News

A passion for problem-solving leads brothers to collaborate on study and work

Seeing the interesting assignments his brother was doing for his Engineering degree at Victoria University of Wellington confirmed Alex Quinlivan’s decision to follow the same path. John Quinlivan is a third-year student and Alex is in his first year. Both are majoring in Software Engineering.

“We spent a lot of our childhood mucking about with computers and played our fair share of video games,” says John. “Eventually the passion for ‘how does it work?’ extended into the tertiary education field.”

Alex always knew he’d study computer science or engineering because he was drawn to computing and problem-solving.

“When decision time came, I was swayed by the interesting courses that my brother was taking, as well as some of the assignments, which looked like something I’d be keen on doing. The other drawcard was the sheer number of courses you can choose from for a Software Engineering degree at Vic.”

The first-year Autonomous Vehicle Challenge is one of the assignments that hooks students into Engineering, says Lecturer Dr Will Browne. Students have to make a vehicle using a micro-processing board, a gear box and a motor driver. Sensors are added to improve performance in a competition to see whose invention takes top honours.

The hand-sized vehicles—which range from mini-tank lookalikes to sand buggies and go karts—have to look good, be recyclable and able to complete physical tasks such as weight pulling, a drag race, a slalom and navigating a maze. “The challenge happens at the end of the first trimester so students are thrown in at the deep end, but it’s really popular and a great way to get students engaged in many aspects of engineering,” says Will.

Although Victoria’s Engineering degree is relatively new, having siblings and cousins involved at the same time is increasingly common, says Will. “Once other family members get to see some of the hands-on and fascinating projects Engineering students do, they get inspired to follow in their footsteps. “To recommend a university course to your own whānau is a pretty high recommendation.”

Although the Quinlivan brothers are at different stages of their degree they get to take some classes together. That’s because John was Alex’s tutor in the first trimester. “It was a bit of fun having my younger brother in the tutorial,” says John, while Alex enjoyed a few perks from living in the same house as the teacher. “I could hitch a ride in to the early morning labs that started at a ludicrous time of 9am which meant I didn’t have to get up early and wait for public transport!”

Studying engineering together has also deliver benefits outside of the university. John and Alex have developed applications for Android and iOS systems, along with a corresponding website, and already have projects underway with several small start-up businesses.

Paving the way for female Māori graduates

13 May 2013

Miria Royal doesn’t see herself as a trail blazer for Māori women but, as the first Māori female to be accepted into Vodafone’s Graduate Technology Programme, it’s a concept the Victoria University graduate is getting used to.

Miria, who will be awarded a Bachelor of Engineering tonight, says she feels a responsibility to other Māori women in the engineering and telecommunications field.

“It’s a bit intimidating to be set up as an example, but if I can open the door for other Māori women to come into this career then that would be fantastic.”

Miria, who is one of 10 in the Vodafone Graduate Technology Programme, started working in Vodafone’s Auckland-based optimisation team in February. “I’m working to maintain, manage and optimise the network to improve the customer experience in terms of coverage, speed and reliability.”

However, she almost missed out on a place in the programme, which has been running since 2008.

“I attended a tech users event, where Vodafone’s Chief Technology Officer, Sandra Pickering, was speaking. I introduced myself and told her I was looking for a job and even though applications for the graduate programme had closed, she told me to send in my CV.”

Four days later, the job was hers. “I was surprised at getting in, because I always thought graduate placements were for A+ students.”

Amy Oding, Leader of the Technology Graduate Programme at Vodafone, says Miria is “a star in the Technology Group”.

“She has displayed a high standard of engagement and her team leaders are confident she will make a success of her career at Vodafone. We are very pleased to have a female Māori graduate of this calibre,” says Amy.

Miria, who was born and raised in Wellington and is of Ngāti Raukawa descent, is following in the footsteps of her engineer father. “I did a two-month internship at 2degrees in Wellington which really cemented my enjoyment of technical engineering and the telco industry. The industry is so fast-paced and varied, it’s exciting to know that there’s always something new around the corner.”

After finishing the two-year graduate programme, Miria hopes to gain overseas experience in her field before returning to New Zealand. “I want to give back and technical engineering is one way I can do that.”

