UWA Postgraduate Students' Association

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Newsletter 24th of January 2013

Greetings Fellow Postgraduate Students.

How are we all this week? Looking forward to the long weekend, I am sure. This week there isn’t too much news (but I do say that every week).

Thank you everyone that volunteered to be part of the Guild Catering review. I did not realise how many people felt that strongly about food.

I am plugging the PSA Lounge yet again. Room 1.05 Guild South Wing. It is a great space, with couches, and desks, and a microwave and with me right next door J (I have T2 tea and I do share)

The first Connect is looming! Thursday the 7^th of January- UWA Club 5pm-6pm

The Reid Library is partially air-conditioned again, but the air-con will not be working fully again until the 6^th of Feb.

Speaking of the library how many of you have realised that the library fines system at UWA changed last year? The trusty old points system no longer exists! It is now a dollars system. Want more information? Hit up the Information Services website: http://www.is.uwa.edu.au/information-resources/borrowing/penalties

The IAS looks like it is going to have some great public lectures and master classes this year! If you are interested check out their website at www.ias.uwa.edu.au

Committee note Jarrad Bothe has nominated to be PSA Coursework Officer and Eileen Slater has nominated to be the Education Faculty Rep. As per our constitution I am advertising their interest for 7 days so that people can comment or raise concerns before they are appointed to the position. Before you ask….yes Jarrad and I are related- he is my brother. If you have an issue with that, or with Eileen or Jarrad taking up the positions please let me, or the Vice President, Kara Salter (20177489@student.uwa.edu.au), know before the 30^th of January.

We still have some other positions open on the 2013 committee: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Officer, and Engineering Rep. E-mail me if you are interested.

Finally do you have a problem with a unit, supervisor or assessment mark? Did you know there are a couple of places you could go to talk about this confidentially? For research students the Graduate Education Officers (GEOs) http://www.postgraduate.uwa.edu.au/students/resources/officers offer a range of services and for coursework students the Student Assist Officers http://www.guild.uwa.edu.au/welcome/support in the Guild are trained to deal with these issues. If you have a problem don’t ignore it, it will probably get worse.

That is all for this week,

Gemma

psa@guild.uwa.edu.au

Notices:

2013 PSA Committee: There are still some positions open on the 2013 committee, so if you’ve got the desire to volunteer and a passion for postgraduates, shoot me an email!

New members welcome for:

Engineering Fac Rep
Indigenous Officer

· Jarrad Bothe has nominated to be PSA Coursework Officer and Eileen Slater has nominated to be the Education Faculty Representative. If you have an issue or concern please e-mail me at psa@guild.uwa.edu.au or Kara Salter (VP) at 20177489@student.uwa.edu.au before the 30^th of January

Connect February 7^th! Uni Club 5-6pm. Be there or be object with four sides of equal length which meet at 90 degree angles (I’m trying to say square).

· The PSA Lounge (room 1.05 Guild South Wing) will be open for use by any postgraduate students anytime. In case it’s locked you can pick up the keys from the Guild reception.

· IAS is holding many interesting and useful public lectures and master classes this year. Check them out at www.ias.uwa.edu.au

· The Reid Library is partially air-conditioned again; however the current date for it to be properly fixed is the 6^th of Feb.

· The Library Fines system changed last year. Check out the new system at http://www.is.uwa.edu.au/information-resources/borrowing/penalties

Check your student email!! Your student email is where the GRS communicates with you – regardless of if you have a staff account, or still use the same Hotmail account you set up when you were 12 years old. Check that and Student Connect at least once a week to ensure that you don’t have any outstanding fines, fees, milestones which might lead to an encumbrance – this would prevent the automatic re-enrolment of research students! Bad times for everyone.

Don’t start whinging if you’re not re-enrolled, check your student email NOW!

Do you want to put a notice in the newsletter? You should email me! I’ll plug most things related to postgrads, professional development, and activities. Newsletter day is currently Wednesday, so email two sentences and any links to psa@guild.uwa.edu.au by 9am on Wednesday to be included!

