To the campus community,

On Friday, October 21, 2016, as part of Family Weekend, we will have a series of exciting programs that I cordially invite you to attend.

Our Common Hour speaker is Peter Norvig, a director of research at Google Inc. who previously directed Google’s core search algorithms group. He is coauthor of Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, the leading textbook in the field, and co-teacher of an artificial intelligence class that signed up 160,000 students, helping to kick off the current round of massive open online classes.

His talk, “The Challenges of Creating Software with Machine Learning” will be held from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center.

The Common Hour talk will be followed by the President’s Summer Research Symposium, which will highlight research projects conducted by our students during the summer of 2016. The symposium will begin at 1:45 p.m. and will be held in Morrell Gym. Displays of summer research by students in all disciplines will be available for you to view.

We will conclude with the annual Sarah and James Bowdoin Day Ceremony, which will begin at 4:00 p.m. in Pickard Theater, Memorial Hall. Our keynote speaker will be Barbara Elias Klenner, assistant professor of government. The title of her talk is “Resisting Binaries: The Case for Political Complexities.”  The student speaker will be Liam Taylor ’17.

Traditionally Bowdoin faculty and staff have attended the Sarah and James Bowdoin Day ceremony, and I hope that those with academic regalia will march in the academic procession. I invite you to join in celebrating our students who have excelled in the classroom. Many of you have been important participants in their success.

We will assemble in academic regalia at 3:40 p.m. in front of Searles Science Building. Immediately following the ceremony, there will be a reception in Drake Lobby, Memorial Hall.

I hope to see you at these events.

Clayton