Welcome to QUT's weekly round-up of news and events. For more updates as they happen, join 14,020 followers of @QUTmedia on Twitter. To subscribe to this wrap, please email media@qut.edu.au.
QUT behavioural economist wins the Young Economist Award: Top behavioural economist Professor Lionel Page, from QUT’s School of Economics and Finance, has been named the 2016 Young Economist of the Year, an award that honours the best “Australian economist under the age of 40 who is deemed to have made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge”.
Head into QUT this Sunday to catch course info ... and a few Pokémon: Head into the QUT Open Day in Brisbane's CBD this Sunday (July 31) to catch all the info you need on course and career options .... and with multi-tasking being such a great skill for uni, you can even catch a few Pokémon while you're at it!
Parental policing: what are mums and dads doing to encourage safe driving?: Parents are vital in encouraging their children to obey the road rules and young drivers are keen to show their parents they can be trusted behind the wheel, according to results of a QUT road safety study led by Dr Alexia Lennon.
US virtual reality startup TimeLooper arrives at QUT CEA to take up Hot DesQ: The first international startup to benefit from the Queensland Government’s Advance Queensland Hot DesQ initiative has arrived in the state, with the tourism-focused virtual reality platform TimeLooper selecting QUT Creative Enterprise Australia as its host.
Academy Award winner to speak at Australia’s largest creative-tech summit: Australia’s largest conference for creative entrepreneurs – QUT CEA's Creative3 – has announced its first round of speakers and panellists, who include film and games veteran Ben Britten, an Academy Award winner for technical achievement in films including Spiderman, Superman Returns and Terminator 3.
July 28: Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame 2016 Induction Dinner @ Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre
July 31: QUT Open Day (free) @ Gardens Point
Aug 2: 2016 QUT Outstanding Alumni Awards @ Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre
Aug 2-5: 2016 International Conference on Traffic and Transport Psychology @ Brisbane Convention Centre
Aug 8-13: Angels in America, featuring QUT acting students @ Gardens Theatre
Now - Aug 14: Frontier imaginaries: the life of lines (free) @ QUT Art Museum
Aug 18: Murri-Ailan Way (free) @ QUT
Now - Aug 19: Femel_Fissions exhibition @ The Block
Aug 21: Caboolture Campus Open Day (free) @ QUT Caboolture
August 25: SuperGirly: Return of the Pop Princess @ Gardens Point
Aug 28: CreateX (free) @ Kelvin Grove
Now - Sept 4: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Costume Exhibition (pictured below, with designer Marion Boyce) @ Old Government House
Now - June 18, 2017: William Robinson: Genesis (free) @ William Robinson Gallery
April 5-7: 2017 Times Higher Education (THE) Young Universities Summit @ Gardens Point
MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS
- Distinguished Professor Stuart Cunningham (pictured) wrote an article for The Australian’s Higher Education on skills mixing being a key to innovation. His Conversation article on top business innovators was reprinted in Business Daily and Lifehacker Australia while he also commented on the subject for the Brisbane Times.
- ABC TV and online reported on the Australian-first temporary flood barrier invented by industrial design students Jack Gurr, Connor Crawford, and Narisson Irlen.
- Nine News spoke to Associate Professor Gary Mortimer about cleaning products and supermarket wars. He was talked about unit pricing on ABC TV and radio Australia-wide.
- The Courier-Mail sought Professor Lisa Nissen, Dr Esther Lau and Yasmin Antwertinger’s help to analyse the contents of homeopathic pills claimed to vaccinate people against diseases including whooping cough, polio and malaria. The story ran across News Corp publications.
- Professor Carol Nicoll spoke to The Courier Mail about the new national literacy and numeracy tests for teaching graduates and how QUT encourages students to sit the tests.
- Professor Jean Burgess was interviewed by ABC Radio’s PM on the challenges on combatting online abuse.
- Radio National’s The World Today spoke to Professor Paula McDonald about sexual harassment allegations at Fox News, which was replayed in ABC Radio bulletins in Hobart, Adelaide and Sydney.
- The Australian’s Business Review highlighted Syn Dynamics for developing a plasma gasification method to turn toxic waste into usable synthetic gas and credited QUT with having proof of concept involving 120 samples.
- Professor Douglas Baker talked about Brisbane City Council’s crackdown on commuter rat runs on Nine News.
- Lifehacker quoted QUT Creative Enterprise Australia’s Anna Rooke with about start-ups and pitching to investors, and iTWire featured a story about QUT CEA being selected by US virtual reality start-up, TimeLooper, as its inaugural Australian host (pictured).
- Gizmodo ran Dr Ronald Schroeter’s research into how Pokémon Go-style augmented reality games could keep us safer behind the wheel and Dr Deb Polson told the South-East Advertiser and Southern Star why Pokémon Go is no passing fad.
- Professor Larry Neale spoke to 720 ABC Perth and Radio Australia about fears self-serve checkouts are normalising theft among shoppers.
- News of QUT’s CreateX festival, planned to officially open the new phase of the Creative Industries Precinct to the public on August 28, was featured by Bmag.
- 6 Minutes reported on Samantha Ward’s research into delay in diagnoses of children with autism.
- Wheels spoke to Associate Professor Robert Perrons about Australia’s continued preference for petrol and diesel cars.
- B&T reported on QUT and BCM winning an “AMY” at the digital industry’s national awards for the “Best Digital Advertising or Communication - Learning and Education” (a campaign that gave school leavers the chance to celebrate choosing QUT with their name up in lights on a real outdoor billboard).
- Professor Matthew Rimmer spoke to The Wire about trademarking traditional bush medicine and the US Vice President shoring up Australian support for the TPP.
- The Weekend Edition ran a story about Miss Fisher’s Lawn Party at Old Government House.
- Associate Professor Leo Bowman spoke to the Townsville Bulletin about why ratings for the local WIN News have fallen so dramatically.
- Professor Graham Kerr and Associate Professor Gene Moyle’s research into the impact of dance on people with Parkinson’s Disease got a spin throughout Australian Regional Media’s network.
- Dr Peter Lazzarini’s study into the cost of diabetes-related foot disease was covered by the APN network, including the Sunshine Coast Daily, and globally in TrueViralNews and Scienmag.
- A story about QUT's PhD students being allowed to access hives installed in the Queensland Parliament gardens ran in the Courier Mail, Cairns Post, Yahoo 7 and on 4KQ radio.
- James Duffy has made the finalists list for Academic of the Year in the upcoming Australian Law Awards, as reported by Lawyers Weekly.
- QWeekend spoke to Professor Selena Bartlett about how sugar activates the brain’s reward system in a similar way to alcohol and nicotine.
- Dr Kate Williams (pictured) wrote about sleep research and its long-term impact on children for The Conversation.
- Dr Mark Schutze was on ABC Gold Coast’s Drive show talking about the ecological role of some fruit flies.
- Dr Mark King was a guest on ABC Toowoomba’s Drive show where he talked about figures showing more speeding drivers were being caught.
- Peter Black, Susan Hetherington, and Dr Mary Crawford took part in their weekly 612 ABC segments.
- The Cairns Post ran a story on two local Year 11 girls who are coming to the QUT Vice-Chancellor’s STEM Camp.
Release date: Monday, July 25, 2016
Media contact: media@qut.edu.au
