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 10
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12pm Small but mighty - the role that marine microbes play in mediating our climate
12pm Tracking "Ghost Glaciers" Using Cosmogenic Nuclides
12pm The energy-efficiency gap, bounded rationality and the role of energy-related financial literacy
12pm What's Next: Emerging Trends in Tech
12:10pm The mystery of Smith’s aspen: uncovering the genetic identity and climate change vulnerability of a hybrid Pleistocene relic
12:15pm Natural History in Two Dimensions
3pm Are There Too Many Farms in the World? Labor-Market Transaction Costs, Machine Capacities and Optimal Farm Size
3pm The Quest Brainstorm Workshop
3:30pm Anatomy of Extreme Pollution Event in a Megacity, Delhi
4pm Streaming Analytics for the Smart Grid
5:30pm Get Smart on Crowdfunding
6pm authors@MIT: Cass R. Sunstein on The Cost-Benefit Revolution
6pm Boston FinTech Week: The Future of AI
6pm Through the Looking Glass: Cybersecurity in an Era of Rapid FinTech Innovation
7pm Relevance of Spirituality in the Age of Technology
7pm Food and Nutrition: What Everyone Needs to Know
7pm The Future of Housing in Boston and Beyond
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Tuesday, September 11
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11:45am How the Rise of Public-Private Partnerships is Changing International Governance
12pm Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy
3pm Deconstructing Internet Censorship and its Consequences
3:30pm Arne Duncan former Secretary of Education and Harvard Alum
4pm IDSS Distinguished Speaker Seminar - Policy 2.0
4pm How does a 1-Dimensional Sequence of DNA become a 3-Dimensional Tissue, and what happens when the Cell forgets and becomes Malignant?
4:30pm Is Cyber Resilience Possible?
5pm Health Impacts of Air Quality Warnings
5:30pm Documentary: The S Word
5:30pm HUBweek Semi-Finals: Annual Demo Day Pitch Competition
6pm Education & the State of Affairs in Washington: A conversation with Arne Duncan & David Gergen
6pm Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-connected World
6pm SCORE Boston Workshop: How To Create A Social Media Blueprint for A Digital World
6:30pm Implicit User Interfaces
7pm The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias
7pm If You Love Me
7pm Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy
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Wednesday, September 12
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9am The Future of Wellbeing: A Conversation with Deepak Chopra
11am How to Stay Safe & Secure Online
11am What is the State of the Cybersecurity Ecosystem in Boston?
11:30am Entrepreneurship & Innovation Resource Roundup
11:30am Longwood Bike Fair
12pm Sack Lunch Seminar Series (SLS) - Tom Beucler
12pm Libya's 2011 Uprising: What Really Happened?
4pm Social Transmission of Stress
4pm Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement
4:15pm Book Talk: Rethinking America’s Highways
4:30pm CSAIL Hot Topics in Computing - Muddied Waters: Online Disinformation During Crisis
4:30pm MIT Social Media and Democracy Colloquium
5:30pm Digital Health Launch Smart Clinic with Multisensor Diagnostics and WatchRx
6pm Restoring Civility in Public Life
6:30pm Boston Medical Center Rooftop Farm Tour
6:30pm Writing and the Art of Attention
6:30pm Collaborative Robotics in Practice: Opportunities and Challenges
7pm President Carter: The White House Years
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Thursday, September 13
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11am Sustainability/Bike/Light Fair
11:45am President Carter: The White House Years
12pm Sustainability at Tufts: Past, Present, and Future
1pm Hunger Action Day on Boston City Hall Plaza
3:30pm OEB Seminar Series - "What 5 Insects Told Us About How A Native Plant Copes With Real-World Problems”
4pm MIT Colloquium on the Brain and Cognition featuring Jessica Sommerville, Ph.D.
4pm Nature for Nurture: Environmental Education, Nature Experience, and the Healthy Chinese Child
4pm How Artificial Intelligence Startups Are Helping Early Adopters Win
4:15pm Feminisms Now!
4:15pm Social Media Innovators: Shaping Voter Engagement to Online Civil Discourse
5pm Civic Arts Series: Erik Loyer
5:30pm A book talk on Entrepreneurial Negotiation
5:30pm Time is Now: Photography and Social Change in James Baldwin’s America
6pm The Past of Politics: How We Got Here
6pm Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World
6pm Internalized Costs of Food Labor & Inequities
6pm The 28th First Annual Ig® Nobel Prize Ceremony & Lectures
6pm Vision, AI and the human body
6:30pm One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy
6:30pm Cards For Humanity - Getting Stakeholders into the Game
6:30pm David Scondras reads from his memoir "Angels, Liars, and Thieves”
7pm Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger
7pm Up Close with the Northern Fur Seal
7pm Leading with Dignity
7:30pm A Tale of Two Governors (Or, Are we in for another 'solarcoaster' ride?)
7:30pm The Buddhist DNA : Traces of Your Spirituality
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Friday, September 14 - Sunday, September 16
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Boston Juggling Festival 2018
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Friday, September 14
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8:30am Sustainability 101: From Foundations to the Future
12pm Photochemical and Dark Ageing of Organic Aerosols
12pm Mobilizing Democracy: Creating Change through Digital Engagement
12:30pm The U.S. Opioid Epidemic: Where Do We Go From Here?
1:30pm Tour an Environmental Education Center Built for LBC Zero Energy Certification
2:30pm Partly Green: The Past and Future of Sustainable Business
3pm Haunted by Chaos: China's Grand Strategy from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping
4pm Race, Media & Politics
6pm Living in the Future: Brains!
6:15pm Good Without God
6:30pm Kees Christiaanse
7pm Doctor’s Dozen
7pm Not Quite Not White: Losing and Finding Race in America
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Saturday, September 15
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9am Somerville Garden Club Plant Sale
11am POWER STRUGGLE - film
1pm The 2018 Ig Informal Lectures
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Sunday, September 16
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11am Boston Local Food Festival
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Monday, September 17
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12pm PAOC Colloquium - Ian Eisenman (Univ. of California, San Diego)
12pm Why Distributed? How to Think about the Value and Cost of Distributed Energy Resources
12pm The Harvard Law School Project on Disability Open House In honor of Special Olympics, with guest Tim Shriver
12:10pm Aligning Production Methods & Urban Tree Planting Objectives
12:15pm Multiple Carbons: Ontologies and Governance in the Climate Regime
2pm Global Maternal Health Symposium
4:15pm El Niño as a Topological Insulator: A Surprising Connection Between Climate and Quantum Physics
5pm BERKMAN KLEIN CENTER & FRIENDS Fall 2018 Open House
5pm Boston Idealist Grad Fair 2018
6pm Saving Coral Reefs in the Florida Keys
6pm Sport Matters: On Art, Social Artifice, and Athletics, or, the Politics of Sport
6pm The MIT Forum: Robert Lustig
6:30pm Role of Clouds and Particles in Climate... with a Dash of Fog
7pm When History Is Personal
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Tuesday, September 18
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8:30am Intro to WELL Building Standard
12pm Setti Warren
12pm EBC Energy Resources Webinar: Public Perception of Power in New England @ WEBINAR
3pm Sexual Harassment of Women - A Consensus Study Report of NASEM
4pm Reinforcement Learning Systems at DeepMind
4pm Mission Zero: Interface's Journey to Zero Negative Environmental Impact
4:15pm Polling China: Understanding Public Opinion Across China
4:30pm Impostor Syndrome: Why Capable People Suffer and How to Thrive in Spite of It
5:30pm Blockchain Technology: Patents vs. Open Source
6pm Boston New Technology Startup Showcase
8pm PechaKucha Somerville Presents: Volume 1: Trial & Error
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
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Monday, September 10
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Small but mighty - the role that marine microbes play in mediating our climate
Monday, September 10
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915/923, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Naomi M. Levine, Gabilan Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences and Earth Sciences
About the Speaker
My research focuses on the interactions between climate and ecosystem composition and function. By combining biological, chemical, and physical observations with ecosystem models, I aim to elucidate the underlying mechanisms responsible for biogeochemical cycling in microbial ecosystems, and to identify climate-ecosystem feedback loops. An overarching theme of my research is the impact of fine-scale processes on large-scale dynamics and how changes at the fine-scale may impact global carbon cycling.
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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Tracking "Ghost Glaciers" Using Cosmogenic Nuclides
Monday, September 10
12:00pm
Harvard, Haller Hall Geo Museum 102, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Lee Corbett from the University of Vermont
Abstract: The traditional view of glaciers is that they are highly erosive, efficiently move large amounts of material, and significantly sculpt and shape the underlying landscape. But in certain situations, the base of the glacier remains below the pressure melting point and frozen to the bed, inhibiting the glacial ice from abrading or plucking the underlying material; such "ghost glaciers" leave no physical evidence of their presence on the landscape once they have disappeared in a warmer climate. Finding evidence for now-vanished cold-based, non-erosive glacial ice has long represented a challenge, particularly in high-latitude and/or high-altitude environments. Because of the dearth of physical evidence, I use cosmogenic nuclides to study the burial of rock surfaces by "ghost glaciers" in the past. The use of multiple cosmogenic nuclides with different half-lives allows me to quantify when and for how long surfaces have been buried beneath ice, even though the ice did not physically alter those surfaces. Gaining a better understanding of now-vanished glacial ice, including elusive non-erosive ice, provides insight about past climates, sediment transport, and landscape formation over long timescales.
Bio: Dr. Lee Corbett is the manager of the Community Cosmogenic Facility at University of Vermont; she collaborates with and hosts visitors from around the world to learn methods and prepare their own samples for studying a diverse array of Earth surface processes using cosmogenic nuclides. Lee's own research interests are focused on understanding how glacial landscapes evolve over long timescales, how glaciers move sediment, and how glacial sediment can be used as an archive of climate information. Because of her role managing the laboratory, she works on a wide range of projects including quantifying erosion rates, studying river and hillslope systems, dating recent tectonic activity, and investigating glacial history and retreat rates.
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The energy-efficiency gap, bounded rationality and the role of energy-related financial literacy
Monday, September 10
12:00pm to 1:30pm
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Massimo Filippini, Professor of energy and public economics, ETH Zurich and Università della Svizzera Italiana
HKS Energy Policy Seminar
Lunch will be served.
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What's Next: Emerging Trends in Tech
Monday, September 10
12:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT
CIC Boston, 50 Milk Street, 20th Floor - Lighthouse West, Boston
Boston is at the forefront of technology innovation, and is home to some of the most talented technologists on the planet. Our universities, research labs, and thriving startup scene are the birthplace of countless innovations -- some small, others with industry-changing potential. We're bringing together a curated group of experienced innovators & investors with a track record of being ahead of the game, to share the emerging tech trends they see providing the most opportunity for startups to capitalize on in the years ahead.
Each speaker will give a 5 minute lightning talk presentation, followed by 5 minutes of Q&A. You'll also have the opportunity to ask our speakers as a group what they think of any tech trends you've seen and are interested in.
With AI, IoT, AR, VR, blockchain, wearables, voicetech, data regulation, edge computing, and so much more... what's hype & what has real potential? Join us to hear from some highly credible Boston tech leaders, and meet others interested in building businesses that take advantage of what's next.
This event is part of the Tech & Industry Trends track at Startup Boston 2018.
Our Speakers:
Sarah Fay, Managing Director at Glasswing Ventures
Sarah has more than 20 years of experience in the marketing services industry, with a track record of leveraging technology to deliver groundbreaking new models for advertising and media. In her role as Managing Director at Glasswing Ventures, Sarah leads and evaluates investments in early stage AI-powered companies. Her prior investments include X+1, Namely, Mavrck, Mogul, Tick/r, Humon and TVision Insights.
Leanne Cushing, Founder at domovi
With over 15 years of robotic systems experience, Leanne is a self-professed nerd for new technologies. Previously the Lead Computer Hardware engineer at Boston data-backup-giant datto, she's now the founder of domovi, a smart home + automation startup.
Peter Mahoney, Founder & CEO at plannuh, former SVP at Nuance
An experienced tech marketing & business executive, Peter spent 12 years at Nuance Communications where served as the CMO and ran several product units including Dragon NaturallySpeaking and voice documentation for healthcare. Most recently he is the Founder & CEO of plannuh, and will be speaking on opportunities for startups to power the next wave of AI-enabled applications.
More speakers to be announced soon!
Would you like to present at this event? Find out more about what we're looking for, and apply, here.
Our Moderator:
Wade Roush, Technology Journalist & Podcaster
Wade Roush is the creator, producer, and host of Soonish, a journalistic podcast about technology, culture, curiosity, and the future. He has worked for a large university, a non-profit magazine, a government agency, a giant media company, a technology startup, an online media startup, and (now) for himself, as a solo podcaster, freelance journalist, and editorial consultant.
Event Agenda:
11:55am - Arrive, check in.
12:00pm - Network, meet fellow founders, investors, technologists.
12:20pm - Lightning talks begin.
1:20ish - All-speakers panel with open audience Q&A.
1:40ish - A last bit of networking, meet more people.
2:00pm - End of this session; thanks for coming!
This is a Startup Boston event.
Startup Boston is a free, five-day series of events celebrating, educating, and connecting entrepreneurs in Boston. Taking place from September 10-14th, 2018, Startup Boston brings entrepreneurs, company leaders, innovators, and industry experts together to foster collaboration and fuel growth in Boston's startup ecosystem.
Thank you to our event partners.
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The mystery of Smith’s aspen: uncovering the genetic identity and climate change vulnerability of a hybrid Pleistocene relic
Monday, September 10
12:10p
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill, 1300 Centre Street, Boston
Jake Grossman, Arboretum Putnam Fellow
More information at https://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/research/research-talks/
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Natural History in Two Dimensions
Monday, September 10
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, CGIS South S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd7VGUkAvTU655Dub2FTGSNMjpVs6f8Qbu0kpmXh6oz11MgFw/viewform
Whitney Robles, Harvard, American Studies
The STS Circle at Harvard is a group of doctoral students and recent PhDs who are interested in creating a space for interdisciplinary conversations about contemporary issues in science and technology that are relevant to people in fields such as anthropology, history of science, sociology, STS, law, government, public policy, and the natural sciences. We want to engage not only those who are working on intersections of science, politics, and public policy, but also those in the natural sciences, engineering, and architecture who have serious interest in exploring these areas together with social scientists and humanists.
There has been growing interest among graduate students and postdocs at Harvard in more systematic discussions related to STS. More and more dissertation writers and recent graduates find themselves working on exciting topics that intersect with STS at the edges of their respective home disciplines, and they are asking questions that often require new analytic tools that the conventional disciplines don’t necessarily offer. They would also like wider exposure to emerging STS scholarship that is not well-represented or organized at most universities, including Harvard. Our aim is to try to serve those interests through a series of activities throughout the academic year.
Sandwich lunches are provided. Please RSVP to via the online form by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
The Harvard STS Circle is co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Contact Name: sts@hks.harvard.edu
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Are There Too Many Farms in the World? Labor-Market Transaction Costs, Machine Capacities and Optimal Farm Size
Monday, September 10
3:00pm to 4:15pm
Harvard, Harvard Hall 104, 1465-1483 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Andrew Foster (Brown University)
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The Quest Brainstorm Workshop
Monday, September 10
3:00 PM – 5:00 PM EDT
MIT, Building 46-3002, Singleton Auditorium, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Join The Quest and help us shape the future of intelligence research at MIT!
Are you interested in exploring what algorithms can explain the development and emergence of human intelligence? Do you have ideas for applying AI to address different learning styles in the classroom, identify disease or create more useful personal devices? Do you want to learn more about intelligence research currently being done at MIT, and where it hopes to go next?
MIT's Quest for Intelligence is seeking ideas for transformative projects that go above and beyond business as usual and could lead to the next big breakthrough in intelligence research or how to use intelligence to create a better world and we want to hear from you!. Bring your ideas to The Quest Brainstorm Workshop, an interactive informational session followed by a reception with refreshments provided!
The Quest Brainstorm Workshop will also feature a brief overview of The Quest and its two components, The Core and The Bridge, presented by Antonio Torralba, Director of the Quest, James DiCarlo, Director of The Core, and Nicholas Roy, Director of The Bridge. Then, we will open the floor to the audience to answer questions, discuss your ideas for the future of intelligence research and how The Quest can help!
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Anatomy of Extreme Pollution Event in a Megacity, Delhi
Monday, September 10
3:30pm to 4:45pm
Harvard, Pierce Hall 100F, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge,
Dr. Gufran Beig
Megacities are engines of growing pollution. Delhi is cursed by its geography to be prone to various meteorological phenomena acting in different times of the year that contribute to high pollution levels. Climate change is poised to worsen air quality and by the end of the century, more than half of the world’s population will be exposed to increasingly stagnant atmospheric conditions, with the tropics and subtropics bearing the brunt of the poor air quality. India’s capital, Delhi, is reported to be one of the megacities in the world that are worst affected by asthma. Delhi experienced an environmental emergency in early November 2017 when levels of toxic PM2.5 particles surpassed WHO guidelines by 25 times for a prolonged period of time (a week). In this talk, we will demonstrate the role that monsoon dynamics played in linking and mixing dust emitted from a large, natural dust storm, 3000km away in the Middle East, with smoke from agriculture fires in northwest India. Understanding the multi-scale nature of such events is important for improving our abilities to forecast these events and developing effective air quality management strategies.
Speaker Bio: Dr. Gufran Beig, Project Director, System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India; Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences; World Meteorological Organization Norbert Gerbier-Mumm International Award
China Project Seminars Series
Host: Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy and Environment
Contact: Tiffany Chan
Phone: 617-495-3972
Email: tiffanychan@seas.harvard.edu
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Streaming Analytics for the Smart Grid
Monday, September 10
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 32-155, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Le Xie, Texas A&M University
ABSTRACT
How to conduct real-time analytics of streaming measurement data in the power grid? This talk offers a dynamic systems approach to utilizing data of different time scale for improved monitoring of the grid cyber and physical security. The first example of the talk presents how to leverage synchrophasor data dimensionality reduction and Robust Principal Component Analysis for early anomaly detection, visualization, and localization. The second example presents an online framework to detect cyber-attacks on automatic generation control (AGC). A cyber-attack detection algorithm is designed based on the approach of Dynamic Watermarking. The detection algorithm provides a theoretical guarantee of detection of cyber-attacks launched by sophisticated attackers possessing extensive knowledge of the physical and statistical models of targeted power systems. The underlying theme of the work suggests the importance of integrating data with dynamic context-aware models in the smart grid.
