Advance - Winter 2008

20 08

Advance

the unitec magazine of innovation and research WINTER 08

A family of support The case for best practice induction of new teachers – p5

Keeping scarce medical imaging staff Expanded careers for technologists – p6

Closing our ICT gaps Accelerating Auckland projects gain momentum – p10

In the limelight New CEO Dr Rick Ede steps into the job – p11

EDIToRIAl

certain procedures, MRI practitioners stand to gain more rewarding careers, while consumers will benefit from a better service and reduced waiting times. This research project is discussed on page 6.

In the educational sector, the School of Education’s Action Research and Review Centre was commissioned by the New Zealand Teachers’ Council to investigate standards of teacher induction, with a view to the retention of higher-quality teachers within the profession. The report, featured on page 5, describes this project in more detail.

editor Jade Reidy design Brigitte Smits cover image ©istockphoto.com/ Jacom Stephens printing Norcross Printing Group 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 address carrington rd, mt albert, Private Bag 92025, auckland mail centre, auckland 1142, 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.

Recent high-profile resignations from health organisations are indicating entrenched issues within the sector.

These issues centre on multiple restructuring, an ageing population and long waiting lists for services, partly as a result of the sector’s inability to retain employees.

While education research is not a panacea for the problems created by a collision of market forces, technology and baby boomers, it can be, and is, a driver for positive social change. One of the challenges inherent in addressing social problems is making sure all the sectors involved work cohesively. Unitec collaborates in a number of innovative ways to deliver best-practice and evidence-based research.

A series of research projects within the School of Health Science is aiming to keep experienced medical radiation technologists from leaving the country.

By expanding their roles to take some of the load off radiologists and speed up

ANNA HENRY DIPloMA IN PERFoRMING TECHNoloGY (SCENERY)

The country’s economic development is another issue at the forefront of public debate. Just on the doorstep of our Mt Albert Campus is a business precinct that’s been growing at a rate well beyond either regional or national levels.

Unitec Business School is working with both the Rosebank Business Association and Auckland City Council to identify skills gaps and offer training to create a pool of qualified employees. Highlights of the interim findings are on page 4.

The experimental Accelerating Auckland partnership, as outlined on page 10, in which Unitec has been involved since its inception – initially as a member and more recently as a funding partner – continues to gather momentum in its efforts to increase ICT skills in the auckland region.

Also featured in this edition is a profile on our new ceo, dr rick ede, who joined Unitec in April.

CoNTACT Prof Gael McDonald Vice-President, Research email gmcdonald@unitec.ac.nz

RESEARCH IN BRIEF

Breathe easy in Beijing buildings Air quality in Beijing is under intense scrutiny as the Olympic Games approach.

For those who live in Beijing, the issue will be pertinent long after the world media turns its attention elsewhere.

Kiwi Dutch with story-teller’s touch One of the biggest immigrant groups to New Zealand has been the Dutch. Most came here under an assisted government programme after World War II, in ships such as that pictured. In their efforts to capture the unique experiences of these first-generation immigrants, trustees of the Dutch Connection Museum approached Unitec’s School of Communication for expert assistance.

Besides highlighting cultural perceptions, Papoutsaki and Donaghey have analysed how people narrate their personal stories, what they choose to tell and how they choose to tell it, injecting an element of drama into the shaping of their experiences. They also looked at how the presence of a camera impacts on the “performance” of a life story.

This year, Papoutsaki is researching Pacific Islands diaspora media in new zealand.

CoNTACT Evangelia Papoutsaki Senior lecturer School of Communication Email: epapoutsaki@unitec.ac.nz

Image: Southern Cross. Barry Thomson Collection, New Zealand Maritime Museum

Unitec’s Associate Professor Bin Su is supervising a Masters thesis at Beijing University of Architecture and Civil engineering on natural ventilation and indoor air quality in the city’s residential buildings. Su has spent a decade researching building design in hot, humid climates such as Auckland and Townsville, looking for principles to guide architects in designing for both energy efficiency and good ventilation. Poor ventilation in humid climates contributes to mould growth. The thermal dynamics of heat transfer through attic roof spaces can inhibit such growth.

Dr Su’s studies have ranged from houses to large hotel buildings, and have confirmed the principle that energy efficiency and the air quality within buildings need to be addressed at the design stage, not after a building has been completed.

Variations in climate, he says, prevent universal design guides from being established for large buildings such as hotels, offices and residential blocks.

Each climate presents unique challenges.

