The eScience Community Seminar serves as an informal environment for presentations and discussions on research that is relevant to the eScience Institute and the Data Science Environment. Topics will span science, methods, and technology across the mission of the eScience Institute.

Students may opt to sign up for a one credit seminar (CR/NCR) listed as CHEM E 599, Topics in Data Science.

Fall 2019 Schedule

Thursdays, 4:30 p.m., Physics Astronomy Auditorium (PAA), room A118

Note that this quarter we will have a few talks from the distinguished Data Science Seminar. These are well attended from faculty, staff, students, and other community members across campus. Please plan to arrive on time to secure a seat.

(For most of these distinguished sessions, there will be cookies and coffee to entice you to come early.)

Date Title Speaker Notes
1/9/20 Community Intros & Discussion Bernease Herman Please attend! This session sets the tone for whole quarter.
1/16/20 CANCELLED CANCELLED
1/23/20 Text-to-speech deep learning: modern research at a funded startup Michael Petrochuk
WellSaid Labs
1/30/20
  • Information theoretic approaches to hydrologic model diagnostics
  • Identifying diminishing returns in accuracy based on training data set size
  • Andrew Bennett (Civil & Environmental Eng.)
  • Francisco Santamarina (Evans School)
2/6/20 Data Science Ethics Bernease Herman
2/13/20 TBD TBD
2/20/20 TBD TBD
2/27/20 TBD TBD
3/5/20 TBD TBD
3/12/20 TBD TBD

Fall 2019 Schedule

Tuesdays, 4:30 p.m., Physics Astronomy Auditorium (PAA), room A118

Note that this quarter we will have a few talks from the distinguished Data Science Seminar. These are well attended from faculty, staff, students, and other community members across campus. Please plan to arrive on time to secure a seat.

(For most of these distinguished sessions, there will be cookies and coffee to entice you to come early.)

Date Title Speaker Notes
10/1/19 Producing and organizing forces in muscle C. David Williams
Allen Institute for Cell Science
10/8/19 Modeling the visual cortex: from populations of neurons to populations of humans Noah Benson
10/15/19 A family of algorithms for interpreting manifold embedding coordinates in molecular dynamics data Samson Koelle
10/22/19 Community Discussion Bernease Herman Please attend! This session requires participation from all members and will serve as a late planning and feedback session.
10/29/19 Code walkthroughs: Speed and performance measurement in Python Peter Meleney (AWSforyou)
Leo Dirac (timebudget)
11/5/19 CANCELLED: MSDSE Summit
11/12/19 TBD: neurobiology Bill Broderick
11/19/19 TBD: reproducibility

(Shared session with larger Data Science Seminar)

 Julie Stewart-Lowndes
NCEAS
11/26/19 CANCELLED: Thanksgiving
12/3/19 Euclidean Neural Networks* for Emulating Ab Initio Calculations and Generating Atomic Geometries Tess Smidt
Lawrence Berkeley Lab

Spring 2019 Schedule

Wednesdays, 4:30 p.m., Physics Astronomy Auditorium (PAA), room A118

Date Title Speaker Notes
4/3/19 The battle of two cultures: statistics versus (?) data science Bhramar Mukherjee abstract, bio
4/10/19 Mining public data to enhance forest assessment, monitoring, and modeling David Diaz
4/17/19 Neural Networks + Weather models phase 2  Noah Brenowitz
4/24/19 Gene-level metagenomics linking the microbiome to CRC and IBD Samuel Minot
5/1/19 Astrostatistics at large and small scales: from the Milky Way to individual stars Gwendolyn Eadie
5/8/19 A data scientist’s guide to finding life beyond the solar system Rory Barnes
5/15/19 Multi-group covariance estimation with applications to ‘omics data’ Alexander Franks
5/22/19 The life of data in the city Paul Dorish
5/29/19 Data is people: ethical considerations in data collection and use Casey Fiesler
6/5/19 An artificial neural network controller for insect flight Callin Switzer

Winter 2019 Schedule

Thursdays, 4:30 p.m., Bagley Hall, room 154

Note that this quarter we will have a few talks from the distinguished Data Science Seminar. These are well attended from faculty, staff, students, and other community members across campus. Please plan to arrive on time to secure a seat.

(For most of these distinguished sessions, there will be cookies and coffee to entice you to come early.)

Date Title Speaker Notes
1/10/19 Visual Knowledge Discovery and Machine Learning Boris Kovalerchuk abstract, bio
1/17/19 Biologically inspired algorithms for restoring vision to the blind Michael Beyeler
1/24/19 Documenting Data Science and Documentation in Data Science: An Ethnographic Exploration

(Shared session with larger Data Science Seminar)

 Stuart Geiger abstract, bio
1/31/19 Systems approach to cancer, infectious disease, the environment, and education

(Shared session with larger Data Science Seminar)

 Nitin Baliga
2/7/19 Quantum and quantum-inspired methods for non-convex optimization

(Shared session with larger Data Science Seminar)

 Stephen Jordan abstract, bio
2/14/19 What Can Electrochemistry Learn From Chess? Using Neural Networks to Create Problem-Specific Optimizers for Model Calibration Neal Dawson-Elli
2/21/19 Large Scale Human Driven Data Collection for Preference Learning Lalit Jain abstract,
bio
2/28/19 Computer Vision Challenges in Wildlife Conservation Dan Morris
3/7/19 TBD Rahul Biswas
3/14/19 TBD Dustin Schaeffer

Fall 2018 Schedule

Tuesdays, 4:30 p.m., Physics Astronomy Auditorium (PAA), room A118

Note that this quarter we will have a few talks from the distinguished Data Science Seminar. These are well attended from faculty, staff, students, and other community members across campus. Please plan to arrive on time to secure a seat.

