Foreword

Welcome to the 2005 issue of the University of Tasmania’s undergraduate journal: Nexus!

May I take this opportunity to congratulate each and every author whose work appears here — and thank each unit mentor for their work in aiding and encouraging their students.

The fields of Science, Engineering and Technology require professionals to logically investigate issues from an informed position, critically analyse and formulate theories, test those theories (often experimentally), and release the theories to peers and to the public at large for scrutiny and adoption. Students cannot succeed as professionals if these skills are not obtained and if the processes are not well understood.

Nexus serves to emphasise the symbiotic relationship of the endeavours of research and those of learning and teaching. This is done by illustrating the inclusion of research material in undergraduate classes at the University of Tasmania, and by capturing the transition from student to professional through the transition of study into research and publication.

Nexus aims to showcase the high standard of work undertaken by undergraduate students in the broad disciplines of science, engineering, and technology. I am pleased to see a paper from the vast majority of schools within the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology as well as one from the School of Human Life Sciences from the Faculty of Health Sciences.

I commend this journal to you and am proud to financially support its production. The University of Tasmania is a research-led institution that prides itself in the quality of its teaching: it is the natural place to study in Australia.

I look forward to the next issue of Nexus in 2006 with immense interest.

Professor Jim Reid
Dean, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology
University of Tasmania