Sunday, December 10, 2017

Energy (and Other) Events - December 10, 2017

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, December 11
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8:30am  Privacy Tools for Data Sharing: Lessons Learned and Directions Forward
10am  The Intersection of IoT and Robotics: How Sensors, Data, and Intelligence Are Redefining Industry 
12pm  PAOC Colloquium: Alison Gray (Princeton)
12pm  Geoff Mulgan -- Big Mind: How Collective Intelligence Can Change Our World
12:10pm  Plasticity in Polygonum:  Eco-Devo Insights to Adaptive Diversity
12:15pm  Territorial Logic of the Islamic State
2pm  Boston City Council Hearing: Net Zero for New Buildings
6pm  The Vanity Fair Diaries:  1983–1992
6pm  Reality and Truth in Contemporary Journalism
6pm  Tech Invention & Innovation Forum 2017
6pm  Film Screening: Sneak Preview of Laws of the Lizard + Q&A with Filmmakers
6pm  Climate Ready Boston South Boston Open House

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Tuesday, December 12
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12pm  DISCRIMINATION IN AMERICA: Native American Experiences
12pm  A Pessimist’s Guide to the Future of Technology
12pm  Human in the Data Loop
4:30pm  Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer Processes Underpinning the Production of Renewable Fuels
5pm  Achieving the Paris climate goals: The engine of ambition
5:15pm  Lived Botany: Settler Colonialism, Household Knowledge Production, and Natural History in Eighteenth-Century Pennsylvania
5:30pm  Passive House MA @Northeastern University
6pm  CABA & Climate XChange's Holiday Party
6pm  Mass Innovation Nights 105:  Relativity Whiskey at WeWork Mass Ave
6pm  Boston New Technology Startup Showcase #BNT84 (21+)

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Wednesday, December 13
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11am  Materials Imaging and Control: The Information Dimension
11:30am  Assistive Technology End-of-Term Project Showcase
1pm  Natural Language Processing Symposium
2pm  xTalk: Claire Petitmengin - Exploring the Hidden Side of Lived Experience through Micro-phenomenology
6pm  Why Race and Money Are the Same Topic
6pm  Science Slam
7pm  Slow Money and Nurture Capital: A New Vision of Food, Money and Soil

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Thursday, December 14
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10am  Mapathon for Puerto Rico
1pm  Follow-Up Discussion on Customer Acquisition for Low & Moderate Income Solar Programs
4pm  The Electronic-Structural Barrier to Higher Photoconversion Efficiencies in Semiconductors
6pm  Boston Climate Action Network Meeting
6pm  MIT Clean Energy Prize

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Friday, December 15
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8:30am  Sustainable Apparel Sourcing - Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration Beyond Compliance and Transparency
9am  NE Restructuring Roundtable:  Keynote Addresses from FERC Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur and ISO New England President/CEO Gordon van Welie; & Panel on Improving Energy Facility Siting & Permitting in New England 
2pm  Dirty Data, Robotics, and Artificial Intelligence
4pm  Brains, Minds + Machines Seminar Series: Have We Missed Most of What the Neocortex Does? Allocentric Location as the Basis of Perception

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Saturday, December 16
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2pm  Meet & Greet with former CIA field analyst in Afghanistan

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Monday, December 18
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3pm  xTalk: Faculty Innovators Wolfgang Ketterle & Lorna Gibson
4pm  Whitehead Institute Seminar Series (Dr. Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz)
4pm  Unseen Enemy: A Film Exploring the Threat of Pandemics

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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:

The Mask of Command

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Monday, December 11
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Privacy Tools for Data Sharing: Lessons Learned and Directions Forward
Monday, December 11
8:30 AM – 6:00 PM EST
Harvard, Maxwell-Dworkin, 33 Oxford Street, G115, Cambridge

Spring 2018 marks the end of an interdisciplinary, 5-year NSF Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace Frontier Project “Privacy Tools for Sharing Research Data” at Harvard University. This one-day workshop will bring past and present project participants together with potential users of privacy tools from academia, government, and industry to examine the goals and accomplishments of the project (including practical tools for sharing privacy-sensitive research data); discuss the lessons learned about both data privacy and interdisciplinary research; and scope out opportunities for future research, applications, and collaborations going forward.

If you would like to attend, please register by Monday, December 4, 2017.

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The Intersection of IoT and Robotics: How Sensors, Data, and Intelligence Are Redefining Industry 
Monday, December 11
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Alley Powered by Verizon, 10 Ware Street, Cambridge
Cost:  $95 - $195

Agenda: 
10:00am–10:30am
Registration & Networking
10:30am–11:30am
Opening Keynote: Lisa Seacat DeLuca, Distinguished Engineer, IBM
11:30am-11:45am
Tech Talk: Smart Agriculture
Speaker: Abbas Bagasra, DMTS, Verizon Communications
11:45am-12:30pm
Lunch & Networking
12:30pm-12:45pm
Tech Talk: Data Privacy Ownership & Ethics
Speaker: Lily Lim, Attorney, Finnegan
12:45pm-1:00pm 
Tech Talk: Cybersecurity in Industrial Internet of Things                            
1:00pm-2:00pm
Smart Cities Panel: Thinking Outside the Box
Moderator: Setrag Khoshafian, Chief Evangelist and VP of BPM Technology, Pegasystems
Panelists: 
Nigel Jacob, Co-Chair, Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics, City of Boston
Subu Ramasamy, Senior Global Product Manager, Connected Lighting Systems, Philips Lighting
Connecting physical objects, from vehicles to telephone poles, has been made more accessible due to the lower costs of sensors and increased computing power. Our panelists will talk about the power of connecting these objects and what the future will bring.
2:00pm-2:15pm
Break
2:15pm-3:15pm
Panel: How IoT and Robotics are Redefining Manufacturing
Panelists: 
Pulkit Kapur, Senior Industry Manager for Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Mathworks 
Yavor Kolarov, Product Group Marketing Manager, Digital Systems Business Unit, OSRAM
Rony Kubat, Co-founder, Tulip
Walter Vahey, President of Systems Test Group, Teradyne
Manufacturers are entering a new era where robotics and IoT are essential to remain competitive. Connected devices and collaborative robots are converging to escalate productivity, helping their customers and their bottom line. Our panelists will talk about how these pieces come together, the implementation, and the return on investment.
3:15pm–3:45pm
Closing Keynote: Colin Angle, CEO, iRobot

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PAOC Colloquium: Alison Gray (Princeton)
Monday, December 11
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-923, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge

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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Geoff Mulgan -- Big Mind: How Collective Intelligence Can Change Our World
WHEN  Monday, Dec. 11, 2017, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, Ash Center Foyer, 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200 North, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S)  Ash Center Visiting Scholar and Nesta CEO Geoff Mulgan, author of Big Mind: How Collective Intelligence Can Change Our World
COST  Free
CONTACT INFO Info@ash.harvard.edu
DETAILS  You are invited to a book talk with Ash Center Visiting Scholar and Nesta CEO Geoff Mulgan, author of Big Mind: How Collective Intelligence Can Change Our World. This discussion will be moderated by Archon Fung, Academic Dean and Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship. Lunch will be provided.

