A major exhibition showing the early stories of migrants to Australia in the last century has been developed by Ms Bridget Guthrie at Albury LibraryMuseum, with research assistance from Associate Professor Bruce Pennay from Charles Sturt University (CSU). For over 25 years, objects owned by former residents of the Bonegilla Migrant Reception Centre have been collected – photographs, toys, books, clothing and appliances. These have been gathered into a series of displays, including a large cabinet made from old suitcases, to go on show. The exhibition, titled The Bonegilla Story, is a permanent display to be opened by the Mayor of Albury City, Cr Alice Glachan, at 6pm on Thursday 19 November at the Albury LibraryMuseum, Kiewa Street, Albury. Professor Pennay will also give a guided tour of the exhibition with Ms Guthrie, starting at 11am on Saturday 21 November.

A Charles Sturt University (CSU) staff member has shown a clean pair of heels to be crowned 2009 world champion long distance mountain runner in her age group. Competing as part of the Australian women’s team in the World Long Course Mountain Marathon 2009, held in Söll, Austria, Ms Colleen Middleton from CSU at Albury-Wodonga was placed first in the 45 to 49 year women’s age group and eighth overall in the women’s section and was a member of the second-placed Australian Women’s team. “It was a terrific experience to stand on the podium as part of the Australian team, and a real thrill to finally cross the finish line after the hard climb up that mountain,” said Ms Middleton, who ran the steep 42 kilometre course high in the Austrian Alps in just over three hours 50 minutes.

The finals of Animal Idol will be held on the Wagga Wagga Campus of Charles Sturt University (CSU) tomorrow. The brainchild of Professor Martin Sillence in the CSU Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences School and course coordinator of the new Bachelor of Animal Science, Animal Idol has first year Animal Science students compete in an Australian Idol-style competition. “It is designed to improve presentation skills,” said Dr Sillence. “Each week a different topic is researched and I set a distinct theme and context. Once students gave a presentation aimed at school children, another was an ‘unplugged’ presentation with no power point or other electronic devices. There is a panel of judges drawn from CSU - perhaps one is a little bit ‘Marcia’, and two are a little bit ‘Dicko’. The students vote by SMS to eliminate one of the presentation teams. It is novel, but it seems to be working. I have been amazed by the standard of presentations and the way the students have improved from week to week.”

As Charles Sturt University (CSU) enhances its administration to better service the needs of its students, a competition to name the new Student Service Centre reflects this student-centred approach. Albury-Wodonga health and habilitation degree student Mr Ben Southi has won a new iPod with his entry, ‘Student Central’, to name the new centres, which will be found on each of the main CSU campuses located in Bathurst, Dubbo, Orange, Thurgoona and Wagga Wagga. At Thurgoona, the new centre will be housed in the new Learning Commons building. The new centres will be ready for the 2010 academic year.

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.

The Head of the School of Visual and Performing Arts at Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Wagga Wagga, Associate Professor Margaret Woodward, will officially open a new exhibition showcasing the works of students on Friday 27 November. The exhibition, artifex, will feature students from the Bachelor of Arts (Jewellery) and Master of Arts Practice (Jewellery Design and Production). Artifex will be opened from 6pm in the Docker Street Gallery, 125a Docker Street, Wagga Wagga. The exhibition runs until Friday 4 December.

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 senior Russian academics from Vladivostok will visit Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Bathurst on Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 November. Mr Errol Chopping, Courses Manager at the CSU School of Computing and Mathematics at Bathurst, said the visit by Professor Valeriya Gribova, Professor of Computer Science at the Far East Russian Academy of Sciences, and Professor Evgeni Nurminskiy, Professor of Mathematics at the Far East National University, follows visits in January and September this year by himself and CSU’s Dr David Tien, the first-ever visits by Australians to the Academy in Vladivostok. “This landmark visit by Professor Gribova and Professor Nurminskiy is the second part of our outreach initiative into Russia, and is designed to cement a sound working relationship between Charles Sturt University and Russia,” Mr Chopping said. “During our visits to Vladivostok we met the Austrade ambassador, the Australian Ambassador to Russia and the embassy’s First Secretary, and also scheduled meetings with the Russian Minister for Tourism and Trade in Moscow. Subsequently, we were able to invite the two Russian academics to visit Australia, and we have worked on sharing and collaborating on research, holding English-speaking summer schools in Russia, two-way student and staff exchanges, and joint computer science conferences.”

The challenges facing Israel’s wine grape industry are shared by growers and researchers in Australia. Charles Sturt University (CSU) is currently hosting a visit from one of the world’s leading viticulture scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Professor of Viticulture and Oenology, Professor Ben Ami Bravdo is known internationally for his expertise on the impact of water and salinity stress on plant productivity. He is speaking to researchers at the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre (NWGIC) at Wagga Wagga on crop load, mineral nutrition, water availability and salinity impact upon the quality and quantity of grape harvests. Later in the week Professor Bravdo will travel to Griffith to present a seminar and meet with district growers. The NWGIC’s Dr Jonathon Holland said, “This is a unique opportunity as Israel experiences many similar issues to those that challenge Australian growers, so there is much that can be learned.”