On Friday December 13, Patrick Roche will discuss the state of renewable energy on the New England grid.

Roche's presentation will have a particular emphasis on how Winchester’s electricity supply program, WinPower, aligns with and accelerates progress towards the State’s climate goals. Most residential and small business users in Winchester receive their electricity supply from WinPower, which provides 88% renewable electricity by default - substantially more renewables than the State minimum. Patrick will provide an overview of the WinPower program, and explore its sources of power as well as how its renewable energy is tracked and verified. Patrick will also zoom out to provide context for renewables on the broader New England electricity grid, the decarbonization and renewable energy targets of the five states, and major challenges to and opportunities for reaching those targets.

Patrick Roche is the Director of Innovation for Good Energy, which manages Winchester’s WinPower program, along with similar electricity aggregation programs for over 70 other cities and towns in Massachusetts. Also known as community electricity, aggregation empowers local governments to create new electricity options for their entire community, providing the benefits of large scale power procurement to residents and small businesses. At Good Energy, Patrick oversees renewable energy strategies, focusing on leveraging municipal aggregation programs to expand clean energy on our New England grid while maintaining competitive prices for consumers. Prior to joining Good Energy in 2019, Patrick served as the Assistant Director of Clean Energy at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council in Boston. He received his bachelors of arts in Environmental Policy from Colby College.

November 22nd- Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good Computers?

On November 22nd Walter Hubbard, President of PC QuickHelp, will talk about Why Bad Things Happen to Good Computers. Perhaps this has happened to you? Your computer is running fine and then: Wham! Maybe a software problem, or a printer problem, or worse yet, you’ve been hacked!! PC or Mac – makes no difference. Stuff happens! Walter Hubbard has been in the computer business for thirty years solving these very issues. He will discuss some simple and not-so-simple solutions. The most important to you is to prevent the hacking. Every week, he sees people being hacked out of thousands of dollars. He will tell you how to protect yourself by protecting your computer, your passwords, and your life savings. Join us in this very informative session that everyone can use.

Walter Hubbard founded PC QuickHelp in 1996 after recognizing that small businesses and homes need quick computer service to solve everyday problems. Walter has been helping users with computers since 1969. He has worked as a design engineer and a field engineer for General Electric Turbine Systems and as a program manager for Data General. In 1963 at the age of twelve, Walter’s Science Fair project was a Solar PhotoVoltaic cell powering a motor. Ever since, he has been enthralled with energy production earning a BSME at University of Rhode Island in power engineering. Upon graduating, he designed components of nuclear power plants for Stone and Webster and then later designing, installing, and troubleshooting steam turbine generators for General Electric in nuclear and fossil power plants. In the late 70s he was a formative part of several volunteer alternative energy groups. In 1982, Walter earned his MBA at the University of Michigan emphasizing Solar PhotoVoltaic Engineering and Energy Economics. Since then, Walter has been a financial and engineering consultant to the waste to energy industry, and more recently a computer consultant to small businesses and individuals. Walter practices what he preaches by driving an electric vehicle and heating and cooling with heat pumps powered in part by solar panels and a Powerwall battery at his home. Walter has been involved in several volunteer boards including Winchester Finance Committee, Winchester Town Meeting, Winchester Youth Lacrosse, and more recently on the board for the Winchester Chamber of Commerce. Walter is a certified Professional Engineer and a Certified Microsoft Professional.

On November 8th, Peter Ciriscioli will speak with us on Autonomous Vehicle Policy Issues.

Peter Ciriscioli joins us to speak on Autonomous Vehicle Policy Issues. Autonomous Vehicle developers have relied on “miles driven” to evaluate AV safety performance and public road Autonomous Vehicle testing has posed safety problems, resulting in a large number of injuries and fatalities. This talk examines the current state of Autonomous Vehicle safety and suggests that more effective Autonomous Vehicle safety validation processes can be modeled after proven processes used in the Aerospace and Defense industries.

Peter Ciriscioli has extensive development experience with ground vehicles, aircraft, missiles, and spacecraft including a number of different ICBM programs and satellites. He has successfully developed complex ground vehicles and vehicle systems: He led the development of the BAE Systems MRAP family of vehicles for deployment during the Iraq War and also led the development of the successful proof of concept vehicle for the DoD’s HMMWV replacement, the CTV. In parallel with that effort, Peter led the development of the BAE Systems JLTV. and the initial development of the first hybrid electric drive for armored vehicles. Peter received a patent for a vehicle armored window system and has received recognition from the Secretary of Defense for his work in vehicle development and vehicle survivability.

