Engineering heads better by the dozen

Media Release
24 November 2008

Engineering heads better by the dozen

Twelve heads of top engineering schools in Asia and Australasia will gather in Auckland next week to do what engineers do best – find solutions and build bridges.

The University of Auckland’s Faculty of Engineering is hosting the third Asia-Oceania Top University League on Engineering, or AOTULE, conference from November 26 to 28.

The most influential engineering deans in the Asia Pacific will gather to negotiate ways to collaborate with other top universities.

Faculty of Engineering Dean Professor Michael Davies, who is the official host in 2008, says the event is about finding synergistic ways to for engineering schools to combine their strengths.

“All engineering schools invest in different areas of research. By pooling our capabilities and allowing the movement of students and faculty staff between the universities, we become much stronger. We aim to construct a premier league of engineering schools with an unrivalled ability to deliver outstanding education and research,” Professor Davies says.

An agreement will be signed at the conference for each university to prepare a catalogue of engineering research facilities and commit to allowing other AOTULE members access to them, including staff and students.

Among those universities attending are Monash University, the Indian Institute of Technology, Tsinghua University, and others from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Taiwan.

For the first time postgraduate research will also feature at the event. More than 200 students from the 12 universities are presenting at the adjoining AOTULE Postgraduate Conference over two days, November 26 and 27. Dozens of Faculty of Engineering research projects will be showcased such as the latest advances in computer modelling of the tongue; self-cleaning woollen cloths; milk powder processing and wireless communication systems.

ENDS

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