Sunday, November 18, 2018

Energy (and Other) Events - November 18, 2018

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, November 19
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12pm  PAOC [Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climates] Colloquium: Caroline Ummenhofer (WHOI)
12pm  Beyond Gradual Change: Antarctic Ice Dynamics and Tipping Points
12pm  The intrinsic reward value of stereotype confirmation/Men Out of Work: The Economic Cost of Masculinity
12pm  Can Large Welfare States & Strong Civil Societies Coexist? Lessons from Scandinavia
12pm  Ontario's Electricity Market Design Journey--Steps and Missteps on the Road to Best Practice
12pm  Institutional Solutions to Democracy’s Challenges?
12:30pm  The Decline of North Atlantic Right Whales: What’s Going On?
3pm  Autonomous  Vehicles:  Exciting Opportunities, but Daunting Challenges
3pm  How do you make a car fly?  System Design Lessons from the Bose Automotive Suspension System
6pm  The Rise of Populism in the US and Europe
6pm  Great Decisions - Waning of Pax Americana?
6pm  Getting to Know You: What Are the Prospects for People’s Emotional Relationships with AI/Robots
6pm  New Building in Old Cities: Historic Preservation in an International Perspective
6:30pm  Kevin Lynch Award and Event
7pm  Coming of Age: My Journey to the Eighties with Madeleine Kunin
7:30pm  Richard Smallwood Music, Activism, and Well-being

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Tuesday, November 20
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12:30pm  Technology for Humanity
1pm  Panel Discussion: Stewards of Change
3pm  Eric Mazur: Innovating Education to Educate Innovators
3pm  Quest Symposium on Robust, Interpretable AI
5:30pm  A Brief History of Spotify: R&D Department for the Entire Music Industry
6pm  Robert Jaffe and Washington Taylor: The Physics of Energy
6pm  Ben Franklin Circle in Boston
6pm  Founders’ Talk:  Future of Work: a conversation with 50 skills 
7pm  Starting Small and Making It Big
7pm  On Press: The Liberal Values That Shaped the News

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Wednesday, November 21
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5:45pm  Blockchain, A.I. and the Future of Media
6:30pm  Software in a Decentralized and Distributed World, with Hardware at the Edge

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Friday, November 23
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10:30am  Celebrate! with Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers
1pm  Friday After Thanksgiving Chain Reaction

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Monday, November 26
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12pm  PAOC [Program on Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climates] Colloquium: Mary-Louise Timmermans (Yale)
12pm  The Value of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage
12:10pm  EH Wilson’s 'Another Planet'— Australia’s Plants, Global Differences, and Landscape Architecture
12:15pm  Survival of the Sexiest: NLP, EP, PUAs, and Other “Sciences” of Seduction on the Alt Right
3:30pm  Adapting the Urban Built Environment to Coastal Flooding; Challenges with Design under Climate Uncertainty and Inclusion of Social Justice
6:30pm  MDE Lecture Series: Ellen Langer

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Tuesday, November 27
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8:30pm  MIT Neurotech 2018
12pm  Computer Simulations to Enhance Vaccine Trials:  DIGITAL HEALTH @ HARVARD TALK
12:30pm  A Journalist’s Firsthand Report – What’s Wrong with US Policy in Iran
4pm  Censored: Distraction and Diversion Inside China's Great Firewall (IDSS Seminar)
6pm  A Conversation with John Kerry
6pm  Micro-Meltdown: The Inside Story of the Rise, Fall, and Resurgence of the World’s Most Valuable Microlender
6pm  Crowdfunding: How to Plan & Launch a Successful Campaign
6pm  Ask & Tell: The History & Personal Stories of LGBTQ Veterans
6pm  Boston Student Innovation Night
6:30pm  The War on Science: What We Need to Do
7pm  Defending Planet Earth from Asteroids
7pm  Building Electrification: The Third Leg of Our Fossil Fuel-Free Future
7pm  The View from Russia: Media, Politics, Elections

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

Geometry Links - November 13, 2018

There’s a Trumpy Bear in the Woods

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Monday, November 19
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PAOC [Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climates] Colloquium: Caroline Ummenhofer (WHOI)
Monday, November 19
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge

About this Series
The PAOC Colloquium [PAOCC] is a weekly interdisciplinary seminar series that brings together the whole PAOC community. Seminar topics include all research concerning the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmospheres, oceans and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars take place on Monday from 12-1pm in 54-923. Lunch is provided after the seminars to encourage students and post-docs to meet with the speaker. Besides the seminar and lunch, individual meetings with professors, post-docs, and students are arranged. Contact the 2018/2019 Coordinators: paoc-colloquium-comm@mit.edu.

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Beyond Gradual Change: Antarctic Ice Dynamics and Tipping Points
Monday, November 19
12:00PM
Harvard, Haller Hall (102), 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge

Junior Professor Richarda Winkelmann, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) Germany.
Abstract: The Antarctic Ice Sheet is by far the largest potential source of future sea-level change, storing approximately 58m sea-level equivalent. To this day, the complex dynamics of the ice sheet and its surrounding ice shelves are one of the key challenges for sea-level projections. Recent observations show that part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is currently retreating, and that this retreat might be irreversible on human timescales. Other regions are protected by so-called ice plugs, hindering the onset of a dynamic instability. Beyond gradual change – Ricarda Winkelmann will discuss the underlying mechanisms and critical thresholds for triggering persistent and possibly rapid ice discharge from Antarctic drainage basins. As a consequence, sea level might continue to rise for centuries or millennia to come. This long-term perspective illustrates that policy decisions made in the next few years to decades will have profound impacts on the global climate, ecosystems and human societies far beyond this century.

EPS Colloquium

Contact Name:  Summer Smith

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The intrinsic reward value of stereotype confirmation/Men Out of Work: The Economic Cost of Masculinity
Monday, November 19
12:00pm to 1:15pm
Harvard, William James Hall 1550, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge

The intrinsic reward value of stereotype confirmation
Niv Reggev, Postdoctoral Fellow, Psychology
Changing pre-existing stereotypes is a notoriously daunting task. However, little is known about the mechanisms supporting their persistence. In this talk I am going to provide evidence suggesting that this persistence is a result of a positive subjective value attributed to confirmation of stereotype-based expectation. Utilizing gender stereotypes as a test case I will present results from two fMRI studies suggesting that confirmation of typical gender stereotypes is associated with activation in reward-related regions. Importantly, even stereotype-consistent associations which were subjectively rejected triggered enhanced activity in these regions. Providing converging behavioral evidence, a separate set of pre-registered behavioral studies demonstrates that individuals are willing to incur a cost to engage with stereotypical examples and to avoid counter-stereotypical information. Overall, these findings provide initial support for the role of the reward system in the reinforcement of established stereotypes. 

Men Out of Work: The Economic Cost of Masculinity
James Reisinger, Graduate Student, Public Policy
Recent research shows that changes in the labor market in the US differentially impact the economic prospects of men and women. Autor, Dorn, and Hanson (2018) suggest that negative shocks to manufacturing have a large relative impact on the economic prospects of young men relative to women, and lead to lower rates of marriage and fertility. This coincides with an overall decline in the unemployment rate. I present a preliminary, correlational analysis examining gender differences in the propensity to enter high growth occupations, especially in the healthcare sector. I connect this with geographic differences in attitudes towards gender equality. Finally, I propose methods for untangling the causal role of differences in gender norms, skills acquisition, and preferences in occupation selection.

The MBB Lunch Series is free and open to the Harvard community. 


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Can Large Welfare States & Strong Civil Societies Coexist? Lessons from Scandinavia
WHEN  Monday, Nov. 19, 2018, 12 – 1:15 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, Ash Center Foyer, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Floor 2, Suite 200N, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
COST  Free
CONTACT INFO info@ash.harvard.edu
DETAILS  Often civil society is seen as one component in a zero-sum game that also includes the state and market. It is assumed that a large welfare state with comprehensive public services, like those in Scandinavia, will lead to a smaller voluntary sector and diminishing civic engagement. However, the volunteer levels (traditional as well as digital forms), informal help, and monetary donations are high in Scandinavian countries. "Civic Engagement in Scandinavia. Volunteering, Informal Help and Giving in Denmark, Norway and Sweden," published by Springer this fall, tries to explain how the combination of strong welfare states, market economies and civic engagement work together in the Scandinavian case.
Join us for a book talk with editors Kristin Strømsnes, Professor at Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen, Norway, Democracy Visiting Fellow at the Ash Center; Lars Skov Henriksen, Professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Work, Aalborg University, Denmark; and Lars Svedberg, Senior Professor at Institute for Civil Society Studies, Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University College, Stockholm, Sweden. Muriel Rouyer, Adjunct Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School, will moderate.
Lunch will be served.

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Ontario's Electricity Market Design Journey--Steps and Missteps on the Road to Best Practice
Monday, November 19
12:00pm to 1:30pm
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, HKS, 7 JFK Street, Cambridge

Susan Pope, Managing Director, FTI Consulting

Lunch will be served.

HKS Energy Policy Seminar

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Institutional Solutions to Democracy’s Challenges?
WHEN  Monday, Nov. 19, 2018, 12 – 2 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, CGIS Knafel, K262, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Weatherhead Research Cluster on Global Populism/Challenges to Democracy
SPEAKER(S)  David Altman, Professor of Political Science, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Lee Drutman, Senior Fellow, Political Reform Program, New America
Elaine Kamarck, Senior Fellow; Director, Center for Effective Public Management, Brookings Institution
DETAILS  Can institutional reforms provide solutions to some of the problems afflicting established democracies? Many Western democracies maintain constitutions, electoral systems, and other democratic institutions whose origins lie in the early 20th, 19th, and even 18th centuries. The age of these institutions is often a point of pride for many citizens (think of Americans’ attachment to their constitution and even dysfunctional institutions like the Electoral College). But existing institutions may be ill-suited for the challenges facing contemporary democracies. In this panel we will examine institutional innovations aimed at improving the quality of established democracies.

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The Decline of North Atlantic Right Whales: What’s Going On?
Monday, November 19
12:30 – 1:45 pm
Tufts, Cabot 702, 170 Packard Avenue, Medford

CIERP Research Seminar with Peter Corkeron
Peter Corkeron has led the large whale research program at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center since 2011. 

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Autonomous  Vehicles:  Exciting Opportunities, but Daunting Challenges
Monday, November  19
3-4  PM
MIT, Building 32-141, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Christopher  A.  HartHart  Solutions  LLC/  former  Chairman  NTSB
Abstract. The  lives  lost  on  our  streets  and  highways  – nearly  40,000  a  year  in  the  U.S.,  and  more  than  a  million  a  year  worldwide  – constitute  a  public health  disaster.  Experts  estimate  that  more  than  90%  of  motor  vehicle  crashes  involve  human  error,  and  the  theoryis  that  by  replacing  the  human  with automation,  this  tragic  human  error  toll  will  largely  be  eliminated.  While  this  theory  is  overly  simplistic,  automation  can  potentially  prevent  or  mitigate  most motor  vehicle  crashes.A  large  percentage  of  the  public  is  already  very  skeptical  about  automation  in  cars,  and  with  so  many  lives  being  lost  every  year,  it would  be  very  unfortunate  to  delay  the  implementation  of  automation  by  having  crashes  that  could  have  been  avoided  by  paying  attention  to  aviation lessons  learned  in  the  past.  This  presentation  begins  with  automation  lessons  that  can  be  learned  from  decades  of  development  in  aviation.In  addition, automation  on  the  ground  will  be  considerably  more  challenging  than  automation  in  the  air.  This  presentation  also  addresses  several  automation  issues  that the  autonomous  vehicle  industry  will  face  that  have  not  already  been  encountered  in  aviation.  Some  of  these  issues  are  related  to  automation  that  assists drivers,  and  others  are  related  to  automation  generally,  with  and  without  drivers.

Bio:  Christopher  A.  Hart  is  the  founder  of  Hart  Solutions  LLP,  which  specializes  in  improving  safety  in  a  variety  of  contexts,  including  the  safety  of automation  in  motor  vehicles,  workplace  safety,  and  process  safety  in  potentially  hazardous  industries.Until  February  2018  he  was  a  Member  of  the  National Transportation  Safety  Board  (NTSB).  In  March,  2015,  he  was  nominated  by  President  Obama  and  confirmed  by  the  Senate  to  be  Chairman,  which  he  was until  March,  2017.  Prior  to  that  he  was  Vice  Chairman  of  the  NTSB,  after  being  nominated  by  President  Obama  and  confirmed  by  the  Senate  in  2009  and 2013.  The  NTSB  investigates  major  transportation  accidents  in  all  modes  of  transportation,  determines  probable  cause,  and  makes  recommendations  in  an effort  to  prevent  recurrences.    He  was  previously  a  Member  of  the  NTSB  in  1990,  having  been  nominated  by  (the  first)  President  Bush.Mr.  Hart’s  previous positions  have  included:  Deputy  Director,  Air  Traffic  Safety  Oversight  Service,  Federal  Aviation  Administration,  Assistant  Administrator  for  System  Safety, Federal  Aviation  Administration,  Deputy  Administrator  for  the  National  Highway  Traffic  Safety  Administration  (NHTSA),  Deputy  Assistant  General  Counsel  to  the Department  of  Transportation,  Managing  partner  of  Hart  &  Chavers,  a  Washington,  D.C.,  law  firm,  and  Attorney  with  the  Air  Transport  Association.Mr.  Hart has  a  law  degree  from  Harvard  Law  School  and  a  Master’s  Degree  and  a  Bachelor’s  Degree  (magna  cum  laude)  in  Aerospace  Engineering  from  Princeton University.  He  is  a  member  of  the  District  of  Columbia  Bar  and  the  Lawyer-Pilots  Bar Association.

