Griffith University’s Professor John Flood and Dr Monique Lewis took part in the annual Brisbane conference HealthHack in September, pitching a technology solution to support medicinal cannabis prescription.
Each year, Health Hack brings together problem owners, developers, and designers for an intensive weekend to create solutions for problems around health.
Part of team ‘CannaCare’, Professor Flood said their pitch argued that both patients and doctors find many obstacles in the prescribing of medicinal cannabis.
‘The process is cumbersome, time-consuming, and bureaucratic. This combination of factors is an effective recipe to deter doctors from becoming cannabis prescribers,’ he said.
‘CannaCare’ was formed of a nine-person team of developers, UX and UI experts, along with medical and pharmacy researchers, communications and legal expertise.
“During the Hackathon, we developed a website/app which enables doctors to upload documents that have been successful in gaining necessary permissions for prescribing,” Professor Flood explained.
Titled “APprove Me: Safe sharing for prescribers”, the app automatically redacts identifiable information from the documents (e.g. sensitive information about patients) and creates a searchable database for those who want to become prescribers.
Its design is such that other professionals, e.g. pharmacists and nurse practitioners, can use it when they receive prescribing authority. It will also scale to other unregistered medicinal products as they enter the Australian health market.
The app does this by using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and artificial intelligence to learn on documents.
Team member Andrew Newton, of Software Company Genie Solutions, received the“Supreme Coder of the Hackathon” award for his work on the project.
Griffith University’s Women in STEMM Co-ordinator, Ashely Vidulich, was also recognised with the same award for her work on her team’s BioMap project, which developed a digital dashboard to display biometric and other data of girls in Africa riding their bikes to and from school.
A system for improving nutrition and food waste in Australian hospitals, claimed first prize at this year’sevent.
Image courtesy of Dr Nick Hamilton from HealthHack
The annual exhibition will take over the South Bank and Gold Coast campuses and feature the work of graduating students from Fine Art, Photography, Design and Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art.
Many of the works will be for sale, helping to kick-start the careers of emerging artists.
Homegrown talent
Professor Derrick Cherrie
QCA Director, Professor Derrick Cherrie, said the exhibitions were an opportunity for the community to see the talent being nurtured in their hometown.
“The QCA is Australia’s oldest and one of the country’s largest art academies and has produced some of Australia’s leading contemporary artists,” he said.
“The showcase exhibitions are an ideal way to see the many diverse and exciting art forms the QCA has on offer and the extraordinary work being made here.”
Members of the public will be able to browse the exhibitions and hear from some of the top graduating students about their work. Students from across all disciplines will guideviewers through the exhibitions and answer questions.
Events will include industry previews, student awards, panel discussions, exhibition displays and more.
The QCA Graduate Exhibitions will be held from 30 October — details of individual shows are available online.
You can also follow the QCA’s talented graduates on Instagram.
Griffith Film alumnus Lauren Panrucker has achieved an early career milestone, collaborating with the Queensland Ballet to produce an eclectic promotional campaign for a new luxury addition to an international hotel chain.
Owner and Producer of Brisbane-based Tide Productions, Lauren shared some behind the scenes insight into the opportunity.
“Creating something so steeped in beauty and luxury was a thrill,” she admitted.
Lauren with Alex Chomicz
“The creative team behind the idea were passionate about making something different, something striking.
“I was fortunate to be approached by the Director, Alex Chomicz, on the back of a recommendation from a fellow Griffith alumnus Letisha Jenkins.
“I didn’t hesitate to work with Alex. He has a long history in architectural projects and he just knew how to bring the building to life. He brought everyone along on his vision to explore how dance and movement can respond to architecture in a playful way.” she said.
Reminiscing about the production, which took place in July and August, Lauren said there were a number of site visits and coffees from the Lobby Bar required to make everything ‘just right’.
“The shoot was designed around how the light interacted with the architecture, so it took a lot of location visits to fully plan the filming days,” she explained.
“As you can imagine it was all hands-on deck when it came time to film, but it was such a pleasure to be a part of.”
Jack Lister and Sophie Zoricic
Lauren said it was incredibly important to capture the sequence when ballerina Sophie Zoric was gracefully dropped into the pool.
“We only had one chance to get the hero shot,” said Lauren.
“Camera angles needed to be aligned, the dress perfectly positioned to pre-empt the fall and the lighting the correct tone.
“There was certainly no backup for a second take when you drop a ballerina into a pool, wearing a custom made, billowing Bec Malouf piece!”
Lauren also praised the team at the Calile.
“At one stage, there was even an employee dedicated to pressing the elevator button for us,” Lauren said.
