| Computer Science and Software Engineering |  |
by Neill Birss
American technology giant Motorola is assessing Christchurch as a possible site for a research centre that would initially employ 200 software and electrical engineering graduates.
Motorola's Pacific region vice-president and general manager, Ron Nissen, said from Sydney yesterday that Christchurch was one of three or four now on its list for the centre. The other New Zealand candidate is Auckland. Wellington and Dunedin have been ruled out, as have all smaller centres.
Motorola executives have been to the University of Canterbury and will revisit it in the next few months. They will also meet community leaders.
Graduate supply is the key to locating the site. The world is short of hundreds of thousands of software and electrical engineering graduates.
"We would like to have about 15 per cent of the staff with PhDs, another 30 to 40 per cent with masters degrees, and the balance with excellent first degrees," Mr Nissen said.
There was no direct link between Motorola's contention to supply Telecom's new CDMA cellphone network and the research site, he said.
The centre would initially be only a little bigger than Trimble Navigation New Zealand in Christchurch, a research and development arm of Silicon Valley's Trimble Navigation, the GPS navigation corporation. Trimble employs about 180 people in Christchurch.
One of the city's attractions for Motorola is the the number of technology companies. "We like the idea of being part of a community, together providing careers," Mr Nissen said. "We don't want a location where we would be the only game in town."
However, the corporation wants to be satisfied that it can attract the number and quality of staff it needs.
The founder of Christchurch's electronics industry, Sir Angus Tait, is enthusiastic.
"Anything that will boost the local industry is good," he said.
He is cautious only that a Motorola site should not offer salaries 20 per cent or more higher than local technology companies pay.
Tait Electronics, Christchurch's biggest technology firm, both competes with Motorola in two-way radio sales and buys Motorola products.
With New Zealand costs, especially labour, lower than Australia's, the site choice probably comes down to Christchurch or Auckland.
The University of Canterbury and the University of Auckland are close in electrical engineering student numbers. Auckland seems to have the edge in the number of information and computer science students, but it also has much more competition for its graduates. Commercial demand for computer science students is much lower in Christchurch, leaving the field open to industry and research employers.
Richard Duke, the head of the Canterbury electrical and electronic engineering department, says the department is emphasising its postgraduate programme. It has 40 PhD students.
A Motorola centre in Christchurch would be excellent, said Ray Hunt, a senior lecturer in computer science at Canterbury.
He has just returned from Asia, Britain, and the United States. Many Canterbury computer science graduates he met were earning $200,000 a year, but without exception wanted to return to Christchurch to work. Motorola sales last year reached almost $55 billion.