SHAPE Shorts Podcast

If I ask you to close your eyes, think about nothing, and envision the word "point", what do you see? I don't know what you see, I don't know how to envision something that's nothing. This is the mystery and beauty that is Euclid, and I just couldn't let it go, so much that I wanted to share this with you. In the long run, what we are doing is taking the concept that goes on in our mind and giving it a reality outside into our world. How do we know what is really out there?

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From advanced AI algorithms to self driving cars, this episode will have you dreaming about the future! Our guest Dr. Matt Bunting holds a post-doctoral position in the Compositional Systems Laboratory in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Arizona. He joins us to talk about his experience in software, control systems, and robotics and how ALL of these deeply technical areas are tied closely to creativity, a characteristic seemingly valued more in the humanities.

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This episode is a bit different than normal! If you haven’t tuned into our SHAPE Shorts YouTube channel, check it out! This is episode 1, explaining our philosophies on how to integrate science, humanities, art, and philosophy in education. This episode also introduces three future episodes where we will dive deeper into our Inspirational 6, or i6, strategies!

Check out our YouTube channel here.

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On this episode, we have a very special guest, Scott Soames!

Scott is the Chair of Philosophy at USC, working in philosophy of language, of law, and history of philosophy. On this episode, you'll find our conversation around philosophy both exciting and understandable! After all, philosophy is the partner of all advancing disciplines.

During this episode, Scott talks about the challenges he stumbled upon while writing his book, The World Philosophy Made. From writing the book in a general sense to diving into each era of philosophy, Scott takes us along his journey of learning more about the philosophy of physics while trying to put together a clear picture for his readers. We also discuss the importance of philosophy education across all disciplines at the university level.

This episode is a treat for educators and students alike! Let us know what you learned by leaving your thoughts in the comments below.

Scientific advances have been critical to the extraordinary achievements of the past century. But we also must invest more time, money and resources in the humanities and social sciences

You see, at some point the arts and sciences became the arts OR sciences. This was in part, due to a resource problem. But that’s not what we want to talk about today. Instead, we want to bring light as to why this is so important.

In this episode, one of SHAPE Shifters founders, and SHAPE Shorts Podcast creators, Tony Pitucco, discusses whether the sciences can survive without the humanities. 

Traditionally, the humanities have provided intuitive insight and the creativity behind innovative connections across all disciplines. Sciences may be suffering because, in many respects, some of our greatest scientific achievements have come from innovators with a tremendous balance between the ads and sciences. 

The humanities are very integral in adding context and creativity to a scientific education. Sciences provide an important empirical and philosophical framework for the humanities, of course, but it’s the reciprocity between the two that becomes most critical. One lacking the other in any direction creates significant deficit. This is why we believe it’s so important to put the AND back between the humanities AND sciences (vs. humanities OR sciences). 

By reemphasizing humanities, scientists can have the foundational parts of creativity that will accelerate the scientific advances that we’ve seen and want to see more of in the future. It’s the creative component that is so important.

We know that all of the humanities can be connected to a scientific foundation, but the reverse is also true.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Let us know in the comments below!

Find us on IG @s.h.a.p.e.shifters or online at shapeshiftedu.com 

Math and science illiteracy will always exist (albeit to a lesser degree thanks to the STEM movement). But what about historical illiteracy?
 
How many have you all heard that these are some of the worst times, on and on?!
 
You’ve probably heard that history repeats itself. Let’s be honest....history doesn’t repeat itself. What does repeat itself are attitudes towards current events.
 
Today Stew Barr, on a solo episode, investigates June 1940 vs. June 2020.
 
Let’s take a trip back to post-Great Depression America.
 
By tuning into this episode, we hope to turn our perspective towards the strides we’ve made to get to the modern world and how historical illiteracy impacts our attitudes moving forward.
 
Our 19th century solutions won’t solve 20th century problems! Our new problems are equal distribution of the wealth and resources we have.
 
The historical solution is a model for us to look at, but it may not be the one you need today. Those who constantly look backwards will eventually think backwards.

Your current automobile is a running science experiment.
 
Most students who start automotive programs have some kind of self interest or think that it's going to be "easy" but it's actually quite involved, especially with the level of automation of the modern vehicle.
 
On this episode, we welcome Charles Barr (Stew's brother!), a retired certifier for college and HS automotive programs, who talks with us about whether or not the modern student is prepared for vocational education, like that of an automotive program.
 
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Tony takes on the SHAPE Shorts podcast solo and discusses his invite to speak at a National Honors Society Induction Ceremony.
 
When speaking to students, Tony's goal is capture attention by being animated and eclectic, something different than "every other professor" out there!
 
So, after much preparation for this National Honors Society Induction Ceremony invitation, he ended up trashing his speech in the car on the way to the ceremony and composing a new speech in his head titled Pickles and Poets.
 
Today, we will hear the story behind the title and inspiration for this speech!

Welcome, Suzanne! A computer-based communication expert joins us to discuss COVID’s impact on using technology for communication (church, doctor visits, etc…). We have seen improvements in technology that make using a computer for communication more natural and personal, but can we truly overcome the lack of student's face-to-face interaction using computer-based communication?