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Seminar Series

October 29

Hot Topics in Computing with Eric Horvitz

Eric Horvitz
Microsoft

Part Of

5:00P
- 6:00P

Location

32-123
Kirsch Auditorium, Stata Center
Add to Calendar 2025-10-29 17:00:00 2025-10-29 18:00:00 America/New_York Hot Topics in Computing with Eric Horvitz Join us for a fireside talk with Eric Horvitz hosted by Daniela Rus. Bio: Eric Horvitz, MD, PhD, is Chief Scientific Officer at Microsoft where he leads initiatives at the intersection of science, technology, and society, with emphases on artificial intelligence, biosciences, and healthcare. His research contributions have advanced AI through innovations in perception, reasoning, and decision-making under uncertainty.Dr. Horvitz is known for his contributions to AI theory and practice, with a focus on principles and applications of AI amidst the complexities of the open world. His direction-setting research efforts include harnessing probability and utility in machine learning and reasoning, developing models of bounded rationality, constructing systems that perceive and act via interpreting multisensory streams of information, and pioneering principles and mechanisms for supporting human-AI collaboration and complementarity. His efforts and collaborations have led to fielded systems in healthcare, transportation, ecommerce, operating systems, and aerospace.Beyond his scientific work, he has pursued programs, organizations, and studies on ethics, values, and safety with applications and influences of AI. He founded and chairs Microsoft’s Aether committee on AI, effects, and ethics in engineering and research. He established the One Hundred Year Study on AI at Stanford University and co-founded and served as board chair of the Partnership on AI (PAI). He served as a Congressionally appointed commissioner on the National Security Commission on AI, where he chaired the line of effort on ethical and trustworthy AI.Dr. Horvitz received the Feigenbaum Prize and the Allen Newell Prize for his fundamental contributions to the science and practice of AI. He received the CHI Academy honor for his work at the intersection of AI and human-computer interaction. He has been elected fellow of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the Association of Computing Machinery(ACM), Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American College of Medical Informatics, and the American Philosophical Society.Dr. Horvitz currently serves on the advisory boards of the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) and Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI). He served as a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), president of the AAAI, as a member of the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) and Computing Community Consortium (CCC), and on advisory committees for the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).He received Ph.D. and M.D. degrees at Stanford University. Before moving into the role of Chief Scientific Officer, he served as director of Microsoft Research overseeing research labs in Redmond, Washington; Cambridge, Massachusetts; New York City, New York; Montreal, Canada; Cambridge, United Kingdom; and Bangalore, India. More information can be found on his home page. A selected list of publications can be found here. TBD

December 06

Film screening & fireside: Patrick and the Whale

Patrick Diykstra

Part Of

4:00P
- 6:00P

Location

32-141
Add to Calendar 2022-12-06 16:00:00 2022-12-06 18:00:00 America/New_York Film screening & fireside: Patrick and the Whale Film Screen & Fireside on 'Patrick & the Whale'join CSAIL Director Daniela Rus for a special Hot Topics in Computing on Tuesday, December 6, 2022 from 4-6pm in 32-141. We will have a screening of the film 'Patrick and the Whale', followed by a fireside conversation with Patrick Dykstra. We will discuss the use of computing for wildlife conservation. Please join us for this unique opportunity!Bio:Patrick Dykstra is the co-star of the semi-biographical feature film ‘Patrick and the Whale’ which chronicle’s Patrick’s decade long connection with a family of sperm whales. The film won the Audience Choice Award at the Innsbruck Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, Graz Film Festival and was nominated for both a Panda award (Wildscreen) and Jackson Wild Media Award as well as the Golden Eye award (Zurich Film Festival).Patrick also hosted and filmed the series Chasing Ocean Giants (Discovery Channel) that has aired in over 150 countries. The eight-part series follows Patrick’s journey across the globe to assist some of the world’s leading scientists in discovering mysteries of the ocean. During the production the team filmed numerous world-firsts and provided a valuable platform for the scientists with whom they worked.Patrick won a BAFTA for his cinematography work on the BBC’s Blue Planet 2 and has since filmed nature programs for Netflix, National Geographic, AppleTV+, Discovery, BBC and others.Prior to his work in natural history, Patrick spent eight years as a corporate lawyer working at one of the world’s most prestigious international law firms representing some of the world’s largest companies and was based in New York, Los Angeles and Dubai before leaving the corporate life behind to pursue his passions.Since leaving the corporate world Patrick has visited 102 countries and has filmed in some of the harshest environments including Yemen’s tribal areas, diving under Antarctic ice and at the top of Congo’s erupting volcanos.He is a certified rebreather scuba diver, wingsuit skydiver, hang-glider and para-glider pilot and is passionate about wildlife conservation. When not on the road Patrick is at home in Bristol, UK. 32-141

April 27

Private Event

Panel discussion: Lessons from Breakthrough CS Research

Daniel Jackson, James Morris, David Gifford, Butler Lampson, and Daniela Rus
CSAIL MIT

