Alumni Donnell Suggs Discussion on October 30th at 3pm at A105

Please join us Wednesday, 10/30 at 3pm in A105 to hear from City Tech alum and Editor-in-Chief of The Atlanta Voice, Mr. Donnell Suggs. Mr. Suggs will be zooming in from the presidential campaign trail to speak about how his City Tech education has informed his career in journalism. All are most welcome.

Questions may be directed to Dr. Caroline Hellman, caroline.hellman72@citytech.cuny.edu.

Celebrate Open Access Week 2024 with open engineering textbooks

Cover of Circuit Analysis and Design

At the University of Michigan, Michigan Publishing Services is dedicated to open access scholarship in a variety of ways, including participating in the Free Electrical and Computer Engineering Textbook Initiative. This program has been adopted by over 500 U.S. colleges and universities, and has saved students an estimated $50 million in textbook costs. 

  • Students: these textbooks can serve as supplements to your existing textbooks
  • Faculty: you can adapt or adopt parts or the entirety of these textbooks in your teaching

What’s up with policies related to open access and open science?

Open access week 2024It’s Open Access Week 2024, Oct. 21-27.  This year’s theme, Community over Commercialization, continues a thread from last year’s theme, “It Matters How We Open Knowledge: Building Structural Equity.”

I recently read this blog post by Professor Lorena A. Barba (George Washington University) that nicely sums up United States policy on open access and open science.  Any faculty member receiving federal funding should take the time to read this post about big changes in the making and librarians should also be familiar with how funder requirements impact researcher practices .

Faculty Workshop, October 23, Introduction to Manifold

Introduction to Manifold
Wednesday, October 23, 11:00am-12:30pm
with Robin Miller, Open Educational Technology Specialist at the Graduate Center

Manifold is a free digital publishing platform for the entire CUNY community, where you can create and share your own scholarship, custom classroom versions of texts and textbooks that are openly licensed or in the public domain, Open Educational Resources (OER), journals, or use Manifold Reading Groups to build your own course reader. Come find out more about the platform and how to get started using Manifold in your teaching at CUNY!

Register in advance for this meeting on Zoom. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Participants are encouraged to bring questions to the sessions; no level of familiarity with the topic is required. Workshops will be conducted remotely over Zoom. Part-time faculty who participate will be compensated at their hourly non-teaching adjunct rate for attending.

If you have any questions about this workshop, please contact Joshua Peach, OER Librarian, at jpeach@citytech.cuny.edu

On campus spaces for online courses

Looking for a space to participate in your online class on campus? The following areas are available.

AtoL Computer Labs:

Computer stations in G600 and V217 (8-11 in each room, including Macs) will be marked with colored stickers to indicate priority use for students enrolled in online courses.

Computer Lab Hours (when campus is open):

G600:
Monday – Thursday, 10am – 6pm;
Friday 10am-5pm

V217:
Monday – Thursday, 11am – 6pm;
Friday 11am – 5pm

Library Study Rooms:
Students can use the study rooms in the library to participate in bring-your-on-device online courses.

More information on how to book a study room

Study room policies

Library Hours (when campus is open):
L534, L535, L536, L537, L538 (enter on 4th floor):
Monday – Thursday 9am – 9pm;
Friday 9am-7pm;
Saturday 10am-5pm

Please note that the library’s 5th floor is intended for silent study.

Call for Papers: The Ninth Annual City Tech Science Fiction Symposium on SF, Artificial Intelligence, and Generative AI

A browser window displaying ChatGPT 4o mini. It is being asked, "Can science fiction literature tell us about the promise and peril of Artificial Intelligence?"

Call for Papers: 
Science Fiction, Artificial Intelligence, and Generative AI: The Ninth Annual City Tech Science Fiction Symposium

Deadline for CFP: 
Friday, November 8, 2024

Date and Time of Event: 
Tuesday, December 10, 2024, 9:00AM-5:00PM EST

Location: 
Academic Building, New York City College of Technology, CUNY

Organizers: 
Jill Belli, Wanett Clyde, Jason W. Ellis, Leigh Gold, Kel Karpinski, and Vivian Papp

=====

“Motive,” the construct said. “Real motive problem, with an AI. Not human, see?”

“Well, yeah, obviously.”

“Nope. I mean, it’s not human. And you can’t get a handle on it. Me, I’m not human either, but I respond like one. See?”

“Wait a sec,” Case said. “Are you sentient, or not?”

“Well, it feels like I am, kid, but I’m really just a bunch of ROM. It’s one of them, ah, philosophical questions, I guess …” The ugly laughter sensation rattled down 

Case’s spine. “But I ain’t likely to write you no poem, if you follow me. Your AI, it just might. But it ain’t no way human.”

–McCoy “Dixie Flatline” Pauley conversing with Case in William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984)

=====

William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984) captures some of the anxiety today regarding AI. Less like Skynet and its cybernetic soldiers in Terminator (1984), the passage above gets the heart of the subtleties of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that we are now confronting with Generative AI (much like McCoy Pauley’s ROM or read only memory construct) and the pursuit of AGI or Artificial General Intelligence (akin to the novel’s Wintermute and Neuromancer). Various forms and degrees of AI are transforming human culture and relationships in ways both obvious (e.g., ChatGPT) and obscure (e.g., facial recognition, credit scoring, policing, and carceral sentencing). And like Gibson’s imagined future, the megarich of today are developing and deploying AI for their own capitalistic and ideological ends. While their motives are challenging enough to decipher, those of the eventual AGI systems they create will be even more so.

