NZCSRSC ’09 is almost here!!

NZCSRSC ’09 is less than one day away! We hope you are all ready for an great week here in Auckland! Get ready to be inspired, to share your research, to learn new skills and to meet other research students from all around the country!

We have an exciting programme planned for the week beginning with a Powhiri, our official welcome, at 4.30pm. Following this will be the Endace Opening Dinner with a performance from the Auckland Playback Theatre.

Over the rest of this week you will have the chance to hear about the cutting edge of research in Computer Science here in NZ through student presentations and the poster session. You will also hear from keynote speakers, Dr. Alan Blackwell from the University of Cambridge, J.P. Lewis from Weta Digital and Assoc. Prof. Poul Nielsen from the Auckland Bioengineering Institute and Department of Engineering Science here at the University of Auckland. Our keynote speakers are all very active in the research community here in NZ and around the world and are sure to inspire us with their knowledge and experience.

There are many opportunities for you to participate in NZCSRSC ’09. You will have the chance to attend a range of workshops aimed at building your skills in research and beyond. See here https://nzcsrsc09.auckland.ac.nz/workshops for more details. Also during Wednesday lunch we will be running discussion groups. This is a chance for you to discuss interesting topics in Computer Science with like-minded conference participants. See here https://nzcsrsc09.auckland.ac.nz/discgroups for more information.

Of course NZCSRSC ’09 would not be complete without the Orion Health Social Night! On Tuesday night we will whisk you away for a pleasant dinner cruise around Auckland harbour. It’s a night to relax, enjoy the beautiful views and the wonderful company.

On Wednesday is our industry dinner. This is a mix and mingle event where we have invited companies to set up stalls with information and students are invited to visit each stall and chat with industry representatives about their experiences in the ICT industry.

All in all we are set for an exciting, action packed week! So safe travelling for those of you coming from afar. We can’t wait to see you all here tomorrow!!

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)