Tuesday 17 December 2007

Mitchell Thompson graduated from the Woolyungah Indigenous Centre on Tuesday morning with a Bachelor of Commerce. Mitchell was one of the students who helped organise the National Tertiary Indigenous Games held on campus recently, which was also won by UOW. His involvement in the Games also resulted in him securing a job in Qantas Human Resources which he will start next year.

Rhyannon Ratz received a Bachelor of Engineering Honours at the Tuesday afternoon graduation ceremony. Earlier this year, Rhyannon won first prize as best student and the prize for writing the best journal at a course run by the International Institute of Women in Engineering in Paris. The course topic was 'Women in Global Engineering: Creating an Energy Efficient Future'. About 47 male and female engineering students from 17 countries attended the course.

A record number of undergraduate students from the Faculty of Informatics' School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics graduated at the Tuesday evening ceremony on 18 December. From this group of 17, there were 12 students who received First Class Honours in their degrees ­ a remarkable achievement considering the declining number of students taking mathematics courses at university level around Australia. Pictured (left to right) are Steven Stone, Cornelia Alchin, Stephen Maher, Mitesh Misty, Ben Ingram, Nancy Vu, Simon Petre, Samuel Allingham, Lewis Mitchell (who also won the University Medal for Informatics), Alysha Langbien and Jenn Marley. [Robbie Hazlewood also graduated but did not attend the ceremony]

Indigenous UOW cadet, Hayley McCarrol, graduated at the Tuesday morning ceremony with a Bachelor of Commerce degree. Hayley, who works in UOW's Financial Services, is pictured with her aunt, Dianne Gibson (holding Hayley's baby, Xanthe) and her father, Peter McCarrol.

Kirawee resident, Jennifer Stevenson, graduated with a Bachelor of Communication and Media Studies at the Tuesday evening Arts graduation ceremony.

The Occasional Address for the ceremony on Tuesday evening was delivered by Director of Wand Associates, Mr Paul Wand. The UOW graduate has enjoyed a distinguished career in the mining and metal manufacturing industries, culminating in his role as Vice President Aboriginal Relations for Rio Tinto. Paul established the Rio Tinto Aboriginal Foundation, and served as Executive Chairman from 1996 ­ 2005. Mr Wand was also awarded the inaugural 2007 Chancellor's Award for Achievement in Community Service in the alumni category for his significant long-term commitment and contribution to disadvantaged Indigenous communities across Australia. He is pictured with the Chancellor, Mr Michael Codd AC.

International student from Peru, Jorge Becerra, graduated at the Tuesday afternoon ceremony with a Master of Engineering Practice degree. During his time at UOW he participated in a range of support programs for international students including the Momentum mentoring program and the 'Bringing the International Experience to Illawarra High Schools' project which was an initiative of his wife (pictured with him), Ekaterina Pechenkina, who is currently studying at UOW for her PhD.

The first ever PhD graduate of the School of Information Systems and Technology (SISAT) in the Faculty of Informatics, Dr Holly Tootell, received her degree at the Tuesday afternoon ceremony. Dr Tootell's thesis examined 'The Social Impact of Using Automatic Identification Technologies and Location-Based Services in National Security'.

Dr Behzad Fatahi received a PhD in Engineering at the Tuesday afternoon graduation ceremony. Dr Fatahi has conducted extensive research into how railway infrastructure can be improved by identifying and managing surrounding vegetation, refuting the age-old believe that vegetation is detrimental to railway tracks. He was also named Young Railway Engineering of the Year 2007 by the Railway Technical Society of Australasia. Dr Fatahi is currently working with Coffey Geotechnics in Sydney as a Professional Geotechnical Engineer and will take up a role as a lecturer in UTS's Faculty of Engineering early next year.

Dr Scott McGovern was rewarded on Tuesday afternoon for his years of research into assessing the strength of aluminium joined with engineering adhesives where he worked with an adhesive so strong that when it was applied to steel and stressed, the steel broke before the adhesive did. The PhD graduate completed pioneering work applying intelligent polymers to welding on boats, planes and cars. If his research is perfected it may be possible to gauge the strength of an adhesive joint in real time, giving drivers, pilots and captains precious moments to avert a catastrophe. Dr McGovern was awarded the Best Paper prize at an international conference in the USA for his contribution to the new engineering area of 'structural health monitoring'.

Tuesday afternoon's Occasional Address was given by Senior Vice President Quality and Regulatory from Cochlear Limited, Dr Bronwyn Evans. Dr Evans leads a team of 37 responsible for quality and regulatory issues associated with all of Cochlear¹s implantable hearing devices. She has worked for more than 20 years in engineering and management roles in power generation and distribution, engineering education and the medical industry. She is pictured with the Chancellor, Mr Michael Codd AC.

Daniel Morgan graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree on Tuesday morning. He was joined by his partner, Kate McIlwain, who is the Recruitment Co-ordinator at UniAdvice.