Summer Research Scholarship extends engineering experience

The 2019 Poster Competition featured the works of over 50 Engineering Summer Research Scholars from across our five departments. The results of their progress from the previous summer were presented in person, and in poster form.

According to Dean of Engineering Professor Nic Smith, this year was notable in the diverse range of research showcased. The Summer Research Scholarship not only presents insights into what postgraduate study can be like, but also extends the breadth of what’s possible with engineering research.

This year’s winner of the competition is Winston He, a Part IV Civil Engineering Student who worked on a project entitled Structural analysis and design of multi-storey CFS-framed building with seismic damage-resistant system: Initial analysis and seismic design”. The intention was to model a cold-formed steel modular structure with a seismic damage-resistant system and study the performance of this structure under different types of loads.

“To challenge this, a former PhD student called John Jing has studied and developed a seismic-damage resistant system called the slider device which can replace the steel frame and provides the modules seismic resistant,” Winston explained. “My objective was to apply the slider device to a realistically modelled structure and see if it works.”

The Summer Research Scholarships allow students to work with our researchers and further understand how their areas of expertise. In this case, Winston took the opportunity to ask as Dr Charles Clifton and Associate Professor James Lin as many questions as possible, and learned more about what will take to be a successful Engineer once he graduates.

“Charles gave me clear and detailed explanations and he never got impatient,” Winston said. “He also taught me a lot of things that were out of the scope of this project which were very helpful.”

“I learned you need to have a clear idea of what you are doing and have your goals set. Don’t just wait for somebody to tell you what to do, otherwise you will find yourself falling behind very quickly.”

The runners up for the competition were: Abby Barry, Omar Mustafa, Arvin Lim, and Kevin Zhong. Faye Mendes-Underwood, Phoenix Matautia-Carmont, Marino Flavell, Georgia Naera and Shari Masina were also presented with an award for their contributions that were individual components of a larger project run by Dr Tumanako Fa'aui and Associate Professor Liam Wotherspoon.

The next round of Summer Research Scholarships for the Faculty of Engineering will open on June 16.