A talk by Roger Hunt, the award winning writer specialising in sustainability, old houses, housebuilding and traditional and modern building materials.

The Oxford Architecture Society lecture series

Lisa Finlay is coming to speak to us from Heatherwick Studio.
Established by Thomas Heatherwick in 1994, Heatherwick Studio is recognised for its work in architecture, urban infrastructure, sculpture, design and strategic thinking. At the heart of the studio’s work is a profound commitment to finding innovative design solutions, with a dedication to artistic thinking and the latent potential of materials and craftsmanship. In the twenty years of its existence, Heatherwick Studio has worked in many countries, with a wide range of commissioners and in a variety of regulatory environments.

The first OxArch workshop of the series ‘Behind Architecture: The Essentials’ is set to bring us back to the analogue process of representation. ‘Architecture in Watercolours’ presents an opportunity to begin the year with a little experimentation.

Anisha Meggi (currently studying her PhD) works with watercolour to capture the essence of a project with the physical and theoretical layering of watercolour paint and model making.

Come join us on the 4th floor of Abercrombie on Thursday at 4pm, if you’re interested in learning a new skill or pushing further what you already know about watercolour.

We will be providing some watercolour trays, watercolour paper and brushes. However, if you have you’re own watercolour sets, please feel free to bring them in.

Prices:
£7 for members
£9 for non members

Oxbotica are an Oxford University Spin-Out Company from the mobile robotics group. Oxbotica specialize in mobile navigation and perception – allowing robots to precisely map, navigate and interact with their surroundings.”
Graeme Smith, Oxbotica’s Chief Executive has a substantial track record in delivering complex products and services from research and development through to customer launch and has held executive leadership positions in several global start-ups and Joint Ventures.

If you want to learn more about the technology, a career in research, or just have an interest in robotics, come to hear Graeme at OUEngSoc’s first of many lunchtime talks this year. There will be a Q&A session at the end of Graeme’s talk. A buffet lunch will be served after the talk.

Wine reception, snacks, and £5 year membership to PsyNAppS available. Alternatively, pay £2 for a single event!

Venue: Lecture Theatre B, Department of Experimental Psychology

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How do individuals and groups react to different environmental situations (home, office, hospital, street, shop, and so on)? What psychological processes are triggered by our environment, and how do they affect our perception, attitude and actions? How can individuals and groups change their environment so that it provides a more stimulating, less stressful and more enabling setting in which to live? How are our identities tied up with place? How might sustainability in environmental policy be better informed by current research?

Byron Mikellides is currently Emeritus Professor at the School of Architecture, Oxford Brookes University, where he has been teaching since 1968. He has published several influential books including Colour for Architecture (1976),with Tom Porter, Architecture for People (1980) and Colour for Architecture Today (2009),with Tom Porter. He has also contributed to several books, scientific journals and papers over the years, and lectured extensively in various countries particularly in USA and Scandinavia. He is also a former member of Directors of IAPS (International Association of People Environment Studies), a committee member of the Colour Group of Great Britain and an Honorary member of the Portugal Colour Group. He organised the Exhibition of Antonio Gaudi, in Oxford in 1983 and the ‘Colours of Savannah’ in Georgia, USA in 1996 for the Olympic Games.

His latest works include chapters in books such as Building Happiness (2010) on architectural psychology and Colour Design – Theory and Applications (2012).

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Psychology and Neuroscience Applications Society

The junction where psychology and neuroscience research meets action and innovation.

PsyNAppS aims to disseminate information about what you can do with your psychology or neuroscience degree and research. We are here to tell you everything Freud hasn’t. We want to show you how psychology and neuroscience can be applied practically to a variety of industries.

Join your colleagues, friends and mentors at this event to see teams present their projects and find out who will be awarded funding!

The Carbon Innovation Programme is an opportunity for students and staff at the University of Oxford to generate unique ideas for carbon reduction across the University’s Functional Estate. Teams or individuals have the opportunity to receive full funding to deliver their innovative carbon saving projects over the coming academic year (2015/16) whilst also receiving mentoring from industry experts. Successful candidates may have the option to discuss internships and career opportunities.

