Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Nerd Nite Brighton #13: 21/8/14 – Hypnosis, Tasty Computers and Tiny Doctors
If you’ve been keeping an eye on the news in the last few weeks then you’ll have seen how the world is a pretty depressing place right now.
We can’t fix the world but our three great speakers this month will be reminding us that, whilst we do terrible thinngs to each other, humans are capable of some amazing feats and achievements.
Innerspace: Miniaturisation in medicine – Dr James Cockburn
James qualified in medicine from Imperial College, London in 2000 before undertaking general medical training at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals. He completed postgraduate research in vascular biology at King’s College London before specialising as cardiologist. He is currently Consultant Cardiologist at the Royal Sussex County Hospital here in Brighton fixing broken hearts.
Medical technology has advanced at an incredible pace with diagnostic tools and treatments existing today that would have been hailed as science-fiction in the past. James will tell us about how miniaturisation has been key to these advances using his specialty of interventional cardiology as an example.
The science of hypnosis: Myths and facts – Prof Zoltan Dienes
Hypnosis is a valuable clinical tool, but much information on TV, the net, in print, and indeed sometimes taught in non-academic hypnosis classes is misleading. This is unfortunate because while there are still many things we do not know about hypnosis and there are still unresolved controversies, there is clear evidence settling some common questions about the nature of hypnosis. In his talk Zoltan will debunk some myths and indicate what we do know and what we don’t.
Zoltan is Professor of Psychology at the University of Sussex. He has published over 100 scientific papers on the nature of unconscious processes, and written two books, one on unconscious (implicit) learning and the other on the philosophy of science and statistics. He runs a hypnosis lab at the University, where anyone can be screened for their hypnotisability.
Integrating Taste into Interactive Technologies: Science or Science-Fiction? – Dr Marianna Obrist
Despite the fact that interactive technologies have permeated our environment and have become an essential part of our everyday life, the way we interact with them is still limited. Interactive systems stimulate dominantly our senses of vision and hearing, partly our sense of touch (e.g., vibration in mobile phones), while our senses of taste and smell are widely neglected and under-exploited in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research. In this talk, Marianna Obrist will talk about her research on multi-sensory experiences for interactive technologies with a special focus on the integration of taste into future interactive technologies.
Marianna Obrist is a Lecturer in Interaction Design at the University of Sussex at the School of Engineering and Informatics. She joined Sussex after spending two years as a Marie Curie Fellow at the Culture Lab of the School of Computing Science in Newcastle University. Before that Marianna was an Assistant Professor for Human-Computer Interaction and Usability at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Salzburg, Austria. The focal point of her research is to create a rich and systematic understanding on users experiences with interactive technologies. Recently she investigates the design spectrum for touch, taste, and smell experiences for interactive technologies. More details are available here: http://obrist.info/ and http://multisensory.info/
We wouldn’t forget the cake and the quizzes and the music of course.
Tickets on sale here
£4 Regular Nerds, £3 NUS/65+ Nerds
Upstairs at the Caroline Of Brunswick – Doors at 7.30pm
See you on the 21st!
Nerd Nite Brighton #12: 19/6/14 – Hacking, Neutrinos, SPIDERS!
The sun is blazing, the temperature is rising. Brighton buzzes with people from wide and far visiting for a bit of coastal excitement.
Well thank God for us. Get away from the heaving crowds of annoying, raucous sun worshippers and come down for another night of nerdery.
This month:
1. Keeping the peace in a social-spider colony – Professor Jonathan Bacon
Jonathan is Professor of Neuroscience in the School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, UK. His first degree was at Cambridge and after a year teaching in Jamaica he took an MSc and a PhD at Manchester. He joined the University of Sussex in 1984, where he was awarded the 1987 President’s Medal of the Society for Experimental Biology, and was the Dean of Life Sciences from 2002-2009. His research interests include the behaviour, development and evolution of insects as well as the foraging behaviour of Pharaoh’s ants and honey bees.
