University of Auckland researchers using TTL tools and software to understand Māori-ecosystem interactions and adaptations on the offshore islands of Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Our Te Pūnaha Matatini and Marden-funded research is investigating the complex interplay between early Māori settlers and the ecosystems of small offshore islands. Guided by foundational Polynesian principles, the settlers of Aotearoa learned to live in a fundamentally different environment and developed unique kaitiakitanga (values, principles, and guardianship practices) and tikanga (customary environmental practices).
Our transdisciplinary project studies alternative kaitiakitanga and ecodynamics models on six small offshore islands. It is a 2,700 km latitudinal transect from sub-tropical Raoul to sub-Antarctic Enderby Island. The research team includes archaeologists, palaeoecologists, geomorphologists, biogeochemists, computer modelers, and Matauranga Māori researchers.
Our research to date has been focused on Ahuahu Great Mercury Island off of the Coromandel Peninsula and Enderby Island in the deep Southern Ocean. On both islands, we have employed a range of cutting-edge technologies to gather spatial information about the materials we recover. During excavations, we use a Trimble total station to record the provenience of every artifact, feature, deposit, and palaeoecological sample, resulting in a database of several hundred thousand entries. In more remote areas of the islands, we record features, excavations, and palaeoecological vibra-cores with Trimble TDC-150 GNSS units. All data are manipulated with Trimble Business Center and other software for integration into our ArcGIS Pro GIS.
Thanks to these advanced technologies, we can integrate and analyze our multiple data streams to begin understanding the complex socio-environmental relations of early Māori settlers.
The University of Auckland TTL LiDAR scans bridging solutions to share Māori ancient knowledge and natural landscapes with the whenua and the people.
Over the last 12 years, photographer Dr Joyce Campbell, Associate Professor in Fine Arts from the University of Auckland, has worked closely with Ngāi Kohatu kaumātua and tribal historian and storyteller Richard Niania, sharing the stories of the largest catchment in the Hawke’s Bay region. In the last few years, this project expanded to include many other hapu and stakeholder groups in Wairoa and a substantial team of University of Auckland academics, in the context of climate and flood events.
Joyce and her team used a TTL LiDAR scanner (a Trimble TX6) to capture point clouds of landscapes significant to the local community. They then processed the point clouds in Trimble Realworks, eventually importing point cloud sections into Blender, placed virtual cameras around the landscape, and exported point cloud “photographs.” The print digital negatives were inked with ink containing charcoal sourced from burned piles of pine slash washed up on the Wairoa beach.
They’ve used this material in an exhibition at the Wairoa Museum and developed a small edition of books for distribution to local Wairoa Kura Kaupapa and kohunga reo. Richard also composed a short story/whakapapa, written in Maori te reo with local idiomatic elements, illustrated with images extracted from LiDAR point cloud data.
To read more about the exhibition, please visit The Gisborne Herald newsletter: Exhibition ‘so us, so Wairoa’: ‘There are so many taniwha in this rohe’ says new director (gisborneherald.co.nz)
TTL Welcomes Civil Engineering Postgraduate Paper for Technology Demonstration
CIVIL 768: Construction Technology and Innovation is a compulsory paper in the Master of Engineering Studies in Construction Management degree at the University of Auckland’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The course includes topics ranging from advanced building materials to sustainability and innovative construction systems to “Construction 4.0”.
As part of the Construction 4.0 Module, Professional Teaching Fellow Na Zhou utilizes a Trimble TX6 and Trimble Business Center software in the Trimble Technology Lab (TTL) to illustrate to students how digitization and new technologies are shaping various processes and how the industry functions. She says that, even though it’s brief, the hands-on experience in the TTL makes a big difference in students’ interest and engagement with the topic.
Na plans to expand the module in the future, assigning students to manipulate scan data themselves in an assignment to produce useful outputs. TTL software and training will be a core enabler for this task, allowing students a more industry-relevant experience in the classroom.
GNSS Field Basics Training Delivered for UoA Staff
Seven staff from the faculties of Engineering, Science, Business, and Creative Arts and Industries took part in a geospatial Field Basics training on campus last week. With the help of Ben Broad and Luke Johnson from Trimble’s Christchurch office, attendees used the industry-standard hardware listed below to collect geospatial survey data in Albert Park.
Hardware tools used (all included in the University of Auckland Trimble Technology Lab Gift.
- SX12 Scanning Total Station
- R2 GNSS Receiver
- TSC5 Controller
- TSC7 Controller
- TDC600 Handheld
After data collection was complete, the group processed the collected data in Trimble Business Center on some of the 250 computers in the TTL itself. This gave attendees hands-on experience in the basic workflows enabled by the technology.
Trimble Business Center is Trimble’s flagship software package for transforming geospatial field data into actionable information, and is one of 14 pieces of software included in the TTL gift.
UoA Trimble Technology Lab Hosts TBC Power Week for Students and Professional Surveyors
Trimble Business Center (TBC) is Trimble’s flagship survey CAD software for capturing, processing, and visualising geospatial data and turning it into high-quality, actionable information and client deliverables. It is included in Trimble’s 2023 Trimble Technology Lab (TTL) gift to the University of Auckland, and contains a deep set of features and tools for managing field data.
