VIETNAM THE FUTURE FOR NZ TECHNOLOGY New Zealand’s technology links and export earnings with Vietnam will increase over the next year, NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says. Vietnam is Asia’s new tech manufacturing hub and New Zealand tech companies are setting up offices in Vietnam to escalate tech business. “Vietnam is one of our fastest growing markets and we already know technology is the fastest growing industry sector in New Zealand. Foreign investment in Vietnam has driven major global tech firms such as Samsung, LG Electronics, Intel, Nokia, Fuji Xerox to set up new production plants in Vietnam as opposed to China,” Mr Muller says. GLOBAL DEAL PUSHES KIWI INVENTION FORWARD Hawke’s Bay innovators Shane Heaton and Gavin Streeter ambitions of using solar power to get water to remote farmland as well as international disaster relief missions has taken a major step forward. Mr Heaton and Mr Streeter launched their ePump solar water pump last year and strong demand nationally and internationally has led to them signing a major distribution partnership with one of the world’s leading designers and manufacturers of dairy systems and technology, Waikato 7 Milking Systems. WELTEC ENGINEERING NUMBERS ON THE RISE The number of students studying engineering at diploma and degree level is at the highest it has ever been at the Wellington Institute of Technology (WelTec) for this time of year. Some 255 students are currently enrolled on either the New Zealand Diploma in Engineering or the Bachelor of Engineering Technology Degree. Thirty-three students are currently undertaking the Engineering Foundation programme and many of these students will move into either the Diploma or Degree in Trimester 2. Engineering trades are also proving popular. Many of these students progress onto diploma and degree programmes after working in industry. www.weltec.ac.nz N E W S VIDEO PHOTON FACTORY research facility within the Faculty of Science at the University of Auckland, opened in 2010 with the core mission to enable all New Zealand researchers – academic, industrial and CRI-based – through the advanced use of laser pulses. Since then it has grown rapidly. The cross-disciplinary Photon Factory R&D team comprises physics, chemistry and engineering students and staff who work together to perform their own research, as well as to undertake research for industry and academic collaborators. The Photon Factory’s research can be divided into three synergistic strands. The first is fundamental or pure research in detailed laser-matter interactions. They study how molecules convert light into useful energy and how very short laser pulses can micromachine materials from glasses and ceramics to semi-conductors and metals. The second thrust is research targeted at solving major challenges for the high-tech industry sector. Improving the efficiency (quality and speed) of ultra-short pulsed laser micromachining is an example of how Photon Factory scientists and engineers are targeting the more practical application of their fundamental science, funded by MBIE, to meet industry needs. The final facet is applied research, which has a directly commercial focus. “The team I’ve assembled is a collaborative mix of engineers, physics and chemistry students and staff,” Dr Simpson says. “When they get together, their complementary skills and talents make them so dynamic and inventive. It’s very exciting for me, as a university educator, to help them spread their wings in the R&D environment and see them realise how clever and capable they really are. Working at the Photon Factory gives them excellent experience. They tend to get very good jobs when they leave us.” Such successes are reliant on Dr Simpson and her colleagues receiving the necessary funding at the outset to train minds capable of producing cutting edge results. She is adamant that the government needs to recognise the value of fundamental research, of encouraging students and young scientists and engineers to think deeply about basic science, so that they can innovate over the next 20 years. “My postdoctoral fellow and I were able to come up with a novel solution for sperm sorting because we had a deep, basic understanding of laser-matter interactions. Without that research experience, however, we would not have been able to see a new solution, enabling us to make a significant and innovative step forward.” A significant portion of the funding the Photon Factory receives comes from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. “The goal of the funding is to enable us to improve the efficiency of femtosecond machinery for industry. With this targeted research, we work with companies to help them achieve their short- and long-term goals. In addition to the MBIE funding, we’ve done about $2.5 million in industry facing contracts, from some very small start-ups to some of the biggest, most profitable companies in New Zealand,” says Dr Simpson. “For us it’s a tremendous opportunity to make a positive impact with our research. We find that very rewarding.” http://www.photonfactory.auckland.ac.nz/en.html and collaborators full transparency of the development of models. Leapfrog Central beta partner user Otgonbayar Togtokhbayar, geology manager at Rio Tinto Oyu Tolgoli LLC says, “Leapfrog Central has really changed the way we work, as we can mark-up areas for attention or discussion on models to improve them, and it eliminates version control issues. It’s a great step forward for 3D modelling software.” Aranz Geo managing director Shaun Maloney says, “We know we are on to something with Leapfrog Central, as many of our beta partners have been eagerly awaiting the market ready product. It solves a problem for these companies and delivers tremendous value to them.” www.leapfrog3d.com/products/leapfrog-central NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller
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