QLD Events

This seminar is hosted by the EA Qld Division Innovation Sub Committee

Australia is facing many challenges at present - a significant debt, congested cities and their heat island affect, looming peak oil, daily road fatalities, financing much needed costly and community intrusive light rail systems and the loss of its skilled and  innovative manufacturing capability.

An intelligent Personalised Rapid Transport system (PRT) is slowly gaining traction globally and the presenter has the view Australia needs to embrace this system to assist in meeting the above challenges.

Employers often lament that students and, more worryingly, recent graduates lack the "soft skills" needed to succeed during industrial placements – attributes such as effective communication, pro-active demeanour, orderly management of self and effective team membership and team leadership1. This deficiency undermines support for industry engagement programs despite their role as a key element in the formation of young engineers.

The development of coal seam gas (CSG) has proceeded very rapidly over the last few years, with four companies active in the Western Downs area of South West Queensland.

The Cumulative Socioeconomic Impacts research project, based in the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining in UQ’S Sustainable Minerals Institute, is examining the cumulative impacts – positive and negative - of the four CSG companies on communities, with Miles the pilot town.

Wind generators have been producing utility-scale electricity around the world for decades and wind power has been the fastest growing source of renewable energy. There are currently over 318 GW of wind energy installed worldwide, enough to power hundreds of millions of homes, and this is expected to more than double by 2020.