20 years sparking innovation
One of our favourite events every year is the Aurora Energy Otago Science and Technology Fair. This year we were proud to celebrate our 20th year as the prime sponsor of this fantastic event.
We are proud to foster science and technology in the Otago region. Since 2004, we have been the prime sponsor of the annual Aurora Energy Otago Science and Technology Fair, supporting the thinking behind some of New Zealand’s youngest scientists. We congratulate the many students who participate in the Fair each year with the support and inspiration of their teachers and families.
2024 Fair
The 2024 Aurora Energy Otago Science and Technology Fair attracted 282 entries from 18 schools, with a total of almost 350 students from around the Otago region.
A big congratulations to Megha Senthilkumar (Year 12 student at St Hilda’s Collegiate School) for taking home the Aurora Energy Best in Fair Award for a second year in a row, for her project on “Sleep and emotional wellbeing in adolescence”.
Last year Megha conducted a nationwide study on how sleep affected adolescent students aged 11 to 18, surveying 249 schools across New Zealand.
This year Megha took her study global, and involved 100 schools across Asia, including India, Thailand, and Japan, as well as Australia and New Zealand. Congratulations Megha on your impressive work!
Well done to all the students (and parents and teachers!) for the many hours of time and effort that went into these projects – the judges were extremely impressed by the quality of the work put in, and we look forward to seeing what exciting ideas students come up with for next year!
Celebrating 20 years as proud sponsors
We spoke to Dr. Hamish McMillan, 2012 Fair winner, who recently completed a PhD in biochemistry and is now a post-doc at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, researching breast cancer.
Hamish shared what makes his job rewarding, advice for STEM students, and details about his 2012 science fair project!
Previous winners of the Aurora Energy Premier Award - Best in Fair
2023 – Megha Senthilkumar, a Year 11 student from St Hilda’s Collegiate, for her entry ‘Sleep and the wellbeing of adolescence: A national survey’
2022 – Matthew Petegem-Thach a Year 8 student from Taieri College, for his entry 'The Cubeinator'.
2021 – Satoshi Tomita a Year 13 student from John McGlashan College, for his entry 'Investigating solar panel efficiency with shading'. He also took home an Aurora Excellence in Energy Prize.
2020 – Olivia Charles and Maia Robertson (with help from Angela Fu and Chloe Heineke) Year 12 students from Columba College, for their entry 'Mummifying Rats? Of Corpse!'
2019 – Aaron Hewson, Year 12, King's High School for his project on "Investigating Chlorophyll concentration of Hound's Tongue Fern at Orokonui Ecosanctuary"
2018 – Ollie Meikle, Year 13, Kavanagh College for his project "Ambulance at the bottom of the cliff" an investigation into the relationship between leaf pigmentation and New Zealand's native horopito and predation at Orokonui eco-sanctuary
2017 – Corrie Anderson, Year 13, Columba College for her project "Horopito: Insecticidal properties and chemical structure analysis of a New Zealand native plant"
2016 – Aaron Nelson, Year 7, Balmacewen Intermediate for his project "RATs" – a Robotic Automatic Table-setter
2015 – Samuel Hulbe Pulver and Timothy Hulbe Pulver, Year 7, Dunedin North Intermediate for their project "Do I look like a scientist to you?", exploring non-conscious gender bias
2014 – Meran Campbell-Hood, Year 12, Logan Park High School, Dunedin for her project "North by North-West" on the detection of soil nutrients using digital photography of plants
2013 – Grant McNaughton, Year 10, Logan Park High School, Dunedin for his project "Branching Out", testing a Leonardo da Vinci theory about trees
2012 – Hamish McMillan, Year 13, John McGlashan College, Dunedin for his project "Will varroa affect honeybee diversity?"
2011 – Ryan Whelan, Year 8, John McGlashan College, Dunedin, for his project on which food goldfish prefer and what food generates the greatest weight gains
Behind the scenes tour
Aurora Energy hosted prize winners from the 2023 Aurora Energy Otago Science and Technology Fair for a behind the scenes tour.
This included a Q&A session with our recent graduates in our team about their career journey's and what they do at Aurora Energy and a tour of the Ward Street zone substation in Dunedin.
We look forward to hosting the 2024 winners in September.
More information
Please contact Steve Sexton, Fair Convenor, if you have any questions.
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