Griffith University alumnus Lily Satiowijaya’s helicopter flights to and from jobs are a little different to the average commute.
Lily, who graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) in 2009 and a Graduate Certificate in Health Services Management in 2018, is now a Retrieval Registrar with RACQ LifeFlight where she helps save the lives of those involved in serious accidents that can only be reached by helicopter.
“I finished med school with quite a firm idea as to which training program I would like to embark on,” Lily said.
“LifeFlight has always been a career goal (and) bucket list item.”
The doctor credits Griffith’s supportive environment and relevant course content for helping her gain the skills needed for the job.
“The opportunity to rotate through all the different aspects of healthcare during placement helped me quite early on to decide which path I would like to take,” she said.
“The high concentration of clinical staff at the medical school allowed discussion into what each of the different pathways of training entails (and) I really liked the relevance of the assessments and teaching contents to clinical applicability.”
When asked what she liked about her job, Lily said she enjoyed that it made a positive impact on people’s lives.
“I love the knowledge that I have made a difference (and) the smiles from patients, family and staff members when we retrieve patients,” she said.
“I also enjoy the ability to look behind the scenes into the giant machine that is Retrieval Services Queensland and witness telehealth in action.”
Listening to the environment — singing birds and chirping crickets — is increasingly used as a means of monitoring change in ecosystems. Together with two colleagues from Melbourne and Paris, Griffith University senior lecturer Dr Simon Linke has led a major drive to kickstart acoustic monitoring in freshwater systems.
“Monitoring freshwater ecosystems is time consuming and costly. Using acoustics enables us to observe what is going on 24/7,” explains collaborator Dr Camille Desjonqueres.
Experienced in listening to grunting fish and creakingwaterbugs, Dr Linke – from Griffith’s Australian Rivers Institute – and his team assembled the key researchers from Europe, North America and Australia to compile a full issue of the leading journal in their field.
“We took over the editorial desk ofFreshwater Biologyfor an issue,” Dr Linke said. “We invited the biggest names in the field to help us tackle some of the key steps towardsoperationalisingacoustics in the freshwater realm.”
In their editorial, the researchers identified these steps to progress the field.
“We often arrive at a site and have no idea what produces the sounds we are hearing. A few articles — by our group, but also by one of the US-based gurus in the field — describe how sounds are identified andcharacterised,” says Dr Toby Gifford, formerly a lecturer at the Griffith Conservatorium.
Other articles deal with automatic sound processing. Dr Gifford, a global leader in real-time sound processing, explains: “We aim to build a Shazam for fish — a fish swims by and we can identify it in real-time.”
Another obstacle is spatial and temporal variation.
“Everybody knows the bird dawn chorus,” Dr Desjonqueres said. “Underwater soundscapes have similar dynamics.
“Some articles in the issues, including one by our student ChrisKaraconstantis, explore how tominimisesampling error byoptimisingwhen and how often to measure.”
Other articles deal with the sounds of love-sick arctic fish, endangered Bhutanesewaterbirdsand the chatter of Amazonian Piranhas.
However, as Dr Linke explains, the holy grail is to derive a link between sounds and ecological condition.
“We have cracked some aspects of it: articles from France and the US describe the detection of invasive species — also worked with acatchment management authorityin the Murray-Darling basin on acoustic detection of the benefits of the water buyback scheme.”
However, more research —which ispartly underway in Dr Linke’s lab—is needed to be able togeneraliselinks between sound and ecological condition.
Apart from the scientific outcomes, Dr Linke also highlights the capacity building aspect of the issue: “We are extremely proud that 9 out of the 15 articles were led by students. The future is looking bright indeed.”
https://soundcloud.com/user-101730111/episode-24-simon-linke
Two key members of Griffith University’s Learning Futures group have been appointed to positions of influence across Australasia, in the field of technology enhanced learning and teaching.
Professor Michael Sankey, currently the Deputy Director (Learning Transformations), has been elected President of the Australasian Council on Open, Distance and e-Learning (ACODE).
ACODE is the peak Australasian representative body for universities engaged in technology enhanced learning and teaching, with representation from 45 institutions.
“I have been on the ACODE Executive for eight years and Vice President for the past four years,” Professor Sankey said.
“As President I represent Griffith University and also provide a voice into the sector in relation to technology enhanced learning and teaching (what we call TEL).
Professor Sankey is also Director of the ACODE Learning Technologies Leadership Institute and will convene the Biannual ACODE Benchmarking Summit at Griffith in June.
Dr Chris Campbell has been elected President for the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE), following a 12-month term as Vice President and four years on the ASCILITE Executive committee.
ASCILITE is a professional association for those engaged in the educational use of technologies in tertiary education, with 588 individual and 22 institutional members.
