Energy (and Other) Events is a weekly mailing list published most Sundays covering events around the Cambridge, MA and greater Boston area that catch the editor's eye.
Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com is the web version.
If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe to Energy (and Other) Events email gmoke@world.std.com
What I Do and Why I Do It: The Story of Energy (and Other) Events
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-i-do-and-why-i-do-it.html
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Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com is the web version.
If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe to Energy (and Other) Events email gmoke@world.std.com
What I Do and Why I Do It: The Story of Energy (and Other) Events
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-i-do-and-why-i-do-it.html
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Event Index - full Event Details available below the Index
Watt d’Or Exhibition of Swiss Energy Innovation Award Winners
Northeastern International Village, 1155-1175 Tremont Street, Boston
until September 14
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Monday, August 25
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2pm Building a 21st Century Health Care System: Aligning Policy, Accelerating Cures, Delivering Hope
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Tuesday, August, 26
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2pm Models for Emotion Recognition in Natural Settings and Perspectives for Energy Efficiency
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Wednesday, August 27
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6pm International Development Networking Night
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Thursday, August 28
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3pm The Contemporary Political Malaise in the Three Major Arab States, Egypt, Syria and Iraq
6pm Boston Games Forum: August Demo Night
6pm Pitch Club Boston
6pm Digital Health: Designing for Behavior Change
7pm Stop the Wars, Stop the Warming: Organizing Meeting for the People’s Climate March
7pm The Organized Mind
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Friday, August 29
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8:30am Innovation Breakfast at The Food Loft
6:30pm Summer Series: Urban Design Film, The Human Scale
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Saturday, August 30
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7pm Bread and Puppet Theater: Insurrection Oratorio
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Sunday, August 31
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3pm Bread & Puppet Theater: The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus
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Monday, September 1
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10am Practical Options for Food Production Resilience in an Increasingly Variable Climate
4pm Bread & Puppet Theater: The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus
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Tuesday, September 2
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3pm Simons Center Workshop 2014: The Social Brain - New Opportunities for Discovery and Technology Development
6pm Boston Area Sustainability Group Presents: WATER
6:30pm Persuasive Design with Sebastian Deterding
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com
Smart Phones to Tricorders
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/20/1323120/-Smart-Phones-to-Tricorders
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Watt d’Or Exhibition of Swiss Energy Innovation Award Winners
Northeastern International Village, 1155-1175 Tremont Street, Boston
until September 14
Watt d’Or Exhibition of Swiss Energy Innovation Award Winners
Northeastern International Village, 1155-1175 Tremont Street, Boston
until September 14
——————————
Monday, August 25
——————————
2pm Building a 21st Century Health Care System: Aligning Policy, Accelerating Cures, Delivering Hope
——————————
Tuesday, August, 26
——————————
2pm Models for Emotion Recognition in Natural Settings and Perspectives for Energy Efficiency
———————————
Wednesday, August 27
———————————
6pm International Development Networking Night
——————————
Thursday, August 28
——————————
3pm The Contemporary Political Malaise in the Three Major Arab States, Egypt, Syria and Iraq
6pm Boston Games Forum: August Demo Night
6pm Pitch Club Boston
6pm Digital Health: Designing for Behavior Change
7pm Stop the Wars, Stop the Warming: Organizing Meeting for the People’s Climate March
7pm The Organized Mind
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Friday, August 29
—————————
8:30am Innovation Breakfast at The Food Loft
6:30pm Summer Series: Urban Design Film, The Human Scale
——————————
Saturday, August 30
——————————
7pm Bread and Puppet Theater: Insurrection Oratorio
—————————
Sunday, August 31
—————————
3pm Bread & Puppet Theater: The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus
———————————
Monday, September 1
———————————
10am Practical Options for Food Production Resilience in an Increasingly Variable Climate
4pm Bread & Puppet Theater: The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus
———————————
Tuesday, September 2
———————————
3pm Simons Center Workshop 2014: The Social Brain - New Opportunities for Discovery and Technology Development
6pm Boston Area Sustainability Group Presents: WATER
6:30pm Persuasive Design with Sebastian Deterding
---------------------------------
*************************
My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com
Smart Phones to Tricorders
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/20/1323120/-Smart-Phones-to-Tricorders
---------------------------------------------------------
*******************************************
Watt d’Or Exhibition of Swiss Energy Innovation Award Winners
Northeastern International Village, 1155-1175 Tremont Street, Boston
until September 14
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Monday, August 25
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Building a 21st Century Health Care System: Aligning Policy, Accelerating Cures, Delivering Hope
Monday, August 25
2:00 PM - 4:45 PM
Tufts University School of Medicine, Jaharis Family Center, 150 Harrison Avenue, Behrakis Auditorium (Room 130), Boston
Monday, August 25
2:00 PM - 4:45 PM
Tufts University School of Medicine, Jaharis Family Center, 150 Harrison Avenue, Behrakis Auditorium (Room 130), Boston
RSVP by calling 646-839-3372 or http://www.manhattan-institute.org/events/mi-08-25-14.htm
America is on the cusp of a Golden Age in medicine. Significant advances in our understanding of human physiology and genetics are merging with cutting-edge technologies and bioengineering, enabling us to attack the root causes of complex diseases.
To fully realize these life-saving and life-improving opportunities, we need to find new ways to accelerate the development, lower the cost, and reduce the risk of bringing new medicines to market. Moreover, without reforms, the U.S. could easily find itself ceding its current global leadership position in bio-innovation.
The Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, in partnership with the Manhattan Institute and its Project FDA, is bringing together key policymakers, patient advocates, leading academics, and industry experts to assess roadblocks to bio-innovation and explore how to create a better paradigm for the discovery and development of new medicines and delivery to patients. With Congress poised to take action on this challenge—witness the launch of its bipartisan 21st Century Cures Initiative—this Boston symposium will be the first in a series of public conversations about the reforms needed to advance innovation and create an effective and affordable health care system for the 21st Century.
1:30PM - 2:00PM Registration
2:00PM - 2:10PM Introduction and Welcome
Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, Former FDA Commissioner; Chairman, MI's Project FDA
2:10PM - 2:30PM Reflections on Congress’s 21st Century Cures Initiative
Rep. Michael Burgess, (TX-26)
2:30PM - 3:30PM Building a Better Framework for Approving New Medicines
Rep. Michael Burgess, (TX-26)
Jeff Allen, PhD, Executive Director, Friends of Cancer Research
Kenneth Kaitin, Director and Professor, Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development
Alan Eisenberg, Vice President, Federal Government Relations, Celgene
Lita Nelson, Director, Biotechnology, MIT Technology Licensing Office
Nick Leschly, President and CEO, Bluebird Bio
Phillip Sharp, Nobel Laureate & Institute Professor, MIT
Moderator: Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, Former FDA Commissioner; Chairman, MI's Project FDA
3:30PM - 3:45PM Break
3:45PM - 4:45PM Using Big Data to Support Patient-Centered Innovation
Rep. Michael Burgess, (TX-26)
Robert Popovian, Senior Director, Advocacy & Professional Relations, Pfizer
Ketan Paranjape, Worldwide Director of Health and Life Sciences, Intel
Peter Huber, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute
Gigi Hirsch, Director, Center for Biomedical Innovation, MIT
Moderator: Paul Howard, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute
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Tuesday, August, 26
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Models for Emotion Recognition in Natural Settings and Perspectives for Energy Efficiency
Tuesday, August 26
2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Refreshments: 1:45 PM
MIT, Building 32-G449, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Hazem Hajj , American University of Beirut
Abstract: This last decade has seen a major shift towards user centric computing. This shift has further inspired an attempt to personalizing devices and capturing the deepest essence of humans: emotions. Despite advances in the field of emotion recognition, challenges remain for the devices to operate unobtrusively and accurately capture user emotions in natural settings. The two main challenges are accurate models in natural settings and energy availability on mobile devices for continuous operation. To address these challenges, I will cover, in the first part of the talk, models for emotion recognition in natural settings from different modalities. I will walk through the end to end process presenting challenges and solutions for: proposing new features inspired from human thinking, developing ground truth data, evaluating features from different modalities, and providing end user recommendations. In the second part of the talk, I will present approaches for evaluating and improving energy efficiency across the different ends of the computing spectrum. For algorithm centric evaluation, the method uses a top-down approach to energy assessment in software computations. For platform centric evaluation, I will present enhancements for cloud computing, and mobile computing. These methods include Hadoop enhancements to support integration to high-end reconfigurable data nodes on a cloud computing platform and energy efficient sensing methods for mobile devices.
Bio: Hazem Hajj is an Associate Professor with the American University of Beirut (AUB). Sine joining AUB, he had led several initiatives, including the AUB’s Intel Middle East Energy Efficiency Research (MER) initiative. Before joining AUB in 2008, Hazem was a principal engineer at Intel Corporation. At Intel, he led research and development for Intel’s manufacturing automation, where he received several patents, and numerous Intel Achievement Awards. On the academic front, Hazem received his bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering from AUB in 1987 with distinction, and his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1996, where he also received several teaching awards, including the University Teaching Excellence Award. Hazem’s research interests include Data Mining, Energy-Aware Computing, with special interests in Opinion Mining, Mobile Sensing, and Emotion Recognition.
Contact: Mary McDavitt, 617-253-9620, mmcdavit@csail.mit.edu
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Wednesday, August 27
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International Development Networking Night
Wednesday, August 27
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
HI - Boston, 19 Stuart Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/international-development-networking-night-tickets-12553559033
Come enjoy an evening of networking and international conversation during BNID's end of the summer international development mixer. Held in Hostelling International-Boston's Community Room, attendees will have the chance to learn about Boston's premier international development organizations and how they can support their work. Partners include Boston International, the Next Mile Project, Acumen Boston and more. Light appetizers and refreshments will be provided.
Please make sure you are at our program by 7:00pm to hear about the work of some incredible organizations.
Partners: Boston International, Boston Network for International Development, Acumen Boston, Mercy Corps, the Next Mile Project and Hostelling International
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Thursday, August 28
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Boston Games Forum: August Demo Night
Thursday, August 28
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
Microsoft, 1 Cambridge Center, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-games-forum-august-demo-night-tickets-12474630957
The Games Forum is the place to see the newest independent games being built in Boston and network with the people who built them. Each month, we get together to watch five awesome demos and eat pizza. We're doing it again this month at Microsoft. Join our community of game developers, designers, creatives, investors and more building across multiple platforms and genres.
Want to demo your game? Complete the form here and we'll be in touch.
Please include your first and last name when you RSVP. Your name must be on the list to get past building security. Also, all guests must RSVP on their own.
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Pitch Club Boston
Thursday, August 28
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pitch-club-boston-august-tickets-12256476451
Every pitch is a performance.
And every performance needs rehearsal.
Whether you're raising funds or just floating a half-baked business idea, standing up in front of people and giving a powerful pitch is critical. But getting that pitch right takes practice and feedback, and the stakes of getting it wrong in front of important people are high.
So what if someone provided a low-stakes venue and an audience where you could go to practice? That's PitchClub. Open mic night for entrepreneurs.
PitchClub Boston provides a powerful and confidential environment for entrepreneurs to practice and refine their presentations in front of a constructive audience ready to give feedback. There are eight presentation slots once each month. Presenters get ten minutes to pitch and five minutes for feedback. Slides are welcome, as are solo and group pitches. Time limits are strictly enforced.
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Digital Health: Designing for Behavior Change
Thursday, August 28
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Microsoft New England Research and Development Center (NERD), 1 Memorial Drive, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/digital-health-designing-for-behavior-change-tickets-11768143835
Cost: $20
This unique event will feature forward thinking entrepreneurs, researchers and companies who are redefining the digital health space through the use of self-tracking systems, behavior change psychology, and human analytics.
AGENDA
6pm- Networking with refreshments
7pm- Presentations
8pm- Moderated Panel Discussion
SIGNATURE SPEAKERS
Amy Bucher, PhD - Associate Director of Behavioral Science,
Wellness & Prevention, Inc. (a Johnson & Johnson Company)
Dr. Bucher works as a member of the Behavioral Science and Data Analytics Group at Wellness & Prevention, Inc., with a focus on grounding digital health coaching program content, design, and functionality with behavioral-science based approaches. Within Johnson & Johnson, Dr. Bucher works to shape convergence opportunities where psychological science supports consumer behaviors and outcomes. She also consults with customers to design solutions that meet business challenges while being engaging, appealing, and behaviorally sound. Prior to her current role, Dr. Bucher lead the content and design development teams for HealthMedia’s suite of specialty programs, customized for pharmaceutical, medical device, and consumer packaged goods clients. Dr. Bucher received her A.B. magna cum laude in psychology from Harvard University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan.
Margaret McKenna - Head of Data and Analytics, RunKeeper
Margaret is a software engineer and the Head of Data & Analytics at RunKeeper, where she leads a team of engineers and analysts focused on providing personalized guidance and motivation to people who want to improve their fitness. Margaret recieved her MPS in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University. Prior to joinging RunKeeper she worked at IBM's Visual Communication Lab and at ChoiceStream as a Senior Implementation Consolutant.
Stephen Intille, PhD - Director of the mHealth research group,Northeastern University
Stephen Intille, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the College of Computer and Information Science and Bouvé College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University. His research focuses on the development of novel healthcare technologies that incorporate ideas from ubiquitous computing, user-interface design, pattern recognition, behavioral science, and preventive medicine. Areas of special interest include technologies for measuring and motivating health-related behaviors, technologies that support healthy aging and well-being in the home setting, and mobile technologies that permit longitudinal measurement of health behaviors for research, especially the type, duration, intensity, and location of physical activity. After ten years as Technology Director of the House_n Research Consortium at MIT, in 2010 he joined Northeastern University to help establish a new transdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Personal Health Informatics.
Natasha Schüll, PhD - Associate Professor in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society, MIT - Author of Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas
Natasha Dow Schüll is a cultural anthropologist and associate professor at MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society. Her recent book, ADDICTION BY DESIGN: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas draws on extended research among compulsive gamblers and the designers of the slot machines they play to explore the relationship between technology design and the experience of addiction. Her current, ongoing research concerns the rise of digital self-tracking technologies and the new modes of introspection and self-governance they engender. Schüll graduated Summa Cum Laude from UC Berkeley’s Department of Anthropology in 1993 and returned to receive her PhD in 2003. Schüll held postdoctoral positions as a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar at Columbia University’s Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, and as a fellow at NYU’s International Center for Advanced Studies.
If you are a designer, technologist, health professional, entrepreneur, journalist, scientist, or user, please join us for an interactive evening of inspiration packed with great speakers, networking and more!
Daniel J. Levitin
We're taking in more information than ever, required to make decisions faster and faster—so how are we supposed to remember where we put our stupid keys? There are some people who (somehow) do this. Neuroscientist and bestselling author Daniel J. Levitin uses the latest brain science to demonstrate how those people excel—and how readers can use their methods and to regain a sense of mastery over the daily challenges of memory and focus.
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Friday, August 29
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Innovation Breakfast at The Food Loft
Friday, August 29
8:30 AM to 10:00 AM (EDT)
The Food Loft, 535 Albany Street, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/innovation-breakfast-at-the-food-loft-tickets-12391512347
The Roving Innovation Breakfast's next step is at South Boston's Food Loft, a co-working space dedicated to Food and Tech entrepreneurs. Join us to talk about using social media to help get the word out about great new food products!
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Summer Series: Urban Design Film, The Human Scale
Friday, August 29
6:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Assembly Row, 100 Foley Street, Somerville
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/summer-series-urban-design-film-the-human-scale-tickets-12125195787
50% of the world’s population lives in urban areas. By 2050 this will increase to 80%. Experience a one-time film screening of The Human Scale at Assembly Row’s new outdoor amphitheater. Enjoy pop-corn and a live-skype discussion with the Danish filmmaker Andreas Dalsgaard.
The first ever Design Museum Boston Summer Series will be hosted at the outdoor amphitheater at Assembly Row in Somerville, MA. The series will consist of 3 events, each focused on a theme related to urban design (urban planning, landscape architecture, transportation, etc). When looked at holistically, the design of our urban environment and public infrastructure can shape communities to be more livable and sustainable— this tri-event series will showcase innovative thinking & inspirational examples of great urban design!
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Saturday, August 30
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Bread and Puppet Theater: Insurrection Oratorio
The Quarry, Acton, MA
Saturday, August 30
7 pm
Magazine Beach Park, Cambridge
plus
The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus
Magazine Beach Park, Cambridge, MA
Sunday, August 31st, 3 pm
and
Bread & Roses Heritage Festival, Lawrence, MA
Monday, September 1st, 4 pm
The award-winning Bread & Puppet Theater takes its annual Labor Day weekend "little big tour" down to the Boston area, this year not only bringing a new Insurrection Oratorio, to be performed in The Quarry located at Contemporary Arts International (CAI) in Acton on Saturday August 30th, but also their new The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus presented in Cambridge's Magazine Beach Park on Sunday August 31st. Bread & Puppet will then cap the holiday weekend by also performing their Circus at the 30th Annual Bread & Roses Heritage
Festival in Lawrence on Labor Day Monday.
Detailed listings information:
Bread & Puppet Theater: Insurrection Oratorio
Saturday, Aug. 30, 7 pm, rain or shine
The Quarry, Contemporary Arts International, 68 Quarry Road, Acton, MA 01720
[Closest stop on the Fitchburg Line commuter rail: South Acton Station, 3 miles biking distance.]
$20 general admission ("walk-in discount" $10), $35 per carload (over 3
people $10 each); tickets available at the door (cash or check only) or general admission in advance at
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/777264.
For more information: http://www.contemporaryartsinternational.org,
617-699-6401.
Description: An improvised piece developed by Peter Schumann, artistic director of Bread & Puppet, with instrumental music created on mechanical sound sculptures including "Container Man," a massive multi-media kinetic sculpture. All sound sculptures were designed by Viktor Lois, Hungarian-born artistic director of Contemporary Arts International (CAI). The Oratorio
will include Bread & Puppet's signature visual elements, along with movement, vocals, and pertinent political social commentary. Sourdough rye bread will be served and cheap art will be for sale after the performance.
Presented by CAI.
Bread & Puppet Theater: The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus
Sunday, Aug. 31, 3 pm, rain or shine
Magazine Beach Park (along the Charles River), 719 Memorial Drive,
Cambridge, MA 02139
[Located at the foot of Magazine St., across from Trader Joe's and the Micro
Center; in close proximity to the Red Line stop: Central Square Station,
less than 1 mile walking/biking distance.]
Pass-the-hat donation, rain location: Cambridge Community Center
(http://www.cambridgecc.org).
For more information: http://www.magazinebeach.org/events,
http://www.cambridgema.gov/arts/Programs/summerinthecity.aspx, 617-286-6694.
Description: The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus is for the not yet existing upriser masses and their kids who need to practice their upriser skills by teaming up with butterflies, cockroaches and elephants. Lions, horses and dogs are also employed to invent the correct rhythmical patterns that fight planetary destruction. The boot flags of the 15th century peasant revolution
lead the way, with a lively brass band for accompaniment. Bread & Puppet’s "Circus" acts can often be politically puzzling to adults, but accompanying kids can usually explain them. Sourdough rye bread will be served and cheap art will be made available (with a recommended donation) after the performance. Presented with assistance from the Cambridge Arts Council and the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association.
Bread & Puppet Theater: The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus
Monday, Sept. 1, 4 pm performance (entire festival runs noon-5pm), rain or
shine
30th Annual Bread & Roses Heritage Festival, Lawrence Common, Lawrence, MA
01840
[Located in close proximity to the Haverhill commuter rail stop: Lawrence Station, less than 1 mile walking/biking distance.]
The Festival is free & open to all, festival donations welcome.
For more information: http://www.breadandrosesheritage.org, 978-794-1655.
Description: The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus is for the not yet existing upriser masses and their kids who need to practice their upriser skills by teaming up with butterflies, cockroaches and elephants. Lions, horses and dogs are also employed to invent the correct rhythmical patterns that fight planetary destruction. The boot flags of the 15th century peasant revolution
lead the way, with a lively brass band for accompaniment. Bread & Puppet’s "Circus" acts can often be politically puzzling to adults, but accompanying kids can usually explain them. Sourdough rye bread will be served and cheap art will be for sale after the performance. Presented as part of the 30th Annual Bread & Roses Heritage Festival, an open-air social justice celebration.
http://www.breadandpuppet.org
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Tuesday, September 2
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Simons Center Workshop 2014: The Social Brain - New Opportunities for Discovery and Technology Development
Tuesday, September 02, 2014
3:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building 46-3002, Building 46 Atrium (3rd Floor), 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Ulrich Froriep, Alan Jasanoff; Isaac Kohane, Elizabeth Norton, Sarah Spence, Mriganka Sur
Simons Center for the Social Brain is excited to announce the 2014 Annual Workshop: New Opportunities for Discovery and Technology Development. Please join us to hear about current research and funding opportunities in understanding the social brain and its disorders, including autism.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/simons-center-workshop-2014-the-social-brain-new-opportunities-for-discovery-and-technology-tickets-12478957899
Sponsor(s): Simons Center for the Social Brain
For more information, contact: Alexandra Sokhina
617-324-7757
asokhina@mit.edu
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Boston Area Sustainability Group Presents: WATER
Tuesday, September 2
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
The Venture Cafe - Cambridge Innovation Center, 5th Floor 1 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sept-2nd-basg-presents-water-tickets-12452847803
Cost: $8-12
In partnership with Northbound Ventures, we're kicking off the fall season with 3 top-tier speakers to lead our discussion about water. Come hear, meet and engage with:
Brian Swett, Chief, Environment & Energy at City of Boston www.linkedin.com/pub/brian-swett/1/645/163. Brian will present key sustainability initiatives of the city focusing on water use and climate change planning for a rising tide.
Brooke Barton, Director of Water Program at Ceres www.linkedin.com/in/brookebarton.Brooke will share highlights of current research and trends in corporate engagement surrounding water scarcity risks and opportunities.
Dr. C. Adam Schlosser, Senior Research Scientist, Center for Global Change Science Deputy Director for Science, MIT Joint Program for Global Change http://globalchange.mit.edu . Adam will discuss the risks imposed on our water systems for developed & developing nations as a result of anticipated changes in our natural, managed and built environments.
Time is short and we all need to learn a boatload, fast. One of BASG’s explicit goals is that we learn as much as we can from each other, where the very diversity of the group is one of our most valuable assets. Come join the discussion, or hang out and listen. Meet those folks working hard to do what you’re trying to do and your paths have not yet crossed. We have a great time and really want to meet you!
Our format for the evening begins with informal networking followed by quick introductions all round before several lightening-speed presentations from knowledgeable folks. Using a modified IGNITE-style format, our speakers share their experiences and then we open the discussion to the group.
We’ll end the discussion with time left for more networking and sharing info on other local events. Hope to see you there!
America is on the cusp of a Golden Age in medicine. Significant advances in our understanding of human physiology and genetics are merging with cutting-edge technologies and bioengineering, enabling us to attack the root causes of complex diseases.
To fully realize these life-saving and life-improving opportunities, we need to find new ways to accelerate the development, lower the cost, and reduce the risk of bringing new medicines to market. Moreover, without reforms, the U.S. could easily find itself ceding its current global leadership position in bio-innovation.
The Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, in partnership with the Manhattan Institute and its Project FDA, is bringing together key policymakers, patient advocates, leading academics, and industry experts to assess roadblocks to bio-innovation and explore how to create a better paradigm for the discovery and development of new medicines and delivery to patients. With Congress poised to take action on this challenge—witness the launch of its bipartisan 21st Century Cures Initiative—this Boston symposium will be the first in a series of public conversations about the reforms needed to advance innovation and create an effective and affordable health care system for the 21st Century.
1:30PM - 2:00PM Registration
2:00PM - 2:10PM Introduction and Welcome
Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, Former FDA Commissioner; Chairman, MI's Project FDA
2:10PM - 2:30PM Reflections on Congress’s 21st Century Cures Initiative
Rep. Michael Burgess, (TX-26)
2:30PM - 3:30PM Building a Better Framework for Approving New Medicines
Rep. Michael Burgess, (TX-26)
Jeff Allen, PhD, Executive Director, Friends of Cancer Research
Kenneth Kaitin, Director and Professor, Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development
Alan Eisenberg, Vice President, Federal Government Relations, Celgene
Lita Nelson, Director, Biotechnology, MIT Technology Licensing Office
Nick Leschly, President and CEO, Bluebird Bio
Phillip Sharp, Nobel Laureate & Institute Professor, MIT
Moderator: Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, Former FDA Commissioner; Chairman, MI's Project FDA
3:30PM - 3:45PM Break
3:45PM - 4:45PM Using Big Data to Support Patient-Centered Innovation
Rep. Michael Burgess, (TX-26)
Robert Popovian, Senior Director, Advocacy & Professional Relations, Pfizer
Ketan Paranjape, Worldwide Director of Health and Life Sciences, Intel
Peter Huber, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute
Gigi Hirsch, Director, Center for Biomedical Innovation, MIT
Moderator: Paul Howard, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute
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Tuesday, August, 26
——————————
Models for Emotion Recognition in Natural Settings and Perspectives for Energy Efficiency
Tuesday, August 26
2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Refreshments: 1:45 PM
MIT, Building 32-G449, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Hazem Hajj , American University of Beirut
Abstract: This last decade has seen a major shift towards user centric computing. This shift has further inspired an attempt to personalizing devices and capturing the deepest essence of humans: emotions. Despite advances in the field of emotion recognition, challenges remain for the devices to operate unobtrusively and accurately capture user emotions in natural settings. The two main challenges are accurate models in natural settings and energy availability on mobile devices for continuous operation. To address these challenges, I will cover, in the first part of the talk, models for emotion recognition in natural settings from different modalities. I will walk through the end to end process presenting challenges and solutions for: proposing new features inspired from human thinking, developing ground truth data, evaluating features from different modalities, and providing end user recommendations. In the second part of the talk, I will present approaches for evaluating and improving energy efficiency across the different ends of the computing spectrum. For algorithm centric evaluation, the method uses a top-down approach to energy assessment in software computations. For platform centric evaluation, I will present enhancements for cloud computing, and mobile computing. These methods include Hadoop enhancements to support integration to high-end reconfigurable data nodes on a cloud computing platform and energy efficient sensing methods for mobile devices.
Bio: Hazem Hajj is an Associate Professor with the American University of Beirut (AUB). Sine joining AUB, he had led several initiatives, including the AUB’s Intel Middle East Energy Efficiency Research (MER) initiative. Before joining AUB in 2008, Hazem was a principal engineer at Intel Corporation. At Intel, he led research and development for Intel’s manufacturing automation, where he received several patents, and numerous Intel Achievement Awards. On the academic front, Hazem received his bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering from AUB in 1987 with distinction, and his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1996, where he also received several teaching awards, including the University Teaching Excellence Award. Hazem’s research interests include Data Mining, Energy-Aware Computing, with special interests in Opinion Mining, Mobile Sensing, and Emotion Recognition.
Contact: Mary McDavitt, 617-253-9620, mmcdavit@csail.mit.edu
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Wednesday, August 27
———————————
International Development Networking Night
Wednesday, August 27
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
HI - Boston, 19 Stuart Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/international-development-networking-night-tickets-12553559033
Come enjoy an evening of networking and international conversation during BNID's end of the summer international development mixer. Held in Hostelling International-Boston's Community Room, attendees will have the chance to learn about Boston's premier international development organizations and how they can support their work. Partners include Boston International, the Next Mile Project, Acumen Boston and more. Light appetizers and refreshments will be provided.
Please make sure you are at our program by 7:00pm to hear about the work of some incredible organizations.
Partners: Boston International, Boston Network for International Development, Acumen Boston, Mercy Corps, the Next Mile Project and Hostelling International
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Thursday, August 28
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The Contemporary Political Malaise in the Three Major Arab States, Egypt, Syria and Iraq: A discussion led by Professor Roger Owen
Thursday, August 28
Thursday, August 28
3:00pm - 6:00pm
The Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Room 102, 38 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
Roger Owen, A. J. Meyer Professor of Middle East History, Emeritus, Department of History, Harvard University
This event is open to the public; no registration required.
This event is off the record. The use of recording devices is strictly prohibited.
Contact: Liz Flanagan,
elizabethflanagan@fas.harvard.edu
The Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Room 102, 38 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
Roger Owen, A. J. Meyer Professor of Middle East History, Emeritus, Department of History, Harvard University
This event is open to the public; no registration required.
This event is off the record. The use of recording devices is strictly prohibited.
Contact: Liz Flanagan,
elizabethflanagan@fas.harvard.edu
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Boston Games Forum: August Demo Night
Thursday, August 28
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
Microsoft, 1 Cambridge Center, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-games-forum-august-demo-night-tickets-12474630957
The Games Forum is the place to see the newest independent games being built in Boston and network with the people who built them. Each month, we get together to watch five awesome demos and eat pizza. We're doing it again this month at Microsoft. Join our community of game developers, designers, creatives, investors and more building across multiple platforms and genres.
Want to demo your game? Complete the form here and we'll be in touch.
Please include your first and last name when you RSVP. Your name must be on the list to get past building security. Also, all guests must RSVP on their own.
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Pitch Club Boston
Thursday, August 28
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pitch-club-boston-august-tickets-12256476451
Every pitch is a performance.
And every performance needs rehearsal.
Whether you're raising funds or just floating a half-baked business idea, standing up in front of people and giving a powerful pitch is critical. But getting that pitch right takes practice and feedback, and the stakes of getting it wrong in front of important people are high.
So what if someone provided a low-stakes venue and an audience where you could go to practice? That's PitchClub. Open mic night for entrepreneurs.
PitchClub Boston provides a powerful and confidential environment for entrepreneurs to practice and refine their presentations in front of a constructive audience ready to give feedback. There are eight presentation slots once each month. Presenters get ten minutes to pitch and five minutes for feedback. Slides are welcome, as are solo and group pitches. Time limits are strictly enforced.
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Digital Health: Designing for Behavior Change
Thursday, August 28
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Microsoft New England Research and Development Center (NERD), 1 Memorial Drive, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/digital-health-designing-for-behavior-change-tickets-11768143835
Cost: $20
This unique event will feature forward thinking entrepreneurs, researchers and companies who are redefining the digital health space through the use of self-tracking systems, behavior change psychology, and human analytics.
AGENDA
6pm- Networking with refreshments
7pm- Presentations
8pm- Moderated Panel Discussion
SIGNATURE SPEAKERS
Amy Bucher, PhD - Associate Director of Behavioral Science,
Wellness & Prevention, Inc. (a Johnson & Johnson Company)
Dr. Bucher works as a member of the Behavioral Science and Data Analytics Group at Wellness & Prevention, Inc., with a focus on grounding digital health coaching program content, design, and functionality with behavioral-science based approaches. Within Johnson & Johnson, Dr. Bucher works to shape convergence opportunities where psychological science supports consumer behaviors and outcomes. She also consults with customers to design solutions that meet business challenges while being engaging, appealing, and behaviorally sound. Prior to her current role, Dr. Bucher lead the content and design development teams for HealthMedia’s suite of specialty programs, customized for pharmaceutical, medical device, and consumer packaged goods clients. Dr. Bucher received her A.B. magna cum laude in psychology from Harvard University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan.
Margaret McKenna - Head of Data and Analytics, RunKeeper
Margaret is a software engineer and the Head of Data & Analytics at RunKeeper, where she leads a team of engineers and analysts focused on providing personalized guidance and motivation to people who want to improve their fitness. Margaret recieved her MPS in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University. Prior to joinging RunKeeper she worked at IBM's Visual Communication Lab and at ChoiceStream as a Senior Implementation Consolutant.
Stephen Intille, PhD - Director of the mHealth research group,Northeastern University
Stephen Intille, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the College of Computer and Information Science and Bouvé College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University. His research focuses on the development of novel healthcare technologies that incorporate ideas from ubiquitous computing, user-interface design, pattern recognition, behavioral science, and preventive medicine. Areas of special interest include technologies for measuring and motivating health-related behaviors, technologies that support healthy aging and well-being in the home setting, and mobile technologies that permit longitudinal measurement of health behaviors for research, especially the type, duration, intensity, and location of physical activity. After ten years as Technology Director of the House_n Research Consortium at MIT, in 2010 he joined Northeastern University to help establish a new transdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Personal Health Informatics.
Natasha Schüll, PhD - Associate Professor in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society, MIT - Author of Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas
Natasha Dow Schüll is a cultural anthropologist and associate professor at MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society. Her recent book, ADDICTION BY DESIGN: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas draws on extended research among compulsive gamblers and the designers of the slot machines they play to explore the relationship between technology design and the experience of addiction. Her current, ongoing research concerns the rise of digital self-tracking technologies and the new modes of introspection and self-governance they engender. Schüll graduated Summa Cum Laude from UC Berkeley’s Department of Anthropology in 1993 and returned to receive her PhD in 2003. Schüll held postdoctoral positions as a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar at Columbia University’s Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, and as a fellow at NYU’s International Center for Advanced Studies.
If you are a designer, technologist, health professional, entrepreneur, journalist, scientist, or user, please join us for an interactive evening of inspiration packed with great speakers, networking and more!
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Stop the Wars, Stop the Warming: Organizing Meeting for the People’s Climate March
Thursday, August 28
7pm
Encuentro 5, 9 Hamilton Place, Boston
Across from the Park Street T
Stop the Wars, Stop the Warming!
Time is urgent -- people are marching
Peace, environment, labor and justice -- movements converging
Will this be a turning point in people's history?
FEATURING BOSTON COLLEGE PROF. CHARLIE DERBER AND AN ORGANIZER FROM 350MA
As peace activists we call on all who want to preserve our planet to join the People?s Climate March in New York City on September 21st and to form a Stop the Wars, Stop the Warming Contingent. We can’t afford the greenhouse gas emissions arising from the way we live and from war and preparation for war.
To see the full call to the peace movement to participate in the September 21 Peoples Climate March go to http://peoplesclimate.org/peace/appeal/
Sponsored by United for Justice with Peace, Mass. Peace Action, and American Friends Service Committee
For information: 617-354-2169
Thursday, August 28
7pm
Encuentro 5, 9 Hamilton Place, Boston
Across from the Park Street T
Stop the Wars, Stop the Warming!
Time is urgent -- people are marching
Peace, environment, labor and justice -- movements converging
Will this be a turning point in people's history?
FEATURING BOSTON COLLEGE PROF. CHARLIE DERBER AND AN ORGANIZER FROM 350MA
As peace activists we call on all who want to preserve our planet to join the People?s Climate March in New York City on September 21st and to form a Stop the Wars, Stop the Warming Contingent. We can’t afford the greenhouse gas emissions arising from the way we live and from war and preparation for war.
To see the full call to the peace movement to participate in the September 21 Peoples Climate March go to http://peoplesclimate.org/peace/appeal/
Sponsored by United for Justice with Peace, Mass. Peace Action, and American Friends Service Committee
For information: 617-354-2169
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The Organized Mind
Thursday, August 28
7pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
Daniel J. Levitin
We're taking in more information than ever, required to make decisions faster and faster—so how are we supposed to remember where we put our stupid keys? There are some people who (somehow) do this. Neuroscientist and bestselling author Daniel J. Levitin uses the latest brain science to demonstrate how those people excel—and how readers can use their methods and to regain a sense of mastery over the daily challenges of memory and focus.
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Friday, August 29
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Innovation Breakfast at The Food Loft
Friday, August 29
8:30 AM to 10:00 AM (EDT)
The Food Loft, 535 Albany Street, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/innovation-breakfast-at-the-food-loft-tickets-12391512347
The Roving Innovation Breakfast's next step is at South Boston's Food Loft, a co-working space dedicated to Food and Tech entrepreneurs. Join us to talk about using social media to help get the word out about great new food products!
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Summer Series: Urban Design Film, The Human Scale
Friday, August 29
6:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Assembly Row, 100 Foley Street, Somerville
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/summer-series-urban-design-film-the-human-scale-tickets-12125195787
50% of the world’s population lives in urban areas. By 2050 this will increase to 80%. Experience a one-time film screening of The Human Scale at Assembly Row’s new outdoor amphitheater. Enjoy pop-corn and a live-skype discussion with the Danish filmmaker Andreas Dalsgaard.
The first ever Design Museum Boston Summer Series will be hosted at the outdoor amphitheater at Assembly Row in Somerville, MA. The series will consist of 3 events, each focused on a theme related to urban design (urban planning, landscape architecture, transportation, etc). When looked at holistically, the design of our urban environment and public infrastructure can shape communities to be more livable and sustainable— this tri-event series will showcase innovative thinking & inspirational examples of great urban design!
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Saturday, August 30
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Bread and Puppet Theater: Insurrection Oratorio
The Quarry, Acton, MA
Saturday, August 30
7 pm
Magazine Beach Park, Cambridge
plus
The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus
Magazine Beach Park, Cambridge, MA
Sunday, August 31st, 3 pm
and
Bread & Roses Heritage Festival, Lawrence, MA
Monday, September 1st, 4 pm
The award-winning Bread & Puppet Theater takes its annual Labor Day weekend "little big tour" down to the Boston area, this year not only bringing a new Insurrection Oratorio, to be performed in The Quarry located at Contemporary Arts International (CAI) in Acton on Saturday August 30th, but also their new The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus presented in Cambridge's Magazine Beach Park on Sunday August 31st. Bread & Puppet will then cap the holiday weekend by also performing their Circus at the 30th Annual Bread & Roses Heritage
Festival in Lawrence on Labor Day Monday.
Detailed listings information:
Bread & Puppet Theater: Insurrection Oratorio
Saturday, Aug. 30, 7 pm, rain or shine
The Quarry, Contemporary Arts International, 68 Quarry Road, Acton, MA 01720
[Closest stop on the Fitchburg Line commuter rail: South Acton Station, 3 miles biking distance.]
$20 general admission ("walk-in discount" $10), $35 per carload (over 3
people $10 each); tickets available at the door (cash or check only) or general admission in advance at
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/777264.
For more information: http://www.contemporaryartsinternational.org,
617-699-6401.
Description: An improvised piece developed by Peter Schumann, artistic director of Bread & Puppet, with instrumental music created on mechanical sound sculptures including "Container Man," a massive multi-media kinetic sculpture. All sound sculptures were designed by Viktor Lois, Hungarian-born artistic director of Contemporary Arts International (CAI). The Oratorio
will include Bread & Puppet's signature visual elements, along with movement, vocals, and pertinent political social commentary. Sourdough rye bread will be served and cheap art will be for sale after the performance.
Presented by CAI.
Bread & Puppet Theater: The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus
Sunday, Aug. 31, 3 pm, rain or shine
Magazine Beach Park (along the Charles River), 719 Memorial Drive,
Cambridge, MA 02139
[Located at the foot of Magazine St., across from Trader Joe's and the Micro
Center; in close proximity to the Red Line stop: Central Square Station,
less than 1 mile walking/biking distance.]
Pass-the-hat donation, rain location: Cambridge Community Center
(http://www.cambridgecc.org).
For more information: http://www.magazinebeach.org/events,
http://www.cambridgema.gov/arts/Programs/summerinthecity.aspx, 617-286-6694.
Description: The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus is for the not yet existing upriser masses and their kids who need to practice their upriser skills by teaming up with butterflies, cockroaches and elephants. Lions, horses and dogs are also employed to invent the correct rhythmical patterns that fight planetary destruction. The boot flags of the 15th century peasant revolution
lead the way, with a lively brass band for accompaniment. Bread & Puppet’s "Circus" acts can often be politically puzzling to adults, but accompanying kids can usually explain them. Sourdough rye bread will be served and cheap art will be made available (with a recommended donation) after the performance. Presented with assistance from the Cambridge Arts Council and the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association.
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Monday, September 1
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Practical Options for Food Production Resilience in an Increasingly Variable Climate
Monday, September 1
Monday, September 1
10:00am-4:00pm
Newton Community Farm, 303 Nahanton Street, Newton
RSVP at http://www.nofamass.org/events/practical-options-food-production-resilience-increasingly-variable-climate#.U_d98ksQ4s4
Cost: $55 NOFA members; $64 non-members
NOFA/Mass welcomes Dr. Christine Jones, an Australian soil biologist, researcher (www.amazingcarbon.com) and international educator about carbon sequestration in the soil. From Dr.Jones' essay “Farming for the Future”, "There is much that can be done 'on the farm' to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, sequester carbon and nitrogen, increase soil water-holding capacity and change the climate- rather than being changed by it." Come to one of these day-long workshops to learn with us and ask Dr. Jones your questions about soil carbon sequestration and how soils we depend on can be a climate change solution.
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Bread & Puppet Theater: The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus
Monday, Sept. 1, 4 pm performance (entire festival runs noon-5pm), rain or
shine
30th Annual Bread & Roses Heritage Festival, Lawrence Common, Lawrence, MA
01840
[Located in close proximity to the Haverhill commuter rail stop: Lawrence Station, less than 1 mile walking/biking distance.]
The Festival is free & open to all, festival donations welcome.
For more information: http://www.breadandrosesheritage.org, 978-794-1655.
Description: The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus is for the not yet existing upriser masses and their kids who need to practice their upriser skills by teaming up with butterflies, cockroaches and elephants. Lions, horses and dogs are also employed to invent the correct rhythmical patterns that fight planetary destruction. The boot flags of the 15th century peasant revolution
lead the way, with a lively brass band for accompaniment. Bread & Puppet’s "Circus" acts can often be politically puzzling to adults, but accompanying kids can usually explain them. Sourdough rye bread will be served and cheap art will be for sale after the performance. Presented as part of the 30th Annual Bread & Roses Heritage Festival, an open-air social justice celebration.
http://www.breadandpuppet.org
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Tuesday, September 2
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Simons Center Workshop 2014: The Social Brain - New Opportunities for Discovery and Technology Development
Tuesday, September 02, 2014
3:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building 46-3002, Building 46 Atrium (3rd Floor), 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Ulrich Froriep, Alan Jasanoff; Isaac Kohane, Elizabeth Norton, Sarah Spence, Mriganka Sur
Simons Center for the Social Brain is excited to announce the 2014 Annual Workshop: New Opportunities for Discovery and Technology Development. Please join us to hear about current research and funding opportunities in understanding the social brain and its disorders, including autism.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/simons-center-workshop-2014-the-social-brain-new-opportunities-for-discovery-and-technology-tickets-12478957899
Sponsor(s): Simons Center for the Social Brain
For more information, contact: Alexandra Sokhina
617-324-7757
asokhina@mit.edu
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Boston Area Sustainability Group Presents: WATER
Tuesday, September 2
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
The Venture Cafe - Cambridge Innovation Center, 5th Floor 1 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sept-2nd-basg-presents-water-tickets-12452847803
Cost: $8-12
In partnership with Northbound Ventures, we're kicking off the fall season with 3 top-tier speakers to lead our discussion about water. Come hear, meet and engage with:
Brian Swett, Chief, Environment & Energy at City of Boston www.linkedin.com/pub/brian-swett/1/645/163. Brian will present key sustainability initiatives of the city focusing on water use and climate change planning for a rising tide.
Brooke Barton, Director of Water Program at Ceres www.linkedin.com/in/brookebarton.Brooke will share highlights of current research and trends in corporate engagement surrounding water scarcity risks and opportunities.
Dr. C. Adam Schlosser, Senior Research Scientist, Center for Global Change Science Deputy Director for Science, MIT Joint Program for Global Change http://globalchange.mit.edu . Adam will discuss the risks imposed on our water systems for developed & developing nations as a result of anticipated changes in our natural, managed and built environments.
Time is short and we all need to learn a boatload, fast. One of BASG’s explicit goals is that we learn as much as we can from each other, where the very diversity of the group is one of our most valuable assets. Come join the discussion, or hang out and listen. Meet those folks working hard to do what you’re trying to do and your paths have not yet crossed. We have a great time and really want to meet you!
Our format for the evening begins with informal networking followed by quick introductions all round before several lightening-speed presentations from knowledgeable folks. Using a modified IGNITE-style format, our speakers share their experiences and then we open the discussion to the group.
We’ll end the discussion with time left for more networking and sharing info on other local events. Hope to see you there!
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Persuasive Design with Sebastian Deterding
Iran: Where Do We Go from Here?
WHEN Thu., Sep. 4, 2014, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS, Knafel 262, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Center for Middle Eastern Studies
SPEAKER(S) Gary Sick, executive director, Gulf 2000, adjunct professor of international and public affairs, senior research scholar, Columbia University
CONTACT INFO lgmartin@fas.harvard.edu
NOTE This event is open to the public; no registration required. This event is off the record. The use of recording devices is strictly prohibited.
LINK http://cmes.hmdc.harvard.edu/node/3700
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Jennifer Lesser Henley, PMP, Director of Security Operations, Facebook
We are under constant threats—from APT to data breaches and vulnerabilities to surveillance. Yet together we all play a role in keeping people safe, and making the internet and the world a more secure place. And we do that through empathy and protection. Together, we can help not only combat the bad guys but humanize what Security means. And, by building a diverse pipeline of talented and skilled security professionals we will be able to change the game and change the world.
Please join us for a talk co-sponsored by Metropolitan College, the Center for Reliable Information Systems and Cyber Security (RISCS), and the Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering.
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Opening Reception for Industrial Urbanism: Places of Production
Thursday, September 4
5:30p–7:00p
MIT, Building 7-338, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Since the Industrial Revolution, cities and industry have grown and evolved together. Despite this shared past, popular notions of urban industry tend to focus on the negative aspects of manufacturing: pollution, environmental degradation, and the exploitation of labor caused by industry.
Industrial Urbanism: Places of Production moves the conversation beyond these overly-simplified and overly-negative characterizations. It explores the relationship between current urban planning practices and the types of places that are actually designed and designated for the production of goods today. In the midst of shifting labor markets, technological changes, and resurgent metropolitan growth, the need to reimagine the role of industry in our cities is greater than ever.
The exhibition reexamines how industry can create place, sustain jobs, and promote environmental sustainability, all within the urban fabric.
Exhibition Curators:
Tali Hatuka, Laboratory for Contemporary Urban Design, Department of Geography and Human Environment, Tel Aviv University.
Eran Ben-Joseph, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, School of Architecture + Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Web site: http://www.industrialurbanism.com/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): School of Architecture and Planning, Department of Urban Studies and Planning
For more information, contact: Amber Sinicrope
617-258-9106
asinicro@mit.edu
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Friday, September 5
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INTERNET POLICY SYMPOSIUM Agenda
8:45 am - OPENING REMARKS
9:00 am - WILL GOVERNMENTS BREAK THE INTERNET?
A roundtable discussion moderated by Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder and director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, on whether and how the Internet may be challenged by governments seeking to censor and monitor online speech and conduct, along with regulatory choices that impact private industry for good or ill.
11:00 A.M. - YOUR NEXT BIG STARTUP IDEA: WHY INTERNET POLICY MATTERS
A roundtable discussion moderated by Nicco Mele, author, The End of Big and adjunct lecturer in public policy at Shorenstein Center, Harvard Kennedy School, on Internet public policies broader implications for immigration, patent trolls and the sharing economy, which are all important to young entrepreneurs interested in starting their own Internet business.
12:30 P.M. - CLOSING REMARKS
From planning to learning “human-aware” robot movement
Friday, September 05, 2014
11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
MIT, Building 32-D463, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Jim Mainprice , WPI
Abstract: A robot acts upon its environment through motion. The ability to plan its movements is therefore an essential component of its autonomy. Motion planning is an area of research that has been widely studied in recent decades; however, the emerging subfields of assistive and collaborative robotics bring new constraints and new challenges to robotics research. Indeed, systems that are designed to help in daily tasks and work alongside humans must consider the safety and well being of the surrounding humans. Hence, robot motion planning algorithms have to reason on an explicit model of human capabilities and social behaviors. In this talk, I will present several planners able to generate motions accounting for such constraints that combine sampling-based approaches with stochastic optimization techniques to simultaneously address challenging workspaces. I will then present a coherent motion generation framework, embedding these algorithms, able to handle surrounding humans dynamically by reasoning on early prediction of human motion. While these methods are capable of generating safe and legible motions for high degree of freedom robots, careful tuning of the cost function is necessary, which is generally performed manually and can be quite unintuitive. Balancing the importance of each term of the cost function to generate motions with the proper tradeoff of efficiency, for the robot actions, and comfort for the human is key to our approach. I will present our current work to address this issue applying inverse optimal control to mimic the criteria at play in human-human collaborative manipulation. Finally, I will go over future directions and give insights on how to bridge the gap between planning and learning algorithms in the context of motion generation under human-robot interaction constraints.
Bio: Dr. Mainprice is a Post-Doc in the Autonomous Robotic Collaboration (ARC) laboratory at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He received his M.S. from Polytech' Montpellier, France, and his Ph.D. in robotics and computer science from the University of Toulouse, France, in 2009 and 2012 respectively. His research interests include motion planning, task planning, machine learning, human-robot collaboration and human-robot interaction. While completing his Ph.D. at LAAS-CNRS, he took part in the European community's 7th framework program projects Dexmart (DEXterous and autonomous dual-arm/hand robotic manipulation with sMART sensory-motor skills: a bridge from natural to artificial cognition) and Saphari (Safe and Autonomous Physical Human-Aware Robot Interaction). In 2013, he participated in the DARPA Robotic Challenge as a member of the DRCHubo team. He is currently involved in the Office of Naval Research project, Collaborative Robot Learning from Demonstration Using Hierarchical Task Networks and Attributive Motion Planning, and the National Robotics Initiative collaborative project between WPI and MIT, Adaptive Motion Planning and Decision-Making for Human-Robot Collaboration in Manufacturing.
Contact: Julie A Shah, julie_a_shah@csail.mit.edu
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Near-Term Climate Change: Projections and Mitigation
Friday, September 5
12:00pm to 1:00pm
Harvard, Pierce Hall 100F, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Abstract: While anthropogenic climate change is a long-term phenomena, anthropogenic influences on climate will also be felt in the near-term. New work examining the near-term rate of climate change will be presented showing that the rate of global and regional changes will soon be increasing to well above background levels. The talk will then examine the potential for short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs) to reduce near-term climate change. Forcing agents with relatively short atmospheric lifetimes, short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs), are a potentially attractive mitigation target since they offer the prospect of reducing near-term anthropogenic climate change. Much of the work in this area has focused on black carbon and methane. The potential for near-term climate mitigation by SLCFs was analyzed and shown to be smaller than previously estimated. Climate and atmospheric inertia reduce the near-term SLCF mitigation potential well below equilibrium values. SLCF mitigation potential has a high uncertainty, which was also assessed. A large portion is due to uncertainty in carbonaceous aerosol emissions and aerosol forcing in general.
Email: xilu@fas.harvard.edu
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Saturday, September 6
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Exploring Boston’s Urban Forest
Wednesday, September 6
10am-4pm
Cambridge DPW, 147 Hampshire Street, Cambridge
Cost $15.00 but free with promo code TREES
RSVP at http://earthwatch.org/expeditions/exploring-bostons-urban-forest
How are our most important neighbors—our cities' trees—faring? Find out while exploring one charming city.
Urban forests are more than pretty: they mitigate climate change, improve psychological health, filter pollutants, and increase oxygen levels.
Cities are made up of buildings and streets, but between and among human structures are thousands of trees that make up the urban forest. Earthwatch is collaborating with the arborist of the City of Cambridge, just across the river from Boston, to collect data to study and protect the 18,000 trees that make up the city's critically important urban forest.
You'll be trained in techniques for identifying species, measuring and observing individual tree samples, and uploading data via mobile apps. During the course of the day you'll work in groups, exploring Cambridge's urban forest and collecting data on the health, growth patterns, and impact on buildings and streets of individual trees.
You'll help build a growing database of information needed to understand how trees positively impact urban areas and what trees need to survive and thrive in stressful environments.
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Demo Day for the MIT Global Founders' Skills Accelerator
Saturday, September 6
1:00p–4:30p
MIT, Building W16-Kresge, 48 Massachusetts Ave (Rear), Cambridge
The MIT GFSA Demo Day will showcase the most passionate and talented founders at MIT and their innovative, world-changing companies. From the dorm rooms to the labs, our unique teams are solving the toughest problems across Commercializing Space, Connected Devices, HealthTech, and many more. Get your first look at these game changers in beautiful Kresge Auditorium.
We'll have some amazing speakers sharing knowledge and inspiration with the crowd, as well as presentations and demos by the GFSA 2014 teams.
A networking reception with food and drinks will follow the pitches, where you can meet the founders and learn more about their companies and technologies.
Web site: http://gfsa14demoday.eventbrite.com/?aff=eventsmitedu
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: RSVP at http://gfsa14demoday.eventbrite.com/?aff=eventsmitedu
Sponsor(s): Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship
For more information, contact: Chris Snyder
617-253-8653
trustcenter@mit.edu
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Monday, September 8
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Webinar: Move Over, Big Data! How Small, Simple Models Can Yield Big Insights
Monday, September 08, 2014
12:00p–1:00p
Webinar at http://sdm.mit.edu/news/news_articles/webinar_090814/big-data-vs-small-models.html
Speaker: Richard C. Larson, Ph.D., Mitsui Professor of Engineering Systems and Director of the Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals, MIT
MIT System Design and Management Program Systems Thinking Webinar Series
This series features research conducted by SDM faculty, alumni, students, and industry partners. The series is designed to disseminate information on how to employ systems thinking to address engineering, management, and socio-political components of complex challenges.
About the Presentation
Today's emphasis on big data and data analytics may leave some folks thinking that management and policy insights can only arise from the analysis of millions of data entries. Nothing could be further from the truth! Sometimes less is more. In fact, an excess of numbers can engender more headaches than insight.
In this talk, managers and policymakers will learn how simple mathematical models of systems can improve intuition and lead to better decisions. Dr. Larson will provide concrete examples from his professional research and consulting engagements, then discuss general applications to industry. He will cover:
Flaws of averages-what they are and how to avoid them;
Square root laws-how to apply them to locating facilities and more;
Singularities-why and how managers of service systems must schedule idle time for servers or face huge waiting lines (aka the "elbow effect");
Simple difference equations-how to use them to discover major system instabilities when inputs are year-to-year gross revenues;
Going viral-how a major demography parameter can apply to exponential explosiveness in many business sectors; and
Lateral thinking-and how it can sometimes make a problem go away.
Learn to cut to the chase, see the big picture, and stay out of the weeds!
A Q&A will follow the presentation. We invite you to join us.
Web site: http://sdm.mit.edu/news/news_articles/webinar_090814/big-data-vs-small-models.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free and open to all
Tickets: See url above.
Sponsor(s): Engineering Systems Division, MIT System Design and Management (SDM)
For more information, contact: Lois Slavin
617-253-0812
lslavin@mit.edu
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Why You Can't Find a Taxi in the Rain and Other Labor Supply Lessons from Cab Drivers
Monday, September 8
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Building E51-151, 2 Amherst Street, (70 Memorial Drive), Cambridge
Speaker: Hank Farber (Princeton Univeristy)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Public Finance/Labor Workshop
For more information, contact: economics calendar
econ-cal@mit.edu
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The Ethics of the Human Genome Project
Monday, September 8
6:30p–7:30p
MIT, Building W20-303, Private Dining Room # 3, 84 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Rabbi Gavriel Goldfeder and guests speakers from the MIT community and beyond
The amazing work around the HGP points toward unprecedented possibility, and also brings ethical questions - old and new - to the forefront. Our bi-weekly class will feature discussion of the science and the ethics, with a focus on how traditional Jewish source can be bought to bear.
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
This event occurs every 2 weeks on Mondays through December 8, 2014.
Sponsor(s): Hillel (MIT)
For more information, contact: Rabbi Gavriel Goldfeder
heyrabbi@mit.edu
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Tuesday, September 9
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Boston TechBreakfast: NewsUp, Upshot Commerce, Voice Dream, Robin, OpportunitySpace
Tuesday, September 9
8:00 AM
Microsoft NERD - Horace Mann Room, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston-TechBreakfast/events/155723012/
Interact with your peers in a monthly morning breakfast meetup. At this monthly breakfast get-together techies, developers, designers, and entrepreneurs share learn from their peers through show and tell / show-case style presentations.
And yes, this is free! Thank our sponsors when you see them :)
Agenda for Boston TechBreakfast:
8:00 - 8:15 - Get yer Bagels & Coffee and chit-chat
8:15 - 8:20 - Introductions, Sponsors, Announcements
8:20 - ~9:30 - Showcases and Shout-Outs!
NewsUp - Andrew Schuster
Upshot Commerce - Neal Kaiser
Voice Dream - Winston Chen
Robin - Zach Dunn
OpportunitySpace: OpportunitySpace online marketplace - Alexander Kapur
~9:30 - end - Final "Shout Outs" & Last Words
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The Search for 100 Earths
Tuesday, September 9
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 4-349, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
Speaker: Debra Fischer, Yale
The search for exoplanets is motivated by the question of whether life exists elsewhere. This drives our interest in the detection of planets that are similar to our own world: rocky planets with the potential for liquid surface water and plate tectonics; worlds that might harbor life that we can recognize. Importantly, we will need to discover not just a few, but hundreds of these worlds to eventually gain a statistical understanding of whether life is rare, common, or ubiquitous and ground-based telescopes offer an ideal platform for carrying out decade-long surveys. It is critical for follow-up studies (imaging, atmospheric studies) that these planets orbit nearby stars. In this talk, I will discuss how we plan to take what we've learned and push on to the next frontier: our plans for a next generation spectrograph, EXPRES, to carry out a search 100 Earths with the Discovery Channel Telescope.
MIT Astrophysics Colloquium
Web site: http://space-live.mit.edu/events/all
Open to: the general public
Cost: no charge
Tickets: n/a
Sponsor(s): Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
For more information, contact: Debbie Meinbresse
617-253-1456
meinbres@mit.edu
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Wednesday, September 10
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Promoting Access to Farmland for New and Established Farmers
Wednesday, September 10
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM
webinar at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/529496746
Join us this fall for our continuing Wednesday webinar series focused on state and federal policies that could improve our region’s food system. The webinars explore in greater detail the policies and policy options described in our report, New England Food Policy: Building a Sustainable Food System.
All webinars are recorded and will be available at www.farmland.org/newengland. You will find these four webinars already posted there:
May 14: Introduction to the New England Food Policy Report and Project
June 18th: Organic Waste: Finding Uses for It in the Food System
July 16th: Frameworks for Regional Food System Collaboration
July 23rd: Reducing Farmland Conversion: State Land Use and Protection Policies
For a more detailed description of each of the webinars, please visit www.newenglandfoodpolicy.org
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The State of the Euro in a Changing EU
WHEN Wed., Sep. 10, 2014, 12 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, The Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Lower Level Conference Room, 27 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR European Union Study Group, Weatherhead Canter for International Studies and the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies
SPEAKER(S) Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, visiting scholar, Program on Transatlantic Relations; Richard N. Cooper, Maurits C. Boas Professor of Economics, Harvard University; Jeffry A. Frieden, Stanfield Professor of International Peace, Department of Government, Harvard University; Hans-Helmut Kotz, senior fellow, Center for Financial Studies, Goethe University; Karl Kaiser, director, Program on Transatlantic Relations
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO atownes@wcfia.harvard.edu
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Community Self Defense
Wednesday, September 10
5:30 PM to 7:00 PM (EDT)
Copley Square, 560 Boylston Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/community-self-defense-tickets-12624429007
As one of the largest communities of women in the city, Healthworks Fitness believes it is our duty to empower women by providing training and resources to learn how to protect against violence. Join Healthworks and Impact for a Community Self Defense class in Copley Square plaza from 5:30pm-7pm. All are welcome to attend this complimentary 90 minute workshop. Please come 15 minutes early to register.
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Thursday, September 11
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The Impact of Space Weather on the Global Atmospheric Electric Circuit
Thursday, September 11
4-5PM.
BU, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 502
The seminar is preceded by a brief reception in room 500 at 3:30PM
Colin Price Tel Aviv University
Contact: http://skynet.bu.edu/mailman/listinfo/csp_seminar
Strong Vegetation-mediated Chemical Forcing of Climate in Modern and Deep Time
Friday, September 12
12:00pm to 1:00pm
Harvard, Pierce Hall 100F, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Nadine Unger
Speaker Bio: http://environment.yale.edu/profile/nadine-unger/
Contact Ploy Achakulwisut
pachakulwisut@fas.harvard.edu
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DESIGN DIALOGUES: Grounded Visionaries
Friday, September 12
3:30pm
Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://secure.post.harvard.edu/olc/pub/HAA/event/showEventForm.jsp?form_id=174416
Cost: $50-75
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High speed robots? Humans colonizing space? How do today’s technologies reflect what we’ve seen on the big screen? Sit back, grab some pizza and popcorn, and enjoy short clips from the fantastic and futuristic movies of yesterday and today. Then, hear from scientists and inventors about how close we are to taking the "fiction" out of "science fiction!”
Presentations by:
MARIO BOLLINI - Autonomous Cookie-baking Robots
Chief Technology Officer and Cofounder of GRIT
OLIVIER DE WECK - Humans as a Multi-planet Species
Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems, MIT
ELINOR KARLSSON - Genetic Engineering
Postdoctoral Scientist, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
SANGBAE KIM - Robo Cheetah
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Biomimetic Robotics Lab, MIT
SKYLAR TIBBITS- 4D Printing
Research Scientist. Director, Self-Assembly Lab, MIT
TEDxCambridge
September 12
5:00 PM - 11:00 PM
Broad Institute, 7 Cambridge Center, Cambridge
Cost: $70
TEDxCambridge 2014 encompasses a Spring and Fall event hosted in Kendall Square at three world-renowned research centers. The conference features our unique TEDx evening event format and guest experience followed by a gourmet reception with amazing food & beverages provided by the area’s top chefs and restaurants. Request an invitation by submitting an application.
Schedule
5:00pm: Venue Doors Open
6:30pm: Talks Begin
8:30pm: Talks End & Reception Begins
11:00pm: Reception Ends
See more at: http://www.tedxcambridge.com/event-item/tedxcambridge-2014-fall/#sthash.B3mYyjdz.dpuf
Refiguring American Jewish Identity through Solidarity with Palestinians: A Relational Approach to Religious Innovation
WHEN Tue., Sep. 16, 2014, 5:15 – 7 p.m.
WHERE CSWR Common Room (42 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
SPONSOR Center for the Study of World Religions
CONTACT Lexi Gewertz, 617.495.4476
NOTE Professor Atalia Omer will deliver this year's Dana McLean Greeley Lecture for Peace and Social Justice. Professor Omer is Associate Professor of Religion, Conflict and Peace Studies at Notre Dame and Faculty Fellow at the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University.
Based on in-depth interviews with Jewish Palestine solidarity activists and systematic study of Jewish solidarity movement social media, Omer demonstrates how refiguring alternative Jewish meanings of rituals, practices, and texts may emerge from contesting Jewish nationalism and Israeli occupation policies, through solidarity with Palestinians.
This event is free but RSVPs are required. Please email cswr@hds.harvard.edu in order to secure your spot.
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Greenovate Boston's Upcycling Panel
Tuesday, September 16
6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
What Stays in Vegas: The World of Personal Data—Lifeblood of Big Business—and the End of Privacy as We Know It
Tuesday, September 16
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Adam Tanner
Harvard Book Store welcomes ADAM TANNER, fellow at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University and Forbes contributor, for a discussion of his book What Stays in Vegas: The World of Personal Data—Lifeblood of Big Business—and the End of Privacy as We Know It.
In What Stays in Vegas, Tanner exposes the greatest threat to privacy today. It’s not the NSA, but good-old American companies. Internet giants, leading retailers and other firms are gathering data behind the scenes with little oversight from anyone. “This is the information age, and information is power!” screamed DocuSearch, “America’s Premier Resource for Private Investigator Searches & Lookups” in 1996—and they were right.
In Las Vegas, no company knows this mantra better than Caesars Entertainment. Despite the fact that its Vegas casinos are decades old and can’t boast their rivals’ singing gondoliers or fountains exploding in a choreographed dance, many thousands of enthusiastic clients continue to pour through the ever-open doors of Caesars hotels. The secret to the company’s success lies in their one unrivaled asset: they are able to track the activities of the overwhelming majority of gamblers who walk in. They know exactly what games we like to play, what foods we enjoy for breakfast, when we prefer to visit, who our favorite hostess might be and exactly how to keep us coming back for more.
Caesars’ dogged data-gathering methods have been so successful that they grew to become the world’s largest casino operator, and they have inspired companies from across industries to ramp up their own data mining in the hopes of boosting their targeted marketing efforts. Some do this themselves. Some rely on data brokers. Others clearly enter a moral gray zone that would make American consumers deeply uncomfortable.
Even if you’ve never set foot in a casino or signed up for an airline’s frequent flier program, companies little-known to the public like Acxiom are still gathering information on you at every turn. And there are those, such as PeopleSmart and Instant Checkmate, that will sell your dossier to anyone for cash.
The reality is that we live in an age where our personal information is harvested and aggregated whether we like it or not. And it is growing ever more difficult for those businesses that choose not engage in more intrusive data gathering to compete with those that do. Tanner’s timely warning resounds: yes, there are many benefits to the free flow of all this data, but there is a dark side as well. With societal and legal boundaries on the use of personal data still largely undefined, the potential for abuse looms large.
And, as to what stays in Vegas? The answer: almost nothing…
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Greenport Forum: Evacuation Routes or Bandaids
Tuesday, Sept. 16
7-9pm
Cambridgeport Baptist Church, cornet of Magazine Street and Putnam Avenue, Cambridge
Join City Councillor Craig Kelley & former City Councillor Sam Seidel In a conversation about what keeps us all safe.
An evacuation plan?
Bandaids in your wallet?
Or simply knowing your neighbors?
Contact greenportlocal@gmail.com
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Opportunity
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Intern with Biodiversity for a Livable Climate!
Biodiversity for a Livable Climate (BLC) is a nonprofit based in the Cambridge, MA area. Our mission is to mobilize the biosphere to restore ecosystems and reverse global warming.
Education, public information campaigns, organizing, scientific investigation, collaboration with like-minded organizations, research and policy development are all elements of our strategy.
Background: Soils are the largest terrestrial carbon sink on the planet. Restoring the complex ecology of soils is the only way to safely and quickly remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the ground, where it’s desperately needed to regenerate the health of billions of acres of degraded lands. Restoring carbon to soils and regenerating ecosystems are how we can restore a healthy hydrologic cycle and cool local and planetary climates safely, naturally, and in time to ensure a livable climate now and in the future.
Our Work: immediate plans include
Organizing the First International Biodiversity, Soil Carbon and Climate Week, October 31-November 9, 2014, and a kick-off conference in the Boston area, “Mobilizing the Biosphere to Reverse Global Warming: A Biodiversity, Water, Soil Carbon and Climate Conference – and Call to Action” to expand the mainstream climate conversation to include the power of biology, and to help initiate intensive worldwide efforts to return atmospheric carbon to the soils.
Coordination of a global fund to directly assist local farmers and herders in learning and applying carbon farming approaches that not only benefit the climate, but improve the health and productivity of the land and the people who depend on it.
Collaboration with individuals and organizations on addressing eco-restoration and the regeneration of water and carbon cycles; such projects may include application of practices such as Holistic Management for restoration of billions of acres of degraded grasslands, reforestation of exploited forest areas, and restoring ocean food chains.
Please contact Helen D. Silver, helen.silver@bio4climate.org for further information.
781-316-1710
Bio4climate.org
SharedHarvestCSA.com
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Climate Stories Project
http://www.climatestoriesproject.org
What's your Climate Story?
Climate Stories Project is a forum that gives a voice to the emotional and personal impacts that climate change is having on our lives. Often, we only discuss climate change from the impersonal perspective of science or the contentious realm of politics. Today, more and more of us are feeling the effects of climate change on an personal level. Climate Stories Project allows people from around the world to share their stories and to engage with climate change in a personal, direct way.
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Where is the best yogurt on the planet made? Somerville, of course!
Join the Somerville Yogurt Making Cooperative and get a weekly quart of the most thick, creamy, rich and tart yogurt in the world. Membership in the coop costs $2.50 per quart. Members share the responsibility for making yogurt in our kitchen located just outside of Davis Sq. in FirstChurch. No previous yogurt making experience is necessary.
For more information checkout.
https://sites.google.com/site/somervilleyogurtcoop/home
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Cambridge Residents: Free Home Thermal Images
Have you ever wanted to learn where your home is leaking heat by having an energy auditor come to your home with a thermal camera? With that info you then know where to fix your home so it's more comfortable and less expensive to heat. However, at $200 or so, the cost of such a thermal scan is a big chunk of change.
HEET Cambridge has now partnered with Sagewell, Inc. to offer Cambridge residents free thermal scans.
Sagewell collects the thermal images by driving through Cambridge in a hybrid vehicle equipped with thermal cameras. They will scan every building in Cambridge (as long as it's not blocked by trees or buildings or on a private way). Building owners can view thermal images of their property and an analysis online. The information is password protected so that only the building owner can see the results.
Homeowners, condo-owners and landlords can access the thermal images and an accompanying analysis free of charge. Commercial building owners and owners of more than one building will be able to view their images and analysis for a small fee.
The scans will be analyzed in the order they are requested.
Go to Sagewell.com. Type in your address at the bottom where it says "Find your home or building" and press return. Then click on "Here" to request the report.
That's it. When the scans are done in a few weeks, your building will be one of the first to be analyzed. The accompanying report will help you understand why your living room has always been cold and what to do about it.
With knowledge, comes power (or in this case saved power and money, not to mention comfort).
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Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHhwM202dDYxdUZJVGFscnY1VGZ3aXc6MQ
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HEET has partnered with NSTAR and Mass Save participating contractor Next Step Living to deliver no-cost Home Energy Assessments to Cambridge residents.
During the assessment, the energy specialist will:
Install efficient light bulbs (saving up to 7% of your electricity bill)
Install programmable thermostats (saving up to 10% of your heating bill)
Install water efficiency devices (saving up to 10% of your water bill)
Check the combustion safety of your heating and hot water equipment
Evaluate your home’s energy use to create an energy-efficiency roadmap
If you get electricity from NSTAR, National Grid or Western Mass Electric, you already pay for these assessments through a surcharge on your energy bills. You might as well use the service.
Please sign up at http://nextsteplivinginc.com/heet/?outreach=HEET or call Next Step Living at 866-867-8729. A Next Step Living Representative will call to schedule your assessment.
HEET will help answer any questions and ensure you get all the services and rebates possible.
(The information collected will only be used to help you get a Home Energy Assessment. We won’t keep the data or sell it.)
(If you have any questions or problems, please feel free to call HEET’s Jason Taylor at 617 441 0614.)
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Resource
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Sustainable Business Network Local Green Guide
SBN is excited to announce the soft launch of its new Local Green Guide, Massachusetts' premier Green Business Directory!
To view the directory please visit: http://www.localgreenguide.org
To find out how how your business can be listed on the website or for sponsorship opportunities please contact Adritha at adritha@sbnboston.org
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Free Monthly Energy Analysis
CarbonSalon is a free service that every month can automatically track your energy use and compare it to your past energy use (while controlling for how cold the weather is). You get a short friendly email that lets you know how you’re doing in your work to save energy.
https://www.carbonsalon.com/
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Boston Food System
"The Boston Food System [listserv] provides a forum to post announcements of events, employment opportunities, internships, programs, lectures, and other activities as well as related articles or other publications of a non-commercial nature covering the area's food system - food, nutrition, farming, education, etc. - that take place or focus on or around Greater Boston (broadly delineated)."
The Boston area is one of the most active nationwide in terms of food system activities - projects, services, and events connected to food, farming, nutrition - and often connected to education, public health, environment, arts, social services and other arenas. Hundreds of organizations and enterprises cover our area, but what is going on week-to-week is not always well publicized.
Hence, the new Boston Food System listserv, as the place to let everyone know about these activities. Specifically:
Use of the BFS list will begin soon, once we get a decent base of subscribers. Clarification of what is appropriate to announce and other posting guidelines will be provided as well.
It's easy to subscribe right now at https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/bfs
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Artisan Asylum http://artisansasylum.com/
Sprout & Co: Community Driven Investigations http://thesprouts.org/
Greater Boston Solidarity Economy Mapping Project http://www.transformationcentral.org/solidarity/mapping/mapping.html
a project by Wellesley College students that invites participation, contact jmatthaei@wellesley.edu
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Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/
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Links to events at 60 colleges and universities at Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com
Thanks to
Fred Hapgood's Selected Lectures on Science and Engineering in the Boston Area: http://www.BostonScienceLectures.com
MIT Events: http://events.mit.edu
MIT Energy Club: http://www.mitenergyclub.org/events/calendar/
Harvard Events: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/harvard-events/events-calendar/
Harvard Environment: http://www.environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
Sustainability at Harvard: http://green.harvard.edu/events
Mass Climate Action: http://www.massclimateaction.net/calendar/events/index.php
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/
Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/
Microsoft NERD Center: http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/
Startup and Entrepreneurial Events: http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/
High Tech Events: http://harddatafactory.com/Johnny_Monsarrat/index.html
Cambridge Civic Journal: http://www.rwinters.com
Cambridge Happenings: http://cambridgehappenings.org
Boston Area Computer User Groups: http://www.bugc.org/
Arts and Cultural Events List: http://aacel.blogspot.com/
Boston Events Insider: http://bostoneventsinsider.com/boston_events/
Nerdnite: http://boston.nerdnite.com/
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Cambridge Innovation Center 5th Floor, Havana Conference Room, One Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Action-Design-Boston/events/198904792/
Sign-in at the front desk. Take elevators to the 5th floor. Find Sign for Havana Room.
Interest in persuasive design for behavior change has been growing rapidly in interaction design in the past years. In part thanks to that, we now have ample tools and pattern libraries to inspire us. What we are lacking, however, are focus and guidance in applying them. Usually, we get those from user research. But current research methods and deliverables arguably do not provide ready springboards.
On September 2nd designer and researcher Sebastian Deterding (http://codingconduct.cc/) with talk about how to use the Motivation Ability Opportunity (MAO) model as a tool to structure user research around a single behavior to be changed, and to guide subsequent design in prioritizing issues to tackle and ideating ways to tackle them.
Agenda:
6:30PM – Refreshments and Socializing
7:00PM – Start of Sebastian’s talk
8:00PM – End of Meeting
On September 2nd designer and researcher Sebastian Deterding (http://codingconduct.cc/) with talk about how to use the Motivation Ability Opportunity (MAO) model as a tool to structure user research around a single behavior to be changed, and to guide subsequent design in prioritizing issues to tackle and ideating ways to tackle them.
Agenda:
6:30PM – Refreshments and Socializing
7:00PM – Start of Sebastian’s talk
8:00PM – End of Meeting
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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, September 3
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Agriculture and Climate Change: The Needs of Agriculture in a Warming Climate
Wednesday, September 3
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM EDT
webinar at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/297810802
Join us this fall for our continuing Wednesday webinar series focused on state and federal policies that could improve our region’s food system. The webinars explore in greater detail the policies and policy options described in our report, New England Food Policy: Building a Sustainable Food System.
All webinars are recorded and will be available at www.farmland.org/newengland. You will find these four webinars already posted there:
May 14: Introduction to the New England Food Policy Report and Project
June 18th: Organic Waste: Finding Uses for It in the Food System
July 16th: Frameworks for Regional Food System Collaboration
July 23rd: Reducing Farmland Conversion: State Land Use and Protection Policies
For a more detailed description of each of the webinars, please visit www.newenglandfoodpolicy.org
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Restoring Balance with Noise: Science for the Public's Public Science Lectures
Wednesday, September 3
6:30 PM
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
Note: This lecture will not be recorded, so be sure to join the audience.
James J. Collins, PhD, William F. Warren Distinguished Professor, University Professor, and Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Director, Center of Synthetic Biology, Boston University; Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)
Dr. Collins was a core founding faculty member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. He is also Boston University's first HHMI Investigator.
Balance seems effortless --until you lose it. The loss of balance due to conditions such as aging, Parkinson's Disease, stroke or injury severely limits mobility. In this presentation, Dr. Collins explains the physical mechanisms of balance that most of us take for granted, as well as what causes the loss of balance. By applying a unique biophysics approach to the problem of balance loss, he developed a very effective solution: specially engineered lightweight wearable devices such as vibrating insoles and leg cuffs that deliver random mechanical "noise" signals to affected muscles. The mechanism that makes these restorative devices so effective is as fascinating as the devices themselves. And the devices represent a great advance for rehabilitative medicine. Dr. Collins is one of America's most innovative scientists, and his balance-restoration devices are just one area of his work.
James Collins is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Physical Society, and the American Institute for Biological and Medical Engineering.
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Don't Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change
Wednesday, September 3
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
This event is free; no tickets are required.
Harvard Book Store welcomes climate change expert and founder of the Climate Outreach and Information Network GEORGE MARSHALL for a discussion of his book Don't Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change.
Most of us recognize that climate change is real, and yet we do nothing to stop it. What is this psychological mechanism that allows us to know something is true but act as if it is not? George Marshall’s search for the answers brings him face to face with Nobel Prize–winning psychologists and the activists of the Texas Tea Party; the world’s leading climate scientists and the people who denounce them; liberal environmentalists and conservative evangelicals. What he discovered is that our values, assumptions, and prejudices can take on lives of their own, gaining authority as they are shared, dividing people in their wake.
With engaging stories and drawing on years of his own research, Marshall argues that the answers do not lie in the things that make us different and drive us apart, but rather in what we all share: how our human brains are wired—our evolutionary origins, our perceptions of threats, our cognitive blindspots, our love of storytelling, our fear of death, and our deepest instincts to defend our family and tribe. Once we understand what excites, threatens, and motivates us, we can rethink and reimagine climate change, for it is not an impossible problem. Rather, it is one we can halt if we can make it our common purpose and common ground. Silence and inaction are the most persuasive of narratives, so we need to change the story.
In the end, Don’t Even Think About It is both about climate change and about the qualities that make us human and how we can grow as we deal with the greatest challenge we have ever faced.
"In 42 engaging, bite-size chapters, Marshall presents the psychological research demonstrating why climate change simply doesn’t feel dangerous enough to justify action and how we can trick our brains into changing our sense of urgency about the problem. His work is a much needed kick in the pants for policymakers, grassroots environmentalists, and the public to induce us to develop effective motivational tools to help us take action to face the reality of climate change before it’s too late." —Booklist
"The science of climate change is easy: burning fossil fuels creates greenhouse gasses that are warming our world. George Marshall reminds us about the hard part: connecting the wellhead to the tailpipe in people’s minds as soon as possible. Please read this book, and think about it. Let’s get to work." —Bill Nye
Contact : (617) 661-1515
info@harvard.com
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Thursday, September 4
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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, September 3
————————————
Agriculture and Climate Change: The Needs of Agriculture in a Warming Climate
Wednesday, September 3
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM EDT
webinar at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/297810802
Join us this fall for our continuing Wednesday webinar series focused on state and federal policies that could improve our region’s food system. The webinars explore in greater detail the policies and policy options described in our report, New England Food Policy: Building a Sustainable Food System.
All webinars are recorded and will be available at www.farmland.org/newengland. You will find these four webinars already posted there:
May 14: Introduction to the New England Food Policy Report and Project
June 18th: Organic Waste: Finding Uses for It in the Food System
July 16th: Frameworks for Regional Food System Collaboration
July 23rd: Reducing Farmland Conversion: State Land Use and Protection Policies
For a more detailed description of each of the webinars, please visit www.newenglandfoodpolicy.org
———————————————
Restoring Balance with Noise: Science for the Public's Public Science Lectures
Wednesday, September 3
6:30 PM
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
Note: This lecture will not be recorded, so be sure to join the audience.
James J. Collins, PhD, William F. Warren Distinguished Professor, University Professor, and Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Director, Center of Synthetic Biology, Boston University; Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)
Dr. Collins was a core founding faculty member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. He is also Boston University's first HHMI Investigator.
Balance seems effortless --until you lose it. The loss of balance due to conditions such as aging, Parkinson's Disease, stroke or injury severely limits mobility. In this presentation, Dr. Collins explains the physical mechanisms of balance that most of us take for granted, as well as what causes the loss of balance. By applying a unique biophysics approach to the problem of balance loss, he developed a very effective solution: specially engineered lightweight wearable devices such as vibrating insoles and leg cuffs that deliver random mechanical "noise" signals to affected muscles. The mechanism that makes these restorative devices so effective is as fascinating as the devices themselves. And the devices represent a great advance for rehabilitative medicine. Dr. Collins is one of America's most innovative scientists, and his balance-restoration devices are just one area of his work.
James Collins is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Physical Society, and the American Institute for Biological and Medical Engineering.
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Don't Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change
Wednesday, September 3
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
This event is free; no tickets are required.
Harvard Book Store welcomes climate change expert and founder of the Climate Outreach and Information Network GEORGE MARSHALL for a discussion of his book Don't Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change.
Most of us recognize that climate change is real, and yet we do nothing to stop it. What is this psychological mechanism that allows us to know something is true but act as if it is not? George Marshall’s search for the answers brings him face to face with Nobel Prize–winning psychologists and the activists of the Texas Tea Party; the world’s leading climate scientists and the people who denounce them; liberal environmentalists and conservative evangelicals. What he discovered is that our values, assumptions, and prejudices can take on lives of their own, gaining authority as they are shared, dividing people in their wake.
With engaging stories and drawing on years of his own research, Marshall argues that the answers do not lie in the things that make us different and drive us apart, but rather in what we all share: how our human brains are wired—our evolutionary origins, our perceptions of threats, our cognitive blindspots, our love of storytelling, our fear of death, and our deepest instincts to defend our family and tribe. Once we understand what excites, threatens, and motivates us, we can rethink and reimagine climate change, for it is not an impossible problem. Rather, it is one we can halt if we can make it our common purpose and common ground. Silence and inaction are the most persuasive of narratives, so we need to change the story.
In the end, Don’t Even Think About It is both about climate change and about the qualities that make us human and how we can grow as we deal with the greatest challenge we have ever faced.
"In 42 engaging, bite-size chapters, Marshall presents the psychological research demonstrating why climate change simply doesn’t feel dangerous enough to justify action and how we can trick our brains into changing our sense of urgency about the problem. His work is a much needed kick in the pants for policymakers, grassroots environmentalists, and the public to induce us to develop effective motivational tools to help us take action to face the reality of climate change before it’s too late." —Booklist
"The science of climate change is easy: burning fossil fuels creates greenhouse gasses that are warming our world. George Marshall reminds us about the hard part: connecting the wellhead to the tailpipe in people’s minds as soon as possible. Please read this book, and think about it. Let’s get to work." —Bill Nye
Contact : (617) 661-1515
info@harvard.com
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Thursday, September 4
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Sustainability in the City of Austin, Texas
Thursday, September 4
Thursday, September 4
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
webinar at https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/311818582/
When it comes to sustainability, Austin, Texas has a reputation for staying ahead of the curve. From developing the nation’s first green building program, to its recognition as a climate protection leader, to its involvement in pilot programs that helped to advance EcoDistrict developments and the STAR Community Rating System, Austin has been setting the bar for how to achieve a bright, green, livable city for decades.
This free, one-hour webinar, sponsored by Crescent Electric Supply Company, will feature Austin's Chief Sustainability Officer Lucia Athens, who will describe the City’s progress on initiatives in 10 Action Areas that have achieved tangible sustainability benefits for the Austin community.
This free, one-hour webinar, sponsored by Crescent Electric Supply Company, will feature Austin's Chief Sustainability Officer Lucia Athens, who will describe the City’s progress on initiatives in 10 Action Areas that have achieved tangible sustainability benefits for the Austin community.
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HarvardX Open House
WHEN Thu., Sep. 4, 2014, 3:30 – 5 p.m.
WHERE HarvardX HQ, 125 Mt Auburn Street - 4th Floor, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR HarvardX
SPEAKER(S) HarvardX team
COST Free and open to the Harvard community
TICKET WEB LINK http://www.eventbrite.com/e/harvardx-open-house-tickets-12686247909
CONTACT INFO michael_rutter@harvard.edu
LINK http://harvardx.harvard.edu/event/harvardx-open-house
WHEN Thu., Sep. 4, 2014, 3:30 – 5 p.m.
WHERE HarvardX HQ, 125 Mt Auburn Street - 4th Floor, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR HarvardX
SPEAKER(S) HarvardX team
COST Free and open to the Harvard community
TICKET WEB LINK http://www.eventbrite.com/e/harvardx-open-house-tickets-12686247909
CONTACT INFO michael_rutter@harvard.edu
LINK http://harvardx.harvard.edu/event/harvardx-open-house
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Iran: Where Do We Go from Here?
WHEN Thu., Sep. 4, 2014, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS, Knafel 262, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Center for Middle Eastern Studies
SPEAKER(S) Gary Sick, executive director, Gulf 2000, adjunct professor of international and public affairs, senior research scholar, Columbia University
CONTACT INFO lgmartin@fas.harvard.edu
NOTE This event is open to the public; no registration required. This event is off the record. The use of recording devices is strictly prohibited.
LINK http://cmes.hmdc.harvard.edu/node/3700
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Security: Changing the Game
Thursday, September 4
4:30 – 5:30pm
BU, GSU Conference Auditorium, 775 Commonwealth Ave (Room 228), Boston
Thursday, September 4
4:30 – 5:30pm
BU, GSU Conference Auditorium, 775 Commonwealth Ave (Room 228), Boston
RSVP at http://www.bu.edu/met/security-changing-the-game/
Jennifer Lesser Henley, PMP, Director of Security Operations, Facebook
We are under constant threats—from APT to data breaches and vulnerabilities to surveillance. Yet together we all play a role in keeping people safe, and making the internet and the world a more secure place. And we do that through empathy and protection. Together, we can help not only combat the bad guys but humanize what Security means. And, by building a diverse pipeline of talented and skilled security professionals we will be able to change the game and change the world.
Please join us for a talk co-sponsored by Metropolitan College, the Center for Reliable Information Systems and Cyber Security (RISCS), and the Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering.
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Opening Reception for Industrial Urbanism: Places of Production
Thursday, September 4
5:30p–7:00p
MIT, Building 7-338, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Since the Industrial Revolution, cities and industry have grown and evolved together. Despite this shared past, popular notions of urban industry tend to focus on the negative aspects of manufacturing: pollution, environmental degradation, and the exploitation of labor caused by industry.
Industrial Urbanism: Places of Production moves the conversation beyond these overly-simplified and overly-negative characterizations. It explores the relationship between current urban planning practices and the types of places that are actually designed and designated for the production of goods today. In the midst of shifting labor markets, technological changes, and resurgent metropolitan growth, the need to reimagine the role of industry in our cities is greater than ever.
The exhibition reexamines how industry can create place, sustain jobs, and promote environmental sustainability, all within the urban fabric.
Exhibition Curators:
Tali Hatuka, Laboratory for Contemporary Urban Design, Department of Geography and Human Environment, Tel Aviv University.
Eran Ben-Joseph, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, School of Architecture + Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Web site: http://www.industrialurbanism.com/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): School of Architecture and Planning, Department of Urban Studies and Planning
For more information, contact: Amber Sinicrope
617-258-9106
asinicro@mit.edu
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Friday, September 5
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Internet Policy Symposium w/ Harvard's Institute of Politics and The Internet Association
September 5, 2014
8:30 am - 1:00 pm
Harvard Kennedy School, Littauer Building 4th Floor, Malkin Penthouse, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
September 5, 2014
8:30 am - 1:00 pm
Harvard Kennedy School, Littauer Building 4th Floor, Malkin Penthouse, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Space is limited. RSVP required at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1BB64VXxHuAygjdMCFbk9tFquEByQZOBNggKTLn0BJyc/viewform?c=0&w=1
INTERNET POLICY SYMPOSIUM Agenda
8:45 am - OPENING REMARKS
9:00 am - WILL GOVERNMENTS BREAK THE INTERNET?
A roundtable discussion moderated by Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder and director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, on whether and how the Internet may be challenged by governments seeking to censor and monitor online speech and conduct, along with regulatory choices that impact private industry for good or ill.
11:00 A.M. - YOUR NEXT BIG STARTUP IDEA: WHY INTERNET POLICY MATTERS
A roundtable discussion moderated by Nicco Mele, author, The End of Big and adjunct lecturer in public policy at Shorenstein Center, Harvard Kennedy School, on Internet public policies broader implications for immigration, patent trolls and the sharing economy, which are all important to young entrepreneurs interested in starting their own Internet business.
12:30 P.M. - CLOSING REMARKS
Hosted by Harvard University's Institute of Politics, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and The Internet Association
More information at http://www.iop.harvard.edu/internet-policy-conference-0
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From planning to learning “human-aware” robot movement
Friday, September 05, 2014
11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
MIT, Building 32-D463, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Jim Mainprice , WPI
Abstract: A robot acts upon its environment through motion. The ability to plan its movements is therefore an essential component of its autonomy. Motion planning is an area of research that has been widely studied in recent decades; however, the emerging subfields of assistive and collaborative robotics bring new constraints and new challenges to robotics research. Indeed, systems that are designed to help in daily tasks and work alongside humans must consider the safety and well being of the surrounding humans. Hence, robot motion planning algorithms have to reason on an explicit model of human capabilities and social behaviors. In this talk, I will present several planners able to generate motions accounting for such constraints that combine sampling-based approaches with stochastic optimization techniques to simultaneously address challenging workspaces. I will then present a coherent motion generation framework, embedding these algorithms, able to handle surrounding humans dynamically by reasoning on early prediction of human motion. While these methods are capable of generating safe and legible motions for high degree of freedom robots, careful tuning of the cost function is necessary, which is generally performed manually and can be quite unintuitive. Balancing the importance of each term of the cost function to generate motions with the proper tradeoff of efficiency, for the robot actions, and comfort for the human is key to our approach. I will present our current work to address this issue applying inverse optimal control to mimic the criteria at play in human-human collaborative manipulation. Finally, I will go over future directions and give insights on how to bridge the gap between planning and learning algorithms in the context of motion generation under human-robot interaction constraints.
Bio: Dr. Mainprice is a Post-Doc in the Autonomous Robotic Collaboration (ARC) laboratory at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He received his M.S. from Polytech' Montpellier, France, and his Ph.D. in robotics and computer science from the University of Toulouse, France, in 2009 and 2012 respectively. His research interests include motion planning, task planning, machine learning, human-robot collaboration and human-robot interaction. While completing his Ph.D. at LAAS-CNRS, he took part in the European community's 7th framework program projects Dexmart (DEXterous and autonomous dual-arm/hand robotic manipulation with sMART sensory-motor skills: a bridge from natural to artificial cognition) and Saphari (Safe and Autonomous Physical Human-Aware Robot Interaction). In 2013, he participated in the DARPA Robotic Challenge as a member of the DRCHubo team. He is currently involved in the Office of Naval Research project, Collaborative Robot Learning from Demonstration Using Hierarchical Task Networks and Attributive Motion Planning, and the National Robotics Initiative collaborative project between WPI and MIT, Adaptive Motion Planning and Decision-Making for Human-Robot Collaboration in Manufacturing.
Contact: Julie A Shah, julie_a_shah@csail.mit.edu
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Near-Term Climate Change: Projections and Mitigation
Friday, September 5
12:00pm to 1:00pm
Harvard, Pierce Hall 100F, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Abstract: While anthropogenic climate change is a long-term phenomena, anthropogenic influences on climate will also be felt in the near-term. New work examining the near-term rate of climate change will be presented showing that the rate of global and regional changes will soon be increasing to well above background levels. The talk will then examine the potential for short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs) to reduce near-term climate change. Forcing agents with relatively short atmospheric lifetimes, short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs), are a potentially attractive mitigation target since they offer the prospect of reducing near-term anthropogenic climate change. Much of the work in this area has focused on black carbon and methane. The potential for near-term climate mitigation by SLCFs was analyzed and shown to be smaller than previously estimated. Climate and atmospheric inertia reduce the near-term SLCF mitigation potential well below equilibrium values. SLCF mitigation potential has a high uncertainty, which was also assessed. A large portion is due to uncertainty in carbonaceous aerosol emissions and aerosol forcing in general.
Email: xilu@fas.harvard.edu
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The Library Beyond the Book
Friday, September 5, 2014
3:00 PM
Friday, September 5, 2014
3:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Jeffrey T. Schnapp and Matthew Battles
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Restructuring Science and Technology Governance in Developing Countries: Egypt a Case Study
Friday, September 5
6:30p
MIT, Building 32-141, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
The MIT Egyptian Student Association (ESA) is delighted to invite you to the second "Distinguished Alumni Lecture." MIT Alumnus Professor Aly El-Shafei will give a talk followed by a Q&A session on Restructuring Science and Technology Governance in Developing Countries.
Web site: https://www.facebook.com/events/562507797186940
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Egyptian Student Association
For more information, contact: Mohamed Siam
clubegypt-board@mit.edu
MIT, Building 32-141, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
The MIT Egyptian Student Association (ESA) is delighted to invite you to the second "Distinguished Alumni Lecture." MIT Alumnus Professor Aly El-Shafei will give a talk followed by a Q&A session on Restructuring Science and Technology Governance in Developing Countries.
Web site: https://www.facebook.com/events/562507797186940
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Egyptian Student Association
For more information, contact: Mohamed Siam
clubegypt-board@mit.edu
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Saturday, September 6
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Exploring Boston’s Urban Forest
Wednesday, September 6
10am-4pm
Cambridge DPW, 147 Hampshire Street, Cambridge
Cost $15.00 but free with promo code TREES
RSVP at http://earthwatch.org/expeditions/exploring-bostons-urban-forest
How are our most important neighbors—our cities' trees—faring? Find out while exploring one charming city.
Urban forests are more than pretty: they mitigate climate change, improve psychological health, filter pollutants, and increase oxygen levels.
Cities are made up of buildings and streets, but between and among human structures are thousands of trees that make up the urban forest. Earthwatch is collaborating with the arborist of the City of Cambridge, just across the river from Boston, to collect data to study and protect the 18,000 trees that make up the city's critically important urban forest.
You'll be trained in techniques for identifying species, measuring and observing individual tree samples, and uploading data via mobile apps. During the course of the day you'll work in groups, exploring Cambridge's urban forest and collecting data on the health, growth patterns, and impact on buildings and streets of individual trees.
You'll help build a growing database of information needed to understand how trees positively impact urban areas and what trees need to survive and thrive in stressful environments.
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The Fall 2014 Mid-Cambridge Plant Swap
Saturday September 6
12 to 2 pm
Fayette Park (off Fayette Street, across from the former Longfellow School and library, near corner with Broadway), Cambridge
Rain date—in case of DOWNPOUR—is Sunday, Sep. 7, 12-2
Bring anything that's growing in too much abundance in your garden. Elegant packaging not required, but please write down plant names. We expect to have perennials, biennial seedlings, seeds, houseplants, catalogs, pots, and lots of "whatever." Nothing to swap? Come anyway—meet other gardeners!
Saturday September 6
12 to 2 pm
Fayette Park (off Fayette Street, across from the former Longfellow School and library, near corner with Broadway), Cambridge
Rain date—in case of DOWNPOUR—is Sunday, Sep. 7, 12-2
Bring anything that's growing in too much abundance in your garden. Elegant packaging not required, but please write down plant names. We expect to have perennials, biennial seedlings, seeds, houseplants, catalogs, pots, and lots of "whatever." Nothing to swap? Come anyway—meet other gardeners!
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Demo Day for the MIT Global Founders' Skills Accelerator
Saturday, September 6
1:00p–4:30p
MIT, Building W16-Kresge, 48 Massachusetts Ave (Rear), Cambridge
The MIT GFSA Demo Day will showcase the most passionate and talented founders at MIT and their innovative, world-changing companies. From the dorm rooms to the labs, our unique teams are solving the toughest problems across Commercializing Space, Connected Devices, HealthTech, and many more. Get your first look at these game changers in beautiful Kresge Auditorium.
We'll have some amazing speakers sharing knowledge and inspiration with the crowd, as well as presentations and demos by the GFSA 2014 teams.
A networking reception with food and drinks will follow the pitches, where you can meet the founders and learn more about their companies and technologies.
Web site: http://gfsa14demoday.eventbrite.com/?aff=eventsmitedu
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: RSVP at http://gfsa14demoday.eventbrite.com/?aff=eventsmitedu
Sponsor(s): Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship
For more information, contact: Chris Snyder
617-253-8653
trustcenter@mit.edu
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Monday, September 8
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Webinar: Move Over, Big Data! How Small, Simple Models Can Yield Big Insights
Monday, September 08, 2014
12:00p–1:00p
Webinar at http://sdm.mit.edu/news/news_articles/webinar_090814/big-data-vs-small-models.html
Speaker: Richard C. Larson, Ph.D., Mitsui Professor of Engineering Systems and Director of the Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals, MIT
MIT System Design and Management Program Systems Thinking Webinar Series
This series features research conducted by SDM faculty, alumni, students, and industry partners. The series is designed to disseminate information on how to employ systems thinking to address engineering, management, and socio-political components of complex challenges.
About the Presentation
Today's emphasis on big data and data analytics may leave some folks thinking that management and policy insights can only arise from the analysis of millions of data entries. Nothing could be further from the truth! Sometimes less is more. In fact, an excess of numbers can engender more headaches than insight.
In this talk, managers and policymakers will learn how simple mathematical models of systems can improve intuition and lead to better decisions. Dr. Larson will provide concrete examples from his professional research and consulting engagements, then discuss general applications to industry. He will cover:
Flaws of averages-what they are and how to avoid them;
Square root laws-how to apply them to locating facilities and more;
Singularities-why and how managers of service systems must schedule idle time for servers or face huge waiting lines (aka the "elbow effect");
Simple difference equations-how to use them to discover major system instabilities when inputs are year-to-year gross revenues;
Going viral-how a major demography parameter can apply to exponential explosiveness in many business sectors; and
Lateral thinking-and how it can sometimes make a problem go away.
Learn to cut to the chase, see the big picture, and stay out of the weeds!
A Q&A will follow the presentation. We invite you to join us.
Web site: http://sdm.mit.edu/news/news_articles/webinar_090814/big-data-vs-small-models.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free and open to all
Tickets: See url above.
Sponsor(s): Engineering Systems Division, MIT System Design and Management (SDM)
For more information, contact: Lois Slavin
617-253-0812
lslavin@mit.edu
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Using the Global Electric Circuit (GEC) to monitor Climate Change
Monday, September 8
Monday, September 8
12pm – 1pm
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus)
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus)
Colin Price, Tel Aviv University
MASS Seminar
mass.seminar@gmail.com
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Why You Can't Find a Taxi in the Rain and Other Labor Supply Lessons from Cab Drivers
Monday, September 8
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Building E51-151, 2 Amherst Street, (70 Memorial Drive), Cambridge
Speaker: Hank Farber (Princeton Univeristy)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Public Finance/Labor Workshop
For more information, contact: economics calendar
econ-cal@mit.edu
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The Ethics of the Human Genome Project
Monday, September 8
6:30p–7:30p
MIT, Building W20-303, Private Dining Room # 3, 84 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Rabbi Gavriel Goldfeder and guests speakers from the MIT community and beyond
The amazing work around the HGP points toward unprecedented possibility, and also brings ethical questions - old and new - to the forefront. Our bi-weekly class will feature discussion of the science and the ethics, with a focus on how traditional Jewish source can be bought to bear.
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
This event occurs every 2 weeks on Mondays through December 8, 2014.
Sponsor(s): Hillel (MIT)
For more information, contact: Rabbi Gavriel Goldfeder
heyrabbi@mit.edu
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Tuesday, September 9
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Boston TechBreakfast: NewsUp, Upshot Commerce, Voice Dream, Robin, OpportunitySpace
Tuesday, September 9
8:00 AM
Microsoft NERD - Horace Mann Room, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston-TechBreakfast/events/155723012/
Interact with your peers in a monthly morning breakfast meetup. At this monthly breakfast get-together techies, developers, designers, and entrepreneurs share learn from their peers through show and tell / show-case style presentations.
And yes, this is free! Thank our sponsors when you see them :)
Agenda for Boston TechBreakfast:
8:00 - 8:15 - Get yer Bagels & Coffee and chit-chat
8:15 - 8:20 - Introductions, Sponsors, Announcements
8:20 - ~9:30 - Showcases and Shout-Outs!
NewsUp - Andrew Schuster
Upshot Commerce - Neal Kaiser
Voice Dream - Winston Chen
Robin - Zach Dunn
OpportunitySpace: OpportunitySpace online marketplace - Alexander Kapur
~9:30 - end - Final "Shout Outs" & Last Words
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Robin Sproul, vice president and Washington Bureau Chief, ABC News.
Tuesday, September 9
12 P.M.
Harvard, Taubman 275, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge
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Harvard, Taubman 275, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge
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Converting Biogas into Energy and Vehicle Fuel
Tuesday, September 9
Tuesday, September 9
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
webinar at https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/832731910
Do you have a supply of biogas? If it’s not being turned into electricity, heat or vehicle fuel, it needs to be put to work! Converting Biogas to Energy and Vehicle Fuel will describe how sites around the world are converting biogas from wastewater treatment plants, industrial digesters and landfills into electricity, heat and vehicle fuel.
Sponsored by Unison Solutions, Inc., this free one-hour webinar will explain how waste to energy systems work and provide a number of case studies from across the country.
webinar at https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/832731910
Do you have a supply of biogas? If it’s not being turned into electricity, heat or vehicle fuel, it needs to be put to work! Converting Biogas to Energy and Vehicle Fuel will describe how sites around the world are converting biogas from wastewater treatment plants, industrial digesters and landfills into electricity, heat and vehicle fuel.
Sponsored by Unison Solutions, Inc., this free one-hour webinar will explain how waste to energy systems work and provide a number of case studies from across the country.
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The Search for 100 Earths
Tuesday, September 9
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 4-349, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
Speaker: Debra Fischer, Yale
The search for exoplanets is motivated by the question of whether life exists elsewhere. This drives our interest in the detection of planets that are similar to our own world: rocky planets with the potential for liquid surface water and plate tectonics; worlds that might harbor life that we can recognize. Importantly, we will need to discover not just a few, but hundreds of these worlds to eventually gain a statistical understanding of whether life is rare, common, or ubiquitous and ground-based telescopes offer an ideal platform for carrying out decade-long surveys. It is critical for follow-up studies (imaging, atmospheric studies) that these planets orbit nearby stars. In this talk, I will discuss how we plan to take what we've learned and push on to the next frontier: our plans for a next generation spectrograph, EXPRES, to carry out a search 100 Earths with the Discovery Channel Telescope.
MIT Astrophysics Colloquium
Web site: http://space-live.mit.edu/events/all
Open to: the general public
Cost: no charge
Tickets: n/a
Sponsor(s): Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
For more information, contact: Debbie Meinbresse
617-253-1456
meinbres@mit.edu
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Wednesday, September 10
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Promoting Access to Farmland for New and Established Farmers
Wednesday, September 10
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM
webinar at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/529496746
Join us this fall for our continuing Wednesday webinar series focused on state and federal policies that could improve our region’s food system. The webinars explore in greater detail the policies and policy options described in our report, New England Food Policy: Building a Sustainable Food System.
All webinars are recorded and will be available at www.farmland.org/newengland. You will find these four webinars already posted there:
May 14: Introduction to the New England Food Policy Report and Project
June 18th: Organic Waste: Finding Uses for It in the Food System
July 16th: Frameworks for Regional Food System Collaboration
July 23rd: Reducing Farmland Conversion: State Land Use and Protection Policies
For a more detailed description of each of the webinars, please visit www.newenglandfoodpolicy.org
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The State of the Euro in a Changing EU
WHEN Wed., Sep. 10, 2014, 12 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, The Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Lower Level Conference Room, 27 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR European Union Study Group, Weatherhead Canter for International Studies and the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies
SPEAKER(S) Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, visiting scholar, Program on Transatlantic Relations; Richard N. Cooper, Maurits C. Boas Professor of Economics, Harvard University; Jeffry A. Frieden, Stanfield Professor of International Peace, Department of Government, Harvard University; Hans-Helmut Kotz, senior fellow, Center for Financial Studies, Goethe University; Karl Kaiser, director, Program on Transatlantic Relations
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO atownes@wcfia.harvard.edu
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Democratization of Next-Generation Imaging, Diagnostics and Measurement Tools through Computational Photonics
Wednesday, Sep 10, 2014
1:00pm - 2:00pm
Room 521, Wyss Institute, 3 Blackfan Circle, 5th floor, Boston
Speaker:Aydogan Ozcan, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, CA
In this presentation Dr. Ozcan will discuss some of the emerging applications and the future opportunities/challenges created by the use of mobile phones and other consumer electronics devices as well as their embedded components for the development of next-generation imaging, sensing, diagnostics and measurement tools through computational photonics techniques. The massive volume of mobile phone users, which has now reached ~7 billion, drives the rapid improvements of the hardware, software and high-end imaging and sensing technologies embedded in our phones, transforming the mobile phone into a cost-effective and yet extremely powerful platform to run e.g., biomedical tests and perform scientific measurements that would normally require advanced laboratory instruments. This rapidly evolving and continuing trend on the use of mobile phones and other emerging consumer electronics devices including e.g., wearable computers, in advanced imaging and sensing experiments might help us transform current practices of medicine, engineering and sciences through democratization of measurement science and empowerment of citizen scientists, educators and researchers in resource limited settings and developing countries.
Wednesday, Sep 10, 2014
1:00pm - 2:00pm
Room 521, Wyss Institute, 3 Blackfan Circle, 5th floor, Boston
Speaker:Aydogan Ozcan, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, CA
In this presentation Dr. Ozcan will discuss some of the emerging applications and the future opportunities/challenges created by the use of mobile phones and other consumer electronics devices as well as their embedded components for the development of next-generation imaging, sensing, diagnostics and measurement tools through computational photonics techniques. The massive volume of mobile phone users, which has now reached ~7 billion, drives the rapid improvements of the hardware, software and high-end imaging and sensing technologies embedded in our phones, transforming the mobile phone into a cost-effective and yet extremely powerful platform to run e.g., biomedical tests and perform scientific measurements that would normally require advanced laboratory instruments. This rapidly evolving and continuing trend on the use of mobile phones and other emerging consumer electronics devices including e.g., wearable computers, in advanced imaging and sensing experiments might help us transform current practices of medicine, engineering and sciences through democratization of measurement science and empowerment of citizen scientists, educators and researchers in resource limited settings and developing countries.
Contact: alison.reggio@wyss.harvard.edu
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Community Self Defense
Wednesday, September 10
5:30 PM to 7:00 PM (EDT)
Copley Square, 560 Boylston Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/community-self-defense-tickets-12624429007
As one of the largest communities of women in the city, Healthworks Fitness believes it is our duty to empower women by providing training and resources to learn how to protect against violence. Join Healthworks and Impact for a Community Self Defense class in Copley Square plaza from 5:30pm-7pm. All are welcome to attend this complimentary 90 minute workshop. Please come 15 minutes early to register.
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Thursday, September 11
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Media Lab Conversations Series: Sarah Parcak
Thursday, September 11
2:00p–3:30p
MIT, Building E14, MIT Media Lab, 3rd Floor Atrium, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Sarah Parcak is an associate professor of anthropology and director of the Laboratory for Global Observation at the University of Alabama. She is an archaeologist, space archaeologist, and Egyptologist, who uses satellite imaging to identify potential archaeological sites.
Web site: http://www.media.mit.edu/events/2014/09/11/media-lab-conversations-series-sarah-parcak
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Media Lab
For more information, contact: Jess Sousa
events-admin@media.mit.edu
MIT, Building E14, MIT Media Lab, 3rd Floor Atrium, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Sarah Parcak is an associate professor of anthropology and director of the Laboratory for Global Observation at the University of Alabama. She is an archaeologist, space archaeologist, and Egyptologist, who uses satellite imaging to identify potential archaeological sites.
Web site: http://www.media.mit.edu/events/2014/09/11/media-lab-conversations-series-sarah-parcak
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Media Lab
For more information, contact: Jess Sousa
events-admin@media.mit.edu
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The Impact of Space Weather on the Global Atmospheric Electric Circuit
Thursday, September 11
4-5PM.
BU, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 502
The seminar is preceded by a brief reception in room 500 at 3:30PM
Colin Price Tel Aviv University
Contact: http://skynet.bu.edu/mailman/listinfo/csp_seminar
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SoJust is 8! Connecting for Justice (Open House)
Thursday, September 11
Thursday, September 11
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Lir, 903 Boylston Street, Boston
Cost: $5-$20 collected at the door. Newcomers always welcomed!
(One raffle ticket per $10 to win a $25 Trader Joe's gift card.)
Complimentary appetizers will be provided and yummy cupcakes thanks to our STARZ!
(One raffle ticket per $10 to win a $25 Trader Joe's gift card.)
Complimentary appetizers will be provided and yummy cupcakes thanks to our STARZ!
SoJust is 8! That's right, it's been EIGHT years since our first event! Join us to celebrate 2500 members, 180+ events and countless connections made since 2006! Our birthday parties are always our biggest events. Haven't been to a Socializing for Justice event? It’s time to meet 120+ friendly SoJusters!
Meet like-minded progressives atConnecting for Justice on September 11th from 6-8:30PMat Lir Irish Pub and get connected to great social justice organizations in Boston. SoJust is all about building a cross-issue progressive community and network in Boston. We're doing it by putting the SOCIAL back in SOCIAL JUSTICE. We focus on creating welcoming spaces that foster relationship-building across issue silos. Join us if you are ready to go BEYOND ALLIES and build a CROSS-ISSUE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT.
RSVP at http://www.sojust.org (our main website) and view Member Profiles, Message Board and Calendar of Progressive Events.
This is not a meeting - it's a fun networking social!
No Program. No Speaker. Just Us. For Justice.
Meet like-minded progressives atConnecting for Justice on September 11th from 6-8:30PMat Lir Irish Pub and get connected to great social justice organizations in Boston. SoJust is all about building a cross-issue progressive community and network in Boston. We're doing it by putting the SOCIAL back in SOCIAL JUSTICE. We focus on creating welcoming spaces that foster relationship-building across issue silos. Join us if you are ready to go BEYOND ALLIES and build a CROSS-ISSUE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT.
RSVP at http://www.sojust.org (our main website) and view Member Profiles, Message Board and Calendar of Progressive Events.
This is not a meeting - it's a fun networking social!
No Program. No Speaker. Just Us. For Justice.
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Hot War, Climate Change & Sustainability
September 11
7 pm
MIT, Building 35-225, Cambridge
presentation by Michael Klare, Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies, Hampshire College, author of /Blood and Oil and The Race for
What’s Left
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Friday, September 12
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September 11
7 pm
MIT, Building 35-225, Cambridge
presentation by Michael Klare, Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies, Hampshire College, author of /Blood and Oil and The Race for
What’s Left
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Friday, September 12
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Innovation Breakfast at Coalition
Friday, September 12
Friday, September 12
8:30 AM to 10:00 AM
Coalition, 101 Arch Street, 19th Floor, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/innovation-breakfast-at-coalition-tickets-12391720971
The Roving Innovation Breakfast is visiting Coalition Workspace in Downtown crossing. Coalition is a coworking community in the heart of Boston for serious businesses and entrepreneurs.
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Strong Vegetation-mediated Chemical Forcing of Climate in Modern and Deep Time
Friday, September 12
12:00pm to 1:00pm
Harvard, Pierce Hall 100F, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Nadine Unger
Speaker Bio: http://environment.yale.edu/profile/nadine-unger/
Contact Ploy Achakulwisut
pachakulwisut@fas.harvard.edu
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DESIGN DIALOGUES: Grounded Visionaries
Friday, September 12
3:30pm
Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://secure.post.harvard.edu/olc/pub/HAA/event/showEventForm.jsp?form_id=174416
Cost: $50-75
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Living in the Future
Friday, September 12
Friday, September 12
5:00 - 8:00 p.m.
MIT, Building N51, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Free with Museum admission; pizza available 5-6pm.
Free with Museum admission; pizza available 5-6pm.
High speed robots? Humans colonizing space? How do today’s technologies reflect what we’ve seen on the big screen? Sit back, grab some pizza and popcorn, and enjoy short clips from the fantastic and futuristic movies of yesterday and today. Then, hear from scientists and inventors about how close we are to taking the "fiction" out of "science fiction!”
Presentations by:
MARIO BOLLINI - Autonomous Cookie-baking Robots
Chief Technology Officer and Cofounder of GRIT
OLIVIER DE WECK - Humans as a Multi-planet Species
Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems, MIT
ELINOR KARLSSON - Genetic Engineering
Postdoctoral Scientist, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
SANGBAE KIM - Robo Cheetah
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Biomimetic Robotics Lab, MIT
SKYLAR TIBBITS- 4D Printing
Research Scientist. Director, Self-Assembly Lab, MIT
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TEDxCambridge
September 12
5:00 PM - 11:00 PM
Broad Institute, 7 Cambridge Center, Cambridge
Cost: $70
TEDxCambridge 2014 encompasses a Spring and Fall event hosted in Kendall Square at three world-renowned research centers. The conference features our unique TEDx evening event format and guest experience followed by a gourmet reception with amazing food & beverages provided by the area’s top chefs and restaurants. Request an invitation by submitting an application.
Schedule
5:00pm: Venue Doors Open
6:30pm: Talks Begin
8:30pm: Talks End & Reception Begins
11:00pm: Reception Ends
See more at: http://www.tedxcambridge.com/event-item/tedxcambridge-2014-fall/#sthash.B3mYyjdz.dpuf
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The Bee: A Natural History
Friday, September 12, 2014
7:00 PM
Friday, September 12, 2014
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Noah Wilson-Rich
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Saturday, September 13
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DESIGN DIALOGUES: Grounded Visionaries
Saturday, September 13
8am - 4 pm
Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://secure.post.harvard.edu/olc/pub/HAA/event/showEventForm.jsp?form_id=174416
Cost: $50-75
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Sunday, September 14
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Boston Local Food Festival
Sunday, September 14
11 a.m.-5 p.m
Boston Local Food Festival, considered New England's largest one day farmers market, is Boston's premier food event connecting eaters and consumers to healthy sustainable foods grown and produced close to home. Attracting thousands of residents and visitors, it provides an ideal opportunity for local food growers and producers to showcase their products and connect with new and existing costumers while growing and supporting the local food movement.
More information at http://bostonlocalfoodfestival.com
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Monday, September 15
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Vehicle Scrappage and Gasoline Policy
Speaker: Hank Farber (Princeton)
Monday, September 15
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Building E51-151, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Public Finance/Labor Workshop
For more information, contact: economics calendar
econ-cal@mit.edu
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Saturday, September 13
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DESIGN DIALOGUES: Grounded Visionaries
Saturday, September 13
8am - 4 pm
Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://secure.post.harvard.edu/olc/pub/HAA/event/showEventForm.jsp?form_id=174416
Cost: $50-75
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Sunday, September 14
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Boston Local Food Festival
Sunday, September 14
11 a.m.-5 p.m
Boston Local Food Festival, considered New England's largest one day farmers market, is Boston's premier food event connecting eaters and consumers to healthy sustainable foods grown and produced close to home. Attracting thousands of residents and visitors, it provides an ideal opportunity for local food growers and producers to showcase their products and connect with new and existing costumers while growing and supporting the local food movement.
