Campus event highlights, April 16-25

(All events are free unless otherwise noted.)

Friday, April 16: “The ABCDs of Bridge Building”
Friday, April 16: “Opportunities Opened Up by the Smart Grid”
Monday, April 19: “Expanding Financial Access in Africa”
Tuesday, April 20: “An Alternative History of Women’s Emancipation from the Middle East”
Tuesday, April 20: “Urban Education Leadership that Makes a Difference”
Thursday, April 22: “To Be an Immigrant”
Thursday, April 22: “Silicon Carbide (SiC) Power Semiconductor Devices”
Friday April 23: “Next Generation Oceanography”
Friday, April 16: “The ABCDs of Bridge Building: Affordable, Beautiful, Constructible, Durable”

The Fazlur Rahman Khan Lecture Series features John E. Breen, the Nasser I. Al-Rashid Chair in Civil Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Breen will discuss the interrelation of aesthetics with overall bridge design, construction and maintenance.

The event begins at 4:10 p.m. in Sinclair Auditorium. It is sponsored by the department of civil and environmental engineering and the department of art and architecture.

Friday, April 16: “Opportunities Opened Up by the Smart Grid: Reducing Emissions and Cutting Energy Costs”

Seminars in Engineering Science, a series sponsored by the department of mechanical engineering and mechanics, features Dr. Kartik Ariyur of Purdue University.

The event begins at 4:10 p.m. in Room 466 of Packard Lab.

Monday, April 19: “Expanding Financial Access in Africa: Prospects and Innovations in Microfinance”

The College of Business and Economics is sponsoring this conference, which runs from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Rauch Business Center.

The conference’s keynote address will be given at 4:10 p.m. in the Zoellner Arts Center’s Baker Hall by global economist Dambisa Moyo, author of Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa.

Tuesday, April 20: “An Alternative History of Women’s Emancipation from the Middle East”

The Center for Global Islamic Studies presents an address by Prof. Nagihan Haliloglu, a visiting scholar from Turkey, who examines the ways in which Muslim women in Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Palestine construct their own history of women’s emancipation.

The event begins at 4:15 p.m. in Room 102 of Maginnes Hall.

Tuesday, April 20: “Urban Education Leadership that Makes a Difference”

The College of Education presents a discussion with Floyd Beachum, the Bennett Professor of urban education; George White, professor of educational leadership and director of the Center for Developing Urban Educational Leaders; Richard Barth, CEO of the KIPP Foundation; Martin Blank, director for school, family and community connections at the Institute for Educational Leadership; and Karen Kolsky, assistant regional superintendent of the Philadelphia School District.

The event runs from 6 to 8 p.m. at Baker Hall in the Zoellner Arts Center. Tickets are $10 and can be ordered by calling the arts center at x82787 or by visiting its Web site.

For more information contact Tammy Palmer at x83226 or tlp205.

Thursday, April 22: “To Be an Immigrant: Social Psychological Studies of Identity Processes”

The department of psychology presents an address by Kay Deaux, distinguished professor emerita of the City University of New York.

The event begins at 4 p.m. in Room 222 of Chandler-Ullmann Hall.

Thursday, April 22: “Physical Electronics and Applications of Silicon Carbide (SiC) Power Semiconductor Devices”

The Sherman Fairchild Lecture in Solid State Studies features Anant Agarwal ’84 Ph.D., who leads a team of 15 scientists and engineers developing SiC Power Devices at Cree Inc. in Durham, N.C.

The event begins at 4:10 p.m. in Room 316 of Lewis Lab.

Friday April 23: “Next Generation Oceanography: Thousands of Sensors to Millions of People in Real Time”

The HPC (High-Performance Computing) Day 2010 keynote address features John Delaney ‘64, professor of oceanography at the University of Washington. Delaney will discuss new approaches to understanding the ocean’s complexity and power and its impact on long-term weather and short-term climatic variations. Delaney will also discuss the emerging technologies used by oceanographers, including robotics, biotechnology, cloud computing, chemical and genomic sensors, digital imaging, nanotechnology, serious gaming, visualization technologies, computational simulations and data assimilation, seismo-acoustic tomography, and the Internet.

Delaney’s talk begins at 1:10 p.m. in Sinclair Auditorium. To register for the conference, please visit the HPC Day registration page.