Part IV Project Management System

#1: How Can Physiological Data Support the Self-Management of Stress?

Allocated

Over the past few years, there has been a general increase in people’s stress and anxiety levels. Events like the COVID-19 lockdowns have caused an increase in people with chronic stress, while the shortage of medical workers has compounded the impact due as there is insufficient support for people. Inner PEACE is a mobile app that has been developed to ... Read more

Smart Phone & Tablet Applications

Software Engineering

#2: How Can Developers Collaboratively Work on Program Code?

Allocated

Software Engineering has moved from the domain of single programmers working on a codebase to teams developing together. The recent lockdowns and the rise of modern web-based tools have also changed how developers work together. Developers can now collaborate in real-time on a codebase, even on individual files simultaneously. But what effect does this have on their productivity and the final ... Read more

Human Computer Interactions

Software Engineering

#3: How Can We Use Board Games to Teach Robot Ethics?

Allocated

Ethics is becoming increasingly important in society. But despite its importance, it can be a complex subject to teach. Students often have preconceived ideas and are not aware of the consequences of these views. Board games offer a fun, low-risk way to explore the consequences of our actions, they allow the players explore other viewpoints and see the results of ... Read more

Games & Education Aids 1 Games & Education Aids 2

Software Engineering

#4: How Do Spatial Code Editors Help Programmers Understand Code?

Allocated

Trying to understand a large, unknown computer codebase is a challenging task. Currently, developers use Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) to navigate through a codebase while trying to connect different parts of the system. While the tools in an IDE can help, they still rely on people being able to build a mental map of the code. Another approach is to ... Read more

Software Development Tools and Processes 1 Software Development Tools and Processes 2

Software Engineering

#5: Generative AI models for the inverse problem of electrocardiography

Allocated

The inverse problem of electrocardiography essentially requires one to predict what is happening on the heart surface of a patient (called EGMs), given their body surface potentials (called ECGs). If a good prediction can be made, then cardiologists can use these predictions to easily and efficiently plan heart surgeries. We have developed mathematical models for predicting EGMs from ECGs. Vison ... Read more

AI & Machine learning

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#6: AI for sentiment analysis of financial text and its application to trading

Allocated

It is well known that sentiments can move the stock markets. Discovering the price point for a given stock (or index) using financial text sentiment is a fundamental problem in finance. The current state of the art sentiment analysis in finance is based on the standard frequency of words in the text technique. However, this technique misses the semantic meaning ... Read more

AI & Machine learning

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#7: Can HLS effectively target several small devices (GPUs and FPGAs) for use in satellites?

Allocated

In the rapidly advancing field of satellite technology, the effective utilisation of High-Level Synthesis (HLS) is critical. Our research seeks to investigate the feasibility and efficiency of employing HLS techniques to target and optimise several small devices intended for use in satellites. This comes as the demand for miniaturised, energy-efficient satellites rises, and the need to develop streamlined and effective ... Read more

Embedded Systems Parallel & Cloud Computing

Computer Systems Engineering

#8: Photovoltaic MPPT and MPC control of Hybrid Energy Storage System in Microgrid System

Allocated

The integration of Photovoltaic (PV) systems with Hybrid Energy Storage Systems (HESS) in Microgrid Systems is a critical area of research and development, particularly in the context of enhancing efficiency and reliability. Two significant control strategies used in this domain are Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) for PV systems and Model Predictive Control (MPC) for HESS. MPPT algorithms are designed ... Read more

Green Energy Technologies Power Systems

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#9: Reinforcement Learning based control of an Autonomous Formula SAE Car

Allocated

The Formula SAE competition is introducing an autonomous vehicle category to the control of the Formula SAE cars. To meet this challenge,, we seek to develop a fully autonomous control system that enables the car to learn to drive itself through Reinforcement Learning. Reinforcement Learning is a machine learning approach that seeks to enable a robot to learn to operate ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Robotics

Software Engineering

#10: Reinforcement Learning Based Control for Robotic Grasping and Manipulation with a Robot Hand

Allocated

This project is seeking to develop a Reinforcement Learning (RL) based control system for the grasping of objects. RL is a part of Artificial Intelligence (AI) which seeks to enable robots to learn to perform tasks without human interaction or guidance autonomously. Through RL a robot learns to perform actions based on observations of its environment through its sensors and ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Robotics

Software Engineering

#11: AI Plays Pokémon - can AI become the very best like no one ever was

Allocated

Pokémon Blue (and its counterpart, Pokémon Red) are excellent games to explore Reinforcement Learning. Reinforcement learning is a type of machine learning where an agent learns to make decisions by interacting with an environment. The agent receives feedback through rewards or penalties based on the actions it takes. The goal of reinforcement learning is for the agent to learn a ... Read more

AI & Machine learning

Software Engineering

#12: CDP-Mechanical Eng-Development of a DC current offset probe for high power applications

Allocated

With the rise of electrification, power electronics is a growing industry. Inverters, a class of power converters, are used in applications such as power conditioning and renewable generation to create an AC output from a DC source. An ideal inverter will create a purely AC output, but in practical systems a DC offset can exist. This DC component can ... Read more

Power Electronics & Electronics Systems

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#13: Development of a Transformer-Rectifier Flux Pump for Superconducting Magnets

Allocated

Creating and maintaining strong magnetic fields using high-temperature superconductors (HTS) is an important step in improving many technologies, such as HTS motors, NMR/MRI and nuclear fusion. Conventional power supplies are ill-suited to providing the high DC current required to magnetise hightemperature superconducting coils due to their lossy nature and a variety of other factors. Flux pumps offer a promising method ... Read more

Power Electronics & Electronics Systems Transport Technology Wireless Power Technologies

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#14: Draw an engineer. Investigating the engineering gender gap

Allocated

The gender gap in engineering continues to be a significant issue, with both academia and industry being dominated by men. This topic continues to receive a growing amount of research attention, looking at both why women are less likely to go into engineering, and why women engineers may not be retained in industry. This work aims to help understand how ... Read more

Games & Education Aids 1

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering Software Engineering

#15: An Automated Assessment Grader using ChatGPT

Allocated

This project aims to investigate the use of an LLM to help grade student assessments, specially open ended assessments, similar to the once used in design courses. The students will first investigate the use of ChatGPT, and compare this against other LLMs. Using the ChatGPT API, students will look at the best way to implement an automated assessment grader in ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Games & Education Aids 1

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#16: DC Protection Schemes based Improvement of Reliability of HVDC Systems

Allocated

HVDC is an alternative technology to AC for transmission of power over long distances, and also commonly used for interconnections. It is a relatively new technology, first implemented in the 1950s. Protection technology for DC uses is not as mature as for AC technology, which negatively impacts its reliability and safety and increases costs. This final year project aims to ... Read more

Power Systems

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#17: Can AI help detect biases affecting the reliability of Open Source documentation?

