Welcome back to Science Fair, Bwog’s weekly roundup of science events happening around campus. As always, email science@bwog.com if you want your event featured.

Artificial Intelligence for Energy: AI and the Oil and Gas Sector

  • Tuesday, December 5, 12 to 1 pm
  • Online over Zoom. Registration required.
  • “GenAI for energy operations is a vast opportunity for the energy sector. Collecting data from various types of energy operations– wind turbine fleets, power storm and outage management, and supply chains–while processing them with AI is beginning to make significant operational improvements. AI drives performance and reduces developmental technical risks, emissions, and costs. This second session of the Artificial Intelligence for Energy series will cover the oil and gas sector. AI analysis of 3D seismic data, recommendations for development planning, and monitoring and optimizing operations, is a vast area of potential applicability for AI.” More information here. 

Escalation Dynamics in Cyberspace

  • Tuesday, December 5, 12:30 to 2 pm
  • Online and in-person at the International Affairs Building, Room 1302
  • “Join Dr. Erica D. Lonergan and Dr. Shawn W. Lonergan as they discuss their book, ‘Escalation Dynamics in Cyberspace.’ Lonergan and Lonergan grapple with the question of how cyberspace operations contribute to the increasing risk of escalation among rival nations, demonstrating through detailed case studies and policymaking insights that cyberspace is not as dangerous as conventional wisdom suggests.” More information here. 

BOAS Seminar: LaShaya Howie, ‘The Body in Black Funeral Practices: The Right Red and Other Important Matters’

  • Wednesday, December 6, 2:10 to 4 pm
  • In-person at Schermerhorn Ext. 963
  • This seminar will feature Dr. LaShaya Howie, postdoctoral fellow and lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia. 

Maria Rentetzi – Making Radium Kinky: The Epistemology of the Familiar

  • Wednesday, December 6, 3 to 4:30 pm
  • Online over Zoom. Registration required.
  • “Once considered exclusively a scientific object, radium in the early twentieth century U.S. was quickly transformed to a kinky commodity that appeared in numerous formats and in different contexts. It was provokingly advertised and widely consumed, shaping social attitudes, gender identities, as well as medical and laboratory practices. In turn, radium commodities often returned to the sites of their production—the scientific laboratory—dictating lines of research and constructing scientific facts. This talk is about the process of radium becoming a familiar and desirable commodity.” More information here. 

Astronomy Colloquium: How Black Holes Shine

  • Wednesday, December 6, 4:05 to 5:05 pm
  • In-person at Pupin 1402
  • “Astrophysical black holes are surrounded by accretion disks, jets, and coronae consisting of magnetized relativistic plasma. They produce observable high-energy radiation from nearby the event horizon and it is currently unclear how this emission is exactly produced. […] With a combination of models, I determine where and how dissipation of magnetic energy occurs, what kind of emission signatures are typically produced, and what they can teach us about the nature of black holes.” More information here. 

Monstrous AI

  • Wednesday, December 6, 5:30 to 7 pm
  • Online over Zoom. Registration required.
  • “‘AI is the Scariest Beast Ever Created.’ And ‘The AI Monster Awakens.’ These are just two recent headlines (in Newsweek and the Seattle Times, respectively) following on the heels of Chat GPT. But the monster imaginary, and monster theory, has long informed our perceptions of artificial intelligence. As part of the IRCPL/CRM series on “Monsters,” this panel at Columbia explores the changing role of artificial intelligence in relation to its human creators.” Features Lydia Chilton (Columbia University); Philip Butler (Iliff School of Theology);  Timothy Beal (Case Western Reserve University). More information here. 

Lee McIntyre – Is Rational Belief in Improbable Theories Ever Warranted?

  • Wednesday, December 6, 6 to 7 pm
  • In-person at the International Affairs Building, Room 1512. Registration required. 
  • “Scientists, philosophers, and professional skeptics justifiably criticize science deniers and pseudoscientists for their gullible acceptance of improbable theories that have little to no evidence. But what to say then about an improbable event that has apparently good evidence in support of a dubious causal claim? […] This lecture considers the fascinating case of a Roman fortune teller who predicted the specifics of his own death. This is a lecture meant to tweak the standards of warranted belief and to challenge the skeptic to specify in advance what those conditions may be.” More information here. 

Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development Workshop Briefings

  • Friday, December 8, 12 to 2 pm
  • In-person at Lerner Hall. Registration required. 
  • “The Workshop in Sustainable Development allows undergraduate students to bridge the theoretical knowledge they have gained through their coursework in the natural and social sciences with a real-world, client-based project. Students will share project results with the university community at this event before final presentations with their clients.” More information here.

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