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How do you make a car fly?  System Design Lessons from the Bose Automotive Suspension System
Monday, November 19 
3pm
MIT, Building 3-270, 33 Massachusetts Avenue (Rear), Cambridge

Presented by Neal Lackritz, SB EE ’89, SB CS ’89, SM EE ’92 under Amar Bose
Former Chief Engineer of the Bose Suspension System
Former instructor in Acoustics, System Engineering and Modeling at Bose Corporation

Amar Bose, founder of Bose Corporation, was a legendary MIT EECS faculty member and was renowned for the system thinking embodied in his famous course on Acoustics. We’re pleased to inform you that Neal Lackritz, a close protégé of Amar Bose and formerly Chief Engineer of the Bose Automotive Suspension System, will be giving a talk entitled "System Design Lessons from the Bose Automotive Suspension System. 

Neal’s talk will explore the relationship between system design, wave theory, lumped parameters, and multidisciplinary thinking (and it will also include some neat pictures and videos!!!). This talk should be of interest to almost anyone at MIT, from freshman to PhD students and from TA’s to senior faculty.

The talk is sponsored by BOSE ASSOCIATES PROGRAM, EECS, GEL, SUPER-UROP, UPOP

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The Rise of Populism in the US and Europe
Monday, November 19
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EST
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Columbia Point, Boston

Panelists including Salena Zito and Brad Todd, authors of The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Shaping Contemporary Domestic Politics, and John Judis, author of The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics, examine the rise of populism in the US and Europe with Heather Cox Richardson, Boston College professor of history.

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Great Decisions - Waning of Pax Americana?
Monday, November 19
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EST
Add to Calendar
Boston Public Library, Rabb Hall, 700 Boylston Street, Boston

Join us to hear Ambassador Ivo Daalder and Dr. James Lindsay speak on the future of the peaceful international relations of Pax Americana!

Since 1945, Pax Americana has promised peaceful international relations and an open economy, buttressed by U.S. military power. But in championing "America First," President Trump has advocated selective U.S. engagement, in which foreign commitments are limited to areas of vital U.S. interest and economic nationalism is the order of the day. Allies and challengers alike are paying close attention. 

Ambassador Daalder and Dr. Lindsay have co-authored the book, The Empty Throne: America's Abdication of Global Leadership, released October 16, 2018. The book discusses the current apparent disruption to the world order that the United States fashioned from the ruins of WWII and that produced unprecedented global stability, prosperity and democratic consensus. Critics argue that Donald Trump's America First Policy threatens this world order, yet, the authors maintain, this order has been fraying for years. With their expertise as authors of this timely book, Ambassador Daalder and Dr. Lindsay will speak to the waning of Pax Americana. Their book will be available for purchase. 

Ivo Daalder is president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and served as the U.S. Ambassador to NATO from 2009-2013. Ambassador Daalder was educated at the universities of Kent, Oxford, and Georgetown, and received his PhD in political science from MIT. James Lindsay is senior vice president, director of studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg chair at the the Council on Foreign Relations, where he oversees the work of more than six dozen fellows in the David Rockefeller Studies Program. Dr. Lindsay holds an AB in economics and political science from the University of Michigan and an MA, MPhil, and PhD from Yale University.

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Getting to Know You: What Are the Prospects for People’s Emotional Relationships with AI/Robots
Monday, November 19
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
Center for Integrated Life Sciences and Engineering (CILSE), 610 Commonwealth Avenue, (Eichenbaum Colloquium Room 101), Boston

a panel discussion on Artificial Intelligence will be held at the Center for Integrated Life Sciences and Engineering on November 19th, 2018. Two topics will be discussed: ‘The Future Visions of AI’ and ‘The Possibility for AI to Take Human Emotions into Consideration.’ The Consulate General of France, in collaboration with Boston University, has worked to organize this panel discussion because the potentially dangerous and disruptive effects of Artificial Intelligence have become a growing interest in our society. Upending age-old ways of seeing society, time, social interaction, politics, and more, AI plays an ever-increasing role in our lives. Hoping that the discussions that occur today will enable a more humanistic, reflective and wise vision for the future of AI.

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New Building in Old Cities: Historic Preservation in an International Perspective
Monday, November 19
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
Boston Athenæum, 10 ½ Beacon Street, Boston

What is the relationship between contemporary and historic architecture and how does that issue impact heritage conservation? Should new structures maintain a consistency of character and style with their historic neighbors, or should new construction confidently represent the style of the current moment? An issue that is widely debated in historic preservation circles in the United States today is also the focus of debate in other countries. We can broaden our understanding of our own preservation practices by considering them in an international context. This question is as relevant (and difficult) in Boston as it is in Rome, London, or Paris, and a look at how others have addressed it may offer guidance for preservation education and professional practice. 
Steven W. Semes is Professor of Architecture and Director of the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture. He was Academic Director of the Notre Dame Rome Studies Program 2008-2011 and currently splits his teaching duties between Rome and the main campus. Educated at the University of Virginia and Columbia University, he is the author of The Future of the Past: A Conservation Ethic for Architecture, Urbanism, and Historic Preservation (2009) and The Architecture of the Classical Interior (2004). His many articles have appeared in The New Criterion, National Trust Forum Journal, Change Over Time, The Classicist, Traditional Building and Period Homes. He is a Fellow Emeritus of the Institute for Classical Architecture & Art and edited its journal, The Classicist, 2014-2016. His current research focuses on the history of modern conservation theory and practice in Italy and the United States, particularly regarding new architecture in historic settings. Prior to joining the Notre Dame faculty in 2005, he practiced architecture for thirty years with firms in New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. 

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Kevin Lynch Award and Event
Monday, November 19
6:30 PM – 8 PM
MIT Media Lab, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Meet the winners of the 2018 Kevin Lynch Award, Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI), and learn more about their advocacy, research, planning and built works! KDI is a non-profit design and community development organization. They partner with under-resourced communities to advance equity and activate the unrealized potential in their neighborhoods and cities. 

2018 marks the centennial of Kevin Lynch’s birth. To commemorate his legacy Alan Berger, Jonah Susskind, and Dorothy Tang are spearheading the Kevin Lynch Award process. This year’s award (Event and lecture on November 19th from 5pm-9pm at the Media Lab) will focus on Lynch’s seminal environmental related work such as the book Wasting Away (1990). 

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Coming of Age: My Journey to the Eighties with Madeleine Kunin
Monday, November 19
7:00pm 
Trident Books Cafe, 338 Newbury Street, Boston

Many readers are already familiar with Madeleine Kunin, the former three-term governor of Vermont, who served as the deputy secretary of education and ambassador to Switzerland under President Bill Clinton. In her newest book, a memoir entitled Coming of Age: My Journey to the Eighties, the topic is aging, but she looks well beyond the physical tolls and explores the emotional ones as well. And she has had an extraordinary life: governor, ambassador, feminist, wife, mother, professor, poet, and much, much more.

As recently reported in the New York Times, a girl born today can expect to live to the age of ninety, on average (boys, on the other hand, can expect to live until age eighty-five). Life expectancy, for many, is increasing, yet people rarely contemplate the emotional changes that come alongside the physical changes of aging. Madeleine wants to change that. Coming of Age: My Journey to the Eighties takes a close and incisive look at what it is like to grow old. The book is a memoir, yet most important of all, it is an honest and positive look at aging and how it has affected her life.

Governor Kunin has written three previous books: Living a Political Life (Knopf), and The New Feminist Agenda: Defining the Next Revolution for Women, Work, and Family (New York Times Editor’s Choice) and Pearls Politics and Power. She has more energy than two 40-year-olds. She is currently James Marsh Professor-at-Large at the University of Vermont where she gives guest lectures on feminism and women and politics. She also serves on the board of the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC), a nongovernmental organization that she founded in 1991, and she recently launched Emerge Vermont to encourage and support women in politics. She lives in Shelburne, Vermont.

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Richard Smallwood Music, Activism, and Well-being
WHEN  Monday, Nov. 19, 2018, 7:30 – 9:30 p.m.
WHERE  Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Concerts, Humanities, Music, Religion, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Department of Music Blodgett Distinguished Artist Program, Office for the Arts, Elson Family Arts Initiative Fund, Harvard College Innovation Fund, and the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research
SPEAKER(S)  Join gospel artist Richard Smallwood in conversation with Prof. Braxton Shelley and in song with the Kuumba Singers (Harvard), Inner Strength Gospel Choir (Boston University), and Third Day Gospel Choir(Tufts). The night culminates with a performance of Smallwood’s "Total Praise.”
COST  Free
DETAILS  The Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and pianist Richard Smallwood has been one of the most popular inspirational artists in the music business, with classic tunes such as "Total Praise," "Center of My Joy," and "I Love the Lord." His songs have been recorded by Whitney Houston, Destiny’s Child, Kelly Price, Gerald Levert, American Idol’s Ruben Studdard and many others throughout of the gospel world. Even the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, recorded Smallwood’s "Faithful."
Smallwood will be in conversation with Prof. Braxton Shelley and joined by the Kuumba Singers and the gospel choirs of Boston University and Tufts University.

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Tuesday, November 20
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Technology for Humanity
Tuesday, November 20
12:30 PM – 2:00 PM EST
Tufts, The Fletcher School, 160 Packard Avenue, Murrow Room, Medford

Hachim Badji, the CEO of the Willful Group, will speak on the lessons he has learned in his current positions on how to use digital technology in emerging market countries to enhance people’s lives. The key is the building of digital ecosystems, including the promotion and easy access to basic local services. He will address how to build and roll out these ecosystems, and also the type of partnerships needed to support such 

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Panel Discussion: Stewards of Change
Tuesday, November 20
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM EST
John D. O'Bryant African-American Institute, 40 Leon Street, Boston

826 Boston is thrilled to be partnering with the senior class of the Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers on a young authors book project about community activism and social change.

Please join us as we kick-off this project with a panel discussion featuring Boston-based organizers, activists, and change-makers who have dedicated themselves to a range of important issues, from public health to gun control.

This event is FREE and open to the public, but capacity is limited. Please RSVP at your earliest convenience if you would like to attend.

Panelists include:
Abel R. Cano | Founder of Arc of Change
Abel R. Cano is Founder and Executive Director of The Arc of Change, a Boston-based training initiative focused on harnessing the power of community organizing practices as a transformative craft for leadership and social impact. Abel is Dominican-American, raised in Boston, Honolulu and Indianapolis. As a leadership trainer and coach, Abel’s passion is to ignite breakthroughs that empower a rising generation of social movement leaders.
Shamara Rhodes | Founder of Bringing Back Boston
Shamara Rhodes is a local community Disc Jockey (DJ) and active member in the community. She is the resident DJ for the Haley House Slam Poetry team located in Roxbury, MA. Her background in criminal justice and community outreach has led her to merge these with her artistry as a DJ. As a Dorchester native, visionary of Bringing Back Boston (BBBMA) and creator of Boston Got Next (BGN), she believes in bringing music, hardship, and pain together. By creating events as a release for trauma the focus is to make positive changes and provide adequate resources in disenfranchised communities in Boston.
Rebecca Riccio | Director of Northeastern University's Social Impact Lab
Rebecca Riccio is the Khaled and Olfat Juffali Director of The Social Impact Lab at Northeastern University, an innovation hub that bridges sectors, disciplines, and generations to facilitate knowledge building in the social impact arena. The Social Impact Lab houses several programs that Rebecca has built on a foundation of twenty years’ experience working and teaching at the forefront of the social change arena, including Northeastern Students4Giving (NS4G), an experiential philanthropy education program, and Giving With Purpose, the world’s first massive open online course (MOOC), on effective charitable giving and informed civic engagement.

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Eric Mazur: Innovating Education to Educate Innovators
Tuesday, November 20
3:00 PM – 5:00 PM EST
Wentworth, Blount Auditorium, 550 Parker Street, Boston

The Learning Innovation & Technology team cordially invites you to join us for a reception and workshop with Eric Mazur. 
Eric Mazur is the Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics and Dean of Applied Physics at Harvard University, Member of the Faculty of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Past President of the Optical Society.

Mazur is a leading speaker on optics and on education. His motivational lectures on interactive teaching, educational technology, and assessment have inspired people around the world to change their approach to teaching.

Please join us in Blount Auditorium on Tuesday, November 20th! Reception is 3:00-3:30 in the Casella Gallery and Workshop is from 3:30-5:00 in Blount Auditorium.

