Nerd Nite Boston

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Hello friends of Nerdnite,

The next Nerdnite Boston will take place on a special night and at a special venue: Tuesday April 17, at the Oberon, 2 Arrow Street in Harvard Square. Because of the special venue, we’ve got advance tickets for sale. In addition to our usual format of two nerdy speakers + beer + nerd-appropriate tunes by DJ Claude Money, we plan to bust out a Nerdnite first: a film premier! Before we get to the details, I just want to point out that we will have our regularly-scheduled “last-Monday-of-the-month” Nerdnite at the Middlesex on April 30. Details on that event will come soon.

Now, on to the lineup for April 17. We’re thrilled to present the premier of the short film “Pie Heaven,” written and directed by Aviv Rubinstein and starring Adrian Ward. Aviv and Adrian will also be our speakers for the evening, but as you will see from the descriptions of their talks below, their nerdy interests are not limited to the nuts and bolts of filmmaking.

Talk 1: “Who needs friends when you’ve got Google?  How Google is reshaping our minds, relationships, and ideas about the self.”
by Adrian Ward
Adrian is a doctoral candidate in the psychology department at Harvard University. He tends to get excited about everything and, as a consequence, researches almost everything. He wears his grandfather’s wristwatch, loves muffins and barbecue, and wouldn’t mind living in a treehouse.

Talk 2:
“Subatomic Screenwriting and The Psychology of the Moving Picture”
by Aviv Rubinstein
This talk will dissect the art of screenwriting to the atomic level, then build it up to the size of the universe. Then, switching gears, we will discuss the ability for the moving picture to control audience’s mind. Clever psychology or witchcraft?

After Aviv’s talk, we’ll premier “Pie Heaven.” Two best friends, Ben and Emily engage in a competition…If Emily wins, Ben has to pay her rent for six months. If Ben wins, Emily must sleep with him.
Watch the trailer here.
The film will be followed by a Q&A with both Aviv and Adrian.

Be there and be square!
Tuesday April 17, 8pm
Oberon Theater
2 Arrow Street, Cambridge
Buy advance tickets here!
Find us on our Facebook Group or Twitter or our Facebook Page.

March Nerdnite takes place a week early, on the second-to-last Monday of the month, March 19. We’ll have our usual “2 nerds and a DJ” routine — and some fine nerdery it will be, we’re really excited about our lineup this month. Plus we’ll be giving out copies of the latest issue of Nerdnite – the Magazine.

As always, DJ Claude Money will provide the nerd-appropriate tunes.

Forthwith, the lineup for March Nerdnite:
1. Pan American Music, from Buddy Bolden to Los Rakas
by Galen Moore
Galen is the web editor at Boston Business Journal, and a masters candidate at Northeastern University, studying startup accelerators. He;s also a sometime DJ on the MIT radio, where he learned to dabble in musical styles he knows little about. He grew up in Oakland, Calif., and Tokyo, Japan, and he’s a licensed sea captain. He’s lived in Boston since 1995.

2.The future of retail… Coming to a store near you
by Aaron Chio
Aaron is a retail ‘obsessionado’ and focuses his time on helping global brands understand consumers & future of retail. Aaron loves the science behind large scale retailing. He has visited hundreds of stores across multiple continents searching for ideas on how large scale retailers market and merchandise to consumers.

Be there and be square!
Monday March 19, 8pm
Middlesex Lounge
315 Mass Ave, Cambridge
$5
Check us out on Facebook — we have a group and a page
We’re also on Twitter

The next Nerdnite will be our second event presented in conjunction with the Awesome Foundation.  We’re very excited to have two Awesome grantees coming to Nerdnite to tell us about their exciting and nerdy work.  This will all go down Monday Feb. 27, 2012, at 8pm at Middlesex Lounge.  As always, DJ Claude Money will provide nerd-appropriate tunes.

Talk 1:
Psychology, Magic, and Meaning: Stories from a Children’s Circus in Afghanistan.
by Zach Warren

Zach has been a juggling and magic teacher at the Afghan Children’s Educational Circus since 2005.  He holds a masters in divinity from Harvard, a masters in public policy from Georgetown, and is featured in the 2008 Guinness Book of Records for doing something strange — related to his work in Afghanistan.  He’s now a PhD student in psychology at Georgetown University.

Talk 2:
Tales from the Hammock
by Hansy Better Barraza

Hansy is an architect and an Associate Professor of Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design.  In 2011, She cofounded BR-A-CE: Building Research-Architecture-Community Exchange, a 501c non-profit dedicated to creating new community spaces.  When she is not working at Studio Luz Architects, the firm she cofounded with Anthony Piermarini, Hansy is playing soccer with her soccer teammates -the Thunderbolts.

Thanks to Kara Brickman of the AF who spearheaded this exciting collaboration.  If there was ever a time to “be there and be square,” this is it!

Monday Feb. 27, 8pm
Middlesex Lounge
315 Mass Ave, Cambridge
$5

The first Nerdnite of 2012 is nearly here. Join us at the Middlesex on Monday January 30 to welcome a new year of nerdery — including the newest member of the Nerdnite family: “Nerdnite: The Magazine.” That’s right: In addition to our usual fabulous talks, and the nerd-appropriate tunes of DJ Claude Money, everyone who comes out for the January event will be able to pick up a complimentary copy of the inaugural Nerdnite Mag issue. We’re excited to show it off.

We’re also excited about this months talks — here are the details:

Talk 1:
Frontier Nerd: Going it Alone in Western Montana
by Mattie Booth
Mattie is a huge nerd for all things old timey. She is currently studying painting and 3D arts at MassArt but takes frequent and lengthy trips to her home state of Montana where she indulges in the wisdom of local curmudgeons in preparation for the impending apocalypse. This past summer she lived alone in a cabin in the Bob Marshall wilderness to paint, hike, learn a few survival skills, and practice being the last person on earth. She will talk about a few of the tricks and techniques she picked up out in the woods including butchering a rooster and skinning and tanning a hide. Graphic and educational photos will be abundant.

Talk 2:
CA$H FOR YOUR WARHOL: The Evolution of a Prank
by Geoff Hargadon
Geoff is a conceptual artist and photographer focused on subjects such as money, consumerism, and art as a commodity. He has created “CA$H FOR YOUR WARHOL,” “Runaway Reindeer,” and “The Somerville Gates.” He has also had a wealth management practice in Boston for 35 years. Worst case scenario for his presentation: free stickers for all.

Be there and be square!
Monday January 30, 8pm
Middlesex Lounge
315 Mass Ave, Cambridge
$5
Check out our Facebook Group, our Facebook Page, or our Twitter feed for info on upcoming events.

Please join us the Monday after Thanksgiving, November 28, for the latest bout of Boston Nerdnery. We’ll kick things off at 8pm at the Middlesex. DJ Claude Money will provide the nerd-appropriate tunes. If you’d like to learn more about this month’s talks, the speakers, and possibly to find a job — read on.

Talk 1: On the vices and joys of machining at home: Blue collar aspirations of white collar men.
by Tom Trikalinos
Finding what works in healthcare is what he does in his day job, but in his other lives, Tom and his friends work on unorthodox projects that combine machining, digital electronics, house cleaning appliances, coffee, chalk and evidence-based medicine to provide suboptimal solutions to solved problems. He’ll describe one of these. Tom is Co-director of the Tufts Evidence-based practice Center and faculty at Tufts. Tom and his colleagues perform comparative effectiveness research, i.e., they try to understand whether what the doctor orders is what the patient needs. They analyze other people’s research to assess health technologies including drugs, surgeries, and tests.

If you are a programmer, a statistician, or a mathematician in search for a job, you may want to let him know.

Talk 2: What Art Can Tell Us About the Brain
by Brandon Moore
Brandon is a two-time Nerdnite lecturer — it’s great to have him back. He’s currently a research assistant with the Livingstone lab at Harvard Medical School and is applying to PhD programs in neuroscience. He has been fascinated with the way that the brain processes visual information and how art as well as optical illusions can be used to help investigate the neural basis of vision.

Be there and be square!
Monday November 28, 8pm
Middlesex Lounge
315 Mass Ave, Cambridge
$5
Check out our Facebook Group, our Facebook Page or our Twitter feed (search Nerdnite Boston).

The next Nerdnite is set for Monday October 24, 8pm at the Middlesex — note that we’re a week early this month due to Halloween. We have a frighteningly good lineup this month…see below for details. As always, DJ Claude Money will provide the nerd-appropriate tunes.

