Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Queensland Section (ABN 67 431 648 974) ieee-qld.org IEEE Q UEENSLAND S ECTION N EWSLETTER October 2016 Volume 19 - Issue 3 Print Post Approval No. PP4458860011 Editor: David Russell ([email protected]) In this issue: Section Chair’s Report .......................................... 2 2016 IEEE Queensland Section’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Dinner ............. 3 Educational Activities Chair’s Report .................................. 4 Computational Intelligence Society .................................... 6 Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society .............................. 9 Microwave Theory and Techniques/Antennas and Propagation Societies ................ 10 Women in Engineering .......................................... 11 Young Professionals Program ....................................... 13 Griffith University Gold Coast Student Report .............................. 14 Griffith University Nathan Student Report ................................ 15 Queensland Section Office Holders .................................... 17 IEEE information contained in this newsletter may be copied without permission provided that copies for direct commercial advantage are not made or distributed, and the title and date of the publication appear on each copy.
Transcript
Institute of Electrical and Electronics EngineersQueensland Section (ABN 67 431 648 974)
ieee-qld.org
IEEEQUEENSLAND SECTION
NEWSLETTER
October 2016
Volume 19 - Issue 3Print Post Approval No. PP4458860011Editor: David Russell ([email protected])
IEEE information contained in this newsletter may be copied without permission provided that copies for directcommercial advantage are not made or distributed, and the title and date of the publication appear on each copy.
Welcome to IEEE Queensland’s third newsletter for2016.
The IEEE is changing. Our circa-400k membershipis currently organised in a matrix-like structure. OurQueensland Section reports to the Australia Counciland the Asia-Pacific Region through to the IEEECorporate Headquarters in New York. Plus, ourChapter Chairs network with up to 39 technicalSocieties.
It is proposed that a legal entity will be establishedin Australia. This company would be managed by aBoard on which each of the existing Australia Counciland Section Committee members could be represented.This approach aims to provide two benefits. First, tobetter manage potential risks and liabilities at our IEEEevents. Second, to simplify our management processes.
Our Australia Council and Section committee memberstake on the organisational improvement workload. I amgrateful to the volunteers who spend countless hours
making the IEEE world a better place. In particular,I thank the outgoing Australia Council Chair, TapanSaha, together with the outgoing Queensland SectionWebmaster and Treasurer, Mike Robinson, for theirvaluable contributions over the past years. I alsowelcome the incoming Queensland Section Chair,Daniel Eghbal, and the Vice Chair, Nilesh Modi, whowill be steering our ship in 2017/18.
Vaughan Clarkson is organising our next major event,the IEEE Section Congress 2017 (SC2017) in Sydney,Australia, at the International Convention Centre, from11 to 13 August 2017. Please contact Vaughan if youwould like to assist.
I look forward to seeing you at our AGM DinnerFunction on Tuesday 29 November at the Universityof Queensland (refer to the invite details on the nextpage).
As usual, feel free contact a member of our team if wecan support your engineering and research in some way.
2016 IEEE Queensland Section’s Annual GeneralMeeting (AGM) and Dinner
IEEE Queensland Section’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Dinner will be held on the evening of Tuesday 29November 2016. The Section Committee cordially invites you to join us for this event. The AGM and Dinner will bea great way for you to meet with colleagues and network with other guests.
Date: Tuesday, 29 November 2016Location: The University of Queensland, Sir Llew Edwards Building - Terrace RoomMap: MapTime: Arrive at 17:15 for a 17:30 start to the AGM.RSVP: RSVP (registration closes on 25th Nov)
Cost for AGM: NilCost for Dinner (includes drinks and a three course meal):
- IEEE and Engineers Australia members: $ 45- Non-members: $ 60
If you have special dietary requirements please let us know when you register for the event. All menu items are halalcompliant.
Payment options:To facilitate better planning of the event there will be no ‘pay at the door’option. Instead, payments for the dinnershould be made to the Section’s bank account by close of business 25 November 2016.
Bank account details:Bank: bankmecuAccount name: I E E E Qld Section A/C (please note the space between IEEE characters)Account number: 08300761BSB code: 313-140
Please make sure your name appears on the payment advice from your financial institution. If you are attendingthe AGM and not the dinner, please make this clear when you register.
