Category: Presentations and Talks

The College of Engineering will host Joshua Saxe, a Wichita-based computer scientist who works as a senior staff artificial intelligence (AI) scientist for Meta, from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 18 in 110B (Auditorium 2) Woolsey Hall. Saxe will present “The Promise and Peril of Intelligent, Creative Machines” to WSU students, staff and faculty, and refreshments will be served.

The presentation will encompass the origins of AI, the foundational mechanisms driving it, its present societal impacts including both risks and benefits, and projections of its future evolution. The program will be structured into two segments: a 45-minute presentation featuring prepared remarks and accompanying PowerPoint slides, followed by a 45-minute moderated interview and question and answer session to address questions from the audience.

Within his role at Meta, the company that owns and operates Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp, Saxe works at the intersection of generative AI, online safety and cybersecurity. He is the author of “Malware Data Science: Attack Detection and Attribution” and many peer-reviewed scientific publications. Saxe also holds more than 20 patents. 

Join the Department of Mathematics and Statistics for a public lecture by Dr. Keiko Kawamuro from the University of Iowa.

The lecture, titled “Diagrammatic left canonical form of braids and applications,” will take place at 3 p.m. Friday, Sept. 15 in 372 Jabara Hall. Refreshments will be available at 2:30 p.m. in 353 Jabara Hall.

The Department of Biological Sciences’ fall 2023 seminar series continues Monday, Sept. 11, with Dr. Tatsuya Yamada, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, with his talk, “Mitochondrial Size versus Dynamics – Which came first: the Chicken or the Egg?”.

The seminar is held from 4 to 5 p.m. in 218 Hubbard Hall. Seminars are open to the public and undergraduates are encouraged to attend.

Join the Ulrich Museum for a talk from LaTasha St. Arnault at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12 in the Beren Gallery of the Ulrich.

The talk, “Social Justice in Our Community,” is presented in conjunction with the exhibition, “Lesley Dill | Wilderness: Light Sizzles Around Me,” on display in the Polk/Wilson Gallery from Aug, 5 through Dec. 2.

LaTasha St. Arnault is the president and CEO of HumanKind Ministries, a homeless services and housing provider that serves more than 15,000 people experiencing poverty and housing insecurities in Sedgwick County each year.

Join the Department of Physics for its first physics seminar of the fall semester at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 13 in 226 Jabara Hall and via Zoom.

The seminar features Rodolfo Capdevilla from Fermi National Accelerator Lab, titled “The Muon g-2 Puzzle and Implications for a Muon Beam Program.” 

The Department of Philosophy invites the campus community to a talk from Drs. David and Deborah Soles titled “Considerations on Loyalty” at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7 in 301 Rhatigan Student Center, Gridley Room.

The talk is part of philosophy’s colloquium series and is open to all at no additional charge.

The abstract for the talk: At the moment allusions to loyalty figure prominently in both the media and informal conversations. Almost daily one encounters headlines about Trump’s refusal to take the RNC Loyalty Oath, numerous news stories discuss Pence’s assertion that his loyalty to the Constitution outweighed his loyalty to Trump and several Jan 6 defendants claim to have been motivated by loyalty to Trump. Unfortunately, much of what is said reveals serious misunderstandings about loyalty. This paper attempts to address some of the confusion by considering the nature, duties and constraints of loyalty.

Join the Ulrich Museum of Art for a talk, “Social Justice in Our Community,” from Marquette Atkins-Woods at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 5 in the Beren Gallery of the Ulrich Museum. A reception starts at 5:30 p.m.

Atkins-Woods, founder and executive director of Destination Innovation Inc., is a community educator who brings her passion for working with youth and her creative energy to the table as a facilitator. In 2015, she founded Camp Destination Innovation to expose young people to a variety of career options, encouraging them to create their own future.

The talk is presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Lesley Dill | Wilderness: Light Sizzles Around Me, on display in the Polk/Wilson Gallery Aug. 5 through Dec. 2.

The Department of Women’s, Ethnicity, and Intersectionality Studies (WEIS) and the Department of History invite the campus community to Words By Women’s 2023 lecture.

Dr. Amrita Chakrabarti Myers, a historian of Black women in the United States, will give a lecture, “Julia Chinn: A Story of Sex, Slavery, and Survival in the Old South” at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7 in 200 Ahlberg Hall.

The lecture is open to students, faculty, staff and members of the Wichita community at no additional charge. The lecture is based on her forthcoming book, “The Vice-President’s Black Wife: The Untold Story of Julia Chinn.” Chinn, whose story is mostly unknown, was the Black wife of the ninth vice president of the United States and serves as an example of the intersectionality of race and gender in the 19th century United States.

The Department of Biological Sciences’ fall 2023 seminar series begins Monday, Aug. 28, with its newest staff member Evalynn Trumbo with her talk, “Migrating from the Ozarks to the Plains: Birds, bats and bugs.”

The seminar is held from 4 to 5 p.m. in 218 Hubbard Hall. Seminars are open to the public and undergraduates are encouraged to attend.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering within the College of Engineering is hosting Dr. Yun Hang Hu, the Charles and Carroll McArthur Endowed Chair Professor from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Michigan Technological University.

Hu will present “Advanced Materials for Sustainable Energy and Environment” to students, staff, faculty and industry partners from 3 to 4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25 in 211 Engineering Building.