The talks:
1. A Tourist in My Own City: Uncovering the Weird and Interesting Right in Front of Our Eyes
by Devin Cole

Devin grew up in Boston, taking the train to and from high school. He got a chance to explore the other side of the river during his college days at Harvard, where, unlike many of his classmates, he actually left Harvard Square occasionally. Devin is now Director of Engagement & Programs at Boston World Partnerships, a job that connects him with people in all different parts of town, and in all different industries, that are united by their common desire to strengthen their city and expand its opportunities. These experiences as a life-long Boston-area resident left Devin curious about the lesser-known nooks and crannies of his hometown, and the history they contain — the subject of his talk.

2. Dinosaurs, Zombies, and Shapeshifters: A Paleovirologist’s Guide to Our DNA.
by Ravi Subramanian

Ravi Subramanian is a postdoctoral associate at Tufts University. When not complaining about funding or trying to convince graduate students to get out of science while they still can, he studies endogenous retroviruses in human evolution and disease. This almost justifies the amount of time he spends watching videos of lemurs and marmosets.

Be there and be square!
Monday October 24, 8pm
Middlesex Lounge
315 Mass Ave, Cambridge
$5
Check us out on Facebook or Twitter

Please join us Monday September 26 for a super-sized, back-to-school edition of Nerdnite featuring three fantastic speakers. To accommodate our expanded lineup we’ll get things started an hour earlier than usual — 7pm at the Middlesex. DJ Claude Money will provide the nerd-appropriate tunes.

Here’s the lineup:

1. What is Evil? Understanding Human Cruelty in a Secular World
by Kate Elliott
Kate is a social worker who has been providing mental health services in the state prison system for the past 9 years. From MCI Framingham (the women’s prison) to Walpole (the old max) to Souza-Baranowski (the new max), she has been treating inmate clients and wondering about such questions as: what makes people violent? how do we understand murder? and how do we teach moral behavior to adults? Having come of age reading JRR Tolkein and Madeline L’Engle and CS Lewis, she now reads grown-up books about the psychology and philosophy of good and evil – but still keeps an eye out for chances to take a stand against the dark forces.

2. What Albums and Lattes Have in Common: Consumer Psychology and the Music Business
by Jodi Beggs
Jodi is an economist and writer whose focus is on making economics accessible and entertaining to a general audience. She is (slowly) working on her Ph.D. in Business Economics, and she’s been studying the music industry ever since teaching an economics tutorial entitled “Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll.” Jodi writes about economics on her web site “Economists Do It With Models” and for various other online publications, and she will talk your ear off on the subject if you aren’t careful.

3. The Evolution of Endurance Running
by Dave Rosen
Dave is a PhD student in robotics by day and a distance-running enthusiast by night (or sometimes by entirely-too-early morning).  When he’s not in lab developing improved inference methods for badass robots, he can often be found running long distances around the Charles at ludicrous (or at least moderate) speed.  He first learned of the Endurance Running Hypothesis while researching improved training methods, and thought it was sufficiently cool to merit a Nerd Nite talk.

Be there and be square!
Monday September 26, 7pm
Middlesex Lounge
315 Mass Ave, Cambridge
$5
www.boston.nerdnite.com
Find us on Facebook & Twitter — search “Nerdnite Boston”

The next Nerdnite takes place Monday August 29 at Middlesex Lounge. We hope you’ll join us as Nerdnite makes a foray into the world of nerdy cinema, and approaches our science-nerd bread-and-butter territory from a new angle with a talk on alternative medicine and placebos. As always, DJ Claude Money will spin nerd-appropriate tunes, sharing the stage with this month’s outstanding speakers. Here is the lineup:

Talk 1. “Mumblecore: The Movement That Didn’t Roar” by Maria San Filippo.

Maria saw Blue Velvet at the impressionable age of 14, so naturally she now teaches cinema studies. She has a PhD from UCLA and currently is a visiting lecturer at Harvard and Wellesley, where she teaches “Virgins, Vamps, & Camp: Gender and Sexuality in Classical Hollywood Cinema” and “Happy Endings?: The Hollywood Romantic Comedy” among other courses. Her book The B Word: Bisexuality in Contemporary Film and Television is forthcoming from Indiana University Press. Her friends, relatives, and therapist often admonish her that real life isn’t like the movies…but mumblecore just may prove them wrong.