Website: http://www.psa.guild.uwa.edu.au

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/uwapsa
Blog: http://uwapsa.blogspot.com.au
Email: psa@guild.uwa.edu.au

Twitter: @UWAPSA
Internal Mail: M300

Thursday, January 17, 2013

PSA Newsletter 16th of January

Hello Again!

(Yes I am already running out of witty ways to greet you all)

So and I am here writing to you all again, it feels like I only just did this last week…..Oh wait, I DID only just do this last week.

So over the last week not too much has been happening. I saw some postgrads using the PSA Lounge and became unusually happy (you see what you have all made my life, I’m turning into Aisling and getting bizarrely upbeat over PSA things). If you want to make me even happier- use the PSA Lounge more. It’s room 1.05 Guild South Wing, right next to my office!

Again I remind you about the first Connect of the year on Feb 7^that Uni Club 5-6pm, come, mingle, be happy (pretty pretty please).

St Catherine’s is looking for tutors for some economics semester 1 units. If you are economically inclined and looking for some pin money (I felt the need to get a little old fashioned there) please contact Joanne van Vuuren: directorofstudies@stcatherines.uwa.edu.au

InSPiRE is full- you all snoozed so you loozed (yes I know loozed isn’t a word, but like I said on the Facebook page it sounds better than lost. If you want to go on the waiting list for any of the days please contact Tash Ayres at n.ayers@ecu.edu.au.

The Reid Library will be partially air-conditioned again this coming Wednesday, however the current date for it to be properly fixed is the 6^th of Feb.

Most of you would have received postscript around Christmas- how awesome is it! About 40 of you didn’t because they have ended up in my office marked ‘RETURN TO SENDER’. Why? You may be asking, Why would poor toiling postgraduates not receive a brilliantly produced free magazine made just for them? The answer is because YOU have not kept you mailing details up to date through student connect. So fly my pretties! Fly to student connect and check your details- you need to go there to make sure you have no overdue fines and to check on your enrolment anyway.

Now that I have just ordered you all around like I’m the wicked witch of the west I will bid you good day.

Until next week,

Gemma

psa@guild.uwa.edu.au

Notices

2013 PSA Committee: There are still some positions open on the 2013 committee, so if you’ve got the desire to volunteer and a passion for postgraduates, shoot me an email!

New members welcome for:

Coursework Officer
Indigenous Officer
Education Fac Rep

Connect February 7^th! Uni Club 5-6pm. Be there or be object with four sides of equal length which meet at 90 degree angles (I’m trying to say square).

The PSA Lounge (room 1.05 Guild South Wing) will be open for use by any postgraduate student anytime. In case it’s locked you can pick up the keys from the Guild reception.

· The Reid Library will be partially air-conditioned again this coming Wednesday, however the current date for it to be properly fixed is the 6^th of Feb.

Need a haircut and a job? I can’t help with the first but I can with the job….

St Catherine's is currently looking for tutors for the following semester-1 units starting in February:

- Econ 2272 Econometrics
- Econ 3372 Advance Mathematics for Economists

The standard is to do one tutorial of one hour per week. But there are some exceptions if students feel they require more and often the tutor can negotiate this with the students themselves. Date and time is also decided on between the tutor and the students. Pay is $55 per hour

If interested please contact Joanne van Vuuren

directorofstudies@stcatherines.uwa.edu.au

Let's pat ourselves on the back! If you know any UWA postgrads who have done anything exceptional in their field of late let us know and we'll include a shout-out in the newsletter and blogposts! We're proud of our postgrads and would love to celebrate your achievements!

Check your student email!! Your student email is where the GRS communicates with you – regardless of if you have a staff account, or still use the same Hotmail account you set up when you were 12 years old. Check that and Student Connect at least once a week to ensure that you don’t have any outstanding fines, fees, milestones which might lead to an encumbrance – this would prevent the automatic re-enrolment of research students! Bad times for everyone.

Don’t start whinging if you’re not re-enrolled, check your student email NOW!

