School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences - University of Waikato

19/08/2026

Registrations of interest for the New Zealand Cyber Security Challenge 2026 are now open. ⚡💥 Put your skills to the test - entry is free and there are great prizes to be won! 🏆💰

The online qualifying round runs from 21 - 30 August, and you can compete from anywhere in New Zealand. Top performers will be invited to the National Finals on the University of Waikato campus 9-10 October.

Whether you are a student, an emerging technologist or an industry professional, register now and see how far your skills can take you. 🔓🛡

https://cybersecuritychallenge.org.nz/ #

Cyber Security Researchers of Waikato - CROW The University of Waikato

The CTF will consist of multiple challenges. Participants will compete to find hidden "flags" embedded within each challenge. The topics that the challenges cover include, but are not limited to:

18/08/2026

This year we celebrate 30 years of WEKA! 🎉🎈🥳🎂💾

WEKA (Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis) is one of the world's best-known open-source machine learning and data mining software systems. It was originally developed at the University of Waikato and has been continuously maintained here for around 30 years. The first public release was made in 1996, making 2026 the 30th anniversary of WEKA releases.

Over the past three decades, WEKA has been used by researchers, students, educators, and industry practitioners around the world. It is particularly well known as a teaching and research platform because it provides access to a wide range of machine learning algorithms through an easy-to-use interface. Many people have encountered machine learning for the first time through WEKA.

The software has also helped raise the international profile of the University of Waikato. WEKA formed the basis of the widely used textbook Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques. Originally authored by Waikato researchers and now involving additional international collaborators, the book has become one of the most widely used textbooks in the field and has been cited tens of thousands of times. The fifth edition was published in 2025.

What makes this anniversary noteworthy is not only the longevity of the project, but also the fact that it remains actively developed and supported by Waikato researchers. The recent release demonstrates that WEKA continues to evolve alongside advances in computing platforms and software technologies while remaining freely available to users worldwide.

Few academic software projects achieve this level of international adoption and sustained development over such a long period. This makes 30 years of WEKA releases a significant milestone for both the School and the University.

Congratulations Team WEKA, on 30 years of impact! 💾🎉🦤(yes that's a dodo - they don't have a weka emoji for some reason!)

https://weka.ai/

CS³ - Computer Science Student Society The University of Waikato

18/08/2026

We were pleased to host the Waikato site of the New Zealand Programming Contest in early August. This is an annual event open to school, tertiary and open competitors across New Zealand. The teams get a pile of programming problems, ranging from easy to very difficult, and five hours to solve as many as they can on a single computer (suitably fuelled by copious snacks, going by the photos!)🥤🍟

The top Hamilton team 🏆 in each category are:

* High School category -- team "Silly Goobers" (Logan Bentley and Nattapong Arun) of Cambridge High School, 72 points, 10th place nationally in the High School category.🏅

* Tertiary Intermediate category (2nd year) -- team "Pork Buns" (Jerzy Sosnowski and Timithia Midnight) of UoW, 52 points, 2nd place nationally in their category.🥈🎉👏

* Tertiary Open category (3rd+ year / postgrad) -- team "dasNZstar" (Bowen Luo) of UoW, 212 points, 3rd place nationally in his category, and 5th highest score across all categories!🏅

* Open category -- team "networkprotection" (Jasper Zhang, recent UoW MInfoTech graduate), 6th place nationally in his category.

Congratulations to the top teams and to everyone who participated! 🎉👏🎈

Some statistics about the Hamilton site:
We had 17 teams of 1-3 people (35 people in total).
Of these, there were 6 high school teams (4 Hillcrest High, 1 St John's, 1 Cambridge High; in total 13 students).

A big "thanks" to Phil for the photos, Leah and Rachel for helping to organise and to Eibe for helping to run things on the day.🙏

CS³ - Computer Science Student Society

23/07/2026

A reflection of 30+ years of research enabling te reo Māori in computing environments: If you missed getting along in person to Professor Te Taka Keegan’s professorial lecture earlier this month, the recording is now available on our YouTube channel (link below).

