Hot on the heels of most influential paper award from ASWEC98 earlier this year, Person:JamesNoble was awarded another Most Influential Paper award, this time from the ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Object Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications OOPSLA. The Most Influential OOPSLA Paper Award is presented annually to the author(s) of a paper presented at the OOPSLA he...
Person:PaulTeal has recently featured in the Dominion for his research on developing a less invasive way of monitoring foetal heart beats. Senior Lecturer Person:PaulTeal says his aim is to find a more passive method of determining the heart beat of infants in the womb than the active method currently used by physicians and midwives. #8220;A popular method used in New Zealand is the SonicAi...
Victoria University security researchers are excited to be involved in Google Summer of Code (GSoC) this year. Peter Komisarczuk and Ian Welch currently lead the New Zealand chapter of the Honeynet Project which has been selected as a GSoC mentoring organisation and two of the projects are focused around work from Victoria University. Ian and Peter lead a team of post graduate developers at the Ne...
The winner of the School of Engineering and Computer Science contest is 13 year old Tariq Kader. Tariq is in year 9 at Wellington College and one of his favourite subjects is mathematics. He also enjoys computers and as this photograph illustrates he is very happy at receiving his prize an Aluminium MacBook supplied by Student IT based at the Victoria University, Kelburn Parade. Tariq won his pr...
During the mid trimester break in April, seven students from ECS (Keith Cassell, Adam Clarke, Rashina Hoda, Ben Palmer, Kourosh Neshatian, Kok Lim.Yau, and Craig Anslow) attended the New Zealand Computer Science Research Students Conference (NZCSRSC) at Auckland University. The Conference, which is in its 7th year, is organised and run by postgraduate students, and aims to promote and s...
The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is one of the world's leading professional societies for the engineering and technology community with more than 150,000 members in 127 countries. With offices in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, IET provides a global knowledge network to facilitate the exchange of ideas and promote the positive role of science, engineering and t...
On Wednesday 10 June 2009 the Faculty of Engineering hosted approximately 70 people from the Wellington engineering and computer industry. The aim of the event was to further develop relationships in the community by showcasing the new Faculty of Engineering. As well as tours of the new space on the second floor of Cotton, staff and students displayed a wide range of interesting research projec...
Recently Person:AndyLinton, a teaching fellow at the Faculty of Engineering, took part in the 5th conference and educational workshop of the Pacific Network Operators Group (PacNOG). Held in Tahiti, the 5 day conference provided an important forum for service providers in the Pacific Network community to meet and discuss current issues as well as receive technical training. The workshops at the co...
On Thursday 6th August Victoria University were the hosts for the New Zealand Computer Society Evening with Industry 2009. The McClaurin foyer and lecture theatre MCLT101 were packed with 200 students, NZCS members and employer representatives for the annual "Evening with Industry". Students from the Wellington region tertiary institutions came in by bus, mini bus, car and foot to hear from eight ...
With names like Praying Muntaz, Predator, Icarus and Optimal Prime, the stage was set for an exciting match at the Annual Lego Competition. Monday night gave students enrolled in ECSE430 Advanced Mechatronic Engineering II the opportunity to design, construct and programme autonomous robots that not only had to work but compete against each other. The aim of the competition was to score...
On the 4th September Massey and Victoria engineering and computer science students came together in the annual IEEE New Zealand Central Section (http://ewh.ieee.org/r10/nzc/) postgraduate presentation event, held at Victoria University in the Old Government Buildings. Fifteen students presented to an audience of their peers, staff from Massey and Victoria and members from the IEEE and I...
Victoria University will offer a Master of Engineering next year, beginning in February. The programme will enable students to undertake a research project in electronics, computer systems networking, software engineering or a combination of these. It will cater for students with an appropriate Honours degree. John Hine, Head of Victoria's School of Engineering and Computer Science and Faculty of ...
The sixteenth Electronics New Zealand Conference (ENZCon 2009) was recently held at the University of Otago. The papers presented broadly covered the areas of electronics, signal and image processing, RF design, FPGA processing and antennas. Victoria University's Faculty of Engineering students made an impact, with Carl Benton winning the best presentation prize for his joint paper on: The Compar...
At the start of the year Victoria joined the PlanetLab NZ project part of the world wide PlanetLab. PlanetLab is a global experimental networking facility, designed for conducting cutting edge research on current and future network technologies, such as Next Generation Networks (NGNs), Next Generation Internet (NGI), Future Internet, etc. Two planetlab nodes have been installed at Victoria. Fun...
During the mid trimester break 12 15 April 2010, ECS hosted the 8th New Zealand Computer Science Research Student Conference (NZCSRSC) on the Kelburn campus. The conference was organised and run by postgraduate computer science students from ECS. The aim of the conference is to promote and strengthen the nationwide community of ICT research students. There were a number of exciting keynote speak...
Brendan Vercoelen says his $6000 university scholarship will help him towards his dream job in the robotics industry. Brendan is a honours year student in a Bachelor of Engineering degree majoring in Electronic and Computer Systems Engineering at Victoria University of Wellington. His final year studies include advanced mechatronics, a combination of electronic design, mechanics and software devel...
Brendan Vercoelen is a fourth year Bachelors of Engineering (BE) student studying Electronic and Computer Systems Engineering (ECEN) at Victoria University of Wellington who is shaping industry to student relations through IPENZ. Since the end of 2007 Brendan has worked as the student representative on the Wellington branch committee of IPENZ. IPENZ (The Institution of Professional Engineers New ...
We are looking for creative and bright ideas on how you would tell the world about the Engineering students and the School of Engineering and Computer Science at Victoria University Wellington. 1st Prize is an 32GB iPod touch (value $520), 2nd Prize 8GBiPod nano (value $240), 3rd Prize Sennheiser headphones ($120) If you're interested, then contact: Senior Tutor Ambreen Khan Evans Email: Ambreen.K...
The All Whites recently returned from a very successful World Cup campaign, drawing with Italy, Slovakia and Paraguay to go undefeated. New Zealand soccer was thrust into the limelight when a late equaliser against Slovakia gave them an unexpected draw. This was followed up with an outstanding draw against the reigning world champions, Italy. One player in particular had a fantastic tournament, in...
Five final year Power Electronics (ECEN405) students ended their trimester with a project loud enough to potentially cause auditory damage. The students, supervised by Robin Dykstra, designed, developed and produced fully working sub woofer Class D amplifiers. Each design was different; some allowing input directly from an MP3 player and others included multiple audio outputs. The project not only...
We are delighted that the professional nature of our Bachelor of Engineering degree has been recognised by the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand. The accreditation process is thorough, lengthy and worthwhile as it assists in ensuring the quality of degrees for both students and industry. Provisionally accreditation has been granted for the degree of Bachelor of Engineering at Victo...
On Saturday, the 11th of September, 2010, School of Engineering and Computer Science hosted the Wellington Site for the regional qualification round of the world oldest and most prestigious programming competition: The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest. Victoria was represented by 5 teams of three students each. Four hours into a five hour battle, a Victoria team called DJ Tomato (R...
Associate Professor Person:ThomasKuehne recently received a Distinguished Paper Award at the ACM SIGSOFT Conference. His paper An Observer Based Notion of Model Inheritance , discusses specialisation relationships between models, languages and transformations respectively, and introduces the idea of an observer and a context for the purpose of defining and validating specialisation relationships....
Our Changing World, Radio New Zealand National (14 October 2010). The threat of being buried in rubble in an earthquake is a real and horrifying prospect, and trying to rescue trapped people from collapsed buildings is a dangerous task. To help in such situations, Dale Carnegie from the Mechatronics Research Group, is developing a hierarchy of small, autonomous `rubble robots'. He tells Alison B...
Mansoor Shafi, adjunct professor at the School of Engineering and Computer Science, has been named co recipient of the 2011 IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award. The IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award was established by the IEEE Board of Directors in 1979. It is presented for the most outstanding survey, review, or tutorial paper published in the IEEE Transactions, Journals, Magazines, or in t...
A team at Victoria University has been awarded the 2010 Prime Minister's Science Prize, worth half a million dollars. Research from the Magnetic Resonance Innovation Team has been used in medical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and in climate change research in Antarctica, and the team is looking to apply its research in agriculture and industry. The team, led by Professor Sir Paul Callaghan, con...
Ben Haughey was recently awarded best student (novice) presentation prize at the Electronics New Zealand Conference (ENZCon) 2010 for his paper titled Simulation and Optimisation of a 2 DOF Parallel Planar. The Electronics New Zealand Conference is an annual meeting to facilitate the exchange of ideas among researches, teachers, workers, students, suppliers and others with an interest in electroni...
At Victoria University on the 24th of November, 52 year 10 girls from 9 Wellington high schools took part in the 2010 Programming Challenge for Girls. This is an annual event held in various locations throughout New Zealand and around the world, and is designed to introduce year10 girls to computer programming. Dr Alex Potanin coordinated the Victoria University event. The girls had a 1hour practi...
PhD Student Ben Palmer received $AUD 500 as prize money for winning "Best Student Paper and Best Paper" at this year's Australasian Information Security Conference (AISC). The winning paper's title is "Development and Evaluation of a Secure, Privacy Preserving Combinatorial Auction" and was co written with his supervisors Dr Kris Bubendorfer and Dr Ian Welch. Australasian Information Security Co...
At the recent APNIC conference, Victoria University Lecturer, Andy Linton, was elected Co Chair of the APNIC Policy Special Interest Group (SIG). With the imminent exhaustion of IPv4 addresses and the adoption of the replacement IPv6, Andy will play an active role in ensuring sound policy is in place. Whilst the Internet is renowned for being a worldwide network free from central coordination, t...
The School of Engineering and Computer Science would like to thank Google for the donation of 50 Android mobile phones for student research. The phones will be used for teaching networked applications courses at 200 and 300 level. Students will learn the basics of app development on the Android phones and then in the final project at 300 level they will create their own location aware geographic ...
