Issue 30-Wednesday 15th April 2020
Contents
HeadSup
Kia ora koutou
Happy Easter, I hope the existential bunny made it to your house. Certainly chocolate and baking seem to be must-have items to stave of third-week-itis. I consumed an entire afghan slice in the space of a day before realizing my bubble is too small for baking. And I’m over Netflix, but the dogs have never been so well-walked. We are getting there though, the curve is flattening. We just have to stay the distance.
I’d like to give a big shout-out to everyone for keeping our teaching and learning going strong. I don’t think a mid-semester break has ever been so welcome. Please take time to relax and blob about a bit.
I know many of us are preparing material for the next 7 weeks of teaching. Please limit the tasks expected of students and make them simple and easy to navigate. Remote tasks take a lot longer to complete than we think. Some students are starting to suffer under the weight of multiple activities. Everyone is stressed so let’s keep the expected workloads down.
If you are a research student or supervisor and have yet to do so, please make a flexible plan to prioritise different activities according to Alert Level. I hope to have more information on access protocols in the next week.
All the best for weeks three and four.
Ngā mihi
JR
Whakawhanaungatanga – communities
IT Committee
The IT-Committee has compiled a number of common IT-related issues and possible solutions. Please check the P-Cubed IT web-page.
https://p-cubed.blogs.auckland.ac.nz/env-it-committe
Meetings, seminars and events
Kāinga Wahine is going online!
Postgrads, and all School of Environment staff who identify as women – welcome to our shared space. As we discussed at our first catch up of the year, we’re hoping to meet monthly to bring us all together, recognise and know the diversity of our women in the School.
Please update your calendars with the dates for the rest of the semester (note we vary the times to try to accommodate different schedules:
14th May 12-1pm
11th June 1-2pm
Please also share the invite with your own School of Environment colleagues who may have been missed off of this list.
Join us in this zoom room: https://auckland.zoom.us/j/8913664680
In the absence of a shared plate, feel free to bring a recipe!
Looking forward to seeing you soon,
Emma
(on behalf of the School of Environment Equity Committee)
Kia ora, Greetings everyone,
Here is the April newsletter from lockdown Auckland. We do hope everyone is finding WFH a new challenge and possibly with some element of novelty. You will notice a number of cancellations, but a schedule of Dialogues, some of which we hope will happen.
In the meantime here is something from a quotation I saw recently: “Sun is not cancelled. Relationships are not cancelled. Love is not cancelled. Imagination is not cancelled. Music is not cancelled. Kindness is not cancelled. Hope is not cancelled.”
Kia kaha! Noho ora mai. / Say strong, stay well and look after yourself
Please click here to read the newsletter.
Volcanology, Geochemistry & Petrology Research Group
The volcanology, geochemistry, & petrology research group (VGP) meets during the semester. Our next meeting will be on 28 April 2020 at 9 am on Zoom. Phil would like to tell us about some of his recent research! As always, everyone is welcome to attend our meetings. Please contact me (Sophia Tsang: s.tsang@auckland.ac.nz) for the link if you don’t have a calendar invite. If you would like to be added to this list, please email me (s.tsang@auckland.ac.nz). Additionally, if you have any updates (including new students or projects) you would like to see on the website or would like to contribute a blog post, please email David (dfar197@aucklanduni.ac.nz). For more information, please see our website: vgp.blogs.auckland.ac.nz See you soon!
Quiz
The School of Environment student clubs are putting on a quiz throughout the lock down for all students within the faculty.
This quiz acts like the “What Am I?” sections in pub quizzes where each round a clue is given to hint at what the object, place, historic event, technique or person is. This quiz is for all School of Environment students hence will cover Geology, Engineering geology, Geophysics, Geochemistry, Geomorphology, Coastal, Climate, Environment, Human geography, Physical geography, and many more sub categories.
Every “round” will start every 4 days with one clue each day and the What Am I being revealed at approx. 8pm on the 4th day and beginning the new round. We are currently in the 3rd round and is planned to go till the end of semester 1 lectures (approx. 12th June at this point) but the end date will be announced closer to the end of semester.
This is a cool way of getting undergrads and postgrads out of the lock down blues and promotes thinking about the other disciplines in a fun interactive way. If any staff member would like to notify their class of this they are welcome too. There is a facebook page where all the questions are posted and more information is available (https://www.facebook.com/groups/543925486258412/).