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Quest Symposium on Robust, Interpretable AI
Tuesday, November 20
3:00pm to 6:00pm
MIT, Building 46, Atrium and Auditorium, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge

To advance further, deep learning systems need to become more transparent. They will have to prove they are reliable, can withstand malicious attacks, and can explain the reasoning behind their decisions, especially in safety-critical applications like self-driving cars. 

The Quest Symposium on Robust, Interpretable AI will explore the latest techniques for making AI more trustworthy. Join us for posters by MIT students and postdocs, and talks by MIT faculty. Research topics will include attack and defense methods for deep neural networks, visualizations, interpretable modeling, and other methods for revealing deep network behavior, structure, sensitivities, and biases. 

SCHEDULE
2:30 pm. Aleksander Madry, "Robustness and Interpretability."
3:05 pm. Stefanie Jegelka, "Robustness in GANs."
3:35 pm. Poster Session A
4:15 pm. David Sontag
4:45 pm. Tommi Jaakkola, "Co-operative games of interpretability."
5:15 pm. Antonio Torralba
5:45 pm. Poster Session B 

All are encouraged to attend. Refreshments will be served. This symposium is part of the Robust Intelligence Initiative at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL), funded by Microsoft and the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab.

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A Brief History of Spotify: R&D Department for the Entire Music Industry
Tuesday, November 20
5:30pm to 6:30pm
MIT, Building 32-155, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Gustav Söderström, R&D Chief, Spotify
Gustav Söderström will present a brief history of Spotify, reflecting on the company's key technical challenges in machine learning, followed by a discussion on the future of creativity and computation in the age of AI.

The Q&A session and discussion will be moderated by Eran Egozy, Professor of the Practice, Music Technology and Co-Founder, Harmonix, which launched the Guitar Hero video game franchise.

All are encouraged to attend. Refreshments will be served. 

Hosted by the MIT School of Humanities, Arts and Social Science (SHASS) and the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL).

This event will be recorded.

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Robert Jaffe and Washington Taylor: The Physics of Energy
Tuesday, November 20
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST
MIT Press Bookstore, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Join us at the bookstore in welcoming Washington Taylor and Robert Jaffe for a discussion of their book, The Physics of Energy.

The Physics of Energy provides a comprehensive and systematic introduction to the scientific principles governing energy sources, uses, and systems. Students, scientists, engineers, energy industry professionals, and concerned citizens with some mathematical and scientific background who wish to understand energy systems and issues quantitatively will find this book of great interest.

Robert L. Jaffe holds the Morningstar Chair in the Department of Physics at MIT. He was formerly director of MIT's Center for Theoretical Physics and recently chaired the American Physical Society's Panel on Public Affairs. Jaffe is best known for his research on the quark substructure of the proton and other strongly interacting particles, on exotic states of matter, and on the quantum structure of the vacuum. He received his BA from Princeton and his PhD from Stanford. In recognition of his contributions to teaching and course development at MIT, Jaffe has received numerous awards including a prestigious MacVicar Fellowship. Jaffe is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Washington Taylor is a Professor of Physics at MIT, and is currently the Director of MIT’s Center for Theoretical Physics. Taylor's research is focused on basic theoretical questions of particle physics and gravity. Taylor has made contributions to our understanding of fundamental aspects of string theory and its set of solutions, including connections to constraints on low-energy field theory and observable physics and to new results in mathematics. Taylor received his BA in mathematics from Stanford and his PhD in physics from UC Berkeley. Among other honors, Taylor has been an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow and a Department of Energy Outstanding Junior Investigator, and has received MIT's Buechner faculty teaching prize.

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Ben Franklin Circle in Boston
Tuesday, November 20
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
Impact Hub Boston, 50 Milk Street, 15th Floor, Boston

Impact Hub Boston is joining a 21st-century community-building initiative inspired by Benjamin Franklin’s “club for mutual improvement,” launched more than 200 years ago. Ben Franklin Circles gather people in conversation about shared values and common goals. Participants discuss 13 civic virtues championed by Ben Franklin—qualities like justice, humility, moderation and order—as a lens into self-improvement and civic engagement.
Impact Hub Boston will hold its second Ben Franklin Circle meeting on Tuesday, November 20 at 6:00pm, and we continue to welcome any who are interested in exploring this format for conversation and self-improvement as we get our local circle's rhythm going in our second meeting. We're a small, intentional groups of 8-12 people looking to improve themselves and the world around them. Feel free to bring your along own dinner and ideas to our casual first gathering to see who wants to join this circle.

For our second meeting, we will be focusing on the virtue "Silence." Watch this space (or your registration email) for reading resources on this topic ahead of our meeting.

The Circles will be moderated by Mette Kreutzmann, of the MA Office of Public Collaboration at UMass Boston. Mette heads-up their public dialogue initiative focused on introducing "deliberative dialogue” as a tool to help people address difficult issues affecting their community and move toward collective action.

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Founders’ Talk:  Future of Work: a conversation with 50 skills 
Tuesday, November 20
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Built - Coworking Space, 281 Concord Avenue, Cambridge

What is the Future of Work? How will new technology reshape how we find jobs, get qualified and hired? What are some of the technology advancements driving this shift and what can you do to stay ahead of the curve? 
Speaker:
Kristjan Kristjansson
CEO & Founder, tech talk speaker
He co-founded and managed the #1 Seed Accelerator in Iceland 

We would like to build a greater Community! Please join us to share your experience and knowledge! 

Food and drinks will be provided.

Built - Coworking Space

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Starting Small and Making It Big
Tuesday, November 20
7:00pm 
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge

Bill Cummings never aspired to be a billionaire—and never acknowledged he was one until long after it happened. That’s because it is not money that motivates him, but rather the immense enjoyment he gets from building and growing successful businesses. He thrives at being an opportunist and believes that this often-misunderstood trait is one of the key characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. They see opportunities where others overlook them. And they act swiftly to adopt them before someone else does.

Although perhaps not intentionally, Bill’s parents encouraged his entrepreneurial nature by instilling in him the desire to "get ahead" and to become "somebody." His father painted houses, raising a family in a one-bedroom apartment atop a liquor store and a taxi stand on the outskirts of Boston. Bill’s mother was a neighborhood fixture, building friendships as she knocked on doors to collect coins for large charities that once operated that way.

From his parents, Bill learned the value of hard work, kindness, and fiscal responsibility. Year-round he washed windows for his neighborhood’s storekeepers, and for three summers as a young teen he sold ice cream from the back of his bike at a nearby Ford Motors assembly plant. Later he purchased and sold dozens of small boats using Boston Globe classified ads. Eventually, he built a 500-person firm near Boston with a debt-free portfolio of 11 million square feet of commercial real estate.

This fascinating self-written autobiography shares not only how he got there, but also his singular dedication to giving back to the communities and institutions so vital to his success. In Massachusetts alone, the cash donations from Cummings entities to local charities already total more than $240 million.

Through Bill’s unique voice, readers experience his achievements and adventures—including a stint at Fort Dix with Ralph Nader and, much later, meeting and working regularly with some of the world’s greatest philanthropists—as well as his setbacks and personal tragedies during the seven-decade story.

For anyone studying business, building a business, or running a business, Bill’s journey also offers keen insights, cautionary observations, and the pioneering thinking that produced great prosperity and a multibillion-dollar enterprise. For everyone else, it offers a new and engrossing twist on the classic American success story.

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On Press: The Liberal Values That Shaped the News
Tuesday, November 20
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge

In the 1960s and 1970s, the American press embraced a new way of reporting and selling the news. The causes were many: the proliferation of television, pressure to rectify the news media’s dismal treatment of minorities and women, accusations of bias from left and right, and the migration of affluent subscribers to suburbs. As Pressman’s timely history reveals, during these tumultuous decades the core values that held the profession together broke apart, and the distinctive characteristics of contemporary American journalism emerged.

About the Author
Matthew Pressman worked for eight years at Vanity Fair, where his articles about the news media won the 2010 Mirror Award for Best Commentary (digital media). He has also written for The Atlantic, the Washington Post, and Time. At Seton Hall University, where he is Assistant Professor of Journalism, he teaches writing for the media, the history of American journalism, and a course known informally as World War 2.0, in which students report on the Second World War as if it were happening today.

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Wednesday, November 21
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Blockchain, A.I. and the Future of Media
Wednesday, November 21
5:45 PM to 7:45 PM
Venture Café Kendall (5th floor), 1 Broadway, Cambridge

At this meetup, meet famous Holloywood film producer Kris Meyers, and explore media trends with him. Also, see the live demo of an entire film and music application running on the live blockchain! ***

Agenda:
Talk by awesome speakers like Kris Meyers, producer for major Hollywood films www.imdb.com/name/nm0583243/
Live blockchain demo for music and film by Arjun Mendhi, CEO at MTonomy
Mingle, meet cool people, and make new friends!

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Software in a Decentralized and Distributed World, with Hardware at the Edge
Wednesday, November 21
6:30 pm to 9:00 pm
MIT, Building E51-315, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge

Brian DeLacey - bdelacey gmail com
Summary
A discussion and demo of Google's new Edge TPU

Abstract
We cover new technologies including Google's Cloud IoT Edge & Edge TPU, as well as the new decentralized software startup “Inrupt”, and the open source project known as “Solid”.


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Friday, November 23
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Celebrate! with Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers
Friday, November 23
10:30 AM – 11:30 AM EST
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Columbia Point, Boston

Join the Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers as they share stories of both their history and modern culture in a performance that culminates with a full audience powwow in honor of Native American Heritage Month. 

The Celebrate! series, appropriate for family audiences and children ages 5 and up, highlights America’s rich cultural diversity through the arts. This program is tied directly to President and Mrs. Kennedy's concern for and support of the arts and culture in a democratic society. Thanks to generous support from the Highland Street Foundation, Martin Richard Foundation, and Mass Cultural Council, all performances are free and take place in the Stephen E. Smith Center at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum (Columbia Point, Boston, MA 02125).

How to Attend
Please note that in order to optimize your comfort and enjoyment, reservations are required for all visitors to this free program. Make a reservation below or call 617-514-1644 and leave a detailed message. All large groups must speak with a staff member a week in advance to ensure that there will be adequate seating. Children are seated on a carpeted floor with their caretakers and space is available on a first come, first served basis. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

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Friday After Thanksgiving Chain Reaction
Friday, November 23
1:00 - 4:00 p.m.
MIT, Rockwell Cage, 106 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Cost:  $0 - $12.50

The MIT Museum's Friday After Thanksgiving (F.A.T.) Chain Reaction is a one-of-a-kind engineering feat that must be seen to be believed! Attend as a spectator or build your own Rube Goldberg-esque link and be part of a giant chain reaction at our fun and family-friendly event!

Host Arthur Ganson will be on hand as teams put together their own contraptions, link them all together, and a ball is set in motion moving from start to finish in a giant loop!  

Teams: Remember to keep our building requirements in mind as you construct your link.

Want to build, but don't know how to get started? Sign up for one of our Contraption Construction help sessions. 

This event takes place from 1-4 p.m. at MIT's Rockwell Cage Gymnasium, 106 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139.
Online ticket sales end 11:59 pm on November 22. Ticket includes admission to the MIT Museum on Nov. 23.

Event Schedule:
1 pm - Doors Open
1 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. - Activities
1:15 p.m. - Interview of Builders by Arthur
3:30 p.m. - Chain Reaction Begins

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Monday, November 26
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PAOC [Program on Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climates] Colloquium: Mary-Louise Timmermans (Yale)
Monday, November 26
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge

About this Series
The PAOC Colloquium [PAOCC] is a weekly interdisciplinary seminar series that brings together the whole PAOC community. Seminar topics include all research concerning the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmospheres, oceans and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars take place on Monday from 12-1pm in 54-923. Lunch is provided after the seminars to encourage students and post-docs to meet with the speaker. Besides the seminar and lunch, individual meetings with professors, post-docs, and students are arranged. Contact the 2018/2019 Coordinators: paoc-colloquium-comm@mit.edu

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The Value of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage
Monday, November 26
12:00pm to 1:30pm
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, HKS, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Cuicui Chen, Postdoctoral Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, HKS

Lunch will be served.

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EH Wilson’s 'Another Planet'— Australia’s Plants, Global Differences, and Landscape Architecture
Monday, November 26
12:10PM
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill Lecture Hall, 300 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain

Margaret Grose, Senior Lecturer in Landscape Architecture, University of Melbourne, Arboretum Sargent Award Recipient.

Watch live on the Arboretum’s YouTube channel if you are unable to attend in person.

Arnold Arboretum Research Talk

(617) 524-1718

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Survival of the Sexiest: NLP, EP, PUAs, and Other “Sciences” of Seduction on the Alt Right
Monday, November 26
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, CGIS South S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge

Moira Weigel, Harvard, Society of Fellows
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.


