Speaker: Sharon West, Composer & student with an MS in Engineering who worked nearly 25 years in process management

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West has a lifelong passion and interest in composing. J.S.Bach is probably the greatest music composer who has ever lived and he composed by writing everything by hand. Today composers use a host of computer tools to make music. West will examine how computers make composing faster by examining some of Bach’s compositions within a modern Digital Audio Workstation, from simple piano canons to full sonatas and orchestral suites. Once you see how amazing his works are, even from a modern standpoint, you’ll be even more impressed with his spectacular compositions!

This presentation is in conjunction with the 2024 Bach Festival.

Program sponsors are Mark Flora & Sally Stevens

Speaker: Zach Wood-Doughty, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Computer Science department at Northwestern University

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Generative Pretrained Transformer (GPT) models have revolutionized the field of artificial intelligence since the release of ChatGPT two years ago. In that time, these models have found widespread use by both businesses and consumers. This program will briefly recap the history of these models and provide a high-level overview of their technical details. Then, Wood-Doughty will discuss the opportunities for and risks of using these models in applications from customer service to healthcare.

Program sponsors are Rex and Linda Pope

Speaker: Bridget Brown, Chief Operations & Programs Officer for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence (GLSL) Cities Initiative

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The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence region spans eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, and is home to more than 45 million people and 3,500 species of plants and animals. Its rivers and lakes hold a fifth of the world's freshwater. Our region is an economic powerhouse. Though we face challenges, opportunities for a healthy future abound. Brown will highlight key times in history that have shaped this region and show how this Initiative is working to protect, improve, and leverage our lakes and rivers for a thriving environment and economy.

Program sponsors are Donavan and Mary Beth Lane

Speakers: Brian Hoelzel, Waupaca Chief of Police &
Andy Naylor, Madison Police Department Detective

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Hoelzel and Naylor will inform us about law enforcement by analyzing past and current trends, & by examining the public perception of what police do, all while offering unique perspectives from smaller/rural and larger/urban departments. Hoelzel has prior experience as detective sergeant as a member of the Central WI Drug Task Force, and a patrol officer where he was a field training officer & evidence technician. Naylor’s career in law enforcement began in 2012 with the Madison PD. He has been a mental health officer, a detective in the General Assignment Unit, the Special Victims Unit, and is currently assigned to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and MPD’s Threat Assessment Team.

Program sponsors are Dan and Mary Naylor

Speaker: Bill Gillard, PhD, MFA, Professor of English at UW-Oshkosh

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Gillard is the author of Robert Bloch’s Psycho Century: American Horror from Lovecraft to King (forthcoming) and other books. Wisconsin author Robert Bloch was a prolific writer during his seven-decade career. His best ideas frequently took several iterations to find their finished form, and his novel Psycho was no different. Gillard will look at the long arc of Bloch’s career and make connections to changes in the American horror landscape while also paying close attention to how Bloch evolved from a writer of supernatural horror in the 1930s to a leader in mid-century psychological horror.

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Program sponsors are Ann and Vance Linden

Speaker: Tim Crain, PhD, Former director of the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education at Seton Hill University

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The Holocaust took the lives of nearly six million Jews between 1941 and 1945. The US government knew that the mass murder of the Jews was taking place in 1942, but did little to stop the genocide. This presentation will explore the American response to the Holocaust, as well as review what could have been done to end the mass murder. The US believed that the best way to rescue Jews was to win World War II as rapidly as possible. The decision remains controversial.

This program is a collaboration with the Waupaca Area Public Library which is hosting the traveling exhibit "Americans and the Holocaust" - Nov 9 - Dec 19.

This program is sponsored by all of us in memory of Glenda Rhodes.