WITcon 2018 – Wellington – 27 August 2018

What

WITcon is a conference designed to bring students and industry together to discuss technical and social topics surrounding STEM.

VUWWIT (Victoria University of Wellington Women in Tech) exists to create a space for women and non-binary voices in STEM. We connect students to industry by running networking events and sharing job and internship opportunities. We also organise social events to build our community.

Programme:
9:30am Check in
10:00am Welcome
10:15am Keynote – Valerie Chan: Exploring the environment for female students in the Victoria University School of Engineering and Computer Science | Twitter:  @Valerie_Chan_
10:45am Diana Siwiak: What the Heck is Music Engineering Technology? | https://twitter.com/DianaSMuzyka
11:10am Chris Cormack: He waka eke noa? | https://twitter.com/ranginui
11:35am Lena Plaksina: From Mentee to Mentor | https://twitter.com/plaksina_lena
12:00pm Lunch
1:00pm Grant McLean: So You Want To Be A Developer? | https://twitter.com/grantmnz
1:25pm Karen Pratt: Tech at 23m Deep | https://www.projectreeflife.org
1:50pm Kate Pearce: Adversarial Engineering – What I Didn’t Learn About Cybersecurity in my Studies | https://twitter.com/secvalve
2:15pm Panel with keynote speaker and sponsors
2:45pm Closing words
3:00pm Drinks at the Hunter Lounge

Follow the Facebook event for updates and #WITcon on twitter

When and Where

Monday 27 August 2018,
9:30am-3:00pm

Memorial Theatre (SU MT228), Victoria University of Wellington, Kelburn, Wellington

How Much

$50 for waged attendees
$12.50 for students / unwaged attendees

Link to buy tickets

Ticket sponsorship
We have a limited number of tickets available for those who need financial assistance, thanks to our sponsors. We never want money to be a barrier for learning and engaging in this industry. Please email us at vuwwit@gmail.com if this applies to you.

More

2018 WITcon on lilregie (Book tickets here) and facebook event.

WITcon 2018 is brought to you by Flux Federation, with support from Catalyst IT, Pik Pok, PwC, and Xero.

VUWWIT (Victoria University of Wellington Women in Tech)

2018 Rutherford Lecture: Life and Times of Supervolcanoes – Tauranga – 22 August 2018

What

2018 NZ Rutherford Lecture
The Life and Times of Supervolcanoes

There is no denying that as New Zealand sits astride the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates our land is subject to tremendous natural forces. We may commonly experience this as a gentle but sometimes a severe shuddering of earthquakes. Yet with Aotearoa dotted with cones and calderas, Kiwis should also keep in mind that the Taupō Eruption was actually the world’s most violent volcanic eruption in the last 5000 years!

Colin Wilson has gathered many accolades for studying volcanoes, and in particular, those giant examples known as supervolcanoes. He likens his work to that of a crime scene investigator, where he travels the world piecing together the dual puzzle of why such cataclysmic explosions occur and why they are joined by much smaller eruptions. He aims to forecast volcanic phenomena with enough warning so that communities can respond. But although Colin is digging deep in the Earth’s crust to find the triggering mechanisms, volcanic systems are not letting their secrets go easily…

Royal Society Te Apārangi is proud to partner with GNS Science, EQC and Victoria University of Wellington in presenting the 2018 New Zealand Rutherford Lecture. Strong support from these organisations comes from the belief that New Zealanders will greatly benefit both from learning about and gaining a better awareness of this ‘sleeping’ giant in our midst. From late July to early September, Professor Wilson will head to 22 towns and cities to explain the nature of supervolcanoes, the ways in which such volcanoes operate and can be studied, and whether the next eruption is still likely to take us by surprise.

About the speaker

Professor Colin Wilson FRS FRSNZ, Victoria University of Wellington

In 2017, geologist Professor Colin Wilson was awarded Royal Society Te Apārangi’s highest honour, the Rutherford Medal, for his research into understanding large, explosive supervolcanoes and the dangers they pose. Yet although significant eruptions are still rare, threats from volcanic activity are considered a very serious natural hazard for Aotearoa New Zealand.

The 2018 New Zealand Rutherford Lecture is proudly presented by Royal Society Te Apārangi in partnership with GNS Science, EQC and Victoria University of Wellington.

