Sunday, December 06, 2015

Energy (and Other) Events - December 6, 2015

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

---------------------------------------------------------
*******************************************


******
-------
Index
--------
******

Full event information follows the Index and notices of my latest writings.

----------------------------
Monday, December 7
----------------------------

8am  Transportation Nudges: Experiments in Improving Urban Mobility
12:10pm  Flowering plants mediating transmission of a common bumble bee pathogen
2:30pm  Usage-Based Pricing and Demand for Residential Broadband
4pm  Preparing Boston for Climate Change
4pm  Tourism and Economic Development: Evidence from Mexico's Coastline
4pm  Evaluating Public Programs with Close Substitutes: The Case of Head Start
4pm  Global Poverty: Why Should We Care?
6pm  Get Smart on the Essential Rules of Branding with Solid Founder
7pm  Science and Cooking:  Top Chef
7pm  The Great Failure of the Anti-Racist Community: How and Why Contemporary Global Antisemitism Has Been Downplayed and Ignored

-----------------------------
Tuesday, December 8
-----------------------------

12pm  State of Student Privacy
12:30pm  Now It Can Be Told: Telling the Truth about the War, 1946-1954
3pm  Preparing for the Next Sandy
3pm  Exploring Global Warming with Climate Models of Various Complexity
4pm  Self-Improving Microvascular Materials
4:30pm  Still Waiting for Tomorrow: The Law and Politics of Unresolved Refugee Crises' with particular emphasis on the refugees in the Middle East
6pm  The International Startup
6pm  Livable Streets 10-in-1 Street Talk
6:30pm  Design Is More Than Lipstick on a Pig
6:30pm  The Paradigm of Security: Turning Cyber Threat into Opportunity (Ascent B2B IT Forum)
6:45pm  Climate Change, Energy, and the Outdoors Series: Impacts of Climate Change in the Northeast
7pm  Database of Dreams: The Lost Quest to Catalog Humanity
7pm  A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature’s Deep Design

--------------------------------
Wednesday, December 9
--------------------------------

11:45am  Lunch & Learn: Latest in Cyber Security and Advanced Threat Detection
12:10pm  Observations and Dynamics of Decreasing Variability of Winter Temperatures
12:30pm  Will Africa Feed China? Book Launch and Discussion
3pm  Education Re-Imagined: Online Learning & STEM
4pm  Effects of Tropical Deforestation on Climate and Agriculture in Brazil
4pm  Evidence of seasonality in a host-pathogen system: Influenza across the annual cycle of wild birds
4pm  Supply Chain Networks Against Time: From Food to Pharma
4:30pm  Sleep, circadian rhythms, health and performance
5pm  Seeing the Invisible Ocean: Art at Technology's Cutting Edge
5:30pm  Invite: The Raising of America - Screening and Discussion, Dec 9 at WGBH
6pm  Mass Innovation Nights 81
6pm  Community Shared Solar:  Chapter Round Table
6:30pm  Big Data Speaker Series: "The Smart City of Tomorrow, Today"
6:30pm  Extending a Hand: Dr. Salman Zarka on the Humanitarian Treatment of Syrian Casualties in Israel
6:30pm  Holiday BINJ [Boston Institute for Non-Profit Journalism]
7pm  The Future of Clean Energy Technologies: Solar, Batteries and Lighting

--------------------------------
Thursday, December 10
--------------------------------

11am  Three Pillars Enabling the Internet of Everything: Smart Everyday Objects, Information-Centric Networks, & Automated Real-Time Insights
12pm  Paris 2015: What’s next?
4pm  Establishing a chemical definition of environmental health
4pm  One, Two, Three, Many: Manipulating Quantum Systems One Atom at a Time
5:30pm  A “fine looking body of women”: Woman Suffragists Develop Their Visual Campaign
6pm  RPP Colloquium: The Pastor and the Imam from Nigeria: Interfaith Strategy for Peacebuilding: Prospects and Challenges
6:30pm  IDEAS Global Challenge: Mobile Phones & Behavior Change Challenge Launch Event

---------------------------
Friday, December 11
--------------------------

9:30am  Reproductive Health and the Environment
2pm  HISTORY IN THE MAKING: The Outcome of the Paris Climate Change Negotiations
5pm  Math MoSAIC Festival: MIT Museum Second Friday

-------------------------------
Saturday, December 12
-------------------------------

9:30am  Boston VR Devs December Hackathon
10am  Math MoSAIC Festival
1pm  Jobs, Justice, Climate Rally & March

-----------------------------
Sunday, December 13
----------------------------

5pm  Sing for Peace

-----------------------------
Monday, December 15
-----------------------------

10am  Faculty Forum Online, Alumni Edition: After Iran, Nuclear Energy's Future
12pm  Techno-Vernacular Creativity and STEAM
7pm  Webinar:  Update from Paris
7pm  CafeSci Boston:  Time in Time Again: Reconstructing the Geologic Past through Ancient Protein
7pm  #HackWinter Demo Night

---------------------------------------------------------
*******************************************

My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com

City Agriculture Links
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/11/16/1450771/-City-Agriculture-Links-November-16-2015

Donald Trump Is NOT a Liar
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/11/26/1454433/-Donald-Trump-Is-NOT-a-Liar

Demonstrate Solar IS Civil Defense
http://bluemassgroup.com/2015/11/demonstrate-solar-is-civil-defense-at-the-boston-climate-defense-carnival/

---------------------------------------------------------
*******************************************

----------------------------
Monday, December 7
----------------------------

Transportation Nudges: Experiments in Improving Urban Mobility
Monday, December 7
8am - 4pm
BU, 8 St. Mary’s Street, 9th floor Colloquium Room, The Boston University Photonics Center, Boston
RSVP at http://sites.bu.edu/transportationnudges/registration/
Cost:  $40
Livestream at http://sites.bu.edu/transportationnudges/

TRANSPORTATION NUDGES: Experiments in Improving Urban Mobility will bring together transportation demand managers, urban planners, technologists, computer scientists, government officials, behavioral economists and community and business leaders to examine innovative ways cities can nudge their way to better mobility.

Cities worldwide are experimenting with new ways to tackle congestion and improve urban mobility along with resident health and safety. Many communities are testing novel, low cost interventions to change individual behavior, “nudging” their way to fewer and slower drivers, along with more and better cyclists and transit riders. While still in the early stages, these experiments are bearing fruit. As much as Americans love their cars, individual choices – spatial, modal and temporal – can be influenced by technology, policy or low cost design interventions, yielding smarter, safer and less congested cities.

We hope you can join us for this important conversation.

More information at http://sites.bu.edu/transportationnudges/

-----------------------------------

Flowering plants mediating transmission of a common bumble bee pathogen
Monday, December 7
12:10 pm
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill, 1300 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain

Lynn Adler, Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts Amherst

---------------------------------

Usage-Based Pricing and Demand for Residential Broadband
Monday, December 7
2:30p–4:00p
MIT, Building E62-450, 100 Main Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Aviv Nevo (Northwestern University)

Web site: http://economics.mit.edu/files/11203
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): IO Workshop
For more information, contact:  economics calendar
econ-cal@mit.edu

---------------------------------

Preparing Boston for Climate Change
December 7
4pm - 5pm
BU, College of Arts & Sciences, Room 226, 685-725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston

Bud Ris, Senior Climate Advisor, Barr Foundation
Boston is one of the most vulnerable cities in the United States to the effects of climate change. In collaboration with the Green Ribbon Commission, the City is launching a multi-year initiative to identify the neighborhoods and infrastructure that face the greatest risks. A diverse array of solution strategies will be developed for each of these areas. Mr. Ris will review the rationale and anticipated outcomes for this project.

BU Fall Lecture Series: Bud Ris, Senior Climate Advisor, Barr Foundation

--------------------------------

Tourism and Economic Development: Evidence from Mexico's Coastline
Monday, December 7
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Building E18-202, 50 Ames Street, Cambridge

Web site: http://economics.mit.edu/files/11206
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): International Seminar
For more information, contact:  economics calendar
econ-cal@mit.edu

-------------------------------

Evaluating Public Programs with Close Substitutes: The Case of Head Start
Monday, December 7
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Building E62-650, 100 Main Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Chris Walters (Berkeley)

Web site: http://economics.mit.edu/files/11201
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Public Finance/Labor Workshop
For more information, contact:  economics calendar

Editorial Comment:  Lots of things happening in the MIT economics department.  Head Start and education, Mexico as a case study in tourism and economic development,  and the costs of residential broadband.  All in one day, in the same building.

-------------------------------

Global Poverty: Why Should We Care?
Monday, December 7
4:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Harvard, Sever Hall, Room 113, Harvard Yard, 31 Quincy Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge

Prof. Larry Temkin, a moral philosopher (ethicist) at Rutgers (in New Jersey), will give a talk entitled "Global Poverty: Why Should We Care?" on 
Monday afternoon at 4pm in Harvard Square, Cambridge. 

Prof. Temkin is one of today's leading moral philosophers. 
If your motivation for pursuing your career is largely altruistic, this talk may offer a chance to reflect on your choices and motives.

Some students may not be aware of the "Effective Altruism" movement, which has become a very interesting development. It has two premises. The first is that each of us ought to share more of our personal resources with those who are desperately in need. The second is that if one is prepared to donate, it makes sense to donate effectively, i.e., in a way that will have an important impact on relieving suffering. Remarkably, this second premise is not commonly shared even among those active in the non-profit world, or among philanthropists. A young hedge-fund would-be philanthropist was so amazed by this that he created www.givewell.com, an organization that assess the impact of aid organizations (measured in DALYs).

This idea spread quickly.  Soon it attracted the attention of a young Oxford philosopher, Toby Ord, who had founded www.givingwhatwecan.org, which has also been highly influential, not least among Harvard undergraduates. 

You know Toby's work from the WHO report on equity in Universal Health Coverage; he invented the priority-setting method that was the subject of a remarkable book about altruism and altruists, Strangers Drowning: Grappling with Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Overpowering Urge to Help, has just been published.  The author is Larissa MacFarquhar, a staff writer for The New Yorker. It is a portrait of a number of people who take the needs of strangers to be as important as their own, and tries to understand the sources and explanation of their remarkable selflessness. 

