Article Queensland

The Queensland Local Network is led by local volunteers who come together to organise lectures and technical visits that provide opportunities to learn and meet new people. All events are open to the public and most are free of charge.

The Local Network aims to raise awareness of science, engineering and technology in the local area, and promote membership of the IET.

Visit the events page filtered by Queensland Local Network to find out about our upcoming events.

Contact us: Queensland@ietvolunteer.org

Our committees:

Chairman: Mr Lincoln Perera
Honorary Treasurer: Prof. Ljubo Vlacic
PATW & Student Prizes, Qld LN Web Portal & YP Mentor: Mr Jonathan Khor
General committee member: Mr Brian Dunn
General committee member: Mr Allan Riesz
General committee member: Mr Anjan Kundu

Recent Updates:

IET QLD /EA Student Presentation Competition 2023

The prestigious annual IET/EA/ITEE Student Presentation Competition was held at Hawken Auditorium, Engineers Australia, Brisbane on 10 October 2023 with students representing five of the seven Queensland Universities.

The names of the contestants, their educational establishment they represent and the topic of the presentation is listed below:

Aime Parker

QUT

Wireless Power Transfer for Underwater Submersibles

David Gaul

UQ

Enhancing Electrical Consumption Forecasts Using Bayesian Optimisation and Genetic Algorithms

Jai Wilson

JCU

Optimising and deploying control schemes for regional microgrids in First Nations Communities

Timothy Tadj

GU

The Future of Swallowing Assessments: Automatic Segmentation of Swallowing Sounds via Deep Learning

Reilly Morrison

CQU

Development of reverse power flow identification and under frequency load shedding scheme load anticipation algorithm.

L to R :  Kerry Williams, Timothy Tadj, David Gaul, Jai Wilson, Reily Morrison, Amie Parker,
Lincoln Perera

The evening commenced with a time of networking with 24 members and invited guest from both IET and Engineers Australia.

The formal proceedings was opened by Lincon Perera, Chair of IET Queensland Local Network, with the traditional Welcome to Country followed by a brief history of IET and the student competition. Jonathan Khor introduced each of the contestants by providing some insights of why the contestants chose to pursue Engineering as a career.

The first contestant off the rank was Reilly Morrison, who presented his work with Energy Queensland. This was followed by a few questions before the second speaker Timothy Tadj took to the lectern. Tim provided a glimpse of how Engineering, AI and Health Science can collaborate to provide practical solutions.

Third contestant to present was David Gaul providing predictive modelling of electricity loads. This generated a number of probing questions from the industry leaders in the room. A short adjournment was taken before Aime Parker provided her findings on wireless power transfer as part of her combination of Engineering and Environmental Science project.

Jai Wilson was the final presenter in the competition who spoke on optimising control systems for off grid applications for First Nations Communities. This was a very topical and worthy project.

The adjudication panel comprised of two representatives from EA and Two from IET. It was a difficult task to judge between such great presentations on very topical issues. After considerable time of deliberation, outcome of the results were announced by Kerry Williams, Chair of Engineers Australia Queensland Electrical Branch. Congratulations go to the following contestants :

Competition Winner      :  Jai Wilson                       Competition Runner Up  : Amie Parker
Winner Cash Prize          :  $300                                Runner Up Cash Prize      :  $200

                                                  

Each of the other participating contestants receive a certificate of participation and a presentation honorarium of $50.

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Date: 29 August 2023

Obituary

Colin Morwood OAM BE CEng FIET

It is with great sadness that we have been advised of the passing of Colin Morwood, one of our former Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Membership Secretary and Council Representative, who passed away peacefully on 21 August 2023.

Colin has had a distinguishing career both here in Australia and Overseas spanning the years of 1952 to his retirement from the industry in 1987. Colin’s career started after graduating from University of Queensland in 1952 and joining the City Electricity & Light/South East Authority Queensland Substation in Brisbane. His career transitioned  through positions in Southern Electric Authority and Northern Electric Authority. Colin moved to Papua New Guinea Electricity Commission for 3 years as the Assistant General Manager Engineering from 1974 to 1977 before returning to Queensland Electricity Generating Board where he retired from his engineering career.

 The prestigious and inaugural  E S Cornwall Memorial Scholarship was awarded to Colin in 1957 besides being the first Cadet Engineer appointed in SEAQ in 1948.  Colin was also awarded the PNG Government Independence Medal in 1977, for “‘Outstanding Services to the Government in the field of Electricity Supply”.

Outside of his engineering career, Col’s other interests include rotary clubs and gymnastics. In addition to representing Queensland at high level competitions as a gymnast, he has also participated as a judge at international level. He was awarded in the 1998 Queen’s Birthday Honours List, the Medal of the Order of Australia for “services to the community and to gymnastics”, in addition to being a judge at the Olympic Games in Melbourne 1956 and Rome 1960 and chief Australian delegate to the International Gymnastic Federation Conference Moscow in 1958.

