Waikato wins 3 Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarships
university-of-waikato
Thu Aug 30 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Waikato wins 3 Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarships
Thursday, 30 August 2007, 4:00 pm
Press Release: University of Waikato
Media Release
30 August 2007
University of Waikato wins three Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarships
The University of Waikato has won three prestigious, national Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarships in the latest Tertiary Education Commission round.
The successful Waikato recipients are: Matthew Jervis, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Nepia Mahuika, lecturer in history, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and Marisa Till, School of Science and Engineering.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Roy Crawford congratulated each of the recipients on their success.
"There is strong competition for Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarships. Not only do the scholarships provide valuable financial support, they acknowledge New Zealand's best and brightest scholars. We are very proud of them."
Computing science student, Matthew Jervis, is working on a system to integrate physical and digital workspaces.
He is looking at developing a "smart filing cabinet" as an initial step to bridging the divide between the two, which would combine the indexing and organisation of hard copy and computerised documents into a single system.
Each folder in the filing cabinet would be equipped with electronics to allow it to be uniquely identified, while the filing cabinet itself would act as the connecting medium.
The filing cabinet would identify folders and detect when a folder is added or removed. Each folder would be equipped with a LED that can be toggled by the system, for example to locate it when its contents are required.
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Digital cataloguing would enable simplified storage and retrieval of physical documents, and allow for faster and smarter searching. Users would spend less time on manual organisation and could be more productive as a result.
Nepia Mahuika (Ngati Porou and Waikato Ngati Maniapoto), lecturer in history in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, is examining the ways in which the Ngati Porou people of the East Coast draw on oral traditions to construct their indigenous identity and their life narratives.
The project will examine the ways in which each participant draws on oral traditions to compose individual and distinctive oral histories, rather than document the tribe's history.
It seeks to reframe current understandings and practices in relation to oral history and oral tradition, and address the developing theoretical and methodological advances in the field, with a specific focus on how researchers might better employ approaches within a more rigorous form of scholarship.
Marisa Till, School of Science and Engineering, will examine the activity of two enzymes from the bacterium, Clostridium proteoclasticum, commonly found in New Zealand cows, which break down plant fibre in the rumen (gut) of cows.
Her work will lead to better understanding of how microbes within their digestive system break down the animals' forage material, releasing energy and nutrients. In-depth understanding of the enzymatic processes involved in digestion of plant material is crucial as a basis for working towards maximising their efficiency to increase on-farm productivity.
The research may also lead to the creation of systems to mimic those enzymatic processes to degrade plant material for renewable fuel sources in industrial applications. Carbohydrates, in particular sugars and polysaccharides, are one of the largest renewable energy sources on earth. The primary cell wall in plants is made up of about 90 per cent polysaccharide.
Characterisation of the three-dimensional structure of the fibre-degradation enzymes from C. proteoclasticum will lead to greater understanding of the rumen "black box", which is a potentially valuable pool of reagents for establishing a process for degradation of plant material for fuel.
ENDS
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