Category: Bristol

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GGD #72 GirlGeekDinners @Graphcore

We are being hosted by what must be Bristols biggest Unicorn this month. They’ve stepped in when our earlier sponsor had to step down due to unforeseen circumstances. Rather than let you down for a second month we did a callout to see if any other comapnies could save the date for us and Voila!! Graphcore stepped in. Think AI, electronics, Robotics and … well anything really!

Graphcore has created a completely new processor, the Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU), specifically designed for machine intelligence. The IPU’s unique architecture means developers can run current machine learning models orders of magnitude faster. More importantly, it lets AI researchers undertake entirely new types of work, not possible using current technologies, to drive the next great breakthroughs in general machine intelligence. We believe our IPU technology will become the worldwide standard for machine intelligence compute. The performance of Graphcore’s IPU is going to be transformative across all industries and sectors, whether you are a medical researcher, roboticist or autonomous car manufacturer.

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GGD #70 Interested in voice-enabled technology?

Here’s a chance to find out more.

It’s midweek. The weekend feels a long way away. So come and get your geek on with XMOS.

We’ll take you (quickly) through the science of voice and explain how our technology is able to capture voice and strip out background noise – even from across the room and when you’re speaking softly. We’ll also demonstrate our voice-capture development kits and give you a sneak preview into the new areas we’re working on.

We don’t have a talking toaster – but we do have a lamp with attitude, an LED array you won’t forget and a look at what’s possible when you merge voice with radar technology. And if that doesn’t convince you, then we’ve got plenty of anecdotes about questions that are best left unasked of your voice assistant!

The talk will be led by our XMOS girl geeks

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GGD #69 Technology needs talking

Emily Perkins

Emily is OggaDoon’s Creative Content Manager, specialising in creative copy, branding, and process.​

With almost a decade of writing experience, she has a History and English degree along with a Masters from the University of York. Her passions are authentic stories which demand to be told, influencing through the written and spoken word, and engaging directly through social media.

Talk: I’ll chat about the need for communications in any industry, why technology is naturally bad at it, why women in technology are often overlooked, and quick easy communication wins that we can all engage with as individuals and companies. I’ll also be sharing some examples from within the industry which should hopefully make things clear

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GGD WSM #01: Oh we do like to be becider seaside ….

Weston Super Mare GGD New Chapter

We are setting up a Girl Geek Dinners group in Weston Super Mare.  While we try it out for size we are going to use the Bristol GGD site to host as we are also aware that we have some members who work in Bristol but reside by the beach (lucky you!) and would like something closer to home to network.

We would like to announce that finally we believe we may have spotted enough women either in tech or interested in the subject to justify setting up a GirlGeekDinners WSM chapter!

The Stable will be hosting the first one on the 4th October.  If you don’t know the place then it’s certainly time you paid a visit – it’s a great coworking space. The Heritage cafe next door is run by businesswoman and powerhouse performer Sarah Evans (the UK’s number one Adele tribute act, no less). It’s also round the corner from the beach and from vegetarian cafe.  Loves, run by Anna Southwell, a woman with her finger in many artistic, musical and cultural pies. They also sell halloumi chips. What’s not to love about The Stable and surrounds!

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GGD #68 Data Science x Energy

Dr Katie Russell, Analytics, OVO Energy

Smart meters means masses more energy data will be available to utilities, enabling a better customer experience and no more estimates. Katie will draw comparison with data revolutions in other industries and explore the opportunities, analytics and learnings so far.

Katie Russell is Head of Data & Analytics at OVO Energy, leading a team focused on deriving insights to inform and inspire action – for customers and for OVO as a business. As part of a technology led business, leveraging data using artificial intelligence keeps OVO truly innovative and delivering the best possible service for our customers.

Katie joined OVO in October 2017 having spent 5 years at ONZO – an energy analytics start up  – as Head of Data Science. During that time she was chuffed to be awarded Big Data Hero by techUK in June 2016 and helped ONZO win multiple awards for their innovative solutions for utilities. Prior to that Katie worked for another analytics start up in the water industry, got a PhD in Mathematical Physics and holds a BA and M.Math from the University of Cambridge.

When

Thursday 20th June 2018 – 6.30/7  – 9pm

Doors open at 18:30 talks start around 7pm

Where

This meetup is kindly sponsored once again by OVO who are strong supporters of Bristol Girl Geek Dinners.

1 Rivergate, Temple Quay, Bristol BS1 6ED

Sign Up

As always, we welcome men to our group, but to keep our audience predominantly female, we ask that all men are accompanied by a woman (just add a +1 on the meetup) here Bristol Girl Geek Dinners

GGD #67 Cryptography and Cluster Computing with Scott Logic

Susan Thomson: “Security is a game”, Susan Thomson

SusanThomson

Susan is a developer at Scott Logic. Previously she was a postdoctoral researcher in cryptography at the University of Bristol. Please don’t talk to her about your altcoin

Good cryptography is becoming increasingly important for everyone. But how do we know if an encryption scheme is any good? Susan will talk about what it means when cryptographers say that an encryption scheme is secure.

