Welcome to the fourth UQ Innovation Expo. This event will showcase The University of Queensland School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering's research, innovation and technology achievements by exhibiting the work of its research centres, postgraduates and graduating students. Over two hundred and thirty projects are being exhibited, covering research topics drawn from our strengths in Systems and Software Engineering, Complex and Intelligent Systems, Embedded Systems & Devices, Information Systems, Electromagnetics and Imaging, and more!  Additionally we are also pleased to highlight selected projects from UQ's School of Engineering.

Our school is among the leaders in Australian Information Technology & Electrical Engineering.  Our innovative research informs and shapes our teaching, and results in the highest quality outcomes from all of our activities.  This year we celebrate the restructuring of the school into the research focus areas enumerated above, and the award of several major new research centres, highlighted by the new ARC Centre in Complex Systems and CRC for Interaction Design, as well as extension funding for the CRC for Enterprise Distributed Systems and CRC for Sustainable Tourism. Such a diversity of names alone indicates the breadth of interests of researchers and students in the School.

Of particular note is the success of the RoboCup Junior robot building competition, in which teams of primary and secondary students competed to build robots that can dance, play soccer, or perform search-and-rescue operations. This year UQ hosted the RoboCup Junior Australian Open Competition, held at the UQ Centre on the 6th and 7th of September. School visitors to the Expo, in particular, should make a point to find out more about how they can participate with us in this wonderful activity in future years.

The School has continued its strong record in research throughout 2003. Over the past 5 years over $40M of funds have been attracted to the School and its affiliated research centres, a trend which I am delighted to report shows every sign of continuing, and which continues to provide our over 185 research students and 100 academic and research staff with the facilities and opportunities required for excellence.

Our strong links with industry and the general public are highly valued by the School, its staff and its students. This year UQ Innovation Expo is taking an important step by sharing the event day with the final presentations of the UQ Business School's Enterprize Competition, and truly showcasing both innovation and commercialisation at The University of Queensland.

As I walked around the exhibits last year I was amazed at the quality and variety of projects on view. I expect to be equally enthralled this year, as I'm sure you will be. Therefore, on behalf of the School, I hope you will find UQ Innovation Expo 2003 accessible, informative, stimulating, engaging and great fun!