Happening @ Michigan https://events.umich.edu/list/rss RSS Feed for Happening @ Michigan Events at the University of Michigan. Biopsychology Colloquium: Neural mechanisms for making sense of sound (December 7, 2021 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/86636 86636-21664754@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, December 7, 2021 12:00pm
Location: Michigan League
Organized By: Department of Psychology

Rapid and efficient processing of sensory cues is critical for adaptive behavior and cognitive function. In particular, sound processing supports everyday human behaviors such as communicating with others, avoiding oncoming traffic, learning from a scientific talk and enjoying music and dance. Many non-human animals also rely on sound processing for communication, danger avoidance, food-seeking and learning. The neural mechanisms supporting such complex functions must integrate the physical attributes of incoming sounds with behavioral context, sound meaning and previous experience. In this talk I will provide an overview of a few projects in our lab that aim to reveal the neural mechanisms supporting behavior-, time- and learning- dependent sound processing.

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Presentation Wed, 01 Dec 2021 10:16:27 -0500 2021-12-07T12:00:00-05:00 2021-12-07T13:00:00-05:00 Michigan League Department of Psychology Presentation Rothschild
Linguistics Graduate Student Colloquium (December 10, 2021 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/88100 88100-21650292@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, December 10, 2021 4:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Department of Linguistics

Linguistics graduate students Justin Craft and Danielle Burgess will present their research.

Danielle Burgess:
Investigating the NegFirst Bias in Learning and Communication

ABSTRACT
In response to the apparent tendency for standard negation markers to appear in preverbal position or to "gravitate leftward" across the world's languages, Horn (1989: 452) postulated a "NegFirst principle". Tendencies for negation to appear early in the sentence have been observed by scholars working in typology, language contact, and language acquisition. However, it remains uncertain if it is necessary to postulate and motivate an independent NegFirst preference, or whether the observed tendencies can broadly be explained by other cognitive and linguistic biases which may play a role in basic constituent order patterns, grammaticalization, and language acquisition. In the current study, I use an Artificial Language Learning paradigm to test the existence of a behavioral bias consistent with NegFirst in the behavior of English speakers, and incorporate a dyadic director-matcher task in order to investigate a hypothesis that the NegFirst principle is driven by communicative factors. This study contributes to a growing body of research which aims to corroborate typological tendencies with behavioral evidence at the individual level. In this talk, I will share preliminary results which suggest that English-speaking learners do show behavior consistent with a NegFirst bias, and discuss plans to extend this research to Japanese speakers in the future.

Justin Craft:
The Effect of Listener Experience and Social Expectation on Illusory Percepts

ABSTRACT
Perceptual recalibration research has been central in demonstrating that listeners readily adapt to accented speech as listeners gain experience with accented speakers. Likewise, the sociophonetic literature has demonstrated that listener expectations and experience established through visual or contextual means also appears to drive listener percepts and inferentially aid in efforts to resolve socially conditioned phonetic ambiguities. In this talk, I'll present preliminary results from one of my dissertation experiments that utilizes McGurk stimuli to probe whether these expectational and recalibratory effects persist in illusory percepts. By breaking the audio-visual integration characteristic of typical speech processing, the use of illusory stimuli targets whether the percepts listeners experience, when stripped of socially meaningful acoustic cues, still show evidence of sociophonetic knowledge that otherwise reflects the variation found in congruent veridical audio-visual signals in the world.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact lingadmin@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

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Lecture / Discussion Mon, 06 Dec 2021 09:46:54 -0500 2021-12-10T16:00:00-05:00 2021-12-10T17:30:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Department of Linguistics Lecture / Discussion Danielle Burgess and Justin Craft
Linguistics MLK Colloquium: "Talking College: A Community Based Language and Racial Identity Development Model for Black College Student Justice" (January 14, 2022 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/88619 88619-21656207@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, January 14, 2022 4:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Department of Linguistics

Join us virtually for a presentation by Anne H. Charity Hudley, PhD, Professor of Education at Stanford University. She will present "Talking College: A Community Based Language and Racial Identity Development Model for Black College Student Justice."

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact lingadmin@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.

ABSTRACT
Critical knowledge about language and culture is an integral part of the quest for educational equity and empowerment, not only in PreK-12 but also in higher education. As Black students transition from high school to college, they seek to add their voices and perspectives to academic discourse and to the scholarly community in a way that is both advantageous and authentic.

The Talking College Project is a Black student and Black studies centered way to learn more about the particular linguistic choices of Black students while empowering them to be proud of their cultural and linguistic heritage. Black students took introductory educational linguistics courses that examined the role of language in the Black college experience and collected information from college students through both interviews and ethnography. We valued the perspectives of undergraduates from a range of disciplinary backgrounds as researchers, and we had a special focus on how our findings can immediately improve their own educational and linguistic experiences.

One key question of The Talking College Project was: how does the acquisition of different varieties of Black language and culture overlap with identity development, particularly intersectional racial identity development? To answer this question, we used a community-based participatory research methodology to conduct over 100 interviews with Black students at numerous Minority-Serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges, and Predominantly White Universities across the U.S. We also conducted ethnographic research on over 10 college campuses. Based on information collected from the interviews and our ethnographies, it is evident that Black students often face linguistic bias and may need additional support and guidance as they navigate the linguistic terrain of higher education. In this presentation, I present themes and examples from the interviews that illustrate the linguistic pathways that students choose, largely without direct sociolinguistic support that could help guide their decisions.

To address the greater need to share information about Black language with students, I highlight our findings from interviews with Black students who have taken courses in educational linguistics to demonstrate the impact of education about Black language and culture on Black students’ academic opportunities and social lives. We have a focus on how this information particularly influenced those who went on to be educators. These findings serve to help us create an equity-based model of assessment for what educational linguistic information Black students need in order to be successful in higher education and how faculty can help to establish opportunities for students to access content about language, culture, and education within the college curriculum. I address the work we need to do as educators and linguists to provide more Black college students with information that both empowers them raciolinguistically AND respects their developing identity choices.

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Lecture / Discussion Mon, 03 Jan 2022 10:05:04 -0500 2022-01-14T16:00:00-05:00 2022-01-14T17:30:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Department of Linguistics Lecture / Discussion Dr. Anne H. Charity Hudley
Biopsychology Colloquium: Selective forces shaping the evolution of intelligence (January 18, 2022 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/89990 89990-21667433@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, January 18, 2022 12:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Department of Psychology

Intelligence should evolve to help animals solve problems posed by the environment, but it remains unclear how complexity or novelty in the animal’s environment might facilitate evolutionary enhancement of cognition, or whether domain-general intelligence evolves in response to domain-specific selection pressures. The social complexity hypothesis, which posits that intelligence evolved to cope with the labile behavior of group-mates, has been strongly supported by work on the socio-cognitive abilities of primates and other animals. I review the remarkable convergence in social complexity between old-world primates and spotted hyenas, and describe our tests of the social complexity hypothesis in regard to both cognition and brain size in hyenas. Behavioral and morphological data indicate remarkable convergence between primates and hyenas with respect to their abilities in the domain of social cognition. However, social complexity fails to predict either brain volume or frontal cortex volume in a large array of mammalian carnivores. To inquire whether social complexity can explain the evolution of domain-general intelligence, we presented simple puzzles to members of 41 zoo-housed carnivore species, and found that species with larger relative brain size were better at solving the puzzles. However, social complexity failed to predict success in this task. Although social complexity appears to enhance social cognition, there are no clear causal links between social complexity and either brain size or performance in problem-solving tasks outside the social domain in mammalian carnivores, suggesting that foraging complexity, or complexity in other aspects of the physical environment, also likely affects the evolution of intelligence.

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Presentation Tue, 11 Jan 2022 16:59:34 -0500 2022-01-18T12:00:00-05:00 2022-01-18T13:00:00-05:00 East Hall Department of Psychology Presentation Kay Holekamp
Biopsychology Colloquium (619 Presentation): Hormonal contraceptives: depression, motivation, and the stress response (February 1, 2022 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/91743 91743-21682697@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, February 1, 2022 12:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Department of Psychology

Please note this talk will be in person and also via Zoom.

Motivational changes and a dysregulated stress system are two dissociable aspects of depression. Both are regulated by gonadal hormones, specifically estrogen and progesterone. Given that 85% of women use oral contraceptives, the most common type of hormonal contraceptives (HCs), for an average of five years, a key knowledge gap is understanding the impact of HCs on the brain. For some people, HCs increase the risk for depression, likely via the impact of HCs on stress-related responses. Nevertheless, there is little known about the mechanisms by which this occurs. The overall goal of my research is to utilize a mouse model recently developed in our laboratory to understand how HCs contribute to the vulnerability to depression. There is consistent evidence that HCs blunt hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response to acute stress. Moreover, there is strong evidence that both estradiol and progestins (and metabolites) modify motivational processes. By using a mouse model of HC exposure to study these questions, we will be able to systematically study the impact of HCs on specific psychological and physiological components of depression, including anhedonia, motivation, and stress. We will also examine the effects of different HC formulations and determine underlying changes in circuit activation and stress-related signaling in the brain after HC exposure. This would improve personalized medicine allowing patients to be prescribed the HC formulation that is most effective while simultaneously limiting side effects.

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Presentation Mon, 31 Jan 2022 14:43:12 -0500 2022-02-01T12:00:00-05:00 2022-02-01T13:00:00-05:00 East Hall Department of Psychology Presentation Schuh
Biopsychology Colloquium (619 Presentation) - Vulnerable for addiction-like behavior: Disrupted cholinergic signaling and (neuro)immune response in sign-tracking rats (February 8, 2022 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/91973 91973-21684710@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, February 8, 2022 12:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Department of Psychology

Some rats (sign-trackers; STs) are prone to attribute incentive salience to reward cues, which can manifest as a propensity to approach and contact Pavlovian cues, and for addiction-like behavior. STs also exhibit poor attentional performance, relative to their counterparts, the goal-trackers (GTs), mediated by attenuated cholinergic activity. Poor cholinergic-attentional control contributes to the propensity of STs to approach and utilize Pavlovian drug cues. In STs, increases in neuronal activity fail to translocate choline transporters (CHTs) into synaptosomal plasma membrane, thereby limiting the capacity of cholinergic terminals to sustain cholinergic activity. Here we investigated post-translational modifications responsible for disrupted CHT trafficking in STs, and the hypothesis that attenuated cholinergic activity in STs causes exaggerated (neuro)immune responses. We determined levels of ubiquitinylated CHTs because ubiquitin-mediated processes can account for attenuated externalization of intracellular CHTs, ranging from proteolysis to enhanced internalization or alternative compartmentalization. The proportion of ubiquitinylated CHTs, extracted from cortex and striatum, was robustly higher in STs than in GTs, with no overlap in the data from the two phenotypes. Moreover, modified CHTs located in intracellular domains, but not in synaptosomal plasma membrane, completely accounted for the phenotype-specific ubiquitylation levels. Ongoing experiments suggest elevated spleen levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in unchallenged STs. Following a systemic lipopolysaccharide (LPS) immune challenge, brain levels of certain cytokines were not elevated based on phenotype. Moreover, following LPS challenge, ubiquitinylation levels of CHTs from the cortex and striatum were drastically increased in GTs, but not STs, suggesting that in unchallenged STs, ubiquitinylated CHTs already are at maximum levels and unresponsive to an additional immune challenge. Together, this evidence supports potentially escalating, bidirectional interactions between disrupted cholinergic signaling and (neuro)immune responses as an integral component of the cognitive-motivational trait indexed by sign-tracking.

