Understanding Philanthropic Behavior with Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence
Meeting for the week of September 13, 2021 - September 19, 2021
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: Understanding Philanthropic Behavior with Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence
Speaker: Giuseppe Ugazio
Is this your first time to visit us? If so, welcome to our weekly online meeting! To complete our meeting, please continue reading from here to the bottom of this page.Each Monday our week’s meeting is posted early in the morning, U.S. Pacific Time. These meetings are designed so that you can read and watch what we post anytime during the week. The entire meeting takes about 60 minutes to complete, with the video conference recording of the program being the bulk of the time. Note that you can easily read this meeting with your favorite device, so feel free to take our meeting on the go with you. Please also make sure to complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
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Read and watch the content below in its entirety.
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Everyone is also encouraged to leave a comment in the Disqus section at the bottom of the page.
Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!
Here’s a message from our Club President.
Hi everyone,
Welcome to this week’s meeting of the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley.
As some of you may be aware, Rotary and Peace Corps have a strategic partnership, and a two of our club’s members - Cecelia and Cal - were each living overseas and serving with Peace Corps until the COVID-19 pandemic hit and they were both evacuated back to the United States. This partnership is growing in participation, and the September edition of Rotary magazine includes a feature article which focuses extensively on Cal and his experience with Peace Corps. I encourage you to read the article which you can access via the link below, or it can be found on page 48 of the print edition. Way to go Cal!
ESPRIT DE CORPS - Peace Corps volunteers and Rotary members find meaningful connections
Along with this, Rotary has declared that next week (20 to 26 September) as the inaugural Rotary - Peace Corps Week. To mark this occasion, Rotary has arranged a series of 3 webinars on 20, 22 and 24 September, with each one focusing on a different topic related to the partnership between Rotary and Peace Corps. Cal will be a panelist for the event on 22 September, where he will share some of the insights from his experience. Information regarding the webinars (including registration link) can be found on the flyer below or by following the link.
Rotary-Peace Corps Week Webinars flyer
No doubt these sessions will be a great way to learn more about the partnership and how Rotary members and Peace Corps volunteers Serve to Change Lives.
Brett Sham
President, Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley
president@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Guests, we are happy to have you join us this week!
As we see it, our flexibility as an online, asynchronous club allows a special type of service to Rotarians around the world: we make it easier for anyone to strive for and maintain 100% attendance. That keeps you engaged with Rotary's events and ideas, and provides a moment of inspiration for devoting your creativity, talents, and resources to good causes.
You are certainly not required to pay anything in order to attend our meetings. However, if you would like to make a small contribution to our service efforts, you are welcome to do so in our secure Happy Dollars section down the page. This could be what you normally pay at your own club's meetings for lunch, for example. Any amount is welcome, but first and foremost, we're happy you've joined us, and hope you will share with others who we are and what we do to help inspire Service Above Self.
And don't forget to fill out our attendance form so you get an email you can pass on to your club's secretary!
The Four Way Test
The Four-Way Test is a nonpartisan and nonsectarian ethical guide for Rotarians to use for their personal and professional relationships.
Of the things we think, say or do
Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
Weekly Funny with Shags.
We believe laughter is an important part of life, and we should all make time to laugh a little. This segment of our meeting is meant to tickle you just enough. These funnies are curated by member Steven "Shags" Shagrin !
Bad Advice...Or Is It?!?
I went to the doctors office recently. He said, "Don't eat anything fatty."
I said, "What, like bacon and burgers?"
He said, "No, I mean you, Fatty, don't eat anything!" Ha ha -- I'm that fatty!!
Weekly Inspiration
Every week we start our meetings with a short video highlighting innovation, inspiration, entrepreneurship, or social change.
Making a difference means understanding the perspective of those whom you want to help, and appreciating the complexity that often underlies vexing problems. In this 2018 piece from the South China Morning Post, you'll meet "China's Last Cave People."
Through a Rotarian's Lens
Sometimes a photo can capture an amazing moment. In this section Member Keith Marsh shares his incredible photography!
If you'd like to submit a photo for this section please contact Keith.
One World Trade Center towers over the 9/11 Memorial site in New York City. I took this photo with an iPad, but wanted to straighten the buildings to correct for the warped perspective.
Learn Something New
This section is curated by members Shags Shagrin and aims to teach our members and guests something new, fun, and useful! If you have any ideas on a fun trick or skill you'd like to share please contact Shags.
The Man Who Sings Backwards!
I came across a snippet video of this fellow on a humor site and thought it was so interesting that I searched for a YouTube video to share with you. Autism can cause/allow the brain to do some truly amazing things!
Relay for Life
Hi everyone,
As Rotarians, we all love a good service opportunity, and a great one is taking place this month!
Even better, no matter where you are, you'll be able to take part.
As we annually do, we are joining the fight against cancer as part of Santa Clara's annual Relay for Life. The Wild Walkers team is captained by my wife, Tabitha, who many years ago made the questionable decision to spend her life with me.
