Massey University Smart Ideas funded projects

Estimates of acute bovine mastitis in New Zealand are as high as 1,000,000 cases annually and antibiotic overuse is widespread due to current inadequate existing screening and treatment regimes. The best existing method is accurate but slow (24-48 hours), resulting in losses both due to delays and inappropriate pre-emptive treatment.A rapid test (30min) for cow-side precision diagnostics of the true causative agent of bovine mastitis is essential to improve treatment. Using innovative technology, Massey University, together with New Zealand companies Koru Biotech Solutions and Anexa, is developing just such a test. Veterinarians and farmers will be able to quickly detect bovine mastitis in their dairy cows using a multi-test to accurately identify the source of the infection, enabling effective on-the-spot treatment decisions in the milking shed.Overall costs from mastitis are around $150 per animal. Rapid and accurate diagnosis of bovine mastitis will save the sector $33,000,000 annually on antibiotic use alone. By minimising transmission and decreasing loss of productivity, the immediate targeted treatment of acutely affected animals will generate further economic benefit. Decreased use of antibiotics due to implementation of this rapid test is important for dairy consumers and customer approval, increasing the profit to the sector. There are also significant environmental and human health benefits inherent in reducing the amount of antibiotics entering the environment, thus reducing antibiotic resistance.This simple and affordable equipment-free technology has long-term benefits beyond this project with wide applications for rapid on-site testing in the veterinary, medical, and environmental fields.

Massey University, in collaboration with New Zealand Skills and Education Group, is pioneering a new approach to enhance the welfare of dairy calves undergoing disbudding (the removal of horn buds). This procedure is vital in the dairy industry to prevent potential harm, as cows naturally grow horns that can injure other animals, get caught in equipment, or pose a risk to farmers. Traditionally, disbudding involves sedating the calf, using local anaesthetic to numb the horn bud area, and then removing the horn buds with a hot iron. While effective, this method still causes significant pain once the anaesthetic wears off. The multidisciplinary team will develop a world first, cutting-edge method that uses high-intensity focused ultrasound waves to target and destroy the cells that cause horn growth. This technique will reduce pain by focusing only on the horn cells and using lower temperatures, minimising damage to surrounding tissues. This innovative approach not only promises to improve animal welfare but also will reinforce New Zealand's leadership in animal care and sustainability in the dairy industry.

Aotearoa-New Zealand’s communities, land, and infrastructure are at risk from geophysical sediment-water flows (mudflows), starkly illustrated by the 2023 mudflow disasters following Cyclones Hale and Gabrielle. The occurrence and severity of these destructive events is predicted to increase rapidly as climate change impacts rainfall intensity, soil loss, and wildfires. Critically, this risk remains unquantified as no approaches to assess the intensity of mudflow hazard impacts currently exist. As a consequence, mitigation strategies in New Zealand rely on hydraulic models that are not capable of forecasting the dramatic modifying effects of sediment on flow behaviour and hazard intensity.

In this project we will define the missing fluid-mechanical models needed to account for the non-linear multiphase physics behind the flow and hazard dynamics of mudflows, and develop the elusive quantitative relationships between flow characteristics and the hazard intensity of these flows on infrastructure.

Led by Massey University and NIWA, and working in partnership with Regional Councils and iwi researchers, our team of national and international experts in multiphase flow, suspension rheology, numerical modelling, and hydrology will investigate the behaviour of geophysical sediment-water flows in the globally-unique large-scale geophysical mass flow facility PELE, use this data to develop and validate mudflow models capable of accounting for non-Newtonian multiphase flow, and calculate the downstream impact on hazard intensity. This will provide the missing tool for Regional Councils, hazard planners, and decision makers to support mitigation for these destructive hazards under changing climate conditions.

Existing plant-meat substitutes are made up of multiple, refined and high-fat ingredients, are ultra-processed, and lack fibrous texture and physical dimension like prime meat cuts. Manufacturing of refined plant ingredients used in commercial meat analogues involves harsh chemical extractions, which generate waste streams and do not fulfil the regulations for sustainable and eco-friendly food manufacturing practices. NZ meat and dairy companies export high-quality protein-based food but also produce low-value dairy proteins/cuts that don’t provide a high return, e.g., meat trim turned into mince. We’ve discovered and patented a novel disruptive technology that co-processes plant-based ingredients without or with NZ meat and/or dairy proteins and completely restructures them to ‘Hybrid meat analogues’ with textures similar to prime meat cuts. When applied to less refined plant ingredients for making meat analogues, the same technology has produced meat analogues with a fibrous structure. Our research programme now proposes further research to optimise unrefined raw material formulations and modulation of process and engineering parameters to develop next-level food analogues that fulfil the high standards required for sustainability claims in the near future. The global export markets will be led by the foods that meet sustainability development goals suggested by the United Nations. Our research will deliver food analogues with nutritional properties vastly superior to commercial plant-based alternatives and are targeted at the rapidly increasing flexitarian market. We will build on our promising findings by working with NZ's plant-based, meat and dairy companies to identify sustainable sources of unrefined ingredients and low-value animal protein streams that can be used to create these products. We will investigate the molecular-level interactions to build an understanding of how plant ingredients constitute meat-like fibrous structures.