The Symposium, celebrating Ada Lovelace’s 200th birthday on 10 December 2015, is aimed at a broad audience of those interested in the history and culture of mathematics and computer science, presenting current scholarship on Lovelace’s life and work, and linking her ideas to contemporary thinking about mathematics, computing and artificial intelligence.

The Symposium takes place in the Mathematical Institute of the University of Oxford, with a reception at the new Weston Library (Bodleian) and dinner at Balliol College on 9 December.

Other activities will include a workshop for early career researchers, and a ‘Music and Machines’ event. For more information and for the full line up of speakers please visit: http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/adalovelace/symposium/

*Registration*

Standard Registration, December 9-10: £40
Gala Dinner Ticket, December 9: £50

You can register and pay via the University of Oxford online-shop: http://www.oxforduniversitystores.co.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&catid=70&prodid=386

Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, we have a limited number of student funded places available to cover registration and the conference dinner. These are open to students studying in UK universities in 2015-16. For more information please visit: http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/adalovelace/symposium/

Join Ben Ford as he speaks about the 2015 archaeological excavations from under the Westgate Shopping Centre @ Key Learning Centre, Oxford Castle.

Listen to Julian Munby, from Oxford Archaeology and an OPT Trustee, as he speaks about Nuneham in the Oxford landscape.

As a cornerstone initiative of the Oxford Programme for the Future of Cities, we are proposing a new format for presenting and elaborating thinking on what urban governance does, when it succeed and fails, and how it can be re-organized to meet the challenges of the 21st century. We put academics on the cutting edge of global urban scholarship face-to-face with established innovative practitioners—architects, activists, policy makers, and artists.

Through a series of rigorous yet accessible public dialogues they will grapple with the intellectual and everyday implications of their theories and practices on cities to produce visionary but grounded research and intervention strategies for the future of city life.
Each debate will be preceded by a small panel of academics and practitioners presenting papers that speak to the same key issues. Building on the long-standing Oxford tradition of public debate, we hope to encourage productive engagement between intellectuals and practitioners that is too often missing from discussions of the city.

Machine learning, or the study of algorithms that can learn and act, allows automated decision-making that is both scalable and free of human error. It is becoming increasingly apparent that many tasks and even jobs traditionally done by humans can be carried out in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost by machines. Dr Michael Osborne, Associate Professor in Machine Learning, and Co-Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Technology and Employment, will look at current advances in machine learning, and consider the applications these could have on future technologies.

Dear Post-Graduates,

The ASI Fellowship is a highly selective programme enabling outstanding PhDs and post-doctorates from the world’s top universities to become data scientists and data engineers.

Application for the next Fellowship, starting in May 2016, close Monday 7th March 2016

We are hosting an event about careers and the next Fellowship, in Oxford, at 5pm:

Date: Thursday 18th Feb 2016
Time: 05:00pm – 07:00pm
Venue: Sainsbury Common Room, Worcester College University of Oxford

Apply for the Fellowship at: www.theasi.co/fellowship

In your PhD, you receive a comprehensive training in 90% of the skills required to be a data scientist – collecting and interpreting data, testing hypotheses and communicating results. All that is needed for you to excel in an exciting new career is to acquire the remaining 10% – the industry specific skills. This is where ASI can help. You might want to consider a career in data science, ‘the sexiest job of the 21st century’ according to Havard Business School.

The ASI offers an 8 week full-time fellowship, developed in collaboration with industry, specifically aimed at helping PhD students and Post-docs’s in Science, Maths and Engineering transition into a career in data science. Thanks to generous support, we are able to provide the course free of charge for the accepted Fellows.

Applications are open now, and Fellow’s are accepted on a rolling basis, so if you’re interested please check out: www.theasi.co

As a cornerstone initiative of the Oxford Programme for the Future of Cities, we are proposing a new format for presenting and elaborating thinking on what urban governance does, when it succeed and fails, and how it can be re-organized to meet the challenges of the 21st century. We put academics on the cutting edge of global urban scholarship face-to-face with established innovative practitioners—architects, activists, policy makers, and artists.

