Massey Engineering Yearbook 2012

ENGINEERING AND FOOD TECHNOLOGY YEARBOOK 2012

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1. Take an active interest in all that surrounds us and link this to engineering principles.

2. Creatively apply our engineering and contextual knowledge to the solution of problems - today and in the future.

3. Ensure that our inventions are focused on social or commercial wealth creation.

For more information email: engineering@massey.ac.nz or visit: www.me.ac.nz

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Welcome Engineering and Technology was established at Massey University over 40 years ago. Graduates can now be found in New Zealand and around the world in careers including technical design, manufacturing and general management. Today, Massey University offers a wide range of courses at both undergraduate (BEng, BFoodTech, BSc and B.Construction), and postgraduate (diploma, masters and PhD) level.

In 2012 we launched our new and improved Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Food Technology programmes. We have responded to calls from professional bodies and industry for graduates who have a high level of technical competence and who are capable of working in, and leading, teams; who are great communicators; who know how to manage a project to successful completion; and who are creative in all that they do. Our response has been to place a greater emphasis on activity-based learning, where students will apply their knowledge to real problems right from day 1 and throughout the 4 years of the programme.

Students can choose to major in one of 5 key areas – Product Development, Mechatronics, Electronics and Computers, Chemical and Bioprocessing, and Food Technology. Each major provides the opportunity for further specialization.

The culmination of the undergraduate degree programme is the final year project. Here the students apply their knowledge to the solution of real life commercial or industrial problems. This booklet presents summaries of the Engineering and Food Technology 4th year projects from 2012.

A Massey University Engineering or technology degree provides you with the high level of technical knowledge AND the professional skills to truly make a difference – today and into the future.

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The Butterfly By replicating the complex micron - and nanometer-scale photonic structures that help give butterfly wings their colour, researchers have demonstrated a new technique that uses biotemplates for fabricating nanoscale structures that could serve as optical waveguides, optical splitters and other building blocks of photonic integrated circuits.

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Industrial Management & Innovation Successful innovation demands the understanding and integration of a wide range of inputs. Industrial Management & Innovation at Massey Engineering provides the students with an excellent basis in engineering, complemented with industrial management, quality assurance, marketing and innovation practice.

Graduates in Industrial Management & Innovation are well places to take on roles which demand an ability to work in a multi-functional environment where a high level of communication and integrated problem solving is essential.

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Matthew Smith

Wanganui City College Major: Engineering and Industrial Management Supervisor: Mr Alan Wright

Increasing Steam Oven Throughput Mars Petcare Wanganui created a project to increase the throughput of their steam oven, which had become their process bottleneck.

The site manufactures petfood pouches under the Whiskas and Pedigree brands and has annual sales in excess of $100 million per year. The steam oven cooks ropes of meat emulsion which are sliced into chunks and added to gravy to form petfood.

The goal of this project was to increase the throughput of the oven by around 40%, thus allowing it to supply the fillers quicker and reducing downtime on the fillers. Goldratt’s five focusing steps were used as the conceptual frame to solve the problem.

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The steps helped to better exploit this constraint, with supporting tools being brainstorming and cause-and-effect diagrams. COMSOL Multiphysics was used to model the heat transfer into the emulsion rope as it passes through the oven. This provided essential information on how long it takes to sterilise the product and how much the speed of the oven could be increased.

Microbiological testing was performed on the products to ensure they were still within the Standard Quality Specification.

Reducing Lead Times on a Production Line My project was an industry based improvement project at a Food manufacturer in Silverdale, Whangaparaoa. It focused on the main production line. The project focuses on identifying bottlenecks and constraints within a heavily automated system and seeing how by altering batch sizes and reviewing the processes and breaking down why each process takes the time it does and how it can be further reduced. The existing production output on the line is on average 30,000 to 50,000 units a day.

The goal is to reduce the lead times therefore increasing the output of the whole production line to an optimal 85,000 units a day. This is achieved by reducing the batch size to a size 8 and changing the various PLC commands and VSD speeds on the various processes which created bottlenecks and slowed the line down to a halt. This created stoppages and greatly dragged out the lead times. The results of the project allow for reduced shifts and better planning of production schedules. The improvements have reduced the costs of running the line and increased the output.

Matthew Patten

Orewa College Major: Engineering and Industrial Management Supervisor: Dr Sanjay Mathrani, Dr Aruna Shekar

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A Systems Approach to Quality Improvement The global marketplace is both competitive and volatile. For our manufacturing enterprises to endure these conditions it is paramount that system-wide efficiencies are achieved. This project was carried out in a Wanganui based manufacturer that has a large export base. The company began to integrate Lean practices into their organisation in 2006, as a strategy to optimise their productivity and competitiveness. As part of their Lean programme this project focuses on reducing rework and improving product quality.

The objective is to investigate the occurrences of rework and to implement procedure(s) to eliminate the root causes of this waste.

Working with all levels of the company, causal analysis revealed an underlying conflict in the organisation. By modeling the current state of their system it was demonstrated that this conflict was not only promoting rework, but also creating a collection of other undesirable effects that further impeded productivity. A combination of Lean principles and the “Theory of Constraints� thinking processes were utilised to develop a solution-direction, obtain buy-in, and create the organisational changes necessary for the company to achieve ongoing improvements.

David Blackwell

Wairarapa College (1991) Major: Engineering and Industrial Management Supervisor: A/ Prof Jane Goodyer

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Florian Meier

Realschule Eschen (Principality of Liechtenstein) Major: Product Development Supervisor: Prof Olaf Diegel

3D Printer for Customised Shoe Insole Orthotics Every person’s feet are unique and many people suffer from over-pronation due to flat feet or fallen arches. This is mainly due to humans walking on hard flat surfaces. Over-pronation can lead to serious foot, knee and lower back pain. Orthotic insoles are used to restore natural foot function.

The aim of the project is to convert an UP! 3D printer, and make it capable of printing thermoplastic rubber (TPR), as well as printing larger parts such adult size insole rubber orthotics. The printer will be able to print customised shoe insoles from a digital footprint of a customers’ foot. It will be a cost effective, and fast, way of manufacturing insole orthotics compared to labour intensive traditional methods. It will also be a cheaper alternative to CNC manufactured insoles. Individual podiatrist could use such a system to provide a faster and more cost effective service to their clients, and sports shoe stores might offer it as in instore service in which customers can print insoles, while they wait, to allow a perfect fit of almost any shoe they desire.

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Gareth Ellis

St John’s College, Hastings Major: Product Development Supervisor: Mr Tom Robertson

Mode Railroad Locomotive Kitset Development Project My model railroad locomotive kitset development project involved designing and making a digital current controlled (DCC), sound and light emitting model locomotive kitset in S-scale (1/64th).

This involved conducting market and consumer research of the model railway industry to determine which locomotive would be most suitable to product, and which modellers would buy through my clients business (Phillips Models).

New manufacturing techniques were evaluated to develop high quality and accurate model prototypes including, vacuum forming, etched brass, drop casting brass, CNC and rapid prototyping techniques including, laser sintering, polymer extrusion and resin 3D printing. Packaging for the product and internal kitset components were also developed during the project.

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REX Reach – Stroke Rehabilitation Device The purpose of this project was to research and develop a robotic upper limb rehabilitation device. The 2008 New Zealand survey reports that strokes affect 1.8% of New Zealanders, which is approximately 57,700 adults. Rehabilitation is an essential part for stroke survivors to relearn skills that were lost when part of the brain was damaged. The idea for developing a device that could be used in a home environment has many benefits for the patient. Many patients lose the sense of social well-being during lengthy treatments at a hospital, thus performing the therapy at home will have less impact on the patient’s daily routine, and being around friends and family can further motivate the patient to rehabilitate.

My project scope is to finalise a design for the device concept, measure its benefits against customer requirements, building a mechanical prototype, and finally implement a new method of human-machine interaction feature i.e. by monitoring the EEG signals from the brain activities using an Emotiv neuro-control head set.

Wendy Xue

Solway College Major: Product Development Supervisor: Dr Aruna Shekar, Prof Olaf Diegel, Mr Chris Chitty

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Aymen Al-Majmuei

Awatapu College Major: Product Development Supervisor: Dr Aruna Shekar, Prof Olaf Diegel, MrChris Chitty

TechRef – Football Tracking System With the amount of controversial goal-line calls being made in football today, the call for introducing technology to help officiate the game and provide accurate and consistent calls is immense. TechRef is a computer vision based system that tracks the location of a ball relative to the goal line.

This project involved the use of two stereo cameras programmed using C++ programming and the OpenCV library to recognize the ball and track its position with relation to the goal line. A scaled model was put together to test, refine and demonstrate how the TechRef system is able to signal a goal has been scored once the ball passes the line, between the two posts and under the cross bar.

Project photo not submitted

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Programmable Interface to Retrofit to a Manual Mill The aim of this project was to develop a new style of interface which would be retrofitted to an existing milling machine. This project has been designed using the product development process, incorporating graphical design to maximize understanding to the user.

The programming will incorporate a drill and mill function, as well as initialization to handle the variables of different milling machines. The stand-alone unit will be sold as a control unit, the manual operation of winding handles will be eliminated with only the manual operation of performing a tool change.

The unit will use software called ‘Labview’ which will connect with a PLC, this PLC will connect to four H-bridge’s which will then control the four motors. The project has been broken down into four parts, front-end software which is what the user will use, programming a PLC to execute commands, learning DC motor control with an encoder and designing the hardware from which the existing motors will plug into and operate from.

Geoffrey Garlick

Massey High School Major: Product Development Supervisor: Dr Sanjay Mathrani

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Learn to Swim Kickboard The project aim was to successfully design a children’s kickboard that improved learning to swim exercises for the age group 3-10years. The project followed a product development process to produce a large number of concepts for screening in order to present a final design solution.

Design analysis tools such as Solidworks, Floworks and Illustrator were used to refine concepts. Testing was done on a number of occasions in a pool setting to review prototypes and get information from the user in a realistic setting. The final prototype was laser-cut and engraved in a turtle shape that was fun and attractive for kids. The final product model separated into 2 pieces because it improved learning to float and learning to breathe exercises.

Kristina Watson Northcote College Major: Product Development Supervisor: Dr Aruna Shekar

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Jake Symes

Otamatea High School Major: Product Development Supervisor: Prof Olaf Diegel, Dr Aruna Shekar, Mr Chris Chitty

Mobot Technology LTD Forklift Analysis The Mobot forklift is a counter-balancing, ride-on electric lift truck, propelled by a differential drive system, offering an infinite turning circle. Ideal for maneuvering loads of up to 200Kg in confined areas. Mobot Technology Ltd is a newly formed company based in East Tamaki, Auckland. The company designs and manufactures lightweight forklift trucks, specifically designed for carting specialist food crates, like those used by the Bread and Dairy industry.

My role for this project is to structurally analyze the design of their forklift’s lifting mechanism and related components, optimizing their design to achieve a goal of making the Mobot forklift maintenance free, over its entire life cycle. The forklift is specifically designed to replace the manual labor required when loading and unloading delivery trucks. The forklift also eliminates the height restrictions placed upon operators manually stacking crates, governed by Occupational Health and Safety regulations, allowing line haul trucks to be filled to their maximum capacity, and reducing operating expenses for organizations.

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Karl de Jong

Te Puke High School Major: Product Development Supervisor: Dr Aruna Shekar, Mr Chris Chitty, Prof Olaf Diegel

Win.D For my final year project, I decided to take aspects of two extreme sports, and combine them to create a new product. Long-boarding is one of my passions, and combined with windsurfing rigging, a land based sail board was the proposed product. In my initial market research, I came across a small company in France who build long boards for this concept.

After researching faults and complaints with these existing boards, I re-designed the trucks and board to overcome the problems that users were having. The design process started off with research and idea generation, followed by rigorous screening for various criteria, and testing. Once I had a final design, I calculated the forces which would be acting upon the board and conducted FEA (Finite Element Analyses) on the different parts. The final design is shown in the image.

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Motorcycle Instrument Cluster The aim of the project was to design and develop a motorcycle instrument cluster that provides the features of a modern dash, whilst maintaining the appearance of a classic motorcycle gauge. The project has followed the product development process, beginning with the idea generation stage, through concept screening and development, and on to prototyping and testing.

The major technical challenges of the project have been achieving the speedometer and tachometer functions, as well as ensuring that the instrument cluster can be easily attached to a variety of motorcycles.

Both functional and visual prototypes have been created to demonstrate proof-of-concept of the product.

Nick Vaughan

Auckland Grammar School Major: Product Development Supervisor: Dr Aruna Shekar, Mr Chris Chitty

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Ashley Carter Wanganui Collegiate Major: Product Development Supervisor: Mr John Gawith

Customized Container Fuel Tank Project The aim of this project was to design a ‘Container Tank’ for Martin Engineering Ltd. The standard shipping container has long been used as an effective method of transporting bulk goods. Martin Engineering was interested to see if there was a gap in the New Zealand market for a container fuel tank.

The project involved breaking down the design into various subsystems that were assessed with consideration given to: mechanical strength, cost of manufacture and market desirability. Martin Engineering is a small company that prides itself on delivering customized goods. Therefore one of the major objectives of my project was to ensure that the final design could easily be customized to meet individual client’s needs. Market research was also used to help build a final recommendation to Martin Engineering that would detail the feasibility of the products future.

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Brush Improvements for Innova Products Ltd The aim of my project is to improve the Dixbro power brushes of Innova Products Ltd which are built in Levin. These brushes are built to attach to angle grinders and bench grinders. In particular the company has asked me to improve their best selling products twist knot brushes TC75 and T100. This has been achieved through a literature review, consumer research, theoretical analysis, multivariable analysis and testing of prototype brushes.

Through these tools I have achieved better looking brushes, longer lasting, lighter brushes that are better for their applications, and are cheaper to produce by the company. An unexpected benefit was the increased product range the company can now offer, which may lead to increased market growth.

Roy Matthews

Taieri College, Upper Hut College Major: Product Development Supervisor: Mr John Gawith, Mr Ken Mercer

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Virtual Playground Tile Tester The goal of my project is to develop a virtual testing method to test playground tiles measuring the Head Impact Criterion (HIC’s) and how they comply with New Zealand standards. The software using finite element analysis will predict what would physically happen if the tile were to be tested without having to produce the tile.

Traditionally, playground tiles must be tested iteratively using a physical drop testing apparatus; this consequently results in a costly process of determining the optimum tile design. A successful virtual testing method may reduce tile development costs and produce a cheaper, safer, more effective playground tile for children

Tom Karena

Upper Hutt College Major: Product Development Supervisor: Dr Karl Dahm

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Sally Hensman

Havelock North High School Major: Product Development Supervisor: Mr John Gawith, Mr Tom Robertson

FPG Rear Door System The outcome of my project is a refrigerated food display cabinet that maintains an even temperature distribution throughout the cabinet. Future Products Group (FPG) engineer and build off-the-shelf food display cabinets. These cabinets use a system of cold air circulation whereby air is forced through a refrigerated cooling coil located in the bottom rear of the cabinet bun.

The uneven temperature distribution on FPG cabinets is mainly caused by the offset between the two rear sliding doors. This offset disrupts the airflow causing the velocity and volume of air to differ between each side of the cabinet.

This imbalance causes problems when trying to get the same consistent temperature across each shelf.

The project involved the design and development of an improved rear door system for the cabinets. FPG recognized this as a technical problem that needed improvement and presented me with the opportunity of developing this new system which, upon completion, will be implemented globally through their food display cabinets.

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The Dragonfly The body of a dragonfly looks like a helical structure wrapped with metal. Two wings are cross-placed on a body that displays a colour gradation from ice blue to maroon. This structure equips the dragonfly with supreme maneuverability. No matter at what speed or direction it is already moving, it can immediately stop and start flying in the opposite direction.

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Mechatronics Increasingly, modern industry relies on the solution of problems requiring a range of engineering skills.

Mechatronics is a combination of precision mechanical engineering, electronic control and computer technology for the design of products and processes.

Graduates in Mechatronics are sought after around the world and are found in a wide range of occupations including project management, industrial automation, product and process design and manufacturing.

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Sarah Anastasi

St Peter’s College, Palmerston North Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Dr Huub Bakker

Horological Water Feature The use of water clocks for timekeeping and decoration has been welldocumented since ancient times, all over the world. This practice has tailed off with the invention of increasingly accurate mechanical and digital clocks, however. This project aims to produce a working prototype of a fanciful, yet functional, water feature as a novel fusion of high and low tech, with the peripheral objective of time-keeping.

The project consists of three main parts: the mechanism, wherein water will be conveyed and displayed in such a way as to render the current time evident; the adornment, being aspects of the installation not requisite for its timekeeping function but with a more decorative and eye-catching purpose consistent with an overarching objective of marrying form to function; and the control, as a means of regulating the water flow for accurate timekeeping, and any supplying control to parts of the adornment also requiring such

Modern reconstruction of the water clock of Ktesibios (285-222 BC).

