Editor: Tanu Patodia tpatodia@swinburne.edu.my Copy Editor: Darren John Angking Editorial Advisors: Alan Fong Yean Yip
Clinical Research Centre, Sarawak General Hospital
Charlie Yeo Tiong Chia
Sarawak Biodiversity Centre
Lelia Sim Ah Hua
Sarawak Development Institute
Yee Yew Weng
Keller (M) Sdn Bhd
Graphic Designer: Constance Lau Xin Wen Photographer: Fabian Hee Constance Lau Xin Wen Discover is published by Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus Jalan Simpang Tiga 93350 Kuching Sarawak, Malaysia www.swinburne.edu.my
Printed by UM Colour Kuching ISSN 22897585
Swinburne Sarawak Sdn. Bhd. The information in this publication was correct at the time of going to press. The views expressed by contributors in this publication are not necessarily those of Swinburne Sarawak.
At Swinburne, we pride ourselves on creating new knowledge through research. Especially research which has an impact that will benefit the community, immediate and global. Our collaborations with the government show that we respond to society’s needs. Some work also has a rippling effect; bio-cementation, clean coal combustion, our shark population, bio-control of dengue mosquitoes, are issues which affect us all. In research, the idea of dialogue between researchers and the community is vital; new ideas and opportunities arise. Swinburne Melbourne hosted a research conference to that aim, which six of our early career researchers participated in. This year, we launched our new Centre for Digital Futures; a collaborative space for deep discipline based researchers to come together. The rural mapping project brings researchers from business, digital technology and anthropology
together. Collaborations like these are what allow Swinburne to be innovative. But in research it is the people who matter and we need to change our perception that researchers are isolated in their ivory towers. Our shark research team painstakingly looks at the number of sharks being sold in the markets as a way of gauging our ocean’s health. Another team together with Swinburne Melbourne examine green consumer behaviour when buying technology. The diversity and quality of our research and researchers is what Discover aims to make known, and I hope you enjoy this issue.
Assoc. Prof. Wallace Wong Director Research and Consultancy Swinburne Sarawak
Features
04
The Science of Love and War
14
What’s on Your Plate?
18
Where do you want to go?
22
Coal Combusting... Clean? Can.
Mapping the Movement of Change
Features
26
The Smallest Deadliest Threat
06
The Nature of Commerce
08
Swinburne Celebrates Research Conference
National Parks and Tourism
30
Updating to Greener Tech
42
Because it’s 2017 Changing the Way We Design and Build
10
Is There a Way Out?
34
Building Bio-cement from Bacteria
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Finding Opportunities for Single Mums
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All Aboard
UPFRONT 04
The Science of Love and War
UPFRONT 05
S
winburne is primarily a university for Science and Technology; we teach it well, we understand, and we innovate, BUT can our students also speak about it well?
To encourage science communication for a non-academic audience, Swinburne Sarawak hosted the Famelab Sarawak and Sabah heat 2017. The rules are simple, present a scientific concept to a general audience in 3 minutes. The four Swinburne participants selected for the regional heat painstakingly prepared for the competition; from writing a script, to practicing the delivery and highlighting the takeaway, and overcoming the fear of public speaking. Or at least if not overcoming, ignoring it! Three of the shortlisted participants spoke about science and love, although from very different perspectives. Their submissions can be viewed on the Swinburne Sarawak Research website. David Wee Hong-Sheng, a science undergraduate student, won the judges over with his script on the war that viruses rage on our body and the defence which antibiotics can provide. As a finalist, he went onto the Famelab masterclass, a two-day communication workshop given by Malcolm Love. Malcolm taught science communication at Birkbeck College in London for 13 years and was a senior producer at the BBC. “I didn’t know who he was until I met him, but what I learnt there; engaging with the audience, structuring your argument, is something I can use in all kinds of personal and professional situations. The whole experience of practising and participating in Famelab has been difficult but amazing. To answer the Q & A at the end, you really have to be really quick on your feet as the judges ask you all kinds of questions. Being at the national finals, meeting cool people, you really feel part of a science community!” says David.
