Leonie Jones talks about her SfTI Science
Visual
A title screen using a semi-transparent overlay on top of an image. In turquoise font it reads: ‘Dr Leonie Jones (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa) talks about her SfTI research’. Underneath is the Science for Technological National Science Challenge logo.
The greyed overlay disappears and the video begins. We can now see the image of children at a lake. A boy and a girl stand over the lake on sedimentary rock, another girl pulls on a rope from the water next to the rocks, while another in the water faces them. The boy, who is the highest on the rocks, jumps into the lake making a big splash. The video repeats the jump but with the view closer.
The video switches to Leonie as she talks to the camera. She stands in front of a wall with a colourful graffiti mural of red pohutukawa flowers on top of green leaves, a blue background, and what appears to be a ship mast. She wears a jacket and a plain white name badge on her blouse. The camera then cuts to a closer shot of her face and she continues to talk.
Audio
Leonie:
Imagine a world where you could go outside, jump into a lake, jump into a river, have fun, and not worry about being sick. My name's Leonie and I'm a research scientist based at Digital Sensing Limited in Auckland. The focus of my research is to develop sensors that detect and measure pollution levels in our lakes and rivers.
Visual
A man faces away from the camera in a black hoodie walks down some man-made stairs through dense New Zealand bush while he carries the blue sensor in his right hand. We then switch to a view of legs as they walk through shallow water in black pants and gumboots. The scene switches to the man who walks into the frame of a scene in the bush on the edge of a small river. He approaches the river, bends down and puts his hands to the water.
Audio
Speaker 2:
New Zealands value engaging with our environment, with our lakes, and our rivers. That's the Kiwi way of life. I want to know that the water that our tamariki are playing in is clean, healthy, safe, and not going to make them sick. Don't you?
Visual
A different man in a brown jacket talks to the camera. He stands in front of a river with an open grassy area on one side and New Zealand native bush on the other. Below is a graphic overlay that reads “Millam Ruka - River Kaitiaki”, and to the left is the E.R.P. logo which has E.R.P in the centre of a six-pointed star and in the circle around it reads ‘Environment River Patrol Aotearoa NZ”. The camera focuses closer on his face and then shifts him to the left so that a video overlay appears on the right side of the screen. It is a video of a sensor with a hollow metal base with holes through it and a solid blue top that looks to be plastic. It sits with the metal base partially submerged in a river.
Audio
Millan Ruka:
Kia ora, my name is Millan Ruka. I live up here in Auckland, so I took it out on the Kaitiaki rivers, working in collaboration with DSL and the nitrate sensor project.
Visual
Leonie now talks to the camera outside in the bush with a black hoodie, jacket and her hair pulled back. The graphic overlay below reads Dr Leonie Jones - Research Scientist. To the left of her name are the words digital sensing and their logo. She holds up the sensor that we saw previously in the river, which we can now see is approximately a meter long. The video switches to Leonie as she holds the sensor in front of her while she is on her haunches with a river flowing past in front of her. She picks up the sensor and places it into the river. It is attached to a thin yellow rope which she holds onto.
Audio
Leonie:
For the past 25 years, water monitoring has remained in the hands of scientists. So, we decided to change the game by developing water quality sensors for everyday Kiwis and scientists alike.
The devices are deployed in rivers where they wirelessly measure and report nutrient levels at set time intervals.
Visual
The camera looks over a man’s shoulder as they place a sensor into the river. The angle changes so that we have a better view of the sensor’s metal base as it is submerged. We get a different shot of the sensor as it is dropped into a larger river from a couple of metres up. The man holds onto the yellow rope while the sensor splashes and settles into the water. This is followed by a close-up shot of the back of the man.
Audio
Millan Ruka:
When a sensor is deployed, we will be able to pinpoint with accuracy, monitor and read on the cloud base. I consider that to be a game-changer.
Visual
Again the shot is close-up over the shoulder of the man as he pulls the sensor out of the river and then a close up of the sensor itself as it is slowly pulled out of the water. From another angle, the man stands up and starts to carry the sensor from the river. This switches to a video of the sensor in the river, deeper this time with just the blue plastic top sticking out. It slowly moves along with the river.
Audio
Speaker 2:
Our devices are uniquely probeless. This means that the green goo that normally grows on things sitting in water doesn't affect our sensors because there are no probes for it to grow on.
Imagine if we had sensors in every river being deployed by everyday New Zealanders, every kilometer, testing every hour.
Visual
Leonie talks to the camera while on her haunches at the very edge of a river, with a sensor in the water in front of her. She holds the yellow rope connected to it. It switches to another shot of her as she stands on a path in the bush talking to the camera. The river can be seen below her to the right. We then see a close up of the sensor by itself in the river with a graphic overlay to the left with the E.R.P logo on top and the Digital Sensing logo below. The graphic overlay fades and the camera centres on the sensor for a moment. The video closes and we are back to the semi-transparent overlay over the first image of the children at the lake. This time there is a web address in a turquoise font that reads stfichallenge.govt.nz. Below, the phrase “He hiringa hangarau, he oranga tangata” is written in bold font, with “Innovation in technology for the benefit of people'' written below that in plain font.
Audio
Leonie:
With this technology, we can gain a better understanding of the state of the water and then we can be better prepared for action. Let's make New Zealand clean again for us, for our children, and for future generations.