-------------------------------

Get Smart on the Essential Rules of Branding with Solid Founder
Monday, December 7
6:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building E51-145, 2 Ames Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Iliana Rabago, Art Director/Principal, Solid Founder
If you are a startup founder, sooner than later you are going to be faced with the challenge of how to present your company to investors and to the world. This often proves to be a complex and overwhelming task with results far from the vision that you have for your business. This fun and easy to understand workshop is for you! Learn the basics of good story telling - separating pure facts and innovation from perception and emotional responses from your audience.

Armed with this new knowledge, you will be able to:
Generate ideas that will truly sustain your brand
Use these ideas as tools to create content
Evaluate creative work more objectively and efficiently
Make better communication decisions yourself
Be concise and compelling in order to drive action from investors
Save time and money while leading the image of your company in the right direction
Agenda:
5:30-6:00 PM Registration & networking (refreshments and light snacks will be provided)
6:00-6:20 PM Brief presentation of two startups, Ras Labs and MatchUpBox. Their CEOs will comment on their own experiences branding their companies
6:20-8:00 PM Branding Workshop

Open to: the general public
Cost: Free for Students and MITEF members; $20 for nonmembers
Sponsor(s): MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge
For more information, contact:  Amy Goggins
617-253-3937
entforumcambridge@mit.edu

-------------------------------

Science and Cooking:  Top Chef
Monday, December 7
7 pm
Harvard Science Center, Hall C, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge

Tom Colicchio, (@tomcolicchio), “Top Chef” judge and chef/owner, Craft Hospitality
Mei Lin, (@meilin21), “Top Chef” season 12 winner
Gail Simmons, (@gailsimmons), “Top Chef” judge, culinary expert, and Food & Wine magazine Special Projects Director

More information at https://www.seas.harvard.edu/cooking

---------------------------------

The Great Failure of the Anti-Racist Community: How and Why Contemporary Global Antisemitism Has Been Downplayed and Ignored
WHEN  Mon., Dec. 7, 2015, 7 – 9 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard Faculty Club, Room 10, 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Religion, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy
SPEAKER(S)  Professor Neil Kressel
CONTACT INFO info@isgap.org

-----------------------------
Tuesday, December 8
-----------------------------

State of Student Privacy
Tuesday, December 8
12:00 pm
Harvard Law School campus, Wasserstein Hall, Room 2004, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP required for those attending in person at https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2015/12/StudentPrivacy#RSVP
Event will be webcast live on https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2015/12/StudentPrivacy at 12:00 pm

Share your questions with us in advance, or during the event, at the Question Tool (select "StudentPrivacy2015" from the list)
with Urs Gasser, Sandra Cortesi, Dalia Topelson Ritvo, Paulina Haduong, and Leah Plunkett
The Berkman Center’s Student Privacy Initiative team will do a deep dive into the 1.0 and 2.0 privacy conversations that have been dominating the student privacy and educational technologies (“ed tech”) landscape over the past three years. The 1.0 strand of inquiry has examined privacy concerns related to the interactions between governmental entities (K-12 public schools) and third-party services (from commercial ed tech vendors), with a focus on data collection, consent, and security. The 2.0 line of inquiry has encompassed intra-governmental matters (how schools themselves are or should be using student data to inform their work with students), intra-industry analysis (the role of new and emerging types of ed tech, such as IoT and robotics), as well as how these and related questions within each sphere (government and vendor) impact their shared interactions and the experiences of key stakeholders (students, teachers, parents, policymakers, etc.). We will conclude with a preview of future directions for the Berkman team, including forthcoming outputs on student privacy and Internet of Things, as well as a focus on the new lens of digital learning ecosystem governance to explore how different governance tools are being used or may be used by these ecosystems to foster core normative educational commitments to learner autonomy and agency as these ecosystems are transformed by--and, in turn, influence--ed tech.

About SPI
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society's Student Privacy Initiative, led by Executive Director Urs Gasser, explores the opportunities and challenges that may arise as educational institutions consider adopting cloud computing technologies. In its work across three overlapping clusters – Privacy Expectations & Attitudes, School Practices & Policies, and Law & Policy – this initiative aims to engage diverse stakeholder groups from government, educational institutions, academia, and business, among others, develop shared good practices that promote positive educational outcomes, harness technological and pedagogical innovations, and protect critical values.

To learn more about the project, please visit http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/studentprivacy.
----------------------------------

Now It Can Be Told: Telling the Truth about the War, 1946-1954
Tue., Dec. 8, 2015
12:30 – 2 p.m.
Harvard, Bowie-Vernon Room (K262), CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Gazette Classification: Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
Organization/Sponsor: Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, co-sponsored by Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies
Speaker(s): Emer O’Dwyer, associate professor of history and East Asian Studies, Oberlin College, Moderator: Andrew Gordon, Lee and Juliet Folger Fund Professor of History, Harvard University
Cost: Free and open to the public
More info: http://programs.wcfia.harvard.edu/us-japan

-----------------------------------

Preparing for the Next Sandy
Tuesday, December 8
3:00 to 4:00 pm unless listed otherwise
Tufts University, Nelson Auditorium, 112 Anderson Hall, Medford campus
Followed by a catered reception in Burden Lounge 4:00 - 4:30 pm

Alan Blumberg, George Meade Bond Professor & Director of The Center for Maritime Systems, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N.J.

More information at http://engineering.tufts.edu/cee/seminars/

--------------------------------

Exploring Global Warming with Climate Models of Various Complexity
Tuesday, December 8
3:00PM TO 4:30PM
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin, Lessin Lecture Hall, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge

with Syukuro Manabe, Senior Meteorologist, Princeton University
The Harvard University Center for the Environment presents a special Climate Seminar with Syukuro “Suki” Manabe, Senior Meteorologist at Princeton University, and one of the world’s leading scientists in numerical modeling of climate and climate change. For more than five decades Dr. Manabe worked at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey, where he pioneered the use of computers to simulate global climate change and natural climate variations. These breakthroughs have helped provide the foundation for the modern science of climatology. His talk will describe how, over the entire course of his career, he has explored global warming using climate models with increasing complexity.

Special Climate Seminar

**Please note the new start time of 3pm

Contact Name:  Erin Harleman
eharleman@fas.harvard.edu
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/manabe#sthash.FcqMsN3Z.dpuf

--------------------------------

Self-Improving Microvascular Materials
Tuesday, December 8
4pm 
Wyss Institute, 3 Blackfan Circle, Room 521, Boston

Speaker:  Aaron Esser-Kahn, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine
The unique structures and functions of biological materials arise from the unique processes of patterning and rearrangement they employ - namely morphogenesis. Esser-Kahn seeks to mimic the structures formed by biological systems by mimicking the process which forms them. He will detail his initial efforts to develop a simple synthetic morphogenetic system that repatterns microvascular materials using dynamic covalent chemistry of siloxanes. One hallmark of morphogenetic systems is adaptation and improvement of the materials properties. Esser-Kahn will demonstrate that his synthetic system improves the function of materials by altering microstructure.

More information at http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewevent/499/selfimproving-microvascular-materials-

--------------------------------

Still Waiting for Tomorrow: The Law and Politics of Unresolved Refugee Crises' with particular emphasis on the refugees in the Middle East
Tuesday, December 8
4:30p–6:00p
MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Susan Akram, Director, International Human Rights Clinic, Boston University

A session of the Myron Weiner Seminar Series on International Migration.

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies
For more information, contact:  Phiona Lovett
253-3848
phiona@mit.edu

--------------------------------

The International Startup
Monday, December 8
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
MIT, Building 32-123,  Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://mitefcamb.z2systems.com/np/clients/mitefcamb/eventRegistration.jsp?event=96&
Cost:  $20 Members, $45 Non-Members, Free for Students

Learn to Tap Offshore Markets, Talent, and Technology Hotspots
Innovators are supposed to think outside the box. But today’s innovators also need to think outside the country. The brightest minds, the most compelling technologies, and the best market opportunities are not always in your backyard. South Korea led the world in 100Mbit broadband adoption. The same with Europe and smart cards. And many regard Israel today as the world’s cyber security leader. And that’s just three examples.

So where in the world are today’s most disruptive innovations? How can U.S.-based startups succeed in offshore markets — or recruit the best offshore talent? And where are the hidden opportunities and obstacles for growing your startup outside the U.S.?

We’ll find out Tuesday, December 8th, from a panel of international tech players — deal makers, consulate professionals, and founders of small local tech companies with true international presence. Think you know what’s the next big thing coming at you from over the horizon? Our December Innovation Series event may surprise you.

Speakers
Brittany McDonough, Manager of Business Development, Massachusetts Office of International Trade and Investment (MOTI). MOTI is the Commonwealth’s primary international business development agency charged with promoting trade and investment with global partners in Massachusetts and around the world. Its mission is to foster successful international collaborations and partnerships essential to bringing new economic opportunities and investments to the Commonwealth. Brittany specializes in international entrepreneurship and supports cluster development in the clean energy, technology and financial services industries. Prior to MOITI, she served as executive assistant to the Office of the Governor’s Legal Counsel.
Dr. Felix Moesner, Swiss Consul & CEO, Consulate of Switzerland. Established as the world’s first "Science Consulate" in 2000, swissnex Boston is part of a global network in San Francisco (2003), Singapore (2004), China (2007), India (2009) and Brazil (2013) and an outpost in New York City. Formerly, Felix was Head of the Science and Technology at the Swiss Embassy in Tokyo, promoting Swiss S&T and Education in Japan and interfacing between Swiss and Japanese governments, universities, R&D institutions and companies. Since 2005, he also held the presidency of the Science and Technology Diplomatic Circle in Tokyo and now in Boston.
Ralph Verrilli, Managing Director, Madision Park Group, Former Co-founder, Chief Operating Officer & VP of Operations at VISTAGY Inc., a worldwide leader in enterprise design and manufacturing software for the aerospace, automotive, marine and wind energy markets. Ralph led VISTAGY’s global expansion by establishing operations, sales and services in England, France, Russia, China and Japan. In 2012 he and his executive team sold VISTAGY to Siemens in a strategic sale for 5+ times revenue. After the acquisition he led the successful integration of VISTAGY’s operations and personnel into the Siemens PLM software business segment.
Thierry Weissenburger, Consul and Senior Trade Commissioner, Consulate General of Canada. Thierry leads the Consulate commercial team in support of Canadian businesses in the New England market. The Consulate services range from helping Canadian companies accessing the customers, financing, technologies and people they need in order to grow their business as well as supporting US companies wishing to invest and expand business in Canada. Before coming to Boston during summer 2012, Thierry carried the same responsibilities in San Francisco/ Silicon Valley for the past 5 years.
Moderator
Richard Kivel, Chief Operating Officer at IXCELA, a Biotechnology company aimed at developing diagnostic tests that allow patients to receive a real-time snap-shot of their gut microbiome function and subsequent improvement over time. He is also a Senior Advisor to G3 Good Governance Group, a business intelligence and cyber security consultancy providing advice to clients operating in challenging growth markets in the developed world to enable them to address opportunities and threats in markets affected by political, social or economic volatility, conflict and poor governance. In addition, he is a Trustee at FundaciĆ³n InnovaciĆ³n Bankinter, recognized as one of the world's leading Think Tanks whose mission is to create sustainable wealth through innovation and entrepreneurship. Rich served as Chairman of the global Board of Directors of the MIT Enterprise Forum and was a member of the MIT Alumni Association Board from 2008-2011. He is a frequent lecturer at MIT as well as a judge for the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition.