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Presentation Fri, 04 Feb 2022 13:29:02 -0500 2022-02-08T12:00:00-05:00 2022-02-08T13:00:00-05:00 East Hall Department of Psychology Presentation Hanna Carmon
Biopsychology Colloquium (619 Presentation): The development of learning and inference in macaques (February 15, 2022 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/91989 91989-21684839@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, February 15, 2022 12:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Department of Psychology

Abstract forthcoming

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Presentation Fri, 04 Feb 2022 13:28:16 -0500 2022-02-15T12:00:00-05:00 2022-02-15T13:00:00-05:00 East Hall Department of Psychology Presentation Yiyun Huang
Linguistics Colloquium (February 18, 2022 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/88620 88620-21656209@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, February 18, 2022 4:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Department of Linguistics

Janet G. van Hell, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and Linguistics at Pennsylvania State University, and co-director of the Center for Language Science. She will present "Understanding accented speech: the role of speaker identity and listener experience."

ABSTRACT
Current everyday communication is a cultural and linguistic melting pot. There are hundreds of millions of speakers of English as a second language in the world, so we are likely to encounter speakers who have a non-native accent when speaking English. We are also likely to interact with people from different backgrounds, whose accent may be similar or different from one’s own accent. Research has shown that non-native accented speech can challenge language comprehension. Although behavioral studies indicate that listeners adapt quickly to non-native accented speech, neurocognitive studies have shown distinct neural mechanisms in processing non-native accented sentences relative to native accented sentences. I will present a series of recent behavioral and EEG/ERP experiments in which we examined how speaker identity and listener experience affect the comprehension of non-native accented and native accented sentences. More specifically, we studied how listeners’ experience with non-native accented speech modulates accented speech comprehension by testing different groups of listeners (young and older adult monolinguals with little experience with non-native accented speech, listeners immersed in non-native accented speech, and bilingual (non-native accented) listeners). We also examined how faces cuing the speaker’s ethnicity (e.g., Asian face) create language expectations (here, Chinese-accented English), and how these biases impact the neural and cognitive mechanisms associated with the comprehension of American- and Chinese-accented English sentences. Implications of the findings will be discussed by integrating neuropsychological theories of language comprehension with linguistic theories on the role of socio-indexical cues in speech comprehension.

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Lecture / Discussion Mon, 31 Jan 2022 14:23:21 -0500 2022-02-18T16:00:00-05:00 2022-02-18T17:30:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Department of Linguistics Lecture / Discussion Janet van Hell
Biopsychology Colloquium (619 Presentation): Processing of self-generated sounds in the auditory - perirhinal cortical circuit (February 22, 2022 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/92578 92578-21692649@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, February 22, 2022 12:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Department of Psychology

The ability to rapidly and efficiently process sensory stimuli, and in particular sounds, during locomotion is critical for survival and adaptive behaviour. Some incoming sounds during locomotion originate from external sources (such as the sound of a passing car) while others are self-generated (such as the sound of our own footsteps). While self-generated sounds are predictable and uninformative in some cases, in other situations they carry rich behaviourally-relevant information, such as the substrate we are walking on, our locomotion speed, and our location. Indeed, human studies show that self-generated locomotion sounds can influence behaviour in an ongoing manner. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the encoding, usage, and memory of self-generated sounds are poorly understood. To address this gap, I have designed a novel experimental setup to simultaneously record self-generated sounds and neural activity in freely-moving rats that learn to traverse a track with varying sounds. By recording neural activity in two monosynaptically connected key brain regions for context- and memory-dependent sound processing, the auditory cortex and the perirhinal cortex, I aim to identify the neural mechanisms that underlie encoding and remembering behaviourally-relevant self-generated sounds.

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Presentation Fri, 18 Feb 2022 12:49:27 -0500 2022-02-22T12:00:00-05:00 2022-02-22T13:00:00-05:00 East Hall Department of Psychology Presentation Mekhala_Kumar
Biopsychology Colloquium (619 Presentation) - The Ontogeny of ‘twitter’ Calls in White Faced Capuchins: Usage and Context (March 8, 2022 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/93007 93007-21699099@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, March 8, 2022 12:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Department of Psychology

Humans have a unique ability to learn and modify language throughout their lives. Primate vocalisations appear fixed and innate in comparison, which creates an evolutionary puzzle. However, primates do show evidence of developmental plasticity within their use of calls and the contexts in which they vocalise, suggesting a potential evolutionary connection to the flexibility of language. To better understand these possible connections, I investigated a capuchin call, the twitter, which is a call that appears to show developmental changes. I collected observational focal data and acoustic data on wild white-faced capuchin monkeys in Costa Rica. I examined which behavioural states and specific behaviours were associated with twitters, and whether this showed differences across age groups. I also examined the acoustic structure of twitter calls, looking at whether there were changes across in the acoustic parameters of the call. I found evidence of age-related differences in capuchin twitter calls, which suggests more flexibility in vocal ontogeny and the usage of calls than previously assumed. There appear to be interesting acoustic shifts as well, which suggest greater flexibility in primate vocal development. This call appears to broaden to a whole new context later in life, which is beyond what has been seen before.

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Presentation Fri, 04 Mar 2022 12:01:57 -0500 2022-03-08T12:00:00-05:00 2022-03-08T13:00:00-05:00 East Hall Department of Psychology Presentation Nicki_Guisneuf
Colloquium: Lessons learned while searching for syntax in the brain (March 11, 2022 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/93118 93118-21700880@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, March 11, 2022 4:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Department of Linguistics

Jon Brennnan, Associate Professor of Linguistics, will present "Lessons learned while searching for syntax in the brain" on Friday, March 11, at 4 pm via Zoom.

ABSTRACT

“[T]here is absolutely no mapping to date that we understand in even the most vague sense.” So writes David Poeppel in 2012 about the connection between Linguistics and neurobiology. I discuss our attempts to meet this challenge in the domain of syntax and give some reasons to be (slightly) optimistic. This optimism is underwritten by the hard lessons learned over the last decade of research by ourselves and others that have forced us to (i) confront that the term “syntax” does not neatly map to neurobiology, (ii) reconcile apparently competing theoretical frameworks for memory and prediction, and (iii) carefully tease apart the multifaceted linguistic causes of neural effects that we measure in the lab.

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Lecture / Discussion Tue, 08 Mar 2022 13:55:09 -0500 2022-03-11T16:00:00-05:00 2022-03-11T17:30:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Department of Linguistics Lecture / Discussion Jon Brennan
Biopsychology Colloquium: The role of the striatum in habits (March 15, 2022 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/93175 93175-21701387@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, March 15, 2022 12:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Department of Psychology

Habits are a fundamental part of animal life. In the brain, areas that form a network with the dorsolateral striatum have been shown to be critical for the formation and execution of habits. In this talk, I will outline our efforts to help understand how exactly the striatum participates in habits and how habits themselves might be detected and observed. First, patterns of neural activity recorded in animals during learning show that the striatum represents habits with, in part, a burst of energy at the beginning of a behavior. We find that this activity causes behavior to be fast and vigorous, with behavioral vigor emerging as a key defining characteristic of habits. The increased activity in the striatum also causes behavior to be insensitive to the value of the behavioral outcome, a traditional measure of habits. However, additional studies show that the outcome-value assay of habits is highly context-dependent, thus casting doubt on how it can be used. Further studies test the question of whether this striatum activity works in a forward-planning manner to help behavior be optimal and adaptive, or instead if it serves to allow animals to keep doing what has worked in the past. Initial evidence finds somewhat surprising support for the first possibility. Collectively, the data presented will hopefully shine some new light into the process by which habits might best be studied in the lab as well further clarify the role that the striatum serves for habits.

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Presentation Wed, 09 Mar 2022 10:09:55 -0500 2022-03-15T12:00:00-04:00 2022-03-15T13:00:00-04:00 East Hall Department of Psychology Presentation Kyle Smith
Integrating intersectionality into Environmental Health Sciences (March 15, 2022 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/92997 92997-21698985@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, March 15, 2022 12:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Michigan Lifestage Environmental Exposures and Disease Center

*Registered required.

Ami Zota, ScD, MS, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health at George Washington University's Milken School of Public Health. Dr. Zota’s work seeks to secure environmental justice and improve health equity through advancements in science, policy, and clinical practice. Her research identifies novel pathways linking social disparities, environmental exposures, and reproductive and children’s health.

The environmental research seminar series is organized by the Integrated Health Sciences Core of the Michigan Center on Lifestage Environmental Exposures and Disease (M-LEEaD). More information about M-LEEaD and upcoming events can be found here: http://mleead.umich.edu/index.php

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Lecture / Discussion Fri, 04 Mar 2022 09:34:10 -0500 2022-03-15T12:00:00-04:00 2022-03-15T12:50:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Michigan Lifestage Environmental Exposures and Disease Center Lecture / Discussion Integrating intersectionality into Environmental Health Sciences
Biopsychology Colloquium: Towards understanding and breaking legacies of stress (March 29, 2022 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/93843 93843-21708643@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, March 29, 2022 12:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Department of Psychology

Historical events have generated data indicating that stressors experienced by populations, affect not only the individuals directly exposed to them, but also descendants. My talk will shed light on the nature and mechanisms by which legacies of stress perpetuate across generations, and how we may begin to break them.

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Presentation Tue, 22 Mar 2022 17:24:35 -0400 2022-03-29T12:00:00-04:00 2022-03-29T13:00:00-04:00 East Hall Department of Psychology Presentation Brian Dias
Linguistics Department Colloquium (April 1, 2022 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/88624 88624-21656212@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, April 1, 2022 4:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Department of Linguistics

Annette D'Onofrio is an Assistant Professor in the Linguistics Department at Northwestern University. She will present "Perceiving sound change reversal: Age-based dynamics in Chicago's Northern Cities Vowel Shift"

ABSTRACT
Sound changes in progress are often hallmark features of regional dialects, becoming linked with local speakers and local social meanings. These changes are can be examined in apparent time through both age-based differences in production, and through listener age differences in perception. However, little is known about the ways in which sound changes that have moved from advancing to reversing in production over time are perceived by community members. In this talk, I explore how listeners of various ages within one U.S. community in Chicago produce and perceive vowels implicated in the region’s characteristic Northern Cities Vowel Shift (NCS), which is undergoing reversal over time. Findings suggest that sociolinguistic perception is not simply a reflection of an individual’s static social position within a community, from which matched production and perceptual patterns are derived. Instead, a listener’s own positionality, experience, and ideas about others in their community, can condition not only their sociolinguistic productions as speakers, but also their expectations as listeners.

