The Vice-Chancellor and President of Charles Sturt University (CSU), Professor Andrew Vann, will officially open the new Cellar Door at CSU in Orange on Monday 30 July. Mr Justin Byrne, marketing manager at the CSU Winery, said, “The creation of the Cellar Door in Orange by the University is a strategic initiative that recognises the importance of the vineyard as a fruit source for the Charles Sturt University Winery and the importance of the Orange wine region as a small but important player in the Australian wine industry. This new use for the Machinery Centre enhances the building and gives it new life in a very dynamic local industry. The location, opposite the Chardonnay vineyard, is ideal for enhancing the understanding of the connection between the growing of grapes and the making and selling of wine. The 18 hectare vineyard at CSU in Orange is planted with a number of grape varieties: Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.”

Charles Sturt University (CSU) and Regional Development Australia (Central West) will host the Agribusiness Today 2012 forum highlighting opportunities for grain producers at the Forbes Services Memorial Club on Thursday 2 August. Dr Karl Behrendt, director of the Australasian Agribusiness Research Centre at CSU’s School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences, said the forum’s focus is ‘Getting the pulse on cereals and oilseeds’. “Agribusiness Today 2012 is a free day-long forum to update central west grain growers and industry leaders about crop trends in the northern hemisphere and potential demand from Asia for their crops,” Dr Behrendt said. “Participants will hear from a range of experts from the CSIRO, Rabobank, NSW Department of Primary Industries, and others, as well as two international speakers from Argentina, Dr Roberto Peiretti and Ms Cintia Castagnino. Peak Hill farmer Mr Grant Byrne, who is the Conservation Farmer of the Year 2011, will also speak about resilience and adaptive cropping systems.”

Charles Sturt University (CSU) students have claimed four of the 10 positions in the Australian training squad selected from a national meat judging competition held last weekend in Wagga Wagga. The competition was part of the National Intercollegiate Meat Judging (ICMJ) workshop hosted by CSU last week. CSU’s 25-member meat judging team won third place overall, narrowly beaten by teams from Melbourne and Murdoch universities. The CSU team also picked up numerous team and individual awards. The overall runner-up prize was awarded to CSU’s Mr Haydn McKay while the Tom Carr Award for coaching excellence was won by Ms Katelyn Braine. Four CSU students, Ms Gabrielle Knight, Mr Issac Allen, Ms Jordan Hoban and Ms Vanessa Campbell, have been selected to attend an intensive Meat and Livestock Australia training course and may be selected in the Australian team to compete in the USA in 2013. CSU Professor of Animal Production, Peter Wynn said the team trained long hours, often starting at the abattoir at 6am. “The success in this competition certainly shows Charles Sturt University’s target of providing more innovative young graduates to service the needs of our meat industries is well and truly on track,” he said. “The generous support and sponsorship from Teys Australia, Junee Abattoir and Knight’s Meats is appreciated.”

Tobacco use seen through the eyes of young Indigenous people from Canada will be the focus of a public lecture at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga. CSU’s School of Information Studies is hosting the lecture by Dr Cindy Jardine from the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta on Thursday 12 July. Tobacco use is a major health problem in many Canadian Indigenous communities, particularly the high rate of smoking among youth. Dr Jardine’s project, with a school in north-west Canada, involved training older students to conduct research with younger students in a bid to better understand how Indigenous youth view smoking in their communities. Professor Lisa Given from CSU’s School of Information Studies said it makes use of some innovative research techniques. “The photo-voice approach is exciting as it gets a camera into the hands of young people, who can then document and discuss what’s happening in their own communities,” she said.  “Applying this technique to studies in Australian Indigenous communities would be a natural extension.”

The Charles Sturt University (CSU) Regional and Remote Learning Support Team will visit towns around NSW starting on Tuesday 10 July to provide advice and assistance to its new and continuing distance education students. The CSU Regional and Remote Learning Support Team will visit Broken Hill, Parkes, Griffith, Mudgee, Narrabri, Coffs Harbour, Moree, Bega, Bourke, and Cooma. Team manager, Mr James Brann, said, “This is the third study support tour in 2012 to enhance the University’s distance education students’ experience of their courses and their prospects for successful completion. The Regional and Remote Learning Support program provides students who may never visit their campus with access to support and information that students studying on campus may take for granted. The sessions provide group presentations as well as the opportunity for students to make individual face-to-face appointments with staff for support with their studies.”

Carers of people with a mental illness are the focus of a new research project by a psychology student at Charles Sturt University (CSU). Bachelor of Social Science (Psychology) Honours student Mr Gerald Haslinger is seeking participants in a confidential survey which aims to find out more about the experience of unpaid carers and mental health service providers in caring for someone with a mental illness. “I am interested in hearing from unpaid carers and service providers, and what they understand about the Recovery approach to caring for someone living with a mental illness, an approach that is widely accepted within the mental health sector.  My study seeks to find out the level of awareness of this approach amongst mental health service providers as well as unpaid carers.” Mr Haslinger, an education and training officer with a non-government agency in Sydney, has extended the survey until Friday 13 July.  He is completing his degree by distance education through the School of Psychology at CSU in Wagga Wagga. For further details about the survey, contact Mr Haslinger on his email  or take the survey here.

A computing research student from Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga has launched a website to take some complexity out of playing the stock market. PhD student Mr Adrian Letchford is donating all the profits from his online stock charting application to polio vaccination programs through Rotary International. “I hope to raise enough money to vaccinate a million children against this horrible disease,” he said. Using information supplied by American company EODData, Mr Letchford’s website allows people to check the performance of their investments by giving current stock values and helping analyse those prices. Currently undertaking his PhD titled Filtering Stock Prices through CSU’s School of Computing and Mathematics, Mr Letchford hopes to incorporate this research with his online business venture. “As more people move towards managing their own investments, they need simple but powerful tools to help them make the right decisions,” Mr Letchford said.  “My research uses mathematics and computers to make stock prices easier to understand and forecast.”

Cold climate wine grapes from the slopes of Switzerland are different to those grown in Riverina vineyards but a group of Swiss university students will be sampling the local wine during a visit to Charles Sturt University (CSU). CSU will be hosting 21 students from The University of Applied Sciences (UAS) Changins in Switzerland from Monday 25 June to Sunday 1 July. The students will take part in a wine tasting class at the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre (NWGIC)  , tour CSU research facilities and visit vineyards and wineries in Griffith. CSU Bachelor of Viticulture and Wine Science students will then join their Swiss counterparts on a tour of wine regions in Victoria and South Australia. It’s part of a Memorandum of Understanding between CSU’s School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences  and UAS in Switzerland. “This kind of exchange gives our students greater understanding of grape growing and wine production in other parts of the world,” Professor in Viticulture Chris Steel said. “The knowledge gained through collaborative research will also be incorporated into courses here.”  CSU plans to return the visit to UAS in Switzerland in 2013.

To understand what it is like to be a person with a disability is the aim of a course at Charles Sturt University (CSU) where four people with disabilities act as tutors for CSU students in the third year of their speech pathology degrees. As part of the 2012 program, groups of students will present the life story of their tutor in a creative performance for the tutors, their families and other CSU students, to be held in the Gums Café at CSU in Albury-Wodonga on Thursday 31 May starting at 10.15am. Program coordinator and occupational therapy lecturer, Dr Ruth Beecham, said the presentations will use imagination as well as media such as theatre, cinema, and pictures or literary expression. “We want our students to totally focus on their future clients, and what their clients want from them. Teaching students to listen carefully and respond creatively is a great way of developing these skills,” Dr Beecham said. “We need to see problems from a number of perspectives, instead of rushing headlong into ‘solutions’, and take time to explore issues.”