New Zealand Excellence Awards Winners Announced

22 November 2006
(Embargoed until 10 pm)

New Zealand Excellence Awards Winners Announced

"The New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards celebrates the industry as a business and the crux of innovation", says Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ) Chief Executive Dr Andrew Cleland.

Winners for individual and category sections of the New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards were announced at a Gala Dinner at TE PAPA, Wellington tonight.

Hamilton's Alpha Aviation Ltd took away the Supreme Award for New Zealand Engineering Excellence 2006 for the manufacture of two-seater training aircraft. Alpha Aviation's success represents a major contribution to the New Zealand economy. The company has 21 orders for aircraft waiting. It's expected that 90 percent of production will be exported. Alpha Aviation contributes to employment both directly and through subcontracting the manufacture of some 700 components within New Zealand. The Supreme Award is sponsored by Career Engineer. Alpha Aviation also won Category F: Mechanical and Manufacturing .

Other 2006 Category Award winners include:

Sinclair Knight Merz Ltd's work on the Telstra Clear Pacific Events Centre, Manukau saw the consulting firm take away the award for Category A: Building, Construction and Amenities. A smart approach to challenges which included poor ground conditions resulted in a building which is elegant and cost effective.

Transwaste Canterbury Limited; Canterbury Waste Services Limited; Fulton Hogan Ltd; and Tonkin & Taylor Ltd were a finalist in two category awards for their work on the Kate Valley Landfill in North Canterbury. They won Category B: Utilities & Networks. The project brought together all the Canterbury Councils for the first time to tackle both constraints and environmental issues.

Maunsell Limited won Category C: Roads and Transport for their work on the Great South Road / Sylvia Park Intersection Upgrade and Bridge Replacement, Auckland. The $9.5 million project is expected to create economic benefits to the wider community with savings of over $38 million over a 25-year period.

Endace Ltd produced the DAG7.1S Networking Monitoring Interface Card and were awarded winner of Category D: Information & Communication Technology. Network interface cards support computer networks by facilitating the communication between networks and computers. The DAG (Data Analysis and Generation) Card 7.1S was developed for an overseas client but it may have potential for more general marketing.

Demand Response Limited; Process Development Limited won Category E: Food, Bioprocess and Chemical for the Fonterra Energy Reduction Project – Heat Recovery Loop at Fonterra's Whareroa site, Hawera. The project, once applied over all Fonterra sites, will contribute to energy savings.

Christchurch's Steelbro New Zealand Ltd won Category G: Electrical and Systems for its SMARTlift Load Monitoring System. Steelbro currently holds about 40 per cent of the international market for sidelifters worldwide.

Energy Mad Holdings Limited's Household Efficient Lighting Projects (HELP) took out Category H: Sustainability and Clean Technology. Christchurch-based Energy Mad's project has resulted in a peak electricity network loading reduction of 34 megawatts, electricity savings of 378 gigawatt-hours and $60 million of electricity over the life of the bulbs.

2006 Individual Award winners include:

The William Pickering Award for Engineering Leadership went to Laurence Zwimpfer. His career began with the New Zealand Post Office and a cadetship working in Coventry, United Kingdom. As Business Futures Manager Laurence led the marketing team that split telecommunications, Telecom, away from New Zealand Post. He is now a consultant specialising in education technologies and learning networks. He is also a commissioner with the National Commission for UNESCO.

Dr Olaf Diegel's commitment to innovation in engineering, earnt him the New Zealand Innovator of the Year. Over the last 10 years he has developed over 40 commercialised new products including new theatre lighting products, security and marine products and home health monitoring products. For this work he has received over a dozen New Zealand and international awards.

Hannah Sperber won the Award for Excellence in Engineering Journalism for her article 'A Small World: Nanotechnology' in North & South magazine. Hannah's article explores the emerging field of nanotechnology, which enables scientists and engineers to build things smaller and stronger than ever before but also raises the ethical dilemmas of developing technology.

Wellington woman Jonnette Adams is the 2006 Young Engineer of the Year. Jonnette is Transit New Zealand's project manager responsible for the Wellington Inner City Bypass Project. Her ability to show the public that engineering can be fun and interesting turned public perception around and gained community support for the project.

The New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards were staged by a consortium of four partners and ten contributing organisations. The founding partners are: Centre for Advanced Engineering (CAE); Association of Local Government Engineering New Zealand Incorporated (Ingenium); Electricity Engineers Association of New Zealand (EEA) and the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand Inc (IPENZ).

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