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Lecture / Discussion Tue, 22 Mar 2022 12:13:01 -0400 2022-04-01T16:00:00-04:00 2022-04-01T17:30:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Department of Linguistics Lecture / Discussion Annette D'Onofrio
Biopsychology Colloquium: Amygdala neuronal mechanisms of 'wanting what hurts' (April 5, 2022 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/94246 94246-21726702@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, April 5, 2022 12:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Department of Psychology

Incentive motivation that is dissociated from actual outcome value can lead to maladaptive attractions, such as in the case of a rat that pursues a painful shock-delivering object. We have previously shown that optogenetic channelrhodopsin (ChR2) stimulation of the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA), when paired with the presence of a painful shockrod, causes laboratory rats to repeatedly self-inflict shocks. However, the CeA is a heterogeneous structure and the contributions of its individual neuronal subpopulations in creating shockrod attraction is not known. Here, in laboratory rats, CeA neurons expressing D1, adenosine 2a (A2a), or corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) receptors were optogenetically stimulated via ChR2 in the presence of a shockrod. In another group, CeA neurons were targeted non-selectively with the hSyn promoter. Over multiple test days, hSyn and D1 ChR2-stimulated rats displayed intense attraction for the shockrod, repeatedly self-inflicting shocks and even overcoming an occluding barrier to do so. In a separate experiment, we tested whether CeA ChR2 activation is capable of controlling preference for a laser-paired over a non-laser-paired reward in a choice test scenario. Here, CeA ChR2 activation paired with remifentanil was preferred over sucrose alone, and sucrose paired with CeA ChR2 activation was preferred over remifentanil alone. Together, these results reveal that CeA ChR2 activation can make particular rewards ‘wanted’ over available alternative rewards, and can even make harmful stimuli attractive and desirable. Our findings may have important implications for understanding the brain mechanisms of disorders in which individuals maladaptively pursue particular stimuli, such as in addictions, obsessive compulsion, and self-harm.

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Presentation Thu, 31 Mar 2022 18:39:34 -0400 2022-04-05T12:00:00-04:00 2022-04-05T13:00:00-04:00 East Hall Department of Psychology Presentation David Nguyen
PSC/GFP Colloquium: Gender and Race Gatekeeping (April 14, 2022 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/94477 94477-21741771@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, April 14, 2022 12:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Department of Psychology

In this talk, Dr. Hebl focuses on the notion of gatekeepers, or people or policies that act to prevent others from gaining access to knowledge, opportunities, and/or employment. By reviewing a number of empirical-based studies, Dr. Hebl will review the many ways in which others gatekeep women. Such differences-are not only gender-based but are also race-based; and she describes some recent research looking at gatekeeping that shows within (not just between) race-based differences.

About the speaker: Dr. Mikki Hebl graduated with her B.A. from Smith College and Ph.D. from Dartmouth College. She joined the faculty at Rice University in 1998, and is currently the Martha and Henry Malcolm Lovett Professor of Psychology with a joint appointment in the Jones School. Dr. Hebl's research focuses on workplace discrimination and the ways both individuals and organizations can remediate such discrimination and successfully manage diversity. She has approximately 175 publications, 21 teaching awards (including the most prestigious national award called the Cherry Award), research grants from NSF and NIH, and several gender-related research awards. For instance, in 2014, she was honored with the Academy of Management’s Sage Award for lifetime achievement in research advancing knowledge of gender and diversity in organizations, and in 2018, she was selected as the recipient of the Woman in Academia with Outstanding Career Award from the business school at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

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Presentation Fri, 08 Apr 2022 11:42:26 -0400 2022-04-14T12:00:00-04:00 2022-04-14T13:20:00-04:00 East Hall Department of Psychology Presentation Dr. Mikki Hebl
Linguistics Graduate Student Colloquium (April 15, 2022 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/93441 93441-21704496@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, April 15, 2022 4:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Department of Linguistics

Linguistics PhD students Wil Gonzales and Felicia Bisnath will present their research.

Wilkinson Daniel Wong Gonzales, University of Michigan
Sociolinguistic variation in a mixed language? A corpus-based analysis of Lánnang-uè conjunctions and prepositions


ABSTRACT
For several decades, research has shown that sociolinguistic factors play an important role in language variation (Weinreich et al. 1968; Eckert 2005). However, prior sociolinguistic research has primarily focused on well-documented varieties in Western contexts (e.g., American English).

In this presentation, I analyze the variation in a low-resource, previously undocumented “mixed language” in the Philippines called Lánnang-uè – a variety that systematically derives linguistic elements from Hokkien (Southern Min), Mandarin, English, and Tagalog (Gonzales 2018; Gonzales and Starr 2020; Gonzales 2022a). Specifically, I focus on the patterns of variation in two lexical categories: conjunction and prepositions – two categories that show higher rates of variation compared to other features in Lánnang-uè.
Using a mix of quantitative (i.e., corpus-based, computational) and qualitative (i.e., ethnographic) approaches, this analysis investigates the impact of four factors – age, sex, self-reported language proficiency in the source languages, and language attitudes – on the variation observed. I pre-processed, machine-tagged, and statistically analyzed conjunction and preposition data from the Lannang Corpus (LanCorp) (Gonzales 2022b) – a self-compiled 375,000-word corpus of Lánnang-uè, acquired from 135 Lánnang-uè speakers. I also analyzed metalinguistic commentary from a subset of these speakers in an attempt to provide a more holistic explanation for potential sociolinguistic patterns.

The findings indicate that variation in the use of conjunctions and prepositions can be explained by at least one of the four enumerated sociolinguistic factors, corroborating my previous work on Lánnang-uè (Gonzales 2018; Gonzales and Starr 2020) and other research on related contact varieties in East Asia (Hansen Edwards 2019; Starr and Balasubramaniam 2019; Lee 2014). However, I also found that the effects of age, sex, language proficiency, and attitudes varied depending on many context-specific factors (e.g., degree of awareness, stylistic practices unique to a particular social group). I discuss the sociolinguistic patterns uncovered in my presentation in light of cognitive, sociolinguistic, and contact linguistics theories, and conclude by briefly identifying potential avenues for future research.


Felicia Bisnath, University of Michigan
Mouthing constructions in 37 signed languages: typology, ecology and ideology

ABSTRACT
Sign languages – like creoles and other contact languages– are minoritised in their communities and in linguistics. This makes perspectives on creoles potentially illuminating to the study of sign languages. A common way that sign languages are categorised, based on social criteria, is into deaf and rural sign languages. This distinction highlights relationships between social and linguistic properties. This paper investigates one such relationship motivated by the literature: namely whether the extent of contact with spoken language(s) via institutionalised education translates into a higher prevalence of the silent articulation of spoken words, mouthing. Across 37 sign languages (26 deaf; 11 rural), mouthing was found to be prevalent regardless of language type, having been reported in 35 languages (25 deaf; 10 rural). This suggests that differences in contexts of language emergence that have been used to motivate a typological separation between deaf and rural sign languages does not equate to a structural difference in terms of the structural property, mouthing.

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Lecture / Discussion Mon, 11 Apr 2022 14:17:47 -0400 2022-04-15T16:00:00-04:00 2022-04-15T17:30:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Department of Linguistics Lecture / Discussion
UROP Spring Research Symposium (April 20, 2022 10:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/92031 92031-21686276@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, April 20, 2022 10:00am
Location: Michigan League
Organized By: UROP - Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program

The Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program’s Annual Research Symposium is the culminating event for all students participating in UROP Programs. The event celebrates the partnerships created between students and research mentors, and serves as a conference where students present their research project and learn about the research their fellow UROP students have worked on throughout the program.

The 2022 UROP Spring Symposium will be held on Wednesday, April 20th. This event will see the return to in-person research presentations at the Michigan League. This will be a hybrid event during which some of our students will present their research over Zoom.

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Conference / Symposium Mon, 04 Apr 2022 11:23:18 -0400 2022-04-20T10:00:00-04:00 2022-04-20T17:30:00-04:00 Michigan League UROP - Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program Conference / Symposium UROP Symposium: The Future of Research
NERS Colloquia Series: Building Inclusive Teams (September 9, 2022 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/96984 96984-21793647@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, September 9, 2022 4:00pm
Location: Cooley Building
Organized By: Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences

Research demonstrates a strong correlation between inclusion, diversity, and organizational effectiveness. Inclusive teams enjoy higher productivity, and lower attrition. This shaped Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL) commitment to building an empowered workforce that’s inclusive and diverse, where everyone feels they belong.

This discussion will outline efforts to:

—Embed inclusivity into all aspects of organizational operations.
—Engage the workforce in a shared commitment to foster belonging, togetherness, inclusion, and psychological safety.
—Build inclusively diverse teams to enhance mission results.

Speaker Bio:
Toni L. Coleman Carter is the energetic Chief Inclusion and Collaborator Officer who strategically drives an inclusive future for Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in Idaho Falls, Idaho. She's a change champion who collaborates with Laboratory and community leaders to create environments which empower and engage others to achieve a competitive advantage, further leveraging talent platforms to enhance employee capabilities, build next generation leaders, and drive bottom-line results. She also partners as a consultant to create, develop, and oversee inclusion and diversity initiatives, while increasing inclusion awareness and providing governance for INL’s inclusion leadership councils (ERGs).

Carter has nine years of combined governmental experience, which includes her time as the deputy mayor for the Village of Hanover Park Illinois. Prior to joining INL, she spent 23 years in corporate America working for Motorola Solutions in Chicago, IL, an $8 billion technology organization. Carter also spent time in the pharmaceutical and food service industries. She worked for K&B (Katz and Besthoff, now Rite-Aid) and Phar-Mor Pharmacies as a pharmacy technician and as a manager for McDonald’s and Taco Bell Corporations.

In April of 2007, Carter was elected as Hanover Park’s first black council member. Carter’s position at the Village allowed her to assist with the recruitment, selection, and appointment of department heads and to help create policy operation strategies. During this time, Carter founded the Village’s Cultural Inclusion and Diversity committee, the largest volunteer committee in the Village. After two years of confronting challenging opportunities, she became the Village’s first black deputy mayor.

In her position, Carter created a homeless prevention task force that focused on providing solutions to reduce the impact of the 2008-2010 economic crisis, preventing home foreclosures and providing transitional housing for residents. In 2008, she was appointed to Hanover Park’s Crime Prevention Task Force, a team that helped design crime prevention strategies and methodologies for the Village. The same year, Hanover Park named her Inclusion and Diversity Champion, and she received an Outstanding Leadership Award from Motorola’s Women’s Business Council.

Carter has earned numerous awards for her humanitarian efforts. In 2020, she was named Idaho National Laboratory’s Community Award recipient. In 2019, she earned Idaho’s Hometown Hero Award Medal and was one of Idaho Business Review’s Women of the Year. In 2018, she was recognized as one of DiversityMBA’s Top 100 Executive Leaders Under 50. In 2015, the National Diversity Council honored Toni with the Leadership Excellence Award for corporate inclusion, and she was named Inclusion and Diversity Champion of the Year by Diversity MBA. In 2013, the Illinois Commission on Diversity and Human Relations honored Carter with the Dr. King Workforce Inclusiveness and Community Activism award. The 2010 issue of Who’s Who in Black Chicago named her one of the most influential blacks in government. She is a member of the National Society for Human Resource Management, and the Delta Mu Delta International Honor Society in Business. She is a certified diversity practitioner and professional development coach. She is currently pursuing certifications as a change management and organizational development professional. She earned a bachelor and a master of science degree from Roosevelt University in Chicago.

