Research training and national innovation systems in Australia, Finland and the United States : a policy and systems study supported by 30 case studies of research students in the fields of geospatial science, wireless communication, biosciences, and materials science and engineering

Reforms to the national research and research training system by the Commonwealth Government of Australia sought to effectively connect research conducted in universities to Australia's national innovation system. Research training has a key role in ensuring an adequate supply of highly skilled people for the national innovation system. During their studies, research students produce and disseminate a massive amount of new knowledge. Prior to this study, there was no research that examined the contribution of research training to Australia's national innovation system despite the existence of policy initiatives aiming to enhance this contribution. Given Australia's below average (but improving) innovation performance compared to other OECD countries, the inclusion of Finland and the United States provided further insights into the key research question. This study examined three obvious ways that research training contributes to the national innovation systems in the three countries: the international mobility and migration of research students and graduates, knowledge production and distribution by research students, and the impact of research training as advanced human capital formation on economic growth. Findings have informed the concept of a research training culture of innovation that aims to enhance the contribution of research training to Australia's national innovation system. Key features include internationally competitive research and research training environments; research training programs that equip students with economically-relevant knowledge and the capabilities required by employers operating in knowledge-based economies; attractive research careers in different sectors; a national commitment to R&D as indicated by high levels of gross and business R&D expenditure; high private and social rates of return from research training; and the horizontal coordination of key organisations that create policy for, and/or invest in research training.

Autonomous excavation using a rope shovel

This paper describes automation of the digging cycle of a mining rope shovel which considers autonomous dipper (bucket) filling and determining methods to detect when to disengage the dipper from the bank. Novel techniques to overcome dipper stall and the online estimation of dipper "fullness" are described with in-field experimental results of laser DTM generation, machine automation and digging using a 1/7th scale model rope shovel presented. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Visual localisation in outdoor industrial building environments

This paper presents a vision-based method of vehicle localisation that has been developed and tested on a large forklift type robotic vehicle which operates in a mainly outdoor industrial setting. The localiser uses a sparse 3D edgemap of the environment and a particle filter to estimate the pose of the vehicle. The vehicle operates in dynamic and non-uniform outdoor lighting conditions, an issue that is addressed by using knowledge of the scene to intelligently adjust the camera exposure and hence improve the quality of the information in the image. Results from the industrial vehicle are shown and compared to another laser-based localiser which acts as a ground truth. An improved likelihood metric, using peredge calculation, is presented and has shown to be 40% more accurate in estimating rotation. Visual localization results from the vehicle driving an arbitrary 1.5km path during a bright sunny period show an average position error of 0.44m and rotation error of 0.62deg.

Modelling water droplet movement on a leaf surface

Modelling droplet movement on leaf surfaces is an important component in understanding how water, pesticide or nutrient is absorbed through the leaf surface. A simple mathematical model is proposed in this paper for generating a realistic, or natural looking trajectory of a water droplet traversing a virtual leaf surface. The virtual surface is comprised of a triangular mesh structure over which a hybrid Clough-Tocher seamed element interpolant is constructed from real-life scattered data captured by a laser scanner. The motion of the droplet is assumed to be affected by gravitational, frictional and surface resistance forces and the innovation of our approach is the use of thin-film theory to develop a stopping criterion for the droplet as it moves on the surface. The droplet model is verified and calibrated using experimental measurement; the results are promising and appear to capture reality quite well.

Academic rigour in science assessment tasks

The critical problem of student disengagement and underachievement in the middle years of schooling (Years 4 . 9) has focussed attention on the quality of educational programs in schools, in Australia and elsewhere. The loss of enthusiasm for science in the middle years is particularly problematic given the growing demand for science professionals. Reshaping middle years programs has included an emphasis on integrating Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and improving assessment practices to engage students in higher cognitive processes and enhance academic rigour. Understanding the nature of academic rigour and how to embed it in students. science assessment tasks that incorporate the use of ICTs could enable teachers to optimise the quality of the learning environment. However, academic rigour is not clearly described or defined in the literature and there is little empirical evidence upon which researchers and teachers could draw to enhance understandings. This study used a collective case study design to explore teachers' understandings of academic rigour within science assessment tasks. The research design is based on a conceptual framework that is underpinned by socio-cultural theory. Three methods were used to collect data from six middle years teachers and their students. These methods were a survey, focus group discussion with teachers and a group of students and individual semi-structured interviews with teachers. Findings of the case study revealed six criteria of academic rigour, namely, higher order thinking, alignment, building on prior knowledge, scaffolding, knowledge construction and creativity. Results showed that the middle years teachers held rich understandings of academic rigour that led to effective utilisation of ICTs in science assessment tasks. Findings also indicated that teachers could further enhance their understandings of academic rigour in some aspects of each of the criteria. In particular, this study found that academic rigour could have been further optimised by: promoting more thoughtful discourse and interaction to foster higher order thinking; increasing alignment between curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment, and students. prior knowledge; placing greater emphasis on identifying, activating and building on prior knowledge; better differentiating the level of scaffolding provided and applying it more judiciously; fostering creativity throughout tasks; enhancing teachers‟ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, and providing more in-depth coverage of fewer topics to support knowledge construction. Key contributions of this study are a definition and a model which clarify the nature of academic rigour.

