Wintec Annual Report 2009

HIGHLIGHTS
HIGH SPEED CONNECTION
TO THE WORLD
This year, in addition to our investment in
substantially increasing our internet capacity
in order to meet the demand for video and
other high bandwidth services, we also
offi cially joined the Kiwi Advanced Research
and Education Network (KAREN). In essence
KAREN provides us with a high capacity,
ultra high-speed connection between tertiary
institutions, research organisations, libraries
and museums worldwide. This means we
are able to conduct leading edge e-research
with institutions nationally and internationally
and stay fully connected to the research and
broader innovation community so we can
investigate pre-commercial, research and
development based collaboration.
WINTEC STUDENTS FIRST TO
EXPERIENCE WINDOWS 7
Thanks to our ongoing partnership with
Microsoft as an early-adopter of their new
technologies, our students were some of
the fi rst to trial Windows 7 ahead of its
worldwide release in October. The trial
generated signifi cant local and world-wide
media attention, with a case study resulting
on Microsoft’s website. The operating system
was then rolled out to the entire organisation,
greeted enthusiastically by
staff and students alike.
SMART THINKING
WITH ENERGY
This year we started a housing energy
effi ciency and sustainability project in
partnership with EECA (Energy Effi ciency
and Conservation Authority), ESITO
(Electricity Supply Industry Training
Organisation) and WEL Networks.
The project will see an eco-village created
to house electrical industry training students
and showcase the latest building materials
and technology from industry, a smart
housing display centre opened, and training
programmes and facilities such as power
lines provided for the energy sector.
We have also developed plans to reduce
unnecessary future energy wastage,
focusing on solutions that can be
implemented immediately without
requiring additional investment.
Wintec Annual Report 2009 _ 15