Items filtered by date: Tuesday, 02 December 2014

Bay of Islands Airport in Kerikeri's terminal upgrade will get $1.7 million of funding from the provincial growth fund, regional economic development minister Shane Jones has announced

The University of Canterbury Eco-marathon team is again coming home from Singapore triumphant, after beating more than 100 teams from 21 countries at the Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2018 event.

The student team has won this year’s Technical Innovation award, an off-track prize which includes a trophy and US$3000, in UC’s second Eco-marathon competition entry after competing in the international event for the first time last year at Changi race track.

The judges said the UC team “was awarded the Technical Innovation Award for the self-designed 3D-printed titanium engine in their UrbanConcept car, which makes for a stronger engine with finer, more intricate details”. The student team, which meshed the use of 3D-printing with the traditional machine, was lauded for “taking a holistic approach to designing and printing the complete engine in a way that is not only optimised for efficient production of the printed parts, but also for optimised engine fuel efficiency”.

Faculty advisor to the UC Eco-marathon students, Bruce Robertson says the team has done extraordinarily well in the second year of competing in the Eco-marathon contest and has left its mark on a global stage.

“The 3D-printed titanium engine has been met with so much interest that our voices were failing from having to talk to people about it so much,” Mr Robertson says.

“When competing internationally, it always strikes me that we must be doing a particularly good job of educating engineers at UC. As one delightful elderly Pakistani man said to me yesterday, ‘after a lifetime of watching the Kiwis on the cricket field, I had no idea you could be so clever!’

“We are honoured to have such generous support from our external partners including Shell NZ, Singapore Airlines Cargo, and Rodin Cars. Without their support, the world might have one fewer glimpse of what Kiwis can do.”

Last year the UC team won the Eco-marathon Design award for: “producing a car that brought fresh thinking about recyclability to the competition. By entering a car largely made of a common thermoplastic, the team showed a refreshing and holistic approach to design – it chose a material that was easy to work with, light, low-cost, and easy to re-use”.

| A UC release  || March 16, 2018   |||

Women make up just over half of New Zealand's population, yet currently they comprise just 17 per cent of the nation's construction industry.  Recently Jenny Parker, the President of the National Association of Women in Construction in New Zealand (NAWIC), visited the Ara Institute of Canterbury's Woolston campus to speak to women trades students and discuss this imbalance of women in trades.

Mar 16, 2018  -  The owners of a South Island dairy manufacturer plan to list their company on the Australian Securities Exchange, raising as much as A$20 million to expand.

Airpoints™ members are showing their generosity towards this year’s Air New Zealand Airpoints for Schools programme, with four schools already meeting their donation targets to take off on some unforgettable journeys.

Mar 16, 2018  - A joint venture company has been created to breed and develop new unique berry varieties to be marketed exclusively by Māori-owned firm Miro Limited Partnership (Miro).

Mar 16, 2018 -   Allbirds, the merino wool shoe company co-founded by former New Zealand football star Tim Brown, is adding wood fibre to the range of materials it uses for a new range of sneakers, at a time when wool prices have climbed 50 percent.

Engineering New Zealand today welcomes Dean Kimpton as the new President, three new Board members – Colin Crampton, Tim Fisher and Sina Cotter-Tait – and one re-elected Board member, Geoffrey Farquhar.

Mr Kimpton is Auckland Council’s Chief Operating Officer and a passionate advocate for engineers, who he says have a critical role to play on issues that matter to New Zealand.

“I am thrilled to take up the role as President of Engineering New Zealand, an organisation that not only supports engineers but sees them as part of the bedrock of our nation’s development. Engineers are vital to the work being done to manage the country’s growing pains and issues such as seismic resilience, climate change and urbanisation.”

Mr Kimpton is also Chair of QuakeCoRE, a Board member of Infrastructure New Zealand and a member of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Building Advisory Panel. He was previously Managing Director of engineering consultancy AECOM NZ.

He takes over the presidency from Craig Price, who oversaw a period of immense change for the organisation, as it rebranded itself from IPENZ to Engineering New Zealand. Mr Price played an integral role in the design of the new membership structure to be more relevant and inclusive for all engineers.

“As we continue to explore new ways to grow and support engineers across the country, I’m confident in Dean’s ability to navigate the challenges facing our industry and take the organisation to the next level,” said Mr Price.

Also announced today was the new Vice President, Colin Crampton, who was appointed unopposed. Tim Fisher, former Auckland Branch Chair, and Geoffrey Farquhar, who returns for his third term, were voted in by members from a record-breaking 27 nominees. The Board has also appointed Sina Cotter-Tait onto the Board for a two-year term. She was the third-highest polling candidate.

“With Elena Trout retiring this year, we believe it is important to maintain diversity of thought on the Board. Sina’s experience in engineering, governance and SMEs as well as her gender and cultural heritage will be immensely valuable to the Board as we continue to strengthen Engineering New Zealand’s voice and influence,” said Mr Price.

Engineering New Zealand has grown by more than 1,000 members in the past year, and now has 21,000 members across all fields of engineering.

| An EngineeringNZ release   ||  March 16, 2018   |||

Construction of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture's Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia, which is expected to become the world's tallest building, is back on track after delays. According to local paper Times of Oman, the project had experienced delays, but construction is now progressing.

Sometimes, to move forward, you have to go back to the basics—sometimes way back. SpinLaunch, a startup spaceflight development company, raised $30 million to fund a catapult system—not a flaming ball to capture the castle catapult system, but rather technology to launch cargo into space more cost-effectively.