David Williamson's Charitable Intent will be performed at the La Mama theatre in Carlton as part of the Melbourne Festival.  The play is about workplace bullying.  Williamson says his parents' arguments made him 'fascinated with conflict in an enduring way, the cause of conflict, the possibilities of lessening it.  It made me want to avoid it in my actual life ...  That's why I am a dramatist, trying to understand it'.   Williamson originally trained as an engineer and lectured at Swinburne University of Technology.

Lilydale & Yarra Valley Leader 8/10

Knox Journal 3/10

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Dipper talks on training

Talking TAFE

Swinburne University of Technology (TAFE division) is holding two apprenticeship and traineeship information evenings on October 16 and 24.  Former AFL player and media personality Robert "Dipper" DiPierdomenico will speak at the sessions.

Acumen Multimedia is structuring its projects around work experience programs to allow students to participate in live projects.  The company is part of the Victorian Government's Student Industry Based Learning Program.  Work experience students from multimedia courses at universities also are helping students to produce work for the company.  Acumen has established alliances with Swinburne and RMIT universities, as well as Plymouth University in Britain.

Progress Leader 8/10

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Uni set to show wares

Swinburne University presents Research Week, a series of presentations and discussions on a range of topics, including biotechnology, industry, information technology, psychological and social issues.  Pro vice-chancellor Professor Kerry Pratt says the event will benefit anyone interested in research.

Swinburne TAFE library information studies student Mande Bijelic seeks career advice from Yarra Plenty Regional Library manager Craig Anderson.

Caroline Langan-Fox has been named Best Automotive Pre-Apprentice of the Year in her course at Swinburne University.  Langan-Fox is the only female enrolled in the six-month automotive course at Swinburne's Wantirna campus.

Maroondah Yarra Ranges Journal 9/10

Knox Journal 3/10

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Conference on sustainability

World conference

Yarra Ranges Council is hosting an international conference on the progress and practices of sustainability on October 24-25.  The event is expected to attract representatives from around the world and will be held at Swinburne University of Technology's Lilydale campus.  The conference is a joint initiative of the council, Business Yarra Ranges and Swinburne.

The Eastern Business Network Group is holding an information session with public relations professional Arthur Firipis, who will discuss media release strategies.  The event is being held at the Swinburne University's Industry Development Centre in Croydon on October 17.

The Farming Real Estate?  Challenges & Opportunities for Agribusiness on the Urban Fringe report was compiled by Swinburne University of Technology's Centre for eBusiness & Communication in Lilydale on behalf of the Centre for Agriculture & Business (CAB).   The report reveals that agribusiness last year generated almost $648.9 million in produce from more than 2000 properties in the region.  The Commonwealth Department of Employment, Workplace Relations & Small Business funded the report under the Regional Assistance Program (RAP).  The report aimed to collect as much information as possible about the agricultural produce grown in the Yarra Ranges and Nillumbik shires, issues impacting on farming and emerging opportunities.

Swinburne University researcher Dr Russell Crawford is heading a team that is investigating whether Asian mushrooms and a tree-decaying fungus, among a dozen others, could filter toxic waste.   Dr Crawford has found fungus can be useful in removing metals from solution: 'It's an environmental clean-up tool'.  Metals that could be removed from polluted waters include chrome, nickel and zinc.  Cadmium and lead have been tagged for future studies.  Dr Crawford hopes to combine the research with an existing patent held by Swinburne to extract pollution from solutions using a flotation method that separates pollutants from water.  Swinburne has brought together various scientists in its Centre for Applied Colloid & Bio-Colloid Science to work on this and other projects.

The Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix is on this weekend at Phillip Island.  However, the sports statistics unit at Swinburne University already has run the 500cc race already 10 000 times using computer simulation.  Swinburne mathematicians Jonathan Lowe and Stephen Clarke have found that Italian Valentino Rossi has a 56.4 per cent chance of winning the race.

ABC 774 3LO (Melbourne) Summary: M00005178573

Compere: Peter Clarke Duration: 8:18

Wednesday Forum: Are we just too wired?

Discusses the mobile phone; the human brain's finite capacity to process information; current lifestyles requiring use to parallel process things more and more; people moving down the street on mobile phones, walking or driving, and trying to do two things at once, creating demand on the system; composing SMS messages by crossing the road; mobile phone use; the effects of parallel processing of information on the human brain and general health as a product of increased technology use; research indicating that demanding activities such as parallel processing creates stress; longitudinal studies of Schools in which children have access to all the technology they wanted showing that the children were actually more sociable, became better at problem solving and pattern recognition; things being lost including attention span; study being done by Apple, which claims it is an independent study; possibility that younger generations will adapt to this interrupted, somewhat fragmented, style of thinking without losing pattern analysis.

Takes calls.

Interviewees: Aina Puce, deputy director, Brain Sciences Institute, Swinburne University

Roseanne Burston, editor eMag, The Age

(Part or all of this program is syndicated to 4 stations.)

Channel 10 (Melbourne) Summary: M00005170292

Compere: Walden & Hansen Duration: 1:28

A two-year study at Swinburne University in Melbourne shows that a common type of fungus could help to rid the world of heavy metal waste. Report.

Interviewees: Dr Russell Crawford, Swinburne University

2BL (Sydney) Summary: S00005147357

Compere: John Cecil Duration: 7:00

Discusses non-verbal communication.

Interviewees: Ina Puce, Swinburne University Centre