The Star: April 27, 2017

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Our People
Thursday April 27 2017
The Star
Conan Fee
Creating a path
Next year, Canterbury University will open a
completely new School of Product Design. Head of
school Conan Fee spoke to Gabrielle Stuart about
robots, inventions and encouraging creativity
PROGRESS: Both an engineer and a musician himself, Conan Fee is working on a new degree
which combines engineering and the arts.
PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN
Tell me about the school you’re
creating?
The idea is that graduates will
be technically literate and can
engineer something feasible, but
also understand how to design
something beautiful for the end
user, and then how to take what
they have created to market.
It will be quite hands-on in
that respect. Once you have
your product and your end user
in mind you can go right into
prototyping, with access to all
kinds of ‘maker spaces’, where
you can create things and try
them. So these students could
go anywhere, working in the
medical field or in education
or creating sports equipment,
anything.
I remember as a student, engineering
and arts students would
constantly mock each other. It
was like they spoke different
languages. How on earth do you
combine the two disciplines?
We didn’t actually set out to do
that. This degree started with a
blank slate. We said what do we
want to produce in a graduate?
Many years ago, when I was
working at University of Waikato,
we had about 5000 management
students at the time. I
remember thinking they were
probably going to end up just
selling each other cellphones. The
question is, who is creating the
product for them to manage?
I could also see a whole group
of talented students at high
school who don’t have the depth
in things like maths or chemistry
that they would need to be engineers,
but who have enormous
creativity. Creativity seems to be
something that is encouraged
in pre-school, but seems to be
lost or trained out of us as we get
older. This is helping to create
a pathway for people with that
creativity.
And the other side of it is the
entrepreneurs who have created
successful products and businesses,
but have had to do it by
the seat of their pants.
OUR ESTUARY
NEEDS YOUR HELP!
We need your comments on the future of the estuary!
The Avon-Heathcote Estuary Ihutai Trust is a not for profit
organisation formed by the community to coordinate management
of the estuary. The Trust has developed a draft Ecological
Management Plan for the estuary. But are we on the right track?
Come and have your say. Trust Board members will present the
draft plan and ask for your comments.
Date: Tues, 2 May 2017
Venue:
Time:
New Brighton Club – 202 Marine Parade – Upstairs in the
JC Walsh Lounge
7:30pm
OR
Date: Thurs, 4 May 2017
Venue: Mt Pleasant Community Centre – 3 McCormacks Bay Rd
Time: 7:30pm
No need to book - FREE - ample carparking at both venues
For more information contact: info@estuary.org.nz
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Phone: 339 2464
www.streetwize.co.nz
Tuesday, 9th May 2017
Principal’s address 10:00am