Allocated

Previous research has indicated a gender bias in how contributors act, but is the reliability of the surrounding documentation also affected? We want to investigate whether there are biases in Open Source documentation that impede accuracy and compare it to AI summarised and generated documentation, to see whether AI could be utilised to overcome entry barriers to new open source ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Software Development Tools and Processes 1 Software Development Tools and Processes 2

Software Engineering

#18: Online platform to enhance student CV work experience and project sections

Allocated

We aim to address the persistent challenges faced by students in effectively communicating their work experience and projects in crucial sections of CVs. Acknowledging the essential role CVs play in the initial screening rounds conducted by companies, we recognize that subpar work experience and project sections can serve as a substantial barrier for students, potentially resulting in missed opportunities. To ... Read more

Games & Education Aids 1 Web tools and Application

Software Engineering

#19: Investigation of laser powered drone integration techniques

Allocated

Different methods of energy delivery are become of interest as wireless power transfer technology applications grow. Laser Power Transfer (LPT) is a method of deliverying energy to a load with high directionality and range. One such application for LPT is to deliver energy to a drone in flight, reducing the battery size required. This project aims to integrate the receiver ... Read more

Wireless Power Technologies

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#20: Web application tool for technical interview preparation

Allocated

This research initiative focuses on leveraging artificial intelligence to change the way students prepare for technical interviews in the software industry. Recognizing the need of algorithmic and data structure questions in hiring processes, our project aims to bridge the gap between theory taught in university courses and the practical skills demanded by technical interviews. Adaptive Learning Paths: The Al-driven system ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Software Development Tools and Processes 1 Software Development Tools and Processes 2 Web tools and Application

Software Engineering

#21: Investigating improvements of acceleration structures in offline pathtracers

Allocated

Typical graphics processing units (GPU’s) are optimized for massively parallelised algorithms implemented as shaders, such as the rendering pipeline, which act on sequential memory access, and leverage SIMD capabilities. Path Tracing is a computationally expensive rendering technique that renders scenes in a photorealistic and physically accurate way, by projecting light rays into the scene and using phenomena such as reflection ... Read more

Parallel & Cloud Computing

Computer Systems Engineering

#22: Development of low power three-phase IPT system

Allocated

With the introduction of wireless power into the consumer electronics in the past 10 years, smaller form factors for lower-power WPT systems are niche cases targeting alternative markets in the robotics and manufacturing industries. Potential use cases include products where wiring and electrical connections are difficult to maintain and where size and portability play a big role. The introduction of ... Read more

Wireless Power Technologies

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#23: Investigating wireless synchronisation in a bipolar pad WPT system to be used for EV charging

Allocated

While electric vehicles have grown in popularity, their charging solutions take longer than conventional petrol vehicles. Wireless charging aims to reduce these barriers and encourage adoption of EVs among the general public by increasing the convenience of charging. A low-loss system compatible with the majority of vehicles would lead to this goal being met. New WPT systems are now being ... Read more

Power Electronics & Electronics Systems Wireless Power Technologies

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#24: Providing patients suffering from cancer or other terminal illnesses with easy to digest information

Allocated

This is a software engineering project that will be centred around the healthcare technology domain. It will involve the research of the effects and challenges faced by patients that are suffering from cancer as well as possibly other terminal illnesses, why those challenges occur, and what solutions can be used to address these challenges. In particular the challenges of transparent ... Read more

Smart Phone & Tablet Applications Web tools and Application

Software Engineering

#25: CDP – CIVIL ENGINEERING - Understanding the mobility patterns and transportation needs of rural Māori communities

Allocated

Note: This is a cross-department project with Civil Engineering Understanding the mobility patterns and transportation needs of rural Māori communities is critical for providing equitable and sustainable transportation solutions across Aotearoa New Zealand. However, these communities are often underrepresented in transportation research and planning. This cross-departmental Part IV project aims to fill this knowledge gap by analyzing the travel behavior ... Read more

Web tools and Application

Software Engineering

#26: Physical coding blocks for robotics and software education

Allocated

Children are often fascinated with robots and want to control (program) them. Currently, most programming environments are screen-based, requiring the use of either a mouse and keyboard or a touch screen. This project will investigate the use of physical coding blocks (tangibles) as an alternative approach to programming robots, and writing software programs. The project will primarily focus on ... Read more

Embedded Systems Games & Education Aids 1 Human Computer Interactions

Computer Systems Engineering

#27: Employing Artificial Intelligence and Remote Sensing Technologies for Early Detection and Response

Allocated

Introduction: Over the past year, we have witnessed long and challenging battles against record-breaking wildfires worldwide. The wildfire spread over vast areas around the world. Some of these fires burned thousands of acres of land and destroyed hundreds of homes and buildings. Poor air quality developed due to the dense smoke, which raised health concerns for people near the fire ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Image & Voice Processing

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#28: Developing Novel Backpropagation-free Deep Neural Network

Allocated

There is immense interest in developing and deploying deep neural networks to solve complex problems in many challenging areas, such as speech recognition and image semantics extraction. Neural networks (NN) generally act as a black box that can classify signals end-to-end without knowing the essence of the processed signal. That is contrary to the statistical approaches; they need a profound ... Read more

AI & Machine learning

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#30: A comparative study on IPT pad design using Topology Optimization (TO)

Unallocated

TO is a material optimization method allowing new structures of maximum performance to be automatically determined while meeting a predefined material volume constraint. Its key advantages include lack of reliance on designer experience, and the use of a predefined design domain rather than an initial design structure. This project aims to use TO technique to optimize the coils (pads) of ... Read more

Power Electronics & Electronics Systems

Electrical and Electronic Engineering Software Engineering

#31: Sensorless Control of BLDC motors under impulse loading conditions

Allocated

This project aims to investigate and design a sensor-less control technnique for 3-phase brushless DC (BLDC) motors that operate under frequent mechanical impulse loading and near-stall conditions. In contrast to common operating conditions of most BLDC motor drives, these special conditions are unavaoidable in compact robotic applications, where high-energy mobile robots driven by BLDC motors operate in an unpredictable environment ... Read more

Control Systems Power Electronics & Electronics Systems

Electrical and Electronic Engineering Software Engineering

#32: Exploring Haptic Sensations for Timbre in Music

Allocated

Music is an auditory experience that enriches experiences and the cultures we encounter, frequently making us feel certain emotions and, in some cases, physical sensations. There are existing products designed for individuals to feel the rhythm of a musical piece or haptic suits that mimic what a song would 'sound' like. However, there is the issue of timbre discrimination, which ... Read more

Control Systems Human Computer Interactions Signal Processing

Computer Systems Engineering

#33: Acceleration of Capsule Networks on Heterogeneous Adaptive Platforms

Allocated

Capsule networks (CapsNets) are a class of neural networks that address one of the main issues and deficiencies of CNNs. In CNNs, extracted features in initial layers pass through pooling layers where critical information, including spatial relationships, could be missed, resulting in incorrect classifications. CapsNets can better model hierarchical relationships and have shown great performance in many fields. CapsNets have ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Embedded Systems

Computer Systems Engineering

#34: Energy Efficient Machine Learning Solutions on Adaptive Platforms

Allocated

Recent advances in Machine Learning (ML) has resulted in widespread deployment of ML solutions in several areas. ML solutions are usually characterised by their high computational complexity. Heterogeneous computing platforms are introduced to optimise the performance and energy efficiency. They consist of a range of processing units, including Central Processing Unit (CPU), Graphics Processing Unit, Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), and ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Embedded Systems

Computer Systems Engineering

#35: Building a Machine Learning Model to Optimise the Varying of Financial Trading Model Parameters and Maximise Financial Trading Profitability

Allocated

At TRV Trading, we know that the financial market offers different opportunities to profit from trading according to the way it's behaving. For instance, when the market is very active (a lot of trading is going on), there are more opportunities to profit, when it's inactive, there are less. TRV uses trading models to execute trades in the financial market ... Read more

AI & Machine learning

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#36: Exploration of Digital equity within Auckland

Allocated

The interenet is now crucial to all our lives, and whilst the importance of digital inclusion is well recognised in New Zealand, the level of service people have access to is not equitable. The difference in service between rural and urban New Zealand is well documented, with the rural services proving lacking. But even within an urban environment is it ... Read more

Telecommunications Web tools and Application

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#37: Investigating speech intelligibility inequity in our learning spaces.

