At times the playground of top talent like Chris Hemsworth and Johnny Depp, the Oxenford Studios on the Gold Coast’s north end will be home to some of the world’s top athletes in April.
It will also become a home from home for Griffith University student, Zanthe Heaton, who will work there as an Assistant Venue Operations Manager, during the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
The Bachelor of Business student, who has majored in event management and marketing, jumped at the opportunity to undertake a unique internship with Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC).
“I initially stumbled across event management when I fitted it into my study timetable, but I developed a natural interest and appetite for it,” Zanthe says.
“After taking a break from studies to travel, I came home to the Gold Coast, knowing I couldn’t let the Commonwealth Games come and go without being involved. The internship with GOLDOC was
Category: Griffith University Feed
Insight into investigative interviewing
Police interviews with criminals and witnesses may be the fodder of popular TV crime shows but forensic interviewing is a highly specialised area which can take years of practice to hone.
Professor Martine Powell, Director of the Centre for Investigative Interviewing based at Griffith University’s Mt Gravatt campus and world-renowned child interviewer, says one of the biggest issues in how interviews are conducted in practice is the lack of consistency with scientific guidance.
“The aim of investigative interviewing is to elicit an accurate and detailed account of an event or situation from a person, but in practice too few interviews are characterised by open-ended prompts,’’ she said.
“When interviewing child witnesses, it often appears that despite the best of intentions, interviewers tend to stray from being relatively passive receivers of children’s information and instead play a major role, albeit inadvertently, in shaping their accounts.
“This is a problem in most jurisdictions. Knowing how to
Sri Lankan tourism experts visit Queensland for 10-day study tour
Representatives from the tourism sector in Sri Lanka have begun a study tour as a part of the ‘Sustainable Tourism Development’ Short Course Award program funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
Facilitated by Griffith University’s International Business Development Unit and the University of the Sunshine Coast, the study tour is just one component of the Short Course Award, which is designed to develop more effective training for tourism professionals in developing countries.
The group, consisting of 25 tourism practitioners, government officers and university academics, will take part in a range of workshops, seminars and site visits. The purpose of this Short Course Award is to improve the enabling environment of the sustainable tourism sector, develop linkages between the two countries’ tourism operators and enhance the participants’ overall business planning and processes.
Travelling from various locations in the Sunshine Coast to far north Queensland before finishing the tour in
Sea Jellies and bursting bubbles make for Street Science fun at World Science Festival
Calling all fans of science, old, and particularly young, to join in the fun of Griffith University’s Street Science (24 -25 March) at World Science Festival Brisbane.
Science lovers will get a sneak peak of the Sea Jellies Illuminated exhibition that is set to open at Sea World later this year, in a unique partnership with Griffith University that integrates ongoing research into these age-old creatures of the sea.
Sea Jellies Illuminated will feature an array of sea jelly displays and educational elements to take Sea World guests on an illuminating journey as they delve into the fascinating underwater world of these aquatic animals.
Sea Jellies Illuminated – Artist’s Impression
Griffith marine researcher Associate Professor Kylie Pitt said that Street Science would offer the chance to see jelly polyps under the microscope, as well as animations to bring sea jellies to life.
“Jellies are one of the oldest life forms on the planet and people usually
Book reveals true stories of war’s female victims
A new book by Griffith Law School academic Dr Olivera Simic explores the silence surrounding women’s experiences of wartime sexual violence.
Silenced Victims of Wartime Sexual Violence (Routlege 2018) focuses on the harrowing experiences of Bosnian Serb women, where the collapse of the former Yugoslavia led to brutal war and gross human rights violations throughout the 1990s.
It draws attention to the hierarchies of victimhood, which are often created and reinforced by law itself.
“I hope to achieve a greater visibility and transparency of the problem of sexual violence in war, and emphasising that while this crime affects women in a similar way, not all women have been legally and symbolically recognised as victims,’’ Dr Simic says.
Based on personal experience, her research focuses on how people, women in particular, deal with past mass human rights abuses such as genocide, ethnic cleansing and rape during and after armed conflicts.
