[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events - April 3, 2016
gmoke
gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Apr 3 11:05:49 PDT 2016
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 at world.std.com
What I Do and Why I Do It: The Story of Energy (and Other) Events
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-i-do-and-why-i-do-it.html
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Index
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Full event information follows the Index and notices of my latest writings.
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Monday, April 4
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12pm MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) - Shaojie Song (MIT)
12pm Solar geoengineering: an update and case for research
12pm Religion in the News-When Rights Collide: Abortion, Contraceptives, and Religious Liberty at the Supreme Court in 2016
12pm Physics Ph.D. Thesis Defense: Energy Level Engineering in Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cells
12:15pm Sudanese Economics: Between an Environmental and a Political Imagination
3:30pm Rally Outside Welcome Party for GE Execs Hosted by Gov Baker & Mayor Walsh
5pm MIT INSPIRE 2016 Public Viewing of Projects
5:30pm Social Equity In The Built Environment
6pm Power Dialog
6pm Towards a Multiscale Human Environment: Islamic sub-Saharan Africa and Post-war Modern Urbanism
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Tuesday, April 5
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12pm Investigating the causes for a long-term trend of increasing carbon uptake at the Howland Forest, Maine
12pm The National Security Implications of the Genetics Revolution
12:30pm Fukushima Five Years Later: A View from the Ocean
4pm In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is King: Ruling the Universe of Open Government Data
4:30pm Special Seminar: Book Night with Steve Silberman on Neurotribes and Neurodiversity
6pm E4Dev: Water and Energy in the Next Green Revolution
6pm Taking It All In: Environmental Toxins and Your Health
6pm April BASG: Environmental Justice
6pm Time to Choose - Film Screening
6:30pm Design for Good: To Go
7pm Learn more about the egalitarian revolution in Rojava from someone involved!
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Wednesday, April 6
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12pm Power Electronics for the Future: Research Trends and Challenges
4pm Café Nights @ District Hall
4:15pm Charging Ahead: Prepaid Metering and Electricity Use in South Africa
4:30pm Commercial Urban Farming & Design: Jessie Banhazl of Green City Growers
5:30pm Climate at a Crossroads: UMass Boston Speaker Series presents Christiana Figueres
6pm Stepping up to the Plate: Creating Tasty, Healthy & Affordable School Lunch
6pm MIT Clean Energy Prize InTeahouse Mixer
6pm Slow Money Social and 2016 Kickoff
6pm Algorithms, Identity, and Society: The Politics of Information
6pm IDB Ideas: The Future of Making Things
6:30pm ArtScience @ Le Lab Lecture Series: Art, Design, Engineering & Biology
6:30pm Film Screening and Discussion of "Wounded Places”
7pm Disrupted
7pm Spring Wildflowers: Ephemeral Beauty with a Purpose
7pm Air Pollution Knows No Boundaries
7pm Responding to Climate Change Through Storytelling
7pm BostonTalks Investigates: Prosecutorial Misconduct
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Thursday, April 7
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10am RISE:2016 – Research, Innovation and Scholarship Expo
11:45am From Entrepreneur to Activist: Fighting for our Future with Mothers Out Front
11:45am Informing Consumers with Numbers: Pitfalls and Principles
12:10pm Seasonality and cold hardiness of temperate tree species under global warming
12:30pm Planetary-Scale Primary Prevention for the 21st Century: Health and Climate Benefits of Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, and Carbon Mitigation
4pm Rethinking the Dynamics of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and Implications for Long-Term Climate
4pm Online social interactions: a lens on humans and a world for humans
4pm The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation After the Genome
4:30pm Starr Forum: Bitcoin and the Global Economy
5:30pm Energy Bar: PROPEL Final Showcase
6pm Reimagining the Learning Environment
6pm The Growth of Virtual Realities
6pm Communications Forum: "Being Muslim in America (and MIT) in 2016
6:30pm Baby BOOM or Bust: Planning for our grandparents through design & technology
6:30pm Bacterial Bonanza
7pm Security Mom: An Unclassified Guide to Protecting Our Homeland and Your Home
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Friday, April 8
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12pm The roles of climate variability and emissions on U.S. surface ozone means and extremes
12pm The Electoral Legacies of War with Amanda Riskallah
3pm Climate science and climate risks
3pm Managing Uncertainty in Future Smart Grid: An Online-Algorithmic Approach Towards Robust and Efficient Decisions
3pm Integrating nano-biomaterials for future bio-hybrid solar fuel conversions
5:30pm MIT Water Innovation Prize Final Pitch Night
7pm Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?
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Saturday, April 9
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10am 5th Annual Get Growing Festival
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Monday, April 11
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12pm MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) - Meiyun Lin, GFDL
12pm How has British Columbia’s revenue-neutral carbon tax worked? A synthesis of the evidence
12:15pm Healthy Forever? Aging, Mobility, and the Transformation of Later Life
4pm 2016 Norton Lecture 5 of 6: "Narrating the Other”
5:30pm The Future of Nature: Climate After The Paris Agreement
6pm An Introduction to Machine Learning for Law, Journalism, and Public Policy
6pm Demo Day: A Celebration of Student Innovation at Northeastern
6pm Boston New Technology April 2016 Product Showcase #BNT64
6pm Microsoft Speakers Series: Future of Big Data
6:30pm Science by the Pint: The Evolution of Individual Differences
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Tuesday, April 12
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Symposium: Beyond 2016 - MIT's frontiers of the future
12:30pm The Center for Health and the Global Environment: Re-Envisioning Health and Sustainability
1pm The paradox of the third tier: how do corals react to extreme environmental conditions?
3pm The Science of Stereotyping and Implicit Bias
4pm 2016 Norton Lecture 6 of 6: "The Foreigner's Home”
4:45pm U.S. power plant carbon standards and the potential for clean air, human health and ecosystem co-benefits
5pm Artificial Intelligence: Its Future and Ours
5pm xTalks - The University of the Future: Lessons from a 2600 Year History
6pm Poverty, Inc. (FREE admission!)
6:30pm Ignite Boston: Data
6:30pm Café Des Sciences Dr Jeff Karp: Simple Innovation Tools for Science and anywhere
7pm Movie Premiere: Sonic Sea
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com
My notes from a talk by John Browne, former CEO of BP, at Harvard on 3/10/16
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2016/03/former-ceo-of-bp-at-harvard.html
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Monday, April 4
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MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) - Shaojie Song (MIT)
Monday, April 4
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
About the Speaker
Speaker: Shaojie Song (MIT)
His research at MIT improves the understanding of the global atmosphere-surface exchange of a toxic trace metal, mercury (Hg), by combining atmospheric observations and chemical transport modeling. Before joining in MIT, he focused on urban air quality and participated in field campaigns in China. See Selin Group for more info.
About this Series
MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar [MASS] is a student-run weekly seminar series. Topics include all research concerning the atmosphere and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars usually take place on Mondays in 54-915 from 12.00-1pm unless otherwise noted (term-time only). Talks are generally followed by a lunch with graduate students. Besides the seminar, individual meetings with professors, postdocs, and students are arranged. The seminar series is run by graduate students and is intended mainly for students to interact with individuals outside the department, but faculty and postdocs certainly participate. 2015/2016 Coordinator: Marianna Linz (mlinz at mit.edu).
Event website: http://bit.ly/1P33yOq
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Solar geoengineering: an update and case for research
Monday, April 4
12:00PM TO 1:30PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
David Keith, Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics for the Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Professor of Public Policy for the Harvard Kennedy School
This series is presented by the Energy Technology Innovation Policy/Consortium for Energy Policy Research at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard. Lunch will be provided.
HKS Energy Policy Seminar Series
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/cepr/seminar.html
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
louisa_lund at hks.harvard.edu
(617) 495-8693
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2016-04-04-160000-2016-04-04-173000/hks-energy-policy-seminar-series#sthash.xIzf3SNj.dpuf
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Religion in the News-When Rights Collide: Abortion, Contraceptives, and Religious Liberty at the Supreme Court in 2016
WHEN Mon., Apr. 4, 2016, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Conference Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Law
SPONSOR Center for the Study of World Religions
CONTACT CSWR, 617.495.4476
DETAILS Please join us for this lunch discussion, part of the CSWR series Religion in the News. Visitors to campus—especially newly admitted students (congrats!)—are welcome to drop in, whether for the duration or just for part of the lunch.
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Physics Ph.D. Thesis Defense: Energy Level Engineering in Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cells
Monday, April 4
12:00p–2:00p
MIT, Building 36-428, 36 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Presented by Patrick Brown
Committee: Prof. Vladimir Bulovic, Prof. Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, Prof. Robert Jaffe, Prof. Isaac Chuang
Best of luck to Patrick!
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/physics/current/graduate/thesisdefense/index.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Physics Thesis Defense
For more information, contact: Sabrina Thompson
(617) 253-9703
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Sudanese Economics: Between an Environmental and a Political Imagination
Monday, April 4
12:15 pm to 2:00 pm
HUCE Seminar Room, 24 Oxford Street, 3rd Floor, Cambridge
Alden Young (Drexel University)
STS Circle at Harvard
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Rally Outside Welcome Party for GE Execs Hosted by Gov Baker & Mayor Walsh
Monday, April 4t
3:30pm-5:30 pm
60 State Street, Boston
"GE's warm welcome to Boston shouldn't include free rent", Joan Vennochi wrote in the Boston Globe
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=7ySppdsj%2Fq9TeKvXIouchySMAkgIjDFH>.
But in fact, Governor Charlie Baker plans to give GE $125 million in tax breaks to ease its move to Boston, and Mayor Marty Walsh will chip in $25 million plus spend $90 million on a bridge. This corporate welfare comes at a time when public education is underfunded and public transit is cutting
services and raising fares.
This, for a company that refuses to pay the $613 million it owes to clean up pollution it caused in the Housatonic River in western Massachusetts;
that has avoided at least $37 billion in federal taxes; and that is one of the state's major military contractors, building the airplanes that are daily being used by the U.S. to destroy Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, and that were used by Israel to flatten Gaza in 2014.
The full extent of the government giveaways and influence buying that are part of the GE move are explained by Dig Boston's Jason Pramas in "GE
Boston Deal: The Missing Manual -- GE's Boston charm offensive presents dilemma for Boston nonprofits, others
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=tfMRgfNyAGSWO9fdEUGB5iSMAkgIjDFH>
The broader context for the fight over GE, though it does not mention the company by name, is examined by Thomas Franks in "Beware the Blue State Model: How [Massachusetts] Democrats Created a 'Liberalism of the Rich <http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=%2FYYe9QswirHpqN0ttU7SXSSMAkgIjDFH>’". Franks writes that the knowledge economy epitomized by higher education, biotech, and pharma is destroying the middle class, and that its political representatives are ascendant in the Democratic Party over the working class.
April 4 is the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was killed after he stood up against what he called America's racism, poverty and militarism. *We will gather on April 4 in Dr. King's memory.
The Budget for All campaign now joins with others, as Tax Day approaches, to challenge the giveaway of state and city tax dollars to the war manufacturer, General Electric. We are linking the need for a People’s Budget at the federal level with the need for people's budgets at the state
and local levels. *Please join us Monday afternoon* at 60 State Street as we protest GE and call for a people's budgets at all levels!
*#MakeGEPay** $37 billion in Federal Taxes: *GE has parked $119 billion in profits overseas, avoiding over *$30 billion* in federal taxes. If GE paid
their fair share, billions would be available for public schools, low cost housing, fixing the T, renewable energy, green jobs and countless other needs. GE also receives federal funds for weapons used by the U.S. and Israel to commit war crimes in the Middle East.
*#MakeGEPay** $125m in State Taxes + $613m Cleanup of Housatonic River: *Governor Baker has promised $125 million in tax breaks for GE. $125 million would help reduce MBTA fare hikes, lower public college costs, move homeless families out of motels, and support jobs, not jails! Not a penny for GE until it cleans up its pollution of the Housatonic River in Western MA!
*#MakeGEPay** $25m in City Tax Breaks + $90m Bridge: *Mayor Walsh has promised a $25 million tax break and a $90 million bridge over Fort Point Channel for GE. $25 million could stop budget cuts in the Boston Schools or provide rent vouchers for the homeless. And $90 million would be better spent to rebuild the bridge to Long Island to reopen facilities for people in recovery.
On April 4, Mayor Walsh and Gov. Baker are hosting a Public Forum with GE’s CEO Jeff Immelt at 60 State Street in Boston.
Let's welcome GE to Boston!
To get involved contact:
Union of Minority Neighborhoods: 617-522-3349 ? horacesmall at umnunity.org
Budget for All Massachusetts: 617-354-2169 ? info at budget4allmass.org
Jewish Voice for Peace Boston: 339-223-3185 ? jvpboston at gmail.com
Editorial Comment: I prefer the idea of Economic Gardening, building upon local businesses and expanding their networks, rather than giving tax breaks to get companies to move into the area.
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MIT INSPIRE 2016 Public Viewing of Projects
Monday, April 4
5:00p–6:30p
MIT, Building 50-140, 142 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
MIT INSPIRE is the nation's first high school research competition in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Come and meet the high school student Finalists, hear about their cool research projects and vote on your favorite project to receive the INSPIRE 2016 Lincoln Award.
Web site: Getinspired.mit.edu
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT Libraries, MIT INSPIRE, School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, Arts at MIT, CAMIT, CSF
For more information, contact: Kirby Ledvina
inspire-communications at mit.edu
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Social Equity In The Built Environment
Monday, April 4
5:30PM - 7:30PM
50 Milk Street, 15th Floor, Conf Room “Aristotle”, Boston,
RSVP at http://usgbcma.org/civicrm/event/register?id=1028&reset=1
Cost: $15.00 - $35.00
Social Equity has long been conceptualized as the third (and often last) leg of a triple bottom line sustainability stool. While LEED has driven environmental concerns to have equal footing with economic ones, we are just at the beginning of developing tools that allow us to measure and examine social equity results in a similar way.
New programs from the International Living Future Institute like the Living Building Challenge, and JUST Organizations label, as well as new Social Equity Pilot credits in LEED v4 are beginning to raise the discourse around social equity to allow us to examine the social equity impacts of our organizations, our work, and our communities.
This special event will include presentations from Francis Janes – director of the JUST Organizations labeling program for ILFI, Shawn Hesse – co-author of the new LEED Social Equity Pilot Credits, andTBD – Chair of the the Boston chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (BosNOMA) discussing the importance of a focus on social equity in design, construction, and operations of our buildings, communities, and our organizations.
PANELISTS:
Francis Janes
Francis Janes serves as the Social Justice Program Manager at the International Living Future Institute and has extensive management experience in the Information Technology, Food Service, Financial Services and Non-Profit sectors. Prior to his role at the Institute, Francis served as Vice President at Beneficial State Bank, a mission driven community bank and a pioneer in socially responsible banking practices. Francis is active in the community and has served on a number of Non-Profit boards including The Whidbey Institute, EarthSave International, iLEAP and Pigs Peace Sanctuary. Francis has a Certificate in Sustainable Business Management from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Shawn Hesse
Shawn is an NCARB Certified and licensed architect in Ohio and Massachusetts, and earned his B.S. and Masters of Architecture degrees from the University of Cincinnati. His project consulting work includes LEED Certification, Energy Star Portfolio Manager, building envelope efficiency analysis, and greenhouse gas inventories for clients ranging from single family dwellings to universities and entire cities. He has consulted with city, county, state and federal policy makers on issues related to green building policies, incentives, and green jobs, and has published several articles and interviews on green trends, and green jobs.
In addition to consulting, Shawn has developed over 100 courses on sustainability topics, and he has been invited to present at international conferences including Greenbuild and the Good Jobs Green Jobs Conference. Shawn is also an adjunct professor at Cincinnati State and the University of Cincinnati where he teaches courses on global sustainability, and is
currently developing a course titled, "Zombies: Lessons for today from the apocalypse of tomorrow".
As a volunteer for the USGBC, Shawn has held leadership positions with the
Massachusetts Chapter, the Cincinnati Chapter, the Heartland Regional Council, and National USGBC task forces ranging from the LEED Regionalism Task Force, the Chapter Board Diversity Task Force, and most recently, the LEED Technical Committee Social Equity Working Group, where he is helping to integrate social equity into the LEED rating system.
Tony Ransom
Tony Ransom is a Program Manager in the Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Design Group in the Office of Facilities Management & Maintenance for the Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management & Maintenance (DCAMM). Prior to joining DCAMM, Mr. Ransom spent over 30 years providing architectural and construction services, including 16 years as the owner of the Ransom Design Studio. His firm specialized in multi-family residential and commercial rehabilitation projects.
After closing his firm in 2005, he set his focus on Agency Construction Management, and joined PMA Consultants, an Owner’s Project Representation, Construction Management and Claims Management firm. While at PMA, Mr. Ransom provided construction management services on hotel, school, healthcare and highway projects, and promoted the transition to Integrated Project Delivery.
Mr. Ransom is a registered architect in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a Certified Construction Manager, a LEED Accredited Professional, and a Level 1 Certified Building Operator. He has served as the Co-chair of the BIM Roundtable at the Boston Society of Architects, and as a member of the Construction Administration and the Integrated Project Delivery Committees.
Mr. Ransom is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Youth Build Boston organization, where he works to promote the inclusion of inner-city youth into the construction and design industries.
As a member Of BosNOMA, he served as a Co-Coordinator of NOMA 2010 Conference in Boston, and is currently the Treasurer of the local chapter.
Email: info at usgbcma.org
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Power Dialog
Monday, April 4
6:00 PM to 7:30 PM (EDT)
BU, School of Law, 765 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/power-dialog-tickets-21833300991
Join students from across Massachusetts in an open forum on Massachusetts' implementation of the Clean Power Plan, requiring 32% cuts in global warming pollution by 2030. This is a unique opportunity for students to take part in shaping public discourse on Massachusetts' climate policy as the US focuses on meeting post-Paris climate committments. Join us afterwards for networking with fellow students and environmental organizations.
Panelists: MassDEP Commissioner Martin Suuberg, State Senator Marc Pacheco
Faculty can visit http://www.bard.edu/cep/powerdialog/ for more information on how to get involved and to find teaching materials.
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Towards a Multiscale Human Environment: Islamic sub-Saharan Africa and Post-war Modern Urbanism
Monday, April 4
6:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building 3-133, 33 Massachusetts Avenue (Rear), Cambridge
Speaker: Filippo de Dominicis
MIT Architecture Lecture Series
Part of the Spring 2016 Architecture and Aga Khan Program in Islamic Architecture Lecture Series.
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Sponsor(s): Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, Department of Architecture
For more information, contact: Jose Luis Arguello
(617) 253-1400
jlar at mit.edu
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Tuesday, April 5
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Investigating the causes for a long-term trend of increasing carbon uptake at the Howland Forest, Maine
Tuesday, April 5
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Seminar Room, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
David Hollinger, USDA Forest Service
Herbaria Seminar Series
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The National Security Implications of the Genetics Revolution
WHEN Tue., Apr. 5, 2016, 12 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Law School, Pound Hall, Room 101, 1536 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Information Technology, Law, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Cosponsored by the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, the Harvard National Security & Law Association, the Harvard National Security Journal, and the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School, with support from the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund at Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) Jamie Metzl, JD '97, Senior Fellow for Technology and National Security of the Atlantic Council. He has served on the U.S. National Security Council, State Department, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as Executive Vice President of the Asia Society and with the United Nations in Cambodia. A globally syndicated columnist and regular guest on national and international media, he is the author of a history of the Cambodian genocide and the novels The Depths of the Sea and Genesis Code.
George J. Annas, JD, MPH, William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights, Boston University School of Public Health; Professor in the Boston University School of Medicine, and School of Law
Jonathan D. Moreno, PhD, David and Lyn Silfen University Professor of Ethics, Perelman School of Medicine, Universty of Pennsylvania
COST Free and open to the public
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Fukushima Five Years Later: A View from the Ocean
WHEN Tue., Apr. 5, 2016, 12:30 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Bowie-Vernon Room (K262), CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Program on U.S.-Japan Relations
SPEAKER(S) Ken Buesseler, senior scientist, Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Moderated by Susan Pharr, Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics and director, WCFIA Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Harvard University
COST Free and open to the public
LINK http://programs.wcfia.harvard.edu/us-japan/calendar/upcoming
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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is King: Ruling the Universe of Open Government Data
Tuesday, April 5
4:00 PM to 7:00 PM (EDT)
Harvard, Ash Center for Democractic Governance and Innovation, 124 Mount Auburn Street 2nd Floor North, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/in-the-land-of-the-blind-the-one-eyed-man-is-king-ruling-the-universe-of-open-government-data-tickets-22663901339
Solomon Kahn, Director of Analytics, Paperless Post
Many people think that civic work is all-or-nothing, and that working in the private sector means you cannot make an impact on the public sector. They are wrong! Solomon Kahn will tour participants around the massive universe of open government data--most of which lies in wait for a passionate citizen to unlock its potential--and then share his experience launching a groundbreaking campaign finance visualization. Participants will apply this new knowledge by identifying, accessing, organizing, and sharing a hidden gem dataset in a policy area they care about.
About the Technology and Democracy Workshop Series
The Ash Center’s non-resident Technology and Democracy Fellows will design and lead a series of hands-on workshops for Harvard Kennedy School students, co-sponsored by Tech4Change. Each workshop will help participants develop their “technological intelligence” and learn skills related to understanding, managing, or creating digital technologies with the potential to improve the quality of democratic governance. Visit ash.harvard.edu to read more. RSVP is required. Space is limited.
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Special Seminar: Book Night with Steve Silberman on Neurotribes and Neurodiversity
Tuesday, April 5
4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
MIT, Building 46-3002 (Singleton Auditorium), 3rd Floor, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Description: Steve Silberman, an award-winning science writer, long time writer for Wired, and freelancer for publications ranging from The New Yorker to Salon, is the author of the 2015 international best seller, NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity.
The book, both a history and a compelling argument against conventional thinking about autism, suggests a broader model for acceptance, understanding, and participation in society for people who think differently. Silberman’s book won the coveted 2015 Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction and was chosen as one of the best books of 2015 by The New York Times, The Economist, The Financial Times, The Boston Globe, The Independent, National Public Radio, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications. His TED talk, “The Forgotten History of Autism,” has been viewed more than a million times and translated into 25 languages.
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E4Dev: Water and Energy in the Next Green Revolution
Tuesday, April 5
6pm
MIT, Building E19-319, 400 Main Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1BgwlYa_r-73x1fk9otF-rk6QElO2goypin8L1UauzkA/viewform
Dr. Chandra Madramootoo, Visiting Scholar at MIT J-WAFS and Professor of Bioresource Engineering at McGill University, speaking on the role of water and energy in the next green, agricultural revolution in the developing world. Dr. Madramootoo has extensive experience in irrigation and agricultural research and has worked on such projects in countries from Ethiopia to Pakistan.
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Taking It All In: Environmental Toxins and Your Health
Tuesday, April 5
6pm - 7:30pm
Harvard Medical School, The Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, The New Research Building, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston
Chemicals are used in plastics, furniture, cosmetics and even in the foods we eat, while other pollutants contaminate our air and water. But do you know how these environmental exposures impact your health? Harvard Medical School researchers will present the data behind this silent threat to your health and how you can protect yourself and your family.
Speakers: David Christiani (Moderator)
Monica Colaiacovo
Maitreyi Mazumdar
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April BASG: Environmental Justice
Tuesday, April 5
6:00 PM to 8:30 PM (EDT)
The Venture Cafe - Cambridge Innovation Center, 1 Broadway, 5th Floor, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/april-basg-environmental-justice-tickets-22178952845
Cost: $10 - $12
Environmental Justice: Does access to safe drinking water depend on race and class?
In the unfolding tragedy of the Flint, Michigan water crisis, social and environmental justice issues are once again a critical focus for American citizens, who are concerned about environmental health and safety as well as environmental justice.
In April, BASG member, Arnold Sapenter, will moderate a panel discussing environmental justice and related social issues as they apply to Boston and Massachusetts. The panel will talk about programs that exist in greater Boston to address environmental justice issues and the challenges and opportunities that exist here. In addition, they'll explore the connection between environmental justice and sustainability and lead our follow-on discussion.
Arnold Sapenter, MBA and LEED GRA, is the recent Director of Sustainability and past Director of Diversity and Program Monitoring for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. He has served on many advisory boards and committees including the Massachusetts Leading By Example Committee and the Advisory Committee for the Governor’s Diversity Initiative. As Director of Diversity and Program Monitoring Arnold Sapenter created and chaired the Cultural Diversity and Environmental Justice Committees for MassDEP from 1993 to 2003.
As a community leader and volunteer Mr. Sapenter serves as President of the National Council of Presidents for the National Forum of Black Public Administrators and has served over 12 years as President of the NFBPA Boston Chapter. In addition, he is an active member of the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Board of Overseers and past co-chair of the Employment and Training Systems Committee for the Boston Private Industry Council, as well as past Board Vice President for The Fenway Health Center.
Mr. Sapenter has served in Massachusetts state government since 1987 and retired in 2015 from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Sam Lipson is Director of Environmental Health for the Cambridge Public Health Department. He came to the CPHD in 1996 and established the Environmental Health Division in 1998. He has 20 years of experience in public health risk assessment, biological safety, environmental health policies and other environmental health sub-disciplines, and has served as a board member of the American Lung Association in Massachusetts, Mass. Public Health Association Leadership Board, and currently serves as a Commissioner for the Suffolk County Mosquito Control Commission and as the public health representative on the Toxic Use Reduction Advisory Committee (Mass. Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs). Sam has organized Cambridge Biosafety Forums in 2002 and 2008 to train community members, biosafety professionals, and public health officials and co-organized the Risk Assessment for Nanomaterials: Current Developments and Trends in 2007 to educate occupational health and risk assessment professionals. Sam has led community stakeholder processes that have helped CPHD to generate policies on West Nile virus response, nanomaterials health and safety, and an expansion of biosafety oversight authority held by the Cambridge Biosafety Committee.
With cooperation from Harvard and MIT faculty and staff at the Museum of Science Sam has staged a series of local air quality studies in Cambridge that have utilized community volunteers and graduate students to examine pervasive air quality on a much smaller scale than offered by existing regulatory infrastructure. This has led to publications and grant awards to support further work. A primary goal of this research is the development of community-based air quality monitoring strategies capable of producing longitudinal, high quality data that will assist the municipality to generate health -sustaining policies for transportation and land-use. The recently completed study of bicycle commuter routes has produced data that indicates the relative burden of vehicle pollution on cyclists. Prior to coming to the CPHD, Sam was an analytical chemist in Massachusetts and California. He holds a B.S. from the University of California Berkeley and completed his M.S. coursework at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Rebecca Herst is Senior Climate Project Manager for UMass and the Boston Harbor Association. She will join us to talk about The Boston Harbor Association's work on climate resillance for highly vulnerable harbor communities. Her full profile is here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccaherst
If your organization is interested in co-hosting this event or a future BASG event, please contact carolbaroudi[at]bostonareasustainability.org
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Time to Choose - Film Screening
Tuesday, April 5
6pm - 9pm
MIT, Building 2-190, 2 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Free film screening of Oscar-winning filmmaker and MIT Alum Charles Ferguson’s Time to Choose. A solutions film about climate change, the most pressing issue of our time, examining the main contributing factors to this global phenomenon, and what we can do to alleviate this crisis. Join the Sustainability Initiative and the Environmental Solutions Initiative for this screening followed by a Q & A with producer, MIT alumnus, and solar entrepreneur, Tom Dinwoodie.
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Design for Good: To Go
Tuesday, April 5
6:30 PM to 8:30 PM (EDT)
Microsoft New England Research and Development Center, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/design-for-good-to-go-tickets-21630016963
Cost: $14.64
Connecting with communities, in their communities.
Taking a cue from the humble ice cream truck, many socially conscious organizations have taken their services to the streets by operating out of trucks. By creating more accessible services, they have been able to connect with their audiences more directly and expand their reach.
In this discussion we'll explore the lessons a few of these organizations have learned from designing experiences that brought them closer to their communities. Can a city increase engagement by putting City Hall into a truck? Can you help more people by putting healthcare on wheels? What advantages and opportunities do community-minded organizations discover when they become portable?
This conversation will feature organizations offering mobile services in the city: Boston City Hall To Go, The Family Van, sparc! The ArtMobile and Mei Mei food truck.
Who should attend:
Socially-minded individuals
Bostonians who care about their community and its future
Designers and creative professionals interested in creating experiences with communities in mind
Food truck fiends eager to see other applications for the concept
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Learn more about the egalitarian revolution in Rojava from someone involved!
Tuesday, April 5
7:00 PM
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston-Area-Egalitarian-Revolutio/events/229779560/
Rojava is an area about the size of Connecticut in the Kurdish land along the Turkish and Syrian border. The women and men there are building an egalitarian society based at least in part on the writings of the late Murray Bookchin, a U.S. Anarchist. They are fighting against Isis and also against capitalist nations who oppose what they are doing. Their goal is not to establish a separate nation for the Kurds, but to build a grass-roots society of neighborhoods and communities that practice real egalitarianism including between the sexes (which is especially remarkable in that part of the world). For example, all major offices in Rojava are held by two individuals, one male and one female.
You can search on line for "Rojava" and several links will come up, including one to an article that appeared in the New York TImes Magazine last November. I recommend that you explore these to get some background information, which will enrich our discussion; but if you don't, that's fine and you are still welcome to come and participate!
We are very fortunate to have a speaker for this meetup with first-hand knowledge of current events in Rojava. He is Jonas Linde, a Swedish man who works with the Swedish Rojava Groups. Here is his own description of his work:
"Our goal is to build a clinic in the self-administrated socialist area of Rojava inside Syria, more precisely in the city of Kobane.
One of our first projects is going to be the sending of ambulances from Sweden to Rojava. our group is founded on the basis of socialism, feminism, antifacism and internationalism."
We will have an opportunity to listen to what Jonas has to say and then ask questions, make comments, and engage in a discussion.
I have invited several folks who are not members of B.A.E.R. to this meetup, all people who are interested in learning more about the topic, so be prepared to see some new faces!
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Wednesday, April 6
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Power Electronics for the Future: Research Trends and Challenges
Wednesday, April 6
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building 34-401, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Yogesh Ramadass, Texas Instruments
Power electronics can be found in everything from cellphones and laptops that we use on an everyday basis to gasoline and electric vehicles, industrial motors and inverters that connect solar panels to the electric grid. With the rapid miniaturization and increased electrical power consumption of our devices and appliances, unique challenges related to energy efficiency, power density and electromagnetic compatibility are imposed on the power electronics within these systems. This talk will look at the trends in power electronics across the consumer, industrial and automotive applications and will describe the ongoing research efforts and highlight the challenges moving forward.
MTL Seminar Series
MTL seminar speakers for the series are selected on the basis of their knowledge and competence in the areas of microelectronics research, manufacturing, or policy. This series is held during the academic year on Wednesdays at noon. The seminars are open to the public. Lunch is served at 11:30am
Web site: https://www-mtl.mit.edu/mtlseminar/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Microsystems Technology Laboratories
For more information, contact: Valerie DiNardo
617- 253-9328
valeried at mit.edu
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Café Nights @ District Hall
Wednesday, April 6
4:00 – 7:30 PM
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/first-ever-cafe-night-district-hall-tickets-22470655335
Our Wednesday evening Café Night gatherings provide a space for conversations and scheduled programs to inspire a wide range of attendees from around the world to connect, engage, and learn.
Come join us for our exciting line up of workshops, including GE Ventures, Melissa James of The Tech Connection, and Kevin Wiant of the Venture Café Foundation.
4:00 – 5:00 PM: Connecting with Boston’s Innovation Ecosystem
Kevin Wiant, Executive Director of the Venture Café Foundation, has extensive experience in the innovation community, and will be speaking about Boston’s innovation ecosystem, it’s history, and resources that are available for entrepreneurs and startups.
5:15 – 6:15 PM: Building Your All-Star Team
Melissa James is the President and CEO of The Tech Connection, the premier marketplace for purpose driven, diverse, technical talent. Her mission is to help people reach their highest potential by accelerating their individual pathway to success. She has a strong track record of building high performing teams for elite companies such as Google, RA Capital, Teradata, and Sample6. Melissa’s workshop, “Building Your All-Star Team,” will give advice on essential leadership discussions in hiring, how to set your employees up to success and increase performance, pitfalls to avoid when taking on a new employee, and how to grow and scale your organization for the future.
6:30 – 7:30 PM: Connecting GE Ventures to the Boston Startup Community
We’re also excited to welcome GE Ventures for our keynote presentation on our first Cafe Night! GE Ventures will provide an overview of its investment themes and how they help companies grow. GE will also describe what they look for in startups, as well as in syndicate investment partnerships. Marni Rutkofsky (Director of Strategy & Marketing Advanced Manufacturing), Steve Taub (Senior Investment Director Advanced Manufacturing), and Andrew Lackner (Senior Investment Director Energy) will also answer questions from startups and provide guidance about how to connect with the team.
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Charging Ahead: Prepaid Metering and Electricity Use in South Africa
Wednesday, April 6
4:15PM TO 5:30PM
Harvard, Room L-382, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Kelsey Jack, Tufts University, and Grant Smith, University of Cape Town
Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy
https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/5340
Support from Enel Endowment for Environmental Economics and the Department of Economics is gratefully acknowledged. For more information, contact Professor Stavins (617-495-1820), Professor Weitzman (617-495-5133), or the course assistant, Jason Chapman (617-496-8054).
Contact Name: Bryan J. Galcik
bryan_galcik at hks.harvard.edu
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2016-04-06-201500-2016-04-06-213000/seminar-environmental-economics-and-policy#sthash.nA26jmmQ.dpuf
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Commercial Urban Farming & Design: Jessie Banhazl of Green City Growers
Wednesday, April 6
4:30 PM to 6:00 PM (EDT)
Ver-Tex Experience Center, 263 Summer Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/commercial-urban-farming-design-jessie-banhazl-of-green-city-growers-tickets-20787659449
Ver-Tex invites you for an exploration of how New England's design professionals are tackling commercial urban farming to grow fresh produce within city limits. Green City Grower’s Jessie Banhazl will introduce cutting edge trends and materials used in commercial urban design during an interactive workshop, followed by Q&A.
For seven years, Green City Growers has been educating designers, consumers and students to the ins and outs of successfully implementing urban agriculture. As a regional leader in urban farming, Green City Growers has provided the expertise and ongoing maintenance to make projects like Fenway Farms for the Boston Red Sox, and a 1/2 acre rooftop farm for Whole Foods Market Lynnfield a reality. Urban farming is taking off in some of the most densely populated places around Greater Boston in interesting and unexpected ways. This lecture will highlight the ever-changing landscape of growing technologies that is making this possible and how to apply these techniques in your community.
Following the presentation, light refreshments and beverages will be served at the Ver-Tex Experience Center, 263 Summer Street, Boston. This is a free event, however due to limited space, an RSVP is required to attend the presentation and reception.
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Climate at a Crossroads: UMass Boston Speaker Series presents Christiana Figueres
Wednesday, April 6
5:30 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, 210 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston
As executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres was a linchpin in solidifying the Paris Agreement in December 2015. She will reflect on how this universal agreement can be a turning point in global economic, energy, environment, and development policy, and a catalyst for bringing the poor out of poverty worldwide.
More information at https://www.umb.edu/news_events_media/events/christiana_figueres_to_present_at_umass_bostons_sustainable_solutions_lab
Editorial Comment: Christina Figueres was an instrumental figure in making international, regional, and local climate agreements possible. She is one of the heroes of climate change in my estimation and is well worth listening to.
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Stepping up to the Plate: Creating Tasty, Healthy & Affordable School Lunch
Wednesday, April 6
6:00PM - 8:00PM
Boston Public Market, The Kitchen, 100 Hanover Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/stepping-up-to-the-plate-creating-tasty-healthy-affordable-school-lunch-tickets-22930890912
Did you know that the average school only has $1.44 to spend per student on lunches? For most schools, it can be a challenge to create healthy lunches on this budget. Join The Boston Globe in collaboration with Let's Talk About Food on April 6th to hear from some of the leading advocates in the fight to create healthy lunches that students will actually eat! To begin, Chef Guy Koppe of Project Bread and Chef Jody Adams will team up in a culinary demonstration showing foods you can make that will keep your school within budget.
Following the demonstration, attendees will hear from:
Scott Richardson, Northbound Ventures
Peggy Kemp, Fenway High School (featured in the below article)
Donna Lombardi, Worcester Public Schools
Brendan Ryan, Framingham Public Schools
Doors open at 5:30pm, program to start at 6:00pm. To learn more about school lunches before attending the event, read "Fresh-made meals a learning experience in schools" by James Vaznis of The Boston Globe.
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MIT Clean Energy Prize InTeahouse Mixer
Wednesday, April 6
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
InTeahouse Cambridge, 727 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mit-clean-energy-prize-inteahouse-mixer-tickets-23611682177
Meet MIT Clean Energy Prize semifinalists, mentors, sponsors, and other clean tech innovators at InTeahouse's Cambridge location! With the Grand Finals just around the corner, enjoy food, drink, live music, and tea tasting at a globally-recognized venture capital fund.
The event is sponsored by InTeahouse, a Cambridge-based venture incubator and early stage investment fund. InTeahouse works with entrepreneurs, investors, and others that are committed to building new tools to solve big global challenges. Acting as a bridge between the US & China innovation ecosystems, Inteahouse is thrilled to welcome the MIT cleantech community to their new Central Square location. www.inteahouse.com
Agenda:
6pm: Doors open
6:15pm: Opening remarks
6:30-8pm: Food, drinks, and tea-tasting competition between our semifinalists!
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Slow Money Social and 2016 Kickoff
Wednesday, April 6
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Social Innovation Forum, 11 Avenue de Lafayette, Boston
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Greater-Boston-Slow-Money/events/229451058/
Join like minded Slow Money Boston fans on April 6 for networking, socializing, and the formal kickoff of our 2016 programming. We'll share plans for 2016, summarize the results of the survey, and explore how we can best meet the needs of the Slow Money Boston community. Mark your calendars, and recruit a friend. Event will be free; cash bar.
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Algorithms, Identity, and Society: The Politics of Information
Wednesday, April 6
6:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building E15, Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Luciano Floridi, Oxford U, and Nicholar Carr, Author
STS Special Event
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/sts/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): HASTS
For more information, contact: Gus Zahariadis
617-253-3452
gusz at mit.edu
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IDB Ideas: The Future of Making Things
Wednesday, April 6
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT)
Autodesk, 23 Drydock Avenue, 6th Floor, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/idb-ideas-the-future-of-making-things-tickets-21532333790
IDB Ideas is a speaker series that focuses on the intersection of design, technology, and innovation in a variety of fields. Co-hosted by the Innovation and Design Building and Autodesk, this edition reviews the way disruptive technologies are changing how we design, plan, build, and manufacture. Engage in thoughtful conversation with:
Paul Kassabian, SGH Engineering
Janos Stone, Co-Founder of Kwambio and faculty of Art + Design at Northeastern University
Skylar Tibbits, Director of MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab
Haik Tokatlyan, Jaywalk Studio
Rachel Vroman, Harvard University
Networking and refreshments will follow the panel discussion. Tour the new Autodesk office and BUILD Space including new installations by Jaywalk Studio and check out a private showing of Recontextualizing Objects, an exhibition of Northeastern University student design work.
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ArtScience @ Le Lab Lecture Series: Art, Design, Engineering & Biology
Wednesday, April 6
6:30pm to 7:30pm
Honeycomb, Le Laboratoire Cambridge, 650 East Kendall Street, Cambridge
Core faculty from the Wyss Institute at Harvard University will participate in a four-part lecture series hosted by Le Laboratoire Cambridge on how the arts and design are informing the frontiers of science. In the third lecture, Pam Silver will give a lecture titled "Designing Biology”.
All lectures will take place at Le Laboratoire Cambridge from 6:30 - 7:30 PM. Seating is limited and reservations are encouraged. Please contact Ankica Koldzic at programs at lelabcambridge.com.
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Film Screening and Discussion of "Wounded Places"
Wednesday, April 6
6:30pm
Lesley University, University Hall Amphitheater (2nd floor), 1815 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge (Porter Square)
Lesley University announces a film screening and discussion of “Wounded Places,” part of “The Raising of America: Early Childhood and the Future of our Nation” documentary series, the evening of Wednesday, April 6, in the University Hall Amphitheater, 1815 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge.
“Some children in America who are growing up in the face of poverty and violence develop symptoms that are remarkably similar to PTSD-afflicted soldiers. The big difference is these children never leave the combat zone,” according to the film.
A panel discussion will follow the screening, led by Dr. Joanne Szamreta, a professor of education at Lesley University and an adviser to the university’s Child Homelessness Initiative (CHI). Other panelists include Assistant Professor of Psychology Diana Direiter and Director of the Lesley Institute for Trauma Sensitivity Dr. Salvatore Terrasi. A representative in early childhood mental health from Jewish Family & Children’s Service will offer information on supporting parents of young children who are in recovery from substance abuse.
“The subject of trauma has become more widely recognized for the simple reason that people are suffering. Suffering may be a natural part of the human condition, but for young children, the ability to form meaningful, trusting relationships with adults in their lives is of critical importance. One way to better affect positive change in the lives of children in transition is to better understand the complexity of their experiences.” -- Lisa Fiore, Professor of Education & Director of the Child Homelessness Initiative.
The university’s Child Homelessness Initiative is hosting the film screening, which is provided in part through a CDC Essentials for Childhood Initiative grant to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Learn more about the documentary series: www.raisingofamerica.org.
6:30 p.m. – Reception and light refreshments
7 - 8:30 p.m. – Film screening and panel discussion
Phone Number: 617-349-8662
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Disrupted
Wednesday, April 6
7pm
WorkBar Cambridge, 45 Prospect Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.harvard.com/event/dan_lyons/?utm_source=031516Ticketed&utm_campaign=031516ticketed&utm_medium=email
Journalist and screenwriter Dan Lyons, co-producer and writer for the HBO series Silicon Valley, presents his book his book Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble, a look at his rise and fall at the Cambridge start-up HubSpot.
"In wildly entertaining fashion, Disrupted explores the ways in which many technology companies have come to fool the public and themselves. Lyons has injected a dose of sanity into a world gone mad." --Ashlee Vance
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Spring Wildflowers: Ephemeral Beauty with a Purpose
Wednesday, April 6
7pm - 8:30pm
Cambridge Main Library, 499 Broadway, Cambridge
Carol Gracie, Author of Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast
Our native spring wildflowers evolved in the once contiguous forests that stretched the length of the East Coast and west to the prairies. Their flowering coincides with increased sunlight and warmth before the forest canopy leafs out, and their associations with the early-flying insects of spring are remarkable. Come learn about the life cycles of selected species in detail— and why many populations are in a marked decline due to human activity. By understanding their evolutionary relationships to forest habitat, we can better protect these ephemeral beauties on all lands, and integrate them into our woodland gardens.
Carol Gracie is a botanist and highly-skilled photographer. In addition to Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast: A Natural History,she has authored several field guides. Her botanizing in South and Central America has led to seven tropical plant species and one genus being named for her.
Co-sponsored by The Friends of Fresh Pond Reservation
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Air Pollution Knows No Boundaries
Wednesday, April 6
7 - 9p
Harvard, Pfizer Lecture Hall, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge
More at http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/seminar-series/
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Responding to Climate Change Through Storytelling
Wednesday, April 6
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT)
Old West United Methodist Church, 131 Cambridge Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/responding-to-climate-change-through-storytelling-tickets-22120706629
Cost: $10.00
Climate change is big. It can be overwhelming and even paralyzing, and touches on so many facets of our lives.
Come hear and share stories...
that touch our emotions
move us to action
ultimately move us toward a world (even one impacted by climate change) in which we care for and take care of each other
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BostonTalks Investigates: Prosecutorial Misconduct
Wednesday, April 6
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT)
WGBH, 1 Guest Street, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/bostontalks-investigates-prosecutorial-misconduct-tickets-22586734531
Cost: $11.54
Prosecutors in Massachusetts wield incredible power and can break the rules with little consequence. Even when prosecutors' misdeeds have prompted courts to toss convictions and release defendants from prison, those same prosecutors have gone on to hold higher public positions. NECIR Investigative Reporter Brooke Williams leads a discussion on these issues, their impacts and the surrounding lack of transparency. WGBH General Manager of Radio Phil Redo and NECIR's Executive Director and Co-Founder Joe Bergantino will welcome you to an evening of probing questions. Join panelists Veronica J. White, criminal defense attorney, Diane Juliar, Clinical Professor of Law at Suffolk University Law School and others for an insightful conversation.
About WGBH’s BostonTalks: Investigates event series
WGBH journalists investigate stories that matter to our region. Now, you’re invited to join the conversation at our BostonTalks: Investigates series, featuring in-depth panel discussions with major players, followed by a reception.
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Thursday, April 7
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RISE:2016 – Research, Innovation and Scholarship Expo
Thursday, April 7, 2016
10:00am – 2:00pm
Northeastern University, Cabot Physical Education Center, 400 Huntington Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://events.attend.com/#/register/1383772086/0
Experience game-changing innovation and entrepreneurial spirit at RISE:2016
Each year, in an effort to support Northeastern University’s commitment to use-inspired research and solution focused innovation, hundreds of students and faculty members embark on an exciting opportunity to showcase the research and innovative thinking of the Northeastern community at the Research, Innovation, and Scholarship Expo (RISE). This exhibit is a large sample of the breadth and depth of innovative thinking at Northeastern University as well as a celebration of scholarly research and fundamental discoveries that can be translated into real-world applications. Since its inception in 2012, RISE continues to break records and attract unprecedented visibility for the University’s innovation community.
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From Entrepreneur to Activist: Fighting for our Future with Mothers Out Front
Thursday, April 7
11:45am
MIT, Building E62-250, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://sloangroups.mit.edu/sustain/rsvp?id=297525
Climate change is here, in the form of rising sea levels, more frequent heat waves and drought, burning forests, and acidifying oceans. Yet, our leaders still fail to respond with bold action, and leading environmental groups have failed to organize sufficient public pressure to change thier minds. Founded just 3 years ago, Mothers Out Front is developing mothers as a cohesive, empowered and activated constituency that will alter the political landscape by providing both the outside support and pressure for our elected officials to lead on climate, while making it far more challenging for polluters to continue their actions unchecked.
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Informing Consumers with Numbers: Pitfalls and Principles
WHEN Thu., Apr. 7, 2016, 11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Bell Hall (5th Floor Belfer Building), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Regulatory Policy Program (RPP) at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Jack B. Soll, Fuqua School of Business at Duke University
CONTACT INFO Lunch will be served. Please RSVP to mrcbg at hks.harvard.edu
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Seasonality and cold hardiness of temperate tree species under global warming
Thursday, April 7
12:10PM
Wolkovich Lab, Weld Hill, 1300 Centre Street, Boston
Yann Vitasse, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Arnold Arboretum Research Talks
http://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/research/research-talks/
Contact: arbweb at arnarb.harvard.edu
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2016-04-07-161000/arnold-arboretum-research-talks#sthash.kkA9IBjt.dpuf
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Planetary-Scale Primary Prevention for the 21st Century: Health and Climate Benefits of Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, and Carbon Mitigation
Thursday, April 7
12:30–1:30 pm
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, FXB G-12, 651 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Join Dr. Jonathan Buonocore for this Director's Lecture Series installment.
What does the future of sustainability and human health look like?
This spring, the Center for Health and the Global Environment will be hosting a Director's Lecture Series showcasing how its latest research is re-envisioning health and sustainability. This series will offer deep insight into many of the research programs and initiatives at the Center which are tackling some of the biggest sustainability challenges of the 21st century.
More at: http://green.harvard.edu/events/health-and-climate-benefits-renewable-energy#sthash.7YDXUVgk.dpuf
Editorial Comment: US Wind Sector Saved Public Health Sector $7.3 Billion In 2015 - http://cleantechnica.com/2016/03/30/us-wind-sector-saved-public-health-sector-7-3-billion-2015/
How much more savings in public health from energy efficiency and solar?
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Rethinking the Dynamics of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and Implications for Long-Term Climate
Thursday, April 7
4:00PM
Harvard, Haller Hall (102), Geo Museum, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
David Marshall, Professor of Physical Oceanography and Head of the Sub-Department Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, Oxford University
Harvard Climate Seminar Series presented by the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and the Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Sponsored by the Harvard Oceanography Committee and the Harvard University Center for the Environment.
Contact Name: Laura Hanrahan
laura_hanrahan at harvard.edu
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2016-04-07-200000/harvard-climate-seminar#sthash.T2SMTw6u.dpuf
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Online social interactions: a lens on humans and a world for humans
Thursday, April 7
4:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Refreshments: 3:45 PM
MIT, Building 32-G449, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Chenhao Tan , Cornell University
Abstract: Online social interactions have become an integral part of people's lives, e.g., presidential candidates use Facebook and Twitter to engage with the public, programmers rely on Stackoverflow to write code, and various communities have been forming online. This unprecedented amount of social interaction offers tremendous opportunities to understand human behavior. Such an understanding can induce significant social impact, ranging from influencing election outcomes to better communication for everyone.
My research leverages newly available massive datasets of social interactions to understand human behavior and predict human decisions. These results can be used to build or improve socio-technical systems. In this talk, I will explain my research at both micro and macro levels. At the micro level, I investigate the effect of wording in message sharing via natural experiments. I develop a classifier that outperforms humans in predicting which tweet will be retweeted more. At the macro level, I examine how users engage with multiple communities and find that, surprisingly, users continually explore new communities on Reddit. Moreover, their exploration patterns in their early ``life'' can be used to predict whether they will eventually abandon Reddit. I will finish with some discussion of future research directions in understanding human behavior.
Short bio: Chenhao Tan is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University. He earned Bachelor degrees in Computer Science and in Economics from Tsinghua University. His research spans a wide range of topics in social computing. He has published papers primarily at ACL and WWW, and also at KDD, WSDM, ICWSM, etc. His work has been covered by many news media outlets, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. He also won a Facebook fellowship and a Yahoo! Key Scientific Challenges award.
Contact: Joanne Talbot Hanley, 617-253-4602, joanne at csail.mit.edu
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The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation After the Genome
WHEN Thu., Apr. 7, 2016, 4 p.m.
