Wintec students set to get stuck in at Fieldays

Wintec students and staff will get stuck in at Fieldays this month taking part in activities such as running farmer health and wellbeing checks, assisting a celebrity chef, showcasing research projects and putting together the Fieldays Exhibitor online magazine. 

Around 20 nursing students and staff will work alongside Ag Research, Dairy NZ and the New Zealand Institute of Rural Health over the four day show to run health pit stops gathering information on farmer health and wellbeing in New Zealand. Alongside this, six Wintec nursing students will help the Waikato District Health Board collect data to help with the roll-out of its virtual health service, HealthTap.

Meanwhile, Wintec cookery student Bryar Cookson will work with 2012 MasterChef New Zealand winner, Chelsea Winter, as her assistant during her cooking demonstration on the Saturday. Chelsea personally requested Bryar for the job after being impressed with her skills when they worked together at The Great New Zealand Food Show in April. 

Wintec's Centre for Transdisciplinary Research and Innovation will also be part of Fieldays, showcasing a number of agricultural-related research projects. The first is a project with Beef + Lamb New Zealand and the Waikato River Authority which involves putting Wintec-developed sensing technologies on farms. The aim is to understand links between land practices and water quality and to therefore determine how practices could be modified to improve water quality. 

The second is a project with a Northland-based printing company aimed at finding a non-toxic commercially available starch that could be used in the printing materials for the agricultural industry. This ink is in the development phase and samples will be available on the day. 

The third is an interactive software platform that allows users to change variables on the farm (eg increase herd size, decrease amount of rain) and see the impact it would have on a farm. The software will be used in learning environments to help students understand the interconnected nature of farming and the importance of planning.

Alongside these displays, Wintec's fashion design students and graduates will showcase their latest design collections as the pre-show to the Fieldays' Ag Art Wear competition, while Wintec students and staff will be backstage helping to dress the models and run the event.

Wintec's public relations students will be based in the Fieldays Media Centre managing media enquiries, putting together media kits, registering media attendance and developing media releases and other content for digital platforms. 

In the lead up to all of this, Wintec's journalism and photography students are once again busy putting together the Fieldays Exhibitor magazine for the 13th year in a row as part of their course work. For the first time, the magazine – which is aimed at the 1000-plus Fieldays exhibitors - will be available online only to allow exhibitors easier access via their smartphones. The move online also allows the students to hone technical skills they have been learning in the classroom including videography.

"Having our students out and about and taking part in meaningful real-world projects in the community is a key part of helping prepare them for the workplace and Fieldays is an excellent opportunity for this," says Wintec's chief executive, Mark Flowers.

"We're fortunate to have a number of strong partnerships with businesses and community organisations around the region and the country that enable us to provide our students with the opportunity to translate their skills into the real world. Plus, the connections our students make from these types of opportunities can be extremely helpful."

Aside from the Wintec activity taking place at Fieldays this year, Wintec Venues, based in the Hamilton city campus, will host two related events including Enterprise Ireland's networking dinner and the Milk Quality Conference 2016 dinner. 

To find out more about Fieldays, visit www.fieldays.co.nz.