We are very keen to organise seminars related to SpatialEnablement. If any committee or university is keento hold such events please send your request to me([email protected]). I would like to organise theseevents for your students and researchers. Below is abrief discussion on a topic that could be presented.
Future Event - Transforming Our World:the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development
Spatial Thinking and the IEEEWhat is Spatial Thinking?
According to Joseph Kerski (Esri 2013) it is: “Identi-fying, analyzing, and understanding the location, scale,patterns, and trends of the geographic and temporalrelationships among data, phenomena, and issues”.
In 2010 Newcombe and Frick said “Any mobileorganism must be able to navigate in its world tosurvive and must represent the spatial environment inorder to do so.”
Newcombe and Frick also said “Spatial thinking helpsreasoning in domains that are not, on the surface,obviously spatial.”
In 2016 many industries are transitioning into chainmanagement (supply or distribution) or informationanalytics in order to optimise their current financialposition and better prepare for future scenarios.
The Spatial Industry can be defined as those thatoperate under the umbrella of observation, analysis,management and representation of location informationin order to support the planning, approval, design,construction and operational decisions of organisa-tions or people. It is currently estimated that over80% of Australian government decisions rely on spatialcontext.
Taking those two concepts of transition and an industrywith visibility into all parts of modern life leads to analmost perfect storm of opportunity - if only to thosewith the skills required and insight to collaborate.
The Spatial Industry is one of the largest users ofcutting edge technology. We acquire high resolutionmulti-spectral satellite imagery at massive scale - onecompany alone indicates numbers of 60TB per day. Wesense our environment using LiDAR or laser and caneven detect millimetre-scale surface subsidence usingradar-return phase calculations from space.
Concepts such as Smart Cities rely on spatial context,digital twinning and automated awareness of place tofunction as planned. Internationally SmartICT / DigitalEngineering / BIM (Building Information Modelling) isbeing mandated by governments to enable cost effectiveuse of public funding and efficient use of resources. Inthe UK savings of 15%-20% are common on projectssince the introduction of BIM.
Many of these concepts are known to the audience ofthis communication as subject matter in data acqui-sition, distribution or storage. The opportunitieshowever arise when the Spatial Data Value Chain
is supported by an education, research and designindustry at all stages. As we move through the cycleof Data > Information > Evidence > Knowledge >Patterns >Metaphors we have many interfaces betweenSpatial and Electric/Electronic Engineering. By intro-ducing these audiences to each other at a problem andtechnology level we can create a significant spatio-technical capability in our region with almost unlimitedglobal markets and opportunity.
Reference:
Kerski, Joseph J. (2013), Understanding our changingworld by asking questions with web mapping tools.Illinois Council for the Social Studies Quarterly 2(3):3-11. Fall 2013.
Nora S. Newcombe, Andrea Frick (2010), EarlyEducation for Spatial Intelligence: Why, What, andHow, International Mind, Brain, and Education Societyand Wiley Periodicals, 4(3): 103-111, September 2010.
Committee:Chair: Amin Gharipour, Griffith UniversityVice-chair: Andrew Lewis, Griffith UniversitySecretary: Zahra Jadidi, Griffith UniversityTreasurer: Alan Liew, Griffith University
Computational Intelligence Society Chapter hasorganized the following seminars this year:
DICTA 2016 conference30 November - 2 December 2016Computational Intelligence Society Chapter will beproviding technical sponsorship of DICTA 2016(Digital Image Computing: Techniques and Applica-tions) conference that will be held on the Gold Coast.
September 2016Title: ‘What is Spiral Optimization Algorithm?’Speaker: Dr Kenichi Tamura from Tokyo MetropolitanUniversityAbstract: In recent years, nature-inspiredmetaheuristic algorithms have been attracting moreattention in recognition of their versatility andconception. With this as background, the spiraloptimization (SPO) algorithm, a metaheuristic inspiredby spiral phenomena in nature, was proposed byTamuraand Yasuda to solve continuous optimization problems.In this seminar, motivation, modelling and theory onSPO algorithm are introduced.
