2017 Final Year Student Prize Awards
University of Auckland:
First Prize
Marcelle Hecker – Anti-biofouling surfaces – protecting polystyrene against protein adsorption
“My project was about finding a simple polymer coating to protect polystyrene from protein adsorption. Because non-specific protein adsorption interferes with the proper functioning of many devices which come into contact with proteins in biological fluids (like bio-sensors or implants), there is much interest in creating protein resistant surfaces, especially in the medical sector. Through my project I was able to find out about the surface modifications already tried, and proven successful, and was able to test a new combination of protein resistant polymers, which have thus far shown promising resistance to protein adsorption on polystyrene”.
Second Prize
Matthew Bilton – Investigating the influence of fibrillary interconnectivity on the mechanical properties of articular cartilage using fibre network models
“A microstructurally-based fibre network computational model was developed to investigate the influence of the microstructure and interconnectivity on the radial stiffness, lateral stiffness and swelling response of a cartilage-like fibre network. It was found that the lateral stiffness and swelling response of these cartilage-like networks were highly dependent on the level of interconnectivity within the network, whilst the radial stiffness of the network showed significantly less dependence on interconnectivity”.
The University of Waikato
2017 prizewinners to be advised