Every minute satellites and sensors all around Aotearoa are pinging information to servers, taking all kinds of measurements – images, temperatures, water flows, weather conditions, you name it.
For environmental researchers these data hold the clues for what is coming next, but when there is so much information, how do you make sense of it all?
Professor Karin Bryan and Dr. Nick Lim Photo: RNZ
Follow Our Changing World on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRADIO, Google Podcasts, RadioPublic or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
The data science programme TAIAO aims to help with this.
Led by the University of Waikato, the TAIAO team is developing new machine learning methods able to deal with large quantities of environmental data.
Funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to the tune of $13 million over seven years, the programme is building an open-source online framework to allow researchers to share machine learning algorithms, tweaks and datasets.
It’s a collaboration across the Universities of Waikato, Auckland and Canterbury as well as engineering company Beca and MetService.
Environmental scientists, such as Professor Karin Bryan, help connect data scientists and data engineers to interesting New Zealand specific datasets and problems to tackle.
Then data scientists, such as Dr. Nick Lim, create and optimise machine learning algorithms to make relevant predictions, and then make these available online for other environmental researchers to use and adjust as they need.
In this way the TAIAO team aim to promote a vibrant community of environmental researchers sharing information aimed at getting reliable answers or predictions that can guide good decision making.
Needle-free injection research
For hundreds of years a needle and syringe has remained the best way to deliver drugs and vaccines. But for the needle-phobic, is there hope for a future respite?
Dr. James McKeage is working on it. He’s a post-doctoral researcher at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute and wants to optimise drug delivery with a needle-free jet injector. The technology has been around for a while, based on spring loading or gas piston, but McKeage wants to perfect an electric motor driving model.
The electric motor version, first developed by a team including Professor Andrew Taberner when he worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, allows changes in pressure and speed of delivery.
Professor Andrew Taberner and Dr. James McKeage. James holds the research version of the electric motor jet-injector. Photo: RNZ
Now also at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, Taberner explains that this versatility allows investigations of different uses of the jet injector. In the lab they can use infrared or x-ray light to determine how and where the liquid goes in the skin tissue after injection. Alongside this, trials with volunteers help them determine the discomfort levels following injection, in comparison to needles.
McKeage is currently doing studies to determine if it could be used for an all-in-one diabetes management approach. The goal would be to have a single jet injector tool that could puncture the skin, take a blood sample, detect glucose levels and administer the correct amount of insulin all.
Claire Concannon speaks to McKeage and Taberner about their research in this area and whether needle-free jet injectors will ever become the ‘norm’.
To learn more:
- Listen to The details behind the data episode by Damian Christie
- Find out about other Auckland Bioengineering Institute projects such as Designing a pressure sensor for the brain and Mapping the gut
- Dr. James McKeage spoke about one aspect of his research with Jesse Mulligan last year.
This episode contains river, wind, ocean and satellite telemetry sound effects from the BBC - https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/ © 2022 BBC
