Cheered on by the Prime Minister The Hon Malcolm Turnbull and Vice-Chancellor Professor S Bruce Dowton, more than 1000 students from around the Asia Pacific recently put their skills to the test at Australia’s largest student robotics competition.

Supported by industry leaders, educators, families and fans, and united by a mutual love of science, technology, and engineering, nearly 50 high school student teams from the United States, Singapore, Taiwan, China, India, and Australia converged at the Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre on 17-19 March to launch robots they’d designed, built and programmed themselves over a six week period.

The 2016 ‘Stronghold’ challenge had a medieval theme that required the robots to overcome obstacles and weaken their opponents’ defences by catapulting ‘boulders’  to conquer their castle tower.

Much more than just a game for robots, the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), is part of a much larger FIRST^® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) program aimed at inspiring and educating students in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths), and encouraging them to consider further study or career options in these fields.

Joined on the sidelines by Foreign Minister The Hon Julie Bishop, and the Member for Reid The Hon Craig Laundy MP, Prime Minister Turnbull said they were excited to visit the event and to be so inspired by such brilliant young minds.

“They’re right here at the cutting edge of technology; the technology that delivers jobs, the opportunities of the 21^st century for our children and our grandchildren.”

The winning team alliance will compete at the world championships in St Louis in April; an honour which was collaboratively achieved by Team 3132 Macquarie University, Team 4613 Barker College and Team 6035 Ulladulla.

Team 6035 was supported by Robots in the Outback – a program which Macquarie University proudly partners in. Volunteer mentors drove donated cars to 12 high schools in rural and regional New South Wales to support teams with expertise and guidance in order to help them compete.

Take a look at some of the social media highlights from the event below.

The implementation process is well under way (some staff have already have been contacted to assist). The Ergo team have commenced management of all new requirements from today, Monday 14 March.

If you have a project you would like to discuss now, please contact Ergo for assistance. Please complete, reconcile and close all current projects with incumbent suppliers. Orders placed via Printerface will continue, Printerface has been redirected to Ergo.

There will be several process changes involved, and some training sessions have already been scheduled for print buyers. If you need assistance, contact the Print Production Manager and he will help you every step of the way.

Contact details
Martin Kennedy
Print Production Manager
Ph: 9850 6305
Email:martin.kennedy@ergoasia.com
Address: Group Marketing, Level 2 BD Building, 4 Research Park Drive, Macquarie University

What is a production manager/what does a production manager do?
The Ergo Print Management Centre (PMC) will be responsible for procurement and process management for all print and related activities from brief to delivery. This initiative is designed to deliver a single streamlined process which will increase efficiency, improve production standards and reduce total costs. Digital print and other on-demand requests will continue to be enabled through the Printerface technology in place today. Ergo will provide management and oversight of both requirements noted above.

Ergo will have an established panel of suppliers that have a proven history of delivering quality production at a competitive price within the lead times requested. Upon receiving a job request the production manager will assess the job requirements (be it quick turnaround, superior quality print, reduced costs etc) and will then contact the suppliers on the panel that are most capable of producing the job required.

Why was an independent print manager the solution?
Macquarie is joining the majority of government departments, educational institutions and multi-national companies who use an independent marketing production management solution to leverage their spend. It is a widely used and accepted model for obtaining greater efficiency and cost savings and for achieving better control of an organisations brand.

Who do I contact if I have further questions?
Contact Martin Kennedy, Print Production Manager – Ergo on ext 6305 or email: martin.kennedy@ergoasia.com or alternatively Fiona Rooney, Manager Marketing Services: fiona.rooney@mq.edu.au who will be happy to help with your query.

We know you will be keen to find out more about this stage of the project, so all staff are inviting to a series of information sessions where the next stages of the process will be explained – and have your questions answered.

Learn more about:

• project activities and timeline
• the methodology to be used
• the staff and student consultation process
• what features you might expect in the new staff and student websites.

When: Friday 27 November and Friday 11 December
Time: From 3pm
Where: E6A, 102

Registration is not required.

I would just like to express my appreciation to the University for providing such a comprehensive program of information and training to support this change. I think it will certainly benefit the organisation in the long run by giving staff the opportunity to learn the skills needed and become comfortable with them, so we are ready for the changeover and don’t have to upskill ‘on the run’. Many thanks.

Register for training now 

Ben shares his thoughts on how Office 365 can change the way you work and organise your time, plus tips on how to prepare for migration day.

Macquarie will move from Google Mail to Office 365 on 14 December. What does this mean?
Firstly, instead of using Gmail for email and calendars we’ll be using the equivalent Microsoft product. You’ll be able to interact with email through Office 365 and have access to a range of other software and applications. Each faculty / department will have the ability to review and decide how the other Office365 applications will fit their requirements. They can continue using Google Docs or Sheets or make the transition to Microsoft Word online or Excel online.