WHERE Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Kresge G2, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Lecture, Science, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Chan Office of the Dean
Harvard Chan Office of Diversity and Inclusion
Harvard Office of the Assistant to the President for Institutional Diversity and Equity (H-OAP)
SPEAKER(S) Alondra Nelson, dean of social science, Columbia University
Meredith B. Rosenthal, professor of health economics and policy, associate dean for diversity, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
DETAILS
Lecture: 4:00 – 5:00 PM | Kresge G2
Reception: 5:00 -6:00 PM | Rosenau Atrium
Nelson's book The Social Life of DNA will be available for purchase at the reception.
LINK http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/deans-office/deans-distinguished-lecture-series-3/
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Starr Forum: Bitcoin and the Global Economy
Thursday, April 7
4:30p–6:00p
MIT, Building E51-345, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Panel discussion on Bitcoin and the global economy.
Speakers Include:
Michael Casey, Senior Advisor, Digital Currency Initiative, MIT Media Lab
Former journalist, The Wall Street Journal
Co-author: "The Age of Cryptocurrency How Bitcoin & Digital Money are Challenging the Global Economic Order"
Cristina Dolan, Head, Marketing and Content and Communications Products; Initiative Lead, BlockChain TradingScreen Internet Pioneer and MIT Media Lab Alumna
CIS Starr Forum
A public events series on pressing issues in international affairs, sponsored by the MIT Center for International Studies.
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/cis/eventposter_040716_bitcoin.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies
For more information, contact:
617- 253-8306
starrforum at mit.edu
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Energy Bar: PROPEL Final Showcase
Thursday, April 7, 2016
5:30-8:30pm
Greentown Labs, 28 Dane Street, Somerville
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/energybar-tickets-21458379591
Join us for the PROPEL Final Showcase to celebrate the many successes of the PROPEL startups during their time at Greentown Labs! Teams will present their major achievements and demonstrate their latest prototypes.
PROPEL is a startup acceleration program for prototype development. With the vision of a smarter, interconnected, resource-efficient world, PROPEL sought out complementary innovations in self-powered Wireless Sensor-Actuator Networks (WSANs). During the program, startups developed their individual products toward integrated solutions and viable business models that can--and will--radically change how we interact with our environment.
The participating PROPEL teams are:
BitSence: 2015 graduates of CleanTech Open Northeast, BitSence offers a cyber security platform for the Industrial IoT, helping secure smart machines and sensors to enable energy and operational efficiency for industrial applications. Their team includes Nissia Sabri and Pallavi Mishra.
TagUP: Founded out of Harvard Business School and MIT, Tagup offers industrial equipment manufacturers a cloud-based solution to track products’ sensor, location, and static data in real-time. They enable manufacturers and their supply chain partners to have complete visibility into a product’s operational status, improving service contracts and generating new sales opportunities. Tagup is led by co-founders Jon Garrity and Will Vega-Brown.
MultiSensor Scientific: MultiSensor Scientific is developing a multispectral infrared (non-thermal) camera system to visualize and quantify methane leaks from natural gas infrastructure in real-time. By simultaneously imaging and determining gas density at every pixel, inspectors can locate and prioritize critical repairs, and reduce harmful methane emissions that are driving climate change. Their two co-founders are Allen Waxman and Jason Blysma.
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Reimagining the Learning Environment
Thursday, April 7
6:00 PM
The MEME Design, 288 Norfolk Street, 5th Floor, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Evenings-at-TheMEME/events/229293772/
What is a “learning space”? Who belongs in “learning spaces”? The definition might once have been clear, but the impact of emerging technologies and global communications has created instant access to resources and vast domains of knowledge, blurring clearly defined boundaries and extending the learning experience beyond traditional classroom settings. This creates a rich, fertile, and open field for innovations in learning.
THE MEME invites you to an evening of conversation with experienced leaders as we explore fundamental questions about the future of where we learn and how we learn. We will explore the design of learning spaces, the activities that take place within them, and the role of technology.
Of interest to the community of educators, administrators, journalists, technology researchers, entrepreneurs, designers, buyers and builders of education technology.
We have three speakers confirmed for the panel: Saeed Arida(NuVu), Nina Huntemann (edX), and Daniel Wilson (Project Zero).
Go around to the back (or loading dock) entrance. Our office is not accessible from the front entrance. Climb up the stairs to the top (5th) floor. There will be signs pointing the way. Street parking is available along Hampshire St.
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The Growth of Virtual Realities
Thursday, April 7
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
MIT, Building E51-325, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-growth-of-virtual-realities-tickets-24304305833
Greenlight VR & VR at MIT present forecasting the growth of the virtual and augmented reality industries
VR at MIT and Greenlight VR invite you to a special workshop on forecasting the future of virtual and augmented reality industries - coined by Greenlight VR as Virtual Realities(TM). Join Steve Marshall, Senior Vice President of Greenlight VR, for this unique working session where the firm's industry analysts discuss, and for the first time, present their models for this hyper-growth technology industry. Marshall will also explain how the “advisory service” model has changed in recent years and how the VRs industry will be impacted.
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Communications Forum: "Being Muslim in America (and MIT) in 2016
Thursday, April 7
6:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building 3-270, 33 Massachusetts Avenue (Rear), Cambridge
Last December, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump called for a ban on all Muslims entering the United States. In March, he added that "I think Islam hates us." Cambridge City Councilman Nadeem Mazen and Wise Systems co-founder Layla Shaikley--both MIT alumni--join engineering masters student Abubakar Abid to explore how this type of hateful, discriminatory rhetoric influences public opinion, discuss its impact on the daily lives of Muslim-Americans, and examine strategies for combating it.
Nadeem Mazen is an MIT graduate, Cambridge's first Muslim city councilman and CEO of the Cambridge makerspace danger!awesome.
Layle Shaikley is an MIT alum, co-founder of Wise Systems and co-founder of TEDxBaghdad. With her viral video sensation "Muslim Hipsters: #mipsterz," she helped launch a national conversation about how Muslim women are represented.
Abubakar Abid is a engineering masters student at MIT and a member of the Muslim Student Association.
Moderator: Seth Mnookin, associate director of MIT's Graduate Program in Science Writing and director of the MIT Communications Forum.
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/forums/Being_Muslim.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing
For more information, contact: Christina Couch
couch at mit.edu
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Baby BOOM or Bust: Planning for our grandparents through design & technology
Thursday, April 7
6:30PM to 7:30PM (EDT)
Cambridge Innovation Center, 1 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/baby-boom-or-bust-planning-for-our-grandparents-through-design-technology-tickets-20789022526
Hear from thought leaders in design, technology, and housing about how they are serving the growing senior market, and explore the mutual benefits of intergenerational collaboration on product design. Our panel will include Dr. Joe Coughlin, Director of the AgeLab at MIT, Grace Nicklin, Senior Designer at IDEO, Anna Hall, Director Resident Programs Engagement at Brookdale Senior Living Solutions, and Bern Terry, Vice President, Healthcare for Vecna Technologies.
Co-sponsored by Boston Bridge and Aging 2.0 in collaboration with the Venture Cafe.Venture Cafe
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Bacterial Bonanza
Thursday, April 7
6:30p–8:30p
MIT, Building N-51, MIT Museum: 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Julie Button, Dr. Nirav Desai, Dr. Jason Zhang, Dr. Benjamin Wolfe, Dr. Amy Apprill, Carolyn Edelstein
"Speed Geek" your way through the MIT Museum and learn from the experts about the microbiomes that shape our world! There is more than meets the eye when it comes to the microscopic communities of bacteria that live in our bodies, food and environment. This fun evening will feature local scientists and researchers set up to talk and teach in a non-traditional environment at stations throughout the Museum!
The Policy and Politics of Poop
Carolyn Edelstein - Director of Policy and Global Partnerships, OpenBiome
What the Microbiomes of Corals and Whales Can Tell us About Animal Health and Ecology
Dr. Amy Apprill - Assistant Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Delicious Rot: Cheese Microbiomes
Dr. Benjamin Wolfe - Assistant Professor, Tufts University
A Medical Look
Dr. Jason Zhang - Boston Children's Hospital
Dr. Nirav Desai - Medical Director, Boston Children's Hospital, Bariatric Surgery Program
Medicines Powered by the Human Biome
Julie Button - Seres Therapeutics
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/museum/programs/calendar/2016_Bacterial_Bonanza.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free admission
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bacterial-bonanza-the-mit-museum-tickets-22925145728?aff=es2
Sponsor(s): MIT Museum
For more information, contact:
617-324-7313
Jennifer Novotney
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Security Mom: An Unclassified Guide to Protecting Our Homeland and Your Home
Thursday, April 7
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge,
Harvard Book Store welcomes homeland security expert and advisor JULIETTE KAYYEM for a discussion of her book Security Mom: An Unclassified Guide to Protecting Our Homeland and Your Home.
About Security Mom
It’s time to put the “home” back into our homeland. Part prescription and part memoir, this exceptional view of America’s security concerns by a leading government Homeland Security advisor, Pulitzer Prize–finalist columnist, CNN analyst and mother of three delivers a message and a plan: security begins at home.
“Soccer Moms” are so last decade. Juliette Kayyem is a “Security Mom.” A national security expert who worked at the highest levels of government, and also a mom of three, she’s lived it all—from the fears of being a target of an anthrax hoax, to the challenges of managing the BP Oil spill, to the more intimate challenges of defeating lice in her children’s hair—and now she tells it all. Weaving her personal story of marriage and motherhood into a fast-paced account of managing the nation’s most compelling disasters, Juliette recounts the milestones that mark the path of her unpredictable, daring, funny, and ultimately relatable life.
In her insider’s look at American emergency and disaster management, Juliette distills years of professional experience into smart, manageable guidelines for keeping your family safe in an unpredictable world. From stocking up on coloring books to stashing duplicate copies of valuable papers out of state, Juliette’s wisdom does more than just prepare us to survive in an age of mayhem—it empowers us to thrive. Her message, the result of years working where tragedy has thrived, is ultimately positive: starting in our homes, each of us—every mom, dad, aunt, uncle, yes every citizen—has the capacity to build a more resilient nation.
Security Mom is an utterly modern tale about the highs and lows of having-it-all parenthood and a candid, sometimes shocking, behind-the-scenes look inside the high-stakes world of national security. Unlike so many in her field who seem invested on terrifying citizens into paralysis, Juliette’s motto has always been “don’t scare, prepare!” In her signature refreshing style, Juliette reveals how she came to learn that homeland security is not simply about tragedy and terror; it is about what we can do every day to keep each other strong and safe.
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Friday, April 8
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The roles of climate variability and emissions on U.S. surface ozone means and extremes
Friday, April 8
12:00PM TO 1:00PM
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Meiyun Lin, Princeton University & NOAA GFDL
Speaker Bio: http://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/meiyun-lin-homepage
Atmospheric Sciences Seminar
https://www.seas.harvard.edu/calendar/event/86126
Contact Name: Lu L. Shen
lshen at fas.harvard.edu
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2016-04-08-160000-2016-04-08-170000/atmospheric-sciences-seminar#sthash.KbLxugQq.dpuf
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The Electoral Legacies of War with Amanda Riskallah
WHEN Fri., Apr. 8, 2016, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Darman Seminar Room, Taubman Building, First Floor, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Middle East Initiative
SPEAKER(S) A seminar with Amanda Rizkallah, pre-doctoral Research Fellow, Middle East Initiative and Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science, University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA). Part of the Middle East Initiative Research Fellow Seminar Series.
COST Free and open to the public
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/6878/electoral_legacies_of_war.html
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Climate science and climate risks
Friday, April 8
3:00p–4:00p
MIT, Building NW17, 175 Albany Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Kerry Emanuel
This talk provides a broad overview of climate science, including the history of the science itself, and what we have learned about the Earth???s climate system through analysis of paleoclimate data, the instrumental record, and, most importantly, the fundamental physics, chemistry, and biology underlying the climate system. Projections of future climates, made using both simple and complex models, will be discussed, with an emphasis on sources of uncertainty together with an assessment of whether and to what extent the level of uncertainty can be reduced. Toward the end of the talk, the problem of global warming will be framed as a problem of risk assessment and management, including the difficulties in dealing with fat-tailed risk probabilities, and various technical and policy options for dealing with climate change will be described.
Plasma Science and Fusion Center Seminar Series
Web site: http://www.psfc.mit.edu/events/2016/climate-science-and-climate-risks
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Plasma Science and Fusion Center
For more information, contact: Paul Rivenberg
617-253-8101
rivenberg at psfc.mit.edu
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Managing Uncertainty in Future Smart Grid: An Online-Algorithmic Approach Towards Robust and Efficient Decisions
Friday, April 8
3-4 pm
BU, 8 St. Mary’s Street, PHO 210, Boston
Refreshments at 2:45 pm
Xiaojun Lin, Purdue University
Advances in smart grid allow us to utilize tools from computing, communication, and control to solve pressing challenges in power systems. One of such critical challenges is how to respond to the significant uncertainty both in the renewable supply (wind/solar) and in the demand patterns. Such uncertainty is often revealed sequentially in time, and thus the decision at each time instant must be adjusted based on the information that has already been revealed, and yet be prepared for the remaining uncertainty towards the future. Further, the nature of the power systems often dictates that robust performance guarantees must be assured even at the worst-case uncertainty, e.g., the energy supply must always meet the demand, and otherwise the entire power grid may fall apart. Thus, there is a pressing need to develop sequential decision algorithms that can achieve not only efficient outcomes on average, but also robust worst-case performance guarantees against future uncertainty.
In this talk, we argue that competitive online algorithms could be a useful framework for solving this type of sequential decision problems in future smart grid. We present one such study in the context of managing EV (Electric Vehicle) charging along with renewable supply to minimize the peak consumption from the grid. In the typical CS literature, an optimal competitive online algorithm, which achieves the smallest possible worst-case competitive ratio compared to the offline solution, can be found even when there is absolutely no prior information about the future input. However, in power systems, such competitive results could be quite pessimistic because they do not exploit any partial (yet inaccurate) future information that may be available. Instead, we demonstrate how to utilize partial future knowledge in the form of day-ahead and hour-ahead forecasts to develop new online algorithms with both greatly-reduced worst-case competitive ratios and superior average-case performance.
Xiaojun Lin received his B.S. from Zhongshan University, Guangzhou, China, in 1994, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, in 2000 and 2005, respectively. He is currently an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. Dr. Lin’s research interests are in the analysis, control and optimization of large and complex networked systems, including both communication networks and cyber-physical systems. He received the IEEE INFOCOM 2008 best paper award and 2005 best paper of the year award from Journal of Communications and Networks. His paper was also one of two runner-up papers for the best-paper award at IEEE INFOCOM 2005. He received the NSF CAREER award in 2007. He is currently serving as an Area Editor for (Elsevier) Computer Networks journal and an Associate Editor for IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, and has served as a Guest Editor for (Elsevier) Ad Hoc Networks journal.
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Integrating nano-biomaterials for future bio-hybrid solar fuel conversions
Friday, April 8
3:00 PM
BU, 15 St. Mary’s Street, Room 105, Boston
Refreshments served at 2:45 PM
Dibyendu Mukherjee is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace & Biomedical Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT)
Abstract: The grand challenge in harvesting electrochemical and solar energy as carbon-neutral and sustainable energy sources remain in the development of advanced fuel and photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells that can sustain efficient electrocatalytic and photocatalytic energy conversions while maintaining their long-term stability, durability, and economic viability. To this end, the first part of this talk will focus on advanced laser-based syntheses and characterizations of intermetallic (IM) nanoparticles wherein tandem laser ablation synthesis in solution-galvanic replacement reactions (tandem LASiS-GRR) will be presented as a facile, “green” technique developed in our group for the synthesis of complex IM nanocomposites (NCs) and nanoalloys (NAs) as electrocatalysts and photocatalysts. Results presented for NCs of PtCo NAs embedded in CoOx matrices and PtCo NAs indicate superior bifunctional electrocatalytic activities and stability in alkaline and acid conditions respectively for oxygen reduction and evolution reactions (ORR and OER) along with a 20-25% reduction in Pt loading that outperform commercial carbon supported catalysts. Furthermore, preliminary results for future plasmonic coupled photocatalysts will be discussed. The second part of the talk will conclude with harnessing solar energy by putting nature’s lessons at work through the use of Photosystem I (PS I), the photosynthetic protein complex that undergoes photoactivated (l=680 nm) charge separation and unidirectional electron transfer. Results will be presented for uniform monolayer assembly and PEC characterizations of directionally oriented PS I at organic/inorganic interfaces as the first critical step towards bridging the robust structural and optoelectronic properties of PS I with suitably designed nanocatalysts for the rational design of future bio-hybrid solar energy conversion devices.