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Automated Alcohol Still For this project I aim to make distilling alcohol for the home-brewers market a much simpler task. A large part of the distillation process is temperature monitoring and adjusting the water flow to the column.

I will design a system to control this process thus eliminating the need to monitor a still for the 6-9 hours it is operating.

Peter Vander Meij Rangitoto College Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: A/Prof Johan Potgieter

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Interface Control for Distribution Photometer My project focuses on creating a graphical user interface for a distribution photometer. The system’s purpose is to test the luminosity of light bulbs and their fittings. To do this, it must take data points from a 3-dimensional map across the light bulb by rotating a large mirror around it. Through the use of a DC motor, I created a control system for the assembly through a visual basic interface.

The system, owned and run by Massey University, currently is run manually and data read and recorded one data point at a time. The program will autonomously run the system by rotating the mirror and light fitting while reading data from a light sensor as the mirror turns.

Douglas Moore

Westlake Boys’ High School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: A/Prof Johan Potgieter

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Arno Ferreira

Framesby High School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: A/Prof Johan Potgieter

Spherical UAV The Spherical UAV is a single propeller aircraft consisting of a center core encased by a spherical rib structure. It is designed for use in search and rescue operations and will be manually controlled via remote control and live video feed. This will have the capability to be modified in the future to allow for other sensory equipment to be mounted on it. It will give search and rescue the ability to survey a disaster area before sending rescue personnel in.

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Matthew Rosanowski Hutt International Boys’ School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Prof Subhas Mukhopadhyay

Brine Leak Detector for a Geothermal Power Plant Geothermal power plants operate by heating a motive fluid with geothermal brine in a heat exchanger. The heated motive fluid expands and rotates a turbine to generate energy. If geothermal brine leaks into the motive fluid flow the turbine requires more maintenance due to increased corrosion upon the turbine surface.

This project aims to develop a monitoring system that can be installed into the motive fluid flow to detect brine leakage to allow plant operators to take action to repair leaks as they happen, reducing unnecessary down time and long term turbine maintenance costs. The monitoring system is designed around a capacitive sensor that is placed in the flow of the motive fluid. The signal from this sensor is sent to a microcontroller which interprets the data and triggers an alarm on a control system if the brine concentration detected is above a threshold.

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Large Scale 3D Printer – Extruder head The project involves transforming an existing 6 degree freedom robot arm into a largescale 3D printer. The rapid prototyping technology used in this project is “Fused Deposition Modelling” (FDM), which extrudes a continuous filament of molten plastic and uses it to build each layer of the part.

In this project, Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) material, in pellet form, is extruded from a hopper to form each layer. The extruder operates by having a stepper motor turning an auger, which drives the ABS material out of the temperature controlled nozzle. The design utilizes four different materials that have different temperate conductivity and melting points. Experiments were conducted to find the best temperature to melt the polymer and the ideal extrusion speed. The outcome of the project will be the creation of a working prototype of the pellet based extrusion system for the large-scale 3D printer.

Wen-Li (Anderson) Kao Rangitoto College Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Prof Olaf Diegel

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Philip Duncan

St Augustine’s College Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Mr Ralph Ball

Intellifeed The Intellifeed is an advanced automated animal rearing system with a novel integration of proven technologies including NAIT compatible RFID tag reading capabilities. The Intellifeed will greatly help the veterinary industry by providing a tool which will enable dietary theories currently held throughout the profession to be tested on individual animals.

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Smart Pill Box Medication management is a challenge for adults of all ages, but is especially difficult for the elderly. Physical limitations and medical conditions can make it particularly challenging to take medication according to a set schedule and in the correct amounts.

This is where the smart pill box comes into play. The concept of such a pill box is not entirely new – products such as the Philips medication dispenser or the e-pill medication dispenser exist but are not portable and are very expensive for the average New Zealand pensioner to afford. The aim of this project was to design, test and prototype a pill box that was not only capable of storing up to three doses of medication per day for seven days, but also one that was portable.

The pill box incorporates a reminder system that reminds the care giver or patient to take their medication at a pre-set time. The key feature of the pill box is the easy to replace pill cartridge, which sets off a reminder to the user once the cartridge has finished an entire rotation.

Banu Pashutanizadeh

St. Mary’s School, India Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: A/Prof Johan Potgieter, Prof Olaf Diegel

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Hybrid Locomotion System for Robots Robots are increasingly being used in search and rescue operations where the operating environment is hazardous and poses significant risk to human health and safety. The situations vary largely and require specialised robots for each application due to the change in terrain and environmental conditions.

The project aim is to design and build a hybrid locomotion system combining anthropomorphic legged movement with wheeled motion.

This will provide a mobile platform with omni-directional steering capability, the ability to adjust the platform altitude above the ground on multiple independent axes and, the ability to overcome rough terrain that traditional wheeled robots would not be able to overcome.

James McKenna Feilding High School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Dr Gourab Sen Gupta

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Joshua Meade

Wanganui High School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: A/Prof Donald Bailey

Dynamic Image Water Feature The purpose of my project is to investigate the feasibility of dynamic water feature. The water feature will be either an independent feature, or integrated to enhance another feature or object. This water feature will make use of water falling through air in order to produce a series of dynamic images and/or words. Each column of water is individually controlled through a solenoid valve using a combination of a master FPGA controller and slave PLD chips.

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Miguel Contreras

Wanganui Collegiate School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: A/Prof D Bailey, Dr Gourab Sen Gupta

FPGA Based Smart Camera for Robot Soccer The aim of this project is to improve the performance of Massey’s Robot Soccer system. This will be achieved by implementing the image processing on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) hardware system instead of a traditional software based computer arrangement. The analogue CCD camera will also be replaced with a smaller digital CMOS camera. A big advantage of using a hardware based image processing system is that the processing of the image can start as it is streamed.

This means that by the time the image has been completely captured, the FPGA will be finishing its analysis, unlike in a software system where the processing algorithm would only just be starting.

This makes the FPGA far more efficient than a software system as it does not need to save the images to RAM. The frame rate can thus be increased from 30 frames per second to more than 120 frames per second and the resolution increased from 320x240 to 640x480, thereby reducing the latency and increasing the accuracy.

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Smart Prosthetic Hand The Aim of the “Smart Prosthetic Hand� project is to gather specific electrical signals off the skin above the muscle groups controlling the movement of a person’s fingers. Then use these signals to classify a pattern of movement to actuate an external motor.

The data will be captured via sensors stuck to the surface of the skin and sent to a PC for computation. The system will in time be adjusted so that it will work with an amputee and comparisons can be made between the strength of an able-bodied person against an amputee. From this data further adjustments can be made to make it a viable control mechanism for prosthetic devices in the future.

Christopher Scott

St Andrews College Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Dr Liqiong Tang, Dr Gourab Sen Gupta

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Sean McAlinden Golden Bay High Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: A/Prof Donald Bailey

Multiple Bandpass Filter Guitar ‘Wah’ Effect Circuit In the professional music industry, there is a large demand for guitar effects, which can manipulate, filter and deform any given signal to create a radically different sound. The ‘Wah’ guitar effect uses a continuously variable band pass filter to change the tone of a signal. The sound output crudely mimics a human voice making a ‘wah’ sound. This is done in the pedal by using a simpler version of the frequency spectrum created when this vowel sound is formed with the mouth.

This effect is immediately recognisable any time it used because it sounds a little like a human making a crying sound (the intro to Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Voodoo Child’ is a notable example). This effect hasn’t really evolved past circuit design improvements and tonal changes after being released 45 years ago. This is the area in which I am investigating for this project - creating new sonic possibilities in a wah pedal by adding extra band pass filters and associated circuitry and layering the two different frequency spectrums so as to sound musically appropriate for guitar.

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Automatic Bird Recognition via Sound Birds make up a significant portion of New Zealand’s native wildlife, and as such nature enthusiasts and ornithologists from around the world travel to see the many unique species which inhabit our country. Recognising the breed of a bird can be difficult for even the most seasoned of bird enthusiasts; however this project offers a solution – by using a recording of a bird’s song, and comparing properties of that song to another which is already known, we can determine whether or not they are from the same breed of bird.

This project explores and implements just one of many potential methods for the recognition of birds via their songs.

Campbell Jamieson

St. Peter’s College, Palmerston North Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Dr Amal Punchihewa, A/Prof Donald Bailey

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Three Wheel Tester for ICCs with Contacts Most modern credit/debit cards now contain an ICC (chip) with electronic contacts, which is used to improve overall security of electronic transactions. The phasein of this technology in New Zealand, and around the world, has created an increasing need for banks to ensure the dependability of these ICCs. Physical reliability testing based on an existing ISO standard test method can be used to indicate whether an ICC will stand up to the damage sustained over a standard three-year lifetime. This damage comes from the repeated physical handling of the card, as well as repeated insertion into ATMs. This project involves creating a physical device which implements the ISO test methodology by inserting the card’s ICC between several specific rollers at a set frequency for a fixed number of cycles. The top roller applies a downwards force onto the ICC, via a static weight. The ICC is then tested to see if it reads. The testing process is then repeated on the underside of the ICC. If the chip still reads after testing both side, then it passes and is deemed fit for use.

David Ashley Crane Hutt International Boys’ School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Dr Rory Flemmer

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Alan Lau

Havelock North High School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: A/ Prof Edmund Lai

Balancing Robot with Smartphone Control The aim of this project is to construct and develop a two-wheeled selfbalancing robot. Movement of this robot is controlled through an iOS app running on an iPhone.

The frame of the robot is designed using SolidWorks and constructed using 3D printing. System dynamics and control are simulated using MATLAB. A PID controller is tuned to provide stability of the robot.

An iOS application is developed to remotely control the robot through both touch interface and motion of the iPhone. The application is developed using Objective-C and conforms to the application publishing regulations of Apple Inc.

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Phillip Abplanalp

Opunake High School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Dr Liqiong Tang, Prof Subhas Mukopadhyay

GPS Guided Herd Gathering Robot In the New Zealand dairy industry cows are commonly milked twice a day for up to ten months of the year. For a dairy herd to be milked they are required to be collected from a paddock and brought to the milking facility. The common method of doing this involves one operator with an All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) to muster the herd and bring the cows to the milk facility. This task is both dull and time consuming. It can take up to three hours a day.

The idea of this project is to look at the possible application of a GPS guided robot for the purpose of gathering dairy herds. This is done with a robotic platform which can be towed behind an ATV or farm vehicle whilst mapping its movement using GPS, allowing a path within a paddock to be simply mapped. Once the farmer’s desired path has been mapped, the robot has the capability to use the collected coordinates to re-track the path allowing for future work to be done on path planning and low stress herd gathering algorithms.

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Video Analysis System on Monitoring Cats Feeding Behaviour The Feline Nutrition Centre at Massey University assesses the quality of different cat foods and ultimately determines which formulations cats prefer. The Centre currently uses real-time weight measurement of each bowl during the food trials. Unfortunately, the current system only shows the weight of food in each bowl over time. It does not show how a cat chooses a particular food and whether the cat was spilling or eating the food.

The purpose of this project is to provide a visual analysis on the cats’ eating behaviour and to allow the user to observe and analyse their activities while selecting their food. This project involves the development of: camera arms that provide the flexibility on adjusting the angle and the distance of view; a motion detection algorithm that uses the cameras to detect whether the cat is eating or not; a customized video compression algorithm optimized for performance and data rate; integration of the new system with the existing real time weighting system; and the presentation of collected data to the client using an elegant graphical user interface application.

Said Mohammed Said Al-Souti Royal Guard of Oman Technical College Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: A/Prof Donald Bailey, Dr Dave Thomas

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Mohamed El Beshlawi

Palmerston North Boys High School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Prof Subhas Mukhopadhyay, Dr Amal Punchihewa

Real-time Facility Occupation Measurement System The purpose of this project is to develop system to automatically count the number of people entering and exiting a facility through a doorway. An automated people counting system will allow the facility to have a constant and accurate measure of the number of people inside the facility. This system will also allow recording of statistics such as peak times of use and number of daily visits. These statistics will allow the facility to manage their resources more efficiently by observing trends in this data. A live count of the total number of occupants is also an important safety feature as overcrowding is a serious hazard during an emergency.

The developed system will be based on image processing, where a standard webcam or similar dome camera will be mounted above a doorway.

The images from these cameras will then be sent to a PC which performs the image processing to determine the number of people entering or exiting the facility.

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Electric Vehicle The aim of the project is to produce a vehicle powered solely by electricity that incorporates a range of technologies to aid in the cars sustainability. The car is to be powered by a single AC motor and needs to travel at speeds of up to 80 km/ hr on public roads. The vehicle is designed to seat 1 person and must be able to recharge from a typical wall socket within a timeframe that makes it realistic for everyday commuting. In order to travel on public roads the vehicle needs to be complied under standards set by the LVVTA (Low Volume Vehicle Technical Association).

Logan Pegler

Long Bay College Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: A/Prof Johan Potgieter

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Roboball A ball that will be used in an emergency situation to gain more information. Roboball will be able to move on its own without the aid of external input. This will be done by have mechanism fitted inside the ball which will enable the Roboball to move and turn as the user pleases. Main purpose of Roboball is to provide information to the user via live feed camera and receive information from other devices deployed and send it back to the controller. This will enable the user to create a better picture about the situation and rescue plans can be made accordingly.

Rushi Upadhyay

Mount Roskill Grammar School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: A/Prof Johan Potgieter

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Joel Staveley

KingsWay School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Dr Mohammad Rashid

Tiny Search and Rescue Robot The TSSR (Tiny Search and Rescue Robot) project was created to develop a prototype of a small robot capable of navigating post-disaster environments in the aid for SAR (Search and Rescue) operations.

After numerous catastrophic disaster events over the past few years (the Christchurch earthquake in NZ 2011, the Japan Tsunami in 2011 etc.) it has become increasingly apparent that there is a need for small ground SAR robots to assist in first response disaster and emergency events.

The project aims to develop a working prototype of a small remote controlled search vehicle that provides remote video & audio capabilities.

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Varun Gupta

Australian International School (Hong Kong) Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Dr Mohammad Rezaul Hasan

The MadeInMassey Scale This scale is developed with four special strain gauges, programmed to provide amazing features & applications to its users. Features include inputs & output of data displayed on an LCD screen and PC. The scale plots data on a PC with a real time graph, saves it in an excel file for further analysis and notifies the users with text or website/email.

Supports both wired & wireless transfer of data and can be used without a PC. Applications include firstly Stock Monitoring where the user inputs the weight of product, price, pallet weight and total number of items stored in stock. The scale then keeps track & displays total items, stock value, weight (without pallet weight) in real time and notifies users of low items in stock and stock updates. Secondly, Weight loss Monitoring where the patient is monitored for significant weight loss by the scale and the doctor is immediately informed if true. Finally, Weight monitoring for Inline processing, in which the scale approves the products packaged within the weighing limit, as a quality control mechanism.

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Spherical UAV The Spherical UAV is a single propeller aircraft consisting of a center core encased by a spherical rib structure. It is designed for use in search and rescue operations and will be manually controlled via remote control and live video feed. This will have the capability to be modified in the future to allow for other sensory equipment to be mounted on it. It will give search and rescue the ability to survey a disaster area before sending rescue personnel in.

James Whatley

Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: A/Prof Johan Potgieter

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Scott Finlayson

Feilding High School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Dr Gourab Sen Gupta

P3-K Orion Wing Leading Edge Temperature Control The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) operates the P-3K Orion aircraft largely for maritime surveillance of the Exclusive Economic Zone. During normal operation it is common for the aircraft to operate in extremely cold temperatures. For this reason an anti icing system is required to ensure that there is no ice accumulation on the flight surfaces of the aircraft. The system utilised on the P-3K Orion scavenges hot bleed air from a compressor stage of the turbine engine.

The bleed air is passed into a wing cavity heating up the external flight surface. This system is manually controlled by the flight crew and requires monitoring to ensure the temperature of the cavity remains within prescribed limits.

The aim of this project is to develop an automated control system, using sensors and actuators, that requires no crew interaction during normal operation. The system will provide advances in bleed air efficiency, crew workloads, a reduction in maintenance commitments, added flexibility, and provide increased reliability.

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Sun Tracker for Solar Panel Solar panels are a great way of generating energy without damaging the environment. Currently solar panels are not efficient enough without adding back generators or extra solar panels. If the solar panels followed the sun throughout the day their efficiency would increase and the use of back systems would decrease.

The aim of my project is to develop a device that would be able to track the sun for a solar panel during the day. The criteria outlined for this project is that it needs to be independent of the solar panel, use minimal power and be easily installed. The project is aimed at non-commercial market so it needs to be adaptable to suit the different sizes of solar panels available.

Dale Bull

Te Puke High School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Dr Ibrahim Al-Bahadly

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SensorBall The purpose of SensorBall is to help search and rescue workers find people in hard to get to places and extreme environments such as collapsed buildings and hazardous mineshafts. It is often too dangerous to send people into these places, but without knowing what is going on inside it is difficult to make decisions. SensorBall is the eyes and ears of the rescue workers where they can’t get to. It does this by using its onboard sensors to wirelessly relay information about the environment back to the rescue workers so that they are able to make informed decisions.

