The University of Newcastle

Faculty of Engineering

Engineering NEWS No. 9

In This Issue:

Internet Seminar Next Week
Open Days
Lecture Theatre Modifications
Parking in Service Bays
Do you use ACSL?
Jobskills Office Assistant Starts

Seminar on the use of the Internet and Web for Teaching and Research

The Faculty of Engineering is sponsoring an informative seminar and demonstration of the use of the vast resources of the Internet in teaching and research for Engineering academics.

We have an academic visitor from Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Wollongong, Dr Parviz Doulai. Parviz specialises in the Power Electronics - Power Systems fields and he is here for six weeks collaborating in research with our Professor Gerard Ledwich.

Parviz has been working with Internet tools for more than six years. In the last two years his Internet activity has been focused on creation of a bench mark setup for an educational Web site and the use of the Web as a hypermedia learning/teaching aid. In that time he has developed valuable information resources at Wollongong which are accessible worldwide by using WWW browsing software on PC, Macintosh or UNIX workstations.

Ron Goodhew will assist with the live demonstration of via our connection to the Internet. He will show you how this university is developing its WWW offering in various sectors of this institution as part of our growing CWIS (Campus-wide Information System). He will explain how Engineering can continue its contribution to this new technology.

The seminar will be held in:

ES203 Lecture Theatre on Thursday, 8 June, 5pm till 6pm.

There is no need to register, just come.

Open Days

The University has decided to conduct Open Days this year after a lengthy break since 1991. There will be two separate events, one at the Central Coast Campus and the other at Callaghan. Although we are requested to have a significant presence at the Central Coast its display will be smaller by necessity.

Central Coast Campus, Ourimbah - Sunday, 17 September Callaghan Campus and Conservatorium - Saturday, 23 September

To organise the contribution by the Faculty of Engineering a local committee will coordinate the functions in collaboration with a central Open Days committee. We request that all staff and students consider appropriate activities to promote our interests and discuss your ideas with your departmental Open Days coordinator. The local committee is:

        Chemical Engineering            John Waanders           6103
        Civil Engineering & Surveying   Mark Stewart            6027
        Computer Science                Bob Cohen               5291
        Electrical & Computer Eng       Andrew Spray            5743
        Mechanical Engineering          Rajagopalan (Raj)       6188
        Secretariat - Engineering       Jill Norburn            6065
        Faculty of Engineering          Ron Goodhew (Convener)  6071

Talk to them about it!

Lecture Theatre Modifications

Engineering EF02 Theatre

Recently changes were made to theatre video cabinet locks to standardise them across the campus. Now a proposal has been suggested to do the same with projection booths. The effect on our operations will be that staff will not have a key for EF02 Projection Room (now 8-1x), but a new key will be added to the existing video key ring held by each department secretary. The advantage is that the new key will also access projection booths elsewhere on the campus.

If the Editor hears no violent objections to this plan we will advise Classroom and Theatre Services to proceed with the lock change.

Basden Theatre (Chemistry)

A proposal to remove the large lecture bench has been suggested to Estates and Services. It appears that some Engineering lectures are held there, so we have been consulted as to whether the absence of a fixed lecture bench (including gas and water) will affect our lectures.

Please send comments back to the editor. No comment will imply that this change will not adversely affect our operations.

Parking in Service Bays

Service personnel have drawn our attention to the fact that staff are parking in, or near, service bays near our buildings. One such bay outside the "back" door of Building EA (at its eastern end) is needed for short-term parking of delivery and service vehicles.

Another area causing difficulties is outside the eastern end of Building EC where the Faculty vehicle is usually parked. Drivers find it difficult to manoeuvre the Falcon if cars are parked poorly in that area.

We would rather not resort to action from Security Staff in keeping these loading areas clear. Therefore we ask that cars be parked in the designated overflow parking areas if there is no room in parking areas closer to where you work.

Do you use ACSL?

One of our colleagues needs to assess the suitability of some software for a task he has. The University records show that "somebody" purchased ACSL (Advanced Continuous Simulation Language). Unfortunately we are not sure who is using it.

If you know anything about this software, please send an e-mail to the Editor (Ron Goodhew) who will pass on any useful information.

Jobskills Office Assistant Starts

Within 12 hours of telling you about our new Jobskills Trainee, Margaret Lynch, in Engineering NEWS No.8, we were advised that she would no longer be coming to us because she had been offered a longer-term job elsewhere. That was good news for Margaret, but we needed to recommence the selection process.

However, we were fortunate to find Philip Longworth and he has commenced his six month training assignment under the scheme today. Initially he will assist in the Faculty Office and at the Copy Room, but later we can assign him to department offices where required. Welcome aboard Philip.

Ron Goodhew, Editor. ---- 1 June 1995.

The information and views expressed in this document originate from the editor. They are not to be taken as official comment from the University of Newcastle or the Dean of Engineering. [Ed.]

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Please report any problems to Ron Goodhew rgoodhew@mail.newcastle.edu.au