COMPLETED PROJECTS

Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology – Ian Williamson, BCL Ltd

Paul Wilson

BCL communications consultant Ian Williamson spent three weeks working with staff and students at CPIT in late 2004. As a specialist in radio communications his expertise was used for guest lectures, moderating marking, helping students with research projects and advising on curriculum content.

The relationship has already provided many benefits for both staff and students, according to Paul Wilson, Dean of Design and Engineering.

“Ian helped us with curriculum content, making sure it is up to date and relevant. Already we’ve made some minor changes for 2005. It’s also given our students real-world experience, helping to reinforce the tutoring and instruction they’re receiving. It puts what they’re learning into the context of what’s actually happening in private industry.”

For his part, Ian says the VIP scheme was a fulfilling project to be involved with.

“I just loved it; I’ve always enjoyed teaching so this was a great opportunity. I’ve been around a bit and worked on a lot of different projects, so I think it was very educative for the students and tutors to have real-world scenarios. I’d love to do it again.”

The only negative aspect Ian mentioned was the tight timetable.

“The timing was tight – a bit too close to the end of the year, so we were limited in terms of topic selection. Some things in the syllabus they just had to teach, they had no choice because they were running out of time. Earlier in the year would have been better.”

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University of Canterbury (Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering) – Dr Ian McLoughlin, Tait Group Research

Canterbury University has been investigating the possibility of creating a degree in software engineering, and to this end Dr Ian McLoughlin was approached to help with preparing a business case.

Dr McLoughlin is the Principal Engineer in Tait Group Research, and has worked as a lecturer at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore amongst other roles.

Preparation of the business case involved looking at the demand from students and employers, and consulting widely with other academics, industry groups (such IPENZ) and the wider community.

“I think it went very well overall,” says Dr McLoughlin. “We met all the University’s objectives, and everything they required. Apart from just the business plan, the experience has helped create closer links between the University and Taits, and with Auckland University. I hope to maintain these links, which should be beneficial for all the parties involved.”

Dr Tim Bell, Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering is also very positive about the work undertaken.

“It was fantastic, Ian did a great job. The report was more thorough and useful than we could have done ourselves, partly because of his background, and also the time pressure on us. Ian’s contacts and his direct experience in his own company were very valuable. He came up with very useful statistics and spotted things for us to watch out for.

“The proposal to introduce this new course hasn’t been confirmed yet, but I’m confident we now have a compelling case.”

Dr Bell says balancing the busy timetable was a challenge, while for Dr McLoughlin keeping up with his demanding work at Taits was the biggest challenge.

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Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology ( School of Languages and Communication) – Patrick Hofmann, Visual information and design specialist

Patrick Hoffman spent 10 days in Christchurch last December working with design students at CPIT.

“My role was to evaluate and redesign the post-graduate Information Design course curriculum at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute, as well as teach a series of seminars on visual information design at CPIT. As a bonus, I also designed some branding/marketing materials for the new course,” says Patrick.

“The preparation involved evaluating the current course curriculum, assignments, and reading materials, and determining new learning outcomes, areas of study, and course content that better reflect the objectives and scenarios of today's businesses and industries.

“It went superbly well. It helped me narrow my focus as a visual information designer and teacher, and helped CPIT rejuvenate a course curriculum that hadn't been updated in years.

“I wish I had the opportunity to spend more time on the work, and perhaps to discuss the impacts or new initiatives that could result from the work... it was a shame to ‘end’ it in a sense. Luckily, however, my ongoing communications with CPIT continue to this day; it's a marvelous relationship.”

The involvement has already had a substantial impact on CPIT and its students according to Patrick.

“The newly revamped course is already well underway this autumn-winter semester. We are closely observing how students are learning the content and performing their assignments. And we are already discussing helpful improvements and ideas for next semester. Just fabulous.”

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Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) – Mike Lunnon, Civil Engineer

Mike Lunnon, a civil engineer with 25 years of experience working on major projects around the world, was the VIP scheme representative at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Napier.

The visit was hosted by David Skelton, Senior Lecturer in Information Technology, who coordinated involvement in the Faculty of Business and Computing. Mike divided his contribution into three key areas: teaching, case study and staff development, and research.

The teaching portion of Mike's involvement was shared between various second and third year courses. Five lectures were presented, covering were the principles of good project management; examples and analysis of real projects that were both successful or which had failed in some way; and the ways in which information is researched and used in a professional engineering business.

Mike found this part of his visit fascinating as it gave him a chance to look back at projects that he had been involved in from a fresh and critical perspective. "It is something we don't normally make enough time for as we tend to move straight onto starting the next project."

As well as lecturing students, Mike also prepared a case study assignment for project management students. This was particularly relevant to Hawke's Bay as it consisted of the initiation and development of a winery complex and was based on similar real life projects that he had been involved in.

