The Triple Helix
[ The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 1, No. 2
2 - 16 April 2007 ] By Dale Leorke
Students at the University of Melbourne have formed their own chapter of the prolific international undergraduate science journal The Triple Helix. The journal, which began two years ago at Cornell University in the United States, explores the impact of science on socio-economic, legal, political and technical issues. Melbourne joins the ranks of 28 other universities around the world, including Cambridge, Berkeley, the National University of Singapore and the entire Ivy League.
Kym Huynh, Australian Region Triple Helix Chief Operating Officer, says the organisation and its journal offers students the opportunity to develop a sense of university pride akin to other universities such as Harvard and Cambridge.
“We’re building relationships with people from Cornell and Harvard…to compete on an international level, and what better way to do that than to connect with all these institutions?,” he says.
Sook Jin Ong, President of the Melbourne chapter, says students will have the opportunity to become part of an international community and have their work propelled onto the world stage through the journal and its online archive.
“Students will get recognition here in Melbourne but all the articles we publish go into an international pool, so they are exposed to a global audience,” she says.
In addition to having the work of University of Melbourne students appearing in institutions all over the world, Melbourne University students will be flown annually to international conferences starting with New York later this year.
Founder of Melbourne’s Triple Helix chapter, Victoria Petrevska, says the concept has evolved into a forum for students to debate issues and exhibit their research to a broad community.
Victoria is currently studying Geomatic Engineering/Science and says she set up the Melbourne Triple Helix chapter to make university life about more than just attending classes and submitting assignments. “There’s no point in researching something if you can’t share this knowledge with others,” she says. “It’s important to communicate otherwise those findings are lost.”
Melbourne’s Triple Helix chapter also provides an environment for students to interact and put into practice organisational and communication skills learned at university.
Sook Jin Ong is a second-year Commerce student majoring in economics. Kym Huynh is an undergraduate student in Law and Commerce. They say The Triple Helix allows them to gain practical experience in an institutional environment.
Victoria says the design and global presence of The Triple Helix elevates community engagement and knowledge transfer to the forefront of university life.
“Establishing links with the community isn’t so much about sharing our results or telling them something. It’s more about engaging them into our world.
“There’s no one in this world that isn’t touched by science, it’s around us everywhere. In a sense we take that for granted and communities lack appreciation so through our science policy division we will engage the communities around us.”
Melbourne’s first Triple Helix edition will launch this month (18 April) at the 5th World Science Journalists Conference. The edition examines contemporary issues including the AIDS epidemic and the science of happiness.
Dale Leorke is a University of Melbourne Media and Communications student.
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