Math, sociology, and a unified theory by Dr Guillermina Jasso

Can social forces be quantified? According to NYU sociology professor Dr Guillermina Jasso, who discussed just such a question at this NYU Abu Dhabi public lecture, not only can they be quantified, they can even be figured into a mathematical "unified theory"of sociology and social psychology that can be used to make real-world predictions. I found this talk consistently fascinating, not in the least because modeling of social forces is of professional interest to me.

Dr Jasso's introduced the leanings and engines of societies, and their permutations, and went on to talk about her "New Unified Theory" in terms of its constituent social forces: justice, status, and power. I don't have nearly as deep a background in sociology, but her descriptions of how these forces could be measured and their dynamics fitted to familiar mathematical functions seemed quite plausible.

Things got even more interesting when it came down to applications. Dr Jossa's portfolio of validated predictions based on her models was impressive, listing several predictions per slide about how the theory could be applied to model outcomes in matters of war, crime, family, marriage, politics, etc. It might be worth keeping an eye on related developments.

The basics of finance at in5 Innovation Hub

Dubai Internet City's in5 hosted an hour-long overview of finance, followed by a networking reception, this Tuesday evening. Apart from taking in some useful knowledge, it was also an opportunity to have a look at a part of Knowledge Village I had not seen before.

Genesis Institute's Binod Shankar delivered an adage-replete presentation, starting with a couple of lists and local real-life examples of good and bad financial practices, then briefly dissecting income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements, before closing with a summary on ratios. Much of it was familiar to me from my B-school days, but it was nice to refresh on the topic after so many years.

Dark matter explored at NYUAD

Dark matter is a physics concept that's as complicated as it is fascinating. Fortunately, NYU Abu Dhabi brought it NYU cosmology/astrophysics researcher, Professor Glennys Farrar, to explain it to us, with the added bonus of her infectious enthusiasm. In the course of the public talk, she expounded the background physics and presented the astrophysicist's case for dark matter's existence, as well as what she considers an "equally exciting" alternative: that current theories of physics are themselves in need of modification.

Piquing interest with a really cool video of dark matter in cosmic collisions way out in the Bullet Cluster (almost like a ballistics video, except over billions of years instead of fractions of seconds), she spoke about the challenges in detecting, as well as theoretically describing and modeling dark matter; she mentioned the Large Hadron Collider in this regard. She also spoke about contemporary hypotheses for explaining dark matter, such as the WIMPs and the H-dibaryon, and touched upon both dark energy and baryon asymmetry (topics deserving separate talks, it would seem).

A lyrical PechaKucha Night Sharjah IV

Maraya Art Centre (pretty much the only reason I ever make the trip to Sharjah) hosted the 4th edition of the growing Sharjah PechaKucha this weekend.

The themes for presentations at the event ranged from inspirational to entrepreneurial to social, with speakers including hearing-disabled Emirati graphic designer Mariam Wissam, e-grocery app developer Ghadir El Ghafri, and crowd-sourced tourism promotion campaigner Yorgos Kleivokiotis.

There were also some rather entertaining, if strange, presentations by amateur comedians, including an awkward (self-referential, I'm guessing) presentation about awkwardness by Mohammed J Al Serkal, and a serious-sounding presentation about esoteric popcorn conspiracies by Rami Salame.

Farah Chamma and MC Yazen, local young stalwarts of spoken word currently promoting their upcoming North African crowd-funded tour, were also presenting that evening, and closed the event with a live performance of poetry and rap.

Civil wars then and now

NYU Abu Dhabi's latest public talk featured Yale polisci professor Stathis Kalyvas presenting a history and academic analysis of domestic conflict (he prefers not to call it "civil war"). The talk was very broad, from the reasons for the recent 1.5 decades of intensified interest in domestic conflict to the various perspectives regarding triggers and motivation. He also presented some useful primer points on the topic, such as categorization of domestic conflicts based on tactics used by the factions, and presented a still broad but extensive summary matrix of the four major periods of modern domestic conflicts against common defining characteristics of ideology, trans-national movements, and such. A good talk, with much to discuss during the Q&A.

Mathematics for the masses

Looking at the his large spider brooch and vintage necktie, I knew this NYU Abu Dhabi public talk was going to be interesting at the very least. But while his curious demeanor and deadpan quips did, in fact, do much to entertain, Institut Henri Poincaré director Dr Cédric Villani can talk math to educate just as well. He took us on a journey through the history of modern mathematics, from Riemann to Boltzmann to Kantorovich, illustrating concepts like geodesics, entropy, and linear programming with what I thought were fairly easily-digestible analogies and visuals, and using examples from real life to show how mathematical topics popularly regarded as distant and abstract have actually long been part of the familiar world. He also gave us an first-hand insight into the world of academic mathematics and the lives of mathematicians.

