In this talk, Dr. Emily Bender will describe the ways in which so-called “AI” technology is over-sold and over-hyped, both by the companies (and sometimes academic researchers) creating it and journalists reporting on it. She will illustrate how to tell when journalists aren’t asking the right questions and talk about the questions that she thinks we all should be asking instead.
Emily M. Bender is a Professor of Linguistics and Adjunct Professor in Computer Science and Engineering and the Information School at the University of Washington, where she has been on the faculty since 2003. Her research includes multilingual grammar engineering, the interaction of linguistics and language technology, and how to incorporate considerations of societal impacts into the design of language technology.
Jon Fehrenbach is a retired engineer, having been a structural engineer and engineering manager at Boeing until his retirement in June 2014. Jon received his Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering, and his Master’s Degree in Engineering, both from Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI. In a 35-year career at Boeing, Jon worked in airframe structures engineering on numerous programs on both the commercial side (727, 737, 777, 787 Programs) and the military side (B-2 Stealth Bomber, Joint Strike Fighter Proposal, F-22 Fighter Program). He specialized in the design of advanced carbon-fiber reinforced composites for airframe primary structure.
After retiring, Jon completed Docent training at the Museum of Flight and now works as a volunteer Docent at the Museum, chairs the Museum’s Docent Training Committee, and does presentations in the Puget Sound community for the Museum’s Speakers Bureau. He is also interested in supporting and promoting STEM-related education programs and initiatives. In his leisure time, Jon is a bicyclist (road bike/touring), pickleball player, and long-suffering Seattle sports fan. He enjoys reading, with aviation history, biographies, and other historical non-fiction currently taking up most of his reading list.
Lawrence White was born in Seattle, WA 1970 to mother Sylvia (White) and father Lawrence Sr. (Black) and raised in south Seattle Rainier Beach area. He will be sharing his story about what it was like growing up in a mixed race household in Seattle. He lived there from 1970-1988 and then again from 1992-today.
He graduated from Rainier Beach High School in 1988 and from Seattle Central College 2000. Mr. White went into the Army right out of high school and returned to the Seattle area afterwards. He married his high school sweetheart in 1989 and will celebrate 33 years this year!
Lawrence and his wife had two beautiful daughters Marianna and Shaelanna. They have a 3rd daughter Ausha who is actually his cousin–Lawrence stepped in as dad and granddad when she was in high school. He also has three granddaughters: Audrey (8) and Maddy (4) from Marianna and Zoe (10) from Ausha.
Lawrence worked several different jobs through the 1990’s and began his IT career in 2000. He owned an Information Security business 2000-2012 that started as security testing and ended in security training. Lawrence started in IT in the retirement community industry in 2001 and has been doing it ever since, working at Covenant Living at the Shores since February 2019.
Thanks to Victoria Wenick for arranging this program!
President Lincoln Ferris has, for the past fifteen summers, hosted an open garden for fellow gardening enthusiasts. He will share the elements of hardscape, plant selection, color palette, fragrance and how to maintain interest as the growing season shifts from Spring to Fall. He will show photos of how he and his wife Margaret transformed.
Join the University Sunrise Rotary Club for our weekly meeting on July 14 featuring Bruce Balick. Dr. Balick was a University of Washington Professor of Astronomy for 39 years.
The meeting runs from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. The Zoom line will open at 7:00 a.m. for informal networking.
Bruce Balick was a member of the faculty of the Astronomy Department at the University of Washington from 1975 to 2014, including five years as its Chair. He is best known for the discovery of the black hole at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. His research portfolio includes studies of mass ejected from dying stars and violent outflows from galaxies. He has served an many leadership roles for NASA, the American Astronomical Society, and the Faculty Senate of UW. He presently supervises students in research projects and leads the UW outreach program at the Theodor Jacobsen Observatory on the campus.
Jonathan Mayer, Professor Emeritus, University of Washington
Join the University Sunrise Rotary Club for our weekly meeting this Thursday morning featuring University of Washington Professor Emeritus Jonathan Mayer on the very latest pandemic science.
The meeting runs from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. The Zoom line will open at 7:00 a.m. for informal networking.
It is hard to imagine anyone more qualified to speak about the pandemic. Jonathan Mayer is a Professor of Epidemiology and Geography at the University of Washington. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Medicine, (Division of Infectious Diseases), Department of Family Medicine, and in Health Services, Global Health. He is Program Director, joint degree: MPH in Epidemiology/PhD Biocultural Anthropology.
This the fifth time we have asked him back to talk about the pandemic. Why? Here is a typical comment:
Dr. Mayer was fantastic. He is incredibly knowledgeable about this topic and has the rare ability to communicate a complex topic to an audience.
