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, September 18
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12pm PAOC Colloquium: Dan Cziczo (MIT)
12pm Investigating ARPA-E as a Model for Energy Innovation Funding
12pm Identity Politics and Organized Crime
12:15pm Molecular Government, Toxicological Information, and Environmental Protection
1:15pm From Genetics to CRISPR Gene Editing with Machine Learning
4pm Organometallic and Radical Mechanisms of Nickel Enzymes Involved in Methane and CO2 Metabolism
4pm Starting an Energy and Clean Tech Company in Boston
4:15pm Does European Populism Exist?
5pm Where The Animals Go: Big data and design
5pm One Student at a Time: Leading the Global Education Movement
5:30pm Charging Ahead: Prepaid Electricity Metering in South Africa
6pm Two Ways of Knowing: Creating Ancient Maya History through Inscriptions and Archaeology
6:15pm The Interactions of Buildings
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Tuesday, September 19 - Wednesday, September 20
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5:30pm Gills Club Symposium: Shark Tales – Women Making Waves
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Tuesday, September 19
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10am Reprogramming biological form and function: the dark matter of biology
10:30am Fight for $15 Hearing at the State House
12pm Vann R. Newkirk II: Race, Identity, and Media
12pm In Pursuit of a Single Payer Plan: Lessons Learned
12pm The Line Between Hate and Debate
12:30pm From Passive to Provocative: When Good Planning is Productive Troublemaking
1pm Will we adapt? Extreme heat, labor production, and adaptation to climate change
1pm State House Hearing on Renewable Portfolio Standard
4pm ESI PEOPLE & THE PLANET LECTURE: Johan Rockström
4:15pm Space, Time, and Reality: A Lecture by Brian Greene
4:30pm The Stupid Terrorist: Lessons from History and the Social Sciences
4:30pm Fascist in the White House? Steve Bannon’s Rage Against the Enlightenment
5:30pm Careers in Sustainability Panel
5:30pm Safety First: Towards Safe Consumption Facilities in Massachusetts
A Community Forum
6pm authors@mit - Mitch Resnick - Lifelong Kindergarten
6pm Cracking Bones, Gnawing Flesh, and Pondering Hearts: Body, Mind, and Medicine in Ancient Mesopotamia
6pm NET NEUTRALITY
7pm The Science of Talking Science
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Wednesday, September 20
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7:30am Boston Sustainability Breakfast
12pm Covert Regime Change: Lessons from U.S.-backed Interventions During the Cold War
12:15pm Debbie Plunkett: On the Outside Looking In - Perspectives Post-Government on Information Security
12:30pm What is Urban Science and What Does It Have To Do with Planning?
1pm The Retail Energy Supply Association's 2017 Energy Symposium
4pm What Do Hurricanes Harvey and Irma Portend?
4:15pm Shaping a Shared Narrative in a Fractured World
5:30pm Climate Change Investor Roundtable
5:30pm Women In Technology Int'l Boston Event: How "Smart" Can a City Be?
6pm “Changing the Pipeline into Politics” – Lives in Law and Policy Speaker Series
6pm Boston Medical Center Rooftop Farm Tour
7pm Deadly Double Helix - Danielle Allen
7pm Beyond Test Scores
8pm How EDF's legal team is protecting the Clean Power Plan and other climate victories
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Thursday, September 21
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10am Dr. Hector Ruiz: Technology, Leadership, and the Courage of Conviction
11am Public Webinar: Concrete Sustainability Hub (Pavements)
12pm Risks and regulation of fracking: A brief history
3pm Science, Sustainability, and the Future of Food
3:30pm Food Systems WEBINAR: How Regional Food System Investment Creates More Equitable Communities
4pm The Ecology and Evolution of Mutualism
4pm Reducing Emissions by Pricing Carbon: How Microsoft and Yale are leading the charge
4:15pm A Brief History of Neoliberal Problems
5pm Future of Surgery
5pm Platforms in the Public Interest: Lessons from Minitel
6pm Will You Still Have a Job When the Robots Arrive? AI and its Impact on the Workforce
6:30pm Tech and Education
6:30pm UNITE Resilient Cities: Action for Readiness
7:30pm We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe
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Friday, September 22- Sunday, September 24
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JuggleMIT - the largest juggling festival in MA
HACKtheMACHINE | US Navy Digital Experience
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Friday, September 22
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8am Harvard People's Hub@ Global People’s Summit for Sustainable Development
8:30am Emerging Technologies (HKS Conference)
3pm The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought
4:30pm Graduate Lecture Series: Chien Wang (EAPS)
7pm The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Power to Change Others
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Saturday, September 23
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8:30am Cycle to the Source
9am Populist Plutocrats: Lessons From Around the World
9:30am National Day of Civic Hacking: Boston 2017
10am PEACE of MIND - World Record Attempt LARGEST HUMAN PEACE SIGN!
10am Fixit Clinic 227 Jamaica Plain Library
1pm What The Fluff Festival
4pm ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE & THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC POLICY
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Sunday, September 24
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2pm Special event: Food Evolution Film Screening and Panel Discussion
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Monday, September 25
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12pm PAOC Colloquium: Allison Wing (FSU): The role of radiative-convective feedbacks in tropical cyclone formation in numerical simulations
12pm Labor and Reward in Science: Do Women Have an Equal Voice in Scholarly Communication?
12pm The Oldest Computer: Antikythera Mechanism
12pm The Political Economy of Carbon Taxes
12:30pm Health – Equitable Urban Development Across Contexts
4pm MEI Book Talk: A Revolution Undone: Egypt's Road Beyond Revolt
4:15pm The Museum, the City, and the University: Boston Art Museum Directors in Discussion
5:30pm Launch Smart Clinic – Artificial Intelligence (AI)
5:30pm HUBweek Demo Day Semi-Final
6pm The State of Electric Vehicle Deployment and Where It’s Going
6pm cristina ricupero | don’t believe a word i say
6:30pm The Rise of the Corporate Innovation Lab
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Tuesday, September 26
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10am Thesis Defense - Jimmy Gasore (EAPS): Quantifying Emissions of Carbon Dioxide and Methane in Central and Eastern Africa Through High Frequency Measurements and Inverse Modeling
11am Sustainability/Bike Safety/Light Fair
11:45am Harnessing terrestrial thermal photon sources
12pm Nancy Youssef – Foreign Policy, Politics, and Media Coverage
12pm Developing and Launching Products at Google Cloud Platform (MIT SDM Systems Thinking Webinar Series)
4pm Tour the Most Sustainable Building in Boston: 888 Boylston Street
5:30pm Human Rights and Violent Internal Conflict
6pm The Enemy – From Concept to “Virtual” Reality
6pm Seeing Color: Exploring Whiteness in a Racialized World
6pm The Future of Travel & Transportation Industry
6:30pm MIT Energy Club Launch!
6:30pm Climate Forum with Cambridge City Council Candidates
7pm Daring Democracy Book Launch
7pm One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
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Monday, September 18
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PAOC Colloquium: Dan Cziczo (MIT): Better Understanding Climate, Precipitation & Atmospheric Chemistry by Understanding the Formation of Mixed Phase Clouds
Monday, September 18
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-923, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
About the Speaker
It has been known for over a century that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane warm the planet by trapping heat. What is not as well known is that particles can cool the planet by reflecting sunlight into space and by acting as the seeds on which clouds form. Particles and clouds are also of contemporary interest because it has been suggested they might affect climate by interacting with cosmic rays or be used to manipulate the Earth’s temperature.
Cziczo's research group is interested in the interrelationship of particulate matter and cloud formation. His team utilizes laboratory and field studies to elucidate how small particles interact with water vapor to form droplets and ice crystals, which are important players in the Earth’s climate system. Experiments include using small cloud chambers in the laboratory to mimic atmospheric conditions that lead to cloud formation and observing clouds in situ from remote mountaintop sites or through the use of research aircraft.
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 generally take place on Monday from 12-1pm. Lunch is provided 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.
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Investigating ARPA-E as a Model for Energy Innovation Funding
Monday, September 18
12:00PM TO 1:30PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
with Anna Goldstein, Postdoctoral Researcher, Stanford University and the Carnegie Institution for Science
Lunch provided.
Energy Policy Seminar
Contact Name:
Louisa Lund
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Identity Politics and Organized Crime
WHEN Monday, Sep. 18, 2017, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, The Morgan Courtroom, Austin Hall, Room 308, 1515 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Law, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR EALS, the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, the Reischauer Institute
SPEAKER(S) J. Mark Ramseyer, ’82, Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies
DETAILS EALS Lunchtime Talk
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Molecular Government, Toxicological Information, and Environmental Protection
Monday, September 18
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Please RSVP to sts@hks.harvard.edu by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
with Evan Hepler-Smith (Harvard University Center for the Environment).
Sandwich lunch is provided. RSVP required.
STS Circle at Harvard
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From Genetics to CRISPR Gene Editing with Machine Learning
Monday, September 18
1:15-2:15 PM
Harvard Medical School, Minot Room, 5th Floor, Countway Library, 10 Shattuck Street #3, Boston
Jennifer Listgarten, Senior Researcher, Microsoft Research New England
Molecular biology, healthcare and medicine have been slowly morphing into large-scale, data driven sciences dependent on machine learning and applied statistics. In this talk I will start by explaining some of the modelling challenges in finding the genetic underpinnings of disease, which is important for screening, treatment, drug development, and basic biological insight. Genome and epigenome-wide associations, wherein individual or sets of (epi)genetic markers are systematically scanned for association with disease are one window into disease processes. Naively, these associations can be found by use of a simple statistical test. However, a wide variety of structure and confounders lie hidden in the data, leading to both spurious and missed associations if not properly addressed. Much of this talk will focus on how to model these types of data. Once we uncover genetic causes, genome editing—which is about deleting or changing parts of the genetic code—will one day let us fix the genome in a bespoke manner. Editing will also help us to understand mechanisms of disease, enable precision medicine and drug development, to name just a few more important applications. I will close by discussing how we developed machine learning approaches to enable more effective CRISPR gene editing.
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Organometallic and Radical Mechanisms of Nickel Enzymes Involved in Methane and CO2 Metabolism
Monday, September 18
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 4-270, 182 Memorial Dr (Rear), Cambridge
Stephen Ragsdale, University of Michigan
Biological Chemistry Seminar Series
For more information: Betty Lou McClanahan, blm@mit.edu
Editorial Comment: Methane management is exceedingly important in climate change, especially if the Arctic permafrost or the oceanic clathrates start bubbling up into the atmosphere.
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Starting an Energy and Clean Tech Company in Boston
Monday, September 18
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM EDT
CIC Boston, 50 Milk Street, Lighthouse East Room, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/starting-an-energy-and-clean-tech-company-in-boston-tickets-37368653649
Cleantech and energy technologies have been the subject of national attention in recent years, and Boston is a hub of innovation in this industry. From software for better energy efficiency, to connected devices for better power insights & management, to new alternative power technology, this industry has been a magnet for entrepreneurs wanting to improve the world and build successful businesses by riding the wave of market attention.
Join our panel discussion for insights on what that latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in this industry are. Whether you're a startup founder looking to navigate this space, an investor looking to stay on top of the market, or an executive looking for the latest innovations, this panel will have highlights for you.
This event is part of the Hot Industries Track at Boston Startup Week.
PANELISTS
Wanda Reindorf | Managing Director, Clean Energy Venture Group
Wanda Reindorf is a member of the Clean Energy Venture Group and is an experienced executive who has been a CFO and business consultant with VC backed start-ups through public companies. She has worked with energy companies in the areas of energy efficiency, utilities, renewable energy, smart grid, demand response and energy services, and was involved in developing early solar power plants. She brings 20 plus years of expertise in strategy, operations and finance with extensive global experience.
Sandhya Murali | CFO, Solstice Initiative
Responsible for finances, product development, solar developer relationships, and financial inclusion. Sandhya began her career in Barclays’ investment banking division in New York and London, advising on and executing public equity transactions for Technology, Media and Telecom companies, and was also deeply involved in Barclays Philanthropy. Her volunteer work included Endeavor, Women’s World Banking, and Barclays’ Social Innovation Fund. During graduate school, Sandhya worked at Buen Power Peru, a for-profit social enterprise that distributes solar lamps and water heaters to off-grid communities in Peru. She holds a BBA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, where she received the Sustainability Certificate.
YOUR HOST
Emily Reichert | CEO, Greentown Labs
Dr. Emily Reichert serves as Chief Executive Officer of Greentown Labs, the largest clean technology startup incubator in the United States. As the organization's first employee, Emily has spearheaded the rapid growth of Greentown Labs into a global center for clean technology innovation, attracting visitors and partners from around the world.
Emily started her career at Arthur D. Little as a Ph.D. scientist and progressed into R&D, business development and general management roles. Prior to Greentown Labs, she was the Director of Business Operations at the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry where she helped grow the angel-funded startup into a sustainable contract R&D business with a mission to minimize environmental impact of chemical products. Emily also served as a MIT Sloan Fellow in Innovation and Global Leadership as well as a Venture Labs Fellow at Flagship Ventures, a Boston-based Venture Capital firm.
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Does European Populism Exist?
WHEN Monday, Sep. 18, 2017, 4:15 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, Lower Conference Room, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Weatherhead Research Cluster on Global Populism
SPEAKER(S) Timothy Garton, Ash
Professor of European Studies, St Antony's College, University of Oxford and
Senior Fellow at Hoover Institute, Stanford University.
CONTACT INFO Jessica Barnard, jbarnard@wcfia.harvard.edu
DETAILS Everyone is talking about populism, but does it exist? If yes, does it exist in Europe? Can one talk about a distinctively European version of contemporary populism? Do British Brexiteers have more in common with Polish populists than they do with American supporters of Donald Trump or Turkish supporters of Recep Tayyip Erdogan? Are there uniquely European roots of populism? Timothy Garton Ash, who has been writing about Europe for four decades, will explore what, if anything, Europe tells us about populism – and populism tells us about Europe.
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Where The Animals Go: Big data and design
Monday, September 18
5:00pm - 7:00pm
Harvard, Belfer Case Study Room, CGIS South S020, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
For thousands of years, tracking animals has meant following their physical traces – footprints, fallen feathers and nests. But cutting-edge geospatial technology is revolutionising our ability to map their movements and behaviour.
GIScientist James Cheshire and designer Oliver Uberti discuss the creative and technical processes behind their efforts with scientists and wildlife experts around the world to collate billions of data points, from tracking elephants to counting penguins, and bring them to life visually in their new book entitled Where the Animals Go.
Presenter Bios
Dr. James Cheshire is a geographer with a passion for mapping data. He is an Associate Professor at University College London, and recently received the Royal Geographical Society’s Cuthbert Peek award for ‘advancing geographical knowledge through the use of mappable Big Data’.
Oliver Uberti is a visual journalist, designer, and the recipient of many awards for his information graphics and art direction. From 2003 to 2012 he worked in the design department of National Geographic, most recently as Senior Design Editor.
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One Student at a Time: Leading the Global Education Movement
WHEN Monday, Sep. 18, 2017, 5 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Longfellow Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR HGSE
SPEAKER(S) Panelists:
Wilson Aiwuyor, Ed.M.’12, Global Partnership for Education
Luis E. Garcia de Brigard, Ed. M.07, Envoys
David Edwards, Ed.M.’01, Education International
Myra M. Khan, Ed.M.’15, World Bank
Sandra Licón, Ed.M.’03, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Ana Gabriela Pessoa, Ed.M.’07, Pearson Education
Austin Volz, Ed.M.’13, Avenues: The World School
Moderator: Fernando Reimers, Ed.M.’84, Ed.D.’88, Ford Foundation Professor of Practice, director, International Education Policy Program and Global Education Innovation Initiative, HGSE
COST Free and open to the public.
TICKET WEB LINK https://harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_esXS3XMHx1rsRdH
TICKET INFO Please RSVP
CONTACT INFO Kristin_foster@gse.harvard.edu
DETAILS This discussion of the recent book One Student at a Time: Leading the Global Education Movement features seven of the authors of the essays contained in the book, all graduates of the International Education Policy Program. This conversation will take place at the Harvard Graduate School of Education from 5-7 p.m. and will be followed by a reception.
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Charging Ahead: Prepaid Electricity Metering in South Africa
Monday, September 18
5:30 PM
MIT, Building E19-319
Professor Kelsey Jack from Tufts University
The standard approach to recovering the cost of electricity provision is to bill customers monthly for past consumption. If unable to pay, customers face disconnection, the utility loses revenue, and the service provision model is undermined. A possible solution to this problem is prepaid metering, in which customers buy electricity upfront and use it until the prepaid amount is consumed. We use data from Cape Town, South Africa to examine the effects of prepaid electricity metering on residential consumption and returns to the electric utility. Over 4000 customers on monthly billing were involuntarily assigned to receive a prepaid electricity meter, with exogenous variation in the timing of the meter replacement. Electricity use falls by about 13 percent as a result of the switch, a decrease that persists for the following year. This creates a tradeoff for the utility: revenue from consumption falls but more of it is recovered on time and at a lower cost. The benefits to the electric utility outweigh the costs, on average, though results are very heterogeneous. Poorer customers and those with a history of delinquent payment behavior show the greatest improvement in profitability when switched to a prepaid meter. These findings point to an important role for metering technologies in expanding energy access for the poor.
Presenter Bio: Professor Kelsey Jack
Kelsey Jack is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Tufts University and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Prior to joining the faculty at Tufts, she was a Post-Doctoral Associate at MIT, with the Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative (ATAI) at the Jameel Abdul Latif Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). Her research explores incentive-based approaches to encourage the private provision of public goods with a focus on the environment. She combines environmental economics, contract theory, development economics, and behavioral economics to examine individual decision-making in settings where decisions create social externalities. Kelsey Jack holds a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University.
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Two Ways of Knowing: Creating Ancient Maya History through Inscriptions and Archaeology
Wednesday, September 18
6:00 pm
Harvard, Museum of Natural History, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
2017 Tatiana Proskouriakoff Lecture and Reception
Free and open to the public
Simon Martin, Associate Curator and Keeper of Collections, American Section, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Scholars have made signifcant advances in the interpretation of ancient Maya hieroglyphs in the past forty years. The deep understanding of these inscriptions makes the study of the ancient Maya as complex and layered as that of Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek, or Roman civilizations—each of which combines the reading of texts with the physical remains of archaeological excavations. This important development, however, also raises issues about how the integration of textual and material evidence is best achieved. Simon Martin will explore this challenge within the context of Maya studies and review the academic debate over the ways in which history is both discovered and created.
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The Interactions of Buildings
Monday, September 18
6:15 pm to 7:15 pm
BU, College of Arts & Sciences, Room 315, 685-725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Professor Leslie Norford is the George Macomber (1948) Professor in Construction Management in the Department of Architecture at MIT. Professor Norford’s current research focuses on interactions of buildings with the natural and built urban environment. His group studies the contributions of buildings to the urban heat island effect, the impact of urban heating on building performance, the transport of urban pollutants and control of building electrical systems to provide services to electricity distribution systems.
