Advance magazine, summer 2017

Student-integrated Research

Summer 2017

Contents 4

2 Advance shorts

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8 Engineering a better environment

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In the thick of it

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A new cyber safety net

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Knowledge is power

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Cracking the code

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The architecture of change

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Ready, willing and verbal

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16 Editor Simon Nash Writer Mary de Ruyter Contributors Gwynneth Porter, TeUrikore Biddle, Matt Crawford Photography Design Tineswari Maruthamuthu

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Published by Unitec Institute of Technology Private Bag 92025, Victoria Street West Auckland 1142, New Zealand ISSN 1176-7391 Phone 0800 10 95 10 www.unitec.ac.nz

Printed on recycled FSCÂŽ-certified paper, Cocoon by B&F Papers.

Abides by the National Standard for Certification of Plantation Forest Management in New Zealand.

Studentintegrated Research At some time in our education, if we’ve been lucky, we’ve had the support of a special person: a mentor or teacher, someone who worked alongside us in a way that allowed us to learn, grow and to realise our goals.

These successes happen, in no small part, thanks to staff who choose a more facilitative approach to teaching.

They collaborate with students and act as guides more than lecturers, using their expertise in targeted ways to draw out the best in each student.

Architecture lecturer Yusef Patel exemplifies this lighthanded approach as a teacher and researcher. In one project, he guided 11 female students through building a small prefabricated house in conjunction with industry; while the students gained valuable knowledge and experience, Patel learned how to help them negotiate, learn from their mistakes, and balance study with other life pressures.

In another wonderful story, an Automotive Engineering supervisor and his students worked together to convert a noisy, polluting tuk-tuk into an electric vehicle. It’s an amazing example of If you have any questions true collaboration about the research articles in and mentoring, this issue of Advance, please summed up by contact the Unitec Research supervisor

and Enterprise Office.

We’d love to hear from you.

research@unitec.ac.nz

Dr Roman Kudin’s statement, “I always believe that one good question is more important than 100 correct answers.”

The research profiled in this issue is all being done in true Unitec fashion: it’s applied, from the ground up, collaborative and very closely engaged with professional and community stakeholders, as befits our status as an Institute of Technology. Often, students provide the spark for a research project with real-world benefits, and academic staff help them realise their idea by providing expertise and support, and sometimes simply by asking the right questions.

INTRODUCTION COMMUNITY

This issue of Advance showcases Unitec staff members who have been and are being that special person, making it their mission to support students through co-researching, presenting and publishing. It’s also about the fledgling student researchers who worked hard and benefited from that support, and are embarking on professional, research and, in some cases, teaching careers of their own.

Real-world learning was clearly demonstrated when Bachelor of Creative Enterprise students participated in Auckland Arts Festival’s White Night art event. Paul Woodruffe, Senior Lecturer in Creative Industries, guided his students through the realities of staging their work in the very public space of K’ Road, with all the attendant issues of permits, health and safety, and engaging with the public. A wonderful, formative research experience, heavily relying on give and take, negotiation and pragmatism.

All the researchers in this issue – budding and experienced – deserve credit and recognition. But special mention must go to Dr Diane Fraser from Environmental and Animal Sciences, her colleagues and student researchers, for the sheer breadth of their efforts and accomplishments. Thanks to Diane’s engagement and leadership, this Practice Pathway Group has achieved an impressive variety of research outcomes, industry relationships, publications and awards.

We hope the stories here will inspire you and your students to collaborate in research endeavours. If so, the team at Tuapapa Rangahau, partnering Research and Enterprise are here and poised to help.

Simon Nash Te Puna Ako Unitec Institute of Technology

Summer 2017

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ADVANCE How standing desks influence your brain Standing desks are all the rage in some workplaces, and many people see them as an antidote to sedentary behaviour – so what effect do they have on how our brains function? Unitec researchers observed 30 people over a number of weeks in 2014, and Unitec’s open-access publisher, ePress, recently published the study’s findings.

Dr Lucy Patston, a senior lecturer at the time, led a team of student researchers investigating the effect of standing desks on thinking. The five Master of Osteopathy students found that although cognition did not markedly improve overall while standing, there were some areas of better performance – in working memory and attention.

SHORTS

“It’s been fascinating to work with students to examine a little of the science behind a popular trend,” said Patston. “We’ve discovered and are now sharing interesting areas for future

research, which may indeed prove standing while working is good for thinking.”

The students used this research in their successful Masters of Osteopathy theses. Each focused on different areas of cognition: working memory, processing speed, executive function, perceptual reasoning, and attention.

All graduated in 2016, and are now practising osteopaths.

Patston and student Aaron Henry went on to co-author the resulting paper, and Henry flew to Chicago to present the poster at the prestigious Association of Psychological Science convention in 2015.

Thinking while standing: An exploratory study on the effect of standing on cognitive performance, 2017, by L. L. M. Patston, A. N. Henry, M. McEwen, J. Mannion and L. A. Ewens-Volynkina, is freely accessible on the ePress website (www.unitec.ac.nz/epress/).

ePress has two publications under development that also involve student research: the pilot issue of Pūrātoke: Journal of Undergraduate Research in the Creative Arts and Industries, which will feature research, artistic or creative work by undergraduates from across the creative arts and industries; and a publication documenting a collaborative architecture/landscape architecture project in which students proposed development ideas for central Whangarei’s Hihiaua Peninsula.

Unitec to host Māori innovation showcase Developing a Strategic Māori Research Focus helped Unitec win the right to host the 2018 ITP Research and Innovation Symposium; the theme of Māori innovation will inspire new ways of thinking about opportunities and partnering with Māori.

Māori are recognised as being among the most entrepreneurial people globally, according to The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor: Towards High Growth Enterprise in New Zealand 03/04 1 (funded by the World Bank with significant Unitec involvement). In 2010, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment estimated the total value of the asset base of Māori enterprises at $36.9 billion.

“One of our greatest challenges will be selecting from what is a very impressive list of potential speakers, from Māori

small business to global leaders in innovation,” says TeUrikore Biddle, who is chairing the conference’s organising committee.

