Opportunities & Announcements

Recruiting STEM volunteers

Hello Brunonians!

On April 14th through April 16th, a group of lucky students who were accepted to Brown University Class of 2017 will be on campus for ADOCH (A Day on College Hill). As part of this 3 day event, the most talented engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists, and physical scientists to join us for the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) matriculation event on April 15th -- we are writing to you, a carefully selected list of past STEM participants, science concentrators, and heads of STEM-related student groups -- to volunteer for STEM to help convince these students that Brown is the best place for them!

**We would appreciate it if you could forward this email to your listservs and student group contact lists, as well.**

Students and their parents often tell us how wonderfully Brown students welcome them to campus and show their enthusiasm for Brown -- we really appreciate what you do every day to make Brown a great place for future STEM concentrators.

All volunteers are given a super cool, free STEM 2013 t-shirt (color TBD)! Volunteer tasks will include mingling, guiding students/parents, assisting with departmental breakout sessions, and assisting with the late night event of Science Trivia.

STEM will have events during the afternoon and evening of Monday, April 15th. We really need student volunteers to make STEM a success, and though the schedule is still tentative, we'd appreciate any help you might be able to provide.

Interested in volunteering? Please email Catherine_Freije@brown.edu with your name, concentration, class year, and with any concerns/questions you may have -- we really appreciate hearing feedback from you about things you think could be changed or improved for STEM. You will then receive updates about the occurrences of volunteer information sessions. As always, we appreciate your help and look forward to seeing you at STEM this year!

On behalf of the STEM team, thank you!

MathDUG SUMS

The annual Symposium for Undergraduates in the Mathematical Sciences (SUMS) is coming up on Saturday, March 9! The conference brings together students and faculty throughout the Northeast (and beyond!), and is a great place to get to know some of your peers in the math/science community. There will be four faculty speakers, who will give talks on this year's topic: "Math and Information." More specifically, they will be offering unique perspectives on disciplines such as cryptography, quantum computing, and information theory. In addition, we will have roughly 12 student speakers and a poster session.

If you are interested in presenting your own research in the form of a 20-minute talk or a poster, the deadline for submitting an abstract online is Saturday, February 23rd at noon. The submission form can be found on our website. Please note that we will be accepting talks on a rolling basis.

If you are interested in attending, please register as well! It only takes ~30 seconds. If you would be interested in hosting students from other universities, please send a quick email stating how many people you would be willing to host to sums@math.brown.edu (something on the order of "I can host x people" is plenty!).

We look forward to seeing you at SUMS!

Course Announcements

MCM 0230: Digital Media [26329] - Spring 2013

We are very excited to announce that DIGITAL MEDIA - a rich and exciting course in the Department of Modern Culture & Media - will be offered this term! The course will be co-taught by Professors Wendy Chun and Joshua Neves. Please spread the word and come check out the first meeting on January 23 at 1pm (Wilson 309).

Moving from video games to alternative art installations, from cyberpunk fiction and films to social media sites, the course focuses on the theory, history, politics and aesthetics of digital media. Special attention will be paid to the tensions between our perceptions of technology and its actual operations and to technology's intersections with social/cultural formations (gender, sexuality, race, global flows) and with issues of control and freedom.

Co-ordinates:
Lectures: M.W. 1:00-1:50 p.m., Wilson Hall, rm 309
Labs: T. 7-11 p.m., Granoff
Screenings: T 7-11, List 110
Sections: F. 11-11:50 a.m., 155 George Street, rm 106 (***more may be added***)

CLPS 1291 Computational cognitive science

Instructor: Thomas Serre (http://serre-lab.clps.brown.edu)

Starts: Th 01/24 2:30pm Metcalf #107

Course details: https://canvas.brown.edu/courses/350884

Provides an introduction to computational modeling of cognition, summarizing traditional approaches and providing experience with state-of-the-art methods. Covers computational learning theory, pattern recognition and connectionists approaches as well as Bayesian probabilistic models, and illustrates how they have been applied in several key areas of cognitive science, including visual perception and attention, object and face recognition, learning and memory as well as decision-making and reasoning.

Focuses on modeling simple laboratory tasks from cognitive psychology. Connections to contemporary research will be emphasized highlighting how computational models may motivate the development of new hypotheses for experiment design in cognitive psychology.

Ideally suited for both students with a computational background interested in gaining exposure to cognitive neuroscience as well as students from the life sciences interested in developing MATLAB programming skills via hand-on assignments.

Relies heavily on the use of MATLAB programming language. Previous MATLAB experience highly recommended but not mandatory. Optional programming labs and tutorials as well as online lectures will be available but willingness to do extra work is expected for students with little programming background.

Open to both graduate and undergraduate students.