Event Schedule
5:30 - 6:00 Registration, Networking & Light Snacks
6:00 - 8:00 Program
8:00 - 9:00 More Networking

MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambrige
Phone:  617-253-8240
Email:  entforumcambridge AT mit DOT edu

--------------------------------

Livable Streets 10-in-1 Street Talk
Tuesday, December 8
6pm - 9pm
Old South Meeting House, 310 Washington Street, Boston

We are excited to announce that we’ll be hosting our annual 10-in-1 StreetTalk at the Old South Meeting House on December 9!

Building on the Meeting House’s long tradition of hosting spirited, thought-provoking discussions, this annual event will feature 10 short-form presentations all designed to highlight innovative ideas to transform our streets.

Registration will open in November. In the meantime, we want you to share your ideas. Is there a topic you’d like to hear about? Are you interested in potentially presenting your ideas?

Help us build our best 10-in-1 yet at http://www.livablestreets.info/2015_10in1_ideas

---------------------------------------

Design Is More Than Lipstick on a Pig
Tuesday, December 8
6:30pm
IBM Research Cambridge, 1 Rogers Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/design-is-more-than-lipstick-on-a-pig-with-traci-lepore-tickets-19453252201
Please register.  It helps us and our hosts plan.

Traci Lepore, Principal User Experience Designer, Oracle
Abstract
When done well, Design is a fusion of art, science, and technology that builds on visual theories, psychology, sociology, and marketing. This is especially true for User Experience Design. To successfully create and communicate that fusion we need a deeper understanding of the multiple disciplines that actually impact our work and process in order to articulate the reasoning behind our visions and communicate the importance and clarity of the whole Design.

In my other life, theater, a piece of work is called a production. Quite fitting, as there are multiple design aspects from the stage and set design, to costumes, to technical design and lighting design that have to come together to create the experience. And there isn’t one deliverable, but there is one central aspect of the design and that is the script. The script provides the cues for the set, the lighting, the sound, and the costumes. They all have their own means of communication but still work with that core structure.

So why don’t we consider a UX Design a production? There are just as many aspects that must come together to complete the work. I want to explore how we can communicate the “Production of User Experience Design” with its core functional design, its technical design, its visual design, and its strategic design as a whole cohesive view.  If we can learn how to do this successfully, we can show how UX Design is so much more than lipstick on a pig.

Bio
With almost fifteen years of experience as an interaction designer and user researcher, with a focus on user-centered design methods, Traci has experienced a broad range of work practices. At Oracle, Traci is responsible for helping to define the customer experience for a new Cloud Commerce Product. While working as a consultant for almost ten years, she worked on both enterprise and consumer projects across a variety of industries and domains. Through her UXmatters column, Dramatic Impact, Traci hopes to infuse aspects of theatrical theory and practice into her design practice and bring a more empathetic and user-centered focus to her work. Traci holds an M.A. in Theater Education from Emerson and a B.S. in Communications Media from Fitchburg State College.

Evening Schedule
6:30 – 7:00 Networking over pizza and beverages
7:00 – 8:30 Meeting
8:30 – 9:00 CHI Dessert and more networking!

--------------------------------------

The Paradigm of Security: Turning Cyber Threat into Opportunity (Ascent B2B IT Forum)
Tuesday, December 8
6:30 PM to 9:30 PM (EST)
Microsoft New England Research and Development Center,1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-paradigm-of-security-turning-cyber-threat-into-opportunity-ascent-b2b-it-forum-tickets-18955376040

Security is getting scarier. Cyber criminals are becoming more pervasive and major threat groups are on the rise. Data ownership and privacy are hot button issues that impact the entire security equation, but how can companies cope? It is overwhelming!

Gartner predicts that $77 billion may be funneled toward cybersecurity efforts this year, expected to rise to $170 billion by 2020. This represents dramatic growth in digital security efforts over the next 5 years.

Along with the increasing price tag, what are the dangers, collateral costs and remediation implications of cyberattacks for companies? How do security providers, VARs and encryption specialists at today's highly specialized companies make security a competitive advantage versus a threat in 2016 and beyond?

As security breaches escalate, so do the many options that the government, businesses and organizations have to fight cyber-attacks. Should they outsource their security? Use their own methodology? Or automate? And where is Ascent placing its bets on what approaches may win the battle for the enterprise?

Our next B2B IT Forum on Tuesday, December 8th, 2015 from 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. will focus on these questions and the $170 billion market opportunity for security companies.

Venue: Microsoft New England Research and Development Center, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA

As with previous forums, we expect a sold out crowd, and require that you register ahead of time.

Panelists to be announced soon. Beverages and hors d'oeuvres will be served. 

--------------------------------------

Climate Change, Energy, and the Outdoors Series: Impacts of Climate Change in the Northeast
Tuesday, December 8
6:45 pm to 8:30 pm
Appalachian Mountain Club, 5 Joy Street, Boston

With Robert Buchsbaum, Regional Scientist with Mass Audubon and David Publicover, Appalachian Mountain Club's Assistant Research Director
In this two part presentation we will learn of impacts of climate change on the nature and outdoor recreational resources of the Northeast United States.

Robert Buchsbaum, Regional Scientist with Mass Audubon, will focus on the impacts of climate change on the nature of Massachusetts and adjacent New England States based on recent scientific studies. He will use birds, salt marshes, fisheries, forests, and vernal pools as examples of things undergoing changes from our natural world. We will learn which changes have already occurred due to warming temperatures and higher sea levels and then follow this with projections into next 50 to 100 years.

David Publicover, Appalachian Mountain Club's Assistant Research Director,  will focus on impacts in the mountains of the Northeast. AMC's research focuses on causes of and changes to the Northeast's sub-alpine forest and alpine plant communities and examines the resistance and resiliency of these ecosystems to climate change and air pollution. AMC's Joe Dodge had the insight to initiate daily weather measurements in the 1930's on Mount Washington's summit, and at AMC's Pinkham Notch, NH facility. Today these are some of the best long-term climate data sets for mountains in the world, and important tool AMC now uses to study climatic trends and their impact on northeastern mountain ecosystems.

This event is part of a series: Climate Change, Energy, and the Outdoors—an educational series co-sponsored by the Appalachian Mountain Club, Mass Audubon, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Contact Name:  Michael P. O'Connor
mpoconnor@massaudubon.org

More information at http://www.massaudubon.org/get-involved/live-sustainably/make-the-switch-to-green-electricity/events-workshops/climate-change-energy-and-the-outdoors-series-impacts-of-climate-change-in-the-northeast

-------------------------------------

Database of Dreams: The Lost Quest to Catalog Humanity
Tuesday, December 8
7p.
Harvard Coop, 1400 Massachusetts Avenue, Harvard Square, Cambridge

Rebecca Lemov, book talk and signing 
Just a few years before the dawn of the digital age, Harvard psychologist Bert Kaplan set out to build the largest database of sociological information ever assembled. It was the mid-1950s, and social scientists were entranced by the human insights promised by Rorschach tests and other innovative scientific protocols. Kaplan, along with anthropologist A. I. Hallowell and a team of researchers, sought out a varied range of non-European subjects among remote and largely non-literate peoples around the globe. Recording their dreams, stories, and innermost thoughts in a vast database, Kaplan envisioned future researchers accessing the data through the cutting-edge Readex machine. Almost immediately, however, technological developments and the obsolescence of the theoretical framework rendered the project irrelevant, and eventually it was forgotten.

More information at https://www.facebook.com/events/1623858161199905/

------------------------------------

A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature’s Deep Design
WHEN  Tue., Dec. 8, 2015, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE  Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
SPEAKER(S)  Frank Wilczek, Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and 2004 Nobel Laureate
COST  $5
TICKET WEB LINK  https://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?DayPlanner=1466&DayPlannerDate=12/8/2015
CONTACT INFO adulted@arnarb.harvard.edu
DETAILS  Does the universe embody beautiful ideas? Artists as well as scientists throughout human history have pondered this “beautiful question.” Quantum physicist and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek has been inspired throughout his career by his intuition to look for a deeper order of beauty in nature, to assume that the universe embodies beautiful forms, whose hallmarks are symmetry—harmony, balance, proportion—and economy. In this lecture, Professor Wilczek will share examples from Pythagoras, Galileo, Newton, Maxwell, Einstein, from twentieth century physics to the edge of knowledge today to demonstrate how our ideas about beauty and art are intertwined with our scientific understanding of the cosmos.

--------------------------------
Wednesday, December 9
--------------------------------

Lunch & Learn: Latest in Cyber Security and Advanced Threat Detection
Wednesday, December 9
11:45 AM to 2:00 PM
Cambridge Innovation Center - One Broadway, 14th floor, Charles River and Fenway board rooms, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lunch-learn-latest-in-cyber-security-and-advanced-threat-detection-registration-19657616460

In a world where threats are evolving at an unprecedent pace, it is crucial to have a comprehensive view of your network and systems.

This Lunch & Learn will provide an overview on the latest in Cyber Security and Advanced Threat Detection Systems, including a demo on our system aramis.

