Melbourne School of Engineering

Engineering Academics in the classroom

Introducing our Engineering Ambassadors

The Ambassadors are young, mid-career engineering academics drawn from all disciplines of engineering and can be booked for talks, demonstrations or substitute classes. They can explain the workings of the bionic ear, show students the Melbourne University racing car, or teach students to program Lego Mindstorm Robots, among other things.

 

Dr Elaine Wong is a senior lecturer in Electrical Engineering. She is the winner of numerous awards and scholarships, including a Women in Engineering Research Fellowship (2004 – 2007). Elaine completed a Bachelor of Engineering and a PhD at the University of Melbourne. She is involved with two ICT research centres in Electrical Engineering and her research interests include broadband access networks.

 

Dr Tony Wirth is interested in algorithms, computer science, and combining computer science with probability and statistics. He completed his PhD at Princeton University and is currently a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering. He teaches first year Informatics (computing). His research experience includes a visiting role at the University of Washington in 2007.

 

Jamie Evans is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Jamie undertook his first two engineering qualifications at the University of Newcastle and completed a PhD at the University of Melbourne. He has worked at both the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Sydney. His research interests are in communications theory and statistical signal processing, with current focus on wireless communications networks.

 

Dr Michael Stewardson is a senior lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and his research focuses on understanding human impact on freshwater ecosystems, modelling freshwater habitats and assessing freshwater ecosystems. He graduated from the University of Melbourne with Bachelor, Masters and PhD qualifications. He is currently working on a program to monitor flows in Victoria’s rivers.

 

Sandra Kentish is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. She has Bachelor, Masters and PhD qualifications from the University of Melbourne. In 2007, Sandra won both the Caltex Teaching Award and the Edward Brown Award for Teaching Excellence. She has nine years industrial experience across the petrochemical, photographic and pulp and paper industries.

 

Andrew Ooi is Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and teaches first year engineering systems and design. He always wanted to combine his love of maths and sciences with teaching. After graduating from the University of Melbourne with a PhD in Engineering in 1997, Andrew worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for Turbulence Research at the NASA Facility at Ames in the Silicon Valley.

 

Dr Chris Manzie is a senior lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and his research includes hydrogen fuelled vehicle technologies. He began his studies with degrees in Science and Electrical Engineering and completed a PhD in 2001. He was a visiting scholar at the University of California in 2007 and has collaborated with industry partners including the Ford Motor Company of Australia and General Motors-Holden.

 

Dr Brian Krongold is a research fellow in Electrical Engineering. He graduated with Bachelor, Masters and PhD qualifications in Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research expertise includes communications, broadband access and wireless access. In 2008, Brian was awarded a national Carrick Citation Award for ‘motivating engineering students to become more analytical thinkers’.

 

Dr Bernie Pope completed the well worn and successful path in computer science studies at the University of Melbourne, by undertaking both a Bachelor of Science (Hons) and a PhD in Computer Science. He teaches a range of subjects on algorithmic problem solving, software engineering and programming, and is teaching first year Informatics (computing). His research interests are in this area, and include programming language implementation, debugging and functional programming languages (such as Haskell).

 

Abbas Rajabifard is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geomatics. Abbas hails from Iran and gained a PhD from the University of Melbourne. His teaching and research activities focus on spatial data infrastructures (SD I) and land administration. He has consulted internationally on SD I, georgraphic information systems applications and spatial data management. A key focus of his research efforts has been to build the research capacity across different disciplines.

 

Contact us at eng-info@unimelb.edu.au for more information about our Ambassadors or to book a school visit.

 

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