By Dr Troy Coyle, CEO, HERA
As the new year steps into gear, I am reflecting on some highlights of 2023 and how these lead into exciting projects as we expand our capabilities further in the next 12 months.
Last year, we initiated and built upon world-leading research programmes which reinforce HERA’s and Aotearoa New Zealand’s leadership in research related to low-carbon design, circular design, and Industry 4.0 in the construction and manufacturing sectors.
We are building cross-disciplinary research teams, with some of the best researchers in the world, to solve industry problems. The $10.3 million MBIE Endeavour-funded Construction 4.0 research program now has more than 50 researchers (including research students) across nine universities/research organisations engaged to date.
Many aspects of this research will be at the forefront of international developments in this field. We are planning to release a book to showcase the sectoral roadmap required for a Construction 4.0 transformation.
This work includes incorporation of indigenous knowledge, through the Mātauranga Māori theme, led by AUT’s A/Prof Fleur Palmer. The project will involve one of the first case studies for use of emerging dynamic Life Cycle Assessment methodologies, being developed by Massey University’s Prof Sarah McLaren alongside a host of researchers in the space.
In 2023, we signed our first research project agreement with the Australian Composites Manufacturing CRC.This 10-year project will establish an AI-based monitoring system for inspecting the quality of manufactured composite products, including steelwork. Other research projects with the CRC will focus on extending AI tools to design optimisation and the optimisation of steel composite building connections. In these projects, we will be specifically collaborating with research leaders from University of Sydney and ANSTO.
Our low-carbon design project, partially supported through the building research levy, is providing evidence-based guidance to designers and specifiers to reduce carbon across the whole life of a building. Our initial focus is on providing guidance for low-rise building typologies but we intend to expand to provide more comprehensive guidance across building typologies and to include key infrastructure, such as bridges.
We are working across building materials (specifically timber and concrete) and channels, from designers and specifiers to fabricators and erectors and end-of-life demolition. Our research contractors on this project are WSP and Aurecon, and the industry advisory group for this project includes members from Concrete NZ, Timber Unlimited, ACENZ, Auckland Council, BRANZ, Engineering New Zealand Te Ao Rangahau, MBIE SESOC, and Te Kāhui Whaihanga NZ Institute of Architects.
We are also involved in multiple projects improving the seismic performance of our building stock, including how to balance resilience, building performance, and cost/productivity.
In addition to our existing national centre of excellence in Fabrication 4.0 (Fab4.0Lab), we will also create a national centre of excellence in building health monitoring (the tabs4.0lab) through the construction of our planned 6-star greenstar Innovation Centre. This facility will be a hub for Construction 4.0 and advanced manufacturing research and training.
Through 2024, we’ll share more about the team’s work on a new Mātauranga Māori toolkit and technology targeted at helping attract more Māori to STEMM. We’ll also keep you informed on our low-carbon design, the ACM CRC collaboration projects, and new design software.
Until then, to find out more, visit www.hera.org.nz
Dr Troy Coyle brings more than 20 years’ experience in innovation management across a range of industries including materials science, medical radiation physics, biotechnology, sustainable building products, renewable energy and steel. She is a scientist with a PhD (University of NSW) and training in journalism and communications.