Advance - Winter 2006

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Advance

THE UNITEC MAGAZINE OF INNOVATION AND RESEARCH WINTER 06

Helping disaster victims Shelter expert Regan Potangaroa – p6

Entrepreneurship Helping Botswana achieve its goals – p8

Maori learners The secrets behind successful Maori graduates – p10

Affordable telemedicine Robots help doctors examine patients – p11

EDITORIAL

editor Howard Frederick sub-editor Claudia Mischke cover image Dr Regan Potangaroa design Claire Boston printing Norcross Group of Companies Advance is published by Unitec New Zealand ISSN 1176-7391 phone +64 9 815 2945 freephone 0800 10 95 10 web www.unitec.ac.nz

Are you a map person like I am?

Do you go first to the maps articles in the Economist? Do you look first at the maps in the Travel section of the New Zealand Herald?

Forget about GPS – there is nothing better than a map for imagining a journey through the road map of the mind. Tracing with your finger along possible routes from Foundation Studies to postgraduate qualifications. Stopping at stations with intriguing names like “Sports, Travel and Tourism”. Imagining crossing the stage in cap and hood.

address Carrington Rd, Mt Albert, Private Bag 92025, Auckland, New Zealand Disclaimer Unitec New Zealand has used reasonable care to ensure that the information in this publication is accurate at the time of publication.

However, to the extent permitted by law, Unitec is not liable for, and makes no warranties or representations as to such accuracy and may change or correct any such information without prior notice.

MATT SAUNDERS ARCHITECTURE GRADUATE

Brands are all mind-maps of our need for achievement. The trouble is that as in life, so in actual journeys, reality often takes over. While you discover that some stops on the way are just as hoped – and some much better – others turn out disappointing or not relevant.

As I’ve watched what’s been happening across the tertiary landscape of late, I’ve become very proud of what we at Unitec are doing. We are continually relevant.

We offer a product that you can almost feel in your hand. We’re experiential in nature. Ours is the ‘real journey’.

In the recent student satisfaction survey of more than 5,000 responses, Unitec students gave staff members a five-star rating.

That is how innovation and research fit into the brand. They are part of that unique Unitec X-factor that takes relevance into the marketplace.

Advance magazine does its part by showing a multi-faceted picture of Unitec’s enterprising spirit to the larger community.

As you read through this magazine, you can visualise the actual research and innovation that emerges here.

You see those untrod journeys in your mind’s eye. You can ponder those real stations. You can finger-walk through five-star minds.

CONTACT Howard Frederick Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship School of Management and Entrepreneurship email hfrederick@unitec.ac.nz

RESEARCH IN BRIEF

Free Internet as an agent of community transformation Does the Internet empower lower income communities or perpetuate the status quo? Can universal Internet access resolve education, employment and other social gaps? A study by Jocelyn Williams from Unitec’s School of Communication – with the help of Frank Sligo and Catherine Wallace from Massey University – looked at whether free Internet can really make a difference to low income communities.

The researchers looked at community outcomes in the ‘Computers in Homes’ programme, a New Zealand scheme in which free computers and Internet access are given to selected low income, non-Internet households for a very small joining fee.

Predicting changes in property prices At the moment, property values seem to be on everyone’s mind. Most of us are probably wondering if prices will go up even further or if the increases to which we have become accustomed will finally come to a halt. But how can we predict how house prices will behave in the future?

To address this issue, Unitec lecturer Janet Ge received a grant to conduct research on pricing in the Auckland house market. The project aims to develop an early warning system for potential crises in Auckland property prices.

Ge hopes that the research will provide a framework for the analysis of housing price behaviour, help predict trends and foretell volatile price movements in the market.

To find out how participants benefit from the programme, the researchers interviewed 26 parents or caregivers of young children who were selected to take part in the programme.

The research will also take a closer look at the causal relationships between housing prices and other

The results of the study suggest that the programme has value in providing the most basic ICT access, and it is being used by school communities to broaden people’s worldviews.

Research on dictionaries best thesis of 2005

However, connectivity in the group showed decline after one year of Internet connection, and five different types of Internet users became apparent. These include people who maintain or increase their levels of Internet use, and those who decrease their use or become disconnected once more.

While there are potential applications of this typology, the researchers believe that claims for community transformation need to be more rigorously assessed. In particular, the dimensions of such transformation must be more precisely articulated by its proponents. A vision of what a community could be – were it to be enhanced by ICT – would provide a mechanism for moving communities toward positive change.

