EG Issue 2/2018

Issue 2/2018 Human interest How digital humans and thought-controlled technology are improving lives

Inside Rocket Lab What’s it really like working there?

Collaborate, innovate, create Building and Construction Minister Jenny Salesa’s plans for the sector

A lot riding on it

Auckland’s “unprecedented” rail upgrade

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Contents

In this issue

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16 06 Collaborate, innovate, create Building and Construction Minister Jenny Salesa’s plans for the sector.

10 A lot riding on it Auckland’s “unprecedented” rail upgrade.

16 Human interest How digital humans and thoughtcontrolled technology are improving lives.

26 Next stop: West Coast Making the most of the Coast.

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Features 10 A lot riding on it Auckland’s “unprecedented” rail upgrade.

16 Human interest How digital humans and thought-controlled technology are improving lives.

22 From the slide rule to the Singularity A Kiwi engineer reflects on saving lives, sustainability, and the advancement of AI. Engineering New Zealand L3, 50 Customhouse Quay Wellington 6011 PO Box 12 241, Wellington 6144 New Zealand P 04 473 9444 hello@engineeringnz.org www.engineeringnz.org GENERAL MANAGER – MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS Bridgit Sissons bridgit.sissons@ engineeringnz.org 04 474 8943 EDITOR Jennifer Black editor@engineeringnz.org DESIGNER Angeli Hudson ADVERTISING SALES advertising@engineeringnz.org 04 473 9444

26 Next stop: West Coast Making the most of the Coast.

32 Engineering: Is it women’s work? What our workplaces and universities are doing to get – and keep – more women in engineering.

Best practice 42 Taking fun seriously Demystifying the work of an amusement device certifying engineer.

46 Strengthen your resilience to stress Three great tips to use when you’re at work.

47 Case study: Individuals and systems While engineers work as part of a system, individual competence remains critical.

49 We’ve changed our assessment process Engineering New Zealand’s changes to the assessment process for Chartered Member and Chartered Professional Engineer explained.

50 What kind of future do we want?

Today’s climatic and environmental challenges require a new approach, but there’s no “magic bullet”.

SUBSCRIPTIONS hello@engineeringnz.org CIRCULATION ABC audited net circulation for the six months ended 30 September 2017.

New Zealand 11,410 Print ISSN 2537-9097 Online ISSN 2537-9100 PRINTING Your cover is printed on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) approved and elemental chlorine free (ECF) paper.

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Please recycle your plastic wrap – it’s New Zealand made and 100% biodegradable.

DISCLAIMER Advertising statements and editorial opinions expressed in EG do not reflect the views of Engineering New Zealand, its members, staff, or affiliated organisations unless expressly stated.

Shorts 52 Secret life of engineers A cyclist who hopes to represent New Zealand in Italy in August.

55 Day in the life Behind the scenes at Rocket Lab. 56 Bedside table A Managing Director’s “must reads” for work and beyond.

57 Preview 59 Obituaries 60 Engineering Genius

Engineering Envy #38

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What they said

Editorial

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Put diversity on the agenda

“When I was little, I loved pink and sparkles and ballet class… and power tools and building things.”

US author Jackson Pearce discussing her book for 8-12 year olds, Ellie, Engineer.

“The concept would be a little bit like Marmite or Vegemite where you’re eating a smear of ‘microbial goo’.”

Penn State researcher Christopher House on a process that converts human waste to astronaut food.

“It complements the revamp of our national professional engineering body really well and provides a great source of inspiring stories and topical subjects.”

Feedback on launch edition of EG from Heather Walker CMEngNZ.

“Excel spreadsheet” Nickname of French engineer Francois Gabart, a sailor who earned a world record for the fastest non-stop solo navigation of the world in December.

“I was the first African American woman to run a GM assembly plant, and it was no big deal. It didn’t feel like something odd.”

General Motors’ Alicia Boler Davis, US Black Engineer magazine’s Black Engineer of the Year.

Nau mai koutou katoa.

When I studied engineering, my peers were predominantly male. And while times have changed and there are many more women starting careers in engineering today, we haven’t come far enough. We need more women in engineering.

Diversity of thought is critical to a successful society and a profitable business. The engineering industry’s no exception. Genuine diversity of thought only comes through having a truly representative and inclusive culture. While gender is just one aspect of diversity, it’s a significant starting point. It’s time to act and pave the way for greater diversity across the profession. If we can make progress in terms of gender, other areas will follow.

Diversity is one of today’s most significant and compelling issues. It’s challenging and it’s complex. We know women are significantly underrepresented in our profession and when we look at senior leadership roles, the situation is even bleaker. Reasons cited include a lack of role models, opportunities and

flexibility, as well as pay discrepancies. We know diversity is good for business, with research showing gender diversity drives innovation and customer satisfaction, and it can improve a company’s bottom line.

So why aren’t we doing more to make it happen?

We want engineering and architecture to lead the way in promoting, developing and celebrating women in leadership.

We’ve partnered with the New Zealand Institute of Architects and the Association of Consulting Engineers New Zealand to lead The Diversity Agenda, an industrywide initiative to increase the number of women in engineering and architecture by 20 percent by 2021.

The word “inclusion” is integral to addressing diversity and I believe creating an environment that’s more flexible for people from all cultures and backgrounds – be they women, men, mothers, fathers, or sons and daughters caring for elderly parents – is key.

Craig Price FEngNZ CPEng IntPE(NZ) President, Engineering New Zealand

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EG 2/2018

Collaborate, innovate, create Building and Construction Minister Jenny Salesa took time out from her busy schedule to tell EG about her plans for the sector under the new Labour Government.

When considering all the stakeholders in the building and construction process, including engineers, which parts of the system need your most immediate attention?

The whole sector faces a challenging period. Rather than single out one part, I want to promote conversations, collaboration and action across the building professions, which leads to a workforce with the right mix of skills to rise to the challenges.

You have a range of priorities in what’s no doubt a very busy role, how does building regulation and consent sit with your other priorities?

A priority for this Government will be to deliver 100,000 affordable homes over the next decade through the KiwiBuild programme. The main ways the building regulatory system can support KiwiBuild are by getting rid of obstacles and inefficiencies that slow things down, and by incentivising innovation and new approaches. I will be looking at both shortterm and long-term changes to building regulation and consent processes.

In terms of building and construction, what do you think is the ideal regulatory model, and what’s MBIE’s role in that?

I think everyone has distinct and important roles to play within the building and construction regulatory model and that the ideal model can only be achieved by the whole sector working collaboratively to ensure outcomes and objectives are met.

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For example, MBIE as the steward and central regulator looks across the industry as a whole and provides advice on how to ensure the system is high performing, while regulating building work.

Local Councils, as Building Consent Authorities, are co-regulators of the system and make day-to-day decisions on building work. Our building professionals and tradespeople provide expert advice and consumer services, while our occupational boards oversee the supervision of those professionals.

programme. MBIE will work with the Ministry for the Environment and councils, beginning with Auckland Council, to facilitate these changes.

I also intend to explore options to bring more innovations into the sector. This includes considering ways to rebalance risk and liability in the building process so councils are not driven to be over-cautious and are more open to innovation. I will also look at new and innovative ways of doing building consenting, including through digital technology or by using different

percentage of the engineering profession are women. In 2017, 7.3% of Engineering New Zealand’s Chartered Members were women. This is not good enough, and I would like to encourage more women into this profession.

I sit on the committee that considers board appointments for professions such as engineering and I hope to be able to help the diversity of representation on these boards to bring fresh new perspectives to the industry.

These are all distinct parts of the regulatory model that must work collaboratively to function efficiently.

models for large-scale development.

We are keen to see task-based licencing for specific areas of safety-critical engineering work, as a complement to our new Membership Pathway. Do you have any early views on that in principle?

It’s very pleasing to hear of Engineering New Zealand’s proactive steps to improve its Membership Pathway. I am fully supportive of ensuring that we find the right balance of regulation in our building and construction industry that is proportionate to the risks to public safety.

I look forward to discussions with officials and the sector regarding engineering work that is critical to public safety.

Are there any regulatory gaps you will be looking to fill?

There are some clear opportunities for strategic reform in the wider regulatory setting. This includes wider legislative settings to remove barriers and set the right incentives.

I am aware that regular maintenance of the performance requirements in the Building Code to ensure they continue to be fit for purpose is key in the regulatory settings. MBIE constantly monitors and refreshes the Building Code to reflect advances in research and trends in construction methods and techniques.

The current Building Code system is complex and can be difficult for sector participants (eg builders, engineers and designers) to access and understand.

I’m working with my officials to develop smarter pathways to simplify how people who need to use the Code understand, access and use this system.

It’s very pleasing to hear of Engineering New Zealand’s proactive steps to improve its Membership Pathway.

The regulation of buildings has generated a lot of debate in the past years. Does there need to be more of a central government approach to this?

Inefficiencies in the building consenting process can slow things down, so I intend to ensure the regulatory system facilitates the use of new building designs, methods and products, rather than presenting

In terms of diversity, Engineering New Zealand is committed to the next generation of engineers being more representative of Aotearoa. As Minister, what actions are you planning to show your commitment to increased diversity in the engineering profession?

Naturally, I would like to see the engineering profession become more reflective of the New Zealand society as a whole. Without diversity of representation, the diversity of ideas in this industry will stagnate. As a woman, and being of Tongan descent, I understand the

And finally, how can engineering professionals best support you in your new role?

I encourage and support involvement and collaboration. We are all aware of longstanding issues in our comparatively small building and construction sector.

I am working closely with my officials to strengthen relationships with the sector to help us maximise innovation and collaboration. These relationships can help smooth the traditional boom/ bust characteristics of our sector and to secure better outcomes for New Zealand.

I welcome the sector’s involvement in discussion documents and consultation.

I welcome innovative ideas and solutions.

Let officials know what you are seeing out there, how regulations are landing and where you see opportunities for improvements and enhancements.

unnecessary barriers to innovation. This will be an important plank in the KiwiBuild

importance of inclusion in the professions.

As it currently stands, only a small

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16 Human interest

22 From the slide rule to the Singularity

26 Next stop: West Coast

30 Sculpting a successful career

32 Engineering: Is it women’s work?

Features

10 A lot riding on it

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Concept drawing of the expanded Mount Eden railway station.

Image: CRL

EG 2/2018

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A lot riding on it WRITER MATT PHILP

Integrating new underground tracks and stations into Auckland’s existing rail network is a vast infrastructure project, “unprecedented” in this country. And it brings some significant engineering challenges, as Matt Philp explains.

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71m 130 20,000 625 cars 60 million vertical rise from Britomart to Mt Eden Station

special holes currently bored along project route

more people per hour will be able to access city by rail

potentially taken off the roads per six-carriage train

hours of saved travel time for road users over four decades

1. Excavation of the cut-andcover trench on Albert Street.

2. Tunnel boring machine,a key construction method.

3. Drone shot of the Customs St/Albert St intersection, November 2017.

Photos: CRL

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Feature

It’s a big undertaking, transforming the rail network that runs through the CBD of New Zealand’s largest city, while life goes on around it. The Auckland City Rail Link (CRL) involves the construction of two parallel, 3.45 km singletrack tunnels under central Auckland, and is budgeted to cost $3.4 billion. Due for completion in 2024, with a three-month tender delay announced in February, it’s New Zealand’s biggest infrastructure project by some distance – as you’d expect of an enterprise of such large ambition.