💡Māku anō e whakapūāwai (if you want something done, often you just have to do it yourself)

From growing up in Taranaki, his studies and early roles including working with Google and Microsoft, to now being the first Māori Professor of Computer Science, Professor Keegan describes some of his journey, the things he decided he’d just have to do himself, and some of the key projects and people along the way.

Congratulations Professor Keegan! 🎓👏🎉

Here's the link: https://youtu.be/YzrpD2AaHWs?si=Z2zVIKnKf2d4WeOq

CS³ - Computer Science Student Society

07/07/2026

Great to see so many of you at our recent Open Days on the Hamilton and Tauranga campuses! If you have further questions or want to dig a bit deeper, bring your friends and family along to our Community Open Day:
📅 Saturday 18 July
📍 The Pā. Hamilton Campus
⏰ 10am - 1pm

For the full schedule and to register 👇
https://www.waikato.ac.nz/news-events/events/open-day/community-open-day/

Photo credit: Phil Treweek and official UoW

26/05/2026

Just a reminder - Our very own Professor Judy Bowen is speaking this evening, 5:45pm, on campus in the Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts - "Being Human in the age of Technology."

Technology is embedded into every part of our lives, but what can we do to make certain that it is reliable, usable and safe?

The bar opens at 5pm, free parking available at Gate 2B. Click the link below to register.

https://www.waikato.ac.nz/news-events/events/find-event/hamilton-public-lecture-by-professor-judy-bowen/

25/05/2026

Motivated by a need for “sovereign digital systems,” our very own Professor Te Taka Keegan, and master's student Kingsley Eng, set out to develop a high-fidelity synthetic voice—a text-to-speech system, in other words—for a specific dialect of te reo Māori.

What they produced may offer a replicable blueprint for other minority language communities around the world.

Read more in the article published this week in IEEE Spectrum 👇

https://spectrum.ieee.org/indigenous-ai-voice-models-maori

University of Waikato

Several projects around the world are working to develop indigenous-owned AI models

15/05/2026

Three of our students, Alexis Manosca, Dana Greaves, and Saeedeh Shokoohi, recently enjoyed the opportunity to attend the IAASysters NZ Workshop and the New Zealand Network Operators Group (NZNOG) Conference in Christchurch, connecting with women and industry professionals from across Aotearoa’s tech sector. 🗣⚡

IAASysters NZ is an annual workshop that creates a welcoming and supportive space for women in tech, with a strong focus on confidence, soft skills, and career development. Alongside this, the NZNOG conference brought together network operators and organisations from across the country, offering valuable insight into the tech industry in action.👩🏼‍💻💡

Together, the two events offered a balance of reflection and real world perspective. From thought-provoking discussions on career mindset and growth, to conversations around networking, self-belief, and navigating the tech industry, the experience challenged perspectives and sparked new ideas.

Beyond the sessions themselves, the opportunity to connect with like-minded women, build new relationships, and be part of a wider tech community made the experience especially meaningful.
We’re proud to see our students stepping into these spaces — curious, confident, and ready to shape what comes next 💡

15/04/2026

So proud of all our grads today! Here are a few of our Master's grads captured on the Village Green earlier today - from left:

Rachel Martin – Master of Cyber Security
Emily McCullagh – Master of Cyber Security
Kingsley Eng – Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence
Munaz Jahan – Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence
Jiya Peter – Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence
Rudra Kar – Master of Science in Computer
and in the back row, lecturers Vimal Kumar and Junaid Haseeb joining the celebrations!

Congratulations everyone!

15/04/2026

Some lovely behind-the-scenes shots from this morning's graduation ceremony (and even some sneaky shots from on stage!) by our intrepid photographer, Phil.

MC² - Maths and Co Club CS³ - Computer Science Student Society The University of Waikato