Events
Past Event
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Lightning Talks w/ Northwestern Scholars!
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
Speakers:
Yessica Herrera, Visiting Scholar, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems
Talk Title: The Body Speaks: Visual Cues of Psychological Stress in Bodily Expressions
Abstract: Emotions shape body movement, yet the visual cues that signal psychological stress—distinct from other emotional states—remain poorly understood. Acute stress alters motor patterns and may produce subtle expressive markers. In this study, dancers performed creative improvisations under stress (induced via the Trier Social Stress Test) and in a control condition. Movements were video-recorded and rated by 25 non-expert observers (ages 18–23, all female) using qualitative parameters from Laban Movement Analysis—Weight, Flow, and Rhythm— alongside perceived stress levels. Our study shows that observers reliably identified stressed performances, associating stress with tense, less fluid, and rhythmically altered movement. These findings reveal nuanced visual cues of psychosocial stress in expressive motion and have implications for fields like dance, clinical assessment, and emotionally intelligent systems. In particular, this work supports the growing efforts to make robotic movement more meaningful to humans by applying insights from movement perception studies to improve the design of expressive and more likable robotic technologies.
Aakriti Kumar, Postdoctoral Fellow, Kellogg School of Management and the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems
Talk Title: Large language models can provide expert-aligned judgments of empathic communication
Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) appear to excel at empathic communication in text-based conversations. But, how reliably can machines judge the nuances of empathic communication? We compare annotations by experts, crowd workers, and LLMs based on four empathic communication frameworks applied to four different datasets. Specifically, we investigate the inter-rater reliability of these three groups across 1,050 annotations of 200 conversations where one partner is sharing a problem, and the other is offering empathetic support. We find high but imperfect reliability between experts across most sub-components of empathic communication; inter-rater reliability between experts varies based on the clarity, complexity, and subjectivity of these sub-components. Furthermore, we find that LLMs approach expert level inter-rater reliability and surpass the inter-rater reliability between crowd workers and experts. Finally, we demonstrate that evaluating subjective annotation can be misleading with traditional classification metrics but clear and robust when evaluating with inter-rater reliability contextualized by an empirical ceiling.
Tingyu "Mark" Zhao, PhD Student, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences
Talk Title: Noise Filtering in Complex Networks
Abstract: Networks are powerful representations of complex systems, yet real-world network data are often corrupted by edge-level measurement inaccuracies, sampling biases, and incomplete observations, compromising analytical validity. Here, we introduce the Network Wiener Filter (NetWF), a principled method to filter edge noise that jointly leverages both network topology and explicit noise characterization, thereby enhancing downstream analyses and inferences. We demonstrate the efficacy of NetWF in two distinct settings: the Enron Corpus email network and the genetic interaction network of the yeast \textit{Saccharomyces cerevisiae}, noting promising results in both studies. Equipped with technologies such as NetWF, we advocate for error-aware network analysis, with the hope to usher in a new chapter of network science, one that embraces data imperfection as an inherent feature and learns to navigate it effectively.
Sign Up:
Sign up to present at a future Lightning Talk session. NICO Lightning Talks are open to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scholars.
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/95387714084
Passcode: NICO25
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems, data science and network 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 14, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Elizabeth Gerber, Northwestern University "Human–AI Systems That Amplify Human Connection at Work"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
//
Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
Speaker:
Elizabeth Gerber, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Communication Studies, Northwestern University
Title:
Richer Together: Human–AI Systems That Amplify Human Connection at Work
Abstract:
AI in the workplace is often framed as a story of replacement. This talk flips that narrative. Drawing on research-informed, human-centered design, I present hybrid human–AI systems that scaffold—not supplant—our most distinctively human capacities: connection, reflection, and meaning-making. These systems are built on empirical insights into how people collaborate and learn, and it demonstrate how AI can be designed to increase metacognition and better prepare for more intentional, higher-quality human interactions. Rather than stripping work of its human core, AI—when designed in context and with care —can help make our work more relational, more effective, and more deeply human.
Speaker Bio:
Liz Gerber is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Communication at Northwestern University and creates sociotechnical platforms that make innovation accessible to everyone. Her research explores how new technologies can support the innovation process, particularly “collective innovation,” which taps into often unused human, social, and economic resources to discover, assess, and implement ideas. Through the Center for Human-Computer Interaction + Design, Delta Lab, and Design for America, her team develops collaborative networks that address complex issues—from healthcare access to climate resilience—promoting entrepreneurship and strengthening the link between engineering and society. She earned her PhD in Management Science & Engineering at Stanford.
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/94056849008
Passcode: NICO25
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems, data science and network 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 29, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
Data Science Nights - October 2025 - Speaker: Buduka Ogonor, Physics and Astronomy
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
5:30 PM
//
Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
OCTOBER MEETING: Thursday, October 30, 2025 at 5:30pm (US Central)
LOCATION:
In person: Chambers Hall, Lower Level
600 Foster Steet, Evanston Campus
AGENDA:
5:30pm - Meet and greet with refreshments
6:00pm - Talk with Buduka Ogonor, Motter Group, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Center for Network Dynamics
TALK TITLE:
Finding gene sets underlying complex phenotypes via generative modeling
ABSTRACT:
Most human traits are complex, that is, they emerge from the interactions among multiple genes. The sheer number of possible gene set-to-phenotype mappings makes it challenging to identify the gene sets underlying complex traits using statistical approaches like genome and transcriptome-wide association studies. Furthermore, these existing approaches assume that molecular-level changes are independent, which is at odds with the existence of intracellular networks that govern cell behavior.
Here, we present an approach that identifies gene set-to-phenotype relationships that leverages generative modeling trained on publicly available transcriptional data. We use a generative model—dubbed TWAVE for Transcription-Wide Variational Auto-Encoder—to emulate diseased and healthy transcriptional states. Then, we use existing transcriptional measurements of responses to turning genes on and off as inputs to an optimization framework, which identifies the gene perturbations that minimize the transcriptional difference between the diseased and healthy states. Using nine disease traits as examples, we show that the approach identifies causal genes that cannot be detected by the primary existing techniques. We suggest that the approach be used to design tailored experiments to identify multi-genic targets to address complex diseases.
DATA SCIENCE NIGHTS are monthly meetings featuring presentations and discussions about data-driven science and complex systems, organized by Northwestern University graduate students and scholars. Students and researchers of all levels are welcome! For more information: http://bit.ly/nico-dsn
Time
Thursday, October 30, 2025 at 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Julio M. Ottino, Northwestern University "From Clocks to Clouds: The Complexity Revolution"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
//
Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
Speaker:
Julio M. Ottino, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University
Title:
From Clocks to Clouds: The Complexity Revolution: How Scientific Breakthroughs Reshaped Reality and Our Place Within It
Abstract:
For three centuries, Western thought was guided by a Newtonian worldview: the universe as a vast clock, predictable and controllable. That vision has unraveled. Scientific revolutions—from relativity and quantum mechanics to evolution, game theory, and complexity science—have revealed a world of uncertainty, emergence, and creative interconnection. We now inhabit a “cloud world,” where relationships matter more than parts, and uncertainty is not ignorance but potential. This talk traces the transformation from clocks to complexity, showing how these revolutions reshape our understanding of reality and what it means to navigate knowledge, organizations, and society in turbulent times.
Speaker Bio:
Julio M. Ottino is an engineering scientist recognized for his work in fluid dynamics, chaos and nonlinear dynamics, complex systems, and especially mixing. He was born in La Plata, Argentina and grew up with twin interests in the physical sciences and visual arts. He obtained his first degree at the University of La Plata, in Argentina, before receiving a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota. He is currently at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science in Northwestern University where he holds the titles of Robert R. McCormick Institute Professor and Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering. He is also a professor of Management and Organizations at Kellogg School of Management. He was the co-founder and director of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO) and the author of the Kinematics of Mixing: Stretching, Chaos, and Transport (Cambridge University Press 1989) and The Nexus, Augmented Thinking for a Complex World, with Bruce Mau (MIT Press, 2022).
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/99053647199
Passcode: NICO25
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems, data science and network 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 5, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Blaise Aguera y Arcas, Google "Symbiogenesis, Computational Parallelism, and Complexity in Evolution"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
//
Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
Speaker:
Blaise Agüera y Arcas, VP/Fellow, CTO of Technology & Society, Google
Title:
Symbiogenesis, Computational Parallelism, and Complexity in Evolution
Abstract:
Symbiogenesis-- the fusion of formerly independent self-replicating entities into a larger self-replicating entity-- is proposed as the driving force behind evolution's "arrow of time" toward ever-increasing complexity. We'll explore an Artificial Life system as a minimal motivating example, then discuss the implications for biological evolution beyond the "standard" accounts of Major Evolutionary Transitions and "intelligence explosions" in brainy species. Energetic and computational implications will also be addressed.
Speaker Bio:
Blaise Agüera y Arcas is a VP and Fellow at Google, where he is the CTO of Technology & Society and founder of Paradigms of Intelligence (Pi). Pi is an organization working on fundamental research in AI and related fields, especially the foundations of neural computing, active inference, sociality, evolution, and Artificial Life.
In 2008, Blaise was awarded MIT’s TR35 prize. During his tenure at Google, Blaise has innovated on-device machine learning for Android and Pixel; invented Federated Learning, an approach to decentralized model training that avoids sharing private data; and founded the Artists + Machine Intelligence program.
An External Professor at Santa Fe Institute and a frequent public speaker, Blaise has given multiple TED talks and keynoted NeurIPS. He has also authored numerous papers, essays, op-eds, and chapters, as well as two previous books, Who Are We Now? and Ubi Sunt. His most recent book, What Is Life?, is part 1 of the larger book What Is Intelligence?, forthcoming from Antikythera and MIT Press in September 2025.
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/98741396308
Passcode: NICO25
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems, data science and network 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 12, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
Data Science Nights - November 2025 - Speaker: Feihong Xu, ESAM
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
5:30 PM
//
Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
NOVEMBER MEETING: Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 5:30pm (US Central)
LOCATION:
In person: Chambers Hall, Lower Level
600 Foster Steet, Evanston Campus
AGENDA:
5:30pm - Meet and greet with refreshments
6:00pm - Talk with Feihong Xu, Amaral Lab, ESAM
Talk title and abstract TBA.
DATA SCIENCE NIGHTS are monthly meetings featuring presentations and discussions about data-driven science and complex systems, organized by Northwestern University graduate students and scholars. Students and researchers of all levels are welcome! For more information: http://bit.ly/nico-dsn
Time
Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
Data Science Nights - December 2025 - Speaker: Yash Chainani, Chemical Engineering
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
5:30 PM
//
Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
DECEMBER MEETING: Thursday, December 18, 2025 at 5:30pm (US Central)
LOCATION:
In person: Chambers Hall, Lower Level
600 Foster Steet, Evanston Campus
AGENDA:
5:30pm - Meet and greet with refreshments
6:00pm - Talk with Yash Chainani, Broadbelt & Tyo Labs, Chemical Engineering
Talk title and abstract TBA.
DATA SCIENCE NIGHTS are monthly meetings featuring presentations and discussions about data-driven science and complex systems, organized by Northwestern University graduate students and scholars. Students and researchers of all levels are welcome! For more information: http://bit.ly/nico-dsn
Time
Thursday, December 18, 2025 at 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)