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Plasticity in Polygonum:  Eco-Devo Insights to Adaptive Diversity
Monday, December 11
12:10PM
Harvard, Weld Hill Lecture Hall, 1300 Centre Street, Boston

Sonia Sultan, Professor, Wesleyan University, will discuss "."

Arnold Arboretum Research Talk

Contact Name:  arbweb@arnarb.harvard.edu

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Territorial Logic of the Islamic State
WHEN  Monday, Dec. 11, 2017, 12:15 – 2 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, 1 Brattle Square #350, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR International Security Program
SPEAKER(S)  Burak Kadercan, Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Strategic Studies, The Fletcher School, Tufts University

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Boston City Council Hearing: Net Zero for New Buildings
Monday, December 11
2:00 PM 
Boston CityCouncil Chambers, 5th Floor, City Hall, 1 City Hall Square, Boston

For many cities, buildings are the largest cause of carbon emissions. Boston is no exception, with most estimates placing carbon emissions due to buildings in the city at well over 50%. Boston has a stated goal to be carbon neutral by 2050, but 70 million square feet of new buildings are planned for the near future, almost all to be fueled by gas, a fossil fuel. These two efforts are incompatible.

The hearing on December 11 will begin to address what Boston can and must do to build net-zero-carbon buildings and avoid increasing our carbon emissions exponentially during the third largest building boom in Boston’s history. Please attend to hear net-zero experts, advocates, and members of the administration and consider giving public testimony yourself. For more details and a list of the panelists, go to BostonCleanEnergyCoalition.org.

Calish Castro & Michele Brooks
617-423-5775

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The Vanity Fair Diaries:  1983–1992
Monday, December 11
6:00 PM (Doors at 5:30)
Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge
Cost:  $5 - $32.25 (online only, book-included) 

Harvard Book Store welcomes award-winning writer and editor TINA BROWN—former editor-in-chief of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and The Daily Beast—for a discussion of The Vanity Fair Diaries: 1983–1992.
About The Vanity Fair Diaries

Tina Brown kept delicious daily diaries throughout her eight spectacular years as editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair. Today they provide an incendiary portrait of the flash and dash and power brokering of the Excessive Eighties in New York and Hollywood.

The Vanity Fair Diaries is the story of an Englishwoman barely out of her twenties who arrives in New York City with a dream. Summoned from London in hopes that she can save Condé Nast's troubled new flagship Vanity Fair, Tina Brown is immediately plunged into the maelstrom of the competitive New York media world and the backstabbing rivalries at the court of the planet's slickest, most glamour-focused magazine company. She survives the politics, the intrigue, and the attempts to derail her by a simple stratagem: succeeding. In the face of rampant skepticism, she triumphantly reinvents a failing magazine.

Here are the inside stories of Vanity Fair scoops and covers that sold millions―the Reagan kiss, the meltdown of Princess Diana's marriage to Prince Charles, the sensational Annie Leibovitz cover of a gloriously pregnant, naked Demi Moore. In the diary's cinematic pages, the drama, the comedy, and the struggle of running an "it" magazine come to life. Brown's Vanity Fair Diaries is also a woman's journey, of making a home in a new country and of the deep bonds with her husband, their prematurely born son, and their daughter.

Astute, open-hearted, often riotously funny, Tina Brown's The Vanity Fair Diaries is a compulsively fascinating and intimate chronicle of a woman's life in a glittering era.

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Reality and Truth in Contemporary Journalism
Monday, December 11
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EST
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Columbia Point, Boston

Dan Balz, Chief Correspondent at The Washington Post, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, University of Pennsylvania professor of communication, and Tom Nichols, author of The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters, discuss reality and truth in contemporary media with Heather Cox Richardson, Boston College professor of history.  

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Tech Invention & Innovation Forum 2017
Monday, December 11
6pm - 8pm
Harvard iLab, 125 Western Avenue, Allston
Cost:  $0 – $20

What technologies do you predict will make the foremost impact on our future?
Join our discussions with tech frontiers and industrial pioneers!
Explore the latest developments in tech invention & innovation!

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Film Screening: Sneak Preview of Laws of the Lizard + Q&A with Filmmakers
WHEN  Monday, Dec. 11, 2017, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard Museum of Natural History, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Film, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Presented by the Harvard Museum of Natural History
SPEAKER(S)  Nate Dappen and Neil Losin, award winning filmmakers and creators of Laws of the Lizard;
Jonathan Losos, Professor of Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
COST  Free and open to the public.
CONTACT INFO hmnh@hmsc.harvard.edu, (617) 495-3045
DETAILS  The Harvard Museum of Natural History presents a free public lecture and screening by filmmakers Nate Dappen and Neil Losin!
When scientists ask big questions about the laws of nature, they sometimes seek out improbable partners—such as lizards—to find the answers. In their new documentary, Laws of the Lizard, award-winning filmmakers Nate Dappen and Neil Losin partner with scientists to tell the surprising story of anole lizards. During a year-long quest that took them from tiny Bahamian islands to Caribbean rainforests and to metropolitan Miami, Dappen and Losin capture cutting-edge science, new anole species, and never-before-seen behaviors. They quickly came to understand why Jonathan Losos, Harvard evolutionary biologist—and anole lizard expert—humorously says “Any study you do is more interesting if you do it on anoles!” Join us for a special preview screening of Laws of the Lizard—coming to the Smithsonian Channel in 2018—followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and Harvard Professor Jonathan Losos. Film Screening (51 minutes). Free parking is available at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.

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Climate Ready Boston South Boston Open House
Monday, December 11
6pm - 8pm
Mass Bay Credit Union, 147 West 4th Street, South Boston

Climate Ready Boston is the Mayor's ongoing initiative to help the City grow and prosper in the face of climate change. Through the Climate Ready South Boston project, we are working to better understand current and future flood risks in South Boston, and develop strategies that protect the neighborhood.

Join us on December 11th for our first community open house about the vision for a Climate Ready South Boston. Meet the project team, ask questions, and give feedback to the design team.

The event is open house style, and we recommend you plan to attend for about 30 minutes anytime between 6-8pm.

Climate resiliency planning is happening in Boston’s most vulnerable neighborhoods, such as East Boston, Charlestown, and now South Boston. Your participation will help us develop climate resilience solutions that improve your neighborhood.

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Tuesday, December 12
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DISCRIMINATION IN AMERICA: Native American Experiences
WHEN  Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE  Leadership Studio, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Forum at Harvard Chan
SPEAKER(S)EXPERT PARTICIPANTS
Robert Blendon, Professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Kennedy School
Stephanie Fryberg, Associate Professor for American Indian Studies and Psychology, University of Washington
Michael Painter, Senior Program Officer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Former Chief of Medical Staff at the Seattle Indian Health Board
Yvette Roubideaux, Director of the National Congress of American Indians Policy Research Center and Former Director, Indian Health Service
MODERATOR
Joe Neel, Deputy Senior Supervising Editor and a Correspondent on the Science Desk, NPR
COST  Free webcast
CONTACT INFO To attend the studio audience, please RSVP to theforum@hsph.harvard.edu
DETAILS  How do Native Americans experience discrimination in daily life? A new poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health illuminates Native Americans’ personal experiences with discrimination. The report reveals that more than a third of Native Americans and their family members have experienced slurs and violence, and close to a third have faced discrimination in the workplace and when interacting with police. The poll also reveals that Native Americans who live in majority-Native areas are significantly more likely to experience this kind of discrimination.
This poll is one a series of reports that surveyed additional groups, including Latinos, Asian Americans, African Americans, men, women, and LGBTQ adults, on their experiences with discrimination.

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A Pessimist’s Guide to the Future of Technology
Tuesday, December 12
12:00 pm
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East C, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Event will be live webcast at 12:00 pm at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2017/luncheon/12/Bogost

featuring Dr. Ian Bogost, Professor of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, in conversation with Professor Jeffrey Schnapp, Professor of Romance Languages & Literature, Harvard Graduate School of Design 

Since the rise of the web in the 1990s, technological skeptics have always faced resistance. To question the virtue and righteousness of tech, and especially computing, was seen as truculence, ignorance, or luddism. But today, the real downsides of tech, from fake news to data breaches to AI-operated courtrooms to energy-sucking bitcoin mines, have become both undeniable and somewhat obvious in retrospect. 

In light of this new technological realism, perhaps there is appetite for new ways to think about and plan for the future of technology, which anticipates what might go right and wrong once unproven tech mainstreams quickly. As a test case, this talk will consider a technology that has not yet mainstreamed—autonomous vehicles—as a test case.

About Ian
Dr. Ian Bogost is an author and an award-winning game designer. He is Ivan Allen College Distinguished Chair in Media Studies and Professor of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he also holds an appointment in the Scheller College of Business. Bogost is also Founding Partner at Persuasive Games LLC, an independent game studio, and a Contributing Editor at The Atlantic. He is the author or co-author of ten books including Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism and Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames.

Bogost is also the co-editor of the Platform Studies book series at MIT Press, and the Object Lessons book and essay series, published by The Atlantic and Bloomsbury.

Bogost’s videogames about social and political issues cover topics as varied as airport security, consumer debt, disaffected workers, the petroleum industry, suburban errands, pandemic flu, and tort reform. His games have been played by millions of people and exhibited or held in collections internationally, at venues including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Telfair Museum of Art, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, the Laboral Centro de Arte, and The Australian Centre for the Moving Image.

His independent games include Cow Clicker, a Facebook game send-up of Facebook games that was the subject of a Wired magazine feature, and A Slow Year, a collection of videogame poems for Atari VCS, Windows, and Mac, which won the Vanguard and Virtuoso awards at the 2010 IndieCade Festival.

Bogost holds a Bachelors degree in Philosophy and Comparative Literature from the University of Southern California, and a Masters and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UCLA. He lives in Atlanta.

About Jeffrey
Jeffrey is Professor of Romance Languages & Literature, Harvard Graduate School of Design; Director, metaLAB (at) Harvard; and Director, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. A cultural historian with research interests extending from Roman antiquity to the present, his most recent books are The Electric Information Age Book (a collaboration with the designer Adam Michaels (Princeton Architectural Press, 2012) and Italiamerica II (Il Saggiatore, 2012). His pioneering work in the domains of digital humanities and digitally augmented approaches to cultural programming includes curatorial collaborations with the Triennale di Milano, the Cantor Center for the Visual Arts, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Canadian Center for Architecture. His Trento Tunnels project — a 6000 sq. meter pair of highway tunnels in Northern Italy repurposed as a history museum– was featured in the Italian pavilion of the 2010 Venice Biennale and at the MAXXI in Rome in RE-CYCLE - Strategie per la casa la città e il pianeta (fall-winter 2011). He is Professor of Romance Languages & Literature, on the teaching faculty of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design,and is the faculty director of metaLAB (at) Harvard.

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Human in the Data Loop
Tuesday, December 12
12:00pm - 1:00pm
Tufts, 196 Boston Avenue, Room 4014, Medford

Speaker: Joseph Cottam, Pacific Northwest National Lab
Abstract: So much of the world is operates at computational scales. There are computers monitoring internet traffic, trading stocks and monitoring health. Computational scales dominate the speed, precision and volume of measurements being made. However, these datasets need to be moved to human-scales, at least occasionally, to be useful. Human scale is required for interpretation, verification and critical decision making. This talk will discuss aspects of human-in-the-loop data analysis, focusing on visualization but touching on aspects such as system verification/validation and human-machine teaming. 

