Eric Sembrat's Test Bonanza

Abstract:

Destin Sandlin uses examples from his YouTube channel "Smarter Every Day" to challenge you to ask questions, consider the science, and explore deeper to see the world differently.  

Biography:

Destin Sandlin is an American engineer best known for his educational video series, Smarter Every Day (SED), which is hosted on a YouTube channel of the same name launched in 2007.

Sandlin received his Bachelors of Science from the University of Alabama, where he studied mechanical engineering. Later he obtained a graduate degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Sandlin began posting educational videos in 2007, and his first video to reach one million views cleared that milestone on July 10, 2009. The video was about chicken head tracking using chickens that Destin bought for his father as a demonstration. Because of its popularity that video retroactively had the Smarter Every Day label added to it. 

Sandlin formally launched Smarter Every Day (SED) On Apr 24, 2011 with a video titled "Detonation vs Deflagration - Smarter Every Day 1, which became the title for subsequent videos and the sole focus of his YouTube channel.

Episodes of Smarter Every Day revolve around scientific exploration and discovery and feature Sandlin as host and narrator. Sandlin is fascinated by flight and space, and his Smarter Every Day video library reflects that.

Editor's Note: This event was announced originally by the School of Physics. For updates, check the original posting. 

Destin Sandlin uses examples from his YouTube channel "Smarter Every Day" to challenge you to ask questions, consider the science, and explore deeper to see the world differently.  

About the Speaker

Destin Sandlin is an American engineer best known for his educational video series, Smarter Every Day (SED), which is hosted on a YouTube channel of the same name launched in 2007.

Sandlin received his Bachelors of Science from the University of Alabama, where he studied mechanical engineering. Later he obtained a graduate degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Sandlin began posting educational videos in 2007, and his first video to reach one million views cleared that milestone on July 10, 2009. The video was about chicken-head tracking using chickens that Destin bought for his father as a demonstration. Because of its popularity that video retroactively had the Smarter Every Day label added to it. 

Sandlin formally launched Smarter Every Day (SED) On Apr 24, 2011 with a video titled Detonation vs Deflagration - Smarter Every Day 1. Smarter Every Day became the title for subsequent videos and the sole focus of his YouTube channel.

Episodes of Smarter Every Day revolve around scientific exploration and discovery. They feature Sandlin as host and narrator. Sandlin is fascinated by flight and space, and his Smarter Every Day video library reflects that.

Due to the weather forecast, the Public Night for tonight 11/30 has been canceled.

Public nights at the Georgia Tech Observatory have resumed for the 2017-2018 season. During the fall and spring semesters, the observatory will be open one Thursday each month (except December) for people to observe various celestial bodies.

The viewing on November 30 includes a 30-minute talk with Karelle Siellez at 7:30 pm. Topic: The Multimessenger Era in Astrophysics: From Gravitational Waves to Gamma-Ray Bursts. 

Public nights are contingent on clear weather.

Potential closures and driving directions are on the official website.

Go here for the full schedule.

ALL ARE WELCOME.

ComSciCon is a series of workshops focused on the communication of complex and technical concepts organized by graduate students, for graduate students. ComSciCon attendees meet and interact with professional communicators, build lasting networks with graduate students in all fields of science and engineering from around the country, and write and publish original works.

ComSciCon Atlanta 2018 will take place at Georgia Tech on March 1-2, 2018. 

Participation is free but application is required. The application deadline is Dec. 1, 2017. 

Apply at https://comscicon.com/comscicon-atlanta-2018-application.

Preview the program here: https://comscicon.com/comscicon-atlanta-2018-program.

For more information go to https://comscicon.com/comscicon-atlanta-2018.

Abstract

Harnessing Data for 21st Century Science and Engineering (aka Harnessing the Data Revolution, HDR) is one of NSF's six "Big Research Ideas." The goals are to support fundamental research in data science and engineering; develop a cohesive, federated approach to the research data infrastructure needed to power this revolution; and develop a 21st-century data-capable workforce.

HDR will enable new modes of data-driven discovery, allowing researchers to ask and answer new questions in frontier science and engineering, generate new knowledge and understanding by working with domain experts, and accelerate discovery and innovation. This initiative builds on NSF's history of data science investments.

Chaitan Baru will describe community activities related to HDR, including workshops on translational data science, open knowledge network, and “Data Science Corps”. As the only federal agency supporting all fields of science and engineering, NSF is uniquely positioned to help ensure that our country's future is one enriched and improved by data.
 
About the Speaker

Chaitan Baru is Senior Advisor for Data Science in the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). He co-chairs the NSF working group on Harnessing the Data Revolution Big Idea; serves as advisor to the NSF Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs and Spokes program (BD Hubs/Spokes); manages the cross-Foundation NSF BIGDATA program; and, is a member of the NSF Transdisciplinary Research in Principles of Data Science (TRIPODS) program.

He was instrumental in recruiting Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, and Microsoft Azure as partners in the NSF BIGDATA program.

He co-chairs the Big Data Inter-agency Working Group of the Networking and IT R&D program (NITRD) of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

He is one of the primary co-authors of the Federal Big Data R&D Strategic Plan, released in May 2016. He is a member of the NSTC Data Science Interagency Working Group and represents NSF on the Federal Data Cabinet.

He is on assignment at NSF from the San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California San Diego, where he is a Distinguished Scientist and directs the Center for Large-scale Data Systems Research (clds.sdsc.edu) and the Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Development Group (acid.sdsc.edu).

