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) EventsGeo
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Details of these events are available when you scroll past the index
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Index
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Monday, May 15
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8:30am Criminal Justice Reform Coalition Policy Summit 2017
8:30am OpenSec 2017
9am Science Religion Culture Symposium
12pm Lisa Beal, RSMAS: U Miami
1pm Next in Science: Epidemiology
4pm An experimental framework for the study of human behavior
4pm Lego-Style Construction of Future Therapeutics From DNA
4pm The Efficiency of Race-Neutral Alternatives to Race-Based Affirmative Action: Evidence from Chicago's Exam Schools - joint with IO
5pm MIT Humor Series: Nathan Zed (YouTube and Vine star) in conversation with Jonny Sun and Kishonna Gray, on black cultural production online
6pm Access to Justice Through Technology
6pm Why Life on Earth? From Planetary Exploration to Physics to Mimicking Life in an Artificial Chemical Soup
6pm Visions for the Consumer Electronics Future
7pm Hostage: Guy Delisle in conversation with HILLARY L. CHUTE
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Tuesday, May 16
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8:30am Women in Sustainability: Re-Forging the Status Quo
9:30am MIPS Seminar: Air Pollution and Brain Development: Attributable Risk for Neurodevelopmental Disorders
10:30am Billionaires Bash! "Celebrate" PRIM Support for Trump's Agenda!
11am Massachusetts Clean Energy Day
12pm Saving the Rainforest: A Personal Journey - Practical Approaches Chucanti, a Cloud Forest in Panama
12pm Water Club Lunch and Learn: Water Treatment in Microgravity
1pm Technology for Social Impact
5:30pm Reimagining Refugee Solutions: An open house event with RefugePoint
6pm Talk: Aki Sasamoto: Talk on Good Food
6pm Richard Nixon: The Life
6pm Dr. James O’Connell, author of Stories from the Shadows: Reflections of a Street Doctor
6:30pm How Glaciers Affect Earth and Climate
7pm Data Visualization Across Disciplines
7pm JOHN HAY, FRIEND OF GIANTS
7pm CUBA: AN AFRICAN ODYSSEY: Fundraiser film showing for the 3 Drowned Black Girls tour
7:30pm Playsentations - 2.00b Toy Product Design Presentations
8pm Fllight from Death
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Wednesday, May 17
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7:30am Boston Sustainability Breakfast
11:45am Food Aid Packaging: How to Reduce Food Aid Spoilage
12pm Perovskite Tandems: A Path Towards Stable 27% Efficiencies
1pm Innovations in American Government Awards Finalists Presentations
3:30pm Science and Democracy in the Age of Trump
4pm Learning Deeply at Scale: The Challenge of Our Times
6pm ArtScience Talk: Seeing Is Believing: Parallel Lives of Chefs and Scientists
6pm The Together 2017 Tech Jam
6pm DesignX Pitch and Demo Night
7pm Let's Talk about Impeachment: Protect our Constitution
7pm Exceptional America
7pm One in a Million: The battle against antibiotic resistance
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Thursday, May 18
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8am STEX Workshop-Batteries and Beyond: Energy Storage Innovation
11:15am Equity and Collective Impact in Systems Change
1pm Bringing the Benefits of Solar to Low-Income Customers
4pm The China Shock: Economic and Political Consequences of China's Rise for the United States
5pm MIT Humor Series: The comedians behind the Tax March, on humor, protest, and activism
5:30pm BOSTON SEMINAR: Panel Discussion on Preparing for Climate Change Impacts
6pm Transforming Water Infrastructure for a Sustainable Future
6:30pm Panel discussion on AI & the Future of Healthcare
6:30pm Media Panel: Defining Journalism in a Post-Truth Era
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Friday, May 19
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12pm Measuring Methane Emissions from Dairies
12pm Computational Models of Social Cognition
12pm Sustainable and Equitable Food Systems
12:30pm Intimacy with Technology
3pm PSFC Seminar: Physics at the energy, intensity, temperature and space frontiers: Laboratory for Nuclear Science at MIT
7pm What Made Me Who I Am
7pm Invisible Nation
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Saturday, May 20
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8:30am A Dream imagined: Race, Ethnicity and the Struggle for Boston's Future
9am Hull Wind Turbine Tour Cruise & Electric Vehicle Showcase
10am South End Plant Sale
11:30am Fresh Pond Day
11:45am Fighting Fascism: Rosa Manus and the international women's peace movement in the 1930’s
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Sunday, May 21
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9am SWAPFEST
9:30am Superpower Discovery Session - "Stop Playing Small”
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Monday, May 22
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12pm MIT FACULTY FORUM ONLINE: ROBOTS AND YOUR JOB
12pm PAOC Colloquium - John Chiang (UC Berkeley)
8pm 'Refuge Through Music' presented by the Refugee Orchestra Project
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Tuesday, May 23
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7:30am Massachusetts’ renewable energy outlook: Onshore, offshore and the transmission challenge
8:15am Carbon to Buildings Symposium
8:30am Cleantech Women: Breaking the Green Glass Ceiling
12pm Creative Data Literacy: Bridging the Gap Between the Data-haves and Have-nots - a Brown Bag with Catherine D’Ignazio
5:30pm authors@mit - John Tirman - Dream Chasers: Immigration and the American Backlash
6pm Bringing the Changing Energy Landscape to Life – 2017 Annual Banquet
7:30pm From Talk to Action: Talking about Racism and Taking a Stand Against Hate
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
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Monday, May 15
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Criminal Justice Reform Coalition Policy Summit 2017
Monday, May 15
Omni Parker House, Boston, MA
Registration 8:30am
Program 9:00am-12:00pm
Join MassINC and the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Reform Coalition for the Fourth Annual Criminal Justice Reform Coalition Policy Summit.
The annual Criminal Justice Reform Coalition Summit brings together 300 leaders from around the Commonwealth interested in comprehensive reform. Participants include elected officials, policy makers, public safety and corrections officials, advocates, and civic and religious leaders from Massachusetts and beyond.
This year’s program will feature a two-part conversation on justice reinvestment in Massachusetts, informed by a new opinion poll as well as two new research reports. The first piece of the conversation is how to save resources and maintain public safety through sentencing reform. The second component is how these resources could be reinvested into other public safety efforts as well as proven programs and services to build stronger communities and improve outcomes for former offenders.
Chief Justice Ralph Gants, Congresswoman Katherine Clarkand Marc A. Levin, director of the Center for Effective Justice & Right on Crime, have been named as speakers for the fourth annual Criminal Justice Reform Coalition Policy Summit.
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OpenSec 2017
Monday, May 15
8:30 AM – 4:30 PM EDT
Hatch Fenway, Landmark Center, 401 Park Drive, Boston
Cost: $0 – $18.01
Come hear from Boston's open source security community in May! Whether you're a open-source contributor, marketer or person interested in the security space our single track conference will offer engaging panels, great networking and a keynote speaker to get you away from the office on monday!
Tentative Panels:
What is Open Source security?
Abstract: Open Source projects, however rough around the edges, often provide the backbone to many cyber solutions and products on the market. How are these companies working with the OS community and building on existing projects? How can team's best leverage these projects into their existing workflows?
Too many products, Too little time: How are companies evaluating new solutions?
Abstract: Everyday it seems the realm of Cybersecurity products continues to produce new players. From endpoint detection, threat hunting and security automation the list of potential solutions grows. How are companies evaluating new products that are shown to their teams and what bridges the gap from “That’s interesting” to “We need that” in the mind of decision makers.
Joining in: How you can get into Cyber
Abstract: Hear where the opportunities lie across the cybersecurity community and what needs companies are hoping more would learn. SOCs, security teams and startups are all feeling a talent crunch. Whether you’re a hardcore opensource contributor or a strong marketer, companies across Boston are eagerly looking for talent.
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Science Religion Culture Symposium
Monday, May 15
9am - 6pm
Harvard, Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeuniQcT5treWLJPYSlQuy0CyFaolyTDEgVRm9ePEIF62oMYg/viewform
The SRC Symposium is a day-long research symposium highlighting the work of the program's community, including SRC Junior Fellows, Doctoral Fellows, and Research Associates. It is held annually in May. The research and conversations explore the relationship between scientific, religious, and cultural discourses in the academy and beyond.
On Monday, May 15, SRC scholars, fellows and researchers will present their work, followed by a faculty roundtable on "Time," SRC's theme for 2016-17.
The Symposium is open to the public, and will be held in Andover Hall on the campus of Harvard Divinity School.
Symposium Schedule
9:30am - 11:00am Panel I: Media
Kassie Maxeiner Local Base, Global State: The Islamic State’s Attempt to Transcend Time and Place in Dabiq and Rumiyah
Kat Grace Poje Crossing Over: The Making of Posthumous Life for the Dead on Facebook Memorial Pages
Aobo Dong Desiring Friendship: Modes of Agency of "Side B" Gay Christians in the Spiritual Friendship Movement
Hector Kilgoe Race Beyond the Stars: Time Travel and Prophetic Preaching in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Discussant Jessica Dickson (Doctoral Candidate -- AAAS)
11:15am - 12:30pm Panel II: Ethics and biotechnology
Zainub Dhanani The Umbilical Tightrope: Understanding British Muslim Physicians' Perceptions of Abortion and Bioethics in Islam
Margaux Fitoussi Disaster, Death, and “Dignity” for the Unidentified Migrant Body: Dead Body Management Workshops in Zarzis, Tunisia
Margaretha Blignaut Casting Roma: Metacultural Production on Gypsyness in Genomic Research
Discussant Jacob Moses (Doctoral Candidate -- History of Science)
1:30pm - 2:45pm Panel III: Islam and modernity
Julia Hintlian Doubts on Prophecy: Seeking Out the Lost Philosophy of Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi
Faraz Alidina Philosophies of Mysticism in Early Twentieth Century India: The Aga Khan III’s Response to an Epistemological Crisis
Rob Ames Reading Rumi in the Nineteenth Century: Akhundzadah and Sabzavari on the Masnavi
Discussant Joseph Vignone (Doctoral Candidate -- NELC)
2:45pm - 4:15pm Panel IV: Anthropology and social science
Giovanna Parmigiani Interpreting Tarantate as a "Deep Play": Anthropology, Healing, and Patrimonialization of Women's Bodies in Contemporary Saleno (Italy)
Mariam Goshadze Sacred Acoustic Inspectors: Ghanaian State and Noise-Abatement during the Homowo Festival
Maggie Hartman "My Yoke is Light'": American Catholic Experiences of Recognizing Christ's Presence in Physical Suffering
Doug Bafford Evangelistic Failures and Imperial Anxieties among Nineteenth-Century American Missionaries to the Zulu
Discussant Khytie Brown (Doctoral Candidate -- Religion)
5:00pm - 6:15pm Roundtable
About time?: thinking temporality in queer and postcolonial times
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Lisa Beal, RSMAS: U Miami
Monday, May 15
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT Building 54-923 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
Broadly, my research interests are in large scale ocean circulation and the role of the oceans in climate and climate change. In particular, the measurement of Western Boundary Currents, such as the Agulhas Current, in terms of their structure, transports, water masses, and mixing, and the estimation of basin-wide thermohaline fluxes in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. I use a variety of oceanographic instrumentation, including lowered and shipboard acoustic velocity profilers, and moored arrays of current meters and CTDs (Conductivity, Temperature, Depth). I study the role of the Agulhas system in the broader context of regional and global climate through analysis of ocean eddy-resolving coupled climate models. My service work revolves around increasing the diversity of our scientific community, including the retention of women in oceanography, and the advancement of capacity and resources to support a sustained measuring program of the Greater Agulhas System off South Africa.
About this Series
The PAOC Colloquium is a weekly interdisciplinary seminar series that brings together the whole PAOC community. Seminar topics include all research concerning the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmospheres, oceans and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars take place on Monday from 12-1pm in 54-923. Lunch is provided after the seminars to encourage students and post-docs to meet with the speaker. Besides the seminar and lunch, individual meetings with professors, post-docs, and students are arranged. 2016/2017 co-ordinators: Tom Beucler (tbeucler@mit.edu), Deepa Rao (drao@mit.edu), Madeleine Youngs (myoungs@mit.edu) and Catherine Wilka (cwilka@mit.edu)
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Next in Science: Epidemiology
WHEN Monday, May 15, 2017, 1 – 4:30 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe, Sheerr Room, Fay House, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Lecture, Research study, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Alana Brennan, instructor, Departments of Global Health and Epidemiology, Boston University Center for Global Health and Development
Neal D. Goldstein, assistant research professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Dornslife School of Public Health, Drexel University
John W. Jackson, assistant professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Sonja Swanson, assistant professor, Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam
COST free
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS The “Next in Science” series provides an opportunity for early-career scientists whose innovative, cross-disciplinary research is thematically linked to introduce their work to one another, to fellow scientists, and to nonspecialists from Harvard and the greater Boston area.
The focus of this year’s program will be on frontiers in epidemiology. Scholars will discuss new interdisciplinary research on the social and spatial correlation of infections and hospitals, experimental designs for evaluating HIV care and treatment, the role of epidemiologists in studying neuropsychiatric health, and finding opportunities to reduce disparities in public health.
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An experimental framework for the study of human behavior
Monday, May 15
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building E15-392, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Jordi Duch i Gavalda, Dept. of Computer Science and Mathematics Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Experiments to study human behaviour have been traditionally performed in closed academic environments with small samples of volunteers, usually undergraduate students with similar socioeconomic backgrounds. New technologies and participatory science have opened the door to new experimental settings that overcome these limitations. In this direction, I will present a modular framework to conduct highly participatory collective experiments in open and dynamic scenarios, designed to attract a larger and more heterogeneous number of participants while controlling the environment to maintain scientific rigour. With the objective of encouraging and engaging the general public to take an active role in the scientific research process, we include gamification and citizen science techniques into classical experimental protocols to study human behaviour. In particular, I will present the results of one experiment done within this framework, a study on behavioral phenotypes in which participants face four different dyadic games, with the aim of establishing general rules dictating individuals??? actions. We find that all the participants conform, with a large degree of consistency, to a limited number of behavioral phenotypes: Envious, Optimist, Pessimist, and Trustful.
CEE-Media Lab Joint Seminar
Hosted by: Otto Cordero (ottox@mit.edu) Serguei Saavedra (sersaa@mit.edu)
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0.00
Sponsor(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering
For more information, contact: Denise Stewart
6172588685
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Lego-Style Construction of Future Therapeutics From DNA
Monday, May 15
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 4-270
William M. Shih, Harvard Medical School
Biological Chemistry Seminar Series
More information at http://chemistry.mit.edu/biological-chemistry-seminar-series-william-m-shih-harvard-medical-school
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The Efficiency of Race-Neutral Alternatives to Race-Based Affirmative Action: Evidence from Chicago's Exam Schools - joint with IO
Monday, May 15
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Building E62-650, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Glenn Ellison and Parag Pathak (MIT)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Microeconomic Applications
For more information, contact:
economics calendar
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MIT Humor Series: Nathan Zed (YouTube and Vine star) in conversation with Jonny Sun and Kishonna Gray, on black cultural production online.
Monday, May 15
5:00p–6:30p
MIT, Building E14-633, MIT Media Lab, 6th floor lecture hall, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Nathan Zed (YouTube and Twitter star), Kishonna Gray, Jonny Sun
YouTube, Vine, Twitter and Snapchat star Nathan Zed (@nathanzed) speaks with Twitter comedian Jonny Sun (@jonnysun) and Kishonna Gray. On black cultural production online. Representation online and in media. Creating black culture. Influencing hip hop culture. Online comedy post-Ferguson and post-Trump. Race and representation across online platforms.
This talk generously funded by the MIT De Florez Fund for Humor, in association with the MIT Media Lab's MIT Center for Civic Media, and co-sponsored by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
The Online Humor Conversation Series at MIT
brings online comedians in conversation with academics and researchers to discuss humor's influence on online culture and society. Presented by @jonnysun.
twitter.com/MITHumorSeries
tinyletter.com/MITHumorSeries
facebook.com/MITHumorSeries
MITHumorSeries.com
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/458932864457628/
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Media Lab, MIT Media Lab, Center for Civic Media, DUSP, The de Florez Fund for Humor, Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University
For more information, contact: Jonny Sun
2036458687
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Access to Justice Through Technology
Monday, May 15
6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Social Law Library, 1 Pemberton Square, Boston
Hello Legal Hackers,
Thanks again to everyone who attended the Civic Engagement MeetUp last Thursday. As usual, we had great Q&A sessions and the venue had to kick us out!
Our next MeetUp will take place on May 15, 2017 from 6pm to 7 30pm. Location and panel at Social Law Library, 1 Pemberton Square, Boston, MA. Please save the date and RSVP!
Our topic: Access to Justice through technology. It seems apparent that many people do not have adequate access to the judicial system. From criminal justice to immigration, from predatory lending to employment issues, the burden on the underserved is severe. How can technology help? There are many interesting initiatives, including apps that help avoid parking tickets or create immigration applications, to video conferencing, to crowdfunding public interest lawsuits. We might also finally learn what access to justice really means!
As usual, we expect a lively panel with members of the judiciary, the legal and the tech community:
Marc Lauritsen will join us to speak about his involvement in the Access to Justice Commission's latest project and his work on lawhelpinteractive, which aided millions.
Quentin Steenhuis of the Greater Boston Legal Services will tell us about combining his roles as an advocate and a systems administrator together with his view on the opportunities for the technology to assist those needing most help.
More participants will be announced soon!
Come to learn, to discuss, and to debate with us!
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Why Life on Earth? From Planetary Exploration to Physics to Mimicking Life in an Artificial Chemical Soup
Monday, May 15
6pm
MIT, Building 32-124, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Juan Perez Mercader
More information at http://spain.mit.edu/science-and-industry-series-juan-perez-mercader/
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Visions for the Consumer Electronics Future
Monday, May 15
6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
MIT, Building 34, Room 401, EECS Grier Room, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Registration required including your name and company/affiliation/school to: BosCESoc@gmail.com
IEEE membership is not a requirement.
One might argue that Consumer Electronics (CE) was born in Boston with the work of Alexander Graham Bell in the development of the telephone, for which he received a patent in 1876. Who could have had the vision at that time to imagine what was in store for CE over the next 141 years? Who has the vision to sense what may be there for CE over the next 141 years, or even the next 10-20? This program will be presented by Student Members of the MIT IEEE Chapter and an MIT Media Lab researcher telling us their ideas for technologies, products and futures for Consumer Electronics. Their thoughts will receive comments from a Panel drawn from the Boston IEEE CESoc Chapter and MIT, and from the audience.
Hybrid Body Craft: Aesthetically and Culturally Designed On-Body Interfaces
Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao é«˜æ–°ç¶ is a Taiwanese-born engineer and artist, currently a PhD student at the MIT Media Lab. Her research practice, themed Hybrid Body Craft blends aesthetic and cultural perspectives into the design of on-body interfaces. She also creates novel processes for crafting technology close to the body. Her research has been presented at various conferences and magazines (CHI, UbiComp/ISWC, TEI, UIST, ACM Interactions, IEEE Pervasive Computing), while receiving media coverage by CNN, TIME, Forbes, Fast Company, WIRED, among others. Her work has been exhibited and shown internationally at The Boston Museum of Fine Art, Ars Electronica, South By South West, and New York Fashion Week. She has worked at Microsoft Research developing cosmetics-inspired wearables, and is a recipient of the Google Anita Borg Scholarship. She holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science; and two Bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and in Business Administration, all from National Taiwan University.
The Quantum Computer and its potential in Consumer Electronics
Aaron Wubshet is a sophomore majoring in electrical engineering and physics. His academic interests range from control systems to device physics to creating the first practical, personal quantum computer. Aaron’s family is originally from Ethiopia. He was born in Virginia and grew up in Georgia.
Auto 500: The Race for Autonomous Vehicles
Ali Finkelstein is a recent graduate of and current candidate for a Masters of Engineering at MIT. As an undergraduate, she studied Computer Science and Electrical Engineering with a minor in comparative media studies
This talk will discuss the future of self-driving cars and the implications–how it will impact everyday life and the labor industry.
Designing High Reliability Products for the Increasingly More Complex Connected World
David Gomez is senior in 6-1 (Electrical Engineering) at MIT. His focus and interests revolve around how we can use embedded and connected devices to improve the experience delivered by consumer electronics products. David has interned at Ford, Sonos, and Fitbit. He will be returning to Fitbit full time after graduation this summer.
Program:
6:00PM – Food, soft drinks
6:45PM – Greetings from MIT IEEE Chapter & BosCESoc
7:00PM – Presentations
8:00PM – Q&A
Summations from Chapter Chairs: Wei Low, MIT IEEE Student Chapter; L. Dennis Shapiro, Boston CESoc
8:30PM Adjourn
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Hostage: Guy Delisle in conversation with HILLARY L. CHUTE
Monday, May 15
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes cartoonist and animator GUY DELISLE—author of Burma Chronicles, Jerusalem, Pyongyang, and Shenzhen—and comics scholar HILLARY L. CHUTE—author of Outside the Box, Graphic Women, and Disaster Drawn—for a discussion of Delisle's latest book, Hostage.
About Hostage
How does one survive when all hope is lost?
In the middle of the night in 1997, Doctors Without Borders administrator Christophe André was kidnapped by armed men and taken away to an unknown destination in the Caucasus region. For three months, André was kept handcuffed in solitary confinement, with little to survive on and almost no contact with the outside world. Close to twenty years later, award-winning cartoonist Guy Delisle (Pyongyang, Jerusalem, Shenzhen, Burma Chronicles) recounts André’s harrowing experience in Hostage, a book that attests to the power of one man’s determination in the face of a hopeless situation.
Marking a departure from the author’s celebrated first-person travelogues, Delisle tells the story through the perspective of the titular captive, who strives to keep his mind alert as desperation starts to set in. Working in a pared down style with muted color washes, Delisle conveys the psychological effects of solitary confinement, compelling us to ask ourselves some difficult questions regarding the repercussions of negotiating with kidnappers and what it really means to be free. Thoughtful, intense, and moving, Hostage takes a profound look at what drives our will to survive in the darkest of moments.
