Please join us for a UW Data Science Seminar on Wednesday, April 3rd from 4:30 to 5:20 p.m. PST. The seminar will feature two projects from Nino Migineishvili and Tabitha Harrison, who participated in our 2024 Data Science Incubator program at the eScience Institute.
2024 Spring Quarter seminars will be held in PAA A118 – campus map
Abstract: Wildfires have been growing in size, duration, and destructivity, resulting in more decisive calls to improve forest health and protect communities. Wildfire fuel treatments – which involve reducing or removing vegetation from fire-prone areas – are one strategy for reducing wildfire risk. Where to conduct fuel treatments implementation is primarily based on biophysical risk factors. Yet wildfires also disrupt recreational utilization of public lands, which in turn affects societal well-being and the numerous physical and mental health benefits of recreating in nature. Given this, the aim of this project is to develop approaches for estimating recreation on public lands and quantify how recreationalists respond to wildfires and wildfire treatments on the landscape. The approach uses gravity models with trips to public lands sourced from AllTrails.
Abstract: Cancer is a significant health burden in the US, causing substantial morbidity and mortality. This research project builds on past studies demonstrating that inherited genetic variants can influence how our immune system affects cancer risk and survival. While prior work has linked aspects of the immune system to tumors, this project focuses on understanding how our inherited genetic makeup affects immune function in healthy tissues. Using publicly available data from dbGaP and GTEx, we will examine how inherited immune-related genetic markers (in the HLA region) relate to immune function in non-cancerous tissues in the lung, breast, prostate, and colon. We will then investigate if genetic marker variations that affect immune traits in healthy tissues are associated with developing common solid cancers.
The UW Data Science Seminar is an annual lecture series at the University of Washington that hosts scholars working across applied areas of data science, such as the sciences, engineering, humanities and arts along with methodological areas in data science, such as computer science, applied math and statistics. Our presenters come from all domain fields and include occasional external speakers from regional partners, governmental agencies and industry.
The 2023-2024 seminars will be held in person, and are free and open to the public.