Prior to his vehicle development work, Peter led the successful development of a new molecule which is currently used in the secondary carbon fiber composite structures of almost all commercial aircraft manufactured since 1997. Peter wrote 37 FAA approved material, process, and manufacturing specifications for the LearFan aircraft, which is now displayed in Boeing’s Museum of Flight, and his patented fire shield material was used on the nonstop globe-circling Rutan Voyager aircraft, now displayed in the Smithsonian Institution. Peter developed the manufacturing processes and composite material “design allowables” for the equipment section of the Trident II (D5) missile. In addition to the USA, Peter has worked in the UK, Belgium, Germany, Italy, France, Israel, Zambia, India, Japan and Australia. Peter is currently an independent consultant who helps companies innovate to improve cash flow.

Peter received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University for his work to develop an expert system which cures advanced composite materials.

On Friday, October 25 join Winchester's Sustainability Director, Ken Pruitt to discuss the progress of the Town's Climate Action Plan.

On Friday, October 25, Ken Pruitt, Sustainability Director for the Town of Winchester, will discuss Winchester’s Climate Action Plan, his role implementing it, and progress and challenges in implementation. The CAP includes 69 measures in the areas of energy, buildings, transportation, solid waste and climate resilience. Ken will also discuss ongoing projects and initiatives such as the Lynch Elementary School, which will be Winchester’s first net zero energy building; two new high-speed electric vehicle charging stations located in the Jenks-Town Hall parking lot, a proposed stricter building energy code up for adoption at Fall Town Meeting, and other topics.

Ken Pruitt became Winchester's first Sustainability Director in 2021. Prior to joining Winchester, he spent four years as Energy Manager for the Town of Arlington, located in the Department of Planning and Community Development. As Arlington's Energy Manager, Ken was the Town’s lead on energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, electric vehicle acquisition and charging infrastructure, the Arlington Community Electricity program, building electrification, municipal energy supply, and net zero planning. Prior to working for the Town of Arlington, Ken served as Director of Conservation for the Town of Boxford and went on to become Executive Director of the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions and then the Environmental League of Massachusetts. He earned a Master of Forest Science degree from the Yale School of the Environment and a BA in Political Science and International Studies from Macalester College. Ken has been a Winchester resident since 2010 and, since 2014, an elected member of Town Meeting.

On October 11th join our Generative AI Panel Discussion with Ron Smith, Bernhard Suhm, and Marv Goldschmitt.

On October 11th the speakers who met with in September have been invited back for an open conversation with us. I hope that you will come prepared to discuss your thoughts on the advances in AI as well as the challenges that confront people all over the planet.

In my experience, technologists have been historically reluctant to become involved in public policy and yet in our technologically intense world the absence of technological input is a concern to me. I saw a recent article in the New York Times by writer James Pogue about Senator Chris Murphy. Pogue wrote “... the idea that modern life is a story of constant economic and technological progress steadily making the world a better place has stopped lining up with how Americans feel.” Senator Murphy (D-Conn) and Governor Spencer Cox (R-Utah) have launched a national conversation with the intent to restore the common good. They look to involving intellectuals and activists. Notably, technologists do not seem to be included in their thinking. Maybe they were not considered/invited. In any case, we need to become part of the conversation.

There is a lot of good that has come from technology in health care, for example, and more to come. But I am equally certain that technology can be and is being used abusively. The misinformation and disinformation that appear in social media are examples. The changes in AI that began in November 2022 with Generative AI are remarkable. GenAI is not any new technology. This one is shattering. But I suppose that to the average thoughtful person, the telephone must have been shattering. Just as the Model T. What is different is the case of GenAI is that it does not just add a new dimension to our lives, it presents technology as a force beyond nature. It allegedly thinks and feels though it is not clear on what scale and in what detail it compares to human thinking. But we don’t really understand the particulars of how humans think. I worry that technology may be heading so far out front of humans that people may begin to distrust science and technology on a level that is unprecedented today. That would be disaster from my perspective.

Technology and technologists have crucial roles to play in my view in medicine, meeting energy demand, addressing climate change, k-12 education (which has been on my radar screen for decades) and so much more. My hope is that we have learned some lessons from the history of the Internet and The Web that may help lead to a responsible and accountable advance of AI into our social fabric. My sense, however, is that GenAI has the potential to be supremely useful and also supremely abusive (personal, socially, culturally) and the tech giants who are moving it at breakneck speed are driven by age old motivation...fear (of losing market share) and greed (fear of losing market share) rather than societal benefit.