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Tuesday, May 16
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Women in Sustainability: Re-Forging the Status Quo
Tuesday, May 16
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM EDT
50 Milk Street, 18th Floor, Hemingway Room, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/women-in-sustainability-re-forging-the-status-quo-tickets-33461013793
Cost: $10 – $30
Gender bias impacts everyone in the twenty-first-century workplace. Women represent 45% of design graduates yet only 17% of firm principals and partners (AIA, NCARB). Join us for a presentation and discussion on gender in the workplace and learn how the sustainable design community is propelling market transformation. Aminah McNulty, co-chair of our Emerging Professionals Committee and member of BSA's Women in Design Committee and Equity Roundtable will lead the conversation.
The discussion will cover pay gaps, leadership pipelines, and design bias and provide action steps to foster equity in your workplace and projects.The presentation will also cover the LEED v4 Social Equity pilot credits and their intersections with gender equity.
We welcome you to celebrate the success and leadership of women in the design community - see you there and help spread the word!
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MIPS Seminar: Air Pollution and Brain Development: Attributable Risk for Neurodevelopmental Disorders
WHEN Tuesday, May 16, 2017, 9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
WHERE HSPH BLdg I, Rm 1302, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Molecular & Integrative Physiological Sciences, Harvard Chan School of Public Health
SPEAKER(S) Deborah A. Cory-Slechta, Ph.D., Professor of Environmental Medicine, Pediatrics and Public Health Sciences, U of Rochester School of Medicine
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Billionaires Bash! "Celebrate" PRIM Support for Trump's Agenda!
Tuesday, May 16
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM
MA PENSION FUND (PRIM) OFFICE, 84 STATE STREET, BOSTON
Push Back Against Trump and Tillerson!
JOIN THE BILLIONAIRES BASH!
A Satirical "Celebration" of the MA Pension Fund's Continued Investment in and Complicity with Fossil Fuel Companies that are Disrupting the Climate
(Part of the May 2107 Global Divestment Mobilization)
SPEAKERS/GUESTS: DIVESTMENT BILL SPONSOR, MARJORIE DECKER; FOSSIL FUEL FREE INVESTMENT EXPERT BOB MASSIE; THE SECOND LINE SOCIAL AID AND PLEASURE SOCIETY BRASS BAND
PRIM is the board that manages the Massachusetts pension fund. Just like Donald Trump they have billions of dollars and they love investing in fossil fuels! As billionaires, we think that's great so we're throwing a party to celebrate it: Billionaires Bash #PRIM4Trump!
We will be billionaires and fossil fuel executives dancing as the world burns!
Wear your best tuxedos, top hats, gowns and tiaras.
But seriously, the message will be that PRIM must dump its toxic assets.
The science is clear.
The moral arguments are compelling.
The financial future of thousands of pensioners is at stake.
The next generation is counting on us.
The PRIM (Pension Reserve Investment Management Board) has invested billions of state employees’ and teachers’ pension money in fossil fuel funds, including:
almost $2 billion in coal, gas and oil,
$200 million in Exxon Mobil, and
over $50 million in the companies building the Dakota Access Pipeline
PRIM has steadfastly refused to consider divesting from these companies and it is time to shine a spotlight on their complicity with climate degradation and disruption. Experts agree that most fossil fuel reserves must remain underground if we are to have any chance of avoiding the most catastrophic results of climate change. Now more than ever - with the CEO of Exxon Mobil as Secretary of State and climate deniers in high office - we must take a stand here in Massachusetts. JOIN US ON MAY 16! Stay tuned for more details.
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Massachusetts Clean Energy Day
Tuesday, May 16
11:00 AM – 5:00 PM EDT
Massachusetts State House, 24 Beacon Street, Boston
Cost: $0 – $250
Massachusetts Clean Energy Day will showcase the growing vitality of the clean energy industry and the importance of consistent policy support as a means of catalyzing the state’s - and our region’s - economy.
Tentative Agenda
11:00 am - 2:00 pm Clean Energy Business Showcase * (Open to the Public - please register as General Admission)
12:30 pm - 1:00 pm Speaking Program and Clean Energy Champion Awards
Secreatary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Matthew A. Beaton
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm Small Group Meetings with Key Legislators (NECEC Members only)
*NECEC Members have the unique opportunity to exhibit at the State House! Participation in the Showcase is strongly encouraged, even if your team will be participating in legislative meetings during the afternoon. Showcase tables offer additional visibility throughout the day to additional Legislators, legislative staff and members of the public.
Legislative Meetings and Exhibition Space are open only to NECEC Members in good standing. Learn more about NECEC Membership and join today!
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Saving the Rainforest: A Personal Journey - Practical Approaches Chucanti, a Cloud Forest in Panama
Tuesday, May 16
12:00PM TO 1:00PM
Harvard, HUH Seminar Room, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Guido Berguido, Founder, Asociación Adopta el Bosque Panamá
Internationally renowned ornithologist and hailed by conservation biologists as a beacon of hope for saving tropical rainforests, Guido Berguido is a scientist on a mission to save Panama’s rainforests before unknown species are driven to extinction.
Herbaria Special Seminar
Contact Name: huh-requests@oeb.harvard.edu
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Water Club Lunch and Learn: Water Treatment in Microgravity
Tuesday, May 16
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building 1-150
Speaker: Samantha McBride
Come take a break from the end of semester cram for a lunchtime lecture on water treatment in microgravity, presented by PhD candidate Samantha McBride. As always, free lunch will be provided
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Water Club
For more information, contact: Brendan Smith
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Technology for Social Impact
Tuesday, May 16
1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Refreshments: 12:45 PM
MIT, Building 32m Seminar Room G449 (Patil/Kiva), 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Nicola Dell
Abstract: The goal of my research is to design, build, deploy, and evaluate novel computing systems that improve the lives of underserved populations in low-income regions. As computing technologies become affordable and accessible to diverse populations across the globe, it is critical that we expand the focus of HCI research to study the social, technical, and infrastructural challenges faced by these diverse communities and build systems that address problems in critical domains such as health care and education. In this talk, I describe my general approach to building technologies for underserved communities, including identifying opportunities for technology, conducting formative research to fully understand the space, developing novel technologies, iteratively testing and deploying, evaluating with target populations, and handing off to global development organizations for long-term sustainability.
Bio: Nicki Dell is an Assistant Professor in Information Science at Cornell Tech. Her research spans Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICTD) with a focus on designing, building, and evaluating novel computing systems that improve the lives of underserved populations in low-income regions. Nicki’s research and outreach activities have been recognized through numerous paper awards and fellowships. Nicki was born and raised in Zimbabwe and received a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of East Anglia (UK) in 2004, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Washington in 2011 and 2015 respectively.
Contact: Amy Xian Zhang, axz@csail.mit.edu
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Reimagining Refugee Solutions: An open house event with RefugePoint
Tuesday, May 16
5:30 PM – 6:30 PM EDT
RefugePoint HQ, 689 Massachusetts Avenue, 2nd Floor, Cambridge
Every day in the news, we read in the news troubling stories of refugees and wonder what we can do to help. Even in the midst of refugee bans and dangerous journeys, we can all do something to help refugees resume normal lives.
During this unprecedented global refugee crisis, we know that more than 23 million refugees are living in limbo waiting for a chance to resume normal lives. Most refugees will wait a very long time for this; the average time someone remains a refugee is 17 years. There is a clear need to shift the public perception of refugees and provide better futures for many whose lives are on hold and in danger.
Come visit us at RefugePoint for a casual open house and a short presentation about the emerging needs of refugees. Join us (and invite a friend!) to learn about the refugee crisis and about how we can help refugees improve their own lives. We will discuss new solutions in humanitarian response that help refugees build self-reliance. We will also share stories of refugees who are facing urgent dangers with suspension of refugee resettlement to the US.
About RefugePoint: RefugePoint is a local Cambridge based nonprofit recognized widely for our innovative efforts in refugee work. We provide lasting solutions for the world’s most at-risk refugees. We have referred over 37,000 refugees for resettlement to new countries since 2005. We identify and protect refugees who have fallen through the cracks of humanitarian assistance and have no other options for survival.
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Talk: Aki Sasamoto: Talk on Good Food
WHEN Thursday, May 18, 2017, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy Street, Level 3, CRC/bookshop, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts; Cambridge Arts Council
SPEAKER(S) Aki Sasamoto is a New York-based, Japanese artist, working with sculpture, dance, video, sound, and installation. Her installations are arrangements of sculpturally altered found objects, in which Sasamoto weaves constructed narratives that are personal yet open to relation and reflection. As part of her practice she collaborates with musicians, choreographers, scientists and scholars, and plays multiple roles of dancer, sculptor, or director.
Aki Sasamoto's recent performances include "Food Rental" at the High Line, New York (2015); "Wrong Happy Hour/The Last Call" at Parasophia, Japan (2015); and "Sunny in the Furnace" at The Kitchen, New York (2014). Sasamoto has participated in solo exhibitions such as "Delicate Cycle," SculptureCenter, Long Island City, New York (2016); "No Choice," Harmony Murphy Gallery, Los Angeles (2015); "Wrong Happy Hour," JTT, New York (2014). Additionally she has participated in group exhibitions such as the 3rd Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, India (2016); 11th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, China (2016), "Roppongi Crossing 2013: Out of Doubt" at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2013); "A LIKENESS HAS BLISTERS" at CCS Bard Hessel Museum, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY (2012); Gwangju Biennale 2012, Gwangju, South Korea (2012); and the "Whitney Biennial," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2010).
COST Free
CONTACT INFO ccva@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Sasamoto will discuss the use of food and metaphor in art making. This talk is in collaboration with the Cambridge Arts Council exhibition, "Common Exchange," on view May 14–Sep 30, 2017.
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Richard Nixon: The Life
Tuesday, May 16
6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Columbia Point, Boston
Award-winning author and former Boston Globe correspondent John A. Farrell will discuss his new book, Richard Nixon: The Life.
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Dr. James O’Connell, author of Stories from the Shadows: Reflections of a Street Doctor
Tuesday, May 16
6 – 7:30 p.m.
COMMONWEALTH SALON, CENTRAL LIBRARY IN COPLEY SQUARE, 700 BOYLSTON STREET, BOSTON
Three decades ago, James O’Connell, MD, was fresh out of Harvard Medical School and on his way to a prestigious oncology fellowship at Sloan-Kettering. His mentor, a legendary Boston doctor-humanitarian, asked him to head up a new pilot medical program for the city’s homeless men, women, and children—Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP). Dr. O’Connell thought he’d put in a few years, and then get back on track with his “real” career. But along the way, he fell in love with the challenges of homeless medicine, his patients, and their stories, now collected in Stories from the Shadows. O’Connell tells the history of homeless medicine in Boston, largely through the treatment, triumphs, and tragedies of some of his most memorable patients.
As president of BHCHP with an active practice working with people who live outside, Dr. O’Connell has become an international expert on homeless medicine, helping transform it into a highly respected specialty with a strong research base.
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How Glaciers Affect Earth and Climate
Tuesday, May 16
6:30 PM
Belmont Media Center, 9 Lexington Street, Belmont
Jack Ridge, Ph.D. Professor and Chair, Glacial and Quaternary Geology, Geomorphology, Tufts University
North American Glacial Varve Project
Professor Ridge is an expert on glacial cycles, with emphasis on how the last deglaciation in the northeastern U.S. influenced climate in North America. This investigation involves a reconstruction of the changes in the sediments left by ice sheets (varves) over centuries. The varve records provide crucial information about climate changes over long periods of time. The varve records also indicate when ancient habitation was possible or not.
More information at http://www.scienceforthepublic.org/coming-events/may-16-how-glaciers-affect-earth-and-climate
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Data Visualization Across Disciplines
Tuesday, May 16
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Le Laboratorie Cambridge, 650 East Kendall Street, Cambridge
What can help enable both the treatment of heart disease and the discovery of newborn stars? Visualization. Specifically interdisciplinary data visualization, the sharing and co-development of tools and techniques across domains. In this talk, Dr. Michelle Borkin will share sample results from her own research and experience crossing disciplines and bringing together the knowledge and experts of computational physics, computer science, astrophysics, radiology and medicine. She will present new visualization techniques and tools inspired by this work for the astronomical and medical communities.
Speaker Bio: Dr. Michelle Borkin works on the development of novel visualization techniques and tools to enable new insights and discoveries in data. She works across disciplines to bring together computer scientists, doctors, and astronomers to collaborate on new analysis and visualization techniques, and cross-fertilize techniques across disciplines. Her research has resulted in the development of novel computer assisted diagnostics in cardiology, scalable visualization solutions for large network data sets, and novel astrophysical visualization tools and discoveries. Her main research interests include information and scientific visualization, hierarchical and multidimensional data representations, network visualization, visualization cognition, user interface design, human computer interaction (HCI), and evaluation methodologies.
Prior to joining Northeastern University, Dr. Borkin was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Computer Science at the University of British Columbia, as well as Associate in Computer Science at Harvard and Research Fellow at Brigham & Women's Hospital. She received her Ph.D. in Applied Physics at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) in 2014. She also has an MS in Applied Physics and a BA in Astronomy and Astrophysics & Physics from Harvard University. She was previously a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow, a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellow, and a TED Fellow.
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JOHN HAY, FRIEND OF GIANTS
Tuesday, May 16
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/harvard-coop-author-series-philip-mcfarland-tickets-33780309816
Harvard Coop Author Series - Philip McFarland humanizes a crucial period of American history by means of Hay’s friendship with a key figure in each of four successive decades. Hay was one of the most famous men in the world at the time of his death in 1905, and for good reason. In the 1860s he had been private secretary to Abraham Lincoln, living in the White House close to the President throughout the Civil War. In the 1870s Hay became good friends with Mark Twain, their friendship arising partly out of a similar childhood along the Mississippi River, partly out of their growing literary fame. In the 1880s Hay nurtured his friendship with the Anglo-American novelist Henry James through frequent visits to England and the Continent, as Americans in increasing numbers crossed the Atlantic to enjoy the sophistications of Europe. And in the 1890s Hay’s friendship with Theodore Roosevelt moved toward its climax, TR urging the country into the ranks of a world power, with Hay destined to become his very effective secretary of state. An interrelated, enlightening story, instructively fascinating in itself and with much to say about the nation we live in now.
About the Auithor
The father of two grown sons, Philip McFarland was born in Birmingham, Alabama, where he attended public schools before entering Phillips Exeter Academy. He majored in history at Oberlin College, served for 3 1/2 years in the U.S. Navy, then took a degree in English at Cambridge University. He now lives in Lexington, Massachusetts.
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CUBA: AN AFRICAN ODYSSEY: Fundraiser film showing for the 3 Drowned Black Girls tour
Tuesday May 16
7-9pm
Parts and Crafts, 577 Somerville Avenue, Somerville
Wheelchair Accessible
$10 entry, includes vegan Cuban food
"Cuba: An African Odyssey" is a documentary about the Cuban Revolution’s role in giving support and solidarity to African independence struggles in Angola, South Africa and elsewhere. During a time when Africans were fighting to end colonial domination of their land by the U.S. and Europe, Cuba stood on the side of African people.
Door fee includes yummy vegan Cuban food for dinner!
This event is a fundraiser for KUNDE SPEAKS, a national speaking tour of the 3 Drowned Black Girls campaign, coming to Boston on June 6th. The purpose of this powerful speaking tour is to win justice and reparations for the families of Dominique Battle, Laniya Miller, and Ashaunti
Butler, 3 teenage black girls murdered by Pinellas County Sheriffs Department (more info see www.threedrownedblackgirls.org)
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Playsentations - 2.00b Toy Product Design Presentations
Tuesday, May 16
7:30p–10:00p
MIT, Building 10-250, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Join us for Toy Product Design Presentations! 16 teams will present their original toy concepts based on the theme "Animate!" Afterwards, there will be opportunities to test the toys and good ole' cookies + milk!
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/2.00b/www/index.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): 2.00b Toy Product Design
For more information, contact: 2.00b-ta@mit.edu
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Fllight from Death
Tuesday, May 16
8:00p–10:00p
MIT, Building 4-237, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
Hailed by viewers as a "life-transformational film" and "one of the most ambitious documentaries ever made", "Flight from Death" uncovers fear of death as a possible root cause of much of our everyday behaviors. Through stunning visuals and insightful interviews, this 7-time "Best Documentary" award-winning film narrated by Gabriel Byrne explores fear of death and its influence on our behavior, specifically in regards to violence, ideology, and culture. In the end, this film provides the most comprehensive and mind-blowing investigation of humankind’s relationship with death ever captured in a documentary.
90 minute film + open discussion time after for those who wish to stay and share their thoughts about fear, purpose, death and life.
FREE entry + FREE popcorn and soda.
Film website: http://www.flightfromdeath.com
Web site: https://goo.gl/VEZAlt
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Secular Society
For more information, contact: Secular Society Exec
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Wednesday, May 17
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Boston Sustainability Breakfast
Wednesday, May 17
7:30 AM – 8:30 AM
Pret A Manger, 101 Arch Street, Boston
Join us every month for Net Impact Boston's informal breakfast meetup of sustainability professionals for networking, discussion and moral support. It's important to remind ourselves that we are not the only ones out there in the business world trying to do good! Feel free to drop by any time between 7:30 and 8:30 am.
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Food Aid Packaging: How to Reduce Food Aid Spoilage
Wednesday, May 17
11:45 – 1:00
MIT, Building E90 – Suetter Room 9075,. 1 Main Street, Cambridge
Please join the Humanitarian and Disaster Relief Working Group at MIT for a lunchtime seminar. Our speakers will be Mark Brennan and Prithvi Sundar, both from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Please view the attached flyer for more information. Lunch will be provided. The talk will begin at 12:00 PM.
The location of the talk is in E90 on the 9th floor – just before the Longfellow Bridge on Main Street. The front desk has asked for a list of people attending the talk (who work outside the building). Please email trussell@mit.edu if you plan to attend and I will add you to the list.
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Perovskite Tandems: A Path Towards Stable 27% Efficiencies
Wednesday, May 17
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building 36-428, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Alex Palmstrom, Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University
Center for Excitonics/Perovskite Seminar Series
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for Excitonics, Energy Frontier Research Center, Dept of Energy, Office of Basic Science
For more information, contact: Cathy Bourgeois
617-253-0085
Editorial Comment: Perovskite solar electric cells research proceeds apace.
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Innovations in American Government Awards Finalists Presentations
WHEN Wednesday, May 17, 2017, 1 – 4:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, Littauer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Award Ceremonies
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
COST Free
DETAILS Government Works: We'll Show You How
Join us to hear each of the finalist programs for the Innovations in American Government Awards make a presentation to the Innovations National Selection Committee in the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum at the Harvard Kennedy School.
The Innovations in American Government Awards program is a significant force in recognizing and promoting excellence and creativity in the public sector. Through its awards competition, the program provides concrete evidence that government can work to improve the quality of life for citizens and that it deserves greater public trust.
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Science and Democracy in the Age of Trump
Wednesday, May 17
3:30p–4:30p
WI-Aud, McGovern Auditorium, Whitehead Institute, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge
Speaker: Andrew A. Rosenberg
Science and science policy are facing unprecedented challenges from this new administration and congress. From the rollback of science-based policies, to the potential targeted reductions of funding for science the near-term impacts of this change in direction for government programs are profound. But there are longer term impacts of changing the role of science in policy-making should also concern the science community.
It is a critical time for scientists to be heard in our democracy. This is not a matter of self interest alone, but of exercising our role in this country.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Whitehead Institute
For more information, contact: Iain Cheeseman
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Learning Deeply at Scale: The Challenge of Our Times
WHEN Wednesday, May 17, 2017, 4 – 5:15 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe, Sheerr Room, Fay House, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Jal Mehta, 2016–2017 Evelyn Green Davis Fellow, Radcliffe Institute; Associate Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS In this talk, Mehta will discuss his book in progress, “The Chastened Dream,” which is a history of how publicly oriented professional schools—education, public health, public policy, and urban planning and design—have sought to couple science with social policy to achieve social progress. The book investigates the origins of that dream in the Progressive Era, the challenges it faced across the 20th century, and how it might be remade to anchor a renewed vision of liberalism in the 21st century.
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ArtScience Talk: Seeing Is Believing: Parallel Lives of Chefs and Scientists
Wednesday, May 17
6pm - 7:30pm
Doors 6:00pm / Talk 6:30pm
Le Laboratoire Cambridge, 650 East Kendall Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/artscience-talks-le-lab-benjamin-wolfe-scott-jones-tickets-34001962786
ArtScience Talks @ Le Lab: Benjamin Wolfe & Scott Jones
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The Together 2017 Tech Jam
Wednesday, May 17
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
MMMMAVEN, 614 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Part of the Together Boston festival, and will bring our community together with some great innovators from the Netherlands.
6:00-6:30 Arrive and Open Network
6:30-6:45 Welcome and Introductions
6:45-7:15 Fontys Academy Netherlands Presents Archy: The Future Club Experience presentation and Q&A
7:15-7:30 Francisco Rafart of Binaural App
7:30-8:00 Wrap-up and Open Network
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DesignX Pitch and Demo Night
Wednesday, May 17
6:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building 9-255, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
The eight ventures of DesignX's Spring 2017 Cohort will be pitching their businesses and showcasing their technology.
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
Sponsor(s): DesignX
For more information, contact: Gilad Rosenzweig
617-999-5370
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Let's Talk about Impeachment: Protect our Constitution
Wednesday, May 17
7pm - 9pm
Pierce Elementary School Auditorium, 50 School Street, Brookline
Learn why Congress should start an impeachment investigation now in conversation with Ben Clements, Chair of Free Speech for People and Ron Fein, Legal Director of Free Speech for People.