Tabitha and I have many friends and family members who have battled cancer, some we support, and others we can only remember. It is likely this describes you, too, and this is a chance to show your support of those in your life dealing with cancer, even while we work to get every member involved in a fun service effort!
That "every member" part is important. This is the event where we want absolutely everyone to get involved, so help us reach 100% of our members with this service!
What does it mean to get involved? Well, you can choose any of the following:
You can take a picture of yourself with a printed message like, "Our eclub fights cancer!" or the name of someone you wish to honor or remember, adding whatever message you want. Email that to me, and I'll get it added to our set that we share with the community.
Join the The Wild Walkers team (click here to do so) and plan to join our group at the event on Saturday, Oct 2nd (details to follow). A group of us will meet up at my house that afternoon and make our way over to Townsend Field for the Relay.
Donate as part of our effort. You can do so on this page, and any amount is welcome. These funds go to support research against cancer, help survivors and caregivers, and provide educational materials.
Honor a friend or family member with a luminaria (as in the image below), which costs $10 each, and allows you to add a message honoring/remembering that person. If you want to honor someone but are tight on funds (it happens!), you can email me the name and a message, and I'll add it to the group of ones I'm buying, no problem.
Service Report
Tell us about service you’ve done recently in your community.
Click here to fill out The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey
Our Events & Projects
We hold our meetings online, but we do regular service projects and social events in the Silicon Valley! The section is updated every week with our upcoming events. We welcome guests to all of the events and service projects listed here.
Upcoming Events:
All times are Pacific Time! (San Francisco time)
District 5170 Events
All times are Pacific Time! (San Francisco time)
More events coming soon! All events are open to guests, unless otherwise mentioned. Feel free to join us! If you ever have questions, please email inquiries@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Happy Dollars: Do Good by Sharing Something Good
Each week we ask our members to share stories with the club and toss in a few dollars to support our efforts. The primary goal of this section is to provide a fun way of getting to know each fellow members and guests, while giving back to a good cause.
Happy dollars is an opportunity to share something positive that has happened in your life whether it is personal or business. Think of it as your opportunity to brag a little, but also put a little bit into a karma jar. The money donated through happy dollars is put to charitable use, and the message that you leave for happy dollars will be posted in our online meeting the following week for the entire week for folks to see! (Pending that it’s appropriate!)
Here are the happy dollars contributions from last week!
This section is usually updated in the early hours of Saturday, so contributions made over the weekend may not be listed here.
Felix Pretscheck made a Other Amount donation.
I'm happy, glad and honored to become a member of the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley! Looking forward to meeting you all over time!
Monique Ziesenhenne made a $20 donation.
TRF-Annual Fund, please. Happy that it's not as hot as it was. Now here's hoping the air quality improves!
Rory Olsen made a $20 donation.
Jazzy is fully over her ear surgery. The weather is cooler. So far the hurricanes have avoided Texas. Please apply my gift to Polio Plus
Program: Understanding Philanthropic Behavior with Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence
Speaker: Giuseppe Ugazio
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education, and how those contribute to service to others.
The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley seeks to explore perspectives on service from across the world. The views of the speakers in our programs are their own, and unless stated otherwise, are not necessarily reflective of the views of our eClub nor Rotary International.
If you have an idea for a cool speaker, please feel free to reach out to them directly or submit THIS FORM so our Program Committee can contact them!
Our speaker this week is Giuseppe Ugazio, the Edmond the Rothschild Assistant Professor in Behavioral Philanthropy at the Geneva Finance Research Institute. He is a behavioral scientist studying the neuro-psychological mechanisms that drive complex human social behaviors. His research uses interdisciplinary experimental methods to probe the affective, cognitive, and behavioral control mechanisms underlying social decision-making. Using insights from behavioral sciences he aims to better characterize philanthropic behavior in order to make philanthropy more efficient and appealing, with the aim to improve the wellbeing of individuals and society.
Philanthropy is as fascinating as it is complex. In order to start understanding and explaining it, Dr Ugazio believes an interdisciplinary perspective is necessary. In his research he combines behavioral economics and psychology with neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality tools to explore why and how people engage in philanthropy. In this talk, he looks at how individuals' brains represent two key components of philanthropy: moral and financial values. He then discusses a novel approach to study philanthropy at scale, analyzing with natural language processing the mission statements of philanthropic organizations.
Members and guests, please welcome Giuseppe Ugazio!
To learn more:
To learn more about Dr Ugazio's work:
Upcoming Program Recording Schedule
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online over Zoom video conference. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.
Our online video conference room link for these recordings is always http://zoom.siliconvalleyrotary.com/. You are welcome to join us! Please note the timezone listed for all recordings is US Pacific Time (San Francisco, California, USA).
If you can’t join the live recording, please send your questions for an upcoming speaker to programs@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
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Thanks for reading and watching this week’s meeting. You have two last things to do before you’re done.
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Non-Rotarian Guests, we would love to see who is dropping by our meetings! This part is optional for you. If you think you may want to join our eClub at some point in the future, we would strongly recommend you fill out the attendance form as it will improve your chances of success for your membership application.
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