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Tuesday, September 19 - Wednesday, September 20
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Gills Club Symposium: Shark Tales – Women Making Waves
Tuesday, September 19
Doors open 5:30 pm
Lectures begin 6:00 pm
IMAX Theater at the New England Aquarium, Aquarium Wharf, Boston
Susan Goldberg, Editorial Director, National Geographic Partners and Editor in Chief, National Geographic Magazine
Ten female shark experts from around the work share their stories and science.
September 19 participants:
Michelle Heupel, Australian Institute of Marine Science
Lisa Whitenack, Allegheny College
Cindy Tribuzio, National Marine Fisheries Service
Lisa Natanson, Apex Predator Program
Jodie Rummer, James Cook University
September 20 participants:
Wendy Benchley, renowned global voice for protecting sharks and safeguarding our seas
Alison Kock, South African National Parks
Brooke Flammang, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Kara Yopak, UNC Wilmington
Megan Winton, UMass Dartmouth
Vicky Vasquez, Pacific Shark Research Center
This two-day symposium is co-hosted by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, Gills Club, Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, and New England Aquarium.
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Tuesday, September 19
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Reprogramming biological form and function: the dark matter of biology
Tuesday, September 19
10am - 7pm
Tufts, Allen Discovery Center, 200 College Avenue, Medford
Schedule for the day:
Morning session (10:00am-12:40pm; Distler Performance Hall): Don Ingber, Nadia Rosenthal, Laurie Boyer, & James Collins
Lunch (provided)
Afternoon session (1:30-4:00pm; Distler Performance Hall): Leonard Zon, Adam Cohen, Ed Boyden, & Mike Levin
Panel discussion (4:15-5:15pm; auditorium, Robinson Hall): Mike Levin, David Kaplan, and Jessica Whited
Reception (5:15-7:00pm; atrium, Science & Engineering Complex)
More information at http://allencenter.tufts.edu/events/grand-opening/
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Fight for $15 Hearing at the State House
Tuesday, September 19
Briefing/Lobby Session @ 10:30 in Room 222
Hearing @ noon in Gardner
Fight for 15 Goes to the State House:Activists like you around the Commonwealth have been collecting signatures with Raise Up Mass to put a $15 minimum wage on the ballot. But we shouldn’t have to wait until next November to get that victory--not if the Legislature does its job.
There will be a hearing on a $15 minimum wage next Tuesday at noon in Gardner Auditorium. Show up to make it clear to Beacon Hill that the time to act is now!
Free before the lunch hour? There will be a briefing and lobby session in advance in Room 222 at 10:30 as well.
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Vann R. Newkirk II: Race, Identity, and Media
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 19, 2017, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Belfer Building, Bell Hall, 5th floor, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy
SPEAKER(S) Vann R. Newkirk II, staff writer at The Atlantic
COST Free
DETAILS Vann R. Newkirk II is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he covers politics and policy. He has covered health policy, civil rights, voting rights, environmental justice, race and class in American politics, and the evolution of black identity. Newkirk is also a co-founder of and contributing editor for Seven Scribes, a website and community dedicated to promoting writers and artists of color.
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In Pursuit of a Single Payer Plan: Lessons Learned
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 19, 2017, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Medical School, The Leadership Studio, 10th floor Kresge Building or Online at hsph.me/Shumlin
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Voices in Leadership @ HSPH
SPEAKER(S) Peter Shumlin, former Governor of Vermont
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/voices/events/peter-shumlin-former-governor-of-vermont/
CONTACT INFO Alison Barron - abarron@hsph.harvard.edu
DETAILS Governor Peter Shumlin served three terms as the 81st governor of the state of Vermont. He was a member of the Vermont House of Representatives from 1990 to 1993, and served as State Senator for the Windham County from 1993 to 2003 and from 2007 to 2011, and he was elected president of the senate for 10 of those years. Shumlin served as the chair of the Democratic Governors Association during his first two terms.
During his time in office, Governor Shumlin established Vermont as a leader on progressive policies, making the state the first to guarantee universal pre-kindergarten education for all 3 and 4-year-old children, pass a mandatory GMO labeling law, and achieve near universal health care coverage with the lowest rate of uninsured in the country. Under his leadership, Vermont consistently ranked among the top states in solar energy jobs per capita and enacted a number of laws to boost renewable energy production and combat climate change. Because of Vermont's leadership, Governor Shumlin was invited by President Obama to the Paris Climate Summit to push for a global climate agreement.
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The Line Between Hate and Debate
Tuesday, September 19
12:00 pm
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein West B, Room 2019, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP required to attend in person at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2017/luncheon/09/Bickert#RSVP
Event will be live webcast at 12:00 pm at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2017/luncheon/09/Bickert
featuring Monika Bickert, Facebook’s Head of Global Policy Management in conversation with Professor Jonathan Zittrain
The Internet has oft been billed as the great equalizer, breaking down barriers and increasing access to information and ideas. At the same time, it has allowed for the proliferation of abuse online – whether in the form of hate, harassment or offensive content. The freedom to express oneself is an important principle, but should it persist unfettered? How and where should we draw the line, and who – or what – should play a role in moderating online debate? Monika Bickert, Facebook’s Head of Global Policy Management, and Jonathan Zittrain, Faculty Director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and Harvard professor, discuss online abuse and the role that technology can play in addressing it.
About Monika
Monika Bickert is Facebook’s Head of Global Policy Management. Her global team manages the policies for what types of content can be shared on Facebook and how advertisers and developers can interact with the site. She also manages the company’s response to terrorist content online. Monika originally joined Facebook in 2012 as lead security counsel, advising the company on matters including child safety and data security.
Prior to joining Facebook, Monika served as Resident Legal Advisor at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, where she specialized in Southeast Asian rule of law development, including Southeast Asian governments’ response to terrorist insurgencies, child exploitation, and human trafficking. She also served as an Assistant United States Attorney for 11 years in Washington, DC, and Chicago, prosecuting federal crimes ranging from public corruption to gang-related violence. During her time in Chicago, Monika was the Northern District of Illinois’ coordinator for the prosecution of crimes against children, and she also received the Investigation of the Year award from Drug Enforcement Administration for U.S. v. James Austin, et al., a prosecution of 50 gang members and associates for coordinated narcotics trafficking that caused over a dozen deaths.
Monika received a B.A. from Rice University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
About Jonathan
Jonathan Zittrain is the George Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Professor of Computer Science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources at the Harvard Law School Library, and co-founder of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. His research interests include battles for control of digital property and content, cryptography, electronic privacy, the roles of intermediaries within Internet architecture, human computing, and the useful and unobtrusive deployment of technology in education.
He performed the first large-scale tests of Internet filtering in China and Saudi Arabia, and as part of the OpenNet Initiative co-edited a series of studies of Internet filtering by national governments: Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering; Access Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights, and Rule in Cyberspace; and Access Contested: Security, Identity, and Resistance in Asian Cyberspace.
He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Board of Advisors for Scientific American. He has served as a Trustee of the Internet Society and as a Forum Fellow of the World Economic Forum, which named him a Young Global Leader. He was a Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the Federal Communications Commission, and previously chaired the FCC’s Open Internet Advisory Committee. His book The Future of the Internet -- And How to Stop Itpredicted the end of general purpose client computing and the corresponding rise of new gatekeepers. That and other works may be found at <http://www.jz.org>.
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From Passive to Provocative: When Good Planning is Productive Troublemaking
Tuesday, September 19
12:30pm to 2:00pm
MIT, Building 9-255, City Arena, 105 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
The MIT Dept of Urban Studies and Planning, City Design and Development group, is pleased to invite MIT Guest Artist Newton Harrison to discuss what art practice can offer designers and planners in a lecture titled: From Passive to Provocative: When Good Planning is Productive Troublemaking.
Artists Newton and Helen Harrison function variously as historians, diplomats, ecologists, investigators and art activists. Often, their practice proposes solutions and involves not only public discussion, but also extensive mapping and documentation of these proposals in diverse art contexts. Past projects have focused on climate change, watershed restoration, and urban renewal, among other issues. Their first global warming works were done in the 1970s. The Harrisons’ visionary projects have led to changes in governmental policy and have expanded dialogue around previously unexplored issues leading to practical implementations such as Baltimore Promenade (1981) and A Vision for the Green Heart of Holland (1994).
DUSP is hosting Newton Harrison this fall, with three one-week visits. Come Meet Newton at the beginning of his residency and start a dialogue.
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Will we adapt? Extreme heat, labor production, and adaptation to climate change
Tuesday, September 19
1 pm
Harvard Global Health Institute, 42 Church Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://globalhealth.harvard.edu/event/climate-change-and-global-health-seminar-jisung-park-phd
Please join the Harvard Global Health Institute for their Climate Change and Global Health Seminar with Jisung Park, PhD.
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State House Hearing on Renewable Portfolio Standard
Tuesday, September 19
1 - 3 PM
Massachusetts State House, 24 Beacon Street, Room A-2 (may change - the guard at the metal detector will know the room #), Boston
The Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is a policy to support renewable energy development. The Massachusetts RPS requires that utility companies provide a specific percentage of renewable energy. Currently at 12%, it increases by 1% per year.
Raising the Renewable Portfolio Standard by 3% a year in Massachusetts will push the demand for local renewable sources of energy and get us to 50% renewable energy by 2030. Let's pack the hearing with Mothers Out Front members and supporters!
If you would like to meet with your legislator please contact gingerryan11@gmail.com.
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ESI PEOPLE & THE PLANET LECTURE: Johan Rockström
Tuesday, September 19
4:00pm to 6:00pm
MIT, Building 10-250, Huntington Hall, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
The Environmental Solutions Initiative People & the Planet Lecture Series presents individuals and organizations working to advance understanding and action toward a humane and sustainable future.
For more information, contact:
Hannah Loomis
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Space, Time, and Reality: A Lecture by Brian Greene
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 19, 2017, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Science, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Brian Greene, Professor of Physics and Mathematics, Cofounder of Columbia University’s Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, Columbia University; Cofounder of The World Science Festival; Author
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS One hundred years ago, Albert Einstein revolutionized our understanding of space and time, elevating them to dynamic participants in the evolution of the cosmos. Research in our era has pushed this revolution far further, suggesting that there may be additional dimensions of space and possibly even other universes. In this talk, Greene will explore these ideas visually as this lecture dives into the changes conceptions of space, time, and reality.
Professor Greene has had many media appearances, from Charlie Rose to Stephen Colbert. He is widely known to the public through his general-level lectures and writings. Register online and join us.
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The Stupid Terrorist: Lessons from History and the Social Sciences
Tuesday, September 19
4:30pm to 6:00pm
Northeastern, Renaissance Park, 909, 1135 Tremont Street, Boston
Please join us for a presentation by Max Abrahms, Assistant Professor of Political Science, for the first Fall semester event in the Controversial Issues in Security and Resilience Studies speaker series.
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Fascist in the White House? Steve Bannon’s Rage Against the Enlightenment
Tuesday, September 19
4:30 – 7PM
Tufts, Alumnae Hall, 419 Boston Avenue, Medford
Stephen K. Bannon has been called “Trump’s brain.” At the core of Bannon’s ideology is a series of simplistic binaries of dangerous “others” who threaten the good folks of “real America” which he weaves into an apocalyptic narrative of good against evil. Join Jeffrey Alexander, Professor of Sociology at Yale University, for a talk about Bannon and how he’s become a flag bearer for the American right. Cosponsored by the Departments of Sociology, Political Science, Tisch College, and CHAT.
Event Contact jessica.byrnes@tufts.edu
RSVP Information tischcollege.tufts.edu/events
Admission Free
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Careers in Sustainability Panel
Tuesday, September 19
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM EDT
Northeastern University, Curry Student Center, room 333 (Senate Chambers), 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Interested in a career related to sustainability? We can help!
On September 19th, Northeastern University’s Energy Systems Society, in collaboration with our Emerging Professionals Committee and our Greenbuild Volunteer Committee, will be hosting a panel discussion featuring a diverse group of sustainability professionals.
Join us to hear our panelists share stories and lessons learned from their career experiences. Get your questions answered and hear how Greenbuild can help launch you into your dream job.
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Safety First: Towards Safe Consumption Facilities in Massachusetts
A Community Forum
Tuesday, September 19
5:30pm to 7:30pm
Northeastern University School of Law, 400 Huntington Avenue, Boston
The devastating toll of the opioid crisis creates an imperative for decisive, evidence-driven, and cost-effective solutions. Safe consumption facilities (SCF) reduce drug overdose, while connecting drug users to treatment and other services. Amidst mounting calls for the creation of SCFs in Massachusetts, this forum will provide stakeholders with an opportunity to review the available evidence and voice diverse perspectives on this timely and salient issue.
Coffee and refreshments will be served
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authors@mit - Mitch Resnick - Lifelong Kindergarten
Tuesday, September 19
6:00pm to 7:00pm
The MIT Press Bookstore 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
The MIT Press Bookstore presents Mitch Resnick, Professor of Learning Research at the MIT Media Lab, discussing his book Lifelong Kindergarten on Tuesday, September 19, at 6:00 pm at the Bookstore. 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.
Kindergarten is becoming more like the rest of school, with with more time spent on math worksheets and phonics flashcards than building blocks and finger paint. Resnick, an expert in educational technologies who has worked closely with the LEGO toy company for thirty years, argues for exactly the opposite: the rest of school (even the rest of life) should be more like kindergarten.
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Cracking Bones, Gnawing Flesh, and Pondering Hearts: Body, Mind, and Medicine in Ancient Mesopotamia
Tuesday, September 19
6:00 pm
Harvard, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Ulrike Steinert, Research Associate, Babylonian Medicine, Department of History and Cultural Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
The human body has not changed significantly during recorded history—we share sensory faculties, metabolism, sexuality, aging, and mortality with even our distant ancestors. Concepts of body and self, on the other hand, evolve as cultural and historical constructs that vary widely between time and place. Drawing upon ancient texts and visual representations, Ulrike Steinert will discuss how categories of “body” and “mind” were construed in Mesopotamia more than three thousand years ago and will consider social aspects of the body at the intersection of cultural norms, ideals, and gender.
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NET NEUTRALITY
Tuesday, September 19
6:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Cloud City, 101 Main Street14th Floor, Cambridge
Come get your questions answered about net neutrality! Seats are limited, so sign up ASAP on Eventbrite, and enjoy both **FREE ICE CREAM** and the answers to questions like…
What is net neutrality…really?
Who are the major players and what are their agendas? What’s at stake for corporations, the federal government, and individual users?
What are the implications for the very real possibility that the FCC is going to kill net neutrality in the next several months?
…and many more.
At Civic Series, we help you think for yourself about the most critical issues of our time. Our speaker will give a 30-45 minute overview, followed by extensive Q&A and discussion. Hang out after the event for to grab a drink with our speaker…
SPEAKER: Russell Newman, Assistant Professor of Communications in Emerson College’s Institute for Liberal Arts & Interdisciplinary Studies.
Russell Newman’s work explores the intersections of the political economy of media, neoliberalism, the epistemological foundations of media policymaking, and activism surrounding communications policy. He is currently writing a book on the network neutrality debates in the US in relation to these elements. He teaches classes on the political economy of global communication, the sales effort, civic media and new forms of surveillance.
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The Science of Talking Science
Tuesday, September 19
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston Street, Johnson Building, Central Library, Boston
In the era of fake news and alternative facts, science communication is in a more precarious position than ever before. What is responsible for the communication gap between scientists and the general public? Is it possible to effectively and accurately convey scientific progress to all audiences? Or is science doomed to be obscured within the black hole of Internet click bait?
Join us for a conversation with Science in the News Co-Director Katie Wu as we answer these questions and more. We’ll discuss the different ways in which scientists can better engage their audiences, the ups and downs of communicating across professions, and how we can each sleuth our own way to scientific discovery.
Seating is first-come, first-serve in WGBH's Boston Public Library Studio. Overflow seating will be located in the Newsfeed Café and is not guaranteed.
Speaker bio: Katherine (Katie) Wu is a PhD candidate in the laboratory of Dr. Eric Rubin at Harvard University, where she studies how bacteria deal with stress so that she can one day learn to do the same. She obtained her bachelors and masters at Stanford University, where she studied biology and creative writing. For the past two years, she has served as Co-Director of Science in the News, a graduate student organization dedicated to making cutting edge science accessible to the general public and training student scientists to better communicate their work. Additionally, she directs curriculum for the Health Professions Recruitment and Exposure Program at Harvard, a health sciences and mentorship program for high school students from underserved and underrepresented backgrounds in the Boston Area. In her spare time, she serves as a heat-generating pillow for her cats and continues her quest to find the authentic tacos east of the Mississippi.
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Wednesday, September 20
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Boston Sustainability Breakfast
Wednesday, September 20
7:30 AM – 8:30 AM EDT
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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Covert Regime Change: Lessons from U.S.-backed Interventions During the Cold War
Wednesday, September 20
12:00-1:30pm
MIT, Building E40-496 Pye Room, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Lindsey O'Rourke, Boston College
Analyzing an original dataset of 66 covert regime change attempts by the United States during the Cold War, this project asks three questions: first, what motivates states to attempt foreign-imposed regime changes? Second, when do states prefer to conduct these operations covertly, as opposed to overtly? Third, how successful are these missions in achieving their foreign policy goals?
Lindsey A. O'Rourke is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Boston College. Her current research project focuses on the causes and consequences of covert regime change. Broader research interests include International Relations theory, U.S. Foreign policy, military strategy, and the Cold War.
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Debbie Plunkett: On the Outside Looking In - Perspectives Post-Government on Information Security
Wednesday, Sep. 20
12:15pm - 1:30pm
1 Brattle Square - Suite 470, Cambridge
Please join us for a conversation with former Director of the National Security Agency's Information Assurance Directorate, Ms. Debbie Plunkett. Lunch will be served.*
*This event is open to the public, but seating and lunch will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
More information at http://www.belfercenter.org/index.php/events
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What is Urban Science and What Does It Have To Do with Planning?
Wednesday, September 20
12:30pm to 2:30am
MIT, Building 9-255, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Part of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning's Planning Ideas that Matter: Urban Science: Regression to Technocracy or Pathway to Progressive Planning?
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The Retail Energy Supply Association's 2017 Energy Symposium
Wednesday, September 20
1:00 PM – 5:30 PM EDT
Courtyard by Marriott Boston Downtown, 275 Tremont Street, Boston
Leading issues affecting today’s competitive retail energy markets will be explored September 20 at the Retail Energy Supply Association’s 2017 Energy Competition Symposium in Boston.
Among the key issues to be discussed at the half-day event is the positive impact of competitive retail energy markets over the past two decades in terms of innovation and environmental improvement. Another panel, Women of Power, will highlight the accomplishments of women in the Energy Industry. The panel will focus on the challenges facing the energy business and the expertise and influence women have brought to the Industry.
Distinguished speakers include Patrick Woodcock, Assistant Secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources Commissioner Judith Judson, former Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Nora Mead Brownell, Greg Cunningham, Vice President and Director of the Conservation Law Foundation’s Clean Energy and Climate Change program, Tami Wilson, Chief Finance and Risk Officer, IGS Energy, President, Executive Vice President of Power Options, Meg Lusardi, Dan Dolan, President of the New England Power Generators Association and Dr. Philip O’Conner, Former Chair of the Illinois Commerce Commission, Principle at PROactive Strategies and author of Restructuring Recharged: The Superior Performance of Competitive Electricity Markets 2008-2016
Join us for the afternoon symposium addressing the leading issues affecting competitive retail energy markets today.