Not only is the CRL anticipated to improve the efficiency of the rail network, doubling peak capacity of the rail network through Britomart, it’s being touted as a catalyst for economic development and urban renewal. There’s an awful lot of expectation riding on those 1068mm gauge rails.

Complex challenges First, however, someone has to build it. By the close of 2017, preliminary piling and significant cut-and-cover work was in progress at Britomart station and nearby parts of downtown Auckland. But the major contracts were still in the procurement phase, following expressions of interest by five consortia. Whoever gets involved will face some significant engineering, and other, challenges.

The purpose of the CRL is to transform central Auckland’s dead-end rail network into a two-way system, with Britomart rejigged from a terminus into a through station, allowing for more frequent trains and a faster, more direct rail route into the CBD. To achieve it, the plan calls for a mix of cut-and-cover (for the shallower territory at either end) and bored tunnelling under the central city to an upgraded Mt Eden Station, where it will connect to the Western Line.

There will be two underground stations, one 11m below midtown near Aotea Square, the other, Karangahape Station, located 33m below Karangahape Road. Most of the construction will be done using a 7.5m tunnel boring machine, working from the southern end.

Steve Hawkins CMEngNZ CPEng, formerly Chief Engineer for Auckland Transport, is CRL Ltd’s point person for the delivery of the tunnels and stations, after spending several years in charge of developing the design. He compares the scale of the task to the Clyde Dam, a project of similar cost in present day dollar terms.

“In this case, however, it’s being built in the middle of the Auckland CBD, with all the complications that go with that,” he says.

One million cubic tonnes of soil will be excavated for the project. “We’ve done quite a lot of geotechnical drilling, and we also have data from a large number of boreholes from around Auckland that we input into the geotechnical

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model,” says Steve. “But we’ve also bored 130 special holes along the route of the project, and we’re still doing that, trying to reduce the risk of unknown geotechnical conditions.”

Most of the tunnelling is through reasonable ground.

“But it is variable. It’s East Coast Bays formation for the majority of the machine tunnelling, then north of Customs St we’re into old reclamation, while up at Mt Eden Station we’re into the volcanic flows, the basalts. It is very hard

We decided a long time ago that we would like the contractors’ input not only on constructability, but also design innovations.

——Steve Hawkins

rock there, maybe up to 10 times that of concrete.”

There are other complications. To get to Mt Eden from track level at Britomart involves a rise of 71 vertical metres, says Steve. “The new electric trains can go up a 3.5 percent gradient, so we’re pretty much on maximum grade all the way through, apart from the stations, which we’ve managed to keep level.”

The successful tenderers will have plenty of scope to devise solutions to these and other issues, he adds.

“We decided a long time ago that we would like the contractors’ input not only on constructability, but also design innovations. We’ve taken design detail only up to about a 40 percent stage – we call it a ‘reference’ design.”

Sustainable infrastructure That said, there are tight expectations around aspects such as environmental and social sustainability, with CRL Ltd declaring it wants to set the benchmark for delivering sustainable infrastructure in New Zealand.

“Due to the scale, we have the opportunity to really drive change in the infrastructure sector,” says Principal Sustainability Advisor Liz Root. “We’re challenging people to think a bit differently.”

In the absence of any local equivalent, CRL Ltd

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>> ——training truck drivers to drive more efficiently to reduce fuel use ——sending demolished concrete to be crushed and reused.

It is also anticipated the CRL will deliver a win for the environment by encouraging more Aucklanders to opt for public transport. An additional 20,000 people per hour will be able to access the central city by rail once the link is up and running. CRL Ltd notes that a six-carriage electric train potentially takes 625 cars off the road, and that every trip not taken by car reduces associated emissions by 89 percent.

Just how much of a dent the link can make on traffic

CRL estimates it needs about 600 general construction workers with an estimated 1,600 jobs at the peak of works. Photo: CRL.

congestion in a rapidly growing Auckland remains to be seen. The business case cites a relatively modest 60 million hours of saved travel time for road users over four decades, and discounted decongestion benefits of $14 million. In other words – and not surprisingly – it’s no silver bullet.

But it will be a major catalyst in increasing the passenger capacity of the heavy rail network, itself just one part of the multi-modal public transport service being rolled out in response to the rapid growth of the region’s population.

“Unprecedented” in this country has adopted the rating framework developed by the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA), but with New Zealand adaptations. Maori cultural values, for example, have been incorporated into that framework, and Te Ao Maori principles feature in the design of the stations. There is also an effort to develop training and employment opportunities for young, less-advantaged members of the community.

In terms of environmental management, CRL Ltd has set an “aspirational” goal of zero waste going to landfill.

Perhaps more realistically, it is targeting “excellent” ISCA ratings, and has introduced comprehensive monitoring and reporting requirements. Every month, construction teams track their energy, materials and water use, as well as waste, and report regularly.

Some specific measures taken so far to reduce the impact of the project include: ——reducing water use by recycling water from the Chief Post Office piling works ——switching from diesel generators to grid electricity during construction, reducing associated carbon emissions by about 85 percent ——specifying reusable polystyrene blocks rather than crushed concrete backfill for some of the prep work at the Chief Post Office

Simon Wood FEngNZ, Chair of the New Zealand Chapter of the Railway Technical Society of Australasia, describes the task involved in integrating the new underground tracks and stations into Auckland’s existing rail network as “unprecedented” in this country. But it’s a job worth tackling, he stresses.

“The ongoing benefits to Auckland from unlocking the capacity of the rail network and providing direct access to the CBD will be experienced for decades to come.”

Meanwhile, preliminary work continues. To what degree is the approach being taken on the CRL uniquely Kiwi? The stations will be unmistakably of this place. But the scale and nature of the project demand an international effort.

“This thing is so big, we can’t do it by ourselves,” says Steve Hawkins, who points out that we haven’t built a lot of rail tunnels in this country recently. “Right from the start we’ve had consortia of locals and internationals involved.”

It’s also necessarily a multi-disciplinary endeavour, Steve says. “At the end of the day, what we are building here is a system. There are plenty of precedents for projects that have had the construction completed successfully, but have had the railway opening delayed because of system failures. So this is very much a multi-disciplinary deal, involving civil and structural engineering, electrical, mechanical, architectural and so on. It’s a big job just to integrate all those disciplines.”

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EG 2/2018

WRITER MATT PHILP

Human interest As the interaction between humans and machines continues to advance, lives can be improved – for some, immeasurably. EG talks to two New Zealand startups using creative engineering solutions such as thought-controlled technology and digital humans aimed at making life easier and better for all.

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James Pau and Dmitry Selitskiy of ThoughtWired assessing EEG data, used to operate their nousTM software. Photo: Thought-Wired

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Sarvnaz Taherian knows all about the power of the mind.

Wearing a brain-sensing headband with a single sensor on her forehead, the co-founder of Auckland-based hitech startup Thought-Wired is able to tweet, update her Facebook status or browse the Internet all without raising a finger.

“Basically anything I want to do with a keyboard and a mouse can be enabled by this technology,” she says.

Welcome to the world of BCI, or Brain Computer Interface technology, which promises to endow us with the ability to control our immediate worlds with nothing but our thoughts.

It’s a scenario that has been dreamed of since 1924, when German psychiatrist Hans Berger first recorded the electrical activity of a human brain via electrodes placed on the scalp. The dream got a boost in the 1960s, thanks

Taking brain-sensing technology out of the lab and into the lives of disabled people raised significant hurdles.

As James Pau, the third of Thought-Wired’s three cofounders, puts it: “BCI is a technology that has been around more than 50 years, and there’s a reason why it hasn’t made it into everyday mainstream use.”

James, a former Mechanical Engineering Research Fellow at the University of Auckland, says the innovations behind nousTM aren’t that technical.

“A lot of the challenges we had to overcome to get to this point were more about usability.”

The key was to simplify the user interface. And the breakthrough to achieving that came when they realised they needed to change tack.

“Initially we started with a machine-learning approach, but we flipped that on its head, so it now relies on training

to neurophysiologist William Grey Walter’s work identifying brain activity associated with particular physical movements. Then this century, the first brain-sensing headbands appeared, capable of registering signals and sending them to a computer.

For diehard gamers, the potential uses are obvious.

The founders of Thought-Wired, however, are driven by a loftier purpose: they want to use BCI technology to help disabled people who can’t move or talk to communicate using their minds.

“Making their lives better is our main motivation”, says Sarvnaz.

It’s a theme that recurs among many of New Zealand’s most cutting-edge new technology ventures, this goal of improving people’s lives through innovative engineering solutions. Take the Auckland-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) startup Soul Machines, for example. The company’s first virtual assistant, an avatar called “Nadia”, was developed to help disabled people navigate Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) website (more on Soul Machines later).

In the case of Thought-Wired, the venture was born when co-founder Dmitry Selitskiy saw a demonstration of brain-sensing hardware and recognised its potential to help a young cousin with severe cerebral palsy.

The family had tried just about every type of assistive technology to help the child communicate, but with no luck – the body wouldn’t cooperate. Could harnessing the mind be the answer?

Several years and many iterations later, the company is on the verge of commercial release. At the heart of Thought-Wired’s innovation is software called nousTM, which teaches the user to control their thought patterns and select “yes” or “no” options on a computer or device screen.

What will it bring for its users? Ultimately, it is hoped, all manner of things, from home automation to the use of

the person using nousTM in how to produce the brainwaves required for our system,” says James. The whole development approach has been web-driven.

James describes the required state as being almost meditative, involving complete focus.

“It’s different for each person, but after enough practice it becomes almost second nature – like muscle memory.”

motorised wheelchairs. “But our first use case is to enable communication,” says Sarvnaz.

Like Thought-Wired, Soul Machines is intent on making lives easier by improving the human-computer interface,

BCI is a technology that has been around more than 50 years, and there’s a reason why it hasn’t made it into everyday mainstream use.

——James Pau

It’s early days, and there is much more improvement required to make the hardware more sensitive and precise, and the software more responsive and personalised. But for the six million people globally who can’t move or speak because of severe disabilities, but have healthy minds, the prospect of being able to communicate is growing more real by the day.

Developing digital humans

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1. Sarvnaz with Emma Moore, testing one of ThoughtWired’s early prototypes.

2. Screen shot of a communication app within nousTM, where the user is choosing between “Yes” or “No” options.

3. Dmitry, James and Sarvnaz using one of the latest brain-computer interfaces.

Photos: Thought-Wired.

Sarvnaz Taherian will be speaking at Engineering : : Innovation on 16 March.

