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As we age, health professionals encourage us to keep our brain active and challenged. One way to do that is to play games that challenge our memory and “make us think”. In the first two weeks, I will introduce multiple Word and Math games that are accessible free through Play Store and Apple. I will explain how each game is played and even give some links to how to “master” the games. Students’ homework will be to play the games over the week, but in balance with their other activities. In the third week, I will answer questions students have about the games and ask them to suggest other games they like to play. I will also look up research on the benefits of “ brain games”. During the class, we will also do physical stretching to balance the mental work with physical work.

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Eileen Goddard is a Religious Studies Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Goddard lectures on Indian and Asian religious traditions at both UCSB and the University of Houston. Her research centers on the interrelationship of soteriology and embodiment in the sixteenth-century Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Kṛṣṇa tradition. She is a comparative scholar whose research also includes the Pātañjala Yoga, Advaita Vedānta, Śrīvaiṣṇava, and Pāñcarātra traditions, analyzing how emotion, desire, meditation, and ritual variously contribute towards ultimate realization of self and/or divine Other.

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The American Sign Museum (Cincinnati, Ohio) covers more than 100 years of American sign history and displays more than 800 signs and artifacts, making it the most comprehensive museum of its kind. With a mission to educate the community about the history of the sign industry and its significant contribution to commerce and the American landscape, the Museum is organized to preserve, archive and display a historical collection of signs in their many types and forms.

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Chris Baker has worked in horticulture for 15 years, including as a horticulturist at the National Aquarium in Baltimore and as Curator of Bonsai at the Chicago Botanic Garden. He focuses on the use and benefits of native plant species and sound, eco-friendly horticultural practices. Baker studied with bonsai master Torho Suzuki at the Daiju-en Nursery in Japan. He is President of the North American Bonsai Federation and a board member of the World Bonsai Friendship Federation.

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Hardeep Singh, MD, is a Professor of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and a leader in quality and safety research focused on reducing diagnostic errors, improving health information technology, and transforming health care systems. His work has informed major patient-safety initiatives and policy reports from organizations including the National Academy of Medicine, CDC, OECD, and WHO. He has received prestigious awards for his pioneering work, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award for Individual Lifetime Achievement.

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Kasey Sease, PhD, is Curator of the Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection at The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. Beyond developing exhibitions and activating the collection, she programs the Albert H. Small Center for National Capital Area Studies. A former Managing Editor of Washington History, Kasey holds degrees from the College of William and Mary (PhD, MA, history) and the University of Virginia (BA, history and government).

In this timely six-part Summer Lecture Series, How Is Artificial Intelligence Transforming America?, participants will explore AI through a wide range of real-world perspectives. The series begins by connecting AI to the Declaration of Independence, asking what trust, legitimacy, and truth mean in an age of intelligent machines. It then turns to medicine, examining whether AI can think like a doctor and how it may shape diagnosis, care, and health decision-making. A third session considers AI’s growing role in energy, climate, and sustainability, including both its environmental demands and its potential benefits. The fourth session looks at the economic impacts of AI, including how it may reshape business, work, and long-term strategy. The fifth explores AI in national security and global conflict, raising questions about warfare, ethics, and international guardrails. The series concludes with a discussion of morality and ethics in AI, focusing on whether human values can be built into systems that increasingly influence major life decisions. Together, these sessions offer a thoughtful, accessible look at the promises, risks, and future of artificial intelligence.

The last session (August 12th) is extended to 12 PM.

In this talk—marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the 70th anniversary of the coining of the term artificial intelligence at Dartmouth—we revisit the Declaration as a lens for understanding AI. We begin with a curious question: why do modern AI systems often claim that the Declaration of Independence is AI-generated? Using this example, we unpack how these systems actually work. Along the way, we explore both their remarkable capabilities and their fundamental limitations.

