Melonie was recently named as a recipient of the prestigious Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarship in the Graduate category, being awarded $30,000 to undertake the research and travel for her proposed topic. The Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships (BHTS) bequeathed by the Estate of the late Byera Hadley, are administered by the NSW Architects Registration Board to enable winners to undertake a course of study, research or other activity approved by the Board as contributing to the advancement of architecture.

Melonie's topic is called Build/Ability: The Future of Construction Education - this project will investigate international and local models for teaching construction and fabrication principles, methodologies and technologies within university course programs in Architecture. The models to be investigated will be those where hands-on construction and/or fabrication projects are made available to University students, and/or where construction is taught as a subject and also as an in integrated part of the design studio program.