January 14|25 2018
The future of blurred boundaries between humans and machines is a recurrent theme in science fiction. This future is today.
Join us for two weeks of discussions, lectures, workshops, exhibitions, and cultural and recreational events that will inspire our shared vision for a brighter, human-machine future.
Is the future human?
Sensors monitor our state, health and behavior, relaying this data to configure a digital signature that is as much part of us as our biometric traits. Fed at petabyte levels, our digital signatures allow increasingly powerful machine learning algorithms to learn from the continuous data streams we generate and anticipate our needs and behaviors as consumers.
Machine learning algorithms can increasingly mimic the function of our brain and will soon establish a direct interface that allows for the seamless control of robots. Robots are endowed with powerful sensorial capacities in order to interact with other humans, as well as their robotic avatars, through virtual networks that may eventually replace much of our human-to-human interactions.
While this human-machine future offers to bring about unlimited potential, it also creates risks—of losing our privacy and the social traits inherent to our human nature. We live in a world where machines are increasingly embedded in our everyday lives. Machines shape our individual identities, social interactions, and society as a whole. During the 2018 Winter Enrichment Program (WEP), we invite you to immerse yourself in a diverse and stimulating program, touching on the opportunities and risks of a future where the boundaries between machines and humans will become even more diffuse.
Intellectual Property: What is It and Why should I Care? 1/2
Location: Building 19, Level 3, Conference Hall 3
Intellectual property (IP) protection is essential to foster innovation. For the protection of important technology for commercialization, a strong and enforceable patent is required. Hence, scientist ... more
Present your best research during this year’s WEP KAUST Poster Competition. *This event is open to graduate students and postdocs. Interested in sharing your research with the grea ... more
Distributed Algorithms in Shared Memory and Networks 1/3
Location: Bldg. 9 Lecture Hall 2325 ≤ 154
The theory of distributed computing provides the intellectual foundations for understanding how complex computing systems like the Internet, clouds, IoT, sensor networks, and more can function correct ... more
Random Matrix Approach for Machine Learning 2/3
Location: Bldg. 9 Lecture Hall 2322 ≤ 154
The field of big data processing is currently percieved as a crucial tool for many scientific disciplines, including signal processing, finance, biology... Significant progress has been achieved ... more
Visualizing the Human Machine Future Exhibition - JAN 24
Location: WEP HUB (University Library)
About this Exhibition This exhibition will focus on visualization from the viewer’s perspective and will showcase photographs and scientific illustrations. It will be dispalyed from& ... more
Knowing How to See Exhibition - JAN 24
Location: Al-Khawarizmi East (Bldg. 1), Entrance Hall
Photography is a Bridge Between Art and Mathematics The starting point of this exhibition is to translate the language and the insights of mathematics into photographic images and vice versa. ... more
KAUST is excited to present its annual International poster competition. Everyone is welcome to attend the exhibit as undergraduate students from around the world present their best research in a post ... more
Facebook On-Air Interview with Ayman Al Harbi
Location: WEP HUB (University Library)
The KAUST Facebook On-Air Series with Ayman Al Harbi (interview in Arabic) *Speaker to be confirmed Ayman Al Harbi is the Director of Information Technology and Project Director at the SmartCity Pro ... more
Creative Tactics for Communicating Science 2/3
Location: Spine Auditorium between Buildings 2 & 3
Communicating science has become an integral part of a scientist’s research cycle. According to UNESCO, there are more than 7 million scientists and researchers working in labs today -- an ... more
Aramco Robotics Lab Tour & Presentation 3
Location: Innovation Cluster III (Bldg. 24) - Lobby in front of the Coffee Bean
The Intelligent Systems Team is a part of Saudi Aramco’s Research and Development Department and is one of three research groups that are based at KAUST in the innovation cluster. The team was f ... more
Aramco Robotics Lab Tour & Presentation 4
