N E W S - I N D U S T R Y M A T T E R S
Tomu Ozawa (left to right), Jaffar
Al-Shammery Bui and Marcus
Wong
Nothing artificial
about the
intelligence of kiwi
students
Three University of Auckland
students have had their advice
for the New Zealand Government
on artificial intelligence (AI)
published in The New York Times
international edition.
The team of students beat
entries from 23 other universities
to win The New York Times
and Association of Pacific Rim
Universities (APRU) 2018 Case
Competition. The prize - an
excerpt from their essay on AI
published in the global print
edition on October 9, reaching
hundreds of thousands of people
worldwide.
The winning students were from
different disciplines across the
University. They were Marcus
Wong (Commerce, Engineering),
Jaffar Al-Shammery Bui
(Economics, Public Health,
Chinese Language), and Tomu
Ozawa (Computer Science).
“As historical leaders in the
social and environmental fields,
we believe New Zealand is in a
strong position to influence the
conversation around AI,” say the
students.
The competition asked teams to
respond to the rapid evolution of
artificial intelligence by writing a
policy brief ensuring social goals
are built into AI research and
development, that the benefits
of AI are shared equitably, and
mitigating risk.
The students' winning essay
makes direct policy recommendations
to the New Zealand
Government on measures such
as an AI-Score metric to guide
enterprise taxation; a universal
basic income system; and to
facilitate communication streams
between regulators, researchers,
and business.
“We’re stoked to have won this,”
the team says.
The results were announced at an
awards ceremony in Hong Kong.
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10 November 2018
Citycare property supervisor Doug Peek (right) and Wade Peek, from TWP Design in front of the restored Sunnyside fountain.
Sunny outlook for fountain thanks to 3D printing
Innovative 3D printing technology,
alongside archived images from the
1970s, were used to help Citycare restore
Christchurch’s historic Sunnyside
fountain to its former glory.
The fountain was created as a feature
in the hospital grounds more than 150
years ago. It is located in what’s now
the Sunnyside Heritage Garden on Annex
Road - the only remaining part of
the once vast complex of 19th century
buildings and grounds that comprised
Sunnyside Hospital, Christchurch’s
first mental health facility.
Vandalism and the theft of its valuable
brass fittings left the fountain in a state
of demise for nearly 10 years.
Citycare’s property team, led by
Citycare property supervisor Doug
Peek, was charged with repair and restoration
– a challenging task using only
historical images as a guide.
“We didn’t have anything in the way
of an original template or design, just
some grainy photos depicting what the
fountain used to look like,” says Doug.
“It was difficult to re-create the missing
finial and nozzle due to the quality of
the photos and the algae covering what
remained.”
TWP Design, a Christchurch-based
prototype and product development
firm run by Doug’s sons Wade and
Travis Peek, was contacted for its 3D
printing capabilities.
Prototypes of the fountain’s missing
nozzle and ornamental finial were 3D
printed using measurements calculated
from the photos and existing structure.
The prototypes were assessed
for fit and authenticity, before the final
product was manufactured and then
fitted to the fountain.
Citycare maintains and keeps the fountain
clean, as part of its water feature
maintenance contract.
“The rejuvenated fountain has been
met with appreciation with many positive
comments from members of the
community who spoke to the team
whilst renovations were underway,”
says Doug.
“One lady mentioned that she has lived
in the area for about 10 years, and she
had always wanted to see the fountain
restored and running so that she could
sit and enjoy it and the ambience of the
gardens.
“My team and I are thrilled to be part of
its restoration, using innovative technology
to achieve a task that for many
years was left unattended, possibly
due to the challenge it presented.”
Research
urgently
needed to
understand
construction
suicide rate
Further research to uncover what is
fuelling the alarmingly high rate of suicides
in construction will be urgently
undertaken by industry organisations.
Site Safe NZ, in partnership with the
Building Research Association of New
Zealand (BRANZ), announced that they
will be leading a new, in-depth study to
uncover the underlying trends behind
the high number of suicides in the industry.
Site Safe chief executive Brett Murray
says understanding the problem was
the first step to prevention.
“This vital research will help us get the
data we need to understand the bigger
picture. Unlike Australia, where the
high rate of suicide in construction has
been recognised for years, in New Zealand
we are still coming to grips with
the scale of the problem."
The study aims to analyse the coroner’s
findings of all suicides of construction
workers from 2007 until 2017, some
339 cases, to better understand any
common factors.
““Having access to these cases will
give us a real opportunity to take an indepth
look at this issue.
"By undertaking this research, Site Safe
hopes to shed some light on what is
driving poor mental health in construction,
so we can then work alongside industry
and government to put in place
effective prevention programmes.”
The announcement comes after an initial
BRANZ scoping study suggested
that a “macho” or “harden up” culture
was one of the key factors behind high
rates of suicide in construction and
that further research was urgently required.
According to the Suicide Mortality
Review Committee (2016), construction
has the highest suicide rate of all
industries in New Zealand. At 6.9% (or
15.4 deaths of men of working age per
year over the five years analysed), it is
marginally higher than farming and forestry,
which sits at 6.8%.