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Adapting the Urban Built Environment to Coastal Flooding; Challenges with Design under Climate Uncertainty and Inclusion of Social Justice
Monday, November 26
3:30pm – 4:30pm
BU, College of Arts & Sciences, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston,

Paul Kirshen, University of Massachusetts Boston

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MDE Lecture Series: Ellen Langer
WHEN  Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, 6:30 – 8 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 48 Quincy Street (room 124), Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Master in Design Engineering at Harvard (MDE) program
SPEAKER(S)  Ellen Langer, Professor, Harvard University, Department of Psychology
COST  Free
DETAILS  Dr. Ellen Langer, Ph.D., is a social psychologist and the first female professor to gain tenure in the Psychology Department at Harvard University. She is the author of eleven books and more than two hundred research articles written for general and academic readers on mindfulness for over 35 years. Her best selling books include "Mindfulness; The Power of Mindful Learning"; "On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity"; and "Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility." She has also edited the "Wiley Mindfulness Handbook," an anthology on mindfulness in which leading researchers integrate work derived from her western scientific theoretical base of mindfulness with research on eastern derived forms of meditation.

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Tuesday, November 27
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MIT Neurotech 2018
Tuesday, November 27
8:30 AM – 6:00 PM EST
MIT, Building 46-3002,  Singleton Auditorium, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge

MIT Neurotech 2018 presents talks by neurotechnology pioneers, whose cutting-edge innovations are changing the face of neurobiological research from molecules to cognition. The symposium is open to the public, but registration is required and seating is limited.
Hosted by CNBE, Professor Alan Jasanoff, and Professor Ed Boyden
Co-Sponsored by: MIT Media Lab, the Department of Biological Engineering, the Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences.
2018 GUEST SPEAKERS:
Tim Harris - HHMI Janelia
Na Ji - UC Berkeley
Helen Mayberg - Mount Sinai
Rikky Muller - UC Berkeley
Mickael Tanter - Langevin Institute
Rafa Yuste - Columbia University
Peng Yin - Harvard University
Jin Zhang - UC San Diego

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Computer Simulations to Enhance Vaccine Trials:  DIGITAL HEALTH @ HARVARD TALK
Tuesday, November 27
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM ET
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East C (room 2036, second floor), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Marc Lipsitch
Event will be live webcast and recorded at 12:00 pm on day of event at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2018-11-27/computer-simulations-enhance-vaccine-trials
Infectious disease emergencies are opportunities to test the efficacy of newly developed interventions (eg drugs, vaccines and treatment regimens), yet they raise many intertwined challenges of politics, logistics, ethics, and study design. Consistent with the efforts of CEPI, WHO, and others to encourage development and Phase I/II testing of candidate vaccines (the focus of this talk) in advance of emergencies, it is essential before the emergency strikes to advance the discussion of how such products can and should be tested. This can help to disentangle ethical from political and logistical concerns, reduce the time pressure to make a decision, and encourage rational deliberation by future stakeholders who at the time of deliberation do not know what role (which product, which field site) they may be supporting in an actual emergency.

This luncheon will describe  Professor Lipsitch’s work on computer simulation of vaccine trials during epidemics to assess options for trial design, as well as some of his recent work on the ethics of trials in emergencies, with the aim to stimulate discussion on the intersection of these two topics.

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A Journalist’s Firsthand Report – What’s Wrong with US Policy in Iran
WHEN  Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018, 12:30 – 2 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, CMES, Rm 102, 38 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR CMES Middle East Forum
SPEAKER(S)  Reese Erlich, Author, journalist, syndicated columnist
DETAILS  Reese Erlich's history in journalism goes back over 40 years. He first worked in 1968 as a staff writer and research editor for Ramparts, a national investigative reporting magazine published in San Francisco. His book "The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of US Policy and the Middle East Crisis" was published in 2007. "San Francisco Chronicle" book reviewer Ruth Rosen said, “Some people are treated as pariahs when they tell the truth; later, history lauds them for their courage and convictions. Reese Erlich is one of those truth tellers.” His other books include, "Inside Syria: The Backstory of Their Civil War and What the World Can Expect" (Foreword by Noam Chomsky - 2016), "Conversations with Terrorists:  Politics, Violence and Empire" (2010), "Dateline Havana: The Real Story of US Policy and the Future of Cuba" (2009), and "Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You" (co-authored with Norman Solomon in 2003). Erlich's newspaper articles have appeared in over 20 daily papers in the United States and around the world, including the "Christian Science Monitor", the "San Francisco Chronicle", "St. Petersburg Times", "The New York Times" Syndicate, "Dallas Morning News", and the "Chicago Tribune".
In 2001, he produced a one-hour public radio documentary "The Struggle for Iran," and in 2002 he produced a two-hour documentary, "The Russia Project," both hosted by Walter Cronkite. The specials were independently distributed to more than 200 public radio stations throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. “Children of War,” hosted by Charlayne Hunter Gault, aired in 2003. The radio documentary “Reaching for Peace in the Holy Land,” hosted by Walter Cronkite aired on Public Radio International stations in 2004. “Lessons from Hiroshima 60 Years Later,” a one-hour documentary was hosted by Walter Cronkite (2005 – PRI). He reports regularly for a variety of radio networks, including National Public Radio, CBC, ABC (Australia), and Radio Deutche Welle.
In June 2005 he traveled to Iran with Norman Solomon and Sean Penn. Erlich’s photos accompanied Penn’s five-part series about the trip that appeared in the SF Chronicle, and later appeared in an A&E biography of Penn. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors declared Sept. 14, 2010, to be “Reese Erlich Day” in honor of his investigative journalistic work. The resolution read, in part, “Investigative reporters are under attack in the U.S. and around the world. Mr. Erlich exhibits the finest qualities of such reporters willing to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
Unless otherwise noted in the event description, CMES events are open to the public (no registration required), and off the record. Please note that events may be filmed and photographed by CMES for record-keeping and for use on the CMES website and publications.
LINK  https://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/event/journalist’s-firsthand-report-–-what’s-wrong-us-policy-iran

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Censored: Distraction and Diversion Inside China's Great Firewall (IDSS Seminar)
Tuesday, November 27
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 32-141, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Abstract:  As authoritarian governments around the world develop sophisticated technologies for controlling information, many observers have predicted that these controls would be ineffective because they are easily thwarted and evaded by savvy Internet users. In Censored, Margaret Roberts demonstrates that even censorship that is easy to circumvent can still be enormously effective. Taking advantage of digital data harvested from the Chinese Internet and leaks from China's Propaganda Department, this book sheds light on how and when censorship influences the Chinese public. Roberts finds that much of censorship in China works not by making information impossible to access but by requiring those seeking information to spend extra time and money for access. By inconveniencing users, censorship diverts the attention of citizens and powerfully shapes the spread of information. When Internet users notice blatant censorship, they are willing to compensate for better access. But subtler censorship, such as burying search results or introducing distracting information on the web, is more effective because users are less aware of it. Roberts challenges the conventional wisdom that online censorship is undermined when it is incomplete and shows instead how censorship's porous nature is used strategically to divide the public. Drawing parallels between censorship in China and the way information is manipulated in the United States and other democracies, Roberts reveals how Internet users are susceptible to control even in the most open societies. Demonstrating how censorship travels across countries and technologies, Censored gives an unprecedented view of how governments encroach on the media consumption of citizens.

About the Speaker:  Margaret Roberts is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. Roberts research focuses on better measuring and understanding the political information strategies of authoritarian governments, with a specific focus on studying censorship and propaganda in China. She has also developed widely used methods for automated content analysis in the social sciences. Roberts received her PhD in Government from Harvard University in 2014, an M.S. in Statistics and B.A. in International Relations and Economics from Stanford in 2009. Her work has appeared in venues such as the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Political Analysis, Journal of the American Statistical Association and Science.

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A Conversation with John Kerry
WHEN  Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S)  John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State (2013-2017), Senator from Massachusetts (1985-2013)
TICKET INFO  Enter the lottery before Saturday, Nov. 24 at midnight. Winners will be notified via email on Sunday, November 25. Winners must pick up their tickets at the Institute of Politics on: November 26 and 27 between 9:30 AM-5:00 PM or at the Science Center on Nov. 27 between 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
CONTACT INFO IOP Forum Office 617-495-1380
DETAILS  ***THIS FORUM WILL BE TICKETED***
Enter the lottery before Saturday, Nov. 24 at midnight. Winners will be notified via email on Sunday, Nov. 25. Winners must pick up their tickets at the Institute of Politics on Nov. 26 and 27 between 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. or at the Science Center on Nov. 27 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

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Micro-Meltdown: The Inside Story of the Rise, Fall, and Resurgence of the World’s Most Valuable Microlender
Tuesday, November 27
6 PM 
Tufts, 7th Floor, Cabot Center, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford

Join us for a conversation with Vikram Akula, A90, a pioneer in market-based approaches to financial inclusion and founder of SKS Microfinance. Akula will discuss his book, Micro-Meltdown: The Inside Story of the Rise, Fall and Resurgence of the World’s Most Valuable Microlender, which details how he founded SKS to improve the lives of India’s poor through small loans aimed at providing a path out of poverty. A unique, for-profit venture, SKS’ impact grew rapidly as did its success. The company was praised for blending philanthropy and capitalism, and Akula was named one of the most influential people in the world by the Wall Street Journal and TIME magazine. Later, as microfinance came under fire in India and around the world, SKS experienced first-hand the costs of what was once heralded as a key solution to global poverty. Micro-Meltdown is the story of SKS’ oversights, challenges and obstacles that led to disaster, the eventual resurgence of the microfinance movement, and the lessons learned in between.

Akula is now Chairperson of Vaya, a financial inclusion start up in India, and founder of the Bodhi School, which provides education to disadvantaged children in rural India. He is a senior fellow at the Fletcher School’s Council on Emerging Market Enterprises and a member of the Tisch College Board of Advisors. This event is cosponsored by the Tufts Entrepreneurship Center and the Fletcher School’s Institute for Business in the Global Context.

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Crowdfunding: How to Plan & Launch a Successful Campaign
Tuesday, November 27
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Suffolk University – Blue Sky Lounge, 5th Floor, 120 Tremont Street (Blue Sky Lounge), Boston
Cost:  $0 – $35

Crowdfunding has become an increasingly popular funding strategy for early stage entrepreneurs — but it’s not a guaranteed success. Learn strategies to create an enticing campaign that will resonate with your audience and provide your business with the capital it needs to keep growing!

Questions that will be covered include:
Is crowdfunding right for me?
When is the best time to launch a campaign?
What research should I do prior to launch?
What kind of support or team do I need to create a successful campaign?
What types of rewards should I offer?
What can I do to improve my campaign while it’s still live?
I failed to reach my goal- what went wrong?
How can I leverage a successful campaign for follow-up investment?

Jenni Dinger, Assistant Professor, Management and Entrepreneurship at Suffolk University 
Jenni Dinger is an Assistant Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship at Suffolk University Sawyer Business School. Her research is at the intersection of entrepreneurship and organizational behavior, focusing on the sociological aspects of innovation and venture creation. She’s interested in the social interactions between entrepreneurs and their communities. Jenni and Chaim Letwin co-teach the crowdfunding course which was one of the nation’s first experiential courses on crowdfunding introduced by Suffolk’s Sawyer Business School.

Jackson Stone, Business Development at Netcapital
Jackson Stone is the Director of Business Development at Netcapital, a website where anyone can buy and sell stock in private companies. Before joining Netcapital, Jackson was an analyst at ClearView Healthcare Partners, which is a boutique strategy consulting firm serving clients exclusively in the life sciences sector. Prior to that, he was a Harvard-MIT Health Science & Technology Researcher.

Kate Anderson, Co-Founder and Operations Director at iFundWomen
Kate Anderson is the co-founder and Operations Director of iFundWomen. She has driven millions of dollars into the hands of female founders. Named one of NASDAQ’s “10 Best Resources of Funding for Women Entrepreneurs,” iFundWomen’s flexible crowdfunding platform combines a pay-it-forward model, expert startup coaching, professional video production, and a private community for its entrepreneurs, all with the goal of helping female entrepreneurs launch successful businesses. Kate is a leader in generating change and gender equality within the private fundraising space. Prior to launching iFundWomen, Kate spent four years at Hines Interests, one of the largest and most respected real estate organizations in the world with more than $116 billion under management.

Gihan Amarasiriwardena, Co-Founder & President of Ministry of Supply
Gihan Amarasiriwardena is the Co-Founder & President of Ministry of Supply, a Boston-based high performance business wear men’s and women’s fashion brand launched in 2012. The company’s 2012 Kickstarter campaign raised over $400,000 and became the largest amount raised for a fashion product at the time on a Kickstarter project. Early this year, Ministry of Supply run another successful campaign which raised $642,947 on Kickstarter. Gihan is a creative and curious engineer at heart, with an appreciation for aesthetic. He loves developing new, innovative solutions that fuse technology and design. He even set a Guinness World Record for running a half-marathon in a business suit.

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Ask & Tell: The History & Personal Stories of LGBTQ Veterans
Tuesday, November 27
6-8PM
Boston Public Library, Commonwealth Salon, 700 Boylston Street, Boston

Free and open to the public, but tickets are required.

SpeakOUT and The History Project: Documenting LGBTQ Boston invite you to join us on November 27th in honor of Veteran’s Day to share the stories of LGBTQ veterans with a moderated question and answer session. The History Project will also share a short history of LGBTQ people and the military.

