Our May lineup brings some all-new subjects: weather reporting, how your medical data gets accessed, and making your own sake. Come join us for another three great talks!
When: Thursday, May 29th, at 7:30pm
(Doors & bar open at 7pm, with drinks available all night)
Where: Backstage Theatre at Fringe Theatre Adventures
Sake is a misunderstood and underrated beverage that has deep traditional roots in Asia, but an exciting emerging community in the rest of the world. We’ll discuss how sake is made and how it can be done at home.
Amanda is a proud member of the Sake Brewer’s Guild and had been fermenting at the home-artisanal level for several years. She embraced being a “jack of all trades, master of none” – the learning process is her favourite part of any of her many interests.
Laura will take us on a whirlwind tour through the evolution of weather monitoring in Canada! Discover how cutting-edge sensors have transformed weather tracking and supported environmental research. We’ll explore diverse applications like fire weather, climate change research, and national meteorological services, along with the intricate networks developed across Canada. This talk promises to blend history, innovation, and practical insights for a deeper appreciation of weather science.
Meet Laura, the ultimate weather enthusiast! Her passion for meteorology sparked at age 9 during a school weather unit and an unforgettable field trip to the Weather Network. With a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and a major in Atmospheric Science, Laura forecasted a future as a meteorologist. However, the winds shifted and took her on a different path into environmental monitoring, and she hasn’t looked back since. She now spends her days supporting researchers, government agencies, and industries by designing, selling, and teaching about advanced weather stations. She spends her nights looking out the window, waiting for the next storm to roll in.
Brechin Piper: Consent-Based Access Control and Healthcare Data
Ever wonder why your Doctor can’t see your healthcare data from another province or country? Or why your Physio doesn’t have access to any of your relevant health info? Join Brechin as he shares an overview of his graduate capstone that proposes a solution to put you in charge of your healthcare data.
Brechin Piper has a Bachelor’s of Computer Science from the Royal Military College of Canada and a Master’s of Information Systems Security Management from Concordia University of Edmonton. He served as a Signals Officer in the Canadian Armed Forces for 15 years and occasionally lectures at Concordia University of Edmonton. When he’s not ranting about why you shouldn’t keep reusing that one password you made in junior high for all of your accounts, he can be found with his crime solving dogs Sherlock and Watson, or frantically searching for his missing D4 before he steps on it.
Thanks to all of you for coming to the sold-out February and March shows! This April, we’ve got three more great speakers lined up. You’ll learn about violence prevention via video games, solar energy, and architecture. Check out our speakers and buy tickets below. See you soon!
When: Thursday, April 24th, at 7:30pm
(Doors & bar open at 7pm, with drinks available all night)
Where: Backstage Theatre at Fringe Theatre Adventures
Kenzie Gordon: Video games for gender-based violence prevention
Kenzie will give a brief overview of some of the research she has been doing in her graduate program on violence prevention in video games. This includes serious games about gender-based violence, but more excitingly, the patriarchy-undermining potential of commercial games like Horizon Zero Dawn (which is the focus of her dissertation).
Kenzie Gordon (she/her) is a social worker and PhD candidate in Media & Cultural Studies and the Digital Humanities at the University of Alberta. Her research examines the intersections of gender-based violence in games, as well as equity issues in the game industry, alternative game development studio structures, and community archiving practices of police violence. She has two kids, too many pets, and sometimes even plays video games for fun!
Dan Rose: Arch Madness: Edmonton’s Annual Architectural Bracket Tournament
Have you ever found yourself wishing you could share in the fever, drama and magic of March Madness but you can’t stand basketball? Good news. There’s Arch Madness: like March Madness but with fewer balls and more bricks where citizens choose the GOAT by vote.
Dan Rose was a born, raised and still in Edmonton. From 9-5 he works in Product Marketing for a local tech company, from 5-9 he advocates for the preservation of historic architecture and design in Edmonton. He was previously the Chair of the City of Edmonton Historical Board, a member of HeritageForward and the Old Strathcona Foundation, and has worked for a number of local heritage and cultural organizations.
Heather MacKenzie: A Sunlight Speed Intro to Solar in Alberta
In this presentation, Heather will briefly describe the growth of solar in Alberta. She will then review how rooftop solar installations typically work in Alberta, what the impacts of solar are on utility bills, how to find a solar installer, and how to finance a solar project. This presentation focuses on grid-tied solar projects on homes and businesses.
Heather MacKenzie is the Executive Director of Solar Alberta, where she and her team are working hard to accelerate Alberta’s transition to a just and sustainable energy future. She is a seasoned leader, community organizer, and green business advocate. Prior to becoming the Executive Director of Solar Alberta, she worked as a government relations professional, ran her own business, and served as an elected Trustee on the Edmonton Public School Board. She is in the final month of her Masters in Public Administration, has a Masters in International Development, and has undergraduate degrees in both Sociology and History. She believes that investing in solar is a very concrete way that everyday Albertans can take meaningful action on climate change.
After a sold-out February show, we’re happy to bring three more diverse topics for March. Do you have a lawn? Grow food instead! Speaking of food, we get all kinds of great stuff when it ferments; does that mean it’s so bad it’s good? Typography has a rich history: hear about it at the next Nerd Nite.
When: Thursday, March 27th, at 7:30pm
(Doors & bar open at 7pm, with drinks available all night)
Where: Backstage Theatre at Fringe Theatre Adventures
A nice, lush lawn may look nice, but apart from walk on it and cut it incessantly, what does it do for you? You could be growing actual food that humans can eat instead! This talk will invite you to join the “seedy” world of urban agriculture where Nerd Nite and/or its speakers are not responsible for any obsessions that may ensue. You have been warned!
Jocelyn Crocker (BSc, MEd, EdD) is a recovering academic who now works for the public service. After replacing her front lawn with a food forest 15 years ago, Jocelyn and her family’s pantry and freezers (yes, plural) have been filled with home grown eats ever since. Jocelyn’s nerdiest triumph was representing Nerd Nite Edmonton at the International Nerd Nite conference in Washington, DC in 2015 with a talk about urban beekeeping, which means she’s been droning on about this sweet topic for a decade.
Brooke Babyak: Rotting Food on Purpose aka. Fermentation
The joys of fermentation, yielding food that promotes healthy bacteria, dynamic flavours, and possibly inebriation… From sourdough to wine, many cultures culture.
Brooke has been cooking from the time she could reach the stove to turn on the oven, which evolved into a career. She did her culinary training at Vancouver Community College and was offered a position cooking for the American Olympic team in Turin in 2006. She moved back to Edmonton the same year and worked in many of Edmonton’s best restaurants, bringing bacterial cultures from one kitchen to another!
The history of Western typography (in contemporary times typically referring to reproduced materials) has its roots in early hand lettering, especially formal styles that existed long, long before Times New Roman and Comic Sans. But how did our current alphabet come to look the way it does? Why do we read the way we do? The answers go back further than you might think!
Jennifer is a graduate of Fine Arts, Visual Communication and Design, at the University of Alberta. She has taught visual communication and typography at the post secondary level. In 2016, Jennifer earned a design-based MA, Humanities Computing; her research focussed on storytelling with interactive information graphics. While in grad school she was a research assistant for academic projects that examine how we read in the past to inform new ways of interacting with text now and into the future. Her areas of expertise include editorial, interpretive and information design.