I interviewed one of the Auckland search and rescue teams that went down to Christchurch to find out how this could be used and what information they wanted to know. They said they wanted to know information about the air quality such as temperature, humidity, gas levels and also if there is any sound, or any open spaces. I am now using their feedback to design SensorBall so that it is useful to search and rescue workers.

Jarrod Burton

Fairfield College Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: A/Prof Johan Potgieter

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Jackson Arlidge

Opunake High School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Dr Gourab Sen Gupta

Autonomous Robot – Image Processing and Obstacle Avoidance This project is aimed at developing, building and testing an autonomous robot that will successfully compete at the annual National Instruments Autonomous Robot Competition (NI ARC). The competition is based around a search and rescue scenario where the robot has to navigate through an unknown course to find and pick some coloured blocks and return them to their correct location based on colour.

I have developed the vision system for object detection and identification. The vision system is also used for obstacle avoidance. The robot is autonomous with onboard power, sensors and processing. It can be used in an industrial setting for conveyance and material handling.

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Daniel Severinsen Central Hawke’s Bay College Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Dr Gourab Sen Gupta

Plasma Speaker My project was to design, build and experiment with a plasma speaker which is a loudspeaker that uses an electrical arc to produce sound. It works on the principle that as air is heated it expands; this expansion of air causes a pressure wave. By controlling the amount of heat released the pressure wave can be controlled and we observe this pressure wave as sound.

The advantage of this speaker is that is has no mass. Normal speakers have a paper diaphragm that moves back and forth to create pressure waves.

These paper diaphragms have significant mass; this mass means they have difficulty changing direction quickly, therefore have difficulty producing high frequency sounds. The plasma speaker has essentially no mass therefore can produce high frequency sound with high quality.

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Robotic Chimney Cleaner Current methods of cleaning a fireplace flue involve climbing up on to the roof of a building, and lowering a wire brush down the flue and brushing the soot from the sides of the flue. This can also be accomplished by cleaning from the bottom of the flue up, though this is a much harder method, and requires the fireplace door to be left open causing soot to escape into the building. Some roofs have a steep pitch, making it dangerous to climb, with the chimneys often being a further 1-3 metres higher than the point at which it exits the roof. These conditions can result in falls from the roof.

The aim of this project is to provide a safe, easy and cost-effective chimney cleaning solution that will allow operators to insert the device into the bottom of the flue. The device, essentially a novel pipe climbing robot, will navigate to the top of the flue and brush off the soot as it goes up. The robot is battery powered and equipped with sensors to detect when it reaches the top end of the flue.

Samuel Corpe

Palmerston North Boys’ High School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Dr Gourab Sen Gupta

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Callum Day

Palmerston North Boys’ High School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Dr Karl Dahm

Indoor Wheelchair Trainer A severe problem exists for wheelchair users when the weather is inclement.

Wheelchair bound people have no scope to maintain their fitness. This is because it is too dangerous for a wheelchair to be operated at speed in slippery conditions.

The Trainer I have designed and constructed solves this problem by allowing wheelchair bound people to exercise while being stationary indoors. The Trainer is controlled via Bluetooth from an Android touch screen tablet mounted on the trainer. The user manoeuvres themselves onto the ramp, presses a button on the tablet, and the ramp lifts the wheelchair to the height of the platform. The user then rolls off the ramp and positions their chair on the rollers. From the tablet the resistance level of the rollers can be adjusted. Basic statistics like distance travelled, current speed, and maximum speed are also displayed on the tablet for the user to view. Once the user has completed their exercise, they can save the statistics and compare them to previous sessions to track fitness levels.

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Secure Post Box The original project scope included designing a secure letter box for rural homes that was to be made using rotational moulding. Research into the rotational moulding field led to an extension of the project. The extension involved designing the rotational moulds with the aim of reducing cycle times and therefore energy usage per cycle and consequently the production cost of the letter box.

The project will look at different heating and cooling methods to optimise the cycle times, with minimal effect on product quality.

Dion Chamberlin Hamilton Boys’ High School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Mr Ralph Ball

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Large Scale 3D Printer The aim of this project is creation a large 3D-printer based on the existing industrial manipulator of the company ASIA. The main objective is to replace the outdated control system on the modern one. The implementation of this project requires the development of both the power supply of the robot, as well as all sensors counting the provisions of parts of the manipulator. Moreover, the writing of the following software may be included in this work. The project should ensure the accurate and safe operation of the robot.

Eduard Fedorov

Russia, Irkutsk State University, Faculty of Physics Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: A/Prof Johan Potgieter

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Sam Bartho

Kristin High Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Prof Olaf Diegel

Cyclocopter VTOL UAV Unmanned Air Vehicles, or drones, are fast becoming a popular alternative to manned air vehicles in many situations because of key benefits including lower initial, running and maintenance costs, smaller, and therefore more mobile, platforms and reduced or negated risk to human life.

The aim of this project is to create an efficient, unmanned aircraft that has high levels of manoeuvrability while retaining long range functionality. The vehicle will have to be capable of vertical take-off and landing, hovering and omnidirectional flight. To achieve this, a counter rotating cyclical blade system allowing for pitch controlled thrust vectoring was used.

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Manish Makwana Shirley Boys’ High School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Dr Gourab Sen Gupta

Balance Biofeedback Platform The biofeedback platform developed in this project allows a user to stand on a tilting platform and immediately receive computer feedback about his/her balance. This can be used for balance training, rehabilitation of individuals with leg injuries, or as an input to a new generation of video games.

The upper platform pivots about a sturdy ball joint which prevents parasitic ‘side-to-side’ motion, and minimises the bounciness from the springs.

Damping springs placed around the periphery of the platform provide a restoring force to prevent the user from losing balance and falling. High precision accelerometers mounted on the platform send real-time 2-axis inclination data to a microcontroller, which is then processed and fed to a PC for real-time visual feedback, data logging, and further analysis.

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Electric Vehicle The aim of the project is to produce a vehicle powered solely by electricity that incorporates a range of technologies to aid in the cars sustainability. The car is to be powered by a single AC motor and needs to travel at speeds of up to 80 km/hr on public roads. The vehicle is designed to seat 1 person and must be able to recharge from a typical wall socket within a timeframe that makes it realistic for everyday commuting. In order to travel on public roads the vehicle needs to be complied under standards set by the LVVTA (Low Volume Vehicle Technical Association.

David Keall

Green Bay High School Major: Mechatronics Supervisor: Prof Johan Potgieter

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Mark Thorn

Freyberg High School Major: Industrial Automation Supervisor: Dr Gourab Sen Gupta

Autonomous Robot – Motion Control and Navigation This project is aimed at developing, building and testing an autonomous robot that will successfully compete at the annual National Instruments Autonomous Robot Competition (NI ARC). The competition is based around a search and rescue scenario where the robot has to navigate through an unknown course to find and pick some coloured blocks and return them to their correct location based on colour.

I have developed the motion control and navigation including the localization and path planning. The robot is autonomous with on-board power, sensors and processing. It can be used in an industrial setting for conveyance and material handling.

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Spatially Distributed Food Texture Sensor The aim of this project is to develop a novel instrumented device to measure the spatial distribution of texture in foods and other materials. The device uses an array of 1024 pins, which are pushed at a constant rate into the food sample. The force exerted on each pin is individually measured using a novel capacitive pressure sensor array.

Using this device the force versus displacement profile measured during traditional texture testing is achieved for each position in the food. The development of the device means that the variance and spatial distribution of texture can be measured for the first time. This new information can potentially provide the food industry with a new tool to facilitate food science research and product development.

Zakariya Al-Battashi

The Sultan’s School, Oman Major: Industrial Automation Supervisor: Prof John Bronlund, Dr Gourab Sen Gupta

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Short Distance Alcohol Detection Sensor This project involves the development of a smart alcohol detection sensor that can detect alcohol from a relatively long distance within the range of 10 to 15cm. The sensor can then be potentially used as a distance breathalyzer or can be integrated with the car interlock system that checks the Breath Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of the driver from a distance and if the driver has exceeded the alcohol limit (0.08% BAC in New Zealand) the system may not allow the driver to start the car.

The alcohol detection system will be mounted in a suitable place in the car. Such system will also limit the risk introduced by the spread of communicable diseases caused by conventional breathalyzers. A breathalyser device controlled by the C8051F020 microcontroller is constructed with enhanced electronic circuitry that increases the sensor sensitivity covering a further sensing distance.

Abdullah Al-Hinaai

Royal Guard of Oman Technical College Major: Industrial Automation Supervisor: Prof Subhas Mukhopadhyay

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Daniel Craw Feilding High School

Major: Industrial Automation Supervisor: Dr Huub Bakker

Heliwrapper Self Propulsion and Automation Silage is a winter stock feed made of grass that has been stored wet and is partially fermented. It is stored wrapped in plastic in various forms, one of which is tube silage. This is made by wrapping together a number of single round silage bales into one long silage tube.

A current product, the Heliwrapper, is such a tube silage wrapper. It requires two tractors to wrap tube silage (one to get bales onto the machine and one to power and operate the Heliwrapper). The aim of the project is to turn the Heliwrapper into a single tractor/man operation. The single tractor is still required to load the bales, so the Heliwrapper needs to become self-propelled with its own power source, hydraulic reservoir and control system.

The project scope covers the mechanical and electrical design of the Heliwrapper as well as the programming of an Arduino controller.

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Saeed Al-bahri Major: Industrial Automation Supervisor: Dr Amal Punchihewa

Adaptive Ventilation System This project introduces an advanced control system of ventilation for smart homes. The software includes summer, winter and DCV (demand-controlled ventilation) functions and setting which allow plenty of control aspects. Control algorithm is adaptive and it considers inputs such as; occupants and architectural and volume parameters of the house to develop the required ventilation inputs.

The logic behind the software depends on feedback from humidity and temperature sensors to produce the most suitable ventilation rate for the house. The software controls the dampers and the fans to produce the required ventilation rate that inhabitants demand. Proposed control system leads ventilation to be more effective, efficient and healthier.

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Profile Cutter Controller The aim of this project is to improve on the software supplied with the ‘ProCut’ series Profile cutter used by Kerf Ltd to cut designs from sheets of metal. The current software has a minimal user interface and as the source code is not available, it cannot be modified.

By creating a new platform that will be open to Kerf Ltd, the software can have a more sophisticated user interface and have features not originally available.

The software takes in EIA Standard G-code and uses it to control a profile cutter.

The software will control smart motors on the x and y axes and move the torch at an appropriate speed to cut out the shape defined by the G-code. This is complicated by the need to have an optimised speed for different shapes, materials, and thicknesses. The software will also have a 3D visualisation to allow the user to see the shape about to be

Shane Webb

Awatapu College Major: Industrial Automation Supervisor: Dr Giovanni Moretti

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Obaida Al Hassan King’s High Major: Industrial Automation Supervisor: Dr Karl Dahm

Miniaturized Mechanical Testing The aim of this project to provide a device that is able to generate the same information as conventional tensile testing by only using 1/50th of the material. This is useful for materials where availability is limited (small samples of experimental materials, expensive materials, small samples taken from failed portions of larger components for example). This reduction in material test volume will be achieved by using the shear punch test which entails punching a hole through the material and measuring the force needed to punch that hole.

The force and displacement will be applied by a computerized tensile testing machine.

The results of shear punch tests will be compared with conventional tensile tests for materials with a range of mechanical properties. Base on these results calibration curves will be generated for a range of mechanical properties correlating the shear punch results with those from tensile tests. A strong correlation will demonstrate the potential of the shear punch test to displace the tensile test in materials testing.

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Renewable energy systems This project looks into improving renewable energy storage systems by introducing a combined energy solution that is capable of storing energy from different sources and different types such as alternating current (AC) from a wind turbine and direct current (DC) from a solar panel with conventional resources such as generators into one unit.

Furthermore, it dispatches the required amount of energy to the load in a steady stream in an acceptable form to be consumed and then store the excess for later use or return to the grid if the energy bank capacity cap is reached. Advantages of the system is in its ability to produce energy on a sunny day by photovoltaic panels, wind turbines on a windy day and a hydro-dam from the river or a combination of any two or more sources

Masoud Al-Barwani Major: Industrial Automation Supervisor: Dr Ibrahim Al-Bahadly

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Ice Management System Since the first chairlifts were installed on Mt Ruapehu, employees have been in a constant battle managing the problems and damage caused by the ice build up on equipment and the lifts. Storms in recent years have caused major damage to the Highnoon chairlift on the Turoa side of the mountain, including the catastrophic failure of 3 tower structures.

The purpose of this project was to investigate possible means of preventing ice adhesion or automatically removing the ice before it causes damage avoiding the need for manual de icing by staff. The two methods investigated were the use of ice phobic coatings and an inflatable airbag design. Prototyping and testing both in the lab and field were conducted to show proof of the design concepts.

Christopher Gane Stratford High School Major: Industrial Automation Supervisor: Dr Karl Dahm

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The Bat Bats use other methods than sight to navigate or hunt. They are able to “see” in the dark by sending out sound waves that bounce back to the bats’ ears from objects such as fruit on trees and flying insect prey. The echolocation or biosonar is a simpler way for robots to perceive shapes than pattern recognition programmes, and is much more applicable in areas without light.

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Electronics & Computer Engineering Electronics and Computer Engineering at Massey Engineering incorporates electronics, information and signal processing, computer engineering and, telecommunications and networks. Students become skilled in the development and application of electronic and computer systems, both hardware and software, in industrial and commercial contexts.

Graduates in Electronics & Computer Engineering can be found in a range of occupations including systems programming, network operations and management, performance analysis and project management.

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Allen Zhang

LiaoNing Experiment School Major: Computer and Electronics Engineering Supervisor: Dr Fakhrul Alam

IPhone and External Hardware Interface Project Smart phones and tablet computers have boosted their popularity over the last a few years. There is great a demand for these devices to be interfaced with external hardware to perform useful things other than entertainment. The purpose of this project is to gain the skill of building an application that works as an interface between an external hardware and a smart phone or tablet computer. An iOS device was chosen because of its popularity.

The application will be tested on iPhone 4S. The external hardware for this project will be an external microphone. This microphone collects sound data and transfers the data to the smart phone. The phone then processes the data and calculates the Sound Pressure Level (SPL) and displays the result on the screen. So the product is an SPL meter.

This project aims to conform to the international standard IEC 61672 class 2 at a reasonable cost.

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Spell Wiz Educational iPad Game The goal of this project is to develop an educational iPad game that helps primary school aged children with spelling. In the learning phase, the spelling of each word is displayed on the screen and is audibly pronounced using “Text-To-Speech” (TTS) technology. The young learner’s ability to spell is then tested. Sets of words are divided into different levels of difficulty. A key feature of the app is the provision of in depth feedback to parents (or educators) on the child’s spelling progress. The parents and educators are also able to add their own word sets to the app for their children to learn.

George Cronje

Elim Christian College Major: Electronics and Computer Engineering Supervisor: A/Prof Edmund Lai

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A SaaS Enterprise web application This project aims to design and build a centralized web portal for managing staff records of an organization. The project goals are to utilize the latest web technologies and software engineering best practices to make the proposed service platform is scalable, extendable and maintainable. For more information, visit www.ahleeen.com/vproje

Nasser Almanji

Royal Guard of Oman Major: Electronics and Computer Systems Engineering Supervisor:Dr Amal Punchihewa

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Max Annear - Henderson Freyberg High School Major: Electronics and Computer Systems Engineering Supervisor: A/Prof Jens Dietrich

Novel Browser-Based Visualisation of Software Architecture The project aim is to design, develop and evaluate a scalable visualisation to communicate the architecture and design of realworld applications to software architects. The visualisation component must run within modern (HTML5-capable) web browsers, and must be scalable enough to produce visualisations for large and complex real world systems including the Java runtime libraries (jr.jar version 1.6).

The architectural model to be visualised is the dependency graph, the project can use existing tooling developed to extract this model from compiled programs. It is expected that new and emerging browser features such as offline storage and web workers will be used to achieve the level of scalability and interactivity required.

The result of this project will be integrated into the Massey Architecture Explorer application.

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Anton Slooten

Taradale High School Major: Electronics and Computer Systems Engineering Supervisor: Dr Gourab Sen Gupta

Automating Height and Weight Data Analysis The aim of this project is to create a smart electronic system to measure and analyse a person’s weight and height.

The system consists of an apparatus with sensors to measure weight, and a non-contact means to measure height.

The measured parameters are communicated to a computer and stored in a database which can be processed to analyse and graphically depict trends over time.

Additional health indicators calculated are BMI (Body Mass Index), growth velocity etc. Abnormal variations in parameters such as weight and BMI are flagged out to facilitate medical intervention.

The system is intended to replace manual systems currently used in hospitals to measure and record height and weight of patients. It will also be useful in tracking the development of athletes in high performance sports centres.

