Tēnei te mihi atu ki a koutou katoa mai i Te Whare Wānanga ...Tēnei te mihi atu ki a koutou katoa mai i Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha. E mōhiotia whānuitia ana a UC mō āna rangahau.

Tēnei te mihi atu ki a koutou katoa mai i Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha. E mōhiotia whānuitia ana a UC mō āna rangahau. Ka kitea te kaha me te hōhonu o ēnei mahi a UC i ngā pūrongo i roto i te pukapuka nei. He kōwhiringa paku noa ēnei o ngā rangahau katoa, hei whakaatu i tēnei āhuatanga o Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha ki a koutou. Ko te aronga o tēnei kohinga pūrongo ko te mahi ngātahi me ngā hononga ā-rangahau i waenga i te whare wānanga me tōna hapori, me te motu katoa, ā, ko ngā hononga rangahau anō hoki ki ngā hapū me ngā iwi o Aotearoa, o iwi kē, ki whenua kē.

Greetings to you all from the University of Canterbury. UC is widely known for its research reputation. The strength and depth of UC’s research can be seen through this small selection of research stories from our activities during the 2016 year with an emphasis on collaborative research with our local communities, iwi and hapū, and communities nationally and internationally.

Research Report 2016 1

Research & InnovationConnecting UC’s research with the worldThe role of Research & Innovation is to provide services that facilitate and support all stages of research and innovation at the University of Canterbury, from initial funding of the research through to commercialisation of the outcomes, where appropriate. Research & Innovation is the first point of contact for external organisations that are interested in: discussions on how UC resources might help their organisation; assistance in accessing UC expertise and facilities; consulting services and contract research; opportunities to use or commercialise UC’s intellectual property and assistance in identifying business or investment opportunities. Please contact us if you are interested in engaging with UC.

Phone: +64 3 364 2688

Email: [email protected]

www.research.canterbury.ac.nz

UC SPARKA showcase of UC researchUC SPARK (system for people and research knowledge) is a searchable website that showcases UC’s research. You can search SPARK for information about individual researchers, the projects they are working on, the research groups they belong to, the specialist equipment that they use, and their affiliations. SPARK provides a comprehensive view of research at UC.

www.canterbury.ac.nz/spark

The first New Zealander to be honoured by Pew with a Marine Conservation Fellowship, Dr Eisert works in UC’s Gateway Antarctica Centre for Antarctic Studies and Research, where she studies marine mammals, nutritional ecology, and mammalian physiology.

She leads a research programme on top predators of the Antarctic and studies the biological and political factors that shape big-picture marine conservation in Antarctica. Dr Eisert collaborates with scientists at multiple international institutions and Aotearoa New Zealand government agencies to foster understanding and effective protection of the Southern Ocean’s Ross Sea ecosystem.

See her story on page 26. (Photo: Ekaterina Ovsyanikova)

Research Report 2016 Theme: Collaborative partnerships – local, regional and international.

Dr Regina Eisert

2 University of Canterbury

4 Research 2016 6 Unlocking the Southern Ocean sea ice challenge 8 Speech research – beyond traditional boundaries10 Kaikōura earthquake – coastal tipping points, response and recovery 12 Drones to locate casualties in natural disasters 14 Indigenous language immersion classrooms benefit from partnership 16 Understanding the impacts of liquefaction on infrastructure 18 Developing guides for tomorrow’s power industry 20 Visit deepens Aotearoa New Zealand-China forestry connections 22 Working together to improve risk assessment 24 Health outcomes affected by geospatial research 26 Marine scientist named Pew Conservation Fellow 28 Non-invasive joint implant diagnostics – the missing link

30 Managing conflict diplomacy in the EU 32 Industry partnership pays dividends 34 Shaping a multilingual society 36 Understanding local water quality issues 38 Judgment and gender in Aotearoa 40 Broadening security focus helping to build Pacific resilience 42 Supporting teacher-led innovation 44 Saving lives in our forests 46 Working to promote responsible tourism 48 One man’s treasure is treasure indeed 50 Bioengineering aids recovery for swallowing disorders52 Greening the Greyfields 54 Breakthrough for severely maltreated children 56 Whaka Īnaka 58 Thesis in Three – one slide, three minutes

60 UC research gains $5 million of the Marsden Fund 2016 62 UC research funding winners in 2016 MBIE Smart Ideas64 College of Arts | Te Rāngai Toi Tangata64 College of Business and Law Te Rāngai Umanga me te Ture65 College of Education Health and Human Development Te Rāngai Ako me te Hauora65 College of Engineering | Te Rāngai Pūkaha66 College of Science | Te Rāngai Pūtaiao66 University statistics67 Research Institutes and Centres69 Research supporters70 UC772 UC Statement of Strategic Intent

Contents


Research 2016 This year’s report highlights a key aspect of UC’s continued research and success – collaboration and partnership.

It is a great pleasure to write the foreword to the University of Canterbury 2016 Research Report, as the recently appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) | Tumu Tuarua Rangahau, following the retirement of Professor Steve Weaver. The University of Canterbury (UC) | Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha continues to undertake world-ranked research that is relevant, and has impact within national and international arenas. A key aspect of our continued research success is collaboration and partnership. Collaboration (with other researchers, business, or community groups) has enabled the university to ‘punch above its weight’, whilst retaining its intellectual rigour, desire to tackle important research questions, and desire to a make a difference by creating and disseminating new knowledge.

Collaboration vitalCollaboration is at the core of all the research articles we present in this report and I highlight a few here to show the breadth of our research. Collaboration with the Earthquake Commission (EQC) and research groups from United States of America and Japan is integral for Professor Cubrinovski’s work on understanding the geotechnical impacts of liquefaction on critical infrastructure. Similarly, Professor Kingham’s work with the Ministry of Health | Manatū Hauora is providing key insights into the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders by using geographical information science to understand the spatial relationships between housing, communities, the environment, and health outcomes.

4 University of Canterbury4 University of Canterbury

Collaboration between Aotearoa New Zealand law academics underpins a review of existing judicial decisions across a swathe of commercial, medical, and family law, considering how the cases might be reinterpreted from a feminist or mana wahine perspective. Finally, the collaborative efforts of UC academics (such as Professor Chaban and Professor Ratuva) with international and regional agencies are providing insights into geopolitical issues, which have implications for peace-making and security in European and Pacific Island nations.

Numbers tell success storyVarious metrics underline our continued research success. In 2016, total external research income was $59.8 million, equating to an average of $83,600 per full-time equivalent academic staff member (FTE). Our success in the Marsden and Endeavour research funds in 2016 underlines our proven ability to conceive and deliver groundbreaking research. Research degree completions (doctoral and research masters) numbered 513. Doctoral (PhD, EdD, and DMus) enrolments and completions surpassed 2015 figures – setting a new UC record. The total headcount of doctoral students now stands at over 1,100, of which a high proportion are international students. UC is rightly proud that this highly discerning student cohort chooses to study at the University of Canterbury – where they work alongside academics who are research leaders in their respective fields, and do so at a university that remains a well-recognised international research destination.

Recognising excellenceOur University Council | Te Kaunihera o Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha has again recognised excellence and innovation in 2016. Distinguished Professor David Schiel of the School of Biological Sciences was awarded the Research Medal for his sustained and inspiring studies of marine ecology and ecosystem function, and its response to multiple environmental stressors. His work on rocky shore ecology, particularly around Kaikōura, is internationally ranked, and is now crucial to understanding the response of these important marine habitats post the November 2016 earthquakes.

Similarly, Associate Professor Michael Tarren-Sweeney (from the College of Education, Health, and Human Development | Te Rāngai Ako me te Hauora) won the Innovation Medal for his work on converting psychology research metrics into a set of clinical psychiatric scales that measure a range of mental-health difficulties experienced by severely maltreated children. The tests underpin clinical decisions on the most appropriate psychological treatments for maltreated children, and are being used in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Dr Geoffrey Rodgers of Mechanical Engineering won the Early and Emerging Career Researcher Award for his research on energy dissipation in earthquake engineering design, and the design and monitoring of porous orthopaedic implants.

Finally, I wish to acknowledge the significant legacy that my predecessor, Professor Weaver, has imparted to the UC research environment. We have a reputation of being collaborative when working with other research partners, presenting great ideas for research advancement, having meaningful engagement with Māori around design and delivery of research, and the ability and desire to engage with all facets of Aotearoa New Zealand society, including business and community groups.

UC research, as highlighted by this 2016 Research Report, continues to grow in size, complexity, and importance across the whole University, and I invite you to read and reflect on the articles presented here.

Professor Ian Wright Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) Tumu Tuarua Rangahau


UC research is helping experts gain a deeper understanding of how sea-ice changes will impact on global climate and sea-level rise.

Dr Wolfgang Rack, of UC’s Gateway Antarctica, is co-leader of an international scientific collaboration seeking to gain a deeper understanding of how sea-ice changes could impact on global climate change and sea level rise.

UC, along with the University of Otago and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), are partners on a National Science Challenge Deep South project that takes airborne measurements via a refurbished DC-3 (‘Basler’) aircraft over the Ross Sea. The work is taking place with the support of Antarctica New Zealand, in collaboration with the Canadian Sea Ice Geophysics and US Antarctic programmes.

How much sea-ice is there in the Southern Ocean? One way to find out the total volume of sea-ice in the Southern Ocean would be to directly measure it by drilling through every piece of ice. That would be an impossibly huge task, so scientists are increasingly turning to remote sensing options using satellites, aircraft and drones to provide viable solutions.

In November 2016, Dr Rack travelled to Antarctica to lead a trial aimed at measuring sea-ice thickness from a fixed wing aircraft using electromagnetic induction technology. This was the first time this had been attempted in Antarctica. In order for this technology to

succeed, the instrument involved had to be flown close to the ground, suspended under the DC-3, he says.

“This technology is the only way to measure sea-ice thickness remotely. However, the instrument we use is currently only certified for aircraft without skis. We’re hoping that will change in the coming year as it would cut the logistical issues in half.”

Trials commencedIn the November 2016 field trial, the DC-3 could only operate from one particular US Antarctic runway. In order to fly, conditions also needed to be good at a back-up runway at Terra Nova Bay.

“Our objective was to measure pack ice in the Ross Sea. In the end, we only managed to do one flight over landlocked ice, but were able to show the feasibility of this approach. Satellite over-flights, our validation measurements on the ground and our aircraft measurements were almost synchronous.

“To get this technology on a fixed wing DC-3 aircraft was a very new experience for everyone involved. So while we didn’t get as many flights as we wanted, we are super happy to be able to say ‘we did it’. Hopefully next year we can reach out into the Ross Sea into pack-ice conditions.”

Data collected by the DC-3 were able to be compared with indirect estimates of sea-ice thickness gathered by a European Space Agency satellite flying overhead, plus results collected by an electromagnetic induction instrument on a ground-based sled (operated by UC PhD student Gemma Brett).

A US flight to measure ice freeboard – namely, ice above water – was conducted in the same area two weeks later using laser technology, which will be compared to the DC-3 results.

International interestOf particular interest to the international science community is why sea-ice in parts of the Southern Ocean has been increasing and when a tipping point may be reached, sending the process into reverse. What is known is that sea-ice changes can significantly affect both ocean circulation and world climate.

“Sea-ice formation in the Southern Ocean is the motor for global ocean circulation, so if that process of formation were to stop or drastically slow down, it could also slow ocean circulation and climate change may be more variable and severe.”

Unlocking the Southern Ocean sea ice challenge

Sea-ice also acts against global warming by reflecting solar energy.

Close cooperation between all involved is contributing to a deeper understanding of sea-ice in the Southern Ocean.

“Antarctic research is always a collaborative exercise. We are very fortunate to have a leadership role that is enabling us to make a significant contribution to this international project.”

Snapshot on sea-ice in the Southern Ocean• Sea-ice in the Ross Sea is increasing.

• Increases and decreases in sea-ice in various Antarctic regions almost balance out.

• Sea-ice formation drives the global ocean – current transport system.

• Climate implications: An increase in sea-ice will contribute to further cooling while a decrease will result in further warming.

‘Of particular interest to the international science community is why sea-ice in parts of the Southern Ocean has been increasing and when a tipping point may be reached, sending the process into reverse.’

Kim Newth


UC research is helping experts gain a deeper understanding of how sea ice changes will

impact on global climate and sea level rise.

(This page) Basler DC-3 with EM-bird mounted underneath (photo: Wolfgang Rack) (Previous page) Left to right: Christian Haas (York University, Toronto) and Wolfgang Rack (photo: Pat Langhorne)


‘This work has potential to revolutionise

our approaches to the assessment and

treatment of dysarthria’

An app to collect recordings and a web-based platform for storage and analysis of

language samples will help improve the quality of life of people with speech disorders.

Professor Megan McAuliffe, Deputy Director New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour (NZILBB) | Te Kāhui Roro Reo.


UC’s long-standing Erskine Fellowship programme has been instrumental in initiating several international research projects in acquired speech disorders.

In 2006, a visiting Erskine Fellow heard about Professor Megan McAuliffe’s work on speech disorders in Parkinson’s disease and suggested she talk with a colleague from Arizona State University (ASU). When Professor McAuliffe) gained her own Erskine Fellowship to travel to the USA to teach in 2007, she forged strong links with fellow speech therapist Professor Julie Liss and, later, with speech analytics engineer Dr Visar Berisha at ASU.

Together, this joint partnership between the New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour (NZILBB) | Te Kāhui Roro Reo, where Professor McAuliffe is Deputy Director, and ASU is revolutionising knowledge about acquired speech disorders associated with neurological injury and disease.

Recent support from a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant has further enabled the team to develop new infrastructure for collecting, storing and analysing speech recordings via an app. Much of this work has leveraged off a technical platform developed by software programmer Robert Fromont and NZILBB Director Professor Jen Hay.

Different disciplines complement each otherThe NZILBB is a multi-disciplinary centre dedicated to the study of human language. It was established in 2010 following a multi-million dollar investment by UC. One unique feature of the NZILBB is a variety of language corpora (or repositories), which each contain hundreds or thousands of hours of speech recordings.

Professor McAuliffe says it is a challenge to analyse a large amount of data. She is enthusiastic about the automated processes that have come from working in an interdisciplinary team.

“Our recent approaches combined the infrastructure of the NZILBB with automated analysis procedures developed at ASU to enable us to circumvent the lengthy transcription process, and examine speech across a range of languages.”

The team’s current research focuses on the speech of people affected by dysarthria– a disorder in which the muscles of speech production do not work as they should, resulting in imprecise through to unintelligible speech. Dysarthria is common in those with Parkinson’s disease, motor neurone disease, stroke, brain tumour or traumatic brain injury.

Professor McAuliffe says the work is groundbreaking because speech disorder research and treatment is very English-language focused, which affects the way disorders are classified.

“A key goal of speech treatment for people with dysarthria is to improve intelligibility. Most treatment models around the world were established by English speakers, but English differs considerably in its sounds and rhythm relative to other languages.

“This particular research project focuses on dysarthria in English and Spanish, as part of the two-year development of the app and associated storage and analysis techniques.”

One benefit of the app is that it allows people to record their speech in the comfort of their own homes – eliminating barriers such as travel or anxiety created in a clinical or research setting, thereby giving better insight into everyday situations.

The team collected speech samples from speakers of English in Aotearoa New Zealand and the USA, and speakers of Spanish from Chile, Mexico City and Phoenix. It plans to expand this work to tonal languages – in particular Mandarin and Cantonese, which are among the most commonly spoken languages in the world.

Professor McAuliffe says tonal languages convey meaning by varying pitch.

“People with degenerative conditions like Parkinson’s disease often experience a flattened speech pattern or lack of intonation, so if your native language is tonal, expressing meaning can be very challenging.”

Lend your voices to help othersWith the usefulness of the app now proven, the next phase is to take it to the community. The team is also working on a te reo Māori version of the app to build understanding of how to assist Māori speakers with speech difficulties.

“We hope to use crowd-sourcing to increase the numbers who contribute recordings, as people will be able to download the app and upload a recording without being reliant on a speech language therapist to introduce them to the technology.”

Over time, longitudinal data will help with understanding the progression of degenerative diseases and identifying the best time to intervene.

Professor McAuliffe says the development of these tools and techniques, combined with the insights and knowledge gained, has potential to revolutionise our approaches to the assessment and treatment of dysarthria.

Fellow researcher, ASU Professor Julie Liss agrees.

“Our collaborations with NZILLB faculty and students have pushed the impact of our research to new levels. Five years ago I couldn’t have imagined we’d be putting together grant proposals to study the effects of neurological disease on speech intelligibility on a global level. Now — leveraging New Zealand computing infrastructure and talent — it makes sense to extend our reach and impact.”

Speech research – beyond traditional boundaries

Grant Aldridge


The rapid response to the Kaikōura earthquakes, backed up by 25 years of research, is proving invaluable in understanding large-scale impact and recovery rates for coastal marine ecosystems.

UC Distinguished Professor David Schiel has become familiar to many in the Kaikōura area through his work on how marine systems respond and recover from cataclysmic upheaval and other impacts. Two decades of small-scale experiments had resulted in a wealth of knowledge to predict tipping points for parts of the Kaikōura coastal reef ecosystem.

“There are stages at which there are tipping points in ecosystems. There are many stressors, for example, sediments that run off the land and smother algal beds, people walking on algal beds covering a coastal reef, the impact of wave forces on habitats in heavy seas, or over-harvesting of various species.”

Since the early 1990s Professor Schiel has supervised over 60 UC postgraduate students, many of them focusing on diversity function in their theses.

“We think about things on an experimental scale; for example on a scale of 10 to 20 people walking over a portion of algae-covered reef, it takes a year or more to recover. If you put 1000 people over it, what’s going to happen? We’re trying to anticipate the impact of different levels of human usage or natural forces and factors on the function of our highly diverse ecosystems.”

Kaikōura earthquake – coastal tipping points, response and recovery

Response to the Kaikōura earthquakeIn the space of two minutes, on 14 November 2016, the Kaikōura earthquake propelled over 100 km of coastal reef into the open air.

In the days immediately following the Kaikōura earthquake a series of factors came into play which led to a rapid response by Professor Schiel and his academic, industry and research network. His marine ecology team and former students, who now work in research institutes, were able to arrive quickly and, familiar with the focus of his research and methods, get work under way. By 16 November the team was in the field and continued to work daily until Christmas.

“Everything was still there; the seaweeds and associated organisms were still attached. So we went out and assessed the diversity of the reefs, what was dead and dying – we counted the crayfish, the pāua, the seaweed and other invertebrates. We have this mini time series now of what was left high and dry, what was there on those reefs at the time of upheaval. This means we’ll be able to tell very specifically how things change through time.”

The impact on the pāua industry was immediately obvious. A video from the pāua industry shown to Professor Schiel showed about ten tonnes of pāua were left exposed on uplifted reefs.

“The solution isn’t simple. When you put pāua back into water, where are they going to go? They need rocky reefs. They also need biogenic habit because they eat seaweed – they’re herbivores.

“The thrust of what we’re planning to do in the recovery research is not just locating where there is rocky reef remaining underwater, but more importantly, what’s on it and how the biogenic habitat will regenerate.”

