Upcoming Talk: Dr. Edward Tunstel Weds 9/14 at 6:30 pm Namm 119

You are cordially invited to a talk by Edward Tunstel, entitled “Robotics: A Practitioner’s Perspective on Utility Now and Later” on Wednesday, September 14th from 6:30 – 7:30 PM in Namm 119, City Tech | CUNY, at 300 Jay Street in Brooklyn. This event is hosted by the college and the National Endowment for the Humanities Cultural History of Digital Technologies Colloquium.

Dr. Tunstel is a Senior Roboticist in the Research & Exploratory Development Department of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and has also served as space robotics & autonomous control lead in its Space Sector. He joined APL in 2007 after 18 years at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he worked on the NASA Mars Exploration Rovers mission as both a flight systems engineer responsible for autonomous surface navigation and as Rover Engineering Team lead for the mobility and robotic arm subsystems, which involved him in the daily performance assessment, planning, and operations of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers during their first four years on Mars. He is now engaged in robotics and autonomy research enabling next generation robotic systems and human-robot collaborative teams for future national security and space applications.

This event is free and open to the public.

neh_tustel_2016

Talk: Weds May 11 ETHAN AKIN, Professor of Mathematics, City College of New York

NEH_AKINv2You are cordially invited to a talk by Ethan Akin, entitled “What is a Dynamical System” on Wednesday, May 11th from 6 – 8:00 PM in Namm 119, City Tech | CUNY,  at 186 Jay Street in Brooklyn, NY. This event is hosted by the college and the National Endowment for the Humanities Cultural History of Digital Technologies Colloquium. 
 
Dr. Akin is Professor of Mathematics at the City College of New York, CUNY. He focuses on the topological part of dynamical systems theory and is the author of two books, The General Topology of Dynamical Systems (1993) and Recurrence in Topological Dynamics: Furstenberg Families and Ellis Actions (1997).
This event is free and open to the public.
 
Click here for event registration. The full announcement poster is attached. For more information please contact aleonhardt@citytech.cuny.edu.

Talk: Wednesday April 20th, 7-8:15 PM, HENRIK I. CHRISTENSEN, KUKA Chair of Robotics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Perspectives on Robotics: Past, Present, & Future.

Dr. Christensen will be speaking April 20th at 7 PM on the evolution of robotics and on how over the past 50 years we have seen tremendous progress on robotics from basic manufacturing to use in many different parts of our daily live. In this presentation we will discuss the main uses of robots across manufacturing, supply chain, home services, entertainment, etc. He will also discuss some of the enabling technologies and how this enables an entirely new series of opportunities for the use of robots across work, home, and leisure.

Dr. Christensen is the KUKA Chair of Robotics and Director of the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Christensen earned his degrees from Aalborg University and has held positions in Denmark, Sweden, and the U.S. He was the primary editor of the U.S. National Robotics Roadmap and does research on robotics in collaboration with partners across four continents. He is the author of more than 300 contributions and has been a co-founder of five robotics companies.

Talk: Tuesday 3/15 Matt Knutzen NYPL on Geospatial Mapping

Come and listen to Matt Knutzen, Director, Humanities and Social Science Research Division, New York Public Library speak on “Old Maps, New Data: Opportunity at the Networked Frontier.” The lecture will be in Namm 119, 6 – 8 pm. Download the NEH Knutson Lecture Poster here. Please register here!

Matt Knutson NEH Poster

 

Visit to Eames Mathematica Exhibit at NYHS

City Tech faculty visit the Mathematics exhibit during winter intersession to kick off new NEH grant

City Tech faculty visit the Mathematica exhibit during winter intersession to kick off new NEH grant

The influential design team of Charles and Ray Eames produced the groundbreaking Mathematica exhibition in 1961. On a cold wintry day in late January, City Tech faculty visited the New York version of Eames’ groundbreaking interactive show to kick off the NEH project. Faculty from different departments of City Tech’s three schools came together at the New York Hall of Science to examine the cultural impact of the Eames’ exhibit, which has been on display since the 1964 Worlds Fair. Much didactic and philosophical discussion ensued about the visual representation of conceptual mathematical frameworks, the consideration of diverse learning styles, and the notable differences in past and current pedagogical practices. As noted by faculty, the “history wall” in the display is rather Euro-centric and dated, which the science center dealt with by including a computer console with more up-to-date information. However, if you want to look at the original timeline, IBM and the Eames Office produced a free commemorative app “Minds of Modern Mathematics” in 2012 that is available here.

Exploring the Cultural History of Digital Technology at City Tech

Welcome to the website for City Tech’s newly funded NEH grant, A Cultural History of Digital Technology. The grant is an eighteen-month interdisciplinary faculty development project designed to equip faculty from both STEM and humanities disciplines with an understanding of the cultural, historical, and philosophical dimensions of three major contemporary technologies that are focal points in our curriculum: geospatial technology, digital fabrication, and robotics. Watch this space for more info as the site is developed from January 2016 through Summer 2017.