On September 27th, Bernhard Suhm will continue our conversation about Generative AI.

He will speak with us on Transforming Search Experiences with Semantic Search. The landscape of information retrieval has undergone a paradigm shift with the advent of semantic search technologies. Traditional keyword-based search methods often yielded inconsistent results, requiring users to navigate through extensive lists or documents to locate pertinent information, and familiarity with the jargon when searching specialized domains. This talk examines the transformative impact of semantic search and explores its subsequent developments. Semantic search, by leveraging natural language processing and machine learning algorithms, has significantly enhanced the relevance and accuracy of information retrieval. This technology is able to capture user intent, context, and the conceptual relationships between search terms and content. As a result, semantic search has markedly reduced the cognitive load on users, by delivering more relevant answers. The emergence of large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT brought AI and semantic retrieval on everyone’s minds. Haven’t we all tinkered with them, and are amazed what they can do? Not only can they answer complex questions in a dialog, they give advice on how to proceed, they diagnose issues and help you troubleshoot, they even deliver code and build whole systems.

Bernhard Suhm Ph.D., Principal, USpeak AI, has been applying AI to improving user experiences and solving business challenges his whole career. Prior to working as an independent consultant, he drove adoption of machine learning, vector search, and generative AI as a product marketer at Elastic, promoting how these capabilities enable more automation in observability, additional layers of security, and improved search experiences. In prior roles, Bernhard was product owner of the Machine Learning toolbox at MathWorks, and developed AI-powered call analytics to improve caller experiences and the delivery of customer service, influencing the handling of 100Ms calls working with Fortune 100 companies. He received a PhD in Computer Science specializing in speech user interfaces from Karlsruhe University in Germany, learned the ropes of user-centered design at Carnegie Mellon University, and has presented on speech recognition, caller experience analysis, and machine learning.

We leadoff our new Wilson Forum season on Friday, September 13th

with Innovation Toronto’s Ron Smith, Marv Goldschmitt of AIUpdate, and Paula McConnell of Seva Digital who will lead us through An Introduction to and Test Drive of Generative AI. This session will begin with a brief history of AI and its meteoric evolution into virtually every aspect of life on our small planet. At this stage of history it seems that few people have had any direct experience with this technology. Our speakers consider it important that everyone should have such an opportunity and make judgments on the value of this technology for themselves as it is likely to impact them directly. Today is a test drive of an experiential chatbot designed to introduce non-technical people to our new reality and we will illustrate the potential of Ai with a few volunteers. There will be a few short videos that are illustrative of more advanced capabilities. I have had such an experience with the guidance of our guests and I can testify to the value of AI in matters of interest to me. But I am also confident that this technology can be abused. My hope is that we have learned some lessons from the history of The Internet and The Web, that likely pale by comparison, but may help lead to a responsible and accountable advance of AI into our social fabric. The session will conclude with Q and A as is our usual.

Ron Smith is an experienced innovator who left the for-profit world 34 years ago to apply entrepreneurial business principles to social needs. The focus in this time-line has ranged from the creation of innovative community projects, creation and implementation of local and foreign emergency disaster relief efforts to the global environmental imperative. His commitment to a positive, business-like and balanced approach to community, environment, education and related issues has helped attract some of the best minds in business, education, the environment and the community to work on pragmatic approaches that target the goal of a truly sustainable future. In 2007 Innovation Toronto was born. It began with Ron overseeing an online focus on the startup community in Toronto but quickly evolved to focus on the brilliant breakthroughs and discoveries that global science was bringing to the world. Since that time, Innovation Toronto has strived to showcase the best and brightest ideas that can be found from universities and research institutions worldwide. The ongoing overall mission is to help accelerate the development of the projects and ideas most likely to be of service in a time of local / global need. With the advent of generative artificial intelligence platforms he is deeply involved in exploring the possibilities and potential offered by AI to better promote the promise and wonders of science to the general public. See the attached for a more complete summary of Ron’s remarkable leadership over the years.

