$50K for Fibre Composite Workshop

The University of Southern Queensland's (USQ) Centre for Excellence in Engineered Fibre Composites (CEEFC) has been granted a total of $50K to fund a workshop to be held at the University in December 2008.
 
$25K was granted by the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) and $25K from the Australia-Japan Foundation (AJF) towards costs of the Fibre Composites in Civil Infrastructure – Past, Present and Future workshop.
 
Convenor of the two-day workshop Associate Professor Thiru Aravinthan said between 100 and 150 delegates were expected to attend the industry-focused workshop.
 
'The workshop will run back-to-back with the Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structures and Materials which will be hosted by the USQ Faculty of Engineering,' Associate Professor Aravinthan said.
 
'The ATSE funding was granted to support a focused, targeted workshop with international linkages under the International Science Linkages - Science Academies Programme which is part of the Australian Government Innovation Statement, Backing Australia's Ability,' he said.
 
The AJF grant is a matched-fund to foster collaboration between Australian and Japanese researchers and with industries.
 
'The funding from the AJF is for a bilateral workshop to promote Australian technology to Japan and vice-versa,' he said.
 
'We already have ongoing collaboration with Japan through visiting scholars coming here and we have just enrolled a new PhD student who finished his masters over there. 
 
'This workshop will foster future student and staff exchange as well as visiting researchers in the short and long term and will also facilitate networking with the Japanese.'
 
The workshop will provide international exposure for the CEEFC and fibre composite industry in Toowoomba, he said.
 
'By hosting the workshop and conference at USQ we promote the fibre composites centre and the unique research being conducted in civil infrastructure,' Associate Professor Aravinthan said.
 
'We also wanted to host the workshop in Toowoomba to give recognition to the fibre composite industries here through Wagners Composites Fibre Technologies (WCFT), LOC composites, Buchan Advanced Composites (BAC) and LSM Advanced Composites.'
 
For more information on the fibre composites workshop please contact Associate Professor Thiru Aravinthan on (07) 4631 1385 or from the workshop website www.usq.edu.au/fcci.  
 
Media Contact: Jane Urquhart USQ Media +61 7 4631 2559