Advance - Autumn 2013

Autumn 2013

Research with impact

Translating Technology

Women in computer science

contents 4 shorts

Five new Associate Professors for Unitec

8 cover story

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Meet computing lecturer Mahsa Mohaghegh, winner of the prestigious Google Anita Borg Post Graduate Scholarship for 2012

12 film

Students in the film department learn about making movies for the very small screen

16 construction

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Researching the variables of building performance in an onsite whole-house environment

21 campus

The Unitec weather station

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22 literacy

A project to encourage literacy levels in MÄ ori and Pacific adult students has created new learning strategies

24 architecture

Architecture students have been helping Genesis Energy with a project designed to create a more energy efficient future

28 sport

Researcher Chris Lynch looks at the system efficiency of future elite rowers

31 profile

Unitec’s ePress editor-in-chief Evangelia Papoutsaki talks about her research and her career to date

34 completions

Find out more about Saul Taylor and the other recent graduates

16 editor Simon Peel writer Trudi Caffell design Nadja Rausch cover photo James Ensing-Trussell printing Norcross

published by Unitec Institute of Technology Private Bag 92025, Victoria Street West, Auckland 1142, New Zealand ISSN 1176-7391 phone 0800 10 95 10 web www.unitec.ac.nz

Supporting collaboration In a previous issue I commented that one of the lines in my job description relates to the development of Unitec’s research culture. I went on to explain that a ‘research culture’ is about the unique ways in which research is conducted and suggested that the culture at an institute of technology like Unitec is different from the culture at a traditional university.

You can learn about a research culture by observing the various ways in which it comes to life, and Advance magazine is one of those.

Advance is both a manifestation of a research culture and a tool for shaping and developing a culture by communicating messages about ‘the way we do things around here’.

One of the key messages I’d like to get across is the importance of having an engaged research culture. By that I mean prioritising research projects that are outward u do yo looking towards our community How dvance? ra u o and industry partners as opposed y like n e to a g to those projects that are more n a or e, ch aper p bscrib r inward looking and driven by u e s v o T no d versio ils, fin k a t researchers in isolation. This o e o d b eour e at nge y onlin a is similar to saying that we h e c n i o z t rch aga resea nce m / prioritise and look to support a z v .n d c A c.a .unite w projects that are collaborative w w and bring together a range of Unitec staff and student expertise with those of researchers from other institutions as well as outside partners. We believe that research is much more likely to have impact or make a real difference when it is done alongside partners who are in a position to make use of, or extract value from, the outcomes of research projects.

community partners. Having an outside partner is now an important criteria for staff seeking support for research projects. In addition, for industry or community partners who may have limited funding for projects, Unitec may be able to help by contributing to the cost of getting projects started.

I hope that you enjoy this issue of Advance.

If you wish to know more about research at Unitec please visit the research pages of our website www.unitec.ac.nz/reseach or contact me directly.

Associate Professor Simon Peel Dean of Research and Postgraduate Studies speel@unitec.ac.nz

But there is more to shaping culture than just words. Unitec is ‘putting money where its mouth is’ by allocating seed funding to research projects that involve external industry and

» autumn 2013 » advance

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Meet our five new Associate Professors

The recent opening of the Cyber Security Research Centre, the first of its kind at Unitec, is a rather large feather in Associate Professor Paul Pang’s cap. “It’s a very important project for me and the department. It was something I was focused on making happen, and it came about with the support of the department, the senior management of Unitec, and of course our Chief Executive Dr Rick Ede,” he says. “But it’s not only me in the research centre; it’s a group of people here. Although I’m the principal researcher, it’s the people here who are important.

Without good people, we can’t make any of this happen.”

The centre was created in collaboration with Japan’s national research centre, the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), and will focus on a joint research project around cyber security for the next three years.

“What we work towards here, in this group, is high quality research at an international level. It’s what I’m always saying to my students; we are working towards an internationally recognised quality, so that people will cite our published work.”

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He says that collaborative research, such as the work they’re doing in the new research centre, has more chance of becoming this kind of high quality work. “We are aiming for something that will make me proud for the rest of my life.

And when we do it as a joint effort, there is more chance of that succeeding.”

Associate Professor Paul Pang Department of Computing Time at Unitec: Since December 2011 PhD: Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

According to Pang, the secret to his success is simple. “Whatever I do, I do it step by step, I don’t expect to jump. That’s why I’m reliable. If you give me something, you can trust me. That’s very important in research, especially when we’re working with a partner like NICT.” Pang also says that a good researcher will always be visible to others. “I always say that these days your research reputation is transparent. Whatever you’ve done, publications, conference attendance, research funding, it’s all recorded by the system automatically. It’s easy to find out which researchers are good; there is no way to hide your contribution.”

He’s just come back from a trip to Japan, visiting his new colleagues at NICT, and another six universities. “When I was at NICT, it was about this project, but when I travelled across the country, it was more about networking, convincing people that we are good, and we can be a partner in the future,” he says.

“It was a very good trip, it was very successful. We had some very good discussions with universities regarding potential collaboration in the future.”

But for the present, doing research with his team in the Decentralized Machine Learning Intelligence Lab (DMLI) at Unitec is just where Pang wants to be. “I’m happy to put all my attention into the research. I believe that once I make the group into an internationally known research centre; that will be my value. As I said, nobody can hide the value.”

For more information on Associate Professor Paul Pang’s research group at Unitec, go to www.demli.info

He says it was the support he received right from the early days of his career that led him to that point. “One of the reasons that I feel I’ve had these amazing opportunities is because of the advice, guidance and opportunities afforded to me by close senior colleagues here at Unitec, particularly in my first few years of working here. When I was standing there at Cambridge University, and I was just about to start doing the address, I just had this feeling that I had a couple of people standing on either side of me, supporting me. Because these two people − my head of department at the time, Professor Carol Cardno, and my appraiser Professor Tanya Fitzgerald − they could both see this day coming even though I couldn’t.”

The PhD thesis was about distributed forms of school leadership, and meant that Youngs spent time observing leadership forms in two different secondary schools for nearly two years. “One of the things that really came out of it, was that the leadership patterns that occur in one place will not be the same as in another for a whole range of sociological and other contextual reasons.”

Research is a passion for Youngs, who says that he hasn’t followed the usual path. He started as a high school teacher before moving into teacher education, and then started researching. “I didn’t do my PhD as a springboard to get into research; I’ve been doing research for a while now. My research journey has been filled with amazing research opportunities.

Alongside my PhD I’ve been involved in three different national research studies, two of them Ministry of Education contracts.”

He is now able to use that experience to pass on to other researchers. “I’m increasingly in a mentoring role, to others who are emerging as researchers, be they Unitec staff, or our students. Being involved in the leadership development of people in education, and being able to teach and research and learn in that area is the very bulls eye of what I love doing. I am very passionate about it.”

Associate Professor Howard Youngs Department of Education Time at Unitec: 10 years PhD: University of Waikato

Associate Professor Dianne Roy Department of Nursing Time at Unitec: 26 years PhD: Massey University

Having worked at Unitec since 1986, Associate Professor Dianne Roy knows her way around. “The job has changed and nursing education has changed incredibly over that time,” she says. “When I started at Unitec it was a diploma programme, and we moved from that to a Bachelor’s degree programme and offering Master’s level studies, and likewise my career has developed and changed. I had parental leave, and received a doctoral scholarship from Massey, and I had leave without pay when I was doing my PhD.” Roy has made a career of working with people who are living with a long term condition, and her PhD thesis was a study of people with rheumatoid arthritis. “It was a hermeneutic phenomenological study that looked at the experience of people and their families who live with rheumatoid arthritis.

It’s important to understand the context and what it’s like for people to live with something like rheumatoid arthritis, and the impact living with it can also have for their family, their spouse, and their children. It was about the ripple effects that they are all living with.”

That PhD research has sown the seeds for Roy’s subsequent research. “That was the foundation in terms of research method, and the turning point in terms of the interest in long-term conditions. My interest since then has moved from rheumatoid arthritis specifically, to looking at living with a range of long-term conditions in general, and family and individual responses to it.”

Most of Roy’s research is collaborative, either within Unitec, or with colleagues at other institutions. “When you’re doing it for your academic qualifications it can be a very lonely process.

You’re working with your supervisors, but on the whole it’s an individual endeavour. But the research I have done more recently has been with colleagues and I really enjoy working with other people on research. The end product can be so much more useful if it comes from a collaborative endeavour because people offer different information, they’re sounding boards, and you keep your deadlines.”

But she says that at the heart of everything she does is her passion for helping the people she is studying. “Working with people who live with long term conditions is absolutely amazing. To be able to share something of their experiences, and to be able to do something to help improve the way health professionals work with these people and to make things better for them, either in the way they manage their condition, or the way they experience the health service, is very rewarding.”

shorts

For Associate Professor Howard Youngs, one of the highlights of his career came on a recent overseas trip. “I went to England last year, and I had the privilege of being asked to speak at an international British Educational Leadership Management Administration Society (BELMAS) conference. I ended up doing an address on my PhD findings at the University of Cambridge.

I couldn’t believe it was really happening. I was blown away.”

