Faculty of Engineering at UNSW - Australia's top Faculty

The Faculty of Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) is Australia's pre-eminent engineering faculty, with a distinguished record in research, strong ties with industry and a reputation locally and internationally for quality education.
The Faculty is the largest in Australia with more than 600 academic teaching and research staff, over 8,000 students and annual revenue of approximately A$116 million. It ranks among the top engineering schools in Australia and offers the widest choice of disciplines in undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing education studies as well as research. Working closely with key industrial, commercial and professional organisations, we develop and deliver programs that are diverse and relevant to current industry needs. This ensures our graduates are always amongst the most highly sought after in the country.
Industry Collaboration
Collaboration with industry has always been intrinsic to the Faculty. A coordinated approach to education ensures that our graduates have a well-rounded skill set whether they are beginning their careers or are already in the marketplace. A strong collaborative partnership also aligns the work of engineering research students and industry, so that industry benefits from engineering innovation.
Recent industry collaborations include:

• Australia's first professorship in electricity power economics is a result of a UNSW-Energy Australia partnership. The Energy Australia Chair in Electrical Power Economics, based in the School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications, will focus on developing an understanding of future trading emissions schemes. The Chair will investigate innovative and sustainable infrastructure provision and regulation, taking into accounts the technical, economic, public policy and governance aspects.
• The Evans and Peck Chair for Integrated Transport Innovation will lead the new Research Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation (RCITI) in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The Centre will investigate sustainable approaches to transport infrastructure and operations, with extensive liaison with industry and the government.
• The Mitsubishi Chair in Sustainable Mining Practices, held by Associate Professor David Laurence, will lead the new Australian Centre for Sustainable Mining Practices based in the School of Mining Engineering. The Centre will be an international centre of excellence in sustainable mining research and education, with a particular focus on the Asia-Pacific region. It will provide education for local and international students at undergraduate and postgraduate level and for mining industry professionals.
• A Solar Industrial Research Facility (SIRF) is under construction in the upper UNSW campus. The facility features a state-of-the-art silicon solar cell production line with commercial capability built in partnership with Germany's Roth & Rau, and a Research and Development laboratory aimed at developing and transferring advanced solar cell technologies from the UNSW ARC Photovoltaic Centre of Excellence into commercial production.

The 2010 Australian Government's "Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA)" initiative found that UNSW reached the threshold on more areas of Information Technology (08) than any other Australian university.
An overall score of 4 ranked UNSW's research above the global average, however, the most telling part of the report is in the number of subcategories where UNSW is on par or above the global average - five for UNSW whereas the next highest university made par in only two. UNSW ranked in Computer Software, Distributed Computing and Library and Information studies, Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing, and Information Systems. UNSW was the only Australian University to make the rankings for Computer Software and Distributed Computing!
Funding Success
Ten Faculty of Engineering projects were successful in the latest round of Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage grants, which support collaborative research and development projects on industry-relevant problems. The research is varied and includes monitoring organic matter in drinking water systems using fluorescence spectroscopy, a multipoint voltage sensor for high-power distribution lines, and the economic value of smart integration of electric vehicles into the Australian electricity industry. Overall, the Faculty of Engineering grants totalled A$2.62 million.
UNSW has also been very successful in gaining funding from the Federal Government's Australian Solar Institute competitive funding pool, with an initial Foundation partner A$5 million grant (with ANU and CSIRO), followed by an associated A$4 million Applied Research Grant for work within the SIRF facility, and a further A$5 million Applied Grant for work with industry partners in Australia and China.