G.Hack, Campus Party Europe 2013 Community Partner !

August 28th, 2013

The AWESOME Campus Party Europe is coming to London’s O2 from 2-7 September!

Check out the amazing roaster of talks, workshops and hackathons including Women in Tech Panel on Thursday 5 September at 2pm (Archimedes Stage) featuring Anne – Marie Imafidon (founder of Stemettes), Sarah Lamb (founder of Girl Geek Dinners),  Gillian Arnold (Chair of BCS Women), Paula Graham (Director of Fossbox / founder of Flossie), Teresa Schoefield (IEEE/ WiE) and Nela Brown (Chair of G.Hack). Becky Stewart (ex-G.Hack, co-founder of Codasign) and Nela are also doing talks on the Michelangelo Stage the same day (Becky is on at 10am , Nela at 8pm)!

G.Hack is one of the community partners and our members can get discount on tickets by clicking on the banner below.

Happy hacking everyone !!!

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A few photos from the event …

Women in Tech panel (Gillian, Nela, Paula, Anne–Marie, Sarah and Teresa) taking questions from the audience !

Nela talking about ZX Spectrum orchestra and other fun stuff 🙂

G.Hack at Digital Summer Camp, 12 July 2013

July 12th, 2013
EECS’s participation at Digital Summer Camp last Friday was a real success, despite the super hot weather outside (and even hotter inside !).
A BIG THANK YOU goes out to following EECS SUPERSTARS who made it all possible: Richard, Andrew, Pollie, Ben, Ella, Geetha, Michelle, Ho, Chris, Duncan, Liam, Keir and Adrian. A VERY special HOLA goes out to my fellow G.Hackers Katja, Nicola and Laurel who talked tirelessly about  the tech behind SMLT to hundreds of high school kids who came by on the day!
EECS ROCKS !!!

The last peeps standing (ok sitting/ possibly falling asleep/ enthusiastically cheering) with a well deserved bottle of cold beer !

G.Hack at Mini Maker Faire, 6 July 2013

July 6th, 2013

All makers were invited to come and show their work at the very first Elephant & Castle Mini Maker Faire on Saturday, 6th of July, at the London College of Communication. It was an exciting, even though really, really hot day out with lots to see and do.

G.Hacker Pollie showed her extremely fun Firefly game and in a brief Lightening Talk we presented G.Hack to all of those seeking refuge in the pleasantly cool auditorium.

Looking forward to more to come!

More about the first Mini Maker Faire:

http://makerfaireelephantandcastle.com

Katja (and Nela) presenting G.Hack

G.Hack at Teen Tech Awards, 24 June 2013

June 25th, 2013

The Winning Teams of the TeenTech Awards

After having judged the entries in the “Wearable Technology” in the first round of judging to help determine the finalists, G.Hack was invited to help determine the winners in this category at the TeenTech Awards at the Royal Society on 24th of June.

The four finalist teams of the “Wearable Technology” category did an amazing job in presenting to us their ideas and prototypes so that in the end it was a really tough decision to take. The Welland Park Academy from Leicestershire eventually won the race with their “Pressure Boots”, shoes that harness power while you are walking and thus allow charging mobile devices on the go.

Congratulations again to the winners but also to all of the other teams that participated in the Awards. Your ideas and projects have been truly inspiring! Keep it up!

More about the TeenTech Awards at:

TeenTech Awards 2013: The Winners!

Katja discussing the projects with the other two judges of the “Wearable Technology” category, Patrick Bossert (centre) and Dave Deventer (right)

G.Hack at Digital Shoreditch, 20-31 May 2013

May 20th, 2013

G.Hack’s latest installation ‘Light Touch’ (masterminded by the genius of Laurel Pardue with the help of Katja Knecht, Patrizia Carlota and Nela Brown) premiered at Digital Shoreditch on Monday, 20 May 2013. Within days we received invites to exhibit at other locations and lots of positive feedback from adults and children alike, which is just brilliant !!! There are lots of other amazing artists exhibiting as part of ‘Great Digital Exhibition’ (including our Berit Greinke and Nanda Khaorapapong with ‘For Two’ by and Pollie Barden with ‘Firefly’). So, all together, an AMAZING contribution from the EECS female talent and a great showcase of the quality of work our PhD’s can produce with a bit of money (OK, a lot!), some electrical components, drill bits and soldering irons ! BIG THANKS goes out to the amazing EECS staff who continue to support this home grown hacking project (you know who you are and the chocolates will follow!)

Link to exhibition is here: https://tickets.digitalshoreditch.com/2013/great-digital-exhibition/

It is open to the public every day 10.30-7pm until Friday 31 May, so spread the word and come down with your friends and family to check it all out !

Go G.Hack !

ps more photos and video of the ‘Light Touch’ coming soon !

G.Hack at 125th Anniversary of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Queen Mary Celebration, 13 April 2013

April 13th, 2013

Nela (2nd from right) explaining Sound Mapping London Tea Houses’ inner life to interested alumni and visitors

On April 13th Queen Mary University celebrated 125 years of Electrical and Electronic Engineering with over 100 alumni visiting the school. The celebration was accompanied by a range of talks, a tour of the Mile End campus as well as exhibits and performances of current students and staff.

In the scope of the “Open Labs” track of the event, G.Hack exhibited Sound Mapping London Tea Houses, showing and explaining its technology to an interested audience of technophile alumni. We would like to thank all visitors and alumni for their interest, for inspiring conversations as well as for sharing memories of their student days at Queen Mary with us!

Exhibiting G.Hack members: Katja, Nela

Many thanks to Mi and Tian for helping us to set up the installation!

G.Hack collaborating with TeenTech

March 25th, 2013

The students (2nd from left, centre and 2nd from right) and their teacher (right) from Skinners' Academy visiting us at Queen Mary's for a workshop on textiles and wearable technology

G.Hack participated in this year’s TeenTech Awards as a mentor for a team of students from Skinners’ Academy, London. We supported the three students from Skinners’ on a project in the ‘wearable technology’ category. In early February we invited them therefore to Queen Mary’s for a skill sharing workshop, in which Antonella, Berit and Laurel demonstrated and explained some of the wearable technology that they use in their research projects.

The G.Hack team was also involved in judging the ‘wearable technology’ category for the Awards and one of our team, Katja, will be representing the school and G.Hack at the final round at Royal Society on 24 June. More on this subject soon!

TeenTech G.Hack team: Nela, Laurel, Patrizia and Katja

About TeenTech:

TeenTech is an award winning, industry-led initiative, founded in 2008 by Maggie Philbin and Chris Dodson that runs events and activities to help young teenagers see the wide range of career possibilities in Science, Engineering and Technology.

http://www.teentechevent.com

Patricia, Katja (& Nela) judging TeenTech 'wearable technology' category entries

 

G.Hack at Peopling the Palace, 17 Feb 2013

February 17th, 2013

Patrizia, Tian and Katja (from left to right) exploring the sounds of London’s tea house culture

February saw the grand reopening of the People’s Palace to the public with eight exciting days of films, exhibitions and performances. The week of festivities was opened by an “Intergenerational Tea Dance”, an afternoon for all ages, including performing dancers, dance classes, lots of tea and cake. As part of the supporting programme and suiting the occasion, G.Hack presented Sound Mapping London Tea Houses to the interested public.

Again, we would like to thank all members, participants and dancers for the lovely and inspiring afternoon as well as the organising team of the event for their help and support!

Exhibiting G.Hack members: Katja, Mi, Nela, Patrizia, Tian

Nela’s Chair Report – 22 December 2012

December 22nd, 2012

The end of 2012 was super busy indeed ! In November, I attended the 2nd European Gender Summit, which took place at the European Parliament in Brussels. I presented a poster ‘Girls Who Hack are Awesome’ in a Virtual Summit Exhibition, spoke to loads of fascinating women (and men) working at the forefront of gender research in Europe, North and South America and met some nice peeps from the EU Commission!

Representing QMUL at the European Parliament

enjoying amazing architecture ...

and interesting artwork 🙂

In December, we organised a joint Christmas party with WISE@QMUL and the student branch of IEEE (with mulled wine, mince pies and 600 Christmas songs – see pics below) and had a series of lunch-time sessions meeting new members and planning future activities (including assisting with Teen Tech Awards!). Myself, Pollie and Nic are stepping down from our duties as Chair, Communications and Secretary to wrap up our PhD’s from January 2013 (Ilze will still remain as Treasurer), so we also appointed a new Secretary/Comms guru Patricia ! (ps the call for the chair is still open so if you are thinking of applying, get in touch via email at: ghack@eecs.qmul.ac.uk).

Wishing everyone a wonderful Xmas with lots of nice food (and cakes) and looking forward to another AWESOME year!

Go G.Hack !

New G.Hack members Mi and Tian practicing DJ-ing skills !

Last people 'standing' at the end of G.Hack+WISE@QMUL+IEEE Xmas gathering !

 

The Girls Hacking Club present a ‘women in technology’ panel

November 23rd, 2012

On 22 November, G.Hack was invited to present a ‘women in technology’ panel as part of The Thursday Club sessions (run by Goldsmiths) at the Centre for Creative Collaboration. I was chairing the panel, Pollie was talking about G.Hack activities and our guests Anna-Maria Spehar-Deleze (WISE@QMUL), Paula Graham (Flossie), Carrie Ann Philbin (Geek Gurl Diaries) and Heidi Harman (Girl Geek Meetup), were talking about the AMAZING projects they are involved with. After the initial introductions we opened up the floor to the questions from the audience and the most interesting debate about the gender balance in STEM ensued (too bad the camera stopped rolling !).

Find out more about our guest speakers and watch videos of their presentations here: