Black Holes for Fun and Profit — Katie Mack
Our understanding of black holes has increased dramatically, and we’ve discovered entire populations of them that defy our current best astronomical explanations. I’ll give an overview of the science of black holes and an up-to-date summary of what we’ve learned through gravitational waves, observations of the black hole in our own galaxy’s center, and the incredible effort to take a photo of a black hole in another galaxy.
Spectrum Wars – The Battle for Radio Frequencies — Keith Gremban
Radio frequency (RF) spectrum is a scarce, but infinitely renewable resource. RF spectrum is critical to our 21st century lives – in ways that often conflict with each other. Earth observation satellites are critical to everything from weather forecasting to assessing crop health. The same frequencies are also in demand for telecommunications. We will review the applications that depend on RF spectrum, review the state-of-the-art in managing RF spectrum, and present some of the mechanisms – technical and legal – that are being developed to provide fair access to radio frequencies.