This post originally appeared on the UOW Media site.
Thought leaders at the SMART Infrastructure Facility have found that Australia could save billions of dollars by better planning and managing infrastructure projects.
Garry Bowditch joined a major international seminar in Ahmedabad, India, on how public private partnerships (PPP) can be used to deliver major infrastructure projects. Continue reading
In May, SMART Infrastructure joined with the NSW Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for a forum entitled: Planning NSW Infrastructure in the Twenty-Second Century.
The PAC has just released it’s report on the forum.
The Committee recommends that the NSW Government review the issues and
themes outlined in this report and advise the Committee on NSW’s long term
infrastructure planning and delivery capabilities
Access the full report [PDF] and view the PAC’s webpage on forum proceedings here.
Dr Michelle Dunbar received a 2014 Outstanding Contribution to Teaching and Learning award.
A researcher based at the SMART Infrastructure Facility is among the recipients of the University of Wollongong’s 2014 Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Teaching and Learning (OCTAL).
The OCTALs are awarded each year to staff who have made a major contribution to teaching and learning excellence within the University of Wollongong. Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Michelle Dunbar was recognised with an OCTAL Early Career Faculty award for her teaching practice to date, but most specifically in relation to lecturing MATH283 (Advanced Engineering Mathematics) in August 2013.
UOW Vice-Chancellor Paul Wellings said the awards provide “a chance to celebrate a select group of researchers, teachers and professional staff who have helped underlay the success of UOW.”
Dr Dunbar was nominated for the award by a number of her students.
More information about the OCTAL awards can be found at octal.uow.edu.au.
This article was originally published in The Australian by SMART Infrastructure Senior Research Fellow Joe Branigan. See the original here.
IF the promises made in the 2014-15 Queensland budget are realised, Tim Nicholls can be proud of the turnaround in the sunshine state’s financial position compared with the big borrowing and spending Beattie-Bligh era. Continue reading
This article was originally published in The Conversation by Garry Bowditch.
Calls to lift the GST rate to placate the states financial challenges will serve to only exacerbate an already severe vertical fiscal imbalance and prolong a deeply unsatisfactory chapter in Australia’s Federation.
NSW Premier Mike Baird has promised projects financed by the sale of the state’s electricity network will have to pass a rigorous cost-benefit analysis.
In this article in the Australian Financial Review, Garry Bowditch says the NSW Government can boost the state’s productivity by selling the electricity network but it should concentrate on projects that would improve connectivity in the CBD.
SMART Infrastructure’s Dr Tomas Holderness recently spoke at the Big Boulder Conference in Boulder, Colorado about his work on the PetaJakarta project. Continue reading
Garry Bowditch was recently featured in this radio story from the ABC’s The World Today program:
While he is in Canada, Tony Abbott will meet the heads of some of the country’s wealthiest investment funds. Some have already bought into Australian ports and property developments, but infrastructure analysts here say there is an appetite for more.
Listen to the whole episode here. [podcast]http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/news/audio/twt/201406/20140609-twtfull.mp3[/podcast]
Innovation and change gather pace yielding greater intensity in our working environment. Recognizing when our normal approach has to be complemented as a result of this constantly growing complexity is not easy. Continue reading