Closing Reception
Our afternoon high tea will be the perfect way to end your conferencing experience. Share champagne and good company while indulging in a decadent sweet and savoury high tea selection.
As you indulge in glass of bubbles you will have the opportunity to learn about wine from Ursula Kennedy, a Lecturer in Wine Science at USQ. Ursula will be talking about some of the latest trends in wine production and consumption that we have seen in Australia over recent years – namely Pinot Grigio, Pinot Gris and Rose styles of wine – what they are and how they are made!
Ursula has been involved in the Australian wine industry for over 20 years, working in industry in various roles in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland. She has been an academic teaching and conducting research in the areas of grape and wine production at USQ for over 10 years.
Music will be provided by USQ students, Jessica Berwick and Bonnie Green, performing as the duo Two of Diamonds. Vocalist Jessica and pianist and backup vocalist Bonnie formed Two of Diamonds around 2013 and have performed at various functions and events. They are known for their sweet harmonies, upbeat tunes and their ability to switch to each other’s instruments when no one’s watching.
Two of Diamonds perform predominately popular music. Their repertoire includes songs originally performed by Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Michael Buble, The Supremes, Norah Jones and Louis Armstrong to name a few. Two of Diamonds are continually adding to their repertoire songs that are recently released as well as old time classics.
Outside of their duo, Jess frequently performs as a soloist. She is a lead vocalist in Toowoomba’s Cool Nights Big Band and has performed around Queensland including on Hamilton Island. Bonnie also performs as a piano and vocal soloist.
All the info
Location: Courtyard, USQ
When: Wednesday 6 December, 2.30pm – 3.30pm
Welcome Reception
Our welcome reception will be the perfect way to kick start your conferencing experience.
Share some drinks and good company while indulging in a delicious canape selection.
You will also enjoy music provided by USQ student, Ayden Roberts. Ayden is a muso on the road around SEQ. His music, described as quirky, catchy and a little bit out there, takes his naive belief that his guitar can be anything it wants resulting in live shows that are a lot of fun. A zingy journey into falling in love and rolling around in it.
All the info
Location: Exhibition (Refectory)
When: Monday 4 December, 4.30pm – 5.30pm
Dine Around
Monday night is Dine Around night, your time to catch-up and network with friends old and new in a relaxed atmosphere.
The dine around is an informal part of the ASCILITE social program. We’ve compiled a list of some of the best venues within the Toowoomba CBD and in walking distance from the City Golf Club Motel.
We’ve made tentative bookings with these restaurants, which we will firm up on the day.
Please visit the registration desk on Monday morning to nominate your choice of restaurant. You can sign up til the end of lunch time (1.30pm). We’ll then firm up bookings with the restaurants.
Please note, the dine around is not included in your conference registration and you will need to pay for your meal. We’re just facilitating bookings to make it easier for you to connect with your colleagues over dinner.
We’ve mapped the venues and the conference hotels on a Google Map at the bottom of this page.
All the info
Location: Around the city
When: Monday 4 December, times vary for each restaurant
Getting there: Many restaurants are within walking distance from at least one of the conference hotels
Restaurants in the CBD
The following restaurants are in the CBD, and are walkable from either Potter’s Hotel or Central Plaza apartments (or both!).
The National Hotel
Address: 59 – 63 Russell Street
Food: Pub fare
Price range: Mains $18 to $28
Booking: 7.00pm
Sofras
Address: 164 Margaret St
Food: Turkish cuisine
Price range: Mains $15 to $30
Booking: 6.30pm
Muller Bros
Address: 25 Bell Street
Food: Churrasco Brazilian BBQ
Price range: Mains $28 to $45
Booking: 7pm (2 hour sitting)
Jilly’s Café
Address: 181 Margaret St
Food: Diverse menu with cafe fare
Price range: Mains $15 to $27
Booking: 6.30pm
Junk Boat
Address: Waltons Stores, 5/476 Ruthven St
Food: Simple and fresh Asian street food (and bubble tea!)
Price range: Mains $10 to $19
Booking: 7pm
Kajoku
Address: Level 1, 430 Ruthven Street
Food: Korean and Japanese cuisine
Price range: Mains $14 to $20
Booking: 7pm
Potters
Address: 258 Margaret St
Food: More upmarket
Price range: Mains $24 to $35
Booking: 6.30pm
Gips Restaurant
Address: 120 Russell Street
Food: Modern Australian cuisine
Price range: Mains $30 to $45
Booking: 7pm
Restaurants near the City Golf Club Motel
The following restaurants are near the City Golf Club Motel and other motels in South Toowoomba.
Garden Restaurant
Address: 732 Ruthven St
Food: Chinese and some Thai options
Price range: Mains $15 to $21
Booking: 7pm
Southern (Fire & Ice)
Address: 839 Ruthven Street
Food: Bistro meals
Price range: Mains $16 to $36
Booking: 7pm
City Golf Club
Address: 254 South St
Food: Eclectic
Price range: $13 meals in restaurant Monday nights
Booking: 6.30pm
Conference Dinner
Conference dinner
We are pleased to announce that this year’s conference dinner will be held at beautiful Picnic Point, with magnificent views over the Lockyer Valley.
In keeping with ASCILITE traditions, the dinner will be held on Tuesday evening with pre-dinner drinks and entertainment starting at 6.15pm, just in time for stunning sunset views.
The theme for this year’s dinner is Open.
For many years, ASCILITE has been a supporter of open access, open education, and open publishing, so it makes sense for the organisation to support an open dinner.
We invite you to draw on the Open principles Remix, Reuse, Repurpose, to assemble your evening attire by purchasing clothing from an op shop, or similar. You may like to scour your wardrobes and dust off (repurpose) that (retained) Year 12 outfit, best man’s suit, or remix clothes. Or perhaps remix your father’s favourite tie with a favourite shirt to create a new ensemble that will draw looks of open admiration. For those of you who are a perhaps less courageous, consider adding an accessory to your favourite outfit to fit with the repurpose and remix theme.
The theme is drawn from three of the ‘Five R’s’ of openness. When educators use free and openly licenced content, they are able to:
- Retain – keep a copy of the resource
- Redistribute – to share it with an audience
- Remix – to combine it with other openly licenced resources to create new material
- Revise – to alter or update the resource (often to suit local contexts)
- Repurpose – to change the format or context of the resource.
You will be welcomed on the red carpet as you join fellow delegates in a night of wining, dining, dancing and merriment.
Vocalist and USQ student Jessica Berwick will provide the soundtrack for drinks and canapes. Later in the evening, seven piece Brisbane band RUSH will entertain us and provide the sound track to inspire your dance floor grooves.
Buses will be provided to transport delegates to the venue.
You will have the opportunity to bring your outfit to the conference the day after the dinner so it can be redistributed to a local op shop.
All the info
Location: Picnic Point
When: Tuesday 5 December, 6.15pm til 11pm
Getting there: Buses will depart the three conference hotels at 6pm
Theme: Open – Remix, Reuse or Repurpose your outfit!
Star Gazing
ASCILITE 2017 provides you and your family with the opportunity to be an amateur astronomer for the night!
Internationally-renowned astrobiologist and astronomer Associate Professor Jonti Horner and the Astronomy Outreach Team from the University of Southern Queensland will take you on a cosmic journey of our Solar system and beyond.
Jonti will share his knowledge of the birth of the solar system to modern day astronomical events, a tale of violence and destruction, featuring craters, comets, and even the death of the dinosaurs!
The USQ Astronomy Team will then help you to find some of the famous constellations in the night sky using both naked eye observation and telescopes, and answer any questions you might have about astronomy and our place in the Universe.
The agenda for the evening will be:
- 6.00 – 7.00: Talk in R113
- 7.00 – 7.30pm: Refreshment break and walk to Gumbi Gumbi gardens
- 7.30 – 8.30: Star viewing
This event is open to all ASCILITE delegates and their families.
Registration is free but places are limited! Register now!
Date: Monday 4 December 2017
Time: 6pm – 8.30pm
Venue: R Block Room 113 (and the Gumbi Gubmi Gardens)
Campus map
Schools Night
As part of ASCILITE 2017, USQ is hosting a Schools Night so that primary and secondary educators and administrators can participate in the edtech showcase featuring some of Australia’s leading edtech designers and companies.
