The North American connection

Reception

The Bay Area programme starts with a reception for students and their families who have received offers from the University. Some of our loyal and enthusiastic alumni, along with International Officers Scott McQuarrie and Tessa Birley, and Professor Frank Cogliano, Co-Dean North America, will talk about the extraordinary educational and social experiences that await those who take up their places at the University.

On Sunday 13 March, informal gatherings of alumni, volunteers and donors are planned.

Big Edinburgh Data

Professor Jon Oberlander will lead a networking event at Stanford bringing together researchers, alumni and commercial partners entitled Big Edinburgh Data. Big data is a topic that has become ubiquitous, but what does it really mean, and what does it mean for Edinburgh? Our School of Informatics is the largest, and highest rated, concentration of data scientists in Europe. We are one of the founding partners in the UK’s new Alan Turing Institute, which aims to be one of the top three data science centres in the world. We are building a new Data Technology Institute to multiply data-centric ideas and talent to produce positive disruption.

Three Edinburgh academics will talk about how big data is transforming their work:

• Dr Ram Ramamoorthy will discuss robotics and machine learning.
• Professor James Loxley will discuss text-mining Edinburgh’s literary heritage.
• Professor Jon Oberlander will discuss Edinburgh’s unique opportunities in medical informatics.

They will also highlight the recent extraordinary growth in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Edinburgh anchored by the School of Informatics – and give primers on the University’s plans for data technology and the digital arts.

Bill Russell (BSc Computing Science 1975), former Vice-President of Hewlett-Packard and chairman of tech company PROS, will chair a feedback session with alumni and friends on new modes of industry-University engagement.

Scottish Enlightenment

Other events on Monday 14 March will focus on the humanities. Dr Thomas Ahnert, Head of the School of History, Classics & Archaeology, will give a lecture on the Scottish Enlightenment to the St Andrews Society of San Francisco.

Stanford will host a high-level academic roundtable on the Enlightenment, organised by Professor Frank Cogliano and Professor Caroline Winterer, Director of the Stanford Humanities Center.

Transforming Energy Innovation: Global Opportunities, Local Solutions

Dr Andy Kerr, Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation, will preside over a symposium at the British Consulate in San Francisco. California and Scotland are global leaders in seeking to transform their energy systems, from energy demand reduction and electric vehicles to large-scale deployment of renewable energy. Both are also major oil and gas producers and will continue to rely predominantly on non-renewable sources for their energy until at least 2030.

Dr Kerr and his colleagues aim to explore new and productive partnerships in energy innovation and research between Californian enterprises, investors and universities and the University of Edinburgh and Scotland’s energy innovators. Leading-edge energy companies, state energy agencies, clean tech investors, researchers in energy, enterprise networks and alumni of the University will discuss the way forward.

The Core of Compassion

On Wednesday, we return to Stanford University for a joint inter-disciplinary workshop entitled “The Core of Compassion”, exploring the science and the sense of compassion in medicine.

Dr Liz Grant, Director of Edinburgh’s Global Health Academy, Professor John Gillies, Honorary Senior Lecture in General Practice, and Professor Jim Doty, neurosurgeon and founder of Stanford’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, will chair an afternoon conference to highlight the role of compassion in health and end-of-life care, how we teach it, and how the rise of computers and robots in so many areas of our lives will affect us all.

Is it necessary to be human to be empathetic and compassionate? What is empathy and compassion from a non-living entity? Do the humanities still have a contribution to make to this discussion? These and other questions will be addressed.

Mozilla reception for alumni and supporters

The Bay Area events culminate in a reception hosted by Chris Beard (MBA 2004), Chief Executive of Mozilla, producer of the Firefox web browser, in the company’s Hills Brothers Coffee Building headquarters underneath the Oakland Bay Bridge. University Principal Sir Timothy O’Shea will celebrate with alumni, families and friends the ways in which the events of the previous days have stimulated new relationships and reinforced existing ones between the University and its community and partners in the area.