School of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences

It is an honour and a privilege to be Head of the School of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, operating at both Melbourne and Bendigo campuses. Although we are one of the largest and most diverse schools in the university, our disciplines share a common grounding in mathematics and a common interest in developing new and useful technologies.

Most of the good things that should be happening in a university are already happening or about to happen in SEMS. In particular, our academic staff originate from many other nations as well as Australia, and they welcome overseas students. Whether you are a prospective, current or past student, an industry partner, an academic colleague or a member of our broader community, I encourage you to look at our departmental web pages.

If your work involves engineering or mathematical sciences, you may wish to give a guest lecture to some students, to offer some specialist equipment on short-term loan, to host a site-visit at your workplace, to suggest a group project for undergraduates or to sponsor all or part of a prize, scholarship or graduate internship.

The School’s research philosophy reflects La Trobe University’s core objective of meeting the needs of the Australian community. Our work also has a broader international reach, attracting many overseas collaborators. The School seeks to create and maintain an academically rich and culturally diverse research community that meets the highest international standards.

Our condensed matter physics group, which has interests in nanotechnology, surface structure and synchrotron beam probes, was one of only two in Australia to receive the top performance rating, “well above world standard”, by the Australian Research Council. Our applied mathematics group, which has been awarded some of the very largest national grants in mathematics, was rated “at world standard”.

View our Department research pages to see all our other research strengths.

The School is the major contributor to a number of undergraduate degree programs and postgraduate programs, and we have a proud reputation of paying close attention to the progress of all students.

Mathematics and statistics

Our mathematics major program has consistently been rated among the top two nationally by graduate exit surveys on overall satisfaction, and our statistics program is the only one in Victoria to be accredited by the Statistical Society of Australia Inc. Several of our mathematics staff have received national or University-wide honours for good teaching. Find out more.

Physics

Our undergraduate Physics and Nanotechnology programs have been redesigned as laboratory-based, in the style of major US universities. A special feature is the Nanoscience Virtual Laboratory where students have remote access to a beam line at the Australian Synchotron. The Department's groundbreaking freely available course "Principles of physics" has been an ITunes hit, with over 4 million downloads. Find out more.

Engineering

All of our engineering programs are accredited by Engineers Australia. Our Bendigo-based Civil Engineering Program has widespread support from local communities and employers in the form of industry scholarships. Our students continue to win a number of different awards in many areas of engineering. Find out more:

• Civil engineering
• Electronic engineering

Computer technology

Our third-year students in computer science, computer engineering and information technology, work on industry-sponsored group projects, gaining valuable experience in project management and in written and verbal progress reports to clients. Three times, one of the student groups has been the sole state winner of the state IAward by the Australian Information Industry Association. Find out more.