Allocated

Do you find it hard understanding your lecturer speak in class? Background noise and the acoustics of the room can make this task very difficult, especially if you have hearing loss or your first language is not the same as the one the lecturer is using. Acoustics of rooms such as background noise and reverberation affect our hearing detrimentally by ... Read more

Image & Voice Processing Signal Processing

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering Software Engineering

#38: Broadband Horn Antennas for Anechoic Chamber Measurements

Allocated

Electromagnetic anechoic chambers are frequently used to experimentally determine the radiation characteristics of antennas. In order to perform measurements of an antenna under test (AUT), a second antenna is required which must have a sufficiently broad beamwidth to evenly illuminate the AUT, and must operate over as wide a range of frequencies as possible. One such example is the omnidirectional bicone antenna (which can be engineered ... Read more

Radio Systems

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#39: High-Performance Metasurface Waveguides

Allocated

Waveguides for high-frequency signals have traditionally been realised using bulky three dimensional structures (e.g. coaxial cable, rectangular/circular waveguides supporting non-TEM modes, etc). However, recently there has been some interest in developing planar waveguiding structures using metasurfaces. Metasurfaces are two-dimensional equivalents of metamaterials, which are structures that contain a repeating microstructure - the elements of which are much smaller than a ... Read more

Radio Systems

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#40: Design of a Coaxial-to-Ridged Waveguide Transition

Unallocated

Ridged waveguides can achieve much greater bandwidth that their traditional rectangular or circular counterparts, and this makes them attractive for applications which require broadband performance. However, broadband performance is often determined by other components in the waveguide system, in particular coaxial-to-waveguide transitions. These transitions typically involve the connection of coaxial transmission lines to the waveguide via some sort of probe ... Read more

Radio Systems

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#41: Reconfigurable Hardware Accelerator for Energy-Efficient AI

Allocated

Rapid increase in using artificial intelligence (AI) in different applications requires considering high-level of accuracy and performance in addition to energy efficiency especially for edge devices as the main design constraints. Machine learning models for AI are trained based on application-specific data and then deployed in target execution platform to perform useful predictions. Machine learning algorithms are computationally intensive ... Read more

AI & Machine learning

Computer Systems Engineering

#42: Application-Specific Processor for Computer Vision

Allocated

Computer vision systems are used for many applications such as transportation, healthcare, and manufacturing. Many computer vision applications use machine learning algorithms for object detection and tracking to achieve a higher level of accuracy required for the target applications. However, high computational complexities of these algorithms require optimisations at both hardware and software levels to trade-off the performance and ... Read more

Image & Voice Processing

Computer Systems Engineering

#43: Secure Processor for Multi-Tasking Applications

Allocated

Internet connected computing devices as Internet of Things (IoT) are increasingly used for many applications including safety critical applications such as healthcare devices, autonomous vehicles and drones. Such computing systems are typically designed as Multi-Processor Systems in Chip (MPSoC) to provide more opportunities to investigate the design trade-offs and optimize the target execution platform based on the application needs. ... Read more

Embedded Systems

Computer Systems Engineering

#44: UAV Multispectral Imaging and Machine Learning in Precision Agriculture

Allocated

This project addresses the growing need for precision agriculture techniques that can provide detailed, real-time insights into crop conditions. The use of such multispectral cameras, capable of capturing a broad spectrum of light including wavelengths beyond human vision, allows for the detection of subtle changes in plant health that are often invisible to the naked eye. The potential to employ ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Image & Voice Processing Robotics

Computer Systems Engineering

#45: Pallet Detection with Machine Learning: From synthetic data to the real world

Allocated

To reliably engage pallets without human intervention, an autonomous forklift should be able to detect the pallet pose and determine its state/load. Such modern computer vision problems are often approached using machine learning techniques, however collecting and labelling large data sets for model training is often difficult and costly. This Crown-sponsored multi-year project seeks to understand the benefits and limitations ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Image & Voice Processing Robotics

Software Engineering

#46: A Neural Speaker Diarization System for Doctors

Allocated

This research initiative endeavors to construct a speaker diarization framework tailored for the medical field, specifically targeting patient-doctor interactions. Presently, doctors dedicate a significant portion of their time to transcribing medical notes onto Electronic Health Records (EHR), leading to exhaustion. While professional medical scribes are often employed, they pose challenges in terms of training and retention. Moreover, the delay in ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Image & Voice Processing

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#47: Power Quality Assessment in Smart Grid using Machine Learning Techniques

Allocated

The increase penetration of renewable energy and use of electronic load into the electric grid poses significant challenge regarding the power quality issues and energy management. These penetrations will increase harmonic distortion, frequent switching of load will result in flicker etc. This project intends to assess the power quality using machine learning techniques. Read more

AI & Machine learning Power Systems Signal Processing

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#48: Intelligent Controllers for Wind Energy Systems

Allocated

The proposed project will design and implement intelligent controllers for renewable energy systems with special emphasis on wind enderguy systems. The controller design will progeressively developed from sinmple PI controller to machine learning based controllers. These controllers will be implemented in OPAL-RT. This impolementation part is crucial for success of the projec. Read more

Control Systems Power Systems

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#49: Digitalization of 'The Gift Box' Tool

Allocated

This project aims to address the unmet mental health needs of New Zealanders, worsened by the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. A long-standing nominal recovery approach, despite its strong principles, has limited access to operationalized tools informed by evidence-based practice and lived experience of recovery. Sustaining the use of these tools has proven difficult. There is an urgent need for effective, ... Read more

Human Computer Interactions Smart Phone & Tablet Applications Software Development Tools and Processes 1

Software Engineering

#50: Daylight control in indoor lighting systems

Allocated

Daylight control, a practice that has been in existence for several decades, plays a crucial role in mitigating energy consumption and finds widespread application in the construction of eco-friendly buildings. Despite its inherent benefits, it is essential to acknowledge that implementing daylight control incurs certain expenditures and may potentially have repercussions on the overall comfort experienced by occupants within ... Read more

Green Energy Technologies

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#51: Emergency lighting for low visibility spaces

Allocated

In this project, our primary objective is to conduct an in-depth study of emergency lighting systems tailored for installation in low-visibility spaces. The successful execution of this project will necessitate extensive literature review, DIALux simulations, and rigorous engineering evaluation efforts. These critical components are essential for comprehending existing knowledge, leveraging advanced simulations, and conducting thorough engineering analyses to enhance ... Read more

Green Energy Technologies

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#52: Transmitting audio via light

Allocated

Communication via light has been established for a considerable duration, primarily utilized in conjunction with sensors, remote control systems, headphones, and similar devices. In this project, our focus will be on exploring methodologies for transmitting audio stereo signals using light as the medium of communication. It is important to note that this project is hands-on in nature, involving activities ... Read more