CONTACT Jocelyn Williams Programme Director, Bachelor of International Communication School of Communication email jwilliams@unitec.ac.nz

Dr Martin East, a senior lecturer at the School of Language Studies, recently completed his doctorate in applied linguistics, investigating whether learners of a foreign language would benefit from having access to a bilingual dictionary when taking writing proficiency tests. To answer this question, East used a repeatedmeasures design to compare students’ performance on tests taken with and without a dictionary.

One of the major findings was that, in terms of test scores, having a dictionary made no difference at all to test takers’ performance. On the other hand, many test takers felt more confident when a dictionary was at hand, and this may have lowered their anxiety.

East suggests that the test score evidence is reassuring for those involved in the testing process who may be worried that allowing dictionaries makes the test ‘too easy’.

Knowing that the test scores are not necessarily affected by dictionary availability means that instructors can

macro-economic variables such as interest rates. The findings may help policy makers modify such market movements, while property developers and property purchasers could use it to act in a more informed manner.

This is not the first work Ge has done on house prices. While she was living in Hong Kong between 1997 and 2003, property values decreased dramatically, often by up to 50 percent. Ge decided to look at ways to predict such dramatic changes more accurately. To achieve this, she explored the use of multiple regression analysis and recurrent neural network methods to establish forecasting models for residential housing prices in Hong Kong. She also pioneered the use of cusp catastrophe theory to develop a system for predicting changes in housing prices and their effects under different housing policies.

The models Ge developed have been tested empirically and verified by the artificial neural network model.

CONTACT Dr Janet Ge Lecturer School of the Built Environment email jge@unitec.ac.nz

consider some of the positive reasons for allowing them – such as increase in confidence – without worrying that the test is being compromised.

The thesis was judged ‘best doctoral thesis of 2005’ by a panel of three judges from the Applied Linguistics Association of New Zealand. The award was based on originality of conception and place within the field of knowledge, quality of research methodology and execution, and the nature and extent of the contribution to theory and practice.

CONTACT Dr Martin East Senior Lecturer School of Language Studies email meast@unitec.ac.nz

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RESEARCH IN BRIEF

Maori are world’s third most entrepreneurial people A report for the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Aotearoa New Zealand confirmed that Maori are the world’s third most entrepreneurial people.

This is the largest study of indigenous entrepreneurship ever undertaken and was carried out by a team of researchers at Unitec and Te Wananga o Raukawa under the leadership of Unitec Professor Howard Frederick.

The team surveyed a representative sample of Maori and of the general New Zealand population to make comparisons with 35 countries. A report of the findings was presented at the powhiri and launch of the International Entrepreneurship Research Exchange (below) in February.

In terms of total early-stage entrepreneurial activity, Maori and New Zealand as a whole were only surpassed

by Thailand and Venezuela.

About 83 percent of Maori entrepreneurs are opportunity entrepreneurs. About 25 percent of Maori, compared to 13 percent of the general population, say they expect to launch a start-up in the next three years.

While Maori are great at starting up businesses, only 37 percent of Maori entrepreneurial start-ups survive three-and-a-half years, compared to 62 percent in the general population.

For New Zealanders, both Maori and non-Maori, wealth creation is not as important as independence. The typical New Zealand entrepreneur is an opportunity-based lifestyle entrepreneur, opting for work-life balance rather than wealth creation.

The research also showed that Maori are not technology-shy and have much higher growth expectations.

The report is available at www.gemconsortium.org

CONTACT Howard Frederick Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship School of Management and Entrepreneurship email hfrederick@unitec.ac.nz

Self-efficacy and mathematics achievement

Marat’s study assessed secondary students’ self-efficacy in mathematics, teacher efficacy, and the relationship between self-efficacy and achievement.

This research was undertaken as a response to a growing concern related to secondary students’ achievement.

Over the past decade, student achievement in New Zealand has been a topic of scholarly inquiry, and there have been several reports that compare New Zealand students’ achievement with other OECD countries.

The findings indicate that students are reporting high levels of efficacy in mathematics, however the high level of self-efficacy is not necessarily reflected in mathematics achievement.

Reducing systematic underachievement is one of the greatest challenges faced

by New Zealand schools. One factor that can help improve student achievement and reduce disparities is self-efficacy, the belief that one has the necessary skills and knowledge to execute courses of actions to attain goals.

The influence of self-efficacy on student achievement was the focus of a doctoral study by Deepa Marat, the research consultant at Unitec’s Postgraduate Centre/Matai Kahurangi.

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Improving school leadership

Major factors that impact on students’ achievement in mathematics include efficacy in self-regulated learning and resource management, and confidence in exams.

