Māori and Pasifika identity sets Rotorua Boys' High students apart on Ivy League applications
Koan Hemana is a third-year neuroscience student at Harvard University, and Jared Lasike, who was the school's 2024 head boy
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Scoop
18 hours ago
- Scoop
Raising The Bar Serves Up Fresh Thinking In Auckland Pubs
Press Release – University of Auckland With 20 talks held across ten bars in Aucklands CBD on one night, Raising the Bar gives alumni and the general public a chance to directly engage with top academics from the University of Auckland, all while enjoying their favourite drop. Raising the Bar is back, pouring the University of Auckland's most fascinating and future-shaping research straight into bars across the inner city Among the topics on the menu at this year's event on August 26 are the power of urban design to create and connect communities, how cutting-edge science is personalising health treatment like never before, the science of safer drug use and why big tech's unchecked AI development is a code red for democracy. With 20 talks held across ten bars in Auckland's CBD on one night, Raising the Bar gives alumni and the general public a chance to directly engage with top academics from the University of Auckland, all while enjoying their favourite drop. 'At its heart, Raising the Bar is about making research real and relevant,' says Mark Bentley, Director of Alumni Relations and Development at the University of Auckland. 'These talks bring important ideas into everyday spaces, sparking conversations about health, technology, culture and more – conversations that extend far beyond the University.' Originally launched in New York in 2013, Raising the Bar is now a global initiative – and the University of Auckland has proudly brought the event to local audiences since 2017. This year's talks will be held at bars across Auckland's CBD, including in Wynyard Quarter, Victoria Park and City Works Depot. Each venue will host two sessions, starting at 6pm and 8pm, with punters free to move from one bar to another to catch their preferred talks. All talks are free, but with the event expected to sell out early registration is recommended. Visit to register your place now. This year's full line-up: Merryn Tawhai – Reimagining healthcare with human digital twins Rhys Ponton – From lab coats to late nights: the science of safer drug use Simon Young – Broken knees, bionic fixes and the rise of robot surgeons David Krofcheck – Out of this world: the smallest and most surprising liquid in the Universe Justin O'Sullivan – Swab, sequence, surprise! How science is personalising your health Mohsen Mohammadzadeh – Robo-rides and city life: what could go right…or wrong? Andrew Erueti – The limits of liberal equality and the future of Māori self-determination Christina Stringer – Closer than you think: migrant exploitation and modern slavery in Aotearoa Olaf Diegel – 3D printing the future Darren Svirskis – The quest to find a cure for spinal cord injury Claire Meehan: Not just jokes: how misogyny online is shaping teen culture Alexandra Andhov – Code red for democracy: when big tech becomes bigger than government Sophie Tomlinson – 'Tragical-comical-historical-pastoral': Shakespeare's Cymbeline Marcelo Rodriguez Ferrere – We know animals are sentient. What does that mean for their legal status? Chris Ogden – Global authoritarianism: how to spot it and how to stop it Joel Rindelaub – Breathing plastic: Aotearoa's invisible pollution problem Antje Fiedler – Rewriting the playbook: how Kiwi businesses can thrive in a changing world Lee Beattie – Beyond buildings: urban design's power to create and connect communities Laura Burn – A human history of looking up: from stargazing to space lasers Tom Allen – A carbon fibre yarn: weaving fossil fuel roots into a sustainable future
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
University building AI tool to help te reo Māori learners with real time pronunciation feedback
The University of Auckland, Photo: RNZ / Yiting Lin Auckland University is building a new AI tool that will give te reo Māori learners real time, personalised feedback on their pronunciation. The three-year project is funded with a $1 million research grant from the Ministry of Business and Innovation's Smart Ideas. Head of Auckland Universities' Te Puna Wananga, Dr Piata Allen told Checkpoint the idea is to give te reo Māori learners confidence so they use more te reo more of the time. Allen (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Hinemanu, Ngā Wairiki Ngāti Apa) said the AI tool will give real time feedback to users who are speaking te reo Māori and give feedback on the specific sounds they are making. "When you pronounce sounds you are... making different shapes with your mouth, you are positioning your tongue differently to make different sounds, so in order to make the sounds you want to make you've got to get those things right and what the app is going to do is to help you understand what the sounds are that you might be struggling with and how to correct that." The te reo Māori 'R' sound is one that can cause new learners some trouble, she said. "Quite commonly we say that you need to roll your Rs, however in te reo Māori actually the R sound is a tap or a flap. Which is quite similar to the sound you make when you say words like Daddy, Maddie, Paddy, those types of sounds, so you get that double d sound, that tap, you just tap the roof of your mouth once." Allen said the app will be able to explain to people the movement they need to make in order to get the sound they are trying to make and how to adjust. "Rather than just tell people that this is right and that is wrong we are able to give them a bit more specific feedback." Currently Auckland University runs an an online pronunciation course where students record themselves reading a bilingual text then switch between pronunciation, the tutors then listen to the sounds they are making and give them feedback on a syllable basis, she said. "That's quite labour intensive and quite time intensive and we aren't able to scale that as widely as we'd like, so incorporating AI into that process means we're able to give more people access." Allen said that giving feedback on articulation of sounds is a specific skill that people need to be trained in to do effectively. The language model will be trained on the existing repository of recorded te reo, such as from the archives of iwi radio stations, she said. "So we do have a significant repository of te reo Māori sounds, however what we will need to do is train a model around the acceptable range of pronunciation that we are looking for, because there is always going to be a range with language." When it comes to training a language model some sort of framework is needed in order to train the model, Allen said, so the first thing to do is establish what the range is for te reo Māori. The project is running for three years and Allen said they have that to establish te range of correct pronunciation, to develop the feedback tool, to test it with a group of users and to look at how it can be scaled from there. "We want to have as many people using the tool as possible, so we really want it to be available far and wide, exactly how we scale that we haven't quite worked that through yet, we're just going to be focussing on the research at this stage but then as we progress through the project we'll be looking at how we can scale it." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Newsroom