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Le Xie is a Professor and Eugene Webb Faculty Fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University. He received B.E. in Electrical Engineering from Tsinghua University, S.M. in Engineering Sciences from Harvard, and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon in 2009. His industry experience includes ISO-New England and Edison Mission Energy Marketing and Trading. His research interest includes modeling and control in data-rich large-scale systems, grid integration of clean energy resources, and electricity markets.
Dr. Xie received the U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and DOE Oak Ridge Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award. He was awarded the 2017 IEEE PES Outstanding Young Engineer Award. He was the recipient of Texas A&M Dean of Engineering Excellence Award, ECE Outstanding Professor Award, and TEES Select Young Fellow. He is an Editor of IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, and the founding chair of IEEE PES Subcommittee on Big Data & Analytics for Grid Operations. He and his students received the Best Paper awards at North American Power Symposium and IEEE SmartGridComm. He recently chaired the 2018 NSF Workshop on Real-time Learning and Decision Making in Dynamical Systems.
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Get Smart on Crowdfunding
Monday, September 10
5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
MIT Tang Center, E51-149m 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Cost: $20; Members: $10: Students: $5; Student members: Free
Startups - come and learn the ins-and-out of product crowdfunding (Kickstarter, Indiegogo, etc…) and equity crowdfunding (Wefunder, StartEngine, etc…)
If you have a product or service, now you can pitch it to millions of people and build a community of investors and early adopters. Learn how for many companies product crowdfunding is replacing traditional sales channels and equity crowdfunding is replacing traditional sources of start-up capital.
You will learn:
What is equity crowdfunding? What is product crowdfunding?
Is crowdfunding the best path for your startup?
What kind of resources you will need to create a campaign?
What do you need to present yourself as a professional company?
Which crowdfunding platform should you select for your industry and approach?
Speaker: Michael Burtov, Founder & CEO, GeoOrbital
Mike has been the founder and CEO of 4 companies (2 failed, 2 thrived) and has over 15 years' experience in starting-up and seeing companies through their lifecycle. For his companies he has raised millions in startup funding in almost every possible way including angel investors, angel groups, incubators/accelerators, VC, customers/strategic investors, crowdfunding (leading the first company to have raised $1M+ with product crowdfunding AND $1.07M [the legal maximum] with RegCF equity crowdfunding), and even appeared on ABC's SHARK TANK to pitch to celebrity investors. He has also raised money in the non-profit world though his work as a Peace Corps volunteer and with the Bill Clinton foundation and has spent years as an investment banker in Credit Derivatives trading. Mike is a winner of a 2018 Edison Award and was named one of the Top Inventors of 2016 and one of the "most dynamic and creative people shaping business today," by the Upstart Business Journal.
Event Schedule
5:30-6:00pm Registration
6:00-8:00pm Crowdfunding workshop
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authors@MIT: Cass R. Sunstein on The Cost-Benefit Revolution
Monday, September 10
6:00pm to 7:00pm
MIT Press Bookstore, Building N50, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
MIT Press Bookstore welcomes Cass R. Sunstein, Robert Walsmley University Professor at Harvard Law School, to the bookstore to discuss his latest book, The Cost-Benefit Revolution. Drawing on behavioral economics and his well-known emphasis on “nudging,” he celebrates the cost-benefit revolution in policy making, tracing its defining moments in the Reagan, Clinton, and Obama administrations (and pondering its uncertain future in the Trump administration). He acknowledges that public officials often lack information about costs and benefits, and outlines state-of-the-art techniques for acquiring that information. Policies should make people’s lives better.
Cass R. Sunstein is one of the most cited legal scholars in the world. He was recipient of the 2018 Holberg Prize and was Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama Administration.
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Boston FinTech Week: The Future of AI
Monday, September 10
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Kensho Technologies, 44 Brattle Street , Cambridge
A Boston FinTech Week Event: The future of AI and how it is transforming the business world.
A world-class panel of experts will discuss and debate the latest AI technology, its benefits (scalability, insights, cost reduction), legality and risks (lack of transparency, model bias, job displacement).
Panelist include members from the Berkman Klein Center (a collaboration of Harvard, MIT and other universities to study the impact of AI) and senior executives from a global financial firm, a biomedical research institute and the U.S. Consumer Protection Bureau.
The event will be hosted at Kensho, recently acquired by S&P Global in the largest AI FinTech transaction in history. Please join us at Kensho's new offices in Harvard Square for an exciting event.
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Through the Looking Glass: Cybersecurity in an Era of Rapid FinTech Innovation
Monday, September 10
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Ernst & Young, 200 Clarendon Street, Boston
In an evolving age in which FinTech startups are innovating niche functions of the financial services business and technological environment, both large institutions and startups need to consider how the roles of FinTech firms are affecting the management of Cybersecurity across the organizational landscape. Join us for all the excitement of Boston FinTech Week at EY with our panel of institutional veterans, FinTech startups, and industry experts as we explore the evolution of Cyber in the emerging FinTech ecosystem. Covering topics from integration of emerging technologies and exposing the resulting risks in the IT environment to increasing awareness over privacy and the role of Cyber risk reporting. This panel will offer insight into approaching the evolving Cyber landscape.
Moderator: Dan New, EY New England Financial Services Growth Markets and FinTech Leader
Panelists: - Sundeep Nehra, EY - Jothy Rosenberg, Dover Microsystems - Patrick Callaghan, JP Morgan Chase
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Relevance of Spirituality in the Age of Technology
Monday, September 10
7:00pm
MIT, Buildling 4-270, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
MIT Origins Distinguished Speaker Series
Speaker: Sri Chanchalapathi Dasa is the Senior Vice-President of ISKCON, Bangalore and Vice-Chairman of the Akshaya Patra Foundation.
Sri Chanchalapathi Dasa was born in 1963 in Bengaluru, India. While an undergraduate student in PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, he became interested in the message and mission of Srila Prabhupada, the founder-acharya of ISKCON. Later he joined the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore for a Masters program in Electrical Communication Engineering. In 1984 he became a full-time dedicated member of ISKCON, Bangalore and soon became the Vice President. He has been involved in the implementation of the various programs of ISKCON, Bangalore and the Akshata Patra program.
Program: Human society has made rapid advances in modern science, technology, material comforts, education and economic development throughout the world. Despite these advancements, modern society is encountering newer challenges in tackling food & water security, world peace, health issues, climate change and many more. On the individual front, the humans are getting more disconnected from themselves and struggling to balance body, mind and spirit.
We see advancement through science & technology while at the same time we see increasing complexities in modern man's life. So where lies the disconnect?
Are there principles or values which can help both individuals and society at large to come together in peaec and harmony for a better living with higher purpose? Is there a way by which human society can coexist and make progressive advancement with people leading a life full of happiness, good health and peace of mind? In short, is there a science of life which could transform the way we live in this world and beyond?
Join us to find the way to fill this need, through a talk based on the science for the respiritualization of the entire human society.
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Food and Nutrition: What Everyone Needs to Know
Monday, September 10
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
Dr PK Newby
From gluten-free to all-Paleo, GMOs to grass-fed beef, our newsfeeds abound with nutrition advice. Whether sensational headlines from the latest study or anecdotes from celebrities and food bloggers, we’re bombarded with “superfoods” and “best ever” diets promising to help us lose weight, fight disease, and live longer. At the same time, we live in an over-crowded food environment that makes it easy to eat, all the time. The result is an epidemic of chronic disease amidst a culture of nutrition confusion—and copious food choices that challenge everyday eaters just trying to get a healthy meal on the table. But the exhilarating truth is that scientists know an astounding amount about the power of food. A staggering 80% of chronic diseases are preventable through modifiable lifestyle changes, and diet is the single largest contributing factor. And we also know the secrets to eating sustainably to protect our planet. In Food & Nutrition, Harvard- and Columbia-trained nutrition scientist Dr. P.K. Newby examines 134 stand-alone questions addressing “need to know” topics, including how what we eat affects our health and environment, from farm to fork, and why, when it comes to diet, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts—and one size doesn’t fit all. At the same time, Newby debunks popular myths and food folklore, encouraging readers to “learn, unlearn, and relearn” the fundamentals of nutrition at the heart of a health-giving diet. Her passion for all things food shines through it all, as does her love of the power of science, technology, and engineering to help create healthier diets for ourselves, and a more sustainable future for the planet we share.
About the Author
Dr. P.K. Newby (“The Nutrition Doctor”) is a scientist and author whose newest book is Food & Nutrition:What Everyone Needs to Know. She has been forging connections between the biological, behavioral, and environmental aspects of nutrition and food technology for more than two decades with her mantra “From farm to fork, what we eat matters!” Dr. Newby is known for her infectious enthusiasm, keen intellect, sharp wit, and contagious passion, inspiring people to live their healthiest, most delicious lives today while building a more sustainable world for tomorrow. She consults regularly and has served as a science advisor to several companies. She holds a doctorate from Harvard, two master’s degrees from Columbia, and served on the faculties at Tufts University (Research Scientist & Assistant Professor) and Boston University (Associate Professor). She’s currently an Adjunct Associate Professor and award-winning educator at Harvard and dedicates most of her time to fighting anti-science in all ways that she can.
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The Future of Housing in Boston and Beyond
Monday, September 10
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Café ArtScience, 650 East Kendall Street, Cambridge
Cost: $15.00 /per person; $20 at the door
Doors open @ 6pm --Come early and meet other Long Now thinkers-- Presentations start @ 7pm
Long Now Boston Community Conversation with
Barry Bluestone, Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Northeastern University
Tamara M. Roy, Principal with Stantec, Boston, and past President of the Boston Society of Architects and
Peter Rose, FAIA, FRAIC, Rose and Partners Architects, Boston
Summary: The housing infrastructure of human communities has evolved across the centuries in response to economic, technological and demographic forces as well as artistic and social preferences.
Boston offers an invaluable historical record on the evolutionary trends in housing in recent centuries and is now becoming a test-bed for housing innovations to better serve human needs and aspirations in the centuries to come.
Three of Boston’s pre-eminent leaders in housing and urban design will guide this Long Now Boston conversation on the future of housing.
Some of the questions to be addressed include:
How did we get here?
What factors drive housing design and innovation? What evidence can we see for historic housing innovations in the Boston area?
Where are we now?
How well is our present housing infrastructure dealing with current economic and demographic conditions?
What problems do we need to address?
What are the key barriers to successful innovation?
What are the most promising innovations in the short term?
The longer term?
What might Boston look like in 100 years?
What action plan is needed to get where we want to go?
Join the conversation and become part of the solution.
$15 in advance // $20 at the door. Students w/ID admitted free.
Audience participation is encouraged.
Barry Bluestone, Ph.D., is a Professor of Political Economy in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University. He served as founding director of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy from 1999 to 2015, and founding dean of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs from 2006 to 2012. Author of 11 books, including The Deindustrialization of America (1982), Growing Prosperity: The Battle for Growth with Equity in the 21st Century (2000), and The Boston Renaissance: Race, Space, and Economic Change in an American Metropolis (2000), and The Urban Experience: Economics, Society, and Public Policy (2008). Bluestone is also a founding member of the Economic Policy Institute.
Tamara Roy, BA, MA, AIA Leed AP, is a principal with Stantec Architects and past President of the Boston Society of Architects. She is an architect and urban designer specializing in residential, academic, and mixed-use master planning projects and a passionate advocate for compact living spaces. Tamara became one of the earliest promoters of compact living when she advocated for changing the policy of minimum unit sizes at a 2010 Innovation District housing symposium. Tamara received her Bachelor of Architecture from Carnegie-Mellon, and her Masters of Urban Design and Architecture from the Berlage Institute, an international think-tank in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where she lived in a 300 square foot apartment with her husband and baby.
Peter Rose, FAIA, FRAIC, is a recognized leader in the architectural design profession. Since beginning his practice in 1978, Rose has received numerous awards for residential, institutional, and urban design projects. The scale of his projects has varied from large urban design projects, such as the Old Port of Montreal Waterfront Master Plan, to smaller renovations and additions. Rose received the Master in Architecture degree and Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University.
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Tuesday, September 11
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How the Rise of Public-Private Partnerships is Changing International Governance
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 11, 2018, 11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Nye BC (5th Floor Taubman), 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Liliana Andonova, Professor, International Relations and Political Science, The Graduate Institute, Geneva
CONTACT INFO Lunch will be served. Please RSVP to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
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Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy
Tuesday, September 11
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Harvard, Taubman 5th floor, Allison Dining Room, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
Siva Vaidhyanathan
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Deconstructing Internet Censorship and its Consequences
Tuesday, September 11
3:00 PM
Tufts, Halligan 102, 161 College Avenue, Medford
Speaker: Ihsan Ayyub Qazi, Lahore University of Management Sciences
Abstract:
Internet censorship is on the rise, with over 70 countries restricting Internet access to their citizens. Some recent examples include the censorship of YouTube in Pakistan, blocking of Twitter in Turkey, and the filtering of Google in China. Internet censorship has a substantial impact on different stakeholders in the Internet ecosystem (e.g., users, content providers, and advertisers). In this talk, I will discuss two projects that my research group has recently worked on related to Internet censorship.
In the first half of my talk, I will describe C-Saw, a system that provides incentives to users for measuring Internet censorship. C-Saw offers data-driven circumvention as an incentive in exchange for measurements. As more users crowdsource, the censorship data gets richer. This helps in adapting the circumvention approach based on the deployed censorship mechanism for improving page load times. (This work appeared in ACM SIGCOMM 2018.) In the second half of my talk, I’ll discuss the impact of Internet censorship on the online advertising ecosystem. To this end, I will describe Advention, a system that services relevant ads while allowing users to receive the benefits of circumvention/anonymity tools (e.g., Tor). Our results show that ADVENTION not only offers high ad relevance compared to other popular circumvention tools, it also offers smaller page load times. (This work appeared in ACM HotNets 2017.)
Bio:
Ihsan Ayyub Qazi is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA in 2010 and the BSc. (Hons) degree from LUMS with a double major in Computer Science and Mathematics in 2005. He was a Visiting Research Scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, USA in 2017. Previously, he has also held positions at the Center for Advanced Internet Architectures, Australia and BBN Technologies, USA. His research interests are in computer networks and distributed systems and span cloud computing and datacenters, mobile/wireless networks, ICT for developing regions, and Internet censorship. He has published papers in premier networking conferences, such as ACM SIGCOMM, and journals including IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking. My work was selected as a best ACM SIGCOMM CCR paper in 2018. He is a recipient of the Google Faculty Research Award and the Andrew Mellon Fellowship. More information can be found at http://web.lums.edu.pk/~ihsan/.
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Arne Duncan former Secretary of Education and Harvard Alum
Tuesday, September 11
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM EDT
The Harvard Coop, 1400 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Arne Duncan will sign copies of his new book How Schools Work before his duscussion at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School at 6:00pm.
From the Secretary of Education under President Obama, an exposé of the status quo that helps maintain a broken system at the expense of our kids’ education. “Education runs on lies. That’s probably not what you’d expect from a former Secretary of Education, but it’s the truth.” So opens Arne Duncan’s How Schools Work, although the title could just as easily be How American Schools Work for Some, Not for Others, and Only Now and Then for Kids.
Drawing on nearly three decades in education—from his mother’s after-school program on Chicago’s South Side to his tenure as Secretary of Education in DC—How Schools Work follows Arne (as he insists you call him) as he takes on challenges at every turn: gangbangers in Chicago housing projects, parents who call him racist, teachers who insist they can’t help poor kids, unions that refuse to modernize, Tea Partiers who call him an autocrat, affluent white progressive moms who hate yearly tests, and even the NRA, which once labeled Arne the “most extreme anti-gun member of President Obama's Cabinet.” Going to a child’s funeral every couple of weeks, as he did when he worked in Chicago, will do that to a person.
How Schools Work exposes the lies that have caused American kids to fall behind their international peers, from early childhood all the way to college graduation rates. But it also celebrates the countless everyday heroes Arne has encountered along the way: teachers, principals, reformers, staffers, business people, mayors, and presidents.
About the Author: Arne Duncan was one of the longest serving members of President Barack Obama’s cabinet and among the most influential Secretaries of Education in history. He has spent nearly three decades across all levels of education, from his mother’s afterschool program on Chicago’s Southside to CEO of the Chicago Public Schools. He currently sits on the board of Communities in Schools.
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IDSS Distinguished Speaker Seminar - Policy 2.0
Monday, September 11
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 32-141, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
We live in an increasingly polarized present, looking to a complex and uncertain future while basing our legislative decisions on systems of the past. We need the processes and structures that underpin our political decision-making to be aligned with the complexities of the 21st century. Such changes cannot be undertaken by a technocratic elite, potentially disenfranchising citizens further from their governing institutions. Rather, political institutions must seek to improve transparency, openness, and accountability. The great divide between science and policy must be bridged, not through advisers and external counsel but through involvement in a co-creation process that would from the outset, allow interested parties, experts and policymakers to work together to gain a shared understanding of a specific issue, clarity of the objectives of regulatory action as well as alternative regulatory measures. Yet we know that knowledge is not the only driver of political decision-making, emotion, self-interest, power relations and values all play their role in decision-making and political discourse. Through co-creation, interested parties, experts, and policymakers could potentially compare and weigh the risks, costs, and benefits and their distribution against self-declared biases.
As the European Commission's in-house science service providing independent scientific advice and support to EU policy, the Joint Research Centre is at the forefront of such research and seeking innovative opportunities to implement such measures.
About the Speaker:
Vladimír Šucha is Director-General of the Joint Research Centre, the European Commission's science and knowledge service. He was Deputy Director-General of the JRC between 2012 and 2013. Prior to that, he spent 6 years in the position of director for culture and media in the Directorate-General for Education and Culture of the European Commission. Before joining the European Commission, he held various positions in the area of European and international affairs. Between 2005 and 2006, he was director of the Slovak Research and Development Agency, national body responsible for funding research. He was principal advisor for European affairs to the minister of education of the Slovak Republic (2004-2005). He worked at the Slovak Representation to the EU in Brussels as research, education and culture counselor (2000-2004). In parallel, he has followed a long-term academic and research career, being a full professor in Slovakia and visiting professor/scientist at different academic institutions in many countries. He published more than 100 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals.
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How does a 1-Dimensional Sequence of DNA become a 3-Dimensional Tissue, and what happens when the Cell forgets and becomes Malignant?
Tuesday, September 11
4PM
Jimmy Fund Auditorium, 35 Binney Street, Boston
Mina J. Bissell, PhD, Distinguished Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley, CA
For more information, please email: claudia_steele@dfci.harvard.edu
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Is Cyber Resilience Possible?
Tuesday, September 11
4:30pm to 6:00pm
Northeastern, Renaissance Park, 909, 1135 Tremont Street, Boston
Please join us for a presentation by John Manferdelli, Professor of the Practice and Executive Director of the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute at Northeastern University, for the first Fall semester event in the Contemporary Issues in Security and Resilience Studies speaker series.
More information at https://cssh.northeastern.edu/internationalcenter/event/is-cyber-resilience-possible/
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Health Impacts of Air Quality Warnings
Tuesday, September 11
5:00PM TO 6:30PM
Industrial Economics, Incorporated, 2067 Massachusetts Ave., 4th floor, Cambridge
RSVP at okeeffe@hsph.harvard.edu
Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, Center for Health Decision Science, and Society for Risk Analysis - New England host a lecture by Jonathan Buonocore, Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment, HSPH.
When air quality is bad, local authorities warn residents to spend more time indoors and avoid strenuous outdoor activity. We estimate the maximum health benefits achievable if warnings were based on perfect forecasts and individuals fully adhered to the recommendations, then discuss the main determinants of our results and their implications.
Jonathan Buonocore is a Research Associate at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He works on the health benefits of carbon mitigation and on how energy and other systems interact with the environment and human health.
To access the seminar location, you must arrive before 5:00pm. This seminar is open to the public free of charge, however, pre‐registration is required. To register, please email Lucy O'Keeffe, okeeffe@hsph.harvard.edu, no later than Monday, September 10.
Contact Name: Lucy O'Keeffe
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Documentary: The S Word
Tuesday, September 11
5:30pm - 8:00pm
Harvard Longwood Campus, Countway Floor 5: Ballard Room, 10 Shattuck Street, Boston
Join us to watch this candid and emotional film that follows a suicide attempt survivor on her mission to find fellow survivors and document their stories of unguarded courage, insight, pain and humor. Along the way, she discovers a national community rising to transform personal struggles into action. This film weaves stories of survivors from a cross section of America including LGBT, African American and Asian American communities, who candidly share their profoundly personal stories of trauma, mental health challenges, survival and advocacy. Visit our website https://libcal.library.harvard.edu/calendar/countway_classes to see all our events.
A mental health professional will be onsite for support.
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HUBweek Semi-Finals: Annual Demo Day Pitch Competition
Tuesday, September 11
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
It's that time of year again! HUBweek presents the Semi-Finals of our annual Demo Day Pitch Competition.
For the third consecutive year, HUBweek has engaged startups from the Boston area — and this year we extended our reach across the Commonwealth — to bring together some of the most impactful, rising startups across a range of industries. Join us for the Semi-Final Pitch Competition to hear from the Top 24 companies, who will present speed pitches before a panel of judges and live audience.
You won't want to miss this great teaser leading up to HUBweek's annual Startup Showcase and Pitch Competiton Finale this fall, or the chance to hear and meet 24 of Massachusetts' most innovative rising companies.
Don't forget to join us for HUBweek's Demo Day, scheduled for Saturday, October 13th during the festival.
Networking with startups, judges, and attendees to follow the pitch competition.
5:30 PM - Doors Open
6:00 PM - Semi-Finals Pitch Competition!
7:30 PM - Networking
8:30 PM - Event Ends
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Education & the State of Affairs in Washington: A conversation with Arne Duncan & David Gergen
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 11, 2018, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Arne Duncan, David Gergen (Moderator)
CONTACT INFO IOP Forum Office, 617-495-1380
DETAILS Arne Duncan, Managing Partner, Emerson Collective, U.S. Secretary of Education, Obama Administration
David Gergen (Moderator), Public Service Professor of Public Leadership and Director, Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School
Former Senior Advisor to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan
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Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-connected World
Tuesday, September 11
6:00 PM (Doors at 5:30)
Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge
Cost: $6 - $29.75 (book included, online only)
Harvard Book Store welcomes internationally renowned security technologist BRUCE SCHNEIER for a discussion of his latest book, Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-connected World.
About Click Here to Kill Everybody
Everything is a computer. Ovens are computers that make things hot; refrigerators are computers that keep things cold. These computers―from home thermostats to chemical plants―are all online. The Internet, once a virtual abstraction, can now sense and touch the physical world.
As we open our lives to this future, often called the Internet of Things, we are beginning to see its enormous potential in ideas like driverless cars, smart cities, and personal agents equipped with their own behavioral algorithms. But every knife cuts two ways.
All computers can be hacked. And Internet-connected computers are the most vulnerable. Forget data theft: cutting-edge digital attackers can now crash your car, your pacemaker, and the nation’s power grid. In Click Here to Kill Everybody, renowned expert and bestselling author Bruce Schneier examines the hidden risks of this new reality.
After exploring the full implications of a world populated by hyperconnected devices, Schneier reveals the hidden web of technical, political, and market forces that underpin the pervasive insecurities of today. He then offers common-sense choices for companies, governments, and individuals that can allow us to enjoy the benefits of this omnipotent age without falling prey to its vulnerabilities.
From principles for a more resilient Internet of Things, to a recipe for sane government regulation and oversight, to a better way to understand a truly new environment, Schneier’s vision is required reading for anyone invested in human flourishing.
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SCORE Boston Workshop: How To Create A Social Media Blueprint for A Digital World
Tuesday, September 11
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM EDT
Boston Public Library - The Exchange, 700 Boylston Street, Boston
This workshop explores the latest emerging social media technologies that will help you understand the fundamentals of digital marketing. This course utilizes clear strategies that the user can begin to implement immediately.
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Implicit User Interfaces
Tuesday, September 11
6:30 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
IBM Watson Health, 75 Binney Street, Cambridge
Cost: $5 - $15
BostonCHI hosts Robert J.K. Jacob at IBM Watson Health speaking about Implicit User Interfaces
Implicit user interfaces obtain information from their users by direct observation, typically in addition to mouse, keyboard, or other explicit inputs. They fit into the emerging trends of physiological computing and affective computing. Our work focuses on using brain input for this purpose, measured through functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), as a way of increasing the narrow communication bandwidth between human and computer. Most previous brain-computer interfaces have been designed for people with severe motor disabilities and use explicit signals as the primary input; but these are too slow and inaccurate for wider use. Instead, we use brain measurement to obtain more information about the user and their context directly and without asking additional effort from them. We have obtained good results in a number of systems we created, as measured by objective task performance metrics. I will discuss our work on brain-computer interfaces and the more general area of implicit interaction.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Robert Jacob is a Professor of Computer Science at Tufts University, where his research interests are new interaction modes and techniques and user interface software; his current work focuses on implicit brain-computer interfaces. He has been a visiting professor at the University College London Interaction Centre, Universite Paris-Sud, and the MIT Media Laboratory. Before coming to Tufts, he was in the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at the Naval Research Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, and he is a member of the editorial board for the journal Human-Computer Interaction and a founding member for ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction. He has served as Vice-President of ACM SIGCHI, Papers Co-Chair of the CHI and UIST conferences, and General Co-Chair of UIST and TEI. He was elected as a member of the ACM CHI Academy in 2007 and as an ACM Fellow in 2016.
Evening Schedule
6:30 – 7:00 Networking over pizza and beverages
7:00 – 8:30 Meeting
8:30 – 9:00 CHI Dessert and more networking!
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The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias
Tuesday, September 11
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes award-winning social psychologist DOLLY CHUGH for a discussion of her latest book, The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias. This event is cosponsored by the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics.
About The Person You Mean to Be
Many of us believe in equality, diversity, and inclusion. But how do we stand up for those values in our turbulent world? The Person You Mean to Be is the smart, "semi-bold" person’s guide to fighting for what you believe in.
Dolly reveals the surprising causes of inequality, grounded in the "psychology of good people". Using her research findings in unconscious bias as well as work across psychology, sociology, economics, political science, and other disciplines, she offers practical tools to respectfully and effectively talk politics with family, to be a better colleague to people who don’t look like you, and to avoid being a well-intentioned barrier to equality. Being the person we mean to be starts with a look at ourselves.
She argues that the only way to be on the right side of history is to be a good-ish—rather than good—person. Good-ish people are always growing. Second, she helps you find your "ordinary privilege"—the part of your everyday identity you take for granted, such as race for a white person, sexual orientation for a straight person, gender for a man, or education for a college graduate. This part of your identity may bring blind spots, but it is your best tool for influencing change. Third, Dolly introduces the psychological reasons that make it hard for us to see the bias in and around us. She leads you from willful ignorance to willful awareness. Finally, she guides you on how, when, and whom, to engage (and not engage) in your workplaces, homes, and communities. Her science-based approach is a method any of us can put to use in all parts of our life.
Whether you are a long-time activist or new to the fight, you can start from where you are. Through the compelling stories Dolly shares and the surprising science she reports, Dolly guides each of us closer to being the person we mean to be.
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If You Love Me
Tuesday, September 11
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
Fast-paced and heartwarming, devastating and redemptive, Maureen's incredible odyssey into the opioid crisis--first as a parent, then as an advocate--is ultimately a deeply moving mother-daughter story. When Maureen and her ex-husband Mike see their daughter Katie's needle track marks for the first time, it is a complete shock. But, slowly, the drug use explains everything--Katie's constant exhaustion, erratic moods, and all those spoons that have gone missing from the house. Once Mike and Maureen get Katie into detox, Maureen goes to sleep that night hoping that in 48 hours she'll have her daughter back. It's not that simple.
Like the millions of parents and relatives all over the country--some of whom she has helped through her nonprofit organization--Maureen learns that recovery is neither straightforward nor brief. She fights to save Katie's life, breaking down doors on the seedy side of town with Mike, kidnapping Katie outside a convenience store, and battling the taboo around substance use disorder in her picturesque New England town. Maureen is launched into the shadowy world of overcrowded, for-profit rehabilitation centers that often prey on worried parents. As Katie runs away from one program after another, never outrunning her pain, Maureen realizes that even while she becomes an expert on getting countless men and women into detox and treatment centers, she remains powerless to save her own daughter. Maureen's unforgettable story brings the opioid crisis out of the shadows and into the house next door.
Maureen Cavanagh is the founder of Magnolia New Beginnings, a nonprofit peer-support group for those living with or affected by substance use disorder. She has been recognized by The New York Times, CNN, and other outlets for her work fighting the opioid crisis and the stigma that surrounds it.
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Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy
Tuesday, September 11
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
Antisocial Media explains how Facebook devolved from an innocent social site hacked together by Harvard students into a force that, while it may make personal life just a little more pleasurable, makes democracy a lot more challenging. It discusses how “social media” has fostered the deterioration of democratic culture around the world, from facilitating Russian meddling in support of Trump’s election to the exploitation of the platform by murderous authoritarians in Burma and the Philippines.
Siva Vaidhyanathan is the Robertson Professor of Media Studies and the Director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia. He produces a local public-affairs television program and several podcasts, and he directs the publication of Virginia Quarterly Review. A former professional journalist, he has published five previous books on technology, law, and society, includingThe Googlization of Everything. He has also contributed to publications such as The Nation, Slate, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Washington Post, BookForum, The New York Times Book Review, and The Baffler.
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Wednesday, September 12
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The Future of Wellbeing: A Conversation with Deepak Chopra
WHEN Wednesday, Sep. 12, 2018, 9 – 10 a.m.
WHERE Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Forum at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
SPEAKER(S) EXPERT PARTICIPANT
Deepak Chopra, M.D., New York Times Bestselling Author, and Founder, The Chopra Foundation
MODERATOR
Carol Hills, Senior Producer and Reporter at PRI’s The World
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
Michelle A. Williams, SM ’88, ScD ’91, Dean of the Faculty, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
COST RSVP Required
TICKET WEB LINK https://harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_39NaJLyb2PZOruB
DETAILS Globally, people are living longer. What are the most compelling ways to ensure a sustainably healthy life? In this exciting live-streamed event, world-renowned author and speaker, Deepak Chopra, will discuss the important connections between mind, immunity, genes and body. Dr. Chopra will explore how chronic stress and inflammation can undermine immunity and health, ultimately seeking to empower people who wish to nurture their wellbeing over their lifetimes. He also will discuss how these insights play out within public health, particularly as individuals and societies cope with epidemics, environmental threats, superbugs, aging and other challenges. He will include takeaways from his new book, The Healing Self: A Revolutionary New Plan to Supercharge Your Immunity and Stay Well for Life, co-authored with esteemed Harvard neurology professor Rudolph Tanzi.
This special Forum presentation will feature Dr. Chopra in conversation with The World’s Carol Hills, following some brief remarks. Dr. Michelle Williams, Dean of the Harvard Chan School, will welcome the audience and introduce the speaker.
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How to Stay Safe & Secure Online
Wednesday, September 12
11:00am - 12:30pm
BC, Digital Studio (Rm. 205), Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. Library, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill
Feeling freaked out by all the cyber breaches lately? Want to plan an activist movement but want to stay safe? Or do you simply want to use online dating services without getting stalked? Join us in this workshop to learn about digital privacy. We'll go over how to use tools to protect yourself online, as well as what to do if you've been hacked, harassed, or otherwise victimized on ye olde World Wide Web.
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What is the State of the Cybersecurity Ecosystem in Boston?
Wednesday, September 12
11:00 AM – 1:00 PM EDT
Akamai's HQ, 150 Broadway Street, Cambridge
Cybersecurity has experienced tremendous industry growth and shows no sign of stopping, with increasing concerns about user data security, IoT vulnerabilities, and more. A record $7.66 billion in funding was raised by cybersecurity startups in 2017, many of them in Boston.
But rapid growth doesn't come without growing pains like talent shortages, tough competition for M&A, and customers experiencing sales pitch overload. Join us for a panel discussion about the state of the cybersecurity ecosystem in Boston: challenges startups are facing, opportunities investors are still looking to fund, available resources and still-needed programs.
This event is part of the Tech & Industry Trends track at Startup Boston 2018.
Our Speakers:
Rick Grinnell, Founder & Managing Partner at Glasswing Ventures
As a venture capitalist and seasoned operator, Rick has invested in some of the most dynamic companies in security, enterprise infrastructure, and storage. During his 18 years of venture capital experience, which includes co-founding and serving as Managing Director of Fairhaven Capital, he has led investments and served on the board of directors for companies including EqualLogic (acquired by Dell), Prelert (acquired by Elastic), Pwnie Express, Resilient Systems (acquired by IBM), Trackvia, VeloBit (acquired by Western Digital) and most recently Allure Security, and Terbium Labs.
Greg Dracon, Partner at .406 Ventures
Greg joined .406 in 2007 and is involved in all aspects of the investing and portfolio management process. His portfolio includes Edgewise Networks, Pwnie Express, Greathorn, and Threat Stack among other cybersecurity investments. He also serves as a board member for many of these companies, and is the Board Director for Greathorn and Terbium Labs.
Gwen Betts, Director of UX at Rapid7
Gwen is a startup veteran within Boston's cybersecurity industry. She joined Komand as their founding designer and became their Director of Customer Experience, and now leads UX at Rapid7. Gwen's an active contributor in this space, presenting at local meetups and at the O'Reilly Security Conference.
Our Moderator:
Clement Cazalot, Managing Director at Techstars Boston
Clement is an entrepreneur, angel investor, and startup advisor. Clement Cazalot is currently Managing Director of Techstars Boston, leading the expansion of one of the most prestigious, impactful and founder-friendly startup accelerator and early stage investor in the world.
Previously he served as VP Technology at Intralinks (NYSE: IL), until its acquisition by Synchronoss (NASDAQ: SNCR). There he created from the ground up both R&D and Product Design business units, to re-build the company infrastructure and next generation products. Intralinks provides secure software to all the banks in the world. The company is part of the top 10 largest SaaS companies in the document management space.
This is a Startup Boston event.
Startup Boston is a free, five-day series of events celebrating, educating, and connecting entrepreneurs in Boston. Taking place from September 10-14th, 2018, Startup Boston brings entrepreneurs, company leaders, innovators, and industry experts together to foster collaboration and fuel growth in Boston's startup ecosystem.
Thank you to our event partners.
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Entrepreneurship & Innovation Resource Roundup
Wednesday, September 12
11:30am to 1:30pm
MIT Stata Center, Student Street, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
As part of t=0, MIT’s campus-wide celebration of entrepreneurship and innovation, the MIT Innovation Initiative will be hosting an in-person version of the resource guide on Wednesday, September 12, 11:30 am–1:30 pm at MIT Stata Center (student street).
Come by to learn about the many entrepreneurship and innovation resources available on campus this fall: classes, sources of funding, mentoring programs, makerspaces, prize competitions and more.
The Innovation Initiative will also be on hand to help answer questions about the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Minor.
As an added bonus, free food will be provided!
While normally spread across campus, all of fall’s entrepreneurship and innovation resources will be in one location:
MIT Innovation Initiative
Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship
Arts at MIT
Flux
Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program (GEL)
Legatum Center for Development & Entrepreneurship
Lemelson-MIT Program
Machine Intelligence Community
MISTI
MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition
MIT Biotech Group
MIT Clean Energy Prize
MIT Fintech Club
MIT Global Startup Workshop
MIT Hong Kong Innovation Node
MIT I-Corps
MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund Program
MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team
MIT Venture Mentoring Service
MIT Waste Alliance
MIT Water Innovation Prize
PKG Center: IDEAS Global Challenge
Project Manus
ProjX
StartLabs
Technology Licensing Office
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Longwood Bike Fair
Wednesday September 12
11:30am to 1:30pm
Harvard Medical School Quad Promenade, Longwood Avenue and Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston
Free basic bike tuneups and giveaways
Mini classes on maintenance and safety
Bike vendors and information for area cyclists
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Sack Lunch Seminar Series (SLS) - Tom Beucler
Wednesday, September 12
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915/923, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
About this Series
The Atmosphere, Ocean and Climate Sack Lunch Seminar Series is an informal seminar series within PAOC that focuses on more specialized topics than the PAOC Colloquium. Seminar topics include all research concerning the science of atmosphere, ocean and climate. The seminars usually take place on Wednesdays from 12-1pm in 54-915. The presentations are either given by an invited speaker or by a member of PAOC and can focus on new research or discussion of a paper of particular interest.
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Libya's 2011 Uprising: What Really Happened?
Wednesday, September 12
12:00pm to 1:30pm
MIT, Building E40-496, Pye Room, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Alan Kuperman (University of Texas at Austin)
As part of the "Arab Spring," Libya's 2011 uprising was portrayed as initially peaceful and secular, which is why the Qaddafi regime's forceful response was condemned internationally and gave rise quickly to a NATO-led military intervention. A deeper inquiry, however, reveals that the initial uprising was neither peaceful nor secular, which has important implications for news reporting, intelligence gathering, national security policymaking, and humanitarian intervention. This study relies on both primary and secondary sources -- in English, French, and Arabic -- including contemporaneous videos and retrospective interviews with Libyan revolutionaries.
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Social Transmission of Stress
Wednesday, September 12
4:00pm - 5:00pm
MIT, Building 46-3002 Singleton Auditorium, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Jaideep Bains, Ph.D.
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Dr. Janet Dewart Bell: “Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement”
WHEN Wednesday, Sep. 12, 2018, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein 2036 East C, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School
SPEAKER(S) Dr. Janet Dewart Bell
COST free
CONTACT INFO kgarvin@law.harvard.edu
DETAILS A book talk by Dr. Janet Dewart Bell. Book signing to follow.
Dr. Bell is the widow of Derrick Bell, the first African American tenured professor at Harvard Law School.
Co-sponsored by the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Office of Student Affairs
“During the Civil Rights Movement, African American women did not stand on ceremony; they simply did the work that needed to be done. Yet despite their significant contributions at all levels of the movement, they remain mostly invisible to the larger public. Beyond Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, most Americans would be hard-pressed to name other leaders at the community, local, and national levels.
In Lighting the Fires of Freedom Janet Dewart Bell shines a light on women’s all-too-often overlooked achievements in the Movement. Through wide-ranging conversations with nine women, several now in their nineties with decades of untold stories, we hear what ignited and fueled their activism, as Bell vividly captures their inspiring voices. Lighting the Fires of Freedomoffers these deeply personal and intimate accounts of extraordinary struggles for justice that resulted in profound social change, stories that are vital and relevant today.
Published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, Lighting the Fires of Freedom is a vital document for understanding the Civil Rights Movement and an enduring testament to the vitality of women’s leadership during one of the most dramatic periods of American history.”
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Book Talk: Rethinking America’s Highways
WHEN Wednesday, Sep. 12, 2018, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Ash Center Foyer, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Suite 200N, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Robert Poole, Director of Transportation Policy at the Reason Foundation, author of Rethinking America’s Highways; and Stephen Goldsmith, Daniel Paul Professor of the Practice of Government and the Director of the Ash Center Innovations in American Government Program
COST Free
CONTACT INFO info@ash.harvard.edu
DETAILS Join Robert Poole, Director of Transportation Policy at the Reason Foundation, author of Rethinking America’s Highways, for a discussion. Stephen Goldsmith, Daniel Paul Professor of the Practice of Government and the Director of the Ash Center Innovations in American Government Program, will moderate.
Rethinking America’s Highways: A 21st Century Vision for Better Infrastructure
Americans spend hours every day sitting in traffic. And the roads they idle on are often rough and potholed, their exits, tunnels, guardrails, and bridges in terrible disrepair. According to transportation expert Robert Poole, this congestion and deterioration are outcomes of the way America provides its highways. Our twentieth-century model overly politicizes highway investment decisions, short-changing maintenance and often investing in projects whose costs exceed their benefits.
In Rethinking America’s Highways, Poole examines how our current model of state-owned highways came about and why it is failing to satisfy its customers. He argues for a new model that treats highways themselves as public utilities—like electricity, telephones, and water supply. If highways were provided commercially, Poole argues, people would pay for highways based on how much they used, and the companies would issue revenue bonds to invest in facilities people were willing to pay for. Arguing for highway investments to be motivated by economic rather than political factors, this book makes a carefully-reasoned and well-documented case for a new approach to highways that is sure to inform future decisions and policies for U.S. infrastructure.
LINK https://ash.harvard.edu/event/book-talk-rethinking-america’s-highways
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CSAIL Hot Topics in Computing - Muddied Waters: Online Disinformation During Crisis
Wednesday, September 12
4:30pm to 5:30pm
MIT Stata Center, 32-123/Kirsch Auditorium, MIT Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Recent public attention and debate around “fake news” has highlighted the growing challenge of determining information veracity online. This is a complex and dynamic problem at the intersection of technology, human cognition, and human behavior—i.e. our strategies and heuristics for making sense of information may make us vulnerable, especially within online spaces, to absorbing and passing along misinformation. Increasingly, it appears that certain actors are exploiting these vulnerabilities, spreading intentional misinformation—or disinformation—for various purposes, including geopolitical goals. This talk explores some of the motivations and tactics of disinformation, explaining how geopolitical actors use social media and the surrounding information ecosystem to sow doubt and division.
Kate Starbird is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) at the University of Washington (UW). Kate's research is situated within human-computer interaction (HCI) and the emerging field of crisis informatics—the study of the how information-communication technologies (ICTs) are used during crisis events. One aspect of her research focuses on how online rumors spread—and how online rumors are corrected—during natural disasters and man-made crisis events. More recently, she has begun to focus on the propagation of disinformation and political propaganda through online spaces. Kate earned her PhD from the University of Colorado at Boulder in Technology, Media and Society and holds a BS in Computer Science from Stanford University.
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MIT Social Media and Democracy Colloquium
Wednesday, September 12
4:30 PM – 6:30 PM EDT
MIT, Building 10-250, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Democracies around the world face a set of unique and proliferating challenges in the twenty-first century, particularly stemming from the increasing power and presence of digital platforms like social media and related technologies. Such digital platforms are the spaces and places that increasingly provide the dominant means of encountering and exchanging ideas, finding news and information, and for creating social and political communities. Although these platforms can promise to serve a public function, they are nonetheless dominantly owned and operated by the private sphere, leading to a number of legal, ethical, and broadly techno-social problems as evidenced by recent revelations of the relationship between Facebook and the 2016 American Presidential Elections.
Digital platforms are thus not easily classifiable under familiar categories: are they similar to traditional media (press and TV)? Are they considered a utility company (ISPs), providing essential services for internet users? What promising potentials and subsequent futures might certain iterations of social media platforms offer towards creating and maintaining the public and political spheres that are central to the evolution of twenty-first century democracies? How might these platforms be harnessed generatively, as well critiqued?
MIT’s doctoral program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS) invites the MIT and broader Boston/Cambridge community to join our first colloquium of the year, focused on the social, political, and technological entanglements of social media and democracy, broadly defined. This event features four leading scholars and thinkers specialized in researching and analyzing the infusion of social media platforms in our everyday social and political lives, including an audience Q&A session. Following a dinner break and time for socialization, the speakers will return for a smaller seminar session offered to graduate students for a more intimate and roundtable-style discussion.
This colloquium is the inaugural event for MIT's new 'Computational Cultures Initaitve' sponsored by the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. Find more information on the Initiative here: https://computationalcultures.mit.edu (website opening ~September 1st)
*Pizza will be served for all attendees following the lecture, outside the hall.
Speakers:
Siva Vaidhyanathan, University of Virginia
Author of Anti-Social Media: How Facebook Disconnects As and Undermines Democracy; and, The Googlization of Everything. Siva has argued that academics from many fields associated with what he calls “Critical Information Studies” (which in part synthesizes key aspects of both cultural studies and political economy) should be engaged in interrogating the “structures, functions, habits, norms, and practices” of particular aspects of information culture and in analyzing how these issues go beyond simple arguments about digital “rights” to include consideration of more subtle impacts of cost and access that have the potential for chilling effects on a “semiotic democracy” that is situated in global flows of information.
Daniel Weitzner, MIT
A leader in the development of Internet public policy from its inception, Prof. Weitzner is making fundamental contributions to the successful fight for strong online free expression protection in the United States Supreme Court, crafting laws that provide protection against government surveillance of email and web browsing data. His work on US legislation limiting the liability of Internet Service Providers laid the foundations for social media services and supporting the global free flow of information online.
David Edelman, MIT
Formerly Special Assistant to the President for Economic and Technology Policy at the National Economic Council (NEC), Prof. Edelman led the Obama White House team focusing on the digital economy – including broadband, spectrum telecommunications, and technology trade – as well as consumer cybersecurity, domestic and international data privacy, high-tech patent and copyright issues, and antitrust/competition.
Joan Donovan, Data & Society
At Data and Society, Joan is the research lead on media manipulation and platform accountability projects. For several years, she has conducted action research with different networked social movements in order to map and improve the communication infrastructures built by protesters. In her role as a participant, she identifies information bottlenecks, decodes algorithmic behavior, and connects organizations with other like-minded networks.
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Digital Health Launch Smart Clinic with Multisensor Diagnostics and WatchRx
September 12
5:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Cambridge Innovation Center, 5th Floor Havana Room, One Broadway, Cambridge
Cost: $5 - $30
At the Digital Health Themed Launch Smart Clinic, 2 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.
Presenting Companies
Multisensor Diagnostics (MDx) is a Digital Health company enabled by an innovative device and supported by proprietary software and telehealth services. The MouthLabTM system gathers and integrates multiple vital health parameters through a simple-to-use, cloud- connected handheld rapid medical assessment device, with an AI-powered assessment engine to guide triage decisions. The result is a longitudinal series of daily snapshots of the patient’s digital biomarkers to give caregivers and care providers an early warning system for timely and effective intervention.
The end-to-end solution enables payers, providers, and pharmaceutical companies to better manage their high-cost, high-acuity chronic disease patients using MouthLab. This proactive approach towards care management enables improvements in engagement and adherence, and helps detect early signs of acute exacerbation and disease progression Ultimately, we aim to reduces the overall cost of healthcare, improves care delivery, patient satisfaction and health outcomes.
Presenter: Sathya Elumalai, CEO
WatchRx is a smartwatch health solution featuring medication reminders, drug adherence reports, caregiver / family alerts, GPS tracking to “Take Me Home", built-in phone, that helps people with chronic conditions stay independent & healthy at home.
Presenter: Jayanthi Narasimhan, CEO
Confirmed Panelists:
Laura T. Housman, MPH, MBA is an Adjunct Faculty member at the Tufts University School of Medicine, an Executive in Residence at the Boston University School of Public Health, and Founder of Access Solutions Consulting (ASC)
Dr. Airong Li, Assistant Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School
Assistant in Neuroscience, Massachusetts General Hospital
Elizabeth Steele, Vice President of Programs and Global Affairs, MassBio
Moderator: Anthony DeOrsey, Deputy General Manager, TechCode Boston
Launch Smart Schedule
5:30-6:00 pm – Networking + Pizza
6:00 -6:15 pm – Industry Overview (Expert Presentation)
6:20-6:40 pm – Startup 1 Presents
6:40-7:00 pm – Small Breakouts: Audience + Experts
7:00-7:15 pm – Experts Share Consolidated Feedback From Breakouts
7:15-7:30 pm – Networking Break
7:30-7:50 pm – Startup 2 Presents
7:50-8:10 pm – Small Breakouts: Audience + Experts
8:10-8:25 pm – Experts Share Consolidated Feedback From Breakouts
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Lea Berman and Jeremy Bernard: Restoring Civility in Public Life
Wednesday, September 12
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
CIC Boston, 50 Milk Street, Boston
Lea Berman and Jeremy Bernard each served as White House social secretary for different administrations. Bernard worked for President Obama; Berman for President George W. Bush. They’ve collaborated on a new book that uses their White House experiences to draw out lessons in how to handle crises, defuse awkward moments and manage expectations. It’s called Treating People Well: The Extraordinary Power Of Civility At Work And In Life.
The authors make a case for the importance of a return to treating people well in American political life, maintaining that democracy cannot be sustained without public civility.
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Boston Medical Center Rooftop Farm Tour
Wednesday, September 12
6:30 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
750 Albany Street, Boston
Experience the intersection of food and health on a tour of Boston Medical Center’s rooftop farm. On this tour you will learn about rooftop farming and green roofs, bee keeping, and how Boston Medical Center utilizes their farm in multiple ways to improve the health of our community.
Hosted by Boston Medical Center, Higher Ground Farm, and Recover Green Roofs.
The farm has two active beehives onsite so please use caution if you are allergic.
Space is limited. Please register to secure your spot.
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Writing and the Art of Attention
WHEN Wednesday, Sep. 12, 2018, 6:30 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Religion
SPONSOR Center for the Study of World Religions
CONTACT CSWR, 617.495.4476
DETAILS Please join us for our first event of the 2018–19 academic year: Writing and the Art of Attention. Religious traditions insist on the importance of cultivating our faculty of attention, whether it be attention to ourselves, others, our environment, or the presence of the divine in any of these three. This panel will explore whether and how the practice of writing, especially fiction writing, helps us cultivate this art of attention. What is it about writing, and the imagination and patience required, that helps us learn how better to attend?
The panelists are: Stephanie Paulsell, Susan Shallcross Swartz Professor of the Practice of Christian Studies, HDS; C.E. Morgan, author of the novels All the Living and The Sport of Kings, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; and Chris Adrian, novelist, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.
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Collaborative Robotics in Practice: Opportunities and Challenges
Wednesday, September 12
6:30 pm – 8:00 pm America/New York Timezone
Northeastern, Room #140, 805 Columbus Avenue, Boston
Collaborative robots that work in close coordination with humans in the same work environments have the potential to transform processes in many application areas including manufacturing, healthcare and logistics. This talk will provide an overview of our ongoing work in this area and discuss both opportunities and challenges to accelerate research and development in collaborative robotics.
Taskin Padir is an Associate Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Northeastern University. He received his PhD and MS degrees in electrical and computer engineering from Purdue University. He holds a BS in electrical and electronics engineering from the Middle East Technical University in Turkey. He is the Director of Robotics and Intelligent Vehicles Research Laboratory (RIVeR Lab). He is also the co-founder of the Robotics Collaborative at Northeastern. His research interests include supervised autonomy for humanoid robots, shared autonomy for intelligent vehicles, and human-in-the-loop control systems with applications in exploration, disaster response, personalized in-home care, and nuclear decommissioning. His projects have been sponsored by NSF, NASA, DOE-EM, DARPA, Mass Seaport Economic Development Council and many industry partners. Professor Padir led project teams for the NASA Sample Return Robot Centennial Challenge, SmartAmerica Challenge and the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC). Padir currently leads one of two research groups selected by NASA to develop autonomy for humanoid robot Valkyrie.
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President Carter: The White House Years
Wednesday, September 12
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
Stuart Eizenstat
The definitive history of the Carter Administration from the man who participated in its surprising number of accomplishments―drawing on his extensive and never-before-seen notes.Stuart Eizenstat was at Jimmy Carter’s side from his political rise in Georgia through four years in the White House, where he served as Chief Domestic Policy Adviser. He was directly involved in all domestic and economic decisions as well as in many foreign policy ones. Famous for the legal pads he took to every meeting, he draws on more than 5,000 pages of notes and 350 interviews of all the major figures of the time, to write the comprehensive history of an underappreciated president―and to give an intimate view on how the presidency works.
About the Author
STUART E. EIZENSTAT has served as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union and Deputy Secretary of both Treasury and State. He is also the author of Imperfect Justice. He is an international lawyer in Washington, D.C.
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Thursday, September 13
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Sustainability/Bike/Light Fair
Thursday, September 13
11:00am to 2:00pm
Northeastern, Snell Library Quad, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Please join us for the annual Sustainability/Bike/Light Fair! Sustainable food & giveaways, over 15 information tables. Free bike registration/minor repairs/safety training/information thanks to Northeastern University Police Department. Purchase energy efficient LEDs!
More information at https://www.facebook.com/SustainabilityatNortheastern/photos/gm.507499466364686/400051220522680/?type=3&theater
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President Carter: The White House Years
WHEN Thursday, Sep. 13, 2018, 11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Bell Hall (5th Floor Belfer), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Stuart E. Eizenstat, former Chief White House Domestic Policy Advisor to President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)
CONTACT INFO Lunch will be served. Please RSVP to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
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Sustainability at Tufts: Past, Present, and Future
September 13
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Multi-purpose Room, Curtis Hall, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford
Shoshana Blank, Outreach and Education Program Administrator, Office of Sustainability, Tufts University
Did you know about the legacy of environmental sustainability at Tufts dating back to President Jean Mayer in 1990? Do you want to know what Tufts is currently doing to combat climate change and reduce waste? Do you want to know where Tufts recycling goes and how you can reduce your impact? All of these questions and more will be answered by Shoshana Blank of the Tufts Office of Sustainability. Come get inspired to live sustainably at a very green university.
Shoshana Blank joined the Office of Sustainability in August 2016 as the Outreach and Education Program Administrator. Prior to coming to Tufts, Shoshana worked at a Boston non-profit called the Sustainable Endowments Institute, where she consulted with colleges, universities, cities and K-12 schools on financing their energy efficiency projects through green revolving funds. She also directed the development of a web tool called the Green Revolving Investment Tracking System (GRITS) to help colleges easily track the energy, carbon, and financial savings from their energy conservation projects. Shoshana was a Fulbright grant recipient where she conducted research on particulate matter emissions from wood-burning cookstoves in a village outside of Pune, India, testing out a more efficient stove with the villagers. Shoshana graduated from St. Olaf College in 2010 with majors in Biology and Environmental Studies. She enjoys gardening, ice cream, and environmental activism.
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Hunger Action Day on Boston City Hall Plaza
Thursday, September 13
1:00 PM – 4:00 PM EDT
Boston City Hall, 1 City Hall Square, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hunger-action-day-on-boston-city-hall-plaza-tickets-49651634375
Join The Greater Boston Food Bank, Citizens Bank and hunger advocates across the city on City Hall Plaza from 1 – 4 p.m. to raise awareness for Hunger Action Day. A ribbon cutting ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. to inaugurate GBFB’s newly branded trucks donated by Citizens Bank that will help provide over 50 million healthy meals next year. Stop by and participate in our social activation and pick up $5 gift cards from Daily Table, one of GBFB’s partner agencies. Open to the public.
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OEB Seminar Series - "What 5 Insects Told Us About How A Native Plant Copes With Real-World Problems"
WHEN Thursday, Sep. 13, 2018, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
WHERE Biological Labs Lecture Hall (1080), 16 Divinity Ave., Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
SPEAKER(S) Dr. Ian T. Baldwin, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology
TICKET INFO Free and Open to the Public
DETAILS Dr. Ian T. Baldwin of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology will describe what five native insect herbivores have taught us about traits that are essential for plant survival.