The night will feature ASCILITE 2017 keynote speaker Marita Cheng.
The Gender Divide
Marita Cheng, 2012 Young Australian of the Year, will share the leadership skills, creativity and steadfastness that it took for her to start Robogals and grow it to chapters in Australia, the UK, USA and Japan, all while studying full-time at University. Robogals teaches young girls robotics as a way to encourage participation in engineering and technology careers, and has taught 60,000 girls in 10 countries.
Educators and administrators interested in using educational technologies to impact the digital literacies of their students and provide a coherent transition from secondary school to university.
Primary and secondary teachers and administrations, we’d love to see you there!
Registration is free but places are limited!
About Marita Cheng
Marita Cheng was the 2012 Young Australian of the Year and is a technology entrepreneur and women in technology advocate. Marita Cheng is the founder and CEO of aubot (formerly 2Mar Robotics), which makes a telepresence robot, Teleport, for kids with cancer in hospital to attend school, people with a disability to attend work and to monitor and socialise with elderly people. As well as telepresence robots, Aubot does research and development in robotic arms, virtual reality and autonomous mapping and navigation.
Aubot has been recognised on a global scale through the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia in 2016, and through being called “the coolest girl at CES 2014” by VentureBeat magazine. Marita has presented about Teleport at the M.A.P. International CEO Conference in the Philippines in 2016, MIT Technology Review EmTech Singapore in 2015, and the 2014 World Entrepreneurship Forum in Lyon France.
While studying at Singularity University’s flagship 10-week program, the Graduate Studies Program, located at NASA Ames and on a full scholarship funded by Google, Marita cofounded Aipoly with Alberto Rizzoli. Profiled in TechCrunch within a week of the first prototype being made, Aipoly allows blind people to recognise objects using computer vision and has been downloaded 250,000 times in 7 languages since its launch at CES 2016.
Marita was named the 2012 Young Australian of the Year for demonstrating vision and leadership well beyond her years as the Founder and Executive Director of Robogals Global. Noticing the low number of girls in her engineering classes at the University of Melbourne, Marita rounded up her fellow engineering peers and they went to schools to teach girls robotics, as a way to encourage girls into engineering. While on academic exchange at Imperial College London, Marita expanded the group to London and through innovation and sheer will, Marita then expanded Robogals throughout Australia, the UK, the USA and Japan. The group runs robotics workshops, career talks and various other community activities to introduce young women to engineering.
Robogals has now taught 70,000 girls from 11 countries robotics workshops across 32 chapters. Robogals has been internationally recognised though the Global Engineering Deans Council Diversity in Engineering Award (2014), Grace Hopper Celebration’s Anita Borg Change Agent Award (2011), and the International Youth Foundation’s YouthActionNet Fellowship (2011).
Marita regularly travels around Australia presenting her work including appearing on Q&A on ABC beside two Nobel Laureates and the Chief Scientist of Australia (TV audience 600,000), and alongside Ashton Kutcher at Lenovo’s #TechMyWay (online audience 35,000). As well, she has presented overseas at Foxconn’s H.Spectrum by Yonglin Healthcare Startup Conference in Taiwan (2016), the 37th Kumon Japan Instructors Conference in Japan (2016), the World Engineering Education Forum in Dubai (2014), and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts’ World Conference in Hong Kong (2014).
Marita was born in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. She grew up in housing commission with her brother and single-parent mother, who worked as a hotel room cleaner. She graduated from high school in 2006 in the top 0.2% of the nation, and that year was awarded Cairns Young Citizen of the Year for her volunteering and extra-curricula efforts, which included winning awards for mathematics, Japanese and piano. Marita speaks English, Cantonese and Japanese.
Marita has a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechatronics) / Bachelor of Computer Science from the University of Melbourne. She serves on the boards of Robogals Global, the Foundation for Young Australians, and RMIT’s New Enterprise Investment Fund, where she helps decide on startup investments, the Victorian State Innovation Expert Panel, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative’s Tech Advisory Board. In her spare time, Marita enjoys reading, travelling and daydreaming.
Date: Monday 4 December 2017
Time: 6pm – 7.30pm
Venue: R Block Refectory
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