Our Faculty continues to celebrate the achievements and awards our staff accomplish. Below are some of our highlights.
Our researchers
Professor Jie Lu receives NSW Premier's Prize
Professor Jie Lu was awarded a NSW Premier’s Prize at a ceremony in Sydney, in recognition of her groundbreaking artificial intelligence (AI) work, which predicts strokes and revolutionises daily commuting.
The impactful AI technology, utilised by Sydney Trains, is the brainchild of Professor Lu and her dedicated team. Their research focuses on enhancing AI models under conditions of uncertainty, where information is limited, and in data streams with high volumes of data.
Associate Professor Guandong Xu honoured with two national industry awards
Associate Professor Guandong Xu of the UTS Advanced Analytics Institute, in collaboration with ANZ OnePath, was honoured with two national industry awards in September 2018 at the 2018 BigInsights Data & AI Innovation Awards: Best Industry Application of Data Analytics and Best Industry Application of AI. This success has reflected the strong industry recognition of UTS data science and AI research and engagement impact. In July, A/Prof Xu was also named one of Australia’s top ten analytics leaders by the Australian Analytics peak body, IAPA.
Sharkspotter takes home 3 NSW iAwards
Centre of Artificial Intelligence in collaboration with industry partners from The Ripper Group, was recognised with 3 NSW iAwards for Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning Innovation of the Year; Community Service Markets; and Research & Development Project of the Year. Sharkspotter later went on to win the 2018 national AI or Machine Learning Innovation of the Year award.
Dr Nengkun Yu receives J G Russell Award
Dr Nengkun Yu, an ARC DECRA recipient, UTS Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow, and core member of the Centre for Quantum Software and Information, was awarded the 2018 Australian Academy of Science’s J G Russell Award. Every year the Australian Research Council passes on a list of highly ranked DECRA recipients to the Australian Academy of Science, who then select an awardee. The J G Russell Award is aimed at financially helping talented young researchers in the basic sciences as a token of the community’s regard for them.
Professor Jie Lu and team recognised with 2018 Computer Journal Wilkes Award
Distinguished Professor Jie Lu and her team were awarded the Computer Journal Wilkes Award in May 2018 for their paper, entitled: A Multi-Objective Load Balancing System for Cloud Environments". The Wilkes Award is given once a year to the authors of the best paper published in the volume of The Computer Journal from the previous year. It is based on originality, quality and treatment of theme.
Best Paper Award (ISAP 2018) awarded to Dr Wei Lin and Professor Richard W Ziolkowski
Dr Wei Lin and Professor Richard W Ziolkowski (Global Big Data Technologies Centre) received the first prize award – Best Paper Award – at the 2018 International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (ISAP 2018) in Korea. The winning paper was titled: “Dual-Functional Electrically Small Huygens Antenna System".
Kamal Fernando Mentoring Award presented to Professor Saravanamuth Vigneswaran
The 2018 Kamal Fernando Mentoring Award was presented by the Australian Water Association to Distinguished Professor Saravanamuth Vigneswaran from the Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, for decades of high quality mentoring to students, water professionals and colleagues. This award is a recognition of Prof Vigneswaran’s passion for water and for his wonderful empathy for those studying and working in an industry where he has been bringing out the best in people for almost 30 years.
Our research students
Our Faculty had over 115 PhD and Masters (research) candidates complete their degrees in 2018.
Omar El-Hawat receives Charles Bubb Award from Australian Earthquake Engineering Society
Mr Omar El-Hawat (Civil and Environmental Engineering), supervised by Associate Professor Behzad Fatahi, received the Charles Bubb award from Australian Earthquake Engineering Society (AEES) for proposing an innovative solution for protection of bridges against earthquakes in November 2018. The Charles Bubb award is to encourage young engineers and earthquake scientists and seismologists to pursue a career in earthquake engineering and/or earthquake science, and to help contribute to advancing Australian earthquake monitoring and damage assessment.
Federico Volpin: winner of UTS 3 Minute Thesis
Mr Federico Volpin was the winner of the inter-faculty 3 Minute Thesis competition for his project "Pee-cycling: transforming your urine into valuable fertiliser". Reflecting on the experience, Mr Volpin said: "Recovering and re-using the water and the resources in our wastes is becoming increasingly necessary if we want to feed an ever-growing population and guarantee life support for space explorations … in our research, we focus on the separation and recovery of nutrients and water from human urine. This is because urine is incredibly rich in nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous that are essential elements for the production of fertilisers. Participating in the 3MT competition gave me the opportunity to share my passion toward a more sustainable approach to waste management... separating and re-using the wastes in our wastewater is no different from separating and re-using the plastic, glass, paper etc. from our solid wastes.”
Faculty of Engineering and IT HDR Excellence Award 2018
The 2018 HDR Excellence Award attracted a vast range of applications and showcased the excellent work that is happening across the faculty. The Award is highly competitive and aims to celebrate the contribution of UTS HDR students. This is awarded to students with exceptional research and publication outcomes, in recognition of both the candidates' past achievements and their potential contribution to their chosen field. There are two categories for the Award; team and individual.
In the individual category, the 2018 Faculty of Engineering and IT HDR Excellence Award went to Simon Rippingale from the School of Computer Science (Pictured with Professor David McGloin).
In the team category, the 2018 Faculty of Engineering and IT HDR Excellence Award went to James Ju Heon Lee, Kwun Yiu Cadmus To and Ki Myung Brian Lee from the School of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering (Pictured with Professor David McGloin).