Straight Talk: The Persistence of Race in Scientific Research

Posted on by Sarah Roe

Click here for a free recording of the event!

Straight Talk: The Persistence of Race in Scientific Research

Join us for another amazing, interactive discussion on some of today’s hottest topics lead by our esteemed panel of guests. This conversation between philosophers and scientists will not only interrogate some of the enduring ideologies of race in America but also some of the reasons behind its continued resonance within the scientific community, largely in the field of genetic research.

Guests Include:

The Black National Anthem will be performed by Shades of Yale.

Melissa Garafola, Connecticut Science Center
Genomics Educator

Sarah M. Roe, PhD, Southern Connecticut State University
Director of the Research Center on Values in Emerging Science and Technology

Cleo Rolle, PhD, Capital Community College
Assistant Professor, Biotechnology Program Coordinator

Quayshawn Spencer, PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Robert S. Blank Presidential Associate Professor of Philosophy

Keitra Thompson, DNP, MSN, FNP-BC, Yale School of Medicine
Postdoctoral Fellow, National Clinician Scholars Program/VA Advanced Fellowship Program

An Hour with an Expert: Dr. Elena Tej Grewal

Posted on by Sarah Roe

Check out our very first installment of An Hour with An Expert hosted by the Research Center on Values in Emerging Science and Technology!

An Hour with an Expert: Dr. Elena Tej Grewal

SCSU Professors Dr. Roe (History) and Dr. Antonios (Computer Science) team up to ask today’s leading science and industry experts important contemporary questions.

Dr. Elena Tej Grewal is a data scientist, small businesswoman, nationally cited education expert and multi-racial progressive leader. As Head of Data Science at Airbnb, Dr. Grewal was a force for change, helping lead efforts to close a gender pay gap and end discrimination against Black customers. Now, Dr. G hopes to tackle inequities in New Haven’s health, wealth, education and public safety head-on.

Click on this link to learn from our discussion!

Learn more about Data Science!

Event Supported By:

The Research Center on Values in Emerging Science and Technology

SCSU STEM-IL

SCSU Department of History

SCSU Department of Computer Science

SCSU Data Science Program

The Persistence of Race in Scientific Research

Posted on by Sarah Roe

Thursday, February 18, 2021 6:00PM

Straight Talk: The Persistence of Race in Scientific Research | Connecticut Science Center (ctsciencecenter.org)

Click here for a free recording of the event!

Straight Talk: The Persistence of Race in Scientific Research

Join us for another amazing, interactive discussion on some of today’s hottest topics lead by our esteemed panel of guests. This conversation between philosophers and scientists will not only interrogate some of the enduring ideologies of race in America but also some of the reasons behind its continued resonance within the scientific community, largely in the field of genetic research.

Guests Include:

The Black National Anthem will be performed by Shades of Yale.

Melissa Garafola, Connecticut Science Center
Genomics Educator

Sarah M. Roe, PhD, Southern Connecticut State University
Director of the Research Center on Values in Emerging Science and Technology

Cleo Rolle, PhD, Capital Community College
Assistant Professor, Biotechnology Program Coordinator

Quayshawn Spencer, PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Robert S. Blank Presidential Associate Professor of Philosophy

Keitra Thompson, DNP, MSN, FNP-BC, Yale School of Medicine
Postdoctoral Fellow, National Clinician Scholars Program/VA Advanced Fellowship Program

Ethics, Information, and Our “It-from-Bit” Universe

Posted on by Sarah Roe

Ethics, Information, and Our “It-from-Bit” Universe

Author: Terrell Ward Bynum
Southern Connecticut State University

Click here for the full text!

The essence of the Computer Revolution is found in the nature of a computer itself. What is revolutionary about computers is logical malleability.
James H. Moor 1985

It from bit . . . every particle, every field of force, even the spacetime continuum itself . . . derives its function, its meaning, its very existence from [bits].
John Archibald Wheeler 1990

Abstract: Using information technology, humans have brought about the “Information Revolution,” which is changing the world faster and more profoundly than ever before, and generating an enormous number of ethical “policy vacuums”. How is this possible? An answer is suggested by ideas from James Moor regarding “logical malleability,” in his classic paper “What is Computer Ethics?” (1985) The present essay combines Moor’s ideas with the hypothesis that all physical entities — including spacetime and the universe as a whole — are dynamic data structures. To show the usefulness of taking such an approach, in both physics and in computer ethics, a suggested “it-from-bit” model of the universe is briefly sketched, and relevant predictions are offered about the future of computer and information ethics.

Event: Rules for Robots: Ethics & Artificial Intelligence

Posted on by Sarah Roe

Dr. Katleen Gabriels

Thursday, December 5, 3:15 Engleman A120

Abstract: Google’s search engine, Facebook’s News Feed, Amazon’s Echo: many of our everyday technologies contain Artificial Intelligence (AI). Autonomous robotic vacuum cleaners and robot lawn mowers help us at home, robotic surgical systems perform operations, and therapy chatbots such as Woebot are always ready to ‘listen’. We can even delegate moral decision making to Artificial Moral Agents.   The combination of robots and AI leads to numerous possibilities, which, in turn, also raise compelling ethical questions. Which decisions do we delegate to machines and which preferably not? And how and from ‘whom’ do self-learning AI systems actually learn?

Dr. Katleen Gabriels is a moral philosopher, specialized in computer ethics. She works as an Assistant Professor at Maastricht University, The Netherlands. She researches the relations and co-shapings between morality and contemporary technologies.  In October, her new book on technology ethics was published; the English version will be published early 2020 (Rules for Robots. Ethics & Artificial Intelligence, VUBPRESS).

Contact: Richard Volkman, volkmanr1@southernct.edu

Artificial Intelligence: an astrodynamicits’s perspective

Posted on by Joshua Connor
NASA Speaker Comes to Southern

The world of astrodynamics, in the field of Artificial Intelligence: an astrodynamicits’s perspective.

With Dr. Alina Mashiku
NASA Aerospace Engineer

Wednesday, September 19, 2018
1:05 PM – 2:00 PM

Southern Connecticut State University
501 Crescent Street
New Haven, CT 06515
Building: Engleman Hall
Room: C112

Refreshments will be served!

For More Information

contact: Dr. Sarah Roe Roes1@SouthernCT.edu – (203) 392-6767


Made possible through funds provided by SCSU Faculity Development and our sponsor, the Research Center on Values in Emerging Science and Technology. Also sponsored by the Computer Science Department, the Physics Department, and the Philosophy Department.