Part Of

2:00P
- 3:00P

Location

32-G449
Patil/Kiva Seminar Room
Add to Calendar 2022-04-27 14:00:00 2022-04-27 15:00:00 America/New_York Panel discussion: Lessons from Breakthrough CS Research What made Xerox PARC so successful in the 1970s, and why was it eventually eclipsed by Apple? Why did neural networks look so implausible in the 1980s? Are computer science and artificial intelligence poised to revolutionize our world for the better, or are the threats so great that we should shift gears into reverse and constrain or even resist technology?In a seminar to celebrate the publication of James Morris’s recently published memoir, Thoughts of a Reformed Computer Scientist, we’ll hear from Morris about his experiences at Berkeley, MIT, PARC and CMU, and his fears and hopes for the future, along with brief talks from David Gifford, Butler Lampson and Daniela Rus.Panel info:James Morris received his PhD from MIT in computer science before a computer science program existed; worked on the Alto at Xerox PARC; was CS department head at CMU and founded the HCI Institute and CMU Silicon Valley. His first summer intern at PARC was a student called Eric Schmidt.David Gifford is Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and Professor of Biological Engineering, and founder of Think Therapeutics, which is pioneering the use of machine learning in vaccine design.Butler Lampson was a founder of Xerox PARC, won the Turing Award for his contributions to personal computing, and is a technical fellow at Microsoft and Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at MIT.Daniela Rus is the Director of CSAIL, Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Computer Science, and recipient of the MacArthur “genius award.” Her research interests include robotics, mobile computing, and data science. Daniel Jackson is Professor of Computer Science and Associate Director of CSAIL, and author of the recently published book The Essence of Software: Why Concepts Matter for Great Design.Location:Patil/Kiva 32-G449- or - via Zoom (contact events@csail.mit.edu for Zoom details) 32-G449

March 17

Private Event

Hot Topics in Computing-Manolis Kellis: Reversing Human Disease Circuitry

Manolis Kellis
CSAIL MIT

Part Of

4:00P
- 5:00P

Location

Star Seminar Room 32-D463
Add to Calendar 2022-03-17 16:00:00 2022-03-17 17:00:00 America/New_York Hot Topics in Computing-Manolis Kellis: Reversing Human Disease Circuitry Abstract: Humanity is at a crossroads, where an aging population is confronting many new diseases, while genomics and machine learning advances are providing unprecedented opportunity for rewiring our cells to combat disease and aging. I will first describe recent advances in our lab for understanding the circuitry of Alzheimer's, obesity, heart disease, and psychiatric disorders at single cell resolution, and the steps we are taking for systematic manipulation of these circuits through high throughput experimentation and synthesis. I will then describe a vision for transforming clinical trials to enable precision medicine and personalized medicine, by focusing on the pathways and hallmarks underlying disease, and how they manifest at the genetic, epigenomic, transcriptional, and circuit level in each individual, and the resources that we need to put in place to enable this transformation across many sectors of science, technology, and finance. The goal of the evening is to use my comments for discussion, and to think how MIT, CSAIL, and our partners in hospitals, pharma, and biotechnology can work together to transform medicine and human health.This is a hybrid event held on campus in Stata Center, Star Seminar Room 32-D463, and via Zoom (see invitation email for Zoom details or contact events@csail.mit.edu)

October 06

Private Event

Fireside Conversation with Brad Smith of Microsoft

Brad Smith

Part Of

5:00P
- 6:00P

Location

32-123
Kirsh Auditorium
Add to Calendar 2021-10-06 17:00:00 2021-10-06 18:00:00 America/New_York Fireside Conversation with Brad Smith of Microsoft Register here: https://tim-tickets.atlas-apps.mit.edu/cwpk3aZsvmT1Yif59Schwarzman College of Computing and the Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) are delighted to welcome Brad Smith of Microsoft for a fireside conversation with Daniela Rus, deputy dean of research for the Schwarzman College of Computing and director of CSAIL, to address some of the greatest issues faced by industry and society today. Join us from 5:00-6:00pm EDT in the Kirsch Auditorium, 32-13, 32 Vassar Street on the MIT campus for what promises to be an intriguing discussion!*the first 100 attendees to arrive for the event will receive a copy of Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age, Brad Smith's recent bestselling book coauthored with Microsoft’s Carol Ann Browne.Bio:As Microsoft’s president and vice chair, Brad Smith leads a team of more than 1,500 business, legal and corporate affairs professionals located in 54 countries and operating in more than 120 nations. He plays a key role in spearheading the company’s work on critical issues involving the intersection of technology and society, including cybersecurity, privacy, artificial intelligence, environmental sustainability, human rights, immigration and philanthropy. In his recent bestselling book, coauthored with Microsoft’s Carol Ann Browne, Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age, Smith urges the tech sector to assume more responsibility and calls for governments to move faster to address the challenges that new technologies are creating. The New York Times has called Smith “a de facto ambassador for the technology industry at large” and The Australian Financial Review has described him as “one of the technology industry’s most respected figures.” He has testified numerous times before the U.S. Congress and other governments on these key policy issues.Smith joined Microsoft in 1993, first spending three years in Paris leading the legal and corporate affairs team in Europe. In 2002, he was named Microsoft’s general counsel and spent the following decade leading work to resolve the company’s antitrust controversies with governments around the world and companies across the tech sector. Over the past decade, Smith has spearheaded the company’s work to advance privacy protection for Microsoft customers and the rights of DREAMers and other immigrants, including bringing multiple lawsuits against the U.S. government on these issues.Prior to joining Microsoft, Smith was an associate and then partner at the law firm of Covington and Burling, where he is still remembered as the first attorney in the long history of the firm to insist (in 1986) on having a personal computer on his desk as a condition for accepting a job offer. In addition to his work at Microsoft, Smith is active in several civic organizations and in the broader technology industry. He has served on the Netflix board of directors since 2015 and chairs the board of directors of both Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) and the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship program.Smith grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin, where Green Bay was the big city next door. He attended Princeton University, where he met his wife, Kathy. He earned his J.D. from Columbia University Law School and studied international law and economics at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland. He can be followed on Twitter and LinkedIn 32-123