(For most of these distinguished sessions, there will be cookies and coffee to entice you to come early.)

Date Title Speaker Notes
10/2/18 Data visualization for analysis & discovery
(Shared session with larger Data Science Seminar.)		 Zan Armstrong abstract, bio
10/9/18 pomegranate: fast and flexible probabilistic modeling in Python Jacob Schreiber
10/16/18 Data science and computational fluid dynamics for engineering applications Kazuki Maeda
10/23/18 Which violent events count as terrorism in the news? Examining US mass shootings Emily Gade
10/30/18 Cancelled NA
11/6/18 Complex batch effects complicate cross-study analyses in microbiome research Sean Gibbons
11/13/18 Measuring evictions: demographic estimation and spatial dynamics of evicted households Tim Thomas
11/20/18 A comprehensive data repository for neutron scattering and improved molecular models Caitlyn Wolf
11/27/18 Data sharing agreements discussion Anthony Arendt
12/4/18 Measuring and predicting biodiversity loss on a changing planet
(Shared session with larger Data Science Seminar.)		 Justin Kitzes abstract, bio

Spring 2018 Schedule

Thursdays, 4:30 p.m., Physics Astronomy Auditorium (PAA), room A110

Date Title Speaker Notes
3/29/18 machine and deep learning applications to voice data for Parkinson’s disease Reza Hosseini Ghomi
4/5/18 Life of a Data Scientist in a Metabolic Engineering Startup Janet Matsen
4/12/18 Computational Approaches to Privacy, Bias, Transparency in Data Science Bernease Herman
4/19/18 Assured information distillation in social sensing Dong Wang
4/26/18 Algorithmic Curation: Putting Open Science Data to Work Bill Howe
5/3/18 Data-based sustainable agriculture: machine learning groundwater models and irrigation development in Africa Tess Russo
5/10/18 When Can We Say a Rumor Has Grown Out of Proportion? A Computational Approach Peter Krafft
5/17/18 Cancelled Cancelled
5/24/18 Predicting Substitution Profiles for B Cell Receptor Sequences using Large-Scale Repertoire Data Amrit Dhar
5/31/18 TBD Andrej Blejec

Winter 2018 Schedule

Tuesdays, 4:30 p.m., Physics Astronomy Auditorium (PAA), room A118

Date Title Speaker Notes
1/9/18 Interpretable Statistical Learning Methods Zachary Jones
1/16/18 Multi-scale dynamics of natural search: what insects can teach robots about complex behavior Floris van Breugel
1/23/18 Learning with data Sayamindu Dasgupta
1/30/18 Data science for rare genetic diseases Vikas Pejaver
2/6/18 Can machine learning improve weather and climate models? Noah Brenowitz
2/13/18 Cancelled today NA
2/20/18 Crowd-sourcing and machine learning Anisha Keshavan
2/27/18 Taming nonlinear systems with linear methods Eurika Kaiser

Fall 2017 Schedule

Tuesdays, 4:30 p.m., Physics Astronomy Auditorium (PAA), room A110

Date Title Speaker Notes
10/3/17 Reproducibility and Open Science Working Group at the UW eScience Institute Ariel Rokem
10/10/17 Developing Machine Learning Algorithms for the in silico Characterization of Monoclonal Antibodies Vanessa Nguyen
10/17/17 Bee Pollination Biology: Buzzing Behavior, and Biomechanics Callin Switzer
10/24/17 Insecurity and the U.S. Senate Emily Gade
10/31/17 The Milky Way Galaxy and Hierarchical Bayes Gwendolyn Eadie
11/7/17 Canceled Canceled Moore-Sloan DSE Summit
11/16/17 Analyzing Data Privately: Challenges and Recent Approaches Gerome Miklau Note this is Thursday talk, 4:30 PAT C520
11/21/17 pomegranate: fast and flexible probabilistic modeling in Python Jacob Schreiber
11/28/17 pulse2percept: A Python-based simulation framework for bionic vision Michael Beyeler
12/5/17 Tectonic hazard monitoring in the Pacific Northwest with Sentinel-1 satellite radar imagery Scott Henderson