AllTerra distributes TBC in New Zealand and periodically hosts a TBC Power Week for industry practitioners to deepen their understanding of and skillset in TBC. Last week, the University of Auckland’s Trimble Technology Lab welcomed seven TBC Power Week instructors (from both AllTerra and Trimble) and approximately 30 trainees for the three-day training. Six students and staff from the university also took part in the training, expanding the foundation of Trimble software expertise on campus.
The three days of deep dives into TBC covered the topics outlined below and highlighted the latest features in the Trimble software.
Day 1: CORE: Efficiency in UI / Streamlining your feature codes + processing / Reducing combinations of data / Adjusting networks
Day 2: CONSTRUCT: Construction computations / Scan inspections + BIM objects / Photogrammetry + volumes
Day 3: CHECK / CLASSIFY / CREATE: Monitoring / Point Cloud processing / Creating CAD deliverables
Trimble Technology Lab Hosts Tekla Software Training for Postgraduate Students
The University of Auckland’s Trimble Technology Lab (TTL) proudly hosted an introductory software training in December 2023, focusing on advanced structural engineering tools. The training, led by BuildingPoint NZ’s Theo Zentgraf, covered Tekla Structures, Tekla Tedds, and Tekla Structural Designer. Approximately one dozen postgraduate students attended the training; they were primarily enrolled in the Masters of Engineering in Construction Management or Civil Engineering PhD programmes.
Thanks to the TTL gift, the students gained hands-on experience with these powerful software solutions, enhancing their skills in structural analysis, design, and documentation. The training aimed to equip the next generation of engineers with the tools and knowledge necessary to excel in the rapidly evolving field of structural engineering.
Trimble SketchUp allowed an Urban Planning student to create a monument with Māori’s design vision reaching out to the natural realm.
As part of his Urban Planning Studies, University of Auckland student Simon Jo used Trimble SketchUp via the TTL to design and bring to life a Māori monument placed in its natural environment in Auckland city as part of Māori’s vision outwards to the natural world.
Circus plan, a common European urban design scheme, converges the vision to the central civic monument, which makes a grand statement about the human capacity to conquer. Instead, Māori’s design scheme, Pa, diverges the vision outwards to the natural realm, treating it as something that should be eternally feared, revered, and borrowed.
The tower exists not only as a singular monument but also as the nexus for the circus inhabitants and Tamaki Makaurau’s (Auckland) nature, framing the unchanged vistas of Waitemata Harbour.
Over 300 students are enrolled in the Urban Planning degree, from the School of Architecture and Planning. They interact regularly with SketchUp technology every year. Among a suite of software tools students have access to, SketchUp is most commonly used to quickly create 3D models of students’ ideas at the start of the design process. Some will then shift their ideas to another software package (e.g., CityEngine, Revit, or ArchiCAD), but some choose to further develop their deliverables in SketchUp.
Further information about Simon’s concept and other examples of student work are available on the School of Architecture and Planning’s Digital Archive site: https://www.soaparchive.ac.nz/2024/07/08/destranded-an-urban-model-towards-regenerating-whenua-2/
Trimble Karahipi Hangarau/Technology Scholarship launch for Māori and Pacific Students at the University of Auckland
Established in 2023 by Trimble Navigation NZ, part of Trimble Inc, this Scholarship’s main purpose is to assist and encourage Māori and Pacific students to pursue their studies and careers in areas such as software development, UI design, mathematics, mechatronics, computational design, and other STEM disciplines.
The Trimble Karahipi Hangarau/Technology Scholarship for Māori and Pacific Students is a significant opportunity. With a value of up to $8,000, this Scholarship, awarded once a year, provides substantial financial support for the University of Auckland students.
The Scholarship is available to any student enrolled in Part II or III of a Bachelor of Advance Science, Bachelor of Architectural Studies, Bachelor of Design, Bachelor of Engineering, Bachelor of Science, or Bachelor of Urban Planning.
Photography Session
A couple of our students recently posed for photographs for the Alumni Magazine at the Trimble Lab.
University of Auckland TTL Grand Opening with Trimble Directors and the University Vice-Chancellor.
The Trimble Technology Lab’s Grand Opening event took place on 28 March 2023 in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Auckland. The opening had 80 attendees, including academic and professional staff from the Faculties of Engineering, Science, and the Creative Arts and Industries. Students of the University, industry partners, and Trimble representatives from New Zealand and the US gathered on a special evening to celebrate the official opening of the Auckland, New Zealand TTL and the signing of an expanded sponsorship agreement between both parties.
Trimble representatives Amy Northcutt, Global Director, Education & Outreach, and Jason Hill, Vice-President, OneAg Global Engineering, assisted the event and gave speeches. The University of Auckland Vice-Chancellor, Dawn Freshwater, also attended, highlighting the significance of the TTL’s Grand Opening and the relationship between the University of Auckland and Trimble Inc.
“One of the things I’m most delighted by is that while the Trimble Technology Lab is physically located within the Faculty of Engineering, Trimble’s software and hardware will be used across the whole University by many Faculties and Research Institutes. And much of the Trimble software can be used by students in their own faculties, computer labs, and even at home.” – Dawn Freshwater, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Auckland