May 05

Private Event

Data Quest - Repatriating My Data from Cambridge Analytica

David Carroll, Associate Professor of Media Design
Parsons School of Design, The New School

Part Of

4:00P
- 5:00P

Location

virtual event via Zoom
Add to Calendar 2021-05-05 16:00:00 2021-05-05 17:00:00 America/New_York Data Quest - Repatriating My Data from Cambridge Analytica Abstract: Picking up where Netflix’s original documentary The Great Hack (2019) leaves off, David Carroll takes a deep dive into the legal process and data forensics that resulted in the only criminal conviction of the British company behind Cambridge Analytica by its regulator, serving as a stress test of the data protection regime and a parable to guide further reforms and enduring implications for Election 2016 and beyond.BioDavid Carroll is an associate professor of media design at Parsons School of Design at The New School. He is known as an advocate for data rights by legally challenging Cambridge Analytica in the UK in connection with the US presidential election of 2016, resulting in the only criminal conviction of the company by the Information Commissioner's Office. This work is featured in the BAFTA and Emmy nominated Netflix original documentary The Great Hack (2019) and his writings on the effort have been published in WIRED, PAPER, Quartz, The Guardian, Motherboard, and The Boston Review. He was awarded prizes from The Philosophical Society and the Law Society at Trinity College Dublin in 2019. He received a BA from Bowdoin College and an MFA from Parsons. He tweets at @profcarrollTopic: Hot Topics in Computing with David Carroll: Data Quest - Repatriating My Data from Cambridge AnalyticaTime: May 5, 2021 04:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)Join Zoom Meeting: https://mit.zoom.us/j/97411498869?pwd=QXIvSXBTV3UwS3JyU3hDS2wxQUtnZz09Password: 761350One tap mobile+16465588656,,97411498869# US (New York)+16699006833,,97411498869# US (San Jose)Meeting ID: 974 1149 8869US : +1 646 558 8656 or +1 669 900 6833International Numbers: https://mit.zoom.us/u/abBdJtiOBK

February 24

Private Event

Viral diagnostics for SARS-Cov-2 : Setting up testing at massive scale

Stacey Gabriel
Broad Institute

Part Of

4:00P
- 5:00P

Location

Virtual Event
Add to Calendar 2021-02-24 16:00:00 2021-02-24 17:00:00 America/New_York Viral diagnostics for SARS-Cov-2 : Setting up testing at massive scale ABSTRACT:In mid-March of 2020, Broad converted part of our CLIA-certified lab into a high-throughput COVID-19 testing facility. Our team has steadily increased the pace and scale of diagnostic testing, while also developing test protocols that make them easier to administer and process. The testing facility processes samples obtained from nasal swabs, using an RT-PCR assay, and has an average turnaround time of less than 24 hours from the time tests arrive at our facility.All this is being done at low cost, to make it as affordable as possible for the people and communities who need support. As the number of tests performed increases, we are able to bring down the cost-per-test even further. We have organized our testing to support over 1,000 different sites around New England, focusing on these areas of need: Nursing Homes, Colleges and Universities, Hospitals and Clinics, and new programs for K-12 students and teachers. The path that we took to our current scale of almost 200,000 tests per day will be discussed. BIO:Stacey Gabriel, Ph.D. is Institute Scientist and Senior Director of the Genomics Platform, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and has led platform development, execution and operation since the Institute’s founding. She is also Chair of Professional Scientists and serves on the Institute’s Executive Leadership Team.Gabriel is widely recognized as a leader in genomics technology and project execution. Her early work provided foundational research for the International HapMap Project. She has led the Broad Institute’s contributions to numerous flagship resource generation projects in human genetics including the HapMap, 1000 Genomes Project, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA); National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s TOPMed program. She is Principal Investigator of the ​ ​Broad Institute All of Us (AoU) Genomics Center, and serves on the AoU Program Steering Committee.In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gabriel led the development and execution of Broad's viral diagnostic effort. The lab rapidly became the largest single testing lab in New England and contributes substantially to national testing numbers. For the work she was recognized by the Boston Globe as a “Bostonian of the Year” in 2020.Dr. Gabriel has directed the Genomics Platform since 2012, and prior to that instantiated the first Broad ​ ​Institute Platform for Genomic Analysis. Under Gabriel’s guidance, the Genomics Platform operates as ​ ​one of the largest sequencing centers in the world, and continually explores, validates, optimizes, and ​ ​implements new technologies, methods, and analysis tools to meet the needs of the Broad community​ ​and beyond. Gabriel and the members of her team are committed to pushing the boundaries of the​ ​genomic frontier through the application of operational excellence, advanced process design, clinical ​ ​application and technology development capabilities. She has been recognizedby​ ​Clarivate Analytics as one of the most highly cited in molecular biology and genetics scientists in the world six years in a row.Dr. Gabriel received her B.S. in molecular biology from Carnegie Mellon University and Ph.D. in human​ ​genetics from Case Western Reserve University.Join Zoom Meetinghttps://mit.zoom.us/j/91816235962One tap mobile+16465588656,,91816235962# US (New York)+16699006833,,91816235962# US (San Jose)Meeting ID: 918 1623 5962US : +1 646 558 8656 or +1 669 900 6833International Numbers: https://mit.zoom.us/u/aSh3CH4U2

December 09

Private Event

Fireside Chat with Neil deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson
MIT SCC & CSAIL

