KEY POINTS:
I'm heading back from Christchurch after the launch of the Blue Gene supercomputer. It attracted an impressive line-up of politicians, academics and tech-sector heavyweights.
I've only had a small taste of the type of work Blue Gene will be employed on and most if it goes right over
my head. But it's complex, scientific stuff to say the least and it's great that the University of Canterbury and by default, the country, is part of that club of Blue Gene hosts.
Hopefully many useful national and international collaborations will result.
Collaboration also seems to be the theme at UCi3 innovation institution which Canterbury is setting up. It's basically a centre for R&D where students can work and are encouraged to start up their own companies and commercialise their own ideas in conjunction with private investors.
UCi3's new director, Dr. Darin Graham is a good hire - he's done this type of thing to good effect in Canada. The breadth of the work that will go on at UCi3 is also impressive - seven key themes will be pursued - wireless research, bioengineering, human interface technology, software engineering, geospatial, nanotechnology and assistive technology. Each theme will have a theme leader, an advisory panel and a research group.
As with Blue Gene, UCi3 is looking to collaborate with other businesses and institutions nationally and around the world, so while other institutions might jealously look at what Canterbury is setting up, the Christchurch centre has the potential to be a hotbed for technology development for the country in general.
The strength of Canterbury's ties with the local tech businesses is also impressive. Many of those businesses are filled with Canterbury graduates keen to give something back.
What's most important is the stated purpose of UCi3: "...to step up tertiary education sector capability in order to meet the needs of the national ICT sector."
There's a worldwide shortage of people training in the area of ICT and that's an acute problem for New Zealand as well as every other country. But it university students have the ability to create their own intellectual property and spin-off companies, the chances of them succeeding and staying in New Zealand to feed the skills base of the ICT sector are greatly improved.