is accredited by the Planning Institute of Australia, shows that the next generation is keen to take a pivotal role in shaping the future.

“Global cities like Sydney are rapidly growing and changing, and this means we need to step up the skills and knowledge of tomorrow’s planners to meet those challenges and opportunities,” Pinnegar said.

Gemma Eagle will start her Bachelor of City Planning this year. She graduated from Reddam House with an ATAR of 97.9 and made the HSC Top Allrounders List published in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Gemma became interested in city planning after her aunt, a NZ-based urban planner, was involved in rebuilding Christchurch after the devastating 2010 earthquake.

“I found it really inspiring talking to her about her role in replanning the city after such a traumatic event,” Gemma said.

“What I like about City Planning is the idea that I can do something every day that has visibility and could potentially change people’s lives.”

Developed with industry, government and practice partners, the Bachelor of City Planning includes a practice year where students take up paid work placements with key public agencies and private organisations across metropolitan Sydney and regional areas.

“This unrivalled real-world experience adds fantastic depth and grounding to students’ academic studies as well as ensuring that employment rates for our graduates are hard to beat,” Pinnegar said.

City Planning is just one UNSW Built Environment degree that has seen a growth in demand for 2017. Architectural Studies, Interior Architecture, Industrial Design and Computational Design have all attracted increased first preferences.

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For app designer and international exchange student Ewaldo Moritz Neto, UNSW’s Michael Crouch Innovation Centre is nothing short of “paradise”.

“When I first came to the Michael Crouch Innovation Centre​ (MCIC) I knew this was the place where everything could happen. All the innovation and all the good minds aiming for success are here,” says the mechanical engineering student from Brazil’s University of Santa Catarina.

“A place where you can create things and take something from zero to one? That’s paradise,” he says, describing the Centre which is an innovation hub and creative space for students to experiment, connect and showcase their ideas to corporate and industry partners.

Neto’s instincts were correct. Within just one year, he and Afonso Firmo, a UNSW environmental engineering student from Portugal, have developed Mova, an iPhone app that acts as a physiotherapy tool for patients recovering from knee reconstruction surgery.

The app works by patients strapping their iPhone to their operated knee and completing repetitions. The data is then relayed directly to their physiotherapist, allowing patients to complete their recovery at home.

“Mova guarantees that patients are correctly executing their exercises through the use of smartphone sensors,” says Neto. “Our app improves physiotherapy for each patient, ensuring an engaging experience with instant feedback on every rep.”

The students say they were inspired by their “not so cool” experiences recovering from various sporting injuries – Neto has trained in martial arts since he was six and Firmo is an experienced rugby player.

“Mova works like a game, you have your goals and in each movement you have to reach the extension range previously set by the physiotherapist to succeed,” says Neto.

The student’s idea for Mova won them the Johnson & Johnson health-tech HaTCHathon in September last year, but they say the app would have never been developed without the expertise and mentorship of MCIC’s inaugural Catalyst in Residence, Gary Elphick.

Elphick is the creative mind behind Disrupt Sports.com​, a platform specialising in the personal customisation of sports equipment and winner of Optus Start-up of the Year and Young Entrepreneur of the Year. As MCIC’s inaugural Catalyst in Residence, Elphick’s job has been to mentor students through their startup ideas.

“I’m here to help facilitate the different phases of beginning a startup, right from the ‘no idea’ phase to the incubation phase. Combined with all the benefits a university provides, it’s great to be able to give students a little leg up, just the confidence to go, ‘oh cool, I get it’.

“UNSW and MCIC offer an incredible R&D environment – I just wish I’d had access to something like this when I was at uni,” he says.

Having worked in the UK and Silicon Valley on startups, Elphick says Australia’s innovation community beats both countries hands down.

“What Australia lacks in size it makes up for in community and that networking extends globally. It’s places like MCIC that help add to those international networks of young innovators.”

Even though his Residency is coming to an end, Elphick says he’ll continue to be part of MCIC’s growing alumni community and network.

“The Catalyst in Residence works from a ‘pay it forward’ mentality, I’ll always be available to help out and give back.”

Backed by UNSW, MCIC has already seen its first cohort of 16 startups and more than 100 entrepreneurs and experts pass through Australia’s first post accelerator residence program.

Brad Furber, MCIC’s founding business leader, says the Catalyst in Residence program has successfully recruited seasoned startup founders that have graduated from respected accelerator programs.

“The MCIC Catalysts have inspired creativity and talent, and have helped turn good ideas into real and tangible products. Since opening our doors in August 2015, the MCIC has generated more than 30,000 engagements with end users. As we look into 2017, our network is generating more viable projects likeMova, and demand is growing exponentially,” Furber said.

Meanwhile, Neto and Firmo are in the final stages of being accepted into the HCF Catalyst Startup Program, an intensive 12-week accelerator worth $50,000, followed by a three-month mentored incubation period to further develop Mova.

“The HCF Startup Program will allow us to have Mova professionally validated. We want to get this app in every physiotherapist’s hands because we know we can help a lot of people,” Neto says.

“When you are bitten by the entrepreneur bug you don’t have a choice, you have to validate your idea and that’s the path I’m going to travel. This is what makes me feel alive, and MCIC is the place that will give me the traction that I need to succeed.”

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Imagine a future where you can power your home, office and car using solar power, even when it’s dark outside.

With the right storage device this could soon become a reality, and that’s precisely what Dr Neeraj Sharma is working on in his lab at UNSW’s School of Chemistry.

“You can have the best solar cell in the world, but if the sun’s not shining, it’s not going to produce any energy,” explains Sharma. “But if you couple that solar cell with the right battery, then you can produce a constant energy output.”

Not content with simply making a more powerful battery, he’s taken things a step further, and is using non-toxic, environmentally friendly materials to create the device. In fact, his batteries may one day run on nothing but seawater.

In 2015, Tesla and Panasonic both unveiled lithium-ion batteries for residential energy storage. The sleek Powerwall unit, developed by Tesla, costs an estimated A$9,500 (including installation).

Despite progress, many researchers consider the batteries far too expensive to be used on the scale needed to store renewable energy in the home, or on a commercial or community scale – and alternatives such as lead acid batteries are heavy and inefficient.

So Sharma is taking a different tack. The UNSW chemist is working on replacing the lithium with sodium, in the form of readily available salty water. “Once you get the sodium batteries as efficient as lithium-ion batteries, they’ll be about one-fifth the cost,” he says.

That means they’ll be affordable enough for households and communities to buy and link up to use as renewable energy sources year-round.

To make a simple sodium battery, you need to stick two electrodes into seawater. The challenge is making that battery more sophisticated.

Sharma is doing so by tweaking these electrodes at the structural level, so the battery can provide eight to ten hours of constant electricity.

“Sodium ions are a bit bigger and harder to pull in and out than lithium, so we have to design an electrode material that has more space,” says Sharma. “It’s visualising this process that’s our area of expertise. And we can use that information to build better electrodes.”

His team visualises the battery in action at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).

Thanks to this ability, the team has already made significant improvements with its positive electrode, or cathode, and has it performing just as well as a modern lithium-ion battery. They’re now working on getting their negative electrode, or anode, up to scratch.

Once this is done, Sharma believes the battery could be the key to providing the entire world – including developing regions – with cheap, sustainable electricity.

“Energy is a massive challenge for humankind. If we can control the chemistry to make a better battery, it would make renewable energy more affordable and reliable,” says Sharma. “We’re essentially producing a way to get people off fossil fuels.”

An Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering fellow, Sharma is one of the emerging research leaders featured in the latest edition of 20 rising stars who will change our world.

For more go to 20risingstars.unsw.edu.au

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Combining the cutting-edge research capabilities and innovative education approach of Arizona State University, King’s College London and UNSW Sydney, the PLuS Alliance will undertake cross-border research collaborations to address significant issues related to health, social justice, sustainability and innovation. Research will be supported with a suite of related learning programs to be delivered online. 

"Our combined scale, international reach and expertise will enable us to deliver innovative solutions to grand challenges, which are beyond the scope of our individual organisations," said UNSW Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ian Jacobs.

“This partnership represents both a significant commitment and unique opportunity to create impactful solutions for a sustainable future. The PLuS Alliance will bring together some of the best minds on the planet and tackle many of the big questions facing our societies today, which would simply not be possible for one institution working alone,” said Professor Edward Byrne, President and Principal of King’s College London.

Launched on 9 February 2016 in London, the PLuS Alliance will feature more than 60 inaugural PLuS Alliance Fellows from across the three universities with plans to have 100 Fellows in total by the end of 2016.  

"Key to solving the challenges facing humankind will be greater access to education so that talented men and women around the world can acquire the training and knowledge needed to join a workforce that operates across cultures and borders," said Dr Michael Crow, President of Arizona State University. “The PLuS Alliance will deliver an exceptional international learning experience that builds on our established record of innovative online course delivery.”

The international partnership will collaborate on projects to make world class education and research accessible locally, helping communities around the world to make a direct and positive impact.  

“The PLuS Alliance brings together three world-leading universities that share an ambition to improve lives by working together on ambitious educational and research initiatives. Our combined scale, international reach and expertise will enable us to deliver innovative solutions to grand challenges, which are beyond the scope of our individual organisations," said Professor Ian Jacobs, UNSW President and Vice-Chancellor.

PLuS Alliance programs 

More than 20 programs will be available from September 2016. Degrees to be offered through PLuS Alliance universities will initially include:

BA/BS in: Sustainability, Global health, Community Health, Whole Person Care, Business & Global Logistics Management

Masters in: Science of Healthcare Delivery, Infectious Diseases Intelligence & Sustainability Leadership