A week of innovation at the University of Wollongong

Apr 27, 2005

**Community tours of UOW's Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI)

Monday 2 May commencing 5pm

IPRI Director Professor Gordon Wallace and his team will showcase their pioneering research into intelligent polymers and nanotechnology. Find out more about textiles that change colour, artificial muscles, electronic noses for robots and meet the scientists behind these inventions in a guided tour of the research facility. Tours are limited to groups of six and bookings are essential. Contact Community Relations Co-ordinator Jan Sullivan on 4221 3110 to reserve a place.

**ECH20 Water and Innovation Forum - 'Saving from a rainy day'

Thursday 5 May, 5.30 - 7.30pm. Venue: First Floor of UniCentre Function Centre, University of Wollongong

Water is more powerful than people might think. It is exerting increasingly significant ecological and political influences on sustainable development in Australia and around the world. This forum will focus on what the Illawarra region is doing from the backyard to big business to address the issue of sustaining one of our most important natural resources.

It will showcase the region's innovative response to the water issue and will help to raise public awareness of the importance of water conservation and recycling. Topics will include the latest research into water recycling, the water-sensitive design of UOW's Innovation Campus, how schools and businesses are saving water and how new policies and proposals could affect the way we use water. The forum will feature speakers from UOW, BlueScope Steel, Sydney Water, Wollongong City Council, the Innovation Campus Project and Access Community Group. For further information or to RSVP (bookings essential) contact: Jan Sullivan on 4221 3110.

**Innovation Week lecture by Dr Karl Kruszelnicki - 'Great Moments in Innovation'

Friday 6 May, 7pm at the UOW Science Centre and Planetarium

Renowned science commentator and UOW graduate Dr Karl Kruszelnicki will present this free, public lecture on the great moments in innovation. As his website suggests, Dr Kruszelnicki has degrees in physics, mathematics, biomedical engineering, medicine and surgery and has lent his scientific expertise regularly to The Midday Show and Good Morning Australia and is currently a regular on Channel 7's Sunrise.

He has worked as a physicist, labourer, car mechanic, filmmaker, hospital scientific officer, TV weatherman, medical doctor at The Kids Hospital in Sydney and as a biomedical engineer where he designed and built a machine to pick up electrical signals from the human retina. He is currently working on his 23rd book titled Great Mythconceptions - Cellulite, Camel Humps and Chocolate Zits. Note: this event is already fully booked.

-RP

For more information, contact:

media@uow.edu.au
University of Wollongong
Ph: (02) 4221 5942; fax (02) 4221 3128