Henry Williams has won a $500 prize in Victoria University s Summer Gold Scholars Poster Competition, for his poster titled Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping: SLAM. Henry s work over the summer involved researching the problems robots have navigating unknown environments, and seeking ways to improve their performance, using a technique called SLAM. SLAM enables autonomous robots to construct...
The Faculty of Engineering congratulates the inaugural group of Bachelor of Engineering graduates. Of the graduating students, around half are currently working in the industry and the other half has gone on to further study. Victoria began teaching the four year Bachelor of Engineering degree in 2007, building on the University s existing expertise from teaching the Bachelor of Information Techno...
Computer scientists from the ELVIS Software Design Research Group at Victoria University are working in collaboration with experts from other New Zealand universities to develop more efficient, cost effective and flexible methods of software development. This research is being conducted as part of a four year project funded by the ministry of Science and Innovation, with participation from indust...
SWEN302 is a second trimester third year group project course for software engineering students. In SWEN302, students work in teams of around 6 8 people to develop prototype software for real projects, working for project sponsors from outside the software engineering group. The project course runs from July 11th to October 14th, and students will each spend around 7 8 hours per week on the co...
Latest news. Unfortunately the contest has been cancelled. See http://www.ipredictapp.co.nz/ for details. iPredict is an online political and economic trading market which allows traders to buy and sell shares in future events. At present, all trading is done via the web site, but iPredict is looking for a innovative, useful, accessible, and fun application that will allow people to trade on i...
On the 16th of June, students enrolled in ECEN 405 visited Haywards Substation in Stokes Valley, in order to see power electronics at work on a large scale. They were accompanied by the course lecturer Dr Ramesh Rayudu, technicians Jason Edwards, Tim Exley and Sean Anderson, and two post graduate students, Dayna Maree Kivell and Matt Bourne. Hosted by 5 staff from Transpower, the students were sh...
Victoria University Teaching Fellow Andy Linton co presented a workshop, with instructors from NSRC (University of Oregon) and Google, on DNS operations at the 9th Meeting of the Pacific Network Operators Group (PacNOG). The meeting was held at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, from the 27th June to the 2nd July. PacNOG was initially established in 2004 as a mailing list for ISP ...
A recent article in the Dominion Post features Craig Anslow, a PhD student who has developed a 48 inch multi touch table. Craig is conducting research into applications that help software developers visually map their programs and identify potential bugs. He plans to test the touch table over the next year or so, and then make it available for free use. The article, titled Bright Sparks Dim Futur...
Victoria University has unveiled plans for a leading edge study programme that will support innovation and growth in Wellington's internationally recognised entertainment and digital technologies industries. From 2012, Victoria will offer a Computer Graphics programme that is unique in Australasia in the way it blends computer science and design. Other courses available at tertiary level focus on ...
The School of Engineering and Computer Science's Annual Lego Robot Competition for 400 level ECEN students will be held at 7pm Monday 22 August in AM106. The constructed robots must be autonomous any human intervention occurs a penalty. This competition forms a significant component of the assessment in the course ECEN430. For further information, contact Person:DaleCarnegie
On Saturday, 10th of September, 2011, ECS hosted the "Lower North Island" site for the Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest's South Pacific Regionals. The top team from Australia and the top team from New Zealand get to represent the region at the World Finals to be held in Poland in May 2012. The winner of the Lower North Island (Wellington) site DJ T...
We congratulate the Faculty of Architecture and Design for their third place success in the Solar Decathlon competition and are glad that we could contribute to their triumph in the Engineering category. "Compliments to Abby for her successful input to the VUW First Light team" Prof John Hine, Dean, Faculty of Engineering Engineering from Victoria University of Wellington was judged top in the US...
Three post graduate students from the School of Engineering and Computer Science achieved success in the Wellington Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Present around the World Competition on the 9th October. The competition was held at Beca's premises on Molesworth Street. Abigail Arulandu was placed first, Dayna Maree Kivell third, while Juan Rada Vilella was fourth. Abigail will g...
All of our cohort of graduating Bachelors of Engineering students have gone on to find graduate level employment. This illustrates both the need for digitally focused engineers from our specialisations (Software Engineering, Network Engineering, Electronics and Computer Systems Engineering) and their quality. Big name companies, such as Google (Australia), GNS, Fisher Paykel Healthcare and Aviat...
On the 23rd of November 2011, ECS and VUW hosted 51 Year 10 girls from around the Wellington Greater Region as part of the annual Programming Challenge 4 Girls competition. The girls worked in pairs to complete a series of challenges developed by AUT in Alice. At the same time, teachers attended a Professional Development workshop to learn about electronics and programming. ECS graduate students a...
Like many teenage boys, Pippin Barr spent time playing games in arcades, rented SEGA games, and bought a Playstation when it became available. However, it wasn t until he embarked on a Phd at Victoria University that he realised he could build a serious career around gaming. He majored in Philosophy and Computer Science, and encouraged by his academic mentor, he went on to do his PhD research on ...
Victoria University student brainpower is helping the Firefox web browser go faster. Victoria's School of Engineering and Computer Science has partnered with Mozilla Firefox's Auckland office to carry out research projects, some of which will help improve the performance of the world's second most popular browser. The collaboration was forged by Dr Alex Potanin, Senior Lecturer in Software Engine...
The Australian Computer Society (ACS) released the annual Australian ICT Statistical Compendium, showing strong demand for ICT jobs. The report is a comprehensive analysis of statistical data about ICT economic and social trends. * Value of digital economy in 2011 was $100 billion ICT * demand forecasts 14,000 extra jobs in 2012 and up to a total of 35,000 by 2013 * University ICT annua...
OpenFlow (an open source networking technology) research is currently being conducted at Victoria University of Wellington, UC Berkeley, UC Stanford, and University of Waikato. Google has explained how it is revamping its network, which is ranked highly amongst large Internet service providers, using an open source networking technology called OpenFlow. The Open Networking Summit 2012 was held on ...
An interdisciplinary group of researchers including Ian Welch, Stuart Marshall and Susan Corbett (Commercial Law) from Victoria University have received an $AU 186,000 grant to by write histories of the early digital age, and preserving key artefacts. ‘Play It Again’ is the project of a Flinders led consortium of researchers concerned with the history and preservation of early software, specifical...
Abigail Rajendran, a Masters student in Engineering has won the Victoria University 3 Minute Thesis Competition. Abigail gave a speech based on her research project, titled 'Magneto Rheological Compliant Actuator for Stroke Rehabilitation'. Her project involves using magneto rheological fluid to design and build a compliant actuator that could be used to rehabilitate the hand of a person who has h...
Dr Person:PavleMogin recently retired from Victoria University of Wellington having served the department and faculty for over a decade, from 2000 2012. To help celebrate Pavle's retirement a small party was held with some speeches and a document as well as a tribute video was put together: A Tribute to Dr. Pavle Mogin.
School of ECS senior lecturer Person:DavidPearce was interviewed (mp3) for VBC Radio recently. VBC is a student radio station run from Victoria University’s Kelburn campus. The interview features a 60 second research seminar followed by a discussion of David’s research. In the interview, David talks about his 3 year research project on Whiley, a programming language he has developed, and the nee...
School of ECS student Matthew Betts led the winning company in Startup Weekend Wellington on 29th July. Along with SOAD student Max O’ Brien, he successfully pitched Questo!, an educational gaming platform which encourages student participation in homework. The first prize includes $10,000 advertising on TradeMe, $1,000 MYOB business services start up package, a 3 month part time desk based at B...
Henry Williams is a 22 year old Victoria student pursuing his PhD and making some great headway in the field of robotics. His current research involves allowing robots to navigate unfamiliar environments and then create an internal mapping system that can be relayed to other robots. This essentially means the robot learns the most efficient way to get from A to B. He holds first class honours in a...
As New Zealand looks increasingly towards science and engineering to drive business innovation, Victoria University‘s Faculty of Engineering has made an important step forward for students in the field. Victoria University's four year Bachelor of Engineering (BE) programme has achieved full accreditation from the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ). The promotion from provis...
Congratulations to Professor Rod Downey FRSNZ from Victoria‘s School of Mathematics, Statistics and Operations Research, who has been selected to join the inaugural class of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society, in honour of his distinguished contribution to mathematics. He will be officially inducted at the world‘s largest mathematics meeting, the 2013 Joint Mathematics Meetings, in San D...
School of ECS senior lecturer Dr Robin Dykstra and his VUW colleagues Dr Petrik Galvosas (SCPS) and Dr Paul Teal (ECS) were awarded a grant of $880,000 per annum for 4 years from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's 2012 science investment round, the High Value Manufacturing and Services Research Fund. The grant will be used to support research in the field of Nuclear Magnetic Res...
OMV New Zealand Ltd. Scholarships 2013 Postgraduate Study in Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Engineering OMV New Zealand Ltd. is offering a scholarship of up to $10,000 for one academic year. Candidates must be New Zealand citizens or residents enrolled in a New Zealand University institution or an internationally recognised overseas university institution, and involved in a project that ...
Abigail Arulandu didn't plan to study engineering at Victoria University but the opportunities it has brought her confirm she made an excellent choice. After being roped into a speech competition for young engineers at Victoria, Abigail went on to win the Asia Pacific final of the prestigious Institution of Engineering Technology event and is gearing up for the world finals in London. The Engineer...
Masters student Abigail Arulandu has been named as a finalist in the youth category of the Wellingtonian of the Year Awards. For her Master of Engineering project, Abigail designed and built a device to assist with the rehabilitation of stroke patients by helping then re gain control and strength in their hand and arm muscles. New Zealand company Im Able obtained funding from the Ministry of Scien...
It was with great sadness that the School of Engineering and Computer Science learned that Professor Paul Austin died in Cambridge, England on Saturday the 13th October, following a long battle with cancer. Paul joined the Faculty of Engineering part time in 2009 as Professor of Control Systems Engineering, while also holding a part time research post at Cambridge University Engineering Department...
