Archive for the ‘events’ Category
Nerdnite XIII: The Lucky Number
After an improbable amount of sunshine, we return to you with teachings on Permaculture and the undisputed link between math and music. Lien de Coster will discuss the sustainable solution no one can explain in one sentence. Followed by Tom Hijmans, who will explain that it only takes math to make nice music. Come and get permanently inspired!
Lien de Coster – “Permaculture. What on earth is that?”
Permaculture might be the solution for the environmental, social and economic crisis of our society. There is only one big problem: it seems near impossible to explain what permaculture is. Lien takes up the challenge and discusses the difficulty of finding a proper definition along with her personal view on what comprises permaculture.
This lecture is for people who have never heard about permaculture before and for people who think permaculture is all about mixing different kinds of plants in your garden and designing sustainable systems.
Lien De Coster is a writer and – guess what – a permaculture teacher. She also takes people into the wilderness on something called a vision quest. When you can’t find Lien there is a big chance she is wandering barefoot through the forest, is paddling in her canoe, or is reading poetry around a well-hidden campfire.
Tom Hijmans – “Mathematics of musical harmony. Why does a piano have twelve keys?”
On pianos the octave is divided into twelve equal tone steps. Why twelve? Is this just convention, led by our cultural penchant towards dividing things into twelve parts? Think of the dozen, the number inches in a foot, the number of pence in a shilling in old English money, and, of course, the number of hours in a half day. In the case of the piano the twelve key octave is there because of mathematical necessity. That is, if we want to be able to play harmonic music on our instrument. No prior math knowledge required, just a good set of ears!
Tom Hijmans is an experimental physicist of the UvA. He is also a piano tuner and runs a piano repair workshop from his home, races laser sailing boats and climbs rocks. His favorite animals are the moth and the peregrine falcon. Do ask him why!
Nerd Nite XIII
Friday, October 25th, 2013
CREA Muziekzaal
Door 20:00 – First talk 20:30
Music by Spread it like Butter
Admission Free
Nieuwe Achtergracht 170, Amsterdam
amsterdam.nerdnite.com
facebook.com/NerdNiteAmsterdam
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Nerdnite XII
Federico Felici – “Nuclear fusion, the ultimate energy source”
Abundant and widely available fuel, no risk of meltdown and little radioactivity: nuclear fusion, the energy source of the stars, has been hailed for decades as *the* solution to the world’s energy needs. Unfortunately, after 50 years of research, we are still decades from building our first commercial fusion power plant. Still, progress is being made: the experimental ITER reactor, under construction in France, should generate fusion energy in the 2020s and the NIF facility, in California, is inches away from igniting a capsule of fusion fuel. But enormous challenges remain, as one would expect when trying to confine a plasma (hot gas) with temperatures above 150million degrees. We will learn about these challenges, hear about the fascinating history of the worldwide research efforts and get a glimpse of what remains to be done before the energy of the stars will become available in a power outlet near you.
Federico Felici designs control systems for experimental tokamak fusion reactors. He obtained a PhD in Plasma Physics from the École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Switzerland and an MSc. in Systems & Control Engineering at Delft University of Technology. He has hobbies, too!
In daily life, Gijs Mulders is an astronomer who researches the origins of planets. In his free time, he listens to excruciating music called heavy metal, collects music festival wristbands around his arms, and breaks his bones in moshpits.
Friday, May 3rd, 2013
CREA Muziekzaal
Door 20:00 – First talk 20:30
Music by Spread it like Butter
Admission Free
Nieuwe Achtergracht 170, Amsterdam
amsterdam.nerdnite.com
Nerdnite XI goes Easter
In this edition, Professor Gusz Eiben will present his vision of the new Evolution Revolution. And as if gorging on chocolate eggs in this season is not enough, Gabriel Ybeles Smit will allow us to indulge in the Chocolate Universe, and reveal the science behind the powers of this alluring substance. Free samples included! Also: the “Nerd Liar’s Club” quiz, music by Spread It Like Butter, and a special guest! Be there, or be square.
Gusz Eiben – How to evolve real stuff
“In the 20th century evolution was transferred from wetware to software, in the 21st century it will be ported from software to hardware.”
