Programs examining data, development, creativity and art featured in ATLAS Speaker Series

The ATLAS Speaker Series has kicked off for the spring 2014 semester, with Randi Zuckerberg (above), an early executive at Facebook and the sister of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, featured as the first speaker on Feb. 3.
She talked about how technology shaped her career and how it is affecting all aspects of people's lives, communications and careers. Zuckerberg is the founder and CEO of Zuckerberg Media and editor-in-chief of Dot Complicated, a digital lifestyle website. As part of her appearance, she gave away 100 copies of her book, “Dot Complicated: Untangling our Wired Lives.”

Other Speaker Series events scheduled for the semester are:

Making Beautifully Meaningful Data
How can data build empathy? How do we put data in a human context? How do we dig through its increasingly vast terrain?
Jer Thorp – 4 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19
Working at the intersection of science, art and design, Jer Thorp stretches the possibilities of infographics. He will speak about data visualization, information design and opportunities to make data more useful, meaningful and accessible.
He is the co-founder of the Office for Creative Research and an adjunct professor at New York University’s ITP program. From 2010 to 2012, he was the data artist in residence at the New York Times R&D Group.
Visit: http://about.me/jerthorp
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Technology for Development: Oasis or Mirage?
Policy, practice and practicalities in Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICTD)
Ann Mei Chang – 4 p.m. Monday, March 31
For 20 years, Ann Mei Chang has held leadership roles in the software engineering industry. As chief innovation officer at Mercy Corps, Ann Mei Chang builds highly scalable social enterprises and leverages mobile/Internet to improve the lives of the poor.
At the U.S. Department of State, she served as the senior adviser for Women and Technology in the Office of Global Women’s Issues. At Google, she was a senior engineering director, leading product development for emerging markets. She has also worked at Apple, Macromedia, Intuit and SGI.
Visit: http://www.linkedin.com/in/annmei
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Music, Creativity and Technology
Insights by international artist/performer V. Delay, featured in Boulder’s Communikey Festival of Electronic Arts (CMKY)
Vladislav Delay – 7 p.m. Thursday, April 10
Vladislav Delay, artist, percussionist and electronic musician experiments with ambient, broken beat, glitch, house music and soulful vocals in a quest to find music that has never before been heard. He uses a mixture of synthesizing, vocal recording and live reprocessing. His sound is known for its varied textural qualities and the undulating, complementary/conflicting interplay of layers.
Visit: http://www.vladislavdelay.com
See the Communikey festival’s latest schedule:
http://cmky.org/festival2014.
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Integrating Art and Science
Meet an artist/researcher whose work spans new media, molecular genetics, information aesthetics, immersive environments, neuroscience and more
Ruth West – 4 p.m. Monday, April 14
Interdisciplinary media artist and researcher Ruth West works with emerging technologies. She envisions a future in which art & science integration allows us to open new portals of imagination, knowledge and communication.
An associate professor at the University of North Texas (where she also directs the xREZ ArtScience research lab), her work has been presented at SIGGRAPH, WIRED Magazine’s NextFest, UCLA Fowler Museum, CAA, National Academy of Sciences, NY Times, Artweek and more.
Visit: http://www.viewingspace.com