AUTUMN-WINTER 2007 Academic excellence Antarctic drilling Engineering at Victoria Forty under 40 Italian showcase sheet can be technologically transformed into a Revolutionary new chairs designed and created by a Victoria fluid form, and the response in Europe was equally researcher featured in one of the world’s most prestigious enthusiastic.” furniture shows in Milan earlier this year. The ability to transform two-dimensional sheets into beautiful three-dimensional forms pushes the Senior Lecturer, Tim Miller, from the School of boundaries of existing technology and design, he says. Design, travelled to Italy to showcase his designs in a joint exhibition with David Trubridge at the “I believe that designers need to research and Zona Tortona show during the Milan Furniture adopt new technologies and the use of lasers made Week in April. About 60,000 visitors attended me wonder whether it would be possible to create and almost 200 companies exhibited their latest new shapes out of single sheets of material without collections. having to join pieces together. The designs could be used in homes and office foyers while the stackable Tim’s CUTform designs, supported and patented version would be ideal in conference venues.” by the University’s commercialisation company, Victoria Link Ltd, use state-of-the-art laser Tim says the trip aimed to bring the designs to technology to make a unique series of perforated the attention of a company that would take out cuts that ingeniously transform flat sheets of a licence and manufacture them internationally. material into fluid three-dimensional forms. “Being at the show in Milan was an amazing The products are the result of a four-year research experience with such amazing designs and talent project at the University that has explored and on show. I made lots of contacts and I’m now extended the limits between material, digital following up on several promising leads.” technologies and manufacturing processes. Three CUTform products were exhibited at Tim says the Milan Furniture Fair is the most Milan: STRETCHout, a lounge seat created from important international show and has been for a simple rectangular semi-rigid polypropylene several decades. sheet of plastic perforated and expanded into a fluid form that ergonomically conforms to the Contact “It is the place where the top companies and the body; DRAWin, a chair version of the lounge [email protected] top designers exhibit their work. Designers we’ve seat that can be made either in stackable or +64-4-463 6266 shown the prototypes to in New Zealand have non-stackable versions; and a stool called PULLup. been gob-smacked by the unbelievable way a flat CONTENTS Education Review Research & Innovation 2 An exciting and diverse wealth of research From the Vice-Chancellor by staff and students. The death in February of Victoria alumnus, Professor Alan MacDiarmid, was a great loss to New Zealand and the international science community. He made a Politics & Policy 8 major contribution to science and education and was Politics and policy decisions in the tertiary an active supporter of the MacDiarmid Institute for sector and how Victoria is responding to them. Advanced Materials & Nanotechnology at Victoria, which was named after him. Alan never forgot his New Zealand roots and was preparing to travel to Learning @ Vic 9 Wellington to speak at a conference when he died. Showcasing the quality of learning and teaching at Victoria. Alan graduated from Victoria with first-class honours in 1951, before winning a Fulbright Fellowship and completing a PhD at the University of Wisconsin- Gifting Madison in 1953. He received another PhD from the Donations of funding, resources and time 13 University of Cambridge in 1955. He was awarded from those who support the University. the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000 for the discovery and development of conductive polymers, unique ‘plastic’ materials that can conduct electricity. Alumni News He received an honorary Doctor of Science degree What our graduates and members of the 15 from Victoria in 1999 and was made a Member of University community have been up to. the Order of New Zealand in 2001. Alan’s passing highlights the significance of research in universities and how it can change our lives and Graduation understanding of the world we live in. Victoria has The University community came together 18 recently established a $2.7 million geochemistry in May to celebrate graduation success. laboratory in the School of Geography, Environment & Earth Sciences, and it is being used to better understand the origins of the solar system, Town & Gown New Zealand’s super volcanoes and the prehistoric The best of both worlds—Victoria meets the 20 climate of New Zealand and Antarctica. The Tertiary community for activities, performances and Education Commission has also released