Events
Past Event
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Lightning Talks with Northwestern Fellows and Scholars!
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
NICO is hosting a lightning talk seminar each term as a part of our Wednesdays@NICO seminar series. Northwestern graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are invited to participate. To sign up for future lightning talks, please visit: https://bit.ly/2lRqSXK
FALL 2019 SPEAKERS
Diego Gómez-Zará - Ph.D. Candidate, Technology and Social Behavior
Title: A Network Approach to the Formation of Self-assembled Teams
Abstract: Which individuals in a network make the most appealing teammates? Which invitations are most likely to be accepted? And which are most likely to be rejected? This study explores the factors that are most likely to explain the selection, acceptance, and rejection of invitations in self-assembling teams. We conducted a field study with 780 participants using an online platform that enables people to form teams. Participants completed an initial survey assessing traits, relationships, and skills. Next, they searched for and invited others to join a team. Recipients could then accept, reject, or ignore invitations. Using Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs), we studied how traits and social networks influence teammate choices. Our results demonstrated that (a) agreeable leaders with high psychological collectivism send invitations most frequently, (b) previous collaborators, leaders, competent workers, females, and younger individuals receive the most invitations, and (c) rejections are concentrated in the hands of a few.
Alex Mercanti - Ph.D Candidate, Engineering Sciences & Applied Mathematics
Title: Protecting your privacy in machine learning using randomness.
Abstract: Machine learning models are commonly trained over datasets that contain personal information about people and their daily routine, health, online activity, and social behavior. Although these models play a crucial role in modern software applications, the extent to which trained machine learning models leak private and sensitive features of their respective training data remains poorly understood. In this talk, I will discuss the privacy risks associated with publicly releasing trained machine learning models and will demonstrate that the addition of random noise to training algorithms guarantees privacy for each individual in the training dataset at minimal cost to the accuracy of the model.
Kyosuke Tanaka - Ph.D Candidate, Media, Technology, and Society
Title: How dispositional and positional factors affect an individual’s ability to efficiently route messages in a network
Abstract: Milgram’s small-world experiment provided evidence for six degrees of separation, on average a chain of five contacts separated any two random people in the world. However, this was only true for those messages that reached the final destination. While, in theory, the small-world phenomenon is structurally common in social networks, empirical evidence shows that human navigation of small-world social networks is remarkably challenging. Messages often reach the intended destination via a longer path than expected, get enmeshed in loops, and/or often never reach it. This leads to painful consequences for organizations that require information routing to share (or retrieve) knowledge among their members. Extreme examples of these failures contributed to the loss of the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia. Here, I present a study of an understudied type of error—network routing—and introduce network acuity to conceptualize and operationalize an individual’s ability to efficiently route messages. Using, 6-DoS (Six Degrees of Separation), a network routing task based on Milgram’s small-world experiment with 435 individuals organized into 25 networks, I explored two types of factors that impact an individual’s network acuity: positional factors (where you are in the network) and dispositional factors (who you are). Results show that (a) those in the core or brokerage position had high network acuity than did peripheral or non-bridge members, (b) neuroticism was positively associated with acuity, (c) conscientiousness was negatively associated with acuity. Further, individuals’ network positions impacted network acuity more than dispositional characteristics. The results of this experimental study illustrate not only the usefulness of the concept of network acuity to characterize network routing errors but also advance our understanding of factors that explain variance in individuals' network acuity.
Alexandria Volkening - NSF-Simons Fellow, NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology
Title: Forecasting U.S. elections with compartmental models of infection
Abstract: U.S. election forecasting involves polling likely voters, making assumptions about voter turnout, and accounting for various features such as state demographics and voting history. While political elections in the United States are decided at the state level, errors in forecasting are correlated between states. With the goal of shedding light on the forecasting process and exploring how states influence each other, we develop a framework for forecasting elections in the U.S. from the perspective of dynamical systems. Through an interdisciplinary approach that borrows ideas from epidemiology, we show how to combine a compartmental model with public polling data from HuffPost and RealClearPolitics to forecast gubernatorial, senatorial, and presidential elections at the state level. Our results for the 2012 and 2016 U.S. races are largely in agreement with those of popular sources, and we use our model to explore how subjective choices about uncertainty impact results. We conclude by comparing our forecasts for the 2018 midterms with those of popular analysts, and we discuss future directions related to the 2020 elections. This is joint work with Daniel Linder (Augusta Univ.), Mason Porter (UCLA), and Grzegorz Rempala (Ohio State Univ.).