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MIT Colloquium on the Brain and Cognition featuring Jessica Sommerville, Ph.D.
Thursday, September 13
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 46-3002, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
The virtuous baby? The limits and limitations of infants’ socio-moral cognition and behavior
Recently, twin narratives have arisen in both the scholarly literature and in the popular press that depict infants as a. moral judges and b. inherently altruistic. Each of these narratives has a set of corollaries or associated claims: that moral knowledge is built in, thorough, and relatively impervious to experience, and that infants’ moral behavior is unlearned, virtuously motivated, prolific and indiscriminate. In my talk, I will examine these narratives and claims in the context of my laboratory’s research on infants’ sensitivity to distributive fairness norms and infants’ prosocial behavior. Our results contextualize and temper these narratives and claims. First, infants’ socio-moral knowledge emerges over the course of development, is marked by individual differences, and may lack some components of a mature moral response. Second, infants’ prosocial behavior is influenced by experience, and impacted by variables that affect the personal costs and interpersonal benefits of acting prosocially. Together, these findings reveal the limits and limitations of infants’ socio-moral cognition and behavior.
Dr. Sommerville is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington and Associate Director for the Center for Child and Family Well-being. She directs the Early Childhood Cognition Lab at UW. Her research focuses on social cognition and behavior in infancy and early childhood.
The MIT Colloquium on the Brain and Cognition is a lecture series held weekly during the academic year and features a wide array of speakers from all areas of neuroscience and cognitive science research. The social teas that follow these colloquia bring together students, staff, and faculty to discuss the talk, as well as other research activities within Building 46, at MIT, and around the world. This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT. Colloquia are open to the community, and are held in MIT's Building 46, Room 3002 (Singleton Auditorium) at 4:00PM with a reception to follow.
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Nature for Nurture: Environmental Education, Nature Experience, and the Healthy Chinese Child
Thursday, September 13
4:00PM TO 6:00PM
Harvard, CGIS Knafel K262, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies welcomes Robert Efird, Professor of Anthropology and Asian studies, Seattle University, who will discuss the challenges that formal environmental education has faced in China, as well as the reasons behind the rise of “nature education” ( ziran jiaoyu ), the proliferation of “nature schools” ( ziran xuexiao ) and the revival of natural history ( bowuxue ).
For the past 15 years, the Chinese Ministry of Education’s attempt to promote environmental education in public schools has faced nearly insurmountable structural obstacles. By contrast, there is a growing popular embrace of the value of nature exposure for children’s health and well-being. Drawing upon nearly a decade of fieldwork, this talk discusses the challenges that formal environmental education has faced in China, as well as the reasons behind the rise of “nature education” (ziran jiaoyu), the proliferation of “nature schools” (ziran xuexiao) and the revival of natural history (bowuxue). In particular, we will explore how these developments are related to new ideas concerning children’s healthy development, including the concept of “nature-deficit disorder” (ziran queshizheng) popularized by American journalist Richard Louv.
Rob Efird is Professor of Anthropology and Asian Studies at Seattle University. His research on environmental learning in China includes several book chapters, articles in the Journal of Contemporary China and Environmental Education Research, and a co-edited volume (with John Chi-Kin Lee) entitled Schooling for Sustainable Development Across the Pacific (Springer, 2014). He spent a year in Kunming as a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar during 2011-2012, and was a National Committee on U.S.-China Relations Public Intellectual Program Fellow from 2014 to 2016.
Contact Name: James Evans
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How Artificial Intelligence Startups Are Helping Early Adopters Win
Thursday, September 13
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM EDT
CIC Boston, 50 Milk Street, 20th Floor - Lighthouse West, Boston
Machine learning is transforming information work in almost every industry, with startups creating software that automates common tasks at a level of efficiency, accuracy, and insight that is literally superhuman.
We've brought together the leaders from several such startups, across a variety of industries, to each share insights from building a machine-learning powered product that is giving their customers superpowers. Each speaker will give a 5 minute lightning talk presentation, followed by 5 minutes of Q&A.
This kind of "narrow" AI is increasingly acheivable, and represents a classicly successful startup opportunity: being able to combine cutting-edge technology with expertise from a background in a particular industry. We hope this set of lightning talks will provide a jumpstart for founders & technologists that might see applications for machine learning in their own areas of interest, and a hot lead on a competitive advantage for company leaders in industries these startups are serving. Join us!
This event is part of the Tech & Industry Trends track at Startup Boston 2018.
Our Speakers:
Rich Palmer - Cofounder & CTO at Gravyty
Jacki Leahy - Director of Business Development at LinkSquares
Tomas Ratia - Cofounder & CEO at Frase
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Feminisms Now!
WHEN Thursday, Sep. 13, 2018, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S)
Fatima Asghar, Poet & Screenwriter
Dana Bolger, Cofounder of Know Your IX
Melissa Febos, Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Monmouth University
Kimberly Foster, Cultural Critic and Founder of For Harriet
Emi Koyama, Activist, Writer, Rogue Intellectual
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS What do millennial feminists want? This panel invites rising artists, thinkers, and organizers to share their visions of gender equality for the 21st century. Panelists will reflect on their art and activism in the service of intersecting and sometimes competing feminisms. They’ll also discuss the ways they do — and don’t — engage the legacy of their 19th- and 20th-century foremothers as they work to move society forward. Please register and join us.
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Social Media Innovators: Shaping Voter Engagement to Online Civil Discourse
WHEN Thursday, Sep. 13, 2018, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Ash Center Foyer, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Floor 2, Suite 200N, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Deepti Doshi, Community Partnerships Director, Facebook; Victoria McCullough, Social Impact and Public Policy, Tumblr; and Sofia Gross, Political & Non-Profit Partnerships, Public Policy, Snap Inc
COST Free
CONTACT INFO info@ash.harvard.edu
DETAILS Join Ash Center Technology and Democracy Fellows Deepti Doshi, Community Partnerships Director, Facebook; Victoria McCullough, Social Impact and Public Policy, Tumblr; and Sofia Gross, Political & Non-Profit Partnerships, Public Policy, Snap Inc; for a discussion about the role of social media in voter engagement and civic discourse, including what social media organizations have been doing to make civic engagement easier and more enjoyable. Teresa Acuña, Associate Director of the Ash Center's Democratic Governance program, will moderate.
Refreshments will be provided.
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Civic Arts Series: Erik Loyer
Thursday, September 13
5:00pm to 6:30pm
MIT, Building E15-001, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
From his best-selling Strange Rain story-playing iPad/iPhone app, to his visually stunning digital fiction The Lair of the Marrow Monkey (powered by Shockwave software animation), and his interactive explorations of post-Katrina racial politics in Blue Velvet, Loyer’s interactive artistic hybridizations of music, new narratives and algorithmic play have won numerous awards, been exhibited widely, and found their way into permanent museum collections.
Co-hosted with the MIT Program in Art, Culture, and Technology.
The Civic Arts Series, which is part of the CMS graduate program Colloquium, features talks by four artists and activists who are making innovative uses of media to reshape the possibilities of art as a source of civic imagination, experience and advocacy. Using a variety of contemporary media technologies–film, web platforms, game engines, drones–the series presenters have opened up new pathways to artistic expression that broaden public awareness around compelling civic issues and aspirations of our time.
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A book talk on Entrepreneurial Negotiation
WHEN Thursday, Sep. 13, 2018, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, WCC 2012, 1585 Mass. Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Education, Law
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School
SPEAKER(S) Lawrence Susskind, Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning, MIT and Samuel Dinnar, Mediator and Consultant
WRITTEN BY Samuel Dinnar and Lawrence Susskind
CONTACT INFO dlong@law.harvard.edu
DETAILS Join us for a book talk on "Entrepreneurial Negotiation" by MIT Professor Lawrence Susskind, and Samuel Dinnar, mediator and negotiation consultant. The authors build on decades of research and practice accumulated in the real world and with the Program on Negotiation, to help entrepreneurs and those who deal with them create more value.
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Reception: Time is Now: Photography and Social Change in James Baldwin’s America
WHEN Thursday, Sep. 13, 2018, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Exhibitions
DETAILS By the time of his death, essay collections such as "The Fire Next Time" (1963) and novels like "Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone" (1968) earned the prolific African American novelist, playwright, poet, and essayist James Baldwin (1924–1987) an international reputation as one of the most consequential American cultural critics. This exhibition of photographs made during Baldwin’s lifetime is both biographical and thematic. It works to visualize and explore the places, the personal, and historical events that framed Baldwin’s life and themes in his writing, including: the history of racism and the role of race in American history and life, sexuality, personal transformation, family, music, religion, violence, and the function of the artist in society and art, and social change. Time is Now: Photography and Social Change in James Baldwin’s America charts the nation’s transformative cultural moment alongside the life of one of its most influential figures, interweaving the two narratives through the lens of the American documentary tradition.
Photographers include: Diane Arbus, Richard Balzer, Dawoud Bey, Peter Campbell, William Carter, Bruce Davidson, Roy DeCarava, Frank Espada, Robert Frank, Leonard Freed, Joanne Leonard, Ken Light, Danny Lyon, Marion Palfi, Ben Shahn, Steve Schapiro, John Simmons, Francis J. Sullivan, and Marion Post Wolcott.
Time is Now: Photography and Social Change in James Baldwin’s America charts a second interwoven narrative as well. All of the exhibition’s photographs are drawn from the permanent collections of the Harvard Art Museums, a third of which were originally part of the Carpenter Center’s renowned teaching collection of more than 10,000 prints, 40,000 negatives, and related materials, which were transferred to the museums in 2002. A unique resource for the study of fine art, social documentary, and professional photography, the collection was established in the mid-1960s to consolidate some of Harvard University’s holdings of significant historical photographs and to support teaching of the history and aesthetic practice of photography by challenged existing paradigms about the meaning and function of photography through innovative exhibitions, publications, programs, and teaching.
This exhibition marks the continuation of an ongoing series of collaborations between the Harvard Art Museums and Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, and is timed to coincide with artist Teresita Fernández’s Harvard Yard installation, Autumn (...Nothing Personal), which references Baldwin’s essay Nothing Personal (1964). Commissioned by the Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA), Autumn (…Nothing Personal) is a site-specific work for Tercentenary Theatre that will unfold as both a physical site and as a space for public dialogue and performance, requiring the presence and agency of Harvard students, faculty, staff, and local communities.
Time is Now: Photography and Social Change in James Baldwin’s America is co-organized by the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts and the Harvard Art Museums, and is curated by Makeda Best, Richard L. Menschel Curator of Photography, Harvard Art Museums.
Editorial Comment: James Baldwin is increasingly important these days. He collaborated with his high school schoolmate Richard Avedon on a photo essay book called Nothing Personal. My notes on that book are available at http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2018/07/james-baldwin-fire-next-time-and.html
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The Past of Politics: How We Got Here
WHEN Thursday, Sep. 13, 2018, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Jill Lepore
CONTACT INFO IOP Forum Office, 617-495-1380
DETAILS Featuring Jill Lepore, David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History and Harvard College Professor, Harvard University
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Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World
Thursday, September 13
6:00 PM (Doors at 5:30)
Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge
Cost: $6 -$28.75 (book included) - On Sale Now
Harvard Book Store welcomes award-winning writer and political analyst ANAND GIRIDHARADAS for a discussion of his latest book, Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World. He will be joined in conversation by acclaimed political philosopher MICHAEL SANDEL.
About Winners Take All
Former New York Times columnist Anand Giridharadas takes us into the inner sanctums of a new gilded age, where the rich and powerful fight for equality and justice any way they can—except ways that threaten the social order and their position atop it. We see how they rebrand themselves as saviors of the poor; how they lavishly reward "thought leaders" who redefine "change" in winner-friendly ways; and how they constantly seek to do more good, but never less harm. We hear the limousine confessions of a celebrated foundation boss; witness an American president hem and haw about his plutocratic benefactors, and attend a cruise-ship conference where entrepreneurs celebrate their own self-interested magnanimity.
Giridharadas asks hard questions: Why, for example, should our gravest problems be solved by the unelected upper crust instead of the public institutions it erodes by lobbying and dodging taxes? He also points toward an answer: Rather than rely on scraps from the winners, we must take on the grueling democratic work of building more robust, egalitarian institutions and truly changing the world.
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Internalized Costs of Food Labor & Inequities
Thursday, September 13
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
HI Boston Hostel, 19 Stuart Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/internalized-costs-of-food-labor-inequities-tickets-48915611912
In sustainability internalized costs means the incorporation of negative effects, often unconsciously and by a third party, into the fiscal realities of individuals and companies. Internalized costs can also be translated to the realities of the cost of the lack of diversity, exclusion, and inequities in the workforce and in our communities.
This panel discussion seeks to address the questions: *Who absorbs the hidden costs of food labor? And, *What is the hidden human expense of the lack of diversity, inclusion, and equity?
Join our panel members for a vibrant discussion – bring your own thoughts and questions.
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The 28th First Annual Ig® Nobel Prize Ceremony & Lectures
Thursday, September 13
6:00pm
The 28th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will introduce ten new Ig Nobel Prize winners. Each has done something that makes people laugh then think. Winners travel to the ceremony, at their own expense, from around the world to receive their prize from a group of genuine, genuinely bemused Nobel Laureates, in Harvard's historic and largest theater. All speeches will be kept delightfully brief, with time limits enforced by eight-year-old Miss Sweetie Poo. Additional info will appear in the Improbable Research blog.
Pre-ceremony concert and ceremony webcast begin at 5:35pm (US Eastern Time). The ceremony proper begins at 6:00pm.
Free Parking at Broadway Garage, 7 Felton St., Cambridge, MA
Ticket Prices: Ig Glorious: $150*; Full Price: $75, $65, $55, $35; Discounts: $5 off for students.
*Ig Glorious tickets include TBD.
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Vision, AI and the human body
Thursday, September 13
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Draper, 1 Hampshire Street, Cambridge
Let's get together, eat pizza and learn about vision, AI and the human body.
The meeting location at Draper, near Kendall Square. The entrance is on Broadway, between Hampshire Street and Galileo Way. (NOT THE MAIN ENTRANCE!). Agenda:
6:00 - 6:30: Networking & Pizza.
6:30 - 7:25: Speakers:
(1) Gian Carlo (Draper): Talk about his work Endoscopic Computer Vision.
(2) David Vader(Nine Point Medical) : Talk about work with ICT.
(3) TBD
7:25 - 7:35: 1 min pitches from audience. Need help? Looking for a job? Let us know. 7:35 on: More networking.
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One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy
Thursday September 13
6:30 pm
Brookline Library, 361 Washington Street, Brookline Village
Carol Anderson
In her New York Times bestseller White Rage, Carol Anderson laid bare an insidious history of policies that have systematically impeded black progress in America, from 1865 to our combustible present. With One Person, No Vote, she chronicles a related history: the rollbacks to African American participation in the vote since the 2013 Supreme Court decision that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Known as the Shelby ruling, this decision effectively allowed districts with a demonstrated history of racial discrimination to change voting requirements without approval from the Department of Justice.
Focusing on the aftermath of Shelby, Anderson follows the astonishing story of government-dictated racial discrimination unfolding before our very eyes as more and more states adopt voter suppression laws. In gripping, enlightening detail she explains how voter suppression works, from photo ID requirements to gerrymandering to poll closures. And with vivid characters, she explores the resistance: the organizing, activism, and court battles to restore the basic right to vote to all Americans as the nation gears up for the 2018 midterm elections.
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Cards For Humanity - Getting Stakeholders into the Game
Thursday, September 13
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
LogMeIn, 333 Summer Street, Boston
Cost: $0 - $10
Please join us for our monthly meeting at LogMeIn.
Making Research Actionable with Idea Cards
What are your top findings? Can you send me the slides? Is there a summary report you can share? As UX team members doing research, these types of requests are more than familiar. And, while slides and recaps may be helpful within your working product teams, these efforts carry far less influence when engaging other parts of the business. Idea Cards are a way for researchers and designers to share insights in ways that marketing, sales, care, strategy, and more can build upon and make their own. Idea Cards are a way for user research to influence and impact the business. Each Idea Card is backed by user research data, including an overarching theme, a customer story, and a challenge question. In either digital or physical form, each card is capable of inspiring teams to refocus on the customer. This presentation will walk through our approach to identifying card-worthy themes from qualitative and quantitative research, the process we followed to design physical sets of cards, and the ways we've put Idea Cards into action within workshops.
Presenters - Elizabeth Quigley and Mike Flynn
Elizabeth Quigley is a Senior UX Researcher at LogMeIn where she focuses on understanding how people collaborate online as well as how work is evolving. Previously, she's worked on open source software in academia and has a MS in Library and Information Science. Her favorite part of UX Research is going out into the field and interviewing people in their place of work, especially when it involves meeting dogs.
Mike Flynn is a Senior UX Researcher at LogMeIn, where he focuses on the people and products involved in online collaboration. Prior to working with LogMeIn, he played roles on corporate innovation, user research, startup, and consulting teams. He has an MSHFID from Bentley University and an MBA from Babson College.
Agenda
6:30 - 7 PM – Networking and Refreshments (food will be served)
7 - 7:15 PM – Introductions
7:15 - 8:00 PM - Presentation
8 - 8:15 PM - Q&A
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David Scondras reads from his memoir "Angels, Liars, and Thieves”
Thursday, September 13
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
The History Project, 29 Stanhope Street, 4th Floor, Boston
Join us on Thursday, September 13, for a reading by David Scondras, Boston’s first openly gay city councilor.
David Scondras was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in a Greek immigrant community, speaking Greek as his first language. He graduated valedictorian, winning a scholarship to attend Harvard University, where he studied economics and mathematics. He taught mathematics for 37 years, including at the university level, while becoming a community activist. He was elected as the first openly gay Boston City Councilor, holding the office for 10 years from 1983 to 1992. Currently, he devotes his time to seeking the end of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
At this event, David will read from and sign copies of his 4-volume memoir, Angels, Liars, and Thieves.
Copies are also available through Amazon.com, or signed copies are available directly by writing to David at hope@sfac.org.
Doors and at 6:30pm, reading begins at 7:00, followed by a short Q&A, book signing, and reception.