To this end, Dr Su is also supervising two other Masters theses at Shenyang Jianzhu University on building designs in cold climates.

CoNTACT Associate Professor Bin Su School of Architecture and landscape Architecture Email bsu@unitec.ac.nz

Senior Lecturers Dr Evangelia Papoutsaki and Dr Sara Donaghey created an oral history project that has captured international attention. their oral and audio-visual recordings of around 20 immigrants will form part of a presentation to the 15th International Oral History Association Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico, in September, and feature on Dutch international radio.

Student Naomi Strickland interviewed many of the now elderly participants, who were often viewed by Kiwis as the “industrious Dutchies”. Interestingly, their cultural perception was more likely to be that New Zealanders don’t work hard enough!

Carbon gains its own credits The word carbon is becoming synonymous with emissions but carbon has positive uses in biotechnology, says Dr Isaac Flitta. Flitta joined Unitec’s School of Design this year from the UK, which leads the way in research into carbon fibre composite materials.

These materials, first developed for the aerospace industry and for lightweight vehicles, are giving new hope to people requiring hip and other bone replacements.

Carbon fibre composites could be an ideal substitute for metallic implants into the human body. Carbon can be structured to have greater resistance to fatigue than metal. Its elasticity allows for more movement than metal does and accelerates the healing time by encouraging bridging bone tissue to form. There have so far been no reports of infections, failures or other adverse

reactions, and hip replacements will have the potential to last for life.

Flitta worked in the UK with a combined team from hospitals, industry and Bournemouth University to optimise a carbon composite forearm fracture plate.

He is a founder member of the Virtual Manufacturing Processes Research Group and is working on a joint project with Leoben University in Austria to design and simulate the extrusion and rolling of aluminium alloys for aircraft.

At Unitec, he will also be furthering a passion for inclusive design, designing products to give people greater mobility, access and life support.

CoNTACT Dr Isaac Flitta Senior lecturer School of Design Email: iflitta@unitec.ac.nz

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RESEARCH IN BRIEF

Fine-tuning the X-ray quality When John Poletti chose to work on optimising the image quality of radiographs as part of his PhD research, he didn’t expect organisers of the largest world conference on Radiology to take an interest.

Competition for invitations to present research at the annual conference of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) is fierce. The conference is also an important venue for manufacturers to showcase cutting-edge medical imaging equipment. It is attended by tens of thousands of participants from around the world.

Learning to learn closes the gap International studies show large disparities in educational achievement in this country’s schools, particularly between average and poor performance in mathematics, reading and science. The solution does not appear to lie in smaller class sizes or spending more money.

Three Unitec lecturers have been in pursuit of excellence in education, seeking evidence on which the Government can base initiatives to reduce disparities in achievement.

Dr Deepa Marat, Miriama Postlethwaite and Nina Pelling have carried out collaborative studies with 151 Maori and Applied Technology students at Unitec.

Their findings point to the need for student-centred learning to be embedded into the teacher-education curriculum. Students, they discovered, still lack strategies for how to learn.

Successful students manage their resources well and are self-motivated in their approach to learning.

Guidance and support from teachers and family also emerged as crucial factors. Parents who clearly articulated their expectations, involved themselves indirectly in their children’s education and imposed discipline in study, positively influenced educational outcomes. Teachers who showed empathy and respect, who encouraged learning and thinking and who adapted to differences among students had a similarly positive influence.

Three papers have been prepared for journal publication and a model is being developed to guide programmes within the Unitec Applied Technology Institute and Maori Development Centre.

CONTACT Dr Deepa Marat Research Consultant Unitec Postgraduate Centre Email: dmarat@unitec.ac.nz

Training locals for local niches The Rosebank Business precinct is one of the fastest growing employment areas in the Auckland region. More than 40 percent of businesses in Rosebank were founded during the 1990s but since the millennium there has been a drop-off in numbers locating to Rosebank. One problem is the skills gap. Only 12 percent of those living in the local area have qualifications beyond secondary school.

Poletti’s presentation at the 93rd annual conference called into question some assumptions about the image quality of radiographs. Diagnostic X-ray imaging is a fast-moving field. His research method to determine the optimal distance between the X-ray tube and the image receptor was computer based, using Monte Carlo simulation to artificially generate test images for a range of focal spot sizes.

The Rosebank Business Association (RBA) last year funded four scholarships for employees in the area to study at Unitec. This year, Unitec Business School has been carrying out research with Auckland City Council and the RBA to assess the skills employers are looking for and identify what training and education will match those requirements.