Our advanced threat detection system aramis allows you to monitor your network accurately, promptly and smoothly no matter the complexity of your organization. aramis uses a specifically designed Machine Learning Engine and Deterministic Rules to enable organizations to identify unknown threats inside their perimeter by fostering human analysis through pre-attentive dashboards.

We are looking forward to meeting you!

--------------------------------------

Observations and Dynamics of Decreasing Variability of Winter Temperatures
Wednesday, December 9
12:10pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge

Andy Rhines, University of Washington
Abstract: There is considerable interest in determining how the full distribution of surface temperature changes with warming. Model ensembles project that extratropical land temperature variability will decrease in the future, consistent with simple physical arguments related to polar amplification. However, observational studies have thus far come to conflicting conclusions. Several analytical pitfalls in interpreting observational records lead to these discrepancies, and highlight the importance of accounting for nonnormality and the effects of filtering, timeaveraging, gridding, and smoothing. I will present a set of methods designed to overcome these challenges, which I apply to a large set of daily temperature observations to show that a decrease in temperature variability is already robustly detectable in the extratropics.

Sack Lunch Seminar Series

Event website:  https://eapsweb.mit.edu/sack-lunch-seminar-series-andy-rhines-uofwashington

-------------------------------------

Will Africa Feed China? Book Launch and Discussion
WHEN  Wed., Dec. 9, 2015, 12:30 – 1:50 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, S020, Belfer Case Study Room, Japan Friends of Harvard Concourse, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Critical Issues Confronting China Seminar Series; co-sponsored by the Harvard University Asia Center and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
SPEAKER(S)  Professor Deborah Brautigam, author; Bernard L. Schwartz Professor in International Political Economy; professor of international development and comparative politics; director of international development program and China-Africa Research Initiative; SAIS, Johns Hopkins University
COST  Free and open to the public

------------------------------------

Education Re-Imagined: Online Learning & STEM
Wednesday, December 9
3:00 PM - 5:30 PM
edX, 141 Portland Street, 9th Floor, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/education-re-imagined-online-learning-stem-tickets-19713200714

present a special #csedweekMA event: Education Re-Imagined: Online Learning & STEM featuring Anant Agarwal CEO of edX, MIT Professor, & TED Conference speaker Learn about the value of MOOCs from an online learning pioneer and thought-leader, and find out how these resources can expand your personal knowledge and the potential of your classroom. Please join us for an Hour of Code event on Wednesday, December 9th Doors open at 3pm, program starts at 3:30pm. Please bring your laptop and a set of headphones to enjoy an interactive edX experience after Anant's talk. FAQs Are there ID requirements or an age limit to enter the event? High school students are welcome to attend with their teachers. No ID is required. What are my transport/parking options getting to the event? EdX can be accessed via the Kendall stop off the Red Line. There is also metered street parking and parking garages close by. Will there be refreshments? Drinks & snacks will be provided. Feel free to bring your own too. Anything else? Bring your love of learning and curiosity.

------------------------------------

Effects of Tropical Deforestation on Climate and Agriculture in Brazil
Wednesday, December 9
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
BU, CAS, Room B-36, 685-725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston

Speaker(s): Dr. Marcos Heil Costa
This talk will discuss how agriculture expansion in Central Brazil changes climate in the region, and how this climate change feeds back on agriculture, reducing yields and constraining intensification of agriculture. Implications of this feedback on the expansion of agricultural land will also be discussed.

More info: http://www.burecs.com
Contact organization: Department of Earth and Environment
Contact name: Jennifer Berglund
Contact email: berglund@bu.edu
Source: http://www.bu.edu/calendar/?uid=176083@17.calendar.bu.edu

-----------------------------------

Evidence of seasonality in a host-pathogen system: Influenza across the annual cycle of wild birds
Wednesday, December 9
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 48-316, Parsons, 15 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Nichola Hill, MIT

Microbial Systems Seminar

Nichola Hill, MIT
http://runstadlerlab.mit.edu/people/nichola-hill

Web site: https://microbialsystems.wordpress.com/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering
For more information, contact:  Kathryn Kauffman or Chris Corzett
k6logc@mit.edu or corzett@mit.edu

-----------------------------------

Supply Chain Networks Against Time: From Food to Pharma
Wednesday, December 9
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 1-131, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Prof Anna Nagurney
Supply chains consist of networks of suppliers, manufacturers, transportation service providers, storage facilities and distributors, as well as retailers, and consumers. They serve as the critical infrastructure backbones for the provision of goods and services in our modern global economy. Supply chains have revolutionized the way in which products are sourced, produced, distributed, and consumed around the globe. They may involve thousands of stakeholders from suppliers and manufacturers to hundreds of thousands of demand points. Supply chains, however, are not just about complex manufactured products such as airplanes, automobiles, or computers. While many of the products of supply chains are durable goods that can be shipped and stored for a prolonged period prior to use, others are perishable -- from the food that we ingest, the medicines and vaccines that heal us and save lives, and, for the fashion-conscious -- the clothes that we wear.
In this talk, I will overview our research that emphasizes multiple disciplines from engineering and operations research and management science to chemistry and physics, all with a unifying theme of supply chain networks, and associated perspectives, to model product deterioration over time and perishability. I will describe food supply chains, medical nuclear supply chains, electric power supply chains, and a case study in the pharmaceutical industry.

Pierce Lab Seminar

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering
For more information, contact:  Rebecca Fowler
617- 253-7101

-----------------------------------

Sleep, circadian rhythms, health and performance
Wednesday, December 9
4:30pm
MIT, Building 32-123/Kirsch Auditorium, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Charles A. Czeisler, Ph.D., M.D., F.R.C.P., F.A.P.S., Harvard Medical School
With more than 40 years’ experience in the field of basic and applied research on the physiology of the human circadian timing system and its relationship to the sleep-wake cycle, Dr. Czeisler is interested in the physiology of the hypothalamic circadian pacemaker in humans, photic and non-photic synchronizers of the human circadian pacemaker, temporal dynamics in neuroendocrine systems, homeostatic and circadian factors in the regulation of sleep and alertness, and the application of circadian physiology to occupational medicine/health policy, particularly as it relates to the extended duration work shifts and long work weeks.

Biography:  Charles A. Czeisler, Ph.D., M.D., F.R.C.P., F.A.P.S. is chief of the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, in the Departments of Medicine and Neurology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Baldino Professor of Sleep Medicine and director of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Czeisler has more than 40 years of experience in the field of basic and applied research on circadian disorders.

For more than a decade, Dr. Czeisler served as team leader of the Human Performance Factors, Sleep and Chronobiology Team of NASA’s National Space Biomedical Research Institute, which is responsible for developing sleep-wake schedule guidelines and related countermeasures for use by NASA astronauts and mission control personnel during space exploration. He led the sleep experiment in which Senator John Glenn participated during the STS-95 space shuttle mission in 1998. Just this year, he and his colleagues at BWH received the NASA’s Johnsons Space Center Director’s Innovation Award in Houston, for designing a new solid state lighting system that is being installed on the International Space Station this year to improve the sleep of astronauts.

Dr. Czeisler’s research is focused sleep, circadian rhythms, health and performance in humans. Of particular concern to Dr. Czeisler is the epidemic of sleep deficiency in our society with its wide-ranging implications for health, wellness, and the economy.

He is chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Sleep Foundation and Past President of the Sleep Research Society. Dr. Czeisler, who has over 275 publications, was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians, is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and was elected as an inaugural Fellow of the American Physiological Society. He earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and his Ph.D. in neuro- and bio-behavioral sciences and M.D. from Stanford University.

Special Talk from CSAIL and Mind+Hand+Heart: "

Visit: https://calendar.csail.mit.edu/events/161021

-----------------------------------

Seeing the Invisible Ocean: Art at Technology's Cutting Edge
Wednesday, December 9
5:00p–6:30p
MIT, Building 6C-442, Center for Theoretical Physics, Cosman Seminar Room, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge

Presentations and discussion by MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) Visiting Artist Keith Ellenbogen and Allan Adams, Associate Professor of Physics

MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) Visiting Artist Keith Ellenbogen is an acclaimed underwater photographer and videographer who focuses on environmental conservation. Ellenbogen documents marine life to showcase its beauty and to elicit an emotional connection to the underwater world. He aims to inspire social change and action toward protecting the marine environment.
In collaboration with MIT theoretical physicist Allan Adams, Ellenbogen will develop high-speed and long-duration camera systems to create images of nature in exquisite (and previously unseen) detail. As part of his residency, Adams and Ellenbogen developed an Underwater Conservation Photography Course at MIT that will challenge students to push technical and aesthetic boundaries, with a goal of marine environmental conservation and positive social change. Ellenbogen's residency will feature a public seminar series on underwater photography throughout fall 2015, culminating in the in-depth course to be offered during IAP 2016.

Web site: http://arts.mit.edu/artists/keith-ellenbogen/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Arts at MIT, Center for Theoretical Physics
For more information, contact:  Leah Talatinian
617.252.1888

------------------------------------

Invite: The Raising of America - Screening and Discussion, Dec 9 at WGBH
Wednesday, December 9
5:30 PM - 8:30 PM
WGBH Yawkey Theater, 1 Guest Street, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/invite-the-raising-of-america-screening-and-discussion-dec-9-at-wgbh-tickets-19404325861

The Raising of America: Early Childhood and the Future of Our Nation is a five-part documentary series that explores the questions: Why are so many children in America faring so poorly? What are the consequences for the nations future?  How might we, as a nation, do better? Please join Parenting Journey and co-sponsors WGBH and Boston Medical Center for a screening of The Raising of America: The Signature Hour the first of five segments in the series which covers all three of these questions.  Following the screening, there will be a panel discussion focusing on the long term effects of stress and trauma, and the importance of a two generational approach to improving childhood outcomes. Reception 5:30pm to 6:30pm
Screening from 6:30pm to 7:30pm
Panel Discussion to Follow

------------------------------------

Mass Innovation Nights 81
Wednesday, December 9
6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Brooklyn Boulders, 12A Tyler Street, Somerville
RSVP at http://mass.innovationnights.com/node/add/rsvp

Mass Innovation Nights MIN #81 will have all you need to kick off the holiday season - exercise, shopping and innovation to inspire with 14 new products! Join us at Brooklyn Boulders for the December 9th holiday and consumer product focused MIN #81! Be sure to bring your climbing shoes -- everyone will have the opportunity. Doors open at 6pm. Presentations start at 7pm. All attendees must submit a waiver prior to attending. It takes less than 60 seconds. Use the link here : Climb, Brooklyn Boulders

Check out the new PRODUCTS
VOTE for your favorite four product launchers - click on the words VOTE HERE (found on this page to the immediate left) and once on the product voting page, click LOVE IT (only four times)! 
RSVP to attend the event on Wednesday, December 9th (free to attend and open to all) 
See who else is planning on attending (click the ATTENDEES tab)
Help spread the word - blog, tweet (using the #MIN81 hashtag), like and post!
Support local innovation -- network and have fun at the same time! Don't miss -- Wednesday, December 9, 2015  6pm-8:30pm for Mass Innovation Nights #81 at Brooklyn Boulders. 

