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Imagine being able to track an emergency incident or monitor a natural disaster using people’s tweets and Facebook statuses.
That’s just what researchers at Griffith University are doing in the Big Data and Smart Analytics lab, with students soon able to take a course in this emerging and powerful field.
The lab’s director, Professor Bela Stantic, said big data mining could be using for inspectors to track food poisoning cases or emergency response teams to track the movement of people and their needs following a natural disaster.
Social media sentiment analysis is also being used to research restaurant and food quality or hotel value during a particular time and space.
The new Big Data and Social Media course, which primarily targets business students. is being offered in trimester 3 and can also be taken as an elective by Master students.

“Big Data analytics has been regarded as one of important emerging technologies in different fields,”

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Key insights into the use of ‘outside knowledge’ and expert evidence in the courtroom is the focus of a Griffith Law Review special issue launched by Supreme Court Justice Peter Applegarth.
Outside knowledge is any information beyond the evidence given by the parties in a legal case and can range from a judge using their common sense to drawing from philosophy, scholarly articles, government reports and even the internet.
The special issue demonstrates that all human beings, including judges, are unconsciously influenced by information and ideas most readily available to them.
Guest editors, Griffith Law School’s Dr Kylie Burns and Ms Zoe Rathus AM with School of Criminology and Criminal Justice’s Dr Rachel Dioso-Villa wanted to determine how broadly outside knowledge is used in the courtroom and in different areas of law.
In a speech to attendees Justice Peter Applegarth said, “In an age in which judges are expected to know more and more about the

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For decades we’ve been sold on the importance of rehydrating after exercise by consuming specialty formulated beverages such as sports drinks (and more recently milk), under a ‘not all fluids are created equal’ mantra .
However a Griffith University study has found that once food is consumed, water should be the drink of choice for most of us following a workout.
The study – published in the journal Physiology and Behavior – took ten endurance trained athletes aged between 18-30 and had them cycle intensively for one hour on four separate occasions.
Following the exercise, participants were provided with one beverage to drink as they desired. The beverages included water (used on two of the trials), a carbohydrate-electrolyte (sports drink) Powerade or the milk-based drink Sustagen Sport.
In addition, on two occasions during recovery, the participants were given access to a variety of food which could also be voluntarily consumed.
“The fluid provided from

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Former Emmaus College Rockhampton student, Claire Cranitch is leading the charge to have more and more Queensland schoolgirls involved in Physics, in her role as Griffith University’s event coordinator of the national Growing Tall Poppies program.
The fourth-year student is passionate about science but fears a misconception of how complex the study can be, inevitably scares individuals away.
Claire draws on her own university experiences, working alongside researchers and physicists, to encourage more young girls into scientific studies.
The 21-year-old is excited that Rockhampton school leavers will have the opportunity to discuss the options available to them in the sciences, when ‘Future-proof your career, The Griffith STEM Roadshow’ visits her former home town next week.
“Griffith was the first Queensland partner university of the Growing Tall Poppies program and I feel privileged to be in a position to be able to discuss with young girls what paths exist towards further studies in physics,” confirmed

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A team from Griffith University has tackled the move from fossil-fuels to renewable energy to place in the Top 7 of the Global Business Challenge (GCB).

Griffith MBA students Les Adams, Wendy Zernike and Erik Malan competed against 98 other teams, representing 38 universities from 14 countries.
The GCB is a graduate business case competition, with the aim of designing ‘sustainable solutions to global problems’.

This year, participants were asked to identify solutions that lower the cost and/or reduce the risks associated with the transition from fossil-fuel based energy to achieving sustainability and reliability from renewable energy sources.
Wendy Zernike said they approached the task by trying to identify one of the biggest road blocks.
“Storage of renewable energy kept popping up as a way to address the intermittency issues that frequently occur with renewable energy inputs such as solar and wind,” she explained.
“We looked at current storage solutions and identified new technology that could be used

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Values matter now more than ever, and should underpin all public policy.
Those were the thoughts of Senator The Hon Penny Wong, who delivered Griffith Asia Institute‘s Perspectives: Asia lecture in Brisbane on the topic of ‘Australian values in a time of disruption’.

Senator Wong is the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate.
She emphasized that Australia needs a foreign policy that is both transactional – to deal with the day-to-day – and transformational.
“A transformational foreign policy is one that pursues our national interests and is informed by our values,” she told the crowd at the Gallery of Modern Art.
“A transformational foreign policy is critical to Australia’s ability to navigate a disrupted world.”
The Senator argued that values and interests differ, but are intimately interrelated when it comes to creating robust contemporary foreign policy.
“For nations like Australia, there is no alternative to a foreign policy that is built

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Science leaders have issued a call to action ahead of National Science Week – make science a priority and prepare for jobs of the future.
Queensland Science Minister Leeanne Enoch and 2017 Australian of the Year, Griffith University Professor Emeritus Alan Mackay-Sim, have both sent strong messages to the community urging them to embrace STEM – science, technology, engineering and maths.
Griffith University will launch Queensland’s National Science Week activities next week at Westfield Garden City with an insightful panel discussing remarkable science careers, as well as three days of entertaining activities and thought provoking presentations from leading scientists.
Minister Enoch said this was the week to celebrate the science all around us and in everything we do.
“STEM is at the core of Queensland’s innovation revolution, and it’s where we’re going to find the jobs of the future,” Ms Enoch said.
“We understand that no matter what job young Queenslanders take or make –

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A Griffith University professor has won a prestigious prize from one of Britain’s oldest international affairs journals.

Professor Ian Hall

Professor Ian Hall, Director of the Griffith Asia Institute and part of the School of Government and International relations, received the Peter Lyon Memorial Prize of The Round Table last month.

The prize is awarded to the best policy-oriented article on a theme of ‘significance’ within the Commonwealth.

The article looked closely India’s foreign policy and argued that since the mid-2000s India had developed multialignment as a means of achieving its interests and ideas internationally.

“I am very pleased that the editors of The Round Table judged my article worthy of this prize,” said Professor Hall.

“But I’m doubly pleased to win an award named in honour of Peter Lyon, a great scholar who had an enduring interest in India, as well as much more.”

Professor Hall’s full article can be read here.

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