April 18, 2023

Engineering Science at

the

University of Auckland

Mike O’Sullivan,

University of Auckland, New Zealand

Outline of the presentation

General background on Engineering Science

Graduate degrees

Engineering Science

One of five departments in the Faculty of Engineering (also Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical and Materials)

Faculty enrolls ~650 new undergraduate students each year

Engineering Science runs two degree programs – Engineering Science and Biomedical Engineering

Engineering Science ~35 students per year

Biomedical Engineering ~25 students per year

Engineering Science People

Academic staff - 31

Research fellows - 7

PhDs – 18

Master of Engineering – 8

Master of Energy – 8

Master of Operations Research – 1

Postgraduate Certificate in Geothermal Energy - 22

Teaching profile – for all engineers

Mathematical modelling

Computer methods

Chemistry and Biology for engineers (part)

Teaching profile – for Engineering Science

Mathematical modelling

Computational techniques

Design

Continuum mechanics

Operations Research

Teaching profile – additional for Biomedical Eng.

Instrumentation

Bioengineering

Research interests

Operations research

Continuum mechanics

Bioengineering

Research spin-off groups

Bioengineering – Auckland Bioengineering Institute

Operations Research – Optima

Geothermal – Geothermal Modelling Group

Research degrees

PhD – 3 or 4 years

Master of Engineering – 1 year

Engineering – 4 year BE + 1 year ME

Science – 3 year BSc + 2 year MSc

or 4 year BSc(hons) + 1 year MSc

Master of Energy

Cross-faculty degree (Engineering, Science, Business and Economics)

Just started in 2011

Organised by Engineering Science

Several themes including geothermal and wind

Master of Energy- structure

Two compulsory courses (25%) - Energy Resources and Energy Technology

Three elective courses (37.5%) – From Engineering, Science or Business and Economics

Industry-focused research project (37.5%)

Master of Operations Research

A one year, all research degree

Targeted at students with BScs in mathematics, statistics or computer science or with BComs in economics

Engineering Science students interested in OR can take an ME

Postgraduate certificate in geothermal energy technology

One semester program (mid-July to mid-November)

Organised by Engineering Science (the Geothermal Institute is being re-established and may take over this role)

25-30 students per year, ~25% from Indonesia, ~25% from the Philippines, the rest from many countries

New Zealand Government is providing scholarships

PGCert - structure

Two compulsory courses – one on geothermal engineering and one on geothermal geoscience (50%)

One elective paper on either geothermal engineering or geothermal geoscience (25%)

An industry-based research project (25%)

Two one-week field trips to the Taupo volcanic zone – Rotorua, Wairakei etc

PGCert – field trip

PGCert – field trip

Engineering Science - Research themes

Bioengineering Research

Electric Power Optimization

Fluid Dynamics,

Solid Mechanics,

Geothermal and Oil and Gas Reservoir Engineering

Network Design and Simulation

Scheduling and Rostering

Stochastic programming and multicriteria optimization.

Geothermal Reservoir Engineering Research

Simulation of the Wairakei-Tauhara, Mokai, Ohaaki and Ngawha reservoirs.

Modeling of supercritical geothermal flows.

MCMC methods for model calibration.

Large-scale geothermal convection.

Subsidence in geothermal fields

Automated model calibration

Geothermal Engineering Research

Two-phase flow in geothermal pipelines.

Two-phase orifice plates.

Power station design and optimisation.

Automated analysis of geothermal well tests.

Direct use of geothermal energy.

Other related research

Environmental fluids modelling Tidal flow modelling. Simulation of pollutant dispersal in rivers,

estuaries and coastal environments. Simulation of fish egg/larvae dispersal.

Petroleum reservoir engineering

Coal bed methane (CBM) production

Big picture for geothermal modelling research

I want to be able to run bigger and better models of Wairakei-Tauhara (and other fields) more quickly.I would like to have much more automation in the calibration process.My ultimate aim is to start my model running, go to the beach for a week or two and return to find:

• A well calibrated model• Future predictions of system behaviour (with full

statistics e.g. 95% confidence bounds on MWe output, etc)

The beach

The other end of the beach

Far north New Zealand