Distinguished Lecture Series
2016-2017 Speakers

Computing Alone Doesn't Solve Social Problems. So, What Next?

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Abstract:
In spite of the do-gooder rhetoric of Silicon Valley, computing technology in and of itself cannot solve systemic social problems. Even after the United States experienced a golden age of digital innovation, poverty persists, inequality is rising, and politics is more polarized than ever. What, then, should we as computer scientists do, if we genuinely want to contribute to a better world? This talk offers suggestions for researchers and educators, based on a framework of technological amplification.

Bio:
Kentaro Toyama is W.K. Kellogg Associate Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, a fellow of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT, and author of Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology. Previously, Professor Toyama taught at Ashesi University in Ghana and co-founded Microsoft Research India, where he did research on the application of information and communication technology to international development.

Computing, Sustainability, and Global Disruption

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Abstract:
Humanity is currently facing profound global challenges such as climatic disruption, biodiversity loss, air pollution and ocean acidification. These challenges threaten to disrupt the lives of billions of people, and call into question our species’ ability to live sustainably. Fortunately, modern information systems offers a powerful means of tackling complex problems such as those involved in this suite of issues. In this
talk, Professor Tomlinson will present his recent work in bringing computational tools to bear on problems of sustainability and disruption. In particular, he will describe a current research effort that seeks to enable a new approach to sustainable food security.

Bio:
Bill Tomlinson is a Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, and a researcher in the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology. He research areas include ICT for sustainability, computing within limits, human-computer interaction, and
computer-supported learning. His book Greening through IT (MIT Press, 2010) examines the ways in which information technology can help people think and act on the broad scales of time, space, and complexity necessary for us to address the world's current environmental issues. In addition, he has
authored dozens of papers across a range of journals and conferences in computing, the learning sciences, and the law. His work has been reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the LA Times, Wired.com, Scientific American Frontiers, CNN, and the BBC. In 2007, he received an NSF CAREER award, and in 2008 he was selected as a Sloan Research Fellow. He holds an A.B. in Biology from Harvard College, an M.F.A. in Experimental Animation from
CalArts, and S.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the MIT Media Lab.

From Computational Thinking to Computational Values

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Abstract:
Computer educators are increasingly emphasizing the importance of computational thinking in working with young people. Support for computational thinking entails respect for the computational values that empower people in the digital world. For academics, those values have been central to the flowering of computing as an intellectual endeavor. Today, those values are increasingly threatened by stresses from both within and outside academia: squabbles over who owns academic work, increasingly stringent and overreaching intellectual property laws, and the replacement of open, generative computing platforms by closed applications and walled-garden application markets.

In this talk I'll describe some things we've done at MIT to support computational values, like open publication of all our course materials, our faculty policy on open publication of academic research, and our recently announced initiative for open online instruction based on non-proprietary software platforms. I'll discuss Creative Commons licensing and Free Software, and the importance of tinkerability for empowering citizens in an information society. And I'll describe App Inventor for Android, a programming tool motivated by the vision that all of us, even kids, can experience mobile computing as creators using tools that we can control and reshape, rather than only as consumers of packaged applications.

Bio:
Professor Harold Abelson has played key roles in creating several of MIT’s institutional educational technology initiatives, including MIT OpenCourseWare and DSpace. He is currently director of the MIT App Inventor project. Abelson is a leader in the worldwide movement towards openness and democratization of culture and intellectual resources. He is a founding director of Creative Commons, Public Knowledge, and the Free Software Foundation. He is an IEEE Fellow and in 1995 Abelson received the IEEE’s Booth Education Award. Abelson is also a winner of the 2011 ACM Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award and the 2012 ACM SIGCSE Award for Outstanding Contribution to Computer Science Education.