Keith Payne was in Germany on a school exchange, trying to decide where he would go to university … German, Spanish and Physics is not a common combination, but that's what he was looking for, so there were really only a couple of options: Auckland or Otago. Keith's brother was at Auckland so Keith decided to try somewhere different: Otago.
The legendary flexibility of Otago's degrees came into play, and Keith completed a BA in German and a BSc in Physics, even managing to include a semester of study in Germany that counted toward his Otago degrees. Keith has since completed a MSc in Electronics, with a research project that captures two of his favourite things: electronics and native birds!
“We use cellphone and GPS technologies to make these tiny tracking devices, light enough for many native birds to carry. The GPS technology tracks the animal or bird movement, then when they're in cellphone range it transmits the information to our server in the lab.”
In his other life Keith is a photographer with a passion for native birds – the fascination with birds started with breeding cockatiels at the age of 10. The challenge of making a tracking device light enough for a bird to carry was the other deciding factor in the project.
“Electronics is very flexible, which is great. They pretty much let me design my own project, and the data will be very valuable because little is known about the range and movements of some native birds.”
Keith hopes to extend this research further for a PhD that will be shared between Electronics and Wildlife Management - once again, combining disciplines to fit his passion