July 2016Title: ‘Some Progress in Robotic Vision’Speaker: Professor Peter Corke, Professor of RoboticVision at QUT, and Director of the ARC Centre ofExcellence for Robotic Vision.Abstract: This talk will define and motivate theproblem of robotic vision and discuss some recentprogress at the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision.This includes component technologies such as deep
learning for computer vision and motion, middleware,and end-to-end systems for applications such asagriculture, environmental remediation and assetinspection.
Jun 2016Title: ‘On Cyber Conflict, Industrial Control SystemSecurity, and Feature Selection’Speaker: Dr. Ernest Foo, an active researcher in thearea of information and network security. He has beenresponsible for the design and development of the QUTSCADA security research laboratory.Abstract: Industrial control systems have been movingfrom isolated communications networks to IT networksconnected to corporate networks, making it probablethat these devices are being exposed to the Internet.Many industrial control systems have been designedwith poor or little security features, making themvulnerable to potential attack. This talk discussedrecent incidents of successful cyber attacks againstcritical infrastructure that are changing the landscape ofmodern conflict. In addition, the talk discussed recentresearch that identifies and analyses several featuresets that have been used in studies related to industrialcontrol system communication protocols in order topropose a well-defined initial feature set.
May 2016Title:‘Emerging Technologies for Smart Cities’Speaker: Professor Simon Kaplan, CEO of [ui!]Australia, a German-based smart city company thathas recently set up in Australia.Abstract: Increasing urbanisation is resulting in cities
struggling to meet the needs of their rapidly-growingpopulations. At the same time there is increasingpressure to reduce the carbon footprint and energyuse of cities, for both economic and climate-changereasons, and a need to do ‘more with less’ in econom-ically difficult times. Unsurprisingly, many citiesare turning to technology to solve this hydra-headedproblem. Smart City technologies broadly have 3 parts:1) Sensors, to gather more data at finer granularitymore frequently; 2) Analytics, to use the data from thesensors, fused with existing data stores within the city,to manage resources better, reduce resource load, andimprove services; and 3) Access, to allow residents ofthe city to track and participate.
Title: ‘AI: The Future of Travel’Speaker: Dr Kelvin Ross, the a founder of K. J. Ross& Associates, currently employing over 100 specialistsoftware testing consultants, and a NATA accreditedtesting laboratory.Abstract: Recently, Barry Diller (chairman and seniorexecutive of Expedia) forecasted that AI will be travel’snext big thing. Technology disruption from datascience and machine learning will likely have an impacton many different industries and roles. As foretold byDiller, an area that is likely to change dramatically is therole of the travel agent. As more and more consumersbook their travel online, how may online travel agenciesevolve to utilize data science and machine learningto provide greater support to the traveler? Dr KelvinRoss is founder of SkiDreamz.com, a tech startup thatis investigating AI and machine learning to providetravel planning support normally provided by a travelagent. In this presentation, Kelvin explained the activ-ities of a traveller, and at what stages data can be usedto optimize the experience. He discussed a number ofconsiderations:
• Why would AI be a benefit to the traveller andthe travel agent?
• How machine learning algorithms can be appliedto these activities?
• What access to data would further optimize theexperience?
• What human interaction is involved to enhancethe customer experience?
Title: ‘Big Data Fusion for Mining e-Health Data’Speaker: A/Prof Xue Li, DKE Division, School ofInformation Technology & Electrical Engineering, UQAbstract: In medical research and healthcare, there aremany large data sets which are related to each other interms of the clinical trials, medical research publica-tions, Electronic Health Records (EHR), annual healthcheck-up records, and patient bed-side monitoring data.In this talk, he discussed case studies and experimentson how they could connect the relevant medical andhealth data sets together to rank the most influentialtreatments for diseases, to predict the health statesfor ageing individuals, or to predict the mortality ofhospital patients. A graph-based data fusion approachwas introduced to represent the different types ofrelationships among data items and learn from data forpredictions.