Teaching Robots to Navigate Dr Will Browne (Senior Lecturer) and Henry Williams (PhD candidate) are researching ways to teach autonomous robots to learn to navigate themselves without human interaction. The process of a robot constructing a map of its surroundings and at the same time locating where it is positioned within that map is called simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM). This res...
e Science consultant Kevin Buckley has been awarded a 2012 General Staff Award for providing technical support to researchers using e research. Seven researchers across five schools and research centres supported is nomination. Within this group, Kevin was a co author of two papers, and two of the researchers were recently awarded Marsden grants. Kevin’s proposed citation commends him for consist...
At the SPLASH 2012 conference in Tucson Arizona, it was announced that Professor James Noble and Adjunct Professor Robert Biddle has won the award for the Onward! most influential paper from 10 years ago. The 2002 paper, titled Notes on Postmodern Programming, argues that computer science and software design developed within the framework of Modernism, and uses “a series of snapshots, parodies, an...
A wireless vibration sensor being developed by a Victoria University student could provide a low cost solution for engineers to monitor the damage of buildings affected by earthquakes. The wireless vibration sensor built by Victoria University engineering student Daniel Tomicek. Daniel Tomicek, a fourth year Electronic and Computer Systems Engineering student, has been working on the innovative de...
Abigail Rajendran Victoria University 3MT Winner 2012 On 11th October 2012 I was honoured to represent Victoria University at the Trans Tasman Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition, which was held at the University of Queensland at the Brain Institute. I spoke on my Masters project titled ‘Magneto rheological compliant actuator for stroke rehabilita tion’. The day started early with all contest...
A video clip demonstrating the MechBass robotic bass guitar designed by Victoria engineering student James McVay has attracted nearly 500,000 views on YouTube in just two weeks. The fourth year student designed and built the robotic bass guitar, which sounds like the traditional instrument but looks like a stack of aluminium extrusions, illuminated circuit boards and a web of cables. The idea was...
PhD Student Masood Mansoori has been awarded best student paper at the Australasian Information Security Conference (AISC) on how to scan networks in order to allow the automation of this creation of a network of "honeypots". He wrote this paper in conjunction with Hamid Mohammadzadeh from the University of Malaya and Dr Ian Welch from Victoria University. Honeypots are computers that only exist i...
A Victoria University researcher’s investigations into improving the diagnosis and treatment of hearing defects will take a leap forward as a result of winning funding from the European Commission. Dr Paul Teal, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering and Computer Science, is part an international research team that has been awarded €2.9 million (NZ$4.5 million) by the 7th Framework Progra...
The ECS Mechatronics group, head by Professor Dale Carnegie, has developed a system of robots, called "rubblebots" for use in search and rescue situations. The impetus for the research was the failure of robots to find survivors in the World Trade Centre disaster zone after September 11th 2001. Dale Carnegie explains that robots subsequently developed for search and rescue are just too big and exp...
Victoria University, including our School of Engineering and Computer Science, has demonstrated international excellence in research and has been ranked top New Zealand University for research under government backed criteria. Victoria University has been ranked first in the 2012 Performance Based Research Fund Quality Evaluation, which was published by the Tertiary Education Commission yesterday....
Three ECS students were recently awarded prestigious academic prizes For 2012. The School of ECS congratulates these students for their well deserved success. Aneta Stevanovic, who graduated with a BSc majoring in computer science in 2012, was awarded the Addison Wesley Prize in Computer Science. Aneta is starting her Masters degree soon, and says the prize will be very useful for purchasing the...
An article published in the Dominion Post on the 4th April highlights Victoria University's initiatives to demonstrate the how much fun computer science is, and the great careers that are available. The computer science taught at Victoria University of Wellington covers building 'hybrid engines' rather than 'driving a car' everything from creating your own programming language to app game cre...
Skills in software development springboard for success Michael Mudge thought it could have been a hoax when a Google recruiter contacted him after seeing his profile on the professional networking site LinkedIn, but his suspicions were unfounded. The Victoria University of Wellington computing graduate has taken up a position with Google in San Francisco after being headhunted by the owners of the...
Congratulations to Syed Saud Naqvi for his Best Paper Award at the New Zealand Computer Science Research Student Conference 2013. This conference brings together the best young researchers in ICT in New Zealand.Saud's paper investigated models of human eye movement. Humans concentrate only on small parts of an image at a time, termed fixation. Saud developed an existing biologically inspired model...
New study shows kiwi call in perfect harmony A group of researchers at Victoria University studying the little spotted kiwi are uncovering surprising results about our national bird’s behaviour. Dr Andrew Digby, Dr Ben Bell and Dr Paul Teal SECS have conducted the first ever acoustic study of little spotted kiwi, New Zealand’s second rarest kiwi. Over a period of three years, they measured hundr...
Paving the way for female Māori graduates 13 May 2013 Miria Royal doesn’t see herself as a trail blazer for Māori women but, as the first Māori female to be accepted into Vodafone’s Graduate Technology Programme, it’s a concept the Victoria University graduate is getting used to. Miria, who will be awarded a Bachelor of Engineering tonight, says she feels a responsibility to other Māori women in t...
A passion for problem solving leads brothers to collaborate on study and work Seeing the interesting assignments his brother was doing for his Engineering degree at Victoria University of Wellington confirmed Alex Quinlivan’s decision to follow the same path. John Quinlivan is a third year student and Alex is in his first year. Both are majoring in Software Engineering. “We spent a lot of our chi...
The Google Anita Borg Scholarship was established in 2004 to honor the legacy of Dr. Anita Borg and her efforts to encourage women to pursue careers in computer science and technology. Scholarships will be awarded based on the strength of candidates’ academic background and demonstrated leadership. A group of female undergraduate and graduate student finalists will be chosen from the applicant poo...
Congratulations to Dr Mansoor Shafi for receiving a Queens honours. Dr Mansoor Shafi Member of New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) For services to wireless communication technologies. Dr Mansoor Shafi, of Wellington, is Telecom Fellow at Telecom New Zealand and Adjunct Professor, School of Engineering and Computer Science. His rich industrial experience and knowledge of telecoms informs h...
A new PhD scholarship in computer graphics at Victoria University, established by Weta Digital, will strengthen the drive by the two organisations to develop graduates who can power growth in Wellington’s digital industries. The Weta scholarship, which covers PhD fees for three years and offers an annual $25,000 stipend, is also expected to provide opportunities for the successful recipient to wor...
Open PhD position in Affective Robotics : Victoria University of Wellington is pleased to announce a full doctorate scholarship to conduct research in analogues of emotion for robotic mapping, localisation and path planning at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand (VUW). VUW is ranked number one in New Zealand for research in the NZ Government Research Exercise 2013. The PhD scholarship i...
Josh/VUW PhD scholarship position Overview Victoria University is pleased to announce a co funded PhD scholarship position (approx NZ$35k/year for 3 years) in Software Defined Networks (SDN). The position based at Victoria University will provide research which is of practical benefit to the SDN community and the NZ networking community in particular. This may be via applied research of use and in...
On the 17th June at Transpower House, Associate Professor Henry Louie from the College of Science and Engineering, Seattle University, gave a seminar on the importance of energy in raising the standard of living amongst people living in poverty, and the role engineers might play in helping them gain access to electricity. The seminar was jointly organised by EEA, IEEE PES Chapter, and Victoria Uni...
Professor Mike Wilson has joined Victoria University as the new Pro Vice Chancellor of Science, Engineering and Architecture and Design. Vice Chancellor Professor Pat Walsh says he is delighted with Professor Wilson’s appointment. “Professor Wilson has an established record of strategic, academic and administrative leadership and will bring valuable experience to the high performing teams in these...
A smartphone app and website which the public could use to report livestock polluting waterways, rubbish dumping and overflows from outfall pipes have been developed by students at Victoria University’s School of Engineering and Computer Science. The innovations are part of the River Watch project, carried out by a group of third year engineering students, supervised by Professor Winston Seah. Th...
Victoria University computer science graduate Matthew Duignan, who is now working for Microsoft in Seattle, has helped develop a successful Visual strategic planning and outcomes tool 'DoView'.DoView helps companies visualise outcomes in strategic planning, management, monitoring and evaluation of tasks and is gaining worldwide appreciation:Please see their websitehttp://www.doview.com/Or a recent...
Congratulations to researcher Muhammad Iqbal and his supervisors Dr Will Browne and Prof Mengjie Zhang on a Best Paper award at a leading International Conference on Evolutionary Computation. At the recent Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, GECCO, Amsterdam, July 2013, they were awarded the best paper in the Genetics based Machine Learning Track. GECCO is an Australian Research Counc...
Students and staff of Victoria University of Wellington's School of Engineering and Computer Science recently attended the 20th annual Engineering New Zealand Conference (ENZCon), held at Massey University's Albany campus from the 5th – 6th September. VUW ECS PhD student Jim Murphy was awarded the Best Presentation prize for his talk about Swivel 2, a mechatronic guitar system which he is developi...
Victoria Engineering students win Australasian robotics competition A team of engineering students from Victoria University of Wellington has taken top honours in the Australasian National Instruments Autonomous Robotics Competition held in Melbourne this week. The Victoria team, ‘Ownbot’, beat 15 other teams from Australian and New Zealand universities with its robot Michelangelo, named aft...
Study Software for Game Development Skills "Booming NZ game industry faces skills shortage" Study Software Engineering (BE) or Computer Science (BSc) at Victoria University of Wellington to gain skills necessary for success in the rapidly expanding New Zealand game industry. Studying at Victoria gives you a range of skills, starting from the core programming skills, algorithms and ending with dedi...
The school offers two first courses in Computer Science: COMP 102 and COMP 112. COMP 102 is designed for students with little or no experience in programming; COMP 112 is designed particularly for students who have taken the new NCEA programming standards in High School, but it will also be appropriate for students who have learned some programming via another route. New students should take o...
Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) and Victoria University are teaming up to trial the use of aerial imagery taken from a small unmanned plane to monitor the amount of toxic algae in the Hutt River this summer. Toxic algae, or cyanobacteria as its scientifically known, has been linked with 11 dog deaths in the river since 2005. The trial will involve flying the plane (known as an Unmanned ...
