Registration

Registration for the main conference went live at 1:21AM this morning. Much kudos has to go out to Robert Lechte for all the hard work, late nights and constant revisions he has had to endure to make online registration a success. Some thanks also has to go out to the MSN live messaging service for its not-always-foolproof late-night conferencing abilities :-)

Main conference registration can now be made via the registration page, however, before you register there are a couple of things you need to check.

• Visit and read over the terms and conditions. These outline everyone's responsibilities, and hopefully clarify a couple of questions people may have.
• Check with your local contact if your department is subsidising your trip [updated at bottom of post]. Some departments are paying for registration in bulk. If this is the case then the online form won't be of much use, as it asks for your credit card information. We will be releasing information shortly to your local contacts regarding how you can register. A list of local contacts can be found on the people page.

Accommodation Subsidies
We currently have enough money in the budget to pay accommodation for all (out of town) post-grad students who have had a paper accepted. If this applies to you, you can claim your subsidy by registering before the 10th of March.

If you're a post-grad student and you haven't had a paper accepted, you still have a chance at an accommodation subsidy! When you hit the accommodation page on the registration form you will be presented with two options: book 3 days guaranteed accommodation for $150, or go on the waiting list for free accommodation. What's the difference? If you choose the first option you are guaranteed a bed at Bishop Julius Hall (provided your payment goes through), however you have to pay for it. The second option gives you a chance at free accommodation should not all paper-accepted students register before 10 March. 'Winners' will be chosen at random, and notification given on 12 March. If you choose this option and are unsuccessful, then you will be given the option to book a bed at Bish for $150 only if there are rooms free.

In short: one option guarantees you a bed, the other risks it.

We are always trying to get you more subsidies, but this is heavily dependent on sponsorship.

CSUnplugged Workshop registration will be online soon. In the meantime, make sure you have those nominations from you HOD.

Questions
We will keep the registration page updated to cover any issues or questions that arise with registration. Descriptions of the changes will be tacked on to this blog post.

If you have any questions, comments, or need something clarified please let us know: nzcsrsc08@canterbury.ac.nz

Andrew issszzzzzzzzzz...

---- Update 3.3.08 5pm ----
We should add a big thank-you to AUT and Otago universities who have offered to pay the accommodation costs for authors from their respective institutions. It's only with their support that we've been able to offer free accommodation to the remaining authors.

If you're registering and you're an author from one of these universities, just tick the "three nights free accommodation" box---we'll then invoice your university (after validation) for your accommodation.

If your university is also willing to pay for your accommodation, please get in touch (via your local contact, or by emailing nzcsrsc08@canterbury.ac.nz), or use your department's credit card to pay for it as you register. The more rooms that are paid for, the more students we can offer free accommodation to, making a better conference for everyone!

Jason Alexander

Attack of the 50ft Ministry

About four score and three months ago, the conference's call for papers was broadcast in Computer Science departments across the country. In the following two months we received over 50 submissions of long or short papers - an increase on the previous year, meaning the NZCSRSC is growing steadily, and with your input, we're looking forward to a great conference in April.

Submissions closed just before Christmas, and since then everyone's been furiously writing and sending in reviews - we know because we receive an e-mail for every review sent (54 papers x 3 reviews each = enough email to fill up the inside of Lancaster Jad Christchurch's sports arena, if the emails happened to be printed on the sides of meteors). All reviews have now been received and we'll be releasing the results to the paper authors this week. This should give everyone enough time to absorb the comments and make adequate changes to their papers before camera-ready copies are due on the 7th of March.

We will open registration for the event shortly after the results have been sent out. Registration is open to everyone, not just those who submitted, so even if you didn't have the time to submit a paper, we'd still love to see you at the conference!

Some info about us, the Ministry of Justice (this is our official name; world governments and the U.N. simply refer to us as the Justice League of NZCSRSC08). Although the name evokes images of a semi-famous superhero clan, we assure you that we are devoid of special powers (except for Amanda, who has the ability to bend time; this comes in handy when deadlines are approaching. Bending space is proving to be more of a challenge, hence people will still need to find their own travel to the conference).

Our main purpose as a group is to act as the Programme Chair for the conference. Anything to do with papers and conference scheduling is either our duty, or a shared duty with another ministry. Any time responsibility is ambiguous, disputes are settled by three rounds of rock-paper-scissors, or pistols at dawn, depending on the weather and the phase of the moon.

