University of Technology, Sydney

Staff directory | Campus maps | Newsroom | What's on

Dean's Message

Dean Archie Johnston´s Picture I’d like to welcome you to the new Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology. The merging of the Faculties of Engineering and Information and Technology will produce a plethora of opportunities in research and industry engagement.

The Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology is a leader in practice-based education. Our Engineering and IT undergraduate programs offer an opportunity for students to undertake industrial experience linked with academic preparatory and review subjects and graduate with an added Diploma in Engineering Practice or Diploma in Information Technology Professional Practice. This experience prepares students to be lifelong learners able to respond to new challenges. Our undergraduate courses are regularly reviewed to ensure that teaching is cutting edge and keeps abreast with industry and student needs.

The Faculty understands the importance of assisting promising students in fulfilling their potential. We offer various scholarships for both Engineering and IT students, both domestic and international. In 2008, we will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Bachelor of Information Technology Co-operative Scholarship Program, a program which exemplifies our commitment to practice-based education.

At the postgraduate level, world-class coursework and collaborative research programs closely targeted to industry-driven needs are offered. Our Engineering and IT courses are designed to satisfy students’ various career development needs. Whether students want to strengthen their management skills, develop specialist technical skills or attain a combination of both, we have a postgraduate program or short course that suits. Our courses regularly undergo industry and peer reviews in order to produce graduates that are industry ready and well-rounded in the chosen area of study.

The Faculty is internationally focused and committed to globalising its programs, staff and students. We offer engineering programs in Asia and international exchanges with universities in Europe, South America, North America and Asia. Many of our academics are engaged in joint research programs with their counterparts in overseas universities and research institutes.

We are proud of our teaching and learning awards that reflect the quality of our teaching programs, and research awards that reflect the quality of its research. Recent examples include:

  • UTS has been ranked in the top band of the ´Science, Computing, Engineering, Architecture and Agriculture´ cluster in the Teaching and Learning Performance Fund and thereby the top in engineering and information technology for two years running. This contributed to UTS being top-ranked for teaching and learning, the only university to be top-ranked in the Sydney basin.
  • remotely accessible laboratories were awarded a $100,000 grant from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (formerly known as the Carrick Institute) and another grant valued at $100,000 was awarded for Shaping Engineering Education.
  • In the area of Information Technology, we have been awarded seven grants valued at over $900,000 from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council for initiatives including: ‘Supporting student self-and-peer assessment in large group work projects´; ´Improving the Formative and Summative Assessment of Novice Computer Programmers´ and ‘Strategies and approaches to teaching and learning cross cultures’.

Collaborative research and industry support are demonstrated by:

  • the establishment of a new business and intelligence and information management commercial value research unit by UTS and specialist information management services firm Data Agility.
  • three new ARC Discovery and seven new ARC Linkage grants awarded for 2008 (a record total amount of $2.6 million was obtained from ARC in 2007/2008). The Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology has the biggest research output in the university.
  • the Australian Power Institute (API) has been established by an industry group that funds academic programs. Funding for their first project has been approved for UTS:Engineering to develop a Power Engineering Masters program and deliver some subjects in the Faculty´s undergraduate program in distance mode delivery.
  • the awarding of an ARC Federation Fellowship to bring a team of top international researchers from China to work in the Centre for Intelligent Information Systems on fundamental research including quantum programming methodology, formal methods and foundations of artificial intelligence.
  • ongoing support from industry for the Faculty´s co-operative scholarships program
  • the significant national interest received for the Zunz Lecture Series hosted by theFaculty and the Industry Advisory Network which explores broad community subjects relating to engineering.

The Faculty’s research strengths and corresponding centres include:

  • ARC Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems
  • Centre for Electrical Machines and Power Electronics
  • Centre for Built Infrastructure Research
  • Centre for Health Technologies
  • Centre for Human Centred Technology Design
  • Centre for Innovation in IT Services and Applications
  • Centre for Intelligent Information Systems
  • Centre for Intelligent Mechatronic Systems
  • Centre for Real-Time Information Networks

The Faculty will continue to strive to improve the experience of students and strengthen its links with industry partners. I invite you to participate in this exciting journey - join with us, learn with us, collaborate and succeed with us.

Professor Archie Johnston, Dean