Signal Processing

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#53: AI-Enabled Chatbot for Mental and Wellbeing Care

Allocated

This project addresses New Zealand's escalating mental health needs. The current approach to mental health support, while principled, lacks practical, evidence-based tools that accommodate the diverse recovery experiences of individuals. There's a pressing need for accessible, effective solutions, especially among various ethnic groups. We propose the development of an AI-enabled chatbot for mental and wellbeing care. This system will facilitate ... Read more

Human Computer Interactions Smart Phone & Tablet Applications Software Development Tools and Processes 1

Software Engineering

#54: AI-Enabled Virtual Assistant for Aged Care

Allocated

Aged care has become a popular domain for computerized applications. Similar to hospitality systems, AI-enabled assistants have been deployed in rest homes and elderly care facilities to provide a smart environment of personalized care. These smart systems not only dramatically reduce the physical workload of caregivers but also offer artificial intelligence-driven precision in healthcare. This project extends an existing implementation ... Read more

Human Computer Interactions Smart Phone & Tablet Applications Software Development Tools and Processes 1

Software Engineering

#55: Enhanced Indoor Activity Tracking with Risk Management

Allocated

Dementia is a complex and progressive neurodegenerative condition. People with dementia often like to walk around their home or leave the house to walk around the neighborhood, sometimes referred to as wandering behavior. Wandering behavior can result in the person with dementia getting lost or encountering dangers such as falls. This concern drives our project to develop an innovative indoor ... Read more

Smart Phone & Tablet Applications Software Development Tools and Processes 1

Software Engineering

#56: Automating clinical trials using NLP and synchronous programming

Allocated

Setting up the digital platforms, including the software architecture and databases is a manualprocess, which is both time consuming and error prone. Also, ensuring that the ethics approvedprotocol is adhered to has to be ensured using testing. Can this be mitigated?We take our inspiration from two different fields. First, using advances in natural language processing (NLP),especially through large language models ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Embedded Systems Web tools and Application

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering Software Engineering

#57: A deterministic networking platform using Google bittide

Allocated

We have received funding from Google to collaborate on a new protocol for data centres called bittide. Bittide is a novel architecture for distributed systems, proposed by Google. Bitide is a physical layer ptotocol, which achieves "logical synchrony", without the need for actual clock synchronisation protocols. Logical synchrony ensures that buffers between communicating nodes are always bounded and also the ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Control Systems Embedded Systems

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering Software Engineering

#58: Stress Monitoring and Quantification through Digital Biomarkers

Allocated

Wearable smart watches are increasingly being used for the detection of different health conditions by using machine-learning models to make inferences. We are, in particular, interested in the UoA developed MoodAI platform, which is developed for real-time mood state classification, based on the data obtained from Fitbit smart watches. The current platform, while being able to perform mood state classification ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Software Development Tools and Processes 1

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering Software Engineering

#59: Investigating inclusion of software engineering tools and practices

Allocated

The software industry lacks diversity. Recent research has theorised that software development tools can have inbuilt biases, making them easier to use for people who think in a certain way. For example, GitHub, a commonly used software tool, has been found to have missing information, unclear terminology, and unexplained processes. This can make GitHub non-intuitive for people with process-oriented learning styles as ... Read more

Software Development Tools and Processes 1 Software Development Tools and Processes 2

Software Engineering

#60: Blockchain-Enhanced Roaming Contracts: Integrating Consensus and Semantic Engines for Mobile Networks Operators Service Optimization

Allocated

The project is an exploration into the integration of blockchain technology with the service delivery of Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and Network providers struggling with the data roaming problem. It focuses on the development of a consensus engine and a semantic engine to manage roaming contracts between MNOs efficiently where we will compare the scalability and performance of different consensus ... Read more

Intelligent Systems & Industrial Informatics Telecommunications

Software Engineering

#61: Plant monitoring system to estimate harvesting timing

Allocated

This project will develop a system to monitor the changes of plant growing. We have a working version that detects target, which is tomato, and measures its size and volume. May need to train Deep Neural Network (DNN) models to improve the accuracy of existing methods, detect disease and measure its ripeness. We will finally estimate their harvesting timing and ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Image & Voice Processing Robotics

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering Software Engineering

#62: IPT and CV enabled UAV for inaccessible urban gardens

Allocated

As humans increasingly relocate to cities and urban environments become denser, an opportunity emerges to grow plants in areas that receive a good amount of natural light but are not easily accessible by humans. The sides of large buildings, rooftops, or other hard to reach places could be planted with decorative or horticultural plants and be maintained by a fleet ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Embedded Systems Robotics Wireless Power Technologies

Computer Systems Engineering

#63: Web-Based Device Management Application for Robotics and IoT

Allocated

This project aims to develop a sophisticated web-based application for the management of various devices, particularly focusing on robotics and IoT (Internet of Things) devices. The core functionality of this application encompasses streaming video data, sensor data management, and deploying software or AI models to the connected devices.Key Features Device Management: The application allows for the management of individual ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Embedded Systems Robotics

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering Software Engineering

#64: Dynamic Facial Expression Generation for Head Robots with Adaptive Style Control

Allocated

Generating dynamic facial expressions for head robots represents a cutting-edge intersection of robotics, artificial intelligence, and human-computer interaction. Traditional methods in facial expression synthesis for robots are often limited by predefined expression ranges or lack the ability to accurately mirror complex human emotions. This project invites students to explore and develop more sophisticated, adaptive techniques for creating facial expressions on head robots, aiming to bridge ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Robotics

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering Software Engineering

#65: Enhancing Human Motion Generation with Flexible Style Control

Allocated

The challenge of generating human-like co-speech gestures represents a fascinating intersection of technology and creativity, offering ample opportunities for student research and innovation. Traditional methods in this domain have often been constrained by rigid style control mechanisms, utilizing predefined text labels or specific motion examples. Such limitations underscore the necessity for more adaptable solutions that can accurately capture and express a broader range of user ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Image & Voice Processing Robotics

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering Software Engineering

#66: Optimising Machine Learning Models

Allocated

Machine learning models are increasingly becoming larger as we try to capture complex behaviour. However, with this increasing complexity it can become difficult, or even impossible, to run such networks on typical embedded hardware. Instead, what methods can we apply to “optimise” these networks to make them simpler and more efficient? This project will investigate approaches to simplify the structure ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Embedded Systems

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering Software Engineering

#67: Real-time Music Generation

Allocated

Music can be beautiful, messy, and emotive, but it almost always tells a story. This story is created by a composer who writes in the language of music. Popular AI models have begun to aid people in writing their own stories by taking in a few words and predicting the next set of words. Can we use AI models to ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Human Computer Interactions Software Development Tools and Processes 1

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering Software Engineering

#68: Improved Cell Balancing Techniques that Co-operate with Regenerative Energy Recovery Systems for Electric Race Cars

Allocated

Electric vehicles are becoming a large section of the automotive and motorsport industries. Following this trend, lots of student led Formula SAE racing teams design, build, and compete at international competitions have switched to electric vehicles. There are significant differences between EV and IC (internal combustion) and a Battery Management System (BMS) and Regenerative Braking is one of them. BMS ... Read more

Embedded Systems Power Electronics & Electronics Systems Transport Technology

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#69: Analysis of news sources to provide localized disaster information