Understanding Ethics talk with NYUAD

Part of a broader workshop series, NYUAD's Matthew Silverstein delivered a public talk on the subject of ethics, which has been one of my topics of interest since my college days with the philosophy club. The talk was somewhat brief: an example-laden primer on ethical questions, descriptions of four schools of meta-ethics, and an introduction of Dr Silverstein's project to develop a "constructivism sans relativism" theory of meta-ethics; I was able to pick out from the consequently-longer Q&A that it was based on a rational model of humans, and included a Kantian angle.

BOLDTalks Innovation 2013 at DUCTAC

BOLDtalks made its second specialized foray on 16 Nov, hosting a morning and afternoon of talks themed on innovation, held at DUCTAC.

The event began with Dubai SME's Alexander Mathew Williams talking about local challenges and cycles in innovation. From Williams' statistics-filled talk, a couple of points that stood out were obstacles faced in getting local universities -- many of which do not have R&D programs -- to foster innovation among their students, and local perceptions of mentoring as wasta-dealing rather than the provision of guidance. He also attempted to explain the fees levied on startups by the state as a sort of pre-earning taxation scheme; I'm not sure how many entrepreneurs would agree that is necessarily better than taxes on earnings.

Some of the other talks were about innovation cycles in the region, microfinance, regional fast food franchising, educational innovation, and branding. For me, three talks were particularly fascinating.

Bastian Schaefer is a designer from Airbus -- which was one of the sponsors -- but his talk was not a lot of PR spiel. He walked us through the innovation process in developing the airplane of the future, starting with demographic shifts, and why and how these matter. He presented an example of a lighter, computer-designed, 3D-printed crew rest bracket that they created, and concisely described how advances in technology will impact construction, seating, aesthetics and efficiency in the kind of aircraft they are developing.

I also liked Dr Alejandro Rios G.'s talk a lot, and not just because he is also from Masdar Institute. He described the food-water-energy nexus, the growth of aviation emissions growth, and talked about his research center's project to use seawater -- available in overwhelming abundance -- to farm marine life for human consumption, as well as grow specialized mangrove plants that can be used to produce biofuels. I have long wondered if something could be done using mangroves, and I was pleased to know that it's happening, and right here in the UAE.

Possibly the most inspiring talk that day was that of Hind Hobeika. Although she is developing a rather niche product -- albeit one related to her passion -- she captivated us with tale of a journey from inspiration to conception to prototyping to funding to manufacturing. Most importantly (from an entrepreneurial and innovation perspective, especially), she recounted both successes and failures, and provided specific anecdotes and observations from along the way, about team-building, investment, patenting, production, and challenges specific to the region. Only a tiny minority of us are training swimmers, but I'm sure she had everyone there sincerely and enthusiastically wishing for her success by the end of that talk.

The Robert Hooke revival by Dr J. Michael McBride at NYUAD

I had read a little about Robert Hooke, but Dr J. Michael McBride's talk about this English polymath at New York University Abu Dhabi really blew my mind. Dr McBride has definitely done a thorough job of researching the man, covering practically every milestone in life of this under-appreciated giant of the Royal Society and science history.

Apart from being a gifted illustrator from an early age (and a would-be painter, but for his physiological aversion to oil paint), as Dr McBride showed with several slides of Hooke's incredibly detailed scientific drawings, Hooke was also responsible for seminal work on optics (including microscopy and telescopy), physics (making him the namesake of a spring action law) and mechanics (including the anchor escapement, the universal joint and helical gears, the latter two of which are practically indispensable in automobiles). His talent was noticed early on, as he was picked up in his youth as an assistant to the famous Robert Boyle, building him instrumental scientific equipment.

Hooke was also heavily involved in rebuilding London after the Great Fire, and had a strong grasp of the theory of gravity, a lot of the credit for the both of which were taken by Christopher Wren and Isaac Newton; one would emerge from the talk with a rather unflattering opinion of Wren and Newton, and an appreciation of both the genius and the humility of Hooke. Dr McBride also gave us insight into the crazy schedule of a man who had to birth a discovery or at least conduct a major experiment practically every other day, was a cannabis proponent, and had a thing for using anagrams to encode his ideas. Hooke was apparently also the first to use the word "crystallization", and to employ the word "cell" in a biological sense.

Unfortunately for himself, Hooke kept a low profile and annoyed a few powerful rivals, and has therefore been relegated to relative anonymity in history - something that scholars like Dr McBride hope to change.