Information for students

The Faculty publishes a Course Guide at the beginning of each academic year, which is available from the Building 6 Student Centre. The Faculty's website provides current information on all aspects of the Faculty's news and operations:

Location, contacts and inquiries

The Faculty of Science is located in Building 4, City campus, Broadway. The Faculty Office is situated at CB04.4.48 and its residents are:

• Dean of Science
• Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning
• Associate Dean for Research and Development
• Director of Undergraduate Programs
• General Manager for Technical Services
• General Manager for Faculty Administration
• Research and Development Coordinator
• Faculty Academic Administration Unit.

All student inquiries should be directed to:

Departments and locations

The Faculty's courses are delivered through its five departments. Staff and postgraduate students of these departments conduct research in the Faculty's institutes and centres. The departments are as follows.

Department of Chemistry, Materials and Forensic Science

Department of Physics and Advanced Materials

Department of Mathematical Sciences

Department of Environmental Sciences

Department of Medical and Molecular Biosciences

Learning Resource and Study Centres

The Faculty of Science operates learning resource and study centres in each of chemistry, physics and mathematics/statistics. These are drop-in centres staffed by the relevant department where students from all faculties can go to get help with introductory subjects in these areas.

Although the emphasis is on the provision of help for first year subjects, sometimes assistance can be provided for later year subjects.

Further information about resources and timetabled sessions is available from:

Chemistry Learning Resources Centre

Physics Learning Centre

Mathematics Study and ICT Centre

Centres, institutes and units

Much of the Faculty's research is focused in the activities of several research centres, institutes and units. The Faculty also runs the UTS College of Traditional Chinese Medicine and administers two clinics.

Centres of Expertise

UTS Science is repositioning its relationship with the community, industry and government. Recently, it established five new technology hubs staffed with expert research scientists, experienced technical staff and equipped with world-class instrumentations in a new state-of-the-art building.

These five technology hubs form a network of niche platform technologies, cutting-edge expertise and advanced training and high-level services, managed in a way that makes them accessible to industry and the researcher community. They allow informal access to researchers, links with state and federal research and development schemes and access to world-class national infrastructure.

As such, UTS is inviting organisations to be stakeholders in these technology hubs in conjunction with the research institutes and groups they currently support.

These technology hubs are:

• Proteomics Technology Centre of Expertise
• Microstructural Analysis Unit
• Computational Research Support Unit
• Centre of Expertise in Chemical Technologies
• Centre of Expertise for the Environment.

The technology hubs are the arena where the Faculty interacts with industry in pursuit of leading-edge techniques, methodologies and capabilities. With this synergy, both will grow in their mutual areas of interests and research.

Further information is available from the technology hubs or:

Proteomics Technology Centre of Expertise

Proteomics describes the study of the complete set of proteins (proteome) that is expressed at a given time in a cell, tissue, organ or organism. Modern proteomics requires the integration of a wide range of protein analytical tools and information technologies, to quickly and reliably identify changes in proteins, e.g. altered proteomic states associated with disease.

The Proteomics Technology Centre of Expertise (PTCE) brings together leading technologies for sample preparation, protein separations, identification and characterisation. Through collaboration with the Computational Research Support Unit, the PTCE is developing new systems for electronic laboratory information management and bioinformatics.

The PTCE offers services and training in proteomics discovery technologies to Australian and international researchers from academia and industry. The Centre has particular expertise in experimental design, custom method development, sample preparation, complex mixture fractionation and protein separations.

Inquiries

Microstructural Analysis Unit

The Microstructural Analysis Unit (MAU) provides access to state-of-the-art materials characterisation instrumentation.

The Unit offers accredited training programs in electron microscopy and microanalysis, scanning probe microscopy techniques and X-ray analytical methods. The MAU currently has five scanning electron microscopes, four scanning probe microscopes, three X-ray diffractometers, an X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer and specialised specimen preparation facilities, as well as advanced printing and image analysis facilities.

All MAU equipment is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to all staff and students within the Faculty of Science. External user access is available on a full cost recovery basis. The MAU is located on Level 1, Building 4, on the corner of Thomas and Harris Streets at City campus.

Inquiries

Computational Research Support Unit

The Computational Research Support Unit (CRSU) was established in 2005 to assist researchers in the Faculty of Science to meet their computational needs in a context where e-research is playing an increasingly vital role.

CRSU aims to provide supports for research activities that are:

• data-intensive
• computer-intensive
• require computational modelling of a mathematical or statistical nature.

Currently, CRSU support activities include:

• advice on availability of software
• a reference point for advice on quantitative modelling
• local specialist infrastructure support
• local support for external computational services such as the peak regional and national facilities available respectively via the Australian Consortium for Advanced Computing and Communication (ac3) and the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) program of the Commonwealth Government's National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS)
• user education and training in specific tools, including expert training in scripting languages and software usage.

