Enrichment Opportunities at Local Colleges

Physics Colloquium - 2/6/18 4:30 pm SC 181

Lisa Tran
University of Pennsylvania

Liquid crystals are ubiquitous in modern society. Whenever we text, use a calculator, or check our emails, we are interacting with LCDs - liquid crystal displays. These materials are the basis of the modern display industry because of their unique properties. They can be manipulated with electric fields and can alter light. They are also deformable because they are elastic: their rod-like molecules tend to align with one another. These properties allow for liquid crystals to be engineered into a pixel. Despite these advances in their technological applications so far, the structures that liquid crystals can form are yet to be completely understood. Current research aims to elucidate these structures to develop liquid crystals as biological sensors and as blue prints for assembling nanomaterials in energy applications.

Faculty Lecture - Krista Thomason: Child Soldiers and Moral Responsibility  

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2018, 4 – 6PM

McCabe Library 100 Atrium

It is common to think that child soldiers cannot be morally responsible for the violence they commit: not only are they underage, they typically are forced to join paramilitary units, they suffer psychological and physical abuse, and they participate in combat only under threat of harm or death. Yet when we examine the first-person accounts of former child soldiers, we find that they see themselves as responsible for their actions. It is tempting to think that their feelings are simply misguided or a result of their trauma. I argue instead that child soldiers, like adult ex-combat soldiers, suffer moral injury and their feelings of responsibility are part of the process of redrawing the boundaries of their moral selves.

Lisa Rizzo will speak about her experience as a woman and lesbian in a male dominated career field, how she built her own business, developed her own softball training curriculum and techniques, as well as the impact that your choices, especially with regards to social media, may have on your future. Students who attend this presentation will be able to understand the value in pursuing a career they are passionate about, translate shared coping strategies into their own life challenges, and recognize that their actions today have an impact on their future, especially in terms of social media. The presentation will address creative, career, and emotional wellness.

2/22/18 @6 pm

Smith Hall, Room 120 

 

Kimberlé Crenshaw, Professor of Law at UCLA and Columbia Law School, will be at the University of Delaware on Thursday, February 22, 2018, to speak at the Center for Black Culture’s Annual Black History Month Extravaganza. Crenshaw is a leading authority in the areas of Civil Rights, Critical Race Theory, race and gender equality, and intersectionality. “Intersectionality” calls attention to the forces that create and sustain power and privilege in American society—and contribute to the discrimination and oppression of minority groups.

2/22/18 @7pm

Trabant University Center, Multipurpose Room 

 

2018 Paul R. Jones Lecture 
Memorial Hall, Room 127 

2018 Paul R. Jones Annual Lecture featuring Mabel O. Wilson, Professor of Architecture, co-director of Global Africa Lab, and Associate Director at the Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University. She is currently writing Building Race and Nation, a book about how slavery influenced early American civic architecture. 

Patrick J. Cunningham, Jr. and Susan Ward Engineering Lecture Series
2/23/18 @ 2:30
Villanova Room, Connelly Center
Alumnus Brian T. Smith ’93 EE, a NASA flight director, is the College of Engineering’s 2018 Patrick J. Cunningham, Jr. and Susan Ward '80 Endowed Lecture Series in Engineering speaker. The title of his presentation is “The International Space Station: Engineering the Unknown.”
http://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/engineering/newsevents/newsarchives/2017/community/WardSpeaker.html

 

Nick Lupisella, ME '10 - The dream job you never knew existed...and how to get it.
Date: Tuesday, February 27
Time: 6:30-7:30
Location: White Hall room 218

Nick Lupisella graduated from Villanova in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. Nick spent 3.5 years as a sales engineer for Trane Commercial Systems, an industry leading HVAC equipment and controls provider. He then spent 2.5 years at Procter & Gamble where he worked in Supply Network Operations helping lead the CoverGirl brand's North American Distribution Center. Nick then transitioned to Johnson & Johnson as an associate in their Global Marketing Leadership Development Program while completing his MBA at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in May 2017. Nick's final move was to Merck at the end of September, where he now works on the company's emerging Immunology Biosimilars franchise as the Engagement Strategy Lead for their US brand marketing team. 

MacAlister Hall Sky View, 6th Floor

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

3:30 PM-5:00 PM

The first year of Donald Trump’s presidency was marked by the confirmation of a new Supreme Court Justice, US withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, and the passage of the largest tax cut bill in recent US history.  Trump’s actions on immigration led to massive protests at airports, and Americans marched in record numbers to support science, and for women’s rights.  Trump did not alter his style—his tweeted insults, his disregard for experts, or has grandiosity—when he became President of the United States.  But did this style hurt him (as opponents claim) or lead to unexpected new opportunities in foreign and domestic policy (as his supporters claim)?  With a year of the Trump presidency behind us, what is the bigger picture—how has his administration changed the office, the nation, and the world?

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

MacAlister Hall Sky View, 6th Floor

3:30 PM-5:00 PM

Sean O’Donnell, PhD, professor in the Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science, and Dan Marenda, PhD, associate professor of biology

Insects may be small, but they have outsized effects on human wellbeing as structural pests, crop destroyers and disease vectors. Chemical control is critical but costly, and many current pesticides bring undesirable effects such as toxicity to humans and wildlife. The labs of Dan Marenda, PhD, and Sean O’Donnell, PhD, found evidence that a non-nutritive sweetener, erythritol, is toxic when eaten by insects and has potential for development as a human- and mammal-safe insecticide.