Connecting with the fishing industry and the wider community is at the core of his team’s work.

“We learned from Rena [MV Rena oil spill off Tauranga, 2011], to go out and speak to people, work with the rūnanga and the communities – they have perspectives, issues to air, various apprehensions, and want to know what is going on.

“Just knowing that there is a scientist who has a history of research in their area, and can tell them something about the likelihood of recovery and that someone is trying to do something and understand it, makes a really big difference.”

Meanwhile, Professor Schiel is in negotiations to undertake further recovery research with the Ministry for Primary Industries | Manatū Aha Matua, in partnership with the Cawthron Institute in Nelson and NIWA.

Research Medal 2016Professor Schiel was awarded the University of Canterbury Research Medal in 2016. He is widely acknowledged as one of New Zealand’s pre-eminent marine scientists. He is one of the few marine scientists who is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and was awarded the title of Distinguished Professor by UC in 2015.

In his 26 years at UC, Professor Schiel has worked on a wide range of topics in marine science, with outstanding and internationally recognised contributions in aquaculture, fisheries, kelp forest ecology, and the functioning of near-shore ecosystems.

He was co-awarded New Zealand Science Communicator of the Year in 2015 and was one of two scientists charged with coordinating $1 million of nationally important research on the impacts and recovery of the MV Rena oil spill off Tauranga in 2011. He has brought around $18 million in external research funding to the University.

‘Everything was still there; the seaweeds and associated organisms were still attached. So we went out and assessed the diversity of the reefs, what was dead and dying – we counted the crayfish, the pāua, the seaweed and other invertebrates.’

Fiona Clayton


The rapid response to the Kaikōura earthquakes, backed up by 25 years of research, is

proving invaluable in understanding large-scale impact and recovery rates for coastal marine ecosystems.

UC Distinguished Professor David Schiel.


Senior Research Engineer from UC's Spatial Engineering Research Centre (SERC) Kelvin Barnsdale (rear left), controls the flight of a UC drone while Dr Graeme Woodward (back row centre) and Professor Ryuji Kohno (back row, second from right) and colleagues from Yokohama National University and WRC staff and students look on.


The new UC DroneLab and its Japanese collaborators are developing technology to empower swarms of drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or UAVs) to locate and potentially triage casualties.

The intention is that the drones will fly in formations over major disaster areas in the wake of earthquakes and tsunamis.

The recent establishment of the UC DroneLab coincided with a call for proposals from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science and the Royal Society of New Zealand to work in technologies that can assist in major disasters.

Dr Graeme Woodward, Dr Andreas Willig and Kelvin Barnsdale from the Wireless Research Centre (WRC) joined with Professor Ryuji Kohno from Yokohama National University in Japan to propose the concept of using swarms of drones to fly over designated disaster areas to locate and retrieve information about casualties.

Dr Woodward says Professor Kohno has significant expertise in Body Area Networks (BANs), which are the devices the drones would use, both to locate casualties and then to collect data that is relevant to the status of those located.

“BANs are interconnected devices, which are either implanted, attached or carried on the body. There are sports applications where a chest strap is connected to a wrist watch to determine

heart rate, or a motion sensor on your foot that measures footsteps and sends the data to another device.”

Challenging environmentWhile they are called body area networks because they communicate in the direct vicinity of someone’s body, Dr Woodward says that the body is quite a challenging environment-to-wireless operation.

“These devices are small and battery powered, and because of their proximity to the body, they must operate on very low power. But the body is a mass of electrolytes, something that radio waves don’t easily propagate through. This is where our research begins.”

Dr Woodward says that WRC researchers are looking at different ways a BAN signal could potentially be located by the swarm, and also at the different types of signals that may need to be catered for. To prove the concept initially however, they will work with a Bluetooth emitter.

“A major challenge we face is that the cellular signals from mobile phones operate in a licenced spectrum, which means we can’t use those for our experiments. So we have opted to use Bluetooth for our experiments, an unlicenced standard that does place some restrictions on power levels, but precludes the need for expensive licences for spectrum.

“Once we have developed reliable techniques on this equipment, similar principles should be transferable to cellular signals and other types of wireless signals.”

The research has two objectives, one being to use multiple drones to locate people under rubble, the other to collect information that is contained in the BANs those people are wearing.

“Many BANs are capable of measuring something relevant to the well-being of the wearer, and if we can tap into that as we fly over an area, there is also potential for triaging the casualties to ensure those most in need are attended to first by the rescue teams.

“There would obviously be security and privacy issues around this, including encryption, which would need to be removed in an emergency scenario. Much of this would ultimately depend on the motivation of the people wearing the devices, and BANs being able to change modes under certain circumstances.”

Changing standard practiceAnother aspect of the research is around operation of the swarm itself. Standard practice with a drone is to have a pilot who controls the craft, with another person operating the camera mounted underneath the drone.

“We don’t want to replicate that with a whole swarm. Ideally, we would want one or two people to control the swarm, which must be able to operate autonomously, while the drones also need to be able to communicate between themselves.”

The project funding supports a full-time Master’s student Zane Barker and travel between Aotearoa New Zealand and Japan for both teams on a regular basis. The majority of equipment for the project is being supplied by UC DroneLab.

“We are also looking for complementary projects to further develop drone swarm capabilities, and have had some success with Scion around detection and monitoring of hotspots in bushfire situations.”

Drones to locate casualties in natural disasters

Jann O’Keefe

These technologies will enable swarms of drones to locate and potentially triage casualties

buried in the wreckage and debris of natural disasters.

The research has two objectives, one being to use multiple drones to locate people under rubble, the other to collect information that is contained in the BANs those people are wearing.


Teachers and children in indigenous language immersion classrooms around the world will benefit from an international partnership involving UC.

Aotahi – School of Māori and Indigenous Studies (Aotahi) was invited to participate in the international Comparative Language Input Programme (CLIP), developed by Professor William O’Grady and his team from the Department of Linguistics at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. CLIP is the first comparative study of adult speech to children in language immersion programmes. CLIP analyses recordings of indigenous language used by teachers in the classroom from several countries to assess what language children are being exposed to. CLIP is jointly funded by the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and the Smithsonian Institution

Professor O’Grady says it is widely agreed that the quantity (i.e., the number of words) and quality (i.e., the number of different words) to which language learners are exposed has a major impact on their linguistic development.

“By gathering and analysing information from different immersion programmes, it will be possible to identify the extent of the variation in language use in immersion programmes and, eventually, to determine the impact of this variation on the success of those programmes – a key goal of work on language revitalisation.”

“The inclusion of a Māori immersion programme, widely recognised as among the best in the

Indigenous language immersion classrooms benefit from partnershipworld, in the CLIP research gives scholars a baseline against which to measure other immersion programmes in communities around the world, including Scotland, the Philippines, and Latin America.

Ahorangi | Professor Jeanette King of Aotahi says Aotearoa New Zealand’s kōhanga reo and kura kaupapa immersion schools have an excellent reputation globally and a great deal to contribute to international knowledge.

“There is a lot of immersion teaching of indigenous languages happening around the world, but a lot of people setting up programmes in various countries don’t have a lot of information about the quantity or quality of the language input needed to be effective.”

Kōhanga reo and kura kaupapa Māori – backgroundKōhanga reo, immersion schools in te reo Māori for preschool learners, began in the early 1980s, following the results of a survey in the 1970s, that showed very few children were being raised speaking Māori. Between three and four hundred schools were established within a few years. Kura kaupapa Māori were established in the mid-1980s so that students would not lose their knowledge when they went to primary school

Exceptional expertiseA team of three academics at Aotahi is uniquely positioned to participate in the programme. Currently Ahorangi King’s research specialities

include Māori language revitalisation and the intergenerational transmission of minority languages. She also leads the bilingual theme of the New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour | Te Kāhui Roro Reo which also provided funding for the two projects.

Director of Māori Teaching and Learning Kaihautū Ako Māori Dr Mary Boyce’s PhD thesis identified high frequency words of Māori based on a one million word corpus of broadcast language. She worked previously for Huia Publishers producing resources for immersion programmes and while there used corpus data to inform her work.

Resource Teacher of Māori | Takawaenga Mātauranga Māori Christine Brown’s Master’s thesis focused on producing a new set of frequency lists of words that children were either hearing or reading in the classroom.

Benefitting teachers and students paramountUltimately, it was the benefits that participation in the CLIP programme brought to other research at Aotahi that secured UC’s participation.

Ahorangi King is leading the Tuhinga Māhorahora project, and Dr Boyce and Ms Brown are associate investigators. The project is building a corpus of children’s writing in Māori which will allow investigation of children’s written expression in immersion settings. The children’s writing has been entered into a database and analysed to test ways of providing targeted feedback to participating teachers.

Ahorangi King says that in agreeing to participate in CLIP, it was paramount that, as with Tuhinga Māhorahora, there would be a benefit to the people approached as well as informing CLIP analysis.

Working to provide benefits to the teacher who self-recorded for CLIP revealed a challenge, she says.

“The transcription of the teacher’s speech was very time intensive. While we intend to provide further feedback to the teacher they were able to read the transcripts and benefited from a self-analysis of their language use.

“The longer term ambition is that both projects, the oral and the written, will enable classroom teachers to more easily see which words children are, and are not, using and how they might enrich both language input and output.”

Analysis of CLIP recordings include: quantity – how many minutes per day are children being exposed to language in the classroom; quality – in particular looking at content words, words that give meaning and repetition versus unique phrases – the more unique the phrases, the more likely it is that students will be exposed to the high frequency words required to lay a foundation for language fluency.

Fiona Clayton


Teachers and students participating in indigenous language immersion

classrooms in Aotearoa New Zealand and around the world will benefit from a UC partnership with the University of Hawai’i .

Left to right: Ms Christine Brown, Dr Mary Boyce and Ahorangi Jeanette King.


UC research on soil liquefaction has directly contributed to informing the

Canterbury rebuild and long-term resilience of physical systems and infrastructure; establishing new norms and higher standards for guidelines and codes internationally.

Professor of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering Misko Cubrinovski.


Since the 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquakes, UC researchers have informed key decisions about land classification, rebuild requirements, and how to avoid similar issues with infrastructure in the future.

Immediately after the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes, UC researchers were in the field documenting widespread soil liquefaction and its impact on infrastructure and buildings. Since then collaborative research and analysis has continued. A key academic leading much of this work is Misko Cubrinovski, Professor of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering.

With expertise in liquefaction and 15 years of benchmark research studies on the topic in Japan, Professor Cubrinovski had initiated research on the characterisation of Ōtautahi Christchurch soils for liquefaction assessment in 2005, well before the Canterbury earthquakes. In 2009, this research received a funding boost through a 10-year capability grant from the Earthquake Commission (EQC), supporting core research of UC’s Geotechnical Engineering and Geological Sciences research groups.

Liquefaction was a major feature of the Canterbury earthquakes and Professor Cubrinovski says the issues were extremely complex due to the widespread impacts and pronounced spatial and behavioural variability of soils.

“One of the challenges was to sample sandy soils as they are difficult to recover without

disturbing the soil, which distorts the results. With our Japanese colleagues, we put significant effort toward developing a novel ‘Gel-Push’ methodology for recovering high-quality samples of sandy soils.”

Research included field testing, collecting samples to test in the lab and analysing how different soil types and structures reacted during earthquake loading.

Turning disaster into knowledgeWhile other countries also experience liquefaction in major earthquakes, the Aotearoa New Zealand example is unique in the number of detailed inspections carried out for insurance purposes: by EQC on land damage, by the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team on their underground pipe network and by the Royal Commission on buildings in the central business district. These efforts were supplemented by high-quality specialised tests and investigations by UC research teams.

“Our research partners have recognised the exceptional level of data captured here in terms of quality and degree of documentation, and seen opportunities to learn.”

These partners include the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance Association, which sent teams over from the United States of America to work with UC researchers in the field. The research also attracted the shipment of unique equipment and devices that were not available in Aotearoa New Zealand, such as ‘T-Rex’, the world’s largest shaker truck, and a methodology for blast-induced liquefaction.

UC established extremely deep collaborative research mechanisms, which included joint research teams, joint research papers and proposals, co-supervision of postgraduate students, and co-funding from USA and Aotearoa New Zealand agencies.

Professor Cubrinovski says understanding and modelling liquefaction susceptibility, the behaviours of different soil types and the impacts of lateral spreading on bridges, buildings and horizontal infrastructure, such as underground pipes, helped inform planning and mitigation measures by various organisations working on repairs and rebuild projects.

Large recovery projects funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and EQC relied on critical input from the research, which also informed professional engineers and stakeholders. National Science Foundation (USA) grants funded contributions from American research academics and students from the University of California Berkeley, Cornell University, Virginia Tech and the University of Texas, Austin.

Benefits in collaborationProfessor Cubrinovski says the collaborative projects provided opportunities to perform activities and produce impacts, both at national and international levels, which could not otherwise be achieved.

Professor Jonathan Bray, from Berkeley, says the collaborations allowed the American researchers to bring many key lessons home.

“We have learned so much working hand-in-hand with Professor Cubrinovski and his UC researchers.

“Major natural disasters have the potential to reshape the landscape. Much of the data and information generated by an earthquake is perishable and therefore must be collected within a few days or weeks of the event. Our research collaboration enabled my PhD students to perform important research, which would not have been possible without Professor Cubrinovski’s contributions.”

“Working together is the best option, definitely,” agrees Professor Cubrinovski.

Research continuesThe work continues as a Flagship Programme of QuakeCoRE – NZ Centre for Earthquake Resilience, a Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) hosted at UC and funded by the Tertiary Education Commission | Te Amorangi Mātauranga Matua. Flagship Programmes are QuakeCoRE-funded projects, where high-impact research is advanced to the next level through multi-institution and multi-disciplinary research collaboration, engagement with end-users and co-funding.

Professor Cubrinovski and his colleagues are advising those involved in work on Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington’s CBD and CentrePort, where land reclamation has resulted in different forms of liquefaction following the 2016 Kaikōura earthquakes.

Understanding the impacts of liquefaction on infrastructure

Grant Aldridge


UC researchers have worked alongside industry to develop a guide for a consistent nationwide approach connecting solar power and other distributed energy systems to the national grid.

EPECentre GREEN Grid researchers have been at the core of the project. The EEA Guide for the Connection of Small-Scale Inverter Based Distributed Generation has evolved since the EPECentre established the GREEN Grid research programme in 2012 to future-proof Aotearoa New Zealand’s electricity supply in the face of new technologies in both supply and demand.

Dr Allan Miller, Director of the EPECentre, explains that with both supply and demand changing rapidly, the national electricity system is naturally affected.

Options for renewable energy“There are new options for the supply of renewable energy like wind and solar power, as well as new forms of demand, such as electric vehicles and smart appliances,” he says.

“Energy that is generated or stored by small grid-connected devices is referred to as distributed generation (DG) and connecting these systems to the grid is the process our guidelines have been developed to help manage.”

Today, DGs that are likely to significantly impact electricity suppliers in the future are domestic solar, or photovoltaic, systems that feed excess

power back into the grid. Driven largely by lowering prices for photovoltaic panels, between 300–400 new systems are installed each month in Aotearoa New Zealand.

“All electricity distribution businesses (EDBs) are restricted to the amount of DG that can be exported to their networks by the capacity of their networks.

“Hosting capacity is a central concept in the guidelines as it indicates how much export power a network can handle, and how much solar power it can absorb, before it becomes congested. Congestion is when over-voltages or equipment over-loading occur due to a critical level of DG export being exceeded.”

New model easy to useThe EPECentre has developed a model called DGHost™ from GREEN Grid research, which can tell EDBs the approximate hosting capacities for each of their networks, and is now offering that service commercially.

The easy-to-use model will soon be available online through a website, says Dr Miller.

“EDBs just need to provide three parameters for the model and it will give them approximate hosting capacities for their networks.”

The new guideline will simplify the present process where every DG needs to be carefully considered by an EDB for its impact on their electricity network.

“It streamlines the evaluation process by categorising DG applicants using a three-tier ‘traffic light’ system. It compares the maximum

power an applicant wishes to export to hosting capacity thresholds for their specific low voltage network.

“Applicants categorised as green are expected to have minimal impact on the network, and amber applicants to have a moderate impact, each of which can be auto-assessed. Amber applicants can use intelligent inverters to assist the grid to manage voltage levels, and thereby increase their export capacity to the grid – a smart grid implementation. Red applicants, who are likely to have a significant impact, would still require a manual assessment.”

Industry collaborationThe guidelines have been developed in close consultation with the electric power industry to ensure relevance and uptake.

EEA Chief Executive, Peter Berry says the collaboration has been an effectively combined academia and industry project. Ten distribution companies have been involved in developing the guidelines, ranging from Orion in Ōtautahi Christchurch, Mainpower in North Canterbury, to Network Tasman and Marlborough Lines in

Developing guides for tomorrow’s power industryAotearoa New Zealand’s sunniest areas, as well as WEL Networks, Unison, Vector, Powerco and NorthPower, which have all experienced high numbers of applications for solar power. As well, the regulator – the Electricity Authority – and Transpower, the national grid owner and operator have made critical contributions to the guidelines.

“Two local solar power manufacturers, Enphase and Enasolar, have also contributed, along with a few other companies throughout the process.”

Dr Miller says there is no point in developing a guideline for industry without their involvement in the process or the end product is unlikely to meet their needs, and will therefore find very little uptake.

“In this case, industry participation has been widespread and enthusiastic, not only for the guidelines, but for the DGHost™, which will provide EDBs with the information they need to manage their network. Meanwhile, the guidelines assist with the DG application and connection process.”

Guidelines promoting nationwide uniformity for connecting distributed

generation systems to the network will reduce costs for distribution companies, prevent congested networks and support the rollout of solar power in Aotearoa New Zealand.

‘There is no point in developing a guideline for industry without their involvement in the process.

Jann O’Keefe


Left to right: Dr Richard Strahan, Dr Sharee McNab, Mr Scott Lemon, Professor Neville Watson, Dr Bill Heffernan, Dr Alan Wood and Dr Allan Miller in UC’s Electrical Engineering wing.


Left to right: Professor Bruce Manley, Dr David Evison, sawmill company director Zeng Guilong and the director of Shanghai Fortune Wood Luan Fei in the log yard of the Zhong Long Mu Ye sawmill in Dongguan, Guangdong province, China.

UC academics’ strong relationships with China are reinforcing Aotearoa

New Zealand’s reputation for sustainable forestry management.


A reciprocal relationship between UC’s forestry experts and China’s State Forestry Administration is flourishing.

Aotearoa New Zealand’s plantation forestry experience is of growing interest to China, which is rapidly developing its plantation forest portfolio, both as an economic and ecological resource.

Bridging the two countries’ mutual interest in this area is UC’s School of Forestry. Last June, when in Beijing, UC’s Head of Forestry, Professor Bruce Manley, was approached by representatives of China’s state-run Academy of Forest Inventory and Planning (AFIP) who were interested in coming to Aotearoa New Zealand to learn about this country’s forest plantations and how they are managed.

“They know of our country’s experience in plantation forestry and so asked me to organise training here for them. They wanted to explore how we assess, monitor, and sustainably manage our forests.”

The relationship saw a high-level delegation of senior forestry planners from China hosted for training by UC’s School of Forestry in early 2016.

In February and March 2016, a 15-strong group of forestry officials from across China, led by AFIP, took part in a two-week training programme organised by Professor Manley. The fieldwork component – based in Rotorua – included modules in plantation inventory and appraisal,

with speakers drawn from Indufor (Bill Lu), Interpine (David Herries), the Ministry for Primary Industries | Manatū Ahu Matua (Paul Lane) and Scion (John Moore).

Points of differenceProfessor Manley says the group was able to see measurement techniques and technologies, and harvesting and wood processing activities.

“The big point of difference for them is our intensive management of plantations and the scale of the plantations too. If you go up into the central North Island, you have a forest like Kaingaroa, which is about 180,000 hectares, and other large forests right next door.”

In Ōtautahi Christchurch, UC’s School of Forestry team – Professor Manley, Professor Euan Mason, Dr Justin Morgenroth, Professor David Norton, Dr David Evison and Dr Mark Bloomberg (Adjunct Senior Fellow) – delivered a comprehensive training package, assisted by Aaron Gunn of Blakely Pacific NZ Ltd. Forest valuation, carbon accounting, sustainable forest management and remote sensing technologies were among many topics covered. Professor Mason led a field trip to plantation experiments he is overseeing in Canterbury.

Translation services were provided by two Chinese UC forestry postgraduates. One of these PhD students, Cong Xu, also delivered a lecture with Dr Morgenroth on remote sensing research.

“At the end of the training, we presented the group with certificates and invited our Chinese students within the department to come along and meet them. We thought it would be a good

opportunity for them and also showed our visitors that students from China can come and study here.”

This latest visit is part of a wider ongoing relationship that includes a strong reciprocal link between UC’s School of Forestry and Beijing Forestry University. Dr Evison and Professor Manley are currently conducting a project on harvested wood products and Aotearoa New Zealand’s log trade with China.

Professor Manley believes the latest visit reinforced Aotearoa New Zealand’s reputation for sustainable forestry management.

“Of course, the real bonus of a visit like this lies in the interaction and what we have learned from each other. This was the first visit by AFIP, but I’d expect that it won’t be the last.”

Forest resources in China China defines its forestland very differently to Aotearoa New Zealand. It includes not just forested land, but also open forest land, shrub land, unestablished forest land, nursery land, non-stocked forestland and land suitable for forestry.

• Total forestland area in China is 310 million hectares, of which 191 million hectares is actual forested land.

• In China, forestland is either state-owned (124 million hectares) or collectively owned (186 million hectares).

• Plantation forestry is playing an increasing role in China’s forest inventory as a carbon sink and environmental resource, as well as a source of wood products. China’s plantation area is 69 million hectares, or 36% of the forested land area.

• Six provinces have relatively large areas of plantation forestry: Guangxi, Guangdong, Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan and Fujian.

Source: The 8th National Forest Inventory produced by China’s State Forestry Administration.

Visit deepens New Zealand-China forestry connections

Kim Newth

‘The real bonus of a visit like this lies in the interaction and what we have learned from each other. This was the first visit by AFIP, but I’d expect that it won’t be the last.’


Dr Sarah Christofferson, UC Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, is working with three community agencies involved with treating harmful sexual behaviour to validate a risk and change assessment tool. The study paves the way towards improved accuracy in risk assessment and more informed treatment approaches.

For clinicians and referrers in the criminal justice sector, being able to accurately assess risk is a vital part of managing risk. A UC-led community treatment-based study to validate a promising risk and change assessment tool could inform the development of improved risk management strategies in Aotearoa New Zealand, and ultimately a potential reduction in harmful sexual behaviour.

Called the Violence Risk Scale: Sexual Offender Version (VRS:SO), the assessment tool was developed in Canada and is used for individuals who have engaged in harmful sexual behaviour.

First validation studyEvidence-based research from international studies has shown that VRS:SO is a well-supported best practice tool in prison settings, but this latest study will be the first validation study in a community setting. That it is being carried out in Aotearoa New Zealand has the added benefit of demonstrating its direct applicability to this country.

Dr Christofferson has been interested in this tool for some time, having conducted an earlier VRS:SO validation study in a prison-based sample as part of her doctorate. Soon after joining UC’s Psychology Department in mid-2015, she met with community treatment agency STOP in Christchurch Ōtautahi and found there was mutual interest in further validating VRS:SO, this time in a community context. STOP provides community-based assessment and intervention services for adolescents and adults who have engaged in harmful sexual behaviour against children. Another two community treatment agencies – WellStop in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington and SAFE in Tāmaki-makau-rau Auckland – have also joined the study.

Data collection began at the start of 2016, following clinician training and the roll-out of VRS:SO in Aotearoa New Zealand’s community treatment sector. Dr Christofferson is meeting regularly with community groups involved in the study, as well as monitoring data collection methods and use of the tool as the work proceeds. Preliminary findings, compiled by UC Master’s student Michael Howell, show the tool is being reliably used to date.

“However, this is a long-term project. In order to validate the tool, we will need to find out if it is assessing the long-term risk of reoffending accurately and that will take some time.”

Key strengthA key strength of VRS:SO is that it provides a structured way to track change in risk across treatments, and enables clinicians to measure how a client is responding to treatment targets

and how that impacts on risk. This sets it apart from other one-off risk assessment tools.

“VRS:SO has the best support of any tool designed to assess the risk of reoffending among sexual offenders.”

Dr Christofferson suggests its use will also minimise the potential for unstructured clinical judgement to skew risk assessments, as the tool is based on multiple factors and structured criteria. The assessment process, including risk assessment, informs the best treatment approaches to be taken with a particular client.

“We need to do the best we can, not just for our clients but also for those around them and society in general. This tool provides a really good way of identifying salient treatment targets for each individual and a way to potentially identify which aspects of treatment are most linked to change. It also enables referrers to report on risk more accurately using empirical methods and processes.”

The study marks the start of a deepening connection between the university and associated community groups, with other collaborative projects already being discussed. Data collection for this particular study is scheduled to continue until mid-2018.

“It is going to be a really useful and positive research collaboration. To have an accurate, research-based understanding of risk is so important.”

Role of targeted treatment• Ministry of Justice | Tāhū o te Ture figures for

2015 show 411 individuals were convicted for sexual offences against a child and 16% had at least one previous such conviction.

• International research has found average sexual reoffending rates of 7–15% after follow-up periods of 5–6 years.

• Risks of reoffending vary, with some studies finding rates as high as 50–70% among some high-risk individuals.

• Successful completion of appropriately targeted treatment programmes has been shown to significantly decrease reoffending rates in the long term.

• Those who achieve greater change across treatment show lower rates of reoffending compared to those who complete treatment but make a lesser degree of change.

Working together to improve risk assessment

UC research is paving the way towards improved accuracy in risk assessment and more

informed treatment approaches to ultimately contribute to reducing harmful sexual behaviour in the community.

Kim Newth


Dr Sarah Christofferson, UC Lecturer in Clinical Psychology.


Professor Simon Kingham, Director of the GeoHealth Laboratory in UC’s Department of Geography.


UC researchers are using geographic information science to provide insights into the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders through a joint venture.

Professor Simon Kingham, Director of the GeoHealth Laboratory in UC’s Department of Geography, says the collaboration with the Ministry of Health | Manatū Hauora is now in its twelfth year and is providing a resource that is unique in the Southern hemisphere.

The UC team and Ministry staff meet annually to discuss the Ministry’s priorities and information needs. Then after a plan is agreed, UC researchers meet with staff from the Ministry as needed and ultimately make presentations on their findings to relevant staff. The research team is also able to address new information needs during the year.

Responsive researchersProfessor Kingham says the approach has meant UC researchers have been flexible and agile and able to respond to changing health priorities. He appreciates the Ministry’s ongoing commitment.

“It’s an unconventional way of funding research, as usually you have to identify a project and then apply for funding, but this co-creation approach means the outputs are really relevant.”

By applying statistical analysis and other analytic techniques to geographical or spatial data, the researchers have explored the impacts of the Canterbury earthquakes and being near blue or green space.

“Geographic information science is like Google Earth on steroids,” says Professor Kingham.

“You can keep layering maps of new information, such as air quality, population, locations of parks or hospitals on top of each other to see the impact different factors have on people’s health and behaviours.”

Denise Hutana, from the Health and Disability Intelligence Group at the Ministry of Health Manatū Hauora, says that geospatial information provides insights into the extra dimension of location, which helps to identify pockets of the population in need.

“By adding location, we are able to consider how various characteristics of local neighbourhoods and communities influence health outcomes and health-related behaviours.

“The New Zealand Health Strategy sets up the shared challenge for us all to enable every New Zealander to live well, stay well and get well. Geospatial analysis provides us with better insights that will help ensure we design services that work for people regardless of their location or backgrounds,” says Ms Hutana.

Geography important for mental healthA GeoHealth project in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington found that people’s mental health is improved, the more blue sea they can see from their home. Other earlier studies have shown that people are physically and mentally healthier if they live near a green space, such as a park, although the relationship in Aotearoa New Zealand is less clear cut.

Professor Kingham says this is possibly because Aotearoa New Zealand cities have more green space than other cities around the world.

He says the researchers have also been able to use ministry data and information about where people were during the major Ōtautahi Christchurch earthquakes to gauge the impact on their mental wellbeing.

“Because so many people were displaced from the red zones, their current address information is not as relevant as where they were during the quakes, or if they moved away and then moved back.

“Knowing where people have moved to can help explain demands on services and target need.”

Research leads to new opportunitiesUC’s geospatial analysis collaboration with the ministry has led to new funding opportunities and projects for UC researchers, as new ideas and initiatives are identified.

Research findings have fed input into air quality standards for low-emission burners and other funding supports projects that involve UC

Health outcomes affected by geospatial research

UC’s geospatial research projects are providing new insights into what can impact

people’s health and wellbeing, now and in the future.

‘Geographic information science is like Google Earth on steroids.’

Master’s and PhD students analysing data from various government agencies. Some students have gone on to roles with KPMG, Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) | Toitū Whenua, district health boards and city councils.

Professor Kingham says the potential of combining geospatial health research with smartphone technology is huge, suggesting ‘smart inhalers’ with tracking devices could ultimately warn people with asthma away from high pollution areas or recommend an alternative route.

“The possibilities are endless, subject to protecting people’s privacy of course,” says Professor Kingham.

Grant Aldridge


UC Antarctic marine scientist Dr Regina Eisert has been recognised for her work protecting the world’s oceans with a prestigious Pew Marine Conservation Fellowship.

As part of her international US$150,000 (NZ$208,500) three-year fellowship project, Dr Eisert will analyse the long-distance movements, diet, preferred habitat, and foraging areas of the Ross Sea’s two largest top predators – killer and sperm whales.

A first for Aotearoa New ZealandThe first New Zealander to be honoured by Pew with a Marine Conservation Fellowship, Dr Eisert works in UC’s Gateway Antarctica Centre for Antarctic Studies and Research, where she studies marine mammals, nutritional ecology, and mammalian physiology.

She leads a research programme on top predators of the Antarctic and studies the biological and political factors that shape big-picture marine conservation in Antarctica. Dr Eisert collaborates with scientists at multiple international institutions and Aotearoa New Zealand government agencies to foster understanding and effective protection of the Southern Ocean’s Ross Sea ecosystem.

Dr Eisert says the Ross Sea is one of the few marine ecosystems that still has healthy populations of top predators, such as killer

whales, sperm whales, penguins and other seabirds, seals, and Antarctic toothfish. Toothfish have been fished commercially in the Ross Sea since 1997, and Aotearoa New Zealand actively contributes to the sustainable management of the fishery through the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) – the 25-member body that manages fishing activities in the region.

“Removal of toothfish may reduce its availability to predators such as killer whales and Weddell Seals, and could trigger change in the Ross Sea ecosystem,” Dr Eisert says.

“Aotearoa New Zealand and the United States of America successfully proposed to CCAMLR the establishment of a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Ross Sea. Its objectives include mitigation of potential ecosystem threats, specifically protection of top predators from the effects of fishing.”

In October 2016, CCAMLR agreed to establish the world’s largest MPA, more than twice the size of the Kermadec Sanctuary’s 620,000 km2. The Ross Sea MPA covers 1.55 million km2, of which 72% is fully protected (meaning no commercial fishing is permitted).

Data needed to maintain protection “Effective protection requires research to better understand the ecological requirements of top predators and their dependence on toothfish in certain areas and times of the year,” Dr Eisert says.

“Fundamental baseline data on fish stocks and predator populations are needed to facilitate measurement of the long-term impacts of this action on fisheries and other marine resources.

“Without this fundamental knowledge, managers cannot fulfil their obligation of environmental stewardship. But of more immediate concern is the need to provide scientific evidence to ensure the continued existence of the Ross Sea MPA.”

As a condition of maintaining the MPA, CCAMLR will review all available scientific evidence every five years to decide how well the MPA is meeting its objectives. After 35 years, the Ross Sea MPA could be discontinued unless all CCAMLR members agree that the weight of research findings argue for keeping the MPA in place.

In collaboration with UC’s College of Engineering and iwi partners, Dr Eisert will design and use new low-impact satellite whale tags to track their movements without risking harm to the animals. Dr Eisert’s work will help generate essential baseline data that will help make the scientific case for continuation of the MPA after 2051.

A long-term commitmentThe Pew fellowship is recognition of more than a decade of research that Dr Eisert has undertaken, examining the ecology of Antarctic marine mammals, starting with her PhD on the energetics of Weddell seals in 2004.

In collaboration with Italian scientists, Dr Eisert and her team presented to CCAMLR the

Dr Eisert’s work will help generate essential baseline data that will help make the

scientific case for continuation of the Antarctic Ross Sea marine protection area after 2051.

surprising finding that Antarctic toothfish-eating killer whales migrate to Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond at the end of the austral summer. Under the auspices of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) | Manatū Ahu Matua, Dr Eisert also helps coordinate the Aotearoa New Zealand contribution to the Ross Sea MPA Research & Monitoring Plan, which will be presented to CCAMLR at an international workshop in Rome at the end of April.

Dr Eisert is one of 11 new Pew Marine Conservation Fellows who will continue important work to protect world’s oceans; using their awards to investigate various critical issues including climate change, fisheries management, and the role of genetics in protecting marine species.

Since 1996, the programme has recognised 156 marine experts in 37 countries. The Pew Charitable Trusts is driven by the power of knowledge to solve today's most challenging problems. Pew applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improve public policy, inform the public and invigorate civic life.

Marine scientist named Pew Conservation Fellow

Margaret Agnew


Marine scientist named Pew Conservation Fellow

Antarctic marine scientist Dr Regina Eisert. Photo credit: Ekaterina Ovsyanikova


The new models and methodology used in the assessment of hip

replacement implant condition has the potential to develop a new area of diagnostic medicine, utilising non-invasive, low-cost portable equipment.

Mechanical Engineer Dr Geoff Rodgers.


Research on early detection of wear and tear of hip joint implants is set to make significant new progress following an infusion of funding.

Beginning in 2010, Mechanical Engineer Dr Geoff Rodgers worked with researchers in Christchurch Hospital’s orthopaedic department, including Associate Professor Tim Woodfield and Professor Gary Hooper from the University of Otago, to create an acoustic emission monitoring system that monitors the sound vibrations transmitted from a patient’s hip replacement implants.

Early detection of wear and tear can lead to proactive intervention, reducing the severity of surgery and providing improved patient outcomes. The monitoring technique measures vibrations that are created by the implant and make it through tissue to the skin’s surface. By listening to the ultra-sonic vibrations of the implant, it is possible to relate them to the condition of the implant. It is entirely non-invasive and can detect issues when a patient is moving and the implant is loaded.

This compares favourably to existing diagnostic methods such as X-rays, bone scans, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging, which require specialised, non-portable and expensive equipment, and experienced operators. These methods, says Dr Rodgers, potentially provide limited diagnostic capability as they usually provide only a static image of a stationary patient, leaving the presence of early loosening or microscopic degradation undetected.

Diagnosing impending ‘DOOM’The next stage of research is now possible thanks to a Marsden Grant of $300,000. The full title of the project is Unique Acoustic Signatures to Diagnose Impending DOOM (Dysfunction of Osteo-Mechanics).

While acoustic emission monitoring itself is a promising early detection method for implant dysfunction, it only captures one aspect of implant mechanics. To date, says Dr Rodgers, acoustic signals have only been broadly related to the type of patient motion as there has been no measurement of patient gait, limb angles or method of approximating implant loading.

“Many key metrics remain unknown due to the inability to measure these quantities directly. To produce a detailed understand of in vivo [process taking place in a living organism] implant mechanics, it is necessary to determine the joint angles, muscle forces and implant loads occurring at the time of acoustic recording.”

The underpinning hypothesis of the next stage of the research is that the combination of patient gait analysis, biomechanical modelling and acoustic emission monitoring, when a patient’s joint is in motion, can be used to develop a comprehensive understanding of in vivo implant mechanics and detect impending dysfunction of osteo mechanics, Dr Rodgers says.

Professor Hooper says joint replacement surgery has the ability to significantly improve the lifestyle of patients who have disabling arthritis. The requirement for this surgery is increasing rapidly with predictions of a 300% increase in knee replacement by 2030.

“All of these replacements wear with time and are likely to fail. Currently we have no methods for measuring how the implant is functioning in vivo and whether failure is imminent. This research will help enable clinicians to both assess the risk and modes of failure which can then be translated into improving patient and implant factors responsible for failure. Reducing implant failure and the high cost of revision surgery has major implications for health funding,” he says.

The new research will also see Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) attached to a patient’s limbs to measure metrics such as joint shock, limb accelerations and rotations. These small, non-invasive wireless sensors can be strapped to a patient’s foot, lower limb and pelvis to record the motion at those locations. The development of a biomechanical model of the lower limb in OpenSim open source software will enable the interpretation of the results. Thanks to a new collaboration with Dr Justin Fernandez, at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute (University of Auckland), the project will leverage

off his extensive experience in multiscale musculoskeletal modelling which enables direct estimation of muscle forces and joint reaction loads.

No other group is combining acoustic emission monitoring with such extensive biomechanical modelling, says Dr Rodgers.

“We believe this multiple sensor approach and associated modelling – the missing link – will lead to significant new insights into implant mechanics and could significantly improve patient care, by providing an additional diagnostic method to orthopaedic surgeons.”

He points out that outcomes are not limited to non-invasive diagnostics of the condition of joint replacement implants. Acoustic sensing methods are broadly applicable in other areas: lung, bowel and intestine applications have all been investigated to an early stage by researchers internationally.

Non-invasive joint implant diagnostics – the missing link

Dr Geoff Rodgers was named the UC Emerging Researcher in 2016, an annual award by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) | Tumu Tuarua Rangahau, which recognises emerging researchers and their contributions to research.

Fiona Clayton

‘No other group is combining acoustic emission monitoring with such extensive biomechanical modelling.’


A transnational research project is building understanding of how the European Union (EU) is seen by its immediate neighbours and by the Ukraine and Israel/Palestine.

Ukraine and Israel/Palestine are two major areas of contention that confront the EU’s regional and international security and challenge the EU’s foreign policy focus. The research project Crisis, Conflict and Critical Diplomacy: EU Perceptions in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine (C3EU) was established in 2016, uniting collaborative partners globally.

Led by Professor Natalia Chaban of UC’s National Centre for Research on Europe (NCRE), the project combines leading scholars with early career researchers and draws on multidisciplinary expertise from 32 researchers across nine countries and a number of learning institutions. It is funded by a Jean Monnet grant from the European Commission’s Erasmus+ Programme. The C3EU project is part of a larger, ongoing transnational project EU Global Perceptions, initiated by Professor Chaban and Professor Martin Holland of the NCRE, as well as a number of other inter-related projects focused on EU perceptions.

Mutual understanding criticalProfessor Chaban says developing a mutual understanding of EU perceptions is critical.

“Ukraine and Israel/Palestine are currently embroiled in conflicts that threaten the EU’s

eastern and southern edges. Therefore it is critical that Europe diagnoses and understands EU perceptions in these volatile strategic neighbours and tracks expectations. C3EU traces perceptions towards the EU, as well as broader visions of Europe as producers of diplomatic outcomes in conflicted societies.

“While our research has tended to be further away – with the main focus on the Asia-Pacific – and based on global diplomacy, circumstances have changed; specifically, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The 2016 UN Human Rights report says the death toll since the conflict started is close to 10,000, which means the focus needs to be on conflict diplomacy,” she says.

The research employs original, internationally tested methodology, developed by Professor Chaban, to assess which EU messages resonate with divided societies.

“Our research informs policymakers in the European Union and has been internationally acknowledged, with methodology that has been replicated by many scholars around the world.

“The European Union is currently facing many crises, such as Brexit, immigration and the Euro-debt crisis, but the EU cannot talk to the world in the same way it used to. Our research informs a new way for the EU to listen to and talk with the world.”

Over the decade, Professors Chaban and Holland have reported their research findings to stakeholders from the European Commission, European Parliament, EU Delegations in the Asia-Pacific, EU Member States diplomats, and Asia-Europe Foundation. In 2015, Professors Chaban and Holland reported their earlier findings on EU

external perceptions to the European External Action Service. Their research was a part of the consultation process for a new EU Global Strategy.

Open communicationProfessor Chaban says the main point of the research is to establish open communication.

“Before you start talking at people, you need to listen first. When you hear how you are seen, you actually understand what matters and then you can exercise your attempt at listening and designing your outreach in resonance with the other side. There needs to be an understanding of mutual visions.”

UC’s commitment to biculturalism aligns well with this approach. Cultural competence and confidence is the ability to interact confidently and appropriately with people from a background that is different from one’s own. It goes beyond an awareness of, or sensitivity to, another culture to include the ability to use that knowledge in cross-cultural situations.

The global network of researchers meet regularly to plan and discuss research, develop new methods and techniques, advance collaboration and produce joint research outputs. Ultimately C3EU will provide EU stakeholders with unique information to elaborate relevant policies and devise outreach initiatives.

“This is part of our commitment to the European Union – that our research is not just for pure academic reflection. Like all of our projects, it has a very concrete policy output – to inform stakeholders from both sides.”

Managing conflict diplomacy in the EUWhile the NCRE is focused on the European Union, Professor Chaban says Europe’s relations with the Asia-Pacific is “always our priority”.

“Even though we study Europe, our niche is the European Union in connection with this part of the world. One of the main priorities in the Asia-Pacific is the participation of countries at the Asia-Europe Meeting – a dialogue between Asian and European countries, which serves to promote how these countries should talk to each other. Within this meeting is the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), which is an additional funder of our research, together with the Jean Monnet Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission. Both organisations believe this research breaks boundaries and helps the two regions to communicate with each other.”

The work of this multidisciplinary global collaboration of researchers

is informing a new way for the EU to listen to and talk with the world.

Kirsten Wick


Professor Natalia Chaban and Professor Martin Holland.


Dr Graeme Woodward and Mr Fred Samandari.


A partnership between Tait Communications and the Wireless Research Centre at UC has grown from strength to strength over the 10 years since its inception.

The successful partnership paves the way for further partnerships that benefit industry, UC and the Aotearoa New Zealand economy. Industry often drives innovation, and in 2007 Sir Angus Tait acted on his firm belief that companies like Tait Communications should collaborate more closely with tertiary institutions.

Initially Tait supported a Professorial Chair at UC, and when the future potential became apparent to both parties, they funded the creation of the Wireless Research Centre (WRC) to work on projects exclusively for Tait and its younger venture, MimoMax Wireless Ltd.

Mr Fred Samandari who became Director of the WRC in 2010, explains how the Centre moved into a new phase on his arrival.

“It was obvious that if we were to grow we could not rely solely on our relationship with Tait, but using what we learned from working with them, we derived a relatively seamless way of working with other companies.

“While we now work on well over half a dozen projects a year outside of Tait, they still remain our strong supporter and highly valued industry collaborator.”

Award recognitionThe collaboration led to two KiwiNet Awards in 2014; the Research and Business Partnership Award, for delivering significant commercial value for Aotearoa New Zealand; and the BNZ Supreme Award, for overall excellence in all core areas of commercialisation.

“In particular, these awards were based on the strength of a relationship that encouraged Tait to invest increased funding in the WRC year after year, and to enter willingly into long-term strategic engagement with us,” says Mr Samandari.

“At the time, we were working with them on convergence of traditional professional land mobile standards used by Tait’s existing customers with 3G and 4G cellular standards. This convergence continues, and currently we are preparing for the next generation 5G and working on other standards in wireless communications.

“Not only do Tait’s products need to be relevant to the market, but they need to meet emerging standards, so as to be compliant in a global environment, to support Tait’s broad current and future international customer base.

“Wireless communications are becoming intensely complex, and will continue to do so. This is where we can assist Tait to prepare for, and enable them to continue, competing based on technological advantage rather than cost.”

One of Tait Communication’s main target markets is first responders – police, fire and emergency services, all of which are currently modernising.

Dr Graeme Woodward, Research Lead from the WRC, says their research is helping enable this modernisation.

“Tait’s traditional technologies, based on narrowband wireless communications specific to mission critical applications, are now converging with traditional cellular standards. The WRC is helping with this convergence.

“Tait’s solution is a ‘network of networks’, which focuses on a seamless experience for the end user with mission critical dependability, with the key goals of enhancing both operational efficiency and customer safety.”

Employees from WRC and Tait have access to both facilities, regularly spending dedicated time at each other’s premises. Both Mr Samandari and Dr Woodward are convinced that co-location of staff is an important element in the strength of the relationship.

“These are really important interactions and keep us very close to their technology strategy, which guides us on how best we might assist them. It also has distinct advantages for our students once they graduate.”

Students intrinsic to projects“Students who work with Tait on their projects are not only quite familiar with the environment and how Tait operates, but actually become an intrinsic part of their latest projects. This means that when they graduate from UC, and start working at Tait, the transition is so smooth that neither party really recognises there has been a change.”

Mr Samandari says that it is in the WRC’s best interests that all their industry partners are successful and continue to grow.

“With that growth, comes a need for more and more graduates – engineers, software developers, lawyers, financial analysts and business experts – this has flow-on effects, not just for the University but for the regional and national economy.

“In Tait’s case, we have been actively working to open up new markets for them, outside of their traditional ones. To continue this trend, Tait need to know where to invest for the future, where they need to increase their internal capability and where they would be better off aligning with outside companies that already have the expertise required.

“Our research not only provides guidance in this area, but also ensures our valued collaborator is not suddenly blindsided by the unexpected arrival of new technologies that could have a detrimental impact on their business.”

Industry partnership pays dividends

UC research is enabling Tait Communications to move into new global markets

and to adapt their first responder communications in ways that make modern technologies more accessible to emergency services.

Jann O’Keefe


The project Intergenerational Transmission of Minority Languages explores why some people pass their heritage language on to their children and why others don’t, and will help promote bilingualism in migrant communities.

Increasingly, languages spoken by immigrant parents are not being passed on to Aotearoa New Zealand-born children – a trend that Growing Up with Two Languages author, Associate Professor Una Cunningham of UC’s School of Teacher Education | Te Kura Whakangungu Kaiako in the College of Education, Health and Human Development | Te Rāngai Ako me te Hauora describes as “very worrying”.

“Low rates of intergenerational language transmission represent a wasted opportunity on both a societal and personal level. Around a quarter of New Zealanders were born overseas and another quarter have one or both parents born overseas, so the immigrant population is hugely important to Aotearoa New Zealand’s economy in terms of trade and tourism.

“We also know that those who might have been raised as speakers of two languages but who, for one reason or another, grow up as monolingual speakers of English, generally regret the missed opportunity.”

Originally from Northern Ireland, Associate Professor Cunningham brought her children up in Sweden as bilingual speakers of English and Swedish. When she came to Aotearoa

New Zealand, she met Swedish parents who were predominantly speaking English to their children and questioned why they weren’t passing on their own language.

Aotearoa New Zealand is a multilingual country with 168 languages being spoken. However, it also has the reputation of being one of the most monolingual countries in the world. This is common in English-speaking countries, but bilingualism has important cognitive benefits for the individual and societal benefits.

Surprising influence“The idea that it’s possible and positive to bring up a child bilingually is very deep in me, so I wanted to better understand the nuances of why this was happening. In my research with Ahorangi | Professor Jeanette King of Aotahi –School of Māori and Indigenous Studies, I came across an official document produced by the Office of Ethnic Affairs in 2013 aimed at helping migrants to acculturate to the Aotearoa New Zealand environment. One of the guidelines was that they consider speaking English at home, which was deeply shocking for me. When I looked into it further, the report turned out to be based on limited research, and misleading interpretations of that research, which needed to be addressed.”

Associate Professor Cunningham and Ahorangi King formed the Intergenerational Transmission of Minority Languages project, run out of the Learning and Teaching Languages Research Lab

(LATL) in collaboration with the New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour (NZILBB) | Te Kāhui Roro Reo. The team interviewed parents and bilingual teenagers in Ōtautahi Christchurch, with funding from NZILBB. Census data was also commissioned to provide information about language transmission in the region and nationwide.

“One of the surprising things was that there is a real difference in which languages are being passed on and which aren’t. At the two extremes, 77% of Aotearoa New Zealand-born Korean children at the age of 13 to 18 are speaking Korean, compared to 10% of Dutch children in the same situation. In the middle are Samoan and te reo Māori, and the European languages are typically lower.”

The project team then looked at the factors that explain this variation, helped by research assistants and research students who were speakers of Dutch, Korean, French, German, Spanish and Mandarin.

A myriad of factors at play“The initial data shows there is a myriad of factors, including having a community of speakers, religious pressure, extended family close by, both parents as speakers of the language, and the parents’ proficiency in the heritage language.

“In other countries, there has also never been Aotearoa New Zealand’s target of linguistic assimilation – rather integration. Here, community languages are the responsibility of the communities, rather than being supported

by publicly funded home language education. Overseas, proficiency in more than one language is valued.

“It would be a great advantage to New Zealanders if they were able to use the indigenous language te reo Māori, so it is good to see the University valuing it in the Bicultural Competence and Confidence Framework of the Graduate Attributes.”

The Lab has produced a number of resources such as the website:

http://twolanguages.canterbury.ac.nz/

There are further plans to disseminate information to parents and professionals, including midwives and Plunket nurses, as well as Early Childhood Education Centres and primary schools. They also hold an annual live-streamed international symposium in December and have led a number of workshops on raising children bilingually. One of the outcomes from these events is the planned launch of a bilingual French class.

Shaping a multilingual society

Exploring why some people pass their heritage language on to their children and

why others don’t will help promote bilingualism in migrant communities.

Kirsten Wick


Associate Professor Una Cunningham.


Dr Sean Waters. Photo credit: Karen Baigent, Cawthron Institute

Identification and management of water quality issues in South Island

lakes and rivers is being enhanced by research conducted by UC postgraduate students.


The Waterways Centre for Freshwater Management is enabling postgraduate students to apply their research skills to real world issues.

Waterways is the first such centre in any Aotearoa New Zealand university and was established in 2009, as a joint partnership between UC and Lincoln University | Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki. It features a multi-disciplinary group of about 50 academic staff drawn from both universities, with an advisory board made up of representatives from regional government, Crown Research Institutes, iwi, industry and non-profit organisations.

Sean Waters is the first UC student to gain a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Water Resource Management through Waterways, and recently presented his findings to the Canterbury Water Management Strategy Zone Committee responsible for freshwater management in the Horomaka Banks Peninsula area.

After seeking the support of the local rūnanga, Dr Waters investigated factors controlling the release of phosphorus (P) from lake sediments in Te Roto o Wairewa Lake Forsyth on Horomaka Banks Peninsula, a lake that has featured prominently in the news due to its extreme and prolonged algal blooms. His research combined field and laboratory work, and geochemical modelling to highlight the important role of dissolved oxygen, salinity and lake water pH in controlling phosphorus release and algal blooms in the lake.

Dr Waters says algal blooms have been a problem in the lake since 1907.

“Iwi, Environment Canterbury and the Banks Peninsula Zone Committee have been putting in a lot of effort to address this, but next to no work had been done on trying to understand P-cycling, which is key to the blooms.

“The key was to work out what was happening to the phosphorus and why,”he says.

Too much of a good thing“Phosphorus is an essential nutrient, but too much of a good thing is problematic, as an unbalanced system promotes algae growth, which can produce toxins and deplete oxygen in the lake water.”

Normally phosphorus will be bound up in lake sediments, without posing a problem, however several factors drive the release of phosphorus from the lake sediments and cause excess algal growth. One of these factors is low dissolved oxygen (LDO) concentrations within the water column of the lake.

“The lake is only two metres deep, so it was thought to be well mixed and well oxygenated, and it usually is, but I was able to show that low dissolved oxygen events do occur in the lake and result in significant phosphorus release.

“These LDO events result from periods of low wind, dense plant beds and/or salinity incursions, which all reduce water column mixing, and may result in low dissolved oxygen in the bottom waters near the sediment. The decomposition of organic material also causes

LDO at the sediment surface, so when excess algal growth causes the death of plants in the lake, or when some of the algae themselves start to die off, we can get more P release, which in turn drives more algal growth.”

No quick fixAfter quantifying the flux of P from the catchment to the lake, and determining the relative importance of internal P loading from the lake sediments, Dr Waters found compounding issues such as the P-rich soils of the volcanic rock catchment and the lack of a permanent opening to the sea, prevent a simple solution for the lake.

He says reducing the P-load coming into the lake is vital and this can be managed by reducing erosion and more planting on the banks of the lake’s tributaries. Engineering solutions such as sediment traps may also help.

“However, the large reservoir of P in the lake sediments, and internal P cycling within the lake, mean any response in lake water quality to external P load reductions is likely to be slow.”

Waterways Director and Dr Waters’ PhD supervisor, Professor Jenny Webster-Brown says the findings are important for the management of Te Roto o Wairewa and shallow coastal lakes in general.

“The Waterways Centre maintains strong links to existing water organisations and stakeholders, in order to ensure uptake of such useful water management information, and to improve skills, knowledge, and awareness in the water sector,” Professor Webster-Brown says.

She says this is what is happening with Dr Waters’ research findings.

Dr Tim Davie, Chief Scientist at Environment Canterbury, says the work that Dr Waters has been doing, particularly the phosphorus budget for the lake, has been critical in being able to set an effective plan to improve water quality in Te Roto o Wairewa.

“The greater understanding of the drivers of cyanobacteria blooms in the lake will be invaluable in future management of the lake,” he says.

Meanwhile, Dr Waters is putting his skills to use as a freshwater scientist in the Coastal and Freshwater Group of the Cawthron Institute in Nelson.

Understanding local water quality issues

Grant Aldridge

‘The key was to work out what was happening to the phosphorus and why.’


The Feminist Judgments Project Aotearoa is exploring how the law might play out differently if it were interpreted through a feminist or mana wahine lens.

More than two-thirds of judges in Aotearoa New Zealand are male, so does gender identity influence the outcome of legal cases? Aotearoa New Zealand is not alone in considering the potential impact of gender bias from a judiciary made up predominantly of pākehā men.

The Feminist Judgments Project Aotearoa is part of a movement that started in Canada and has spread not only to Aotearoa New Zealand, but also the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Australia. It is putting justice systems under the microscope by reimagining and rewriting judicial decisions from a feminist and mana wahine perspective.

In all, 25 existing legal decisions are being reworked as part of the Feminist Judgments Project Aotearoa – Te Rino: The Two-Stranded Rope. These are due to be published in 2017 as an edited collection of judgments, together with commentaries, for use as both a potential teaching resource and source reference for the judiciary.

The project’s two strands consist of a general feminist perspective and a mana wahine strand examining judgments of particular interest to Māori women, and in which the feminist judges show sensitivity to both the cultural and the gender contexts of the cases they are rewriting.

When Dr Rhonda Powell of the UC School of Law, and Associate Professor Elisabeth McDonald (originally from Victoria University of Wellington and now at UC) began framing the project, they ensured a Māori legal perspective was included from the outset by approaching Māmari Stephens of Victoria University of Wellington to lead the mana wahine strand.

Rounding out the project leadership team is Professor Rosemary Hunter from Queen Mary University of London, who has a deep involvement with this global movement.

Strong interestInterest in the project has been strong since it began, with funding from the New Zealand Law Foundation in late 2015. Five female judges attended the initial judgment writing workshop in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington in February 2016.

Dr Powell says about 60 people are involved in the project.

“We asked people to tell us what case they wanted to work on and why. We have legal practitioners, academics, a retired judge and government lawyers. Every single law school in Aotearoa New Zealand has at least one person involved.”

Unlike most other countries that have undertaken similar projects, Te Rino also includes male feminist judges.

“There is a school of thought that a man can’t be a feminist because so much of it is about the lived experience of being a woman. We thought we’d test that out and so we have a handful of men writing feminist judgments.”

For example, retired Family Court Judge John Adams is rewriting one of his own judgments for the project.

“It was quite an important judgment that set the course of a particular issue to do with relationship property division.”

Other judgments being reviewed encompass commercial, medical and family law. Each is based on established legal method and precedent and so could, in theory, have been written by a judge at the time of the original decision. All draft judgments have been shared, reviewed and discussed at workshops and each writer paired with a commentator.

Successful collaborationAs a collaborative exercise, Dr Powell says the project has been a real success.

“In the sciences they do collaborative work all the time, whereas legal scholars traditionally work on their own. A project like this is unique in

that it involves every single law school and 60 different Aotearoa New Zealand legal scholars participating together.”

Progress augurs well for future such collaborations.

“Above all though, we hope this project will encourage lawyers and judges to reflect on the potential gender and cultural impact of their work and issues of implicit bias.”

How would judges integrate feminism or mana wahine in practice?They might do so by:

• asking ‘the woman question’ and considering the gendered implications of rules and practices that may only have the appearance of neutrality

• considering the cultural context of cases

• taking into account women’s interests

• listening to the perspective of women litigants and how they tell their stories so as to gain a deeper understanding of how women experience the law

• giving agency to women litigants

• challenging gender bias and stereotypes and confronting sexism

• contextualising legal decisions by going beyond abstract legal reasoning and considering the reality of people’s lives

• addressing injustice and inequality.

Source: Feminist Judgments Project Aotearoa – Te Rino: The Two-Stranded Rope

Judgment and gender in Aotearoa‘There is a school of thought that a man can’t be a feminist because so much of it is about the lived experience of being a woman. We thought we’d test that out and so we have a handful of men writing feminist judgments.’

Kim Newth


This collaborative research project has the potential to reduce implicit bias in

Aotearoa New Zealand legal judgments.Dr Rhonda Powell.


Exploring culturally appropriate approaches to peace-building and security

will help to enhance community wellbeing in Pacific societies and the region as a whole.

Professor Steven Ratuva, Director Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies’.


The Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies’ (MBC) collaborative approach is helping bring together researchers and policy-makers to address a range of issues including climate change, indigenous knowledge, innovation, development, governance, conflict, security and peace issues in the Pacific.

Led by Director Professor Steven Ratuva, the MBC is leading trans-disciplinary research to create open-minded, inspired citizens with diverse views, who can explore the complexities of today’s society and guide ideas, policies and programmes to change the world for the better.

A professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at UC, and a Marsden research fund award winner, Professor Ratuva was recently appointed Chair of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) Research Board on Democratisation and the Military. The role will see him organising research panels from different world regions for the World Congress on Political Science in Brisbane in 2018 and UC hosting a major conference in Christchurch on Borders and margins: Democratisation and the military in 2017.

These events will strengthen research connections made at the Rethinking regional security: Research and policy nexus symposium

Broadening security focus helping to build Pacific resiliencethat MBC jointly organised with IPSA, the Australia National University (ANU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and held at UC in November 2015.

More than 100 people from various universities in Aotearoa New Zealand, the Pacific and as far afield as the United States of America and United Kingdom, as well as representatives from government departments such as the military and police, international agencies, non-governmental organisations, religious organisations and civil society, attended the event.

Professor Ratuva says the symposium was hugely successful in terms of supporting collaboration, making connections and sharing a diversity of views.

“Policymakers yearn for data and analysis, and researchers are always wondering who can use what we are learning, so enabling research scholars, policymakers, and professionals to engage and articulate how to integrate research into policy thinking, especially in relation to security issues, will have an ongoing impact.”

The MBC published a series of policy briefs for researchers, policymakers and diplomats after the symposium to highlight key findings from presentations and will publish the first issue of Pacific Dynamics: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies to provide critical analysis of significant issues in mid-2017.

Reframing security“Security is being redefined all the time and we want to reframe it in a way that looks to the future, so it is not just seen as the responsibility of the state, but of every citizen.

“The nature of geopolitics is broadening the scope of human security issues beyond conflict to include equality, wellbeing, poverty, education and climate change challenges such as rising sea levels, dying coral and cyclones, which are increasingly threatening Pacific nations.”

Professor Ratuva says MBC’s collaborations with regional and international bodies are focused on ensuring communities have the power to regulate, mitigate and avoid the negative outcomes of these issues and embrace culture-based systems of peace-building.

According to Professor Ratuva, the rise in climate-related issues in the Pacific requires more innovative ways of adaptation and resilience for local populations, so MBC has a climate change research cluster of four PhD students carrying out different aspects of this work.

“The ultimate aims of these projects are to empower people as active agents of social change and build up their capacity to deal with everyday security challenges.”

Making research accessible and relevant to complex real world issues and encouraging interdisciplinary conversations are key principles of Professor Ratuva’s approach to research and learning.

“Research is not just about sitting and thinking – it must broaden out to include cultural, gender, moral and philosophical diversity as part of the totality of engaging with ideas and the world.”

Real world relevanceProfessor Ratuva says it is vital for researchers to build relationships with governments, industry, civil society, and the community at large in a professional way, while maintaining their intellectual independence and critical approach.

“Our focus at Macmillan Brown is to try and link innovative ideas with the real world in creative ways.

“Some scholars and academics become too entrenched in their own territory and feel uncomfortable having trans-discipline discussions. Contemporary students and researchers need to be willing to work across boundaries.”

Professor Ratuva will embody this approach in his own work in 2017, as he continues a comparative study of Pacific Island minorities in Aotearoa New Zealand and the USA. He has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowship, which will enable him to work in partnership with some of the world’s leading experts in the field at Duke University, Georgetown University and the University of California in the USA.

Grant Aldridge


Improved learning outcomes are a key goal for a recent Ministry of Education | Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga initiative, the Teacher-led Innovation Fund (TLIF). Researchers from UC’s School of Teacher Education | Te Kura Whakangungu Kaiako have partnered with Canterbury schools to help develop and support several promising TLIF projects.

Three members of the School of Teacher Education are lending their expertise to TLIF projects initiated by local primary schools.

Part of the new Investing in Education Success (IES) initiative, the TLIF is creating opportunities nationwide for teachers and schools to develop innovative responses to teaching and learning challenges, with a specific focus on students who are Māori, Pasifika, have special education needs or come from low socioeconomic backgrounds. The $18 million five-year innovation fund will run through to 2020.

Multiple projects with schoolsIn Canterbury, Russley School initiated one of the first TLIF projects within its literacy programme, (see case study). Associate Professor Brigid McNeill, a literacy specialist with an applied research background in early language and literacy development, partnered with Russley School to support project planning, development

and evaluation. Early results from this project are very promising.

Positive data generated nationally from the initial TLIF round, including Russley School, has paved the way for the Ministry of Education | Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga to fund a second round of projects.

As part of this second round, Diamond Harbour School and KidsFirst Diamond Harbour Early Learning Centre are commencing an inquiry project on connecting mathematical learning across Early Childhood Education (ECE) and Year 1 of school. Helping to plan and frame this project is Dr Jane McChesney, a senior lecturer with extensive expertise in mathematics education.

Professor Letitia Hochstrasser Fickel, who heads UC’s School of Teacher Education | Te Kura Whakangungu Kaiako, is serving as an evaluation coach and advisor on two additional projects. Darfield Primary School and Annabel’s Educare have teamed up to focus on the transition between ECE and primary school in relation to literacy achievement, particularly for Māori boys. The other two-year project, at Pegasus Bay School | Te Kura o Manga Kāwari, is seeking to develop teacher practice so as to raise student and whānau engagement in a modern learning environment.

The new projects draw on lessons learned in the first round, in particular, the need for external expertise to increase teacher capacity to use data to guide practice.

Expert support for teachersParticipating schools chose to involve UC academic educationalists to ensure their

teachers would have the expert support needed to fine tune inquiry processes, data collection and evaluation procedures.

Professor Hochstrasser Fickel says teachers in schools innovate all the time.

“What this is asking them to do is to be a little more systematic and look really closely at what is working and why. Hence, the focus on gathering and using data.

“Each school has their own inquiry question and we are helping them continue to shape that. We are not trying to do each other’s work. They have expertise in teaching and we’re trying to bring more to their work by sharing our expertise with research and, in addition, build capacity in ways that support their ongoing inquiry and innovation.

“We are working directly with schools and practitioners to support them in taking up innovative practices, for example the explicit development of student agency in the new ‘modern learning environments’. These are new practices that can potentially make a positive difference in learning for young people in their schools.”

Case Study – Russley SchoolLiteracy specialist Associate Professor Brigid McNeill at UC’s School of Teacher Education Te Kura Whakangungu Kaiako and Professor Gail Gillon, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the College of Education, Health and Human Development Te Rāngai Ako me te Hauora and literacy expert, worked with Russley School teachers to raise

student achievement in English literacy using a structured phonological awareness approach.

What were the results?Reading: The percentage of students making accelerated progress increased from 39% to 53%.

Writing: The percentage of students making accelerated progress increased from 27% to 45%.

Year 2–3 specific learning needs groupNo students in this group mastered any of the phonological test items prior to intervention. Following intervention:

• 100% increase of students who mastered sound identification, initial phoneme identity, phoneme blending

• 80% increase of students who mastered phoneme segmentation

• 60% increase of students who mastered phoneme deletion, non-words (pseudo).

Some key findings• Teachers demonstrated high capability to

teach and integrate phonological awareness within the literacy programme.

• Collaborative planning supported the implementation of professional learning and programme coherence.

• Collaborative ‘teaching as inquiry’ promoted reflective practice, substantive dialogue, achievement analysis and modification of practice.

• Students can successfully transfer phonological awareness across reading and writing domains.

Supporting teacher-led innovation

Kim Newth


UC academics are supporting teachers with innovative ideas and practices to make a

greater difference in learning for young people in their schools.

Professor Letitia Hochstrasser Fickel and Associate Professor Brigid McNeill.


UC research is helping to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities that have historically occurred from tree-felling activities on steep slopes.

Researchers are helping the Aotearoa New Zealand forest industry develop cable-assist harvesting systems. Associate Professor Rien Visser and Dr Hunter Harrill of the UC School of Forestry have built strong industry relationships with a number of commercial forest companies since 2008, when cable-assist harvesting first began in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Associate Professor Visser says Aotearoa New Zealand has had a relatively high fatality rate in the forest industry, in the last decade averaging five or six deaths a year, primarily forest workers with chainsaws felling trees on steep slopes.

“Machines that can cut down and process trees have been around for a long time, and putting operators inside these machines is a much safer option than a worker on a slope with a chainsaw.

“But these machines are restricted in where they can operate. Steep or soft ground impedes their movement and can compromise safety. There is always potential for them to lose traction or even tip over, so we need to be careful we don’t just replace one hazard with another. This is where our research comes in.”

While cable-assist harvesting was first proposed in Europe 25 years ago, it has only been practised in Aotearoa New Zealand for ten years, initially introduced by Ross Wood, a highly innovative contractor from Nelson. His prototype system

Saving lives in our forestswas a bulldozer at the top of a slope with a wire rope (cable) attached to a machine felling trees below.

Taking a new approachAssociate Professor Visser explains how things are much more sophisticated now.

“We use a second ‘anchor’ machine stabilised on the top of a slope, with an integrated winch and cable that assists movement of the machine working on the slope below. This greatly extends the range of operation and reduces risks to the working machines.”

It is the operating limits associated with this system that Associate Professor Visser and Dr Harill’s forest engineering research focuses on, especially testing cable tension and slope limits and feeding these back into the industry to continually improve safety margins. This research has received sustained funding from an industry and government consortium called Future Forest Research.

“These are large machines we are talking about. Basically, we have 40 tonnes of machinery being held on a cable, so it’s important to understand the loading and strain on that cable, and how that loading changes as the machines move up and down the slope through different gradients and surfaces,” Associate Professor Visser says.

Unexpected opportunityThese systems are not only saving lives in our forest industry, but they have also created an unexpected opportunity for Aotearoa New Zealand to step into manufacturing these

machines, he says. There are now four companies producing 20 to 30 machines between them annually, with many being sold overseas, particularly to Canada.

“Canada has a larger industry, and much of their forested terrain is also very steep. Because they also have a strong focus on health and safety, they not only want to purchase these systems, they also want to know how to best manage them as well.

“So we hold workshops in Canada, as well as here in Aotearoa New Zealand. These are attended by three particular groups and the workshops that work best have a good representation from all three.

“First are the machine operators themselves, secondly the contractors who buy the machines and manage the systems, and finally company representatives who do the harvest planning, decide which contractor goes where in the forest, and when the systems can be used or when they can’t.

“We recently had a software engineering student, Amy Martin, work with us to develop a tension monitoring app that we also demonstrate at the workshops. It displays how the cable is interacting with the winch visually, in a similar way to a heart-rate monitor. That app is now being commercially developed by a manufacturer in Nelson.”

Associate Professor Visser says this is a real boon to operators, especially when they strike a problem and are concentrating completely on controlling the machine. The app stores data from the event for review later, providing a

really useful feedback mechanism for constant improvement.

During their visits to Canada and different regions of Aotearoa New Zealand, Associate Professor Visser and Dr Harrill actively promote cable-assist systems as a safer alternative to manual felling with chainsaws.

“We are talking about a big investment and new challenges. A forest worker with a chainsaw is basically a $2,000 tree-felling system. This alternative averages around $1.3 million because you need two large purpose-built machines. There’s a big difference, and while it works faster, it’s more expensive per tree cut and requires improved planning,” Associate Professor Visser says.

“However, when such costs are required to be safe, the industry has been very responsive in accepting that to ensure we end up with higher standards that protect our workforce.”

The work of UC researchers is saving lives in forests in Aotearoa New Zealand and

overseas by advising the forest industry on cable-assist harvesting on steep slopes.

Jann O’Keefe


Saving lives in our forests

Dr Hunter Harrill (left) and Associate Professor Rien Visser.


This groundbreaking collaboration involving UC will help mitigate the negative

impacts of a booming tourism industry, while enhancing the experiences of tourists and New Zealanders.

Dr Chris North, Deputy Head of UC’s School of Health Sciences | Te Kura Mātai Hauora.


A groundbreaking collaboration involving UC will help mitigate the negative impacts of a booming tourism industry, while enhancing the experiences of tourists and New Zealanders.

Dr Chris North, Deputy Head of UC’s School of Health Sciences | Te Kura Mātai Hauora, is collaborating in groundbreaking work to mitigate the negative impacts of a booming tourism industry and enhance the experiences of tourists and New Zealanders alike.

With three active volcanoes, Ruapehu, Ngāuruhoe and Tongariro, extensive hiking tracks and two large commercial ski fields, it’s no wonder that Tongariro National Park is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s must-see destinations. It attracts around one million people a year.

There are concerns, however, that growing volumes of litter and waste generated by visitors risk compromising the park’s dual World Heritage status, both as a place of outstanding natural beauty and also as a place of cultural and spiritual significance.

Similar concerns are arising at other tourism hot spots as visitor numbers continue to grow and put pressure on the natural environment and cultural landscape, Dr North says.

Working with iwiIn 2014, iwi Ngāti Rangi discussed their concerns with Leave No Trace New Zealand (LNTNZ), an organisation that promotes responsible travel

and recreation. With a passion for environmental education, UC lecturer Dr Chris North, who is a founder of LNTNZ, has been working with Ngāti Rangi, Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL) and the Department of Conservation (DOC) | Te Papa Atawhai to design an education programme for concessionaires in the park.

The first course, hosted by Ngāti Rangi and supported by DOC and RAL, was held at Ruapehu in May 2016. Dr North says attendees included hotel owners, campground proprietors, shuttle/bus drivers and information centre staff. Evidence was shared about how people are more likely to respect an environment if they know there are important cultural and environmental reasons for doing so.

“So it is important that people visiting the park understand that Ruapehu is a sacred mountain to Ngāti Rangi. It is not just a piece of rock, but an embodiment of their tūpuna [ancestor] Ruapehu. We also talked about how to time messages and what messages are more effective. Simple things can make such a difference, such as asking people to stay on the tracks so they don’t disturb sensitive areas and carrying rubbish bags so rubbish doesn’t end up being left under bushes.”

Dr North’s preliminary evaluation shows the course was effective in changing tourist operators’ action plans.

Owning solutions“What we’re hoping to do now is have a much more comprehensive programme running up there, where we could measure changes in the

amount of rubbish and generate a sense of real ownership over solutions.”

Ultimately, he would like to see such education extended to promote wider protection of Aotearoa New Zealand’s cultural and scenic landscapes by working with whānau, hapū, iwi and the wider community.

Dr North believes the concept of ‘guests and hosts’ or ‘guardians and ambassadors’ needs to be reclaimed, with all New Zealanders working hard to be great hosts and international visitors taking responsibility for learning about this country, its people and its environment.

“We want to continue to welcome travellers from different countries with different cultural experiences . At the same time we want them to grow and learn about our culture and natural environment, rather than see this as just another place on a bucket list.”

About the project

Who is involved?Dr Chris North (Deputy Head of UC’s School of Health Sciences | Te Kura Mātai Hauora), Ngāti Rangi, Leave No Trace New Zealand (LNTNZ), Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL) and the Department of Conservation (DOC) | Te Papa Atawhai.

What is the project’s goal?To reduce rubbish and other visitor impacts at Tongariro National Park by using education to boost awareness on how to treat the environment with greater respect.

What are the concerns?Rising levels of litter and human waste are of growing concern to Ngāti Rangi and RAL. In 2015, 9m³ of refuse was recovered at Turoa and 15m³ at Whakapapa as part of an initial waste removal programme by RAL.

What has been achieved to date?The first tourist concessionaire education course was held in May 2016. Dr North, who was instrumental in designing the programme, has been evaluating it with a view to potentially expanding it to other domestic tourist destinations.

This collaborative work puts UC at the forefront of research on tourism impacts and best practice solutions.

Working to promote responsible tourism

Kim Newth

‘We want them to grow and learn about our culture and natural environment, rather than see this as just another place on a bucket list.’


A group of scholars from across UC is working together to preserve and promote South Asian society and culture in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Dr Clemency Montelle, Director of the New Zealand South Asia Centre (NZSAC), is collaborating with UC scholars and librarians to celebrate the research interests of South Asia. The project will also make one of UC’s iconic collections available to scholars around the world, she says.

“NZSAC is a collaboration of scholars across campus who have both personal and research interests in South Asia, that’s largely India but surrounding areas as well”.

Dr Montelle’s fascination with South Asian study is in the history of mathematics and science, with other members of the centre interested in health science, anthropology and history – however they share a common purpose.

“Our objective is to support, promote and make more visible the resources and research that we have here on campus. I had an idea that we have this De Jong Collection* on campus but, because it is so vast and rich, in order to catalogue it and understand it better we need to work together.”

The idea was to bring academics together in a workshop, to go through the collection and work with staff of the Macmillan Brown Library | Te Puna Rakahau o Macmillan Brown to understand the collection, catalogue and archive it and eventually make it accessible to the wider academic community, Dr Montelle says.

“There needs to be much more collaboration between research scholars who are familiar with parts of the collection and the various languages the collection is in, and the librarians who are doing their best to catalogue and properly archive it to be able to understand more about the value and scholarly worth of the Collection.”

Macmillan Brown and Heritage Collections Manager Joanna Condon has been working with Dr Montelle and NZSAC and sees the value of academic input into a collection such as the De Jong Collection.

“It is a wonderful opportunity to gather together this group of scholars to discover, research and discuss the De Jong Collection at UC. At UC library we enjoy collaborating with academic staff to enhance learning, teaching and research with our outstanding heritage collections,” says Mrs Condon.

De Jong CollectionThe Jan Willem and Giselle de Jong Collection holds great significance to the NZSAC as a special magnet collection. Procured in 2000, with the help of Professor Paul Harrison, a past student of de Jong’s and an alumnus of the University, the collection consists of approximately 14,000 artefacts focusing on Central Asian and South East Asian religions and history.

Half of that is his book collection, says Dr Montelle.

“Then there are the archives, which contain rare books. There are some really beautiful books, like the first translation into English of the Bhagavad Gita by Sir Charles Wilkins, and a wealth of scholarly literature on Hinduism, Buddhism, and other religious traditions.”

Jan Willem de Jong was a distinguished professor of Buddhist studies and renowned critic.

“He was best known for being a reviewer and produced over 800 reviews in his career, he was like the gatekeeper of scholarship. He would make a review and it could make or break a person’s career. This was before electronic resources, so his library was very important to him to be able to comment correctly. He was quite an acerbic man, but people tolerated it because what he said was usually right.”

The vastness and the richness of the collection makes it precious to preserve, but also a valuable resource to share.

“He annotated everything, because of his reviewing. You can go into the stacks, pick one of his books and read the annotations that really are very astute, you can’t replace that sort of scholarship.”

Preserving and sharingThe workshop brought together academics from across the campus and around the world with interests in the collection. Language experts have now gone through and translated the heading and details of every item in the collection. The collection includes items in 51 different identified languages, some of which are dead languages not spoken in everyday communication any more.

One small step towards celebrating some of the most beautiful, rare items of the collection, is getting workshop participants to write about their favourite pieces then sharing this on the Macmillan Brown Library blog.

“It really is the first step in getting scholars to engage with the collection to make it more visible and understand the richness of the resource available for research,” says Dr Montelle.*The Collection is referred to as the De Jong Collection, dedicated to Jan Willem de Jong.

One man’s treasure is treasure indeed‘There are some things here that probably aren’t available anywhere else in the world.’

Scholars and librarians are working together to preserve and make available a valuable

collection of South Asia artefacts for study.

Aleisha Blake


Dr Clemency Montelle and Special Collections Librarian Damian Cairns.


UC researchers at the Rose Centre for Stroke Recovery and Research have revealed an innovative new treatment for people with swallowing impairments.

Swallowing impairments, also known as dysphagia, impact on individuals affected by stroke or other neurological disorders. The new treatment will make a big difference to thousands of lives, says Professor Maggie-Lee Huckabee, Director of the Rose Centre.

“Food and drink sustain us – physiologically, nutritionally, socially and culturally. They are critical to maintaining health, but equally valued for the human engagement that emerges from sharing a drink with a friend, or a meal with family.

“Individuals who struggle with eating and drinking can develop chest infections or require feeding through a tube, and consequently experience exclusion from many social engagements.”

New thinking brings solutionHistorically, swallowing has been considered a reflex, and thus amenable only to rehabilitation programmes that focus on increasing strength of muscles in the throat. More recent research suggests that the cortex – the thinking part of the brain – plays a significant role in modulating this ‘pseudo-reflex’.

This new understanding led UC’s researchers to approach the problem differently, using bioengineering application to facilitate recovery. Bioengineering applies engineering principles to biological systems, and can include elements of electrical and mechanical engineering, computer science, chemistry and biology. This approach is central to the Rose Centre’s clinical research programme.

The Biofeedback in Strength and Skill Training (BiSSkiT) software-driven treatment protocol was developed through a collaboration by clinical researchers and medical bioengineers, including Esther Guiu-Hernandez at the Rose Centre, Adjunct Professor Richard Jones, and Associate Professor Paul Gaynor in UC’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Rather than focusing on strengthening, the innovative skill training protocol in the BiSSkiT software takes a different approach.

“Swallowing relies on precision and speed in movement, not strength,” says Professor Huckabee.

“With BiSSkiT, a small device that measures the electrical activity of muscles involved in swallowing displays that information through the software as a waveform on a computer screen. When patients see what is happening, they can then improve precision in motor control of swallowing by using the waveform to hit a randomly placed ‘target’ on the computer screen.”

Research at the Rose Centre suggests very positive outcomes following two weeks of skill

training in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Significant improvements were seen across a small group of ten patients in speed and efficiency of swallowing, which carried over to improvement on quality of life measures. Further research is under way, which supports the research education of four UC PhD students.

Approved for clinical useThe end of 2016 marked a major step in development of the software, thanks in part to UC’s global connections. Considered a Class 1 medical device, the software has recently received CE mark approval, so is now approved for sale to the European market for clinical use. In the coming year, further approvals will be sought for Australasian and North American markets, potentially helping thousands of people with swallowing disorders.

“This development offers people with swallowing disorders a completely new opportunity to improve their quality of life,” Professor Huckabee says.

The skill training protocol is being evaluated through international trials in a larger group of patients with Parkinson’s disease, as well as others with motor neurone disease and Huntington’s disease. In addition to the novel skill training approach, there is also a strengthening protocol if the traditional approach to muscle strengthening is required. Other UC students are developing a test based on the software that will help clinicians determine which type of training is required.

Changing brains, changing livesHoused at St George’s Medical Centre, the Rose Centre sees patients from around Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and the United States of America, and integrates clinical diagnostic and rehabilitation services for swallowing impairment with the development and execution of translational research. Professor Huckabee says the keystone of translational research at the centre is patient engagement.

“The brain is a remarkably adaptable organ and because of the way swallowing is controlled by the brain, there is great potential for rehabilitation.

“The key to recovery is finding a way for patients to visualise the very abstract task of swallowing, which is exactly what the BiSSkiT software does. If they can see it, they are much more likely to be able to change it.”

The focus on patient engagement has recently been formalised with the development of the PERC programme – Patients, Engineers, Researchers and Clinicians. Funded by the Farina Thompson Trust, this unique programme brings together all partners in the collaborative development of translational research, which applies findings from basic science to enhance human health and wellbeing. The PERC programme at the Rose Centre will provide a platform for development of several other projects that provide visual feedback of other aspects of swallowing.

Bioengineering aids recovery for swallowing disorders

Grant Aldridge


Professor Maggie-Lee Huckabee and Biomechanical Engineer Esther Guiu Hernandez demonstrating the BiSSkiT software for swallowing disorders at the Rose Centre.

This innovative treatment developed by the collaborative expertise of clinical

researchers and medical bioengineers at the Rose Centre will help thousands of people with swallowing disorders.


Geospatial planning tools developed by UC researchers are helping reinvigorate

greyfields to reduce urban sprawl and support co-ordinated, strategic management of urban development.

UC researcher Dr Rita Dionisio and Tony Moore of the Christchurch City Council visit greyfields space with redevelopment potential in Ōtautahi Christchurch.


Creating attractive, reasonably priced, eco-friendly living spaces in under-used urban areas is the focus of the Greening the Greyfields project involving UC researchers.

Greyfields are ageing occupied tracts of inner city or suburban land that are physically, technologically and environmentally failing, but which represent under-capitalised real estate assets. They might be areas of rundown houses or other low density urban areas.

Professor Simon Kingham, Director of the Geospatial Research Institute at UC, says many of these areas have potential to become sought-after places to live.

“We are looking at how we can help increase density in middle spaces and create new urban planning tools for local government because existing greenfield and brownfield redevelopment systems cannot be applied to greyfields,” says Professor Kingham.

The Greening the Greyfields project originated in Australia, and has developed and expanded into a project that is part of New Zealand’s National Science Challenge Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities – Ko ngā wā kāinga hei whakamāhorahora. This has seen UC engaging with Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), Treasury and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), as well as UC researchers working with the Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland city councils, to help create geospatial tools that help identify blocks

of land ripe for re-development, and to assess the impacts of different types of development.

Planning great living spacesGeospatial tools include computerised maps and datasets that can help with planning investment in infrastructure, such as transport infrastructure potentially including light rail. These have been developed using open source tools so they can be freely available and get into the hands of planners and other decision makers.

“The tools look at the wider impacts of different developments; for example if you are considering a development to attract retired people, you might want to be near hospitals or medical centres, whereas if the target is young families, you would want a school nearby.”

High density, inner city living is often highly priced, but greyfield regeneration focuses on ensuring new developments are moderately priced and economically viable. As well as ensuring developments are visually attractive with green spaces, ‘greening’ means being environmentally friendly and eco-efficient – exploring ways to reduce carbon emissions through decisions on building design, location and materials.

Overseas developments that are designed well for better liveability, such as in Vancouver, Canada, are a real value-catch opportunity and have been so successful that prices have risen.

“If it’s done right, living near the CBD [central business district] becomes a really cool option as people see the benefits of being able to walk to

work, but still enjoy attractive living spaces,” says Professor Kingham.

“Geo-visualisation tools enable planners and developers to see what difference a certain change might make, such as positioning for the sun, as there is no point in designing unattractive or undesirable areas where no one wants to live.

“It’s all about developing simple ways for non-experts to identify, analyse and prioritise economic development opportunities – so we are looking at how to use new data and information together with census data to make better planning decisions.”

Working collaboratively across disciplinesThe greyfields geospatial research crosses over a range of disciplines including geography, mathematics, computer science and architecture, and UC students are working on a range of related projects, such as cycleways and the health impacts of urban development.

A feature of the research approach is ‘immersed engagement’ to support co-creation. UC

researcher Dr Rita Dionisio is based with a Christchurch City Council planning team for one day a week, where there is development potential in areas to the east and north of the CBD.

Mr Tony Moore, Principal Advisor Sustainability in the Christchurch City Council’s Urban Design, Regeneration and Heritage Unit says having end-users built into applied research was a particular strength of the programme and Council involvement helped to shape the tools to meet Aotearoa New Zealand conditions and Council needs.

“Our Council really benefited by having close collaboration with the research team. Having the researcher on the same floor as the planners and policy analysts boosted our knowledge and use of the tools,” Mr Moore says.

“Developing scenarios within the models, sharing and interrogating data directly relevant to our Council decisions greatly helped. The tools were easy to use and provided good insights into development opportunities throughout the city.”

Working relationships have been so positive that many former UC students are now partners with the research team, after gaining employment with Councils and planners following graduation.

“By working together we can provide a co-ordinated response to industry research needs,” says Professor Kingham.

Greening the Greyfields‘By working together we can provide a co-ordinated response to industry research needs.’

Grant Aldridge


A set of psychiatric scales designed to measure mental health difficulties experienced by severely maltreated children is creating new possibilities for treatment and support around the world.

The University of Canterbury Innovation Award 2016 recognises Associate Professor Michael Tarren-Sweeney’s ongoing work in this area.

The Assessment Checklist Series is a group of psychiatric rating scales he developed to measure a range of mental health problems experienced by maltreated children, which are otherwise fairly uncommon amongst children at large.

The series is an important innovation for the mental health assessment of maltreated children, children in care, and children adopted from care. This innovation led to an important breakthrough in the delivery of mental health care for vulnerable children in Aotearoa New Zealand and abroad, where the measures have received acclaim.

No other groups of children and young people in the developed world are more socially or developmentally disadvantaged than children and young people who reside in court-ordered alternate care, and those who are subsequently adopted from care.

He says surveys have consistently found that a child in care is more likely than not to have psychological difficulties of sufficient scale

or severity to require mental health services, regardless of which country they reside in.

“Many of these children have complex mental health problems that are related to both their attachment development and also to trauma. It’s really about identifying and understanding the particular kinds of psychopathology that these very disadvantaged children have.”

The measures were originally developed for use in research, but have since been standardised and validated for use in the field as clinical assessment and screening instruments. They are restricted to use by appropriately qualified and supervised clinicians, or relevant clinical services. To maximise their adoption and impact in the field the measures are not sold commercially but are distributed free-of-charge to registered clinicians and services.

Several hundred clinicians and clinical agencies from a range of countries are licenced to use the measures. The measures have also become commonplace in research examining child and adolescent mental health, being used in over 30 published studies.

Supporting carers at the core of recovery Carers, not psychologists, are central to the recovery of severely maltreated children, he says.

“The reason why caregivers are so important is because you can’t just take a child with these kind of difficulties, sit them in a therapy room, and fix the problems through individual psychotherapy.

“Because these children’s difficulties are quite difficult for carers to manage, it can often feel as though the child is rejecting of them. If foster parents, or adoptive parents, don’t understand what’s happening they can misinterpret and can take it personally.

“This is what leads to a lot of disruptions and breakdowns in placements. We know from very good research, as every placement breakdown occurs, the effects are bi-directional. It’s not just that the children’s problems bring on placement breakdown, we know the breakdown also causes the children’s problems to get worse. It becomes a bit of a vicious circle. For many children if we don’t arrest this they eventually end up living in residential care, not able to live with families, and their prospects into adulthood are very grim.

“The central key to their recovery is supporting their carers and explaining to their carers why the children do this. Then they slowly do recover over a very long period of time, if the carers are supported properly.”

He says that the connection made with severely maltreated children in need of care continues to be at the core of his motivation.

“Here is a child who was born into the world just like you or I, and this [psychopathology] is what happens to children, when bad stuff happens to them. You feel a connection, you don’t feel you want to push this child away, you want to help that child.”

Associate Professor Tarren-Sweeney has also been instrumental in developing UC’s Child and Family Psychology programme. The programme has flourished and remains one of the highest quality and employable degrees on offer at UC.

Breakthrough for severely maltreated children‘The central key to their recovery is supporting their carers and explaining to their carers why the children do this. Then they slowly do recover over a very long period of time, if the carers are supported properly.’

Fiona Clayton

The Innovation Medal is awarded by the University Council for excellence in transforming knowledge or ideas so they are adopted by the wider community in ways that contribute beneficial value. It is the University’s highest recognition of an outstanding innovator.


A set of psychiatric scales designed to measure mental-health difficulties experienced

by severely maltreated children is creating new possibilities for treatment and support around the world.

Associate Professor Tarren-Sweeney, UC Innovation Medal recipient.


Dr Mike Hickford (left), his son Blake and doctoral researcher Shane Orchard on the banks of the Ōpāwho Heathcote River.


A large-scale initiative to help identify and improve īnaka (whitebait) spawning areas in Ōtautahi Christchurch waterways in the post-earthquake environment has attracted considerable community support.

Called Whaka Īnaka, the project’s team includes EOS Ecology, Ngāi Tahu, the University of Canterbury and Conservation Volunteers New Zealand (CVNZ). The project was named by Te Marino Lenihan (Tangata Tiaki, Ngāi Tūahūriri), after discussion with project partners Wayne Alexander and Shelley McMurtrie.

Whaka Īnaka, which means “causing whitebait”, began in 2016 with the twin objectives of boosting seasonal spawning success in Ōtautahi Christchurch rivers and pinpointing areas where īnaka prefer to spawn.

Dr Mike Hickford of the UC School of Biological Sciences, who has been studying īnaka for many years, says the ground breaking project began as “pure science” to determine where new spawning habitats had formed, post-earthquake.

“It then evolved pretty rapidly into a project to also engage the community to see how they felt about their river, to guide us and seek their involvement.”

With community funding from the Department of Conservation (DOC) | Te Papa Atawhai, a total of 204 straw bales were installed in late January 2016 on the lower reaches of the Ōpāwaho

Heathcote River and Lake Kate Sheppard, (a key tributary of the Ōtākaro Avon River) by local businesses, conservation volunteers and teams from Ngāi Tūāhuriri. Straw bales were used as these make an ideal artificial spawning habitat for īnaka.

One of Dr Hickford’s PhD students, Shane Orchard, who is based in the Waterways Centre for Freshwater Management, earlier conducted a small scale pilot study with straw bales, along with spawning surveys on the Ōpāwaho Heathcote River and Ōtākaro Avon River. These data laid the foundation for Whaka Īnaka’s work around extending spawning habitat.

Leading the 2016 project was aquatic scientist and UC graduate Shelley McMurtrie of EOS Ecology, who received a UC Biological Sciences Inspirational Alumni Award in 2015. Under her leadership, Whaka Īnaka came together as an inclusive project with environmental, educational and scientific spinoffs.

Looking to the futureHelping to grow the next generation of kaitiaki | environmental stewards and tangata tiaki (whānau/hapū customary fisheries representatives) was a key aspect of Whaka Īnaka for Te Marino Lenihan, a cultural landscape consultant who led Ngāi Tahu’s involvement with the project.

“I want my tamariki [children] to live in a world that recognises mahinga kai as a valuable part of our society and economy,” he says, adding that respect for water is fundamental to that.

Mahinga kai refers to interests in traditional food and other natural resources and the places where these resources are obtained.

On the ground, Whaka Īnaka brought many different groups together. Te Marino Lenihan is impressed at how a passion for whitebait, shared by Māori and Pākehā alike, has the power to really unite people. He hopes ongoing unity over īnaka will ensure a bright future for this taonga [treasure].

“How incredible it would be if our city became known for its great spring and autumn shoals of īnaka, feeding the food chain and pulling people from all over the world to see this rare phenomenon.”

Dr Hickford, who was awarded the 2016 College of Science Excellence in Research Linkages Award, says Whaka Īnaka also forged good relationships with 16 local primary schools.

Local ownership“These kids have really started to take ownership of ‘their river’,” says Dr Hickford. “Ōpawa School, for example, is right next to the river and they really want to improve their riverbank and luckily, that’s right where a spawning site is.”

Whaka Īnaka found that whitebait are spawning a lot further down the Ōpāwaho Heathcote River post-quake, extending the known spawning area by some three kilometres downstream. It also found that spawning could be restarted in previously barren stretches of river if bales were put in these areas.

Pupils from Ōpawa and Waitākiri primary schools directly lobbied the Christchurch City Council over preserving īnaka spawning habitat.

In October 2016, the Christchurch City Council responded to concerns raised over the environmental impact of mowing riverbanks in spawning areas by announcing a trial to leave some of Christchurch’s grassy riverbanks uncut (the middle and lower reaches of the Ōtākaro Avon and Pūharakekenui Styx Rivers and trial areas of the Ōpāwaho Heathcote River and Steamwharf Stream).

“Whaka Īnaka has helped bring a better understanding and appreciation by the agencies that have the power to manage these environments. What we have created is a massive team of people out there who recognise what īnaka need to survive in Christchurch’s waterways,” Dr Hickford says.

Whaka Īnaka

This large-scale collaboration with iwi will help to boost seasonal spawning of īnaka

whitebait in Ōtautahi Christchurch waterways.

‘Respect for water is fundamental.’

Kim Newth


Each year, the Dean of Postgraduate Research at UC sponsors and organises the Thesis in Three competition for postgraduate students. PhD and Masters students give a three-minute presentation to describe their thesis research with only a single presentation slide permitted. The top three students from each college round go on to compete in the UC final.

Dr Sarah Masters, Director of Postgraduate Studies in Chemistry, was a judge of the 2016 competition and says Thesis in Three is all about effective communication.

“It really does help students focus on the key message arising from their thesis research, and how to present this in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience. Promoting their research to a wider audience can also lead to collaboration, research funding and future employment opportunities when others see what is being done and connect the dots.”

Dr Masters looks for a combination of factors in a winning presentation, including whether it is memorable, logically presented, relevant and understandable.

“There are a lot of boxes to tick here, and presenters do need a certain X-factor to do well. They need to be enthusiastic and maintain my

Thesis in Three – one slide, three minutesattention, as well as clearly state the motivation for, and significance of, the research.

Dr Masters says Thesis in Three can be the start of researchers making a difference, but it may take time.

“The immediate impact of research may not be obviously tangible, but some distance down the line, researchers can look back and pinpoint the contribution their research has made to a local, national or global issue.”

Fact file• Students have three minutes to describe what

they are doing, as well as why and how they are doing it – the importance/impact of the research.

• Only a single slide, no additional electronic media (for example sound and video files) and no additional props.

• In addition to financial prizes for the winners of the UC Final, there is a national Three Minute Thesis (3MT) for Masters students.

• The Thesis in Three format was first introduced by the University of Queensland.

• Three judging criteria are used: communication style, comprehension and engagement.

Kay Higginbotham UC Thesis in Three winner 2016 (Geological Sciences) and second in the Inter-University Masters 3MT

What was it that encouraged you to enter?

I had been looking forward to competing in the Thesis in Three since I was an undergrad. I’m a big advocate for science communication to a non-scientific community in ways that entertain and engage. Engaging, informing, and entertaining an audience in under three minutes was a fun challenge. What really had me encouraged for the competition was that my project involves earthquakes, volcanoes, and 100 kilograms of silly putty. Who wouldn’t be interested? The prize money didn’t hurt either.

Why is your research important in the ‘real world’?

My field of research is important for hazard management in areas that have both earthquakes and volcanoes, like Aotearoa New Zealand. We understand that earthquakes can trigger volcanic eruptions, but we don’t yet understand the mechanics behind it. If we can better understand how these events interact, we can be better prepared for future events.

Karen Ng Second Prize 2016 (Communication Disorders)


I think it’s important that student researchers learn how to communicate their findings in a very accessible way. Doing good research is only part of our job; we also have a duty to share the knowledge with the public. If you can’t explain something simply, you probably don’t understand it well enough.

Why is your research important in the ‘real world’?

Eating and drinking not only provides us with sustenance to live, but is also one of life’s great pleasures. We’ve developed a new test to improve the diagnosis of swallowing disorders after a stroke. If we know what the underlying problem is, then we can provide patients with more specific treatment and get them back to eating as soon as possible. (Read more about this research on page 50.)

Andy Gibson Third Prize 2016 (Linguistics)


I was drawn to it because it forced me to get a big-picture perspective on what my research is really aiming to do. It’s very easy to get lost in the details and this was an exercise in forgetting the trees, and paying attention to the forest.

Grant Aldridge


Thesis in Three winner Kay Higginbotham on top of the Port Hills – an eroded remnant of a volcano that erupted millions of years ago.

The Thesis in Three format provides thesis students – Doctoral and Masters – with

the opportunity to present their research to a general, non-specialist audience in a concise manner.


UC researchers successfully captured more than $5 million of the Marsden Fund research grants in 2016.

UC Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation | Te Tumu Tuarua Rangahau Professor Ian Wright says receiving the Marsden Fund grants was a continued acknowledgement of UC as a world-class research-led teaching and learning university.

“UC continues to cement itself as a place where world-class research happens, as these grants attest. The benefit for students coming to UC is that they are taught by academics from Aotearoa New Zealand and abroad who are world leaders in their respective fields. I remain highly impressed by the very high calibre of UC researchers and their ability to create ideas that are funded in this prestigious and highly competitive fund”.

The eight successful UC Marsden Fund proposals, covering Physics, Astronomy, Psychology, Engineering, Linguistics and Chemistry, were awarded $5.24 million funding – an increase on what was received in 2015. More than 20 institutes made funding bids, including all eight Aotearoa New Zealand universities and eight Crown Research Institutes.

2016 UC Marsden-funded research comprises:

• An Artificial Algebra for Implicit Learning of Mathematical Structure, Professors Randolph Grace and Simon Kemp, Department of Psychology ($705,000)

• New methods for imaging biological macromolecules using x-ray free-election lasers, Professor Rick Millane, Electrical and Computer Engineering ($865,000)

• A New Paradigm for Organelle Targeting, Professor Antony Fairbanks, Biomolecular Interaction Centre/Chemistry ($870,000)

• Counting the Number and Distribution of Planets in the Galaxy, Associate Professor Michael Albrow, Physics and Astronomy ($870,000)

• Quantifying the Importance of Non-additive Competition in Diverse Plant Communities, Associate Professor Daniel Stouffer, Biological Sciences ($795,000)

• Unique acoustic signatures to diagnose impending DOOM Dysfunction of Osteo-Mechanics, Associate Professor Geoff Rodgers, Mechanical Engineering ($300,000)*

• Brain Inspired On-chip Computation Using Self-assembled Nanoparticles, Dr Saurabh Bose, Senior Research Fellow and Principal Investigator, Physics and Astronomy ($300,000)

• What is the Southland accent? Dr Lynn Clark, Linguistics ($530,000)

Unlocking our mathematical intuition Is there mathematical knowledge built into how we perceive the world? Are we all essentially geniuses at maths, even if we didn’t do well at maths in school?

UC Professors Randolph Grace and Simon Kemp are investigating the link between our intuitive sense of number and formal mathematical ability. Their aim is to develop better teaching techniques for kids struggling with maths. They’ve developed a procedure to teach people to perform algebraic calculations without using

numbers. “They can learn to add subtract, multiply, divide – without knowing what they’re doing … it’s intuitive,” Professor Grace says.

A new visionProfessor Rick Millane is well known internationally for his work on ‘phase retrieval’ methods, an important component of x-ray diffraction imaging, publishing his first papers in this area in the early 1990s.

His theoretical and computational methods for imaging biological molecules and tissue using x-rays and optical radiation allow their structures to be determined, which is key to understanding disease. The work has significant application for drug design and non-invasive medical imaging.

His phase retrieval algorithms have been applied to the latest imaging technology: x-ray free electron lasers (XFELs), which use x-ray pulses short enough and intense enough to image biomolecules that have defied conventional imaging methods, and use nano-scale crystals with just a few unit cells in each direction.

Targeting dozens of incurable diseasesUC researchers are working on a revolutionary drug-targeting system that could one day be used to treat a range of fatal, inherited diseases caused by genetic enzyme deficiencies.

They’re focusing on around 60 or 70 incurable diseases called the lysosomal storage disorders, of which there are around 200 sufferers in Aotearoa New Zealand. Professor Antony Fairbanks says the system could deliver recombinant enzymes and other drugs to a

UC research gains $5 million of the Marsden Fund 2016


specific organelle (a structure in a cell that performs a specialised function) within human cells, where they are needed.

“The key aspect of our research is to develop organelle targeting so we can specifically deliver enzymes and other drugs to where they need to be to do their job,” says Professor Fairbanks.

Planet huntersA team of UC astronomers has eyes on the universe – 24/7 (weather permitting!).

With the help of international researchers and three identical telescopes in Chile, Australia and South Africa, the team is helping answer some of the great unknowns about the planets in our galaxy.

For example, how many planets are there around different stars? Do all stars have planets? What type of planets are they? Where are they found in relation to their parent stars?

Using a technique called microlensing, the researchers are able to detect planets orbiting stars near the centre of the galaxy – thousands of light-years away.

What makes plant communities tick? What makes diverse plant communities like Aotearoa New Zealand’s iconic grasslands tick? What allows so many competing species to co-exist? A team of UC scientists and collaborators overseas are hoping to find out.

To do so, UC Associate Professor Daniel Stouffer says they need to go back to basics.

“We want to change the way people understand how plants compete and how we measure what happens – the models and approaches we’ve been using haven’t really changed for at least 100 years.”

Long-term, the team hopes their work will lead to better management and protection of our ecosystems.

“If we want to manage these sorts of ecosystems and avoid their utter collapse, we need to understand the very basic things, and the strategies plants use to solve these problems are usually the best place to start.”

A (nano) chip off the old blockComputer components can’t just keep getting smaller. So how does the computer then continue to become faster, lighter, and energy efficient? A team of UC physicists think they have the answer – in the human brain.

Using a network of nano-particles, the team is hoping to mimic some of the brain’s functionality to enhance future computer technology.

“Our brain can do amazing things,” UC physicist Dr Saurabh Bose says. “Our basic idea is to take inspiration from the architecture of the brain and use that to make future revolutionary computer chips.”

What is the Southland accent? Southland English is arguably the only regional accent in Aotearoa New Zealand, yet UC linguist Dr Lynn Clark is leading the first large-scale, comprehensive study into the accent.

Margaret Agnew

Surprisingly little is known about the Southland accent as it has never been thoroughly studied. Dr Clark plans to change that with her $530,000 Marsden funded research project – the first large-scale, comprehensive study to ask: what is the Southland accent?

“Like all accents, Southland English is important,” Dr Clark says.

“It’s important, of course, because our accents are hugely important markers of our identities. Understanding how they work, and realising that they are highly organised systems, is an important step in understanding that Southlanders do not use ‘ungrammatical’ or ‘sloppy’ language. Southland English is also important because we think it might hold an important piece of the jigsaw of understanding how language – in general, not just in Southland – changes over time.”

Professor Ian Wright Deputy Vice-Chancellor

(Research and Innovation) Tumu Tuarua Rangahau

Margaret Agnew

*See page 28 for the full story on Associate Professor Geoff Rodgers' research on Unique acoustic signatures to diagnose impending DOOM Dysfunction of Osteo-Mechanics.


‘Maximising genetic diversity in endangered species’ project leader Dr Tammy Steeves.


UC researchers have been among the most successful in Aotearoa New Zealand in the 2016 MBIE Smart Ideas investment process, with five new projects awarded $5 million in funding.

The five UC-led 2016 Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment | Hīkana Whakatutuki (MBIE) Smart Ideas initiatives span a range of areas, from developing a battery to directly capture and store solar energy on a large scale at low cost, to developing a genomics approach to select the best individuals to improve conservation efforts via captive breeding programmes.

UC Smart Ideas initiatives 2016:• Solar energy capture and store, project leader

Dr Aaron Marshall, Chemical and Process Engineering, College of Engineering | Te Rāngai Pūkaha:

The capture, storage and recovery of renewable solar energy are major global challenges. This research will develop a solar redox flow battery that could meet these challenges, by directly capturing and storing solar energy on a large scale at low cost.

• Autonomous Forest Pruning and Data Collection, project leader Associate Professor Richard Green, Computer Science and Software Engineering, College of Engineering | Te Rāngai Pūkaha:

Over 50% of Aotearoa New Zealand forests are too rugged for a land vehicle-based automatic pruning solution. The goal of this research is to develop a drone capable of autonomously pruning plantation forests.

• High temperature electrolytic titanium extraction from waste slag, project leader Associate Professor Matthew Watson Chemical and Process Engineering, College of Engineering | Te Rāngai Pūkaha:

The waste slag produced by NZ Steel is rich in titanium (Ti). If this Ti could be extracted from the slag, about 37,000 tonnes/year of Ti metal could be produced, generating in excess of $700 million in annual revenue. The goal of this research is to explore ultra-high temperature electrolytic separation of Ti from NZ Steel waste slag.

• A neuromorphic computer chip: computational hardware that works like the brain, project leader Professor Simon Brown, Physics and Astronomy, College of Science | Te Rāngai Pūtaiao:

Neuromorphic devices mimic the behaviour of the networks of neurons in the brain, using nanoscale switches that emulate synapses. These devices learn from their inputs, providing functionality that is difficult to implement even in software implementations of neural networks. Computers built from neuromorphic devices are expected to be far superior to standard computers in some

tasks, for example, image recognition. Having discovered neuromorphic behaviour in simple devices composed of randomly deposited nanoparticles, this research aims to demonstrate the commercial potential of this technology by building and optimising a next generation of more sophisticated devices.

• Maximising genetic diversity in endangered species, project leader Dr Tammy Steeves, School of Biological Sciences, College of Science | Te Rāngai Pūtaiao:

For the global recovery programmes of the 400+ species captive bred for release to the wild, including more than 20 such programmes in Aotearoa New Zealand, the most common question asked is: How can we choose the ‘best’ individuals for captive pairing to ensure species have sufficient genetic diversity to adapt to environmental change? This research will develop a forward thinking, cost-effective and rapid conservation genomics approach that will help conservation managers of poorly-pedigreed populations to make captive pairing decisions.

UC researchers are also involved in a number of bids led by other organisations for new larger research programmes, part of the MBIE’s Research Programme investment process. Smart Ideas initiatives catalyse and rapidly test promising, innovative research ideas, and contracts are awarded for two to three years.

UC research funding winners in 2016 MBIE Smart Ideas

Margaret Agnew


College of Arts Te Rāngai Toi Tangata

2016 showcased the remarkable range and diversity of research within the College of Arts. Te Rāngai Toi Tangata continues to be among Aotearoa New Zealand’s leaders in innovative research in the social sciences, humanities and creative arts. From documentary filmmaking and performance to cutting-edge scholarship in linguistics, social work and criminal justice, the College of Arts remains a vital arena for scholarly endeavour fulfilling its role as conscience and critic of society.

The diverse array of book titles speaks to the breadth of research produced by our scholars, including Sheep (Armstrong), Conflict, Negotiation, and Coexistence: Rethinking Human-Elephant Relations in South Asia (Locke and Buckingham), Bilateral Energy Relations between the EU and Emerging Powers: Mutual Perceptions of the EU and Brazil, China, India and South Africa (Chaban), Christchurch Ruptures (Pickles), Crime, Law and Justice in New Zealand (Newbold), Social Policy for Social Work and Human Services in Aotearoa (Maidment and Beddoe) and more.

Collaborative research remains a growing trend, as reflected in the success of our research centres. The Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies has been involved in a number of collaborative projects with various institutions. For the second year in a row the Marsden Fund has awarded multi-year grants for ongoing research to the New Zealand Institute for Language, Brain and Behaviour. NCRE boasts a number of externally funded grants for projects and supervision on the current state of Europe and the European Union. Aotahi boasts grants in 2016 from Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu (South Island Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency), Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and Te Puni Kōkiri (Ministry of Māori Development). With the help of the Arts Digital Lab, sociologists Mike Grimshaw and Cindy Zeiher launched the new journal Continental Thought and Theory.

Fine Arts staff continued to publish widely, exhibit in highly sought-after venues and exhibit/perform their works, including Steve Carr in Bullet Time at the City Gallery in Wellington and Luke Wood with Head Full of Snakes. The Christchurch Symphony Orchestra presented Associate Professor Chris Cree Brown’s Viola Concerto, which was a SOUNZ Contemporary Award finalist.

International connections strengthened in 2016, with Bronwyn Hayward appointed to the IPCC and Peter Field joining Princeton University as 2016 Garwood Visiting Professor of Statesmanship. Glenda Keam, Head of the School of Music was elected Vice-President of the International Society for Contemporary Music. English hosted Harvard Professor and poet Steph Burt as a Canterbury Fellow.

College of Business and Law Te Rāngai Umanga me te Ture

National and international collaboration, along with interdisciplinary research by staff within the College itself, are prominent within the College's research activities, resulting in high quality research outputs in the form of books (and chapters), peer-reviewed articles in leading national and international journals, reports and conference presentations.

Within the School of Business and Economics, a focus on the post-earthquake environment in Canterbury continues, investigating impacts on tourism, recovery of business, resilient organisations and leadership. More broadly, the School has retained its wider research strengths, including: entrepreneurship, experimental economics, financial risk management, gender and diversity issues, information systems, management, marketing, social and environmental accounting and taxation.

Two external research grants were received by staff in the School of Business and Economics during 2016: one will facilitate an examination of the Australasian tax profession’s preparedness for Country by Country Reporting requirements, while the other will enable investigation into customary approaches and practices for optimising cultural and ecological resilience. The School was delighted to host the ANZMAC 2016 Conference in December 2016. To underpin the high quality research, the School has increased its investment in dedicated Bloomberg terminals to support staff and postgraduate students with their research.

The School of Law’s research has focused on a wide variety of issues that include gender, human rights and indigenous peoples, surrogacy, media, copyright and privacy law, disaster management, environmental law both domestic and international and ocean governance, employment, insurance, public and criminal law, civil procedure, clinical legal studies, medical law, trade law, company and insolvency.

Staff have successfully obtained research funding from the New Zealand Law Foundation, Ako Aotearoa, Building Research Levy, European Commission, Jean Monnet Centre for Excellence Asia-Pacific, New Zealand Government, United Kingdom Economic & Social Research Council, European Union, and Erasmus Mundus, among others.

Professor Jonathan Le Cocq Pro-Vice-Chancellor, College of Arts Amorangi Toi Tangata

Professor Sonia Mazey Pro-Vice-Chancellor, College of Business and Law Amorangi Umanga me te Ture


College of Engineering Te Rāngai Pūkaha

Research in the College of Engineering | Te Rāngai Pūkaha covers an enormous breadth of subjects and physical size. In 2016 we have branched out into research into diverse topics such as life-safe systems and support including in the forestry industry, electric ground-based vehicles, flying vehicles, and rockets. These activities fit well into our large portfolio that encompasses research and design of huge structures like bridges and roads, forest engineering, and industrial plant, to tiny structures formed by nanotechnology, all supported by theory and practical experiments.

In 2016 we opened a brand new building called the Structural Engineering Laboratory (SEL). This is an experimental and teaching building, with the focus of the research being designing and testing structures that withstand large earthquakes with different shaking characteristics. The lab will also support the

College of Education, Health and Human Development Te Rāngai Ako me te Hauora

Our researchers have published high quality research in 2016 in the broad areas of Teacher Education, Education Studies and Leadership, Health sciences, and Sport, advancing knowledge from both scholarly and professional inquiry perspectives.

We are particularly proud of Associate Professor Tarren-Sweeney’s achievement in winning our University’s prestigious 2016 Research Innovation medal for his research related to mental health assessment for children and adolescents in care. We are also very proud of our researchers in Te Ru Rangahau (Maori Education Research Lab led by Professor Macfarlane) who received the 2016 New Zealand Association for Research in Education’s (NZARE) Group Research Excellence Award.

Significant achievements from academics in our College include books on important topics such as rethinking the role of education (Professor Roberts), contemporary issues in sexualities education for young people (Dr Quinlivan),

culturally responsive ways of teaching in the early years (by Professors A and S Macfarlane), and a dictionary in physical education and sport studies (Stothart and Professor Culpan).

Our researchers’ work in international peer reviewed journals contributes to a deeper understanding and policy development of current Education and Health issues. For example, ongoing research examining the impact of earthquakes on young children’s health and behaviour (Associate Professor Liberty and colleagues), understanding teachers’ roles as first responders in tragedy (Dr O’Toole and Dr Friesen), discussions related to open, flexible, and distance learning options (Distinguished Professor Davis), understanding teenagers’ practices and perceptions of reading in the digital age (Associate Professor Fletcher & Nicholas) and managing sleep problems in children with autism (Dr McLay and Associate Professor France).

The number of doctoral students in our College has significantly increased in recent years. With the introduction of our Education Doctorate, we now have over 130 current doctoral students. Their emerging research is strengthening our quality research base in teacher education, education studies and health sciences. In 2016, 12 students successfully completed their PhD. In addition, the University Council awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Education to Mr Gavin Bishop for his outstanding achievements in children’s literature, art education, and his wider contributions to New Zealand’s cultural development.

Professor Gail Gillon Pro-Vice-Chancellor, College of Education, Health and Human Development Amorangi Ako me te Hauora

Professor Jan Evans-Freeman Pro-Vice-Chancellor, College of Engineering Amorangi Pūkaha

UC Quake Centre, whose research portfolio is driven by the identified research needs of our industry partners.