Most people consider evolution as a theory that helps us understand things (that happen beyond our control). However, computers, invented in the 20th century, made it possible to create an evolutionary process as a tool to solve problems: Evolutionary Computing. I argue that in the 21st century it will be possible to implement and utilize artificial evolutionary processes outside digital spaces and make them physically embodied: the “Evolution of Things”, leading to a new field of Embodied Artificial Evolution. In this talk I will present this vision in more detail and explain why these developments will radically change our lives.
Gusz Eiben is Professor of Computational Intelligence on the VU University Amsterdam. He is specialized in evolutionary computing, artificial life and more recently evolutionary swarm robotics.
Gabriel Ybeles Smit – The chocolate universe
Chocolate has enthralled humankind through the centuries, ever since the dark ‘Kakaw’ was used in life and death rituals in Mesoamerica, up to present day where chocolate is regarded as a valued confectionary commodity connected with deep emotions. What can modern science tell us about its powers? This is the chocolate universe.
Bio: Gabriel Ybeles Smit holds a PhD in Physics, spent the last couple of years at CERN and is currently contemplating a new direction in life. Ever since he was old enough to stand he’s been experimenting with food in the kitchen. On top of that he has a far reaching fascination for everything Italian. And when there’s still time left he enjoys the black light in his living room.
Nerd Nite XI
Thursday, March 28th, 2013
CREA Muziekzaal
Door 20:00 – First talk 20:30
Music by Spread it like Butter
Admission Free
Nieuwe Achtergracht 170, Amsterdam
amsterdam.nerdnite.com
facebook.com/NerdNiteAmsterdam
Nerdnite X: We’re still alive!
Since the Maya’s have granted us the right of existence we are back with Nerdnite X. After looking death in the eye we decided to focus this anniversary edition on having fun. And how do we nerds have fun? With games! First out we have top athlete Leonie busting the mythe on females being the weaker gender and lecturing us on what your body can actually achieve if you set the right boundary conditions in your life. Second up Mikhel will enlighten us with lessons of Starcraft and he’ll argue that if you are willing to look into your gamers-eye, you will become a better employee, and maybe even a better person.
Leonie van den Haak – This. Is Spartathlon.
How to prepare your body for a 28-hour run.
‘Any idiot can run a marathon. It takes a special kind of idiot to run an ultramarathon.’
Ultrarunning starts where the marathon ends: after 42.2km. But why would you want to run distances like this in a world of spaceships, supercomputers and fast cars? The answer is simple: because you can.
The human quest to find the true essence of being is as old as Pheidippides’ 246km long run from Athens to Sparta to seek help against the Persians in the battle of Marathon in 490BC. After arriving in Sparta he took the same 246km long way back to Athens. If he could do it, why can’t we? And what would it take to run 246km.
There’s a physical as well as a mental aspect to running distances like this. Obviously, you need to train hard, harder, hardest. But you need to train smart. You need to turn your body into a super-efficient, lean and mean running machine. Now that’s the easy part. The mental aspect of running a race like Spartathlon is where the fun really starts. But if you master the mental part of ultrarunning, chances are that you will come closer and closer to finding the true essence of being. And that’s the true gift of ultrarunning.
Join me at Nerdnite X and I will reveal some of the secrets of running Spartathlon, a 246km race. Because ‘the greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.’
Leonie van den Haak is an ultrarunner, Nike-adept, world traveler and punkrock-lover. She finished last years’ Spartathlon as 2nd woman in the 5th fastest time ever: 28:42:36.
Mihkel Kama – Craft your star with StarCraft
How playing games can make you more productive
Games are a way for all advanced creatures we know of to learn about real life. Videogames have become hugely popular and, in many ways, similar to physical sports. The most popular games have hundreds of millions of players, world-class superstar gamers, tournaments, and casters. All games are fun. But while the usefulness of physical sports is clear, this is less so for e-sports.
In my talk, I will introduce the popular real-time strategy game, StarCraft II, and will illustrate how playing it can reveal and heal personality traits that sabotage our attempts to be productive in real-life activities, such as publishing papers. By becoming aware of these traits, we can overcome them, becoming not only better gamers, but better people.
Mihkel Kama is an astrophysicist interested in the formation, evolution and characterization of planetary systems. He likes sports of all sorts, in recent times StarCraft and squash.