Part Of

4:00P
- 5:00P

Location

Virtual Event
Add to Calendar 2020-12-09 16:00:00 2020-12-09 17:00:00 America/New_York Fireside Chat with Neil deGrasse Tyson Please join the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing and the Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) on Wednesday, December 9 at 4:00pm for a special Hot Topics in Computing event featuring a fireside talk with Neil deGrasse Tyson. Registration required: limited to MIT students, and must register using an MIT email address. Neil deGrasse Tyson was born and raised in New York City where he was educated in the public schools clear through his graduation from the Bronx High School of Science. Tyson went on to earn his BA in Physics from Harvard and his PhD in Astrophysics from Columbia. Tyson is the fifth head of the world-renowned Hayden Planetarium in New York City and the first occupant of its Frederick P. Rose Directorship. He is also a research associate of the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History.In 2001, Tyson was appointed by President Bush to serve on a twelve-member commission that studied the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry. The final report was published in 2002 and contained recommendations (for Congress and for the major agencies of the government) that would promote a thriving future of transportation, space exploration, and national security. In 2004, Tyson was once again appointed by President Bush to serve on a nine-member commission on the Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy, dubbed the “Moon, Mars, and Beyond” commission. This group navigated a path by which the new space vision can become a successful part of the American agenda. And in 2006, the head of NASA appointed Tyson to serve on its prestigious Advisory Council, which guides NASA through its perennial need to fit ambitious visions into restricted budgets.In addition to dozens of professional publications, Dr. Tyson has written, and continues to write for the public. From 1995 to 2005, Tyson was a monthly essayist for Natural History magazine under the title Universe. And among Tyson’s fifteen books is his memoir The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist; and Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, co-written with Donald Goldsmith. Origins is the companion book to the PBS NOVA four-part mini-series Origins, in which Tyson served as on-camera host. The program premiered in September 2004. Two of Tyson’s other books are the playful and informative Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries, which was a New York Times bestseller, and The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet, chronicling his experience at the center of the controversy over Pluto’s planetary status. The PBS NOVA documentary The Pluto Files, based on the book, premiered in March 2010. In February 2012, Tyson released his tenth book, containing every thought he has ever had on the past, present, and future of space exploration: Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier.For five seasons, beginning in the fall of 2006, Tyson appeared as the on-camera host of PBS NOVA’s spinoff program NOVA ScienceNOW, which is an accessible look at the frontier of all the science that shapes the understanding of our place in the universe. During the summer of 2009 Tyson identified a cadre of professional standup comedians to assist his effort in bringing science to commercial radio with the NSF-funded pilot program StarTalk. Now also a popular Podcast, for three years it enjoyed a limited-run Television Series on the National Geographic Channel. StarTalk combines celebrity guests with informative yet playful banter. The target audience is all those people who never thought they would, or could, like science. In its first year on television and in three successive seasons, it was nominated for a Best Informational Programming Emmy.Tyson is the recipient of twenty-one honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest award given by NASA to a non-government citizen. His contributions to the public appreciation of the cosmos have been recognized by the International Astronomical Union in their official naming of asteroid “13123 Tyson.” And by zoologists, with the naming of Indirani Tysoni, a native species of leaping frog in India. On the lighter side, Tyson was voted “Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive” by People Magazine in 2000.More recently, Tyson published Astrophysics for People In A Hurry in 2017, which was a domestic and international bestseller. This adorably readable book is an introduction to all that you’ve read and heard about that’s making news in the universe—consummated, in one place, succinctly presented, for people in a hurry. That was followed in 2018 by Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military, coauthored with Avis Lang, and in 2019 by Letters from an Astrophysicist, both New York Times Bestsellers.Tyson served as Executive Science Editor and on-camera Host & Narrator for Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, the 21st century continuation of Carl Sagan’s landmark television series. The show began in March 2014 and ran thirteen episodes in primetime on the FOX network, and appeared in 181 countries in 45 languages around the world on the National Geographic Channels. Cosmos won four Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, two Critics Choice awards, as well as a dozen other industry recognitions. Tyson reprised his role as on-camera host for the next season of Cosmos—Cosmos: Possible Worlds, which premiered on the National Geographic Channel in March 2020 and on the FOX network in September 2020.Neil deGrasse Tyson lives in New York City with his wife, a former IT project manager with Bloomberg Financial Markets.Registration required: limited to MIT students, and must register using an MIT email address. Join Zoom Meeting: https://mit.zoom.us/j/91750195455?pwd=cGdZS2h3cnVSMWI1MGhTZ2NlWDYvQT09Password: 223153One tap mobile+16465588656,,91750195455# US (New York)+16699006833,,91750195455# US (San Jose)Meeting ID: 917 5019 5455US : +1 646 558 8656 or +1 669 900 6833International Numbers: https://mit.zoom.us/u/adwwstr6Gw

December 02

Private Event

Creating, Weaponizing, and Detecting Deep Fakes

Hany Farid
MIT SCC & CSAIL

Part Of

4:00P
- 5:00P

Location

Virtual Event
Add to Calendar 2020-12-02 16:00:00 2020-12-02 17:00:00 America/New_York Creating, Weaponizing, and Detecting Deep Fakes ABSTRACT:The past few years have seen a startling and troubling rise in the fake-news phenomena in which everyone from individuals to nation-sponsored entities can produce and distribute mis-information. The implications of fake news range from a mis-informed public to an existential threat to democracy, and horrific violence. At the same time, recent and rapid advances in machine learning are making it easier than ever to create sophisticated and compelling fake images. videos, and audio recordings, making the fake-news phenomena even more powerful and dangerous. I will provide an overview of the creation of these so-called deep-fakes, and I will describe emerging techniques for detecting them. [joint work with Ph.D. student Shruti Agarwal]BIO:Hany Farid is a Professor at the University of California, Berkeley with a joint appointment in Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences and the School of Information. His research focuses on digital forensics, image analysis, and human perception. He received his undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics from the University of Rochester in 1989, his M.S. in Computer Science from SUNY Albany, and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. Following a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, he joined the faculty at Dartmouth College in 1999 where he remained until 2019. He is the recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.Join Zoom Meetinghttps://mit.zoom.us/j/99844920698?pwd=L1RUVTNkczZTWVZ1TnNCd3haaUQyZz09Password: 861664One tap mobile+16465588656,,99844920698# US (New York)+16699006833,,99844920698# US (San Jose)Meeting ID: 998 4492 0698US : +1 646 558 8656 or +1 669 900 6833International Numbers: https://mit.zoom.us/u/aeHFfpHYE4