Talks in the Out of the Archives Series are intimate events featuring focused topics, lively discussions, and selected photos and documents from the History Project Archives. All events in this series are held at The History Project, 29 Stanhope Street in Boston, unless otherwise noted. Events are free and open to the public, but RSVPs are required. Note that this talk will be in The Geo. Johnson Room, on the 2nd floor of 29 Stanhope Street.
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Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger
Thursday, September 13
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes award-winning writer and activist SORAYA CHEMALY for a discussion of her new book Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger. She will be joined in conversation by journalist, editor, and author E.J. GRAFF.
About Rage Becomes Her
Women are angry, and it isn’t hard to figure out why.
We are underpaid and overworked. Too sensitive, or not sensitive enough. Too dowdy or too made-up. Too big or too thin. Sluts or prudes. We are harassed, told we are asking for it, and asked if it would kill us to smile. Yes, yes it would.
Contrary to the rhetoric of popular “self-help” and an entire lifetime of being told otherwise, our rage is one of the most important resources we have, our sharpest tool against both personal and political oppression. We’ve been told for so long to bottle up our anger, letting it corrode our bodies and minds in ways we don’t even realize. Yet our anger is a vital instrument, our radar for injustice and a catalyst for change. On the flip side, the societal and cultural belittlement of our anger is a cunning way of limiting and controlling our power.
We are so often told to resist our rage or punished for justifiably expressing it, yet how many remarkable achievements in this world would never have gotten off the ground without the kernel of anger that fueled them? Rage Becomes Her makes the case that anger is not what gets in our way, it is our way, sparking a new understanding of one of our core emotions that will give women a liberating sense of why their anger matters and connect them to an entire universe of women no longer interested in making nice at all costs.
Following in the footsteps of classic feminist manifestos like The Feminine Mystique and Our Bodies, Ourselves, Rage Becomes Her is an eye-opening book for the twenty-first-century woman: an engaging, accessible credo offering us the tools to re-understand our anger and harness its power to create lasting positive change.
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Up Close with the Northern Fur Seal
Thursday, September 13
7pm
NE Aquarium,
Roger L. Gentry, Ph.D., Director, ProScience Consulting, LLC
In 1974, Roger Gentry started gathering detailed information about the lives of the individual fur seals on land and at sea. This talk focuses on the social behavior of this species as seen from observation blinds, some laboratory experiments using captive adults to study their mating system, and pioneering work on their diving behavior at sea. The first-ever Time-Depth Recorders, invented by Gentry’s colleague Jerry Kooyman, will be shown.
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Leading with Dignity
Thursday, September 13
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Harvard Coop, 1400 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Donna Hicks conflict resolution specialist & Associate at the Weatherh...
This landmark book (Leading with Dignity) from an expert in dignity studies explores the essential but under-recognized role of dignity as part of good leadership. Extending the reach of her award-winning book Dignity: Its Essential Role in Resolving Conflict, Donna Hicks now contributes a specific, practical guide to achieving a culture of dignity.
Most people know very little about dignity, the author has found, and when leaders fail to respect the dignity of others, conflict and distrust ensue. She highlights three components of leading with dignity: what one must know in order to honor dignity and avoid violating it; what one must do to lead with dignity; and how one can create a culture of dignity in any organization, whether corporate, religious, governmental, healthcare, or beyond. Brimming with key research findings, real-life case studies, and workable recommendations, this book fills an important gap in our understanding of how best to be together in a conflict-ridden world.
About the Author
Donna Hicks is an associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University. As a conflict resolution specialist, she has facilitated diplomatic efforts in the Middle East and other high-conflict regions and conducted numerous training seminars worldwide. She lives in Watertown, MA.
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A Tale of Two Governors (Or, Are we in for another 'solarcoaster' ride?)
Thursday, September 13
7:30 p.m (Doors open at 7:00 p.m)
First Parish in Cambridge Unitarian Universalist; 3 Church Street, Harvard Square
It's a tale of two governors, Deval Patrick and Charlie Baker. It's got good, bad and ugly. It's our essential story of solar in Massachusetts, a history we are living in and one we can and must shape.
The good - flourishing solar under Deval Patrick's administration. Job growth, avoided emissions, community engagement and technological, financial and conceptual innovation.
Then Charlie Baker comes along and has no trouble letting in the bad and ugly - a customer charge from the utility called the "MMRC". It's the latest sharp turn on the "solarcoaster" of energy policy and is seen to be putting the brakes on the growth of distributed energy. Seems to be a likable guy, but what is he up to?
New charges from utilities in Massachusetts are unlike anywhere else (except somewhere in Arizona). They are also very unlike Massachusetts, long a leader in renewable energy and efficiency programs. Understandably, this move by the Department of Public Utilities is being challenged, and is currently under judicial appeal and legislative review.
Can one governor undo the good of another? Can people who want progressive energy policy keep the pressure on during the lead-up to the November 2018 gubernatorial election, and make this a top issue in voters' minds?
Join us on September 13th for the Boston Area Solar Energy Association (BASEA.org) Forum Series. Mark Sandeen of MassSolar (solarisworking.org) will lead us through this tale, our recent and significant energy policy history of what has been and what we are now in.
Refreshments served, Q & A to follow the presentation.
Mark Sandeen is President of MassSolar is Working, Inc. ("MassSolar"), a 501(c)(3) organization working to establish a renewable energy economy, ensure fair compensation for solar owners and provide access to solar for everyone in the Commonwealth. Also founder of RePower Partners, LLC, he is responsible for their portfolio of solar energy projects. Mark has had the privilege of building and leading many high-growth, high-tech teams at Avidyne, Object Design and Intel. He is Chair of the Sustainable Lexington Committee and a member of Lexington's Better Buildings, Community Choice and Solar Energy Task Forces. Mark also writes the monthly column, "All Things Sustainable," for the Colonial Times Magazine.
Boston Area Solar Energy Association Forum
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The Buddhist DNA : Traces of Your Spirituality
Thursday, September 13
7:30pm to 9:00pm
MIT, Building W15: MIT Chapel, 48 Massachusetts Avenue (rear0, Cambridge
We are inviting a buddhist monk, Venerable Hsin Ting from Fo Guang Shan, for a lecture in MIT titled "The Buddhist DNA : Traces of Your Spirituality". We welcome attendees of different beliefs and we will not hold any religious ceremonies during the event. The event is free and open to public.
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Friday, September 14 - Sunday, September 16
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Boston Juggling Festival 2018
Friday, September 14 at 5:00pm through September 16
MIT, Building 50: Walker Memorial, Morss Hall (50-140), 142 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
The 5th Annual Boston Juggling Festival (formerly JuggleMIT) is an inclusive, 3-day celebration of juggling, flow arts, and object manipulation of all sorts. Founded at MIT in 2014, BJF is now the premier juggling festival in Massachusetts, attracting professional and aspiring circus artists from across the country. BJF is also a welcoming festival, where students, casual jugglers, and flow artists can share their talent and build their skills. This year's festival includes 3 days of workshops, 2 juggling shows, a 1-trick contest, a dedicated sand-court volleyclub play area, and juggling games. Get tickets while they last! We look forward to seeing you at BJF 2018!
More information at https://www.bostonjuggling.org
Note: Tickets from this link are full festival passes that include access to all BJF shows, workshops, and associated events. For tickets to just the Saturday BJF Circus Show, please see "Boston Juggling Festival 2018 Circus Show".
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Friday, September 14
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Sustainability 101: From Foundations to the Future
Friday, September 14
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM EDT
50 Milk Street, Room Edison, Floor 16, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sustainability-101-from-foundations-to-the-future-tickets-49359317046
Cost: $15 – $40
At USGBC MA, we want to help the green building community redesign the built environment to be more sustainable. As climate change becomes a pressing issue for Boston, professionals are going to need to work together to meet this goal.
But where do you start?
Sometimes, it is good to start with the basics. At our course Sustainability 101: From Foundations to the Future, attendees will learn about the basics of sustainability in the built environment. From the three E’s of sustainability from USGBC, from what the laws of thermodynamics have to do with sustainability, attendees will leave this course with a broader appreciation and understanding of sustainability.
About the instructor, Meredith Elbaum
As a sustainability advocate and educator, I joined the USGBC MA, as Executive Director, in November 2017. Before becoming ED, I was developing climate action plans, master plans, design guidelines and green buildings as President of the Elbaum Group, LLC. Fueled by an interest in materials transparency I launched the Health Product Declaration as its Interim Executive Director. For almost a decade I was Director of Sustainable Design at Sasaki. During that time I helped in the USGBC MA Chapter’s creation and served as a founding board member. I also co-created the Architecture and Design Sustainable Design Leaders Network. I earned a BArch from Rice University and a MSArch from MIT and I currently teach architecture students at Wentworth Institute of Technology. I’m looking forward to advancing net positive communities in Massachusetts and beyond.
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Photochemical and Dark Ageing of Organic Aerosols
Friday, September 14
12:00pm
Harvard, Pierce 100F, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Professor Sergey Nizkorodov, UC Irvine
Atmospheric aerosols significantly affect air quality, visibility, and global climate. Organic compounds make up a significant, and often dominant, fraction of the atmospheric particulate matter. Primary organic aerosol is emitted in the atmosphere by various sources, and secondary organic aerosol is produced directly in the atmosphere as a result of a complex sequence of reactions that start with the oxidation of volatile organic compounds and end with the condensation of the low-volatility products into particles. What makes the representation of organic aerosols in climate and air quality models challenging is their astonishingly high degree of chemical complexity. Furthermore, the chemical composition of organic aerosols continuously changes as a result of various “ageing” processes, such as photolysis, hydrolysis, oligomerization, oxidation, and other reactions involving aerosol constituents and atmospheric gases. This presentation will examine the role of condensed-phase photochemical processes in the aerosol ageing, i.e., processes initiated by absorption of solar radiation by an organic compound within a particle or cloud/fog droplet. If time permits, we will also discuss “dark” ageing processes, which occur without any involvement of solar radiation and free radicals, and result in the formation of compounds with unusual properties, such as organic compounds capable of absorbing visible radiation (so called “brown carbon”).
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Mobilizing Democracy: Creating Change through Digital Engagement
WHEN Friday, Sep. 14, 2018, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Ash Center Foyer, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Floor 2, Suite 200N, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Ash Center Technology and Democracy Fellows Zach Graves, Head of Policy, Lincoln Network; Devin Murphy, Digital Strategist, Priorities USA and Founder, DTM Strategies; and Jess Morales Rocketto, Political Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance
COST Free
CONTACT INFO info@ash.harvard.edu
DETAILS Join Ash Center Technology and Democracy Fellows Zach Graves, Head of Policy, Lincoln Network; Devin Murphy, Digital Strategist, Priorities USA and Founder, DTM Strategies; and Jess Morales Rocketto, Political Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance; for an Ash Center Community Speaker Series event about mobilizing change and using technology to better serve constituents. Teresa Acuña, Associate Director of the Ash Center's Democratic Governance program, will moderate.
Lunch will be served.
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The U.S. Opioid Epidemic: Where Do We Go From Here?
Friday, September 14
12:30 PM to 2:00 PM EDT
Harvard Medical School, 10 Shattuck Street, Countway Library, Minot Room, Boston
RSVP at https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07eficwg98290c183d&oseq=&c=&ch=
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Tour an Environmental Education Center Built for LBC Zero Energy Certification
Friday, September 14
1:30pm to 6pm
Lincoln, MA (details in confirmation email)
RSVP at http://nesea.org/09-14-18
Cost: $25 for NESEA Members, $35 for Non-Members
Join us for a tour of the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s new net zero environmental learning center. Attendees will learn how the team at Maclay Architects approached balancing the energy and conservation goals of this project while designing a space that best supports the needs of the occupants.
The Massachusetts Audubon Society, a NESEA Business Member, recently adopted a net zero green building standard. This new learning center was designed to reflect this commitment and serve as a model for future net zero building projects or renovations for their properties throughout Massachusetts.
Please note: To receive member pricing when registering for this event, you must be logged in to your nesea.org account. Questions? Contact Florence MacGregor at fmacgregor@nesea.org or (413) 774-6051 ext. 10.
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Partly Green: The Past and Future of Sustainable Business
Friday, September 14
2:30pm to 4:30pm
MIT, Building E51-095, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Presented by Adam Rome, Professor, University at Buffalo, SUNY
MIT Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History Series
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Haunted by Chaos: China's Grand Strategy from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping
Friday, September 14
3:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes SULMAAN WASIF KHAN—Assistant Professor of International History and Chinese Foreign Relations at Tufts—for a discussion of his latest book, Haunted by Chaos: China’s Grand Strategy from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping.
About Haunted by Chaos
Before the Chinese Communist Party came to power, China lay broken and fragmented. Today it is a force on the global stage, and yet its leaders have continued to be haunted by the past. Drawing on an array of sources, Sulmaan Wasif Khan chronicles the grand strategies that have sought not only to protect China from aggression but also to ensure it would never again experience the powerlessness of the late Qing and Republican eras.
The dramatic variations in China’s modern history have obscured the commonality of purpose that binds the country’s leaders. Analyzing the calculus behind their decision making, Khan explores how they wove diplomatic, military, and economic power together to keep a fragile country safe in a world they saw as hostile. Dangerous and shrewd, Mao Zedong made China whole and succeeded in keeping it so, while the caustic, impatient Deng Xiaoping dragged China into the modern world. Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao served as cautious custodians of the Deng legacy, but the powerful and deeply insecure Xi Jinping has shown an assertiveness that has raised both fear and hope across the globe.
For all their considerable costs, China’s grand strategies have been largely successful. But the country faces great challenges today. Its population is aging, its government is undermined by corruption, its neighbors are arming out of concern over its growing power, and environmental degradation threatens catastrophe. A question Haunted by Chaos raises is whether China’s time-tested approach can respond to the looming threats of the twenty-first century.
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Race, Media & Politics
WHEN Friday, Sep. 14, 2018, 4 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Don Lemon, Margaret Talev (Moderator)
CONTACT INFO IOP Forum Office, 617-495-1380
DETAILS A conversation with Don Lemon, Anchor, CNN's Tonight with Don Lemon
Margaret Talev (Moderator), Fall 2018 Resident Fellow, Institute of Politics, Senior White House Correspondent, Bloomberg News and CNN Political Analyst, Past President, White House Correspondents' Association
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Living in the Future: Brains!
Friday, September 14
6:00pm to 8:30pm (Doors open at 5:45 pm; presentations begin at 6:15 pm)
MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Cost: $12 in advance, limited tickets may be available at the door for $15 (Includes pizza, soda, popcorn)
Where science fiction meets science reality
Can we bring back the dead? Control machines with our minds? Create human-like robots? Find out how today's neuroscience advances reflect what we've seen on-screen. Sit back, grab some pizza and popcorn, watch a short a clip from a science fiction movie, then hear from brainy scientists and inventors about how close Hollywood’s hopes are to reality!
Presenters:
Andrei Barbu, Research Scientist, Center for Brains, Minds & Machines, MIT
Andres Salazar Gomez, Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT Open Learning
Michael Halassa, Assistant Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
Nataliya Kosmyna, Postdoctoral Fellow, Fluid Interfaces Lab, MIT
Hossein Rahnama, Visiting Assistant Professor, MIT
This event is presented in conjunction with The Beautiful Brain: The Drawings of Santiago Ramón y Cajal.
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Good Without God
Friday, September 14
6:15pm to 9:00pm
MIT, Building 2-190, 182 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
As a blogger, spokesperson, adviser, community organizer, and university chaplain, Greg Epstein has served the country’s rapidly growing population of nonreligious people for nearly two decades. The author of the New York Times best-seller and landmark secular humanist book, Good Without God, will join us at our Fall kickoff social to speak about his secular moral ideals, and his vision for his new role as MIT’s first humanist chaplain.
Free refreshments served at start, audience Q&A after talk, ice cream social follows.
Free entry. The event will be photographed and recorded.
Facebook event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/306256490135722/
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Kees Christiaanse
WHEN Friday, Sep. 14, 2018, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, Harvard Graduate School of Design, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Graduate School of Design
SPEAKER(S) Kees Christiaanse
CONTACT INFO Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu.
DETAILS Please join us for a keynote lecture by esteemed urbanist Kees Christiaanse. Christiaanse's lecture will close this year's Doctor of Design Conference, Urban [Re]Form: Emerging Forces and Paradigms in Urban Theory.
Below is the schedule for the symposium:
10-10:30 a.m. Opening Remarks by Prof. Martin Bechthold
10:30 a.m.-12 p.m. Panel 1 Searching for Discursive Agency
Moderator: Charles Waldheim
Panelists: Pier Vittorio Aureli, Neyran Turan
12 p.m.-1:10 p.m. Lunch Break
1:10-2:40 p.m. Panel 2 Recognizing the Emerging Forces and Paradigms
Moderator: Diane Davis
Panelists: Jennifer Light, Kees Christiaanse
2:40-3 p.m. Coffee Break
3-4:30 p.m. Panel 3 Reforming the Theoretical Discourse
Moderator: Neil Brenner
Panelists: Shlomo Angel, Colin McFarlane
4:30-5:30 p.m. Closing Discussion
5:30-6:30 p.m. Reception
6:30-8 p.m. Kees Christiaanse Closing Keynote
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Doctor’s Dozen
Friday, September 14
7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
Catherine Florio Pipas in conversation with Susan E. Farrell
Burnout affects a third of our population and over half of our health professionals. For the second group, the impact is magnified, as consequences play out not only on a personal level, but also on a societal level and lead to medical errors, suboptimal care, low levels of patient satisfaction, and poor clinical outcomes. Achieving wellbeing requires strategies for change.
In this book, Dr. Pipas shares twelve lessons and strategies for improved health that she has learned from patients, students, and colleagues over her twenty years working as a family physician. Each lesson is based on observation and research, and begins with a story of an exemplary patient whose challenges and successes reflect the theme of the lesson. Along with the lessons, the author offers plans for action, which taken together create the framework for a healthy life. Each lesson concludes with resources and a “health challenge.
About the Author
Catherine Florio Pipas is a professor in the Department of Community and Family Medicine, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.
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Not Quite Not White: Losing and Finding Race in America
Friday, September 14
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes SHARMILA SEN—executive editor-at-large at Harvard University Press—for a discussion of her debut book, Not Quite Not White: Losing and Finding Race in America.