The report of the first phase is available at www.iier.org.au/iier15/marat.html

CONTACT Dr Deepa Marat Research Consultant Postgraduate Centre/Matai Kahurangi email dmarat@unitec.ac.nz

A recent Unitec study took a closer look at middle leadership in schools, comparing New Zealand and England.

This collaborative research project, funded by the National College for School Leadership in England, was undertaken by two professional researchers – Associate Professor Tanya Fitzgerald (above) from Unitec and Professor Helen Gunter from the University of Manchester – and a researching professional, Ms Joy Eaton, an Associate Principal and Waitakere College and Education Advisory Committee member.

The study, conducted in England and New Zealand, investigated the links between student learning and teachers as leaders. In total, 96 participants were interviewed.

The project identified a number of key findings and implications for both research and practice. The researchers found that the effectiveness of teacher practices could be improved by allowing students to participate in discussions and decisions about their learning, by giving students the opportunity to take responsibility for their own learning, and by providing high-quality resources that support student learning.

It would also be helpful to create school structures and processes that support the leadership of learning, and to encourage and support the continual learning of students and teachers.

The findings of this study will be used to inform the further development of leadership programmes for middle leaders in England.

CONTACT Associate Professor Tanya Fitzgerald School of Education email tfitzgerald@unitec.ac.nz

FEATURESTRATEGIES NETWORKING

Women entrepreneurs and networking Networking is essential to the establishment and growth of entrepreneurial businesses, but do women entrepreneurs network differently from their male counterparts? And do they have different aspirations from men? Two Unitec researchers set out to answer these questions. strong networks were formed based on the expertise of like-minded people.

The research also revealed that more formal networks such as the Chamber of Commerce and business clubs did not work as successfully for the women as purpose-designed networks like Business Networking International, which is comprised of complementary businesses.

Several of the women also appreciated local-government-sponsored networks such as Enterprise Waitakere and North Shore Enterprise, which support the establishment of new businesses.

DELIBERATE NETWORKING These entrepreneurial women brought considerable communication expertise, useful skill sets and experience to their ventures. They deliberately and selectively sought advice from knowledgeable friends and contacts.

One entrepreneur acknowledged that when information was needed, it was part of her training and experience to know where to go and to whom to turn for help.

Amie Nilsson, director of Go Go Bag, successfully balances business and family.

To find out exactly how female entrepreneurs network, Deborah Rolland and Prue Cruickshank from Unitec’s School of Communication interviewed 10 Auckland women entrepreneurs to understand their networking strategies, and learn how these women use their networking skills to obtain the resources and information to establish and expand their businesses.

The Unitec-funded researchers asked women entrepreneurs about their use of family, friends, the community, and professional and local government networks both at the start-up and expansion stage of their businesses.

PERSONAL NETWORKS The researchers found that all the women acknowledged that personal networks and particularly families were important in the establishment of their enterprises, but this family-centredness manifested itself in different ways.

While some women liked the financial stability their partners offered, others appreciated their partners’ skills.

Children and family life were often the reason the women had formed their entrepreneurial businesses in the first place. Some women entrepreneurs began their businesses in order to work from home so that they could be around their children. Others had always been entrepreneurial, and had started a new business to complement their motherhood status, but could only grow the business once their children were more independent.

Friends of the entrepreneurs were helpful and supportive in a number of ways. Some tested the product and provided constructive feedback, while others promoted the product both by word of mouth and through their own email lists. In some cases, customers also eventually became friends and suggested ways the business could be grown.

PROFESSIONAL NETWORKS

Women showed no reluctance to expand their enterprises, provided that it was on their terms. All the interviewees had visions for either expansion or development, but limitations of time, energy, structure and capital constrained them in the short term.

Their conscious networking style enabled these women to balance family responsibilities or lifestyle choices while achieving their business goals.

While growth and expansion were often not the main drivers for these women entrepreneurs and their businesses, the economic contribution these entrepreneurs make is valuable in diversifying the economy.

CONTACT Deborah Rolland Programme Director, Master of International Communication School of Communication email drolland@unitec.ac.nz

Overall, the women entrepreneurs considered professional networks as essential for gaining legal and accounting advice. In several cases,

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COMMUNITY SUPPORT FEATURE

The Boxing Day tsunami devastated large parts of Aceh, Indonesia.

Helping disaster victims find shelter From Aceh and Afghanistan to Darfur and Syria – when catastrophe strikes or a conflict boils over, most people look for a way to get out of the region, but Unitec Associate Professor Regan Potangaroa can usually be found on a plane bound for the disaster zone.

