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A Look Inside the Human Brain
Dimitrios Pantazis, Principal Research Scientist
Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/17
Limited to 50 participants
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Prereq: None
Modern imaging technologies at MIT and MGH provide exciting new ways to understand the structure and function of the human brain. We will provide guided tours of our imaging facilities and show how we use these tools to look inside the brain. Our recently installed MEG scanner, capable of measuring magnetic fields a billionth of the magnetic field of earth, can record the simultaneous firing of thousands of cortical neurons as they form dynamic networks. Our MRI scanners provide high resolution images of the human brain as subjects perform a wide range of perceptual and cognitive tasks. Our PET scanners can identify and localize specific molecules in the brain, revealing pathologies that may underlie many different brain disorders. TMS is a noninvasive method that uses electromagnetic induction to create weak electric currents and cause depolarization or hyperpolarization in the neurons of the brain. NIRS uses infrared light to illuminate tissue and infer brain activity through the diffusion and scattering of this light. We will introduce these technologies, offer lab tours and demonstrate data collection, and discuss their contribution to neuroscience and current projects at MIT and MGH.
Contact: Dimitrios Pantazis, 46-5147, 617 324-6292, PANTAZIS@MIT.EDU
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Jan/17 | Wed | 02:00PM-03:00PM | bldg 46-3015 |
Electrophysiological basis of MEG signals; instrumentation; modeling; cortical rhythms; brain networks; combining MEG with fMRI, studying the human visual system.
Dimitrios Pantazis - Principal Research Scientist
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Jan/17 | Wed | 03:00PM-04:00PM | bldg 46-3015 |
Topics include MRI instrumentation, magnetic fields, safety, functional imaging with BOLD response, diffusion imaging, and others.
Anastasia Yendiki - Assistant Professor
| Jan/17 | Wed | 04:00PM-05:00PM | bldg 46-1171 |
A tour at the MRI lab. Demo scan (finger tapping) and data analysis.
MRI Lab: http://mcgovern.mit.edu/technology/martinos-imaging-center/technical-resources
Sheeba Anteraper - Senior Programmer, Steve Shannon - Operations Manager and MR Research Technologist
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Jan/17 | Wed | 04:00PM-05:00PM | bldg 46-1147 |
A tour at the MEG Lab, demo scan and data analysis of an MEG experiment
Dimitrios Pantazis - Principal Research Scientist, Yasaman Bagherzadeh - Postdoctoral Fellow
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Jan/18 | Thu | 02:00PM-03:00PM | bldg 46-3015 |
Use of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to depolarize and hyperpolarize neurons of the brain, applications to treat depression and examine basic mechanisms of post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety, among others.
Aapo Nummenmaa - Instructor
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Jan/18 | Thu | 03:00PM-04:00PM | bldg 46-3015 |
Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) instrumentation, principles of light scattering and absorption, imaging of oxygenated hemoglobin, NIRS applications.
Meryem Yucel - Instructor
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Jan/18 | Thu | 04:00PM-05:00PM | bldg 46-3015 |
Seminar on Positron Emission Technology. Introduction to PET technology and scanners at MGH; applications in tumor detection; brain metabolic activity; gene expression; neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's; pharmacology etc.
Quanzheng Li - Associate Professor
Consciousness, Computation, the Universe
Andrew Kortina, Rob Cheung
Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/19
Limited to 20 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
Prereq: Short readings before each seminar: https://goo.gl/DD6Mqf
This will be a 3 part seminar (roundtable discussion format, not a
lecture). We'll discuss recent work in artificial intelligence and
philosophy, and ask questions like: How can we use principles of software
and computation to better understand our own minds? Is AI an existential
risk? What are its implications for human dignity?
There are selected, short pre-readings for each of the 3 sessions, online.
Sponsor(s): Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Contact: Andrew Kortina, andrew.kortina@gmail.com
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Jan/17 | Wed | 10:00AM-11:30AM | 36-153 |
What can we understand about consciousness given what we have learned about computation and artificial intelligence? What can we learn about the universe given what we have learned about information theory and computation?