About Not Quite Not White
At the age of 12, Sharmila Sen emigrated from India to the U.S. The year was 1982, and everywhere she turned, she was asked to self-report her race—on INS forms, at the doctor's office, in middle school. Never identifying with a race in the India of her childhood, she rejects her new "not quite" designation—not quite white, not quite black, not quite Asian—and spends much of her life attempting to blend into American whiteness. But after her teen years trying to assimilate—watching shows like General Hospital and The Jeffersons, dancing to Duran Duran and Prince, and perfecting the art of Jell-O no-bake desserts—she is forced to reckon with the hard questions: What does it mean to be white, why does whiteness retain the magic cloak of invisibility while other colors are made hypervisible, and how much does whiteness figure into Americanness?
Part memoir, part manifesto, Not Quite Not White is a searing appraisal of race and a path forward for the next not quite not white generation—a witty and sharply honest story of discovering that not-whiteness can be the very thing that makes us American.
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Saturday, September 15
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Somerville Garden Club Plant Sale
Saturday, September 15
9 to 1pm
Davis Square, Somerville
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POWER STRUGGLE, a new feature-length documentary film that chronicles the successful grassroots citizens’ effort to shut down a nuclear power plant in Vermont
Saturday, September 15
11am
Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge
Cost: $10 in advance, $15 at the door. No One Turned Away for Lack of Funds!
There will be a post-screening discussion with film director Robbie Leppzer, plus UPDATE about the Pilgrim nuclear reactor (only 35 miles from Boston) with former MA Governor Michael Dukakis, State Rep. Ruth Balser, and public safety activist Diane Turco. Presented by Boston Downwinders, a working group of Massachusetts Peace Action. See below for list of co-sponsoring organizations.
For more information about POWER STRUGGLE or to watch a film trailer, visit: www.PowerStruggleMovie.com
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/402261446960128/
The post-screening discussion panel will address the dangerous situation at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth (only 35 miles from Boston). Pilgrim has been operating under negligent NRC oversight -- through blizzards, even during snow driving bans (how could we ever evacuate?), and with repeated safety equipment failures, for over 40 years. It’s an old failing machine, with 1960s computers running it, and the NRC rates it as the least safe in the country.
Democracy prevails when a nuclear engineer turned whistle-blower, a 93-year old grandmother, and a scrappy new governor join forces with an array of activists to score a rare grassroots environmental victory in shuttering an aging nuclear reactor in Vermont. An even-handed, but at times humorous and terrifying chronicle of citizens who believe in the right to energy choices and to keeping their communities safe.
POWER STRUGGLE chronicles the heated political battle to shut down the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, located on the banks of the Connecticut River in southern Vermont.
Filmed over five years, this feature-length documentary follows the unfolding drama as citizen activists and elected officials – alarmed at increasing safety violations – took on the federal government and one of the biggest nuclear power companies in America to call for closure of the reactor when its original 40-year license expires.
The film captures perspectives on all sides of the controversy, including from local residents both for and against nuclear power, elected officials (including U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders), a Vermont Yankee spokesperson, federal regulators, and a nuclear engineer turned whistle-blower.
A timely, inspiring story of democracy in action; about whether citizens’ voices will be heard against big moneyed interests, and what people are doing locally right now to make a difference for a safe and sustainable energy future.
POWER STRUGGLE is also a warning about the toxic legacy of high-level radioactive waste that will remain at every nuclear power plant around the world indefinitely into the future.
Directed and produced by Robbie Leppzer, an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker and radio producer. His critically acclaimed feature-length and short documentaries along with television news magazine segments, have been broadcast by CNN International, NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, HBO/Cinemax, PBS, CNN, Sundance Channel, HDNet, Link TV, Free Speech TV, National Public Radio, and Pacifica Radio.
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The 2018 Ig Informal Lectures
Saturday, September 15
1:00pm to 3:00pm
MIT, Building 10-250, Huntington Hall, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Please join us for some improbably funny, informative, and high-spirited public lectures, in which the new Ig Nobel Prize winners will attempt to explain what they did, and why they did it.
On September 13, The Ig Nobel Prize Committee will award ten prizes to people who have done remarkable things, some of them admirable, some perhaps otherwise. On the following Saturday, we invite the winners to MIT and give them five minutes to describe and/or defend their work, then respond to insightful and amusing questions from the audience. Here's your chance to chat with an Ig Nobel Laureate!
All Ig Nobel Prize activities are organized by the Annals of Improbable Research. <http://www.improbable.com>
The Ig Improbable Lectures are hosted by The MIT Press Bookstore. <http://mitpressbookstore.mit.edu>
For more information about the Lectures, call (617) 253-5249, email books@mit.edu, or visit https://www.improbable.com/ig/2018/#informallectures
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Sunday, September 16
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Boston Local Food Festival
Sunday, September 16
11:00AM
Rose Kennedy Greenway, 185 Kneeland Street, Boston
More information at http://bostonlocalfoodfestival.com
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Monday, September 17
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PAOC Colloquium - Ian Eisenman (Univ. of California, San Diego)
Monday, September 17
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915/923, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Ian Eisenman (Univ. of California, San Diego)
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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Why Distributed? How to Think about the Value and Cost of Distributed Energy Resources
Monday, September 17
12:00pm to 1:30pm
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, HKS, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Jesse Jenkins, Environmental Fellow, Harvard University Center for the Environment
Lunch will be served.
HKS Energy Policy Seminar
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The Harvard Law School Project on Disability Open House In honor of Special Olympics, with guest Tim Shriver
WHEN Monday, Sep. 17, 2018, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Austin Hall, Room 101 East, 1515 Mass. Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Athletic, Award Ceremonies, Law
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Harvard Law School Project on Disability
SPEAKER(S) Timothy P. Shriver, Ph.D., Chairman, Special Olympics International
Melissa Joy Reilly, Athlete, Board Member, Special Olympics, Massachusetts
CONTACT INFO hpod@law.harvard.edu
DETAILS The Harvard Law School Project on Disability Open House
With special guests Timothy P. Shriver, Ph.D., Chairman, Special Olympics International
And Melissa Joy Reilly, Athlete, Board Member, Special Olympics, Massachusetts
In celebration of The Special Olympics 50th Anniversary
Monday, Sept. 17, 2018, noon
Catered lunch available at 11:30 a.m.
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Aligning Production Methods & Urban Tree Planting Objectives
Monday, September 17
12:10p
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill, 1300 Centre Street, Boston
Rick Harper, Extension Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
More information at https://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/research/research-talks/
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Multiple Carbons: Ontologies and Governance in the Climate Regime
Monday, September 17
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, CGIS South S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd7VGUkAvTU655Dub2FTGSNMjpVs6f8Qbu0kpmXh6oz11MgFw/viewform
Stefan Schäfer (Berlin IASS and Harvard STS)
The STS Circle at Harvard is a group of doctoral students and recent PhDs who are interested in creating a space for interdisciplinary conversations about contemporary issues in science and technology that are relevant to people in fields such as anthropology, history of science, sociology, STS, law, government, public policy, and the natural sciences. We want to engage not only those who are working on intersections of science, politics, and public policy, but also those in the natural sciences, engineering, and architecture who have serious interest in exploring these areas together with social scientists and humanists.
There has been growing interest among graduate students and postdocs at Harvard in more systematic discussions related to STS. More and more dissertation writers and recent graduates find themselves working on exciting topics that intersect with STS at the edges of their respective home disciplines, and they are asking questions that often require new analytic tools that the conventional disciplines don’t necessarily offer. They would also like wider exposure to emerging STS scholarship that is not well-represented or organized at most universities, including Harvard. Our aim is to try to serve those interests through a series of activities throughout the academic year.
Sandwich lunches are provided. Please RSVP to via the online form by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
The Harvard STS Circle is co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
STS Circle at Harvard
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Global Maternal Health Symposium
WHEN Monday, Sep. 17, 2018, 2 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard School of Public Health, Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Maternal Health Task Force, a project of the Women and Health Initiative at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
SPEAKER(S) Aparajita Gogoi, National Coordinator, White Ribbon Alliance India
Christy Turlington-Burns, Founder and CEO, Every Mother Counts
Nina Martin, Reporter, ProPublica
Ana Langer, Director of the Maternal Health Task Force, Harvard Chan School of Public Health
Margaret Kruk, Associate Professor of Global Health, Harvard Chan School of Public Health
Jigyasa Sharma, Doctor of Science Candidate, Harvard Chan School of Public Health
Mary Mwanyika-Sando, CEO, Africa Academy of Public Health
Richard Adanu, Dean of the School of Public Health, University of Ghana
DIRECTED BY Maternal Health Task Force
COST Free
TICKET INFO RSVP required. Seating is limited.
CONTACT INFO mhtf@hsph.harvard.edu
DETAILS The symposium will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Maternal Health Task Force, showcase achievements in global maternal health and chart a course forward for critical steps to end preventable maternal mortality and optimize maternal health around the world. A reception will follow. At the symposium, we will also announce the recipients of the inaugural Maternal Health Visionary Awards.
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El Niño as a Topological Insulator: A Surprising Connection Between Climate and Quantum Physics
Monday, September 17
4:15 – 5:15pm
Harvard, Jefferson 250, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Symmetries and topology play central roles in our understanding of physics. Topology, for instance, explains the precise quantization of the Hall Effect and the protection of surface states in topological insulators against scattering from disorder or bumps. However discrete symmetries and topology have so far played little role in thinking about the fluid dynamics of oceans and atmospheres. In this talk I show that, as a consequence of the rotation of the Earth that breaks time reversal symmetry, equatorially trapped Kelvin and Yanai waves emerge as topologically protected edge modes. Thus the oceans and atmosphere of Earth naturally share basic physics with topological insulators. As equatorially trapped Kelvin waves in the Pacific Ocean are an important component of El Niño Southern Oscillation and other climate processes, these new results demonstrate that topology plays a surprising role i n Earth’s climate system.
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BERKMAN KLEIN CENTER & FRIENDS Fall 2018 Open House
Monday, September 17
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM ET
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein West AB (Room 2019), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Please join us to learn about the Berkman Klein Center, our amazing community and digital Harvard friends at the Fall 2018 Open House. Our faculty, fellows, and staff look forward to meeting you!
5:00-6:00 pm - Project Showcase Session: Select Berkman Klein projects (as well as projects from our friends at the Harvard) will be present with information about their current activities. Staff working with each of these projects are eager to share information about the big research questions they are considering, meet potential future collaborators, and solicit ideas. In addition to the project tabling, there will be space and opportunity to connect with new Berkman Klein community members and Berkman Klein Center Staff and Faculty. You may come for any portion of time during this session.
6:00-7:00 pm - Reception: Keep the conversations going with the help of light snacks and drinks!
Spoiler alert: check out the current open research positions with our teams!
As a University-wide research center at Harvard, our interdisciplinary efforts in the exploration of cyberspace address a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences. If you're interested in the Internet’s impact on society and are looking to engage a community of world-class fellows and faculty through events, conversations, research, and more please join us to hear more about our upcoming academic year.
People from all disciplines, universities, organizations, and backgrounds are encouraged to attend the Open House. We look forward to seeing you there!
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Boston Idealist Grad Fair 2018
Monday, September 17
5:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
BU, George Sherman Union, 2nd Floor Ballroom, 775 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Learn about admissions requirements and application deadlines for graduate programs in social work, public policy, nonprofit management, international affairs, public interest law, social entrepreneurship, and many more
Speak with graduate admissions advisors from local, national and international universities
The fair is free and open to anyone considering graduate school. Now you can seamlessly share your information with recruiters with the click of a button! Find out about our new Grad Fair Mobile Site here.
Visit IdealistGradSchool.org for additional resources to assist you in planning for grad school.
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Saving Coral Reefs in the Florida Keys
Monday, September 17
6:00pm
Harvard, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
James W. Porter, Josiah Meigs Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia
Coral reefs support more than a quarter of all marine life, yet many are critically endangered. In the Florida Keys, the once common elk horn coral (Acropora palmata) has experienced steep declines since the 1970s. Preliminary blame was attributed to global warming and coral bleaching, but in fact, a human bacterial pathogen associated with a wide range of serious infections was the culprit. James Porter will discuss how Key West residents are saving these reefs and he will highlight the intricate links among conservation, medicine, public health, economics, and politics.
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Sport Matters: On Art, Social Artifice, and Athletics, or, the Politics of Sport
WHEN Monday, Sep. 17, 2018, 6 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Room 133, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Ludics seminar, the Mahindra Humanities Center
SPEAKER(S) Louis A. Ruprecht Jr., Georgia State University
CONTACT INFO vasiliki_rapti@emerson.edu
DETAILS This lecture will explore three interrelated topics. First, I will examine the moral implications of viewing sport as an example of social artifice, that is, arbitrary norm-and-boundary-creation which makes certain complex social rituals possible. Second, I will examine the history of the Modern Olympic Revival as an example of Neohellenism, one which emphasized the moral meaning of such athletic artifice. This will set the stage for the third and longest portion of the talk, a discussion of what is arguably the finest book on the moral and political meaning of organized sport, C. L. R. James’s Beyond a Boundary.
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The MIT Forum: Robert Lustig
Monday, September 17
6:00pm to 8:30pm
MIT, Samberg Conference Center, 7th Floor, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at http://alumic.mit.edu/s/1314/17form/interior.aspx?sid=1314&gid=13&pgid=44518&content_id=46952
Join fellow MIT alumni and friends for a special MIT Forum event featuring Robert Lustig '77, bestselling author, physician, and consumer advocate.
Lustig, a Professor of Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, has spent his academic career exposing the role sugar has played in contributing to poor health in America. His books Fat Chance and The Hacking of the American Mind, Sugar Has 56 Names, and Obesity Before Birth have effected significant change in the way food companies, governments, and consumers view the American diet.
Lustig's talk will be by a fireside chat with and audience Q&A. The event includes a reception with drinks and hors d'oeuvres. MIT alumni and guests are welcome.
Space is limited—register today.
The MIT Forum is a quarterly series, produced by the MIT Alumni Association, that spotlights thought leaders from around the world.
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Role of Clouds and Particles in Climate... with a Dash of Fog
Monday, September 17
6:30–8:00pm
Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain
Daniel Ciczo, PhD, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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When History Is Personal
Monday, September 17
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
When History Is Personal contains the stories of twenty-five moments in Mimi Schwartz's life, each heightened by its connection to historical, political, and social issues. These essays look both inward and outward so that these individualized tales tell a larger story--of assimilation, the women's movement, racism, anti-Semitism, end-of-life issues, ethics in writing, digital and corporate challenges, and courtroom justice.
A shrewd and discerning storyteller, Schwartz captures history from her vantage as a child of German-Jewish immigrants, a wife of over fifty years, a breast cancer survivor, a working mother, a traveler, a tennis player, a daughter, and a widow. In adding her personal story to the larger narrative of history, culture, and politics, Schwartz invites readers to consider her personal take alongside "official" histories and offers readers fresh assessments of our collective past.
Mimi Schwartz is a professor emerita in the writing program at Stockton University. She is the award-winning author of Good Neighbors, Bad Times: Echoes of My Father's German Village and Thoughts from a Queen-Sized Bed and is the coauthor of Writing True: The Art and Craft of Creative Nonfiction. Her essays have been widely anthologized, and ten of them have been listed as Notables in the Best American Series.
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Tuesday, September 18
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Intro to WELL Building Standard
Tuesday, September 18
8:30 AM – 10:30 AM EDT
50 Milk Street, 16th Floor, "Edison" Room, 17th Floor, Boston
Cost: $45 – $60
The Introduction to the WELL Building Standard provides an overview of the WELL Building Standard ideology, structure, and certification process. The medical basis for the concept categories is introduced along with design and construction strategies to create healthy buildings. This training will introduce how to reinvent buildings that are better for both people and the planet using the WELL Building Standard as the framework.
Objectives
Articulate the financial, societal, and environmental benefits of WELL certification
Identify the role of the International Well Building Institute and the WELL Building Standard
Recognize the structure of the WELL Building Standard
Explain the 7 concepts of the WELL Building standard, the strategies to achieve them, and the health impacts they address
Summarize the certification process of the WELL Building Standard
If you are interested in having this session count towards your LEED credential, please self-report at USGBC.org and use GBCI: 0920003583 when referring to the session.
About the Instructor: Jen Taranto
Jenn Taranto, WELL AP, has over 15 years experience in the commercial real estate and construction industry. Jenn serves as Structure Tone’s Director of Sustainability, a key component of the team on any project. Her ability to manage and lead subcontractors through the LEED and WELL process comes from her previous background as a superintendent and a project manager. Jenn understands the importance of creating awareness at the early stages of the project with the subcontractor’s in order to succeed in meeting the client’s sustainability goals. Additionally, she understands the importance of being an active partner during the preconstruction integrated design process on projects that have sustainable goals.
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Setti Warren
Tuesday, September 18
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Harvard, Taubman 5th floor, Allison Dining Room, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
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EBC Energy Resources Webinar: Public Perception of Power in New England @ WEBINAR
Tuesday, September 18
12:00 pm – 1:15 pm
Webinar
RSVP at http://ebcne.org/event/ebc-energy-resources-webinar-public-perception-of-power-in-new-england/
Utilities and product companies are undergoing unprecedented change driven by climate policy, innovative smart-grid technologies, customer adoption of distributed energy, and new customer expectations. The stakes are high, and so is the price tag. Are customers really looking for an energy revolution – akin to how smart phones have changed the telecom industry? Or are they just looking for more affordable, resilient, reliable, clean power from their trusted utility? What are the barriers and opportunities for adapting to a shifting energy marketplace and how do utilities and customer adapt? We have asked customers directly what they expect and need from their utility and how they see the future. Join us for an information presentation to illuminate public opinion on this topic.
Program Chair:
Dale Knapp, MSc, CSS, LSE, CEP, PWS, Senior Environmental Consultant, Tetra Tech
Webinar Presentation:
Utility of the Future: The Customer’s Perspective
Harrison Grubbs, Director of Strategic Partnerships, KSV Company
Following the Speaker Presentation will be time for a Q&A session.
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Sexual Harassment of Women - A Consensus Study Report of NASEM
Tuesday, September 18
3:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 10-250, Huntington Hall, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. A Consensus Study Report of The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
Welcome by MIT President L. Rafael Reif
Panel discussion by:
Sheila Widnall (Report Co-Chair), aerospace researcher and Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Paula Johnson (Report Co-Chair), President, Wellesley College
Anita Hill, MIT Research Affiliate, Professor, Brandeis University
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Reinforcement Learning Systems at DeepMind
Tuesday, September 18
4:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Refreshments: 3:45 PM
MIT, Building 32-D463, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: David Budden , DeepMinds
Abstract: The many recent successes of deep reinforcement learning have resulted from innovation not just in algorithm design, but the co-development of systems capable of scaling to thousands of machines and leveraging specialized hardware.
