My name is Josue Lopez.
I'm originally from Los Angeles, California.
I'm a third year PhD student in computer science,
working with [INAUDIBLE] in physics and just nanophotonic
devices, either for LEDs, lasers, solar trapping--
anything that manipulates light for the next generation
of technologies.
I became a scientist, an engineer,
because I wanted to work on the hardest problem
that this generation faces, which is climate change.
One of the issues I see now is that we're
at a tipping point when it comes to climate change
and the impact it could have on this generation
and generations to come.
Fossil Free MIT, working alongside the Black Student
Union, the Black Graduate Student Association,
is working on a forum on racial and environmental equity
and justice.
Because I think as an institute of technology,
we have sometimes failed to confront
both the ethics and justice issues
when it comes to climate change and have even less touched
the subject of how race comes into play.
Considering the political environment,
it's February 2017.
I think a lot of people have gotten engaged and realized
that they can't let the political process just
continue.
And they need to be involved to make a difference.
So I think the silver lining in all this
is that a lot of students are engaged.
Also, in particular, graduate students are engaged.
And that's one of the hopes that I
have-- that student groups are learning
to collaborate and really touch at the core issues at MIT.
And that's one of the things that the forum is trying
to do-- build a coalition of student groups
that are thinking a little bit more strategically,
know a little bit more holistically
about what issues touch society.
I would like to see a forum at MIT that
continues on the legacy we're trying to build now
when it comes to environment and women's issues,
or the environment and global north versus global south.
Continue to touch on these important themes
and important intersections between environment
and other issues because we won't
be able to touch all the issues with this forum.
And furthermore, create a template for other universities
to start collaborating a bit more.
So hopefully, maybe a year or two from now, MIT
and Harvard and BU will be holding coordinated events
and bringing this to the consciousness of the Boston
and New England region.
As an engineer scientist, I have never
been trained or taken a course on ethics,
like a semester-long ethics course.
And I think that shows how we've missed the mark
as an engineering community-- not only MIT--
on touching the issues of ethics.
So I think one things that MIT can really do
is push an initiative for technical institutes,
for the most prestigious universities,
to start building infrastructure both within the institution
and also ways of educating their students on issues
of ethics and justice.
We tackle the hardest problems that society has to face.
We think about these things.
And if we don't address them within MIT amongst our peers
that we could influence, we have no hope
in influencing the rest of the world.
I think it makes us uncomfortable to think
that ourselves, our colleagues, our institutions themselves,
can act in an unethical way, even unintentionally.
And I think that scares us.
So we have to take that responsibility head-on.
And I think now's the time to do it.