Researchers from Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Institute of Land, Water and Society (ILWS)  will meet at Wagga Wagga for two days this week to focus on setting a research agenda to tackle the big issues facing the Murray Darling Basin. Institute Director Professor Max Finlayson said, “the inaugural forum is aimed at addressing the issues which are really challenging Australians in this region, such as learning to live with climate change and ensuring we maintain healthy people, communities and landscapes.” Around 70 CSU researchers based across the University will attend the forum and talk about environmental issues including restoring and sustaining our wetlands and valuing ecosystem services. Social researchers will focus on areas such as the future for regional natural resource management, human wellbeing and healthy communities, and developing regional business enterprise.  “It is important to get our researchers into one room to sit together and focus on the big issues at hand. We are all doing individual research projects but the old adage that ‘the whole is greater than the sum of the parts’ rings true,” Professor Finlayson said.

An innovative Charles Sturt University (CSU) program is giving students from 10 Riverina high schools the chance to sample work in the information technology (IT) industry. The School of Computing and Mathematics at CSU at Wagga Wagga and the Division of Information Technology will host IT Work Experience for about 80 students throughout the year. The high school students will assist in a range of tasks including networking a small office, taking and attending to technical support calls as well as gaining an appreciation for the host of IT-related jobs and tasks at CSU. The Head of the School of Computing and Mathematics, Associate Professor Irfan Altas said, “being a regional city, there’s not many opportunities for school students who are interested in IT to get exposure to the industry, so we came up with the idea to offer them real life, hands-on experience.” One of the features of the work experience is a ‘spend a minute with an IT professional session’, where the students meet one of CSU’s IT managers to discuss their work and role. The students will also participate in mock job interviews.

The Head of the School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences at Charles Sturt University (CSU) Associate Professor John Kent has been named as one of the founding board members of the Primary Industries Education Foundation. The focus of the new Foundation will be on school children and encouraging them to learn more about primary industries. It will deliver educational services to schools such as a web portal of educational resources on primary industries, advice on professional development for teachers and information on career paths in primary industries. The principal of NSW Department of Primary Industries’ (DPI) Tocal College, Mr Cameron Archer is the inaugural chairman. Associate Professor Kent is a member of the interim board as a representative of the Australian Council of Deans of Agriculture. He has over 30 years experience in agricultural education both in Australia and overseas and is a member of the E H Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, a collaborative alliance between CSU and DPI.

Igniting an interest in all areas of science is the goal behind expos being hosted by Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Albury-Wodonga and Wagga Wagga in June. Local high and primary school students will attend the Science in the Bush Expos at Wagga Wagga on Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 June and in Albury on Thursday 25 and Friday 26 June. The days will include exhibitions, interactive talks, shows and workshops about all things science. Topics to be presented by a range of science organisations including CSU, The University of Sydney, the Powerhouse Museum and Australian Museum include Fibre Optics; Hot Rocks; Electric Soils; Forensics; and A Look Inside the Cranium. Science in the Bush is hosted by CSU as a part of the Science in the City project run by the Australian Museum and Executive Partner the University of Sydney. A comprehensive program of activities can be found here.

Three expos to be held in northeast Victoria next week over three days will showcase Australian tertiary institutions and courses on offer in 2010. Over 40 institutions including Charles Sturt University (CSU) will be represented at the information days to be held in Shepparton on Monday 22 June, Wangaratta on Tuesday 23 June and Albury-Wodonga on Wednesday 24 June. Representatives from local and interstate universities, institutes of NSW TAFE and private providers will be available to discuss career options with Years 11 and 12 students from Victoria and NSW over the three days. “The days present a great opportunity to find out about the courses students are interested in one place at one time,” said CSU Prospective Student Adviser, Ms Rebecca Gale Collins.

A confronting portrayal of daily life for women and girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will be brought home during a public lecture in Albury on Wednesday 17 June by Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Dr Elaine Dietsch. For the past five years, Dr Dietsch, a senior lecturer in CSU’s School of Nursing and Midwifery, has worked with traditional midwives and women in the DRC. Her public lecture, Hell, Horror and Hope in the Democratic Republic of Congo, relates to her last visit to the country in May and June 2008. Despite the official end of civil war in the equatorial African country, women and girls in the country's south-east continue to experience sexual assault and torture. The address, part of the CSU 2009 Public Lecture series, will be held in Nowik Auditorium, CSU Albury City site, Guinea St, Albury.

People with communication problems resulting from neurological impairment who have been employed to tutor small groups of speech pathology students will be thanked at a ceremony at Charles Sturt University (CSU) on Wednesday 10 June. Employed by the University’s speech pathology program to tutor the third year students for 18 hours over six weeks, the client-tutor program helps the students catch a glimpse of their clients’ worlds. The tutors teach the CSU students about what it is like to live each day with communication problems resulting from such conditions as stroke or traumatic brain injury. The tutors also discussed the experiences of their family members; their experiences of therapy and of the health service in general; and their experiences of community attitudes towards their disability. The ceremony will include short presentations by the five student groups about their experiences with their tutors. This event will be held at 3pm on 10 June, in the Sloshed Cod, CSU Albury City site, off Olive St, Albury.  

Charles Sturt University (CSU) will celebrate the award of six green stars and ‘world leader’ status for environmentally sustainable features to a new building on its Thurgoona site. The Academic Accommodation Stage 3 (AA3) office building has received “a six star Green Star ‘World Leader’ certified rating under Office Design v2” from the national Green Building Council of Australia. Staff from the AA3 building, which is home to the academic staff and students of CSU’s School of Business and Information Technology, will be on hand celebrate the award at a morning tea at 10am on Monday 15 June. “The principles used in buildings at Thurgoona demonstrate a comprehensive, environmentally sensitive process that spans from site planning to selection of materials,” said Executive Director of the University’s Division of Facilities Management, Mr Stephen Butt. Innovative aspects of the building that receive special mention include reduced carbon dioxide production and energy consumption by 65 per cent, and the world’s first use of phase-changing materials in the concrete floor to reduce heating and cooling used in the building.

Before sunrise, a dedicated group of Charles Sturt University (CSU) students are focussed on evaluating the quality of meat carcasses. The students enrolled in animal, equine, agricultural and veterinary sciences arrive at companies like Cargill Beef Australia and Knights Meats in Wagga Wagga and the Junee Abattoir as early as six o’clock in the morning to learn about carcass evaluation and meat quality.  The student group is led by CSU’s carcass evaluation expert and fifth year Veterinary Science student Mr Richard Sanders.  “The importance of maintaining the flow of trained young experts in the speciality field of Meat Science to service the needs of the beef, sheep and pork industries is not lost on these companies,” said CSU Professor of Animal Production Peter Wynn. “The companies willingly make their facilities available each year for the education of our students.” The students will attend a carcass evaluation workshop sponsored by Meat and Livestock Australia in Armidale in early July.  They will then have a chance to participate in an elite national training workshop and selection in an Australian team to compete in international carcass evaluation competitions.  “None of these opportunities would be possible without the support of the management of these companies,” said Professor Wynn.