24 October 2001 Signing highlights/marks/emphasises a continuation of Transpower-Lincoln University partnership

An eight-year research collaboration between Lincoln University and electricity transmission company Transpower New Zealand Ltd entered a new phase on 21 June with the signing of a three-year agreement valued at over $400,000.

The agreement recognises that the University has successfully provided outcomes to Transpower through the development of Artificial Intelligence methods for fault location and diagnosis in the national electricity transmission network.

The research relationship with Transpower began in 1992 as a result of an initiative of Dr Sandhya Samarasinghe's, and has developed with the addition of doctoral graduate Dr Ramesh Rayudu, and the funding and opening of the dedicated Transpower Computational Laboratory at the Centre for Advanced Computational Solutions.

Dr Samarasinghe and Dr Rayudu, now a Senior Research Engineer with Transpower but based at Lincoln University, were both present for the signing of the new agreement by the Vice-Chancellor Dr Frank Wood. Others in attendance from the University included the Chair of C-fACS, Professor Don Kulasiri, and the Director of the Applied Management and Computing Division, John Lay.

Signing for Transpower was General Manager Service Delivery, Kevin Mackey. Also in attendance from Transpower were National Coordination Centre Manager Ajay Maharaj, Grid Operating Services Manager John Clark and Development Executive Dionne Harvey.

"The transmission line fault diagnosis research being undertaken by Lincoln University and Transpower is at the forefront internationally", said Mr Mackey.

"It's pioneering research," he said, "and now we are trying to make it operational.

He was not aware of any similar approach being undertaken elsewhere.

"We have been very impressed with the work done at Lincoln, and we are happy to continue the relationship."

Ajay Maharaj said there were big advantages in terms of ease of access to people and facilities when dealing with an institution the size of Lincoln.

"We could have gone elsewhere - to institutions many times the size of Lincoln - but we chose this university because it is small and flexible."

John Clark said that although such "predictive tools" as the one being developed in conjunction with Lincoln University sprang from the field of "Artificial Intelligence", Transpower was keen to put the human element back into this sort of predictive work and were building on that vision.

Professor Kulasiri pointed out that a perception of "Artificial Intelligence" as de-humanised was really a misrepresentation of the situation.

"Artificial Intelligence is actually based on how human reasoning works," he said.

Vice-Chancellor Frank Wood said the collaboration with Transpower was yet another example of Lincoln University's applied approach. It was a good example of "contextual education", he said.

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