From left: Florina S. Ak Richard, Vivian Lee, Siu Mei Jong, David W. Hong-Sheng
UPFRONT 06
The Nature of Commerce
National Parks and Tourism
UPFRONT 07
O
ne of the more iconic images of Borneo is its rainforest. To preserve that, Sarawak has one of the most extensive protected areas in Malaysia, which includes 30 national parks, 6 wildlife sanctuaries, and 8 nature reserves, all managed by the Sarawak Forestry Corporation. The role of managing parks is a complex one for the Corporation; they have to conserve the rainforests and be custodians for future generations—the simplest way would be to close it off but this is not realistic. They have to allow visitors in and manage their expectations, which means that facilities and services have to be diverse. The Sarawak Forestry Corporation has engaged Swinburne to guide the development of the park service model for Kubah National Park. The objective is to start small; one pilot project with one park covering 2,230 hectares. Swinburne will be examining best practices in park-recreational management models, which balances recreation and environment. One of the hurdles is that there are no internationally accepted criteria in park-recreational management models. So even if Kubah National Park wants to provide services at par with international standards, those standards have not been set. Dr. George Ngui and his team will be looking at the practice models of successful parks with similar environmental conditions as Kubah and will then generate broadly applicable criteria. He says, “You can’t fit a square peg in a round hole, so the recommendations have to be localised, especially as indigenous communities live around the park. So how can they also benefit while the park’s operations become more sustainable? We’ll also look at which capacity building programs need to be put in place to ensure the smooth running of the park.” Nature based tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors and has the potential to make a significant contribution to Sarawak’s economy. The Sarawak Forestry Corporation wants to show Sarawak’s gems while carrying out a full conservation program.
aswinms
UPFRONT 08
Swinburne Celebrates Research Conference Vie Ming Tan’s (left) work offers empirical evidence on the direct effects of self-esteem and social bonding in explaining citizenship behaviours of students at international university branch campuses.
Elammaran Jayamani (second from left) is developing a new sustainable material as an alternative to conventional polymers or for plastics. He uses Bornean agricultural byproducts and has created a stronger polymer matrix which has applications in the areas of sound installations and packaging to name a few.
Cynthia Kon (third from left) talked about how her predictive mathematical model for mosquitoborne diseases, like malaria, dengue and zika, can assist health authorities in taking preventive measures.
UPFRONT 09
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his year Swinburne Melbourne launched the “Swinburne Celebrates Research Conference� aimed at sharing research achievements and practices with industry partners and external stakeholders. As Swinburne has a big research core spread across its two campuses, this event also connected researchers across the university to foster a spirit of collaboration.
Six researchers from Swinburne Sarawak were selected to attend the conference.
Bismita Choudhury (third from right) did a poster presentation; her work is on the automatic detection of retinal strokes. People with common diseases such as diabetes, glaucoma, obesity are at risk, and this neural network would be an automatic feature extractor and classifier.
Agnes Rismardiyanti (second from right) also participated in the poster competition, and presented a consolidated framework for sustainability assessment, which would be applied to examine best practice methods by Malaysian companies, and offer tools and techniques for them to be more engaged with sustainability.
Siu Mei Jong (right) presented on the potential of telomeres as genetic predictors on the risk of getting heart attacks. Her presentation earned her the Highly Commended Researcher Award in the oral competition.
UPFRONT INSIGHT 10
Is There a Way Out?
Y
UPFRONT 11
es, we are talking about traffic, and there are no winners here. The only positive thing we can say about congestion is that it is synonymous with a city’s growth. Different cities propose their own solutions to this. From levying a congestion charge during peak hours, to building flyovers, to changing the flow of traffic mid-day. The area north of the Sarawak River in Kuching has seen rapid growth—a new hospital and mega mall are being built for its residents. The roundabouts here are heavily congested and traffic officers regulate the flow during peak hours. One proposed solution is to construct a shallow underpass; and work on this has already begun. A shallow underpass only allows cars and motorcycles to pass through and it is aesthetically more pleasing than a flyover. Previous traffic studies have shown that light vehicles make up the majority of the congestion in this crossing, hence the decision to exclude larger trucks. Swinburne is conducting a study on the impact of the shallow underpass in collaboration with PPES Works Sdn. Bhd. and the Kuching Public Works Department. The study will look at the traffic situation before work on the underpass began and after its completion, especially the impact of the shallow underpass on the upstream and downstream traffic at the surrounding intersections. Factors close to the hearts of road users such as delay, queue length, and travel time will be studied in detail. The research will explore whether there is potential for the shallow underpasses to be implemented at other intersections in the future.