Inform yourself in advance of the Town Meeting vote:
Town Meeting members in Brookline will vote on whether to pass a Resolution in Support of a Congressional Investigation regarding the Impeachment of President Donald J. Trump at the May 23 Town Meeting.
Speakers:
Ben Clements, Chair of the Board for Free Speech for People
Ron Fein, Legal Director of Free Speech for People
Our speakers wrote the Jan 2017 Newsweek article Will Trump be Allowed to Defy the Constitution?
For more information on the Brookline Resolution, see this article in the Huffington Post: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#search/huffin/15b8f1f03eb2
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Exceptional America
Wednesday, May 17
7:00pm
First Church, 3 Church Street, Cambridge
What divides Americans from the world and from each other?
Stanford Law professor Mugambi Jouet will discuss his new book Exceptional America which tackles why Americans are far more divided than other Westerners over basic issues, including wealth inequality, health care, climate change, evolution, gender roles, abortion, gay rights, sex, gun control, mass incarceration, the death penalty, torture, human rights, and war.
Why is America so polarized? How does American exceptionalism explain these social changes?
Mugambi Jouet teaches at Stanford Law School and is a frequent media commentator. His research focuses on U.S. criminal law, constitutional law, and policymaking from a multidisciplinary perspective encompassing history, sociology, political science, and the humanities.
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One in a Million: The battle against antibiotic resistance
Wednesday, May 17
7pm - 9pm
Harvard, Pfizer Hall, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge
More information at http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/seminar-series/
This event will be streamed.
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Thursday, May 18
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STEX Workshop-Batteries and Beyond: Energy Storage Innovation
Thursday, May 18
8:00a–11:30a
MIT, Building E90, 1 Main Street, Cambridge
STEX Workshop
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Office of Corporate Relations/ILP
For more information, contact: Trond Undheim
617-253-8983
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Equity and Collective Impact in Systems Change
WHEN Thursday, May 18, 2017, 11:15 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Askwith Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Education Redesign Lab
Harvard Graduate School of Education
SPEAKER(S) Dr. Michael McAfee, President of PolicyLink
TICKET INFO Register online
CONTACT INFO Jessica Boyle
Education Redesign Lab
DETAILS Dr. Michael McAfee, President of PolicyLink, has led the effort to make President Obama’s Promise Neighborhoods initiative a reality in communities across the United States. Please join the Education Redesign Lab and cities participating in the Lab's By All Means initiative for Dr. McAfee’s keynote speech entitled "Equity and Collective Impact in Systems Change," which will focus on the work of the Promise Neighborhood Institute to build stronger systems of educational support and opportunity for children.
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Bringing the Benefits of Solar to Low-Income Customers
Thursday, May 18
1:00pm — 2:00pm ET
Webinar
RSVP at http://cesa.org/webinars/bringing-the-benefits-of-solar-to-low-income-customers/?date=2017-05-18
The Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) is producing a guide on bringing the benefits of solar to low-income consumers. The guide, "Bringing the Benefits of Solar to Low-Income Consumers: A Guide for States and Municipalities," is designed for state and municipal officials, and will be released in May. It will identify successful and promising approaches, offer factors policymakers should consider, and provide policy and program design recommendations for bringing the benefits of solar to low-income consumers.
In this webinar, report author Ben Paulos (PaulosAnalysis) will provide an overview of the guide. There will be time to address questions from the audience. CESA Project Director Nate Hausman will host.
This webinar and report are being produced through CESA’s Sustainable Solar Education Project as part of a series on strategies to ensure that solar remains consumer friendly and benefits low- and moderate-income households.
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The China Shock: Economic and Political Consequences of China's Rise for the United States
Thursday, May 18
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 3-270, 33 Massachusetts Avenue (Rear), Cambridge
Webcast at: https://www.povertyactionlab.org/d2p2
Speaker: David Autor
China's rise as an economic power has significantly shifted the patterns of world trade and challenged the existing empirical research about how labor markets react to trade shocks.
On Thursday, May 18 at 4:00 p.m. EST, David Autor (MIT) will deliver a talk entitled, "The China Shock: Economic and Political Consequences of China's Rise for the United States," to discuss the impacts on consumers, labor markets, and inequality. Co-hosted by MIT's Department of Economics and J-PAL, this lecture will take place on the MIT campus in Cambridge, MA.
Aimed at a diverse audience, D^2P^2 shares lessons from modern applied economics research to demonstrate how it can inform public policy. This public lecture series, designed to be accessible to the broader academic and Greater Boston communities, features engaging talks by J-PAL affiliates and other experts on groundbreaking research and practice.
Data. Decisions. Public Policy. lecture series
Web site: https://www.povertyactionlab.org/d2p2
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): J-PAL
For more information, contact: J-PAL
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MIT Humor Series: The comedians behind the Tax March, on humor, protest, and activism.
Thursday, May 18
5:00p–6:30p
MIT, Building E14-633, MIT Media Lab. 6th floor lecture hall, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Maura Quint (The Onion, The New Yorker), Frank Lesser (The Colbert Report), Jonny Sun
The comedians behind the Tax March: Maura Quint (New Yorker, McSweeney's) and Frank Lesser (writer, The Colbert Report), in conversation With Twitter comedian Jonny Sun (@jonnysun) On the relationship between humor, social media, and protest. On how one viral twitter joke started the tax march, and the role of comedians in the Tax March and in protest and activism.
Seating is on a first-come-first-served basis.
This event will be live-streamed through Periscope at @MITHumorSeries.
The Online Humor Conversation Series at MIT
brings online comedians in conversation with academics and researchers to discuss humor's influence on online culture and society. Presented by @jonnysun.
twitter.com/MITHumorSeries
tinyletter.com/MITHumorSeries
facebook.com/MITHumorSeries
MITHumorSeries.com
This talk generously funded by the MIT De Florez Fund for Humor and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT, in association with the MIT Media Lab's MIT Center for Civic Media, and co-sponsored by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/1893749320892932/
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning, DUSP, Media Lab, MIT Media Lab, Center for Civic Media, The de Florez Fund for Humor, Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University
For more information, contact: Jonny Sun
2036458687
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BOSTON SEMINAR: Panel Discussion on Preparing for Climate Change Impacts
Thursday, May 18
5:30 PM – 7:30
Atlantic Wharf (in the Fort Point Room), 290 Congress Street, Boston
Join us for the fourth and final seminar in our series, “Climate Ready? Designing for Extreme Weather,” hosted by Simpson Gumpertz & Heger this spring at Atlantic Wharf in Downtown Boston.
ABOUT THE SERIES Climate Ready? Designing for Extreme Weather
Boston, like other cities, has identified climate change as a potential threat to our city. Boston’s recently issued Climate Projection Consensus identified four potential impacts (extreme temperatures, extreme precipitation, relative sea level rise, and coastal storms), which drive three major climate hazards: coastal and riverine flooding, stormwater flooding, and extreme heat. Design and construction methods will need to change in response, both to protect our buildings and infrastructure, and also to help limit the built environment’s contribution. Join us for this four-part seminar series that explores the issues of designing for extreme weather, both at an individual and a community level.
ABOUT THIS SEMINAR Panel – Now What? A Discussion on Preparing for Climate Change Impacts
Successfully addressing the impacts of climate change on our built environment will require the efforts of both individuals and communities. Join a discussion looking at individual and community strategies to strengthen our existing buildings and infrastructure against these impacts, improve our new construction designs to be more resilient to changing climate conditions, and lessen the built environment’s contribution to climate change. Further, join in the conversation on how the AEC industry can contribute in the response to predicted climate impacts on the larger community.
Participants will earn 1.0 AIA CES Learning Unit (LU/HSW) for their attendance.
SCHEDULE
5:30 - 6:00PM Registration & Refreshments
6:00 - 7:00PM Presentation & Discussion
7:00 - 7:30PM Cocktail Reception
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Transforming Water Infrastructure for a Sustainable Future
Thursday, May 18
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
NBBJ, 1 Beacon Street, #5200, Boston
At Charles River Watershed Association we are researching and designed a revolutionary new approach to water infrastructure. Our transformative approach will recycle waste and generate energy while promoting resilient and sustainable communities.
Join us to celebrate the culmination of this research and the release of CRWA's new book Transformation: Water Infrastructure for a Sustainable Future Report.
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Panel discussion on AI & the Future of Healthcare
Thursday, May 18
6:30 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Venture Café @ CIC, 5th floor, 1 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/panel-discussion-on-ai-the-future-of-healthcare-tickets-34053329425
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are revolutionizing all industries, and one that can benefit enormously from these technologies is the medical sector. ML can enable cost reduction, an increasement in efficiency, and process optimalization. Ultimately, this can improve patient experiences, and save lives.
Join us in this panel discussion on the Future of Healthcare, where we foster a dialogue between technical and medical experts, and discuss solutions for tomorrow’s hospitals.
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Media Panel: Defining Journalism in a Post-Truth Era
Thursday, May 18
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/media-panel-defining-journalism-in-a-post-truth-era-tickets-34148750833
Fake news is not a new phenomenon. But, the era of web-generated fake news has seriously challenged journalistic norms. A panel of renowned journalists will discuss what this proliferation of misinformation means for the news industry including:
How publications and reporters can maintain credibility in a post-truth era.
How attacks on the free press have increased the pressure on traditional news outlets to defend themselves and find new ways to reach their target audiences.
Whether facts still matter and the incentives for spreading misinformation, disinformation, lies, fantasies and propaganda.
The ability of tech companies and news sites to contain this flood of inaccuracy without bias or censorship.
The challenges and opportunities this era of distrust creates for credible news outlets and reporters.
Moderator: Lylah M. Alphonse - Managing editor of news for U.S. News & World Report
Panelists: Laura Hazard Owen - Deputy editor for Nieman Journalism Lab and Nieman Foundation at Harvard University
Evan Horowitz - Policy writer and columnist of the “Quick Study” column for Boston Globe
Dan Kennedy - Associate professor at Northeastern University and nationally known media commentator who writes for WGBHNews.org, the Nieman Journalism Lab and other publications
Schedule: 6:30 p.m. - 7 p.m. - Drinks & hors d'oeuvres
7 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. - Panel discussion followed by audience Q&A
Space is limited. For more information, contact usmarketing@teamlewis.com.
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Friday, May 19
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Measuring Methane Emissions from Dairies
Friday, May 19
12:00PM TO 1:00PM
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Claudia Arndt, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)
Atmospheric & Environmental Chemistry Seminar
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Computational Models of Social Cognition
Friday, May 19
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
MIT, Building 46, Room 6011, 43 Vassar Street, Simons Center Conference Room, Cambridge
Speaker: Joshua Tenenbaum, Ph.D., Professor of Computational Cognitive Science, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
Simons Center for the Social Brain
More information at http://scsb.mit.edu/event/scsb-lunch-series-joshua-tenenbaum-ph-d/
Phone: 617-324-7757
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Sustainable and Equitable Food Systems
Friday, May 19
12–1:30 pm
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall 1010, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Seventy percent of the world’s food is produced by family farmers, but current food policies, worldwide, do not reflect this reality or support these producers’ needs. This conversation with food policy experts Nora McKeon, Timothy A. Wise, and Emily Broad Leib will explore the limitations of the dominant food policy paradigm, particularly with regards to resilience, biodiversity, and human health. Drawing on their research, the speakers will also present alternative models that effectively engage family farmers and their communities as key participants in food policy decision making.
Lunch will be served.
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Intimacy with Technology
Friday, May 19
12:30p–1:30p
MIT, Building E-15, MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Join List Visual Arts Center and Sun-ha Hong, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Comparative Media Studies/Writing, MIT in a discussion about the affective charge and the promise of objectivity surrounding the idea of raw data. As we move into an era of ambient and ubiquitous computing, Hong will discuss the intimate aspects of data to explore how we as humans engage in relationships with technologies--relationships which lead us to ask, what is intimacy?. In response to the List Centers exhibition An Inventory of Shimmers: Objects of Intimacy in Contemporary Art Hong will delve into the mediated and aesthetic elements that objects assume.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): List Visual Arts Center
For more information, contact: Emily Garner
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PSFC Seminar: Physics at the energy, intensity, temperature and space frontiers: Laboratory for Nuclear Science at MIT
Friday, May 19
3:00p–4:00p
MIT, Building NW17-218, 175 Albany Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Bolek Wyslouch
Members of LNS are experimental and theoretical particle and nuclear physicists. We study the fundamental properties of matter: searching for new particles and new phenomena, and studying in extreme detail the properties of the Standard Model of particles and forces. We also study properties of nuclear matter in extreme conditions and the influence of particle properties on astrophysical phenomena. We use a wide variety of tools: formal particle theory, particle phenomenology, advanced data analysis techniques and a large variety of particle detectors. LNS members are active at accelerator laboratories around the world, using proton and ion beams at the highest energies to search for new particles and study high temperature nuclear plasmas; high intensity beams for neutrino studies; and electron beams to study the structure of protons and nuclei. Our detectors are underground waiting to detect extremely rare processes, and on the International Space Station to study cosmic rays. In this talk I will present some of the science questions that we are trying to answer and some recent experimental results.
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
617253-8101
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What Made Me Who I Am
Friday. May 19
7:00 PM (Doors at 6:30)
First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Cost: $27.25 (online only, book-included) - On Sale April 11, 2017 $5.00 - On Sale April 25, 2017
Bernie Swain and Doris Kearns Goodwin
Harvard Book Store welcomes Washington Speakers Bureau co-founder BERNIE SWAIN and Pulitzer Prize–winning historian DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN for a discussion of Swain's book, What Made Me Who I Am—a collection of profiles on thirty-four remarkable leaders, including Goodwin, and the influences that shaped them. A signing with both authors will follow the discussion.
About What Made Me Who I Am
Starting a business is a wonderfully naïve venture. Only a fortunate few will survive—and very few of those who thrive will have something special to say about failure, success, and leadership.
Bernie Swain is one of those few very fortunate people. He quit his job in 1980 to start a lecture agency with his wife and a friend. By the end of their first rocky year—just as his savings were running out—Swain's first revenues trickled in. He began signing every speaker with a handshake; this proved to be the hallmark of trust that helped accelerate the company's growth. Years later, his roster of speakers would be the greatest in history since America's first agency represented a host of notables such as Mark Twain, Susan B. Anthony, and Frederick Douglass.
The best of Swain's fortunes turned out to be the speakers themselves because these remarkable leaders had become his personal friends. What Made Me Who I Am captures the leadership transformations of 34 of those friends—from Doris Kearns Goodwin to Colin Powell, Terry Bradshaw to Tom Brokaw, and Tony Blair to Dave Barry. This assembly of people defines a generation. What were their most powerful influences? Defining moments? Decisions that contributed the most to their character and accomplishments?
Swain captures answers to these questions and more in an inspiring, practical collection of true-life stories for leaders today. What Made Me Who I Am is also a terrific gift book for graduates and others who are just starting out in life.
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Invisible Nation
Friday, May 19
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
More than 2.5 million children are homeless in the United States every year. In every state, children are living packed in with relatives, or in cars, or motel rooms, or emergency shelters, the only constant being too many people in too little space. In a vividly-written narrative, experienced journalist Richard Schweid takes us on a spirited journey through this "invisible nation," giving us front-row dispatches. Based on in-depth reporting from five major cities, Invisible Nation looks backward at the historical context of family homelessness, as well as forward at what needs to be done to alleviate this widespread, although often hidden, poverty. Invisible Nation is a riveting must-read for anyone who wants to know what is happening to the millions of families living at the bottom of the economy.
Richard Schweid is a journalist and documentary reporter. He is theauthor of nine nonfiction books, including Che's Chevrolet, Fidel's Oldsmobile: On the Road in Cuba, Hot Peppers: The Story of Cajuns and Capsicum, Consider the Eel: A Natural and Gastronomic History, and The Cockroach Papers: A Compendium of History and Lore. He has also produced or reported more than two dozen documentaries for Catalonian public television, including the Oscar-nominated Balseros.
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Saturday, May 20
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A Dream imagined: Race, Ethnicity and the Struggle for Boston's Future
Saturday, May 20
8:30 AM – 5:00 PM EDT
UMass Boston Campus Center, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Ballroom A, 3rd Floor, Boston
UMass Boston's CANALA Institutes invite you to a day-long conference of leaders and advocates from Greater Boston's diverse communities of color. We will explore ways for communities and organizations to enhance their individual and collective capacities through collaboration.
How and in what areas can collaborating across racial and ethnic lines address more effectively persistent problems of inequality and neglect? How can we strategize and organize to realize a vision where resources, opportunities, and power are shared more equitably?
There will be panels, breakout sessions, networking, and chances to reflect on current data about Boston's evolving sociodemographic landscape and on plans to move forward.
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Hull Wind Turbine Tour Cruise & Electric Vehicle Showcase
Saturday, May 20
9:00 AM – 12:30 PM EDT
Mass Bay Lines, Rowes Wharf, Boston
Cost: $0 – $15
Back by popular demand, the Hull Turbine Tour Cruise sets sail on May 20th from Rowes Wharf in Boston! This event is open to the public. Get your tickets by May 15th! Kids 10 & under are free.
Mass Energy and the Mass Chapter of the Sierra Club invite you to join us for a tour of local renewable energy! During the event, you'll have the opportunity to check out Hull's wind turbine up close, PLUS the latest electric vehicles.
We'll charter the M/V Freedom and take a one hour cruise down to Pemberton Point, where we will hop off the boat and hike over to get up close and personal with Hull 1, Massachusetts' first community-scale wind turbine, built in 2002! Electric vehicles will be on display during the tour of Hull 1. Then it's a lovely sail back to Boston.
Breakfast is included and there will be a concession stand once we reach Hull. Cash bar will be open. This is a great opportunity to meet other supporters of clean energy and spend a windy springtime morning on the water.
Boarding is at 9am. We will arrive back at Rowes Wharf around 12:30pm.
Participants must sign a standard waiver and minors must be accompanied by a parent or guardian who will need to sign an additional standard waiver for the minor. Click on these links to preview the standard waiver, minor waiver and forms.
Please contact us with any questions!
617-524-3950 x5
We can't wait to see you there!
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South End Plant Sale
Saturday, May 20
10AM-2PM
Berkeley Community Garden, 500 Tremont Street, Boston
Come to Berkeley Community Garden for all of your spring planting needs and some great planting tips too! All plants and seedlings are grown at City Natives, the Trustees' Boston nursery.
native perennials, shrubs & trees
wide selection of organically grown heirloom & hybrid vegetables, herbs & annual flowers
medicinal herb seedlings
organic fertilizers, soil amendments & cover crops
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Fresh Pond Day
Saturday, May 20
11:30am - 2pm
Fresh Pond Reservation, Water Purification Facility, 250 Fresh Pond Parkway, Cambridge
Celebrate the land, water, wildlife and people that make Fresh Pond Reservation a unique and vital part of our City!
What is Fresh Pond Day?
Fresh Pond Reservation is truly Cambridge's green gem - an urban wild that protects Fresh Pond, Cambridge's in-city drinking water reservoir. Fresh Pond Day is the Cambridge Water Department's annual tribute to this unique Reservation that is a vital natural resource, an invaluable sanctuary for wildlife, and a beloved recreational escape in the City. So...let's give Fresh Pond the celebration, jubilation and love it deserves; join in the festivities! Live wildlife presentations, a wildlife and bike parade, live music, facepainting, truck climb-aboards, tours and more will abound, and - it's free and open to all!
Water Purification Facility at Fresh Pond Reservation, 250 Fresh Pond Parkway.
Schedule:
11:30 Nature Storytelling
12:30 Wildlife Parade (sign & mask-making all morning!)
1:00 Live Animals
1:30 Bicycle Parade (flair and decorating all day!)
2:00 Nature Drawing
2:00 "Fresh Pond Beyond This Moment” Tour
More information at http://www.cambridgema.gov/Water/FreshPondReservation/FreshPondDay
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Fighting Fascism: Rosa Manus and the international women's peace movement in the 1930's
WHEN Saturday, May 20, 2017, 11:45 a.m. – 1:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Smith Hall, Harvard Hillel, 52 Mt Auburn Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Worship and Study Congregation at Harvard Hillel
SPEAKER(S) Harriet Feinberg
DETAILS This is a potluck dairy 'lunch-and-learn" after Shabbat services. Dutch Jewish feminist Rosa Manus (1881-1942) was at the center of an international coalition of women’s groups advocating for peace and disarmament during the ominous 1930s. A new book with essays by eight authors and an array of documents and photos is finally giving her the recognition she has long deserved. Come for lunch at 11:45 a.m., or at 12:15 p.m. for the talk.
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Sunday, May 21
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SWAPFEST
Sunday, May 21
9:00a–2:00p
MIT, Albany Street Garage and Lots, Cambridge
MIT's monthly Hi Tech, Computer, Electronics and Ham Radio Fleamarket.
Buy Sell or Swap all things nerdly.
Held the third Sunday of each month April thru October.
Rain or Shine covered space is available for all sellers.
In the Albany St Garage and adjacent lot.
On Albany St between Mass Ave and Main St, Cambridge.
$6 Buyers admission from 9AM to 2PM.
Free for MIT and Harvard Undergraduates with current ID
Web site: www.swapfest.us
Open to: the general public
Cost: $6
This event occurs on the 3rd Sunday of every month through October 15, 2017.
Sponsor(s): MIT Radio Society, Electronic Research Society, MIT, UHF Repeater Assn. W1XM, MIT
For more information, contact: Mitchell Berger
617-253-3776
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Superpower Discovery Session - "Stop Playing Small"
Sunday, May 21
9:30a–5:30p
MIT, Building E25-117, 45 Carleton, Cambridge
Cost: $90-120 (after 70% discount using MITHERO)
Speaker: Konstantin Mitgutsch & Lena Robinson, Lightspace
We all have Superpowers - personal, often surprising strengths that lie at the core of who we are - but we rarely live them in our everyday life, our jobs and relationships. Many people don't know what their Superpowers actually are. They are still hidden and have yet to be discovered.
