Raising the Bar is back, pouring the University of Auckland’s most fascinating and future-shaping research straight into bars across the inner city

Among the topics on the menu at this year’s event on August 26 are the power of urban design to create and connect communities, how cutting-edge science is personalising health treatment like never before, the science of safer drug use and why big tech’s unchecked AI development is a code red for democracy.

With 20 talks held across ten bars in Auckland’s CBD on one night, Raising the Bar gives alumni and the general public a chance to directly engage with top academics from the University of Auckland, all while enjoying their favourite drop.

“At its heart, Raising the Bar is about making research real and relevant,” says Mark Bentley, Director of Alumni Relations and Development at the University of Auckland. “These talks bring important ideas into everyday spaces, sparking conversations about health, technology, culture and more – conversations that extend far beyond the University.”

Originally launched in New York in 2013, Raising the Bar is now a global initiative – and the University of Auckland has proudly brought the event to local audiences since 2017.

This year’s talks will be held at bars across Auckland’s CBD, including in Wynyard Quarter, Victoria Park and City Works Depot.

Each venue will host two sessions, starting at 6pm and 8pm, with punters free to move from one bar to another to catch their preferred talks.

All talks are free, but with the event expected to sell out early registration is recommended.

Visit www.rtbevent.com/auckland to register your place now.

This year’s full line-up:

• Merryn Tawhai – Reimagining healthcare with human digital twins
• Rhys Ponton – From lab coats to late nights: the science of safer drug use
• Simon Young – Broken knees, bionic fixes and the rise of robot surgeons
• David Krofcheck – Out of this world: the smallest and most surprising liquid in the Universe
• Justin O’Sullivan – Swab, sequence, surprise! How science is personalising your health
• Mohsen Mohammadzadeh – Robo-rides and city life: what could go right...or wrong?
• Andrew Erueti – The limits of liberal equality and the future of Māori self-determination
• Christina Stringer – Closer than you think: migrant exploitation and modern slavery in Aotearoa
• Olaf Diegel – 3D printing the future
• Darren Svirskis – The quest to find a cure for spinal cord injury
• Claire Meehan: Not just jokes: how misogyny online is shaping teen culture
• Alexandra Andhov – Code red for democracy: when big tech becomes bigger than government
• Sophie Tomlinson – ‘Tragical-comical-historical-pastoral’: Shakespeare’s Cymbeline
• Marcelo Rodriguez Ferrere – We know animals are sentient. What does that mean for their legal status?
• Chris Ogden – Global authoritarianism: how to spot it and how to stop it
• Joel Rindelaub – Breathing plastic: Aotearoa’s invisible pollution problem
• Antje Fiedler – Rewriting the playbook: how Kiwi businesses can thrive in a changing world
• Lee Beattie – Beyond buildings: urban design’s power to create and connect communities
• Laura Burn – A human history of looking up: from stargazing to space lasers
• Tom Allen – A carbon fibre yarn: weaving fossil fuel roots into a sustainable future

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