UB's Center for the Arts will move to the edge of the technological universe Friday when the university hosts "Digital Frontier: the Buffalo Summit 2001."
The summit will feature over 40 speakers from around the county and will explore the relationship between technology and society, presenting on issues ranging from "Virtual Citizenship: Character for Characters in Globalized Society" to "The Shifting Images of Women and Computing."
"I sort of felt like we needed to change perceptions of Buffalo," said summit organizer Jaylan Turkkan, UB's vice president for research. "This is a place where high-tech things are happening."
The summit aims to present Buffalo as a city where technology is a major industry and where progressive ideas, next-generation economies, new research and "info-tech" markets are moving UB to the crest of the information technology wave.
"It's an attempt to answer questions such as: What are the effects of technology on our society?" said Dr. E. Bruce Pitman, vice provost for educational technology at UB.
In addition, said Turkkan, gathering experts from a variety of disciplinary fields at one site will allow them to discuss "where we're headed [and] what does that really mean?"
Attendees of the summit will be able to participate in interactive demonstrations as well as listen to various speakers.
"We're also going to show the audience what's possible," said Turkkan.
Steve Mann, professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Toronto, will lecture from Toronto, Canada, via his wearable computer while audience members watch in Buffalo. Mann's computer is worn in a pair of sunglasses, which he will sport while he walks around the city of Toronto and simultaneously participates in the summit.
Other technological experts slated to speak include Michael Paige, director of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in California, the company responsible for developing the graphical user interface (GUI) made popular by the Apple Macintosh, the mouse and Microsoft Windows.
Planning for the summit began almost a year ago, according to Pitman, when committees were formed to choose the speakers and to select the topics for discussion.
The summit will cost nearly $90,000 to run; funding was raised through contributions from over 30 corporate sponsors and professional societies. The university advertised the summit in a variety of mediums, from radio spots to an advertisement in the Chronicle for Higher Education.
"That's a lot of lunches with a lot of companies!" said Turkkan. "We're not spending a lot of money on this."
Also scheduled to speak are Jaron Lanier, chief scientist of Eyematic Interfaces, who coined the term "virtual reality"; Aliza Sherman, founder of Cybergrrl Inc. and Webbgrrls International; Sherwood L. Boehlert, U.S. Congressman, 23rd District of New York; Brad Redderson, senior vice president of visual systems and engineering services for Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI); and Julie Swain, acting deputy associate administrator in the Office of Biological and Physical Research at NASA/Harvard.
The summit will open Friday with a welcoming speech from President William R. Greiner and Provost Elizabeth Capaldi in the Center for the Arts Mainstage Theatre, Friday at 8:30 a.m. It will culminate with a film festival from 6 p.m. to midnight, featuring showings of three popular science-fiction movies in the CFA screening room: "2001: A Space Odyssey" at 6 p.m., "Bladerunner" at 8 p.m. and "The Matrix" at 10 p.m.
"We would encourage people who are not computer geeks to actually come," said Pitmann. The summit will be available via webcast, which UB's Office of Research will use to gauge the event's success by the number of hits the site receives.
The summit is free of cost to UB students, faculty and staff, and $20 for all other guests. Registration is required but will be available at the door. Advance registration is available online at http://digitalsummit.buffalo.edu.