CRSU contributes collaboratively on a number of developments both locally and nationally. Some of these collaborations include the development of the national grid computing facilities through its participation in the Inter-operation and Collaboration Infrastructure component of NCRIS and the development of a new system for electronic laboratory information management and bioinformatics in collaboration with the Proteomics Technology Centre of Expertise.

Inquiries

Centre of Expertise in Chemical Technologies

The Centre of Expertise in Chemical Technologies (CECC) draws together the resources of several well-equipped laboratories, technical and research staff specialising in chemistry and materials science at the Faculty of Science. This technology hub is particularly focused on chemical and biochemical analysis, and materials technology.

CECC is equipped to produce and characterise a diverse range of inorganic and organic materials and is backed by a team of over 20 experienced technical staff and researchers. Specialities of this technology hub include the physical and mechanical characterisation of engineering materials and the chemical and physical characterisation of forensic and pharmaceutical samples.

CECC provides services to industry, researchers and the community in these specialised areas.

Inquiries

Centre of Expertise for the Environment

Worldwide, natural resources are being found to feed, clothe, house and fuel activity for over 6.5 billion of the world population every day, which is a huge consumption. Sustainability requires the environment be kept healthy enough to produce this level of use or more. How we action this will be the prime focus of environmental research in the decades to come.

UTS Science has unique research, training and technology development capability to understand the processes that maintain environmental health.

The Centre of Expertise for the Environment (CEE)'s goals are to promote, support and nurture environmental research expertise leading to the development of new capabilities, technologies and service solutions with a hope to fill some of the much needed information gaps.

Current CEE services include:

• rapid biodiversity assessment
• environmental monitoring, evaluation and reporting
• analysis of nutrients, soils and sediments
• contract research to solve a range of environmental challenges.

CEE also provides training, short course development and delivery, as a training facility for environmental research, facilitates links and partnerships with both public and private organisations and commercialisation activity. CEE is also a networking hub where the Faculty and industry interacts to exchange information and knowledge. Students have the opportunity to network with industry and researchers on recent research to enhance their knowledge.

Inquiries

Science Research Strengths and capabilities

The Faculty has a strong record of research and development, essential to facilitating quality postgraduate research programs. It wins a substantial proportion of the national competitive grants awarded to UTS annually. Competitive research funding is obtained across a wide range of areas of expertise in the fields of physical, chemical, forensic, earth and environmental, biological, biomedical and mathematical sciences. This funding is important to the direction and support of postgraduate research. The Faculty prides itself on research that engages the interest of industry and community partners, and produces outcomes of economic and social benefit.

Further information on the research interests of individual staff members can be found on departmental websites and the Faculty's website at:

The areas of greatest strength and concentration of research effort for the Faculty are marked by its institutes and centres. These form a substantial part of the recognised research strengths of UTS.

Institute for the Biotechnology of Infectious Diseases

The Institute for the Biotechnology of Infectious Diseases (IBID) is a research-intensive institute; a centre for learning, innovation and creativity that promotes the career development of its staff and students. Creating a critical mass is important for maintaining a scientifically-interactive and socially-active research community. IBID liaises with the Department of Medical and Molecular Biosciences at UTS Science to focus its teaching commitments, encourage research-orientated teaching (particularly in the laboratory), and raise its visibility to UTS students. In this way, IBID has become a lure for Honours students and, more particularly, postgraduate students.

IBID consists of research groups that have proven internationally-competitive records in the field of infectious diseases and in the application of their basic research to the treatment and prevention of these diseases. The Institute employs its nexus of basic and applied expertise in the following areas of research that hold the keys for interrupting the lifecycle of pathogens:

• pathogen diagnosis and identification (detection)
• pathogen transmission (transmission)
• pathogen survival and development (infection)
• immunity to pathogens (immunity)
• control methods for pathogens (treatment).

Further information is available from:

Institute for Nanoscale Technology and Mesoscale Optical Technologies research strength

UTS Science has strong research activity in the interaction of light with nano- and microscale structures, which is one of the University's research strengths. In 2006, the Mesoscale Optical Technologies research strength joined with the Institute for Nanoscale Technology (INT) to achieve greater outcomes.

Key elements of the Institute's activities span across the Department of Physics and Advanced Materials and the Department of Mathematical Sciences. They include:

• a coherent program of investigation into the optical properties of the metamaterials and meso- and microscale structures produced when materials of quite different properties are assembled into organised composite structures
• the UTS node of the Centre for Ultrahigh-bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence spanning five universities, with the aim to develop the experimental and theoretical expertise to design and build linear and non-linear all-optical signal processing devices that will lead to the 'photonic chip', the building block of next generation of communication systems.