Marv Goldschmitt has been involved in the “bleeding” edge of the computer industry for 45 years. He brings a long history of high technology executive management and consulting experience to every engagement. He is a broad thinker who applies his skills to a variety of areas that are impacted by rapid changes in technology. Active in the evolving areas of information privacy and data governance he started and ran the first software industry lobbying organization to combat piracy and establish protection for software IP. He was a member of IBM’s Data Governance Council leading the privacy and security policy development team. Marv has a long interest and involvement with AI. In 1986 he worked with Nestor Inc., the first dedicated neural networking company. He was at IBM when Watson was being developed and then started a company to help job seekers combat the use of AI in resume screening. Marv has published numerous articles on business development strategies, security and data governance. He holds a BS from the State University of New York and an MS from the Medical College of Virginia/VCU, in psychology, is a professional photographer and spent a number of years as a meditation instructor. A short version of Marv’s unique history is included in the attached.

Paula McConnell, founder of Seva Digital, began her journey in technology at just four years old with an oscilloscope her father brought home from work at Hewlett Packard. With over a decade of experience in human-centered design and an MBA in Innovation and Technology Transfer, Paula has a rich background in creating impactful tech solutions, including a notable app developed in Nicaragua to assist smallholder farmers. Seva Digital is dedicated to empowering small business owners by offering tailored AI and technology solutions that enhance business efficiency, growth, and community engagement. As a sought-after speaker and workshop leader, Paula combines her profound expertise with a supportive and engaging approach, helping business leaders understand and implement AI technologies effectively. She acknowledges the hesitations many face in adopting new technology and is committed to guiding professionals through these transformative changes with empathy and insight. Paula encourages you to delve into AI with confidence, recognizing its potential to transform industries and enrich our professional lives, and is dedicated to advancing AI literacy to ensure everyone can navigate these advancements with clarity and awareness.

On June 28, Walter Hubbard will moderate a discussion on The Electric Grid and Climate Issues.

On Friday, June 28th we will wrap up our current year of The Wilson Forum. Walter Hubbard will moderate a discussion regarding our focus in 2023-2024 on electric generation and associated environmental issues. We will also describe plans for the 2024-2025 program, hopefully offered in a hybrid virtual/in person mode. This will be a table-setting meeting. Your input is important, so please login.

Also, note that we will take a summer break in July and August and resume our program for next season on September 13th, leading off with Generative AI.

On Friday, June 14, 2024, Dr. Albert Moussa will answer the question, How Safe are the Friendly Skies?

While commercial air travel is an extremely safe mode of transport, accidents involving fire or explosion have occurred. Though very infrequent, they can have catastrophic consequences. These accidents are the driving force behind all safety recommendations by the National Transportation Safety Board, regulations by the Federal Aviation Administration, and adoptions by industry. In this presentation, Dr. Albert Moussa will answer the question, How Safe are the Friendly Skies? Based on real-world examples, Albert will provide an overview of the main types of in-flight and post-crash fires involving aircraft engine, fuel tank, cabin and cargo compartments. He will also give examples of safety improvements of commercial aircraft and new challenges brought about by drone powered by electricity and hydrogen. He will present the highlights of a unique 3-day professional engineering course on Aircraft Fire Hazards, Protection and Investigation that he teaches annually.

Dr. Moussa is the Founder and Technical Director of BlazeTech Corp., a technology development and consulting company in the areas of safety, environment and energy. He specializes in combustion, fire and explosion working particularly for the aircraft and chemical industries. He got his B.S. from Stanford University and his MS and PhD from MIT. He has published widely including one book. Because of his forewarning about fuel tank vulnerabilities prior to the TWA 800 and Concorde disasters, he received coverage by the media, including the New York Times, CBS, BBC and several European journals. He has received the SAE/AIAA William Littlewood Memorial Lecture Award, Best Paper Awards (by AIAA and ASEI), and Engineer of the Year Award by the NE Section of AIAA and AIAA Distinguished Lecturer. He has served as Associate Editor of an ASME Journal and on several national committees. He has given guest lectures on this topic at the NTSB Training Center and at various Universities.

On Friday, May 24th, Jane Kent will speak about Hospital Planning Going Forward.

She will speak on her work at The University of Michigan Medicine in maintaining the facilities documentation and how this is changing. The organization continues to grow and with it the amount of information that needs to be managed and effectively provided to its clients, all with a limited workforce. She will speak about the use of Matterport Scanning technology and the implementation of these scans in tracking and cataloging facility changes.