More information at http://bostonlocalfoodfestival.com
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Monday, September 15
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Vehicle Scrappage and Gasoline Policy
Speaker: Hank Farber (Princeton)
Monday, September 15
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Building E51-151, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Public Finance/Labor Workshop
For more information, contact: economics calendar
econ-cal@mit.edu
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Tuesday, September 16
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Short-Lived Climate-Forcing Pollutants: Current Research at the IASS
Tuesday, September 16
12:00pm to 1:00pm
Harvard, Pierce Hall 100F, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Mark Lawrence
Speaker Bio: http://www.iass-potsdam.de/people/prof-dr-mark-lawrence
Contact: Jasna Pittman
pittman@seas.harvard.edu
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Tuesday, September 16
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Short-Lived Climate-Forcing Pollutants: Current Research at the IASS
Tuesday, September 16
12:00pm to 1:00pm
Harvard, Pierce Hall 100F, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Mark Lawrence
Speaker Bio: http://www.iass-potsdam.de/people/prof-dr-mark-lawrence
Contact: Jasna Pittman
pittman@seas.harvard.edu
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Hendrik Hertzberg, senior editor, The New Yorker.
Tuesday, September 16
Tuesday, September 16
12 p.m.
Harvard, Taubman 275, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge
Harvard, Taubman 275, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge
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Refiguring American Jewish Identity through Solidarity with Palestinians: A Relational Approach to Religious Innovation
WHEN Tue., Sep. 16, 2014, 5:15 – 7 p.m.
WHERE CSWR Common Room (42 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
SPONSOR Center for the Study of World Religions
CONTACT Lexi Gewertz, 617.495.4476
NOTE Professor Atalia Omer will deliver this year's Dana McLean Greeley Lecture for Peace and Social Justice. Professor Omer is Associate Professor of Religion, Conflict and Peace Studies at Notre Dame and Faculty Fellow at the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University.
Based on in-depth interviews with Jewish Palestine solidarity activists and systematic study of Jewish solidarity movement social media, Omer demonstrates how refiguring alternative Jewish meanings of rituals, practices, and texts may emerge from contesting Jewish nationalism and Israeli occupation policies, through solidarity with Palestinians.
This event is free but RSVPs are required. Please email cswr@hds.harvard.edu in order to secure your spot.
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Greenovate Boston's Upcycling Panel
Tuesday, September 16
6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/greenovate-bostons-upcycling-panel-tickets-12711728121
How does upcycling compare to recycling? How do shipping containers become hydroponic farms and old t-shirts turn into quilts? How does upcycling creates funding for non-profits and charities?
Join us at District Hall, Tuesday September 16 from 6-7:30 PM to hear from a panel of Boston entrepreneurs and experts who are transforming trash into treasure!
The panel speakers include:
Brooke Nash: Branch Chief, Municipal Waste Reduction, Mass Dept of Environmental Protection (MassDEP)
Ross Lohr: Founder of Project RePAT, an innovative textiles upcycling company, with experience in international textiles reuse markets
Brad McNamara: Founder of Freight Farms, a local company that takes old shipping containers and upcycles them to become hydroponic farms
Julie Shane: Founder of Causes International, an organization that allows for easy means of upcycling electronics and e-waste that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities and municipal governments
This event is free and open to the public. Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Lauren Goldberg at lgoldberg@boston.gov.
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Boston New Technology September 2014 Product Showcase #BNT45
Tuesday, September 16
6:00PM–9:00PM
Foley Hoag LLP, Seaport West, 155 Seaport Boulevard, Boston
Free event!
Come learn about 7 innovative and exciting technology products and network with the Boston/Cambridge startup community! Each presenter gets 5 minutes for product demonstration and 5 minutes for Questions & Answers. Please follow @BostonNewTech and use the #BNT42 hashtag in social media posts: details here.
Products / Presenters:
Will be announced here.
Agenda:
6:00 to 7:00 - Networking with dinner and beverages
7:00 to 7:10 - Announcements
7:10 to 8:20 - Presentations, Questions & Answers
8:20 to 9:00 - Networking
9:00 - More networking over drinks across the street, at The Whiskey Priest, 150 Northern Ave. (at Seaport Blvd.), Boston, MA. (optional)
More information at http://www.foleyhoag.com/news-and-events/events/2014/september/boston-new-technology-september-2014-product-showcase
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How does upcycling compare to recycling? How do shipping containers become hydroponic farms and old t-shirts turn into quilts? How does upcycling creates funding for non-profits and charities?
Join us at District Hall, Tuesday September 16 from 6-7:30 PM to hear from a panel of Boston entrepreneurs and experts who are transforming trash into treasure!
The panel speakers include:
Brooke Nash: Branch Chief, Municipal Waste Reduction, Mass Dept of Environmental Protection (MassDEP)
Ross Lohr: Founder of Project RePAT, an innovative textiles upcycling company, with experience in international textiles reuse markets
Brad McNamara: Founder of Freight Farms, a local company that takes old shipping containers and upcycles them to become hydroponic farms
Julie Shane: Founder of Causes International, an organization that allows for easy means of upcycling electronics and e-waste that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities and municipal governments
This event is free and open to the public. Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Lauren Goldberg at lgoldberg@boston.gov.
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Boston New Technology September 2014 Product Showcase #BNT45
Tuesday, September 16
6:00PM–9:00PM
Foley Hoag LLP, Seaport West, 155 Seaport Boulevard, Boston
Free event!
Come learn about 7 innovative and exciting technology products and network with the Boston/Cambridge startup community! Each presenter gets 5 minutes for product demonstration and 5 minutes for Questions & Answers. Please follow @BostonNewTech and use the #BNT42 hashtag in social media posts: details here.
Products / Presenters:
Will be announced here.
Agenda:
6:00 to 7:00 - Networking with dinner and beverages
7:00 to 7:10 - Announcements
7:10 to 8:20 - Presentations, Questions & Answers
8:20 to 9:00 - Networking
9:00 - More networking over drinks across the street, at The Whiskey Priest, 150 Northern Ave. (at Seaport Blvd.), Boston, MA. (optional)
More information at http://www.foleyhoag.com/news-and-events/events/2014/september/boston-new-technology-september-2014-product-showcase
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What Stays in Vegas: The World of Personal Data—Lifeblood of Big Business—and the End of Privacy as We Know It
Tuesday, September 16
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Adam Tanner
Harvard Book Store welcomes ADAM TANNER, fellow at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University and Forbes contributor, for a discussion of his book What Stays in Vegas: The World of Personal Data—Lifeblood of Big Business—and the End of Privacy as We Know It.
In What Stays in Vegas, Tanner exposes the greatest threat to privacy today. It’s not the NSA, but good-old American companies. Internet giants, leading retailers and other firms are gathering data behind the scenes with little oversight from anyone. “This is the information age, and information is power!” screamed DocuSearch, “America’s Premier Resource for Private Investigator Searches & Lookups” in 1996—and they were right.
In Las Vegas, no company knows this mantra better than Caesars Entertainment. Despite the fact that its Vegas casinos are decades old and can’t boast their rivals’ singing gondoliers or fountains exploding in a choreographed dance, many thousands of enthusiastic clients continue to pour through the ever-open doors of Caesars hotels. The secret to the company’s success lies in their one unrivaled asset: they are able to track the activities of the overwhelming majority of gamblers who walk in. They know exactly what games we like to play, what foods we enjoy for breakfast, when we prefer to visit, who our favorite hostess might be and exactly how to keep us coming back for more.
Caesars’ dogged data-gathering methods have been so successful that they grew to become the world’s largest casino operator, and they have inspired companies from across industries to ramp up their own data mining in the hopes of boosting their targeted marketing efforts. Some do this themselves. Some rely on data brokers. Others clearly enter a moral gray zone that would make American consumers deeply uncomfortable.
Even if you’ve never set foot in a casino or signed up for an airline’s frequent flier program, companies little-known to the public like Acxiom are still gathering information on you at every turn. And there are those, such as PeopleSmart and Instant Checkmate, that will sell your dossier to anyone for cash.
The reality is that we live in an age where our personal information is harvested and aggregated whether we like it or not. And it is growing ever more difficult for those businesses that choose not engage in more intrusive data gathering to compete with those that do. Tanner’s timely warning resounds: yes, there are many benefits to the free flow of all this data, but there is a dark side as well. With societal and legal boundaries on the use of personal data still largely undefined, the potential for abuse looms large.
And, as to what stays in Vegas? The answer: almost nothing…
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Greenport Forum: Evacuation Routes or Bandaids
Tuesday, Sept. 16
7-9pm
Cambridgeport Baptist Church, cornet of Magazine Street and Putnam Avenue, Cambridge
Join City Councillor Craig Kelley & former City Councillor Sam Seidel In a conversation about what keeps us all safe.
An evacuation plan?
Bandaids in your wallet?
Or simply knowing your neighbors?
Contact greenportlocal@gmail.com
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Opportunity
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Intern with Biodiversity for a Livable Climate!
Biodiversity for a Livable Climate (BLC) is a nonprofit based in the Cambridge, MA area. Our mission is to mobilize the biosphere to restore ecosystems and reverse global warming.
Education, public information campaigns, organizing, scientific investigation, collaboration with like-minded organizations, research and policy development are all elements of our strategy.
Background: Soils are the largest terrestrial carbon sink on the planet. Restoring the complex ecology of soils is the only way to safely and quickly remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the ground, where it’s desperately needed to regenerate the health of billions of acres of degraded lands. Restoring carbon to soils and regenerating ecosystems are how we can restore a healthy hydrologic cycle and cool local and planetary climates safely, naturally, and in time to ensure a livable climate now and in the future.
Our Work: immediate plans include
Organizing the First International Biodiversity, Soil Carbon and Climate Week, October 31-November 9, 2014, and a kick-off conference in the Boston area, “Mobilizing the Biosphere to Reverse Global Warming: A Biodiversity, Water, Soil Carbon and Climate Conference – and Call to Action” to expand the mainstream climate conversation to include the power of biology, and to help initiate intensive worldwide efforts to return atmospheric carbon to the soils.
Coordination of a global fund to directly assist local farmers and herders in learning and applying carbon farming approaches that not only benefit the climate, but improve the health and productivity of the land and the people who depend on it.
Collaboration with individuals and organizations on addressing eco-restoration and the regeneration of water and carbon cycles; such projects may include application of practices such as Holistic Management for restoration of billions of acres of degraded grasslands, reforestation of exploited forest areas, and restoring ocean food chains.
Please contact Helen D. Silver, helen.silver@bio4climate.org for further information.
781-316-1710
Bio4climate.org
SharedHarvestCSA.com
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Climate Stories Project
http://www.climatestoriesproject.org
What's your Climate Story?
Climate Stories Project is a forum that gives a voice to the emotional and personal impacts that climate change is having on our lives. Often, we only discuss climate change from the impersonal perspective of science or the contentious realm of politics. Today, more and more of us are feeling the effects of climate change on an personal level. Climate Stories Project allows people from around the world to share their stories and to engage with climate change in a personal, direct way.
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Where is the best yogurt on the planet made? Somerville, of course!
Join the Somerville Yogurt Making Cooperative and get a weekly quart of the most thick, creamy, rich and tart yogurt in the world. Membership in the coop costs $2.50 per quart. Members share the responsibility for making yogurt in our kitchen located just outside of Davis Sq. in FirstChurch. No previous yogurt making experience is necessary.
For more information checkout.
https://sites.google.com/site/somervilleyogurtcoop/home
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Cambridge Residents: Free Home Thermal Images
Have you ever wanted to learn where your home is leaking heat by having an energy auditor come to your home with a thermal camera? With that info you then know where to fix your home so it's more comfortable and less expensive to heat. However, at $200 or so, the cost of such a thermal scan is a big chunk of change.
HEET Cambridge has now partnered with Sagewell, Inc. to offer Cambridge residents free thermal scans.
Sagewell collects the thermal images by driving through Cambridge in a hybrid vehicle equipped with thermal cameras. They will scan every building in Cambridge (as long as it's not blocked by trees or buildings or on a private way). Building owners can view thermal images of their property and an analysis online. The information is password protected so that only the building owner can see the results.
Homeowners, condo-owners and landlords can access the thermal images and an accompanying analysis free of charge. Commercial building owners and owners of more than one building will be able to view their images and analysis for a small fee.
The scans will be analyzed in the order they are requested.
Go to Sagewell.com. Type in your address at the bottom where it says "Find your home or building" and press return. Then click on "Here" to request the report.
That's it. When the scans are done in a few weeks, your building will be one of the first to be analyzed. The accompanying report will help you understand why your living room has always been cold and what to do about it.
With knowledge, comes power (or in this case saved power and money, not to mention comfort).
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Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHhwM202dDYxdUZJVGFscnY1VGZ3aXc6MQ
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HEET has partnered with NSTAR and Mass Save participating contractor Next Step Living to deliver no-cost Home Energy Assessments to Cambridge residents.
During the assessment, the energy specialist will:
Install efficient light bulbs (saving up to 7% of your electricity bill)
Install programmable thermostats (saving up to 10% of your heating bill)
Install water efficiency devices (saving up to 10% of your water bill)
Check the combustion safety of your heating and hot water equipment
Evaluate your home’s energy use to create an energy-efficiency roadmap
If you get electricity from NSTAR, National Grid or Western Mass Electric, you already pay for these assessments through a surcharge on your energy bills. You might as well use the service.
Please sign up at http://nextsteplivinginc.com/heet/?outreach=HEET or call Next Step Living at 866-867-8729. A Next Step Living Representative will call to schedule your assessment.
HEET will help answer any questions and ensure you get all the services and rebates possible.
(The information collected will only be used to help you get a Home Energy Assessment. We won’t keep the data or sell it.)
(If you have any questions or problems, please feel free to call HEET’s Jason Taylor at 617 441 0614.)
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Resource
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Sustainable Business Network Local Green Guide
SBN is excited to announce the soft launch of its new Local Green Guide, Massachusetts' premier Green Business Directory!
To view the directory please visit: http://www.localgreenguide.org
To find out how how your business can be listed on the website or for sponsorship opportunities please contact Adritha at adritha@sbnboston.org
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Free Monthly Energy Analysis
CarbonSalon is a free service that every month can automatically track your energy use and compare it to your past energy use (while controlling for how cold the weather is). You get a short friendly email that lets you know how you’re doing in your work to save energy.
https://www.carbonsalon.com/
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Boston Food System
"The Boston Food System [listserv] provides a forum to post announcements of events, employment opportunities, internships, programs, lectures, and other activities as well as related articles or other publications of a non-commercial nature covering the area's food system - food, nutrition, farming, education, etc. - that take place or focus on or around Greater Boston (broadly delineated)."
The Boston area is one of the most active nationwide in terms of food system activities - projects, services, and events connected to food, farming, nutrition - and often connected to education, public health, environment, arts, social services and other arenas. Hundreds of organizations and enterprises cover our area, but what is going on week-to-week is not always well publicized.
Hence, the new Boston Food System listserv, as the place to let everyone know about these activities. Specifically:
Use of the BFS list will begin soon, once we get a decent base of subscribers. Clarification of what is appropriate to announce and other posting guidelines will be provided as well.
It's easy to subscribe right now at https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/bfs
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Artisan Asylum http://artisansasylum.com/
Sprout & Co: Community Driven Investigations http://thesprouts.org/
Greater Boston Solidarity Economy Mapping Project http://www.transformationcentral.org/solidarity/mapping/mapping.html
a project by Wellesley College students that invites participation, contact jmatthaei@wellesley.edu
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Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/
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Links to events at 60 colleges and universities at Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com
Thanks to
Fred Hapgood's Selected Lectures on Science and Engineering in the Boston Area: http://www.BostonScienceLectures.com
MIT Events: http://events.mit.edu
MIT Energy Club: http://www.mitenergyclub.org/events/calendar/
Harvard Events: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/harvard-events/events-calendar/
Harvard Environment: http://www.environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
Sustainability at Harvard: http://green.harvard.edu/events
Mass Climate Action: http://www.massclimateaction.net/calendar/events/index.php
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/
Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/
Microsoft NERD Center: http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/
Startup and Entrepreneurial Events: http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/
High Tech Events: http://harddatafactory.com/Johnny_Monsarrat/index.html
Cambridge Civic Journal: http://www.rwinters.com
Cambridge Happenings: http://cambridgehappenings.org
Boston Area Computer User Groups: http://www.bugc.org/
Arts and Cultural Events List: http://aacel.blogspot.com/
Boston Events Insider: http://bostoneventsinsider.com/boston_events/
Nerdnite: http://boston.nerdnite.com/
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