New UNSW scholarship for veterans

Military veterans are often overlooked in higher education but a new scholarship aims to change that.

UNSW is offering a new scholarship for military veterans. Picture: Alix Sweeney

In today’s Higher Ed Daily Brief: new UNSW scholarship, smart phones and wine

Scholarship for veterans

UNSW Canberra will use the Invictus Games, being held in Sydney in October, to launch a new scholarship scheme for military veterans. Michael Frater, rector of UNSW Canberra said that the scholarships would, “through the power of education, help support former Australian Defence Force personnel and their families make the journey from military to civilian life”.

Scholarship recipients will be able to do any undergraduate or postgraduate course at UNSW in either Canberra or Sydney. Professor Frater said the scholarships would also be available to dependants of veterans who were transitioning out of the military. “How much support (from the scholarships) depends on how much money we are able to raise,” he said.

Professor Frater said the purpose of the UNSW Veterans’ Scholarship was aligned to the values of the Invictus Games in which wounded, injured or sick military personnel and veterans compete.

Wine breakthrough

La Trobe University researchers have turned smart phones into devices which can measure the sulphur dioxide of wine “faster, cheaper and more accurately” than current methods.

Conor Hogan, from the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science said the device, called the ElecTrobe, uses electrodes connected to a disposable electrochemical test strip which are plugged into a phone’s audio jack.

“Once fully developed, the ElecTrobe will allow winemakers to dip a disposable test strip attached to their phone directly into their wine and with the push of a button get an accurate sulfites reading within a few seconds straight onto an app,” Associate Professor Hogan said.

His team is working on the device with the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre at Charles Sturt University. Centre director Leigh Schmidtke said the ElecTrobe had big benefits. “Testing for sulfur dioxide is a critical part of winemaking, but current methods are painfully slow, inaccurate or can be unreliable,” Professor Schmidtke said.