Australia and New Zealand

Strategic Partnerships, Collaborative Centers, and Initiatives in Australia and New Zealand region.

Monash University

Melbourne, Australia
https://www.monash.edu
Penn State Global contact: Alexandra Persiko, assistant director for Europe and Oceania partnerships (1-814-867-5941, axp1225@psu.edu)

History

Penn State and Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, have enjoyed multi-faceted connectivity between faculty and students for many years. Seeing this level of engagement, the two universities agreed to work toward a true strategic partnership in late 2017.

The goal of this strategic partnership is to identify and facilitate collaborative research, education, and service activities that neither could achieve independently. In essence, making 1 + 1 = 3.

The first significant action towards this vision was a bilateral university workshop at Monash University in April 2018. Afterwards, the two universities launched a large-scale Seed-funded collaboration development program in August 2018.

Various agreements have been signed with the Monash University, including a Memorandum of Understanding, and Memoranda of Agreement in Education Abroad and with the College of Medicine.

Opportunities

The Collaboration Development Fund Program, a jointly financed Seed-fund program, was launched to facilitate collaborative research and teaching projects to become sustainable, self-supporting, long-term activities. Upon strong interest by colleges and departments at both universities, 23 projects received funding for the 2018-2019 program. 

Due to the preliminary success of the first round, Penn State and Monash University conducted a second  Collaboration Development Fund round targeted at projects in the Intersection of Health and the Environment in 2019.

Key Activities

The partnership with Monash is broad, spanning a large number of colleges and departments at Penn State. These  have included the Colleges of Health and Human Development, Liberal Arts, Arts and Architecture, Engineering, Science, Earth and Mineral Sciences, Agricultural Sciences and the Institute for CyberScience. The projects involve both faculty and students and address the missions of the respective universities: research, education and service. 

2019 Seed Funding

Project TitlePenn State LeadLead Department
Characterizing and Modelling the Impact of Farm Management Practices on Antibiotic Presence and Antimicrobial Resistance in Streams

Heather Gall

heg12@psu.edu

 

Agricultural & Biological Engineering
Self-Powered Wireless Biosensing Networks for Health and Environment Monitoring

Shashank Priya

sup103@psu.edu

Materials Science and Engineering
An Engineering-Pulmonary-Pathology Collaboration for Developing Disease-specific, Patient-specific Models of Inhaled Toxicant Susceptibility

Ali Borhan

axb20@psu.edu

Chemical Engineering
Reproductive Scaling in Vectors and the Impact on Human Disease under a Changing Climate

Elizabeth McGraw

eam7@psu.edu

 

Entomology
Understanding Fundamental Processes Governing Bioanalytical Sensors based on Luminescent Carbon Nanomaterials

Slava Rotkin

vvr5@psu.edu

Engineering Science and Mechanics, Biomedical Engineering
Transformative Resilience in the Context of Climate Change

Paige Castellanos

pxd171@psu.edu

Office of International Programs, Agricultural Sciences
Developing and Piloting a Mobile App to Assess the Daily Role of Social Networks in the Recovery of Substance-Dependent Individuals

Timothy Brick

trb21@psu.edu

Human Development and Family Studies
Developing Ethical, Policy, and Legal Frameworks to Address the Health Effects of Digital Influence

Daniel Susser

dus1043@psu.edu

Information Sciences and Technology; Rock Ethics Institute
From Health to Sustainable Environments: Connecting Wellbeing, Sustainability and Citizenship: Exploring Ecologies of Influence in Young People

Dana Mitra

dlm54@psu.edu

Education Policy Studies
Is the Whole Better than the Sum of the Parts? A model for studying interactions among health- and quality-related phytochemicals in plant foods and food ingredients

Helene Hopfer

hxh83@psu.edu

Food Science
From Local Health to Global Climate: Assessing the air quality co-benefits of climate mitigation strategies in the U.S and China

Wei Peng

wvp5117@psu.edu

Civil and Environmental Engineering & International Affairs

For a list of projects in 2018, please see: Seed Fund Projects

Highlights of the Partnership

  • Penn State and Monash held a joint workshop in April 2018. Penn State Provost Nicholas Jones spoke at the event.
  • The two universities have held two rounds of seed funding for joint projects.
  • In October 2019, a week-long joint workshop was held at Penn State. For more information, see the Penn State News release about the Forum: https://news.psu.edu/story/594622/2019/10/25/impact/penn-state-welcomes-monash-university-guests-university-park-forum
  • Monash University President and Vice-Chancellor Margaret Gardner visited Penn State in September 2022 for discussions around impactful strategic goals of the two universities (Monash Leadership Visit)
    • The Vice-Chancellor visit was followed by welcoming Professor Bryan Horrigan, the Executive Dean, Faculty of Law at Monash University, and Academic Lead of the Strategic Partnership with Penn State ​

The University of Auckland

Auckland, New Zealand
https://www.auckland.ac.nz
Penn State Global contact: Alexandra Persiko, assistant director for Europe and Oceania partnerships (1-814-867-5941, axp1225@psu.edu)

History

Penn State and The University of Auckland agreed in the summer of 2018 to pursue a strategic partnership, and subsequently embarked on shared strategic goals and research and teaching opportunities in 2019.  Various agreements have been signed with the University of Auckland, including a Memorandum of Understanding and Memoranda of Agreement in Education Abroad and Education Abroad/College of Engineering. 

Opportunities

Penn State and the University of Auckland have administered the 2020 Collaboration Development Fund, which provides seed monies to faculty groups for up to 18 months to generate  long-term programs integrating academics and students from both universities. 

The projects focus on both research and education/teaching, leveraging complementary capabilities of the universities to create research and learning opportunities not possible without the partnership.

The two universities have funded eight joint projects in total, enabling grant recipients to have the opportunity to help shape the direction and future investment in the university collaboration at the level of an institutional partnership and contribute to the universities’ vision and strategic goals.

2020 Seed Fund

Project Title Penn State Lead Lead Department 
New Materials and Electronics for Wearable Energy Harvesting 

Zoubeida Ounaies 

zxo100@psu.edu 

Mechanical Engineering 
A Platform for Advancing Computational Neuromuscular Modelling of Human and Animal Movement 

Jonas Rubenson 

jxr75@psu.edu 

Kinesiology 
EDGE Collaboration 

Tiffany MacQuarrie 

tls7@psu.edu 

English, Penn State Beaver 
“Invest in People. Literally”: The Rise of Income Share Agreements as an Alternative to Student Loans in US Higher Education 

Emily Rosenman 

ekr5260@psu.edu 

Geography 
Redesign of Membrane Proteins for Molecular Selection 

Costas Maranas 

cdm8@psu.edu 

Chemical Engineering 
Aeroacoustics of Ducted UAV Propellers 

Eric Greenwood 

eric.greenwood@psu.edu 

Aerospace Engineering 
Re-Engineering Anaerobic Treatment Processes for Novel Functionalities 

Meng Wang 

mxw1118@psu.edu 

Energy and Mineral Engineering 
Coupling Low-Cost Sensor Arrays with Micropollutant Analysis for Developing a Robust Surface Water Quality Monitoring Network 

Alandra Kahl 

afk12@psu.edu 

 

Civil and Environmental Engineering Penn State Greater Allegheny 

Key Activities

Penn State and the University of Auckland conducted an academic workshop in late November 2019.  The workshop provided an opportunity for academics from both universities to come together to develop cross-university collaborative ideas for joint research proposals.  Penn State Provost Nick Jones welcomed all workshop participants at the event via Zoom.  

Highlights of the Partnership