Nerd Nite DC is partnering with the DC Podfest to bring you the best of nerdy audio entertainment, including two live shows and a brain-warping exploration of foreign accents. It’s Nerd Nite LIVE, a very special audio-visual podcast-tastic experience, with special host Ben Taylor, formerly Nerd Nite’s Madison, Wisconsin boss and now one of our rocking DC guest hosts!
Where: DC9 Nightclub at 1940 9th St NW, Washington, DC 20001
When: Saturday, November 11th – Doors at 6PM, Show Starts at 6:30 PM
Tickets: $10 – Buy them here!
America is adapting: Stories from the front lines of climate change by Doug Parsons
America Adapts – The Climate Change Podcast will host a panel to discuss what adaptation means for society and some useful examples of what’s happening today, including how our very own home town is adapting to climate change!
Doug Parsons has been working on climate adaptation for many years, starting in Queensland, Australia. Later, he worked at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, where he developed a first-of-its-kind climate change course that’s used by California and federal agencies. He carried on his adaptation work at the National Park Service and the Society for Conservation Biology and nowadays, he’s running his podcast as a fully fledged non-profit, reporting on climate adaptation in Africa and the United States and hosting interesting – and provocative – conversations around our future climate.
Don’t trust your brain: why foreign accents are all in your head by Mari Sakai
We all have the same lips, tongue, throat, and larynx…so why is it really difficult to hear and pronounce some sounds in a foreign language? Our brains are masters at statistically tracking every linguistic sound we hear, but usually only for our own native language. When we try to add a new or foreign sound in, ours brain may or may not open the door. Instead, they dump acoustic information that seems unimportant, and – here’s the cool part! – our brains will warp what we hear. This talk will focus on how the brain really rules what we hear and how we pronounce it. And we’ll get some tips on how we can train ourselves to learn difficult foreign language sounds.
Mari Sakai has a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Georgetown University and is currently a Fellow at Georgetown Law, working with international lawyers on their English pronunciation and oral communication skills. Mari loves watching standup, sewing, her fifteen houseplants, and hiking.
How to be a space advocate: the Ad Astra Guide to Aiming for the Stars by Jack Kiraly and Newton Campbell
Space…it’s awesome. But getting there can be a hell of a job, both for NASA and the private companies that run launches. There are plenty of people who want us to go back to the Moon and Mars and beyond. The Ad Astra podcast team will talk to us about what space advocates are up to and what they think the future holds in store for space exploration.
Jack Kiraly is a Michigander, living and working in the nation’s capital. He has a Master’s in Space Policy, and currently works in and around advocacy for science and space policy issues. Alongside hosting the Ad Astra podcast, Jack is an aspiring amateur musician and has recorded a number of to-be-released songs.
Nerd Nite is Going Electric!
Can you hear that buzzing in the air? It’s almost electric! For October Nerd Nite, we are going to see what’s vibrating in the air – from music to electricity to good ol’ radio waves. So tune into Nerd Nite at 6:30pm EST to hear Nathan West get nitty gritty about Telsa vs. Edison, Lavanya Ramanathan wax about how the Beatles rocked DC and we will interrupt our regularly scheduled program to geek out about radios with Tom Rondeau. Be sure to tune in to be there and be square.
Where: DC9 Nightclub at 1940 9th St NW, just south of U St.
When: October 14th, 2017. Doors at 6PM. Show starts at 6:30 and ends around 8:30.
Tickets: Get your tickets here. $10 each.
Tesla & Edison to Marconi & a Magician: Early problems of wireless communications and why they still haven’t been solved by Nathan West
Tesla revolutionized high frequency used in wireless communications. The Marconi telegraph company quickly capitalized on his discoveries to transmit wireless telegraph signals; their marketing, however, took several liberties in technical speak only to be “found out” by a magician. Telsa was further foiled by Edison persuading the US Navy to adopt his methods about the needed infrastructure for communication. These old feuds still pervade the wireless landscape we see today.
Bio: Nathan works at a small company designing wireless modems and formerly worked at the Naval Research Laboratory. He is currently slogging through a PhD applying machine learning to wireless communications and can’t get enough of the surprisingly colorful characters that shaped the communication revolution. He also thinks Edison wasn’t such a bad guy.
Beatlemania began in a hockey arena in Northeast D.C.: The strange tale of the first American Beatles concert By Lavanya Ramanathan
Two nights after their landmark “Ed Sullivan” appearance, four slightly overwhelmed young men boarded a train for Washington D.C. for their first live performance stateside; a show that would take place in, of all places, a hockey arena in Northeast Washington. Al Gore was in the audience. The concert was almost derailed by a major snowstorm. Tickets were less than $5. Hear the whole story of how Beatlemania in America kicked off with a very loud, very short concert right here in Washington.
Bio: Lavanya has been a reporter for The Washington Post for 13 years, and a music-head since birth. She’s covered everything from police stories to food and dining and now, what a reader has described to her as “the American mood.” She’s actually agnostic about the Beatles’ music, preferring the Stones. But she loves a good story.
How an actress and composer laid the foundation for the future of wireless communications by Tom Rondeau
Within the field of wireless communications, Hedy Lamarr’s story is one of the most well-known. But it’s worth telling again and making sure her story is known by many. This is a story of art, culture, and technology and how it created one of the most important inventions in wireless communications. We’ll explore why the technology is still relevant, and why this story is an inspiration for DARPA’s upcoming Bay Area SDR Hackfest.
Bio: Tom is a Program Manager for DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office where he continues to work on software radio — the intersection of connectivity and computing. Formerly, Tom was the lead programmer and project maintainer of GNU Radio, a Free and Open Source software radio framework and ecosystem. He received his PhD in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech in 2007 for his work in artificial intelligence and wireless communications (ask him about the award he won for it, we’re sure he’ll be happy to tell you). And second only to Popeye, Tom’s forearms may actually be more famous than he is. I’m sure he’s going to have his sleeves rolled up for everyone to see why.
Nerd Nite Plays Rock, Paper, Scissors!
Just in time for heading back to school, we’re going to get reacquainted with rock, paper, scissors, Nerd Nite style! Get your three-ring binders, textbook covers and new kicks ready to roll. Wendy Bohon will be talking rocks from space, Carrie Smith is going to tell us how to save our paper, and Jill Nelson will make sure you know how to cut the right wire when monitoring a solar eclipse! And we’ll also be welcoming back our special guest host Rachel Pendergrass!
Where: DC9 Nightclub at 1940 9th St NW, just south of U St.
When: September 9th, 2017. Doors at 6PM. Show starts at 6:30 and ends around 8:30.
Tickets: Get your tickets here. $10 each.
We’ll also have t-shirts, buttons and stickers for sale. And, yes, we take credit card!
ROCKS FROM SPACE!…or Using ASTER Remote Sensing Data to Make Geologic Maps of Remote Locations in the Ladakh Himalaya
Wendy Bohon started out her academic career in Theatre but after taking a Geology class in college she released her inner science nerd and got a double major in Theatre and Geology from James Madison University. From there she to moved to LA to pursue a career in acting which again got derailed by geology – this time in the form of the Hector Mine earthquake. After that life shaking event she went to work as the Education and Outreach Coordinator for the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program in Pasadena. Finally succumbing to the siren song of science, Wendy went back to school and earned an MSc in Geology from THE Ohio State University and a PhD in Geology/Tectonics from Arizona State University. She now studies earthquakes and mountain building processes and is passionate about science education and communication. Wendy is currently the Informal Education Specialist and Science Communicator for the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology and serves on the National Leadership Board for 500 Women Scientists.
How Not to Ruin Everything: A Brief History and Practical Guide to Book and Paper Conservation
When a machine breaks down, you take it in to get it fixed. But what about your valuable papers, nostalgic photographs, and favorite books? They can get fixed too! And no, not by slapping a piece of Scotch tape over a tear. Come hear about how an Italian flood kickstarted modern conservation, how important museum items stay spiffy, and learn a bit about how to care for your own paper-based items.
Carrie Smith is a librarian and conservator in Washington, DC. She studied book and paper conservation at Camberwell College in London, and has some fancy credentials under her belt, but these days spends most of her time re-watching Dawson’s Creek.
Begging people in North Dakota to build circuits: Citizen science for the solar eclipse
What do radio waves have to do with a solar eclipse? More than you would think. The EclipseMob citizen science project was created to collect radio signals from across the United States during the much-hyped solar eclipse that took place on August 21. 150 people, all in different locations, agreed to build “simple” receivers and record radio signals during the eclipse. Their recordings will be used to improve our understanding of how the earth’s atmosphere (specifically the ionosphere) is affected by an eclipse. Data analysis is in progress and many insights about designing and crowdsourcing an electronics project have already emerged.
Jill Nelson is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at George Mason University. Her research focuses on statistical signal processing with applications in target tracking, wireless communications, and now, solar eclipses. She is also active in engineering education research and has a passion for convincing people that engineering is sexy. Developing the EclipseMob project to latch onto the nation’s eclipse obsession seemed like a perfect way to do just that.
