Innovative research goes on show at USQ

From computational engineering to pedagogical and educational development, there is groundbreaking research being undertaken at USQ every day.

Recently (November 10) the Toowoomba community saw first-hand hundreds of research projects across all faculties and research centres at USQ’s annual Community-Engaged Research Evening.

Faculty of Engineering and Surveying Dean and Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research) Professor Frank Bullen said the evening gave the public an insight into some of the innovative and multi-national research at the University while also giving USQ the opportunity to connect with the community.

'Firstly I would like to congratulate all of those postgraduates, support staff and academics involved in the evening,' Professor Bullen said.

'Research at USQ is done with the community in mind but in many cases the public do not have an understanding of what we do here at the University so this was our chance to put on display our different research projects.

'Many of the research projects that we have going at the University, such as biomedical research, engineered agriculture, sustainable business development and sports psychology, are applicable in the community.'

Professor Bullen said that it also gave the community the chance to interact with researchers and he was hopeful this could lead to new research that benefits both the community and USQ .

'It gave the public the opportunity to speak to researchers and also give them feedback on their work, which has led to new research in the past and I imagine will again in this instance.'

While the 2010 Community-Engaged Research Evening has only just concluded there are already plans to make next year’s event even larger and inclusive of the community.

'This year was a great success and we had a great response from the community, so we are expecting bigger and better next year.'