Bio: Dr. Joseph Cottam is a research scientists working on data analysis and visualization at Pacific Northwest National Lab. He is interested in visualizing how things change and in making visualization more useful by making it easier to do correctly. His work has worked on systems involving streaming data, distributed processing and out-of-core methods. He joined the Visual Analytics group In January 2017 after spending five years as a research scientist at Indiana University.

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Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer Processes Underpinning the Production of Renewable Fuels
Tuesday, December 12
4:30pm
MIT, Building 36-428, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Jillian Dempsey, University of North Carolina/Department of Chemistry 
The conversion of energy-poor feedstocks like water and carbon dioxide into energy-rich fuels involves multi-electron, multi-proton transformations. In order to develop catalysts that can mediate fuel production with optimum energy efficiency, this complex proton-electron reactivity must be carefully considered. Using a combination of electrochemical methods and time-resolved spectroscopy, we have revealed new details of how molecular catalysts mediate the reduction of protons to dihydrogen and the experimental parameters that dictate catalyst kinetics. While the energy input to drive endergonic fuel-forming reactions is typically supplied indirectly, such as through electricity produced by a solar photovoltaic, we are also exploring excited-state proton-coupled electron transfer reactions that could directly promote catalysis with visible light. This approach represents an energy-efficient mechanism by which solar energy can be captured and converted to chemical energy. Through these studies, we are revealing opportunities to promote, control and modulate the proton-coupled electron transfer reaction pathways of catalysts.

Jillian Dempsey is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina.  She received her BS from MIT in 2005 and her PhD from California Institute of Technology in 2011.  She was a NSF American Competitiveness in Chemistry Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Washington, Seattle from 2011-2012.  She received the UNC Junior Faculty Development Award, NSF CAREER Award, and the Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering in 2015.  In 2016, she was awarded the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award, and the Sloan Research Fellowship.  Research in Dempsey’s Inorganic Spectroscopy and Solar Energy Conversion group aims to address challenges associated with developing efficient solar energy conversion processes. They are particularly interested in the charge-transfer processes that will ultimately govern efficiency in solar fuel production devices: proton-coupled electron transfer reactions, electron transfer across the interface between a catalyst and semiconductor, and the reduction of protons to hydrogen.

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Achieving the Paris climate goals: The engine of ambition
Tuesday, December 12
5:00pm to 6:00pm
MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street Cambridge

with Nate Hultman, Associate Professor, University of Maryland
Delivering on the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement will depend on the “engine of ambition” in which ambitious but feasible targets are set, achieved, communicated, and ratcheted up over time. For the first time, this formalized cycle of ambition requires a deep and efficient conversation between experts and decision-makers—and provides an opportunity to integrate research and policy for near-term targets and longer-term national decarbonization strategies. Universities have a vital role to play in maintaining and advancing this analytical capacity to achieve a 2C pathway, but this will require new collaborative models across multiple stakeholder groups and all levels of government.

Speaker Bio:  Nate Hultman is director of the Center for Global Sustainability and an associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. From 2014-2016, he worked on the White House climate and energy policy team, where he helped develop the U.S. Nationally Determined Contribution; worked on bilateral engagements with China, India, Brazil, and others; and participated in the climate negotiations in Lima and Paris. His research focuses on national climate target-setting and assessment, U.S. energy policy, energy transitions, and climate policy. Hultman is also a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

This MITEI Seminar was made possible with the generous support from IHS Markit.

Please note this is a public event and we will open our doors to unregistered participants 15 minutes before the event start time. To guarantee your seat, we recommend you register and arrive at least 15 minutes early.

If you are not able to attend, note there will be a high-quality recording of this seminar made available on our YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/user/MITEnergyInitiative about a week following the event.

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Lived Botany: Settler Colonialism, Household Knowledge Production, and Natural History in Eighteenth-Century Pennsylvania
Tuesday, December 12
5:15PM
Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston

The Massachusetts Historical Society hosts Hannah Anderson, University of Pennsylvania with comment by Thomas Wickman, Trinity College. Free and open to the public. A light sandwich supper will follow.

Boston Environmental History Seminar

Contact Name:  seminars@masshist.org

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Passive House MA @Northeastern University
Tuesday, December 12
5:30 PM – 9:00 PM EST
Northeastern, ISEC Auditorium, 805 Columbus Avenue, Room #102, Boston

JOIN Passive House MA for their December monthy meeting centered around high performance buildings along with the opportunity to network with industry professionals, practitioners and students from local universities!
Event Organizers: NUSBO and ESS
Speaker: Dan Roy
Featuring Speaker: Dan Roy, PE who will lead a discussion about his personal Passive House, some of the construction & designdetails, actual energy performance vs predictions and what it’s like to live in a Passive House.
The house has a photovoltaic system that makes it better than Net Zero and the excess power is used to partially pay a relative’s electricity bill. Some design features are ERV (Energy Recovery Ventilation), mini splits, heat pump water heater and triple pane windows.
Itinerary:
5:30PM-6:30PM : Food and Networking
6:30PM-8:30PM: Monthly Meeting
8:30PM-9:00PM: Closing Remarks and Networking
Contact Details:
Passive House MA - phmass.org

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CABA & Climate XChange's Holiday Party
Tuesday, December 12
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
131 Cambridge St, 131 Cambridge Street, Boston

It’s that time of year again! The temperature is dropping, the days are becoming shorter, and 2017 is coming to a close. But before the year ends, we’re gathering to reflect on what we’ve accomplished in 2017 with the people who helped make those achievements possible. Please join us at the Old West Church for an evening of food, drinks, and good company.

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Mass Innovation Nights 105:  Relativity Whiskey at WeWork Mass Ave
Tuesday, December 12
6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
We Work, 625 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Smooth and well balanced: that is the theme for our December event.  Our sponsor, Relativity from Edrington, the New American whiskey will be on hand and pouring at WeWork Mass Ave. in Cambridge. They're doing something special with their website- a puzzle that gives you a chance to win a branded hat (can you hack the puzzle for a secret prize?).

The Cambridge WeWork is the location for our December 12th TUESDAY (yes, note it is TUESDAY not our usual night) #MIN105! You can relax with a glass of whiskey and check out the 11 cool and innovative products that will be showcased.