Nerdnite IX Revolution nr. 9: Medieval english and 3D printing
Join us again for Nerd Nite, where for the ninth time we revolve around the magical world of nerds and their fascinations. Prepare for a mind-boggling timewarp. We have opened up a wormhole that extends from the Medieval roots of the English language up to the futuristic world of 3D printing. Within one night, you will be able to speak like a knight in a jousting tournament (or like a Lannister, if you will) and to witness home appliances, dinosaur heads and broomsticks being conjured out of thin air. Live! If Gandalf were around, he’d be very much at home. We know you will be too.
A quick-and-dirty guide for would-be Time-travellers
The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there. This could not be more true for language and none more so than English, which went from being an über-Germanic language spoken by a small number of warrior-tribes to a hotch-potch creole and Lingua Franca spoken around the world by over a billion people. Modern English was forged in the Middle Ages and this process is recorded in the English we use now, especially in its eccentric and illogical system of spelling and pronunciation. In this talk we will see how Medieval English evolved from its more Germanic roots and how the language of six-hundred or more years ago is fossilised in the language we use today. Along the way we will discover how, using a few simple tricks, a modern English-speaker can get by in Medieval England.
Face it. We live in the world of instant gratification. Our food is instant, thanks microwave, our entertainment, thanks Instagram, and seemingly our deadlines at work have become instant as well, thanks computer. Alan Nguyens world is a quad-core computer, a desktop 3D Printer and an extremely ad-hoc boss expecting work to be produced on command. Fortunately, he has
the luxury to deliver work on demand due to the most instantly gratifying world of 3D Printing. Seeing an object in digital space on a screen then with a push of a button, a physical duplicate being produced next to that screen has changed him forever. Not too long ago, a once unstimulated but focused student workhorse, 3D printing has unleashed a suppressed obsessive inner child of 3D printed creations from T-Rex Heads to Shoes made entirely of iPhone cases.
Alan Nguyen is a young, aspiring Designer at Freedom Of Creation, a pioneering design and research company, specialized in design with 3D printing technologies.
Nerd Nite IX
Thursday, November 29th, 2012
CREA Muziekzaal
Door 20:00 – First talk 20:30
Music by Spread it like Butter
Admission Free
Nieuwe Achtergracht 170, Amsterdam
amsterdam.nerdnite.com
Facebook: Nerdnite Amsterdam
Nerdnite VIII: The new season!
With everybody returning from their LAN-camps, LARP-gatherings and Pinball Tournaments, excitement is buzzing through town: Nerd Nite is coming! We start anew with a fresh set of two speakers from the Nerd Menagerie. Put your Higgs boots on, and prepare for some serious Japanese folding. This is Nerd Nite: we’re back!
“A Tsunami of Origami” – Caroline D’Angelo
The ancient Japanese tradition of origami is about more than just folding paper. Although, one has to admit, folding paper is a large part of it. From traditional miniature farm animals to the modern all-out stunt origami, the field is as vast as it is exciting. We even venture outside the recreational domain of origami, and review some of its hard-core scientific applications.
Caroline D’Angelo grew up near Toronto and has been frustrated by origami patterns since she was a small child. She once attended a meeting of the Toronto Origami Society. In daily life, she studies the more down-to-earth field of neutron stars whilst playing the cello.
“How many Higgs in Higgs?”
2012 will undoubtedly be remembered as the year of the long-awaited discovery of the Higgs particle. But who is Higgs? What is Higgs? Why do we need Higgs? Why did it take almost 50 years to find Higgs? And finally… how many Higgs particles are needed to build up Peter Higgs?
Sander Mooij is a physicist and currently a PhD candidate in cosmology where he tries to model the origin of the universe with inflation. Sander has made his first Nerd Nite stage performance as a judge in the dry T-shirt contest. This time around, he’ll take the floor to share his expert Higgs knowledge with us.
Nerd Nite VIII
Friday, 28th September 2012
Door 20:00 – First talk 20:30
Admission Free
Muziekzaal, Crea, Nieuwe Achtergracht 170, Amsterdam
amsterdam.nerdnite.com
Nerd Nite VII – Rockets, Science and Whatnot!
Having lived through the Seventh Seal and the Seven Sons of Fëanor, you would think that nothing else involving the number seven would stir a nerd. How wrong you are: the Seventh Amsterdam Nerd Nite is upon us! We are set to blow away the rainy spring season with two amazing talks. Real-life rocket scientist Ralph Savelsberg will introduce you to the ins and outs of archaic North Korean missiles, and science-PR guru Linda Cendes will dig up some spooky tales about what happens when nerdy scientists step in to the public limelight. Musical interludes will be provided by DJ Dirk Diggler. In between, stay tuned for our special pre-summer Pan-Nerdic Surprise Event!
