Events
Fall 2023
Welcome Dinner
Sunday, August 20, 6–8 pm
Ithaca Farmers Market Pavilion
Celebrate the beginning of the year with the Milstein 2023 Fall cohort! We'll play creative games, enjoy Dinosaur BBQ and soak up the last bit of summer sunshine at the Ithaca Farmers Market!
This event is exclusively for Milstein Program students, staff and faculty.
Cornell Tech Summer Info Session
Monday, August 21, 5–6:30 pm
Rockefeller Hall Room 203
Are you a Milstein Student planning to attend Summer Session at Cornell Tech? Come learn about the exclusive 8-week session from Cornell Tech all-stars Michael Byrne, Angeline Gomez and Bil Leon and discover how to make the most of your time on Roosevelt Island. Pizza and refreshments included!
This event is exclusively for Milstein Program students, staff and faculty.
Milstein Program Ropes Course
Sunday, August 27, 4–7 pm
Hoffman Challenge Course
Enjoy the beautiful Ithaca outdoors with your fellow Milstein students as your teams tackle challenges on the ropes course. This event is rain or shine!
This event is exclusively for Milstein Program students, staff and faculty.
Student Funding Panel & Social
Wednesday, September 13, 5–6:30 pm
A. D. White House
Milstein students will share their funded summer experiences in a conversational presentation. The panel will end with a Q & A, which in turn will befollowed with a catered reception and a fun, informal Milstein social.
This event is exclusively for Milstein Program students, staff and faculty.
A&S Talk: Laurie Anderson
Tuesday, September 26, 7:30–9 pm
Kiplinger Theatre, Schwartz Center
Grammy Award-winning musician and pioneering multimedia artist Laurie Anderson will discuss her VR immersive installation at the Hirshhorn and share her creative insights regarding generative AI in creative endeavors.
This is a public event. All are welcome!
Artificial Intelligence and Creativity Workshop with Laurie Anderson
Wednesday, September 27, 2:55–4:10pm
Dance Studio, Schwartz Center
Join musician and multimedia artist Laurie Anderson for an immersive workshop integrating generative AI with creative projects.
This event is exclusively for Milstein Program students, staff and faculty.
M Studio Skills Night
Wednesday, October 4, 5–7pm
127 Rockefeller and other First Floor Rooms
M Studio students spend an evening exploring a new skill:
- Exploring Oculus Quest headsets
- Photography with Andrew Moisey
- Documentary Filmmaking with Karen Rodriguez
This event is exclusively for Milstein Program students, staff and faculty.
Cornell Tech Overnight Trip (First-Years Only)
Thursday through Saturday, October 12–14
Roosevelt Island, NYC
Milstein Program first-year students will learn more about their upcoming Summer Program experiences at Cornell Tech by visiting Roosevelt Island and touring the campus.
This event is exclusively for Milstein Program students, staff and faculty.
Storytelling Workshop with the Moth
Friday, October 20,
201 Rockefeller Hall
The Milstein Program presents a public introduction to the Moth. This Storytelling workshop is a limited public event for up to 30 Cornell students.
This event is exclusively for Milstein Program students, staff and faculty.
Milstein Salon
Friday, December 1, 5–7 pm
A. D. White House
Join Milstein Program students as they share their art, poetry, prose, photography, music, dance and much more during this fun night of creative engagement.
This event is open to the Cornell Community.
Spring 2023
2023 Milstein Expo
Friday, May 5, 5–6 pm
Park Atrium, Statler Hall
A showcase of undergraduate innovation, research, and art at the intersection of tech and the humanities. Free and open to the public.
M Studio: "The Battle for your Brain" with Nita Farahany
Wednesday, April 12, 4:45 – 5:30 pm
Gates Auditorium, Bill and Melinda Gates Hall
Duke Profession Nita Farahany, a futurist and leading scholar on ethical, legal, and social implications of emerging technologies will talk about her new book, The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology.
MStudio: "Student Externship Panel / Milstein Networking Event”
Wednesday, March 8, 5 – 7 pm
A.D. White House
Milstein students will share their funded externship experiences, which include shadowing a real estate startup professional, a prominent cloth merchant in India, and a PhD candidate at a quantum mechanics lab at MIT. The panel will be followed with a catered reception and a fun, informal Milstein speed networking event.
MStudio: "Case Studies of the Future: How Startups Survive Disruption”
Wednesday, February 1, 5 – 7 pm
120 Physical Sciences Building
Cornell Tech Fellow Bil Leon will present imagined case studies and share his own story as a tech entrepreneur, discussing how the latest technologies can affect tech startup strategy and the choices founders contend with.
Fall 2022
Milstein Program End-of-Year Presentations
Monday, December 5 at 5 pm
Physical Sciences Building Room 120
Milstein Program Students will present updates for their Junior Projects, then enjoy a full End-of-Year dinner at Baker Portico.
Note: this private event is exclusively for Milstein Program Students, Faculty and Staff.
"An Evening in the Parlor" The Milstein Program's Fall Salon
Wednesday, November 30 at 5 pm
A.D. White House
Join Milstein Program students as they share their art, poetry, prose, photography, music, dance and much more during this fund night of creative engagement.