Live Stream:
Time
Wednesday, December 4, 2019 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO WEBINAR: Hannes Schwandt, Northwestern University "Socioeconomic Decline and Death: Midlife Impacts of Graduating in a Recession"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
Details
Speaker:
Hannes Schwandt, Assistant Professor, School of Education and Social Policy (SESP), Northwestern University, and Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research (IPR)
Title:
Socioeconomic Decline and Death: Midlife Impacts of Graduating in a Recession
Abstract:
This paper uses several large cross-sectional data sources and a new approach to estimate midlife effects of entering the labor market in a recession on mortality by cause and various measures of socioeconomic status. We find that cohorts coming of age during the deep recession of the early 1980s suffer increases in mortality that appear in their late 30s and further strengthen through age 50. We show these mortality impacts are driven by disease-related causes such as heart disease, lung cancer, and liver disease, as well as drug overdoses. At the same time, unlucky middle-aged labor market entrants earn less and work more while receiving less welfare support. They are also less likely to be married, more likely to be divorced, and experience higher rates of childlessness. Our findings demonstrate that temporary disadvantages in the labor market during young adulthood can have substantial impacts on life time outcomes, can affect life and death in middle age, and go beyond the transitory initial career effects typically studied
Speaker Bio:
Hannes Schwandt’s research agenda lies at the intersection of health economics, labor economics, and economic demography and focuses on the role of physical and mental health in determining economic inequality. Core research questions include how economic crises impact health and human capital trajectories; and how (non-COVID-19) infectious disease impair population health and disrupt economic productivity. Hannes' research has been published in general interest journals, such as Science and PNAS, and it is frequently covered by leading media outlets, such as New York Times, Washington Post, the Economist, and NPR. At Northwester, Hannes is teaching a new course on "The Economics of Health, Human Capital, and Happiness." Hannes received his PhD in Economics at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona and help positions at Princeton and University of Zurich as a post-doc and assistant professor, respectively, before joining Northwestern in 2018.
Webinar:
Zoom link: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/94114961488
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, April 21, 2021 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO WEBINAR: Tauhid Zaman, Yale School of Management "Detecting Bots and Assessing Their Impact in Social Networks"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
Details
Speaker:
Tauhid Zaman, Associate Professor of Operations Management, Yale School of Management
Title:
Detecting Bots and Assessing Their Impact in Social Networks
Abstract:
TBA
Speaker Bio:
Tauhid Zaman is an Associate Professor of Operations Management at the Yale School of Management. He received his BS, MEng, and PhD degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
His research focuses on solving operational problems involving social network data using probabilistic models, network algorithms, and modern statistical methods. Some of the topics he studies in the social networks space include predicting the popularity of content, finding online extremists, and geo-locating users.
Webinar:
Zoom link: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/92654679478
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, April 28, 2021 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
Data Science Nights - April 2021 Meeting (Speaker: Subhashini Tripuraneni)
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
5:15 PM
Details
APRIL MEETING: Wednesday, April 28, 2021 at 5:30pm (US Central) via Zoom and Gather
DATA SCIENCE NIGHTS are monthly hack nights on popular data science topics, organized by Northwestern University graduate students and scholars. Aspiring, beginning, and advanced data scientists are welcome!
AGENDA:
TBA
SPEAKER: Subhashini Tripuraneni, Executive Director, JP Morgan
TOPIC: TBA
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
Wednesday, April 28, 2021 at 5:15 PM - 7:30 PM
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO WEBINAR: David Ferrucci, Elemental Cognition
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
Details
Speaker:
David Ferrucci, Founder, CEO, and Chief Scientist, Elemental Cognition. Adjunct Professor of Management and Organizations, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Title:
TBA
Abstract:
TBA
Speaker Bio:
David Ferrucci is the CEO, Founder and Chief Scientist of Elemental Cognition. Established in 2015, Elemental Cognition is an AI company focused on deep natural language understanding and explores methods of learning that result in explicable models of intelligence. Elemental Cognition’s mission is to change how machines learn, understand, and interact with humans. Elemental Cognition envisions a world where AI technology can serve as thought partners through building a shared understanding and is capable of revealing the ‘why’ behind it’s answer.
