This year, MIT student SERC Scholars teamed up with students from HBCUs to design and implement research projects on generative AI and democracy. Please join us on May 12 anytime from 12pm-1pm for a casual pick-up lunch in the Stata Center’s TSMC lobby as you explore these students’ posters and interactive projects.Human vs. AI-generated Political Arguments: This study examines how human-written versus AI-generated persuasive arguments from political parties affect participant opinions. Social Media Algorithms, User Experience, and Polarization: This project explores people’s social media experiences and user journeys and studies how demographic differences changes those experiences. Deliberate Self-Questioning: Socratic and Forced Argumentation Games on Deliberation.io: This project examines the effectiveness of interventions involving (i) Socratic questioning and (ii) forced defense of an opposing perspective at reducing polarization.Co-sponsored by SERC, GovLab, and MIT Radius.

Love environmental data? So do we.Join MIT Libraries and the Public Environmental Data Partners (PEDP) for our next datathon, focused on understanding risks to data, the tools to preserve it, and the many ways you can help. Whether you’re a seasoned scraper or brand new to data, all are welcome. Training provided. We’ll spend the afternoon digging into datasets that need saving to keep them usable for the long haul. Monday, May 12, at the GIS & Data Lab (7A-100) in Rotch Library (enter Building 7, 2nd floor).Space is limited, sign up now!

Ten minutes for your mind@2:50 every day at 2:50 pm in multiple time zones:Europa@2:50, EET, Athens, Helsinki (UTC+2) (7:50 am EST) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88298032734Atlantica@2:50, EST, New York, Toronto (UTC-4) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85349851047Pacifica@2:50, PST, Los Angeles, Vancouver (UTC=7) (5:50 pm EST) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85743543699Almost everything works better again if you unplug it for a bit, including your mind. Stop by and unplug. Get the benefits of mindfulness without the fuss.@2:50 meets at the same time every single day for ten minutes of quiet together.No pre-requisite, no registration needed.Visit the website to view all @2:50 time zones each day.at250.org or at250.mit.edu

Let's meet, drink bubble tea, and speak! Practice a language with a group of native speakers and other language learners, meet other language lovers, and learn about the LCE.The registration is here.Anyone who is affiliated with MIT can participate in the LCE. Our members include students, staff, visiting scientists and scholars, faculty members, and their spouses and partners.

Speaker: Sky Cao (MIT)Title: Global well-posedness of the dynamical sine-Gordon model up to 6πAbstract:I will discuss recent work which shows global well-posedness of the dynamical sine-Gordon model up to the third threshold, i.e. 6π. The key novelty in the approach is the introduction of the so-called resonant equation, whose solution is entirely deterministic and which completely captures the size of the solution to the dynamical sine-Gordon model. The probabilistic fluctuations in the dynamical sine-Gordon model are then controlled using uniform estimates for modified stochastic objects. Joint with Bjoern Bringmann.--*Note the earlier start time.

Aging Brain Seminar with Andrew S. Yoo, PhD, Washington University School of MedicineDate: Monday, May 12Time: 4:00pmLocation: 46-3310, Picower Seminar RoomModeling Late-Onset Neurodegeneration Via MicroRNA-Mediated Neuronal ReprogrammingThe Yoo lab's primary goal is to uncover the genetic pathways driving neurogenesis and develop strategies to generate human neurons by directly converting non-neural cells like fibroblasts. We use this approach to model aging of neurons and its link to late-onset neurodegenerative disorders. Our work focuses on brain-enriched microRNAs, miR-9/9* and miR-124, which trigger the direct conversion of fibroblasts into neurons while preserving the cellular age signature. This allows us to create age-matched neurons for studying adult-onset disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease.Andrew Yoo received his bachelor's degree in Neurophysiology from McGill University and his PhD in Genetics and Development from Columbia University. He conducted his postdoctoral work at Stanford University, focusing on the role of the BAF chromatin remodeling complex during neural development. There, he discovered how microRNAs instruct the function of BAF complexes during neurogenesis and demonstrated the potency of microRNAs as regulators of cell fate. His lab developed high-efficiency conversion methods to generate human neurons using microRNAs as cell-reprogramming effectors and to model late-onset neurodegeneration using patient-derived neurons. His work has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from the White House, the NIH Director's New Innovator Award, the Mallinckrodt Scholar Award, and the HDF Transformative Research Award.