Dr Howard Frederick co-ordinated a team of researchers collecting information

via one hundred face-to-face interviews, from Avondale College through to Patiki Road. Skills identified by almost half of those interviewed were management and marketing, ICT, and applied technology and trades. A fifth of companies expressed a need to have more training to become a Green business.

This information is being analysed to set a benchmark against which a pool of local talent can be developed and outside talent attracted. The Council will also incorporate the results into its Rosebank 2030 business precinct plan, which is in the process of being approved.

CONTACT Dr Howard Frederick Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Unitec Business School Email: hfrederick@unitec.ac.nz

With new knowledge, medical imaging technicians, when diagnosing injury or disease, can make more appropriate choices of focal spot size for the X-ray tube to gain the best resulting image quality.

CONTACT John Poletti Tutor Medical Imaging School of Health and Community Studies jpoletti@unitec.ac.nz

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Image: Auckland City Council

FEATURE EDUCATION

How to nurture fledgling teachers Almost half the applicants for teaching positions in Auckland in 2007 were only provisionally registered and three-quarters were considered by principals to be of poor or very poor quality.

A team of researchers at Unitec spent last year examining the support available to newly qualified teachers and how to improve induction practices.

To gain full registration, teachers in schools and early childhood services require two years’ teaching practice within the framework of an induction programme that provides guidance and advice. Registration is granted by the New Zealand Teachers’ Council on the recommendation of principals or other leaders, and is in place to ensure competent teachers in classrooms.

The council commissioned Unitec to undertake stage three of its Learning to Teach research. This stage involved assessing what constituted effective induction.

INDUCTING NEW TEACHERS A team of five researchers from Unitec’s School of Education spent 2007 identifying and developing 20 case studies of best practice advice and guidance across the range of educational settings – early childhood, primary, secondary and Maori medium.

“Last year’s staffing survey by the Auckland Primary Principals’ Association highlighted the problem faced by many schools in recruiting quality teachers,” says Associate Professor Eileen Piggot-Irvine, Director of the New Zealand Action Research and

Review Centre at Unitec. “Our research looked at solutions to what is always a pressured environment, one in which both time and funding is perennially insufficient.”

WHANAU SUPPORT MODEL The case studies primarily identified that good outcomes were more likely in situations where the support provided to provisionally registered teachers was much wider than just the presence of an assigned mentor teacher.

“One participant described it as a ‘family of support’”, says Piggot-Irvine. “In the Maori context, mentoring takes place through whanau rather than being centred on individuals. While there were many overlaps between the mainstream and Maori settings, this feature was distinctive.”

All provisionally registered teachers have an assigned mentor teacher. It was important that the two teachers were a good match for one another and for both parties to have break-out time for professional development. Training for mentor teachers is patchy, showing a great deal of variation among the participating schools, and the report recommended that mentor teachers

receive professional development at a regional level to ensure more consistency.

The case studies showed that inadequate time for mentor teachers and provisionally registered teachers to meet and to engage in professional development could be addressed by increased collaboration and resource sharing.

SAY NO WHEN NECESSARY It was common for provisionally registered teachers to put their hand up for extra responsibilities and roles within the school but this added to the pressures of an already demanding job.

“In that initial flush of enthusiasm, teachers often volunteer for extras such as powhiri, taking children for kapa haka, sports coaching and drama,” says Piggot-Irvine. “One deputy principal has some sound advice: ‘Hold back, don’t say yes to everything’.”

What the research also identified was the need for shared understanding amongst staff about what constitutes ‘good’ teaching. Provisionally registered teachers needed an openness to receiving feedback about their progress, and the process of moving towards full registration had to feature accountability on both sides.

Another issue at the forefront of some new teachers’ minds was the lack of job security.

“There was a split between those who felt the impermanence of a shortterm contract as stressful and others who took it in their stride,” says Piggot-Irvine.

The report, “Learning to teach: Success case studies of teacher induction in Aotearoa New Zealand” is at www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz

Celebrating the end of a year investigating exemplary teacher induction practices.

From left to right: researchers Eileen Piggott-Irvine, Helen Aitken, Pip Bruce Ferguson and Fiona McGrath.

Absent: Jenny Ritchie.

CONTACT Associate Professor Eileen Piggot-Irvine Director, Unitec New Zealand Action Research and Review Centre Email: epiggotirvine@unitec.ac.nz

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Medical imaging

Radiation technologists can do more A critical shortage of medical imaging and radiation therapy technologists is pushing the health profession to revise its career structure. Unitec’s Dr Jill Yielder is piloting programmes to prove that, with the right education and training, medical radiation technologists are capable of extended roles.