Through a series of rigorous yet accessible public dialogues they will grapple with the intellectual and everyday implications of their theories and practices on cities to produce visionary but grounded research and intervention strategies for the future of city life.
Each debate will be preceded by a small panel of academics and practitioners presenting papers that speak to the same key issues. Building on the long-standing Oxford tradition of public debate, we hope to encourage productive engagement between intellectuals and practitioners that is too often missing from discussions of the city.

Technologies are not neutral tools that emerge independently of the society that invents them. Rather, their design and use reflect as much as shape society. So what does the contemporary fascination with humanoid robots and automation more generally tell us about how our culture envisages the relationship between humans and machines?

In this lecture Professor Judy Wajcman, Visiting Professor at the Oxford Internet Institute, will examine the ways in which robotics embody the desire to save valuable time by enabling us to complete tasks ever faster and more efficiently. They are supposed to make our lives easier. Yet we hear constant laments that we are pressed for time, and that the pace of everyday life is accelerating. How do we explain this conundrum? And why is it that machines designed for today’s service economy often resemble gender stereotypes? Perhaps we need a female Doctor Who to provoke a feminist reimagining of robotics, one that challenges the future on offer from the evangelists of Silicon Valley.

How is the technology behind driverless cars designed and implemented? How does an autonomous vehicle interpret a complex and dynamic real world environment, and what are the ethical and social implications of taking humans out of the equation? Dr Ingmar Posner, Associate Professor in Information Engineering at the University of Oxford, looks at the current climate and future challenges of implementing autonomous transport.

Oxford Fabian Society presents ‘The Future of Work’

What is work? How will digital technology transform the economy and the workforce? And how should progressive politics respond to technological change?

This event will bring together Joanna Biggs, author of All Day Long: A Portrait of Britain at Work and Nick Srnicek, co-author of Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and World Without Work to look at the present and future of work, technology, and politics.

All very welcome. A drinks reception will follow the event.

Chair
Lise Butler, Stipendiary Lecturer in History, Pembroke College and Vice-Chair, Oxford Fabian Society

Speakers
Joanna Biggs, London Review of Books and author of All Day Long (Serpent’s Tail, 2015) and Nick Srnicek, co-author of Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work (Verso, 2015)

Respondent
Michael Weatherburn, Imperial College and Secretary, Oxford Fabian Society

This is the monthly meeting of the Oxford AI Meetup group.
The talks include an analysis of Deep Mind’s AlphaGo software that has just beaten the world champion in their first match.

IN[SCI]TE is a new interdisciplinary science, technology, and engineering conference, which will take place on Monday and Tuesday of 0th Week Trinity Term 2016. IN[SCI]TE is run by undergrads, and the talks will be both delivered by and aimed at undergrads.

The aims for IN[SCI]TE are to broaden the knowledge and awareness of science undergrads outside their field of study, to provide a setting for undergrads to give a talk at a scientific conference during their degree, and to inspire future scientists to enter areas of work that cross the boundaries in science.

We are now accepting applications for speakers! Submit an application at inscite.co/speakers/, or send the facebook page a message if you have any questions.

To keep up to date with the conference, like us on facebook.com/insciteco, and follow us @insciteco.

‘Gene-editing’ sounds like science fiction, but today it is an emerging reality. This raises hope for treating medical problems, but also opens ethical quandaries about equality, privacy, and personal freedom. Discuss these questions with a panel of experts including geneticist Andy Greenfield, science fiction author Paul McAuley and science policy advisor Elizabeth Bohm. Lisa Melton, Senior News Editor at Nature Biotechnology, will moderate the event, with Ben Davies, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, presenting technical background.

Book here: http://www.oxfordshiresciencefestival.com/wednesday.html

Elain Harwood will look at David Roberts’s work in Cambridge and Oxford, and will place it in the context of the growth of higher education in the 1950s and 1960s, and the development of a modern style for university buildings.

Elain Harwood is Historic England’s specialist on post-war architecture and an acknowledged expert on and champion for Modernist architecture.

This event is part of the series A Festival of Anniversaries.

Delivering reliable drinking water to millions of rural people in Africa and Asia is an elusive and enduring global goal. A systematic information deficit on the performance of and demand for infrastructure investments limits policy design and development outcomes.