Jane Kent is currently a Business Process Consultant in the Facilities Documentation and Space Division of the Facilities Planning and Development Department for University of Michigan Medicine where she manages the Matterport Scanning project. Jane and her colleagues have led Michigan Medicine to become a world leading provider in healthcare, education and research. Jane worked for 13 years with City of Cambridge MA in the Traffic and Transportation Department, working closely with Planning Department to facilitate installation of traffic calming measures and safe bike routes throughout the city. After moving to Ann Arbor she worked with the city of Ann Arbor, continuing her work with bike safety and ultimately joined the Michigan Medicine documentation group. Jane is the youngest daughter of a historic figure in the evolution of The Jenks Center, Jim Kent.

On Friday, May 10th, Peter Baldwin, Past President of Ramgen Power System (Ret.), will offer his perspectives on evolving Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) opportunities.

Ramgen Power Systems had successfully developed a supersonic CO2 compression technology with support from DOE-NETL and Dresser-Rand, intended for use in the, then emerging power generation CCS applications. Pete led all commercial discussions with CCS system developers, government agencies, users, and funders alike, worldwide. The CO2 compressor is located between the CCS capture system and the CO2 pipeline, requiring detailed knowledge of both systems and their operating parameters. The industry is now reconstituting itself to support the production of Blue H2, with the associated CO2 collected in the emerging CO2 Hubs. These CO2 Hubs and their piping systems will also support any CO2 Removal (CDR) projects, including the emerging Direct Air Capture (DAC) systems.

Peter Baldwin has been involved in all aspects of the gas turbine and compressor industries for almost 60 years, and has broad general industry knowledge and practice, based on years of global commercial interactions. Base-e; his Boston based independent consulting company focusing on practical product positioning and commercialization strategies for Distributed Energy Technologies, Gas Turbines, and various Air and Gas Compression interests. Pete is the immediate past President of Ramgen Power Systems, a Seattle-based developer of an advanced shock compression technology intended for use as a utility scale CO2 compressor in the, then developing Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) projects and applications. Ramgen has been supported through U.S. Department of Energy funding grants and by Dresser Rand as a strategic investor. Pete is also the past President of Northern Research and Engineering Corporation (NREC), a world-class turbomachinery design services organization, now doing business as part of Concepts/NREC. Prior to its sale to Concepts, NREC was a wholly owned subsidiary of Ingersoll-Rand. NREC was responsible for the development of Ingersoll-Rand’s PowerWorks Microturbine Technology, now offered by FlexEnergy. NREC was also responsible for an advanced gas turbine recuperator technology that has since been incorporated into the Rolls-Royce WR21 marine gas turbine engine, now operating successfully in the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyer. NREC, in cooperation Westinghouse and Rolls-Royce, developed and tested the first 53% efficient Solid Oxide Fuel Cell/Gas Turbine Hybrid (SOFC/GT) at UC Irvine in the late 90’s. Prior to joining NREC, Pete had been Vice President of Sales and Service, North America for Ingersoll-Rand’s Air Compressor Group. Previously, and as the Air Compressor Group Marketing V-P, Pete negotiated and implemented a licensing agreement with Kawasaki Heavy Industries for a mixed-flow blower technology, and an MOU with Daewoo for an I-R Corporate JV in Korea. Pete also spent four years in Europe. The first assignment was as a Centrifugal Compressor Division Area Manager responsible for the UK and Scandinavia with the goal to reenergize the local sales effort. Pete was subsequently promoted to the position of Product Manager Centrifugal Compressor for Europe, Mid-East, and Africa, operating out of the Division manufacturing location in Milan, Italy. Pete returned to the U.S. as Product Manager for Rotary/Recip Compressors in U.S., Latin America, and Asia Pacific. Pete has been a Contributing Editor with Turbomachinery International magazine from 2000 to 2008, and Gas Turbine World since 2020. He has been an associate with Cambridge Energy Research Distributed Energy Practice (Now IHS). Pete Baldwin is a recognized and respected industry leader in the turbomachinery industry with a unique combination of technical understanding and real-world commercial experience. Pete holds a BSME degree from Purdue University.

Professor David Seidman will speak about Northwestern University’s Center of Atom Probe Tomography.

He will explain what is an atom-probe tomograph and then describe two examples of its use: (1) determination of the ratio of carbon 12 (99%) to carbon 13 (1%) in nanodiamonds extracted from a famous meteorite, Allende, which was thought to have been formed before our solar system was created, that is, greater than 4.5 billion years old. (2) the formation of silicon nanowires using aluminum as a catalyst and their complete chemical analysis using our atom-probe tomograph (APT). The APT results are combined with transmission electron microscopy results, which gives a detailed picture of the how the silicon nanowires grow. The need for nanoscale characterization, as in semiconductor chip fabrication which we heard about recently, emphasizes the need for such powerful characterization tools.