Biography: Dibyendu Mukherjee is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace & Biomedical Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT). He received a B.E. and M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University at Buffalo (SUNY, Buffalo) and the M. S. University of Baroda, India respectively. He joined as a tenure-track faculty in UT after earning his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the Center for NanoEnergetics Research (CNER) at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and working as a postdoctoral researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and a Gibson research fellow with the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) at UT. His research focusses on the synthesis, assembly, and characterization of novel functional nano-biomaterials that can alleviate three critical and interconnected areas of significance namely, energy, energetics and environment. Dibyendu was an invited speaker at the 2014 MRS fall meeting in Boston, MA and is a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS), Materials Research Society (MRS), American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
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MIT Water Innovation Prize Final Pitch Night
Friday, April 8
5:30p–8:30p
MIT, Building 32-123, Kirsch Auditorium, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Christine Boyle
Come watch student entrepreneurs compete for up to $30,000 in innovation grants for their startups in the water sector. Keynote address by last year's winners and Christine Boyle, the founder of Valor Water Analytics.
Web site: mitwaterinnovation.com
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Water Club
For more information, contact: Peter Chamberlain
waterclub-officers at mit.edu
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Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?
Friday, April 8
7:00 PM (EDT)
First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.harvard.com/event/thomas_frank1/
Cost: $5
Thomas Frank discusses Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? with an introduction by JOHN SUMMERS
Harvard Book Store and The Baffler welcome bestselling author and founding Baffler editor THOMAS FRANK for a discussion of his book Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?, a scathing look at the standard-bearers of liberal politics—a book that asks: what's the matter with Democrats? The Baffler editor John Summers will provide an introduction.
Learn more at http://www.harvard.com/event/thomas_frank1/
All pre-sales tickets include a copy of Listen, Liberal, admission into the event, and a $5 coupon for use in the bookstore. Pre-sales tickets are available online for two weeks only, after which a $5 ticket option will go on sale. Books bundled with pre-sale tickets may only be picked up at the venue the night of the event, and cannot be picked up in-store beforehand.
$5 tickets will also be available at Harvard Book Store and over the phone at 617-661-1515. Unless the event is sold out, any remaining tickets will be on sale at the door of the venue when doors open.
Tickets are non-refundable and non-returnable.
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Saturday, April 9
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5th Annual Get Growing Festival
Saturday, April 9
10am to 2pm
Upstairs from the winter farmers’ market, 5 Callender Street (near Central Square), Cambridge
5th Annual Get Growing Festival brings together gardeners, would-be gardeners, and community members of all ages.
Activities for everybody: start seeds, make a seed ball (to toss!), build a raised bed or rain barrel. Meet a chicken.
Get tips on making compost, keeping bees, growing a lot in a small space, IDing edible weeds, protecting the planet.
Connect with fun projects: harvest community fruit, share a yard, pull invasive weeds, glean edibles for hunger relief
And new this year: swaps! Bring plants, seeds, and garden/cooking books you don’t want and take away something new.
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1154586774554042/
http://www.cambridgewinterfarmersmarket.com
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Monday, April 11
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MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) - Meiyun Lin, GFDL
Monday, April 11
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus)
Meiyun Lin (GFDL)
Meiyun Lin is a research scientist at NOAA and Princeton University's Cooperative Institute for Climate Science (2010-present). Lin's research seeks to advance knowledge on the interactions of air quality with weather and climate. Specifically, she investigates how climate variability & change affect the long-range transport of Asian pollution, intrusions of stratospheric ozone deep into the troposphere, and their impacts on western US ozone air quality. Focusing on these research themes, Lin's work has led to a stream of high-profile publications. The US Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to lower the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ground-level ozone from 75 to 65-70 ppbv. Process-level understanding on daily to multi-decadal time scales is thus relevant for effective implementation of the ozone standard in western states. Meiyun Lin is also an investigator of the NASA Aura Sciences Team in Atmospheric Composition and the NASA Air Quality Applied Sciences Team. Lin earned her Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo (2007) and completed her postdoctoral work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2008-2010).
Event website: http://bit.ly/1P33yOq
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How has British Columbia’s revenue-neutral carbon tax worked? A synthesis of the evidence
Monday, April 11
12:00PM TO 1:30PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Brian Murray, Director, Environmental Economics Program, Nicholas Institute, Duke University
HKS Energy Policy Seminar Series
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/cepr/seminar.html
This series is presented by the Energy Technology Innovation Policy/Consortium for Energy Policy Research at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard. Lunch will be provided.
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
louisa_lund at hks.harvard.edu
(617) 495-8693
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2016-04-11-160000-2016-04-11-173000/hks-energy-policy-seminar-series#sthash.pyjvPN0W.dpuf
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Healthy Forever? Aging, Mobility, and the Transformation of Later Life
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, HUCE Seminar Room, 24 Oxford Street, 3rd Floor, Cambridge
Cara Kieran Fallon, Harvard, History of Science
Sandwich lunches are provided. Please RSVP to sts at hks.harvard.edu by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
STS Circle at Harvard
http://sts.hks.harvard.edu/events/sts_circle/
The Harvard STS Circle is co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Contact Name: Shana Rabinowich
Shana_Rabinowich at hks.harvard.edu
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2016-04-11-161500-2016-04-11-180000/sts-circle-harvard#sthash.txfoBu9H.dpuf
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2016 Norton Lecture 5 of 6: "Narrating the Other”
WHEN Mon., Apr. 11, 2016, 4 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mahindra Humanities Center
SPEAKER(S) Toni Morrison
TICKET INFO Events are free, but tickets are required. Tickets will be available starting at noon on the day of each lecture. Tickets will be available in person at Sanders Theatre or online (handling fees apply). Limit of two tickets per person. Tickets valid until 3:45 p.m.
DETAILS
2016 Norton Lectures. "The Origin of Others: The Literature of Belonging"
Lecture One: Romancing Slavery
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Lecture Two: Being and Becoming the Stranger
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Lecture Three: The Color Fetish
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Lecture Four: Configurations of Blackness
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Lecture Five: Narrating the Other
Monday, April 11, 2016
Lecture Six: The Foreigner's Home
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Events are free, but tickets are required. Tickets will be available starting at noon on the day of each lecture. Tickets will be available in person at Sanders Theatre or online (handling fees apply). Limit of two tickets per person. Tickets valid until 3:45 p.m.
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The Future of Nature: Climate After The Paris Agreement
Monday, April 11
5:30 p.m. reception, 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m. talk
Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts
527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA
RSVP at https://support.nature.org/site/Ticketing?view=Tickets&id=9027
Cost: $25, students $10
The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate affirmed the power of nature to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help communities adapt to climate change impacts.
What role can nature—through such things as carbon-storing forests, wave-absorbing salt marshes and protective floodplains—play in meeting the historic challenge of climate change?
How do communities like Boston’s best use these nature-based solutions alongside engineered solutions, to adapt and thrive?
An hour-long networking reception starts at 5:30 p.m. Talk begins at 6:30 p.m. and will include a closing audience Q&A.
We’ll kick off the talk with a screening of the Conservancy’s “The Nature of People,” a short documentary focusing on climate change and nature-based adaptation.
Panelists:
Austin Blackmon, Chief of Environment, Energy and Open Spaces, City of Boston
Bud Ris, Senior Advisor, Climate, Barr Foundation
Glenn Prickett, Chief External Affairs Officer, The Nature Conservancy
Moderator:
Deborah Becker, Senior Correspondent and Host, WBUR
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An Introduction to Machine Learning for Law, Journalism, and Public Policy
Monday, April 11
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
Engagement Lab, 160 Boylston Street 4th Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-introduction-to-machine-learning-for-law-journalism-and-public-policy-tickets-22233958368
Join us at the Engagement Lab for an introductory talk about machine learning featuring Harvard Fellow William Li. The talk will take approximately 45 minutes, followed by a 15-20 minute Q&A session. Refreshments will be served.
This talk focuses on machine learning techniques to uncover patterns and insights from large open government datasets. William Li will introduce some concepts of machine learning through two projects: First, he'll discuss an authorship attribution model of unsigned U.S. Supreme Court opinions, offering insights into the authorship of important cases and the dynamics of Supreme Court decision-making. Second, he'll present a novel model, Probabilistic Text Reuse (PTR), for finding repeated passages of text in large document collections. He'll illustrate the utility of PTR by capturing the structure of a large collection of public comments on the FCC's proposed regulations on net neutrality. Finally, he'll conclude with some thoughts on the challenges for machine learning in journalism, legal aid, and civic technologies.
About Our Speaker: William Li is a 2015-2016 Fellow at the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society and a 2016 PhD computer science graduate from MIT. He develops and applies machine learning methods to answer social science questions computationally and to promote public understanding of law, politics, and public policy. His projects include predicting the authors of unsigned Supreme Court opinions, visualizing the complexity of our laws, and discovering ideas from large collections of public comments on proposed regulations. William has also worked on recommender systems, speech recognition, and user activity prediction at Apple and Mitsubishi Electric.
He did his master’s degrees at MIT in computer science and the Technology and Policy Program, founded the MIT Assistive Technology Club, and has taught classes that involve civic collaborations with organizations such as the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services, Greater Boston Legal Services, and the Cambridge Commission for People with Disabilities.
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Demo Day: A Celebration of Student Innovation at Northeastern
Monday, April 11
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT)
Northeastern, Curry Student Center, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/demo-day-a-celebration-of-student-innovation-at-northeastern-tickets-24223578375
Demo Day is the presentation of over 20 student ventures that have completed a 7-week program called the Husky Startup Challenge. These ventures have participated in five four-hour bootcamps, attended office hours with coaches, and worked with other Northeastern resources to develop their business plans. The Husky Startup Challenge serves to provide an exciting atmosphere where student-run ventures can engage with real world entrepreneurs to develop their business ideas and create something extremely unique.
Demo Day is comprised of 3 parts
1) 6-7PM. Tabling: students set up a table with information about their companies and talk with attendees about their product and the work they did throughout the semester.
2) 7:15-8:30. Pitching: students then complete a 2 minute pitch in front of 300+ attendees, including a panel of 6 judges. We will be giving out $5000 in cash prizes.
3) 8:30-9. Keynote speaker & prize presentation
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Boston New Technology April 2016 Product Showcase #BNT64
Monday, April 11
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Akamai Technologies, 150 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston_New_Technology/events/229515406/
Akamai staff will be escorting attendees from the lobby up the stairs to the first floor, where you'll find our check-in table. Type the first few letters of your name on the screen and tap your name to print your name tag.
Free event! Come learn about 7 innovative and exciting technology products and network with the Boston/Cambridge startup community!
Each presenter gets 5 minutes for product demonstration and 5 minutes for Q&A.
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Microsoft Speakers Series: Future of Big Data
Monday, April 11
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT)
Microsoft New England Research and Development Center, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/microsoft-speakers-series-future-of-big-data-tickets-23481669305
HackerX has partnered with Microsoft to connect diverse tech talent with people who believe diversity is an advantage, and that inclusive teams are stronger, smarter, and better. Come join us for an inside look at what's new at Microsoft, including face-to-face interaction with Microsoft New England R&D teams. Come if you're curious about what's next at Microsoft or just want to connect with other talented people in the industry. The evening will be filled with food, drinks, and raffle prizes provided by the Microsoft team. This is Microsoft (Speaker Series), presented by HackerX.
GET AN INSIDE LOOK AT MICROSOFT
Want a chance to meet face-to-face with top management at Microsoft? It's one of a kind opportunity to meet some of Microsoft's senior technology influencers and next wave of leaders.
GET TO KNOW MICROSOFT
HackerX gives unrepresented and talented tech professional with a variety of skill. We especially seek, women, people of color, LGBTQ individuals, and many smart people who are driven to create change. We’ll wrap up the event with a free-form social hour where you can meet other professionals in the community and get to know like-minded visionaries looking for people to help take Microsoft to the next level.
GUEST SPEAKER
T.K. "Ranga" Rengarajan
Corporate Vice President, Technology & Research
T.K. “Ranga” Rengarajan, a Corporate Vice President within Technology and Research in Microsoft is responsible for global aspects of engineering. Among his responsibilities are all Microsoft Global Development Centers located in China, India, Israel, New England, Silicon Valley and Vancouver, the Garage program to drive grass root innovation and advanced technology projects in the areas of system and performance. Ranga and his teams are responsible to ensure Microsoft attracts, trains and retains the best talent in the world.
We live in an extraordinary time for data. In our mobile-first world, we have a multitude of devices -- phones, IoT sensors, computers -- capturing every step, touch, decision and action we take. In a cloud-first world, we have incredible data storage and processing capabilities to capture this torrent of data, analyze & combine them, share insights with others, and drive automated learning. The result is new productivity experiences where we are limited only by our data dreams and ability to imagine value from the data we possess.
AGENDA
6:00pm: Open networking, Food/drinks
7:00pm: Guest Speaker: Ranga Rengarajan + Demo, Raffle
8:00pm: Meet Microsoft Teams
9:00pm: Event ends
More at http://www.hackerx.org
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Science by the Pint: The Evolution of Individual Differences
Monday, April 11
6:30 PM to 8:30 PM
The Burren, 247 Elm Street, Somerville
The Evolution of Individual Differences: Personality, Politics, and Sex
Guest scientist Max Krasnow
Max Krasnow is an assistant professor Psychology at Harvard. He the leader of the Evolutionary Psychology Lab, and his research focuses on the mechanisms underlying human social behavior and how they evolved. One line of this research has explored how the fact that the future of any interaction is uncertain conspires with distinctive features of the hominin social niche to select for organisms that are more generous, trusting and cooperative than an otherwise rational analysis would predict. In related work, he has shown in a series of behavioral experiments how these and other fundamental components of human social behavior, like our concern for the treatment of others and our punitive sentiments towards bad actors, can help cultivate mutually beneficial cooperative relationships and improve their terms when they begin to function poorly.
Science by the Pint is a monthly science cafe free and open to the public, run by the Harvard non-profit outreach group Science In The News (SITN). Read more here: http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/science-by-the-pint/
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Tuesday, April 12
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Symposium: Beyond 2016 - MIT's frontiers of the future
Tuesday, April 12
All day
MIT, Building W-16, 48 Massachusetts Avenue (Rear), Cambridge
This symposium is part of MIT's Century in Cambridge celebration and will feature a campus-focused collection of innovative presentations by MIT faculty, researchers, and students, followed by panel discussions.
Program details will be added to the event website as soon as they become available.
Web site: http://mit2016.mit.edu/events/frontiers
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Institute Events
For more information, contact: MIT Institute Events
617-253-4795
century at mit.edu
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The Center for Health and the Global Environment: Re-Envisioning Health and Sustainability
WHEN Tue., Apr. 12, 2016, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health FXB G-12, 651 Huntington Avenue, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Lecture, Science, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
SPEAKER(S) John D. Spengler & Aaron Bernstein
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The paradox of the third tier: how do corals react to extreme environmental conditions?
Tuesday, April 12
1:00pm - 2:00pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin, Room 125 G, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Dan Tchernov, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer, Founder and Department Head, Department of Marine Biology, Leon Charney School of Marine Science, University of Haifa, Israel
Certain scleractinian (stony) coral species are capable of alternating between non- calcifying soft body solitary forms to the more familiar calcifying colonial forms. This ability supports the hypothesis that scleractinian corals have survived through the ions even during unfavorable conditions for calcification. This physiological and morphological trait may shed light on the evolutionary mechanisms that allows these calcifying organisms to survive the third tier of mass extinctions. We show that incubation of two coral species under acidifying conditions invokes tissue-specific apoptosis (programmed cell death) that leads to disassociation of polyps from coenosarc (connective tissue) and the breakdown of the latter, resulting in the loss of colonial form and of the calcareous skeleton. Following reintroduction of the remaining solitary polyps to a more basic pH (8.2), both coral species examined (Pocillopora damicornis and Oculina patagonica) reformed coenosarc and initiated calcification. Our data shows that apoptosis is initiated in the polyps, and once disassociation between polyp and coenosarc terminates, it subsides. We show that corals respond to severe and rapid environmental changes using a controlled pathway governed by programmed cell death mechanisms. These results may provide a mechanistic explanation for several key evolutionary phenomena: (i) repeated loss/gain of coloniality in corals over the ions (ii) reported “programmed release” of single polyps including or devoid of skeleton following environmental stress, and (iii) patterns of survival of mass extinctions events demonstrated by corals over the geological time scales, thus providing new insight into nature's discontinuities (i.e. the third tier of the paradox of the tiers) S J Gould (1985).
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The Science of Stereotyping and Implicit Bias
Tuesday, April 12
3:00pm - 5:00pm
MIT, Building 46-3002 Singleton Auditorium, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker(s): Keith B. Maddox, Ph.D., Samuel Sommers Ph.D.
This interactive presentation will explore cognitive and behavioral science research on the nature of implicit bias. While the modern era is one in which most professionals believe themselves to be fair-minded individuals-perhaps even genuinely prioritizing egalitarian values-social categories including age, gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation continue to have profound effects on how we see and interact with the world around us in legal domains, in the classroom, and more generally throughout the course of daily life. What research tells us is that contemporary bias is often unconscious, but this doesn't make its implications for organizational climate or the individuals within that environment any less real. The science also demonstrates, however, that we are not hopelessly at the mercy of the power of expectation and bias, and we will identify the circumstances under which bias is most likely to emerge and evaluate potential strategies for trying to curtail such tendencies.