Carter dedicates part of her life to helping people who have been abused. Her memoir, When Trouble Finds You, is being used as a tool of hope, inspiration, and education for others who may have suffered the way she did as a child. When Carter is not spending time with her three wonderful children - Candes, John, and Taylor - she loves building community relationships and leveraging strategic partnerships.

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Lecture / Discussion Tue, 30 Aug 2022 09:58:15 -0400 2022-09-09T16:00:00-04:00 2022-09-09T17:00:00-04:00 Cooley Building Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Lecture / Discussion NERS Fall 2022 Colloquia Series
NERS Colloquia Series: Department Welcome (September 16, 2022 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/96985 96985-21793648@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, September 16, 2022 4:00pm
Location: Cooley Building
Organized By: Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences

The Chair of the U-M Department of Nuclear Engineering & Radiological Sciences will give a recap of the past school year and a preview of what's to come.

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Lecture / Discussion Wed, 17 Aug 2022 09:54:49 -0400 2022-09-16T16:00:00-04:00 2022-09-16T17:00:00-04:00 Cooley Building Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Lecture / Discussion NERS Fall 2022 Colloquia Series
Biopsychology Colloquium - The Brain Data Alchemy Project: Using Convergent Genomics to Provide Insight Into the Neurobiology of Psychiatric Illness (September 20, 2022 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/98543 98543-21796900@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, September 20, 2022 12:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Department of Psychology

The brain defines us. Therefore, unlike other organ systems in the body, the study of human brain tissue is largely confined to samples donated after death. What can we learn about psychiatric illness from post-mortem samples? In this talk, I’ll overview the use of transcriptional profiling to characterize alterations in brain molecular networks in tissue from subjects with psychiatric disorder. I will also discuss the challenges inherent in the interpretation of data derived from post-mortem samples, and several of our ongoing projects that use a convergence of transcriptional profiling data from animal models to disambiguate results.

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Lecture / Discussion Tue, 13 Sep 2022 17:05:54 -0400 2022-09-20T12:00:00-04:00 2022-09-20T13:00:00-04:00 East Hall Department of Psychology Lecture / Discussion Megan Hastings Hagenauer
NERS Colloquia Series: NERS Alumni Award Talk (September 23, 2022 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/96986 96986-21793649@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, September 23, 2022 4:00pm
Location: Cooley Building
Organized By: Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences

A Career in Pulsed Power—a 40-Year Retrospective and the Next 20 Years

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Lecture / Discussion Tue, 30 Aug 2022 10:25:45 -0400 2022-09-23T16:00:00-04:00 2022-09-23T17:00:00-04:00 Cooley Building Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Lecture / Discussion NERS Fall 2022 Colloquia Series
Department Colloquium | Graduate Student Showcase (October 5, 2022 3:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/99599 99599-21798387@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, October 5, 2022 3:00pm
Location: West Hall
Organized By: Department Colloquia

Ryan Cardman
Ponderomotive Laser Spectroscopy of Rubidium Rydberg Atoms
Spectroscopy of Rydberg atoms with very large principal quantum numbers, n, has traditionally been performed through coherent absorption and emission of microwaves. In my talk, I describe a newly developed and recently demonstrated method of manipulating an alkali (rubidium) Rydberg atom’s valence electron using phase-modulated laser fields that drive a coherent transition between two Rydberg states. The light-matter interaction for this method originates from the ponderomotive force of the laser field acting on the Rydberg electron, rather than the more commonly observed electric-dipole force (which, along with magnetic-dipole interactions, governs most of modern spectroscopy). Because the ponderomotive interaction fundamentally differs from the electric-dipole force, differences arise in selection rules, which are considerably more relaxed in ponderomotive than in traditional spectroscopy. For instance, high-harmonic transitions can be driven in first-order perturbation theory (i.e. without virtual intermediate states, and without a significant drop in Rabi frequency with increasing order). We also observe and explain a new paradigm for Doppler-free spectroscopy. In my talk, I will describe details of the optical setup, the phase-control of the light, the experimental spectra, our models, and numerical simulations. Applications of ponderomotive Rydberg-atom spectroscopy include site-selective spin manipulations in quantum simulators, high-l-Rydberg-state initialization, and gate operations in Rydberg quantum computers.

Xiaoyu Guo
Ferro-Rotational Domain Walls Revealed by Electric Quadrupole Second Harmonic Generation Microscopy
Domain walls in (multi)ferroics have received tremendous attention recently due to their emergent properties distinct from their domain counterparts. However, in contrast to ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity, it is extremely challenging to study ferro-rotational (FR) domain walls because the FR order is invariant under both spatial-inversion and time-reversal operations and thus hardly couple with conventional probes. Here, we investigate an FR candidate NiTiO3 with electric quadrupole (EQ) second harmonic generation rotational anisotropy (SHG RA) and probe the point symmetries of its two degenerate FR domain states. We then visualize the real-space FR domains and domain walls using scanning EQ SHG microscopy. By taking local EQ SHG RA measurements, we further show the restoration of the mirror symmetry at FR domain walls and prove their nonpolar nature. Our findings not only provide insight into FR domain walls, but also demonstrate a powerful tool for future studies on domain walls of unconventional ferroics.

Robert Saskowski
Towards Unreasonable Effectiveness in AdS5
Gauge/gravity duality has garnered an enormous amount of interest in the last twenty-five years. The prototypical example is the AdS/CFT correspondence, which relates supergravity with a negative cosmological constant to a conformal field theory in one lower dimension. In particular, this relates gravitational and non-gravitational theories. I will focus on the supergravity story, specifically with higher-derivative corrections. In this talk, I will give a brief introduction to the AdS/CFT correspondence and higher derivatives and discuss some recent work with my advisor Jim Liu regarding the universality of supersymmetric four-derivative corrections to minimal supergravity in five spacetime dimensions.

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Workshop / Seminar Fri, 30 Sep 2022 10:22:48 -0400 2022-10-05T15:00:00-04:00 2022-10-05T16:00:00-04:00 West Hall Department Colloquia Workshop / Seminar West Hall
Linguistics Colloquium (October 7, 2022 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/96064 96064-21797563@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, October 7, 2022 4:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Department of Linguistics

Ashwini Deo is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at The University of Texas at Austin. She will present, "Coordinated on the context: Discourse salience, exclusivity, mirativity, precisification, and intensification in Marathi"

ABSTRACT
Several Indo-Aryan languages, including Bangla, Gujarati, Hindi, and Marathi contain a discourse clitic whose uses overlap with those of English particles like exclusives only/just, intensifiers really/totally, precisifiers right/exactly/absolutely, anaphoric indeed/that very, and scalar additive even without corresponding perfectly to any of them. In this talk, I offer an analysis of the varied and seemingly disparate uses of this particle, focusing on the Marathi variant -ts. I claim that =ts conventionally signals that interlocutors are in mutual agreement that the proposition denoted by the prejacent is uniquely salient among alternatives in the current question. That is, =ts conveys that the proposition expressed by the prejacent offers a schelling point (or focal point) for the interlocutors to coordinate on. Most effects associated with =ts are shown to arise as a consequence of pragmatic reasoning about the position of the prejacent with respect to the contextually given ordering on the current question. In addition to offering a unified analysis for Marathi =ts and its functional cognates in Indo-Aryan, this new perspective can open the door to a better understanding of why exclusivity, mirativity, precisification, and intensification might cluster together in languages. In closing, I consider the implications of =ts’s meaning for a crosslinguistic picture of the lexicalization of some discourse-managing functions.

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Lecture / Discussion Mon, 26 Sep 2022 14:40:19 -0400 2022-10-07T16:00:00-04:00 2022-10-07T17:30:00-04:00 Off Campus Location Department of Linguistics Lecture / Discussion Ashwini Deo
NERS Colloquia Series: Turbulence in High-Energy-Density Plasma (October 7, 2022 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/96987 96987-21793650@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, October 7, 2022 4:00pm
Location: Cooley Building
Organized By: Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences

Abstract
Hydrodynamic instabilities are understood to pose a serious challenge to achieving inertial confinement fusion ignition. During implosion, the injection of cold, inert materials into what should be a hot, burning region quenches energy production. In supernovae undergoing the reverse process of explosion, instabilities are favored to explain the observed transport of material from stellar depths to the outer debris. Yet, questions have remained concerning the true mechanism by which instabilities in such high-energy-density (HED) environments achieve these effects. While in classical fluids, instabilities typically pass through nonlinearity into the disordered phase known as “turbulence,” it has long been questioned whether in a dense plasma the new degrees of freedom (ionization, plasma waves, radiation transport, etc.) might modify or even prohibit that path.With a new generation of HED experiments, the field can at last answer this question in the affirmative, that HED turbulence can develop analogously to classical fluids [Doss et al. Phys. Plasmas 27 032701 (2020)]. Building on the efforts of many in validating early-time behavior, a four-year campaign using LLNL’s National Ignition Facility successfully measured the deeply nonlinear regimes and confirmed that turbulence emerges as the instabilities develop, even in timescales as short as 10s of nanoseconds. Following background and an overview of other families of experiments, we review the Shock/Shear campaign which conclusively demonstrated HED turbulence by studying shear flow subject to the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, the most well-understood classical route to turbulence. A comprehensive scaling analysis unifies data from over 50 distinct NIF experiments, themselves scaled ~10 orders of magnitude from classical fluid shear experiments.
*This work was conducted under the auspices of the U.S. DOE by LANL under contract 89233218CNA000001. LA-UR-22-24038

Bio
Forrest Doss has since 2011 been a scientist in Los Alamos’s Theoretical Design Division, and since 2018 has also been a liaison to Sandia’s Pulsed Power Sciences Center. He was the long-time PI for LANL’s High-Energy-Density Hydrodynamics Experiments, and is currently Project Leader for Applied Hydrodynamics. He has been principal designer for over 50 shots at NIF, and several experiments on the Sandia Z Machine. Forrest holds degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Physics from West Virginia University, a Certificate of Advanced Study in Math from Cambridge, and a PhD in Applied Physics from UM.

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Lecture / Discussion Tue, 04 Oct 2022 10:17:53 -0400 2022-10-07T16:00:00-04:00 2022-10-07T17:00:00-04:00 Cooley Building Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Lecture / Discussion NERS Fall 2022 Colloquia Series
Biopsychology Colloquium - Exercise parameters that open a ‘molecular memory window’ for cognitive enhancement shine light on key memory mechanism in the adult, aging, and Alzheimer’s Disease brain (October 11, 2022 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/99757 99757-21798650@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, October 11, 2022 12:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Department of Psychology

The ability to learn, consolidate and retrieve information is critical for everyday survival and this ability begins to decline with normal aging and is severely exacerbated by Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). In this seminar I discuss aspects of my past, current, and future research using exercise as an approach to unlock a novel understanding of the molecular and epigenetic mechanisms that drive memory formation by utilizing specific exercise parameters that enhance cognitive benefits. I show that a ‘molecular memory window’ exists for maintaining cognitive benefits of exercise through sedentary periods in females and males. Unbiased examination of this ‘window’ reveals a key molecular mechanism by which exercise enhances synaptic plasticity and drives long-term memory consolidation, allowing memory formation to occur under inadequate, subthreshold learning conditions. These findings demonstrate Acvr1c to be an essential, novel bidirectional regulator and driver of long-term memory consolidation in the adult brain. Acvr1c expression is impaired in the aging and Alzheimer’s Disease brain, and over-expression ameliorates plasticity and cognitive impairments. Promoting ACVR1C may protect against cognitive impairment, providing a novel druggable target and pathway as a potential disease modifying treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease. These findings also open a new area of exploring how specific exercise parameters may allow for periods of maintained molecular changes through sedentary periods that facilitate cognitive function.