2017 Energy Symposium Agenda
12:30 - 1:00 Registration
1:00 - 1:05 Welcome Darrin Pfannenstiel, Sr. Vice President, Chief Regulatory Counsel
Stream Energy (President, RESA)
1:05 - 1:10 Introduction Marc Hanks, Senior Manager, Corporate & Regulatory Affairs,
Direct Energy (New England State Chair, RESA)
1:10 – 1:30 Keynote Speaker Patrick Woodcock, Assistant Secretary
Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs
1:30 – 1:45 Break
1:45 - 2:30 Panel Discussions – Women of Power – Industry Leaders and Challenges Facing the Industry
Moderator: Lindsay Cervenak, Regulatory Analyst
NRG Energy, Inc. (RESA Member)
Panelists: Judith Judson, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER)
Mary Sotos, Deputy Commissioner for Energy,
CT Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (invited)
Nora Brownell, ESPY Energy Solutions
Tami Wilson, Chief Finance and Risk Officer, IGS Energy
2:30 – 2:45 Networking Break
2:45 – 3:15 Guest Speaker Dr. Philip O’Connor – Restructuring Recharged
3:15 – 4:00 Restructuring Recharged: Markets, Innovation and the Environment
Moderator: Dan Allegretti, Vice President of Governmental Affairs - East
Constellation (RESA Member)
Panelists: Dan Dolan, New England Power Generators Association
Meg Lusardi, Power Options
Greg Cunningham, Conservation Law Foundation
Philip O’Connor, PROactive Strategies
4:00 Concluding Remarks – Tracy McCormick, Executive Director, RESA
4:00 – 5:30 Reception
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What Do Hurricanes Harvey and Irma Portend?
Wednesday, September 20
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 54-100, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Kerry A. Emanuel, Cecil & Ida Green Professor of Atmospheric Science, Co-Director of the Lorenz Center
Natural disasters are the result of the interaction of a natural phenomenon with human beings and their built environments. Globally and in the U.S., large increases in coastal populations are causing corresponding increases in hurricane damage and these are now being compounded by rising sea levels and changing storm characteristics owing to anthropogenic climate change. In this talk, I will describe projections of changing hurricane activity over the rest of this century and what such projections tell us about how the probabilities of hurricanes like Harvey and Irma have already changed and are likely to continue to do so.
About the Speaker
Kerry Emanuel is a prominent meteorologist and climate scientist who specializes in moist convection in the atmosphere, and tropical cyclones. His research interests focus on tropical meteorology and climate, with a specialty in hurricane physics. His interests also include cumulus convection, the role of clouds, water vapor, and upper-ocean mixing in regulation of climate, and advanced methods of sampling the atmosphere in aid of numerical weather prediction.
Emanuel received an S.B. degree in Earth and Planetary Sciences and a Ph.D. in Meteorology (1978) both from MIT. After completing his doctorate, he joined the faculty of the Atmospheric Sciences department of the University of California at Los Angeles where he remained for three years, with a brief hiatus filming tornadoes in Oklahoma and Texas.
In 1981 he joined the faculty of the Department of Meteorology at MIT and was promoted to Full Professor in 1987 in what had since becomes the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). In 1989 he assumed directorship of EAPS Center for Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, a post he held until 1997. Subsequently he chaired the EAPS Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate from 2009 to 2012. He is co-founder of the MIT Lorenz Center, a climate think tank which fosters creative approaches to learning how climate works.
Professor Emanuel is the author or co-author of over 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and three books, including Divine Wind: The History and Science of Hurricanes, published by Oxford University Press, and What We Know about Climate Change, published by the MIT Press.
Editorial Comment: Kerry Emanuel is one of THE experts on hurricanes and climate change. If he doesn’t know what the recent hurricanes portend, no one does.
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Shaping a Shared Narrative in a Fractured World
WHEN Wednesday, Sep. 20, 2017, 4:15 – 5:25 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, Institute of Politics, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Center for Public Leadership, Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy
SPEAKER(S) The 2017 Malcolm H. Wiener Lecture on International Political Economy
Klaus Schwab MPA 1967
Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum
David Gergen (Moderator)
Public Service Professor of Public Leadership
Director, Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School
CONTACT INFO JFK Jr. Forum Office
617-495-1380
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Climate Change Investor Roundtable
Wednesday, September 20
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM EDT
Unitarian Universalist Association, 24 Farnsworth Street, Boston
Climate change is widely recognized as a systemic challenge with short and long-term implications for the way we do business and the way we live our lives. This may leave some feeling powerless, while others may feel empowered and hopeful for progress.
Our role as sustainable, responsible and impact investors - who value risks and opportunities, who research complex trends, and who engage with companies on ESG issues - is crucial in addressing the impacts of climate change. Please join us for our September event at the UUA for an open discussion about what SRI investors can do NOW to fight climate change. Who should attend:
Those who are looking to be inspired during a time of great uncertainty
Those who are hoping to brainstorm strategies to keep pushing the needle forward
Those who work with existing or new tools for mitigation and adaptation to climate change
Those who are excited to enjoy provided snacks and beverages with colleagues
We hope you can join us for this important discussion!
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Women In Technology Int'l Boston Event: How "Smart" Can a City Be?
Wednesday, September 20
5:30 pm - 8:30 pm
TRUEMOTION, 186 Lincoln Street, 6th floor, Boston
Cost: $25
It's likely you don't think too much about your city's operations and infrastructure, except maybe when you are sitting in Boston traffic... Still, cities today - like many businesses - are mobilizing to transform their systems and processes to more effectively reach their goals and prepare for the future. "Smart City" initiatives focus on using emerging technologies and disruptive service models to meet citizens' rising expectations, attract new business, improve services delivery, and develop sustainably.
Join WITI and IDC Government Insights analyst, Ruthbea Yesner, as we explore how cities across the globe are embracing systemic strategies to transform their operations. Ruthbea will first provide an overview of smart city strategies, and then will delve more deeply into initiatives around public safety, transportation, and urban mobility. She'll highlight new programs and interesting innovation globally, including how the city of Boston is leveraging smart technologies for its own development.
Featured Speakers
Ruthbea Yesner is a Vice President with IDC Government Insights (http://www.idc.com/prodserv/insights/#government) and the "Smart Cities Strategies" research and consulting practice at IDC. In this role, Ms. Yesner coordinates the global government and Smart City research team worldwide. Ms. Yesner's research discusses the strategies and execution of relevant Smart City technologies and non-technology best practice areas, such as governance, innovation, partnerships, and business models essential for Smart City development.
Ms. Yesner's research includes the Internet of Things, Big Data analytics, cloud computing, mobility and social media in public works, transportation, public safety, smart water, community engagement and Open Data initiatives. Ms. Yesner contributes to consulting engagements to support state and local governments' Smart City strategies and IT vendors' overall Smart City market strategies. Ms. Yesner also contributes content to the IDC Community and to publications such as Government Technology, Government Computer News, CivSource, M2M Evolution, CIO magazine, SmartGrid News, Connected World and FedTech magazine. She has contributed to U.S. publications such as American City & County, StateTech, and .Gov magazine, covering technology in the Middle East, and iThome, a Taiwanese IT magazine.
Ms. Yesner's publications include a chapter with PTI and the Global Institute on the first developmental model for smart cities in "Smart Cities for a Bright Sustainable Future: A Global Perspective," which is available on Amazon. Her latest publication is on smart city measurements and assessments, published in February 2017 in "Managing for Social Impact: Innovations in Responsible Enterprise," by Springer. She is a frequent speaker and panelist at industry events.
Schedule of Events
5:30 pm - Registration, Networking, and Appetizers
6:30 pm - WITI Overview and Speaker Introduction
6:45 pm - Program and Discussion
8:15 pm - Raffle Prizes and Wrap Up
8:30 pm - Adjourn
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“Changing the Pipeline into Politics” – Lives in Law and Policy Speaker Series
Wednesday, September 20
6:00pm to 8:00pm
Northeastern, Renaissance Park, 909, 1135 Tremont Street, Boston
Join the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs for a discussion on law and policy in a time of polarization with Emily Cherniack, with a focus on how to change the pipeline into politics.
This event is part of the School’s Lives in Law and Policy Speaker Series, which aims to provide opportunities for students, alumni, and members of the Northeastern community to hear and learn from leading figures in law and policy.
About Emily Cherniack:
Cherniack is steeped in the traditions of servant leadership. From her service in AmeriCorps and employment with City Year AmeriCorps, to being part of the founding team of Be the Change—where she led a coalition of over 200 organizations to engage 250,000 people for a Day of Action in support of the $6 billion Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act of 2009—Emily has worked tirelessly to serve our country and support others who serve.
Emily’s path to politics came when her boss and mentor, Alan Khazei, decided to run for the U.S. Senate in 2009. Khazei asked Emily to become his Deputy Campaign Manager and, although he was defeated, Emily learned a great deal from his campaign and the power of political leaders who chose to serve country before self. This experience led Emily to conclude that our current system for recruiting political talent is broken. The current talent pipeline is intentionally exclusive, and has significant barriers that prevent transformational leaders from successfully running for office; the only way to change that is to change the pipeline. New Politics was founded in 2013 to address exactly that.
Emily graduated from George Washington University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice and Psychology and a Masters Degree in Education Policy. She lives in Boston.
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Boston Medical Center Rooftop Farm Tour
Wednesday, September 20
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Boston Medical Center Place, Boston
Cost: $10 – $15
Join us for a tour of Boston Medical Center’s rooftop farm! The once barren roof of the hospital’s power plant building is now the largest rooftop farm in the city. The 7,000-square-foot farm’s produce helps stock the center’s food pantry and supplements food served to the hospital’s patients. The garden is expected to produce 15,000 pounds of food this growing season!
The rooftop farm reduces BMC’s carbon footprint by increasing green space, adding carbon-breathing plants, reducing the building’s energy use and absorbing and slowing the flow of rainwater. In addition, by producing food onsite, BMC is decreasing the energy required to transport food.
Lindsay Allen, BMC farm manager will lead our tour.
We will gather for food and drinks at a local cafe in the South End after this tour.
If you have a building that you would like to suggest for a tour, please email this event through the contact link. We look forward to hearing more about how your site would be an interesting project for our community.
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Deadly Double Helix - Danielle Allen
WHEN Wednesday, Sep. 20, 2017, 7 – 9 p.m.
WHERE Cambridge Forum, First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Cambridge Forum, Harvard Bookstore, the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Mass Cultural Council, and The Lowell Institute
SPEAKER(S) Danielle Allen
COST Free
CONTACT INFO director@cambridgeforum.org
DETAILS Cambridge Forum is pleased to present Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor and Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard, to discuss her new memoir “CUZ”. The book documents the events which conspired to cause the untimely death of her young cousin, Michael, on the streets of Los Angeles in 2009. The book looks at how a “deadly double helix” of narcotics and street gangs ultimately entrapped her cousin, as with countless others, leading to his incarceration and death. Allen asks if the current justice system only perpetuates the injustices it is meant to address?
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Beyond Test Scores
Wednesday, September 20
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Harvard Coop, 1400 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Jack Schneider, author
Beyond Test Scores reframes current debates over school quality by offering new approaches to educational data that can push us past our unproductive fixation on test scores. Using the highly diverse urban school district of Somerville, Massachusetts, as a case study, Schneider and his research team developed a new framework to more fairly and comprehensively assess educational effectiveness. And by adopting a wide range of measures aligned with that framework, they were able to more accurately capture a broader array of school strengths and weaknesses. Their new data not only provided parents, educators, and administrators with a clearer picture of school performance, but also challenged misconceptions about what makes a good school.
About the Author
Jack Schneider is Assistant Professor of Education at the College of the Holy Cross and Director of Research for the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment
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How EDF's legal team is protecting the Clean Power Plan and other climate victories
Wednesday, September 20
8:00 PM EDT
Webinar
Featuring:
Martha Roberts, Attorney, U.S. Climate Legal and Regulatory Program
Tomás Carbonell, Director of Regulatory Policy and Lead Attorney
President Trump can’t wipe away all our climate initiatives without a legal fight, and we plan to oppose him at every step.
Join EDF's legal experts for an insider look at what we're doing to defend the Clean Power Plan and other climate victories in court.
Following a brief presentation, our speakers will remain available to answer your questions live on the air.
The event has limited capacity, so please RSVP to reserve your spot and receive instructions for joining.
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Thursday, September 21
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Dr. Hector Ruiz: Technology, Leadership, and the Courage of Conviction
Thursday, September 21
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM EDT
MIT, Building 4-237, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
As an immigrant from humble beginnings, Dr. Hector Ruiz believes that technology and education open doors for people. Rising to lead Advanced Micro Devices in the fight for innovation against the forces of status quo, Hector shares his life story —the people who impacted his life immeasurably, his education, the doors of opportunity, and the challenges faced throughout his career. Hector discusses our shared responsibility for the future and helping open doors for new generations.
Dr. Hector Ruiz, an accomplished chief executive and technology luminary, is driven by the idea that technology and education dramatically improve people's lives. For nearly three decades, Hector has helped build and guide top-tier global technology companies (including Texas Instruments, Motorola, and AMD) while also promoting exploration of technology's ability to address social issues.
As CEO of AMD, Hector spearheaded the 50/15 initiative setting an aggressive goal to have half the world connected to the Internet by 2015. He also received numerous accolades, including: the Semico Bellwether Award (2009); Executive of the Year - 2005 (EE Times); CEO of the Year – 2005 (Electronic Business); and Top 25 Business Leader - 2006 (FORTUNE Magazine). In 2013, Hector successfully published the book, “Slingshot: AMD’s Fight to Free an Industry from the Ruthless Grip of Intel,” a book that vividly recounts his bet-the-company decision in 2005 to file an antitrust case against its much larger rival.
Hector currently serves on UT's College of Engineering Foundation Advisory Council. In 2006, he was selected as a Distinguished Engineering Graduate of UT-Austin and later as Distinguished Alum of Rice University. In 2012, he was selected for the Distinguished Alumni Award, the Texas Exes' highest honor. Hector currently serves as a Trustee Emeriti of Rice University and is on the Board of Trustees of the RAND Corporation and the Board of Directors of Breakthrough Austin.
Prior to these appointments, Hector served as a member of President George W. Bush's Council of Advisors for Science and Technology. He also served on the Board for Spansion Inc., Darden Restaurants, the Eastman Kodak Co., and the Semiconductor Industry Association.
His evolving portfolio of organizations and investments represent his passion to explore new frontiers for creating positive impact — and help others find their roads as well.
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Public Webinar: Concrete Sustainability Hub (Pavements)
Thursday, September 21
11:00am to 12:00pm
Life cycle assessment (LCA) considers environmental impact across all life-cycle phases. For pavements, this includes operation, maintenance, and end of life phases, as well as factors such as traffic delay, lighting demand, and future maintenance. This webinar will present MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) models that quantify the environmental impact of pavements from manufacturing to disposal, and also offer a detailed analysis of the use phase.
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Risks and regulation of fracking: A brief history
Thursday, September 21
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene Center, 10 Upper Campus Road, Medford
Kate Konschnik, Executive Director, Harvard Environmental Law Program
The United States has been the world's top producer of oil and natural gas for five straight years. The increased scale and intensity of oil and gas development in modern America ahead of a regulatory framework has raised concerns about a number of environmental and public health issues. This talk will touch on three areas of concern: the lack of transparency about the chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing process; spills of chemicals and wastewater from oil and gas production sites; and earthquakes induced by production and wastewater disposal.
Kate Konschnik is the Executive Director of the Harvard Environmental Law Program, where she manages Harvard Law School's applied research and decision-maker outreach, in the areas of climate, clean energy, and environmental law. Previously, Kate was the founding Director of the Program's Environmental
Policy Initiative, an independent policy shop delivering real-world legal analysis and policy-relevant talks, white papers, and evaluation tools. Kate is also a lecturer at Harvard Law School. Prior to joining Harvard, Kate served as Chief Environmental Counsel to U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and directed his staff on the Oversight Subcommittee of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. From 2002 to 2009, Kate also served as a Trial Attorney in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the United States Department of Justice. Kate holds a B.A. in political science from Tufts University and a J.D. with honors from UC Hastings College of the Law.
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Science, Sustainability, and the Future of Food
Thursday, September 21
3 pm
Harvard, Science Center, Hall C, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Ever wondered how to reconcile your love for meat with your love for the planet? Or how our global food system will realistically satisfy and nourish the world's rapidly growing population? Join Natalie Kindred, Senior Researcher at Harvard Business School's Agribusiness Department, and Pat Brown, CEO and Founder of Impossible Foods, for a lively Q&A discussion on science, entrepreneurship, and the defense of food culture, justice, and sustainability. Come curious and hungry.
The discussion will be followed by a reception at Clover Food Lab from 4:30-6 pm, featuring their newest menu item, made with Impossible Burger.
Pat Brown is the CEO and Founder of Impossible Foods. He is also a Professor Emeritus and Howard Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at Stanford University's School of Medicine. His research at Stanford has covered the invention of the DNA microarray, gene expression pattern detection and profiling across whole genomes; and pioneering the use of gene expression patterns to improve classification, diagnosis and individualized treatment of human cancers and HIV. Pat is a co-founder of the Public Library of Science (PLOS), was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2002, and is a member of the Institute of Medicine. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the American Cancer Society Medal of Honor, and the NAS Award in Molecular Biology.
Impossible Foods makes delicious meat, fish and dairy foods directly from plants. The company’s mission is to transform the global food system to support 9 billion humans by 2050. The company’s first product is the Impossible Burger, which first launched in 2016 at Chef David Chang’s restaurant, Momofuku Nishi, in New York City, and is now available in several restaurants across the US.
Admission is free, and space is limited.
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Food Systems WEBINAR: How Regional Food System Investment Creates More Equitable Communities
Thursday, September 21
3:30 – 5 pm EST
Wallace Center and the National Good Food Network (NGFN) will be hosting a webinar titled, “How Regional Food System Investment Creates More Equitable Communities.” Speakers will discuss the role that food business incubators, food hubs, and financial institutions can do to integrate social equity into food systems projects and programs.
Presenters:
Jim Barham, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Development (Moderator)
John Flory and Jaime Villalaz – Latino Economic Development Center
Benjamin Bartley, La Montañita Food Co-op
Olivia Rebanal, Capital Impact Partners
This webinar is part of a wider effort to promote the recently published report, Harvesting Opportunity: The Power of Regional Food System Investments to Transform Communities – a collaborative effort by the Federal Reserve System and USDA to highlight food systems investment opportunities across the U.S.
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The Ecology and Evolution of Mutualism
Thursday, September 21
4:00pm
MIT, Building 48-316, 15 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Dr. Judith Bronstein, Ecology and Evolution Biology, University of Arizona
Abstract: Mutualisms are cooperative interactions between pairs of species. Extensive information has long been available on the natural history of mutualism. However, a conceptual understanding of these enigmatic interactions has only begun to coalesce over the past few years. Most of the fundamental questions about mutualisms – how, when, and why they arise, how they can persist in the face of the apparent “temptation to cheat”, how they structure the communities in which they occur, and what their fate might be in a changing world – remain unanswered, and indeed barely explored. I will give a sweeping overview of major themes in the current study of the ecology and evolution of mutualism, identifying both emergent patterns and exciting new forefronts of research.