ArTeTeTrA
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Finding Opportunities for Single Mums Dr. Mung Ling Voon & Dr. Ida Fatimawati bt Adi Badiozaman mvoon@swinburne.edu.my, ifaBadiozaman@swinburne.edu.my
270 SINGLE MOTHERS
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OUT OF 373 SURVEYED WANT TO BE EMPLOYED
ollaborating with the Women and Family Department of Sarawak, our project looked at what holds the 270 women back from working. We then came up with recommendations which are currently guiding policy.
We found it to be a catch-22 situation. Most of the respondents come from a low-income family, so they can’t afford childcare or transportation to be able to go back to work. Those were the obvious problems. There is also a lack of suitable job opportunities. Then there is a lack of suitable skills and education for the jobs which are available. Finally, how would information about these opportunities reach the women? These problems, which are mostly organisational, can be tackled one by one. A one-stop solution could be a women’s version of job-seekers centre. This centre would provide courses for starting one’s own cottage industry or re-entering the work-force. It could also have a resource centre in terms of IT hardware, and career coaching. Another recommendation we made was to use the Uber model. Uber works because it leverages a network of service providers and people who need that facility and flexibility. There are distinct advantages for single moms to be trained as Uber drivers like flexible work hours and owning your own transportation. For this to happen a car subsidy is needed. Instead of creating a new one, our advice is to use the BR1M scheme as a down-payment for the purchase of a new car. This collaboration with the government has been constructive and we don’t intend to stop here. Swinburne University will be involved in creating training programs specifically suited for single moms who have had a secondary school education.
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“The coaching part is important if you want to change the welfare state of mind�
Mung Ling (left) teaches human resource management at Swinburne. Her research interests include leadership, management, social enterprises, and community engagement. Ida teaches research skills to MA TESOL students. Her current research is on how policies and programs can be further developed for the economic betterment of women.
FEATURES 14
What’s on Your Plate?
S Faith Chaya fchaya@swinburne.edu.my
harks have been around in our oceans for the past 450 million years, which makes them even older than the dinosaurs. But these fearsome hunters are now among the most brutally hunted animals worldwide. As sharks produce relatively few pups and it take many years for them to mature, the number of this top marine predator is rapidly declining. This changes the balance of the marine ecosystem, allowing other species to thrive which has a negative impact. Oceana.org explains this well, “By taking sharks out of a coral reef ecosystem, the larger predatory fish, such as groupers, increase in abundance and feed on the
FEATURES 15
Photo credit: Faith Chaya
FEATURES 16
This project will create benchmarks for monitoring future change in local shark populations and reveal population subdivisions that require special attention for fisheries management.
Faith is a Research Associate at Swinburne Sarawak. Her primary research interest is to study about elasmobranch (sharks, skates and rays).
FEATURES 17
herbivores. With less herbivores, macroalgae expands and corals can no longer compete, shifting the ecosystem to one of algae dominance, affecting the survival of the reef system.” Why are Sharks hunted? Shark fin soup has been a delicacy since the Ming dynasty in China. Traditionally it was only consumed by a very small elite and wealthy group who could afford this luxury food. It is only in the last few decades that its consumption has risen rapidly. According to Wild Aid “from a few million in the ‘80s to more than 300 million today.” A 2015 United Nations report puts Malaysia as the ninth largest producer of shark products. This figure is deeply alarming as Malaysia is in the middle of the Coral Triangle, the heart of the world’s marine biodiversity. Up till today, there is nothing in the policies that expresses the need to manage shark resources except for whale sharks which are listed under endangered species in Fisheries Act Regulation, 1999. There are over 400 shark species in world, however, in Sarawak, there has been no scientifically solid data collection carried out on how many and what species of sharks are being caught and sold in the markets. Our research aims to change that and we work in collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society in monitoring local markets. A method called Rapid Fishery Assessment by Market Survey was developed specifically for developing countries to characterise the types of fishes being caught. We apply this method to assess the species and number of sharks caught and brought to domestic fishing ports, from where they are distributed to local fish markets. This survey collects information of the sharks being sold such as morphometric measurements, prices, and gender. While the primary aim is to assess which shark species and how many are being sold on the various local markets; future work will focus on DNA work to see if the sharks sold are mostly closely related or from different populations. This information will help us to understand if certain areas have to be protected more or less due to overfishing and reduction of the gene pool of a certain subpopulation.
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Coal Combusting... Clean? Can.
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Dr. Jaka Sunarso jsunarso@swinburne.edu.my
hen we talk about coal combusting, the image we think of is usually something out of a Dickensian novel. Thick clouds of black coming out of dark and angry looking factories. While we are looking for cleaner alternatives and being successful in that search, it will still take a generation until we become 100 % sustainable. In this transition period, coal combusting still remains a reality. However, we can use current science and technology to our advantage in finding a clean way to combust coal. It sounds paradoxical but it is very much possible. How coal combustion currently works is quite simple. Air passes through the coal in the combustion chamber and what is emitted is a mix
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Scott Butner
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Jaka teaches Process Modelling and Transport Phenomena here at Swinburne. His main research interest is in the sustainable energy delivery from batteries, fuel cells, and membranes.
INSIGHT 21
of CO2 and nitrous oxide which is quite toxic. It is almost impossible and impractical to separate pure gases from this noxious cloud. My research seeks to address this issue. I have created an electrochemical membrane which can extract pure O2 from the air. This O2 can be directed to the combustion chamber, and when it comes into contact with coal at high temperatures, highly concentrated CO2 is generated. This CO2 could be efficiently captured and compressed, and in its compressed form it can be stored away. The latter technology is under large-scale development and is called Carbon Capture and Sequestration. Using this technology, the CO2 can be trapped, liquefied, and buried deep within geological formations to prevent its release into the atmosphere for decades. The theory and the tests have been successful, but for the membrane to really revolutionise the coal industry, it has to be commercially viable. Right now, the membrane is made from an electro-ceramic material which is expensive
By using this membrane in coal combustion, highly concentrated CO2 is generated which can be efficiently captured, compressed and stored away.
to fabricate. The membrane should have a high oxygen gas output, so it can keep up with the demand. In a real system, the traffic is 2-way from the combustion chamber to the membrane. Some of the CO2 produced from the combustion chamber travels to the membrane and carries the O2 back to the chamber. But CO2 is an acidic gas. Its contact with the membrane significantly decreases the life-span of the membrane. This means that to develop the membrane as an industry solution, it has to be CO2-resistant. The challenge here is that for any single electroceramic membrane, the O2 production rate property generally has an inverse relationship with CO2 resistance. A membrane having a high O2 production rate will generally have a lower CO2 resistance and vice versa. To solve this, I use Chemical and Material Science to develop an ideal low-cost membrane that can provide high O2 productivity and sufficiently high CO2-resistance.
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Mapping the Movement of Change Raine Melissa Riman RRiman@swinburne.edu.my
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R
oads are singularly the most vital infrastructure a community can have. Apart from economic gains, the benefits they bring to a community are extensive including modernity, mobility and accelerated living. Walt Rostow (1960) said that roads are the key element in the economic progress of “underdeveloped� countries, and this can be seen in the Baram area, where timber companies built roads to transport their goods.
Photo credit: Christine Horn
INSIGHT 24
It was not until the mid ‘90s that the timber companies expanded their road construction to the Ulu Baram and allowed the public to use them thus contributing to the phenomenon of private transportation in one of the remotest areas of interior Sarawak Borneo. Given in this context, there is a need for an ethnographically informed perception of the logging roads capable of automobility. It is to understand the infrastructural world we live in today, so we can develop advanced tools and methods that work for remote communities. This Swinburne project explores the importance of roads by addressing the capacity of the physical-socio (auto)mobility, rural development, and telecommunication access within the remote underserved indigenous communities of Ulu Baram. In the absence of transport infrastructure and patchy telecommunication services, the Swinburne Sarawak-Melbourne team is looking into how these community members coordinate the sharing of private transportation for socioeconomic purposes. The team is also investigating the communities’ reliance on the access provided by the timber concessionaires for the past twenty two years. Before logging roads existed, it would take days or even a month for people in Ulu Baram to get to Marudi or Miri by longboat. As not everyone can afford to own a pickup truck, the communities have developed their own transport sharing system. This “informal” sharing system plays an important role in facilitating urban-rural interaction among these communities; the links
across space reflected in the flow of people, goods, services, finances, and information. This form of informal sharing system is not unique to any community in Sarawak, but is available in other urban and remote populations of both developed and developing nations. Uber-like apps for remote communities already exist in central Siberia. LibreTaxi, an open, free app was developed to cater to people in remote locations, through a messaging app, Telegram, which is a big hit among Russian users. Telegram enables bots and by building on top of the chat app, the developer was able to take advantage of all the existing features on Telegram, such as GPS. To date, the Swinburne team has visited several Orang Ulu communities in the region, and collected data on their sharing practices and transport needs. Also on how they strategise their livelihood activities such as farming, trading and so on, around the existing infrastructure. The data gathered will be analysed to map out the current routes used and the aim is to develop a mobile app that would assist users to locate their transportation service provider. The app would also enable service providers to receive up to date information on logging roads’ conditions, weather forecasts, locations of users, etc. Other than the communities, this mobile app will also cater to the needs of travellers/ tourists, Non-Governmental Organisation (NGOS) networks, social workers, government staff, healthcare providers, postal services, etc.
