Profiles

	Sunny Teich (Keynote Speaker Day 1) Sunny Teich is a writer and visual effects artist, currently lecturing in the School of Design at Victoria University and researching real-time effects workflows for cinematic VR. Over the course of her 12-year career, she has developed an expertise in simulation, while working on feature films at major international studios including Disney Animation, Weta Digital, and Framestore London. With a belief that visual effects artists have an obligation to participate in the conversation about the cultural significance of their work, Sunny has also published articles on the state the VFX industry and the implications of blockbuster films in popular culture venues such as Salon, Techcrunch and Quartz.
	Terry Miller (Keynote Speaker Day 2) Engineer, innovator, entrepreneur. VUW alumni, has gone from a career in electronics RnD to founding his own startup company in the VR space - Eight360. Passionate about technology and how it can be used to solve problems, as well as creating new amazing possiblities. On a mission to inspire the next generation into careers in STEM and reaching for the stars.
	Elf Elridge (Keynote Speaker Day 3) Dr Elf Eldridge taught at the Victoria University Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science for over 5 years until the end of 2017. Since then Elf has been a senior security analyst, and now the Director of Training at Cyber Toa, a Wellington-based cybersecurity consultancy. Elf is a core member of the Cyber Toa technical team, and has written and delivered a postgraduate Diploma in Cybersecurity for the University of South Pacific. His work takes him nationwide and throughout the pacific where he performs cybersecurity audits and runs both academic and industrial cybersecurity courses. He has also been involved with the Nodebots robotics charity for several years and is a member of the Space and Science Festival organising committee.
	Julie McMahon Julie has been involved in teaching Digital Technologies and professional development for teachers for over 30 years, and is the Immediate Past President of DTTA (Digital Technologies Teachers Aotearoa). She has worked in Digital Technologies curriculum development in New Zealand since 2009. She is currently a Digital Technologies teacher and HOD Technology at St Hilda's Collegiate School in Dunedin. Her passion is for project based learning that supports creativity, problem-solving and independent thinking.
	Melinda Stevenson (Deputy Principal Francis Douglas Memorial College) Was involved in the writing of the existing DT standards and the new suite of DT standards. Was the Senior Advisor for Technology at the Ministry of Education and was responsible for coordinating the writing of the Teaching and Learning Guide for Technology Education, the Conditions of Assessment for the standards and Review and Maintenance Programme (RAMP) for technology. I have been a Moderator and an External Marker and have taught digital technologies for a number of years.
	Dan Milward (Gamefroot) Dan is the founder and CEO of Gamelab, and his goal in life is to make game creation accessible to everyone, including learners and teachers with no prior knowledge of coding and game design. He has run game creation and design workshops for kids and adults and recently partnered with Public Libraries of New Zealand to bring game coding workshops to communities in seven New Zealand regions.
	Simon McCallum ( Senior Lecturer, School of Engineering and Computer Science) Research Interests Serious Games Virtual and Augmented Reality Neural Networks Asking better questions Medieval Siege Weapons He have been teaching Computer Science since 1999 with Game specific courses from 2004. At undergraduate level he teaches everything from Game Design, with a focus on system design, to GPU programming and Multithreaded optimization. For graduate-level research, he focuses on Serious Games, mainly Games for Health and Games for Education. Simon has an interest in improving the quality of the questions that students ask. He believes that lecturers should be helping students understand how to ask questions and how to find knowledge rather than providing content knowledge in lecture format. These are often answers to questions that none of the students have thought of asking. He found this cartoon captures some of how he feels about good questions. In Norway he has been building Traction Trebuchet. They are rock throwers that have people pulling at one end, and a sling with the stone in it at the other. They throw 3-4kg about 100-120m. He has built 12 of these, which he believes makes him the most experience Siege Engineer in Norway.
	Karsten Lundqvist (Senior Lecturer, School of Engineering and Computer Science) He finds it fascinating to explore how technology and artificial intelligence can be used to improve teaching and learning. Not only in the subject of computer science or at university level, but broadly and often in unusual settings. His research is often interdisciplinary and socio-technical, yet involves improving technological systems and methods to work better with humans. Read more about his work at: https://ecs.victoria.ac.nz/Main/KarstenLundqvist
	Pravin Vaz ( Outreach Coordinator, School of Engineering and Computer Science) I have recently come out of classroom teaching after 10 years into my new role. I love anything Technology but absolutely crazy about physical computing modules like the Arduino, RPi , Microbit and the rest. In my free time I usually pick up old RC cars and modify the electronics to make it work with an open source platform. Read more on my blog at www.techteacherslog.net
	Sue Hall ( Manager, School of Engineering and Computer Science) She first got involved in the Maker community in her mid-twenties, dabbling in folk art, floral decoration, mosaics and cake decoration. Most recently, Suzan has been working on simple electronic projects but is already looking forward to what’s coming next. “My next project is a rocket” she says. When asked why she got into Making, Suzan explains, “Making is fun and educational. Learning keeps life interesting and as adults we sometimes forget to play. Making is my form of play.” In addition to following helpful YouTube videos, Suzan also enjoys doing courses and learning for the experts, absorbing their techniques and tricks before branching out with her own creativity. For her, the frustrating challenges of learning new skills is lessened when you don’t have to go at it alone. Suzan finds inspiration in making things by hands. “There is actually something quite satisfying with making with your hands. I prefer to create beautiful things but my job has challenged me to make practical things and learn a little about the science behind the objects. I can’t wait to build a rocket.” (From the MakerSpace Website)
	Stephan Van Haren(HOD Digital Technology*
	Danny Adair ( Catalyst) Software Engineer at Catalyst. Originally from Germany. Python daily since 1999.