Develop cancer in New Zealand and, even with private health insurance, you may be forced to travel to Australia for radiation treatment. Medical diagnostic and treatment technology is advancing rapidly, but long waiting lists remain because of a severe shortage of people with the right skills to apply that technology.

Averting a crisis means training, attracting and keeping qualified practitioners in the country, says Dr Yielder, Discipline Leader for Medical Radiation Technology in Unitec’s School of Health Science.

Dr Yielder, along with Paul Yielder, set up the first New Zealand-based qualification for Medical Radiation Technology (MRT) when New Zealand implemented its own training in the 1980s. Since then, degree and postgraduate programmes have been introduced, with Unitec being the only postgraduate provider of MRT education in this country, offering both a Masters Degree and Postgraduate Diploma. But the old career model has also been in need of changes, she says.

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“We needed to look hard at the whole profession and achieve a national standard for role extension and advanced practitioners, otherwise talented people will continue to look elsewhere.”

HOW THE STRUCTURE WORKS That close, hard look at both international trends and the local context has culminated in a new three-tier structure being agreed to by the New Zealand Institute of Medical Radiation Technology (NZIMRT), based on the UK model. Tier one will create a radiographer assistant role to do technical tasks such as preparing patients for examinations; tier two will be the existing MRT role; tier three an advanced MRT practitioner role. A fourth consultant level may be put in place in the future when the Advanced Practitioner role has been consolidated, particularly for emerging technologies.

The new structure is being rolled out nationally and requisite courses are being introduced at Unitec in Semester Two of this year. Yielder is positive about

the potential impact such changes could have in preventative as well as clinical settings.

“In the UK, free breast screening was saved by having an assistant position to speed up the basic mammography process and supplement an area where there is a chronic staffing shortage.

Without it, we could be in danger here of losing that service for women in the 45-60 age group.”

The assistant position would be ideal, says Yielder, for mature women returning to the workforce, who can’t afford to do a three-year degree. “They could work while they study for a shorter period of time.”

The new structure sits well within a health network career framework already launched by the Ministry of Health. A 10-level system is being proposed. The new MRT structure may slot into levels five to nine, so the profession is again becoming a pilot for change.

Medical imaging

“MRTs and clinical managers were overwhelmingly supportive,” Yielder says, “but radiologists were more ambivalent, with responses ranging from ‘no’ to varying degrees of ‘yes’.”

Expenses for the first phase of research were funded by the NZIMRT. The institute’s General Secretary, Dave Morris, admits there has always been “a master/servant relationship between radiographers and MRTs. We’ve never pushed ourselves as a profession, and radiologists are feeling threatened by change.”

Dr Jill Yielder

RESEARCH IDENTIFIED SUPPORT The restructuring of the MRT and radiologists’ roles is the biggest step since degrees were introduced in 1995 and is the result of three years’ research. The first phase involved finding out how the profession felt about change.

In 2005, together with Unitec colleague Fred Murphy and Toni Sinclair from the radiography industry, Yielder canvassed MRTs, clinical managers and radiologists. This investigation gauged support for the MRTs taking on some non-traditional tasks normally the domain of clinical managers and radiologists. Those tasks would include reading images and producing reports, and intravenous cannulation.

As the technology advances, the hope has been that old attitudes about power and territory will also change.

UNITEC LEADS AUSTRALASIA Developments in technology have also created new specializations and are driving change. Such developments include MRI and CT scans that take cross-sectional images of internal parts of the body; and nuclear medicine technology – using radioactive materials (tracers) and gamma cameras to diagnose disease.

Unitec’s role in facilitating career restructuring as a result of such developments has been crucial, says Morris.

Change has also been slow because New Zealand is a branch of the Australasian College of Radiologists and in Australia radiologists get paid per report, so they have a financial incentive to retain that task.

“Jill has the skill, time, facilities and contacts with the UK to make this happen. Unitec’s ahead of the game. Jill is such a good driver. We could not be as far forward as we are without her. We’d still be like our Australian colleagues.”

New Zealand has been losing graduates to the UK, which introduced better career progression a number of years ago. One of the solutions to retaining staff or enticing them back home is to offer a pathway to clinical advancement and challenge in the profession.