Paulin Shek: Apache Spark – what, and why”, Paulin Shek

Paulin Shek

Paulin is a developer at Scott Logic. When not doing client work, she’s levered some time to write internal training materials on Apache Spark, and she also runs a Data Engineering study group that meets on a weekly basis.

Cluster computing is something that has become more accessible, beyond academics and large companies, over the past few years. This is partly due to frameworks such as Apache Spark. However, with the advent of new technologies comes a whole new set of terms and buzzwords. Paulin will give an introduction to cluster computing, and explain the motivation behind Spark.

When

Thursday 17th May 2018 – 6.30/7  – 9pm

Doors open at 18:30 talks start around 7pm

Where

This meetup is kindly sponsored once again by Scott Logic who have been hosting us for a few years now with some great speakers.
They have a new website https://www.scottlogic.com which regularly posts new and interesting tech blogs and has a careers page, which illustrates new vacancies across their 4 office locations.

Sign Up

As always, we welcome men to our group, but to keep our audience predominantly female, we ask that all men are accompanied by a woman (just add a +1 on the meetup) here Bristol Girl Geek Dinners

GGD #66 Survival guide for being heard and encouraging diversity of thinking

Caroline Morris is a data geek turned Leadership coach, who founded Wide Eyed Group, a leadership and team coaching business.  Her passion of developing people was nurtured during her 20-year career working in data; leading teams of data scientists, developers and analysts.

Her background also means she understands the pressures faced within technical teams. Like the cultural barriers that can exist between logical, technically-minded data scientists and their extroverted, fast-paced colleagues in sales and marketing. Or the challenges of moving into a leadership position after excelling in a more practical ‘doer’ role.

Caroline’s coaching style is adaptable, slotting seamlessly into any organisation and providing actionable strategies that teams can use to transform their way of working.

She has turned her love of “helping people to be the best they can be” into her new career of transformational coaching:

A qualified coach, who uses Positive Psychology, Transactional Analysis, NLP techniques with Nancy Kline’s Thinking Environment in her coaching practice. Her passion for the power of attention and listening has led her to become a Time to Think Facilitator and she can help you and your team communicate more powerfully with each other.  She is also a Master Emotional Capital Report practitioner who can help you understand your level of EQ and areas to develop to help you develop yourself and your team.

Caroline previously ran a couple of great workshops for the Womens Tech Hub WTHub.org during the day and it went down so well that we thought she would be the perfect speaker for our women who are working. We feel that it would be great to learn some skills on how to survive in the workplace and have a voice as its a discussion that we hear often that our members struggle with.

caroline morris

Website:  https://www.wideeeyedgroup.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wideeyedgroup

Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroline-morris-73/

When

Wednesday 21st March 2018 – 6.30/7  – 9pm

Doors open at 18:30 talks start around 7pm

Where

The food and hosting is kindly sponsored by Institute of Physics Publishing http://ioppublishing.org/

IOP Publishing, Temple Circus, Temple Way, Bristol, BS1 6HG

Sign Up

As always, we welcome men to our group, but to keep our audience predominantly female, we ask that all men are accompanied by a woman (just add a +1 on the meetup) here Bristol Girl Geek Dinners

GGD #65 Summoning the Genie: Drones, Robotics and Machine Learning

 i-am-not-a-robot-detail

 

GGD presents an evening of talks looking at the opportunities and challenges of robotics and machine learning featuring:-

  • Bot or not? Robotic technology in our lives today

  • Drop the drone – challenging the security of drone technology

  • Cyber Security Machine Learning

Our team of speakers :-

Gudrun Fedorowich

Gudrun is a Lead Domain Engineer with Lloyds Banking Group specialising in application security.  She holds an MSc in Information Technology from UWE and has wide ranging experience in Security and IT within the Financial Services sector.  Gudrun had a pre-IT life working in marketing, sales and management development.

Jaimi Anderson

Jaimi comes from Brisbane Australia where she has had a brilliantly technical study background. She gained a Batchelors degree in Animation as an early university entrant with Griffith University. After moving to Queensland University of technology she attained a Master’s degree in Information Technology specialising in security and Games design alongside valuable management training. She extended her studies by a year to cover Computer (Digital) Forensics and run a project on Mobile App permissions.

Currently she is studying for a further Masters at Macquarie University in policing, intelligence and counter terrorism, while using her extensive knowledge as a project manager in the NHS. She is currently waiting for her NCA (Security) Clearance so she can further her security and digital forensics knowledge to use in the UK. She describes herself as a magical unicorn!

MM_robot_3

Miranda Mowbray

Miranda is a lecturer at the University of Bristol, where her research interests include cyber security and big data ethics. She has two hexadecimal dollars, and an Erdos number of 3. She has just begun a project investigating ways to subvert a swarm of four hundred robots.

When

Thursday 22nd February 2018 – 6.30/7  – 9pm

Doors open at 18:30 talks start around 7pm

Where

The food and hosting is kindly sponsored by Bristol University

 Queens Building, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TR

Sign Up

As always, we welcome men to our group, but to keep our audience predominantly female, we ask that all men are accompanied by a woman (just add a +1 on the meetup) here Girlgeekdinners Meetup https://www.meetup.com/Bristol-Girl-Geek-Dinners/.