Faculty Host: Professor Serguei Saavedra
Visit Dr. Bronstein's Website: http://judithbronstein.com
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Reducing Emissions by Pricing Carbon: How Microsoft and Yale are leading the charge
Thursday, September 21
4:00pm – 5:30pm
BU, 1 Silber Way, Boston
RSVP at http://www.bit.ly/BU-GRC
Please join the Boston Green Ribbon Commission and Boston University for a panel discussion on Internal Carbon Funds on Thursday, September 21, from 4:00-5:30 pm at the Metcalf Trustee Center on the 9th floor of 1 Silber Way. This event was originally scheduled to take place last March, but was postponed due to inclement weather.
From college campuses to Davos, carbon pricing is a policy instrument regarded by climate scientists, economists, and political and business leaders as an important part of efforts to mitigate global climate change.
We have an exciting panel:
Microsoft's Liz Willmott will explain how in its first five years the company's carbon pricing program changed the company's culture, reduced carbon emissions by 9.5 million metric tons, purchased more than 14M MWh of renewable energy, helped reduce energy consumption more than 10% across the Redmond campus, and impacted more than 7 million peoples' lives in emerging nations. Liz is Microsoft's environmental sustainability program manager.
Yale's Casey Pickett will present the experience of implementing Yale’s carbon charge program following the leadership decision to use the campus as a test bed for carbon pricing. Casey is Director of the Carbon Charge at Yale.
BU's Kenneth Pucker will discuss effective carbon pricing and organizational behavior based on accurate measurement of climate impacts. Ken is the former COO of Timberland and Lecturer, Organizational Behavior, at the Questrom School of Business.
ProPublica's Andrew Revkin will moderate. Andy is Senior Reporter on Climate Change at ProPublica and former environmental reporter at The New York Times, where he wrote the Dot Earth Blog.
This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited. We apologize for the scheduling conflict with Rosh Hashanah, but, unfortunately, this was the only date in the fall that could accommodate all four speakers.
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A Brief History of Neoliberal Problems
WHEN Thursday, Sep. 21, 2017, 4:15 – 6:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, Adolphus Busch Hall at Cabot Way, Hoffmann Room
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR New Directions in European History Study Group
SPEAKER(S) Quinn Slobodian, Associate Professor of History, Wellesley College; Visiting Scholar, CES, Harvard University
CONTACT INFO James McSpadden
DETAILS The intellectual history of neoliberalism is often told as one of conviction, consistency and coherence with notes of inevitability. As neoliberalism shows its cracks, it is a good time to revisit the problems that have dogged the leading thinkers of the circle around F. A. Hayek for the last seven decades. Some problems are predictable: securing legitimacy in the face of economic inequality and evading the danger of democracy undoing the encasement of the market. Less well known are those covered by my talk: the problems of culture and race (is market rationality the monopoly of certain populations?), design (can markets be made or must they grow?), intellectual property (can owning knowledge stifle new ideas?) and scale (is multilevel economic governance possible or is secession to self-governed zones the only path to security?). A history of neoliberal problems from the inside places the current crisis of world order in a new light and brings us closer to the thinking of those who claim their first allegiance to the superior wisdom of the market.
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Future of Surgery
Thursday, September 21
5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Venture Cafe at Cambridge Innovation Center, 5th floor, 1 Broadway, Cambridge
Do you have a novel surgical product or process? Join B. Braun at Venture Cafe for this pitch competition on the Future of Surgery!
For over 175 years, B. Braun Medical Inc., has been a leader in infusion therapy and pain management, develops, manufactures, and markets innovative medical products and services to the healthcare industry. They are looking to connect with startup partners who are developing the technology for the future of surgery.
If you would like to pitch please sign up here!
Introduction by: Caroll H. Neubauer, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, B. Braun will give a short introduction to B. Braun and open the pitch competition. Medical device startups can apply beforehand to pitch to a panel of investors, including B. Braun as a strategic investor and local Angel and VC investors. The winning team will be invited to the B. Braun North America headquarters in Pennsylvania where senior executives will provide coaching and mentoring. B. Braun will cover travel expenses.
Caroll H. Neubauer, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, B. Braun
Caroll Heinz Neubauer is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of B. Braun of America and B. Braun Medical Inc. (B. Braun), a global leader in infusion therapy and pain management and a pioneer in passive safety devices and PVC-free and DEHP-free products Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA. Mr. Neubauer oversees the company’s North American operations and serves on the B. Braun Global Board in Germany.
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Platforms in the Public Interest: Lessons from Minitel
Thursday, September 21
5:00pm to 6:30pm
MIT, Building 56-114, 21 Ames Sreet, Cambridge
Platforms such as Amazon, Google, and Facebook dominate the internet today, providing private infrastructures for public culture. These systems are so massive that it’s easy to forget that the digital world was not always like this. More than two decades before widespread Internet access, millions of people in France were already online, chatting, gaming, buying, selling, searching, and flirting. This explosion of digital culture came via Minitel, a simple video terminal provided for free to anyone with a telephone line. After thirty years in service, Minitel offers a wealth of data for thinking about internet policy and an alternative model for the internet’s future: a public platform for private innovation.
Julien Mailland studies telecommunications networks design, law, and policy through the lens of history. He is an assistant professor of telecommunications at Indiana University’s Media School, a research associate with the Computer History Museum Internet History Program, and a lawyer with the fintech industry.
Kevin Driscoll studies popular culture and computing. His research builds alternative models for platform governance and online community from the internet of the 1980s and 1990s. Recent projects examine dial-up BBSs in the US and Minitel in France. Kevin is an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Virginia.
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Will You Still Have a Job When the Robots Arrive? AI and its Impact on the Workforce
WHEN Thursday, Sep. 21, 2017, 6 – 7:10 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, Institute of Politics, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR JFK Jr. Forum
Institute of Politics
The Future Society, AI Initiative
SPEAKER(S) Jason Furman, Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy, Harvard Kennedy School, Chairman, White House Council of Economic Advisors (2013-2017)
Francesca Rossi, Research Scientist, IBM Watson
Wilson White, Public Policy and Government Relations Senior Counsel, Google
Greg Ip (Moderator), Chief Economics Commentator, The Wall Street Journal
CONTACT INFO JFK Jr. Forum Office
617-495-1380
LINK http://iop.harvard.edu/forum/will-you-still-have-job-when-robots-arrive-ai-and-its-impact-workforce
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Tech and Education
Thursday, 21 September
6:30 – 8:30 pm EDT
GA Boston, 125 Summer Street 13th Floor, Boston
TECH AND...is a monthly event series where we host thought-leaders from a specific industry and explore new intersections between their field and technology.
TECH AND EDUCATION
In September we are partnering with LearnLaunch to explore the intersection of Education and Technology.
Speaker: Anne Bosman, Regional Director (Boston), General Assembly
Why It Matters:
Around the world and here at home, entrepreneurs and educators are redefining education with democratized learning models, custom education pathways, and innovative methods for students to learn 21st-century skills. We are entering a new education paradigm - one that is hyper-focused on learning by doing, skill building for a new economy, and accessibility via online and offline community platforms.
With the pace in which technology is changing, education is no longer reserved for k-12 and university students. We are quickly becoming the generation of lifelong learning and the way we absorb information and train and skill up our workforce is continuously evolving. Meet local startups and influencers focused on upskilling and workforce development programs for students of all ages, and hear how they predict education will impact our economic future.
What You’ll Take Away:
Hear about trends and innovations in the education space
Learn how the education paradigm has shifted
Understand how education is linked to economic development
Hear what Boston-based startups are doing to improve the local workforce through education and training
LearnLaunch
LearnLaunch Institute catalyzes a community that drives innovation to transform learning and increase achievement. Our education innovation ecosystem mobilizes educators, entrepreneurs, learners, investors, and industry affiliates. As a nonprofit, the Institute offers learning opportunities, supports services, and a school pilot network. We believe in expanding access to learning that is engaging, personalized, and effective. Edtech is a critical component of achieving this vision at scale. For more information, visit www.learnlaunch.org.
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UNITE Resilient Cities: Action for Readiness
Thursday, September 21
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Shepley Bulfinch, 2 Seaport Lane, 12th floor, Seaport East, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/unite-resilient-cities-action-for-readiness-tickets-36401368473
Cost: $0 – $20
Who is responsible for taking action?
The concept of urban resilience is the ability of residents, institutions, neighborhoods, businesses, and infrastructure within a city to survive, adapt, and thrive especially when faced with incredible stress, sudden spikes in activity, severe weather conditions, or population growth. Long term planning, research, and engaged leadership are required for a successful resiliency plan, but social equity and responsibility are also major factors in the urban resiliency equation.
Our Fall UNITE panel will feature ideas around the following questions:
How are economic sectors, landowners, industries, and society members held accountable for actions that impact the resilience of the entire city?
Does the proposed action plan consider a variety of social statuses and income levels?
Are marginalized groups being included in the resilience decision making process?
In the city of Boston, we are fortunate to have several organizations, community leaders, and trailblazing institutions dedicated to ensuring the city’s resiliency facing the climate and social challenges that may lie on the road ahead. With these thoughts in mind, who should take action next?
Our diverse panel discussion is hosted by Shepley Bulfinch and is set to take place on Thursday evening September 21st.
Doors open at 6:30pm; Discussion begins at 7:00pm.
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We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe
Thursday, September 21
7:30 pm
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge
Jorge Cham, creator of PhD Comics & PhD in Robotics, and Daniel Whiteson, particle physicist & researcher at CERN
There are so many things we don’t know about the Universe. For example, what is most of the Universe made of? What is dark matter? Where does dark energy come from? Why does the universe have a speed limit? What (or who) is attacking earth with tiny, super-fast particles? And for that matter…what is matter? After generations of human research, brilliant scientific minds, and crazy technological advances we can confidently answer all of these questions the same way: we have no idea. In their new book We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe, Cham and Whiteson investigate why a vast portion of our universe (read: most of it) is still a mystery, and what a lot of smart people are doing to understand it. After the talk, copies of Cham and Whiteson’s book "We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe" will be available for purchase and signing.
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Friday, September 22- Sunday, September 24
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The 4th Annual JuggleMIT is the largest juggling festival in Massachusetts, offering a weekend of workshops, activities, shows, and fun for the entire MIT community (and general public)! The festival kicks off on Friday with open juggling, introductory classes, and a stage show. A full-day workshop and activity schedule on Saturday culminates in the JuggleMIT Circus Show, featuring 10 world-renowned jugglers and circus performers. Sunday features more workshops, MIT-themed juggling games, and prizes! So whether you want to learn a new skill or just unwind with friends, come check out JuggleMIT and experience a one-of-a-kind weekend of crazy good fun!
Ticketing:
Full Festival Pass (includes access to all festival activities and a ticket to the Circus Show):
General Admission: $30
Non-MIT student with ID: $20
MIT student with ID: $10
Children (12 & up) and Seniors (62 & better): $15
JuggleMIT Circus Show (included in Full Festival Pass):
General Admission: $15
Student with ID: $10
Children (12 & up) and Seniors (62 & better): $8
Event Schedule:
Friday (5pm - 1am, Morss Hall):
5 PM: Doors open for JuggleMIT!
5 PM - 1 AM: Check-in, registration, and open juggling
6-8 PM: Introductory workshops
8:30 PM: Friday Night Stage Show
Saturday (9 AM - 1 AM, Morss Hall & Kresge Auditorium):
9 AM: Doors open!
10 AM - 6 PM: Workshops, events, & open juggling
7-9 PM: JuggleMIT Circus Show
9 PM - 1 AM: Open juggling, glow juggling out on the McDermott Dot lawn ("The Dot")
Sunday (9 AM - 4 PM, Lobby 10 and Lobby 13):
9 AM: Doors open!
10 AM - 4 PM: Workshops & open juggling
1-2:30 PM: Juggling games & prizes
4 PM: JuggleMIT closes. See you next year!
Check back here for the full Workshop Schedule shortly!
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HACKtheMACHINE | US Navy Digital Experience
Friday, September 22 through Sunday, September 24
MIT Building 32, MIT CSAIL, Ray and Maria Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
You are invited to attend a unique U.S. Navy Digital Experience hosted at MIT CSAIL on September 22-24.
HACKtheMACHINE Boston, is a weekend digital experience on board the USS Constitution and at MIT CSAIL that aims to engage a new generation of innovators and help support the U.S. Navy in its mission to maintain, train and equip combat ready naval forces. Participants will take on some of the greatest maritime security challenges of our time through real-life scenarios, from hacking a ship in a game of maritime capture the flag, using data science to increase fleet efficiency to applying AR/VR technology to create human to machine teaming tools that aid in disaster relief efforts.
HACKtheMACHINE will give you access to equipment and data that has never been seen in public, as well as connect you with leading mentors and subject matter experts. You’ll also be joining a growing community helping to innovate, create maritime security and have a positive effect in a changing world through your ideas, innovations and critical thinking about cybersecurity, machine learning and rapid prototyping.
Questions? Contact Jessica Gibson at gibsonj@mit.edu.
Register: http://bit.ly/2wJoDti
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Friday, September 22
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Harvard People's Hub@ Global People’s Summit for Sustainable Development
WHEN Friday, Sep. 22, 2017, 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, 124 MT. AUBURN - SUITE 160 ROOM 105, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR International Development PIC, with Future Society and Health Policy PIC, student organizations at Harvard Kennedy School,
CONTACT INFO Sophie_Feintuch@hks18.harvard.edu
DETAILS The International Development PIC is co-hosting the Harvard People's Hub @ The Global People's Summit +SocialGood. Join us on 22 September during the United Nations General Assembly! The first-ever global virtual summit explores social innovation, disruptive technology, film and media, and the power of mobilizing networks to address some of the most challenging issues of our time.
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Emerging Technologies (HKS Conference)
Friday, September 22
8:30 AM
Harvard Kennedy School (Starr Auditorium), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Second Conference on Emerging Technologies and Global Development
Economic transformation, meeting human needs, and protecting the environment have emerged as global grand challenges. One way to address these challenges is to harness the world’s abundant scientific, technological, and engineering knowledge to meet specific human needs. While some of the technologies offer solutions to global challenges, they also threaten to disrupt incumbent industries and social organization. Technological anxiety and outright opposition to disruptive technologies, however, may undermine such efforts.
The aim of this conference is to map emerging technologies that could address global grand challenges, review their disruptive characteristics, identify potential sources of social concern, and outline business models and public policies on how to address the social concerns. The conference builds on the findings of the newly published book, Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies (Oxford University Press, 2016).
The conference will address emerging technologies in fields such agriculture, head, manufacturing and infrastructure. It will incorporate demonstrations from entrepreneurs who are using innovative technologies to address these challenges.
The keynote speaker is Professor Mark Zachary Taylor at the Center for International Strategy, Technology, and Policy of the Georgia Institute of Technology. He speaks on his highly-acclaimed book, The Politics of Innovation, which explores why some nations are better than others in harnessing emerging technologies for development.
Contact: - TG Coordinator - 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Mailbox 53 Cambridge, MA 02138
Harvard Kennedy School - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
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The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought
Friday, September 22
3:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes Tufts University's DENNIS C. RASMUSSEN for a discussion of his latest book, The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought.
About The Infidel and the Professor
David Hume is widely regarded as the most important philosopher ever to write in English, but during his lifetime he was attacked as “the Great Infidel” for his skeptical religious views and deemed unfit to teach the young. In contrast, Adam Smith was a revered professor of moral philosophy, and is now often hailed as the founding father of capitalism. Remarkably, the two were best friends for most of their adult lives, sharing what Dennis Rasmussen calls the greatest of all philosophical friendships. The Infidel and the Professor is the first book to tell the fascinating story of the friendship of these towering Enlightenment thinkers―and how it influenced their world-changing ideas.
The book follows Hume and Smith’s relationship from their first meeting in 1749 until Hume’s death in 1776. It describes how they commented on each other’s writings, supported each other’s careers and literary ambitions, and advised each other on personal matters, most notably after Hume’s quarrel with Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Members of a vibrant intellectual scene in Enlightenment Scotland, Hume and Smith made many of the same friends (and enemies), joined the same clubs, and were interested in many of the same subjects well beyond philosophy and economics―from psychology and history to politics and Britain’s conflict with the American colonies. The book reveals that Smith’s private religious views were considerably closer to Hume’s public ones than is usually believed. It also shows that Hume contributed more to economics―and Smith contributed more to philosophy―than is generally recognized.
Vividly written, The Infidel and the Professor is a compelling account of a great friendship that had great consequences for modern thought.
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Graduate Lecture Series: Chien Wang (EAPS)
Friday, September 22
4:30pm to 5:30pm
MIT, Building 54-915, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
About the Speaker
Chien Wang is a Senior Research Scientist of Atmospheric Chemistry of the Center for Global Change Science and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. His research interests include atmospheric aerosols and clouds, tropospheric chemistry, and the roles of aerosol-cloud interaction in atmospheric chemistry, precipitation, and climate dynamics. He is also interested in examining the climate impacts of anthropogenic activities that alter atmospheric compositions or change the Earth’s surface properties or energy budget. His researches have been generously supported by NSF, NASA, EPA, NOAA, Ford Motor Company, the Singapore National Research Foundation through the Center of Environmental Sensing and Modeling (CENSAM) of the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), and by many other government agencies including US DOE as well as various industrial sponsors through the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.
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The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Power to Change Others
Friday, September 22
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes cognative neuroscientist TALI SHAROT—founder and director of the Affective Brain Lab at University College London—and Harvard Law School's CASS R. SUNSTEIN for a discussion of Sharot's latest book, The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Power to Change Others.
About The Influential Mind
In The Influential Mind, neuroscientist Tali Sharot takes us on a thrilling exploration of the nature of influence. We all have a duty to affect others―from the classroom to the boardroom to social media. But how skilled are we at this role, and can we become better? It turns out that many of our instincts―from relying on facts and figures to shape opinions, to insisting others are wrong or attempting to exert control―are ineffective, because they are incompatible with how people’s minds operate. Sharot shows us how to avoid these pitfalls, and how an attempt to change beliefs and actions is successful when it is well-matched with the core elements that govern the human brain.
Sharot reveals the critical role of emotion in influence, the weakness of data and the power of curiosity. Relying on the latest research in neuroscience, behavioral economics and psychology, the book provides fascinating insight into the complex power of influence, good and bad.
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Saturday, September 23
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Cycle to the Source
Saturday, September 23
8:30am-4:00pm
Meeting location: Walter J. Sullivan Purification Facility, 250 Fresh Pond Pkwy, Cambridge
Come explore the Cambridge Watershed with the Cambridge Water Department staff and guides from Urban Adventours to learn about where your water comes from! This is a guided, 33 mile bike ride that explores the lands in Lincoln, Lexington, Weston, and Waltham that make up the watershed. It will include stops at the reservoirs, dams, gatehouses, and Cambridge Water Department field office. Registration is REQUIRED: http://bit.do/cycletothesource2017 or contact Michelle O’Donnell at modennell@cambridgema.gov 617-349-7712. Registration closes Sept 19.