November 17

Private Event

Fireside Talk with Eric Schmidt

Eric Schmidt

Part Of

4:00P
- 5:00P

Location

virtual event via Zoom
Add to Calendar 2020-11-17 16:00:00 2020-11-17 17:00:00 America/New_York Fireside Talk with Eric Schmidt Please join Schwarzman College of Computing and Computer Science and Artificial Laboratory (CSAIL) on Tuesday, November 17 at 4:00pm for a special Hot Topics in Computing event featuring a fireside talk with former Google CEO & Chairman, and Co-Founder, Schmidt Futures, Eric Schmidt. Details below (limited to 500; registration is required and preference will be given to MIT community).Eric Schmidt is an accomplished technologist, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He joined Google in 2001 and helped grow the company from a Silicon Valley startup to a global leader in technology alongside founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Eric served as Google’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman from 2001-2011, as well as Executive Chairman and Technical Advisor. Under his leadership, Google dramatically scaled its infrastructure and diversified its product offerings while maintaining a strong culture of innovation. In 2017, he co-founded Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative that bets early on exceptional people making the world better. Eric is the host of “Reimagine with Eric Schmidt,” a podcast series of conversations with leaders to explore how society can build a brighter future after the global coronavirus pandemic.Zoom link (requires registration): https://mit.zoom.us/j/99648273444?pwd=OW84QVlYV1gyNDNScmpSSEora0VmUT09Password: 968436One tap mobile+16465588656,,99648273444# US (New York)+16699006833,,99648273444# US (San Jose)Meeting ID: 996 4827 3444US : +1 646 558 8656 or +1 669 900 6833International Numbers: https://mit.zoom.us/u/aqdjjEmUq

October 20

Will the 2020 Election Be Safe and Secure?

Prof. Charles Stewart
MIT

Part Of

3:00P
- 4:00P

Location

virtual event
Add to Calendar 2020-10-20 15:00:00 2020-10-20 16:00:00 America/New_York Will the 2020 Election Be Safe and Secure? Abstract: The 2020 presidential election is being conducted under the most trying conditions in perhaps the nation’s history. The course of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to insert uncertainty into all aspects of the election. The expansion of voting by mail represents an unprecedented acceleration of institutional change in election infrastructure. Political wrangling over mail balloting and charges of fraud threaten to undermine confidence in the electoral system and hinder a response that would optimize a response to the pandemic that would both respect election security and public health. Finally, concerns about cybersecurity that arose in the 2016 election continue, only less visibly. This talk will outline the national response to voting in the pandemic, review the degree to which progress has been made in ensuring that voting will proceed securely, safely, and with equal access, and explore vulnerabilities that remain.Bio: Charles Stewart III is the Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received his PhD in political science from Stanford in 1985, whereupon he joined the MIT faculty as an assistant professor. His research and teaching have centered on American politics. His many books and other academic publications have touched on legislative politics, electoral politics and reform, and American political history. Professor Stewart is currently the co-director of the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project, the director of the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, and co-director of the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project. He has held many administrative and faculty leadership positions at MIT, including past service as Head of the Department of Political Science and Associate Dean of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.**this event is open to MIT community members with Touchstone authentication**Join Zoom Meeting: https://mit.zoom.us/j/93809827807One tap mobile+16465588656,,93809827807# US (New York)+16699006833,,93809827807# US (San Jose)Meeting ID: 938 0982 7807US : +1 646 558 8656 or +1 669 900 6833International Numbers: https://mit.zoom.us/u/abtKx9vje4

Private Event

Healthy Elections

Prof. Charles Stewart
MIT

Part Of

3:00P
- 4:00P

Location

virtual event via Zoom
Add to Calendar 2020-10-20 15:00:00 2020-10-20 16:00:00 America/New_York Healthy Elections **this event is open to MIT community members with Touchstone authentication**Join Zoom Meeting: https://mit.zoom.us/j/93809827807One tap mobile+16465588656,,93809827807# US (New York)+16699006833,,93809827807# US (San Jose)Meeting ID: 938 0982 7807US : +1 646 558 8656 or +1 669 900 6833International Numbers: https://mit.zoom.us/u/abtKx9vje4

October 08

Private Event

Computer vision: who is harmed and who benefits?