An experienced engineer who lectures in architectural engineering, Associate Professor Regan Potangaroa is a member of Engineers for Disaster Relief (RedR). RedR is a humanitarian organisation that sends technically skilled people to disaster zones to help the UN with emergency relief and reconstruction.

Potangaroa – who has masters degrees in engineering and architecture, as well as an MBA and a doctorate in architectural engineering – says he took up his position at Unitec because it complements his work for RedR. “I joined RedR because I had an interest in humanitarian work and research.

Teaching means I can make myself available during semester breaks and travel to disaster zones at short notice, and it works well with my research.”

FROM TIMOR TO PAKISTAN Potangaroa first became involved in RedR after working in the US as an

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engineer, supervising projects such as the 60,000-seat Philadelphia Eagles football stadium, an 18-storey Federal Building in San Francisco and the new Denver art gallery – a far cry from the refugee camps of West Timor, where he went on his first mission.

After Indonesia pulled out of East Timor in 1999, thousands were left without a country and were living in refugee camps on the border in West Timor.

The conditions, Potangaroa says, were terrible, and as part of the team assessing which camps would get help, he had to make the first of many tough calls. “A disaster is defined as one death per 10,000 people per day. An out-ofcontrol disaster is two per 10,000. In the camps, people were dying at the rate of eight per 10,000.”

Over the past decade, he has been to some of the most devastated places on earth, most recently the earthquake-hit mountains of Pakistan, but he has also worked in Darfur, Aceh, Syria and Afghanistan.

VARIOUS TYPES OF DISASTERS Disasters usually fit into three scenarios, he says – a refugee situation caused by large groups of people crossing international borders, internal displacement caused by conflict, or a natural disaster.

Potangaroa has been to a dozen disaster zones of all three types and he says the hardest to deal with are man-made.

“The difference is that when it’s a natural disaster, there’s no one to blame – we just have to deal with the consequences. When it’s the result of conflict, the disaster is often ongoing because the conflict is often ongoing, and we aren’t always welcome. It can be difficult to figure out the agendas of the people we are dealing with in conflicts and sometimes, such as in Sudan and Syria, it’s hard to even tell the refugees we are there to help from the locals looking to take advantage of the aid.”

Photography by John Braggins

FEATURE

Cyathea medullaris is common on disturbed sites or forest margins in New Zealand.

Aid workers bring help to the earthquake-hit mountains of Pakistan.

CONSTANT THREATS As well as dealing with the human suffering, aid workers must also contend with the very real physical risks – for a humanitarian aid worker the odds of getting shot are higher than for a US Marine.

“While we were in West Timor, three UN colleagues were shot and killed by militia, and while we were there we had to be evacuated twice. In Pakistan, I was in a situation where I was trying to calm down an angry crowd of people and I was the only one who didn’t have an AK-47.”

Potangaroa also went to Afghanistan just after the US invasion, but the Darfur region of Sudan and Chad – where Arab militias have committed atrocities against the black African population on a massive scale – was the place in which he felt the most in danger, he says.

“We were in the middle of the desert, two days from the city of Khartoum, so if we had been attacked we may never have been found.”

In the end, however, it was diarrhoea rather than militiamen that forced him out of the desert. “We had to drink contaminated water after we ran out of supplies and had to be medivaced out.”

DISASTER-RELATED RESEARCH As an academic, Potangaroa is using his experiences as an opportunity to conduct research on disaster-related issues that have real world applications.

He began his current research last year, looking at the quality of life and happiness of disaster victims.

Tsunami victims often live in temporary shelter.

Deciding whether disaster relief is effective is usually based on indicators such as the number of families housed, children receiving education and health indicators, but Potangaroa says these indicators do not answer the basic question of whether the people are “happy”.

“People generally go through a disaster life continuum – from calm before the disaster, to a depression and stress response as an immediate reaction to the disaster, and then a lower-level anxiety response based on their fears for what the future holds. As engineers, we need to know which stage people are at – if it’s the anxiety stage we could, for instance, decide that the first need to be addressed is building permanent housing. If they are in the stress stage, their immediate needs may be different.”

FOCUSING RELIEF EFFORTS Potangaroa adapted a quality of life survey called the DASS42 and took it to the west coast of Aceh, North Sumatra, where he was part of the team working on a permanent shelter programme for victims of the Boxing Day tsunami.

600 respondents completed the survey and, he says, when the results are combined with the disaster life continuum, it provides valuable, quantifiable insights into the conditions faced by the tsunami victims.