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Lecture / Discussion Mon, 03 Oct 2022 17:36:43 -0400 2022-10-11T12:00:00-04:00 2022-10-11T13:00:00-04:00 East Hall Department of Psychology Lecture / Discussion Ashley Keiser
NERS Colloquia Series: Special Wednesday Seminar (October 19, 2022 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/97089 97089-21793872@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, October 19, 2022 4:00pm
Location: Lurie Robert H. Engin. Ctr
Organized By: Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences

Speaker: Mary Hockaday
Nuclear Engineering and Nonproliferation, NEN Division Leader
Los Alamos National Laboratory

Mary is the Division Leader of Nuclear Engineering and Nonproliferation (NEN) at LosAlamos National Laboratory (LANL). NENDivision develops nuclear safeguards concepts and instruments used to monitor and measure nuclear materials, operates the Nation’s only capability for nuclear criticality experiments, and develops unique nuclear reactor concepts. She has held many leadership positions from Team Leader to Associate Director in very distinct organizations over her 40-year career at LANL. As a staff member, Hockaday joined the Fast Transient Plasma group at LANL fielding and developing x-ray diagnostics for underground nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). Subsequently, she turned to applying high-powered lasers, pulse power, and proton radiography for the study of weapons physics. She returned to the NTS as Diagnostic Coordinator for a subcritical event. For nearly a decade she served as Deputy Associate Director of Weapons Physics and Program Director for Science and Inertial ConfinementFusion and High Yield (ICF) Campaigns. She then served as the associate director for Experimental Physical Sciences from 2013-2018. She has an MS and PhD in physics from New Mexico State University. Hockaday is an AAAS Fellow and is a past member of the Panel on Public Affairs for APS and APS’ Committee on the Status of Women in Physics. Mary’s passion is her extended family and thinks her three grand kids totally rock!

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Lecture / Discussion Fri, 14 Oct 2022 13:26:29 -0400 2022-10-19T16:00:00-04:00 2022-10-19T17:00:00-04:00 Lurie Robert H. Engin. Ctr Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Lecture / Discussion NERS Colloquia
NERS Colloquia Series: Glenn Knoll Lecture (October 21, 2022 4:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/96988 96988-21793651@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, October 21, 2022 4:00am
Location: Cooley Building
Organized By: Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences

Speaker: Josh Grindlay, Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian
"Development of the High Resolution Energetic X-ray Imager (HREXI)"

There are many science goals for HREXI as the imaging detector (16 x 16 CZTs/ASICs) for a coded aperture telescope on 2 SmallSats to be proposed in 2023 as a Small Explorer (SMEX) mission in 2028 followed by 10 additional SmallSats for a MIDEX mission to be proposed in 2028 that would enable (by 2030) the very first Full-Sky, continuous viewing, high-resolution imaging and spectra of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) from the collapse to stellar mass (~10 - 30 solar mass) black holes from the very first massive stars (PopIII) formed ~100 million years after the Big Bang. These stars cannot individually be observed by the JWST telescope, but HREXI imaging CZT arrays can readily detect their extremely luminous (in X-, Gamma-rays) GRBs and provide measurements of the epoch (in redshift) of these very first massive stars that ionized the Universe. This talk will be mainly about the CdZnTe (CZT) detectors and their readout from 3 - 300 keV for imaging and spectra.

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Lecture / Discussion Fri, 14 Oct 2022 13:38:09 -0400 2022-10-21T04:00:00-04:00 2022-10-21T17:00:00-04:00 Cooley Building Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Lecture / Discussion NERS Fall 2022 Colloquia Series
Comp Lit Colloquium (October 21, 2022 2:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/96264 96264-21792191@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, October 21, 2022 2:00pm
Location: Tisch Hall
Organized By: Comparative Literature

Details available on the CL events calendar

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Lecture / Discussion Mon, 20 Mar 2023 14:26:09 -0400 2022-10-21T14:00:00-04:00 2022-10-21T15:30:00-04:00 Tisch Hall Comparative Literature Lecture / Discussion Tisch Hall
Biopsychology Colloquium - Does cognition facilitate the adaptation of wildlife to urban environments? A case study of raccoons (October 25, 2022 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/100668 100668-21800211@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, October 25, 2022 12:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Department of Psychology

As urban centers around the world have grown over the last 300 years, biologists have struggled to explain why some species can invade and thrive despite human-induced environmental change whereas others suffer often to the point of extinction. The Cognitive Buffer Hypothesis proposes that the evolution of big brains and advanced cognitive abilities has enabled some species to exhibit more flexible behavioral responses to anthropogenic disturbances. However, there is a lack of empirical support for this hypothesis due to the challenges of assessing cognition in wild animals. Recently, my students and I have harnessed technological advances to automatically and adaptively test cognitive abilities of urban mesocarnivores. I will present results from my current research program, which is focused on studying the cognition, behavior, and ecology of urban carnivores (particularly raccoons) to understand how cognition is facilitating adaptation of these species to urban environments. Our results inform our understanding on how some urban wildlife species are able to adapt to life in cities, which are some of the most extreme novel environments confronted by contemporary wildlife populations. I will also briefly discuss the implications of our results for human-wildlife conflict mitigation efforts in urban environments.

*This talk is sponsored by the Evolution and Human Adaptation Program (EHAP)

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Lecture / Discussion Tue, 25 Oct 2022 09:46:53 -0400 2022-10-25T12:00:00-04:00 2022-10-25T13:00:00-04:00 East Hall Department of Psychology Lecture / Discussion Sarah Benson-Amram
NERS Colloquia Series: Exascale Computing Project (October 28, 2022 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/96989 96989-21793652@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, October 28, 2022 4:00pm
Location: Cooley Building
Organized By: Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences

Abstract:
The ExaSMR project is developing methods and software for coupled Monte Carlo neutron transport and computational fluid dynamics simulations for analysis of nuclear reactors. A part of the larger DOE Exascale Computing Project, ExaSMR is preparing to perform simulations on the nation’s two first exascale computing platforms: the Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Aurora machine at Argonne National Laboratory. This talk will provide a brief overview of the Exascale Computing Project, followed by a deep dive into several research topics being investigated by the ExaSMR team. Challenges associated with maximizing the computational performance of both continuous-energy Monte Carlo neutron transport and CFD solvers on GPU-based computing platforms will be addressed, as well as a discussion of strategies for efficiently integrating isotopic depletion into Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, a perspective will be provided on the value of collaboration in computational science applications. Multiple examples will be provided where open engagement beyond typical research teams has resulted in advancements both to individual simulation codes and to the community as a whole.



Bio:
Steven Hamilton is a Senior R&D Staff member in the HPC Methods for Nuclear Applications Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he has worked since 2011. He received his BS and MS degrees from Georgia Tech in Nuclear Engineering and his PhD from Emory University in Computational Mathematics. Steven currently leads the ExaSMR project, a multiphysics simulation effort targeting advances in nuclear reactor modeling as part of the DOE Exascale Computing Project. His research includes methods for both deterministic and Monte Carlo radiation transport, with a focus on high performance computing and GPU-based computing architectures. He has also worked on nonlinear algorithms for multiphysics simulations as well as linear solvers for computational fluid dynamics solvers. He is an active developer on the Denovo deterministic and Shift Monte Carlo radiation transport codes, both part of ORNL’s SCALE suite of analysis tools.

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Lecture / Discussion Fri, 14 Oct 2022 13:39:11 -0400 2022-10-28T16:00:00-04:00 2022-10-28T17:00:00-04:00 Cooley Building Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Lecture / Discussion NERS Fall 2022 Colloquia Series
Biopsychology Colloquium - Non-canonical roles for endogenous opioids in affect and motivation (November 1, 2022 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/100980 100980-21800631@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, November 1, 2022 12:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Department of Psychology

In 2020, abuse of prescription and illicit opioids resulted in nearly 70,000 deaths in the United States. The transition from therapeutic to abusive opioid use occurs through the maladaptive activation of mesocorticolimbic structures, such as the nucleus accumbens medial shell (mNAcSh) in the ventral forebrain. Within mNAcSh, mu opioid receptor (MOPR) stimulation can powerfully modulate reward related behaviors, such as food intake, social interaction, or drug seeking. While extensive insights into opioid function were established in the late 20th century, the application of new technologies and clinical meta-analyses make it increasingly clear that the functional heuristics that have guided opioid biomedical research may be flawed. Here we explore how seemingly conflicting scientific literature from the 20th and 21st centuries may instead work together to provide new insights into how opioids function in the brain and periphery, with a special emphasis on mesocorticolimbic neural circuits and technology development.

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Lecture / Discussion Wed, 02 Nov 2022 16:39:25 -0400 2022-11-01T12:00:00-04:00 2022-11-01T13:00:00-04:00 East Hall Department of Psychology Lecture / Discussion Daniel Castro
Neural Architecture Exhibition & Symposium (November 2, 2022 5:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/99553 99553-21798328@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, November 2, 2022 5:00pm
Location: Art and Architecture Building
Organized By: A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning

The Neural Architecture Symposium at Taubman College presents itself as an opportunity to survey the emerging field of Architecture and Artificial Intelligence, and to reflect on the implications of a world increasingly entangled in questions of the agency, culture, and ethics of AI. This rapidly developing field of architectural inquiry is ripe for a rigorous interrogation. Almost daily, new practices emerge that focus on the incredible opportunities that an expanded human mind through AI offer for the discipline of architecture. At the same time, AI is observed with suspicion in regards to potentially displacing entire practices out of the field. The symposium oscillates between those poles of tension, in order to inform the public audience, and the discipline, about the status quo and the vision of this paradigm-changing new ecology of design.

AI is quite a generalist term, used to describe several varying approaches. In Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence is defined as the study of Intelligent Agents, which includes any device that perceives its environment and that takes actions to maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals. In general, the term Artificial Intelligence is applied when a machine mimics cognitive functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as learning and problem-solving. The prevailing trajectory of this line of inquiry is preoccupated with aspects of optimization, such as ideas of optimizing floorplans, material consumption, and time schedules of construction sites – which cover the tamed problems of disciplinary considerations. At the same time, it interrogates the wicked problem in the production of architecture – creativity, intuition, and sensibility. This opens ontological questions about the nature of creativity, its role in the inception of architectural projects, and the methods to evaluate this. This symposium and exhibition would be among the first of its kind, framing this problem in this particular way. Can an AI create a novel sensibility (?) -and if so: can we as humans perceive and understand it? This is one of a set of questions that the event is set out to examine and explicate through the format of the symposium. This symposium serves as a launch pad for the examination of an emergent field of technology that is currently profoundly changing multiple levels of society, economy and culture demonstrated through the use in the discipline of architecture.