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Underwater Speed Sensing Device from Stationary Point The purpose of my project is to determine a method of which an object underwater will be detected and evaluated in terms of speed and distance under the water. Speed changes and other rapports of a professional swimmer is very important for both hydrodynamics and personal improvement while in training. This is a prototype showing these factors in realtime as an object moves to and from the device below the water.

Project photo not submitted

Anthony Leducq

Wentworth College Major: Electronics and Computer Systems Engineering Supervisor: A/Prof Johan Potgieter

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Craig Spence

Wanganui Collegiate School Major: Multimedia Systems Supervisor: A/Prof Edmund Lai, A/Prof Jens Dietrich

A Distributed Ray-Tracer in JavaScript The process of creating complex, realistic computer-generated images is extremely time-consuming and memory intensive. Fortunately, it also happens to be a task that is easily divisible and can be performed on many computers simultaneously - in the most extreme case, each pixel in the final image could be generated by a different device.

However, most amateur computer-graphics artists do not have access to multiple devices that are capable of running current rendering software, and are therefore often limited to performing the computations on a single machine. The recent ubiquity of reasonably powerful web-capable devices such as smart phones, tablets and gaming consoles presents an opportunity to harness this power through the web-browser and the de facto programming language of the web - JavaScript.

The focus of this project is to implement a basic rendering system that can perform tasks on multiple devices simultaneously using the common denominator of a web-browser running JavaScript code, in order to demonstrate the value and potential of a more feature-complete system.

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Gesture Based Control System The “Gesture Based Control System” is an application that utilizes a webcam in order to map the motion of a user’s hands and arms to recognize gestures that correspond to certain actions. Through the recognition of these predefined gestures the user is then able to navigate and manipulate the desktop environment without the need for a conventional mouse or keyboard. The intended purpose of this application is to provide an alternative method of interaction which is both intuitive and productive in the area of user interfacing.

Rajitha Samarasekara Mt Roskill Grammar School Major: Electronics and Computer Engineering Supervisor: Dr Fakhrul Alam

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Kinect Navigation Robot This project was designed to showcase the functionality and versatility of a Microsoft Kinect as a stand alone robotic sensor.

While the Kinect is marketed as a game device, its depth camera is a very powerful tool that can be used to create a 3D image from single frames.

When used at its full resolution the depth camera is able to capture a large 3D area and store it as a high resolution 3D map.

This project differs from many existing robots in that it uses only the Kinect to map its surroundings, find its position on the map and navigate through the world to find its prescribed destination. The project uses ROS (Robot Operating System), an open source Ubuntu library both to interface with the kinect and control the navigation logic.

Paul Williams

Glenfield College Major: Electronics and Computer Engineering Supervisor: A/Prof Johan Potgieter

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Martin Morales

Glenfield College Major: Electronics and Communication Engineering Supervisor: Dr Fakhrul Alam

Zigbee IR Remote Extender A compact and low power solution is being designed to be attached to existing TV remote controls. Using Zigbee wireless technology, this device is not restricted by IR limitations such as line of sight and limited range. This innovation in wireless control technology enables new features to be added into existing remotes such as the ability to control appliances from another room, or making any remote universal. These features help make the Zigbee remote extender the future of home automation and control.

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Akashdeep Singh

Papatoetoe High School Major: Electronics and Computer Engineering Supervisor: Prof Olaf Diegel

ABI Test iPad Application ABI (Ankle brachial index) test is a blood pressure test that is used to check whether a patient has any arterial blockages. The test simultaneously measures the blood pressure in the ankle and an arm and compares the results to determine if there is any blockage. There are no accessories available to wirelessly do ABI tests and display the results on an iPad or smart phone.

This project makes use of hardware and software knowledge to create such a system. The microcontroller gets the patient’s leg and arm blood pressures through two USB powered blood pressure monitors. The wireless microcontroller then sends data across to an iPad App that shows real time graph of their blood pressure, and alerts the patient (or doctor) if there are any blockages. The iPad application also allows functionally such as adding different patients, patient history, BMI index and reminder alarms so patients know when their next test is due.

Project photo not submitted

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Traffic Flow Prediction Using AIMSUN My project is to create a traffic flow prediction algorithm. This is coded within an API program that is directly interfaced within the Advanced Interactive Microscopic Simulator for Urban and NonUrban Networks (AIMSUN) virtual environment.

I will be using loop detectors that are metal coils located under roads to determine various characteristics of traffic.

The algorithm attempts to use comparative queue techniques along with gap detection in order to measure both the flow of traffic and determine the end of a queue.

The idea behind this is that it allows an optimisation algorithm to use this data to make consistently accurate decisions about how long each phase should last for. As for the customers, the government will be the primary focus of this product. This is because congestion is a major issue on roads along with the pollution it causes. Hence the project needs to be cheap, effective and easy to implement.

Shaun Ripley

Glenfield College Major: Electronics and Computer Engineering Supervisor: Dr Fakhrul Alam

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Michael Mackereth

Palmerston North Boys’ High School Major: Software Engineering Supervisor: A/Prof Stephen Marsland, Prof Hans Guesgen

Identifying Relevant Context for Behaviour Recognition The project is in the area of artificial intelligence in Smart Homes.

Ultimately, the system aims to assist the elderly to live an independent lifestyle for longer by providing unobtrusive monitoring of their behaviours and calling for carers if problems are detected. Sensors in a house detect when actions occur, together with their time, which can be paired with contextual information such as temperature, humidity, day of the week, etc. A current behaviour recognition system can use sequences of sensor events to determine which behaviour is occurring, e.g., cooking, sleeping, and watching TV. In this project the contextual information for the behaviours is used in the detection of novel behavioural events. The project aims to determine the novelty of the events by finding and using relationships between the context and behaviour.

For example, a novel event would be doing the laundry at 3am if it’s normally done during the day. Further work in this area could lead to a system that can detect unusual behaviour and alert caregivers as appropriate.

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ZigBee Technology in Greenhouse Monitoring and Control ZigBee technology has received wide attention in recent years in monitoring and control of the greenhouse environment replacing the traditional wired monitoring and control system having shortcomings such as complex wiring, signal interference and maintenance.

This work is an investigation into the technology and its application in the monitoring and control of the greenhouse environment. Emphasis is on the merits and demerits between Zigbee and other wireless technologies, performance metrics and quality of service obtainable from such selforganizing wireless networks based on critical review of scholarly published works and on-going research.

Project photo not submitted

Zhen Li

BeiJing Union University, China Major: Electronics and Computer Engineering Supervisor: Dr Mohammad Rashid

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The Gecko Gecko feet are covered in little hairs. Each hair is about 200 to 500 nanometers wide. The adhesive power of a centimeter of gecko foot is about 10 Newtons. The principles of the Gecko feet have formed the foundation for the development of Gecko tape, which is projected to have a wide range of industrial applications due to its strength, ease of removal and lack of residue.

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Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering New Zealand’s economy is strongly based on adding value to bio-derived materials through processing.

Traditional export industries are increasingly looking to innovations in biotechnology and nanotechnology to develop processes for new products or ingredients from New Zealand resources.

Graduates in Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering are found in a wide range of chemical and bioprocessing industries worldwide. They hold positions as process engineer, production manager, consulting engineer and chemical engineer.

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Allan Yeung

Palmerston North Boys’ High School Major: Biotechnology Supervisor: Mr Ross Davies

Dairy Factory CIP Optimisation A clean factory is a safe factory! Cleaning in Place (CIP) systems are used extensively in the Dairy Industry. These systems provide a means to clean and sanitise equipment for the production of dairy products without needing to dismantle and clean manually. CIP systems commonly over- compensate to provide extra assurance in relation to safety.

In the past, optimisation was not a priority due to the fact that adjusting these safety margins could adversely affect the safety of products. This historical approach has now come under scrutiny with increased incentives to reduce utility costs, improve waste disposal and have a system that is more environmentally sustainable.

ECOLAB has encouraged Goodman Fielder to become involved in a number of cost saving projects, including the lowering of caustic and acid dosages in their CIP system. This project is designed investigate current CIP operating system and practices.

Key outcomes of the project are to determine what actions need to be taken in order to operate cleaning chemicals at the optimal levels suggested

by ECOLAB.

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Characterizing Heterotrophic Growth of Chlorella vulgaris Microalgae are a potential source of biofuels especially biodiesel. Biodiesel is currently produced from vegetable oils. Unfortunately, oil crops cannot sustainably provide sufficient biodiesel to replace conventional transport fuels. Potential yield of oil from algae per hectare of land is 20-fold or more compared with the most productive oil crops such as oil palm.

This project characterized the growth and lipid production of the alga Chlorella vulgaris grown on glucose in the dark.

Biomass growth curves, nitrate consumption profiles and glucose consumption profiles were obtained for a 12-day culture period. The washed algal biomass was freeze-dried to determine its total oil content and the total energy content. The aim was always to maximize the biomass yield by evaluating a range of culture conditions in multiple experiments.

Mathews Thomas Avondale College Major: Biotechnology Supervisor: Prof Yusuf Chisti

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Controlled Nucleation Optimizing Freeze-Drying of Collagen Southern Lights Biomaterials produces pharmaceutical grade bovine collagen sheets for medical applications. As the demand for their product increases, the production line is in need of optimization. Freeze-drying is an expensive and time consuming process; to improve the economics of this stage a key objective in its optimization is to reduce cycle time.

Three stages are incorporated into the freeze drying cycle; freezing to solidify the product, primary drying to remove unbound water through sublimation and secondary drying to remove bound water. The primary drying stage is the longest of the steps, so this was the focus for optimization in this project. Experimental findings indicate that the primary drying stage can be optimized and this understanding will enable greater product throughput without the need for additional capital expenditure.

Susyn Kelly

Palmerston North Girls’ High School Major: Biotechnology Supervisor: Prof Richard Haverkamp, Mr Steve Kirk

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Hilary Bullock Wanganui High School Major: Biotechnology Supervisor: Dr Richard Love

Acoustic Impendence to Measure Density during Fermentation During brewing and fermentation of beer, and other beverages, fast, accurate sugar and ethanol concentrations can be a significant factor in ensuring quality. In traditional brewing, when rapid and cheap alcohol and sugar values are required it is inferred from density measured with a float hydrometer. Sometimes, similar measurements can be performed using sound velocity, achieved by measuring the flight time of ultrasonic signals through the liquid. However, this method has problems if the fermenting liquid contains gaseous bubbles, suspended particles, or is highly dispersive; as is the case with many fermented products!

In this project a new method, using acoustic impedance was trialled. The technology is based on inferring the density of the liquid in the fermentation vessel based on its effect on the acoustic impedance of the vessel wall. This method may give a cleaner signal in the difficult conditions of real fermentation, and may be a useful tool to enable further research in the university’s microbrewery.

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Daniel Shields Wairarapa College Major: Biotechnology Supervisor: A/Prof Pak-Lam Yu

Lactic Acid Production from Whey Lactic acid is a valuable industrial chemical, mainly used in the food industry as an acidity regulator. However, it also has numerous other applications in the pharmaceutical and textile industries, and most recently as a precursor to make biodegradable plastics. At present, 90 % of the world production of lactic acid is achieved by fermentation.

In order to make lactic acid production economically feasible, cheap and readily available raw materials must be used.

The New Zealand dairy industry produces vast amounts of whey, a by-product of the cheese. The disposal of whey is an enormous environmental concern due to the residual sugars present. Therefore Fonterra is interested in utilising whey for the production of lactic acid, which can then be used in a number of their food products.

The purpose of this project was to determine the fermentation conditions of whey, using Lactobacillus helveticus, which yielded the largest amount of lactic acid. Once fermentation conditions had been identified, the options of downstream processing of crude lactic acid to food grade lactic acid were then evaluated.

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Mathematical Model of a PEM Electrolysis Cell In recent times, the environmental impact of petroleum use has increased consumer demand for zero-emission fuels. As such, interest into using hydrogen as a fuel source has been on the rise, as it has none of the harmful by products. However, mass production of hydrogen fuel is currently limited by high cost and low efficiency.

This project involved developing a mathematical model of a Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolysis cell, to predict the efficiency of producing hydrogen from water. It is thought that by using inert sintered metals as a gas diffusion layer, such as titanium, the efficiency can be improved. Once a model had been developed for existing PEM electrolysis systems, it was further modified to simulate the effects of a sintered metal gas diffusion layer.

It was intended for this model to be used as a tool for future students, researchers and PEM electrolysis cell designers, by providing quick approximations of important experimental parameters

Jamal Olatunji

St Peters College, Palmerston North Major: Chemical and Nanotechnology Supervisor: Prof Richard Haverkamp

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Hannah Wells

Te Puke High School Major: Biotechnology Supervisor: Dr Nicola Powell, Prof Andrew Shilton

Natural Fibre Filter for Wastewater Treatment This project is aimed at developing a cheap and effective upgrade method of improving wastewater treatment in waste stabilization ponds systems. Waste stabilization ponds have proven to be effective at treating wastewater in New Zealand for many years, however many are failing to meet requirements as resource consents are becoming more strict. To improve effluent quality, the algae need to be removed before being released into the environment. All current methods of this, involve high capital and/or operating costs, of which many small communities cannot afford.

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This project investigates the use of natural fibre as a filtering material to remove algae from wastewater before it is released into waterways.

Experiments in this project have included testing alternative filter designs using the fibre, comparing performance of filters of varying depth and density, analyzing the biofilm growth on the filters as well as the relationship between the biofilm establishment and filter performance, and finally a filter configuration that could be easily adapted into commercial treatment ponds was designed, developed and tested using varying hydraulic loading rates.

Smoke Generator for Food Smoking This project focuses on smoke generation for tradition food smoking, where the flus gas from smouldering wood is brought in direct contact with the food. The smoking serves to flavour, dry and preserve the food.

The project first aims to establish the consistency of temperature control in two pyrolysers, one developed by an external business with expertise in microwave heating of carbonaceous material and the other a standard off-theshelf commercial unit modified by Massey for comparison.

The second aim is to relate smoke generation temperature to the release of flavours and undesirables, such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Beyond this exploratory project, food will be introduced and flavour retention will be studied as a function of smokehouse temperature and humidity.

Nurul Ain Haris

MARA College Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, Major: Chemical and Nanotechnology Supervisor: Prof Jim Jones

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Shear Rate effect on Secondary Nucleation of Îą-Lactose Crystals Nucleation is a critical process in industrial crystallizers. Failure to control the nucleation rates will lead to low yields of the desired size of crystals giving lower profits. Secondary nucleation is the predominate nucleation mechanism present in crystallisers.

This project investigates the secondary nucleation rate caused by fluid shear over crystals at low shear rates and the effect of shear on the growth of the crystals. From this project, it is discovered that the nucleation rate at different supersaturation are not affected by low shear rates. The same result was also obtained with the growth rate at low shear rates. These results show that the nucleation and growth rates do not have a specific relationship.

Siti Fairuz Sallehuddin Seremban Mara College Major: Chemical and Nanotechnology Supervisor: Prof Tony Paterson

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Zane Norvill

Christian Education New Zealand Academy Major: Chemical and Nanotechnology Supervisor: Prof Richard Haverkamp

Nanostructured Thin Films of Fungal Hydrophobins Most industrial equipment consists of stainless steel surfaces, which are hydrophilic (water attracting), but there are advantages in increasing the hydrophobicity (water repelling nature) of the surfaces. Dropwise condensation in the presence of pure steam can increase the heat transfer rates by 10 to 20 times, and dropwise condensation is encouraged by a hydrophobic surface. Increasing the hydrophobicity can have anti-fouling benefits also by reducing non-specific binding of proteins.

Spore of the fungi Neurospora crassa have a hydrophobin protein coating the spores that self-assembles into rodlets.

Formation of this rodlet structure on hydrophilic surfaces creates a more hydrophobic surface. This project applies techniques for the formation of N. crassa rodlets previously applied to mica surfaces to industrial SS (grade 316). Techniques were adjusted to account for the different initial materials, and new methods attempted to improve hydrophobicity of the surface.

Consistency and structure of the film covering the surface was analyzed using AFM imaging, and hydrophobicity quantified by contact angle analysis.

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Uchena Evanson

Hamilton Boys’ High School Major: Chemical and Nanotechnology Supervisor: Prof Jim Jones

Wood Pyrolysis Volatiles Analysis by GCMS Recently there has been a renewed global interest in the production of charcoal, with regards to sustainable agriculture and climate change.

In this context of sustainability, charcoal is more appropriately termed ‘biochar’ as the name gives reference to the intended end-use of the product; putting biochar back into the soil to increase its nutrient retention, while sequestering carbon from the atmospheric carbon cycle. This is where the research interest lies; in finding the most efficient conditions to produce high yields of biochar from Pinus radiata (pine wood). However little is understood about the volatile species which are evolved in this process during the primary and secondary decomposition reactions.

The aim of this project is to identify and quantifying the gas species evolved during the pyrolysis of Pinus Radiata, to shed new light on this complex process. Particularly to differentiate the primary and secondary reaction products formed during pyrolysis.