More at: http://bcs.mit.edu/news-events/events/science-stereotyping-and-implicit-bias#sthash.uabI8yXG.dpuf
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2016 Norton Lecture 6 of 6: "The Foreigner's Home”
WHEN Tue., Apr. 12, 2016, 4 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mahindra Humanities Center
SPEAKER(S) Toni Morrison
TICKET INFO Events are free, but tickets are required. Tickets will be available starting at noon on the day of each lecture. Tickets will be available in person at Sanders Theatre or online (handling fees apply). Limit of two tickets per person. Tickets valid until 3:45 p.m.
DETAILS
2016 Norton Lectures. "The Origin of Others: The Literature of Belonging"
Lecture One: Romancing Slavery
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Lecture Two: Being and Becoming the Stranger
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Lecture Three: The Color Fetish
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Lecture Four: Configurations of Blackness
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Lecture Five: Narrating the Other
Monday, April 11, 2016
Lecture Six: The Foreigner's Home
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Events are free, but tickets are required. Tickets will be available starting at noon on the day of each lecture. Tickets will be available in person at Sanders Theatre or online (handling fees apply). Limit of two tickets per person. Tickets valid until 3:45 p.m.
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U.S. power plant carbon standards and the potential for clean air, human health and ecosystem co-benefits
Tuesday, April 12
4:45p–5:45p
MIT, Building 1-190, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Charles T. Driscoll, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Syracuse University
Carbon dioxide emissions standards for U.S. power plants will influence the fuels and technologies used to generate electricity, altering emissions of pollutants and affecting ambient air quality and public and ecosystem health.
Three alternative scenarios for U.S. power plant carbon standards were evaluated for changes in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone concentrations in ambient air, and resulting public health and ecosystem co-benefits. For two of the three policy scenarios, carbon standards for existing power plants can substantially decrease emissions of co-pollutants, and improve air quality and public health beyond existing air quality policies. A stringent but flexible policy that counts demand-side energy efficiency toward compliance yields the greatest health and ecosystem benefits and a favorable benefit-cost analysis. The magnitude and the nature of the co-benefits associated with this policy are highly distributed spatially, with all of the coterminous states receiving some health benefits and many states experiencing ecosystem benefits. Professor Charles Driscoll and his research teams current work involves an evaluation of options considered for implementation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan.
In this talk, Driscoll will discuss his research on power plant carbon standards and the potential impacts of the Clean Power Plan.
IHS Seminar Series
Web site: http://mitei.mit.edu/driscoll
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/412-seminar-us-power-plant-carbon-standards-and-the-potential-for-clean-air-human-health-and-tickets-24231414814
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative
For more information, contact: askmitei at mit.edu
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Artificial Intelligence: Its Future and Ours
WHEN Tue., Apr. 12, 2016, 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, B1, William James Hall, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Health Sciences, Humanities, Information Technology, Law, Lecture, Science, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mind Brain Behavior Interfaculty Initiative
SPEAKER(S) Panelists:
David Cox, PhD
Julie Shah, PhD
Sendhil Mullainathan, PhD
Jonathan Zittrain, JD
Moderator: Stuart Shieber, PhD
COST Free and open to the public
DETAILS Each speaker will give a brief presentation and then participate in a panel discussion moderated by Stuart Shieber. A reception will follow the event.
LINK http://mbb.harvard.edu/news/artificial-intelligence-its-future-and-ours
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xTalks - The University of the Future: Lessons from a 2600 Year History
Tuesday, April 12
5:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building 4-163, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Shailendra Mehta
The 2600 year history of universities consists of three broad periods, of 1800 years, 700 years and 100 years, during which respectively, the Indian, the European and US universities have been dominant. During these three periods which have rarely been looked at together, the university form evolved gradually to its present form.
We will look at nearly 20 innovations that have taken place in the university form during this time, and highlight the remarkably similar sets of problems that were solved thereby in different regions of the world. The continuing dynamism of US universities will also be touched upon, as stemming from their unique governance forms. We will also look at the impact of new technologies such as MOOCs on the evolution of the university form.
Prof. Shailendra Raj Mehta, is Distinguished Professor of Strategy and Chairman of the Board of Management at Auro University.
This event is co-sponsored with MIT-India Program.
xTalks: Digital Discourses
The xTalks series provides a forum to facilitate awareness, deep understanding and transference of educational innovations at MIT and elsewhere. We hope to foster a community of educators, researchers, and technologists engaged in developing and supporting effective learning experiences through online learning environments and other digital technologies.
Web site: http://odl.mit.edu/news-and-events/events/shailendra-mehta-history-university
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Office of Digital Learning, xTalks: Digital Discourses, MIT India Program
For more information, contact: Molly Ruggles
617-324-9185
xtalks-info at mit.edu
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Poverty, Inc. (FREE admission!)
Tuesday, April 12
6:00p
MIT, Building 26-100, 60 Vassar Street, Cambridge
FREE admission! Poverty, Inc. will be followed by a panel discussion. Co-hosted with Energy for Human Development (e4Dev).
"I see multiple colonial governors," says Ghanaian software entrepreneur Herman Chinery-Hesse of the international development establishment in Africa. "We are held captive by the donor community."
The West has positioned itself as the protagonist of development, giving rise to a vast multi-billion dollar poverty industry ??? the business of doing good has never been better.
Yet the results have been mixed, in some cases even catastrophic, and leaders in the developing world are growing increasingly vocal in calling for change.
Drawing from over 200 interviews filmed in 20 countries, Poverty, Inc. unearths an uncomfortable side of charity we can no longer ignore.
From TOMs Shoes to international adoptions, from solar panels to U.S. agricultural subsidies, the film challenges each of us to ask the tough question: Could I be part of the problem?
Web site: http://lsc.mit.edu
Open to: the general public
Tickets: Lobby 16
Sponsor(s): LSC, e4Dev
For more information, contact: LSC
617-253-3791
lsc at mit.edu
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Ignite Boston: Data
Tuesday, April 12
6:30 PM to 8:30 PM (EDT)
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ignite-boston-data-tickets-22296376061
Enlighten us, but make it quick
Ignite is a series of events held in cities across the world and it's back in Boston. Presenters get 20 slides, which automatically advance every 15 seconds. The result is an evening of fast and fun presentations which each last just 5 minutes.
Join us at the District Hall to connect with the data community and hear from those who have survived, thrived, or died in a data-driven world. Then stay to network with a beer and wine reception.
Call for Participation
Do you have something interesting to share about data? A big idea to share? A story waiting to be heard? Submit your presentation to the call for participation.
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Café Des Sciences Dr Jeff Karp: Simple Innovation Tools for Science and anywhere
Tuesday, April 12
6:30 PM
CIC Boston, 50 Milk Street, 17th floor, Milky Way Event Space, Boston
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/French-US-Meetup/events/229848506/
Dr Jeff Karp, Associate Professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Principal Faculty at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and affiliate faculty at the Broad Institute and at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.
Dr Jeff Karp will give an inspiring talk about two of the most powerful tools used by his bio-research lab to solve problems in innovative ways, on a continuing basis: bioinspiration and radical simplicity.
Jeff explains how his team has employed these tools and how they can succeed in any field. This talk opens exciting new paths to the continual innovation that is so important in today’s fast-changing world.
Schedule:
6:30PM: Welcome
7PM: Dr Jeff Karp's presentation
8PM: Networking
BIO
Dr. Jeff Karp is an Associate Professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Principal Faculty at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and affiliate faculty at the Broad Institute and at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
He has published >100 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters and has given >200 national and international invited lectures and has 65 issued or pending patents. Several technologies have formed the foundation for multiple products on the market and currently under development and for the launch of two companies, Gecko Biomedical and Skintifique.
The Boston Business Journal recognized him as a Champion in Healthcare Innovation and MIT’s Technology Review Magazine (TR35) also recognized Dr. Karp as being one of the top innovators in the world (3 members from his laboratory have received this award).
His work has been selected by Popular Mechanic's "Top 20 New Biotech Breakthroughs that Will Change Medicine.” He gave a TEDMED talk on bioinspired medical innovation and is a member of the TEDMED Editorial Advisory Board. In 2015 he received a Breakthrough Award from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation and was a commencement speaker at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Karp was selected as the Outstanding Faculty Undergraduate Mentor among all Faculty at MIT and he received the HST McMahon Mentoring award for being the top mentor of Harvard-MIT students. To date, 17 trainees from his laboratory have secured faculty positions.
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Movie Premiere: Sonic Sea
Tuesday, April 12
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Simons IMAX Theatre New England Aquarium, Aquarium Wharf, Boston
RSVP at http://support.neaq.org/site/Calendar?id=106445&view=Detail
Followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with:
Michael Jasny, Director, Marine Mammal Protection, Natural Resources Defense Council
Brandon Southall, Senior Scientist, Southall Environmental Associates, Inc.
Scott Kraus, Vice President of Research, New England Aquarium
Chris Clark, Johnson Senior Scientist, Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell University
Patrick Ramage, Program Director, Whales, International Fund for Animal Welfare
Moderated by Leila Hatch, Ph.D., Marine Ecologist, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, NOAA
The ocean is not a silent world, but a dynamic, living symphony of sound. In water, sound travels five times faster and many times farther than it does in air. Whales, dolphins, porpoises and other marine mammals have evolved to take advantage of this perfect sonic medium. Just as we rely on sight to survive, they depend on sound to hunt for food, find mates, and detect predators.
Over the last 50 years, our increasing ocean presence has drastically transformed the acoustic environment of these majestic creatures. Undersea noise pollution is invisible but it is damaging the web of ocean life.
Sonic Sea is about understanding and protecting the vast symphony of life in our waters
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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, April 13
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Suffolk University Moakley Breakfast Series
Wednesday, April 13,
8:15 AM to 9:30 AM
Suffolk University, 120 Tremont Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/suffolk-university-moakley-breakfast-series-tickets-24349054678
Panelists:
Chris Barry-Smith, First Assistant Attorney General/Chair, Attorney General's Opiate Task Force
Ann-Margaret Ferrante, State Representative (D-Gloucester)
Jennifer Tracey, Director, Office of Recovery Services, City of Boston
Moderator:
Linda Melconian, JD
Senior Fellow, Moakley Center for Public Management
Professor, Suffolk University
Former MA Senate Majority Leader
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Societal Warfare in the 21st Century
Wednesday, April 13
12:00p–1:30p
MIT, Buidling E40-496, Lucian Pye Conference Room, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Johanthan Shimshoni (MIT Visiting Fellow) & Ariel Levite (Carnegie Endowment;KSG Visitor)
SSP Wednesday Seminar Series
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/ssp/seminars/index.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies
For more information, contact: Elina Hamilton
617-253-7529
elinah at mit.edu
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Witnessing Death: Policing, Race, and the Limits of Democracy in the 21st Century
WHEN Wed., Apr. 13, 2016, 4 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Sheerr Room, Fay House, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Lawrence Ralph, 2015-2016 Joy Foundation Fellow, Radcliffe Institute; John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Departments of Anthropology and African and African American Studies, Harvard University
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO events at radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS Anthropologist Lawrence Ralph will share insights from his current research project, which involves US citizens who feel that the American legal system is not equipped to address police use of extralegal force. Ralph’s work addresses the domestic problem of police force in relation to the pressing international concern of global governance. His research suggests that given the current climate of police violence, racial angst, and heightened awareness around policing in the US and abroad, a comprehensive study is needed to think critically about the state and practices of policing.
LINK http://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2016-laurence-ralph-fellow-presentation
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Global Commons
Wednesday, April 13
4:15PM
Harvard, CGIS-S020, Belfer Case Study Room, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
The Energy History Project hosts Surabhi Ranganathan, Kings College, University of Cambridge, who will discuss "Global Commons.”
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~histecon/energyhistory/index.html
Contact Name: Emily Gauthier
gauth at fas.harvard.edu
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2016-04-13-201500/global-commons#sthash.mqqDRF4q.dpuf
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Carbon Tariffs: Effects in Settings with Technology Choice and Foreign Production Cost Advantage
WHEN Wed., Apr. 13, 2016, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Room Littauer-382, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy, Harvard Environmental Economics Program
SPEAKER(S) David Drake, Harvard University
LINK https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/5340
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New Revenue through Business Model Innovation - Navigating the Cleantech Landscape
Wednesday, April 13
5:30p–8:00p
Cambridge Innovation Center, 5th Floor Havana Room, One Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/events/innovative-business-models-in-cleantech/
Cost: $0 - $30
Speaker: Eric Graham, CEO, Crowdcomfort; Daniel Hullah, Director, Ventures, National Grid; Amit Rosner, CEO, Yeloha
This panel will discuss how successful entrepreneurs have navigated the clean energy landscape in spite of the unique challenges they face. These entrepreneurs will discuss their business models in consumerization of energy, public-private partnerships, raising capital through non-traditional funding sources and building steady streams of revenue generation models.
Web site: http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/events/innovative-business-models-in-cleantech/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free for students and members; $30 for nonmembers
Sponsor(s): MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge
For more information, contact: Amy Goggins
617-253-3937
entforumcambridge at mit.edu
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Mammals on the Move
Wednesday, April 13
6:00PM
Harvard, Hall B103, Northwest Building, 52 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Mammals move in their environments to use resources, find shelter, escape from predators, compete, interact, and reproduce. Thanks to new technologies, scientists can now study the movement strategies of animals, which are rarely random. Based on her studies tracking large terrestrial mammals across latitudinal and altitudinal gradients in Europe, Francesca Cagnacci, 2015–2016 Sarah and Daniel Hrdy Fellow in Conservation Biology, Harvard University and Researcher, Fondazione Edmund Mach, Research and Innovation Centre, Italy, will discuss why animal movement patterns are important both for understanding the impact of climate change on ecosystems and for developing sound conservation strategies.
http://hmnh.harvard.edu/event/mammals-move
Contact Name: hmnh at hmsc.harvard.edu
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2016-04-13-220000/mammals-move#sthash.N5BAIOWV.dpuf
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Michael Göring: The Refugee Crisis. Europe at the Crossroads?
Wednesday, April 13
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT)
Goethe-Institute Boston,170 Beacon Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/michael-goring-the-refugee-crisis-europe-at-the-crossroads-tickets-24320845303
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BostonTalks Happy Hour: Game On
Wednesday, April 13
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT)
WGBH , 1 Guest Street, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/bostontalks-happy-hour-game-on-tickets-23052885802
Cost: $11.54
Did you know games can entertain, motivate, and even map the human brain? Designer Amy Robinson discusses the Eyewire game she helped create that combines science, social good, and a good time. And video game music composer Jason Margaca shares how music enhances your in-game experience. Join Amy, Jason, and others to talk games.
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Ah humanity!
WHEN Wed., Apr. 13, 2016, 8 – 10:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Science Center Plaza, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Exhibitions, Film, Science, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Committee on the Arts
DIRECTED BY Ernst Karel, Véréna Paravel, and Lucien Castaing-Taylor
COST Free
CONTACT INFO kristina_latino at harvard.edu
DETAILS Ah humanity! is a large-scale audio-video installation by the artists Ernst Karel, Véréna Paravel, and Lucien Castaing-Taylor. Four channels of sound will be projected into the Plaza and a single channel of video onto the façade of the Science Center, every evening.
Ah humanity! reflects on the fragility and folly of humanity in the age of the Anthropocene. Taking the 3/11/11 disaster of Fukushima as its point of departure, it evokes an apocalyptic vision of modernity, and our predilection for historical amnesia and futuristic flights of fancy.
The images were shot on a telephone through a handheld telescope, at once close to and far from its subject, while the audio composition combines empty excerpts from Japanese genbaku and related film soundtracks, recordings from seismic laboratories, and location sound. Artist Ernst Karel will be mixing the film’s soundtrack live on the Plaza on select evenings throughout the week.
Karel is Lecturer on Anthropology, Manager of the Sensory Ethnography Lab, and Assistant Director of the Film Study Center at Harvard. Paravel is an anthropologist and filmmaker in the Sensory Ethnography Lab. Castaing-Taylor is Professor of Visual Arts and Anthropology. Their previous collaborations include the 2012 film Leviathan.
Ah humanity! was made with support from F93 in Paris, and the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Digital Arts and Humanities (DARTH), and the Harvard University Asia Center. It was produced in the Sensory Ethnography Lab, Harvard University.
The Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard is sponsoring an accompanying roundtable and reception on Wednesday, April 13th, at 6:00 pm in CGIS South. Afterward, attendees are invited to experience the work on the Science Center Plaza.