Featuring Marvin Kabakoff, The History Project, and moderator, Ellyn Ruthstrom, SpeakOUT. Speakers to be announced.

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Boston Student Innovation Night
Tuesday, November 27
6:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Alley Powered By Verizon, 10 Ware Street, Cambridge

Boston Student Innovation Night, organized by Startup Island and UNIfy, is an event to create meaningful connections between entrepreneurial-minded college students throughout Boston, to catalyze personal and professional growth, and break down silos among student entrepreneurs.

Whether you're looking to build on a business idea, expand your network, or connect with fellow student entrepreneurs, join us for a night of celebrating the thriving entrepreneurial community in Boston.

Over the course of the night, you will participate in activities designed to get to know fellow event participants in a meaningful way. The night will be highlighted by a series of breakout workshops, hosted by some inspiring entrepreneurs who all share a mission of providing you with unique, targeted lessons, and space where you will be heard, supported, and inspired.

Schedule for the Night:
6-6:15 PM: Check-in, snacks, refreshments, and networking
6:15-6:30 PM: Intros from Startup Island and UNIfy

6:30-7:30 PM: Breakout Sessions:
Post Grad Career Opportunities in Boston
The Business of Being Happy & Healthy
Social Entrepreneurship and Global Impact
Turning Ideas into Action (and a business)
7:30-8:30 PM: Meaningful connecting & one-on-one office hours

Hope to see you there!!

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The War on Science: What We Need to Do
Tuesday, November 27
6:30 PM
Belmont Media Center, 9 Lexington Street, Belmont

Andrew Rosenberg, Ph.D., Director, Center for Science and Democracy, Union of Concerned Scientists Dr. Rosenberg brings more than 25 years of experience in government service and academic and non-profit leadership. He is the author of scores of peer-reviewed studies and reports on fisheries and ocean management and has published on the intersection between science and policy making. In this discussion he explains the present situation in which a significant sector of the American public rejects scientific facts such as climate change. He indicates what the informed public can and must do to diminish resistance to scientific facts and information.

A necessary resource by Dr. Rosenberg for the concerned public: The ABCs of Sidelining Science by the Trump Administration.

Some other current information
E.P.A. to Eliminate Office That Advises Agency Chief on Science
Starving Bears and Snowballs: Talking Science in a Time of Denial

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Defending Planet Earth from Asteroids
Tuesday, November 27 
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Museum of Science, Skyline Room, 1 Science Park, Boston

For millions of years, asteroids have been striking the Earth, often causing considerable damage, widespread changes in climate, and even leading to massive extinction events. What should we do to protect ourselves from future asteroid impacts? Should we be researching and creating advanced spacecraft that could use gravity to steer an asteroid from our path? Should we be investing in asteroid-ramming impactors and space-faring nuclear weapons to blow dangerous asteroids off course? How do we prepare civil defense and emergency managements strategies in the event of an asteroid impact?

Come learn from NASA experts about the threats to our planet from asteroids and other near-Earth objects, discuss the tradeoffs of asteroid protection strategies with others, and make recommendations for the future of our planet’s safety!

Speakers:
Victoria Friedensen, Program Executive, Planetary Defense Coordination Office, NASA
Lindley Johnson, Planetary Defense Officer, NASA

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Building Electrification: The Third Leg of Our Fossil Fuel-Free Future
Monday, November 26
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST
Newton Free Library, 330 Homer Street, Newton

No registration is necessary. Seating is provided on a first come, first served basis. 
Learn about heat pumps as an alternative for both heating and cooling your home from two experts. Nathan Phillips will discuss the need to electrify the building heating sector. Dr. Philip Hanser, who has a split system, will speak about heat pumps and split systems for installation in homes including how they work. Cosponsored by Green Newton as part of the Green Newton Series.

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The View from Russia: Media, Politics, Elections
Speech will be delivered in English
Tuesday, November 27
8:00 pm Maariv service will start at 7:00 pm at CKI Chapel Followed by a reception with Mr. Gusman at 7:30 pm, by invitations only.
The Campus/CMT Sanctuary. The 3rd Floor, 384 Harvard Street, Brookline
Cost: $18, reception - $25.

Mikhail Gusman, First Deputy Director General of ITAR-TASS, Russia’s Oldest and Largest News Agency

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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, November 28
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Speaker Series on Misinformation: Takis Metaxas
Wednesday, November 28
11:30 am - 1:00 pm
Harvard, Wexner Conference Room, Wexner Building, Room 434AB, Cambridge

Speaker Series on Misinformation, co-sponsored by the NULab at Northeastern University.

Takis Metaxas is a Professor of Computer Science at Wellesley College, studying online social media, primarily related to the propagation of information and misinformation, prediction of political events, and in developing tools that help users evaluate the trustworthiness of information. In particular, with his Wellesley colleagues and students, he has been studying the problem of propaganda and online misinformation since 2002.

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Atmospheric Superrotation at Earth's Surface
Wednesday, November 28
12:00PM
Harvard, HUCE Seminar Room 440, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge

Rodrigo Caballero, Professor and Head, Department of Meteorology, Stockholm University, Sweden.
Abstract: Atmospheric superrotation refers to a state with prograde (i.e. westerly) zonal-mean winds at or near the equator. It is an observed feature of several planetary atmospheres, but does not occur on present-day Earth. The question of whether Earth could superrotate under altered climates has attracted attention in recent years and remains unresolved. Though an intriguing problem in geophysical fluid dynamics, superrotation is arguably of limited consequence for the broader climate system unless it is felt at the surface, where it can alter the ocean circulation and surface temperature patterns. In this talk, I will give a general discussion of superrotation and the mechanisms sustaining it. I will also explore whether superrotation can occur at the surface. I show that surface superrotation can occur both in theory and in practice across a hierarchy of Earth-like atmospheric models, albeit in a rather extreme parameter regime.

Harvard Climate Seminar

Contact Name:  Sabinna Cappo

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The Rise and Fall (?) of the Humanitarian intervention Project
Wednesday, November 28
12:00-1:30pm
MIT, Building E40-496, Pye Room, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Rajan Menon, City College of New York
Not long ago, humanitarian intervention was all the rage and produced a cottage industry of books, conferences, and plans for action, notably The Responsibility to Protect (R2P). Today, it appears to be on the back foot. This is not surprising given that the basic assumptions underlying humanitarian intervention were flawed from the get-go, yet rarely called into question given the near-unanimity among its proponents about the program's feasibility and international purchase. So what went wrong, why, and what are we left with?

Bio:  Rajan Menon is the Anne and Bernard Spitzer Professor in International Relations at the Powell School, City College of New York/City University of New York, and Adjunct Senior Research Scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University.

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Political Messaging & the Modern Media
Wednesday, November 28
12:00pm - 1:30pm
BU College of Communication, 640 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 209, Boston

In our changing and increasingly diverse media landscape, international and national politics often crowd local coverage. Non-traditional media continues to expand, while the number of newspaper reporters covering local and state politics shrinks. What strategies do local officials use to craft political messaging that resonates with their constituents? Join the Boston University Initiative on Cities and the College of Communication for a discussion on political messaging that highlights lessons learned from seasoned politicians and staff in the field at different levels of leadership. The panel will feature:
Jerry Abramson, former White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs under President Obama, former Lt. Governor of Kentucky, and the former Mayor of Louisville
Setti Warren, Executive Director of the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University and the former Mayor of Newton
Margaret Quackenbush (COM ‘15), Deputy Press Secretary at the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office

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Re-Engineering Life: Tissue Engineering in Health and the Environment
Wednesday, November 28
4-6 pm
BU, Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering, Howard Eichenbaum Colloquium Room, 610 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston

Tissue engineering aims to restore, maintain, and improve damaged tissues or whole organs. BU researchers are working to understand the interactions between cells and their surroundings, combining emerging and traditional technologies to identify cell function and guide cell and tissue growth. Attend this Research on Tap to learn more about BU’s research in engineering artificial tissues and building hybrid biological/artificial devices for medical and other applications.

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The Racialization of Print: Media and Ideology in the Long Eighteenth Century
Wednesday, November 28
5:00pm to 7:00pm
Northeastern, Holmes Hall, 400B, 39-41 Leon Street, Boston

Joseph Rezek (Associate Professor of English, Boston University) specializes in early and nineteenth-century American literature, British Romanticism, early black Atlantic literature, transatlantic studies, the history of race and racism, and the history of the book. His current book project, The Racialization of Print, tells a new story about the history of race and the history of print before the twentieth century.

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Lessons from the Liver: Uncovering Novel Approaches for Regenerative Medicine
Wednesday, November 28
6:30-8:00pm
Aeronaut Brewing Company, 14 Tyler Street, Somerville

Dr. Kristin Knouse, Ph.D., Scott Cook and Signe Ostby Fellow, The Whitehead Institute
The liver is the only organ in our body that has the ability to regenerate itself. While this remarkable feature of the liver has been appreciated for decades, it is still unclear why the liver can do this while other organs cannot. Dr. Knouse’s laboratory at the Whitehead Institute, an independent non-profit biomedical research organization located in Cambridge, aims to understand what endows the liver with this unique regenerative ability, with the ultimate goal of one day conferring this capacity to other organs in the setting of injury or disease. Please join us for what promises to be an exciting discussion!

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Wit’s End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It
Wednesday, November 28
7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline

In this whimsical book, James Geary explores every facet of wittiness, from its role in innovation to why puns demonstrate the essence of creativity. Geary reasons that wit is both visual and verbal, physical and intellectual.

In Wit’s End, Geary embraces wit in every form by adopting a different style for each chapter; he writes the section on verbal repartee as a dramatic dialogue, the neuroscience of wit as a scientific paper, the spirituality of wit as a sermon, and other chapters in jive, rap, and the heroic couplets of Alexander Pope. Demonstrating that brevity really is the soul of wit, Geary crafts each chapter from concise sections of 200, 400, or 800 words. Entertaining, illuminating, and entirely unique, Wit’s End shows how wit is much more than a sense of humor.

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Sex, Science, and the State:  The Role of Science in Sexual Reproductive Health and Policy Making
Wednesday, November 28
7 to 9:00 p.m. 
Harvard Medical School, Armenise Auditorium (in Goldenson Hall), 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston


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Thursday, November 29
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Picking your battles (and winning them): Protecting rivers in Massachusetts
Thursday, November 29
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Multi-purpose Room, Curtis Hall, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford

Julia Blatt, Executive Director, Massachusetts Rivers Alliance
How do you score a win for the environment when the other side has much deeper pockets (and nicer suits)? Julia Blatt, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Rivers Alliance, has chalked up some surprising wins for rivers in her thirty-year career. She'll share some of her stories and strategies.

Julia Blatt has served as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Rivers Alliance since 2009. The Alliance is a statewide group that works to protect and restore rivers across the Commonwealth and to strengthen and connect its 72 member groups. Prior to holding this position, Julia served as Executive Director of the Organization for the Assabet River for eight years. She has also been a program officer for the Sudbury Foundation, and a congressional aide. A frequent speaker on river protection topics, Julia has been recognized for her contributions to river protection in Massachusetts with awards from the National Park Service, Mass Audubon, the Ipswich River Watershed Association, the Charles River Watershed Association, and Trout Unlimited. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Brown and a master’s in Urban and Environmental policy from Tufts.

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The Journalistic Craft and Legacy of Anthony Shadid: The Triumph of Human Understanding in a Polarized, Digital Age
WHEN  Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018, 12:30 – 2 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, Rubenstein Building, Ellwood Democracy Lab A (Room 414A), 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Middle East Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S)  Rami Khouri, MEI Senior Fellow; Senior Public Policy Fellow, Issam Fares Institute, American University of Beirut; and Visiting Adjunct Professor of Journalism and Journalist-in-Residence at AUB

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Skewed or Rescued?: The Emerging Theory of Algorithmic Fairness
Thursday, November 29
5:00pm to 6:30pm
Harvard, Taubman Building 520 A, B & C, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge

Cynthia Dwork
Description: Intelligent systems, much like humans, have the ability to see and respond to the world around them. Using data in new ways to make more accurate predictions or enabling new services, these machines offer the hope of overcoming the limitations of our own decision-making. However, with this they bring questions about how we make decisions, the influence of bias in decision making and how experts can ensure that key values – such as fairness – are built into artificially intelligent systems. This talk will introduce the emerging theory of algorithmic fairness: how to use the tools of theoretical computer science to clarify -- and address -- the challenges experts face in ensuring that machines make objective decisions.

Cynthia Dwork, the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard, the Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and an Affiliated Faculty Member at Harvard Law School, is renowned for placing privacy-preserving data analysis on a mathematically rigorous foundation.  A cornerstone of this work is the invention of differential privacy, a strong privacy guarantee now used widely in industry and for disclosure control in the 2020 decennial census. With seminal contributions in cryptography, distributed computing, and ensuring statistical validity, her  most recent focus is on fairness in classification algorithms.  Dwork is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Engineering, and the American Philosophical Society, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the ACM.

