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’.

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.”

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.

At the Junior Robotics Workshop held at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Orange today, Tuesday 30 November, students and teachers from five schools across the region have learnt to build a rescue robot. The coordinator of the workshop, Mr Allen Benter, a PhD student and researcher at the CSU Centre for Research in Complex Systems (CRiCS) in Bathurst, said, “Charles Sturt University is now the official sponsor of the RoboCup Junior Challenge in the NSW Central West, following its strong support for the event in recent years. The RoboCup Junior Challenge was a huge success last year when it was held at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst. We have an opportunity to make it even bigger and better in Orange.” The workshop gave students and teachers from schools in Orange, Bathurst, Canowindra, and Crookwell a chance to learn the basics of robot building in preparation for the competition in June 2011. They constructed a robot using Lego and wrote programming on computers for their robot to perform a rescue along a track. “It’s very exciting to now see this developing field is so enthusiastically embraced by school students and teachers in the region,” Mr Benter said.

Strategic Research Professor of Agriculture at Charles Sturt University (CSU), Professor Jim Pratley, has been honoured for his outstanding contribution to weed management in Australasia. The Council of Australasian Weed Societies Inc. (CAWS) named Professor Pratley as the recipient of the 2010 CAWS Medal for Leadership. President of the Weed Society of NSW and a member of the EH Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, a collaborative alliance between CSU and Industry & Investment NSW, Dr Rex Stanton, said Professor Pratley has been recognised for his “sustained and nationally influential contributions in the fields of weed management research, teaching, administration and extension. He has had an extensive influence on weed management in southern Australia over more than 30 years. He has an international reputation in weed science research and teaching as well as administration.” Read more about the 2010 CAWS Medal for Leadership here.

A passion for horticulture has earned Charles Sturt University (CSU) student Mr Timothy Whitehead the Australian Institute of Horticulture (AIH) Student of the Year award for 2010. The award is open to students aged under 30 who are currently studying a nationally recognised horticultural course. “Each applicant had to submit an overview of their study and a motivation of what they would contribute to the industry in the future,” said Mr Whitehead. Having worked in the industry for seven years before studying the Bachelor of Horticulture at CSU, Mr Whitehead has a particular interest in vineyards and orchards. “In my application I mentioned that I have an interest in microbiology applied to horticulture, improving irrigation methods, and using these two areas of development to aid food production in the developing world.” As part of his award, Mr Whitehead will represent the AIH as a student ambassador in 2011 while continuing his studies at CSU.

Economic uncertainty and population decline was a common feature of life in inland NSW and inland Australia generally in the first half of the twentieth century, but it did not become a serious problem until the 1930s, according to a Charles Sturt University (CSU) researcher. Dr Robert Tierney, a lecturer at the School of Business at CSU in Bathurst, will present his findings at a public seminar at the University on Wednesday 8 December. “There was a far greater fall in wheat production in the Lachlan Valley region than wheat production across NSW as a whole during the Federation drought years of 1902-03 and the harsh dry seasons of 1918-20,” Dr Tierney said. “Faced with further suffering due to the Great Depression, and from the second world drought of 1937-1945, the people of the Lachlan wheat belt began to see themselves as the third generation to experience greater hardship than others in the NSW wheat belt. As a result young people left the Lachlan catchment between 1933 and 1947 in great numbers, in contrast to the rest of non-metropolitan NSW which grew. My research highlights the climatic and regional economic factors which underpinned the specific fragilities of agriculture and population in the Lachlan Catchment area.”

Questions surrounding the social policy aspects of water are being examined in a project by Charles Sturt University (CSU) Professor of Social Work, Professor Manohar Pawar from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at CSU in Wagga Wagga. The project looks at critical issues of access and fair distribution of water to disadvantaged communities and the need for sound social policies for water sustainability. At the recent ‘Water and Social Policy’ international workshop in South Korea organised by Professor Pawar, papers were presented from Australia, India, Nepal and Thailand. Some of the critical questions raised were: who owns water and who should own it?  “Resolutions to these questions have significant consequences in terms of privatisation and the marketing of water,” Professor Pawar said. “The laws in some of these countries are silent on some critical issues, which allows for their interpretation by powerful groups. Cultural and social aspects are often ignored. For water sustainability, and to ensure the just and fair distribution of water, broad policy guidelines need to be developed.”  The project is due for completion in April next year.

A Charles Sturt University (CSU) student will represent the University and Australia as a member of the cross-country skiing team in competition at the World University Winter Games in Erzurum in Turkey from Thursday 27 January to Sunday 6 February 2011. Ms Esther Bottomley is an elite cross-country skier who is currently studying a postgraduate Bachelor of Teaching (Secondary) by distance education through the School of Teacher Education in Bathurst. CSU student support officer, Mr Nik Granger, said, “Esther is Australia's number one ranked cross-country sprint skier, and has competed in the 2005 and 2007 Winter University Games. She is presently training in Switzerland for the upcoming Games. Studying by distance education with Charles Sturt University has enabled her to further her studies to become a teacher while allowing her the time and flexibility to train and compete at an elite level in cross-country skiing. During her studies Esther has competed in several World Cup events, the 2009 World Championships in the Czech Republic, and qualified and competed in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.”