Events
Past Event
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Lightning Talks with Northwestern Post Doctoral Fellows and Scholars!
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
Speakers:
Joshua Becker - Post Doctoral Fellow, Kellogg and NICO
Yixue Wang - Ph.D. Student, Technology and Social Behavior
Frank van der Wouden - Post Doctoral Fellow, Kellogg and NICO
Igor Zakhlebin- Ph.D. student, Technology and Social Behavior
Abstracts and Bios:
Joshua Becker - Collected vs Collective Intelligence in the Wisdom of Crowds
Abstract: A common assumption in research on the wisdom of crowds is that in order to produce accurate decisions, groups must be composed of individuals who are socially and statistically independent. However, our research shows both computationally and experimentally that social influence can improve belief accuracy, as long as people are embedded in decentralized communication networks. These results hold in domains such as financial forecasting, physician diagnoses, and even political belief formation in echo chambers.
Bio: Joshua Becker is a postdoctoral fellow at NICO and the Kellogg School of Management specializing in collective intelligence. Their current research focuses on the “wisdom of crowds” and seeks to understand how social information processing impacts belief accuracy. Joshua’s mix of formal theoretical models and web-based experiments has been published in venues including Science and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Yixue Wang - The Role of Professional Feedback in Online News Comment Quality and Engagement
Abstract: News commenting is a prevalent form of online interaction, but it is fraught with issues, such as a low quality of discussion that often takes place. While various forms of moderation can be used to maintain quality, one technique that is underexplored is the role of professional feedback in normative signaling that helps set quality expectations for commenters. This talk will present an analysis of more than 13 million NYT comments and provide evidence that professional feedback in the form of NYT Picks is associated with an increase in quality and frequency of user commenting.
Bio: Yixue Wang is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Technology and Social Behavior program at Northwestern, focusing on computational journalism and social science. She analyzes human behavioral data as a means to enhance diversity, maintain civility and eliminate biases. She is a member of the Computational Journalism Lab at Northwestern, a Data Science fellow at Northwestern Data Science Initiative, and was a data engineer at a political analytics startup before her Ph.D.
Frank van der Wouden - The Adjacent Possible: Why some technological combinations are driving innovation
Abstract: Why are some technological combinations driving innovation? From all possible technological combinations, only very few occur. We use 7.8 million US patents to build networks of technological co-occurrence. We find that technologies sharing a common neighbor are most likely to be introduced in subsequent years. This is because inventors with experience in the commonly shared technology recognizes its value.
Bio: Frank van der Wouden is a post-doctoral research at Kellogg School of Management and NICO. He is interested in networks of collaboration, technological evolution and the spatial distribution of economic activities.
Igor Zakhlebin - Diffusion of Scientific Articles across Online Media
Abstract: Based on millions of social media posts, news articles, blog entries and other web pages, we quantify the cross-medium dynamics and structure of diffusion for scientific articles. We find that initial bursts of posting activity tend to co-occur in time across media, which helps us determine the speed at which individual media pick up scientific information. We use a network inference algorithm to study the underlying structure of diffusion and analyze the structure of the resulting network.
Bio: Igor is a PhD student in Technology and Social Behavior, a joint degree in Computer Science and Communication. He works with mentions of scientific research on social media to understand how information cascades originating in different media interact with each other as well as the role of individual users in dissemination of such information.
Live Stream:
Time
Wednesday, March 6, 2019 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
CANCELLED - WED@NICO WEBINAR: Fabiana Zollo, Ca' Foscari University of Venice "Polarization, Misinformation, and Hate: Investigating Social Dynamics with Online Data"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
Details
Due to unforseen circumstances we regret that this webinar is cancelled. We hope to reschedule at a later date.
Speaker:
Fabiana Zollo, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Title:
Polarization, Misinformation, and Hate: Investigating Social Dynamics with Online Data
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the challenge of conveying and communicating complexity and uncertainty to the public, also given the increasing central role of the Internet and social media. Designed to maximise users' presence on the platform and to deliver targeted advertising, social media transformed the information landscape and have rapidly become the main information sources for many of their users. Information spreads faster and farther online, in a flow-through system where users have immediate access to unlimited content. This may facilitate the proliferation of mis- and dis-information, generating chaos, and limiting access to correct information. In this talk, I will provide an overview of how social dynamics and behavioural patterns can be investigated and analysed with online data, and discuss how data-driven insights can be used to design effective strategies to counter misinformation and improve the overall quality of the information system.