“I’m looking forward to developing my academic leadership in the sector further and providing leadership for ASCILITE during the next two years during an exciting time in the technology enhanced learning fields,” Dr Campbell said.
“ASCILITE is an international collegial body and Griffith members have often hosted a number of online and face-to-face events which are extremely well-attended.”
Griffith’s Learning Futures group works with the university’s educators to lead, develop and inspire excellent, innovative and impactful learning and teaching across all campuses.
Griffith University researchers have shown that leaf litter can play an important role in controlling algal blooms.
After winning an ARC Linkage grant in 2016, Griffith University researchers, led byProfessor Michele Burfordat theAustralian Rivers Institute,looked at the organic compounds leached from leaves and how this interacts with soil, to determine whether these compounds could suppress the growth of blue-green algal (or cyanobacteria) blooms.
Professor Michele Burford.
Blue-green-algae outbreaks have major impacts on plants and animals that live in or near creeks, rivers, lakes, estuaries and the ocean. These algae can also produce toxins with major human health concerns.
Professor Burford said investigating how leaf litter can play a role in limiting those impacts could aid management authorities and environmental managers such as Healthy Land Water andSeqwaterin managing, monitoring and treating impacted water.
“Trees have an even greater role in preserving water quality than we previously thought,” she said.
“Nutrients from the land – viafertilisersand soil erosion, for example – are a major cause of algal blooms, and planting trees along waterways is one way to reduce nutrient runoff.
“This is because trees take up nutrients from the soil in order to grow. But trees have another role, as we have recently found.
“Trees and other plants also deliver organic material into waterways. They drop their leaves, they fall in the water or they fall on the ground, so we get leaf litter everywhere.”
Among the novel techniques the team employed was to add leachate from leaves to experimental chambers in a reservoir and observe the effect the leachate had on the growth of algae. The experiment revealed that if enough
Variations of leachate from the experiment.
leachate was added it can suppress the blue-green algal growth.
The findings explain why waterways surrounded by vegetation may have less problems with blue-green algal blooms than other waterways, suggesting that trees don’t just control algal growth by shading, they also chemically control algal growth, especially problematic blue-green algae.
Professor Burford said the research project also examined the relationship between these organic leachates from leaves and chlorination process used for treating drinking water. Organic leachates, such as tanninsdiscolourthe water but the combination of chlorine and organic leachate produces disinfection byproducts that can be harmful to humans.
“Some trees are likely to be better to plant when revegetatingriver banksthan others,” she said.
“It’s a difficult balance, so it’s important to plant the right trees tominimisethe effects on water treatment andmaximisethe effects on suppressing the algal blooms.”
The team published findings from their investigations in the journalScience of the Total Environment.
Funding / acknowledgments
An Australian Postgraduate Award and funding from the Australian Rivers Institute and the School of Environment, Griffith University supported AmandaNeilen.
An innovative social media campaign from a Queensland tourism icon, key to rebuilding bushfire ravaged communities dependent on the visitor economy according to new Griffith research.
Dr Sarah Gardiner is Director of the Griffith Institute for Tourism and is a published researcher on travel consumer behaviour, experience design and innovation.
Researchers from Griffith Institute for Tourism, Dr Sarah Gardiner and Dr Debbie Cotterell, published key business insights for tourism operators affected by natural disasters.
Their case study of the Binna Burra Lodge’s disaster recovery, following a devastating bushfire in September last year, reveals how the business used #BringBackBinnaBurra to keep the public engaged.
Through social media posts and an email newsletter, supporters have seen videos of the Lodge site being cleared, photos of wildlife returning and blog posts about the staff who carried out the evacuation.
Dr Sarah Gardiner says tourism operators affected by natural disasters need to communicate their recovery efforts to minimise long-term effects on the visitor economy.
“Don’t ignore the event, your customers will know about it. Instead restructure messages around your recovery effort, it’s not a time for business as usual,” said Dr Gardiner.
Customers have shown their support by purchasing recovery supporter merchandise and raising over $100,000 through a crowdfunding campaign.
Dr Gardiner says the Binna Burra Lodge case study shows the strong ‘emotional connection’ customers build with destinations needs to be encouraged to ensure communities are not ‘abandoned in the aftermath’.
“There will be many challenges, but the destruction also provides an opportunity to rebuild and reimage the visitor experience. For example, following the cyclones in Tropical North Queensland resorts were rebuilt and improved,” said Dr Gardiner.
Dr Gardiner says Binna Burra Lodge is moving forward by changing fear and devastation into a new narrative. They plan to have the Rainforest Campsite, Lamington Teahouse and Sky Lodges in operation by April 2020.
