Conference Programme

Hello everyone,

We're now only 2 weeks from NZCSRSC09! We're getting the last details ironed out and have now got the programme sorted. You can see it on our Web site - go to https://nzcsrsc09.auckland.ac.nz/programme to see everything we have planned!

We're still finalising room bookings for some of the events, so these aren't available yet, but rest assured you'll get a complete programme (with maps) when you arrive. Also please note that times for specific events are subject to change, although we'll be trying our best to keep things running on time.

If you have any questions, please email me (jdow038@aucklanduni.ac.nz).

We look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks' time!

Cheers


John Downs

Things to do while in NZ

Hello


The conference is getting closer and closer and some of you might have started to plan their trip to Auckland. We, as your Auckland hosts, thought it would be a good thing to give you an idea what you could do in Auckland besides attending an awesome conference.
We grouped our recommendations according to the trip "size".

Big day trips

• Waiheke island
• Rangitoto island
• Black sand west coast beaches: Muriwai, Piha, Bethells..
• Waitakere ranges
• Goat island
• Tiritiri Matangi
• Auckland coast to coast walk
  

More local

• Domain museum
• One-tree hill
• Mt Eden
• Kelly Tarlton's
• Parnell rose gardens
• Indoor skiing
• Kart racing
• Paintball
• Minigolf
  

Auckland city

• Rakinos on High St
• Ben on Fort St
• Mezze bar on High St
• Rizlau on Atrium
• IMAX cinema
  
• Sky Tower inclusive sky jump/walk
  
• Harbour bridge bungee jump
• Viaduct Basin

Notable districts

• Ponsonby
• Parnell
• New Market (shopping)
• Mission Bay

Discussion Groups!

As you might have seen, registration for NZCSRSC '09 is now open!! At the same time we also revealed some information about something we are quite excited about – the DISCUSSION GROUPS! (Note to ourselves: we need a fancier title for this)

During the conference we'll be introducing a number of discussion groups as part of an effort to strengthen ties in the postgrad computer science community in New Zealand. You, the participants of NZCSRSC '09, will decide which topics are fit for discussion and a short gathering will be arranged where you will be able to discuss those topics with like-minded conference participants.

This idea was inspired by similar concepts like Birds of a Feather, the Unconference, BarCamp, and others. A similar session was also help at NZCSRSC '07.


You can find details about how it will work on our conference website.


What will roughly happen is this:

1) You, the participants of NZCSRSC '09, will propose topics during the registration process. Possible topics could be anything related to CS/IT which you think would be an interesting topic to discuss (tip: this would be a good chance to discuss things with link-minded people, that is NOT neccessarily the actual focus of your research ;)

2) After we collected your suggestions for topics, we will send them out to all conference participants. All of you will than have the option to choose up to (probably) 4 different topics which you will actually want to participate in.

3) We will then do some scheduling magic, decide which topics will be discussed at what time, and finally…

4) …we will have the discussion groups, in an informal setting during the conference (groups of around 6-8 people, 15min per discussion, probably during a lunch)

One last thing: We would like to have arbitrators who will guide the individual discussions to some extent (details about the role of arbitrators can be found on the website). Please let us know during the registration process, if you would be up to such an interesting, challenging, character-building, [insert any buzz-word here], and fun task!

Feel free to use the forum to post questions or discuss this event. You can also contact the discussion group committee (Andrew andrewh@cs.auckland.ac.nz and Christian chir008@aucklanduni.ac.nz) directly.

We hope that we can get you all excited about this fun event, and we count on your active participation! Looking forward to seeing you all at NZCSRSC '09!

Your DISCUSSION GROUPS committee!

Andrew and Christian

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BuildIT, platinum sponsor of NZCSRSC '09

Registration for NZCSRSC'09 is now open!

Registration for NZCSRSC'09 is now open! Be sure to get in quick to secure your space in the Waipapa Marae for FREE!

As the conference date approaches, I'm feeling both ecstatic and terrified at the same time! Things are really getting fired up here at UoA - sponsors are signing on, and we've secured J.P. Lewis from Weta digital as a keynote speaker, with a number of other exciting speakers in the pipeline.

My main task is looking after external communications, acting as the interface with other universities and departments through our excellent and enthusiastic team of local contacts at your university. This has involved relaying announcements and keeping local contacts abreast of progress in organisation.

I participated in the last two NZCSRSCs, brilliantly organised and hosted by Waikato in 2007 and Canterbury in 2008. NZCSRSC is such a great opportunity to meet students and make friends, find out about the awesome research happening all over the country, attend thoroughly instructive workshops and enjoy wonderful exciting keynote talks -- and if you're a student you can get all this for just $50!

I really can't wait to meet you up here in Auckland come April, as either a NZCSRSC new-comer or a friend from a previous NZCSRSC episode!

Happy New Year!

Hope you’ve all had a great holiday and are recharged and ready to go for 2009!

I realize we are long over due for some introductions to the Auckland team organising this year’s conference so here we go…

• Rachel Blagojevic - Conference coordinator
• Carl Schultz – Communications
• Dave Uthus - Treasurer
• John Downs - Submissions and reviews coordinator
• Hong Yul Yang - Conference promotion and website
• Andrew Hay - Internal administration
• Paul Schmieder - Social events
• Christian Hirsch - Catering
• Prof. John Hosking - Conference mentor

As the conference coordinator my main role is to oversee all areas of the conference and ensure the direction and momentum of the project is maintained. I will get onto the other members of our team to write their own posts, letting you in on what their roles involve, in the near future.