When and Where

Wednesday 22 August 2018
5:30pm – 6:30pm

Tauranga Yacht and Boat Club
90 Keith Allen Drive, Tauranga,

How Much

Free.
You are welcome to turn up on the day, however, due to their expected popularity, to guarantee your seat(s) please register here.

More

Press release: 2018 New Zealand Rutherford Lecture: It’s a super tour!

The Life and Times of Supervolcanoes | Tauranga.

The 2018 New Zealand Rutherford Lecture is proudly presented by Royal Society Te Apārangi in partnership with GNS Science, EQC and Victoria University of Wellington.

PechaKucha Night ChCh 37 – Women, Science and Conservation – Christchurch – 19 September 2018

What

PechaKucha Night Christchurch is teaming up with Christchurch City Council to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Women’s Suffrage and Conservation Week with a night of quick-fire talks by some amazing women!

We are proud to bring you a collection of local women including a marine biologist working with the world’s rarest and smallest dolphins, an adventurer who returned from a 29-day expedition across the Greenland Icecap, a young musician speaking on the power of rest and creativity, an entrepreneur starting a podcast focused on women change-makers, a writer working on a book about women and World II and more.

Line-up include:

María Jesús Valdés Hernández // Marine Biologist // Working with the world’s rarest and smallest dolphins

Amy Johnston Bray // Interpretation and Exhibition Designer // Conversation is about conservation-engaging the public to act

Victoria Metcalf // Scientist // Celebrating the unlovable and the unseen

Jo Bailey // Writer, Author and Editor // Writing, Women and World II

Rebecca(Bek) Tavete// Founder ARGO beach Co-working Limited // A Contribution to Sustainability

Hollie Woodhouse // Adventurer, Designer + Daydreamer // Be your own Movement Maker and more.

When and Where

Wednesday 19 September 2018
Doors open 6:30pm, event starts 7:30pm
(Ilex café open for drinks and snacks)

Botanic Garden’s Visitor Centre
Rolleston Ave, Christchurch

How Much

$18

More

Event on pechakucha.org
Event on Eventfinda

“Gopher vs Ferris [Rust]” and “Performance Considerations in Go” – Auckland – 21 August 2018

What

Auckland based group for anyone interested in Go programming language. We will try to organise regular meetups with talks by members and guests. Depending on interest we can also consider organising Go hacking sessions.

Another amazing lineup this month for us eager Gophers [and Rustaceans alike]. Thanks to Movio again for the venue, drinks and pizza.

First up, Jacky Zhen with ‘Gopher vs Ferris’:

“Both Go and Rust are categorised as a systems programming languages, but both approach it in different paradigms. I’m a big fan of Go’s simplicity and pragmatism, but have times found some of the language features to be lacking.
Recently I’ve been playing around with Rust and have discovered many interesting aspects of the language. In this talk I’d like to share what I find awesome about Rust from the perspective of someone who has worked with Go and some functional languages.
As a keen student of both languages I would like compare and contrast the two languages and talk about what I think they could take from one another.”

Jacky is a prolific full stack engineer on Movio’s Numero team. Jacky is super-cool and squeaky-clean. Funnily enough, the only time I’ve heard Jacky swear was 15 hours deep into a hackathon, fighting with the Rust compiler for the first time. Naturally, he’d tamed it before the day was done.

Second up will be Taco de Wolff, with “Performance optimization in Go”:

“I’ll discuss various ways to optimize Go programs and dive into some of the underlying details. I have been giving introductory talks about Go lately, and I’d like to talk about something more in-depth.”

Taco currently works at the University of Auckland within the bio-engineering institute, where he does modelling on lungs. Previously worked for TixTrack, which is a software development company for ticketing software using Go. He’s also known for github.com/tdewolff/minify, which is a high-performance minifier in Go.

When and Where

Tuesday 21 August 2018
6pm – 8pm

Movio
2.4 / 30 St Benedicts St
Auckland

How Much

Free

More

Meetup page for 21 August 2018 meet
Go AKL meetup group

Games and Politics exhibition – Christchurch – 16 August – 23 September 2018

What

An interactive exhibition by the Goethe-Institut, in cooperation with ZKM | Center for Art and Media

Games and Politics has been touring worldwide and features 18 significant politically-ambitious video games, it encourages viewers to examine how they each unfold their unique political potential.

