What we do

Tertiary education and research

Technology

Nautilus Technology Park

The Nautilus Technology Park will be an 11,000 m² state-of-the-art technology business park positioned at Sulphur Point in close proximity to the Tauranga central business district. It is being developed to specifically meet the needs of the rapidly growing information & communications technology sector. The opportunity to relocate to purpose designed facilities, surrounded by like-minded businesses and heavily technology-enabled, is an attractive one to both local businesses and those outside the region. Potential benefits to the region of a technology park and the necessary infrastructure to ensure its competitiveness have been identified and incorporated into a business proposition to attract tertiary, technology and research organisations. A development of this type will increase opportunities for high-skill and high wage employment in the region. Priority One will be targeting overseas and Kiwi expatriate software design houses that may consider relocating or investing in the Western Bay of Plenty in support of the technology park.

Computer Science Capability

Priority One has facilitated partnerships between members of the Western Bay of Plenty ICT Cluster and the University of Waikato’s Computer Science Department to take advantage of the university’s world-class research capability in the potential development of new products. The university has New Zealand’s top ranked computer science department and graduates include Craig Nevill-Manning, Google’s Director of Engineering in New York. The University is recognised world leader the fields of text mining and machine learning research, where a computer program automatically analyses a large body of data to decide what information is most relevant. The university’s open source Greenstone digital library software is currently used in more than 60 countries and by UNESCO for tasks ranging from collating information on disaster relief operations to development work.

Bachelor of Computing in Tauranga

A new computing programme at the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic means that students in applied computing can complete a university degree in computing without leaving Tauranga. It has taken a year to design the new programme, in consultation with the local IT industry. The new qualifications have added the Cisco and Microsoft industry certifications as well as Sun systems, which industry wanted included. The programme is modular, so students can select how they complete the degree pathway. Level 5 and level 6 diploma courses started in 2010, providing the first and second years towards the degree. Students can then go straight into the third and final year of the Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (with a specialisation in applied computing) at the University of Waikato in Tauranga.