This is exactly what Superpower Discovery is for. In our workshops, we work with unconventional methods from game design and creative sectors to get to the bottom of everyone's Superpowers. In the course of the whole-day session participants create their very own card set, which documents their individual journey and can be used for all further explorations. The goal is to live your Superpowers!
Superpower Discovery is run by Light Space, a Vienna-based organization providing creative tools that support people to uncover and dive into their deepest strengths. We run workshops and retreats internationally, for individuals and teams.
Find our Superpower Discovery Quiz, more information and other events here: http://www.lightspace.io
Open to: the general public
Cost: $90-120 (after 70% discount using MITHERO)
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing, MIT Game Lab
For more information, contact: Andrew Whitacre
617-324-0490
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Monday, May 22
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MIT FACULTY FORUM ONLINE: ROBOTS AND YOUR JOB
Monday, May 22
12:00 PM to 12:45 PM (Note: Time is ET.)
Location: Online
Alumni in research/faculty roles at universities and colleges share their research on robotics in the workplace. Panelist lineup:
Hal Varian '69, Chief Economist, Google; Professor Emeritus, University of California
Mike Gennert '80, SM '80, ScD '87, Professor, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Lynn Wu '02, MNG '03, PhD '11, Assistant Professor, The Wharton School
Moderator: Wade Roush PhD '95, producer/host, Soonish
More information at http://alumic.mit.edu/s/1314/03-alumni/wide.aspx?sid=1314&gid=13&pgid=36178&content_id=39467
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PAOC Colloquium - John Chiang (UC Berkeley)
Monday, May 22
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building 54-923 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
Speaker: John Chiang, UC Berkeley
The PAOC Colloquium is a weekly interdisciplinary seminar series that brings together the whole PAOC community. Seminar topics include all research concerning the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmospheres, oceans and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars take place on Monday from 12-1pm. Lunch is provided after the seminars to encourage students and post-docs to meet with the speaker. Besides the seminar and lunch, individual meetings with professors, post-docs, and students are arranged.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact: Tom Beucler
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'Refuge Through Music' presented by the Refugee Orchestra Project
WHEN Monday, May 22, 2017, 8 – 9:30 p.m.
WHERE First Church Cambridge, 11 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Concerts, Music, Support/Social
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Refugee Orchestra Project
DIRECTED BY Lidiya Yankovskaya, conductor
TICKET WEB LINK http://www.refugeeorchestraproject.org
TICKET INFO Free, suggested donation
CONTACT INFO refugeeorchestraproject@gmail.com
DETAILS Instrumentalists and singers whose friends and families have fled to the U.S. to escape violence and persecution will perform works by composers such as Kurt Weill, Paul Hindemith, Darius Milhaud, and Irving Berlin - all of whom are themselves refugees. The concert will showcase, through music, the positive impact those who have come to this country seeking safety and a better life have had on American culture and society. It is one of three fundraising events that the Refugee Orchestra Project is organizing this spring.
FEATURED SOLOISTS
Zhanna Alkhazova, Award-winning, NY-based soprano who has earned critical acclaim performing lyric and dramatic operatic repertoire.
Amal El-Shrafi, Award-winning, Palestinian-American soprano, acclaimed for her powerful stage presence and luscious tone.
Olga Lisovskaya, A native of Kiev, Ukraine and hailed by critics as a “wonderful coloratura soprano with the flexibility to caress the highest range notes”, Olga Lisovskaya regularly performs leading operatic roles and recitals with world-renowned artists.
FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
“This year’s social and political climate have made the Refugee Orchestra Project more relevant than ever before in its mission to demonstrate the critical role that refugees and immigrants play in our cultural landscape,” said Refugee Orchestra Project Conductor and Artistic Director Lidiya Yankovskaya. “I hope that those attending our performances will be reminded that our entire culture and society has been built on and strengthened by the diversity that refugees have brought to America for hundreds of years and continue to bring today.” - Lidiya Yankovskaya
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Tuesday, May 23
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Massachusetts’ renewable energy outlook: Onshore, offshore and the transmission challenge
Tuesday, May 23
7:30 AM – 9:30 AM EDT
Omni Parker House, 60 School Street, Boston
As Massachusetts reaches a critical juncture in procuring more renewable sources of energy, important questions are surfacing. Is Massachusetts best positioned to meet its long-term clean energy goals? Are the incentives in place to build transmission commensurate with the Commonwealth’s energy needs and the economic opportunity of widespread job creation? And what can Massachusetts learn from other states and countries that have embraced a clean-energy agenda?
Join us at the State House News Forum event on May 23, when leading energy experts explore these questions and more at this pivotal moment in Massachusetts’ energy history.
Panelists include:
Ed Krapels, CEO of Anbaric Development Partners
Ben Downing, VP of New Market Development, Nexamp
Judy Chang, Principal, The Brattle Group
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Carbon to Buildings Symposium
Tuesday, May 23
8:15 AM – 6:30 PM EDT
MIT, Building 32-141, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
This symposium will gather leading companies and technical experts in the hydrocarbon, polymer and chemical sectors to discuss the potential benefits of bringing polymeric composites into mainstream use as a base-building and infrastructure technology. Architects, building engineers and building code specialists will contribute their insights as to how composites might be introduced in a much more systematic and effective manner than they have been to date: not merely as replacement component parts for an unchanged tectonic logic, but as holistic structure-envelope building methodologies.
For additional information on this event, please visit:
For the current agenda (subject to change), please visit:
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Cleantech Women: Breaking the Green Glass Ceiling
Tuesday, May 23
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM EDT
Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, 63 Franklin Street, 3rd Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cleantech-women-breaking-the-green-glass-ceiling-tickets-32702769865
Hear from a panel of women breaking through in the clean energy industry and how they're achieving their career goals.
Talk with industry movers and shakers, make professional contacts, share experiences with your peers and get inspired to take the next steps in your career.
Moderator: Doug Banks, Executive Editor, Boston Business Journal
Panelists: Rebecca Tepper, Energy Chief, Massachusetts Attorney General's Office
Wendy Rowland, Marketing Assistant, Hancock Software, Successful Women in Clean Energy graduate
Gail Greenwald, Partner, Clean Energy Venture Group
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Creative Data Literacy: Bridging the Gap Between the Data-haves and Have-nots - a Brown Bag with Catherine D’Ignazio
Tuesday, May 23
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Buidling E25-401, 45 Carleton, Cambridge
Speaker: Catherine D'Ignazio
Communities, governments, libraries and organizations are swimming in data - demographic data, participation data, government data, social media data - but very few understand what to do with it. Though governments and foundations are creating open data portals and corporations are creating APIs, these rarely focus on use, usability, building community or creating impact. So although there is an explosion of data, there is a significant lag in data literacy at the scale of communities and citizens. This creates a situation of data-haves and have-nots which is troubling for an open data movement that seeks to empower people with data. But there are emerging technocultural practices that combine participation, creativity, and context to connect data to everyday life. These include data journalism, citizen science, emerging forms for documenting and publishing metadata, novel public engagement in government processes, and participatory data art. This talk surveys these practices both lovingly and critically, including their aspirations and the challenges they face in creating citizens that are truly empowered with data.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT Libraries
For more information, contact: Kelly Hopkins
6172533044
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authors@mit - John Tirman - Dream Chasers: Immigration and the American Backlash
Tuesday, May 23
5:30p–6:30p
MIT, Building N50, The MIT Press Bookstore, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: John Tirman
The MIT Press Bookstore presents John Tirman, Executive Director of MIT's Center for International Studies, discussing his book "Dream Chasers: Immigration and the American Backlash" on Tuesday, May 23, at 5:30 pm at the Bookstore.
Tirman's discussion of the resistance to immigration and immigrants couldn't be more timely. Illegal immigration continues to roil American politics, the uproar encouraged by the Trump administration. State and local governments have passed more than 300 laws that attempt to restrict undocumented immigrants' access to hospitals, schools, food stamps, and driver's licenses. And yet polls show that a majority of Americans support some kind of path to citizenship for those here illegally. What is going on? In "Dream Chasers," Tirman explains that the resistance is more cultural than political, stemming from fears that the white, Protestant "real America" is changing.
This event includes a book signing. Books will be on sale at the event for 20% off, or you can purchase an event ticket that includes a discounted book.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): The MIT Press Bookstore
For more information, contact: The MIT Press Bookstore
617-253-5249
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Bringing the Changing Energy Landscape to Life – 2017 Annual Banquet
May 23
6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Holiday Inn Boston-Brookline, 1200 Beacon Street, Brookline
Power and Energy Society
2017 Annual Banquet – Come and join us for an evening of fun and networking!!!
Bringing the Changing Energy Landscape to Life
Featuring: Buffet style dinner, cash bar and live music by “Jazz in the Air”
Speaker: Rudolph (Rudy) Wynter, President & COO- FERC Regulated Business and New Energy Solutions, National Grid
Time: Pre-dinner drinks at 6:00PM, program commences at 6.30PM
Price: $35 per person or $270 per table of eight. $10 per student
On line Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ieee-pes-boston-chapter-annualdinner-tickets-32858048307
*A small convenience fee will apply to online ticket transactions.
Checks are also acceptable. Please make the check payable to IEEE PES Boston Chapter and mail it to:
Babak Enayati
40 Sylvan Rd.
Waltham, MA 02451
Registration Closing Date and Time: 6PM on Sunday May 21, 2017
Visit IEEE PES Boston Chapter’s website for details! http://www.ieeepesboston.org/
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From Talk to Action: Talking about Racism and Taking a Stand Against Hate
Tuesday, May 23
7:30 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
Beacon Hill Friends House, 8 Chestnut Street, Boston
This interactive session is designed to look critically at racism in our communities and our nation by examining the roots of white supremacy and how the past impacts our present. Shay Stewart-Bouley is currently the Executive Director of Community Change Inc. , a nearly 50-year- old anti-racism organization based in Boston that organizes and educates for racial equity with a specific focus on working with white people.
Shay's talk is part of the Beacon Hill Friends House Spring Speakers Series, “Working for Racial Justice Today,” in which speakers from our community will look at the history of racism in Boston, New England, and around the world, and what we can do here and now to confront it.
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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, May 24
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Exploring DSX, a Platform for Data Scientists using Open Source Technologies
Wednesday, May 24
12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
During this talk we will be demonstrating Data Science Experience (DSX), a Gartner's recommended collaborative platform with Data Science and Machine learning capabilities. If you are a data scientist using Open Source technologies such as python, R, Apache Spark and Tensorflow, join us to explore building models and the platform's unique capability to automatically identify and build models that can then be deployed in several contexts.
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No Food to Waste: Addressing the Food Waste Crisis
Wednesday, May 24
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Greentown Labs, 28 Dane Street, Somerville
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/no-food-to-waste-addressing-the-food-waste-crisis-tickets-34109267738
Addressing the Food Waste Crisis for Investors, Corporates and Entrepreneurs
“If food waste globally were a country, it would be the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions after China and the United States.”
A staggering forty percent of the U.S. food supply is never eaten, the equivalent of over $218 billion in value, according to the recent Trillium and NRDC study, “Assessing Corporate Performance on Food Waste Reduction: A Strategic Guide for Investors.” The social, environmental and financial consequences of this large scale waste are widespread and ultimately, from an investor’s perspective, represent risks that cannot be ignored.
Join WISE, BASIC, and Net Impact Boston for a unique, collaborative event hosted by Greentown Labs to explore corporate best practices for evaluating and reducing food waste, the U.S. roadmap to reduce food waste at the regulatory level, the implications for institutional investors and how we can each make a difference individually.
We will begin the evening with brief introductions, then we will break into round-robin discussions with attendees rotating in small groups to chat with the speakers. Light appetizers and refreshments, provided by Trillium and ReFED, will be served.
Agenda:
5:30-6:00 PM - Welcome & Introductions
6:00-7:00 PM - Speaker-led Breakout Discussions
7:00-7:30 PM - Networking
Speakers:
Moderator: Adam Rein, Managing Director at MissionPoint Partners
1- Allan Pearce, Shareholder Advocate at Trillium Asset Management
2- Chris Cochran, Executive Director at ReFED
3- Emma Brown, Creative Marketing and Event Coordinator at Bootstrap Composting
4- Josh Roach, Managing Partner at Loyd Capital Partners
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Thursday, May 25
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Introduction to Living Building Challenge
Thursday, May 25
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM EDT
US Green Building Council MA Chapter HQ, 50 Milk Street, 16th floor "Edison" Conference Room, Boston
Cosst: $50 – $65
Join us for an introductory session on the newest and most rigorous standard in high performance buildings today. If you are new to the standard or have a few unanswered questions come visit this session. We will be breifly covering projects in the Commonwealth and will have mediated discussion after the comprehensive presentation.
The Living Building Challenge is the built environment's most rigorous performance standard. It calls for the creation of building projects that operate as cleanly, beautifully and efficiently as nature's architecture. Participants will gain a basic understanding of the Living Building Challenge - a philosophy, advocacy tool and certification program that addresses development at all scales. To be certified under the Challenge, projects must meet a series of ambitious performance requirements, including Net Zero Energy, Waste and Water, over a minimum of 12 months of continuous occupancy. Participants will learn to describe the key components of the program and discuss the rationale for restorative design principles.
The presenter - Celis Brisbin - will be returning from the Living Future unConference and will have exciting new updates to share!
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Crowd-Financing Solar for Nonprofits Serving Low-Income Communities
Thursday, May 25
1:00pm — 2:00pm ET
Webinar
Nonprofit community service providers that serve low-income communities have faced challenges in financing solar for their own facilities. These organizations’ lack of credit history, potentially unreliable revenue, and inability to take advantage of tax credits and accelerated depreciation can make traditional solar financing models a poor fit.
One answer that has emerged is “crowd-funding,” in which many individuals each provide a small amount of money for a project. Crowd-funding can involve donations, or it can involve investments, in which the individuals who participate expect a financial return. In this webinar, Andreas Karelas, the Executive Director of RE-volv, and Todd Bluechel, the Vice President of Marketing and Sales at CollectiveSun, will present two models that rely on crowd-funding to enable nonprofits to adopt solar. Mr. Karelas will discuss RE-volv’s model, which allows for crowd-sourced donations. Mr. Bluechel will discuss “CrowdLending,” one of CollectiveSun’s financing options that facilitates loans to fund solar projects after tax credits have been applied. Their presentations will be followed by a Q&A with the audience.
This is one in a series of webinars presented by the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) as part of the Sustainable Solar Education Project on bringing the benefits of solar to low-income residents. The Sustainable Solar Education Project, funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative, is helping state and municipal officials to ensure distributed solar electricity is equitable and consumer friendly.
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SUSTAINnovate 2017
Thursday, May 25
1:00 PM – 3:30 PM EDT
CIC Boston, 50 Milk Street, Floor 1, Room Anchor, Boston
Cost: $55
Join us! SUSTAINnovate 2017
Sustainability & Innovation in K-12 Schools
Brought to you by Coalesce, The Campus Sustainability Accelerator
We invite administrators and sustainability coordinators to join a lively conversation and interactive dialogue to hear from experts in the sustainability field and connect with peers from independent schools to share best practices and return back to campuses with new resources, insights, and connections.
Agenda:
State of the Field Insights - Featured Speakers and Q&A
Peer to Peer Connections - Break Out Dialogues on Specific Sustainability Topics
Innovation Tour (Optional)
Featured Speakers and Innovation Tour:
Georges Dyer, Principal, Intentional Endowment Network The Intentional Endowments Network supports schools and other tax-exempt organizations in aligning their endowment investment practices with their mission, values, and sustainability goals without sacrificing financial returns.
Simca Horowitz, Eastern Mass Director, Massachusetts Farm to School Project Mass Farm to School works to increase healthy, locally grown food in schools and institutions.
Erika Eitland, Doctoral Student, Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Center for Health and the Global Environment, whose mission is to draw the connection between human health and the health of the environment. Erika focuses on healthy school buildings
Wynn Calder, Principal, Sustainable Schools, consults with the Green Schools Alliance (GSA) and the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), which are supporting sustainable schools in a variety of ways, including an annual student leadership conference, a global education course for teachers, a green purchasing consortium, a new online sustainability assessment tool for schools, and more.
Light refreshments will be served.
Innovation Tour to follow: CIC Boston - More Innovation and Startups than Anywhere on the Planet! Attendees will be experience the vibrancy of the various floors and innovation spaces throughout the CIC. After exploring CIC Boston, participating attendees will jump on the Red Line and head to Kendall Square to join Venture Cafe gathering where drinks will be served.
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Through the Looking Glass with Virtual & Augmented Reality
Thursday, May 25
3:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Venture Cafe at Cambridge Innovation Center, 5th floor, 1 Broadway, Cambridge
‘Through the Looking Glass’ is Boston’s immersive enhanced reality event. It will address what the future of augmented, virtual and enhanced reality could look like, and how entrepreneurs and innovators might apply recent advances in the space to their organizations. Participants will be able to converse, connect, and immerse themselves in the technologies with a variety of demos and selection of educational sessions.
Through the Looking Glass is possible in collaboration with BostonVR and BostonAR Meetup Groups. RSVP for space here but walk-ins are welcome.
AGENDA
3:00 – 8:00 PM: Networking
3:00 – 5:00 PM: Office Hours – Entrepreneurs and prospective entrepreneurs can book 30-minute appointments to obtain advice from experts. Click here to book an appointment: http://vencaf.org/book-office-hours/
4:00 – 5:00 PM: Virtual Reality in Entertainment
5:30 – 6:30 PM: Enterprise Virtual Reality
5:30 – 6:30 PM: Communicating in an Augmented Reality Environment
5:30 – 7:30 PM: Startup Demos and Inventor Showcase – Entrepreneurs and corporate groups interested in demoing should apply here: http://bit.ly/vc-vr
6:45 – 7:45 PM: Augmented Reality Art as a Guerilla Medium
6:45 – 7:45 PM: TCN Roundtable
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Future of Farming: How Urban Agriculture Is Revitalizing Local Economies
Thursday, May 25
5:30-7:30PM
The KITCHEN at Boston Public Market 100 Hanover Street Boston
Description: As populations grow, our urban areas are tasked with many differing goals: create jobs, grow the economy, but at the same time make the city "greener" and more sustainable for the environment and human well-being. Now more than ever, it’s critical to change what we eat and how it’s made. Food justice, climate change, social impact, and health concerns make food an integral part of our everyday lives. Food entrepreneurs have the opportunity to make a difference beyond our dinner plate.
Over the past five years, Massachusetts has become the national incubator for innovative business solutions to climate change and social community challenges. Join Climate Action Business Association and Green City Growers for a special panel discussion on the importance of reinvestment into local food community.
Brains, Minds and Machines Seminar Series: Steps towards a vision-based assistant
Friday, May 26
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 46-3002, MIT Singleton Auditorium, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Kevin Murphy (Google)
Biography: Kevin Patrick Murphy was born in Ireland, grew up in England (BA from Cambridge), and went to graduate school in the USA (MEng from U. Penn, PhD from UC Berkeley, Postdoc at MIT). In 2004, he became a professor of computer science and statistics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. In 2011, he went to Google in Mountain View, California for his sabbatical. In 2012, he converted to a full-time research scientist position at Google. Dr. Murphy is the author of the textbook entitled "Machine Learning: a Probabilistic Perspective" (MIT Press, 2012).
Brains, Minds & Machines Seminar Series
(This seminar series was formerly known as "Brains & Machines Seminar Series.")This seminar series is organized by the Center for Brains, Minds and Machines (CBMM) which is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), under a Science and Technology Centers (STCs): Integrative Partnerships award, Grant No. CCF-1231216.Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for Brains, Minds and Machines (CBMM), Brain and Cognitive Sciences, McGovern Institute for Brain Research
For more information, contact: Kathleen D. Sullivan
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Total Immersion: Building virtual reality environments for basic science and clinical research
Thursday, May 25
6:30pm
Aeronaut Brewery, 14 Tyler Street, Somerville
Researchers from the STRIVE Center
More information at http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/science-by-the-pint/
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Saturday, May 27
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Substance abuse and mental health hacking group
Saturday, May 27
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM EDT
Cambridge Innovation Center, 1 Broadway, 4th floor, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/substance-abuse-and-mental-health-hacking-group-tickets-34431286906
UNLIMITED snacks and drinks will be provided.
Substance abuse and mental health working group is a meetup with a simple purpose: Brainstorm and code together, on substance abuse and mental health related projects. We will meet every Saturday in the month of May (6th, 13, 20 and 27th of May) and you will get a chance to showcase your work on June 1st at our Narcotic addiction event. We are expecting an attendance of 100 to 150 people and we will pick a winner during that event. The winner also gets to be on our equity crowdfunding platform.
HOW DOES THIS WORK?
You can brainstorm or hack on anything! Any language, framework, public/open-source, personal, etc.
You don’t have to have an idea to hack on! You’re more than welcome to come just to pair with someone.
Start off with a quick round of introductions, to say who you are, what you’re working on, and if you’d like help with your idea.
You DONT have to know computer programming, you can inspire others through your vision. You can hack for the whole day (10 am to 4 pm) or join anytime.
Please tweet about this event using @HealthInnoBos and join us on Facebook and LinkedIn
We will be meeting at the Cambridge Innovation Center every Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm on the FOURTH FLOOR.
Will your project be the next big thing?, let's find out on our June 1st Narcotic addiction event.
See you on Saturday!
Call Kal at 617-863-0109 for access
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Soil & Plant Health
Saturday, May 27
1pm - 4pm
Franklin Park Zoo, One Franklin Park Road, Boston
Join Dan Kittredge of the Bionutrient Association for a discussion on how you can grow healthier, better tasting food crops by helping plants achieve their full genetic potential through ecological management. During this talk, participants will also receive a general introduction to the growing of bionutrient-dense food.