The research, he says, will help prioritise and focus relief programmes according to what will improve the quality of life most for those affected, as well as show donors that their money is being well spent. And with humanitarian

Assessing the most urgent needs of Tsunami victims.

organisations under increasing pressure, the need for their money to be spent wisely has never been greater, Potangaroa says.

“In the last few years there has been a phenomenal number of disasters, both natural and caused by conflicts, and the aid sector is stretched to breaking point.

Many of these situations are ongoing, such as in Darfur, and unfortunately the West turns its back on them a lot of the time.”

CONTACT Associate Professor Regan Potangaroa School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture email rpotangaroa@unitec.ac.nz

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP FEATURE

Creating entrepreneurs in extreme environments: The case of Botswana When we think of Botswana we think immediately of the country’s immense natural beauty and spectacular wildlife. World-class entrepreneurship is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. Unitec Associate Professor Peter Mellalieu is improving this situation.

Botswana is a southern African country of 1.7 million people in a land-locked area twice the size of New Zealand.

New Zealanders may know the country for its tourist destinations such as the Okavango Delta and the Kalahari Desert. Botswana rightly prides itself as the most stable democracy in sub-Saharan Africa. To some extent, this stability has derived from a policy of zero tolerance towards corruption.

Following independence from the United Kingdom in 1966, the country had the good fortune to discover abundant mineral wealth in the form of diamonds.

However, the country’s leaders now recognise that once the “easy wealth” from diamonds is exhausted, new forms of wealth creation will be required.

These new forms will be based on human endeavour, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship.

A DAUNTING CHALLENGE The challenge that Botswana has set itself towards becoming an innovative and prosperous nation appears daunting. The country is on a journey to take the quantum leap from a basic hunter-gatherer, village-based society to a country with world-class entrepreneurial companies by 2016.

To put this into perspective – the agricultural revolution in Europe took several thousands of years. It then took Europe another three hundred years to establish widespread industrial civilisation.

and social change, and who create vast forms of wealth from new opportunities.

The University of Botswana, centred in the capital city Gaborone, is required to play a major role in facilitating the country’s transition from a nation of jobtakers and under-employed towards a nation of world-competitive job-makers.

LAYING THE FOUNDATION Following an exploratory visit to southern and eastern Africa, Associate Professor Peter Mellalieu from Unitec’s School of Management and Entrepreneurship spent 12 weeks in Botswana, funded by the Faculty of Business at the University of Botswana.

Drawing on his experience designing and launching Unitec’s programmes in innovation and entrepreneurship, Mellalieu helped the faculty lay the foundations for the design and delivery of effective enterprise development education programmes.

His work centred on capability building with selected staff, key students and other influential stakeholders. Part of his task involved advising on how to turn the university’s existing Business Clinic into an Entrepreneurship Development Centre serving prospective entrepreneurs and their allies.

Mellalieu designed, developed and led client-focused action learning adventure workshops for key stakeholders of the Faculty of Business and the University of Botswana’s Centre for Academic Development. These workshops explored the nature, capability and interests of local people engaged in enterprise development activities.

Participants at these workshops were selected to ensure a balanced mix of university staff, enterprising students, public and private sector trainers, and consultants from allied institutions, such as the Botswana Agricultural College, Botswana Technology Corporation, CEDA, and Enterprise Botswana.

ENTERPRISE IN ACTION Mellalieu’s piece de resistance in Botswana was the pilot for a 150-minute reality TV learning adventure, Enterprise in Action™. The project drew together insights for developing a regular, robust, sustainable and cost-effective programme of activities for stakeholders engaged in creating Botswana’s ideal enterprise culture.

The Enterprise in Action™ format includes formal presentations by a guest speaker, followed by the chance for volunteers to pitch an idea and win

FOCUS ON EDUCATION Botswana invests a significant proportion of its diamond revenues in education. The country’s pedagogical approach derives directly – via the process of colonialisation – from the 19th century European models intended to produce job-takers, homemakers and mass consumers for the world’s industrial corporations.

However, the education required for the 21st century global citizen must focus far more on creating job-makers and their supporters: the innovators and entrepreneurs who lead business Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, is Africa’s fastest growing city.

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Of critical importance is that the syllabus, extension activities, and pedagogical processes for such programmes are strongly informed by knowledge of the socio-economic contexts of Botswana, and street-smart practice in southern Africa.

The University of Botswana helps Camphill Furniture introduce product innovations.

support to overcome the obstacles they are facing in their role as entrepreneurs and service providers to the enterprise development sector.

There are few high-rise buildings in Botswana, so the American notion of a 30-second elevator pitch was translated to an “ice pula pitch” – the time it takes for a glass of iced water (pula) to melt into pure water.

