How the Newmarket Campus is growing to support student, staff and industry innovation

Since its opening in 2015, our Newmarket Campus has grown to support a range of activities that meets the initial intention of creating a multidisciplinary space where people can turn their unique ideas into potentially groundbreaking solutions. From student clubs to industry-leading labs, Newmarket remains a space dedicated to a broad range of engineering pursuits and disciplines.

New to the faculty this year, Professor Olaf Diegel is currently overseeing the formation of the Creative Design and Additive Manufacturing Lab. The lab is intended to help New Zealand continue to punch above its weight in additive manufacturing. It’s also yet another example of the Newmarket Campus acting as a link between academic discovery and industry applications.

"My goal is also to form a better relationship between the pure academics and industry people to get both working together in much better ways and to help students with start-up ideas or spin-off companies,” Olaf explains.

“These relationships modernise a university – we can no longer just stand at the front of the classroom. We have to advance New Zealand in some way. Working with industry is a good way to do that.”

The Newmarket Innovation Precinct (NIP) is also working to connect industry professionals with the technical and research experts that comprise Faculty of Engineering staff. NIP offers membership and co-location services to members of industry who want to be part of a community dedicated to developing globally relevant technologies.

For example, Hilti has signed up to membership level that includes multiple people from the company’s executive team. Hilti’s involvement with the Faculty of Engineering has included a number of projects designed to test the safety of its products, and the company has engaged with staff members such as Charles Clifton, Quincy Ma and Jason Ingham, among others. It’s also an opportunity for students and researchers to connect with the brand; Hilti employees have held careers seminars outlining job opportunities and donated tools to the campus.

The diverse range of members and co-locators has continued to grow in recent months too. Long-term mainstays Douglas Nutrition have been joined by organisations specialising consulting, rapid product development and prototyping, and AR/VR technologies.

Newmarket Campus is also home to the faculty’s Formula SAE team and its purpose-built workshop. Over 50 undergraduate students work together to build a car from scratch each year to compete in Melbourne. It’s a project generously supported by a number of sponsors and donors, and the level of support is reflected in the team’s results. Since 2016, the team has competed solely with electric vehicles, achieving a third place overall in class at last year’s event.

This is just a small selection of updates from what has grown into a busy campus. To see the full range of research areas and labs at Newmarket, head to the research section of our website. For updates on NIP and everything else happening within the Faculty of Engineering, be sure to follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn.