Harvard Club of Philadelphia

The Radcliffe on the Road series continues virtually this fall with an event featuring three 2017–2018 Radcliffe fellows—a marine biologist, a computer scientist, and a cryptographer—who are studying communication among highly intelligent sperm whales, boldly interdisciplinary research that promises new insights into this unique species. Join Tomiko Brown-Nagin, dean of Harvard Radcliffe Institute, for a discussion with David Gruber, Michael Bronstein, and Shafi Goldwasser to learn more about this innovative project, which emerged from Radcliffe’s Fellowship Program and a 2019 Radcliffe Exploratory Seminar.

Building on their work at the Institute, the group was awarded the 2020 Audacious Project and formed Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative). Using state-of-the-art non-invasive robotics to capture sounds and applying advanced machine learning to decode recordings, Gruber, Bronstein, and Goldwasser now have the tools to look for deep structure in whales’ communication systems. You can learn more about Project CETI in National Geographic, the New York Times, and National Public Radio.