Academics, students and industry representatives will gather for the official opening of the Centre for Research in Complex Systems (CRiCS) at the School of Computing and Mathematics  at Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Bathurst on Thursday 12 November. The Director of CRiCS, Professor Terry Bossomaier, said, “The natural, biological and social worlds abound with patterns in time, in space, and in human knowledge, and understanding how patterns emerge and evolve is a key research focus of the sciences of complexity. Increasing research activity over the last decade has revolved around human systems. It is this psychological and sociological dimension that is particularly strong in CRiCS which has three main integrated research themes. These are the nature of complexity itself and the theories which characterise it; complexity as a methodology for solving problems in the real world; and complexity as a model for theorising about social systems, dynamics and change.” Guests at the official opening of the CRiCS laboratories will also be able to inspect the Newcrest Mining Research and Robotics Lab, the Computer Vision Lab, the Visualisation Lab, and the Advanced Computing Lab.

Three Charles Sturt University (CSU) professors will discuss the evolution of the ideas of Charles Darwin at a commemorative inaugural lecture and dinner in Bathurst on Tuesday 24 November. The inaugural Somerville Lecture is in honour of Professor Warren Somerville whose collection of world-class specimens is housed at the Bathurst Fossil and Mineral Museum in Howick Street, Bathurst. Professor Somerville will be one of the speakers, and the others are Professor Nick Klomp, Dean of the CSU Faculty of Science and Adjunct Professor David Goldney, a former lecturer and noted environmental consultant. “This will be a wonderful occasion, as it marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species on the 24 November 1859,” Professor Klomp said. “This book, as much as or more than any other, has changed the way we understand life on Earth. It is an honour to share the podium with Professor Somerville and Professor Goldney on this historic anniversary.”

A final-year advertising student at the Charles Sturt University (CSU) School of Communication is relishing the prospect of living on the upper east side of Manhattan in New York while he undertakes a 10-week placement with one of the world’s largest advertising agencies. Mr Martin Peat, who is completing the four-year double degree Bachelor of Communication (Advertising) / Bachelor of Business (Marketing), was chosen for the prestigious scholarship with BBDO Worldwide.  Mr Peat said he has made an effort to gain as much industry experience as possible while studying for his degree and recently completed an internship at the OMD media agency in Sydney. “I also work at Nova 96.9FM radio station in Sydney, which has given me a greater opportunity to explore the media side of advertising. I’m thrilled to be given this opportunity to learn from the world's best and gain international experience. BBDO is located in the heart of Manhattan, the birthplace of modern advertising, and I feel extremely privileged to be able to experience it first-hand. I don't think many other students get this once-in-a-lifetime chance, and I’d like to thank Charles Sturt University and the International Advertising Association,” Mr Peat said.

Teachers from nearly 200 schools across the region have been invited to attend a special introductory training day at Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Bathurst on Friday 27 November in preparation for the NSW central west region RoboCup Junior Challenge to be staged at the University at Bathurst in June 2010. Mr Allen Benter, the coordinator of the 2010 RoboCup Junior Challenge and an associate lecturer at the CSU School of Computing and Mathematics at Bathurst, said this is the first of the preparatory workshops CSU will hold for supervising teachers whose students want to participate in the Challenge. “We at Charles Sturt University are very excited to be able to promote computer sciences to young people in this way,” Mr Benter said. “RoboCup is an international competition/conference promoting artificial intelligence and robotic research around the world. RoboCup Junior is aimed at primary to secondary school children and focuses not only on engineering and computing skills, but also emphasises sportsmanship, teamwork, cooperation and organisational skills. This workshop for teachers will assist them to guide their students through the process of constructing and programming a robot to compete in one of three events dance, rescue or soccer. The winners of the regional competition will then advance to the state competition.”

Two Charles Sturt University (CSU) researchers have celebrated their prestigious Fellowships as guests of the Hon. Kevin Rudd, MP, Prime Minister of Australia, and Senator the Hon. Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. On Wednesday 28 October, Associate Professor Gary Luck and Professor Sharynne McLeod were among over 600 distinguished scientists, science leaders and science educators invited to attend the Prime Minister's Science Prizes Dinner in the Great Hall at Parliament House in Canberra. Associate Professor Luck from the School of Environmental Sciences at CSU at Albury-Wodonga and Professor McLeod from the School of Teacher Education at CSU at Bathurst were named as Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellows by Senator Carr in September. Read more here. As an ecologist, Professor Luck’s Fellowship will facilitate his work on Integrating the conservation and ecosystem-service value of Australia’s Catchments. Professor McLeod was awarded the Fellowship to work on Speaking my language: International speech acquisition in Australia.