March 2016Title: ‘Social Media & Social Network Data Analytics’Speaker: A/Prof Xue Li, DKE Division, School ofInformation Technology & Electrical Engineering, UQAbstract: Social media and networks are a popularplace for people to express their opinions aboutconsumer products, to organize or initiate social events,or to spread news. Some questions would be askedin order to understand the social media and socialnetworks: how can we detect and predict the emergingsensitive events? How can we predict the propagationpatterns of online micro-blogs? How can we under-stand peoples opinions about a current issue, a newproduct, or an important event? This talk was to reportrecent research work on the social media and socialnetworks data mining. A few application systems werereported to answer the above questions.
February 2016Title:‘Big Data Analytics’Speaker: A/Prof Xue Li, DKE Division, School ofInformation Technology & Electrical Engineering, UQAbstract: A stunning story on a successful predictionof 2012 USA Presidential Election with 100% accuracyby Mr Nate Silver has shown that the challenges are notjust to invent new algorithms to deal with large, noisy,and uncertain data, but to link the multiple relevantdata sources, structured or unstructured, together tomake effective recommendations. Information is now
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IEEE QUEENSLAND SECTION NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2016
available everywhere from the Web, sensor networks,social networks, or the proprietary databases. Conse-quently, making effective and efficient recommenda-tions based on Big Data is becoming a significant andurgent challenge because of complex, fast changingrelationships between data objects. Therefore, thequestion is: how can we make effective recommen-
dations based on the relevant information collectedfrom high-speed, time-variant, high-dimensional, anddistributed data sources in the current changing andinterconnected world? This talk introduced currentresearch activities in the big data analytics and researchgroup led by Dr Xue Li and provided insight into theissues in the current research.
Committee:Chair: Mohan Karunanithi, CSIROVice-chair: Qing Zhang, CSIROSecretary: Yan Li, University of Southern Queensland
We had four invited talks in the EMB chapter from Juneto August this year:
10 June 2016
Mr. Martien Keetels from Konica Minolta andProfessor Xue Li from University of Queenslandpresented two talks on Artificial Intelligence appli-cations and Big Data analytics in the aged careenvironment.
There were 23 attendees including 7 IEEE membersand 16 guests.
27 June 2016
A/Professor Neal Patwari fromthe University of Utah presenteda talk on Sensorless Sensing:Wireless Networks as human contextsensors.
There were 13 attendees including 5 IEEE membersand 8 guests.
15 July 2016
Professor Gunter Schreierfrom Austrian Institute ofTechnology GmbH presented atalk on d4Health - data drivendecisions for digital health &care.
There were 25 attendees including 5 IEEE membersand 20 guests.
20 August 2016
Professor Jeffrey Kaye ofOregon Health and ScienceUniversity presented a talk onDigital biomarkers as outcomemeasures.
There were 12 attendees including 4 IEEE membersand 8 guests.
Microwave Theory and Techniques/Antennas andPropagation Societies
Committee:Chair: Konstanty Bialkowski, University of QueenslandVice-chair: Antony Lui, The University of QueenslandVice-chair: Morteza Shahpari, Griffith UniversitySecretary: Mostafa Shabani
The MTT/AP Queensland Chapter had some inter-esting seminars in the past few months. The firstof these was in July from Dr Andrew Horsley fromUniversity Basel in Switzerland and was on “WidefieldMicrowave Imaging using Atoms and Diamond NVCenters”. This work shows that it is able to detect EMfields using their effect on atoms rather than typicalantenna structures. Typically by using antennas asreceivers, there is a limitation on how close the antennascan be, as well as the minimum physical size of theantenna. On the other hand by using this technique, byshining a laser through the atoms it is possible to get afield resolution of up to 60 micrometres.
The second seminar we had was from one of our localindustry - EM Solutions - which develops microwavecommunication systems with applications in satelliteand terrestrial communication links, as well as inthe area of defence. Dr Rowan Gilmore, CEO ofthe company, talk was entitled “Innovation in veryhigh speed radio communications - it’s not all aboutthe NBN”. Incorrectly, many people do not considerwireless radio to be an obvious choice for a backhaulsystem, however the product which was developed herein Brisbane is capable of 10 Gbits/sec over severalkilometres.
