The Graduate Research School (GRS) and Industry and PhD: Research Engagement Program (iPREP WA) at Edith Cowan University (ECU) hosted a movie and networking night ‘in the pines’ at ECU Joondalup to celebrate our PhD and industry partnerships on Friday 5th April.

The movie night started with a networking event where the attendees (including ECU PhD candidates and current iPREP WA industry partners and other supporting partners) met, chatted and enjoyed food and drinks.

Professor Joe Luca (ECU)

During the networking event, Professor Joe Luca, Dean of the GRS at ECU welcomed the attendees, stating that “iPREP WA provides a great opportunity for industry supporters and partners to meet and network with current PhD candidates at ECU. "It is really important that ECU researchers find out what’s happening in industry, and Industry find out what interesting research is happening at ECU” he added.

It is noteworthy that approximately 50 industry partners, PhD candidates and their guests attended the iPREP WA Movie Night at the Joondalup Pines. Industry partners included AutiSense, America Chamber of Commerce, Adarsh Australia, Perth Region Tourism Organisation, and the Town of Bassendean.

Photographer: Marziya Mohammedali (ECU)

Our next iPrepWA project kicked off on Tuesday 5th March. Cinglevue focuses significant resources on R&D to ensure that our education solutions are able to meet the ever evolving needs of 21st century educational institutions and learners. By partnering with iPrepWA, we are able to engage with PhD candidates and provide them with real world problems that requires them to identify solutions by applying the problem solving and critical thinking skills developed during their PhD.

The research opportunities in this project seeks to explore the capabilities of an open source toolkit incorporating image, speech, and natural language processing capabilities which are accommodated via a deep learning service layer. The team will be tasked with analysing the capabilities of this system and establishing corresponding guidelines for integration and implementation further afield.

We welcome Shoufeng Lin, Subhra Majhi, and Siavash Doshvarpassand to Cinglevue and look forward to them presenting their findings and recommendations for implementation at the end of the program.

Original article published on the Cinglevue website:

https://www.cinglevue.com/iprep-kicks-off-again-welcome-to-our-newest-iprep-team

Recent results in the Australian Graduate Survey found that more PhD graduates were working in industry (43%) than in higher education (41%) and just under two-thirds reported they were working full time. The iPREP program was established to help PhD graduates improve their chances of employability through the development of new skills in project management, teamwork, interdisciplinary problem solving, business awareness and leadership.

The PhD candidates participate in a two-day induction program focused on business skills, prior to commencing a six-week team project under the supervision of an industry mentor. The teams share the outcomes of their project with industry partners at the conclusion of the program through a formal presentation, written report and other deliverables specific to the project.

Andrew Walsh, a PhD candidate from ECU’s School of Medical and Health Sciences, said, “Before iPREP I pigeon-holed myself within my own discipline. I didn’t get to see the skills I had obtained through being a research student. iPREP made me aware of those skills and how they are applicable to the real world and how industry actually values that".

Round 2, 2018 iPREP PhD candidates

Industry partners range from start-ups and small to medium enterprises through to large corporations and government departments. The industry partners benefit from:

Value for money consultancy from an interdisciplinary team of experienced researchers;Innovative, creative and credible solutions to business problems;Increased engagement with all five universities to optimise knowledge translation from research outcomes;Potential to recruit outstanding PhD graduates.

Wayne Pluske, an iPREP Project Industry Mentor from Laconik, said, “The best thing that we get out of iPREP is we get to bring together a diverse group of expertise in terms of the PhD students. We are trying to find innovative solutions to agriculture not using traditional agricultural thinking. So if we can bring astrophysicists and digital analytics people in to take a new approach to tackling an age-old problem, we think that’s fantastic. The team that we got together were absolutely sensational and have really helped us to get us on the way".

iPREP applicants must be enrolled as a PhD candidate at a university in Western Australia and either:

have submitted their thesis for examination prior to the program commencement but not have their degree conferred before the end date of the round; ORbe a domestic-enrolled PhD candidate at pre-submission stage with Confirmation of Candidature and must have consumed at least 2 years of a full-time PhD or the part time equivalent.