“Māori represent a significant chunk of the New Zealand economy and in the post-Treaty-settlement period, this share is growing. Connections between New Zealand tertiary-education organisations and Māori businesses have not been strong, so there is a great opportunity for the ITP [Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics] sector to strengthen these connections.”

Scheduled for July 10–11, 2018, the ITP Māori Innovation Symposium will showcase innovation by Māori, for Māori and partnered with Māori – as well as a focus on sustainability and transformation. Such a gathering of sharp minds will make this symposium a

hotbed for practical, exciting business opportunities.

“ITPs focus on applied learning in the professions and in the trades, which has been traditionally attractive to Māori. Innovation does and should be encouraged to thrive in these contexts,” Biddle says.

To find out more about sponsoring or attending the event, email TeUrikore Biddle on tbiddle@unitec.ac.nz

1 Frederick, H.H., 2005, New Zealand Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research Report Series, Vol 3, No 1, Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland

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SHORTS White Night, bright ideas

In March 2017, 12 second- and thirdyear BCE students hit Karangahape (K’) Road for Auckland Arts Festival’s White Night, when galleries and museums open late and pop-up events enliven public spaces. The students presented artworks and moving images inspired by the road’s unique personalities, issues and culture.

Paul Woodruffe, Senior Lecturer in Creative Industries, says it was a great opportunity for students to learn about staging work at a major arts festival –permissions, health and safety, public liability insurance, project management, and budgeting.

“We worked with the K’ Road Business

Association and the arcade owner; the students had to negotiate the rules and conditions of operating in public.

It was really valuable, because a lot of our students are interested in pop-up spaces and public art,” he says.

“One of our students will be showing work at Studio One, because they’ve seen the value of showing creative work off campus. It gives students confidence and it’s good for their CV.” Some students stretched billboard skins on a large fence on K’ Road, and did live spray-painting. In Cross Street Arcade, others displayed animations, posters, and a model of an apartment. Some had created a brand for a cooperative food kitchen, and served free food.

The experience helped Woodruffe, Digital Technologist Carsten Kudra and Creative Industries Academic Leader Bobby Hung learn how students react

to the challenge of public performance.

“We needed to engage them in the permit systems of public performance, and quality-control systems. This created a much better exhibition, and taught them how to deal with stakeholders and suppliers in a more organised way. Before students disappear in November, we will look at next year’s White Night, so students can register and think about ideas.”

SHORTS

Auckland’s late-night party street isn’t your average place for educational lessons – but it was for Bachelor of Creative Enterprise (BCE) students and their lecturers.

Embracing architecture’s new future Technology and prefabrication are disrupting the architecture industry – so Unitec Architecture Lecturer Yusef Patel is grabbing every chance he can to ensure his students are prepared for this new reality.

Since joining Unitec in early 2016, Patel has worked with students on several prefabrication projects involving external organisations. One involved designing and building a prototype house in five weeks, in conjunction with Carter Holt Harvey and PrefabNZ. The 11 female students created a 10sqm prefabricated house using plywood, laminated veneer lumber, and a CNC cutting machine. They exhibited the prototype at the Buildnz/Designex expo.

“It’s vital to get students using digital

technologies to make, design and detail.

A lot of software helps you bridge the gap between design and production, and it’s becoming a more important part of architecture,” says Patel.

“Architecture is also about research and development, and pushing the boundaries, which I think people often forget.”

Other students worked on a partial fit-out for a business and technology incubator called Tech Futures Lab, and a striking entrance pavilion for the 2017 Sculpture on the Gulf exhibition.

Some students co-published papers about the projects, and presented at conferences.

Such short, intense projects teach Patel lessons too. “Doing these built projects, you need a lot from the students, so we

work on making that fit in with family, part-time jobs and life issues,” he says.

“Students are eager to learn but they also want their voices to be heard.

I learned to let them make their own decisions, resolve their issues among themselves, and only step in when I needed to. It takes time for them to figure it out, but ultimately they can take those skills into other projects.”

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In the thick of it Some say there’s no better way to learn than doing – and Unitec Bachelor of Applied Sciences undergraduates are getting practical research experience, in collaborative projects with industry partners, that really opens doors to success.

APPLIED SCIENCES

From biosecurity and stink bugs to the chewing habits of possums and horses, the collaborative research projects in Unitec’s Environmental and Animal Sciences (EAS) Practice Pathway make for fascinating stories.

through public education. The islands, several of which are ‘pest free’, are important refuges for our native endangered species.

Third-year students must complete a selfdirected study course, which may include a small research project in collaboration with external organisations. This provides an opportunity for integrated learning with real-life work.

The initiative involves EAS, Auckland Council and the Department of Conservation (DoC).

Since 2011, students have carried out small research projects, including biosecurity surveys and advocacy, to complement Auckland Council and DoC’s ‘Treasure Islands’ campaign.

Many students have since secured jobs with Auckland Council, DoC, the Ministry for Primary Industries, and environmental consulting firms.

Dr Diane Fraser, EAS Senior Lecturer, is a master matchmaker. She has developed ongoing research relationships with Auckland Council and other organisations, so students can make industry connections as they study. Over the past 6-7 years, students have also presented their research findings at the annual New Zealand Biosecurity Institute (NETS) conference. Fraser says, “The student experience, both for their personal development and introduction to industry, is highly beneficial.”

Building biosecurity bridges Treasure Islands, stowaways… it sounds like something out of a Robert Louis Stevenson book.

This collaboration, however, is about reducing the biosecurity risk to Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf islands,

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"The student experience, both for their personal development and introduction to industry, is highly beneficial.”

Third-year students Chelsee Neverman and Jacqui Lardner were involved in the summer season of 2016-17. They offered passengers waiting to board ferries to Rangitoto and Rotoroa islands, and the Coromandel Peninsula, an anonymous survey (which they wrote with Dr Nick Waipara and Brian Shields of Auckland Council) to assess ferry passengers’ biosecurity knowledge.

APPLIED SCIENCES

“Students can work on a real-life project, prove themselves with potential employers, and perhaps get published.”

After collecting the surveys, they struck up advocacy conversations with passengers, discussing how people can reduce the risk of spreading invasive species to protected islands.

Neverman found this useful for “developing the ability to go up to people and start a conversation without turning them off your topic. We had to really adjust how we were speaking for different people,” she says.

