S. Shankar Sastry, the Roy Carlson Professor and Dean of Engineering at the University of California-Berkeley, will deliver the 2010 Eliahu I. and Joyce Jury Seminar on “Societal Case Cyber-Physical Systems: Action Webs and Beyond” on Friday, December 3, at 2:30 p.m. in the McArthur Engineering Annex, Room MEA 202. Professor Sastry has served as the director of CITRIS (Center for Information Technology in the Interests of Society), an interdisciplinary center spanning several UC campuses; chairman of UC Berkeley’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences; director of DARPA’s Information Technology Office; and director of Berkeley’s Electronics Research Laboratory. He has helped establish a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center called TRUST (Team for Research in Ubiquitous Secure Technologies). In 2007 Professor Sastry was appointed the faculty director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies.

While the primary use of sensor networks to date has been on information gathering, the greatest impact of sensor webs will be from what are referred to as action webs, involving “closing the loop” around networked embedded systems. These action webs are now being used in a large number of societal scale cyber-physical systems (physical infrastructures, energy and building infrastructures, etc.), and they bring into focus the real time constraint issues inherent in networked embedded systems. The talk will focus on recent research activities that form the intellectual core in the study of cyber-physical systems.

For more information, please contact Kamal Premaratne at [email protected] or 305-284-4051.

Mel Feany, associate professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School, will present “Genetic Analysis of Neurodegeneration” on Friday, December 3 at 1 p.m. at the Lois Pope LIFE Center, seventh-floor auditorium. The seminar is presented by the Graduate Program in Neuroscience. For more information, contact Judy Harmon at 305-243-3368 or [email protected].

Roller derby is an American contact sport that has seen a nationwide revival in recent years. Brutal Beauty: Tales Of The Rose City Rollers tells the story of Portland, Oregon’s league, the Rose City Rollers. For more than a year and a half, an embedded film crew documented the thrills and spills of derby life. Through unlimited access to team bouts, practices, and the private lives of the players, Brutal Beauty puts the viewer on the inside track to this high-contact and sometimes dangerous sport. In their own words, the Rose City Rollers tell how roller derby saved their souls. The film screens on Friday, December 3 at 11:30 p.m. Admission is free for UM students; $6 for seniors, University of Miami alumni, faculty, non-UM students, and staff. General admission is $8. Cash only. For more information, visit www.cosfordcinema.com or call 284-4861.

Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo goes behind prison walls to follow convict cowgirls on their journey to the 2007 Oklahoma State Penitentiary Rodeo. The annual event has been held since 1940; in 2006 female inmates were allowed to participate for the first time. In a state with the highest female incarceration rate in the country, these women share common experiences such as broken homes, drug abuse, and alienation from their children.

Part Wild West show and part coliseum-esque spectacle, the “prison rodeo” is one of the last of its kind, a relic of the American penal system. Prisoners compete on wild broncs and bucking bulls, risking severe and sometimes permanent injury. The film screens on Friday, December 3 at 7 p.m., Saturday, December 4 at 5:30 p.m. and Sunday, December 5 at 3:30 p.m. Admission is free for UM students; $6 for seniors, University of Miami alumni, faculty, non-UM students, and staff. General admission is $8. Cash only. For more information, visit www.cosfordcinema.com or call 305-284-4861.

Two of the giants of French cinema, Claude Chabrol and Gerard Depardieu, team up for the only time for the director’s 50th and final feature film, a wry thriller about a police commissioner trying to balance professional instinct with family duty. Once again, Paul Bellamy (Depardieu) and his wife are spending their vacation at her family home in a quiet town. But just as they’re settling into their reassuringly predictable holiday routine, his perennially troubled younger brother shows up, joined by a mysterious stranger seeking Bellamy’s protection. The film screens on Friday, December 3 at 9 p.m., Saturday, December 4 at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, December 5 at 6 p.m. Admission is free for UM students and $6 for seniors, University of Miami alumni, faculty, non UM-students, and staff. General admission is $8. Cash only. For more information, visit www.cosfordcinema.com or call 284-4861.