David is Walter P. Murphy Professor Emeritus of Materials Science and Engineering and the Founding Director of the Northwestern University Center for Atom-Probe Tomography (NUCAPT). David earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and M.S., and B.S. from New York University, all in Physical Metallurgy. He joined the Northwestern University faculty in1985. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, His current interests center on three high-temperature superalloys: aluminum-based, cobalt-based, and nickel-based. He is specifically interested in understanding the first-order phase transformations (precipitation) that occur in these alloys on an atomic scale utilizing atom-probe tomography (APT) and correlative instruments, which provide information at larger length scales: transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and optical microscopy. In the case of Nickel-based alloys he employs vacancy-mediated lattice kinetic Monte Carlo (LKMC) simulations, which complement and supplement the APT experiments and help to elucidate the mechanisms for nucleation, growth and coarsening.

On Friday, April 12th, Historian Vincent Dixon, will speak on The Massachusetts Legislative Process.

The Right of Free Petition is a legally unique opportunity for all those in Massachusetts to file their own legislation, once each Legislative Session. This opportunity is not only Interesting but potentially important in legal capacities for reform. Vincent’s work as a historian allows him to add perspectives on issues of importance to the lives of our citizens that is unique, and, in our technologically intense world, to help identify, various leaders, including technology leaders, who can help serve the public interest in Winchester, Eastern Massachusetts, and the broader Commonwealth. He will also touch on The Expanded Massachusetts Agenda: A package of 45 pieces of proposed legislation, that offer potential solutions to a wide range of distinct, and interrelated problems.

Vincent Lawrence “Vince” Dixon is a known Historian, especially focused on presentations including Colonial History; Current Events, and their Relationship to History; Church-State Relationships, Evolutions, and Relationships with Civic Society; Parks, and Landscape History; and has taught, and tutored, as well. He has done work in curriculum development, is a frequently published columnist, and speaker; and responds to custom requests. MASS PRESENTATIONS (a dba brand, of Dixon’s) develops a wide variety of presentations, including media, curriculum, and published materials, across a wide range of audiences, and subject matter. Dixon has made many presentations, including to Winchester Historical Society: Religious Realities of Winchester: Houses of Worship and Communities of Faith; Schools of Winchester and Their Namesakes (including an exploration of The Lincolns of Massachusetts); Sports History of Winchester (A Virtual Event – by Zoom); and a History of Vaccination, Immunization, and Disease Prevention. He has also conducted Town Day Trolley Guided Tours; and will again, on this year’s Winchester Town Day, June 1, 2024; previous presentations to Cambridge Historical Society; and is periodically invited to teach classes in History, and Civics, at East Boston High School. Interestingly, Vince was home schooled K-12; earned his Associate in Arts, and his Bachelor of Arts Degree, cum laude, at the Harvard University Extension School and a Master of Education Degree at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. He studied with Dr. Thomas H. O’Connor, University Historian of Boston College, the long-time Dean of Boston Historians.

On March 22, Boston Globe business reporter Jon Chesto will speak broadly about current events shaping Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Future

Jon Chesto covers the leaders who shape Boston’s business community. He has been reporting on business and politics in New England for the past two decades. Before joining the Globe, he was managing editor at the Boston Business Journal. Prior to that role, he was the business editor at The Patriot Ledger in Quincy. His weekly Ledger column, “Mass. Market,” won several national awards with the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. A graduate of Wesleyan University and Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, he has also worked as a business reporter at the Boston Herald and as a political reporter with Ottaway Newspapers.

Richard Adler rejoins us on March 8th to revisit Bending the Law of Unintended Consequences: More Decision Support Models.

We witness the unintended consequences of critical decisions all around us, like Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and the disastrous war in Gaza. My presentation for the Wilson Science and Technology group last year described a “test drive” method for improving critical policy and business decisions. Much like consumers try out cars before buying one, decision test drives help organizations explore the possible outcomes of decision options before committing to one alternative. This method helps leaders improve anticipation of the future and thereby avoid unintended outcomes. My follow-on talk will revisit the test drive method in more detail. I’ll present a rationale for our method by explaining how it improves upon existing decision support techniques. I’ll also describe our hybrid simulation approach, which improves realism in modeling the complex situational dynamics that shape decision outcomes. Finally, I’ll present a business example to illustrate these concepts. This test drive case study improves decisions about competitive marketing strategy in the pharmaceutical industry.

Rich Adler is a software architect, management consultant, and start-up executive. He spent most of his career building software tools and applications to improve business operations and critical decision-making. Richard worked for Control Data, MITRE, Computer Sciences Corporation, and three software start-up companies. Early in his career, Richard built AI programs, including one that automated operations support for the Launch Processing System for NASA’s Space Shuttle Fleet. As the founder of DecisionPath, he developed solutions to improve strategic decisions such as competitive marketing, counterterrorism, and organizational change, as described in his recent book Bending the Law of Unintended Consequences. Richard has published and spoken on topics including intelligent and distributed systems, simulation, homeland security, and knowledge management. Richard holds a BS degree in Physics and Philosophy (University of Michigan), an MS in Physics (University of Illinois at Urbana) and a PhD in Philosophy of Physics (University of Minnesota).

On February 23rd, MIT Professor Jesus del Alamo will speak on the future direction of microelectronics, Microelectronics: Quo Vadis?

The COVID pandemic, in dramatic form, made evident the critical role that microelectronics plays in modern human society. Supply disruptions brought us the realization that semiconductor chips are like oxygen, only when we don’t have them we come to appreciate how much we depend on them for nearly every aspect of our lives. Indeed, countries around the world have all of a sudden recognized the strategic nature of semiconductor microelectronics and policies to foster on-shore production of the most advanced chips and to strengthen the robustness of supply chains are being enacted around the globe. Beyond its strategic importance, semiconductor microelectronics is a domain that wonderfully illustrates what human ingenuity can accomplish. For over 50 years now, the power of microelectronics has been increasing exponentially. While the popular press has been warning us of the impending “End of Moore’s Law”, technologists continue to push the technology forward. At any one time, they see 10 more years of continuous progress ahead. This talk will review the long march of microelectronics to this date and the opportunities and challenges going forward. In its late middle age, the field remains youthful and pregnant with possibilities.

Jesús A. del Alamo is the Donner Professor and Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT. He obtained a Telecommunications Engineer degree from Polytechnic University of Madrid (Spain) and MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. In 1985 he joined Nippon Telegraph and Telephone LSI Laboratories in Japan and since 1988 he has been with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 2013 until 2019, he served as Director of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories at MIT. His current research interests are focused on nanoelectronics based on compound semiconductors and ultra-wide bandgap semiconductors and novel ionic and ferroelectric devices for artificial intelligence accelerators. Prof. del Alamo was an NSF Presidential Young Investigator. He is a member of the Royal Spanish Academy of Engineering and Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Physical Society and the Materials Research Society. He is the recipient of the Intel Outstanding Researcher Award in Emerging Research Devices, the Semiconductor Research Corporation Technical Excellence Award, the IEEE Electron Devices Society Education Award, the University Researcher Award by Semiconductor Industry Association and Semiconductor Research Corporation, the IPRM Award and the IEEE Cledo Brunetti Award. From 2019 to 2022 he served as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Electron Device Letters. He is the author of “Integrated Microelectronic Devices: Physics and Modeling” (Pearson 2017, 880 pages), a rigorous and up to date description of semiconductor physics, transistors and other contemporary microelectronic devices.

On February 9th, Professor Angel Serrano Aroca of the Catholic University of Velencia (UCV) will speak about his work on Antimicrobial Face Masks, Face Shields and...Lipsticks.

Face masks and face shields are accepted to be effective protective tools to avoid bacterial and viral transmission, especially against indoor aerosol transmission. However, the commercial materials used to produce these tools are not capable of inactivating pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 or multidrug-resistant bacteria. Lipsticks are usually associated with higher physical, sexual and social attractiveness and are not generally made of antimicrobial materials either. In this context, we have developed new antimicrobial face masks and face shields with a biofunctional coating of benzalkonium chloride (BAK). These coatings were capable of inactivating SARS-CoV-2 in less than 1 minute of viral contact.

