2026 Torrance Lecture by Po-Shen Loh
Monday, October 26 at 4 PM
UGA Chapel
Building a Thought Full World: Creativity + Love of Humanity
Talk Summary: AI and technology are pulling people apart. With addictive artificial pleasures. And soon, artificial friends. The basic biology of our human species relies on people loving people. Some to physically create new generations. Some to support them. While thinking for themselves. With creativity to handle the unprecedented. Or else there will be no more people. Meanwhile, technology is advancing at breakneck speed. Without urgent large-scale collective action, society is on the fast track to a dead world. Kept in place by AI. Any world-scale solution must creatively discover win-win situations that align incentives. The speaker, a social entrepreneur, will share his experience innovating an ecosystem which teaches both creativity and love for humanity at the same time. Powered by combining the faraway worlds of professional actors, mathematicians, and Internet live-streaming. He will also discuss the future of AI, and strategies for thriving.
Speaker Bio: Professor Po-Shen Loh is a social entrepreneur and inventor. He combines math, science, and technology with firsthand exploration of the human condition. Across the global landscape of work, AI, and education. Major newspapers have covered his diverse innovations. His latest initiative unites math stars and actors to transform education. He won silver for Team USA at the 1999 International Math Olympiad, and served a decade as National Coach. He is a Hertz Fellow â in a community of broadly innovative scientists with roots in the Manhattan Project and Space Race. He personally speaks in an unprecedented 100+ cities per year on education-after-AI (e.g., conferences, substitute-teaching in Kâ12 classrooms, visiting companies, labs, public lectures), learning while sharing ideas with students, parents, researchers, and policymakers. All while teaching at one of the world’s foremost universities in AI (Carnegie Mellon) and running his own EdTech social enterprise.
This lecture is part of the 2026 Fall Signature Lecture Series. Please register to attend this event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2026-annual-torrance-lecture-po-shen-loh-carnegie-mellon-mathematician-tickets-2000999110204
The Education, Creativity, & Society Nexus in the Ai Era
Monday, October 26 from 10 AM to 3 PM
Dean Rusk Hall, Larry Walker Room
An interdisciplinary mini-conference features talks and discussions by an exciting line up of academic & industry experts in the Athens-Atlanta area. Registration is FREE, but spaces are limited:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-education-creativity-society-nexus-in-the-ai-era-tickets-2001091438360
The Torrance Center for Creativity is dedicated to the nurturing and development of creative potential, which is present in all individuals, across the lifespan. The overarching goals of the Torrance Center are to investigate, evaluate, and implement techniques for enhancing creativity across domains of human enterprise and to increase creative literacy in the local, state, national, and international communities.