Life in the 'real world': a profile of Queensland University of Technology Library and Information Science graduates.

A graduate destination survey can provide a snap shot in time of a graduate’s career progression and outcome. This paper will present the results of a Queensland University of Technology study exploring the employment outcomes of students who had completed a library and information science course from the Faculty of Information Technology between 2000 and 2008. Seventy-four graduates completed an online questionnaire administered in July 2009. The study found that 90% of the graduates surveyed were working and living in Queensland, with over three quarters living and working in Brisbane. Nearly 70% were working full-time, while only 1.4% indicating that they were unemployed and looking for work. Over 80% of the graduates identified themselves as working in “librarianship”. This study is the first step in understanding the progression and destination of QUT’s library and information science graduates. It is recommended that this survey becomes an ongoing initiative so that the results can be analysed and compared over time.

Reactive navigation and opportunistic localization for autonomous underground mining vehicles

This paper describes an autonomous navigation system for a large underground mining vehicle. The control architecture is based on a robust reactive wall-following behaviour. To make it purposeful we provide driving hints derived from an approximate nodal-map. For most of the time, the vehicle is driven with weak localization (odometry). This need only be improved at intersections where decisions must be made – a technique we refer to as opportunistic localization. The paper briefly reviews absolute and relative navigation strategies, and describes an implementation of a reactive navigation system on a 30 tonne Load-Haul-Dump truck. This truck has achieved full-speed autonomous operation at an artificial test mine, and subsequently, at a operational underground mine.

Three-dimensional imaging for a very large excavator

In this paper we describe the development of a three-dimensional (3D) imaging system for a 3500 tonne mining machine (dragline).Draglines are large walking cranes used for removing the dirt that covers a coal seam. Our group has been developing a dragline swing automation system since 1994. The system so far has been `blind' to its external environment. The work presented in this paper attempts to give the dragline an ability to sense its surroundings. A 3D digital terrain map (DTM) is created from data obtained from a two-dimensional laser scanner while the dragline swings. Experimental data from an operational dragline are presented.

Standardization and omics science : technical and social dimensions are inseparable and demand symmetrical study

Standardization is critical to scientists and regulators to ensure the quality and interoperability of research processes, as well as the safety and efficacy of the attendant research products. This is perhaps most evident in the case of “omics science,” which is enabled by a host of diverse high-throughput technologies such as genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. But standards are of interest to (and shaped by) others far beyond the immediate realm of individual scientists, laboratories, scientific consortia, or governments that develop, apply, and regulate them. Indeed, scientific standards have consequences for the social, ethical, and legal environment in which innovative technologies are regulated, and thereby command the attention of policy makers and citizens. This article argues that standardization of omics science is both technical and social. A critical synthesis of the social science literature indicates that: (1) standardization requires a degree of flexibility to be practical at the level of scientific practice in disparate sites; (2) the manner in which standards are created, and by whom, will impact their perceived legitimacy and therefore their potential to be used; and (3) the process of standardization itself is important to establishing the legitimacy of an area of scientific research.

The potentials of student initiated netspeak in a middle primary science-inspired mutliliteracies project

There is no denying that the information technology revolution of the late twentieth century has arrived. Whilst not equitably accessible for many, others hold high expectations for the contributions online activity will make to student learning outcomes. Concurrently, and not necessarily consequentially, the number of science and technology secondary school and university graduates throughout the world has declined substantially, as has their motivation and engagement with school science (OECD, 2006). The aim of this research paper is to explore one aspect of online activity, that of forum-based netspeak (Crystal, 2006), in relation to the possibilities and challenges it provides for forms of scientific learning. This paper reports findings from a study investigating student initiated netspeak in a science inspired multiliteracies (New London Group, 2000) project in one middle primary (aged 7-10 years) multi-age Australian classroom. Drawing on the theoretical description of the Five phases of enquiry proposed by Bybee (1997), an analytic framework is proffered that allows identification of student engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration and evaluation of scientific enquiry. The findings provide insight into online forums for advancing learning in and motivation for science in the middle primary years.