Being the Chair of the Research Committee for the Faculty of Technology and Built Environment (TBE), Associate Professor Linda Kestle has her fingers on the pulse of research in her area. “A lot of people have been brought into Unitec, particularly in this faculty, on the basis of their industry experience. So what we’re trying to do is find a balance between being expert practitioners, and how much research we are expecting them to undertake. I’m a prime example; I sometimes call myself a ‘Pracademic’. I was brought in as a lecturer because I was in the industry as a consultant and now that I’m here, I’ve also become a researcher.”

Last year Kestle organised the inaugural TBE Research Hui. “The main aim was to bring together people in the faculty, many who were already researchers, and many who were not. We also re-established the main research foci for the faculty. Those foci are productivity, technology development, sustainability, and education and discipline development. The point is that we do applied research, trying to make sure at all times that what we’re working on has impact, not just within Unitec, but particularly within the industries we’re servicing.”

shorts

All of this is part of how Kestle sees herself continuing in her new role. “Before we were interviewed for the associate professor role, it was made clear to me that it’s not just about what we’ve done to reach this level, but what we are going to do going forward, what value we are going to add to Unitec. For me that meant continuing to be an initiator for the future. You have to lead from the front. Just because you get this promotion to this role, doesn’t mean you can relax. In fact it’s quite the opposite. If anything, associate professors are mentors and enablers. They’re not only leaders in themselves, and looked to as a leader, but they ensure they’re inclusive and bring people along with them.”

And if nothing else, Kestle says that she knows something exciting and new will be in her future. “I’m a curious person, an explorer, and an adventurer. I like to find out new information. I frequently find myself being the first person to do this, or the first woman to do that. I never do things on the basis of wanting to be the first person, or the first woman; it’s just that I love new ideas and I want to be part of them.”

Associate Professor Linda Kestle Department of Construction Time at Unitec: Since mid 90s PhD: University of Canterbury

Associate Professor Jill Hadfield Department of Language Studies Time at Unitec: Since 2004 Despite having found a place to settle in New Zealand, Associate Professor Jill Hadfield has travelled the world, spending time in such far-flung places as Madagascar, Tibet and China. What connected all these countries? A love of language and teaching that led to a career teaching English as a second language (ESOL), she says. “I fell into it in the beginning, my husband got a job at the University of Bordeaux, and I taught English there for three years. Now I do it because I love it.”

She has also written over 30 books on the subject, mainly to be used as resources in classrooms. “The first one I did, the publisher asked me to put in a proposal for a text book, but didn’t go with the idea. Instead, they really liked the games that I’d included at the end, and asked me to put it into a resource for a classroom. That first one is still my biggest selling book, and my insistence that it have a photocopy permit started a new trend.”

Hadfield says she writes two very different styles of books.

“Some of the writing I’ve done is research based, and therefore logical and analytical. I enjoy the logical teasing out of ideas on research, and also finding things out, something different and unexpected. But the materials writing is much more creative.

It’s about taking the theories and using them in a practical manner. It’s a very joyful thing to do. It’s good to have both to feed into each other.”

She says she often uses her academic research in her materials books. “Much academic work is doomed to linger in academic journals, but I like to make sure that this research is put out into the public in an appealing and workable way,” she says.

Her current projects include editing two very different magazines. The first is ELT Magazine, based on the Unitec website and aimed at ESOL teachers worldwide. The second is called Password, a magazine for refugees and migrants that talks about New Zealand culture and way of life. “It uses different levels of graded language to help with learning English. I’m currently working on the first issue that’s been done

by Unitec, and it will come out in late March.”

Working in teaching English as a second language has been a very rewarding career, she says. “You meet so many different people, a lot of different nationalities. The work we did overseas was generally development work, setting up resources for teachers in remote areas, teaching the teachers, setting up courses for the locals. It’s a joyful thing to do.”

Research at your fingertips: advance blog

www.unitec.ac.nz/research/Advanceblog

Translating computer science Unitec Computing Lecturer Mahsa Mohaghegh recently won the prestigious 2012 Google Anita Borg Scholarship, set up to promote women in the maledominated field of computer science.

Despite massive changes in the working life of women around the world, there are still some industries where women are scarce. One of these is computer science – and for American computing researcher Dr Anita Borg, this became the focus of the last years of her life. Her mix of technical expertise and a relentless vision for dismantling the barriers to women entering the computer science field has helped women around the world embrace technology. cover story

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» unitec.ac.nz

When Unitec Computing Lecturer Mahsa Mohaghegh was selected as one of the finalists for the 2012 Google Anita Borg Scholarship, her knowledge of Anita Borg’s life just added to Mohaghegh’s desire to encourage other women into computing. “In New Zealand we don’t have many women in this field. At Massey University I was the only female computer engineer at PhD level. It’s hard for us, especially in New Zealand because it’s such a small country. I think I know

Left: Mahsa Mohaghegh teaches her students to be comfortable taking apart computers.

Right: The small robot that Mahsa's team at the Google retreat put together.

most of the women who are studying in this field in New Zealand, because there aren’t too many.”

Her aim has always been to learn as much about computing as possible. “I really wanted to know something about every aspect of the computing field. My Bachelor degree was in computer engineering, software and hardware. For my Master’s, I changed to sensor networks, and my study involved designing a cross-layer architecture to enhance the quality of service for sensor networks.”

Mohaghegh was then awarded two scholarships − from Massey University and New Zealand Educated − to complete her PhD. After four years of hard work, she’s just finished her thesis, which was in yet another area. “I’d never done any research in artificial intelligence or machine translation, so I started working in that field,” she says.

The ultimate goal is to build a speech-tospeech translation machine − essentially a handheld device for visitors to New Zealand to use in everyday conversation to translate from English to Persian. “As interaction increases between people of different nationalities, the idea of having a speech-to-speech translator is becoming a practical proposition,” says Mohaghegh. “There are three phases involved in this process. The first one is speech to text − words spoken by a user have to be converted to text form. The next stage is to translate text from one language to text in the other, and then finally text to speech. My contribution to the knowledge at this stage has been with the middle section, the machine translation of text to text.”

Her program is competing with some heavy hitters in the field. “It’s pretty much like Google Translate,” she says. “You copy text into Google

cover story

Even when she started her undergraduate degree, women were a minority in her computer science courses. “When I first started as a computer engineering student, I was the only woman out of 50. That was daunting. Around me were all these guys who behaved like they knew everything. I had to catch up with them, because they spent all their spare time working on computers.”

Translate, and then press the button to get the translation, but depending what language you’re working with, the translation is generally not that good. So often you’ll get the general idea, but it’s mixed up with lots of incorrect words.”

She says her program takes that idea one step further. “When you translate just one word, there are more potential meanings, but when it’s part of a phrase, it’s more likely to have one proper translation. Therefore statistical machine translation that is based on a phrase is a better approach. On top of developing algorithms for the main program, I also developed a new hybrid three-layer approach for fine-tuning the translation output, which ended up giving translations with a quality that have never been seen before in this language pair.”

Since completing her PhD thesis, Mohaghegh has started working on the next stage of her research. “I’ve widened the work to include other languages that need more translation work in this area, including Māori. I’ve received a Unitec Research Committee grant to implement the production of a real-time translation program that will translate Māori to English. The aim

“As interaction increases between people of different nationalities, the idea of having a speech-tospeech translator is becoming a practical proposition.” » autumn 2013 » advance

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“It’s a dream job for anyone in computing, and I was able to spend time in their offices, and talk to their people.”

cover story

Clockwise from left: Mahsa celebrates winning the scholarship. The Google offices include hammocks for employees to rest on.

A group shot of the 2012 scholarship finalists.

Opposite page: Mahsa and her team make the small robot for a competition at the Google retreat.

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» unitec.ac.nz

is for it to be used in a variety of multi-media environments, for example at events on a marae, or in a museum.”

Having been selected as a finalist in the Google scholarship programme for the last two years, Mohaghegh has twice taken part in the threeday retreat at Google Headquarters in Sydney with the other finalists, and made some vital connections in the industry. “Google was just named number one on the Fortune 100 best places to work for 2013. It’s a dream job for anyone in computing, and I was able to spend time in their offices, and talk to their people.”

Not only did she spend time with them – she obviously impressed them. Mohaghegh was this year’s ultimate winner of the Google Anita Borg Scholarship for postgraduate students in New Zealand and Australia, the first time a New Zealand entrant has won. “One of the highlights of my trip was meeting Alan Noble, the Engineering Director for Google Australia and New Zealand. Listening to his inspiring talk and seeing him involved in our robots competition on the last day of retreat was one of the great memories of my last trip to the Google offices.”

The winners of the main postgraduate and undergraduate awards each get $5,000 towards further study, and Mohaghegh also has the chance to apply for an internship at Google for three months. “To be honest, the main reason

I applied for a second time was that I had had such an amazing time the first year,” she says.

“It was fantastic to see that many women all in one place. Just seeing that there are other girls dealing with the same problems, and it wasn’t just me sitting there thinking I’m the only one.

Last year there was another PhD student from the University of Auckland, and now she’s one of my best friends, and we’re running Girl Geek Coffees together.”

