Artificial Intimacy: Who Do We Become When We Talk to Machines?
MIT Alumni Association
MIT Alumni Association
MIT Alumni Association
Wednesday, April 30, 3:00pm - 4:00pm (America/New_York)
Event Details
Members of the Cardinal & Gray Society, Emma Rogers Society, and School of Humanities, Arts, and Sciences (SHASS) alumni are invited to hear from Sherry Turkle, the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology in the Program in Science. She will discuss her work at the intersection of psychology and AI and its effects on human connection.
Contact
Lizzie Army - earmy@mit.edu
Learn MoreMIT Alumni Association
Friday, May 2, 6:00pm - Sunday, May 4, 2:00pm (America/New_York)
MIT Alumni Association
Saturday, May 3, 11:45am - 9:00pm (America/New_York)
Club of Cape Cod
Thursday, May 15, 11:30am - 2:30pm (America/New_York)
Event Details
Prescription For Bankruptcy:
America's Failing Health Care "non-system"
Why do Americans pay more than citizens of any other country for health care and yet have, at best, mediocre health outcomes? Dr. Edward Hoffer will discuss this topic, and suggest both global solutions and practical things you can do to pay less and get better care.
Our speaker, Edward Hoffer MD
Edward Hoffer MD is a graduate of MIT and Harvard Medical School and did his residency and fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. Hoffer has held faculty academic appointments at Harvard, the University of Massachusetts, and Boston University. He has also held appointments at several Boston hospitals (Peter Bent Brigham, Beth Israel, Boston Hospital for Women), at many Boston metro-west hospitals (in Worcestor, Natick, and Framingham), and at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington. He has either authored or co-authored over 80 publications, including 8 books and dozens of refereed journal articles, many of which deal with the application of computers to various aspects of medicine and with issues within the American healthcare system (insurance, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, etc.).
For 45 years he combined clinical practice of Internal Medicine and Cardiology with research on the applications of computers and AI to medical care, and continues to work half-time at the MGH Lab of Computer Science.
He has written and lectured extensively on the problems of the American healthcare "non-system."
Lunch at Alberto's Ristorante
We will be returning to Alberto's Ristorante in Hyannis because of the many rave reviews we received for the food and service in the past.
There will be a cash bar and we will be offering the same entrees as before (gluten-free is available upon request). All meals include a house salad and Tartuffo dessert.
Contact
Learn MoreClub of Central Ohio
Saturday, May 17, 5:45pm - 10:00pm (America/New_York)
Event Details
Join fellow MIT alumni and friends for dinner and an evening Columbus Symphony concert on Saturday, May 17. As part of its annual Russian composer festival, the Symphony will perform both the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto and the Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 (“Pathetique”). Maestro Rossen Milanov will conduct, and Aubree Oliverson is the soloist. Discounted tickets with loge seating are just $80 through us for this event.
We will meet for dinner prior to the performance at 5:45 at the Spaghetti Warehouse, 150 S. High St, a short three minute walk from the Ohio Theatre. A Symphony member or senior staff person will brief us about the program, soloist, and composer. Dinner is not included in the price. We will order from the menu, and it is a Dutch treat. (You can join us for dinner if you already have purchased tickets separately; register for the “Dinner only” option or email Dave so we can give the restaurant the correct count.) Paid parking is available at the nearby Statehouse Underground Parking Garage and the Columbus Commons Underground Parking Garage.
Contact
Learn MoreMIT Alumni Association
Tuesday, May 20, 1:00pm - 2:00pm (America/New_York)
Event Details
Join researchers from MIT’s K. Lisa Yang Global Engineering and Research (GEAR) Center as they share cutting-edge water and agriculture projects underway across the MENA region. Focused on creating solutions that can feed a growing society in the face of water stress, climate change, and energy limitations, the Yang GEAR Center has realized low-cost, renewable-powered technologies in drip irrigation and desalination that dramatically cut water and energy use while being cost effective for farmers. Now it’s time to bring them to market! Learn how the center’s pioneering approach is building resilience across the region—and how MIT alumni and friends can help drive lasting impact for low-resource communities across MENA.
Amos Winter
Germeshausen Professor of Mechanical Engineering; Director, K. Lisa Yang GEAR Center at MIT
Amos Winter leads MIT’s Yang GEAR Center, where he and his team engineer bold, high-performance, low-cost technologies that tackle critical challenges in water, agriculture, health, and energy in resource-limited settings. His work blends deep technical expertise with user-centered design and global partnerships to deliver real-world impact. Winter earned his PhD in MIT’s Mechanical Engineering Department before joining the faculty in 2012.
Mohamed Naouri
Hock E. Tan Postdoctoral Fellow, K. Lisa Yang GEAR Center at MIT
Mohamed Naouri designs smart, sustainable irrigation and desalination systems for smallholder farmers in North Africa and beyond. With a background in agricultural sciences and hands-on engineering and policy experience across Africa, Asia, and Canada, he brings a deep commitment to water access, farmer-led innovation, and scalable solutions tailored to local needs. Naouri holds dual PhDs from L'École Nationale Supérieure Agronomique d'Alger and Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II.
Fiona Grant
PhD candidate, Mechanical Engineering
Fiona Grant is a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering focused on designing solar-powered drip irrigation systems that meet the needs of farmers in resource-constrained and water-stressed environments. Before joining the Yang GEAR Center, she earned her SB and SM degrees in mechanical engineering at MIT. Grant has previously conducted research on small-scale desalination for villages in India, underwater vehicle propulsion, and the effects of dust deposition on solar plant production in the Atacama Desert. Her research interests include system optimization, controls, and human-centered design, and she is excited about bringing a multi-disciplinary engineering approach to address global climate challenges.
Contact
Learn MoreMIT Alumni Association
Thursday, May 29, 12:00am - Sunday, June 1, 12:00am (America/New_York)
MIT Alumni Association
Saturday, May 31, 9:00am - 12:00pm (America/New_York)
Event Details
The MIT Alumni Community is invited to join us for the live Technology Day webcasts on Saturday, June 1, part of the Tech Reunions weekend celebration.
Learn MoreClub of Cape Cod
Wednesday, June 11, 5:00pm - 8:30pm (America/New_York)
Event Details
The Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project
Wôpanâak was the language spoken by the indiginous people living in this region when the Pilgrims arrived in 1620.
After a couple hundred years of colonial laws, wars, and diseases, hundreds of Wôpanâak tribes were reduced to four small fragmented communities, and the last people for whom Wôpanâak was their first language passed away in the mid 1850's. It took only a few more generations for all traces of spoken Wôpanâak to completely fade away, with the decendants speaking only English after that.
OUR SPEAKERS:
Jessie (Little Doe) Baird
Jessie (Little Doe) Baird is the Director of Linguistics, Lead Linguist, and a co-founder of the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project.
In the early 1990's she had dreams in which people were speaking in an unfamiliar language, and soon after that she thought that the language might be Wôpanâak, the language spoken by her ancestors.
This inspired her to start researching everything she could find out about the original Wôpanâak language, and in 1993 she co-founded the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project with the long-term goal of revitalizing the language, which had not be spoken for seven generations, for the people now living within the remaining anoag tribes.
Because something like that had never been done before, there were many who thought that it was not even possible. But Jessie was undeterred. In her quest, she gained admission to MIT where she learned how to apply modern linguistic techniques coupled with historical records in order to understand original Wôpanâak grammar and to create a dictionary of 10,000 Wôpanâak words. (And she did all this while commuting between her home on Cape Cod and Cambridge while also raising four children).
For this seminal work, Jessie was granted a Masters in Linguistic Science from MIT in 2000.
In recognition of this and other brilliant achievements ...
Jessie also serves as the vice-chairwoman of the Mashpee Wôpanâak Indian Tribal Council.
Tracy Kelley
Tracy Kelly is the Director of Programming for the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project. She was granted a Master in LInguistic Science from MIT in 2020.
Our Annual Education Event
Prior to our presentation, Carol Bogin, our club's VP for Education Programs, will briefly report about all the education activities and awards for this year, highlighting the many ways we support the MIT Club of Cape Cod's primary missions to promote STEM education on the Cape and the Islands, including:
Lunch at Alberto's Ristorante
We will be returning to Alberto's Ristorante in Hyannis because of the many rave reviews we received for the food and service in the past.
There will be a cash bar and we will be offering the same entrees as before (gluten-free is available upon request). All meals include a house salad and Tartuffo dessert.
Contact
Learn MoreMIT Alumni Association
Saturday, June 28, 12:00am - Wednesday, July 2, 12:00am (America/New_York)
MIT Alumni Association
Saturday, June 28, 12:00am - Wednesday, July 2, 12:00am (America/New_York)