February 13, 7PM : Harnessing Biological Tools to Treat Polycystic Kidney Disease
by Meg Schimmel, Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Weimbs Lab
held at Kiva Cowork, Santa Barbara

UC Santa Barbara PhD candidate Meg Schimmel will share her research on developing a revolutionary approach to treat autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), the most common inherited renal disease.

May 2nd, 7PM : Quantum Gravity
A Tour through Recent Developments and Open Questions
by Molly Kaplan, UCSB Physics
held at Brass Bear Brewing, Santa Barbara

Are you curious about what happens inside a black hole? Perhaps you're wondering whether wormholes really exist, or pondering where you fit into the cosmos? If so, join us for a lightspeed journey through the cutting-edge in the field of quantum gravity, the theory that unites quantum mechanics and general relativity and describes the fundamental physics behind everything in our universe. During our tour, we'll delve into a decades-old mystery about information disappearing inside a black hole, and explore the new story that demystifies this information paradox. We'll also examine one of the main tools theoretical physicists use to understand quantum gravity: the holographic principle. This remarkable theory has unlocked new insights into the true nature of spacetime. No advanced science background is required, just bring your excitement and curiosity!

July 30, 9PM : Automating the Automator
by Michael Fischer
held at the Red Victorian, San Francisco

In the future, AI will change how software is created. Such AI systems would allow end-users to create customized software for their specific tasks. Michael will describe his research on using AI to build software and graphical user interfaces. First, he will describe a system that converts natural language commands into runnable programs using a translation model. He will then describe a second AI system that uses AI to create well-designed graphical user interfaces.

July 23, 7PM : Vision Without Sight
by Santani Teng
held at the Red Victorian, San Francisco

Vision dominates sensory processing, taking up almost half the human neocortex. But the visual cortex does not fall silent in blindness: it is recruited for a wide variety of nonvisual perception and cognition — including braille reading, echolocation, language, memory, and math — a phenomenon called crossmodal plasticity.

What good does it do? What kinds of computations does it support? Is it available to both blind and sighted people? Does it shed any light, so to speak, on common misconceptions about blindness? In this talk we will examine some adaptations to blindness, using sensory loss as a framework to guide fundamental questions about neural processing, human perception, and what it means to see.

July 16, 7PM : P5, a Video Game Approach to Change a Corrupt Society
held at the Red Victorian, San Francisco

Video games are fun, entertaining and creative but, as any art form, they can also be used to send a powerful message. Persona 5 is a good example of that. Taking place in modern Tokyo, it sharply presents all the defects of the Japanese society and a fantasist solution to it: Change hearts of the corrupted to bring justice.

Learn more about how video games can send a powerful message by making players think about the world they live on and the world their character is living on!