His background details

Academic

Stuart spent year 7 to 11 at Geelong East Technical School. He was Dux of school in years 10 and 11, and received various subject awards. 

Stuart studied Engineering at the Ballarat College of Advanced Education (now known as Federation University). Stuart obtained his Bachelor of Engineering with Distinction in 1986, majoring in electronics. His thesis was titled "The Investigation of Electromagnetic Radiation from Vehicle Components", and was completed in conjunction with Ford as an industrial partner.  He was also a recipient of the Josephine Brelaz Prize for Science.

During his undergraduate years Stuart worked for three months with the Geelong and District Water Board (now know as Barwon Water) and another three months with Ford over the summer breaks of 1984/85 and 1985/86 respectively. At G&DWB he worked on pipeline cathodic protection systems, and at Ford he was fortunate to be able to work on his thesis in preparation for final year and got to specify $120,000 (quite a lot of money in 1986!) worth of spectrum analysis gear.

Since graduating Stuart has completed a Master of Business Administration in the area of Technology Management, a Doctoral program examining engineering undergraduate management education in light of contemporary developments in the field and flexible delivery of education, and, a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education.

The real world

CSIRO Division of Radiophysics
Stuart's first job as a graduate was a vacation scholarship with the CSIRO Division of Radiophysics (now the Radiophysics laboratory) in Epping in NSW. This was a three month appointment starting December 1986 to investigate the use of the Prolog programming language in digital signal processing applications. He contributed to the publication "The Use of Prolog in the Realisation of Digital Transfer Functions" presented at the ISSPA 87 conference in Brisbane.

Industrial Control Technology
Stuart returned to Geelong and took up a position with Industrial Control Technology in March 1987. ICT were (and still are) consulting engineers specialising in process control and instrumentation, electronic product development and electronic manufacturing. Commencing as a project engineer Stuart became the manager of the electronic product development business unit.  Stuart contributed to both the design and management of projects for some of Australia's most innovative industrial electronics companies. During his time at ICT Stuart also worked for many of Geelong's major industrial companies.

Air Liquide
Lured by the glamour of working for a multi-national Stuart joined Air Liquide in June 1994 and commuted to St. Kilda road every day. He was the micro systems manager in charge of technology and marketing for a national client service program based on telemetry technology.

Deakin University
Forsaking the big bucks, travel and company car, Stuart joined Deakin University's School of Engineering in February 1995, where he lectured in the area of technology management and conducted research in both engineering education and applications of frequency domain analysis.  In 1998 he was promoted to the position of Senior Lecturer.  In 2002 he completed a Doctoral program looking into Australian undergraduate engineering management education.  In 2005 he completed a graduate certificate of higher education - after 11 years at Deakin, apparently, he was actually qualified to teach.  In Aug. 2006 Stuart joined the Deakin University Institute of Teaching and Learning.  In 2011 he was promoted to the position of Associate Professor.  In 2012 he rejoined the the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment at Deakin University, where his role is Associate Professor in Integrated Learning.  In 2018 he re-joined the School of Enginnering.

The University of Melbourne
In March 2019, Stuart joined the Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education at The University of Melbourne.

WorkSafe Victoria
In 2020, Stuart joined the smart people in the prevention analytics group at WorkSafe Victoria.  Following a secondment to the Prevention First group, he joined them permenantly in 2022, where he worked as a fatalities research specialist.  At the end of 2022, he joined the Programs group as senior evaluation advisor.  He works with data to improve work safety in Victoria.

Professional associations

Institution of Engineers, Australia (now trading as Engineers Australia)
Stuart was has been a student member of the IEAustsince 1986, then a graduate member, and a corporate member since 1992, remaining a member for more than 30 years. He was been a member of the Geelong Group committee 1990-1994 and 1995-1998, and was the Group secretary between 1990-1994 and 1997-1998. During 1995 he was the organising chair for the IEAust Country Convention, hosted by the Geelong Group. Stuart has also assisted the IEAust on accreditation panels reviewing university undergraduate engineering courses. During 1996 the Geelong Group organised the inaugural EngQuest, a Victoria-wide engineering awareness competition open to all primary and secondary school children, and to all engineering students. Via different tasks for different age groups, entrants were asked to demonstrate their understanding of the profession. It was very successful, with approximately 700 submissions being received.  Since that time, the Engquest idea has developed into a national competition, held annually, organised by the IEAust and funded by DEST.

Other
Stuart was a member of the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia (APESMA) from 1990 to 1996, at which time he resigned and joined the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU).
Stuart was a member of the Deakin University Engineering Advisory Committee from 1990 to 1994, working for the re-establishment of engineering programs at Deakin.
Stuart has been a member of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AaeE) since 1997.

Recognition

In 1996, along with a colleague, Stuart was awarded a Deakin Active Learning and Teaching Participation Program (ALTPP) Fellowship of $10,000 to allow them to mentor other university staff in the use of the WWW in teaching and learning.

In 1999 Stuart was awarded a Faculty of Science and Technology Teaching Excellence Award.
In the same year Stuart was awarded the Australasian Association for Engineering Education McGraw-Hill New Engineering Educator Award.

In 2003 Stuart was awarded a Deakin Online Teaching and Learning Fellowship - this provided funding for a 12 month development project in the application of on-line technology in teaching and learning.
In the same year Stuart was awarded a Faculty of Science and Technology Teaching Excellence Award.