	Evan Hanson ( Catalyst) Evan is a software developer at Catalyst IT in Wellington, New Zealand, with particular experience in programming languages and developer tools. More generally, he is interested in anything that makes it easier to develop simple, robust software. He has been using Git from its very early versions, and has been providing industrial training in its use, from introductory to advanced topics, for the last three years.
	Ian Beardslee ( Catalyst)
	Troy Smith (Learning Developments) Troy Smith is a lifelong learner and educator in the field of electronics and digital technology. From a young age he had an interest in electronics, winning the New Zealand youth skills industrial electronics competition in 1999. Troy went on to gain a NZCE in electronics and then a B.Sc in Electronics. After 10 years in the field Troy completed a career changers scholarship and he ow has 10 years teaching experience, 5 years as HOD and 2 years as an MOE PLD Facilitator. Troy is the owner of Learning Developments, the official micro:bit reseller in New Zealand and it is with his years of experience that he showcases the learning power in this device.
	Sarah Ellix (CodeAvengers) Sarah graduated from the University of Sheffield with a BA (Hons) in Psychology. She initially worked in the IT industry before returning to study for a PGCE specialising in teaching Digital Technologies. She moved to New Zealand in 2007 and was the Head of Digital Technologies at Tawa College in Wellington for 6 years. Sarah joined Code Avengers as a Course Developer in 2017, to work on the MOE Strengthening Digital Technologies project. She has written and reviewed several online courses for primary and intermediate schools for the new "computational thinking for digital technologies" learning area of the Technology curriculum. She enjoys working with the teachers at her local primary school to help them implement the new curriculum.
	Hannah Taylor ( CodeAvengers) Hannah is a graduate from the University of Auckland with a science degree, and Victoria University, Wellington with a teaching diploma. In addition she has qualifications in web development (diploma) and te reo Māori me ōna tikanga (2 year diploma plus certificate). She is a NZ registered teacher with experience in teaching DT to NCEA levels. Before becoming a teacher, she worked as a web developer. At Code Avengers, Hannah is the Director of Content Development, which means she oversees and is involved in the creation of online courses, teacher resources, video production, and more. Hannah has also been a part of the development of the new DT & HM curriculum through her involvement on the writing team for the Achievement Standards at all 3 levels, and being on the committee of the Digital Technology Teachers’ Association (DTTA, formerly NZACDITT). As a ‘Jack of all Trades’ her favorite thing to do is to learn new things.
	Dr. Alvin Valera( Senior Lecturer, School of Engineering and Computer Science) Research Interests Internet of Things (IoT) applications require sensing, sense-making, and actuating capabilities in order to deliver the promise of "freeing humans from mundane tasks". Alvin's research looks at new paradigms and inspirations to design networks that satisfy the unique requirements of IoT applications and scale up to support the envisaged billions of connected devices. His current research interests focus on the use of information-centric networking in the context of resource-constrained IoT networks. This includes the design of schemes (i) to efficiently collect, filter, and disseminate messages; (ii) to manage the operation of the network; and (iii) optimize and control the performance of the network. Biosketch Alvin completed his bachelor's and master's degrees in the areas of computer engineering and computer science, respectively, and Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering. In his doctoral thesis, he tackled the problem of energy-neutral data delivery in enivornmentally-powered wireless sensor networks. Alvin held teaching and research positions in the Philippines and Singapore. He also had a five-year stint in the industry as a software engineer and systems analyst.
	Dr. Craig Anslow ( Senior Lecturer, School of Engineering and Computer Science) Along with his regular workload at the University, Craig also teaches an Agile Methods course on the MSc in Software Engineering Programme within the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford, UK. Craig was a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Computer Science at Middlesex University, London, UK where he worked on the EU FP7 VALCRI project (criminal intelligence). Craig was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Agile Software Engineering Research Group within the Department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary, Canada working with Professor Frank Maurer. Craig received a PhD in Software Engineering from the School of Engineering and Computer Science at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand in 2013 and was supervised by James Noble, Stuart Marshall, and Robert Biddle. Craig also has extensive software development experience having worked in the UK, US, and NZ for large multinational software organizations.
	Zoe (OMGTech) Zoe Timbrell is the Founder and General Manager of OMGTech! She has been instrumental in developing the OMG! strategy and establishing strategic partnerships which have led to the successful design and execution of their award winning Rangers workshops and programmes. Zoe has a strong ability to translate strategy into meaningful, effective action, and is passionate about bringing the OMG! vision to students across New Zealand. You can follow Zoe on Twitter @ztimbrell.
	Viv (OMGTech) Vivian Chandra is one of the lead facilitators at OMGTech! and has been there since the very beginning. She has been involved in developing some of the award-winning Rangers workshops and has worked with several schools to fine-tune their digital tech curriculum in an easy fun format that works for both educators and tamariki. Vivian comes to OMGTech! with over a decade of experience in the tech industry, working on digital strategy with companies and charities, helping people get the most out of their tech choices. When she is not at OMGTech!, you'll find her teaching self-defence to tween girls or speaking about diversity in tech at conferences and panels. You can follow Vivian on Twitter @vivster81.
	Wiremu (OMGTech) Wiremu Wallace is the lead iOS Developer and technology educator at myReo Studios. myReo Studios focuses on the development of leading indigenous software and games. Having only recently completed his studies at Wintec, Wiremu has developed a passion and a skill for all things in mobile and game development.