Meet the PhDs partnering with industry to provide solutions for a better world

Keeping Aboriginal women’s hearts strong

Despite our nation’s commitment to improve health outcomes for Aboriginal Peoples, a significant life expectancy gap remains, with heart disease the leading cause of death in women.

To address this inequity, UniSA PhD candidate Katharine McBride (a non-Aboriginal woman) is working with Aboriginal women and health providers to encourage governments to approach health from an Aboriginal perspective.

A study led by McBride explored the perspectives of 28 Aboriginal women from different communities to establish cardiovascular protective and risk factors, with the work overseen by an Aboriginal Women’s Advisory Group.

“We know the healthcare system is designed around the Western understanding of physical disease, not Aboriginal understanding of cultural, social and emotional wellbeing, which is focused on identity, strength and connectedness,” McBride says.

“Doing research the ‘Aboriginal way’ depends on strong and ongoing relationships following protocols set down by community. This research project was developed by community, with Aboriginal women leading the process.

“Through yarning circles, women identified attributes and drivers which either kept their hearts strong or put them at risk.

“Women who had those factors described as keeping the heart strong were less likely to develop heart disease.”

McBride also partnered with health services such as Watto Purrunna Aboriginal Primary Health Care Service to understand the profile of protective and risk factors in the community, and consider how services could meet their needs.

Kurt Towers from Watto Purrunna Aboriginal Primary Health Care Service says being involved in the research has allowed the organisation to think about how they can provide services that meet the needs and expectations of the community they care for.  

“Knowing that the research was led by Aboriginal women, and being a partner in the design and process, has taught us we can do so much better,” he says.

“It has also given us confidence that the research is meeting community priorities and delivering benefits on the ground.”

McBride continues to work with a research team, which includes Aboriginal women with lived and professional experience of heart disease, to advance a new model of health delivery and care. This will be co-designed with community to meet the needs of women around their cultural, social and physical health and wellbeing.

Keeping track of satellites in space

While satellite systems such as the global positioning system (GPS) can determine our position on Earth, it’s very difficult for us to tell the GPS where it is in space. And with more than 4500 satellites and 750,000 pieces of debris floating in the solar system, it’s time to find a solution.

As part of his studies, UniSA PhD graduate Dr Joe O’Leary partnered with the Space Environment Research Centre (SERC) to find a new way to predict the motion of satellites using advanced theories of gravity and mathematics.

His research provided insight into the energy, mechanics and overall shape of satellites as they orbit the Earth.

Dr O’Leary says working with SERC was an invaluable experience, where he gained an appreciation for pursuing research with clear, demonstrable applications.

“It was an opportunity to gain exposure to real-world operations in astrodynamics,” he says.

“It is one thing performing a calculation and saying, ‘this is in orbit’, but a completely different story doing it for real objects.

“I was able to learn a lot about modern space operations, which will be critical as I move through my career.”

At the completion of Dr O’Leary’s research project – on the very day he handed in his PhD – he received employment offers from both SERC and EOS Space Systems.

He now works in a research development role in EOS Space Systems’ astrodynamics team based at Lot Fourteen – Adelaide’s future industries-focused precinct. He credits some of his partnership knowledge to his PhD project.

“As the key South Australian representative for EOS, I am constantly seeking opportunities to collaborate with local partners and my studies help set me up for this,” Dr O’Leary says.

“I’m also currently extending some of the learnings I gained from my PhD to simulate interplanetary probe missions with colleagues in French Polynesia, which will serve as an accurate testbed for future research of this kind.”

Helping jury decisions through virtual reality

If you’ve been a juror, you would know that piecing together a crime and delivering the correct verdict in a courtroom is no easy feat.

However, thanks to the advent of virtual reality (VR) and new research, jurors now have a better chance of making the right decision.

Led by UniSA PhD graduate Dr Carolin Reichherzer, a new study in partnership with forensic scientists from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) in New Zealand, legal professionals and the Australian Federal Police, demonstrates using VR in the courtroom results in better recall, spatial accuracy and more consistent verdicts.

The team found participants viewing a simulated hit-and-run scene through a 3D headset were 9.5 times more likely to choose the same verdict than the group relying purely on photographs.

Dr Reichherzer says partnerships were instrumental to her project’s success, particularly the forensic expertise from ESR.

“ESR provided significant insight into work processes and development ideas that helped shape my research in a way that made it applicable to real-world problems,” Dr Reichherzer says.

“Two of my experiments were developed very closely with their forensic team, where they provided advice, data and direction on which research aspects would be particularly valuable. The research as it stands would not have been possible without their generous support and input.”

Experienced in the development of crime scene capture capabilities and presenting visual evidence in court, Forensic Research and Development Program Manager at ESR, Dion Sheppard, saw the natural fit of Dr Reichherzer’s project with their mission.

“We were interested in working with Carolin to measure the potential value of visual evidence and the opportunity to assess the contribution of emerging technology such as VR was really exciting,” he says.

“We had anecdotal evidence that visual evidence was more easily understood than traditional oral testimony, but the ability to co-design realistic forensic scenarios and have an independent research-based approach to assessing the impact and potential benefits, was invaluable.

“The research outcomes provide a sound basis for courts to implement new methods for crime scene recording and evidence visualisation – a result of bringing together forensic science experience with UniSA’s research expertise.”