Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarships for researchers
massey-university
Thu Aug 30 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarships for researchers
Thursday, 30 August 2007, 1:58 pm
Press Release: Massey University
Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarships for Massey researchers
Three Massey PhD students have been awarded the Government’s top scholarships with a total value of more than $280,000. The Massey recipients of the Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarships, of 24 announced today by the Tertiary Education Commission, are: Alistair Clement, from the School of People, Environment and Planning; Margaret Hartnett from the School of Curriculum and Pedagogy; and Jess Costall from the School of Ecology/Zoology and Environmental Science.
The Manawatu estuary is the largest estuary on the southwest coast of the North Island. At its maximum extent the estuary reached from Shannon in the east and north to Opiki, with extensions into the lower western valleys of the Tararua Range. Today, little of the original estuary remains as the coast adjusted to the modern sea level highstand by prograding approximately 4km, forming the expansive Manawatu coastal plain.
Mr Clement’s project will incorporate geochronolgoy, sedimentology, faunal analysis, geophysics and geographic information systems to investigate the geomorphological evolution of the Manawatu coastal plain in response to climate change that has occurred over the past 10,000 years.
This project represents unique research in both a national and international context. It aims to present a regional model of Holocene coastal plain evolution, utilising a new dating technique in order to overcome the deficiencies of traditional methods. Models of future sedimentation trends as influenced by climate change will result, as will a quantification of the anthropogenic influences on the marginal marine record in the Manawatu.
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With the fast-paced development of technology, Organic Computing has recently emerged as a challenging vision for future information processing systems.
“Organic computing is based on the insight that we will soon be surrounded by large collections of autonomous systems, which are equipped with sensors and actuators; are aware of their environment; can communicate freely, and organise themselves in order to perform the actions and services that seem to be required,” Ms Hartnett says. “They also provide new learning opportunities.”
It is envisaged that the investigation will contribute towards personalisation of the learning experience of students, based on sound pedagogical principles, thereby improving the experience and learning outcomes for students and teachers from diverse backgrounds.
In addition a collaborative research project, Organic computing and adaptive learning technologies in a Multicultural Context between the School of Curriculum and Pedagogy at Massey University and a research England is proposed using the research findings from this project as the basic design principles to create the prototype of an online learning system; thereby building links between researchers in New Zealand and Britain.
Most of New Zealand's indigenous lowland forest cover now exists as small, isolated, and highly altered fragments. Although it is known that fragmentation causes a decline in plant biodiversity, the effects of fragmentation on invertebrate biodiversity have not been comprehensively assessed. This is despite the important role that invertebrates have in providing essential ecological services such as decomposition and nutrient cycling.
Ms Costall says that the intent of this project is to perform a comprehensive assessment of how fragmentation has affected the composition of invertebrate communities and ecosystem functioning in New Zealand forest remnants, and the level of biodiversity and functioning achieved in restoration plantings.
For further information about the scholarships go to: http://www.tec.govt.nz/funding/scholarships/
ENDS
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