Engineers Australia, Canberra Division President, Ms Jennifer Murray, tonight announced the winners of the 2011 Canberra Engineering Excellence Awards.

Winners of the awards are as follows:

ACT Government New Technology and Innovation Award

• ANZAC ASMD Active Phased Array Radar (CEA Technologies)

Engineering Excellence Awards Winners (x3)

• Kings Avenue Overpass (National Capital Authority)
• Antarctic Broadband – Definition and Capability Development (Aerospace Concepts P/L)
• ANZAC ASMD Active Phased Array Radar (CEA Technologies

Highly commended awards were also presented to the following (x3)

• The Generation II Big Dish Solar Concentrator Prototype (Research School of Engineering, ANU)
• The Datapod System (Datapod Australia P/L)
• Tharwa Heritage Bridge Restoration (Roads ACT)

Entrant’s in this year’s awards represent a diverse range of projects and the judges commented on the high caliber of all entrants.  There were 17 finalists in the 2011 awards, which is the highest number of entrants is almost 20 years.

A brief summary of each of the award recipients and associated judges comments is attached. Electronic file vision and photos are available on request.

Contact: Helen Leayr - 0438 041 524 www.engineersaustralia.org.au

Engineering Excellence Awards

ANZAC ASMD Active Phased Array Radar (CEA Technologies)

CEA’s CEAFAR radar is an elegant Australian engineering response to the inability of conventional rotating radar systems to adequately counter modern (and future) Anti-Ship Missile threats, and the need for a light-weight purpose-built radar for the Australian Navy’s ANZAC class frigates.

The outstanding success of this project has exceeded the expectations of the customer, who doubted that an advanced digital active phased array radar system could be developed and deployed. During Senate Estimates in May 2011, the customer representative admitted that “we had put [this project] in the category that it might more likely fail than succeed.”; but also that … “Earlier this month, the trial, contrary to my extreme pessimism, executed flawlessly and on schedule …”

Specific aspects of the project that contributed to its engineering excellence include:

• Demonstrates outstanding engineering design and construction;
• World-leading innovation - in many aspects of the project;
• Exemplifies successful integration of specialist skills from a diverse range of Australian companies;
• Stand-out (best-practice) team and customer focus throughout;
• Exceptional planning and project management – in the face of tight timeframes;
• Significant real (and potential) economic contribution to the Canberra and national economies;
• An important contribution to the Defence capability of Australia.

Kings Avenue Overpass (National Capital Authority) The intersection of Kings Avenue Bridge and Parkes Way, a critical corner of the National Triangle, demanded a solution to increasing traffic demands that is worthy of the National Capital. The Kings Avenue Overpass is just that. It is a nationally significant infrastructure project, involving a multitude of engineering, management and assurance disciplines to deliver the critical functionality within an innovative form and structural design.

This project delivers engineering excellence as much for its ingenuity of design that seeks to complement and enhance Canberra’s National Triangle, as it does for the management of a complex construction around the busy operation of the intersection.

Specific aspects of the project that contributed to its engineering excellence include:

• A landmark infrastructure project –“an expressive and enduring piece of urban and engineering design”;
• Ingenuity and persistence in balancing functionality with aesthetics throughout the design;
• Precision and quality in the construction – often using the skills of local engineering businesses;
• Exceptional stakeholder engagement throughout the design and delivery of the project;
• Robust planning and project management to ensure that the intersection remained operational throughout the project and that delays and inconvenience to users were minimized;
• An innovative and expressive approach to lighting the bridge and surrounds; and
• Completion of the project on schedule, within budget and without injury while exhibiting significant care of the environmental factors.

Antarctic Broadband – Definition and Capability Development (Aerospace Concepts P/L)

The Antarctic Broadband Consortium – an international collaboration led by a small team in Canberra – has designed, integrated and demonstrated a small satellite system that could provide cost-effective, high-quality broadband communications to Antarctica. This small satellite system and the design around its deployment are leading-edge technology that is attracting significant interest within the industry.

Specific aspects of the project that contributed to its engineering excellence include:

• Unique satellite design aspects that are world-leading;
• Ingenuity and persistence in developing cost-effective solutions in the face of significant physical design constraints;
• Demonstrated sound practice in collaboration and stakeholder engagement;
• A valuable first-step contribution to enhancing the capability (and lifestyle) for a remote (isolated) Australian community;
• Delivering real opportunities for expanding the research and scientific output in Antarctica; and
• Advancing the design, implementation and support of small-satellite communications systems in Australia.

ACT Government New Technology and Innovation Award

This year’s award for new technology and innovation has been won by CEA Technologies for their ANZAC ASMD Active Phased Array Radar.

This entry is significant for its advancement of radar technology – an Australian developed phased array radar. In Senate Estimates in May 2011 it was described as “world-beating technology the likes of which this country has not put together for 20 or 30 years. It is a small Australian company. … I have no doubt that many countries of the world will be coming to look at this company and acquire this technology. The basic technology has uses in Australia beyond just shipborne use. The company was able to demonstrate for example, tracking mortar rounds accurately and predicting where they came from so that you could launch a counterattack.” [Mr King]

CEA Technologies’ CEAFAR is the first 4th generation phased array system to enter service anywhere in the world. It is the only radar in the world that is capable of element level beamforming. CEAFAR required innovation and integration across a range of engineering disciplines – electronic system hardware design; software design; mechanical design and systems engineering – with outstanding results.

One of the greatest challenges the project faced was to develop an innovative architecture that could enable super-computing level processing of the massive amounts of data that were being sampled at each of the radar’s antenna. They achieved this and maintained a compact design by installing the majority of the radar signal processing into the radar “faces”.

The cost-effective, novel technology responds to a previously unsolvable problem and is a worthy recipient of the ACT Government New Technology and Innovation Award for 2011.

Highly Commended

The Generation II Big Dish Solar Concentrator Prototype (Research School of Engineering, ANU)

This entry demonstrates the feasibility of low-cost manufacture of large paraboloidal dish solar concentrators. The innovative aspects of the project include integration of spherical profile square mirror panels as structural members of the dish, and design and development of a re-usable jig that could potentially allow multiple identical dishes to be assembled.

While the project has been commended by the judges for the contribution it makes in advancing this form of solar energy, it is recognised as an early prototype in process design for large scale production. The research team that undertook the design and build are also to be commended for their passion and persistence with this project. It has resulted in the world’s largest paraboloidal dish solar concentrator now supporting further research at the ANU.

The Datapod System (Datapod Australia P/L)

The Datapod System is an innovative response to a rapidly growing need for high-performance data centres. The stand-out aspect of the Datapod system is its holistic approach to deployment of a new data centre through the integration of site and IT infrastructure within a containerised pod.

The system delivers cost-benefits to the customer through its ability to factory preassemble the pod – including the site infrastructure components. The Datapod System is modular to be easily expanded as data storage needs grow. The system’s design is pending patent and claims usage of fifty percent less electricity than an average data centre.

Tharwa Heritage Bridge Restoration (Roads ACT)

The Tharwa Heritage Bridge Restoration is an excellent example of modern structural and material design being sensitive to the heritage value of an iconic 1895 bridge.

This project showcases new techniques and design that preserve the period look of the oldest and largest surviving four-span timber Percy Allan truss bridge in Australia. The design and construction teams are to be commended for their collaborative efforts to ensure the original designer’s intent was maintained in an outcome that will better withstand flood and weather conditions, and better serve the local community.