Professor James Noble is one of two academics to be awarded a James Cook Fellowship for his research project entitled "Reliable Software Via Patterns and Ownership". His research aims to address software failures by identifying recurring design patterns in the specification of design of software systems. The Fellowship is worth $100,000 plus $10,000 in relevant exenses per annum for two year. For ...
Victoria University of Wellington researchers are poised to make a significant contribution to one of the world’s largest science projects—the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope. In an announcement recently by Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce, Victoria University was named as one of two New Zealand research groups which will lead two work areas in the pre construction of the ...
Computer Graphics students at Victoria University have created an alternative to an animation technique used by studios such as Disney and Pixar. The work is the result of a collaborative project by Byron Mallett, a Master’s student in the School of Design, and Richard Roberts, a PhD student in the School of Engineering and Computer Science, as part of Victoria’s interdisciplinary Computer Graphi...
The ICT syllabus was overhauled and new standards introduced into the New Zealand secondary schools in 2011 2013 and this month in IITP Techblog, Sarah Putt summarises two research papers that look at this in detail:The Role of Teachers in Implementing Curriculum Changes by David Thompson, Prof Tim Bell, Dr Peter Andreae and Prof Anthony Robbins, and Adoption of new Computer Science high school st...
Victoria University graduand Ben Drayton has come up with a way to help solve the problem of measuring distance to a moving object. By developing what his PhD supervisor describes as a “world first technique”, Ben’s research is enabling an emerging measurement technology, called an indirect time of flight camera, to function more effectively. The 24 year old student from Wellington, who graduates ...
Here are the top 10 reasons why students choose to study with us at ECS!
Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) and Victoria University students are teaming up to trial the use of aerial imagery taken from a small unmanned plane to monitor the amount of toxic algae in the Hutt River this summer. Mark Heath is a PhD student with the School of Biological Science, and Jonathan Olds is a PhD student with the School of Engineering and Computer Science. The trial will i...
PhD Candidate Masood Mansoori's paper "YALIH, Yet Another Low Interaction Honeyclient" was awarded the 2014 Computing Research Education Best Paper for best graduate paper presented at the annual Australasian Information Security Conference (ACSW AISC). His supervisors and co authors are Dr Ian Welch and Dr Qiang Fu from the School of Engineering and Computer Science. The paper describes an imp...
The School of Engineering and Computer Science at Victoria University of Wellington is part of an international group which has been awarded a prestigious grant funded by the European Union. The highly sought after Erasmus Mundus grant will allow PhD students, post doctoral researchers and staff members to share and collaborate on their research by visiting partner universities. The project theme ...
David Owen, from the IET Council and Wellington Network Committee, presenting the IET 2013 prize to Victoria University student, Thomas Sherson. The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is a leading professional body that shares and advances knowledge to promote science, engineering and technology through its more than 150,000 members in 127 countries. It offers a professional home for ...
Andy Linton, a senior lecturer at Victoria University explains on Radio NZ his job as one of the 14 keyholders helping to keep the internet secure. http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2588544/andy linton internet key holder
Windy Wellington is providing the perfect backdrop for two postgraduate students from Victoria University to research the potential of wind power. Daniel Akinyele and Hatem Alzaanin are part of a newly formed and rapidly expanding power and renewable energy systems research group led by Dr Ramesh Rayudu at Victoria’s School of Engineering and Computer Science. Daniel and Hatem are poised to raise ...
Described as “the equivalent of a desktop version of a mainframe computer” the smart red Spinsolve machine sitting on a lab bench at Victoria University is evidence, say its designers, that the vision of the late Sir Paul Callaghan is coming to fruition. Spinsolve is an early product resulting from a $4 million dollar investment in research being carried out by scientists at Victoria and Magritek,...
A number of prizes are awarded annually to the top performing undergraduate students in the School of Engineering and Computer Science. These awards are possible through the generosity of organisations in the Wellington region. Since 2006 Datacom Systems has been awarding a $5,000 scholarship to a full time student intending to undertake 300 level study in Computer Science or Engineering. The awar...
There are 14 people worldwide who own keys that protect the security of web domain names. One of those people, engineer Andy Linton, joins James Ball, special projects editor for Guardian US, and Consider This host Antonio Mora to explain how the security system works and how Linton came to be a key holder. To see this item on America Aljazeera please click on the link below: http://america.aljaze...
Dr Qiang Fu, from the School of Engineering and Computer Science, has been awarded a $20,000 grant for a project to understand the practical issues on the adoption of Software Defined Networking (SDN), technology that helps network administrators manage network services. Each year InternetNZ grants nearly half a million dollars to individuals and organisations who share its vision of a better worl...
Victoria University of Wellington will play host to an e sport tournament over the holidays, with students both co ordinating and competing in online games. Organised by the Victoria Engineering Club (VEC), teams of students will play League of Legends which, with 27 million active players, is currently one of the most popular video games worldwide. Through the support of Riot, the company behind ...
The morning after Hannah Faesenkloet graduates with a Bachelor of Design Innovation, the 21 year old will be back working in the start up company she’s founded with three other former Victoria University of Wellington students. Hannah is the youngest person, and the only woman, to currently be part of Wellington’s Lightning Lab—New Zealand’s first digital accelerator programme to help fledgling c...
A news item of Seven Sharp about NCEA that features Victoria University students and Professor Dale Carnegie from the Faculty of Engineering: http://tvnz.co.nz/seven sharp/ncea more harm than good video 5949178
James McCann is a software engineer with drive. During his final year of study at Victoria University of Wellington, James helped to develop a more cost effective model for New Zealand’s traffic lights. Under the supervision of Dr Paul Teal, a senior lecturer in the School of Engineering and Computer Science, James created a model called the Priority Based Traffic Control system (PBTC). But it’s n...
The Tertiary Education Commission recently announced funding of just under $210 million over six years for six Centres of Research Excellence (CoREs). Dr Marcus Frean, from the School of Engineering and Computer Science at Victoria University, will contribute as a Principal Investigator to one of the six centres Te Pūnaha Matatini Centre for Complex Systems and Networks. While hosted by the Univ...
The closing date for the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship has been extended till the 28th May 2014. To be eligible to apply, applicants must: * Be a female student enrolled in undergraduate or postgraduate study in the 2015 academic year. * Be enrolled in a university in Asia Pacific, excluding Greater China* where we have an additional scholars’ retreat in China Mainland. Citizens, pe...
CAPEd crusader addresses online security Security breaches are becoming more frequent and serious as our dependence on computer systems increases. Anyone concerned about the security of their data may view Professor James Noble of Victoria University of Wellington as a hero. He has been awarded a Marsden Fund grant to develop a new way of keeping computer systems more secure. Any program reachable...
Radio NZ news piece on Morning Report about the Government funding of science and engineering. http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2597398/students criticise government focus on science and engineering
Summer Research Scholarships offer a unique opportunity for students to gain experience in research and obtain an insight into what studying for a research degree entails. Each scholarship gives a student the experience of working with established researchers in an area of interest to them, under the supervision of an academic staff member or a research team. The School of Engineering and Computer...
A team of Victoria University of Wellington students and graduates have created a balance board that helps people stay motivated and have fun while undergoing physical therapy. As part of the Viclink Digital Futures / Product Futures summer ‘boot camp’, an interdisciplinary team of engineers, marketers and designers developed Switchboard—a balance board that connects to a smartphone and allows pat...
Wellington may be a long way from home for Nigerian PhD student Daniel Akinyele, but it’s providing the perfect location for him to research the potential of wind power. Daniel’s research explores the use of micro grids, which are small scale power generators such as a solar panel or wind turbine, that can be located on residential or commercial buildings. They can be connected to the main networ...
Victoria University physics student Elf Eldridge will discuss the field of nanotechnology and provide a glimpse into the world of PhD study at a free talk in Napier this month. Presented in association with the Hawke’s Bay Branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Elf will give a broad introduction to what nanotechnology is and why it's important, followed by a discussion of his own PhD researc...
Applications are invited for the position of Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Engineering and Computer Science. This is a two year fixed term position. The main objective of this position is to conduct high quality research in Programming Languages and Software Engineering, particularly within the Grace project. This will include design, implementation, and support work on the Grace ...
Elf Eldridge is leading Victoria University's new engineering outreach programme for secondary school students and challenging stereotypes about what engineering is and where it can lead. Elf, who is currently completing his PhD in Physics and was part of the University’s 2013 Know Your Mind recruitment campaign, was snapped up by the School of Engineering late last year and given the mission of e...
A Victoria University engineering lecturer is shedding light on household power usage, as part of her research into improving the way New Zealand uses electricity. Dr Rebecca Ford, from the School of Engineering and Computer Science, is part of a nationwide research team exploring the future of electricity supply and consumption in New Zealand. The GREEN Grid project, funded by the Ministry of Bus...
If you’re a third year or above, interested and skilled in research, you could spend the summer supporting a research project and earn a valuable scholarship. The Summer Research Scholarships offer a unique opportunity for you to obtain experience in research. Working with globally recognised researchers in a local setting, you will gain valuable real world experience as well as an insight into wh...
Congratulations to a team of researchers from School of Engineering and Computer Science from being awarded a Best Paper on their computer vision utilising evolutionary computation work. Muhammad Iqbal, Saud Syed Naqvi, Person:WillBrowne, Person:ChristopherHollitt and Person:MengjieZhang were awarded one of 11 best papers (out of 544 submissions ~ 2% awarded BP), which is voted on by peer reviewer...
The Winternz program brings New Zealand undergraduate students to Silicon Valley for 12 week internships over the New Zealand summer. Micah Cinco, a Networking student at the School of Engineering and Computer Science, spent the four month summer break interning with Pertino Networks. Read about his experience here: http://kiwilandingpad.com/sacrificing a nz summer for winter in silicon valley/ Ap...