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The Language of Civic Life: Past to Present
Thursday, November 29
5:00pm to 6:30pm
MIT, Building 56-114, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge

When everyday citizens interact about politics today, they often do so (1) anonymously and (2) in digital space, which results in a kind of aggressive chaos. But what happens when people identify themselves to one another in place-based communities as they do, for example, when writing letters to the editor of their local newspaper? How does that change public discussion?

This talk by Roderick Hart operationalizes the concept of “civic hope” and reports the results of a long-term study of 10,000 letters to the editor written between 1948 and the present in twelve small American cities. Hart’s argument is that the vitality of a democracy lies not in its strengths but in its weaknesses and in the willingness of its people to address those weaknesses without surcease. If democracies were not shot-through with unstable premises and unsteady compacts, its citizens would remain quiet, removed from one another. Disagreements – endless, raucous disagreements – draw them in, or at least enough of them to sustain civic hope.

Roderick Hart is the Allan Shivers Centennial Chair in Communication at the University of Texas at Austin and the founding director of the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life. He is the author of twelve books, the most recent of which is Political Tone: How Leaders Talk and Why. He is also the author of DICTION 7.0, a computer program designed to analyze language patterns. Dr. Hart has been inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at the University of Texas and has also been designated Professor of the Year for the State of Texas from the Carnegie/C.A.S.E. Foundation.

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Essential Knowledge Series on Carbon Capture, Extremism, and Haptics
Thursday, November 29
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST
MIT Press Bookstore, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Join us at the MIT Press Bookstore for a discussion among three authors of The MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series.
The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series offers accessible, concise, beautifully produced books on topics of current interest.

Howard J. Herzog is Senior Research Engineer in the MIT Energy Initiative. His book, Carbon Capture, is a concise overview of carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS), a promising but overlooked climate change mitigation pathway.

J.M. Berger is a fellow with the Counter-Terrorism Strategic Communications Project and a nonresident Fellow with the Alliance for Securing Democracy. His book, Extremism, elucidates what extremism is, how extremist ideologies are constructed, and why extremism can escalate into violence.

Lynette A. Jones is Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and is Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Haptics. Haptics is an accessible, nontechnical overview of active touch sensing, from sensory receptors in the skin to tactile surfaces on flat screen displays.

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On Distraction with John Plotz and Marina van Zuylen
WHEN  Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018, 6 – 8 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, Barker Center 110, Thompson Room, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Humanities, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard
SPEAKER(S)  John Plotz, Professor of English, Brandeis University
Marina van Zuylen, Professor of French and Comparative Literature, Bard College
Robin Kelsey, Dean of Arts and Humanities, Harvard University
COST  Free
617-495-0738

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Honest Signals: Real-Time Emotional Computing with Cogito
Thursday, November 29
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
iMotions, 141 Tremont Street, 7th Floor, Boston

This month's Meetup will feature Naomi Nuta, Senior Director of Behavior Science Services at Cogito Corporation!

Cogito, a leader in real-time emotional intelligence solutions, offers a behavior sensing and guidance platform that is driving superior call outcomes at the world’s most customer-focused organizations. Born from decades of research into “honest signals” by Dr. Sandy Pentland, founder of the MIT Media Lab, Cogito uniquely combines behavioral science insights, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing to analyze hundreds of non-verbal signals in real-time on the call and deliver live guidance to agents, empowering them to make better connections with customers.

This meetup will showcase how a mix of behavioral science and cutting-edge AI can help drive commercial outcomes by augmenting emotional intelligence.

As always, pizza and drinks will be provided!

Schedule:
6:00pm Doors Open, Food & Drinks
6:30pm Welcome by Organizer Jessica
6:35pm Naomi Nuta, Cogito
7:30pm Mingling & Demos

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Screening & Conversation: Hira Nabi, "Gadani: Mazdoor, Jahaz, aur Machli"
Thursday, November 29
6:00pm to 8:00pm
MIT, Building 7-429, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Hira Nabi will screen extracts from a work-in-progress film; this will be followed by a conversation between Hira Nabi and Rosalyne Shieh.

In this docu-fictional work, ‘Ocean Master’ a container vessel is anthropomorphized, and enters into a dialogue with several workers at the Gadani yards. The conversation moves between dreams and desire, places that can be called home, and the structural violence embedded in the act of dismembering a ship at Gadani. As the workers recall the homes and families they left behind, the long work days mesh indistinguishably into one another, and the desperation that they carry with them like shackles, they are forced to confront the realities of their work in which they are faced with death every day, and how they may survive and look towards a future.

Hira Nabi is a filmmaker, multimedia artist, and a writer/researcher. Her work looks at repressed memory in urban landscapes, imagined histories and possible futures, movements and migrations, botanical exchanges, infrastructures, and the environment. She has exhibited and screened at Alwan Center for the Arts in New York, Union de Escrituras y Artistas de Cuba, in Havana, The Second Floor, and Vasl Artists Association in Karachi, the International Summer Academy for Fine Arts in Salzburg, Festival de Cine Pobre, Gibara, L’Alternativa Festival, in Barcelona, and the first Lahore Biennial among others. She earned a BA in video and postcolonial studies from Hampshire College in 2010, and an MA in cinema and media studies from The New School in 2016. Her most recent and ongoing work is a study of the shipbreaking yard at Gadani, in Pakistan.

Rosalyne Shieh is the Marion Mahony Emerging Practitioner Fellow. She is a founder of SCHAUM/SHIEH, a collaborative practice based in New York City and Houston. In her research project, Lessons in Prosaic Form: Informal Material Culture in Taiwan, Rosalyne aims to produce an ‘erratic atlas’ fashioned from archival findings, imagistic descriptions, interviews, and photographs. In focusing on the intersections of personal histories, material culture, and the built environment, she hopes to create new ways of thinking on today’s complex issues of culture, identity, and site. Rosalyne will teach studio and a workshop this year. The workshop, Self and Work, looks at collapsing personal and objective knowledge to construct a multi-layered image of place. SCHAUM/SHIEH recently completed a ground-up building for the Transart Foundation in Houston; ongoing projects include a masterplan for the Judd Foundation and a building restoration for the Chinati Foundation, both in Marfa, Texas. They have exhibited at the Venice Biennale and the Storefront for Art and Architecture. They were 2017 MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program finalists and a 2016 AIA New Practice New York. Rosalyne has taught at Yale, The Cooper Union, Syracuse, and the University of Michigan, where she was a Taubman Fellow in Architecture. She is also a MacDowell Fellow. She holds an M.Arch. from Princeton, an M.Sc. in Architectural History from The Bartlett, and a B.A. from Berkeley. She is a licensed architect in the state of New York.

MIT Department of Architecture
Fall 2018 Lecture Series
Organized by Rosalyne Shieh, Marion Mahony Emerging Practitioner Fellow, MIT Department of Architecture

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AUGMENTED & VIRTUAL REALITY: DIGITAL TRENDS OF 2019
Thursday, 29 November
6:30 – 8:30 pm EST
GA Boston, 125 Summer Street 13th Floor, Boston

We're diving into trends for 2019, centered around the major new player on the digital scene: Augmented and Virtual Reality.
Join us as we sit down with our expert panel to paint a better picture of how diverse industries are looking to use this tech in the future, and how you could get into this exciting field. 

By signing up for this event, you're giving our sponsors permission to contact you about upcoming events and promotions.

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Boston Preparing for Collapse Meetup: First Meetup
Thursday, November 29
6:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Boloco Boston Common, 176 Boylston Street, Boston (Our table will be the one with flowers in a vase)

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Mentalligence: A New Psychology of Thinking 
Thursday, November 29
7:00pm
338 Newbury Street, Boston

Dr. Kristen Lee
One of the greatest gifts we can give to ourselves is rethinking what we've been taught, because thoughts become behaviors. The same mind that gets us stuck is the same one that can set us free. It's time to rip up the script society hands us, breathe deep, and reclaim a healthy definition of success that doesn't compartmentalize your mind, body and soul. We need a new organizing framework that allows more flexibility and moral grounding―one that lets science, emotion and spirit to fuse.

Too often, life's disorienting moments can leave us tumbling into messy, downward spirals. We lose clarity, and are held hostage by blind spots that keep us from thriving. We fall into common mindless behavioral traps which lead to perpetual patterns of shutting down, numbing out, binding up and staying stuck. In this uniquely liberating book, Dr. Kristen Lee teaches us how to apply a process of behavioral change using a series of different lenses, to steer our brains to overcome blind spots and cultivate Upward Spiral habits.

A leading expert on resilience and behavioral science, Dr. Kristen Lee developed this new psychology of thinking model from over twenty years of clinical practice, the latest neuroscience, and her own research findings. Mentalligence [men-tel-i-juh-ns] is a sage guide that will help you build meta-awareness by emphasizing an impact-driven rather than a performance-obsessed mindset, and adopt a model of 'collective efficacy' that is less I-focused and more we-focused, to facilitate positive social impact at a time when it's desperately needed. This is what psychologists call 'The Good Life'―living mindfully and consciously.  Rather than falling for predominant definitions of 'success' that leave us boxed in, depleted, and oblivious to ways we can work together, Mentalligence helps us find the thinking and behavioral agility to work towards better outcomes for all.

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Friday, November 30
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Utility Resilience: Lessons From Puerto Rico and Local Preparation
Friday, November 30
Registration - 7:15 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.
Forum - 8:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.
University of Massachusetts Club, One Beacon Street, Boston
Cost: $15 - $45

Adapting utilities to be resilient to climate impacts, from extreme storm events to heatwaves, poses significant challenges and opportunities for providers and communities. Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017 and resulted in the longest blackout in U.S. History. The Forum welcomes Malu Blázquez Arsuaga, the Executive Director of the Resilient Puerto Rico Advisory Commission, and speakers from Resilient Power Puerto Rico to discuss lessons learned from Hurricane Maria and rebuilding resilient utility infrastructure.

We will then turn our focus to local climate impacts and hear what steps are being taken for regional utility resilience. Local utility providers and communities will discuss on-going projects and challenges for climate adaptation in New England.
Keynote Presentation
Malu Blázquez Arsuaga, Executive Director, Resilient Puerto Rico Advisory Commission

Forum Co-Chairs
Julie Eaton, Lead Resiliency Engineer, Weston & Sampson
Alex Papali, Green Justice Coordinator, Clean Water Action

Additional speakers to be announced.

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Atmospheric & Environmental Chemistry Seminar
Friday, November 30
12:00PM
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge

Professor Cora Young, York University, will give a talk

Atmospheric & Environmental Chemistry Seminar

Contact Name:  Kelvin Bates

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Distributional Models of Ocean Carbon Export
Friday, November 30,
11:00am to 12:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge

Thesis Defense: B. B. Cael

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IACS Seminar: Machine Learning for Materials Discovery
WHEN  Friday, Nov. 30, 2018, 1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, Geological Museum, Geological Lecture Hall 100, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Information Technology, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute for Applied Computational Science at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
SPEAKER(S)  Julia Ling, Director of Data Science at Citrine Informatics
COST  Free and open to the public. No registration required.
CONTACT INFO Email: iacs-info@seas.harvard.edu
Phone: 617-496-2623
DETAILS  Materials science presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities for machine learning methods in terms of data size, data sparsity, available domain knowledge, and multi-scale physics. In this talk, Dr. Ling will discuss how machine learning can be used to accelerate materials discovery through a sequential learning workflow. You'll examine how domain knowledge can be integrated into data-driven models, the role of uncertainty quantification in driving exploration of new design candidates, and how to forecast the impact of a data-driven approach on a given materials discovery campaign.

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Combating the Climate Crisis: from Regulation to Legislation: Senator Edward Markey
Friday, November 304:00pm
MIT, Building 32-123, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Senator Edward J. Markey, a consumer champion and national leader on climate change, energy, environmental protection and telecommunications policy, has a prolific legislative record on major issues across the policy spectrum and a deep commitment to improving the lives of the people of Massachusetts and our country. 


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Perceiving what we cannot sense: Insights from 3D vision 
Friday, November 30
4:00 PM to 5:00 PM
MIT, Building 46-3002, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Prof. Ari Rosenberg , University of Wisconsin - Madison
Abstract: Our sensory systems are unable to directly sense all the aspects of the world we perceive. For example, our perception of the world as three-dimensional (3D) is compelling, but our eyes only detect two-dimensional (2D) projections of our surroundings. Creating accurate and precise 3D percepts is critical for successful interactions with our environment, but how does the brain solve this inverse problem? Using 3D vision in the macaque monkey as the model system, I will show behavioral, neuroimaging, and electrophysiological data that together reveal a hierarchical, cortical pathway specialized for implementing the 2D-to-3D visual transformation. The results of these experiments reveal roles of little explored brain areas in the dorsal visual pathway, including V3A and CIP, and have broader implications for our understanding of how the brain solves nonlinear otimization problems required to perceive what we cannot sense.

Contact: Kathleen Sullivan, kdsulliv@csail.mit.edu

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Outbreak Culture: The Ebola Virus and the Next Epidemic
Friday, November 30
7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline

At the height of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, a prominent physician working in Sierra Leone, Sheikh Humarr Khan, became infected with the virus and died. As Pardis Sabeti and Lara Salahi show, much more could have been done within the medical community and among international actors to protect not only this renowned infectious disease expert but also the well-being of his patients and others affected by this devastating disease.

