Dr Euan Lindsay has won one of the 2007 Carrick Awards for Australian University Teaching (CAAUT) Early Career Award winners.
Dr Lindsay specialises in mechatronics systems and mechatronics automation.within the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Curtin.
The Carrick Early Career Award is given to four outstanding Australian academics with less than seven years of teaching experience.
“Receiving this award is a great way of repaying the faith of the Curtin Engineering Faculty staff who decided to employ me before I had finished my PhD. This is recognition of their support,” Dr Lindsay said.
A zeal for teaching students about virtual access and remote control of machines has assisted Dr Lindsay prepare his graduate engineers to operate machines anywhere in the world.
“Engineers no longer need to be physically co-located with the equipment they control. It is now possible to remotely control a city’s traffic light system from a central control room, or to manage the pumps on a chemical refinery from the other side of the country,” he said.
“It’s amazing to see that students are more reflective and careful with their actions when operating a machine remotely,” Dr Lindsay said.
Euan has been at Curtin since the beginning of 2004. He teaches in the “core” mechatronic areas of the curriculum, supervising units where students actually create integrated mechatronic systems involving computers, electronics and physical hardware. He conducts research in these areas and in engineering education.
Professor Tony Lucey, Dean of Engineering, commented that Euan is equipping our engineers for a future where remote access to machinery is the reality.
“Industry is looking for engineers who can think both logically and innovatively about the actions required to make a machine operate in a remote location. Interacting with both students and colleagues, Euan demonstrates a passion for producing people who meet our future industrial needs,” Professor Lucey said.