What do engineers do?
As Theodore von Karman, an American engineer once observed, “Scientists explore what is ... but engineers create what has never been.”
Engineers are solution-finders. Problem-solvers. Innovators.
Engineering at Melbourne has had its fair share of innovation – from making Bluetooth work effectively to assisting patients with mobility problems, to irrigation and dams and their use in water management and targeted drug delivery.
Engineering at Melbourne
- The Plastic Bank Note
First circulated in Australia in 1988 to commemorate Australia’s bicentenary, and now used in more than 20 countries around the world, the plastic bank note is a vast change from the paper-based notes of the past and have made counterfeiting of currency vastly more difficult. The invention was a result of work by world–renowned polymer scientist, Professor David Solomon who is an Honorary Professorial Fellow in University of Melbourne’s Engineering Faculty. Solomon’s work continues to be recognised, most recently with the award of the Victoria Prize in 2006 – Victoria’s highest award for science, for this and other contributions to science particularly in the area of polymer chemistry. Solomon is one of an elite group of Australian scientists admitted to the Royal Society, whose 1300 members include Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.
- Australia on-line
It was during the seventies that a few academics with a specific interest in the area connected to an embryonic ‘internet’ via an international dial up service – but it was an endeavour pursued only by a few people with what was then an obscure interest. Now a Fellow of the Engineering Faculty, in the Department of Computer Science,(Kevin) Robert Elz was one of those academics and is credited with pioneering Australia’s connection to the intenet. It was the computer science departments of University of Melbourne and the University of Wollongong that experimented with exchanges of files by Unix-based computers using dial up. The interest in the new use of the emerging technology grew to include colleagues at Sydney University and Elz was one of the founders of the precursor to the Australia’s access to the world wide web with the development of the successful Australian Computer Science network (ACSnet). By the mid-80’s Elz and his computer science colleagues had established email connection with the US. More information is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Elz.
- The Green Internet
Researchers at the University of Melbourne are investigating energy consumption in the Internet and how to make it more energy efficient. This research focuses on developing an understanding of technological barriers to growth of the telecommunications network and a systematic analysis of the potential environmental impact of the Internet. While the energy consumption of the Internet is currently only a small fraction of the world’s total electric power budget, continued exponential growth of the Internet capacity, especially in developing nations will mean that the Greenhouse footprint of the Internet may soon become significant.