Professors announced as Fellows of Engineering New Zealand
Professor Dale Carnegie, Professor Alan Brent, and Professor Bastiaan Kleijn from Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington have recently been made Fellows of Engineering New Zealand, recognising their impact through teaching and research.
Fellowship with Engineering New Zealand is a significant achievement that recognises individuals who have made a substantial impact on engineering in Aotearoa New Zealand. Engineering New Zealand is the nation's primary professional body for engineers, and a Fellowship is held in high esteem by peers and professionals.
Professor Carnegie
Professor Dale Carnegie was one of the founding professors at the University’s School of Engineering and Computer Science and was Dean of Engineering for eight years. A highlight of his research is his work on music robotics and mechatronics, enabled through collaboration with the New Zealand School of Music—Te Kōkī at the University.
For Professor Carnegie, the Fellowship is a recognition of three decades of service to education, leadership, and research. While having nearly 300 peer-reviewed publications and serving on multiple engineering-related boards, both in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally, he states that his passion lies in teaching.
“To come here and help establish an entirely new discipline is even rarer than a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—very few people would have the privilege of experiencing the excitement of doing this.
“This Fellowship effectively belongs to Engineering at Te Herenga Waka. It is a recognition of our excellence and standing in New Zealand. That I and my colleagues have been awarded these Fellowships really tells the Engineering community that we are a centre of excellence, of international star performers, of dedicated teachers, and will be taking a lead role in the direction that engineering takes in New Zealand over the next generations.”
Professor Brent
Professor Alan Brent has also been made a fellow for his work in bringing sustainable design and thinking to the forefront of the engineering profession in this country. At the University, Professor Brent introduced the subject of Sustainable Energy Systems as an undergraduate major and postgraduate programme. He is now the Chair in Sustainable Energy Systems alongside his professorial role, supporting a sustainable development focus in the Faculty.
Professor Brent’s ultimate aim is to successfully facilitate the country's transition to a net-zero carbon emissions economy. A stronger focus on sustainability in engineering and how energy technologies can be engineered to be self-renewing will help in this goal, he says.
“The Fellowship will help to spotlight sustainability issues in the engineering profession and provide opportunities to explore how engineering can play a key role in addressing our sustainability challenges in Aotearoa New Zealand.”
Professor Kleijn
Professor Bastiaan Kleijn’s work examines how machine learning and automated processing systems can be applied to fields such as biomedicine, acoustics, and geophysics. A recent journal article describes how machine learning can contribute to medical screenings for cervical cancer. He also has over 80 patents to his name.
Professor Kleijn is a Professor of Electronic Engineering at Te Herenga Waka, but also works part-time as a Researcher with Google, developing audio and video technology for online communication software.
Engineering New Zealand cited his many international achievements in the field: “The speech compression algorithm used by all mobile telephones is based on his invention, and the company he co-founded provided the enabling compression technology to Skype, a pioneer in internet communications.”
Read more about Engineering New Zealand Fellows.
See the full list of 2023 Fellows.