Great Minds Think Alike: At Keystone’s Thought Lab, students think big
In a cozy setting with no elaborate stage design—just two sofas and a podium—the Keystone Thought Lab brings professors and professionals from different fields together to spark intellectual curiosity. Each Thought Lab session expands into broader territories, drawing the audience into deep academic exploration from science to philosophy, literature, arts, the humanities, business, and technology.
Launched in late 2024 by the Keystone Academy Office Marketing and Communications (OMC), the Thought Lab creates a space for closer, more engaging conversations. This new initiative has already hosted three sessions: a look at academic writing led by Fordham University’s Dr. Leonard Cassuto; a look to the future and its technology as encouraged by Silicon Valley investor and author Steven Hoffman; and a look for answers in the evolution of science with Dr. Deng Geng from Tsinghua University.
The Thought Lab’s focused discussions and creative formats broaden participants’ horizons and encourage the Keystone community to explore the depths of knowledge. This piece previews what transpired in the previous Thought Lab sessions.
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Looking for Answers: Exploring the evolution of science
“Science has never promised to be the only path to truth.”
— Tsinghua University lecturer Dr. Deng Geng
This Thought Lab raised questions one after another, leading the audience to go deep into the evolution of science: “Is alchemy scientific?” “How should we define science?” “What fields can science study?” “Is the essence of science philosophy?”
The West Lecture Room buzzed with curiosity and debate as Dr. Deng Geng challenged conventional thinking about science. Dr. Deng sparked the audience’s understanding of scientific development by tracing its history, exploring its boundaries, and questioning its definitions, giving fresh and thought-provoking perspectives to fixed ideas about the discipline.
Dr. Deng urged his audience to break free from rigid views of science as absolute truth, which impedes the imagination and ability to question. Science, he explained, is not a static discipline but an evolving, fluid field open to interpretation. It’s not confined by traditional divisions between liberal arts and sciences—both are tools for understanding the world, not limits to our thinking.
“Dr. Deng Geng’s sharing is my personal favorite among the Thought lab sessions,” Keystone parent Wang Jinliang shared. “Dr. Deng may be Thought Lab’s youngest speaker, but he is not a stereotypical narrator. Whether it was about scientific evolution and philosophical thoughts or ChatGPT and interdisciplinary viewpoints, he was fully critical and open. His dynamism and decisiveness showed a good example for the children. Moreover, his keenness and humor made his dialogue friendlier and more inclusive.”
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Looking at Connections: Academic writing for the self and others
“If you’re not getting rejected, you’re not doing it.”
— Fordham University Professor Leonard Cassuto
Academic writing has long been plagued by jargon, dense explanations, and elitist texts that serve a specific community rather than the public it hopes to inform.
In this Thought Lab session, Dr. Leonard Cassuto, writer and professor of English at Fordham University, shared hard-earned lessons from his 40-year writing career, urging students to embrace clarity, rejection, and authenticity in their work.
Complexity in writing, he explained, isn’t the problem—obscurity is. Writers must ask if they are communicating or simply showing off. Rejection, too, is vital: it pushes boundaries, expands your range, and tests both your limits and those of your audience. Most importantly, he emphasized preserving your voice, as it reflects your unique experiences and personal journey.
Drawing from his book, Academic Writing as If Readers Matter, Dr. Cassuto illustrated how academic writing can serve as a bridge—facilitating dialogue across time and space when approached with the reader in mind. Students asked questions and sought advice on overlooked details and practical challenges. Through his thoughtful answers, Dr. Cassuto inspired a new perspective on writing as both a mission and a craft.
“The week before Professor Leonard Cassuto came to Keystone, I had been reading his book,” eleventh grader Craig Zeng shared. “Professor Cassuto discussed the importance of taking care of readers’ feelings in academic writing in a way that breaks the stereotype of ‘involution’ in contemporary academic writing. It can inspire everyone’s interest in some novel topics. If I hadn’t participated in this Thought Lab session, I might never have read this book, let alone further understand that there are so many problems and potentials hidden in academic writing.”
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Looking to the Future: Technological innovation of 2034 and beyond
“Within five years, ChatGPT will be able to do everything a normal person does as well or much better.”
— Founders Space CEO Steven Hoffman
Many people nowadays think of what artificial intelligence (AI) can do, given society’s strides and dizzying technological developments as of late. Perhaps the better question is: “What AI cannot do without human intervention?”
What once seemed like science fiction has now become reality. In this Thought Lab session, Founders Space CEO Steven Hoffman, also known as “Captain Hoff” in Silicon Valley, led the audience to think of future technology a decade from now and beyond. He challenged conventional thinking about AI as recent developments have shown how it can be used to reshape human cognition, work, and daily life. While AI brings immense opportunities, it also poses significant challenges—threats to privacy, social stability, and ethics, among them. Yet, as Captain Hoff emphasized, the era of AI is inevitable, and education is key to preparing future generations.
“I want to inspire you to go out on your own and start looking at these technologies because they are fascinating. If you can figure out ways to use [them] to help people and society, that is wonderful,” he told his young audience.
This session addressed parents’ anxieties about what their children should study to thrive in an unpredictable future. Captain Hoff urged parents to focus not only on teaching children how to think, solve problems, and adapt to an uncertain world but also encourage the youth to want to “learn, discover, and experience new things, and share those with the rest of the world.”
He also raised a big challenge to everyone: “Hopefully, we will become more compassionate in making decisions that benefit us and other species.”
“As the student host of this session, I experienced a collision of ideas about technology and thinking,” Keystone senior student Jo Chi said. “With his extensive knowledge and deep insight into the future, Captain Hoff led the audience to explore the possibilities of cutting-edge technology fields […] and analyzed their potential impact on society and individuals from a dialectical perspective. The Q&A session with Captain Hoff made me determined to follow my inner passion in the future.”
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The Keystone Thought Lab is not a haven for ideas—it thrives on sharp insights, bold challenges, and the spirit of questioning. It is also an academic adventure with scholars and professors as a guide to dynamic conversations that resist definitive answers. Through diverse perspectives and the fusion of ideas, the Thought Lab becomes a space for constructing new ideas that transcend the familiar.
