The world is changing fast, and QUT is helping Queenslanders get comfortable with it.
QUT has partnered with World Science Festival Brisbane (WSFB) to introduce you to some of the world’s leading scientific experts and creative scientific events.
Alongside the WSFB venues at the Cultural Precinct, QUT’s Gardens Point campus will also be a hotbed of real-world science during this month’s World Science Festival Brisbane, giving the public a chance to cosy up to the future.
Explore the following free demonstrations, workshops, discussions and displays:
Shared Space Bots (interactive demonstrations), 10-13 March: Ever wondered how we are going to share road space with robotic cars? How you will communicate with a RoboCar? QUT and Austrian art and technology researchers Ars Electronica Futurelab are presenting ‘Shared Space Bots’, where the public can ‘road test’ the technologies that will allow us to converse with driverless cars.
Robots - the New Eco Warriors (Salon event), 11 March: Could robots, drones and other autonomous vehicles, together with big data, help us better monitor and protect the environment? Professor Kerrie Mengersen and Drs Matthew Dunbabin and Grant Hamilton discuss how they have adopted robots and other revolutionary technologies to go beyond the limits of researchers alone.
Roboticist’s Apprentice (workshops), 12 March: Program robots to paint with light. Apprentices will use computer coding to control both the robot’s movements and its on-board lighting to generate their own creative patterns, traces and images. These workshops are sold out but come along and watch the action.
Game Designer’s Apprentice (workshops), 12 March: Ladies, want to learn about game design, from leading women in game development? QUT’s Truna (J. Turner) and digital storyteller Christy Dena will help you gain hands-on experience and imagine what’s like to pursue a career in this increasingly diverse industry.
Wired For Genius: The Roots of Creativity in Artists & Machines (panel), 12 March: Can the passion that fuels a work of art be mimicked by machines? At what point does the machine own its creativity? QUT guest Gerfried Stocker from Ars Electronica joins a panel exploring the roots of creativity in humans and computers, what artificial creativity can teach us about our own imaginations, and the promise of systems that build on the capabilities of both.
3D Printing and Fabrication: The Future is Hear (Street Science), 12-13 March: Learn more about the work QUT’s Biofabrication and Tissue Morphology Research Group is doing to perfect the 3D-printing of body parts, including 3D ear prostheses. Find the location.
Evolution of the Electric Vehicle (Street Science), 12-13 March: QUT Motorsport and Clenergy TeamArrow will take you under the hoods of a solar powered vehicle and two electric production vehicles. Find the location,
Catching up with the Jetsons: Cities in 2050 (panel), 13 March: This panel explores the future of cities and identifies possible alternatives, once thought the domain of science fiction and cartoons. QUT’s Dr Cheryl Desha will argue that cities should incorporate nature in more than just a superficial way. QUT guest Gerfried Stocker from Ars Electronica is also on the panel.
From Simplicity to Complexity: Complex Systems Across Science (Salon event), 13 March: From black holes to our brains and bodies and the convoluted networks we create, researchers are increasingly turning to complexity science to crack the code of our most inscrutable systems. QUT's Professor Kerrie Mengersen joins other leading thinkers from a wide variety of backgrounds to grapple with the complexity of the universe.
Dino Zoo Safari, 13 March: Ever wanted to meet a dinosaur? Dino Zoo Safari at The Cube is the closest you can get to the real thing – minus the danger of being eaten! You can meet the world’s most scientifically accurate, life-sized, digital dinosaurs, dig for fossils and learn about dinosaur evolution and mass extinction.
Gastrophysics with Dr Stephen Hughes (Street Science), 13 March: Don’t put astrophysics in the too-hard basket – put it in the kitchen! QUT’s Dr Stephen Hughes will explain complex cosmological concepts using simple kitchen demonstrations. Find the location,
Earth’s Evolution: Lessons from the Cosmos (Salon event), 13 March: Dr Cheryl Desha joins a multidisciplinary group of scientists taking an extra-terrestrial look at our planet, plumbing our knowledge of other worlds to rethink the environmental challenges faced here at home.
For more information about QUT’s contributions, visit the WSFB website.
Media contacts:
Kate Haggman, QUT Media, 07 3138 0358, kate.haggamn@qut.edu.au
After hours Rose Trapnell, QUT Media team leader, 0407 585 901, media@qut.edu.au
