Past TI Sponsored Events

Dr. Johannes Burgers, associate professor of English and Digital Humanities at James Madison University, gave this interactive workshop for those curious about starting a digital project. Attendees got hands-on experience using close-reading expertise to create data for a digital project that complements their research interests. Along the way, they learned practical tips for getting started and taking manageable steps towards completion. No prior experience was needed, but a laptop was required for the interactive component.

Union's Computer Science Department staged a film series during Winter Term 2026. The first in the series was John Badham's War Games (1983). High school student David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) has a talent for hacking. But while trying to hack into a computer system to play unreleased video games, he unwittingly taps into the Department of Defense's war computer and initiates a confrontation of global proportions. Together with a friend (Ally Sheedy), and a wizardly computer genius (John Wood), David must race against time to outwit his opponent and prevent a nuclear armageddon.

Kristina Striegnitz (Associate Professor of Computer Science, Union College) introduced the screening, moderated the Q&A session, and answered questions afterward.

The second film in the series was Ridley Scott's Blade Runner: The Final Cut (1982). Man has made his match... now it's his problem. In the smog-choked dystopian Los Angeles of 2019, blade runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is called out of retirement to terminate a quartet of replicants who have escaped to Earth seeking a way to extend their short life spans.

Nick Webb (Associate Professor of Computer Science, Union College) introduced the screening and answered questions afterward. John Rieffel (Professor of Computer Science, Union College) moderated the Q&A session.

The final film in this series was Spike Jonze's Her (2013). In the not-so-distant future, Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) a lonely writer, purchases a newly developed operating system designed to meet the user's every need. To his surprise, a romantic relationship develops between him and his operating system. This unconventional love story blends science fiction and romance in a sweet tale that explores the nature of love and the ways that technology isolates and connects us all.

David Friedell (Associate Professor of Philosophy, Union College) introduced the screening and answered questions afterward. John Rieffel (Professor of Computer Science, Union College) moderated the Q&A session.

Professor Moon Duchin from Cornell University Department of Mathematics presented their lecture "Designing Democracy"; part of a Distinguished Lecture Series in Interdisciplinary Mathematics, Computer Science and Engineering, supported by an NSF grant. It was co-sponsored by Union’s Department of Mathematics and the Templeton Institute.

How can mathematics help us to achieve a fairer electoral system, more representative leadership, and better protection for voting rights? Dr. Moon Duchin, Professor of Mathematics at Cornell University and leader of Cornell’s MGGG Redistricting Lab/Data and Democracy Lab in Cornell’s Brooks School of Public Policy, addressed this question by exploring current research in data science and its applications to public policy.

Abstract:

Systems of election are powerful tools for gauging preferences and fusing them into an outcome, including how to hire, whether to take collective action, how to spend a budget, or how to get political representation. The choice of election system faces tradeoffs when it comes to different desirable properties. In the context of rapid transformation in global democracy, this lecture will discuss "math for democracy," the design and tuning of our systems of election for fairness and healthy representative democracy.

New approaches using novel 3D hardware and software now allow biologists to visualize animal body shapes in a way that was previously not thought possible. In this talk, Prof. Duncan Irschick explored how these new approaches allow us to explore the evolution of size in the oceans and on land, and to determine if there are certain basic scaling rules that allow us to understand why and how animals have grown so large. Further, this talk explored how 3D models of living animals are becoming increasingly powerful tools in studies of animal body condition, as well as in bioinspired robotics. New techniques in machine learning are accelerating these trends and can provide powerful new conservation tools for scientists trying to unlock the mysteries of animal health in relation to climate change.

Workshop: "3D Digital Photogrammetry: A Practical Approach Towards Scanning"

This one- hour workshop provided a basic overview of the 3D photogrammetry scanning process, with an emphasis on the history, potential applications and practical aspects of this technique at multiple scales, and for multiple industries and applications. Various camera and video gear was brought to demonstrate basic techniques, and links to key papers, practical tools, software, and other items were provided for students. The software (blender) is emerging as a powerful force within the 3D industry and academia.

"We Have Just Begun" is a new documentary about the 1919 Elaine riot, massacre, and dispossession, that sheds light on an obscured part of US race and labor history. The result of over seven years of investigation into the buried history and legacy of the Elaine massacre and disposition, this film explores the continuity of exploitation and domination in the Arkansas Delta from before 1919 to the present.

The film was accompanied by a live narration done by Poet Laureate of San Francisco and co-writer Tongo Eisen-Martin, and live astral soul music by composer Joshua Asante. Following the film, there was a discussion with filmmaker Michael Warren Wilson.

This event was made possible through collaboration with Proctors, and the generous support of Union College's Film Studies Program, Templeton Institute, Modern Languages & Literatures Department, Political Science Department, Visual Arts Department, and Africana Studies Program.

In honor of the 80-year anniversary of Hiroshima/Nagasaki, the film "Okurimono" was presented in a private showing for Union College, presented by Union College's Film Studies Program, co-sponsored by Union's Asian Studies Program and Templeton Institute with additional support from Union College's Music and History departments.

At the age of 60, Japanese Canadian Noriko Oi embarks on an emotionally charged journey back to Nagasaki, her childhood city, to unravel the tightly kept secrets of her family’s past. Decades after the death of her mother, Mitsuko, and facing the sale of her ancestral home, Oi seizes a poignant opportunity to piece together a mother’s history that was never shared with her. Sifting through the hidden corners of her family home, engaging with those who shared Mitsuko’s history with her, Oi discovers letters and stories that weave a rich tapestry of her mother’s life and untold narratives of her native Japan. Through Laurence Lévesque’s thoughtful storytelling marked by stunning visuals, Okurimono navigates the delicate realms of unspeakable pain and intergenerational trauma with grace, painting a poignant picture of closure.

Nuno Moniz is an Associate Research Professor at the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society. He is also the Director of the Notre Dame-IBM Technology Ethics Lab and the Associate Director of the Data, Inference, Analytics, and Learning Lab. Moniz, who joined the University of Notre Dame in 2022, is an expert on machine learning, investigating challenges such as imbalanced learning, model interpretability, and data privacy, for which he has won multiple awards internationally. He is particularly interested in interdisciplinary efforts to understand the real-world impact of automated systems. Nuno’s team includes 11 people at the undergraduate, graduate, and postdoc levels while currently (co-)leading eight projects involving collaborations in six different countries.