The Ministry of Transport and BusinessNZ are partnering to commission a study into how New Zealand’s economy can benefit from transport innovation, Transport Minister Simon Bridges says.

“The potential of self-driving cars and their associated economic opportunities are often the focus of research and investment, but there are many other aspects of the transport system which present economic opportunities,” Mr Bridges says.

“I want to see businesses positioned to flourish in New Zealand as intelligent transport systems (ITS) are commercialised.”

The study will be overseen by an advisory group, which will meet for the first time today, chaired by Dr David Prentice, Chief Executive of Opus. The advisory group also includes the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and a range of other players from the public and private sectors. The private sector is developing much of this technology, so it is critical that the Government engages with the private sector.

“The study is expected to be completed by the end of 2017, and will make recommendations for how we can develop and grow ITS market opportunities where we have a competitive advantage, and identify areas to be strengthened” Mr Bridges says.

“There are companies in New Zealand already working in the growing ITS market, as well as companies who could do so. A number of international companies have also expressed interest in developing their ITS technologies in New Zealand.

“We have a reputation for good, effective regulation, which is enforced by practical regulators who are open to finding solutions which support innovation.

“Leveraging off these advantages to support businesses, and attracting international companies to come and develop their technology here, will have significant benefits for transport in New Zealand, and the broader economy,” Mr Bridges says.

| A Beehive release  ||  July 6,  2017   |||

It is predicted that within three years 100 percent of all effective IoT efforts will be supported by cognitive or artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, a landmark New Zealand IoT Alliance study says. For an IoT deployment to be really effective, New Zealand organisations need applications such as machine learning and cognitive systems to obtain insight and action from data, the report says. The 92-page report was commissioned by the New Zealand IoT Alliance, an independent member funded group of tech firms, major corporates, startups, universities and government agencies. It says the potential net benefit to New Zealand could be worth as much as $3.3 billion over 10 years from just nine applications of IoT alone. Alliance chair and NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says New Zealand can be more effective and efficient, by understanding and acting on a raft of improvements from issues as simple as water system improvements and intelligent street lighting through to more complex challenges such as driverless vehicles and better farm management. To achieve this, New Zealand needs more collaboration between businesses to understand the wider opportunities that IoT data and the combination of data sources can provide. “A clear Government position on IoT will help New Zealand to deploy cohesive and unified smart city initiatives across the country. Government investment in flagship IoT initiatives will also accelerate New Zealand's transition. “IoT is a discipline, no different than finance or planning and requires national leadership. A national role of chief technology officer would help provide leadership in this burgeoning area. “Accelerating a connected New Zealand and artificial intelligence (AI) applications will be particularly useful for understanding unstructured data, such as video, sound and images.” By 2019, it is estimated that more than 75 percent of IoT device manufacturers will improve their security and privacy capabilities, removing risk for technology buyers. “As security and privacy challenges are overcome, use cases involving human data will hit the spotlight in New Zealand. For example, connected cars, insurance telematics and personal wellness,” Muller says. To deliver a programme that creates awareness and develops knowledge, the report says New Zealand first requires an IoT vision and strategy. The vision and strategy needs to consider:    • Is the right structure in place to create a sustainable and scalable IoT ecosystem in New Zealand?   • What overseas models could the New Zealand Government learn from?   • Should the Government partner with industry to look globally for the best emerging technologies and bring that technology to New Zealand?   • What are the key IoT areas we aspire New Zealand to be world leaders in?   • How will we enable the ecosystem to deliver innovation? Developing the right policy and regulatory frameworks for privacy and security will enable an explosion of new uses of IoT to be invested in as enterprises are no longer inhibited by uncertainty. As IoT matures in New Zealand, with appropriate support and guidance it will become mainstream in most enterprise's digital transformation journeys. Organisations will endeavour to use IoT for a competitive advantage, improve customer experience and gain deep insights into their business, alongside improvements to productivity and efficiency, Muller says.

| A Make Lemonade release  ||  JUne 30,  2017   |||

Peter Beck, Rocket Lab founder, argues that the UK Government should abandon plans for launching rockets in Scotland.  Anna Isaac from The Telegraph met with Peter and asked him a few questions:

What’s your business background?

I’m an engineer. Before I started Rocket Lab, I worked in a New Zealand Government lab, developing advanced materials, structures and superconductors. But even since I was a kid, I’ve built rockets. My very first one used hydrogen peroxide, which was very dodgy – very dodgy indeed.

How did you start the company?

I started the business about 10 years ago, because I wasn’t happy with how things were being done in the the space industry. The sector wasn’t looking at space with the right sense of scale. Space, so far, has been a domain for billionaires and Governments. I want to make it more accessible.

I took a holiday in the US for a month, hoping that I would find like-minded people in the industry. It was there that I realised two things. First, no one wanted to do what I wanted to do; and second, the rockets that I was building in my garage weren’t that less complicated than the rockets being creating in commercial enterprises.

Continue to read the full article here || June 26,  2017   |||

With Challenger and Defender intently going over their America's Cup campaigns and trying to evaluate the other's performances, there is a fair chance that they'll be looking at the latest content from a new 3D Video application which takes them aboard their rival's AC50 - sitting in the 'shotgun seat' wrote richard Gladwell earlier this week in sailingworld.com.

Earlier in the 35th America's Cup Regatta, Race Director Iain Murray confirmed that the teams would have full access to a suite of performance data from their competitors.

That is expected to include content that Oracle Team USA and Emirates Team New Zealand have recorded from an onboard camera stack to gather content for a new 3D Video viewing experience.

The application is the latest development from New Zealand-based Animation Research Limited or ARL who first made their mark 25 years ago with real-time graphic animation in the 1992 America's Cup in San Diego.

That product, now Virtual Eye, while originally designed for the TV broadcast has been extended into a multitude of platforms and devices from mobile phones to PC's smart TV's. ARL have used their market leader position to dominate the sports animation space - covering everything from gliding to cricket, motor racing and golf, as well as sailing.

Continue to the full article on sailingworld.com  ||  June 22,  2017   |||

Apple's iOS 11 update began trials this week, giving testers a look at a new feature designed to combat distracted drivers says a report by Newshub.

The 'Do Not Disturb While Driving' feature will mute iPhones and stop notifications from lighting up the screen whenever the user is driving. It will automatically activate whenever the phone connects to a car's Bluetooth, or if it detects the motion of a moving vehicle.

The feature, which can be disabled, can be personalised to automatically reply to text messages and notify people when users are on the road.

Navigation or music playback won't be affected.

"It's all about keeping your eyes on the road," Apple vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi explained when announcing the feature in June.

"When you're driving, you don't need to respond to these kind of messages. In fact, you don't need to see them."

In New Zealand, it is illegal to use a mobile while driving to call, text, read messages or communicate in any way. Doing so could result in an $80 fine and 20 demerit point loss.

Apple's iOS 11 update is expected to roll out to everybody sometime this month.

|  A Newshub release  ||  June 23,  2017   |||

New Zealanders will get access to more ‘open data’, with $7.2 million earmarked for the next three years to speed its release, Statistics Minister Scott Simpson announced today.

“Open data helps businesses, councils, community and charitable groups as well as other data users make faster, better-informed decisions and help solve complex problems. High quality data makes it easier for businesses to innovate and grow,” Mr Simpson says.

“Open data is good for an open democracy. More open data will also help everyone see how their tax dollars are being spent and how effective that spending is.

“The Government is committed to making sure the data we collect is increasingly freely available in easy to use formats. This will help any business, not-for-profit group or individual who wants to use it. Open data is de-identified and does not include personal information such as names or addresses.

‘Examples of how government data is being used more widely include Homes.co.nz online tool to help homeowners search for free property data and global mapping company, HERE Maps, helping to launch self-driving cars around the world.

“Working towards an ‘open by default’ approach in government requires a significant culture change and we continue to invest resources into new ways of working with data.”

New Zealand is one of the early adopters of open data and currently ranks 7th in the world out of 115 countries in the Open Data Barometer.

Open data can also be used to improve how we access healthcare services, discover cures for diseases more efficiently, understand our government better, and help us travel to places more easily. It is crucial to help New Zealand meet its Business Growth Agenda objectives by 2025 and its commitments under the Open Government Partnership. Opening up government data and helping others to use it means a much greater return-on-investment for the data the government collects.

|  A Beehive release  ||  June  19,  2017   |||

New Zealand’s primary industries need to latch on to technology faster to support the economic growth of its agri sector and become a world leader in a fast growing agritech market, NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says.

NZTech members have joined hundreds of other firms at Fieldays in Hamilton this week as technology becomes increasingly important for the New Zealand agri sector.

A growing awareness of the value of technology in agriculture can be seen by the number of farmers looking into technologies such as IoT, drones, sensors and robotics, Muller says.

“A report by the IoT Alliance, due for release on June 29 looks into the economic value that IoT could bring the New Zealand economy, has identified that better use of IoT by dairy farmers could potentially generate as much as $448 million worth of net economic benefit for New Zealand.

“For example, even firms like Xero have identified how effective business processes are now critical for modern farmers promoting Xero Farming. Xero Farming in the Cloud delivers New Zealand farmers with a tool for effective farm management. Xero is delivering a farming eco-system of partners which will connect farmers with digital tools to save time.”

New Zealand is achieving good agritech export growth rates relative to other nations. Global agritech investment is expanding rapidly, with investment in agritech firms in 2014 was estimated at over $US2.36 billion making investment in agritech higher than fintech.

“With our traditional strengths in agriculture and our growing strengths in tech, this is an opportunity we should pursue with vigour. Agriculture is a big user and creator of technology,” Muller says.

“Tech sector innovations are being adopted in many agricultural areas with examples such as the application of precision agriculture on-farm and industry-wide information capture and utilisation through activities such as the development of initiatives such as the Dairy Data Network and Agrigate.

“Production costs have placed pressure on the competitive position of New Zealand agriculture in world markets. Reversing a slowdown in productivity growth is critical given the challenges the sector faces with strengthening environmental regulation.

“Digital agriculture, in the form of precision farming, big data, sensor technology and drones, delivers a new potential for productivity gains across rural New Zealand,” he says.

The tech sector is the country’s third largest and fastest growing export sector, worth over $6.3 billion in 2015 and employing 5 percent of the New Zealand workforce.

| A MakeLemonade release  ||  June 14,  2017   |||

Metal from the trash heap may one day wind up inside your smartphone instead of the other way around (Credit: rihardzz/Depositphotos)

Stainless steel mesh is often used as filters and screens in facilities such as wastewater treatment plants or in ventilation shafts. But once the material gets coated in rust and weakened, it's usually just discarded. Now Chinese scientists have figured out a way to take that metal trash and turn into high-performing treasure as electrodes in potassium-ion batteries.

While lithium-ion batteries are widely used today, they're not without their issues. For starters, they degrade over time, especially if they're not stored in a cool place. They also have the annoying tendency to explode sometimes and, compared to sodium- or potassium-ion batteries, they are expensive.   

But potassium batteries, which could be a cheap and stable alternative to lithium batteries, have their challenge as well: Potassium ions are fairly large, so storing them as they transfer back and forth between electrodes in a battery tends to degrade the electrodes themselves.

The new method developed by a team from the Chinese Academy of sciences and Jilin University tackles both the problem of handling the large potassium ions and the problem of excess steel-mesh waste.

First the researchers took the rusty mesh and dipped it into a solution of potassium ferrocyanide. This compound is also called yellow prussiate of potash and is used in gardening, wine making and as an anti-caking agent in salt. When the metal hits the solution, iron, chromium and nickel ions are leached out of the rust which join the ferrocyanide ions to form Prussian blue. This complex salt that's been used as a dye, a paint, and as a coating in machine part manufacture stays on the surface of the mesh in the form of a scaffold of nanocubes. This scaffold provides an ideal place for potassium ions to rest between trips from one electrode to another in a battery.

Next, the newly blue mesh is dipped into a solution of graphene oxide which provides a coating that keeps the Prussian blue matrix from clumping, while also giving the electrodes a boost in terms of their ability to conduct electricity.