The exhibition offers numerous materials which allow the visitor to explore the connections between computer games and politics. Visitors are encouraged to get first-hand experience and are welcome to play themselves – to slip into the different roles and try their luck in the virtual worlds unfolding in the games.

A game is always more than just a game. Without considering the influence of the society that plays it, it remains just as impossible to understand as without considering its influence on that society. And yet, chants of euphoric praise for the immersive potential of pedagogical propaganda are as inadequate vis-à-vis the diversity of contemporary computer games as are undifferentiated media debates about ego-shooter games that glorify violence and ought to vanish from the bedrooms of young people. Because they aren’t vanishing. The apparent riffraff among the newer media have long since turned into formidable giants, about to create, in their numerous guises, a new leading medium.

This development has come to include the political sphere as well and games are increasingly used as propaganda for various political factions and often express a certain political stance. In contrast to representational media such as painting and photography, computer games conceive of themselves not merely as a (re-) presentation of social conditions and conflicts, but attempt to simulate the processes and rules that give rise to these conflicts.

All of the games in this exhibition share this political approach, which is intended by the games’ designers to set them clearly apart from both the conventional market as well as from computer games as an entertainment medium. They explore a wide range of topics.

Aside from the contingencies of political decision-making (Democracy 3), they grapple with problematic aspects of gender (Perfect Woman), of the surveillance state (TouchTone and Orwell), of drone warfare (Killbox), the treatment of refugees (Escape from Woomera), uprisings against totalitarian political regimes (Yellow Umbrella), the power of the media (The Westport Independent) or historical and current political events (The Cat and the Coup and Madrid).

When and Where

16 August – 23 September, 2018
10am -5pm Weekdays
11am – 4pm Weekends

The Physics Room,
49-59 Worcester Boulevard,
Christchurch

How Much

Free

More

Eventfinda Page
Homepage of Games and Politics Exhibition

 

Week of Engineering: Open Day! – Akl, Wel, Chch – 18 August 2018

What

Get involved with the Week of Engineering!

Tomorrow’s engineers will have jobs that don’t even exist today. The Week of Engineering is an annual event that will inspire young minds to think about those future possibilities. From 13-18 August, Engineering New Zealand will be hosting a variety of events that showcase amazing engineering across the country, feeding children’s natural curiosity about the world and how it works.

Engineering Expos:

As part of the Week of Engineering, there will be three free public expos in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Over 70 exhibitors from around the country will give visitors a hands-on look at what engineers do – perfect for kids and anyone who wants an inside look at how things work. There’ll be virtual reality, robots, rockets and lego, along with interactive activities, competitions and spot prizes.

Last year more than 5,000 people attended the expos and this year Engineering New Zealand are expecting 10,000 people.

Come along and get inspired!

When and Where

10am – 4pm
Saturday 18 August 2018

University of Auckland Science Centre
23 Symonds St, Auckland

Shed 6
4 Queens Wharf, Wellington

Canterbury University’s College of Engineering
69 Creyke Street, Christchurch

How Much

Free

More

Week of Engineering: Engineering Expos
Eventfinda pages: Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch

WORD Christchurch – Writers & Readers festival – 29 August-2 September 2018

What

ADVENTUROUS

Whether you’re into extreme sports or more of an armchair traveller, invite a bit of adventure into your lives by checking out our adventurous-themed events, with whale lover Philip Hoare, intrepid traveller Robyn Davidson, extreme sportsters Nathan Fa’avae and John Hellemans, adventurous woman Hollie Woodhouse and Laurence Fearnley on mountain writing. Kids can even get adventurous with science, with Nanogirl herself, Michelle Dickinson.

SCOTLAND

This year, we celebrate all thing Scottish, with six writers from that bonnie land: poets Hollie McNish, Robin Robertson and Michael Pedersen; Shaun Bythell, author of Diary of a Bookseller; crime writer Denise Mina, and megastar novelist Irvine Welsh, who will revisit the Trainspotting crew. If you love a dram, don’t miss our tasting event, Whisky Galore!

Supported by the British Council and Creative Scotland.