Written by an award-winning genetic researcher and a tenacious journalist, Outbreak Culture examines each phase of the epidemic–the largest and deadliest of its kind–and identifies the factors that kept key information from reaching physicians and complicated the government’s response to the crisis. Drawing insights from clinical workers, data collectors, organizational experts, and scholars, Salahi and Sabeti expose a fractured system that failed to share knowledge of the virus and ensure containment.

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The Empathy Effect:  Seven Neuroscience-Based Keys for Transforming the Way We Live, Love, Work,and Connect Across Differences
Friday, November 30
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Harvard Book Store welcomes Harvard Medical School professor DR. HELEN RIESS and science and medicine historian SUSAN LANZONI for a discussion of their respective new books, The Empathy Effect: Seven Neuroscience-Based Keys for Transforming the Way We Live, Love, Work, and Connect Across Differences and Empathy: A History.

About The Empathy Effect
Empathy is undergoing a new evolution. In a global and interconnected culture, we can no longer afford to identify only with people who seem to be a part of our “tribe.” As Dr. Helen Riess of Harvard Medical School has learned, our capacity for empathy is not just an innate trait—it is also a skill that we can learn and expand. With The Empathy Effect, the leading researcher presents a groundbreaking teaching book to help us learn essential skills for transforming the way we relate to others in any situation.

“Nourishing empathy lets us help not just ourselves,” says Dr. Riess, “but also everyone we interact with, whether for a moment or a lifetime.” Drawing from her empathy training curricula now used internationally in health care, business, and education, she takes us step by step through her EMPATHY program. Here you’ll learn to enhance empathic behavior in yourself and others; recognize and reverse dehumanization and scapegoating tactics; practice empathy at work, home, and in everyday settings; discover ways to build empathy in groups and leadership positions; and much more.

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Saturday December 1
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Venezuela: Reportback from Boston Delegation
Saturday December 1
4:00 - 6:00 pm
encuentro 5, 9A Hamilton Place, Boston

Venezuela is in crisis but mainstream media gives only one side of the story. Boston activists visited Caracas and Lara State in November on a fact-finding mission. They visited a community council, urban garden, rural agriculture cooperative and the Bolivarian socialist workers union. The delegation talked with Afro Venezuelans, ecosocialists, government officials and people on the street.

The Trump administration is waging economic war and laying the grounds for possible US military intervention. US Left and progressives need to learn the facts and oppose US intervention!? The reportback will feature fresh eyewitness accounts and discussion.

Sponsored by Boston Venezuelan Solidarity Committee.??(508-577-4661)
Endorsed by United for Justice with Peace.

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Monday, December 3
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Distinguished Speaker Series: Maura Healey
Monday, December 3
12 PM
Tufts, Distler Auditorium, Granoff Music Center, 20 Talbot Avenue, Medford

Join Tisch College for a discussion with Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey on state and national politics, critical issues facing the Commonwealth, and what it’s like to take the President to court. Since 2015, Healey has served as the Massachusetts Attorney General, leading fights to uphold the state’s existing assault weapons ban, to overturn the Trump Administration’s controversial immigration policies, and to defend net neutrality protections. Before being elected Attorney General, Healey helped lead the Attorney General’s Office under Martha Coakley, first as Chief of the Civil Rights Division and then as director of the Public Protection & Advocacy Bureau and the Business & Labor Bureau. A prosecutor in Middlesex County and a litigation partner at WilmerHale for several years, Healey also spent two years as a 5’4” starting point guard on a professional basketball team in Austria after graduating from Harvard College and before attending law school at Northeastern University. She is the first openly gay Attorney General in the United States.

Cosponsored by the Political Science Department and JumboVote. Follow the conversation live at #AGHealeyAtTufts

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PAOC [Program on Air, Oceans, Climates] Colloquium: Daniel Rothman (MIT)
Monday, December 03, 2018 at 12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge

About this Series
The PAOC Colloquium [PAOCC] is a weekly interdisciplinary seminar series that brings together the whole PAOC community. Seminar topics include all research concerning the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmospheres, oceans and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars take place on Monday from 12-1pm in 54-923. Lunch is provided after the seminars to encourage students and post-docs to meet with the speaker. Besides the seminar and lunch, individual meetings with professors, post-docs, and students are arranged. Contact the 2018/2019 Coordinators: paoc-colloquium-comm@mit.edu.

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The Oil Climate Index: Analyzing the Heterogeneous Lifecycle Greenhouse Gas Impacts of Global Oils
Monday, December 3
12:00pm to 1:30pm
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, HKS, 79 Street, Cambridge

Deborah Gordon, Director, Energy and Climate Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Lunch will be served.

HKS Energy Policy Seminar

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Embracing the complexity of nature –genomic approaches for understanding the development and evolution of forest trees
Monday, December 3
12:10p
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill, 1300 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain

Andrew Groover, Research Geneticist, US Forest Service

WATCH LIVE on the Arboretum’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/ArnoldArboretum/) if you are unable to attend in person. The streaming video is entitled “Arnold Arboretum Live Stream” and is visible only when a live stream is in progress.

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Failed Sociotechnical Imaginaries: Chechnya as the 'Second Kuwait'
Monday, December 3
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, Bowie-Vernon Room (K262), CGIS North, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge

Olga Breininger-Umetayeva (Harvard, Slavic).
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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Felicity Scott and Mark Wasiuta | AgitArch Experiments Roundtable
Monday, December 3
12:30pm to 2:00pm
MIT, Building 7-429, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Part of the Fall 2018 Experiments in Pedagogy: Agit Arch Experiments, organized by Ana Miljacki

Felicity D. Scott is professor of architecture, director of the PhD program in Architecture (History and Theory), and co-director of the program in Critical, Curatorial and Conceptual Practices in Architecture (CCCP) at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University. Her work as a historian and theorist focuses on articulating genealogies of political and theoretical engagement with questions of techno-scientific, environmental, and geopolitical transformation within modern and contemporary architecture, art, and media, as well as upon the discourses, institutions and social movements that have shaped and defined these disciplines, sometimes evidently, sometimes less so.

In addition to publishing numerous articles in journals, magazines, catalogs, and edited anthologies, she has published Architecture or Techno-Utopia: Politics After Modernism (MIT Press, 2007), Living Archive 7: Ant Farm (ACTAR, 2008), Outlaw Territories: Environments of Insecurity/Architectures of Counter-Insurgency (Zone Books, 2016), and Disorientations: Bernard Rudofsky in the Empire of Signs(Sternberg Press, 2016). She is the recipient of many awards, including the German Transatlantic Berlin Prize from the American Academy in Berlin (2013), Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts Grants (2011, 2017), a New York State Council on the Arts Independent Project Award (2010), a Clark Fellowship (2008), an Arts Writers Grant from Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation (2007), a J. Paul Getty Postdoctoral Fellowship (2002-2003), and a Henry Luce/ACLS Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship in American Art (1998-1999). She is also a founding co-editor of Grey Room, a quarterly journal of architecture, art, media, and politics published quarterly by MIT Press since Fall 2000. 

Continuing to work at the nexus of architecture, media, politics, and environment, and still focused on institutional frameworks, emergent techno-scientific forces, and social movements, Scott’s research has turned to address mechanisms of global and trans-national governance and the developmental regimes that inform the shifting topology of the so-called Global North and Global South, as well as to trace colonial and neocolonial exploitation and violence in its many forms, including war, resource extraction, racism, and gender inequities. Following her recent book, Outlaw Territories: Environments of Insecurity/Architectures of Counterinsurgency,current research addresses: the environment and video works of Chilean artist and architect Juan Downey; space colonization during the 1970s and the haunting return of attendant ideologies today; a “global” film program affiliated with the UN’s Habitat conference in 1976, and claiming to produce “documents of reality,” “visual statements,” or even a “world picture” under the rubric of “communications development aid”; and (in conjunction with Mark Wasiuta) a research/exhibition project on Cambodia’s “post-colonial” modernization and its violent reversals from the mid-1950s to the late-1980s entitled “Absent Archives, Media Afterlives: New Khmer Environments.

Mark Wasiuta is Lecturer in Architecture at Columbia GSAPP and Co-Director of the Critical, Curatorial and Conceptual Practices in Architecture program. 

Wasiuta is the recipient of recent grants from the Graham Foundation, NYSCA and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Recent exhibitions curated and produced with various collaborators include, Environmental Communications: Contact High at the Chicago Architecture Biennial, La Fine Del Mondo at the 14th Architectural Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, Air Manifest: Los Angeles 1955, 1965at Studio X Istanbul in conjunction with the 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial, Deste Fashion Collection 1 to 8 at the Benaki Museum, Athens, and Information Fall-Out: Buckminster Fuller’s World Game at the Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery. 

He is co-editor and co-author of Dan Graham’s New Jersey. Forthcoming publications include the books Environments and Counter Environments, Experimental Media in Italy: The New Domestic Landscape and Collecting Architecture Territories. He is partner in the design and research office the International House of Architecture. The office is currently completing a history of the air urbanism of Los Angeles in the context of a postwar cultural and material economy of contamination and purification.

MIT Department of Architecture
Fall 2018 Lecture Series

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Book Talk — Politics with the People: Building a Directly Representative Democracy
WHEN  Monday, Dec. 3, 2018, 1 – 2:15 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, Ash Center Foyer, Floor 2, Suite 200N, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Ash Center, Harvard Kennedy School
COST  Free
CONTACT INFO info@ash.harvard.edu
DETAILS  "Politics with the People: Building a Directly Representative Democracy" authors Michael Neblo, Ohio State University; and David Lazer, Northeastern University.
Jill Lepore, Harvard University, will serve as a respondent. Archon Fung, Harvard Kennedy School, will moderate. Lunch will be served.

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The Opportunity Atlas: Mapping the Childhood Roots of Social Mobility (IDSS Distinguished Speaker Seminar:)
Monday, December 3
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 32-155, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Abstract:  We construct a publicly available atlas of children’s outcomes in adulthood by Census tract using anonymized longitudinal data covering nearly the entire U.S. population. For each tract, we estimate children’s earnings distributions, incarceration rates, and other outcomes in adulthood by parental income, race, and gender. These estimates allow us to trace the roots of outcomes such as poverty and incarceration back to the neighborhoods in which children grew up. We find that children’s outcomes vary sharply across nearby areas: for children of parents at the 25th percentile of the income distribution, the standard deviation of mean household income at age 35 is $5,000 across tracts within counties. We illustrate how these tract-level data can provide insight into how neighborhoods shape the development of human capital and support local economic policy using two applications. First, the estimates permit precise targeting of policies to improve economic opportunity by uncovering specific neighborhoods where certain subgroups of children grow up to have poor outcomes. Neighborhoods matter at a very granular level: conditional on characteristics such as poverty rates in a child’s own Census tract, characteristics of tracts that are one mile away have little predictive power for a child’s outcomes. Our historical estimates are informative predictors of outcomes even for children growing up today because neighborhood conditions are relatively stable over time. Second, we show that the observational estimates are highly predictive of neighborhoods’ causal effects, based on a comparison to data from the Moving to Opportunity experiment and a quasi-experimental research design analyzing movers’ outcomes. We then identify high-opportunity neighborhoods that are affordable to low-income families, providing an input into the design of affordable housing policies. Our measures of children’s long-term outcomes are only weakly correlated with traditional proxies for local economic success such as rates of job growth, showing that the conditions that create greater upward mobility are not necessarily the same as those that lead to productive labor markets.

About the Speaker:  Raj Chetty is the William A. Ackman Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He is also the Director of the Equality of Opportunity Project, which uses “big data” to understand how we can give children from disadvantaged backgrounds better chances of succeeding. Chetty’s research combines empirical evidence and economic theory to help design more effective government policies. His work on topics ranging from tax policy and unemployment insurance to education and affordable housing has been widely cited in academia, media outlets, and Congressional testimony.

Chetty received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2003 and is one of the youngest tenured professors in Harvard’s history. Before joining the faculty at Harvard, he was a professor at UC-Berkeley and Stanford University. Chetty has received numerous awards for his research, including a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and the John Bates Clark medal, given to the economist under 40 whose work is judged to have made the most significant contribution to the field.

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Joan Jonas and Sung Hwan Kim: In Conversation
Monday, December 3
6:00pm to 7:30pm
MIT, Building E14: Media Lab, 3rd Floor, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge

ACT’s Professor Emerita, Joan Jonas, and alumnus, Sung Hwan Kim, will be together in conversation with ACT Director, Judith Barry. This event will honor Jonas’ contribution to ACT, and highlight the re-emergence of a performance art course at ACT, to be taught by Kim in Spring 2019.

