Carnegie Science Center Podcast

Dr. Timothy Pearce

Assistant Curator & Head, Section of Mollusks
Carnegie Museum of Natural History

A local scientist's work is dramatically increasing what we know about Pennsylvania's 129 land snail species. For the Pennsylvania Land Snail Atlas Project, Dr. Timothy Pearce collected 17,472 records of Pennsylvania land snails from modern field work and museum specimens, documenting thousands of new county records. Many minute species are now known to be widespread, although they previously seemed to be rare. Dr. Pearce, assistant curator and head of the section of mollusks at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, will discuss his work in, "Wily Land Snails of Pennsylvania: Where Do They Live and Which Are Rare?" at Café Scientifique.

Dr. Pearce gained an important historical perspective on ecology while working toward a master's degree in snail paleontology at University of California at Berkeley, then he continued studying snail ecology for a PhD at University of Michigan. During a year-long post-doctoral study in Madagascar, he helped find more than 600 undescribed land snail species. During his first curator job at the Delaware Museum, he was awarded that institution's first National Science Foundation grant. His current research at Carnegie Museum of Natural History ecological snail studies in the northeastern and northwestern regions of the United States and in Colombia, South America.

Recorded Monday, August 10th, 2015 at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, PA.

Learning Science for Better Learning:

Carnegie Mellon University's "Simon Initiative"

Dr. Marsha Lovett

Director of the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation

Many students today receive a 19th-century education that is developed without the benefit of contemporary evidence-based research, Carnegie Mellon University's Dr. Marsha Lovett asserts. At Carnegie Science Center's next Café Sci, She'll discuss how a combination of education-based research plus innovations in educational technology can improve students' learning outcomes while further advancing our scientific understanding of how learning works. Carnegie Mellon University's Simon Initiative focuses on leveraging these opportunities and making a difference for local and global learners. The Simon Initiative focuses on the learner and how to improve learning. Dr. Lovett is co-coordinator of The Simon Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University and the director of the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation. Her remarks will present recent results, tools, and examples of how educational theories are being applied.

Dr. Lovett has published more than 50 research papers and two books, Thinking with Data and How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. The latter is ranked third on The Chronicle's "Top 10 Books on Teaching" and has been translated into several languages. She has developed several innovative, educational technologies to promote student learning, including StatTutor and the Learning Dashboard. Dr. Lovett earned her doctorate in psychology from Carnegie Mellon University, and her bachelor's degree, also in psychology, is from Princeton University.

Recorded Monday, May 4th, 2015 at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Learning Science for Better Learning:

Carnegie Mellon University's "Simon Initiative"

Dr. Marsha Lovett

Director of the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation
Carnegie Mellon University

Many students today receive a 19th-century education that is developed without the benefit of contemporary evidence-based research, Carnegie Mellon University's Dr. Marsha Lovett asserts. At Carnegie Science Center's next Café Sci, She'll discuss how a combination of education-based research plus innovations in educational technology can improve students' learning outcomes while further advancing our scientific understanding of how learning works. Carnegie Mellon University's Simon Initiative focuses on leveraging these opportunities and making a difference for local and global learners. The Simon Initiative focuses on the learner and how to improve learning. Dr. Lovett is co-coordinator of The Simon Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University and the director of the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation. Her remarks will present recent results, tools, and examples of how educational theories are being applied.

Dr. Lovett has published more than 50 research papers and two books, Thinking with Data and How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. The latter is ranked third on The Chronicle's "Top 10 Books on Teaching" and has been translated into several languages. She has developed several innovative, educational technologies to promote student learning, including StatTutor and the Learning Dashboard. Dr. Lovett earned her doctorate in psychology from Carnegie Mellon University, and her bachelor's degree, also in psychology, is from Princeton University.

Recorded Monday, May 4th, 2015 at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

This is the Q&A portion of the evening.

Dr. David Snoke

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Dr. David Snoke, a local professor, will unpack the concept of "quantum entanglement." The concept is one of those things considered "spooky" about quantum mechanics. It leads to oddities, such as the famous thought experiment "Schrodinger's Cat," which is presumably in a state of being both dead and alive.

Dr. Snoke, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh, will describe quantum entanglement, using a minimum of math, and will discuss modern experiments which lead to macroscopic entanglement. He'll discuss what these concepts mean (and don't mean) for our view of reality.

Dr. David Snoke is the head of an experimental optics laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh, which studies basic effects of quantum mechanics in semiconductor structures, funded by the National Science Foundation. He has more than 120 publications in journals such as Nature, Science, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. He has published four scientific books, including two textbooks published by Pearson. In 2006, Dr. Snoke was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Prior to coming to the University of Pittsburgh in 1994, he worked in industry at the Aerospace Corporation in California and the Westinghouse labs in Pittsburgh, and he was an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart, Germany. His Ph.D. in physics is from the University of Illinois, and his bachelor's degree, also in physics, is from Cornell University.

Recorded on Monday, April 13, 2015 at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, PA.

Dr. David Snoke

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Dr. David Snoke, a local professor, will unpack the concept of "quantum entanglement." The concept is one of those things considered "spooky" about quantum mechanics. It leads to oddities, such as the famous thought experiment "Schrodinger's Cat," which is presumably in a state of being both dead and alive.

Dr. Snoke, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh, will describe quantum entanglement, using a minimum of math, and will discuss modern experiments which lead to macroscopic entanglement. He'll discuss what these concepts mean (and don't mean) for our view of reality.

