On the same day that the Minister for Main Roads and Road Safety, The Honourable Mark Bailey MP launched a road-safety advertising blitz, he visited the recently established Griffith University Centre of Research Excellence in Recovery Following Road Traffic Injuries.
During Mr Bailey’s visit this week he learnt of the new strategies the unit was developing to help road accident victims get back on their feet.
The Minister spoke to research staff and clinical trial participant Samirah Abdulla about her recent participation in research combining physiotherapy and psychological therapies.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Daniel Harvie explained that while 50 per cent of people recovered fully after road accidents involving whiplash, others could have ongoing symptoms, and these people were the focus of the centre’s research.
“We are looking to identify this group as early as possible, particularly the 25 per cent who have significant problems with pain and disability in the long term,” he said.
Dr Harvie said the staff were focused on developing new ways to help people recover after motor vehicle accidents.
Ms Abdulla was involved in a serious road accident about two years ago and, until recently, was struggling to get her life back to normal.
“It was not so much about the pain, it was about how I felt about it,” she said.
“The staff here have helped me with the psychological effects of the accident and I am back working and driving now.”
Griffith University music student Bridget O’Brien sat down the Triple J’s Alex Dyson to find out his best advice regarding university success, when he visited Griffith recently at our Student Mentoring and Leadership awards night.
Alex studied a Bachelor of Creative Arts at Melbourne University and throughout his time had many valuable experiences that he has shared with us.
Alex was both a mentor and mentee through his university days, see how it helped his university studies.
Alex was heavily involved in university life and says that we should take advantage of all those opportunities made available to us.
Check out Alex’s best memories at University.
Alex’s best advice he can give university students is ‘throw yourself in everything’ and ‘push the boundaries’.
Written by Kaitlin McNamara, Bachelor of Events Management and Bachelor of International Business student
Griffith University has unveiled the first instalment of the On Track to GC2018 exhibition in the Red Zone at the Gold Coast campus.
The exhibition is an interactive virtual reality display developed by Griffith University to showcase activities and progress around its Official Partnership with the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018).
Entry to the On Track to GC2018 exhibition is free and is open to the public daily from 10am to 4pm.
The display includes a state-of-the-art virtual reality track cycling game developed by Griffith University Bachelor of Information Technology/Bachelor of Multimedia students Ben Bartley, Jack Lawrey and Aidan Whitehouse, who recently won an Opmantek ICT award for the project.
Originally developed in conjunction with SABEL Labs to be used as new training technology for elite and high performance athletes, the game is based on track cycling time trials and was developed as part of a larger sports research project.
Sports research project
Users enter the world of competitive track cycling and start with a practice round. The user then has two chances to beat their own time and take out the top spot on the leader board.
A state-of-the-art indoor training Watt bike, Dell computing hardware and Oculus Rift virtual reality headset work together to provide an immersive experience within the Anna Meares Velodrome.
The exhibition will also feature other displays including an interactive GC2018 venue map. It also includes a Queen’s Baton Relay international sector map showing the nations the baton will visit on its journey to Australia along with interesting GC2018 facts and figures.
As a cyclist Griffith University’s Academic Director of the GC2018 Partnership Professor Michael Powell was excited to launch the state-of-the-art virtual cycling game and the new exhibition this morning.
“The On Track to GC2018 exhibition is a great way for the community to find out more about the Games and Griffith and the GC2018 partnership. The cycling game is an exciting hands-on experience using the latest virtual reality technology. We are delighted to showcase the capabilities of our students in this way,“ Professor Powell said.
This is the first stage of the On Track to GC2018 exhibit at Griffith, with new instalments scheduled to be unveiled throughout 2017, including further virtual reality games and interactive displays.
Griffith will honour seven notable community members with honorary doctorates during graduation ceremonies in Brisbane and the Gold Coast over the next week.
The recipients will be recognised for outstanding contributionto the legal, health, aviation, entertainment and creative industries and to the wider community, along with almost 5000 graduating students.
Ms Alroe, one of a few women worldwide to run a privatised airport, is regarded as one of the top business leaders in Australia and is overseeing one of the biggest infrastructure construction projects in the country –the $1.35 billion parallel runway at Brisbane Airport.
Ms Chaplain oversees the $300 million expansion of the Gold Coast Airport in her role as Chair of Queensland Airports.
Both judges headed major commissions of inquiry in Queensland that have shaped public debate and led to major overhauls of state systems.