Together with his local business associates, Mint Communications and MyndSurfers, Mellalieu designed the Enterprise in Action™ format to be affordable, accessible, flexible, and scalable. A key aim is to use Enterprise in Action™ to build and sustain widespread co-operative support from stakeholders. Consequently, the Enterprise in Action™ events alternate amongst participants’ places of enterprise – businesses, government offices, street stalls, villages, the university, research laboratories and international aid agency offices.

A LONG, HARD JOURNEY During his time in Africa, Mellalieu realised that the University of Botswana was on the right path to build the quantity and efficacy of innovators, entrepreneurs and their allies. However, the university needs to invest in human capacity building in order to adopt and expand enterprise developmentappropriate teaching and student learning pedagogies on a large scale.

In the last decade, universities throughout the first world have invested in substantial campus-based growth in programmes for entrepreneurship development. In New Zealand, Unitec has established innovation and entrepreneurship programmes, a visiting entrepreneurship professor programme

and a foundation partnership with the WestSmart Business incubator.

In contrast, the University of Botswana has supported the establishment of a limited handful of academic programmes. It offers several introductory programmes including subjects such as small business, fashion and industrial design. The library offers a unique course in information entrepreneurship. It has no courses in innovation management or world-class entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the existing courses are scattered across various faculties and departments. The university must establish cross-faculty collaboration and a staircase of graduate and practitioner programmes beyond these current initiatives.

There are also several student leadership extension activities, such as the Business Clinic, AIESEC and SIFE. The widespread use of large class sizes at the university has constrained the pedagogical approach of teachers to simple talk and chalk and other surface learning approaches. These teaching methods are absolutely inappropriate for the differently wired students seeking coaching to develop their entrepreneurial talents.

KEY OPPORTUNITIES A key priority for the university must be to offer “pracademic” business generator facilities for graduates returning from out-of-country study, mid-career trainers and teachers, and the most talented of enterprising students. Unitec can help the University of Botswana with the selection, design and implementation of such courses, based on its experience of launching similar programmes.

Mellalieu believes that it is essential that several enterprise development courses are offered that provide immediate and hands-on benefit to the course participants – whether they are entrepreneurs, inventors, teachers, policy makers, consultants or other allies. These “pracademic” courses must be directed and taught by a team comprising an academic content/scholarship provider, a streetwise practitioner and an action/learning adventure educationalist.

Mellalieu suggests that the University of Botswana must develop its new higher-level courses and programmes across its various departments and affiliated institutions.

FUTURE PLANS To ensure his entrepreneurship development recommendations achieve widespread impact in Africa, Mellalieu proposes to develop the Business Clinic, which is part of the Faculty of Business, into the launching site for a series of mobile entrepreneurship development centres. These Kwik Outdoor Mobile Business Incubators for Entrepreneurs (KOMBIEs) will travel – like mobile restaurants – through the hundreds of traditional villages and towns of southern Africa.

Mellalieu continues his pathfinding work in Botswana. His first ambition is to support continued extension of the Enterprise in Action™ format as a key mechanism for the development of entrepreneurial capability in southern Africa. He proposes to spin-off a public broadcast variant of the Enterprise in Action™ format suitable for broadcast on Botswana’s television and radio channels – and then podcast, narrowcast, and textcast key aspects of the broadcasts to the nation’s ubiquitous text users.

Through these modern, but localised media, more citizens of southern Africa will find out how they can embrace the enterprise culture that is needed to create entrepreneurs in an extreme environment like Botswana.

CONTACT Associate Professor Peter Mellalieu New Zealand Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship email pmellalieu@unitec.ac.nz phone +64 9 815 4321 ext 8108

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MAORI LEARNERS FEATURE

The secrets behind Maori success Maori students reportedly complete their tertiary education less often than their Pakeha counterparts. But what factors encourage students to continue their education? A Unitec study investigated the factors that influence successful Maori graduates.

To advance Maori participation, retention and success, Unitec offers a special support service for Maori students – Maia Maori Development Centre. ‘Maia’ is a Maori word that means a strong desire and a passion from within to succeed in life. The centre’s philosophy is kaupapa Maori, the belief that each person has mana that is respected and protected.

The centre’s core business is academic support and advice, including Maori mentoring, financial advice and support, pastoral care, kapa haka, powhiri, workshops for Unitec staff, cultural advice and committee representation.