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Jan/18 | Thu | 10:00AM-11:30AM | 36-153 |
AI is a slippery term, and you could argue that some incredibly complex systems exhibiting emergent order (vs top down organization and planning) are instances of AI. Specifically, we'll talk about macroeconomics and mass media. What lessons can we learn from these systems as we develop new, more powerful forms of software intelligence in the coming decades.
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Jan/19 | Fri | 10:00AM-11:30AM | 36-153 |
In a world where robots and software can perform work (and produce art) far more efficiently and capably than any human, how will our ideas of human dignity evolve?
Course: "The Philosophy of God of Thomas Aquinas"
Edmund Lazzari, FOCUS Missionary at TCC/MIT
Enrollment: Limited: First come, first served (no advance sign-up)
Limited to 18 participants
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Prereq: none
Does God exist? What can we know about God by reason alone? What kind of a thing would the creator of all reality be like? Is there any hope of knowing about such a being without anthropomorphizing it? Is there contradiction between God causing everything and the principles of the physical sciences? What does it mean to be all-powerful, all-knowing, or all good?
For anyone who wants serious answers to these questions (and not the facile non-answers of the “undergraduate atheists” Dawkins and Hitchens), the thirteenth-century philosopher Thomas Aquinas has been the go-to resource almost since he wrote his compilations of Aristotelian philosophy and Christian monotheism. This standard thinker is regularly referenced in philosophy classes, but few professors feel confident enough in his wide-ranging and holistic system of philosophy to give a good groundwork in his philosophy of God.
About the instructor: Edmund Lazzari has been studying the thought of Thomas Aquinas for 10 years and has published on the thought of Thomas Aquinas, Cappadocian Trinitarian theology, and liturgical music in journals such as the New Blackfriars Review and Sacred Music. He currently a missionary with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students at MIT. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in philosophy from the Catholic University of America, where he focused on metaphysics, ethics, and Medieval Latin and Arabic philosophy.
Sponsor(s): Tech Catholic Community
Contact: Edmund Lazzari, W11-012, edmund.lazzari@focus.org
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Jan/22 | Mon | 10:00AM-12:00PM | PDR #3 (W20-303) |
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Jan/24 | Wed | 10:00AM-12:00PM | PDR #3 (W20-303) |
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Jan/26 | Fri | 10:00AM-12:00PM | PDR #3 (W20-303) |
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Jan/29 | Mon | 10:00AM-12:00PM | PDR #3 (W20-303) |
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Jan/31 | Wed | 10:00AM-12:00PM | PDR #3 (W20-303) |
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Feb/02 | Fri | 10:00AM-12:00PM | PDR #3 (W20-303) |
Edmund Lazzari - FOCUS Missionary at TCC/MIT
Define-A-Thon
Ruth Levitsky
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Jan/18 | Thu | 12:00PM-01:00PM | 4-163 |
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Move over spelling bee. Just because you can spell a word doesn’t mean you know how to use it. From the editors of The American Heritage Dictionary comes the Define-a-Thon, a competitive word challenge.
Come see the best definers at MIT. Open to all in the MIT community: students, staff, faculty.
Audience members who are not competing, just drop in. No need to sign up.
Our word caller is Toastmaster Mary Agnes Mullowney.
Contact: Ruth Levitsky, E52-415, 617 253-3399, LEVITSKY@MIT.EDU
Experiments in Experience
Sarah Schwettmann, Maddie Cusimano
Enrollment: Unlimited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/03
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Prereq: None
The constructive nature of perception is at work in the gap between observer and the outside. From incoming sensory data with infinite potential interpretations, the brain builds a rich world of experience and expectation. This course explores the mechanisms that underlie how perceptual systems do that building. Drawing from computational modeling, behavioural experiments in cognitive neuroscience, & generative methods for artistic creation, the class also introduces new paradigms for investigating and experiencing these structures. Each day will include both activities where we apply these paradigms in novel scientific and artistic contexts as well as discussion of relevant literature on perception. Schedule to be posted at mit-sensorium.com. Please email Sarah Schwettmann (schwett@mit.edu) and Maddie Cusimano (mcusi@mit.edu) to let us know you will be attending.
