Gather ‘round, nerd friends, for another amazing entry in our NNA2 adventure! Join us as Manorama Kadwani explains ways bioelectronic therapies could solve medical pee-mergencies (and others), artist and author Hannah Burr discusses her work at the intersection of fine art and science, and music therapist Callie Finzel rhapsodizes about the amazing effects music can have on the brain. It’s going to be fun!!!! It’s going to be interesting!!!!! It’s going to be NERD NITE A2!!!!!!!!! So don’t miss out – bring a friend, grab a drink, and grab a seat!
When: Thursday, 10/18/2018
Doors at 6:30/talks at 7 pm
Where: LIVE, 102 S. First St.
Cost: Free, courtesy of the Ann Arbor District Library
Manorama Kadwani – Bioelectronic Medicine: talking with nerves
People with the problem of frequent need to pee want to get back their bladder control. Patients of such a neurological disorder suffer from not only physical problems, but it affects their work performance, social outings and there’s a stigma about others getting to know about it. Conventional therapies like drug prescriptions have side effects and surgeries do not help many bladder dysfunction patients. So what else can help them? There are prosthetic devices in the market, based on a new therapy called Bioelectronic medicine. My research is focused on understanding the mechanism of this therapy by creating computational simulations of neurons and their interaction with these tiny prosthetic devices. So is this the alternative therapy of future? Can it help patients of other neurological disorders?
About Manorama: I am a Master’s student at the University of Michigan. I am pursuing research under Dr. Tim Bruns, focusing on a type of sensory neurons and their interactions with tiny prosthetic devices with the ultimate aim of designing better prosthetic devices for bladder dysfunction. In my free time, I like to explore what Ann Arbor has to offer for art lovers! I have always loved sketching, but to improve my craft I like to attend the drawing classes in AADL. I am also beginning to learn the Ballroom dancing, because dance makes me happy!
Hannah Burr – Art Among the Elements
Burr will describe the slog and float of creating an artists book about the elements: the essential learnings of her creative process, what she’s extracting from the silos of science, and how much weirder reality is than expected.
About Hannah: Hannah Burr is a Boston MA native who has lived in A2 for just over a year. She’s a contemporary artist and author of two books on the intersection of creative and contemplative practice. Her third book, on the naturally occurring elements of the periodic table, will be out this winter. Burr is a Cum Laude graduate of Brown University and tends to create bridges through her projects to subjects too specialized or fleeting for most people to engage with, including practices sometimes called religious or spiritual, and recently, scientific. Burr’s artwork has been exhibited in the contemporary wing of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Currier Museum in NH, and the Drawing Center in New York NY. Follow her on Twitter @good_bonfire.
Callie Finzell – Musical Mentality: A Melodious Monologue on Music and the Mind
Music, like love, is all around. It permeates our everyday lives in both obvious and more obscure ways. This talk will dive into the weird world of musical neuroscience and its applications for therapy. How is music processed in the brain? How can it be used to effect movement, alleviate pain, improve cognition, and facilitate well-being? And what do government-funded LSD research trials have to do with it?
About Callie: Like many who have graced this stage before her, Callie Finzel, MT-BC, has a few letters behind her name and plenty of nerdy interests…that are completely irrelevant to this talk. A graduate of the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University, Callie is a music therapist in hospice care who sings and plays piano, guitar, and whatever miscellaneous percussion instruments show up around the house. She is interested in the interaction between music interests and conception of self because, as the Fraggles say, “music makes us real.” When she’s not playing, listening to, or thinking about music, Callie enjoys baking, reading, watching supernatural tv shows with strong female leads, and 100%-ing the Lego Harry Potter video games, with or without the help of her wife and cats.