Colloquium series launched by IIC, SEAS

The Initiative in Innovative Computing (IIC) and Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) recently announced the inauguration of a new joint colloquium series that will bring speakers at the frontiers of research in computing and science to the Harvard campus.

“Computation is having a major impact on science,” said IIC Director Efthimios Kaxiras, a member of the Harvard physics and applied physics faculties. “Conversely, the needs of cutting-edge science are driving new developments in computer science. Interactions between computer science and computation-intensive research in other sciences form the core of the IIC mission and hold out tremendous promise for advancing Harvard’s educational and research mission.”

The IIC, an interfaculty initiative, and the computer science faculty in SEAS both sponsor lectures throughout the academic year. Beginning this fall, they will coordinate to sponsor major talks of overlapping interest twice each semester.

This fall’s joint colloquium speakers will come from two major high-technology enterprises in the Boston area. Alfred Rizzi, lead robotics scientist at Boston Dynamics in Waltham, Mass., will speak Oct. 8. Jennifer Chayes, managing director of the new Microsoft Research New England laboratory in Cambridge, Mass., will speak Nov. 20. The colloquia will take place at 4 p.m. at 60 Oxford St., room 330 (Oct. 8) and in the Maxwell Dworkin building, room G-125 (Nov. 20).

“We’re extremely excited to have Al Rizzi and Jennifer Chayes as speakers in this year’s joint IIC and SEAS colloquium,” said Gregory Morrisett, SEAS associate dean for computer science and engineering. “As researchers, they span traditional disciplinary boundaries from mechanics to control theory, from physics to economics and mathematics. Their work exemplifies the collaborative spirit that underlies our efforts to bridge activities across Harvard.”