So what is Office 365?
It’s a suite of applications and services – such as Outlook – that Microsoft provides on the cloud. The product is web browser based and is very similar to the traditional desktop versions, however adds numerous benefits by being on the cloud.

For example, with Office 365 you won’t just be getting an email and calendar service. You’ll be getting that and a suite of applications. In the future, many other applications will be developed and added into Office 365 through a Marketplace / App store. These services are being updated regularly by Microsoft and are accessible on different devices from multiple locations.

A common question asked during training sessions: How will Office 365 work on day one?
The experience you’ll have on Monday 14 December will be similar to the one you have at the moment. The Outlook Web Access client will provide a similar experience to what you have in Gmail. You’ll be able to send, receive, and forward emails, book meetings and work with contacts.

Get ready for Office 365 by:

• attending a training session
• visiting the FAQ page
• talking to your local Office 365 ambassador.

“Our international reputation is built upon the excellence of the research undertaken by our highly committed and talented researchers across a broad spectrum of research activity,” says Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Sakkie Pretorius. “The night was a true showcase of the outstanding research and innovation being undertaken at Macquarie.”

The 2015 Research Awards were this year aligned with our five Future-shaping Research Priorities which were developed as a means to support the University’s current and emerging areas of disciplinary research strength with the significant challenges of today and tomorrow.

“Their breadth and local, national and global relevance offer researchers a considerable level of stability over the next 10 years. Each recognises the world-leading research with world-changing impact undertaken across the range of disciplines by researchers at Macquarie,” says Sakkie.

The Awards also honoured Excellence in Higher Degree Research, Excellence in Higher Degree Research Supervision, Early Career Research and Excellence in Research Leadership.

Congratulations to six staff, recognised with Excellence in Research – Five Future-Shaping Research Priorities Awards

Professor Jennifer Hudson
Healthy people: Improving emotional health
ARC Future Fellow and Centre for Emotional Health Director Professor Jennifer Hudson is working to stamp out childhood anxiety. Through international collaboration with more than 15 different institutions and anxiety clinics from around the world, the team is able to create tailored, individualised treatment for children with anxiety disorders. “If we can improve the emotional health of young people, then we can have an impact on individuals across their lifespan – improving their life satisfaction, their happiness and their emotional health,” she says.

Professor Wendy Rogers
Resilient societies: Supporting surgical innovation
ARC Future Fellow Professor Wendy Rogers is on a mission to make surgery safer for patients around the world. Her team developed the Macquarie Surgery Innovation Identification Tool (MSIIT), a questionnaire that identifies how much a surgical intervention differs from usual practice. If it meets a certain threshold, the tool triggers support to make it safer for the patient. “My grand plan is to use the conceptual tools from moral philosophy and ethics to identify and understand practical issues in healthcare and to try to resolve them in ways that make healthcare safer and better for people,” she says.

Professor Stefan Trueck
Prosperous economies: Modelling electricity prices
Centre for Financial Risk Co-director Professor Stefan Trueck wants to keep utility prices reasonable in Australia. He creates statistical or econometrical models to forecast the price behaviour of electricity. This is particularly important for large customers such as retailers who buy electricity on exchange and could be at risk with extreme price fluctuations. His models help hedge those risks. “I want to do things that help people, that help the economy and help financial markets to achieve better outcomes,” he says.

Associate Professor Brian Atwell
Secure planet: Improving our crops
Associate Professor Brian Atwell wants to feed the planet. Conservative estimates show that the Earth’s temperature will rise on average 0.9 degrees Celsius over the next century, which could mean disaster for plants that are highly sensitive to their environment. Atwell’s team has found a gene in heat-tolerant rices in northern Australia that allows photosynthesis at higher temperatures, enabling higher productivity of the plant. “There will be a group of people who have an open mind about using wild plants in Australia to try to improve the 15 or 20 major foods that feed almost everybody on this planet,” he says.

Professor Nicolle Packer
Innovative technologies: Understanding disease
Professor Nicolle Packer is helping in the fight against every disease in humans. Data from all over the world come together in her team’s project, UniCarbKB, to understand how sugars attach to the surface of cells and interact to bring about diseases. With the innovative technologies and the informatics needed to analyse data, the project makes it possible to develop new targets and diagnostics for these diseases. “I truly believe these molecules are important in the way our bodies function and how they stop functioning,” she says. “As one of my post-docs has said to me, ‘It’s all about sugars. It always was and always will be.’”

