Nerd night

past

Aug 27

Nerd Night: A Celebration of Hardware, Creativity & Quirky Side Projects

The first-ever Nerd Night at Hardware Meetup NZ set out to be something different — and it didn’t disappoint. Instead of the usual lineup of startup founders and product engineers, the spotlight was handed to the community. Attendees were invited to share their personal, often delightfully eccentric projects. The result? An evening that blended invention, storytelling, and good old nerdy passion.

Mikayla Stokes opened with an honest and funny look back at her journey. At 12, she fell in love with robotics, then built an IoT air-pollution sensor as a teenager, and later a vertical hydroponics system that accidentally flooded her parents’ basement. She even starred on kids’ TV shows building Rube Goldberg contraptions and robotic pets. Today she’s an automation engineer at Crown Equipment, but she’s also planning workshops to spark curiosity in 11–15-year-olds by letting them recreate “mini” versions of her past inventions .

Alexander Rowe-Meerdink, founder of SecuriChair, shared the story of his invention: a seat sensor that automatically locks your computer when you stand up. In high-security environments, it works perfectly. But in clinics and offices, the automation became more annoying than helpful. After losing money and months of effort, Alex found success with a hilariously simple pivot — a big red button you smash to lock your computer. The lesson: sometimes stripping things back is the smartest innovation .

Sophia Schulz, a mechatronics graduate and multimedia artist, showcased her interactive LED installation built from vintage slide films. The piece lights up only when people move near it, turning viewers into part of the exhibit. It’s part of her wider project, Resonance, an upcoming STEAM exhibition funded by the Blackbird Foundation. She’s still recruiting artists and supporters, blending engineering with storytelling to reimagine what exhibitions can be .

Mikesh Patel, founder of OTTOMAT3D, described how his late-night frustration with managing 20+ printers led to a breakthrough: a $500 kit that automates build plate swapping. Competing with $80,000 proprietary systems, his solution raised $85,000 on Kickstarter and sold 150 units, mostly overseas. He’s now working on enterprise versions to serve schools, small businesses, and maker labs — proving that industrial-grade automation doesn’t need to come with an industrial-grade price tag.

Jack Barker from Robot Rampage brought the house down with stories of robot combat. Having competed in the U.S. BattleBots with 100kg machines, he’s now running tournaments in Auckland with robots from 150 grams to 13kg. Sparks fly, parts shatter, and yes — sometimes there are fires that require evacuation. A Robot Rampage World Cup is already on the horizon, with teams from around the world set to compete .

Chris Dirks demoed his real-time Auckland train map, powered by an ESP32-C3 chip, custom PCBs, and open data from Auckland Transport. What began as a hobby project has grown into 80 units sold, open-source firmware updates, and even spin-offs in Helsinki and Prague. Future plans include expanding to Wellington and experimenting with departure displays for buses and trains.

Steve West shared how he tackled his first-ever FPGA project to generate analogue HD video from an ESP32 for his East German Trabant. With no prior FPGA experience, he reverse-engineered the video standard and hacked together a working solution in just three weeks — proving that curiosity and persistence can unlock even the most obscure hardware challenges.

Alberto Gonzalez Vazquez revived Chillmark, a smart Bluetooth thermometer for beer that tells you when your drink is at the perfect temperature. First dreamed up seven years ago in Italy over craft beers, the project is now being restarted with modern BLE 5.0 tech — a true passion project born from engineering curiosity and love of good beer.

Peter Gutmann shared how frustration with a clunky, fee-based 1990s-era alarm system led him to build his own DIY home alarm. Using an ESP32 PLC, IO expanders, and a $20 NFC/RFID keypad from AliExpress, he created a modern, Home Assistant–integrated system for under $60 — proving that with some ingenuity, you can outdo commercial products at a fraction of the cost.

Michael Connaughton shared his ambitious solo project: a three-metre autonomous boat designed to cross oceans. Built with redundancy in sails, motors, solar, and electronics — plus a custom hubless thruster to spit out weeds — the boat is being tested step by step, from lake trials to a planned Rangitoto run, before tackling a trans-Tasman voyage and ultimately a six-month Antarctic loop.

Louis Habberfield-Short, a patent attorney, shared his delightfully quirky web app that scrapes the patent attorney register to track new registrations, firm moves, and even longest names. What began as a personal project to prove he had the longest name evolved into a tool that now “throat sings” new attorneys into the profession — a playful mix of data scraping, humour, and creative coding.

Adrian Dorrington, former Waikato University lecturer and serial entrepreneur, showcased a project that adapts old burglar alarm systems from copper phone lines to modern networks. His device, built with an ESP32 and LoRa module, bridges analogue alarms to Wi-Fi or LoRa, offering both convenience and backup connectivity — though he joked it now mostly gathers dust after a commercial partner lost interest.

Ralph Loader showcased his passion for 3D-printing polyhedra, colourful geometric shapes he designs with OpenSCAD. By assembling parts with rubber bands and struts instead of glue, he achieves smoother surfaces and perfect alignment — a clever blend of math and maker ingenuity.

Aleksandr “Sasha” Savchuk, a first-year engineering student at AUT, shared his first big repair project: reviving a 1960s analogue multimeter held together with duct tape and dreams. Using Dutch schematics and Google Translate, he’s learning electronics the hands-on way — breaking things, fixing them, and leaning on the community for support.

Talha Ashraf, a final-year Computer Systems Engineering student at UoA, shared his passion for embedded systems and modular hardware. Inspired by the Framework laptop and Google’s Project Ara, he dreams of building repairable, modular devices like headphones and smart lamps, while seeking graduate roles to kickstart his career.

Why Nerd Night Worked

What made Nerd Night so special was the blend of technical brilliance and personal storytelling. From basement floods to fire-breathing robots, from hacked beer thermometers to futuristic art, every project reflected the curiosity and creativity of its maker.

It was a reminder that hardware isn’t just about startups and funding — it’s about the joy of tinkering, the courage to share unfinished ideas, and the community that cheers you on. Judging by the energy in the room, this won’t be the last Nerd Night.

Event Sponsors

OuTset Ventures

Outset Ventures are committed to empowering overlooked science and engineering innovators to transform their ideas into groundbreaking ventures, helping them succeed at the critical early stages. As New Zealand's center of gravity for science and engineering startups and scaleups, Outset is home to a community of 40+ founder-led companies, 5000 square meters of laboratory and workshop spaces, and the country's most active deep technology investment fund.

GPC Electronics

GPC Electronics, is Australasia's largest contract electronics manufacturers, specializing in a wide range of sectors including Industrial Controls, Power Electronics, Aerospace, Medical and Defence. GPC Electronics provides comprehensive services from design and prototyping to full-scale production and testing, leveraging advanced technologies to deliver high-quality electronic solutions globally.

Blender

Blender is a product design and development consultancy. Their collaborative approach, strategic design process and technical know-how deliver engineered, purpose-made products. Since 2006 Blender partnered with many incredible companies, helping them to realise their vision and shape the future, by supporting them with exceptional product design, prototyping, engineering, and manufacturing services.

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