Applications for the next round of iPREP open on 7 January 2019, for a six-week program beginning in early March. For more information visit the iPREP website or email Narelle Jones, iPREP coordinator: iprepwa@ecu.edu.au

Original article published on the ECU Intranet: http://intranet.ecu.edu.au/research/news/latest-news/for-research-students/2018/12/iprep-industry-collaboration-programs-helps-phd-candidates-to-become-employment-ready

WesCEF partnered with iPREP WA recently to take a data driven approach to better understand the factors that drive safety performance at WesCEF. With the support of the WesCEF Data Analytics and Innovation teams, three suitable candidates from iPREP were identified and selected for this project.

Candidates participated in a six-week project to solve real world problems and gain valuable industry experience, under the supervision of an industry mentor – HSE Systems and Compliance Supervisor, Jonathan Knox

Under Mr Knox's guidance, the team identified a number of safety hypotheses to be assessed and analysed for insights (see chart below)

The work undertaken by the team will provide the ground work for future analytics projects within WesCEF and have ensured a better understanding of the potential challenges and pitfalls associated with analytics projects.

From left: Mr Chris Tallentire (MLA), Jon Knox (WesCEF Mentor), Sanket Jadhav (iPREP), Pema Choejey (iPREP), Khalid Alef (iPREP)

Agriculture is having its moment in the sun. Growing global demand for food supported by a significant injection of new capital is creating opportunities not seen in the industry for a very long time. To capitalise on opportunities agriculture needs to attract and retain new people, with new skills, to solve big problems. It is the new thinking that will drive the industry forward.

This year we participated in two rounds of iPREP, a six-week program which runs in Western Australia that is a collaboration between universities. It provides an opportunity for PhD students who have finished their thesis but not yet got their results to gain industry experience. We had six students, two physicists, an entomologist, a molecular biologist, GIS expert and a statistician. Even more interesting they were from six countries, Romania, Brazil, Iran, Iraq, Mongolia and Australia. They knew very little about agriculture and nothing about using data to improve fertiliser decisions.

What they lacked in knowledge they all made up for in problem solving skills, their thinking wasn’t constrained by past experience. We presented the problem and they went about solving it using out of the box thinking. The result was process that allow us to deliver the customers’ order. The work they did wasn’t research, it had real commercial implications. While it is important to have some people with the skills and experience in agriculture, solving big problems can be achieved by using skills from outside the industry.

The traditional skills of plant breeding, crop nutrition, soil science, agronomy will continue to be important, but the process students go through to gaining these skills constrains their thinking. While it is important to respect the scientific process used to develop the knowledge that is taught to students. We must also be prepared not be to challenge the science, especially in this new age of technology.

To develop true innovation in agriculture we must be prepared to take a risk, attract and employ new people with new skills. Who knew that skills learnt looking for blackholes, discovering new gas deposits deep underground and understanding the Chinese electricity market could be applied to improve fertiliser decisions for farmers. We didn’t, but we do now.

‘Industries don’t get disrupted from within, they get disrupted from outside’

Anonymous

Original article published on LinkedIn, 12 December 2018

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/agriculture-industry-needing-new-people-skills-darren-hughes/

The Science and Innovation division of the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation has collaborated with the iPREP WA program on a research program. A team of three PhD candidates: Kate Derry, Daniel Kollehn and Andrew Walsh have been busy researching past participants of the WA Innovator of the Year (IOTY) program.

The research project focused on assessing the success rate, developments and progression of award winners since their involvement in the IOTY program. The project included a comparison of how the innovation project and business was performing prior to the program and how it is performing now. This helps to understand success factors and barriers to success for Western Australian innovators.

Over six weeks the team collected over 50 case studies, which were gathered using phone and face-to-face interviews. A final report was compiled and presented to the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation and stakeholders.The research team found that most interviewees are still progressing with their innovations, reported that their business supports local and regional Western Australia, and were still operating in the State across a wide range of industries.

A key finding was that the average employment growth rate for people who participated in the program was 290%, which equates to a company growing from 6 to 24 employees in 2.7 years.

Additionally, interviewees felt the value of the IOTY program extended beyond the funding received by the winners. They considered that the training received, the exposure, and the networking opportunities gained by participants through the program, were seen as essential to growth. The overall feedback was that there are many reasons to feel optimistic about the IOTY program and its contribution to creating jobs and economic growth in Western Australia.