About the Speaker
Executive Director of the Bionutrient Food Association, Dan is passionate about raising the quality of nutrition in our food supply through collaboration with committed individuals, businesses, and organizations that support the value of people growing and eating really good food. His experience managing organic farms and developing sustainable agriculture techniques has connected him to farmers in Central America, Russia, India and the United States.
Offered in partnership with the Boston Food Forest Coalition, this spring series of workshops and talks focus on urban sustainability and permaculture principles. Workshops are designed to provide participants with hands-on opportunities to put their newly acquired knowledge into practice.
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Tuesday, May 30
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Zebras and unicorns: Rare maladies and a physician-scientist's search for answers
WHEN Wednesday, May 31, 2017, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Broad Institute, 415 Main Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Broad Institute
SPEAKER(S) Anna Greka
COST Free
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.eventbrite.com/e/zebras-and-unicorns-rare-maladies-and-a-physician-scientists-search-for-answers-tickets-33853177766
CONTACT INFO events@broadinstitute.org
DETAILS Roughly one in every ten people around the world suffers from a rare disease—and those are just the ones that researchers and clinicians know about. Physician-scientist Anna Greka will talk about the steep uphill battles facing rare disease patients when it comes to getting diagnosed and finding treatment options, her own work studying and treating rare kidney diseases, and the insights that rare disease research can provide into treatments for more common disorders.
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EDUCATE BOSTON: THE FUTURE OF LEARNING IN THE HUB
Tuesday, 30 May
6 – 8 pm EDT
GA Boston, 125 Summer Street 13th Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://generalassemb.ly/education/educate-boston-the-future-of-learning-in-the-hub/boston/36875
By signing up for this event, you're giving our sponsors permission to contact you about upcoming events and promotions.
Kim Lucas , Civic Research Director, Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics
Rahn Dorsey, Chief of Education, City of Boston
David Leonard, President, Boston Public Library
Join SPARK Boston and GA for a Chief Chat with Boston’s first ever Chief of Education Rahn Dorsey, BPL President David Leonard, and New Urban Mechanics’ Civic Research Director Kim Lucas as we discuss the future of learning in Boston.
Why It Matters?
Boston has some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the country (and there’s a few household names across the river, too). But our city is also home to many other educational opportunities that, for many Bostonians, are favorite hidden gems. Whether you’re new to the Hub or a born-and-bred Bostonian, there’s plenty to explore to advance your career, learn a new skill, pick up a second (or third!) language, and more.
With these resources and opportunities in mind, Mayor Walsh hired Boston’s first ever Chief of Education Rahn Dorsey and challenged him to connect these many pieces, supporting a lifelong learning environment for all residents.
What You Will Takeaway?
Insight into the city’s vision for relevant, accessible lifelong learning
A list of great (often free!) places for you to go get skills
An interest for further exploring the city’s wide-ranging experiential learning opportunities
New understanding of how Boston’s educational assets fit together
About the Speakers
Kim Lucas, Civic Research Director, Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics
Kim’s life has centered around questions, and she brings this expertise to her work as MONUM’s Director of Civic Research. Part researcher, part practitioner, and part muppet, Kim has consistently kept one foot in the ivory tower and one foot on the ground, pairing research with practice to seek real solutions to social policy and planning problems. Questioning who we think of as ‘expert’ and how stakeholders identify ‘value’ are two common threads that pervade her work. Kim holds a BA in Psychology and Sociology from UCLA, an MA in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning and Child Development from Tufts University, and puppies anytime she can. She is presently a PhD candidate in Social Policy and Sociology at Brandeis University; her dissertation is an economic sociological exploration of the ‘value’ of the early childhood workforce.
Rahn Dorsey, Chief of Education, City of Boston
Rahn Dorsey is Boston’s first-ever Chief of Education. Mayor Walsh appointed him in September 2014. His charge is to set a strategic agenda for the city to improve the quality of instruction and student support across Boston’s educational ecosystem and better integrate school, community and work-based learning opportunities. As Chief of Education, Rahn collaborates with young people, parents, educators, K-12 and higher education leaders and nonprofit and private sector innovators to develop strategies that fully bring learning to life in Boston.
David Leonard, President, Boston Public Library
David Leonard, President of the Boston Public Library, leads the 170-year old institution, one of Boston’s great educational, cultural and civic treasures. David began working at the BPL in 2009, bringing a wealth of experience from the technology, management and consulting fields. Appointed president by the Library’s Board of Trustees and Mayor Martin J. Walsh in June 2016, David’s focus is on developing the BPL as a twenty first century institution providing dynamic library experiences to the residents of Boston, of Massachusetts and beyond.
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Boston Green Drinks - May Happy Hour
Tuesday, May 30
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Scholars, 25 School Street, Boston
Join the conversation with sustainability professionals and hobbyists. Enjoy a drink and build your connection with our green community!
Boston Green Drinks builds a community of sustainably-minded Bostonians, provides a forum for exchange of sustainability career resources, and serves as a central point of information about emerging green issues. We support the exchange of ideas and resources about sustainable energy, environment, food, health, education.
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Opportunity
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Discounted Solar for Somerville
As part of the State’s Solarize Mass program, local volunteers and the City of Somerville recently launched the Solarize Somerville campaign to make it easier and cheaper for residents and small businesses to install solar panels.
The program, which is offering information and guidance, free site consultations, and solar panel discounts through November, has set an ambitious goal to inspire at least 200 property owners to sign up for solar —and each of those private solar installations will also benefit the community directly. For every 400 kW in signed private contracts through the program, the program’s solar vendor SolarFlair will donate a system of up to 5 kW for a public or community purpose. All are invited to the program kickoff at a Meet the Installer event on Tuesday, July 26 at 6-7:30 p.m., 167 Holland St. Additional events on topics such as solar basics, financing, and solar for multifamily homes will be announced.
Unique to the program is its neighbor-to-neighbor approach: trained resident volunteers and a designated volunteer Solar Coach are available essentially as mentors. They can, for example, walk anyone through the process, provide general loan program and tax incentive information, and share their own solar experiences. The campaign’s webpage and blog offers useful information, tips, and a link to websites where you can estimate the solar potential of your home and roughly calculate how much solar could save you on your energy bills at www.somervillema.gov/sustainaville/solarize.
Somerville is one of the most urban communities ever to participate in Solarize Mass, which makes the neighbor-to-neighbor approach especially helpful due to some of the unique challenges here such as multi-family houses with more than one owner. Winter Hill resident Mary Mangan, the program’s volunteer Solar Coach, went through that process and is ready to share helpful tips.
"I'm excited to work with our eager volunteers to help our neighbors understand the benefits of solar power. As a co-owner of a two-family home with solar, I can also offer some insights about how that process went for us," said Mangan.
Also key to the program is the selection of a designated vendor, which allows the program to offer reduced cost installation through bulk purchasing. Through a competitive process, SolarFlair, based in Ashland, MA, was selected. They were also the selected installer for the communities of Arlington, Hopkinton, Mendon, Brookline, Carlisle-Chelmsford, Newton, and Quincy.
"We're excited to be the selected installer for Solarize Somerville, and look forward to speaking with any home or business owners that are interested in reducing their electric bills while also making a great investment," said Matt Arner, the owner and President of SolarFlair.
Quick facts:
Solar systems can be purchased outright (with a payback of about 4-5 years). The Mass Solar Loan program offers rates of 3.25% or less.
Or, for no money down owners can choose a power purchase agreement (PPA), where the system is owned and maintained by a third party, and residents buy back the electricity at a discounted price.
More on-site renewable energy is critical to reducing carbon emissions. It also saves money for residents.
Tax incentives for solar installations include:
Federal Tax Credit: A 30 percent federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) is available for qualified residential and commercial projects
Massachusetts Personal Income Tax Credit: The lesser of 15% of the total cost of the solar electric system or $1,000, for qualified clean energy projects
Five-year Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS): Business owners can depreciate solar electric systems over a five-year schedule
For more information or to sign up for a free site consultation:
Visit the Solarize Somerville webpage at www.somervillema.gov/sustainaville/solarize for
Helpful information and FAQs
To contact a volunteer or Solar Coach Mary Mangan to discuss solar options and incentives
To set up an appointment for a free site consultation directly with SolarFlair
To find out about events
To volunteer for Solarize Somerville
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Where is the best yogurt on the planet made? Somerville, of course!
Join the Somerville Yogurt Making Cooperative and get a weekly quart of the most thick, creamy, rich and tart yogurt in the world. 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.
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Cambridge Residents: Free Home Thermal Images
Have you ever wanted to learn where your home is leaking heat by having an energy auditor come to your home with a thermal camera? With that info you then know where to fix your home so it's more comfortable and less expensive to heat. However, at $200 or so, the cost of such a thermal scan is a big chunk of change.
HEET Cambridge has now partnered with Sagewell, Inc. to offer Cambridge residents free thermal scans.
Sagewell collects the thermal images by driving through Cambridge in a hybrid vehicle equipped with thermal cameras. They will scan every building in Cambridge (as long as it's not blocked by trees or buildings or on a private way). Building owners can view thermal images of their property and an analysis online. The information is password protected so that only the building owner can see the results.
Homeowners, condo-owners and landlords can access the thermal images and an accompanying analysis free of charge. Commercial building owners and owners of more than one building will be able to view their images and analysis for a small fee.
The scans will be analyzed in the order they are requested.
Go to Sagewell.com. Type in your address at the bottom where it says "Find your home or building" and press return. Then click on "Here" to request the report.
That's it. When the scans are done in a few weeks, your building will be one of the first to be analyzed. The accompanying report will help you understand why your living room has always been cold and what to do about it.
With knowledge, comes power (or in this case saved power and money, not to mention comfort).
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Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents
Solar map of Cambridge, MA
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Hey Cambridge residents!
Did you know the City of Cambridge is trying to win the $5 million Georgetown University Energy Prize? It was created to develop a cleaner and more efficient energy future. Energy efficiency and conservation are the best ways to save energy and minimize environmental impact. In that effort, Cambridge is hoping all residents will get a no-cost energy assessment in order to make their homes more efficient and comfortable. Let us know you're interested here: http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/sign-up-for-an-assessment
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
Again, let us know you're interested here: http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/sign-up-for-an-assessment and someone will be in contact with you shortly to give you personally tailored contact information on how you can get your no-cost home energy assessment. Renters are also eligible!
Any action to save energy in the home will help Cambridge win this competition while protecting the environment. For additional ideas on how to save energy, please see the Cambridge Energy Alliance website at http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/resources/interactivehome
Please share with your Cambridge friends and family and ask them to get a free energy assessment!
Want to be more involved? Become a neighborhood Block Captain! Block Captains help their community members sign up for and complete no-cost home energy assessments through the MassSave program. Our team will give you the tools and guidance needed to recruit neighbors to get an assessment and improve the efficiency of their homes. Participation is welcome at whatever level you are able to commit to.
If you are interested in becoming a Block Captain, please fill out the form at http://tinyurl.com/blockcaptainsurvey and someone from the Cambridge Energy Alliance will be in contact with you shortly. If you know someone who might be interested, please let them know about this opportunity!
Questions? Contact jnahigian@cambridgema.gov
Cambridge Energy Alliance
@cambenergy
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Sunny Cambridge has just launched! Sunny Cambridge is the city-wide initiative that makes it easy for all types of residents to get solar power for their homes. Cambridge has lined up local solar installers through the EnergySage Solar Marketplace, which helps you request, receive, and compare solar quotes 100% online with support available every step of the way.
The City of Cambridge is working on many levels to reduce energy use and GHG emissions to make the city more sustainable. As a semifinalist in the nationwide competition for the $5 million Georgetown University Energy Prize, Cambridge Energy Alliance is encouraging residents to take actions to save energy, save money, and protect the environment. Get involved by signing up for a no-cost home energy assessment at the Cambridge Energy Alliance home page (www.cambridgeenergyalliance.org/winit)
and going solar at http://www.sunnycambridge.org
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Cambridge Coalition Solar Access Campaign is part of the DOE SunShot Solar in Your Community Challenge with a goal of 40 new solar electric systems installed in Cambridge, with a focus on serving low-to-moderate income communities.
Coalition partners include Green Cambridge, which works to create a more sustainable city and to protect the environment for the health and safety of all, Resonant Energy, a community-based solar developer, Solstice, helping every single household in America go solar, and Sunwealth, a solar investment firm.
More information at http://www.resonant.energy/sap-overview/
hat tip Cambridge Civic Journal
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Resource
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"Greening Our Grid" Report Released April 24, 2017
MAPC is excited to announce the release of “Greening Our Grid,” a fact sheet and a case study detailing MAPC’s strategy to use municipal aggregation to help build new renewable energy in New England.
“Greening Our Grid” highlights MAPC's work with the City of Melrose as a case study for MAPC's innovative green municipal aggregation strategy. Melrose recently completed its first year of implementation. The city’s results demonstrate that economic and environmental goals can be met simultaneously, and provide a compelling example for others to follow.
The case study and fact sheet further describe the renewable energy strategy overall, why it can have a real impact on our electricity grid, and MAPC’s program to help other municipalities follow Melrose's lead. Arlington, Brookline, Gloucester, Hamilton, Millis, Somerville, Sudbury, and Winchester are poised to roll out their green aggregations within the year.
MAPC believes that municipal aggregation offers an opportunity for communities to leverage the collective buying power of their residents and businesses to transform our electric grid to cleaner sources of energy, while also providing cost savings and price stability for electricity. The fact sheet and case study will be useful tools for cities and towns that are exploring green municipal aggregation, as well as for those that already have active aggregation programs.
Check out “Greening Our Grid” today at http://www.mapc.org/greening-our-grid, and contact Patrick Roche, MAPC Clean Energy Coordinator, at proche@mapc.org for more information about MAPC's program.
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Cambridge Climate Change Game
Extending our work on face-to-face games, the MIT Science Impact Collaborative has developed a digital game on the health impacts of climate change that you can play alone on your computer or on your mobile phone. The game should take about 10-20 minutes. We would appreciate it if you could play the game at your convenience.
Play the game at http://www.doublecoconut.com/climate/
Any and all feedback on the game should be directed to Ella Kim at ella@mit.edu.
Thank you for your time and consideration!
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Sustainable Business Network Local Green Guide
SBN is excited to announce the soft launch of its new Local Green Guide, Massachusetts' premier Green Business Directory!
To view the directory please visit: http://www.localgreenguide.org
To find out how how your business can be listed on the website or for sponsorship opportunities please contact Adritha at adritha@sbnboston.org
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Boston Food System
"The Boston Food System [listserv] provides a forum to post announcements of events, employment opportunities, internships, programs, lectures, and other activities as well as related articles or other publications of a non-commercial nature covering the area's food system - food, nutrition, farming, education, etc. - that take place or focus on or around Greater Boston (broadly delineated)."
The Boston area is one of the most active nationwide in terms of food system activities - projects, services, and events connected to food, farming, nutrition - and often connected to education, public health, environment, arts, social services and other arenas. Hundreds of organizations and enterprises cover our area, but what is going on week-to-week is not always well publicized.
Hence, the new Boston Food System listserv, as the place to let everyone know about these activities. Specifically:
Use of the BFS list will begin soon, once we get a decent base of subscribers. Clarification of what is appropriate to announce and other posting guidelines will be provided as well.
It's easy to subscribe right now at https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/bfs
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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!
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Boston Maker Spaces - 41 (up from 27 in 2016) and counting: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zGHnt9r2pQx8.kfw9evrHsKjA&hl=en
Solidarity Network Economy: https://ussolidarityeconomy.wordpress.com
Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston: http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/
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Links to events at over 50 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/
Harvard Events: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/harvard-events/events-calendar/
Harvard Environment: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
Sustainability at Harvard: http://green.harvard.edu/events
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
Take Action MA: http://takeactionma.com
If you have an event you would like to see here, the submission deadline is 12 PM on Sundays, as Energy (and Other) Events is sent out Sunday afternoons.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) EventsGeo
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Details of these events are available when you scroll past the index
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Index
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Monday, May 8
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4pm Understanding and Improving Crop Responses to Global Atmospheric Change
5:30pm Harvard Institute for Applied Computational Science Project Showcase
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Tuesday May 9
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2pm IDC Design Conversation with Tata Motors
3pm Ory Zik: Why You Don’t Know Your Carbon Footprint
6pm authors@mit - Steven Sloman with Drazen Prelec -The Knowledge Illusion
6pm How Academic Institutions Play a Role in Boston's Future
7pm Harvard Coop Author Series- Nathaniel Philbrick
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
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Monday, May 8
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Understanding and Improving Crop Responses to Global Atmospheric Change
Monday, May 8
4:00 pm
Harvard, Biological Labs Lecture Hall, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Lisa Ainsworth, Associate Professor of Plant Biology, Adjunct Professor of Crop Sciences, USDA ARS Photosynthesis Reseach Unit, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
More information at http://environment.harvard.edu/future-food
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Harvard Institute for Applied Computational Science Project Showcase
Monday, May 8
5:30 - 7:00 PM
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin, Ground Floor Lobby, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Come mingle with faculty and friends of the IACS while you learn about the cutting edge work of our master's and secondary field students!
Light refreshments will be served.
Please RSVP here.
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Tuesday May 9
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IDC Design Conversation with Tata Motors
Tuesday, May 9
2:00p–3:00p
MIT, Building N52-399, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Pratap Bose
Join us for a design conversation with Pratap Bose, head of design for Tata Motors.
Design Conversation
The IDC hosts prominent figures from industry to offer thoughts on interdisciplinary design themes. These talks foster an ongoing and Institute-wide discourse on the evolving nature of the processes, tools and outcomes of design.
Web site: http://idc.mit.edu/events/
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
Tickets: n/a
Sponsor(s): MIT-SUTD International Design Centre
For more information, contact: Deb Payson
617-324-8125
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Ory Zik: Why You Don’t Know Your Carbon Footprint
Tuesday, May 9
3:00PM TO 4:00PM
MIT, Building 4-231, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
16 of the last 17 years were the hottest on record. It is likely Ory Zik's 2018 presentation will start with "17 of the last 18 years were the hottest on record". The world is in the midst of a climate crisis. At the same time, essential policies (cap and trade, carbon tax, clean power plan, CAFE regulations) are either dead or dying. The market must step-in and act. Consumers and investors must hold companies and policymakers accountable. The oxygen of markets is metrics and the climate metric is carbon footprint. So why is it that we are so ‘carbon illiterate’? Why is it that nearly no-one knows the carbon footprint of anything? and what can we do to fix this situation?
A necessary condition is quantitative thinking -- not adjectives and anecdotes like ‘renewable’ and ‘sustainable’ -- but metrics rooted in data and science.
Greenometry is a new social enterprise whose mission is to readily communicate the carbon footprint of everything. Consistent, accurate, and simple metrics are a necessary condition for behavior change. Greenometry's approach combines behavioral aspects, data, and simple physics. Carbon footprinting should be geospatially tuned and harmonize water and land into a simple unifying metric.
Zik's talk will present the foundations of his thinking, the overall platform that will enable ubiquitous carbon footprinting, and specific results on scope 2 emissions, the inclusion of water, and the carbon footprint of solar energy.
Biography
Award-winning physicist, entrepreneur, and environmentalist, Ory Zik founded Greenometry, a non-profit dedicated to quantifying the climate crisis with ‘numbers not adjectives’. Formerly founder/CEO of Heliofocus and CEO of Energy Points, Zik is the founder of Greenpeace Israel and was the curator of Israel’s national Science Museum.
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authors@mit - Steven Sloman with Drazen Prelec -The Knowledge Illusion
Tuesday, May 9
6:00p–7:00p
MIT, Building N50, The MIT Press Bookstore, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Steven Sloman with Drazen Prelec
The MIT Press Bookstore presents Steven Sloman, Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences at Brown University, in conversation with Drazen Prelec, Professor of Management Science and Economics at MIT's Sloan School of Management, discussing Steven Sloman's new book, "The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone," at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, May 9, at the Bookstore.
The human mind is both brilliant and pathetic. We have mastered fire, created democratic institutions, stood on the moon, and sequenced our genome. And yet each of us is error prone, sometimes irrational, and often ignorant. In "The Knowledge Illusion," cognitive scientists Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach argue that we survive and thrive despite our mental shortcomings because we live in a rich community of knowledge. The key to our intelligence lies in the people and things around us.
This event includes a book signing. Books will be on sale at the event for 20% off, or you can purchase an event ticket that includes a discounted book.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): The MIT Press Bookstore
For more information, contact: The MIT Press Bookstore
253-5249
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CX in the Age of Innovation: The Convergence of Digital & Physical
Tuesday, May 9
6:00pm
Microsoft NERD Center, 1 Memorial Drive Floor 1, Cambridge
Customer experience (CX) is a top priority for businesses worldwide and more critical than ever. More than 50 percent of organizations will redirect their investments to CX innovations by 2018, according to Gartner. Considering that an estimated $1.6 trillion is lost as a result of poor service, no company is exempt from offering an exceptional customer journey.
While digital customer engagement is part of the new world order, physical engagement - old-school face-to-face interactions - remain highly relevant as well. Even in this tech-centric age, Accenture research finds that human interaction remains a vital component of customer satisfaction. However, it can be argued that innovations like live video chat, facilitating a real-time connection between a brand and a customer, represent physical engagement - and this is where the lines blur. Is the convergence of the physical and digital worlds the endgame in innovative engagement and CX?