A tutor at Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Bathurst has won awards in the two categories for which she was nominated at the annual 2009 Australian Commercial Radio Association (ACRA) Awards presented in Sydney on Saturday 10 October. Ms Janeen Hosemans, a tutor in commercial radio and advertising courses at the CSU School of Communication, who hosted the popular Morning Wireless Program on local Bathurst radio station 2BS, won the top award in the  categories for Best Talk Presenter, and Best On-air Team (with co-host Mr Peter Harrison for their weekly ‘Fishy Friday’ segment). The producer of both these segments, Ms Andrea Moore, also won Best Show Producer – Talk and Current Affairs (non-metropolitan). The Head of the School of Communication, Associate Professor Rod McCulloch said, “As our valued industry partner and supporter of the School of Communication, our congratulations go to all at Bathurst Broadcasters for a stellar performance at the ACRA Awards.”

A short film by Charles Sturt University (CSU) adjunct senior lecturer in history Dr Robin McLachlan will have its first public test screening on Wednesday 2 November. The 20 minute-long film, The Letter, stars another CSU adjunct lecturer, Mr Bill Blaikey (and his co-star dog, Merry), from the School of Communication in Bathurst. Dr McLachlan said the film developed from and is part of his international research into the participation by Australians and New Zealanders in the 1897-99 Klondike gold rush in north-west Canada. “This was the first significant wave of Australians and New Zealanders to leave the southern hemisphere to seek their fortunes in the northern hemisphere. During the course of my research I found numerous letters from them to home, as well as a unique complete run of a Dawson City, Canada, newspaper, The Klondyke Miner and Yukon Advertiser, held by the Mitchell Library in Sydney, Australia,” Dr McLachlan said. “The script for The Letter is based closely on historical evidence from first-hand accounts published in Australian newspapers at the time, as well as information gleaned from Yukon archives and published histories.”

Radio 2MCE, the community broadcasting service operated on behalf of Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst, was recently named an award winner at the annual Community Broadcasting Association of Australia national conference at the Hilton Hotel in Brisbane on 20-22 November. Ms Michelle O’Connor, the Programming and Production Coordinator at 2MCE who was present to accept the award, said staff at the station were very pleased to be recognised by their sector peers in winning the ‘Most Innovative Outside Broadcast or Special Event Broadcast’ award for 2MCE’s Sounds Live project in 2009. “Sounds Live was a live music festival, and a major live-broadcast feat for a community radio station. It featured the Sounds Live Cabaret, held in conjunction with Local Stages and Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, the Sounds Live Acoustic concert at the CSU Ponton Theatre, and more than 15 live-to-air performances from our 2MCE studio. During the week we heard jazz, classical, acoustic, cabaret, dance, folk and country music from local musicians and two live concerts broadcast on 2MCE,” Ms O’Connor said.

The Rafters Bar at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst throbbed with the sound of camaraderie on Sunday night 29 November when hundreds of Australian and international road-based gravity sports champions and competitors celebrated with their families and supporters at the 2009 Newton’s Playground party and presentation ceremony following three days of world-class thrills and spills on the neighbouring Mount Panorama motor racing circuit. About 200 competitors from every state in Australia and from Norway, Canada, Switzerland, Britain, the United States, France and Malaysia gathered for the second Newton’s Playground, a world championship event for skateboard, street luge, in-line skates, and gravity bikes staged at Mount Panorama under the auspices of the Australian Skateboard Racing Association (ASRA) and the International Gravity Sports Association (IGSA). One of the event organisers, Mr James Hopkin, from Hopkin Skate, said the aim was to develop Newton’s Playground year by year, and that meant choosing a date when CSU students were in town. “We love Mount Panorama and Bathurst, and want to engage the Bathurst community as we develop this great event. That also means involving Charles Sturt University students as potential competitors, spectators and support workers. For example, former CSU student Mr David Robinson, who graduated from the CSU School of Communication in Bathurst in 1988, played a leading technical role by enabling videoing and live web-casting of the event,” Mr Hopkin said. CSU Student Services Officer, Ms Alex Leis, who liaised with the organisers for their four-day post-competition use of The Rafters Bar food and beverage facilities, said it was a happy collaboration to have the gravity racers use the CSU facilities.