Check out the new PRODUCTS and
VOTE for your favorites - click on the words VOTE HERE  (found on this page to the immediate left) and once on the product voting page, click LOVE IT (only four times)!     
RSVP to attend the event on Tuesday, December 12th (free to attend and open to all)    
See who else is planning on attending (click the ATTENDEES tab)   
Help spread the word - blog, tweet (using the #MIN105 hashtag), like and post!  
Support local innovation -- network and have fun at the same time! 
Don't miss it -- TUESDAY, December 12th 6pm-8:30pm for Mass Innovation Nights #105!   

(855) 593-9675

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Boston New Technology Startup Showcase #BNT84 (21+)
Tuesday, December 12
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Foley Hoag, 155 Seaport Boulevard, Boston
Cost: $12.00 /per person

This event is 21+. Find our check-in table in the lobby and present your valid photo identification to pick up your name tag.

Come learn about 7 innovative and exciting technology products and network with 150 attendees from the Boston-area startup community! Dinner, beer, wine and more are included.

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Wednesday, December 13
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Materials Imaging and Control: The Information Dimension
Wednesday, December 13
11:00am to 12:00pm
MIT, Building 6-104, Chipman Room, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge

Dr. Sergei V. Kalinin, Institute for Functional Imaging of Materials Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Abstract:  Development of information and energy technologies beyond-Moore computing and internet of things applications requires both acceleration of material development as well as fundamentally new approaches for controlling matter on sub-10 nm scales. Recent progress in scanning probe and electron microscopies have opened the pathway to explore structure and functionalities on atomic and subatomic scale, providing vital feedback to device fabrication and processing. These advances bring forth the challenges of extracting relevant physical and (electro)chemical behaviors that can be linked to preparation pathways and predictive theory. 

The opportunities opened by synergy of physics-informed big data and machine learning techniques with imaging to probe materials behavior, as exemplified by thermodynamics of solid solutions from the atomically resolved images of atom distribution, flexoelectric coupling from topological defects in ferroics, and reaction-diffusion constants from STEM movies of electrochemical growth will all be discussed. The use of electron beam probes to explore atomic-scale reactions and phase evolution and assembly of matter atom by atom will also be further delineated.  

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Assistive Technology End-of-Term Project Showcase
Wednesday, December 13
11:30am-12pm Video Presentations
12-1pm Reception and Project Demos,
MIT, Building 32-044, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

You are invited to the End-of-Term Project Showcase for 6.811J/HST.420J/2.78J: Principles and Practice of Assistive Technology (PPAT). PPAT is a project-based course in which small teams of students work closely with a person with a disability in the Boston area to develop a product or solution that helps them live more independently.

The event is free and open to the public, so please feel free to share this invitation.

Please join us for video presentations, refreshments, and demos of this year's class projects.  

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Natural Language Processing Symposium
Wednesday, December 13
1:00 pm to 5:00 pm 
BU, 72 East Concord Street, Room 112, Boston

Contact;  Shanshan Sheehy
Email:  shl607@bu.edu

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xTalk: Claire Petitmengin - Exploring the Hidden Side of Lived Experience through Micro-phenomenology
Wednesday, December 13
2:00pm to 3:00pm
MIT, Building 1-242, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

What's happening when an idea comes to us? When we listen to a course, read an article, or write an e-mail? When we discover an artwork, listen to a piece of music, or breathe a perfume? As cognitive science has shown very convincingly, a large part of these phenomena, which constitute the very texture of our existence, escape awareness and verbal description, and have thus far been excluded from scientific investigation. However, these difficulties do not mean that our experience is out of reach. They mean that accessing it requires a particular expertise, which consists in carrying out specific acts.

Micro-phenomenology is a new scientific discipline aiming at triggering such acts. It enables us to discover ordinary inaccessible dimensions of our lived experience and describe them very accurately and reliably. The development of this "psychological microscope" opens vast fields of investigation in the educational, technological, clinical and therapeutic, as well as artistic and contemplative domains. Notably, it enables us to explore a deeply pre-reflective, transmodal and gestural dimension of our experience that seems to play an essential role in the process of emergence of any meaning and understanding.

Claire Petitmengin is Professor Emerita at Mines-Télécom Institute and Member of the Archives Husserl, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris.

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Why Race and Money Are the Same Topic
Wednesday, December 13
6:00pm
First Church In Roxbury, 10 Putnam Street, Putnam Hall, Boston

A Discussion with Phil Thompson
J. Phillip Thompson is Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Politics at MIT. Phil also heads the Health Working Group at the School of Architecture and Planning (and Media Lab) at MIT. Phil’s research focuses on black politics, community development, and political economy.
Outside of campus he works with labor unions, community groups, and local government officials on strategies and policies for economic and social justice.
Phil earned a PhD in Political Science from the City University of New York Graduate Center, a Masters degree in Urban Planning from Hunter College in New York, and a B.A. in Sociology from Harvard University.

Obehi Janice will read a scene from her play Ole White Sugar Daddy.
To learn more about Ole White Sugar Daddy: http://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2017/05/26/obehi-janice-play
OBEHI JANICE is an award-winning actress, writer and comedian.
A graduate of Georgetown University, Obehi was named "Boston's Best Actress" by The Improper Bostonian in 2014. She works on stage, screen and as a voice actress in video games, radio, and commercials.
She has garnered esteem and recognition from American Theatre Magazine, Bustle, WBUR, DigBoston, WGBH, For Harriet, and The Boston Globe. She is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and Actors’ Equity Association.
Obehi is originally from Lowell, Massachusetts.

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Science Slam
Wednesday, December 13
6:00pm to 8:00pm
The Thirsty Ear, 235 Albany Street, Cambridge

Join MIT alumni at The Thirsty Ear for a fast-paced pitch night. Watch 10 MIT alumni—currently graduate students and postdocs at area universities—compete for over $1,000 in cash and prizes for effectively communicating their research to a panel of judges in under three minutes. 