Raine is the co-investigator for the MelbourneSarawak Research Collaboration Project in remote community development. Her research looks into indigenous community participation and knowledge production.
Where do you want to go?
FEATURES 26
The Smallest Deadliest Threat Assoc. Prof. Peter Morin Nissom pmorin@swinburne.edu.my
‘M
alaysians told to brace for possible spike in dengue cases’ read the Malaysian newspaper headlines in February 2017. What it lacks in size it certainly makes up by reputation. The mosquito is one of the deadliest species in the animal kingdom. The World Health Organisation calls it “the greatest menace” with 40% of the world’s population being at risk of catching malaria and 2.5 billion people at risk of catching the dengue virus. Municipalities in Malaysia predominantly rely on chemical insecticides, and the process of fogging as a control measure. However, its effectiveness is limited as the mosquitoes build up resistance
FEATURES 27
Erik F. Brandsborg
FEATURES 28
to the pesticides, and there are concerns about the environmentally unfriendly nature of the chemicals. The Malaysian Ministry of Health reported 336 deaths from the dengue virus in Malaysia in 2015, a 56.3% jump from 2014. There is a pressing need to find alternative methods to fogging. The Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation has given us a flagship grant for this. Together with National Institute of Biotechnology Malaysia, we are looking at biocontrol alternatives; where natural enemies are used to suppress the population of a pest. This method is already in place in Africa and the Netherlands where a strain of the entomopathogenic fungi, Metarhizium anisopliae has been effective in destroying mosquito larvae, especially the Aedes aegypti species which carries the dengue virus along with chikungunya, yellow fever, and zika. We are evaluating whether this fungus strain would be as effective in Malaysia as it is elsewhere. Entomopathogenic fungi as a biocontrol agent is also widely used in agriculture where 5 strains, namely, Metarhizium anisopliae, as well as, Beauveria bassiana, Tolypocladium cylindrosporum, Lagenidium giganteum, and Lecanicillium lecanii are used to control the beetle population.
Our study strives to find the most effective strain of entomopathogenic fungi to kill the major species of mosquitoes found in Malaysia. We will be looking at all the strains of fungi which are used as a biocontrol agent. The Metarhizium anisopliae has been successful in targeting three major mosquito species, and testing the effectiveness of the remaining fungi is part of the ongoing project. The observations and data obtained from our trials will aid in the design of a successful biocontrol program against these dengue vectors thus helping to improve the management and control of dengue throughout Malaysia.
The data obtained from our trials will aid in the design of a successful biocontrol program against the dengue vectors.
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Peter is the Associate Dean of Science here at Swinburne. His current research interest is in the biocontrol of animal and plant pathogens.
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Updating to Greener Tech
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Dr. Bibiana ChiuYiong Lim blim@swinburne.edu.my
ith irrefutable climate change data, ‘going green’ and being sustainable has gained a lot of ground amongst consumers. One way to go green is to be sustainable in our use of technology, known as green IT. So what, in fact, is green IT? It looks at the reduction of energy used by computers, servers, data centres, and the entire production and life cycle of IT equipment; starting from raw material use to e-waste and recycling of IT products. What most of us do not realise is that the production of newer devices not only consumes a large amount of electricity, raw materials, chemicals as well as water, but it also generates a staggering amount of hazardous waste which contributes to a significant amount of greenhouse gases. Green IT has been around for many years but not much data has been produced on the perception of the community towards green IT practices, particularly when it comes to buying computers or IT devices. This is where our research kicks in. Together with Dr Nelson Leung from Swinburne Melbourne, we are investigating the
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crises_crs
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perception of consumers towards green IT, which in turn influences current and future green IT practices. The study focuses on and compares the practice of two countries, namely Malaysia and Australia. Part of the study also looks into what the consumers in both countries consider when buying IT equipment. Using a technique called snowball sampling, the study reaches out to Facebook users and leads them to the online questionnaires on SurveyMonkey.com. Existing participants are encouraged to share the invitation to potential participants amongst their acquaintances who may be interested or eligible. This creates a chain or “snowball effect” and it helps to gradually increase the number of participants in the study. With the data obtained from the research, policy-makers can be advised on how to increase awareness and practice of green IT. Measuring success in this field is not easy and clearly requires set goals, target metrics and feasible implementation strategies. One of the remarkable initiatives in this field is a project called “Climate Savers Computing Initiative”, which was started in 2007 by industry giants Google and Intel. Its aim is to promote the adoption of smart technologies which improve the efficiency of computers’ power delivery and reduce energy consumption. It looks at the complete manufacturing chain and use by consumers. While we are still far away from adopting a cradle to cradle model in IT manufacturing, initiatives like these make consumers more aware of green IT.
