Research and Support Working Group

Aim

To enhance the research of member institutions and support the professional
development of staff and students in member institutions.

Responsibilities

To facilitate research and publication by staff of member
institutions by:

• Assisting staff to engage in research, presentation and publication.


• Producing NACCQ’s bulletin,
  journal and newsletter.


• Liaising with the NACCQ Executive
  Committee to identify research projects to further the aims of NACCQ and appropriate
  researchers to undertake them.


• Identifying funding sources
  for research.

To support the professional development of staff and students in member institutions
by:

• Identifying and arranging seminars
  and workshops covering new and emerging technologies and research activities.


• Organising the academic content
  of the NACCQ   conference and publishing the proceeding.


• Arranging lecture tours.

To communicate about research and professional development activities to interested
parties, including APNZ, staff and students of member institutions, and industry.

Membership

Samuel Mann Otago Polytechnic

Donald Joyce                                  Unitec New Zealand

Tony Clear (chair)  AUT

Alison Young                                  Unitec New Zealand

Donald Koh                                    Unitec New Zealand

Noel Bridgeman                              WITT

Barbara Chamberlain                      WITT

Colin Boswell                                 Industry

Krassi Petrova                                AUT

Irene Davey                                    BOP

Michael Verhaart                            EIT

Malcolm Wieck                              CPIT

Clare Atkins                                   NMIT

Andrew Mason                               Industry

Andy Williamson                             Industry

The RS working group has set up several “project groups”:

Research

The CITRUS Charitable Trust has been formed and will operate
as an overseeing board for the management of and approval to use the CITRUS
brand. The CITRUS network, now referred to as the “New Zealand Centres
for IT Research”, will contain autonomous hubs which are self-managing.   Some
notable early achievements are:

• The first hub, the Unitec New Zealand Centre
  for Information Technology Research was formally launched in May 2003.


• The CITRUS website is now live
  at www.citrus.ac.nz. 


• The Unitec New Zealand Centre for IT Research
  has won its first external funding, is to carry out an evaluation of the Otara
  Digital Opportunities Project, a community ICT initiative based in Manukau
  City. The Centre’s second major project is currently at the final stages of
  funding approval. The Unitec New Zealand Centre’s website is at: citrus.unitec.ac.nz.


• CITRUS running the NZ “arm”
  of SODIS, studying the Social impact of Technology with Don Gotterbarn of
  ACM

With the establishment of CITRUS, the group itself is now
focusing its attention on more general matters of research support.  This includes
consideration of establishing a formal publishing entity.

Publications

RS see the provision of a suite of vehicles for publication
and discourse as a major role for the group.  We have put considerable effort
into reviewing the research support role of NACCQ.  One outcome of this a recognition
that we have a series of publications, each of which meets a different need:

Conference 2002

There were 170 delegates to the 2002 conference who enjoyed
an interesting range of papers including 6 invited speakers and keynotes, 16
full papers, 43 concise papers, 16 panel papers (mix of full and concise) and
51 posters. The following awards were made: Tony Clear (best paper), Kay Fielden
(best poster), and William McEwen (best presentation).

Conference 2003

Noel Bridgeman is conference organiser with help from Alison
Young; Samuel Mann is chair of the editorial board and proceedings editor with
Andy Williamson. The philosophy of the conference remains encouraging and supporting
new researchers in a safe environment while encouraging excellence and academic
discourse.  In keeping with this somewhat eclectic vision, there are several
categories of paper:

Full paper: Full papers are peer refereed on submission by
a review panel and accepted/modified/rejected.  Editorial panel reviews final
versions. They may be rejected at that point. The paper should be a maximum
of 4000 words and no more than eight formatted pages (all inclusive).  In 2004
such papers will undergo blind refereeing.

Concise paper: Concise papers are reviewed on abstract by
review panel. The completed papers are reviewed by editorial panel and may be
rejected or returned for modification at that point. The paper should be a maximum
of 2000 words and no more than four formatted pages (all inclusive).  

Poster and demonstration papers:  A 900*600mm poster is displayed
at the conference along with one page in the proceedings.  Research primarily
carried out by students is identified with their institute’s logo.

At the time of writing the proceedings will have 19 full
papers, 63 concise papers and around 60 posters.  The acceptance rate for fully
refereed papers was 49%.