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Projects 'in action'
Swinburne is committed to innovative, practical education and research solutions that benefit both the community and industry. Our aim is to find solutions that work.
We believe it is important to be on the ground developing projects that meet community and industry needs and expand our horizons. Some of these projects are highlighted below.
Guaranteed Entry Scheme
At Swinburne, we’ve packaged our TAFE courses and higher education degrees together to be the first university in Australia to offer a guaranteed institution-wide articulation program.
The Guaranteed Entry Scheme (GES) is a brand new initiative that puts us at the forefront of innovative education. Enrol in one of our TAFE diploma or advanced diplomas and on successful completion you’ll get guaranteed entry into an undergraduate program.
Students receive credit for their diploma or advanced diploma studies, fast-tracking them into later stages of an undergraduate degree.
Find out more about the GES
Advancing Australia’s manufacturing sector
Swinburne is behind the push to develop an internationally competitive, highly productive and technologically advanced manufacturing sector in Australia.
A $40 million grant from the Federal Government will go towards a state-of-the-art Advanced Manufacturing Centre (AMC) at Swinburne. The building will house a number of world-class research groups such as the Australian Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AusAMRC) and the Victoria-Suntech Advanced Solar Facility (VSASF).
The Centre will also build strong links across the Higher Education, research, vocational training and manufacturing sectors, and develop joint collaborations across the industry.
Swinburne has committed $250 million over four years towards developing education and research infrastructure, including the soon to be completed Green Trades Complex and the Advanced Technology Centre (ATC) Building.
Read more about the AMC
Students win global award
The Black Saturday bushfires in February 2009 devastated parts of Victoria. Many people were caught off guard by the fires intensity and unpredictability, with more than 170 people killed.
Out of this disaster, Swinburne students Andrew Thomas and Angela Durham have designed an award-winning bushfire shelter. Encase™ is a free-standing, above ground shelter that offers maximum accessibility.
“During the Victorian bushfires, many people lost their houses as they weren’t able to stay and defend them. But if those affected can stay safe on site – which our product allows for – they stand a good chance of saving their house.”
The design won the 2010 Licensing Executives Society International (LESI) Global Award. This is the third year in a row that Swinburne student entrepreneurs have won the award.
Read more about the Encase™ design
Generating solar energy of the future
Swinburne is powering next generation energy initiatives. We recently joined forces with Suntech, one of the world’s leading producers of solar panels, to open the Victoria-Suntech Advanced Solar Facility (VSASF).
Partially funded by a $3 million grant under the Victorian Science Agenda Investment Fund, the collaboration provides a platform for Swinburne and Suntech to commercialise NANOPLAS, a revolutionary nanoplasmonic solar cell technology.
NANOPLAS technology enables the efficient collection of solar energy from a wider colour spectrum than cells currently being developed. This could make them twice as efficient as the current generation of cells and significantly less costly to produce and use.
The collaboration will also promote further cooperation among Australia’s world-leading solar research community.
Read more about the solar facility
Indigenous Knowledge
Indigenous knowledge can offer new ways of thinking about design. In creating products, designing systems and providing services that are meaningful to people, you need to know how people perceive products and services and how they integrate them into their lives.
Swinburne’s new centre for Indigenous knowledge and design will bring Indigenous influences to the way knowledge is developed and shared in Western universities, and change the way we conceive design.
Dr Norman Sheehan is responsible for establishing the new Centre: “Indigenous knowledge is a discipline that focuses on knowledge not just as an accumulation of facts, but as a way of understanding and living in the world, informing everything we do.”
Read more about Indigenous knowledge and the new centre