While the series of videos have been viewed thousands of times already and are receiving acclaim throughout the industry, seeing the passion in her employees’ eyes during the shoot was one of Lauren’s many highlights, as was working with her close friend and Griffith graduate, Lucy Bland.
A true collaborator, she couldn’t speak more highly of the entire production crew.
“Everyone involved was just amazing. I’m really proud of my Tide Team and what we have achieved,” she said.
“No one was stressed, which means I did my job.”
Four of the ten person team on the campaign were Griffith alumni.
The full production team.
Lauren Panrucker, Producer and owner of Tide Productions
Lucy Bland, Creative Director and owner of Studio Bland
Harrison Hertick, Behind the scenes photographer
Sabastian Byrne, Lighting assistance and data wrangler
Lauren also has ongoing affiliations with Griffith University, where she has returned as a sessional teacher at the Griffith Film School. Her company, Tide Productions, has also produced the Griffith University Annual videos for the past four years.
Images courtesy of Harrison Hertick.
Queensland Conservatorium doctoral candidate Cathy Milliken has won a prestigious Australia Council Fellowship, which will fund an international research project into participatory music-making.
The musician and composer nabbed the Australia Council’s major award, worth $80,000 over two years.
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
Doctoral candidate Cathy Milliken
The highly sought-after fellowship is awarded to artists who are recognised for excellence in their practice at a local and international level.
“I’m deeply grateful to the Australia Council for this wonderful opportunity,” Cathy said.
The fellowship will allow Cathy to pursue an international project which is the focus of her Doctor of Musical Arts at the Queensland Conservatorium. She will use the funding to bring together community choirs across Europe to create a new version of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy to mark the composer’s 250th birthday in 2020.
A remarkable career
Cathy completed her undergraduate studies at the Queensland Conservatorium, majoring in piano and oboe before settling in Berlin, where she helped found acclaimed contemporary group, Ensemble Modern. She has collaborated with the world’s top composers and conductors, including avant garde musical legends like Frank Zappa and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Cathy was also Director of the Education Program of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, before deciding to return to Australia to undertake a Doctor of Musical Arts, under the supervision of Professor Vanessa Tomlinson.
Coming full circle
“I did all of my undergraduate studies here, so it was natural to return,” she said.
“I think all of Australia looks to the Queensland Conservatorium as this amazing place that continues to go from strength to strength.
“I know I felt so well prepared for a career in music after graduating from the Con.”
Worthy winners
Professor Gemma Carey
Queensland Conservatorium Adjunct Research Fellow Dr Erik Grisworld and alumnus Peter Knight also picked up Australia Council grants for a major new performance work and solo album.
Queensland Conservatorium Acting Director Gemma Carey congratulated all of the recipients on their outstanding achievements.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it is fantastic to see our lecturers, students and alumni receive recognition on the national stage,” she said.
A keen crowd of innovators from not-for-profit to government and social enterprises gathered to hear from industry experts likeAmerican health behaviour change pioneer Jeff Jordanat Griffith’s Change Conference.
Jordan began advocating for people to quit smoking when he was 15 and is now the Founder, President and Executive Creative Director of Rescue Agency, which helps facilitate behaviour change in the health space.
Jeff Jordan addresses the conference.
Mr Jordan spoke of the physical and psychological burdens a person — an overweight person for example — may have around changing their behaviour and how to help remove those in targeted advertising.
“When we as behaviour change agents tell someone that he should change, we’re just putting more pressure on him, we’re not actually making it any easier,” Mr Jordan said.
“Your job as a behaviour change agent is to find burdens your audience is facing and change them and challenge them.”
Sold-out and switched on
The busy three-day conference schedule showcased 20 TED Talk-style presentations and workshops on provoking and driving meaningful change through a multitude of mediums — from Virtual Reality and social media to more traditional TV advertising.
Change 2019 saw a sold-out crowd gather to hear from industry experts.
In its second year, Change has grown from 130 to 160 participants and Social Marketing @ Griffith Research Centre Deputy Director (Engagement) Dr Timo Dietrich said they would look for an even bigger venue next year to keep up with demand.
“It’s gone well beyond Australia, we’ve got people from New Zealand, Japan, Vietnam and a few international keynote speakers from the US and the UK,” Dr Dietrich said.
“It’s bigger than we originally anticipated it but we’re really glad we have 160 change agents here from diverse organisations willing to embrace this change journey and wanting to learn more about how they can drive change in their respective contexts and line of work.”
The importance of measuring change
Griffith University academic Dr Patricia David delivered a presentation on the importance of the proper measurement of change if those studying an outcome of change want to truly discover what is effective.
“Behaviour is considered to be a unit of observation measured at one point in time,” Dr David said.
“Behaviour change is considered to be units of observation measured repeatedly over time.
Dr Patricia David talks about behaviour change.
“This means that behaviour is static in nature (but) behaviour change is the moving pieces — it is actually dynamic in nature.”
Dr David said theory is not often used in social marketing, but when it is, it is usually behavioural theories and not behavioural change theories that are applied. She said in order to create change, behaviour change — not just behaviour — needs to be measured accurately and the findings applied.
Four keynote speakers for the Change Conference 2020 were also unveiled:
CEO and Co-Founder of World’s Biggest Garage Sale Yasmin Grigaliunas
Australian Resilience Centre director Paul Ryan
Adjunct Fellow at NCSEHE Maria Raciti
NUI Galway lecturer Christine Domegan
The rising number of students in Queensland’s private secondary school system is contributing greatly to traffic congestion particularly in school drop-off and pick-up times.
A first-of-its-kind study by academics at Griffith’s Cities Research Institute shows more students travel by car to private secondary schools with the car trips almost twice as long as those students who attend state schools.
The net effects says PhD candidate Yiping Yan is that private school travel trips are having a disproportionate impact on traffic congestion during peak hour times.
“We found at the primary school level, the differences aren’t great but when we saw the data for private secondary schools, there was a major difference in those whose students were driven to school.
The research, presented at the Australasian Transport Research Forum, also found these trips to private secondary schools were on average twice as long as the primary schools meaning cars were on the road longer.
Yiping Yan at Brisbane’s ABC studios
“We know trips more than five kilometres in length are mainly done on arterial and sub-arterial roads not the small roads and hence congestion is worse during the peak hour period,” Ms Yan said.
Associate Professor Matthew Burke
Institute Associate Professor Matthew Burke said the increase in private secondary schools being built in non-transport friendly regions is contributing to the problem.
“More private schools are opening in the south-east corner as demand and enrolments skyrocket due to Commonwealth subsidies and tax exemption status.
“This is problematic at best but the concern is these schools are being built at the edge of existing communities and well beyond the suburban fringe and far from public transport.”
Dr Burke said parents are not to blame as they have little other choice.
“They have to chauffeur their children.”
Education figures show more than 40 per cent of secondary school children attend a private school.
Analysts predict traffic congestion will cost Australia more than $30 Billion in lost productivity by 2030.
Griffith University will host the Design Research Society Conference (DRS2020) in Brisbane next year – the first time in more than a decade that the biennial event has been held in Australia.
DRS2020 is a major global forum to present and discuss design research, and is expected to attract the world’s best design minds. It will be hosted at Griffith’s South Bank campus and the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre from 11—14 August 2020.
Griffith takes the lead in promoting design excellence
Professor Ming Cheung
DRS2020 Conference Chair Professor Ming Cheung said the conference would centre around the theme of ‘synergy’ — the coming together of people and disciplines in design research to create a positive impact.
“While design research is always future focused, 2020 is also a time for us to reflect on what social, cultural, economic, environmental, technological and policy impact the synergy within and beyond disciplines has had on our evolving field,” she said.
“With some of the world’s most talented researchers and practitioners from around the globe and across disciplines expected to meet in Brisbane and address synergy in design research, DRS2020 will see the city and Griffith University take the lead in promoting research excellence.
“Conference delegates will see our commitment to innovation and a strong knowledge economy first-hand.”
Collaborating across disciplines – call for submissions
DRS2020 invites research papers and conversation and workshop proposals related to the conference theme. It will also host a PhD Day where HDR candidates can discuss their work, receive feedback from senior researchers and participate in workshops.
According to the conference theme statement, DRS2020 provides a unique opportunity for experts across disciplines to collaborate on design research.
“While we champion the uniqueness of disciplinary knowledge and creativity, we are also optimistic about how the coming together of different mindsets, backgrounds and perspectives can realise transformative visions of the future.
“Synergy in design research provides exciting possibilities for answering multi-faceted problems, supporting stakeholder initiatives and participation, and transforming existing situations into desirable ones.
“As the influence of design research grows in academia and society globally, we question what new opportunities there are for us to work together, within and beyond our field. How do disciplines work together in design research? What new methods and tools of design do we need to realise synergistic working? How do we balance the tension between design research specialisms and the new experience design, interdisciplinary design and transdisciplinary design research spaces we find ourselves working in?”
Online submission for papers and proposals is now open. For more information, visit the DRS2020 website and follow the conference on Facebook and Twitter.
Griffith Uni 7s have claimed Silver in the fourth and final leg of the AON series in Canberra over the weekend.
Official Captain’s Photo, Round 4 (Canberra) of 2019 AON University 7s. L-R: Britney Duff (UNE), Annie Buntine (UM), Lauren Potter (UA), Freya Clayhills (USYD), Skye Churchill (UC), Jannicke Ijdens (UQ), Laura Waldie (GU), Kennedy Cherrington (UTS), Emily Bass (Bond), Pania Kara (UWA). University of Canberra campus, Canberra . Karen Watson / Rugby AU Media
The 2018 premiers won all their weekend matches except the final gold-medal contest with series champions, University of Queensland, on the second day of the fourth tournament.
The team dominated their pool group, winning against UQ in the fourth game of the weekend tournament, but fell just short of a win in their second hit-out against UQ.
Griffith finished the series with one first place, two seconds and a fourth, claiming second overall in the series for 2019.
The team dominated their pool group with a win on Sunday morning against UQ, but in their second hit-out against UQ they fell just short of a win in the dying seconds of the game.
Laura Waldie (Captain Griffith University) Karen Watson / Rugby AU Media
While admitting everyone was shattered after losing the final on the hooter, team Captain Laura Waldie stressed the weekend went really well.
“Despite finishing second we played as a team the entire tournament and finished the season strong,” said Waldie.
Coach Moana Virtue had nothing but praise for the effort and fight her squad showed on the field.
“Although we would have loved to finish as series champions, I’m very proud of the girls,” said Virtue.
“We played some of our best footy this weekend in Canberra and that’s a tough thing to do particularly at the end of a very demanding season.
“It has taken our whole squad to get to this point, so we’ll bring home silver with our heads held high and enjoy another successful season.
UNE v GU, Day 1, Round 4 (Canberra) of 2019 AON University 7s. Karen Watson / Rugby AU Media
“As most seasons go we’ve had our fair share of player movement with injuries, so it gives me a lot of confidence as a coach to know whichever 12 that was travelling was willing to put their body on the line and work hard.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the bright futures of these players and how the Griffith 7s programs continues to grow.”
“We worked hard the entire season and are still really proud to come away with silver,” said Waldie, further echoing the sentiments of her coach.
Dream Team member Kahli Henwood (GU) during the trophy presentation Day 2, Round 4 (Canberra) of 2019 AON University 7s. University of Canberra campus, Canberra . Karen Watson / Rugby AU Media
Griffith team member Kahli Henwood was rewarded for her stellar season with the announcement of the series dream team at the conclusion of the weekend tournament.
The dream team consists of the seven best players throughout the four rounds of the competition.
With the season now over, Griffith 7s will celebrate their 2019 journey at an annual presentation night at the Gold Coast uni bar on Thursday November 31.
Reigning premiers, Griffith’s AON 7s team will put it all on the line this weekend in the last round of the Uni 7s series this weekend in Canberra. Griffith is second on the ladder, tied with Sydney University on 50 points, who notched up their first tournament win since the team’s inception in Round Three.
Series leaders, University of Queensland, have a 6-point lead over Griffith and Sydney University. They’ll need to finish fourth or lower to give Griffith a chance at back to back championship titles.
Griffith coach Moana Virtue. Image: Christen Hill
Despite the pressure of this weekend, coach Moana Virtue was optimistic and relaxed at training in Sunnybank this week.
“Regardless of what’s going on with the ladder I want the girls to focus on playing this weekend and that’s all,” said Virtue.
“We play our best rugby when we focus on ourselves and I know the girls are ready for this, they’ve been working hard all year, so they are well conditioned.
“We’ve had some tough tournaments but also some great wins. This week we haven’t changed anything with our training and consistency will be our focus this weekend.”
Alana Elisaia Image: Craig Dick
With two top three finishes in this year’s tournaments, Griffith has again cemented itself as a leader in the AON series.
Half-back Alana Elisaia, who has been a standout this year, credited the success to staff and team culture.
“We spend a lot of time together with trainings and tournaments and we’ve grown as a team each week.” said Elisaia.
“We’ve had another really solid week of training as we head into the final tournament, and the girls are ready to finish on a high.
“The success we’ve had so far is a credit to the support and guidance we’ve received from the coaching staff and we owe it to them to put on a strong performance this weekend.”
The AON Uni series has become the premier platform for Aussie 7s talent identification. The conclusion of Round Four will shift focus to the current world series before the sports pinnacle of the 2020 Olympic games.
Professor AJ Brown is one of Australia’s foremost experts on integrity and has been researching whistleblower protection and freedom of speech laws for more than a decade.
