For their regular catch-up, Oto spoke to the Green Party’s Ricardo Menéndez March the party’s new emissions reduction plan.
He spoke to Professor Guhan Gunasekara - an Associate Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Auckland, to discuss an independent evaluation of the trial usage of facial recognition technology in security cameras at Foodstuffs outlets.
And he spoke to Nicola Gaston - A professor in the department of Physics at the University of Auckland, to discuss cuts to humanities and social science programs in the Marsden fund.
Sasha spoke to Dr Julie Douglas, National President of the Tertiary Education Union, about the recent cuts to humanities and social sciences from the Marsden Fund.
And he spoke to Thomas Dowling, Environment Lecturer and a co-lead on a new earth observation lab launched in collaboration with the University of Auckland.
Jonny chats to postdoctoral felllow Dr Juliane Gaviraghi Mussoi about her research into the impact of disrupted sleep. We humans intimately understand how sleep deprivation impacts our wellbeing and especially our communication. However, Dr Gaviraghi Mussoi's research for the School of Biological sciences focuses on the extent to which disrupted sleep impacts the communication zebra finches. Birds use songs to mate, to defend territories and to warn others about predators. So if their song is impacted by lack of sleep, it could impact their chances of reproducing and surviving! Whakarongo mai nei.
The Green party recently released He Ara Anamata - the Green party’s emissions reduction plan.
The document covers more than 10 areas of the economy and energy Sector that a Greens-led government would be looking to adapt to minimise carbon emissions and protect the natural landscapes of Aotearoa.
It also comes 5 months after the government released their own draft emissions plan. Numerous experts pointed out that the government is behind on their own plan’s targets to meet the crucial emissions budget for 2031-2035.
For their weekly catchup, Oto spoke to the Green Party’s Ricardo Menendez-March to discuss the party’s new emissions reduction plan and how they would address climate and the economy in a greens-led government.
Just last week, Science, Innovation and Technology Minister - Judith Collins, announced that the government would be slashing funding to humanities and social sciences programmes funded under the Marsden Fund.
Collins said that Marsden funding needed to be redirected to natural science fields, such as physics, mathematics and biology, which she said had more "tangible" impacts on the economy.
However, the move has been criticised by academics from both humanities and social sciences background, who've highlighted the importance of social science in highlighting societal inequities and called the funding cuts "ideologically-driven".
Oto spoke to Nicola Gaston from the Department of Physics at the University of Auckland for her perspective on the cuts to humanities and social science programs in the Marsden fund as a professor in a natural science field.
Recently, an independent evaluation was conducted on Foodstuff’s trial of facial recognition technology in their security system at 25 of their outlets in the North Island.
The evaluation found that using facial recognition in security cameras reduced crime and harmful behaviour at foodstuffs outlets by 16%, based on an examination of 1742 facial recognition alerts for repeat offenders.
However, there were also 9 instances were customers were misidentified as offenders by the system, with one woman who was wrongly removed from a Pak’n’save launching a case againsts facial recognition technology with the Human Rights Review Tribunal, claiming that the technology was discriminatory.
Oto spoke to Guhan Gunasekara, an Associate Professor of Commercial Law at the Univeristy of Auckland, to discuss the implications of facial recognition technology at retail outlets, and what we can expect in the aftermath of the independent evaluation into the trial.
Data from environmental observations, such as satellites and specialised cameras, is a powerful tool that has long been restricted to the use of government organisations, businesses and for-profit enterprises.
With collaboration from the University of Auckland, The Earth Observation Laboratory Aotearoa has just launched last week, and is aimed at providing earth observation data that enables businesses, researchers and communities. This data is important for predictions in climate, crop growth and other geological purposes.
Sasha spoke to Environment Lecturer and Co-Lead of the lab, Thomas Dowling, about the new observation lab and its potential uses.
Just one week ago, science, innovation and technology Minister Judith Collins announced cuts to the Marsden Fund, specifically for humanities and social sciences, reinforcing the government's clear initiative to focus on rebuilding the economy and putting business first.
Following this announcement came major backlash from professors, researchers and mainstream news, which claim to shrink the already small percentage of allocated funds towards humanities to an even smaller number. The cuts will also disproportionately affect Maori researchers, cutting the existing 13% of funded research to a proposed 5.5%.
Many argue that social sciences and humanities are important for understanding societies’ and the science which will be applied to it. However, another viewpoint to consider is the millions of taxpayer money which has been going to silly projects, something which needs to be discussed in further detail.
So Sasha spoke to Dr Julie Douglas, National President of the Tertiary Education Union, who believes that the government is making a shortsighted decision for cutting humanities and social sciences from the Marsden Fund.
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