About the School of Engineering and Energy
"The School of Engineering and Energy is a place in which we inspire the students to learn, teach the students how to think, enthuse the students to inquire, assist the students with discovery of self and lead the students to the thresholds of their minds."
- Parisa Arabzadeh Bahri, Dean, School of Engineering and Energy
We asked our Dean to share some short thoughts on what makes the School of Engineering and Energy so unique.
Parisa Arabzadeh Bahri, tell us about...
- The most important thing for your staff to value:
"We believe every person can learn. They will do it in their own time, at their own rate and for their own reasons. We can facilitate that learning by understanding the complexity and diversity of our students and applying that understanding in all of our learning and teaching interactions."
- The one thing students should graduate from the school with:
"A burning desire to make a positive difference in the world, the self-confidence and enthusiasm to get started and the tenacity to keep going when things get difficult."
- The systems test lab for Renewable Energy students:
"Students have access to a range of renewable energy systems through the School and the Renewable Energy Systems Laboratory.
Facilities include photovoltaic (PV)/wind/diesel/battery hybrid systems, low temperature solar thermal systems, a solar simulator for PV module tests, a 10 kW PV trough concentrator system, an educational PV water pumping system, and various grid connected PV systems. Ours is currently the only NATA certified lab testing inverters and solar system components in Australia."
- The awards that Eddy Poinern (chair of the School’s Nanoscience program) and his students have collected:
"Eddy has supervised three undergraduate students who have won prestigious Science Innovation Awards from the WA government, for short research projects in our Nanotechnology research laboratories."
- The biggest challenge facing future generations of engineers:
"They’ll need to find technological solutions to meet the environmental, resource and energy needs that will face the next generation to live on our small and delicate planet. They’ll also be working in increasingly complex and interconnected environments, so they’ll need to develop a range of skills beyond technical competence alone."
- Our hands-on engineering pilot plant:
"This is a unique and fully-automated pilot plant designed to give our students excellent training in process operation and control, and has also been used in academic research. The lab was launched as collaboration between Engineering at Murdoch University and industrial companies Alcoa of Australia, Honeywell, and Control and Thermal Engineering."
- The internship unit for final year engineering students:
"This unit allows our students to gain practical experience in the applied world of engineering design or research through a workplace employment in a relevant area.
Some internship projects have involved energy audits of industrial buildings with the aim of developing strategies to reduce energy consumption, fibre optic network design, industrial process modelling and simulation, HMI graphic design and more."
- What makes the School’s courses unique:
"We work with our industry partners to include industrial problems into our subjects and run internships in the final year, which results in industry-ready graduates.
Our courses are highly specialised with a focus on hands-on experience, and students have access to a very modern laboratory and pilot plant facilities. We even have WA’s largest roof-mounted PV system on the Murdoch University Library roof!"