"In tests, coin cells made with these new electrodes demonstrate excellent capacity, discharge voltages, rate capability, and outstanding cycle stability," says a report about the invention. "Because the inexpensive, binder-free electrodes are very flexible, they are highly suitable for use in flexible electronic devices."

The finding could help potassium ion batteries join other potential lithium ion battery replacements including aluminum ion, sodium ion, fool's gold, lithium oxygen, and high-capacity lithium sulphur.

The research has been reported in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

A fledgling, cutting-edge cyber security Wellington company has launched a virtual chief information security officer (vCISO) service aimed at helping New Zealand businesses to respond as cyber-crime begins to bite.

Cyber Toa chief executive and NZTech board member Mandy Simpson says cyber-attacks are a serious risk for all Kiwi businesses.

“To be honest, all indications are that cyber-crime is growing in New Zealand. Requests for assistance to the National Cyber Security Centre were up 66 percent in the year to April 2016 and global security provider Symantec put the cost of cyber-crime in New Zealand at $US200 million last year,” she says.

“Our virtual CISO service will help companies concentrate their resources where they can make the most difference in protecting them against this growing threat.

“It’s a growing problem for everyone. A security failure in a New Zealand company or organisation can cause substantial reputational damage and will almost certainly have financial consequences.

“But where a company is handing personal data, it can also have consequences for individuals too. Sensitive personal information can end up in the hands of criminals.

“It’s easy for companies to be overwhelmed with the number of things they must do to stay safe. While some companies can afford a full time chief information security officer (CISO) to deal with the growing risks, not every organisation has resources at their disposal. A virtual CISO allows companies to access our Cyber Toa expertise in a flexible way.

“A virtual CISO can work inside a company helping them to steadily improve their cyber-security stance. What that means is different for every company, but it might include a company-wide risk assessment, developing a response plan if a security breach occurs, or building a security awareness programme for staff.

“And of course, if an incident occurs, a virtual CISO can lead the response, including accessing our specialist team to help. We provide everything required for the virtual CISO to act quickly and protect the company.”

Simpson says the expertise to deal with cyber security incidents can be hard to come by in New Zealand.

Cyber Toa was set up by Chris Ward who has over 20 years’ experience in creating and leading incident response teams for the NZ Defence Force and before that the UK Ministry of Defence. He has represented New Zealand as chair of two executive International Cyber committees, she says.

“Our technical team is led by Tony Grasso, with decades of experience in the New Zealand intelligence community, and GCHQ. The virtual CISO service gives companies access to expertise that would be very difficult for them to directly employ.”

|  A Make Lemonade release  ||  June 9,  2017   |||

Science and Innovation Minister Paul Goldsmith today announced an investment of $31.7 million to upgrade New Zealand’s supercomputing capabilities.

“The existing supercomputers are at the end of their operating lives and energy intensive by today’s standards. The new supercomputers will deliver up to 10 times the computing capability and more than four times the storage capacity of their predecessors,” says Mr Goldsmith.

The computing research service is designed and provided by the New Zealand eScience Infrastructure (NeSI), a collaboration between NIWA, Landcare and the Universities of Auckland and Otago.

“Computational needs of the science community are growing exponentially and from a range of key areas from natural hazards and climate science, through to computational chemistry, astronomy, and biomedical research,” Mr Goldsmith says.

“There are also a number of key government science initiatives that require computational support including the National Science Challenges, Centres of Research Excellence and the genomics platform.”

New Zealand currently has two supercomputers available to the research community, FitzRoy, based at NIWA’s Greta Point, Wellington site, and Pan, based at the University of Auckland.

They will be superseded by three supercomputers, with replacements for Fitzroy and Pan at NIWA in Wellington, and a smaller back up computer for NIWA housed at the University of Auckland’s Tamaki Data Centre.

“This new investment will significantly enhance New Zealand’s ability to meet the growing demands of the scientific research community and help them to tackle some of the issues crucial to our country’s future prosperity,” says Mr Goldsmith.

Installation for the new supercomputers begins in August and they are expected to be operational around February 2018. More information can be found HERE.

| A Beehive release  ||  June 8, 2017   |||