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Populist Plutocrats: Lessons From Around the World
Saturday, September 23
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM EDT
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein West AB (2019), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/populist-plutocrats-lessons-from-around-the-world-tickets-36405297224
This one-day conference, co-sponsored by Harvard Law School and the Stigler Center, will focus on an important and dangerous political phenomenon: the “populist plutocrat.” The populist plutocrat is a leader who exploits the cultural and economic grievances of poorer, less-educated voters against traditional elites in order to achieve and retain power, but who, once in office, seem substantially or primarily interested in enriching him- or herself, along with a relatively small circle of family members, cronies, and allies.
Many Americans worry that this description accurately captures President Trump, and are working to both understand and respond to the distinctive challenges posed by the Trump Administration. Yet while populist plutocracy may be a new experience for Americans, it is a sadly familiar style of leadership elsewhere in the world. Populist plutocrats have taken power in many democracies, often with devastating results. Although every country is different, Americans have much to learn about populist plutocracy—both about how it functions, and how to fight it—from those who have confronted this phenomenon elsewhere.
This conference will contribute to that more general understanding by bringing together a group of distinguished experts—academics, journalists, politicians, and civil society activists—to analyze populist plutocrats (or leaders who exhibit some similar characteristics, even if they don’t perfectly correspond to the archetype) from several different countries, including Italy, Thailand, Russia, the Philippines, Peru, Argentina, and South Africa. These participants will address four key questions: First, how can we understand the political and social conditions that contribute to the electoral success of populist plutocrats? Second, once in power, how do populist plutocrats govern, and how does their governance style differ from other types of leaders? Third, what strategies and approaches are most effective in resisting and combating populist plutocracy? Fourth, what are the long term economic and political consequences of a period of populist plutocracy?
Speaker List
Sheila Coronel, Toni Stabile Professor of Professional Practice in Investigative Journalism, Director of the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, and Dean of Academic Affairs, Columbia Journalism School
Founder of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
Paul Holden, Director of Investigations at Corruption Watch UK
Co-author of Who Rules South Africa (Jonathan Ball, 2012)
Duncan McCargo, Professor of Political Science, School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds
Author of The Thaksinization of Thailand (NIAS, 2004)
Giovanni Orsina, Professor of History, Deputy Director of the School of Government, Director of the Master in European Studies, Luiss-Guido Carli University
Author of Berlusconism and Italy (Palgrave, 2014)
David E. Sanger, National Security Correspondent, New York Times
Beppe Severgnini, Journalist and Columnist, Corriere della Sera
Matthew Stephenson, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Jose Ugaz, Chair of the Board, Transparency International
Former Ad Hoc State Attorney of Peru, prosecuted Alberto Fujimori and Vladimiro Montesinos
Abhisit Vejjajiva, Leader of the Democrat Party, Former Prime Minister of Thailand
Alan Wirzbicki, Senior editorial writer, Boston Globe
Luigi Zingales, Robert C. McCormack Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
The conference is free and open to the public.
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National Day of Civic Hacking: Boston 2017
Saturday, September 23
9:30 AM – 4:30 PM EDT
iZotope, 60 Hampshire Street, Cambridge
Please join Code for Boston for a day of civic hacking at our fifth annual National Day of Civic Hacking event on Sept 23. Taking place on Saturday at the iZotope offices in Cambridge, this year’s event will feature a community-focused hackathon to kick off a new set of Code for Boston projects with our government and community partners.
We can't wait to see you all for a couple days of collaboration, problem solving, and civic hacking!
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PEACE of MIND - World Record Attempt LARGEST HUMAN PEACE SIGN!
Saturday, September 23
10:00 AM – 12:30 PM EDT
Parade Grounds, Boston Common, Corner of Charles and Beacon Street, Boston
On Saturday, September 23rd join thousands from across the Commonwealth in support of Children’s Services of Roxbury (CSR) as we look to establish a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™title with our “Peace of Mind” campaign. CSR believes that peace begins and ends with building strong and nurturing family environments. To reinforce this message, we are assembling over 6,000 people to form the WORLD’S LARGEST HUMAN PEACE SIGN on the Boston Common!
Join us amidst a celebratory atmosphere of music, entertainment and food! A Guinness World Records Representative will be on site to officially proclaim the establishment of the record for the world’s largest human peace sign. Our TV and radio sponsors will publicize the event and be on site to capture our collective effort from the sky.
Schedule of Events:
10:00am - GATES OPEN Boston Common Parade Grounds, Festival Area Open: Music and kids activities
10:00-11:30am - REGISTRATION OPEN Participants receive bib numbers
10:45am - PEACE of MIND Program. Hear from: Masters of Ceremonies; Musical Entertainment; Keynote Speakers; Guinness World Record Judge
11:15am - PARTICIPANTS FORM HUMAN PEACE SIGN!
11:30-11:35am - STAND IN PLACE (5 minutes) to be declared world record holder by Guinness World Records™ Judge.
11:35am - Official Photograph Taken
11:35am - Judge DECLARES WORLD RECORD!
11:35-12:30pm - PEACE OF MIND World Record Celebration!
Don't miss this exciting opportunity to PERSONALLY HELP SET A GUINNESS WORLD RECORD!
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Fixit Clinic 227 Jamaica Plain Library
Saturday, September 23
10 AM - 1 PM
Jamaica Plain Branch of the Boston Public Library, 30 South Street, Jamaica Plain
More information at https://www.facebook.com/events/313288722448658
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What The Fluff Festival
Saturday, September 23
1:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Union Square, Somerville
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE & THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC POLICY
Saturday, September 23
4-6 PM, followed by reception
Harvard Malkin Penthouse (4th floor), Littauer Building 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/artificial-intelligence-the-future-of-public-policy-tickets-37582809194
Speakers:
ROBIN J. LEWIS, President, International Development and Public Policy Alliance (IDPPA) and former dean, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA)
JORRIT DE JONG, Lecturer, Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Faculty Director, Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative
LIANGANG SUN, Artificial Intelligence Strategist
* * PLEASE REGISTER WITH THE NAME ON YOUR ID, AND YOU HAVE TO BRING THE ID WITH YOU FOR THE EVENT.
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Sunday, September 24
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Special event: Food Evolution Film Screening and Panel Discussion
Sunday, September 24
2:00 PM
Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard Street, Brookline
Cost: $14 general / $10 Coolidge members. They can be pre-ordered online or purchased in advance at the box office. http://www.coolidge.org/films/food-evolution
Food Evolution is a new documentary film about the science of, and controversies around, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), in the tradition of An Inconvenient Truth. The film is narrated by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and follows scientists and opponents of GMOs as they confront policy issues and each other. Farmers explain their experiences with the technology, and with lack of technology. We need to think about the future of food on a planet with many challenges.
With only 37% of U.S. adults believing GMOs are safe compared to 88% of scientists, there is clearly a misinformation problem. But who is misinformed and why? [Pew Survey]. Food Evolution seeks to explore this topic by challenging popular beliefs about GMOs, and asking viewers to think about how they evaluate the information and the sources they rely on.
This is the first Boston-area theater viewing opportunity. A post-film discussion panel, moderated by Christopher Lydon of WBUR's Radio Open Source program, will allow attendees to further discuss the issues of science, the role of filmmaking and media in shaping beliefs, and more, with local scientists and food activists.
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Monday, September 25
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PAOC Colloquium: Allison Wing (FSU): The role of radiative-convective feedbacks in tropical cyclone formation in numerical simulations
Monday, September 25
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-923, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
About the Speaker
Dr. Wing is an atmospheric scientist who studies tropical convection, tropical cyclones, and climate. Her research interests include the organization of tropical convection and how this modulates tropical and global climate and climate sensitivity, the process of tropical cyclone formation, variability of tropical cyclone intensity, and extreme weather and climate. Dr. Wing uses theory, idealized numerical modeling, and analysis of observations and comprehensive climate models to tackle these problems.
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 generally take place on Monday from 12-1pm. Lunch is provided 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.
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Labor and Reward in Science: Do Women Have an Equal Voice in Scholarly Communication?
Monday, September 25
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building E25-401, 45 Carleton Street, Cambridge
A Brown Bag talk with Cassidy Sugimoto
Despite progress, gender disparities in science persist. Women remain underrepresented in the scientific workforce and under rewarded for their contributions. This talk will examine multiple layers of gender disparities in science, triangulating data from scientometrics, surveys, and social media to provide a broader perspective on the gendered nature of scientific communication. The extent of gender disparities and the ways in which new media are changing these patterns will be discussed. The talk will end with a discussion of interventions, with a particular focus on the roles of libraries, publishers, and other actors in the scholarly ecosystem.
Cassidy Sugimoto researches within the domain of scholarly communication and scientometrics, examining the formal and informal ways in which knowledge producers consume and disseminate scholarship. Read more
Information Science Brown Bag talks, hosted by the Program on Information Science, consists of regular discussions and brainstorming sessions on all aspects of information science and uses of information science and technology to assess and solve institutional, social and research problems. These are informal talks. Discussions are often inspired by real-world problems being faced by the lead discussant.
Lunch will be provided; please bring your own drink and your questions.
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The Oldest Computer: Antikythera Mechanism
Monday, September 25
12:00pm to 1:00pm
Harvard, Center for Astrophysics, Phillips Auditorium (Building A), 60 Garden Street, Cambridge
SPEAKER: Xenophon Moussas, Faculty of Physics, School of Science, Department of Astrophysics, Astronomy and Mechanics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Join for a discussion regarding the Antikythera Mechanism that was found onboard a sunken Greek ship from 150-100 BCE. It is the oldest known computer, a clockwork Cosmos. Its gears reproduce astronomical phenomena, predicting the position of the Sun and the Moon, eclipses and probably even the position of planets.
Also, visit the exhibit of the Antikythera Mechanism at Cushing-Martin Hall, Stonehill College, 320 Washington St, Easton MA from Wednesday, September 20th through Monday, September 25th, 2017
Contact: Alessandro Massarotti
Email: alemassa63@gmail.com
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The Political Economy of Carbon Taxes
Monday, September 25
12:00PM TO 1:15PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
with Jerry Taylor, President, Niskanen Center
Lunch is provided.
Energy Policy Research
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
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Health – Equitable Urban Development Across Contexts
Monday, September 25
12:30pm to 2:00pm
MIT, Building 9-255, City Arena, 105 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
The SPURS/Humphrey program is delighted to invite you to our fall seminar series: North American Planning Experience: Is It Relevant for the Developing World?
Our goal is to explore to what extent, and under what conditions, planning ideas generated from practice in the U.S. can travel to cities in the developing world and be implemented effectively. We’ll also consider whether planning ideas, practices and programs are traveling from the rest of the world back to the United States.
The second seminar is Monday, September 25, in City Arena, 12:30 to 2 pm, with lunch available at 12:15 pm: Health – Equitable Urban Development Across Contexts, with Marianna Arcaya and Erica C. James, respondent.
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MEI Book Talk: A Revolution Undone: Egypt's Road Beyond Revolt
WHEN Monday, Sep. 25, 2017, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Fainsod Room, Littauer Building, Room 324, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Middle East Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) A seminar with H.A. Hellyer, Senior nonresident Fellow at the Atlantic Council's RH Centre for the Middle East and Associate Fellow in International Security at the Royal United Services Institute, on his recent book, A Revolution Undone: Egypt's Road Beyond Revolt from Oxford University Press.
Followed by a book signing at the Harvard COOP, 1400 Massachusetts Avenue in Harvard Square.
COST Free and open to the public.
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The Museum, the City, and the University: Boston Art Museum Directors in Discussion
WHEN Monday, Sep. 25, 2017, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Moderator, Yukio Lippit, Johnson-Kulukundis Family Director of the Arts, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University
Peggy Fogelman, Norma Jean Calderwood Director, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Paul Ha, Director, MIT List Visual Arts Center
Jill Medvedow, Ellen Matilda Poss Director, The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston
Martha Tedeschi, Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director, Harvard Art Museums
Matthew Teitelbaum, Ann and Graham Gund Director, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS This panel brings together distinguished museum directors to discuss their leadership of major cultural institutions in urban and university settings and to share personal perspectives on their work.
The panel will address questions about the role of museums in debates about public and private support for the humanities and the arts; in research and learning endeavors, including creative efforts by living artists; and in conversations about citizenship, identity, and diversity. Please register and join us.
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Launch Smart Clinic – Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Monday, September 25
5:30pm to 8:30pm
MIT Tang Center 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Cost: $5 - $30
At the Artificial Intelligence Themed Launch Smart Clinic, startups present a 20-minute pitch for feedback from our panel of experts + the audience.
Launch Smart Clinics are a great place for startups to get constructive feedback on their pitch from a board-of-directors-level panel of experts and thoughtful audience members. The focus on early stage ventures encourages a sympathetic and supportive atmosphere. Audience and panel feedback often helps presenters understand their problems and offers useful tips and solutions.
Even if you’re not quite ready to present, we encourage entrepreneurs to attend the clinics to see what our panel of experts (investors and others) are looking for in a pitch, what kind of questions they ask and their suggestions for refining the business plan.
AI Startups: Apply to Present
Get feedback on what people look for when they hear pitches
Prepare yourself for the critical questions savvy investors, strategic partners and potential employees will ask you
Get tips on how to refine your business plan (it’s the business plan, not the tech, that’s under review)
The committee will consider a balance of the following criteria when evaluating applications to present:
Company stage
Relevance to the clinic’s industry theme
Level of funding to date
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HUBweek Demo Day Semi-Final
Monday, September 25
5:30 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
Get a preview of HUBweek 2017 and hear some of Boston's most impactful startups pitch their ideas at HUBweek's Demo Day Pitch Competition Semi-Final.
In the lead up to HUBweek's Demo Day presented by Bank of America on October 14, 32 selected startups will face off in a multi-round pitch competition to demonstrate their impact on our lives. With representation from over a dozen industries–from AI and robotics to healthcare and social impact–and ranging from bootstrapped organizations to those with funding north of $10 million, this group of companies represents the best of Boston's startup talent.
At the Demo Day Pitch Competition Semi-Final, these companies will compete for eight spots to pitch on stage in the Demo Day Finale during HUBweekand the chance to win over $150,000 in cash and in-kind awards. Come meet and mingle with the high-impact companies who could be Boston's next Wayfair, Hubspot, or Vertex.
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The State of Electric Vehicle Deployment and Where It’s Going
Monday, September 25
6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
BU, CAS, Room 315, 685-725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Speaker: Chris Vournakis, Senior Director, Automotive Strategy
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cristina ricupero | don’t believe a word i say
Monday, September 25
6:00pm - 8:00pm
MIT, Building E15-001, Wiesner Building, 20 Ames Street, Lower Level, Cambridgedate
Following Cristina Ricupero’s special interest in the mechanisms of contemporary secrecy, she will focus this two-part program on espionage, a topic she has been currently developing for an exhibition project with Alexandra Midal (independent curator and professor at the design program at HEAD-Haute Ecole d’Art et Design Geneva).
With examples from contemporary art and design, sociology, philosophy, the spy novel, film and pop culture, Ricupero will show how espionage has evolved throughout time and played a major role in the political sphere of every country. If in the past, national governments spied on individuals, today with Wikileaks this trend seems to have been reversed as private individuals are in the capacity of revealing hidden governmental secrets. The world of espionage seems thus to be a golden mine where artists can dig into.
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The Rise of the Corporate Innovation Lab
Monday, 25 September
6:30 – 8:30 pm EDT
GA Boston, 125 Summer Street 13th Floor, Boston
Kevin Segel, UX Innovation Fellow, John Hancock LOFT
Brian Mullen, PhD, Innovation Strategy Manager, Brigham Innovation Hub
Brittany Hamtil, Product Experience Lead, Fidelity Labs
Carly França, Director, Product Experience Design , Fidelity Labs
About This Event
"Innovation is critical for established companies to stay relevant in the face of disruption."- CB Insights
From Insurance to Finance, established companies are creatively embracing new ways to solve the problems of their business.
Join General Assembly and leaders from Boston's top corporations as they share how their own R&D and Innovation Labs are reinforcing their place at the top of their industries.
Why it Matters?
The output or products of an Innovation Lab can vary quite a bit. They often function as an autonomous engine within an organization, tasked with finding solutions to some of the industries most complex problems. They also look inward at the organizational structure to help create efficiencies and design higher performing teams.
However, like a startup, many Labs programs fail due to lack of focus and misguided goals.
Hear from local corporate innovators doing it well, as they share how they strategically align their work with the company's business goals and prioritize where to invest their time.
By signing up for this event, you're giving our sponsors permission to contact you about upcoming events and promotions.
About the Speakers
Kevin Segel, UX Innovation Fellow, John Hancock LOFT
Brian Mullen, PhD, Innovation Strategy Manager, Brigham Innovation Hub
Brian Mullen is an entrepreneur, design engineer, and researcher with a passion for designing innovative medical products and assistive technologies. Brian holds a B.S.M.E., M.S.M.E and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Brian’s background covers many disciplines, from clinical research exploring the safety and effectiveness of treatments for people with mental illness to human centered design, universal design, design for commercial viability, and teaching new product development. Brian’s work has led to clinical publications, awards, and presentations in multiple fields, as well as pending patents.
Previous to joining the iHub Brian founded an early stage medical device company, Therapeutic Systems, to translate the technology he developed in graduate school to the market. The mission of the company was to help people who are struggling with brain disorders such as autism, ADHD, PTSD and anxiety based disorders, by providing them therapeutic wearable technologies that included monitoring and sensory based neuromodulation as an intervention (you can watch his TedX talk on designing for people with mental illness).
As CEO, Brian lead Therapeutic Systems in winning MassChallenge in 2011, the UMass Innovation Challenge, a VentureWell E-Team award, raised seed investment, and launched a class I product and generated revenue through sales.
Brian is passionate about supporting early stage innovation. Outside of his work at the iHub, Brian is a mentor for entrepreneurs and startups in top national programs. Brian’s unique background helps innovators in the early stages by figuring out the problem, flushing out ideas, develop concepts, creating action plans building business models, and crafting and presenting value propositions and pitches.
Brittany Hamtil, Product Experience Lead, Fidelity Labs
Brittany has worn the “designer” badge in many forms, helping craft compelling digital and physical experiences for over 10 years.
She built her foundation in communication design at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and later received a Master of Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University. Her work has expanded from traditional graphic design to marketing communications, interaction design, user research and testing, copywriting, agile product development, and a little bit of front-end development. Technology has always been a strong focus in her career, opting for work more rooted in balancing technical opportunities with human needs.
Today Brittany is a Product Experience Lead at Fidelity Labs, the innovation arm of investment giant Fidelity Investments, where she explores ambiguous problem spaces and exciting new technologies.
Carly França, Director, Product Experience Design, Fidelity Labs
Carly França was raised on the mean country roads of Boise, Idaho. She Studied Graphic Design and Advertising Design at the Art Institute of Colorado and the Art Institute of San Diego, CA.
She spent her most formidable years working for a local marketing automation software startup you've never heard of called Balihoo. There she developed a habit of incessant “why” asking which evolved her out of the “creative team” and onto the “product team” in the role of User Experience Designer.
She left Boise in 2013 to head up design at another software startup you’ve never heard of in Phoenix, AZ that no longer exists; it’s a rough world out there.
