title: Matariki: The star of the year by Rangi Matamua [Book Review]

authors: Keegan, Te Taka Adrian Gregory

abstract: This article reviews the book “Matariki: The star of the year by Rangi Matamua", by Matamua, Rangi.

text: Matariki: The star of the year by Rangi Matamua [Book Review] This article reviews the book “Matariki: The star of the year by Rangi Matamua", by Matamua, Rangi.

year: 2017

title: Ngā Tuituinga o te Pōtae: Rangatahi perspectives of leadership within Ngāti Maniapoto

authors: Moss, Luke

subjects: Rangatahi

abstract: Research on youth leadership development is often saturated by adult perceptions and thus the literature often lacks youth voice and youth perspective on what integral areas are needed for successful youth leadership development. This research focuses on the rangatahi of Ngāti Maniapoto and their perspectives of leadership within the iwi to aid the gap in academic literature relating to youth perception of leadership development.

Maniapoto has an abundance of leadership examples from the plethora of tūpuna that have developed the iwi to the leaders of contemporary Maniapoto pushing the iwi forward. The purpose of this research is to delve into the perspectives of rangatahi Maniapoto that pertain to good leadership qualities, their perception of leadership, unique leadership styles within Maniapoto, rangatahi leadership skills and perspectives of youth development within the iwi. By interviewing rangatahi with strong connection to Maniapoto this information of their perspectives revealed four integral areas of rangatahi leadership development were collated into a model for dissemination and use within the iwi for youth development practices. This model is named Ngā Tuituinga o te Pōtae and has four areas, education, collective, communication and vision. Education was identified by rangatahi as they found that learning Maniapoto reo and tikanga was integral for a Maniapoto leader, in addition they saw an opportunity to establish a wānanga to future proof our Maniapototanga. A collective approach to leadership was highlighted as the rangatahi perceive that Maniapoto leaders need to be well known in the community and have good relationships with iwi members to be successful. Rangatahi reported that communication was an important attribute for leaders to have, not just speech but communicating by doing was essential for a Maniapoto leader. Finally, rangatahi explained that leaders need to have a vision for the taiao and a vision for our people to be a successful leader, and be able to take the iwi to a place they have not been to before.

This study adds to the scarce literature on youth perceptions on youth leadership development and definitively answers the question on how rangatahi of Maniapoto perceive leadership and how rangatahi of Maniapoto would develop leadership within Te Nehenehenui. The key findings presented in this thesis indicate that rangatahi from Maniapoto engage and identify leadership in many ways, however they do agree that leadership development is necessary for Maniapoto to flourish in the future. Applying this model and research within the iwi will create new foundations for leadership to grow within Maniapoto, and fill the gap of leadership for the iwi that rangatahi have identified.

text: Ngā Tuituinga o te Pōtae: Rangatahi perspectives of leadership within Ngāti Maniapoto Research on youth leadership development is often saturated by adult perceptions and thus the literature often lacks youth voice and youth perspective on what integral areas are needed for successful youth leadership development. This research focuses on the rangatahi of Ngāti Maniapoto and their perspectives of leadership within the iwi to aid the gap in academic literature relating to youth perception of leadership development.

Maniapoto has an abundance of leadership examples from the plethora of tūpuna that have developed the iwi to the leaders of contemporary Maniapoto pushing the iwi forward. The purpose of this research is to delve into the perspectives of rangatahi Maniapoto that pertain to good leadership qualities, their perception of leadership, unique leadership styles within Maniapoto, rangatahi leadership skills and perspectives of youth development within the iwi. By interviewing rangatahi with strong connection to Maniapoto this information of their perspectives revealed four integral areas of rangatahi leadership development were collated into a model for dissemination and use within the iwi for youth development practices. This model is named Ngā Tuituinga o te Pōtae and has four areas, education, collective, communication and vision. Education was identified by rangatahi as they found that learning Maniapoto reo and tikanga was integral for a Maniapoto leader, in addition they saw an opportunity to establish a wānanga to future proof our Maniapototanga. A collective approach to leadership was highlighted as the rangatahi perceive that Maniapoto leaders need to be well known in the community and have good relationships with iwi members to be successful. Rangatahi reported that communication was an important attribute for leaders to have, not just speech but communicating by doing was essential for a Maniapoto leader. Finally, rangatahi explained that leaders need to have a vision for the taiao and a vision for our people to be a successful leader, and be able to take the iwi to a place they have not been to before.