In order to analyse the gas species evolved over a range of pyrolysis conditions, analysis was conducted using a pyrolyser-GC (gas chromatograph)-MS (mass spectrometer

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Fracturing of Wood during Pyrolysis Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. This degradation process results in three end products, char, tar, and syngas. The char is rich in carbon which, when added to soil, is called biochar and has the dual benefits of climate change mitigation and improving soil functions.

The aim of this project was to study the formation of cracks and fissures during wood pyrolysis to determine how mass transfer resistance changes with pyrolysis temperature, ramp rate and size of the feed stock particles. This is important as literature indicates that higher mass transfer resistance promotes higher yield by secondary char formation. Therefore, it is desirable to understand the mechanism of fissure and crack development during pyrolysis.

Knowledge in this area is essential to comprehend the extent of secondary char forming reactions in wood pyrolysis, which is currently a subject of research by the New Zealand Biochar Research Centre, NZBRC, for maximizing the yield of biochar.

Fatima Bashir

Westlake Girl’s High School Major: Environmental Technology and Sustainable Energy Supervisor: Prof Jim Jones

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Jonathan Cottrell

The Grange School, Bristol, UK Major: Environmental Technology and Sustainable Energy Supervisora: Dr Nicola Powell, Prof Andy Shilton, Mr Chris Pratt

Biogas Production as a Source of Renewable Energy With the growing global demand for energy, developing sustainable energy technologies has become necessary in many countries.

Anaerobic digestion for the production of biogas is one technology that is commonly employed. Anaerobic digesters are large stirred and heated tanks where microorganisms breakdown feedstocks and produce biogas which is a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide. The biogas can be used as a fuel for generating electricity and/ or heat.

A variety of wastes can be used as feedstocks in digesters and in some countries dedicated fuel crops are grown. Massey University has been developing ways of optimising this process further. In this project one of these new technologies was tested under a range of process conditions to evaluate its performance.

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Continuous Beer Fermentation in a Packed Bed Fermentation is a very common industrial process, with applications in fields ranging from pharmaceuticals to lactic acid production to beer brewing. Although continuous fermentation offers several advantages such as smaller-scale equipment and low operational costs, industrial fermentation is almost exclusively done batch-wise.

This is partly due to the difficulty in predicting the behaviour of the system on a large scale. Scale-up from smaller trials has proven to be inaccurate in predicting how a new system will perform, so companies are reluctant to invest in an unknown process.

The purpose of this project was to characterise the liquid flow through a 20L packed bed reactor column, with beer as the experimental fluid. Along with allowing a full understanding of the flow in the Massey column, this study also extends the current body of knowledge on flow through packed bed fermentation rigs.

Chris Barstead

Scots College Major: Environmental Technology and Sustainable Energy Supervisor: Mr Colin Brown

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Plant Based Disinfection of Contaminated Water Some plants are known to have antimicrobial properties which mean that they inhibit the growth of potentially harmful bacteria. This project aims to discover which plants are capable of removing harmful bacteria from contaminated water which could either be drinking water or for wastewater treatment. Throughout this project a total of 13 plants were tested against with five types of harmful bacteria.

It was found that garlic and bitter melon could inhibit the growth of bacteria. These plants showed a significant resistance to E.coli, which is one of the key types of bacteria used as an indicator of water quality. The plants were then further tested to determine how much plant was required to treat the contaminated water. With further research it might be possible to develop a new process to utilise these plants as a natural form of disinfection.

Huijian Huang

St. Peter’s College Major: Environmental Technology and Sustainable Energy Supervisor: Dr Nicola Powell, Prof Andrew Shilton

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The Squid How does a squid, whose body is soft and supple, have a beak that is considered on of the hardest organic materials in natures? Here you have a ‘cutting tool’ that’s extremely hard and stiff at its tip and is attached to a material – the muscular buccal mass – that has the consistency of Jell-O.

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Food Technology New Zealand’s economy is largely reliant on the production and export of food products. As such, adding value to raw products like milk, meat and fruits are paramount to maintaining growth in New Zealand. Food Technology encompasses core science and engineering to take raw ingredients and convert them to highly valuable and sort after products.

With a broad knowledge of the food industry, Food Technology graduates are well respected in industry and fill a wide range of roles from new product development to manufacturing and process improvement positions.

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Gaurav Goyal

Queen Elizabeth College Major: Food Technology Supervisor: A/Prof Steve Flint

Probiotic Growth in Yoghurt through Co-culturing Probiotics are frequently added to yoghurt to provide health benefits and add value to the product. Standard yoghurt fermentation relies upon Streptococcus thermophilus to reduce the pH and form the yoghurt gel. Probiotics, such as Bifidobacterium lactis are usually added during yoghurt manufacture at the level required in the final product as they do not grow during standard yoghurt fermentation. Recent reports suggest that Lactococcus lactis added to the yoghurt fermentation will enable the growth of B. lactis.

This would reduce the amount of B. lactis added during yoghurt manufacture, reducing the manufacturing cost.

The aim of this experiment was to select strains of L. lactis to enable the maximum growth of B. lactis in a yoghurt fermentation. Some strains of L. lactis in the yoghurt fermentation were able to produce a 1 log increase in the numbers of B. lactis. The amount of B. lactis added during yoghurt manufacture can therefore be reduced by 90% resulting in reduced costs of manufacture. A shelf life study ensured that this change did not influence the sensory characteristics of the product.

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Milk-Based Recovery Beverage Recovery beverages must fulfil post exercise requirements to encourage individual consumption whilst ensuring adequate rehydration. It has been suggested that the addition of protein to these beverages may be more beneficial than carbohydrate alone. Milk, with naturally high levels of protein, carbohydrates, electrolytes, vitamins and minerals has the potential to be a suitable base ingredient in a recovery beverage.

The aim of this project is to develop an appropriate milk-based recovery beverage. The beverage will contain suitable levels of macro and micronutrients whilst sensory trials will be carried out to ensure it is appealing to consumers. The final formulation is to be developed at pilot scale and is to be competitive with other sports beverages currently in the market.

Micheala Bramwell Carmel College Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr John Grigor

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Flash Vessel/Vapour-Liquid Separator This project involves designing the flash vessel of a steam infuser. Steam infusion is a technique for direct heating in which steam is added into a liquid product, which rapidly heats it. In this case, the steam infuser is part of an Ultra-HighTemperature (UHT) sterilization process, and after heating the product is held at the high temperature before being rapidly cooled by flashing the steam back to vapour, which is then separated from the product. The flashing of the vapour occurs because the high temperature product is rapidly reduced in pressure as it enters the flash vessel.

The challenges in this project were ensuring that the same amount of steam added in the steam infuser is flashed to vapour again, in the flash vessel, and that the flash vapour is removed without being allowed to condense back into the product. Failing to overcome these challenges would mean that the final product would become diluted as it was sterilized, which is usually undesirable, particularly as UHT is often a component in processes designed to concentrate.

Qinyuan Chen Te Puke High School Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Richard Love

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Kimberley Stanley Fairfield College Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr John Grigor

Interactions between Stevia and Juice Texture The project was to investigate the interaction between juice texture and the artificial sweetener; Stevia. Specific investigation was on the ability to mask the aftertastes of Stevia with juice textures. This project was completed for New Zealand Juice and Beverage Association (NZJBA). Members of this association had expressed an interest in the use and properties of Stevia, which has been recently accepted as a sweetener by New Zealand and European Union food regulators.

Analysis of these interactions was completed using a dynamic sensory technique; Temporal Dominance of Sensations. Using a semi-trained sensory panel, the interactions were studied in model systems and then applied to real juice systems to draw conclusions relating to commercial products.

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Manfred Chun Westlake Boys High School Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Sung Je Lee

Optimization of Protein and Fat Fermented milk products, such as yoghurt, are produced by fermentation of milk with lactic acid bacteria. The lactic acid produced by fermentation of lactose lowers the pH of milk, causing the coagulation of milk proteins that thickens the milk, resulting in the characteristic of yoghurt texture.

The aim of this project was to investigate any potential factors causing changes in the fat and protein contents of fermented and unfermented dairy products during the manufacturing process. Various types of products were analysed for the determination of chemical composition, such as moisture, protein, fat, ash and carbohydrate, by using the proximate analysis. In this study, it was investigated that the fat and protein contents in the final products can be maintained constant during the entire production process or changed to a certain extent by controlling and optimising the processing variables and conditions without affecting the product quality and properties.

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Gluten Free, Pre-pack Salad Range Speirs Foods Ltd delivers a range of fresh salads into the retail deli sector nationwide, on a daily basis. They have begun to branch into providing pre-packaged salads and vegetables. These types of products are seen as the future of Speirs Foods as they cater to the ‘convenience’ market. In recent years the food industry has also seen an increase in the demand for gluten free products.

This new product development (NPD) project was developed to create a range of gluten free salads that will allow Speirs Foods to span both the ‘convenience’ and ‘free from’ market. The range of salads was created with consumer input through market research, focus groups and consumer surveys. The range covers four different salads including family favorites like Coleslaw and exotic flavors like Mediterranean Quinoa salad, all in 200 – 250g pottles. Special considerations throughout the NPD process had to be given to ensure the salads had a 16 day shelf life and contained no detectable gluten.

Katherine Ward Napier Girls High School Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Jason Hindmarsh

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Vivvek Gargi

Mt.Roskill Grammar School Major: Food Technology Supervisor: A/Prof Brian Wilkinson

Shelf Life Extension of Precooked Uncured Sausages Hellers Ltd is the largest producer of small goods in New Zealand and is the leading manufacturer of bacon and ham. Key company visions include focus on quality, innovative products and being consumer focused. Hellers wish to extend the shelf life of their uncured, pre-cooked sausages from 6 to 10-12 weeks in order to export to foreign markets. Sodium metabisulphite(E223), the only preservative in the product, currently provides a 6 week shelf life.

The aim of this project is to find an ingredient(s) and/ or process procedures that would extend the shelf life by a further 4-6 weeks, whilst complying with all the regulations.

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Viability of Probiotics in Kefir and Yogurt The purpose of this project is to evaluate the viability of two probiotics: Lactobacillus acidophilus (LA-5) and Bifidobacterium (BB-12) in yoghurt and kefir. l-Make Ltd is an innovative company that produces domestic kits for making yogurt, kefir and other fermented dairy products. Kefir is a unique fermented milk drink that originated from the Caucus Mountains of Russia, which has a slight effervescence brought about by its constituent yeast and lactic acid bacteria.

Though the starter cultures for both products contain proven probiotic strains, it is important to know that these products can maintain the “therapeutic minimum� of 106 cells per gram throughout the product shelf life. Therefore, the main objective is to model the respective probiotic concentrations in yogurt and kefir throughout refrigerated storage

Oliver Mason

Rangitoto College Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Tony Mutukumira

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Chicken Liver Parfait Recipe Arts Limited specialises in making three varieties of a chicken liver parfait: original, peppered and truffled, under the brand name Genevieve’s Cuisine.

Preparation of the chicken liver parfait is based on a French method of making pâté, where the raw ingredients are blended and then baked at low temperature until the emulsion sets.

The parfait has a smooth, light consistency and is made using fresh, high quality ingredients. The preservation of the product relies on the ingredients used, the heat-treatment during preparation, good manufacturing practices and low storage temperatures. The aim of the project was to develop optimum processing conditions to produce safe, wholesome and stable products with a longer shelf life under refrigeration conditions.

Siân Duffy

Rangitoto College Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Tony Mutukumira

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Laura Kerr

Rangi Ruru Girls’ School Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Mr Michael Parker

Naturally Preserved Apple Product As a result of changing consumer trends and the desire to expand their market share, Fruitpackers Co-operative requested that a new processed apple product be developed. The new product had to fit into their existing processing line and was to be marketed towards the bakery and ingredient industries.

Interviews of the sponsors existing and potential clients identified customer needs. These revealed that consumers require an apple product to be versatile, available year-round, and hold its structure and flavour during baking. They also revealed that customers are cost driven and the product must be free of allergens and extraneous plant matter.

Development of FRUPAK’s Apple Pie Mix was undertaken to meet these customer needs. Shelf life and nutritional testing were used to evaluate the products capability, along with visual examination and sensory testing.

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Elyse Purcell

Rangitoto College Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Rana Ravindran

Gourmet Pizza Range Speirs food Limited is a fresh food manufacturer that produces a range of salads for the food service and consumer industries. They recognize that consumer markets are dynamic and have identified a need to continually provide new and improved products to their customers.

The project aim was to extend the existing product base by developing a pizza range to be sold in New Zealand supermarkets including both traditional and gourmet flavours. The project also included the development of gluten free pizza options to appeal to the rapidly growing gluten free markets. The pizzas will be fresh, ready to cook and sold in supermarket chillers.

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Carbonation Techniques through Non-Alcoholic Fermentation My project involved in-bottle fermentation of fruit bases with bacterial cultures to carbonate a beverage naturally. Fermentation is one of the oldest and most economical techniques in producing and preserving food and beverages.

Furthermore, fermentation delivers a process that can breakdown detrimental components thereby enhancing nutritional value, reducing the energy required for cooking and creating safer products.

The process of natural carbonation through non-alcoholic fermentation of fruit juices is not well understood in published literature. The fermentation was required to generate a noticeable carbon dioxide concentration with low alcohol content. The fermented beverage also needed to be acceptable to the consumer therefore not producing distinguishable traces of diacetyl or other detrimental sensory properties.

Rene Jekel

Pakuranga College Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Kylie Foster

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Yan Ling Tan

Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Owen McCarthy, A/Prof Richard Archer, Dr Saw Lin Kiat

Evaluation of Bi-Directional Mixing Efficiency Batch mixing is one of the basic unit operations in food processing. Uni-directional mixing creates a vortex which decreases the mixing efficiency. Although installation of baffles can solve the problem, the resulting dead spaces make cleaning difficult. The bi-directional mode of mixing changes the direction of rotation at fixed intervals.

This breaks the mixing pattern in the vessel, hence providing more efficient mixing without baffles. A pilot-scale bi-directional agitator was fabricated on the basis of the bench-top studies of Zhao (2010) and Tan (2011).

The purpose of this project was to compare mixing efficiencies in the uni-directional and the bi-directional modes at pilot-scale and determine the factors that affect the mixing efficiency for a viscous fluid (glycerol). A total of 8 trials with varying maximum velocity, acceleration and period of oscillation were carried out. Only the maximum velocity was found to have a significant effect on the mixing efficiency expressed as mixing time. Finally, a model was generated to predict the mixing time based on the three factors studied.

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Development of a Sports Recovery Product Sport, exercise and competition all take a toll on athletes, draining the body’s store of water, nutrients and electrolytes. A range of flavoured concentrated milkshake syrups were developed. These can be added to milk and consumed after an event to aid with recovery.

The key purpose of recovery products is to provide the correct amount of water, carbohydrates, protein and electrolytes to maximize the recovery rate. The desired nutrients and their levels were established based on published scientific studies. The syrup designed when added to milk provides the essential nutrients that athletes need for optimum recovery in a convenient form at a competitive price.

Three flavours were developed and optimised using sensory testing.

Simon Cushing

Palmerston North Boys High School Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Mr Michael Parker

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New Tempeh-Based Product Tempeh is an Indonesian traditional food made from fermented legume, most commonly soybean. The fermentation results in a white mold growth called mycelia, which binds the legumes together into a solid cake. In Indonesia, the production of tempeh was traditionally carried out in humble small cottages in villages.

As its popularity increased, tempeh became known for its nutritional quality. It has an excellent content of protein, which sits at around 19.5% and compares well with chicken and beef at 21% and 20% respectively. It also contains high levels of polyunsaturated fat, riboflavin, magnesium, manganese and copper. Not only does tempeh have an excellent nutritional profile, it also has impeccable taste and versatility. My project deals with developing a new product based on the principal of tempeh fermentation.

The new product will then be flavoured and packaged in such a way that it will be appealing to the New Zealand and Australian markets. The product aims to be sold chilled and stable for 6 months.

Pamella Ariestia

Taylors College, Auckland Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Patrick Janssen

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Monique Meyerink

Cambridge High School Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Jon Palmer

Screening Method for Anti-Biofilm Components Previous work carried out by Kimberly K. Jefferson has shown that a low molecular weight component of blood serum inhibits biofilm formation. If this work is repeatable, then it is possible to screen for the presence of anti-biofilm compounds in products such as milk or honey, based on the theory that they may have similar anti-biofilm systems. These compounds can then be used in the food industry processes in order to prevent bio-film formation.

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Ashleigh Mullaly

Saint Kentigern College Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Sung Je Lee

Use of Rhamnolipid for Instantisation of Milk Powder Whole milk powder cannot readily be reconstituted into water below temperatures of 40째C, and for this reason instant whole milk powder was introduced into the market. Soy lecithin is applied to whole milk powder prior to the spray drying process, to overcome the hydrophobic nature of the fat globules on the powder surface, therefore, allowing reconstitution in water at cold temperatures.

Approximately 80,000 tonnes of instant whole milk powder is produced annually in New Zealand.