Carly came to Boston in Early 2014 and was lured into the corporate world of Fidelity Investments by a stable paycheck, Legos, and the promise of working on start-up like “incubators” inside Fidelity Labs. For the past 2 years, she has had a blast working with a cross-functional team to create Fidelity’s newly released “Student Debt Tool” which helps humans with Student Debt understand their current loan picture is, and assess different ways of getting out of it.
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Tuesday, September 26
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Thesis Defense - Jimmy Gasore (EAPS): Quantifying Emissions of Carbon Dioxide and Methane in Central and Eastern Africa Through High Frequency Measurements and Inverse Modeling
Tuesday, September 26
10:00am to 11:00am
MIT, Building 54-915, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
A public presentation of the thesis will be given by the candidate.
CHAIR OF DEFENSE:
Prof. Shuhei Ono, MIT, EAPS
THESIS COMMITTEE:
Prof. Ronald G. Prinn, MIT, EAPS, CGCS, JPSPGC, Advisor
Prof. Susan Solomon, MIT, EAPS
Dr. Matthew Rigby, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, UK
Copies of the thesis may be obtained from the EAPS Education Office (54-912). All interested faculty, staff and students are invited to attend.
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Sustainability/Bike Safety/Light Fair
Tuesday, September 26
11:00am to 2:00pm
Northeastern, Snell Library Quad, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Please stop by this fall's Sustainability/Bike Safety/Light Fair (heavily discounted LED lamps and fixtures)! Minor bike repairs and bicycle registration thanks to Northeastern University Police Department. BBQ. Bike safety giveaways, raffles. Information tables: NU Sustainability-related groups, multiple student groups, MassRides & Boston Cyclists' Union & MassBikes!
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Harnessing terrestrial thermal photon sources
Tuesday, September 26
11:45am to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 34-401A, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Dr. Svetlana Boriskina (MechE Research Scientist) gives a talk hosted by Applied Physics @ MIT:
Food will be provided.
Abstract: I will discuss challenges and opportunities in controlling and harvesting the radiative energy of terrestrial thermal sources. Unlike solar radiation, thermal emission from terrestrial sources can be controlled and tailored via optical design. For example, bringing emitters and absorbers into the regime of near-field coupling allows breaking many fundamental limits that stymie development of high-efficiency solar energy conversion platforms. On the other hand, long distances travelled by propagating infrared photons through the Earth’s atmosphere allow using the ultra-cold outer space as the heat sink for the terrestrial energy conversion engines. I will outline design strategies for one such engine, a ‘reverse solar cell’ system – also known as a thermoradiative cell – that can generate electric power via non-equilibrium thermal emission. The technological area where the importance of the terrestrial thermal radiation control really hits home is in personalized thermal management. I will demonstrate new fabrics that achieve passive temperature control of human body via spectrally-selective scattering of photons across visible and infrared spectral ranges.
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Nancy Youssef – Foreign Policy, Politics, and Media Coverage
Tuesday, September 26
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Harvard, Taubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
Nancy Youssef is a national security correspondent with The Wall Street Journal. She was previously a national security correspondent for BuzzFeed News, The Daily Beast and McClatchy Newspapers.
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Developing and Launching Products at Google Cloud Platform (MIT SDM Systems Thinking Webinar Series)
Tuesday, September 26
12:00pm to 1:00pm
Webcast at http://sdm.mit.edu
Google is acclaimed worldwide for innovation. In this webinar, MIT SDM alumnus Ari Liberman, a product manager at Google Compute Engine, will provide an inside look at how one of the world’s best companies continues to produce some of history’s most innovative products—while helping customers do the same.
Liberman will provide highlights of decision-making in product design, prototyping, and experimentation at Google.
The webinar will reveal:
how Google Compute Engine uses data science to prioritize product features and maximize agile program management; and
Google’s approach to continuous product excellence and how this deepens user trust.
A Q&A will follow the presentation. We invite you to join us!
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Tour the Most Sustainable Building in Boston: 888 Boylston Street
Tuesday, September 26
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Cost: $10 for Members; $30 Non-members: $5 for Student Members; $10 for Student Non-members
“Boston Properties reduced energy intensity by 19.8%, water intensity by 21.8% and greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 31.5% below the 2008 base year, far exceeding its 2020 targets. In 2017 the company will consider new goals in each of these areas.” Bisnow June 2017
888 Boylston, completed in 2016, is one of the most sustainable buildings in Boston. It has been designed to optimize energy efficiency, and is expected to operate 47% more efficiently than buildings of the same type in a similar climate zone.
Sustainability features include a dedicated outside air system with active chilled beams, heat recovery, LED lighting, and rainwater harvesting. The roof and crown of the building accommodate solar photovoltaic panels and fourteen vertical axis wind turbines, which together produce enough power for 15 homes. Other technologies include Boston-based EnerNOC’s Energy Intelligence System, an IP based network for the building management system, sensors for temperature, humidity and CO2, and a Security Robot called PRU2D2.
Learn how Boston Properties conceived, decided which clean technology to use and delivered this state of the art property.
Register early – this tour is limited to 40 people!
Meet at Prudential Center Plaza on Boylston Street in front of the building.
Join us directly after to grab a brew and conversation at Lir, 903 Boylston. First round is on us!
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Human Rights and Violent Internal Conflict
Tuesday, September 26
5:30 pm to 7:00 pm
BU, George Sherman Union, Conference Auditorium, 775 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Professor David Cingranelli examines sources of conflict in developing societies, with particular attention to government violations of human rights such as torture and political imprisonment and discrimination against women. Those practices violate internationally recognized human rights and create grievances among citizens, which in turn can lead to violent protests, acts of terrorism and even civil war.
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The Enemy – From Concept to “Virtual” Reality
Tuesday, September 26
6:00pm to 7:00pm
MIT, Building N51, 265 Massachusetts, Cambridge
Enjoy a behind-the-scenes look at The Enemy, a cutting edge Virtual Reality (VR) experience that explores three international political conflicts. Acclaimed photojournalist Karim Ben Khelifa and MIT Media Lab professor Fox Harrell will share how their collaboration led to this groundbreaking exhibition, from its conceptual stage to “virtual” reality.
Free. No pre-registration necessary.
Presenters:
Karim Ben Khelifa, photojournalist
D. Fox Harrell, MIT Professor of Digital Media & AI in Comparative Media Studies Program & the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab
This program is offered in conjunction with The Enemy, on view October 5, 2017.
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Seeing Color: Exploring Whiteness in a Racialized World
Tuesday, September 26
6:00pm to 8:00pm
Northeastern, Curry Student Center, Ballroom, 346 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Keynote Speaker Franchesca Ramsey
Franchesca Ramsey is an actress, writer and video blogger based out of New York City. With over 200k subscribers on her two YouTube channels, she produces original videos which include song parodies, impersonations and original characters along with socially conscious and topical comedy sketches. In 2012 her viral video "Sh*t White Girls Say... to Black Girls" was viewed over 5 millions times in just 5 days, garnering coverage on MSNBC, ABC, Ebony Magazine, The Daily Mail and the Anderson Cooper talk show to name a few. Most recently she was a writer and contributor for the Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore on Comedy Central. Today she's the host and head writer for the award winning web series, "MTV Decoded."
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The Future of Travel & Transportation Industry
Tuesday, September 26
6:00PM – 8:30PM
WeWork Mass Avenue, 625 Massachussetts Avenue, 2nd Floor, Cambridge
Cost: $11.54 - $32.64
During this TechMeeting we will hear from leading research labs, innovative startups and large corporations on the future of Travel &Transportation Industry.
AGENDA
06:00 pm Registration
06:30 pm Introduction - Open Innovation Club
06:40 pm Panel on the Future of Travel &Transportation Industry
07:15 pm 6+ Startups Pitches (3 min pitch and 1 min Q&A)
07:45 pm Networking cocktail
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MIT Energy Club Launch!
Tuesday, September 26
6:30pm 8:30pm
Walker Memorial, 142 Memorial Drive Cambridge
You are cordially invited to the MIT Energy Club Launch!
Admission is free. Delicious non-pizza dinner will be served.
Interested in energy technology and business?
Curious about exciting energy events happening around MIT?
Want to explore taking on a leadership role for yourself within the Energy Club?
Then come to the Launch on September 26th, and meet MIT peers immersed in energy fields that you care about: batteries, solar, oil & gas, self-driving cars,
electricity access in the developing world...you name it we got it.
From 6:30-7:30pm, you can talk 1-on-1 with representatives from the Energy Club's many communities and events, including: Energy Night, Energy Hackathon, Energy Conference, Sloan Business School Energy Club, Joules: Women in Energy, Energy4Development, and many more!
From 7:30-8:15pm, a panel of experts will debate recent exciting developments in renewable energy. (More details to come.)
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Climate Forum with Cambridge City Council Candidates
Tuesday, September 26
6:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Citywide Senior Center, 806 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Climate resilience begins with people. It is the collective response by the residents and government of Cambridge that is paramount in creating a resilient community today and ensuring a place, space, and sustenance for all in the future.
Green Cambridge, in collaboration with Cambridge Mothers Out Front, the Cambridge Residents Alliance, A Better Cambridge, and Cambridge Bicycle Safety, invites you to participate in our Candidates’ Night Climate Resilience Forum on Tuesday, September 26th 6:30-9 PM at the Citywide Senior Center. Our groups have a shared vision of a connected, affordable, sustainable city that prioritizes the health and well-being of current and future Cantabrigians.
Moderated by Cantabrigian Derrick Jackson, an award-winning journalist , former Boston Globe columnist, author, and fellow with the Union of Concerned Scientists, this event offers the candidates running for Cambridge City Council an opportunity to to reflect on and to share with voters ways in which they would bring bring greater resilience to our community.
The evening will open with an overview of the issues from Green Cambridge and co-sponsors, community building with the audience followed by questions to candidates. Candidates will be asked share their priorities for Cambridge on how they propose to address equity and affordability while grappling with a rapidly changing environment of increased food and household energy costs: hotter, drier days: shifting rain patterns sea level rise; and unstable resource supply chains that are beyond our control.
CHILDCARE PROVIDED.
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Daring Democracy Book Launch
Tuesday, September 26
7:00 PM
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
You are invited to the official launch of Frances Moore Lappé and Adam Eichen's new book, Daring Democracy, at the Harvard Coop!
The event will start at 7pm on September 26th (1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge, MA). Frances and Adam will give a talk about democracy in America and will then sign copies of the book.
Hope to see you there!!
Here is the description as it appears on the back cover:
Americans are distraught as tightly held economic and political power drowns out their voices and values. Legendary Diet for a Small Planet author Frances Moore Lappé and organizer-scholar Adam Eichen offer a fresh, surprising response to this core crisis. This intergenerational duo opens with an essential truth: It’s not the magnitude of a challenge that crushes the human spirit. It’s feeling powerless—in this case, fearing that to stand up for democracy is futile. It’s not, Lappé and Eichen argue. With riveting stories and little-known evidence, they demystify how we got here, exposing the well-orchestrated effort that has robbed Americans of their rightful power. But the heart of this unique book is solutions. Even in this divisive time, Americans are uniting across causes and ideologies to create a “canopy of hope” the authors call the Democracy Movement. In this invigorating “movement of movements” millions of Americans are leaving despair behind as they push for and achieve historic change. The Movement and democracy itself are vital to us as citizens and fulfill human needs—for power, meaning, and connection—essential to our thriving. In this timely and necessary book, Lappé and Eichen offer proof that courage is contagious in the daring fight for democracy.
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One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps
Tuesday, September 26
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store and the Nieman Foundation welcome Nieman Storyboard founder ANDREA PITZER—author of The Secret History of Vladimir Nabokov—for a discussion of her latest book, One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps.
About One Long Night
For over 100 years, at least one concentration camp has existed somewhere on Earth. First used as battlefield strategy, camps have evolved with each passing decade, in the scope of their effects and the savage practicality with which governments have employed them. Even in the twenty-first century, as we continue to reckon with the magnitude and horror of the Holocaust, history tells us we have broken our own solemn promise of "never again."
In this harrowing work based on archival records and interviews during travel to four continents, Andrea Pitzer reveals for the first time the chronological and geopolitical history of concentration camps. Beginning with 1890s Cuba, she pinpoints concentration camps around the world and across decades. From the Philippines and Southern Africa in the early twentieth century to the Soviet Gulag and detention camps in China and North Korea during the Cold War, camp systems have been used as tools for civilian relocation and political repression. Often justified as a measure to protect a nation, or even the interned groups themselves, camps have instead served as brutal and dehumanizing sites that have claimed the lives of millions.
Drawing from exclusive testimony, landmark historical scholarship, and stunning research, Andrea Pitzer unearths the roots of this appalling phenomenon, exploring and exposing the staggering toll of the camps: our greatest atrocities, the extraordinary survivors, and even the intimate, quiet moments that have also been part of camp life during the past century.
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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, September 27
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Book Launch: Law, Religion, and Health in the United States
WHEN Wednesday, Sep. 27, 2017, 12 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein West A (2019), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Health Sciences, Law
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Sponsored by the Harvard Law School Library and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.
DETAILS In July 2017, Cambridge University Press will publish Law, Religion, and Health in the United States, co-edited by outgoing Petrie-Flom Center Executive Director Holly Fernandez Lynch, Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen, and Elizabeth Sepper, Associate Professor of Law at Washington University School of Law. This edited volume stems from the Center’s 2015 annual conference, which brought together leading experts to identify the various ways in which law intersects with religion and health care in the United States, examine the role of law in creating or mediating conflict between religion and health care, and explore potential legal solutions to allow religion and health care to simultaneously flourish in a culturally diverse nation.
About the book: While the law can create conflict between religion and health, it can also facilitate religious accommodation and protection of conscience. Finding this balance is critical to addressing the most pressing questions at the intersection of law, religion, and health in the United States: should physicians be required to disclose their religious beliefs to patients? How should we think about institutional conscience in the health care setting? How should health care providers deal with families with religious objections to withdrawing treatment? In this timely book, experts from a variety of perspectives and disciplines offer insight on these and other pressing questions, describing what the public discourse gets right and wrong, how policymakers might respond, and what potential conflicts may arise in the future. It should be read by academics, policymakers, and anyone else - patient or physician, secular or devout - interested in how US law interacts with health care and religion.
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MTL Seminar Series: "A Journey into a New Energy Future: The Critical Role of Energy Storage"
Wednesday, September 27
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 34-401, Grier Room, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Christina Lampe-Onnerud, Cadenza Innovation
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All Measures Short of War: The Contest for the 21st Century and the Future of American Power
Wednesday, September 27
12:00-1:30pm
MIT, Building E40-496 Pye Room, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Thomas Wright, Brookings Institute
Why is the liberal order unraveling, what comes next, and how should the United States respond? Tom Wright will argue that the defining feature of contemporary world politics is the return of balancing and the intensification of great power security competition albeit in an age of interdependence and globalization. This competition will play out at a regional level and is unlikely to result in major power war. Wright argues that the United States should pursue a strategy of responsible competition to preserve the liberal international order.
Thomas Wright is the director of the Center on the United States and Europe and a senior fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy at the Brookings Institute. He is also a non resident fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. Previously, he was executive director of studies at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a lecturer at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, and senior researcher for the Princeton Project on National Security. Wright has a doctorate from Georgetown University, a Master of Philosophy from Cambridge University, and a bachelor's and master's from University College Dublin. He has also held a pre-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a post doctoral fellowship at Princeton University.
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Machine Learning - Current and Future
Wednesday, September 27
3:00 PM – 7:00 PM EDT
Google, 355 Main Street, Cambridge
Join us, Google Product Managers and your peers for a discussion of Google Cloud Machine Learning featuring Girish Reddy , CTO, SpringML and Manuel Amunategui VP Data Science, SpringML.
Agenda:
3:00pm - Welcome & Registration
3:30pm - Cloud ML Roadmap
4:30pm - Machine Learning use cases
5:30pm - Q & A and Cool Google Giveaways
6:00pm - Happy Hour and Networking
Key Takeaways
Gain insight into Google’s vision for the future of Cloud ML.
Learn the practical applications of Machine Learning and use of Google Cloud.
Understand the business and technical advantages of using Google Cloud for Machine Learning.
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Towards tensegrity-based metamaterials
Wednesday, September 27
4:00pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin G115,33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Julian Rimoli (Georgia Tech)
The term tensegrity, derived from tensional integrity, refers to a certain class of structural systems composed of bars and strings. Through adequate pre-stressing of their string members, tensegrity structures generally become mechanically stable. Traditional approaches for modeling their behavior assume that (i) bars are perfectly rigid, (ii) cables are linear elastic, and (iii) bars experience pure compression and strings pure tension. In addition, a common design constraint is to assume that the structure would fail whenever any of its bars reaches the corresponding Euler buckling load. In reality, these assumptions tend to break down in the presence of dynamic events. In the first part of this talk, we will present a physics-based reduced-order model to study aspects related to the dynamic and nonlinear response of tensegrity-based structures. With very few degrees of freedom, our model captures their buckling and post-buckling behavior as well as their dynamic response. We then adopt our model to show how, under dynamic events, buckling of individual members of a tensegrity structure does not necessarily imply structural failure. In the second part of this talk, we will focus on the development of tensegrity-based metamaterials. Perhaps due to the lack of adequate symmetries on traditional tensegrity elementary cells, the design of 3-dimensional tensegrity lattices has remained an elusive goal. In this work, we first develop a method to construct 3-dimensional tensegrity lattices from truncated octahedron elementary cells. The required space-tiling translational symmetry is achieved by performing recursive reflection operations on the elementary cells. We then analyze the mechanical response of the resulting lattices in the fully nonlinear regime and show that this new topology exhibits unprecedented static and dynamic mechanical properties.
Speaker Bio: Julian J. Rimoli is an Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Rimoli obtained his Engineering Diploma in Aeronautics from Universidad Nacional de La Plata in 2001. In 2004 he moved to the United States to pursue graduate studies at Caltech, receiving his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Aeronautics in 2005 and 2009 respectively. Upon graduation Dr. Rimoli accepted a postdoctoral associate position at the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics of MIT, where he performed research for over a year and a half. In January 2011, Dr. Rimoli joined Georgia Tech as an Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering. His research interests lie within the broad field of computational mechanics of materials and structures, with particular focus on aerospace applications. Dr. Rimoli has a special interest in problems involving multiple length and time scales, and in the development of theories and computational techniques for seamlessly bridging them. He is a member of AIAA, ASME, and USACM, has been selected to participate at the National Academy of Engineering US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, and is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, the Donald W. Douglas Prize Fellowship, the Ernest E. Sechler Memorial Award in Aeronautics, the James Clerk Maxwell Young Writers Prize, the Lockheed Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Class of 1940 Teaching Effectiveness Award, and the Goizueta Junior Faculty Professorship.
Applied Mechanics Colloquia
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Organizing for Freedom: Then and Now
WHEN Wednesday, Sep. 27, 2017, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Ash Center Foyer, Suite 200N, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Hollis Watkins, Founder and President of Southern Echo, SNCC Veteran and Freedom Singer; and Marshall Ganz, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School.