Allocated

With the recent weather events in Auckland, and many other recent disasters around the world, there has lacked a central online place where those affected can go to find out specific, up-to-date information (for example, a map of flooding-affected areas and road closures). This information exists online but is often in a variety of formats and in multiple locations. In ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Smart Phone & Tablet Applications

Software Engineering

#70: Presentation of disaster news information to different kinds of users

Allocated

With the recent weather events in Auckland, and many other recent disasters around the world, there has lacked a central online place where those affected can go to find out specific, up-to-date information (for example, a map of flooding-affected areas and road closures). This information exists online but is often in a variety of formats and in multiple locations. In ... Read more

Human Computer Interactions Smart Phone & Tablet Applications

Software Engineering

#71: Image Motion Elimination for Aquaculture Vision

Allocated

The Centre for Automation and Robotic Engineering Science (CARES) is investigating robot-driven underwater farm (aquaculture) automation. The motivation for this is that aquaculture has the potential to give us the ability to manage our marine resources better. A bottleneck for the uptake of aquaculture is the challenges of working underwater, and we believe robotics can help. This project proposal is ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Image & Voice Processing

Software Engineering

#72: VR and psychophysiological monitoring to develop resilience in Health and Safety training

Allocated

There is an immediate need to develop technologies that can precisely capture the emergence and trajectory of peoples’ resilience in high-risk industries. Despite government efforts, high risk industries such as construction continue to lead work-related harm and fatalities. The integration of psychophysiological monitoring with virtual reality (VR) makes it possible to document an individual’s experiences as they interact in simulations ... Read more

Games & Education Aids 1 Human Computer Interactions

Software Engineering

#73: Identifying intruders on scooters entering carparks

Allocated

A problem in carparks around Auckland is scooter riders dashing in and out of carparks usually to commit an offence. Surveillance cameras cover the entrances to the carparks, but they don’t have automated detection of what is entering or exiting the carpark. This project will look to develop an accurate binary classifier to determine whether an image contains a scooter ... Read more

AI & Machine learning

Software Engineering

#74: Visual LegalRuleML editor with auto-completion

Allocated

Despite the successes and fast improvements in artificial intelligence, the interpretation of legal documents is still a highly manual process. Because of ethical considerations and the missing interpretability of modern deep learning models, to date, the preferred automation methodology is to translate the normative documents into a logic representation, which allows execution by an automated theorem prover. Because regulations are ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Human Computer Interactions Software Development Tools and Processes 1

Software Engineering

#75: Translating tables of information into a logical representation

Allocated

To this day, legal documents are primarily distributed as PDF documents, making it complex for machines to access the content. To automatically check for compliance with legal requirements, a common approach is translating the legal documents into a logical representation, which allows execution by an automated theorem prover. While textual content can be successfully translated into such a logical representation, ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Software Development Tools and Processes 1

Software Engineering

#76: Computer Vision Support for Reinforcement Learning Overtaking Maneuvering of a Formula SAE CAR

Allocated

The Formula SAE competition is introducing an autonomous vehicle category. To meet this challenge, we aim to develop a fully autonomous control system that enables the car to learn to drive itself through Reinforcement Learning. Reinforcement Learning is a machine learning approach that seeks to allow a robot to learn to operate based on its interaction with the environment without ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Image & Voice Processing Robotics

Software Engineering

#77: Can GPTs revolutionize forecasting the hospitalization burden caused by respiratory diseases?

Allocated

Seasonal infectious diseases such as influenza are a reoccurring challenge for healthcare systems worldwide. Besides influenza, several respiratory diseases cause symptoms similar to those caused by influenza, broadly called influenza-like illness or ILI. While most such ILI infections result in mild symptoms that are sometimes not even recognized by the infected person, there are still numerous severe ILI cases ... Read more

AI & Machine learning

Software Engineering

#78: Virtual reality installation to study embodiment

Allocated

This project involves iteratively refining a participative Unity-based installation where users experience immersive sound and visual feedback with a motion capture suit and VR headset. The immersive application directs gallery-visitors’ attention in various ways with sound and particle effects (for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb_jM2kbqTA). The practical goal would be to refine the development of a complete gallery installation experience. The research goal ... Read more

Human Computer Interactions

Software Engineering

#79: Intelligent body tracking and agent in Virtual reality to study embodiment

Allocated

This project involves iteratively refining an intelligent body tracking to a Unity-based installation where users experience immersive sound and visual feedback with motion capture and VR headset. The immersive application will display an intelligent agent that mimics variations of the visitor's movement. The practical goal would be to integrate an intelligent movement avatar into a gallery installation experience. The research ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Human Computer Interactions

Software Engineering

#80: Mixed reality and electronic prototyping installation to study embodiment

Allocated

This project involves iteratively refining a participative Unity-based installation where users experience immersive sound and visual feedback with a motion capture suit and VR headset. In previous versions, the installation was completly in virtual reality, and this year, we would like to Adruino prototyping for responsive theatre lighting. The real-world lights and immersive application directs gallery-visitors’ attention in various ways ... Read more

Human Computer Interactions

Software Engineering

#81: Immersive Pūrākau: Virtual reality Māori creation story installation to study wellbeing and embodiment

Unallocated

This project involves iteratively refining a participative Unity-based installation where users experience an immersive Pūrākau narrative with a motion capture suit and VR headset. The project will require facilitating workshops where rangatahi and kaumatua contribute stories to include in the Virtual Reality scene. The project will be co-advised by a PhD candidate Maya Gibson (Ngāti Apa) as well as her ... Read more

Human Computer Interactions

Software Engineering

#82: Improved filtering for Non-Invasive Blood-Glucose detection

Allocated

The primary objective of this project is to improve the accuracy of results when testing using noninvasive methods to calculate glucose levels. The project aims to design and implement a signal processing and filtering system for an existing non-invasive blood glucose sensor. Around 415 million individuals today are afflicted with diabetes. These individuals need to monitor their insulin levels, necessitating ... Read more

Control Systems Signal Processing Smart Phone & Tablet Applications

Computer Systems Engineering

#83: A pick-and-place for rapid prototyping

Allocated

Modern circuit board designs incorporate surface-mounted electronic components for their smaller sizes and better manufacturability on production lines with industrial pick-and-place machines. Unfortunately for a design engineer tasked with prototyping a board, these machines are too slow to programme and require too much overhead to be used when only a handful of boards are needed. The engineer's only real alternative ... Read more

Control Systems Embedded Systems Human Computer Interactions

Computer Systems Engineering

#84: Examining the impact of criticism in software code review

Allocated

This project will examine the impact of criticism during software code review, particularly destructive v constructive critism, on software code quality. The project may involve collecting data from open source software projects to analyse real code review comments and their impact on code quality. It may also involve designing and deploying a questionnaire to examine perceptions of software practitioners on ... Read more

Software Development Tools and Processes 1 Software Development Tools and Processes 2

Software Engineering

#86: Designing Dynamically Reconfigurable Factory Automation Systems

Allocated

The project explores fusion of a commercial software for building fixed industrial automation systems (IAS) and novel software paradigm that makes those systems dynamically reconfigurable. Dynamically reconfigurable systems support advanced features of IAS such as dynamic change of the products on the same production line, fault-tolerance and changes in physical configuration (adding, removing parts of the system). As the starting ... Read more

Intelligent Systems & Industrial Informatics

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#87: Novel uses of Digital Twin technology in Industrial Automation Systems

