We steered a laser beam through atmospheric turbulence to show how this technology could benefit fundamental science and spacecraft communications. Light can carry a lot more information than radio waves can. The bandwidth (data rate) of a transmission is limited by the frequency of that transmission. This is the main difference between 4G and 5G … Continue reading Shake it off: taking the twinkle out of a laser beam
Tag: innovation
Optical phased arrays are a way to construct a really powerful laser beam, and steer it precisely without mirrors or lenses. Making an optical phased array that can steer millions of times per second would be a huge boon to systems like LIDAR for autonomous cars. But to make something move that fast, you need … Continue reading Fast steering optical phased array: how to trick a control system
2018 has been declared the Year of Engineering in the UK and this week is National Engineers Week in the U.S. (Australian Engineering Week is coming in August.) Around the world engineers and educators will be using these events to bring the important contributions that engineers make to our society to public attention, and encourage … Continue reading Rock Star Engineers
We Australians excel at remembering and celebrating our sporting heroes, from cricketers to particularly successful race horses, but are not so good at celebrating the great people who helped build our civilization, particularly when those builders are Australian. Today, I want to celebrate the birthday of an Australian aviation pioneer, Lawrence Hargrave. Aviation Pioneer Lawrence … Continue reading Great Australians — Lawrence Hargrave
This post was originally published by Australia's Science Channel on 29th July 2016 but was removed when the website was updated. David Gozzard is a PhD student who has found himself on an interesting journey to remote Australia. In this blog, he shares some of the fun work he's been up to! When I started my PhD in … Continue reading Radio Telescope on Track
This post is a modified version of a World Metrology Day article I wrote for Australia's Science Channel. Saturday 20th May is World Metrology Day. I’m not surprised if you hadn’t heard of it. I was three years in to a PhD in metrology before I found out we had a day for it. Metrology … Continue reading Measuring Up for World Metrology Day
We Australians excel at remembering and celebrating our sporting heroes, from cricketers to particularly successful race horses, but are not so good at celebrating the great people who helped build our civilization, particularly when those builders are Australian. Today, I want to celebrate the birthday of a revolutionary Australian engineer, A. G. M. Michell. … Continue reading Great Australians — Anthony Michell
Unless you live under a rock, the announcement in February of this year of the detection of Gravitational Waves by LIGO cannot have escaped your attention. Scientists around the world celebrated the achievement, and public curiosity about what all the scientists were yelling about was high enough that the world’s media ran the story for … Continue reading What the Detection of Gravitational Waves Means
Stop telling me to "get a real job": PhDs drive economic growth, as well as the progress of human knowledge As a PhD student, questions I am often asked very shortly after “What do you do for a living?” include “What’s the point of that?” and “So when are you going to get a real … Continue reading The Value of a PhD
A lesson in innovation from the Wright Brothers The Australian government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda webpage asserts: “Innovation is at the heart of a strong economy — from IT to healthcare, defence and transport—it keeps us competitive, at the cutting edge, creates jobs and maintains our high standard of living.” This recent article from … Continue reading The Wright Stuff
David Gozzard 