Congratulations to Dr Alex Potanin from the School of Engineering and Computer Science who was one of the authors that won a Distinguished Paper Award at the European Conference on Object Oriented Programming (ECOOP) 2014. The paper was entitled "Safely Composable Type Specific Languages" and resulted from the work that Dr Alex Potanin performed while on research and study leave at the Carnegie Me...
A fully funded Masters scholarship position in Software Defined Networking (SDN).SDN is a new networking technology, which greatly improves network programmability, that is changing how we design, build and operate networks. In this project, we will investigate the practical issues on the adoption of SDN in production networks. It is a great opportunity to work with SDN communities both locally an...
Summer of Tech is a very successful student internship programme for those studying for a technology related career. Launched in 2006 and now in its eighth year of operation the award winning programme helps businesses source top talent from local tertiary institutions while giving students valuable real world industry experience. The programme includes a series of bootcamps and industry led skill...
This Callaghan Innovation R D Career 2014 position is for a recent graduate of a postgraduate program. The position is fixed term and for a duration of six months but with the possibility of extension to a permanent contract.Magritek specializes in providing compact NMR and MRI systems for industrial and educational customers around the world. The present R D focus is the development of compact lo...
Victoria University Engineering students, Steve Richardson and Cameron Shuker, took out the top prize in the first Summer of Tech mechatronics Hackfest in Wellington last weekend. The Hackfest was one of several events in the Summer of Tech internship programme which connects students with local technology companies. This year Grow Wellington has extended the programme to manufacturing companies l...
A team of Victoria University of Wellington students is heading to Sydney this week to defend the title won by the University in the 2013 at the Australasian National Instruments Autonomous Robotics Competition (NI ARC) in Melbourne. A team from Victoria’s School of Engineering and Computer Science, led by Robby Lopez, beat 15 other teams from Australian and New Zealand universities to take top h...
Victoria University of Wellington’s engineering students are continuing to push the frontiers of pollution monitoring in New Zealand’s waterways through an innovative collaboration known as RiverWatch. The next phase of the RiverWatch venture, which involves Victoria University’s School of Engineering and Computer Science and the Water Action Initiative New Zealand (WaiNZ), will be launched next ...
A report released this week shows more and more New Zealanders, unhappy with their power providers, are turning to solar energy. Dr Rebecca Ford, a lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Engineering and Computer Science, is the lead researcher on the report which looks into the uptake of Photovoltaic (PV) to generate electricity in New Zealand. Dr Ford says the report showed ...
A group of Victoria University of Wellington students will spend the summer developing an interactive website that will allow the public and government organisations to see how the energy choices we make today will impact New Zealand in 2050. The venture is a partnership between Victoria and the National Energy Research Institute (NERI), with support from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and ...
Musical machines and robots will take over Victoria University of Wellington’s Hub this Friday. Following the success of last year’s event, the Sonic Arts and Engineering Showcase brings together 20 collaborative installations designed by students from Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music (NZSM) Sonic Arts programme and Victoria’s Faculty of Engineering Electronics courses. These projects include m...
This summer Victoria University of Wellington will be home to four Singaporean students researching cyber threats. The students have been working with Dr Ian Welch, a lecturer in Victoria’s school of Engineering and Computer Science, as part of a partnership between Victoria and Singapore Polytechnic. In their final year of the diploma in information security, the students have been working in gro...
A computer scientist at Victoria University of Wellington is part of an international team that has designed a way to overcome problems that occur when using multiple programming languages to write webpages. Dr Alex Potanin, a senior lecturer at Victoria’s School of Engineering and Computer Science, has helped design Wyvern, a piece of software that allows many different programming languages to b...
Two new senior appointments have been announced for the Faculties of Science and Engineering. Professor Dave Harper will take the role as Dean of Science for the Faculty of Science, and Professor Mengjie Zhang is the new Associate Dean (Research and Innovation) for the Faculty of Engineering. Professor Mike Wilson, Pro Vice Chancellor for the Faculties of Science, Engineering, Architecture and Des...
Three Wellington tertiary providers are working with industry to develop a joint Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Graduate School that addresses the specific needs of the region. Earlier this year the Government announced it was investing $28.6 million over four years in ICT graduate schools in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Victoria University of Wellington, WelTec and Whit...
Victoria University of Wellington student Valerie Chan will learn from the top tech minds this summer as she interns at Google's Sydney headquarters. After a long and rigorous application process Valerie, who has just completed her first year at Victoria studying computer science and mathematics, was selected for the Google STEP (Summer Trainee Engineering Programme) which runs from 24 November to...
The School of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) hosted the first Wellington Security Defender Day.Worldwide, the economic impact of cybercrime is estimated at $523 billion (http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital living/60096249/cybercrimes cost at 523b worldwide) and as New Zealand ICT companies grow so does their exposure to cybercriminals.Fighting back against cybercrime requires web sec...
The Postgraduate Student Association (PGSA) has a long standing tradition of recognising postgraduate excellence through the Victorias Awards which was hosted on Thursday 27 November 2014 in the Hunter Lounge. The Victorias Awards provide the opportunity to celebrate excellence in postgraduate research within Victoria University. They also recognise the support of postgraduate students, academic a...
Robots may soon see the world differently thanks to work being done at Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Engineering and Computer Science. Syed Saud Naqvi, a PhD student from Pakistan, is working on an algorithm to help computer programmes and robots to view static images in a way that is closer to how humans see. Saud explains: “Right now computer programmes see things as very flat—...
The School of Engineering and Computer Science staff and students are creating unique musical performances involving a trio of Tesla coils. Tesla coils, invented by Serbian American Nickola Tesla in the 1890s, produce high voltage electricity and have inspired many kinds of research and musical performances. The coils can play a range of original compositions written by PhD students from Victoria’...
Dr Ian Welch from Victoria University of Wellington and Prof Xun Yi from RMIT have organised an upcoming cybersecurity workshop and conference as part of the Australasian Computer Science Week at the University of West Sydney. This is a hugely topical subject in light of recent cyber attacks involving governments such as North Korea and organisations such as Anonymous. Invited speakers include Dr ...
Victoria University of Wellington is running a workshop aimed at getting Wellington’s tech community up to speed with the latest in network technology. The two day workshop, to be held on 18 and 19 February, will give participants an understanding of Software Defined Networking (SDN), an emerging paradigm which allows software to be accessed and changed remotely. The workshops content has been ada...
Home entertainment could soon be experienced in four dimensions as a result of upcoming research at Victoria University of Wellington. The project, which involves a multi disciplinary team from New Zealand and Korea, will investigate how computer graphics and emerging interactive technologies can be combined to create new, immersive, home entertainment experiences. The New Zealand team, led by Dr ...
The School of Engineering and Computer Science welcomes all new students. We recommend that you attend the new students’ orientation from the 23 27 February. For further details check out: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/students/new students/orientation On Thursday 26 February all new engineering and computer science students are invited to a welcome session in lecture theatre 101 in the Maclaurin bu...
The School of Engineering and Computer Science is hosting a lecture about the work of Alan Turing, often dubbed the father of modern computing and the subject of the film The Imitation Game. Professor Rod Downey from the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Operations Research at Victoria will deliver the public lecture in which he aims to give an accurate picture of Turing’s work and his place i...
Year 10 students at St Mary's College were captivated by visiting speakers at a special assembly to launch the TechHub CREST Challenge to develop a phone app. St Mary’s students have started their journey into the arena of software development, highly motivated by words of encouragement from Tasha Sharp who is based at the Institute of IT Professionals, and four senior Victoria University students...
Two full time Masters scholarships are available for qualified candidates to undertake research studies leading to a Masters in computer networks at Victoria University of Wellington. The successful candidates will be supervised by Dr. Qiang Fu and industry partners, and conduct research in one of the following areas: * Coordinated resource allocation / scheduling in 4G/5G mobile cellular netwo...
The Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship is open for applications with a deadline of 27th May 2015. Anita Borg believed that technology affects all aspects of our economic, political, social and personal lives. In her life she fought tirelessly to ensure that technology’s impact would be a positive one. It was this vision that inspired Anita in 1997 to found the Institute for Women and Technolog...
A first year engineering project at Victoria University will see thousands of students in Samoa have faster, more reliable computer networks in the classroom. Students from Victoria’s School of Engineering will be cleaning, checking and upgrading about 160 old network switches that are no longer used by the University. The upcycled network switches would otherwise be sold as scrap metal. The proje...
Professor Winston Seah, from the School of Engineering and Computer Science, has been awarded a $30,000 grant from InternetNZ to fund a Masters’ project that aims to address a key challenge for businesses dealing with exploding volumes of data. More than ever before, says Professor Seah, businesses are reliant on data to function efficiently and effectively. As we continue to digitise information ...
A model developed at Victoria University of Wellington has helped researchers conduct intricate experiments into the cochlea, which may lead to improved methods of treatment for hearing impairments. PhD student Mohammad Ayat’s research involved developing a model of the cochlea, a snail shaped chamber in the human ear, focused on the cochlear microphonic (CM)—an electrical signal generated inside ...
The School of Engineering and Computer Science is offering two full time Master scholarships (domestic tuition fees plus a 1 year stipend of NZ$20,000) to excellent candidates to work on the following topics: * "Performance Evaluation and Analytical Modelling of SDN and OpenFlow based Networks and Systems". The successful candidate is expected to have a good foundation in theoretical performanc...
Drivers may be less frustrated by the apparent whims of traffic signals if a research project by Victoria University of Wellington associate professor, Dr Paul Teal, goes ahead. The multidisciplinary project aims to bring together economists and engineers to design a traffic control system that reduces operational costs and delays, thereby delivering both economic and social benefits. Strengthen...
Computer Science workshop to inspire new way of teaching “Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes” Edsger Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist Invitation: Victoria University of Wellington invites primary teachers to a free workshop which aims to change the way computer science is taught to primary school students. Computer Science Unplugged (CSU) is a collec...
Top VUW computer scientists rewarded for pioneering research A trio of enterprising academics from Victoria University of Wellington's School of Engineering and Computer Science have been recognised and rewarded at the highest level internationally for their ground breaking research into software development methodology. Professor of Computer Science James Noble, colleague George Allan and PhD stu...
