紐西蘭

My project ‘Avert’ (To avert and vertebrae combined) involves research into posture related back problems and a solution to help prevent back pain by maintaining correct posture. My solution is a chain-like structure fitted with 24 sensors that is sewn into a Skins compression top. When worn the chain is aligned with the user’s spine from the lower back to the base of the neck and moulds to the spine as it moves. As everybody’s back is slightly different it is important that the device can recognise the difference between what may be bad posture for one person, yet relatively normal for another. To solve this the device takes an initial reading of the user’s spine in correct posture and saves it as a reference measurement. Bad posture is defined by the device as angles that exceed the natural movement of individual vertebrae and their platelets. While in use the 24 sensors are continually measuring the shape of the user’s spine and comparing it with the original reference measurement taken earlier. If any measurement links to unhealthy posture a light will flash and an alarm will sound either aloud or through headphones until the posture is corrected. This device can be worn during light activity and non contact sports to encourage the user to maintain correct and healthy posture. The device can also record and save poor posture measurements that can be uploaded later to a software program I designed to draw the shape of the spine as a vector diagram. The device can also be plugged directly into a computer so that the user can see the shape of their spine as it moves in real time. I, along with others, tested my solution with many activities and found Avert to be a beneficial and reliable product as it successfully detects slouching and many potentially problematic spine shapes. Throughout my research I gained a thorough understanding about the potential damage bad posture can cause and the endless number of activities it occurs in. With further development I feel there is a huge potential for Avert to become a marketable product used not only for posture correction in everyday activity, but for many other purposes such as physiotherapy, biomechanics and athletic performance. Many people have approached me with praise and requests for the Avert system which is extremely exciting and also rewarding to know that my research has the potential to help people.

Nikhil’s technology studies main client told him how she had no idea about how to\r stop her children looking at all sorts of website and asked him for a solution to a\r problem he initially thought was impossible to crack. Nikhil has definitely ‘cracked’\r this one: with a dedicated website his clients can log into and monitor what is going on in any computer the little box of electronic tricks is plugged into from anywhere in the\r world. This unit controls the electronics and stores the history of the web pages that the user has visited. Not only that, the client can cut the internet (and re-connect it) to the remote computer at will. At the heart of Nikhil’s box of tricks is a web-server module (The Wiznet) and a powerful microcontroller, the AtMega32. Nikhil has designed the\r board, connected the electronics and written the code to allow it to communicate with\r the computer and remote client.

The Online Course Management system was developed in 2012 by George Moon to address the issue of creating course books at Burnside High School in Christchurch, New Zealand. The course books are designed to inform students, staff and parents of the many courses that are available for students to choose for their next year of study. In the past, the system that the school used consisted of large amounts of paperwork and duplication. Not only did this system require a lot of effort from staff, but the course book cost the school thousands of dollars to produce, as it had to be sent off to be published into a large book that would be read by students for a week, then likely thrown out. This year the school decided to digitise the course book, so that students would look at their courses online. Earlier this year, the school believed that the new School Management System (SMS) ‘KAMAR’ would be able to handle all of the necessary information, however this was not the case. Because of this, they needed a simple solution that would collate all of the course data, and then output it as a course book. I developed my project to do this. It is a web based program that is accessible by staff on their computers which enables them to enter in all of the course and assessment data for their departments. As it is all securely stored on a central database, it reduces duplication and staff workload, as well as the added environmental bonus of less paper being used. The program also outputs data in a number of ways including as a coursebook PDF (digital document which can be uploaded or printed), an Excel spreadsheet and a webpage for easy viewing. It can be sorted or printed by different categories (such as level, faculty, department), which proved to be a very useful feature. Following some research on areas such as design principles, browser compatibility and screen resolution (computer screen size), the program was designed to make best use of this this information. For example, most of the computers that staff would access the website on were of a similar size screen, so I made sure that my website worked well for them. I also used my research on design principles to try and create a simple, clean interface that users with limited computer skills would easily be able to navigate around. The outcome was real, as it was used by the school to generate their coursebook this year. Following a 95% student completion rate of course selection many months earlier than previous years, the system (although it had some issues) was pronounced a success, and the school is looking to use it in the years to come. There are a number of steps I am looking to take in the future with this program including the potential sale to other schools, so they can take advantage of the features it has to offer.