Girl Geek Coffees is a support group for women in technology that has been set up around the world. “It’s for girls at different levels, undergrad, postgrad, whatever, just so they can discuss all the problems and issues and get together,” says Mohaghegh. “At the moment, there’s only six or seven of us, mostly from the University of Auckland. We get together every couple of weeks, and we’re talking about running some workshops. The sponsor of this group is Google. They support so much, they have lots of programmes trying to encourage and support women in this field.”

Mohaghegh says her own interest in computers stems from the encouragement she received from her father when she was young. “When I seven or eight years old my dad wanted to build a computer. I was curious to know what was inside the computer, so I went with him to buy the components. I was really fascinated with all

“It was fantastic to see that many women all in one place. Just seeing that there are other girls dealing with the same problems.”

was able to speak to one of the orgnisers, SallyAnn Williams, about the other programmes Google runs. She told me about the CS4HS programme they do for high school teachers, so I’m in the process of submitting a proposal to Google, for sponsorship of a workshop here at Unitec.”

She firmly believes that getting more women into computing is about giving them an insight into what computer science and computer engineering are really about. “There is a whole realm of creativity involved; computing is not just about sitting in front of a screen programming all day,” says Mohaghegh. “I ran a workshop on computer science through the SciTech programme at Unitec for students at high schools in Auckland. The girls said to me, ‘No I can’t touch that’, and I just told them to imagine it was Lego pieces. I showed them everything in one hour, and they put it all together, and soon they were doing the same thing as the undergraduate students. It was about just giving them an idea of what these things were about and once they’d put them together, there was no fear about breaking it any more. That is the experience I had, and that was what I was trying to pass on to these girls.”

The workshop will be designed to expose teachers to a variety of new technologies in the computer science field. “It will also teach android programming using Application Inventor to teachers, as a tool for encouraging female students to consider computer science as a career path,” she says. “Following the workshop we will support the teachers by organising a competition for groups of their female students to design a mobile application. They will compete against the pool of schools that had teachers who participated in the workshop.”

When she arrived back in New Zealand after winning the scholarship and spending time at Google headquarters, Mohaghegh says she was motivated to do something more to encourage women in the field. “When I was at the retreat, I

cover story

those little things on the motherboard. I even tried to fix everything up that was broken on the computer a couple of times. If my dad had been angry at me when I was playing around with the inside of the computer, I don’t think I would have gone into this field.”

The successful team will win scholarships for tuition fees and living costs at Unitec, says Mohaghegh. “The aim is to show that computer science is not just an area for nerds, males and gamers. Anyone can do it.”

And for those who are already interested in the field, or studying at any level, Mohaghegh says the Anita Borg Scholarship is a must. “For any girls who have a passion for computer science, I really recommend they apply for it. The Anita Borg Scholarship is a prestigious award, and it is there for us. Not many people from New Zealand know about it, but it’s really worth it.”

» contact Mahsa Mohaghegh Lecturer Department of Computing mmohaghegh@unitec.ac.nz

» autumn 2013 » advance

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film

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The very small screen

Filmmaking at Unitec is a well established field − the Performing and Screen Arts (PASA) department was recently named one of the top ten film schools in the world by Reelshow International − and students regularly learn how to write, edit or direct a feature film for the big screen. But there is an emerging trend for movies created for smaller venues. That is, movies designed to be watched on mobile phones and other mobile devices.

In response to this increasingly popular entertainment medium, Senior Lecturer Dan Wagner has created an exciting new international project to enable students to learn more about creating films for wireless mobile devices. Called Entertainment Lab for the Very Small Screen, or ELVSS, the project has just finished its second year. “Throughout most of their degree, PASA students are learning more or less conventional filmmaking methodologies,” says Wagner. “ELVSS is an experiment in acquiring footage with a whole new set of tools, repurposing their films for delivery in a whole new way: back onto the same devices with which they were shot, and trying on a whole new mindset in regards their craft. We’re challenging the students to demonstrate new approaches to traditional visual narrative conventions. There’s already a well-established cinematic language for the 70-foot screen. Now we need one for the 70-millimetre screen.”

The project, which has been presented at international conferences and received funding

from the Unitec Research Committee, embraces the Unitec philosophy of innovative teaching and learning, says Wagner. “The pedagogy involves structured uncertainty. We inspire them with context – showing them mobile innovations that have already been trail-blazed. Then we challenge them to contribute to this newly developing cinematic language. The journey they take to achieve this is very much driven by them.”

The first course started in 2011, and initially students experimented with the new medium, learning how to create something visually appealing to mobile phone viewers. “We gave them mobile devices, and said ‘You can make movies with these’,” says Wagner. “It was mindblowing for these students of conventional filmmaking to be able to put cameras in places they weren’t able to put them before, and to shoot anytime, because they had an HD camera in their pocket. They could put the cameras in watertight bags and put them in fish tanks, or tape them to doors, or tape them to steering wheels, or tape them to the bonnet of a car. So they were exploring all these ideas.”

“It was mindblowing for

film

A global collaboration between three tertiary institutions has lead to new understanding for students in the art of making movies for the very small screen.

these students

As part of their learning process, the group connected with people doing similar projects in different parts of the world. One person they encountered was Helen Keegan, a Senior Lecturer in Social Technologies at the University of Salford in Manchester. She was able to send Wagner examples of films created by her students, as well as those from mobile phone film festivals around the world. At the time Keegan did a Skype interview with Wagner’s class, and answered their questions on the genre.

of conventional filmmaking to be able to put cameras in places they weren’t able to put them before.”

Then in 2012, ELVSS evolved to become something more. Wagner suggested an international collaboration, and Keegan was enthusiastic. They managed to work out a schedule that meant the Unitec students could work with students from Salford University in Manchester and also students from the University of Strasbourg in France under lecturer Solene Trousse, in a collaborative project spanning three countries.

A total of 37 students participated across the world, in four teams of nine members (one team with ten). “We divided the teams by specialisation, because the teams were small,” says Wagner. “Each team had camera and sound » autumn 2013 » advance

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people, editors, production people, and writers.

The first event of the project was the Great Global Hangout, where all the participants − in New Zealand, UK and France − got together at one time for a live video chat on Google + Hangouts. It took a while to negotiate the best time for all the students and lecturers to meet. In the end it was 8am in New Zealand, 7pm in the UK, 8pm in France. We had our coffees and they had their beers.”

The four international teams then split up and worked together on creating their films. As well as needing to shoot some of each film in all three countries and to take advantage of the unique aspects of filming on such a small device, they were also given a theme – sustainability.

“Bringing environmental sustainability into it was powerful because it was a global project addressing global issues,” says Wagner. “In addition to exploring the mobile aesthetic, I thought we should address something that is actually going on in the world and using pocket devices to communicate the issue was a powerful way to do it.” film

Part of the challenge for the teams was to devise effective ways to communicate globally, which they did initially through Google Docs and Google + Hangouts, and then later through Facebook and Twitter. “The students could communicate synchronously, and asynchronously,” says Wagner. “Using platforms like Twitter spread the boundaries of the class through time and space.

For example, students from other countries could make Twitter comments during our classes at Unitec.”

» contact Daniel Wagner Senior Lecturer Department of Performing and Screen Arts dwagner@unitec.ac.nz

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» unitec.ac.nz

The students experimented with a range of techniques, some involving the technical aspects of the device itself, and some to do with the way it would be viewed. “That’s the focus of the research,” says Wagner. “Coming from a film background, I’m interested in the dramatic transition we’re in the middle of − from film to new media. What are the differences in approach between conventional filmmaking methodologies and capturing content on mobile phones? What carries over, what gets left behind, and what new approaches and methods pop up?

Current research, including ours, is finding that the methods for acquiring, manipulating and delivering do indeed affect the content.”

He’s found that students were very receptive to the idea of filming on mobile phones, for the singular perspectives that the new platforms provide. “Part of it is looking at the uniqueness of

how small this camera is, with a very small lens, with a very small sensor, and delivering on a very small screen. What’s different about that? It’s helping them to look at what’s appropriate, and using the right tool.”

Wagner has presented the project at several conferences, including a virtual presentation at the International Conference on Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI) 2012 in Madrid; in person at the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE) conference; and a presentation at the Mobile Innovation Network Aotearoa (MINA) conference. “There was a slightly different focus at each conference, but for example at MINA I spoke about the aesthetic of the mobile device, and how that was affected by the international collaboration. One of the side objectives of this exercise was the international collaboration itself. How do you do that, when the world is getting smaller, and you have all these tools now to talk to people? How do people use technology to communicate?”

Wagner says the ELVSS12 project has opened up exciting possibilities for his students. “First of all, it empowers them to take the tools of storytelling into their own hands. It brings them up to date with a new technology that is being used for storytelling around the world. For my film students it broadens their horizons, and shows them that some of the storytelling tools they are learning, the cinematic language, is transferable to any device.”

But it’s not only the new storytelling skills they are discovering that Wagner believes is important for his students. “What’s also valuable is the ability to connect with people across the world.

They have this device in their pocket that is an incredibly powerful thing, on a lot of fronts, not just the ability to make and share movies.”

The ELVSS projects have been exciting and intriguing to watch as a lecturer, says Wagner.