Ralph Savelsberg – It is rocket science!
During World War II, there were few defenses against the German V2 missile. Now, almost 70 years later, direct descendants of this missile, used by countries such as North Korea, potentially still pose a threat. Experience how curved the trajectories of these missiles are, and how nifty the tools to blow them out of the sky. Prepare for the real rocket science.
Ralph Savelsberg is a physicist. He calculates ballistic missile trajectories for a living and if that’s not nerdy enough already, he also builds LEGO scale models as a hobby.
Linda Cendes – Why Should I Care? Conversations between Scientists and the Public
As social tensions rise over climate change, the teaching of evolution in U.S. schools, and whether or not the Large Hadron Collider will destroy the world as we know it, it may seem like scientists, policy-makers, and the public are talking past one another. In a world where science and technology play an increasing role in our everyday lives, scientists need to get out of the lab and into the public sphere to talk about what they actually do all day. Linda Cendes will explain how and why scientists should engage in meaningful conversations with the public to discuss the benefits, limits, and implications of scientific knowledge.
Linda Cendes is Program Associate for Public Engagement at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington, D.C., where she spends her time getting scientists and members of the public to talk to one another. In a past life, she studied the mating behaviors of bowerbirds in Australia for her Master’s degree in evolutionary biology.
Nerd Nite VII
Friday, June 1st
Door 20:00 – First talk 20:30
Admission Free
Muziekzaal, Crea, Nieuwe Achtergracht 170, Amsterdam
amsterdam.nerdnite.com
Facebook: Nerdnite Amsterdam
First Amsterdam speeddating for nerds
The next edition of the Amsterdam nerdnite will feature the first speeddating for nerds. It’s the good old principle, but then for nerds. Nothing says the truth better than a simple equation. That shouldn’t take longer than three minutes. You will talk to every participant. Afterwards, you inform the organizers if you would like to get in touch with a specific person. Only if both people express this preference, we will exchange the email addresses on your behalf. Otherwise, we will keep your data strictly confidential. Please sign up, if you want to take part.
Afterwards, we will have two exciting talks as usual:
Mike Lee – The New Way
Change is nature’s only constant, as the world we are living in now has made clear. Change has made its way to Europe, and it’s just a matter of time until the Netherlands too is part of this deluge. We can ignore it or rail against it, but we can’t stop it, so we’re better off embracing it. Industry veteran Mike Lee has spent the last year effecting change in the local technology ecosystem. He’ll share the trials and opportunities he sees in the near future, and the changes we need to make to take full advantage of them. Bring your thinking caps, and prepare to be challenged.
Legendary product engineer and World’s Toughest Programmer Mike Lee (@bmf) has worked on apps for Alaska Airlines, Delicious Monster, Tapulous, United Lemur, Apple, and Nextive, producing such hits as Delicious Library, Tap Tap Revenge, Obama ’08, and Apple’s Mobile Store. His goal is to save Madagascar, his blog is at mur.mu.rs, and he has the world’s largest collection of plush prosimians. In his spare time he races cars, flies airplanes, plays guitar, drinks single-malt scotch, and surfs. Mike lives in Appsterdam, the world capital of app development.
Jay Grossen – XXX. Motel. Sex. / How neon signs got so dirty
Neon signs have long been associated with places of questionable morals – no-tell motels, sex shops and other lairs of ill-repute. Jay Grossen will walk us through a visual (and sometimes explicit) history of ‘liquid fire’, or neon, and its reputation as a part of the seedier side of society. The talk will showcase the divergent approaches civic leaders have taken to neon signage, from Vancouver, where neon signs have been systematically removed from entire neighbourhoods to dissuade undesirables and promote gentrification, to Portland, Oregon, where these same signs are being preserved and displayed as works of high art and craftsmanship.
Jay Grossen is creative director at frog in Amsterdam.
With the tunes of DJ Booktunes (Dirk Diggler) in between and after as usual.