ANALYSING “THE MAORI WAY” To further support Maori students, a team of Unitec researchers investigated what influences contribute to the success of Maori students. The team included both Pakeha and Maori researchers, all of whom shared the belief that unless we fully understand what influences Maori students, we don’t have much chance of improving what may appear to be poorer performances.

support, motivation and relationships with lecturers and peers.

One of the key influences on Maori students was the quality of “kanohi ki te kanohi”, face-to-face, in-class relationships and interactions between lecturers and Maori students. Students knew who the “good lecturers” were – those who cared, listened or asked the students if they needed help.

The second major factor was the relationship students had with their peers. As one student put it, “We weren’t just studying together. We were spending quite a lot of time together socially. Doing design, you can’t just pass an exam and leave. You are there all the time and so we’d be there till two in the morning sometimes, working together and supporting each other.”

Motivation from within themselves, and outside motivating influences, emerged as the third major influence. One student stated, “Just knowing that I was going to get a certificate at the end of it was going to be worth the hard work and studying and trying to raise my son on my own. I knew it was going to be a challenge.”

The research team consisted of Diana Mead, Sharon Wheller, Miriama Postlethwaite and Nina Pelling who all wanted to make a real difference for Maori students and create a space for their voices to be heard, especially by those involved in delivering programmes.

The research purposefully rejected the deficit model that teaching programmes in tertiary institutions attribute failure not with themselves, but with the students they are teaching.

A kaupapa Maori methodology was used to provide appropriate processes and methods in the gathering and analysis of the data during the project, in other words, to do things in a “Maori way”.

Narratives were collected from 11 successful Maori graduates, selected from a range of programmes.

INFLUENCING SUCCESS The study identified a number of factors that significantly influence the success of Maori students: student services support, peer effects, whanau/family Unitec’s Maori graduation ceremony.

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DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES While this study is a small research project, it has created numerous opportunities for professional development workshops at Unitec, where staff can debate and discuss the outcomes in a safe environment, and have a chance to reflect on their teaching practices in relation to learners with diverse needs.

This project has highlighted the need for institutions to accommodate the diverse backgrounds of not only Maori students, but all students, to ensure they will continue and succeed in tertiary study.

This accommodation is linked to cultural difference and identity.

A summary of this research was published in the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education conference proceedings and delivered as a paper presentation.

CONTACT Miriama Postlethwaite Lecturer Maia Maori Development Centre email mpostlethwaite@unitec.ac.nz

TELEMEDICINE

Robots help doctors examine patients Doctors using the Internet and personal robots to make house calls without leaving the office – it sounds like science fiction, but a Unitec computing lecturer says that the technology already exists and can be found at the local shopping mall.

Kathiravelu Ganeshan from Unitec’s School of Computing and Information Technology has been collaborating with a doctor in the US on research into telemedicine – examining patients over the Internet, using robots fitted with cameras. He says that readily available technology and special high-end toys can be adapted for the purpose.

“Doctors attached to some leading hospitals in the US and the UK are using high-tech robots, called the RP6 and RP7, to monitor their patients in the wards from anywhere in the world.

These robots cost around US$265,000 (NZ$435,000).”

New Zealand Telepaediatrics, based at the Starship Hospital, is also providing a service to patients and healthcare workers in other locations in New Zealand via the Internet, using expensive video conferencing equipment. However, not all users are able to afford the equipment needed, and Ganeshan is looking at more cost-effective options.

Kathiravelu Ganeshan from Unitec’s School of Computing and Information Technology.

AFFORDABLE TELEMEDICINE “My research is looking at using inexpensive robots – costing between $350 and $1,000 – and affordable digital cameras,” says Ganeshan, “so that patients can be assessed in their own homes by their doctor, who controls the robot over the Internet.”

The robots Ganeshan is using in his research are 60-centimetre-tall toys sold in stores all over New Zealand. He says the robots, designed by a former NASA scientist, are adaptable and can be reprogrammed to do useful tasks.

PROMISING TESTS Ganeshan is now collaborating with Dr Rajender Ghattu, a paediatrician in Michigan, USA, who works at a hospital that uses a number of RP6 robots to monitor patients remotely.

Tests using cameras attached to the toy robots – with Ghattu controlling their movements from his computer in Michigan – have been successful, and Ganeshan says they are looking at some of the practical applications.

Toy robots may assist doctors.

“For instance, Dr Ghattu is interested in how the system could be used to assess respiratory distress in children, or by paramedics to better inform doctors of a patient’s condition on the scene of an accident. I plan to equip the robots with simple diagnostic equipment such as thermometers, so that the doctor can

receive vital medical information on their computer in addition to the visuals and the audio.”

