Event Notices From March 8
Refresh Detroit Sets Demo Night: Do you have a new Web site, application, design, or cool tool to share with others? Join Refresh Detroit at Quicken Loans in the Compuware building in Downtown Detroit Thursday, March 24 at 6:30 p.m. for our first demo night of 2011, where you can show off your latest creation, or share with others a great application that makes your work easier. Demo night is a great opportunity to share your work, find out what others have been working on, hear how something was built, find out why it was built and learn about new tools that can improve your work. Each person has five to ten minutes to demo and answer questions. Demo nights are a great way to get to know other Refresh Detroit members. If you're planning on presenting send us a message to let us know or better yet just post it in the comments section below. Don't want to demo this time? No problem. Please still come. More at http://refreshdetroit.org/event/demo-night-march-24th-2011/.
Brilliant To Deliver 10th Wege Lecture on Sustainability: He has been called a visionary, a guru, an iconoclast and a techno-philanthropist. Larry Brilliant's career has spanned from a Himalayan monastery to the World Health Organization, Google's philanthropic division and a series of nonprofits that have been remarkably effective at addressing public health problems around the world. "What is 'Sustainable Humanity'? It is not simply an economic construct. Human lives are more than double-entry bookkeeping and human progress is more than increases in GDP," Brilliant said in describing his upcoming lecture. "Our generation should bequeath to the next a world where people live healthier, longer, better lives in a world of peace and fairness, what we often call a more humane world." Brilliant, who earned a Master of Public Health from UM in 1977, will deliver the 10th annual Wege Lecture on Sustainability at UM. The free lecture, titled "Sustaining Humanity," will be his only speaking engagement this year. It begins at 3:30 p.m. March 16 in the Rackham Auditorium. Currently the president of the Skoll Global Threats Fund, a nonprofit organization working to address climate change, water scarcity, pandemics, nuclear conflict and Middle East conflict, Brilliant previously was a vice president of Google and the first executive director of Google.org. He was one of a four-person United Nations' team that led the successful World Health Organization smallpox eradication program in India and South Asia. Brilliant then established the Seva Foundation, an international organization that prevents and cures blindness through innovative medical technology and has restored sight to nearly 3 million people. Brilliant chairs the National Bio-Surveillance Advisory Subcommittee and is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Advisory Council on Catastrophic Risks. He also has written two books and dozens of scientific articles on infectious diseases, blindness and international health policy. Recent awards include Time's 100 Most Influential People and top 20 Scientists and Thinkers, UN Global Leadership Award, TED Prize, Peacemaker Award, International Public Health Hero and two honorary doctorates. Brilliant, who earned a medical degree from Wayne State University, also has been a professor of international policy and epidemiology at UM. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Center for Sustainable Systems, School of Natural Resources and Environment, School of Public Health and the Office of the Vice President for Research. The Wege Lecture Series was founded in 2001 in honor of Peter M. Wege, the retired vice chairman of the board of Steelcase Inc. in Grand Rapids. Speakers address sustainability challenges, with a focus on improving the systems for meeting human needs in developed and developing countries. Past speakers have included His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Al Gore, John Holdren and Lord Browne of Madingley. UM Sustainability fosters a more sustainable world through collaborations across campus and beyond aimed at educating students, generating new knowledge, and minimizing our environmental footprint. Learn more at www.sustainability.umich.edu.
Walsh College Open Source Community Meets March 12 at Troy Campus: The public is invited to hear Walsh College alumnus and Web developer Eric Hill present "concepts to PHP" for Web development at the Saturday, March 12, meeting of the Walsh College Open Source Community at the Troy campus, 3838 Livernois, between Big Beaver and Wattles Roads. The meeting, which is free, is from 10 a.m. to noon in Room 111. Participants are encouraged to bring a laptop and follow along in the hands-on presentation. They should register for a user ID prior to the meeting start by visiting the Library on the Troy campus. Carol Glynn, director of Blackstone LaunchPad at Walsh College, will give a brief overview of the alumni and student entrepreneur program, outlining Open Source Community partnership possibilities to develop their ideas into businesses. Open Source members can also volunteer at the meeting as Web site developers for the "Gifts for All God's Children" organization. To increase the group's functionality, they will develop the site in Drupal 7 CMS and MySQL. For more information, contact Associate Professor Nan Poulios, director of the Walsh College Information Assurance Center, npoulios@walshcollege.edu; (248) 823-1369. The Walsh Open Source Community is a group of professionals and community members who share and educate members on all facets of Web development tools and techniques and initiate and publish open source Web-based software projects.