Join us as we explore today's changing CX landscape - a world where excellent customer experience is driven by a company’s ability to engage with its customers, both online and off, to create an emotional connection between the customer and brand. How are forward-thinking businesses leveraging innovation to drive CX? Is direct physical interaction a thing of the past or do consumers prefer dealing with human beings? What challenges are presented as a result of the new world order? We will dive into these questions and more at our next B2B IT Forum on May 9, 2017, at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center in Cambridge, MA. Complimentary hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be served
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How Academic Institutions Play a Role in Boston's Future
Tuesday May 9
6-8pm
Boston Public Library, Copley Square in Rabb Hall, 700 Boylston Street, Boston
Alex Krieger, Moderator, Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design
Dr. Robert A. Brown, Boston University
Dr. Pam Y. Eddinger, Bunker Hill Community College
Dr. Zorica Pantić, Wentworth Institute of Technology
Dr. Lee Pelton, Emerson College
Dr. Valerie Roberson, Roxbury Community College
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Harvard Coop Author Series- Nathaniel Philbrick
Tuesday, May 9
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Harvard Coop,1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
Valiant Ambition
A surprising account of the middle years of the American Revolution, and the tragic relationship between George Washington and Benedict Arnold. In September 1776, the vulnerable Continental Army under an unsure George Washington (who had never commanded a large force in battle) evacuates New York after a devastating defeat by the British Army. Three weeks later, near the Canadian border, one of his favorite generals, Benedict Arnold, miraculously succeeds in postponing the British naval advance down Lake Champlain that might have ended the war. Four years later, as the book ends, Washington has vanquished his demons and Arnold has fled to the enemy after a foiled attempt to surrender the American fortress at West Point to the British. After four years of war, America is forced to realize that the real threat to its liberties might not come from without but from within.
About the Author
Nathaniel Philbrick is an American author and a member of the Philbrick literary family. He won the year 2000 National Book Award for his maritime history, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship.
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Wednesday, May 10
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Get Smaaht: Grid Modernization in Mass
Wed, May 10, 2017
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM EDT
50 Milk Street, 16th Floor, "Edison Room,” Boston
Cost: $45 – $65
Join us for a trip into the future. Learn about the electric grid that we see today and opportunities for investment on both the wires’ side and buildings’ side. Where is development is needed, planned, and in process? How do grid modernization technologies stack up against each other? How do smart buildings (green buildings) fit into the grid of the future and what opportunities might there be with time of use metering, energy storage financing, and data management?
Let's talk about electric vehicles and the demand / support that they can provide with a smart grid. How is this energy industry transforming? Is analytics as a service going to be a communication with office managers and facility staff or will a cloud-based service possibly control our building? Will batteries be used to level loads on stressed electricity feeders?
How does what we do in Massachusetts compare to progress in other states? California, Texas and Illinois have the lead but what might happen in MA to make our grid the pacesetter?
This is part of our Market Leadership Series where we encourage the professional in the room to drive the conversation and share their questions and perspective for a robust session.
Advisement: This conversation will be led by Chapter member Ben Pignatelli from the Department of Public Utilities (DPU). Ben's presentation will not reflect the views of the DPU nor will he be able to speak on behalf of the Department. His presentation will outline publically available information and the science supporting it.
About the Speaker - Ben Pignatelli:
As a technical staff member in the Electric Power Division at the DPU Ben works on regulatory and market issues associated with energy efficiency, grid modernization, and competitive electricity supply. He has evaluated the MassSave program, is reviewing public utility grid modernization plans, and reviews municipal electricity aggregation plans. Ben also manages regulatory relations with electricity supply companies through investigations, licensing, and market animation initiatives. He has held previous roles with the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) and the City of Boston. Ben is a Certified Measurement and Verification Professional (CMVP) and holds an MBA from Boston University and a B.A. from the University of New Hampshire in Political Science.
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A Path toZero? The Role of Net Zero Energy Buildings in Boston
Wednesday, May 10
8:30am - 11:30pm
Boston Medical Center, 670 Albany Street, Albany Auditorium, Boston
RSVP to discussion at http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07ee1ovzdz683bbbd2&llr=i7ljcybab
RSVP to building tour http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07ee1p243wd1e51dac&llr=i7ljcybab
Please join A Better City on Wednesday, May 10 at Boston Medical Center for a panel discussion and building tour focused on achieving net zero energy in Boston's commercial real estate buildings!
The first part of this event (8:30-10:45) will consist of a panel discussion about the viability of and pathway towards NZE buildings. Speakers will include experts with first-hand experience in getting to net zero:
John Dalzell (moderator), Senior Architect for Sustainable Development at the Boston Planning & Development Authority
Jill Kaehler, Project Leader & Lead Designer at Behnisch Architekten
Seth Federspiel, Net Zero Energy Planner for the City of Cambridge
Jacob Knowles, Director of Sustainable Design at BR+A Consulting Engineers
Bob Biggio, Senior Vice President of Facilities & Support Services at Boston Medical Center
Afterwards (10:45-11:30), a small group will have the opportunity to tour Boston Medical Center. In 2018, BMC expects to be carbon neutral through a combination of: a newly unveiled co-generation plant; a campus redesign that shrunk the campus' footprint by 400,000 sq ft, saving the campus an estimated $25 million annually on energy and operating costs; a series of HVAC upgrades that reduced emissions 20%; a three-year Memorandum of Understanding with Eversource Energy to maximize and partner on energy efficiency upgrades in 2015; and signing on to the A Better City-facilitated collaborative renewable power procurement in 2016 to cover 100% of its electricity usage.
Please note that as spaces are limited for the building tour, separate registration is required for each portion of the event.
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Using Data to Feed Short- and Long-Term Policy Dialogues on Air Quality in India.
Wednesday, May 10
3:30PM TO 4:45PM
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Sarath Guttikinda, Affiliate Associate Research Professor, Desert Research Institute; Founder/Director of UrbanEmissions.Info
Seminar Abstract: Traditionally, air quality management is based on a “top-down approach” with data coming from a wide network of reliable, representative, and continuous monitoring stations. In India, continuous monitoring capabilities and information dissemination platforms are limited and under-developed; they require a complete overhaul, in order to reach the level of transparency and accuracy required for implementing an air quality and health alert system. As we are waiting for the top-down capacity to continue to develop, the trends of the data collected present a deteriorating picture of air quality and public health. For example, recent comparative studies have highlighted Delhi as the city with the worst air quality in the world, with the number of districts not complying with the national annual ambient standard for PM2.5 increasing from 40% to 60% between 1998 and 2014. The comparisons, however, are not justified because there is a lack of reliable (and sufficient) monitoring data from cities other than Delhi –there could be cities in India whose situation is as bad as Delhi’s that we do not know of yet. We urgently need to disseminate air quality information in some form now, so as to check the pollution loads in regions with limited to no monitoring.
We built two public portals, http://www.indiaairquality.info and http://www.delhiairquality.info, to support air quality information collation and dissemination in India and Delhi, using a “bottom-up” approach with forward linkages to data coming from the monitoring stations to validate, calibrate, and authenticate, as much as possible. The modeling concept is not new in this field. Similar systems are in place in the U.S., E.U., and some Asian cities. The program utilizes state-of-the art meteorology and dispersion modeling platforms, with improved and dynamic emission feeds (estimated based on local surveys, measurements, and satellite feeds, as and when the data is available), and disseminates air quality forecasts for the next 3 days, at the district level in India and at 1-km resolution for Delhi, including hour-by-hour and day-by-day assessment of likely source contributions.
This presentation will focus on delivering an overview of these public portals, data feeds, and policy linkages for short- and long-term air quality management planning for Indian cities.
Speaker Bio: http://www.dri.edu/directory/4902-sarath-guttikunda
China Project Seminar
Contact Name: Tiffany Chan
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“Oh My Heaven”: How Does Chinese Art Domesticate the Above?
WHEN Wednesday, May 10, 2017, 4 – 5:15 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe, Sheerr Room, Fay House, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Eugene Y. Wang, 2016–2017 Shutzer Fellow, Radcliffe Institute; the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art, Harvard University
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS In this talk, Wang will uncover how heaven is differently imagined in traditional Chinese art by asking why heaven often appears in unexpected places such as tombs and caves and why going up often involves going down. Wang seeks to answer questions related to the Chinese primacy of temporality. Is heaven more of a spatial concept or temporal one in Chinese artistic imagination? Can we imagine heaven, as the traditional Chinese did, as a rotating wheel rather than stable region? What is the cognitive mechanism of heaven sightings in earthly omens? Why is the notion of heaven as the apocalyptic vision relatively alien to the Chinese habit of thought?
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Thursday, May 11
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LIDS Smart Urban Infrastructures Workshop
Thursday, May 11
8:00a–5:30p
MIT, Building E14-648, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
The LIDS Smart Urban Infrastructures Workshop is a two-day event (May 11-12, 2017) showcasing current work and emerging research opportunities at the intersection of smart services and urban infrastructure systems. It will feature top researchers from academia, industry, and government in a series of keynote talks and panel discussions.
Web site: https://lidssmart2017.mit.edu/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
For more information, contact: Jennifer Donovan
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Metals & Minerals for the Environment Symposium
Thursday, May 11
9:00a–12:00p
MIT, Building W-1, 305 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
The Metals & Minerals for the Environment Symposium will showcase the ongoing MIT research aimed at creating solutions to the social and environmental challenges most relevant to metals and minerals.
Web site: metalsandminerals.mit.edu/symposium
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
This event occurs daily through May 12, 2017.
Sponsor(s): Environmental Solutions Initiative
For more information, contact: Suzanne Greene
6177155473
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Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Restorative Justice 2017 Workshops
Thursday, May 11
9:00 AM – 1:30 PM EDT
BU, 745 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
$0 – $25
"Putting in Place the Skills of Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Restorative Justice"
Keynote Speaker: Fr. Leonel Narváez
Fr. Leonel Narváez Gomez worked for 10 years in East Africa and 10 years in Caguan and Putumayo, where he participated in the negotiations with the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). He has received many honors and is founder-president of the Foundation for Reconciliation, an institution that has been recognized with peace prizes as UNESCO Education for Peace Award 2006 and the Order of Democracy 2007 granted by the Congress of the Republic of Colombia.
Tickets
$25 General Public
$10 Students/Low Income
Free with BU-ID
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New England Machine Learning Hackathon: Hacking Bias in ML
Thursday, May 11
9:30 AM – 7:00 PM EDT
Microsoft New England R&D, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Join us for hacking the biases, discrimination, and fairness in machine learning, algorithms, big data analytics! Our goal is to have each team develop websites to address these issues.
Prizes will be awarded at the end of the day. The winning team will receive a Surface Pro 4 for the team leader and Xbox One S FIFA '17 bundle for each team member.
Topics are being collected to form teams. Please register and note if you are interested in leading a team. Our teams currently include:
Word Biases, Max Leiserson, Microsoft Research
When you envision a nurse, a woman most likely pops into your mind. If you imagine an accomplished executive, on the other hand, it's quite likely you're thinking about a man. It's not just you, though. The machine learning algorithms that target ads at us, prune our search results, or sort resumes for recruiters are all plagued by gendered stereotypes.https://papers.nips.cc/paper/6228-man-is-to-computer-programmer-as-woman-is-to-homemaker-debiasing-word-embeddings,
Pre-Trial Fairness, Sam Corbett-Davies, Stanford,
Courts around the country use machine learned risk scores to guide them in deciding whether defendants should be detained before their trial. There is concern that these scores could be unfair to certain groups, but recent research has shown that different concepts of fairness are mutually exclusive, so policy makers must make trade offs. In this project we'll develop an interactive webpage toexplore the fairness tradeoffs inherent in risk assessments, similar to this work from Google studying fictitious loans. https://5harad.com/papers/fairness.pdf
Political influence: Who has Political Power and How Do You Measure It?, Weiwei Pan, Harvard Institute of Applied Computational Science
The unequal distribution of power among the members of a political system is one of the most pervasive facts of political life." - S. J. Brams (Measuring the Concentration of Power in Political Systems, 1968).
Racial Discrimination in Facial Recognition, Genevieve Patterson, Microsoft Research
Government agencies are rapidly adopting automatic face recognition and matching in law enforcement practices. Unfortunately, commonly used data-driven training algorithms are only as good as the data you feed them. We will explore the discriminatory effects of training deep nets on racially unbalanced collections of face images and how such training data bias can be identified and corrected.
Other topics to be added ...
AGENDA
9:30am: Doors Open, Check-In, Coffee
10am: Kick-Off & Team Orientations/Hacking
4:30pm: -7pm: Team Presentations, Dinner, Prizes and Awards
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The spatial structure of biodiversity: theory, experiments, and synthesis
Thursday, May 11
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 48-316, 15 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Luis J. Gilarranz, Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies University of Zurich
Ecosystems worldwide are experiencing an unprecedented rate of degradation. This has tremendous consequences for wildlife and for the lives and the economies of all of us. After decades of research we wonder whether we have a good enough understanding of ecological systems to revert the situation. Such understanding should come from a dialogue between theoretical advances and experiments and synthesis that may support or debunk such theories.
In this talk I’m going to contrast theory against data to show that species interactions, perturbations, and dispersal routs play a big role in determining the health of an ecosystem in a certain location. Moreover, the fact that certain places seem healthier than others allows us to unveil previously undocumented effects of
anthropogenic activities. Even when ecological communities may seem healthy in terms of the presence and abundance of their constituent species, they may be losing the capacity to withstand further environmental degradation.
Environmental Sciences Seminar Series
Hosted by: Otto Cordero (ottox@mit.edu) Serguei Saavedra (sersaa@mit.edu)
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0.00
Sponsor(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering
For more information, contact: Denise Stewart
6172588685
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From Taft to Trump: How Conservative Media Activists Won -- and Lost -- the GOP
Thursday, May 11
5:00p–6:30p
MIT, Building 56-114, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
As Donald Trump built his lead in the Republican primaries, the editors of National Review came out with an entire "Against Trump" issue, a full-throated -- and ultimately ineffective -- denunciation of the GOP nominee. Soon conservative media personalities were taking sides, culminating in the hiring of Breitbart's Steve Bannon to run the Trump campaign.
But the centrality of conservative media to presidential politics is not a new development. As early as the 1950s, conservative media activists were organizing third-party tickets, promoting presidential candidates, and encouraging their audiences to cast votes based on ideology rather than party. In this talk, Nicole Hemmer will explain how conservative media activists won the GOP for the right ??? and how in the era of Trump, they lost it.
Nicole Hemmer is an assistant professor at the University of Virginia's Miller Center and a research associate at the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. Her book, Messengers of the Right, a history of conservative media in the United States, was published in Penn Press in September 2016.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing
For more information, contact: Andrew Whitacre
617-324-0490
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Green Buildings Locally and Statewide
Thursday, May 11
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm Repeats
50 Milk Street 18th Floor, "Hemingway” Room, Boston
Legislation and policy drives our industry, but who drives changes in legislation and law? Join our Advocacy committee as they interpret, suggest updates to, and advocate for advances in laws and policy related to green buildings. All are welcome to join in this high level discussion. General Questions: How can this committee reach out and build value for practitioners and the larger community? How can we accommodate both detailed issue-based discussions as well as more inviting, general discussions for new members? Make a Plan to Brainstorm, Prioritize and Select 3 Priorities for 2017 (6-6:20) Connecting our priorities to other national / local legislative agendas (USGBC, ILFI) Roles on Committee, General Communication, Decision Making Upcoming Events / 2017 Calendar Overview (6:40-7) o Confirm upcoming meetings and activities o Advocacy Roundtable with BSA: 12/8, 8:30AM o Co-Signing Fair – January. How do we want to participate? o Map out 2017 Activities and Cadence of Internal Meetings and Externally focused events We look forward to seeing you there! Here is some background on what the Chapter has been working on recently: We are still tracking our current priorites:: PACE Clean Energy Financing – we were victorious in attaining PACE for Massachusetts in 2016! Now: how can we bring this new tool to bear on green building projects throughout the Commonwealth? Net Zero Energy building code – how can we shift the conversation on codes? How can we support municipalities who are leading – like Cambridge with their Net Zero Action Plan? Net Metering Improvements – we were able to engineer reform of net metering in 2016, but we know it was a temporary fix. How do we position our advocacy efforts to ensure we see progress in early 2017? Also, we are tracking other initiatives including: Building Energy Benchmarking (BERDO & BEUDO) The MA “Stretch Code” for energy efficiency The greening of the MLS and the residential market transformation Energy efficiency education
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The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Natural World—and Us
Geological Lecture Hall (100), 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
Thursday, May 11
6:00PM
Harvard, Geological Lecture Hall (100), 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Richard O. Prum, William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology and Head Curator of Vertebrate Zoology, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University.
Can adaptation by natural selection truly account for everything we see in nature? How do animal mating displays and mate choice drive evolutionary change? What insights can they offer about the evolution of human sexuality? Drawing from his new book, The Evolution of Beauty, Richard Prum will consider Charles Darwin’s long-neglected theory of sexual selection, in which the act of choosing a mate for purely aesthetic reasons is an independent engine of evolutionary change. In a reimagining of how evolutionary forces work, Prum will reveal how mating preferences—what Darwin termed "the taste for the beautiful"—create the extraordinary range of ornament in the natural world.
Contact: hmnh@hmsc.harvard.edu
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Amazing Aquatic Athletes in the Anthropocene
Thursday, May 11
7pm
NE Aquarium, Simons IMAX Theatre, One Aquarium Wharf, Boston
Jodie Rummer, Ph.D, Associate Professor, Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University
Globally, coral reefs are at risk from human-induced stressors – such as ocean warming, acidification, and hypoxia – now more than at any time in recorded history. Dramatic effects on fish performance, distribution, and overall ecosystem health are predicted. While the evolutionary success of fish is credited to their adaptations to challenging environmental conditions, whether they can keep pace with the large-scale, rapid changes plaguing their habitats today is not known. Coral reef fishes may be at greater risk as they diversified during a time of relative stable environmental conditions, and today’s rapidly changing conditions may heighten their vulnerability.
Through her research, Dr. Jodie Rummer is tracking metabolic and swimming performance of fishes under climate-change relevant conditions, across development and species, and over multiple generations. This information is crucial for making predictions as to which species and/or populations may be most at risk from climate change and whether the fishes’ long evolutionary history will be enough to protect them from future changes in their habitat.
More information at http://www.neaq.org/learn/lectures/upcoming-lectures/
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Friday, May 12
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Bangladesh Sustainable Development Conference 2017 at Harvard University
WHEN Friday, May 12, 2017
WHERE Harvard University, WCC 2036 Milstein East C, Wasserstein Hall, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Classes/Workshops, Conferences, Environmental Sciences, Information Technology, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR International Sustainable Development Institute (ISDI), SHINE Initiative (Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise) of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program
SPEAKER(S) Dr. Chantal Line Carpentier, New York Office Chief for the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Dr. Ruth Goodwin-Groen, Managing Director, Better Than Cash Alliance, United Nations Capital Development Fund.
DIRECTED BY Mohammed Yousuf
COST Free and open to public
TICKET WEB LINK http://www.isdiworld.com
CONTACT INFO mohammed_yousuf@dfci.harvard.edu
DETAILS Bangladesh SDG Conference on May 12, 2017
Achieving SDG - Sustainable Development Goals through Entrepreneurship, Commerce and Investment
The organizing committee of the annual Harvard University Conference on Bangladesh invites academics, policymakers, practitioners, and experts to participate in the seminar on ‘Achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through Entrepreneurship, Commerce and Investment’ that will convene on Friday, May 12, 2017 at Harvard University. The day-long seminar will be organized by the International Sustainable Development Institute (ISDI) in cooperation with the SHINE Initiative (Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise) of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program.
The objective of this year’s conference is to bring together entrepreneurs, policymakers, and philanthropists who seek to accelerate the growth of Bangladesh through entrepreneurship, investment, and commerce. These can be powerful mechanisms for alleviating poverty and generating prosperity, which are important preconditions for achieving the SDGs. Moreover, they provide paths for empowering women, upgrading workforces, and transforming the rural economy. In this conference, we will explore the steps required to encourage these three vital facets of the development goals.
Our keynote speakers among others are Dr. Chantal Line Carpentier, New York Office Chief for the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Dr. Ruth Goodwin-Groen, Managing Director, Better Than Cash Alliance, United Nations Capital Development Fund.
The time is: Friday, May 12, 2017; 8:30am to 5:30pm;
The venue: Harvard Law School, WCC 2036 Milstein East C, Wasserstein Hall, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
The deliberations will explore key topics including: 1) SDGs and Social Protection and Labor Standards; 2) Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in the Context of the Sustainable Development Goals; 3) SDGs: Major Challenges and Opportunities for Bangladesh; 4) Inclusive Finance and Investment for SDGs; 5) Affordable and Clean Energy: Prospect, Achievements and Challenges; 6) Infrastructure Development for Commerce and Industries and 7) Information and Communications Technologies: Accelerated Journey towards Middle Income Status.
Contact information: Mohammed Iqbal Yousuf, mohammed_yousuf@dfci.harvard.edu
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NE Machine Learning Day 2017
Friday, May 12
9:30am - 5pm
Microsoft New England Research Center, Horace Mann Conference Room, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge
About
The sixth annual New England Machine Learning Day will be Friday, May 12, 2017, at Microsoft Research New England, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02142. The event will bring together local academics and researchers in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and their applications. There will be a lively poster session during lunch. Submit posters at https://aka.ms/nemlposter by April 24.
Interested in helping improve fairness and reduce bias/discrimination in ML? Attend New England Machine Learning Hackathon: Hacking Bias in ML, the day before, Thursday May 11, at the same location.
Schedule
9:55–10:00 Opening remarks
10:00–10:30 Leslie Pack Kaelbling, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Intelligent robots redux
10:35–11:05 Alexander Rush, Harvard University
Structured attention networks
11:10–11:40 Lester Mackey, Microsoft Research
Measuring sample quality with Stein’s method
11:40–1:45 Lunch and posters
1:45–2:15 Thomas Serre, Brown University
What are the visual features underlying human versus machine vision?
2:20–2:50 David Sontag, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Causal inference via deep learning
2:50–3:20 Coffee break
3:20–3:50 Roni Khardon, Tufts University
Effective variational inference in non-conjugate 2-level latent variable models
3:55–4:25 Tina Eliassi-Rad, Northeastern University
Learning, mining and graphs
4:30–5:00 Erik Learned-Miller, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Bootstrapping intelligence with motion estimation
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Starr Forum: US & Mexico in the Trump Era
Friday, May 12, 2017
12:00p–1:30p
MIT, Building E15-070, Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Why build fences when we can build bridges?