The third seminar was from Dr Thomas Fickenschertalking about Forward scattering of radio signals bywind turbines on illuminated ground plane. Windturbines are one of the many renewable energy sources,however proper modelling and mitigation techniquesare required to ensure communication signals are notadversely affected by the rotating rotors.
In the next few months the MTT/AP Chapter will behosting a number of IEEE distinguished lecturers andlocal industry speakers. A brief overview of them arelisted below:
• October Prof Ari Sihvola - Metamaterials inElectromagnetics - A Birds Eye View
• October - Alex Crawford - Telstra - ADSL /Propagation / Telstra
• November - Dr Ed Miller - Verification andValidation of Computational ElectromagneticsSoftware
We are still confirming a few more speakers forthis year, so please check the MTTAP part of theIEEE Queensland website for up to date informationincluding dates, abstracts and speaker biographies.
Committee:Chair: Marie-Luise WilleVice-chair: Negareh GhasemiSecretary: Alexandra Posoldova
The WIE committee had two exciting events in the lasttwo months.
On August 5th WIE held a lunch-bag seminar at QUTGardens Point P-Block Terrace where we met JaneCopperthwaite, who shared her exciting journey fromthe UK to Australia in railway signalling.
Within a causal environment, she gave a very inspiringand joyful presentation about her passion in railwaysand what it takes to make our train rides safe, howto avoid collisions and control thousands of trainsthroughout the country and city networks.
Thanks to the support fund grant from WIE R10, theWIE QLD committee organised a CSIRO facility tour.This event aimed to encourage female engineeringgraduate students to visit and interact with Australia’slargest research and development institution CSIRO.On September 9th thirteen participants (including sevenIEEE members) departed from QUT Gardens Pointand travelled to the CSIRO Queensland Centre forAdvanced Technologies (QCAT) in Pullenvale. AtCSIRO we were welcomed by Garry Einicke and AnnaLittleboy, Senior Research Project Officer at QCAT.We enjoyed afternoon tea while listening to Annatell her CSIRO story. We were also able to visit theRemote Mining Centre with Craig James, where weexperienced 360 virtual reality glasses, followed by thenavigation lab with John Malos. Sevda Dehkhoda gaveus an insight about her career as a rock scientist and herresearch about rock/cutter interaction and rock failure.To conclude the event, Garry Einicke guided us aroundthe CSIRO site, where drones and robots and auto pilotvehicles were built and tested.
The event was well received by all participants and itwas a great experience to get such a close up look intoCSIRO QCAT.
Committee:Chair: Alexandra PosoldovaVice-chair: Reuben PeterkinSecretary: Rob MakaremiTreasurer: Hamid Moghadam
Young Professionals Queensland strives to deliverevents on hot topics. At the beginning of September,we organized a seminar in partnership with EngineersAustralia called Challenges and Opportunities inDistributed Network Planning. Our guest speakerwas Dr. Daniel Eghbal, Future Network StrategyEngineer at Energex and an adjunct research fellowat the University of Queensland. His talk was mainlyfocused on the how disruptive technologies such asadvancements in battery and storage technology impactthe way electricity networks operate. He then discussedthe research questions and career opportunities thisdisruption would lead to.
Dr Daniel Eghbal presenting at Engineers Australia
The second half of this year was in support of startupsfor Young Professionals Queensland. We partneredup with Liveh2h to live stream the series of 12Week Startup Accelerator Program hosted by KayvanBaroumand (CEO and serial entrepreneur). We held thefirst broadcast live in a co-working space in Brisbane.
The rest are broadcast online with recordings availablefor your convenience: here. In conjunction with thisseries we also hold live events on related topics. Alllive startup events were financially supported by R10Young Professionals.
The next event Grow Your Startup Globally will bepresented by successful entrepreneur and experiencedstartupist Ed Horwood, who is currently scaling anotherof his businesses (MyShipper) globally. Ed will sharehis journey and explain what it takes to kick start andscale up your startup idea. The event will be heldin River City Labs co-working space, who kindlysponsored the venue hire.
