News

Oberlin College and Conservatory is pleased to announce the appointment of Jon Seydl as the new John G. W. Cowles Director of the Allen Memorial Art Museum. He will begin his tenure on July 1.

Distinguished legal expert and dedicated alum begins new role in summer 2025.

Partnership will yield host site for new BA+BFA in Integrated Arts dual degree program.

How our work as a community helped us achieve carbon neutrality.

The question of obsolescence—whether a technology, artwork, product, or idea remains relevant—is crucial to the work of artists and scientists. Obsolescence is relevant for myriad reasons. For one, we are often left wondering how much time we have left, with both our technology and life itself. At the same time, contemporary scientific and artistic developments are informed by previous trends.

When astronomers assess the ages of galaxies, they look at the glow of the elements created by nuclear fusion. “Our hydrogen gas comes prebaked with the universe,” says Associate Professor of Physics Jillian Scudder. “Anything else has gone through a star, because the only way you get these heavier elements is if a star built them.”

The students in the introductory computer science course of Associate Professor of Computer Science Cynthia Taylor ’02 don’t scroll through social media in her lectures. Instead, they’re holding iClickers, small devices that enable them to vote on questions posed during class. Then they discuss the problems in small groups, collectively working out the complex concept.

Fighting wildfires is difficult, dangerous work that puts the lives of firefighters at risk. But what if we had a more efficient way to extinguish these fires while putting fewer people in harm’s way? David H. and Margaret W. Barker Associate Professor of Computer Science and Business Adam Eck just might have the solution: highly specialized robots, powered by artificial intelligence, that have learned how to respond to and suppress these unpredictable natural disasters.

What if chemists were able to speed up the creation of new medications using computer-simulated experiments? Or foster lab processes with fewer environmental impacts?

How do we think about musical expression, especially in relation to robots and machines? That’s the question Steven Kemper aims to answer in his research. In the age of artificial intelligence—and the various concerns surrounding it—Kemper’s research proves that robots can, in fact, enhance human creativity.