Dr. Ferrucci is the award-winning Artificial Intelligence Researcher who built and led the IBM Watson team from its inception through its landmark Jeopardy success in 2011. Dr. Ferrucci was awarded the title of IBM Fellow in 2011 and his work in AI earned numerous awards including the CME Innovation award and the AAAI Feigenbaum Prize. From 2011 through 2012, Dr. Ferrucci pioneered Watson's applications which helped lay the technical foundation for the IBM Watson Division. After nearly 20 years at IBM research, Dr. Ferrucci joined Bridgewater Associates in 2013 to explore applications of AI in markets and management based on a synergy with Bridgewater’s deep commitment to explicable machine intelligence.
Dr. Ferrucci graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a Ph.D. in Computer Science. He has 50+ patents and published papers in the areas of AI, Automated Reasoning, NLP, Intelligent Systems Architectures, Automatic Text Generation, and Automatic Question-Answering. He led numerous projects prior to Watson including AI systems for manufacturing, configuration, document generation, and standards for large-scale text and multi-modal analytics. Dr. Ferrucci has keynoted in highly distinguished venues around the world including many of the top computing conferences. He has been interviewed by many media outlets on AI including: The New York Times, PBS, Financial Times, Bloomberg and the BBC. Dr. Ferrucci serves as an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Webinar:
Zoom link: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/97818922688
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, May 5, 2021 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO WEBINAR: Balazs Vedres, University of Oxford
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
Details
Speaker:
Balazs Vedres, Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford
Title:
TBA
Abstract:
TBA
Speaker Bio:
Balazs Vedres is a sociologist and network scientist, investigating the network sources of creative success, and diversity and discrimination on online collaborative platforms. Vedres’ research furthers the agenda of developing network science with social theoretical insight. His research results were published in the top journals of sociology, with two recent articles in the American Journal of Sociology developing the pragmatist notion of structural folds: creative tensions in intersecting yet cognitively diverse cohesive communities. Vedres’ recent research follows entrepreneurs, video game developers, jazz musicians, programmers, and graphic designers as they weave collaborative networks through their projects and recording sessions, analyzing questions of the sources of creativity, gender inequality, and the historical sustainability of innovation systems. In another line of work, Vedres has analyzed historical network evolution in the areas of transnational civic activism, politicized business groups, and the evolution of global economic flows.
Webinar:
Zoom link: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/98578032472
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, May 12, 2021 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO WEBINAR: Lillian Lee, Cornell University
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
Details
Speaker:
Lillian Lee, Charles Roy Davis Professor, Department of Computer Science and Department of Information Science, Cornell University
Title:
TBA
Abstract:
TBA
Speaker Bio:
Lillian Lee is a computer scientist whose research involves natural language processing, sentiment analysis, and computational social science. She is the Charles Roy Davis Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Department of Information Science at Cornell University. Professor Lee is the co-editor-in-chief of the journal Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics. Professor Lee graduated from Cornell University in 1993, and completed her Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1997.
Webinar:
Zoom link: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/99055485716
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, May 19, 2021 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO WEBINAR: Neave O'Clery, University College London "The Dynamics of Formal Employment Creation in Developing Cities"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
Details
Speaker:
Neave O'Clery, Associate Professor, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), University College London
Title:
The Dynamics of Formal Employment Creation in Developing Cities
Abstract:
TBA
Speaker Bio:
Neave O'Clery is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) at University College London where she leads a research group focused on data-driven models for economic development and the emergence of complexity for urban systems.
Professor O'Clery was previously a Senior Research Fellow at the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford. Before this she was a Fulbright Scholar and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for International Development at the Harvard Kennedy School following her PhD (mathematics) at Imperial College. She is also founder and Editor in Chief of Angle – a journal based at Imperial College focusing on the intersection of policy, politics and science – since 2009.
Webinar:
Zoom link: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/94532487312
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, May 26, 2021 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
Spring classes end
University Academic Calendar
All Day
Details
Spring classes end
Time
Saturday, June 5, 2021
Contact
Calendar
University Academic Calendar
Commencement (Tentative)
University Academic Calendar
All Day
Details
Commencement (Tentative)
Time
Monday, June 14, 2021
Contact
Calendar
University Academic Calendar