Find out more at engineeringnz.org

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Rachel Love Emerging Professional Member BASED IN: Auckland ROLE: Conversation Engineer, Soul Machines EDUCATION: Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) (Biomedical), University of Auckland, 2017

EG 2/2018

albeit with a very different twist. A 2016 spin-out from the University of Auckland’s Bioengineering Institute, it’s a company of biomedical engineers, artificial intelligence researchers, neuroscientists, artists and others, focused on creating lifelike “digital humans” to humanise the interface between people and machines.

As well as “Nadia”, developed for the Australian NDIS, the rollout so far includes an interactive infant prototype known as “BabyX”, a virtual customer service agent called “AVA” designed for US software outfit Autodesk, and “Sophie”, created in partnership with Air New Zealand as an experiment to explore how AI might be used to help travellers.

The common theme to all of these creations is that they are, to a greater or lesser degree, emotionally intelligent, imbued with the ability to “read” emotions by analysing

What do you see yourself working on in five years, given AI is so fast moving?

I would like to have embarked upon, and hopefully completed, some post-graduate study in that time. I’m very interested in exploring human interaction further – the silent cues we send as well as the verbal ones, and how that plays into creating an emotional connection. I’d love to still be involved in the AI space, though in five years

an individual’s facial and vocal cues, and to respond in an appropriate, engaging way.

Rachel Love has been involved in the project since the second year of her biomedical engineering studies at Auckland, when she picked up summer holiday work at the Laboratory for Animate Technologies under its thendirector Dr Mark Sagar, now CEO of Soul Machines.

“I always wanted to do something that involved the brain,” says Rachel, whose first love is biology. “I didn’t want to do engineering until I learned that biomedical engineering existed. The Lab was trying to understand how the human brain works, and the fact they were combining neuroscience and engineering, and in a way nobody had before, I thought was the coolest thing in the world.”

When Soul Machines launched she joined full time, initially as an Avatar Engineer (the company now prefers the term “digital human” to avatar). The job was an eclectic one, involving her at times in animation, voice technology and Emotional Markup Language.

More recently, she’s evolved into a Conversation Engineer, a more specialised role that involves developing the content a digital human can talk about in a given context.

“We’ll ask, ‘What are the logical things they need to provide answers to? Does the answer need to be broken down into nuggets?’ It deals with content, and with all the potential ways that a conversation can go wrong and how you can get it back on track.”

It’s not a role she envisaged when she began studying engineering – indeed, the job didn’t exist at the time.

“But I’ve found engineering is a really good background, because so much of what we do here is about problem solving, finding solutions to unique problems.

“For engineers coming through uni at the moment, it is a really exciting space to be involved in,” adds Rachel, who stresses Soul Machines is constantly recruiting. “It’s fun,

I’d expect it to have changed a lot. If I’m still involved with people playing at the leading edge, I’ll be happy.

it’s new and it is dealing with problems we haven’t had to think of before.”

Why did you become an engineer?

I’m passionate about creative problem solving, which is what I believe engineering boils down to, regardless of the discipline. Biomedical engineering allows me to explore the field of biology and medicine from a technical and mathematical perspective, which really rolls all my interests into one degree.

What’s been the biggest challenge?

Given that biomedical engineering in general, and my role as a Conversation Engineer in the AI space in particular, are relatively new, it’s been a challenge to figure out exactly where I fit in the engineering landscape. I’ve had to adjust my expectations of what I might be working on as a graduate, and accept the non-traditional trajectory for what it is – exciting and scary in equal measure.

What’s been the most exciting thing you’ve worked on?

Hands down it has been seeing my digital self “come to life”. It’s such a unique position to be in, and though it is a bit bizarre to interact with myself on a daily basis, it’s also a huge amount of fun.

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Labour of Love As well as building digital humans, Rachel Love has been the model for one.

Named after her, the “Rachel” avatar was created in 2016 as “a kind of guinea pig” to develop and refine the technology.

What’s it like engaging with your digital alter ego? “Great/weird. The funny thing is realising all the personal tics you have,” she says, adding that after more than a year she now has enough distance to interact with “Rachel” as a separate entity.

“It has been a great learning exercise in how humans express themselves and communicate.”

1. Soul Machine’s “Sophie”, a digital human created in partnership with Air New Zealand, is modelled on Rachel Love.

2. Customer service agent “Ava” in development.

Photos: Soul Machines

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It’s certainly a fast-developing industry, AI, with plenty of deep-pocketed global competition. Soul Machines’ edge rests in the naturalistic appearance of its digital humans, the sense you get of a fully-formed persona, as well as the effectiveness with which they learn from every new interaction.

The company’s big innovation lies in the way it marries cutting-edge technology with deep research into the workings of the human brain. As the website puts it, “We use Neural Networks that combine biologically-inspired models of the human brain and key sensory networks to create a virtual central nervous system we call our Human Computing Engine”.

The result is a digital human able to respond dynamically and naturally to its human interlocuter, while delivering the appropriate information.

“The idea with all our projects is to make people’s interactions with computers better and easier, enabling a natural, face-to-face, more human-like experience,” says Rachel, who cites the NDIS example. “For those disabled users, it was a massive advantage to have a face on a screen that they could interact with, rather than getting frustrated and feeling isolated, while struggling with the keyboard and the bureaucratic process.”

What’s next? While the company has made a lot of headway, there’s still plenty of development to come, from the way these digital humans look, to the way they talk, interact and engage, to the way they deliver new services and experiences.

“There’s always ways to improve performance so that they truly do engage and respond like a digital representation of a human, while also being upfront about the fact that they are not human.”

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ďż˝ Adrian Malloch

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From the slide rule to the Singularity WRITER JENNIFER BLACK

Through his work in 126 countries with the United Nations, Kiwi engineer Ron McDowall became a world expert in hazardous toxic waste. But it took a heavy physical and emotional toll and nowadays he prefers to focus on the future – particularly sustainability and the Singularity.

Once there was a Kiwi engineer who saved millions of people from poisonous chemicals and the Queen gave him a medal in recognition of his great work. But as this is a true story, the “happily ever after” has some brutal caveats. Night terrors. Flashbacks. An old gunshot wound that still gives him trouble. A cache of horrific memories so disturbing he has never even told his wife.

When asked nowadays, Dr Ron McDowall ONZM FEngNZ CPEng IntPE(NZ) simply tells people he’s a professional engineer.

“But I’m a kind of multi-person these days – I still do engineering but I do a lot of teaching.”

The former Engineering New Zealand Board member teaches an MBA programme in addition to engineering and accounting, and jointly set up the Rutherford Business Institute, running courses for executives and consulting to large organisations and government departments.

“Because it matters”

But it’s through the United Nations (UN) work that he’s managed to help the most people.

His friend, the late David Thom FEngNZ, simply replied: “because it matters”.

While running an engineering consulting company in the 1980s, Ron got involved with dangerous chemicals and became part of a UN team of engineers and scientists removing hazardous waste.

“Our role was to go to developing countries and remove dangerous chemicals – pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, industrial chemicals and nuclear waste,” he says.

It was incredibly risky work.

“Of the 15 who were originally on the team, only three are still alive with the others dying from accidents related to the job. Some were kidnapped – particularly in Africa – some were poisoned by the chemicals they encountered, some were shot by terrorists in Northern Africa, one went missing in Northern Mali, never to be seen again.”

He recalls being in a physically and mentally bad way after one mission, in hospital back in New Zealand, questioning why he did this work. >>

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Hazardous toxic waste expert Ron McDowall on United Nations missions.

The hazardous waste was often the result of a misguided attempt at help. Western democracies donated vast volumes of chemicals, such as pesticides, to developing countries.

“Tonnes and tonnes of this stuff were then distributed all over these countries, such as Tanzania, then left in storage because nobody knew how to apply it.

“Then after about two years the stuff is passed its useby date and of course it’s dangerous as hell to humans.

It just remains rotting in these storehouses all over the country and generally forgotten about until it leaches out into the soil into the growing areas and people start dying.”

His biggest project was in the Cote d’ivoire in West Africa in 2006, the result of a chemical spill by a Dutch oil company.

He says one hundred thousand people sought medical treatment with awful skin lesions. “Children were dying, it was an absolute shambles.”

The team would fly to the affected area and work with European contractors who hired Russian Antonov aircraft filled with all the equipment for missions, including

from New Zealand – is shipped to France, where it is incinerated.

As for his most dangerous jobs, he cites Agent Orange projects in Vietnam and work with Hexachlorobenzene, which was “exceedingly dangerous – one slip of your mask and that was it”. And there were times when radiation levels were so high the team got “sunburnt”, suffering moderate radiation burns.

So how does he deal with the emotional and physical toll of the work?

“I always just look at what we achieved. We improved the lives of probably millions of people, all told… by removing those bloody chemicals out of their lives.”

diggers, loaders and trucks.

Ron says all hazardous waste material – even chemicals

through his science degree, Ron consulted with his father, a man he describes as “one of the world’s greatest critical

Suddenly Sweden Ron had always wanted to be an electrical engineer, but his career began earlier than he’d expected. In 1971 he was headhunted by a Swedish electrical company, now ABB, while building a high bypass filter during the second year of his electronics and physics study at The University of Waikato.

Unsure whether to take the role as he was only part way

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thinkers”, who died last year.

His father just asked him: “When do you leave?”

Within 10 days he was off, and he worked in Vasteras, Sweden for a decade while completing his studies in electrical engineering.

Ron spent much of his time in Sweden in a large, windowless room that was painted black from floor to ceiling, trying to predict the future.

“The idea was to cut you off from your worldly worries,” he says.

“We were going out 30, 40, 50 years and working out – postulating – what the world power grid system would need to look like so that we could backcast to the present and work out how to provide the equipment that such a system would require.”

Did they get it right?

One hundred thousand people sought medical treatment with awful skin lesions. “Children were dying, it was an absolute shambles.”

“Did we what,” he says, particularly regarding a protection system for the world’s big power networks, the design of which was inspired by static from a transistor radio. But while the idea was foresighted in the 1970s, it couldn’t be designed until the dawn of integrated circuits.

there won’t be enough resources. But individuals alone can’t influence this paradigm shift – entire systems need to change.

Take lighting, for example.

“In the future there’ll be a photon capture unit on the roof that captures photons from the sun all day long and spreads them through the building at night when you need it.”

Or food and drink.

“If you go and drink a can of Coca-Cola it won’t be a can… there’s no aluminium left in 2050. It’ll be a nanosurface of the Coke itself so as you drink the Coca-Cola, you drink the can.”

He talks of food with pull tabs – one to freeze the item, such as a pie, the other to heat it.

And in the future there’ll be no plastic. Ron suggests wool could be the fibre of the future. He’s supervising a PhD student who is studying the future of strong wool, and a black room will be set up as part of the research. There, a question will be posed, such as: “It is the year 2052. Strong wool cannot meet the demand for the fibre. What is the fibre being used for?”

Learning and teaching After 10 years in Sweden, Ron returned home and cofounded a consulting management and engineering company. In the mid 1990s he started a PhD in Engineering Management at The University of Waikato and began teaching part time at the University of Auckland.

He helped establish a Masters programme in the Faculty of Engineering focused on sustainability, complexity, engineering and management. In 2007 he joined the Faculty of Business to teach an MBA programme.

