re
:
think
Spring 2014
12
Designing new
apps over summer
FROM
landscape
design to developing
apps, Jemma Konig
(pictured) has taken
a leap in her learning
thanks to a Summer
Research Scholarship
at the University
of Waikato.
Jemma
had
previously studied
and worked as a landscape designer, but
found she liked the technology design side
of her work more than the landscaping
side. She enrolled at Waikato where she
is now in the third year of a Bachelor of
Computing and Mathematical Sciences,
majoring in Computer Science.
The former Rotorua Girls’ High School
student says she applied for a Summer
Research Scholarship as she wanted
work either as a software intern or on
a software project over the 2013-2014
summer period.
The purpose of the project was to
extend the use of FLAX language learning
activities to mobile Android devices, with
the possibility of iOS development in
the future.
FLAX (flexible language acquisition)
is open source software that has been
developed at the University of Waikato and
is used as a tool for teaching and learning a
second language.
The language learning activities had
already been designed and existed on
large-screen web-connected devices but
Jemma’s job was to modify the design to
suit small-screen devices.
During the summer, Jemma developed
a shared Android library application,
which makes it faster and easier for
other developers to build other activity
applications, an activity template that can
be used to base future applications on, and
two FLAX activity applications (Collocation
Dominoes and Collocation Matching).
“I hadn’t had any experience with
this magnitude of existing code before so
it really built my knowledge of how it all
works in the real world.”
The two apps are published on Google
Play for free download and use. “One has
had 500 plus downloads, the other 100
plus and I was really pleased to see this
as I never expected them to get this many
downloads,” says Jemma.
Having completed a paper based
around Android development in 2013,
Jemma believes this helped in her selection
for the project, which she worked on under
the supervision of Computer Science
Professor Ian Witten.
Summer
Research
Scholarships
are open to students enrolled at any
New Zealand or Australian university,
and provide undergraduate, final-year
honours and first-year masters degree
students the opportunity to experience
the challenges and rewards of research. The
$5000 scholarships are offered in various
disciplines for a 10-week full-time research
project over the summer study break.
THE ROTORUA District Council has agreed to
stop spraying the city’s treated wastewater in
theWhakarewarewa Forest by the end of 2019.
Working with district and regional councils
and local iwi, University of Waikato scientists
have been helping assess a range of options for
restoring and protecting water quality, including
how to treat and dispose of the city’s wastewater
post 2019.
Spray irrigation of treated wastewater began
in 1991 when the council stopped pumping the
city’s treated wastewater directly into Lake
Rotorua. The aim of this land-based treatment
was to reduce nutrient loads to the lake and
improve water quality.
This was highly effective at first, but
while the forest is still effective at absorbing
phosphorus from the wastewater, 70% of the
nitrogen now leaches back into Lake Rotorua via
Puarenga Stream. In addition, some parts of the
irrigated forest receive more water than is ideal
for tree growth and the groundwater underneath
the irrigated area has become enriched with
nitrogen.
Waikato’s Professor David Hamilton and
Chris McBride have been modelling nutrient
sources to the lake. “We have three main
ways of reducing impacts on the lake,” says
Professor Hamilton.
“These are to reduce what goes into the
treatment plant, increase the level of treatment
in the plant, and to have an effective way to
reduce nutrients where the treated wastewater
enters the environment. The standard of
treatment has to be consistent with reducing
nitrogen from all sources currently reaching the
lake, from 700 to 435 tonnes per year – the total
sustainable load.”
Mr McBride has been evaluating a wide
range of treatment and disposal options. “The
council could, for example, use additional
treatment processes at the treatment plant
itself, use a wetland or install another land
treatment system”. He says if the wastewater is
sufficiently well treated, it could go back directly
into the lake.
Other potentially more novel approaches
are under consideration such as reinjection to
deep groundwater aquifers.
“There are pros and cons for every
option and they have to be assessed from
all angles, including capital and operating
costs, engineering feasibility, environmental
outcomes, community and cultural aspects,
and overall long-term sustainability,” says
Mr McBride. One of the reasons the amount
of wastewater has increased is that some
communities located around other lakes have
already replaced septic tanks with reticulation.
The wastewater is then pumped to Rotorua
city’s treatment plant.
Professor Hamilton and Mr McBride are
also working with the Technical Advisory Group
for the Rotoma and Rotoiti Sewerage Steering
Committee, assessing wastewater options for
the communities around these two lakes.
The government is helping to fund this $23-
$38 million project (depending on options taken)
through subsidies from the Ministry of Health
and the Ministry for the Environment. District
and regional councils are also contributing to
offset the costs for residents.
Mr McBride has contributed to the
assessment of options that would protect these
lakes. “Clusters of houses may have their own
small treatment systems and disposal fields, or
traditional reticulation and piping may be used
with a centralised treatment plant for one or
both lakes”.
“It’s our job to provide advice to the
Technical Advisory Group and the Committee on
the different approaches, again taking all aspects
into consideration”.
Which clean-up option to choose?
Designer shows his stuff
IN A white beanie and black top, with an impish smile
and a friendly word for everyone, it would be easy to
mistake Keith Soo for a student.
You imagine he’d be the sort of bloke you’d run into
out on the town, rather than in a lecture theatre.
But Mr Soo is no stranger to lecture theatres in his
job at the University of Waikato as a senior lecturer in
computer graphic design. And while he’s been on staff
for nearly 10 years, it’s likely he’s more well-known
overseas, where he’s a highly regarded, award-winning
interactive graphic designer.
In 2009 he won the annual Shanghai Science
and Art competition, beating designers from a
dozen other countries with his 3D colour, sound and
movement installation.
That led to him taking 18 months off from the
university to be involved in several projects for the
mammoth Shanghai World Expo in 2010, where he
designed a wide range of work for the Brazil, Monaco
and Liverpool pavilions.
Mr Soo returned to the University of Waikato
in 2011 and in 2012 won a Faculty Teaching
Excellence Award.
Last year he took part in the Institute of Electrical
and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Visual Arts Programme
Art + Experiment with his work
VICISS,
an interactive
mirror than turns a user’s image and movements into
melodic patterns.
He’s originally from Singapore and studied at
the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts – the oldest such
institution in South East Asia – before heading to the
Whanganui School of Design, where he completed a
Bachelor of Computer Graphic Design, specialising in
interactive design.
He later completed his honours at the same
institute before completing his masters in a conjoint
programme between Whanganui School of Design
and the University of Waikato. Mr Soo says he always
wanted to be an artist, initially a sculptor, and he enjoys
both his work at the university and the international
assignments he is involved with.
“The more people you work with internationally is
good and being exposed to their work is amazing”.
He says students often ask what it takes to be a
successful graphic designer and Soo says the answer is
simple: “you must be passionate”.
“Being a graphic designer is a niche career but you
can go in so many directions. You have to be passionate
and you have to want it”.
“It’s more about curiosity and passion that anything
else. Everyone is different so I always encourage students
to believe in themselves.”
TEACHING
DESIGN: Keith
Soo (right)
excellent teacher,
international
exhibitor.
WHAKAREWAREWA FOREST: No longer a
perferred site for Rotorua's wastewater.