The topic is presented through a series of lenses: design projects, speculations, theoretical considerations, and scientific insight. This combination allows for an insightful, but entertaining symposium, about a very pressing affair in architecture and society at large. The stunning visual quality of the projects and proposed architecture studios in combination with the voice of science and theory allow for a deep interrogation of current development in architecture. This symposium and exhibition will provide insights into posthuman design methodologies operating in a world shifting away from an anthropocentric universe. We consider that, in the foreseen future, humans will continue using the machine as their tool, not the other way around.

The first genuinely 21st-century Architecture design method

Taubman College is perceived as a pioneer within this novel area of inquiry in the architecture discipline – an area that will affect every aspect of the discipline. Not only the theory but also the practice, the construction, and the use of architecture. It is possibly the first genuinely 21st-century Architecture development, as it will change the way architecture is conceived, designed, and built on a massive scale. Posing questions about authorship, the nature of ingenuity, of imagination, and creativity the proposition discusses a posthuman world operating within this frame of considerations.

Demystifying Artificial Intelligence

A particular goal of this Symposium is to demystify Artificial Intelligence for the population of the architecture community as much as for the public at large. The term AI evokes dark pictures of dominance, control, and surveillance triggered through movie productions such as Terminator, The Matrix, and Ex Machina. Nothing could be farther away from the truth. The bigger danger these days are data abuse and bias in datasets. Both of which form part of a conversation within the program of the Symposium. For one the ethical questions of operating AI’s within the architecture discipline. Questions that are discussed in interdisciplinary panels consisting of architects, computer scientists,s and roboticists.

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Keynote Lecture by Dr. Lev Manovich
"Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Study of Culture"
5:00pm – 6:30pm
Taubman College Commons

Exhibition Opening Reception
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Liberty Research Annex

Thursday, November 3, 2022

Symposium Sessions
9:00am - 6:00pm
Taubman College Commons

Session 1: An Introduction into our world through the eyes of artificial intelligence
Session 2: Do Machines dream of architecture?
Session 3: Neural Architecture – A paradigm shift in architecture design
Session 4: Roundtable: The emergence of a posthuman design ecology

Detailed session descriptions and schedules can be viewed at neural-architecture.org

This symposium will be presented in person at the Art & Architecture Building and on Zoom. Webinar registration is required at: https://umich.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_OU20BaOQRxGmoRMgjnLL0w

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Conference / Symposium Wed, 19 Oct 2022 14:20:26 -0400 2022-11-02T17:00:00-04:00 2022-11-02T18:30:00-04:00 Art and Architecture Building A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning Conference / Symposium Neural Architecture Symposium
Neural Architecture Exhibition & Symposium (November 2, 2022 5:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/99553 99553-21798329@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Wednesday, November 2, 2022 5:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning

The Neural Architecture Symposium at Taubman College presents itself as an opportunity to survey the emerging field of Architecture and Artificial Intelligence, and to reflect on the implications of a world increasingly entangled in questions of the agency, culture, and ethics of AI. This rapidly developing field of architectural inquiry is ripe for a rigorous interrogation. Almost daily, new practices emerge that focus on the incredible opportunities that an expanded human mind through AI offer for the discipline of architecture. At the same time, AI is observed with suspicion in regards to potentially displacing entire practices out of the field. The symposium oscillates between those poles of tension, in order to inform the public audience, and the discipline, about the status quo and the vision of this paradigm-changing new ecology of design.

AI is quite a generalist term, used to describe several varying approaches. In Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence is defined as the study of Intelligent Agents, which includes any device that perceives its environment and that takes actions to maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals. In general, the term Artificial Intelligence is applied when a machine mimics cognitive functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as learning and problem-solving. The prevailing trajectory of this line of inquiry is preoccupated with aspects of optimization, such as ideas of optimizing floorplans, material consumption, and time schedules of construction sites – which cover the tamed problems of disciplinary considerations. At the same time, it interrogates the wicked problem in the production of architecture – creativity, intuition, and sensibility. This opens ontological questions about the nature of creativity, its role in the inception of architectural projects, and the methods to evaluate this. This symposium and exhibition would be among the first of its kind, framing this problem in this particular way. Can an AI create a novel sensibility (?) -and if so: can we as humans perceive and understand it? This is one of a set of questions that the event is set out to examine and explicate through the format of the symposium. This symposium serves as a launch pad for the examination of an emergent field of technology that is currently profoundly changing multiple levels of society, economy and culture demonstrated through the use in the discipline of architecture.

The topic is presented through a series of lenses: design projects, speculations, theoretical considerations, and scientific insight. This combination allows for an insightful, but entertaining symposium, about a very pressing affair in architecture and society at large. The stunning visual quality of the projects and proposed architecture studios in combination with the voice of science and theory allow for a deep interrogation of current development in architecture. This symposium and exhibition will provide insights into posthuman design methodologies operating in a world shifting away from an anthropocentric universe. We consider that, in the foreseen future, humans will continue using the machine as their tool, not the other way around.

The first genuinely 21st-century Architecture design method

Taubman College is perceived as a pioneer within this novel area of inquiry in the architecture discipline – an area that will affect every aspect of the discipline. Not only the theory but also the practice, the construction, and the use of architecture. It is possibly the first genuinely 21st-century Architecture development, as it will change the way architecture is conceived, designed, and built on a massive scale. Posing questions about authorship, the nature of ingenuity, of imagination, and creativity the proposition discusses a posthuman world operating within this frame of considerations.

Demystifying Artificial Intelligence

A particular goal of this Symposium is to demystify Artificial Intelligence for the population of the architecture community as much as for the public at large. The term AI evokes dark pictures of dominance, control, and surveillance triggered through movie productions such as Terminator, The Matrix, and Ex Machina. Nothing could be farther away from the truth. The bigger danger these days are data abuse and bias in datasets. Both of which form part of a conversation within the program of the Symposium. For one the ethical questions of operating AI’s within the architecture discipline. Questions that are discussed in interdisciplinary panels consisting of architects, computer scientists,s and roboticists.

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Keynote Lecture by Dr. Lev Manovich
"Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Study of Culture"
5:00pm – 6:30pm
Taubman College Commons

Exhibition Opening Reception
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Liberty Research Annex

Thursday, November 3, 2022

Symposium Sessions
9:00am - 6:00pm
Taubman College Commons

Session 1: An Introduction into our world through the eyes of artificial intelligence
Session 2: Do Machines dream of architecture?
Session 3: Neural Architecture – A paradigm shift in architecture design
Session 4: Roundtable: The emergence of a posthuman design ecology

Detailed session descriptions and schedules can be viewed at neural-architecture.org

This symposium will be presented in person at the Art & Architecture Building and on Zoom. Webinar registration is required at: https://umich.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_OU20BaOQRxGmoRMgjnLL0w

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Conference / Symposium Wed, 19 Oct 2022 14:20:26 -0400 2022-11-02T17:00:00-04:00 2022-11-02T18:30:00-04:00 Off Campus Location A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning Conference / Symposium Neural Architecture Symposium
Neural Architecture Exhibition & Symposium (November 3, 2022 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/99553 99553-21798330@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, November 3, 2022 9:00am
Location: Art and Architecture Building
Organized By: A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning

The Neural Architecture Symposium at Taubman College presents itself as an opportunity to survey the emerging field of Architecture and Artificial Intelligence, and to reflect on the implications of a world increasingly entangled in questions of the agency, culture, and ethics of AI. This rapidly developing field of architectural inquiry is ripe for a rigorous interrogation. Almost daily, new practices emerge that focus on the incredible opportunities that an expanded human mind through AI offer for the discipline of architecture. At the same time, AI is observed with suspicion in regards to potentially displacing entire practices out of the field. The symposium oscillates between those poles of tension, in order to inform the public audience, and the discipline, about the status quo and the vision of this paradigm-changing new ecology of design.

AI is quite a generalist term, used to describe several varying approaches. In Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence is defined as the study of Intelligent Agents, which includes any device that perceives its environment and that takes actions to maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals. In general, the term Artificial Intelligence is applied when a machine mimics cognitive functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as learning and problem-solving. The prevailing trajectory of this line of inquiry is preoccupated with aspects of optimization, such as ideas of optimizing floorplans, material consumption, and time schedules of construction sites – which cover the tamed problems of disciplinary considerations. At the same time, it interrogates the wicked problem in the production of architecture – creativity, intuition, and sensibility. This opens ontological questions about the nature of creativity, its role in the inception of architectural projects, and the methods to evaluate this. This symposium and exhibition would be among the first of its kind, framing this problem in this particular way. Can an AI create a novel sensibility (?) -and if so: can we as humans perceive and understand it? This is one of a set of questions that the event is set out to examine and explicate through the format of the symposium. This symposium serves as a launch pad for the examination of an emergent field of technology that is currently profoundly changing multiple levels of society, economy and culture demonstrated through the use in the discipline of architecture.

The topic is presented through a series of lenses: design projects, speculations, theoretical considerations, and scientific insight. This combination allows for an insightful, but entertaining symposium, about a very pressing affair in architecture and society at large. The stunning visual quality of the projects and proposed architecture studios in combination with the voice of science and theory allow for a deep interrogation of current development in architecture. This symposium and exhibition will provide insights into posthuman design methodologies operating in a world shifting away from an anthropocentric universe. We consider that, in the foreseen future, humans will continue using the machine as their tool, not the other way around.

The first genuinely 21st-century Architecture design method

Taubman College is perceived as a pioneer within this novel area of inquiry in the architecture discipline – an area that will affect every aspect of the discipline. Not only the theory but also the practice, the construction, and the use of architecture. It is possibly the first genuinely 21st-century Architecture development, as it will change the way architecture is conceived, designed, and built on a massive scale. Posing questions about authorship, the nature of ingenuity, of imagination, and creativity the proposition discusses a posthuman world operating within this frame of considerations.

Demystifying Artificial Intelligence

A particular goal of this Symposium is to demystify Artificial Intelligence for the population of the architecture community as much as for the public at large. The term AI evokes dark pictures of dominance, control, and surveillance triggered through movie productions such as Terminator, The Matrix, and Ex Machina. Nothing could be farther away from the truth. The bigger danger these days are data abuse and bias in datasets. Both of which form part of a conversation within the program of the Symposium. For one the ethical questions of operating AI’s within the architecture discipline. Questions that are discussed in interdisciplinary panels consisting of architects, computer scientists,s and roboticists.

