University of Adelaide showcases its student Ingenuity

Monday, 30 October 2017

Industrial cleaning robots, refugee housing, levitating motors and computer software that calculates how much energy storage South Australia needs to secure its electricity supply are among the 300 innovative projects on display at the University of Adelaide’s Ingenuity 2017 tomorrow, Tuesday 31 October.

Ingenuity is an interactive expo of final-year and other projects by the University of Adelaide’s engineering, computer and mathematical sciences students. It is open to the public from 9.30 am to 3.30 pm, Tuesday 31 October at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

More than 5000 primary and secondary students, industry, government, and members of the general public are expected to visit the expo. Students are on hand to explain their work and its potential benefit for society.

“Ingenuity 2017 is our opportunity to demonstrate the future of engineering and technology, and the creativity and talent of these students,” says Professor Anton Middelberg, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences.

“Engineering and technology advancements underpin our future society. At Ingenuity we can see some really innovative ideas that could help solve contemporary issues and challenges facing us today, such as energy security and the refugee crisis.

“It’s a celebration of student achievement and a launching pad for our future technology leaders.”

Ingenuity 2017 is organised in nine themes: defence and security, energy, health, innovation and research, resources, smart systems and technologies, society and environment, structure and infrastructure, and sustainability.

Projects this year include:
• An autonomous robot designed to clean the thousands of mirrors at the large-scale heliostat solar power plant at Jemalong in NSW
• Design and analysis of sustainable refugee housing for better comfort and community living in refugee camps
• A magnetically levitating motor which removes the need for bearings and eliminates many problems in advanced manufacturing such as bearing wear, contamination and the need for lubrication
• Computer software that uses real electricity generation and use data to calculate how much storage is needed to reduce the intermittency of renewable energy
• A flood visualisation tool using flood modelling techniques and immersive virtual reality techniques to better communicate likely impacts of extreme flood events
• An investigation of the possibility of making coal-like fuel with zero carbon emissions using waste.



WHAT: Ingenuity 2017
WHERE: Adelaide Convention Centre
WHEN: 9.30 am to 3.30 pm, Tuesday 31 October
COST: Free – all welcome
WEBSITE: www.ecms.adelaide.edu.au/ingenuity

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