Message from the President

Welcome to the July edition of SoIT’s News. As you may know, the Sydney Alumni Magazine (SAM) is now being distributed three times a year. As a result SoIT’s News will also be distributed three times a year, but we’ll be sticking with the expanded six page format to ensure you still get plenty of news.

In the first half of 2010 we held two very successful discussion forums, on start-up companies and the Australian internet content filtering scheme. Both events were very well attended, and the depth and quality of discussion was impressive. It also served to underpin my conviction that the impact of information technology on society more generally is often underestimated, whether it be on the ability of IT companies to generate jobs and innovation or the importance of the IT that allows us to get news and information about the world around us. My thanks to everyone who participated in the forums, whether on the panels or in the audience.

News

Bringing more to the table
Anthony Collins has written new search software that will improve the tabletop computing experience, for work, or play.

East meets West: IT & traditional Chinese medicine
Can IT be used to improve eastern medicine? Dr Josiah Poon is trying to find out, by applying data mining techniques to traditional Chinese medicine.

Teaching awards
Dr Tara Murphy and Dr James Curran have been honoured with two highly competitive University teaching awards.

Discussion forums
USITAA has hosted two very different discussion forums. With impressive expert panels, interest in both topics ran hot.

Graduations
Six PhD candidates graduated at ceremonies held in May.

2010 Prizes & Scholarships Presentation Ceremony
Two new prizes and a new scholarship were awarded at the 2010 presentation ceremony in May.

News Bytes
IT staff win Best Paper Award at CCGrid 2010, Professor Jon Patrick and PhD student Min Li won the 2009 i2b2 Challenge, and senior IT students formed the Network for International Students (NetIS).