(Another) Al-Assad on Syria's Future

Al-Assad on Syria

Posted April 12, 2016 in “Campus”

Human rights proponent Ribal al-Assad to speak on Syria and Middle East tomorrow

Like any armed conflict where passions are high, lives are lost and in turmoil, and opposing parties stand on vastly contrasting sides of the political spectrum, the civil war in Syria is a complex and volatile situation. As is the case with many circumstances across the Middle East, it is one that has no quick fixes or easy answers.

“We need to hear all points of view,” says Bland Addison, associate professor specializing in history and international studies in WPI’s Department of Humanities and Arts. “We shouldn’t discount any of points of view until we’ve heard all of them.”

WPI students and other interested locals will have the opportunity to hear one of those distinct points of view in a talk tomorrow (April 13) by Ribal al-Assad. The Syrian human rights proponent will offer the discussion, “Syria, the Middle East, and the New Cold War: How three tiers of conflict created an Apocalypse,” at 11 a.m. at Fuller Labs in Lower Perreault Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

A Syrian refugee, al-Assad, 40, is the son of former Syrian vice president Rifaat al-Assad, and first cousin of divisive current president Bashar al-Assad. He is founder and director of the Organisation for Freedom and Democracy in Syria, and advocates for a peaceful transition to democratic order in his home country and in relations with Israel.

“We want to concentrate on our future country,” he told Robert Fiske, Middle East correspondent for the UK-based news outlet The Independent, in a 2010 interview. “A country cannot be built on past grudges. We have to forgive – I don’t know about forget – and we have to live together, all Syrians who believe in democracy and human rights, to have a new era. The Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union collapsed. Syria will change.”

Al-Assad’s talk was organized through the Worcester World Affairs Council, one of 95 such nonprofit groups across the U.S. dedicated to informing and engaging its members and their communities in international affairs. It is one of several such discussions scheduled this spring at various World Affairs Councils; he is also speaking this week in Boston and Portland.

Although the conflict has been raging in Syria for nearly five years – resulting in an estimated 500,000 dead and five million displaced refugees – the topic is particularly pertinent now, Addison points out. Russia, Assad’s main ally, recently announced its removal of some troops from Syria in an effort to prompt Assad to more seriously consider peace negotiations.

“The question is, ‘Where do we go from here?’” says Addison. “It is going to take a very complex solution – there is no happy fix.”

The conflict and the overall unrest in the Middle East are ongoing topics of discussion among his students, he says, coming up regularly in courses and seminars.

“We are delighted to have this source of information,” says Addison. “The students are eager to hear what he has to say.”

Who: Ribal al-Assad, son of former Syrian vice president Rifaat al-Assad and first cousin of current president Bashar al-Assad

What: A discussion, “Syria, the Middle East, and the New Cold War: How three tiers of conflict created an Apocalypse.”

When: Wednesday, April 13, at 11 a.m.

Where: Fuller Labs in Lower Perreault Hall

This program is free and open to the public.

– BY TARYN PLUMB

Original story link. 

The Missing Link?

Intel Science Winner

Posted on April 8, 2016 in “Students”

Mass Academy student Amol Punjabi a top winner at Intel Science Talent Search

Many of us can claim to want to change the world—but at just age 17, Amol Punjabi is already on his way there.

The Mass Academy senior has developed a software program that helps to determine whether disease-causing proteins are susceptible to drug treatment.

Named ViaPocket, it makes use of artificial intelligence, and with it Punjabi has discovered six “druggable” spots on intrinsically disordered proteins commonly involved in cancer and heart and immune system diseases. Typically, the instability of disordered proteins makes them a difficult target for drugs; that in mind, Punjabi sought a way to identify more stable pockets within those proteins where drugs could more easily bind.

“I showed that my program is more accurate than the best previous method,” said Punjabi, of Marlborough.

For his efforts, he was recently recognized as one of three top winners at the 75th annual Intel Science Talent Search in Washington, D.C. Considered the country’s most prestigious science and math competition for pre-college students, it is organized by the nonprofit Society for Science and the Public. Forty finalists from 38 schools in 18 states participated in the event, which featured astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson as keynote speaker.

ViaPocket took First Place Medal of Distinction in the “Basic Research” category, which came with a $150,000 award. Other top winners include Paige Brown of Bangor, Maine, with a First Place Medal of Distinction in the “Global Good” category, and Maya Varma of Cupertino, Calif., with a First Place Medal of Distinction for “Innovation.”