Professor David Raftos
Innovative technologies: Safeguarding our oyster industry
Professor David Raftos is working to future-proof Australia’s oyster industry. Besides being New South Wales’ largest aquaculture industry, oysters are instrumental in forming estuarine ecosystems such as that in Sydney Harbour and the Hawkesbury River. Working with the Australian oyster industry, Raftos’ team discovered a set of genes in oysters that allows them to survive disease and tolerate environmental changes. “So far our results are remarkable,” he says. “In just a single generation of breeding using this new technology, we’ve had a 30 per cent improvement in the number of oysters that survive disease outbreaks.”

See the full playlist of videos online, including those highly commended in these award categories.

Distinguished Professor Award: Seven of our academic finest bestowed with a mark of distinction

Also announced during the 2015 Research Excellence Awards, the Distinguished Professor award is the highest academic honour Macquarie can bestow on a member of our academic community, recognising professors who have made an outstanding contribution to their field of scholarship or discipline and to the University.

Seven staff will carry this title in 2016, including six renominated from the first cohort awarded in 2010.

The six continuing recipients of the 2015 Macquarie University Distinguished Professor Award are:

• Professor Mark Westoby, Faculty of Science and Engineering
• Professor Naguib Kanawati, Faculty of Arts
• Professor Sue O’Reilly, Faculty of Science and Engineering
• Professor David Throsby, Faculty of Business and Economics
• Professor Stephen Crain, Faculty of Human Sciences
• Professor Ronald Rapee, Faculty of Human Sciences

Newly nominated in 2015:

• Professor James Guthrie, Faculty of Business and Economics

Congratulations to all our award winners.

Read about our Early Career Research and Higher Degree Research Award winners.

Since the site’s launch, the homepage has seen a 34 per cent increase in unique visitors, equating to approximately 138,000 visitors in just two weeks.

To coincide with the launch, our staff and student communities had the chance to take part in an online treasure hunt, to explore the site for the chance to win one of ten $100 Lonely Planet vouchers.

The final part of the treasure hunt asked entrants to ‘tell us how YOU think Macquarie is pioneering minds of the future’ and the responses received revealed our community is highly engaged with the work we are achieving together. A focus on PACE, GLP, our exchange programs and Macquarie’s innovative nature was the theme of many submissions, along with shout outs to impressive programs and areas of study, like Big History, and the many and varied opportunities our University has to offer.

From the several hundred entries received, our staff and student winners are:

• Mark Berlage
• Leslie Braganza
• Yolanda Fitzhenry
• Lara Hardy
• Julia Jelbart
• Thomas Lyons
• Angela Mao
• Georgina Rullis
• Philippa Sutton
• Joshua Wilde

Congratulations to our winners, and thank you to all who participated.

Our new public website is always changing, with dynamic imagery, stories and educational opportunities. Haven’t checked out the new mq.edu.au yet? It’s not too late to start exploring!

Actions speak louder than words: Get testing on our new staff and student portals and be rewarded for your time!

And now following the success of our public website launch, you have the opportunity to provide input into the development of our staff and student portals.

Sign up now to get involved.

“Since work on our new site began last year, considerable time and effort has been invested to create a world-class user experience,” says Professor David Wilkinson, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Corporate Engagement and Advancement). “Every element of our new site has been carefully considered and was designed based on extensive consultation with our key audiences.

David adds the site is fully optimised for mobile devices and provides a consistent experience for our audiences regardless of the technology they use to access it.

For staff well versed with our old site, the changes are significant.

“When you first enter you’ll immediately notice several key differences. Aside from the reduction of more than 10,000 pages, the new design is dramatically streamlined, removing unnecessary barriers for our audience to find the information they’re looking for,” says David.

The site makes use of dramatic and engaging imagery to visually tell our story, and its navigation has been vastly improved, with an enhanced focus on the user experience. The site’s search functionality has also been upgraded to further improve our audience’s ability to find what they’re looking for.

How to access the Library, student, and staff sites

For those who regularly access the staff and student facing websites, access can be found by clicking on the ‘hamburger’ icon on the top right hand side of the navigation bar.

Staff who use the public website on a daily basis as part of their job, are advised to familiarise themselves with the new locations of their content, and pages they regularly access.

Bookmarks
For staff who use bookmarks, it is recommended you delete them from your browser, find the page again, and re-bookmark the page as some pages may have moved resulting from the new navigational structure.

Explore the new site for your chance to win
To celebrate this milestone, all members of the Macquarie community have the opportunity to take part in an online treasure hunt for the chance to win one of 10 $100 Lonely Planet vouchers.

Find ‘The Macquarie Story’ to begin your journey…

The Web Transformation Project team extends a tremendous ‘thank you’ to everyone working on the project. Prioritisation should now be on ensuring the quality of the existing pages – spelling, links, images and SEO all need to be of the highest quality.

Staff with edit privileges can continue to access the build site. Login with your OneID login and password.

Focus on quality is a high priority
With only four days left, the focus should now be on delivering high quality pages (correct spelling, correct grammar, no broken links) rather than bulk quantity.