IOTY Program Manager, Penny Harker said that,

“The data the team have gathered are invaluable to the innovation division. They have quantified the success of the program and been able to identify areas of improvement which will impact future program design. As well as being a pleasure to work with, the team has exceeded our expectations and made a substantial contribution to the continuous success of the IOTY program."

Original article published in the New Industries WA Newsletter, November 2018

A partnership between the 5 Western Australian universities is addressing key industry challenges with multi-disciplinary teams of PhDs – and producing outstanding results. As importantly, it has provided over 100 PhDs with pathways into industry roles in the last 4 years.

iPREP WA was established in 2014 as a partnership of all universities, coordinated by Edith Cowan University (ECU). The program involves interdisciplinary teams of PhD students working on six-week projects for industry, government and community partners. The teams focus on solving real commercial and community problems.

Projects range across development of new product ideas, new ways of using existing products, evaluation of current service offerings, and prototyping and design.2018 projects included using data science to increase the efficiency of fertiliser use efficiency, and optimizing the sniper precision agriculture system for grain growers, to optimizing wetland performance of future treatment technologies; and developing environmentally sustainable solutions for sequester carbon using hemp.

Over the last 4 years, 128 PhDs have worked on 44 projects for 36 organisations.Industry feedback highlights the value of the program and confirms their willingness to engage further with universities after involvement with iPREP. Multiple companies have participated more than once in iPREP and have engaged in other activities with the universities such as PhD scholarship programs, and linkage grants.

Cinglevue International has used iPREP WA for three projects to provide innovative solutions within the K-Tertiary education space. They employed two iPREP teams on contracts following the program, and employed three former iPREP participants to work as research scientists.Michael Garrett, the Head of Research and Innovation at Cinglevue says that “iPREP can provide an effective and low-risk pathway for bringing new employees into the organisation, where we get to see how a particular student functions within our working environment prior to potentially recruiting them as an employee.”

Recently-completed PhD students focus solely on the industry project itself, giving the companies access to experienced and highly-skilled researchers. Both groups contribute to a stipend for the PhD students and to program management costs, with in-kind and financial grants provided by the WA State Government.

Through the program, PhD graduates apply the skills developed in their PhD, such as problem-solving and critical thinking, to a range of disciplines and industries outside academia. iPREP breaks down the perception from industry that PhD graduates are overly specialised and lack key skills required for the workplace such as leadership, communication, teamwork, and business acumen. Participant feedback highlights the career benefits, with PhD participants offered employment with their organisation post-iPREP; one group of PhD students has even started their own business.

Dr Peter Binks, CEO of BHERT, praised the iPREP initiative: “At a time when the structure and value of a PhD is being questioned, the Western Australian universities have demonstrated an exciting new approach.iPREP is the only established program in Australia using multidisciplinary teams of PhD students to work on industry-defined real-world problems. This has clear benefits to universities, students and industry.”

Original article published in the Business Higher Education Round Table (BHERT) e-news:

Researchers strengthening their broad collaboration skills tackling the innovation demands of workplaces. The H1 2018 iPREP cohort presented their recommendations after six weeks of concentrated work. Multidisciplinary teams of PhD researchers from five different Universities with a number of commercial supervisors tackling on real corporate problems for paying clients.

Each of the teams showed entrepreneurial thinking of the challenges and presented strong recommendations to their corporate project sponsor. The presentations were supported by a report and presentation.

Focused on projects solving real workplace challenges. Four of the projects were innovating in the sector; optimizing wetland performance of future treatment technologies; environmentally sustainable solutions for sequester carbon using hemp, using data science to increase the efficiency of fertiliser use efficiency, optimizing the sniper precision agriculture system for grain growers.

The final team of the night had been working on Nobel Prize Barry Marshall's Noisy Gut initiative. Their work included recruiting study participants for data recordings using the Noisy Guts intelligent acoustic belt. The belt will provide doctors with a non-invasive way of screening for physical diseases with irritable bowel syndrome and other guts disorders.

For the third consecutive year, Atomic Sky was a key supporter of iPREP providing commercial solution delivery coaching. It always amazes me how quickly researchers adapt to workplace challenges and the exceptional input to the commercialisation of projects they deliver in such a short time.