Reflex charging, or burp charge, is a prove method of effectively charging secondary\r batteries under extremely high current. It is commonly used in military and aerospace\r applications where short recharge time and long cell life are essential. Eric C. Darcy, a NASA\r chemical engineer, in his 1998 PhD thesis, ‘Investigation of the response of Ni-MH cells to\r burp charging’, outlined some of the most important theories behind this seemingly\r miraculous technique. However, due to the technical limitations of his equipment, Darcy was\r unable to determine the effects of varied reflex charging frequencies. This research overcame\r this problem by using a purposed built multi-frequency programmable reflex charger\r (PRESTO ALPHA I), and aimed to optimize chemical energy storage by searching for an\r optimum charging frequency.

Farmers in many countries are legally required to identify livestock with some sort of tagging system. Tagging is required for ownership, breeding and as a means of tracking livestock during a disease outbreak.\r New Zealand farmers are required to fit all livestock with two ear tags (one in each ear). Ear tags are applied in a similar way to the piercing of human ears. The two tags are of different sizes and are known as the primary and the secondary tags. The primary tag is physically bigger than the secondary tag.\r We farm deer and have noticed that after tagging some deer develop ear infections at the site of tagging.\r A randomized controlled trial was undertaken in 105 fawns to test the hypotheses:\r ‧ Pre treatment of the ear tag with liquid iodine will reduce post tagging infection.\r ‧ A reduction in ear infections as a result of tagging will lead to more rapid weight gain.\r The treatment group had iodine applied to the sharp part of both primary and secondary tags immediately prior to tagging of the fawns. The control group was tagged in the usual fashion. Fawns were then assessed for infection at 6 and 11 weeks after tagging. Each ear was individually graded for infection and recorded against the number of the animal. Grading was on a scale of 0-3: zero having no infection; 1-slight redness; 2-a larger ring of redness and possibly some dried blood; 3-as for grade 2 plus swelling of the ear around the pin.

As the most dominant species on planet Earth's surface, humans have become the sole protectors of the planet, in charge of keeping it hospitable for billions of species. However, a swift look around Egypt's streets in contemporary 2007 showed proof of our exploitive use of fossil-fuels. Provoked by such a scene, I set out to discover the negatives of fossil-fuel consumption that more than 2 million websites were ready to detail. The increased CO2 emission, due to fossil-fuel use, is contributing to the greenhouse-effect, causing global-warming and thus leading to climate-change. This affects biodiversity by causing the eventual extinction of species, thus upsetting food-chains and affecting humanity in the long-run. Statistically 40 more years of consumption are left if the current rate-of-consumption persists. My proposal is to use solar-energy as an alternative power-source. Two requirements must be fulfilled: it must hold research potential and shouldn't suffer from problems associated with fossilfuels. 3rd-generation nanocrystalline dye-sensitised solar-cells have a conductive-glass-electrode coated with titanium-dioxide, then a layer of dye on it for light-absorption, electrolyte and finally a counterelectrode coated with graphite.\r In the dye-experiments, dyes extracted from fruits & vegetables, and the wavelengths of visible-lightspectra that they absorb, were examined using a UV-spectrophotometer. The solvent for the extraction-process was tested and ethanol was better than water because it actively extracts the dye while water doesn't help and contains ions that alter the dye's absorption-abilities. I combined 2 dyes: chlorophyll (absorbs the red & violet areas in spectrum) with blackberry (absorbs the green area) thus enabling the solar-cell to absorb the entire spectrum and maximising its power-reading. I investigated whether the dyes should be freshly-mixed or combined earlier (and used every time to build the cell). Freshly-mixing dyes is better because that stops the enzymes that were extracted out with the chlorophyll from denaturing blackberry's anthocyanins and rendering them dysfunctional thus the dyes work better maximising the power. Testing the dye-combination's concentration showed that the 6.25% concentration is the best because it can coat the TiO2 with a single-layer of dye instead of high concentrations that give multiple layers of dye which doesn't give good electron transition or low ones that don't give enough dye which means a lower amount of electrons are being excited and thus less power. In the material-section, anatase and rutile, TiO2's 2 major constituents (structurally identical but with different crystal-orientation), were compared and anatase proved itself better because of its smoother conduction-band. Different anatase particle sizes were examined and the smaller particles (4 nm) were better because of increased surface-area. I investigated the ways of coating the counterelectrode and found that using carbon-paste is the best. Ultimately my solar-cell's power-reading increased from 2.04 nW to 6.41 μW which is 3142 times the initial reading, a dramatic increase for a solar-cell whose size doesn't exceed 4 cm2. This proved the great research potential held by solar-energy. After extensive comparisons between the ups and downs of both fossil-fuels and solar-energy, solar-energy clearly proved itself the perfect alternative for powering our future.

研究者以「彩色蠶繭之研究」為題目，參加2005 年國際科展中，找出最佳的餵食時間點－五齡蠶第五天，較日本和中國大陸過去的方法更為節省材料、成本、人力及時間；本研究試圖將桑葉浸漬於不同波美度之奈米色料中，並搭配先前研究者所發現之最佳餵食時間點－五齡蠶第五天，同時製造出不同色澤之蠶繭，以找出蠶繭上色料的附著程度與波美度之最佳組合參數。\r 根據台灣「奈米國家型科技計劃」估計，2008 年台灣奈米相關產業的產值將超過新台幣3000 億元，奈米科技無疑是未來20 年影響產業發展的關鍵技術之一。而現在有關奈米科技教育也已往下紮根，希望五、六年內能使我國奈米方面的基礎研究提升至世界卓越的地位，成為有世界知名度的奈米科學研究地點，在奈米材料和科技研發及利用方面與先進國家並駕齊驅，也因為有此計劃讓我更積極的想利用奈米科技及材料來繼續從事研究。\r

The purpose of this research was to investigate the most favourable salt concentration that promotes growth in the Lemna minor plant. Lemna minor, commonly known as lesser duckweed, is found growing among other aquatic plants or massed together in still or slow moving fresh water, such as ponds and lakes, in warmer regions around the world.

The purpose of the research was to find out if Manuka oil (an oil with natural healing properties which is extracted from the NZ Manuka plant, Leptospermum scoparium) could be used to reduce the populations of bacteria and fungi that build up on chopping boards used in the kitchen for food preparation. If it were effective, then it would reduce the risks of microbial contamination of foods prepared using the boards.

Over the past year Conor has been developing an electronic time keeping device named Hourglass. Hourglass has a three-fold focus on functionality, intuitive design and simplicity. To simplify the device he has limited the hardware to a bare minimum. Just three buttons and an LCD screen comprise the user-interface. Although this interface is simple, the user can access many features. These include intuitive scrolling menus, countdown, lap and alarm functions, accessed through button combinations as well as multiple ways to use single buttons, such as holding or short pressing. Many functions have been integrated into the device, such as a stopwatch with lap times, a countdown, up to 99 Custom Alarms with an individual active/inactive state and a lock/unlock feature. The stopwatch is accurate to 1 second and can be started, stopped, reset and used to record lap times. When laps have been recorded, the user can then take the time value of a lap and turn it into a countdown. A countdown of up to 99 hours can be set, and will run until deactivated or until it reaches zero. Upon reaching zero the alarm is activated. The home screen displays the time, any active countdown and notifies the user if an alarm is active. It can be locked or unlocked by holding the blue button a set period of time, helping to reduce any inadvertent change in setting. All of the functions available can be operated easily with the intuitive 3 button interface method. The menu system is simple, but has been set up through clever coding. An arrow indicated which option is selected, by pressing the top button on the clock the option above the current selection is selected/the menu scrolls up. Pressing the bottom button selects the next option in the downward direction/scrolls down. The button in the centre positioned off to the left is used to activate an option. When a Yes or No prompt appears on the screen, the action corresponds with the button position. Therefore the triangle layout of the buttons is simple and intuitive. Thus Conor’s device relies on complicated, yet elegantly formulated and annotated code and simple hardware interfaces to interact with the user in a way which is intuitive and provides great functionality. It does this while being simple and easy to understand. Here these principles are applied to a clock project, but there are implications for good design that go way beyond this context.