Engineering skills underpin the functioning of our societies and economies. As we face the global challenges presented by a changing climate, food and water scarcity, loss of biodiversity and globalisation, these skills will only become more important.
Mining and metals magnate Sanjeev Gupta is reorganising his businesses to appeal to investors and debt markets and prepare for his push into climate friendly manufacturing. Gupta announced in London that his global aluminium interests would be combined into a new entity Alvance Aluminium Group which would achieve operational synergies. Gupta said in a statement:…
Australia’s largest food manufacturer Nestlé has thrown its weight behind the circular economy movement with a massive commitment to cut back on the use of virgin plastic for packaging and to use recycled materials in its products. The Swiss company, which operates six large factories in Australia, has committed $2.5 billion globally to cover the…
Road and traffic technology group Redflex Holdings (ASX: RDF) won new equipment and services orders worth $73 million in the second quarter of the financial year according to an shereholder update from the company. Services revenues such as speed and red light enforcement and freeway management made up the bulk of the orders, however Redflex…
A Perth startup is developing an approach to pumping that could find a way into artificial heart implants. Brent Balinski spoke to its founders about the ambitious project, and about trying to solve really big problems within Australia.
Rare earths producer Lynas Corporation (ASX: LYC) faces new opposition to its continuing operations in Malaysia with the lodging of proceedings in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur. Lynas is building a processing plant in Western Australia to remove radioactive waste before shipment to Malaysia, a development forced onto the company by the Malaysian government.…
Analysis by Peter Roberts When it first became clear that vehicle assembly was finished in Australia the predictions of job losses were truly massive. But three years later the Coalition, which dealt the coup de grace to the sector, is claiming credit for an orderly transition for many of the local suppliers to the three…
By Peter Roberts While the federal government has reluctantly said it might ‘evolve’ its climate action policies the outcomes of current policy settings are seeing a collapse in investment in renewable energy alternatives to burning dirty fossil fuels. New figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) show a near 60 per cent fall in investments…
Two new instruments to be built for Australian radio astronomy facilities have the potential to create new spin-off industrial opportunities. Australian Research Council Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) grants have been awarded to develop a new receiver for the Parkes radio telescope, and a new digital signal processor for the Australia Telescope Compact Array…
By Andrew Blakers, Professor of Engineering, Australian National University In the 1980s, a global race was underway: to find a more efficient way of converting energy from the sun into electricity. Some 30 years ago, our research team at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) came up with a breakthrough, called the PERC silicon…