Timnit Gebru
Google, Ethical Artificial Intelligence

Part Of

4:00P
- 5:00P

Location

virtual event
Add to Calendar 2020-10-08 16:00:00 2020-10-08 17:00:00 America/New_York Computer vision: who is harmed and who benefits? Abstract: Computer vision has ceased to be a purely academic endeavor. From law enforcement, to border control, to employment, healthcare diagnostics, and assigning trust scores, computer vision systems are being rapidly integrated into all aspects of society. In research, there are works that purport to determine a person’s sexuality from their social network profile images, others that claim to classify “violent individuals” from drone footage. These works were published in high impact journals, and some were presented at workshops in top tier computer vision conferences such as CVPR.A critical public discourse surrounding the use of computer-vision based technologies has also been mounting. For example, the use of facial recognition technologies by policing agencies has been heavily critiqued and, in response, companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM have pulled or paused their facial recognition software services. Gender Shades showed that commercial gender classification systems have high disparities in error rates by skin-type and gender, and other works discuss the harms caused by the mere existence of automatic gender recognition systems. Recent papers have also exposed shockingly racist and sexist labels in popular computer vision datasets--resulting in the removal of some. In this talk, I will highlight some of these issues and proposed solutions to mitigate bias, as well as how some of the proposed fixes could exacerbate the problem rather than mitigate it. Bio: Timnit Gebru is a senior research scientist at Google co-leading the Ethical Artificial Intelligence research team. Her work focuses on mitigating the potential negative impacts of machine learning based systems. Timnit is also the co-founder of Black in AI, a non profit supporting Black researchers and practitioners in artificial intelligence. Prior to this, she did a postdoc at Microsoft Research, New York City in the FATE (Fairness Transparency Accountability and Ethics in AI) group, where she studied algorithmic bias and the ethical implications underlying any data mining project. She received her Ph.D. from the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, studying computer vision under Fei-Fei Li. Prior to joining Fei-Fei's lab, she worked at Apple designing circuits and signal processing algorithms for various Apple products including the first iPad.Join Zoom Meeting: https://mit.zoom.us/j/96717285498?pwd=M1VpNXc3L0I5RjZXQ0xYMlF0Y0dvUT09Password: 420235 One tap mobile+16465588656,,96717285498# US (New York)+16699006833,,96717285498# US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 967 1728 5498US : +1 646 558 8656 or +1 669 900 6833

September 23

Private Event

Harnessing Synthetic Biology and Deep Learning to Fight Pathogens

Prof. James Collins
MIT

Part Of

2:00P
- 3:00P

Location

virtual event via Zoom
Add to Calendar 2020-09-23 14:00:00 2020-09-23 15:00:00 America/New_York Harnessing Synthetic Biology and Deep Learning to Fight Pathogens *This event is open to MIT members with Touchstone authentication.* Abstract:Synthetic biology is bringing together engineers, physicists and biologists to model, design and construct biological circuits out of proteins, genes and other bits of DNA, and to use these circuits to rewire and reprogram organisms. These re-engineered organisms are going to change our lives in the coming years, leading to cheaper drugs, rapid diagnostic tests, and synthetic probiotics to treat infections and a range of complex diseases. In this talk, we highlight recent efforts to harness synthetic gene networks, programmable cells and deep learning to create diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines for fighting pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2.Bio:Jim Collins is the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering & Science and Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT, as well as a Member of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences & Technology Faculty. He is also a Core Founding Faculty member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, and an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He is one of the founders of the field of synthetic biology, and his research group is currently focused on using synthetic biology to create next-generation diagnostics and therapeutics. Professor Collins' patented technologies have been licensed by over 25 biotech, pharma and medical devices companies, and he has helped to launch a number of companies, including Synlogic and Sherlock Biosciences. He has received numerous awards and honors, including a Rhodes Scholarship and a MacArthur "Genius" Award, and he is an elected member of all three national academies - the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Medicine.Join Zoom Meeting: https://mit.zoom.us/j/96971590729One tap mobile:+16465588656,,96971590729# US (New York)+16699006833,,96971590729# US (San Jose)Meeting ID: 969 7159 0729US : +1 646 558 8656 or +1 669 900 6833International Numbers: https://mit.zoom.us/u/abtMLD5Md0

June 09

Private Event

A Multi-Risk SIR Model with Optimally Targeted Lockdown

Daron Acemoglu

Part Of

2:00P
- 3:00P

Location

virtual via Zoom
Add to Calendar 2020-06-09 14:00:00 2020-06-09 15:00:00 America/New_York A Multi-Risk SIR Model with Optimally Targeted Lockdown Zoom accessible to MIT community members with Touchstone authentication: https://mit.zoom.us/j/97293316637Abstract:We develop a multi-risk SIR model (MR-SIR) where infection, hospitalization and fatality rates vary between groups—in particular between the “young”, “the middle aged” and the “old”. Our MR-SIR model enables a tractable quantitative analysis of optimal policy similar to those already developed in the context of the homogeneous agent SIR models. For baseline parameter values for the COVID-19 pandemic applied to the US, we find that optimal policies differentially targeting risk/age groups significantly outperform optimal uniform policies and most of the gains can be realized by having stricter lockdown policies on the oldest group. Intuitively, a strict and long lockdown for the most vulnerable group both reduces infections and enables less strict lockdowns for the lower-risk groups. We also study the impacts of social distancing, the matching technology, the expected arrival time of a vaccine, and testing with or without tracing on optimal policies. Overall, targeted policies that are combined with measures that reduce interactions between groups and increase testing and isolation of the infected can minimize both economic losses and deaths in our model.Bio:Daron Acemoglu an Institute Professor at MIT and an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the Turkish Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, the European Economic Association, and the Society of Labor Economists.He is the author of five books, including Why Nations Fail: Power, Prosperity, and Poverty and The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty (both with James A. Robinson). His academic work covers a wide range of areas, including political economy, economic development, economic growth, inequality, labor economics and economics of networks.Daron Acemoglu has received the inaugural T. W. Shultz Prize from the University of Chicago in 2004, and the inaugural Sherwin Rosen Award for outstanding contribution to labor economics in 2004, Distinguished Science Award from the Turkish Sciences Association in 2006, the John von Neumann Award, Rajk College, Budapest in 2007, the Carnegie Fellowship in 2017, the Jean-Jacques Laffont Prize in 2018, and the Global Economy Prize in 2019. He was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal in 2005, the Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in 2012, and the 2016 BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award. He holds Honorary Doctorates from the University of Utrecht, the Bosporus University, University of Athens, Bilkent University, the University of Bath, the Ecole Normale Superieure, Saclay Paris, and the London Business School.

