Research facilities
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Mt Kent Research Facility
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USQ has access to a number of facilities to assist researchers including:
USQ HPC
USQ maintains a High Performance Computing (HPC) facility with:
- a 30 node cluster providing 240 CPU cores and 480Gb of memory
- 48TB of storage
- a single server with 24 CPU cores and 64Gb of memory for standalone computations requiring a large memory footprint.
The facility provides basic operational support and algorithm development and implementation for staff and students to further their research in areas of climate modelling, astronomy and astrophysics, and fluid dynamics. For more information please visit the HPC website or contact the USQ HPC Support Officer via email at hpcadmin@usq.edu.au.
Mt Kent Research Facility
Mt Kent Observatory is a facility for astronomical research and education operated by USQ, in partnership with the University of Louisville in Kentucky, USA, and Automated Patrol Telescopes Australia Pty Ltd. The observatory is actively developing its capacity for robotic and remote observing, and currently operates the 30cm O'Mara robotic telescope and a CDK20 50cm remote-access telescope, with a 70cm CDK700 telescope to be commissioned by 2012. The observatory provides USQ students with robotic observing services and traditional on-site student field nights, and is designed to support staff and student research in stellar astronomy and planetary systems. Mt Kent Observatory and Moore Observatory in Kentucky together form an all-sky remote observing project known as the Shared Skies Partnership.
Centre of Excellence in Engineered Fibre Composites facilities
Centre of Excellence in Engineered Fibre Composites (CEEFC) is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities to support:
- materials characterisation ranging from microscopic analyses to environmental impact of materials
- structural property tests for large samples and structures, typical tensile, compression, shear and impact tests for different samples can be conducted
- data acquisition systems for deflection measurement, strain gauges and optical fibre sensors
- computational analyses.
QCIF
USQ is a founding member of the Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation (QCIF). QCIF has deployed and maintains High Performance Computing (HPC) and advanced ICT infrastructure to support Queensland researchers and industry. QCIF also operates state-of-the-art supercomputers, tera-scale data archives and visualisation systems for the use of Queensland’s R&D community.
Some major Research and Development QCIF projects include:
- BioInformatics - large-scale data management for computational biology and biomedicine
- Computational Science - techniques for accelerating understanding in the physical sciences
- Environmental Modelling - integrating multiple resources to enhance environmental management.
As a founding member of QCIF, USQ researchers have access to QCIF facilities.
AARNet
The Australian Academic Research Network (AARNet) provides high-capacity leading-edge internet services for the tertiary education and research sector communities and their research partners. AARNet is able to provide access to a variety of services for USQ researchers, including:
- eduroam
- inter institution communication and collaboration tools
- high bandwidth research connections
- large file transfers (Cloudstor).
eduroam
USQ participates in eduroam. Eduroam allows users from participating institutions to gain secure access to wireless network access using their standard username (email format)/password credentials as they do at their home institution for wireless access. If you use the wireless network at USQ and expect to visit other institutions which are eduroam participants please setup your connection to be eduroam ready.
AAF
USQ is a member of the Australian Access Federation (AAF). The AAF provides the means of allowing a participating institution and/or a service provider to trust the information it receives from another participating institution. Organisations will benefit from the AAF as it allows researchers to use their home institution Login to access a growing number of participating services and resources.
Glasshouses and controlled environment facilities
USQ’s glasshouses and controlled environment facilities support research in crop disease, plant genetics, agronomy and natural ecosystems.
Molecular science research laboratory
USQ’s molecular science research laboratory employs approaches such as DNA fingerprinting, genetic transformation, gene expression studies and sophisticated microscopy to investigate crop responses to biotic and abiotic stresses.
Inflammatory disease research laboratory
The inflammatory disease research laboratory at USQ is equipped to examine models of chronic human inflammatory diseases such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension and arthritis.
