BY:
TARYN PLUMB; ILLUSTRATION BY JONATHAN REINFURT
Wellington,
New Zealand
Its
history and culture are a rich fusion of influences; its people are
proud, innovative, and environmentally fastidious; its picturesque
harbor greets looming mountains that are home to an array of exotic
and endangered plants and animals. Many factors make Wellington a
unique and unrivaled location. That’s what ultimately convinced
professor of organizational studies Michael Elmes that it would be a
prime spot for one of WPI’s project centers. After visiting the
country as a Fulbright Scholar in 2005, he championed the Wellington
Project Center, and students have been visiting and working there for
four years.
“It’s
really quite a dynamic place for being such a small country,” says
Elmes, who runs the center with assistant teaching professor Ingrid
Shockey. “It’s a great place to visit, and it’s a great place
to do interesting, challenging projects.”
In
those four years, IQP teams have been involved with more than two
dozen such initiatives—among them, researching endangered dolphins,
investigating prospects for hydrogen fuel, studying the food rituals
of native birthday parties, raising awareness of tsunamis, and
examining flood and climate change.
Mechanical
engineering major Paige Myatt ’17, who spent the winter of 2016 at
the center, said of the experience, “I felt like I’d found
another home.” Students are very often struck by what Elmes calls
the starkly beautiful natural environment, plus the country’s high
happiness index and quality of life. “They do have some kind of
secret formula there,” he says.
The
center works with diverse sponsors, from the Māori communities, to
the Greater Wellington Regional Council, to the Museum of New Zealand
Te Papa Tonga-rewa. Elmes says it’s a mutually beneficial
relationship, and a way to show off WPI’s excellence.
“We
have so many repeat project sponsors because they’re so impressed
with the quality of the work that our students do. I can’t tell you
how many times people over there say, ‘Your students are just
great.’”
Myatt
was in a group that created a feasibility report for a hydroponic
greenhouse that would tap excess electricity from a micro-hydro power
system operated by Māori in the rural town of Horohoro. The
experience had such a profound impact on her life and career path
(she intends to go on to study renewable energy) that she’ll be
going back in winter 2017 for her MQP. Her plan is to work with that
Māori community again to help them design the greenhouse for which
she and her IQP teammates created the feasibility study.
She
recalls a Māori proverb: “What is the most important thing in the
world? It is people, it is people, it is people.” Not, she
emphasized, that people are more important than the natural world and
its creatures, but that they are ultimately responsible for taking
care of it.
“The
Māori try to be very aware of how they’re impacting their
environment. They’re efficient with their resources,” Myatt says
of the Māori and of kiwis at large. “It’s a very refreshing
viewpoint to experience.”
Original story link.
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