After a successful first year, WIDEN UTSC is back with the first event of the 2012-2013 season on the theme of “Flow”.
WIDEN UTSC is a discussion forum showcasing the exciting research happening at UTSC and mixing together different disciplinary perspectives on a common theme. We hope that a forum like this will help break down the barriers between the disciplines and open up new possibilities for collaboration and interaction. We are particularly grateful to the Office of the Vice-Principal Research for their generous support of WIDEN UTSC. (See https://www.widen.ca/UTSC/ for more).
The first session, “On Flow”, will take place Monday October 22, 3pm – 5pm in AA160, the New Council Chamber (please RSVP to alen.hadzovic@utoronto.ca by Thursday October 18).
We are very pleased to announce the following speakers:
* Leslie Chan *
(International Development Studies; Project Open Source/Open Access Executive Committee member)
Title: “Widening Global Knowledge Flow through Open Access.”
Abstract: Despite the tremendous diffusion of the Internet in recent years, knowledge flow in terms of volume and directions around the world, especially between the poor and rich countries, remains highly uneven. This talk highlights some of the structural barriers that are restricting the equitable flow of knowledge, and points to the development of open access as a means of evening the unequal flow.
* Ian Dennis Miller *
(graduate student; Department of Psychology)
Title: “Memelab: Can pictures of adorable kittens explain political revolutions?”
Abstract: Last year, Tweets across Egypt called a political system into question, while more recently PSY’s Gangnam Style music video received over 300 million views in just two months. These viral phenomena are the product of information flowing through an interconnected population, so could the same viral mechanisms be an explanation for both events? My work uses internet memes to study the way we create and share things online. During the spring of 2012, over 100 UTSC students used Memelab, an online viral research laboratory, to create memes and share them with friends. This presentation includes a history of memes, the results of the first Memelab experiment, and the future of social network simulation.
* Keely O’Farrell *
(graduate student; Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences/Physics and Astrophysics)
Title: “Mantle convection or : the buoyancy-driven flow below us”
Abstract: The Earth is composed of layered spherical shells: at the center is the core surrounded by the Earth’s mantle and on the surface is the Earth’s crust. The mantle convects bringing heat from inside to the surface. It is this convection which drives plate tectonics on the surface. Our group uses the High Performance Computing consortia SciNet to run numerical models of mantle convection and study different dynamical effects. This presentation will introduce mantle convection and present results from some of our numerical models.
Please join us!
Sincerely, Barry & Alen.