NYU Abu Dhabi kicks off 2017 with a vibrant program of events in January

Abu Dhabi, UAE – January, 09, 2016:  NYU Abu Dhabi proudly presents an exciting program of events for January 2017. All of the events listed below are open to the public and free to attend, and will take place at NYU Abu Dhabi’s campus on Saadiyat Island. 

Security and Privacy Issues in Biometrics
Hosted by Center for Cyber Security at NYU Abu Dhabi
Date: January 8-12, 2017
Location: NYU Abu Dhabi    
Five days of lectures, discussions, panels and lab sessions conducted by leading biometrics experts from both academia and industry.
Biometrics is the science of recognizing individuals based on their biological and behavioral attributes such as face, fingerprints, iris, voice, gait, etc. As biometric systems are being increasingly deployed in a number of critical applications, its vulnerabilities must be carefully analyzed and addressed. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Winter School on Security and Privacy Issues in Biometrics (WSB2017) will introduce participants to the vulnerabilities of biometric systems and discuss ways in which these vulnerabilities can be successfully mitigated.

Marriage, Family, Religion and Culture
Hosted by NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
 (By invitation)*
Date: January 9-10, 2017
Location: NYU Abu Dhabi 
Marriage, Family, Religion and Culture in Pre-Islamic and Early Islamic Iran and the Middle East.

Looking at marriage laws and practices in two formative periods of pre-Islamic Persian history, and early and medieval Islamic Middle East, in order to identify the various cross currents at work. Through the lens of marriage laws, it is possible to see how these communities interacted, intermarried, or resisted interacting with one another, in order to strengthen communal identities or secure communal boundaries.

Convened by Janet Afary, Mellichamp Chair and Professor of Religious Studies and Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, and Claudia Yaghoobi, Roshan Institute Assistant Professor of Persian Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Serving the God of Justice and Mercy: Muslim and Christian Perspectives
Hosted by NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
Date: Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Time: 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Location: NYU Abu Dhabi Conference Center (A6) 
Islam and Christianity share the vision of being universal and missionary religions, both about equally strong in number of followers. Focusing on the relationship of Christianity and Islam, this panel considers the following question: how do Muslims and Christians serve the same God, who for both is God of Justice and Mercy, God of Majesty and Beauty, omnipotent and omnipresent?
Moderated by John Coughlin Global Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies and Law, NYUAD, featuring panellists Gerhard Böwering, Professor of Islamic Studies, Yale University, and M. Cathleen Kaveny, Darald and Juliet Libby Professor of Law and Theology, Boston College.

Jane Goodall: Seeds of Hope
Hosted by NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
Date: Saturday, January 14, 2017
Time: 5:00pm - 7:00pm
Location: NYU Abu Dhabi Conference Center (A6)     
Jane Goodall, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace, blends her experience in nature with her enthusiasm to give the audience a deeper understanding of the world around us.

South of Everything: A Workshop on Global Legal Education
(By invitation)*
Date: Saturday, January 21, 2017
Location: NYU Abu Dhabi 
Posing the question of pluralism in law, this workshop will bring together an illation and effluxion of interdisciplinary and comparative scholars from a variety of juristic and intellective traditions. It will excavate and adumbrate the extra-territorial and pluri-jurisdictional character of legality in a global network of radically divergent yet rapidly integrating transactional, migrational, economic and ecological domains.

Is Most Published Medical Research Really False?
Hosted by NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
Date: Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Time: 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Location: NYU Abu Dhabi Conference Center (A6) 
The accuracy of published research is critical for scientists, physicians, and patients who rely on these results. However, the fundamental belief in scientific literature was called into serious question by a paper suggesting that most published medical research is false. This talk discusses two major open problems inspired by this scientific crisis: how do we know when a study replicates and what is the rate of false discoveries in scientific literature? Speaker Jeff Leeks, Associate Professor of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, argues that much of the crisis in science can be attributed to misunderstanding statistics.

Travelling to The Land of The Zanj 
Hosted by NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
Date: Thursday, January 26, 2017
Time: 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Location: NYU Abu Dhabi Conference Center (A6) 
The coast of Zanj was fabled as an exotic land, full of wild animals, curious peoples, and precious commodities such as ivory and gold. Based on the most recent archaeological discoveries along the Swahili coast, speaker Mark Horton, Professor in Archaeology, University of Bristol, reveals what the sailors and merchants from the Gulf actually found when they followed the monsoons to East Africa over 1,000 years ago. Emphasis is placed on the importance of Africa in the global trade systems of the Arabs, and how these incredible voyages took place to the furthest reaches of the Indian Ocean.

Order and Disorder: A Precarious Balancing Act 
Hosted by NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
Date: Sunday, January 29, 2017
Time: 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Location: NYU Abu Dhabi Conference Center (A6) 
This lecture demonstrates, through a few examples, why scientists and philosophers inevitably faced questions of chaos being a law of nature, and what kind of answers they gave in the modern era. In order to decide whether certain curious coincidences that we experience are just the play of chance, or obey some hidden rules, one has to understand the basic laws of randomness. These laws are illustrated through a small number of mathematical examples. No mathematical prerequisites are necessary. 

Speaker: János Pach, Professor of Mathematics; Chair of Combinatorial Geometry, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne; Research Fellow, Rényi Institute of Mathematics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences.