power to the people - Swinburne University of Technology

upfront
enabling high-impact
education, research
and innovation
As we approach the end of the first semester, it’s inspiring
to see our campuses buzzing with students and progress
being steadily made on the Advanced Manufacturing and
Design Centre at Hawthorn. By bringing together design
with our other areas of strength, this will create many
new opportunities for Swinburne students when it opens in 2014.
We also recently opened KIOSC, our new $10.3 million trade
training centre in Wantirna. With a focus on the application of new
technologies to solve real-world problems, this multi-purpose facility
is the product of a unique partnership between Swinburne and
schools in the region.
This issue of Venture highlights the scope of the research and the
calibre of the researchers that help us to understand our world and
improve people’s lives – underlining the value of innovation to the
Australian economy.
Our leadership in science, technology and innovation comes through
strongly in a story about smart energy systems being developed
through an international collaboration. Cutting-edge technologies
and software solutions will enable future households to monitor and
reduce their energy consumption, which is great news both for our
environment and our economy.
Swinburne’s investment in the facilities and resources needed to
undertake world-leading research can be seen in the achievements
of Professor David Liley and his team. Working on one of only two
magnetoencephalography (MEG) machines in Australia, they are
using electromagnetic signals to explore the effects of anaesthesia
on the brain.
Our community outreach is exemplified by Associate Professor
Sarah Maddison. While making her own research discoveries as an
astrophysicist, she still finds time to encourage the next generation of
scientists through her involvement with primary school children. Also
meet Dr Jordy Kaufman, who is working with preschool children in
his research into the effects of tablet devices on infant development.
I hope you enjoy this issue of our magazine.
Professor Linda Kristjanson
Vice-Chancellor
Swinburne University of TechnOLOGy
Casting light
on the darkest
zones of space
Adecade-long assumption about the
masses of black holes at the centres
of galaxies has been dramatically
overturned by Swinburne astronomers.
Professor Alister Graham and
Dr Nicholas Scott from Swinburne’s Centre for
Astrophysics and Supercomputing have found that
the traditional approach to calculating the mass of
black holes underestimated their mass in larger
galaxies while overestimating it in smaller ones.
“For the past 15 years it was assumed that
0.2 per cent of every elliptical galaxy and the
central bulge of every spiral galaxy was tied up in
its central black hole,” says Professor Graham.
Galaxies and their central black holes grow
by accreting gas, some of which may be turned
into new stars or devoured by the black hole.
Astronomers had thought that galaxies and their
black holes grew equally over time, preserving
the 0.2 per cent mass ratio.
From an analysis of data from the Keck
Telescope in Hawaii, the Very Large Telescope
in Chile and the Hubble Space Telescope, the
researchers examined the characteristics
of 72 galaxies with supermassive black holes.
The new research reveals that the black holes
have been growing much faster, relative to their
host galaxy, than previously thought, with mass
ratios lower than 0.01 per cent in small galaxies
and around 0.5 per cent in large galaxies.
“Interestingly, the black holes appear to have
also grown at the expense of the compact, millionstrong
star clusters observed only in the smaller
galaxies and bulges,” Professor Graham says.
inside structure of the
8.2-meter-diameter
Very Large Telescope,
Paranal Observatory,
northern Chile.
Satisfy
your inner
Spielberg
Smartphone novices will be able
to capture everyday moments
with a touch of Spielberg when
a new video app is launched
by Swinburne postgraduate
student Alexandra Kinloch.
The Master of
Entrepreneurship and
Innovation student won
the $20,000 first prize in
Swinburne’s Venture Cup for
establishing Capture.Us, an app
designed to empower users to
develop high-quality video clips
on their smartphone.
“The idea for Capture.Us came
to me when I was on holidays,”
Kinloch says. “I was surrounded
by all the technology I needed
to capture the holiday, but had
no idea how to capture a great
video and stitch it together into
a clip that my friends and family
could watch.”
She recruited a business
partner, Ben Rashleigh, who
she met at a technologists’
co-working space in
Melbourne’s CBD, and within
months they found themselves
receiving their winner’s cheque.
The app will be launched in
mid 2013 – visit www.capture.
us. Details on the Venture
Cup can be found at www.
swinburne.edu.au/corporate/
knowledge/venturecup
4 | swinburne | venture | issue one 2013