Many Engineering students want to get ‘hands on’ with their course work as quickly as possible—after all, they’re often practical people who like to learn through doing. So when Victoria University’s first year Engineering students discover they’ll be building an autonomous vehicle during their first trimester , most can’t believe their luck! “The first part of Engineering 101 (ENGR101) gives stu...
Sushi wasn't the only thing Computer Science PhD student Harith Al Sahaf got a taster of when he travelled to Sendai, Japan in May this year. The trip to the IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC) represented Harith's first overseas conference. He and a team of collaborators from New Zealand and Australia presented a prize winning paper to an audience of top researchers and practitioners ...
Nearly 40 years since he began lecturing Computer Science at Victoria University in 1977, Professor John Hine has become an integral part of both the academic environment and the daily hustle and bustle of university life. You could describe him as a greatly respected 'part of the furniture' – in the most positive sense of the phrase – although the enterprising academic does not sit still for long...
We asked Daniel Yeoh, a fourth year Electrical and Computer Engineering student, to share his impressions of the recent Wellington Science and Research Startup Weekend. This is what he had to say... “The Science and Research Startup Weekend was a New Zealand first, where a bunch of different people competed to create a viable startup business in just one weekend. It began with everyone who wanted ...
When you hear the words 'government' and 'hack' in the same sentence, you could be forgiven for thinking there is questionable business afoot. But third year Computer Science student Kate Henderson assures us the recent GovHack weekend in Wellington was all above board. Here's what she has to say about her team's success at the competition... “GovHack is an event run across Australia and New Zeala...
Cycling is an increasingly popular way of getting around in New Zealand. However, in 2013 alone, eight cyclists died, 171 were seriously injured and 646 suffered minor injuries in police reported crashes on New Zealand roads( Ministry of Transport, Cyclist Crash Facts). Michael Baird, who is studying for a BE(Hons), is hoping to discover how cyclists can lower the inherent risks of being less pro...
Professor Dale Carnegie accepts his prestigious teaching award from Hon Steven Joyce at Parliament. Photo credit: Ako Aotearoa. Victoria University of Wellington’s Dean of Engineering has received one of the highest teaching honours in his profession—a 2015 Ako Aotearoa Tertiary Teaching Excellence award. Professor Dale Carnegie, who judges commended for his motivational teaching style, caring att...
The Software Defined Networking Research Centre aims to foster collaboration with industry, academia and individuals as well as promote independent research and development activities promoting Software Defined Networking (SDN). SDN is a new networking technology which greatly improves network programmability and is changing how we design, build and operate networks. Scholarship opportunities. We ...
A Victoria University of Wellington PhD student is creating waves around the world with a win in the 2015 Sonic Arts Award. Mo Zareei won first place in the Sound Art category of the international competition for his piece Rasping Music, based on a video entry of the work exhibited in the 2014 Wellington Lux festival. The Sonic Arts Award is dedicated to the art of sound. It has four categories—So...
Over the 2015/2016 summer the Faculty will provide several scholarships to students, providing a unique opportunity for students to gain experience in research. Students will be selected on the basis of academic merit, expertise in the research area and recommendations from staff associated with the project. For general information, terms and conditions, and to check your eligibility, see Summer ...
Since Lohit Petikam was young, he's been curious about how things work. As his understanding grew, his curiosity shifted to how he could make things work. Teamed with his expanding interest in maths and a realisation of the power of computers, Lohit's curiosity transformed into a new hobby—programming. "I found myself making things, like small games and music visualisations. Then I developed an ob...
Ever wondered just how a Zombie attack could play out in your town—or what a Zombie apocalypse might actually look like? By the end of this year, it’s quite probable that student Jacob Duligall will be able to answer those questions, and more. He’s currently developing software that will simulate the spread of Zombie disease through a virtual city, turning everyday (virtual) folk into the flesh ea...
It's a few minutes before nine on a Friday morning at Avalon Intermediate School in Lower Hutt. In the school hall, representatives from Victoria University's School of Engineering and Computer Science are adding the finishing touches to three interactive learning stations. The programme is part of the University's 'Introduction to Technology' pilot at the school. The 10 week activity programme gi...
Observing the real time interaction of virus particles is one of the many benefits expected from Victoria University of Wellington research into the design of a new far field superlens, or optical omniscope. Dr Ciaran Moore from the School of Engineering and Computer Science will be leading the project as the recipient of a $300,000 Marsden Fast Start grant. Current superlens microscopes cannot si...
The School of Engineering and Computer Science recently challenged its students to create short videos showcasing what they like most about studying Engineering through a competition named ‘What Flicks your Switch?’ Students submitted videos covering a wide range of topics, from engineering projects to what it is like to study at Victoria University. First place winners Henry Williams, Robby Lopez...
Victoria University Engineering and Computer Science students won first and second place in the annual ‘Hackfest' run by Summer of Tech, a not for profit programme that connects tertiary students with New Zealand technology employers. Hackfest gives teams of students a chance to step outside the classroom and apply their skills to solve a technical challenge. This year’s brief was to create device...
When Benjamin Powley first played with a train set as a small boy, he could never have imagined he’d be using a similar set to complete a university Honour’s project. Benjamin, who is currently studying a Bachelor of Science with Honours (having already completed a double major Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Mathematics), is one of the first to test out a new model railway purchased b...
Victoria University has further solidified its place at the forefront of research in one of the most innovative emerging technology areas—software defined networks (SDN). After forming a software defined networks research group in 2014, Victoria’s School of Engineering and Computer Science has gone on to sign a three year research agreement with Google to embark on SDN development, maintenance and...
Victoria University's School of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) is excited to announce that two academic staff and top researchers have been awarded funding for research projects in the prestigious Marsden Fund grant scheme for 2015. The fiercely contested Marsden Fund supports excellence in science, engineering, maths, social sciences and the humanities in New Zealand by providing grants f...
Victoria University of Wellington has entered into an agreement with local firm Total Risk, a partner of the Software Engineering Institute’s CERT Program at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, in what is considered to be a major development for cybersecurity in New Zealand. “Cybersecurity has been identified as one of the greatest commercial threats facing New Zealand, with business ...
Outer space, traffic and music were just some of the topics covered as students, staff and industry partners celebrated the culmination of a year of hard work at the Dean's Sessions end of year Engineering and Computer Science Honours students' presentations recently. The inspiring student presentations included solutions for visualising astronomical data, a Wellington traffic visualisation tool, ...
Victoria University of Wellington is kick starting initiatives for championing cybersecurity in New Zealand with an industry briefing featuring a guest appearance from a world renowned cyber crime expert. Cybersecurity is seen as one of the greatest commercial threats to New Zealand. The Wellington event aims to raise awareness of the developing risks in the digital world and the costs of complace...
What could Star Wars mastermind George Lucas do next time he needs ideas on how to crush the Rebel Alliance? Thanks to ECS Honours student Michael Winton, he could use PitchHub, an online collaboration platform for innovators. PitchHub is the result of a year of hard work for Michael on behalf of his client, Callaghan Innovation, a government agency supporting high tech businesses in New Zealand....
Sick of sitting in peak hour traffic? Thanks to ECS Honours student Josianne Hyson, slow mornings and frustrating commuting could soon become a thing of the past. Josianne spent the year creating the “Wellington Traffic Visualisation”, a tool that helps the user to see where the concentration of traffic is in the central city and at what times. Users can also view more detailed graphs about a part...
A Victoria University of Wellington researcher is developing a new reputation management system for the digital world. Ferry Hendrikx, who graduated recently with a PhD in Computer Science, is researching ways of building reputation profiles online that draw information from multiple sources. “The widespread use of the internet for social and commercial use has made traditional methods of gatherin...
A group of Victoria University of Wellington alumni has developed an interactive gaming system to help take the chore out of physiotherapy exercises. The system—a lightweight balance training board called ‘Tilt’—allows the user to play games by standing on and tilting the board, while at the same time strengthening their muscles and improving their overall balance. The developers, including Swibo’...
The Governor General Lieutenant General The Right Honourable Sir Jerry Mateparae recently paid a visit to Victoria University and stopped in at the School of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS). Staff and students from ECS presented some of the exciting projects taking place around the School. Senior Lecturer Dr Taehyun Rhee introduced the Governor General to his team’s research into 4D enterta...
John Barrow is enthusiastic about his mission for 2016: to connect with New Zealand's young people and get them excited about technology. “We have to show it to the students, let them play with it, encourage their crazy ideas and help them to make it a reality”, says John, the newly appointed School of Engineering and Computer Science Outreach Coordinator. Outreach combines student workshops and...
A Victoria University of Wellington researcher has won an international prize for work that makes it easier for students to learn coding. Professor James Noble, from Victoria’s School of Engineering and Computer Science, has won the 2016 AITO Dahl Nygaard Senior Prize for his contributions to computer programming languages. The international prize is considered the most prestigious in object orien...
Two highly respected academic staff from the School of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) have been recognised for their outstanding contribution to Victoria University in teaching and research. In Victoria’s Staff Excellence Awards for 2016, Dr Ciaran Moore received an Early Career Teaching Award and a $5000 grant, while Professor Mengjie Zhang received a Research Excellence Award and a $10,0...
Victoria University of Wellington has launched a new Computer Graphics programme that will educate students to develop the next generation of tools in a rapidly growing and in demand industry. The first cohort of undergraduate students have started classes for the new Computer Graphics major, offered as part of Victoria's Bachelor of Science degree. "Our major is focused on providing a deep unders...
A visiting PhD student at Victoria University of Wellington has been recognised with an award in a national structural design competition. Judyta Cichocka spent 14 months at Victoria carrying out research between the Faculty of Architecture and Design and School of Engineering and Computer Science, during which she entered a project in the Art in Structure competition. Art in Structure, supported ...
Victoria University of Wellington is offering Software Engineering Institute (SEI) certified cyber security courses in New Zealand for the first time. Cyber security is seen as one of the greatest commercial threats to New Zealand. With the increasing imperatives for New Zealand business and government to be protecting themselves in the cyber space, the short courses will provide specialised trai...
The new Wellington ICT Graduate School has been declared open for business. The school is a partnership between Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington Institute of Technology and Whitireia Polytechnic, with strong collaboration from key players in the ICT industry. It will support the rapidly growing ICT sector and deliver industry focused education and graduates with work relevant, busines...
This year’s Google Student Ambassadors are a passionate and organised bunch. We asked Joanna Rubi what makes her and her fellow ambassadors Bianca Fraser, Mayur Panchal and Charlene Leong tick... What is the Google Student Ambassadors programme? It’s a bridge between Google and the University. We act as the voice of Google on campus, promoting the products and services that Google has to offer, an...
We asked third year Bachelor of Engineering Honours student Divya Patel to tell us about the recent Android Hackathon held for VUW students. Divya, a Software Engineering major, was excited to share her experiences of being part of ‘FrontDoor’, the team that won second place at the final prizegiving... What was the Android Hackathon? The Google sponsored Android Hackathon was a ‘hackfest’ for stud...
Six enterprising Engineering students are tackling a year long rocket project to help launch them into exciting careers when they graduate. Marcel van Workum, Lauren Hucker, Tré Kani, Chelsea Miller, Harrison Jones and Jamie Sanson are building a small scale rocket to fly over the Wairarapa region for ENGR301, a project management paper. “The rocket project piqued our interest because it was a new...
The Networking Research Lab (NRL) is offering a fully funded PhD scholarship in 5G mobile networks. The successful candidate will be supervised by Dr. Qiang Fu, and work with industry sponsors Spark (Telecom NZ) and Harmonic Analytics. The candidate will conduct research within the following areas: *Core Networks and Radio Access Networks utilising the technologies such as: Content/Information Ce...
The following commentary by Dr Ian Welch from Victoria University's School of Engineering and Computer Science was originally published in the New Zealand Herald on 20 June: “The Government has released its new defence policy with a budget of $20 billion. The plan covers the next 15 years and in addition to replacing hardware over that time, as you'd expect, it includes the creation of a cyber sec...
The School of Engineering and Computer Science is offering a full time Master of Engineering (ME) scholarship (domestic tuition fees plus a 1 year stipend of NZ$20,000) to an excellent candidate to work on the "5G Internet of Things". This scholarship is sponsored by Victoria's Huawei NZ Research Programme and the research will focus on the latest 5G wireless access technologies to support massive...
Join our internationally renowned and friendly research team: Up to eight funded PhDs (fees stipend) available 3 times a year, 3yr duration in English, with expert supervision. Five major EC strategic research directions: Feature selection/construction for classification, regression, clustering Combinatorial optimisation: scheduling, routing, web services Computer vision and image analys...
It’s an exciting week in the Victoria University calendar. From Monday, the first cohort of students officially begin classes at the Wellington ICT Graduate School, located in a new space on Wigan Street in the heart of Wellington’s CBD. As our world becomes increasingly digitally dependent, graduates with strong digital skills are more in demand than ever. The School – a partnership between Victo...
Name? Karsten Øster Lundqvist. Born? Viborg, Denmark. Lived in? I first lived in various Danish towns and cities for 29 years, then I lived in Norway for a couple of years and after that I spent 14 years in England, 20 miles west of London. First job? My very first job was as a kid in an industrial plant which made low cost furniture. The first job I had that I really liked was as a Research Ass...
Two ECS students, Amelia Harris and Keanu Holden, recently went on a whirlwind trip to Beijing Jiaotong University in China to attend an IT Summer School. We asked Amelia to share first hand her impressions of the trip and the intriguing new culture she discovered... “Beijing was a totally new experience because I had never been overseas before. The trip from the airport to the university was abou...
Computer Graphics PhD student Kieran Carnegie has walked an extra 50 km a week since the release of Pokémon GO, so he’s the perfect person to share his experiences with other dedicated Pokémon hunters... “I got into playing Pokémon GO as a mix of nostalgia and the fact that my lab mates were also playing. It’s a social game and running around the university catching Pokémon is a lot of fun. I’m cu...
Name? Dionysis Athanasopoulos. Born in? Greece. Education? I received my PhD from the Computer Science Engineering department of the University of Ioannina in Greece in 2014. Work? Previously, I worked as a Post Doc researcher in the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering at Politecnico di Milano in Italy. During my MSc and PhD studies, I worked as an R D Software Engineer on ...
Name? Yi Mei. Born in? Yongxiu, a small town in southern China. Lived in? I lived in several Chinese cities when I was a student, then I spent two years working in Hong Kong. After that I moved to Melbourne for three years before coming to Wellington last year. First job? When I was an undergraduate, I worked part time as a private tutor, just to earn a bit of extra money. Position at VUW? I’m a L...
A Victoria University student is helping local high school students learn basic computer science skills through an after school coding club. Software Engineering student Mansour Javaher runs weekly sessions for around 30 students in Years 9 and 10 at Wellington College. “I really enjoy teaching. It’s great to see the students listen and respond to what I have to tell them. I try to make the classr...
Victoria University of Wellington alumna Anna Friedlander has gone from being a problem solving, data driven computer science student, to one of the 57,000 Google employees delivering search engine functions people can’t imagine living without. During study for her undergraduate degree at Victoria, Anna was a finalist for Google’s Anita Borg Scholarship, attending a scholars’ retreat at the Google...
For more information please see: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/students/money/scholarships/summer scholarships
The challenges facing Wellington's fast growing digital industry were explored in a recent seminar hosted by Victoria University. The event, titled "Digital Disruption: A Wellington Case Study", brought together staff and students from Victoria's Schools of Engineering and Computer Science, and Management, with industry experts and practitioners, who delved into what it takes to thrive in the digi...
Name? Harith Al Sahaf. Born in? Lincoln, Christchurch, New Zealand. Lived in? Iraq (1984 2006), and New Zealand (2006 present). First job? Yarn machine operator (Iraq), Delicatessen, New World (New Zealand), and Tutor for SWEN304 (VUW). Position at VUW? Postdoctoral Fellow working with the Evolutionary Computation Research Group. Most looking forward to at VUW? Joining the team! Key research inter...
Victoria University has welcomed the appointment of NZX Chief Operating Officer Mandy Simpson as head of Cyber Toa, Victoria's partner in developing a centre of excellence to strengthen New Zealand and the Asia Pacific's resilience against cybercrime and cyberattacks.“The appointment of someone of Mandy Simpson’s calibre as Chief Executive Officer is further testimony to the quality and impact of ...
Two ECS students were part of team Wise Kittens that won first place at the recent PxlJam 48 Hour Game Design Competition held at Victoria University. We asked third year Software Engineering students Hannah Craighead and Tana Tanoi to share their thoughts on the competition and their road to game making success…“PxlJam is a whirlwind event where teams have to design a game in just 48 hours base...
The School of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) was twice recognised for teaching excellence at the Student Representation Celebration held by the Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association (VUWSA) recently. From more than 100 nominations, VUWSA's selection committee awarded ECS's Dr Elf Eldridge the prestigious Lecturer of the Year Award, while Senior Tutor Dr Howard Lukefahr re...
People like to think of themselves as complex, but compared with things they are all too predictable. That’s what Winston Seah, Professor of Network Engineering in Victoria’s School of Engineering and Computer Science, has found as he leads a team of researchers working on the Internet of Things (IOT). Currently the area of internet development “the whole world is crazy about,” says Winston, IOT s...
A group of enterprising third year Engineering students are the ‘brains’ behind Operation Zombie, a project to develop cutting edge technology for use in search and rescue training scenarios.The project was one of several available to students to choose as part of a compulsory year long project management paper, where students were asked to combine their electronics, software and networking expert...
An Honours year Electronics and Computer Systems Engineering student won’t find his good ideas drying up any time soon. That’s because this year, Gareth Clay built a ‘Bioimpedance Hydration Measurement Device’ that could prove handy for emergency department doctors treating dehydrated patients on the go. Gareth’s device enables doctors to form an accurate picture of the volume of fluid within a pe...
After our busiest year yet in 2016 and a well deserved Christmas break, Engineering Faculty Dean Professor Dale Carnegie is predicting exciting times for staff and students of the School of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS)… “Welcome to 2017! I hope you had a relaxing festive season and are feeling refreshed and pumped to take on the new year. An especially warm welcome to those of you who ar...
Don’t miss the Bachelor of Engineering with Honours and Computer Science majors orientation on Thursday 2 March from 3 5pm in Maclaurin Lecture Theatre 101, followed by a welcome BBQ outside the Hub (gym side)… Welcome to Victoria University of Wellington! If you’re new to Vic in 2017 you can settle in with the New Students’ Orientation programme held at the start of Trimester One. A huge range of...
Name? Morgan Atkins. Born in? I was born in sunny Napier, famed for its orchards, wineries, and Art Deco style buildings. Lived in? Other than Napier, I’ve lived in Central Hawkes Bay, Wellington and Lower Hutt. Of those, I love Wellington the most. First job? My first job was delivering newspapers, way back when. My first full time job was as a programming intern for SpikeFin a job I got throug...
Adjunct Associate Professor John Lewis of Victoria’s School of Engineering and Computer Science has won a Science and Technical Award from the Academy® of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in a pre Oscars ceremony recognising technical achievement in filmmaking. John, alongside Weta Digital colleagues Luca Fascione and Iain Matthews, was recognised for the development of the software ‘Facets’. Fac...
A representative for the South Korean government recently visited Victoria’s School of Engineering and Computer Science to observe research taking place in computer graphics. Mr Kim Byoung Gwan, this Prime Minister’s Fellow for Korea, viewed research which is part of a Korea/New Zealand government funded project, HDI24D: Human digital content interaction for immersive 4D home entertainment. The pr...
“My name is Howard Lukefahr and I’m a Senior Tutor within Victoria’s School of Engineering and Computer Science. My job is to help students do well in their first year Engineering papers and gain admission to second year programmes. To do this, I work with the academics to develop and teach tutorials, labs and review sessions for a range of first year classes. I also offer individual help to anyon...