SiteImprove
Access to SiteImprove is available to assist in the quality checking of pages on the build site. This tool allows users to run reports revealing broken links, misspelling and accessibility compliance. Contact web.project@mq.edu.au to find out more and gain access if you don’t already have a login.​

Build site availability this week
Please note the build site will have limited access (7am to 4pm Tuesday to Friday ONLY). For the really keen, the site is available all day Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October.

News and events systems will remain open 24/7 until launch.

Only on campus
The website can only be edited on campus or by using the University VPN.

Video self-training
Squiz CMS video training is available online.

Metadata update
It’s critically important to update the status of pages in the metadata ahead of the launch. For more details, please refer to the Content Maintenance Guide.

Need help?
After the launch, support will be available via the OneHelp system. Please first check the issues found log to see if your issue already has a fix.

This site will remain open for editing and checking until 4pm Friday 9 October.

Access
Staff with edit privileges can access the new website at http://mq-public.clients.squiz.net/

Login with your OneID login and password to access.

Access issues
If you experience a 403 error, click this link and email the IP address displayed to web.project@mq.edu.au

If you experience other types of login issues, first try accessing the website via http://mq-public.clients.squiz.net/_nocache. If this still doesn’t work, email web.project@mq.edu.au

Windows of unavailability
Access to the build site will be unavailable between 4pm to 7am from Tuesday 6 October to Friday 9 October.

This will allow for additional technical work before go live.

Contact the Web Transformation Project team at web.project@mq.edu.au if these times present issues.

Quality checking
Significant work has already been completed on quality checking pages in preparation for go live on Monday 12 October, and for this, we are most appreciative. We can only publish complete sections of the website once we are certain the content and layouts are of high quality. In these last few days, we ask this work is prioritised to complete these tasks.

Updating page status
It’s important the status of pages is updated regularly as reports are run on the percentage completed in the build site.

• New pages: Please update the status of these pages (marked as blue rows) on the content mapping spreadsheet.
• Existing/migrated pages: Please update the status of these pages within the metadata, under the heading ‘administrative’. There are three check boxes, please select the relevant ones.

Templates
All templates and widgets have now been applied to the project build site and are available for use. There’s a plan for which template to apply to each page, so please work with us on the implementation. Refer to the Content Maintenance Guide for more information on how to utilise them.

Images
Imagery was always a big consideration for the new website design. The simple sand-coloured header design prevalent on many of the page designs was deliberate and encourages the use of great imagery to help tell the story on each page.

When checking your pages:

• did images on your pages migrate successfully?
• have your images been loaded to the correct dimensions to take full advantage of the new page designs? Please refer to The Content Maintenance Guide for the right dimensions
• are there more up-to-date or alternative image options available? Cumulus is updated almost daily with a great selection of new images from across the University.

News and events
The current WordPress sites will soon be connected to the public website build site. Training on how to use the news and events plugins will be available.

Please contact web.project@mq.edu.au if you require training.

URL redirects
If there are pages in the existing website which links to pages found in the new public website, URL redirects will need to be updated. Please refer to the content mapping spreadsheet on the tab ‘URL redirects’ and include all requested information.

Complete the updates in the spreadsheet by COB Wednesday 30 September to avoid having to do this manually yourself.

For anyone who has completed Squiz edit+ training, your login and password details are the same as your OneID.

The focus of the project remains on checking if content has migrated successfully, making changes if required, and delivering new pages as required.

Information for Faculties
All faculties have specific plans in place for this project. Faculty staff are urged to coordinate with their faculty marketing teams for direction and advice.

Good news
Templates for the website are now being delivered earlier on 24 September to provide more time to access and update any content in these new templates.

This early delivery means work in the skeleton site must now be completed by COB Monday 21 September.

Content freeze
A content freeze will apply from COB 21 September until 24 September. The site will then open again to complete any residual updates in the new templates from 24 September.

Still need to check your content? View your pages now.

View-only login details: username: mqdemo; password: W3lc0me

Read more on how to check your content.

Three important considerations
1. Pages can be migrated to the new site after the launch on Monday 12 October.

2. Pages not migrated will not be deleted and will still remain live and accessible.

3. Staff are reminded the current focus of work is on public facing pages only and not those related to staff and student sites.

Information sessions
These sessions will provide staff with progress updates, answers to stakeholder questions and reminders of critical timelines.

Dates: 15 September, 29 September and 13 October
Time: 4pm
Where: T1, Building W5A

Registration not required, however you can submit your questions to web.project@mq.edu.au

For more information contact the Web Transformation Project team at web.project@mq.edu.au

Survey reminder: Tell us how you use our staff website
You’re invited to take part in a short survey on how you use our website on a daily basis. Your feedback will help shape the navigation and design of staff.mq.edu.au

Take the survey now.