This page showcases successful applications to the Capability Build Project Fund. Trip reports of activities supported by the Travel Fund can be found on the Community reports page of our site.

Round 3 winning projects
Round 2 winning projects
Round 1 winning projects

Round 3 winning projects (2009)

Oasis – Online archive of satellite imagery and spatial data

Mike Tuohy, Massey University

This project will create a national archive for satellite imagery and aerial photographs of New Zealand, and provide easy to use data retrieval and analysis tools. Satellite data from across New Zealand will be feed into the archive on a constant basis to keep it up to date.

A facility will be created to store the data, and a public web portal will allow researchers, students, regional councils and land managers a single point of access to the data and online image processing services. Those connected to KAREN will be able to get the greatest benefit from this facility through the ability to download very high resolution images on demand.

LENScience Connect 09

Jacquie Bay, Liggins Institute, University of Auckland

The Liggins Education Network for Science (LENScience) is an education unit within the Liggins Institute and National Research Centre for Growth and Development at the University of Auckland, working to bring schools and scientists together. This project will see the expansion of a successful programme to connect schools with scientists.

LENScience will deliver lectures from internationally acclaimed scientists and a biology seminar series to New Zealand schools using high quality video conferencing over KAREN. This project will demonstrate how through collaboration between teachers, scientists, schools and universities, KAREN can be utilised to break down traditional barriers, enable collaborative and interactive teaching and learning independent of geographic location, enhance understanding of science within society, and connect and support teachers. LENScience is partnering with the University of Canterbury and Wellington College.

Searching for the Unknown: Transient radio events sensor network

Dr Slava Kitaev, Auckland University of Technology

This project will support the establishment of a radio event sensor network to explore electromagnetic phenomena in our environment. Each digital receiver on the network will produce up to 10MB of raw data each second, generating more than 8.6TB of data daily. The data will be continuously streamed over KAREN to a storage facility and processed daily on high performance computing resources at BlueFern and Auckland University of Technology. Sensor networks are an important emerging field of research and this project will build skills in this area.

This project is a collaboration between Auckland University of Technology, University of Otago, Victoria University of Wellington, BeSTGRID, BlueFern and Venture Southland.

More information: SKA news item

PlanetLab NZ

Professor Krzysztof Pawlikowski, University of Canterbury

PlanetLab is a global research network infrastructure enabling participation in cutting-edge research on information and communication technologies for the future of the Internet. PlanetLab consists of interconnected clusters of computers around the world, acting together as a world-wide distributed computer laboratory. There are currently 1006 nodes at 487 sites around the world.

Through a previous CBF award, three PlanetLab nodes in New Zealand were established at Otago, Canterbury and Auckland universities. This project will support the expansion of the number of New Zealand nodes to include Victoria and Waikato universities and Auckland University of Technology.

PlanetLab website

Real-time remote diagnostics through KAREN

Dr David Teulon and Laura Fagan, Plant and Food Research

This project will build on the successful “Enabling Real-Time Remote Diagnostics for Biosecurity Applications” project previously funded through a CBF award. This additional funding will expand the use of KAREN for real-time remote identification of invasive pests and diseases to a wider range of potential users. This expansion will help firmly embed the use of KAREN for remote diagnostics in the everyday working environment of NZ biologists.

Sequencing Compute Cloud and Collaboration-Commons

Alan McCulloch, AgResearch

The gene sequencing community in New Zealand are high users of KAREN for data access and sharing. This project will progress the community’s use of KAREN by supporting the creation of a prototype Commons or portal providing next generation tools for organising the results of gene data processing and for collaboration between life scientists, bioinformaticians and statisticians on interpretation and validation.

As part of this project, the team will also create a specification for a future New Zealand next generation cloud computing architecture. This project is a partnership between AgResearch, NZ Genomics Ltd and the University of Otago.

Advanced networks for Māori research, science and technology

Togia Lui, Industrial Research Ltd

This project will contribute to Māori understanding and effective use of KAREN through workshops for IRL’s Māori partners. Three key areas of capability building and professional skills development will be pursued: awareness of KAREN; the capabilities of KAREN in research, science and technology and eresearch; and technical requirements for the effective use of KAREN. This proposal will establish expertise within Māori communities to enable their effective use of KAREN.

