#TechTalkCPT: MEET THE EXPERT
Wed Nov 23, 18:00 - Wed Nov 23, 21:00
KATO
ABOUT
To wrap up a wonderful year of interesting talks we have decided to make our End Of Year event less formal, where you (the attendees) get the chance to sit down with some of our past speakers to pick their brains! We have experts from AR, VR, IoT, AI and machine learning, medical technology, renewable energy, neuroscientific marketing and cybersecurity. We will have an HTC Vive setup for you to play an amazing VR game developed by Gerard Slee.The breakdown of the evening is as follows:
18:00 Eat, drink and meet people
18:30 A brief rundown of our Experts for the night
18:45 Go pick the Experts' brains
20:30 Wrap up the evening
More details on our experts are below!
#TechTalkCPT is an event that brings you the bleeding edge of technology and innovation as presented by a specialist in the chosen topic. The topics are made relevant and accessible to as many people as possible. All events are accompanied by drinks and networking, making otherwise daunting topics fun and attainable. The #TechTalk platform gives the public the chance to have a one-on-one experience with a specialist and find out more about intense, interesting and complicated topic that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to.
There will be Chivas cocktails, Juicebox and finger foods for the evening.
The experts for the evening:
IOT
Paul Mesarcik - Lumkani
Lumkani aims to use technology based early warning systems to increase the safety and security of people living in informal settlements, in addition to expanding their social impact. Lumkani is a social enterprise tackling the challenge of shack/slum fires in South Africas urban informal settlements with a view to expanding across the globe.
AR
Michael Wolf - Formula D
Michael Wolf is a German designer who moved to Cape Town in 2002. In 2007 he founded Formula D interactive, an award winning design consultancy.Using the cutting edge of multimedia technology, Formula D specialize in the design of interactive experiences for museums, visitor centres and classrooms that stand out.
VR
Gerard Slee - SAOTA
Gerard is an architect, digital nomad, coder, creative concluder and spatial prototypist. After finishing his Undergraduate Architecture degree in Cape Town He spent two years in Berlin working for a large architecture and engineering firm developing new methods of digital architectural presentation and specialising in interactive real-time architectural visualization. From Berlin he went to Bloemfontein to finish his Masters of Architectural Studies. Side projects include bridging the gap between analogue and digital space through alternative methods of human interface design. Gerard currently works for SAOTA architects and designers in Cape Town developing in-house applications sorting out workflow advancements and developing Virtual Reality experiences.
Machine Learning & AI
Dirk Brand - Praelexis
Praelexis uses proprietary machine learning platform to empower clients to become data-driven organisations in various domains, including banking, insurance and education. Dirk specialised in AI, machine learning and text processing at the University of Stellenbosch, where he is currently completing his Masters in Computer Science. He loves sampling the AI from the various PC games that are available on the market. The most facinating moments of his life happen when he opens an app that uses machine learning, it totally blows his mind (Siri is amazing...).
Machine Learning & AI
James Saunders - BusinessOptics
James spends his time thinking how we can use computing to solve impactful problems, and what that is going to mean to society. He fuels these ideas with obscure literature and badly lit bars. In his waking life James is a founder and the current CTO of BusinessOptics, who provide a prescriptive and predictive analytics platform to assist and automate enterprise wide decisions in a variety of industries. He has previously worked in a broad array of fields, including oil and energy, automated industrial systems, computer vision and security, mobile auditing, robotics, financial risk and environmental planning systems. He has worked extensively in South Africa, Saudi Arabia and the United States. He has a graduate degree in Mathematical and Theoretical Computer Science.
Cyber Security
Craig Swan
Craig, who has worn many different hats during his career as an ethical hacker, trainer, architect, consultant, auditor and information security officer. Craig has been lucky enough to meet a lot of people far smarter than him. Craig likes to share what he has learnt from all his jobs and the smart people. Craig likes understanding how things work, taking them apart and putting them back together. This could be why Craig owns a Land Rover.
Renewable Energy
Khanyiselo Kumalo - GreenCape
GreenCape is a sector development agency that supports businesses operating within the green economy in the Western Cape. Their aim is to help unlock the investment and employment potential of green business, technologies and manufacturing. This, in turn, contributes to improving the resource efficiency, carbon intensity and resilience of the regional economy. They are a not-for-profit organisation established in 2010 by the Western Cape Government as a Special Purpose Vehicle to support the development of the green economy in the region.
Neuroscientific Marketing
David Rosenstein and Mark Drummond - Neural Sense™
Neural Sense™ evokes emotional engagement and enhance memorability for clients' brands, products and services. With the use of neuroscience techniques and biometric technologies, they can identify how marketing mix and advertising communications can be optimized to evoke the best possible emotional response and attain the best possible cognitive impact. Neural Sense’s methodologies explore emotion; memory and decision-making in response to the consumer experience – all of which play a vital role in influencing the resulting consumer behaviour.
Medical Tech
Raphael Smith and Heidi Wilson – BMEC
BMEC's multidisciplinary team specialises in using the latest technologies and manufacturing methods to provide insightful solutions quickly and affordably. Raphael is currently responsible for a patented dual-modality breast imaging platform incorporating mechatronic control systems submerged in a coupling fluid at CapeRay Medical as well as an ozone sanitisation system at ArcAqua. He has also been responsible for the design, manufacture and testing of a pre- production spirometer for use in emergency resuscitation as well as for the design of a pediatric growth device for the treatment of scoliosis in children. Furthermore, he has designed a 3D printed artificial heart valve for fatigue testing of infused bovine pericardial tissues.
Heidi worked for three years as a project engineer for EES Africa where she successfully project managed a number of commercial projects to completion, ranging from small luxury estate security upgrades to the installation and relocation of Head Office Data Centre and building IT systems for two established asset managers. Heidi has gained invaluable experience as Quality Manager, Project Manager and Clinical Trial Manager at CapeRay. Heidi has also been responsible for various aspects of product regulatory compliance. Heidi has been integral in managing supplier delivery at ArcAqua as well as assisting with technical activities.