In the business research field, Mike was able to utilize his winery and consulting engineering background to help staff develop a framework to evaluate winery websites.

“Overall, the VIP experience was very rewarding. Mike believed that his involvement gave students and staff a good indication of the relevance of current course material, as well as a chance to experience real life private and public sector project content and structure.”

“The only thing we would do differently is to get more lecturers involved to integrate real-world / academic programmes for the VIP. Possibly the VIP may benefit from a bit of prep for classroom/speaking delivery. However, the scheme worked well for our Faculty.

“The scheme certainly highlighted the $$ value of other guest speakers that we get in from time to time.”

“I think it all went pretty well,” says Mike. “The students were all attentive and receptive to the subjects being presented. The lecturers all seemed to think that the presentations met their expectations.”

However the preparation involved was the biggest challenge, and surprise, for Mike.

“It involved flipping through existing course material to see if there were any relevant topics / sections to base my presentations on; preparing 50 minute power point presentations; and assembling relevant case study costs and execution durations for the case study preparation and development.

“Not being familiar with the actual student course material resulted in me having to do a lot of background work to try and determine exactly how and at what level to pitch the presentations. This proved to be awfully time consuming and probably resulted in my involvement not being financially viable at the end of the day.

“This probably resulted from the fact that each presentation was started from scratch and was not simply based on pre-prepared course material.  Also, I was not in the daily / weekly routine of making regular presentations to students and was probably a bit rusty in this area.”

“The highlights for me were the memories that were revived of projects long completed and being able to pass on some of the pain and suffering of the not so good projects and the satisfaction and fulfillment of the ones that went well. It also gave me some opportunity to review many of the projects that I had been involved in from a critical point of view and from a fresh perspective.”

“At the end of the day the students and lecturers found that their course material is relevant to many real life situations and I think that the students enjoyed having a glimpse of real projects and the way that they actually develop and work.”

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Massey University ( Institute of Technology and Engineering) – Chris Chitty, Robotechnology Ltd

Chris has been lecturing at Massey University to Bachelor of Engineering (Mechatronics) students. The main topic has been “ Robotics and Intelligent Machines in Entertainment in New Zealand - Applications, Design, Development and Case Studies.”

Chris also met a number of academic staff members in Mechatronics and Product Development at the Albany/Auckland campus, discussing various research issues of individual interests, and a separate formal meeting was held to discuss options for further collaboration.

“Initially I had a couple of meetings with Peter to find out what he wanted, and what the students wanted. It involved a lot of preparation, I prepared a few DVDs of case studies and gave a lot of background info to Peter.

“Basically I gave three presentations to students and had several discussions with staff. The first two were at Massey’s Albany campus where I brought along some videos of the work we’ve done over 15 years in robotics and manufacturing. I showed them some of the things you can do in robotics, some of our work on medical technology and robotics for movies.

“For the second session I took the class through a whole project from start to finish, starting with the concept, initial design, usability and the overall view, not just the mechanics and engineering side of it. I talked them through the manufacturing process, showing them drawings, schedules, all the things you need to be aware of.

“We discussed the student projects, and we had quite long Q & A sessions after every presentation. The first lot of students were interested in how to choose components, and source them. I explained to them the processes you go through, and how you have to constantly redesign what you’re working on.

“Up at Massey I think the students were a little overwhelmed at first, there were a few glazed eyes. It took them a while to get into it, but by the second session they had lots of questions.

“My approach was to ask them what they wanted to know, because that’s how I make my living – solving problems for people.

“My third session was in Palmerston North with fourth year students and post-grads, so I was able to go into a lot more detail. They had a lot of questions and we spent a lot of time chewing the fat."

“I thought it went well actually, it was good for me to do something very different. It was satisfying to see the students starting to twig by the end of the second session.

“I think it probably will make a difference to the university, and students. I’ve already contacted the engineering people at Massey’s Wellington campus and offered to help out where I can with guest lectures and examples of work.

“From my point of view, the higher the level of people graduating from university the better. The more skills and the more focused they are the better.”

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Massey University (Institute of Technology and Engineering) – Stephen Drew, Demand Response Ltd

In 2001 Stephen Drew started his company Demand Response Ltd, providing services to electricity and industrial companies. The company’s products use cutting-edge software to help companies monitor their electricity, fuel and water costs.

Throughout 2005 Stephen worked with Massey University’s Institute of Technology & Engineering, delivering a lecture on "energy cost reduction in industry - skills for the future". He also lectured students and presented a paper to a postgraduate energy conference.

Professor Don Cleland says he wanted Stephen because of his industrial experience and good communication skills.

“Overall it went very well. It has given the students practical validation of the relevance of the course taught by university staff, and will help improve the quality of teaching programmes.

“We’ve had positive feedback from undergraduates due to this industry insight.”