Achievements and awards

Swinburne Associate Professor Andreea Molnar is among 50 female researchers and scientists recognised by Cosmos for her dedication and contribution to Australian science.  

In honour of International Women’s Day 2024 and with the support of Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA) and Australia’s five Learned Academies, Cosmos showcased the achievements of these amazing female researchers and scientists on their website.

Associate Professor Molnar’s research aims to develop computing for social good and incorporates elements from information systems, human computer interaction and educational games. It has applications in health, education and governmental services.  

This follows her appointment as a Fellow of the International Science Council last year, further cementing her as a leader in her field.

Swinburne's Aerostructures Innovation Research (AIR) Hub has won the Zero Carbon Hydrogen Australia and Smart Energy Council’s Hydrogen Innovation Challenge. 

AIR Hub’s winning submission was the Small Hydrogen Aircraft Evolution and Development (SHADE) project, in which the team designed, developed and flight-tested Australia’s first hydrogen fuel cell powered vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) uncrewed aircraft system (UAS). Judges commended the AIR Hub team on their innovative approach and dedication to advancing sustainable energy solutions.  

AIR Hub Director, Dr Adriano Di Pietro, said the win is testimony to Swinburne University’s commitment to contributing to the global renewable energy transition. 

“The entire AIR Hub team is dedicated to furthering innovation in aerospace and aviation and to building a greener sector for future generations. It’s an honour to have this work recognised by the Smart Energy Council,” says Dr Di Pietro. 

“I’d like to extend a heartfelt congratulations to all members of the SHADE team for the hard work and expertise you have brought towards this project. Together we are building towards a more sustainable future.” 

The Hydrogen Innovation Challenge aims to showcase groundbreaking innovation in the renewable hydrogen sector. Entrants were judged on how their submission demonstrated excellence in innovation, feasibility and its potential to foster growth in Australia's nascent green hydrogen sector. 

Director, Indigenous Engagement, Vicky Peters has been awarded the Jo Fisher Future Board Scholarship.

Now in its second year running, the Scholarship offers a springboard to better prepare leaders for board opportunities as they arise. 

Peters says she is profoundly grateful to receive the scholarship and is excited by how it will elevate her leadership.

"As a proud Aboriginal woman, being awarded this scholarship is not just a personal triumph but represents a significant stride towards advancing the interests of my community at decision making levels. This opportunity not only bridges the financial gap that often hinders individuals like me, but also serves as a powerful platform for me to continue advocating for better outcomes and opportunities within my community.” Peters said. 

“This scholarship represents positive change and I am committed to making the most of this opportunity."

Founder of the scholarship, Jo Fisher believes there is a critical opportunity for Australian organisations to embrace diversity.  

“My hope is that the annual Jo Fisher Future Board Scholarship encourages different and unique board talent to come forward. And that each year an outstanding individual, who may not have otherwise had the chance, is elevated by this program. The quality of applications over the years has been outstanding.

“I look forward to seeing these beneficiaries make a truly positive contribution to the boards and organisations they join in the future," Fisher said.

Swinburne School of Engineering’s Dr Nisa Salim and PhD student Vishnu Pillai have showcased their GraphIT project at Prototypes for Humanity in Dubai. Selected from 3,000 applications in over 100 countries and being invited to attend COP28, they are presenting their research on creating graphene sensors for real-time structural health monitoring.

GraphIT addresses challenges in detecting damage, especially in hard-to-reach locations like wind turbines, and utilises graphene’s remarkable properties to be cost effective and efficient to maintain.

These graphene sensors will be able to help avert catastrophic failures, such as bridge collapses, safeguarding both property and lives. The technology has potential applications spanning aerospace, defence and automotive industries.

Swinburne’s Dr Nishar Hameed and Dr Premika Govindaraj were also involved in this innovative project, pioneering a new era in infrastructure safety and sustainability.

The project highlights the significance of research into graphene, including an Australian Research Council project between Swinburne and Sparc Technologies, led by Dr Salim. This project on smart coatings has the potential to revolutionise industries including aerospace, infrastructure, space exploration and renewable energy.

Professor Tsong Yueh Chen has won the 2024 ACM Special Interest Group on Software Engineering (SIGSOFT) Outstanding Research Award for his contributions to software engineering through the invention of metamorphic testing. This is a leading award in the software engineering community globally. 

Professor Chen’s more than 20 years at Swinburne have inspired hundreds of follow-up metamorphic testing studies by other researchers. This legacy has seen metamorphic testing evolve beyond software testing to program proving, debugging and other software engineering applications.

Metamorphic testing was endorsed as a standard testing technique by ISO/IEC/IEEE in 2021, the only technique added into industry standards in the past twenty years.

In addition to the invention of metamorphic testing, Professor Chen has delivered significant results in software testing, partition testing, failure-based testing and adaptive random testing.

PhD students flex their BICEP into ELO2 Big Dipper Challenge final

22 Jan 2024

A team of three Swinburne PhD students, featuring Daniel Ricardo, Belinda Rich and Philipp Zanon, has been chosen as one of three first place entries for the ELO2 Big Dipper Challenge. The Challenge invited Australians to design a sample acquisition device to collect lunar soil, known as regolith, for the newly-announced Australian Roo-ver mission.

The team’s design, a Biomechanically Inspired Excavator (BICEP), represents a fresh approach to lunar excavation and is inspired by the human arm. 

The mechanism features a series of pulleys and a cup-shaped mechanism for dust tolerant sample collection and can perform multiple functions, including cutting and bulldozing. Designed specifically for use on small lightweight rovers, BICEP weighs less than 600g and draws just 4 Watts to operate low excavation forces.

The team is now busy developing a final design and set of guidelines ahead of participating in the final round of the Big Dipper Challenge.

A researcher from Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Professor Ryan Shannon, has been jointly awarded the high-regarded 2024 Jackson-Gwilt Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society. Professor Shannon was awarded alongside CSIRO’s Dr Keith Bannister for turning an Australia telescope into a fast radio burst discovery machine.

Fast radio bursts are intense brief flashes or radio waves that last only a fraction of second.  Their fleeting nature made them challenging to find.

Working on the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio interferometer, Professor Shannon and Dr Bannister co-developed a supercomputing-based detection system to maximise the observed field-of-view.

After deploying the new system, the first fast radio burst was found in less than five days, and in the next year they collected a sample of 20, nearly doubling the previous decade’s haul. Since being discovered in 2007, fewer than 20 fast radio bursts had been found and confirmed to reside in other galaxies. 

“We are continuing to develop new fast radio burst search systems for ASKAP which will allow us to better understand these unusual signals and harness them to answer other foundational questions about nature of the Universe,” says Professor Shannon.