We are investigating the perception of consumers towards green IT in Malaysia and Australia. With data obtained from this research, awareness programs can be implemented.
Bibiana lectures on sustainability here at Swinburne. She is also the digital learning technologist, supporting staff and students on the use of technology in teaching and learning.
STUDENT SPEAK 34
Building Bio-cement from Bacteria Armstrong Ighodalo Omoregie & Nurnajwani Senian aomoregie@swinburne.edu.my, nSenian@swinburne.edu.my
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he cement manufacturing industry is one of the top five emitters of greenhouse gases. One ton of CO2 is emitted when one ton of cement is produced. The urgency to find cleaner alternatives to cement is being explored and found. The world’s first public building built with eco-friendly concrete was in Brisbane, Australia in 2014.
Swinburne’s Centre for Sustainable Technologies is committed to finding cleaner and more efficient ways of construction. It brings deep discipline based research together to that end. In this case, science and engineering come together to make eco-friendly soil, and are backed by a French firm, Bachy Soletanche—a dream project for any research university. What we are exploring is bio-cementation, an eco-friendly technology which makes use of living bacteria to produce green cement. These bacteria produce an enzyme which facilitates chemical reactions in the soil and produces calcium carbonate, a cementing agent which binds soil particles together. This increases the soil strength and stiffness, making construction possible. The idea of using microorganisms for bio-technical engineering was first introduced in 1992 by a group of Canadian scientists, so the idea has been around for a while. But the challenge still remains to find the best possible microbial candidate capable of producing a strong green cement.
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We are currently involved in large-scale bio-cementation which imitates field conditions. There are many considerations in large-scale production; hence, we are closely monitoring this experimental work to ensure successful and applicable bio-cement products.
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Where biotechnology and civil engineering meet:
Loose beach sand
Bacteria carefully isolated from the caves of Sarawak
Converted to strong sandstone in 2 weeks
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This is where the location of Swinburne Sarawak comes in; the island of Borneo is a rich, undisturbed biodiverse playground and our group has been painstakingly investigating microbial samples. The more remote, the better; and we’ve been investigating samples from most of the caves in the region. Caves are an excellent place to find rich microbial biodiversity as they remain undisturbed since their existence. We decided to look for new bacteria because besides finding something unique, there is an obvious advantage in using local bacteria as they are well suited to the native environment. They are less likely to become pathogenic when exposed to undesirable conditions such as different temperatures or acidity levels. The best microbial candidates for our study came from bacteria strains found in the Wind and Fairy Caves situated just outside Kuching. At this moment, we can bind loose sand particles using these bacteria. This is very promising as the technique can be used for construction alongside riverbanks where the soil needs to be hardened, or it can be used to harden dirt or unpaved roads, against landslides along hilly roads or even against heavy metal remediation, it can form a barrier preventing the heavy metals from reaching the groundwater. After having found the best microbial sample, we are now looking at how we can optimise the bio-cement production to make it more durable, and how the local bacteria can be produced in a large-scale for industrial application.
Until now, most researchers make use of expensive microbiological media to grow bacteria which makes bio-cement production expensive. The notion of finding a low-cost alternative growth medium from sources such as agro-waste will not only cut down bacterial production cost, but will also serve as an environmentfriendly approach to minimise accumulative waste.