PILOTS PROVE ACCURACY

Yielder invited Professor Audrey Paterson, Director of Professional Policy at the UK Council for the Society of Radiographers, to run a workshop at Unitec in August last year about Britain’s experience of what works, what doesn’t work and how to move forward. On the guest list were representatives from DHBs, the NZIMRT, the College of Radiologists and the research team. Paterson’s feedback has informed the restructure.

Last year, in phase two of the research, pilot programmes demonstrated that postgraduate students of MRT could take on extended roles. Medical imaging pilots were carried out at Thames, Middlemore, Dunedin, Whangarei and Hamilton hospitals, while a barium enema pilot was conducted at Palmerston North Hospital.

“These pilot studies showed that the accuracy rates of MRTs were just as high as the radiologists,” says Yielder.

“We also expect that extended roles for MRTs would result in a better service for patients, due to changes in workflow and efficiency.”

Unitec Masters students participated in phase two as the thesis component of their degrees. Reshmi Kumar, on an NZAID scholarship, studied Image Interpretation for trauma and is taking her skills back to Fiji with her. Adrienne Young’s MHSc investigated reporting of routine MRI scans.

Several studies have been published in Shadows: The NZ Journal of Medical Radiation Technology and the final NZIMRT report has been approved and will be published in the near future.

Further studies are anticipated in areas such as mammography, barium studies and radiation therapy.

Advanced MRT practitioners will be trained to read images and produce reports.

CONTACT Dr Jill Yielder Associate Professor Discipline Leader MRT School of Health Science Email: jyielder@unitec.ac.nz

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medical science

Keeping his research right to hand The mystery of left or right handedness is imbued with superstition and has spawned theories that attribute dominance to the asymmetry of the brain. A Unitec researcher has spent 27 years investigating whether other anatomical architecture might also affect which hand we pick up a pen with. a lateral profile that confirmed the classical approach of right hand - left brain asymmetry.

Dr Gutnik has engineered a unique piece of equipment – a Stiffness Vibrating Machine – capable of measuring muscle stiffness. He is carrying out a series of experiments with the assistance of Borislav Penchev to measure the viscoelasticity of the muscles of the human hand.

“Elasticity is usually measured in terms of stiffness,” he says. “Stiffness is like a rubber band: the stiffer the muscle, the greater the contraction.”

WHY THE ANSWER MATTERS

Dr Boris Gutnik demonstrating how his stiffness vibrating machine works.

Around 93 percent of people are righthanded. The most common explanation has been asymmetry, that the motor cortex in the left hemisphere of their brain is dominant. Dr Boris Gutnik, an Associate Professor at Unitec’s School of Health Science, doubts whether this relatively simple explanation of human asymmetry contains the whole truth.

MIGHTY MUSCLE MASS Dr Gutnik is a pioneer of peripheral asymmetry – the idea that the mechanics of the body rather than just the psychology of the brain hold the key to limbic dominance. Since 2003, the former Soviet Union citizen has had a memorandum of understanding with the Russian State Classical Academy Medical School and the Medical University in Moscow to co-operatively explore whether differences in the muscle structure and architecture

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between a person’s left and right hands might affect which hand becomes the more sophisticated.

“The masses and angles of attachment of muscles on the left and right hand are not always identical, they don’t share the same patterns. It has been established that 10 percent of people who are right handed produce a stronger grip force, or muscle contraction, with their left hand,” he says. “The energy and speed of movement produced by the non-dominant extremity is in 50-60 percent of cases faster than in the same movements performed with the dominant one. That’s interesting.”

The laterality of the spine may also play a role, he says. Experiments with Unitec colleagues Dr Paul Yielder and Dr Jonathan Leaver have so far resulted in only six out of 22 participants with

While the anatomical answer to hand dominance may seem like arcane knowledge, Dr Gutnik believes that a better understanding has practical application. In medicine, muscular and neurological diseases may be more effectively treated by addressing the different patterns displayed by right and left hand muscle structure. In an environmental sense, a left-handed person is at greater risk when driving because their bimanual co-ordination suffers from driving a vehicle that has been engineered for right-handedness.

Neurological problems can result from making a left-handed person write with their right hand.

EAST LEADS THE WAY Eastern Europe, he says, has been at the forefront of research into human laterality because the subject is studied in cross-discipline, under physiologists, psychologists and biomechanics. In the west, laterality is under the grip of psychologists.

Gutnik is an honorary professor of the Russian State Classical Academy. He is on the editorial panel of the Journal of Asymmetry and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Australasian Society for Human Biology.

