N E W S
14 May 2018
AI impact: <10% of job churn
Brightest young Kiwi engineers celebrated
Two of New Zealand’s most talented young
engineers have taken the honours at last
month‘s Young + Innovators Awards.
The Student Innovator of the Year is
Dinh Van Nguyen from Ara Institute of
Canterbury, who invented a small hydro
generator. The affordable generator
provides renewable energy through a
portable water turbine.
“This award gives me motivation to continue
my engineering career and keep
following my passion. It’s also proof that
hard work really does pay off,” says Van.
Twenty-four-year-old Van’s passion for
engineering was sparked at an early age
when he taught himself how to create a
simple circuit board to control a toy car.
Today he is a mechanical design engineer
at Invert Robotics.
The 2018 Young Engineer of the Year is
Jenny Chu, 29, a dynamic and talented
senior civil project engineer at City Rail
Link Ltd in Auckland. This annual award
recognises a trailblazing engineer under
the age of 30 who demonstrates excellence,
leadership qualities and contribution
to their community.
Jenny has already had significant responsibilities
working on the $160 million
Britomart cut-and-cover tunnel project.
Operating beneath the busiest train station
in Auckland. She has had to manage
challenging and complex considerations
as the new structure was constructed.
Jenny is also an active participant in
numerous humanitarian and mentoring
projects, including First Foundation,
Aotearoa Youth Leadership Institute
and FutureIntech, and she serves on the
Engineers Without Borders New Zealand
Board and the New Zealand Tunnelling
Society Board, which she co-founded.
“Engineering is a personal, innovative
and creative process which creates opportunities
for people, especially through
the infrastructure work that enables
communities. I’m very proud to be part
of this community of international professionals
who engineer our global village,”
says Jenny.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to
deliver economic growth and productivity
improvements but will impact some
people’s jobs according to new research
that is being pulled together for a leading
national report to be released.
New Zealand AI Forum executive director
Ben Reid says New Zealanders keep
hearing about how AI and automation will
destroy millions of jobs but this research,
to be released early this month, has found
that we should not expect AI to be different
to any other technology-driven change
in recent times.
“To put it into perspective, according to
data from Statistics New Zealand, thou-
sands of jobs are churned each year due
to constant changes in work tasks and
roles. Every year businesses change the
number and type of jobs they need in
order to be successful. When jobs are no
longer needed by firms, workers lose their
jobs and most find other work suited to
their capabilities or retrain,” says Mr Reid.
The research report, commissioned by
the AI Forum NZ, analysed more than
50 international papers on the potential
impacts of AI and has found that AI-driven
job displacement will have a relatively
modest influence overall.
The worst-case scenario would only
represent up to 10% of the total natural
job churn over the next 40 years.
“Based on our analysis, there is no obvious
reason why existing labour market
support policies would not be able to
cope,” Mr Reid says.
“It will be more about changes to jobs as
automation alters the tasks within a job
and the skills needed, rather than the
entire job being lost.
“The study found that AI is expected to
generate billions of dollars of economic
growth through labour efficiencies alone
by 2035.
AI and automation will free people up to
focus on more complex, higher-value
tasks in their jobs.”
NZ manufacturing
activity eases in
March
New Zealand's manufacturing
activity eased in March, weighed
on by a slide in the production
index that edged close to
contraction.
The Business NZ-BNZ
performance of manufacturing
index fell to a seasonally adjusted
52.2 in March from 53.3 a month
earlier, remaining above the 50
level separating expansion from
contraction.
Three of the five sub-indexes
declined, with production falling
2.9 points to 50.8, employment
down 1.2 points to 53.5, and new
orders decreasing 0.4 points to
53.8. Finished stocks rose 3.3
points to 53.8 while deliveries
were up 0.5 points to 53.2.
Record number
of women enrol in
engineering
A record number of women have
enrolled to study engineering
at the University of Auckland
with women making up 27% of
first-year students for 2018.
A record number of women have
enrolled to study engineering
at the University of Auckland
with women making up 27% of
first-year students for 2018.
Dean of Engineering Professor Nic
Smith welcomed the increase and
says it was an encouraging sign
that messages to young women
about the range of engineering
career options available to them
are being heard.
“Engineering and technology will
play an increasingly vital role in
all our lives and it is critical we
are training a generation of highly
talented and diverse students to
take advantage of the opportunities
that will provide.”