Talk 2: “How do people heal? An Integration of Acupuncture, Meditation and Placebo Research” by Jessica Shaw.

Jessica has worked for Harvard Medical School as a consultant on studies of alternative medicine since 2004. She is also the Practice Manager and Acupuncturist at Balanced Health in downtown Boston and spends entirely too much time thinking about this problem.

Be there and be square!
Monday August 29, 8pm
Middlesex Lounge
315 Mass Ave, Cambridge
$5
www.boston.nerdnite.com
twitter.com/nerdniteboston
Facebook: search “nerdnite boston”

The next installment in the Boston Nerdnite saga takes place Monday July 25 at Middlesex Lounge. We’re very excited to be collaborating with the Awesome Foundation for this month’s Nerdnite — our speakers this month have both received grants from the Foundation to fund their nerdery and send it in more awesome directions. The Awesome Foundation is an experiment in micro-philanthropy that began in Boston 2 years ago. Individual gifts of $100 make up monthly $1,000 no-strings-attached fellowships awarded to people forwarding the interest of awesome in the world. Since it’s inception, they’ve funded and encouraged oodles of hair-brained schemes and double-dog dared similarly minded people to do the same by starting chapters in their own cities. The current tally is 20+ chapters worldwide and counting. Big thanks to Kara Brickman from AF for curating this month’s lineup, and helping to get this collaboration going.

We’ll start at 8pm as usual.  DJ Claude Money will provide the nerd appropriate tunes.

On to the talks:

1. Cyborgs R Us: How to Resist World Domination!
by Sara Hendren

Sara likes to think about cyborgs and robots as much as the next nerd. She’s an artist, and she’s interested in things like superhuman prosthetic limbs, hearing aid jewelry, drone soldiers, furniture that gives hugs — and what technology and design can show us about global disability rights. In September, she’ll be starting the program in Art, Design, and the Public Domain at Harvard. Check out her website here.

2. The “ME2!!!X”
by Charles Guan
Mastermind behind the assortment of megavehiclomechanical creations, Charles Guan will be speaking about his Awesome Foundation Fellowship garnering proposal to build a single-wheel holonomic balancing vehicle based on reverse engineering the patent from a yet to be released vehicle model that rhymes with “Fonda”. Charles is a prolific hacker, tinkerer, designer and maker of combat robotics. He calls himself a “hobbyist” but we have a sneaking suspicion he may “accidentally” build our robot overlords. Have a look at some videos of his creations.

Be there and be square!
Monday July 25, 8pm
Middlesex Lounge
315 Mass Ave, Cambridge
www.boston.nerdnite.com
twitter.com/nerdniteboston
Facebook: Search “Nerdnite Boston”

Dearest Friends of Nerdnite,

Please join us on Monday June 27th, 8pm at the Middlesex for another nerd-tastic evening of learning and beer.  As always, DJ Claude Money will provide the nerd-appropriate tunes.

Talk 1: “Wake, REM, Light, Deep, and WTF: A Savage Journey to the Heart of Sleep & Dreams”
by Steve Fabregas
Steve is a professional sleeper, amateur photographer, and aspiring geek. He’s spent the last few years with Zeo, Inc, learning, thinking, and innovating in the world of sleep while trying to bridge the gap between scientific research and curious consumers. Steve’s not sure if the geek thing means that he’s aspiring to be a geek or that he’s already a geek who aspires to more; we think the answer is in the question.

Talk 2: The Neurobiology of Zombies
by Jeremy Kay
You might think of zombies as lowly B-movie material, but scientists have discovered many instances of zombie-like behavior in nature. Updating the talk that he gave several years ago, Jeremy will give some creepy examples. Jeremy is a postdoctoral fellow in neurobiology at Harvard — and one of the Nerdnite Boston Bosses. He loves referring to himself in the third person. His professional work concerns vision… his fascination with zombies is purely recreational. Really. Like, your brains will totally not get eaten if you show up. We promise.

Be there and be square!
Monday June 27, 8pm
Middlesex Lounge
315 Mass Ave
Cambridge, MA
$5