the latest the sharing of expertise. evaluation under the Performance-Based Research Fund and I will update alumni on the outcome in the next Victorious. This investment and others Victoria is making in research and teaching is reflected in demand from students to study here. While international enrolments Victorious is published three times a year by Victoria University - have, as expected, dropped, this has been outweighed of Wellington, Te Whare Wa-nanga o te Upoko o te Ika a Ma-ui, by an exceptional rise in domestic students, compared PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand. www.victoria.ac.nz with almost all other universities. Clearly, New Zealand students are increasingly seeing Victoria and Wellington To notify a change of address: Register for Life After Vic at as the destination of choice for tertiary study in a www.victoria.ac.nz/alumni or email: [email protected] or student-friendly city. call +64-4-463 6700. Editorial team: Antony Paltridge, Gillian Boyes, Alison Kee, Shaun McGirr, Matthew Reweti-Gould, Lucy Smith, Sue Sumpter. Photographs (unless otherwise credited): Image Services, Victoria University of Wellington. Cover Image: Dr Adele Whyte, pictured on Victoria’s Te Herenga Waka Pat Walsh Marae, won a National Ma-ori Academic Excellence Award in March. Vice-Chancellor ISSN 1172-0387 © Victoria University, 2007 1 Research & Innovation Victoria’s academic staff are leaders in their fields of research expertise. If you have a project that requires the skills and knowledge of our staff, contact Professor Charles Daugherty. E-mail: [email protected] Tel: +64-4-463 5572. Making life easier Signing up for tutorials and workshops in large courses can be a torturous and frustrating business for both students and staff. But the development by two Victoria staff of S-Cubed, a web-based student sign-up system, is taking the strain out of registration. The system, created by William Stenger and Dion Peszynski, from the School of Information Management, was initially used in the School, before being adopted by the Faculty of Commerce & Administration and rolled out across the University. William says the University had been looking to develop a computer-based sign-up system for many years. “The old way, with pieces of paper stuck on the wall, was open to lots of error. People crowded round the boards, names got crossed out and tutors had to manually enter all the information. This way is quicker, easier and very straightforward.” Pacific genes Dion says the feedback has been very positive. “It’s user-friendly The unethical methods used by bio-tech companies and has lots of useful features. Students like it because they can to obtain the genetic material of Pacific peoples have enrol online and can see if a course is full and be wait-listed if it is. Tutors like it because it gives them instant registration and a record been revealed in a new book, Pacific Genes and Life of who’s doing what. Student numbers are rising all the time and Patents, co-edited by a Victoria researcher. the old system was simply not coping.” Aroha Mead, Senior Lecturer in Ma-ori Business in the Victoria The computer programme was entirely designed and developed Management School, says she has been concerned with the issue by William and Dion, both former students of Victoria, and it took of the intellectual property of indigenous people for more than them just four weeks to implement. Their work has won them a 20 years. The book brings together examples of how “drug Victoria University General Staff Award for Excellence. companies have used the Pacific as a laboratory,” she says. William says S-Cubed is going from strength to strength. “Sixty-six Case studies in the book, published by Call of the Earth Llamado courses are now using our system and we’ve recorded 25,000 student de la Tierra and the United Nations University Institute of sign-ups. Training is available to anyone who wants it, and we’re Advanced Studies, reveal how Cook Islanders nearly became here if they encounter any big problems. S-Cubed just helps part of an experiment to transplant pig cells into living humans everyone to get on with their courses instead of wasting time as a treatment for diabetes. chasing pieces of paper.” Contact Another story shows how the DNA of a tribe in Papua New Guinea [email protected] or can be bought on the internet for US$216. The individuals and the [email protected] communities concerned were unaware that their genetic material William (left) and Dion +64-4-463 5881 had been patented. check out S-Cubed Aroha sees patents as a major part of the problem: “Patents are not a tool of humanitarian research. They are a tool of commerce and exclusive property rights and serve to give signals to others —stay away, they’re mine, I own them.” She hopes the book will raise awareness of the issues and of the sensitivities involved.