“Engineering Solutions in a Violent World” – January 26th

“Engineering Solutions in a Violent World” is a program at the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) that fosters student and community discussions on violence and its relationship to technology, politics, and survival through the presentation of global, national, and local perspectives. This forum will enable the community to discuss one of the most critical issues we face in our society – violence and its effect on culture. Program events are free and open to the public.

Our next event will take place on January 26th, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., in MSOE’s Todd Wehr Auditorium (1047 N. Broadway). Our guest speaker will be writer/activist Dr. Rob “Biko” Baker (see full bio below). Dr. Baker will be giving a talk titled “Collateral Damage: How Respectability Politics and Segregation Are Killing Milwaukee’s (America’s) Potential.” Please direct any questions regarding this event to Professor Michael Carriere at carriere@msoe.edu.

Dr. Rob “Biko” Baker

After nearly 10 years as the Executive Director with the League of Young Voters, Dr. Rob “Biko” Baker spent the last 2 years immersed in the technology sector working with ThoughtWorks, a leading custom software agency. There he helped develop tech strategies at scale for social cause organizations. By launching Render (RenderTech.us), it his goal to bring agile project management and continuous delivery approaches to the social cause and public sector through digital storytelling.

His past experience leading and producing digital activations like #BarackTalk, and #NoGunsAllowed with artist/philanthropist Snoop Dogg sees him uniquely positioned to offer important services to clients seeking new ways to engage their audiences.

Baker has served as the deputy publicity coordinator and young voter organizer for the Brown and Black Presidential Forum. He has appeared on C-SPAN, Fox News, and MSNBC and has also written a number of articles for America’s biggest online outlets, including the Vanity Fair. He was also a writer and contributor for the Source Magazine in the early 2000s. In 2015, Baker was the graduation commencement speaker for UC-Berkeley’s Black Graduation. Baker holds a Ph.D in History from University of California Los Angeles (2013). After the death of Michael Brown Jr., he spent over a year in Ferguson, is currently an advisor to the St. Louis based organization Hands Up United and served as the creative director for Tef Poe’s critically acclaimed album War Machine 3.