Super labs, living labs and simulated crime scenes fuel UTS science education and research

A super lab accommodating 220 students, high-tech research technologies, a forensic crime scene simulation lab and a living "green roof" for biological research feature in the University of Technology Sydney's newest campus development.

The Faculty of Science and Graduate School of Health Building opened by NSW Health Minister, the Hon Jillian Skinner, last night is the third major building to open in UTS's billion-dollar City Campus Master Plan.

The building was awarded a highly prized six-star Green Star Design rating by the Green Building Council of Australia, making it the second university building to do so in NSW and only the ninth in Australia.

UTS Dean of Science Professor Bruce Milthorpe said the new building seamlessly joined with UTS's existing science building and contained state-of-the-art learning and research technologies and spaces and would provide scope for developing a distinct set of educational and research offerings.

Picture by Andrew Worssam

"One of the new building's many laboratories is a crime scene simulation lab, designed to resemble a modern city apartment, complete with kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and dummy bodies, to teach students to detect blood, fingerprints and how these may be hidden to conceal crimes," Professor Milthorpe said.

"UTS is one of the world's leading forensics education and research centres, working closely with forensics institutions overseas and with state and federal police in Australia to solve crimes and develop new detection and human identification techniques.

"Our new super lab is the only one of its kind in Australia, allowing us to run different classes, whether in physics, chemistry or biology, concurrently. It features stunning learning technologies to support the university's student-centred approach to learning that fosters interdisciplinary collaboration.

"The complex problems in our world today demand scientists to collaborate effectively across traditional boundaries in science and with other disciplines. UTS fosters both the professional and social skills that students need to operate at peak levels in the global work place.

"Our research efforts focus on delivering impact – results that effectively tackle the problems we now face in health and the environment, and here also cross-disciplinary collaboration has a big role to play."

UTS recently re-organised its five schools of science into just two - the School of Life Sciences and the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

"Our new science building is an important physical milestone for the faculty's ongoing evolution that complements a reshaping of our thinking also," Professor Milthorpe said. "Our two new science schools will break down old discipline silos, offering researchers and students alike the chance to broaden their experiences."

The new building's green roof includes a tree nursery and saltwater tank to grow algae, seagrass and saltmarsh plants, allowing research to understand how carbon dioxide is sequestered, solid waste and wastewater could be better treated and understand the impacts of climate change.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Attila Brungs said the new building and facilities further consolidates a decades-long investment by UTS to be a hub for innovative applied research and highly valued practice-oriented education in health and science.

The new building on the corner of Jones and Thomas Streets, Ultimo, overlooks UTS's revitalised Alumni Green in the heart of the campus. Its opening follows those of UTS's new Faculty of Engineering and IT and Business School buildings during the past nine months and an underground robotic library retrieval system.