The Communicator
In times of disaster, The Communicator is the crucial link for people who need access to relief aid.
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Mr Crucial
Definitely a superhero in disguise, Mr Crucial is always there to make sense of your computer catastrophes.
The Protector
The Protector is the superhero who safeguards our privacy on the ever-growing number of social media websites.
The Monitor
Research aimed at saving peoples' lives is where The Monitor comes to the rescue of ordinary people.
Imagine developing a technology that makes a real difference to the quality of life of those living with long-term illnesses.
Nesa Mouzehkesh, who is currently studying for her Doctor of Information Technology at CSU, may very well achieve this in the near future with her ground-breaking research. >br> The objective is to attach tiny sensors on a patient's body to monitor their movement as well as to collect the data such as blood pressure, heart beat and so on. The benefits of wireless body area networks include reduction in visits to medical facilities, health professionals can access the medical data remotely, reduction in medical costs, and improved quality of life such as privacy, dignity and convenience.
Nesa Mouzehkesh, is currently completing her PhD in IT at CSU's Wagga Wagga Campus. The main reasons Nesa decided to study at CSU were the benefits a regional lifestyle offers and the area of study she wanted to pursue was available to her at the university.
"I just wanted to flee from city life and do what I want to in a more peaceful place. Being in a regional and friendlier area was the most important factor. My Master was in the same field I'm studying now so I've gotten a deeper understanding of that over a longer period of time.
"Being a full-time student here at CSU has also had a good impact on my communication skills as an international student. I would highly recommend CSU to other students. It's the perfect place to do what you have in mind. You will meet a lot of help and have support from your supervisors and lecturers.
"My research deals with exploring solutions to prolong the battery lifetime of a sensor node. It needs to identify those sources of energy wastage during a simple wireless communication and try to enhance the current solutions to them or even come up with a novel idea. My main responsibility at CSU is to research and add to my knowledge in the area that I am working on as much as I can.
"There are many applications a sensor node can be deployed in, amongst them are habitat monitoring, patient monitoring, agriculture, military services and many more. A sensor network might need to be enhanced in only one or a few aspects depending on what the application it is being asked for. Currently I am trying to focus on a wireless network of sensors on a person's body and figure out the many problems arising from the wireless communications between both on-body and sometimes in-body sensors."
By day he provides support to field-based information management officers, employed by the United Nations (UN). In times of crisis, however, he is deployed by the UN to disaster-stricken countries within three to six hours to carry out vital assessments for the coordination of international relief.
Playing a humanitarian role in two of the world's biggest natural disasters, the Haitian earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Charles Sturt University (CSU) graduate Andrej Verity has worked on a global scale since he was awarded his Master of Information Technology, completed by distance education.
"I was responsible for the management of humanitarian contacts of over 1,200 people in the first two weeks alone in Haiti, the 'who does what where' products and general data liaison amongst partners."
Mr Verity, an Information Management Officer with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva, was sent to Haiti after a huge earthquake on 12 January 2010 devastated the small nation. About six months later, the CSU graduate was in Pakistan in the wake of massive floods which have been described by the UN as 'the largest humanitarian crises the UN and its humanitarian partners have ever responded to'.
In between this work since his CSU graduation, Mr Verity found time to participate in specialist training so he can be part of the stand-by UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team.
"This training enables me to be deployed by the United Nations to a disaster-stricken country within three to six hours to carry out vital assessments for and coordination of international relief. In my day job in Geneva, I provide support to the field-based Information Management Officers in various country or regional offices. This support could be technical in nature, strategic guidance or even staff recruitment.
"During emergency deployments such as the Haitian earthquake and the floods in Pakistan I am responsible to ensure that OCHA fulfils its information management responsibilities. In my work with OCHA, I have also been involved with the development of information systems for OCHA's use to aid both internal and external Information Managers.
"I am regularly looking at new approaches to our practices and introducing new solutions where appropriate and possible. I am regularly making my branch aware of various new trends or tools that we could consider – essentially taking on a thought leadership role."
The 34-year-old Canadian completed a Master of Information Technology through CSU at the end of 2009. He formally graduated from the Australian university in early 2010.
Let's face it: we've all had those moments where the computer crashes, the internet won't work, and you're left quite literally pulling your hair out. This is where a Charles Sturt University (CSU) Computing and Mathematics superhero steps in to save the day.
During his time studying for his Bachelor of Information Technology at CSU, Yang Cobe Zhou, learnt to understand the fundamentals of computer technology, which now helps him tackle problems at work.
"I'm currently employed as a Communication and System Analyst. I help solve any software and hardware problems and prepare marketing materials and sales promotion videos for the manager. I also upgrade and maintain the website."
"I studied a Bachelor of Information Technology where I did a major in System Administration and minor in Accounting Management. I decided to study at CSU because it offered me the opportunity to learn more about what I was interested in and a career with better money in the future.
"During my time at CSU the career skills I learned included understanding the fundamental of computer technology, which helps me to tackle problems at work. By knowing how computers work, it allows me to generate possible ideas for computer related problem solving.
"For my final year IT project, we designed a wireless order system for a local restaurant, using PDAs and a desktop server. This minimises the expense and increases security as we designed it to run only in an intranet environment with all the recommended security features enabled.
"This helped me and my team to understand more about business level security, how business works over both short and long distance when networked and it also improved our problem solving skills as we tackled the problems we faced.
"I found the lecturers at CSU very friendly and helpful and the relaxed environment helped to ease the tension before exams and other stressful situations.
"Since going to university I have become more confident and have learned that there is always more than one solution to every problem you encounter."
With so many sites gathering information about you, it takes a special talent to help the ordinary internet user maintain their privacy. For Rath Kanha Sar, the fascinating area of peoples' online privacy has become the focus for her Doctor of Information Technology at CSU.
"My research aims to explore different privacy issues on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, particularly the privacy risk associated when bits and pieces of the user's information from across online social networks are combined together to create a very detailed profile of a person."
"I finished my bachelor degree in Computer Science in Cambodia and my Master degree in Information Technology at CSU. I wanted to pursue a higher degree in the same or similar field and CSU had what I wanted.
"Thanks to the full scholarship, which included tuition fees and living expenses from CSU, I am able to undertake my PhD degree in IT.
"I am working under the topic of 'Privacy in online social networks (OSNs)'. My research aims to explore different ethic privacy issues of OSNs such as Facebook and Twitter, particularly the privacy risk associated with cross-correlating data from different OSNs, when bits and pieces of the user's information from across OSNs are combined together to create a very detailed profile of a person.
"Soon after I finished my Master of Information Technology (MIT), and shortly before I started my PhD, with the support from the supervisors and lecturers, and CSU student service, I got a summer research scholarship from an outside organisation - NICTA (National ICT Australia) and Sydney University - for three months. This opportunity helped a lot in building my skills in undertaking research. I realised I really enjoy doing research-based study, and this also helped me in doing a preliminary research in my current topic and it also helped in my literature review writing.
"I would recommend CSU to people thinking about coming here, because we have small classes, the lecturer's full attention, a very good Student Service, which assists me with the language problem because English is not my native language, and the quality of the course. There are less students and lecturers and supervisors give their full attention to students. It's a peaceful life, where you save a lot of time travelling from home to university, you save money on living expenses and people are friendly and helpful."