In this seminar I will cover three topics:
A brief introduction to off-policy reinforcement learning and policy gradient methods
Recent algorithmic improvements underlying the D4PG agent for continuous control and robotics, e.g. distributional RL and prioritized experience replay
Architectures and open research questions in distributing agents across many machines
Constant iteration between algorithm design and systems engineering is a hallmark of the Research Engineering role at DeepMind, and through this seminar I also hope to give a flavor of what this entails day-to-day.
Bio: David Budden is a Research Engineering Team Lead and Tech Lead for DeepMind's Machine Learning team. Before joining DeepMind, he worked as a postdoc in CSAIL with Prof Nir Shavit.
David's research interests include generative models, few-shot imitation and self-supervised learning. His main passion however is the intersection of machine learning research and systems engineering. David prepared and teaches DeepMind's internal training courses on distributed machine learning, and helped develop many of their engineering systems (e.g. Control Suite, ApeX) and state-of-the-art reinforcement learning agents (e.g. D4PG, DQfD).
Contact: Joanne Talbot Hanley, 617-253-6054, joanne@csail.mit.edu
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Mission Zero: Interface's Journey to Zero Negative Environmental Impact
Tuesday, September 18
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building E40-356 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Interface is a leading global commercial flooring company who since 1994 has been on Mission Zero – their promise to eliminate any negative impact the company has on the environment by the year 2020. With 2020 in sight and industry leading progress on their goals, Interface has launched its next audacious mission – Climate Take Back – their goal to run the business in a way that reverses global warming. Interface’s VP of Sustainability for the Americas, Lisa Conway, will share how the billion-dollar public company navigates the pursuit of sustainability while also focusing on the bottom line.
Editorial Comment: I met Ray Anderson, the Interface CEO who began Mission Zero back in the 1990s. It will be good to see what they’ve done since then.
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Polling China: Understanding Public Opinion Across China
WHEN Tuesday, Sep. 18, 2018, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Ash Center foyer, 124 Mt Auburn Street, Suite 200 North, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Tony Saich, Ash Center Director and Daewoo Professor of International Affairs; Jesse Turiel, a PhD candidate from Boston University; and Ning Leng, Ash Center China Public Policy Postdoctoral Fellow
COST Free
CONTACT INFO info@ash.harvard.edu
DETAILS Join us for a conversation with Ash Center Director and Daewoo Professor of International Affairs Tony Saich and Jesse Turiel, a Ph.D. candidate from Boston University as they discuss their groundbreaking public opinion survey project in China. Starting in 2003, Saich developed a series of surveys to measure satisfaction with various levels of government in China. Through 2016, the survey project ultimately captured opinion data from 32,000 individual respondents, making it the most ambitious public opinion research project conducted on a nationwide scale to date in China. Ning Leng, Ash Center China Public Policy Postdoctoral Fellow, will serve as a respondent.
This event is co-sponsored by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.
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Impostor Syndrome: Why Capable People Suffer and How to Thrive in Spite of It
Tuesday, September 18
4:30–6 p.m. (doors open at 4 p.m.)
BU, Bakst Auditorium, 72 East Concord Street, Boston
Speaker Valerie Young, Author and Speaker
From CEOs to PhDs to acclaimed actors, millions of people secretly worry they’re not as bright or as capable as they are perceived to be. This is known as the “Impostor Syndrome.” Valerie Young, author of The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women: Why Capable People Suffer from the Impostor Syndrome and How to Thrive in Spite of It, will discuss the reasons why accomplished individuals feel as though they are “faking it,” and will provide insight and tools on how to eliminate this thought pattern.
Services for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing People Provided
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Blockchain Technology: Patents vs. Open Source
Tuesday, September 18
5:30pm to 8:30pm
MIT Stata Center, Building 32-124, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Cost: $0 - $20
A new frontier of innovation has arrived with the advent of cryptocurrencies and the myriad of blockchain use cases. Some folks believe open source and patents have no place together. However, both are integral to the commercialization of blockchain technology.
As blockchain continues to be disruptive in a variety of industries, protecting these innovations value becomes essential. However, value means different things to different people. Some value blockchain technology based on the amount of money it can generate or save. Others value the broad adoption of successful blockchain technologies.
Join us and learn from our panel of innovators in the blockchain technology community as they examine the strategies they use to protect the value of their technologies.
Speakers
Sam Abbasi, Partner, The BUSHIDO Lab
Evan Schwartz, Engineer at Ripple, Co-Inventor of the Interledger Protocol
Tom Serres, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Animal Ventures
Christian Wentz, Founder/CEO, Stealth Mode Startup
Moderator
Keegan M. Caldwell, Managing Member and Founder, Caldwell Intellectual Property
Event Schedule
5:30 - 6:00 pm - Registration & networking (light refreshments served)
6:00 - 7:30 pm - Welcome & panel discussion
7:30 - 8:30 pm - Beer, wine & networking @ Meadhall, 90 Broadway, Cambridge
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Boston New Technology Startup Showcase
Tuesday, September 18
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Foley Hoag LLP, 155 Seaport Boulevard, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-new-technology-startup-showcase-bnt93-21-tickets-48881981322
Price: $15 - $30
21+. Join Boston New Technology on September 18th at law firm Foley Hoag to:
See 7 innovative and exciting local technology demos, presented by startup founders
Network with 200 attendees from the Boston-area startup/tech community
Enjoy dinner with beer, wine and more
Each company presents an overview and demonstration of their product within 5 minutes and discusses questions with the audience.
Please follow @BostonNewTech and support our startups by posting on social media using our #BNT93 hashtag. We'll retweet you!
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PechaKucha Somerville Presents: Volume 1: Trial & Error
Thursday, September 18
8:00 PM – 10:00 PM EDT
Remnant Brewing, Bow Market Way, Second Floor, Somerville
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pechakucha-somerville-presents-volume-1-trial-error-tickets-49597007986
STORIES ON THE BEAUTY OF MAKING MISTAKES
So what IS PechaKucha Night?
PechaKucha Nights are informal and fun gatherings where creative people get together and share their ideas, works, thoughts, vacation snaps --just about anything, really --in the PechaKucha 20x20 (20 slides, 20 seconds each). This concept has been spreading internationally, and this is our opportunity to start the trend in Somerville!
Interested in Presenting? Contact: Meridith Levy at SCC: mlevy@somervillecdc.org
Learn more about our event at:
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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, September 19
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Boston Sustainability Breakfast
Wednesday, September 19
7:30am
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 9:00 am.
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Doing Capitalism: The Dark Side of the Three-Player Game
WHEN Wednesday, Sep. 19, 2018, 11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Allison Dining Room (5th Floor Taubman), 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Humanities, Lecture, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Bill Janeway, author and Senior Advisor and Managing Director, Warburg Pincus
CONTACT INFO Lunch will be served. Please RSVP to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
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Deciphering aging: Linking senescence with DNA damage and the cell cycle
Wednesday, September 19, 2018
12 noon Eastern
Webinar
Senescence describes the complex cellular response to stress that includes irreversible arrest of the cell cycle and thus prevention of the proliferation of defective or damaged cells. This effect makes senescence a key component in the body’s tumor suppression response and initialization of repair pathways, providing a health-promoting mechanism. Conversely, senescent cells can accumulate in the affected tissues of persons with age-related diseases such as dementias, arthritis, atherosclerosis, and others—such accumulation is considered a hallmark of aging that drives many age-related pathologies. These seemingly contradictory roles make cellular senescence an interesting research target for developing cancer suppression therapies as well as improving health maintenance and extending the human lifespan.
During this webinar, viewers will:
Gain insight into the processes by which senescent cells contribute to tumor suppression
Understand the impact of senescence on age-related dysfunction and chronic disease, and be introduced to potential therapies targeting
Have the opportunity to ask questions during the live broadcast!
Speaker: Sheila A. Stewart, Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
Speaker: James L. Kirkland, M.D., Ph.D., Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
Moderator: Sean Sanders, Ph.D., Science/AAAS, Washington, DC
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Pacific Abyssal Transport and Mixing near the Samoan Passage and Manihiki Plateau
Wednesday, September 19
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915/923, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
Sack Lunch Seminar Series (SLS) - Larry Pratt
About this Series
The Atmosphere, Ocean and Climate Sack Lunch Seminar Series is an informal seminar series within PAOC that focuses on more specialized topics than the PAOC Colloquium. Seminar topics include all research concerning the science of atmosphere, ocean and climate. The seminars usually take place on Wednesdays from 12-1pm in 54-915. The presentations are either given by an invited speaker or by a member of PAOC and can focus on new research or discussion of a paper of particular interest.
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Before the 13th: The Origins of Convict Leasing
WHEN Wednesday, Sep. 19, 2018, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Thompson Room, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research
SPEAKER(S) Michael Ralph, Associate Professor, Social and Cultural Analysis, NYU
COST Free and open to the public.
CONTACT INFO hutchevents@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Michael Ralph is associate professor in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. He is also Director of the Metropolitan Studies program. Michael has published in Disability Studies Quarterly, Souls, Social Text, Public Culture, South Atlantic Quarterly, the Journal of the History of Sport, and Transforming Anthropology. Michael serves on the editorial boards of Sport in Society and Disability Studies Quarterly. He is a member of the Social Text Editorial Collective and the Souls Editorial Working Group. Michael is Editor-in-Chief of Transforming Anthropology, the flagship journal of the Association of Black Anthropologists.
As a Sheila Biddle Ford Foundation Fellow for Fall 2018, he will work on Before 13th: The Origins of Convict
LINK https://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/event/colloquium-michael-ralph-13th-origins-convict-leasing
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PICS Seminar: Selecting the Site for Mars Sample Return for the Mars-2020 Rover Mission
Wednesday, September 19
12:30pm to 1:30pm
MIT, Building 54-517, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
Bethany Ehlmann (Caltech/JPL)
Abstract: Mars Sample Return is a major endeavor, involving a mission of in situ exploration and sample caching and then later missions to bring the samples to Earth. Where to go: Igneous rocks or sedimentary rocks? What type of environment is best to look for ancient life on Mars? Should the search for ancient life be prioritized or understanding planetary evolution? Can we do both? These are the current questions facing the Mars-2020 rover mission, which in October 2018 will hold the final community workshop with a choice between 3 finalist sites: a lake delta, an ancient >3.7 Ga stratigraphy, and possible fumarolic/spring deposits. This informal discussion will briefly introduce the major characteristics of the Mars-2020 rover, its mission, sample return architecture, and the finalist sites. We'll have at least 15 minutes of discussion (hopefully more). Those who might want to analyze samples returned from Mars are especially encouraged to attend.
About the Series
The MIT Planetary Lunch Colloquium Series [PlCS] is a weekly seminar series organized within the EAPS department. Colloquia topics span the range of research interests of the department's planetary sciences research program. The seminars usually take place on Tuesdays from 12-1:30 pm in 54-517 unless otherwise noted (term-time only). Speakers include members of the MIT community and visitors. Talks are intended to appeal to graduate students, postdocs, research scientists, and faculty with a background in planetary science. A light lunch is provided.
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Women Waging Peace
Wednesday, September 19
5:00pm to 6:30pm
Northeastern, Renaissance_Park, 909, 1135 Tremont Street, Boston
Dr. Malcolm Potts, MD, PhD, Professor of the Graduate School, Public Health, University of California Berkeley, will be speaking at the first event in the “Us vs. Them: Taming the Biology of Otherness” speaker series.
Q&A session for this event will be lead by Dr. Neil Maniar, Professor of Public Health Practice and the Director of the Master of Public Health (MPH) program in the Bouvé College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University.
More information at https://cssh.northeastern.edu/internationalcenter/event/women-waging-peace/
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Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist
Wednesday, September 19
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store and Facing History welcome Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist ELI SASLOW for a discussion of his latest book, Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist.
About Rising Out of Hatred
Derek Black grew up at the epicenter of white nationalism. His father founded Stormfront, the largest racist community on the Internet. His godfather, David Duke, was a KKK Grand Wizard. By the time Derek turned nineteen, he had become an elected politician with his own daily radio show - already regarded as the "the leading light" of the burgeoning white nationalist movement. "We can infiltrate," Derek once told a crowd of white nationalists. "We can take the country back."
Then he went to college. Derek had been home-schooled by his parents, steeped in the culture of white supremacy, and he had rarely encountered diverse perspectives or direct outrage against his beliefs. At New College of Florida, he continued to broadcast his radio show in secret each morning, living a double life until a classmate uncovered his identity and sent an email to the entire school. "Derek Black...white supremacist, radio host...New College student???"
The ensuing uproar overtook one of the most liberal colleges in the country. Some students protested Derek's presence on campus, forcing him to reconcile for the first time with the ugliness of his beliefs. Other students found the courage to reach out to him, including an Orthodox Jew who invited Derek to attend weekly Shabbat dinners. It was because of those dinners--and the wide-ranging relationships formed at that table--that Derek started to question the science, history, and prejudices behind his worldview. As white nationalism infiltrated the political mainstream, Derek decided to confront the damage he had done.
Rising Out of Hatred tells the story of how white-supremacist ideas migrated from the far-right fringe to the White House through the intensely personal saga of one man who eventually disavowed everything he was taught to believe, at tremendous personal cost. With great empathy and narrative verve, Eli Saslow asks what Derek's story can tell us about America's increasingly divided nature. This is a book to help us understand the American moment and to help us better understand one another.
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GRAND CANYON FOR SALE: Public Land versus Private Interest?
Wednesday, September 19
7pm
First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Stephen Nash, science and environmental writer laments the fact that America's public lands "will tumble away" unless people act!
Nash will discuss the precarious future facing our national parks, monuments and wilderness with Michael Brune, the Executive Director of the Sierra Club. Bruce is urging everyone to get active and sign up to "Protect America from Trump" https://www.sierraclub.org.
Given the prospect that climate change will dislocate wildlife populations and vegetation across hundreds of thousands of square miles of the national landscape, what if anything, can we do about it? Come find out...
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Thursday, September 20
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Sustainability Festival
Thursday, September 20
11:00am - 2:30pm
BU, Marsh Plaza, 735 Commonwealth Avenue
Join #BUcityplanning for the 2018 Sustainability Festival at the Charles River Campus where we'll be playing games to test your sustainability knowledge and giving away prizes! Connect with leaders of the BU Environmental Leadership Network—24 clubs, from Net Impact to BU Outing Club. Swap your light bulbs for an LED or get a travel coffee mug for free. Join the Challenge to reduce your environmental footprint; buzz your actions and you could win some great prizes! Bike & Pedestrian Safety: Register your bike or get a free “Ride Ready” safety check by local bike mechanics. Lots of free swag including helmets, lights, and other biking gear. And enter for your chance to win a bike and other great prizes.
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The planet on our plates: The case for incorporating sustainability into dietary guidelines—————
Thursday, September 20
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Multi-purpose Room, Curtis Hall, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford
Nicole Tichenor Blackstone, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University
The foods we eat can have vastly different impacts on the natural environment. National governments commonly provide recommendations to their populations on what ought to be eaten to promote health. These dietary guidelines are an opportunity to promote human and earth system health simultaneously. To date, a small number of countries have incorporated environmental considerations into their dietary guidelines. In the USA, the scientific committee that developed the latest version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans attempted to include sustainability, but it was ultimately excluded from the final policy. This talk will cover the environmental impacts of foods, the potential role dietary guidance can play in moving food systems toward sustainability, and a case example from the United States.
Dr. Nicole Tichenor Blackstone is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Agriculture, Food, and Environment at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. Prior to joining the Friedman School faculty this summer, Nicole was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Sustainability Institute at the University of New Hampshire. Her research focuses on developing and evaluating strategies to improve food system sustainability. Some of her recent projects include modeling the environmental impacts of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, quantifying the environmental and nutritional costs of food waste, and estimating regional self-reliance and environmental impacts
of livestock in Northeastern US. Nicole earned her Ph.D. and M.S. from the Friedman School. She holds a B.A. in Philosophy and Religious Studies from the University of Kansas. Nicole also has experience in food policy spanning the local to national levels, through previous work with the Douglas County Food Policy Council (KS) and National Family Farm Coalition.
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Get Involved: Enter the Digital Universe of Your Tween/Teen
Thursday, September 20
12:00pm to 1:30pm
MIT, Building 76-156, 500 Main Street, Cambridge
Presenter: Jill Walsh, Ph.D., M.P.A.; Researcher and Lecturer, Boston University
It’s no secret that digital technology and social media have an impact on our tweens and teens. But in what ways and to what effects? Why are they always on their phones? And what exactly is going on with Fortnite?
This seminar will outline the landscape of tween and teen digital media use, and provide insights for parents trying to navigate this world with them. Parents will leave understanding what draws their children to the digital space, and how to engage in productive conversations about technology consumption.
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OEB Seminar Series - "Consilience, Model Lineages, and A Truly Integrative Phylogenetic Biology"
WHEN Thursday, Sep. 20, 2018, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Biological Labs Lecture Hall (1080), 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
SPEAKER(S) Dr. Erika Edwards, Yale University
TICKET INFO Free and Open to the Public
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BlueTech New England: Innovating Oceans & Waterfronts with Cutting-Edge Tech
Thursday, September 20
4:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Cambridge Innovation C Venture Cafe, One Broadway, 5th Floor, Cambridge
Is bluetech the next big tech cluster to launch in Boston? The maritime economy is a significant economic driver in New England.
In Massachusetts alone, it generated a total statewide economic impact of $17.336 billion in output (sales), 135,924 jobs, and $6.839 billion in labor income in 2015. Given the role of this ‘blue economy’ on the region and Greater Boston’s tech prowess, there is a tremendous opportunity to take the lead in innovating oceans and waterfronts.
Venture Cafe presents: BlueTech New England - Bringing Innovative Tech to Oceans and Waterfronts ( http://vencaf.org/bluetech/ )
This is a Free Event and also must Register here : https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bluetech-night-tickets-48652768741
The BlueTech Night event will bring technologists, scientists, startups, corporations, governments and other ocean stakeholders to discuss building this new cluster by applying innovative tech like robotics, sensors, AR / VR and others to improve ocean sustainability, coastal resiliency, and the urban coast’s environmental footprint.
AGENDA AT A GLANCE
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