Respondents:
Jay Scheib, Professor in Theater, Music And Theater Arts Department, MIT
Karthik Pandian, Assistant Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies, Department of Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard

Part of the Fall 2018 Lecture Series: Vibrant Signs and Indeterminant Matter(s)

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The Future of Transportation: Autonomy and Interdependence
Monday, December 3, 2018
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
The Venture Cafe at the Cambridge Innovation Center, One Broadway, 5th Floor, Kendall Square, Cambridge
Doors open @ 6pm -- Come early and meet other Long Now thinkers -- Presentation starts @ 7pm
RSVP at https://futureoftransportinterdependence.eventbrite.com [CIC members use your discount at Eventbrite; Students must use Eventbrite because we can't set up student tickets here]

A Long Now Boston Community Conversation with
Robin Chase, Transportation Entrepreneur, Co-Founder of Zipcar

Hollywood and the comic books get it all wrong. There are no flying cars. Yet.

The movie Minority Report (2002) offered an interesting vision of urban transportation, with self-driving hover cars moving on multi-tiered 3D highways at high speeds – all fully interconnected and (it turns out) fully controlled by an untrustworthy bureaucracy. According to Robin Chase, the co-founder of Zipcar and Veniam and a leading visionary on the shared economy, that image is comically flawed.

Join the Long Now Boston conversation as Robin Chase shares her perspective on the not too distant future of transportation technology, and the roadmap we need to follow to get there.

Among the topics we'll explore through a Long Now lens:
What technology innovations will be fundamental to the movement of people and goods in the future?
What are the institutional challenges we are going to have to solve to achieve smarter, cleaner transportation systems?
How do current policies and regulatory frameworks stifle innovation and reward complacency --- and how do we fix them?
What changes in infrastructure investments, and even in capitalism itself, are needed to enable more sustainable, adaptive and resilient transportation systems?

Join the conversation and be part of the solution.

$15 in advance // $20 at the door. Students w/ID admitted free.
Audience participation is encouraged.

The Long Now Boston Conversation Series hosts leading transportation entrepreneur, Robin Chase to share her vision for a future where transportation is optimized for human needs. The opportunities are closer than you think.

Robin Chase is a leading transportation entrepreneur. The co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar, she also founded Buzzcar, a peer-to-peer car sharing service, and GoLoco, a ride-sharing company, and is co-founder of Veniam, a vehicle network communications company. In 2015, she authored, Peers Inc: How People and Platforms are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism (2015). Robin is a graduate of Wellesley College (B.A.), and the MIT Sloan School of Management (M.B.A.), and won a Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She is a popular speaker and presenter, and serves as a Board member for the World Resources Institute.

We’re proud and excited to welcome Robin to the Long Now Boston community.

Cambridge Innovation Center is an in-kind sponsor of this Long Now Boston conversation. We are very grateful for their support.

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Tuesday, December 4
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Climate change and food security in the Asia-Pacific: Response and resilience 
Tuesday, December 4
2:30pm to 3:30pm
MIT, Building 66-360, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge

Join visiting scholar Md. Saidul Islam from Nanyang Technological University Singapore for the third event in his guest lecture series. Climate change is putting a large strain on food production, and that pressure is on track to increase. Come hear Professor Islam discuss regional initiatives and future resilience in regard to climate change's impact on food security in the Asia-Pacific.

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Will solid-state batteries compete with liquid-based Li-ion technology?
Tuesday, December 4
3:30pm to 4:30pm
MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge

The Materials Science and Engineering Seminar Series presents Prof. Jeff Sakamoto from the University of Michigan.

Abstract:  There is tremendous interest in making the next super battery, but Li-ion technology works so well and has inertia in several commercial markets.  Supplanting Li-ion will be difficult. Recent breakthroughs in Li metal solid-state electrolytes could enable a new class of non-combustible solid-state batteries (SSB) with twice the energy density (1,200 Wh/l) compared to Li-ion. However, technological and manufacturing challenges remain.  The discussion will consist of recent milestones and knowledge gaps to include:
Stability and kinetics of the Li metal-solid electrolyte interface
Understanding and controlling an unusual phenomenon: Li metal penetration in solid electrolytes; how can something soft penetrate something hard?
Solid-state mechanics of Li metal and composite ceramic electrodes
Despite the challenges, SSB technology is rapidly progressing.  Multi-disciplinary research in the fields of materials science, solid-state electrochemistry, and solid-state mechanics will play an important role in determining if SSB will make the lab-to-market transition.

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The Meaning of the Midterms: Who Counted? Who Voted?
WHEN  Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2018, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE  Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S)  Aimee Allison, president, Democracy in Color
Katherine J. Cramer, professor of political science, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Sarah Lenti, CEO, director, and board secretary, Serve America Movement
Robert O. Self RI ’08, Mary Ann Lippitt Professor of American History, Brown University
Moderated by Asma Khalid, political reporter, NPR
COST  Free
DETAILS  The year 2018 will be remembered for its surge in women's candidacies. Whether through individual, high-profile victories or the sheer force of hundreds upon hundreds of women standing for office, this electoral cycle has reflected options at the local, state, and national levels that are starkly different from any that Americans have confronted before at the ballot box. Whatever the outcomes of the November elections, the role of women, as well as of people of color, immigrants, and other historically underrepresented groups, will be pivotal.
This panel will offer an analysis of the election results through a diverse set of perspectives — academic, experiential, gendered, generational, geographic, and political — to enhance our understanding of the midterms.
Register online.

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Asian Americans and Affirmative Action Policy
Tuesday, December 4
4:30pm
MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Van C. Tran, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Columbia University, is a sociologist whose research and writing broadly focus on the incorporation of Asian and Latino immigrants and their children, as well as its implications for American culture, politics and society. Within this area, his contribution lies in the study of the immigrant second generation (i.e. children of immigrants born in the U.S.) and how ethnic neighborhoods and cultural processes shape social mobility among second-generation Asian and Latino/a Americans.

His research has been published in both sociology and interdisciplinary journals, including Social Forces, International Migration Review, Ethnic and Racial Studies, City & Community, Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, and The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. His scholarship has been recognized with awards from the Section on International Migration, Section on Latino/a Sociology and Section on Community and Urban Sociology of the American Sociological Association.

Tran was born in Vietnam and grew up in Thailand before resettling in New York City as a refugee in 1998. He developed his interest in immigration and urban inequality as an observer of the city’s many diverse communities.

Free and open to the public | Refreshments will be served
Sponsored by the Inter-University Committee on International Migration

The Inter-University Committee on International Migration
Since its establishment in 1974, the Inter-University Committee on International Migration has been a focal point for migration and refugee studies at member institutions, which include Boston University, Brandeis University, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Harvard University, MIT, Tufts University, and Wellesley College. The committee is chaired by MIT as a program of the Center for International Studies (CIS).

Migration Seminar Series
During each academic year, the Committee sponsors a seminar series on international migration, The Myron Weiner Seminar Series on International Migration, held at MIT's Center for International Studies. The seminars explore factors affecting international population movements and their impact upon sending and receiving countries and relations among them. 

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Cleantech Capital: Funding the Energy Future
Tuesday, December 4
5:30pm to 8:30pm
Wolf Greenfield, 600 Atlantic Avenue, Boston
Cost:  $5 - $30
This event will be live streamed

Fundraising is challenging, particularly in the cleantech space. However, the sector has seen a recent increase in startup funding and corporate interest that has been coupled with a desire for more digital, distributed, and resilient solutions. Join us for a primer on energy fundraising – a panel of cleantech investors will discuss their approach to investing from initial pitch and diligence to investment and long-term engagement. Investors will also share their perspectives on why the market is ripe for energy innovation, highlighting emerging energy technologies and trends that are attractive in the venture space. You will gain insight into how to engage with investors as an early-stage company, and how investors can add value and serve as strategic partners beyond funding.

Join us to learn where to start, what to look for, who to reach out to, how to reach out, what processes to anticipate, and how to work with your investors.

Moderator
Kathryn Meng Elmes, Investment Associate, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center
Panel
Matthew Nordan, Co-founder, PRIME Coalition, Managing Director, PRIME Impact Fund
Ally Yost, Associate, The Engine
Patrick Walsh, Investment Director, National Grid Corporate Development
Christina Karapataki, Investor, Breakthrough Energy Ventures

Event Schedule
5:30-6:00 Registration and networking
6:00-7:30 Welcome and panel discussion
7:30-8:30 Networking

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The Ethics of Species Conservation
Tuesday, December 4
7:00–8:15pm
Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Building
RSVP at https://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Policies.aspx or call 617-384-5277
Cost:  $0 - $10

Ronald Sandler, PhD, Chair and Professor of Philosophy; Director, Ethics Institute, Northeastern University
Rapid ecological change, and climate change in particular, poses challenges to traditional conservation paradigms and strategies. It has also led some conservationists to endorse novel conservation techniques, such as assisted colonization, gene drives and even de-extinction. This talk will explore the values and philosophies that underlie species conservation under conditions of rapid change. It will ask us to think about what is valuable about species and why we ought to try to conserve them.

Ronald Sandler is the author of the following books: Environmental Ethics (2017, Oxford University Press), Food Ethics (2014, Routledge), The Ethics of Species (2012, Cambridge University Press), Ethics and Emerging Technologies (2013, Palgrave Macmillan), and Character and Environment (2007, Columbia University Press).

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Opportunity
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Announcing Destination 2040: The next long-range transportation plan for the Boston region

How would you improve the Boston region’s transportation system? That’s the question at the heart of the MPO’s preparations for Destination 2040, which the MPO expects to adopt in the spring of 2019.

Every four years, the MPO identifies the system’s strengths and weaknesses; forecasts changes in population, employment, and land use; and creates a plan to address existing and future mobility needs. The resulting long-range transportation plan (LRTP) allocates funding for major projects in the Boston region and guides the MPO’s funding of capital investment programs and studies.

Use the new Destination 2040 website at http://ctps.org/lrtp-dev to explore the state of the system; learn how the MPO will identify needs, revisit its vision and goals, and prioritize its investments; and share your own interests, concerns, and ideas.

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Resource
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Where is the best yogurt on the planet made? Somerville, of course!
Join the Somerville Yogurt Making Cooperative and get a weekly quart of the most thick, creamy, rich and tart yogurt in the world. Members share the responsibility for making yogurt in our kitchen located just outside of Davis Sq. in FirstChurch.  No previous yogurt making experience is necessary.

For more information checkout.

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Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents

Solar map of Cambridge, MA

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Sustainable Business Network Local Green Guide
SBN is excited to announce the soft launch of its new Local Green Guide, Massachusetts' premier Green Business Directory!
To view the directory please visit: http://www.localgreenguide.org
To find out how how your business can be listed on the website or for sponsorship opportunities please contact Adritha at adritha@sbnboston.org

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Boston Food System
"The Boston Food System [listserv] provides a forum to post announcements of events, employment opportunities, internships, programs, lectures, and other activities as well as related articles or other publications of a non-commercial nature covering the area's food system - food, nutrition, farming, education, etc. - that take place or focus on or around Greater Boston (broadly delineated)."
The Boston area is one of the most active nationwide in terms of food system activities - projects, services, and events connected to food, farming, nutrition - and often connected to education, public health, environment, arts, social services and other arenas.   Hundreds of organizations and enterprises cover our area, but what is going on week-to-week is not always well publicized.
Hence, the new Boston Food System listserv, as the place to let everyone know about these activities.  Specifically:
Use of the BFS list will begin soon, once we get a decent base of subscribers.  Clarification of what is appropriate to announce and other posting guidelines will be provided as well.
It's easy to subscribe right now at https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/bfs

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The Boston Network for International Development (BNID) maintains a website (BNID.org) that serves as a clearing-house for information on organizations, events, and jobs related to international development in the Boston area. BNID has played an important auxiliary role in fostering international development activities in the Boston area, as witnessed by the expanding content of the site and a significant growth in the number of users.
The website contains:
A calendar of Boston area events and volunteer opportunities related to International Development - http://www.bnid.org/events
A jobs board that includes both internships and full time positions related to International Development that is updated daily - http://www.bnid.org/jobs
A directory and descriptions of more than 250 Boston-area organizations - http://www.bnid.org/organizations
Also, please sign up for our weekly newsletter (we promise only one email per week) to get the most up-to-date information on new job and internship opportunities -www.bnid.org/sign-up
The website is completely free for students and our goal is to help connect students who are interested in international development with many of the worthwhile organizations in the area.
Please feel free to email our organization at info@bnid.org if you have any questions!

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Boston Maker Spaces - 41 (up from 27 in 2016) and counting:  https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zGHnt9r2pQx8.kfw9evrHsKjA&hl=en
Solidarity Network Economy:  https://ussolidarityeconomy.wordpress.com
Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston:  http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/

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Links to events at over 50 colleges and universities at Hubevents:  http://hubevents.blogspot.com

Thanks to
Fred Hapgood's Selected Lectures on Science and Engineering in the Boston Area:  http://www.BostonScienceLectures.com
Sustainability at Harvard:  http://green.harvard.edu/events
Startup and Entrepreneurial Events:  http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/
Cambridge Civic Journal:  http://www.rwinters.com
Cambridge Happenings:   http://cambridgehappenings.org
Cambridge Community Calendar:  https://www.cctvcambridge.org/calendar


If you have an event you would like to see here, the submission deadline is 11 AM on Sundays, as Energy (and Other) Events is sent out Sunday afternoons.
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