Swinburne University of Technology’s Team Suave has won first place in the National Instruments Autonomous Robotics Competition with its trained robot, Frogstar, beating 17 other university teams for the second consecutive year. [ + ]

Australia has been well represented in the shortlists of the 2012 Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Innovation and Excellence Awards, announced on 18 September. [ + ]

Konecranes has won a Mercury Award for safety and efficiency initiatives implemented for Austal, a designer and constructor of commercial and defence vessels. [ + ]

Weidmuller Australia celebrated its 40th anniversary with Australiana-themed luncheon party, complete with hand-picked local food and a bush band, at its headquarters in Emu Plains on Thursday 20 September. [ + ]

Bürkert’s mySITE solution uses the ‘Device Cloud’, integrating software, platform, infrastructure and devices ‘as a service’. [ + ]

Sullair Australia has announced it will represent its diesel-powered, high pressure air compressor range directly to the market place as of 20 September 2012. [ + ]

The market for control valves using electric actuators will double by 2017, according to IMS Research. The market for electrically actuated control valves will experience CAGR growth of 13.4% through to 2017. [ + ]

Shell says the operation of the refinery at Geelong is "questionable" given the challenges faced. [ + ]

Japan has announced that it plans to phase out nuclear power over three decades, cutting its use of nuclear energy to zero by 2040. [ + ]

Re-engineering the Master of Professional Engineering (MPE) program has earned the University of Sydney full accreditation from Engineers Australia. [ + ]

The National Instruments (NI) Autonomous Robotics Competition now has its 17 finalists. The student university teams will travel from across Australia and New Zealand to compete in the competition final at Swinburne University. [ + ]

Honeywell has opened an industrial automation engineering facility in the Huaming Industrial Zone of Tianjin in northern China. [ + ]

Swagelok Company has announced the acquisition of Innovative Pressure Technologies’ (IPT) assets for an undisclosed sum. [ + ]

The University of Arkansas will receive $279,425 over three years from the National Science Foundation to create distortion-tolerant communications for wireless networks that use very little power. [ + ]

Schneider Electric has entered into an agreement to acquire SolveIT Software, a scientific software provider that specialises in supply and demand chain optimisation and predictive modelling. [ + ]