However, soy lecithin is classified as an allergen and using rhamnolipid in place of lecithin may be advantageous for this reason. Additionally rhamnolipid may improve the shelf life and stability of instant whole milk powder. In this study, the effects of rhamnolipid on the physical and chemical properties of whole milk powder were studied and its potential application as an alternative to lecithin in the production of instant whole milk was investigated.

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Functionality of Gelling Agents in Soybean Curds Several factors affect the texture and eating qualities of douhua, of which the prominent factors are the type and dosage of coagulant/gelling agent used. In this study, the effects of coagulant and gelling agent on the texture, pH, acidity and moisture content of douhua were investigated, with the aim to formulate and develop a process for producing douhua. Coagulants include GDL, calcium sulphate, magnesium chloride and gelling agents such as iota- and kappa- Carrageenan, alginate and gelatin were used.

From the results obtained, processing and types of coagulant and gelling agent have effects on the firmness of douhua. The stronger the interaction between protein and coagulant/gelling agent, the firmer is the douhua. Moreover, taste and mouth-feel of douhua differs with the use of different coagulant and gelling agent. Certain coagulants and gelling agents affects the acidity of the douhua and may impart an undesirable sour note. Sensory performed show that the kappa- Carrageenan douhua is the best accepted douhua, however, it is less preferred as compared with commercial soybean pudding.

Kexin Yeo

Temasek Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Tay Hong Soon

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Calvin Khoo

Pakuranga College Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr John Grigor

Preservatives in Carbonated Drinks Preservatives are a crucial component in any food or beverage type product to maintain the quality and microbial safety of the product. The purpose of this project is to test the feasibility of different types of preservatives in carbonated beverages containing citrus juice while maintaining organoleptic and microbiological stability. Beverages were made containing different types of preservatives and were put through an accelerated shelf life program.

Consumer similarity testing was carried out to see whether a difference in taste could be detected in relation to the control sample. Shelf life testing was carried out for colour and microbial activity. A difference from control test was also carried out to measure any sensory deterioration of the test sample. The most suitable preservative in this case would ensure a product is safe and stable over its entire shelf life.

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Determination of Shelf-Stability of Infant Formulae The export of infant formula to overseas markets is continuously growing due to the high quality of milk and dairy products produced in New Zealand. Infant formulas packed in cans are required to remain stable during storage of its shelf life of at least 24 months at ambient temperature. Among many different quality attributes, the sensory (e.g. flavour and taste) and physical properties of infant formula are some of the most important parameters to be maintained constant without deterioration during storage.

This project was to investigate the oxidative stability of infant formulas formulated with different nutritional compositions during storage at various temperatures by using chemical (peroxide value and TBARS value) and instrumental (gas chromatography) methods. Changes in the physicochemical properties of infant formulas occurring during storage were also determined in this study.

Lisa Huang

Rangitoto College Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Sung Je Lee

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Role of Sodium and Citrate in Processed Cheese There is a global trend to increase the healthiness of foods and for the processed cheese market this focus is primarily on sodium reduction.

Sodium salts have traditionally been a key enabling ingredient in process cheese manufacture.

The aim of this project was to investigate the role of some common emulsifying salt components (sodium and citrate) in processed cheese and characterize the impact of each of these components on emulsion stability, and the textural, micro-structural, and functional properties. The study will enable Fonterra to understand the science and technology of making a stable and consumer acceptable sodium-reduced processed cheese.

Tracey Jaques Tararua College Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Alistair Carr

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Jonathan Au-Young

Palmerston North Boys’ High School Major: Food Technology Supervisor: A/Prof Matt Golding

Dairy-Free Soy-Free Diabetic Ice Cream The market for non-dairy ice creams predominantly comprises soy formulated products. The sponsoring company identified an opportunity to develop a range of ice creams that would not only cater to people with dairy and soy allergies and intolerances, but also aim to provide diabetics with an energy source comprising lower quantities of sugar.

The ice cream range developed within this project uses coconut fat, blue agave nectar and inulin. The formulation of the ice cream has proved to be a challenge due to the many technical considerations in identifying and selecting appropriate ingredients, with the additional proviso that the product could be classified as organic.

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Laura Lobb

New Plymouth Girls High School Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Brian Wilkinson

Shelf Life Extension of Hellers Shaved Ham Hellers is New Zealand’s leading producer of bacon, smallgoods and ham, and the aim of my project was to extend the shelf life of their modified atmosphere packaged, shaved ham product from 4-6 weeks to 10-12 weeks so that the company could export this product to Australia.

This was achieved by initially carrying out a storage trial at three different temperatures (0°, 4° and 10°) to establish the effect that temperature has on the storage life of this product. This was followed up by assessing the effect that high pressure processing (400-600 kilo Pascals) has on the storage life of the products.

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Browning of Fruit Leather Functional Foods (NZ) Ltd developed a fruit leather product with the vision to initially sell into Asia as a functional product to prevent illness and boost the immune system. The fruit leather, initially vivid purple in colour, was browning and deteriorating in visual quality within a matter of weeks, well within the 12 month desired shelf life.

Many different browning mechanisms in foods exist depending on the properties and the ingredients of the formulation. The aim of this project was to determine the particular browning mechanism(s) occurring in the fruit leather, and to investigate solutions to prevent the browning and thereby extend the shelf life of the product.

Elena Norris

Matamata College Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Richard Love

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Dayna McCormick Orewa College Major: Food Technology Supervisor: A/Prof Marie Wong

Extraction of Extra Virgin Coconut Oil Coconuts contain over 30% oil, which can be extracted for use in cooking and health foods. The current method for extracting this oil is very harsh, requiring the use of strong chemicals to refine the poor quality oil removed.

The aim of the project was to design a process that produced coconut oil of high quality. Only physical and mechanical means were permitted for the extraction of the oil, so that it complied with virgin oil standards. This coconut oil that was produced would not require further processing and would have superior odour, taste and chemical properties over the traditionally produced coconut oil.

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NPD of HPP Beverage for Asian Market High pressure processing (HPP) is becoming extensively more prevalent in the food processing industry today. It provides a means of preserving food while maintaining the product’s original sensory and nutritional properties. Unfortunately HPP is an expensive process which involves a significant monetary investment for the purchase and running of machines. As a result it is critical that the process only be utilized for food that will gain ‘added benefit’ over traditional thermal preservation techniques.

This project involved the new product development of a high value HPP nutraceutical beverage for the Asian market. Specifically, the project concentrated on the full development of the beverage, from idea generation and screening to formulation, hazard analysis and plant scale up. One of the main constraints of the project was to ensure that the product would gain added value from HPP. The final constituents of the final product were selected because of their suitability for HPP, uniqueness and overall health benefit. The final product will be implemented into the sponsor’s HPP product range and can be manufactured using current equipment available.

Todd Downie

Hauraki Plains College Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Owen McCarthy

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The Canning and Shelf Life of Infant Formula Infant formula is the sole source of nutrition and energy for formula-fed infants.

Therefore a high proportion of fat, sugar, and amino acids is required in the formula; this makes it susceptible to chemical reactions that could limit its shelf life. These reactions were monitored to determine the shelf life of infant formula.

The canning process of infant formula was also investigated.

An experiment investigating the effect of different forms of modified gas flushing into the cans on the physical attributes of the cans was conducted. The impact of time duration before seaming on the oxygen content of cans was also examined.

Marianne Poh

Takapuna Grammar School Major: Food Technology Supervisor: A/Prof Marie Wong

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Study of White Crystals in Cheddar Cheese The occurrence of white crystals on the surface and in the body of cheddar has been an on-going industry problem which has previously been identified predominately as calcium lactate. The project was sponsored by Fonterra- this has also become a problem in a particular product using an adjunct culture.

The study has attempted to characterize and quantify crystals in reduced fat Edam cheddar using various techniques including image analysis, confocal and light microscopy, and chemical analysis. The study looked at the factors of maturation temperature and adjunct culture level to determine the effects of crystal growth. Using non-parametric statistical analysis it was found that there are significant differences in the growth at different locations within the block based on maturation orientation; as well as differences in crystal growth in blocks with the different levels of factors.

Forensic characterization determined that all crystals were tyrosine, unlike the hypothesized calcium lactate which shows different morphologies and densities through microscopy. Chemical testing along with imaging helped to support that the crystals were protein based, namely tyrosine.

Alice Smialowska Tauranga Girls’ College Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Mr Rod Bennett

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Tom Ye Tao

No.1 Middle School, Chongqing, China Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Kylie Foster

Texture and Flavour Perception during Mastication This project aimed to investigate dynamic texture and flavour perception during mastication. A dynamic sensory method, Temporal Dominance of Sensation (TDS), which can assess multiple attributes at the same time, was used.

In order to investigate the effect of different types and amounts of gelatine and different levels of flavour on the texture and flavour perception of model gelatine gels, the samples were assessed in isolation and simultaneously over three sessions.

These model foods have been used by others previously to study oral processing behaviour; therefore the change in muscle activities and jaw movements throughout chewing sequence by these gels is well understood.

It is of interest to see how this relates to dynamic sensory perception.

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Syrup Flavour Development and Shelf Life Extension Heilala Vanilla is a family business that grows vanilla beans in tropical Tonga and imports them to New Zealand for further processing and marketing. Their products are currently sold in NZ, Australia, Singapore and recently the USA. My project was to reformulate their vanilla syrup to enable the removal of preservatives. Without the presence of preservatives there was microbial growth which I needed to overcome with alternative preservation methods. I was also asked to develop an exciting, new flavoured vanilla syrup inspired by the tropical environments where vanilla beans are cultivated. In order to do this I carried out focus groups with syrup buyers.

Scott Ashford Massey High School Major: Food Technology Supervisor: A/Prof Marie Wong

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Ting Ting, Gillin Yeo

Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Oni Yuliarti, A/Prof Kelvin Goh

Physico-Chemical Properties of Gellan Gum Influenced

by Ultrasonication Food product developers are constantly looking for new functional ingredients to improve or modify food texture to meet consumers’ demand. One of the ways to achieve this is to modify existing approved ingredients.

With the growing demand for natural foods, modification of ingredients through physical methods is preferred in comparison with chemical methods. In this work, physical modification of a gelling polysaccharide (low acylated gellan gum) with high intensity ultrasound treatment was studied. Multi-angle laser light scattering techniques and rheological measurements were employed to determine alterations of the polysaccharide molecules after ultrasonication. The physical properties of the gels were also studied by determining its mechanical spectra (G’ and G’’) using oscillatory measurements.

In addition, textural attributes of the ultrasonicated gels were determined.

The results obtained from dynamic oscillatory measurement did not show noticeable change, particularly with respect to the sol-gel (~40°C) and gel-sol transition (~72°C) temperatures. However, the results from uniaxial compression indicated that gel strengths of ultrasonicated gellan were significantly reduced (p<0.05). Ultrasound can be used to modify the textural attributes of gels obtained from gellan gum.

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Steam Infuser Product Distribution Design A steam infusion unit will be installed into a pilot scale UHT (Ultra High Temperature) plant, which will be used to sterilize dairy products to increase the product shelf-life.

Steam infusion is a technique for rapidly heating product to a high temperature by direct contact with steam. The product is then held at the temperature for a short time (killing the thermophilic (heat resistant) spores in the product), before being rapidly cooled.

This project involved the design of the distribution system to contact the product and the steam for rapid heating from 70째C to 144째C. The main challenges are to ensure that the product is distributed evenly in thin streams so that the contact between the product and steam, during the short contact time (due to the small scale of the plant), is maximised and will thus be sufficient for the large temperature increase. In addition, as the pilot plant will be used for research at Massey University, the design must be flexible enough to cope with a large range of product viscosities.

Tom Halliday

Scots College Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Richard Love, Dr Patrick Janssen

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Heat Transfer Coefficient of Fluids in Plate Heat Exchangers Non-Newtonian fluids are materials where the viscosity is not constant but varies with the applied rate of shear. At present, the theory of transport processes is well-known for Newtonian fluids but little experimental data exists for non-Newtonian fluids. The Dodge and Metzner (1959) analysis of turbulent non-Newtonian pipe flow is the best known and quoted work in this field. However, this was semi-empirical and did not cover other flow geometries. Thus, their work cannot be applied into directly into food operations.

Most food products are non-Newtonian, often very thick and highly viscous. Thus many food manufacturing processes are likely to be operated in the transitional flow regime for is even less understood.

For heat transfer in non-Newtonian fluids, different Nu-Re curves are generated for different values of the behaviour index n of the fluid power law. Recent work has shown that all data for pipe flow can be collapsed into a single master curve. The aim of this project is to extend the master curve to plate heat exchangers.

Pin Da Tho

Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Tuoc Khanh Trinh

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Jia Min Wu

Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Mr Allan Hardacre

Extruded Soy Protein Meat Substitute

Soy protein meat analogues can be used to make tasty pies and battered snacks.

At present there are about 400,000 people over the age of 65 in New Zealand and of these, about 48,000 are over 85 and require high level care currently costing about $1500 per week per person. Over 300,000 are expected to be in high level care by 2051. Improving nutrition could delay the transition to high or hospital level care by 2-5 years, saving $73,000 to $260,000 per person over this period or around 1 billion over the population of elderly in care costs alone (John S. S. & Dale C. 2011).

This project begins the development of an extruded soy protein meat substitute that is nutritionally dense, with an easy to chew meat-like texture that is appropriate for the elderly. The product is designed to be easy and convenient to prepare, stable in storage and versatile for use in a range of foods prepared in hospitals and rest homes.

Additionally, substituting animal proteins with plant proteins, such as soy can reduce the ecological impact of intensive livestock production and increase the efficiency of agricultural production.

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Yi Fang (Ethel) Tan Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: A/Prof Kelvin Goh

Emulsifying Properties of Basil Seed Gum This study investigated the emulsifying properties of basil seed gum (BSG) in an oil-in-water emulsion. Ultrasonication was used to physically reduce the molecular size of the BSG. The ultrasonicated BSG was characterized in terms of weightaverage molecular weight and rheological properties (viscoelasticity and viscosity). Oil-in-water emulsions were prepared using the BSG samples. The emulsions were evaluated based on droplet size distribution (d3, 2), zeta-potential and visual phase separation.

The results indicated that BSG was capable of stabilizing emulsion at concentration of 0.5% BSG and 2.5% oil even after 30 days storage at 20째C. However, at a lower concentration of BSG (0.05% and 3% oil), the emulsions phase separated after 24 hrs storage. Phase separation at low concentration of BSG was probably caused by either insufficient or excessive amount of BSG which led to either bridging or depletion flocculation, respectively.

At high BSG concentration, the stability of the emulsion was attributed to increased viscosity of the continuous phase.

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Ultrasonication on Dairy and Soy Protein Gels There is increasing demand among consumers for new texture in foods. Proteins from milk and soy beans are used as ingredients to form gels and impart texture in food products such as yoghurt and tofu respectively. In this study, high intensity ultrasound was applied to reconstituted protein dispersions. Particle size of the dispersions before and after ultrasound treatment (0s, 10s, 1min, 5min) was measured by laser diffraction technique. The physical properties of gels formed were characterized by oscillatory measurements and texture analysis.

Ultrasonication reduced the particle size of protein aggregates. In the case of dairy protein, the casein micelles remained intact even with prolonged ultrasounication. Ultrasound treatment led to a shorter gelation time and a firmer gel, probably due to increased particle-particle interactions. This work showed that ultrasound can be a useful technique for improving the functionality of proteins as an ingredient in various food applications.

Cedric Tay

Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: A/Prof Kelvin Goh, Mr Allan Hardacre

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Ramesh Kumar

Temasek Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: A/Prof Kelvin Goh, Mr Allan Hardacre

Interactions of Hydrocolloid from Mesona Chinensis and Starch.

Hsian-tsao (Mesona chinensis) is an herb that has been consumed in Asia in the form of tea and hard jelly-type dessert for decades.

The herb extract (black in colour) on its own does not form a gel. However, with the addition of starch, a firm gel is formed upon heating and cooling. To date, there is no concrete explanation behind the interaction between the nonstarch polysaccharide (NSP) from the herb extract and the added starch.

A better understanding of this interaction is required for the NSP from the herb to be used as a new functional ingredient in the food industry for various applications, for example, in modifying the glycemic loading in starch-rich food products.

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Flavour Enhancement of Beef Hydrolysate Protein hydrolysates produced from meat, vegetables and milk are often more digestible than the native proteins from which they were derived. Hence, they are often used in highprotein foods such as in non-allergenic infant formula, sports drinks and geriatric foods and their use in compound foods continues to grow.

Unfortunately, bitterness can limit the quantity of hydrolysate that can be incorporated in a food.

This bitterness has yet to be completely resolved, even after extensive research on the removal of the components responsible for this bitterness.

This project looked into an innovative method of masking the undesirable bitterness as well as liver-like characteristics of beef hydrolysate through Maillard reaction. Ribose or ascorbic acid in varying concentrations was added to the beef hydrolysate and then the mixture was heated for various time/temperature combinations to stimulate the Maillard reaction. Subsequently, sensory evaluation and flavour analysis by Gas Chromatography- Mass Spectrometry were carried out to determine the optimum condition for producing the most desirable flavour in beef hydrolysate.