The trio of winners is “using science and technology to help address the problems they see in the world, and will be at the forefront of creating the solutions we need for the future,” Maya Ajmera, president and CEO of Society for Science and the Public, said in a statement.

Mass Academy senior Yashaswini Makaram was also a finalist in the competition. The Marlborough 17-year-old received a $7,500 award for a project she has been working on for two years that applies biometrics to cell phone security.

Punjabi, for his part, began working on his software project while involved in the Research Science Institute summer program at Harvard Medical School. He has also authored papers on nanoparticles, and serves as captain of the Science Olympiad team at Mass Academy, and lead pianist of its jazz workshop.

“I was shocked,” he said of his win. After spending time with the other finalists, he noted, “I knew how brilliant and unique each one was, and I in no way expected to win an award.”

He plans to use the prize money for his education, he said. He has been accepted to Harvard University, MIT, and Stanford University, and is still deciding which one to attend, as well as what his major will ultimately be.

“I’m not sure yet—maybe math, computer science, chemistry, or something I’m yet to explore,” he said.

As for his future career? That’s also yet to be determined. However, he stressed that “I want to continue working in the biomedical field, helping find cures and treatments with my research.”

– BY TARYN PLUMB

Original story link. 

A Revolutionary Film About a Revolutionary Woman

“Voices of Light”

Posted April 1, 2016 in “Arts”

WPI chorus, orchestra to perform Voices of Light to accompany The Passion of Joan of Arc silent film

It was literally lost among the ashes.

For decades, it was assumed completely eradicated by not just one—but two—fires amidst the tumult of the mid-20^th Century.

But then in the 1980s, tucked away in an unassuming janitor’s closet in a Norwegian hospital, an obscure version of the 1928 French film was inexplicably discovered.

In the ensuing decades, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc has been restored as well as rescored by award-winning American composer Richard Einhorn.

On Saturday (April 2), WPI’s music department will present its own resurrection of sorts of the acclaimed silent film in a rare and unique performance melding live music and cinema.

The WPI Orchestra and Festival Chorus will perform Einhorn’s Voices of Light as live accompaniment to The Passion of Joan of Arc. The event will be held at 5 p.m. on Saturday in the sanctuary of the First Baptist Church of Worcester, at the corner of Park Avenue and Salisbury Street.

“It’s a very fun and unusual event,” says John Delorey, festival chorus director. “It’s rare that you would get to hear a live score to any movie, let alone a silent movie.”

Considered by some to be one of the best films ever made, The Passion of Joan of Arc stars Renée Falconetti as the doomed heroine, depicting the legendary figure’s captivity, trial, and execution, based on actual historical transcripts.

Thinking ahead of his time, director Dreyer made use of unusual camera angles, lighting, and close-ups.

“It is considered to be quite revolutionary,” says Delorey, also describing the film as “…evocative. The bottom line is it’s a really good movie. It’s a compelling story.”

The film debuted in 1928 in Copenhagen, and was immediately acclaimed (although it was ultimately a financial disaster). Subsequent versions were cut and re-narrated for various political, religious, and social reasons, and Dreyer’s original vision was thought to be lost when the master version and several other versions were destroyed in two separate fires.

A few years following the re-discovery of Dreyer’s original cut hidden away in an Oslo mental hospital, composer Einhorn came upon a copy in the film archives of New York’s Museum of Modern Art. After viewing it, according to his website, he was inspired to write Voices of Light, which is scored for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra.

Delorey called the piece a “perfect match” for this year’s festival chorus, what he called a group of “smart singers” who have been rehearsing it since January. The performance is vocally challenging in that it involves sustained singing throughout the film’s 1 hour and 22 minutes, he says, and there is no sound effects work (performers don’t mimic any on-screen action).

“Once it starts, it goes, that’s the nerve-wracking part of it,” says Delorey. “It exposes students to a very high level of music.”

The score serves as its own entity of sorts, starting with St. Joan’s voice even before the film begins, then weaving itself in and out of the narrative. Incorporating chanting and minimalist note patterns, it is modern but also Medieval, according to Delorey, and “energetic and beautiful.”

Douglas Weeks, director of the WPI orchestra, meanwhile, calls it “unusual,” as well as a “haunting piece for strings and organ that fit well into the church setting.”

Cost: $15 general admission, $10 for seniors or with a WPI ID, free for students with valid ID. Tickets will be available at the door.

– BY TARYN PLUMB

Original story link.