02.22.05 NOTES Tuesday@REI: NEO learning to be world-leader in "Cognitive Science"

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 02/22/2005 - 16:21.

NOTES POSTED FROM SESSION. Fascinating, whirlwind two hours focused on NEO as a global center for applied cognitive learning, arts, technology and their convergence. This Tuesday@REI brought together the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Case, Mark Turner, the Chief Information Officer of Case, Tom Knab, the Chief Information Officer of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Len Steinbach, and the Director of Integrative Studies, Department of Neurology, Case, Peter Whitehouse, M.D. REI Executive Director Ed Morrison makes introductions and moderates... share in the outcomes...

Session starts with Case A&S Dean Mark Turner flying through considerable insight on Cognitive Learning - Mark has been in NEO almost one year, coming from Stanford. He introduces the history of a program he worked on in CA - Rapid Enterprise Development Team - which considered there are all sorts of activities you
call enterprise - e.g. NASA needs people with many levels of expertise to work
together to build a rocket - to get them to work as a team they use innovative management practices like enterprise development rooms, interpersonal
mediators, etc. RED Team supported business developers who asked if you can design an entrepreneurial enterprise the same way, knowing it would be valuable to use such tools to know if enterprises will succeed or fail, as fast as possible - VCs supported the RED Team to
know what projects they wanted to fund.

In enterprise development you need a plan - in entrepreneurship there are infinitely many facts and long lists of things enterprises want to do -
but typically there is no cohesion across enterprises about how they want to do business - need everyone working on the same story
- need to develop story-telling capabilities that recognize and consider the way the human mind works - separate events from
objects - take objects and recognize them as agents acting on other objects as
causes - causal structures - cause-motion understanding - we are built to
understand small spatial stories and enterprises need to communicate large complex stories.

There is a creative procedure to help humans understand causal relationships
they don't naturally recognize and understand. By putting together agent understanding, the RED Team put
together understanding of what is known and how to deal with what is not
understood - everybody needs to be able to carry the story. They interviewed
people in the organization to get them to be able to tell
the right story under any circumstances - trial and error - leading to all being able to carry the story of the enterprise - feed off
each other - learn to adapt the remembered stories to address evolving circumstances.

Need to teach people how to blend stories to empower how they want and need to tell them.

When Ed Morrison spoke with Dean Turner about REI's role in this community, he told Turner they are trying to help people tell their story in a
consistent way - Turner saw the fit of that with the development of the school
of cognitive science. Turner transitions to how now the panel will discuss their stories of their successes in the community applying cognitive learning.

Peter Whitehouse - neurologist and now fellow of REI - discusses cognitive science and
learning communities - he will show us a bunch of images of applied cognitive science at Case, where today we have minds addressing art, science, and
technology. This is the story of creating a community that can create stories
that lead to economic development.

Started discussions here with "Cognitive Science Week" where many
world leaders in many fields brainstormed on various stories about thinking and
economics. Cognitive science is an application within liberal arts education and the Case approach
blends broad disciplines. Taken to the community level, Peter speaks of using
the Cleveland Museum of Art as a classroom for exploring aspects of cognitive science and ends his presentation discussing Intergenerational learning - a program creating the Intergenerational School whereby young and old participate in sharing stories for lifelong learning
- and Peter extends his story to a vision to environmental and economic sustainability. World's most
powerful learning community needs to think as broadly as possible about learning - Peter thus goes to the mountains, and a Buddhist school to broaded his experiences and perspectives and enrich the stories he may share with others, making their stories richer. In all this, Peter involves Case and his students - shows how their learning is enhanced by his learning and story telling.

NEO must create community that celebrates story telling.

Moderator Ed Morrison points out if we are going to pursue regional transformation we need to
think about economic development in a new and innovative way. Need to leverage
brainpower in a new way - open source economic development. In order for our
economy to transform we need open collaboration - command and control does not
work - regions that collaborate will learn and move faster. RED Team
demonstrates how stories can drive progress - NEO is dominated by the wrong
stories - how do we change the stories - work like RED Team. Our universities need to
work together in a new way - not just Case but every campus in NEO. Ed sees 3-4 themes
(core strengths) emerging from REI = innovation + creativity + sustainability
(environment and new systems of collaboration) + health (predict and prevent).
Today at REI, in this discussion, we're looking at just the beginning - overviews.

