TUCS Tech Talks are a series of talks on topics that the membership of TUCS is likely to find interesting. We aim to deliver talks on a roughly fortnightly basis.

Past Talks

Prior tech talks will be made available from our web site, via the Tech Talks category of posts.

We also have our Tech Talks Podcast

Upcoming Talks

The World’s Worst Inventions

  • Presenter: Paul Fenwick
  • Venue: Centenary Lecture Theatre
  • Time: Friday, May 14, 13:00

This week, TUCS will be joined by Paul Fenwick of Perl Training Australia.

Technology advances through the creation of new inventions. Devices,
protocols, machines, and ideas all increase the breadth of human knowledge,
and make life easier for us all… At least in theory.

In reality, the advance of progress is littered with bad ideas. A profound
lack of foresight, thinking, or just plain common sense has left us with
countless artefacts of mis-design. What’s worse, we often build upon such
twisted horrors in the creation of new technology.

Leeches that predict the weather, fire alarms that trap their users, poorly
thought-out medicines, toys which irradiate, mangle, or intoxicate their
users, and a bizarre array of poorly conceived ideas are just a few of the
inventions that litter the otherwise noble pursuit of applied science.

Join internationally acclaimed speaker Paul Fenwick as we examine some of
the worst design decisions ever made.

Paul Fenwick is the managing director of Perl Training Australia, and has
been teaching computer science for over a decade. He is an internationally
acclaimed presenter at conferences and user-groups worldwide, where he is
well-known for his humour and off-beat topics.

In his spare time, Paul’s interests include security, mycology, cycling,
coffee, scuba diving, and lexically-scoped user pragmata.

Lightning Talks

  • Venue: Lecture Theatre
  • Time: Friday, May 28, 13:00

Our traditional Lightning Talks are being held as the final Tech Talk for semester 1 — give a 3-minute (strictly-enforced) talk on any topic — expect it to be run somewhat similarly to the 2008 and 2009 talks.