Contact (617) 623-6700
More at: http://mass.innovationnights.com/events/mass-innovation-nights-81#sthash.tAIwQU7z.dpuf

------------------------------------

Community Shared Solar:  Chapter Round Table
Wednesday, December 9
6pm - 9pm
All Saints Parish Church, 1773 Beacon Street, Brookline

Community Shared Solar (CSS) provides homeowners and businesses with the ability to buy solar power. These individuals would not be able to get to solar energy otherwise because they do not qualify for solar panels due to the shape of the roof or the location of the home or business. Chapter leaders who attend this event will be able to learn more about CSS and hear from fellow leaders about their projects and some of the challenges they face.

What the night will look like:
6-7: Informal meal and opportunity to meet and greet.
7-7:30: Go around the room and chapters talk about what they are working on
7:30-8: Panelists present
8-9: Q&A and problem solving

There will be plenty of parking at the church and it is T accessible. The panel for this event is not finalized, but MCAN will finalize the list before the event.

Contact:  Carol Oldham
carololdham@massclimateaction.net

----------------------------------------

Big Data Speaker Series: "The Smart City of Tomorrow, Today"
Wednesday, December 9
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
MIT, Building E51 (Tang Center), Room 262, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/big-data-speaker-series-the-smart-city-of-tomorrow-today-registration-19330238263
Cost: $0 - $40

Sandra Richter is the co-founder and CEO of the MIT Media Lab spinoff, Soofa. Sandra co-founded Soofa in 2014 to make smart city applications tangible for consumers. Soofa has since grown into an industry leader for smart and sustainable cities presenting the Soofa Bench across the world. The solar-powered Soofa Bench is currently deployed in 8 U.S. States supporting software pilots with government that are based on the data that the benches collect. Sandra wants to share her experience of bringing a resilient "Internet of Things" device to the public realm, and crunching big data not only for government officials but for everyone. Visit www.soofa.com to learn more about the company.

--------------------------------------

Extending a Hand: Dr. Salman Zarka on the Humanitarian Treatment of Syrian Casualties in Israel
Wednesday, December 9
6:30 PM to 8:00 PM (EST)
Amenities Room at 73 Tremont, 73 Tremont Street, 1st floor, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/extending-a-hand-dr-salman-zarka-on-the-humanitarian-treatment-of-syrian-casualties-in-israel-tickets-19483437486

Syrians are now accessing medical help at Ziv Medical Center, just over the border in Israel -- a place they've long considered enemy territory. More than 500 Syrians have been treated at Ziv, and 70% - 80% percent are combatants. Although this health care initiative is considered humanitarian work, the politics are unavoidable. When Syrian patients check out of Ziv, Hebrew lettering is sanded off their prosthetic limbs and their pills are removed from Hebrew blister packs.
What are the ethics of filling an Israeli hospital's limited beds with Syrians? Is the Israeli government silently hoping for intelligence from these patients in return for their care? How do the Israeli doctors and nurses feel about caring for people they have been taught to fear, and do the Syrian patients trust the medical workers? Join us to hear Dr. Salman Zarka, doctor at Ziv Medical Center and former I.D.F. Colonel, discuss the answers to these complex questions and many more at this Ford Hall Forum/WorldBoston event.

--------------------------------------

Holiday BINJ [Boston Institute for Non-Profit Journalism]
Wednesday, December 9
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
NAGA Restaurant, Cambridge, 450 Massachusetts Avenue
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/holiday-binj-tickets-19612948858
Cost: $25 - $150

Join Us Wednesday, December 9th at 6:30pm for the first annual Holiday BINJ taking place at NAGA in Cambridge! This event features live music by Louie & Lisa Bello, a silent auction & raffle, and the chance to win a $3,000 Polaris eBike! Our media friends from over a dozen PR firms will be there, and with about 150 people expected, it will be one night you don't want to miss! Purchase your tickets before they run out! And make sure to spread the love using #holidayBINJ To donate an item or service to the Auction & Raffle, or for all other event details, click here! Questions? Contact Val of L.I.R. Productions at lirladyinred@gmail.com 

-------------------------------------

The Future of Clean Energy Technologies: Solar, Batteries and Lighting
Wednesday, December 9
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EST)
Tufts, Nelson Auditorium in Anderson Hall, 200 College Avenue, Medford
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-future-of-clean-energy-technologies-solar-batteries-and-lighting-tickets-19728651929

IIT AGNE invites you to the second event of the year in the run up to Leadership Conference 2016, with the theme “Leading transformation for a better tomorrow: Technologies that lift the human spirit”.

This event will focus on the future of clean technologies that are already transforming the world and will play a greater role in the future: Solar Technology, Batteries and Lighting, all of which are developing rapidly and are poised to transform the world at all socioeconomic levels. They represent our best hope to create a resilient world that can meet the tremendous challenges posed by climate change in the 21st century. You will hear from a panel of leaders and experts led by Vivek Soni, a leading venture capitalist in the clean tech area.

Please register to attend an exciting discussion on The Future of Clean Energy Technologies.

Panel:
Vivek Soni, Managing Partner, Boston Cleantech Partners: Vivek is a venture advisor and thought leader in the Boston clean tech community, who has advised clean tech firms and funds, in India and the USA.
Makarand “Chips” Chipalkatti, Managing Director at Dr. Chips Consulting LLC: Chips is an internationally recognized Solid State Lighting and Innovation Management leader and contributor, who led the commercialization of technologies and processes that resulted in today’s booming LED lighting market.
Suresh Sriramulu, CTO, CamX Power: Suresh has been working on Lithion Ion battery technologies for over a decade, leading large multidisciplinary teams in developing batteries and fuel cell systems.
More detailed directions and an interactive map of Tufts University.

--------------------------------
Thursday, December 10
--------------------------------

Three Pillars Enabling the Internet of Everything: Smart Everyday Objects, Information-Centric Networks, & Automated Real-Time Insights
Thursday, December 10
11:00a–12:00p
MIT, Building 46-3002, Singleton Auditorium, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Brunch reception at 10:30am.

Speaker: Sophie Vandebroek, PhD, Xerox Chief Technology Officer
When smart everyday objects, information-centric networks, and automated real-time insights work in concert a ???perfect storm??? of functionality emerges, one which will disrupt entire industries: Gartner predicts that the global economic value of the Internet of Everything (IoE) will be $1.7T in 2020. But, even more important will be the inevitable improvements to human society that IoE enables: personalized healthcare and education, agile urban mobility, efficient energy usage, and much more.

This talk will provide examples of how each of the three pillars of IoE relies on electronics: (1) printed hybrid logic and sensor circuits using organic inks and inks embedding microchips to create smart 2D labels and to manufacture 3D personalized Internet-connected objects; (2) informationcentric network protocols and hardware (for example, CCNx??) to increase the Internet???s versatility, reduce its traffic congestion, improve security, and simplify application development; and (3) machine-intelligence software and deep-learning chips to create real-time insights and automate processes at the ???edge??? of the IoE network.

The three pillars of IoE will be illustrated through examples from healthcare and transportation. A number of unique challenges and opportunities for general-purpose and custom chip designs will be highlighted.

Web site: http://www-mtl.mit.edu
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Microsystems Technology Laboratories
For more information, contact:  Mara Elena Karapetian
617- 452-2545
info@mtl.mit.edu

------------------------------------

Paris 2015: What’s next?
Thursday, December 10
12:00-1:00pm 
Tufts, Lincoln Filene Center, Rabb Room, 10 Upper Campus Road, Medford

William Moomaw, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
An interdisciplinary panel will discuss the climate negotiations and possible outcomes of the COP 21 summit in Paris which aims to reach a global agreement to keep global warming under 2°C.

-------------------------------------

Establishing a chemical definition of environmental health
Thursday, December 10
4:00 PM EST
MIT, Building 32-141, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Elizabeth Kujawinski, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

-------------------------------------

One, Two, Three, Many: Manipulating Quantum Systems One Atom at a Time
Thursday, December 10
4:00 pm
MIT, Building 10-250, 77Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Refreshments @ 3:30 pm in 4-349 (Pappalardo Community Room)

Selim Jochim, University of Heidelberg
Experiments with ultracold gases have been extremely successful in studying many body systems, such as Bose Einstein condensates or fermionic superfluids. These are deep in the regime of statistical physics, where adding or removing an individual particle does not matter. For a few-body system this can be dramatically different. This is apparent for example in nuclear physics, where adding a single neutron to a magic nucleus dramatically changes its properties. In our work, we deterministically prepare generic model systems containing up to ten ultracold fermionic atoms with tunable short range interaction. In our bottom-up approach, we have started the exploration of such few-body systems with a two-particle system that can be described with an analytic theory. Adding more particles one by one we enter a regime in which an exact theoretical description of the system is exceedingly difficult, until the particle number becomes large enough such that many-body theories provide an adequate approximation.

Our vision is to use our deterministically prepared tunable few-body systems as microscopic building blocks to assemble model systems that might help to gain insight into complex many-body systems in condensed matter or even QCD.