In his Voyage of the Beagle, Darwin records his surprise at seeing the social spider Parawixia bistriata in Argentina in 1832 living so amicably in close proximity with conspecifics. Jonathan will explain tonight how, almost two centuries later, the application of game theory to behavioural observations has revealed these spiders’ behavioural strategies that keep the peace, and prevent these dangerous well-armed carnivores from getting into costly confrontations with their neighbours.
2. Neutrinos: The Deep Secrets of Nature’s Ghosts – Dr Lisa Falk
Lisa is a Senior Lecturer in Elementary Particle Physics at the University of Sussex. She gained her MSc and PhD in Sweden including a fellowship at CERN before taking a lectureship at Sussex. At Nerd Nite she will share her passion for the neutrino, a weird particle that can zip through the entire Earth, and even across our galaxy, without leaving a trace. It flip-flops from one type to another in flight, and may hold the key to why the Universe contains matter but no antimatter. Catching and studying this tiniest of particles requires experimental apparatus the size of Olympic swimming pools, typically built in old mines and other exotic locations deep underground. How many neutrinos do you think you will get to know in your lifetime?
3. Ethical Hacking – Marios Kyriacou
Marios has been an information security consultant for over 10 years specialising in ethical hacking. He works for a large information security organisation where he heads the ethical hacking practice. Marios performs infrastructure and website hacking, and social engineering (the art of extracting information from people).
In his talk Marios will explain hacking and what’s actually involved in this – is it really the way it’s done in the movies? He’ll tell tales of his exploits (no pun intended) in hacking organisations. He’ll also talk about the approaches organisations are taking to secure your information. There may even be time for a quick hacking demo.
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Cake and quizzes and rock and roll as usual! You know the drill…
And if all of that is not enough, Dr Jane Hume returns as special guest host!
Tickets from here
Doors at 7.30pm, start at 8pm.
Upstairs at the Caroline Of Brunswick, 39 Ditchling Road, Brighton BN1 4SB
Nerd Nite Brighton #11: 17/4/14
*cough* *cough* *splutter* *splutter*
The air quality is TERRIBLE today!
Fortunately the nerd quality is just getting better and better. We sure hope you’ll be joining us for our next nerd nite. Talks this month:
1. The wonderful world of whisky – Prof David Goldsmith
David Goldsmith is a kidney doctor based in London and has over 25 years experience in looking after patients with kidney disease. His extensive career includes over 380 publications and his research interests include high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and inflammation and calcification syndromes in kidney patients.
Being the true polymath that he is, David will not be talking about his expertise with kidneys this evening. He will not be telling us about digital photography, the bridges of London nor Victorian architecture. Instead he will be giving us an insight into his other keen interest: whisky.
2. Everything is changing? Hunting for the changing constant – Dr Matthias Keller
Mathias is senior lecturer in physics and astronomy at the University of Sussex. Matthias gained his PhD in 2004 at the Ludwigs-Maximilians University in Munich, investigating quantum optics with trapped calcium ions. After gaining his PhD, he moved to the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics to continue his research into the physics of molecular ions and quantum electrodynamics in ion traps. He joined the University of Sussex in 2007, initially as an Advanced Research Fellow before taking up a full lectureship. Some fundamental constants which govern our universe may not be constant but change in time and/or space. Matthias and his team conduct experiments to look into changes of one important constant – the proton:electron mass ratio.
3. Waste is just a resource in the wrong place – Cat Fletcher
Cat Fletcher is a waste activist and all round resource goddess. She is a founding member and Head of Media for Freegle (UK’s biggest online reuse network with 1.6+ million members), has voluntarily run the Brighton group for 7 years which has redistributed over 1,000 tonnes of goods locally. Cat is currently working on the Brighton Waste House with the University of Brighton and as the Reuse Manager for Brighton and Hove city council amongst other things…..she’s got a head full of facts, figures and solutions to inspire waste prevention! Read more about her here.
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Free cake, music, quizzing, etc as per usual.
Tickets £4 for regular nerds and £3 for NUS/65+ nerds – Tickets are on sale from here and we strongly advise buying in advance!
Remember to pop by our facebook page and follow us on twitter
Upstairs at the Caroline of Brunswick
See you there!
Nerd Nite Brighton #10: 20/3/14
“Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battlestation!”