Chief Justice Catherine Holmes, who was appointed the first female Chief Justice of Queensland, conducted the Commission of Inquiry into the 2010-11 Queensland floods, which saw 35 lives lost and 70 per cent of the state affected.
She also acted as Counsel Assisting the Forde Commission of Inquiry, which investigated more than 150 Queensland youth detention centres and orphanages.
Judge Brendan Butler also played a major role in uncovering corruption in Queensland.
He was Counsel Assisting the Fitzgerald Commission of Inquiry–a comprehensive investigation of long-term systemic political corruption and abuse of power in Queensland.
John Kirby AM who led the Village Roadshow organisation as Chairman and is a respected cinema industry leader will receive his honorary doctorate for service to business, particularly the entertainment and creative industries, and to the community.
Others to receive their honorary doctorates include retiring St Hilda’s principal Peter Crawley, for services to education, and retired health executiveLibbyShakespeare, who was Chief Executive Officer of the Allamanda Private andplayed key roles in hospitals across four states, including Gold Coast and Tweed hospitals in particular.
Graduation ceremonies willbe held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre from Monday to Wednesday, December 12 -14, andat the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre on Friday and Saturday, December 16-17.
The concept of flexible working practices may be widely accepted within the workforce, however organisations need to look at whether their employees actually have reasonable access to it.
This is the call from Griffith University’s Professor Paula Brough who wasone of the speakers at the Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland panel discussion last night, on the benefits of flexible work and mental health support within organisations and how it can be good for business.
The Commission runs an annual Human Rights Month campaign to promote fair and inclusive workplaces and this year’s theme focuses on flexible work practices and mental health in the workplace.
As part of her research in occupational psychological health, Professor Brough , the Leader of the Healthy Workplaces Research Group, Menzies Health Institute Queensland, has been working with employers looking at the formal provisions in place for flexible working.
“There are many formalised policies in place such as parental leave, flexi-time considerations. The issue now is more one of access. Just because an organisation says it can provide these provisions, it doesn’t always follow that an employee can get it. The reasons for this can vary widely and may relate to issues such as staffing, non-supportive supervisors and non-supportive organisational working culture.
“Unfortunately, access issues can lead to many adverse work outcomes in terms of employee health and their commitment to an organisation.”
Panel members will also include Anti-Discrimination Commissioner, Kevin Cocks; the CEO of Mental Illness Fellowship Queensland, Tony Stevenson and representatives from partner organisations who are utilising good flexible work practices or mental health strategies to provide some case studies.
Griffith has now been recognised each year since the awards were launched in 2001, originally as the EOWA Employer of Choice for Women.
The WGEA citation is designed to encourage, recognise and promote active commitment to gender equality in Australian workplaces.
Vice Chancellor and President, Professor Ian O’Connor, said Griffith’s reputation as an equal opportunity employer had been consolidated in the face of more rigorous criteria used in 2016.
“This marks 16 consecutive years of recognition by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, and its predecessor the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency. This isa truly remarkable achievement that reflects the hard work and commitment of so many staff over a long period of time,” Professor O’Connor said.
“In 2016, Griffith University is one of just 15universities and 106 organisations Australia wide to have been recognised by the Agency for showing leadership in Gender Equality policies and practice.
“During 2016, the University has strengthened its commitment to gender equality through work on theAthena SWANcharter program, which specifically seeks for us to identify clear steps to improving gender representation and diversity in our Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) disciplines.”
A move towards greater support for women to progress into leadership positions has been evident this year across the more than 100 organisations acknowledged, according to WGEA data. Other trends have been a focus on flexibility and more sophisticated analysis of the causes of gender pay gaps.
Ruth McPhail, a lecturer at Griffith Business School, was appointed a professor as part of Griffith’s 2016 Academic Promotion Round.
“I was employed by Griffith 15 years ago very shortly after which I found myself unexpectedly as sole carer of my two small sons,” she said.
“Through each step Griffith supported me with flexible hours and teaching which would allow me to meet both the students’ needs and my needs and encouraged me in my career.
“I was supported from lecturer through to full professor and I doubt I could have achieved this without the support of my employer and their commitment to gender equality.”
Each year the WGEA collects almost 5000 reports from more than 12,000 employers covering more than four million Australian employees. The measures covered include pay, workforce composition, flexible working arrangements and specific actions employers have taken on gender equality at work.