Moreover, the BAK coating was also effective against the life-threatening methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (MRSE). Other antimicrobial face masks can be developed using a low-cost technology consisting of a solidified hand soap coating. Bio-based technologies for the production of antimicrobial face masks can also be applied using cranberry extracts by dip-coating. A novel bio-based lipstick containing cranberry extract was also developed to prevent infections caused by a broad range of microorganisms: enveloped and non-enveloped viruses; multidrug-resistant bacteria like MRSA, Escherichia coli, and Mycobacterium smegmatis, a surrogate of Mycobacterium tuberculosis; and the Candida albicans fungus. Therefore, all these antimicrobial tools are very promising in the current antimicrobial-resistance era.

On Friday, January 26th, Dr. Robert Caligiuri , Corporate Vice President at Exponent, Inc., will describe An Example of the Challenges and Adventures of Failure Analysis and Risk Mitigation—The Camisea Pipeline System.

Engineering systems sometimes fail in service. Understanding the origin of such events can lead to improved design and increased performance life. Funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), the Camisea pipeline system in Peru was designed and built in the early 2000’s by the operator TGP to transport natural gas and natural gas liquids from the Amazon basin to the coast. The system traverses three distinct geographical regions: a tropical rain forest, a high elevation mountain range, and a coastal plain. Each region brought its own risks to pipeline integrity: flooding, mudslides, rockslides, earthquakes. Shortly after beginning operation, the pipeline system experienced five distinct leaks and ruptures, some of which impacted the indigenous population. Exponent was retained by the IADB to investigate the causes of these leaks and to develop measures to mitigate the risks of future failures. Given its multi-disciplinary nature, Exponent was uniquely qualified to conduct this investigation.

Bob Caligiuri is an internationally recognized leader in understanding the fracture and fracture mechanics of materials used in critical engineering systems. He holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from UC-Davis and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford. He specializes in combining the principles of solid mechanics with an understanding of the physical, mechanical and corrosion behavior of metals to solve complex problems in industrial applications. He has over 35 years of experience conducting failure investigations, root cause studies and risk assessments for clients in the petrochemical, consumer product and transmission pipeline industries throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He has specialized expertise in the use and application of the standards, codes and regulations that govern the design, operation, and maintenance of engineered systems. Bob Caligiuri is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

On January 12th, Dr. Piotr Moncarz, XGS Energy, will speak on Geothermal Solutions.

The most under-utilized of all currently available energy sources, geological heat, is a principal topic of this discussion. With all the attempts to move the energy delivery balance of the world away from fossil fuels the needle barely moved, and even that resulted in major as-of-yet unresolved questions related to intermittency of wind and solar energy, battery storage raw materials mining, processing, and disposal, nuclear power plant long development and construction time, and for many countries, exorbitant initial cost. The delivery of geological heat to the surface has many prior and current technological attempts, some of them could never scale, some of them demand supplies of precious water, some of them laden with technological challenges beyond todays state-of-the-art. The most recent efforts labeled “enhanced geothermal systems” (EGS) are striving to address some of those problems. Heat of a high temperature is needed for electricity generation, while heat at lower temperature can be used in direct applications e.g. district heating. Thus, more than one solution might eventually emerge from the current unprecedented effort towards delivery of commercially viable geological heat. With the parallel efforts of development towards revolutionary drilling technologies, high temperature sensors and electronic operating systems, the fulfillment of the dream of using the energy under our feet to address once and for all the sustainable, economically viable energy supplies at every place on Earth is around the corner.

Dr. Piotr d. Moncarz, is a Co-Founder and Vice Chair, and CEO for the initial years of XGS Energy, Inc., a company focused on closed loop harvesting and delivery of geological heat from very hot rock. He serves as Adjunct Professor at the School of Engineering and the School of Sustainability at Stanford University. He graduated from Road and Bridge Vocational School, Poznan, Poland; with a final Ph.D. degree from Stanford University. He joined California firm, Failure Analysis Associates, today Exponent, where he has worked on issues of engineering design and project analysis including risk management, failure prevention, and correcting project failures. As a corporate officer he participated in taking Exponent public and building it into a world‘s leading engineering and scientific consulting company. For over 30 years he has been actively involved in energy projects with international and domestic project development, plant restructuring, and acting in an advisory role in national energy policies in resurging economies. Passionate about delivering a solution to the keystone element of environmental, climate, and geo-political stability: ubiquitous, green, no water, no land-grab, 24/7 energy supply - GeoHeatTM (www.xgsenergy.com ). He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, Fellow of American Society of Civil Engineers, member of numerous US and international energy, environmental, and engineering societies, registered professional engineer in numerous U.S. states and provinces of Canada, educator and professional leader.