As for the nature of the group's individuals, the Cliff's notes version begins....NOW: Jay is a postgraduate student currently in the process of finishing his Masters degree. His area is Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS), specifically tutors that teach programming. Amanda is in the second year of her PhD, also in the area of ITS. She is looking at curriculum integration of knowledge spaces into ITSs. Delio's research is in the area of network security, specifically: traffic self-similarity and distributed denial of service detection.

The conference itself is shaping up quite nicely, with four days of amazing academic activity (and alliteration) anticipated. But, alas, more conference planning awaits. To paraphrase a popular marionette-starring TV series, Justice League is GO!(ing to end this blog post now).

Making the world a safer place for paper submissions everywhere,
JL-NZCSRSC08


The Justice League thinks that it's pondering what you're pondering, but where will we find a speedboat and 3 manila folders full of termites at this hour?

Seasons Greetings!

It's Christmas - the end of 2007. Time for relaxing and reflecting on the year that's been... for enjoying the company of friends, family, and all the things that we've most likely had very little time for during the year. Time also to start making silly resolutions that we would most likely never keep!

As we look back here at the NZCSRSC, we can see just how much we have accomplished in such a short time. It is great to be part of a team of people that are committed and passionate about what they do - a team that extends through all the eight universities in NZ. It is also exciting to be part of creating our future - and affecting the future of NZ ICT.

On behalf of the NZCSRSC family here, I'd like to wish you all the best for the season - including a fabulous Christmas and a fantastic New Year!

Lunch and info session at UC goes down well

To promote the conference to our local students, we organised and hosted a lunch and informal information session at UC. Students and some staff responded to the emails and door knocking (nothing like a bit of peer pressure) and followed the smell of pizzas to the gathering in the staff tea room. Jason Alexander (our Minister of Finance) kicked off the session with a presentation about the NZCSRSC, complete with pictures from the last conference.

Tim Bell, Brent Martin, and Tanja Mitrovic spoke about previous conferences that they had attended and the benefits for students. Tim was at the very first conference. Warwick Irwin also showed his “Top Five Presentation” award from a NZCSRSC he had attended as a student. Apparently that year, six people received the award! Go figure.

After the informal talks, students and staff mingled over pizza and drinks, talking about various aspects of the conference. It was great to see interest from students – including final-year undergraduate students considering postgraduate study options.

It is also good to see the effect that events like this have on the morale in the department.

Sascha, the Minister of Broadcasting, is wondering if there is a better bribe than pizza for students.

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NZCSRSC Sponsor:

The NZCSRSC 2008 lunch and info session at the University of Canterbury was sponsored by CSUnplugged.

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Welcome to the NZCSRSC!

November 2006. I just finished my Honours. It had been an exhausting and gruelling year. To make things worse, I was moving house. It was during this time that the call for papers for NZCSRSC’07 had gone out. In my fatigued state, I ignored anything that meant more work. I had never been to a conference before and wasn’t about to waste my precious resources on this. I mean, why waste time and energy for a possible 20 minute slot in just a student run conference? Amali was a persistent local contact though! Muttering under my breath, I proceeded to write a paper. How on earth was I meant to condense all my research into just eight pages? Didn’t people realise that this was impossible?

Fast forward to April 13, 2007. It was the last day of the conference; we were saying our goodbyes. It was only then that the importance of this event started to dawn on me. Over this period, I was introduced to the ICT research world. I gained some knowledge and experience into writing an academic paper (and yes, it is possible to write an eight page paper!), being a reviewer, and presenting my research. I started to understand the value of adequate communication in both research and industry, including the importance of feedback and discussion. I had an instant connection with these people; they understood without me having to explain. There were people at various stages in research here. The more experienced automatically took on an informal role as mentors; their stories (filled with learned wisdom, warnings, shortcuts, and tips) combined with laughter rang in my head.

Today, November, 2007. I’m sitting here, a year after first hearing about the NZCSRSC. I have decided the NZCSRSC is inaccurately named. This is not just a conference. It is not just a four day event. This is the forming and maintaining of the NZ ICT family; our family. It is the building of long-lasting networks, something that is vital. It is the receiving of an empathetic email from someone across the country just when you feel you’re knee-deep in a swamp and about to give up. It is community. It is also a training camp – one that is focussed on building the skills of those that will shape the future of ICT. It is students using their initiative to take control of their future and the direction of ICT in NZ. This is good for the student and ultimately good for ICT in NZ.

Welcome to the NZCSRSC!

Moffat, the Speaker of the House, is not singing “We are family; I got all my sisters with me”.