Since 2010, the ‘Smart Handpump’ project has been exploring new technologies, methods and models to understand and respond to this challenge. A mobile-enabled data transmitter provides foundational data on hourly water usage and failure events which has enabled the establishment of performance-based maintenance companies in Kenya that are improving handpump reliability by an order of magnitude.

The research is a collaboration between the School of Geography and the Environment and the Department of Engineering Science with a range of partners including government, international bodies such as UNICEF and the private sector. New research involves modelling the accelerometry data from the handpumps to predict aquifer depth. We invite you to test the Smart Handpump in the car park and debate how the ‘accidental infrastructure’ of rural handpumps can spark bolder initiatives to deliver water security for millions of poor people in Africa and Asia.

Xtrac / Oxford e-Research Centre
October 20, 2016 – 19:00
Oxford e-Research Centre
7 Keble Road, Oxford

Seminar Open to all
This exciting talk from Xtrac – global leaders in racing gearbox design will discuss the challenges of designing a gearbox for a unique hypercar – the Pagani Huayra. Voted in 2015 by IMechE as one of the leading engineering companies, this talk will discuss what sets Xtrac apart from its competitors as well as the challenges that arise when you are involved in a hypercar design project.

Speakers:

Jon Marsh – Chief Designer

Dominic Smith – Head of Advanced Engineering

Paul Pomfret – Assistant Chief Designer

Refreshments will begin at 6.30pm, with the talk starting at 7pm. Booking is not compulsory but is helpful for the organisors.

The Oxford e-Research Centre is pleased to welcome Paul van Veggel, Aerodynamics Operations Manager for Red Bull Racing F1 Team.

He will explain what the Red Bull F1 team does, their work philosophy and describe the opportunities they have for people with a software engineering, mathematics or engineering background. The event is open to all.

Red Bull will also bring parts of the car for people to look at.

The F1 team are looking for a broad set of students this year, for 1 year industrial placements starting summer 2017:

· Aerodynamics Development (both practical and computational)
· Aerodynamics Tools (software development, methodology development, embedded systems and electronics)
· Aerodynamics Design (mechanical design of aerodynamic parts for models and race car, plus CFD models)
· Plus a whole host of other engineering students in electronics, IT, R&D test, Vehicle Design & Vehicle Dynamics.

Open to all. Lunch provided. No booking required.

Mary Keen, Paradise and Plenty – the How and Wow of Lord Rothschild’s private garden on the Waddesdon Estate

Mary Keen is a writer, lecturer and renowned garden designer and will talk about the garden, its dedicated gardeners, past and present, and her book, which celebrates the tradition of excellence at Eythrope.

The BLOODHOUND Supersonic Car, launched by Richard Noble and Andy Green in October 2008, is set to take the Land Speed Record into a whole new speed regime. The team, including researchers from Swansea University, plans to take a manned vehicle to 1000mph by 2018, increasing the current Land Speed Record (763mph) by over 30%.

This target presents the team with massive scientific and engineering challenges, not least of which being how the car will stay attached to the ground at such speeds!

The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) research team at The College of Engineering at Swansea University has been working on answering these questions, and predicting the overall aerodynamic behaviour of the vehicle.

The Institute of Mechanical Engineers (Oxfordshire Automotive Division) and the University of Oxford e-Research Centre is pleased to invite Dr Ben Evans, Senior Lecturer at the University of Swansea, to give this exciting talk on the aerodynamics of the Bloodhound SSC project. He will discuss the extreme challenges of designing a car to reach 1000mph. Dr Evans will discuss the aerodynamic work he and his colleagues undertook as well as discussing the overall project.

High Performance Computing was used as an integral component of the design and optimization cycles for the vehicle. In order to achieve the final design predicted lift and drag responses over 14 full vehicle design iterations were carried out and numerous sub-assembly optimization studies.

The design work on this vehicle has inspired the development of novel methods for simulating high speed particle entrainment, mesh-based optimization and CFD data visualization. At the time of writing the BLOODHOUND SSC is being built, with testing due to commence in 2017.

Registration is required.

