MIT: Independent Activities Period: IAP

IAP 2015 Activities by Sponsor - Electronic Research Society

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Diversity in STEM: How racist and sexist are we, and why should we care?

Nancy Ouyang

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions

Day-to-day schedule and sign-up form here. List of RSVPs here.

This workshop aims to be a fun, productive, and provocative introduction to issues of diversity in STEM. We'll start out with a no-holds-barred discussion about what we personally think about diversity in STEM (is it worth it? do we need it? should we care? why or why not?), examine where our beliefs come from (share personal experiences), and then review the scientific literature on this subject. From there, we will begin work on concrete project(s) to showcase diversity at MIT, as well as compile a report to MIT's Institute Community and Equity Officer. On the final day, we'll present our projects to each other, so make them fun and interesting!

The goal is not to push an agenda; the goal is to relate to and engage with each other, even if we have very different beliefs, as human beings who developed our beliefs though our experiences.

Possible projects:

* Cookies that visually display the statistics about diversity at MIT (statistical food)
* Short film about people's experiences at MIT, about diverse people at MIT, or about what MIT people think about diversity
* Compelling website displaying a collection of quotes from the MIT community or results of polling MIT
* Game explaining recent scientific research into this topic

Feel free to email me if you have questions.

Sponsor(s): Electronic Research Society
Contact: Nancy Ouyang, (678) 379-8088, NOUYANG@ALUM.MIT.EDU


Diversity in STEM

Add to Calendar Jan/12 Mon 07:30PM-08:30PM 66-154, Bring laptop please!
Add to Calendar Jan/13 Tue 07:30PM-08:30PM 66-154, Bring laptop please!
Add to Calendar Jan/14 Wed 07:30PM-08:30PM 66-154, Bring laptop please!
Add to Calendar Jan/15 Thu 07:30PM-08:30PM 66-154, Bring laptop please!
Add to Calendar Jan/16 Fri 07:30PM-08:30PM 66-154, Bring laptop please!

See description for tentative schedule for each day.


Exploring Public Genomes (a fun hands-on introduction to bioinformatics)

Nancy Ouyang

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions

Day-to-day schedule and sign-up form here. List of RSVPs so far here.

There are now hundreds of publicly available human genomes thanks to efforts like the 1000 Genomes Project and the Personal Genome Project. How can we explore, visualize, and create interesting hypotheses from this wealth of data? We’ll take a hands-on approach to answering this problem by diving into the topic of personalized medicine. Specifically, we’ll explore what it means to have the ApoE4 allele, a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s, from different perspectives (genomic, physiological, population-wide, etc.) Along the way, we’ll cover current tools and limitations in bioinformatics. On the last day, we’ll present our work to each other, so make your projects fun and interesting -- games, interactive art, and static visualizations are all possible results of taking this class. Extra points for wackiness (for instance, a musical or pastry interpretation of ApoE)!

Some programming experience will be helpful (bring a laptop, this is a hands-on class!), depending on the project you want to do and how much of the technical intricacies of bioinformatics you want to delve into. Pastry interpretations of genomics are always welcome though.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Sponsor(s): Electronic Research Society
Contact: Nancy Ouyang, (678) 379-8088, NOUYANG@ALUM.MIT.EDU


Exploring Public Genomes

Add to Calendar Jan/12 Mon 06:00PM-07:00PM 66-154, Bring laptop please!
Add to Calendar Jan/13 Tue 06:00PM-07:00PM 66-154, Bring laptop please!
Add to Calendar Jan/14 Wed 06:00PM-07:00PM 66-154, Bring laptop please!
Add to Calendar Jan/15 Thu 06:00PM-07:00PM 66-154, Bring laptop please!
Add to Calendar Jan/16 Fri 06:00PM-07:00PM 66-154, Bring laptop please!

See description for tentative schedule for each day.