“It’s fascinating to me and fun. I spent 20 years in a film camera department, working with physical film, as an assistant, then as a camera operator, and then as director of photography. That’s what I know, that’s what I love, that’s where I come from. To now be using these completely new types of devices, and to apply the tools of filmmaking to them, it’s a thrill. Also to see the students do new things with them, to create and innovate on their own. It’s not predictable where they go. I love that about it.”

s, for obile device Filming on m is a whole ne viewers, o h p e il b o m g. It’s about f filmmakin new area o ng the nd enhanci exploiting a in order this medium in s ce n re e r diff rpose-fit fo mething pu so te a e cr s. to ing movie way of view the modern

Dan's tips for mobile phone films Some technical differences to filming on phones: » We need to alter the way we shoot and frame with a mobile phone, particularly if it’s viewed on a mobile screen. So one thing we need to do is to not have crowded wide shots.

film

» It helps to have slightly simpler frames. We can’t move quite as fast, either for the camera or the subjects, because of compression issues.

The files that we generate are big, and since they’re sent via internet to get them back to these phones, we need to reduce the file size. To do that messes with motion. » The sensor in mobile phones, the way they processes images, affects how you film. When you move the phone too fast, everything goes out of focus. There’s also a wobble effect, where everything looks jelly-like. » Mobile phones hold focus incredibly well. If I hold a phone up close to your face, it would also see past you into the distance − it would all still be in focus. No other camera can do this, because the sensor is so small.

This can be used to create shots to generate a certain feel. » Mobile phones search for focus (you can train them not to, there are certain ways that you interact with your phone that makes them not search) but the searching can also be a creative tool.

Some differences to how the story is told: » People are getting more used to watching movie-length films on mobiles − there’s some research about that − but still the majority of people are watching it in short bursts. They watch entertainment content on their mobiles in their in-between times, while they’re waiting. Even if the overall story is feature length it’s helpful to structure the story’s beats in smaller bites. So we’re back to the serialisation of movies. » It’s also about the kinds of stories. What types of stories do we tell?

There are more possibilities afforded by mobile phones in terms of where you can put them and who will watch them.

Hot new areas: » There is a potential for creating a soundtrack for a mobile phone film that could be just as popular, if not more so, than the film itself. There is pretty good sound quality on phones, so that’s a whole area ripe for exploration. » autumn 2013 » advance

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Studying the whole house

Four Unitec lecturers are part of a unique project researching the variables of building performance in an onsite whole-house environment.

When a company claims to have tested a particular product, and proudly proclaims the results, it’s not always as useful as we might like, according to Construction Lecturer Kath Davies.

“A lot of the manufacturers make these claims about their products, but they’ve either been tested overseas in different conditions, or tested in labs, or not tested but computer modelled. It’s about the products in isolation, and not about how they work in a building.” building

From left: Kath Davies and Robert Tait discuss the houses. Outside the test houses.

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In an effort to provide accurate information about products in a New Zealand environment, Davies is part of a project at Unitec that is testing building performance in a whole house environment, using two houses for comparison.

“The two houses are built by carpentry students at the Mt Albert campus. One we keep as a control house; it’s the standard three bedroom house, basic design and built to code, as hundreds and thousands of them are around the country. The other house is the test house, which

is the one we make modifications to, and run a monitoring programme to test the temperature and humidity and look at the overall performance of it.

“Internationally there are a couple of places where they are looking at whole houses, but it is so much harder to run a whole house as a laboratory, so they model bits of houses within a lab, or they put up bits of houses in a field somewhere to test weathering and waterproofing.”

Davies says that the project enables them to take building performance research to the next level. “What we are doing is setting up a facility for testing modifications, or new materials, or different use of materials, or different construction practice in the context of a whole house,” she adds. “We’re putting a bit of rigour into the research, and saying that in a New Zealand situation − specifically an Auckland situation − this is how these modifications

The team, which includes Senior Lecturer Roger Birchmore from the Construction Department and Lecturers Robert Tait and Andy Pivac from Building Technology, as well as Davies, started three years ago with research into a high-performance, double-glazing product. The glazing was provided by Metro Glasstech, and had a low e-coating on the glass with argon gas in the double glazing cavity for more insulation.

“Overall the low-e glazing had a positive impact.

We were monitoring it unoccupied, so that did affect the results. What the glazing would do is keep the heat in, especially if it was being heated inside, and because we didn’t put the heat in, it cooled down and got a bit cold overnight. But it was still warmer with the glazing than without.”

The average temperature inside our homes in New Zealand is much lower than World Health Organisation (WHO) standards. “They’re well below the WHO standards, which is 18 degrees, or 21 degrees for vulnerable groups like children or the elderly. New Zealand houses are on average around 16 degrees Celsius,” says Davies.

“So New Zealand houses don’t come any where near those levels, particularly if you look at the whole house, because people heat individual rooms, and bedrooms get really cold, it’s horrible.

So we were looking at low-e glazing as one way of lifting that minimum.”

temperatures in the houses. “We found that even in the control house, with the standard design and build, the top temperatures were getting really high. We were getting top temperatures that were up in the 30s. This is what’s happening with the new building standards; we have to insulate, we have to use double glazing and it’s increasing the minimum temperature of the house. But it’s also increasing the maximum temperatures way above comfort levels.”

This means that an unexpected downside to the emphasis on insulated houses in New Zealand is that in summer houses are getting far hotter, says Davies. This has lead to another problem – excess power consumption during summer.

“People never used to cool New Zealand houses,” she says. “We would just open the windows, and it was much more common for someone to be home all day to keep the house ventilated. Now people come home from work and it’s stifling hot so they flick on the air conditioner or the heat pump, which they never used to have. Heat pumps are great in winter, they provide cheap heating, they do everything they’re supposed to do, but in summer we’ve suddenly got an energy load we never used to have.”

When they were analysing the results of that original research the team noticed another anomaly in the View of the wrap product through a hole in the GIB board of the test house

The Wrap House The current research in the houses, which began in September 2012 and will run for one year, is a wrap product that aims to seal the house and avoid moist air moving inside.

Proclima has provided the product, which is used overseas but not generally in New Zealand. “It basically seals the house, so it should have an impact on the heating, because you’re not drying the house out all the time,” says Davies.

“Heat pumps are great in winter, they do everything they’re supposed to do, but in summer we’ve suddenly got an energy load we never used to have.” building

perform in practice, in a real site, in a real year of weather. It distinguishes what we do from the lab stuff.”

“We do a blower door test, where they pressurise the house and then measure how quickly it depressurises. Based on those tests we know this product makes the house a lot more airtight than other houses we’ve built previously. A standard house is something like six air changes an hour. You only need one change per hour with the building code, and with the wrap house we’ve only got 1.2, so it’s reduced it hugely.”

The wrap is applied during the building process and is not noticeable once the house is complete. “It didn’t take extra time, to the credit of the lads who’ve been building it, because it takes a whole lot of attention when they’re constructing to get it perfect. It was one of the things we were looking at, to see whether it did impact on the construction process. What it came down to was how well the project was managed.” The results of the Wrap House project will be available late in 2013.

» autumn 2013 » advance

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1. Cool outside air entering through soft openings 2. Air heating in roofspace 3. Hot air escaping through ridge vents 4. Ridge cap on top allowing ventilation

By allowing a cool draft to enter the roof (1) and then exit through the ridge vents (3), the team was able to lower the uncomfortable higher summer temperatures inside the house.

building

“We wanted to find out, if you cool the roof space, does that have a flow-on effect on the living spaces?”

From top left: Kath Davies checks the temperature monitors.

The ventilation holes on the roof. Kath Davies inside the test house.

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Based on this new phenomenon, the group decided to see if they could lower those maximum temperatures in the test houses without the huge energy cost. They had found the roof spaces were getting up into the high 50s, and decided to start there. “We wanted to find out, if you cool the roof space, does that have a flow-on effect on the living spaces? We thought if we ran a draft through the roof space, it might cool the rest of the house down as well, without affecting the comfort levels of the people inside the building.”

The researchers decided to use a bit of Kiwi ingenuity to put together a roof ventilation option on one of the houses for the summer, in between two major research projects. “On your roof, you’ve got the two sides coming together, and then there’s a normal ridge cap. All we did was basically lifted the ridge cap so that air came from inside the roof, under the ridge cap and out, but rain didn’t come in. It’s an actual product that we used, the vented ridge cap, and then we went along and drilled holes in the soffits. We just drilled holes along the edge. Cooler air comes in, it heats up so it rises and then goes out through the holes at the top.”

They were able to use data from previous years as a comparison for how the roof ventilation performed. The results of their experiment were small but significant says Davies. “When you talk about the temperatures it’s really not huge, we’re knocking a couple of degrees off the peaks, so

UK

instead of getting to 33 degrees it’s getting to 30 degrees. People might think, big deal, but actually from a comfort perspective that is really quite significant.”

According to Davies the idea was to keep the temperatures the same if it was colder, and only to lower the maximum temperatures. “If it’s cold, it’s not going to heat up so much, so you don’t get the ventilation, so it’s not changing anything. If it’s hot, you do get that pull through, and it drives itself. It’s very low tech, it cost about $300 in total to do all the work on it. It was also a retrofit on an existing building, so anyone with a house like that could do it just as easily.

“The ventilated roof space isn’t common here, but in other countries it’s common to ventilate a roof, although perhaps not in exactly the way we’ve done it. Ours is the low tech, what-can-wedo-on-a-low-budget kind of project.”

Since the roof ventilation testing finished, they’ve started the next major project, called the Wrap House (see sidebar on page 17). They’re also working hard on creating really effective computer modelling, to complement the physical research in the test houses. “In tandem with the physical testing, we’re trying to set up a computer-based system as well. We’ve got a 3D representation of the house, and we’re doing a comparison between the actual results that we’re getting and what the modelling tool predicts, so we can do a calibration of predicted against real.

“We can start testing things that we can’t test out in the houses because they’re too expensive or not worth it or whatever, and we can start predicting what are the best things that we can be testing in the houses. If we’re going to be testing something for a year, we can use the

21º UK Average living room temperature

18º UK Average temperature other Areas

18-21º WHO Standard for heating

17.8º

building

This response to ‘summertime overheating’ has led to heat pumps losing some of their environmentally friendly status. “It’s a sustainability issue. It’s a balance between comfort and the environmental impact,” says Davies.

NZ Average winter evening living room

15.8º NZ Average indoor winter temperature

New Zealand vs the world

13.6º

In New Zealand, temperatures inside our homes fall significantly short of UK and European standards, as well as the World Health Organisation's standard of 18-21⁰C, with an average winter inside temperature in New Zealand homes of 15.8⁰C. A lower South Island homes study found that occupants could be exposed to indoor temperatures of below 12 degrees for nearly half the 24-hour day.

NZ Average bedroom night temperature

Why the difference?

There is some evidence that the heating difference is cultural, rather than economic, due to traditional behaviour patterns that evolved from our masculine pioneer heritage. This means that New Zealanders on higher incomes don’t heat their homes to a significantly warmer temperature than those on lower incomes, and a survey of student housing found that students rated location and price significantly higher than thermal comfort. In other words, home heating in New Zealand is not treated as a luxury, but rather as a basic necessity that is, by international standards at least, undervalued.

Source: Howden-Chapman, P., Viggers, H., Chapman, R., O'Dea, D., Free, S., & O'Sullivan, K. (2009). Warm homes: Drivers of the demand for heating in the residential sector in New Zealand. Energy Policy, 37(9), 3387-3399.

12º NZ Average outdoor winter temperature

NZ

» autumn 2013 » advance

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“We believe it’s a project that will have significant influence on the way we build in New Zealand.”

building

model to determine the most significant things to test.”

» contact Robert Tait Lecturer Department of Building Technology rtait@unitec.ac.nz

Roger Birchmore Senior Lecturer Department of Construction rbirchmore@unitec.ac.nz

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However, Davies says the problem with computer modelling has been firstly to develop the model and then find a way of ensuring it represents reality as closely as possible. “You can throw anything into a modelling tool; it’s really easy to set up a model, relatively speaking. But then to set it up using real data, real weather conditions, modelling every bit of material and construction, to that level of detail, and then working out what settings you change in the computer, whether you do twenty iterations of the model instead of ten iterations and then take the averages to compare against actual outputs. All of that is much more difficult, but we want to make sure we do it right, so we’ll keep working on it.”

A future option for the team is to do smaller research projects like the ventilated roof tests, but to run them parallel to the main research projects. “For example someone at the Auckland Council suggested looking at window treatments,” says Davies. “How much difference does it make if you pull the curtains? It’s really simple stuff, things that cost next to nothing, and are about the way people use the space. Can we make some changes that would really impact on the cost of running a house?”

These smaller projects are about using the test houses efficiently, adds Davies. “They are generally the little things that you’d never bother testing in a lab, but we’ve got this unique test bed that we can use. It’s just a matter of working out how we can do that without impacting on the bigger picture project. That means we just do the same thing in the control house as we do in the test house, so we’re testing both under the same conditions.”

Long term the plan is to pull all this data into a ‘Whole of House’ Research Centre at Unitec. “We have other projects that hook into it, around housing. People are looking at things like the cost of housing in New Zealand, and the projected need for housing demand. The idea is to pull all of that under one umbrella.”

There is also considerable awareness around the results from the test house projects that are underway and also those planned for the future. “At conferences that we’ve presented at, there have definitely been people who are very interested in our results and methodology,” says Davies. “We’ve also had discussions with people at BRANZ who are keen to come up and have a look at what we’re doing, so we can feed into what they’re doing. All in all, we believe it’s a project that will have significant influence on the way we build in New Zealand.”

Watching the weather It might look like any other phone or power pole on the Mt Albert campus, but the Unitec weather station is actually a vital part of ensuring our research has the right weather data at the right time.

The 12-metre high weather station has been in place for the last ten years, and has the capability to read humidity, dew point, wind speed, wind direction, wind deviation, ambient temperatures, rainfall and hours of sunlight. “It’s quite an accurate system,” says Senior Technician Bill Boon. “At the moment it is recording data every ten minutes, but we can control that. We could do it every five minutes or every hour if we wanted to.”

Boon says they’ve worked in collaboration with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) to ensure the information the weather station is providing is correct. “The station has been calibrated to NIWA standards by a NIWA weather technician. That means there is no difference between the weather data we get onsite to the NIWA weather stations.”

An onsite weather station is valuable for the various sitespecific research projects taking place at Unitec. “NIWA weather stations run every two hours, and they’re a bit further away. It’s about having the control to download the information we want, when we want it, to get site-specific weather information,” says Boon.

For researchers at Unitec, some couldn’t do their work without the weather station. “It’s completely fundamental to our research,” says Roger Birchmore, Senior Lecturer in Construction.

Birchmore’s team is doing comparisons on how new building materials respond in a test house on the Unitec campus (see page 16), compared with standard materials in a control house. “When we do a computer simulation of what we’re measuring in the house, we need the weather information.

Using external weather information from stations further away from our houses is a potential source of error in our research,” he says. “Having the actual data under our control removes that potential for inaccuracy. Our model is more rigorous and more valuable because of it. In fact there would be no point doing the research we are doing if we didn’t have the information from our weather station.”

» autumn 2013 » advance

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Developing Strategies A push to improve the language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) levels in tertiary education was the impetus behind a project commissioned by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) and conducted by a group of Unitec staff members.

literacy

“Both the TEC’s action plan and its guidelines outline a programme to increase staff capability, organisational support and increased delivery of LLN in level 1-3 programmes. There is also a specific focus on improving success, retention and progression rates of Māori and Pacific learners,” says Academic Development Lecturer Herewini Easton. “However most of the material supplied doesn’t take into account Māori or

“ It’s about one person, but with four dimensions to them; the spiritual, the physical, the intellectual, and the social.”

Herewini Easton in the wharenui next to the carving that jumps out at him.

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Pacific teaching strategies and it is this gap which this project sought to fill. It was about using our Pacific and Māori concepts to help with literacy development throughout New Zealand.”

The Unitec team working on the project came from several departments, with a range of differing experiences of literacy. It was about working collaboratively to develop a DVD resource

The first framework they developed was around strategies to improve literacy with Pacific students. They used the evocative imagery of the frangipani flower and applied it to the five dimensions of literacy development to create a new concept that would resonate with Pacific students. “Some of the inspiration came from Kunai Thaman, who is a well known Pacific educator at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, who also talks about the frangipani in her research,” says Easton. “I really like her work, and wanted to use something similar in our model.”

Easton worked with the director of the Pacific Centre for Learning, Teaching and Research at the time, Malia Talakai, to develop a concept that might make sense from a Pacific perspective. “Then a friend of mine gave me this poem, by Karlo Mila, called ‘For Aunty Olive’ which says: ‘you are the living flower in the chain of frangipani’. When I saw the poem, I thought ‘that’s it’. Our students come in, and they are a frangipani in the lei of their family, so they have that behind them. Our students in front of us are like a frangipani flower. What we have to do is encourage them, bring out the beauty in them, so that when they leave us, they go back to their family lei shining bright.”

The second framework they developed was a blend of the Māori learning strategies used

by Easton and the team at Maia, and literacy concepts from the Adult Literacies team at Te Puna Ako. “We developed a knowledge base around Māori and Pacific learning strategies and their relationship to teaching and learning literacy embedded in vocational programmes,” says Easton. “We started with Professor Mason Durie’s framework, the Whare Tapa Wha, or the four-sided house. It’s about one person, but with four dimensions to them; the spiritual, the physical, the intellectual, and the social. I think that’s a reflection of my Māori side and my Pakeha side. When we were young, my mum always said to us, you’ve got two cultures, live them together, don’t put one on top of the other.”

When Easton came to the group with the Whare Tapa Wha model, Trisha Hanifin from Te Puna Ako immediately saw the connections to mainstream literacy strategies. “Trisha, who is one of the experts in literacy at Unitec,

said ‘These are the same as the dimensions of literacy: vocabulary, decoding, language and text features, comprehension, and reading critically’.

It all matched up to the four walls in the Whare Tapa Wha. So that became our new structure. In the end, it was just about sitting down to talk.”

Easton says there were around 50 projects nationwide who received the initial funding for their literacy research, and TEC chose the ones that then became the model resources. “Unitec’s project was the only one that was accepted, and Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi in Whakatane was awarded the contract to publish the resources. I also presented the outcomes of the research at the National Centre of Literacy and Numeracy for Adults conference at AUT in 2012.”

“It’s amazing the response you get. It’s teaching them to think about learning in a different way.”

When the time came for their new framework to be turned into a DVD resource for educators around New Zealand, Easton used the example he uses for showing the connection to learning and knowledge to students. “Using the carvings in the Unitec meeting house just made sense.

I say to the people, this is like a library. Please go and touch the carvings, pick out the book.

It’s not a museum, where you stand back and don’t touch. I tell them to walk around, and find the one that jumps out at them. I ask them why they stood there, and encourage them to tell us their story. It’s amazing the response you get.

It’s teaching them to think about learning in a different way.”

literacy

for educators, says Easton. “It was a partnership, involving staff from the Maia Māori Development Centre, Foundation Studies, the Pacific Centre and the Adult Literacies team at Te Puna Ako.”

Easton says that what one person might see in a carving is not the same as another person, and what resonates for them, might not for another.

“It’s the same with learning, we could all be in the same class room, reading the same message, but we could all walk out with something different.

That’s why a lot of our students struggle, not because they can’t read, but because they’re just not used to this type of writing. So as part of our model, we give them learning strategies, things like looking for the key words. That’s life-long learning.”

The research is an ongoing process, says Easton. “The frameworks were designed to help educators to raise the skill levels of learners and, in so doing, improve engagement, motivation and progression rates. We have asked that educators critique, discuss and trial the frameworks that we have created, in the same way that we are doing here at Unitec.”

» contact Herewini Easton Academic Development Lecturer Maia Māori Development Centre heaston@unitec.ac.nz

» autumn 2013 » advance

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architecture

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Creating Tomorrow’s Streets

That meeting took place in 2011, and last year Turner and his students participated in the initial data gathering for the project. Billed as New Zealand’s first advanced energy neighbourhood, Tomorrow Street is essentially a group of 15 households in a suburb on the North Shore of Auckland who have agreed to participate in real-world testing of a range of energy-saving technology. “The idea is to see what we can do to conserve energy around that neighbourhood, and then consider potentially rolling it out to the rest of New Zealand,” says Stuart MacRae, Genesis Energy’s Tomorrow Street Co-ordinator.

“It’s a learning tool to figure out what we can do around the country to help our customers.”

To properly compare the energy use, Genesis Energy provided energy consumption data for the 15 houses for the period April 2011 to March 2012, as a baseline for each house. Then the households had an independent assessment of the energy efficiency of their homes, with recommended adjustments made in 2012. “The range of products offered by Genesis Energy, depending on their requirements, included an energy management system, replacement and higher standards of insulation, solar photovoltaic panels, and energy efficient equipment, including energy saving fridges and washing machines,”

says Turner. “In exchange, they allowed access to their homes for the assessments, and each household is monitoring their own energy use to measure the changes.”

"It’s an

Each of Turner’s students provided measurements for two of the houses in order to ensure accurate comparisons. “Their target was to survey the houses, to measure them so we can get the floor space and volume, and an accurate square metre figure for each house,” says Turner. “None of the houses had that, and without it, you can’t start talking about kilowatts per square metre. They modelled the houses, and showed the summer and winter sun angles and shadows, because that also affects heat loss through the external walls.”

the architecture

extraordinary opportunity for students to learn about the effects of design on energy efficiency."

It’s an extraordinary opportunity for the architecture students to learn about the effects of design on energy efficiency, says Turner.

“There wouldn’t be a course in New Zealand doing the same kind of thing. Not going into houses like these and then assessing their energy use.”

In 2013, the project’s focus is on getting a year’s worth of data for comparison to their 2011-2012 energy information. But, says MacRae, they already know a little bit about the success of the energy savings so far. “We’re also working with the University of Auckland on this project, and they have independently analysed the energy usage data for us. Overall, there’s been around a 13 per cent saving on energy usage across the houses since the programme began in April 2012,” he says. “The biggest monthly saving recorded from a single household was 49 per cent of their energy usage in the month after having insulation and solar panels installed.

There were four households that had saved more than 20 per cent of their energy consumption

» autumn 2013 » advance

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architecture

For Unitec Architecture Senior Lecturer David Turner, an interest in energy use in higher density housing has led to involvement in an exciting new project with Genesis Energy. “I went to Genesis Energy with a proposal to access their energy records for their medium density developments for my research,” says Turner.

“They didn’t have that specific housing density information, but they did say they were in the process of setting up this Tomorrow Street project, so I suggested that we help them with that instead.”

Cold air infiltration can increase your heating costs by up to

33% in August 2012 compared to 2011. Those four homes had insulation fitted in June 2012.”

architecture

Turner says he wants to wait until the numbers are in from the 2013 reporting before making too many conclusions. “There are some indicators, but I’m not quite ready to write them down. The results are going to be interesting, and they’ll come later in the year. The methodology is the first thing we need to concentrate on. What is a strictly scientific process that will stand up to

Solar hot water systems can save up to 80% on water heating.

80% lightweight cladding, suspended timber floors and high wall-to-window ratios, Turner says research into options for energy efficiency is important. And being smart with the design and layout of a household is the first step to a warmer home. “When you get a house with no windows on the north wall, and a lot of windows on the south wall, because that is where the views are, you’re going to get a lot of heat loss.

We found that, in close to half of the houses, they had bathrooms, secondary bedrooms, and kitchens on the north side of the house, where the sun is, and the living room on the south side, where it is colder. They had no insulation on the south side, and none in the roof, and they didn’t know why they couldn’t heat their homes.”

For Turner, being smarter with energy in the design of the houses is integral to the research.

Solar panels added to a home.

external scrutiny? That’s why I’m interested in getting a paper on this study to a conference as soon as I can, to see what other people say about it. They’re doing similar enquiries in Australia, they’re interested in the same kind of research activity, but it’s not being done anywhere else quite like this. From our point of view, the value of this research is based on the fact that Genesis Energy is giving us access to actual household energy records. You can’t get this kind of information unless the company agrees to supply it, and that doesn’t happen very often.”

Because New Zealand’s housing stock is relatively old, including many homes with little or no insulation, single-glazed windows,

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The graph of energy use in the 15 houses.

"The study of these houses is showing how important the building fabric itself is, and the spatial layout of them.”

Water heating makes up a hefty 40% of a home’s overall energy bill.

40% Energy efficient fridges use up to 50% less energy.

50%

60%

Genesis Energy puts the next generation of energy technology. What do they prioritise given the public perception of its usefulness? What are the gadgets that the public relate to, and how can we use that knowledge to make energy consumption more efficient?”

The project is continuing through 2013, with a new batch of students. “The most important thing is that we now have a lot of material that we can use for the next stage, which is monitoring these houses after they’ve been modified with new insulation and the other

architecture

“Genesis Energy is saying can we be a bit smarter about the way we use energy, and I’m saying yes, we can, we can be a whole lot smarter, and it starts with the design of the buildings. The study of these houses is showing how important the building fabric itself is, and the spatial layout of them.”

Upgrading to an energy efficient water heater saves up to

Stuart MacRae from Genesis Energy.

A new house being built now, using good design and efficient energy systems, could run on no more than 10 or 12 kilowatts hours per metre squared per year, according to Turner. There are homes on the Tomorrow Street project that were using up to 200 kilowatts per square metre per year. “But you could probably make them work on 50 kilowatts,” he adds.

For Genesis, Tomorrow Street is about putting the control back into the hands of their customers, says MacRae. “The main aspect with this is to try and get people to consider how they can use their energy more efficiently.

Rather than just this thing that you pay in a bill each month, it’s an actual commodity that you can control yourself. It literally puts the power back into the hands of the householder, allowing them to control how much energy they’re using.”

The company is preparing for the future of energy use, agrees Turner. “It’s about where

David Turner assesses a home.

products,” says Turner. “It’s the year that is going to be most interesting, because we’re going to have a full winter of data, and we’re going to have all the variations of occupation. This year I need the students to refine the factors that affect performance and then identify the elements of the building that are most accessible for improvements.”

In the meantime, Turner is excited to be part of the collaboration with Genesis Energy. “This research is quite unique. There is nothing even similar that I know of. It’s a collaboration that is working for us at the moment. It’s a nice relationship and I think it’s going to be fruitful, for them and us – it’s all about the real world.”

» contact David Turner Senior Lecturer Department of Architecture dturner@unitec.ac.nz

» summer 2012 » advance

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Taking another look Unitec Lecturer Chris Lynch is using a hospital health assessment tool in a novel way: to determine the capability of future elite sports people.

For people admitted to hospital with serious health issues such as cardiovascular and pulmonary disorders, testing what is called their ‘system efficiency’ is a valuable tool, as well as being a fairly standard procedure. It involves testing the amount of oxygen going into the body, through a measure called the Oxygen Uptake Efficiency Slope (OUES), and their efficiency in getting rid of carbon dioxide − their Ventilatory Efficiency (VE).