The BLOODHOUND Supersonic Car, launched by Richard Noble and Andy Green in October 2008, is set to take the Land Speed Record into a whole new speed regime. The team, including researchers from Swansea University, plans to take a manned vehicle to 1000mph by 2018, increasing the current Land Speed Record (763mph) by over 30%.

This target presents the team with massive scientific and engineering challenges, not least of which being how the car will stay attached to the ground at such speeds!

The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) research team at The College of Engineering at Swansea University has been working on answering these questions, and predicting the overall aerodynamic behaviour of the vehicle.

The Institute of Mechanical Engineers (Oxfordshire Automotive Division) and the University of Oxford e-Research Centre is pleased to invite Dr Ben Evans, Senior Lecturer at the University of Swansea, to give this exciting talk on the aerodynamics of the Bloodhound SSC project. He will discuss the extreme challenges of designing a car to reach 1000mph. Dr Evans will discuss the aerodynamic work he and his colleagues undertook as well as discussing the overall project.

High Performance Computing was used as an integral component of the design and optimization cycles for the vehicle. In order to achieve the final design predicted lift and drag responses over 14 full vehicle design iterations were carried out and numerous sub-assembly optimization studies.

The design work on this vehicle has inspired the development of novel methods for simulating high speed particle entrainment, mesh-based optimization and CFD data visualization. At the time of writing the BLOODHOUND SSC is being built, with testing due to commence in 2017.

Studying or working in a science or engineering subject? Interested in how to close the gender gap, and want to hear great role models speak about their experiences?

Join Oxford Females in Engineering, Science and Technology (OxFEST), alongside OxWIB and OxWomIn, on Saturday 18th February for our annual conference at the Oxford Maths Institute! We’ll be hosting inspiring women from industry and academia who are breaking boundaries in their fields. The day will involve talks, workshops on diversity, entrepreneurship and communication, and a panel discussion on promoting women in STEM. Breakfast, lunch, refreshments and prosecco will be provided! This is a great opportunity to be inspired, add to your skills, make new connections and get involved.

We are proud to introduce our first speaker: Anne-Marie O. Imafidon MBE. Anne-Marie is a computing, mathematics and language child prodigy who graduated from Oxford aged 20 and was awarded an MBE for championing women in STEM in her organisation Stemettes. You can read about her recent thoughts on the glass ceiling here: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/…/the-glass-ceiling-is-made…

Like our Facebook page for more updates as we reveal our other amazing speakers: https://www.facebook.com/oxwomanempowerment/

Tickets are heavily subsidised and cost just £8 for the whole-day program and food and drink. Get yours here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/breaking-boundaries-shatteri….

We look forward to welcoming you on the day!

Jonathan Metzger (KTH, Sweden) will talk about the necessity of exclusion in environmental planning.

Abstract: A more-than-human sensibility is founded upon an awareness of the fundamentally entangled fates of humans and non-humans, from the individual body to the planetary scale. The purpose of this presentation is to probe some of the implications of such insights on planning theory and methodology, and to explore potential ways of studying the degree to which such insights actually influence existing planning practices.

In the first part of the presentation I briefly review some currently fashionable ‘radical’ planning theories from the angle of how they may contribute to enacting a more-than-human sensibility within planning processes. I suggest that their oft-repeated ambition of producing benefits ‘for all’ are deceitfully misguiding, since such claims effectively serve the function of covering up the ever-present biopolitical dimension of planning practice and the radical exclusions that necessarily must take place.

In the second part of the presentation I sketch the outlines of a research program investigating how urban planning and design professionals relate to the more-than-human biopolitical dimension of planning. I argue that it is necessary to focus not only on the degree of displayed reflectiveness regarding this type of issues, but also if/how this comes to affect their concrete professional practice.

Lord Browne of Madingley is presently Chairman of L1 Energy, the Chairman of Trustees of both the Tate and the QEII Prize for Engineering, and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University.

Lincoln Leads
In Material Culture

In conversation with
Robert Kerr • Former executive at Burberry •
Dr Joshua Thomas • Fellow in Archaeology •
Sarah Bochicchio • MSt in Modern History – Elizabeth I’s wardrobe

Discussing
‘The Power of the Image’?

Inviting the SCR, MCR, JCR and Alumni to join the conversation