It was a very good year ...
Professor John Richards, Dean and Director of the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science today (19 December) thanked all staff for their contributions towards making 2006 such a successful year for the College.
At the College's end of year celebration held at University House, Professor Richards commented that the year had seen a bedding down of the College governance and administrative procedures, a re-negotiated research agreement with National ICT Australia, and good growth in our PhD student cohort. He added that indications for 2007 are that our undergraduate student cohort will also increase.
by Heather McEwen, Marketing Manager
Professor John Richards, Dean and Director of the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science today (19 December) thanked all staff for their contributions towards making 2006 such a successful year for the College.
At the College's end of year celebration held at University House, Professor Richards commented that the year had seen a bedding down of the College governance and administrative procedures, a re-negotiated research agreement with National ICT Australia, and good growth in our PhD student cohort. He added that indications for 2007 are that our undergraduate student cohort will also increase.
Professor Richards highlighted the harmonious professional relationship between Dr Jochen Trumpf and Dr Alistair Rendell which has allowed them to develop improvements to research student procedures for the benefit of the College. He used this as an example of working together in the College environment which has led to many other successful partnerships that are not always obvious, but which are a welcome and necessary part of the College's growth and its success.
Professor Richards also highlighted the role of general staff in the College, announcing the inaugural Director's Awards, for individual administrative and technical staff in recognition of outstanding contributions to the support provided to staff and students of the College and University-wide.
'Studentdb' is the brainchild of Dr Bruce Millar, former Associate Director (Education) who conceived a radically new system for research student administration and progress monitoring in RSISE and which now serves all HDR students in the College. The database had to be a seamless integration into the existing administration and progress monitoring processes at the ANU and other relevant rules and statutes. The system has proven to be so mature and user-friendly in comparison to other administrative and monitoring systems that one result is that several elements are being adopted by the wider ANU community as new 'best practice' in research student administration.
Matt Gray, Research Programmer, initially programmed the database and over the last four years has provided assistance to maintain and extend the system, including training other administrative staff in its use and extension.
Deb Pioch is the Student Officer for HDR students and she has worked tirelessly to upload information into the database, refine its interface and more recently to program new functionality.
"It gives me great pleasure to make the inaugural Director's Awards to Matt and Deb and to thank them, on behalf of the College, for all their efforts in supporting our staff and students," Professor Richards said.