“Collaborative approaches need to be considered to bring tourism back to these regions. Tourism businesses need to be creative in their vision to stay resilient in areas prone to natural disasters,” said Dr Gardiner.
Read the ‘Bushfire at Binna Burra Lodge’ case study in full.
A Griffith PhD candidate has been awarded an AI for Earth grant from Microsoft to further enhance an innovative database that identifies and analyses the numbers and movements of fish species.
The grant will provide Sebastian Lopez-Marcano, a PhD student with Griffith’s Australian Rivers Institute (ARI), with $10,000 to accelerate work on theFishIDsoftware program.
The creation ofFishIDwas led by ARI’s Professor Rod Connolly who also heads up the Global Wetlands Project (GLOW).
FishIDidentifies and counts fish species via underwater footage, which can lead to faster generation and provision of data for fisheries management and help guide conservation efforts in regions by closely monitoring fish populations.
Lopez-Marcano, whose PhD is on ‘Measuring cross-habitat movements among habitat hotspots of fish with artificial intelligence’, saidFishIDwould complement traditional on-site monitoring techniques byanalysinghours of underwater footage of fish species for researchers and stakeholders.
“The overall objective of my PhD project is to answer different questions about fish connectivity – the movement of fish between habitats or locations – and this use of computer innovation and machine learning likeFishIDis quite new in the literature,” he said.
“Most people usually use traditional techniques like on-site monitoring – this technology works for monitoring fish movements and compliments traditional techniques by reducing the need for hours of vital resources on the ground.
“It takes hours and hours to manually process footage from on-site monitoring, so Microsoft’s AI for Earth grant will help us develop the system to the point where t it can be used by researchers from other institutions and environmental management authorities.”
AI for Earth is a $50 million, five-year program that brings the full advantage of Microsoft technology to those working to solve global environmental challenges in the key focus areas of climate, agriculture, water and biodiversity.
Through grants that provide access to cloud and AI tools, opportunities for education and training on AI, and investments in innovative, scalable solutions, AI for Earth works to advance sustainability across the globe.
Griffith is part of a growing number of AI for Earth grantees worldwide who have beenrecognisedby Microsoft for its impact and potential.
In this round, Griffith were one of only two Australian universities awarded grants among the 40 institutions awarded worldwide.
In 2019, two Griffith Engineering students were awarded a Microsoft AI for Earth grant to develop a carbon interchange model for green stormwater infrastructure in cities.
Learn more: Microsoft AI for Earth,https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/aiforearth
The South Pacific Centre for Central Banking (SPCCB) facilitated capacity building program reached a new milestone in late 2019. The central banks of Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Timor Leste signed a PhD Memorandum of Understanding with Griffith University to take the capacity building program to the next level–to build a credible local capacity for policy-oriented research–one of the four key objectives of the program.
“The intention of the PhD program is to strengthen the region’s capacity for conducting independent, rigorous inquiry into the problems facing the management of economies in the South Pacific”, said Dr Parmendra Sharma, SPCCB’s founding program convenor.
“A basic premise for which is that such management is more likely to happen where there is an active, well-informed group of locally based, adequately trained and professional researchers to conduct policy-relevant research.”
The MoU essentially provides for a cost-sharing scholarship, where Griffith covers the tuition fees and health insurance and the central banks cover living expenses over the duration of the studies. Only central bankers from the South Pacific may apply for the scholarship, which commences in 2020.
Professor Cindy Shannon, Pro Vice Chancellor (Indigenous)
Griffith University is proud to announce that Professor Cindy Shannon, a descendent of the Ngugi people and one of Australia’s foremost higher education Indigenous leaders, will join the University as its first Pro Vice Chancellor (Indigenous).
In the new executive leadership role, Professor Shannon will work alongside colleagues in successfully enabling all aspects of Griffith’s First Nations engagement as well as developing strategies to enhance participation, support and success of its First Nations communities.
Vice Chancellor and President Professor Carolyn Evans welcomed Professor Shannon to the University.
“Professor Shannon brings enormous depth of experience not only as an academic but also as a leader, changemaker and advisor in many Indigenous portfolios locally and nationally.”
“Our recently released Strategic Plan 2020-2025 Creating a Future for all speaks to our values and includes an ambitious recruitment strategy targeting Indigenous academics and leaders to shape outcomes and advance our Indigenous education goals,’’ Professor Evans said.
Announced as a Queensland Great by the State Government in 2017, Professor Shannon’s appointment reflects Griffith’s unwavering commitment to ensuring the best for its First Nations students and staff and expanding the University’s social justice and equity agendas.
“I am delighted to be joining a University with such an excellent reputation and history in Indigenous higher education and look forward to being part of its exciting future.
I am also looking forward to building on the deep community partnerships at the Logan campus, in addition to working with Indigenous students and staff across all campuses.
“Griffith’s record in relation to the participation, retention and success of First Nations students demonstrates its commitment to equity and diversity, as well as excellence,” Professor Shannon said.
Professor Shannon held the position of Pro Vice Chancellor (Indigenous Engagement) at the University of Queensland from 2011-2017 and held senior appointments at the Queensland University of Technology and the University of Melbourne.
In addition to her academic and leadership roles, Professor Shannon has served on numerous health advisory boards, including as Chair of the Brisbane South Primary Health Network. She is currently Chair of the Queensland Ministerial Advisory Committee on Sexual Health, Chair of the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Foundation and a member of the Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service Board.
As Pro Vice Chancellor (Indigenous), Professor Shannon will work closely with Griffith’s Council of Elders and leadership of GUMURRII Student Support Unit, the Indigenous Research Unit (IRU) and the Office of Indigenous Community Engagement, Policy and Partnerships (ICEPP) and other key stakeholders.
Professor Shannon will join Griffith on January 28.
Researchers at Griffith University’s Australian Attosecond Science Facility have been awarded $744,000 in Australian Research Council funding for a new ultrafast laser system following an announcement today by the Minister for Education Dan Tehan.
“The upgraded laser system will produce more than 10 times the pulses of light than the current system and will lead to a greater understanding of the dynamics of atoms and molecules,’’ says Professor Robert Sang, Dean (Academic), Griffith Sciences.
“This will enable us to undertake a whole range of new atomic physics experiments that weren’t previously feasible with the existing Australian Attosecond Science Facility.
“The knowledge of these processes underpins many technologies that rely on quantum physics from simple LED lights to transistors in computers.”
Unique in Australia, the facility, based at Nathan campus, has the capacity to precisely manipulate highly-amplified and ultra-short light pulses to investigate the dynamics of matter.
The scientific outputs from the facility have already delivered important new scientific advances in strong-field physics such electron dynamics in atoms and molecules, with the knowledge enabling the development of new technologies.
“Ultrafast and attosecond science is a fast-developing field actively pursued by all scientifically advanced nations,’’ says Professor Igor Litvinyuk, Director of the Australian Attosecond Science Facility.
“This field is driven by technological developments, resulting in increasingly advanced coherent light sources capable of probing ultrafast processes in matter in real time at the attosecond timescale.
“The detailed understanding of these processes will guide further fundamental scientific and technological research that will underpin the development of new materials, nanostructures and medicines, enabling Australia to remain internationally competitive in this growing field rather than to rely on others for those new materials and technologies.
“This grant will help us consolidate Australia’s position as a leader in ultrafast and attosecond science and technology.”
Additional funding of about $500,000 for the laser infrastructure has been provided by Griffith University, the University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology and Monash University.
Griffith University is celebrating 10 years of providing medical students with hands-on experience in rural communities through its partnership with Queensland Rural Medical Education.
The Queensland Rural Medical Longlook Program has grown from just four participants in 2010 to 48 third- and fourth-year students completing long term placements in the Darling Downs and a further 50 students allocated to seven-week short term General Practice placements.
Students on their rural placement.
Dr Molly Atkinson discovered her love for rural medicine as one of the first participants in the program a decade ago and was later drawn back to her placement location of Stanthorpe to build not just her career, but a life and family.
“The Longlook program provided me with the opportunity to study and work in a small rural area which gave my insight into the life of a rural GP and all the opportunities it entailed,” Molly said.
“I would never have ended up here, with my work and family, living in a town that I love, if I had not been placed here as a medical student.”
Molly returned to Stanthorpe for her GP training in 2013 and fell in love with her now-husband, Michael, with whom she maintained a long-distance relationship as she spent time working in Adelaide and Toowoomba before returning to the small country town.
She now works for Granite Belt Medical Services and loves the variety rural medicine affords her.
Professor David Ellwood.
“Rural general practice is much more hands on (than in a metro area) and you can admit your own patients at Stanthorpe Hospital and follow through with their care,” she said.
“The patients have been the best surprise.
“When I was here as a student, they were so helpful and willing to do anything to help my training and advance my skills.
“Their continued support after I returned to town has been lovely.”
Head of Griffith’s School of Medicine Professor David Ellwood said the Longlook program has been “extremely successful” over the past decade and expected it to continue that way in the future.
“If we are to contribute to growing the rural workforce it is essential that medical students spend a significant period of their study time experiencing what it would be like to live and work in a rural setting,” Professor Ellwood said.
Sites for the program now include Stanthorpe, Warwick, Kingaroy, Dalby and Gympie.
For more information, head to the Queensland Rural Medical Longlook Program website.