Website: http://www.psa.guild.uwa.edu.au

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/uwapsa
Blog: http://uwapsa.blogspot.com.au
Email: psa@guild.uwa.edu.au

Twitter: @UWAPSA
Internal Mail: M300

Monday, January 14, 2013

Newsletter 9th of January 2013

Howdy Postgrads!

Happy New Year! It’s me, your friendly neighbourhood Postgraduate Association President here again. I know I know, you’re all thinking, ‘I swear we got a couple of weeks off from the mad woman’s ramblings’. Well you did, and now they’re over, so I’m here again, talking at you, telling you things and writing editorials which just go on and on and on and on and on and on.

I hope you have all had a nice relaxing break and enjoyed the horribly hot weather by soaking yourselves in a body of water. Speaking of horribly hot things the Reid Library’s air-conditioning is out, it looks as if it will be that way for a few weeks. So if you need an alternative space to study and/or desk to set up for a few weeks the PSA Lounge is available. It is located just next door to me: Room 1.03 First Floor Guild South Wing (directly below the Medical Centre). There are 4 big empty desks just sitting in there waiting for some postgrad study love. Alternatively if you don’t want to utilise the fantastic space that is provided for postgrads I guess you could go and study in another library, if you had to, but you don’t want to, you want to come to the PSA Lounge.

Our first Connect of the year will be happening in February on the 7^th. As per usual it will happen from 5pm to 6pm at the Uni Club. Just a secret between you and me- I have only ever been to one Connect before, so I am hoping that you all come to the first Connect of the year and be my friends J

Finally postgrads; go to InSpire. The UWA day is the only one still taking registrations. The line-up looks pretty amazing with sessions being held on data management, working with animals, ethics in the lab, confidentiality agreements, working with human material (that sounds gross), responsibilities in publication and research collaboration! With a line up like that there is surely something on that would interest you. Plus I am going to be there, so again, you should all come and be my friends. If the lure of my potential friendship doesn’t tempt you, the PSA is putting on free food afterwards. How could you possibly turn down free food?

They are the big things for now. But there is other stuff below in the notices that you should read too….

Gemma

Notices

· 2013 PSA Committee: There are still some positions open on the 2013 committee, so if you’ve got the desire to volunteer and a passion for postgraduates, shoot me an email!

New members welcome for:Coursework Officer
Indigenous Officer
Education Fac Rep

· Connect February 7^th! Uni Club 5-6pm. Be there or be object with four sides of equal length which meet at 90 degree angles (I’m trying to say square).

· The PSA Lounge (room 1.03 Guild South Wing) will be open for use by any postgraduate student anytime. In case it’s locked you can pick up the keys from the Guild reception.

· Need a haircut and a job? I can’t help with the first but I can with the job….

St Catherine's is currently looking for tutors for the following semester-1 units starting in February:

If interested please contact Joanne van Vuuren

directorofstudies@stcatherines.uwa.edu.au

· The old mailing list, Postgrad Talk is deleted. Yes I know most of you have no idea that it existed but if you're still on it this notice is for you!

· Let's pat ourselves on the back! If you know any UWA postgrads who have done anything exceptional in their field of late let us know and we'll include a shout-out in the newsletter and blogposts! We're proud of our postgrads and would love to celebrate your achievements!

· Check your student email!! Your student email is where the GRS communicates with you – regardless of if you have a staff account, or still use the same Hotmail account you set up when you were 12 years old. Check that and Student Connect at least once a week to ensure that you don’t have any outstanding fines, fees, milestones which might lead to an encumbrance – this would prevent the automatic re-enrolment of research students! Bad times for everyone.

Don’t start whinging if you’re not re-enrolled, check your student email NOW!

· Inter-Uni Summer School! Registrations for the inaugural Inter-uni Summer-school for Postgraduate Research Excellence (InSPiRE) are now open, please sign up! There will be a free PSA food on afterwards. Currently there are more students from other unis attending then people from UWA and I would much rather give free food out to UWA postgrads.

