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Artificial Intelligence in Science
Dr. Victor Pankratius, Principal Research Scientist, MIT Kavli Institute
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Jan/29 | Tue | 01:00PM-01:30PM | Marlar Lounge 37-252 |
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
How can Artificial Intelligence help advance science? This presentation will outline new avenues for Computer-Aided Discovery in astronomy and geoscience.
Please note: this talk will be followed by two other talks and a lab tour!
Roman warships in Experiment: Reconstruction and Sailing Tests (1:30-2:30pm)
The Future of X-ray Polarimetry in Astronomy (2:30-3:30pm)
Tour of MIT's X-ray Polarimetry Lab, where new X-ray instrumentation is currently being developed
Please Note:
20 people max for tour. Advance sign-up required starting at 2:25pm in 37-252 immediately before Dr. Marshall's talk. Attendance of talk is required for tour of the Lab. Tour will leave from 37-252 at 3:30pm. Tour attendees will walk as a group to NE83.
Sponsor(s): Kavli Institute for Astrophysics
Contact: Debbie Meinbresse, 37-241, 617 253-1456, MEINBRES@MIT.EDU
Computational Law Workshop
Dazza Greenwood, JD, Visiting Scientist, MIT Media Lab
Enrollment: Permission of instructor required
Sign-up by 12/28
Limited to 30 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
Prereq: N/A
This workshop course provides a conceptual overview and hands-on projects for understanding and solving legal use cases with data analytics, blockchain or other cryptosystems and a special module on rapid design solutions to key challenges for challenges posed by the Open Music Initiative. The course includes seminar-style lecture/discussion sessions and hands-on, experiential learning through team projects. The course covers:
Digital Assets, including 1) Ownership rights, valuation and provenance of digital property; and 2) Storage and exchange of digital property with electronic contracts, automated transactions and autonomous agents
Digital Identity, including 1) Technology and architecture for autonomy and control of self-sourced digital identity and personal data; and 2) Using individual identity for valid, verifiable login to apps or services and for providing a legal acknowledgment, assent or authorization.
Digital Contracts, including 1) Integrating ordinary digital contracts and blockchain "smart contracts" in automated transactions by individuals or businesses; and 2) Standard open-web stack design patterns for executing multiple digital signatures and electronic notarization on digital legal contracts.
The course includes tutorials and tools for prototyping with blockchain based smart contracts and computational modeling. The course also includes a special module on Open Music use cases and student projects.
For more info, see: law.MIT.edu/learning
Sponsor(s): Media Arts and Sciences
Contact: Dazza Greenwood, E15-449, 617.500.3644, DAZZA@MEDIA.MIT.EDU
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Jan/15 | Tue | 11:00AM-04:00PM | Media Lab E14-341, Bring your laptop! |
This course provides a conceptual overview and hands-on projects for understanding and solving legal use cases with data analytics, transaction automation and blockchain smart contracts with Dazza Greenwood, VisitingScientist at MIT Media Lab/law.MIT.edu
Dazza Greenwood, JD - Visiting Scientist, MIT Media Lab
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Jan/16 | Wed | 11:00AM-04:00PM | Media Lab E15-359, Bring you laptop! |
This course provides a conceptual overview and hands-on projects for understanding and solving legal use cases with data analytics, transaction automation and blockchain smart contracts with Dazza Greenwood, VisitingScientist at MIT Media Lab/law.MIT.edu, including a special module on Open Music use cases and student projects with George Howard,Berklee College of Music Professor/Lead Researcher, Open Music Initiative.
Dazza Greenwood, JD - Visiting Scientist, MIT Media Lab, George Howard - Associate Profess, Music Business/Management
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Jan/17 | Thu | 11:00AM-04:00PM | Media Lab E15-341, Bring your laptop! |
This course provides a conceptual overview and hands-on projects for understanding and solving legal use cases with data analytics, transaction automation and blockchain smart contracts with Dazza Greenwood, Visiting Scientist at MIT Media Lab/law.MIT.edu This session focuses on key scenarios spotlighting integration of business models, legal fact patterns and technical use cases.
