Following the Celebration, the Foundation will hold its annual National Awards Dinner at Rydges on Swanston to present the winners of the prestigious 2019 Pearcey National Awards (Medal, Hall of Fame and Entrepreneur). Hear leading thinkers ponder the future of education as we gather for a delicious sit-down dinner.

First Computer // Digital Future - Student event in Partnership with Scienceworks

Friday 15 November 2019
9:00am - 2:00pm

Scienceworks
2 Booker St, Spotswood

For years 7-10
Free to attend, however bookings essential (maximum 120 students)

Thanks go to the Organising Committee, the hosts at Sydney Nanoscience Hub and of course the generous sponsors, TechnologyOne, CSIRO, the NSW Office of the Chief Scientist & Engineer, and the individual Friends of Pearcey - who helped bring this very important evening together.

You may also be interested to check out the ABC RN Science Show broadcast from 22 June 2019 - where Robin Williams' team has a segment on CSIRAC and Computer Generated music!

CSIRAC is credited internationally as the first computer to generate 'electronic' music - and features Paul Doornbusch (speaker at the November 14 event in Melbourne) as well as Barbara Ainsworth (speaker at the March 5 event in Sydney).

On Tuesday 5 March, we invite you to join past, present and future leaders from academia and industry in celebrating Dr Pearcey's legacy. We will acknowledge Pearcey's seminal contributions to the modern computing era and to science more broadly, and will also explore his influence on the next generation of Australian innovators.

Pearcey collaborated on the creation of CSIRAC: Australia's first computer and the world's fourth. His work paved the way for the birth of computer science in Australia. The Centenary Celebration is a chance to honour Pearcey's legacy and catch a glimpse of what the future holds for Australian innovation, as we toast to the spirit of entrepreneurship, collaboration and leadership.

Diving into topics from qubits to hunting galaxies; the Centenary Celebration program will feature Australia's leading minds exploring three of Dr Pearcey's prime areas of interest: computing, astronomy and radio physics, and nanoscience.

Tuesday 5 March 2019
3:00pm - 7:00pm

The Sydney Nanoscience Hub
The University of Sydney Nano Institute

No cost to attend.

On Tuesday 29 August 2019, Roger Taylor, Chair of the UK Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation delivered the 2019 Oration at a delightful dinner at the Woodward Centre in Melbourne.

The 2019 Pearcey Oration explored the key challenges Australia faces as we become increasingly reliant upon a data driven world. As Roger Taylor observed, the ethics surrounding the application of data in our society is challenging as corporations and governments use data for both good and not-so-good e.g. for power, control, surveillance and manipulation.

Roger was later joined by Dr Greg Adamson, Enterprise Fellow in Cybersecurity for the Melbourne School of Engineering at the University of Melbourne, for a fascinating ‘fire-side’ conversation.

The Oration was presented in conjunction with the Victorian State Entrepreneur Award, which was awarded to Craig McDonald, founder and CEO of MailGuard and of BlackEvents.

The Pearcey Oration was one of the featured events in the Digital Innovation Festival and was generously supported by the Victorian Government. This is the 11th year for the Pearcey Oration and the 20th year for the Pearcey Victorian Entrepreneur Award.

Video footage of Roger's Oration, courtesy of Karl von Moller, is available on the Pearcey YouTube channel here (along with his fabulous video on Australian innovation played on the night!). And some great media coverage here.

You can also listen to Roger Taylor's interview from ABC Radio Melbourne's The Conversation Hour at this link. Roger joins just after the 31 minute mark.

The Centenary Celebration is proudly sponsored by:

Dr Trevor Pearcey (5 March 1919 - 27 January 1998) was an outstanding Australian ICT Pioneer. Most notably, he led the project team that built one of the world's earliest digital computers, the CSIR Mark 1, later known as CSIRAC.