InSPiRE will be held from February 11th – 15th 2013, with the opening day being held at the University Club of WA. The remainder of the week will be held across the four other Western Australian Universities, and students may register for single days, multiple days or for the whole week. The program will feature guest speakers from the industry and community, interactive workshops and networking events, and fantastic prize giveaways.

Numbers are strictly limited, and the students will need to register early to avoid disappointment. ~~http://www.ecu.edu.au/conferences/2013/InSPiRE~~

InSPiRE is FULL, so registrations are now closed. Sorry Postgrads- you snoozed so you loozed (yes I know loozed is not a word but it sounds cooler then lost)

Thursday, December 20, 2012

PSA Conference Travel Report 2012

First of all, I am most grateful to the Postgraduate Students' Association (PSA) for the 2012 PSA Conference Travel Award. It has allowed me to register and attend the 2012 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence at Macau, China from 04 to 07 Dec 2012. My research on the Twitter social network forms part of my Master's thesis on "The Identification of Like-minded Communities on Online Social Networks". The paper that I presented is titled "Tweets Beget Propinquity: Detecting Highly Interactive Communities on Twitter using Tweeting Links", and it describes one of the proposed methodologies in my Master's thesis where we attempt to detect communities on Twitter that communicate frequently about a common interest (product/service). This research would be important for companies trying to utilize social media as new outlets for their targeted advertising and viral marketing efforts. Furthermore, the opportunity to present my paper at the conference has allowed me to obtain valuable feedback to further improve my work.

In addition to obtaining valuable feedback, I also had the opportunity to discuss my current work and some future research ideas with many leading experts in my field. As a result of the many fruitful discussions and feedback, I am in the final stages of my thesis writing and would be submitting my thesis in Jan 2013 (finishing approximately 9 months ahead of schedule). This conference has also offered me a great opportunity to network with academics from other institutes. In particular, I have been offered an appointment as a research enginner at the Living Analytics Research Centre, Singapore Management University and will be commencing in Jan 2013. Once again, I thank PSA for the travel award which has greatly facilitated my Master's research and enhanced my future research career.

Kwan Hui Lim

Master of Science (By Research) Candidate

School of Computer Science and Software Engineering

PSA Conference Travel Award Report

My PSA travel award helped to cover my expenses to attend the annual Fertility Society of Australia (FSA) conference in Auckland, New Zealand. The travel award allowed me to present a major component of my PhD research to a national and international audience of experts within my field for the first time. In addition to presenting my electronic poster, attending the conference in person allowed me to meet and discuss my research with other scientists and fertility professionals. In particular, I had an opportunity to discuss my research with a prominent sperm biologist whose work a large proportion of my PhD is based on. Through this meeting, I received several invaluable insights into my PhD, including giving me new perspectives on how to interpret my results. This personalised feedback was extremely useful and will greatly improve the quality of my thesis and publications arising from it. This meeting also increased my confidence in my own PhD thesis, as my work was validated by experts in my field. Meeting other scientists and academics also provided opportunities for possible future collaborations between my research group and other universities. Attending the FSA conference also allowed me to network with several professionals in the fertility industry, including clinicians, embryologists, counsellors, nurses, pharmaceutical representatives and policy makers.

The conference also exposed me to many avenues of exciting research taking place around Australia and New Zealand. The focus of the conference was directly related to my area of research (human reproduction), so it was useful to be kept up to date of current research going on the field, particularly research relating to sperm biology, the focus of my PhD. It was also reassuring to learn, via various presentations, that my research is still highly relevant to the field and generates a lot of interest.

Su-Ann Koh

PSA Newsletter 12th of December

Minions! (meant in a non-insulting cartoonish funny sense)

GUESS WHAT!! This is the last time we get to do this with the date in our life time- 12/12/12!!

I bring you greetings from the last PSA Newsletter of the year. I know you are all sad. You’re probably shedding a tear right now, aren’t you? Last PSA newsletter of the year = university break and freedom (for a brief period of time anyway).

So a few news like items:

1) We have nominations for Committee positions! Yay! So coz our constitution says so (and like when Simon says - you have to do it) I need to advertise that they have nominated for one week, here, on the webpage and on our notice board (I bet most of you don’t even know where it is- I will give a block of Cadbury chocolate to the first person to email me with the location of the notice board and 2 things that are currently posted on it.)

