Ara | Te Pūkenga BICT Student Wins Praise For VR Project Now Up For National Award

Switched On Housing is charged with delivering property maintenance work for approximately 12,000 Te Mahi Ngātahi Kāinga Ora homes throughout Aotearoa.

It’s a huge job which brings with it health and safety risks for maintenance kaimahi (staff), including the risk of exposure to asbestos in the housing stock. Finding a way to train staff while mitigating risk required a creative eye and technical expertise.

Step in an Ara|Te Pūkenga Bachelor of Information and Communication Technologies (Software Development) student looking for a third-year industry aligned project and you have a VR solution now capturing national attention.

Shaun Andales was tasked with updating the organisation’s text-based internal health and safety training model by developing an interactive 360° virtual tour to mimic an on-site environment where management of asbestos was needed.

Andales said the solution was designed for Switched On Group builders as a tool for tradespeople but turned out to also benefit customers and the public in general. "It helped tenants identify where asbestos can be found within their residence, how to mitigate exposure, and who to contact."

Andales enjoyed the opportunity to problem solve using visual design in a professional environment with project and industry supervisors who were "supportive and engaged throughout its progress".

Switched on Housing CEO Chris Hughes said engaging with Andales was a win-win. It allowed the project team to gain new insights while contributing to Andales’ education through real-world experience.

He described the result as an innovative training resource "that keeps our people safe, makes learning fun and is now up for a New Zealand Workplace Health & Safety award in the health category".

"Shaun’s hard work and dedication were instrumental in helping us achieve this recognition, and we are grateful to the ICT team at Ara for providing the opportunity to engage with students looking for experience in the industry," Hughes said.

Ara Academic Supervisor Dr David Weir said Andales’ experience showcased how work integrated capstone projects provided the ideal opportunity for ākonga to apply skills and learnings from their BICT degree coursework in a workplace environment.

"Shaun grew immensely from the experience that comes from engagement in problem solving and delivering a high-quality product for his client, while also managing his project and course work within a set time."

Organised by Safeguard magazine, the New Zealand Workplace Health & Safety Awards attracted 150 entries across 14 categories this year. The event on 20 June was organised by Thomson Reuters, publisher of Safeguard magazine, and supported by WorkSafe New Zealand and ACC.

Peter Bateman, Safeguard editor and convenor of the five-person judging panel, said the awards serve two purposes. "They are to publicly recognise good work, and to ensure good ideas are spread as widely as possible so that they inspire action elsewhere."

Andales said it was a thrill to be in such company.

"It is awesome recognition for Switched On Group, and it could potentially reinforce the path to new developments around effective visual-based communication in the niche 3D/360° visual space," he said.

The project will be fantastic for his CV too, as he continues to seek opportunities in the design and solution space.

"After dabbling in virtual tours for real estate, I’m now a Digital Specialist at Iron Mountain. I’m slowly gathering the right gear and building up my portfolio and connections, as I wish to venture into offering various solutions within the visual space."

The reality is, Shaun Andales is already making his mark in VR design.

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