Allocated

We are exploring the use of digital twin (DT) ideas in industrial automation systems (IAS). The project has a big level of novelty where the whole IAS will be based on the use of three types of DTs: (1) DTs of workpiece which after completion of the “recipe” becomes a final product, DTs of workstations that make physical changes on ... Read more

Intelligent Systems & Industrial Informatics

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#88: ReactiveNiOS - an execution platform for concurrent programming of real-time software systems

Allocated

A new concurrent programming language called SystemGALS proposed within Embedded Systems Research Group, which can be considered an extension of C programming language, but with formal mathematical foundation, requires new computer platforms to efficiently execute concurrent programs that mix reactive behaviours with more elaborate data processing/computations. The project will focus on the key building block, a tandem processor that a ... Read more

Embedded Systems

Computer Systems Engineering

#89: Designing a heterogeneous multiprocessor on chip for combined reactive and data dominated real-time systems

Unallocated

The project focuses on the development of a time-predictable computer architecture that incorporates traditional and custom processors, as well as application-specific processors. The platform will be suitable for combined control- and data-dominated embedded systems that rely on ability to deal with time and safety critical reactive applications that also include significant use of digital signal processing. The project will explore ... Read more

Embedded Systems

Computer Systems Engineering

#90: Tangible AR for Data Structure Teaching

Allocated

Multi-modal learning uses multiple representations and interactions for supporting learning. For example, mathematics can be taught by using number representations, symbols (Latin numbers), or objects (both physical and virtual). It has been shown that many students learn better by using multiple representations and interactions (seeing, talking, doing).In this project we investigate whether tangible Augmented Reality (AR) can be used ... Read more

Games & Education Aids 1 Games & Education Aids 2 Human Computer Interactions

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#91: Poison is Not Traceless: Fully-Agnostic Detection of Poisoning Attacks

Allocated

The performance of machine learning models depends on the quality of the underlying data. Malicious actors can attack the model by poisoning the training data. Current detectors are tied to either specific data types, models, or attacks, and therefore have limited applicability in real-world scenarios. We have developed a novel fully-agnostic framework, DIVA (Detecting InVisible Attacks), that detects attacks solely ... Read more

AI & Machine learning

Software Engineering

#93: Resilience of Renewable Energy Power System Networks

Allocated

Resilience and, in more specific terms, robustness is more relevant now than ever, with the increase of extreme weather events in frequency and intensity due to the effects of climate change. This is especially relevant here in New Zealand, where we are very susceptible to such events as can be seen last year with, for example, Cyclone Gabrielle. It is ... Read more

Power Systems

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#94: Emotion Dashboard Application

Allocated

The primary goal is to create an intuitive and engaging dashboard web/app that presents users with a visual summary of their emotional states, detected through our ongoing emotion recognition research. This app will serve as a tool for individuals to monitor their emotional health, identify trends, and potentially inform their mental health care strategies. We are looking to get students ... Read more

Human Computer Interactions Software Development Tools and Processes 1 Software Development Tools and Processes 2 Web tools and Application

Software Engineering

#95: Connecting Adversarial Learning and Applicability Domain in Cheminformatics

Allocated

The chemical molecule space is gigantic, and machine learning (ML) models predicting molecule properties are typically developed for small and specific applications within that space. One example is the field of drug discovery where models help to focus experimental efforts on only the most promising drug candidates by predicting their properties (such as toxicity and reaction with specific bacteria) beforehand. ... Read more

AI & Machine learning

Software Engineering

#96: Investigating Autobiographical Memory Retrieval and Emotion Induction in Virtual Reality

Allocated

Emotions significantly influence human behaviour, affecting cognition, decision-making, attention, perception, and learning. These emotions are often shaped by social interactions, past experiences, and autobiographical memory (AM)—a construct of self-referential and emotional processes. With the advent of immersive virtual reality (VR) technologies and wearable physiological sensing, new avenues have opened for exploring how VR can enhance the ecological validity of psychophysiological ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Human Computer Interactions Signal Processing

Software Engineering

#97: Grid-supporting and Grid-forming Microgrids

Allocated

Grid-interconnection of BESS (Battery Energy Storage Systems) to MV/LV distribution network would impact the distribution network voltage profile, thermal loading, power flow, safety, and protection. Grid-interconnections standards and guidelines mandate the interconnection requirements to regulate general technical requirements, power quality requirements and safety and protection requirements. There are no interconnection standard or guideline exclusively for BESS. A 2020 part-IV project ... Read more

Green Energy Technologies Power Systems

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#98: Streamlining adversarial machine learning on Memento

Allocated

Running complex sets of machine learning experiments is challenging and time-consuming due to the lack of a unified framework. This leaves researchers forced to spend time implementing necessary features such as parallelization, caching, and checkpointing themselves instead of focussing on their project. To simplify the process, we have developed MEMENTO, a Python package that is designed to aid researchers and ... Read more

AI & Machine learning

Software Engineering

#99: Enhancing Manufacturing Quality with AI-Powered Vision Systems

Allocated

Ensuring consistent quality in manufacturing lines can be a challenge. This is where vision systems with AI come in, offering a potential solution to streamline quality control and improve overall consistency. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare is looking to conduct research into the viability of using development of a vision system that can be used in line with a manufacturing process ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Image & Voice Processing Intelligent Systems & Industrial Informatics

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#100: 3D scanner

Allocated

Your mission in this project is to construct an indoor 3D scanner using a robot arm (link). You will experiment with two camera systems: a calibrated stereo pair and a structured lighting Zivid (link). Note that coming into the project, you will be provided with all the software you need to control the arm and the ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Image & Voice Processing

Software Engineering

#101: Improving the vision system for disease detection

Allocated

This project builds upon the previous part 4 project focused on disease detection using machine learning. A notable gap in the prior work was its sensitivity to lighting conditions. In the previous proposal, a multispectral camera was employed to identify spider mites on beans, with handheld Halogen lights. This project aims to develop a housing unit where the halogen/LED light ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Embedded Systems Image & Voice Processing Robotics

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering Software Engineering

#102: Fault Induced Delayed Voltage Recovery in Active Electricity Distribution Networks

Allocated

Fault Induced Delayed Voltage Recovery (FIDVR) is a well-understood issue with various solution strategies known for transmission systems. Due to well established IEC 61850 implementation methods, smarter solutions for FIDVR are now deployed in transmission networks across the world.However, for distribution networks, FIDVR impacts on protection has been primarily around delayed over-current operation. Active distribution network operation is proliferating ... Read more

Power Systems

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#103: RythmWalker – A Mobile AR Rhythm Game for Promoting Physical Activity

Allocated

Music is a powerful motivator and is extensively used in gyms to make exercises more enjoyable and motivational. Music rhythm can help to increase physical activity by encouraging users to perform exercises, such as running, with the rhythm of the music. Several rhythm games, such as Dance Dance Revolution and Beat Sabre have become commercial successes. Most existing rhythm ... Read more

Games & Education Aids 1 Games & Education Aids 2 Human Computer Interactions

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#104: AR/VR Perceptual Training

Allocated

Perceptual abilities can be affected by various conditions and also naturally decline with age. However, it has been shown that perceptual training can be used to mitigate decline and for rehabilitation. AR and VR are increasingly being used to diagnose, treat and manage a wide range of health issues. However, a significant portion of these virtual diagnostic and ... Read more