At the 2017 NETS conference, the pair did a twominute oral presentation supporting their poster to more than 200 people, and a 20-minute oral presentation to a smaller audience.

It’s a win for everybody, says Fraser. “Students can work on a real-life project, prove themselves with potential employers, and perhaps get published. EAS/Unitec is seen as a valuable resource of research capability for Auckland Council and other organisations.”

These opportunities can expand a student’s vision. Lardner is now doing a double major in Bachelor of Applied Science after adding the biodiversity major to her degree. “At the NETS conference, I saw all these different industries

and didn’t think of half of them as being potential jobs. It’s helped me see my future.”

Tasty trick for possum monitoring In New Zealand’s fight against possums, chew cards are a simple, cheap and vital weapon used to monitor where the creatures are most prevalent. A collaboration between Unitec student Jared Waters, Auckland University’s Dr Jamie McKay and pest-control company Connovation resulted in a research project with helpful findings for the device, and great professional outcomes for Waters.

Chew cards are made of corflute and filled with peanut butter, which possums like. The cards are attached to trees, and lures (traditionally a mixture of flour and icing sugar) attract possums, which chew the cards, leaving a distinctive mark.

But rats often bite through the cards, destroying this evidence.

Image: EAS students Chelsee Neverman (left) and Jacqui Lardner waiting to begin advocacy work at Auckland's ferry terminal Inset: Australian brushtailed possum in a New Zealand forest

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APPLIED SCIENCES

Waters, McKay and Unitec Associate Professor Nigel Adams (Waters’ supervisor) tested the effectiveness of Connovation’s new lure, laced with either cinnamon or aniseed, in attracting possums to the cards. They found higher incidences of possum interaction with cards when using the new lures compared with the flour/icing sugar lure. The new lures also appeared to be less attractive to rats.

A paper written by Fraser and co-researchers was published in the NZ Journal of Zoology in 2016. Waters presented his work at NETS, and now works as a team leader with environmental management company Nelmac.

Guided by Aguilar, Kumar modeled algorithms to map which areas of the world, and within New Zealand, are most environmentally suitable for the bug. Aguilar helped her expand these models to include low and high trajectories of future climate change. The trio co-published the results in September 2017 in the online international journal Climate.

Kicking up a stink

But wait, there’s more…

With a name like the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), this critter was never going to be popular – but the risk it poses to New Zealand helped student Shivani Kumar study a timely problem and co-publish her work in a prestigious journal.

The list of success stories doesn’t stop there.

EAS lecturers, students and industry partners have worked on many projects, including:

The BMSB is a significant threat to horticultural and agricultural crops, and other plants, and a nuisance to people. The Ministry for Primary

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Industries remains on high alert to prevent the BMSB gaining a foothold here; Fraser and EAS Senior Lecturer Dr Glenn Aguilar saw how EAS could contribute to understanding the range of potential risk.

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– Testing under New Zealand conditions of a commercial product to stop horses chewing wood, which resulted in publication in the international Journal of Veterinary Behavior.

The student later secured a ranger job with DoC.

Image: From left, Dr Diane Fraser, Jacqui Lardner and Chelsee Neverman at the 2017 NETS conference Inset: Brown marmorated stink bug

– Two students conducted trials on an endangered New Zealand herb species to determine its biology and distribution under different management regimes (see Advance Winter 2016 issue).

This led to an award, a poster presentation, a journal article currently being drafted, and a 2017 Auckland Council graduate internship.

– Five students were involved with small trials to test the effectiveness of a non-toxic bird repellent (see Advance Summer 2015 issue).

The students helped author two posters that were presented at international conferences, and a journal article is being drafted.

The more Fraser works on these projects, the more she learns how to get the best from students.

“It’s increased my skill in providing a supportive framework for students. These are big undertakings for third-year undergraduate students, so an understanding of capability,

APPLIED SCIENCES

“Supervision involves collaborative discussion, between students, supervisors and external organisations, around goals and expectations.”

good communication and strong supervision are vital,” says Fraser.

“Supervision involves collaborative discussion, between students, supervisors and external organisations, around goals and expectations and how they link with the student’s self-directed course outcomes.

By working with students and industry, Unitec staff – who have heavier teaching loads than universities – are able to co-publish and meet their own obligations for research engagement.

“We also continue to build long-term relationships with industry, which creates amazing real-world opportunities for students that lead to significant personal and professional development.”

Fraser, Aguilar and other Unitec lecturers have also published work in Unitec’s ePress Perspectives in Biosecurity series, covering local topics such as post-border biosecurity, the effect of Argentine ants on honey bees, and future biosecurity threats.

contact Dr Diane Fraser dfraser@unitec.ac.nz

Image: EAS student Jacqui Lardner conducts a biosecurity survey

Summer 2017

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Engineering a better environment Reducing nitrogen pollution in waterways, testing indoor air quality, asbestos remediation, and more‌ Dr Terri-Ann Berry and her engineering students are tackling issues that directly affect our health and habitat.

ENGINEERING

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Image: New Zealand dairy farm

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The impact of dairy farming on our waterways is one of New Zealand’s biggest environmental issues.

Dr Terri-Ann Berry, Senior Lecturer and Environmental Researcher in Unitec’s Engineering Practice Pathway, is spearheading a research project to prevent nitrogen pollution from cows entering lakes and rivers – and students are playing a key role in its development.

Berry is supervising several ongoing projects that focus on protecting humans and the environment from the consequences of human industry, and students from successive years contribute to many of these potential solutions.

But the nitrogen remediation project is the most urgent: there are already grave consequences for the health of freshwater species and humans who swim in polluted rivers and lakes.

Her innovative idea begins with a swale, a shallow depression of land used to manage stormwater runoff. A conveyance swale channels rainwater down a slope, but Berry will use a swale built along a contour

ENGINEERING

There are already grave consequences for the health of freshwater species and humans who swim in polluted rivers and lakes.

(the horizontal contour of a gentle hill), as permaculture devotees often do.

“It retains the water for a lot longer before soaking into the ground or flowing to a river. That gives us an ideal opportunity to collect run-off and manage its treatment,” says Berry.

