| In this Issue - Apocalyptic AI: Religion, Artificial Intelligence, and the End of the World (as We Know It)
- Social Entrepreneurship and Tech Innovation Advancing SDGs in South Asia
- Machine Agency: Making Machines that Make
- Trust, Transparency & Technology Panel Series: Trust and Transparency in Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations
- Fully Autonomous Vehicles: Removing the Front-Seat Driver
- Explore Non-Desk Jobs in Government
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| Apocalyptic AI: Religion, Artificial Intelligence, and the End of the World (as We Know It)
Can machines be spiritual? Might they eventually evolve into self-conscious, moral agents akin to human persons? Can they help humans transcend the great existential dilemmas addressed by religion—why are we here? how should we live? and why must we die? Might they save humans from themselves by engineering intelligent solutions to the injustice, strife, and suffering that has forever burdened the human condition? Or will artificial intelligence spell the end of humanity? The 2018 Garfield Forum considers AI as a kind of religious quest with real world consequences. It puts Sylvester Johnson and Robert Geraci, scholars doing cutting-edge research on religion and AI, in conversation with Jerry Kaplan, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and futurist. Read more.
Tuesday, May 22, 2018 | 4:30PM-6:30PM | Levinthal Hall
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| Social Entrepreneurship and Tech Innovation Advancing SDGs in South Asia
Rikin Gandhi is co-founder and executive director of Digital Green, a global development organization that empowers smallholder farmers to lift themselves out of poverty by harnessing the collective power of technology and grassroots-level partnerships. He began his career at Oracle, where he received patents for linguistic search algorithms that he helped develop. Later, he joined Microsoft Research India’s Technology for Emerging Markets team, where he researched ways to amplify the effectiveness of agricultural development globally. While traveling around India’s rural communities, Gandhi developed a passion for helping the country’s rural farmers. That passion then became his career: in 2006, he co-founded what is now Digital Green. Gandhi holds a master’s in aeronautical and astronautical space engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a bachelor’s in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. Read more.
Tuesday, May 22, 2018 | 4:30PM-5:50PM | Skilling Auditorium
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| Machine Agency: Making Machines that Make
How can we harness the precision of machines for the creativity of individuals? Digital fabrication tools promise quality production in low volume and are now accessible in maker spaces worldwide. However, the maker context is very different from the historical industrial settings in which digital fabrication was developed. Yet these differences have not led to many changes in contemporary tools. I argue that personal fabrication requires a rethinking of production infrastructure, and in this talk outline a research roadmap for machine agency. Read more.
Tuesday, May 22, 2018 | 4:30PM-5:50PM | Skilling Auditorium | Building 550, the Atrium
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| Trust, Transparency & Technology Panel Series: Trust and Transparency in Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations
Information technologies are expanding the parameters of media, pervading our environments, our systems, and our daily lives. The direct connection between people and their data is now brokered via algorithms. Machine learning, pattern recognition, and sensor driven applications play out behind the scenes. Understanding the conditions that help to build trust is a worthy challenge for the open, non-linear, multi-faceted, and globally connected world we live in.
Trust, Transparency & Technology is a series of panel discussions that delve into the research, concepts and tools that may help create open collaborations in a world of automated intelligent agents, algorithm-driven interactions, and machines that can learn what humans can't explain. Read more.
Wednesday, May 23, 2018 | 4:30PM-6:30PM | CERAS 101
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| Fully Autonomous Vehicles: Removing the Front-Seat Driver
The automotive industry is bracing for a new surge of progress and opportunity, with billions of dollars on the line. The potential is huge. People have been dreaming about owning a self-driving car for decades, and recent sales have shown that consumers are willing to spend big bucks for this dream.
The final push to widespread availability of fully autonomous vehicles has begun. Testing has moved onto public roads, and in the next few years, several vendors plan to release autonomous vehicles in limited-use “Level 4” situations (taxis, transit companies, fleet operations, freeway-only driving). As the technology advances from “assisted driving” to true self-driving, consumer-ready vehicles for general road travel (Level 5) will be tailgating right behind.
In this panel, industry-leading startups, entrepreneurs, and investors will explore the technologies and challenges related to realizing the dream of a fully autonomous self-driving vehicle — i.e. a vehicle that a human does not need to monitor and that can completely take over all driving responsibilities. Read more.
Thursday, May 24, 2018 | 6:00PM-8:30PM | Hewlett Teaching Center, Room 200
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| Explore Non-Desk Jobs in Government
Not ready for a desk job post-graduation? Hear about opportunities to do something unconventional, out of your comfort zone, and cross-cultural after college. Our panelists will discuss the value in serving the country on the ground, rather than from behind a desk, in a government capacity.
Chuck Ludlam, ’67, Served in the Peace Corps (Nepal ’68-’70, Senegal ’05-’07)
Meredith Miller Vostrejs., Served in the Peace Corps (St. Vincent and Grenadines, E. Caribbean ’95-’97), Program Manager at Stanford Handa Center for Human Rights and International Justice
Third Panelist TBD
Thursday, May 24, 2018 | 12:00PM-1:30PM | Haas Center for Public Service, DK Room
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Policy/Budget Intern
The office of Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin is seeking highly motivated and dynamic interns to make important contributions to the City of Berkeley in the areas of Environmental Planning and Budgeting/Policy work.
The Budgeting/Policy intern will assist in Policy areas of City Budget – and outcome based budgeting, Establishing Responsible Banking Criteria and mechanisms to engage with “better banks”, Homelessness, University Relations, Advocacy in opposition to the closure of local hospital. The ideal candidate will have strong budget and project management skills. Read more.
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Energy/Environmental Policy Analyst Research Scientist
Berkeley Lab’s Energy Storage & Distributed Resources Division has an opening for a Energy/Environmental Policy Analyst Research Scientist. Working within the Grid Integration Group, you will advance knowledge about the technology, design, operation and controls, economics, laboratory-tests and field-demonstration experiments for integration of distributed electricity sources (e.g., Solar PV, wind), storage devices (e.g., batteries), and control of distributed loads on electrical distribution grids and microgrids. Read more.
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Communications Intern BEAM, Stanford Career Education
BEAM is seeking a Communications Intern for BEAM Fellows, a growing program connecting frosh and sophomores with alumni who have non-technical internships. This position is for Academic Year '18-'19, beginning in September 2018 and ending in June 2019, for 6-8 hours per week. Read more.
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| BEAM Job Postings
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