Events

This webinar explores BRANZ Levy-funded research into higher-than-expected percentages of framing, and therefore thermal bridging found in residential construction in New Zealand.

The Genetics of Digestive Function – Does a Common Pancreatic Gene Deletion Cause a Monoenzymatic Form of Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency?

Join us on 1 July for a research seminar presented by Dr Annika Sjoeholm.

Classically, geneticists assess the signs and symptoms (i.e. the phenotype) of a patient, and then seek to understand the underlying causative genetic changes – this is called “forward genetics.” The advent of large genetic biorepositories, in which there is linked genotypic data and deeply curated phenotyping of patients (such as hospital admission records and medication history), now allows us to assess genotype-phenotype associations in both directions.

Utilising “reverse genetic” techniques, we can assess the phenotype associated with a known genotype of interest. Work from my PhD explores the phenotypic features associated with a common pancreatic gene change originally identified in a local NZ European and Māori family. In combination with a genetically engineered mouse model and in vitro laboratory studies, we aim to ascribe pathogenicity to a common pancreatic gene deletion and hypothesise that it may cause a currently unrecognised, monoenzymatic form of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. In this seminar overall results from the UK Biobank will be presented, along with preliminary data from the mouse model.

Students from Professor Maryanne Garry’s lab will be presenting at the upcoming virtual conference for the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition (SARMAC). Come and hear more about their research and the field of applied memory and cognition.

What is “Progressive justice?” It is a type of policing that has injected new life into criminal justice reform in numerous countries. Seeking less punishment and fewer prosecutions of lower-level crimes, progressive policing looks toward community-based social solutions and more diversion programs. The program has been trialled in American cities like Chicago and Boston. Is it right for New Zealand? Join John and Jarrod as they explore the opportunities and limitations of progressive policing for Christchurch.

Data such as personal information has become one of the greatest drivers of economic activity in the modern world. Data is the oil of the fourth industrial revolution and in future, data will drive economic prosperity, sustainability and well-being. Yet, the commodification of data has raised regulatory and governance challenges for societies across the world.

Information governance professionals are stepping up to the challenge of navigating the laws and regulations that govern how those within our society interface with personal data.

Join the University of Auckland Business School on Monday 28 June for a special symposium highlighting current issues in information governance and celebrating the launch of our new programmes in this area.

The new programmes in Information Governance at the University of Auckland will prepare students for careers in fields related to the governance of data and personal information. Taught by experts in the fields of data privacy, information ethics, blockchain and ledger technologies, cybersecurity techniques and regulation, artificial intelligence regulation, and dispute resolution techniques, the programmes will equip students to be leaders in key areas vital to the data economy.

This symposium is both an opportunity for critical debate and industry engagement and to inspire and inform prospective students of the new exciting study options.

Film Screening

Catch the top ten quantum-inspired short films from the 2021 Quantum Shorts Film Festival in the most immersive theatre in Dunedin!  

Otago Museum and the Dodd-Walls Centre are bringing you the weird, wonderful, and stranger-than-fiction side of science with this screening of the finalists in the global Quantum Shorts Film Competition. These 'quantum-inspired stories' are no more than five minutes in length and range from live-action to puppeteering, from dad-jokes to emotionally dramatic.

There will be nibbles, a cash bar, and physicists on-hand to help unpack the science and help you decide what is science and what is fiction.  

Offered in partnership with the Dodd-Walls Centre

5.30pm – 7.30pm, Monday 12 July
Planetarium and Beautiful Science Gallery
FREE, booking essential

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Description

Associate Professor Susanna Trnka's presentation analyses New Zealanders’ engagements in ethical reasoning in response to COVID-19 public health measures.

While she focuses primarily on the country’s first (and only nation-wide) COVID-19 lockdown (March-May 2020), Susanna also reflects on government, mainstream media, and social media portrayals of more recent lockdowns in Auckland. Specifically, she examines how we can understand a variety of public responses to emergency measures—including breaching regulations, threatening rule-breakers, sealing off neighborhoods, and recasting citizen-returnees as “strangers”—as negotiations of ethical proximities focused on keeping appropriately close that which is thought should be near, and keeping distanced that deemed best held afar.

Speaker Bios

Susanna Trnka is a social and medical anthropologist with expertise in embodiment, subjectivity, and the politics of health. Her previous research has included examinations of citizen-state relations during states of emergency (in Fiji) and of the politics of respiratory health in relation to global asthma policies (as taken up in New Zealand and central Europe). Her work on COVID-19 has resulted in articles in Cultural Anthropology (forthcoming, Aug 2021); the Journal of the Royal Society of NZ (2021); Anthropology Today (2020); Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale (2020), a co-authored book chapter (2020, M. Ryan ed., COVID-19: Global Pandemic, Societal Responses, Ideological Solutions, Routledge), and several published commentaries/blog entries. She is the author/co-author of four books and editor/co-editor of five edited volumes.

For more information contact: Gill Blomgren

This lecture is the last of 6 in our 2021 Winter Lecture Series. Kath Dickinson is our second Te Apārangi Sponsored Speaker and is a Professor of Botany at Otago University.

Kath has broad knowledge of plants, vertebrates and invertebrates, how they interact with one another, and their associated habitats, and the interactions of humans with nature. She has a particular interest in mountain environments, but is fascinated by other systems too. Kath will speak about people’s perceptions of ecology and discuss her ideas that thinking ecologically is a mindset that involves knowledge of our place in the world, what happens around us and our connections with all living organisms.

Where: Robin’s Nest building at Nga Manu.

Entry: By paper koha on the door. Your generosity supports the Ngā Manu Trust Please register for this event on our website as if you are not on our list we may not have room for you as seating is limited.

Please arrive at 3:30 pm for tea & biscuits and to take your seat.

The Lecture will start promptly at 4 pm and finishes at 5 pm.

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University of Canterbury (UC) researchers are tackling the knock-on effects of playing rugby by engineering a better way to protect young players’ brains from concussion.

Concussion is a recognised problem in contact sports like rugby. Researchers at the University of Canterbury are testing new forms of headgear especially targeted at helping young rugby players.

UC Sports Science and Engineering researchers, in conjunction with industry, are testing whether safer protective headgear could make a difference.

Spearheading the research is Professor Nick Draper, Sports Science of UC’s College of Education, Health and Human Development. He will be giving a free UC Connect public talk on 14 July about this research and the prototype headgear.

A seasoned rugby coach, he has a particular interest in exploring whether head injury risks in junior rugby players could be reduced through wearing the right protective headgear. Also on the project is Professor Keith Alexander, of UC Mechanical Engineering and renowned inventor of the Springfree Trampoline, along with UC Civil and Mechanical Engineering lecturer Dr Natalia Kabaliuk.

Professor Draper says of the research: “The recent class action brought by former rugby players in the UK has drawn media attention once again to the potential of collisions in contact sports to cause short-term and possible long-term health effects. Sport related concussion and head injuries are not only linked with contact sports, however, with incidences of concussion occurring from 0.4 – 46/1000 match hours, this health issue has to be a concern and focus for all involved in, or connected with, the game of rugby.

“While rugby has many qualities that see it remain the national sport of New Zealand, there is a clear risk that players can sustain head injuries through collisions in the game. The focus of our research team – which includes expert clinicians, engineers, sport scientists and sports manufacturers in New Zealand, Australia, the US and UK – is on understanding collisions in contact sports more clearly, and exploring the potential of soft-shell headgear and coaching programmes to make the game safer for all players, but especially the juniors.”

The likelihood of imprisonment of Māori males aged 30 and older has risen slowly over the past 3 to 4 decades. It has taken some fifty years to see a reversal in the rates of imprisonment of young men.

The normalisation of this situation was one of the more enduring consequences of the extreme periods of child custody and incarceration of boys and young men by the State from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s.