Our sixth event of this year is called The Startup Theoryto be held on 13 October in River City Labs Brisbane.Two great speakers will walk through everything youneed to know about small to medium businesses. Ourfirst speaker, Cole Wilkinson from Pitcher Partners willtalk about business structure, taxation, rising fundsand applying for government grants. The secondspeaker, Wayne Rabnott from Business Development,Executive Economic Development & Strategy, LoganCity Council, will hold a session on business setupstrategy called Critical Non Essentials. This event alsooffers a great networking opportunity with like-mindedpeople, which is essential for starting a business.
Connect with us on Facebook as well as IEEEsintegrated on-line community Collabratec.
Committee:Chair: Reza AkbarzadehVice-chair: Gul ZKSecretary: Josh CataldiTreasurer: Elise Jenkins
The Griffith University Gold Coast student branch hasheld two events during Q3 2016.
Parkwood Substation Site VisitDate: Thursday 8 September 2016
As Engineering students having spent years in lecturetheatres learning the principles of the electricalindustry, it is highly advantageous having the oppor-tunity to gain field experience and see these conceptsand systems in the real world.
In Q3 2016 the IEEE team arranged a site visit to theParkwood Substation on the Gold Coast. Our thirdyear students studying ‘Power Transmission and Distri-bution’ benefited greatly as Energex technicians Mattand Tony spent time providing a tour of the plant whileexplaining the transmission process, control systemsand maintenance involved.
Seminar: “Industry (IAP) Project From a StudentsPerspective”Date: Wednesday 21 September 2016Presenter: Reza Akbarzadeh, Final year Undergraduate,Chair of IEEE GUGC Student Branch.
The Griffith University IEEE Student Branch hosted aseminar directed at students moving toward their finalyear of study and taking on their Industry Projects.Reza, a final year student who has successfully gainedemployment in Industry through proactive networking,hosted the seminar giving helpful advice to all of thestudents who attended.
The duration of the seminar was two hours. Duringthis time, attendees reported that they were able to gainvaluable insight regarding what they can expect fromthe experience and how best to prepare for the transitionfrom academia to industry.
Reza has been a driving force behind the IEEE studentbranch and his presence at such future events will besorely missed.
Contact us on Facebook or Email at ([email protected])or visit our website.
Griffith University IEEE Student Branch NathanCampus continued its activities in second semesterof 2016 with an event related to Smart Buildingspresenting the Sir Samuel Griffith Centre (N78) locatedat Griffith University. Our further plans for rest of2016 is to hold a workshop in October for engineeringstudents to get familiar with Australian industry andhow to find a job after graduation.
Smart Buildings: The Path Towards Future Cities:September 2016
Sir Samuel Griffith Centre (N78), Griffith University NathanCampus
Smart buildings are necessary for creating cities ofthe future. Such buildings are completely carbonand energy neutral and form self-sufficient nodeson distribution networks. Griffith University’s SirSamuel Griffith Centre forms the basis of smartbuildings, with a large incorporated solar arraypowering the facility alongside Lithium and Hydrogen-Metal Hydride batteries serving as the primary energystorage systems with energy management systems forpower distribution and control. The Sir Samuel GriffithCentre has been awarded a 6 star green rating by theGreen Building Council of Australia.
Sir Samuel Griffith Centre Presentation
Griffith University Nathan IEEE Student Branch askedProf. Evan Gray and Dr. Alison Rice to presentthe Sir Samuel Griffith Centre to the audience. Prof.Gray presented technical aspects of Sir Samuel GriffithCentre and Dr. Rice explained more general aspectsof the smart building. The event was held on 16September 2016 at 5pm at Griffith University NathanCampus. The seminar was followed by a building tourand catering.
Thirty-three guests from industry, members of public,
Office Office holder ContactStudent CounsellorsCentral Queensland University - Brisbane Sangeetha Kutty [email protected] Queensland University - Rockhampton Edward Palmer [email protected] University - Gold Coast Jahangir Hossain [email protected] University - Nathan Sascha Stegen [email protected] University of Technology Mark Broadmeadow [email protected] University of Queensland (ITEE) Rahul Sharma [email protected] University of Queensland (PES) Tapan Saha [email protected] of Southern Queensland Vacant
