Monash University Handbook 2010

Structure and organisation of the faculty - Faculty of Engineering

Faculty structure

The Faculty of Engineering operates on the Clayton campus in Australia and on the Sunway campus in Malaysia. It also offers an undergraduate degree in civil and environmental engineering and graduate coursework programs in maintenance and reliability engineering through the School of Applied Sciences and Engineering at the Gippsland campus. The faculty comprises the following departments and schools:

• Division of Biological Engineering
• Department of Chemical Engineering
• Department of Civil Engineering
• Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering
• Department of Materials Engineering
• Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• School of Applied Sciences and Engineering, Gippsland
• School of Engineering, Malaysia.

Teaching and research strengths

In addition to undergraduate degrees in five major branches, the faculty offers:

• four year undergraduate programs in aerospace engineering, computer systems engineering, environmental engineering and mechatronics engineering
• three-year Bachelor of Technology programs in infrastructure
• a range of double-degree programs with the faculties of Art and Design, Arts, Business and Economics, Law, Medicine Nursing and Health Sciences, Science and the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
• a Bachelor of Civil and Environmental Engineering via the School of Applied Sciences and Engineering at the Gippsland campus.

The Faculty of Engineering is committed to providing an environment in which the brightest students and scholars can together pursue their educational and research goals at the highest international standard in the major branches of engineering and consequently contribute to the prosperity of Australia and its region of the world.

Engineering is a research-intensive faculty. The faculty's ongoing success in raising competitive research funds translates into extensive support for researchers and state-of-the-art laboratories and research infrastructure. With a large network of research centres, institutes and participation in cooperative research centres, the faculty also collaborates with research organisations, including Australia's Synchrotron, the National Stem Cell Centre, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO).

Major areas of teaching and research activity include:

• asset performance improvement and maintenance
• biomedical-engineering
• bio-process and bio-materials engineering
• chemical engineering science and design
• civil structural engineering
• clean energy technologies
• electronic, magnetic and ionic materials and properties
• electronics and communications
• engineering alloys
• fluid dynamics research
• geotechnical engineering
• intelligent robotics
• materials characterisation
• micro-nano mechanical and optical engineering
• nanomaterials
• polymer engineering
• power electronics
• railway engineering
• structural integrity and safety
• sustainable transport
• sustainable water engineering.

Faculty organisation

The faculty is a statutory body comprising all full-time members of the teaching staff. The responsibility for making decisions in the faculty lies with the faculty board, which comprises senior members of the academic staff, representatives of the full-time teaching staff, four student members (two graduate and two undergraduate), representatives of other faculties and the library, the chair of the faculty's Industry Advisory Committee and other members from outside the university representing industry and the engineering profession.

The student members are elected during April each year by students enrolled for the degrees taught by the faculty. Except in certain matters on which it has power to act, the faculty board makes recommendations to the Academic Board and its Education Committee or, through the board, to the Council.

The chief officers of the faculty are the dean, the faculty academic manager and the faculty business manager. As the chief executive of the faculty, the dean provides academic leadership to the faculty, presides over meetings of the faculty board, and is part of the senior management group of the university. The academic manager is responsible for administrative matters such as implementation of university statutes, regulations and academic policy, development and management of the faculty's courses and units and all issues connected with undergraduate and postgraduate student candidatures and academic progression. The business manager is responsible for financial and physical resources planning and the marketing of the faculty's teaching, research and consultancy activities.