Over 70 per cent of employers now have a gender equality policy or strategy.
“WGEA data shows there is progress towards gender equality in Australian workplaces, but it is too slow,” Libby Lyons, Director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, said.
“It is only through more employers adopting leading practices to promote gender equality in the workplace that we will see the pace of change pick up.”
A final year Griffith ICT student and co-founder of the University’s startup club, Studio 39, recently toured Silicon Valley and San Fransisco with the group Startup Catalyst, founded by Shark Tank member and Brisbane startup luminary, Steve Baxter.
Joshua Holmes is part of the new movement of students seeking different outcomes from their university education. Rather than seeking employment or a career they are looking to establish their own startup.
He was supported on his trip by a grant from the Griffith Science group.
Startups are different from traditional businesses in that they generally offer digital solutions to real world problems. They are associated with what has become known as “disruptive” technologies- mobile first platforms that disrupt traditional businesses by being more agile, cheaper and closer to customer desires.
Because they are digital, they have the potential to grow rapidly and utterly change the landscape of their industry, think Uber, Netflix or Airbnb.
We caught up with Josh packing his bags to follow his dreams, first to Melbourne, then beyond.
“The trip was ten days and we toured many of the top tech companies in the San Francisco bay area and Silicon Valley, including huge companies like Google and Facebook to smaller, more recent startups like electric skateboard manufacturer Boosted,” said Joshua.
“Talk about people getting stuff done, the pace at which the scene over there is moving and the problems they are solving is truly inspiring. It was like looking at the future. We got to meet and talk with people who are building awesome products or who are at the forefront of the startup scene.
“I had a moment of realisation after seeing what was going on over there- the pace, scale and fun that everyone is having in solving problems and building great products. I need to get into that too, as soon as possible. There’s no point waiting around or thinking ‘one day’- just do it. I need to move into an environment that fosters the innovation and speed of technology and values the same things I do.”
Rather than rewrite it, we thought we’d direct you to Josh’s brilliant blog, so you can see and read a day by day account of the trip.
2016 has been yet another very busy and successful year for the Arts, Education and Law Group. We have amazing staff across the entire AEL group and their notable achievements and dedication are impressive.
Most recently, ProfessorGemmaCareyfrom the Griffith University Queensland Conservatorium was recognised through the highly-competitive Australian Awards for University Teaching. Professor Carey received the Teaching Excellence Awardin theHumanities and the Arts categoryforTransforming the teaching and assessment of music pedagogy both nationally and internationally.She also received an AAUT Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning earlier this year.
To further add to our strong record of teaching excellence, mathematics education lecturer Dr Kevin Larkin was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Griffith University Teacher of the Year.
In October, we hosted our 6th annual Outstanding Alumni Awards Gala, celebrating the remarkable achievements of our alumni across the globe and recognising the significant contributions they make in their professional careers. Congratulations to all the winners across the School and Colleges as well the overall group winners on the night – author and inspirational primary school teacher, Rebecca Johnson, and pop idol Dami Im.
October also saw us host the 3rd annual Integrity20 Summit, with a record number of attendees over the 2-day event. We welcomed top minds from around the world including Shami Shakrabarti, Jose Ramos-Horta and Peter Greste, in a series of keynotes, debates and forums. This unique event positions Griffith and the Arts, Education and Law Group as a national and international leader in the area of integrity research and scholarship.
I also wish to acknowledge the recipients of the PVC AEL Research Excellence Awards:
AEL Early Career Research Award: Dr Lyndel Bates (GCI/CCJ) Highly-commended to Dr Nina Westera (GCI/CCJ)
AEL Mid/ Senior Researcher Award: Professor Sidney Dekker (HLSS/ GCSCR)
AEL Research Leadership Award: Professor Paul Taçon (GCSCR/HLSS/ PERAHU)
AEL Team ResearchExcellenceAward: Professor Stephen Billett, A/Professor Sarojni Choy, A/Professor Tim Mavin, Dr Mark Tyler, Dr Steven Hodge, Dr Raymond Smith, Dr Jennifer Tichon, Dr Christy Noble, Dr Darryl Dymock: “Professional and Practice-based Learning” (GIER/EPS)
AEL Research Supervision Award: Professor Paul Draper (QCRC/QCGU)
It’s been a remarkable year, with so many significant achievements, too numerous to list. As this represents our final AEL Update for 2016, I’d like to close by thanking the entire AEL community for their commitment and dedication, and who make this community such a privilege to be a part of.