Location: Innovation Cluster III (Bldg. 24) - Lobby in front of the Coffee Bean
The Intelligent Systems Team is a part of Saudi Aramco’s Research and Development Department and is one of three research groups that are based at KAUST in the innovation cluster. The team was f ... more
VR Lounge is Saudi Arabia’s first virtual reality (VR) gaming hub and lounge. What is VR? Well it’s rather quite simple; it’s a simulated environment in which a user is immersed thro ... more
E-posters: An Innovative Solution
Location: WEP HUB (University Library)
Ever wondered why, in this age of technology, posters are still printed and displayed on stands before quickly finding their way to landfill and the content lost? Solutions now exist and the one chos ... more
Interactive Virtual Reality Art Exhibit: Google Tilt Brush - JAN 24
Location: WEP HUB (University Library)
Paint Inside a Virtual World with Google Tilt Brush Virtual reality is at the frontier of novel human machine interfaces. At this interactive exhibit you can paint inside a virtual world. By e ... more
Tilt Brush Instructor Workshop JAN 24
Location: WEP HUB (University Library)
Paint Inside a Virtual World with Google Tilt Brush Virtual reality is at the frontier of novel human machine interfaces. At this interactive exhibit you can paint inside a virtual world. By e ... more
A 'smart city' is an urban region that is highly advanced in terms of overall infrastructure, sustainable real estate, communications and market viability. It is a city where information technology is ... more
The Iris Project - JAN 24
Location: WEP HUB (University Library)
The Iris Project, a contemporary variant of a humanistic photography The Iris highlights the infinite beauty and diversity of people all around the world, as a human prism. Two photogr ... more
Intellectual Property: What is It and Why should I Care? 2/2
Location: Building 19, Level 3, Conference Hall 3
Intellectual property (IP) protection is essential to foster innovation. For the protection of important technology for commercialization, a strong and enforceable patent is required. Hence, scientist ... more
The Role of Energy in Human-Machine Relationship and its Future
Location: Bldg. 9 Lecture Hall 2322 ≤ 154
No machine can exist without energy supply, can it be fossil, mineral, renewable or human based. We will discuss how our modern societies are surrounded by machines most of us are not aware of, that m ... more
Creative Tactics for Communicating Science 3/3
Location: Spine Auditorium between Buildings 2 & 3
Communicating science has become an integral part of a scientist’s research cycle. According to UNESCO, there are more than 7 million scientists and researchers working in labs today -- an ... more
Distributed Algorithms in Shared Memory and Networks 2/3
Location: Bldg. 9 Lecture Hall 2325 ≤ 154
The theory of distributed computing provides the intellectual foundations for understanding how complex computing systems like the Internet, clouds, IoT, sensor networks, and more can function correct ... more
Sensing Earth Vibration with Seismic Networks
Location: Spine Auditorium between Buildings 4 & 5
How do Earth Scientists record and use seismic waves to detect earthquakes and image the Earth’ interior? The apparently “solid” ground on which we are standing continuously vibrate ... more
Facebook On-Air Interview with Munther Dahleh
Location: WEP HUB (University Library)
The KAUST Facebook On-Air Series with Munther Dahleh *Speaker to be confirmed Munther A. Dahleh is the MIT and the Director of the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS). Facebook&nbs ... more
Visualizing the Human Machine Future Lecture 2
Location: WEP HUB (University Library)
In this presentation, research publications services will introduce how to visualize from the viewer’s perspective. You will learn how to communicate your science more effectively through photog ... more
Choral Performance Powered by the Festival Chorus After four courses and rehearsals conducted by guest choral conductor, Dr. John Perkins, the 2018 Festival Chorus will offer a musical performance pr ... more
Networks of Systems and Society The emergence of large networked systems has brought about new challenges to researchers and practitioners alike. While such systems perform well under normal operatio ... more
About this Movie *This movie projection is offered exclusively to KAUST community members and is rated PG-16. This screening will follow Munther Dhaleh's keynote lecture Networks of Systems and ... more
