5 June 1996 Applied Computing her pathway to excellence

A dramatic direction change from engineering to applied computing set Lincoln University scholar Justine Lee on a path of excellence and achievement she now knows was "right for her".

Engineering ambitions evaporated rapidly in a "totally unstimulating" year of Intermediate studies, she says, confessing that after wanting to be an engineer since the age of 12 it was a real surprise to discover that it wasn't really her "thing".

However, a friend suggested she 'come out to Lincoln', which she did, and she now says it was "the best move I ever made."

The Christchurch-born former prefect of Christchurch Girls' High School and AFS Scholar to Switzerland enrolled in a Bachelor of Commerce and Management degree in Applied Computing at Lincoln University in 1991 and quickly excelled.

No stranger to computing right from secondary school days when she was a regular entrant in the computer section of Canta Maths (one year winning an excellence award for her educational software), Justine's undergraduate career at Lincoln was capped with a special Suffrage Year award from the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Computer Society for the top female computing student at the University.

This was a significant achievement as Lincoln’s student body is highly "computer literate" with computing studies being a compulsory subject in a number of degrees and the University as a whole having the best ratio of computer work stations to students among the country's seven universities.

Graduating BCM in Applied Computing in 1994, Justine won a Lincoln University Graduate Scholarship and immediately enrolled in a Master of Applied Science degree.

Her research project for this degree is being conducted within the University's Department of Wool Science and Technology. It is supported by Wools of New Zealand, supervised by lecturer Dr Peter Maher, and capitalises on Justine's computing skills.

Specifically she is working on a method for the objective measurement of "medullation" in wool fibres.

Medullation is the presence of a hollow core within some wool fibres, especially the coarsest ones. Fibres with medullated cells tend to be more brittle than unmedullated ones and they reflect light differently when dyed, sometimes creating problems for the production of cloth with consistent appearance and colouration. On the other hand, the inclusion of a small proportion of medullated fibres in a carpet can contribute a natural character to the product.

"The department wanted a computing student because of the image analysis work involved in the project and as it happens I have discovered a fascinating industry," says Justine.

Already a well-received scientific paper on the subject carries her name as author.

"It's a good research project and we will get some good results. Given that there is currently no rapid, commercially viable method for objectively measuring medullation, it's very much an exciting development."

Ultimately, however, Justine would like to get back into a more direct involvement with computing, perhaps in the area of educational software development. She has found tutoring maths and programming for the University’s Centre for Computing and Biometrics enjoyable and work in the educational software field would tie together two personally satisfying areas.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.