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Keynote Lecture by Dr. Lev Manovich
"Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Study of Culture"
5:00pm – 6:30pm
Taubman College Commons

Exhibition Opening Reception
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Liberty Research Annex

Thursday, November 3, 2022

Symposium Sessions
9:00am - 6:00pm
Taubman College Commons

Session 1: An Introduction into our world through the eyes of artificial intelligence
Session 2: Do Machines dream of architecture?
Session 3: Neural Architecture – A paradigm shift in architecture design
Session 4: Roundtable: The emergence of a posthuman design ecology

Detailed session descriptions and schedules can be viewed at neural-architecture.org

This symposium will be presented in person at the Art & Architecture Building and on Zoom. Webinar registration is required at: https://umich.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_OU20BaOQRxGmoRMgjnLL0w

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Conference / Symposium Wed, 19 Oct 2022 14:20:26 -0400 2022-11-03T09:00:00-04:00 2022-11-03T18:00:00-04:00 Art and Architecture Building A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning Conference / Symposium Neural Architecture Symposium
Neural Architecture Exhibition & Symposium (November 3, 2022 9:00am) https://events.umich.edu/event/99553 99553-21798331@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Thursday, November 3, 2022 9:00am
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning

The Neural Architecture Symposium at Taubman College presents itself as an opportunity to survey the emerging field of Architecture and Artificial Intelligence, and to reflect on the implications of a world increasingly entangled in questions of the agency, culture, and ethics of AI. This rapidly developing field of architectural inquiry is ripe for a rigorous interrogation. Almost daily, new practices emerge that focus on the incredible opportunities that an expanded human mind through AI offer for the discipline of architecture. At the same time, AI is observed with suspicion in regards to potentially displacing entire practices out of the field. The symposium oscillates between those poles of tension, in order to inform the public audience, and the discipline, about the status quo and the vision of this paradigm-changing new ecology of design.

AI is quite a generalist term, used to describe several varying approaches. In Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence is defined as the study of Intelligent Agents, which includes any device that perceives its environment and that takes actions to maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals. In general, the term Artificial Intelligence is applied when a machine mimics cognitive functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as learning and problem-solving. The prevailing trajectory of this line of inquiry is preoccupated with aspects of optimization, such as ideas of optimizing floorplans, material consumption, and time schedules of construction sites – which cover the tamed problems of disciplinary considerations. At the same time, it interrogates the wicked problem in the production of architecture – creativity, intuition, and sensibility. This opens ontological questions about the nature of creativity, its role in the inception of architectural projects, and the methods to evaluate this. This symposium and exhibition would be among the first of its kind, framing this problem in this particular way. Can an AI create a novel sensibility (?) -and if so: can we as humans perceive and understand it? This is one of a set of questions that the event is set out to examine and explicate through the format of the symposium. This symposium serves as a launch pad for the examination of an emergent field of technology that is currently profoundly changing multiple levels of society, economy and culture demonstrated through the use in the discipline of architecture.

The topic is presented through a series of lenses: design projects, speculations, theoretical considerations, and scientific insight. This combination allows for an insightful, but entertaining symposium, about a very pressing affair in architecture and society at large. The stunning visual quality of the projects and proposed architecture studios in combination with the voice of science and theory allow for a deep interrogation of current development in architecture. This symposium and exhibition will provide insights into posthuman design methodologies operating in a world shifting away from an anthropocentric universe. We consider that, in the foreseen future, humans will continue using the machine as their tool, not the other way around.

The first genuinely 21st-century Architecture design method

Taubman College is perceived as a pioneer within this novel area of inquiry in the architecture discipline – an area that will affect every aspect of the discipline. Not only the theory but also the practice, the construction, and the use of architecture. It is possibly the first genuinely 21st-century Architecture development, as it will change the way architecture is conceived, designed, and built on a massive scale. Posing questions about authorship, the nature of ingenuity, of imagination, and creativity the proposition discusses a posthuman world operating within this frame of considerations.

Demystifying Artificial Intelligence

A particular goal of this Symposium is to demystify Artificial Intelligence for the population of the architecture community as much as for the public at large. The term AI evokes dark pictures of dominance, control, and surveillance triggered through movie productions such as Terminator, The Matrix, and Ex Machina. Nothing could be farther away from the truth. The bigger danger these days are data abuse and bias in datasets. Both of which form part of a conversation within the program of the Symposium. For one the ethical questions of operating AI’s within the architecture discipline. Questions that are discussed in interdisciplinary panels consisting of architects, computer scientists,s and roboticists.

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Keynote Lecture by Dr. Lev Manovich
"Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Study of Culture"
5:00pm – 6:30pm
Taubman College Commons

Exhibition Opening Reception
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Liberty Research Annex

Thursday, November 3, 2022

Symposium Sessions
9:00am - 6:00pm
Taubman College Commons

Session 1: An Introduction into our world through the eyes of artificial intelligence
Session 2: Do Machines dream of architecture?
Session 3: Neural Architecture – A paradigm shift in architecture design
Session 4: Roundtable: The emergence of a posthuman design ecology

Detailed session descriptions and schedules can be viewed at neural-architecture.org

This symposium will be presented in person at the Art & Architecture Building and on Zoom. Webinar registration is required at: https://umich.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_OU20BaOQRxGmoRMgjnLL0w

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Conference / Symposium Wed, 19 Oct 2022 14:20:26 -0400 2022-11-03T09:00:00-04:00 2022-11-03T18:00:00-04:00 Off Campus Location A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning Conference / Symposium Neural Architecture Symposium
Linguistics Colloquium (November 4, 2022 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/96065 96065-21800217@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, November 4, 2022 4:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Department of Linguistics

T. Daniel Seely is a Professor of Linguistics at Eastern Michigan University.

Join us in person in East Hall room 4448 or virtually on Zoom.

TITLE
On the History and Current Form of Merge

ABSTRACT
This discussion explores the history, form, and function of the most fundamental operation of the narrow syntax, Merge. The question we'll focus on is this: What 'should' Merge do, what 'should' Merge not do; and, most importantly, why?

By way of background, we give a brief history of structure building devices, from PS rules (graph-theoretic and linear-order-encoding) to successive stages in the development of Merge--from its introduction in Bare Phrase Structure (Chomsky 1994/95) to its formulation in Problems of Projection (Chomsky 2013, 2015, see also Epstein, Kitahara, Seely 2015, Collins and Seely to appear)) and to its recent characterization (Chomsky 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021), Epstein, Kitahara, Seely (2018, 2020, 2022).

Next, we trace the "maximize minimal merge" program (Epstein, Kitahara, and Seely 2018, 2022): The idea is to maximize the effects of Merge while minimizing its form, positing internal to the narrow syntax as little as possible beyond simplest Merge, striving ultimately for the thesis “3rd Factor + Interfaces + Recursion = Language,” as initially articulated in Chomsky 2007.

With this background, our primary goal is to explore Chomsky's recent thinking on Merge, from a series of lectures and papers, and ultimately trace conclusions of a forthcoming paper “Merge” by N. Chomsky, R. Berwick, S. Fong, M.A.C. Huybregts, H. Kitahara, A. McInnerney, T.D. Seely, Y. Sugimoto, in R. Freidin (ed) Elements, Cambridge.

Chomsky’s recent work suggests that what we thought was simplest Merge (unifying external and internal merge) is in fact inexplicit in crucial respects, and a revision is proposed that reconceives Merge as an operation that applies to the workspace WS, thereby allowing the monitoring of computational resources. Explored are the 3rd
factor (non-linguistic) principles that constrain Merge, its empirical consequences, challenges, and prospects for future research.

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Lecture / Discussion Tue, 25 Oct 2022 10:43:24 -0400 2022-11-04T16:00:00-04:00 2022-11-04T17:30:00-04:00 East Hall Department of Linguistics Lecture / Discussion T. Daniel Seely
NERS Colloquia Series: High-Resolution Multiphysics for Nuclear Engineering (November 4, 2022 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/96990 96990-21793653@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, November 4, 2022 4:00pm
Location: Cooley Building
Organized By: Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences

Abstract:
Nuclear reactors represent tightly-coupled physics interactions between thermal-hydraulics, neutronics, material performance, structural mechanics, chemistry, and more. Multiphysics modeling is the practice of accounting for these physics interactions during design and analysis. Recent advancements in high performance computing now enable multiphysics simulations with state-of-the-art Monte Carlo neutron transport and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools. This talk will begin with a high-level overview of the most important coupled physics interactions in fission reactors, and then introduce the theory of multiphysics modeling as most commonly applied in nuclear engineering. Current research in Monte Carlo-based multiphysics applications will be summarized in terms of acceleration strategies, stability, field mapping, and software development. Then, multiphysics methods research at Argonne National Laboratory using high-resolution CFD and Monte Carlo tools will be presented through the lens of prismatic high temperature gas reactors. Finally, student opportunities at Argonne National Laboratory for both undergraduate and graduate students will be introduced.



Bio:
Dr. April Novak is the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Fellow in the Computational Sciences Division of Argonne National Laboratory, where she conducts research in multiphysics modeling and simulation, computational thermal-hydraulics, and multiscale methods. April is the lead developer of the Cardinal application, an open-source software tool that couples the NekRS Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and OpenMC Monte Carlo codes to the MOOSE framework. As part of her PhD research, April developed multiscale methods for pebble bed analysis within the coarse-mesh thermal-fluid Pronghorn MOOSE application. She now leads several projects in the high-resolution multiphysics space with applications to fast reactor core radial expansion and gas microreactors, and supports a broad range of nuclear industry collaborations. She has a PhD in nuclear engineering from the University of California, Berkeley (2020) and a B.S. in nuclear engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (2015).

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Lecture / Discussion Wed, 26 Oct 2022 09:36:18 -0400 2022-11-04T16:00:00-04:00 2022-11-04T17:00:00-04:00 Cooley Building Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Lecture / Discussion NERS Fall 2022 Colloquia Series
Biopsychology Colloquium - Individual differences in brain and behavior (November 8, 2022 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/100982 100982-21800633@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, November 8, 2022 12:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Department of Psychology

This will be somewhat of a non-traditional talk, where I will highlight aspects of my education, training, and career that have shaped my current research interests and projects – thus offering a bit of a historical perspective. The overarching theme of my research is “individual differences in brain and behavior”, and much of the research I will present centers around individual differences in reward learning and the underlying brain circuitry. I will discuss how these differences might inform our understanding of psychopathology. I will also present some new findings that demonstrate the importance of considering individual variability in rodent models. In addition, you will hear about our recent translational efforts in attempt to study individual differences in reward learning in humans; and some exciting new directions, including an opportunity to study a new model organism.

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Lecture / Discussion Wed, 02 Nov 2022 16:41:51 -0400 2022-11-08T12:00:00-05:00 2022-11-08T13:00:00-05:00 East Hall Department of Psychology Lecture / Discussion Shelly Flagel
Linguistics Colloquium (November 11, 2022 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/96066 96066-21791884@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, November 11, 2022 4:00pm
Location: Off Campus Location
Organized By: Department of Linguistics

Pilar Prieto is an ICREA Research Professor at the Department of Translation and Language Sciences at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Catalunya. Her research focuses on the communicative role of prosody and gesture in language, as well as their significance in language development and second language learning. She serves as associate editor of the journals Language and Speech and Frontiers in Communication. She is currently coediting a special issue of Language and Cognition on Multimodal Prosody and organizing the 1st International Multimodal Communication Symposium MMSYM, April 27-28 2023, Barcelona.

