This year’s recipient of the Resolve Group Engineering Scholarship is Joanna Jarvie, who is entering her final year at the University of Auckland in 2015, studying for a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours).

Joanna has a particular interest in, and passion for, transport engineering, and says, “I have found it easy to be enthused in this topic due to its relevance to our daily lives… as it provides an opportunity to have an impact in bettering New Zealand communities.” She has been awarded the Scholarship for her consistent academic work, experience in project management and a variety of leadership roles, and her well-rounded extramural interests.

The $5000 scholarship is open to third year Civil and Environmental Engineering students at The University of Auckland. As well as academic excellence, the Scholarship was established to recognise and reward excellent project management and problem solving skills, leadership potential, communication skills, community involvement, and the potential to contribute to the roading industry.

Resolve Group Scholarship Winner, 2015

A range of options is being investigated by the New Zealand Transport Agency and Auckland Transport to deal with transport problems in the area between Onehunga, East Tamaki, Mangere, Otahuhu and the Airport; the second largest employment area after the city centre and a major freight hub. All options being considered are Multi-Modal and, as well as roading improvements, include investment in public transport and walking and cycling facilities. The programme seeks to improve journey times and journey reliability across the programme area in order to enhance business connectivity and support increased economic activity in the area. Still in its early stages, current work is on looking to develop options for improving connections into and out of the Onehunga-Penrose industrial area and improve bus journey time reliability between Mangere, Otahuhu, and Sylvia Park.

Michael Kwok acted as Project Controls Manager and assisted with providing the procurement strategy and scope. This role was subsequently enlarged to help develop the scope and tender documentation for a Professional Services Consultant to progress the development of Indicative and Detailed Business Cases for the responses required to address the immediate issues in the study area. In his role as advisor of the procurement process, Michael has produced Statement of Interest (SIA) documentation for shortlisting, been a member of the SIA Tender Evaluation Team (TET), produced Request for Proposal (RFP) documentation, and was a member of the RFP TET, including attendance at the tenderer interactive meetings. The evaluation process is now complete, with all tenderers having submitted in June, 2014.