Welcome back to another year of geoscientific shenanigans
In 2018 we hope to maintain and build the great social atmosphere we’ve constructed over the last couple of years. We will be doing frequent networking at Shadows (starting this Friday 23 March at 4.00pm!) and continuing with sports games against the Geography Association. AUGA are the current champions, and if you want to help us keep that title watch out for details on the AUGA Facebook group - the first game will probably be dodgeball! We hope to organise a trip for later this year. Last year we visited Mt Tarawera and the Nga Awa Purua Power Station, which was thoroughly enjoyable and gave us the opportunity to learn more about the geothermal energy industry – this was a valuable experience, particularly for those who are still trying to figure out what path to take! We will be continuing with the Industry Talk Series established in 2017, with talks from professionals in geoscience related fields. This aims to give insights into the types of jobs and fields you can get involved with in the future. In 2017 we had talks from Romeo Rodriguez (Exploration/Mining Geology), Nathan Heazlewood (NZESP - NZ Emerging Spatial Professionals), Virginie Lacrosse & Rachel Pickett (Tonkin and Taylor) and Ross Roberts (Auckland Council). Building on this, we hope to get some alumni involved, so if you’re a past student working in a geoscience related field – we’d love to hear from you! Reaching the end of your degree and applying for jobs can be a daunting experience, and we’d love to have some of you who have been through this come and talk to our members about your job, the process of getting that job, and what you typically get up to on a day to day basis. AUGA will continue working with DEVORA on outreach events. We will be involved in a few events planned for 2018 – the MOTAT Super STEM Fair (8 April), the UoA Incredible Science Day (2 July), and the Auckland Heritage Festival. If you’d like to volunteer and help out with any of these, let us know and we can get you involved. Keep up with what we’re doing on our social media pages: Twitter: AUGA Instagram: @aucklandgeoscience Facebook: AUGA Or keep up with us here on our Website We also have a wall on level 5 of building 302 (the new science building) in between the two sets of lifts which will be kept updated with upcoming events and photos from past events. Again, our first event is on Friday 23 March at Shadows. This is a great opportunity to meet other members and your 2018 AUGA Committee. Cheers, AUGA Committee 2018
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In an unfortunate turn of events the AUGA's inaugural intramural sporting match against the Geography Association ended after a hard fought second half finishing 5 to 7. During the first half the Geographers ran up a strong 7 to 1 lead as our on field warriors were taken off guard and scrambled to organize amid the initial chaos, causing numerous changes to the position of goalie. With our fledgling group in a shambles, Coach Alex Palma stepped up to the plate and reformed the ranks, turning the AUGA into a force to be reckoned with in the second half. At the start of the second half our new intimidating beast of a goalie Karl Wright managed to fed off the voracious yet tiring geography team. Meanwhile, Professor Nick "Rooney" Richards took the geographers by storm quickly scoring a goal at the very start, setting the tone for the rest of the game that AUGA would not go down without a fight. Later on in the half several other AUGA team members kept the pressure up by landing several shots on goal with two finding their way in. Finally with the Geographers will fading Professor Richards managed to add one last goal before time ran out. Having left it all on the court that day the AUGA lost with dignity and gained a glimpse at our new tenacious adversary.
Regular drinks sound good to you? They sound good to us!
We're kicking off the 2017 activities with the establishment of fortnightly drinks at Shads. It's getting to that busy time of year and a cold one with like-minded rock fiends is just what you'll be needing to deal with the stress and strain of geosciences. People from every stage are welcome, come alone if you must and make some new friends. Next one is Wednesday 24th May, 4:30 pm. Club zone at the back of Shadows. OSU are passing through Auckland on their big New Zealand adventure, and we have a meet up drinks planned for April 3rd, 5pm ish in the CBD.
Keep an eye on the event on the facebook page for location confirmation! For the 2017 Petroleum Conference hosted in New Plymouth, the University of Auckland was lucky enough to send 4 students as part of the Energy Skills NZ student programme co sponsored by Chevron. The programme is aimed at developing young talent for the New Zealand energy industry. This year, many thanks must go to Ewa Ginal-Cumblidge from NZPAM, and Sheree Long from ESNZ especially for accommodating the UOA students after applications had closed. We greatly appreciate all that was organised for us under the circumstances, Thank you. We’d also like to thank Chevron for their continued commitment to helping students participate in the conference in conjunction in with ESNZ.
We arrived on Monday after a long drive, we booked a bach for us 5 students to stay in for the duration of our trip. Myself, Ryan Lunenburg, Shanshan Liu, Emma OBrien, and Giovanni Pradel attended this years conference. Giovanni attended as a speaker while the rest of us were part of the student programme. On Tuesday, we made our way over to the venue where we met 22 other students from universities all around New Zealand. Students varied in disciplines from Chem-mat to Mechanical Engineering to Earthscience. After a short time of meet and greet, we heard our first speaker who introduced us to the energy industry in New Zealand as well as the importance of Hydrocarbons in todays world. After lunch, we jumped on the bus to make our way to the first field trip location, TAG Oil’s Cheal B production facility. We did have to endure through a breakdown on the way to the site which bogged us down for 30 minutes, however the bus company quickly provided us with a replacement ! At Cheal B, Ian Patterson gave us a quick rundown of the facility, the site is small, however it has a very small impact on the local community and neighbours have commended how responsibly TAG Oil have been during their time in the area. Next, it was off to Balance AgriNutrients urea and methanol plant, it was big facility for us compared to Cheal B, the scale was simply amazing. After a quick safety briefing, we began the tour. It was the first site i’d ever visited in which we had to put on a mask in case of emergency. After the detailed tour from John Mckay, we bussed back to New Plymouth for a tasty dinner at a local restaurant. Wednesday was a big day for us, the morning involved getting into the conference which we managed at around 9 am. The morning consisted of visiting exhibitions and attending the Powhiri followed by the Energy Minister’s address. At 12:30, we were paired up with Industry delegates for a valuable networking experience. I was paired with Nick Cozens, a senior geologist from TAG Oil. He gave me valuable insight into the energy industry while introducing me to a multitude of professionals including CEOs, engineers, Geoscientists and others. The afternoon was complimented by a series of talks which we attended. My personal favourites being Alan Bischoff’s presentation on volcanoes in sedimentary basins, and Alex Wunderlich’s presentation on tectonism in the south Taranaki basin. Thursday was a day of viewing presentations for the group, however Ryan and myself spent our time practicing a formal report to the delegates covering the details of the ESNZ programme and acknowledging our sponsors. The report went well and our nerves did not get the better of us ! This concluded our time in New Plymouth, and we can all say we had a memorable time which we could all recommend to anyone interested in a career in the energy industry. I’d like to thank Lorna for making this happen for us and our sponsors ESNZ, Chevron, and PEPANZ. Michael Macnaughtan Welcome to AUGA for 2017!
First and foremost, please formally register using the form here. This takes just a moment but can make a significant difference for us in things such as applying for funding, so please take the time to do it! We are currently looking for an executive committee. Positions available are President, Secretary/Treasurer, and Social Officer. The experience has been very rewarding and opened doors for past execs, so I encourage you to give it a go, even if you don't think you know how. If you have any questions, or want to submit your name for the election, then flick an email over to [email protected] by Sunday 19th March. We need volunteers! The MoTaT Street Science Fair is coming up April 2nd, and we urgently need volunteers to get on-board and help to run the demonstrations. These are very simple earthquake and volcano demos, and heaps of fun. Please get in touch via [email protected] if you are keen to be involved, even for part of the day. No prior experience required! We have plenty planned for 2017... Including a social event with the Geology Student Club from Oregon University, t-shirts in the next couple of weeks, and field trips (taking suggestions). We are also looking to become University affiliated this year, which should open some doors. This year there has been a strong drive from the staff in the faculty to build a community, so you can expect to see a lot more social events, casual research presentations, and friendly faces about. As always, any questions, don't hesitate to get in touch! |
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