We launched a brand new product on to the market, which resulted from our research in the MBIE-funded GreenGrid project into the effects of domestic solar power on the NZ electricity grid. The tool calculates the cost and payback time of installing solar panels on domestic properties, and also uses weather data from other research agencies in New Zealand such as NIWA. It was made available to the public in late 2016.

We continue to develop industrial partners for our final year students’ research projects, and in 2016 three of our major departments had almost 100% external financial support for this important activity. Despite being research at undergraduate level, the projects often result in publications and develop into postgraduate research projects.

Finally, we celebrated increased success and revenue in external research funding, both from government agencies and industry, and we now have several Rutherford Discovery Fellows in the College. In 2016 we also welcomed Professor Rob Lindeman from the United States of America as the Research Leader of the College's Human Interface Technology Lab (HITLab). Rob’s research interests include providing people with technological support for experiencing various realities to enhance work and daily life, and covers topics from virtual and augmented reality, to the psychology of human-machine interactions.


University StatisticsAcademic staff1 715.4

Adjuncts and research fellows2 298.3

Post-doctoral fellows3 41.7

Outputs 3,500

Postgraduate degrees completed PhD 182

LLM 2

MA 42

MAud 14

MCom 18

MCouns 3

ME 21

MEd 13

MEFE 5

MEM 20

MET 1

MFA 6

MForSc 3

MGIS 3

MHDM 1

MHealSc 2

MHIT 7

MMaor 1

MSc 132 MWaterRM 9 PMEG 28

Research Income $30,983,057

College of Science Te Rāngai Pūtaiao

2016 was another exciting and productive year for the College. As well as our ongoing research, we contributed significantly to the urgent research response following the November earthquake series in the upper part of Te Wai Pounamu. Our geologists and biologists in particular mobilised to assist and contribute to the teams working with the local community to understand what had happened. That work is very much ongoing, but some of the work, such as the mapping of the surface expression of the near-surface en echelon shears, and understanding the impact on kai moana of the uplifted littoral reefs, needed to take place in the immediate aftermath.

The quality and value of our research was recognised by a 32% increase in external research funding in 2016. Funding ranged from Marsden Fund grants - the highly competitive national blue skies fund - to competitive funds awarded by international bodies, to funds

awarded via partnership-based negotiations to address the research needs of external bodies.

2016 saw the launch of two interdisciplinary research clusters, both of which involve researchers from across UC. The Materials Science Research Cluster, led by Professor Alison Downard (Chemistry), mainly includes researchers from science and engineering disciplines, and the Health Sciences Research Cluster, led by Professor Megan McAuliffe (Communication Disorders), involves researchers from science, social science, and engineering disciplines. The purpose of these clusters is to foster and promote innovative interdisciplinary research and to be ‘hot beds’ for new ideas and new ways of looking at key issues: they are already achieving this goal, and generating plans for exciting new research.

Our College Emerging Researcher Award, which recognises our excellent early career researchers, was won by Dr Malcolm Campbell (Geography), in recognition of his research in the area of health geospatial data sciences and mobile health technologies. Our College of Science Research Linkages Award, which recognise significant partnerships with external organisations to address their needs, was awarded to Dr Mike Hickford and his team (Biological Sciences), for their work on whitebait ecology.

Overall, 2016 reflected significant progress in our aspiration to conduct excellent, impactful and relevant research using interdisciplinary teams. If you would like to discuss our research, and the ways in which we are able to work with you or your organisation to address a research-related problem, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me at [email protected].

1 Annualised FTE of academic staff 2 Annualised FTE of research fellows and adjunct staff 3 Annualised FTE of post-doctoral fellows

Professor Wendy Lawson Pro-Vice-Chancellor, College of Science Amorangi Pūtaiao


Academic staff1 715.4

Adjuncts and research fellows2 298.3

Post-doctoral fellows3 41.7

Outputs 3,500

Postgraduate degrees completed PhD 182

LLM 2

MA 42

MAud 14

MCom 18

MCouns 3

ME 21

MEd 13

MEFE 5

MEM 20

MET 1

MFA 6

MForSc 3

MGIS 3

MHDM 1

MHealSc 2

MHIT 7

MMaor 1

MSc 132 MWaterRM 9 PMEG 28

Research Income $30,983,057

Research Institutes and CentresBiomolecular Interaction Centre (BIC)The Biomolecular Interaction Centre (BIC) is a multi-disciplinary centre dedicated to the study of molecular interactions critical to biological function. Understanding biomolecular interactions is central to a range of fundamental sciences, new treatments for disease, and a wide range of highly functional products. The Centre was founded in 2007 at the University of Canterbury and, in 2017, will celebrate ten years. It includes researchers from the Colleges of Science and Engineering, and partners with several Aotearoa New Zealand Crown Research Institutes, universities and Callaghan Innovation.

In 2010, BIC received a multi-million dollar investment from the University of Canterbury to become one of two new premier research institutes on campus. BIC has nine principal investigators, based at three Aotearoa New Zealand universities, and more than 35 associate investigators, based nationally and internationally. These investigators are supported by experienced postdoctoral fellows and a large number of postgraduate students researching biomolecular interactions. The biomolecular flagship projects include engineering biotechnology, evolving and engineering biomolecules and chemical biology. BIC supports a dynamic research environment for both staff and students. Researchers are also well-placed to explore the commercial applications of their science.

www.canterbury.ac.nz/spark/bic

Electric Power Engineering Centre (EPECentre)The EPECentre is Aotearoa New Zealand’s Centre of Research Excellence for electric power engineering. It works closely with the Power Engineering Excellence Trust (PEET) whose membership is representative of the various sectors of the industry, including generation, transmission, distribution, contracting, consulting and manufacturing. Its core areas of operation are education, research and industry interaction.

The EPECentre is focused on bringing fresh minds and perspectives to Aotearoa New Zealand power engineering through student-industry interaction and enabling awareness of and planning for future industry challenges.

The EPECentre’s mission to be a research centre of excellence in electric power engineering that meets industry’s research needs, as well as fulfilling PEET’s purpose to promote and support the education of power engineers and the study of power engineering as a field of excellence in Aotearoa New Zealand.

www.canterbury.ac.nz/spark/epec

Gateway AntarcticaGateway Antarctica is a centre for Antarctic studies and research at UC.

The purpose of Gateway Antarctica is to contribute to increased understanding and more effective management of the Antarctic and the Southern Ocean. It does this by being a focal point and a catalyst for Antarctic scholarship,

attracting national and international participation in collaborative research, analysis, learning and networking.

www.canterbury.ac.nz/spark/anta

Geospatial Research Institute Toi Hangarau (GRI)The Geospatial Research Institute | Toi Hangarau (GRI) is a multi-disciplinary research centre dedicated to outward-facing, collaborative geospatial research and innovation.

The GRI Toi Hangarau aims to substantially increase geospatial research output and be deeply involved in connecting this research to the outside world through commercialisation, social and educational research, as well as outreach programmes.

www.canterbury.ac.nz/spark/gri

Human Interface Technology Laboratory (HIT Lab NZ)The Human Interface Technology Laboratory New Zealand (HIT Lab NZ) is a dynamic human-computer interface research centre hosted at the University of Canterbury. We focus on supporting people in performing real-word tasks by applying advanced interface technology.

The HIT Lab NZ is revolutionising the way people interact with computers by creating cutting edge interfaces to:

• enhance human capabilities

• compensate for human limitations

• assist people to better perform tasks for work and in their daily lives.

The HIT Lab’s multi-disciplinary approach to research and education facilitates an entrepreneurial environment, which fosters a wealth of innovative ideas, leading to an improved economic climate in Aotearoa New Zealand. Currently, the HIT Lab NZ is working on a range of projects in collaboration with industry, academia and government partners from around the world.

www.hitlabnz.org

Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific StudiesThe Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies was founded through a bequest by Professor John Macmillan Brown (1846-1935), a founding professor of the University of Canterbury and a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of New Zealand, who spent considerable time travelling and studying the countries of the Pacific. Under the terms of Professor Macmillan Brown’s will, the centre was established in 1988 at the University of Canterbury to facilitate the “investigation and research of the history, traditions, customs, laws, and ideas of the peoples of the Pacific generally”.

www.canterbury.ac.nz/spark/pacs


National Centre for Research on Europe (NCRE)In 2000, the forerunner to the National Centre for Research on Europe (NCRE) — the Centre for Research on Europe — was founded at UC. In 2002, a grant from the European Commission was awarded and, at this time, the centre became the National Centre for Research on Europe.

NCRE is Aotearoa New Zealand’s premier EU tertiary level centre and undertakes both academic and outreach activities, involving a variety of roles and mechanisms.

Since 2006 NCRE has managed the EU Centres Network of New Zealand, incorporating all eight Aotearoa New Zealand universities, and has formal links with similar EU centres in the Asia-Pacific, including RMIT and the ANU in Australia, Waseda and Tokyo, Korea University in Seoul, and Tsinghua University in Beijing.

The NCRE has been awarded 30 EU-funded Jean Monnet grants, including two Chairs and a number of teaching modules. It is a designated Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence involving Fudan University in Shanghai, Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and the University of Kent in the UK.

The NCRE offers incoming and outgoing internships and has a range of teaching and exchange programmes with other EU Studies programmes in our region - including Tsinghua, Fudan and Sichuan in China; Waseda, Japan; and University of Malaya.

The main focus of NCRE concerns the European Union’s impact on the Asia-Pacific region,

with special emphasis on media perceptions, development policy, trade and regional integration.

www.canterbury.ac.nz/spark/ncre

New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour Te Kāhui Roro Reo (NZILBB)The New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour | Te Kāhui Roro Reo (NZILBB) is a multidisciplinary centre dedicated to the study of human language.

The researchers come from a wide range of disciplines, forging connections across linguistics, speech production and perception, language acquisition, language disorders, social cognition, memory, brain imaging, cognitive science, bilingual education and interface technologies. This highly interdisciplinary team is working together toward a truly unified understanding of how language is acquired, produced and understood in its social and physical contexts.

www.canterbury.ac.nz/spark/nzilbb

Ngāi Tahu Research Centre Kā Waimaero (NTRC)The Ngāi Tahu Research Centre | Kā Waimaero (NTRC) was established in August 2011 as a joint initiative between Ngāi Tahu and the University of Canterbury. NTRC was founded for the purpose of being a leader in indigenous scholarship and to provide a centre for the intellectual capital and development of Ngāi Tahu, the principal iwi of Te Waipounamu.

www.canterbury.ac.nz/spark/ntrc

QuakeCoRE: New Zealand Centre for Earthquake ResilienceQuakeCoRE is a national Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) of earthquake resilience researchers. QuakeCoRE leverages strengths across the country and internationally, working collaboratively on integrated multidisciplinary programmes of world class research. Its aim is to support the development of an earthquake-resilient Aotearoa New Zealand where thriving communities have the capacity to recover rapidly after major earthquakes through mitigation and pre-disaster preparation.

www.canterbury.ac.nz/spark/quakecore

Spatial Engineering Research Centre (SERC)The Spatial Engineering Research Centre (SERC) addresses the engineering problems of modern day navigation and remote sensing geo-referenced data collection. Investigations into the linkages between positioning and data collection is the fundamental baseline for many geospatial sciences, and new ways to navigate in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) starved environments is essential for complete geographic data coverage. The SERC team consists of a multi-disciplinary force who specialise in wireless systems, global navigation satellite systems, computer machine vision and inertial navigation. SERC supports geospatial science research in conjunction with industry, Crown Research Institutes, other universities and UC students. SERC can also provide commercial remote sensing services to large and small companies.

Amongst its many areas of work, SERC specialises in photogrammetry and aerial photography, with aerial thermal imaging being a special interest for the group. Its navigation engineering skills enable indoor navigation research and the design and control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). Further UAV activities include the running of a national UAV forum and the administration of a 100km2 UAV flight test site. In addition to its own post graduate engineering students, SERC also contributes towards teaching the Master of Geographic Information Science programme. SERC, in close collaboration with the Wireless Research Centre (WRC), has started active research in the areas of Autonomous Vehicles and Internet of Things.

www.canterbury.ac.nz/spark/serc

UC Quake Centre (UCQC)The UC Quake Centre (UCQC) is a dynamic partnership between the engineering industry and the University of Canterbury. It has developed strong collaborations with the University of Auckland and other partners, including the learned societies, architects, local government, consultancies, large asset owners, the construction sector and overseas institutions, to provide world-class knowledge, research and solutions to seismic issues.

The UC Quake Centre focuses on training and fostering expertise, supporting and encouraging the best professional practices, keeping individuals and groups informed about ongoing work and research within the sector, identifying the levels of risk facing communities, and looking at ways to provide innovative and commercially viable solutions in response to those risks.


The Quake Centre is committed to using the unique events in Christchurch’s recent history to inform their research and recommendations for the future and, ultimately, providing proven solutions that help make individuals, businesses, governments and communities more resilient to future earthquakes.

www.quakecentre.co.nz

Waterways Centre for Freshwater ManagementA joint venture between the University of Canterbury and Lincoln University, the Waterways Centre for Freshwater Management is a focal point for improving knowledge-driven water resource management in Aotearoa New Zealand. The centre offers undergraduate courses and postgraduate degrees in water resource management, to serve the ever increasing demand for graduates in this field.

A strong connection is maintained with private sector and water research organisations to ensure the skills, knowledge and awareness conveyed in the classroom is relevant to the whole water sector. The centre also acts as first point of contact for external groups seeking research expertise and community or professional development education in the field. It is an example of strong co-operation between the two universities, leading to better education outcomes for the country.

www.canterbury.ac.nz/spark/waterways

Wireless Research Centre (WRC)The Wireless Research Centre (WRC) is responsible for driving research and innovation within the field of wireless communication at UC. WRC’s purpose is to secure the continuing presence of a strong and successful industry knowledge base in wireless communications in Aotearoa New Zealand. The key goals of the centre are to assist Aotearoa New Zealand industry by de-risking the early stages of product development in the wireless space and by providing innovative wireless solutions for niche applications tailored to the specific needs of industry partners.

The centre plays a key role in maintaining Aotearoa New Zealand expertise at the forefront of international telecommunications research and development, measured by the graduation of high calibre students, economic impact, publications and patents. The centre has extensive knowledge and experience working with emerging wireless standards, including the 4G and 5G cellular (mobile phone) family of standards, low power wide area (LPWA) standards, local area and personal-area networks. Specific technologies of expertise include multiantenna systems (MIMO), error control coding, diversity systems, relaying, scheduling and the application of combinations of wireless and geospatial technologies such as indoor logistics and intelligent transport systems.

WRC, in close collaboration with the Spatial Engineering Research Centre (SERC), has started active research in the areas of Autonomous Vehicles and Internet of Things.

www.wrc.canterbury.ac.nz/spark/wrc

Research supporters


* Please note: These are some of the organisations that supported the research featured in Research Report 2016.

‘I wanted to find a career that combines technical knowledge with helping people. I’d like to do humanitarian work in the engineering sector. ’

The city of Christchurch is a growing hotbed of opportunity. Developments and initiatives are popping up at a rapid pace and our graduates are perfectly poised to access these opportunities. Over the last few years our students have earned an international reputation for their community involvement. Get involved by joining the Student Volunteer Army or connect with a range of local organisations — Christchurch is a great place to be!

Alex: Leading 2000 volunteers

ALEX.

University of Canterbury is a truly holistic place of learning, made up of 7 outstanding dimensions that will prepare you to change the world.

7

‘I think it’s really important that Māori students are supported to do well in tertiary education so they can go on to obtain better outcomes for our society.’

At UC we are committed to biculturalism. That’s a good thing for Aotearoa New Zealand, and a good thing for you too. As part of this commitment we work with Ngāi Tahu, the tangata whenua in our region. At UC you’ll gain bicultural perspectives and experience in your courses of study through engaging with course content, ideas and activities in your chosen subjects. You can also take specific courses on Māori language, culture, art, and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

FOREST.

Forest: Te Pūtairiki President.

‘I know that I’m going to get four years of very good education, taught by world leading researchers in the field.’

Did you know UC is ranked in the top 3% of universities worldwide? Founded over 140 years ago, our legacy of celebrated graduates has shaped the world we live in today. Here, you’ll learn from passionate lecturers in over 100 programmes of study. You’ll have a chance to be part of groundbreaking research at our research centres and field stations. Best of all, you’ll graduate with an excellent academic qualification under your belt.

Dominic: Helping babies breathe

DOMINIC.


UC Community UC BiculturalUC Academic

‘UC’s Bachelor of Commerce was very appealing. I’d like to be a business entrepreneur so it’s the perfect degree for me.’

Get switched on, get hands on. Over 35% of our courses will get you out into the workplace or the community. The result? When it comes to interview time, you’ll have the kind of real experience employers are looking for. Budding entrepreneurs will have the chance to shine with entré, UC Innovators and the UC Hatchery, which are dedicated to supporting innovation and student start-up ventures. At UC you’ll create connections that count.

Neranga: Budding entrepreneur. Broad thinker.

NERANGA.

‘There are heaps of opportunities to travel for sports and competitions, or as part of certain courses. Plus there are all the international students who come here to UC.’

Come to UC and get ready to see the world. We have exchange agreements with over 50 universities worldwide in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. We also bring the world to UC. Our unique Erskine Fellowship programme brings 75 international academics each year to teach at UC. We don’t just promise a global perspective, we deliver a global experience.

Bradley: Global champion in China

BRADLEY.

‘I’m hugely passionate about sport. I love watching netball, I love playing netball. I guess I’m a wee bit obsessed !’

From the sea to the mountains and everything in between, UC is on the doorstep of a massive outdoor ‘playground’. Grab your snowboard/surfboard/mountain bike/trail shoes and give it a go. On campus you’ll have your choice of high-end accommodation and all the amenities of a fully equipped student village. At its heart, UC features a thriving student association plus over 130 student-led clubs covering every interest under the sun!

HAYLEY.

Hayley: Sport without sacrifice

‘Mentoring has taught me how to develop professional, supportive relationships. I’ve learnt that sharing knowledge is one of the coolest things you can do.’

What are your strengths? Your interests? Your learning style? At UC you’ll have a dedicated support system to help you find your way and make the most of uni life. From your first week you can pair up with a second or third year “student buddy” who will show you the ropes and make sure all your questions are covered. Approaching graduation your Co-Curricular Record — an electronic record of verified extra-curricular activities — will add that real-world edge to your CV.

Nikita: Giving support. Sharing ideas.

NIKITA.


UC EnterpriseUC Global UC Active UC Support

We have a vision of people prepared to make a difference – tangata tu, tangata ora.Our mission is to contribute to society through knowledge in chosen areas of endeavour by promoting a world-class learning environment known for attracting people with the greatest potential to make a difference.

We seek to be known as a University where knowledge is created, critiqued, disseminated and protected and where research, teaching and learning take place in ways that are inspirational and innovative.

Looking towards 2023, the 150th anniversary of our founding, the primary components of our strategy are to Challenge, Concentrate and Connect.

University of Canterbury Statement of Strategic Intent


Tēnei te mihi atu ki a koutou katoa mai i Te Whare Wānanga ...Tēnei te mihi atu ki a koutou katoa mai i Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha. E mōhiotia whānuitia ana a UC mō āna rangahau.

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