May 19

Private Event

Panel discussion of contact tracing activities at MIT

Part Of

3:00P
- 4:00P

Location

virtual via Zoom
Add to Calendar 2020-05-19 15:00:00 2020-05-19 16:00:00 America/New_York Panel discussion of contact tracing activities at MIT Topic: Hot Topics in Computing: panel discussion on contact tracing activities at MITPanelists include: Ramesh Raskar; Ron Rivest; Julie Shah; Daniel Weitzner; moderated by Daniela RusTime: May 19, 2020 03:00 PM Eastern Time Join Zoom Meeting: https://mit.zoom.us/j/96637601635 One tap mobile:+16465588656,,96637601635# US (New York)+16699006833,,96637601635# US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 966 3760 1635US : +1 646 558 8656 or +1 669 900 6833links to panelist bios:Ramesh Raskar: https://www.media.mit.edu/people/raskar/overview/Ron Rivest: http://people.csail.mit.edu/rivest/Julie Shah: https://www.csail.mit.edu/person/julie-shahDaniel Weitzner: https://internetpolicy.mit.edu/daniel-weitzner/ virtual via Zoom

May 14

Private Event

A Conversation with Microsoft President Brad Smith

Brad Smith
Microsoft

Part Of

12:30P
- 1:30P

Location

virtual via Zoom webinar; registration needed
Add to Calendar 2020-05-14 12:30:00 2020-05-14 13:30:00 America/New_York A Conversation with Microsoft President Brad Smith Registration required: https://mit.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_AY8FDgMKTsi4kLhkSE6aJwMicrosoft President Brad Smith believes that when technology changes the world, the company that created it bears a responsibility to help address the world they played a part in creating. Tech companies and governments must work together to address the challenges and adapt to the changes technology has unleashed. This includes addressing a wide range of challenges from digital security to efforts to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.As part of the next Hot Topics in Computing, Dan Huttenlocher, dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, will welcome Brad Smith for a [virtual] conversation with Daniela Rus, deputy dean of research for the Schwarzman College of Computing and director of CSAIL, to address some of the greatest issues faced by industry and society today. Bio:Brad Smith is the president of Microsoft, where he leads a team of more than 1,400 business, legal and corporate affairs professionals in 56 countries. He serves as the company’s chief legal officer and leads work on a wide range of issues involving the intersection between technology and society, including cybersecurity, privacy, ethics and artificial intelligence, human rights, immigration, philanthropy and environmental sustainability. Described by the New York Times as “a de facto ambassador for the technology industry at large,” Smith has testified numerous times before the U.S. Congress and other governments on key policy issues.

May 05

Private Event

Targeted Risk Analytics to Fight the COVID-19 Outbreak

Retsef Levi
MIT Sloan School of Management

Part Of

2:00P
- 3:00P

Location

virtual event via Zoom
Add to Calendar 2020-05-05 14:00:00 2020-05-05 15:00:00 America/New_York Targeted Risk Analytics to Fight the COVID-19 Outbreak Join Zoom Meeting : https://mit.zoom.us/j/99983207590 One tap mobile:+16465588656,,99983207590# US (New York)+16699006833,,99983207590# US (San Jose)Meeting ID: 999 8320 7590US : +1 646 558 8656 or +1 669 900 6833Abstract: In this talk we will describe several important risk-analytics challenges that are critical to be able to effectively fight the COVID-19 virus without complete shut-down of the economy. The talk is partially based on work done by a large team of MIT faculty and students during the last several months.Bio:Retsef Levi is the J. Spencer Standish (1945) Professor of Operations Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is a member of the Operations Management Group at MIT Sloan and affiliated with the MIT Operations Research Center. Levi also serves as the Faculty Co-Director of the MIT Leaders for Global Operations (LGO). Levi teaches regularly courses on operations management, analytics, risk management, system thinking and healthcare to students from various degree and non-degree programs including MBA, Executive MBA, PhD, Master and Undergraduate students as well as Executive Education programs. His Healthcare Lab course attracts students from across the MIT campus and engages major industry partners and leaders. Levi has graduated 10 PhD students, 34 Master students and 6 postdoctoral fellows. He was also awarded several prestigious teaching awards.Before coming to MIT, he spent a year in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center as the holder of the Goldstine Postdoctoral Fellowship. He received a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Tel-Aviv University (Israel) in 2001, and a PhD in Operations Research from Cornell University in 2005. Levi spent almost 12 years in the Israeli Defense Forces as an officer in the Intelligence Wing and was designated as an Extra Merit Officer. After leaving the Military, Levi joined an emerging new Israeli hi-tech company as a Business Development Consultant. Levi's current research is focused on the design of analytical data-driven decision support models and tools addressing complex business and system design decisions under uncertainty in areas such as health and healthcare management, supply chain, procurement and inventory management, revenue management, pricing optimization and logistics. He is interested in the theory underlying these models and algorithms, as well as their computational and organizational applicability in practical settings. Levi has been leading several industry-based collaborative research efforts with some of the major academic hospitals in the Boston area, such as Mass General Hospital (MGH), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Children’s Hospital, and across the U.S. (e.g., Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NYC Presbyterian Hospital System and the American Association of Medical Colleges). Levi was the PI on an MIT contract with the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to develop systematic risk management approach to address risk related to economically motivated adulterations of food manufactured in global supply chains. With a multi-million award from the Walmart Foundation, Levi currently leads a multi-year U.S.-China collaborative effort to develop new predictive risk analytics tools and testing technologies and platforms to address core food safety challenges in China. Levi has also been involved in developing operational risk and process safety management methodologies for various organizations in the healthcare, pharmaceutical and oil industries. Levi received the NSF Faculty Early Career Development award, the 2008 INFORMS Optimization Prize for Young Researchers, the 2013 Daniel H. Wagner Prize and the 2016 Harold W. Kuhn Award.

