28 EG 30/2025 WRITER | KAITUHI ALEXANDRA JOHNSON Why water engineer L’Rey Renata is working to increase the incorporation of Māori values and principles into modern environmental practices. When L’Rey Renata was 15, she was inspired by a humanitarian engineer on YouTube who took technology and innovation back to their village in India to improve the lives of their community. “I realised that’s what I wanted to do, to serve people with innovation, strive to make things better,” says the Emerging Professional Member of Engineering New Zealand. “None of my family had been to university at the time. I wondered, what would it take to become that, and what was the pathway.” Now a water engineer…

Congratulations to Emeritus Professor Barry Welch on being awarded the Brimacombe Prize.For those who don’t know, Barry was a member of the department of chemical and materials engineering from 1980 to 1998 during which time he also served as Head of Department. Barry is a world leading expert in metallurgy and especially aluminium smelting technology….

I am excited to announce that our Smart Idea proposal, “Extracting Value from an Invasive Seaweed Using Applied Ecophysiology and Green Solvents,” has been successfully funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE)!This project aims to turn the invasive Undaria pinnatifida into a valuable resource for New Zealand. By creating a bioactive forecast model…

A unique collaboration between the University of Auckland and an isolated valley community in Tairāwhiti Gisborne aims to reshape how the region confronts climate-related challenges. Around 40 community members of a local iwi from Whareponga Valley, located in the Ruātoria region, travelled to the University this week for a series of educational workshops on 21…

Researchers from the Faculty of Engineering are using artificial intelligence (AI) to study the dangers of ‘forever chemicals’ – persistent compounds found in everyday items like non-stick cookware, paint and dental floss. These chemicals, known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), contain strong bonds that make them extremely hard to break down, causing them to…

If you search online, you’ll be able to find sellers for freeze dryer machines small enough to fit in a kitchen. If you’re willing to spend a few thousand on one, it’s fun to see what happens to common, everyday food when you leave it in a freeze dryer for several hours. Usually with candy,…

Have you heard the story of 42.zip? It’s supposedly a compressed zip file that is only around 42 kB, but when fully uncompressed yields around 4500 TB of data. It’s an old file and there are many newer files which exceed even this limit. Yet even this is small on the scale of the internet….

Sludge in wastewater treatment is the thick, semi-solid byproduct that settles out from the treated wastewater. This sludge can be broken down by bacteria in a process called anaerobic digestion, producing biogas that can be used as fuel to power the wastewater treatment plant. However, anaerobic digestion of sludge is challenging because the sludge is…

As a second year Chemical and Materials Engineering student, I was in the midst of applying for any internships I could find. In doing so, I discovered an email from the University about The Intern Group, acompany who connects you to an international internship experience. I saw this as an opportunity tocombine my engineering knowledge…