Speakers: Lourdes Melgar, CIS Wilhelm Fellow and Mexico's former deputy secretary of energy for hydrocarbons.
Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan, former Mexican Ambassador to the US (2007-2013). He is a Non Resident Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution and Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the USC Annenberg Public Diplomacy School.
Free & open to the public | Lunch served
Can't attend in person? Watch it on Facebook live or on-demand on YouTube.
For more information or accessibility accommodations please contact starrforum@mit.edu.
CIS Starr Forum
A public events series on pressing issues in international affairs, sponsored by the MIT Center for International Studies.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies, MIT-Mexico Program
For more information, contact:
617-253-8306
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PSFC Seminar: High temperature superconductors: advantages and key challenges in their deployment for high-field magnets and large scale applications
Friday, May 12
3:00p–4:00p
MIT, Building NW17-218, 175 Albany Street, Cambridge
Plasma Science and Fusion Center Seminar Series
Speaker: Luisa Chiesa
After 25 years of development, several high temperature superconductors (HTS) are becoming engineering materials commercially available in long-length wires. Those conductors can carry enormous electrical current in strong magnetic fields while meeting various other challenges. Such characteristics enable the construction of a broad spectrum of devices useful for basic science, medicine, and energy.
In this talk, the state-of-art manufacturing, properties and challenges of key HTS conductors will be discussed with particular focus on REBCO coated conductors. The electrical, magnetic, and mechanical properties and failure mechanisms important for constructing devices will be discussed and examples of large scale projects employing those materials will be given to illustrate the positive impact those new materials could have in future generation???s magnets.
Web site: Tufts University
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Plasma Science and Fusion Center
For more information, contact: Paul Riven berg
617-253-8101
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Entrepreneurship Speaker Series with Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Organic
Friday, May 12
4:30p–6:00p
MIT, Building E40-160, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Join us for a fireside chat with Gary Hirschberg, founder of Stonyfield Farms, and Donna Levin, EIR at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship!
Open to: the general public
Cost: free, register online
Sponsor(s): Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship
For more information, contact: Greg Wymer
617-253-8653
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Saturday, May 13
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Green/Rainbow Party 2017 State Convention
Saturday, May 13
First Unitarian Church, 90 Main Street, Worcester, MA
Please pre-register at http://www.green-rainbow.org
Walk-in registration - cash or check only
Registration fee includes vegan or vegetarian lunch, and is sliding scale.
Jacqui Patterson, Keynote speaker, is the Director of the NAACP
Environmental & Climate Justice Program
Presentation. She will address environmental injustice, including how the
proliferation of climate change has a disproportionate impact on com-
munities of color and low income communities in the U.S. and around
the world.
Patricia Montes, Executive Director of Centro Presente, will speak
about immigrant needs and how the Centro Presente organization pro-
motes self-determination and self-sufficiency of the Latin American
community state-wide.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
Workshops
Election related issues, including Rank Choice Voting, lead by Voters
Choice - MA
Activism related issues, including climate issues and immigration
Brian Cady
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Watch City Steampunk Festival
Saturday, May 13
10:00am to 5:00pm
Common, Waltham
Join dozens and dozens of exceptional craft vendors, dozens and dozens of talented performers of all kinds, delicious food and drink, and more for a day of steampunk revelry like no other!
The Watch City Steampunk Festival, centered on Waltham Common, is the largest outdoor steampunk festival in America, and it's FREE! Come immerse yourself for a day in the extraordinary, time-shifting, mind-expanding culture and aesthetic of neo-Victorian fashion crossed with retro-futuristic technology.
See you in Downtown Waltham on Saturday, May 13, 2017!
More information at https://www.watchcityfestival.com
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Sunday, May 14
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JFK: A Vision for America
Sunday, May 14
6:00 PM (Doors at 5:30)
First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Cost: $43.25 (online only, book included) - On Sale April 11, 2017 $5.00 - On Sale April 25, 2017
STEPHEN KENNEDY SMITH and DOUGLAS BRINKLEY in conversation with SAMANTHA POWER and RON SUSKIND moderated by FREDRIK LOGEVALL
Harvard Book Store and Mass Humanities welcome STEPHEN KENNEDY SMITH and DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, editors of JFK: A Vision for America, for a panel discussion on this new compendium of JFK’s most important speeches. The book's editors will be joined by contributors Ambassador SAMANTHA POWER and RON SUSKIND for a discussion moderated by historian FREDRIK LOGEVALL. The event will include a book signing with the editors.
About JFK: A Vision for America
Published in commemoration of the centennial of President John F. Kennedy’s birth, here is the definitive compendium of JFK’s most important and brilliant speeches, accompanied by commentary and reflections by leading American and international figures—including Senator Elizabeth Warren, David McCullough, Kofi Annan, and the Dalai Lama—and edited by JFK’s nephew Stephen Kennedy Smith and renowned historian Douglas Brinkley. Combined with over seven hundred documentary photos, it tells the story, in words and pictures, of JFK’s life and presidency, and depicts his compelling vision for America.
JFK brings together in one volume John F. Kennedy’s greatest speeches alongside essays by America’s top historians, analysis from leading political thinkers, and personal insights from preeminent writers and artists. Here is JFK at his best—thought-provoking, inspiring, eloquent, and wise—on a number of wide-ranging topics, including civil rights, the race to the moon, the environment, immigration, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and much more. JFK demonstrates the deep relevance of his words today and his lasting power and influence as an outstanding American leader and orator.
Elegantly designed and enriched by more than 500 photographs and facsimiles of Kennedy’s marginalia on drafts of speeches, his notes from important meetings, letters, and other fascinating documents, JFK is a major contribution to American history.
The august list of contributors includes Secretary John Kerry, Ambassador Samantha Power, Congressman John Lewis, Senator John McCain, Senator Elizabeth Warren, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Robert Redford, Conan O’Brien, Dave Eggers, Gloria Steinem, Don DeLillo, David McCullough, George Packer, Colum McCann, Michael Beschloss, Robert Dallek, David Kennedy, Ted Widmer, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Drew Faust, Tariq Ramadan, Pastor Rick Warren, Jonathan Alter, E. J. Dionne, Ron Suskind, Paul Krugman, Kofi Annan, Governor Jerry Brown, Paul Theroux, Jorge DomÃnguez, and many others.
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Gravity Hill Newsreels: 12 Short Observations About Occupy Wall Street
WHEN Sunday, May 14, 2017, 7 – 8:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Film Archive, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Film
OPEN TO Public and Harvard community
CATEGORY Film
LIBRARY LOCATION Harvard Film Archive
DETAILS As a natural outgrowth of his ongoing project filming life on the streets of New York and reflecting on the politics of such public spaces, Cohen started making frequent trips to the Occupy Wall Street home base in Zucotti Park in October and November of 2011. Some of the twelve short films he shot there include moments of daily life in the base camp, some document meetings and marches, and some capture police raids and the dismantling of the encampment.
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Monday, May 15
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OpenSec 2017
Monday, May 15
8:30 AM – 4:30 PM EDT
Hatch Fenway, Landmark Center, 401 Park Drive, Boston
Cost: $0 – $18.01
Come hear from Boston's open source security community in May! Whether you're a open-source contributor, marketer or person interested in the security space our single track conference will offer engaging panels, great networking and a keynote speaker to get you away from the office on monday!
Tentative Panels:
What is Open Source security?
Abstract: Open Source projects, however rough around the edges, often provide the backbone to many cyber solutions and products on the market. How are these companies working with the OS community and building on existing projects? How can team's best leverage these projects into their existing workflows?
Too many products, Too little time: How are companies evaluating new solutions?
Abstract: Everyday it seems the realm of Cybersecurity products continues to produce new players. From endpoint detection, threat hunting and security automation the list of potential solutions grows. How are companies evaluating new products that are shown to their teams and what bridges the gap from “That’s interesting” to “We need that” in the mind of decision makers.
Joining in: How you can get into Cyber
Abstract: Hear where the opportunities lie across the cybersecurity community and what needs companies are hoping more would learn. SOCs, security teams and startups are all feeling a talent crunch. Whether you’re a hardcore opensource contributor or a strong marketer, companies across Boston are eagerly looking for talent.
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Lisa Beal, RSMAS: U Miami
Monday, May 15
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT Building 54-923 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
Broadly, my research interests are in large scale ocean circulation and the role of the oceans in climate and climate change. In particular, the measurement of Western Boundary Currents, such as the Agulhas Current, in terms of their structure, transports, water masses, and mixing, and the estimation of basin-wide thermohaline fluxes in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. I use a variety of oceanographic instrumentation, including lowered and shipboard acoustic velocity profilers, and moored arrays of current meters and CTDs (Conductivity, Temperature, Depth). I study the role of the Agulhas system in the broader context of regional and global climate through analysis of ocean eddy-resolving coupled climate models. My service work revolves around increasing the diversity of our scientific community, including the retention of women in oceanography, and the advancement of capacity and resources to support a sustained measuring program of the Greater Agulhas System off South Africa.
About this Series
The PAOC Colloquium is a weekly interdisciplinary seminar series that brings together the whole PAOC community. Seminar topics include all research concerning the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmospheres, oceans and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars take place on Monday from 12-1pm in 54-923. Lunch is provided after the seminars to encourage students and post-docs to meet with the speaker. Besides the seminar and lunch, individual meetings with professors, post-docs, and students are arranged. 2016/2017 co-ordinators: Tom Beucler (tbeucler@mit.edu), Deepa Rao (drao@mit.edu), Madeleine Youngs (myoungs@mit.edu) and Catherine Wilka (cwilka@mit.edu)
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The Efficiency of Race-Neutral Alternatives to Race-Based Affirmative Action: Evidence from Chicago's Exam Schools - joint with IO
Monday, May 15
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Building E62-650, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Glenn Ellison and Parag Pathak (MIT)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Microeconomic Applications
For more information, contact:
economics calendar
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Access to Justice Through Technology
Monday, May 15
6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Social Law Library, 1 Pemberton Square, Boston
Hello Legal Hackers,
Thanks again to everyone who attended the Civic Engagement MeetUp last Thursday. As usual, we had great Q&A sessions and the venue had to kick us out!
Our next MeetUp will take place on May 15, 2017 from 6pm to 7 30pm. Location and panel at Social Law Library, 1 Pemberton Square, Boston, MA. Please save the date and RSVP!
Our topic: Access to Justice through technology. It seems apparent that many people do not have adequate access to the judicial system. From criminal justice to immigration, from predatory lending to employment issues, the burden on the underserved is severe. How can technology help? There are many interesting initiatives, including apps that help avoid parking tickets or create immigration applications, to video conferencing, to crowdfunding public interest lawsuits. We might also finally learn what access to justice really means!
As usual, we expect a lively panel with members of the judiciary, the legal and the tech community:
Marc Lauritsen will join us to speak about his involvement in the Access to Justice Commission's latest project and his work on lawhelpinteractive, which aided millions.
Quentin Steenhuis of the Greater Boston Legal Services will tell us about combining his roles as an advocate and a systems administrator together with his view on the opportunities for the technology to assist those needing most help.
More participants will be announced soon!
Come to learn, to discuss, and to debate with us!
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Hostage: Guy Delisle in conversation with HILLARY L. CHUTE
Monday, May 15
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes cartoonist and animator GUY DELISLE—author of Burma Chronicles, Jerusalem, Pyongyang, and Shenzhen—and comics scholar HILLARY L. CHUTE—author of Outside the Box, Graphic Women, and Disaster Drawn—for a discussion of Delisle's latest book, Hostage.
About Hostage
How does one survive when all hope is lost?
In the middle of the night in 1997, Doctors Without Borders administrator Christophe André was kidnapped by armed men and taken away to an unknown destination in the Caucasus region. For three months, André was kept handcuffed in solitary confinement, with little to survive on and almost no contact with the outside world. Close to twenty years later, award-winning cartoonist Guy Delisle (Pyongyang, Jerusalem, Shenzhen, Burma Chronicles) recounts André’s harrowing experience in Hostage, a book that attests to the power of one man’s determination in the face of a hopeless situation.
Marking a departure from the author’s celebrated first-person travelogues, Delisle tells the story through the perspective of the titular captive, who strives to keep his mind alert as desperation starts to set in. Working in a pared down style with muted color washes, Delisle conveys the psychological effects of solitary confinement, compelling us to ask ourselves some difficult questions regarding the repercussions of negotiating with kidnappers and what it really means to be free. Thoughtful, intense, and moving, Hostage takes a profound look at what drives our will to survive in the darkest of moments.
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Tuesday, May 16
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MIPS Seminar: Air Pollution and Brain Development: Attributable Risk for Neurodevelopmental Disorders
WHEN Tuesday, May 16, 2017, 9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
WHERE HSPH BLdg I, Rm 1302, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Molecular & Integrative Physiological Sciences, Harvard Chan School of Public Health
SPEAKER(S) Deborah A. Cory-Slechta, Ph.D., Professor of Environmental Medicine, Pediatrics and Public Health Sciences, U of Rochester School of Medicine
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Billionaires Bash! "Celebrate" PRIM Support for Trump's Agenda!
Tuesday, May 16
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM
MA PENSION FUND (PRIM) OFFICE, 84 STATE STREET, BOSTON
Push Back Against Trump and Tillerson!
JOIN THE BILLIONAIRES BASH!
A Satirical "Celebration" of the MA Pension Fund's Continued Investment in and Complicity with Fossil Fuel Companies that are Disrupting the Climate
(Part of the May 2107 Global Divestment Mobilization)
SPEAKERS/GUESTS: DIVESTMENT BILL SPONSOR, MARJORIE DECKER; FOSSIL FUEL FREE INVESTMENT EXPERT BOB MASSIE; THE SECOND LINE SOCIAL AID AND PLEASURE SOCIETY BRASS BAND
PRIM is the board that manages the Massachusetts pension fund. Just like Donald Trump they have billions of dollars and they love investing in fossil fuels! As billionaires, we think that's great so we're throwing a party to celebrate it: Billionaires Bash #PRIM4Trump!
We will be billionaires and fossil fuel executives dancing as the world burns!
Wear your best tuxedos, top hats, gowns and tiaras.
But seriously, the message will be that PRIM must dump its toxic assets.
The science is clear.
The moral arguments are compelling.
The financial future of thousands of pensioners is at stake.
The next generation is counting on us.
The PRIM (Pension Reserve Investment Management Board) has invested billions of state employees’ and teachers’ pension money in fossil fuel funds, including:
almost $2 billion in coal, gas and oil,
$200 million in Exxon Mobil, and
over $50 million in the companies building the Dakota Access Pipeline
PRIM has steadfastly refused to consider divesting from these companies and it is time to shine a spotlight on their complicity with climate degradation and disruption. Experts agree that most fossil fuel reserves must remain underground if we are to have any chance of avoiding the most catastrophic results of climate change. Now more than ever - with the CEO of Exxon Mobil as Secretary of State and climate deniers in high office - we must take a stand here in Massachusetts. JOIN US ON MAY 16! Stay tuned for more details.
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Massachusetts Clean Energy Day
Tuesday, May 16
11:00 AM – 5:00 PM EDT
Massachusetts State House, 24 Beacon Street, Boston
Cost: $0 – $250
Massachusetts Clean Energy Day will showcase the growing vitality of the clean energy industry and the importance of consistent policy support as a means of catalyzing the state’s - and our region’s - economy.
Tentative Agenda
11:00 am - 2:00 pm Clean Energy Business Showcase * (Open to the Public - please register as General Admission)
12:30 pm - 1:00 pm Speaking Program and Clean Energy Champion Awards
Secreatary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Matthew A. Beaton
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm Small Group Meetings with Key Legislators (NECEC Members only)
*NECEC Members have the unique opportunity to exhibit at the State House! Participation in the Showcase is strongly encouraged, even if your team will be participating in legislative meetings during the afternoon. Showcase tables offer additional visibility throughout the day to additional Legislators, legislative staff and members of the public.
Legislative Meetings and Exhibition Space are open only to NECEC Members in good standing. Learn more about NECEC Membership and join today!
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Saving the Rainforest: A Personal Journey - Practical Approaches Chucanti, a Cloud Forest in Panama
Tuesday, May 16
12:00PM TO 1:00PM
Harvard, HUH Seminar Room, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Guido Berguido, Founder, Asociación Adopta el Bosque Panamá
Internationally renowned ornithologist and hailed by conservation biologists as a beacon of hope for saving tropical rainforests, Guido Berguido is a scientist on a mission to save Panama’s rainforests before unknown species are driven to extinction.
Herbaria Special Seminar
Contact Name: huh-requests@oeb.harvard.edu
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Talk: Aki Sasamoto: Talk on Good Food
WHEN Thursday, May 18, 2017, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy Street, Level 3, CRC/bookshop, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts; Cambridge Arts Council
SPEAKER(S) Aki Sasamoto is a New York-based, Japanese artist, working with sculpture, dance, video, sound, and installation. Her installations are arrangements of sculpturally altered found objects, in which Sasamoto weaves constructed narratives that are personal yet open to relation and reflection. As part of her practice she collaborates with musicians, choreographers, scientists and scholars, and plays multiple roles of dancer, sculptor, or director.
Aki Sasamoto's recent performances include "Food Rental" at the High Line, New York (2015); "Wrong Happy Hour/The Last Call" at Parasophia, Japan (2015); and "Sunny in the Furnace" at The Kitchen, New York (2014). Sasamoto has participated in solo exhibitions such as "Delicate Cycle," SculptureCenter, Long Island City, New York (2016); "No Choice," Harmony Murphy Gallery, Los Angeles (2015); "Wrong Happy Hour," JTT, New York (2014). Additionally she has participated in group exhibitions such as the 3rd Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, India (2016); 11th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, China (2016), "Roppongi Crossing 2013: Out of Doubt" at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2013); "A LIKENESS HAS BLISTERS" at CCS Bard Hessel Museum, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY (2012); Gwangju Biennale 2012, Gwangju, South Korea (2012); and the "Whitney Biennial," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2010).
COST Free
CONTACT INFO ccva@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Sasamoto will discuss the use of food and metaphor in art making. This talk is in collaboration with the Cambridge Arts Council exhibition, "Common Exchange," on view May 14–Sep 30, 2017.
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Dr. James O’Connell, author of Stories from the Shadows: Reflections of a Street Doctor
Tuesday, May 16
6 – 7:30 p.m.
COMMONWEALTH SALON, CENTRAL LIBRARY IN COPLEY SQUARE, 700 BOYLSTON STREET, BOSTON
Three decades ago, James O’Connell, MD, was fresh out of Harvard Medical School and on his way to a prestigious oncology fellowship at Sloan-Kettering. His mentor, a legendary Boston doctor-humanitarian, asked him to head up a new pilot medical program for the city’s homeless men, women, and children—Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP). Dr. O’Connell thought he’d put in a few years, and then get back on track with his “real” career. But along the way, he fell in love with the challenges of homeless medicine, his patients, and their stories, now collected in Stories from the Shadows. O’Connell tells the history of homeless medicine in Boston, largely through the treatment, triumphs, and tragedies of some of his most memorable patients.
As president of BHCHP with an active practice working with people who live outside, Dr. O’Connell has become an international expert on homeless medicine, helping transform it into a highly respected specialty with a strong research base.
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How Glaciers Affect Earth and Climate
Tuesday, May 16
6:30 PM
Belmont Media Center, 9 Lexington Street, Belmont
Jack Ridge, Ph.D. Professor and Chair, Glacial and Quaternary Geology, Geomorphology, Tufts University
North American Glacial Varve Project
Professor Ridge is an expert on glacial cycles, with emphasis on how the last deglaciation in the northeastern U.S. influenced climate in North America. This investigation involves a reconstruction of the changes in the sediments left by ice sheets (varves) over centuries. The varve records provide crucial information about climate changes over long periods of time. The varve records also indicate when ancient habitation was possible or not.
More information at http://www.scienceforthepublic.org/coming-events/may-16-how-glaciers-affect-earth-and-climate
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Playsentations - 2.00b Toy Product Design Presentations
Tuesday, May 16
7:30p–10:00p
MIT, Building 10-250, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Join us for Toy Product Design Presentations! 16 teams will present their original toy concepts based on the theme "Animate!" Afterwards, there will be opportunities to test the toys and good ole' cookies + milk!
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/2.00b/www/index.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): 2.00b Toy Product Design
For more information, contact: 2.00b-ta@mit.edu
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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, May 17
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Boston Sustainability Breakfast
Wednesday, May 17
7:30 AM – 8:30 AM
Pret A Manger, 101 Arch Street, Boston
Join us every month for Net Impact Boston's informal breakfast meetup of sustainability professionals for networking, discussion and moral support. It's important to remind ourselves that we are not the only ones out there in the business world trying to do good! Feel free to drop by any time between 7:30 and 8:30 am.
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Innovations in American Government Awards Finalists Presentations
WHEN Wednesday, May 17, 2017, 1 – 4:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, Littauer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Award Ceremonies
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
COST Free
DETAILS Government Works: We'll Show You How
Join us to hear each of the finalist programs for the Innovations in American Government Awards make a presentation to the Innovations National Selection Committee in the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum at the Harvard Kennedy School.
The Innovations in American Government Awards program is a significant force in recognizing and promoting excellence and creativity in the public sector. Through its awards competition, the program provides concrete evidence that government can work to improve the quality of life for citizens and that it deserves greater public trust.
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Learning Deeply at Scale: The Challenge of Our Times
WHEN Wednesday, May 17, 2017, 4 – 5:15 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe, Sheerr Room, Fay House, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Jal Mehta, 2016–2017 Evelyn Green Davis Fellow, Radcliffe Institute; Associate Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS In this talk, Mehta will discuss his book in progress, “The Chastened Dream,” which is a history of how publicly oriented professional schools—education, public health, public policy, and urban planning and design—have sought to couple science with social policy to achieve social progress. The book investigates the origins of that dream in the Progressive Era, the challenges it faced across the 20th century, and how it might be remade to anchor a renewed vision of liberalism in the 21st century.
