$10.8 million boost to Waikato research funding
university-of-waikato
Wed Jul 18 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
$10.8 million boost to Waikato research funding
Wednesday, 18 July 2007, 4:27 pm
Press Release: University of Waikato
Media Release
18 July 2007
$10.8 million boost to University of Waikato research funding
University of Waikato researchers in computer science and engineering have received almost $10.8 million in the latest Foundation for Research, Science and Technology funding round announced today.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Roy Crawford says the grants are further evidence of the very high quality of research being undertaken in both the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, and the School of Science and Engineering.
"I would like to congratulate all of the recipients. The FRST grants are highly sought after and are awarded only to academics who are leaders in their fields.
"Each of the projects has the potential to make a significant contribution to national economic and policy goals through transforming and diversifying ICT technology, and innovation in other important sectors."
Researchers in the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, ranked first in the country in the recent, independent PBRF (Performance-Based Research Fund) assessment, received $6.47 million in FRST grants.
Dr David Bainbridge in the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences received $2.2 million over four years to develop new systems and tools capable of driving world-leading, innovative, multi-media content management.
The research programme, which will leverage the globally successful Greenstone digital library software also produced by the Waikato team, aims to develop technology to enable high quality, user-friendly mixing of media types into a rich collection of accessible information. It will combine complex content analysis and an ongoing commitment to open source software development.
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The project will use "real world" and publicly available datasets to advance existing knowledge and explore and encourage development of commercial outcomes in New Zealand.
Associate Professor Tony McGregor received $1.5 million for a four-year project to develop autonomous network technology, which is expected to make a major contribution to diversifying and transforming New Zealand's economy through ICT, with direct sales potential of NZ$1 billion over 15 years.
Autonomous computer networks are "self-healing and self-managing" and two core technologies - computer network performance analysis and machine learning – are needed to make them a reality. Waikato's Computer Science Department has the strongest research team in New Zealand and is considered an international leader in this field.
Software to automate the processing and quality control of chromatographic data will be developed with the support of a $1.7 million grant over four years to Associate Professor Geoff Holmes. Chromatography is an analytical tool used in a wide range of industries including agriculture, biotechnology, medicine and pharmaceuticals.
The research aims to develop a ready-to-use software suite for analytical service laboratories globally to give greater accuracy, and significant productivity and revenue gains. The project also aims to expand use to the emerging "omic" life sciences such as proteomics, where the focus is on pattern discovery.
Software to automate the production and delivery of practice exercises for overseas students learning English will be developed by a team headed by Professor Ian Witten, an internationally acknowledged world leader in the field of digital libraries, with the support of a $962,500 grant.
Digital library software will allow teachers to capitalise on top quality prose and multi-media resources available in the world's libraries, yielding an unprecedented supply of material for language learning.
The three-year project is expected to create a world-class reputation for New Zealand in innovative techniques for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), while the new paradigm of library-enabled education will increase New Zealand's international competitiveness in offshore education.
The School of Science and Engineering received a total of $4.29 million. Professor Peter Kamp received $3.7 million for a six-year project – the largest single FRST grant to a University of Waikato researcher - to improve energy efficiency by an average 3-5 percent in milk powder production plants.
Improved energy efficiency in the dairy sector will increase the cost competitiveness of New Zealand's largest exporter. It will also result in reduced use of gas, coal and hydro fuel types, contributing to security of energy supply for the country, and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Associate Professor Deliang Zhang, also in the School of Science and Engineering, received $550,000 over three years to develop novel processes for producing low-cost titanium alloy powders from industrial waste products and, potentially, New Zealand iron sands.
The process aims to convert titanium oxide, aluminium, titanium and vanadium-rich slag, which is a waste product of the New Zealand Steel Ltd's iron sand-to-steel process, into titanium alloy powders for manufacture into ingots, sheets and extrusions for sale to export customers.
The work is in collaboration with an industrial advisory group comprising New Zealand Steel Ltd, South Auckland Forgings Engineering Ltd and Titanox Development Ltd in consultation with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.
ENDS
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