Submerging a material, such as plastic media, into contaminated water is a well-established treatment method, she adds.

“Using a waste material, such as used corn cobs, would provide an additional benefit.

The structure of the corn surface is quite rough, so it can allow a bacterial film or slime to grow on that cob and establish a community to convert nitrates into nitrogen gas.”

During 2017, Berry supervised Bachelor of Engineering Technology (Civil) student Ilya Nosov, who created a design template for a swale built along a contour for his final-year project.

Image: Managing the treatment of waste from cows is a pressing environmental issue Inset: Terri-Ann Berry

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ENGINEERING

From Berry, he learned research and oral presentation skills, time management, and report writing. He also worked with landscape architects from design practice Resilio Studio, and the Auckland Permaculture Workshop.

“That’s one of the most interesting parts for me, that it’s a real-life project where you meet industry people,” he says.

“The feeling of responsibility is also higher, because you understand you’re responsible for a small part of a bigger project, and it’s important for New Zealand’s environment.”

Nosov has secured a one-year paid internship at engineering consultancy Chester; during the interview, they asked about his report-writing skills and he could mention his experience gained at Unitec.

Berry is leading a $600,000 grant application to the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Farming Fund, to continue the work. Students may be involved in lab analysis and creating full-scale test swales.

The air that we breathe Airtight homes sound like a great idea, right?

They keep cold air out and reduce heating costs.

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But as technologies for increasing airtightness became more common, Berry questioned the wisdom of using them in New Zealand’s often humid climate. Would the higher internal temperature cause more harmful VOCs (volatile organic compounds) to be released from furniture and paints, and trapped inside houses?

(Read about the initial VOC research in the Advance Summer 2016 issue.)

Jordan Chiswell joined the VOC research in his final year of an Engineering Technology degree. There was no shortage of variables to research and decide upon in the quest to extract information that others would find valuable.

Chiswell and Berry worked with Unitec’s Building, Construction and Services Practice Pathway to set up two trial houses, one with airtightness measures and one without. The goal was to establish how airtightness affected the decay rate of VOCs inside an unoccupied timber house, establishing baseline data before simulating occupancy in a future study. During testing, they measured levels of formaldehyde and particulate matter.

Image: Equipment set up for testing VOC emissions Inset: Ilya Nosov

“We found, as we predicted, the airtightness did have an effect on VOC concentration. There were bigger VOC peaks, and the decay rate was slower; there could be issues if we’re considering this technology,” says Berry.

Chiswell won the 2015 prize for Best Finalyear Student Project in Research. With Berry, he wrote and presented a journal paper at the International Conference on Environment, Chemistry and Biology in Auckland, 2015.

He’s now working as a junior site engineer on the new motorway being built from Puhoi to Warkworth. Chiswell says, “I wasn’t a fan of public speaking before I started at Unitec, but I’ve done presentations for the journal paper, my final-year mark, and others. That’s helped with my current job, being able to talk about a technical subject in front of an audience.”

Controlling the legacy of asbestos Asbestos is a worldwide problem. The minerals, made of strong, heat-resistant fibres, were popular for roofing and cladding until the mid-1980s. Asbestos is a health risk when inhaled as a fine dust, which is a particular problem in older buildings.

ENGINEERING

Asbestos is a health risk when inhaled as a fine dust, which is a particular problem in older buildings.

One of Berry’s former students contacted her from Rarotonga to ask for help in dealing with asbestos in their schools, so student Daniel Wairepo carried out research to identify four potential solutions.

He and Berry co-wrote a paper on the subject, published in Unitec’s 2015 Building Today – Saving Tomorrow.

The project piqued Berry’s interest. Instead of burying asbestos in landfill, what if she could encourage bacteria or fungi to break down asbestos through bioremediation?

She and others at Unitec are now collaborating with researchers at the universities of Canberra and Pennsylvania on the project, and have been offered test sites in Australia and New Zealand.

Now all they need is funding.

These projects have taught Berry one crucial lesson. “It doesn’t matter how well you prepare, every student is so different that you need to spend time getting to know them, and learning what is going to work for them. Constant reassurance and communication is so important with final-year projects.”

contact Terri-Ann Berry tberry@unitec.ac.nz

Image and inset: Asbestos roofing

Summer 2017

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A new cyber safety net Keeping commercial concerns in mind is helping a Unitec researcher create an affordable solution that could revolutionise disaster recovery for NZ businesses.

COMPUTING

The error message, the noisy hard drive, the Blue Screen of Death, the Spinning Beach Ball of Doom… we’ve all been there. It’s frustrating enough when your computer crashes, but if you’re a business owner, the implications can be costly and disruptive.

“CRaaSH allows New Zealand SMEs to use a secondary site of their own choice – be it a public cloud, branch office, or a laptop sitting at home as a ready-to-go copy of the original – to replace their backup software, so their service will automatically recover in case of a problem.

Unitec’s Denis Lavrov is a key researcher and part of a team working with industry on developing affordable disaster-recovery software for New Zealand’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), while completing his Doctor of Computing – and all at the age of 21.

“The innovative aspect of CRaaSH is it uses very few resources, one-tenth of what larger enterprises and competitors for the higher-level market do, while being flexible enough to be utilised in any situation. This makes it ideal for the SME market in New Zealand and around the world.”

The new product is named CRaaSH, the spelling a reference to New Zealand’s sheep population and the anguished noise someone might make as their computer crashes. Lavrov says it’s intended to solve the problem of people not backing up their services and infrastructure.

“If there’s a ransomware attack, natural disaster or simple user misoperation, your service or website is down, customers can’t use it and you’re losing money. The reason why infrastructure hasn’t been backed up so much in New Zealand is because current solutions on the market are expensive, and have high technical requirements that require dedicated IT staff,” he says.

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Lavrov has played a pivotal role in developing the project’s intellectual property (IP). Gregor Steinhorn, Research Partner – Enterprise, specialises in industry partnerships and IP, and has set up a research collaboration and licence agreement with NakiCloud, a Taranaki-based internet service provider. Together they are commercialising the technology.

The solution is all about replication, or how the back-up server takes copies of business software. Synchronous replication is what banks use to ensure online transactions are carried out instantaneously for bank and customer, Steinhorn explains.

COMPUTING

"Infrastructure hasn’t been backed up so much in New Zealand because current solutions are expensive, and have high technical requirements that require dedicated IT staff."

Image: Gregor Steinhorn, cybersecurity client consultant Clare Kitching (who set up the relationship between Unitec and NakiCloud), and Denis Lavrov

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COMPUTING

"We designed the CRaaSH system to make the resource requirements low, making it technically useable by SMEs, and flexible."

“Essentially, I say hi to you, and you must acknowledge that I say hi to you before I can continue. If we are far away, it becomes difficult.

Even when the distance is not so big, it can affect the service.”

more compatible with a network connection an SME would have. You can spend those resources on running your service intstead of backup.”

With asynchronous replication, however, “I just tell you hi and you don’t have to acknowledge me, or you can acknowledge me some time later on, but I move on with whatever I’m doing.

The software has other compelling benefits.

It works over any internet connection, even dial-up; it will be easy to operate; you can choose whether data goes to the public cloud, private cloud, or your own office server.

“CRaaSH sits next to you and looks at what you’re doing; if you fall over, CRaaSH notices you’ve stopped and takes over. You might lose the last 30 seconds if you have a bad connection, but that recovery would never work with a synchronous version of machine replication.”

Lavrov adds, “It lets us save on replication bandwidth by using a patent-pending scheme that only replicates what is necessary, so it’s

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It’s also relatively difficult to find a product that guarantees data will stay in a certain country, says Steinhorn. “If legal requirements say certain information must not leave New Zealand, we can guarantee the information isn’t leaving here.

New Zealand is more relaxed about this now, but other countries might not be.”

COMPUTING

Professors Hossein Sarrafzadeh and Paul Pang led the original Unitec bid for this research, which is part of the STRATUS project, a sixyear, $12.2 million cybersecurity project funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. The University of Waikato is leading STRATUS, and working with Unitec, the University of Auckland and Cloud Security Alliance. The aim is to return data control to users, and hopefully create a thriving cloudsecurity industry.

The CRaaSH prototype is being set up at NakiCloud, and in mid-2018, after beta testing, the Linux version will be launched in New Zealand. In 2019, the Windows version will be ready. Then, world domination beckons.

Lavrov says he and his team focused on what would appeal to most New Zealand companies: a low price. “We designed the CRaaSH system

to make the resource requirements low, making it technically useable by SMEs, and flexible.

We don’t want to lock them in to a solution that requires thousands of dollars worth of infrastructure,” he says.

“I developed CRaaSH hoping it would be useful, but I wasn’t sure – the world is random – so it’s really good to validate what I thought was good in design through working with industry.”

Steinhorn says partnering with industry has benefits for all, especially in the IT sector.

“There’s a lot of industry knowledge that you wouldn’t get from an academic publication, because professors don’t usually run IT companies! We offer them a depth of knowledge and creativity that often isn’t possible when keeping a business running. In tertiary education, you have the chance to come up with things that can revolutionise an industry.”

contact Denis Lavrov dlavrov@unitec.ac.nz

Image: CraaSH.com poster

Summer 2017

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Knowledge is power AUTOMOTIVE COMMUNITY ENGINEERING

An Automotive Engineering project to electrify a tuk-tuk became a labour of love for one lecturer and his students – as well as a testament to the benefits of problem-based learning.

Tuk-tuks are an iconic part of most streetscapes in Asia, Africa and Central America; so, unfortunately, are the pollutants and noise they emit. For two Unitec Bachelor of Applied Technology (BAT) students, looking for a final-year industry project in Automotive Engineering, this problem was ripe with challenges and real-world benefit. So Donald Nderingo and Jay Kumar decided to import and electrify a tuk-tuk.

The idea’s first spark came from Dr Mary Panko, Senior Lecturer in Building Construction and Services, who suggested Nderingo find a meaningful automotive-related problem involving sustainability. After a guest lecturer spoke to their class about electric vehicles, Nderingo and Kumar wondered how to apply that technology to the brightly coloured, motorised three-wheeled vehicles.

“We wanted to see how hard or easy it was to do. We read about electric vehicles a lot, but you don’t usually get to be part of a project where you can see it tangibly come together,” says Nderingo.

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Their supervisor, Dr Roman Kudin, Lecturer in Vehicle Systems and Materials, says it’s estimated there are more than 50 million tuk-tuks in the world; India alone produces more than 800,000 a year. When the Unitec team tested the tail-pipe exhaust gases for their new tuk-tuk (not equipped with a catalytic converter), it emitted an average concentration of carbon monoxide 10 times higher, and of hydrocarbons 14 times higher, than a 14-year-old sedan.

“The noise pollution is at 78 decibels (similar to a garbage disposal unit). The name tuk-tuk comes from the sound of the engine; that makes it sound like the engine should be gentle, but it sounds like a jet engine!” he says.

Getting a tuk-tuk to their workshop turned out to be just as big a challenge as the mechanical work to follow. A lot of theoretical research went into preparing for the project and finding the right tuk-tuk, as well as lining up a supplier in China who would sell them just one vehicle.

Inset: Wiring up the tuk-tuk for its electric future

unitec.ac.nz

AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING

"The noise pollution is at 78 decibels. The name tuk-tuk comes from the sound of the engine; that makes it sound like the engine should be gentle, but it sounds like a jet engine!"

Nderingo explains they learned to ask themselves questions about every step of the journey, and deal with issues and delays as they arose.

through many discussions to decide what parts they required. “Then Donald would contact the suppliers, find out our options and we would all weigh up costs and efficiencies,” says Kumar.

“We had to make sure we could trust the person sending us the tuk-tuk, because we were sending research money to them,” Nderingo says. “Then it was heavily raining in China, and the river transportation between the place we were ordering it from and the port was delayed.”

The conversion kit they received was shorter than what was requested, and there wasn’t time to order a replacement. They ended up having to redo the suspension completely, and modify the kit to fit the tuk-tuk.

After clearing customs, they hoped to get the vehicle registered to test it on the road, but that was not to be, he adds. “The NZ Transport Agency had their own procedures to be followed and test methods that had to be approved, but in China it’s not something you really have a proper standard for.”

Finally, the shiny blue vehicle made it to their workshop. They had teamed up with three final-year BAT students, majoring in Electrotechnology, who tackled the electrical side of the conversion. Kumar says they took lots of measurements and photos, then went

All this was done on a budget of $5000.

Limited funds enhanced the students’ creativity, says Kudin. “That’s why the project was so sustainable and efficient. We were going to the scrap-metal bin and fashioning pieces to solve problems, as would happen in a third-world country.”

As well as applying the automotive theory they’d learned, they picked up plenty of experience in project management, budgeting and planning. Kumar and Nderingo also tapped into the knowledge of the local electric-vehicle community to understand how electric powertrains work.

Image: Brainstorming the redesign of the tuk-tuk's suspension

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AUTOMOTIVE COMMUNITY ENGINEERING

The end of 2016 approached, and because of the delays, the project wasn’t finished. The three electrotechnology students returned to their homes overseas. But Kudin, Nderingo and Kumar were in it for the long haul, and continued to work on the project in their own time, 1-2 days a week; no longer students and lecturer, but friends.

The late nights, shared meals and true collaboration came to fruition in late February 2017, when they took the tuk-tuk for a triumphant test-drive on a closed road in Unitec’s grounds. Zero exhaust emissions, quiet performance, better acceleration and lower operating costs – and they’d proved a conversion could be done on a low budget, which is relevant for third-world countries.

The team determined the success of the project, says Kumar. “All of us were equally personally motivated, we were eager to see the tuk-tuk electrified and going. When you have like-minded people in your team, you have that motivation to go the extra mile,” he adds.

"The teacher has to support a challenging environment. Give students a challenge and give them space to step up, and they will prove themselves."

Panko, Kudin and Nderingo co-wrote a paper on the project that Panko presented at an international research symposium on problem-based learning in Colombia in early 2017. In May 2017, Nderingo and Kumar joined Unitec as lecturers, testament to their excellent theoretical and practical skills, and exemplary attitudes.

Kudin believes a facilitative approach to teaching helped his students achieve on a higher level; the key is to never underestimate them.

“I always believe that one good question is more important than 100 correct answers.

The teacher has to support a challenging environment. Give students a challenge and give them space to step up, and they will prove themselves.”

contact Dr Roman Kudin rkudin@unitec.ac.nz

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Image: From left, Donald Nderingo, Dr Roman Kudin (conversion supervisor) and Jay Kumar, after the successful test drives

unitec.ac.nz

Cracking the code COMPUTING

Creating an educational game turned out to be a layered learning experience for five Unitec computing students.

Can you code? Chances are, you weren’t taught to at school – but today, the skill is increasingly seen as vital to a young person’s education. Five Bachelor of Computing Systems students set out to make learning to code fun and approachable with their final, Capstone project: RunJumpCode, a computer game that teaches players the programming language C#.

Educational games are becoming more common in classrooms; research from the likes of New York University and the American Psychological Association discusses their use in boosting learning and cognitive skills, and assessing learning outcomes.

Student Matthew Hinds, the group’s project manager and one of the developers, says

“We want to change the programming learning experience by offering an educational 2D platformer video game that is accessible to all ages."

he and a friend came up with the idea by thinking about what they would have liked to have access to as younger students.

“We want to change the programming learning experience by offering an educational 2D platformer video game that is accessible to all ages. By giving players a fun, progressively challenging, rewarding experience based on a learning curriculum, they can learn programming without being overwhelmed with complexity,” he says.

RunJumpCode follows the same principles as the 1980s Nintendo game Super Mario Bros., where players must overcome obstacles to reach the end of a level. In RunJumpCode, players must learn theory, solve problems and apply learned knowledge in order to progress through the game. There’s also a website and mobile app to track each player’s statistics throughout the game, so people can compare their progress with friends.

“There’s a lot of supporting evidence that learning through entertainment is good for retaining information, and people are more motivated to keep going when there are scores and leaderboards,” Hinds adds.

Inset: Matthew Hinds

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COMPUTING

Their supervisor, Unitec Computer Science Lecturer Simon Dacey, says one of his key challenges was getting the group to see the value of following the standard method of software development.

“What the students like to do is go straight from the problem to coding. They tend to skip the analysis and design. They do tend to see them as not necessary, and boring,” Dacey laughs.

“It was quite useful that I don’t have a background in gaming programming, because they couldn’t come to me with technical problems, but they could come to me with process problems. I kept on showing them the life cycle, emphasising the importance of analysis and design.”

He met with the group every two weeks to discuss their progress. “They started off with a fairly detailed project plan, so it was about keeping an eye on that and seeing if they had any problems that I could help them with,” he says.

This kind of project-based learning teaches skills such as collaboration and problem solving that

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“Learning through entertainment is good for retaining information, and people are more motivated to keep going when there are scores and leaderboards."

are vital in today’s workplaces.

Hinds says the group discussed how the project tasks would be distributed, and what was realistic to achieve within the timeframe. Because it was a full-time project over one semester, and the students often worked from home, making sure people stayed on track was a challenge.

“I’d gotten used to it because we’ve done project management all through this degree, but it was always a challenge – it isn’t as focused as being in the same building. It was rewarding because it gave me an insight into management, and I want to do more of it at work,” Hinds says.

Image: Simon Dacey and Nilufar Baghaei

unitec.ac.nz

They had to tackle challenges around the physics of how the items moved in the game, and how many resources the programming was using up in the game engine. The aesthetics of the game also required some upskilling.

“We’re all computer geeks, art isn’t something we’re good at. So we had to spend time learning to draw with Microsoft Paint. We couldn’t do music either, so we had to use open-source music and sounds. It’s easy to write code, but it’s hard to combine it with art and sound to make it believable,” says Hinds.

Dr Nilufar Baghaei, an Associate Professor and Academic Leader in Computer Science, says it’s important to ensure every student documents their contributions, to avoid “social loafing” (people putting in less effort to achieve a goal when they work in a group than when they work alone). Once the game was completed and the presentation delivered, Baghaei asked the group if they wanted to write a research paper.

COMPUTING

“It’s easy to write code, but it’s hard to combine it with art and sound to make it believable."