Speaker Bio:
Fabiana Zollo is an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics and Research Fellow in the Center for the Humanities & Social Change at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Her research investigates information and misinformation spreading, social dynamics, and the emergence of collective narratives on online social media. She collected several papers on this topic, with both national and International co-authors. Since 2019, she is serving as an External Expert to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). She is a member of the Task Force “Data Science” established by AGCOM, the Italian Communications Regulatory Authority, and a member of the Working Group established by the Italian Presidency of Council to study the phenomenon of disinformation on COVID-19.
Webinar:
CANCELLED
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems and data science. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for information on future speakers.
Time
Wednesday, October 27, 2021 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
Data Science Nights - October 2021 Meeting (Speaker: Omkar Ranadive of Alchera Labs)
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
5:15 PM
Details
OCTOBER MEETING: Thursday, October 28, 2021 at 5:30pm (US Central) via Zoom and Gather
DATA SCIENCE NIGHTS are monthly talks on data science techniques or applications, organized by Northwestern University graduate students and scholars. Aspiring, beginning, and advanced data scientists are welcome!
AGENDA:
5:15: Data Science Night Meet + Greet
* Zoom Link: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/97300898035
5:30: Presentation by Omkar Ranadive of Alchera Labs
6:00: Code+Cookies on Gather Town
* Gather link: https://gather.town/app/UCTJAHOgQi2FLx4O/DSN
SPEAKER:
Omkar Ranadive is an Applied Scientist at Alchera Labs. He completed his Master's in Computer Science at Northwestern University in 2021. His areas of research include Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Reinforcement Learning.
TOPIC: Using machine learning to detect wildfires
Wildfires are a huge problem in the state of California. In 2021 alone, there have been 7,000+ wildfires in California, which have burned down over 2 million acres of land. An automated system that detects wildfires early, before they spread, can help save lives and minimize damage to land and structures. In this talk, we will discuss Alchera's Wildfire Alert System, which uses machine learning to perform early detection of wildfires. The system analyzes images in real-time from over 800 cameras and sends immediate alerts to users.
For more info: data-science-nights.org
Supporting Groups:
This event is supported by the Northwestern Institute for Complex Systems and the Northwestern Data Science Initiative.
Time
Thursday, October 28, 2021 at 5:15 PM - 7:30 PM
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO WEBINAR: Katherine Amato, Northwestern U "Integrating evolutionary perspectives into microbiome research"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
Details
Speaker:
Katherine Amato, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University
Title:
Integrating evolutionary perspectives into microbiome research
Abstract:
TBA
Speaker Bio:
Katie Amato is a biological anthropologist studying the gut microbiota in the broad context of host ecology and evolution. She is particularly interested in understanding how changes in the gut microbiota impact human nutrition and health in populations around the world, especially those with limited access to nutritional resources. She also uses non-human primates as models for studying host-gut microbe interactions in selective environments and to determine whether the human gut microbiota has characteristics that are unique among primates. Her current research focuses on microbial contributions to host nutrition during periods of reduced food availability or increased nutritional demands, as well as microbial influences on brain growth. She has worked in the field extensively with black howler monkeys in southeastern Mexico, and is currently establishing projects with both humans and non-human primates in other parts of the world.
Webinar:
https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/96195982317
Passcode: nico
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems and data science. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for information on future speakers.
Time
Wednesday, November 3, 2021 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO WEBINAR: Konrad Kording, University of Pennsylvania "Quasiexperimental causality in neuroscience"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
Details
Speaker:
Konrad Kording, Penn Integrated Knowledge Professor, University of Pennsylvania
Title:
Quasiexperimental causality in neuroscience
Abstract:
TBA
Speaker Bio:
Konrad Kording is interested in the question of how the brain solves the credit assignment problem and similarly how we should assign credit in the real world (through causality). In extension of this main thrust he is interested in applications of causality in biomedical research. Konrad has trained as student at ETH Zurich with Peter Konig, as postdoc at UCL London with Daniel Wolpert and at MIT with Josh Tenenbaum. After a decade at Northwestern University he is now PIK professor at UPenn.
Webinar:
https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/92583896352
Passcode: nico
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems and data science. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for information on future speakers.
Time
Wednesday, November 10, 2021 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)