He doesn’t believe the way universities are teaching engineering is keeping pace with the ever-changing world.

“They are still all hammering the principles of engineering, math modelling and so on.”

While that is still required, algorithms are everywhere now, he says, predicting artificial intelligence will advance to such a degree “even a non-civil engineer will be able to design a structure by simply saying it needs to occupy this space and do this, and artificial intelligence algorithims will fully determine the design”.

Engineers need to be critical thinkers and high-stakes decision makers, Ron says, and they need to be taught how to make great judgement calls.

Transistors and transitions

Ron used to worry about sustainability, until he realised it was inevitable.

“Sustainability must happen. It has to come, whether you like it or not.”

He tells engineers sustainability is complex.

“If it wasn’t we would have resolved it by now.”

While it seems like Ron has seen it all, he’s still keen to see more. When he started his career, all calculations were done on slide rules and there was valve technology.

“And as I come to the end of my career, which I hope is another 10 years from now, we’re going to be into artificial intelligence and the Singularity.”

The Singularity is the point when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence, something Ron has been studying since he began his PhD. He predicted the Singularity for roughly 2030, which is on par with the thinking of leading futurists.

“My career has occupied the entire spectrum of electronic systems, all the way to the internet of things to

He believes everything needs to undergo a paradigm shift – products won’t exist as they do now because

the Singularity. I’m expecting before I shuffle off this planet that I will see the Singularity.”

“Sustainability must happen.”

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Next stop: West Coast

Making the most of the Coast

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WRITER JENNIE CLARKE In 2016, tourism growth on the West Coast hit 11 percent, more than any other region in the country.

And with annual tourism spend predicted to rise 8 percent by 2021, it’s good news for a region facing uncertainty in its traditional economic drivers (particularly the extractive industries) and a huge clean-up bill after ex-tropical cyclones Fehi and Gita in February.

Engineering a Great Walk

Population

32,148 Area

23,276km

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Engineering New Zealand branch membership Longest branch geographically Smallest (but very active!) branch numbers-wise

Did you know?

The West Coast is the wettest area of New Zealand, but the area to the east of the mountains, just over 100km away, is the driest.

Consider the Department of Conservation’s $10 million, 55-kilometre Blackball-to-Punakaiki Paparoa Track and adjacent 10.8km Pike29 Memorial Track, to be built as a memorial to the 29 men who died in the 2010 Pike River Mine tragedy. Due for completion in April 2019, it’ll be the country’s 10th Great Walk (think Heaphy, Routeburn, Abel Tasman and the like). It’s the first constructed since the Great Walk branding launched in the early 1990s and the first designed to be shared by walkers and mountain bikers.

The tracks are set within Paparoa National Park, 430 square kilometres of coastal forest, limestone cliffs and canyons, caves and underground streams stretching to the peak of the Paparoa Ranges.

Every step of the way, engineering solutions have been key. These range from establishing route feasibility through a LiDAR survey, on-ground track survey and alignment, and final track design, to geotechnical evaluation of hazards and risk assessment for contractors, future visitors and the asset itself. Four timber and stainless steel suspension bridges, with spans ranging from 35m to 65m, have been designed and two new huts required site and soil investigations, structural design (think wind zoning and snow loading), and provision of services, including wastewater treatment.

Ensuring minimal environmental impact from track construction drove design, as did achieving consistency in terms of build, aesthetics, and footprint. Userfriendly drawings incorporate detail ordinarily found in specifications – a one-stop shop for contractors working in the inaccessible back country. They include details on clearing – how do you excavate and reinstate in a way that looks like no one’s been through with a digger? – and managing water flow to minimise scouring and erosion in a very high rainfall.

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Engineering community Meanwhile, in the small coastal settlement of Punakaiki, a 200m sea wall extension has been constructed, after severe erosion in 2016 saw the beach campsite lose 11 metres of land to the sea. Located just 700m from the famed Pancake Rocks (and their half a million annual visitors), the camp’s infiltration gallery and sewerage system was under threat; if the sea advanced further, the site would no longer be viable. An unhappy state of play considering the township’s soon-to-be status as stepping-off point for the Paparoa Track. The wall was completed a week before Christmas 2017 and was unaffected by the early Feburary storm.

Engineering flood prevention In a similar vein, 217km south, the glacier town of Franz Josef hugs the south bank of the flood-prone Waiho River and is at the centre of a step-change in flood prevention planning.

In 2016, a major LiDAR survey of the river’s flood plain provided the first detailed model of its conical fan surface.

It meant engineers could finally see what it looked like before human intervention, and how existing stop banks were affecting natural river processes, as well as predict how it might respond in the future.

While changes in rainfall and snow melt greatly affect the river’s water flow, river bed aggradation is an ongoing and major problem, necessitating longer, higher and more costly flood protection works. The existing Bailey bridge has been lifted twice and currently sits 7.5m above the original suspension bridge level.

The challenge is selecting and designing the most costeffective future protection works, and managing the many millions of dollars of existing flood protection measures with increased certainty.

In 2016, the Waiho River broke its banks, carving a new channel 1km north of the township, flowing through a major tourist hotel (safely evacuated) and creating havoc with the township’s wastewater treatment ponds. The Coast’s single access road, State Highway 6, crosses the river and runs beside it, so any road-closing flooding event has a massive impact. This project is about managing those risks with far greater confidence.

The existing Bailey bridge has been lifted twice and currently sits 7.5m above the original suspension bridge level. generates 1.7 megawatts. It supplies the surrounding rural area of Lake Moana, the Arnold Valley and the Gloriavale Christian Community at Haupiri.

One hundred kilometres south, just inland of Harihari, is the slightly more accessible 2013-commissioned 7.6 megawatt Amethyst Hydro Scheme (a joint venture between West Coast distribution network owner, Westpower, and Harihari Hydro Ltd). Generating up to 55 gigawatt hours annually, the station is able to supply the entire South Westland load, even when isolated from the national grid.

Pre-Christmas, with no substantial rain for four weeks, the scheme was still running at 40 percent capacity.

Engineering design challenges included construction of a 1.1km access tunnel through schist at a 1 in 4.4 grade (the steepest that can be driven using traditional techniques) and building the reinforced concrete intake without road access, requiring some 1,000 helicopter flights simply to place the concrete.

Engineering health care provision

Abundant water defines the West Coast. Then there’s the region’s mountainous topography and large river catchments, and run-of-the-river hydroelectricity generation. This involves diverting part of a river into a small settling basin that feeds into a penstock, increasing security of supply without the need for dam infrastructure and associated earthworks.

High up in the Hohonu Range, inland between

With one of the world’s major geological features, the Alpine Fault, on its doorstep, the rebuild of Grey Base Hospital has particular significance for the Coast.

Constructed in a piecemeal manner over a 20-year period from the early 1950s, the former hospital’s reinforced concrete structures pre-date current seismic codes.

Its demolition led to some services being relocated off-site, the demise of others, and a squash-up of the remainder while the new facility was constructed on the same parcel of land.

Designed to keep functioning after a disaster, the new hospital is effectively two seismically-separated structures: a four-level, importance level (IL) 3 main building, and a ground-level single-storey IL4 structure housing the new integrated family health centre. Geotechnical constraints presented some of the biggest design challenges.

Investigation identified the land was prone to liquefaction, so 15-metre-deep, 1-metre-diameter reinforced concrete piles extend into competent strata below the liquefiable layer. Flood protection measures included raising the

Greymouth and Hokitika, privately-owned and locally-designed and built Inchbonnie Hydro

level of the main building’s lower ground floor.

The new hospital is due for completion this year.

Engineering a power supply

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Thanks to the following contributing engineers and their associates – all Coasters to the core: Paparoa Track and Pike 29 Memorial Track: John Strange MEngNZ, Senior Civil/Structural Engineer, Stantec NZ Ltd; Tom Hopkins MEngNZ, Senior Works Officer and Jono Calder, Engineering Manager, Department of Conservation – Te Papa Atawhai. Punakaiki Sea Wall Extension: Paulette Birchfield, Area Engineer, West Coast Regional Council.

Waiho River Flood Mitigation: Mark Healey CMEngNZ CPEng, Principal Engineer – Rivers, WSP Opus. Run-of-theRiver Hydro: Rodger Griffiths CMEngNZ CPEng IntPE(NZ), General Manager Assets and Engineering Services and Tate Bradley CMEngNZ CPEng, Electrical Engineer, Electronet Services Ltd; Grey Base Hospital Rebuild: Jason Davidson CMEngNZ CPEng, Senior Structural Engineer, WSP Opus.

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1. Aerial shot of the Waiho River showing SH6 (red), existing stopbanks (yellow), ground contours from LiDAR survey (grey) and ground contours for ideal conical fan surface of the floodplain (cyan).

2. Project Director Tom Hopkins views a newly-formed section of track in the Upper Pororari River Walk. Photo: Department of Conservation 3. Rebuild of Grey Base Hospital. Photo: Canterbury DHB 4. View from the Amethyst Hydro Scheme’s upper tunnel, looking back toward the intake. Photo: Nimmo Photography

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Helen Trappitt CMEngNZ BASED IN: Christchurch

Structural Engineer, Shareholder and Director at Lewis Bradford Consulting Engineers EDUCATION: Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) (Civil), University of Canterbury, 2000 ROLE:

Helen at the “Call me Snake” sculpture by artist Judy Millar.

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Sculpting a successful career Beyond her day job, Helen Trappitt uses her structural engineering expertise to help create large-scale sculptures as part of the ongoing Christchurch rebuild and is

insurance claims, where I have met many people suffering, often unnecessarily, motivated me to use my engineering skills to give back to the city. In 2012,

Why is championing women in engineering important to you?

I have enjoyed being an engineer, but essentially, I stumbled upon it as an option

working to increase the number of women in engineering.

I approached sculptor Neil Dawson CNZM about designing a sculpture for Christchurch. Together we arranged for nearly all aspects of “Spires”, based on the lost spire of Christ Church Cathedral and currently installed in Latimer Square, to be carried out in kind. Lewis Bradford did the structural design and 20 other companies contributed services or materials.

in a brochure in a careers advisor’s office.

I hate to think capable young women are missing out due to a lack of awareness of engineering as a career path. I see it as my responsibility as a Director of an engineering firm to be vocal about pressing issues, such as the number of women leaving engineering within 10 years and the significant gender pay gap.

What are the key engineering challenges now for Christchurch, following the earthquakes?

The biggest engineering challenge I see now is a national one – it’s vital the rest of the country learns from what Canterbury has been through and implements pragmatic seismic strengthening measures to at-risk buildings in a timely manner. With the sophisticated state of modern analysis and construction techniques, the solutions are relatively simple. You could say that the engineering is the easy part. This is a political and economic issue, but engineers are very well placed to educate building owners and the public about the process.

What are some of the ways you help raise the profession’s profile for females?

I have spoken at a number of schools about engineering as a career and I am a mentor. I have also set up a scholarship for female engineering students at Canterbury University. One reason I’ve done so is because when I was one of 10 direct-entry Civil students in 1997, half were female and half were male, but in 2017 there were 10 direct entry students and they were all male.

