Lecture Previews

School of Design Lecture

Tuesday at 5 p.m.

Margaret Morrison Carnegie Hall 103 (Breed Hall)

The School of Design’s Transdisciplinary Lecture Series presents Charlie Cannon, founder of the Business Innovation Factory. Cannon’s talk is titled “Social Innovation: Research and Development After Design.” Cannon is one of the founders of the LOCAL Architecture Research and Design, which helped plan the transformation of an abandoned steel mill into a center for arts and technical training in Providence, R.I.

Quality of Life Technology Center Open House

Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.

Newell-Simon Hall

The Quality of Life Technology Center is celebrating its fifth year of NSF-supported research with an open house and student poster session event designed especially for campus communities. Student research posters, educational opportunities, commercialization highlights, and a raffle will be included in the event.

Rationalist Accounts of War: Robert Powell

Thursday at 6 p.m.

Steinberg Auditorium (Baker Hall A53)

Robert Powell, the Robson professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley, will present a lecture titled “Rationalist Accounts of War.” This event is co-sponsored by the Quantitative Social Science Scholars Program, the Humanities Scholars Program, and the Center for International Relations and Politics.

Now that Everyone is a Curator, Curators are Writing Algorithms

Thursday at 5 p.m.

Adamson Wing (Baker Hall 136A)

Joseph del Pesco will present his recent projects and discuss algorithms as a guiding metaphor in his practice as a curator of contemporary art. In the last 50 years, new forms and subjects in the work of artists have proliferated, and the art network now spans several continents. As a result of these complexities, curators such as del Pesco have created their own conditional systems within and beyond art institutions to address an art world in flux.

Show + Tell Series: The Means to the End

Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

Rangos 3, University Center

Carnegie Mellon alumni Frank Janesh (CFA ’01) from “The Scenic Route” in Los Angeles and Nitya Venkataraman Chambers (HSS ’01) from ABCnews.com in Washington, D.C., will present a talk on how to begin with an idea and transform it into a polished work. There will be a dessert reception at 6:30 p.m., and the program itself will begin at 7 p.m.

The U.S., China, and Germany in the Economic Crisis

Friday at 2:30 p.m.

Connan Room, University Center

Experts Lee Branstetter, associate professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon; Barry Naughton, professor of Chinese economy and Sokwanlok Chair of Chinese International Affairs at the University of California, San Diego; and Stephen J. Silvia, associate professor at American University will compare the policy responses of the U.S., China, and Germany to the global economic downturn since 2008.

They will consider questions of currency regulation, stimulus versus austerity, and financial reform in a domestic and international context.