If you have any objections to these people ascending to the positions please let me know within the week and I will take them under advisement.

Sajni Gudka has nominated to be MDHS Faculty Representative

Jaqueline De Oliveira Haupt and Isabel Rossen have both applied to be Equity Officers

Madeleine Hartley has nominated to be the Law Faculty Representative (someone should tell Aisling that they do exist)

2) Just a reminder that we still have the following positions open for the 2013 Committee:

Coursework Officer
Indigenous Officer
Education Faculty Representative
Law Faculty Representative

Other than that I don’t really have much to say. The Inspire Summer School is still open so register away my pretties. Like I have told you a million, billion, zillion times before, there is no Connect in January. Follow us on Twitter @UWAPSA; we look like the loser kid at the party with no friends right now.

Finally as no one has emailed me with fantabulous things their fellow postgrads have done this week I am going to highjack this week’s shout out, with a slightly personal note.

As some of you may know Christo Bester (one of our 2013 Ordinary Committee Members) married Audrey Appudurai (another UWA postgrad) last weekend in the Tropical Grove at UWA. It was a shoetastic wedding and I would just like to say congratulations Audristo! I wish you many nerdy/happy years together.

Gemma over and out (at least until......let’s say mid-January 2013)

PS. Check your student email- it’s important you know.

PPS. As most of you may have noticed on facebook, twitter, here – I am a horrible speller.....sorry in advance, for the rest of the year.

Notices

· 2013 PSA Committee: There are still some positions open on the 2013 committee, so if you’ve got the desire to volunteer and a passion for postgraduates, shoot me an email!

New members welcome for:
Coursework Officer
Indigenous Officer
Education Fac Rep
Law Fac Rep

· There will be NO Connect in January.

· The PSA Lounge will be open for use by any postgraduate student anytime I'm in my office. In case I'm not there you can pick up the keys from the Guild reception.

· The old mailing list, Postgrad Talk is being deleted. Yes I know most of you have no idea that it exists but if you're still on it this notice is for you!

Don’t start whinging if you’re not re-enrolled, check your student email NOW! (Simon says)

· Inter-Uni Summer School! Registrations for the inaugural Inter-uni Summer-school for Postgraduate Research Excellence (InSPiRE) are now open, please find attached the promotional flyer.
InSPiRE will be held from February 11th – 15th 2013, with the opening day being held at the University Club of WA. The remainder of the week will be held across the four other Western Australian Universities, and students may register for single days, multiple days or for the whole week. The program will feature guest speakers from the industry and community, interactive workshops and networking events, and fantastic prize giveaways.
Numbers are strictly limited, and the students will need to register early to avoid disappointment. http://www.ecu.edu.au/conferences/2013/InSPiRE

Website: http://www.psa.guild.uwa.edu.au

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/uwapsa
Blog: http://uwapsa.blogspot.com.au
Email: psa@guild.uwa.edu.au

Twitter: @UWAPSA
Internal Mail: M300
Phone: (08) 6488 3194
Office: Guild South Wing, First Floor, Office 1.03
Lounge: Guild South Wing, First Floor, Room 1.05

PSA Newsletter 5th December 2012

Bow Down to Your New Leader (please)

Greetings UWA Postgraduates,

I am your new leader. In a bloodless and uneventful takeover I have managed to wrestle power of this distinguished organisation from the now significantly less busy Aisling Blackmore.

Or alternatively;

Hi I’m Gemma Bothe, your new PSA President. I am in the process of taking up residence in the PSA office, so if you want to come and talk to me about anything, shoot me an email first to make sure I am around.

As of the 1^st of December the 2013 PSA committee has taken over. We still have several positions open on the 2013 committee including Course Work Officer, Equity Office, Indigenous Officer, as well as Faculty Reps for Education, Law and MDHS. If you’re interested in any of these positions, please email me!

There isn’t too much news this time of the year as everyone seems to be winding down (read- slacking off) as we come up to the festive season and university break.