Winter 2017 Schedule

Thursdays, 4:30 p.m., Architecture Hall, room 147

Date Title Speaker Notes
1/5/17  Cancelled
1/12/17  Career Fair Prep
1/19/17  Life at Google Tim Hesterberg
1/26/17  Intro to data science Jevin West  Optional for grad students
2/2/17  TBA Emilio Zagheni
2/9/17  Data, responsibly: The next decade of data science Bill Howe  Data science and society
2/16/17  Promise and perils of data science in the wild Anissa Tanweer &
Brittany Fiore-Gartland		  Data science and society
2/23/17  Designing AI systems that obey our laws and values Oren Etzioni  Data science and society; read this paper to prepare
3/2/17  Reproducibility: Failures and futures David Beck  Data science and society
3/9/17   Privacy and security for medical records Bing Brunton  Data science and society

Fall 2016 Schedule

Tuesdays, 4:30 PM – WRF Data Science Studio, Physics/Astronomy Tower (PAT), C607

Date Title Speaker Notes
10/4/2016 Welcome & Making a research compendium: The necessary accompaniment to any journal article Various & Ben Marwick
10/11/2016 Robust Formulations for Learning Problems Sasha Aravkin
10/18/2016 pomegranate: fast and flexible probabilistic modelling in python Jacob Schreiber
10/25/2016 Cancelled Cancelled Data Science Summit
11/1/2016 Computational Social Science: agent computing and BigData Robert Axtell
11/8/2016 Multi-group Covariance Estimation for High-Dimensional Data Alex Franks
11/15/2016 Phylogenetics for modern data sets, from the ground up Erick Matsen Note special room: PAA A110
11/22/2016 Listen To The Whisper From Earth Xiaofeng Meng
11/29/2016 Restoring vision to the blind Michael Beyeler
12/6/2016 Tumor Heterogeneity Analysis via An Extensible Modeling System Jie Liu

Spring 2016 Schedule

Tuesdays, 4:30 PM – WRF Data Science Studio, Physics/Astronomy Tower (PAT), C607

Date Title Speaker Notes
3/29/2016 Untangling genomes from metagenomes Vaughn Iverson
4/5/2016 Software Licensing Laura Dorsey
4/12/2016 Beam, Dataflow, Big science, and managed clouds Dan Halperin Former eScience Data Scientist
4/19/2016 Partition-Aware Parallel Cloud Analytics for Streaming Real Time Predictive Business Intelligence Jacob Schreiber http://homes.cs.washington.edu/~jmschr/lectures/Parallel_Processing_in_Python.html
4/26/2016 Tracking neurons in Hydra Vulgaris Amnon Horowitz  Cancelled
5/3/2016 5&10: brief talks and chats on things we like  eScience Post-docs
5/10/2016 Tensorflow tutorial Sven Dorkenwald Bring your laptop!
5/17/2016 Reproducible Collaboration for Big Data Samuel Payne
5/24/2016 DesignSage-CI: A Cloud-Based Environment for Research In Natural Hazards Engineering Clint Dawson NOTE location change: Physics/Astronomy C520
5/26/2016 Introducing the Concept of Uber-Customers vs. Customers in Healthcare and Life
Sciences. (Leveraging lessons from Amazon, Uber and Watson.)		 Eugene Kolker Note special day!
5/31/2016 Big Social Data Day

The IGERT students will periodically give talks about their research in addition to the post-docs and other data science enabled researchers on campus.  Several times during the quarter, the seminar will be replaced by the UW Data Science Seminar which highlights external speakers from other research institutions and industry. Finally, we will also engage in at least on discussion session per quarter focused on ethical issues around Big Data & Data Science.

The seminar is open to all, but is required for the Advanced Data Science PhD transcriptable option, the Big Data IGERT students and the Data Science Environment (eScience Institute) post-docs are expected to attend.

Previous speakers & topics:

Note: In Winter of 2016, the seminar included a five week special session on Data Science and Society which examined the societal impacts of data science through speakers and case study discussions.

Date Title Speaker Notes
1/5/2016  Collecting the software products of seminar participants  Discussion and teamwork Bring your laptops!
1/12/2016 Alex Tank
1/19/2016 Analysis of Nanopore Data using Large Scale Hidden Markov Models Jacob Schreiber
1/26/2016 Myria hands on demo! Magdalena Balazinska Preparation instructions
2/2/2016 Systematic Effects in High-Dimensional Galaxy Datasets Grace Telford
2/9/2016 Getting Started with Amazon Web Services Parmita Mehta Bring your laptops and AWS login!
2/16/2016 Investigating the Computer Security Practices and Needs of Journalists Franziska Roesner Data Science and Society
2/23/2016 Data Privacy Basics Dan Suciu Data Science and Society
3/1/2016 Reusable holdouts and adaptive data analysis James Lee Data Science and Society
3/8/2016 Case study in Data Science ethics Open discussion Data Science and Society
Quarter Title Speaker
Fall ’15 Analyzing political networks in congress Jose Manuel Magallanes
Fall ’15 Applications of Ideas From Machine Learning in Human MRI Ariel Rokem
Fall ’15 Cecilia Noecker
Fall ’15 Lab in the Wild demo Katharina Reinecke
Fall ’15 Sophie Clayton
Fall ’15 Using the Cloud for Data Science Darwin Schweitzer