The Low Down

     Minah Kim '17SEAS                        Erin Vaughn '19CC                    Rebecca Murray '18SEAS                 Colette McCullagh '17SEAS

In this episode of The Future Is..., we hear from some young Columbians—a group of students (and some now young alumni) who together lead the Columbia chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE).

Minah Kim '17SEAS, Colette McCullagh '17SEAS, Rebecca Murray '18SEAS, and Erin Vaughn '18CC talk about their work on campus, what engineers watch on Netflix, and the head start they have on mentorship.

The secret to their success? Even their free time is useful: these girls' idea of a fun time is taking free classes on iTunes U!

SWE is an international organization with professional and collegiate chapters around the world. The student chapter at Columbia provides professional development opportunities, serves as a support group for women engineers on campus, and conducts community outreach to introduce local high school and middle students to engineering. Learn more about SWE on their website and Facebook page.

You know we love highlighting inspiring alumni -- and this time, we’re focusing specifically on Columbia women who are at the top of their game, the leaders of today and tomorrow. That’s why we’re excited to share The Future Is… a podcast mini-series featuring interviews with alumnae who are the leaders of today and the creators of tomorrow.

We’ve curated a list of incredible women doing incredible things: you’ll hear from an award-winning filmmaker with two TED talks under her belt, from an artist-turned-climate "strategist," and four voices of the future, the top women in engineering on campus.

This podcast mini-series is produced by Shanna Crumley '18SIPA, our digital initiatives intern and a second-year graduate student in international affairs at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. Here are her thoughts on this mini-series: 

"As a current graduate student at Columbia, I’m always keeping an eye out for great role models and stories that I can relate to as I start my career. As a woman, especially, I look for other women whose experiences can help me navigate the nuances of modern womanhood.

For this mini-series, I had the chance to look for women who are innovators, creating the future in a variety of fields like climate change, computer science and journalism. I found women doing cool things, and then I asked them about their work, their thoughts on their fields and what inspires them. And I promised one thing:  I WILL NOT ask podcast guests what they’re wearing; I WILL ask about their ideas, opinions, jobs, plans and what makes them tick."

Stay tuned for the first episode next week on here on the blog, Soundcloud, or iTunes. 

If you tried to define television today, odds are that your definition would be very different from what it might have been just 10 years ago. Thanks to streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, more and more people are using their computers as their TVs. And it's not just serial programming that's moved online. Television news outlets have also made the move, producing content specifically for the web.

In this episode, CNN's Meredith Artley addresses this digital shift head-on, discussing how the old barriers between "digital" and "traditional" journalism are crumbling faster than ever.

This talk was presented as part of the Hearst Digital Media Lecture series at the Columbia Journalism School.

Eric Foner (Photo: Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning)

If you haven't heard of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), you may be in the minority. Ever since the New York Times declared 2012 “The Year of the MOOC,” more and more universities have used platforms such as edX and Coursera to experiment with online education; and Columbia is no exception.

Through MOOCs, Columbia's preeminent scholars are showcasing the highest quality offerings of the University to serious learners everywhere. Previous course leaders have included economist Jeffrey Sachs, virologist Vincent Racaniello, and computer scientist Michael Collins. So far, Columbia has produced more than a dozen courses and some are part of edX’s XSeries. According to the edX website, an XSeries is a “group of courses that add up to a rich understanding of an area of study.” Later this month, Columbia is re-launching one of its most successful MOOCs, which also happens to be an XSeries: “The Civil War and Reconstruction” with Professor Eric Foner '63CC, '69GSAS, a Pulitzer-Prize winning historian and one of the world’s leading experts on 19th-century America.  

Starting January 31, alumni, students, and anyone with an Internet connection around the world can sign up for this series of three free courses on that pivotal era in American history. The first part of the series (Politics of Freedom: The Civil War, 1861-1865) narrates the history of the American Civil War, focusing less on military conflict and more on political change during that time.

Check out a preview of the course:

It's hard to remember a time before apps. And yet, that time was...only 8 years ago!

Ever since they first emerged in 2008, app popularity hasn't shown any signs of slowing down. As of June 2015, over 100 billion apps have been downloaded from the Apple App Store. It's not that surprising, considering all that apps can do. Nowadays, you can use apps to do something as challenging as learning a new language, something as mindless as popping virtual bubble wrap, and everything in between.

Columbians have been contributing the app store catalog since it began. But, ever since the Columbia Startup Lab opened in 2014, it seems as though app development by Columbians had really taken off. Whether you're looking to train your palate, help children in need, give your dog an online presence, or all of the above, there’s an app for that. Here are our favorite apps from Columbia alumni (in no particular order): 

In case you haven't heard, data science is huge right now. Not only did Columbia make headlines when it first offered a masters degree in data science in 2013, but Columbia is also launching a new data science open online course. 

Now, if you're scratching your head because you don't know what data science is, you basically think of it as being the process of extracting insights and new understanding from data. Or (as I like to think of it) data science is the process of translating the story that data is telling. And, arguably, one of the fastest growing mediums for storytelling is podcasts. So, podcasts about data science? Well, that's a marriage made in digital heaven.

If you're curious about the stories that the world's data is telling, have we got some podcasts for you. Here are four of the best data science podcasts to listen to, whether you're a science nerd, math geek, machine-obsessed, or just like a good story:

GSAS Alumna Dr. Marina A. Rustow and Columbia associate professor Kartik Chandran are in excellent company. They are two of the 24 recipients of this year's "genius grant" awards from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The "genius" nickname stems from the unparalleled freedom attached to it. The grant comes with $625,000 over the next five years.