The Chief Information Officer of Case, Tom Knab, talks about how NEO is uniquely rich in arts and technology. He highlights
area resources in creative arts, and our technology infrastructure, and skill applying that,
and the new dept. of cognitive science, and the law school dept. of law in arts
and technology - and stresses we are well positioned as a global leader in all these fields and developing innovative excellence. beyond, resulting from the convergence of these strengths

OneCleveland offers great connectivity - connects to Ohio learning network,
connecting to Lambda Net - offers awesome global connectivity. Internet 2
includes museum and CIM - we have opportunity to be global center for networked
arts and technology - we've done lots to show a strong portfolio. Internet 2 is
interested to partner with University Circle collaboration - we can be the global focal point
networking among our networked arts - this further offers support of arts creation - leverages strengths like TIIME, arts
education, art history, music, dance, and ability to study creativity. Consider broader synergies - community outreach - e.g. local ethnic communities connecting to countries of origin through interactive arts programs. Consider synergies of having distributed interactive technologies - using healthcare simulation facilities at Mt. Sinai for arts initiatives when not in use for healthcare - consider developing global virtual performing arts
festival - streaming media - we have the expertise... audio production, art
presentation, creative technologies, gaming, law in arts, cognitive science.

Two examples of such innovative programs we've done in NEO -

Gabrieli Project - Case teamed up with Indiana
University to study network latency and cognitive science - explored latency in how music traveled
in air in St Marks Cathedral during a famous Gabrieli performance in Venice vs. over the internet under various conditions - had conductor in Indiana
conducting "global performance" - performers in Indiana and Cleveland were unified over Internet - then delay was manipulated to virtually place performers further away showing how latency on networks was
within bounds of air - created stereoscopic 3D video conference which attracted interest of
healthcare providers - serendipidy.

Another demonstration of past success was Kinetic Shadows, where dancers in Cleveland and LA created networked dance
performance - work of art created using advanced technologies - trail and
error. This is a story doctors use to demonstrate that telemedicine is possible.

Chief Information Officer of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Len Steinbach, speaks of our region's strength in arts and technology, and how excellent are our successes (see notes from his recent Community of Minds presentation for more on CMA strengths), but for this discussion today Len stresses the very different interpersonal dynamic he experiences in NY vs. here - there culture is burning - here it is simmering. His message is that as a region - as residents of NEO - we need to drive learning to appreciate and leverage the arts and culture that are such a strength of the region. Having just returned from NY, Len shows film from the current Christo and Jeanne Claude installation in Central Park, The Gates, and Len explains how important that is there and in the world as a cognitive learning experience - there in the experience you need to smile because everyone else is - some from experiencing the art and others from the huge economic impact - this is a global shared experience at many levels. In Cleveland we had a similar experience with the Tunick photo shoot and exhibition but Len points out that now the Plain Dealer minimizes that great success as minor compared to The Gates. How do we get Cleveland past the cognitive malaise that even our successes are minor - we need to be in concert recognizing creativity is part of the applied and learned cognitive culture of this community - it is simmering - but it needs more heat. Len suggests businesses encourage employees to participate in local arts, and provide more direct funding... he suggests employers allow employees to come to work late the day after attending important cultural events, and that companies offer to match employee ticket purchases for cultural events and donate the tickets to non-profits so they can distribute more tickets more broadly - drive up attendance and excitement around arts and culture.

Q&A - attendee asks about impact of sprawl issue - people living too far from events - Len says people here need to get over it. Mark says he's lived all over the country and NEO is the easiest place to get from anywhere to anywhere - perhaps ease of getting around here has conditioned people here not to put in any effort to go out at all. Ed says people need to stop whining. Peter says let's create culture of celebrating the arts.

Q - In response to Len's proposal businesses nurture employees to support the arts - attendee questions how do corporate leaders react to this concept? He says one CEO he approached is supportive - Ed says he is supportive for REI. Mark points out acceptance is a learned response - human brains are plastic and he discusses distributed cognition, and that when you want to do something you must put yourself in the right frame of mind to learn - create different activation to celebrate arts - in Silicon Valley where everyone is doing startups you want to do startups - entrepreneurs go and stay there because they want that shared buzz - outside that environment they may be less likely to succeed. If story is woe is us then everyone always feels woe. Story Cleveland tends to tell itself is negative. So whether to strengthen arts or entrepreneurism we need to develop the right buzz.

Q. To Mark - what did Hundert say that convinced him to come to Case. Mark says he couldn't be in a better place because he can accomplish so much more here - coming from Stanford he finds Case is light and adroit - he can drive and find acceptance for important innovative programs, like the center for cognitive learning - and he stresses the importance of University Circle and our arts and culture and that he wants to be here, and that Case does not have trouble attracting great new people here. Neither does the Cleveland Clinic.

Q. Where are the jobs created in cognitive science. A. Mark points out 80% of the businesses in Silicon Valley involves cognitive science - applied from information technology to product development - no problem employing graduates - huge market potential here leveraging value of cognitive science in other enterprises

Ed concludes asking do we see the opportunity here? We need to stop looking in the rear view mirror and model new civic behavior - making UC the center of NEO as the hub of creative industry in the world - how does that happen - make sense of the concept and create right story. Realize this is the new steel and create excitement and buzz around that.