A Brisbane-based architectural photographer making an important contribution to documenting Queensland’s cultural legacy will be awarded an honorary degree from The University of Queensland on Monday.
Richard Stringer will receive a Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa at one of two Faculty of Engineering, Physical Sciences and Architecture (EPSA) ceremonies on December 8. He will receive his award at the 6pm ceremony in recognition of his distinguished career and contribution to preserving Queensland’s architectural heritage.
Over 600 EPSA graduands will receive their degrees during the ceremonies in the UQ Centre at the St Lucia campus.
The guest speaker at the earlier 3pm ceremony will be the Executive Vice President Solutions Development for leading global technology partner for asset-intensive industries Mincom Limited David Barbagallo. Since 1979 Mincom has served customers within the mining, oil and gas, utilities, transportation, defence and government industries in more than 40 countries.
Since May 2002 Mr Barbagallo has overseen development strategies for Mincom’s software and support teams. Prior to this he was the founding CEO and Managing Director for Distributed Systems Technology Centre Pty Ltd (DSTC), one of Australia’s most successful cooperative research centres.
During Mr Barbagallo’s previous career he was Chief of Staff to former Premier of Queensland Wayne Goss. He was also responsible for Information Technology and Telecommunications policy in the Queensland Government from 1989 to 1994 and oversaw the establishment of the Information Policy Board in 1990.
Whereas Mr Barbagallo’s career has focused on Queensland’s future, Mr Stringer has used his camera to focus on Queensland’s past. Mr Stringer is a foremost formal photographer of historical buildings and landmarks in Queensland.
A great deal of Mr Stringer’s early work was conducted for the National Trust of Queensland. His most recent exhibition Vanishing Queensland highlights significant losses to the built environment in Queensland.
“Vanishing Queensland is an exhibition of photographs from my files of historic structures that no longer survive. Commencing in 2000, it toured for three years through Queensland and New South Wales by the regional Galleries Association of Queensland,” he said.
Mr Stringer said he was delighted to be receiving the award, particularly as he had previously tutored in architecture and photography at UQ and also worked in the University architect’s office. At the ceremony he will discuss visual considerations within the Queensland community from a photographic and architectural perspective.
“My work has included photography of the work of architects, builders and construction authorities for use in brochures, for publicity and for archival records,” he said.
Since 1966 Mr Stringer’s photography has been exhibited throughout Australia. His work is represented in collections including Parliament House in Canberra and the Queensland Art Gallery. He is an honorary life member of the Institute of Modern Art and a Fellow of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects.
Ruth Schulz (telephone mobile 0412 409 482), who will receive her Bachelor of Engineering with honours at the 3pm ceremony, will deliver the student valedictorian address. Ms Schulz was a finalist in the student category of the UQ Business School’s $125,000 2003 Enterprize business competition. Along with engineering student Polly Alexander, she designed the PipeDream automated cocktail maker as part of her final year thesis. Ms Schulz said the concept had the potential to reduce labour costs in bars and pubs, control drink accuracy and monitor and record alcohol usage and stocking inventory. “The thesis involved the interactive design of an interface to plug into an automated cocktail making machine, which dispenses the drinks chosen,” Ms Schulz said.
Lacey White (telephone mobile 0410 327 186) will deliver the student valedictorian address at the 6pm ceremony. Ms White, who will receive her Bachelor of Engineering with honours has won several Dean’s Commendations for High Achievement and was the 2003 President of the Chemical and Environmental Engineering Student’s Society. For her final year thesis Ms White wrote modules for a computer program called Aspen. “The program was designed to assist engineering students to develop simulations for chemical processes,” she said. In 2002 Ms White was a member of the first UQ team to take part in the Chem-E-Car competition in Christchurch, New Zealand. The team built a model car propelled only by a chemical reaction.
Other graduands of interest at the ceremonies include the following:
Innovation in a heartbeat
One of the major winners from UQ’s Innovation Expo 2003 will graduate from the Bachelor of Engineering program at the 3pm ceremony. Jessica Lambourn majored in electrical engineering and studied biomedical engineering as a minor. Ms Lambourn and engineering student Jamil Khan’s credit card size Portable Electrocardiogram (ECG) Logger won the RS Components prize for Best Piece of Working Electronics Hardware and the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) prize for Best Working System. The device, owned by the research and development engineering firm IntelliDesign Pty Ltd, will aid cardiologists in the detection of heart disease. “Patients will wear the device for up to a week and all the ECG data over this period will be stored in the memory. If they experience a symptom of their condition they press an event button that timestamps the data. At the end of the monitoring period, the patient will return the device to the cardiologist where the data will be downloaded onto a computer and analysed,” Ms Lambourn said. Mr Khan said similar devices currently exist, however, the Portable ECG Logger was designed to be as tiny as possible. “Current devices are big and uncomfortable to wear whereas this product fits into a case 5.1mm thick,” he said. Mr Khan said there would be a significant demand for the device. “Second only to cancer, heart disease is the western world’s greatest killer. Improvements in diagnosis and treatment tools are welcomed by the medical community who are desperately seeking better ways to help their patients,” he said. Mr Khan and Ms Lambourn worked on their thesis project while completing work experience with Intellidesign Pty Ltd. Ms Lambourn can be contacted on telephone mobile 0412 632 144 and Mr Khan can be contacted on telephone mobile 0421 905 224.
Designing her future
Bachelor of Architecture graduand Amanda Kershaw, who will graduate at the 6pm ceremony, will begin full-time work in January with Conrad and Gargett architectural practice in Brisbane’s CBD. She previously worked with the firm during her 10-month compulsory work-experience placement undertaken between the third and forth years of the Architecture program. At this time, she worked on buildings for the new Australian Catholic University campus at Banyo. Next year she will be working in a similar field on new buildings for Griffith University’s Gold Coast campus. As part of her UQ studies Ms Kershaw worked on an urban and architectural proposition for the West End area of Brisbane. “We carried out the proposition based on what West End would be like in 30 years when its population will have doubled. We looked at what facilities would be needed and the type of buildings that would be necessary to accommodate people,” she said. One of the major requirements of the Bachelor of Architecture program was to complete an architectural dissertation. Ms Kershaw’s thesis examined the technique of collage in architecture. “I found that both the term collage and the technique itself has an interesting history of use with architectural students, practitioners and theorists as it is a particularly good way of stimulating ideas,” she said. Ms Kershaw was highly commended by the EPSA Faculty for her thesis and she has won a number of Dean’s Commendations for High Achievement. She can be contacted on telephone 07 3876 1167 or mobile 0411 098 984.
Media: For more information, contact Chris Saxby at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2479, email c.saxby@uq.edu.au).
