University Honors Program Blog
Intellectual Omnivores Unite
Do you miss casual front office/club room conversations from the physical townhouse? Well Professor Trullinger is helping us take them virtual! This semester, join him on Fridays for some casual philosophy (or non-philosophy) discussion in Zoom! The next Fax Lunch Bunch will be Friday, 4/24, with link/precise time TBA.
See you there!
If you missed our first Food for Thought, have no fear! Our second one is coming right up. Join us for free lunch, next Friday, March 6th at 12pm in the townhouse, and an exciting talk about negotiations in Cuba and differing interpretations of truth and justice. Read the note from professor Restrepo for more details and RSVP with the form below!
Who was the legendary Benedictine monk who invented champagne? What do you call a duel between three people? What is the closest city to the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull?
That’s right, the UHP is hosting a trivia night!
Join us on Sunday, March 29 for UHP trivia from 4-7 PM. We’re bringing in a professional trivia host and filling up the Vern’s Post Hall to give YOU the opportunity to show everyone how much stuff you know! I bet you know SO much stuff!
Tables at the event will hold teams of up to 10. If you’re signing up with a team, each person will need to sign up individually – make sure you decide your team name before signing up! And please, make sure it’s unique enough that you won’t be overlapping with other teams. Single players or smaller teams should sign up and will be grouped together to form a full table. Snacks will be provided, as will prizes for the winning table!
Also…feel free to invite a faculty member that you want on your team! Those faculty truly can be an excellent asset…
Sign up below!
Check out the following colloquium event passed along by Professor Kung!
Title: The Hunt for Lost Nazi Uranium
Abstract: 1944 saw the height of the Manhattan Project efforts which was distributed between Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, and Hanford. Since the Manhattan Project was spurred by the fear that Germany was building nuclear weapons, Allied anxiety continuously pondered the Nazi atomic progress. As Germany began to fall, Gen. Groves commissioned the military and scientific intelligence mission code-named Alsos. It was to be at the forefront of the defeat so as to immediately assess the German advancement towards an atomic bomb. Alsos uncovered what the Manhattan Project had feared: the Germans had a two-year lead on the American nuclear program and being the birth place of nuclear fission, the Germans began with an incredible sprint of discovery. But then they found, just as the Americans were getting their feet wet, the German program miraculously had slowed. In April 1945 in the sleepy village of Haigerloch, Alsos found the culmination of the German nuclear program: a failed reactor experiment, named B-VIII. It was on the scale of Enrico Fermi’s successful Chicago Pile 1. This incomplete nuclear reactor, built of 664 uranium cubes had come very close to criticality. What had happened? How did Germany miss the mark? The answer is straightforward: unlike the U.S. efforts, spearheaded by Groves’ singular defining military force, the German atomic program was not administered by a competent manager. Their adequate resources were distributed and not gathered, their superb intellect was competitive and not collaborative. The failure of their atomic program can be pinned to a critical mass of German confidence moderated by ego and arrogance. Had they more humility and collaboration, history would have taken a different path. Instead, their reactor was scattered to history. What happened to the German B-VIII reactor? The United States acquired it; however, the question remains: what did they do with it?
When? Thursday, Feb. 20, from 4-5 PM
Where? In Corcoran 101
March 1 (next Sunday). 11am (until 1pm). Townhouse Club Room. Be there!! We will have:
RSVP below if you’ll be coming!
Check out the following event passed along by Professor Aviv!
Please join us on Thursday, February 20 at 5pm in the Marvin Center, Room 307 for the 2020 Berz Lecture: “Islam in India and Pakistan: From the First Conquests to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)”
Speaker: Dr. Shankar Nair, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, University of Virginia
Abstract: As the still young Islamic empire spread into the lands of India, Muslims encountered, for perhaps the first time, a grand-scale religious civilization entirely unmentioned in the Qur’an or in the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. With so little explicit guidance from their scriptural sources, how were Muslims to navigate this new land or make sense of the incredibly diverse Hindu populations of South Asia? Though one might have expected Muslims to reject Hindus outright as mere idolaters and unbelievers, the historical response was surprisingly nuanced and accommodating. As modern nationalist forces in the region threaten to overturn this legacy, this talk surveys the often forgotten history of Islam in South Asia, offering insights into how the region arrived at the crises it faces today.
Yup, that’s right! We’re heading over to Nationals Park on April 7th at 7PM to see our dear World Series Champions face off against the Miami Marlins. Tickets are only $7 (and include a $10 food voucher!), and we’ve only got 30 of them, so sign up quick!
Sign up below by February 28th at 5pm to put yourself in for a spot, and then you’ll need to pay in cash by March 13 at 5pm to confirm your reservation.
That’s right folks– our first Food for Thought of the semester is right around the corner! Join us on February 21st from 12-1 PM for free lunch and an interesting talk about Geography, satellite imagery, and population estimates! Read the note from Professor Engstrom for more details, and sign up on the form below that!
People and Pixels: Mapping Population Characteristics using Satellite Imagery
This presentation will cover using satellite imagery to map variations in population
characteristics including poverty, income, and population density at multiple spatial scales
within a range of countries. My recent research has focused on extracting contextual features
from satellite imagery and determining their ability to improve estimates of population
characteristics in low and middle income countries at wide range of spatial scales. Contextual
features can be defined as the statistical quantification of edge patterns, pixel groups, gaps,
texture, and the raw spectral signatures calculated over groups of pixels or neighborhoods.
These features were originally designed for facial recognition software and have been adapted
to use with satellite imagery. Results have found that these features are highly correlated with
poverty, income, and population in Sri Lanka, Belize, and Ghana at scales from cities to entire
countries.
Want to hang out with the Director of the UHP, the illustrious Professor Bethany Cobb Kung? Do you have questions or suggestions about where we’re going as a program? Do you just want free food? Come eat breakfast with us on Friday, January 31, from 10-11am.
Seats are limited, so don’t hesitate to RSVP here!
Hope to see you all there!
Haven’t heard about The Review before and interested in learning more about the books we will read in the future and our future meetings? Feel free to fill out our interest form to receive more information in the future.