CONTACT Dr Boris Gutnik Associate Professor School of Health Science Email: bgutnik@unitec.ac.nz

natural sciences

Thermal hideaway for reticent natives Two species present on Rotorua’s Mokoia Island have captured the attention of Unitec researchers. The speckled skink may be a long-time resident but the saddlebacks hail from Tiritiri Matangi sanctuary.

Speckled skink

Mokoia Island, nestled in Lake Rotorua, was settled by Te Arawa in the 1400s, and greatly desired for its geothermally-warmed gardens. In the 1950s, the island was farmed with cattle, pheasants, gardens and goats.

The steeply gullied island has restricted access and is now home to native bird species such as hihi, tui, weka, kiwi, kokako and saddleback. The presence of speckled skinks on Mokoia is a relatively recent and significant discovery

ARE MOKOIA SKINKS UNIQUE? Dr John Perrott, a Senior Lecturer at Unitec in the School of Natural Sciences and who shares whakapapa with Te Arawa, found the first skink on the island over a decade ago. His discovery coincided with the eradication of rats.

As yet unknown is how many of these speckled skinks Oligosoma infrapunctatum inhabit Mokoia, what diseases they have, whether they are genetically unique and whether the population needs managing.

Dr Perrott will be in the field this autumn and winter with fellow researchers, German-trained veterinarian and reptile specialist Dr Sabina Schragen, and Dr Lorne Roberts to find the answers.

“It’s low-cost research for high returns, with the potential for new discoveries, including unique behaviours,” says Dr Perrott. “And more importantly, we have a good opportunity to get involved in a practical way by linking our

Image: © Dr Paddy Ryan – www.ryanphotographic.com

Native saddleback.

Image: © Simon Fordham/NaturePix

research with the island’s ecological management strategy.”

In 1992 a number of birds were shifted from Tiritiri Matangi to Mokoia.

Comparing data with two other mainland skink populations will help determine if any difference appears in the disease burden between the isolated population on Mokoia and the mainland.

Dr Nigel Adams, Senior Lecturer in the School of Natural Sciences, along with collaborators from Massey University, has been examining the possible implications of such translocations.

MANAGING REPTILIAN DIVERSITY

“We know that individual variability in traits exists within species and that those with a particular trait may be favoured under certain environmental conditions,” he says. “We investigated whether microevolutionary processes were occurring and whether the stress of translocation was selecting for birds with a “laid back” trait, those which were least traumatised by the handling and the new scenery.”

Speckled skinks are already found in the North Island and on the South Island’s west coast, but as Dr Perrott says, “If you want to manage speckled skink diversity you have to first determine the existing level of genetic diversity.”

During four one-week-long field trips, the researchers are setting and checking low-impact pit traps around the 135 hectare island.

Landcare Research will be analysing tissue samples to identify genetic characteristics.

If the island population appears to be genetically unique, the next step would be to establish a skink breeding colony at Auckland Zoo on behalf of Te Arawa and DoC.

SADDLEBACK REVEALS LITTLE The saddleback seabird was once so endangered that its population was restricted to Hen Island in Northland.

From there it was successfully translocated to a number of islands including in 1968 to Cuvier Island north-east of Coromandel, then in 1985 from Cuvier to Tiritiri Matangi in the Hauraki Gulf.

Field work involved measuring and comparing the stress responses of saddlebacks residing on Mokoia and the other islands and measuring the stress response and subsequent survival of birds translocated from Tiritiri Matangi to Motuihe.

Initial results are inconclusive.

Dr Adams is philosophical about the failure in this case to identify any clear relationship between the two.

“That’s the way it goes with science sometimes,” he says.

CONTACT Dr John Perrott and Dr Nigel Adams Senior Lecturers School of Natural Sciences Email: jperrott@unitec.ac.nz or nadams@unitec.ac.nz

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technology

Delivering action on ICT skills When Accelerating Auckland needed to form an alliance with a tertiary institute to further its plans for kick starting the region’s ICT skills, Unitec came alongside as a strategic business partner and fund holder.

Accelerating Auckland supports regional growth by ensuring that Auckland has enough workers with ICT skills. The organisation approached Unitec to partner in delivering a series of projects designed to encourage young people into careers in ICT and to fill skills gaps within the industry. The Tertiary Education Commission’s Growth and Innovation Pilot Initiatives Fund saw the potential in the collaboration and awarded over $1 million in 2007.

PROJECTS UNDER WAY “I’m passionate about technologyenabled innovation as an accelerator for social and economic development,” says the Director of Programmes Judy Speight. “We approached Unitec because they understood what we were trying to achieve for the region and the ICT sector. They really got it.”