-------------------------------------

A “fine looking body of women”: Woman Suffragists Develop Their Visual Campaign
Thursday, December 10
5:30 pm
Massachusetts Historical Society, Seminar Room, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.masshist.org/2012/calendar/seminars/women-and-gender

Allison Lange, Wentworth Institute
Comment: Suzanna Danuta Walters, Northeastern University
Suffragists coordinated a visual campaign to promote their cause and counter caricatures that depicted them as masculine. In the 1880s, they increased their efforts to establish a positive public image of their movement. Suffrage leaders—especially Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton—began to change the way they represented themselves and fellow prominent figures. In the 1890s, as press committees took control of visual propaganda, suffragists honed their visual strategies to transform the imagery of political womanhood in the mainstream press.
The Boston Seminar Series on the History of Women and Gender—cosponsored by the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study—offers scholars and students an opportunity to discuss new research on any aspect of the history of women and gender in the United States, without chronological limitation.
Registration for the series is required.
Registered participants may access the papers online at the Massachusetts Historical Society website.
For more information, please call 617-495-8647 or email seminars@masshist.org.

----------------------------------------

RPP Colloquium: The Pastor and the Imam from Nigeria: Interfaith Strategy for Peacebuilding: Prospects and Challenges
WHEN  Thu., Dec. 10, 2015, 6 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, Sperry Room, Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Religion
SPONSOR Religions and the Practice of Peace Initiative, the Pluralism Project at Harvard University
CONTACT Liz Lee-Hood
DETAILS  Religions and the Practice of Peace Colloquium Dinner Series
Space is limited. RSVP as soon as possible at https://harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3mFam728ZyOehyB
Formerly rival youth militia leaders engaged in violent strife between Christians and Muslims, Pastor Dr. James Movel Wuye and Imam Dr. Muhammad Nurayn Ashafa, who both serve as Co-Executive Director of the Interfaith Mediation Centre in Kaduna, Nigeria, were subsequently inspired by the teachings of their respective faith traditions to pursue the path of peace. Partnering to establish the Interfaith Mediation Centre in Kaduna, they have been drawing upon religious and spiritual resources to prevent and transform conflict around Nigeria and Africa and across the globe. They will share their experiences and insights on the prospects and challenges of inter-religious peacebuilding in a multi-religious setting in the face of insurgency and violent extremism and offer strategy recommendations.
Organized with generous support from the Provostial Fund for the Arts and Humanities at Harvard University.
Launched by HDS Dean David N. Hempton in 2014, this monthly public series convenes a cross-disciplinary RPP Working Group of faculty, experts, graduate students, and alumni from across Harvard’s Schools and the local area to explore topics and cases in religions and the practice of peace. A diverse array of scholars, leaders, and religious peacebuilders are invited to present and engage with the RPP Working Group and general audience. A light dinner is served and a brief reception follows the program.
Join RPP’s mailing list and visit the RPP Initiative at http://hds.harvard.edu/faculty-research/programs-and-centers/religions-and-the-practice-of-peace

--------------------------------------

IDEAS Global Challenge: Mobile Phones & Behavior Change Challenge Launch Event
Thursday, December 10
6:30p–8:00p
MIT, Building N51-310, Room 310 - 275 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Speaker: Dr. Rich Fletcher, http://www.mobiletechnologylab.org/
As part of this year's IDEAS Global Challenge, please join us for the launch of the 2016 Practical Impact Alliance Challenge on Mobile Phones & Behavior Change (http://globalchallenge.mit.edu/challenges/view/53).

Dr. Rich Fletcher will be our guest speaker and discuss innovative tools and technologies for measuring, predicting, and encouraging behavior change.

Following the talk, you will have the opportunity to pitch your ideas on mobile phones and behavior change. We will then break into smaller groups and discuss the projects. This is a great opportunity to recruit new team members and talk through issues.

Please register through the Eventbrite link by Wed, 9 Dec 2015 at 9:00AM.

Hope to see you there!

Web site: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ideas-pia-challenge-launch-event-tickets-19782012532
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): D-Lab, MIT Public Service Center, IDEAS Global Challenge, Practical Impact Alliance
For more information, contact:  Keely Swan
globalchallenge@mit.edu

---------------------------
Friday, December 11
--------------------------

Reproductive Health and the Environment
Friday, December 11
9:30 AM to 2:00 PM (EST)
Northeastern University (Curry Student Center Ballroom), 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reproductive-health-and-the-environment-tickets-18691025360

The Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats (PROTECT) and the Resilient Sisterhood Project  will be hosting a free symposium entitled Reproductive Health and the Environment Symposium at Northeastern University’s Curry Student Center Ballroom from
 9:30am-2:00pm.

 This event will bring together scholars, advocacy leaders, government agency representatives and community-based organizations working to understand the environment’s role in reproductive health, and advocating for the women, men and children affected by environmental contamination.
 
Speakers include Laura Vandenberg (UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences), Judy Norsigian (Our Bodies Ourselves), Julia Brody (Silent Spring Institute), Deborah Brown (Environmental Protection Agency) and Elizabeth Hoover (Brown University)
 with moderator Rev. Maria Cristina Vlassidis (Unitarian Universalist First Parish).

In addition to invited speakers, there will be a networking breakfast and lunch, discussion panel, meditation, and music.

--------------------------------

HISTORY IN THE MAKING: The Outcome of the Paris Climate Change Negotiations
Friday, December 11, 2015
2:00p–3:30p
Building 54-915, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Noelle Eckley Selin, Associate Professor of Data, Systems and Society & Atmospheric Chemistry | Jessika Trancik, Associate Professor of Energy Studies | Henry Jacoby, Professor of Management
An informal panel discussion moderated by Prof. Susan Solomon, MIT EAPS Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Science

Panel of Speakers:
Noelle Eckley Selin, Associate Professor of Data, Systems and Society & Atmospheric Chemistry
Jessika Trancik, Associate Professor of Energy Studies
Henry Jacoby, Professor of Management

Web site: https://eapsweb.mit.edu/history-making-outcome-paris-climate-change-negotiations
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact:  Jen Fentress
617-253-2127

--------------------------------------

Math MoSAIC Festival: MIT Museum Second Friday
Friday, December 11
5:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building N51, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Speaker: George Hart, David Reimann, Rosalie Belanger-Rioux, Ken Fan, Meena Boppana
During this special, free math weekend, explore a "pop-up" math art exhibit, take part in discussions about math in society, and try your hand at math activities and challenges.

5:10 pm - 6:10 pm: Presentations by Professor George Hart ("From Math to Sculpture") and Professor David Reimann ("Mathematics in the Art of M.C. Escher")
6:15 pm - 7:00 pm: Discussion of the gender gap in mathematics by Dr. Rosalie Belanger-Rioux (Harvard University), Dr. Ken Fan (Girl's Angle), and Meena Boppana (Gender Inclusivity in Mathematics)
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm: Slide rules demonstrations, Rubik's Cube challenges, knot tying, and many more math activities.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/museum/programs/secondfridays.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT Museum
For more information, contact:  Brindha Muniappan
617.253.0527
museuminfo@mit.edu

-------------------------------
Saturday, December 12
-------------------------------

Boston VR Devs December Hackathon
Saturday, December 12
9:30 AM to 8:00 PM
Wayfair, 100 Huntington Avenue, Copley Place, Boston
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston-Virtual-Reality/events/226855725/
Cost: $6.00 /per person

Time for another all-day VR dev day! We'll hack on new VR games and apps, hardware, and ideas, give feedback, hash out development issues, and spend the day sharing knowledge and building VR. Anybody ready to write code, craft environments, explore VR art, hack on hardware, or otherwise build VR, is invited to come!

Many thanks to Wayfair and Mike Festa for hosting us!

------------------------------------

Math MoSAIC Festival
Saturday, December 12
10:00a–5:00p
MIT, Building N51, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Speaker: George Hart, Tadashi Tokieda, David Reimann, Elisabeth Heathfield
During this special, free math weekend, explore a "pop-up" math art exhibit, take part in discussions about math in society, and try your hand at math activities and challenges.

10:00 am - 5:00 pm: Art exhibit open for viewing
10:00 am - 12:00 pm: Geometric Sculpture Assembly workshop with George Hart (limited to 30 participants; free pre-registration opens on Tuesday, December 1)
10:00 am - 12:00 pm: Giant SOMA (cube-based puzzle) workshop with Elisabeth Heathfield (limited to 30 participants; free pre-registration opens on Tuesday, December 1)
1:00 pm - 2:55 pm: Robert Lang's Four Intersecting Triangles workshop with OrigaMIT (limited to 15 participants; free pre-registration opens on Tuesday, December 1)
2:00 pm - 2:45 pm: Presentation & demonstration of math "toys" by Tadashi Tokieda
3:05 pm - 4:30 pm: Creating Escher-like Tesselations workshop with David Reimann (limited to 30 participants; free pre-registration opens on Tuesday, December 1)
3:05 pm - 4:30 pm: Mathematical Sculpture from Drinking Straws workshop with Zachary Abel (limited to 40 participants; free pre-registration opens on Tuesday, December 1)

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/museum/programs/secondfridays.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT Museum
For more information, contact:  Jennifer Novotney
617-253-5927
museuminfo@mit.edu

-------------------------------------

Jobs, Justice, Climate Rally & March
Saturday, December 12
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Parkman Bandstand, Boston, Tremont Street, Boston Common

Stand with us in solidarity to demand biodiversity-based climate solutions at the Rally for New England's Future:  Jobs, Justice and Climate! It's time to go beyond emissions and start restoring ecosystems. This December, global leaders will meet in Paris for another round of climate talks. There's reason to be hopeful, but we already know that even if the delegates finally reach an agreement, it won't be strong enough to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. Scientists have already told us that even in a zero emissions scenario, we'll continue to experience the devastating effects of "committed warming" for several decades to come. Scaling back greenhouse gases is incredibly important, but it's time to go #BeyondEmissions and demand that ecological restoration approaches be given high priority in our global toolkit of climate solutions.We need to build an unstoppable grassroots movement, and it's up to us to lead the way! Join Biodiversity for a Livable Climate in New England for a massive rally on December 12th, the day after the Paris talks, at the Parkman Bandstand in Boston Common from 1:00-3:00 p.m. Our goal is to have 100+ people gathered with signs and banners calling for eco-restoration so that this powerful, hopeful approach to climate change gets the attention it much deserves. Yes, I'll join you at the rally! Sign up on ourevent page on Facebook, invite others, and help us spread the word onsocial media far and wide so that we can generate a massive turnout in support ofbiodiversity-based solutions to climate change!