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This combined measure is used to determine the capability of a person’s heart and lungs to perform their basic requirements, says Department of Sport Lecturer, Chris Lynch. “When you’re in hospital, and you have cardiovascular or respiratory disease, how well you use both your heart and your lungs to provide capability for exercise is a good indicator for doctors of your functional capabilities. System efficiency for someone who is unwell is really key.”

But now, Lynch is using those same measurements to determine the capability of developing endurance sports people. “This is the first time this kind of research has been done. It’s got the potential to change the way we look at athletic performance, particularly with developing athletes,” he says.

In elite sports people, researchers have previously tested their ability to use oxygen, while the measures of carbon dioxide have been ignored, despite the information being gathered as part of the usual testing process, called a VO2 Max test. “There are two ends of the spectrum really,” says Lynch. “The usual tests we do here, you’d never do with ill people; it’s too much. But until now we’ve ignored the fact that these other tests that are done with ill people might have value in an athletic

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sense. Essentially we’ve asked the question: How can we use some of the assessments used for people with cardiovascular or respiratory disease in the assessments of our athletes?”

VO2 Max Testing The VO2 Max test gives athletes and coaches valuable information about the capability of elite athletes, and their ‘engine’ size. Lynch says the test isn’t done very often, because it’s painful for the athletes, and they generally dislike doing it. “With rowers for example, they literally row until they can’t go any further, at increasing stages,” he says. “We know what their best time is, so we use that information to give us an end point to where they should be, and we would regress off that. We take them through stages, so that ultimately at the sixth stage they’re at their best time ever, and then we push them past that to go one more level. And whilst they’re capable of doing that, and to some extent they’re expected to do that to get the information that they want, it’s actually pretty painful, and it disrupts their training, and takes a huge effort and motivation.”

Part of the reason this extra data is useful is that while we often think of the process of respiration − using oxygen and then expelling carbon dioxide − as being part of the same process, the systems behind those measures are actually very different. “That’s the key for this research,” says Lynch. “We look at respiration as two sides of the same coin, but they’re actually two different coins.

“The volume of oxygen that you use is representative of the fitness of your heart, the ability of the blood to

carry oxygen, and the ability of your muscles to use oxygen, so measuring the volume of oxygen is all about how good your cardiovascular system is and the efficiency of your muscles. When you’re looking at the expulsion of carbon dioxide you’re looking at what they call the respiratory efficiency, how good you are at expelling carbon dioxide with every out-breath. Carbon dioxide is a bi-product of metabolism and it’s poisonous within the body, so the respiratory efficiency is important in getting as much carbon dioxide out as you can. The better we are at expelling that carbon dioxide in exercise, the better our performance.”

The more traditional VO2 Max test provides an absolute value for sport science researchers, says Lynch. “We’d get a relative value of the volume of oxygen that an athlete uses, because that will give you an indication of capability. So if a rower has an absolute VO2 Max of six litres, they’ve got a good engine, for example.”

But the VO2 Max tests are difficult for the athletes. “The VO2 Max test requires the athletes to push themselves to the absolute maximum limit, and then past that. Despite being expected, for many athletes it is uncomfortable, it potentially impacts on their training, and it requires a high level of motivation from the athletes, which they haven’t always got.

But by using these system efficiency tests that are normally done with unwell people, we can provide valuable indicators about the athletes’ capability to coaches and the athletes without taking them to that level. For an athlete it’s a winner, because you can get similar indicators of performance without going to that painful maximal level.”

What Lynch has discovered is that the system efficiency tests – because they

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Chris Lynch tests young rowers on their system efficiency in the Human Performance Lab.

look at the capability of the athletes, instead of their maximum level – are perfect for developing athletes. “It’s useful in the talent-identification process. With developing athletes, they’re younger, and they’ve got potential for maturity and further growth well into their 20s. So it’s not about what their absolute VO2 Max is, it’s about how well they’re using what they’ve got.

Lynch says it’s about recognising early who is likely to make it at the elite level, and who is not.

“In simplistic terms, if you talk about an engine, if they don’t have the engine size they need, they’re not going to be able to perform at an elite level, particularly at things like rowing or cycling,” says Lynch. “That’s the key to this: most of these athletes are fit enough, but the coaches want to know if they have the engine to get them into the elite category.”

This latest piece of research has been narrowed down to focus on one specific group of developing elite athletes – 24 rowers from the Auckland Regional Development Squad, who all went through both the system efficiency tests and the VO2 Max tests, so Lynch could compare the results from each method. “The beauty of this research is that it’s quite populationspecific,” says Lynch. “We’ve identified a small group of rowers that we can use that data from,

and the data that we’ll gather for cyclists or runners will be different.”

The differences between rowers, cyclists, runners and swimmers would be around body position in the sport and movement patterns, says Lynch. “You get different responses because of the amount of muscle mass involved in the activity. Rowing involves all the body, and they have high muscle mass, whereas cyclists will potentially use less muscle mass, because it’s more a lower body activity than upper body. Body position is really key with this. There’s a lot of extra value in this type of testing.”

The system efficiency tests could potentially become quite important in the evaluation and assessment of developing sports people in a range of endurance sports, says Lynch. “Sport is quite complex at the end of the day. We talk about skill components, and competitive components and psychological components.

That’s the complexity of any sport. For a coach, they’ve got a few questions in their head. Has this performer got capability? If they haven’t got capability, what’s the point of taking them further? And if they’ve got the capability, how well are they using that capability? That’s where my research comes in.”

» contact Chris Lynch Lecturer Department of Sport clynch@unitec.ac.nz

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Human Performance Lab Set up in 2008, the Human Performance Lab is a collaborative space that allows the Sports Department, in conjunction with other departments at Unitec, to participate in research and community work. According to Lynch, it’s an amazing opportunity to collaborate on research as well as opening up that knowledge to the wider community. “In the Sports Department for example, I look at exercise physiology, and Dan Stamp looks at the psychology, things like motivation and exercise adherence, and social support. Then we’ve got Mieke Sieuw and Miriam Ellis, who have the nutritional expertise.

Plus we’ve got all these other staff who are supportive, like Rob Gambolati, and Trevor Meiklejohn, who are very active sports people who do a lot of running, but are also prepared to do it alongside someone who isn’t as good.”

As well as research collaboration, the Human Performance Lab offers one-on-one assessments to the public. “We can tailor our services to suit the goal of the participant,” says Lynch. “If your goal is to simply become more active, we have the knowledge to give people the appropriate guidance to achieve that goal.”

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The Sports Department was also part of Unitec’s sponsorship of the Auckland Run-Walk series and the Auckland marathon. “What is really important for us is that potentially we’ve got knowledge and expertise, but we need to communicate that to the correct audience. The Run-Walk series was about taking the research knowledge from the Human Performance Lab and using it to help the everyday audience. I think that’s a real challenge for us, how we reach outside the walls of Unitec and into the community.”

The Human Performance Lab also helps coaches and other sporting organisations assess the capabilities of athletes. “We’ve just done some work with the Aussie Rules football club, the Hawthornes,” says Lynch. “We did testing for them and we’re starting to do more work for them in the community. We go out to their regional combines, where they gather students from schools and put them through a bank of testing to find talent. They find the top kids in Auckland, and can put those kids forward into the trials for the club. There is a huge potential to collaborate with them on research in this area.”

Sharing the knowledge Working in developing nations around Asia and the Pacific has lead to a career researching communications for social change for Associate Professor Evangelia Papoutsaki.

After completing her PhD at the University of Cardiff in Wales, she accepted a job working for a non-governmental organisation called the Civic Education Project. “It was about bringing in people from academia in developed nations to work with local academics in the former Soviet Union countries, sharing with them our experiences in curriculum development, and mentoring around new teaching and research approaches. I worked in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan and I was also posted in Mongolia. It was a fantastic experience, and that’s where I started realising that Europe is not the centre of the world. I developed an understanding of what is happening in far away places, and that the needs of countries in transition − politically, socially and economically − has an impact on all of us, that the world is interconnected.”

That wish was granted a couple of years later when she started a job in Papua New Guinea with a British development agency. “I went there and fell in love with Papua New Guinea and the Pacific. What an amazing culture, I’d never been exposed to anything like that before. I had an amazing rapport with my colleagues and my students, an amazing bonding, and ever since I have kept in touch with most of them.”

Her role in Papua New Guinea was to create a curriculum that focused on development and communication. “The intention behind this was for the students to develop a better understanding of the development needs of their country so that they can serve their communities better as communicators, journalists, and media specialists.”

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A strong sense that she needed to share the knowledge she had gained through her education led Unitec’s Associate Professor Evangelia Papoutsaki into a career in communication for developing nations. “I grew up in Crete in the 70s and my mother worked in a special medical unit that provided medical services to rural, isolated communities. On occasion I would go with her and I used to have this sense that I was very lucky. I had all these opportunities because my parents were able to afford to give me a better education, read books, to learn other languages. So I always had this feeling that because I was privileged I should share knowledge with others, that education is very important and that knowledge is very important.”

Evangelia Papoutsaki at the University of Goroka.

Papoutsaki says she enjoyed the work, but found the temperatures harder to handle. “I remember one time in Mongolia when it was minus 40 degrees, thinking, whatever karma I might have to pay, I have paid it, because this is just too cold. So please, let me find a warmer climate next time.”