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Slow Money and Nurture Capital: A New Vision of Food, Money and Soil
Wednesday, December 13
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
First Church in Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist, 6 Eliot Street, Jamaica Plain

 Since 2009, Slow Money founder Woody Tasch has been at the forefront of a new economic story—a story about bringing our money back down to earth. Published in 2017, Woody’s new book SOIL: Notes Towards the Theory and Practice of Nurture Capital is poetic, photographic, philosophical and radical. It is about billions and trillions of dollars in the global economy, and billions and trillions of microbes in healthy, fertile soil. Nurture capital is a vision of finance that starts where investing and philanthropy leave off, giving us a new way to reconnect to one another and places where we live, all the way down to local food systems. Come hear directly from Woody about his new book and Slow Money’s progress, including the $60 million invested in more than 625 small organic farms and local food businesses, via dozens of local groups in the United States, Canada, France and Australia.

“Imagination that enables us to reckon our whereabouts in a world that is heating up and speeding up. Imagination that enables us to find our way past shallow punditry, tribal vitriol, global this and cyber that, past the hyper and the ultra and the mega. Imagination that leads us back to one another, to the places where we live, and to the land—not just the land of “this land is your land, this land is my land,” but also the soil itself, upon which all life depends.”
RSVP on Facebook and share with your friends!
Free & open to all.

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Thursday, December 14
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Mapathon for Puerto Rico
Thursday, December 14
10:00am to 12:00pm
MIT, Building E53-212, 30 Wadsworth Street, Cambridge

The MIT Libraries are hosting a second Mapathon to add and verify data in OpenStreetMap, assisting relief efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Please join us in person at Dewey Library (E53-212) — bring your own laptop — or online! The first half-hour, 10-10:30am, will feature an OpenStreetMap training by DUSP PhD student Lily Bui (livestreamed for remote participants via WebEx, please register in advance at https://mit.webex.com/mw3200/mywebex/default.do?service=7&main_url=%2Ftc3200%2Ftrainingcenter%2Fdefault.do%3Fsiteurl%3Dmit%26main_url%3D%252Ftc3200%252Fe.do%253FAT%253DMI%2526%2526Host%253DQUhTSwAAAATUgOmRQjA9q6_2sZJOe1OK4N2PXSPhPCUJ22hVqgQSpeFzpaaCVZhtmKjYSiRFQj-xPG0Urn2LJPuK5KCqw-bQ0%2526UID%253D0%2526MTID%253Dt380c32a205e96104fa0b5b26b3d0f7b1%2526siteurl%253Dmit%2526confID%253D80421303430986324%2526ticket%253D4832534b00000004f7867b0b3cea42e7d973e3d3174e44931b0a7b36e3178593a93fd7da50ca464d&siteurl=mit).

Following the hurricane earlier this fall, people across the world and at MIT have been using the OpenStreetMap platform to give their time to the relief efforts. There are several tasks we can help with: mapping buildings, pre-disaster imagery to give an operating picture of the island before the hurricane made landfall, and verifying map data.

No prior mapping experience necessary!
No knowledge of local terrain is necessary!
You are free to come and go as you need!

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Follow-Up Discussion on Customer Acquisition for Low & Moderate Income Solar Programs
Thursday, December 14
1-2pm ET
Webinar

This interactive webinar discussion is a follow-up to two earlier webinars: "Approaches for Involving Low-Income Communities with Solar” (11/30) and “Connecticut’s Low- and Moderate-Income Solar Customer Segmentation Analysis” (12/5).

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The Electronic-Structural Barrier to Higher Photoconversion Efficiencies in Semiconductors
Thursday, December 14
4:00pm
MIT, Building 6-120, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge

Special Seminar: Dr. Scott Cushing, University of California, Berkeley

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Boston Climate Action Network Meeting
Thursday, December 14
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
First Baptist Church, 633 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain

We're working towards fighting climate change through improved energy policy and education at the local level in Boston. The BCAN Action Team meeting is a great way to get directly involved in the effort to combat climate change in the era of Trump. We gather twice per month on the 2nd and 4th Thursday from 6-8pm at First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain.

Come meet the Communications Team, the Arts Team, and other dedicated climate campaigners to learn how you can help us plan outreach for the Community Choice Energy campaign.

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MIT Clean Energy Prize 
Thursday, December 14
6:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Greentown Labs, 28 Dane Street, Somerville

MIT Clean Energy Prize is the nation’s largest clean energy-focused innovation competition for students. 

With over $200,000 in prizes, we can help bring your novel prototype or business plan to successfully launch. 

Come join us for our kick-off event to meet like-minded students, engage veteran energy entrepreneurs, and participate in Pitch 2 Match, a 1 minute or less idea introduction to form teams to compete for the Clean Energy Prize.

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Friday, December 15
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Sustainable Apparel Sourcing - Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration Beyond Compliance and Transparency
Friday, December 15, 2017
8:30 AM – 5:00 PM EST
Harvard University, Cambridge

The conference will focus on the trade, compliance and labor issues in global supply chain for the apparel industry. The conference is designed to focus on the current challenges facing the industry globally and particularly in Bangladesh. Our goal is to provide a pathway to a greater integration with the global sustainable supply chain system. Whether it's developing the technological infrastructure and processes to integrate with the global markets, identifying improvements in policies, and creating the necessary environment. We will seek to foster a sustainable environment for the engagement of academics, policy makers, industry leaders and other stakeholders.

We are expecting that government and business leaders from USA, EU, Canada, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, Cambodia and African Union will participate at the event. Other expected participants include the brands and the buyers' groups, USFIA, UN and associated development partners, the World Bank, IFC, ILO, elected officials and civil servants of the Governments, labor leaders, researchers and academics. The deliberation will explore how the development partners can more effectively facilitate and assist in solving the key challenges for sustaining the development of the global apparel industry.

