Scholarship to boost research outcomes

13 January 2015

Scholarship to boost research outcomes

Two postgraduate students from the University of Waikato’s Faculty of Science and Engineering have been awarded Dick and Mary Earle Scholarships in Technology for 2015.

Master of Engineering student Sean Charleston has been awarded $17,000 for his research into 3D shape measurement of moving objects for industrial applications.

Sean’s research is into 3D cameras. Each pixel in these cameras returns a distance value to the scene. One of the key limitations in these cameras is that they need to take multiple captures to form one image. If there is any motion in the scene, the final image will be distorted.

“My research is around correcting this motion, specifically relating to industry,” says Sean. “This scholarship will help support my research in assisting with living costs, equipment purchases and attending a conference next year to present my work. I was very happy when I found out I’d received it, as it takes away the financial stress for my research.”

The 22-year-old says he chose this area of research as it is an up-and-coming technology with a wide range of applications, including in gesture control and automated vehicles, and is “a very interesting and challenging field both mathematically and physically”.

Sean has a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in electronic engineering from Waikato and is half-way through his Masters degree.

Steven McCabe, a PhD student in electronic engineering, has been awarded $5000 for his work in implantable electrode structures and their RF (radio frequency) effects.

“People with implants such as pacemakers or spinal cord stimulators aren’t eligible for MRI scans. It's not so much the huge magnetic field that's the problem, it's the enormous RF field that can induce dangerous levels of heating in the tissue near the implant electrodes.

“I'm looking for ways of reducing this heating effect, with the end goal of making an MRI-safe electrode. This scholarship will help me reach this goal.”

Steven has a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in electronic engineering and Master of Philosophy from the University of Waikato.

Dick and Mary Earle established this scholarship for the support and encouragement of postgraduate research into aspects of technology in New Zealand universities. The purpose of the scholarship is to provide funds for individuals to undertake research towards a masters or a doctoral degree at a New Zealand university or research institution in one or both of the fields of innovation and product development, or bioprocess technology.

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