LINK http://arts.harvard.edu/huca
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Lee Historical Lecture in Physics: One Catastrophe After Another The Big Bang, Death of the Dinosaurs, Ice Ages, Global Warming, and Beyond
WHEN Wed., Apr. 13, 2016, 8 – 9 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Geological Lecture Hall 100, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Lecture, Science, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Department of Physics
SPEAKER(S) Richard A. Muller, professor of physics, University of California, Berkeley, founder of BerkeleyEarth.org
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO Jolanta M. Davis
jmdavis at fas.harvard.edu
617-495-2866
DETAILS
Muller's research has followed an interesting track of catastrophes, from the Big Bang, to supernovas, the destruction of the dinosaurs, the ice ages, global warming, and now air pollution–currently killing 4400 people every day in China. Remarkably, air pollution and global warming can be solved together.
LINK https://www.physics.harvard.edu/node/631
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Thursday, April 14
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Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism
WHEN Thu., Apr. 14, 2016, 11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Fainsod Room (3rd FL Littauer), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Karthik Ramanna, associate professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School
COST Free - limited space
TICKET WEB LINK Please RSVP to mrcbg at hks.harvard.edu
CONTACT INFO Lunch will be served. Please RSVP to mrcbg at hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS “Thin political markets” are the processes through which some of the most complex and critical institutions of our capitalist system are determined—e.g., our accounting-standards infrastructure; rules for bank-capital adequacy; actuarial standards; and auditing practice. In thin political markets, corporate special interests are largely unopposed because of both their tacit knowledge and the general public’s low awareness of the issues. This enables the special interests to structure the “rules of the game” in self-serving ways.
On one level, this behavior embodies the capitalist spirit articulated by Milton Friedman: “The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.” But the ethics of profit-seeking behavior are premised on the logic of competition and, as this session will demonstrate, this logic breaks down in thin political markets. The result is a structural flaw in the determination of critical institutions of the capitalist system, which, if ignored, can undermine the legitimacy of the system. Professor Ramanna will close with some ideas on how to fix the problem.
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Making Robots Behave
Thursday, April 14
4:00pm to 5:15pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin G115, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Leslie Pack Kaelbling, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The fields of AI and robotics have made great improvements in many individual subfields, including in motion planning, symbolic planning, probabilistic reasoning, perception, and learning. Our goal is to develop an integrated approach to solving very large problems that are hopelessly intractable to solve optimally. We make a number of approximations during planning, including serializing subtasks, factoring distributions, and determinizing stochastic dynamics, but regain robustness and effectiveness through a continuous state-estimation and replanning process. I will describe our initial approach to this problem, as well as recent work on improving effectiveness and efficiency through learning.
Speaker Bio:
Leslie is a Professor at MIT. She has an undergraduate degree in Philosophy and a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford, and was previously on the faculty at Brown University. She was the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Machine Learning Research. She is not a robot.
Computer Science Colloquium Series
Host: David Parkes
Contact: Mike Donohoe
Phone: 617-495-0871
Email: donohoe at seas.harvard.edu
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Starr Forum: Human Rights & Technology
Thursday, April 14
4:30p–6:00p
MIT, Building 1-190, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Jay Aronson, Chris McNaboe, Bradley Samuels, Sucharita Varanasi
About the Speakers:
Jay Aronson is founding director of the Center for Human Rights Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He also is associate professor of science, technology, and society in the Department of History. He focuses on the interactions of science, technology, law, and human rights.
Christopher McNaboe, from The Carter Center's Conflict Resolution Program, developed what is now the Syria Conflict Mapping project. He primarily works on Syria-related initiatives, but occasionally assists with other peace program activities.
Bradley Samuels is a founding partner at SITU Research, a practice focused on developing and implementing new strategies for visualizing, mapping, modeling, and analyzing human rights violations for legal and advocacy contexts.
Sucharita Varanasi is an attorney at Hinckely Allen & Snyder LLP. Prior to this post, she worked with Physicians for Human Rights as the senior program officer and MediCapt project manager for the program on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones.
CIS Starr Forum
A public events series on pressing issues in international affairs, sponsored by the MIT Center for International Studies.
Please contact us at starrforum at mit.edu if you need accessibility accommodations
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/cis/eventposter_041416_hrtech.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies
For more information, contact:
617-253-8306
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Celebrate Science: 2016 Cambridge Science Festival Kick-Off Party
Thursday, April 14
5:30 PM to 7:00 PM (EDT)
Microsoft New England Research & Development, 1 Memorial Drive, 10th Floor, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrate-science-2016-cambridge-science-festival-kick-off-party-tickets-22505756323
The Cambridge Science Festival is an annual 10-day celebration of science, technology, engineering, art and math in Cambridge and New England. Come celebrate the 10th anniversary science festival, April 15-24. See the full agenda at http://www.cambridgesciencefestival.org/2016Festival/2016ScheduleOfEvents.aspx
To kick-off this year's festival, Microsoft, MassBio and MassBioEd are hosting a Kendall Square Association "Almost" Third Thursday celebration event. Join us to meet some of innovators behind the Festival’s 170+ events, try out some experiments, network with the STEAM community, and celebrate the science of Kendall Square!
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Farm Share Fair 2016
Thursday, April 14
5:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Cambridge College, 1000 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Do you love local, fresh food? Maybe you’ve been thinking about joining a CSA – a Farm Share? A Farm Share program allows you to receive a fabulous box of great stuff every week direct from a Massachusetts farm. Join us at Cambridge College on April 14, 2016, and meet the fantastic farmers from across this state, which bring local produce to the Boston area. Compare and learn about all the various options: veggies, fruit, flowers, meat, fish eggs, dairy, and specialty products. Over 30 vendors will be at the fair, including some wonderful sustainable food product companies and service providers. Spend your food dollars on locally grown, and sign up at the Farm Share Fair!
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
http://www.farmsharefair.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/FarmShareFair
Twitter: @FarmShareFair
Instagram: @FarmShareFair
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Debate: The Origins of Human Cooperation: Views from Evolutionary Psychology
Thursday, April 14
6-8 p.m.
Harvard, location TBA
featuring Joe Henrich (FAS) and Max Krasnow (FAS)
More information at http://mbb.harvard.edu
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Fletcher IDEAS Exchange: Human Security Approaches to Peacebuilding
Thursday, April 14
6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Tufts, ASEAN, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fletcher-ideas-exchange-human-security-approaches-to-peacebuilding-tickets-23486766551
The Fletcher IDEAS Exchange (FIE) is an annual forum for public speaking at The Fletcher School. Modeled as a TED-type event, the second annual FIE will feature engaging speeches by faculty, students, alumni, and guests around the theme of a human security approach to peacebuilding – why it matters and what are the challenges. Some of the talks will center on perceptions of legitimacy in the governance of conflict–affected and fragile states, as well as related aspects of human security, development and peacebuilding.
Please visit our webpage at http://www.fletcher-ideas-exchange.com/
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Balancing flexibility and scale in a synthetic biology foundry
Thursday, April 14
7:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building NE30, Broad Institute Auditorium (corner of Vassar & Main Streets, Cambridge)
Speaker: Barry Canton
There is a growing demand to source a wide range of chemical products (for example, plant-derived extracts) from engineered microbes. While recent advances in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering make this work technically feasible, commercial success is hindered by the cost to develop the microbes. Development has been costly because the complexity and diversity of biology favored a labor-intensive, small-batch approach to engineering. Ginkgo has built a foundry that allows many microbial engineering projects to use shared processes in a high-throughput, largely-automated fashion, that unlocks substantial economies of scale. In this talk, I will outline the approach, custom software, and hardware that we use to allow flexibility and scale to co-exist where previously one came at the expense of the other.
Barry Canton co-founded synthetic biology company Ginkgo Bioworks in 2008 and has helped build the company to 55 people and raised more than $50M in investment over the last year. At Ginkgo, Barry is responsible for the development of the foundry, a centralized facility for organism engineering. In this role he oversees the development of hardware, software, and wetware technologies. He holds a PhD in Biological Engineering from MIT, where his thesis focused on refinement of standard biological parts and the interactions between a host cell and an engineered genetic circuit.
IEEE/ACM Joint Seminar Series
Exploring the edge of computing technology.
Web site: http://ewh.ieee.org/r1/boston/computer/
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
Sponsor(s): ACM & IEEE/CS
For more information, contact: Dorothy Curtis
dcurtis at mit.edu
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Friday, April 15
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Inequalities/Equalities in Cities
Friday, April 15
9:00am-5:30pm
Harvard Faculty Club, 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Workshop with Clarissa Hayward, Associate Professor of Political Science, Washington University in Saint Louis, Archon Fung, Academic Dean and Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship, Harvard Kennedy School, and Laurence Ralph, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University
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Doctoral Program Conference: "Cambridge Talks X | Bound and Unbound: The Sites of Utopia" (II)
WHEN Fri., Apr. 15, 2016, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Conferences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Graduate School of Design
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO cambridgetalks2016 at gmail.com
DETAILS In the five hundred years since the publication of Thomas More’s Of A Republic’s Best State and of the New Island of Utopia (1516), the project of imagining an ideal society has emerged as simultaneously regenerative and devastating on multiple fronts: for the concept of the polity, for the composition of social fabrics, and, most relevant from the vantage of the design disciplines, for the formation of buildings, cities, and territories. This year’s Cambridge Talks, now in its tenth edition, aims to provide a spectrum of exemplary instances of utopia’s modern guise.
In the main conference panels, we bring together speakers to address the rivalry between those utopian endeavors that organize space mainly through social relations and production, and those whose expansive impulse searches out some form of technical mastery over spatial configuration. In other words, utopia can be understood as either embodied or totalizing, bound or unbound. By taking examples from the 19th and 20th centuries, the case studies presented here—from communes and plantations to infrastructural projects and global ecologies—exhibit various attempts to imagine social conditions alongside spatial ones. A concluding discussion will touch upon the philosophical and theoretical ramifications of utopia today.
LINK www.gsd.harvard.edu/#/events/doctoral-program-conference-cambridge-talks-x-bound-and-unbound.html
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WSSS Symposium 2016: Aqueous Solutions: Valuing Wastewater as a Resource
Friday, April 15
10am
Tufts University, Asean Auditorium, Cabot Center, 170 Packard Avenue, Medford
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tufts-water-symposium-2016-aqueous-solutions-valuing-wastewater-as-a-resource-tickets-20821165667
Cost: $0 - $10
This year's "Water: Systems, Science & Society" Symposium will use the Water-Energy-Food framework to explore the role of wastewater as a solution to many current challenges. Join us for a day of learning, conversing, networking, and problem solving. This one-day symposium will feature: interdisciplinary breakout sessions, keynote lecture from an expert in the wastewater field, power talks from diverse stakeholders & experts, and a lunchtime poster session and networking reception. The event is organized by Tufts University Water: Systems, Science & Society.
We are pleased to announce the following speakers who have confirmed their attendance:
Dr. Kartik Chandran - Director of the Columbia University Biomolecular Environmental Sciences Program and the Wastewater Treatment and Climate Change Program at Columbia University
Ed Clerico - CEO Emeritus at Natural Systems Utilities
Bethany Card - Deputy Commission, Policy and Planning, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
Roy Desrochers - Sensory Practice Leader at GEI Consultants, Inc.
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Developing Future Air Quality Observing Strategies: Contributions from DISCOVER-AQ
Friday, April 15
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Jim Crawford, NASA Langley
Atmospheric Sciences Seminar
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21st Century Clinical Research: Patient Activism, Social Media, Digital Apps
Friday, April 15
12pm
Tufts Medical School, Stearns Auditorium, Farnsworth Building, first floor, 800 Washington Street, Boston
Lisa Gualtieri, PhD, ScM, Assistant Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine
More at https://www.tuftsmedicalcenter.org/Research-Clinical-Trials/Institutes-Centers-Labs/Mother-Infant-Research-Institute/Medical-Education.aspx
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Let There Be Water: Israel's Solution for a Water-Starved World
WHEN Fri., Apr. 15, 2016, 1 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Weil Town Hall (1st Floor Belfer), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Seth M. Siegel, author of Let There Be Water
COST Free and open to the public
TICKET WEB LINK Please RSVP to mrcbg at hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS Lunch will be served. Please RSVP to mrcbg at hks.harvard.edu
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Living with Difference: How to Build Community in a Divided World
Friday, April 15
3:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store and CEDAR welcome Professor of Religion at Boston University and CEDAR director ADAM B. SELIGMAN and Director of Training and Evaluation for CEDAR RAHEL R. WASSERFALL for a discussion of their book Living with Difference: How to Build Community in a Divided World, co-authored with David Montgomery.
About Living with Difference
Whether looking at divided cities or working with populations on the margins of society, a growing number of engaged academics have reached out to communities around the world to address the practical problems of living with difference. This book explores the challenges and necessities of accommodating difference, however difficult and uncomfortable such accommodation may be. Drawing on fourteen years of theoretical insights and unique pedagogy, CEDAR—Communities Engaging with Difference and Religion—has worked internationally with community leaders, activists, and other partners to take the insights of anthropology out of the classroom and into the world. Rather than addressing conflict by emphasizing what is shared, Living with Difference argues for the centrality of difference in creating community, seeking ways not to overcome or deny differences but to live with and within them in a self-reflective space and practice.
This volume also includes a manual for organizers to implement CEDAR’s strategies in their own communities.
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Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Friday, April 15
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University and co-director of the Justice and Poverty Project MATTHEW DESMOND for a discussion of his latest book, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City.
About Evicted
In this brilliant, heartbreaking book, Matthew Desmond takes us into the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee to tell the story of eight families on the edge. Arleen is a single mother trying to raise her two sons on the $20 a month she has left after paying for their rundown apartment. Scott is a gentle nurse consumed by a heroin addiction. Lamar, a man with no legs and a neighborhood full of boys to look after, tries to work his way out of debt. Vanetta participates in a botched stickup after her hours are cut. All are spending almost everything they have on rent, and all have fallen behind.
The fates of these families are in the hands of two landlords: Sherrena Tarver, a former schoolteacher turned inner-city entrepreneur, and Tobin Charney, who runs one of the worst trailer parks in Milwaukee. They loathe some of their tenants and are fond of others, but as Sherrena puts it, “Love don’t pay the bills.” She moves to evict Arleen and her boys a few days before Christmas.
Even in the most desolate areas of American cities, evictions used to be rare. But today, most poor renting families are spending more than half of their income on housing, and eviction has become ordinary, especially for single mothers. In vivid, intimate prose, Desmond provides a ground-level view of one of the most urgent issues facing America today. As we see families forced into shelters, squalid apartments, or more dangerous neighborhoods, we bear witness to the human cost of America’s vast inequality—and to people’s determination and intelligence in the face of hardship.
Based on years of embedded fieldwork and painstakingly gathered data, this masterful book transforms our understanding of extreme poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving a devastating, uniquely American problem. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.
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Saturday, April 16
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Cambridge Science Festival: Worthy of AtTENtion: Gender,robots and everything in between
Saturday, April 16
6:00p–8:30p
MIT, Building N-51, MIT Museum: 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
10 short talks from top scientists looking over developments of the past 10 years.
The world has changed dramatically in the last ten years since the Cambridge Science Festival began. Find out what scientists now know about memory, gravitational waves, CRSPR, exoplanets, robotics, and more. As you???d expect, each presenter will convey their exciting overview in just ten minutes! Cash bar available.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free admission/Cash Bar
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mit-museum-hosts-worthy-of-attention-ten-years-in-ten-minutes-tickets-22538247505
Sponsor(s): MIT Museum
For more information, contact: 617-253-5927
museuminfo at mit.edu
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Monday, April 18
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Nuclear Energy: Obstacles and Possibilities
Monday, April 18
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
Harvard, Malkin Penthouse, 4th Floor, Littauer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Matthew Bunn, Professor of Practice, Harvard Kennedy School, and Joseph Lassiter, Senior Fellow, Senator John Heinz Professor of Management Practice in Environmental Management (Retired), Harvard Business School
HKS Energy Policy Seminar Series
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Inhospitality: Borders and Border-Work at Europe's Doorsteps
WHEN Mon., Apr. 18, 2016, 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street, Bowie-Vernon Room (K262)
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Law, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Seminar on Cultural Politics
SPEAKER(S) Achille Mbembe, Senior Research Fellow, Center for African Studies, Harvard University; Research Professor in History and Politics, Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
CONTACT INFO Panagiotis Roilos (roilos at fas.harvard.edu)
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Tuesday, April 19
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Boston TechBreakfast: AMA XpertEye Inc, Code to Table, Inc., VQL, YooGloo Inc
Tuesday, April 19
8:00 AM
Microsoft NERD, Horace Mann Room, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston-TechBreakfast/events/226655691/
Interact with your peers in a monthly morning breakfast meetup. At this monthly breakfast get-together techies, developers, designers, and entrepreneurs share learn from their peers through show and tell / show-case style presentations.
And yes, this is free! Thank our sponsors when you see them :)
Agenda for Boston TechBreakfast:
8:00 - 8:15 - Get yer Bagels & Coffee and chit-chat
8:15 - 8:20 - Introductions, Sponsors, Announcements
8:20 - ~9:30 - Showcases and Shout-Outs!