Miria will graduate with a Bachelor of Engineering tonight, Monday 13 May at 6pm. She will also attend Hui Whakapūmau, a celebration for Māori graduands at Te Herenga Waka Marae at Victoria University on Tuesday 14 May at 9am.

New study shows kiwi call in perfect harmony

A group of researchers at Victoria University studying the little spotted kiwi are uncovering surprising results about our national bird’s behaviour.

Dr Andrew Digby, Dr Ben Bell and Dr Paul Teal [SECS] have conducted the first ever acoustic study of little spotted kiwi, New Zealand’s second rarest kiwi. Over a period of three years, they measured hundreds of calls made by a population of the birds living at the Zealandia sanctuary, in Wellington.

Their research has found that the kiwi, which live in pairs and are thought to mate for life, call in harmony with each other using a previously unknown form of vocal ‘cooperation’.

Dr Digby says the analysis demonstrates that, in contrast to what has previously been thought, size differences between male and female kiwi are not the sole cause of the differences in the frequency, or pitch, of the calls the birds make.

“Instead, male and female kiwi appear to call for different reasons, with male kiwi using their calls for long-range purposes, such as defending their territory from other kiwi, and female birds using calls for close-range purposes, like staying in contact with their partners.”

The researchers also discovered that male and female little spotted kiwi can synchronise their calls and have complementary call frequencies, meaning that when they call together they are more effective at repelling intruders. This is the first time such cooperation in frequency and time has been reported in bird ‘duets’.

The research has made up the focus of Dr Digby’s PhD, which is using kiwi calls as the basis for revealing more about kiwi behaviour and to help provide new tools for their conservation, and has recently been featured in the world’s leading ornithological journal, Ibis.

He is also investigating whether little spotted kiwi have a call ‘signature’ which can be used for identifying individuals, and is studying kiwi in different locations to see if unique regional dialects are developing.

“Calls are an important part of kiwi conservation since they provide an inexpensive, efficient and non-invasive way to monitor these mysterious birds,” says Dr Digby.

“But, we actually understand very little about why kiwi call, and the calls of most kiwi species have never been studied, so this research is important for helping us gain a better understanding of one of our national icons.”

Research collaboration between Victoria University and Zealandia has taken place over many years, and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two organisations in 2011 has established closer links. Areas of research have included native birds such as the little spotted kiwi, the breeding of tuatara and the study of biodiversity restoration and management.

For more information, contact Dr Andrew Digby, phone 021 183 5852 or email andrew.digby@vuw.ac.nz; or Dr Ben Bell, phone (04) 463 5570 or email ben.bell@vuw.ac.nz.

Issued by Victoria University of Wellington Communications & Marketing. Elizabeth Bush-King, Communications Adviser, can be contacted by emailing elizabeth.bush-king@vuw.ac.nz or phoning (04) 463 7458 or 027 563 7458.

Victoria University of Wellington: New Zealand’s most research-intensive university.

Congratulations to Syed Saud Naqvi for his Best Paper Award at the New Zealand Computer Science Research Student Conference 2013. This conference brings together the best young researchers in ICT in New Zealand.

Saud's paper investigated models of human eye movement. Humans concentrate only on small parts of an image at a time, termed fixation. Saud developed an existing biologically inspired model of how humans attend to a scene by using artificial intelligence to weight important aspects of the image. His method was compared with alternative artificial approaches and actual recordings of human eye movements, where he showed positive results in being able to predict human eye movement.

The practical applications of Saud's work range from developing fast camera systems for autonomous robots to predicting the best places for road signs to be mounted so that drivers notice them quickly.

The award carries a prize of $1500, which will be spent on assisting Saud with conference travel, was kindly funded by a donation to the conference from Google. This will enable Saud to present his follow up work that has been accepted for publication in the International Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC 2013), which is a top rated A international conference, to be held in Cancun, Mexico.

This is an example of Victoria's national and internationally leading research as recognised by the first place ranking in the recent research evaluation exercise. Doctorate scholarships are currently being offered for bright, hard-working and enthusiastic researchers to join the Evolutionary Computation Research Group and other world-class researchers.


NZCSRSC 2013 was the 10th conference in the series which started in 1992 and has now become a regular event in New Zealand.

The aim of the New Zealand Computer Science Research Student Conference is to establish and reinforce a nationwide community of ICT graduate students. It provides an opportunity for students to establish contacts and share their research with graduates from across New Zealand, and members of the wider community. Students will gain experience in communicating their research and participating in an ICT community by:

• submitting, presenting and reviewing research papers in a supportive and enthusiastic environment,
• participating in workshops dedicated to providing practical information for completing a successful graduate programme, and pursuing future careers in academia or industry,
• participating in a range of special events that get students in touch with like-minded people working in related areas within ICT, and
• hearing from leading ICT experts in a series of exciting invited keynote presentations

Another goal of the conference is to help support and encourage other students such as minority students, women, and Māori and Pacific Nations students with ICT research.

Skills in software development springboard for success

Michael Mudge thought it could have been a hoax when a Google recruiter contacted him after seeing his profile on the professional networking site LinkedIn, but his suspicions were unfounded. The Victoria University of Wellington computing graduate has taken up a position with Google in San Francisco after being headhunted by the owners of the world’s biggest search engine.

Michael initially studied Engineering at Victoria but switched to Computer Science three years into the four year degree. “Although computing is part of the Bachelor of Science degree, there’s a very close relationship between the Science and Engineering faculties at Victoria, so making the swap was easy.”

He went on to complete an Honours degree in Computer Science and enjoyed being involved in cutting-edge research. His topic was in the area of artificial intelligence where he set out to develop algorithms that would make the process of optimisation to evaluate functions simpler and more efficient.Michael became one of a select group of scholars to achieve First Class Honours in Computer Science.

Regarded as a technical maestro, Michael worked as a web developer and a software engineer for several up-and-coming companies after graduating. When Google came calling, he wasn’t immediately available but the company kept in touch and a rigorous round of interviews began in July last year. It culminated in a visit to San Francisco for five-hour long sessions with Google staff.

“It was challenging—I had to write code in front of them and answer questions about my thought processes and problem-solving techniques.” He passed with flying colours and has joined other new recruits from around the world as a Google software engineer and developer.Michael, who is nearly 25, says working for Google is a dream come true. “They’re the best. For a recent graduate, it’s as good as you can get.”

Michael attributes his success to motivation and going the extra mile. “If you want to be good you have to push yourself to succeed, and not just in one area. When you see high achievers, they are well developed people, excelling across a number of fields.”

An article published in the Dominion Post on the 4^th April highlights Victoria University's initiatives to demonstrate the how much fun computer science is, and the great careers that are available.

The computer science taught at Victoria University of Wellington covers building 'hybrid engines' rather than 'driving a car' - everything from creating your own programming language to app & game creation, or even how to defeat denial of service attacks (Much more than spreadsheets and word processing!). Please contact us for more information regarding forthcoming events for students and teachers.

( marketing@ECS.VUW.ac.nz)

Dr Stuart Marshall, with collaborators from the University of Canterbury, has recently won a grant from Google for this year's Programming Challenge for Girls, (PC4G) a competition which encourages Year 10 girls to explore computer programming. The local round and national finals were hosted at Victoria in November and December 2012. Please see (http://www.pc4g.org.nz/) for further details.

Three ECS students were recently awarded prestigious academic prizes For 2012. The School of ECS congratulates these students for their well deserved success.

Aneta Stevanovic, who graduated with a BSc majoring in computer science in 2012, was awarded the Addison Wesley Prize in Computer Science. Aneta is starting her Masters degree soon, and says the prize will be very useful for purchasing the books she needs.

Renee Kwang, a third year BSc student majoring in computer science and mathematics, was awarded the Addision Wesley prize in computer science (200 level). Renee says being awarded the prize affirms that she made the right choice in giving up her previous job as a tax accountant to study computer science.

Mitchell Lane, a 4th year BE (Hons) student majoring in software engineering, was awarded the IET prize 2012. Mitchell says the prize makes the long hours of hard work he has devoted to his studies all worth while, and encourages him to continue giving 100% to his studies during his final year.

Victoria University, including our School of Engineering and Computer Science, has demonstrated international excellence in research and has been ranked top New Zealand University for research under government backed criteria.

Victoria University has been ranked first in the 2012 Performance-Based Research Fund Quality Evaluation, which was published by the Tertiary Education Commission yesterday. A total of 27 tertiary education organisations were evaluated.

Our School of Engineering and Computer Science is delighted to be part of the top ranked group in Computer Science, IT and IS. This shows the broad range of subjects, such as information, technology, digital systems, computing, programming language development, cyber-security, gaming, artificial intelligence, communications and so forth, where we are a leading provider. We have a unique mix of offerings.

Please contact us to see where we are the best (please see research groups and staff pages). 70% of Victoria’s individual researchers are internationally or nationally recognised as being of high quality. This includes staff in the Engineering specialisations of Networking, Software, and Electronics and Computer Systems Engineering

The Vice-Chancellor Research, Professor Charles Daugherty acknowledged the hours of hard work put in by staff in assembling their research portfolios in order to achieve this result, and said it was a “wonderful day” for the University.

The top ranking will continue to enable the University to attract high achieving researchers from within New Zealand and from overseas. Please see our postgraduate pages for more details on how to join our exciting and leading research.

The ECS Mechatronics group, head by Professor Dale Carnegie, has developed a system of robots, called "rubblebots" for use in search and rescue situations. The impetus for the research was the failure of robots to find survivors in the World Trade Centre disaster zone after September 11th 2001. Dale Carnegie explains that robots subsequently developed for search and rescue are just too big and expensive, and are designed to do too much. When searching for survivors after a disaster, the first 48 hours are crucial. The ECS mechatronics group has therefore developed a hierarchical system of robots which are designed to perform specialist tasks, and cover a lot of ground as quickly as possible.

To read the full article which was posted on www.stuff.co.nz on the 4th April, please click on the link below:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/unlimited/8223268/Cool-Kiwi-science-Rescue-b

A Victoria University researcher’s investigations into improving the diagnosis and treatment of hearing defects will take a leap forward as a result of winning funding from the European Commission.

Dr Paul Teal, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering and Computer Science, is part an international research team that has been awarded €2.9 million (NZ$4.5 million) by the 7th Framework Programme for Research, which funds research and development that creates high quality knowledge.

The team will build a finite element model of the cochlea, a spiral chamber located inside the ear that turns sound vibrations into electrical signals which travel along nerves to the brain and allow us to hear.

Victoria is the only university outside Europe to have a researcher as part of the successful bid. Dr Teal’s inclusion is also exceptional because the Commission, which represents the interests of the entire European Union, usually only pays for collaborators based outside Europe to travel there, but not for their time.

Dr Teal, who receives nearly $188,000 of the funding, was asked to join the team because of his world-leading research into better ways of measuring the cochlear microphonic, which is the electrical signal generated inside the cochlea. His work could lead to the development of new techniques to more accurately assess hearing loss.

The project, which will provide a realistic, three dimensional model of the physics of motion in a working cochlea, involves researchers from six European universities and two European companies, including a team at the world-leading Institute of Sound and Vibration Research at the University of Southampton.

Dr Teal’s input allows electrical components to be added to the model which would otherwise be only mechanical and acoustic. The cochlea project comes under the Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) framework which is developing open source digital data on the entire human body.

Sections of the cochlea have been modelled before but no one has yet developed a complete picture. If the team succeeds, Paul says it will answer a lot of questions. “There is still a lot of dispute about how the cochlea even works. It’s hard to study because of where it is in the body and the complex processes at work.

“The fact that the data will be open source is important. The VPH framework allows observations made in laboratories all over the world to be included and analysed. The models developed as a result of that will ultimately be able to be matched against data about an individual to find out exactly what is taking place with a patient.”

Dr Teal’s research takes advantage of recent advances in electronics to find ways of collecting an electrical signal directly from the cochlea. He says the tests most commonly used to measure hearing loss at the moment are non-invasive and record the sounds the ear produces. “However they don’t define the full spectrum of sounds people hear, and the prescriptions given as a result are based on population averages rather than an individual’s condition.

“My vision is that we will one day be able to hook people up to a device that plays them tones and sounds and gives an automatic read-out on the make-up of the hearing aid they need. “Developing the first, full model of a working cochlea will bring us closer to realising that vision.”

Dr Teal will be working on the project for the next three years.