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NE Restructuring Roundtable:  Keynote Addresses from FERC Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur and ISO New England President/CEO Gordon van Welie; & Panel on Improving Energy Facility Siting & Permitting in New England 
Friday, December 15
9:00 am - 12:30 pm
Foley Hoag LLP, 155 Seaport Boulevard, 13th Floor, Boston
Cost:  $0 - $80

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Dirty Data, Robotics, and Artificial Intelligence
Friday, December 15
2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
MIT, Building 32-D463, Star, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Sanjay Krishnan , UC Berkeley 
Abstract:  Large training datasets have revolutionized AI research, but enabling similar breakthroughs in other fields, such as Robotics, requires a new understanding of how to acquire, clean, and structure emergent forms of large-scale, unstructured sequential data. My talk presents a systematic approach to handling such dirty data in the context of modern AI applications. I start by introducing a statistical formalization on data cleaning in this setting including research on: (1) how common data cleaning operations affect model training, (2) how data cleaning programs can be expected to generalize to unseen data, (3) and how to prioritize limited human intervention in rapidly growing datasets. Then, using surgical robotics as a motivating example, I present a series of robust Bayesian models for automatically extracting hierarchical structure from highly varied and noisy robot trajectory data facilitating imitation learning and reinforcement learning on short, consistent sub-problems. I present how the combination of clean training data and structured learning tasks enables learning highly accurate control policies in tasks ranging from surgical cutting to debridement.

Bio:  Sanjay Krishnan is a Computer Science PhD candidate in the RISELab and in the Berkeley Laboratory for Automation Science and Engineering at UC Berkeley. His research studies problems on the intersection of database theory, machine learning, and robotics. Sanjay's work has received a number of awards including the 2016 SIGMOD Best Demonstration award, 2015 IEEE GHTC Best Paper award, and Sage Scholar award. https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~sanjayk/ 

Contact: Leslie Kaelbling, lpk@csail.mit.edu

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Brains, Minds + Machines Seminar Series: Have We Missed Most of What the Neocortex Does? Allocentric Location as the Basis of Perception
Friday, December 15
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 46-3002, Singleton Auditorium, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Jeff Hawkins, Co-Founder, Numenta
Abstract:  In this talk, I will describe a theory that sensory regions of the neocortex process two inputs. One input is the well-known sensory data arriving via thalamic relay cells. The second input is an allocentric representation, which we propose is derived in the sub-granular layers of each cortical column. The allocentric location represents where the sensed feature is relative to the object being sensed. These two inputs are combined in layer 4. As the sensors move, cortical columns learn complete models of objects by integrating feature and location representations over time. During inference, inter-column projections allow columns to rapidly reach a consensus of what object is being sensed, often in a single visual fixation or a single grasp of a hand. We propose that the representation of allocentric location in each column is derived using the same principles as grid cells in the entorhinal cortex. In this proposal, individual cortical columns are able to model complete complex objects and are therefore more powerful than currently believed.

I will be discussing material from these two papers. Others can be found at www.Numenta.com/papers

A Theory of How Columns in the Neocortex Enable Learning the Structure of the World

Why Neurons Have Thousands of Synapses, A Theory of Sequence Memory in the Neocortex

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Saturday, December 16
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Meet & Greet with former CIA field analyst in Afghanistan 
Saturday, December 16
2:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST
More Than Words, 242 East Berkeley Street, 2nd Floor, Boston

Meet Professor Brian Glyn Williams on December 16th from 2pm-4pm at More Than Words in Boston for an author event with former CIA field analyst in Afghanistan and UMass Professor of Islamic History, Brian Glyn Williams, as he talks readers into the souring Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan to join a small team of Green Berets who mount horses and fight alongside an anti-Taliban warlord featured in his recent biography The Last Warlord. The Life and Legend of Dostum, the Afghan Warrior who Led U.S. Special Forces to Topple the Taliban Regime.
Williams, who lived for two summers in the plains and mountains of northern Afghanistan with the larger than life Mongol warlord, General Dostum, sheds a rare light on a covert CIA-Special Forces operation to leverage local anti-Taliban tribesman as a proxy "hooves on the ground" force to overthrow the entrenched Taliban regime in the "Afghan Graveyard of Empire" in the fall of 2001. Dr. Williams has interviewed the CIA Special Activities Division Operatives, Uzbek Mongol tribesmen, Green Beret Special Forces, and even Taliban Prisoners of War to recreate this classified story that few Americans are aware of.

The Last Warlord, is a story of fighting men from worlds as far apart as Alma Kansas and Khoja Doku Afghanistan who unite to fight the common Taliban and Al Qaeda enemy. There was no mass Operation Iraqi Freedom-style invasion of Afghanistan in , and just 300 American ground troops provided local anti-Taliban militias with the 'air artillery' precision guided bombings needed to overthrow the Taliban regime.
Most recently, Professor Williams has advised on the New Mexico set for the forthcoming Hollywood movie by Producer Jerry Bruckheimer "12 Strong, The True Declassified Story of the Horse Soldiers" which features the characters from his book. These include Chris Hemsworth playing the Green Beret Captain Mark Nutsch who led the American special forces.

Reserve your copy of the Last Warlord by calling More Than Words in Boston at 781-788-0035

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Monday, December 18
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xTalk: Faculty Innovators Wolfgang Ketterle & Lorna Gibson
Monday, December 18
3:00pm to 4:15pm
MIT, Building 4-163, 182 Memorial Drive (rear), Cambridge

Professors Wolfgang Ketterle and Lorna Gibson use the flipped classroom in their teaching as a vehicle for activating learning and engaging students.

Prof. Ketterle had his residential MIT students watch the video lectures from his MOOC as preparation before class. This completely changed the dynamics in his classroom. “Using online material in [my] residential course was transformative for me as a teacher.” It allowed him to engage in a series of surprisingly deep conversations with his class -- discussions that were the most interactive he’d ever experienced.

An advantage for Prof. Gibson in flipping her class and using online problem sets was that the p-sets were now in sync with the lecture material. The students would watch a set of videos, attend a face-to-face recitation with Gibson, do a combination of written and online problem sets, receive immediate feedback on the online portion, and take an assesment quiz -- all within nine days.  In addition, her students liked the flexible access to videos and other online material.

Moderated by Dean for Digital Learning Krishna Rajagopal, this xTalk will offer an opportunity to hear additional thoughts from Ketterle and Gibson on the challenges and opportunities of a flipped classroom.

Nobel Laureate Wolfgang Ketterle is MIT professor of Physics.
MacVicar Fellow Lorna GIbson is MIT professor of Materials Science and Engineering. 

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Whitehead Institute Seminar Series (Dr. Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz)
Monday, December 18
4:00pm
Whitehead Institute, McGovern Auditorium, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge

Speaker: Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, University of Cambridge

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Unseen Enemy: A Film Exploring the Threat of Pandemics
Monday, December 18
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM (EST)
JLABS @ LabCentral, 700 Main Street, North, Cambridge

Experts say we are “due” for a pandemic. When it happens, they tell us it will probably have a greater impact on humanity than anything else currently happening in the world. 