Accelerating Auckland is now getting on with ten diverse projects, such as Go Girl, Go IT – a series of fun interactive workshops to encourage young women into the industry. Go IT has been so successful that in March this year the programme was extended to enable senior boys to participate.

TASKFORCE ACCELERATES AUCKLAND Alison Young, Unitec’s Head of the School of Computing and Information Technology, has been a foundation member of Accelerating Auckland’s taskforce, working since 2005 to form the vision and establish the initiative’s programme of work.

“Our courses have been developed with industry input, so they remain relevant,” says Young. “It was a natural fit for us to work with a new organisation whose goals so closely match our own.”

Young’s 36-year contribution to computing education in New Zealand was recognised by her nomination as Computing Educator of the Century in 2002.

To establish an initial direction, the more than 30-strong taskforce, including representatives of all of Auckland’s TEIs, along with a number of government agencies and industry organisations collectively workshopped initial priorities.

“The sector is experiencing a critical skill gap,” says Speight. “Within

Accelerating Auckland we’ve developed a devolved power structure that provides a safe place to partner and the freedom to experiment. One of the things that have held back creative solutions has been a propensity for complex research and report writing rather than actually getting on with the work. The Taskforce had some pretty clear ideas on what needed doing – our challenge was to deliver some action.”

WORKING TOGETHER The project has collaborative links across a number of tertiary institutes in the region. “Unitec,” says Speight, “has a well-earned reputation for working alongside other tertiaries rather than insisting on taking the lead. They’ve been staunch partners, holding and administering the grant funds, supplying research capability and on-the-ground advice, support and resources.”

Accelerating Auckland now has a mandate to take regional learnings from its projects onto the national stage.

CONTACT Prof Gael McDonald Vice-President, Research gmcdonald@unitec.ac.nz

Unitec final year Bachelor of Computing Systems students made a DVD showcasing successful young professionals telling their career stories. The DVD used actors from the School of Performing Arts and has been distributed to all Auckland secondary schools.

Accelerating Auckland’s regional ICT internship programme brings together ICT students, academics and industry practitioners to give students exposure to a business culture and its applied environment. In February, the first eight students graduated.

Students from Auckland Girls’ Grammar at Vodafone for a Go Girl, Go IT presentation.

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in the limelight

Leadership with scientific rigour New Unitec CEO Dr Rick Ede has a background in organic chemistry. He is bringing his own alchemical mix of qualities to the job of leading an organisation that produces gold from its students’ base metal.

“Stories like that reinforce all the reasons why people join tertiary education organisations, much like Unitec – seeing the contribution that teaching, learning and research can make to giving people opportunities for the future.”

FORESTRY RESEARCH Ede then took his research skills to the Forest Research Institute (now Scion) located in Rotorua, working in both research management and business development. In 2000, he joined CSIRO where he played a significant role in the formation of Ensis, a joint forestry research venture between CSIRO and New Zealand’s Scion.

Unitec’s new Chief Executive Officer Dr Rick Ede has jetted between Australia and New Zealand so many times lately he was beginning to think they were one country.

“When I was first approached about this role and looked into it, it was something that grew on me very quickly. Unitec’s why I’m here over and above everything else, but it’s great to be back,” he says.

While his role at Unitec still involves some travelling, it won’t be quite to the same extent as his previous one as General Manager of Client and Partner Relationships for Australia’s national research agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

Dr Ede gained a Masters degree with first class honours, and a Doctorate in Philosophy, in organic chemistry, from Waikato University in 1987.

He then spent a year in Finland completing a post-doctoral degree and eventually returned to Waikato University in 1999 to take up a rare position as a lecturer in organic chemistry.

“Organic chemistry is a branch of chemistry that deals with carbon-based molecules which are the building blocks of most forms of life on earth, and many of the important industrial chemicals that we use in everyday life,” he says.

“Learning organic chemistry is like learning a language; it has a very elegant and structured underpinning framework of knowledge that supports it.”

New CEO Dr Rick Ede at his powhiri on 21 April with, from left, Yvonne Hawke, Fiona Ede and Haami Anderson.

SON FOR THE RETURN HOME Dr Ede returned to New Zealand to take up his new position in April after spending the past eight years based in Australia. While it would be easy to say the call of home brought him back, Ede says it was more to do with Unitec than anything else.

Dr Ede used his lecturing role at Waikato University to develop a research team at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

“By far the most satisfying part of the job was seeing students progress through undergraduate careers and then hearing how they found excellent jobs or joined a good research team.”