FAR-REACHING IMPLICATIONS The next stage of the research is to compare the assessments by doctors in the room with patients with assessments of the same patients by doctors using the remote-controlled robots. Ganeshan says there are plenty of hurdles to overcome, both practical and ethical, before testing with real patients can be done, but the implications are far-reaching.

“I’m interested in how the technology can be used to help people. We have an ageing population and this could mean that an elderly person who lives alone can be monitored and wouldn’t have to go to the doctor to have simple ailments assessed.“ “If and when bird flu or another flu pandemic strikes, we can minimise the rate at which the flu spreads by staying home and still receiving the medical attention we need. We need not pass on the infection in waiting rooms.”

CONTACT Kathiravelu Ganeshan Lecturer School of Computing and Information Technology email kganeshan@unitec.ac.nz

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NEWS IN BRIEF

New book looks at renaissance man The work of influential 15th century renaissance figure Leon Battista Alberti is the subject of a new book by Unitec architecture professor Branko Mitrovic.

Mitrovic started work on his book, Serene Greed of the Eye: Leon Battista Alberti and the Philosophical Foundations of Renaissance Architectural Theory (Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2005), in 1997.

He says Alberti’s influence can still be seen in many different arenas. “His 10 books on architecture are among the fundamental treatise of the modern age.

Alberti was the archetypal renaissance

man and he also wrote the first grammar of modern Italian, the first treatise on secret codes and the first study on urban surveying.”

Coconut oil boosts fuel supplies

Often working from original 15th and 16th century manuscripts, Mitrovic travelled to libraries in Florence, Berlin, Montreal and Moscow for his research, which was made possible by a Humboldt Foundation fellowship and support from Harvard University and the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

Mitrovic’s book has been released in Germany and will be launched in New Zealand this year. More work on Alberti is in the pipeline, with Mitrovic receiving a fellowship from the National Gallery in Washington to carry out related research.

Applied technology researchers have found a novel way to make diesel go further with a 50 percent renewable fuel containing coconut oil.

Associate Professor Shane West, Don Mardle (above), and their team from Unitec’s Applied Technology Institute have been conducting research into a diesel fuel mix made up of 50 percent coconut oil called B50, which they have been using successfully to run a truck and a power generator on campus.

Navman donation helps students Innovative company Navman has donated 1500 new GPS units to Unitec, giving electrotechnology students a chance to hone their skills.

Unitec lecturer Dr Nigel Yee says the new GPS units are enhancing students’ employment opportunities.

West says B50 has huge potential as a renewable energy source in the Pacific. “We teach applied technology programmes in the Cook Islands, and communities on some of the outer islands only have two hours of power generation per day because of the cost of getting diesel there for the generators.

“Navman is telling us what skills our graduates will need to work in the industry, and we are designing a curriculum to do that.”

“Our research shows that it is possible to double that capacity by using the B50 mix – coconut is truly a sustainable crop in the Pacific.”

Students from Unitec’s Bachelor of Applied Technology (Eletrotechnology) will use the units to learn how to write communication protocols for transmitting GPS information.

Yee says that his electrotechnology course is one of the most advanced in the country, and the skills being taught are directly applicable in the real world.

The Navman donation was enabled by an external organisation called “Engineers as role steerers” that Yee heads.

Waitakere opens with a bang The Waitakere Central Library and Unitec’s new Waitakere campus, a joint venture with the Waitakere City Council, opened with a bang earlier this year.

An added benefit is that it creates far less pollution than regular diesel, with the truck at Unitec producing half the amount of particulates after it switched to the B50 mix, while suffering no reduction in engine performance.

Artworks were donated to the new library at a public ceremony, and the buildings were officially opened with streamers fired into the air by a cannon.

The night ended with a concert attended by hundreds.

Work on a cost-effective processor to clean and refine the crude coconut oil is well under way, and West hopes it will increase potential affordability and fuel sustainability for developing communities.

Taking tikanga to the world Kylie Poihipi regularly shares her knowledge of tikanga Maori with Unitec students, and now she has the opportunity to do the same on an international stage.

Poihipi (Te Whanau A Apanui) works at Maia, Unitec’s Maori Development Centre, and has been selected to join a

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group of rangatahi representing Maori at the Healing Our Spirit Worldwide conference in Alberta, Canada, in August.

The conference aims to support and strengthen the links between indigenous people worldwide to enable them to network and share resources.

“The 12 rangatahi in our group were selected for their diverse skills, and we will present a keynote at the conference titled ‘What is wairua?’ which will look at everything from justice and poverty to creativity and leadership.”

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