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ArtScience Talk: Seeing Is Believing: Parallel Lives of Chefs and Scientists
Wednesday, May17
6pm - 7:30pm
Doors 6:00pm / Talk 6:30pm
Le Laboratoire Cambridge, 650 East Kendall Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/artscience-talks-le-lab-benjamin-wolfe-scott-jones-tickets-34001962786
ArtScience Talks @ Le Lab: Benjamin Wolfe & Scott Jones
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DesignX Pitch and Demo Night
Wednesday, May 17
6:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building 9-255, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
The eight ventures of DesignX's Spring 2017 Cohort will be pitching their businesses and showcasing their technology.
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
Sponsor(s): DesignX
For more information, contact: Gilad Rosenzweig
617-999-5370
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Composting Together
Tuesday, May 23
6-7:30PM
Eagle Hill Community Garden | 343 Border Street, East Boston
Learn to make your own black gold! Making compost allows you to recycle waste products into a valuable soil amendment. We'll go over ingredients, methods, and containers for making great compost in your community garden or backyard without creating pest problems.
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Let's Talk about Impeachment: Protect our Constitution
Wednesday, May 17
7pm - 9pm
Pierce Elementary School Auditorium, 50 School Street, Brookline
Learn why Congress should start an impeachment investigation now in conversation with Ben Clements, Chair of Free Speech for People and Ron Fein, Legal Director of Free Speech for People.
Inform yourself in advance of the Town Meeting vote:
Town Meeting members in Brookline will vote on whether to pass a Resolution in Support of a Congressional Investigation regarding the Impeachment of President Donald J. Trump at the May 23 Town Meeting.
Speakers:
Ben Clements, Chair of the Board for Free Speech for People
Ron Fein, Legal Director of Free Speech for People
Our speakers wrote the Jan 2017 Newsweek article Will Trump be Allowed to Defy the Constitution?
For more information on the Brookline Resolution, see this article in the Huffington Post: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#search/huffin/15b8f1f03eb2
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Exceptional America
Wednesday, May 17
7:00pm
First Church, 3 Church Street, Cambridge
What divides Americans from the world and from each other?
Stanford Law professor Mugambi Jouet will discuss his new book Exceptional America which tackles why Americans are far more divided than other Westerners over basic issues, including wealth inequality, health care, climate change, evolution, gender roles, abortion, gay rights, sex, gun control, mass incarceration, the death penalty, torture, human rights, and war.
Why is America so polarized? How does American exceptionalism explain these social changes?
Mugambi Jouet teaches at Stanford Law School and is a frequent media commentator. His research focuses on U.S. criminal law, constitutional law, and policymaking from a multidisciplinary perspective encompassing history, sociology, political science, and the humanities.
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One in a Million: The battle against antibiotic resistance
Wednesday, May 17
7pm - 9pm
Harvard, Pfizer Hall, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge
More information at http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/seminar-series/
This event will be streamed.
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Thursday, May 18
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STEX Workshop-Batteries and Beyond: Energy Storage Innovation
Thursday, May 18
8:00a–11:30a
MIT, Building E90, 1 Main Street, Cambridge
STEX Workshop
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Office of Corporate Relations/ILP
For more information, contact: Trond Undheim
617-253-8983
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Equity and Collective Impact in Systems Change
WHEN Thursday, May 18, 2017, 11:15 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.
WHERE Askwith Hall, 13 Appian Way
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Education Redesign Lab
Harvard Graduate School of Education
SPEAKER(S) Dr. Michael McAfee, President of PolicyLink
TICKET INFO Register online
CONTACT INFO Jessica Boyle
Education Redesign Lab
DETAILS Dr. Michael McAfee, President of PolicyLink, has led the effort to make President Obama’s Promise Neighborhoods initiative a reality in communities across the United States. Please join the Education Redesign Lab and cities participating in the Lab's By All Means initiative for Dr. McAfee’s keynote speech entitled "Equity and Collective Impact in Systems Change," which will focus on the work of the Promise Neighborhood Institute to build stronger systems of educational support and opportunity for children.
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Panel discussion on AI & the Future of Healthcare
Thursday, May 18
7:30 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Venture Café @ CIC, 5th floor, 1 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/panel-discussion-on-ai-the-future-of-healthcare-tickets-34053329425
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are revolutionizing all industries, and one that can benefit enormously from these technologies is the medical sector. ML can enable cost reduction, an increasement in efficiency, and process optimalization. Ultimately, this can improve patient experiences, and save lives.
Join us in this panel discussion on the Future of Healthcare, where we foster a dialogue between technical and medical experts, and discuss solutions for tomorrow’s hospitals.
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Friday, May 19
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Measuring Methane Emissions from Dairies
Friday, May 19
12:00PM TO 1:00PM
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Claudia Arndt, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)
Atmospheric & Environmental Chemistry Seminar
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What Made Me Who I Am
Friday. May 19
7:00 PM (Doors at 6:30)
First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Cost: $27.25 (online only, book-included) - On Sale April 11, 2017 $5.00 - On Sale April 25, 2017
Bernie Swain and Doris Kearns Goodwin
Harvard Book Store welcomes Washington Speakers Bureau co-founder BERNIE SWAIN and Pulitzer Prize–winning historian DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN for a discussion of Swain's book, What Made Me Who I Am—a collection of profiles on thirty-four remarkable leaders, including Goodwin, and the influences that shaped them. A signing with both authors will follow the discussion.
About What Made Me Who I Am
Starting a business is a wonderfully naïve venture. Only a fortunate few will survive—and very few of those who thrive will have something special to say about failure, success, and leadership.
Bernie Swain is one of those few very fortunate people. He quit his job in 1980 to start a lecture agency with his wife and a friend. By the end of their first rocky year—just as his savings were running out—Swain's first revenues trickled in. He began signing every speaker with a handshake; this proved to be the hallmark of trust that helped accelerate the company's growth. Years later, his roster of speakers would be the greatest in history since America's first agency represented a host of notables such as Mark Twain, Susan B. Anthony, and Frederick Douglass.
The best of Swain's fortunes turned out to be the speakers themselves because these remarkable leaders had become his personal friends. What Made Me Who I Am captures the leadership transformations of 34 of those friends—from Doris Kearns Goodwin to Colin Powell, Terry Bradshaw to Tom Brokaw, and Tony Blair to Dave Barry. This assembly of people defines a generation. What were their most powerful influences? Defining moments? Decisions that contributed the most to their character and accomplishments?
Swain captures answers to these questions and more in an inspiring, practical collection of true-life stories for leaders today. What Made Me Who I Am is also a terrific gift book for graduates and others who are just starting out in life.
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Invisible Nation
Friday, May 19
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
More than 2.5 million children are homeless in the United States every year. In every state, children are living packed in with relatives, or in cars, or motel rooms, or emergency shelters, the only constant being too many people in too little space. In a vividly-written narrative, experienced journalist Richard Schweid takes us on a spirited journey through this "invisible nation," giving us front-row dispatches. Based on in-depth reporting from five major cities, Invisible Nation looks backward at the historical context of family homelessness, as well as forward at what needs to be done to alleviate this widespread, although often hidden, poverty. Invisible Nation is a riveting must-read for anyone who wants to know what is happening to the millions of families living at the bottom of the economy.
Richard Schweid is a journalist and documentary reporter. He is theauthor of nine nonfiction books, including Che's Chevrolet, Fidel's Oldsmobile: On the Road in Cuba, Hot Peppers: The Story of Cajuns and Capsicum, Consider the Eel: A Natural and Gastronomic History, and The Cockroach Papers: A Compendium of History and Lore. He has also produced or reported more than two dozen documentaries for Catalonian public television, including the Oscar-nominated Balseros.
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Sunday, May 21
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SWAPFEST
Sunday, May 21
9:00a–2:00p
MIT, Albany Street Garage and Lots, Cambridge
MIT's monthly Hi Tech, Computer, Electronics and Ham Radio Fleamarket.
Buy Sell or Swap all things nerdly.
Held the third Sunday of each month April thru October.
Rain or Shine covered space is available for all sellers.
In the Albany St Garage and adjacent lot.
On Albany St between Mass Ave and Main St, Cambridge.
$6 Buyers admission from 9AM to 2PM.
Free for MIT and Harvard Undergraduates with current ID
Web site: www.swapfest.us
Open to: the general public
Cost: $6
This event occurs on the 3rd Sunday of every month through October 15, 2017.
Sponsor(s): MIT Radio Society, Electronic Research Society, MIT, UHF Repeater Assn. W1XM, MIT
For more information, contact: Mitchell Berger
617-253-3776
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Superpower Discovery Session - "Stop Playing Small"
Sunday, May 21
9:30a–5:30p
MIT, Building E25-117, 45 Carleton, Cambridge
Cost: $90-120 (after 70% discount using MITHERO)
Speaker: Konstantin Mitgutsch & Lena Robinson, Lightspace
We all have Superpowers - personal, often surprising strengths that lie at the core of who we are - but we rarely live them in our everyday life, our jobs and relationships. Many people don't know what their Superpowers actually are. They are still hidden and have yet to be discovered.
This is exactly what Superpower Discovery is for. In our workshops, we work with unconventional methods from game design and creative sectors to get to the bottom of everyone's Superpowers. In the course of the whole-day session participants create their very own card set, which documents their individual journey and can be used for all further explorations. The goal is to live your Superpowers!
Superpower Discovery is run by Light Space, a Vienna-based organization providing creative tools that support people to uncover and dive into their deepest strengths. We run workshops and retreats internationally, for individuals and teams.
Find our Superpower Discovery Quiz, more information and other events here: http://www.lightspace.io
Open to: the general public
Cost: $90-120 (after 70% discount using MITHERO)
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing, MIT Game Lab
For more information, contact: Andrew Whitacre
617-324-0490
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Tuesday, May 23
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authors@mit - John Tirman - Dream Chasers: Immigration and the American Backlash
Tuesday, May 23
5:30p–6:30p
MIT, Building N50, The MIT Press Bookstore, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: John Tirman
The MIT Press Bookstore presents John Tirman, Executive Director of MIT's Center for International Studies, discussing his book "Dream Chasers: Immigration and the American Backlash" on Tuesday, May 23, at 5:30 pm at the Bookstore.
Tirman's discussion of the resistance to immigration and immigrants couldn't be more timely. Illegal immigration continues to roil American politics, the uproar encouraged by the Trump administration. State and local governments have passed more than 300 laws that attempt to restrict undocumented immigrants' access to hospitals, schools, food stamps, and driver's licenses. And yet polls show that a majority of Americans support some kind of path to citizenship for those here illegally. What is going on? In "Dream Chasers," Tirman explains that the resistance is more cultural than political, stemming from fears that the white, Protestant "real America" is changing.
This event includes a book signing. Books will be on sale at the event for 20% off, or you can purchase an event ticket that includes a discounted book.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): The MIT Press Bookstore
For more information, contact: The MIT Press Bookstore
617-253-5249
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Opportunity
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Discounted Solar for Somerville
As part of the State’s Solarize Mass program, local volunteers and the City of Somerville recently launched the Solarize Somerville campaign to make it easier and cheaper for residents and small businesses to install solar panels.
The program, which is offering information and guidance, free site consultations, and solar panel discounts through November, has set an ambitious goal to inspire at least 200 property owners to sign up for solar —and each of those private solar installations will also benefit the community directly. For every 400 kW in signed private contracts through the program, the program’s solar vendor SolarFlair will donate a system of up to 5 kW for a public or community purpose. All are invited to the program kickoff at a Meet the Installer event on Tuesday, July 26 at 6-7:30 p.m., 167 Holland St. Additional events on topics such as solar basics, financing, and solar for multifamily homes will be announced.
Unique to the program is its neighbor-to-neighbor approach: trained resident volunteers and a designated volunteer Solar Coach are available essentially as mentors. They can, for example, walk anyone through the process, provide general loan program and tax incentive information, and share their own solar experiences. The campaign’s webpage and blog offers useful information, tips, and a link to websites where you can estimate the solar potential of your home and roughly calculate how much solar could save you on your energy bills at www.somervillema.gov/sustainaville/solarize.
Somerville is one of the most urban communities ever to participate in Solarize Mass, which makes the neighbor-to-neighbor approach especially helpful due to some of the unique challenges here such as multi-family houses with more than one owner. Winter Hill resident Mary Mangan, the program’s volunteer Solar Coach, went through that process and is ready to share helpful tips.
"I'm excited to work with our eager volunteers to help our neighbors understand the benefits of solar power. As a co-owner of a two-family home with solar, I can also offer some insights about how that process went for us," said Mangan.
Also key to the program is the selection of a designated vendor, which allows the program to offer reduced cost installation through bulk purchasing. Through a competitive process, SolarFlair, based in Ashland, MA, was selected. They were also the selected installer for the communities of Arlington, Hopkinton, Mendon, Brookline, Carlisle-Chelmsford, Newton, and Quincy.
"We're excited to be the selected installer for Solarize Somerville, and look forward to speaking with any home or business owners that are interested in reducing their electric bills while also making a great investment," said Matt Arner, the owner and President of SolarFlair.
Quick facts:
Solar systems can be purchased outright (with a payback of about 4-5 years). The Mass Solar Loan program offers rates of 3.25% or less.
Or, for no money down owners can choose a power purchase agreement (PPA), where the system is owned and maintained by a third party, and residents buy back the electricity at a discounted price.
More on-site renewable energy is critical to reducing carbon emissions. It also saves money for residents.
Tax incentives for solar installations include:
Federal Tax Credit: A 30 percent federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) is available for qualified residential and commercial projects
Massachusetts Personal Income Tax Credit: The lesser of 15% of the total cost of the solar electric system or $1,000, for qualified clean energy projects
Five-year Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS): Business owners can depreciate solar electric systems over a five-year schedule
For more information or to sign up for a free site consultation:
Visit the Solarize Somerville webpage at www.somervillema.gov/sustainaville/solarize for
Helpful information and FAQs
To contact a volunteer or Solar Coach Mary Mangan to discuss solar options and incentives
To set up an appointment for a free site consultation directly with SolarFlair
To find out about events
To volunteer for Solarize Somerville
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Where is the best yogurt on the planet made? Somerville, of course!
Join the Somerville Yogurt Making Cooperative and get a weekly quart of the most thick, creamy, rich and tart yogurt in the world. 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.
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Cambridge Residents: Free Home Thermal Images
Have you ever wanted to learn where your home is leaking heat by having an energy auditor come to your home with a thermal camera? With that info you then know where to fix your home so it's more comfortable and less expensive to heat. However, at $200 or so, the cost of such a thermal scan is a big chunk of change.
HEET Cambridge has now partnered with Sagewell, Inc. to offer Cambridge residents free thermal scans.
Sagewell collects the thermal images by driving through Cambridge in a hybrid vehicle equipped with thermal cameras. They will scan every building in Cambridge (as long as it's not blocked by trees or buildings or on a private way). Building owners can view thermal images of their property and an analysis online. The information is password protected so that only the building owner can see the results.
Homeowners, condo-owners and landlords can access the thermal images and an accompanying analysis free of charge. Commercial building owners and owners of more than one building will be able to view their images and analysis for a small fee.
The scans will be analyzed in the order they are requested.
Go to Sagewell.com. Type in your address at the bottom where it says "Find your home or building" and press return. Then click on "Here" to request the report.
That's it. When the scans are done in a few weeks, your building will be one of the first to be analyzed. The accompanying report will help you understand why your living room has always been cold and what to do about it.
With knowledge, comes power (or in this case saved power and money, not to mention comfort).
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Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents
Solar map of Cambridge, MA
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Hey Cambridge residents!
Did you know the City of Cambridge is trying to win the $5 million Georgetown University Energy Prize? It was created to develop a cleaner and more efficient energy future. Energy efficiency and conservation are the best ways to save energy and minimize environmental impact. In that effort, Cambridge is hoping all residents will get a no-cost energy assessment in order to make their homes more efficient and comfortable. Let us know you're interested here: http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/sign-up-for-an-assessment
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
Again, let us know you're interested here: http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/sign-up-for-an-assessment and someone will be in contact with you shortly to give you personally tailored contact information on how you can get your no-cost home energy assessment. Renters are also eligible!
Any action to save energy in the home will help Cambridge win this competition while protecting the environment. For additional ideas on how to save energy, please see the Cambridge Energy Alliance website at http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/resources/interactivehome
Please share with your Cambridge friends and family and ask them to get a free energy assessment!
Want to be more involved? Become a neighborhood Block Captain! Block Captains help their community members sign up for and complete no-cost home energy assessments through the MassSave program. Our team will give you the tools and guidance needed to recruit neighbors to get an assessment and improve the efficiency of their homes. Participation is welcome at whatever level you are able to commit to.
If you are interested in becoming a Block Captain, please fill out the form at http://tinyurl.com/blockcaptainsurvey and someone from the Cambridge Energy Alliance will be in contact with you shortly. If you know someone who might be interested, please let them know about this opportunity!
Questions? Contact jnahigian@cambridgema.gov
Cambridge Energy Alliance
@cambenergy
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Sunny Cambridge has just launched! Sunny Cambridge is the city-wide initiative that makes it easy for all types of residents to get solar power for their homes. Cambridge has lined up local solar installers through the EnergySage Solar Marketplace, which helps you request, receive, and compare solar quotes 100% online with support available every step of the way.
The City of Cambridge is working on many levels to reduce energy use and GHG emissions to make the city more sustainable. As a semifinalist in the nationwide competition for the $5 million Georgetown University Energy Prize, Cambridge Energy Alliance is encouraging residents to take actions to save energy, save money, and protect the environment. Get involved by signing up for a no-cost home energy assessment at the Cambridge Energy Alliance home page (www.cambridgeenergyalliance.org/winit)
and going solar at http://www.sunnycambridge.org
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Cambridge Coalition Solar Access Campaign is part of the DOE SunShot Solar in Your Community Challenge with a goal of 40 new solar electric systems installed in Cambridge, with a focus on serving low-to-moderate income communities.
Coalition partners include Green Cambridge, which works to create a more sustainable city and to protect the environment for the health and safety of all, Resonant Energy, a community-based solar developer, Solstice, helping every single household in America go solar, and Sunwealth, a solar investment firm.
More information at http://www.resonant.energy/sap-overview/
hat tip Cambridge Civic Journal
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Resource
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"Greening Our Grid" Report Released April 24, 2017
MAPC is excited to announce the release of “Greening Our Grid,” a fact sheet and a case study detailing MAPC’s strategy to use municipal aggregation to help build new renewable energy in New England.
“Greening Our Grid” highlights MAPC's work with the City of Melrose as a case study for MAPC's innovative green municipal aggregation strategy. Melrose recently completed its first year of implementation. The city’s results demonstrate that economic and environmental goals can be met simultaneously, and provide a compelling example for others to follow.
The case study and fact sheet further describe the renewable energy strategy overall, why it can have a real impact on our electricity grid, and MAPC’s program to help other municipalities follow Melrose's lead. Arlington, Brookline, Gloucester, Hamilton, Millis, Somerville, Sudbury, and Winchester are poised to roll out their green aggregations within the year.
MAPC believes that municipal aggregation offers an opportunity for communities to leverage the collective buying power of their residents and businesses to transform our electric grid to cleaner sources of energy, while also providing cost savings and price stability for electricity. The fact sheet and case study will be useful tools for cities and towns that are exploring green municipal aggregation, as well as for those that already have active aggregation programs.
Check out “Greening Our Grid” today at http://www.mapc.org/greening-our-grid, and contact Patrick Roche, MAPC Clean Energy Coordinator, at proche@mapc.org for more information about MAPC's program.
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Cambridge Climate Change Game
Extending our work on face-to-face games, the MIT Science Impact Collaborative has developed a digital game on the health impacts of climate change that you can play alone on your computer or on your mobile phone. The game should take about 10-20 minutes. We would appreciate it if you could play the game at your convenience.
Play the game at http://www.doublecoconut.com/climate/
Any and all feedback on the game should be directed to Ella Kim at ella@mit.edu.
Thank you for your time and consideration!
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Sustainable Business Network Local Green Guide
SBN is excited to announce the soft launch of its new Local Green Guide, Massachusetts' premier Green Business Directory!
To view the directory please visit: http://www.localgreenguide.org
To find out how how your business can be listed on the website or for sponsorship opportunities please contact Adritha at adritha@sbnboston.org
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Boston Food System
"The Boston Food System [listserv] provides a forum to post announcements of events, employment opportunities, internships, programs, lectures, and other activities as well as related articles or other publications of a non-commercial nature covering the area's food system - food, nutrition, farming, education, etc. - that take place or focus on or around Greater Boston (broadly delineated)."
The Boston area is one of the most active nationwide in terms of food system activities - projects, services, and events connected to food, farming, nutrition - and often connected to education, public health, environment, arts, social services and other arenas. Hundreds of organizations and enterprises cover our area, but what is going on week-to-week is not always well publicized.
Hence, the new Boston Food System listserv, as the place to let everyone know about these activities. Specifically:
Use of the BFS list will begin soon, once we get a decent base of subscribers. Clarification of what is appropriate to announce and other posting guidelines will be provided as well.
It's easy to subscribe right now at https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/bfs
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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!
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Boston Maker Spaces - 41 (up from 27 in 2016) and counting: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zGHnt9r2pQx8.kfw9evrHsKjA&hl=en
Solidarity Network Economy: https://ussolidarityeconomy.wordpress.com
Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston: http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/
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Links to events at over 50 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/
Harvard Events: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/harvard-events/events-calendar/
Harvard Environment: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
Sustainability at Harvard: http://green.harvard.edu/events
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
Take Action MA: http://takeactionma.com
If you have an event you would like to see here, the submission deadline is 12 PM on Sundays, as Energy (and Other) Events is sent out Sunday afternoons.
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