What do the University PhD students most get out of this type of diverse engagement with industry partners?

- Increased business acumen

- Demonstrated problem solving

- Project management skills

- Cross-discipline teamwork

- Workplace skills translation

Christopher Tallentire MLA, Parliamentary Secretary to the Western Australia Minister for Water, Fisheries, Forestry, Innovation and ICT, Science closed the formalities. Minister Tallentine highlighted the quality of the outputs as well as commenting on the value of research working with industry as well as collaboration across sectors for growing economies.

Vicki Hodgson MC'd the evening and iPREP Coordinator, Narelle Jones, concluded the event noting that the key theme for the success of all of the projects was optimisation and applying cross-discipline thinking to innovative commercial projects.

www.atomicsky.com.au

Original article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/high-impact-innovation-from-industry-research-peter-rossdeutscher/?published=t

The value of accessing PhD level expertise to review internal programs has proved an attractive proposition for the Department of Health’s Research and Development Unit (RDU), with the unit currently undertaking a second round of iPREP.

RDU selected a diverse group of researchers to review and evaluate two long standing health research funding programs- Medical and Health Research Infrastructure Fund (MHRIF) and Research Translation Projects (RTP).

The research team of four Doctoral students are currently split up into pairs to focus on specific tasks suited to their diverse skillsets.

Adnan Mannan a pharmacy and biomedical science student from Curtin University joined with Joanne Baitz an art history student from UWA to prepare a report on the MHRIF program, which provides infrastructure funding to established, high-performing researchers.

The second pair, made up of public health student from Curtin University Niranjani Wickramasinghe and UWA educational psychology student Kamari Houlis are evaluating the RTP program to assess its benefits and cost savings to the WA health system.

The students are 5 weeks into the project and will be pitching their findings to the organisation next week.

Original article: http://ww2.health.wa.gov.au/News/Students-cast-critical-eyes-over-res

iPREP is a novel program linking PhD students from all 5 WA universities to work in interdisciplinary teams on business projects.

Since 2015 the Western Australian Health Translation Network (WAHTN) has engaged with iPREP to assist with the implementation of the Research Education Training Program (RETP).

The RETP supports researchers and health practitioners by providing high quality, up-to-date online training research modules and other educational resources to improve the quality and outcomes of health and medical research in WA.

Rashmi Watson, Head of the RETP has mentored four iPREP projects and subsequently employed four PhD graduates from Curtin, Murdoch, and ECU through the iPREP program. Each researcher brought unique value to the team at WAHTN, contributing to health research in Western Australia.

RETP’s engagement with iPREP and PhD students in WA has resulted in exceptional outcomes highlighted in the 3 projects below.

Project #1- late 2015

Online training platforms: Research and Prototyping

This project involved the early development of the RETP for clinicians and researchers in WA Health and associated institutions. The student team involved Craig Rive (Murdoch), Bach-Dang Bui (Curtin) and Lixin Chin (UWA) and they were involved in the development of sourcing and scoping appropriate Learning Management Systems (LMS), databases and web platforms for the online program. The LMS needed to have the ability to issue certificates for personnel and link to a research governance information technology system being developed. The students researched, prototyped and evaluated a number of systems and presented Moodle as the recommended platform. They also developed a report that outlined suitable LMS systems, capabilities and considerations when selecting an LMS.

Craig Rive, who was employed by the WAHTN, following his 6-week placement commented:

“My mentors at the WA Department of Health and the WAHTN not only worked hard to help me during the iPREP project, but also helped make a number of introductions with key people within the Health industry, contacts I would have not been able to make on my own. My mentors were very pleased with the work I performed and offered me part time employment to help continue on with the work began within the 6 week iPREP program and are actively seeking out further work for me through their contacts, until I find full time employment in my chosen field or until another opportunity arises.”

Project #2- mid 2016

Development of online training course: Research Education Training Program goes live

Following on from the initial groundwork for sourcing an appropriate Learning Management System in project 1, support was now required for effective course development particularly in the areas of content contribution, ICT and educational design. The student’s contribution in this project far exceeded Rashmi’s expectations…

“The three students were exceptional in their problem solving skills and ability to work effectively in a small team and share the project load. They were able to support getting our online training to the live mode far more efficiently than we could have managed.”

