CDU hosts first Northern Territory Research Bazaar
Charles Darwin University (CDU) has hosted the Northern Territory’s first Research Bazaar, an event aimed at supporting and enhancing research excellence across the globe.
The two-day Research Bazaar (ResBaz) Northern Territory held at CDU’s Waterfront campus, saw students, researchers and professionals from across the NT descend on Darwin to learn and share skills that can enhance their research.
Throughout the two days a range of sessions were on offer including the “Digital Tools in my Research: HDR 3-min presentation challenge”, “An Introduction to R”, and “Using QGIS”.
CDU VET Lecturer and Workplace Assessor Aviation (Remote Pilot) Dr Rebecca Rogers was a key story speaker at the conference, giving two presentations.
Her sessions focused on drone data collection and how being bad at technology will make you a better researcher.
“I discussed how embracing new technology can make you a more creative, collaborative and successful researcher and the importance of allowing yourself to be bad at it as you never know what opportunities or ideas you could be missing out on,” Dr Rogers said.
Dr Rogers covered some of the lessons she has learnt from collecting environmental data across the top end, including monitoring feral pigs and surveying endangered wallabies.
“When it comes to working with drones there are so many amazing data opportunities that people should be aware of as well as operation and regulatory challenges researchers will need to overcome in order to take advantage of this versatile data collection tool,” she said.
CDU Lecturer in Information Technology Dr Cat Kutay also spoke at the conference presenting a newly developed web system for researchers working in the Indigenous space.
Dr Kutay said the system will provide researchers with a space to store First Nations stories by theme or place.
“We have developed a web system for displaying such stories, public or privately that can be categorised and annotated as well as providing tools to link these stories into a holistic collection, either through maps or paintings on country for example," Dr Kutay said.
“The system also provides a way for researchers to share stories back to the community through the internet, as a more equitable way to handle data.”
Other speakers included CDU’s Dr Carla Eisemberg and Dr Rohan Fisher, Marketing Manager of Gale Darren Brain and Digital Research Services Manager at Intersect, Aidan Wilson.
CDU Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation Professor Steve Rogers said the event helped to foster a community across different research disciplines and institutions.
“ResBaz provides an opportunity for the research community here in the NT and worldwide to gather and share different ideas and upskill one another which is important to ensure research excellence,” Professor Rogers said.
“I look forward to seeing how these programs and applications can assist CDU researchers in continuing to deliver impactful research.”