Professor Brown was afforded the honour of presenting the annual Henry Parkes Oration in Tenterfield, 130 years after Henry Parkes delivered a speech at the Tenterfield School of Arts on the needs for Australian colonies to federate into one nation.
Below is an extract from Professor’s Brown oration:
For decades, Australian journalists have uncovered truth around the world — ‘telling it like it is’ with the frankness that makes Australians so well-loved.Indeed, for most of the 130 years since Sir Henry Parkes’ original Tenterfield Oration, the world has seen Australia as one of the healthiest, most innovative democracies.
No wonder the world stood shocked in June when the Australian Federal Police executed search warrants on News Corporation and ABC journalists in Sydney and Canberra.
Alongside trends in open government, we see powerful counter-trends in ever more criminalisation of disclosure and information, and other weaknesses in our integrity systems.Even before the AFP raids, Australia was slipping on international press freedom indexes.Since 2012, it has been slipping on Transparency International’sCorruption Perceptions Index.
Professor AJ Brown
Taking a long-term view, we see widerissues than simply freedom for public interest journalism to operate.Clearly, press freedom is vital and we must have huge sympathy for journalists caught in the cross-fire.But importantly, in Australia at least, this is still mainly just a cross-fire.The primary targets — intended and sometimes unintended — are actually the employees, officials and everyday citizens who might, and do, speak up with concerns about wrongdoing in their organisations, on whom not only journalists but all of us rely.
I am talking about the whistleblowers at the heart of this struggle.Inevitably, they have to disclose information; and the trouble can start even when they do this internally.These are people who areactuallybeing prosecuted, even when, as yet, journalists are hopefully unlikely to be.And whistleblowers play an even more fundamental role in public integrity than the media, because they help ensure honesty, integrity and performance within our institutions, every single day.Even if it never reaches the public domain.
Everyday workers and officials have served us as whistleblowers since the dawn of institutions.A little known example is Sir Henry Parkes himself.As a young man in 1845, having raised a dispute within Customs including about officials stealing alcohol (and worse) on the Sydney wharves, Parkes went further by penning an anonymous letter to the SydneyRegister.He was merely suspended for this leak, tending to confirm its merit.But Parkes’ whistleblowing led to his resignation, finding his treatment ‘most unreasonable and unjust’.
The rest, as they say, is history.There are no end of tales about repercussions whistleblowers can experience, especially if dragged or forced into the public domain.
In fact, not all whistleblowers suffer in our institutions today, and even fewer need to.And this is exactly the aim of whistleblower protection.Even if never likely to be easy, speaking up is often something that individuals and organisations can learn to encourage and manage quite well.Often it is exactly because it is handled well, that wedon’thear about it.
But clearly, there is also plenty going wrong.Especially now.
Professor AJ Brown delivers the Henry Parkes oration.
We have a crisis of confidence in our whistleblowing regimes, made worse because criminal actions against whistleblowers are going too far.When this happens, we have to recognise the consequences.As Law Council president Arthur Moses SC says, it not only has a ‘chilling effect’ on public disclosures to the media, but all whistleblowing.It makes all workers and officials unsure about whether their superiors really do want them to speak up, worry about the correct way to do it, and fear they — not the problem — will become the target.
So, people with concerns are left with two options.Say nothing — or if it’s too serious to let go, leak anonymously, even though in the surveillance age this is increasingly dangerous.The results are obvious.Our society’s integrity systems start to break down, at every level.And yet, this is the path Australia has managed to put itself on.
This is a tragedy, because Australia actually has a record of innovation in whistleblower protection.In principle, we know how to get the balance right.But despite some strengths — especially many of the newCorporations Actprotections achieved by the Turnbull-Morrison government — our whistleblowing laws currently amount to a well-motivated but largely dysfunctional mess.Many agencies and companies succeed in recognising and protecting whistleblowers, but often despite the relevant laws, not because of them.And they are undermined by the tide of confused, inconsistent secrecy provisions on which government continues to embark, often apparently without realising what it is doing.
The new attention on these issues, brought by the AFP’s unfortunate attempts to enforce our current mess of laws, can let us turn things around.The seven steps for doing so are clear, and achievable within this term of Parliament, even if some require a comprehensive view, or a return to basic principles.Our political leaders, especially current and former Attorneys-General with the skills of Christian Porter and Mark Dreyfus, are capable of doing it.So, however we got into this mess, by taking the right approach, we can get ourselves out.
But we have to understand, this is not simply for the sake of press freedom, nor even for the sake of justice for everyday workers and officials.It is vital to safeguarding the future of Australian democracy.
View the full oration and Professor Brown’s 7 point plan here.