Although this is specifically for students (tailored particularly towards undergraduates), if any staff member would like to get involved and possibly come up with a few questions please email Gina Swanney (gswa730@aucklanduni.ac.nz) for more information.
Ako – Teaching and Learning
Enjoy the break!
Rangahau – Research
Help with digital research tools, skills and platforms
The Centre for eResearch (CeR) team is working remotely to provide services that support researchers, including postgraduate/doctoral researchers. These services are described and can be requested in the ResearchHub –research-hub.auckland.ac.nz
Workshops and drop-in sessions are also being offered to help researchers continue their work at home:
Enabling research at home – daily drop-in, 1-1:30pm – https://auckland.zoom.us/j/601455135
Introduction to CeR’s research data, compute and digital research skills services to support working at home (15mins), followed by group or individual question and answer with the CeR team.
Managing Research Data – weekly 1-hour workshops
Part 1: Introduction to planning, organising and storing your research data.
Part 2: Sharing, publishing and archiving your research data.
We will focus on best practices and University services.
Details – https://research-hub.auckland.ac.nz/#/content/44
Booking link – https://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/workshops/?p=view_workshop&id=2360&from-ref=hub
Data analysis at home – 1-hour workshop and practical session.
Ideal for those considering or starting to use Nectar Research Cloud for data analysis, this session will provide practical instruction on getting an allocation and setting up a Windows virtual machine.
Details – https://research-hub.auckland.ac.nz/#/content/70
Booking link – https://www.eventbrite.com/e/research-analysis-at-home-tickets-102118982626
Hacky Hour –Tuesday & Thursday, 3-4pm – https://auckland.zoom.ac.nz/hackyhour
Ask questions, offer solutions, share lockdown tips and chat to your peers.
Aimed at doctoral candidates but all University researchers are very welcome.
Message the Hacky Hour slack channel, sign-up https://uoa-eresearch.github.io/HackyHour/ using your University email.
Please contact researchdata@auckland.ac.nz if you have any suggestions or questions about these or potential sessions.
Coastal Group and Marine Geosciences Webinar
The next Coastal Group and Marine Geosciences Group meetings will be a joint webinar on Wednesday April 22nd at 12:00 to 1:00 pm
Short talks include:
1. Glacial-age coastal processes still influence our modern coast and its response to climate change (Dr Marta Ribó)
2. Seismic spectral signatures of individual wave impacts on coastal cliffs (Catriona Thompson)
All welcome to attend – please email Emma Ryan at e.ryan@auckland.ac.nz for the Zoom link if you don’t have a calendar invite already.
Thank you,
Emma
Research and Funding Opportunities
NSC – Sustainable Seas Innovation Fund
The Sustainable Seas Innovation Fund is open for applications for research projects that will contribute directly to building a ‘blue economy’ in Aotearoa. The maximum project value is $250,000. Detailed information and criteria are specified in the request for proposals (RFP) document. EoIs must be submitted via this online form by 18 May 2020.
MPI- Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change (SLMACC)
The purpose of these awards is to help the agriculture and forestry sectors with challenges arising from climate change.
- SLMACC Adaption – Focuses on social impacts, policy research and the science around adaptation to climate change, with the aim to improve resilience to a changing climates; and help farmers move towards a low carbon future
Value: $100,000 – $400,000 (1-2 years)
- SLMACC Extension – Focuses on communicating research findings to farmers, growers and other primary industry professionals, with the aim to directly influence engagement, encourage implementation and create lasting changes in behaviour.
Value: up to $300,000 (up to 1 year)
Internal deadline for both awards is Tuesday 21 April. Applications must be submitted by the Funds Advisory Team, please contact your RPC to register your interest
Further guidelines and resources: Funders website
New publications
- Blue, B. and M. Tadaki (2020), ‘Getting the measure of nature: the inconspicuous geopolitics of environmental measurement’, in S. O’Lear (ed), A Research Agenda for Environmental Geopolitics, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. https://doi-org.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/10.4337/9781788971249.00008 Please email Brendon if you would like a copy of the chapter.
- Brook MS, Hebblewhite B, Mitra R. (2020). Coal mine roof rating (CMRR), rock mass rating (RMR) and strata control: Carborough Downs Mine, Bowen Basin, Australia. International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 30: 225–234. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095268619304070
Copy deadline for next edition of P-cubed: Friday 24th April to Farnaz: f.sheikh@auckland.ac.nz