Industry collaboration
Our industry partners
In a longstanding partnership, Tait Communications and the ECE department work together on several levels.
Past collaborations have included a working group on MIMO (multiple input, multiple output). This enabled industry to rapidly implement cutting-edge technology and gave researchers important feedback on practical issues to consider in design.
More recently many projects have been co-supervised by department and Tait staff who give students specific tech problems to solve, at both honours and postgraduate level.
Examples have included extending transmission range, reducing overheads and niche communication systems for emergency services such as equipment inventories for fire trucks, biometrics for workers and remote sensing and monitoring.
Industry relationships have benefits for students, academics and the companies involved. By solving real-world problems our students emerge with work-ready skills and relevant experience.
Firms benefit from our people power, creative problem solving and research facilities and in many cases use the opportunity to identify top students for recruitment.
What we can offer industry
- Academic consultants to solve immediate, specialist technical problems
- Solutions for highly complex technical problems through a postgraduate student project or research group
- Use of our specialist laboratories and high-tech equipment
- Sponsorship of a final-year student research and development project (see below for benefits)
Equipment in the Nanofabrication and Biological Applications laboratories is available for hire to outside organisations on a contract or collaborative basis.
For more information contact:
Volker Nock
Associate Professor
Rutherford Discovery Fellow
Industry sponsorship of Final Year Projects has multiple benefits for the sponsor.
Teams of four students, an academic supervisor and a mentor from your organisation will work together on your backburner R&D projects. They might develop a product, solve a problem, build and test prototypes or make predictive models of your processes. During the project, UC staff coach the students in planning, budgeting, risk and hazard assessment, communication, team dynamics and problem-solving. The teams are in frequent communication with their sponsor over the year and deliver concepts, prototypes, test data and detailed reports at the end.
The bulk of the projects are generated by industry partners according to their needs. Some arise from staff innovations or research, in collaboration with industry sponsors looking for new products.
Sponsor's role
- Sponsor sets the goal and direction of the project to suit their business needs
- The sponsor makes a donation of $9750 (+GST) to the Canterbury Foundation
- The sponsor is entitled to full ownership of all IP generated during the project
- Confidentiality is designed into the programme and students sign a non-disclosure agreement
- The sponsor supplies necessary specialist equipment or materials
- Costs will be invoiced to sponsors. Sponsor authorisation for expenses is gained in advance
How it works
Project value is normally equivalent to a $40,000-$100,000 development effort and involves:
- Approximately 1000 hours of student work
- Around 30 hours of academic staff supervision
- Substantial technician time
- Use of software, fabrication, measurement, testing facilities, and specialist equipment
Benefits
- Advanced projects for minimal investment
- Mentoring opportunities to steer the project for maximum benefit to your company
- Establishing a network with our department for future collaboration
- Identification of top graduates for recruitment
- Developing students for summer internships
- Contributing to the University for the benefit of wider Canterbury
For all enquiries please contact:
