From the Director's desk

In this newsletter I would like to share with you some of the exciting initiatives that CODE has launched in 2022.

CODE is now working with an Oversight Group that advises the Centre about strategic issues. The members of the Oversight Group are: Jen Sepull (JMS Digital Advisory Group), Snejina Michailova (University of Auckland), Mitchell Pham (CodeHQ) and Nikhil Ravishankar (Air New Zealand). We are grateful for their advice and for the opportunities they have given our members to have a voice in the New Zealand tech landscape.

In this newsletter, CODE is offering a summary of key articles that every executive should read. We have summarised articles to make them easy to read and get the message in 4-5 minutes. You can read four article summaries in this edition. This is a service that CODE is proud to offer to its community and we would love to get feedback on this initiative.

This year, CODE has been influential in promoting the agenda around the role of digital assets in achieving sustainability targets. CODE led a study with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)on digital sustainability and published several articles on the topic. Our study found that NZ enterprises have fallen short from pursuing a strategy that harnesses digital solutions to address their sustainability targets, such as net zero. You can read more about the study in this newsletter. CODE will continue working with our partners on digital sustainability as we believe that policy makers and enterprises should invest more in creating a bridge between digital assets and sustainability targets.

CODE is also promoting digital sustainability by holding events on the subject. We had an amazing panel in June on digital sustainability with Annabell Chartres (PwC), Priti Ambani (TCS), Julie Lindenberg (Cogo) and Mitchell Pham (CodeHQ). In November, CODE held its annual symposium on sustainability and technology with Molly Harris Olson (Fairtrade), Emma Barrett and Graeme Muller (NZTech) as speakers, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Mitchell Pham (CodeHQ). The recording of these sessions are available on the CODE website.

We also continued with our regular seminars. Dr Shasha Wang presented her research on face recognition and payment systems in June. Ilan Oshri talked about emerging technologies and climate change on TechWeek TV in May. Laszlo Sajtos talked about the importance of digital sustainability in NZ in May and a panel of experts that specialise in space-based observation data (Kurt Janssen, Nick Borroz and Dimitri Geidelberg) shared their views on how tech can help address climate change. Recording of these talks are available on the link above.

Last but not least, CODE has welcomed two new members – Ying Zhang and Randy Wong – both lecturers at the University of Auckland Business School. Both Ying and Randy have been conducting research in areas that concern the deployment of technologies and their impact on individuals and teams.

Watch the CODE space as we are launching more exciting studies in 2022 and 2023.