Eprina Ng

Temasek Polytechnic Singapore Major: Food Technology Supervisor: A/Prof Brian Wilkinson

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Organic Antimicrobial for Animal Feed The emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria has increased public health threats. Regulatory restrictions in certain countries to the use of antibiotics in livestock animals have led to the development of many antibiotic growth promoters. This project looks into the screening and development of short chain fatty acids and essential oils for their efficacy as antimicrobials.

The antimicrobial effect of fatty acids and essential oils against Salmonella enteritidis (ATCC 13076) were studied using minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) test and disk diffusion assay methods. While organic acids were found to be the key factors effectively inhibit the microbial growth, certain essential oils were also observed to have high antimicrobial activity. Synergistic effect of both organic acids and essential oils were found to be effective in the MICs test and in situ substrate assay against S. enteritidis.

Mursalina Binte Mohd Saim Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Tay Hong Soon

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YiWei Lim

Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Mr Allan Hardacre

Development of Gluten Free Batter for Sausages People with celiac disease are intolerant to gluten, the protein present in wheat flour that delivers many of rheological characteristics and makes it useful in batters.

The aim of this project was to develop a gluten-free batter for sausages to improve the range of batters used by a company servicing the hospitality trade in New Zealand. The effects of using gluten-free flours derived from buckwheat, corn, gram, green pea, rice, soy and sweet potato on the rheological properties of batters and the textural and sensory properties of the cooked product were measured. Pea and Gram flour produced high viscosity batters with greater pick-up onto the sausages during the coating process but they were less crisp.

When cooked, the soy based batter was crisper than all other products but too brittle. It is likely that blends of flours combining the good colour and coating properties of the gram with the taste and crispness of the soy may be best. Crisper batters were preferred by consumers.

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Ye Sen Lim

Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Tuoc Trinh Khanh

Flow Properties of Commercial Time-Dependent Food Samples The rheology of time-dependent fluids is difficult because they are continuously changing during preparation, storage and even measurement. Accurate and reproducible results can only be obtained if we had a method of setting all the samples measured on a common history of handling basis.

The equipment and technique used in this project were successfully used to characterise the age-thickening of milk concentrates in previous work. This technique pre-shears the samples at very high shear rates reaching the so called upper Newtonian plateau. Results show that this equipment and technique is not suitable to obtain a full rheological characterization of coleslaw dressings and mayonnaise samples.

The coleslaw and mayonnaise were too thick and could not be pre-sheared at a high enough shear rate to reach the upper Newtonian plateau. However, the break-down characteristics of coleslaw dressings were successfully observed over a 3 hours re-circulation time for a range of 4 different shear rates at 350 s-1, 6,000 s-1, 14,000 s-1 and 100,000s-1 and showed trends not identified by previous authors. Structural recovery was not fully achieved over 4 weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s storage.

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Functionality of Coconut Cream in Cooking Applications Coconut cream is widely used in Asian foods. One application is cooking of the Thai Green Curry, which uses coconut cream to thicken the dish and to impart a coconut aroma. In the Thai Green Curry, the coconut cream is cooked first and if the heating is not done properly, there would not be the desired â&#x20AC;&#x153;splittingâ&#x20AC;? of oil from the coconut cream that is separated out. In New Zealand, the version of the Thai Green Curry is served in a creamy base so splitting is undesirable, whereas in South-East Asia the layer of oil is welcomed for its authenticity.

This functionality can be adjusted depending on the way the Thai Green Curry is cooked and the rate of oil separation can be controlled. In this project, methods to quantify oil separation are developed and the rate of oil separation is measured as a function of temperature, time and pH. This will be of use in designing food processing operations for coconut based food products.

Marcus Lim

Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Prof John Bronlund

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Siang Wee Lim Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Patrick Janssen

Manufacture of a High Phospholipid Dairy Ingredient There is a market developing for dairy ingredients with elevated phospholipid contents. Typical feed materials for their manufacture include buttermilk, whey cream or a by-product stream from AMF manufacture (termed â&#x20AC;&#x153;beta serumâ&#x20AC;? in NZ).

The phospholipid content of the latter is somewhat limited and it would be useful to be able to increase it above the current range if this could be done economically.

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Diffusion of a-amylase Across Alginate Gel Researches have shown promising possibilities of using non-starch polysaccharides to regulate digestion of and, subsequently, glucose release from polysaccharide coated starch-based food. In this case, the rate controlling step is likely to be the diffusion of enzyme across the gelled polysaccharide matrixes. Previous authors were able to compare diffusion data to physical gel properties.

This study focuses on understanding the diffusion of enzyme, Îą-amylase through alginate gel in distilled water. The project includes the design and fabrication of the diffusion setup and methods to make the gel of suitable sizes. The effect of concentration of alginate and concentration of calcium chloride, on diffusion and physical gel properties were studied. The physical gel properties measured in this study include gel strength and moisture content. Results showed that alginate concentrations had the most significant influence on gel strength, while both alginate and calcium chloride would affect the diffusion of a-amylase through the gel. In addition, higher moisture content and lower gel strength would seem to reduce the rate of diffusion of Îą-amylase through the gel.

Keng Guan Lim Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Saw Lin Kiat

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Ready-To-Eat Rice with Low Glycemic Index Several methods have been developed to reduce the glycemic index (GI) of rice. One of these methods was to incorporate non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) and cross-linking cations in the rice cooking process. The NSP and cations form a coating layer around the rice to retard the digestion of the rice and, hence, release of glucose in the gastro-intestinal tract.

In this project, Plackett-Burman design was employed to evaluate the significance of factors affecting the digestion of ready-to-eat NSP-coated rice. The factors studied include pre-soaking of rice, drying time, additional soaking steps after coating of NSP, additional drying step, and concentrations of sodium alginate and calcium lactate. In-vitro analysis, amylase analysis and texture profile analysis were carried out to determine the effect of the factors studied had on the physiological and physical properties of the ready-to-eat rice.

Results show that the rate of glucose release and amount of rapidly digestible starch can be reduced by around 91% and 64% respectively. The concentrations of NSP and cations used have the most significant impact on the digestion rate of the ready-to-eat rice.

Bee Chen Lim Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Saw Lin Kiat

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Claudia Leong

Temasek Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Lara Matia-Merino

Physical Changes during Lipid Digestion of Model Emulsions Human milk is the first and only food ingested for a considerable period of time by infants. However, some women may not be able to breast feed for various reasons and infant formula is an alternative substitute.

Infant formulas are designed to mimic human milk as much as possible.

Nevertheless, even with the advances in technology, there are still differences observed in the way the breast milk and infant formula are digested. No in-depth research has been carried out so far on the relation between lipid digestion and the interfacial composition of emulsion droplets. As milk is a complex system, model emulsions using individual ingredients (whey, casein and lecithin) were developed to allow separate investigation of the emulsions during digestion under infant physiological conditions.

This project investigates the role of the interfacial composition of the fat globules in model emulsions during in-vitro infant lipid digestion. Changes in particle size, droplet charge and microstructure of three model systemsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; whey protein, sodium caseinate and soy lecithin-stabilized emulsionsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;were studied.

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Shi Fen (Elaine) Lee Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: A/Prof Brian Wilkinson

Physicochemical Changes in Meat during Cooking Meat proteins serve as an important source of energy and essential amino acids for humans. In modern society meat is almost always cooked prior to consumption. The effects of cooking on the palatability traits of cooked meat, its colour, flavour and mechanical properties have been well studied. However, studies of the effects of cooking on the nutritional value and in particular the amino acid content of meat are poorly documented.

The aim of this work was to firstly assess the effects of heat on the amino acids in meat when it is cooked.

Cooking also induces structural changes to meat proteins with important implications to its water holding capacity and hence juiciness. There are several methods of measuring WHC but it is best determined by cooking loss as it is of the most practical interest to consumers. However, there appear to be no studies which have examined the precision with which individual WHC methods can predict the cooking loss from meat. Thus, another aim of this study was to compare the different methods for measuring WHC of meat.

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Packaging for Vacuum Cooling of Leafy Vegetables Leafy vegetables are commonly cooled by vacuum cooling methodology in Singapore and other parts of South East Asia. This operation is conducted in batch mode in which the product is packed into pallet sized units prior to cooling. As such there is potential for the packaging system used to have a significant influence on cooling efficiency.

This project aims to analyze the effects of the primary packaging design (number and placement location of perforations) and stacking pattern of produce within the secondary package on vacuum cooling efficiency. Time-temperature profiles experienced by the produce and the package impact on the product quality as delivered to the consumer are assessed. A recommendation of the best primary packaging and stacking system for handling leafy vegetables in Singapore was made.

Joanne Koh

Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Andrew East, Mr. Ong Yihang

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Pho Li Khoo

Temasek Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Prof Steve Flint

Molecular Weight of Enzymes: Planktonic and Biofilm In the dairy industry, enzymes produced by bacterial contamination are a major concern as they have the potential to cause spoilage and reduce yield in dairy products. Although the bacterial counts in raw milk are reduced during heat treatment i.e. pasteurization, heat-stable enzymes produced by these bacteria may survive.

The bacteria that produce heat-stable enzymes are present in the solid-liquid interface or air-liquid interface known as biofilm and/or the surrounding bulk liquid milk known as planktonic culture. Thermo- resistant enzyme-producing bacteria previously isolated from the internal surfaces of raw milk tankers, were Streptococcus uberis CO5, Serratia lquefaciens DC1, Staphylococcus aureus SFO1, Pseudomonas fluorescens C224, Pseudomonas fragi BC5 and Bacillus licheniformis R4.

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More enzymes are produced from cells in the biofilm than in the planktonic form. Gel electrophoresis and zymogram assays determined that the proteases produced by these isolates from planktonic or biofilm sourced bacteria were the same molecular weight.

This implies that the enzymes from both sources are identical and therefore are likely to cause the same type of damage to the milk. It is therefore equally important to control these biofilms as well as other planktonic sources of heat stable bacterial enzymes during milk processing.

Foods with Multiple Sensory Appeal Masking undesirable off flavours in foods, especially functional foods containing bioactive ingredients has been a challenge for food manufacturers. Food flavours or â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;bitter blockersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; are methods adopted by food manufacturers to mask off flavours in food but are limited by technical and health promoting issues.

This study was embarked to understand the effect of food matrix on textural and flavour perception of foods, in hope of providing an alternate method to mask off flavours in foods. Non-off flavoured and off flavoured gummy gels containing either almond bits, basil seeds or oats were developed as food models of various heterogeneous food systems.

American ginseng extract was added to perform as off flavours, in terms of bitterness and ginseng flavour, in off flavoured gummy gels.

Through Temporal Dominance of Sensation (TDS) evaluation, a dynamic measures of sensory perception, it was realized that heterogeneous food system was mostly dominated by textural attributes throughout the eating cycle, but was dependent on the type of textural attribute perceived. Also, heterogeneous food systems with dominating textural attributes masked off flavours efficiently than homogenous food systems.

Min Yi Joseph

Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr John Grigor

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Effect of Spices as Natural Antioxidants The effect of turmeric and coriander (0.5%, 1%), and turmeric + coriander (0.5% and 1% each) were investigated for their ability to act as natural antioxidants against lipid oxidation in salmon fish balls. The fish balls were boiled, cooled, vacuum packed, and stored at 4째C over a period of 14 days. Microbiological, physical and chemical analysis including total plate count, fatty acid content, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) test, moisture content, pH and colour were carried out at day 0, 7 and 14.

The results showed the combination of turmeric + coriander (1% each) fish balls had a significant increase (p<0.05) in saturated fatty acids (27.8%), while polyunsaturated fatty acids, DHA and EPA decreased (13.3%, 10.8% and 8.2% respectively), having a PUFA/SFA ratio of 1.28 across the storage period. The TBARS value increased during the storage period, with the lowest value (1.71 ppm MDA) in samples with turmeric +coriander (1% each), indicating that this treatment may be effective in minimizing lipid oxidation.

Cai Yu Ho

Temasek Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Jasmine Leong

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Hazeena Banu Mashuthoo Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Tony Mutukumira

Lactobacillus casei Shirota in Yakult® Fermented Milk Drinks The viability of Lactobacillus (Lb.) casei Shirota present in two types of Yakult® Fermented Milk Drinks sold in Singapore was evaluated during storage for six weeks at 4 and 25 °C. The levels of Lb. casei Shirota, pH, titratable acidity, dissolved oxygen and viscosity remained relatively stable throughout the shelf life at 4°C. Both Yakult® Original and Yakult® Ace Light fermented milk drinks contained 108 CFU/ml and 109 CFU/ml of Lb. casei Shirota cells throughout the shelf life at 4°C, respectively.

However, storage at 25°C had a significant (P<0.01) effect on the survival of the probiotic and the other properties of the Yakult® fermented milk drinks.

During storage of products at 25°C, pH decreased while titratable acidity increased (P<0.01), which probably contributed to the death of Lb. casei Shirota cells. Despite the effect of storage at high temperature (25°C), high cell counts of Lb. casei Shirota were obtained in the products due to the acid and oxygen tolerance of the probiotic. Lb. casei Shirota in Yakult® fermented milk drinks can be stored for extended period at 4°C and 25°C without significant loss of viability.

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Hwee Kwang Goh Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Alistair Carr

Stability of Acidified and Neutral Protein Beverages Beverages are a common way of providing dietary proteins. Beverages can be categorised by their pH as neutral or acidic. Neutral milk drinks (NMD) include calcium-fortified milk, chocolate milk, soy milk and non-dairy milk. Acidified milk drinks (AMD) include yogurt drinks containing both milk and fruit juices, and lactic acid drinks that contain small amount of proteins from dairy or non-dairy sources. A stable NMD or AMD has an absence of phase separation, flocculation, and sedimentation. It is possible to keep AMDs and NMDs, stable, during production, by adding an appropriate amount of high methoxyl pectin (HM-P) and κ-carrageenan.

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The aim of this project was to compare the stability of AMD and NMD prepared from skim milk powder (SMP) and sodium caseinate (Na-Cas). The effect of heating conditions, pH and stabiliser concentrations were analysed by viscosity, sedimentation, particle size, zeta potential, light microscopy and storage tests. The experimental results showed that HM-P of >0.20% and >0.30% were required to stabilise AMD-SMP and AMD-Na-Cas respectively. For NMD-SMP, a minimum of 0.018% κ-carrageenan was required. No interaction was observed in NMDNa-Cas with κ-carrageenan.

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Characterization and Applications of Physically Extracted Starch Rice starch is a high value food ingredient that makes transparent, low flavor gels with good strength. Because of these properties, rice starch has wide range of applications including thickeners in baby food, dairy desserts, and sauces. Starch granules from rice are the smallest known to exist in cereal grains with a granule diameter of less than 5 microns, this is similar to the size of homogenized fat globules.

During this project a technique using a Microfluidizer and/or high intensity ultrasound was developed to physically extract rice starch granules from rice flour that could replace the existing chemical extraction method. The new method requires no chemicals or heating minimizing changes to the physicochemical properties of the rice starch and waste water treatment.

The study demonstrated that rice starch granules could be extracted with a high yield using microfluidization and ultrasound without damage or compromise to its physico-chemical properties. Properties of the starch including; purity, granule morphology, pasting properties, freeze-thaw and acid stability, and its application in a yoghurt food system were assessed.

Li Chong Chow Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Mr Allan Hardacre

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Lihui Cher

Nanyang Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: A/Prof Matt Golding

Comparison of Two Emulsifiers in Chocolate Substitute Soy lecithin is a common emulsifier used in the chocolate industry. However manufacturing considerations, such as imparting beany flavours in food systems, risk of allergens and potentially being of Genetically-Modified origin (GMO), have led to an increased demand for alternative emulsifiers. One such alternative is ammonium phosphatide (Palsgaard AMP 4448). It is extracted from hardened rapeseed oil, and unlike lecithin, it possesses a clean flavour, is nonGMO and does not pose any risk of allergens.

In this study, the use of lecithin and ammonium phosphatide was compared based on relative performance in chocolate analogue samples. The comparison was made based on each of their ability in reducing the yield value and plastic viscosity of the samples, under varying conditions. The conditions varied were raw material composition (specifically cocoa powder to icing sugar ratio), fat content and emulsifier dosage.

Results obtained showed that under all conditions, ammonium phosphatide outperforms lecithin significantly. Predictive dosage charts were also created to enable chocolate manufacturers to determine the required emulsifier dosage for making chocolate with different fat content.

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Protein Hydrolysate Debittering by Solvent Extraction In recent years, the amount of meat co-products (cuts and trimmings) available from slaughterhouses, meat processors, and wholesalers has increased considerably. One of the ways to utilize this part of the meat is to hydrolyze this meat protein, dry it and use as a flavor enhancer, a functional ingredient or simply as a nutritional additive to foods of low protein quality.

However, the hydrolysis of proteins inevitably leads to the production of bitter compounds, and their intensity is dependent on the degree of hydrolysis and composition of protein. These bitter compounds limit the utilization of enzyme hydrolysates in food products. The bitterness is caused by the presence of low molecular weight peptides (<10kDa) containing hydrophobic amino acid residues such as leucine, isoleucine, valine, phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan. More of these hydrolysates could be included in food if a method was developed that would economically remove these bitter compounds from the hydrolysates. The use of 2-butanol to extract these hydrophobic,bitter peptides from the hydrolysate was investigated.