It is with these concerns in mind that we convene this year’s Ninth City Tech Science Fiction Symposium on the topic of Science Fiction, Artificial Intelligence, and Generative AI. Science Fiction offers a spectrum of AI perspectives from hopeful to warning. On the one hand there is Murray Leinster’s helpful if mischievous “A Logic Named Joe” (1946), but on the other, there is AM in Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” (1967). Together, we will examine the many connections between SF and AI: anticipation, caution, education, inspiration, prediction, representation, and more.

We invite proposals for 10-20 minute scholarly paper presentations or 40-60 minute panel discussions related to the topic of Science Fiction, Artificial Intelligence, and Generative AI. Please send a 250-word abstract with title, brief 100-150-word professional bio, and contact information to Jason Ellis (jellis@citytech.cuny.edu) by Friday, November 8, 2024

Topics with a connection to Science Fiction, Artificial Intelligence, and Generative AI might include but certainly are not limited to:

  • How is AI represented in SF? 
  • What is the history of AI in SF?
  • Does AI differ in SF across media (e.g., print, film, television, video games, etc.)?
  • How does AI affect individuals and society in SF?
  • How does SF approach AI Ethics including and beyond Asimov’s Laws of Robotics?
  • What are some of the unintended consequences of AI explored in SF, and what might we learn from those?
  • What are the utopian and dystopian possibilities of AI in SF?
  • What examples exist of teaching with AI in SF? Are there lessons for pedagogy today?
  • How does AI’s energy consumption figure into SF and Climate Fiction?
  • Are there mundane examples of AI in SF?
  • What can SF teach AI developers and users?
  • How is Generative AI depicted in SF?
  • How is Generative AI disrupting SF work practices (e.g., cover and interior art, writing, production workflows, etc.)?
  • Can AI make SF?
  • AI? What, me worry?

The event will be held in person at City Tech in downtown Brooklyn, New York. 

Analog Science Fiction and Fact will also announce the winner of their second Analog Award for Emerging Black Voices at this year’s symposium (https://www.analogsf.com/about-analog/analog-emerging-black-voices-award/).

This event is free and open to the public as space permits: an RSVP will be included with the program when announced on the Science Fiction at City Tech website (https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/sciencefictionatcitytech/). Free registration will be required for participation.

The event is sponsored by the School of Arts and Sciences at the New York City College of Technology, CUNY.

The Annual City Tech Symposium on Science Fiction is held in celebration of the City Tech Science Fiction Collection, an archival holding of over 600-linear feet of magazines, anthologies, novels, and scholarship. It is in the Archives and Special Collections of the Ursula C. Schwerin Library (Library Building, L543C, New York City College of Technology, 300 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201). More information about the collection and how to access it is available here: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/sciencefictionatcitytech/librarycollection/.

Fall 2024 Scholarly Publishing Workshops, Save the Dates

Academic Works logoAcademic Works Demystified
Nov. 6, 11 AM-12 PM
What is Academic Works and how does it benefit you as a scholar? You will learn more about how and why publishers allow you to contribute to Academic Works and the many benefits to sharing your scholarship openly to you, your students, and the public.
Registration


Zotero logo Get Organized! Zotero Basics
Dec. 4, 4-5 PM
Attendees will learn the capabilities of this powerful, free open-source reference management software program. The session covers the functionalities of the Zotero client, adding the Zotero plugin to your browser, and importing citations to generate a bibliography. To maximize our workshop time, please download Zotero from https://www.zotero.org and create your username and password in the Zotero client software by going to EDIT > PREFERENCES > >SYNC
Registration

Publishing Success Tidbits: The Article Submission Cover Letter Email

Authors may need to send a cover letter when submitting an article to a journal.  There is an art to preparing an article submission cover letter. Reimagining the Covering Letter: Why, When, and How to Communicate with Journal Editors before Manuscript Submission by Steven Gump in the Journal of Scholarly Publishing is a helpful guide. Log in with your CUNY email/password to access the article.

National Hispanic Heritage Month Exhibit: Trajes Típicos

To celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month, Professor Inés Corujo Martín of the Humanities department and City Tech’s Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Committee, mounted an exhibit in the library’s display cases.

Trajes Típicos honors the diversity of tradiional dress from Mexico, Spain, Spanish Philippines, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala (and its regions Nejab and Santa Catarina Palopó), Perú, Chile, and Argentina. In addition to the riot of color on display, information about the origin and importance of the garments featured communicate just a small part of the vibrancy and distinctiveness of Hispanic cultural textiles.

Some pieces have been generously borrowed from the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) Metro NY. This display connects with the course LATS/ARTH 2204 Latin American Fashion and Culture, which is part of the Academic Minor in Hispanic Studies.

“City Tech is a federally designated Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI).  As an HSI that is “committed to providing broad access to high quality technological and professional education for a diverse urban population,”[2] and in anticipation of the expected growth in its Hispanic* population, City Tech must reflect on its current policies and the culture of the institution to ensure an atmosphere of inclusion and respect, and meet the needs of Hispanic students.”
NYCCT HSI Committee via OpenLab

Here at City Tech, 35% of the student population identifies as Hispanic or Latinx/o/a. In accordance with Hispanic Heritage Month, this display seeks to celebrate and give visibility to this community while reflecting on the importance of Hispanic/Latinx cultural roots and traditions.*

A selection of textile related titles from our collection:

*Thank you to Professor Inés Corujo Martín for her contributions to this post.