Why did you decide to become an engineer?

As a teenager, I enjoyed maths, science and geography at school and in my spare time I was either outdoors skiing or playing sport, or at home making weird furniture/ art installations for my room. The idea of a career where I could eventually apply my favourite school subjects to design largescale structures was exciting and seemed like a perfect fit.

What are your main focuses in your role?

I’m overseeing a number of seismic strengthening design projects in central Christchurch. Three of these are heritage buildings we strengthened just over 10 years ago that came through the Canterbury earthquake sequence well, so we are strengthening them for a second time to an even higher level. Another focus is running our sculpture division where we do pro-bono work to help local creative groups such as SCAPE Public Art, CoCA, Gap Filler and FESTA. How did the Canterbury earthquakes impact on the way you approach your work?

The Canterbury earthquakes were something we had been preparing for all our careers, but when they happened it was surreal. Seeing the demolition of approximately 80 percent of the CBD

Who or what has had the most influence on the success of your career to date?

Excellent training at Canterbury University and the opportunities I have received at Lewis Bradford. My parents have also had a big influence on my success, encouraging academic excellence and displaying a tenacious work ethic. My late father advocated “girls can do anything” and

has had a profound effect on me. That, coupled with my work on residential

fostered my sisters’ and my curiosity by bringing home books on all sorts of topics.

What are the main barriers to more females choosing to study engineering?

The small number of women they can see in very senior roles in the sector. When I was at engineering school a lot of my fellow students had either a father or an uncle who was an engineer. Wouldn’t it be great if they had mothers and aunties who were engineers too?

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Engineering: Is it women’s work?

WRITER ALMAZ RABB

Most definitely. The argument for diversity is simple: diverse people generate diverse ideas, and diverse ideas are the building blocks for innovation. So what’s being done in the country’s workplaces and universities to increase the number of women in the engineering profession, and what still needs to be addressed?

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In 2017, the University of Auckland reported the number of female students studying undergraduate engineering had almost doubled in the past nine years. That same year, the Global Gender Gap Report found New Zealand ranked among the top 10 nations worldwide for gender equality, rising four places since 2016. But despite positive trends, there is still work to be done. The 2017 Engineering New Zealand Remuneration Survey found women only represent 3.4 percent of general managers across the engineering profession and, on average, full-time female engineers earn roughly $20,000 less than their male counterparts.

The 2017 Global Gender Gap Report also found that at the current rate, gender parity is more than 200 years away. International Women’s Day 2018 (8 March) urges every person in every nation to #PressForProgress and do their part for gender equality.

Lauren Croft

The pipeline

Emerging Professional Member BASED IN: Wellington ROLE: Design Engineer, Holmes Consulting EDUCATION: Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) (Civil), University of Canterbury, 2015

Recognising the need for more female engineers, education stakeholders around New Zealand are making efforts to direct more women towards tertiary engineering qualifications.

“About two decades ago, the engineering industry and its related professional bodies began to recognise the need for more women in engineering,” says Unitec Head of Engineering, Melanie Ooi. “Since then, a lot of effort and resources have gone into increasing the interest and awareness of engineering as a profession among high-school-aged girls.”

She says one of the biggest challenges is contradicting and even fighting the stereotypical views and perceptions that link masculinity to engineering and technology, adding perception is often stronger than reality.

“Programmes targeted at increasing STEM interest and aptitude of female high school students require collaborative effort from secondary and tertiary providers, engineering professional bodies, the industry and even government.”

Engineering New Zealand is currently revamping its schools’ programme to help get girls excited about STEM subjects at an earlier age.

University of Canterbury Engineering Professor and College of Engineering Associate Dean Philippa Martin says overall, tertiary providers are slowly making progress.

“Universities are getting better at showcasing the wide range of activities engineers are involved in,” she says, adding having female role models has also made a big difference. “Seeing that it is possible for someone like them to achieve success in engineering is very powerful.”

Despite the higher number of women now completing engineering qualifications, statistics show female engineers who enter the workplace don’t always stay for the long term.

“The retention rates of women in STEM are much lower than non-STEM

Why did you choose to study engineering?

Growing up I found that architecture, interior design, and engineered structures like bridges were interest areas. Only in my final year of high school was civil engineering introduced to me by a university lecturer as a possible opportunity to draw together all my interests.

jobs. However, I feel we have the power to change this and there is an appetite to improve this,” says Philippa.

and refining these to gain a suitable and sustainable solution for the client.

How many other women were there on your course?

There were about 30 girls in a class of 180 students.

What do universities need to do to ensure engineering is an attractive option for women?

Advertise the options within the engineering field to females at a younger age. Having young women grow up dreaming of, and striving for, a career in engineering will have a huge impact on the growth and retention of females in the technology and science industries.

What do you love about engineering?

The variety and diverse nature of the problems we solve. Each job considers the structural requirements as well as social, environmental and economic impacts >>

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Industry solutions Inclusion and diversity matter, and Engineering New Zealand’s committed to increasing the number of women in engineering. In partnership with the New Zealand Institute of Architects and the Association of Consulting Engineers New Zealand, the organisation’s launching The Diversity Agenda in April, with a goal of seeing 20 percent more women in engineering and architecture by 2021. It’s an industry-wide call to action addressing critical issues like promotion to leadership roles, pay equity and workplace cultures.

National engineering and design consultancy Harrison Grierson is one of the founding partners supporting the programme.

“Diversity brings diversity of thought and different ways of doing things into business, which strengthens our company,” says Harrison Grierson Managing Director Glen Cornelius FEngNZ CPEng IntPE(NZ).

“Our company is already doing a lot to engage and retain female engineers. We have a board of directors which is 50 percent female, so we understand the importance.”

Harrison Grierson’s commitment has seen the company adopt a number of diversity-positive policies, such as flexible work hours, up to 12 months of career break leave and a full-pay gradual return to work scheme following parental leave. Harrison Grierson is also working to get more women into senior leadership roles to help ensure that women are attracted to the profession in the long term.

“I’m involved in this because diversity makes good sense,” says Glen.

“Our industry is short on resources and good talent is hard to find, so we need to embrace diversity and everything it brings.”

Simonne Eldridge FEngNZ Auckland and Melbourne Sector Director – Energy Industry Waste, Tonkin & Taylor Ltd EDUCATION: Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) (Civil), University of Auckland, 1989 BASED IN: ROLE:

Why did you choose to study engineering?

Originally I started out studying medicine, but soon realised that I missed maths and physics, so I changed to engineering.

How many other women were there on your course?

Out of 70 students in Civil Engineering, seven were female.

What does the profession need to do to ensure engineering is an attractive option for women?

We need to make sure there are great female role models out there and that the work environment is supportive of women in engineering.

#20for2021

What was your biggest challenge moving from university to the workforce?

I lacked confidence and at times I felt that I didn’t belong or didn’t know my stuff.

What do you love about engineering?

To find out how your organisation can get involved email us at hello@diversityagenda.org

I love solving problems. Every day and every hour I have a new problem to solve.

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Five out front

High achievers flying the flag for women in engineering in New Zealand.

Term-time only contracts for working parents Global infrastructure firm AECOM is an example of a company putting initiatives in place to bolster the number of women in engineering.

It offers school-term-only contracts across a number of roles in New Zealand and Australia to encourage parents back into the workplace. The initiative was designed to encourage qualified engineers and scientists to return to an industry they may have left when unable to balance work and child care responsibilities. It allows parents or grandparents to spend all 12 weeks of the school holidays caring for their children while receiving a monthly pro-rata salary. A 12-month trial with about 20 participants began at the start of the 2018 school year.

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Dr Michelle Dickinson

Dr Mahsa Mohaghegh

Co-Founder - Nanogirl Labs PhD Biomedical Materials Engineering, Rutgers University, 2005 I set up Nanogirl Labs two years ago to help educate the public about engineering and to break down stereotypes around what an engineer looks like. As a social enterprise we create outreach programmes such as theatre shows and then reinvest the proceeds into local communities through teacher training and school visits, where we give hands-on engineering lessons that find a solution to a problem.

ROLE:

ROLE:

EDUCATION:

Lecturer, Information Technology and Software Engineering Department, AUT University, Founder/Director - She# EDUCATION: PhD (Computer Engineering), Massey University, 2013 As the founder of the women’s networking group She# (She Sharp), I take a lead role in facilitating networking events to allow the next generation of young women to see what it’s really like on the inside of software engineering companies, what kind of people are there, and encouraging them to think about possible future careers in this field.

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<<

3 4 5 Kennie Tsui

Sharyn Westlake

CMEngNZ CPEng IntPE(NZ)

FEngNZ CPEng

Senior Investment Manager, Science Contestable Investments, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment EDUCATION: Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) (Chemical and Process), University of Canterbury, 1995 Master of Business Administration, Victoria University of Wellington, 2003 I am very honoured to be Engineering New Zealand’s Wellington Branch Chair and also to contribute to New Zealand science and research, through which I am inspired by many talented engineers and scientists every day.

ROLE:

ROLE:

Team Leader, Investigations, Strategy and Planning, Flood Protection Department, Greater Wellington Regional Council EDUCATION: Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) (Civil), University of Auckland, 1989 Master of Science Hydraulic Engineering, International Institute for Infrastructural, Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, Delft, The Netherlands, 1995 I’m flying the flag for women in engineering through public service and a dedication to the greater good. I have sought to improve the connectedness of engineers and set up the Rivers Group to accomplish this. I have just been awarded the Arch Campbell Award from the Rivers Group for my “notable contribution over a number of years to the advancement of knowledge and practice in the fields of floodplain management and river engineering”.

Dr Emily Afoa MEngNZ Engineering Design Team Leader, Morphum Environmental EDUCATION: Conjoint BA/BE (Hons), University of Auckland, 2006 PhD (Civil Engineering), University of Auckland, 2011 I have combined my academic leaning with my desire to consult as an environmental engineer, through opportunities to lecture at Unitec, the University of Auckland, and supporting a Water Sensitive Design in Schools programme run by Auckland Council and Local Boards. I find these environments rewarding, as I can share my passion for water management with young students and open their eyes to opportunities in science and technology, while also exposing soon-to-graduate engineers to water sensitive options and a collaborative approach to stormwater management.

I was named CH2M Beca Young Water Professional of the Year 2017.

ROLE:

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Snapshot 6 February 2018: SpaceX launches its Falcon Heavy demonstration mission, carrying CEO Elon Muskâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tesla Roadster as the payload. Photo: SpaceX

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C

–Suite

What was your first job after graduation?

I was an engineer at the Housing Authority of Fiji.

Who has had the most influence on your career to date?

There have been numerous people – my supervisors and managers, my staff and my family and friends. In their own ways, in the appropriate situations and as opportunities presented themselves, I have been able to be guided and supported by many. This has given me comfort and confidence to venture beyond.

What is your organisation’s biggest challenge in the next year, and how will you address this?

The biggest challenge is always the need to provide appropriate leadership at all levels within the organisation and through the supply chain to achieve more with less. There is so much to be done, so many external factors that constrain momentum and urgency and, yet, customers rightfully expect that their services are improved and the costs are reduced.

How is Watercare addressing technological changes such as increased automation and artificial intelligence?

Watercare automated its water treatment plants in the late 1990s. It has been installing process automation and utilising technology to improve efficiency and reliability. In recent months, we have implemented robotic automated processes in our billing and credit management functions. The challenge is the growing threat of cyber security as we engage in the internet of things and the growing exposure of individual habits and behaviours that can be tracked. We need to build and retain trust by protecting the rights and privacy of our customers and their data.

Who is the engineer of the future?

The engineer of the future is no different from those of the past. They use technology to meet societal needs in a sustainable and ethical manner, while being cognisant of the capital and operating costs and affordability of those that they serve.

Raveen Jaduram FEngNZ Auckland, New Zealand Chief Executive, Watercare Services Limited EDUCATION: Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) (Civil), University of Auckland 1985 Master of Engineering, University of Auckland, 1998 BASED IN: ROLE:

What is the key attribute you look for in job seekers?

Their desire to own the job. Truly own the role even if the boundaries are not defined or prescribed.

If you were starting your career now, what key skills would you focus on?

Soft skills – EQ to balance the IQ. Also, listening more and speaking less, and being more collaborative.

45 Log on

46 Strengthen your resilience to stress

47 Case study: Individuals and systems

49 Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve changed our assessment process

50 What kind of future do we want?

Best practice

42 Taking fun seriously

EG 2/2018

42

OPINION

Taking fun seriously

Jack Mains FEngNZ CPEng is a mechanically-qualified sole practitioner based in Hawkeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bay, trading as Mainmech. With a rail and bus background, he has operated his own consultancy for more than 20 years, specialising in logging-industry safety structures, cranes, lifting gear, amusement devices and elevating work platforms. He has contributed to codes of practice and often investigates accidents across a broad range of activities and industries. He is on the committee of The Recreation Safety Engineering Group.

Best Practice

43

JACK MAINS Allowing people to think they could be seriously injured or even die by riding in or on a piece of machinery, while absolutely precluding the possibility of this actually happening, is one way of describing the work of the amusement device certifying engineer. But there’s a lot more to it.

Not all amusement rides are of the adrenalin rush, stomach-churning type.

The majority are very tame, by adult standards. To a child though, the little ride

Certifiers are mechanically and CPEng qualified because these rides are fundamentally machines, whether or not a cable wake-boarding, free-fall

their parents might not think is particularly attractive is all new, all excitement.

Because they are excited, and because they are just kids, they don’t always act the way we might expect. The amusement device engineering certifier needs to regress, in a way, and look at these rides through children’s eyes, anticipating how a child might behave both around and on the ride – and categorically ensure no harm can occur to those riding or watching.

Engineers of every discipline are used to performing risk assessments in all their work. These assessments involve factoring in the likelihood of an event happening, and its consequences, to enable a judgement to be made on appropriate mitigation or elimination of the risk.

“Mitigation” isn’t a word much used by amusement device certifiers – there is no such thing as an acceptable risk of injury.

This is not a job for the faint-hearted, and I’m not referring to the certifier riding the actual ride (very few do, interestingly – they’re usually more intent on observation from a fixed point or, perhaps just have weak stomachs). The typical amusement device certifier is 56, male, mechanically-qualified, CPEng qualified, and my experience shows they are sole practitioners rather than large consultancies.

The average age is relatively high because very few younger engineers are taking up this line of work. Also, a fair amount of life and engineering experience

skydiving simulator, flying fox or barrel train operation looks like a machine at first glance – and because they are requirements of the Amusement Devices Regulations.

Male, because no female engineers have ever considered this as a career choice, it would seem. It is high time female engineers contributed to this important (and endlessly challenging) public safety practice area.

Rides are categorised 1-5 by the industry Standard AS3533.1, perceived risk (not to be confused with actual risk) increasing with the number. A typical Category 2 ride might be a merry-go-round or a mini jeep ride. A Category 4 ride might be a Hurricane, found at most A&P shows.

High-speed, high-energy rides are usually Category 5, examples being giant swings and flying foxes. The Standards provide good guidance on how to design, operate, maintain and inspect rides depending on their category.

Where we find no guidance given is in the field of child psychology, not an area any of the current certifiers had a lot of training in at university. This is an important consideration and there are several competing forces at play here.

——The operator is in business and wants as much throughput as possible; they do not want to turn people (including children) away unnecessarily.

——Amusement device certifiers need to consider whether a child could be genuinely frightened by a ride. Child

is required, which probably pushes up the average age.

psychologists say trauma arising from a severe fright at a formative age can have

“Mitigation” isn’t a word much used by amusement device certifiers – there is no such thing as an acceptable risk of injury. serious implications right through into adulthood.

——The “my kid can do this” pushy parent/ caregiver.

Children are all different – what’s fantastic fun to one will be terrifying to another. Age can only be a rough guide to how robust a child is mentally, but it is the only criteria we can sensibly apply. At this time, we have no authoritative guidance on the matter, but not for lack of asking. We hope to get guidance from the industry regulator, WorkSafe, but in the meantime we do what engineers are trained to do, and apply a factor of safety. We are conservative with our minimum age requirements – perhaps overly so.

Next time you are accompanying a child to a fairground ride or the like, and see a sign stating a minimum age/ height requirement, be assured one of the Recreation Safety Engineering members (average age 56, male, CPEng etc) has thought long and hard about this and everything else that needs to happen to make the ride safe and fun.

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Best Practice

45

Log on DANIEL SCHEIBMAIR CMEngNZ

Why timber buildings could become kings of the urban jungle.

In countries with an abundance of timber, wood can be a logical choice for taller buildings. Recent roadshows by the Timber Design Society (TDS) focused on the use of timber in taller buildings and the increase of mid-rise and mediumdensity construction in New Zealand. While there is a general increase in mid-rise and medium-density construction, there is also an increased use of timber in these buildings.

Karla Fraser, Senior Project Manager at Urban One Builders in Vancouver, was a keynote speaker at the roadshows and spoke at the “Changing Perceptions of Engineered Timber” conference in Rotorua, jointly hosted by TDS and Connex Event Innovators. She project-managed the recently completed Tallwood House at Brock Commons in Vancouver, which at 18 storeys is the tallest timber building in the world, housing University of British Columbia students. Fears about moisture and fire risk in timber high-rise buildings meant the idea had been slow to take off, Karla says, and considerable effort was put into design and testing to assuage these concerns.

While not a “timber convert” prior to the Tallwood House project, she says the building highlighted the logic of using wood, particularly in countries like Canada and New Zealand, where there is an

able to grow a product you are using to build,” she says. Tallwood House was about 5 percent more expensive to build than a conventional concrete equivalent built on the same campus a few years earlier, Karla says. But she says this does not include construction time savings and other developer benefit factors which would certainly have made it the more cost-effective of the two options.

She says using mainly timber is environmentally friendly, and “we had a lot less waste than off similar projects… the wood buildings I do believe are smarter buildings, and it’s logical to use your local industry to support your economy and the people living there. It just makes sense.”

In a New Zealand context, those sentiments are echoed by property magnate Sir Bob Jones, who appears convinced of the speed, safety and environmental benefits of wood construction. His plans for a 12-storey, 52m-high timber office building in central Wellington would make it higher than the world’s current tallest timber office building under construction in Brisbane.

New Zealand’s good local supply of wood, manufactured locally into engineered timber, is a logical choice as principal material. And that’s not just for high-rise buildings, but for mid-rise and medium density, and commercial and industrial structures. This creates additional economic benefit in not only exporting value-add products, but

abundance of timber.

“There is definitely a benefit to being

also technical expertise in design and construction of these buildings.

I visited the Tallwood House project several times during its construction and was impressed not only with timber components of the structural skeleton, but with how timber, steel and concrete have been designed to work in unison, utilising each materials’ strengths. It’s great to consider that New Zealand may soon have a similarly tall timber hybrid building.

Daniel Scheibmair CMEngNZ CPEng IntPE(NZ) is immediate past President of the Timber Design Society. He is Technical and Education Manager for the Building Officials Institute of New Zealand and has worked in the timber engineering field for 15 years.

46

EG 2/2018

Strengthen your resilience to stress JACQUI MAGUIRE AND GAYNOR PARKIN

While experiencing some stress can be useful at work, helping motivate us to meet deadlines or performance goals, too much can negatively impact our wellbeing and our productivity. Here are three ways to strengthen your resilience to stress.

Spot the signs If you find yourself feeling stressed, ask yourself whether the stress is helpful right now (if it is, carry on), or making your day harder.

While each of us experiences stress differently, there are some common signs to watch for.

——Physical – body tension, aches and pains, breathlessness or agitation.

——Emotional – feeling overwhelmed, anxious or irritable.

——Cognitive – memory and concentration difficulties, having trouble seeing the big picture (tunnel vision).

——Behaviour – finding it hard to settle and focus, increasing caffeine and/or sugar, being less efficient with tasks.

You probably know your own stress signals, but if not, it can be helpful to track them. Next time you notice a surge of adrenalin or that you are feeling stressed, see if you can spot your personal signs.

Action recovery Consistent scientific research has shown we perform best and maintain stronger well-being when we experience stress or challenge for specific periods of time, then balance this effort with recovery (when we purposefully recharge our mental and

physical batteries). Oscillating between periods of challenge and periods of recovery is ideal, with planned and regular recovery as optimum.

Here are some good recovery strategies to try.

——Slow down your breathing – check you are breathing from your diaphragm not your chest and take slow breaths for a few minutes. This helps to flip your body and mind in a calm state.

——Unplug – take a “no technology” break – even five minutes is useful.

——Deliberately move more slowly – notice the urge to rush and resist it.

——Do something pleasurable – try a fiveminute quiz, chat to a colleague you like, or plan something you enjoy for actioning later.

Remember, if you feel like you are too busy to take a recovery break, it’s a sign you need one.

Prioritise wellbeing habits Psychological science tells us to set up and practice wellbeing habits rather than set goals – established habits require less mental effort and energy. Use your daily routines, and reward your wellbeing efforts to strengthen habits and make them stick.

There are a number of things you can aim to do every day to enhance your wellbeing.

——Sleep well – try relaxation exercises or a meditation app, herbal teas and light reading to wind down ready for a restorative sleep, and have a consistent bedtime routine (this tells your brain it’s sleep time).

——Eat well – choose the most nutritious foods you can as often as you can.

Carry plenty of high nutrient, energyenhancing snacks with you and stay away from the processed energy sapping choices.

——Move more – be as active as you can, as often as you can. Meet friends for a walk, swim, yoga or dance class.

Ask colleagues to join you for fresh air breaks, walking meetings or stair challenges.

——Connect with people who are important to you – talk, share experiences, offer support and ask for help when needed.

——Increase your experiences of positive emotion. Think of, or do, something that helps you feel grateful, content, hopeful or satisfied. These experiences help to buffer you when you are under stress.