Engagement with research management led to a greater understanding of the external factors that drive both research direction and the development of programmes and teams to address practical issues.

“One of the reasons I spent time in forestry research was the stronger applied focus on research – the underpinning quality and rigour of science still had to be there, but it was about choosing questions and problems that were more direct or had immediate relevance to industry or society.”

While more targeted and strategic research is important for the industry, Ede is a great believer that it needs to be balanced by “blue sky” or curiositydriven research.

SETTLING IN Dr Ede has co-authored a number of research papers and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, as well as an alumnus of the London Business School.

While most of his immediate time will be spent, as he puts it, “getting my head around things”, Ede is also looking forward to spending some time outdoors. He is an avid motorcyclist and has a keen interest in sport.

CONTACT Dr Rick Ede Chief Executive Officer rede@unitec.ac.nz

Advance Winter 08 11

news in brief

New Unitec campus open for business Unitec now has a presence on the North Shore since a new campus opened its doors at the end of last year.

The campus on Hurstmere Rd is undergoing its first intake of students with its Free4U computer programme proving a hit.

computing, business administration and a range of short courses.

North Shore mayor Andrew Williams was on hand to officially open the campus on January 30.

The campus offers certificate programmes in electronics engineering, autotronics, interior décor, English,

Maori and Pasifika peoples within Unitec and enhancing the importance of cultural diversity.

Reihana was chosen as a finalist for her work ‘Digital Marae’ which was shown at the Govett-Brewster Gallery in New Plymouth last year. Edith Amituanai was the inaugural recipient of the 2007 Marti Friedlander Photographic Award. Her collection ‘Déjeuner’ was shown at Anna Miles Gallery in Auckland.

Master tatau (tattoo) artist Su’a Petelo Suluape completed both a pe’a (male tattoo) and malu (female tattoo) on siblings Naylor and Christine Owen, which culminated in a special ceremony on the final day of the symposium.

The winner of the Walters Prize will be named in October and will also receive an all expenses paid trip to New York, with an opportunity to exhibit their work at Saatchi & Saatchi’s world headquarters.

Symposium attracts big audience

The ‘Sacred Mark’ symposium was aimed at raising the academic profile of

Other features included guest speakers such as Unitec’s writer in residence, Albert Refiti and former Unitec student, photographer Greg Semu.

Semu made a special trip back to New Zealand from Paris where he is currently in residence at the Musée du quai Branly art gallery.

Glenda now a master of business Unitec staff member Glenda Scholefield has become the first person on the Unitec Business School Master of Business programme to pass with first class honours.

Glenda’s thesis was based on teleworking – a reference to employees who work away from the traditional workplace. Glenda concentrated on those who worked at home at least one day a week.

Glenda surveyed all marketing managers in Auckland and Wellington who worked in an organisation with a minimum of 25 employees.

She found most managers were supportive of teleworking but said

A Unitec staff member and a former student have been named as two of the four finalists for the richest and most prestigious contemporary art award in New Zealand.

School of Design’s Lisa Reihana and former photography student Edith Amituanai are up to win the $50,000 Walters Prize. The prize is awarded for an outstanding contribution to contemporary art in New Zealand in the past two years.

Campus manager Pam Malcolm said the area had been crying out for such programmes since it lost its free computer service last year.

A traditional Samoan tattooing demonstration was the highlight of Unitec’s inaugural Tatau Symposium held at its Mt Albert campus last month.

Two finalists for Walters Prize

technology was not reliable enough to allow employees to access office programmes at home.

She also found managers worried about the lack of interaction with others in the team and how it would affect productivity.

Graduation 2008 honours industry achievements Unitec’s annual Graduation Day will be remembered this year for the number of special achievement awards handed out.

Held at the Auckland Town Hall on 9 April, the ceremonies included two honorary awards to Malcolm Peri and Gordon Cairney.

Peri was recognised for his contribution to social services with a Master in Social Practice, while Cairney received a Bachelor of Construction for services to the Quantity Surveying profession.

This year’s event also saw four Senior Scholar Awards presented to students who have achieved a grade point average of eight (equivalent to an A-) or better across all subjects studied.

Diana Pattern (Bachelor of Computing Systems), Rhonda Lee (Bachelor of Sport), Chelsea Francis and Robin Gee (Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts) were this year’s high achievers.

For more information about any of these news items, please contact Unitec’s Media Manager on +64 9 815 4321 ext 7601 or email lkumitau@unitec.ac.nz

12 Advance Summer 08

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