An overview of modern astronomy and our quest to find the dawn of creation
Presenter:
Professor Peter Quinn, BSc(Hons) UWoll., PhD ANU, FASA
Premier’s Fellow
School of Physics, University of Western Australia
Sign up for the event by clicking the facebook logo
Astronomy is the oldest scientific endeavour of mankind. The pattern and regular motions
of the Sun, Moon, stars and other planets have guided our agriculture, our religions, our
technological development and our journeys of discovery since before recorded history.
Over the past 400 years, the invention and the development of telescopes has allowed us to
step outside our own solar system to begin a new voyage of discovery, back in time, to the
birth of the cosmos.
On the journey so far, we have found a treasure trove of objects and
phenomena from star destroying black holes, to whole galaxies in the process of collision,
to new planets like our own Earth. We are now nearing a period in our cosmic time travel
that will contain one of the Universe’s most profound events –the first light from the first
star – the “dawn of creation”. This event will be found and studied by a new telescope
which, when completed in 2020, will be the world’s largest astronomical facility. The
telescope is called the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and Western Australia is currently the
front-runner in an international competition to host the SKA. The remote desert of WA,
home to Aboriginal peoples who are arguably the world’s first astronomers, may provide
mankind with its clearest view of the first objects created – the seeds of the Universe we
see around us today.
Perth Education City is proud to present Professor Peter Quinn for a special seminar at the
Australian Education Showcase 2009 on the cosmic journey back in time – the findings, the
mysteries uncovered and the new generation of telescopes that will be built.
Venue: Suntec Exhibition & Coonvention Centre Hall 402 Level 4
Date: 21 March 2009, Saturday 12 noon.
FIRST LIGHT
An overview of modern astronomy and our quest to find the dawn of creation
Presenter:
Professor Peter Quinn, BSc(Hons) UWoll., PhD ANU, FASA
Premier’s Fellow
School of Physics, University of Western Australia
Sign up for the event by clicking the facebook logo
Last year I did a search on recruit.net for “social media” and i got an amazing ZERO jobs results. Today I thought i would try again to see if things had changed, knowing full well that they would have.
Today, Recruit.net hosts 44 current job openings that are related to social media. I have not checked them all but “Social Media Manager” positions lead the list.
Recruit.net is a google of recruitment who focus on Asia Pacific, the wave of social media activists like myself and others more high profile, seem to have created a NEW world of career opportunities in Asia Pacific for those keen to take advantage of the benefits of full scale social media strategies for business.
… so will corporations be in AWE of the social media experts inside their business who will deliver unprecidented profitability by treating and engaging with customers and partners as part of their business community, with all the benefits and rewards the customers deserve. Social Media will lead the way in redifining customer relationships and i imagine the next time I do a search for social media jobs openings the results will far exceed my wildest imagination.
Start-ups who presented include: (see original post for links)
* Twinity (Jeremy Snyder): a 3D online-world that replicates real world cities in a virtual environment. The city of Berlin has already been launched, and both London and Singapore will be up later this year. According to Jeremy, they have about a 100,000 sign-ups since the launch of Twinity in September last year in 2008.
* Brandtology (Aaron Koh): a social media monitoring start-up that help companies makes sense of the big bad web by mining sentiments from it. Brandtology is founded by CEO Eddie Chao, who previously incubated managed security services player e-Cop that was acquired by Temasek in 2007.
* Makeaffinity (Thomas Tan): ever wanted to control robots over the internet to slug it out in a death match? Now you can with Makeaffinity’s robot sharing platform, which allows folks to play with and make web robots without much programming whatsoever.
* 2359 Media (Hong Ting and Wenhan): founded by a trio of passionate entrepreneurs who just finished their NUS studies and a stint in Silicon Valley. 2359 Media is an advertising platform for mobile phones utilizing location based services.
* Jorbb (Shen Heng): Most job advertising portals cater to the white-collar worker. Shen wanted to create a portal specifically for blue-collar workers — part-timers, trade promoters, temp staff — and Jorbb is the result.
* Neat Co (Sarabjit Singh): Neat co, a small US company with a second office in Singapore, was the only physical tech appliance company amongst the presenters. Showcased was their contextually aware OCR reader, a smart scanning solution for receipts and the like.
* Phokki (Sean Seah): And lastly, Phokki, a start-up which turns your photos into works of art via a platform that links artists to end users directly. I’ve written a post on Phokki before.
We had a couple of other start-ups who didn’t present like seemeCV and Airvert. Not to worry. Due to good interest in this first event from anecdotal feedback (thanks to those who gave theirs!), the Techgoondus will think about running this on a semi-regular basis once in a few months. Will keep you readers posted if we do run this again. Meanwhile, if you’re interested in ideas on this front, feel free to drop me an email.
Interested in free publicity? Techgoondu is organizing a “Meet the Techgoondus” session on March 10th (Tuesday) for tech startups in Singapore.
venue: Geek Terminal Singapore 55 Market Street, from 730pm
The reason we’re doing this is because start-ups make for great stories but often they don’t get enough notice. Also, it’s a fun way to build a bottom up grassroots tech community in Singapore.
