Computer Science 195, 001 - Spring 2015
Social Implications of Computer Technology - John S. Denero
Creative Commons 3.0: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
"Hot topics at EECS Research Centers- Grad student presentations
Digital Nationalism in West Africa: Ghana's activist-developers - Reginold Royston, BCNM (Berkeley Center for New Media)
http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/bears/"
Environmental Economics and Policy 145, 001 - Fall 2014
Health and Environmental Economic Policy - Michael Anderson
Creative Commons 3.0: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
LIVE WEBCAST - program starts at 18:35. The archive version can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fxAs_Vy7OU
The Inauguration of Nicholas B. Dirks as Tenth Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley
November 8, 2013
Zellerbach Auditorium
http://berkeley.edu
CONFERENCE ON AMBIGUITY, UNCERTAINTY, AND CLIMATE CHANGE
http://calclimate.wordpress.com
Session 2: Economics of Ambiguity and Ambiguity Aversion
Speakers: Sujoy Mukherji, Paolo Ghirardato and Ani Guerdjikova
Over the past decade, there has been considerable progress in the economic theory of ambiguity and ambiguity aversion, involving decisions where the decision maker does not know, or is uncertain about, the probabilities attached to various potential outcomes. This is an appropriate characterization of the current understanding of many facets of climate change science: the uncertainty is pervasive and profound, with many unknowns, and unknown unknowns, that cannot be characterized in terms of a conventional probability distribution. The conference explores the application of developments in the economic theory of ambiguity to climate change policy, including both mitigation policy (the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions) and adaptation policy (coping with the consequences of climate change). Some, but not all, of the fog of uncertainty will gradually dissipate over time, but meanwhile policy decisions have to be made now, whether for mitigation or adaptation. Climate change policy analysis needs to reflect not only the prevailing uncertainty and ambiguity, but also the anticipated future resolution of uncertainty and ambiguity. The challenge is to incorporate risk and risk aversion, ambiguity and ambiguity aversion, and learning, more adequately into the formulation of a framework for decision making on climate change policy. This is the central focus of the conference.
To explore this issue, the conference brings some leading researchers on the economic theory of uncertainty and ambiguity and the economics of climate change together with some leading climate scientists and modelers. Some of the invitees have been asked to make formal presentations or provide formal comments; others invitees are expected to contribute to the discussion from the floor.
2013 marked the Centennial of the Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning, Berkeley (http://ced.berkeley.edu/academics/landscape-architecture-environmental-planning/about-us/the-next-100-years). The Department took the opportunity to not only look back on the last 100 years but also to look towards its future with a series of events. One such event was the Adaptive Metropolis conference from September 27-29, 2013 (http://laep.ced.berkeley.edu/adaptivemetropolis/site/the-event/speakers/). The Symposium examined at the power of emergent collaborative networks to reaffirm the ""right to the city."" They employ a series of disparate tactics, compensating for the shortage of economic resources with a large dose of creativity. They favor short-term small-scale interventions that involve experimentation, formative assessment, and iteration, crowdsourcing ideas and funding, opensourcing processes and results, and directly engaging the community throughout implementation. While these practices have already largely garnered the attention of the web and the press, the symposium allowed for a substantive assessment of their real impact on the built environment and their potential for the next era of urban development.
Keynote Speech:
Alfredo Brillembourg
Chair of Architecture & Urban Design, Swiss Institute of Technology; Founding Partner of Urban-Think Tank
In 1993, Alfredo Brillembourg founded the Caracas, Venezuela--based Urban Think Tank, an independent nonprofit group focused on the research and practice of architecture. Alfredo, has lectured on architecture at GSD, AEDES in Berlin, UCV in Caracas, UMSA in Miami, Berlage in Rotterdam, FAU in Sao Paulo, and UCLA in Los Angeles. Since May 2010, he has held the chair for Architecture and Urban Design at the Swiss Institute of Technology (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, ETH) Zürich in Switzerland.