Tom Steiner

• B.Eng (Mechanical); PhD
• Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor (Learning & Teaching) at RMIT University

The transitional education is increasingly becoming popular as it provides internationally recognised education at the doorstep of students. The reduction of government subsidies to Western universities has created conditions for looking for alternative ways to generate income to offset the financial short fall. As a result, the Western higher educ...

BACKGROUNDThe importance of interpersonal and teamwork skills within the engineering profession has been long acknowledged by various accrediting bodies around the world. To provide students with the opportunity to develop these skills, project-based and team-based learning is often implemented, however there is still little empirical data on how s...

The aerodynamic behaviour of oval shaped sports balls especially Rugby ball is considered to be complex due to its physical shape. Although some experimental studies were undertaken on Rugby ball aerodynamic behaviour, scant information on computational aerodynamic study for Rugby balls is available in the public domain. The primary objective of th...

Currently, serving becomes a dominant factor in tennis tournament as the ball travels faster and sometimes the returning player and spectators are unable to follow the track of the ball. As a result, the game becomes boring causing the spectator to lose passion for the game. The reduced speed of the ball can make the game more enjoyable. The unders...

The aerodynamics of golf balls is considerably more complex than that of many other spherical balls. The surface roughness in the form of dimples intensifies the level of complexity and three-dimensionality of air flow around the golf ball. Prior studies have revealed that golf ball aerodynamics is still not fully understood due to the varied dimpl...

This paper examines findings of a problem-solving skills survey conducted at RMIT in 2010-2011, involving 320 student respondents. It will discuss the following questions: (1) Are there any differences in perceptions of students from different schools on their problem-solving skills? (2) Do students perceive themselves as better problem solvers as...

Existing research on structural reliability affected by corrosion has a primary focus on structure failure due to inadequate residual structural strength. However, some corrosion-induced failures are not critically dependent on stress or fatigue: examples include leakage from fluid lines or containers, air cabin and landing floats, and/or degradati...

Corrosion has been one of the most serious safety problems in aviation, and the most costly maintenance problem. Contributing to the problematic nature of corrosion is the complexity of its mechanisms and the randomness with which it occurs. The reliability of a structure affected by corrosion is normally based on the forms of the erosion and its s...

An investigation of turbulent wakes was conducted and phase-averaged velocity vector fields are presented, as well as phase-averaged and global Reynolds normal and shear stresses. The topology of the phase-averaged velocity fields is discussed in terms of critical point theory. Here in Part 1, the vortex formation process in the cavity region of se...

An investigation of a selection of high-Reynolds-number bluff-body flows was conducted. Here in Part 2 phase-averaged velocity-field results will be presented for several far-wake flows generated by nominally two-dimensional and three-dimensional bodies. In these far-wake flows the shed vortices have approached a nearly constant convection velocity...

This paper examines findings of a problem-solving skills survey conducted at RMIT in 2010-2011, involving 320 student respondents. It will discuss the following questions: (1) Are there any differences in perceptions of students from different schools on their problem-solving skills? (2) Do students perceive themselves as better problem solvers as...