I guess the big news items right now would be that there is no Connect this Thursday or in January. I know; tragic. There just aren’t enough people around the university for these two months to make the Connects worthwhile. However, they will be back in February next year (yay).

The PSA now has its own twitter account (yeah we tweet and stuff). Find us, follow us, love us. https://twitter.com/UWAPSA

Finally if you know a UWA Postgrad who has achieved something exceptional let us know so we can give them a shout out in the newsletter. We want to celebrate the achievements of our peers and acknowledge the hard work they have done, while shaming the rest of you underachieving plebs into actually doing something (jokes- please don’t form a mob and get me in my first week :D)

I think I have pretty much doubled the average length of Aisling’s editorials in my above rambling.

So, I will say goodbye, until I put you all through another excessively long editorial next week,

Gemma

Notices

· 2013 PSA Committee: There are still some positions open on the 2013 committee, so if you’ve got the desire to volunteer and a passion for postgraduates, shoot me an email!

New members welcome for:
Equity Officer
Coursework Officer
Indigenous Officer
Education Fac Rep
Law Fac Rep

Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Science Face Rep

· There will be NO Connect this month or in January.

· The PSA Lounge will be open for use by any postgraduate student anytime I'm in my office. In case I'm not there you can pick up the keys from the Guild reception.

· The old mailing list, Postgrad Talk is being deleted. Yes I know most of you have no idea that it exists but if you're still on it this notice is for you!

· Workshop! The GRS is running a workshop on a topic close to many postgrads' hearts, Communicating Your Research! Details below!

Effective communication is a critical skill to ensure your research has impact and reaches target audiences such as academia, media, industry and community. This 3 hour workshop will provide practical strategies for presenting and communicating the significance of your research in a range of academic, community and industry contexts including conferences, journal abstracts and media releases. Special guest speakers will provide expert advice on how to maximise the impact of your research.

Morning/afternoon tea provided

The workshops are on the 12th December (Mt Lawley campus) and 13th December (Joondalup campus).

Please register for the workshop at:

http://www.ecu.edu.au/events-and-activities/events-view?event_id=0000000562

For further information please contact:
Dr Natasha Ayers, researchtraining@ecu.edu.au

Don’t start whinging if you’re not re-enrolled, check your student email now.

· Inter-Uni Summer School! Registrations for the inaugural Inter-uni Summer-school for Postgraduate Research Excellence (InSPiRE) are now open, please find attached the promotional flyer.

InSPiRE will be held from February 11th – 15th 2013, with the opening day being held at the University Club of WA. The remainder of the week will be held across the four other Western Australian Universities, and students may register for single days, multiple days or for the whole week. The program will feature guests speakers from the industry and community, interactive workshops and networking events, and fantastic prize giveaways.

Numbers are strictly limited, and the students will need to register early to avoid disappointment. http://www.ecu.edu.au/conferences/2013/InSPiRE

· Do you have any old but still working music players, notepads (iPods, iPads), laptops, camera, mobile phones or musical instruments? Do not throw them away or let them age on a shelf. They could be the perfect Christmas gift for refugee children in Perth. This is a private initiative to make it happen this Christmas.

I will collect donations until Friday December 7th. Please leave your donation in the box marked “Donations here!” in the admin office, Social Sciences, Room 1.31. Jenny and Emma will help you to find the box.

For those who are not familiar with the Social Sciences Building, the building is located between the oval and the river and the office is on the first floor, accessible through the courtyard and open Mon-Fri between 9am and 3pm.

You can also contact me on 0438 100 857 or email me on andrzej.gwizdalski@uwa.edu.au

Andrzej

Website: http://www.psa.guild.uwa.edu.au

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/uwapsa
Blog: http://uwapsa.blogspot.com.au
Email: psa@guild.uwa.edu.au

Twitter: @UWAPSA
Internal Mail: M300
Phone: (08) 6488 3194
Office: Guild South Wing, First Floor, Office 1.03
Lounge: Guild South Wing, First Floor, Room 1.05