Ana Mari Cauce is the 33rd President of the University of Washington where she has been a member of the faculty since 1986. A graduate of the University of Miami and Yale University, she is a noted scholar on risk and resilience among adolescents and has received numerous awards for her research as well as the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Before becoming President in 2015, she served as chair of the Departments of American Ethnic Studies and Psychology, as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and as Provost, the University’s chief academic officer. In 2008, she played a key role in establishing the Husky Promise, a program that has helped more than 40,000 low-income students attend the UW. Since becoming president, Cauce has put a spotlight on the UW’s work in population health across the University, launched the University’s Race & Equity Initiative and been a champion for ensuring the UW and public higher education across the country remain accessible and affordable for all students. As President, and throughout her tenure, she has worked to advance the University’s mission of serving the public good by focusing on the UW’s impact on the lives of the people in Washington and throughout the world.
Thanks to Michael Bronsdon for arranging this program.
Join the University Sunrise Rotary Club for our weekly meeting this Thursday morning featuring Andrea Suarez and the efforts of her organization, We Heart Seattle, to clean up the city.
The meeting runs from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. The Zoom line will open at 7:00 a.m. for informal networking.
Andrea Suarez, Founder of We Heart Seattle, has lived in King County for twenty-four years and in the downtown area since 2009. In September of 2020, she started ‘We Heart Seattle’ out of love for the city–wanting it clean and safe for all to enjoy.
To date, volunteers have cleared 500,000 pounds of trash, 20,000 needles and have housed 100 people. They started a movement to activate civic engagement and restored hope in our communities.
We Heart Seattle is an action-based, boots-on-the-ground movement that organizes trash cleanups in our public spaces and offers a helping hand to those in need. Through direct civic engagement, We Heart Seattle leads the way to a more compassionate and healthy community.
Join the University Sunrise Rotary Club for our weekly meeting this Thursday morning to hear Carolyn Maezes talk about a green alternative to traditional burial and cremation.
The meeting runs from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. The Zoom line will open at 7:00 a.m. for informal networking.
Carolyn Maezes is a co-founder and the Chief Operating Officer of Earth Funeral, a green death care brand. Prior to joining Earth Funeral, Carolyn worked in healthcare, most recently as the Vice President of Patient Experience and Social Work Services at DaVita, a Fortune 200 healthcare company and the leading provider of kidney care services in the United States. Carolyn is also a hospice volunteer and trained End of Life Doula.
Carolyn will provide an overview of soil transformation, which is an environmentally-friendly alternative to cremation. Over the course of 30-45 days, the body is gently and naturally transformed into nutrient-rich soil. Families can use the soil to plant a tree, garden, etc., and/or can scatter it in meaningful places. The majority of the soil is donated to a restoration project on the Olympic Peninsula. An Earth Soil Transformation is carbon-neutral and enables one’s last act to be a gift to the planet and future generations.
Join the University Sunrise Rotary Club for our weekly meeting this Thursday morning to hear Rod Leeman from Cactus Family Farms talk about food myths!
The meeting runs from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. The Zoom line will open at 7:00 a.m. for informal networking.
With over 30,000 products in the average grocery store, addressing myths around food products is a growing area of interest for grocery shoppers. Your members will have the opportunity to hear from an active farmer, animal nutritionist, or livestock veterinarian who will provide a look into farms across America, address animal care on those farms, and provide pork cooking tips. They will enjoy 2 videos. One features a look into 3 commercial pork barns giving viewers a chance to see what goes on inside a modern barn. The other features award-winning actor and former pig farmer, Eric Stonestreet, examining 21st-century pork production.
Rod Leeman is the Director of Business Development at Cactus Family Farms (CFF), the pork division of Cactus Feeders Inc., based out of Amarillo, TX. CFF owns pigs in Iowa, South Carolina, and Georgia and markets more than 850,000 pigs each year. Rod is also a member of the Iowa Pork Producers Association Board of Directors and serves on the committee level at the National Pork Producers Council. Mr. Leman serves as an industry volunteer and speaks nationwide. He graduated from the University of Minnesota – Morris in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Computer Science.
Rod and his wife, Susan, have five children and live in Fort Dodge, Iowa. He is a farmer, an industry leader, and he has been a volunteer speaker for the National Pork Board since 2008.
An online google doc audience evaluation form has been created. There is a slide at the end of the presentation with a QR code that will take the attendees to the audience evaluation. The online form only takes a few moments to complete. Please fill out the evaluation. Your feedback helps keep presentations up to date, informative and engaging. You can also find the link here
