Two works by students, staff and graduates from the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning have been showcased in this year's Sculpture by the Sea Bondi exhibition.

Faculty alumna Ivana Kuzmonovska and current PhD student Rachel Couper joined forces to create the work Mirador stands, which takes a commanding position in an old lookout tower.

The artistically stunning and technically masterful Mirador is a 3.5-metre-high dome lined internally with mirrors. The shifting reflections created by the mirrors represent places that cannot be visited. The work asks us to consider the nature of looking and reflection, man and nature.

"Our design focused on the reflective surfaces. We wanted to repeat and multiply impossible places – the other side of the mirror, for instance. The combination of this effect and the sweeping horizon is a beautiful juxtaposition of man and nature," Kuzmanovska said.

Mirador was made by the Faculty's Architectural and Technical Services Centre. The design was previously developed in close collaboration with tutor Alexander Jung and structural engineer Harry Partridge, along with a series of performative spaces that Dr Dagmar Reinhardt researched with a team of professionals and students in the Master of Digital Architecture Studio 2011 for the Sydney Festival.

A sculpture by Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning staff member Kate Dunn is also featured in the Sculpture by the Sea. Her work, called Regenerate, is a series of playful sculptures reminiscent of seed pods.

The Sculpture by the Sea exhibition ran till the 4 November.

Jacob Taylor, the vice-captain of the Australian Rugby Union Sevens squad, is the winner of the NSW Rhodes scholarship for 2013.

Already a fluent Chinese speaker, Jacob is well ahead in the Asian Century. Prior to completing his BA Languages honours degree at the University in 2010, he studied at Peking and Liaoning universities in China.

He will take up his scholarship at the University of Oxford next year to study for a Master's in Neuroanthropology in the Centre for Anthropology and Mind.

In keeping with his long-standing engagement with Australia and China, Jacob aims for his innovative fusion of interests to assist in the forging of a healthy economic and political dialogue between the two countries.

His field of study – the emerging area of neuroanthropology – is the way the human brain and body interact within its physical, social and cultural environments.

"My focus is on sport in China and the way culture affects the way we use our bodies. The motivation is find out how we can better interact across cultures and how environment shapes the way we think and act," he said.

Jacob co-authored the Australia-China Youth Dialogue's submission to the recently released white paper on "Australia in the Asian Century" and he is also the co-founder of the Engaging China Project – a youth-driven, not-for-profit project aiming to ignite interest in China among high school students.

Each year, nine Rhodes scholarships are awarded in Australia to enable outstanding students chosen on the basis of exceptional intellect, character and leadership.

From the shortlist of this year's NSW Rhodes Scholarship, another graduate from the University of Sydney, Patrick Bateman – joint winner of the 2012 Convocation Medal – will go into the selection for the 'Australia at Large Rhodes Scholarship'. This will be announced in Canberra later this year.

Polling for the University's What Matters campaign, a public engagement campaign to find out what matters to Australians and people around the world, has wrapped up for 2012, having attracted more than 29,000 votes from 157 countries.

The University has now launched a new website summarising the results of the polls, which features an interactive map showing where votes were cast and what topics were most popular, top comments, and all of the videos featured in the campaign. Visitors can also contribute to discussion threads on each of the topics.

The What Matters campaign polled five key topics a month for six months, asking members of the public and the University community to cast their votes on what matters to them.

"What Matters provided an opportunity for us, as socially engaged scholars, not only to speak about our work with people we might normally not reach, but to speak about it with the passion and excitement we feel about what we do," said Associate Professor Danielle Celermajer, Director of the Asia Pacific Master of Human Rights and Democratisation, who was featured on the topic of preventing human rights abuses.

For law student Senthorun Raj, whose topic attracted more than 4100 votes, the experience reinvigorated his passion for marriage equality: 

"The overwhelming response to the issue of marriage equality was extremely encouraging and reminded me why issues of equality, citizenship, dignity and justice matter to a lot of people," he said.

More than 86,000 visits were made to the site, where 38 videos were watched 26,000 times. The most popular topics were marriage equality, solving climate change for future generations, reducing our environmental footprint and preventing human rights abuses.

The campaign also saw 6000 votes cast at a live polling station in Martin Place and another 6000 interactions in Chatswood and World Square over a two-week period in August.

Graduates will be better placed to lead major infrastructure projects around the world thanks to a record $20 million donation.

The personal gift from John Grill, the former chief executive of international resources and energy company WorleyParsons made the announcement at a reception in the University's Nicholson Museum, attended by around 130 alumni, donors and friends of the University.

The gift will fund the establishment of a new industry-oriented centre of excellence that will position the University of Sydney as the global leader in project leadership, helping Australia to deliver national priority projects in resources and infrastructure that will bring benefits to all levels of society.

"This is a truly visionary and transformational gift," said University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor Dr Michael Spence. "Mr Grill has had the foresight to recognise the need for a world-class centre of excellence to meet the demands of the future, and the determination to bring it to fruition."

The donation underlines the increasingly critical role played by alumni and other supporters in helping Australia's higher education sector to maintain and enhance its global competitiveness.

"This unprecedented gift will also help Australia to deliver national priority projects in resources and infrastructure," Dr Spence added.

Since graduating from the University, John Grill's leadership of international resources and energy company WorleyParsons has led him to work on many of the world's largest mining and infrastructure projects. This experience has given him the insight and drive to support the establishment of the new centre, which will attract senior executives across a broad range of industries from both the private and public sectors.

The John Grill Centre for Project Leadership will be a multidisciplinary and collaborative partnership between the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies and the University of Sydney Business School, as well as many other areas of the University of Sydney.

"I am particularly pleased that the University of Sydney will be the home for this centre," Grill added. "It has an outstanding reputation for academic excellence and professionalism and I could not think of a better institution on which to bestow this gift."

The centre's activities and programs will enhance the University's existing project management offerings, providing a learning pathway from starting a career in project management through to the leadership of multimillion dollar projects.