Dr. David Snoke is the head of an experimental optics laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh, which studies basic effects of quantum mechanics in semiconductor structures, funded by the National Science Foundation. He has more than 120 publications in journals such as Nature, Science, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. He has published four scientific books, including two textbooks published by Pearson. In 2006, Dr. Snoke was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Prior to coming to the University of Pittsburgh in 1994, he worked in industry at the Aerospace Corporation in California and the Westinghouse labs in Pittsburgh, and he was an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart, Germany. His Ph.D. in physics is from the University of Illinois, and his bachelor's degree, also in physics, is from Cornell University.

Recorded on Monday, April 13, 2015 at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, PA.

Professor Robert F. Davis

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Carnegie Mellon University

In the future, when we flip a light switch, could it turn on a solid-state light, rather than an incandescent or fluorescent bulb?

Incandescent and fuel-based lamps convert less than 5 perfect of the energy they consume into visible light; the remainder emerges as heat. Fluorescent lamps achieve a conversion efficiency of about 30 percent. Each is an engine for converting the earth’s energy resources mostly into waste heat, pollution, and greenhouse gases. The increasingly precious energy resources and the significant threat of climate change demand that we reduce the energy and environmental cost of artificial lighting.

Solid-state lighting is the direct conversion of electricity to visible white light using semiconductor materials and light emitting diodes. It has the potential to be the much-needed energy efficient technology of the future. Currently being tested in some environments, solid-state lighting needs more research, engineering, and technological development to increase efficiency, lower its heat generation, and achieve a light color that’s accurate and pleasing to the human eye.

Robert F. Davis is John and Clare Bertucci Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. His research interests include: growth and characterization of wide band gap semiconductor thin films and devices; growth and characterization of chemical sensors; and atomic layer deposition of inorganic materials. He has edited or co-edited seven books, authored or co-authored more than 270 chapters in edited proceedings or in books, published more than 400 peer reviewed papers in archival Journals and given more than 170 invited presentations.

Recorded Monday, March 9th 2015 at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, PA

Dr. Stephen F. Smith

Research professor in the Robotics Institute and Director of the Intelligent Coordination and Logistics Laboratory

Traffic congestion in United States metropolitan areas is an increasing problem, now estimated to cost travelers $121 billion annually in lost time and fuel consumption, and to release 56 billion pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. In this talk, Dr. Stephen F. Smith will describe recent research aimed at addressing this problem through smart traffic signals. A smart traffic signal perceives approaching traffic in real time and dynamically allocates green light time to move all current traffic through the intersection as efficiently as possible. Signal plans are coordinated with neighboring smart signals. Smith will summarize how this technology works, present results obtained from an initial experimental deployment of smart traffic signals in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh, and discuss future opportunities for smart signal systems to exploit emerging connected vehicle technology (which will shortly enable direct communication between traffic signals and vehicles) to enhance the safety and mobility of urban travelers.

Smith is a research professor in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is director of the Intelligent Coordination and Logistics Laboratory. Smith's research focuses on the theory and practice of next-generation technologies for planning, scheduling, coordination, and optimization. For the past several years, he has directed the SURTRAC (Smart URban TRAffic Control) adaptive traffic signal control project, which has developed a decentralized system for real-time optimization of urban traffic flows. Current research with SURTRAC focuses on optimization of traffic flows involving passenger vehicles, buses, pedestrians, and bicyclists, and on integration of smart signal control with connected vehicle technology.

Recorded Monday, February 2, 2015 at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, PA

Additive Manufacturing: What It Is, How It Works, and Why We Should Care

Follow along with the slideshow here.

Dr. Howard A. Kuhn

Adjunct Professor

Additive Manufacturing, or 3D Printing, is a hotbed of modern innovation and entrepreneurial activity that is beginning to affect nearly every facet of our lives. Dr. Howard A. Kuhn will trace the evolution of the technology and illustrate the seemingly infinite array of geometrical features this technology makes possible. Kuhn will describe and display a variety of current and emerging applications, with emphasis on uses of additive manufacturing in the biomedical field.

Dr. Howard A. Kuhn is an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh, teaching courses in manufacturing, product realization, entrepreneurship, and additive manufacturing. He also conducts research on additive manufacturing of biomedical devices for tissue engineering at the university. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Dr. Kuhn serves as technical adviser for the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute. He is also research consultant at The Ex One Company, developing materials, processes and equipment for additive manufacturing of metal and ceramic components by three-dimensional printing.

Recorded Monday, December 1st, 2014 at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, PA.

*This is the Q&A portion of Dr. Kuhn's presentation.

Additive Manufacturing: What It Is, How It Works, and Why We Should Care

Dr. Howard A. Kuhn

Adjunct Professor

Additive Manufacturing, or 3D Printing, is a hotbed of modern innovation and entrepreneurial activity that is beginning to affect nearly every facet of our lives. Dr. Howard A. Kuhn will trace the evolution of the technology and illustrate the seemingly infinite array of geometrical features this technology makes possible. Kuhn will describe and display a variety of current and emerging applications, with emphasis on uses of additive manufacturing in the biomedical field.

Dr. Howard A. Kuhn is an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh, teaching courses in manufacturing, product realization, entrepreneurship, and additive manufacturing. He also conducts research on additive manufacturing of biomedical devices for tissue engineering at the university. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Dr. Kuhn serves as technical adviser for the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute. He is also research consultant at The Ex One Company, developing materials, processes and equipment for additive manufacturing of metal and ceramic components by three-dimensional printing.

Recorded Monday, December 1st, 2014 at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, PA.