SIT impresses visiting professor from German university Professor Florian Werzinski from Flensburg University of Applied Sciences (FUAS) in Germany, recently toured Southern Institute of Technology (SIT), having made the plans months in advance to fit in a one-day campus visit during a cycling holiday of the South Island.
Prof. Werzinski is familiar with New Zealand having lived here; he was employed at Weta Digital in Wellington before moving back to Germany to pursue his teaching career at FUAS, which is the northernmost university in Germany, close to the border of Denmark. It has around 5,000 on-campus students and is a partner university with SIT for the Study Abroad student exchange programme.
Prof. Werzinski said he made March 7th visit “out of curiosity”, to get new ideas and to see what students would experience at SIT, hoping to attract more German students and increase the student exchange between SIT and Flensburg. “There are big differences between the two institutes.” he added.
With his professorship in visual effects, Prof. Werzinski had a particularly keen eye for SIT screen arts programmes and their centre for creative industries, Te Rau o te Huia. Acknowledging he didn’t really have any expectations prior to the visit, he thought the SIT campus was very well laid out and the creative centre was exceptional. “I’m surprised at how good the facilities are… It’s a very interesting building especially with the church incorporated into the fabric of the centre. It looks like a fun place to learn.”
Flensburg professors had to tackle a broader range of subjects; as well as visual effects, Prof. Werzinski also teaches postproduction and 3-D rendering, plus one or two other options. “SIT seem to have more dedicated tutors who are more specialised in the screen arts field. This school stood out. It’s very modern.”
He also noted Invercargill provided very good conditions for study. “There are not too many distractions for students, it’s definitely worth it,” explaining Flensburg students should know that completing a semester at SIT was going to be a high value experience, as they were traveling a great distance from Germany. “Everyone is working digitally, there’s a quality of environment [here], I’ve always recommended New Zealand.”
During his five years at Weta Digital, Prof. Werzinski’s role was Technical Director for Shading, Describing the job as “very specialised and technical”, however, there was a great variety in the different movies he worked on. “One day I worked on Avatar, the next day it could be a Marvel movie.” He’s been able to infuse his teaching with his knowledge and experiences from Weta.
The visual effects industry is small and scattered across the globe in a few specific places, such as Vancouver, California and New Zealand. “New Zealand is one of the top destinations in visual effects companies,” Prof. Werzinski said. For people in the sector, it is one of their highest aspirations to work for a company like Weta, and he put his own stint at Weta down to good timing – when the right opening was available - and having expertise in the field, having previously worked in Germany and the U.S.
Prof. Werzinski included the SIT visit on the last few days of his bicycle holiday, having taken 16 days to bike from Nelson to Bluff, via the West Coast. He said he was happy he had, because it was another interesting feature to see along the way. “I still like the country; I made this appointment a long time ago. I wanted to see [SIT] and increase co-operation between our schools.” Prof. Werzinski also spent two years as a Programme Manager who was partly responsible for Study Abroad students at Flensburg and knew what students needed in an exchange programme. Having seen the campus firsthand and met SIT staff, he said “I’m going back to Germany to encourage more students to come to SIT.”