6 days ago
- Newsroom
Geothermal Strategy can be catalyst for transformational change
Opinion: The launch of the Government's draft Geothermal Strategy, 'From the Ground Up – a draft strategy to unlock New Zealand's geothermal potential', a first for our country, is a watershed moment. It signals that geothermal energy is no longer the quiet achiever in our energy system – the revived focus on its potential recognises that geothermal can be central to our national vision for a sustainable, resilient, and economically empowered future. We have worked in the geothermal sector with engineers, scientists, Māori trusts, and industry leaders for decades, here and globally, and it's clear his strategy is welcomed with enthusiasm and optimism. The direction is right. The language is ambitious. And the need is urgent. At the Geothermal Institute at the University of Auckland, we see this as more than a policy milestone – it's a long-awaited catalyst for transformational change. Hearing Ministers Shane Jones, Louise Upston and Shane Reti tell it, educating our young people and providing compelling career opportunities in geothermal needs to be at the heart of it. The importance of signals One of the most powerful aspects of the strategy is what it signals: that geothermal matters. That it has a future that can rival its storied past. That government sees the long-term opportunity and is willing to put its weight behind it. That's no small thing. As any developer or technology innovator will tell you, long-term certainty is the foundation of long-term investment. This strategy builds on tangible commitments already made – particularly in the Government's investment to accelerate research-backed supercritical geothermal technology development. This technology aims to harness extremely high-temperature fluids from deep underground to generate renewable energy more efficiently than conventional geothermal technology. That backing will keep New Zealand at the forefront of technology to tap ultra-hot geothermal fluids to produce radically more energy per well. This is complex science and engineering with high stakes and high rewards. If we get this right, we not only unlock more clean energy, but also more industrial process heat, more energy-dense sites, and more export opportunities for our solidified globally leading expertise. The ripple effects for regional economic development are significant: the creation of highly skilled, highly paid jobs in engineering, geoscience, subsurface modelling, advanced manufacturing and programme and environmental management in regions including Taupō, Kawerau and Rotorua, from Northland to the Central Volcanic Plateau. The students at the Geothermal Institute will be the first to tell you: these are real jobs that future-proof careers and bolster local economies. From field to frontier – the role of innovation, research and education Geothermal is a mature sector, but it's also a frontier sector. What struck me at the New Zealand Geothermal Week in Taupō this year wasn't just the technical excellence on display, but the dynamism. I had conversations with rangatahi curious about career pathways, with iwi-led developers eyeing up direct heat projects, with engineering consultants pitching AI-assisted reservoir models, and with international visitors in awe of the collaborative NZ Inc spirit in the room. Future skills were a strong emerging theme throughout, where the message was loud and clear: the sector is hungry for talent, and young people are hungry for purpose. We need to meet them in the middle – with curriculum pathways, internship pipelines, scholarships targeting local communities and a long-term commitment to Stem education throughout the education value chain. But building a globally competitive innovation pipeline requires sustained support. Training world-class geoscientists and engineers doesn't happen overnight. It needs the right investment and long-term partnerships. And to meet the Government's ambition to double geothermal energy use by 2040 will require scaling up education and training. That's why the strategy's success will ultimately rest not only on the high-level vision of geothermal growth, but also what sits behind it to fuel that growth. Reinforcing New Zealand's global leadership New Zealand already enjoys a stellar reputation in geothermal internationally. Our engineers and consultants are in demand in Southeast Asia, East Africa, North America, Latin America, the Pacific, Europe and beyond. Our training programmes and postgraduate education programmes have produced alumni who now lead geothermal policy development, regulation, production and scientific research on every continent. This strategy, if paired with smart investment and coordinated delivery, could elevate that leadership to the next level. We could be the first country to commercialise supercritical geothermal knowhow. We could be the global centre for geothermal workforce training, standards and certification. We could supercharge the export of integrated geothermal solutions, from power plant designs and drilling capability to stakeholder partnering frameworks, carbon capture innovations, critical minerals extraction, cutting-edge digital modelling and real-time assessment tools, and more. This is the soft power of geothermal – and it's rooted in decades of practical excellence, technical ingenuity, and manaakitanga. A call to action The Government's draft Geothermal Strategy establishes a clear framework for the growth of geothermal. At the launch this week, ministers set a challenge for our geothermal community to turn it into a bold, coherent vision for the future. The geothermal sector is ready – meeting challenges is what we do.