The team consisted of Ali Fardinpour, an educational designer and IT specialist, Maryam Shahabi also an IT specialist, and Marta Galindo Romera a Marine Scientist with a passion for digital design and technology.

Below is a snapshot of work produced during their project which included the development of the RETP website and the format and structure of courses. The students also assisted in writing some courses and 100 graphic images were developed to complement the written content in the courses.

Ali Fardinpour and Maryam Shahabi were employed following their placement as IT support specialists and educational designers.

Project #3- early 2017

RETP course review and business model development

The courses have been live for five months. The RETP needed to rationalise its continuation as a sustainable delivery model to funding partners and the broader WAHTN community.

The student team involved Rose Ferrell, a screenwriter and filmmaker from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) at Edith Cowan University, Edi Nuryatno also from ECU, specialising in enterprise architecture within management information systems, and Nurmala Simbolon in Education from Curtin University.

The students evaluated the current online course feedback for its first and largest course (Good Clinical Practice) via an evaluation report and secondly created a business case report on the RETPs ability to meet the needs of clients.

Rashmi commented, “Once again, the iPREP students were able to work effectively in a small team, work quickly and efficiently and produce high level outcomes that are a very valuable resource to the RETP team in seeking ongoing funding and support.”

The RETP was successful in securing sustainable funding for another year and is grateful to the iPREP team for completing a large body of work that could not have been completed in such a short amount of time and in such depth.

Edi was recently employed as an IT Administrator Officer for the Research Education and Training Program at the WAHTN. He commented, "iPREP provided me with fantastic work experience and gave me a foot in the door to work in Australia within my field."

The next round of iPREP is running from 17th July- 25th August. This round will involve 18 PhD students and 7 industry partners. More information will be available soon.

The inaugural winners of the ACGR Awards for Excellence in Graduate Research Education were announced at a special event in Sydney on June 8 2017.

The iPREP team are honoured to receive the inaugural award and are in the process of developing iPREP into a national program. For more information please contact iprepwa@ecu.edu.au

To view the original article please visit: http://www.ddogs.edu.au/award-winners

Butler College is one of the 798 schools in the Department of Education. The school is new and the culture is being defined, developed and supported. In 2014 the college engaged with education expert Dr Rashmi Watson, to create a long term whole school improvement plan named ‘Creating a Culture of Development & Continuous Learning’. The purpose of this initiative is to engage all staff in a professional development journey to achieve optimal success for individual, professional growth and for organisational growth.

Rashmi and Butler College engaged with iPREP to further progress the initiative. The team involved research students from University of Western Australia Nicolas Nagloo (animal biologist) and Janice Lim (epidemiologist), and Edith Cowan University’s Alex Zhang (accountant). The students used their research and analysis skills to assist with the expansion of the program.

The project was recently featured in Department of Education news. Read the article.

Three lucky PhD students from Curtin University and Edith Cowan University had the recent opportunity to work with a cutting edge space telescope to develop a software framework that will change the way astronomers view the data being produced.

CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science (CASS) provides technology and services for radio astronomy, spacecraft tracking and space sciences, and undertakes world-leading astronomical research. Their newest radio telescope, the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), creates enormous terabyte datasets that require processing and analysis with high performance computing. It is important to be able to analyse the facets and present this information in an appropriate way for telescope operators and science teams. This formed the basis of the iPREP project.

The students mentor and team leader of the ASKAP Science Data Processor Eric Bastholm says the iPREP initiative provided CSIRO with a great opportunity to work with capable people and achieve something tangible in a short time. "The design and prototype is flexible enough for others to adapt to their specific needs. The timing of this project was very convenient as we did not have internal resources to achieve this goal, which is swiftly becoming a priority," he said.

left to right: Prihadi Murdiyat (Electrical Engineer from Curtin), Eric Bastholm (CSIRO mentor), Qian Sun (Spatial Scientist from Curtin), David Michel (Telecommunications Engineer & Computer Scientist from ECU)

David Michel presents his teams findings at the iPREP Celebration

Do you have a business problem to solve or opportunity to address and would like to engage with research expertise from the five universities in WA? iPREP WA are now recruiting businesses for the next round running from 17th July- 25th August.

For more information or to apply please visit www.iprep.edu.au/industryor contact iprepwa@ecu.edu.au

13 final stage PhD students from ECU, Curtin, Murdoch and UWA are midway through their iPREP projects. The students come from a range of backgrounds including Screenwriting, Marine Biology, Accounting, Computer Science and Engineering. They are engaging in a wide range of activities to assist tech start-ups and government organisations including CSIRO, Department of Education (Butler College), WA Health and WA Health Translation Network (WAHTN), Treadlie Engineering and The Feel Great Challenge.

The students are researching new product ideas, new ways of using existing products, evaluating current service offerings, prototyping and designing, and providing potential solutions. Industry mentors selected their team based on relevant skill sets needed to fast track their business activities.

Businesses are not the only ones who benefit from this partnership. PhDs are exposed to a potential career in industry. They see tangible evidence of their research skills being used in a business setting and are also faced with the challenge of completing a project within 6 weeks. This is new territory for a PhD student. With the help of their industry mentors, they are able to transition into an industry-based role and gain new skills and a new experience.

Edi Nuryatno, a specialist in the area of enterprise architecture within management information systems who is currently placed at WAHTN can already see the long term effect iPREP will have on his career thanks to mentor Rashmi Watson, ‘Rashmi is an amazing mentor. She will be incredibly powerful in shaping my career.’

The next round of iPREP will be starting in July. For more information please visit: www.iprep.edu.au

This post profiles one of our recent iPREP graduates, Katharina Bense.

Katharina was immediately employed as a Research Scientist by CingleVue International after her 6 week iPREP placement. As part of her role, Katharina uses applied research to inform the continued evolution and innovation of software products. The role has inter-disciplinary functions, helping to bridge the gaps between her colleagues various areas of expertise and contributing to the development and strategic marketing of Cinglevue’s products.

CingleVue are long term supporters of the iPREP program and have employed 3 iPREP PhD graduates from Edith Cowan University, University of Western Australia and Curtin University. CingleVue are a global company who provide innovative ICT solutions for improving business growth and performance within the Health, Education and Resources sectors.

What is your area of expertise?

I have a strong educational background with 10 years’ experience in various educational roles. I just completed my PhD in Humanities at UWA, which explored the issue of international teacher mobility and migration. I also hold a teaching qualification from Germany and have worked as a secondary teacher at various schools in Western Australia. Other industry experience, locally and overseas, includes lecturing and tutoring roles within the University and adult education sector.

What did you consider to be your career options with a PhD, before commencing?

Did your placement change your perception?

I started my PhD hoping to get a position in academia afterwards. I had worked as a university lecturer and tutor for a number of years, but always on a casual contract. However, the year I graduated many universities across WA restructured and changed their organisations and as a result there were not many employment opportunities. Doing the iPREP program showed me that there are fields outside of academia where I can also apply my research skills and professional experience.

What skills do you possess that were required for your industry project?

My research, analytical, and problem solving skills that I developed over the course of my PhD and the ability to extract and synthesise data from diverse sources were essential for the iPREP project. Verbal and written communication skills were also helpful, when preparing the project report and final presentations to the clients and other stakeholders. Finally, abilities to plan and manage a project within a specified timeframe and to work both, independently and collaboratively within a team were crucial.

Did you develop any new skills during your placement?

The placement allowed me to further develop my ability to work collaboratively as part of a project team, to cooperate, share tasks and responsibilities, and to work together towards a common goal.

Has participating in iPREP created new career opportunities?

Yes, participating in iPREP introduced me to a completely new field of work and some career opportunities that I would not have considered without the placement.

Having participated in an industry engagement program, do you think you are more open to a career in industry as opposed to academia?

Yes, I am working in industry now and cannot see myself going back to academia any time soon. However, I still conduct research, analyse data, and write papers for presentations and publication in my new position.

How do you think researchers working in industry can positively impact businesses?

In my current position, my primary responsibility is the use of applied research to inform the evolution and innovation of software products. As such, I conduct research to help the company make better business decisions.

What would you say to students considering applying for iPREP?

DO IT! The experience might open the door to completely new career opportunities and/or a new field of work for you!