SUFFRAGE 125

This September we commemorate and celebrate 125 years of women’s suffrage in New Zealand. Events include a look at how far we’ve really come (125 Years: Are We There Yet?, chaired by Kim Hill), readings and discussions on women’s bodies (The Body Issue, Sonya Renee Taylor: The Body is Not an Apology), an Adventurous Women event, and the Margaret Mahy Memorial Lecture from Barbara Else, author of Go Girl.

When and Where

Various venues in and around Christchurch

29 August – 2 September 2018

How Much

Tickets to most events $20 ( or $19 concession)

Some events more.

Dash Ticket for most events
Ticketek for Irvine Walsh and Starry, Starry Night.

More

Festival Website

Robots Under Antarctica’s Ice..and One Day in Space? – Dunedin – 21 August 2018

What

Robotic Vehicles Under Antarctica’s Ice… and One Day in Space?

In 2021 NASA will launch the Europa Clipper mission to explore Jupiter’s moon, Europa. One of the most enticing targets in the search for life beyond Earth, Europa’s icy outer shell hides a global ocean, powered by immense tides. If its interior is active today, this ocean may provide the energy to help sustain a biosphere.

In this talk Dr Britney Schmidt from the Georgia Institute of Technology will outline how researchers are using the autonomous underwater vehicle Icefin, to explore the harsh environments beneath the Antarctic ice shelves as a test bed for developing vehicles that may one day explore below the surface of Europa.

Come and hear about our own cosmic backyard. In partnership with the University of Otago and Antarctica New Zealand, learn about the exciting Ross Ice Shelf Programme and how it’s using this new robotic capability to better understand both climate and planetary science.

When and Where

5:30pm
Tuesday 21 August 2018

Hutton Theatre
Otago Museum
419 Great King St
Dunedin

How Much

Free

More

Talk page at Otago Museum website
Eventfinda Page

Ansible Windows Automation: Myth or Truth? + Ansible Vault Integration – Wellington – 16 August 2018

What

Have you thought about how to automate both Linux and Windows infrastructure using a Centralized tool for ease of management?
If you have, then let’s talk about it.

Mike Calizo will share his interesting journey and how to use Ansible for Windows Automation.

In addition, Tom Eastman will talk about how to incorporate
Hashicorp Vault in Ansible for dynamic secret generation.”

Ansible is a New Zealand Group for bring together people building out automation stacks using Ansible and share learnings, provide training and networking.

When and Where

5:30pm to 7:30pm
Thursday 16 August 2018

Location TBA
Wellington CBD

How Much

Free

More

Webpage for this Meetup event
Ansible New Zealand meetup group (Wellington)

WOSSAT – Wellington – 21 August 2018

What

Wellington Open Source Show And Tell (WOSSAT)

Martin Krafft — Stepping up the game against Web trackers

The attempt to standardize the Do-Not-Track HTTP request header is going nowhere, and it’s cute anyway, in that it expects the other side to honour the request, and how would we know if they did? After all, tracking is serious business, and it’s hard to imagine a company in this field walking past money lying on the street without picking it up.

Martin is at war with what the Web has become, and he’s here to talk to you about techniques he’s using to minimise his browsing footprint on a day to day basis. Do not attend if you’d prefer to think of the Web as the decentralized knowledge-sharing network it was originally conceived as.

Brent Wood — NIWA’s Marine Data Portal

The NIWA Marine Data portal started life as a web portal for a Bay of Islands research project in 2008. The entire site was based on open source and open standards to provide open data (and open information – there is a difference!). NIWA has a number of other marine research projects that need a “web presence” so the site was enhanced and renamed to support multiple projects.

The portal is based on a suite of open Source applications, including Silverstripe (CMS), PostGIS (spatial database), Geonetwork (metadata catalogue), mapserver (spatial data web services), Openlayers (web map client). It runs on Linux servers. Data is served and accessed using OGC web services (WMS, WFS, CSW) and some of the data services have been picked up and reused elsewhere.

Wellington Open Source Show And Tell is a monthly meetup for fans of all things open. Come along to share tools, techniques and experiences.

When and Where

6pm Tuesday, 21st August 2018

Catalyst IT
Level 3, Catalyst House,
150 Willis Street, Wellington

How Much

Free

More

wossat.nz

Meetup event

Future Meetings Schedule:

Monthly meetings alternate between the 3rd Tuesday and the 3rd Thursday of each month.