May Nerd Nite North Van “Wonder Women of STEM"

We're back with a new season of mind-blowing talks, trivia and one of the city’s most unique 19+ nights out, where science gets social and curiosity takes the mic.

Every Nite features three 15-minute talks from scientists, experts, and curious thinkers who can explain big ideas in plain, human language. No decoder ring required. Just real knowledge, shared with humour and beer. After each talk, get up close and personal with speakers when the audience joins in a live Q&A.

May’s show pays homage to some amazing women of Science, Technology Engineering and Math with an all-female cast of speakers for our “Wonder Woman of STEM" show.

Show starts promptly at 7pm. Please arrive by 6:50pm at the latest. Doors open at 6pm. Venue has a great menu!

Johanna Wagstaffe, CBC Science Reporter & Meteorologist

Cascadia Subduction Zone - The 100-Year Window

The West Coast is famous for its mountains, oceans and a fault line that hasn’t had a proper meltdown in over 300 years. Beneath the surface, invisible forces are quietly winding up for something enormous - and they don’t care about your plans.

With over 2,000 earthquakes rumbling through British Columbia every year, most of them too small to notice, it’s easy to forget that something much bigger is quietly building beneath us. Just off the coast of Vancouver Island, the Cascadia Subduction Zone is locked, loaded, and long overdue - capable of unleashing a magnitude 9.0 megathrust earthquake, like the one that struck in 1700 and sent a tsunami all the way across the Pacific Ocean to Japan.

Now, a newly discovered tear in the tectonic plate suggests the northern edge of this massive fault may be starting to behave differently than expected - possibly even shutting down. That might sound reassuring…until you realize it could change how, where, and how violently the next “Big One” hits.

Local Lynn Valley native and CBC science reporter and meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe dives into the latest research, what it means for the West Coast, and why living here means sharing space with a system that is patient, powerful, and very much alive.

Johanna Wagstaffe is an award-winning CBC journalist, meteorologist, and science host with a background in geophysics and seismology. Specializing in climate and earthquake science, she has fronted investigative series and podcasts including Fault Lines and 2050: Degrees of Change.

After earning an honours degree in geophysics from Western University, Johanna interned at the Environment Canada Severe Weather Centre and later obtained a meteorology certificate from York University. Beyond her reporting, she is a dedicated author of STEM books for children and she is passionate about science literacy!

Zoha Khawaja Bioethicist, SFU

Voice AI Therapeutic Chatbots - The Physics of Feelings

Your voice carries more than words. It carries stress, fatigue, mood, hesitation, and patterns you don’t consciously control. This talk explores the rise of therapeutic AI chatbots that listen to how you speak, not just what you say, using voice as a potential biomarker for mental health.

In real-time and set in a near-future clinic, where voice AI has quietly become part of everyday care, this dramatized talk walks audiences through how these systems promise to expand access to mental health support while raising unsettling questions about consent, regulation, bias, and trust. When your voice becomes data and therapy becomes software, who is listening, who decides what counts as “healthy,” and what has to go right, before we let an algorithm help hold our minds together?

Zoha Khawaja is a health sciences researcher working at the intersection of psychology, bioethics, and emerging AI technologies. She recently completed her MSc at SFU and holds a BA in Psychology from University of Calgary. As a member of the Bridge2AI Voice Consortium, her research examines the ethical, legal, and social implications of using voice-based AI chatbots for therapeutic care. She is currently continuing this work while preparing for a Mitacs internship focused on translating research into real-world clinical tools. Mitacs is a national non-profit that connects students and researchers with companies, startups, and government groups. The idea is simple: instead of research living in a dusty PDF no one reads, Mitacs funds projects where people apply their work directly to real industry challenges. Outside the lab, Zoha keeps busy skiing, running, dancing, hiking, and painting, presumably proving she is still more human than any chatbot.

Dr. Rosanna Tilbrook, Hot Jupiter Exoplanets

Astronomer, H.R. McMillan Space Centre

Details coming soon!

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Nerd Nite North Vancouver