The group's research work revolves mainly around:

• modelling and fundamental understanding of optical, chemical, electrical and structural phenomena at optical and sub-optical wavelengths
• technological development and exploitation of these phenomena to achieve useful results in the communications, architectural and biomedical industries.

The team has successfully developed a range of efficient analytical and numerical algorithms for a number of important situations and is internationally recognised for the development and application of semi-analytic methods based on multiple techniques, bloch mode techniques and Green's function methods.

Within this group, there is also substantial expertise in computational electromagnetic techniques, particularly the finite element and finite difference time domain methods. Part of the focus of this group is in the design and study of the fundamental physics of photonic crystal devices, micro-structured optical fibres, radiation dynamics of photonic crystal clusters, localisation in random structures, optical biomimetics, plasmon resonances, sensing applications, plasmonic heating and light scattering.

Another area of interest that this group is currently working on is the development of 'smart' and energy-efficient coatings for windows. Coatings with enhanced spectral selectivity, angular selectivity or thermochromic switching are also being studied.

Given the extensive amount of work this group has carried out in this particular area, a well-developed program to create the necessary molecules or nanoparticles required in these systems has been put in place. Promising results have been achieved with various coatings based on precious metal nanoparticles or compounds, and the study of the nanotechnological applications of gold and silver are now a speciality of this group.

The aim of this group is to produce graduates with the necessary skills to sustain a vibrant industry. As such, the group ensures that their works are closely tied in with the Faculty's undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum.

Further information is available from:

Institute for Water and Environmental Resource Management

UTS Sustainability (UTS:S) research is undertaken by individuals in multidisciplinary research teams, with two core interacting focus areas: sustainable environments and sustainable futures. Two institutes lead the focus areas: the Institute for Water and Environmental Resource Management (IWERM) and the Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF). The mission of UTS:S is to catalyse change towards sustainable futures and its objectives are to undertake quality research and research training; optimise the relevance of research outcomes; develop and maintain partnerships with government, industry and community; foster public debate; and build a sustainable workplace.

The scope of IWERM research is catchment to coast and the focus is sustainable environments – balancing resource use and protection. There are four research programs, three of which are in the business knowledge generation: Catchment Processes, Coastal Processes and Urban Processes that feed into the fourth program which is Integrated Environmental Management Solutions that focuses on knowledge transfer and application (generating the tools to move from research quality to research impact). Each program liaises with a UTS research partnership: Catchment Processes with the Cotton Catchment Communities Cooperative Research Centre; Coastal Processes with the Sydney Institute for Marine Science; Urban Processes with the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Quality Treatment and Water Quality Research Australia Limited, and ICM solutions with the Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment.

IWERM's goal is to use research engagement and results to make an effective contribution to sustainable catchment and coastal management at local, state and federal levels; and to develop an international reputation for focused research excellence in an integrated, applied context. Research end-users are mainly in the domains of natural resource management and protection (Catchment Management Authorities, local, state and government departments and agencies) or natural resource use (industry and domestic). In this Australian context, meaningful communication between discipline specialists, users, communities and resource managers is not the norm. Therefore, IWERM aims to maintain focused, excellent research specialists, connected by collaborative research and knowledge management so that research results are communicated and adopted.

Further information is available from:

Centre in Health Technologies

The Health Technologies research team brings together complementary interdisciplinary research skills unique in Australia in the development of innovative medical devices and biotechnology processes for health technology applications. The focus of the group is on the study of health and disease processes and the development of new medical devices and advanced biotechnology applications for early detection, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of lifestyle diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, neurological disorder and cancer.

The strategic direction of this research cluster mirrors the strategic direction of the Australian biomedical and biotechnology industry which is based both on a biomedical device platform and an exciting biotechnology science focus. The Centre's innovative medical device technologies and biotechnology/biopharmaceutical research programs are currently at the cutting edge of biomedical engineering and biotechnology science and moving at a very fast pace. The Centre has already developed several significant biomedical devices and advanced biotechnology processes, each of these has already created a strong impact and presents an outstanding potential to contribute to national and international markets.

Further information is available from:

Centre for Forensic Science

The Centre for Forensic Science commenced its operations in 2002 and became a University Research Centre in 2007 (formally recognised as a University's research strength).

The Centre aims to provide high-calibre research, high-quality education, enhancement of professional practice and independent services for the benefit of the community. It brings together world-class academics with different expertise but with a common vision, that is the prevention and solving of crime and terrorism.