Supercomputing 2009 (travel application)

Ian Town, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Canterbury

The University of Canterbury’s BlueFern provides supercomputing services to New Zealand’s research community. This travel grant will support Tony Dale to attend Supercomputing 2009 in Portland, Oregon, to build BlueFern’s capability as a centre of expertise in advanced supercomputer usage via KAREN. Attendance at this event will ensure BlueFern keeps up with the latest developments in high performance computing software and hardware management systems, and that they have the latest technical expertise in a rapidly advancing field.

IceCube (travel application)

Dr Surujhdeo, University of Canterbury

The University of Canterbury in New Zealand is one of many collaborators in the international IceCube project. IceCube is a neutrino observatory at the South Pole that detects astrophysical cosmic ray neutrinos that will help to resolve questions in astrophysics, particle physics, cosmic rays and cosmology. This travel grant will support Dr Surujhdeo to visit collaborators in Germany work on filtering code for the data generated from IceCube. This visit will ultimately enable New Zealand to take a stronger leadership role in this high profile international project.

Round 2 winning projects (2007)

Real-Time Remote Diagnostics for Biosecurity Applications

Dr David Teulon, Crop and Food Research

Project leader Dr David Teulon and his team will harness KAREN’s capabilities for real-time remote identification of invasive pests and diseases for biosecurity.

A real-time diagnostic system would quickly connect organisms, national and international experts and diagnostic tools for the rapid and accurate identification of organisms intercepted at the border to determine whether they pose biosecurity risks to New Zealand’s natural and productive ecosystems.

Researchers will test real-time remote diagnostic systems, develop a protocol for best use in New Zealand and make recommendations for further development and deployment.

Enabling real-time remote diagnostics for biosecurity applications (pdf, 232K) - Laura Fagan, et al, June 2009

Interactive, remote real-time collaborative electron microscopy

Duane Harland, AgResearch

This AgResearch-led project will allow researchers from New Zealand and around the world to use their specialised electron microscopes remotely. These microscopes are specialised for electron tomography (three-dimensional reconstruction of sub-micron structures) — a technique that has wide application within biological, medical and material sciences.

The project will result in a software application through which users can access real-time high-quality digital microscope images, converse naturally with the microscope operator using video and voice, enable sketching/diagrammatic whiteboard communication and access limited microscope controls.

PlanetLab NZ

Professor Krzysztof Pawlikowski, University of Canterbury

Professor Pawlikowski and his team will establish 3 working PlanetLab nodes in New Zealand, allowing New Zealand researchers to participate via KAREN in a global research network. The PlanetLab network is used to develop and study new technologies for distributed processing and services.

The nodes will be established at the University of Canterbury, University of Otago and the University of Auckland. The universities will use PlanetLab for research into:

• peer-to-peer systems
• high speed mobile IP protocol of version 6 (IPv6) protocol
• new internet multimedia streaming protocols
• network traffic measurements

Planet Lab website

Seismographic Information Service for E-learning and E-Research

Paul Grimwood, GNS Science

This project will set up a new Seismographic Information Service (SIS), making New Zealand's seismic data available to researchers in New Zealand and around the world.

GeoNet monitors earthquake activity around New Zealand and collects 3.5 GB of seismic data per day. New tools, services and user interfaces developed through SIS will make this data more easily accessible for teaching and research in New Zealand and around the world.

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Inquiry by KAREN

Andrew Dunningham, Scion

Scion will integrate KAREN into their school educational programme - Forests of Life. Forests of Life is inquiry-based programme for students to undertake their own science research while drawing on the expertise of scientists.

Using KAREN, scientists and students will be able to engage in real-time collaboration, using video conferencing and other collaboration tools such as virtual idea boards. Scion will also provide professional development and mentoring for teachers over KAREN.

Forests of Life website

Round 1 winning projects (2006)

A new window to the universe: Real-time Trans-Tasman e-VLBI

Professor Sergei Gulyaev, Auckland University of Technology

Funding for this project will ensure New Zealand can participate as an equal partner in Trans-Tasman collaboration radio astronomy research.

