Impact

With transport such a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions, Dancing Lights by Studio Archisan sought to encourage people to use more public transport. Caufield Station was reimagined as a social gathering space that generated its own power with a striking LSC panel roof designed to attract public curiosity.

In Greenbooth by Joanne Andrade, recycling becomes ‘instagrammable’ through the design of minimalistic and vibrant waste collection sites. Derived from pop-up street architecture, the LSC panel walls are made to be setup, disassembled and moved with ease.

Imitating the wave-like trajectory that light follows, Banc&Lumin by Elliot Whinnen proposed versatile benches for study or leisure. Sporting built in power outlets and lights that activate at night, this smart seating reimagines what seating can offer.

Rainglow by Nadya Prasetyo presented safer, smarter suburban bus shelters to help protect the vulnerable. These self-powered structures would provide reliable lighting, charging, wifi and real-time updates so that users were informed as possible while waiting for the bus.

Envisioning a new type of sustainable road signage, the LSCS post by Zachary Vassallo was a motion sensing marker designed to warn motorists of wildlife or extreme weather events—regardless of its access to the electrical grid.

With over 400 people having their say, the winner of the People’s Choice Award went to Solar Spectacle by UTS Archithree, a proposal for a bold new use of Tumbalong Park in Sydney. Through the construction of a sprawling frame of different coloured LSC panels, Solar Spectacle would create a fun community space both day and night.

And finally, the winning design as voted by our expert panel, was Flinders St Urban Canopy by Team MHP! This stylish concept for a new tram stop in Melbourne creatively explored the use of LSCs as foliage-like, drawing analogies to the process of photosynthesis.

This display table, built by Savio Projects and with graphics designed by Madeline Critchley, encouraged users to consider what a renewable-powered, energy efficient Australia looked like to them. The table, which included quantum dots illuminated by ultraviolet light and demonstrator solar windows, allowed the public to get up close to the Centre’s research. Visitors could then scan a QR code, taking them to an online portal that explored the technology further, showing images and videos of how they are made and used in the real world. While access to the exhibit was interrupted by lockdowns, it is now on display in the University of Melbourne’s School of Chemistry building and can be incorporated into future outreach initiatives.

Another component of our National Science Week activities were free online public lectures. The first of these, presented by Dr Jessica Alves and Professor Timothy Schmidt, looked at how the Centre was helping Australia reach an energy efficient future. With a special focus on photoswitches that change on a molecular level under light, our scientists helped explain these key scientific concepts through demonstrations using everyday items. You can watch a recording of this lecture here.

Our second public lecture explored how researchers at the University of Melbourne had risen to the challenge of developing COVID-19 test kit components with the help of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). This featured our researcher Dr Nicholas Kirkwood as well as ANSTO scientist Dr Valerie Mitchell. You can catchup on this lecture here.

Our last National Science Week activity, specifically for high school students, were digital workshops designed to introduce students to the latest science surrounding renewable energy. These hands-on workshops, co-presented by one of our researchers, explored climate change and challenged students to think creatively about how they would use our solar technology to create a more sustainable Australia. Building on this, participating classes were sent a follow up inquiry-based activity around solar panels and what influences their effectiveness.

A return to in-person public events started with Solar city, smart city: Transforming the urban energy landscape. This public lecture, in collaboration with the Melbourne Energy Institute, saw Professor Anita Ho-Baillie and Professor Jacek Jasieniak talk about national and global trends in photovoltaics deployment and discuss what the next generation of solar cells will look like. Following an audience Q&A session, guests had the opportunity to speak with our researchers and network members over catering supplied by the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.

As always, our public engagement was not limited to lectures and this year we featured in the Australian Museum’s newest exhibition, Spark. Showcasing innovations that Australia is developing to tackle climate change, our luminescent solar concentrators and work with CSIRO on flexible solar panels were used to highlight advancements in solar capture. With admission free for museum visitors, an estimated 40,000 people got up close to some of our prototypes. Miss out? Check out the virtual tour here!

Built by game developers Mighty Serious in 2020, our arcade-style games (It’s On Like Exciton!) continued to reach and challenge new players. Featuring alongside other online activities for the 2021 Sydney Science Trail Online, our games were a highlight for fans of all ages who matched up quantum dots, built self-assembling solar cells and created lasers.

Collaborating with other Centres of Excellence, 2021 saw us once again sponsor and support the National Science Quiz. Organised by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers, the livestream event was hosted by Charlie Pickering and featured Professor Jared Cole as a returning panellist. On the night more than 1,200 participants tuned in from across Australia to compete for prizes and glory.

The Solar Cell Challenge, our major outreach program for school students, enjoyed its biggest year, with 285 students from across 18 different schools. The program saw students between Years 7 - 10 use the materials and instructions we provided to create a dye-sensitised solar cell—a simple device that turns light into energy. Schools were offered an introductory session from our researchers, who spoke in-class about the experiment at hand, the science behind solar power and what they investigate at the Centre.

While one aim of the challenge is to produce the strongest possible current through adjusting experiment variables, a big focus is on the students recording their results effectively and creatively communicating their scientific journey. The winners of the 2021 challenge from Murtoa College created the above animation—congratulations team!

With the VCE chemistry curriculum set to be updated in 2023, Exciton Science was invited to participate in a review of the proposed changes in a VCE Chemistry Study Design Review. Along with teachers and other educators, we provided feedback on the new study design given our experience in curriculum-linked school outreach and understanding of future chemistry career paths.

Science teachers are integral in inspiring students to follow and be well equipped for a career in STEM. Through working closely with teachers to understand their needs, such as reliable teacher resources, the Centre has continued support teachers this year. One such example was at the Science Teachers Association of Victoria Conference 2021, where the Centre Outreach Officer Joshua Ezackial gave a presentation to local high school teachers on this year’s theme of Science ‘in situ”: Sharing Our Practice, Our Research, Our Insight. While the nanoscience and theoretical physics studied by the Centre can at first seem abstract, the relevance of light, electricity and new materials to students was shown to be increasingly relevant. Teachers left with not only a better understanding of these concepts but also activities and case studies they could use in their classrooms.

Encouraging our researchers to find new and unique ways to communicate their research, our internal science communication challenge Sci-comm-odity returned, this year through a Centre-wide photography competition. Researchers were posed the question: when you think Exciton Science, what do you see? With 24 entries from researchers across the Centre, subject material ranged from geometric arrangements of solar panels to the glow of coloured lasers. Judged by an expert panel, photos were displayed at the Centre-wide end-of-year seminars in both Melbourne and Sydney. You can find our third-place winning photo above by student Paulo Simon, titled Beauty in something ordinary.

While running a routine NMR analysis, I noticed my molecule crystallising in the NMR tube. I’ve taken several hundred NMR samples before, but I will always take a moment and admire something beautiful happening in the moment. That’s why I love chemistry.”