Deakin University and University of Ballarat collaboration to tackle car engine efficiency, water allocation and athletic injury

Deakin University and University of Ballarat researchers are to join forces on a range of research projects including one to improve the energy efficiency of car engines by more than seven per cent under a Heads of Agreement officially exchanged on Tuesday 8 June.

The Heads of Agreement sets the framework for the two universities to continue to work together on a range of teaching and research projects. The universities will also share facilities, exchange staff and continue to collaborate on regional engagement.

Deakin University's Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Professor Philip Clarke, said the research and teaching collaboration was a demonstration of how Deakin University and the University of Ballarat were responding to the Federal Government's Higher Education agenda.

"The projects funded have benefits not just for rural and regional Victoria but other Australian communities as well," he said.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ballarat, Professor David Battersby, said the University looked forward to continuing its partnership with Deakin on a wide range of research projects.

"Both universities are well placed to work together on many issues relevant to regional development and beyond," he said.

Eleven projects will be initiated at the two universities in 2010, including one to develop a method to make car engines over seven per cent more energy efficient, and thus more environmentally friendly. Currently only around 15 per cent of the energy in the fuel is used to drive a car, the rest is wasted.

Projects initiated in 2009 included developing a water allocation decision support tool designed to provide transparency and traceability in water allocation decisions and a pilot study that investigated the physical demands of training and competition in elite junior Australian football.

Further information:

Other projects to be initiated in 2010: Cancer biomarkers induced by persistent environmental organic pollutants; strengthening work integrated learning (WIL) experiences for rural teacher education students: exploring community based partnerships; the evaluation of community based intervention to address the impact of developmental and economic disadvantage in childhood; student perceptions of their learning and professional identity formation in their first year of higher education; a sociology of football in two regional towns; data pre-processing in sleep stage identification problems; fire in temperate forest ecosystems: how does pyrodiversity affect biodiversity; building learning partnerships through Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE)

Other projects initiated in 2009 included: diabetes care in Barwon and Ballarat public residential care; factors affecting the participation of men from low socioeconomic backgrounds in physical activity; blended learning environments in rural and remote communities; classification and clustering algorithms for anti-phishing; adult learning through changes in water availability in four Australian Murray Darling Basin communities; assessing resilience of catchments.