Griffith University has been awarded nearly $1.4 million in National Health and Medical Research Council funding to develop new classes of antibiotics, further work around mosquito-borne viruses and improve outcomes for people with acute mental illness.
Professor Zhou said project was about developing new classes of antibiotics that are based on naturally occurring peptides.
“These peptides will be computationally designed to disrupt the structure of specific proteins essential for bacterial survival,” he said.
“This is different from typical antibiotics that inhibit functions of essential proteins by binding onto protein surfaces.
“Because protein surfaces are subject to spontaneous and induced mutations without significant changes to protein functions, those mutations with weaker binding to antibiotics will be evolutionary selected and cumulated and ultimately lead to drug resistance. Structure-disrupting inhibitors on the other hand destroy the foundation of protein function.
“Large-scale changes in structure will be much more difficult for pathogens to employ mutations to restore function. As a result, it is more difficult, if not impossible, for pathogens to develop resistance to this class of antibiotics. If successful, this approach can be used to develop resistance-free anti-viral and anti-cancer therapeutics.”
Vaccine development
Dr Adam Taylor was awarded $520,520 for the project The role of capsid protein nucleolar localisation in chikungunya virus: implications for vaccine development.
Associate Professor Julia Crilly, ofMenzies Health Institute Queensland,andProfessorStuart Kinner, of theGriffith Criminology Institutewere awarded $251,470 for the project Improving outcomes for people with acute mental illness in the emergency department: a data linkage study.
The NHMRC funding Australia-wide will support 601 grants across four funding schemes and more than 1900 researchershave shared in the $483 million for a wide-range of projects.
Staff who have obtained success as part of a team led by other institutions include:
Professor Ross Coomber (Griffith Criminology Institute) for the project Drugs on the darknet: Assessing the global health risks of a rapidly expanding market, with Dr Monica Barratt from the University of New South Wales, $399,692.
Emeritus Professor Newell Johnson (Menzies Health Institute Queensland) for the project HPV and oropharyngeal cancer in Indigenous Australians, with Associate Professor Lisa Jamieson from the University of Adelaide, $1,547,109.
Professor Stuart Kinner
Professor Stuart Kinner (Griffith Criminology Institute) for the project Preventing mortality in adults after release from prison: Advancing global knowledge through an international, individual participant data meta-analysis, with Dr Rohan Borschmann from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, $613,687.
Dr Sanjeewa Kularatna (Menzies Health Institute Queensland) for the project Minimally invasive approach to manage early childhood caries in Aboriginal preschoolers, with Dr Peter Arrow from the University of Adelaide, $1,488,220.
Professor Adrian Miller (Indigenous Research Unit) for the project Generation of protective immunity against severe influenza disease in Indigenous Australians, with Associate Professor Katherine Kedzierska from the University of Melbourne, $1,630,970.
Professor Sheena Reilly
Professor Sheena Reilly (Menzies Health Institute Queensland) for the project The Contribution of Home Language Exposure to Intergenerational Transmission of Inequality, with Associate Professor Sally Brinkman from the University of Western Australia, $1,281,706. Professor Reilly will also work on the project Neurobiology of childhood speech disorders: improving detection, diagnosis and clinical care, with Associate Professor Angela Morgan from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, $994,575.
Professor Glen Ulett (Menzies Health Institute Queensland) for the project Understanding Uropathogenic E. coli-mediated subversion of innate immunity, with Professor Mark Schembri from the University of Queensland, $932,536.
The ‘no vote’ in last weekend’s referendum on constitutional reform in Italy could have economic implications far beyond the country’s borders, a Griffith Business School researcher says.
Italians wentto the polls on December 4.
An overall result in favour of constitutional reform would have created “a conducive institutional framework” to undertake structural reforms that many previous governments and parliaments have failed to approve, Professor Fabrizio Carmignani says.
However, the vote against reform triggered the resignation of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and a new period of economic uncertainty.
“The uncertainty associated with the government crisis would foster concerns about the sustainability of the Italian debt,” Professor Carmignani says.
“Economic growth would thus continue to stagnate, eventually making debt unsustainable. Italy would then have to default, a condition that would be incompatible with permanence in the Euro zone.
“Italy would then exit the Euro and this would mark the end of the common currency.”