A water quality testing device created by third year Engineering students will be developed for a wider audience after winning a World Wildlife Fund Conservation Innovation Award. The River Watch Water Testing Device, which provides users with real time data about the health of their waterways, was developed by students Matthew Hammond Blain and Aidan Bennett Reilly in one of their Engineering cla...
We are pleased to announce that applications are now open for the Victoria University of Wellington and Huawei 2017 Seeds for the Future Programme. The programme provides a vital link between classroom learning and the type of real world situations students will face once they enter the workforce. It aims to challenge and inspire students who are considering a future in technology, and to provide ...
Victoria University of Wellington graduand Jack Robinson has won the Institute of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ) Ray Meyer Medal for Excellence in Student Design. The 22 year old was awarded the prize at a ceremony last week for his final year project. His project simplifies the creation of traffic management plans for roadwork sites. “Whenever a contractor or event organiser would lik...
The School of Engineering and Computer Science at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand's top ranked research University is seeking to expand its engineering programme. We are a School that prides itself on its collegiality and multidisciplinary collaborations with many of New Zealand's top ranked research clusters. This is an opportunity for you to develop your career at a quality instit...
The Faculty of Engineering is pleased to announce that the Dean’s List 2016 has been published. Introduced in 2011, the Dean's List celebrates academic excellence for students enrolled in an undergraduate degree at Victoria University, with each faculty preparing its own list. Dean of Engineering, Professor Dale Carnegie, says the Engineering Dean’s List is a way of recognising exemplary student a...
Engineering and Computer Science graduates Glen Peek and John Gelbolingo were two of the innovative entrepreneurs who took part in the Victoria Entrepreneur Bootcamp Final Showcase recently, taking their smart business ideas from the whiteboard to the tech world with the help of Viclink, Victoria’ commercialisation office… It was the show that had it all—from romance and entertainment, to altruism...
The School of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) is delighted to welcome Dr Fanglue Zhang who has arrived from China to take up the position of computer graphics lecturer. Fanglue holds a doctoral degree from Tsinghua University where he subsequently spent two years as a post doctoral researcher. His research interests include computer graphics, computational photography, and image and video a...
A local start up is praising Victoria University of Wellington’s Software Engineering programme for delivering hard to find job candidates. L R: Victoria University alumni Stephen Nelson, Tim Jones and Luke Inkster at Montoux. Montoux offers software that provides insights into life insurance companies’ products, pricing and profitability. The fast growing Wellington based business has clients in ...
A team of Victoria University of Wellington researchers is hoping to use their technology to help build the world’s first hybrid electric jet plane. Victoria’s Robinson Research Institute is an international leader in the field of superconductivity—a key mechanism needed to develop cleaner aviation technologies, says principal engineer and Deputy Director Dr Rod Badcock. “Flying is the most climat...
In between studying and sitting exams, eight students are preparing to take on other tertiary students in the annual National MYOB IT Challenge in Auckland next week. The students represent the two winning teams of the preliminary round at Victoria run by cloud based business solution provider MYOB. The preliminary competition for Victoria students in May gave teams five days to develop a technolo...
L R: Liam Dennis, Jack Moran and Tom Clark Three students from Victoria’s School of Engineering and Computer Science recently travelled to Hamilton to compete in the 2017 New Zealand Cyber Security Challenge. The challenge saw 150 top students from around the country invited to compete in three stages—hacking into programs, grappling with policy based problems, and securing at risk systems. Third ...
Development of technology to help build the world’s first hybrid electric passenger jet plane is among Victoria University of Wellington projects to receive nearly $29 million in the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's 2017 Endeavour Fund. Five Victoria projects have been successful in this year’s science investment round, announced this morning by Science and Innovation Minister Hon...
A leading member of Japan’s digital media industry is joining Victoria University of Wellington as Director of a new Computational Media Innovation Centre (CMIC). The Centre will be based in Victoria’s Faculty of Engineering and was today announced by Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Hon Paul Goldsmith as one of the first three recipients of funding from the Government’s $35 ...
We are delighted to announce that a former PhD student with a passion for renewable energy has returned to the School of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) as a lecturer in exactly that subject. After studying Electronic and Computer Systems Engineering at undergraduate level, Daniel Burmester also completed his doctorate in Renewable Energy Systems at ECS under supervisor Dr Ramesh Rayudu. Re...
Name? Kerese Manueli. Born in? Rotuma, Fiji. Lived in? Fiji, Australia and New Zealand. First job? IT/Helpdesk support. Position at VUW? Teaching Fellow. Key research interests? ICT for sustainable development. Most looking forward to at VUW? Supporting students at XMUT/VUW to achieve their academic aspirations. Where can people find you at VUW? Office EA104. Why Wellington? It’s got a good blend ...
Tēnā koutou katoa Ko Te Arawa, ko Te Ātiawa, ko Ngāti Kahungunu, ko Kōtarani, ko Ngāti Whātua, ko Te Rarawa, ko Te Ātihaunui a Pāpārangi ōku iwi Ko Hōhepa Taepa, ko Laura Black, ko Aperahama Paraone Kena, ko Meri Mare, ko Keita Te Hira ōku tūpuna Ko Hōhepa rāua ko Makere ōku mātua Ko Aperahama Hōhepa tōku tungāne Ko Kuraimonoa Taepa tōku ingoa Born in? Ōtaki. Lived in? Ōtaki, Peka Peka, Waikanae, ...
Students from the School of Engineering and Computer Science will spend the summer working alongside globally recognised researchers gaining valuable experience in research through Victoria’s Summer Scholars Scheme. Students are selected for the Scheme based on their academic results, experience in the research area and recommendations from the staff who propose the research projects. The projects...
Software Development Masters students from the Wellington ICT Graduate School are on the way to solving the NZ Cricket Museum’s challenges after a two day hackathon. If two heads are better than one when solving tricky problems, then 30 heads must surely be even better. Over Thursday and Friday November 9–10 the 30 Master of Software Development students, completing a one year conversion Masters...
An enterprising Network Engineering student spent his Honours year designing a new way to help beekeepers monitor their hives from a distance. Reuben Puketapu’s ENGR 489 project, titled Internet connected beehives, addresses the problems faced by beekeepers with beehives in remote locations, fulfilling his long term goal to use technology to “make people’s lives easier”. There is currently a lack...
Victoria’s Evolutionary Computation Research Group (ECRG), based in the School of Engineering and Computer Science, put on a strong performance at the annual International Conference on Simulated Evolution and Learning (SEAL 2017). The conference, held at China’s Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) this month, represented an opportunity for Victoria researchers to connect and c...
A Computer Science student has explored the potential of using interactive touch tables to teach programming compared to traditional mouse and keyboard versions, fulfilling a long held aspiration to investigate how people learn best. Master’s student Ben Selwyn Smith, who cites a keen interest in education, found that the benefits of the new approach include the ability for multiple users to code ...
Name? Saeed Mirghasemi. Born in? Tehran, Iran. Lived in? Iran and NZ. First job? Electronic designer. Position at VUW? Teaching Fellow. Key research interests? Computer vision Data analysis. Most looking forward to at VUW? Teaching a lot and learning a lot. Where can people find you at VUW? My office! EA 108. Why Wellington? It was an accident, but I am glad I ended up here. Favourite movie? The...
A Computer Graphics student has created a fully interactive tool for DJs and artists where a digital smoke simulation reacts to music in real time. Jack Purvis’s Honours project looked at the challenge of simulating smoke using computer graphics techniques, and how the effect can be influenced by a dynamic input like music to create an appealing visualisation. Jack came up with the project himself...
Name? Alvin Valera. Born in? The Philippines. Lived in? First 24 years in the Philippines and the rest (up until November) in Singapore. Position at VUW? Senior Lecturer. Key research interests? Internet of Things (IoT), wireless ad hoc and sensor networks. Most looking forward to at VUW? Working with students to design and build novel IoT systems. Where can people find you at VUW? AM 401. Why Wel...
Did you know that robots can now ‘taste’ as humans do? We do now, thanks to Victoria Honours student Michael Pearson. Michael’s ENGR 489 project gave robots the ability to mimic a human’s inquisitive nature—a nature which normally enables us to recognise objects much better than artificial systems can. Robots are an increasingly prevalent part of our society, but they struggle to achieve some task...
After years of outstanding service, Victoria’s School of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) is sad to be farewelling one of its most well loved lecturers. In his time at ECS, Elf Eldridge has amassed an enthusiastic following comprising the students he has taught and nurtured since their first year, as well as being popular with his colleagues. Elf first joined the School while finishing his P...
Born in? India. Lived in? I lived in Hyderabad, India, before moving to New Zealand in 2006. Since then I have lived in Palmerston North, Auckland and Hamilton. First job? My first job was straight after finishing my PhD. I worked as a lecturer of Electronics Engineering at the Centre for Engineering and Industrial Design at the Waikato Institute of Technology in Hamilton. Key research interests?...
Name? Adrian Pekar. Born in? Kralovsky Chlmec, Slovakia. Lived in? Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, New Zealand. First job? Data Centre and Network Function Virtualization Engineer. Position at VUW? Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Key research interests? Network Traffic Classification, Management and Engineering, QoS, IPFIX/NetFlow, Software Defined Networking, Data Centre and Network Function Virtualiza...
Dean of Engineering, Professor Dale Carnegie, wraps up a busy 2017 and prepares for 2018… It’s December already (or maybe–finally) and as everything starts to wind down, I’d like to reflect on the past year and look towards the future. It’s certainly been a busy and extremely productive year for the Faculty of Engineering. We have achieved an enormous amount. First to mention is our tremendous r...
Staff from Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Engineering and Computer Science are in Samoa this month as part of an initiative to bring cyber security education to the Pacific and beyond. The group is installing 10 wireless network points to create a permanent wireless network at the National University of Samoa in Upolu, and will also advise on cyber security. “Having these units will...
