23 October 2001 Transpower-sponsored Research Lab at Lincoln Boosts Complex Problem Solving Capabilities

Access to quick, effective answers to complex computational problems for industry and research organisations has taken a leap forward thanks to national electricity transmission company Transpower New Zealand Ltd funding a high performance laboratory at Lincoln University.

With Transpower backing, a dedicated computational laboratory now exists within Lincoln University's Centre for Advanced Computational Solutions (C­fACS).

The centre itself, established two years ago, offers state-of-the-art computational solutions backed by world class scientific research. It was formed to provide task specific, integrated solutions to emerging industry problems from the perspective of a broad scientific base, and it can operate quickly, effectively and without large corporate overheads.

The addition of the Transpower-sponsored laboratory has boosted the centre's capability significantly.

"The link with Transpower is an example of the sort of fruitful interactions with industry which C-fACS aims to develop," says Centre Chairman Professor Don Kulasiri of Lincoln University.

"These interactions will be developed on an equal partnership basis to solve industry problems and use them as a basis for advanced research so that we also provide next-generation solutions. At the same time the interactions allow us to expose our postgraduate students to real-world problems, so educationally there is an important function too."

Among the Centre's governing members is Dr Ramesh Rayudu, a senior research engineer with Transpower who is now based in the new laboratory.

Ramesh graduated PhD from Lincoln University this year with a project which has produced one of the world's most advanced frameworks of artificial intelligence for fault diagnosis.

Supervised by Dr Sandhya Samarasinghe of Lincoln University's Natural Resources Engineering Group, the doctoral project was aimed at producing a system for Transpower that makes fault diagnosis and repairs more  efficient and reduces the time that consumers are without power.

Dr Rayudu's research has been at the high end of artificial intelligence and has pushed the boundaries of existing artificial intelligence techniques.

Features of the Transpower Laboratory include a Beowulf power processing computer cluster and advanced software in hi-spec machines.

David Lane, Director of Egressive Ltd, Christchurch, installers of the cluster, says such clusters can give results "incredibly cheaply" compared with other modes of super computing power.

"There is not a strong tradition of parallel computing in New Zealand," he says, "but with the driving force of applied computing lecturer Elizabeth Post at Lincoln University, who teaches a parallel computing course, we have set up this cluster of conventional desk-top pc's that can be expanded at any time if greater computing power is required.

"It can be used to address many simulation and modelling problems which require significant computing power," says Mr Lane, who like Professor Kulasiri, Dr Samarasinghe and Dr Rayudu, is also a governing member of C­fACS.

"The cluster has been established to develop parallel processing expertise in the South Island."

Lincoln University has had a research relationship with Transpower since 1992 and earlier this year the collaboration entered a new phase with the signing of a contract for a further three years of work.

The contract 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 network.

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