2025 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science Seminar
 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE:
Protecting Your Personal Privacy and Safety

4:00 P.M. – 5:30 P.M. on Friday, October 18th, 2024

The Ray Stark Family Theatre, SCA 108
George Lucas Building, USC School of Cinematic Arts
900 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007

FREE ADMISSION. OPEN TO USC STUDENTS, FACULTY, STAFF, and ALUMNI. RSVPs REQUIRED.

Dessert reception to follow in the Lucas Building Lobby.
 

RSVP NOW TO ATTEND

Discussants

Kristina Lerman, Senior Principal Scientist at the USC Information Sciences Institute, and Research Professor, USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s Computer Science Department.

Colin Maclay, Research Professor of Communication and Executive Director of the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab.

Swabha Swayamdipta, Associate Director of USC Center for AI and Society, and Assistant Professor, USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s Computer Science Department.

Moderator

Adam Russell, Director of the AI Division, USC Information Sciences Institute, and Chief Vision Officer at the US AI Safety Institute (AISI).

Attendance is mandatory for SCA undergraduate and graduate majors planning to apply for one of the Sloan Foundation grants in Production, Screenwriting or Animation.

About the Sloan Grant Program at SCA

SLOAN CRITERIA

The goal of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Film School program is to influence and encourage the next generation of filmmakers to create more realistic and dramatic stories about science and technology, and to challenge existing stereotypes about scientists and engineers through visual media storytelling.

It is not to propagandize on behalf of science or to create exclusively positive images of scientists and engineers. Rather, the Sloan program aims to help aspiring students, professional screenwriters and filmmakers to integrate science and technology themes and characters into their work.

Science fiction, purely medical stories and documentaries are not accepted. All proposals must be approved for scientific accuracy by a reputable scientist, who is either a current or former full-time or part-time USC faculty member or a professional scientific expert from outside USC.

All undergraduate and graduate SCA majors from the seven academic divisions are eligible and encouraged to apply for any of the listed Sloan grants.

2025 Sloan Grants

Two Production Grants are offered for $27,500 each

Production proposals will include a completed script for a short film, 8-15 minutes in length, a story synopsis, shooting schedule and a budget. Previously completed films will not be accepted.

Two Screenwriting Grants are offered for $17,500 each

Screenwriting proposals must include either a completed original feature film narrative script, a television movie script, or a television pilot script that meets the Sloan criteria. This comedy or drama must be a narrative story.

One Animation Grant is offered for $13,500

Proposals should include a script, concept art, production schedule, and budget.  It must be a narrative story. 

For complete information and application requirements, go to the SCA Community site at: https://scacommunity.usc.edu/secure/scholarships/details/sloan.cfm

For those planning to apply for a production grant, previous winning Sloan films from the six participating film programs are available online at the Museum of the Moving Image - http://scienceandfilm.org/projects

2024 Awarded Sloan Grants

Production

1. ETERNAL CELLS. Submitted by Daeil Kim, MFA Production Candidate. Based on a true story, a young scientist questions the validity of his mentor's cloning and cell technology and not telling science colleagues the truth. He has to decide between his loyalty to the scientist which is against his principles and the probable consequences of exposing him.
2. ECLIPSE. Submitted by Ziqi Yang, MFA Production candidate. Based on the life of 18th century Chinese woman astronomer, Wang Zhenyi who in a young girl's dream accompanies the astronomer to watch a lunar eclipse. The astronomer challenges a magician exploiting an audience to believe that he controls this divine phenomenon and is attacked by the crowd who want her arrested. They are unready to accept a woman in science.

Writing

1. THIN ICE. Submitted by Brittany Wang, MFA Graduate Writing Candidate.  Television Pilot based on a true story of Dr. Jane Willenbring who also reviewed and approved the scientific content and events of this story.  A young student geologist at Boston University in 1999 travels on a research trip to Antarctica with faculty advisors, one an eminent geologist, who subjects the women students, particularly Jane to abusive behavior, crude jokes, causing her to be seriously injured.  She ultimately files a Title IX against him. 
2. SCENT OF THE EARTH.  Submitted by Vankshita Mishrsa, MFA Production candidate.   A young Indian engineer returns to his home village and his father who is a fruit farmer.  He gets a job for a road building company checking roads they’re building on for potential landslides, and to improve the roads without destroying the farm soil.  When a rainstorm destroys the orchards, the engineer joins the farmers to demand fair payment from the company.

Contact Information

Name: Jordan Tabaldo
Email: jtabaldo@cinema.usc.edu