Academic, scientist, science fiction reader
boosting my alt @chiasm@mastodon.online.
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| alt of: | chiasm@mastodon.online |
| pronouns | As you wish |
#science #academics So we went to this local conference at the University of Cincinnati, that was an interdisciplinary conference on "sensing". I used to study visual perception, so when my sweetie suggested it a few months ago I thought, ok, it'd be nice to get out of town for a few days in May.
But then they showed me that the first keynote speaker was talking about the experience of sensing an "other presence" when on psychedelics, and I realized "sensing" is being used in a *very* broad sense!
So we spent 2 days in Cincinnati, and the conference was great--they really have done an amazing job of being interdisciplinary. So often that word means we have biologists *and* neuroscientists, or computer scientists *and* electrical engineers; but in this case they actually had talks from social science, English, psych, computer science, math, music, neuroscience--they had music performances and poetry readings, animated short films by students (which were *excellent*) and a discussion of their use in documentaries, and panels with speakers on topics ranging from modeling racial heterogeneity in the cities to how they burnt their qualifying exam paper (it was performative art by a poet getting her PhD, and I thought she was brilliant!). I missed the ones on brain-gut interactions and depression, and building sensors to detect COVID subtypes, but my sweetie said they were also excellent.
It was truly wild. Got the ol' left and right brain going at the same time! Plus, it was in a space set up for 200 people and there were only 30ish people there at any one time. So we didn't wear our masks!! We'll see what comes of *that* over the next week.
Also, it was beautiful weather and we got to wander around the UC campus during the lunch breaks. UC has done what few other universities I've been to have dared--they have crammed buildings in *everywhere* with no regard for styles or look, just making the maximal use of space, putting in crosswalks to get between hills, putting ramps and stairs in where they can be used as seating as well as walkways, etc. It's intense! This is one of the older buildings and quads, I think. One of the buildings with a more traditional look, and it's not immediately neighboring something in black and red glass. 🤣
