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• Spray-on clothes make debut
  Stuff.co.nz, 24 September
  With the international fashion week season in full swing a designer and a professor of particle technology unveiled their own unique fashion collection - made in one afternoon, with a new fabric that can be sprayed onto skin and other surfaces to make clothes, medical bandages and even upholstery.
  Discussion starters:
  • Fabric technology: new material formulation; material sustainability
  • Characteristics of Technological Outcomes: proper function / alternative function / malfunction
• Building in a brighter shade of 'green'
  TVNZ News, 25 September
  Members of an American family are building an energy-efficient home to the passive-house standard, which relies on insulation, sunlight and an airtight exterior.
  Discussion starters:
  • Energy efficient housing design – the passive-building standard; use of modeling software.
• Planning a sustainable city in the desert
  New York Times online, 25 September
  Promoters of Masdar, a city under construction near Abu Dhabi, say that it will be the world's first carbon-neutral city. It will be home to a research institute focused on renewable energy and sustainability, and eventually, if all goes as planned, to various clean-technology companies, and to a projected 45,000 residents and another 45,000 commuters.Discussion starters
  Discussion starters:
  • Environmental design: new city planning; computer-aided modellin
  • Design for sustainability: new energy technology; automated transportation networks
• Surgical strategy wins overseas buyers
  NY Times, 27 September
  A Christchurch company that designs and makes instruments used by orthopaedic surgeons, and exports more than 95 per cent of its products, cites the freedom to be creative in design as one of the reasons for its success.
  Discussion starters:
  • Product development: interpreting market needs; user-centric design; flexible manufacturing; regulatory compliance.
• Sidhe's record year ends with a 'horror'
  Stuff.co.nz, 27 September
  Wellington games developer Sidhe has brewed up another title for major United States games publisher Activision, but the faint-hearted need not apply.
  Blood Drive – for PlayStation 3 and XBox 360 – is a mix of Mad Max and the zombie apocalypse genres. Television show contestants in "motorised death steeds of steel" battle each other and "hordes of revolting flesh eaters in an all-out fight to the death".
• Annual 'Inventor Next Door Expo' open for viewing
  Stuff.co.nz, 28 September
  From duck-hunting caps with solar-powered lights to a machine that makes sushi in one simple step, the work of more than 30 Kiwi inventors will be on display at Porirua's Pataka Museum.
  Discussion starters:
  • Nature of Technology: the process of invention.
• Annual 'Inventor Next Door Expo' open for viewing
  TVNZ Close Up video, 28 September
  From duck-hunting caps with solar-powered lights to a machine that makes sushi in one simple step, the work of more than 30 Kiwi inventors will be on display at Porirua's Pataka Museum.
  Discussion starters:
  • Nature of Technology: the process of invention.
• Value added exporting
  TVNZ Business News video, 29 September
  Canary Enterprises is dairy exporter with a difference - supplying value-added specialty NZ butter products mainly to airlines hotels and restaurants in 14 markets worldwide
  Discussion starters:
  • Processing technology: value added processing; Customisation to suit specific end user needs; packaging technology;
• Kiwi wave project generates US funding
  NZ Herald, 30 September
  Wave Energy Technology New Zealand (Wet NZ) will use a $2million US Government grant to build a quarter-scale version of its device, which uses waves to generate electricity, in the US state of Oregon. Discussion starters
  Discussion starters:
  • Technological Systems: Sustainable energy technologies; scale-up
  • Technological modelling: prototype testing.
• E-books may spur more kids to read
  Stuff.co.nz, 30 September
  The amount of time children spend reading books for enjoyment decreases as they use cell phones and other mobile technology, but e-books might just bring them back to literature, according to a recent report released.
  Discussion starters:
  • Digital media: sociocultural influences
• Product recall for 4000 toys sold in New Zealand
  TV3 News video, 1 October
  Mattel® (NZ) today announced a voluntary recall of 10 products distributed in New Zealand during the past seven years. The recall is a precautionary measure because of potential safety issues. There have been no reports of injuries in New Zealand. Retailers have been asked to remove affected product from stores. Customers are asked to discontinue using the products immediately and contact Mattel® (NZ) for a repair kit, a refund or a replacement product.
  Discussion starters:
  • Characteristics of Technological Outcomes: quality assurance; safety standards; fitness for purpose.
• Protecting your intellectual property
  NZ Trade and Enterprise online, October
  The US Government estimates that on average 20 percent of consumer products sold in China are counterfeit. There are laws to protect and enforce IP rights, but China's businesspeople do not have a long tradition of intellectual property compliance. There can also be inconsistencies of court proceedings on IP. These legal differences and the risk of IP breaches mean that a New Zealand company entering the market needs a well researched and executed strategy to protect its IP.
  Discussion starters:
  • Intellectual property issues: protecting copyright, trademarks and patents; understanding the risks and dealing with IP violations
• Designing great businesses
  NZ Trade and Enterprise - Success Stories, October
  New Zealand designers are noted for their fresh approach and several kiwi businesses are exporting that talent with significant success. Five businesses are finalists in the 2010 New Zealand International Business Awards category for best use of design.
  Discussion starters:
  • Embedding design principles across a business
  • Understanding end-user needs
• Land a robot on the moon and win $27m
  NZ Herald, 4 October
  Dozens of entrepreneurs and space engineers will gather on the Isle of Man tomorrow to finalise plans for one of the world's most technologically ambitious and financially lucrative competitions: the Lunar X prize.
  The US$20 million ($27 million) award, which is being backed by Google, will be given to the first company that builds a robot rover craft, lands it safely on the moon, and directs it on a journey of more than 500m across the lunar surface. In doing so, the competition organisers hope to galvanise the exploration of the moon by opening it up to private industry. A deadline of 2012 has been set for all attempts to win the full prize.
• Japan Recycles Minerals From Used Electronics
  The New York Times, 4 October
  KOSAKA, Japan — Two decades after global competition drove the mines in this corner of Japan to extinction, Kosaka is again abuzz with talk of new riches.
  The treasures are not copper or coal. They are rare-earth elements and other minerals that are crucial to many Japanese technologies and have so far come almost exclusively from China, the global leader in rare earth mining.