Yuan Hoe Cheong Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: A/Prof Brian Wilkinson

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Preservation of Chili Paste The use of natural antimicrobials for preserving chili paste was explored. Different levels of salt and acetic acid concentration was proposed as the first stage of shelf-life testing. An acceptable range of salt content and acetic acid concentration to work with was determined via sensory evaluation of chili paste. With the determined ranges, a two factor, three levels with two replicates experimental design was created.

All formulations were kept at room temperature (25째) to accelerate spoilage. Samples were tested weekly for total aerobic count, yeast and mold count, pH and colour changes. At week 6, the formulations with lowest salt content and acetic acid concentration had a total aerobic count exceeding the microbial limits of 105cfu/g , rendering the particular chili paste unsafe for consumption while all other formulations remains safe for consumption. In addition to weekly shelf-life tests the suitability of, nisin for application to chili paste was also explored. Different concentrations of nisin ranging from 1ppm to 100ppm were tested for inhibitory actions against micro-organisms isolated from chili paste by disc diffusion assay. The results showed that nisin had limited activity against microorganisms existing in chili paste.

Shu Wan Cheong Temasek Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Jon Palmer

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Christine, Ling Zhi Aw Nanyang Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Saw Lin Kiat, Dr Jason Hindmarsh

Characterisation of Dough and Noodles Containing Alginate Non-starch polysaccharide (NSP) could reduce the rate of glucose release from starch-based food into the body. However, little was known about the physical characteristics of the NSP-containing food systems and researches were limited to the use of non-gelling NSP. The aim of this project is to analyse the effect of sodium alginate on the physical characteristics of alginate-containing wheat dough and noodles using empirical models. The alginatecontaining dough was analysed using dynamic oscillatory tests and extensibility test. The texture, extensibility and cooking properties of the alginate-containing cooked noodles were also analysed. The alginate content studied ranges from 0-10%. Results show that the elasticity and tensile strength of dough, and the tensile strength, hardness and cohesiveness of noodle increases as alginate content increases from 0 to 8%. Hence, it would be difficult to stretch and shape dough containing high level of alginate.

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Similarly, noodles containing high level of alginate may be too firm and chewy for consumers. Gain in physiological benefits and loss in physical characteristics of alginate-containing noodles have to be balanced carefully to achieve commercial success for such products.

Zilong, Julian Chen Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Saw Lin Kiat

Effects of Hydrothermal Processing On Rice Flour Gluten is vital in formation of dough because of its ability to attribute to textural and structural properties of food products. However, due to Celiac patients who are allergic to Celiac disease and the fluctuation of raw material prices. There is a need for alternative. Studies have shown that hydrothermal treatment of rice flour can be used to improve rheological and textural properties of starch.

This project studies the modification that hydrothermal treatment can bring about to glutinous rice flour co-processed with xanthan gum or dry mixing method. Experimental trials were designed based on the temperature and the water composition of hydrothermal processing of glutinous rice flour. Results showed that processing at high temperature and water content gave highest peak viscosity and final viscosity at standard and constant temperature profile. However, lowest temperature and water content pregelatinized glutinous rice flour gave highest stability dough when mixed with rice flour and water.

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Growth and Toxin Analysis of Aspergillus flavus Smoked, dried fish produced in the Maldives is associated with the mould, Aspergillus flavus, that produces mycotoxins such as aflatoxin and cyclopiazonic acid (CPA). Mycotoxins are a food safety hazard.

This project aimed to test the hypothesis that water activity and temperature will affect the growth and mycotoxin production of Aspergillus flavus. A smoked fish based medium was used for the project. Water activity limited the growth of 3 strains of the mould isolated from smoked dried fish with no growth at a water activity of 0.80 or less. Aflatoxin and CPA production were limited at water activities of 0.80 and 0.85 respectively. Temperature had some effect on growth with an optimum temperature of 35째C. Aflatoxin production occurred at all temperatures tested (2540째C) but CPA production was reduced at temperatures of 25 and 40째C. Water activity and temperature do affect the growth and toxin production of the mould, Aspergillus flavus on a smoked fish medium.

To prevent food safety issues due to mycotoxin production by Aspergillus flavus contaminating smoked dried fish, the water activity of the fish should be at 0.80 or below.

Ceclia Aw

Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: A/Prof Steve Flint, Miss Shazla Mohamed

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Jia Xin Koh

Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Tay Hong Soon

Characterization of Black Sesame Vinegar The project is on the formulation and developing a fermentation process of producing black sesame vinegar by infusing black sesame seeds into vinegar. Twelve black sesame vinegar samples were formulated base on types of black sesame seed treatment, types of vinegar and different percentages of black sesame seed. Biochemical changes in the 12 formulations were characterized using analytical tests over a period of 7 weeks. Tests carried out were on pH, titratable acidity, brix, colour, total antioxidant activity, amino acid activity and microbial count.

All 12 formulations were found to have acceptable characteristics on pH, percentage of acetic acid and microbial content. The types of vinegar have no significant effect on characteristics of the black sesame vinegar. However, the types of black sesame seed treatment and percentages of black sesame seed were found to have significant effects. The formulations consisting of 15% raw black sesame in vinegar obtained the highest antioxidant activity of 0.50mM, with corresponding high a* value for red colour readings. Maturation of the black sesame vinegar sample was achieved by the end of week 7 of the fermentation process.

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Effect of Enzymes from Biofilm on Butter This project investigated the effect of spoilage enzymes produced by biofilms on the quality of sweet cream salted butter. A cocktail of bacterial strains (Pseudomonas fluorescens, Serratia liquefaciens and Staphylococcus aureus) previously shown to produce heat stable lipase, were be grown as a biofilm in a laboratory-model that simulated the conditions found in a milk tanker during a typical summerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s day.

The cream was exposed to this biofilm, before making into butter. The butter produced from cream exposed to this biofilm and examined under an accelerated storage trial, showed evidence of fat breakdown with elevated butyric acid levels, a rancid odour, a whiter colour and took longer to manufacture compared with a control butter manufactured from cream that had not been exposed to the biofilm. This was the first demonstration of the effect of lipase producing biofilm bacteria on the quality of a dairy product and emphasises the importance of controlling biofilm growth during the handling of raw milk or cream.

Hui Fen Tay

Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: A/Prof Steve Flint, Mr Kenneth Teh

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Development of a Carbohydrate Loading Gel R-LINE limited is a New Zealand owed company that markets and sells liquid sports drink concentrates. This project is working for R-LINE limited, aiming to produce a carbohydrate â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;loadingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; product that will provide athletes with the ability to load up on carbohydrates prior to an endurance event. The large bottle(s) of product will provide adequate carbohydrate for a typical carbohydrate loading regime before an event.

Peipei (Rose) Jia Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Mr Michael Parker

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Cynthia Kingi

Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Mr Allan Hardacre

Development of a ‘Milo’ Analogue Development of a ‘Milo’ analogue using a twin screw extruder. The Milo manufacturing process uses a drum drying. Drying is an expensive process.

The extrusion process is an efficient and cost effective alternative to drum drying.

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Nurhazwani Salleh

Temasek Polytechnic (Singapore) Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Lara Matia-Merino, May Wee (PhD Student)

Whey Protein-Puka Gum Complexes and Coacervate Protein-polysaccharide interactions have long caught the attention of researchers around the world. This is because interaction between these two biopolymers enables researchers to form new microstructures that have unique properties and improved functionality such as foaming and emulsifying ability. One of the notably studied interactions is complex coacervation. It creates new microstructures through electrostatic attraction between two oppositely charged biopolymers.

Recently, a novel anionic polysaccharide called Puka gum was discovered. Puka gum is extracted from Meryta sinclairii trees and is found only in New Zealand. Since a new anionic polysaccharide was discovered, an investigation on its potential to complex and form coacervate was carried out. In this project, Puka gum was coupled with whey protein; a globular protein that is used in many complex coacervation studies.

Whey protein-Puka gum was able to form coacervate and it appeared to be a sticky and highly viscous material. Both pH and ionic strength was found to have profound effect on its complex coacervation while temperature was known to cause hydrophobic interactions. All three factors were studied using three characterization techniques; turbidity, dynamic light scattering and zeta-potential measurements.

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The effect of Stainless Steel on Cleaning Bacterial growth in the form of biofilm is the preferred form for microbial growth that occurs in all environments, including food processing environments. The presence of biofilm on food contact surfaces compromises the quality and safety of the final product.

A common food contact surface is stainless steel. The influence of the grade of stainless steel on the formation of biofilm and the efficacy of cleaning biofilm from these surfaces is unknown.

A comparison between 304 and 316 stainless steel with a 2B surface finish, for biofilm growth with six different dairy industry bacterial isolates and cleaning of the biofilm showed no significant difference between the two grades of stainless steel. The dairy industry can therefore use the cheaper 304 grade stainless steel in preference to the more expensive 316 grade stainless steel without compromising the hygiene of the dairy manufacturing plant.

Jasmine Kan

Singapore Polytechnic Major: Food Technology Supervisor: A/Prof Steve Flint, Mr Kenneth Teh

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Belinda Ironside

Palmerston North Girlsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; High School Major: Food Technology Supervisor: Dr Richard Love

Holding Section for a UHT Steam Infuser Ultra-High Temperature (UHT) treatment of foods is a well known method of sterilising food and thus extending shelf life. Steam infusion is a form of direct heating where a liquid product is mixed with steam (and thus experiences a rapid temperature increase), is then held in a holding section at this high temperature for a short period of time, before being rapidly cooled by flashing the water back to vapour. This extremely rapid heating and cooling should destroy thermophilic bacterial spores without causing excessive damage to the product.

The aim of the project was to design and build the holding section for a pilot-scale steam infuser. The main design challenge was the small scale of the pilotplant system, which meant it was difficult to ensure a uniform residence time for the fluid within the holding section. To aid mixing within the holding section, and therefore ensure a uniform residence time, different helical geometry configurations were trialed and the resulting residence time distributions were measured

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Index

By Majors

By Student Name

Industrial Management & Innovation �������������������������������������������������������������������� 5 Engineering and Industrial Management �������������������������������������������������������������� 6 Product Development ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 8

First Name Surname Abplanalp Phillip......................................................................40 Al Battashi Zakariya.................................................................61 Al Hassan Obaida....................................................................66 Al-Bahri Saeed ....................................................................64 Al-Barwani Masoud..................................................................67 Al-Hinaai Abdullah.................................................................62 Al-Majmuei Aymen....................................................................12 Al-Manji Nasser....................................................................74 Al-Souti Said.........................................................................41 Anastasi Sarah......................................................................24 Annear-Henderson Max.........................................................................75 Ariestia Pamella................................................................120 Arlidge Jackson..................................................................51 Ashford Scott.....................................................................135 Au-Young Jonathan..............................................................127 Aw Christine...............................................................163 Aw Kia Hui (Cecelia).................................................165 Barstead Christopher..........................................................101 Bartho Samuel...................................................................57 Bashir Fatima.....................................................................99 Blackwell David.........................................................................8 Bramwell Micheala..............................................................107 Bull Dale.........................................................................49 Bullock Hilary......................................................................91 Burton Jarrod.....................................................................50

Mechatronics ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 22 Mechatronics ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 24 Industrial Automation ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 58 Electronics and Computer Engineering �������������������������������������������������������������� 68 Computer and Electronics Engineering................................................................70 Electronics and Computer Systems Engineering ����������������������������������������������� 74 Multimedia Systems Engineering ������������������������������������������������������������������������� 78 Electronics and Communication Engineering ����������������������������������������������������� 79 Software Engineering ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 85 Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering ������������������������������������������������������������������ 86 Biotechnology ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 87 Chemical and Nanotechnology ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 94 Environmental Technology and Sustainable Energy ����������������������������������������� 98 Food Technology ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 104 Food Technology ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 106

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Carter Chamberlin Chen Chen Cheong Cheong Cher Chow Chun Contreras Corpe Cottrell Crane Craw Cronje Cushing Day De Jong Downie Duffy Duncan El Beshlawi Ellis Evanson Fedorov Ferreira Finlayson Gane Gargi Garlick Goh Goyal Gupta Halliday

Ashley.....................................................................18 Dion.........................................................................55 Qinyuan................................................................108 Zilong....................................................................164 Shu Wan..............................................................162 Yuan Hoe..............................................................161 Lihui......................................................................160 Li Chong...............................................................159 Manfred...............................................................110 Miguel....................................................................34 Samuel...................................................................53 Jonathan..............................................................100 David.......................................................................38 Daniel.....................................................................63 George....................................................................73 Simon....................................................................119 Callum.....................................................................54 Karl..........................................................................16 Todd......................................................................131 Sian.......................................................................114 Philip.......................................................................30 Mohamed...............................................................42 Gareth.....................................................................10 Uchena...................................................................98 Eduard....................................................................56 Arno........................................................................27 Scott.......................................................................48 Christopher............................................................68 Vivvek...................................................................112 Geoffrey.................................................................13 Hwee Kwang.......................................................158 Gaurav..................................................................106 Varun......................................................................46 Tom.......................................................................137

Haris Hensman Ho Huang Huang Ironside Jamieson Jaques Jekel Jia Joseph Kan Kao Karena Keall Kelly Kerr Khoo Khoo Kingi Koh Koh Kumar Lau Leducq-Williams Lee Leong Li Lim Lim Lim Lim Lim Lim

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Nurul Ain................................................................95 Sally........................................................................21 Cai Yu....................................................................156 Huijian..................................................................102 Lisa........................................................................125 Belinda.................................................................171 Campbell................................................................37 Tracey..................................................................126 Rene......................................................................119 Peipei....................................................................168 Min Yi....................................................................155 Jasmine................................................................171 Wen-Li....................................................................29 Tom.........................................................................20 David.......................................................................59 Susyn......................................................................90 Laura.....................................................................115 Calvin....................................................................124 Poh Li....................................................................154 Cynthia.................................................................169 Jia Xin...................................................................166 Joanne.................................................................153 Ramesh................................................................142 Alan.........................................................................39 Anthony..................................................................77 Shi Fen..................................................................152 Shu-Fen(Claudia)................................................151 Zhen........................................................................85 Bee Chen.............................................................150 Keng Guan...........................................................149 Siang Wee...........................................................148 Wei Chin (Marcus).............................................147 Ye Sen..................................................................146 Yiwei.....................................................................145

Lobb Mackereth Makwana Mashuthoo Mason Matthews McAlinden McCormick McKenna Meade Meier Meyerink Mohd Saim Moore Morales Mullaly Ng Norris Norvill Olatunji Pashutanizadah Patten Pegler Poh Purcell Ripley Rosanowski Salleh Sallehuddin Samarasekara Scott Severinsen Shields Singh

Laura.....................................................................128 Michael..................................................................84 Manish...................................................................58 Hazeena...............................................................157 Oliver....................................................................113 Roy..........................................................................19 Sean........................................................................36 Dayna...................................................................130 James.....................................................................32 Joshua....................................................................33 Florian.......................................................................9 Monique...............................................................121 Mursalina.............................................................144 Douglas..................................................................26 Martine...................................................................83 Ashleigh...............................................................122 Eprina...................................................................143 Elena.....................................................................129 Zane........................................................................97 Jamal......................................................................93 Banu.......................................................................31 Matthew...................................................................7 Logan......................................................................43 Marianne.............................................................132 Elyse.....................................................................118 Shaun.....................................................................83 Matthew.................................................................28 Nurhazwani.........................................................170 Siti Fairuz...............................................................96 Rajitha....................................................................81 Christopher............................................................35 Daniel.....................................................................52 Daniel.....................................................................92 Akashdeep.............................................................82

Slooten Smialowska Smith Spence Stanley Staveley Symes Tan Tan Tao Tay Tay Tho Thomas Thorn Upadhyay Vander Meij Vaughan Ward Watson Webb Wells Whatley/Harrold Williams Wu Xue Yeo Yeo Yeung Zhang

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Anton......................................................................76 Alice......................................................................133 Matthew...................................................................6 Craig.......................................................................78 Kimberley.............................................................109 Joel.........................................................................45 Jake........................................................................15 Yan Ling................................................................118 Yi Fang..................................................................140 Tom Ye..................................................................134 Hui Fen.................................................................167 Yanzhou (Cedric)................................................141 Pin Da...................................................................138 Mathews................................................................89 Mark.......................................................................60 Rushi.......................................................................44 Peter.......................................................................25 Nicholas.................................................................17 Katherine.............................................................111 Kristina...................................................................14 Shane.....................................................................65 Hannah...................................................................94 James.....................................................................47 Paul.........................................................................80 Jia Min.................................................................139 Wen........................................................................11 Kexin.....................................................................123 Ting Ting..............................................................136 Allan........................................................................88 Allen........................................................................72

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For more information email: engineering@massey.ac.nz or visit: www.me.ac.nz

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