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All Aboard Jessica Song jxsong@swinburne.edu.my
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y research is about understanding what kind of plastics are present in our oceans. I was awarded a fellowship by the NF-POGO Centre of Excellence in Observational Oceanography to take part in a practical training aimed
The RRS Discovery Š National Oceanography Centre
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at building core skills in specialised areas of research such as instrumentation training, sample collection, and analytical skills. I worked with Dr. Claire Evans from the National Oceanography Institute in Southampton, a research partner of Swinburne Sarawak. Together with an international team we went on an expedition on board the RRS Discovery to the Porcupine Abyssal Plain which is off the coast of Ireland in the North Atlantic. The plain was chosen as a reliable point of sustained observation because it lies on a relatively flat ocean bed, and currents are smooth which minimises heavy mixing. Also, being situated far enough from the continent, it has true open ocean conditions making it suitable for marine studies. Dr. Evans and myself collected data to study the underlying processes which keep the marine ecosystem running smoothly. Because of the rising threat of plastic pollution in our oceans we focused on the impact of plastic litter on these processes. Microbes form the basis of all underlying processes on earth. They are responsible for nutrient breakdown and growth. The same phenomena happen in the oceans. But there is a food chain, tiny predators which consume microbes keeping their numbers in check. We were examining whether these predators had mistakenly ingest microplastic beads, hence reducing microbial death rates and sending the marine carbon cycle into a screaming frenzy. This knowledge is crucial for the conservation of our marine ecosystem which is the Earth’s largest life support system. Oceans generate half of the oxygen we breathe and a sixth of the animal protein we eat. Healthy oceans absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and reduce the impact of climate change.
Jessica onboard the RRS Discovery
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Because it’s 2017 Changing the Way We Design and Build Chukwuka Christian Ohueri COhueri@swinburne.edu.my
G
reen building construction as the term suggests is the practice of being environmentally responsible, if not wholly sustainable, throughout the building’s lifecycle; from design to construction, maintenance & operation, and even demolition. As you can imagine there are certain criteria which the building has to fulfill to call itself “green”. The Malaysian Carbon Reduction and Environmental Sustainability Tool (MyCREST) was recently implemented in Malaysia to assess green buildings. MyCREST uses its criteria points (1 to 5 stars) to measure the carbon rate and sustainable performance factors which includes looking at the social, economic, and environmental conditions of the building. The drawback is that MyCREST can only be used after the building design and construction is completed. My research in construction management looks to address this gap. Engineers use a sophisticated software called Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the planning and designing phase of building projects. BIM is an intelligent 3D model-based process that provides the entire construction project team with
important information needed to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the entire construction project. However, combining MyCREST and BIM will improve the process of designing green buildings, evaluating their Environmental Impacts (EI), and listing the potential MyCREST certification points in an integrated environment. The Automated BIM-MyCREST Application I am developing can be used as a plug-in for BIM. The software can then be used to assess and forecast the performance of a proposed green building project so that the construction team can make meaningful decisions during the design, construction, operation and maintenance stages. These decisions will enable green buildings to achieve a higher MyCREST assessment points which certifies that the building will be environmentally friendly and a healthy place to live in.
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We eat to get _____ A long-bodied predator marine fish A combustible rock used for heating To tear something out forcefully A machine resembling a human being Is what supermarket bags are made of Breathe in oxygen, exhale _____ Not far A ridesharing app Covers 70% of the Earth’s surface To communicate over a distance The study or use of computers Firm belief in the character and strength of someone The opposite of overpass The activity of searching for information A contest or tournament A way of using resources without depleting them System of connections
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A self-sustaining community of organisms Fruit or seed of a cereal crop Another name for software, especially on mobile operating systems Female parent Tropical woodland with annual rainfall of 100 inches or more Relating to or affected with heart disease Convert waste into reusable material Action of moving people from A to B As sly as a ___ To perform a speech to a live audience (2 words) A form of water transport Main ingredient for making concrete Small flying insect which sucks blood This moment The chemical basis of heredity and it resembles a flexible twisted ladder
Higher
Education
Times
Gamification is the application of game elements to encourage engagement with a product. The clues are within the magazine and the answers are on the Swinburne Research website.
Swinburne is ranked among the top 100 universities in the world under the age of 50.
( +60 82 415353 @ study@swinburne.edu.my Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus, Jalan Simpang Tiga, 93350 Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
DULN004(Q) KP(JPS)5195/IPTS/1144 05 June 2004 Co. No. 497194-M