Learn more about the rally at: http://www.jobsjusticeclimate.org/

-----------------------------
Sunday, December 13
----------------------------

Sing for Peace 
Sunday, December 13
5:00 PM - 9:30 PM
First Church in Boston, 66 Marlborough Street,  Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/sing-for-peace-tickets-19582090560
Cost: $30 - $45

The Core Arts and Music Entertainment LLC is hosting a night of music this winter to pray for this world. The concert will feature a variety of music ranging from traditional Chinese folk to contemporary pop and jazz. Some big-named musicians from China and local Boston will perform in several different ensembles. From 5pm, there will be some seminars with a wonderful reception. The concert will start from 7pm.

Tickets: Standard: $30 Enter time: 7pm Standard ticket will be only for the concert and seminars from 7pm to 9:30pm. (No food included)
Premium: $45 Enter time: 5pm Premium ticket will be able to access all events include seminars, reception and concert from 5pm to 9:30pm.
15% off first 60 tickets We hope you can join in us and sing for peace!

-----------------------------
Monday, December 15
-----------------------------

Faculty Forum Online, Alumni Edition: After Iran, Nuclear Energy's Future
Tuesday, December 15
10:00a–10:45a
Location: Online

Alumni professors share their research on the future of nuclear energy and arms in the world. Panelist lineup:
Waleed Hazbun PhD '02, American University of Beirut
Martin Lopez-De-Bertodano '83, SM '83, Purdue University
John Mathiason PhD '68, Cornell University
Moderator: Wade Roush PhD '94, Outreach Officer, MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society

Web site: http://alumic.mit.edu/s/1314/03-alumni/wide.aspx?sid=1314&gid=13&pgid=28007&content_id=31052
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Alumni Association
For more information, contact:  Alumni Learn
alumnilearn@mit.edu

----------------------------

Techno-Vernacular Creativity and STEAM
Tuesday, December 15
12:00 pm
Harvard Law School campus, Wasserstein Hall, Room 1023, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP required for those attending in person at https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2015/12/Gaskins#RSVP
Event will be webcast live on https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2015/12/Gaskins at 12:00 pm

with Dr. Nettrice Gaskins, STEAM Lab Director at Boston Arts Academy
Dr. Gaskins discusses her model for ‘techno-vernacular’ creative production as an area of practice that investigates the characteristics of this production and its application in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) learning. Her research consists of a study involving workshops conducted between 2013 and 2014 that sought to examine the impact of the following combined methods a) culturally situated design, which connects vernacular art and crafts with standards-based STEM principles and allows users to simulate and develop their own creations; b) art-based learning, which is effective in stimulating the development of 21st century skills such as creativity, learning, and innovation; and c) educational applications of new technologies on underrepresented ethnic groups' learning in STEAM. She has applied this research in her work as STEAM Lab Director at Boston Arts Academy.

About Nettrice
Nettrice Gaskins was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She majored in Visual Art at duPont Manual High School in Louisville, KY. She earned a BFA in Computer Graphics with Honors from Pratt Institute in 1992 and a MFA in Art and Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1994. She worked for several years in K-12 and post-secondary education, community media and technology before enrolling at Georgia Tech where she received a doctorate in Digital Media in 2014. Her model for ‘techno-vernacular creativity’ is an area of practice that investigates the characteristics of this production and its application in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics). When she is not advancing interdisciplinary education, Ms. Gaskins blogs for Art21, the producer of the Peabody award-winning PBS series, Art in the Twenty-First Century and publishes articles and essays about topics such as Afrofuturism and Ghost Nature. Her essay was included in Meet Me at the Fair: A World's Fair Reader published by ETC Press.

In the past Nettrice has supported the use of digital technologies by students and faculty in all art/media disciplines; worked as a teaching artist for the Boston 100K Artscience Innovation Prize; and was a youth media/technology trainer for Adobe Youth Voices. I was board president of the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture and on the board of the Community Technology Centers Network (CTCNet).

Nettrice presented Black Futurism at We Are City 2014 in Indianapolis, Cybism and Decoding the Letter at ISEA2011 in Istanbul and co-facilitated Augmented Reality in Open Spaces (AROS) at ISEA2012 in Albuquerque, NM. She moderated Enlightenment, Strange Mathematics & Rhythmic Equations at The Studio Museum in Harlem (2014). She was a Digital STEAM research intern at the Smithsonian Institution (2013) and received funding from the National Science Foundation for Advancing STEM Through Culturally Situated Arts-Based Learning (2014).

For Art21 Nettrice authored several blog posts and Polyculturalist Visions, New Frameworks of Representation: Multiculturalism and the American Culture Wars. She wrote Afro-Futurism: Countering Mass Culture’s Reductional Breakdown Through Creative Forms of Representation for Nictoglobe Magazine, and Urban Metaphysics: Creating Game Layers on Top of the World for UCLA's Mediascape.

----------------------------------

Webinar:  Update from Paris
Monday, December 15
7pm - 8pm
RSVP at http://www.massclimateaction.net/update_from_paris
MCAN will send you the login information before the webinar.

This webinar is presented by MCAN's board member, Sonia Hamel, who will be attending the United Nation Conference on Climate Change in Paris. Tune in with us to see what happened at the conference and what it means for Massachusetts!

Sonia Hamel is an independent consultant advising governments and foundations on climate, energy and transportation policy. She serves as a Senior Associate for the Center for Climate Strategies helping states make decisions to tackle climate change. Sonia also serves as a consultant to the United Kingdom in the area of emissions trading and climate change.

Contact:  Carol Oldham
carololdham@massclimateaction.net

-------------------------------------

CafeSci Boston:  Time in Time Again: Reconstructing the Geologic Past through Ancient Protein
Tuesday, December 15
7:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Cafe Artscience, 650 Kendall Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/time-in-time-again-reconstructing-the-geologic-past-through-ancient-proteins-with-betul-kacar-tickets-19757172234

BetĆ¼l Kacar, Harvard University
When accessing our planet's deep past, we have two main datasets to draw upon in reconstructing major transitions in the biosphere: the rock record (i.e., fossils) and the existing biodiversity (i.e., genetic sequences). In this talk, we will explore another methodology — one that allows us to reconstruct ancient genes. We will discuss applications in modern biology that may be helpful for interpreting ancient "biosignatures" recorded in the rocks, and for shedding light on significant past events in evolution. 

Speaker Bio:  BetĆ¼l Kacar was born in Istanbul, Turkey. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry and a PhD in Biomolecular Chemistry. She is a Resarch Project Leader at Harvard's Dept. of Organismal & Evolutionary Biology, where she resurrects inferred ancestral genes in the laboratory and engineers them inside modern genomes, creating ancient-modern hybrid organismic systems amenable to genetic and biochemical characterization. Prior to that, she was a Postdoc with NASA's Astrobiology Institute, where she designed and constructed a bacterial system combining experimental paleogenetics with laboratory evolution. Dr. Kacar is a recipient of research grants from NASA and The John Templeton Foundation, and is a co-founder of SAGANet: The Online Astrobiology Grassroots Network, designed to promote mentorship and outreach activities in science, engineering and related fields.

Do You Plan to Attend? Please join us for drink and conversation. This is a free event, but limited seating is available. 

--------------------------------------

#HackWinter Demo Night
Tuesday, December 15
7:00 PM
Cambridge Innovation Center - 5th floor Venture Cafe, 1 Broadway, Cambridge

Come see the presentations of the projects from our #HackWinter app challenge! Teams have been working since November 21st on winter-specific apps and projects and will be presenting them in front of a panel of judges on December 15th at the Venture Cafe at CIC. **Please note that the Demo Night will be taking the place of our regular weekly hack night.**

-----------------------------------
Wednesday, December 16
----------------------------------

Ignite Boston – Data
Wednesday, December 16
6:30 PM to 8:00 PM (EST)
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ignite-boston-data-tickets-19499311967

Enlighten us, but make it quick
Ignite is a series of events held in cities across the world and it's coming back to Boston. Presenters get 20 slides, which automatically advance every 15 seconds. The result is an evening of fast and fun presentations which each last just 5 minutes.

Data
Data is not intuitive. Connect with the big data community and hear from those who have survived, thrived, or died in a data-driven world.

Call for Participation
Do you have something interesting to share about data? A big idea to share? A story waiting to be heard? Submit your presentation to the call for participation.

--------------------------------------

Webinar:  Update from Paris
Wednesday, December 16
7pm - 8pm
Online

This webinar is presented by MCAN's board member, Sonia Hamel, who will be attending the United Nation Conference on Climate Change in Paris. Tune in with us to see what happened at the conference and what it means for Massachusetts!

Please RSVP below and MCAN will send you the login information before the webinar.

Contact:  Carol Oldham
carololdham@massclimateaction.net

------------------------------------

Climate Change, Energy, and the Outdoors Series: Chasing Ice
Wednesday, December 16
Doors open at 6:45 pm. Movie runs 7:00-8:30 pm.
Appalachian Mountain Club, 5 Joy Street, Boston

You may have heard about Earth's melting ice caps and disappearing glaciers caused by climate change, but seeing is believing. In 2005, acclaimed environmental photographer James Balog headed to the Arctic on a tricky assignment for National Geographic—to capture images to help tell the story of the Earth's changing climate by documenting the massive melting taking place in our coldest places.

Chasing Ice is the story of one man's mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. Come learn about The Extreme Ice Survey, a multi-year record of the dramatic changes in the world's glaciers.

This event is part of a series: Climate Change, Energy, and the Outdoors—an educational series co-sponsored by the Appalachian Mountain Club, Mass Audubon, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

More information at http://www.massaudubon.org/get-involved/live-sustainably/make-the-switch-to-green-electricity/events-workshops/climate-change-energy-and-the-outdoors-series-chasing-ice

-------------------------------
Thursday, December 17
-------------------------------

War and Human Nature in Modern America
Thu., Dec. 17, 2015
4 p.m.
Harvard Medical School, Minot Room, fifth floor, Countway Library of Medicine, 10 Shattuck Street, Boston

The last in a series of four lectures given as the 2015 Colloquium on the History of Psychiatry and Medicine. The Colloquium offers an opportunity to clinicians, researchers, and historians interested in a historical perspective on their fields to discuss informally historical studies in progress.