These groups experienced some of the highest ever rates of state custody; at the peak up to one in every fourteen Māori boys, youths and young adults was institutionalised through the courts. Statistician Len Cook takes a fresh look at the existing statistics to discern the trends through the differing lens provided by cohorts, age groups and period analysis.

The divergent trends we now see in state custody of younger people are associated with an uncommon history and demographic dynamism that differs with ethnicity. To highlight the limitations of disparity ratios Len will draw on some methods of analysing disparity developed by Florence Nightingale. He will conclude with some insights from his recent inquiries for the future evidence base for the wider social services sector.

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Some of the leading agribusiness and forestry companies today are Māori owned.

This new class of enterprise, operated by land trusts, incorporations, and iwi corporations, are becoming known nationally for their environmental leadership, social responsibility, innovation, and profitability. At the same time iwi authorities are playing an increasingly powerful role in the environmental management of resources at local and regional scales.

This lecture will explore what these changes are and what they may mean for the future of Aotearoa New Zealand.

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Join us at UC’s Ilam campus on Wednesday night, 21 July, for an important conversation about the role of digital devices in learning and our children’s lives. Several University of Canterbury (UC) academics, educators and parents, from the College of Education, Health and Human Development, will discuss their personal parenting strategies around digital technology from their various perspectives and fields of research. They will explore how digital technologies have influenced our children’s lives, both positively and negatively, followed by an audience Q&A.

Digital technology has a profound effect on every aspect of our lives. The impact on our young people is especially significant. With children exposed to digital technologies at both home and school from an increasingly young age, tamariki are becoming the most frequent users of emerging online and digital services.

Parents play a pivotal role in supporting and guiding their children to safely navigate these new experiences. Living and learning in a digital world offers significant opportunities but has also highlighted concern around the influence of technology on young children. Parents have had to quickly build new skills and develop a deeper understanding of technology to help guide and support young people as they traverse these changing worlds.

Drawing from their own research and personal experience as parents, these UC experts will share their approaches and strategies for the effective use of digital technology. This balanced discussion will critically examine the role of technology, and where parents can draw on the benefits of technology while mitigating risks.

The following panellists will share their expertise in digital education, cognitive development, well-being and inclusion, and indigenous youth and community, and explore their hopes and concerns about how technology will shape our young people’s future:

• Associate Professor Cheryl Brown (parent to teenage boys) – Digital literacy and digital citizenship
• Associate Professor Kathryn MacCallum (parent of primary-school-aged boys) – Mixed reality, virtual worlds and mobile learning
• Mel Tainui (parent of teenage girls) – Kaiārahi, College of Education, Health and Human Development,  Ōnuku Marae Treaty expert, UC Master of Māori and Indigenous Leadership (with Merit)
• Senior Lecturer Dr Christoph Teschers (parent of preschoolers) – Media literacy, inclusion, wellbeing, living “a good and beautiful life”
• Associate Professor Alison Arrow (parent of teenage girls) – Digital technology and literacy learning in home and educational settings

Moderated by Dr Billy Osteen, (also a parent) Associate Professor of Community Engagement and Director of the UC Community Engagement Hub | Te Pokapū Pāhekoheko Hapori at the University of Canterbury.

Early bird registration will commence four weeks out from lecture date and will be available until all places are full. A second allocation of tickets will be available 10 days prior to the lecture. If you do not manage to register, you are welcome to arrive on the day and wait for all available seats to be released five minutes prior to the lecture commencing.

The UC Connect public lecture series offers the community the opportunity to attend topical, interesting, educational lectures on a range of topics given by experts in their fields. To receive notifications on upcoming UC Connect speakers, join our mailing list.http://canterbury.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=cd05861f83497e0ea049c7b17&id=cbe60119c0

All UC Connect lectures are recorded and uploaded to our You Tube channel here (approx. uploaded 1 -2 weeks post event). https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1D0DE06F56864BA4