Sponsor(s): Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Contact: Maddie Cusimano, MCUSI@MIT.EDU
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Jan/16 | Tue | 03:00PM-05:00PM | 10-150 |
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Jan/17 | Wed | 03:00PM-05:00PM | 10-150 |
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Jan/18 | Thu | 03:00PM-05:00PM | 10-150 |
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Jan/19 | Fri | 03:00PM-05:00PM | 10-150 |
Sarah Schwettmann, Maddie Cusimano
Hacking Our Digital Future
David Verrill, Executive Director, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy
Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/11
Limited to 50 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
The MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE) explores how people and businesses will work, interact, and prosper in an era of profound digital transformation. Major innovations we’ve already glimpsed in the digital age include self-driving cars, additive manufacturing, platform technologies, cryptocurrencies, “fake news”, and beyond.
But in the future, what are the unforeseen, unintended consequences—positive and negative—of these new aspects of the digital age?
We invite students and other members of the MIT community to develop plausible scenarios and narratives of the future in 2030 that expand the thinking of decision-makers and stakeholders to positively impact productivity, employment and equality.
IDE will provide suggested pre-reading articles and host guest lectures from leading futurists, but student teams will be largely self-guided.
Additional program information and materials are available at: https://hacking-our-digital-future.eventbrite.com
Sponsor(s): Sloan School of Management
Contact: Dalton Perras, E94-1518, 617-324-6536, dperras@mit.edu
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Jan/09 | Tue | 03:00PM-06:00PM | 56-154 |
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Jan/11 | Thu | 03:00PM-06:00PM | 56-154 |
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Jan/16 | Tue | 03:00PM-06:00PM | 56-154 |
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Jan/18 | Thu | 03:00PM-06:00PM | 56-154 |
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Jan/23 | Tue | 03:00PM-06:00PM | 56-154 |
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Jan/25 | Thu | 03:00PM-06:00PM | 56-154 |
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Jan/30 | Tue | 03:00PM-06:00PM | 56-154 |
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Feb/01 | Thu | 03:00PM-06:00PM | 56-154 |
Students kick off this 4-week long hackathon with an overview lecture and choose a topic area around which they will develop multiple scenario storylines. Food provided.
Making Sense of Scent
Andreas Mershin, Research Scientist
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Jan/24 | Wed | 03:00PM-05:00PM | E14-633 |
Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/23
Limited to 60 participants
Prereq: none
In 1914, Alexander Graham Bell said: "If you are ambitious to find a new science, measure a smell".
This MIT IAP course is designed to give you the knowledge and practical experience necessary to understand why it's 2018 and we still haven't "measured a smell" and why it's more important than ever to do so.
During the lecture part of this activity you will learn how biological and machine noses work. We will cover emerging applications ranging from diagnostics to drug discovery and how new experimental methods are challenging old theoretical models of olfaction.
During the practical session you will be trained on methods to enhance your olfactory intelligence while participating in a blindfolded perfume discrimination exercise. Most perfume novices will be surprised to discover how sensitive their noses become upon minimal training. If you are a perfume aficionado, expect to be surprised that you may actually be able to beat a Gas Chromatographer-Mass Spectrometer. If you are completely anosmic (lack the sense of smell) we direly need you as a control! (and we'll teach you fun tricks such as how to terminally confuse Master Sommeliers or how to cause olfactory hallucinations in yourself and others).
By the end of the course you will be able to answer Shakespeare's own question better than he did:
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet"
Contact: Andreas Mershin, E15-401G, 617 515-4192, MERSHIN@MIT.EDU
MITing of the Minds 2018
Haley Schilling, Philosophy Graduate Student
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Prereq: none
This year’s MITing of the Minds is the Fourteenth Annual MIT Philosophy Alumni Conference. The conference will showcase recent work in a variety of areas of contemporary philosophy. Presentations will be accessible to a broad audience.
Sponsor(s): Linguistics and Philosophy
Contact: Christine Graham, 32-D808, 617 253-4653, CGRAHAM@MIT.EDU
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Feb/01 | Thu | 10:30AM-06:00PM | 32-D461 |
Please see website for complete details: http://web.mit.edu/philosophy/mm/
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Feb/02 | Fri | 09:30AM-04:00PM | 32-D461 |
Please see website for complete details: http://web.mit.edu/philosophy/mm/
Planners Read Plato's "Gorgias"
Ezra Glenn
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Jan/24 | Wed | 02:00PM-04:30PM | 9-217 |
Enrollment: DUSP Students Only
Sign-up by 01/10
What is the role of oratory and power in a democratic society? Is it worse to do wrong or to be wronged? What is the difference between knowledge and true belief? Why is it important for both the accused and their judges to meet naked in court? (And what do all of these questions have to do with becoming an urban planner?) Come explore these themes with us in a participatory -- possibly dramatic -- reading of Plato's "Gorgias," a Socratic dialog written in 380 BC that is as relevant today as when it was written. Books provided; Greek food included; togas optional.
Note: this is mostly an opportunity to actually read this wonderful and thought-provoking book with others, not a lecture; come prepared to read and take part, and we'll see how far we get.
Sponsor(s): Urban Studies and Planning
Contact: Ezra Glenn, 7-337, x3-2024, eglenn@mit.edu
Primer on Statistics
Cosmo Grant
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
A short primer on statistics, covering the basics of significance testing, hypothesis testing, and parameter estimation, from both Bayesian and frequentist points of view, including some criticisms of the two.
Basic probability theory (e.g. being comfortable with random variables) would help, but isn't required.
Sponsor(s): Linguistics and Philosophy
Contact: Cosmo Grant, 617-331-8374, cdg@mit.edu
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Jan/22 | Mon | 10:30AM-12:00PM | 32-D461 |
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Jan/23 | Tue | 10:30AM-12:00PM | 32-D461 |
Cosmo Grant
Reason for God - Dinner, Talk, and Discussion
Chris Swanson
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
A six-part series during IAP exploring some of the top questions and objections to belief in God and Christianity. Each session will start with a free dinner, followed by a guest speaker and then a time of Question and Answer, and discussion. Dessert and Hot Chocolate provided too!
Check out www.reasoningforgod.com for more details.
Sponsor(s): Cru
Contact: Chris Swanson, 515-451-9542, CSWANSON@MIT.EDU
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Jan/16 | Tue | 06:30PM-08:00PM | W20-Mezzanine Lounge |
Human beings possess an incredible array of meaningful characteristics. We seem to exist as individual selves capable of relationships, art, language, creativity and beauty. How can we best explain these phenomena? Are we capable of self-definition? Is God needed to understand who we are and what it means to be human? Do we need God, something external to the human experience, to truly know ourselves?
| Jan/18 | Thu | 06:30PM | W20-Mezzanine Lounge, Dr. Troy Van Voorhis, MIT Professor of Chemistry |
Can any thinking and science-minded person believe in the miraculous claims of religion? How can science and miracles co-exist?
| Jan/23 | Tue | 06:30PM | W20-Mezzanine Lounge |
Our world is filled with complex moral challenges. What best explains our experiences of morality? Are our moral intuitions reducible to a set of evolutionary processes? Can genuine moral reasoning exist without God? Can't we be good without God, and isn't that all we need to be concerned about?
| Jan/25 | Thu | 06:30PM | W20-Mezzanine Lounge, Dr. Ian Hutchinson, MIT Professor |
What is faith? Isn't blind faith the problem and critical thinking the solution? Isn't there a difference between accepting expertise and bowing to authority? Is a faith-based view a liability in science? What is the relationship between faith and science?
| Jan/30 | Tue | 06:30PM | W20-Mezzanine Lounge, Dr. Tom Rudelius |
The fundamental laws of nature in our universe appear to be "fine-tuned" to allow for intelligent life. Are there clues for God's existence evident in the cosmos? In this talk, we'll explore possible explanations for this phenomenon and speculate on the possible role of a designer.
| Feb/01 | Thu | 06:30PM | W20-Mezzanine Lounge |
How could a good God, who is also all-powerful, allow evil and suffering? Does the existence of evil and suffering disprove God?
The Trolley Problem (Or: How and When to Push Large Men off Bridges)
Thomas Byrne, Daniel Munoz
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Jan/24 | Wed | 01:00PM-03:00PM | 32-D831 |
Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Prereq: No
An overview of the ethics (and psychology) of the most notorious thought experiment of the 20th century: the Trolley Problem.
Sponsor(s): Linguistics and Philosophy
Contact: Thomas Byrne, tJbb@mit.edu
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