Jacqui Maguire is a Registered Clinical Psychologist and Managing Director of Umbrella. Gaynor Parkin is a Registered Clinical Psychologist and founder and CEO of Umbrella.

Find out more Umbrella provides corporate wellbeing services with clinical psychologists committed to making a positive difference in the workplace by using specialist skills to enhance wellbeing alongside high performance. Find out more at umbrella.org.nz or call Rebecca Dixon on 0800 643 000.

Best Practice

47

Case study: Individuals and systems JULIA BYERS

Engineers work as part of a system and a key aspect of quality improvement is understanding the role of systems and human factors operating within that system. While we can’t lose sight of the importance of systems in quality service provision, individual competence remains critical.

Engineering New Zealand’s complaints process is focused on individual competence. However, within the complaints process there is scope to recognise and understand the systems influences at play.

In a recent case, a young engineer undertook a subfloor assessment, inspecting work carried out as part of relevelling works on a residential house following the Christchurch earthquakes.

The work included relevelling the concrete strip foundation, packing the internal piles, and filling the cracks in the concrete strip foundation. The engineer had provided two drawings for the detailing recommended for the foundations. The works were exempt from building consent.

The engineer carried out his inspection once the work on the piles had been completed, but while construction on the site was ongoing. The engineer inspected a sample of the piles but it is unclear exactly which piles he inspected as he didn’t keep records of this. Following his inspection the engineer considered that the works were “generally in line

At completion of the works, the property owner raised concerns about the quality of the works carried out. Two external reviews identified problems with the quality of the works, including the wrong type of strapping used to tie down the piles, inadequate packing to a number of piles, and some full-width cracks in the perimeter foundation that had only been superficially surface repaired.

The Investigating Committee had concerns the engineer did not identify that some of the works had not been completed to an adequate standard.

However, because it was unable to determine which piles the engineer had inspected, it was unable to make a finding as to whether his inspection was reasonable in the circumstances. The Investigating Committee recommended the engineer reflect on what happened in this case, including ensuring clear and written instructions from clients, better record keeping, and robust approaches to inspections. The engineer advised that when assessing a sample of work he now inspects a larger sample size, takes more photos to capture relevant information, and when inspecting subfloor areas he inspects work throughout the entire subfloor including areas difficult to access.

It has been said that every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets. While the engineer in this case didn’t pick up the poor workmanship, the

with the sketches [he] had prepared and considered structurally fit for purpose”.

Investigating Committee also expressed significant concern that the system

designed to efficiently repair the house failed in this case. The Investigating Committee felt that the engineer was essentially placed in a position of responsibility, with little oversight and supervision.

While Engineering New Zealand is limited in its ability to take a whole-ofsystem approach to complaints, we consider that we, as a sector, need to think carefully about the systems we design to deliver high quality work that the public can have trust and confidence in. In this case, the Investigating Committee suggested that the engineering firm review its internal systems for supervision, which it agreed to do. And both the engineer and the firm provided written apologies to the homeowner.

Julia Byers is Principal Advisor – Special Projects at Engineering New Zealand.

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Best Practice

49

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve changed our assessment process PETER LOURIĂ&#x2030;

Engineering New Zealand recently made changes to the assessment process for Chartered Member and Chartered Professional Engineer registration alongside the introduction of our new Membership Pathway.

In October 2017, our new Membership Pathway was introduced, with the new Emerging Professional and Member classes replacing Graduate membership, and the introduction of Chartered membership categories to replace our competence-assessed membership grades. We have had significant positive feedback on the new model, which provides a clearer pathway that supports all types of engineering professionals throughout their career.

As part of introducing the new Membership Pathway, we also reviewed the Chartered assessment process to ensure it is as user-friendly and accessible as possible, while ensuring appropriate standards are maintained. Feedback on the old application process was that it was too prescriptive and repetitive and we were concerned that this was presenting an unnecessary barrier to application.

Under the new streamlined application process, engineers are still assessed

they are now asked to describe their competence in four logical groupings: engineering knowledge, professional acumen, engineering management and technical competence. This grouping of competencies helps reduce repetition when candidates refer to the work samples, making it easier to put together their application.

The streamlined application process is accessed online through the My Membership login in the secure Engineering New Zealand website. The My Membership area also allows members to progressively record their work experience and continuing professional development activities.

These records, which are now held in the My Experience area, continue to feed into the application process in the same way as they did in the previous system.

While only a small number of completed applications have been received under the new system, feedback from members has been very positive and by late January, 411 new applications had been initiated in the system since its launch on 1 October.

We have taken particular care to ensure the new Membership Pathway and streamlined assessment process does not put the international recognition of

against the same competence standard (with its 12 competence elements), but

our Chartered members and registrants at risk. Our assessment standards and

processes are benchmarked through a series of international agreements and we have been very careful to ensure that we have not changed the actual assessment standard and that our processes remain aligned with international norms. We are also in the process of finalising updated bilateral mutual recognition agreements with the United Kingdom and Australia to reflect our new Membership Pathway. This will ensure that New Zealand engineers continue to enjoy at least the same level of international recognition that they currently enjoy.

Peter LouriĂŠ is the Registrar at Engineering New Zealand.

Find out more If you are interested in finding out more about the process or our Membership Pathway please contact us at assessment@engineeringnz.org or go to engineeringnz.org/resources/ assessment-guidance

50

EG 2/2018

OPINION

What kind of future do we want?

Historically, engineers have been recognised as fixers, solving environmental problems with infrastructure. But today’s challenges mean a fundamentally different approach is now needed.

In recent months, New Zealand has experienced widespread drought prompting water restrictions, damaging flooding and coastal inundation in urban locations, intense heat and seen vulnerabilities with urban potable water supplies exposed.

Alongside this, the 2017 general election generated intense debate around a wide range of social, economic and environmental challenges. Globally the recent success of anti-expert movements (such as skepticism towards climate change), and misinformation fed to the public during the United States presidential election and the Brexit referendum, are evidence expert voices are not having the impact they might once have had on public opinion and decision making within governments. It is increasingly important technical experts such as engineers to more proactively engage to raise the quality of awareness of key issues among the voting public.

Historically engineers have been lauded as the “fixers”, looked to for the solutions to environmental issues by building infrastructure – higher walls, stronger bridges, bigger pipes. The dominant public response to our recent extreme weather

We all recognise our climatic and environmental challenges are not that simple, and cannot be fixed by the current “tools in our toolbox”. There is certainly movement in the right direction. The Auckland Council Safeswim webpage and the “Pootracker” showed faecal contaminants sloshing around the inner Waitemata Harbour near popular beaches such as Pt Chevalier for up to three days. This open sharing of information has placed a focus on real issues, with a heartening response from the local community wanting to understand and engage with the problems at hand.

As Roger Street from the UK Climate Impacts Programme noted in one of our recent webinars, “climate change adaptation presents us with a ‘wicked problem’ that results from interactions of cultural, ecological, and economic phenomena, has no endpoint solutions and does not sit conveniently within any one discipline or organisation. It involves changes in personal and social behaviour, and involves ongoing consideration of conflicts and synergies”.

Roger says we need to move from asking “what is the most likely future?” to discussing “what kind of future do we want, and what decisions do we need to make to get there?”.

In the face of uncertainty, more integrated and system-focused mechanisms are needed. The approach known as Water Sensitive Design is an

events reinforces this expectation – “just do more to fix it and reinstate our normal lives”.

example, addressing the complex issue of urban water management at the source.

The Water Sensitive City describes a future urban environment not only where lowimpact design and bioengineering provide retention and treatment options for surface runoff, but also where freshwater is valued for social and cultural functions as well.

Communities are involved in decision making processes around water.

Restoring degraded waterways can allow for improved recreation facilities.

Daylighting, or restoring once piped streams back into their natural form to recreate natural waterways and wetlands, can improve biodiversity and reduce flooding risk by slowing the movement of water through the landscape and allowing infiltration that can assist in aquifer recharge. Creating a landscape where surface runoff is visible helps create awareness of the hydrological cycle, its risks and the roles that it plays in transporting litter and gross pollutants to the sea and, in doing so, drives public responsibility and change.

We need to enable engineers to become facilitators of a public conversation informed by robust data, recognising the system-wide complexity of the issues and the lack of any “magic bullet” answer.

This article was collectively authored by The Sustainability Society Committee 2018. thesustainabilitysociety.org.nz

55 Day in the life

56 Bedside table

57 Preview

59 Obituaries

60 Engineering Genius

Shorts

52 The secret life of engineers

52

EG 2/2018

The secret life of engineers Alice Chaplin BASED IN:

Auckland

Currently Director of Project Delivery and Water Sector Lead, AECOM, but soon to be New Zealand General Manager for Coffey EDUCATION: Master of Engineering (Civil), Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine, London, 1999 Chartered Engineer, Institution of Civil Engineers (UK) ROLE:

Photo ďż˝ Eugene Bonthuys

Shorts

Alice Chaplin moved to New Zealand with AECOM in 2008.

Her current day job covers driving culture change around project delivery and managing water, wastewater and stormwater professionals. In her new role at Coffey she’ll be responsible for a business that spans geotechnical,

How do you juggle training with work?

The volume and intensity of training depends on the time of year and the event I’m training for. Typically I train 10 to 15 hours a week. Each week I carefully consider my work commitments and generally fit my training around work,

environmental, client side project management and testing services. But outside of work, she’s likely to be found on two wheels, training for a cycling world championship event.

training at least once a day, six days a week (Monday is a rest day). On Tuesday and Thursday mornings it is gym work for strength conditioning and rehab on my shoulder. I will wind train or go out on the road on the other mornings and in the evenings, work permitting. It is always a juggling act as work must come first. I also ride to work when I can.

What’s your current involvement with cycling?

I am a committed amateur cyclist, predominantly focused on road racing and time trialling. I’m also the ladies’ club captain for my local club, Counties Manukau Cycling, who put on approximately 20 races a year.

What big race are you training for?

I would like to qualify to represent New Zealand again at the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships in Italy in August. I raced in Perth in 2016 and came fifth in my age group. Last year in France sadly I got brought down in a crash, 13km from the finish, whilst in a medal-winning position.

When did you start competing?

After a number of years doing triathlons I realised my swim was sub-average, my run was improving and my cycling was extremely strong. I’d done a number of mass-participation cycle events over the years; however, a couple of years ago I decided to give road racing a serious go. It was a great decision and I’ve been really surprised how successful I’ve been.

What result has meant the most to you and why?

Winning the New Zealand road racing national title for my age group in 2016. I attacked the field halfway into the race, and rode solo for 30km to win. I put everything and more into holding off the field. The next day I got on a plane to the UK to spend the last two weeks of his life with a terminally ill family member. He called himself my “number one fan” and I won the title for him.

To be a successful racer you need to choose a good race strategy then quickly make changes as the race develops.

Beyond the physical challenge of racing, what key personality traits help you achieve success?

Teamwork in cycling, just like engineering, is really important. To be a successful racer you need to choose a good race strategy then quickly make changes as the race develops. I have a good ability to read the course and then make snap, split-second decisions in the race. I don’t let the pressure of racing get to me, it’s my hobby and I’m there to enjoy myself. I think a key part of my success is when I commit to a goal I can be doggedly determined and refuse to give up.

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Shorts

55

ay in the life

Lachlan Matchett oversees aerospace company Rocket Lab’s propulsion activities, ensuring they align with the intended direction and schedule. His role covers R&D, design, production, testing and operations. He was Engineering New Zealand’s 2017 Young Engineer of theYear.

Rocket Lab is headquartered in Los Angeles, with operations and a launch site in New Zealand.

06:00 Get up, have breakfast and get ready for work.

07:30 Arrive at work and start by clearing my inbox. It’s important to get any questions answered quickly so everyone else can work without delays – especially for staff in the US because they’re on average four hours ahead in time.

08:30 Get around the team individually to follow up on their daily and weekly goals, noting actions I need to complete to help them – anything from organising more resources to helping with a design decision or a non-conformance issue in production.

11:00 Manufacturing and operations meetings where we discuss progress towards goals, schedule, issues and improvements occurring at the current time. Manufacturing covers everything related to the build of the engines. In operations meetings we plan tests for qualification of new designs or changes, we also plan acceptance testing of flight hardware.

13:00 Usually try to take a quick break for lunch – it varies a lot depending on what I’m working on. Normally have lunch at my desk or take a five-minute stroll to get lunch at one of the local spots.

13:30 Every day I spend time reviewing and approving new drawings and the procurement of parts for the propulsion systems. This can range from test facility pipes through to the design of a thrust chamber or a manufacturing document.

Lachlan Matchett Auckland VP Propulsion, Rocket Lab Ltd EDUCATION:Master of Engineering (Mechanical), University of Canterbury, 2012 BASED IN: ROLE:

14:30 Design review – these happen regularly when we are making improvements. Everyone involved has the opportunity to contribute, from a new intern through to our CEO Peter Beck. I will align attendees if necessary to achieve the goals of these meetings.

It can be anything from a few people around a computer for a minute, to a full meeting with a presentation. In addition, I have at least three hours of meetings, management work or job interviews to attend throughout the day.

17:00 Forward planning and project planning for the upcoming weeks and months. Plan meetings and make notes on what needs to be followed up the next day.

19:00 Start thinking about leaving

get them all done in the day. Try to close off all of the action items that have come up earlier so I have a fresh start the next day.

20:00 Usually leave work around this time – I’m not the last to leave as we have nightshift staff. I like to cook at least one day a week when I can get away from work an hour earlier than normal. Rocket Lab provides meals for teams staying late at work, so that’s helpful during particularly busy times. After work I catch up with my fiancée, Melissa, and we discuss our days, renovations ideas, and plans for our Sundays off. Each night I try to get an update on the news and I like to watch an episode of something on TV before heading to bed sometime after 10pm.

work, which is hard because there are so many interesting problems to solve and

Watch Lachlan talking about winning 2017 Young Engineer of the

solutions to come up with and I struggle to

Year at engineeringnz.org/lachlan

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EG 2/2018

edside table

Carron Blom FEngNZ Based in: Auckland Role: Managing Director, Anguillid Consulting Engineers and Scientists Ltd Education: PhD (Engineering), University of Cambridge, 2017, MSc (Hons) (Environmental Science/ Zoology), University of Auckland, 1993

Carron Blom worked for a large engineering consultancy for 15 years and became a Technical Director. In 2008, she established Anguillid Consulting Engineers and Scientists, a consultancy specialising in strategic environmental advice, primarily to infrastructure providers. In 2010, Carron was appointed to the Environment Court of New Zealand as a Deputy Environment Commissioner. In 2017, she completed a PhD through the University of Cambridge investigating the strategic intent and management of infrastructure systems, centred around New Zealand’s land transport system.

books in varying states of readership, plus a tiny vintage VW Beetle and Kombi van that were my father’s.

What’s on your bedside table?

Lamp, glass, bottle of water, multiple pairs of reading glasses, clay art by Katie Gold, perfume, a little box I bought in India, notebook and pen, luggage tag, card from my husband with Helen Keller quote,

Let’s focus on those books, why did you choose them?

It is not unusual for me to have a couple of books on the go, particularly if one of them is a “dense” read. Currently I’m reading on Kindle The Diary of Samuel Pepys, edited

by Steven Algieri, because I had heard one of the Cambridge colleges had this famous collection, of which, to my shame, I knew nothing.

Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson, because I had just finished reading a biography of Franklin by the same author, and have a broad interest in scientific thinking and development.

The Musket Wars by Ron Crosby, because I am interested in learning more about our early history.

my son and husband’s newly-minted business cards, kindle, and a stack of

All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr, a graduation gift from my cousin.

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P

review

The Raupo Book of Maori Proverbs by AE Brougham and AW Reed, because I love Whakatauki [Māori proverbs] and this is nice to dip into and contemplate from time to time.

How do these books help you in your role?

First and foremost, my bedside reading is to help me switch off. My work, and my recent PhD research, often requires an extensive amount of reading that needs intense concentration. So for my nighttime reading, I try to read material that provides a change of focus. I’m enjoying the current luxury of reading non-fiction for fun/to relax.

What book/publication would you recommend to someone you were mentoring?

Lord Martin Rees’ TED talk “Is this our final century?” He canvasses the importance of complexity, ethics and sustainability.

Publications around thinking and thought leadership, such as the works of Edward de Bono, and David J Snowden’s work around his Cynefin model, because the ability to think, question, explore, and to work with, not against complexity is fundamental.

What book has most influenced you?

The world we live in: special edition for young readers. As a six year old, I read this over and over, and accordingly, it has shaped my interests and career direction.

Speed read —— —— ——

Ebook/paper copy Library/own Bookmark/turn down page

——

Cover to cover/interesting chapters first

The Resene Architecture + Design Film Festival Now in its seventh year, this festival will feature more than 20 films about architecture and design, with design ranging from photography to fashion and landscape. Co-curator Clare Buchanan says there are always several films focused around big name architects, with Finnish American architect and industrial designer, Eero Saarinen, and Iraqi British architect, Zaha Hadid, featuring in the past. The festival also highlights the work of more recently discovered, lesser known architects. “We focus on films that reveal unique and interesting spaces, often within diverse and curious cultures,” Clare says. Several films will also examine the environment, in particular how town planning and smarter building can positively impact society.

Festival dates ——Auckland 3–20 May ——Wellington 24 May – 10 June ——Dunedin 14–24 June ——Christchurch 28 June – 11 July A small selection of films will also play in New Plymouth, Tauranga, Palmerston North and Havelock North. The full programme will be released on 28 March at resene.co.nz/filmfestival.htm with bookings available at rialto.co.nz

10

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Obituaries

Alexander William Aitken

Johannes Barteld Seye Huizing

John Warwick Butterworth

Alexander William Aitken (Alec)

Johannes Barteld Seye Huizing (Hans)

John Warwick Butterworth

1921-2017

1942 -2017

1924 -2017 Alec Aitken FEngNZ started work in the Public Works Department in 1938.

When WWII intervened he joined the RNZAF as a flight mechanic, serving two tours of duty in the Pacific. In 1950 he completed a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) at Auckland University. His first engineering role was with the Ministry of Works (MOW), constructing the rail line from Putaruru to Kinleith. This was followed by time in Wellington before, newly married, he moved to Mangakino and spent eight years on the Waikato hydro construction. Two years in Rotorua followed, then he was appointed Resident Engineer in Whangarei, before returning to Wellington in 1967 as District Civil Engineer for the MOW focussing on motorways and the Rongotai Airport extension. In 1973 he moved to Auckland as District Commissioner of Works and saw the Southern Motorway connected into the city and through to the Harbour Bridge plus the start of the connection from the city to the Northwestern Motorway. After retiring in 1981 Alec retained a keen interest in engineering heritage, conservation and golf and travel. He died in November and is survived by his daughter and two sons.

Hans Huizing FEngNZ graduated in the Netherlands in 1948, emigrating to New Zealand in 1952 to work for the Ministry of Works on the Cobb River Power Station in Nelson, later moving to Upper Hutt then Napier. He headed the design office for the Wellington Motorway, where he took pride in introducing textured concrete finishes and aesthetic features. He became Chief Designing Engineer (Civil) and later Chief Civil Engineer and Assistant Commissioner of Works, retiring in 1986.

He is remembered for his support of the research and development of new design guides and codes that became national documents, including retaining wall design, differential temperature design for box girders (Newmarket Viaduct), seismic design of petrochemical plants and bridge loadings. Hans was a member of Engineering New Zealand for 60 years, becoming a Fellow in 1975. His work was well-recognised by the engineering profession and he received the Freyssinet Award in 1972 and the Fulton-Downer Gold Medal in 1962 and 1977. He passed away peacefully in Tauranga in December and is survived by his wife Ankie, five children, three grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

John Butterworth FEngNZ graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Engineering. He worked for consultants in Auckland and London then headed to the United Kingdom in 1967 to join the Space Structures Research Centre as a research engineer. He worked on the development of large-scale structural analysis programs and how they can be applied to space structure. John became a lecturer in structuring engineering in 1968 and completed a PhD in elastic stability.

He was Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Auckland. John was also a member of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering and a member of the Structural Engineering Society of New Zealand. He passed away peacefully after a long illness on 4 September 2017.

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60

Engineering Genius

Testing their metal 8. Excess powder is removed and reused, reducing waste.

7. Components are built up in fine layers (each half the width of a human hair) until the product’s built.

6. Powders melt and become a solid mass.

Tauranga-based Rapid Advanced Manufacturing (RAM3D) has been involved with 3D metal printing since 2008.

Their additive manufacturing focusses on selective laser melting (SLM) in titanium, stainless steel and Inconel metal alloy powders. With the right design, 3D printing can be a cost-effective way to produce complex parts like bike lugs, with a reduction in waste when compared to a machined part. Clients include Emirates Team New Zealand, who required titanium boat parts for the 2017 America’s Cup Race, the Defence Force, who needed Inconel suppressors, and Australian custom bikemaker Bastion Cycles, who use titanium lugs.

1. RAM3D has printed nearly 70 bikes for Bastion Cycles, each tailored to its owner.

2. Item is designed, either by client or RAM3D designer as a CAD model.

3. The model is sent to software used by the printing machine.

4. Machine specialist checks geometrics properly aligned and support structure is in place within the build chamber.

5. SLM process begins – titanium powder fused into place with highpowered laser.

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YOUNG+ INNOVATORS JOIN US IN RAISING A GLASS TO THIS YEAR’S BEST YOUNG ENGINEERS AND STUDENTS.

5.30pm, Thursday 12 April Maritime Room Princes Wharf, Auckland Two major awards are up for grabs this year – Young Engineer of the Year and Student Innovator of the Year.

Hear the finalists talk about their innovative projects and rub shoulders with other like-minded engineers doing great things.

Tickets are $25 and include drinks and canapés.

Get your ticket at engineeringnz.org

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