There are lots of exciting things happening here! We are almost at the end of our paper submission and review process with all reviews due in tomorrow. We have almost confirmed some very exciting keynote speakers too...but more on that later ;) Keep and eye on our website over the next few weeks as we will have a lot more information available very soon. Also remember to use the forum and the NZCSRSC Facebook page for any queries you may have.

NZCSRSC ’09 is coming to Auckland!!

Taken from the November 2008 CSANZ Newsletter

We are proud to announce that the NZCSRSC will be held at the University of Auckland from 6-9 April 2009. Preparation is already well underway to make NZCSRSC ‘09 a conference to remember! Our team is really excited to be organising this event and we are working hard to make this another successful conference.

So what is the NZCSRSC? If you are a Computer Science Research Student in New Zealand then this Conference is especially for you, a conference for students, run by students. It is a chance for you to meet others from around the country, share your research and learn about what others are working on. It’s aimed at getting us out from behind those computer screens and putting us face to face with the cutting edge of Computer Science research in NZ and the research students who are behind it all. It’s also a great chance to build friendships among our research community that will last long after we have all (finally) finished our degrees. Students are encouraged to get involved by submitting their research papers and reviewing work by their peers. At the conference students will be showcasing their research during formal presentation and poster sessions, participating in workshops, and enjoying a number of exciting invited keynote presentations, along with fun social events.

For those of you who have been to this conference in the past, most recently at the University of Canterbury, we know that you need no convincing of what a great experience attending the NZCSRSC is. We can’t wait to see you once again and catch up on your latest work, but this time here in Auckland!

The call for papers has already gone out to universities; you can also view this on the website. The submission deadline has been extended to 9 December 2008 so if you haven’t already started your paper, get writing and tell the CS research community all about what you’re working on. For more information see your local university contact otherwise general queries can be made to Rachel Blagojevic (contact information is on the website)

The week of the NZCSRSC'08

Taken from the May 2008 CSANZ Newsletter[PDF]

The sound of bagpipes signified the start of this weeklong, immersive conference. From the opening ceremony on Monday to the goodbyes on Friday – it was a packed and exhilarating week! Run by students for students, it was a week full of events focused on the needs of postgraduate NZ ICT students. The Deputy Mayor of Christchurch Norm Withers welcomed the 135 participants (about 110 students) from all eight universities to the Garden City, the ICT hub of New Zealand. Pro Vice Chancellor (UC) Peter Jackson opened the NZCSRSC 2008, motivating students to participate and engage as much as possible over the week. The Father of the NZCSRSC Ian Witten, and Dr. Darin Graham (Director, NZi3) talked about the NZCSRSC, the ICT students, and the state of the ICT world today. After the opening ceremony, Tony Dale (BlueFern) gave a presentation of the world-class supercomputing available here, followed by tours of the UC supercomputer facility.

Over the next few days there were five student presentation sessions featuring 26 paper presentations and a poster session with 24 poster talks, showcasing the high quality, diverse, cutting-edge research produced here in NZ. Congratulations to Shaoqun Wu and Edmond Zhang for winning the best presentation and best poster awards respectively. These were presented by University of Canterbury Vice Chancellor Roy
Sharp at the closing ceremony.

There were four inspiring keynote speakers. Businessperson and public speaker Martz Witty entertained and educated the participants on presentation and social networking skills. Edwin Dando (CEO, Clarus) encouraged participants to ‘Strive for Excellence’, combining his story of success with practical software engineering and quality management principles. Dave Lane (CEO, Egressive) in his talk ‘The Open Road; Doing the Right Thing and Making a Living’ brought in the aspects of open source, open standards, ethics, and values in the ICT world. David Park (CEO, Geospatial Research Centre) in ‘Be confident in who you are and what you do’ combined practical words of wisdom illustrating them with examples from his life and the various projects he has managed. Experts engaged in active discussion with participants on topics affecting an ICT student’s Present and Future skills, in eight workshop topics. Students were able to discuss the reality of life in industry (e.g. risk management, agile processes etc) in seven casual and interactive chalk’n’talk sessions with software developers.

The social night allowed participants to mingle and make contacts over a delicious BBQ to the sounds of a live Jazz band.

We also had the traditional “Ian Witten and Tim Bell music session”, this time with Gian Perrone. This was followed by the Comedy Night at the Ngaio Marsh, which included performances from the Court Jesters and the Aranui Theatre Company.

The industry event was another time of building social networks. After the dinner and sponsors’ talks, students were able to mingle with industry reps (HR and technical) from local industry at the Human Interfaces Technology (HIT) Lab at UC. This also included playing around on many of the cool demos displayed.

Over 40 people participated in the CSUnplugged Workshop, aimed at promoting the innovative, internationally renowned CSUnplugged educational concept throughout NZ. CSUnplugged is a home-grown initiative, started by Tim Bell that teaches computing concepts to school kids without the use of a computer. The workshop included seminars, ‘real-live’ demonstrations with students from Chisnallwood Intermediate School, and hands-on sessions.

We’re grateful to all those who helped in the organising and running of this conference including the local contacts, ICT departments, authors (reviewers), supporters, and volunteers.

Special thanks go to the premium sponsors: BuildIT, NZi3, Orion Health, and the University of Canterbury.

NZCSRSC 2009 is now being organised by Rachel Blagojevic, Carl Schultz, and the Auckland uni team. We're looking forward to April 2009!

Pics from the NZCSRSC'08 are available online