Dazza Greenwood, JD - Visiting Scientist, MIT Media Lab
Evolution, Computation, and Learning
Felix Sosa, Daniel Czegel
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Jan/14 | Mon | 01:00PM-03:00PM | 46-5193 |
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Jan/16 | Wed | 01:00PM-03:00PM | 46-5193 |
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Jan/18 | Fri | 01:00PM-03:00PM | 46-5193 |
Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 15 participants
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Here, we will explore recent work in evolutionary computation and theoretical biology modeling the processes of evolution. Namely, we will focus on these broad questions:
This course will include readings and ~30 minute lectures introducing general topics of interest such as evolutionary processes in the context of learning theory, what evolution can add to learning theory, evolvability and learning-to-learn, and complexification. The intention is to spark conversation about the role evolution plays in learning, how it can be further characterized or replicated in machines, and whether it is of interest or use to explore potential projects that build or expand on this recent work.
Sponsor(s): Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Contact: Felix Sosa, 305 733-6216, FSOSA@MIT.EDU
Narrative, Intelligence, and AI
Andrew Kortina, Rob Cheung
Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/07
Limited to 20 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
Prereq: Short readings before each seminar: url will be posted
This will be a 3 part seminar (roundtable discussion format, not a lecture) led by Andrew Kortina and Rob Cheung.
Advancements in machine learning have achieved results like detecting indicators of diabetic eye disease and cardiovascular health as well as or better than human doctors, composing music, writing poetry, generating art, captioning images, translating between languages, etc.
Although there have been some attempts to generate longer form narrative using ML (see NaNoGenMo, The Infinite Fight Scene, neural-storyteller), it seems we are quite far from generating a cohesive long form narrative that resembles what a human could author.
In this series, we'll explore topics like the history and cultural importance of narrative, attempts at using ML to generate narrative (and their shortcomings), the convergence of human generated written, visual, and literary work towards algorithmic media, the future of narrative form, and VR.
Find the tentative syllabus here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kirISlXcLxCpYzwpulcTF4vHh3b3IAkFzQ0gVUTFDcs/edit
Sponsor(s): Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Contact: Andrew Kortina, andrew.kortina@gmail.com
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Jan/16 | Wed | 10:00AM-11:30AM | 24-307 |
What is its relationship to intelligence? What is its role for the individual and the civilization? History of the modes of mass narrative.
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Jan/17 | Thu | 10:00AM-11:30AM | 24-307 |
To what degree do people choose / create their narratives? To what degree is it imposed on individuals / groups? From the perspective of an individual, what is to be done?
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Jan/18 | Fri | 10:00AM-11:30AM | 24-307 |
Where it might go from here? What sort of steering is useful to consider? What are the significant forces at play?
Probabilistic Programming in Gen
Marco Cusumano-Towner, Alexander Lew
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Jan/29 | Tue | 04:00PM-06:00PM | TBD |
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Jan/30 | Wed | 04:00PM-06:00PM | TBD |
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Jan/31 | Thu | 04:00PM-06:00PM | TBD |
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Feb/01 | Fri | 04:00PM-06:00PM | TBD |
Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
This course will introduce applied probabilistic programming using the Gen probabilistic programming system. It is designed for researchers familiar with generative probabilistic modeling who are interested in using probabilistic programming tools to accelerate their research. The course will involve a guided tutorial on Gen and possibly workshop time for students to prototype models from their own research areas. Students will be encouraged to experiment with Gen outside of class time.
To sign up for the class please send an email to marcoct@mit.edu briefly describing your research area and any previous experience with mathematical modeling, probabilistic inference, deep learning or probabilistic programming. Also please give a one or two sentence description of a modeling, learning, or inference problem that you would like to solve using probabilistic programming.
Contact: Marco Cusumano-Towner, MARCOCT@MIT.EDU
RACECAR (Rapid Autonomous Complex-Environment Competing Ackermann-drive Robotics)
Michael Boulet, Andrew Fishberg, Mark Mazumder, Nathan Hughes, Jason Nezvadovitz, Sertac Karaman
Enrollment: Register in WebSIS in 6.S184 or 16.S685.
Limited to 30 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
Prereq: See description.
Modern robots tend to operate at slow speeds in complex environments, limiting their utility in high-tempo applications. In the RACECAR course, you will be tasked with pushing the boundaries of unmanned vehicle speed. Participants will work in teams of 4-5 to develop dynamic autonomy software to race a converted RC car equipped with LIDAR, a stereo camera, an inertial measurement unit, and embedded processing around a large-scale, "real-world" course. Working from a baseline autonomy stack, teams will modify the software to increase platform velocity to the limits of stability. The course culminates with a timed competition to navigate a racecourse. The 2019 course will emphasize machine learning approaches, such as a pixel-to-actuator deep neural network control architecture. Classes will provide lecture overviews of relevant algorithms and lab time with instructor-assisted development. Participants should plan on 4-10 hours per week of self-directed development. Students must have experience with software development. Past exposure to robotics algorithms and/or embedded programming will be useful. See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p18879Dji4c .
Subscription: To subscribe, please send an e-mail to racecar-iap-course-subscribe@mit.edu with a brief description of your programming/robotics experience. If you would like to register for credit, please also register through WebSIS in either 6.S184 or 16.S685.
Sponsor(s): Aeronautics and Astronautics, Lincoln Laboratory, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Contact: Sertac Karaman, racecar-iap-course-subscribe@mit.edu
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Jan/09 | Wed | 03:00PM-05:00PM | 32-044 |
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Jan/11 | Fri | 03:00PM-05:00PM | 32-044 |
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Jan/14 | Mon | 03:00PM-05:00PM | 32-044 |
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Jan/16 | Wed | 03:00PM-05:00PM | 32-044 |
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Jan/18 | Fri | 03:00PM-05:00PM | 32-044 |
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Jan/23 | Wed | 03:00PM-05:00PM | 32-044 |
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Jan/25 | Fri | 03:00PM-05:00PM | 32-044 |
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Jan/28 | Mon | 03:00PM-05:00PM | 32-044 |
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Jan/30 | Wed | 03:00PM-05:00PM | 32-044 |
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Feb/01 | Fri | 03:00PM-05:00PM | 32-044 |
Reason for God
Chris Swanson
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Reason for God is for anyone (the religious, the spiritual, the skeptic, the seeker, atheists, Christians and people of any faith tradition).
Our hope is that each session will be a safe place to explore, ask questions, disagree, and learn. You may have questions or objections that aren't represented in the topics below, but feel free to ask about them.
Each night we will gather together to eat dinner together, hear from a guest speaker, ask questions and discuss some of the big questions and objections that people have when it comes to the existence of God and belief in Christianity. We’ll look at some commone questions people have and maybe some topics maybe you haven’t considered before. Are there rational reasons to believe in God? Can we make sense of God? Come seek, learn, and add your voice to the discussion.
Sponsor(s): Cru
Contact: Chris Swanson, W11-004, CSWANSON@MIT.EDU
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Jan/15 | Tue | 06:30PM-08:00PM | W20,Mezzanine Lounge, Free Dinner Served at 6:30pm |
Does it Matter What you Believe about God? Searching for Truth in a Post-Truth Era.
I have my truth. You have your truth. Does is really matter what a person believes about God? Is the idea of God even worth talking about? We live in a pluralistic world where there are many views on God. Is there actual truth to be found, or is it all subjective? How do we make sense of God?
Kasey Leander - Oxford Center for Christian Apologetics (OCCA)
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Jan/17 | Thu | 06:30PM-08:00PM | W20, Lobdell, Free dinner served at 6:30pm |
Artificial Intelligence and the Human Soul. How A.I. might lead us towards the existence of a Soul.
Artificial Intelligence is on the rise. Will scientific endeavors like this lead us away from God and the idea of a human soul? Or might it point us towards God? Dr. Rosalind Picard, a leading expert in the field of A.I. She will share some of her finding as a scientist as well as her perspective on Science and Faith.
Dr. Rosalind Picard - Professor of Media Arts and Sciences
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Jan/22 | Tue | 06:30PM-08:00PM | W20,Mezzanine Lounge, Free Dinner served at 6:30pm |
Do We Need God to Find Satisfaction and Meaning in Life?
A deep human desire is to find meaning and satisfaction in life. One way we find meaning and purpose is through our achievements. We live in a culture that says you are what you do. But are we more than our achievements? Do our desires to find meaning point to God? Or do we find meaning within ourselves?
Will Tant - Oxford Center for Christian Apologetics (OCCA)
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Jan/24 | Thu | 06:30PM-08:00PM | W20, Lobdell Dining, Free dinner served at 6:30pm |
Doesn't God and Religion Limit Human Freedom and Progress?
Lou Phillips - Oxford Center for Christian Apologetics (OCCA)
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Jan/29 | Tue | 06:30PM-08:00PM | Maseeh Hall Dining, Free Dinner Served at 6:30pm |
Why I Am a Theist: A Physicist's Perspective on Theism and Atheism
What really is theism? How does is compare with Naturalism and Atheism. Tom will discuss various aspects and questions about God as a scientist. Well look at questions like: If God created the universe, what created God? Why not believe in leprechauns or the tooth fairy? Isn't atheism simpler than theism? Why do we need God when we have science?
Dr. Tom Rudelius - POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER, INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES
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Jan/31 | Thu | 06:30PM-08:00PM | W20, Lobdell Dining, Free Dinner served at 6:30pm |
What Would Sherlock Holmes Say about Jesus? Taking a Look at the Hard Evidence that points to God and Christianity
We will investigate and critically examine the most central historical claim in the Christian faiththe resurrection of Jesus? This talk will examine the historical data surrounding the life, death, and supposed resurrection of Jesus and ask the question, What hypothesis can best explain all of this?
Matthew Mittelberg - Oxford Center for Christian Apologetics (OCCA)
Robot Painting
Sang-won Leigh
Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 8 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
Fee: $110.00
for Materials
In this class hosted by ArtMatr, students will explore creative painting processes using ArtMatr’s oil-based printing system. The goal of this course is to expose the students to a robotic means of painting and exploration in both technical and artistic directions.
Students will have access to conventional drawing software such as Photoshop as well as programming environments in Processing, Javascript, and potentially more for controlling the system. ArtMatr will provide a printing system for the students to share.
Students are encouraged to closely exchange ideas with peers and form collaborative projects. Expected outcomes include artworks made using the system, script-based generative painting, and mechanical hacks for interesting effects – but not limited to those.
The course will be led by Sang-won Leigh, a recent PhD graduate from the MIT Media Lab and current head designer at ArtMatr.
There will also be guest lectures by Matthew Ritchie (MIT Visiting Artist), Eric Fischl, and Barnaby Furnas.
This class is only open for MIT undergraduate and graduate students.
Register online at arts.mit.edu/saa
Contact: Stacy Debartolo, E15-205A, 617 253-4003, STACYP@MIT.EDU
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Jan/10 | Thu | 11:00AM-04:00PM | W20-429 |
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Jan/17 | Thu | 11:00AM-04:00PM | W20-429 |
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Jan/24 | Thu | 11:00AM-04:00PM | W20-429 |
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Jan/31 | Thu | 11:00AM-04:00PM | W20-429 |
Sang-won Leigh
State of the Art in Neural Interfacing
Shriya Srinivasan, MEMP PhD Candidate
Enrollment: Email: shriyas@mit.edu
Sign-up by 01/20
Limited to 40 participants
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Mind and bodily control of devices has long been a dream of mankind. Developing devices for neuromodulation, neural control, prosthetics, therapy, and stimulation are bringing us closer to this reality. This course will cover the latest technologies and research in peripheral and central nervous systems. We will have students conceptualize solutions to outstanding challenges based on literature and present them at the last class. This primer will be apt for students interested in pursuing research in neural interfacing, neuromodulation, brain-machine interfacing, prosthetics, and stimulation. (4, 2 hour sessions)
Sponsor(s): Health Sciences , Institute for Medical Engineering & Science
Contact: Shriya Srinivasan, shriyas@mit.edu
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Jan/28 | Mon | 06:00PM-08:00PM | E25-119 |
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Jan/29 | Tue | 06:00PM-08:00PM | E25-119 |
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Jan/30 | Wed | 06:00PM-08:00PM | E25-119 |
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Jan/31 | Thu | 06:00PM-08:00PM | E25-119 |
Khalil Ramadi - MEMP PhD Candidate, Shriya Srinivasan - MEMP PhD Candidate
Swarm leadership, deep learning, and social quantum physics
Peter Gloor
Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/16
Limited to 30 participants
Attendance: apply at first session for 2nd
Prereq: none
Do you want to change the world and create your own social movement? – This course empowers you to build your own swarm interacting on social media and face-to-face, by analyzing e-mail, online social media, and by tracking emotions with smartwatches using machine learning and AI.
In this course you will learn
- How to create Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINs), intrinsically motivated groups of people working towards a shared vision by collaborating over the Web
- How to identify virtual tribes, groups of people sharing similar profiles and preferences on online social media such as Twitter through deep learning
- How to measure emotions such as happiness, stress, or anger through a smartwatch-based body sensing system, the happimeter
- How to forecast and predict trends by finding the trendsetters in online social media, in corporate e-mail archives, and personal sensor networks.
- How social quantum physics triggers change through two feedback looks: “empathy-entanglement”, and “reflect-reboot”.
- How to use our tools Condor and Galaxyscope for dynamic semantic social network analysis and machine learning
- How to measure collective consciousness and induce group flow (positive stress)
This course is organized in two parts: session 1 gives an overview of the basic principles, at the end of day 1 (advance notification recommended) you can apply for the second part, where we will work with up to 5 individuals or small groups to develop their project or initiative.
Sponsor(s): Sloan School of Management
Contact: Peter Gloor, E94-1504D, 617 253-7018, PGLOOR@MIT.EDU
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Jan/17 | Thu | 03:00PM-05:00PM | E94-1531, bring your laptop |
Introduces Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINs), coolhunting with Condor and Galaxyscope (finding trends/virtual tribes by finding influencers), and coolfarming (supporting these trendsetters) by measuring E-mail and Twitter networks by social network analysis, and the Happimeter, a smartwatch based system to measure emotions to track collective consciousness and group flow.
Peter Gloor, Oliver Posegga - Visiting Scholar
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Jan/18 | Fri | 03:00PM-05:00PM | E94-1531, bring your laptop |
If you have your own cause or scientific project where would you like to create your own swarm or virtual tribe, apply before the course for a slot on the second day (limited to 5 projects). the instructors will work with you to leverage the tools from the first day (coolhunting, coolfarming, Happimeter, dynamic semantic social network analysis, deep learning, Condor, GalaxyScope) for your own cause or project.
Peter Gloor, Oliver Posegga - Visiting Scholar
Synthesizing Human and Robot Movements for Art Production
Seth Riskin, Manager, MIT Museum Studio
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
Prereq: none
During this five-afternoon workshop participants will be introduced to the creative misuse of an industrial, six-axis robot arm. After initial hardware and software tutorials, participants will have an open-ended opportunity to explore the artistic possibilities—painting, drawing, light art—afforded by a Universal Robots UR5 in the MIT Museum Studio/Compton Gallery 10-150.
A selection of physical and digital tools developed by Artmatr, an international community of artists and engineers working to merge digital technology with traditional painting methods, will be provided. Participants will also be encouraged to develop their own tools or modify those given. Experience in computer programming is helpful but not required. Attendance at all five-afternoon workshops is recommended for full engagement with the toolset.
Enrollment in the workshop will be capped at 12 to allow for all participants to have time to produce work with the UR5.
Sponsor(s): MIT Museum
Contact: Adam Burke, 10-150, 617 324 6868, aburke3@mit.edu
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Jan/28 | Mon | 01:00PM-03:00PM | 10-150 |
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Jan/29 | Tue | 01:00PM-05:00PM | 10-150 |
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Jan/30 | Wed | 01:00PM-05:00PM | 10-150 |
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Jan/31 | Thu | 01:00PM-05:00PM | 10-150 |
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Feb/01 | Fri | 01:00PM-03:00PM | 10-150 |
Adam Burke - Technical Assistant, MIT Museum Studio, Seth Riskin - Manager, MIT Museum Studio
Systems Thinking with TI Robotics Systems Learning Kit
Mark Easley, Kurt Keville
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Jan/15 | Tue | 03:00PM-06:00PM | NE47-189 |
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Jan/17 | Thu | 03:00PM-06:00PM | NE47-189 |
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Repeating event, participants welcome at any session
The TI Robotics Systems Learning Kit (TI-RSLK) is a low-cost robotics kit and classroom curriculum, which provide students with a deeper understanding of how electronic system designs work.
Contact: Kurt Keville, 617 324-6424, KKEVILLE@MIT.EDU
Why Can't We All Just Get Along?
Henry Lieberman, Research Scientist, CSAIL, Christopher Fry
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Jan/10 | Thu | 03:00PM-05:00PM | 24-615 |
Enrollment: Limited: First come, first served (no advance sign-up)
Prereq: none
Indeed, why can't we? Why do we have war? Poverty? What can we do
about it? Will technological progress result in robots destroying
humanity? Will automation take all our jobs? Will there be ecological
disaster? What's the future of government, industry, education,
transportation, justice?
We'll show you a simple mathematical, psychological, and evolutionary
model that explains why people get sometimes sucked into doing bad
stuff, even if they're not bad people. We'll also explain how new
technology, especially AI and 3D printing, can enable a more just,
prosperous, and more cooperative society. Young people now have an
opportunity to rethink government, the economy, education, and all of
our institutions. Let's do it!
Feeling frustrated about your new President and the process that got
him there? Can technology help? Yes.
Sponsor(s): Experimental Study Group
Contact: Henry Lieberman, 32G-475, (617) 500-5267, lieber@MEDIA.MIT.EDU
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