“Game-based learning is attracting a lot of attention,” she says.

Hinds led the writing of the paper’s first draft, guided by Baghaei and Dacey. Hinds says, “It was a great opportunity for us to extend our knowledge and keep pushing. The writing is of a higher quality when you’re writing for a research community, so I had to change my mindset and have a lot of discussions with Nilufar. Writing it was a unique experience.”

The preliminary findings have been presented at conferences on mobile learning and computersupported education in Hungary and Portugal, and a journal paper is in progress. Hinds now works as an analyst programmer at Agility CIS, helping overseas clients tailor software to their business requirement.

A study is planned to use RunJumpCode in Unitec C# programming classes, to fully evaluate its effectiveness. “We’re also hoping to see Unitec students using the game in their programming classes in the near future. That will give us more interesting findings," says Baghaei. There’s always more to learn.

contact

Dr Nilufar Baghaei nbaghaei@unitec.ac.nz

Images: Screen grabs from RunJumpCode app

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The architecture of change Unitec’s Bold Innovators Scholarship is helping two graduates bring to life an architectural practice with a big vision – using social design to create a fairer society, and building that concept into the education system.

ARCHITECTURE COMMUNITY COMPUTING CONNECTION

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Image: Mayuyao village, Philippines

unitec.ac.nz

“Social issues are so complex and multidimensional that the responses need to be holistic, and social design is a response that can solve them."

Three former Unitec students and one from Victoria University are behind the fledgling initiative, which has already lined up projects in the Philippines, Samoa and New Zealand. Their mission is at once simple and sweeping: use social design (designing in ways that improve human wellbeing) to create holistic responses to social and humanitarian challenges.

MAU Studio’s John Belford-Lelaulu and Reagan Laidlaw graduated from Unitec in 2015 with Masters of Architecture and a desire to change the world. They were already aware of how social design can address issues such as poverty and access to education. “Social issues are so complex and multidimensional that the responses need to be holistic, and social design is a response that can solve them,” Belford-Lelaulu says.

They also questioned the longevity of most models of charitable development, where people either work for free or low pay until they burn out, or take a few weeks off work once a year to contribute to an overseas project.

A solution began forming in early 2017.

Former classmate Lynette Hunt knew about development projects in the Philippines through her church’s outreach programme.

Belford-Lelaulu was volunteering with Open Architecture in New York, and returned home after hearing about the scholarship, then visited the Philippines with Hunt.

ARCHITECTURE

“The value in an idea lies in the using of it.”

Thomas Edison probably wasn’t thinking about social design in architecture when he came up with that gem – but the principle is echoed today in the entrepreneurial MAU Studio venture, and the support it’s receiving through Unitec’s Bold Innovators Scholarship, initiated by Tuapapa Rangahau, partnering Research and Enterprise.

They came back fizzing with excitement, picturing the opportunity: apply for the scholarship, which is open to recent Unitec graduates with an innovative idea, and use it to kick-start a financially viable social design practice.

Laidlaw was working fulltime at JTB Architects as an architectural graduate; Belford-Lelaulu and Hunt convinced him and Victoria University graduate Carinnya Feaunati to get involved outside working hours. Then Belford-Lelaulu and Laidlaw successfully applied for the first Bold Innovators Scholarships. The money, access to Unitec resources and mentoring mean MAU Studio is developing so quickly they can barely keep up.

Mau, a non-violent movement in Samoa that successfully campaigned for the country’s independence from New Zealand in 1962, inspired the practice’s name. The word means to be firm, steadfast, to strive.

“We also believe MAU Studio is a movement. We stand against injustices that affect vulnerable communities, and we wish to inspire and work with our future generations to create holistic

Inset: Concept model for church, community and learning centre, Baguio city, Philippines

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ARCHITECTURE COMMUNITY COMPUTING CONNECTION

responses to humanitarian challenges,” says Belford-Lelaulu.

social design projects – as a viable career, not as an occasional charity project.

They’ve had plenty of help from Bold Innovators mentors, on topics such as entrepreneurship, education, business models, and building connections with industry. Gregor Steinhorn, Research Partner – Enterprise, and Sandy Ngov, Research Enterprise Administrator, are leading this programme.

Their first three projects in the Philippines are a community and learning centre in Baguio city, a youth dormitory in Mayuyao for children from less-accessible villages so they can attend school, and an agricultural centre in Mayuyao to revitalise deteriorating rice terraces.

MAU Studio aims to run a research design elective at Unitec next year. Its goal is to create a cultural and weaving facility in Samoa that also raises awareness about natural disasters.

Laidlaw says the scholarship has given them clarity and credibility, and opened doors to work with academic leaders in Unitec’s Architecture Practice Pathway.

“Because of the scholarship, things have moved so much quicker. It’s an opportunity to start thinking as a business, trying to find other streams of revenue,” he says.

Peter McPherson, Unitec’s Head of Architecture, has been mentoring MAU Studio from an academic perspective, introducing John and Reagan to Unitec Pathways College to support connections with high schools, and helping to establish an elective project for 2018.

“It’s a credit to John and Reagan that they have developed a mature approach to their design philosophy. The passion shown in their work is a pleasure to see,” says McPherson.

Belford-Lelaulu and Laidlaw want to create a way for everyone from interested high-school students to industry professionals to work on

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They’ll provide support about how to make structures more permanent and well planned, but architecture is becoming about more than designing a building, says Laidlaw. “The new buzz is about the architect as facilitator. Instead of just designing, they’re also getting funding and setting up future support.”

For the agricultural centre, he explains, this could mean getting a government grant to help teach farmers how to be more business minded.

“Their products could be marketed better, they could join a fair-trade collective; this could show Filipino youth it’s a viable job rather than finding work in the city. Rice terraces are embedded in their culture; if the rice terraces deteriorate, they’d not only lose income, they’d lose their cultural identity,” Laidlaw explains.

He and Belford-Lelaulu also want to build longterm connections. They’ve met with the governor and university lecturers in Baguio, hoping to get local students involved and perhaps set up an exchange programme with Unitec.

The Bold Innovators Scholarship is helping them hit fast-forward in the transition from dream to reality. Life-changing ideas, just getting off the ground – you heard it here first.

Image: John Belford-Lelaulu (left) and Lynette Hunt (right) with members of the Indigenous Learning Centre, Phillipines

unitec.ac.nz

Diagram: Depicting ‘Mau Studio’ innovative social design support-system.

EDUCATION IMPACT

mA

Mentorship Exchange

Mentorship Exchange

mi

m

EDUCATION IMPACT

EDUCATION IMPACT

Mentorship Exchange

mAU

mAU

mAU

mAU

Academy

Studio

Design

Impact

High School Students

Tertiary Students

Social Design Practice

Developing Community

MAU Studio innovative social design support system

ARCHITECTURE

"We stand against injustices that affect vulnerable communities, and we wish to inspire and work with our future generations to create holistic responses to humanitarian challenges."

ms

contact Gregor Steinhorn gsteinhorn@unitec.ac.nz

Inset: Reagan Laidlaw and Carinnya Feaunati edit designs based on community feedback Image: Site for youth dormitory project, Mayuyao village, Philippines

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Ready, willing and verbal A Master’s student’s own experience informed her research into a little-explored area of teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages – and it was a learning experience for all concerned.

COMMUNITY LANGUAGE

Learning a new language, and communicating in that language with others, takes people right out of their comfort zone. Developing Willingness To Communicate (WTC) is vital for progress in learning – and a Unitec Master of Education student has investigated how teachers go about fostering WTC, with some surprising results.

For her thesis, she decided to explore how ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) teachers help learners to develop WTC, as this is a little-explored area.

Her supervisor, Professor of Education Hayo Reinders, says in any skill development, how we feel influences how successful we will be.

Vatsana Vongsila’s curiosity on this topic was piqued by her own language studies. She learned English for five years at university in her native Laos before coming to New Zealand for postgraduate studies, so she knew how intimidating it could be to converse in a non-native language.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty: is it OK to say this, do I sound weird? People get very anxious, especially adults. So how do you get anxious learners to be willing to communicate?”

Her immersion in academic English made matters more difficult. “I didn’t feel confident enough to speak with other people, even when I would have loved to. I had to listen carefully to interpret the meaning of what people said in class.”

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Vongsila asked teachers in Unitec’s Department of Language Studies how important they perceived their role to be in encouraging WTC, and how they encouraged it in class. Then she observed five of them for a semester as they taught communicative skills to mostly Asian learners, to identify which WTC strategies teachers actually used.

Inset: Hayo Reinders

unitec.ac.nz

Although teachers believed they play a key role in helping learners develop WTC, and used some WTC strategies, there were a couple of key findings. All teachers said they encouraged students to practise English outside the classroom – a sign of progress in WTC – but in fact, unwittingly, none of the teachers provided this encouragement during lessons.

fewer closed questions, and a lot more opinion-type topics, as opinions are more likely to generate discussion,” he says.

Another was what Reinders calls a common occurrence in teaching. The teachers talked a lot more than they thought they did: two-thirds of the time, in fact, during communicative classes designed to help students with oral proficiency.

“The key thing about learning a foreign language is to be able and willing to use the language in interactions with native speakers. If learners don’t do that, as teachers we have a moral obligation to help them develop confidence.”

Every teacher can benefit from becoming more critically reflective, Reinders explains, and he’s no exception.

Vongsila found writing her thesis particularly difficult. “I had to edit it again and again. Sometimes I had that feeling of discouragement, but my heart told me I had to keep going and finish it,” she says.

“I have this little voice in my head that says, ‘Gosh, you’re talking again.’ I’ve started using

LANGUAGE

"There’s a lot of uncertainty: is it OK to say this, do I sound weird?

People get very anxious, especially adults."

Image: Vatsana Vongsila

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LANGUAGE

"The key thing about learning a foreign language is to be able and willing to use the language in interactions with native speakers."

So it’s even more impressive that Vongsila finished her thesis and went on to co-publish an article with Reinders about her work in the Regional Language Centre (RELC) Journal, a respected international journal that links theory and practice in language education.

The journal accepted the paper within three weeks with almost no changes required, which is a rare achievement.

When working with students, says Reinders, it’s vital to help them develop learner autonomy.

“It’s about developing the learner’s ability to take control of their own learning: prioritising, how to best structure your learning, how to monitor yourself and your progress,” he says.

“As well as providing support and guidance, we expect independence.”

Vongsila is now applying what she learned to her work at the National University of Laos, where she supervises Master’s students and final-year Bachelor students in the Department of English.

Studying at Unitec taught her how to go through the research process, from creating an objective to writing for different audiences.

“I strongly say that it’s very helpful. Even though it was quite difficult, finally I did it,” she says.

“I learned how to work in a research team.

Now I can write proposals to gain grants to do research in Laos. I’ve gained knowledge and skills from my experience at Unitec.”

contact Dr Hayo Reinders wreinders@unitec.ac.nz

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Image: Unitec students

unitec.ac.nz

Unitec Sustainable Building Scholarships

Thinking of undertaking research in sustainable building?

In response to environmental changes and a growing environmental consciousness, sustainable building is a global priority in our quest to protect our environment.

Unitec supports the future of sustainable building and your efforts towards shaping that future. If you’re thinking of undertaking Master’s research in this subject area in 2018, you may be eligible for one of four $5,000 scholarships.

Research in sustainable building can span many disciplines beyond the obvious building and construction area; areas of research that would be funded by these scholarships could include but are not limited to:

• Service design for co-housing projects.

• Environmental engineering solutions for cleaning up storm water.

• Real-life Lego for sustainable modular housing solutions for urban development.

• Solar electricity leasing options or commercialisation.

• Predictive sustainability modelling in urban development. … or something of your own design.

If you’re considering research related to sustainable building, contact us to discuss your options and scholarship eligibility.

contact

Gregor Steinhorn Research Partner gsteinhorn@unitec.ac.nz Tuapapa Rangahau partnering Research and Enterprise unitec.ac.nz/research

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phone 0800 10 95 10 web www.unitec.ac.nz Mt Albert campus 139 Carrington Rd Mt Albert Auckland 1025 WaitÄ kere campus 5-7 Ratanui St Henderson Auckland 0612