DETAILS The Ash Center invites you to a discussion with Hollis Watkins, Founder and President of Southern Echo, SNCC Veteran and Freedom Singer. The talk with be moderated by Marshall Ganz, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School.
The event is an installment of the Ash Center's Race and American Politics Series. Race and American Politics is a multidisciplinary series of seminars and roundtable conversations led by Leah Wright Rigueur, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Refreshments will be provided.
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Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution
Wednesday, September 27
6 pm
Harvard Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Free Public Lecture and Book Signing
Jonathan Losos, Monique and Philip Lehner Professor for the Study of Latin America; Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology; Curator in Herpetology, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University
Nature abounds with instances of convergence: structures or adaptations that have evolved independently, multiple times. But evolutionary biologists, most notably Harvard’s Stephen Jay Gould, also point out examples of contingency, cases where the tiniest change—a random mutation or an ancient butterfly sneeze—caused evolution to take a different course. What role does each force play in the natural world? Are today’s plants, animals and humans, inevitabilities or evolutionary flukes? Jonathan Losos will discuss these questions and more as he presents content from his new book Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution.
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BATTLE FOR NET NEUTRALITY | POLITICS & INNOVATION
Wednesday, 27 September
6:30 – 8:30 pm EDT
GA Boston, 125 Summer Street 13th Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://generalassemb.ly/education/battle-for-net-neutrality-politics-innovation/boston/41170
Norman Guadagno, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Carbonite
About This Event
The future of the internet in America has never been more uncertain. In April, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) unveiled a plan to end protections for net neutrality, the principle that internet service providers must treat all Internet data as the same. Join Norman Guadagno, Chief Evangelist and SVP of Marketing at Carbonite, to learn the vital importance of net neutrality and why it must be preserved.
Why It Matters?
Net neutrality fuels job creation and innovation by ensuring equal access to information and resources. If net neutrality is reversed, the world’s five largest broadband service providers will gain control over who can access information, and how fast they can access it. That means ISPs could:
Manipulate web traffic to support their own financial or political interests
Favor some advertisers by speeding up or slowing traffic to a site
Sell consumers' browsing histories without permission.
What Will You Takeaway?
Attendees can expect to learn:
The general principles of net neutrality
Why a reversal of net neutrality will hurt the economy, the American public, and your business
Hear how these policies could impact the innovation economy
By signing up for this event, you're giving our sponsors permission to contact you about upcoming events and promotions.
About the Speaker
Norman Guadagno, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Carbonite
Norman Guadagno hones in on that unique place where company brand meets customer need and harnesses in it a way that adds value for customer and company alike. Together with the Marketing team, Norman drives brand strategy, product marketing and overall market awareness for Carbonite worldwide.
Before joining Carbonite, Norman was Senior Vice President of Marketing Strategy at the digital marketing agency Wire Stone, working with clients such as Microsoft, Boeing and Nike. Prior to Wire Stone, Guadagno held senior marketing roles at Microsoft and Oracle, as well as leading creative agencies. Guadagno began his career in the software industry focusing on user interaction.
Norman holds an M.A. in Psychology from Rice University and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Rochester.
About Our Partners
Carbonite provides data protection solutions for businesses and the IT professionals who serve them. Our solution suite provides a full complement of backup, disaster recovery, high availability and migration solutions for any size business in locations around the world, all supported by secure and scalable global cloud infrastructure.
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Mayhem: A Memoir
Wednesday, September 27
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes Granta magazine editor SIGRID RAUSING—author of History, Memory, and Identity in Post-Soviet Estonia and Everything is Wonderful—and bestselling author GISH JEN for a discussion of Mayhem, Rausing's memoir of the impact of addiction on her family.
About Mayhem
In the summer of 2012 a woman named Eva was found dead in the London townhouse she shared with her husband, Hans K. Rausing. The couple had struggled with drug addiction for years, often under the glare of tabloid headlines. Now, writing with singular clarity and restraint, Hans’ sister, the editor and publisher Sigrid Rausing, tries to make sense of what happened.
In Mayhem, she asks the difficult questions those close to the world of addiction must face. "Who can help the addict, consumed by a shaming hunger, a need beyond control? There is no medicine: the drugs are the medicine. And who can help their families, so implicated in the self-destruction of the addict? Who can help when the very notion of ‘help’ becomes synonymous with an exercise of power; a familial police state; an end to freedom, in the addict’s mind?"
An eloquent and timely attempt to understand the conundrum of addiction—and a memoir as devastating as it is riveting.
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What’s the Catch? Diving into the sustainability of eating fish
Wednesday, September 27
7 - 9 pm
Harvard Medical School, Armenise Auditorium, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston
More information at http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/seminar-series/
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GLOBEDOCS invites you to a special screening of Celling Your Soul
Wednesday, September 27
Registration opens up at 6:30pm | Screening begins at 7:00pm
Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard Street, Brookline
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/globedocs-presents-celling-your-soul-screening-tickets-37494856124
In one short decade, we have totally changed the way we interact with one another. The millennial generation, the first to be socialized in a digital world, is now feeling the unintended consequences.
CELLING YOUR SOUL is a powerful and informative examination of how our young people actually feel about connecting in the digital world and their love/hate relationship with technology. It provides empowering strategies for more fulfilling, balanced, and authentic human interaction within the digital landscape.
The film reveals the effects of "digital socialization" by taking viewers on a personal journey with a group of high school and college students who through a digital cleanse discover the power of authentic human connectivity, and that there is "No App" or piece of technology that can ever replace the benefits of human connection.
The screening will be immediately followed by a panel with:
Joni Siani Producer
Moderated by The Boston Globe's Janice Page
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From Talk to Action: Taking a Stand Against Racism and Hate
Wednesday, September 27
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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Thursday, September 28
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Climate Change, Migration and Health Symposium
Thursday, September 28
8:30 am–12:30 pm
Radcliffe Gymnasium, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
Climate-induced migration will be a central feature of the 21st century, with grave consequences for global health. The crisis in Syria was precipitated by a 1,000 year drought; we should expect more such crises in the years to come.
The Harvard Global Health Institute will host a symposium on Climate Change, Migration and Health. Dr. Jennifer Leaning, Director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, will deliver the keynote address. Expert panels will address the humanitarian response to climate-induced migration, the implications for law and policy, and the imperative for improved empirical research to better understand this growing crisis.
A continental breakfast will be served at 8:30am and the program will begin at 9:00am. A brown bag lunch will be provided after the program is concluded at 12:30pm.
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Digital Health @ Harvard
Thursday, September 28
12:00 pm
Harvard, 23 Everett Street, 2nd Floor, Cambridge
Vish Viswanath, Ph.D.
This is a talk in the monthly Digital Health @ Harvard Brown Bag Lunch Series, which is co-hosted by the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
Editorial Comment: Not sure this is the correct address. Contact https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/digitalhealth# for further information.
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Thoughts from West Africa: Two decades of protecting human rights and the environment
Thursday, September 28
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene Center, 10 Upper Campus Road, Medford
Alfred Brownell, Environmental attorney/Founder, Green Advocates
Increasing demand for land and resources is resulting in colossal foreign direct investments parachuting into very poor countries without the absorptive capacity to manage these investments and the sometimes egregious implications for human rights and the environment. Liberian environmental attorney and activist Alfred Brownell, who recently fled the country due to increasing threats, will take you through a journey on land grabbing in Liberia by two of the world’s largest oil palm corporations under the pretext of foreign direct investment. He will argue this mode of investment is threatening not just the food security and livelihoods of indigenous and local communities but how it continues to undermine ecosystem integrity, peace and stability of Liberia, which has resulted into a series of conflicts.
Alfred Lahai Gbabai-Garbla Brownell Sr. is the Founder of Green Advocates, Liberia’s First Public Interest environmental law and human rights organization. Mr. Brownell started Green Advocates to work with impoverished, rural communities to ensure them a voice in decisions affecting their communities’ natural resources and is one of the lead campaigners reforming Liberia’s land and natural resources sectors. Between 2006 -2012, he campaigned for the recognition of the customary land and property rights of indigenous communities throughout Liberia. Mr. Brownell is also widely recognized internationally for his leadership in the field of natural resource rights. Among others, he serves on the Steering Committee of the Corporate Accountability Working Group of the International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net) and coordinates inputs from African civil society organizations into to the drafting of a UN treaty on business and human rights. Regionally, he serves as Head of Secretariat and Facilitator of the Mano River Union Civil Society Natural Resources Rights and Governance Platform, which is planning on bringing a multi-state lawsuit at the ECOWAS Court against seven African governments for their failure to protect the rights of local communities Mr. Brownell holds an LLM in Environmental law and Energy from the University of Tulane Law School, an LLB/JD from the University of Liberia, and a B.Sc. in General Agriculture from the University of Liberia.
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Coming Apart? Lives of the Rich and Poor Over Time in the United States
Thursday, September 28,
3:00pm to 4:00pm
MIT, Building 4-270 ,77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Income inequality in the United States has increased consistently since the 1980s, but has this growing economic gap led to larger cultural distance between the rich and poor? Using results from a machine learning algorithm, Marianne Bertrand will discuss how the lives and attitudes of the rich and poor have diverged from the 1960s to the 2010s.
Marianne Bertrand is the Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Social Enterprise Initiative at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Her research focuses on racial bias and inequality in the US and India. Marianne serves as co-chair of J-PAL’s Labor Sector, co-editor of the American Economic Review, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
This event is part of the D2P2: Data, Decisions, Public Policy lecture series, organized by J-PAL and the MIT Department of Economics. The D2P2 Lectures feature leading academics and other experts who share knowledge derived from modern applied economics research to demonstrate how it can inform better public policy decision-making. Speakers will discuss their groundbreaking research and practice and how it can be applied to improve people’s lives.
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Robotics Connect 2017
Thursday, September 28
3:00 – 8:30 PM
One Broadway, 5th Floor, Cambridge
Save the date for Venture Cafe’s Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) mini-conference, “Building Markets for Artificial Intelligence”, taking place on September 28, 2017.
From ground, sea, and air, explore Boston firms solving real world challenges and developing the robotics market. This special ‘conference night’ event seeks to bring together the brightest minds who are building, funding, and innovating in the Greater Boston area’s robotics and AI communities.
Come prepared to not only hear the best ideas and see the latest technologies but also to participate in building Boston’s robotics innovation.
More information at http://vencaf.org/roboticsconnect/
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Social Media Use in Public Relations: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Thursday, September 28
3:30 pm to 4:30 pm
BU, COM, Room 209, 640 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Dr. Donald K. Wright
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Making Something From Nothing: Appropriate Technology as Intentionally Disruptive Responsibility
Thursday, September 28
4:00pm to 6:00pm
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdtLM4umTKQUU6k-xTcqHbsl8NMdfyyflW8a2VmaPzcA3d8fQ/viewform
Registration required, location confirmed with registration.
The Collaborative Creative Resistance performances exemplify transpedagogical cultural work that occurs outside conventional studio settings, instructional practices and educational institutions. The Collaborative Creative Resistance performance will take place on campus. The performance situates itself within public spaces through participatory demonstrations of clay preparation, mixing and filter production in collaboration with participants.
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Globalization without Globalism
Thursday, September 28
5:00-6:30pm
Lecture: Dani Rodrik, Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy, Harvard Kennedy School
Abstract: Economic globalization is associated in contemporary discourse with a preference for cosmopolitanism over patriotism; international equality over national equality; economic liberty over political accountability; and global governance over the nation state. Professor Rodrik will argue that the tensions implied by these choices are largely false.
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Nick Couldry: "The Mediated Construction of Reality: from Berger and Luckmann to Norbert Elias"
Thursday, September 28
5:00pm to 6:30pm
MIT, Building 56-114, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
In this talk Nick Couldry outlines the project of his recent book, The Mediated Construction of Reality (Polity October 2016, co-written with Andreas Hepp). The book offers a critical reevaluation and rearticulation of the social constructivist ambitions of Berger and Luckmann’s 1966 book The Social Construction of Reality while radically rethinking the implications of this for a world saturated not just with digital media, but with data processes. Couldry outlines how a materialist phenomenology can draw not just on traditional phenomenology, but on the social theory of Norbert Elias, particularly his concept of figurations, to address the challenges of social analysis in the face of datafication. Elias, Couldry argues, is a particularly important theorist on whom to draw in making social constructivism ready to face the deep embedding of the social world with digital technologies, and more than that, to outline the challenges for social order of such a world. More broadly, Couldry will argue for a reengagement of media theory with the broader tradition of social theory in the era of Big Data, in the face of a radical expansion of what media are and how mediation is embedded in everyday social orders.
Nick Couldry is a sociologist of media and culture. He is Professor of Media Communications and Social Theory at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is currently a Visiting Researcher at Microsoft Research Lab, and during 2017-2018 a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University. He is the author or editor of twelve books including most recently The Mediated Construction of Reality (with Andreas Hepp, Polity, 2016), Ethics of Media (2013 Palgrave, coedited with Mirca Madianou and Amit Pinchevski), Media, Society, World: Social Theory and Digital Media Practice (Polity 2012) and Why Voice Matters: Culture and Politics After Neoliberalism (Sage 2010).
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PUBLIC PROGRAM | FILM SCREENING
CITIZENFOUR
Thursday, September 28
6:00PM - 8:00PM
MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames St., Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/film-screening-citizenfour-2004-dir-laura-poitras-tickets-35430944910
This Thursday evening feature documentary film screening is presented in conjunction with List Projects: Civil Disobedience. Screenings take place in Bakalar Gallery.
Additional Screenings
October 5, 6 PM
October 12, 6 PM
Citizenfour. 2014. Directed by Laura Poitras
114 min.
Laura Poitras’s 2014 documentary takes its point of departure in the filmmaker receiving encrypted emails from someone with information on the government’s massive covert-surveillance programs. Poitras and reporter Glenn Greenwald meet the informant in Hong Kong to learn the alias “CITIZENFOUR” belongs to Edward Snowden, a high-level former CIA analyst. What unfolds is the handing over of classified documents providing evidence of mass indiscriminate and illegal invasions of privacy by the National Security Agency (NSA) and eventually, Snowden’s current asylum in Russia.
All programs are free and open to the general public. RSVPs are required. RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/film-screening-citizenfour-2004-dir-laura-poitras-tickets-35430944910
For more information, contact:
Emily Garner
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Solar 101
Thursday September 28
6pm-8pm
Agassiz Baldwin Community Center 20 Sacramento Street
More information at http://sunnycambridge.org
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Studying Vision in Usual and Unusual Brain Development: A Change to Merge Science and Service
Thursday, September 28
6:30pm - 8:30pm
Aeronaut Brewery, 14 Tyler Street, Somerville
More information at http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/science-by-the-pint/
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Non-Violent Civil Disobedience (NVCD) and the Age of Antifa
Thursday, September 28
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
First Parish in Brookline, 382 Walnut Street, Brookline
Presented by Rev. Karlene Griffiths Sekou from BLM Boston and others
Please join us in a critical conversation regarding recent visibility of NVCD along with Antifa protests. From Charlottesville to Boston, peaceful protest strategies included alignment with the historical anti-fascism group known as Antifa.
We will discuss the following questions:
What is the legacy of Antifa?
What role does it play in the BLM Movement and beyond?
What role does it play in combating white supremacy?
How do we understand the spectrum of strategic resistance?
Join others in this courageous and critical conversation.
Help to debunk myths, deepen your own, and share in respectful conversation about this important topic.
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Climate Change along the Western Antarctic Peninsula
Thursday, September 28
7-9pm
Simons IMAX Theatre New England Aquarium, Aquarium Wharf, Boston
Scott Doney, Ph.D., Joe D. and Helen J. Kington Professor in Environmental Change, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia
The western Antarctic Peninsula is experiencing some of the most dramatic climate change on the planet and is a natural laboratory for studying how ocean ecosystems respond to climate. Rapid ocean-atmosphere warming, melting of coastal glaciers, and reductions in seasonal ice cover all echo throughout the marine food web from seawater chemistry, plankton, and krill to top predators, including penguins and marine mammals. Using the wealth of data from the Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) programs, the talk will highlight key lessons from field expeditions, autonomous robots, satellite remote sensing, and models regarding changing conditions in the Southern Ocean and Antarctic
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Friday, September 29
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Facets of a Bright Energy Future: A 360° Perspective
Friday, September 29
Curry Student Center, Northeastern University, Boston
3rd Annual Northeastern University Energy Conference 2017
More information at https://www.nuenergyconference.com
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Impact Investing in Emerging Markets: Reaching its full potential
Date: Friday, September 29, 2017, 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Location: Harvard, 79 JFK Street, Perkins Room, Rubenstein Building 4th Floor (R-429), Cambridge
Speaker: Kusi Hornberger, Senior Project Manager, Dalberg Global Development Advisors
About the talk: The most recent GIIN Annual Impact Investor Survey reports that total assets under management (AUM) for impact investing reached US$114 billion, being roughly $36 billion dedicated exclusively to emerging markets. This represents massive growth over just two years when, in 2015, the market estimate was $60 billion. This growth, coupled with numerous reports and surveys showing millennials’ strong interest in aligning values with investments, suggests money and talent are pouring into the nascent field. Despite this rapid growth, key improvements are needed before this promising field can reach its full potential. In his talk, Kusi Hornberger will present his thoughts on eight of the most pressing issues and recommendations for improvement along the impact investment cycle for emerging markets – from goal setting to reporting results.
Kusi HornbergerAbout the Speaker: Kusi Hornberger is a Senior Project Manager in the Washington, DC office of Dalberg Global Development Advisors. Kusi has 10+ years of project management, investment and strategy experience working with a range of public, private, and non-profit clients, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, ECOM Agroindustrial Corp., World Bank Group, Starbucks, Experian and USAID.
Prior to joining Dalberg, Kusi was Vice President of Investment Research & Strategy at Global Partnerships where he oversaw the investment strategy and portfolio including analysis of investment opportunities in agriculture cooperatives, artisan retailers, cookstove and solar lamp manufacturers and distributors, private health clinics as well as integrated microfinance institutions across Central/South America and East Africa. He was also the in-house expert on agriculture finance, leading the investment appraisal and relationships for portfolio of investments in >40 rural and agriculture focused social enterprises across range of commodity value chains including coffee, cocoa, fresh vegetables and nuts. Further he was responsible for managing GP’s relationship with the Council for Smallholder Agriculture Finance (CSAF), served as an advisor to the Finance Alliance for Sustainable Trade (FAST) and Agros International and presented at numerous conferences (Cracking the Nut, FLII, SCAA, SOCAP, etc.) about GP’s approach to investing in agriculture value chains.
Kusi also has experience working as a management consultant, spending three years at Bain & Company based out of its Sao Paulo, Brazil office and serving a wide range of public, private and non-profit clients across South America including several leading agribusiness multinationals and foundations during his time there he authored a Bain Brief titled “The State of Impact Investing in Latin America” As well as working as an Investment Officer for six years with the International Finance Corporation where he spent three years based out of the Bogota, Colombia office and held lead the formation of the investment promotion agency Invest in Bogota as well as shift the strategy of Brazil’s investment and export promotion agency APEX-Brasil to a sector led approach. He also published numerous articles on private sector development and competitiveness including “Attracting FDI – How Much Does Investment Climate Matter?”. Finally, he started his career working with TechnoServe Inc. in East Africa where he was one of the early members of the coffee team working with Peets Coffee & Tea that helped transform the coffee sector in Rwanda and Tanzania. Kusi holds a Masters of Business Administration from INSEAD Business School in Singapore, a Master of Public Administration in International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School and a Bachelors of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania. He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and conversant in Swahili.