In 2010 Stuart co-authored (with Junmin Zhang and Xungai Wang) and presented the paper Identification of animal fibers with wavelet texture analysis at the 2010 International Conference of Signal and Image Engineering, London, where it was awarded best paper.

In 2011, Stuart was awarded an ALTC Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning for sustained scholarship of teaching and learning underpinning excellence in teaching, student learning and academic staff professional development.

In 2013, along with a team of others, Stuart was awarded a Vice Chancellor's Award for Research Partnerships for the development of the Research My World research crowdfunding initiative.

Grants

In 1998 Stuart was awarded $10,000 from the James N Kirby Foundation to develop multimedia resources to be used in engineering and technology education is primary schools.

In 2000/1 Stuart was awarded a $2,500 Seeding Grant from the School for the research project - Longitudinal study of on- and off-campus student academic performance in the School of Engineering and Technology at Deakin University.

In 2001/2 Stuart was awarded a $4,000 Teaching Grant from the School to design, re-develop, deliver and evaluate a unit for on-line delivery.

In 2002/3 Stuart was awarded a $5,000 Seeding Grant from the School for the research project - Validation of method for automated classification of degree of pilling of fabric.

In 2004 Stuart (along with Xungai Wang) was awarded a $15,000 Central Research Grant for the research project - Development of image processing techniques for objective fabric evaluation.

In 2004, Stuart was awarded $5,000 under the Higher Education Equity Program for the research project - Impact of Mandatory On-campus Residential Sessions on Rural and Isolated Students Studying Engineering and Technology Courses in Off-Campus Mode.

In 2005 Stuart was part of a team (with Xungai Wang) awarded a $14,000 Central Research Grant for the research project - Objective assessment of pilling intensity for nonwovens by image processing.

In 2005 Stuart was part of a team (with Xungai Wang and Lijing Wang) awarded $521,000 by Australian Wool Innovation for the research project - Pilling and Softness of wool fabrics.

In 2006 Stuart was awarded an International Studies Program grant to visit the University of Plymouth in 2006 to conduct collaborative research on the prediction of composite material performance properties from computer image analysis, and, to prepare for publication a series of research papers on off-campus engineering education.

In 2006, Stuart (as project leader) was awarded a $16,300 Strategic Teaching and Learning Grant for the project entitled - Developing a framework for discipline-contextualised graduate attributes in the professional field of engineering: enhancing student achievement of Deakin's graduate attributes.

In 2007 Stuart was part of a team (with Richard Tucker and Jan Fermelis) awarded a $34,186 Strategic Teaching and Learning Grant for the project entitled - Fair Assessment and Reflective Learning: A cross-faculty online self-and-peer-assessment tool for teamwork assignments piloted in architecture and business communications.

In 2007, Stuart (as a team member with Dale Holt) was awarded a $219,000 Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC - formerly Carrick Institute) Leadership for Excellence in Learning and Teaching Program Grant (for 2008 and 2009) for the project entitled Strategic leadership for institutional teaching and learning centres: developing a model for the 21st century.

In 2010 Stuart was awarded an Outside Studies Program grant to visit Griffith University in 2010/2011 to conduct collaborative research on objective assessment of composite material surface quality, evaluation of a new project-based learning initiative in first-year engineering education, and identification of the factors that systematically impact on student evaluation of teaching data.

In 2010, Stuart (as a team member with Dale Holt) was awarded a $220,000 Australian Learning and Teaching Council Leadership for Excellence in Learning and Teaching Program Grant (for 2011 and 2012) for the project entitled Building distributed leadership in designing and implementing a quality management framework for Online Learning Environments.

In 2013, as part of a collaboration between Education and Science Faculties, and a consortium of four Victorian universities, Stuart was a member of the team for a successful bid winning $3.2M from the Enhancing the Training of Mathematics and Science Teachers Program.  The ETMST program is administered by the Office for Learning and Teaching on behalf of the Office of the Chief Scientist.

In 2017/18, collaborating with Associate Professor Bronwyn Helmsley from the University of Newcastle and Dr Stephen Dann from the Australian National University, the team was awarded a University of Newcastle Linkage Pilot Research grant of $9,960, combined with $50,000 of in-kind contributions from Twitter, for the project Twitter and a Quest for Evidence: Producing Credible Content for Contested Domains.

In 2017/18, collaborating with Professor Russell Tytler, Dr Peta White and Adjunt Professor David Symington from the Deakin School of Education, the team was award a REDI strategic research centre Industry Collaboration Development Grant of $10,000 to develop an ARC Linkage application with partners on the topic of linking STEM researchers with pre-service teachers.

In 2019, collaborating with Associate Profess Chi Baik and Professor Sophie Arkoudis, the team was awarded $177,000 from the Australian Department of Education and Training for the project Pathways to success in Australian international education.

Student achievements

SEB421 student Richard Facer was awarded second prize in the 2000 Institution of Engineers, Australia (IEAust) National Public Policy Essay Competition for his SEB421 report entitled 'End product waste management'.

SEJ443 project student Philip Vergers was awarded the 2000 Vice-Chancellor's Prize, for the best piece of undergraduate work across the university, for his final-year project thesis entitled 'Relay switching from PC via RS232 interface - PC controlled powerboard'.

SEJ443 project student Iman Joud was awarded a $5000 Honours Scholarship from Australian Wool Innovation in 2004 for her project 'Optimisation of an automated method for assessment of fabric pilling intensity based on computer image analysis'.

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