Emperor Palpatine
Palpatine may as well have been talking about Nerd Nite Brighton because we are indeed armed and operational for our next evening on Thursday March 20th. Though we’re a bit more pleasant than the Sith.
This month:
1. The Amoral Molecule – Anil Seth
2.Practical privacy in an era of mass surveillance (or Who’s watching your ass?) – Chris Pinchen
Chris Pinchen is co-founder of the Chokepoint Project, a non-profit organisation that collects, analyses and reports on data relating to network neutrality and civil rights in the digital domain. He was a resident at the Lighthouse Studio in Brighton focusing on surveillance, censorship & privacy issues. Chris recently organised Brighton CryptoFestival, has been involved with CryptoParties in Berlin, Luxembourg and Brighton and contributed to the CryptoParty Handbook. He is a a member of the supporters council of the Open Rights Group and organises locally in Brighton.
Blog: cataspanglish, Twitter: @cataspanglish , PGP: 0x2C3196C5
3. Should the Death Star be a Listed Building? – Duncan Phillips
Our Grand Moff Tarkin for tonight is Duncan Phillips. Despite being unable to speak fluent Latin or operate any type of TV recording device, Duncan has so far managed to stay alive long enough to become a Building Surveyor with expertise in Listed Buildings. His Nerd status is firmly proven by having become Chartered in two unrelated subjects and having established an Institute which now has 2000 members. In his spare time he is passionate about music, particularly early 1970’s Genesis, and is an endurance athlete currently doing 100 mile ultra-marathons and previously having done Double Iron Man triathlon, and other ridiculous stuff such as trying to swim the Channel, after having first run 87 miles from London. He is the only person ever to have completed the London to Brighton Veteran Car Race by running it, instead of driving. Duncan loves a good curry and Old Thumper ale from Ringwoods.His talk tonight will be about none other than the Death Star. The word ‘awesome’ was invented solely for the purpose of describing it. Buildings are Listed for a reason. Currently, English Heritage doesn’t recognise ‘being awesome’ as one of those reasons but perhaps one day it will. In the meantime, there are other criteria which need to be met and this presentation will assess whether the Death Star meets the standards required.
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Free cake, music, quizzing, etc as per usual.
Tickets £4 for regular nerds and £3 for NUS/65+ nerds – Tickets are on sale from here and we strongly advise buying in advance! We very sadly had to raise shields and turn people away last month 🙁
Remember to pop by our facebook page and follow us on twitter
Upstairs at the Caroline of Brunswick
See you there!
Posted in Uncategorized | 
Tags: Consciousness, Cybersecurity, Death Star, Neuroscience, Oxytocin, Privacy, Surveying | 
Comments Closed
Nerd Nite Brighton #9 – Brighton Science Festival Special! 20/2/14
Exciting times are upon us!
The UK is in the midst of apocalyptic weather as a result of the jetstream going bonkers. However here on our battered coast the Brighton Science Festival has just kicked off and we’re going bonkers over that.
Us folks at Nerd Nite Brighton are very pleased to be able to present a traditional biology/chemistry/physics theme for our next event as part of the marvellous science festival.
We are delighted to welcome:
1. Dr Stephan Huber – The cosmic asymmetry of matter and antimatter
Stephan joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sussex as a lecturer in theoretical particle physics in 2006. Before that he was a research fellow in the theory division of CERN, Geneva. His research focuses on particle physics and attempts to understand the physics which sets the Higgs boson mass. He works on models with supersymmetry and extra space dimensions. Tonight he’ll be talking on his other research interest – cosmology. Stephan will tell us about his search for the origin of the cosmic matter/antimatter asymmetry, especially in relation to cosmic phase transitions.
2. Dr John Turner – The world through a grain of sand: art and architecture at the atomic level
John Turner needs no introduction to Nerd Nite Brighton. He killed it at our second ever Nerd Nite in May last year with his talk on chemically rational economics and he returns again for the Science Festival special. John is a reader in inorganic physical chemistry at the University of Sussex having held previous positions in Delaware, Tennessee and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. He has a wide range of research interests including technical solutions to climate change and peak oil but also theoretical work in group theory, angular momentum transfer theory and broader issues in the electronic and physical structure of matter.
3. Prof Louise Serpell – Bioinspired materials: spinning protein fibres
Louise has worked on protein assembly for over 20 years. The area is fascinating because it allows us to understand multiple areas of biology from how conditions like Alzheimer’s disease might occur to how spiders are able to make silk. She started her research in Oxford and then moved to Toronto for a couple of years before taking a position in Cambridge. She arrived here in Brighton just over 10 years ago and is Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Sussex in the School of Life Sciences. Her current research attempts to span neuroscience and materials.
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Free cake, music, quizzing, etc as per usual.
Tickets £4 for regular nerds and £3 for NUS/65+ nerds
Buy online from here
Upstairs at Caroline of Brunswick
See you there!
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tags: biology, Brighton Science Festival, chemistry, physics |
Comments Closed
Nerd Nite Brighton #8: 5/12/13
Here at Nerd Nite Brighton towers we can’t believe how quickly the year has disappeared. We’re hoping to leave 2013 with a bang so come by for our festive finale.
This month:
Death by Christmas – Anna Leeke
Anna loves Christmas more than anything. She loves everything associated with Christmas and will be spending the next few weeks in a state of perpetual excitement as the holiday draws closer. However she is keenly aware that with great festivity comes great danger. Tonight she will be highlighting how even the most loved of holidays should warrant caution and her talk will focus on the increased risk of morbidity and mortality that Christmas can bring.
Telling stories with games – Kate Howland
Kate is a Lecturer in Interaction Design at the University of Sussex. Her research focuses on designing and understanding people’s use of digital technologies that support creative and social activities. At Nerd Nite she’ll be talking about narrative in video games and discussing her PhD research on the design of software to support young people in creating their own narrative-based games. She has yet to find a viable project to justify the time she spends looking at photos of cats online.
Surviving a robot invasion – Partha Das
Partha has spent a lifetime cowering in fear at the possibility of a threat to humanity from a merciless robot aggressor. He feels that global societies in their current configuration are ill prepared for such an invasion. Tonight he will outline the nature of such a threat and what you and your loved ones can do to ensure your survival during a robocalypse.
We’re very pleased to introduce Dr Jane Hume who will be our special guest host and compere for the night:
Jane enjoys amateurishly making things from wood, meat, fabric and light bulbs though has yet to realise her dreams of combining all these ingredients into a single creation (ideally a working swan robot). Funding this elaborate pastime by furtive work as the scarlet pimpernel of doctors, she is currently looking into the practicalities of a new career in vintage lie-detector machine dealing. She can’t play the accordion properly, nor any other musical instrument.
There will be quizzing, music and of course free cake. We’re looking forward to saying goodbye to 2013 with you!
Tickets available from here
Nerd Nite Brighton #7: 7/11/13
Did someone say something about a storm? Hopefully your hats haven’t been blown away and you’re going to come and join us in the cosy warmth of the Caroline of Brunswick once again for some evidence-based entertainment. Bring your non-blown away hats too.
A very very very important message for y’all: this will be a post-Halloween Nerd Nite and in celebration we’d like you to bring a pumpkin carved with a nerdy icon. Perhaps you’d like to chisel out Albert Einstein’s face? For inspiration have a look here.
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Our talks this month:
1. Water poverty: A consideration of the global and the local – Ian Hextall from WaterAid
As long as Ian can remember he has been obsessed by rivers, irrigation, floods, valleys, canals, dams and all things watery. Where WaterAid came into his view he can’t exactly recall but it must have been over 20 years ago. After retiring as an academic he became a volunteer for the organisation and was so impressed by its clear direction and mode of working that when he moved to Brighton he helped establish the Brighton and Hove WaterAid Campaign Group which has now been in operation for some 6 years.
WaterAid is one of the key institutions currently engaged in the redefinition of the UN Millenium Development Goals for 2030 under the campaign heading EveryoneEverywhere: a vision for water, sanitation and hygiene post-2015. At the level of the UK there is a growing awareness of the incidence of water poverty amongst vulnerable groups. At its simplest this is generated by the interaction of: low levels of economic activity; the impact of welfare/benefit erosion; new charging models for water provision; specific ‘hazards’ eg., ill health, family size and disability; and secular dynamics such as climate change.
These ‘local’ factors are most likely to impact negatively upon low income families, hence the local articulation with ‘water poverty’. Ian’s talk will briefly focus on these “glocal” features in greater detail and he shall comment on WaterAid’s awareness and campaigning role with specific reference to their work on a local level.
2. Leading social innovation – Toby Moore
Toby has many walks of life, from revolutionising IT leadership to writing recipe books and developing local currencies. Toby is always looking to create things that boast collaboration, fairness and change.
A lot of his work is within the IT Services industry trying to help technologists and their managers better understanding the emerging social values of business and workplace culture. Toby also plays a big part in the local social innovation networks, working with organisations and events such as CityCamp, TEDx Brighton and The Brightoneers to build exciting projects that have meaningful outcomes for Brighton and its people.
In this talk Toby will share his experiences in building up businesses that put people and happiness above profit and what it takes to motivate people to do great things beyond just getting paid.
3. An introduction to hackspaces – Mike Pountney
Mike is a professional nerd and has been for many years so will be well at home at Nerd Nite. He loves learning pretty much anything, especially when it comes to how to do things. For ages he wondered what it would be like if you got enough people together that liked just doing stuff for the pure joy of doing it, and built a clubhouse for them. It turns out lots of other people around the world had the same thought. They are called Hackspaces here in the UK, and they are just wonderful. We’re a lucky bunch because he’s going to tell us a bit about them.
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As always there will be drinks, quizzes, music and of course free cake which we’re informed this month are GBBO Mary Berry’s spice orange cake and the crazy chocolate and beetroot cake.
Upstairs at the Caroline of Brunswick
£4 regular nerds and £3 student nerds
Doors 7.30pm for an 8pm start
Tickets from HERE
And if you’ve been a naughty nerd and haven’t been already, please pop by the facebook page and follow us on twitter.
Nerd Nite Brighton #6: 3/10/13
1. My life with the alpine time travellers – Dr David Bramwell
This one-man cottage industry and Brighton legend is the creator of the successful Cheeky Guide series, founder and host of Brighton’s Catalyst Club and singer-songwriter in the band Oddfellows Casino (Nightjar Records). His music and spoken word material have been featured on BBC radio 1, 3,4 and 6. David has written books on subjects ranging from difficult words to sexuality for Penguin, Harper Collins and DK, has spoken at and hosted TEDx events and entertained festival and cinema audiences with “Sing-along-a-Wickerman”. Tonight he’ll be telling us about the mysterious and extraordinary community of Damanhur in the Italian Alps…
2. Beyond the bar chart: creative data visualisation – Dr Peter Cook
Peter Cook’s interest in data visualisation probably started at school when he drew his first bar chart. Through his engineering degree he always enjoyed explaining difficult concepts using visuals and he went on to complete a PhD in the visualisation of complex surfaces such as car bodies. He’s now focusing his energy on bringing beautiful data visualisations to the web. He’ll be talking about how the latest in web-based tools is allowing programmers and designers to become much more creative with presenting and telling stories with data.
3. Spinal cord injury research: wise man’s dream or fool’s game? – Dr Leanne Lewis-Ramer
Leanne hails/visits/is here from Vancouver, Canada, where she has spent more than 10 years studying spinal cord injury at the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD http://icord.org/), a research centre that houses clinicians, biologists and engineers with a shared interest in recovery after spinal cord injury. She is thrilled to be in London on a one-year Fellowship at King’s College London. She’ll be telling us of the trials, tribulations and perhaps folly of trying to regenerate spinal cords. Oh yes – she loves beer.
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There’ll be the usual drinks, japes, quizzes, music and of course free cake. So do swing by! We’ll be upstairs at the Caroline of Brunswick and looking forward to seeing you.
£4 regular nerds and £3 student nerds
Doors 7.30pm for an 8pm start
Tickets from here!
pop by the facebook page and follow us on twitter
Nerd Nite Brighton #5: 12/9/13
It’s that time again! Come and join us for lots more nerdiness in beautiful sunny Brighton.
Like an excited vegan in Infinity Foods (other health food shops are available), we’ve been sourcing the best speakers to keep you enthralled and entertained.
This month:
1. The embodiment of engagement – Dr Harry Witchel
Dr. Harry Witchel is Discipline Leader in Physiology at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School. In 2004 he received the national honour of being awarded The Charles Darwin Award Lecture by the British Science Association. His interdisciplinary research uses motion capture and time series video analysis to quantify nonverbal behaviour as a measure of human-computer interaction and interpersonal engagement. He regularly appears all over the world as a commentator on radio and television, and in 2012 he appeared on BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours and Word of Mouth, talking about an experiment he ran on thousands of people on the busiest clubbing night in Brighton — which demonstrated that music can change people’s body language to be less territorial. His latest work is on how we comprehend the body language of engagement and this will form his the subject of his talk tonight.
2. How do animals get from A to B? – Dr Paul Graham
Ever seen a trail of ants marching along with apparent design and purpose? As a Psychology student, Paul was interested in Artificial Intelligence and the prospect of building brains. Unfortunately this turns out to be a hard problem, even for supposedly simple brains like those of insects. The brain-building plans are still on hold and Paul has spent the last 15 years at Sussex University studying how insects produce sophisticated behaviour, even with their ‘simple’ brains.
3. Run for your life: the psychobiology of marathons – Dr Iain Moore
Flying in from Belfast via Newcastle for NNB this evening is Consultant Nephrologist Iain Moore. When not saving lives, listening to Kurt Vile, or critiquing the latest Van Sant film, he can be found running marathons at various exotic destinations across the globe. In fact he’s just back from running 1250km from Brussels to Bratislava… Why does he do it? How does he do it? So put down that pizza slice – combining his nerdish love of physiology, psychology and running, Iain will be telling us what drives endurance athletes at both a cellular and a cognitive level.
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There’ll be the usual drinks, japes, quizzes, music and of course free cake. So do swing by! We’ll be upstairs at the Caroline of Brunswick and looking forward to seeing you.
£4 regular nerds and £3 student nerds
Doors 7.30pm for an 8pm start
tickets from here
pop by the facebook page and follow us on twitter
Nerd Nite Brighton #4: 8/8/13
The August Nerd Nite Brighton certainly has a medical theme to it and we’re privileged to have 3 real doctors gracing our stage.
1. Old Person Whisperer introduces the emerging field of comics and medicine – Dr Muna Al-Jawad
Dr Al-Jawad is a consultant geriatrician at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. She is also doing a PhD in the form of a graphic novel. She chaired the 4th International Conference of Comics and Medicine in July 2013. Have a look at some of her work here.
2. Large Organisations and Culture Change: Taming the Wicked – Dr Mark Edwards
Philanthropic vascular surgeon, part-time guerilla psycho-sociologist and would-be agent of change, Mark has spent 16 years within the NHS giving him practical insight into the astounding complexity that inhibits change within large organisations. Challenging the status quo requires a movement that understands urgency, recognises complexity, resonates with the grass-roots and empowers it to evolve. Can he give us the secret to NHS success?
3. Organ donation: A Moral Maze – Dr Hannah Maple
Despite living in Crawley, Hannah managed to get into King’s College London Medical School not just once, but twice. Having graduated in 2007 she pursued a surgical career before taking a break from clinical work in 2011 to do a PhD. Based at Guy’s Hospital, London her research examines the psychological aspects of living kidney donation from the perspective of the donor, seeking to understand more about what donors get out of the process. She has recently conducted the world’s largest study of non-directed altruistic organ donors (people who donate their organs to strangers) and will tonight discuss the results of this alongside other ethical and legal controversies in transplantation.
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This month we’re at the Caroline of Brunswick (39 Ditchling Road near the Level) – £4 entry (£3 student nerds) as usual – looking forward to seeing you there!
PS. If you haven’t already come follow us on twitter and facebook!