April 14

Private Event

Using Computing to Address the Social Impacts of COVID19

Julie Shah

Part Of

2:00P
- 3:00P

Location

virtual via Zoom
Add to Calendar 2020-04-14 14:00:00 2020-04-14 15:00:00 America/New_York Using Computing to Address the Social Impacts of COVID19 Join Zoom Meeting: https://mit.zoom.us/j/627564542One tap mobile:+16465588656,,627564542# US (New York)+16699006833,,627564542# US (San Jose)Meeting ID: 627 564 542US : +1 646 558 8656 or +1 669 900 6833International Numbers: https://mit.zoom.us/u/abFplvAXhzAbstract:It is clear that social distancing is critical to blunt the impact of the COVID19 pandemic but we also know that the sooner we can return to safely congregating the better. The choice between saving lives and saving livelihoods is false. Using modern computing methods, it is possible to develop both pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical strategies to suppress the virus, to protect frontline workers in hospitals and in grocery stores; to find smarter ways to allocate and distribute supplies, equipment and other critical resources. This talk is a call to innovators to put as much data and computing power on these challenges as we can, now. I’ll discuss opportunities for addressing the societal challenges wrought by COVID-19, and possibilities for joining ongoing collaborations of researchers across MIT.Bio:Julie Shah is an Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT and director of the Interactive Robotics Group in CSAIL. She currently serves as an associate dean of social and ethical responsibilities of computing in the Schwarzman College of Computing. Her work aims to imagine the future of work by designing collaborative robot teammates that enhance human capability. She is expanding the use of human cognitive models for artificial intelligence and has translated her work to manufacturing assembly lines, healthcare applications, transportation and defense. Before joining the faculty, she worked at Boeing Research and Technology on robotics applications for aerospace manufacturing. Prof. Shah has been recognized by the National Science Foundation with a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award and by MIT Technology Review on its 35 Innovators Under 35 list. Her work on industrial human-robot collaboration was also in Technology Review’s 2013 list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies. She has received international recognition in the form of best paper awards and nominations from the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, and the International Symposium on Robotics. She earned degrees in aeronautics and astronautics and in autonomous systems from MIT.

April 07

Private Event

Telehealth and Coronavirus: impact on each other and opportunity to surmount Machiavellian forces

Amar Gupta

Part Of

2:00P
- 3:00P

Location

virtual via Zoom
Add to Calendar 2020-04-07 14:00:00 2020-04-07 15:00:00 America/New_York Telehealth and Coronavirus: impact on each other and opportunity to surmount Machiavellian forces Join Zoom Meeting: 
https://mit.zoom.us/j/277582146

 One tap mobile:
+16465588656,,277582146# (New York) or 
+16699006833,,277582146# (San Jose)

Abstract:Healthcare is increasingly adopting a three pronged approach that involves: (i) personnel in proximity to the patient; (ii) domain experts who may be located in another city, state, or country; and (iii) computer-based analytics and other IT-based processes. Prudent application of such approaches can offer better quality of healthcare, faster access to proper attention and advice, and lower costs too. In the context of the evolving telehealth ecosystem, the discussion will include coverage of the aspects of knowledge acquisition, knowledge discovery, knowledge management, and knowledge dissemination, with greater focus on interoperability and its critical role in the use of telehealth in pandemic and other situations. In the US, 911 led to a major reform of the banking industry and the immediate adoption of automated processes for reading and processing of bank checks. Can coronavirus lead to a similar change in the healthcare industry and catalyze the widespread adoption of telehealth practices? What is the role of computer science departments and other departments at universities and what are the critical success factors to attain a better world? Examples of successful and unsuccessful strategies from US (Massachusetts, New York, Arizona, and California) and foreign countries will be used.Bio:Dr. Amar Gupta has spent most of his career fostering innovative technologies and processes, and then helping with their deployment on a global basis. He worked earlier at MIT as Principal Research Scientist and Senior Research Scientist. Then he moved from Boston to serve as Endowed and Tenured Professor at two universities. At the first university, he held several concurrent appointments including Professor of Computer Science, Professor of Public Health, and Professor of Law. At the second one, he served concurrently as Dean of Computer Science and Information Systems. In 2015, he rejoined MIT initially as Visiting Professor. Dr. Gupta was a founding Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Internet Technology and an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics. He has published over 70 papers with the largest subset in CS journals. Dr. Gupta has served as Advisor to World Health Organization and other leading international and national organizations, as well as major corporations. At MIT, he developed and taught the course Telehealth and Telemedicine for Global Health; it was co-listed as 6.884 in Spring of 2018 and its details are available at the MIT Stellar site. More details about Dr. Gupta and his activities are available at: news.mit.edu/2018/removing-health-care-barriers-and-boundaries-amar-gupta-telemedicine-0522