Blog awards: April (07/04/16)

The first blog awards for 2016 are here! We’ll be doing these on the first week of every month and recapping our most successful blog posts by our wonderful Research Community Coordinators. 

1. “Before I go, let me tell you a story… “ By Dr. Paul John Michael Mignone
It’s with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to one of our original “first generation” Research Community Coordinators. Paul has been with the ResBaz community from the very beginning & was the lead in kicking off the CADventurer community. A beautiful story by Paul - thank you for everything!

2. “Virtual Surgery using 3D Slicer at the Research Bazaar 2016 Conference” By Louise van der Werff
CADventurer Louise recaps her (hugely) successful 3D Slicer stream at ResBaz 2016! The post contains highlights, recognises the growing community & shares the course notes. 

3. “Autodesk Inventor at ResBaz 2016!” By Aliza Wajih
The CADventurers are on a roll! Aliza’s Autodesk class was majority women (75%) which would definitely make Rosie proud! She recapped the course content and thanked her two wonderful helpers - all in the name of community. 

That concludes our first Blog Awards for April - with the CADventurers out on top! What more can we say but… game on. 

The Platypus: A Curious (Community) Creature

We have a mascot, and it’s a platypus. Wikipedia says: “The unusual appearance of this egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal baffled European naturalists when they first encountered it, with some considering it an elaborate hoax.” But be assured, our choosing of ResPlaty (yep, that’s its name) is no hoax.

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Much like the semiaquatic egg-laying mammal, our team is a hybrid of sorts - offering a diverse range of skills and tools for all research types. ResPlaty, a technophilic researcher, thus has the power to change its look based on these desired research skills and tools.

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Upon donning a pointy hat, ResPlaty transforms into a data vizard - armed with the ability to cast data visualisations on the web (specialising in tools such as D3 and CartoDB).

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Where there’s wild data to manoeuvre around ResPlaty becomes a seasoned data wrangler - lassoing the numbers and performing kick-arse data analysis (R, MATLAB, Python).

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Looking to create, build and explore the 3D world? ResPlaty the CADventurer has you covered! You’ll be 3D modelling and printing in no time (3D Slicer, TinkerCAD, 3D Printing).

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And if burrowing into the web is what you’re after, ResPlaty the data miner will help you collect and play with all the text data your heart desires (NLTK, spreadsheets, surveys).

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Of course, ResPlaty has a more ‘social’ side too, and takes the form of data vinci - allowing us access into the data-driven worlds of the humanities and social sciences.

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And then there’s Rosie. She keeps us on our toes so we don’t forget the importance of research diversity - not just between departments and faculties, but within our ResBaz community too!

Why have these mascots? Because when reaching out to our community with such a variety of tools and skills to offer it helps to find something (or someone) to identify with - a role to plant your feet into, a hat to wear. ResPlaty and all its eggs, beaks, tails, costumes, accessories, skills and talents will therefore play a large role in the upcoming Research Bazaar Conference!

Which ResPlaty will you be meeting?

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