QUT News & Events Wrap – July 10 edition

NEWS

  


QUT develops golden bananas high in pro-vitamin A: World-first QUT research that has produced a golden-orange fleshed banana, rich in pro-vitamin A, has been published in the prestigious Plant Biotechnology Journal, with researchers now hoping the boosted bananas will be grown by Ugandan farmers by 2021.

Robotics leader named a Superstar of STEM: She already leads a national team of roboticists giving robots the gift of sight - now Dr Sue Keay will be a mentor and role model for young women in STEM across Australia.



Tailgating blamed for rear-end crashes, queue-jumping blamed for tailgating: Tailgating is the leading cause of rear-end crashes with one-in-two drivers failing to keep a safe following distance, a new QUT report has revealed.

San Francisco Sam is latest QUT ‘graduate success’ star: QUT has launched the 2017 chapter of its popular “Graduate Success” advertising series with San Francisco-based business and IT graduate Sam Senior.



QUT co-hosts Crime and Justice International Conference: Criminology experts from 25 countries are gathering in Cairns this week for an international conference on Crime and Justice in Asia and the Global South, co-hosted by QUT’s Crime and Justice Research Centre and the Asian Criminological Society.

QUT has the ‘droids’ the car industry’s looking for: The sharp minds that will shape the future of driverless cars converged on QUT for a robot race that could influence the development of autonomous technologies.



First ever level crossing safety university scholarship awarded: In an Australian-first, the TrackSAFE Foundation and Rail Manufacturing CRC have awarded two QUT PhD students level crossing safety internships.

Young actors tackle toxic masculinity and mateship in Enright play: A new collaboration between La Boite and QUT's Creative Industries Faculty will see final year acting students take on iconic young roles alongside professional actors in Nick Enright’s hard-hitting modern classic Blackrock.

EVENTS

July 10-11: Bakersfield Mist @ Gardens Theatre
July 14 - June 25, 2018: Eternal Present: The Still Life paintings of William Robinson (free) @ William Robinson Gallery, Old Government House
July 14: IFE Grand Challenge Lecture with Dr Henrik Christensen - Opportunities & Challenges in Robotics (free) @ Institute for Future Environments
July 20: Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame 2017 Induction Dinner @ Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre
July 24: Rhodes Scholarship information session (free) @ Gardens Point
July 26-Aug 31: Blackrock (featuring QUT final year actors) @ Roundhouse Theatre, Kelvin Grove
July 30: QUT Open Day (free) @ Gardens Point
Aug 1: QUT Business School Careers Fair (free) @ Gardens Point
Now-Aug 6: Louise Hearman (free) @ QUT Art Museum
Now - Nov 24: STEM for Schools: What's on in  2017 @ QUT

 
MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

- ABC online, ABC radio and ABC TV featured Professor James Dale’s work to create genetically modified, Vitamin A-enriched bananas, and how it will benefit African children. The story was picked up by Newsweek, AAP, 9 News, BBC News, SBS, 4BC, Yahoo 7 News, The Daily Telegraph, Brisbane Times and other Fairfax titles, The Courier Mail and other news.com publications, the Daily Mail, PNG’s Post Courier, and the Otago Daily Times.
- Distinguished Professor Stuart Cunningham told Brisbane Times and other Fairfax papers about his research into the economic impact of the creative industries in Australia.
- Associate Professor Elizabeth Williams was quoted in a Newsweek article on the effectiveness of personalised melanoma vaccines following the first human clinical trials. Yahoo UK also ran the story.
- AdNews, Mumbrella and B&T reported on QUT’s new “Graduate Success” campaign featuring Sam Senior.  He also featured in a Courier-Mail story.



- ABC TV, Online and ABC Radio Sydney were trackside for the QUT Robotics Club’s annual Droid Racing Challenge.
- Dr Sebastien Demmel explained the dangers of tailgating to 9 News Queensland. His advice also ran on ABC Radio and the APN network, including the Sunshine Coast Daily.
- 7 News ran a story on the Storyboard app, which has the support of QUT’s Creative Enterprises Australia.
- Professor Linda Graham told The Sunday Mail she thought a personality profiling program for primary school children that likened them to one of four Aussie animals was “just another educational fad”. She was also quoted in The Daily Mail.
- Stories by AAP and EducationHQ quoted Associate Professor Greg Thompson on growing concerns about the commercialisation of public education, with an opinion piece also in The Sydney Morning Herald.

- Associate Professor Gary Mortimer (pictured) told Smart Company surge pricing would be a PR disasters for supermarkets, with the piece also on MSN. He was also part of an ABC Mornings panel discussion on retail trends and another Smart Company story quoted him on Kmart’s success.

- QUT made it into an Associated Press newswire story about America’s new Candy Crush TV show that uses a giant video wall floor created by MultiTaction, the company that made The Cube’s 44-monitor wall. 
- ABC Radio National talked to Professor Douglas Baker about the planning challenges of Australian airports, with a story also running on MSN.
- Dr Emad Kiriakous lent his expertise to a story in the West Australian about nanoparticles in baby formula.
- Professor Sue Walker told ABC Newcastle listeners children who played electronic games for two to four hours a week had better outcomes for language literacy and mathematical thinking. The interview followed a piece for The Conversation co-written with Professor Susan Danby.
- Dr Lyndall Bryant’s research into apartment developments in Brisbane was mentioned in a News Corp story about Brisbane suffering from a canyon effect due to high-rise towers.
- The Carisma car mechanics app, developed with the help of a 12-week program at QUT Creative Enterprise Australia, was in Brisbane Times.
- Motoring.com wrote about this week’s Carmageddon II conference featuring keynote speaker Professor Marek Kowalkiewicz (pictured).
- Associate Professor Scott Read’s advice to spend more time in natural light and less time in front of a screen was reported by The Star Online, Malaysia.
- Marie Claire mentioned esteemed designer Lydia Pearson now teaches fashion at QUT in an article about the Easton Pearson collection being bought by a Brisbane doctor and donated to the Museum of Brisbane.
- The Shepparton News, Riverina Herald and Country Life reported on a Brisbane Airport guide for people with dementia, developed by the QUT-based Dementia CRC: Carers and Consumers.
- Tim Williams explained to The New Daily why the uptake of Tesla’s model 3 will be slow in Australia.
- Men’s Style featured a story about a health app created by AFL stars and QUT.
- QUT’s Ecoacoustics Research Group’s ground-breaking work monitoring the purple gallinule population on Oak Ridge Reservation was reported by Phys.Org.
- The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute event at QUT attracted media coverage in News Corp publications, Long Room, the New York Post and OIA News.
- Michael Klaehn spoke about the sneaky Facebook ads targeting families on his regular ABC Evenings segment, Green Cheese.
- Dr Mary Crawford talked about ID scanners as part of her regular politics segment on ABC Radio Brisbane Mornings.
- Susan Hetherington talked family matters in your regular segment on ABC Radio Capricornia.
- Professor Michel Milford and Dr Juxi Leitner’s Conversation article exploring the science behind the latest Spiderman movie was republished by Cosmos and Daily Bulletin.
- A piece written on LGBTQ rights in mainland China by QUT PhD student Meg Jing Zeng for The Conversation also appeared on the US Huffington Post, The Wire and SBS Online.
 

Media release date: Monday, July 10, 2017
Media contact: media@qut.edu.au

 
QUT is part of a national collaborative group of five major Australian universities that form the ATN (Australian Technology Network of Universities).