For his long standing service to the IEE/IET as Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Membership Secretary and Council Representative over many years, in 2019 Colin was short listed for the IET 2019 Volunteer Medal.

Colin will be remembered for his tireless and passionate dedication to society and the IET.

Well done,  Colin and Rest in Peace.

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Date: 14 July 2023

The IET Queensland Technical Tour – Energex Electricity Network Control Room

Speaker: Mr Rick Madden

The tour was opened by a Welcome to Country and welcome to Energex Newstead by Jonathan Khor. This was followed by opening remarks by the current Queensland Chair, Mr Lincoln Perera before a brief overview of Energex/Energy Queensland was presented by Jonathan.  

Mr Rick Madden, Manager Network Operations South East provided on overview of the PowerOn Control Systems adopted by Energex/Energy Queensland. The remote log into the system provided the real time representation of the network on a read only view that displayed the network from the 11kV network  to transmission voltage level.

Rick explained the various colour coding of the voltage levels and status symbols representing the network and also displayed the real time voltage and current monitoring of the network that is geo-location represented on the screen. An explanation of the real time switching sheets, notification tags and  SCADA Alarms.

Questions were raised by the floor with regards to priority of fault restoration, real time monitoring of the LV network, load control and solar in feed issues.

Following the presentation and question time, a brief tour was made of the Network Control Room with the large monitors that display all the functionalities of the PowerOn application shown and explained by Rick.

The technical presentation and tour concluded with light refreshments for an extended time of networking.

            

Date: 04 April 2023

Annual Informatics Lecture 2023: Engineering an autonomous race car

Speaker: Alistair English, Research Engineer & Student, QUT

Overview

Ever wondered what it takes to make a car 'driverless'? This year’s IET/EA Informatics lecture is about the journey the QUT Motorsports team has gone on to take their all electric formula SAE racing car to compete in the new 'Driverless' class. Alistair English led the autonomous systems team for 2021-2022 and will give an overview of the sensing and control systems as well as the supporting infrastructure systems and what is planned for future capabilities of the car. 

The IET/EA Informatics lecture series has a significant history in Queensland as an annual joint venture between IET Queensland and Engineers Australia Queensland Division. It is aimed at assisting the IET/EA members to keep abreast of the newest science and technology developments.

      

Date: 03 Nov 2022

IET Queensland Local Network held the 2022 Annual General Meeting at the Treasury Hotel, Brisbane on 3 November 2022.

17 IET Queensland members attended the meeting with Mr Desmond Ward B. Eng, MIEEE giving the key note presentation on 5G EME Exposure Standards and Communications Engineers Communicating, warmly welcomed by the out-going chair Mr Craig Johnston.

Please use the links to access the Presentation and  Minutes

                        

Date: 19 Oct 2022

Student Presentation Competition 2023

The IET QLD and EA student presentation competition QLD final 2022 was conducted on 19th October 2022 with 6 eligible universities participating, 5 in person and one remotely. They hybrid event was hosted at Engineers Australia Building in Brisbane attended in person and online.

The high-quality presentations were judged on technical content, presentation skills and audience participation.

Congratulations to all who participated, and the results of the evening’s proceedings were as follows:

First Prize: Harrison Cusack, University of Queensland – The Effect of Training data Quantity on Monte Carlo Dropout Uncertainty un–Deep Learning

Runner Up: Ethan Waters, James Cook University – Sugarcane Health Monitoring and Ratoon Stunting Disease Detection with Freely Available Multispectral Satellite Data

Participation:

  1. Phuoc Nguyen, Queensland University of Technology – Distribution System State Estimation considering uncertainty data under LV network
  2. Stuart Purcival, Griffith University – Transformer Inrush Currents: Modelling and Sensitivity Analysis Using PLSCAD
  3. Matthew Armanasco, University of Southern Queensland – Rapid RD Human Biometric Authentication Using CSI
  4. Montana Dawson, Central Queensland University – Condition Monitoring Assessment of Stanwell Power Station’s Transformers

Special thanks to our IET University Prizes Committee Member, Mark Blundell, who has provided his time and effort to make this event a possible after the absence due to COVID.

                           

Date: 16 June 2022

The IET Queensland Local Network is co-hosting a Networking Event with our peer organisations to celebrate the achievements of the past year.
on 16 June at Customs House, Brisbane.

We have the pleasure to participate for this annual networking dinner for Queensland Branches of

  • Electrical Branch QLD
  • The Institution of Engineering and Technology - IET
  • The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - IEEE
  • The Information, Telecommunications, and Electronics Engineering College - ITEE
  • The Electric Energy Society of Australia - EESA