Date: |
21 Oct 2026, 5.30PM – 8.30PM |
duration: |
3 hrs |
Venue: |
Saint Alice |
Address: |
Level 1/204 Quay Street Auckland |
Cost: |
Free event |
This year’s Stand’n Chat features six speakers from diverse engineering backgrounds, sharing insights from research, industry practice, and major projects.
- Maria Upston
Structural Engineer at Mott MacDonald with experience on major infrastructure and building projects in New Zealand and overseas. Maria will present "Mega Projects, Small Country", discussing global collaboration, automation, and opportunities for New Zealand engineers contributing to international projects.
- Michel Zhou
Graduate Structural Engineer with a strong interest in structural dynamics and soil-structure interaction. Her presentation, "Slenderness and Soil-Structure Interaction", explores how structural slenderness influences dynamic behaviour beyond traditional design models.
- Serena Milne
HVAC Consulting Engineer with 20 years of experience, specialising in school design. Serena will share a school retrofit case study, highlighting how stakeholder engagement and understanding user needs led to a successful engineering outcome.
- Ziqi Yang
Structural Engineer at Blue Barn Consulting and former University of Auckland PhD researcher. In "Dynamic Behaviour of Rocking Structures: Insights from Shake Table Experiments", he will present findings from large-scale testing of rocking structural systems.
- Kun Zhang
Fourth-year PhD candidate at the University of Auckland researching soil-structure interaction and rockable structures. His presentation, "The Interaction Between Soil and Rockable Structures During Pulse Loads and Ground Motions", examines how soil-foundation-structure interaction affects structural response under dynamic loading.
Join us for an evening of technical insight, research, and discussion with engineers and researchers from across the industry.
Please note: ID is required for entry to this event.
Join the Auckland Branch for Stand'n Chat, a lively and interactive event for engineers to practice public speaking in a supportive environment!
This year’s Stand’n Chat features six speakers from diverse engineering backgrounds, sharing insights from research, industry practice, and major projects.
- Maria Upston
Structural Engineer at Mott MacDonald with experience on major infrastructure and building projects in New Zealand and overseas. Maria will present "Mega Projects, Small Country", discussing global collaboration, automation, and opportunities for New Zealand engineers contributing to international projects.
- Michel Zhou
Graduate Structural Engineer with a strong interest in structural dynamics and soil-structure interaction. Her presentation, "Slenderness and Soil-Structure Interaction", explores how structural slenderness influences dynamic behaviour beyond traditional design models.
- Serena Milne
HVAC Consulting Engineer with 20 years of experience, specialising in school design. Serena will share a school retrofit case study, highlighting how stakeholder engagement and understanding user needs led to a successful engineering outcome.
- Ziqi Yang
Structural Engineer at Blue Barn Consulting and former University of Auckland PhD researcher. In "Dynamic Behaviour of Rocking Structures: Insights from Shake Table Experiments", he will present findings from large-scale testing of rocking structural systems.
- Kun Zhang
Fourth-year PhD candidate at the University of Auckland researching soil-structure interaction and rockable structures. His presentation, "The Interaction Between Soil and Rockable Structures During Pulse Loads and Ground Motions", examines how soil-foundation-structure interaction affects structural response under dynamic loading.
Join us for an evening of technical insight, research, and discussion with engineers and researchers from across the industry.
Please note: ID is required for entry to this event.
Presenters
Auckland Branch