Unseen Enemy, written and directed by award-winning filmmaker, Janet Tobias, shadows some of the world’s top pathogen hunters and scientists as they travel the globe to track outbreaks of some of the world’s greatest health threats, focusing on Ebola, Zika and Influenza. The film is an intense look at the increasing threat of emerging infectious diseases; there are some aspects that viewers may find disturbing. 

Directly following the screening, we will be holding a short Q&A with Nicola La Monica, Johnson & Johnson Infectious Disease expert, to examine and discuss some of the key challenges we face in controlling infectious disease – from a scientific, political, educational and social perspective. 

This event is supported by Johnson & Johnson. 

Audience: 
This event is geared toward healthcare professionals and the scientific community. Please note that this film may not be suitable for children. 

Speaker: 
Nicola La Monica | Senior Director, Scientific Innovation, Infectious Diseases and Vaccines,Johnson & Johnson Innovation. read bio» 

Agenda: 
4:00 PM | Registration
4:20 PM | Opening Remarks 
4:30 PM | Film Screening Begins (97 minutes) 
6:10 PM | Q&A with Nicola La Monica
6:30 PM | Program Close 

Speaker Biography: 
Nicola La Monica | Senior Director, Infectious Disease and Vaccines Scientific Innovation, Janssen R&D 
Nicola is Senior Director of Infectious Diseases and Vaccines Scientific Innovation at Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Boston. 
From 2009 to 2012, Nicola was at Idera Pharmaceuticals, where he was Vice President of biology. From 1991 to 2009, he was the Director of Antiviral Research at the Istituto di Ricerche di Biologia Molecolare (IRBM), Rome, Italy, a research
site of Merck Research Laboratories. Prior to that, he held the positions of Director of Oncology and Director of Cancer Immunology and Genomics. 

During his career, Nicola has led drug discovery efforts for the treatment of Hepatitis C virus infections and oncology, as well as development programs for cancer immunotherapy. Nicola earned his BA degree in Biology from the University of Rochester in 1982. His graduate studies were completed at Columbia University, where he earned a PhD in Microbiology in 1988. 

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Tuesday, December 19
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Natural Gas Effects On Human Health
Tuesday, December 19
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
BSA Space, 290 Congress Street, Suite 200, Boston

Dr. Brita Lundberg will link for us health risks and natural gas.   

While portrayed as a “clean” fuel, the CO2 emissions of natural gas are compounded by the much greater methane gas footprint, which is greater than that of coal when the full impact of methane emissions due to gas leaks, intentional releases of gas, and burning at power plants is taken into account.

Architects and developers are in key positions to avoid using gas when electricity sourced from renewables can be incorporated into buildings today. As electricity from renewables become ever more competitive with fossil fuels, the entire building industry can start today to help society reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thereby decrease the rate of global warming and climate change.

This event is co-sponsored by the BSA-COTE.

For those who qualify, 1.5 LU/HSWs are available.

To learn more about the Sustainability Education Committee, visit architects.org/committees/sustainability-education-committee


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Future of Wearable Technology with David Cohen-Tanugi (Co-founder EMBR Labs, Forbes 30 Under 30)
Tuesday, December 19
6:00 PM
Pivotal, 255 Main Street, 6th FL, Cambridge
Cost:  $11.58 - $22.13 

David is co-founder at EMBR Labs, an MIT startup reinventing how we relate to temperature by developing technologies that improve our thermal comfort. Their flagship product is Wristify, a wearable device focused on reducing the energy footprint of buildings by cooling/warming people instead of the whole room. He was listed on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list in 2014 and on Technology Review's French Innovators Under 35 list in 2015.

He is an applied scientist devoted to building a cleaner water & energy future. Before starting EMBR Labs, he worked on China-US clean energy collaboration for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from MIT in 2015, where he leveraged computational methods to investigate the potential of next-generation water desalination membranes made from graphene. His research was listed among the Top Five Most Surprising Scientific Discoveries of 2012 by Smithsonian. 

In graduate school, David also held leadership positions in the MIT Water Club and the MIT Energy Club. He also holds a B.A. in Physics from Princeton University. He originally hails from France and is an avid student of Mandarin, rock climbing, and mindfulness meditation.

Agenda6:00 pm Networking and Food
7:00 pm Fireside Chat
8:00 pm Networking

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How Childhood Stress Can Cause Depression and How We Can Prevent It
Tuesday, December 19
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston Street, Johnson Building, Central Library, Boston

Exposure to childhood stress is one of the biggest risk factors for depression that onsets in adolescence or adulthood. But how do we identify which individuals might be more susceptible to developing depression following exposure to stress? And are there sensitive periods, or stages during a lifespan when stress is particularly harmful in increasing the risk for depression?
In this talk, Dr. Erin Dunn will share examples of how her research lab is studying the role of genetic variation in shaping risk for depression, the potential ways in which stress changes our biology to make us more at risk of developing depression, and the time periods in development when stress may be more likely to “get under our skin” to increase the risk of depression.
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:
Dr. Dunn is a social and psychiatric epidemiologist with expertise in genetics. Her research laboratory (http://www.thedunnlab.com) uses interdisciplinary approaches to better understand the social and genetic factors that influence the etiology of mood disorders, with an emphasis on depression among women, children, and adolescents. The goal of her work is to identify the causal mechanisms underlying risk for mood disorders, develop population-based strategies for prevention, and target these strategies to “sensitive periods,” or developmental stages in the course of the lifespan when the brain is highly “plastic” and therefore when experience, including exposure to childhood adversity, can have lasting impacts.

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Wednesday, December 20
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Boston Sustainability Breakfast
Wednesday, December 20
7:30 AM – 8:30 AM EST
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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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.


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 Energy Club:  http://mitenergyclub.org/
Sustainability at Harvard:  http://green.harvard.edu/events
Microsoft NERD Center:  http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/
Startup and Entrepreneurial Events:  http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/
Cambridge Civic Journal:  http://www.rwinters.com
Cambridge Happenings:   http://cambridgehappenings.org
Cambridge Community Calendar:  https://www.cctvcambridge.org/calendar


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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