University Spotlight - University of Tasmania

Source: Sally Wood

Over 130 years ago, a sandstone building in Hobart was the home of three lecturers who began imparting their wisdom to 11 students.

Today, the University of Tasmania is Australia’s fourth oldest university. It boasts a wide range of courses for Tasmania’s 541,000 residents, and supports mainlanders who come to thrive on the island

From science, technology and engineering; to earth, sea, Antarctic and environmental studies; the university offers an impressive feat of specialised courses. At the height of the pandemic, the university made the decision to reduce its subject offerings, and present students with a set of clear, compelling, and specialised choices. In its 2020 Annual Report, the university said some undergraduate courses were “duplicated, disconnected and confusing”. As such, the university shifted from 209 courses to 60 nests containing 93 courses, with a focus that is “clear, aligned, and presents a compelling array of choices, offering students a better experience from enrolment onwards”.

Students are encouraged to invest in nature and work outside the classroom.

For example, pupils who are learning about environmental economics have travelled to Tasmania’s Derwent Valley to learn about bushfire assessment impacts. Similarly, geology students have mapped the tessellated pavement at Eaglehawk Neck, where coastal erosion has created striking patterns. By next year, the university will also have 25% of first-year undergraduate students completing an assessment item on Indigenous knowledge and culture. These progressive decisions are paying off on the global stage. The university was recently ranked first in the world for its action on climate change. Vice-Chancellor Professor Rufus Black said he was proud of the result. “We face an urgent climate crisis, a fact that drives our efforts to do all we can to effect real change and support the development of a zero-carbon economy. Our approach is concerted and comprehensive. We strive to have a positive impact through our research, our teaching, our work with the community and our operations, including how we invest and how we build,” Professor Black said. The University of Tasmania has also been certified carbon neutral since 2016 and moved away from carbonintensive investments last year.

The University of Tasmania’s College of Sciences and Engineering is at the forefront of Antarctic, marine, maritime, terrestrial and built

environment research. Researchers and students alike use science and mathematics, to solve complex realworld problems. Similarly, the School of Engineering is the lead solution for applied and exploratory engineering research and development across Tasmania. The facility draws on its industry connections to deliver sustainable and dynamic local research with international impacts. Some of the focus areas include renewable energy systems, highspeed catamarans, and biomedical implants. In one case, researchers are working with governments and mining operators to create a sustainable critical metal industry. The ‘Environmentally Sustainable Production of Critical Metals’ initiative will also focus on renewed education and training opportunities in Tasmania. “Australia is seeking to grow its capacity in critical metal resource extraction and production to help meet these needs domestically,” said Professor David Cooke, who is the Director of the Centre for Ore Deposit and Earth Science (CODES). The project was recently awarded $3.5 million through the Federal Government’s Regional Research Collaboration program. “This project aims to provide new methods and approaches to critical metal processing from existing mines, and from legacy mine wastes, leading to improved environmental outcomes,” Professor Cooke said. nation-building ambitions in modern technology, infrastructure, and renewable energy. “Tasmania can contribute significantly to this growth due to its unique geology, and the University is particularly well-positioned to facilitate environmentally sustainable development of critical metals production through our research expertise,” Professor Cooke said. CODES boasts a worldwide collaborative network of 28 countries, who work across 59 major research initiatives. The centre also offers a range of postgraduate research opportunities.

In a show of the University of Tasmania’s strength and commitment to materials science and research, students recently won a prestigious international competition to help solve the climate crisis.

The XPRIZE Carbon Removal Student Competition was launched to fund initiatives for carbon removal technologies by student-led teams. A team of students from the University of Tasmania won US$250,000 as part of the scheme, which is sponsored by Elon Musk’s Foundation.

The ‘Blue Symbiosis’ team was named as one of 23 international winners for its concept, which seeks to repurpose offshore oil and gas platforms to grow seaweed for carbon extraction from the ocean.

Joshua Castle is a Bachelor of Marine and Antarctic Science (Honours) student, who led the research team on this project. He said the concept was inspired by the topic of his thesis. “I researched the potential of repurposing oil and gas infrastructure to regenerative seaweed sites, which led to the conclusion that this holds real promise for both environmental and commercial reasons,” he said. Governments are faced with a $60 billion challenge for the decommissioning of oil and gas infrastructure. But seaweed can potentially fill this gap and deliver a range of environmental benefits for ocean health.

“Our concept aims to increase seaweed production to a scale large enough for it to have a significant impact on ocean health, and to harvest a proportion of the seaweed in 100-year construction materials, such as fire resilient bricks. This way, we can quantify the exact amount of carbon we store,” Mr Castle said.

Blue Symbiosis is also focussed on commercial applications that address one crucial climate question: how can we reduce the amount of carbon stored in our oceans?

The project draws on clear targets with measurable goals. Together, the team seeks to capture the imaginations of people from around the world. Professor Marcus Haward is an academic supervisor and the team’s mentor, who commended the students on their work.

“We are all incredibly proud of their efforts being recognised on the global stage and look forward to supporting them as they progress through to the next level of competition.” The team’s submission was assessed by a panel of judges who considered the overall design, research utilisation and team capabilities. The project team has also begun work on a prototype to enter in the major US$100 million XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, where innovators connect with international thought-leaders. Teams must demonstrate a working solution at a scale of at least 1,000 tonnes of carbon removed per year; and model their costs at a scale of 1 million tonnes per year.