2009 COMPLETED PROJECTS
University of Otago – Prasan de Silva, Telecom
Prasan de Silva, Enterprise Architect at Telecom, brought twelve years of work experience in the Telecommunications industry to his time as a VIP with the University of Otago.
“Prasan de Silva had previously presented guest lectures at Otago, and we felt these had been very useful for our Applied Science students,” says Dr. Mariusz Nowostawski, lecturer for the Department of Information Science. “We also wanted to work with Prasan on a joint research fund application (FRST), as well as working together with the students from the Telecommunications programme on smaller research projects.”
They split the VIP project into two visits, one in May and one in September. “This worked better for Prasan as he was not able to take a large time off work in one go, and it was also better for us,” Dr. Nowostawski explains. “It allowed us to schedule Prasan’s guest lectures for more courses.”
During the first visit, Prasan presented several undergraduate lectures to the Telecommunications students, hosted a seminar, and participated in a number of meetings about teaching and research.
“Many of the students approached their lecturer after Prasan’s visit and were quite amazed and impressed by the complexities of the current networks and where the industry is heading. The lectures gave the students an excellent industry perspective on the things that are currently going on in the telecommunications world.”
The second visit focused on lectures and discussions with staff and senior students about their research projects. The students expressed how valuable they found it to have an industry perspective on their work.
“The research connection that we now have established with Prasan and Telecom NZ is very valuable to our department,” says Dr. Nowostawski. “Prasan is interested in supervising some postgraduate students, and he is looking at ways to engage Telecom NZ in funding a student research project over the 09/10 summer break.”
University of Canterbury - Dr. Robert Dempster, Intervet/Schering-Plough
Following up on a successful experience with the VIP Scheme in 2008, Dr. Gabriel Visnovsky invited Dr. Robert Dempster from Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health Ltd to support the University of Canterbury’s Department of Chemical and Process Engineering (CAPE).
Dr. Dempster gave five lectures and an open seminar for students and staff, providing examples from his own experience of successful and not-so-successful product development practices in Bioengineering and Bioprocessing.
For example, he talked about the development of a Taenia ovis vaccine for sheep. The lecture was designed to share both the development of the technology as well as the pitfalls of ‘technology push’.
“Although the vaccine was a world-first and technically very successful, it has failed to earn the corporation any return because the market was essentially overlooked,” Dr. Dempster explains. “The clear message was ‘ignore the market at your peril.’ New product development is hard and only one in seven of all new product developments ends in financial success.”
By all accounts, Robert was successful in getting this message across. His lectures incorporated interesting case studies and interactive sections, giving the students the chance to act out roles in the development process.
“Robert presented his ideas with very interesting examples, bringing different background to the teaching,” one student commented. “Attending his lectures was enjoyable.”
Dr. Visnovsky was pleased to be able to host Dr. Dempster for a day longer than the 2008 visit. “It proved to be very important, as it allowed Robert to teach two additional lectures and interact longer with the students.”
Dr. Dempster also supported the Department by reviewing some of the contents of the “Bioprocess Engineering 2” course, holding a staff discussion about the “Stage-GateTM ” process, and helping Dr. Visnovsky to establish links for a cooperative Biotechnology project between CAPE, University of Canterbury, and Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health Ltd in Boxmeer, Holland.
The visit will help Chemical and Process Engineering graduates to learn about Dr. Dempster's area of expertise and be better prepared to compete in the field worldwide.
“Bioengineering and Bioprocessing areas have been growing at a very high rate in the last decade,” Dr. Visnovsky says. “Countries owning the ‘know-how’ on key industrial processes will be in a better position to negotiate commodities in the international market.”