The mining of phosphorus to produce fertiliser simultaneously depletes geostrategic reserves and costs billions to the economies relying on its import for agriculture. In addition, phosphorus must continuously be added to soils as it is lost via leaching and in the food chain. Phosphorus discharge causes excess microalgae growth in many aquatic environments. We propose an innovative and environmentally-friendly solution: using the same microalgae that causes eutrophication to recover and recycle phosphorus as high-value polyphosphates.

Dr Plouviez (Massey University) and his group have recently achieved considerable advances in understanding which genes are involved in polyphosphate synthesis in microalgae. These genes are involved in coding the enzymes that catalyse the conversion of phosphate into polyphosphate, however we still know very little about the enzymes themselves. This proposal will take advantage of our collaborations bridging knowledge on the genetics of polyphosphate and the expertise in molecular biology and biochemistry, to investigate the polyphosphate-related enzymes and their structural differences in microalgae specialised for different ecological niches. We will incorporate this new knowledge into innovative technologies that recover phosphorus from aquatic ecosystems, testing them under real-world conditions at the internationally-renowned NIWA microalgae-based wastewater treatment facility.

Our world is changing faster and in ever more diverse ways – global records are being broken from droughts to floods, and in Aotearoa we have seen cataclysmic flooding, catastrophic volcanic eruptions, and the Canterbury earthquakes. An essential task in managing and adapting to our future is being able to forecast it. Science is trying to keep up with these changes, but current forecasting models require large amounts of information, and tend to focus only on one small part of a system (for example, the waterways, or the fault network). Environmental forecasts lack both sufficient data and knowledge to build reliable models. We, as scientists, are stuck.

We believe that the way out is by taking an all-inclusive approach, looking at the system as a whole, with parts intricately woven together. Such an approach is intrinsic to Mātauranga Maori which, moreover, provides for an alternative lens on what can be considered data, beyond instrumental readings. We know that adding more voices with alternate understandings leads to better, more transparent forecasts with accurate descriptions of uncertainty.

Our project provides robust forecasts of the future by combining adaptable statistical tools with the intrinsic Mātauranga of iwi. We start with a proof-of concept region – the Central Volcanic Plateau, and will build location-specific tools that will be realised with iwi that whakapapa to this region. Once proven, our methodologies can be directly transplanted to other localities within Aotearoa.

This research will build robust forecasts of our environmental future, and shift the conversation in Aotearoa away from “How can Mātauranga Māori be fitted into science?” and towards “What can science do to support Mātauranga Māori?”

Toxoplasma, a parasite carried by cats and shed in their faeces, has been identified as a major risk factor threatening the critically endangered Māui dolphin. We have found that one particular strain of this parasite is responsible for Māui and Hector’s dolphin deaths, as well as for deaths of native birds. A crucial challenge in managing this risk is to work out when and where the parasite gets into our waterways - there may be specific habitats or cat populations that produce this virulent strain. From these sites, Toxoplasma organisms are washed into waterways (rivers and lakes) and ultimately to harbours and estuaries (Māui dolphin feeding grounds). Marine mussels have been shown to concentrate Toxoplasma in their haemolymph (the shellfish equivalent of blood), and we believe that kākahi (native freshwater mussels) will do the same, and can be used at a local scale to determine hotspots of Toxoplasma waterway contamination. Our study will use molecular methods to test kākahi haemolymph for Toxoplasma organisms, and to work out whether the virulent strain is associated with particular cat habitats. Using information on landuse, weather conditions and cat host population, we will get a clearer picture of the parasite’s transmission pathways from land to sea, and create a machine learning model that can predict exposure hotspots. The knowledge we gain from this study can be used to target disease management at the most relevant areas, with an ultimate aim of decreasing the amount of Toxoplasma entering our waters, and preventing Māui dolphin deaths.

Kōwhaiwhai is a non-figurative design system, comprised of a series of patterns, aligned with unfurling shoots of the fern frond, the flowering beak-shaped ngutu kākā shrub and the dynamic rhythm of ocean tides. The patterns, inspired by nature, can typically be found painted or carved in meeting houses, storehouses, canoes and paddles. Kōwhaiwhai are not just decorative but impart an important cultural narrative.

We have observed similarities between kōwhaiwhai and auxetic patterns. While regular materials thin laterally when stretched, auxetic materials thicken, providing unique functionality such as enhanced shock and vibration energy absorption, and flexibility to stiff materials. These features produce 3D-shapes and properties from 2D- sheeted materials. These new materials can add value and protect foods as innovative food packaging. Exports from the NZ primary sector total around $37b/yr with a growth target of $64b/yr by 2025. Every product uses packaging to protect it from physical damage and spoilage, making packaging one of NZ's major export products by volume.

Through an exciting research collaboration between Toioho ki Āpiti (Maori art section, School of Art) and Food Packaging Engineering at Massey University, together with materials expertise from Scion and Callaghan Innovation, we will develop novel packaging applications of kōwhaiwhai that are consistent with its use, while positively promoting and embracing Māori culture. We will associate kōwhaiwhai within contexts consistent with Māori values of kaitiakitanga (guardianship of the land) by adopting biomaterials such as paper and fibreboard instead of plastics. This research will deliver novel science-based methodologies to design kōwhaiwhai-based materials with:

• unique and tailored inherent mechanical functionality
• the ability to embed an underlying narrative
• universally recognisable NZ Aotearoa provenance
• made from environmentally sustainable materials
• protectable under Trademark and Copyright Acts.

During volcanic unrest, the main question asked of a volcano monitoring agency is: “When will the volcano erupt?” This question is very difficult to answer, because the interpretation of monitoring signals requires a comprehensive understanding of the magmatic processes that precede an eruption. Recently, we have taken advantage of the extensive record of these processes preserved in deposits from past Tongariro Volcanic Centre eruptions. These deposits contain crystals that indicate magma ascended from depth, taking between two and four days to reach the surface to erupt, i.e., long enough for effective hazard mitigation if magma ascent is associated with clearly detectable geophysical signals.

The critical next steps require a link between these ascent rate findings to typical volcano monitoring strategies, namely seismicity and deformation. We will utilise a three-staged approach: (i) study historical (digital and analogue) seismic records prior to previous eruptions to characterise the signals; (ii) forward model volcano deformation using various magma volumes and geometries; and (iii) extend magma ascent analysis to eruptions that produce voluminous lava flows, another hazard in the Central Plateau volcanoes.

The goals of our research are: (i) enhance the detection of pre-eruptive magma ascent in real-time seismic monitoring; (ii) compare real-time volcano deformation to a database of simulated deformation models to rapidly identify the geometry of future magma ascent paths and likely eruption sites; and (iii) forecast time-windows between geophysical unrest and eruption for both explosive and effusive eruptions.

This work will unfold its transformational impacts during future episodes of volcanic activity, where it will significantly contribute to saving lives, reducing injuries, protecting livestock and infrastructure, and enhancing environmental remediation, thus providing social, economic and environmental benefits to New Zealand.

Imagine a world where your home knows exactly where you are, ascertains that you are going to the fridge for a midnight snack and turns on the night light. Rescue personnel know exactly how many individuals have evacuated a residence during an emergency, and the HVAC system operates more efficiently by sensing who is where. The floor detects a body lying motionless and instantly alerts hospitals and relatives to a fall. The floor tracks an occupants’ footsteps, calculates that an occupant’s walking pattern has changed and alerts the family doctor to investigate early onset of a disease like Alzheimer’s or progressing frailty increasing the risk of suffering a fall.

Associate Professor Fakhrul Alam of Massey University is teaming up with scientists and engineers from Scion, Resene, and three other NZ universities to make these scenarios possible. Over the next three years the team will develop an innovative Smart Floor capable of making homes and aged-care facilities safer.

The Smart Floor operates by measuring changes in capacitive coupling between the human body and the floor, analogous to how your finger interacts with a touchscreen. Processing the sensed data from the floor using powerful machine learning algorithms allows the data to be used to track movement, interpret body positioning, and even differentiate between people by assigning unique characteristics to each occupant, all in a seamless privacy-maintaining way with no cameras or wearable devices.

Management of gastrointestinal diseases would be revolutionised if, instead of invasive and embarrassing endoscopy and faecal sampling, we could simply swallow a capsule that travelled along the gastrointestinal track taking images and collecting samples at precise locations.

In this project, a team of engineers, led by Dr Ebubekir Avci from Massey University, will develop a revolutionary smart robotic capsule that is minimally-invasive, remotely deployable, able to access the entire gastrointestinal track, and collect images/samples of luminal content and gut wall. This technology will advance the management of gastrointestinal diseases by enabling early accurate diagnosis, less-invasive ongoing monitoring of treatment efficacy, and lower rates of complications. World-leading microfabrication and biomedical device instrumentation expertise will combine to develop a fit-for-purpose pill-sized capsule with

innovative microactuators and sensors that allow precise positioning and sampling within the gut. The cutting-edge advances in robotics facilitated here have additional exciting applications in the field of small-scale intelligent systems, such as personalised nutrition technologies, environmental remedies, and earthquake search-and- rescue robots.

The exciting interdisciplinary team who will make this vision a reality includes engineers, specialist gastrointestinal clinicians, nutrition and gut physiology experts, biomedical device entrepreneurs, and Maori advisors, representing 3 Universities, 1 CRI, a hospital, and private businesses.