KAREN will connect New Zealand radio telescopes with telescopes in Australia and across the world, creating a virtual radio telescope with a diameter of many thousands of kilometres. Researchers will then utilise the speed and capacity of KAREN to access and visualise data generated by these radio telescopes.

Case study: New window to the universe

NZ BioGrid - integrated bioinformatics analysis

Professor Allen Rodrigo, University of Auckland

A collaborative project with Biomatters Ltd and the Bioinformatics Institute at the University of Auckland. This project will see the development of workflow and computational software and applications, enabling researchers in New Zealand to access and analyse biosciences databases from their desktop.

Case study: Bioinformatics Institute

Supported by

Who is KAREN and how can she enhance our research collaborations?

Jack McKenzie, HortResearch

Workshops were held nation-wide to raise awareness amongst staff at the Crown research institutes - particularly those already involved in existing large-scale collaborative programmes - about KAREN and the technology and professional development capability building required to take advantage of the opportunities offered by advanced networks.

A project report will also make recommendations to achieve improved research outcomes through new forms of collaboration.

Project report: Who is KAREN? (pdf, 238KB)

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High Quality Video Conferencing for Advancing Collaboration Capabilities in Access Grid Environments

Mark Billinghurst, Nathan Gardiner and David Thorns, University of Canterbury

A collaboration between HIT Lab NZ and the Social Science Research Centre that will take New Zealand's capability in high definition video conferencing a step closer towards international standards.

The project will support the establishment of a centre of excellence in video conferencing in New Zealand - conducting research and sharing technology, techniques and best practice throughout the country.

The project will also support the development of design guidelines for Access Grid systems as well as Access Grid middleware to enable e-research project managers to evaluate the degree of collaboration occurring in their teams. This will extend our knowledge of effective e-research.

Case study: Redefining video conferencing

Using High Resolution Satellite Imagery for Spatially Integrated Poverty Mapping

Professor John Gibson, University of Waikato

This project will build social science capacity in new methods of measuring poverty using high resolution satellite imagery. Using KAREN, John will be able to work collaboratively in real-time with international partners using sophisticated modeling and visualisation tools to integrate various datasets, to detail and pin point discrete areas of poverty .

Case study: Nine million pictures

Integrated genomics resources for health and disease

Dr Chris Brown, University of Otago

Using KAREN's international reach, this project will combine genomics databases from the USA and Europe with New Zealand generated data.

Using New Zealand developed interogation data tools, Chris and his team will be able to analyse the data and contribute their research into the human genome and its role in disease, particularly cancer and genetic disease, to the international medical and biotechnology research and education community.

Case study: Human genome analysis

Supported by

Storage Network Planning for KAREN / BeSTGRID

Cameron Walker, University of Auckland

This project will use models to simulate and plan for expected IT infrastructure requirements in light of researchers’ use of KAREN. The activity will use a KAREN-based computational GRID to conduct computer intensive simulation and optimisation research to help organisations plan internal infrastructure and capacity, that data flows over KAREN will necessitate.

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Earthquake Engineering on KAREN

Jason Ingham, University of Auckland

A team of researchers at the University of Auckland will use KAREN to simulate and research the effects of earthquakes on structures to improve the responsiveness of structures to these events.

Working collaboratively with Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol Universities, the team will run remote experiments with the data from each experiment transferred in real time to a UK or NZ host that uses computational modelling to describe the response of the entire structure project.

Case study: Earthquake engineering

Supported by

New Zealand microbiology research and education network

Dr Virginia Hope, ESR

This project develops a New Zealand portal to PulseNet, an important international microbiological laboratory network, enabling New Zealand to research infectious disease in new ways and making New Zealand the hub for microbiological information in the Asia Pacific region.  The parallel NZ Microbiological portal will provide training and education resources for New Zealand researchers.

Case study: ESR has finger on the pulse

GeoSciences Network – New Zealand Establishment

Dr Jerry Cooper, Landcare Research

Landcare Research and GNS Science will develop internationally recognised software and tools networked on KAREN to enable them to share their (and access international) huge environmental and geological timescale datasets.

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Updated 30 October 2009