Games & Education Aids 1 Games & Education Aids 2 Human Computer Interactions

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#105: Sustainable computing of machine learning and data science jobs

Allocated

When an algorithm is processing some data, e.g. numbers are sorted, an image is filters or a neural network is trained, the foremost objective has been to do as this fast as possible. For decades new processors have become faster, by executing more operations per second, and new algorithms have been more efficient with shorter runtimes. Today, however, computers, from ... Read more

Parallel & Cloud Computing

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#106: Column generation algorithm for task scheduling in parallel systems

Allocated

Today, virtually all computers are parallel systems with multiple processors. To efficiently use such a system it is crucial to carefully map and schedule the tasks of a program onto the processors. This is a very hard optimisation problem and can be described as a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP). Despite extensive research, only small instances can be computed optimally ... Read more

Parallel & Cloud Computing

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#107: VR Bicycle Safety Perception And Training

Allocated

Globally, metropolitan cities are rushing towards Net Zero Emissions by 2030. Use of active mode is becoming easier with new micro-mobility modes such as scooters and e-bikes. Despite these changes, a large proportion of the population in car-centric cities do not cycle. Changes in infrastructure are proving to be not enough to change safety perception and the ease of ... Read more

Games & Education Aids 1 Games & Education Aids 2 Human Computer Interactions

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#108: Drone-based wireless sensor network with battery-less sensors

Allocated

RFID tags have been used as ID tokens in many applications. The project aims to explore the potential of using RFID technology as a basis for battery-less transient power sensor nodes for various sensing applications, where retrieving sensor nodes or replacing batteries are impossible. The end goal is to make these devices as low cost as possible to allow ... Read more

Intelligent Systems & Industrial Informatics Radio Systems

Computer Systems Engineering

#109: A digital twin for Lake Waikare using sensor equipped autonomous watercrafts

Allocated

Lake Waikare (Hamilton, Wakaito) is a heavily polluted lake in the North Island. Intensive farming has caused excessive level of nitrogen and phosphorus to build up which caused negative impact on the aquatic life. The project aims to use sensors deployed on an autonomous watercraft to collect spatial and temporal data of the lake on a regular basis to ... Read more

Embedded Systems Intelligent Systems & Industrial Informatics

Computer Systems Engineering

#110: mmWave based human activity recognition

Allocated

mmWave is an emerging technology and has several benefits in comparison to existing sensors. However, it is currently rarely used for smart environment applications. This project aims to explore the capability of mmWave radar for the purpose of performing various types of indoor human activity recognition. The team will need to investigate and design a mmWave radar based system ... Read more

Human Computer Interactions Image & Voice Processing

Computer Systems Engineering

#111: AR Piano Tutor

Allocated

Music is an important way for humans to express themselves, unite, relate, and gain enjoyment. While many people desire for themselves, or their loved ones, to achieve some form of musical prowess, the discipline remains encumbered by low motivation and high dropout rates. This is despite long established trends between exposure to learning an instrument and enhanced cognitive development. ... Read more

Games & Education Aids 1 Games & Education Aids 2 Human Computer Interactions

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#112: Augmented Reality Gesture-Based Interaction System

Allocated

This project focuses on the development of user interaction in Augmented Reality (AR) by integrating both static and dynamic gesture recognition systems. Users will initiate the experience by scanning their immediate environment using their mobile devices, transforming it into a dynamic and interactive 3D space. Gesture recognition techniques will be implemented to interpret the user's hand movements, allowing for the ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Human Computer Interactions Smart Phone & Tablet Applications Software Development Tools and Processes 1

Computer Systems Engineering

#113: Enhancing Cybersecurity in Digital Substations: An Investigation into the Practical Application of Intrusion Detection Systems

Allocated

Digital substations represent a significant advancement in the modernization of power systems infrastructure, leveraging technologies to enhance efficiency, reliability, and monitoring capabilities. Unlike conventional substations architectures that rely on point-to-point wiring, digital substations employ standardized communication protocols to facilitate seamless integration of intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) and substation automation systems. At the forefront of this transition is the International ... Read more

Power Systems

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering Software Engineering

#114: Testing Common Software Vulnerability Patches

Allocated

There is a large and growing number of software vulnerabilities being discovered and reported, resulting in CVE (common vulnerability exposure) entries in the National Vulnerability Database (NVD). In open source projects, CVEs are usually quickly addressed with patch commits, and subsequent releases of new versions. Often those commits include regression tests to give some evidence that the vulnerability is fixed. ... Read more

Software Development Tools and Processes 1 Software Development Tools and Processes 2

Software Engineering

#115: Towards a Framework to Improve and Validate Source Code generated by Large Language Models

Allocated

In recent years Large Language Models (e.g., ChatGPT) are showing extraordinary performance. Many Software Engineering researchers around the world are now investigating how to exploit LLMs to automating software engineering tasks like source code or test case generation, showing promising results. When doing so, researchers are facing the challenge of automatically executing and testing the LLM-generated code, which often does ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Software Development Tools and Processes 1 Software Development Tools and Processes 2

Software Engineering

#116: Towards Automated Behaviour-Driven Development

Allocated

Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD) is a collaborative software development methodology involving developers, QA professionals, and non-technical stakeholders. It centres on constructing human-readable scenarios in Gherkin, detailing the desired system behaviour. Selenium test cases, specifically designed for the user interface (UI), play a pivotal role in BDD by directly implementing Gherkin scenarios—establishing a clear and direct one-to-one mapping between the articulated behaviour ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Software Development Tools and Processes 1 Software Development Tools and Processes 2

Software Engineering

#117: Beehive CO2 Monitoring

Allocated

A research project the a the UoA is developing a novel behavioural monitoring system for beehives. Part of this system will require CO2 sensing and we need to select the most appropriate sensor for use in the hive. This project will involve testing a range of available CO2 sensors in a range of environments to enable an informed decision about ... Read more

Control Systems Embedded Systems

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#118: Machine learning applied to behavioural markers in beehives

Allocated

A research project the a the UoA is developing a novel behavioural monitoring system for beehives. A part of this system will require the analysis of large sets of multivariate time-series data. This project will utilise existing datasets to develop ML methods that might be best suited to identifying changes in circadian rhythms that are predictive of certain events. It ... Read more

Control Systems Embedded Systems

Computer Systems Engineering

#119: Bias in Large Language Models

Allocated

There has been a lot of research in the past about detecting bias in Large Language Models (LLMs) but it is very US centric. The goal of this project is to develop software that also detects bias in the NZ context. The project will be part of an ongoing research project, which identifies and tackles bias in AI. The output ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Web tools and Application

Software Engineering

#120: [CDP-ENGSCI] PkW Shareholder Matching and Visualisation

Allocated

We are working with Parininihi ki Waitotara (PKW), a Māori organisation based in Taranaki. Like many other organisations, PKW have shareholders who transfer shares over time, typically between family members. They wish to better understand these transfers by creating visualisations of the 'flow' of shares between people over time. Creating an easy-to-follow visualisation requires careful layout of the people (nodes) ... Read more

Web tools and Application

Software Engineering

#121: The confluence and navigation of disconnected repositories of building information

Allocated

There are many sources of information that you might want to access when looking at a piece of land you could build on. The council holds information on the land and its allowable use, they also can provide information on the neighbouring properties and their owners, LINZ hold information on the actual boundaries, Google and others have photographic views of ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Human Computer Interactions Software Development Tools and Processes 1 Web tools and Application

Software Engineering

#122: Wireless charging of real-time tracking devices for healthcare applications

Allocated

Dedicated mobile devices are widely used for tracking people who need special care or assistance, for example, patients suffering from dementia. Apart from wireless data transfer, it has been a challenging task to maintain the power needed for driving these devices. This project is to develop a wireless/contactless platform for charging the battery or supercapacitors in UWB (Ultra-WhiteBand) devices for ... Read more

Power Electronics & Electronics Systems

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#123: Contactless power supply and control of wheel hub motors

Allocated

Wheel hub motors are used for electric bikes, robots, AGVs (Automatic Guided Vehicles), and other light electric vehicles. This project is to study the feasibility of driving wheel hub motors wirelessly for increased safety and reliability. The work involves a literature review and preliminary study to clarify the power and control requirements of wheel hub motors, the design of a ... Read more

Power Electronics & Electronics Systems

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#124: Automated Ontology Learning with Large Language Models

Allocated

LLMs (Large Language Models), such as ChatGPT, are technologies with unprecedented text analysis capabilities. Despite the performance of LLMs is continuously improving, they still suffer from hallucinations and somehow limited capabilities when performing complex reasoning tasks. To explain LLMs results and perform complex reasoning tasks in specific domains, it is possible to adopt an Ontology. In general, Ontologies represent knowledge ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Software Development Tools and Processes 1 Software Development Tools and Processes 2

Software Engineering

#125: Improving Search-Based Test Generation with Large Language Models

Allocated

Software testing is a costly yet crucial task in software engineering, ensuring confidence in the expected behaviour of implemented software. The automated generation of test cases is a significant and actively researched aspect of software engineering. Search-based software engineering has demonstrated effectiveness in automatically generating test cases, achieving high code coverage, and uncovering faults. EvoSuite, currently the most effective test ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Software Development Tools and Processes 1 Software Development Tools and Processes 2

Software Engineering

#126: Electricity Smart Meter Data Applications using Big Data analytics and ANN

Allocated

Smart Meter penetration across the globe is ever increasing, for example in New Zealand we have close to 72% already. There are several implementations and publications around utilizing Smart meter data for various applications. Alongside, there is also a pick-up of penetration of distributed energy technologies like PV and Storage batteries, which makes the distribution networks bidirectional, influencing changing load ... Read more

Power Systems

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#127: Decoding Discourse: Advancing Fairness in Speech Technology

Allocated

It is common for many of us to change the way we speak so that voice-activated systems (such as Siri, Alexa) understand us! This is called bias in speech technology, where the technology works best only for speakers of well-resources languages such as American English. For speakers of other languages/accents such as Ne Zealand English, the technology does not work ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Image & Voice Processing

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#128: Anomaly detection for IoT-based time series

Allocated

IoT sensors are widely spread and collecting enormous amount of data. However, sensor data may contact noises caused by different factors, which will impact the data processing steps later on for providing intelligent services. This project aims to explore the existence and the type of anomalies (i.e. abnormal data) in IoT sensor time series, and investigate the potential to ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Signal Processing

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#129: High power Inductor design for an IPT Inverter

Allocated

Recent developments in transportation wireless power systems are focused on high power stationary systems suitable for fast charging stations for light, medium and heavy duty vehicles. This is placing considerable strain on the primary converter that typically uses a number of switches (within a full bridge inverter) to convert high voltage DC and current to AC through a tuned resonant ... Read more

Power Electronics & Electronics Systems Wireless Power Technologies

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#130: Supercapacitor energy management for energy harvesting systems

Allocated

In this project you will work to develop and optimise a supercapacitor energy management system for energy harvesters. Multiple energy harvesting sources feed into this system to extract ambient energy in whichever possible form to then store and distribute energy purely using supercapacitors. The target is low power IoT applications that require power in the mili to microwatt range. Supercapacitors, ... Read more

Green Energy Technologies Power Electronics & Electronics Systems

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#131: STEM: Computing and Electronics Education for High School Classrooms

Allocated

STEM is a hot topic among parents and communities where there is a lot of focus on promoting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEAM) among the future generation. The predecessor of this project has developed a series of activities, which target high school students. These activities are based around computer hardware, allowing students to investigate the backend of computing devices ... Read more

Games & Education Aids 1 Games & Education Aids 2

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#132: Mood Colours - Colours for treating anxiety and depression

Allocated

Colours, as music, affect our mood and are associated with emotions. For example, we say: “I feel blue” when we are sad. Certain aspects of colour emotions association are universal and probably have biological origins. However, other aspects of colour emotion association depend on culture. For example, while green symbolizes happiness for Muslims, this colour corresponds to envy ... Read more

Human Computer Interactions Smart Phone & Tablet Applications

Software Engineering

#133: Compressive Sensing Illustrated (CSI): A Visual Educational Aid for Learning Compressive Sensing Concepts

Allocated

Compressive Sensing (CS) is a relatively new signal processing technique that challenges the conventional Shannon-Nyquist theorem, asserting that signals can be accurately reconstructed from significantly fewer samples than dictated by the traditional sampling rate. Compressive sensing exploits the inherent sparsity of many real-world signals, where only a small fraction of the data carries significant information. This is achieved through a ... Read more

Games & Education Aids 1 Games & Education Aids 2 Signal Processing

Computer Systems Engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering

#134: Behaviour Analysis using Computer Vision for Training Accelerator-based Ear Tags

Allocated

The project advocates for a transformative method in livestock monitoring by marrying computer vision with intelligent wearable devices. It aims to circumvent the constraints posed by traditional sensor-reliant systems and the prohibitive cost of hardware, suggesting a method for precise behavior tracking and categorization in cows, such as grazing and ruminating, via a computer vision model. This methodology is designed ... Read more

AI & Machine learning

Computer Systems Engineering Software Engineering

#135: Automatic Testing of StackOverflow.com Code Snippets

Allocated

Online developer forums such as StackOverflow.com (SO) have transformed how code is written by fostering a culture of searching and reusing code snippets. While various techniques have emerged to facilitate the reuse and analysis of SO code snippets, the automatic testing of these snippets remains an unexplored challenge. This research project seeks to address this gap by designing, implementing, and ... Read more

Software Development Tools and Processes 1 Software Development Tools and Processes 2

Software Engineering

#136: A Smart Inventory Management System with Asset Tracking

Allocated

This project explores cost effective and user friendly technologies to identify and track the location of assets, for example packages in a warehouse, equipment used in industry/universities, etc. The key focus will be to minimize the need for costly infrastructure needed for localization, while maximizing usability. The research will compare the use of Bluetooth beacons against using indoor localization methods ... Read more

Human Computer Interactions Web tools and Application

Software Engineering

#137: MoodAI: Objective mood state assessment using digital biomarkers

Allocated

There is a widening gap between available health funding and mental health needs both globally and also in New Zealand. Digital health is an opportunity for addressing this widening gap. Phones, wearables, and deep learning, can effectively detect, prevent, and manage health issues. This is also consistent with UN’s “Be He@lthy and Be Mobile”. Current digital methods of ... Read more

AI & Machine learning Software Development Tools and Processes 1

Computer Systems Engineering

Projects for 2024