Vinyl, virtual lungs and 3D printing feature in Winter Week public lectures

The annual event is a chance for the public to attend any of the 15 lectures by top academics during the University’s inter-semester break. Morning and afternoon sessions will be held every day between 8-12 July.

Each lecture is presented by a distinguished faculty member, chosen for both their subject expertise and passion for sharing knowledge.

Many of the talks cover emerging research with the potential to change lives, change the future, solve problems and respond to the issues of our time.
The series begins on 8 July with human machine technology by biotechnologist Dr Suranga Nanayakkara, and ends on 12 July with a lecture by the Faculty of Engineering’s Professor Olaf Diegel on the potential of 3D printing.

Other subjects include:

- Coastal restoration and methods to help us learn from our inevitable mistakes, by Professor Simon Thrush from the Department of Marine Science.

- A unique virtual lung that looks like a real lung, breathes like a real lung, but is housed on a computer, by Dr Alys Clark from the Auckland Bioengineering Institute.

- The placenta: the mastermind of pregnancy by Dr Jo James from the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.

- An insight into human behaviour, consumption choices and obesity, and the search for a new solution, by the Business School’s Milind Mandlik.

- The health consequences of commuting and travel and how to minimise them, by Associate Professor Kim Dirks from the School of Population Health.

- How the material nature of vinyl records makes its users passionately prefer it over its digital alternatives, by Associate Professor Karen Fernandez from the Business School.

- How the interpretation of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics has been filtered through centuries of translation by European men, by Dr Jennifer Hellum from the Department of Classics and Ancient History.

Further topics cover threats to urban biodiversity; the power of big data to solve environmental problems; popular music structures; 3D technology in archaeology; inclusive streetscapes; and our quest to solve brain diseases in the lab.