Wednesday September 26, from 19:00 to 21:30 PDT. Lucia's, 2016 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley CA 94704. Get tickets here. BAC Talks are ten-minute presentations on a variety of topics that we believe you will find captivating regardless of your field of interest. Following the talks, you will have the opportunity to chat with the speakers and the participants while tasting authentic neapolitan pizza. The $25 ticket includes dinner (a pizza and a drink; additional menu items available for purchase). Check-in starts at 7:00 pm; talks start at 7:30 pm sharp.

Dr. Eugenio Bottacini, University of Padova, Italy: The Hunt for Supermassive Black Holes with a Virtual Space Mission. Eugenio Bottacini is Assistant Professor at the University of Padova in Italy. He is an astronomer and observes the universe at high energies with telescopes on space missions, for which he has developed a new imaging technique. His research focuses on supermassive black holes and their evolution over cosmic time. Eugenio collaborates with Stanford University, and is involved in space missions by ESA and NASA.

Dr. Martina Descovich, UCSF: The Management of Respiratory Motion in Radiation Therapy. Martina Descovich is Associate Professor in Radiation Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco. She specializes in the physics of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). SRS and SBRT are advanced modalities of radiation therapy, enabling high targeting accuracy. Martina is the lead physicist of the CyberKnife program, a medical device entirely dedicated to SRS and SBRT treatments.

Dr. Rita Lucarelli, UCB: The Book of the Dead in 3D. Rita Lucarelli is Assistant Professor of Egyptology at the University of California, Berkeley. Rita's work aims at realizing 3D models of ancient Egyptian coffins of the Hearst Museum of Anthropology; the magical spells decorating these objects are taken as case-study for investigating the materiality of the text in relation to ancient Egyptian funerary literature. Rita will present how photogrammetry is being used to visualize The Book of the Dead in 3D.

Dr. Marco Pavone, Stanford: Talk TBD. Marco Pavone is Assistant Professor at Stanford University. Marco is also the Director of the Autonomous Systems Laboratory (ASL). The goal of ASL is the development of methodologies for the analysis, design, and control of autonomous systems, with a particular emphasis on large-scale robotic networks and autonomous aerospace vehicles. Marco has kept the topic of this talk a secret from us, but for sure it will be exciting.

Dr. Stefano Schiavon, UCB: Personalized Comfort. Stefano Schiavon is Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. Stefano's research is focused on finding ways to reduce energy consumption in buildings and, at the same time, increase occupant’s health, well-being and productivity. Stefano will discuss personal environmental control systems meaning individually controlled micro-environmental systems that improve thermal comfort and/or air quality to suit the needs of the person, and in some cases can also reduce energy consumption.

We hope to meet you at the event!