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Having received a grant for $458,900 from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Stuart Hirshfield, the Stephen Harper Kirner Chair of Computer Science, and Research Associate Leanne Hirshfield ’02 have begun studying the real-time, quantitative assessment of computer users’ mental states to enhance usability testing and to create adaptive computer systems. They are creating a state-of-the-art usability laboratory that allows them to make concurrent cognitive, physiological and behavioral user measurements.

Steve Bellona, associate vice president for Facilities & Planning at Physical Plant, has reported an 11 percent drop in carbon emissions generated by Hamilton College in the fiscal year 2010—a new low in 11 years of record keeping.

Sally Promey, professor of American studies, religion and visual culture at Yale University, will deliver a lecture titled “Always a Golden Calf: Materialities and Sensational Religions in ‘Secular’ Modernity” on Thursday, Oct. 7, at 4:10 p.m., in the Kennedy Auditorium in the Hamilton College Science Center. This event is free and open to the public.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and New Yorker magazine staff writer Louis Menand will give a lecture titled “What Every College Graduate Needs To Know” on Friday, Oct. 8, at 4:10 p.m., in the Chapel. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Hamilton's annual Fallcoming will take place on campus, Oct. 7 through 10, with numerous activities to suit every interest. Among highlights are the dedication of the new Sadove Student Center at Emerson Hall (formerly Emerson Literary Society), two Alumni Colleges,  a world class jazz performance, and career talks by Hamilton alumni.

Nin Andrews '80 and Jo Pitkin K '78, will read from their poetry on Thursday, Oct. 7, at 8 p.m., in the Wellin Atrium of the Science Center. The poetry readings are free and open to the public

Doug Lemov '90 visited campus on Oct. 4 to speak to several of Susan Mason's education classes and give a public lecture. Lemov, who graduated from Hamilton with plans of becoming a teacher, taught for several years at a public high school in Princeton, N.J., before deciding that he wanted to be involved in education at the highest level.

As a conservative concerned with environmental issues,  Steven Hayward describes himself as a “curious cat.” Hayward, the F.K. Weyerhaeuser Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, spoke at Hamilton on Oct. 4, at a talk titled “Is Sustainable Development Sustainable?”

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio in Albany will feature a reading by Professor of Government and Director of the Public Policy Program P. Gary Wyckoff on Thursday, Oct. 7, as part of the public radio station’s Academic Minute. The program normally airs each weekday at 7:37 a.m. and 3:56 p.m at 90.3 FM in the Clinton area but because WAMC is in its fall fund drive, the Academic Minute will not air at its usual times. Instead, it will be played as a floating module throughout the day.  

On Monday, Oct. 4, nine Buddhist monks from the Gaden Shartse Monastery in Southern India performed an opening consecration ceremony of sacred dance and chanting in the Emerson Gallery atrium before beginning their creation of a sand mandala of compassion. This ancient tradition is a reminder of the Buddhist concept of impermanence.