This event is hybrid, join us via Zoom or in East Hall 4448

TITLE
How the prosody in our hands and body can help us enhance second language pronunciation learning
Pilar Prieto (ICREA-Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

ABSTRACT
When we speak, we frequently use rhythmic hand gestures which are coordinated with prosodically prominent parts of speech (e.g., beat gestures). As most of the research on the benefits of gesture in the second language classroom has focused on the effects of representational gestures (e.g., for the acquisition of vocabulary), little is known about the potential beneficial effects of beats and other embodied prosodic movements on the learning of L2 pronunciation. In this talk I will discuss the results of several experiments carried out in our research group that deal with how beat gestures and other embodied rhythmic and melodic movements facilitate the learning of second language pronunciation. Experiments 1 and 2 will assess the potential benefits of observing and performing beat gestures on L2 pronunciation learning by intermediate Catalan learners of English. Experiments 3 and 4 will analyze the benefits of performing hand-clapping on L2 pronunciation learning at initial stages of L2 acquisition of French by Catalan and Chinese native speakers. Experiments 5 and 6 will assess the effects of the use of melodic and rhythmic hand movements on the learning of both suprasegmental and segmental information by English and French language learners. Widening the scope of this investigation, Experiment 7 will assess the boosting effects of an embodied music-based rhythmic and melodic training which does not involve speech in the foreign language for English pronunciation learning. Based on the positive findings from these experiments, I will discuss the results of a recent study testing the idea that embodied narrative-based natural classroom interventions have the potential to be used as strong scaffolding mechanisms for speech production. I will finally suggest that a more active, context-based multimodal approach to teaching pronunciation could be successfully applied to both language teaching and speech treatment contexts.

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Lecture / Discussion Mon, 31 Oct 2022 08:30:19 -0400 2022-11-11T16:00:00-05:00 2022-11-11T17:30:00-05:00 Off Campus Location Department of Linguistics Lecture / Discussion Pilar Prieto
NERS Colloquia Series: Status of US Fast Reactor Research and Technology (November 11, 2022 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/96991 96991-21793654@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, November 11, 2022 4:00pm
Location: Cooley Building
Organized By: Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences

Abstract:
An overview of national energy policy and fast reactor research and development (R&D) efforts in the U.S. will be provided by Dr. Bo Feng who is the National Technical Director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Fast Reactor Program and the manager of the Reactor and Fuel Cycle Analysis Group from the Argonne National Laboratory. There is significant interest and investment in advanced reactor technologies from the U.S. private sector, with dozens of reactor companies working on advanced nuclear projects for a wide array of capabilities. Specific to fast reactors, about a dozen fast reactor companies formed a U.S. industry group in 2017, the Fast Reactor Working Group, which provides important feedback on R&D priorities to the Department of Energy (DOE), the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), and U.S. national laboratories. Recognizing the importance of advanced reactors to meeting the nation’s energy security and climate change goals, the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) was initiated in fiscal year (FY) 2020 to develop Federal and U.S. nuclear industry partnerships in the construction and demonstration of domestic advanced nuclear reactor designs that are safe and affordable to build and operate. To help implement this program, the Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) issued a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) in May 2020 for the most promising domestic advanced reactor designs across the technology maturity spectrum, and subsequently selected ten projects that can be developed over the next two decades. Four of these projects support the development and future demonstration of fast reactor concepts. In addition to providing an overview of the U.S. fast reactor industry, Dr. Feng will discuss DOE programs including the Versatile Test Reactor, fast reactor metallic fuel qualification, the Fast Reactor Program's R&D in technology development, computational methods, fast reactor databases, and advanced material development.

Bio:
Dr. Bo Feng manages the Reactor and Fuel Cycle Analysis group within the Nuclear Science and Engineering Division and serves as the National Technical Director for DOE-NE’s Fast Reactor R&D Program, a role that oversees a multi-laboratory R&D portfolio that includes fast reactor technology development and testing, methods validation and database development, and advanced material qualification activities. Throughout his career, his research has focused primarily on reactor physics analysis, advanced reactor core design, radiation transport, and fuel cycle systems modeling. Dr. Feng has received several laboratory and national level awards for his research including Secretary of Energy’s Honor Award (2020), Argonne Director’s Award (2016), DOE’s Fuel Cycle R&D Excellence Award (2014), and ANS Thermal Hydraulic Division’s Best Paper Award (2009). Dr. Feng earned his S.B., S.M., and Ph.D. in Nuclear Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during his time there from 2003 - 2011.

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Lecture / Discussion Fri, 04 Nov 2022 10:33:21 -0400 2022-11-11T16:00:00-05:00 2022-11-11T17:00:00-05:00 Cooley Building Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Lecture / Discussion NERS Fall 2022 Colloquia Series
Comp Lit Colloquium (November 18, 2022 2:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/96264 96264-21792192@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, November 18, 2022 2:00pm
Location: Tisch Hall
Organized By: Comparative Literature

Details available on the CL events calendar

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Lecture / Discussion Mon, 20 Mar 2023 14:26:09 -0400 2022-11-18T14:00:00-05:00 2022-11-18T15:30:00-05:00 Tisch Hall Comparative Literature Lecture / Discussion Tisch Hall
NERS Colloquia Series: Actionable Ideas for Nuclear Threat Reduction (November 18, 2022 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/96992 96992-21793655@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, November 18, 2022 4:00pm
Location: Cooley Building
Organized By: Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences

Abstract
In this talk, I will give a brief overview of the resurgent role of nuclear weapons in national security strategies, the threat that it poses to the public, and potential risk mitigation approaches. Recent events, including U.S. withdrawal from arms control treaties and the pursuit of new nuclear weapons capabilities in the nine nuclear weapons states, suggest we may be facing a revived nuclear arms race with its dangerous consequences. In this context, during the past two years, a group of US physical scientists has held more than 100 colloquia on nuclear weapons, reaching more than 4,000 attendees, and recruited over 850 scientists to the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction through which scientists educate themselves and then help educate Congress about the renewed risks of nuclear war and the possibilities for reducing those risks. Members have participated in three advocacy campaigns aimed at ensuring that explosive nuclear testing does not resume, extending the New START treaty, and enacting a no-first-use policy.

After the talk, Dr. Di Fulvio will hold a discussion for any attendees interested in getting involved in nuclear policy advocacy or the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction.

Bio
Angela Di Fulvio is an assistant professor in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering (NPRE) at the University of Illinois, director of the Neutron Measurement Laboratory, and a researcher in the technical aspects of nuclear safeguards and nonproliferation. Before joining NPRE, Angela was a research scientist at the University of Michigan where she worked on radiation detection within the framework of the Consortium for Verification Technology. Her current interests include the development of detection systems for safeguards and nonproliferation applications and techniques and algorithms for the radiation protection of the patient in radiation therapy.

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Lecture / Discussion Wed, 17 Aug 2022 09:58:17 -0400 2022-11-18T16:00:00-05:00 2022-11-18T17:30:00-05:00 Cooley Building Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Lecture / Discussion NERS Fall 2022 Colloquia Series
Biopsychology Colloquium - Cooperation, Conflict, and the Mechanisms of Social Decision-Making in Capuchin Monkeys (November 29, 2022 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/101638 101638-21801626@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, November 29, 2022 12:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Department of Psychology

Human cognitive abilities are remarkable, but not exceptional. In light of evolution, humans are an extreme primate on one end of an already-sophisticated spectrum. One hypothesis for explaining the evolution of primate cognition is that living in groups selected for a “social mind”, a larger brain and complex cognitive abilities to aid in solving a myriad of social challenges. This hypothesis has garnered considerable support from experimental paradigms in captivity, however, these studies are often void of normal social interactions. Understanding the selective pressure of social challenges on primate cognition, and the adaptive value of these choices, requires studying the social mind in a social context. My research program examines how nonhuman primates actually make decisions in their social world, what factors impact these choices, and ultimately why these decisions are adaptive. In this talk, I focus on decision-making during cooperation and conflict, two situations in which making the wrong choice can have significant fitness consequences. First, I examine how conflict influences cooperative choices in capuchins, and the role oxytocin may play in promoting cooperation during conflict. Second, I present novel methods and some preliminary findings on how wild capuchins solve novel problems and tackle cooperative tasks. By combining the best aspects of naturalistic field work, highlighting the emergence of social challenges, and the best aspects of tightly controlled experiments, highlighting the mechanisms of social choices, my research offers a promising avenue for understanding the importance of sociality, cooperation, and conflict on primate cognitive evolution.

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Lecture / Discussion Mon, 28 Nov 2022 13:16:51 -0500 2022-11-29T12:00:00-05:00 2022-11-29T13:00:00-05:00 East Hall Department of Psychology Lecture / Discussion Marcela Benítez
NERS Colloquia Series: The Thermal-Hydraulics Modeling and Simulation Tools and Developments at the INL (December 2, 2022 4:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/96993 96993-21793656@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Friday, December 2, 2022 4:00pm
Location: Cooley Building
Organized By: Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences

Abstract:
As the Department of Energy lead laboratory for nuclear energy research and development, Idaho National Laboratory is preparing modeling and simulation tools to support both the existing nuclear fleet and advanced reactor designs. Dr. Marshall will present some of the thermal hydraulics challenges facing nuclear reactors and the INL research activities to provide modeling solutions for these challenges. Discussion topics will include PWR fuel rod ballooning, dynamic flow induced vibration, oxide layer growth, steam ingress for high temperature gas reactors, thermal striping with liquid sodium, and molten salt corrosion.

Bio:
Dr. Marshall is the engineering manager for the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Thermal Fluid Systems Methods and Analysis Department. His department develops software for and performs modeling and simulation analyses in support of existing and advanced reactor designs. Dr. Marshall is also a Principal Investigator for the U.S. High Performance Research Reactor program with responsibilities of managing (1) irradiation experiments that support the conversion of Massachusetts Institute Technology Reactor and National Bureau of Standards Reactor from highly enriched uranium to low enriched uranium plate fuel and (2) fluid surface interaction model development at the INL. Dr. Marshall’s background is thermal hydraulics and he has nuclear engineering research experience at INL and commercial experience at General Electric Hitachi Nuclear Energy. He has a Ph.D in nuclear engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

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Lecture / Discussion Fri, 02 Dec 2022 10:49:59 -0500 2022-12-02T16:00:00-05:00 2022-12-02T17:00:00-05:00 Cooley Building Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Lecture / Discussion NERS Fall 2022 Colloquia Series
Biopsychology Colloquium - Cooperative relationships in vampire bats (December 6, 2022 12:00pm) https://events.umich.edu/event/101645 101645-21802180@events.umich.edu Event Begins: Tuesday, December 6, 2022 12:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Department of Psychology

Female vampire bats regurgitate portions of their blood meals to help unfed bats in need. These food donations occur reciprocally among both kin and nonkin. This observation was a classic textbook example of "reciprocal altruism" (or reciprocity)-- the idea that cooperation is stable because cooperative investments are conditional on cooperative returns. However, this explanation for nonkin sharing has become increasingly controversial over time as various authors have proposed alternative explanations. I will review what is known about how vampire bats make helping decisions and show evidence that food sharing in vampire bats has origins in maternal care and kin selection, but is now stabilized by multiple (possibly interacting) forces of enforcement and assortment. I will highlight the underappreciated factor that the degree of fitness interdependence in social relationships can change continuously over time and that studying how cooperative relationships form provides key insights into their functions.

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Lecture / Discussion Tue, 13 Dec 2022 10:40:18 -0500 2022-12-06T12:00:00-05:00 2022-12-06T13:00:00-05:00 East Hall Department of Psychology Lecture / Discussion Gerald Carter