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“People can relate to the messages because they are part of the stories.

They were proud of their community contribution."

Clockwise from top left: The Pacific Island research into media situations looked at Samoa and 13 other nations. Wall art promoting walking for health in Samoa.

Markets in Papua New Guinea. Artwork of one of Papoutsaki's students in Papua New Guinea.

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She also co-published several books about Papua New Guinea and the Pacific region. “I had noticed how little local research in the Pacific is authored and published locally by locals. So I thought I’m not going to write about them, I’m going to help them write about themselves.

So the books I have done with colleagues from the region are to do with mentoring young students and emerging researchers, teaching them to do research, and then letting them go out to research and record their own realities.

We publish this research in books locally and regionally so that they are accessible to them and their local readership.”

Some of her research in Papua New Guinea involved using visual technologies for social change. “We used tools like video to work with communities on co-creating messages on HIV and Aids, which is one of the biggest health issues in Papua New Guinea. It’s extremely challenging media campaign terrain, because it’s a country that has 800 languages, and 50 per cent of the adult population is illiterate, so how are you going to reach them?”

Using video turned out to be an excellent method of communicating their message. “The communities themselves created the stories, with help from the researchers, and now those video stories have formally been launched as a campaign in Papua New Guinea. People can relate to the messages because they are part of the stories. They were proud of their community contribution to that, which has a greater effect than someone else creating messages on their behalf.”

The method of co-creating is integral to Papoutsaki’s research around communication in developing nations. “A big part of the communication for social change approach is participation. You are not successful unless you engage with those people who are affected, and you allow their voices to tell you what their needs are. But it has to be a meaningful and sincere participation.”

As much as she loved living in Papua New Guinea, Papoutsaki says she knew she couldn’t stay there forever. “You’re there to share your knowledge, and then someone has to take

Because she wanted to remain in the Pacific, she was advised to try living in New Zealand, where she could continue her research work with Pacific Islanders. “I’ve done work with Pacific diasporas here in New Zealand. I used to work mostly with Melanesians, and in New Zealand there are mostly Polynesian people, so I have been really privileged to work with two different groups of Pacific Islanders. I’ve been here six years now.”

As well as lecturing in the Communication Studies department, Papoutsaki is the editorin-chief of Unitec’s ePress, a project she says is close to her heart. “Again that comes from a deep-seated belief in openly sharing knowledge.

The ePress publications are open to everyone at no cost. Knowledge should not have a monetary value.”

Her recent research involves a regional collaborative group project for the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS), mapping the media and communication situation in 14 different Pacific Island nations, on a range of issues like climate change and health. “We worked exclusively with Pacific Island researchers and we now have in total about 170 in-depth

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over and do what they want to do with their own situation. I felt that the longer I stayed, the more I was taking the chance of a local person to do something with that position.”

Evangelia Papoutsaki at markets in Papua New Guinea.

interviews. PACMAS is going to use it as a way of monitoring their media activities in the Pacific.”

She’s also just starting, with Unitec colleagues, another participatory video project in the Pacific, with a group of women in Samoa. “It’s a cross departmental project within the Faculty of Creative Industries and Business. We’re looking at how we can use video as a form of participation within a group of women and as a tool to promote their own entrepreneurial activities,” she says. “We are facilitating a process, sharing a tool, and they can tell us how they want to use it, for what purpose.”

Papoutsaki says that good development focused researchers not only ask more questions, they’re also prepared to go deeper into the issues that surround their subject. “You need to go more in-depth to understand the structural causes of social and economic inequalities. Perhaps by understanding them, you can find better solutions, rather than trying to find quick remedies. Rather than just saying ‘Here’s some aid money, we’ll buy you some medicine’, you can ask ‘Why is it that these people don’t have good access to medicine?’ Are there other issues inherent to the system – colonialism, history, politics, corruption – what are all these conditions that are creating this situation? I think research enables us to better understand that.”

» contact Evangelia Papoutsaki Associate Professor Department of Communication Studies epapoutsaki@unitec.ac.nz

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“There’s a very specific, contextual knowledge required in Deaf education.

It’s not just something you can learn overnight."

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A life’s vocation As a senior teacher of the Deaf at Ormiston College in Auckland, Saul Taylor, along with most other teachers in Deaf education, feels he has found his life’s vocation. “There’s a low attrition rate in Deaf education; 94 per cent of people who train in Deaf education, stay in Deaf education.

No one falls into it by accident. There’s always a conscious and deliberate decision, and there’s a huge amount of fulfilment and enjoyment about working directly with the students.”

He recently completed his Master’s degree in Educational Leadership and Management, with a thesis that looked at succession planning in Deaf education in the wake of the baby boomer population starting to retire. “If there is a huge amount of institutional knowledge in these seasoned teachers, middle leaders and senior leaders, and if they’re going to exit the system through retirement in the next decade, how do we plan for and replenish that personnel at the same quality it is currently?”

His thesis involved a survey of the current teachers of the Deaf across New Zealand. “I got replies from 162 people out of 200, an 80 per cent response rate, which is a testament to the professional consciousness of the deaf education workforce and how diligent they are,” he says.

The results of his survey showed clearly that Deaf education would be affected. “There is an aging workforce in the mainstream population

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of teachers, but in the Deaf education sector, the succession planning issue is even more acute. Before I did this study, no one knew how acute the need for succession planning was.

What this research has done is clarify what the demographic picture is now. So 40 per cent of the Deaf education workforce in leadership is eligible to retire in the next ten years.”

And if more people are needed, the best time is to start now, says Taylor. “There’s a very specific, contextual knowledge required in Deaf education. It’s not just something you can learn overnight, to become fluent in sign language, or have an understanding of audiology or speech development. If you want to specialise into Deaf education, you have to do more training, so it takes more time to get into it. If more people are required in Deaf education in the next ten years because people are retiring, we need to know now, because it’s going to take longer.”

Taylor says that his time at Unitec doing the Masters programme was invaluable. “I’ve been to four different universities now, and they’ve all been fantastic. But Unitec in particular has offered a very real experience, and I feel very close to everyone there. It’s been a very personal journey for me. Perhaps it’s because it’s at a Master’s level, but it’s also because of the lecturers in the education department.”

Completions Unitec congratulates the following students who have recently completed postgraduate research projects at Unitec. Copies of these studies can be found in the Unitec library or through the Unitec Research Bank, www.unitec.researchbank.ac.nz

Name: Megan Grounds Research: Variations: Flexibility and Adaptability in Medium Density Housing

Name: King Wah Mak Research: Human/Storage - the H.I.V.E System

Name: Cameron Follas Research: Building Blocks for a Community

Name: Arnika Blount Research: Wunderkammer Name: Jason Roome Research: Back to Basics: Rethinking the Motives Behind Charismatic Church Architecture Name: Athena Young Research: Exploration of a School of Design Name: Chen-Yu Yang Research: HUB-210: From Destructor to Generator Name: Alejandro Tostado Rodriguez Research: The Rediscovery of the Sixth Façade through Gravitational Explorations Name: Caitlin Wilson Research: Spiritual Sanctuary: Proposing a Catholic Church in New Zealand in the Post Vatican II Era Name: Harry Croucher Research: Relational Connections Name: Joshua McIntosh Research: Museum of Space Name: Karl Clayton Newby Research: A Study of Palladio’s Parametric Design Principles Name: Fiona North Research: Rejuvenation of an Intercity Area to Create Vibrant Public Space

Name: Mahzad Kian Heidari Research: An Urban Intervention into Suburban Fabric, with focus on Community Provision Name: Matthew Roberts Research: Where the Waitemata Meets the Manukau Harbour Name: Kathryn Collins Research: Provocative Preservation

Master of Business Name: Misodi Nakomo Research: A Best Practice for Small to Medium Enterprises in the Adventure Tourism Sector to Effectively Manage Regulatory Compliance in New Zealand Name: Inna Piven Research: Conceptual Model of Consumer Service Band Consumption in a Social Media Community.

Master of Educational Leadership & Management Name: Saul Taylor Research: ‘Setting Suns and Rising Stars.’

Succession Planning in New Zealand's Deaf Education Leadership Workforce: A National Study

Master of Education Name: Daljit Kaur Research: Teachers' Perspectives on the Impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Two Early Childhood Settings in New Zealand

Master of International Communication Name: Blanka Schuster Research: The Perception and Response to Change by Members of a Multicultural Working Group: A Case Study Name: Elizabeth Revell Research: The Manifestation of Race in Everyday Communication Interactions in New Zealand.

Master of Computing

Master of Osteopathy

Name: Kai Leung (Antonio) Yip Research: Determining the Accuracy of Budgets: A Machine Learning Application for Budget Change Pattern Recognition

Name: Felice Karuna Research: Osteopathy Use in Families of the Auckland Playcentre Association of New Zealand: Prevalence and Associated Factors

Master of Design Name: Peter Malone Research: Liberation by Desecration

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Master of Architecture (Professional)

Name: Nicholas White Research: The Immediate Effect of Osteopathic ‘Rib Raising’ Technique on Heart Rate Variability: A Random Sham Controlled Experiment.

Name: Pamela Dziwulska Research: Reclaiming the Urban Environment

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