KUCHING – Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne is engaged in a research project aimed at increasing alternative energy transport.
The project was launched by the Premier of Victoria, Ted Baillieu, and Swinburne’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Linda Kristjanson, as part of the Victorian Government’s trade mission to India this week.
The research project is a three-year collaborative between Swinburne, India’s Jaypee University of Information
Technology (JUIT), and the Melbourne-based Co-operative Research Centre for Advanced Automotive Technology (AutoCRC).
Representatives of JUIT and Swinburne’s Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Sciences’ Associate Dean of Research, Professor Ajay Kapoor, were part of the official launch.
Kristjanson said the project has all the hallmarks that make international research engagement so critical to the future of Australia and India.
“This research promises to make an important contribution to a clean energy future and, by collaborating, we can make a measurable difference to the future of our planet,” Kristjanson said.
“The project will consider the social and technological barriers and challenges that exist in relation to consumer uptake of alternative energy transport in India and is symbolic of Swinburne’s commitment to international research collaboration regarding critical issues facing the world today.”
Swinburne’s multidisciplinary team of researchers are looking at how to create a mass market and increase uptake of electric vehicles.
Consumers in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Chandigarh and Shimla will be studied to determine:
- Factors driving the use of alternative energy transport, such as noise pollution and environmental pollution, cost of petrol and running out of petrol
- Availability of alternative energy transport, including the purchase price, running cost and servicing cost of such vehicles
- Feasibility of using electric cars and other factors such as personal preference, range anxiety, children’s influence on environmentally friendly transport, issues with aging population for use of such cars and gender issues.
Kapoor is leading the Swinburne team and is working in collaboration with the Australian academic community and industry participants.
At JUIT the project is led by Professor Nirupama Prakash, with Professor Alok Ray from Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi and Professor Rajesh Gill from Panjab University partners in the first phase.
Swinburne is uniquely positioned to make a contribution to the development of an electric vehicle industry. Swinburne’s electric vehicle group, led by Kapoor, has more than 20 academic staff and 25 doctoral students.
“At Swinburne, we have an ambition to become one of the leading research intensive universities in the Asia Pacific,” Kristjanson said.
“We intend to build on our rich history to become the MIT of Australia by 2020, renowned for our research in the sciences, technology and studies of society.”
Swinburne is ranked in the top three per cent of universities globally and in the top 100 in the world in the field of physics.
While in India, Kristjanson has participated in a higher education round table with a range of Indian universities.
She has also moderated a session called ‘Building Sustainable Partnerships’ at a symposium on Education in a Globalised World in New Delhi.