AMA XpertEye Inc: XpertEye - Anne-Fleur ANDRLE
Code to Table, Inc.: Sumu - Daniel Tewfik
VQL: - Jason
YooGloo Inc: YooGloo - Joe Pulcinella
~9:30 - end - Final "Shout Outs" & Last Words Boston
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Building a Biomedical Information Commons
WHEN Tue., Apr. 19, 2016, 12:30 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Medical School, Gordon Hall, Waterhouse Room,
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Health Sciences, Law, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School
SPEAKER(S) Bob Cook-Deegan, research professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
Robert C. Green, director, G2P Research Program in Translational Genomics and Health Outcomes, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Broad Institute, and Harvard Medical School
Heidi L. Williams, assistant professor of economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
DIRECTED BY Aaron S. Kesselheim
COST Free and open to the public
TICKET WEB LINK http://bioethics.hms.harvard.edu/upcoming-events?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D117075719
TICKET INFO http://bioethics.hms.harvard.edu/upcoming-events?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D117075719
CONTACT INFO bioethics at hms.harvard.edu
DETAILS Access to large public genetic databases is essential to advancing the diagnosis and management of genetic diseases. The largest databases of genetic variants are currently held by proprietary companies, such as Myriad Genetics, who control access to the data and thereby increase the cost of developing new lifesaving technologies.
Public databases, such as ClinGen, are racing to catch up, but have been criticized as being unreliable, expensive and vulnerable to funding cuts that compromise their upkeep. In this seminar we will explore the pros and cons of these two approaches to managing genetic information.
Register at https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg;jsessionid=1BB33B4F3992A0CF03C005F7E31634E8?oeidk=a07ecchve63de6b9773&oseq=&c=&ch=
LINK http://bioethics.hms.harvard.edu/upcoming-events?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D117075719
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How to Tell a Story With Data: Tools of the Trade
WHEN Tue., Apr. 19, 2016, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Ash Center, 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops, Education, Humanities, Information Technology, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Dhrumil Mehta, Database Journalist, FiveThirtyEight
COST Free - limited space; RSVP required
RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-tell-a-story-with-data-tools-of-the-trade-tickets-22664110966
CONTACT INFO https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-tell-a-story-with-data-tools-of-the-trade-tickets-22664110966
DETAILS Part of the Technology and Democracy Workshop Series
Dhrumil Mehta will introduce participants to the tools of his trade as a database journalist, from GitHub to XML to locating relevant documents and databases and turning them into usable data for data-driven stories.
Participants will gain hands-on training using GitHub and familiarity with other tools for data gathering and manipulation, and they will then utilize these tools to find and parse a dataset. Knowledge of data gathering and manipulation from the web allows you to apply your skills in the real world. It can also be freeing, both reducing reliance on programmers and reducing friction when working with programmers. This workshop is for students who want to roll up their sleeves and crunch some numbers--bring your laptop!
LINK http://ash.harvard.edu/event/how-tell-story-data-tools-trade?delta=0
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The Future of Energy Efficiency
Tuesday, April 19
4:30 PM to 6:00 PM (EDT) -
BU, Questrom School of Business, 595 Commonwealth Avenue, ROOM 212, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-future-of-energy-efficiency-tickets-23319266554?aff=ebrowse
Join Harvey Michaels for an afternoon of exploring the future of efficient energy including the intelligent buildings at the edge of a decarbonized energy grid. Stay for a discussion led by Professor Robert Kaufmann. This seminar is moderated by Kira Fabrizio.
Harvey Michaels is Energy Efficiency Lecturer and Research Scientist at MIT Sloan School of Management. Previously, he was the founder of leading energy efficiency companies providing analytics and services. His research focuses on strategy innovation, business/policy studies of utility, community, and smart grid-enabled efficiency deployment models.
Robert Kaufmann is Full Professor in the Department of Earth and Environment and the Center for Energy & Environmental Studies at Boston University, a position he has held since September 2003. His research focuses on world oil markets, global climate change, the global carbon cycle and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
Kira Fabrizio is Associate Professor and Dean's Research Fellow of Strategy and Innovation in the Questrom School of Business.
Event is free and open to public.
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Efficient Buildings And Sustainable Urban Development Techmeeting
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
5:00 PM to 8:30 PM
Green town Labs, 28 Dane Street, Somerville
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/French-US-Meetup/events/228901075/
Today, there is a clear revival of cities and re-urbanization of downtown areas. More people want to live in cities and live, work, play within a reasonable distance. The younger generation is also more aware of the impacts of their activities on human health and the environment. Modern urban development has focused on creating mixed-use neighborhoods and transit-oriented development, as well as using more sustainable materials.
At the building level, this means creating a healthy and efficient space for occupants that has a positive impact on the environment. Residential and commercial buildings represent 41% of total energy consumption in the U.S. With growing commitments at the Federal, Regional and City level, there is still a huge opportunity for cleantech startups to develop solutions that will contribute to reducing CO2 emissions and create more sustainable livelihoods.
During this Open Innovation Club Techmeeting, startups and large corporations will get together to discover the latest innovations and develop business relationships around:
Sustainable building solutions for resilience, health and safety
Smart and connected building technology for energy efficiency
AGENDA
05:00 pm Doors Open & Registration
05:30 pm Introduction - Open Innovation Club & Greentown Labs
05:45 pm Corporate Presentations: Phoebe Kwan, External Venturing Strategy Director, Saint Gobain; Roderick Fraser, Senior Director Energy Business Development, Veolia Energy North America
06:15 pm Startup Pitches: Crowd Comfort, Metacomb Materials,Senseware, Foobot, Sense
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The New Old Age: How the body ages and how to keep it young
Tuesday, April 19
6pm - 7:30pm
Harvard Medical School, The Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, The New Research Building, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston
No one wants to become forgetful or less energetic as they age, but growing old is unavoidable—or is it? At this seminar, learn about the biology of aging and about scientific research at Harvard Medical School that may help keep you healthier and feeling younger at the same time.
Speakers:
Amy Wagers (Moderator)
Sharon Inouye
Bruce Yankner
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MIT NanoDay
Tuesday, April 19
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
MIT, Scanning Electron-Beam Lithography Facility, Building 24 - 041 (Access via 60 Vassar Street), Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mit-nanoday-tickets-23824121589
Join us in exploring the Nanoworld!
Here, tiny things reveal their super-powers. Inside this world, things are strong, vibrant, and electrified. You and a group of excited scientists will use real tools and experiments to discover the super-power of nano. We look forward to welcoming you in our labs!
The events welcomes all family members (recommended age above 7)
http://nano-day.mit.edu/
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Challenges and Opportunities in High Level Renewable Energy Integration
Tuesday, April 19
6:30 pm – 9:00 pm
National Grid (Rooms: Valley A&B), 40 Sylvan Road, Waltham
RSVP at http://www.ieeeboston.org/Register/
Eduard Muljadi, Senior Engineer, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
In this talk the challenges and opportunities in integrating high level renewable energy will be presented. The background of renewable energy will be discussed first, the nature of the resources, different types of renewable energy generators, the concept of generator and the plant, the similarities and differences between conventional and renewable power plants. Then the presentation will continue with the discussion on the grid integration aspect of renewables, the opportunities and the limitations to participate in the ancillary services, and the flexibilities and direct response of the power converters. Hardware/software commonly used in analyzing grid integration of renewables will be presented. Different types of testing necessary to ensure seamless integration to the grid, and facilities at NREL to support the renewable industries. And, finally we will have a Q&A session at the end of the presentation.
Biography: Eduard Muljadi (M’82-SM’94-F’10) received his Ph. D. (in Electrical Engineering) from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. From 1988 to 1992, he taught at California State University, Fresno, CA. In June 1992, he joined the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, where he is currently a principal engineer in the Power System Engineering Center. His current research interests are in the fields of electric machines, power electronics, and power systems in general with emphasis on renewable energy applications. He is member of Eta Kappa Nu, Sigma Xi and a Fellow of the IEEE. He is involved in the activities of the IEEE Industry Application Society (IAS), Power Electronics Society (PELS), and Power and Energy Society (PES). He is currently a member of various committees of the IAS, PES, and an Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion. He holds two patents in power conversion for renewable energy.
Refreshments start at 6:00PM, talk commences at 6:30PM.
Free and Open to the Public.
Visit the IEEE PES Boston Chapter website for further details – http://wwww.ieeeboston.org/
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A Legacy of Hope & Solutions for the 21st Century
Tuesday, April 19
7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
Harvard, Science Center Lecture Hall D, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
2016 Lowell Lecture
The Extension School hosts Philippe Cousteau, Emmy-nominated TV host, author, speaker, and social entrepreneur
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Editing the Genome: Now We Can. Should We?
Tuesday, April 19
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, D'Arbeloff Suite, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/editing-the-genome-now-we-can-should-we-registration-20707983135
Speakers
Kevin Esvelt, assistant professor of the Sculpting Evolution Group at MIT Media Lab; Sam Lipson, director of Environmental Health, Cambridge Public Health Department
A newly developed technique is sweeping the biological engineering world. From yogurt to HIV to mosquitos, scientists are coming up with new ways to use a gene-editing technique that is more precise, efficient, and flexible, while also being cheaper, faster, and easier to use. Learn about the technique and its benefits and risks, and share your opinion about potential real-world applications. Refreshments available starting at 6:30 pm.
Presented in collaboration with the City of Cambridge.
Part of the Cambridge Science Festival.
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Opportunity
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CLIMATE SMART BOSTON
Climate Smart Boston is about getting public input on vulnerabilities and resources related to climate readiness and resilience in the City of Boston and surrounding region in order to more fully inform to the Climate Ready Boston and Imagine Boston 2030 planning processes.
SIGN UP at https://communityplanit.org/bostonclimate/
Boston is striving to advance climate preparedness planning to produce resiliency initiatives that work together to address physical, social and environmental vulnerabilities in our communities. You can participate in this process and help shape the preparedness of the city in adapting to climate change. Boston is recognized as a world-class leader in climate resilience planning by the Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities initiative and was recognized at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference with an award for "Smart Cities and Smart Community Engagement" by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group in Paris. Boston officials want to make sure the distinct needs of all neighborhoods are well understood as they plan to meet the climate challenges that will face our city in 2030 and beyond. Participate in Climate Smart Boston to play your part!
Three missions
Climate Smart Boston challenges you over three time-sensitive missions:
Mission 1: March 25 - April 1
Mission 2: April 1 - April 8
Mission 3: April 8 - April 15
Miss a mission? Don't worry, there's still plenty more to play!
This game has launched!
Sign up now, and get ready to plan your community! If you share this page with your friends, we'll get even more bright ideas on the table.
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The Summer of 2016 there will be a special issue of the journal Socialism and Democracy (http://sdonline.org/) on Energy Transition, with an emphasis on renewable energy, including wind, solar, and biomass.
We are looking for reviewers of one or more articles. We are also seeking people who could send us reviews of relevant books, for this issue.
Weimin Tchen
weimintchen at gmail.com
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Solarize Somerville is a go!
Hello neighbors--
On this cold winter day, I'm delighted to share the sunny news that Somerville MA has been chosen by the MassCEC (Clean Energy Center) to be a Solarize Mass community! You can see the announcement here:
http://www.masscec.com/about-masscec/news/state-energy-officials-announce-five-new-communities-participate-solar-program
State energy officials today announced the selection of the first five communities to participate in Solarize Mass for 2016. The new municipalities participating in the community-based solar energy group-buying program that lowers overall costs of installing solar electric systems include Somerville and Natick, as well as Shelburne, Colrain and Conway, which have joined as a trio of partner communities....
You can learn more about the MassCEC and the SolarizeMass program at: www.solarizemass.com .
As the announcement has just been made, we don't have a lot of additional information at this time. But this selection means that we can now work with the city and the state to help residents of Somerville to decide if solar is a suitable option for them and their homes or businesses. We'll be developing and sharing educational materials, we'll have events to help people learn more and get questions answered, and we will help people to understand the processes associated with generating local, artisanal electrons.
Officially I'm the "Solar Coach" for Somerville. I am a point of contact to help people with basic solar PV issues and incentives. I'm working with folks from the city who will manage the overall project. This is a joint effort by the Office of Sustainability and Environment, with director Oliver Sellers-Garcia, and the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development with Russell Koty.
As a Coach, I am a volunteer organizer and am not authorized to speak as a spokesperson on behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or MassCEC. My job is to help people to understand the program once it's in place, and to answer questions that my neighbors may have as they consider the options. Things outside of my wheelhouse will be directed to the folks who can answer them.
You can contact me here with questions, or soon we'll have some information resources with more details. If you might want to volunteer to be on the outreach team. let me know.
Mary Mangan
Solar Coach Volunteer
somervillesolarcoach at gmail.com
[vendors should not contact me, I'm not supposed to have contact with them prior to the proposal process]
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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. Membership in the coop costs $2.50 per quart. 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.
https://sites.google.com/site/somervilleyogurtcoop/home
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Cambridge Residents: Free Home Thermal Images
Have you ever wanted to learn where your home is leaking heat by having an energy auditor come to your home with a thermal camera? With that info you then know where to fix your home so it's more comfortable and less expensive to heat. However, at $200 or so, the cost of such a thermal scan is a big chunk of change.
HEET Cambridge has now partnered with Sagewell, Inc. to offer Cambridge residents free thermal scans.
Sagewell collects the thermal images by driving through Cambridge in a hybrid vehicle equipped with thermal cameras. They will scan every building in Cambridge (as long as it's not blocked by trees or buildings or on a private way). Building owners can view thermal images of their property and an analysis online. The information is password protected so that only the building owner can see the results.
Homeowners, condo-owners and landlords can access the thermal images and an accompanying analysis free of charge. Commercial building owners and owners of more than one building will be able to view their images and analysis for a small fee.
The scans will be analyzed in the order they are requested.
Go to Sagewell.com. Type in your address at the bottom where it says "Find your home or building" and press return. Then click on "Here" to request the report.
That's it. When the scans are done in a few weeks, your building will be one of the first to be analyzed. The accompanying report will help you understand why your living room has always been cold and what to do about it.
With knowledge, comes power (or in this case saved power and money, not to mention comfort).
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Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHhwM202dDYxdUZJVGFscnY1VGZ3aXc6MQ
Solar map of Cambridge, MA
http://www.mapdwell.com/en/cambridge
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Hey Cambridge residents!
Did you know the City of Cambridge is trying to win the $5 million Georgetown University Energy Prize? It was created to develop a cleaner and more efficient energy future. Energy efficiency and conservation are the best ways to save energy and minimize environmental impact. In that effort, Cambridge is hoping all residents will get a no-cost energy assessment in order to make their homes more efficient and comfortable.
During the assessment, the energy specialist will:
Install efficient light bulbs (saving up to 7% of your electricity bill)
Install programmable thermostats (saving up to 10% of your heating bill)
Install water efficiency devices (saving up to 10% of your water bill)
Check the combustion safety of your heating and hot water equipment
Evaluate your home’s energy use to create an energy-efficiency roadmap
Let us know that you’re interested and someone will be in contact with you shortly to give you personally tailored contact information on how you can get your no-cost home energy assessment. Renters are also eligible!
Any action to save energy in the home will help Cambridge win this competition while protecting the environment. For additional ideas on how to save energy, please see the Cambridge Energy Alliance website.
Please share with your Cambridge friends and family and ask them to get a free energy assessment!
Want to be more involved? Become a neighborhood Block Captain! Block Captains help their community members sign up for and complete no-cost home energy assessments through the MassSave program. Our team will give you the tools and guidance needed to recruit neighbors to get an assessment and improve the efficiency of their homes. Participation is welcome at whatever level you are able to commit to.
If you are interested in becoming a Block Captain, please fill out this form and someone from the Cambridge Energy Alliance will be in contact with you shortly. If you know someone who might be interested, please let them know about this opportunity!
Cambridge Energy Alliance
@cambenergy
facebook.com/cambridgeenergyalliance
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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 at 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 at bnid.org if you have any questions!
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Boston Maker Spaces - 27 and counting: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zGHnt9r2pQx8.kfw9evrHsKjA&hl=en
BASEN / Boston Solidarity Network Economy: http://ba-sen.tumblr.com
Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston: http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/
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Links to events at over 50 colleges and universities at Hubevents: http://hubevents.blogspot.com
Thanks to
Fred Hapgood's Selected Lectures on Science and Engineering in the Boston Area: http://www.BostonScienceLectures.com
MIT Events: http://events.mit.edu
MIT Energy Club: http://mitenergyclub.org/calendar
Harvard Events: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/harvard-events/events-calendar/
Harvard Environment: http://www.environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
Sustainability at Harvard: http://green.harvard.edu/events
Mass Climate Action: http://www.massclimateaction.net/calendar
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/
Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/
Microsoft NERD Center: http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/
Startup and Entrepreneurial Events: http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/
Cambridge Civic Journal: http://www.rwinters.com
Cambridge Happenings: http://cambridgehappenings.org
Cambridge Community Calendar: https://www.cctvcambridge.org/calendar
More information about the Act-MA
mailing list