Gazette Classification: Health Sciences, Humanities, Lecture
Organization/Sponsor: Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education, McLean Hospital and the Center for the History of Medicine, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine
Speaker(s): Deborah Weinstein, assistant professor of American studies, Brown University
Cost: Free and open to the public
Contact Info: david_satin@hms.harvard.edu
More info: https://cms.www.countway.harvard.edu/wp/?p=12032
Contact organization: Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education, McLean Hospital and the Center for the History of Medicine, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine
Contact email: david_satin@hms.harvard.edu

--------------------------------------

Boston New Technology December 2015 Product Showcase #BNT60
Thursday, December 17
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Foley Hoag, 155 Seaport Boulevard, Boston
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston_New_Technology/events/226731592/

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 Q&A.  Please follow @BostonNewTech and use the #BNT60 hashtag in social media posts: details here.

Foley Hoag is in the Seaport West building. Please bring identification and check in at our desk in the lobby. Then, take an elevator to the 13th floor. Enter the glass doors and walk down the hall to your right.

-----------------------------------

A Journey into the Dark Web...
Thursday, December 17
6:30 PM
Algonquin Club of Boston, 217 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-journey-into-the-dark-web-tickets-19642349797

We hear more and more about the "Dark Web" (or Deep Web) but most of us don't understand what that means. Join Benjamin Brown from Akamai and Will Lefevers of Constant Contact as they dig into anonymization networks and cybercrime.

More details at HackSecure.org

Connecting Boston's cutting-edge tech community with its cybersecurity thinkers and doers. 


----------------------------
Friday, December 18
---------------------------

PSFC Seminar: Acoustically-Driven Magnetized Target Fusion at General Fusion
Friday, December 18
11:00a–12:00p
MIT, Building NW17-218

Speaker: Michel Laberge, General Fusion
Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) involves forming a magnetically confined plasma of about 1e23 m-3, 100 eV, 7 Tesla, 20 cm radius, 100 ms energy confinement time and compressing the plasma by 1000X in volume in 100 ms within a conductive liner. If the compression is close to adiabatic, the final plasma of ~1e26 m-3, 10 keV, 700 Tesla, 2 cm radius, and confined for 10 ms would produce interesting fusion energy gain. General Fusion is developing an acoustic compression system involving pneumatic pistons focusing a shock wave on the plasma in the center of a 3 m diameter sphere filled with liquid lead-lithium. The combination of a low cost driver, good breeding ratio and excellent neutron protection could lead to a practical power plant. We will review the plasma formation and compression results achieved so far and our plans moving forwards. Work on the compression system will also be described.

Plasma Science and Fusion Center Seminar Series

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Plasma Science and Fusion Center
For more information, contact:  Paul Rivenberg
617-253-8101
info@psfc.mit.edu

************
--------------
Opportunity
--------------
************

Reverse Global Warming Conference help!!!
The upcoming conference on Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming to be held Friday – Sunday, October 16-18, 2015 at Tufts University in Medford is calling for volunteers to
Email the link to our conference website to friends, family and colleagues who might be interested in attending:
http://bio4climate.org/conferences/conferences-2015/tufts-2015-restoring-water-cycles/
Distribute flyers at local events or hang them on community bulletin boards to get the word out to as many people as possible.
Help with set up and managing the registration table during the conference on either Friday October 16th, Saturday October 17th, or Sunday October 18th.
Volunteers with cars to shuttle our conference speakers to and from the airport.
Identify additional speaking opportunities for our international conference visitors from Australia (Walter Jehne), Slovakia (Michal Kravcik), and Zimbabwe (Precious Phiri). Their bios are listed at http://bio4climate.org/conferences/conferences-2015/tufts-2015-restoring-water-cycles/speakers/, so if anyone is affiliated with an organization who might like to host Walter, Michal and Precious as guest speakers, please contact Biodiversity for a Livable Climate (Bio4climate.org)

Inquiries related to volunteering in any of these capacities can be sent to lacey.klingensmith@bio4climate.org

Editorial Comment:  I went to last year's conference on Restoring Soil Carbon to Reverse Global Warming and it was one of the first conferences which showed how we can actually do something to stop and even reverse climate change I've been to.  All the discussions I see on climate change concentrate on sources of greenhouse gases. This is about the only group I know of which is concentrating on sinks, ways to remove carbon and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, naturally, by using and enhancing existing ecological systems.  This year's conference is on water cycles and water systems and, having seen a preview of some of the presentations and speakers, I believe it will be as good as if not better than last year's conference.  If you want to add you energy to stopping climate change, this is one very good way to do so.

—————————————

Food For Free in Cambridge is seeking a number of volunteers for our biggest fundraising event of the year! By helping out at the Party Under the Harvest Moon, you can help us raise $60,000 in one night for our Food Rescue & Delivery work.

WHEN & WHERE:
Friday, October 16th
MIT's Morss Hall | 142 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA

WHOM WE'RE LOOKING FOR:
folks with professional kitchen/restaurant industry experience (or confident home cooks who are willing to follow food handling instructions from our caterer)
friendly, outgoing folks who are comfortable using tablets/smartphones, and ideally willing to use their own devices while volunteering (though we have some available)
1-2 volunteer photographers (email me directly to inquire about this one!)
general helpers for a range of tasks, including coat check, setup, cleanup, etc.
Interested? We look forward to hearing from you!
LEARN MORE & SIGN UP at http://www.idealist.org/view/volop/9M47Tn6J832D/

Thanks for helping make this fundraising event a success, to ensure access to healthy food for all in our communities.

------------------------------------

Marc Rosenbaum, a long-time energy efficiency practitioner and engineer, is teaching a 10 week in-depth course for professionals who are serious about transformative energy upgrades to residential and commercial buildings. He'll cover the pertinent building science, techniques for superinsulating foundations, walls, windows, and roofs, appropriate mechanical systems. There will be a weekly in-depth case study as well. Please join him, and pass this on to anyone who might benefit. Here's the link:
https://www.heatspring.com/courses/deep-energy-retrofits

------------------------------

Keeping A Promise for Solar Teaching in Indonesia (from Richard Komp)

Last May, after I spent a month teaching groups of students in in Sumatra, Indonesia.  I promised them I would come back for a second set of courses next Spring. Since then the part-Indonesian woman who had financed the project has had a slight reversal of fortune (the stock market has not been kind to her lately).   While the costs of the course and materials and my stay in Indonesia are still covered, I will have to arrange for the cost of my own travel arrangements.  In the next trip I will be teaching in a school run by a Christian family where most of the students are Muslims and staying at a Buddhist monastery, where I will also be giving seminars.  All these people expect me back.

I will be traveling directly from Managua, Nicaragua to, and inside, Indonesia, then back to here in Maine.  This is a distance longer than a round the world trip  I have the trip from Managua to Los Angeles covered by frequent flier miles but still have the rest of the travel to pay for.   While air fare in Indonesia is cheap (and with a questionable safety record), I have some long distance flights on airlines like Singapore Air.  While they have five classes of accommodations in their two stories Airbus 380, I travel downstairs in “steerage”, the lowest class.  I also have to get back from Los Angeles to Maine; so I calculate I will need about $2600 from Skyheat Associates to cover all the expenses.

I am asking for your help!

Please think of donating money to a special Skyheat program to cover all these expenses. Skyheat doesn’t have any arrangements for paying by credit card, and PayPal won’t deal with me (a long old story) so you will have to send checks to Skyheat at the address below.   Skyheat Associates is a 501(c)(3) Public Charity (IRS # 31-1021520) and all your donations will be tax exempt. You can go to our www.mainesolar.org website and read my report on the first Indonesial trip on the International work page.   Please feel free to pass this request on to anybody you think might be interested.
Thank your for your help,
Rich

Richard Komp PhD, Director
Skyheat Associates
PO Box 184, Harrington ME 04643
207-497-2204, cell 207-450-1141
www.mainesolar.org, sunwatt@juno.com

-------------------------------

Internship at Trustees Boston
If you (or know any students who) want to make an impact connecting the community to green space, gardening and local food in Boston, we have an internship ready to hire! Trustees – Boston is filling two internship positions for this fall: Communications & Social Media and Event Management.

We have a great lineup of programming coming this fall including our Fall Festival & Plant Sale, the Great Pumpkin Float, the Children’s Harvest Festival (at the Boston Children’s Museum) and a Holiday Lantern Walk (and more!).  With support from Programming Managers, these interns will play an integral role both in making them happen as well as ensuring a wide cross-section of the Boston community has access to these great opportunities to get to know the importance of urban greenspace!

Please direct any questions to Ashley Hampson at ahampson@ttor.org or 617-542-7696 ext. 2112.

-----------------------------

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.

———————————

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

---------------------

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).

---------------------

Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHhwM202dDYxdUZJVGFscnY1VGZ3aXc6MQ

-----------------------

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.)

*********
-----------
Resource
-----------
*********

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

--------------------------------------------------

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/

---------------------------------------

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

----------------------

The Boston Network for International Development (BNID) maintains a website (BNID.org) that serves as a clearing-house for information on organizations, events, and jobs related to international development in the Boston area. BNID has played an important auxiliary role in fostering international development activities in the Boston area, as witnessed by the expanding content of the site and a significant growth in the number of users.

The website contains:

A calendar of Boston area events and volunteer opportunities related to International Development
- http://www.bnid.org/events
A jobs board that includes both internships and full time positions related to International Development that is updated daily - http://www.bnid.org/jobs
A directory and descriptions of more than 250 Boston-area organizations - http://www.bnid.org/organizations

Also, please sign up for our weekly newsletter (we promise only one email per week) to get the most up-to-date information on new job and internship opportunities -www.bnid.org/sign-up

The website is completely free for students and our goal is to help connect students who are interested in international development with many of the worthwhile organizations in the area.

Please feel free to email our organization at info@bnid.org if you have any questions!

---------------------

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

------------------------

Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston  http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/

********************************************
-----------------------------------------------------

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://mitenergyclub.org/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

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/

Cambridge Civic Journal:  http://www.rwinters.com

Cambridge Happenings:  http://cambridgehappenings.org

Cambridge Community Calendar:  https://www.cctvcambridge.org/calendar

Boston Events Insider:  http://bostoneventsinsider.com/boston_events/

No comments: