Clive Maynard

Clive Aldrovand Maynard

B.Sc.(Manc), M.Sc.(Kent), SMIREE, MIEEE

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Major Interests:

Embedded Systems and Real-time Systems;
Mechatronic and Robotic Systems;
Industrial Automation Networks which ties together the previous areas;
Rehabilitation Engineering.
Use of Forth in development of embedded systems;

Recent Experience:

2004: Investigating the uses of computer clusters including creating a small (5 machine) cluster of dual G5 Macintosh computers. Further development of laboratory microsystems including the development of new 68HC12 based systems. Course Coordinator for the MEngSc in Electrical Engineering. Member of the Divisional Board for Engineering Science and Computing.

2003: I took long service leave and drove across Australia and visited Tasmania which was a beautiful place to visit. Highly recommended.
2002:At the end of the year I decided to take a break from being a Head of Department and then the School got renamed as a Department anyway so it was an opportune time to finish. Before that I was Head of the Department of Computer Engineering and also responsible for the coursework masters degrees of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
1999: For the previous three years I was an Associate Professor with the following responsibilities. The International Manager for the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering which has involved travel to China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. This has been a very interesting but tiring experience. In addition for the last year oI have been the Chair of the Faculty of Engineering Internationalisation Committee and also the Academic Coordinator for the Curtin University Campus in Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia. All this has been in additon to my role as Head of the Department of Computer Engineering at Curtin.

Prior to that I was the Acting Head of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering after the retirement of the Head.

Early 1990s: Software Manager for the ABB Projects Division, Perth. 1992-1993

I was seconded from Curtin University to join the ABB Projects Division team to develop Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems for the Water Authority of Western Australia (WAWA). I was Software Manager responsible for a team of engineers developing the software for the systems. Two major contracts were covered during this period.

The first was a SCADA system to control the Perth Metropolitan Water Supply System distribution network. The system has been installed and has been fully operational since late 1993.

The second system was the automation of the Western Australian Goldfields and Agricultural Water Supply system. This is the water supply system which pumps water from Mundaring (near Perth) to the Goldfields about 600kms east and throughout the Agricultural region of Western Australia. This water supply system has been in operation for 90 years under manual control and hence has very diverse characteristics which have resulted from incremental changes and maintenance activities throughout this period. The introduction of an automatic control system presented a significant challenge in system design. The solution has been to create an Expert System which adapts the control functionality to the physical and economic constraints of the various pumping sections of the pipeline. This particular project represented a significant challenge in the need to retrospectively apply modern control to a long established but functionally diverse system.

L.Lowes, I.Wiese, C.A.Maynard (1992)The Application of a Rule Based Expert System in the Control of a 700km Water Pipeline Control '92 Conference, Perth. Reprinted by request in the Australian Journal of Instrumentation and Control Dec. 92

Recent Postgraduate Students: Masters of Engineering completed.

Xingshuo Chen - Communications Protocols in Industrial Networks.
Vanaja Iyer - Verification of Scheduling in Real-time Systems.

Co-author of The Art of Lisp Programming with Robin Jones and Ian Stewart. Published by Springer Verlag

ISBN:3-540-19568-8 (UK); ISBN:0-387-19568-8(US)

I have also operated a consultancy business called "Wave-onic Associates" in Western Australia since 1978 and this business is the Australian Representative for Laboratory Microsystems Inc. FORTH software systems including WinForth and metacompiled Forths for embedded processors.

Founder member of Australian Robot Association. I organised the first Australian conference on robotics. I was the WA Chapter Treasurer for some years. Formerly I have been a member of the national executive and national treasurer of the association.

Additional information

I am an assessor for Australian Industry Collaborative Research Grants in the fields of robotics and mechatronics.
I am an assessor for the Industrial Design Council of Australia.
I am a reviewer for the Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineering Australia. (Published jointly by I.E.Aust and the I.R.E.E.)
In 1984 I designed and implemented a speech output scientific calculator system for the WA Education Department for supply to blind secondary students doing higher level mathematics units.
During 1983 I designed the computer control system for the 35 bell carillon for the Carillon Arcade in Perth.
During 1980-81 I was the Computer Manager and one of the researchers for the Skipjack and Billfish Assessment Programme of the South Pacific Commission in Noumea, New Caledonia which was set up to assess the stocks and fishing of tuna in the South Pacific. This involved analysis of the catch and effort of several countries including Japan within the regions of the South Pacific.
In between all of the above I have been an academic at Curtin University of Technology
Before coming to Australia I designed integrated circuits for the Marine System Research Unit of the Plessey Company in the UK.

My early years were spent in Cornwall where amongst other things I was a member of the Porthtowan Surf Life Saving Club.
I took a B.Sc. in Physics at Manchester University completing in 1965. I also took a Master's degree in Cybernetics at the University of Kent at Canterbury.

I have two sons (Justin and Andre) from whom I receive fantastic support and love.