Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce and Platinum Partner BNZ are pleased to bring back our BNZ Technology & Innovation series events.

The event is free for members using their registered member business name.

Focusing on local businesses that are leading the way in science, technology, & innovation from right here in the Hutt Valley.

This session is hosted by BNZ and are an opportunity to network with like-minded people from our business community whilst showcasing three speakers sharing what their organisations are working on. 

SPEAKERS

Stephen Thwaite | CEO, T&R Interior Systems

T&R Interior Systems specialise in the supply of quality interior building and acoustic products fully backed by extensive technical support and friendly service. They offer expert interior acoustic solutions and are passionate about correctly engineered non-structural seismic design for suspended ceilings and partition walls. T&R Interior Systems is 100% NZ owned and operated and has been in business for over 27 years. They provide a professional design consultation service (acoustic and seismic) for architects and designers that is unequalled in the market.

Floc offers an innovative, fresh use for New Zealand strong-wool as acoustic panels. The benefits of wool create Floc’s well rounded approach to enhancing interior commercial and education environments. Bringing wool indoors makes every interior better. To provide world leading wool acoustic products, Floc harnesses the strength, resilience and innovative nature of this natural fibre. Committed to supplying a responsible wall lining product, a rigorous research and development program ensures we are bringing the goodness of Aotearoa New Zealand to the interior market.

Professor Rod Badcock | Professor and Senior Principal Engineer, Robinson Research Institute 

Air New Zealand Airbus Partnership

Paihau—Robinson Research Institute joined Airbus, ATR, Universal Hydrogen, Embraer, and Heart Aerospace as long-term partners announced by Air New Zealand in February 2023

The partners will work with Air New Zealand to accelerate the development and introduction of zero emissions aircraft technology in New Zealand. Paihau—Robinson Research Institute will evaluate and validate aircraft propulsion technology as concepts develop and mature. 

Air New Zealand is working with Paihau—Robinson Research Institute to ensure new aircraft technology can be integrated into New Zealand’s future air transport system.

Professor Rod Badcock has 33 years research experience in applied R&D covering manufacturing process monitoring and control, materials sensing, and superconducting systems. Since 2006, he has concentrated on superconducting machines development, production, and excitation and control at the Paihau-Robinson Research Institute, Victoria University of Wellington, Lower Hutt, New Zealand. He is currently the Institute Deputy Director, Chief Engineer, Professor and specializes in the management of complex engineering projects, including customer-focused multidisciplinary programmes. He is particularly known for the development of the superconducting dynamos for electric machines and the NZ MBIE programme developing aircraft superconducting electric propulsion technology. Rod is recognized as one of the leading experts in the application of superconducting dynamos, cables and protection to electric machines and translating high temperature superconductivity into commercial practice that has included General Cable Superconductors, Siemens, HTS-110, and several of the compact fusion programmes. Committed to the next generation, his students have gone on to achieve significant commercial success in their own right in founding sustainable fusion energy, space systems and autonomous vehicle companies.

Professor Badcock was awarded the 2022 Royal Society Te Aparangi Pickering Medal for developing superconducting technologies that are enabling electrical machines at the leading edge of current engineering practice. He was recently awarded the 2022 Science and Technology Wellingtonian of the year and was a key member of the team awarded the Royal Society of New Zealand Cooper Medal in 2008 for the development of high-temperature superconducting cables for power system applications including 1 MVA transformer, 60 MW hydro generator, and 150 MW utility generator.

Annette Koo | Director and Chief Metrologies, Measurement Standards Laboratory

The Measurement Standards Laboratory of New Zealand (MSL) is New Zealand's national metrology institute, ensuring that New Zealand's units of measurement are consistent with the International System of Units, the SI.

We employ 40 scientists, technicians and engineers based at Callaghan Innovation in Gracefield, Lower Hutt

As New Zealand’s national metrology institute (NMI), our goal is to support New Zealand’s economy, wellbeing, and innovation by providing measurement standards and expertise that are globally relevant and trusted.

Measurement underpins scientific and technological innovation, enhances competitiveness in business, and strengthens regulation of health, safety, and the environment.

Consumer confidence and trust is supported by the measurement traceability provided by MSL, enabling the regulation of legislation to protect consumers, and reducing exposure to lower quality goods and services.

Annette completed a physics PhD through Victoria University of Wellington in 2005 and then spent 3 years in Melbourne as a postdoctoral fellow at CSIRO and then at Monash University doing research into catalysts for solar hydrogen generation.

In 2008 she started at MSL as a research scientist, developing expertise in the measurement of light and human perception, including the design of MSL’s robot-based goniospectrophotometer and piloting the CCPR comparison of spectral transmittance.

Since late 2021 Annette has been the Chief Metrologist for MSL. The Chief Metrologist is a verifying authority for measurement standards under the National Standards Regulations 1976 in relation to the verification and reverification of any standard or standards of measurement. The main duty of the role is to ensure the integrity of the measurement system in New Zealand. In practice, the Chief Metrologist needs to be satisfied that measurement results provided by MSL are traceable to the SI (the International System of Units) and that measurements carried out in NZ by IANZ-accredited laboratories can be traceable to the SI by relying on verified measurement results supplied by MSL.

WHERE | BNZ Partners Centre, 45 Knights Road, Lower Hutt 

WHEN | Thursday, 27 July 2023

TIME | 5.30pm - 7.30pm

COST | Members complimentary, Non members $25.00 + GST