What does it mean to name a disease, make a diagnosis, or truly understand what is wrong with someone? This talk explores those questions through a wide-ranging and accessible story about medicine, technology, and the changing nature of medical knowledge. Over the past two centuries, medicine has moved from bedside observation and the study of symptoms, to statistics and population health, to computers designed to assist with diagnosis. Today, with the rise of artificial intelligence, we are once again being asked to rethink what medical expertise is and how it should be used.

This session will discuss the moderator's take on AI from several perspectives: fastgrowing applications; problematic uses; political and financial considerations; and his own experience with this transformational technology. Importantly, he will examine the massive energy and water demands of the AI data centers and how to address them. At the same time, Dan will consider ways that AI might accelerate the clean energy transition—and help address climate change—by improving electric grid operations, increasing industrial energy efficiency, and managing building energy use.

Artificial intelligence represents a transformation comparable in scale to electricity or the internet, yet most business leaders are approaching it as simply another productivity tool. Wheeler will argue this is a fundamental strategic error with consequences extending far beyond individual companies to the broader economy and workforce. Drawing on his experience living through the internet transformation—where companies like Amazon reimagined everything while others like Sears merely optimized existing models—Wheeler will examine why the current moment demands urgent rethinking, what’s at stake when leaders prioritize short-term efficiency over long-term transformation, and what becomes possible when change is embraced correctly. He will explore specific examples across industries, discuss implications for the next generation entering the workforce, and explain why the choices being made today will determine economic outcomes for decades to come.

AI lies at the heart of the strategic competition between the U.S. and China, including the use of AI in intelligence, cyber and military operations. As AI adoption accelerates in the national security space, the American people and their elected representatives must grapple with a number of critical questions: How will AI change the future of deterrence and warfare? What ethical issues will the use of AI in national security raise? What norms or principles should serve as guardrails for the use of AI? How do we get other nations to embrace these norms? And how do we train a whole generation of military officers to ensure human accountability for AI-driven outcomes on the battlefield?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now being used to make many life-changing decisions in medicine, law, transportation, the military, business, and other areas. Critics object that using AI in these areas is inhumane and too likely to lead to harm, unfairness, and other moral wrongs. I will admit these dangers, but reply that these decisions can be made safer and more ethical by building human moral values into the AI decisionmaker. Our team does this by surveying human moral judgments at two levels and then correcting for ignorance, confusion, and partiality. To show how our methods work in practice, I will demonstrate our websites, report initial empirical findings for kidney allocation and dementia, and finally discuss potential future applications to criminal law, transportation, business, and the military.

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Rafael Davis Portela is a PhD candidate in Latin American History at the Graduate Center, CUNY. His research examines the history of computing and technology, especially how they shaped and were shaped by economy. His dissertation traces Microsoft’s expansion in Brazil, the rise of the Brazilian computing industry, and resulting tensions between the US and Brazilian governments. Beyond history, Portela is passionate about programming and digital tools and has taught university researchers how to use computing in their own work.

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Anne “Dede” Neal Petri was elected the 24th Regent of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association (MVLA) in 2024. The MVLA, founded in 1858, is responsible for the management and preservation of George Washington's Mount Vernon. The MVLA mission is to educate the world about the leadership and character of George Washington in order to inspire future generations. Petri received her undergraduate degree in American history and literature from Harvard College and her law degree from Harvard Law School.

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Sumru Belger Krody is Chief Curator and Avenir Foundation Curator of The Textile Museum Collection at The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum. A specialist in late antique and Islamic textiles, she leads the museum’s curatorial department and serves as Editor-in-Chief of The Textile Museum Journal. Krody guest lectures at George Washington University and has curated numerous exhibitions, including Enduring Traditions and the upcoming Adorning the Horse. She has written widely and co-authored nine publications, including Textile Treasures (2025).

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Eleanor Schrader is an award-winning educator, lecturer, and author. She lectures and leads tours worldwide on art and architectural history. She was named a distinguished instructor at UCLA Extension, where she teaches history of architecture, interior design, furniture, and decorative arts. She completed graduate work in fine and decorative arts at Sotheby’s Institute in London and New York. She served as a design review commissioner for the City of Beverly Hills and serves on the John Lautner Foundation board of directors.