Forensic Science at UTS is presented as a multidisciplinary methodology applied within a scientific, legal and political structure. One of the prime objectives for the Centre is to develop new investigative techniques and also to demonstrate their significance within the legal system and to communicate their meaning to juries and society in general, thus making this Centre unique, as it is one of a kind and the only one in Australian universities.

This Centre serves local and national law enforcement agencies, security agencies and the community at large in the application of scientific principles, methods of administration and enforcement of the law.

The Centre capitalises on the well-established UTS forensic programs and organises short courses and professional seminars for law enforcement agencies, forensic organisations and practitioners, insurance companies, legal firms and various research institutes.

It has research programs in the areas of fingerprints, questioned documents, trace evidence, fire investigation and analysis, illicit drugs, toxicology, DNA profiling, materials and engineering, statistics and data handling, and artificial neural networks applied to forensic classification.

The Centre also offers an independent investigative and consulting service through the UTS commercial company accessUTS Pty Limited.

Further information is available from:

Health Psychology Unit

The Health Psychology Unit is based at Royal North Shore Hospital and focuses on adolescent mental health. In-house and outreach programs are conducted with young people aged 12-24 years experiencing anger, anxiety, depression and stress-related problems. The Unit conducts special programs for young people with serious mental illness in centres run by the NSW Department of Education and Training. All programs are based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), an evidence-based psychological intervention. Programs are evaluated and findings contribute to worldwide knowledge in adolescent mental health. The Unit provides seminars for the community on mental health issues and produces a range of books and articles on mental health for the general and scientific community. The Unit is funded by public donations and corporate sponsorship.

Further information is available from:

UTS College of Traditional Chinese Medicine

The UTS College of Acupuncture was established in 1994 and founded on 25 years of experience and educational expertise of Acupuncture Colleges (Australia). The College was renamed the UTS College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1995.

Currently, it offers an undergraduate degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Postgraduate studies leading to a Master of Science or PhD by research are also available. Practitioners wishing to extend their existing knowledge of TCM or clinical practice should consider postgraduate studies.

Students enrolling in the Bachelor of Health Science in Traditional Chinese Medicine (C10186) are also eligible to apply for the combined degree of Bachelor of Health Science in Traditional Chinese Medicine Bachelor of Arts in International Studies (China major) (C10164). Students are selected for this program on academic merit and commence the double degree in their third year. The combined degree allows students to spend a year in China, learning Chinese language and culture.

The Faculty also administers a TCM outpatient clinic in Building 4, Harris Street, City campus. The clinic is staffed by practitioners and student interns and is key to the clinical education program. The clinic provides acupuncture, Chinese remedial massage (tuina) and Chinese herbal medicine services directly to the community.

It is strongly recommended that students enrolling in any traditional Chinese medicine degrees read the code of conduct for students at:

Further information is available from:

Centre for Ecotoxicology

The Centre for Ecotoxicology is a joint enterprise of UTS and the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change (DEC). The aims of the Centre are to promote education, research and knowledge transfer in the field of ecotoxicology.

The focus on ecotoxicology has arisen as a result of the dependence of modern society on the use of chemicals. The study of the impact of chemicals and mixed effluents on communities in affected areas are key research areas conducted by the Centres, namely:

• on the effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals, which is of particular importance as we move towards water recycling and re-use
• on the effects of pollution on groundwater fauna
• conducting a more environmentally realistic risk assessments of multiple pollutants in rivers.

The Centre coordinates research programs at Honours, Master's and Doctoral levels. Teaching and research supervision involves a collaboration of both UTS and DEC staff. Research work of the Centre involves consultation with industry and government in identifying areas in which investigation is needed on the impact of chemicals on native flora and fauna under Australian climatic and other environmental conditions. The University arm also offers an independent investigative and testing service for industry through the UTS commercial company accessUTS Pty Limited.

Links with industry

In the development of all its courses the Faculty is assisted by appropriate advisory committees with members drawn from the wider community. The courses are regularly reviewed to ensure currency and relevance to industrial and commercial practice.

The Faculty has strong links with industry through its academic staff who maintain contact with industry by undertaking appropriate research and consulting activities and through the Centres of Expertise. Undergraduate students have the option of spending an additional 12 months working in a relevant industry, leading to award of the Diploma in Scientific Practice (C20038). The Faculty provides assistance to students in finding these professional experience positions.

Subject prerequisites, corequisites, antirequisites

While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the prerequisite, corequiste and antirequisite data in subject descriptions, students should check with their Course Directors if they intend to enrol in subjects in a different sequence to the typical course program shown in the Handbook.

Bridging and short courses

Short intensive Bridging courses designed for students about to enter a degree are offered in January and February each year. These courses teach to an introductory level only and assist in bridging the gap between school and university study. Subjects include Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics. Other short courses are available, subject to demand.

Further information is available from: