Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics
Victoria’s engineering and computer science researchers are international leaders in their fields, working with excellent laboratories and equipment in Victoria’s newest faculty. Our researchers have a depth of knowledge that is applied to a wide range of modern engineering problems in areas such as artificial intelligence, communications and signal processing, software engineering, computation, mechatronics and network engineering.
Wellington has a vibrant science and technology sector and our researchers collaborate with many of the city’s industry and research organisations including Industrial Research Limited, New Zealand Registry Services and Magritek. Our close links with industry provide vital funding and support for our research projects and help ensure that the results of our research can move rapidly into the commercial world where they can make a positive impact.
Our mathematics researchers are world leaders in matroid theory, computability and logic and general relativity. They also work on many pure and applied projects in areas of engineering, computing and science.
Find out more about specific research projects in engineering, computer science and mathematics:
Professor Seah with the prototype of a wireless sensor node that is powered by energy from radio waves.
Powering Wireless Sensor Networks
Wireless sensors can operate indefinitely if they can be made to harvest energy from the environment, says Victoria University computer scientist Professor Winston Seah.
Wireless sensors are deployed in large numbers to monitor all sorts of things: from radioactivity after a nuclear accident, to troop movement in a military conflict and temperature and humidity in a vineyard.
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Dale Carnegie with the “grandmother” and “mother” search and rescue robots. Photo: Robert Cross.
Disposable Search and Rescue Robots Could Save Lives
No search and rescue robot has ever saved a person’s life.
Professor Dale Carnegie, of Victoria’s Faculty of Engineering, aims to change that with a hierarchy of search and rescue robots that includes disposable miniature sensor robots.
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Professor Matt Visser is using mathematics to explore the mysteries of the universe.
Even Einstein Didn’t Understand Gravity
“Everybody knows what gravity is, but nobody quite understands it,” says Professor Matt Visser.
“From Newton to Einstein to Hawking, physicists have been developing and extending our ideas of what gravity is and how it should be described. In particular, physicists have spent the last 50 years trying to merge quantum physics with Einstein’s ideas on gravity,” he says.
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Paul Teal is using advanced signal processing to more accurately assess hearing loss.
Advanced Signal Processing Could Lead to Customised Hearing Aids
Recent advances in electronics could be used to improve the diagnosis and treatment of hearing defects, says Paul Teal from the School of Engineering and Computer Science.
Dr Teal is researching new ways of measuring the audio signal received by the cochlea. This spiral chamber, located inside the ear, turns sound vibrations into electrical signals that travel along nerves to the brain and allow us to hear.
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