The LASERs (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous) are an international program of evening gatherings that bring artists and scientists together for informal presentations and conversation with an audience. This evening, chaired by cultural historian Piero Scaruffi, will be a special LASER to celebrate the Stanford Research Park, that was founded 75 years ago.

The evening will open with a brief video interview with a Silicon Valley engineer of the 1960s: John Minck.

It will be followed by four talks:

- Mihai Codreanu (Stanford) on "The Impact of University Research Parks"

- Piero Scaruffi (Stanford) on "A History of Silicon Valley"

- Elise DeMarzo (Code: ART Festival) on "Digital Art, Real Community"

- Ge Wang (Stanford) on "What do we (really) want from AI"

Mihai Codreanu is an economist working on tracking innovation and technology development over the very long-run. His Stanford dissertation focused on university research parks, and Stanford Research Park in particular.

Piero Scaruffi has worked on Internet and Artificial Intelligence technologies since the early 1980s and has written "A History of Silicon Valley" (2011), which has also been translated in China.

Elise DeMarzo is the Director of Public Art for the City of Palo Alto and oversees all aspects of both temporary and permanent public art installations. She implemented a new media public art festival called Code:ART in 2017.

Ge Wang is an Associate Professor at Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), director of the Stanford Laptop Orchestra, and the author of "Artful Design: Technology in Search of the Sublime".

Detailed bios at:  http://www.lasertalks.com/

The Stanford LASERs are co-sponsored by the deans of Humanities and Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and by Chemical Engineering.