Like many other shortcuts for Google, the time shortcut is an easy one to remember; simply type ‘time’ and you’ll get back results for the various time zones within your country. Want to check times in other regions? Just type ‘time country’ and if the country you are searching for spans several time zones, Google will give you a quick result.
Skribe, your presentation inworld this weekend at the Jokay UnConference – tells the story of viral video and its surge in dominance over text, it is only the beginning – videos matched with imagination, like these above of how the world might be and can be is really the payload for life in the generations ahead.
This event is for any sci-fi buff out there that believes there is more to this universe than what we can see today… it is being held in conjunction with Study in Australia – head on down and take a look at the educating opportunities downunder – itsReal cool
21 March 2009 12 noon Suntec Singapore Hall 402 Level 4
First Light – Science’s Quest to find the Dawn of Creation presented by Perth Education City
Meet two world famous professors from Perth leading the SKA Project, one of the world’s largest science projects and find out how & why this can create career opportunities in science, engineering, astronomy, physics & maths. Free Admission
Australian Education Showcase 2009 – Explore Australia. Discover Yourself.
The state government has confirmed that the University of Western Australia will be the headquarters of a new $20 million radio astronomy research centre that is designed to help WA win the $2.5 billion Square Kilometre Array project.
Science and Innovation Minister Troy Buswell today announced a package of measures to promote WA’s chances of winning the international SKA project.
These include the establishment of an International Radio Astronomy Research Centre as an equal joint venture between UWA and Curtin.
Made in IBM Labs: IBM Creates Software for Holding Face-to-Face Meetings in Virtual Worlds
Allows Meeting-Goers to Teleport Themselves From Instant Message Chats to Virtual Conference Rooms — No Reservations Necessary
ARMONK, NY–(Marketwire – March 4, 2009) – IBM (NYSE: IBM) is making it easier for widely dispersed businesspeople to interact and collaborate without the time and expense of in-person meetings.
What is making all this possible is the marriage between “virtual world” Web sites, and “unified communications and collaboration tools” — technology that links such things as voicemail, audible chat, and instant messaging. Virtual worlds are interactive, immersive Web sites with three-dimensional graphics. There, people are represented by versions of themselves, called avatars. With origins in multi-player gaming sites, virtual worlds re-create the social and visual dynamics and cues of human interaction, and are now increasingly used in business settings.
IBM is now allowing selected clients test Sametime 3D, a new tool which will let business colleagues not only exchange instant messages and chat verbally, but also share presentations and ideas in private, prefabricated, reusable meeting spaces located in a variety of virtual worlds. These spaces will allow participants to, literally, throw ideas on the wall during a meeting to “see what sticks,” and to vote on, organize, and save the most promising proposals. Avatars can make presentations to one another, socialize, debate, or, literally, examine ideas and 3D objects from all angles.
IBM’s new software enables groups based in different locations to meet on a regular, periodic or impromptu basis in these virtual worlds. With this new software tool, IBM is providing several reusable meeting spaces, including a theater-style amphitheatre, a boardroom and a collaboration space which can each be used for impromptu or scheduled brainstorming sessions, status updates, town hall-style meetings, rehearsals, training classes, and more.
“This project is part of IBM’s ongoing work to redefine the nature of online meetings,” said Colin Parris, IBM’s Vice President for Industry Solutions and Emerging Business. “The work that takes place during a meeting is hard enough; people shouldn’t have to struggle with logistics. Whether through improvements to Web conferencing capabilities or with special offerings such as Sametime 3D, IBM is offering new ways to engage and collaborate, making meetings more effective and productive.”
The new software overcomes several challenges that have existed for businesses wishing to hold meetings in virtual worlds: First, businesses can collaborate the way in which they are accustomed, using software they may already have, such as electronic presentations, enterprise security, and instant messaging tools. Second, IBM has prefabricated a variety of re-useable spaces specifically designed for productive meetings, making it unnecessary for adopters to painstakingly build meeting rooms each time they want to meet. Third, these spaces are secure, overcoming privacy concerns manifest in many public areas of popular virtual worlds. And finally, colleagues not wishing to participate in a given virtual meeting can still view documents, presentations and results from those sessions — or even snapshots of a previous meeting.
In the future, the software will provide a variety of ways for participants to circulate reports to one another that document the meetings’ progress. IBM will also make it easier for users to chat verbally and exchange information generated by and for virtual meetings, with traditional computer software already installed on their computers and servers.
Selected IBM clients and business partners are now being invited to work with IBM’s Lotus Services organization to test this new software. The solution, which may be available by the second half of 2009, uses version 8.0 of IBM Lotus Sametime, and a plug-in designed by IBM Research for virtual worlds. When the software is developed fully, clients will be able to use it to connect any number of virtual worlds, such as OpenSim or Second Life. A demonstration of the software’s capabilities is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfqGwKFStuw
IBM is in the forefront in exploring virtual worlds. Hundreds of IBM researchers, consultants, and developers are developing and providing new ways of learning, collaborating and doing business in virtual worlds. IBM is helping clients to develop their virtual world strategies, and is providing them with solutions and services that enable adopters to better collaborate. In addition, IBM is leading an initiative to help improve compatibility between disparate virtual worlds. Internally, IBM uses virtual worlds to conduct research, host events, and to acclimate new employees.
