Feb 15, 2018  -  Distinguished Professor Mike Steel has been elected as a distinguished Fellow of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB). Dist Prof Steel’s main research focus is phylogenetics, which uses mathematics to come up with better ways of reconstructing evolutionary relationships between species based on genetic data. His research interests are applications of discrete mathematics (combinatorics, graph theory) and probability theory to contemporary problems in biology. Dist Prof Steel’s citation is for “outstanding contributions to mathematical and computational phylogenetics, and for service to the academic evolutionary biology research community." The ISCB is a large international body that…

Feb 15, 2018  -  More than 500 tech people are gathering at the international Digital Nations Summit in Auckland on Monday to share ideas and thoughts about what sort of country New Zealand will be like in 2030 and the role technology will play, NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says. Close to 200 international tech specialists and experts from some of the world’s leading digital nations will outline what they are doing well at the summit. “Countries like Estonia, who have developed digital citizenship and world-leading citizen access to their own data, will be attending. Other countries bringing their state…

Feb 13, 2018  -  Siemens Postal, Parcel & Airport Logistics (SPPAL) has equipped New Zealand Post’s largest mail sorting centers with its new Open Mail Handling Systems (OMS) for flats sorting.

Feb 13, 2018  - New technology from a student-led research project at Victoria University of Wellington looks set to revolutionise the way geotechnical engineers monitor and predict landslides, potentially helping to save countless lives and cut costs. Engineering and Computer Science student Jonathan Olds was looking for a research project for his Master’s and his supervisor, Professor of Network Engineering in the School of Engineering and Computer Science Winston Seah, suggested developing and testing an automated solution for the long-term monitoring of landslides. The result of that research is AccuMM, which Jonathan validated with a pilot installation in Taiwan. image004.png“The…

Feb 13, 2018  -  Some of the world’s leading tech experts, including tech Ministers from other countries, will attend a coding session with a bunch of young New Zealand’s school children at the Young Coders Showcase during the international Digital Nations tech summit in Auckland next week. International and New Zealand tech leaders, social innovators, future thinkers and maybe even the Prime Minister will get a coding lesson from students at sessions from New Zealand's leading initiatives to get kids involved with coding – Code Club Aotearoa, Code Avengers and OMG Tech. The February 19 and 20 summit – organised…

Feb 12, 2018  -  University of Canterbury (UC) Physics Professor Simon Brown is developing a neuromorphic computer chip that may solve one of the biggest problems in the computer industry – power consumption – and create a New Zealand semiconductor industry.

Feb 12, 2018  - Will robots really steal our jobs?  According to PWC, New Zealand is “among the most prepared countries for the coming waves of automation,” not through any initiatives to plan for robotisation, but simply because it has a very high percentage of the workforce in jobs that will not easily be taken over by robots, writes Stuart Cornor ComputerWorld. The findings come from a new global PWC report “Will robots really steal our jobs?” It found New Zealand had the sixth-lowest share of jobs that are at high risk of automation. “New Zealand is part of a…

Feb 2, 2018  -  On the evening of Jan. 31, 1958, the United States orbited its first satellite -- Explorer 1. The effort was part of the nation's participation in the International Geophysical Year (IGY), a peaceful scientific endeavor. It also marked America's first step in the Space Race of the Cold War.

According to Statista, there were 453 million connected wearable devices worldwide in 2018, a figure that is predicted to increase to 593 million this year. While, unsurprisingly, the market is currently dominated by smart watches, you may be surprised at the benefits wearables can bring to a manufacturing facility. Here, Jonathan Wilkins, marketing director of obsolete equipment specialist, EU Automation explains how wearables could transform your factory.

Jan 30, 2018  -  The latest investment offering for inspection industry disruptor Invert Robotics has closed after attracting considerable interest from a number of high net worth and institutional investors from across Australia and New Zealand. Invert Robotics provides non-destructive inspection services using state of the art mobile climbing robots. Invert Robotics’ climbing robots enable precise and accurate remote inspection of non-ferromagnetic surfaces such as stainless steel, carbon fibre, aluminium and glass. Invert Robotics’s patented robots are installed with high definition cameras and sensor technology to allow for equipment to be assessed for maintenance and for preventative analysis on a…

Jan 29, 2018  -  Heading a list of innovations unveiled by 3D Systems for 2018 is the industry’s first scalable, fully integrated production platform for plastic and metal parts, providing manufacturers true factory solutions for durable, repeatable end-use parts. The company’s new Figure 4 modular, scalable platform produces small, plastic parts with up to 15x throughput improvements versus competitive offerings, and up to 20% lower part cost than current manufacturing processes. 3D Systems also unveiled a next-generation additive metal platform for high productivity factory production of metal parts, including seamless large parts and the largest diameter parts available in the…