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Evidence for Hope: Making Human Rights Work in the 21st Century
Friday, September 29
3:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes KATHRYN SIKKINK—the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study—for a discussion of her latest book, Evidence for Hope: Making Human Rights Work in the 21st Century.
About Evidence for Hope
Evidence for Hope makes the case that, yes, human rights work. Critics may counter that the movement is in serious jeopardy or even a questionable byproduct of Western imperialism. They point out that Guantánamo is still open, the Arab Spring protests have been crushed, and governments are cracking down on NGOs everywhere. But respected human rights expert Kathryn Sikkink draws on decades of research and fieldwork to provide a rigorous rebuttal to the pessimistic doubts about human rights laws and institutions. She demonstrates that change comes slowly and as the result of struggle, but in the long term, human rights movements have been vastly effective.
Attacks on the human rights movement’s credibility are based on the faulty premise that human rights ideas emerged in North America and Europe and were imposed on developing southern nations. Starting in the 1940s, Latin American leaders and activists were actually early advocates for the international protection of human rights. Sikkink shows that activists and scholars disagree about the efficacy of human rights because they use different yardsticks to measure progress. Comparing the present to the past, she shows that genocide and violence against civilians have declined over time, while access to healthcare and education has increased dramatically. Cognitive and news biases contribute to pervasive cynicism, but Sikkink’s investigation into past and current trends indicates that human rights is not in its twilight. Instead, this is a period of vibrant activism that has made impressive improvements in human well-being.
Exploring the strategies that have led to real humanitarian gains since the middle of the twentieth century, Evidence for Hope looks at how these essential advances can be supported and sustained for decades to come.
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Saturday, September 30
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Dismantling Racism Hackathon
Sat, September 30, 2017
11:00 AM – 1:00 PM EDT
MIT, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, East Campus, Cambridge
Come join us at MIT to hack a way at racism! Never been part of a hackathon, no worries you wont be breaking the law but you will be part of an amazing group curating resources to dismantle racism and white supremacy! We will gather in the East Campus in build E25 room 117 and pizza will be provided. Please bring your computer, a friend and the intrigue to search the corners of the internet. At the end of our time together, we are hoping to have a large collection of the best resources to help individuals and communities to do the work of dismantling racism all in one place!
Dismantling Racism Hackathon is collaboration between the Mission Institute, The Crossing, and MIT.
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Making Something From Nothing: Appropriate Technology as Intentionally Disruptive Responsibility
Saturday, September 30
12:00pm to 2:00pm
MIT, Samuel Tak Lee Building, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
The MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) and the Department of Urban Studies (DUSP) welcomes Visiting Artist and Penn State Professor B. Stephen Carpenter for 3 visits during this fall semester. Professor Carpenter teaches and researches art education, visual culture and curriculum theory. Combining art science and social practice, Professor Carpenter will demonstrate how to enhance sustainability through socially-engaged art. Each of his visits will culminate in a public workshop for the greater Boston community, with a special focus on K-12 education.
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Monday, October 2
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PAOC Colloquium: Bess Ward (Princeton)
Monday, October 2
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-923 , 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
About the Speaker
Research in the Ward laboratory concerns the marine and global nitrogen cycle, using molecular biological investigations of marine bacteria and bacterial processes (especially nitrification and denitrification), and measuring the rates of N transformation processes using various isotope approaches. We have ongoing research in the following areas:
Nitrogen cycling (nitrification, denitrification, anammox, etc.) in several suboxic zones of the world ocean (Arabian Sea, Eastern Tropical North and South Pacific) and in Chesapeake Bay, Great Sippewissett Salt Marsh, etc.
Nitrogen assimilation by phytoplankton and functional diversity of eukaryotic phytoplankton in the world ocean
Diversity of functional guilds of bacteria involved in the nitrogen cycle of aquatic systems
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Archaeology Meets Earth-Science in Modern Human Origins Research in Africa
Monday, October 2
12:00PM
Harvard, Haller Hall (102), Geo Museum, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
with Christian A. Tryon, Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University.
Abstract: Modern humans (Homo sapiens) first appeared in Africa, subsequently spreading across Africa and later to Eurasia, Australasia, and elsewhere during the Late Pleistocene. Understanding the evolutionary processes that led to the origins and dispersal of modern humans in Africa requires a multi-disciplinary approach, particularly to understand the complex relationships caused by a dynamic record of environmental and behavioral changes. I outline a series of long-term collaborative projects in East Africa at archaeological sites that focus on reconstructing ancient biomes and constructing high-resolution data archives to explore spatial and temporal changes in ancient landscapes, drawing on data from paleolimnology, geochronology, tephrostratigraphy, biogeochemistry, ecology, geography, and allied fields. The Late Pleistocene dispersal of modern humans from an East African source may have been largely facilitated by a series of environmental changes that altered connections between regions across the continent. [Background paper at https://eps.harvard.edu/files/eps/files/tryon_etal_2016_qi.pdf]
EPS Colloquium
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Remotely Sensing Biodiversity and Ecosystem Processes
Monday, October 2
12:10PM
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill Lecture Hall, 1300 Centre Street, Boston
Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Professor, University of Minnesota, will discuss her research on using remote sensing tools to link aboveground functional attributes of plants and their diversity to belowground processes as part of a large-scale effort to remotely sense biodiversity and ecosystem processes.
Arnold Arboretum Research Talk
Contact Name:
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Social Intelligence, Not Artificial Intelligence
Monday, October 2
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Please RSVP to sts@hks.harvard.edu by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
with Alex Pentland, MIT Media Lab
Sandwich lunch is provided. RSVP required.
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Urban Design: How Well Do Ideas Travel?
Monday, October 2
12:30pm to 2:00pm
MIT, Building 9-255, City Arena,9-255 105 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
The SPURS/Humphrey program is delighted to invite you to our fall seminar series: North American Planning Experience: Is It Relevant for the Developing World?
Our goal is to explore to what extent, and under what conditions, planning ideas generated from practice in the U.S. can travel to cities in the developing world and be implemented effectively. We’ll also consider whether planning ideas, practices and programs are traveling from the rest of the world back to the United States.
The third seminar is Monday, Oct 2, in City Arena, 12:30 to 2 pm, with lunch available at 12:15 pm: Urban Design: How Well Do Ideas Travel?, with Gary Hack and Brent Ryan, respondent.
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How Governments Mobilize Domestic Finance for Innovation - The Case of the Domestic Clean Energy Sector
Monday, October 2
12:30 – 2PM
Tufts, Cabot Intercultural Center,Cabot 703, The Fletcher School, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
Government often plays a crucial and active role for funding innovative activity. Almost every major technical change in recent years on the world can trace most of its funding back to state funding. Financing is often a well-recognized barrier to the development of clean energy technologies. This research will explore how governments mobilize domestic finance for clean energy innovation based on four country cases, namely the United States, Germany, China, and India.
Event Contact Elayne Stecher
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A Fireside Chat with Vincent Roche
Monday, October 2
5:00pm to 6:00pm
MIT, Building 32-123, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Join us for a fireside chat with Analog Devices, Inc. CEO Vincent Roche. Reception to follow immediately. This talk is open to the general public and is free of cost.
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Social Media: Individual and Societal Impacts
Monday, October 2
5:15pm – 6:45pm
Harvard, William James Hall, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
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Conversation 1 of Symposium, “Made in Cambridge: What’s Happening in Kendal...
Monday, October 2
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
Conversation 1: “Why Here?” Monday, October 2nd, 6-8pm; at the Cambridge Public Library Main Branch Auditorium
We'll be talking about the key elements to establishing the biotech industry in Cambridge. Our speakers will be answering questions like- Why here and not somewhere else? What does innovation mean to us? In hindsight could things have happened differently here?
Our moderator is Henrietta Davis, former Mayor of Cambridge.
Our speakers are Sam Lipson, Director of Environmental Health at Cambridge Public Health; Robin Wolfe Scheffler, Historian; and Dr. Phillip Sharp, Institute Professor, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT.
Biographies:
Henrietta Davis is the former Mayor of Cambridge.
Sam Lipson is the Director of Environmental Health at Cambridge Public Health.
Robin Wolfe Scheffler is the Leo Marx Career Development Professor in the History and Culture of Science and Technology at the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT. He studies the history of the biological and biomedical sciences in American society, and he currently focuses on the history of the biotechnology industry.
Dr. Phillip A. Sharp is an Institute Professor at MIT, and member of the Department of Biology and the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. His research interests center on the molecular biology of gene expression relevant to cancer and the mechanisms of RNA splicing. Dr. Sharp is a co-founder of Biogen and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
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One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet Deported
Monday, October 2
7:00 PM (Doors at 6:30 )
First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Cost: $5.00 - $27.25 (online only, book-included)
Harvard Book Store and the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School welcome Georgetown University professor and Washington Post contributor E. J. DIONNE, JR. for a discussion of his latest book, One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet Deported—coauthored by Norman J. Ornstein and Thomas E. Mann. Dionne will be joined in conversation by Harvard's MICHAEL SANDEL, author of Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? and What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets.
in conversation with MICHAEL SANDEL
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Tuesday, October 3
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Gary Liu
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Harvard.Malkin Penthouse, Littauer Building, 4th Floor, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Gary Liu is CEO of the South China Morning Post, an English-language media company covering China and Asia. Prior to joining SCMP, Liu was CEO of Digg, where he led the startup’s transformation from aggregator to news platform. Previously, he was head of Spotify Labs, where he managed emerging technologies and business strategies for Spotify’s global markets. Liu has also worked at AOL and Google, and has a B.A. in economics from Harvard College.
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Turbulence in the atmospheric and oceanic boundary layers
Tuesday, October 3
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915/923, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
About the Speaker
Stephen Belcher is the Met Office Chief Scientist and provides leadership of our scientific research and development.
Professor Belcher obtained his PhD in fluid dynamics from the University of Cambridge in 1990 and has subsequently published over 100 peer-reviewed papers on the fluid dynamics of atmospheric and oceanic turbulence. Having completed his PhD he became a research fellow at Stanford and Cambridge Universities. In 1994 he moved to the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading, where he served as Head of the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences between 2007 and 2010. In 2010 he became the Joint Met Office Chair in Weather Systems. This role gave him a taster of working closely with the Met Office, and in 2012 he joined the Met Office as Director of the Met Office Hadley Centre.
Stephen led the evolution of the Met Office Hadley Centre to focus on climate science and services: motivated by the need to provide governments, industry and society with actionable advice, i.e. ‘climate services’. He was a driving force behind the initiation of the Newton Fund Climate Science for Service Partnership China (CSSP China), in which scientists from both China and the UK are now working together to develop fundamental climate science and climate services.
Stephen is a member of the Government Chief Scientific Advisor’s network.
Stephen is a member of the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme.
In 2002, Stephen received the Rosenstiel Award for Oceanography for outstanding research in oceanographic science.
In 2011 he presented the Scruton Lecture at the Institution of Civil Engineers.
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Community Choice Energy - Boston City Council Hearing
Tuesday, October 3
2:00 PM – 5:00 PM EDT
Boston City Hall, 1 City Hall Square, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/community-choice-energy-boston-city-council-hearing-tickets-37344645841
Boston City Council is holding hearings to discuss Community Choice Energy (CCE) to increase renewable energy, add local jobs, clean up our air, and stabilize prices.
We'll be gathering in the council hearing hall to show our support CCE and let Boston city government know it's important.
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Starr Forum: Dealing with North Korea
Tuesday, October 3
4:30pm to 6:00pm
MIT, Building 34-101, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
MIT experts consider the options
Speakers
Taylor Fravel, is associate professor of political science, member of the Security Studies Program at MIT, and acting director of the MIT Center for International Studies. His work focuses on international security, China, and East Asia.
Vipin Narang, is associate professor of political science at MIT and a member of the Security Studies Program at MIT. His work focuses on nuclear proliferation and South Asian security.
Jim Walsh, is senior research associate at the Security Studies Program at MIT. His work focuses on international security and nuclear weapons.
Co-sponsors: MIT Center for International Studies and MIT Security Studies Program (SSP)
Free & open to the public | Refreshments 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.
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Ikebana: Flower arrangement demo with Master Akihiro Nishi
Tuesday, October 3,
5:00pm to 7:00pm
MIT, Building 10-105 Bush Room, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Come and see the Master Akihiro Nishi demonstrate the Ohara School style of Ikebana--flower arrangement. Twenty lucky MIT students/affiliates will be selected to try their skills at Ikebana Flower Arrange after the demonstration by Professor Nishi.
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Design for Good - Boston Book Launch
Tuesday, October 3
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Humanscale, 34 Farnsworth Street, 5th Floor, Boston
Join Humanscale + Bernhardt Design for the Boston launch of Design for Good: A New Era of Architecture for Everyone—author John Cary’s new book is focused on the dignifying power of design.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Design for Good is premised on the belief that everyone deserves good design. This isn’t just another book for and about designers; it’s a book about the lives we lead, inextricably shaped by the spaces and places we inhabit.
With a foreword by Melinda Gates, the book showcases 20 diverse building projects from across the country and around the world. Brought to life with stunning photography, each project narrative is based on extensive interviews with clients, users, and designers, including Boston-based MASS Design Group.
Published by Island Press and designed by Pentagram, each attendee will receive a complimentary copy of the book, thanks to the generosity of Bernhardt Design and Humanscale.
EVENING SCHEDULE
5:30-6:30pm: Welcome and drinks
6:30-7pm: Author remarks
7-8:30pm: Book signing and reception
ABOUT THE HOSTS
Humanscale believes that the best designs are based on purpose and function. Simplicity and ease of use are at the heart of functionality; a product's form should flow from its function, resulting in products that will feel and look as current and relevant in 20 years as they do today. Humanscale believes everything the company creates—from its factories to its products—must be self-sustaining and make a positive contribution.
Bernhardt Design was founded in 1980 by the 128-year-old Bernhardt Furniture Company and continues to be a leader and innovator in furniture design and production. During the past 15 years, President Jerry Helling has assembled an extraordinary creative team that has positioned Bernhardt Design as one of the premier international design companies with a focus on supporting future generations of designers.
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The Future of Happiness: How Communication Technologies Will Change Our World—Or Not
Tuesday, October 3
6:00pm
Harvard, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Laura Kubzansky, Lee Kum Kee Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences; Co-Director, Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Jukka-Pekka Onnela, Associate Professor of Biostatistics, Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Kasisomayajula “Vish” Viswanath, Lee Kum Kee Professor of Health Communication; Co-Director, Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Jonathan L. Zittrain, George Bemis Professor of International Law, John F. Kennedy School of Government; Professor, Computer Science, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Vice Dean, Library and Information Resources, Harvard Law School; Faculty Co-Director, Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University
What impact are information and communication technologies such as the Internet and social media having on our health, politics, and culture? While there is considerable controversy about this topic, informed analysis and empirical evidence to address it are lacking. In this panel discussion, an interdisciplinary group of experts and thinkers from across Harvard University will debate the impact of communication technologies on health, happiness, and well-being and discuss future implications for policy, practice, and culture.
Panel Discussion. Free and open to the public.
Co-sponsored by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology
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Empathy for Conflict Resolution
Tuesday, October 3
6:00pm to 7:00pm
MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Join MIT professor Ceasar McDowell in a salon-style conversation on interpersonal conflicts, including how empathy can be used to overcome tribalism, and creating human connections across lines of ideological division.
Free. No pre-registration necessary.
This program is offered in conjunction with The Enemy, on view October 5, 2017.
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Sustainability & Careers - Boston Area Sustainability Group Meeting
Tuesday, October 3
6:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Hynes Convention Center, Room 202, Boston
Cost: $8 – $12
For our October 3rd event, we invite you to a very special evening with BASG as we dive head first into a topic that is consistently near and dear to many who have attended BASG events over the years – how to bring sustainability into your work, career and life.
As the backdrop for this event, we are both excited and honored to be able to collaborate with SUSTAINATOPIA during its conference here in Boston October 1-4 at the Hynes Convention Center. This is a unique opportunity to take BASG out of the CIC Venture Cafe and into a different sustainability setting. Attendees will have the chance to meet and to network with a national audience of people, who share an interest and concern for a broad spectrum of sustainability topics.
Our format for the evening will mix perspectives from the three BASG co-organizers about what they have learned in their work, careers and lives with the experiences and successes of those in the room. What motivates and inspires each of us to do the work we do, including engaging with BASG? One thing we three share in common is the desire to see others achieve their professional and personal goals be it a job promotion, career transition, or just a way to increase individual connectivity to sustainability.
Hosting this event within the SUSTAINATOPIA conference means some very special extras for BASG goers this month.
Option to register for the BASG event only: $8 Early Bird, $10 Student/Non-Profit, and $12 Regular
Complimentary drink ticket for post event networking with SUSTAINATOPIA and BASG attendees
Special 30% discount to all BASG members to attend the full SUSTAINATOPIA conference. Use discount code BASG30 when registering here. This discount applies to all ticket levels, but is not applicable in combination with other existing discounts.
We hope you'll join us for this unique evening. We can't wait to hear more about your sustainability aspirations! - Carol, Holly, and Tilly
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DREAM BIG: Democracy Matters with author/historian Timothy Snyder
Tuesday, October 3
7:30 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
This special event will feature guest speaker Timothy Snyder, Levin Professor of History, Yale University and author of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century and Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. A leading American historian and public intellectual, Professor Snyder advocates for active citizen participation as an essential safe guard for democracy.
Maria McCauley, Director of the Cambridge Public Library, will provide opening remarks for the evening.
Callie Crossley, Host/Executive Editor of WGBH Radio’s “Under the Radar” will guide the community discussion that will follow Snyder’s talk.
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Opportunity
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Greenfest Looking for Volunteers
10th Annual Boston GreenFest will be at Boston City Hall Plaza, August 11-13, 2017. It is the largest multicultural environmental music festival in the region featuring lots of local and international exhibits, performances, films, food, fashion and forums. Our goal is to educate and empower people to create a more sustainable, healthier world. We are actively building an interconnected, ever expanding network throughout our neighborhoods, city and region. From business to nonprofit, neighborhood association to academic institution, Boston GreenFest spans age, culture and industry. Celebrating our 10th anniversary, Boston GreenFest is excited to bring this wonderful free three-day festival to Boston City Hall Plaza as it is transformed into a fun interactive community classroom.
We are looking for volunteers to help throughout the weekend.
Please visit: http://www.bostongreenfest.org/
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New Climate CoLab Contests:
Adaptation
Buildings
Carbon Pricing
Energy Supply
Land Use Change
Shifting Attitudes & Behaviors
Transportation
More information at https://www.climatecolab.org/
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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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Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents
Solar map of Cambridge, MA
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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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"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://calendar.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/å
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/calendarÅ
Take Action MA: http://takeactionma.com
If you have an event you would like to see here, the submission deadline is 11 AM on Sundays, as Energy (and Other) Events is sent out Sunday afternoons.
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