Research being conducted by Charles Sturt University (CSU) should lead to happier, healthier pigs and better quality pork on supermarket shelves. Ms Rebecca Doyle, an associate lecturer with the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at CSU in Wagga Wagga will be working with Australian Pork Limited (APL) to help farmers and veterinarians to better assess the wellbeing of their pigs. “It is hoped this research will develop some best-practice standards which producers can adopt to the benefit of their profitability and the welfare of their pigs that suffer pain or sickness,” Ms Doyle said. “The research will be conducted on-farm and at specialised research facilities. The aims include developing a postgraduate researcher with specialist expertise in pig welfare and to provide industry with practical, easy to use tools for assessing the wellbeing of pigs. Ultimately, healthier pigs will lead to better quality pork for consumers.” The project is due to start in March 2011 and will continue for three years. Ms Doyle is also a member of the EH Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation - a collaborative alliance between CSU and Industry & Investment NSW.

Work has commenced on the National Life Sciences Hub (NaLSH) building project at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga with the establishment of the site, fencing, works on the realignment of Nathan Cobb Drive, and other preliminary site works. The NaLSH will help the integration of fundamental research with applied research and teaching, to build links between researchers and stakeholders (students, industry, producers) and identify problems and the development of improvements with immediate application to agricultural practice. It will create links to undergraduate and graduate training, and improve interactions across local/national/international partners in research in food security and biosecurity. An historical record of the site will be recorded by the capturing of time-lapse images of the site for the duration of the project. This is required for the information of funding and other bodies, as well as archival purposes. Please note that persons near the site may be inadvertently captured in these images.

Millawa in North East Victoria will echo with the sounds of whirls, clicks and clunks when a Charles Sturt University (CSU) technical expert holds a day-long workshop at Millawa Primary School tomorrow, Thursday 2 December, to help students with their robotic projects. Mr Andrew Shaw from CSU’s Division of Information Technology in Albury-Wodonga will help senior students at the school to build robots using LegoTM and program them to do simple tasks. The students recently completed a Lego Robotics course with Goulburn Ovens TAFE and want to extend what they learned to ‘real world’ situations. “I had completed my degree on applied cybernetics and computing at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, and I am really please to share what I learned,” Mr Shaw said. “The recent New Zealand coalmine disaster highlighted that limitations still exist in modern robots, and I hope to give the students some appreciation of the challenges and approaches we face in this area.”

International research for the teaching professions at Charles Sturt University (CSU) will be marked during a ceremony at CSU in Wagga Wagga on Monday 6 December following the signing earlier this year of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Academic Cooperation by CSU and the University of Western Ontario (UWO) in Canada. Dean of CSU’s Faculty of Education, Professor Toni Downes, will welcome UWO Associate Professors Allan Pitman and Anne Kinsella to CSU. Professor Bill Green from CSU leads the cooperative initiative between the two universities for research in professional education. Similar agreements involving CSU’s Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education (RIPPLE) have been signed in recent years with the University of Tromsø in Norway, the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), and the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences (the Netherlands). Leading these latter agreements is Professor of Education at CSU, Professor Stephen Kemmis. He will also oversee two meetings from Monday 6 to Friday 10 December of about 70 academics and PhD students from Australia, Canada, Finland, Norway, Sweden and The Netherlands.  The researchers are exploring how teachers in Australia and overseas can ‘develop the moral, social and professional capabilities characteristic of excellent teachers’.

A visit to the small, historic village of Brungle near Tumut, NSW, is on the itinerary for international historians visiting the region next week for a conference organised by academics from the School of Education at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga. The 2010 Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society (ANZHES) conference has attracted about 50 historians of education from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA from Monday 6 to Thursday 9 December. “One focus of the conference is on Indigenous people’s educational histories in Australia, New Zealand and North America, highlighted by a keynote address by CSU’s Foundation Professor of Indigenous Studies, Professor Jeannie Herbert, at 8.30am on Wednesday 8 December,” conference co-convenor Dr Peter Rushbrook said. “As a part of this focus, the historians will visit Brungle Public School near Tumut from 12.30pm to 6.30pm on Wednesday 8 December. The school, established in 1868, is known for its excellent Indigenous education program, and a paper about the school’s history will be presented to the conference delegates on the coach on the way to the school.”

About 50 prospective Indigenous students from all over NSW and two from Queensland are participating in the three-day Darrambal Skills Assessment Program at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst this week. Mr Ray Eldridge, Manager of CSU’s Indigenous Student Services, said, “Darrambal is an innovative skills assessment program designed for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. The program compares participants’ existing skills and abilities with the entry requirements for their preferred courses at CSU, and assesses their potential to succeed in university study. Darrambal allows participants to attend university-style classes, learn skills needed for success at university, and meet lecturers and other staff in a supportive environment. Those who successfully complete Darrambal may be offered a place at CSU to study their preferred or an optional course. Alternatively, they may be encouraged to first undertake some other course of study.” More information can be found here, or phone Wammarra Indigenous Student Service Centre at CSU in Bathurst on mobile 0457 866 905.

Society has been transformed by computing and data transfer technology in the last two decades. The success of Charles Sturt University (CSU), which was established in 1989, owes much to the innovation and capacity of its Division of Information Technology (DIT) which celebrates its 20th anniversary with a staff barbeque on Friday 26 November. DIT Executive Director, Mr Garry Taylor, said, “Charles Sturt University was created as part of the Dawkins-era reform of the Australian higher education sector, and the University’s success is partly due to the early and deliberate priority to develop technology to ensure success. We were one of the first universities in Australia to adopt video conferencing technology, and we now have more than 100 terminals, which is important for teaching, learning and collaboration, as well as reducing the need to travel which is important for the environment. In 1990 Charles Sturt University was one of the first regional universities to connect to the Internet, and at one stage our website had the most ‘hits’ of any website in Australia in 1995-96. We also had a world-first enterprise-wide Online Learning Environment in 1997. We now have the fastest single and direct internal network link in regional Australia and the largest wireless network in the Southern Hemisphere.”

School children in Orange will get hands-on experience in the world of science at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Orange next Monday 29 November. Around 75 students in Year 5 at St Joseph’s Primary School will divide into small groups to conduct experiments which include the search for the elusive sea monkey, how trees breathe, building a home-made battery, and extracting DNA from fruit. Academics from the CSU School of Biomedical Sciences and the School of Agriculture and Wine Sciences will spend the morning with the students in the University’s science laboratories. The aim of the workshop is to inspire children to enjoy the world of science. “We want to show the children how fun and fascinating science can be,” science lecturer Mr Gregg Maynard said. “It’s an opportunity to pass on knowledge and introduce children to the University campus.” This workshop builds on previous workshops offered to Borenore Public School and Orange Christian School in 2008 and 2009. With the success of these workshops it is hoped that the program will extend to local high schools in 2011.

The use of virtual reality is pivotal to training future police officers in NSW, according to Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic, Ms Amanda Davies, course director of the Associate Degree in Policing Practice at the School of Policing Studies. Ms Davies will explain how simulation and virtual reality is used in teaching policing studies in a case study titled ‘The Role of Virtual Reality in Connecting Students to their Profession’ to be presented at the National Curriculum Innovation and Quality Forum 2010 in December. “Our students use virtual reality to practice management of events that could happen as part of their policing duties,” Ms Davies said. “The way this course is delivered is a good example of how virtual reality can assist in the practical learning and training involved with certain professions, and I look forward to sharing that knowledge with my colleagues at this conference.” The National Curriculum Innovation and Quality Forum 2010 aims to develop and strategies for education and training providers.