Door open: 20:00
First talk: 20:30
nerdnite anniversary
Join us again for the one-year anniversary of the Amsterdam Nerd Nite! It has been a fruitful year for the nerd-curious population. We have solved sudoku’s and Rubik’s cubes, heard pulsars and Dothraki, seen frikandellen and robots. The new nerd-year is going to be one even dafter. On February the 23rd, we kick off in the brand new CREA-building with two mind-boggling presentations. Urban analyst Kai van Hasselt introduces you to the Global South, and Vincent van der Vliet trumps the evening with the ace of spades. In between, our faithful DJ Dirk Diggler will supply some techy tracks to wash down your drink with. And if that’s not enough, we commemorate our anniversary with the howlin’ mad Dry T-shirt Contest. Don your most nerdy T-shirt with inexplicable in-joke or lame pun, and receive eternal fame and a prize both useless and offensive.
NOTE that CREA has MOVED and we are now at Nieuwe Achtergracht 170 (Roeterseiland)
Door open: 20:00
First talk: 20:30
amsterdam.nerdnite.com
Kai van Hasselt: 81 Impressions of the Global South
The Global South: the up-and-coming countries south of the equator. They represent a broad group of regions, cities and citizens, as well as a multitude of styles and opinions. Kai van Hasselt takes you on a tour around nine cities from the three continents along nine topics, forming 81 impressions of the Global South. What does luxury mean in Mumbai? Where do you buy bread in Nairobi? What does the wallpaper look like in Santiago? To understand the impact of The Global South one has to leave the comfort zone of one’s computer and data analysis and look at the true meaning of this important cultural shift. He’ll show you how the South, with some of the most fascinating and dynamic cities of the planet, offers an alternative to the West.
Kai van Hasselt is the founder of Shinsekai Analysis, an Amsterdam based advisory practice that specializes in urban strategies and cultural intelligence. He studied economics at the University of Amsterdam. He worked briefly at AMO, the think tank of architecture practice OMA in 2006.
Vincent van der Vliet – Your granny is a nerd – she plays bridge!
Bridge? As in, the game your granny plays? Can’t be too hard or challenging if she does it, right? Well, I’ve got news for you: your granny is a hardcore nerd. Beyond its dusty exterior, contract bridge is a game of statistics, logic, semantics, deduction and skill rather than luck. Traditionally, the game has attracted people with scientific minds to glean its deeper secrets. In this presentation, Vincent will try and introduce you to the game’s basics and explain its appeal to the nerdy mind.
Bridge!
Vincent van der Vliet is graphic designer and the founder of Bakabaka design. Before he found his way to pictures he geeked out on chemistry. Besides Bridge, he also masters other nerdery like non-stop board gaming.
Last nerdnite of the year
Nerds gather again – for the last time this year. So don’t miss the last chance to stock up with some nerdy thoughts, which will have to last over Christmas. The recipe for Nerd Nite is simple and effective: presentations, drinks, and that strange thing called social interaction. This time, we will learn how to invent a new language from planet-hunter Christian Thalmann and how to use mathematics to conquer the Rubik’s cube from… string theorist Erik Verlinde.
Christian Thalmann – The Art of Inventing Languages
Every true nerd easily converses in Klingon and manages several elvish dialects. It has also been reported that some nerds switched to talking to each other in C++ fro increased efficiency. But if you really want to make sure, that you can only talk to yourself, inventing a new language is the safest option. So this talk is going to be indispensable for everybody who wants to take his nerdery to the next level.
Christian Thalmann is a postdoctoral researcher at the institute for Astronomy “Anton Pannenkoek” at the University of Amsterdam. He is working on imaging techniques, extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs.
Erik Verlinde – Tackling Rubik’s Cube
A true nerd not only applies logic and mathematics rigorously to the world around him, he also fills his world with enough things, he can apply mathematics, too. Every nerd should have some puzzle in his pocket. When the Rubik’s Cube popped up while Erik Verlinde was in his student days, he immediately seized the challenge and developed his own way of solving it based on his insights in group theory.
Erik Verlinde is professor for theoretical physics at the university of Amsterdam. He is an expert in string theory and has become famous worldwide also to a lay audience with his new ideas about gravity. For his outstanding contributions to physics, he has received the prestigious Spinoza price this year.
In between and after, DJ Dirk Diggler (Booktunes) puts the speakers’ words to music.
CREA Muziekzaal
Turfdraagsterpad 17
Amsterdam
Thursday, November 17th at 20.00
Admission free