Seminar attendees are invited to attend the IDEaS Networking Social after the lecture. Refreshments will be served.

Host: Srinivas Aluru, professor in the College of Computing and co-executive director of the Institute for Data Engineering and Science (IDEaS) at Georgia Tech

Editor's Note: This event was originally posted in the Georgia Tech calendar. For updates, check the original posting.

Quantum computers are proposed devices that would exploit quantum mechanics to solve certain specific problems dramatically faster than we know how to solve them with today's computers. In the popular press, quantum computers are often presented not just as an exciting frontier of science and technology (which they are), but also as magic devices that would work by simply trying every possible solution in parallel. 

However, research over the past 25 years has revealed that the truth is much more subtle and problem-dependent. For some types of problems, quantum computers would offer only modest speedups or none at all. 

These limitations are entirely separate from the practical difficulties of building quantum computers (such as "decoherence") and apply even to the fully error-corrected quantum computers we hope will be built in the future. 

In this talk, Scott Aaronson will  give a crash course on what computer science has learned about the capabilities and limitations of quantum computers. Then he will describe a remarkable and unexpected connection, made just within the past five years, where the conjectured limitations of quantum computers have been applied to problems in fundamental physics. 

These include Hawking's black-hole information puzzle (in its modern incarnation as the "firewall paradox"), as well as the growth of wormholes in the so-called gauge/gravity duality that emerged from string theory.

About the Speaker  

Scott Aaronson is the David J. Bruton Centennial Professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas (UT), Austin. 

He received his bachelor's degree from Cornell University and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He did postdoctoral fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study and the University of Waterloo. 

Before joining UT Austin, Aaronson spent nine years as a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Aaronson's research in theoretical computer science has focused on the capabilities and limits of quantum computers. His first book, "Quantum Computing Since Democritus," was published in 2013 by Cambridge University Press. 

He is the recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Alan T. Waterman Award, the United States PECASE Award, the Vannevar Bush Fellowship, and MIT's Junior Bose Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Editor's Note: This event was first announced by the Georgia Tech Algorithms and Randomness Center (ARC). For updates, check the original posting.

A CRA Distinguished Lecture by Abraham (Avi) Loeb, Harvard University

Based on the premise that humans are not special, Avi Loeb argues for modesty from a cosmic perspective. His “principle of cosmic modesty” implies that both primitive and intelligent forms of life should exist away from Earth, and we should therefore search for them without prejudice. 

About the Speaker
Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University. He published nearly 600 papers and four books that pioneered several new frontiers in astrophysics and cosmology.

Loeb serves as Chair of the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University, Founding Director of Harvard's Black Hole Initiative, and Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation (ITC) . He also chairs the Advisory Committee for the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative and serves as Vice Chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies.

He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Physical Society, and the International Academy of Astronautics. In 2012, TIME magazine selected Loeb as one of the 25 most influential people in space.

About Center for Relativistic Astrophysics (CRA) Distinguished Lectures
Lectures in this series are intended to celebrate advances in astrophysics that challenge the way we understand the universe. Invited lecturers are distinguished researchers and speakers who can tell the story of our universe to a general audience.

We invite high school students (and their guests) who are interested in learning about undergraduate degree programs in the College of Sciences at Georgia Tech to attend the open house “It’s All About Science and Math.” Visitors will learn about opportunities in the degree programs listed below, receive information about admission requirements and financial aid, attend a class, and tour scientific facilities/labs and parts of campus. This program is free to visitors and guests.

Due to limited space, participants are encouraged to sign up early. To schedule a class or group visit, please contact Dr. Cameron Tyson.

Degree programs:  Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Mathematics, Neuroscience, Physics, and Psychology.

REGISTER TO VISIT (click on link and select "It's All About Science and Math")

General Itinerary

10:00 - Introduction to Opportunities in Science and Math at Georgia Tech 

11:15 - Attend a science or math class with a student host and meet a professor. Classes/groups will visit a research lab during this time, and learn some science!

12:05 – Visitors will be provided lunch and can chat with College of Sciences faculty, students and advisors.

Optional activities: After lunch, individual prospective students and guests are encouraged to attend a freshmen admission information session and campus tour if they are visiting the campus for the first time. Be sure to sign up for the 1:15pm general session and campus tour when you register for It's All About Science and Math. 

1:15 – Freshmen admission information session, Student Success Building, Clary Theater

2:15 - Campus tour, departs from Student Success Building

3:30 - Meet a financial aid advisor (walk-ins accepted), Student Success Building, 3rd Floor

Taste of Science is one of many Georgia Tech events at the 2018 Atlanta Science Festival.

Featuring live demonstrations, food samples, and fascinating facts that tie science, culture, and food together, the Taste of Science is sure to satisfy your appetite for learning.

Hosted by College of Sciences’ Ed Greco, Michael Evans, Jennifer Leavey, Enid Steinbart, and their students in students in the STEMcomm VIP class.

Your ghost host with the most, Professor Morte, brings you a special SCIENCE version of the Silver Scream Spookshow for the Atlanta Science Festival. 

Morte and his gang of ghouls will entertain you before we screen It Came from Outerspace in 3D and your favorite genetically-modified rock band, Leucine Zipper and the Zinc Fingers, will play after.

Leucine Zipper and the Zinc Fingers features Jennifer Leavey, Joe Mendelson, Michael Evans, and Ben Prosser.

Tickets available on site only. 

Note: There is a later performance of this event at midnight.