RSVP required to attend. Limited capacity
Milstein Program Info Sessions for First-Year Applicants
Rockefeller Hall Room 133
Are you a First-Year A&S student interested in intersectional thinking, dynamic collaboration, and emergent technology? Come chat with current students in the Milstein Program to learn more about this diverse cohort and its exciting research opportunities. Deadline for First-Years to apply is December 31. Pizza and refreshments will be served!
These sessions are exclusively for First-Year A&S students interested in applying to the Milstein Program.
RSVP for the sessions via this form.
MStudio Event: "Ethics of Extended Reality" with Diane Hosfelt
Monday, November 7
Extended reality (XR) technology is widely used – from training warehouse employees to cancer treatment distraction. What was an emerging technology is now another digital interaction option. New data such as gaze length, movements, interaction choices can be easily collected. Does this create new problems?
Diane Hosfelt works on issues related to foreseeable ethical problems with XR and those that we don’t yet know. As XR is built-out can we avoid the knowable problems like harassment, bias, and discrimination? Can we consider those who are most likely to be harmed and develop an early warning system for emerging problems? Hosfelt will discuss the data issues and the use concerns to help focus attention on creating a better future using the technology.
This will be in person with a virtual zoom option for the NYC audience. Submit questions to this form.
MStudio Event: "Mediated Experience in VR" with Andrea Stevenson Won
Wednesday, November 2
Andrea Stevenson Won directs Cornell's Virtual Embodiment Lab. She will speak about the lab’s research on how mediated experiences change people’s perceptions, especially in immersive media. The lab research include clinical applications of virtual reality, and how nonverbal behavior as rendered in virtual environments affects collaboration and teamwork.
MStudio Event: "Robotics and AI" with Ken Feingold
Friday, October 21
An international pioneer of robotic and artificial intelligence art, Ken Feingold will discuss his installations of interactive talking heads and AI-generated existential conversations. This talk coincides with his participation in the 2022 Cornell Biennial. Refereshments and reception to follow talk.
MStudio Event: "Care as Control in the Chinese Countryside and Beyond" with Xiaowei Wang
Wednesday, October 12
Xiaowei Wang is an artist, writer, organizer and coder whose work centers on technology, ecology and community power. They will speak about cultivating and nourishing community through stewarding spaces, public art, workshops, data visualization and making collaborative tools.
Spring 2022
Mining for Meaning: a Talk with Prof. Matthew Wilkens
Wednesday, March 20th
Prof. Matthew Wilkens (Info Science) will talk about his work with literary text mining, geolocation extraction, genre detection, and the cross-pollination of critical and social-scientific methods. He is the director of the Textual Geographies project, a co-investigator of the Text Mining the Novel project, a founding editorial board member of the Journal of Cultural Analytics, and the author of Revolution: The Event in Postwar Fiction. Prof. Wilkens will be joined by members of the Digital Humanities Club.
Wearable Tech: A Talk with Prof. Cindy (Hsin-Liu) Kao
Wednesday, February 23rd
Talk with Dr. Cindy, Hsin-Liu Kao, Assistant Professor in Design+Environmental Analysis, with appointments in Information Science, and Electrical & Computer Engineering at Cornell University directs the Hybrid Body Lab. Her research practice themed Hybrid Body Craft blends aesthetic and cultural perspectives into the design of on-body interfaces. She also creates novel processes for crafting technology close to the body.
Life in the Slash: A Talk with Prof. Chris Csikszentmihalyi
Wednesday, February 16th
Designer/Technologist/Critic Prof. Csikszentmihalyi (Info Science) will talk about his career as an artist and technologist, dedicated to developing technologies that don't reinforce the status quo. He is the former founder/director of the MIT Center for Future Civic Media and MIT Media Lab's Computing Culture group. He currently teaches "Designing Technology for Social Impact Practicum" this semester.
Fall 2021
20,000 MORE DAYS: How We Doubled Global Life Expectancy in Just 100 Years with author Steven Johnson
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Moderated by Associate Professors Austin Bunn and Alex Travis
A talk with New York Times bestselling science and technology writer Steven Johnson, author of 13 books, including The Ghost Map, Mind Wide Open, Where Good Ideas Come From, and his newest, Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer. He is co-host and co-creator of two PBS series, Extra Life and the Emmy-winning PBS/BBC series How We Got to Now.
Co-Sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Science and Technology Studies, and the Masters in Public Health.
HOW TO LAND AN INTERNSHIP IN TECH
Wednesday, November 8, 2021
An informal panel discussion with four Milstein Program seniors, Reza Madhavan, Catie Rencricca, Jasper Weed and Chloe Kanders, about finding opportunities, interviewing, and thriving at internships in the technology field.
FUTURE YOU SPEAKER SERIES: Beth Xie
Wednesday, November 3 & 10, 2021
Beth Xie spoke with Milstein Program students about her career, including her role as CEO and Co-founder of TaggPic (Acquired by Google), a computer vision startup that brings visual-content intelligence to real-world exploration and navigation,