Registration is no longer available because the registration capacity has been exceeded.

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

The Soft Matter Incubator (SMI, smi.gatech.edu) seed grant program seeks proposals on fundamental soft matter that will enable obtaining preliminary data for submitting multi-investigator proposals. As a result, only proposals with a strong scientific potential and significance, which clearly articulate a path forward towards assembling a strong team and a cohesive theme, will be considered.

Since multi-investigator proposals require teams of investigators at different career stages, the submitting team must consist of at least two Georgia Tech investigators with different academic ranks, one of whom must be associated with SMI.

Proposals should include a project summary of no more than 250 words and a project description that should not exceed two pages. Emphasis will be placed on proposals that clearly articulate why the research is new and important and how it can lead to the assembly of a larger team and the eventual development of a multi-investigator proposal.

A separate one-page budget, not to exceed $15,000, should also be provided. Seed grant funds may be used to support student salaries, materials, and supplies.

Proposals should be submitted electronically to Sharon Lawrence (sharon.lawrence@chemistry.gatech.edu) by November 15, 2017.

SMI anticipates a total of two seed grants, which will be announced by December 1, 2017. Funds must be spent by June 30, 2018.

Required deliverables include a final written report on progress made and a presentation of the major findings/results and the path for continuing the work and/or submitting proposals seeking external funds.

Registration is no longer available because the registration capacity has been exceeded.

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

12-12:30pm: Transgender Students and Employees Share their Stories 
11am-2pm: Drop in to view the exhibit and vigil 

Transgender Day of Remembrance is an annual global commemoration of transgender people who have lost their lives to violence in the past year. Everyone is invited to join in honoring their lives and learning how we can support trans people in our community.

This year, transgender Georgia Tech students and employees will share their stories of where they have found hope and resilience, in themselves and in their families, friendships, relationships, and communities. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to come hear these powerful and important stories at 12:00-12:30pm. 

Our storytellers will begin at noon. This brave group of students and employees will each spend a few minutes telling their stories. This portion of the event will last for about 30 minutes. Those who can't make it for the stories are strongly encouraged to visit the room during the open drop-in hours between 11am and 2pm to view the Trans Day of Remembrance exhibit and view the vigil honoring the trans lives we have lost this year. Attendees will also receive information about trans-inclusive resources and will be given a chance to write messages of support for the trans community.

We will have handouts and information on how we can practice allyship to the transgender community on campus and off, sign-ups for our spring Trans 101 trainings, and opportunities to discuss and reflect on what you have learned.

No need to RSVP - just show up for as long as you want. The room will be open for three hours total. 

Abstract

Understanding how and why life emerged on Earth has been a scientific question since the 1930s. However, what we think that question is, and what counts as an answer, has continually changed as our understanding of biology and of planetary and space chemistry have repeatedly been overturned.  

Eric Smith will review four approaches to the origin-of-life problem. Each approach is anchored in a paradigm-changing discovery about nature, but also reflects, to some extent, traditional viewpoints from different disciplines.  

One approach focuses on the molecules of life and how to make them.  A second emphasizes the capacity of Darwinian evolution to shape matter and the particular role of nucleic acids in carrying the evolutionary process on Earth.  

A third emphasizes the intricate embedding of the biosphere within geochemistry and planetary energetics, and it interprets the invariance of these relations over geological timescales as evidence of constraints on the possibilities for both living matter and evolution.  

The fourth approach emphasizes the problem of life’s robustness. It is still mostly passed over both in biology and in origin-of-life research. But lessons learned in physics about the hierarchy of matter suggest that this approach is as fundamental as the other three.  

From each point of view, the requirements for an explanation of life's emergence have changed. Regarding them together, we can arrive at a provisional definition of the nature of the living state that is at once commonsense, but surprisingly far-removed from the definitions that were thought to be adequate a century ago.

About the Speaker

Eric Smith studies the origin of life from the perspectives of biochemistry, microbiology, geochemisty, and statistical physics. 

Smith received the Bachelor of Science in Physics and Mathematics from the California Institute of Technology in 1987 and a Ph.D. in Physics from The University of Texas, Austin (UT Austin) in 1993,.

From 1993 to 2000 he worked in physical, nonlinear, and statistical acoustics at the Applied Research Labs, UT Austin, and at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. From 2000, he worked at the Santa Fe Institute (SFI), in New Mexico, on problems of self-organization in thermal, chemical, and biological systems. Smith’s work at SFI reflected the institute’s interest in common motifs in complex systems, including evolutionary dynamics, non-equilibrium thermodynamics, game theory, economics, and linguistics. 

Starting in 2007, Smith participated in wide-ranging National Science Foundation-sponsored project to understand the emergence of life, from geochemistry to the genetic code. That project brought together geochemists, biochemists, molecular biologists, microbiologists, and physicists.These colleagues remain his working partners and have shaped Smith's view of the nature of life and the problem of its origin. 

In 2015, Smith joined the Earth-Life Science Institute at Tokyo Institute of Technology as a Principal Investigator. Later that year, Smith joined the School of Biological Sciences at Georgia Tech, as a member of Frank Rosenzweig's NASA Astrobiology Institute node on major evolutionary transitions. 

Smith co-authored with Harold Morowitz the book “The Origin and Nature of Life on Earth: The Emergence of the Fourth Geosphere.” Published in 2016 by Cambridge University Press, the book gathers the complicated and diverse landscape of ideas and literature needed to study the origin of life under a unifying narrative. It aims to make the topic accessible to researchers wanting to enter the field.  

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.

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.

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.

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.

Join the Center for Academic Enrichment and the Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain as we screen “Ever the Land,” a documentary about one of New Zealand’s most independent Maori tribes, Ngāi Tūhoe, and their quest to construct a Living Building on their land. The new building is the binding character in this observational documentary that immerses us in a culture that is tightly woven into its land and an architecture that is defined by its integrity to it.  This is a film about past and future, tradition and modernity. Most of all, though, it’s about the grandest hopes—and what it takes to fulfill them.

The film will be followed by a faculty-led discussion featuring Jennifer Hirsch, director of the Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain; Juan Archila, assistant director of facilities, College of Sciences; Juan Carlos Rodriguez, associate professor Modern Languages; Hugh Crawford, associate professor of Literature, Media. and Communication; and Drew Cutright, program manager, Office of the Executive Vice President and Outreach for the Georgia Tech Living Building.