This study adds to the scarce literature on youth perceptions on youth leadership development and definitively answers the question on how rangatahi of Maniapoto perceive leadership and how rangatahi of Maniapoto would develop leadership within Te Nehenehenui. The key findings presented in this thesis indicate that rangatahi from Maniapoto engage and identify leadership in many ways, however they do agree that leadership development is necessary for Maniapoto to flourish in the future. Applying this model and research within the iwi will create new foundations for leadership to grow within Maniapoto, and fill the gap of leadership for the iwi that rangatahi have identified.

year: 2021

title: Supercapacitor assisted LED (SCALED) converter technique for solar powered DC-microgrids

authors: Udathenne Gedara, Dilini Udeshika Kumari Jayananda

abstract: Designing electronic products and systems with high energy efficiency is a major challenge for electronic power circuit designers. Almost all residential and industrial buildings are presently AC powered. However, they contain electronic equipment that is internally dependent on a bulk DC power rail with multiple DC-DC converters or DC-AC converters to supply motors controlled by variable speed drives. The overall efficiency of an electronic device with multiple voltage converters is determined by the product of the efficiencies of the individual conversion stages. Thus, overall efficiency drops drastically with the number of converter stages. However, with renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic solar cells generating DC electricity, we can eliminate the first AC-DC converter and reduce the number of converter stages, to achieve a signi ficant rise in end-to-end efficiency. This is the motivation for the DC-microgrid concept. DC-microgrids are local energy networks consisting of renewable energy sources and storage systems.
Although power generation using solar energy is economical, designers have to cope with frequent fluctuations in irradiance and temperature and the non-availability of solar energy at night. Accordingly, there is a need for energy storage for reliable operation. The most common energy storage device used in solar power-based systems is the rechargeable battery pack, typically based on lead-acid and lithium-ion chemistries. However, all rechargeable batteries have limited charge-discharge life cycles as well as calendar lives, and are environmentally unfriendly. With the continuous developments of supercapacitor materials and manufacturing techniques over the last decade, it is now possible to adopt supercapacitors as short-term energy storage devices in solar powered DC-microgrids to replace electrochemical battery packs. When supercapacitors are used in solar power-based DC-microgrid environments, there is the possibility of directly operating \white goods" (such as washing machines, refrigerators, dishwashers and air conditioners) and lighting. However, if a supercapacitor bank is used as the sole energy storage, existing maximum power point tracking schemes are no longer appropriate. This is because the storage bank acts as a near-ideal capacitor, so its impedance depends on its state of charge, unlike a rechargeable battery pack with internal resistance.
The supercapacitor assisted LED lighting (SCALED) converter is a new circuit topology that can be applied to solar powered DC-microgrids. This topology has been developed specially for low voltage LED lighting systems where a supercapacitor bank is used as an efficient energy storage device instead of a battery bank. The SCALED converter is another extension of the supercapacitor assisted loss management concept developed by the Power Electronics research team at the University of Waikato. This thesis presents details of this SCALED conversion system, developed for the Ports of Auckland DC-microgrid lighting systems, including theory and experimental efficiency measurements.

text: Supercapacitor assisted LED (SCALED) converter technique for solar powered DC-microgrids Designing electronic products and systems with high energy efficiency is a major challenge for electronic power circuit designers. Almost all residential and industrial buildings are presently AC powered. However, they contain electronic equipment that is internally dependent on a bulk DC power rail with multiple DC-DC converters or DC-AC converters to supply motors controlled by variable speed drives. The overall efficiency of an electronic device with multiple voltage converters is determined by the product of the efficiencies of the individual conversion stages. Thus, overall efficiency drops drastically with the number of converter stages. However, with renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic solar cells generating DC electricity, we can eliminate the first AC-DC converter and reduce the number of converter stages, to achieve a signi ficant rise in end-to-end efficiency. This is the motivation for the DC-microgrid concept. DC-microgrids are local energy networks consisting of renewable energy sources and storage systems.
Although power generation using solar energy is economical, designers have to cope with frequent fluctuations in irradiance and temperature and the non-availability of solar energy at night. Accordingly, there is a need for energy storage for reliable operation. The most common energy storage device used in solar power-based systems is the rechargeable battery pack, typically based on lead-acid and lithium-ion chemistries. However, all rechargeable batteries have limited charge-discharge life cycles as well as calendar lives, and are environmentally unfriendly. With the continuous developments of supercapacitor materials and manufacturing techniques over the last decade, it is now possible to adopt supercapacitors as short-term energy storage devices in solar powered DC-microgrids to replace electrochemical battery packs. When supercapacitors are used in solar power-based DC-microgrid environments, there is the possibility of directly operating \white goods" (such as washing machines, refrigerators, dishwashers and air conditioners) and lighting. However, if a supercapacitor bank is used as the sole energy storage, existing maximum power point tracking schemes are no longer appropriate. This is because the storage bank acts as a near-ideal capacitor, so its impedance depends on its state of charge, unlike a rechargeable battery pack with internal resistance.
The supercapacitor assisted LED lighting (SCALED) converter is a new circuit topology that can be applied to solar powered DC-microgrids. This topology has been developed specially for low voltage LED lighting systems where a supercapacitor bank is used as an efficient energy storage device instead of a battery bank. The SCALED converter is another extension of the supercapacitor assisted loss management concept developed by the Power Electronics research team at the University of Waikato. This thesis presents details of this SCALED conversion system, developed for the Ports of Auckland DC-microgrid lighting systems, including theory and experimental efficiency measurements.

year: 2020