She was just 19 when war broke
Engineering student takes on wilderness challenge
Bachelor of Engineering student Conor Gould has stepped off a plane in New Zealand and into an adventure in innovation.
The Griffith student is among a group of leaders taking part in Venturer Mission this week where bright sparks active in Queensland’s innovation ecosystem face the physical and mental challenges of the wilderness.
Apart from the destination and a list of equipment to pack, it’s very much a leap of faith for the group which will have no connection to technology and the daily routines of life from March 19-26.
“Through the experience, the group develops resilience, teamwork skills, and invaluable people-to-people relationships that strengthen Queensland’s community of innovation,” Conor said.
The Venturer Program is run by the Queensland Office of the Chief Entrepreneur and its aim is to get people active in Queensland’s innovation ecosystem.
“Drawing parallels with entrepreneurship, you never know what’s coming, so you have to be adaptable,” Conor says.
“You learn a
Eavesdropping on fish to measure river health
Often hidden from sight, and definitely not heard by humans, fish grunt, squeal and gurgle as they hunt, make love and pass the time of day with neighbours.
For the first time, we are able to use these sounds in order to detect the health of fresh waterways, the rivers, lakes and streams.
In research published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, researchers used underwater microphones to record the sounds of fish, other animals and the water itself. Analysing this soundtrack allowed scientists to count the number and variety of fish and animals present, and measure river health.
Dr Simon Linke from the Australian Rivers Institute at Griffith University says the advantage of the new approach is that it provides a continuous measurement that does not hurt fish.
“Traditional methods of monitoring freshwater systems rely on taking samples, and these are expensive, unreliable and intrusive. They are only accurate at the time they
Harmony Week is for everyone at Griffith
Harmony Day may fall on March 21 each year but at Griffith University there is a full week of activities celebrating our diverse range of culture and recognising and valuing diversity.
March 21 is United Nations Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and across Australia this is recognised and celebrated as National Harmony Day. The theme of Harmony extends to all forms of inclusion to acknowledge the rich diversity of people from all backgrounds, life experiences and belief systems.
Student Services Director Dr Joanna Peters said Harmony Week is an important date on Griffith’s calendar.
“At Griffith, everyone belongs and this is demonstrated through our policies and practices and how we treat each other every day.
“Harmony Week is a tangible expression of this with a collaboration across academic and central elements and with student associations and external organisations to bring our community together to participate in a range of thought provoking and fun activities
Life outside sport key to athlete success argues Griffith sports management researcher
When our local athletes enter competition at next month’s Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018) the support systems they have in place should give them an edge, even allowing for home-soil pressure, according to Griffith University researcher Dr Caroline Riot.
Joining a Brainfood Breakfast – Sporting Success, Nature vs Nature panel (23 March) for World Science Festival Brisbane, the Senior Lecturer with Griffith Business School’s Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management will make the case for the importance of what happens outside sport in an athlete’s life, as a determining factor of both performance and career longevity.
While her co-panellists might argue the hard science of genetics and specialised physical training, Dr Riot believes that the support networks in an athlete’s environment provide the social and emotional backing that are key to sporting success – what she calls the ‘personal development perspective’.
“Resilience, which is often learned in childhood and outside of
Taking the ‘waste’ out of waste ponds
Australians in regional and remote areas could have better access to recycled water thanks to Griffith University research.
Researchers investigated the common, but little-known, phenomenon of waste ponds – water systems that treat liquid waste by allowing natural processes to stabilise the organic matter inside them.
Used since the early 1900s due to their low cost and minimal technical requirements, waste ponds are a simple process for recycling waste water so it can be reused in industries like agriculture.
Griffith researchers partnered with four other universities and nine industry partners for the ‘pond project’, aiming to discover how Australia’s more than 1,330 waste ponds could work most efficiently.
Co-researcher Professor Hong Zhang, from the School of Engineering and Built Environment, said more than 80 per cent of local governments in Australia use pond treatment in some form, with the recycled water potentially serving as many as seven million Australians.
“Waste ponds will continue to play an