Waikato University wins $2.5 million in Marsden funding

Research which aims to create a computer database that can self-correct is one of four University of Waikato projects that received support from the 2011 Marsden Fund, New Zealand's funding for ideas-driven research.

Waikato University has secured nearly $2.5 million in Marsden Research funding announced today.

Marsden grants are given annually and are regarded as a hallmark of excellence, allowing New Zealand’s best researchers to explore their ideas.

Computer Science Professor Ian Witten, along with Philosophy and Religious Studies Dr Catherine Legg, will lead a team to design and implement a new model of automated knowledge discovery – a computer system that self-corrects.

By bringing together existing resources, such as Wikipedia, and applying stringent quality control, they plan to build the world’s first genuinely self-correcting knowledge base. Professor Witten has been awarded $585,000 over three years to aid his research.

Engineering Associate Professor Ilanko Ilanko was awarded $795,000 for his research on Negative structures, superposition and penalty parameters for dynamic analysis. His research aims to develop a new methodology for predicting the vibration behaviour of complex structures using the novel concept of ‘negative structures’.

Professor of Economics John Gibson has been awarded $765,000 for his research on The Impact of Behavioural and Environmental Change on Health: Indoor and Outdoor Pollution and Immigrant Asthma in New Zealand.

Linguistics lecturer Dr Julie Barbour was awarded $345,000 for her research Exploring mood systems in the Oceanic languages of Vanuatu.

The Marsden Fund is administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand on behalf of the Marsden Fund Council, and funded by the New Zealand Government. It supports projects in the sciences, technology, engineering and maths, social sciences and the humanities.