Technological development is speeding up at an exponential pace. All human problems will soon be solved by new and emerging technologies -- or so say the techno-optimists. The hype-machine is working overtime to convince us to buy into every field of scientific research. Techno-pessimists argue that the social impact of advanced technologies is likely to be catastrophic. Who is right? Which technological possibilities are likely to be realized in the next 20-30 years? What are the greatest dangers new technologies pose?
The computing revolution is amazing. Computers are all around us: they help us with communication, calculation, control our cars and appliances, and beat us at Jeopardy. Man has never invented something that has advanced so quickly and with such startling results. Can this remarkable trend continue? How can computers become even more useful to us? Dr. Ritter discusses the answers to these questions as he explores promising new computing paradigms.
What would a world where everything is connected to the internet look like? Dr. McQueeney discusses the radical potential of big data to transform our knowledge of the world around us and our ability to control it.
The future of information security is changing, as the technologies we have are becoming more advanced and permeating deeper into our everyday lives. We must clearly identify these threats so that we may continue to stay safe and protected in our personal and professional lives while balancing this with the disadvantages of increased security.
We are moving from an era of advanced prosthetics to one of regenerative engineering. We will soon be able to challenge the difficulties associated with musculoskeletal regeneration. Tissues such as bone, ligament, and cartilage can now be understood from the cellular level to the tissue level, giving us the capability to produce these tissues in clinically relevant forms through tissue engineering techniques. The next ten years will see unprecedented strides in the regeneration of musculoskeletal tissues.
Citizens all over the world are falling back in love with the places where they live, committing to lasting relationships with the public spaces that surround their homes. Speaking up and getting their hands dirty is an integral part of making the change to a more politically proactive society.
New lenses are being established to evaluate global development progress and policy. Professor Susan Randolph focuses on one of these new lenses in particular: the SERF Index, which examines the extent to which countries ensure that their citizens enjoy the full range of basic capabilities as enumerated in the International Covenant for Economic and Social Rights. Are economic and social rights an obstacle to economic growth, or do they go hand in hand?
Faced with the world's finite supply of fossil fuels, scientists are looking to other sources for their chemical feedstocks. One option is to convert biomass, such as plant material, vegetation, or agricultural waste, to commodity chemicals. This has advantages in economic, environmental and societal terms. But how can we achieve this goal?
Ever since cars became the most dominant form of transportation in the world, cities have been transformed drastically to accommodate travel demands. Since then, the demand for additional vehicular capacity has been increasing steadily. However, since 2005, demand has been decreasing. This has baffled engineers, who have had to focus on more sustainable solutions.
s a kid growing up in Falmouth, Massachusetts, Dr. McKenzie remembers driving past commercial fishing piers on his way to school. He remembers the number of active boats on the dock dwindling as the cod populations on George's Bank, the longtime stomping grounds for one of New England's most important fisheries, were almost depleted. In his talk, McKenzie reviews the history of environmental regulation in the United States since the advent of industrial capitalism and discusses the special challenges of regulating capitalism on the ocean today. He challenges us to use the inherent flexibility of the capitalist system to reconcile economy and ecosystem.
We teach math, language, engineering, soccer and swimming. People aren't expected to intuitively know these bodies of information or these skills. We have become increasingly sophisticated in our didactic and heuristic ability. Why then do we not teach people more fundamental skills crucial to survival and success: how to manage their emotions and their relationships with others?
Advertising tends to have a very negative reputation among socially conscious individuals, academics especially. How can advertising, traditionally accused of corrupting culture, be used to inspire socially conscious behavior? Cody's talk is the product of his search to reconcile his seemingly incompatible draw to both advertising and social responsibility.
Dr. Travis speaks about his work over the last ten years of putting into educational practice the simple but profound idea that the players of video games are exactly like the Homeric bards who sang the Iliad and the Odyssey into existence 2500 years ago. That insightful connection has led him to develop a form of game-based learning that he calls "practomime." Rather than trying to make school fun by adding games, he turns courses and curricula themselves into missions to save the world.
We've all sat through (and some of us have constructed) presentations in which projected graphics consist of seemingly endless bulleted lists of excessive text. Bullets "kill" and will usually annihilate engagement in course material as students struggle to blindly copy every word of onscreen text. Little if any learning occurs.
Girls grow up hearing both implicit and explicit messages suggesting that the most important attribute they can strive for is beauty. The chronic focus on beauty directs cognitive, financial, and emotional resources away from other more important goals. Dr. Engeln considers whether there is hope for treating the epidemic of beauty sickness and what it might be like to live in a world where women feel free to spend less time in front of the mirror and more time changing the world.
A comedian and professor of English and Feminist Theory at the University of Connecticut, Dr. Gina Barreca discusses the changing role of women in the male-dominated world of comedy.
Everybody has great ideas, goals in life, far off places they want to travel to, and people they want to meet -- but for some reason, most people wait for a "green light" from someone else to go for these dreams.
Most people don't realize what they are capable of achieving. After becoming an amputee and told he would never walk again, John proved medical professionals wrong by becoming the only person in history to run a marathon without legs. John's story of personal tragedy to courageous triumph gives the audience insights and perspectives about how to approach setting goals in a way that allows them to live a happier and more fulfilling life. He believes that when people align their lives to pursue what they value, they can achieve results beyond their greatest expectations.