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Professor Gordon Wallace and PhD student Charles Mire working inside ... |
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One of the animations that people can see inside the iDome, explainin... |
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An animation of how the advanced cochlear implant electrode works. |
New Science Centre exhibit is a window into research world
Nerve growth, solar cell technology, medical bionics and even a robotic fish called WANDA… This is just some of the fascinating research going on inside the Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM) at the Innovation Campus.
And instead of just marvelling at the impressive AIIM building from the outside, a new exhibition allows school students and visitors to the Science Centre to have a personal tour inside the research labs.
The iDome is the first stage of a Science Centre exhibit looking at Nanomaterials for Energy, and is a partnership between the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES), the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI) and the Wollongong Science Centre.
Director of IPRI and Executive Director of ACES Professor Gordon Wallace said the iDome gives “a window into the research world from the comfort of your own Science Centre.”
It allows people to get a 180-degree view inside the IPRI laboratories, including a guided tour of the labs by IPRI researcher Dr Simon Moulton and demonstrations and animations of the research being carried out. There are even plans to possibly install a live video feed into the exhibition so that people can watch scientists conducting this amazing research as it happens.
“The exhibit is living and tangible,” Professor Wallace said. “It provides an insight into research activities going on right now and in a building you can see as soon as you emerge from the Science Centre.”
The whole exhibit – which collaborators hope will grow larger with additional funding – will focus on the use of new materials in energy conversion like solar cells or artificial muscles, energy storage in new types of batteries and capacitors, and medical bionics.
“All of our research is aimed at contributing solutions to big scientific challenges of global significance,” Professor Wallace said.
“The output of our work will impact on all of us – we want to communicate the significance and excitement of our work – and to thank the public for their ongoing support.”